Daredevil #505

Hmm. I think the part of Daredevil's past that interests me the least is all the ninja/Hand stuff, so this arc is not going to be for me.

DD and White Tiger are heading off to Japan to set up a meeting with the Hand's leaders from all over the world. While DD might be in charge, it certainly seems that not all the ninjas involved approve of the involvement of a heroic lawyer. Some of the leaders are bold and come at DD directly while the others seem to have something up their sleeves too. Of course, there is an ulterior motive that motivated the Hand to ask DD to take over, so I think Andy Diggle and Antony Johnston are setting up an eventual return to status quo for the book. I'm looking forward to that, and I"ll probably be sitting out the rest of this arc as I wait for DD to return to New York. I know the Hand has ties to the character and that this story makes sense, but one of my rules of comics is that ninjas make bad villains.

I don't recognize artist Marco Checchetto's name, but he does a decent job keeping the DD house style going. Some character's faces look a bit off and he tends to shade a bit too much. BUT, the closing scene with DD looks fantastic. I also really like his take on the demonic masks some of the Hand are wearing.

Average

Blackest Night: Flash #3

Man, I love it when Geoff Johns writes the Rogues. He kicks things off with a creepy scene with Captain Boomerang II as he feeds an aspiring rogue to his Black Lantern father. Johns balances a lot of characters in this issue and he does a great job with it. Wally West doesn't feel forgotten anymore, he actually takes some action that affects the outcome of the series. I also like that Barry Allen is aware of his lack of familiarity with Bart Allen. These three Flashes are a pretty impressive bunch. I love how the Black Lanterns never really seem like a threat to the heroes, but the need to free Bart from his Black Lantern ring gives the story a great narrative drive.

The Rogues get a fair amount of panel time too, but Captain Cold is clearly the top dog. He rescues Mirror Master from inside a mirror in a cool, striking way. It's a great scene and its even better that he just does it. No talking or planning, he just takes decisive action and rescues his teammate. Johns highlights the rules of the Rogues in a pretty dramatic way too. Captain Cold is not ok with rogues killing women and children, but I'm not sure Captain Boomerang II knew how serious he was about that rule.

Scott Kolins knocks this out of the park. Barry's blue suit looks awesome and contrasts nicely with Wally's shiny red suit. I love the speed-fight between Barry and the Reverse Flash, too. And that closing page may be obvious, but it really drives home the core of all the main characters involved in this thing. Well done.

Good

Thunderbolts #141

Jeff Parker puts together a decent enough character piece, but I'm not sure this qualifies as one of the stronger Siege tie-ins so far. He sure knows how to use the Asgardians for full effect though.

After the Headsman lost his head last issue, the team is down two members since the Ghost is AWOL. Ghost does show up (briefly), but only to rat out his teammates to the Mighty Avengers. Four members of that team show up on the last page but it is a little too late for Amadeus Cho, US Agent, Vision, and Stature to get much done this issue.

The rest of the book features the surviving team members sniping at each other and dealing with their awful situation in their own way. Paladin is trying to bury himself in the job, trying to block out how evil the situation has become. Ant-Man is desperate for an ally and is looking to Paladin for backup, but Paly's in no shape to give him any help. Mister X is still just reveling in all these opportunities to kill interesting people (and deities). Scourge is balls-out crazy and alternating between threatening and attacking his own team. The Grizzly is just oblivious and feeling overworked. I do like the way this patchwork team has developed, but clearly it is a failed experiment. I love that Parker is showing us why it it failed on every page. These mercenaries never cared about each other at all and they aren't professional enough for money to lead them to success. This is a good setup for the relaunch in May.

Miguel Sepulveda's faces are all a bit pinched and odd looking and his art tends to be shadowy. That said, he does a great job on the backgrounds, making Asgard seem like an intimidating and foreign place. He does a great job on tech, too. The plane US Agent arrives in looks awesome.

Good

Black Lantern: Green Arrow #30

A friend of mine recommended I pick up this issue and I'm glad I did. I do like seeing the POV of the heroes possessed by the black lantern rings. (I do wish, of course, that we'd get a Martian Manhunter feature, but I'll probably be waiting a long time).

What makes this work so well is that J.T. Krul uses GA's possession as an excuse to have Ollie comment on the important people in his life. Krul is really impressing me on the books he has written lately because he really seems to have a nice handle on what makes these characters tick. There is a great sequence where Connor Hawke and Mia face down the possessed GA and I loved seeing how the two reacted. Mia is quicker to resort to using GA as a pincushion while Connor holds back a bit longer. He is a pacifist after all. I'm hoping Krul undoes the stupid Sivana-clone crap with Connor (Krul is taking over GA, right?) For those that don't know, Judd Winick wrote a story where Connor's DNA was spliced with Plastic Man's that somehow gave him a healing factor. It also made him forget how to use a bow and started him eating meat. So basically, it totally ruined the unique character Chuck Dixon created in Connor back in the 90's. Perhaps DC is about to retcon all these unnecessary changes.

Back to this issue. I also like how easy it is for the possessed GA to get under Black Canary's skin. Let's face it, GA has made some awful choices in his personal life, so many that I honestly find him a bit hard to cheer for most of the time. But Canary clearly sees the best in him so it is really rough watching GA punish her for that unwavering loyalty. It's a strong issue that I hope is a precursor of things to come.

Diogenes Neves has a pretty painted style that works pretty well with the action but tends to look better as static images rather than a story. There is some weird body posture at times too. He reminds me of Guillem March in a lot of ways, drawing pretty pictures and especially pretty ladies, but everything looks just a tad disconnected.

Good

Batman & Robin #9

This comic is just a good time. The plot and characterization are top notch and the art makes everthing sing.

The story is pretty simple, in an attempt to resurrect Batman in one of Ra's Al Ghul's Lazarus Pits, NightBats(Dick Grayson as Batman) has instead brought back a near-mindless clone of Batman created during Final Crisis. (When I look at that sentence, it doesn't seem so simple, actually.) With NightBats, Batwoman, Knight and Squire trapped underground in England, it is up to Alfred and Damian to stop the raging clone as he lumbers around Wayne tower. It's a great sequence since the clone is rapidly degrading as he struggles with the agonies and trauma that dominate the real Bruce Wayne's thoughts. Morrison gives the clone some great dialogue that really spotlights all the damage the clone is dealing with (both emotional and physical).

Nightbats and Batwoman decide the easiest way for her to deal with her injuries is to just resurrect her in the Lazarus Pit, which made me laugh. If it is that easy, why don't more people do it? There's some great dialogue between Knight, Squire, and Nightbats that makes me wish I could see more of the English Dynamic Duo. There is a ton of potential there. After Nightbats makes it back to Gotham to help out his buddies with the clone, I loved how Dick Grayson just full on hits on Batwoman. He doesn't know he doesn't really have a shot...

Cameron Stewart's art is fantastic. The shot of Nightbats swooping in to catch Damian was fantastic. The smirk on his face is classic showboat Dick Grayson. The whole sequence in Wayne Tower was well done too, I really got a feel for the layout of the current Batman & Robin's HQ.

Good

Blackest Night #7

I just can't recognize the Blue Flash. I always think it is the Atom.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Well, I didn't get what I was hoping for, which was the resurrection of Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and Firestorm. But I'm sure that's coming next issue!

Geoff Johns does move things along (finally). We've been reading this same story for what seems like a year now, and it has been the same status quo the whole time: Black Lantern collecting hearts for Nekron. Finally, finally, Nekron's plan is coming to fruition as some new facts about the DCU come to light too. Life in the DCU didn't start on Oa as has long been discussed, it originated on Earth. The reason the Guardians stayed away from Earth so long was to try and protect the "life" avatar. And like Parallax and Ion before, the white avatar of life is vulnerable until it finds a host. Some of the coolest sequences in this issue involve Nekron slamming his scythe into the life avatar. Each blow is accompanied by a burst of images of living things suffering as Nekron "kills every living thing in the universe." That's one big goal for Nekron, huh? And who is the brand new White Lantern, the first of the corps following "life?" I'm not telling! Check out the issue yourself!

Don't be fooled into thinking this is all cosmic nonsense (entertaining as that is). No, there is plenty of down to Earth characterization going on too. Lex Luthor turns out to be a bad choice to be an Orange Lantern. He wants everyone else's rings, all the glory, and everything else he can imagine. He's as much a problem for the heroes as the Black Lanterns. Yellow Lantern Scarecrow is awesome, creating winged monkeys from Wizard of Oz to attack Nekron's forces. John Stewart stands as the lone line of defense against a horde of Black Lanterns, with his call for help going nowhere thanks to Black Lantern Air Wave. Fortunately, the rest of the corps are on the way, leading to a huge space battle.

I can see why this took Ivan Reis so long to finish this issue. Not only is he drawing a few dozen super-heroes, there is also a ginormous space battle. There are probably hundreds of figures in this thing, many of whom are odd and alien. And Reis nails it. The art has played a huge role in this series and the iconic look Reis established is going to do a lot to make this an enduring DC classic. Once this is collected and the delays are forgotten, this is going to hold up as a fantastic GL/DCU story.

Excellent

Justice League of America #42

I've been trying to figure out why I enjoyed this issue so much more than James Robinson's first few on this title. I think it boils down to two things: smiling heroes and a sense of the unknown.

Other than a few gloomy pages featuring Green Arrow, most of the heroes in this thing seem to be enjoying themselves. Even though their (confusing) thought boxes make everyone seem sadder, the art has all the heroes taking some satisfaction in taking out Superman villain-Atlas.

The other thing I'm really digging is that I don't know where all this is going. I know the New Gods pretty well at this point, well enough to recognize alternate versions of Orion, Barda, and the rest this issue, but I have no idea who any of these other villains are besides Dr. Impossible. I've never seen these particular heroes work together. I've never seen Hal Jordan taking orders from Night-Bats. I love how Black Canary is still hanging around, awkward situation and all (she led the now-defunct version of the team during Blackest Night.)

And best of all, Josiah Power of Power Company gets to make a cameo, tying this in nicely to the DCU, but also, Power survives his appearance. So maybe Robinson isn't quite as quick to kill those little bits of DC trivia as he used to.

Mark Bagley keeps things nice and bright. I love how this wide variety of characters retain their own looks but everyone is raised to an iconic look, as befits the JLA.

Good