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FCBD 2016 Vailant Review

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Valiant 2016
All right, it’s time for another anthology collection from Valiant. They like to take short chunks out of several comics instead of picking one or two which means that each adventure only gets 3-4 pages at best. Naturally this also increases the chance that you’ll run into a bad story so it is a risky strategy. The first story is about a guy who was banished to Earth and now he wants revenge on his father for doing this. Earth is pretty warped now in its false Utopia state so he wants out of there pronto. This story could theoretically have potential, but who am I kidding, it’ll probably be quite bad and ultra violent by the end.

The next story is horrendous as it starts with a rat being eaten and I couldn’t be bothered to care about the Star Trek ripoff planet afterwards. Seriously, starting a comic out with an animal being eaten is poor form. The next comic is about two guys yelling “It’s Miller Time” (Practically anyway) as they down some drinks. Unfortunately, 60+ years later one of those guys fell inside his super large backpack so the other one jumps in to fight some demons and to find his friend. This could be tricky! This story could be decent, it’s certainly a unique adventure I suppose.

Next up was about a super heroine who likes helping people, but she also wants to keep up with her human job instead of just living as a hero 24/7. It’s her choice I suppose. Unfortunately, she can’t save everyone and gets down about it, but for once the town and the cops are on her side so the situation isn’t all that bad. This could be a happy superhero adventure, but this is Valiant so I doubt that it will stay happy for long. The final comic is about Bloodshot (I think that’s his name) who is in the forest at this time. He is running, but ends up running into a clone of himself who immediately has a censored line since his potty mouth can’t be stopped. That’s the clone’s only line by the way so it is an….interesting way to be introduced. I liked the dog, but I’m worried about how things will ultimately end for him. There better be a happy ending here!!

At the very least the art was fairly good for most of these stories. Beyond that, there really isn’t a whole lot to say about them. Most of these stories don’t have a whole lot of potential and none of them had any action scenes. I miss the big crossover story that they had last year. Ah well, better luck next time guys!

Overall 3/10

FCBD 2016 Doctor Who Review

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I have to say that the Doctor Who series doesn’t seem to have a lot of stakes. Every comic that I’ve read with him has typically resulted in a blowout as Doctor Who completely outclasses all of the villains. None of them even make him break a sweat. This must not be the case in the show right? You can only carry on the “Doctor is the greatest” gimmick for so long before it starts to get repetitive right? I mean, it is a lot of fun to see him wreck everyone and it makes sense since he is so experienced and smart, but I’d like to see someone give him a close fight someday. That doesn’t happen here, but as a result The Doctor continues to be a great lead. I have liked just about all of his forms to date as they are all typically overconfident or just very eager to fight.

There are four stories here. The first one has the cynical old version of the Doctor at the ready and he is mad that the humans have messed around with his toys once again. He manages to take down the enemy robot rather easily while bashing everyone the whole time. I’m glad that his new “assistant” quickly confirmed that she wouldn’t be his assistant before he even asked. That’s definitely a pretty new response to this whole predicament. This Doctor is also one of my favorite incarnations of the character. It’s good to see him so jaded. We got a nice action scene and the art was solid which helped make this the best story in the collection.

The second story had weak art and probably my least favorite Doctor of the group so it wasn’t nearly as good. One guy on the crew is having a tough time coping with his wife’s permanent frozen status so he keeps on threatening the other characters and The Doctor mentions that he reminds him of himself. You have to choose an impossible goal or you’ll be swallowed by grief. An interesting theory, but the whole thing is basically just The Doctor talking while the other guy takes a stroll. In the end, the guy realizes that his mission was too easy and pretends that he did not accomplish it. I think that the issue was trying way too hard to be deep so it ended up backfiring. The traveling guy just felt hollow and his act of “I’ll destroy you all someday…kappa” will probably get old really quick.

Next up was the most annoying Doctor. This time he has two passengers aboard the ship and one of them is actually very experienced so she is used to all of the shenanigans. The other isn’t though and she wants to know why a ghost is running around the Tardis. The Doctor scoffs at this since ghosts can’t be real and the assistant verifies his story. That’s when they run into a Tornado Ghost made from The Doctor’s tech mistakes. The art wasn’t great and the new assistant was the main character which wasn’t that good since it was an excuse for a lot of panicking the entire time. This Doctor wasn’t very sympathetic to her plight and the whole thing ended up being his fault in the end. Not his greatest moment. The art’s a little sketchy here, but passable I suppose.

In the final story, we had The Doctor and two rangers(?) walking around when they meet up with a high tech alien with a mask that lets him do just about anything. He rewrites planets just for fun. This alien’s big mistake was trying to peek inside The Doctor’s mind though which quickly shatters him. The Doctor reminds everyone that his mind is basically invincible so it is not in their best interest to try and test him. I’ll admit that I couldn’t figure out who The Doctor was for a while though since the two guys acted very similarly. It was a good story and I’m glad that The Doctor got some more hype once again. The art was fairly good as well.

This was definitely one of those collections where the quality varied. The first and last story were good, but 2 and 3 were really lacking. This cost Doctor Who its seven star grade and demoted it to a cautious 6. The franchise is still a lot of fun to read, but it seems like your enjoyment will heavily depend on which Doctor is taking center stage at the time. There are so many of them after all, but luckily most of them are likable.

Overall 6/10

FCBD 2016 Spectrum Review

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Looks like the aliens have returned! Essentially, the human race was nearly wiped out by aliens when they first arrived, but we beat them back. The second wave was obliterated with ease since we had amassed a lot of knowledge and then the aliens left towers which we plundered for tech. Unfortunately, we were not ready for the third wave, which came out swinging with everything that they had. The government is forced to call in the retired pro, Raaker. Raaker hops on a military transport, but the driver is destroyed by an alien laser and as Raaker is knocked out, he sees a hologram of a mysterious lady. She wants Raaker to help eliminate the alien threat. Meanwhile, she is on the run from a few different alien hunters, but uses her powers of forced peace and emotions to knock them out and mind controls the leader. Before she is knocked out from the strain, she orders him to find the main lead.

The story certainly has a bit of a Star Wars vibe to it with the heroine plot, but the main one is more like a Skyline or Independence Day story. The humans seem a little outgunned as per usual, but I’m sure that they’ll think of something. Never underestimate human ingenuity when it counts. We are a tough species to keep down. The art is visually pretty interesting. The first half looks rather standard, but in the Star Wars esque part the colors are a lot different. Dark and light colors mix and merge to make the interesting visuals.

Right now, I think the heroine is a little too overpowered. If she can bring anyone under her sway just by looking at them, it will be tough to defeat her. Having power over emotions has always been a tough ability to counter. As for the main character, I’m assuming that he’ll need to get a space blaster or a cool energy sword if he wants to stay relevant when the tougher villains start to show up on Earth. The series definitely has a lot of promise and who doesn’t like the concept of an alien invasion right? I’m assuming that the two plots will meet up sooner rather than later and the comic is definitely aiming to make this some kind of large expansive universe so it’ll be interesting to see how long it goes on.

Overall 7/10

FCBD 2016 Captain America Review

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It’s time for the next Marvel issue. It’s always interesting to see the current state of things because everything changes so rapidly in the Marvel universe. The main story is about Captain America and his costume has changed yet again. I’m not a huge fan of this one though because it looks a little too comfortable. It’s hard to picture it as battle gear and it looks like a cheaper version of Cap’s ultimate costume. The new energy/hardened shield isn’t all that great either and he definitely needs the original one back. He needs Falcon to surrender it back to him ASAP.

There’s not much of a plot here. Cap, Falcon (The New Captain America), and “Falcon” (Falcon’s sidekick) attack an enemy base, but there are casualties due to different attacks at once. The government acts very similarly to its counterpart in the Civil War movie and immediately says that Cap and the others need limitations and such. Sharon Carter (Who has aged quite a lot apparently. She’s significantly older than Cap here so at least no forced romance can occur anymore) defends the team though and reminds the government that lives were saved. Cap also walks in and reminds the council that they were suspended (Or on leave..something like that) while this was all going on so they could have done better. The issue ends with a big speech and Cap deciding that the country must declare war on Hydra. Red Skull accepts of course. It was a decent comic and the art was good. I won’t be pleased if we get some drama between Falcon and Cap on who should keep the title of Captain America though. Falcon should quietly step down and at least so far he’s not getting ruffled, but “Falcon” keeps giving him bad advice. I’m worried as to where this is all headed at the moment, but it should be a good comic series.

The backup issue gives us a sneak peak at Dead No More, the infamous Spider-Man event that is finally bringing back Captain Stacy, Gwen Stacy, Uncle Ben, and everyone else who has ever died in a Spider-Man comic. There will probably be a plot twist about all this, but Marvel has successfully ruffled quite a lot of feathers at the moment. Is this a wise move or has Marvel finally made a mistake? Well, they’ve made a lot of mistakes with Spider-Man so it’s to be expected. The art isn’t very good I’m afraid and one of the first panels has Spiderman’s lower mouth wide open, but his top half closed which makes for a very weird visual. The character designs are also a little odd. Spider-Man’s a lot more stiff now that he wears full body armor and the Rhino’s design was a little slimmer than usual. We got some good fight scenes though and the atmosphere is very light and happy like a Spider-Man comic should be. Against my better judgment, I’m actually a little hyped for the event and it certainly has a lot of potential. This story was certainly more interesting than the Captain America one and if the writing is on point, we could certainly have a winner on our hands folks!

Overall 7/10

FCBD 2016 Civil War II Review

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It’s time to jump ahead a little with the FCBD reviews to the big Marvel one. Civil War II is getting a lot of buzz from Marvel as Bendis is trying to help the event become one of the biggest of all time. It’s going to be tough, but I don’t mind the concept. Seeing the heroes be forced to choose sides once more should be entertaining even if the whole thing is a little forced. We’ve definitely had characters who could see the future in the past, but the moral debate should still be pretty interesting.

In the main story, a heavily nerfed Thanos arrives and fights the Avengers. War Machine and Captain Marvel put up a fight, but they’re a little outgunned here and War Machine is critically injured…as always. The dialogue is fairly bad, but it tries to be epic. The Avengers thank the Inhumans since it is due to one of their members that the team knew about the upcoming threat. (Thanos) The issue essentially ends with Captain Marvel in hysterics over what happened to War Machine.

The art was very good and I was glad to see a good fight involved, but Thanos is severely downgraded here. Most of the attacks that were being fired at him should not have done any damage and he didn’t seem to have any strategy in the fight as he just tried to throw a lot of punches or blasts. I dunno, he felt off here. The other thing that felt very off was Captain Marvel’s reaction. She’s a seasoned veteran, but you’d think that she was a cadet straight out of training by how she reacted to War Machine’s injury. If you get that hysterical over an injury, then you’d best keep the romance off the team. The whole scene with her telling Black Panther to turn around so he could ignore them being together was very bad as well. The team was on a mission before War Machine had to show up so let’s keep it professional! Captain Marvel and War Machine looked terrible in that scene. Not the greatest way to start hyping up Civil War II.

In the backup story, we got a glimpse of the new Wasp. She learns that Henry Pym is dead so that means she can now pilfer through his life’s work without permission. She steals the Wasp/Ant-Man suit designs and alters it a bit to make hers. Then she steals the rest of Pym’s stuff so that she can start her crime fighting career. She plans to start it off with a bang by taking down the Avengers so that she can prove her stuff. Vision’s her first victim and that’s the cliffhanger. The art is pretty good like with the main story, but Wasp doesn’t come across as a very likable character. Quite the opposite in fact, she is certainly no hero since she is acting like a thief and taking down the Avengers is a fairly nonsensical plan. I don’t mind having a new Wasp though, but she is going to have to work hard to end up being a likable character.

Still, Civil War II should be fairly good in theory. Hopefully it is a fairly long event though because with so many heroes in the universe now, I want to see as many of them as possible take part in the debate. The series has to introduce the debate a little more as well though so there is plenty of time. I doubt this event will end up defeating Civil War to be honest, but I like to think that it will still be great and that the comparison can be made without being a blowout. The writing will have to improve a little bit though or else the characters are all just going to come off as amateurs who don’t comprehend the situation.

Overall 7/10

FCBD 2016 Grump Cat and Pokey! Review

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It’s time to check out a short issue for Grumpy Cat. This is the first comic that I’ve ever read about this character and I’m not familiar with the memes either so it’s a new experience. It makes for a fun read and out of the three stories, two of them are good. That’s not bad considering that stories can wildly range when it comes to quality. They can be good or terrible. The middle one is the weak link as you may have expected. After all, basic marketing says that you should end on a high note and you also have to start with an engaging story as well.

The first one has a parody of Batman V Superman at the beginning which was great. Pokey wants to be a superhero so he forces Grumpy Cat into joining along as well. The two of them defeat a pair of house thieves and decide to call it a day. Not bad for a day’s work right? Grumpy Cat lives up to his name and he spends the whole issue complaining, but at least he always helps out in the end. His costume was cool as well so he should be happy about that…even if his code name was pretty bad and being a sidekick is no fun. The art was fairly solid as well.

The second story had the worst art of the bunch. It simply wasn’t very good and the story wasn’t engaging either. Grumpy wants to be an artist, but he doesn’t want to be popular. He wants a small cult following and that’s tough to intentionally grab. Still, it simply wasn’t very interesting. Finally, we saw Grumpy and Pokey decide to try their hand at detective work. Grumpy showed why he is known as the smart one in the group here as he quickly realized who the culprit was and acted accordingly. Pokey wasn’t really any help this time though so Grumpy had to give him a distraction while he handled the real threat. The dialogue was fairly good and the artwork was back to looking good so it was a nice way to end things.

Grumpy Cat seems like a fairly promising series. It’s not a series that I can picture myself reading anytime soon, but it’s not bad. Grumpy makes for a good lead at any rate and sometimes a solid lead can go a long way in an adventure like this. No crude humor or things like that to hold this comedy back which is great as well. So far so good with these Free Comic Book Day issues.

Overall 7/10

Green Lantern Volume 6 The Life Equation Review

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Alright, we’re back with more Green Lantern comics! In this one, the New Gods step in so we take a little break from the main plot that’s been going on. It’s just how it goes with Tie ins, but as long as the event is really good this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think Green Lantern is a little underpowered here and it shouldn’t be so easy to develop a counter weapon to the Power Ring imo. This volume has a lot of action and is setting things up for the Darkseid War so it is a must read.

The New Gods hack into the Green Lantern database to find out more about the rings and they also want to take Kyle Rayner since he may be helpful for the Anti-Life Equation. The Green Lanterns decide to retaliate which leads to a full scale war with the New Gods. They will need some backup though and this quickly results in the Sinestro corps, Black Lantern Corps, Star Sapphires, Blue Lanterns, and all of the others to emerge. Can they get along long enough to deal with these guys though?

We really see just how strong Orion and the other New Gods are in this comic. It is good to see them look so powerful because they honestly should be. If they were lightweights it just wouldn’t make that much sense. There is still a lot of plot hax in how they are able to bust through the Green Lantern constructs so easily with their anti ring weapons though. It is consistently said to be the greatest weapon in the universe so there shouldn’t be any kind of counter to it.

At least it helps to strengthen my opinion that Hal is easily the best Green Lantern. He reminds the others that their constructs can always come out on top as long as their Will Power is on point and he never backs down. He does lose to Orion in their initial meetup, but it was hardly a fair fight. I’d like to say that he would have won in round 2, but then the Black Lantern had to wreck it. It was a bit of a low blow although Hal didn’t seem to mind, which was a little iffy. Hal’s done a great job of leading the GL Corps while the Guardians have stepped down and attacking the New Gods immediately was certainly the right move. Getting some backup was also wise since they would have been completely overwhelmed with sheer numbers otherwise.

It was a really awesome scene when Black Hand (Leader of the Black Lanterns) was able to animate the Source Wall and reawaken all of the people there. That included the big villains from the previous GL arcs and a lot of legendary monsters who were known as the strongest of the strongest. Even the New Gods really paled in comparison to these guys and they were soundly defeated. Naturally Black Hand couldn’t keep control of them for very long and he started to perish due to the Source Wall effect, but even for just being temporarily it was impressive and the best visual in the collection.

I focused on the New Gods part a lot, but the final 3 issues do go back to the main plot. Hal decides to take a little vacation to relax from the galaxy threatening situations of late, but soon realizes that it is hard to get away from it all. The Flash and Guy Gardner effectively remind him that his job as a Green Lantern is something that he can’t get away from. After having a talk with Star Sapphire as well, Hal makes a bold decision. He’s going to quit the Green Lantern corps. The universe is still very upset at the group for the Power Ring controversies so Hal decides to pose as the villain to clean the rep of the group.

He stages a betrayal with Kilowog and flees with one of the Power Batteries. Only Kilowog knows the truth so now he is on the hunt from every single star system and galactic group across the universe. For all we know, even the Justice League will be against him. It is going to be very hard for Hal to survive for long on his own, but he’s a survivor so he can take care of himself. I’ll admit that I’m not super thrilled about this decision. Hal was just coming into his own as a leader and we could have certainly had many great stories that could have come from that. Well, the idea of Hal being a loner as a while can be cool too.

As for the other characters, Sinestro had a good role in this collection. He aided the Green Lanterns when it counted even if he proved that he still can’t be trusted to stick with the mission in the end. His main goal is still to protect his own interests, but he did make a difference. He’s a fun rival to have for Hal. Kilowog’s also a pretty nice mentor and at least Hal can always count on him. Star Sapphire’s decision to part ways with Hal, but still leave him with some hope seems a little dicey, but hopefully that drama is essentially over now.

Orion was surprisingly likable in this issue. He knew that the All Father was being very unreasonable and corrupt. He didn’t mind mentioning this to the guy’s face either and it’s why rebellious characters can be good to have at times. He can also back up his tough talk and there’s no unnecessary romance with Wonder Woman to keep him down here. Mogo is cool as always and the rest of the Green Lanterns are fairly useful. The comic has a good cast and even the All Father may have learned his lesson. He claims that he will go back to his original mission of protecting people from Darkseid rather than becoming another villain so we’ll see if he is true to his word.

As always, the artwork for the Green Lantern collection is nothing short of excellent. All of the fights are really fun to look at. No other title does space fights quite as well as the Green Lantern series and that’s good since this series needs a lot of space action scenes. Adding in the New Gods also helped to connect this to the rest of the DCU and while that’s not necessary for a good GL comic as the previous graphic novels have shown, it is always fun to see. I’m definitely ready for the Justice League to show up as guest stars, that would be a blast! There is not a single panel where the artwork looks off.

Overall, Green Lantern continues its run of quality issues with this collection. The stakes may not have literally been as high as some of the older ones since the Galaxy was on the brink, but nonetheless they felt just as high. The war between the New Gods and Darkseid will surely have universal ramifications and the fact that both sides seem fairly corrupt is a sign that the Green Lanterns are going to have to work overtime to stop them all. As long as Hal is the leader of the Green Lantern corps, I’m sure that they are going to go far. Of course, with Hal no longer being the leader, the status quo is certainly going to be shaken up. I wonder how long the series can possibly go without Hal going back to his role. It’s an ambitious decision, but this series can pull it off. Hopefully by the time Hal joins up with the Corps again they will have beefed up their tranks a little. I want the Corps to be a universal threat like the good ole days. Right now they are really light on manpower so I’m thinking that some new recruits are in order. Maybe bringing in Supergirl and Cyborg for starters. Even better….another Hal Jordan from a different universe!

Overall 8/10

Green Lantern Volume 5 Test of Wills Review

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It’s time for one of the newer Green Lantern volumes. Hal’s had a rough time, but the last volume saw him taking over the Corps. He definitely didn’t really want this to happen, but now that it has, he might as well make the best of it! His decision to limit the use of the Power Rings really heats things up here and the villain groups aren’t afraid to use this to their advantage!

The main plot of this graphic novel involves a group of shapeshifters who infiltrate Mogo. They manage to knock Hal Jordan out and go on Galaxy TV to declare (While posing as Hal) that the Green Lanterns will hunt down anyone who uses the Lantern energy as it all comes from a supply at the end of the universe and if it runs out, everyone dies. (At least their emotions will) Technically, this story is true aside from the Green Lanterns all being extremists, but the universe quickly panics. The Lanterns must die now! Just about every planet turns against the Green Lanterns and this seems like it could be the status quo for quite a while. It’ll be hard to get people to forget this.

The shapeshifter problem isn’t over yet either. There lies a planet very much like Krypton in the universe and its citizens gain incredible amounts of super strength and speed when exposed to the sun. The shape shifters want to copy their forms and then bathe in this legendary sun liquid on a planet that will complete the transformation. These shapeshifters are really hard to detect because the transformation is just about 100% authentic. Hal needs to figure it out quickly though because having a lot of Evil Supermen in the universe would definitely not be a good idea.

Shapeshifting plots are always interesting because it’s very hard to stop those guys without plot hax or a lot of specific scenarios. Let’s just say that the heroes are not successful here and the shape shifter has her way for quite a while and even gains the Superman abilities, which was interesting to see. The Green Lanterns are powerful, but they are out of their league against someone like this. The group had a pretty good plan for dealing with the villain though and while I think they probably should have gotten owned, it didn’t feel to plot hax’d and their plan was a good one. I didn’t care for the villains aside from the one that got the cool super powers, but it’s always intriguing to see more alien species. I currently know of more Marvel kinds than DC ones so this helps to even the odds.

Another plot during this collection involved the Red Lanterns as the Green Lanterns find an enraged Supergirl while in space. Since when is she a Red Lantern? Well, in the comics it felt like that happened for a while, but to the characters it probably seemed random. Even worse is the fact that nobody knew who she was. Man, Hal Jordan’s seriously out of the loop right now and it just shows that he needs to get back on Earth. Too bad he’s effectively banned from going there since it’s Red Lantern territory now. Yeah…long story. It was great to see the Kryptonians get so much hype here though. Hal implies that Superman would completely wreck the Green Lantern core if something happened to Supergirl and he’s right. As it stands, I could easily see Superman decimating all of the Green and Red Lanterns teaming up. They’re simply not ready to fight him just yet.

The Red Lanterns got their own issue in this collection since it dealt with the Supergirl situation. It was interesting to see an issue from their series. I don’t think it’ll be nearly as good as Green Lantern since the cast isn’t quite as good and aside from Guy Gardner (Who’s not exactly the greatest main character) I can’t think of any real notable players. The fight against the Shadow Thief was neat, but Red Lantern abilities never look as good as Green ones. Seriously, those guys are always coughing. Atrocitus is coming closer to Guy’s faction though so it’ll be interesting when they fight again. That guy was always a big threat so having him return would definitely up the stakes.

Hal Jordan is still my favorite Green Lantern and he does a good job of keeping everyone in check in this volume. You can tell that he’s more experienced and in control than he was in the old comics. Let’s ignore the Justice League issues in the New 52 since he lost all of his development and the whole thing is one big plot hole anyway. Hal realizes that he needs to listen to other opinions now that he’s the leader and he does that ASAP. He’s no longer the space flirt that he used to be and he’s only worried about Carol, not even to get back together with her, but because Kyle died so right now things are rough for her. I’m expecting them to fight though since the Star Sapphires are antagonistic towards the Greens. (For good reasons, since the Green Lanterns want to control the universe’s levels of light) We even get to see some of Hal’s family like his brother and nephews. They’re neat and it’s always good to see that a hero has someone that he can talk too.

For a while Spider Man had Aunt May and Superman typically has Lois. With his family around, Hal can spitball ideas and also get a grounded perspective. I definitely haven’t heard of his bro or nephews before, but they seemed pretty decent even if they were pretty mean to Simon Baz. Poor Baz, he never quite hit it off in the comics, but I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of him. He is the last Green Lantern on Earth after all. John Stewart was also around and he’ll be having his own subplot for future issues as he needs to find someone who was replaced by the Shapeshifter a while back. The whole thing is super embarrassing for Stewart and it’s why I say you should always be careful where romance is involved. Still, what’s done is done and hopefully he’s able to find her quickly since the universe is a big place.

There’s a fairly big cliffhanger at the end here as the New Gods are finally making a move. They want the Anti Life Equation and they seem pretty shady so for the Darkseid War I wouldn’t be surprised if both sides end up being villains. It’ll be fun seeing the Green Lanterns take these guys on and I’m assuming that it’ll tie into why Green Lantern headed for Earth in one of the Justice League volumes that I read. Is it time to call in the Calvary? The Justice League can certainly tip the scales of any fight after all.

As always, the art is very good for this graphic novel. The fights are very eye catching and I never tire of the beam wars. I’m hoping that Hal completely forgets about trying to conceal light since that would mean the fight scenes can’t be as grand. He’s already starting to move away from that idea, which is definitely a good start. It’s always very easy to read through the comics since the art is so exceptional. It was also neat to see Batman on a few of the covers even if he didn’t actually get to appear in the issues. Ah well, I suppose that will have to do for now.

Finally, I’ve also got to note that it was impressive as always to see Hal hold his own in a fist fight against an opponent who by all accounts is stronger and faster. Note that this is without the Power Ring. Hal’s always had the most will power out of any Green Lantern and he always looks very skilled in his comic series. It’s one of the reasons why the Green Lantern franchise is one of the best parts of DC. Hal makes for a consistent main character and the plots are always interesting. This current plot about how everyone is dealing with the concept of limited energy is a good one and the universe is so big that there are so many plots to keep up with. We thought that Earth was a big place, but when you compare that to a universe, it makes sense that there are so many things happening. The Lanterns just have to tackle one problem at a time. Next problem on the list? Saint Walker. His refusal to help the others out is coming dangerously close to forfeiting innocent lives and that’s where you’ve got to draw the line between a cautious fighter and a bad character.

Overall, This is another solid Green Lantern comic. There’s a lot of action and the plot is very interesting. There are really no big negatives to speak of here. Hal Jordan definitely shouldn’t get one shotted from any blunt weapon and I still consider him to be one of DC’s power houses so that was a moment of plot hax, but it was a rare one. For the most part, Hal takes care of business and beats up anyone who gets in his way. I’m also glad that he keeps on springing into action instead of staying at the base like a leader is supposed too. That kind of thing has hurt many good characters and I don’t want to see that happen to Hal. An active main character is a good one! I’ll be reading the next volume very soon so stay tuned!

Overall 8/10

Green Lantern Volume 4 Dark Days Review

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Time to continue the Green Lantern saga although it unfortunately does take a bit of a step down from the last arc. The first half is relatively down to Earth, which isn’t bad, but I don’t really care for the villain. The second half pops up out of nowhere and it’s pretty interesting. I definitely wouldn’t have minded that being the main part of the arc since things get cosmic once again. This plot sound intriguing to you? Well, let’s jump in!

Hal Jordan is alarmed to find out that the Power Rings are not working very well. It nearly costs the Green Lanterns everything in their fight against Larfleeze. Hal doesn’t need this extra stress because things aren’t going very well between him and Carol Ferris. The source of the ring issues are with an all powerful being known as Relic. Due to tie ins and other plot lines, he really pops up nowhere in this series. He’s suddenly in a portal vision kind of thing so Hal charges in to help along with Star Sapphire and most of the other Lantern types. This even includes the Red Lanterns.

Relic is an ancient being who was once just an ordinary guy. Unfortunately, his reality blew up because the universe ran out of light. After dying many times over, he found out that the universe inevitably ends because of the Lantern corps. The energies from their rings actually come from a big well in the Source Wall. He took it upon himself to take down all of the Lanterns to prevent them from ever using the energies again so he is storing them inside of these machines and then plans to bring it to the wall to replenish the well. It’s actually a fairly well thought out plan. He’s even made himself immune to the Lanterns through his high tech equipment and expendable drones. Hal has a tough choice to make since stopping Relic could mean the end of the universe, but not stopping him will mean that the Guardians of the Galaxy (That’s what the Corps do) will be powerless.

Well, no worries, Kyle and friends are here to help. Kyle remembers that he is essentially all powerful and steps into help by going through the wall and then Relic also gets stuck inside. That’s one threat down and Kyle is effectively written out of the plot for a while. At least that means there is less drama between him and Carol. It was a short, but good arc. Relic made for an incredibly powerful villain. He couldn’t quite top Volthoom, but it is cool how DC keeps on throwing in more cosmically powerful guys in the GL series.

Sadly, this experience basically traumatized Hal Jordan and he has decided to make it his job to stop Lantern users from using the rings unless absolutely necessary. Carol warns him that this is a bad idea since the Green Lanterns will essentially be making the laws without any say from the other colors and that will just lead to a tyranny. Hal doesn’t want to hear it though and it looks like the various colors may be gearing up for yet another war….that’s just great. Keep in mind that the well didn’t run out until several thousands of years had passed so these measures are rather extreme.

Moreover, the rings are necessary and there’s no way that Hal can police the entire galaxy. If anything, he’s just going to weaken the team’s morale. Already quite a few members have quit, granted those characters are all pretty cheap. It’s still not good to start talking about getting rid of the rings or limiting one’s use during a fight. That’s the last situation where you will want to be holding back since it can be the difference between life and death. After the Relic arc, there was a quick little scuffle as Hal and Kilowog apprehended a Star Sapphire who had evaded them earlier, but let her go in exchange for capturing her clan. It was an intriguing move, but technically one that saved them all some bloodshed so maybe it was worth it. I didn’t care much for the Star Sapphire as a villain as she mainly just messed with Hal’s emotions the whole time and didn’t strike me as much of a fighter.

The whole situation is pretty sad for Hal since Carol friendzoned him out of nowhere and basically traded up for Kyle. This will be good for Hal in the long run, but in the short term he’s definitely not taking it well. At least now he can focus on being the leader of the GL Corps in the meantime, which is another subplot. The Guardians realized that they messed up one too many times so they’re taking a step back for a while. Hal should make for a good leader, especially since he doesn’t care much for rules. That’s why it’s alarming to see him act so drastic about the rings issue.

Things are tough for Guy Gardner as well since he was sent to be a Red Lanterns member while undercover and became their leader. The place is very savage so Guy has to always be watching his back or it’ll be game over. With Hal set on taking away their rings, Guy’s going to have to come to blows with his old partner. Kyle got a huge power up here as he controlled all of the powerful ring entities for a brief period of time and he’s gone on another mysterious quest. It’s a shame that we don’t see Kyle as a fighter too often anymore since he’s always acting as an all powerful sage. It comes with the territory I guess.

Geoff Johns isn’t writing the comic anymore so I’m sure that the new writer has a lot of changes planned. Hopefully most of them are good, but I’m definitely not a big fan of the increased romance thus far or the new Lanterns who were just recruited since they don’t seem to be likable characters. John Stewart may become more of a main character though so that’ll be cool. I also like the fact that the Green Lanterns live on Mogo now instead of Oa. Having a home world that can actually defend and fight back is quite useful. Not to mention the fact that it can actually move.

As always, the art was extremely good for Green Lantern. The colors leap off of the page and it makes all of the fight scenes very exciting to watch. Space fights are usually awesome, but it still takes skill to not get sloppy during the action scenes and just throw energy blasts all over the place. The character designs are on point and everything feels right artistically. While the Star Sapphire wasn’t my favorite opponent, she did have some decent fights. The battle against the Orange Lanterns was great as well and likewise for the Relic fight. It had a cosmic feel to it that’s always great to see.

Overall, This was a good Green Lantern comic even if it could have been better. Things will get trickier for the heroes before the situation gets better so they better buckle up for a tough ride. It’s similar to how everything went wrong for Peter Parker in Next Chapter for the start of the series before things eventually smoothed out. I can see why writers want to start the heroes off in a tough situation as long as it isn’t at the expense of character development. I recommend this volume and it has a lot of action consistently throughout the adventure. I’m just wondering where Simon Baz is at this point. Also, how will Green Lantern balance his days as leader of the Corps and being back to active duty in the Justice League? Should be interesting that’s for sure. Either way, no matter who is writing the series (So far) Green Lantern is still the best space adventure series in all of comics and I don’t see him leaving that position. Even more controversially, I may consider him to be the strongest cosmic hero in all of comics…but that’s a story for another day.

Overall 7/10

The Batman Adventures Volume 3 Review

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Time to look at a Batman collection based on the hit DCAU series! This one brings 7 issues so we get a nice assortment of enemies and even Superman gets to show up! That’s what I like to see and it’s always fun to take a look at the good ole days of Batman. The DCAU may be gone, but that doesn’t mean that its legacy has to go along with it right? Also, I rarely actually read Batman comics so it’s even more incentive to read this one.

The first story is basically a brawl between monsters. Man Bat decides to come back into town and Dorian is also paying everyone a visit. (The Werewolf thing from one of the Catwoman episodes) Throw in a random scientist who turns into a monster and things definitely get dicey. It was an all right comic, but I can’t say that it really caught my attention the way that some of the others did. I was never a fan of any of the villains in the story and that certainly makes a difference. Batman’s always hardcore though and he knew how to end the dispute.

We can’t forget about the Two Face comic next! He broke out of jail and decides not to do the same for the Joker. Batman still wants to save Harvey since they used to be friends, but he is certainly long gone now. Batman still takes some risks that he doesn’t need too like getting in front of the gun and daring Two Face to shoot without his coin. That’s definitely quite the risk, but it works and one should never doubt the Batman’s methods. It was a fun story and with Two Face, it’s always personal.

Next up, we saw an Environmental Protector get poisoned so Batman realizes that the only one who can save him is Poison Ivy. The villain has to decide if she wants to help. The guy did play a big role in helping the plants and that’s her goal so it makes sense to provide some assistance, but it’s always fun to make Batman sad as well so it’s a tough choice for her. Not to mention that the assasins who were after the guy are still around as well. Will she make the right call? This was a decent story as well even if the villains were just guys with guns. Sometimes, even a villain can be helpful if you can find a shared goal and some are definitely more devious than others. Remember that Poison Ivy started off as an extremest before really going over the deep end. She’s not the same kind of villain as someone like the Joker.

Two ninja show up one day to take Batman down for the count. Batman’s one of the greatest hand to hand fighters of all time so he certainly has no reason to be afraid of these villains, but why do they want to hurt him? Turns out that it’s about revenge since Batman took one of their clan down back in the animated series. It was all for good reason of course, but they will hear none of it. This is the best story so far and it definitely has the most action from the bunch. An old man also gets a lot of hype here since the ninjas obey him without question. It’s a complete story and definitely one that makes Batman look good.

Next up is the big story and it surpasses the ninja one as the best in the collection. Superman and Lex are in town, which means that things will get dicey for Batman. Lex wants to strike a deal with the government, but so does Bruce Wayne. This means that both of them are making some tough deals. Meanwhile, Maxie Zeus is also back in town and his thunder “abilities” are no joke. Batman and Superman agree to work together, but Superman has to make sure that Batman doesn’t try to profit from this as Bruce Wayne. I feel like that part was a little iffy though since Lex basically is a villain so why shouldn’t Batman accept his government offer? Lex’s was clearly shady and basically illegal so I don’t see what was so unethical about Batman accepting the contract. Still, it does leave room for a little tension between the two characters. I also liked the confrontation between Batman and Lex Luthor of course. It was very well done and unlike the newer Justice League comic where Batman lost the verbal debate, he clearly won it this time. Batman had the upper hand from start to finish and he never let up on the pressure. I expect no less from the Dark Knight!

After that is the weakest comic of the bunch. Scarecrow decides to turn over a new leaf and becomes a teacher. He grows attached to one of his students, but found out that she has begun to hang out with the wrong crowd and decides to teach this guy a lesson. Batman arrives at the scene and takes down both of the villains. There’s no real action here nor are there any likable characters. The Scarecrow isn’t even one of Batman’s more interesting opponents. I want a super powered tussle or a mystery, not a random human who decides to use his power to attack people in more of a normal life situation.

Finally, we have a comic where another Batman shows up. Let’s just say that being Batman isn’t a game so you need to tread lightly when you take over the costume…or it could get deadly. I’ll admit that I don’t remember who the villain in this comic was. I do know that the new Batman underwent a strict training regimin under the real deal and even became a bit of a track and field expert. I feel like there may have been a tragic end here or the guy just forgot about being Batman, but either way it was a decent issue.

The art is fairly solid in this collection. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s not supposed to shatter what I thought was possible for a comic. It’s clear and that’s certainly the important thing here. The art is good and allows you to read through the stories. In the end, we can’t ask for much more than that now can we? With 7 issues included, I’d say that the collection is of a decent length. It shouldn’t take you too long to finish it, but long enough that you won’t feel cheated with the price.

Overall, Batman Adventures had more ups and downs than the Superman one. It wasn’t quite as consistently good, which is why it ultimately gets docked a point. The story with Superman was solid though and we had some other good stories while also having some clunkers. If you’re a Batman fan, you should enjoy this collection. I wonder if the library will be ordering the first two volumes anytime soon. There are definitely a lot of Batman Adventures to read and one day I’ll probably have read them all. Until then, I wonder how long it’ll be until I read an other Batman story. Hopefully not too long since he’s still one of the best comic book characters out there. It’s just that most writers don’t really know how to handle him and go for true grit instead of compelling stories.

Overall 7/10