I've just returned from a weekend away with my wife and parents up near Lake Erie. Whenever I leave town I like to look up local comic shops in the area in hopes of stumbling across the next great comics Meca. This time I found Rupp's World in Fremont, Ohio which was simply awesome. You can visit 'em on the web right here.
While there I picked up some new releases to flip through whenever I found the time. I wish I'd known but somehow it had slipped my mind that both The War That Time Forgot and Tor #1 were both released this past Weds. so I was unable to check those out. I did however purchase the following...
Secret Invasion #2: One long fight scene with one returning character and a cool cliffhanger. Not sure if I didn't get much out of this due to high expectations or just the fact that nothing much really happened. The superheroes and their probable Skrull dupes get into fisticuffs in the Savage Lands, then a big dinosaur rampages in and everyone runs and hides. Avoiding mentioning the obvious ridiculousness of all these superheroes running off and hiding at the sight of a big lizard, what really happened plot wise in this issue? Not much. We got a few pages of the Baxter Building being sucked into the Negative Zone (or maybe its opening a portal into the zone, not real sure) and the Young Avengers reacting to it. Then we get the inevitable, shocking cliffhanger and its all over. I'm still excited about this series but this issue was something of a let down.
Titans #1: I'm not sure what excuse I could give for buying this other than the fact that I happen to really dig most of the characters from the old school Teen Titans. In particular Nightwing and Wallyflash are two of my favorite characters. I hate most of Winick's stuff though so I anticipated detesting this. I wouldn't say I detested this comic though. It was actually an entertaining read, mostly devoid of the annoying Winickisms that make me dislike so many of his projects. I dug the setup of the story (even though its been done to death) and enjoyed seeing the return of an old Titans enemy at the end of the book, and seeing this team back together is pretty cool. All that said, however, I had issues with the book. For one thing, some of the dialogue in the book is atrocious. Particularly the Beast Boy portion of the story. I swear I shudder just thinking about it. I thought the part with Starfire's pro-nudity rant was equally moronic. Also, I never read the Titans East special which apparently was the first part of this story, so it threw me for something of a loop when the title page on the inside of the book proclaimed it was "part two". Considering this is issue one of a new ongoing I was a bit put off at first by that. All those things aside however, I liked this issue and may even pick up the first trade if DC ever release it.
Avengers/Invaders #1: Not sure where this will lead but I kinda liked this first issue. The art is suitable (though Alex Ross comics without him handling the actual interiors always seem like a bit of a tease) and the story seems... well I guess the story seems a bit formulaic so far. Still the prospect of these classic heroes finding themselves in the present Marvel universe could make for some fun set pieces. I won't be following this month to month (I find most Alex Ross-helmed projects read better collected) but this first issue was promising enough to make the wait a bit painful. I hated Spidey's dialogue in this issue though... holy crap that was annoying.
Rann Thanagar: Holy War #1: I know there were a lot of people who hated the Infinite Crisis lead in mini, Rann Thanagar War, but I enjoyed it. I guess I'm a sucker for Adam Strange and Hawkman so maybe I just got more out of it than others. This series also stars Adam Strange and Hawkman though and frankly I was a bit bored by the whole thing. The art was pretty, there are a boatload of characters I like involved, and I like Starlin as a writer so this should have been a hit for me. Instead I just kinda flipped from one end to the other, put it down and forgot about it. Maybe I'm just bored with intergalactic war stories post Annihilation. Or maybe this series will get better as it goes on. We'll see.
Well, that does it for my hastily written reviews. I also picked up the most recent issue of Nightwing which was okay. I still have issues with Rags' work though. Next week I'll be making the trek to my dealer's house to pick up my pulls so look for lots of commentary on a months worth of titles next week.
Oh hey, I saw Speed Racer over the weekend. It's fun. Sadly its also flawed and drawn out but the racing stuff is great and the movie plays out like an eight year old's fever dream. I loved the score too. Go see it if you don't mind a headache from all the bright colors.
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