Panel Discussion - Scans from Secret Six, Final Crisis: Resist, and House of Mystery

Most Subtle Gore - Secret Six #3
As if living in a crate wasn't enough to make this guy creepy. It took me a moment to even realize what happened in the two top panels. A pretty effectively shocking murder without even showing much blood. To make matters worse, he doesn't even bother to hide the evidence-he just hobbles away with her girly umbrella. That's cold.

Best Ensemble Acting - Secret Six #3
Oh, he's trying so hard to be threatening here... complete with a subtle sideways glance to see if his intimidation is working. Followed by the lightning kicker that seems to have worked on the poor purple bug guy (any clue who he is?... anyone?). Cheetah, on the other hand, couldn't be more bored by the whole affair... even the Tesla coil effect on her hair doesn't seem to faze her.

Most "almost makes you want to be a Furry..." - Final Crisis: Resist

So in the course of a week, Cheetah has traveled from near-obscurity to one-of-my-favorite-DC-villains status! An impressive feat; but with Secret Six and Final Crisis: Resist in the same week, it's hard not to love her. Of particular note is her *ahem* cockiness in the last panel.

Most "Isn't that precious!" - House of Mystery #7
This little guy is almost as cute as the kitty in last week's panel discussion... oh wait-he isn't spewing blood... so that makes him much much cuter! You get em' little guy!

Best Writer's Revenge - Secret Six #3
Upset by the gruesome murder of Kyle Rayner's girlfriend, Gail Simone started a website called Women in Refrigerators almost 10 years ago. Well, now she's the one in charge, and she gets to say whose remains get stuffed into a small space! You go girl! For comparison, here's the original offending panel:
I'm thinking of starting my own website called "Flight Crews in Lockers." For too long, comicdom has been far too cruel to flight crews.

Snap Judgments: Reviews for Batman, Nightwing and House of Mystery

Short comic reviews based on initial, lizard-brain opinions. Arranged from BEST to WORST. Beware some potential spoilers.

Batman #680 gets a B from Degan
When this is all said and done, I'm going to re-read all the R.I.P. stories together in one sitting--because right now Grant Morrison's writing is not holding up with month long intervals. I'm finding I'm very lost--and none of the other R.I.P. stories seem to have anything to do with this story so there's no help there. Otherwise, Batman's charge against the Black Glove and the Joker is entertaining enough-creepy and... confusing. I just have faith that this story is actually better than I'm realizing.

Nightwing #149 gets a B- from Degan
The conclusion of Nightwing's R.I.P. story (which has little to nothing to do with any other R.I.P. story). The "twist" ending is another obnoxiously cliched treatment of Two Face's split personalities... basically, if you're reading any story with Two Face on one side of a conflict, and there's a mysterious "other" party on the opposite side... guess what, it's also Two Face. Surprise. However, Nightwing's fear toxin stricken battle with Batman's Rogues Gallery is awesome enough to keep this book from sucking. Plus, you have to respect any story where the hero fails. Oh the tragedy of living in the modern day DCU.

House of Mystery #6 gets a C+ from Degan
This book is hit or miss, usually depending upon the bonus story within--in this case, the back story of one of the House's occupants, the Pirate Ann. And it was pretty damn cool. So a "hit" in that regard-except the story of the House itself, which I usually enjoy more than the stories within stories, was pretty confusing. The main character behaves completely unlike herself leaving me to wonder if I missed an issue... but I'm pretty sure I didn't. Not sure if the character incongruities are intentional or just lazy--but it left me too confused to really enjoy it. Though the story may be leading to some interesting places... who knows... this book's hanging by a thread.

Panel Discussion - Scans From Buffy Season 8 #16, Batman RIP #678, and House of Mystery #3

Gnerd is still recovering from our 4th of July Blowout, sorry for the junior sized Panel Discussion. More interesting stuff was probably going on in the Marvel Universe, but that's not my department. As always, beware of SPOILERS after the jump. -AHR

Achievement in Sound Design - House of Mystery #3
That's a hell of a KA-THOOOM. The "KA" is igniting, the "TH" is made of bricks that are shattering against the inky black "OOO" and the "M" is...well it's just a big chunky red M in sort of Sam Kieth font.


Grant Morrisson's master plan and Slayers on Broadway, after the jump...

Most Underwhelming Payoff - Batman #678
Yeah, so....Grant Morrisson's run on Batman has been referencing "Zur-En-Arrh" since it started over a year ago. Zur En Arrh is the name of a futuristic (circa 1950) planet with it's own super-tech powered Batman (here's the long version). I have to hand it to artist Tony Daniel for making this purple, red and yellow eyesore look even slightly wearable (the torn up coat is a nice touch, evoking a swarm of bats). But Bat-Radia? Molecule Guns? Old School Bat-Mite? I want to trust GM wherever he goes, but future-techspeak and alternate universe crap is my least favorite part of DC, and till now it had stayed safely out of my Bat books.

Broadway Shout-Out - Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 8, #16
Trust a musical theater nerd like Joss Whedon to reference Xanadu, the most cultastic new musical on the boards today. First episode of Doctor Horrible is online July 15th, I'm waiting with baited breath...

Snap Judgments: Reviews for Trinity #1, Ultimate Origins #1, Buffy #15 and More

Short comic reviews based on initial, lizard-brain opinions. Arranged from BEST to WORST.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 #15 gets an A from AHR
Oh noes! Here endeth the Buffy/Satsu storyline, aka the ship that launched a thousand fics. I'll certainly miss the lesbian jokes, but this issue wraps up with excellent action sequences, heartwarming and heartwrenching drama, and a satisfying resolution that still opens up a few doors. Also lots of lesbian jokes.

Detective Comics #845 gets an A from AHR
Too much fun. Batman and Detective Chimp sitting at their computers IMing each other may top out some people's tolerance for silliness, but i found it delightful.

Reviews for H.P. Lovecraft's Haunt of Horrors #1, Omega: The Unknown #9, Secret Invasion #3, Trinity #1, Ultimate Origins #1 and House of Mystery #2 after the jump...

H.P. Lovecraft's Haunt of Horrors #1 gets an A from Albo
Kind of a weird idea. Celebrated underground artist Richard Corben does graphic adaptations (and expansions) of H.P. Lovecraft short stories and poems, and includes the original source text after each story. This works really well when the source is a vague poem that he has built an interesting narrative around, but when the source is a short story with more evocative imagery than the adaptation, things become a little less satisfying. He did the same thing with Poe, but I haven't gotten the chance to read those. All told, a cool experiment and a welcome serving of Corben's unique art.

Omega: The Unknown #9 gets a B from Albo
This book is so consistently good that for some reason it hardly excites me anymore. That sounds cynical, right? But I'm sitting here flipping through it and thinking "that's great, that's great, that's good too" but I know that when I was reading it I was a little bored. What's the deal? Well, in my heart I know this is a classic story that I'll be re-reading for years to come. The end is near!

Secret Invasion #3 gets a B from Albo
Ho hum. Very skeletal storytelling. Feels like an outline for tie-in issues to elaborate on, a very Marvel storytelling method I strongly disapprove of. Yu's art is still amazing, though, and the confrontation between Skrullica Drew and Tony Stark is pretty exciting though I'm pretty sure it's just some Skrullian mind games.

Trinity #1 gets an A+F=C+ from AHR
Wow. The first half of this book, in which Bruce, Diana, and Clark meet up for lunch and talk about a spooky dream they had, is awesome. I love any time attention is drawn to how insane Batman's "Bruce Wayne" persona is, and here Wondy actually calls him on it. But the second part of this book is a droning mish-mash of expository detritus featuring characters and situations that I have zero interest in, and after spending a fun lunch with my oldest DC pals I have no desire to jump into a red and green space land full of proselytizing god/alien creatures. Perhaps the writers are trying to set up two bands of alien/god creatures, since that description extends to the titular trinity, with the intention of showing us how much more interesting the group who act like humans are. These two very segmented stories are perfect examples of what I love and hate about DC.

Ultimate Origins #1 gets a C from Albo
There's nothing outright bad about the first issue of this major Ultimate event, but it just doesn't make enough of a statement right off the bat to justify its existence. You can hardly blame Bendis, though. I mean, how many universes can he be expected to turn upside down at once?

House of Mystery #2 gets a C- from AHR
Bleh. Reads like second rate Neil Gaiman, with really self-conscious and over-stated fantastical dialogue. It's brightened up by some fun touches (lady pirate bouncer) and a few pages of Jill Thompson's moody cartoon art, but what a let down after such a gripping and disturbing first issue.