Mixed Plate Comics- Week of 8.31.11

Alright ya'll...welcome to the DC New 52!!  With only 2 books released from DC that usually makes up over 65% of my weekly reads, bet this was a light week for me.  Thankfully so, as I needed to reload and catch up on those revs that have been sitting in the queue for sometime.  Here are the fly reads that kept this urban-nerd on lock:  Route Des Maisons Rouges #5 / Ultimate Comics Hawkeye #1 / Justice League #1 / Flashpoint #5 /  The Sixth Gun #14 / Secret Avengers #16 / The Mighty Thor #5 /The Uncanny X-Force #14 / Rocketeer Adventures #4 and my faves of the batch are..

5     The Mighty Thor #5  Matt Fraction & Oliver Coipel

Thor and his big poppa Odin vs. Silver Surfer and the never-ending appetite of Galactus.  This faceoff is as outrageously compelling as they come.  So question, how do Norse Gods & Cosmic Deities fare against one another in a royal rumble? 

Answer:  Not good, for anyone in the surrounding solar system.  Odin tires of their mental duel and goes Hulk Hogan on Galactus with a flying headbutt.  This leaves both giants in a debilitated state- as the battle between Thor/Surfer and Volstagg/Broxtonites wage on.

Fraction on Thor and everything Asgard kicks ass.  Which is major as I really haven't been into his recent stuff outside of Cassanova.  Coipel is Coipel, which means if you are reading along with me on this Mighty reboot, you are owned by his stupid-cala-frag-a-licious visuals.

Thanks to David Finch for making me realize why OC is one of the best in the biz.  

Kid Loki snatches the prized worldseed from a Destroyer while everyone is biz and takes off with it.  Sif convinces the Surfer and Thor to squash their little tiff as they race on to see the aftermath of Galactus and Odin's colossal beatdown.  Odin goes into his godly hibernation and Galactus wakes up from his TKO with some serious munchies.  Next up Galactus vs. the Broxton preacher?  Umm...

4   Flashpoint  #5  Geoff Johns & Andy Kubert

With the close of Summer also brings us back to normalcy with the conclusion of Marvel and DC's audacious, Universe-spanning events that change things forever.  Meh.  Though DC delivered on that promise, while Fear Itself ended for me at issue 2-- Flashpoint has had it's high-points (The Outsider and Batman: KoV) but damn there was a whole lotta needless filler by some so-so books.  What I really wanted was to simply rip the comic-calendar off for August, so we could all just jump to September/New 52 already. 

And we are here.  Eobard Thawne gets his, though it was really Barry Allen that was the cause of this whole mess.  Enjoyed how Johns used Flash as the messenger from father to son that mayhaps will explain why we have a Bats in DCnU that has a slightly less gritty, more humane side to him.

I will rank Flashpoint in the following order with some of its DC mega event predecessors from the standpoint of pure, nerd-tainment value (not so much on Universe-shattering impact- ha!): 10. Zero Hour 9. Final Night  8. 52 7. Brightest Day 6. Infinite Crisis
5. Flashpoint  4. Final Crisis  3. Identity Crisis  2. Crisis on Infinite Earths  1. Blackest Night


3   Secret Avengers  #16  Warren Ellis & Jamie McKelvie
I like Nick Spencer, but I was this close to scratching Secret Avengers off the pull-list (since Brubaker moved on).  But if this ish is repeated, or more specifically-- Ellis and McKelvie stay on-- so will I!  Planetary of Ellis/Cassaday fame is easily one of my best team books ever, edging out Claremont/Byrne's Uncanny X-Men and about neck to neck with Whedon/Cassaday's Astonishing.  No joke son!

Though only 24 pages in, this ish has it all (let's not forget that sexy Cassaday cover that makes you grab it off the shelves without even thinking ).  Action, intrigue, smart-ass wit and eye candy o' plenty.  Not gonna talk much on the narrative as you gotta peep it for yourself.

Yeah, this is Ellis we have her-- so like any Morrison book it will require a few page flips back to be sure you get whats going on.  I mean being challenged with layers of meaning and story is good right?  Yes I am talking comics here.

The new bold, tag line for the title is Run the Mission, Don't Get Seen, Save the World.  Sold.


2  Uncanny X-Force #14   Rick Remender & Jerome Opena
These mutants got it bad.  To deal with everything upside-down and chaotic in Age of Apocolypse, only to be sent back home to this kinda effed up sh*t.  Archangel has continued to evolve in becoming the next Apocolypse and has been reuntied with Dark Beast, Ozymandias and the rest of his Fourhorsemen.   

Quite the welcome home party yeah?  Ribic and Brooks did wonders on filling in some but its always nice to see Opena drop his crazy pencils.  The Horsemen get even with Fantomex and the gang from the last time they got their ass-whoopin.  Wolvie gets incinerated, Deadpool craps his pants, Fantomex runs out of magic tricks -- leaving Psylocke on a solo-tip that she nearly pulls off.  But her heart gets in the way(proof she is English not Japanese).

Archangel decides to take a different route from simply re-creating an Age of Apocalypse and starts his Age of Archangel.  His plan?  Right the wrong of mutant genocide via the Scarlet Witch with her "no more mutants" curse.  Why you wanna gonna go and do that love huh?!


1  Justice League #1    Geoff Johns & Jim Lee

For the last week, more and more of my non-comic reading friends have been hitting me up and asking so whats up with the new DC?  Which book is the go to?  Does this mean print comics are really about to die out? (due to confusion on the day & date, digital/print talk)  Each response is different but what I include nearly everytime is that if there is one answer that represents this change-- and they wanna peek into the world of comics-- they need to pick up Justice League #1.

I say this only being that it is very historic that we see two of the arguably greatest creators of the last decade unite at the peaks of their career on a title of this scale.  Not only is this the creme de la creme of iconic DC heroes-- for the first time in history, we get to see how they meet, interact and are articulated in a modern-day setting without the shackles of long-held mythos, outdated costumes and so on. 

Oh and the obvious kicker is every ish is rebooted to #1 which for some have happened with regularity, but again never have all issues simultaneously hit the reset button.  Along with that Action Comics and Detective Comics have never, ever swayed from sequential numbering in the last 75+ years.

Okay so from the beginning we know that this book takes place 5 years ago.  When I pull out my abacus and count with my fingers in thinking about how Alex Segura's timeline of events for major characters work...I am still confused.  Okay, I will just come back to this bit after reading more of the other books to see how the puzzle pieces fit.

Bats is on the move, avoiding a very militant GCPD looking to take down the Dark Knight -- as he is facing some weird meta-creature, GL jumps on the stage.  I really enjoyed how in this new era, Batman and GL are very contrasting personas.  One flying around like a blinding high beam, the other stalking rooftops in the shadows.  If you feel disrespected as a fan as you were reading.  Suggestion...get over yourself. 

So how was the book?  Johns and Lee bring their A game and more to make a believer of this back-ish loving, steeped-deep-in-history-- that a new, never-before-told type of story can work.  I say all of that with an asterisk attached to Lee and Johns being the ones that can pull this massive, trailblazing of a comicbook off.

In twenty + pages you get the two most prominent DC characters front and center in their first meeting.  What does that mean?  Batman and Green Lantern, Brave & the Bold like never before told. 


This post was written by:
big O