Mixed Plate Comics- Week of 9.28.2011

The final week of DC Comics The New 52 #1 debuts and all looks to be going as planned with Marvel losing some footing in marketshare and more importantly-- the world getting some crazy, sick, entertaining reads from the heavy talent at DC.  The books that made up the weekly stack were: Fury of Firestorms #1 / The Flash #1/ Green Lantern: New Guardians #1 / Teen Titans #1 / Aquaman #1 / FF #9 / The Mighty Thor #6 / Justice League Dark #1 / Voodoo #1 / Batman: The Dark Knight  #1 / Secret Avengers #17.  The hitmakers that kicked my ass were...


5    The Fury of Firestorms  #1  Ethan Van Sciver / Gail Simone & Yildiray Cinar
Firestorm has always been somewhat annoying to me since a youth and I never really resonated with the corny-ness of his character (much like Shazam).  But after Brightest Day, he came out along with Dove and Deadman as some of my new fave characters.  Huge fan of Simone and hang by the balls of Van Sciver so it

was guaranteed that this would be an add to the pullist.

Glad I did yo. 

Post Flashpoint we have Ronnie and Jason at the same High School and even his Asian GF Tonya is still around! Yes, even in comics Black doods love the azns.  Ronnie is the star Quarterback, Jason is the nerdy newspaper columnist.  So yes, they don't get along.

Some stone-cold killers searching around for a missing Firestorm protocol and they leave a trail of blood wherever they go.

As you would expect with the interacial bromance going on between Jason and Ronnie-- Simone & Van Sciver cleverly touch on the race card and start the dialogue for what many readers have hoped would be a component to this ongoing story.  Cinar is solid on art duties and improved greatly in more creative paneling from his last stint on Legion of Super Heroes.   Nice spin on Jason being the first Firestorm and accidentally transforming Ronnie into one too.  Not so cool that they become a Firestorm version of Hulk, called Fury.  Very corny but besides that a title that I will pickup with the same creative team attached to it.


4    Teen Titans #4  Scott Lobdell & Brett Booth
Lobdell seems to have copped Geoff Johns script for Justice League and busted his thing with Red Robin and Wonder Girl in place of Batman and Green Lantern.  This is not a bad thing though.  It actually works really well.  And Booth is like a poor mans Jim Lee.  So if you liked Justice League #1 and have a thing for the Titans jump on it.

The book opens with a nice jab at Marvel with the burning down of a Westchester Mansion (Xavier's School of Mutants mayhaps?)  Kid Flash dashes in to attempt in saving the day and instead works as a nice news story on how meta-teens need to be put in check.  Enter Red Robin and you all know Tim Drake kicks ass.

Awesomeness how Drake throws an old framed pic of him as Robin with Bats to drop an assassin without even looking.  He is coerced to join up with N.O.W.H.E.R.E. (my guess is they are the League of Assassins) who have been scooping up some of the young metas around the world.  He says no with a B-BOOM.  Things shift to the world of Cassie Sandsmark who attempts to use her blonde, crying routine to get out of a speeding ticket.  Surprisingly it doesn't work.  Red Robin...err..what I meant was Wonder Girl to the rescue.   After they take out the fake cop and heli-drone...much like the end of Justice League--we get Superboy.  Love the redesigns of Red Robin with his armored Silver Hawk-like wings and the more emo, Donna Troy-esque version of Cassie.  Hip, fun dialogue and balls out action.  Oh to be young!       


3   FF #9  Jonathan Hickman & Steve Epting
Usually its the final moments in a book that makes you go ga-ga, but not this time.  Its the first 2 pages that killed me when Diablo and the Mad Thinker thinking they got Doom in their doublecross and get straight took.  Don't hate the playa, hate the game MT.  

Reed, his pops Nathaniel and Spidey are summoned to Attilan by Medusa and are welcomed by the recently revived Black Bolt with his harem of wives.

They then watch on how his royalty handles all of the rogue Reed's while sitting on his throne chilling with his 5 wives.  Well except for one of em.  The last Reed defeats Doom and collars his ass telling him that he is his new manservant.

Boo!!!  Doom will prevail, I just know it!!  (especially from seeing him still around on the FF in Previews).  Epting and Hickman continue busting the best books out of Marvel and the only reason the title wasn't placed higher is cause they hated on Doom.  So looking forward to his solo book--please don't eff it up Nick Spencer!!!  This is the first book ever that has Spider-Man playing with a dog through a whole ish--just saying.


2    The Flash  #1  Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato
Since Johns has rebooted Barry Allen as the new Flash in the same way of the rebirth of Hal I followed along.  Near the end of the run for whatever reason-- probably being that Barry is just so robotic and kinda boring--I was about to jump ship.  Manapul & Buccellato got me intrigued with their own take on Barry.
With Manapul now on co-plotting-- I can feel enough of Johns writing and influence but I think that Barry has less of a Dexter (monologue-heavy) appeal to it.  Another difference is the way he interacts with people
around him.  Like new/old love interest Patty Spivot who is back from Flashpoint without the Hot Pursuit duds but featured as Barry's main squeeze.

But you can never count out Iris West, who will always be a part of Barry's romantic life somehow.  Like, Clark and Lois' new dynamic-- we get to see Barry and Iris pre-dating, marriage and etc.  And it is fresh.  Speaking of fresh, check Manapul's new visual rendition on Iris--D's mutheffing D's, Rosie Perez! 

Had to bust a double take at how Manapul illustrates femme figs with more of a busty Phil Noto-ish sizzle to it.  Huge improvement brotha! 

Barry gets stuck on how one of his old running buddy gets caught up with the wrong crowd and ends up dead.  Until his dead friend Manuel shows up to his pad and low and behold-- they are surrounded by a bunch of Manuels?!
Holy Jango Fett, Batman!!!  Loved this book soo much I read it thrice.  Not alone either being that Flash seemed to be the pick of the week at my top comics new spots.


1    Aquaman #1    Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis
All joking aside--though Johns gets the laughs all out of our system in this first ish-- I am not here for Aquaman.  I am here for his hawt-ass, redheaded, powerhouse-of-a-wifey Mera.  Seriously.  She has become a top heroine of DC lore since her fab comeback in Blackest Night, through Brightest Day and how her character is portrayed in WB animation .  Okay, I am also here for Black Manta and Kalder too.  Hope that

Aqualad made the cut post-Flashpoint (of course he is right with the success of Young Justice alone).  A big problem I always had with water based demigods like Namor and Aquaman is that I really felt zero connection to them as they were like aliens in another planet-- sure its our ocean on our planet-- but the concept never stuck cause their worlds felt so far away.

Johns/Reis is flanking that issue keeping Arthur and Mera away (at least initially) from the depths of the ocean, Atlantis and etc by having them stay on land-- calling home to the old lighthouse of his parents.  Good call on that one fellas!   With all the major breakups of DC (Clark/Lois, Barry/Iris, Oliver/Dinah) in the New 52 its fresh that this power couple still remains.  Maybe Jay-Z will grow on me with the more I get to see of Beyonce...you know what I mean.  Nah, really though Aquaman is thug and glad to see he is back in his own book minus the hook, goatee or rocker hair.  Brazilians Ivan Reis/Joe Prado is this generations Jim Lee/Scott Williams (minus the delays-ha!!!). 


This post was written by:
big O