Brian Traipses Around 2/17

According to the advertisements all over the side over there (---->) Stan is, apparently, back. Wouldn't it be cool if it was some sort of zombie-related thing with Stan feasting on the hearts of the wicked? "Face Front, True Believer.... so I can reach your braaaaaaaain!"

No? Maybe it is just me...

Well, I thank them for the ad dollars, anyway!

So, some quick reviews (yeah yeah, I missed the goal of one-a-week-for-the-quarter -- I had a hectic fortnight!)

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #42: Yeah, liking this. This is really how I want a JLA comic to be -- taking place in, and mining the DC Universe. I also quite liked the (Earth-3? Well or whatever they're calling it today) New Gods appearance. My only real quibble is what Plas is doing in the WW2 era, that's a continuity change, ennit? Anyway, I like the scope, the byplay, the whole thing -- I'll say VERY GOOD.

JOE THE BARBARIAN #2: I didn't love this as much as issue #1 -- and I think it is down to the "real world" scenes. I didn't feel like there was any stakes or peril there, though it appears we're supposed to think the kid is dying, but that didn't really come across very well for me, and felt very disconnected to the Fantasy world stuff. Still, the art is faboo, and the book is a fair amount of fun. I'll go with GOOD.

SUPERGIRL #50: It's not that I have anything especial to say about this issue, but I was deeply, massively, profoundly amused by the screaming headline on the cover: "Featuring a tale by HELEN SLATER!". Yeah, there's maybe 17 people in the entire world who get why that might be even vaguely interesting (it isn't), and that's COUNTING Slater's immediate family. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that the actress in an awful movie can get a byline in a comic... but it is like 25 years too late for that to be meaningful to anything remotely resembling today's audience.

In the main story, I was a bit bugged by the (at least) three instances of swearing -- even if two of them were in "Kryptonese". I'd kind of prefer a Suprema-esque use of language, really. But then, my Supergirl doesn't wear a belly-shirt either, so I guess I'm not going to win that one any time soon... Anyway, I thought the entire issue was a bit EH.

GREEN LANTERN #51: I really liked the deftness of having this be a (fairly integral) crossover into the main BN story-line, but that if you didn't read BN, or, conversely, read BN, but not GL, you're probably just fine in reading along. I thought this was pretty GOOD.

DARK AVENGERS #14: I'm fairly uncertain how this is a "Siege" crossover, really, except for the one little sentence about it, and I remain unsure about the value of jerking Sentry around like that. Despite the fact that it is a manufactured and inserted character, it would appear to me that this gives the character even less possible places to go -- except, maybe? becoming the Marvel version of Superboy-Prime, which would be a fairly tragic mistake, IMO. Overall, this was only OK.

ZOMBIE VERSUS ROBOT AVENTURE: I still don't really "get" the missing "D" in the title (wiki says that it is a noun: aventure (plural aventures)

1. (obsolete) Accident; chance; adventure. 2. (obsolete) A mischance causing a person's death without felony, as by drowning, or falling into the fire.

and none of those really seem to fit much?

There's some nice art in here, but it all feels... well, it feels a bit like HEAVY METAL where it is like the story isn't supposed to matter, really, because the art is so nice. Which, in premise, is fine, but then, where are the titties? It seems to me that the value in the "ZvR brand" is really all about Ashley Wood, but none of the styles involved here are really anything like Wood, so, yeah, I Don't Get It. My customers don't seem to, either -- sales on this were very poor, and much lower than the Wood-driven issues. Overall, I thought it was pretty EH.

That's it for me this week -- what did YOU think?

-B