Mixed Plate Comics- Week of 11.10.10

Whaddup C&D fam!!  Been a slammed mid-October through now so thanks for keeping tuned into this column that has been on hiatus.  Alright lets jump into our week in books:  Birds of Prey #6 / Titans #29 / Batgirl #15 / Booster Gold #38 / Ultimate Thor #2 / Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #4 / Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne #6 / R.E.B.E.L.S. #22 / Justice League: Generation Lost.

5   Justice League: Generation Lost #13   Judd Winick & Joe Bennett

The standoff between super-soldiers, Captain Atom and Magog comes to an end.  Max Lord elevates his game by taking out Magog, framing Cap Atom as the murderer and releasing himself from the grips of the White Lantern all in one fail swoop.

With Captain Atom again time-displaced, the JLI will be down with one of their major powerhouses, the public will probably demand justice for Magog's death-- forcing other heroes to make things worse for Booster and the gang-- as Lord furthers his plans in making the world safe.

Was never a fan of Magog so not tripping about him being offed and gotta say that the way in which Lord did em, only pushes him deeper in the elite echelon of villains with Luthor, Joker, Deathstroke and Ra's. 


4   Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #6   Grant Morrison & Lee Garbett

Morrison's grand finale in bringing back The muthaeffing Batman was all that you could expect- kinda confusing, all-out action and in the end-- the return of Bruce to his symbolic creation.  Garbett who I have followed faithfully through his run on Batgirl, makes this issue as good as it should be though again, it just sucks that the timing of all the Bat books could have been released appropriately.

That aside, seeing Batman in his futurist-archive tech was sick and seeing how easily he took out the JLA kinda made me think how that roster is not so popular with DC readers.

I appreciated how it took Wonder-Woman to restore Bruce from his Omega bomb state and was cool that Morrison plugged the connection of the new Time-Masters though, even that read has yet to conclude.  With Batman's return I will start enjoying Red Robin in his less agro-annoying vibe, going back to cool-handed Tim and like everyone else, so ready for the coming of Batman Inc.


3   R.E.B.E.L.S. #22    Tony Bedard & Claude St. Aubin  
Rookie GL Karkum and Starfire battle misogynistic Psions to help free the enslaved populace of women.  Real dark and twisted shit.  With the growing popularity of the Green Lantern brand, it is great to see that themes and mature content of the stories are not being watered down.

Starfire is unleashes her fury cause of close ties to the Psions and the unseemly rookie teaches the DC veteran a thing or two in the perverse ways of some across the galaxy.  

Lobo is indeed part of the squad now and more of Vril Dox's smear campaign against the GLC and the Guardians of OA catches on with more planets. 


2   Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #4  Tony Bedard & Fernando Pasarin

Sodam Yat seems to be splintering off from the Green Lanterns--forging his own logo -- to reinforce his cause towards helping people directly rather than just whatever is mandated by the Guardians.

Looks even more the case that there will be some major conflict between the undercurrent of tension with Bleez, Guy, Arisia and Sodam, as the holder of the GL's entity-- Ion-- will look only more convincing as the reason the whole of the Corps have become weaker.

Meanwhile, the Warrrior crew come across one of the Rakkonian mines that is not yet realized to them as the true cause of draining their power battery and we then see just how powerful this sinister, behind the scenes gay-pirate guy is-- turning a bunch of new GLs into his puppets to square off against the Emerald Warriors.

Pasarin continues to show how ill of an artist he is and brings a more real, dark and less-stylized shine than his predessor, Patrick Gleason.  And as for Tomasi-- seriously standing neck in neck with Geoff Johns as top GL writer.



1   Ultimate Thor #2  Jonathan Hickman & Carlos Pacheco 
Straight-up, I am not a fan of non-continuity stories whether it is labeled Elseworlds, Earth One or Ultimate.  On top of that,  I haven't picked up a Thor title since Walt Simonson was rocking tales of the Norse God of Thunder in the 90s.  With that said, this is one of the best new titles I have jumped on that should come at no surprise as this is a Hickman title afterall, yeah?!

As Hickman fans already know, you get a whole lot of central themes that tug at your nerdary with use of symbols, history/mythology and conspiracy.  The stage is set perfectly for Hickman to go cray-cray on remixing the world of Norse gods in whatever way his runes direct him in.

The Thor/Loki dichotomy has never been so compelling to me and rather than taking the easy route of focusing on simple characterizations of good vs. evil-- Ultimate Thor is a story ink-washed in gray.  Like one of my other fave Marvel titles -- S.H.I.E.L.D.-- I will be twiddling my thumbs until ish 3 is released next month.  Pacheco's work has never looked better.


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big O