QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE 01-30-08

QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE 01-30-08
By John Judy

ACTION COMICS #861 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. Superman goes to the computer world of Colu and gets hacked by Brainiacs! Fortunately their ISP is Time-Warner Cable and Supes gets away during one of their daily outages.

AVENGERS INITIATIVE #9 by Dan Slott and Stefano Caselli. MVP was KIA and now it appears he’s PO’d. The body-count begins here. Recommended.

BATMAN #673 by Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel. A flash-back issue in which we finally learn what happened during that purification ritual in the cave last year. Cool.

BATMAN: THE MAN WHO LAUGHS HC by Ed Brubaker and Associates. Batman’s first encounter with the Joker as told by my new favorite scribe Ed Brubaker. Also collects DETECTIVE COMICS #784-786, guest-starring the Golden-Age Green Lantern, Alan Scott. Recommended.

BLACK ADAM: THE DARK AGE #6 of 6 by Peter Tomasi and Doug Mahnke. The final fate of Isis. One gets the feeling it ain’t gonna be good. The end of a powerful series that is probably too violent for younger fans of Captain Marvel and the Fawcett heroes.

BLACK SUMMER #5 of 7 by Warren Ellis and Juan Jose Ryp. More shootin’s and ‘splosions from the remaining Seven Guns in honor of the month issue #7 was supposed to ship, but didn’t. “Oh, Avatar….” Still recommended. Still not for kids.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #34 by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting. A great week for Brubaker fans as Bucky does his first night out as The New Captain America! Only Brubaker could make this sort of thing cool.

DAREDEVIL #104 by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark. More of the Bru-Meister as DD gets twisted tighter and tighter in his pursuit of Mister Fear. Guest-starring a significant Big Bad in the Marvel U.

FANTASTIC FOUR #553 by Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier. While I’m generally a fan of McDuffie’s writing this issue has two strikes against it: Time-travel and a lot of “Which one of us is lying?” dialogue. Still, in all a decent issue and a set-up for future story-lines.

GREEN LANTERN #27 by Geoff Johns and Mike McKone. “The Alpha Lanterns” continues as Johns explores how an unprecedented act of terror transforms an entity once renowned for its commitment to justice and higher ideals. Wonder what inspired him… Gutsy, imaginative stuff. Recommended.

MIGHTY AVENGERS #8 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley. A Big Fight with Venomy symbiote things.

NARCOPOLIS #1 of 4 by Jamie Delano and Jeremy Rock. Guy in Utopia discovers that maybe all is not hunky-dory. From one of Vertigo’s Founding Fathers.

NEW AVENGERS ANNUAL by Brian Michael Bendis and Carlo Pagulayan. More Big Fights. Double-Sized!

PREVIEWS from Diamond Comics and Marvel. “The Future of Comics is in your hands!”

PROJECT SUPERPOWERS #0 by Jim Kruger, Alex Ross, and Stephen Sadowski. Best line of the week comes from artist Chris Weston: “Wow. The return of a team of long lost, Nazi-smashing golden age heroes... Why can't I get to draw something like that? Uh… Waitaminnit!” Okay, the deal appears to be that a bunch of Golden-Age heroes have entered the public domain. That means anyone can legally use them. The team from EARTH X and PARADISE X said “Why not us?” There is a preview up on Dynamite Entertainment’s website and it appears a sincere effort is going into making this comic something special. I didn’t care for this team’s earlier joint efforts, but I’m hooked on Golden-Age characters so this one’s a “Gotta Look!”

SPIDER-MAN WITH GREAT POWER #1 of 5 by David Lapham and Tony Harris. An untold slice of early Spider-Mania from a couple of super-cool creators. If you like STRAY BULLETS or EX MACHINA you need to read this comic!

SPIRIT #13 by Lotsa People. Special “Femmes Fatales” issue! You want this! Recommended!

Y THE LAST MAN #60 of 60 by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra. Final issue. End of story. Forty-eight pages. If you haven’t read this series go pick up the first trade collection and start. Thanks to Vaughan and his collaborators for one hell of a ride. Highly recommended.

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