Saturday, December 24, 2011

Stryder's Favourite Comics...Release date 12/21/2011

Merry Christmas everybody!!!  All the best to you and yours!

Great!  Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about something important, like THIS WEEK'S COMICS!!!


Justice League #4 - Aquaman shows up and wants to be the boss!  Green Lantern makes a fool out of himself twice!  Batman has the last laugh!  Flash continues to be the worlds fastest AND nicest man!  Superman does almost nothing!  And at LAST...the BAD GUY shows up!!! 

Oh yeah, Cyborg is there too, and very likely is going to be the one to save the day.  At least, that's MY guess.  I have to hand it to the good folks at DC Comics, they know how to stretch a story for all it's worth.  With Jim Lee drawing, I am not complaining!  It's worth the wait for every panel, since it's all just so pretty.  If you want a book where lots of alien robot/mutant things get their asses handed to them by the DC universe's best and brightest, all while looking cool and exchanging witty banter, well, look no further my friend!

It's funny though, with all the Earth-shaking events happening in this comic, the back and forth dialogue between our heroes is really what gets me coming back for more each week.   Green Lantern has a line in this issue (said while accidentally touching Wonder Woman's magic lasso) that makes this my favourite comic of the week!  Good work League!

See the rest of this week's haul after the jump!
 

Batman #4 - Finally this month we have a little more back story regarding the mysterious Court of Owls and the assasin known only as Talon.    As a matter of fact, after a stunning escape from last month's cliffhanger, Almost the entire book is flashback of a young boy named Bruce searching for proof of this Court of Owls and a reason that his parents were so brutally taken from him.  I, of course, eat that sort of thing up. 

There was one page in this comic that really stood out for me...no relevant text, just Batman going to the GCPD to meet Gordon, then stopping and changing his mind.  The commisioner had talked about Batman to Nightwing earlier, discussing how the two are worried that Batman is being too skeptical, since he still refuses to admit that the Court of Owls really exists.  It was an interesting character moment that maybe I'm reading too much in to, but it's obviously designed to BE read in to.  Regardless, obviously this Court of Owls thing is big and I can't wait to see what happens next.


Birds Of Prey #4 - Batgirl joins Birds of Prey this month to help them fight the mysterious soldiers with cloaking technology that have made their lives problematic since issue one, going so far as threatening to blow up Black Canary's head.  Sucks.  Sadly, Barbara was no real help as the bad guys are still winning and by the end of the book she is missing without a trace.  Maybe she'll be more help to some other super hero this month...  Regardelss, there's lots of action in this issue of B.o.P.  When Poison Ivy wants a train to stop, it stops!  Katana continues to grimly and creepily take care of business too.  I'm not too sure if Batgirl should be working with this team considering how bloodthirsty they are, but I guess they're accomplishing something, at least. 


Catwoman #4 - Selina is yet another woman in the DC universe that is having a bad month.  Her best friend died last issue, her place is compromised and blown up, she's broke, and now her attempt to steal some cash from some run-of-the-mill drug dealers has become a life-and-death battle against a crazy woman with meta-human powers.  Poor kitty.  This book does continue to impress, particularly with the expressiveness of the characters.  I love the artwork...it just really pops to me.  If only poor Selina could finally catch a break...


Nightwing #4 - "Hmmm...Well, the guy certainly has a type!"  Best Line Ever!  Batgirl (who's having a busy month!) guest stars, only to find Dick involved with a different red-haired beauty from his past.  Love triangle already?  It must be tough to be young, rich and good looking without all the responsibility of being a Batman or a Green Lantern.  I wonder if Nightwing gets lectures from other super heroes that he's not living up to his potential?  Regardless, great book, great characters, great artwork.  I just wish Grayson would stop taking everything so casually.  He needs a Barbara Gordon around to kick his ass for him and make him do his job!  Which, admittedly, makes me like him more.


Red Hood and the Outlaws #4 - I'm still not really sure where this title is going or why the three main characters are even hanging out together.  They sure don't seem to like each other all that much.  Of course, since they themselves aren't entirely sure either, I'm suspect it will be addressed in the near future.  This issue was pretty cool.  There were two fights going on simultaneously that had absolutely nothing to do with each other, which seems rare in comics.  The "heroes" had to sort of decide what fight to get involved in.  I'm also growing more and more attached to and intrigued by the mysteries surrounding each of our three characters.  I think using Roy Harper as the "normal" guy in this book as a place for readers to connect was a smart move.  Hopefully as time goes on we'll learn more about our characters and why we should care about them. 


Supergirl #4 - Poor Kara.  Since she's landed on Earth, without even learning a language, she's managed to get in several fights, a couple misunderstandings, have her clothes stolen, found out her "baby" cousin is now Superman, her world is destroyed, she has weird hard-to-control super powers, and there's this thing called Kryptonite that doesn't seem to agree with her.  Oh and now she's stuck in a space station.  It's been a rough few days.  Finally, however, something in her world went a little right this month...I'm really rooting for Kara to get it together.  Hey, at least she got her outfit back! 


Wonder Woman #4 - Wonder Woman has been one of the stronger titles for the DC New 52 since September.  This month's issue is no exception!  Really the only thing that this issue provides is character development, as Diana and her companions attempt to deal with the startling revelations of last issue.  The interaction between Diana and Zola (if you haven't been reading Wonder Woman, Zola is carrying Zeus' illegitimate child and basically everyone's trying to assassinate or otherwise manipulate her) when they both realize that their lives have been completely shattered was revealing, as was the confrontation between Diana and the goddess Strife.  Actually, the contrast/similarity factor is pretty high and very well done!  I'm also a huge fan of the art in this book.  For a hero whose book I only started reading as a companion to the Justice League, Wonder Woman's done boatloads to make sure that I stick with her title and become a fan!

Well that's it for this week!  Long one!  Whew!  Stay tuned next week for the LAST COMICS OF 2011!!!  What will the future hold???  Only time (or perhaps Google) will tell.....

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