Superman’s always gotten a lot of different comic series over the years, but what about his cousin? While Supergirl is a pretty major character of DC, she’s usually more of a supporting character than the main one. When the Supergirl comic series started, it was definitely a good move on DC’s part and I had some really high expectations. Did it meet them? Time to find out!
The comic starts off with Supergirl crashing into earth and government agents quickly surround her. They’re inside of robots so that they’ll be (heh) “Protected” in case Supergirl is hostile. She’s definitely hostile and punches one of them far enough that he’s instantly out of sight. The robots were partially responsible for starting the fight, but Supergirl’s always quick to go into action. Supergirl is taking them apart pretty easily and she’s still indecisive about the battle. It’s not like she wants to pulverize the robots upon first waking up. Luckily…The Man of Steel arrives to calm things down.
Superman doesn’t do a great job of calming things down and he even refuses to give out his name until Supergirl says hers. It’s a classic “Superman” move that you would have seen a lot of, back in the 60’s. It was good to see him acting retro, but it didn’t really help the situation. After Superman claims that he’s Supergirl’s cousin, (Which I doubt anyone would really believe at that point) Supergirl nails him with a solid shot that sends him flying. They don’t really get to have a long fight, but Supergirl definitely lands in a lot of good shots. Superman flies off to do heroic things, while Supergirl heads into space as she follows a flying object.
It leads her to a spaceship where she meets up with..The Brain! He’s actually pretty powerful, but I’m not sure if I agreed with the fight. I think Supergirl would crush him, but at least DC tried to make him as a big threat. I definitely won’t be forgetting The Brain anytime soon.
Finally, the last group of comics involves the Worldkillers. They’re a team of immensely powerful individuals. Individually, they are already powerful, but together, they form one of the strongest teams in comics. Their group is small, but each of their members is pretty tough, Reign, being the strongest by far. The arc was pretty great and it definitely had the most action from the Supergirl comics. There was finally an enemy who could give Supergirl a good fight.
Supergirl makes for a pretty solid protagonist and I’m glad to see that she’s quick to fight in this version. She’s had many incarnations, but this one is probably the best that I’ve seen aside from the DCAU. She’s already mastered her powers to a degree and they are hinting that she’s stronger than Superman, or that she will surpass him. Reign mentions that Supergirl is the only threat on the planet. (I guess the Justice League won’t be able to help this time) Supergirl’s costume is pretty good, it’s very similar to Superman/Superboy’s in the New 52, but I miss the cape. The cape was always one of the best parts of the uniform.
The Worldkillers make for a pretty good villain group. Reign is a great villain and she’s the perfect adversary for Supergirl. She’s basically Supergirl’s version of Black Adam or Bizarro. Reign wields a sword, which is pretty cool. Beyond that, she has most of the same powers as Supergirl, but to a slightly lesser extent. She may have been defeating Supergirl in space, but they were far from the sun. On Earth, I think that things would go differently. The only member of the group that I didn’t like was Deimax. She’s basically a lizard creature who has super strength. Not very original and she didn’t have much in the way of character. One of the opponents could fire energy blasts and appeared to almost be made of light. (The character reminded me of Soul Saver Dragon.) There was also a plant type creature who seemed to have less super strength and long range combat abilities, but made up for it with her long reach.
The Supergirl comic series is definitely off to a solid start and I’ll be looking forward to seeing how things play out from here. The art is definitely solid and the action scenes feel pretty streamlined. There was one typo in the comic, which is pretty rare. I won’t hold it against the comic, but it’s something that you may want to watch out for. (To test your analyzing skills) I definitely recommend picking up this series if you like cool action scenes or just like to look at the art for battle scenes. Not to mention that the character roster is better than most and things are moving at a good pace.
Overall 8/10
Batman has gotten several books in the Super DC Heroes line up, but this is the first one that I’ve read. It was a decently solid book, but it lacked the stakes and epicness that the Superman and Green Lantern books have been bringing to the table. Of course, Batman is still a pretty tough protagonist.
The book starts out with a pretty likable character who’s the cashier at a place that’s like Walmart. He’s ready to close the shop, but then the lights turn off and the door locks. He handles the whole thing pretty well and I’d be interested to read a book about him. Unfortunately, he doesn’t appear again, as Batman takes the stage. Batman and Batgirl secure the grounds and then Batman finds the perpetrator. The guy doesn’t seem that brave, but could he be hiding something? Batman’s going to have to use all of the intelligence at his disposal if he wants to solve this case.
The title of the book immediately lets you know who the real culprit is, which wrecks the mystery. Still, I’m sure that DC had their reasons. Scarecrow isn’t a really good villain and in a fight, he’s definitely no match for Batman. Batgirl briefly appears in the book, but she’s mostly gathering intelligence while Batman goes to confront the villains. Batman stays in character for the most part and he’s not playing around!
Naturally, the book was really short, but it was good. I’d recommend checking it out if you’re a Batman fan, or if you just like books based off of comics. Of course, I’d sooner recommend checking out the Superman books. Either way, you won’t regret checking it out!
Overall 6/10
Iron Man 2020 takes place in the slight future (Of Earth 8140), but most of the current generation of heroes are gone. The new Iron Man is Tony Stark’s cousin, Arno. It’s interesting to see how they depicted the future back in the ole days. Things have definitely changed a lot over the years.
The first comic deals with Arno attempting to stop a bomb from detonating. It would destroy just about everyone around so the stakes were pretty high. The only person who could diffuse the bomb was dead, so Arno was forced to go to the past and find him. Unfortunately, Arno ran into Spiderman and doesn’t handle the situation well. After he injures a innocent bystander, Spiderman is forced to go all out. It’s a very one sided fight and I guess that’s what we can expect. This issue was definitely the best from the collection and it also contained the best fight.
In the next few issues, Arno is hired to take down the Machine Man. Since the Machine Man’s tech is so old, it should be no problem to defeat him right? Well, it’s not the armor that makes the man, but the other way around. Arno is a really bad fighter and every fighter he makes contact with, tend to mop the floor with him. This mini series is really about the Machine Man and Iron Man doesn’t even get to fight until the final two comics of the arc. It’s good to see the Machine Man getting his props, but it was basically filler. In the next comic, Arno takes on Death’s Head since he was told to do so. He doesn’t ask any questions and he just wants money….he gets less heroic by the comic.
In the 6 issue mini series, Arno hosts a party with a lot of rich people, but he’s attacked by one of his old enemies. Iron Man scrambles his fighters and he goes out to fight the robots. They’re mostly cannon fodder and the head of the villains is an average human, so he can’t fight. The collection of comics ends with a What If comic. It was good to see Iron Man take him down a couple of pegs and he was in his cool 90’s design.
Well, Arno Stark is a pretty bad protagonist. The comic shows his decline from (Arguable at best) hero to downright villain. He starts out by trying to save his planet and then he becomes a mercenary for hire. He drops one guy off of a roof and blasts another guy straight out of this life. He’s basically a twisted Tony Stark, but not quite as cool as the former. His armor is also laughably weak. He loses to robots from decades ago and one good hit is usually enough to weaken his armor. I also can’t say that I’m crazy about the design. Especially in the six issue mini series, it was very bulky.
Spiderman gets a pretty good role and he’s probably the best hero in the comic. He shows us what a real hero is and he gets the job done. Once he enters rage mode, he makes short work of his opponents. Iron Man 2020’s armor never stood a chance against those punches. War Machine looks pretty bad, (Granted that it’s a What If comic) but I think that we’ve come to expect that much. The real Iron Man looks pretty good and his armor definitely holds up to the times.
Death’s Head was an interesting villain. It’s always good to see a Transformers character make his way into the marvel universe and he definitely gave Arno a good fight. His sidekick definitely seems like an interesting character and a comic series about their exploits could be fun.
This is a pretty solid collection of comics. I’d recommend it thanks to the classic art and generally quick moving storyline. It’s never boring and it’s always good to expand your marvel knowledge. There aren’t a lot of popular characters in the book, but Spiderman and Iron Man guest star appearances will have to do.
Overall 7/10
Serial Experiments Lain is a very intriguing anime and it’s one that will make you think a lot more than the average show. I am one of those viewers who believes that you should always form your own opinion after finishing something. So, there are probably a lot of theories about what really happened throughout the show, and I’ll try to shed some light on it. The series is pretty short and only contains 13 episodes, but it’s enough to set the tone of the show. You know that this won’t be your average anime when the narrator doesn’t sound like a good guy. The theme song also isn’t that cheerful and it’s a hint of what’s in store.
Chisa jumps off of a building, but instead of dying, her soul goes into the “Wired”. Without a body, she has complete freedom to do whatever she wants and be wherever she wants. Or so she claims. Chisa doesn’t actually appear much, but it sets the seeds for the real protagonist of the show. Lain is gifted with special powers that help her in the “Wired”. The ability has some pretty good perks like teleportion and granting the user a genius level intellect, but the downsides are pretty lethal. The wired rapidly spreading and people are beginning to mysteriously die around the world. Lain could care less about the strangers, but will she be able to protect her friends and stop the “Knights”?
Lain isn’t a bad main character, but I can’t say that I ever got around to really rooting for her. For the first three episodes, she’s extremely quiet. (Reminded me of Peter Parker from The Amazing Spiderman movie) She got better when she began to talk more and started utilizing her powers in more effective ways. Of course, Lain’s abilities seem to have a mind of their own and there are other Lains running around….or so it seems.
Lain has three friends, but the only one to really get a large role in the series would be Alice. For the most part, she attempts to help Lain through her school life and even tries to make Lain have some fun. She’s a good character until we get a pretty big plot twist that made her into an unlikable character. I never really cared for the character before then either. She was constantly thinking that Lain may have been responsible for various things and then changing her mind abruptly. (Of course Lain usually was behind those things….)
“god” also appears and he’s in charge of the wired. He admits that he’s not the real God, but he’s the god of the wired world. He is everywhere at once and his power knows no limits. Unfortunately for him, one can only be a god if others worship him. Lain gets an idea and takes him on. This “god” character was pretty underwhelming and he’s definitely not much of a fighter. There are also two government agents who spy on Lain for most of the series, but in the end they are just pawns in a bigger game. The humans are extremely weak in this show. A little girl armed with a teddy bear succeeds in completely terrorizing a grown man and he runs all the way home. Unfortunately he’s unable to get the lock to open and things don’t go very well for him.
Alright, let’s talk more about the show as a whole and what really happened for most of it. My guess is that Lain was created a little before the wired so that she could control it. Or that she was an all powerful, cosmic entity who wanted to experience life and adopted a human form. Were her parents really her parents? I’d say that foster parents may be a better term and it would explain why they act pretty fake/off for most of the time.
After Chisa jumped and left the school a message, it slowly started to reawaken Lain’s latent powers. At first she couldn’t control her abilities at all and developed split personalities. “Wired Lain” was a lot meaner than the normal one and had a much better perception of her powers. She was basically the total opposite of the regular Lain and probably would have made for a more interesting main character. Lain’s other personalities started exerting their influence on the wired a lot more actively as they went out of their way to knock off some civilians and even mess up Alice’s social life. Lain’s other personality may have deleted her sister as well, but it’s possible that the Knights had something to do with it. The sister’s scene was pretty intense and she put up a decent effort, but nobody can escape the Wired.
The border between the real world and the wired continues to weaken throughout the show. Eventually, humans in the real world can even see Lain up in the sky as a messiah type being. They take it pretty well and nobody ever asks Lain about it. That should probably be the first hint that something’s off….
Lain has unlimited power on the wired and since the real world is almost completely connected to it, her abilities are enhanced in both worlds. She seems to have some telekinesis (Shown in her battle against “god”) and she’s a very advanced reality warper. Not only can she alter people’s memories, but she can also completely rewind time to whatever point that she feels like. It would seem that Lain could have become “god” at anytime, but she didn’t want to give up being a normal person. She liked having a body and not live her immortal life as one with everything. Based on the ending, it would seem that she has made her choice on whether to stay as an immortal humanoid being, or an abstract entity.
There are also some mild hinting that Lain could in fact be an alien. I wouldn’t be surprised, since the government found the alien ship near the end of the show. There are definitely a lot of theories that can be had here, but the important thing is that you know the basics.
1.Lain is All Powerful
2.Lain is “god”
3.Lain can do anything.
Everything else is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things when you think about it. Lain could have just created the entire planet with her abilities, which would explain why things always went badly for the victims. When the sister was trying to escape, people would flicker in and out, not to mention that reality seemed to be against her. In a way, Lain is just toying with everyone as she watched from above. Most of the time, she’s not doing it consciously, but eventually she begins to understand.
One negative of the show would be the lack of fight scenes, but you’re not really supposed to expect those in this show. None of the characters ever really get to be likable characters and there is some really unneeded romance scenes during the show. I liked the theme for the night club that the kids would go too, aside from that, the kids were pretty awful characters.
This anime is a very unique experience to watch and I’d recommend checking it out. There are a lot of really weird and random moments that increase the spookiness factor of the series. It may be the closest that you’ll get to a horror show about the cyber world. It contains some elements from The Ring, The Matrix, and a whole bunch of other things. It’s a good way to learn some fun facts as well. While most of the show can be considered “trippy” with all of the assorted lights and crazy camera angles, the final episode takes a break from that for the most part. The Red light from the first 12 episodes finally turns green for the final one. Knowing this show, it was probably symbolic for something. Anyway, this definitely makes for a great anime to watch during the dead of night!
Overall 5/10
Achievements
Own Whole Series
The 50th battle is now upon us!
Superman hit the ground hard and crashed through the railroad tracks. He had barely seen the blue energy blast that had knocked him to the ground. Judging from the trajectory, the beam had been shot from a quarter of the planet away. Also…it blew up a volcano! Realizing this, Superman flew out from underground at mach speed and quickly grabbed a lot of bricks from a supply store. He uses his super speed to place them around the broken volcano and then melted them with his heat vision. “That should be the end of that,” Superman declared as he landed on the ground.
“Superman!” a lot of civilians yelled as they ran towards him. “Now guys, what seems to be the problem?” Superman asked as he sat down. He knew that this could be a long story. “GOJIRA!!!” one of them yelled as his knees buckles and he hit the ground. “Gojira’s just a myth son,” Superman said in a very condescending tone as he prepared to fly away. “Does the word…GODZILLA mean anything to you,” another civilian said he backed up. “I’ve gotta go,” Superman said as he flew off into the sky. Those words had troubled him. Legends claimed that Godzilla was a legendary monster to have been buried under ice nearly 60 years ago, if he had returned…Superman knew that he would find answers on TV. He went home and turned on the 6:00 clock news.
Meanwhile, Godzilla was roaring. He had blown up a volcano, but it still wasn’t exciting enough for him. He wanted to celebrate his victory over King Kong, but how would he do it? Suddenly Godzilla knew what he would do! Godzilla headed off to the local Super Smash dojo. He would be sure to find a lot of fighters to defeat over there and it was always fun to beat new people in a fight.
“Great Scott!” Superman yelled as he crushed his TV. Godzilla needed to be stopped and only Superman could pull it off. “Clark, don’t move,” Perry White yelled as Jimmy and Lois ran in. “Shinigami are attacking france!” Jimmy yelled. “Vandels have conquered Europe!” Lois exclaimed. “I need a coffee!” Perry White yelled as he backed up. “Sorry guys, but I don’t have time for all of that,” Superman said as he left and ran into a telephone booth. “This looks like a job for Superman,” he said out loud as he quickly changed.
Superman flew at top speed and made it to Godzilla in seconds. “Fight’s over son,” Superman said as he placed his hand on Godzilla’s shoulder. Godzilla turned around with impressive speed and backhanded Superman through a building. “So much for doing things the easy way!” Superman said as he got up and charged at Godzilla.
Godzilla roared and fired a blast of Atomic Radiation. “My gosh!” Superman thought as the blast knocked him into the ground. He would have dodged, but the radiation would have fried everyone in the area. “No more Mr Nice-Superman was interrupted as Godzilla grabbed him. Godzilla roared and he threw Superman into the sun.
“Not bad, but now let’s see how good your defense is,” Superman said as he flew out of the sun and headed for Godzilla. Godzilla fired off another blast of atomic radiation, but Superman dodged and quickly fired off a super punch. The force of the blow knocked Godzilla off balance and he hit the ground hard. “Had enough?” Superman asked as he slowly walked towards Godzilla.
“Not quite yet I see!” Superman yelled as he got hit by Godzilla’s tail. Superman stopped himself before he could crash through another building. Suddenly another blast of atomic radiation hit Superman. Superman fell to the ground and then Godzilla stomped on him. Superman lifted Godzilla and threw him backwards. Then he grabbed a skyscraper and he used it as a muzzle for Godzilla. “I’ve had just about enough of the radiation blasts,” Superman said as he prepared to take Godzilla into custody.
Godzilla fired off another blast of Atomic Radiation and the skyscraper muzzle melted. “My gosh!” Superman yelled as he got blasted into the air. Godzilla’s atomic radiation turned into a redish color and his spikes grew a little sharper. “Superman, watch out!” a bird yelled as the red blast hit Superman. “Feels like kryptonite,” Superman exclaimed as he hit the ground.
Superman stayed down as he pondered his next move. None of Godzilla’s attacks had actually hurt him yet, but he knew that he should end this before things got ugly. There were too many civilians in the area for him to let Godzilla keep pounding away at him. He had thought that Godzilla would get tired if Superman just let him take a lot of free shots, but that didn’t appear to be the case.
Superman flew into the air and faced Godzilla. “Play time’s over,” Superman said as he clenched his fist. Godzilla fired off another energy blast, but Superman blocked it with one outstretched arm. “It’s time that you went to jail,” Superman said as he appeared behind Godzilla. Before Godzilla could react, Superman knocked him to the ground. Godzilla was knocked out, but Superman quickly wrapped him in Adamantium, Z metal, and the alloy that Superman used for his cape. “This should hold him,” Superman said as he brought Godzilla to the local prison.
“We’ll take it from here Superman,” the guards said as they moved in. “Not quite,” Superman said as he smirked and flew to the air. “I wonder what he meant,” the guard said as he walked over to Godzilla. Superman appeared again with a giant trampoline. He put Godzilla on it and then pressed a button.
Godzilla was launched into outer space. “I’ve perfectly angled the throw so that he lands on Zilla Planet,” Superman grinned as he flew away. Godzilla could finally have happy adventures among his own kind and now Superman could go back home and have a Hot Dog with Ketchup.
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