This Week's Comic Stack 3/17/10

The Good:

• Green Lantern Corps #46- Guy and Kyle face their toughest Black Lantern opponents, the many Corps have to act as a team (who knew Guy was a Trekkie?) first to fight the overwhelming numbers of the BLs and then the half dead Anti-Monitor. An amazingly epic issue that leads into the conclusion of Blackest Night.


• Booster Gold #30- BG reevaluates the "Prime Directive" [another Trek reference] involved in time travel as he rescues his sister from the doomed Coast City. A sad issue because Dan Jurgens stint ended with this issue.


• Nova #35- The Sphinx storyline ends on a very satisfying [for New Warriors fans] note. Next issue will probably deal with the bigger implications from that event.


• Guardians Of The Galaxy #24- The "dead" members fight to escape the Church Of Universal Truth and get word that Magus isn't dead. A clever use of a character's backstory comes into play in getting the GoG heard. The big thing is the return of Thanos (not spoiled because of solicits). The art was better, but Craig is just too toony for this title.


• Hercules: Fall Of An Avenger #1- Basically a "clip show" of the Incredible Hercules series with great art and a great device of recapping the series and his life by having characters toast Herc. The backup is a funny yet heartwarming story about Herc's estate.

The Alright:

• Supergirl #51- This issue advances the whole Last Stand plot, the confrontation depicted on the cover is short, but does occur. Most of the issue is spent getting people on the same side to recognize they are.


• The Torch #6- Torch and Toro track down the evil Nazi scientist who has created a whole city of androids and the ominously named Inhuman Torch. Interesting idea, and I always like to see a smug supervillain be offput.


• Realm Of Kings: Imperial Guard #5- Superman comes to the aid of the stranded Legion members as they battle the forces of the near omnipotent Brainiac....wait a minute,....I mean Gladiator comes to the aid of the stranded Guard members as they battle the forces of the near omnipotent Lovecraftian alien. I know, they're totally different. This issue is just a "get the hell out of Dodge" plot. The evil alien menace remains to pop up another time (Thanos Imperative? as it represents a world where "life" rules not death....see where I'm going...).


• Avengers Vs. Atlas #3- A fun "pile-on" the Hulk issue with some time travel hijinks thrown in. There is also a too cutesy backup featuring Venus answering love questions "posed" by Marvel characters.

The Bad:

• Siege #3- This has big moments in it, but the pacing to it is off, perhaps this series would have benefited from another issue.(Imagine me saying that about a Bendis book) The battle is rushed from moment to moment. Marvel probably intended for the readers to experience the battle over the fifty or so titles that crossover with the mini. Contrast Siege with Blackest Night (similar crossover issues) and I think BN has much more satisfactory action in just the core mini series.


• Superman 80 Page Giant #1- A bunch of try out stories for artists and writers, the best being a story about the small things Superman does while waiting for Lois.

Trade:

-The Middleman: The Collected Series Indispensability! TPB- I never even heard of this series until the ABC Family TV series. A mysterious man, known only as the Middleman, is tasked by a secret organization to deal with monsters, mad scientists and aliens. He recruits twenty-something nerd-girl Wendy Watson as his assistant.

It was written by one of the writers of Lost. Each episode parodied a genre or Sci-Fi/Fantasy trope and was filled with pop culture references. For example, during an episode dealing with ghosts there are constant Ghostbusters references. The collection is no different. It's really three series collected. The first turned out to be almost exactly like the first few episodes of the series, or vice-versa rather. The second was very enjoyable while the third was a huge turning point for the series and ended on somewhat of a cliffhanger. Also included are some short stories about the "future" of the series and the adventures of past Middlemen .

It's fun and pretty funny in spots, however, I must say that I enjoyed the show a lot more.(even with its low budget production) Jokes need timing, and that works better off the page sometimes. The series is available on DVD and check out YouTube for the reading of the unproduced season/series finale that took place at last year's SDCC (uses elements from the third and final comic series)