Readying My Purple Jumpsuit: Jeff's Still Reading the 4/4 Books.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA CVR A #7: I'm reviewing this issue because I found it a much better read than Cover B. No, no, just kidding. Although it's yet another issue of nearly no action (I'm fully expecting Meltzer to wrap up his run with the conclusion of the god-damned election of the JLA head, or maybe a dramatic motion by the Sargeant-At-Arms to table the reading of the minutes of the last meeting until after everyone's finished eating cookies), I'm a sucker for the uber-reverential tack Meltzer is taking--if Red Arrow didn't get me, the good ol' Hall of Justice would've. One could argue (probably quite successfully, I should add) that this is all just nostalgia and easy symmetry cranked up to 11, cheap fanboy pandering at its hucksterish. And yet I'm digging it, I admit it. Highly Good, and I might even go higher if I wasn't paying fifty-one extra cents every issue. MADMAN ATOMIC COMICS #1: I'm with Hibbs and MacMillan, although I was always kinda lukewarm on Madman for a reason I couldn't quite put my finger on until now. Flipping through the rehash, I realized that Allred was pretty self-indulgent with Madman, crossing the character over with every other god-damned comic hero ever created and not hesitating to use him to promote any other project, comic series, album, movie, or underwear line Allred was undertaking at any given time. So I think it'd be awesome if Madman ends up one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse because, say, Allred's starting up a crazed religious cult (of which he would of course be the charismatic, cartooning, sludgey-guitar-playing head) and he wants to get his message of the End Times (and the purple tracksuited, free-loving individuals only he can save) out to the comic book reading population.

Obviously, I'm not emotionally involved with the character enough to go more than Eh either way, but I obviously (still!) resent having to sit through Astroesque enough that I probably would've stuck to that rating if this had actually been good.

MARVEL ZOMBIES ARMY OF DARKNESS #2: Like Hibbs, I thought the Blob gag and the last page were great. Unlike Hibbs, I probably will pretend that cliffhanger is true and that's the end of the mini. Two Good pages and a whole bunch of stuff I don't care about (actually, now that I think about it, the fact that Dazzler is apparently Ash's idea of a perfect woman is pretty funny too) puts it on either high Eh or low OK.

MIDNIGHTER #6: I picked this up because of Jog's mention of it (although re-reading the post now, I realize I missed his dismissal of the story as "actually really overwrought and kind of awful") and quite liked it. I have no idea where it fits into continuity (I kinda stopped paying attention to the book once Midnighter crushed Hitler's ball--has anyone in modern comix written as much about Hitler's testicle as Garth Ennis?) and kinda don't care. Did I want to read Shogun Assassin with 80% more gay? Turns out I did. Call me crazy, but Good. Here's hoping next issue is The Duelists...with 40% more gay!

OMEGA FLIGHT #1: Oh, man. I remember after Bendis wiped out Alpha Flight in New Avengers, he or Quesada or somebody was all, "Don't worry. We love Alpha Flight and this is just our first step to bringing 'em back in a way Alpha Flight fans are gonna love." So, yeah, you get to the last page of this book where apparently Sasquatch is beat to death by the Wrecking Crew and I gotta tell ya, I could just feel the love coming off the pages. Awful stuff, even with art by Scott Kolins (I know some of you will be inclined to replace "even" with "especially."