Snap Judgements: Reviews for Secret Six #3, Final Crisis: Resist, and Trinity #23

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

Secret Six #3 gets an A from DEgan
It's great reading a book without a hero in sight-and Gail Simone knows how to give us exactly what we want... lots of villain on villain action. Fighting that is (though there's a fair bit of the loving too, just not in this issue). Another strong issue in what has quickly become one of my most anticipated monthly DC books... and this story arc is already utilizing one of my favorite storytelling cliches: The Roadtrip! Also, its not too often that I'm blown away by the cleverness and unique-itude of a comic book concept, but the reveal at the end of this issue had me giddy. Can't wait for the next issue!

Final Crisis: Resist gets a B from DEgan
I was able to really enjoy FC: Rage of the Red Lanterns; even though it deals with the current Green Lantern continuity which I haven't been following. I didn't need to know the ins and outs of the politics on OA-and they gave us a solid enjoyable issue that stood on its own. Resist, however, is so bogged down in Checkmate continuity that I found it hard to get through. I haven't followed any of checkmate's doings since they were loosely involved in the Bruce Wayne Fugitive story years ago. So I felt kinda lost throughout (and if you've been reading any of my previous critiques of Final Crisis so far, you'll know that I don't need to feel lost anymore than I already do). Now why doesn't this book have a lower grade you might ask? Well, the nonsense between Snapper Carr and Cheetah was so enjoyable that it saved this book from sucking. This is the second book this week in which she's featured prominently; Secret Six being the other (I accidentally typed "Secret Sex"... which is telling considering her shenanigans this issue). I never knew I liked Cheetah before... but if she's given this treatment more often, she'll quickly climb my list of favorite DCU villains.

Final Crisis: Resist gets a B from AHR
I actually just picked this book up from DEgan's stack and flipped through it, but that sex scene was so steamy I have to give it some props. Favorite part: post-coitus, Snapper is reeling from the experience and Cheetah is like, "Yeah, I know, I'm extremely good." I agree with Deeg, more of her, please!

Reviews for Trinity #23 and another take on Secret Six, after the jump...


Trinity #23 gets a B from DEgan
I wish I had realized at the start that Trinity was DC's next weekly comic... I wasn't quite ready for the commitment. But, that being said, this book is a refreshing break from DCs other big continuity events, Final Crisis and Batman RIP. Though those are still enjoyable, I find myself lost most of the time. Trinity, on the other hand, may lack any characters I care about but it delivers on story. I'm never lost and the progression of the story makes sense and feels right throughout. Plus, in a time when DC continuity is under attack by crisis event writing, Trinity flaunts and taunts its continuity at the same time. The only holes in the plot that appear in these pages, are deliberate and cause the characters some delightful consternation. Wouldn't you be really upset if someone you knew for years is suddenly the head anchor for a national news magazine show... and she's always been so... even though she wasn't 10 minutes ago? Yeah. Its also great to see Black Adam again... and he's not happy about his continuity changes... he's smashing demons demanding to know why he's fighting them. Pretty funny stuff. So although its missing the characters I loved from 52, its giving me a far more coherent and enjoyable story than either of DC's previous weekly comic attempts.

Secret Six #3 gets a C from AHR
The first Secret Six miniseries is one of my favorite comic runs of all time, but I'm not quite feeling this. I thought this would be a rollicking road trip with bullets flying every whichaway, but these issues have felt slow. Too much plot, not enough of the casual interaction between the six that I like so much. I love these characters, but they feel a little stale...Ragdoll's disturbing non-sequitors are fun, but a little repetitive. I'm probably just mad because Knockout died, destroying one of my favorite comic couples. I'll stick with this comic, but I really hope the pace picks up.

Blog Bites From Two Awesome Comic Writers

Two items of interest on my RSS this morning:

Who says a gay, female, latina superhero can't hit it big in American pop culture? Clue featured in yesterday's New York Times crossword puzzle: "____ Montoya, DC Comics heroine known as the Question." What up!

Writer John Rogers has posted the entire script to his final issue of Blue Beetle, a story which I gave a semi-rare A+ review on both this site and Pop Culture Shock. The script format makes for a tough but interesting read, and it's always neat to see how comic writers communicate ideas to artists. Even without pictures it made me cry all over again.

Gotham Central References In Dark Knight Viral Material

Newsarama recently reported that a new Dark Knight viral website has launched, an online edition of The Gotham Times. This fake newspaper is startlingly detailed and features four pages of full-length articles, most of which focus on the aftermath of the events seen in Batman Beyond. There's plenty to enjoy, but most surprising to me were a few references to one of the most critically acclaimed Bat titles in recent years, as well as a personal favorite of mine; Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka's crime series, Gotham Central.

The evidence after the jump...

There's a Letters to the Editor section on page two, and the second letter (titled "Major Letdown?") is about the formulation of the Major Crimes Unit, the branch of the Gotham City Police Department that Gotham Central focuses on. This by itself might not be a direct reference to the comic, but the next example is more explicit.

On the front page, there's an article titled "Dent Tip Line Targets City's Dirty Cops", which reports ib how ADA Harvey Dent is launching a campaign against corruption in the GCPD (apparently it's "dividing the city" in half). In the continuation of this article on Page 3, the fifth paragraph down contains a list of cops that are under investigation for corruption. Included are Jim Corrigan, Roger DeCarlo, and Timothy Monroy.

Roger DeCarlo and Timothy Monroe (presumably misspelled as Monroy) are a team of dirty cops featured in Gotham Central #32, in which they haphazardly kill a runaway girl only to find out she was under the protection of Poison Ivy (d'oh!). Jim Corrigan should be a very familiar name to Gotham Central fans (as well as old-school fans of The Spectre but let's disregard that for now), as Corrigan was a crooked CSI officer and one of the series' main villains.

As much fun as it was to spot these references, I'm not sure if their inclusion mean much. The list of corrupt cops includes a number of other names, and everyone on the list including those I mentioned can be found on the GCPD Police Roster on Wikipedia. So either the writers behind this paper are really up on their Bat-history, or they're just handy with Wiki research. Either way, seeing Gotham Central characters mentioned in the context of the new movies rekindles my hope that the old rumor about Renee Montoya making a cameo will be true. Don't play with my emotions, Warner Brothers!