This Week's Comic Stack 4/21/10

The Good:

• Guardians Of The Galaxy #25- The team is finally reunited just in time to face the totally
  savage Thanos. This seems like a taste of what's to come with Thanos Imperative. Unfortunately, the book goes on "hiatus" for the duration of the Thanos mini.

• Hercules: Fall Of An Avenger #2- Amadeus Cho and Phobos are pitted against one another by the Greek gods. But, they're not playing that game. Cho goes to look for Herc in Hades, but he's not there. So, he returns to take control of the company that is a front for the gods and to commit its resources to finding Herc. In the second story Venus and Namora find a hospital for "monsters" that Hercules funded and conspire to keep it running
  
• Nova #36- Well, no New Warriors reunion. But, Nova does drop in on the evil demonic Quasar and Project Pegasus. A nice little adventure before the book goes on "hiatus" too during the Thanos Imperative.


• Green Lantern #53- This is an epilogue to Blackest Night and wraps up/teases what is in store for Lanterns in GL, GLC, and Guy Gardner's new mini. I liked the call back to Hal and Sinestro's first meeting.


• Supergirl #52- Fans of the Brainiac 5/Supergirl romance will get a kick out of this issue. Yet, it doesn't take away from the greater "Last Stand" story. It will cause a minor headache trying to figure this out: Silver Age Supergirl had a romance with Brainiac 5.... but..., she died in Crisis On Infinite Earths...however, this Supergirl spent time in the future with the third Legion(Waid's) and was sent back with her mind wiped...so this Supergirl will/has spent time in the future with original blend Brainy too? Is this going to happen? Or is the writer just confusing the three Legion universes?

The Alright:

• Amazing Spider-Man #628- Spidey and Juggernaut battle Captain Universe. This story had so much promise with the first issue. Stern drops the ball a little here.


• Avengers Vs. Atlas #4- I really was bored with this conclusion issue. A little too "concept" here instead of action and drama. You can get all Morrison-y, but even Morrison out Morrisons himself. What I mean by that is that the concept shouldn't take over the story. Still this was a fun book just to see the teams together. Though, I also felt that most of the old Avengers were out of character some.


• Doomwar #3- Not much either to praise or pan with this. A plus here is to see characters together that haven't "teamed up" for a while. Mainly, the X-Men with Black Panther [T'Challa will always be the Panther to me] and Storm. Plus the FF are getting involved too!


• Torch #7- Die...you flaming android Nazis! Mostly just set-up for the next issue's Torch and Toro vs. the Inhuman Torch (an indestructible out of control prototype version of the Torch)


• X-Men: Legacy #235- Another minor X-Man dies. While not as good as the last two parts of this x-over it still carries the same sense of desperation and "this is war" mentality.


• Justice League Of America #44- I so want to love this series, but it's just not happening. Never before have I been less enthusiastic about a JSA/JLA crossover. C'Mon!...JLA and JSA together....that's EPIC, always. Bagley definitely is carrying the series with his art now. DC needs to find better titles for him to do.


• R.E.B.E.L.S. #15- Another epilogue/teaser issue [sure are a lot this week] Vril complains that Despero is taking all the credit for Starro's defeat. Starfire is roaming the cosmos because Dick doesn't love her anymore and it was too awkward[and giving her a bad reputation] being on the JLA. Adam Strange wants Vril to fix the poisoned environment of Rann which he'll do by moving the planet [that worked so well last time]. Starfire is surprised when a "new" Tamaran appears.

Trades:

I got the Robin: A Hero Reborn TPB on sale. It reprints Batman #455-457 and the first Robin mini-series. It follows Tim as he first gets "authorization" to be Robin and on his first solo adventure. Chuck Dixon would guide Tim/Robin for the next decade, but this is where he starts. I missed out on all the Robin stuff up to No Man's Land. I regret that now. I hope to track down more of the early Robin reprint trades and see Tim grow into the costume. Also in this are Dixon characters Shiva and Lynx (whose origin unfolds in the story). The art is pretty good, but suffers because the trade uses the same paper as the original comics do. Not a problem with today's high gloss paper, but we're talking old school newsprint paper. I'm as nostalgic as anyone, but I want more in my trades.