24 Hour Comic Day? But I've Only Read Seven Comics!
/To interrupt Douglas' 24 Hour Reviewathon slightly, I thought I'd share short thoughts about what little I have read recently that wasn't the Absolute Promethea collection (No extras? I'm surprised) or the end of Paul Levitz's run on Legion of Super-Heroes (which noticably becomes the Keith Giffen show more and more the closer it gets to the end). Which is to say, not a lot. But still!
DETECTIVE COMICS #857: Another VERY GOOD issue, even with the last-minute revelations about Alice (which felt cheap and hopefully lead somewhere interesting, so as to remove the "What, I'm reading mid-90s X-Books all of a sudden?" taste from my mouth). JH Williams' art continues to just amaze, so much so that news that he'll be replaced by Jock for a fill-in to catch his breath seems like the end of the world. No offence, Jock, but right now, it feels like no-one else is in Williams' league.
GREEN LANTERN #46: I should probably feel as if this finally brings the two sides of Blackest Night together (All the different Lanterns/Zombies Attack The DCU), but this just seemed forced and uneven in a way that the other Geoff Johns-written parts of the crossover haven't - Maybe because it tried, and fails, to bring everything together convincingly? I'm still enjoying the crossover, in general; I just am starting to wish that it'd been left as just Zombies Attack The DCU and everything else could've happened at another time. A high OKAY, but I wanted more, dammit.
MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #55: Despite not growing up with a high school-age Peter Parker, there's something about the tone and speed of Paul Tobin's soft-relaunch of this series that makes it feel like the perfect Spider-Man comic to me. The Peter here is a nice guy, out of his depth more than a little, but yet the completely neurotic Spidey of Bendis' Ultimate book. VERY GOOD, even if I still want them to change that logo.
SPIDER-MAN: THE CLONE SAGA #1: I never read the original Clone Saga, and on the basis of the first issue of this rehash, I didn't miss anything; the script is rushed and unfocused, the art is... well, very Todd Nauck, which isn't really to my taste (Sorry, Young Justice fans), and the whole thing feels much more phoned-in than any "This is how we meant to do it the first time" should feel. EH at best, but that's probably me being charitable.
SUPERGIRL #45: I'm with Sean; the Superman family may - to those not reading the books on a regular basis - seem like a collection of fail right now, what with Superman not actually appearing in the book that bears his name and everything, but to those who are reading, the weekly cross-title story is the closest DC have gotten to the excitement of 52 since that book finished, a feeling diminished only slightly by knowing it's all going to end in a big crossover or event or whatever they're called next year. For now, though, GOOD.
THE UNKNOWN: THE DEVIL MADE FLESH #1: Entirely not what I expected after the first mini (Which had a disappointing final issue after three great issues of set-up, if you ask me), and all the better for it, Mark Waid's semi-supernatural mystery returns with a GOOD opener that suggests that nothing is as it seems. I have no idea where it'll go from here, which means I'll be back next month.
X-MEN FOREVER #8: Proving once and for all that all the X-Men are idiots (and that the X-Women know what's up), the Sentinels return and hide behind a pretty face, fooling the boys. After its (more exciting) frenetic opening, this series feels like it's settled into a slower groove as the bizarro twin of Grant Morrison's NewXMen run, complete with Sentinels and new discoveries about the nature of mutants and evolution, but with added costumes, guest-stars and Claremontisms. There are many, many worse things to be. Still GOOD, surprisingly.