This Week's Comic Stack 8/18/10

Once again doing double duty as I forgot to write last week's Stack.



The Good:

• Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #1- This is the third GL title (OK because they cover different Lanterns) focusing on Guy Gardner. Guy has come far from the jerk in 80's-90's JLI to.... well he's still kinda a jerk, but he's the "No bullshit" type of jerk. I really enjoyed how Tomasi wrote him, the art by Fernando Pasarin was great. I can't wait to see what Atrocitus' mysterious plot is and why Guy is part of it.
• Thanos Imperative #3- This was just balls to the walls action. And just take a look at the group that Nova is LEADING.
• Steve Rogers: Super Soldier #2- Eaglesham's art really helped elevate the standard (though cool) spy story this issue. He did some clever things with the panels, something that I haven't seen in a while. He incorporated the panels into the storytelling, ala Adams or Steranko, a couple of times.
• Birds Of Prey #4- With the revelation of who was behind the Birds current predicament last issue this issue was the wrap up. Canary had to physically defeat her opponent while Oracle had to reason to hers. And although everything was resolved, the result carries on to next issue.
• Booster Gold #35- This was a prime example of having your cake and eating it too. Here was the type of silly fun stories that were in JLI, yet, the current "straight" take on BG that Johns/Jurgens established was not forgotten or sacrificed to get this type of story.
• Justice League: Generation Lost #7- In the "companion" book the JLI had the same type of feel to it, but with a slight twist. Instead of a "modern" character in an adventure in the past, this title had a modern adventure in which character kinda reverted to their attitudes and personalities of the past. Also note that Giffen is not credited this issue and Joe Bennett did the art.
• Brightest Day #8- This issue really focused on Hawkman and Hawkgirl and their story, with a secondary focus on Martian Manhunter. These multi-arc titles always are better when concentrated on one or two of the juggling stories instead of four pages of each.
• Green Lantern Corps #51- Great issue. Between the stuff with Kyle and John and what Ganthet was put through by Cyborg Superman, there was some great pathos. Ardian Syaf did an excellent job with the art.
• DC Universe: Legacies #4- This issue focused on the Teen Titans and "forgotten" hero groups (Doom Patrol/Metal Men) and the retired war heroes with great art by Joe Kubert.
• R.E.B.E.L.S. #19- From a few weeks ago...I loved the art in this especially the face on Brainiac 2 as he ran from Brainiac 1 on the splash page. It reminded me of Kevin Maguire.
• Secret Avengers #4- The Thorned Crown plot is resolved as Cap, er...Steve became Super Nova Patriot Guy to defeat the possessed Richard Rider. Nova went off to an emergency [presumably the Thanos Imperative] and Steve found out Nick Fury (or someone looking like him) was behind the attempt to obtain the crown in issue 2. [DUN-DUN--DON]
• Lone Ranger #23- More lead up to the showdown between Lone and Butch Cavendish, but written and drawn well enough to forgive "filler".

The Alright:

• Invincible Iron Man #29- This title continues to drag. The reappearance of Rescue didn't help this issue pull itself up any.
• Zatanna #4- Some more solid magical fun with a cameo of Zatara, the younger.
• Adventure Comics #517- Both stories were a little off for me. The "unknown, forgotten" hookup between Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy was curious. Being a newbie to the Legion, I don't know how "shocking" this was. The Atom story was also somewhat of a head scratcher. I just don't think that Oracle would take having the Calculator in her base so nonchalantly.
• Batman Beyond #3- I guess some of the sparkle fell out of the allure of this title because I just wasn't feeling it. Then I had a terrible fear that this was going the way of Dark Knight Strikes Back. I am still worried that could be the case, but so excited over next issue. The appearance of Dick Grayson in the Beyond future. Hopefully some history will be given.
• Avengers: The Children's Crusade #1- After selling out of this issue, my LCS got the second printing just in time before #2 comes out. Not really much here though, Heinberg seems a little rusty. Then again, Young Avengers didn't pick up till issue #2 either.
• Atlas #4-
• Justice Society Of America #42- Bagley's art continues to be the best reason to pick this up. Robinson did have a little bit with Batman(DG) that I liked.
• Supergirl #55- This Bizarrogirl story didn't interest me. A casuality of JMS staking off Superman, it seems to have lost direction. And there goes the last Superman book from my pull list.
• Uncanny X-Men #527- Another slump, I hope. Seeing Emma Frost flirt with both Tony Stark and Namor just wasn't my thing.
• Avengers Academy #3- An interesting premise of having the students seek revenge on Osborn while on a "Scared Straight" trip to the Raft coupled with a quick crossover had me anticipating this issue and the T-bolt part too. The art was good, but the issue was often wordy till the set up of the confrontation.
• Thunderbolts #147- This was mostly disappointing. It wasn't so much of a crossover as a cross "through". It dealt with the escape attempts of prisoners because of a power outage caused by the Academites. I did like the USAgent fight though.
• Age Of Heroes #4- Mostly, bad stories with some okay art. Again the best story (as with all issues) was the one page Dan Slott/Ty Templeton story. This one featured a happy ending for Cloud 9, formerly of The Initiative.