Let's Get Comical!

Welcome to a DOUBLE EDITION of Let’s Get Comical!

Real life and laziness keep getting in the way of my comic reviewing, and I’m sick of reviewing comics a week late. So as a result, I’ll be COMBINING last week’s comics AND this week’s comics!

But this plan doesn’t come without consequences. I WAS planning on FINALLY reviewing Fantastic Four #600, which has been sitting on my desk since the week after Thanksgiving. It shall sit for another week! Also, I’ve decided to delay the catch-up reviews of Batwoman #4 and Daredevil #5 until next week.

Purchased Last Week (2/1/2012): Action Comics #6, Amazing Spider-Man #679, and Uncanny X-Men #6

Purchased This Week (2/8/10): Batman and Robin #6, Batwoman #6, Green Lantern #6, Scarlet Spider #2, and Star Wars Crimson Empire III #4

Random Sidenote: I was this close to picking up Detective Comics #6 due to a small week last week, but decided to pass, mainly to save cash. Maybe I’ll pick it up some day, even if it ranked 3rd out of the 4 Batman-centric titles.

Let’s start off with last week’s comics.

Action Comics #6

Umm, okay then. This was a REALLY tough read, as it kept skipping back and forth between the past and the present. It starts out with some dude selling krypton to some “K-Men” who took said kryptonite from the rocket crash from last issue’s flashback. If that doesn’t make sense, the rest of the issue features a weird alien octopus attacking Superman and some random heroes, despite Superman being from 5 years in the future. Umm, what? So apparently there’s a lead bullet lodged in Superman’s skull and some telepathic chick has to revisit a memory of the first time Superman flew, which they don’t actually show until the last page. Suddenly future Superman is cured. I guess. This was confusing as shit, and I hated it, mainly because I had no clue what the fuck was going on. Reminded me a lot of the other Superman series, it was that bad. Skip this one unless you need some really expensive toilet paper.

Uncanny X-Men #6

I enjoyed this one. Continuing where we left off from the last issue, a weird “Immortal Man” (that looks like a hybrid of Iron Man and Mysterio) comes and assaults the tribal alien race that Magneto and Psylocke encounter. After the Immortal Man disintegrates the tribal aliens, Magneto and Psylocke decide to attack it, proving to be a bad move because the Immortal Man can also teleport. The Immortal Man kicks their asses until Storm comes to the rescue, and the Immortal Man teleports elsewhere. Meanwhile, Cyclops, who was captured by a weird alien, is set free when the alien learns English at a rapid pace. The alien brings Cyclops back to the group of X-Men where he explains that the Immortal Man is his old colleague from eons ago. Basically, this weird time bubble was created, and all of life went by really fast. These two aliens were part of an enhanced race that knew the bubble’s version of the Asteroid that killed the Dinosaurs was coming, and decided to take action. Immortal Man’s plan won, while the alien was frozen in carbonite. Immortal Man teleported somewhere, and when the alien was unfrozen thousands of years later, everything was developing back to normal. When the Immortal Man returned, he took his aggression out on the tribal aliens, and apparently isn’t finished. Stupid story, but this was a fun read, oddly enough. And I liked it enough to recommend it, so yeah!

Amazing Spider-Man #679

This is the conclusion to the awesome time travel story from two weeks ago. What we get is a discovery that Manhattan isn’t going to be destroyed at 3:10 P.M., but rather 3:10 A.M., thus giving Spidey and Grady 12 more hours to stop crimes around the city in hopes that the destroyed NYC from the Grady’s future doorway goes away. Spidey winds up finding the bomb makers from the last issue and the super lame villain Flag Smasher. With the help of Silver Sable, the two easily dispatch of the comic book industry’s only D-Level villain. But “Bad Tomorrow” still exists, and time is running out when Mary Jane calls Peter wanting to have pie (not that pie) and coffee. After a pep talk, Peter realizes that what causes “Bad Tomorrow” is that he immediately rushed out to save the day, and didn’t double check Grady’s calculations. The time traveling door was left open, and eventually causes a black hole. So the two turn the time machine door off, and all is well. Kind of a letdown compared to the last issue, to be honest, but I still enjoyed it a lot, and it was a fun read. Recommended!

And now onto this week’s offerings! Please note that I’ll save Batwoman #6 for when I finally catch up with the series in two weeks.

Star Wars: Crimson Empire III #4

Been a while since this series was updated, and finally things are starting to pick up! Kir Kanos arrives on Coruscant to warn Leia and the rest of the New Republic about the new Imperial leader Devian’s plan to use that stolen substance Zinethium to blow up Coruscant. Kir Kanos arrives and is instantly arrested. He requests to speak with Leia’s bodyguard Mirith Sinn. Apparently the two are longtime friends, or associates, or whatever. So Kanos is sent to prison while Leia and Luke contemplate meeting with that grey haired chick from the past few issues. Meanwhile, Han sends a new officer named Lar Ndigo to investigate the disappearance of a New Republic vessel. Ndigo’s ship arrives and is promptly fired on by Devian’s planetary cannon, and assaulted by a bunch of Clone Wars era technology, like V-Wings. But quick thinking from Ndigo results in the planetary cannon being destroyed, and prepares for a ground assault of the planet. Back on Coruscant, Kanos is brought before Luke and Leia, and explains the situation. Mirith decides to take up a previous offer from Leia to go meet with Grey Haired Chick, but only if Kanos is allowed to accompany her. Leia trusts her bodyguard, but Luke still senses something funny. After Kanos and Sinn embark on their trip, a closer inspection of the ship Kanos originally arrived in reveals rising energy levels; the stolen Zinethium has been placed inside the panels, and the ship is set to explode. Ever the quick thinker, Luke decides to fly the ship into orbit to save the planet, but just as he gets to an escape pod, the ship explodes, and the comic ends on the cliffhanger with everyone believing Luke Skywalker to be dead. As I said, things REALLY picked up here as we approach the final battle. I have to admit, the race to get the ship off-planet was very thrilling, and had me on the edge of my seat actually, so good job to the writers and artists for that one. Loved this issue, meaning it gets a good recommendation this week!

Green Lantern #6

We have a guest artist on this one, and I have to say, he does a fantastic job. Hal Jordan is leading an ordinary life with his girlfriend Carol, and beating up thugs and crooks while Carol uses the bathroom during dates, but Sinestro is still having the problems of a Green Lantern. Sinestro is searching for Lyssa Drak, some chick that possesses a Sinestro Corps Yellow Ring. He requests the help of Starstorm, an old nemesis who is basically a hobo after Sinestro left him for dead, yet allowed him to live. Drak has an energy field preventing her from being discovered by Sinestro’s ring, and only Starstorm’s old helmet can find her. Reluctantly, Starstorm helps Sinestro out, but he proves to be nothing but a coward, a shell of his former self. The two wind up being captured by Drak, and Starstorm proves to be worthless. Sinestro eventually escapes and declares Starstorm unworthy of being his partner. He flies back to Earth and interrupts sexytime between Hal and Carol and gives Hal another ring. Hal claims he’s done being a Lantern, but Sinestro insists that he is far from it. Nothing too notable about this issue, but it didn’t stink either. And it wasn’t mediocre enough to be mediocre, so I’ll give it a thumbs up.

Batman and Robin #6

Oh man, what another great issue of a great series. Morgan Ducard has invaded an embassy with Robin, and wants Robin to shoot a guard in the head. He eventually does, but the gun is empty; it was simply a test by Morgan. Morgan and Robin take the guard hostage in order to uncover the names of the leaders involved in a drug trafficking ring. Meanwhile, Batman is hot on their trail, and recaps another pivotal point in his history. While training with Morgan under Morgan’s father Henri, the three are tracking down an international terrorist named Hassan. Now of course Bruce is all for arresting and prosecuting Hassan, but the Ducards have different plans, and wind up murdering Hassan. Bruce, outraged, flees, and Morgan is sent to kill Bruce. Bruce dodges the bullet at the last minute, tracks Morgan down, and decimates him. Meanwhile, back at Morgan’s secret lair, Morgan tries to talk more evil into Robin, asking him about Bruce and whether or not Bruce ever told Damian how he almost killed a man. Damian snaps when Morgan tries to dip the embassy guard into acid and activates a beacon that lets Batman know where he is. In a twist I admit I didn’t see coming, Robin admits that while he and Bruce have their problems, they worked together to set Morgan up by allowing Robin to leave Batman to be evil and rebellious. An angry Morgan beats the shit out of Robin, and as Batman races to the scene, he hears every punch and beatdown on Damian, and gets angrier and angrier. Awesome stuff yet again, from a comic that continues to be one of my favorites. Pick it up!

Scarlet Spider #2

This was a blast. Scarlet Spider is trying to escape Houston for Mexico, but winds up getting drawn into a fight with a mysterious fire shooting dude, trying to kill the girl Kaine saved in Issue One. Despite not being a hero, Scarlet Spider returns to help the girl (“Just five more minutes.”) because, like him, she’s been given a second chance at life. So Scarlet and Fire Dude get into a pretty cool fight, which ends when Scarlet Spider gets VERY mad at Fire Dude for continually calling him Spider-Man. Scarlet Spider unleashes hell and nearly kills the fire dude, but doesn’t, thanks to his conscience. He looks up to see a crowd of people CHEERING him. Later that night, Kaine returns to visit the girl, to make sure she’s alright when he is discovered by a cop and a doctor, who explain to Kaine that Houston needs a super hero. So Kaine decides to stay, and if anything goes bad, Mexico is always right down the road. Fun read, and I’m digging the series so far.

Overall, a great two weeks for comics! Everything ended up being really good, except for Action Comics, which channeled the crappy spirit of the other Superman series for a month.

NEXT WEEK: I don’t know what comes out yet! But I’ll have more older reviews of Daredevil and Batwoman. Plus, will I EVER review Issue #600 of Fantastic Four?