Action Comics #11 - There's a lot going on this month and Superman's at the middle of it all! First he needs to stop a shape-shifting robot named Metalek from destroying parts of Metropolis for reasons I'm unclear about. Then he helps the neighbourhood rebuild, unintentionally driving up property values (who WOULDN'T want to live in the condo that Superman built?)
All this is the first couple of pages, when we get to see Superman's NEW secret identity! Remember, Clark Kent DIED last issue! Just a short time before new firefighter Johnny Clark transferred into the Metropolis Fire Department. What a co-incidence!!
Supes isn't too sure he's made the right choice though, so he takes a side-trip to Gotham City to ask Batman for advice! As The Man of Steel says "I needed some advice. You always seem like the smartest guy in the room."
Of course Grant Morrison isn't about to leave us light on content! We also discover that Lois Lane's little niece Susie is not just a normal little girl. There's an alien who looks similar to Supes searching for her and calling her the "Future Child". She seems like a child-prodigy of sorts and one can literally see the stars in her eyes...
Finally, there's an adorable short story at the end of this issue wherein a couple of tourists walk into the T-Shirt store where Superman orginally had his T-Shirts made! Or so the vendor claims. It's both amusing and enlightening!
Great issue and SO MUCH happening! I really glossed over a lot...good work! Action Comics really seems to be picking up steam lately (hee hee)
Of course there's plenty more! After the JUMP.
NEW!! Before Watchmen Ozymandias #1 (of 6) - Ozymandias, aka Adrian Veidt, is probably my least favourite character of the original Watchmen comic. Not that he's a poor character, but he's basically a footnote (for obvious reasons) until Chapter 11 or so. This series seems geared to fill him out a little more, taking a couple pages of exposition (including several direct quotes) from the original and expanding it into part one of Ozymandias' life storym showing what was previously only told.
So far the story is just a straight narrative, Adrian recording his life story, hoping to be judged fairly by history on the eve of launching his "master plan". He speaks of his childhood, his early education (including an early and entertaining example of how he deals with bullies) and tells us a bit about his motivations. In particular, a question not answered by the original...why become a "costumed crime fighter" in the first place? Of course there is a personal reason...it begins with a young love interest named Miranda and ends with a vendetta. Apparent criminal mastermind Moloch is involved, too. I guess it sucks being the only "named" villain in the Watchmen because everyone's out to get you...
All in all a decent enough start. I have to wonder why Adrian gets 6 issues when Nite Owl and Silk Spectre are both left with only 4, but I suppose that's just personal preference on my part. Hopefully Ozymandias' story will justify the extra 2 issues! Time will tell...
Earth 2 #3 - Last month Alan Scott was about to propose to his boyfriend as the train they were riding on suddenly exploded. This month finds Alan climbing out of the wreckage of that crash, looking like Two-Face with one eye gone and with a crushed and mangled arm and severe burns. He's seen better days when a mysterious Green Fire starts talking to him. "I am fire, yes, and light. Energy. All the power of the Earth...Let me take away the pain and begin to mend your body."
Meanwhile, Jay Garrick, who has yet to think of calling himself The Flash, is running around the planet testing out his newly acquired "Speed of Mercury" when he runs right into a winged, armoured girl. She calls herself Hawkgirl and claims that they met due to "Fate". I'm pretty sure she means DOCTOR Fate but we'll have to wait another month to find out. She does embarrass Jay pretty thoroughly, proving that just because you're fast doesn't mean you can fight worth crap. Time for a training montage??
Oh, there's some bad news too (aside from the hundreds of people, including Alan's love, who perished in the massive train explosion). Apparently when the Green power of the Earth decided to anoint a Green Lantern, it awoke an opposing force...something called the Grey...something that sucks the life out of everything it touches....something zombie-like with a very familiar name! Can a confrontation be far in the future??
Oh, one nice touch...Green Lantern's ring is given an origin in this universe as a mental assist to focus all of Lantern's power through. It didn't need to be a ring, but Alan chose to use it as it was the ring he was about to use to propose with. The Green Light power reforged it to look cool and bingo, Green Lantern! Works for me!
Detective Comics #11 - Mr. glowy skullhead man is back to make Batman radioactive for another month in this issue of Detective...He's got some complicated plan involving clones and time travel and physics and only Batman can stop him. Oh and there's a conspiracy with an outcast scientist and some shady doings transpiring! Luckily the world's greatest detective is taking care of it because it all makes very little sense to me.
I do feel bad for Bruce since Mr. Toxic's radiation seems to slow him down whenever he gets too near, thus letting the bad guy get a lot of good hits in. Nowhere near the level of punishment he's been taking in previous months, but he DID need a quick emergency pick-up from Alfred. Gotta work on that dodge, Batman!
In other news, the back-up story about Two-Face finishes up this issue. Harvey more or less just shoots everybody and wanders off. It's more of a character study than anything...amusing but there's nothing much to talk about. I could never get behind the artwork and thus never really got into it.
Worlds' Finest #3 - "You have travelled far to end your journey in this broken place on a doomed world...but you have no father to go."
Another battle between a Wayne and a Radioactive villain! Of course, in this case the Wayne is Helena the Huntress and she's got help from Power Girl! They still are having a rough time stopping the villain introduced last month, Hakkou. Karen is affected by his powers and the Huntress is, after all, only human...
Hakkou has gone to the ruined power plants of Japan to absorb radiation, making him more powerful and making him GROW! Soon Japan will once more be under attack by a gigantic, radioactive monster!! Can our heroes stop him from pulling a Godzilla on Tokyo? Well, at least Tokyo's used to it...
This main plot is interspersed with yet more flashbacks to help fill us in on the 5 years since Earth 2's Supergirl and Robin travelled to our reality...building us better understandings of the personalities and problems we're dealing with at least. I still don't think the two heroines should be bothered trying to get back home to a place where there's nothing left for them after all this time, but hey, at least it gives them a hobby...
Green Arrow #11 - Oliver Queen's back in Seattle where everyone pretty much hates him for being an irresponsible goof-ball. I'm suddenly enjoying this comic a lot more! Ollie's attending a charity poker game and getting ridiculed when two NEW arrow-wielding adventurers show up! They call themselves Black Arrows and are pulling a Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to give to the poor (although, lets be trendy and steal from the 1% to give to the 99%).
Well, they're not very good at their jobs, as they're stealing from a charity event and generally sort of stupid...Green Arrow isn't too thrilled with them biting his style either, and feels obligated to stop them...
So through the course of these events Green Arrow gets all emo about how he doesn't have any real friends. This is compounded when his two closest employees decide to quit since he's being so flaky that he's practically lost his company! He has to go to China and deal with some guy there to try and buy back a controlling interest. Gee, isn't THIS an exciting comic book...sigh.
On the plus side, I still have the feeling that they are building to something more interesting. Hopefully my patience will be rewarded soon.
All in all, not a bad start to our Summer months! Of course there's plenty more to come this July with Batman, Minutemen, Suicide Squad and more released tomorrow! I love new comic book day!
Of course if you need even more entertainment RIGHT NOW you can always go read Stryder's Dementia. This week I see if I'm living up to my own expectations as we reach the half-way point of 2012! Heavy...but hey isn't Katie Holmes immediatley 1000 times hotter now that she's filed for divorce?
That's it for now! See ya next week! Same Bat-time, same Bat-website!
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