Justice League of America #45

               I didn't know I was subscribed to this, but apparently I am, so here I go. In this issue something is wrong with the JSA's Green Lantern (Allan Scott ) and nobody can figure out what  it is. Meanwhile Jade is resisting arrest by some German Commandoes. They want to bring her in and questing her about a glowing green meteor that she apparently brought to earth. She explains that the meteor brought her to earth, and not the other way around, and that it is called the "Starheart" which is like concentrated Green Lantern power. That's when the JSA arrive, Alan Scott, who is still in a trance, was drawn to the "Starheart" and the Society fallowed. Then for some reason Power Girl flies in and starts smashing things, but then Supergirl flies in and starts smashing Power Girl. Batman eventually figures out that Jade's power is half magic, so could be used to stop Power Girl. Jade then explains that the "Starheart" was made when the guardians locked up a great deal of the chaotic elements, but they had to contain it with pure green energy.
Then all magic using heroes around the world go insane

This comic was bad, plain in simple, it was bad. The dialogue was corny, the plot was also bad. I did like the art, colors and the fact that they mentioned Kryptonian's weakness to magic. But the majority of it was horrible. I would not recommend this comic to anyone, except someone I wanted to hurt.  This  was hell that disguised its self as a comic book. It's not as bad as Fantastic Four 576, but it was bad.

Grade: 0.5/10
buy at: www.mycomicshop.com

Legion of Super-Heroes #1

                  This comic was great. As soon as I heard about this series I subscribed without blinking an eye. I liked the old series of this team, but I read a couple issues of a newer series and didn't like it. This issue blew me away. There were several issues mentioned from past series, but Paul Levits always made sure that the reader knew what was going on.
                  The synopsis is that there is a guy named Earth-Man who apparently when all out on the Legion and attacked them, so he was imprisoned and punished. Earthgov demanded that Earth-Man becomes a member of the Legion, so Brainiac 5 made a ring that kept Earth-Man "on a leash." Meanwhile Saturn Girl visits her world of Titan where she goes into her diary room and talks about Lightning Lad abandoning her. Then some people who aren't really explained build this machine where you can see back in time, but they try to see the beginning of the universe, this action kills them and destroys several machines, such as the one maintaining Titan. So there is a rescue mission to save every one, they save several people but many people die. Also there is a guy named Sodam Yat, who is still on OA (which is a dead planet) all alone, when this blue little blob which looks like a mini guardian comes out, flies to earth and tells Earth-Man he is now Green Lantern of sector 2814.
                  All right, this story was kind of hard to understand, but when you read it, it'll make perfect sense. I understand what Levits was trying to do with the whole you must choose thing, but that would have been more dramatic if it was a good guy, not a villain. Otherwise this comic was flawless. This probably happened a while ago, but I still didn't like it. When did Brainiac 5 become a living thing and not an android? Otherwise why would he be called Brainiac 5? Actually there is one more flaw, predictability. I know Earth-Man is going to pick the Legion, other wise he wouldn't be featured at all in the series.
                  I like what Levits has done with the series, and I'm exited to read more, but I also like what he has kept from the Legion that I have grown to know and love. Although I wonder how long this series will last. I hope it is not short lived, but I have my fears.


Grade: 8.5/10
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Amazing Spiderman #631

                SHED continues. In this issue all it is, is Peter Parker being stood up by Charlie, because she had to do some investigation on a murder (see last issue) at Curt Connors' lab. (when he became the lizard) So Spiderman goes to investigate, and also goes to save Connors' son, Billy Connors. Of course he meets the Lizard out side of the house (insert big fight scene hear) when he finally gets inside and the Lizard is going away, he sees that someone had already been there, maimed Billy's foster parents and took Billy. Meanwhile this girl takes on Kaine, when he gets away the girl's brother comes down and says that the hunting game doesn't start until the Gauntlet is complete. This girl later appears as the person who took Billy, and hands him right over to the Lizard.
               I understand with the whole "The hunt doesn't start until the gauntlet is complete" thing, but it kind of bugged me. I like the classic Spiderman, not this new version of his comics. I also liked that through out the book, with the Lizard's personal captions, there was also a caption for Connors talking to the Lizard and telling him to stop. Lastly Emma Rios drew the Lizard badly, she made him to animalistic, the Lizard is like Killer Croc just with a long nose, this comic made him look a lizard with a jacket. Overall not a great comic. Oh... one more thing, in this comic Spiderman does a lot of standing around, and I remember a interview with John Romita Sr. where he said: If you have Spiderman standing on the ground, you are wasting Spiderman.

Grade: 6/10
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Iron Man 2 Mini Comic

         A mini review for a mini comic.

              All right I saw Iron Man 2, and it was only okay, but I can't review movies, if you want movie reviews go to www.flickpickmonster.com. At the theater they gave me a little mini comic. Surprisingly it was good. Tony is in love with one woman, and for him that is a big deal. Then on his way home, he sees that his car is being stolen and he chases after it in his Iron Man suit. Once destroying the car he loved. who he named Betty. He finds that the thief is the one woman. She did it because the Ten Rings kidnapped her child and threatened to kill him. So naturally Iron Man goes to the rescue. After this I found my self wanting to read more... It was a compelling story and it made scenes, so it just worked and I know there will never be a sequel but I really want there to be one.

Imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228705/fullcredits#cast

Amazing Spiderman #630

                This is an oasis in the middle of a desert, I had excepted Amazing Spiderman as just okay so my standards dropped (thats why my grades for them are hight) but this was really good. It started with Spiderman and Blackcat talking about their relationship, but that doesn't take long. I do like that this comic did Parker's personal life, but I really didn't want to here about Spiderman "having fun" with Blackcat. This comic was mainly about the Lizard, and it went into how he was recovering. He still marks his territory and has flashes of "Lizardness" in him, but he is surprising it like Harvey Dent did in Batman: Face the Face. But when his assistant sleeps with his boss, he interprets it as his territory is being taken and turns into the Lizard. Meanwhile Spiderman talks with Harry, and asks Charlie out. (kind of)
               As soon as Harry walked into the story I was happy. It brought me back to when they were good friends, and people wrote Peter's personal life, in moderation, and as well as Stan Lee. I also liked the Lizard surprising his "challenges" it made for an interesting story and will make for some interesting fallow-ups. Oh... I forgot to mention Madame Web made an appearance. I can't predict what her role will be, but again it will be interesting to find out.

Grade: 8.5/10
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Batman and Robin #12

                 Origionally I didn't like this series at first, but now that I've cancled my subscription, I'm starting to like it. Any way... in this issue Slade is controlling Robin and making him attack Batman. Finally when Batman defetes Robin/Slade, a wierdly dressed thug comes and steals something that Batman was holding. To be honest, I was really confused, but I know that will be important later. Then Robin visits his mother who then said that Robin is an enemy of Al Ghul. After that Alfred, Batman, and Robin were exploring the caves again, when they find a Batman costume hanging on what look like deer antlers, when Alfred notifies the JLA. Then Batman revisits Sexton, this is the shocking twist is.
                  This comic does not compare with Batman and Robin 10 nor does it compare to number 11. The caves were just revisited so it wasn't cool like that, and there were no revealing things except the one thing I can't tell you because it would ruin the comic. I would recommend reading this, just because you'll be lost without it. It just wasn't a good comic and it was disappointing.
 (Again the shocking twist was really cool)

Grade: 4/10
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Red Robin #12

                The whole Batman family is having a very good thing going with their comics. I didn't like it very much when Bruce Wayne was sent back through time, but recently I've barley noticed. (I still wan't Bruce Wayne back) In this comic Red Robin tracks down Ra's Al Ghul and fights with him, and Ra's also finds out that the plans he made to have everyone Bruce Wayne loved was killed, had been thwarted. Drake had people like Huntress and Man-Bat (who I thought was a villain so that was confusing) defend people like Alfred, Vicki Vale, and Lucius Fox. After a fight that was nothing short if epic, Drake revels what he had done to Ra's. He explained that Wayne had left a will giving all his shares to Wayne enterprises to Tim, so Hush didn't have control and Ra's was ruined. To be honest I was confused with Ra's's motives, did he want control of the compony? Anyway after Ghul kicks Red Robin through a high up window Batman saves him and brings him back to the Bat Cave, where there is a big emotional scene. The last page of the book showed a picture of a boy sitting on the ground saying this isn't happening with a picture of one of Bruce Wayne's ancestors (or even Bruce himself) and he said "He's alive,"  Which confused me.
                  As I said earlier this comic was good, not perfect like the most recent issue of Detective Comics, but it was good. I was confused by the plot, but I liked the appearances of Drake's friends, and the battle between Ra's and Drake was so cool.
                  I have to say one last thing. People don't like Damian Wayne. People say he isn't a good Robin, I disagree. He's now Dick Grayson, but he's pretty good, and his retorts are always funny.
                   Also: good bye Chris Yost, you were good, but it's time for something new.



Grade: 8.5/10
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Detective Comics #864

           WOW, this comic was absolutely amazing, it might be the best comic that I have ever read, probably not but it was pretty good. This comic would not be as good if you have not read Arkham Reborn, because this is the sequel to it. Jeremiah Arkham is in Arkham Asylum, but he knows every one's psychological profile, so he is "king." Batman is also working on a related case, when Arkham was Black Mask he placed a bomb with a timer inside a person, and did not display a timer, this man was in charge of getting money to a place of Black mask's choosing, then Black Mask promised to give the "bomb man" the deactivation code. Of course this did not work out. Batman goes to get the code out of Arkham but instead finds Arkham's beauties (read Arkham reborn) A man obsessed with his own face, a woman who is afraid of her face, and a man with no face. But the Jester shows up, he did something (read to find out) that made Arkham kill all of his beauties.
           The main reason I liked Arkham reborn is because I love Arkham Asylum, but if you read my review of it, nothing else was that great, this comic it was completely different. Yes I still do like Arkham asylum, but this time the rest of the comic was amazing as well. The Joker can make people go insane, and make people submit to his will, so can Two Face, Scare crow, Man Bat, Killer Crock, even Killer Moth can do that, but none of those people can do it the way Jeremiah Arkham can. He uses information to create horrible fantasies inside someone's head. Even to someone as horrible as the Mortician. Also I'm interested to see more about the Jester, who claims to be the Joker's evil twin. I want to see who he really is, and I hope (and suspect) That I will find out in the next issue or two. One last thing is that "While He's Jeremiah Arkham he has no recollection of his other existence as the Black Mask." Just thought that , that would be a little helpful piece of information for the future. David Hine is amazing, and when Bruce Wayne returns to Detective Comics, that series will be the best thing ever written. (If Hine is writing it.)

Grade: 10/10
Grade (average of this and Arkham Reborn): 8.7/10
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Amazing Spiderman #629

               This comic was good, but it did one thing that I really don't like. But I'll get to that later, what happened here was the city is getting confused because of all the tremors, and Captain Universe is messing with Spiderman and the Juggernaut . So in this comic Captain Universe finally says what Juggernaut did to ruin his life, apparently Juggernaut and Spidy were having a big fight and smashed through a building, and because of the damages Captain Universe's alter ego William Nguyen was fired. Then his wife left him, then he was kicked out of his apartment, then he tried to kill himself. On the way down he was rescued by the Enigma Force (again horrible name) and became Captain Universe. Juggernaut said he didn't know suffering because Juggernaut was stuck punching his way underground for a month with out food or air. Later when Juggernaut is attacked by Captain Universe the Enigma Force comes down and takes the Uni-Power away from Nguyen and gives it to Juggernaut. Turns out that when he was smashing his way underground he left holes in it and that was causing the earth quakes. After that he comes back up and wants to kill Nguyen but Spiderman convinces him to become a hero.
             Right there thats what I didn't like about the book. Juggernaut can't be a hero it just doesn't work. I hope Marvel fixes this fast. but otherwise I saw no other problems with this book. Color was great, the dialogue was great, it wasn't boring, it would have been perfect if Juggernaut threw Nguyen into a river and walked away, but alas.

Grade: 7.5/10
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Justice Society of America #38

           This entire story arc has been amazing, and I read this at the same time that I read Captain America's the Two Americas, so it's been a whole blast of patriotism here in the USA. In this issue there is more blood shed and conspiracy to end the reign of the fourth reich. Mr. Terrific is posing as Nazi sympathizer and is planing the down fall of the fourth reich. As the Führer (Karnevil) comes and the world celebrates, there is a party which consists of the Führer and many old defeated superheroes watching and the execution of Batman and the Joker. I have only been legitimately sad because of comics on four occasions. When Alfred killed himself in Batman the Dark Night Returns, When Captain Marvel dies in Batman the Dark Night Strikes Again, when Rorschach dies in Watchmen, and when Batman and the Joker died in this issue. Not only that but the Jaime Reyes picks a fight with Mr. Terrific so that the Nazis would be forced to defend him and sympathize with him more, and the shoot Reyes right in the head.
          This story arc has been great, I love every part of it. The way Bill Willingham illustrates the concentration camps, with out it being devastatingly real (MAUS, Schindler's list ) is very well done, and incorporating Superheroes into it makes the reading effective as I watch helplessly as my heroes get picked off one by one for just plainly evil reasons. I also like how he voices each character, how he makes it that if you met each character you would think they would sound exactly like they do in the comics. The "campy" heroes are not as "campy" as usual but that is really good. I hope Willingham stays on the Justice Society of America for a long time and does many great story arcs like this one. I thought this was going to be the concluding issue for this story arc, and I was kind of disappointed when I found that it wasn't but this issue was so good that I'm glad it wasn't.

Grade: 9/10
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S.H.I.E.L.D #1

             Ok this plot is a little  complicated, it turns out many great scientists and warriors were members of S.H.I.E.L.D. "Da Vinci was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. So was Sir Isaac Newton. So were Imhotep and Zhang Heng and Galileo and many other geniuses throughout time." (taken from www.Mycomicshop.com)It shows how Da Vinci flew up to battle Galactus, and  how Imhotep fought great horrors that were out of this world, all the heroes said the same thing: "This is not how the world ends!" All of this is explained when a group of immortals are telling Leonid, who is definitely a mutant, that he will save the world next.

     This comic didn't do it for me. For one Shield stands for something, I will not type it out it is way too long, and they said it was because they were a shield protecting the earth. Second, they should explain who Leonid is, Hickman got to exited about describing how the world was saved by ancient people that he forgot to say who the main character is. Finally at the end Leonid's father Dark man comes to get him, and then Da Vinci comes and tells him to sound the alarm, which is just cool, and actually leaves you waiting for the next issue, Hickman did do well there. Lastly in a panel with Imhotep there is a character on the far right that looks just like Apocalypse, I don't know if they did that on purpose, but they better have, because having Leonid having to fight Apocalypse would also be just plain cool.

Grade: 6 / 10
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Kick-A**

         This review may contain content that may offend people

           I will admit that I bought this comic because I wanted to see the movie, and it's always more fun to read the book first. After much deliberation with myself I decided to buy it. That was the wrong choice. I do like the Idea of a really realistic superhero but Mark Millar (who I liked because of Superman Red Son) just completely messed it up. He put so much violence and made the "romantic" scenes way to violent. It looked like he was trying to make a controversial master piece that challenged the brilliance of Watchmen. Somewhere in England Alan Moore is weeping.
                  This was the story about a kid named Dave Lizewski who one day decided to become a superhero, believable enough, right? So his first attempt at saving someone he gets beaten up and I mean bad, then after months of recover, everyone at his school believes who was "pimped out" and he became the gay best-friend of his crush. After that he tries the hero thing again, saves someone and then becomes really popular via the internet. Later when trying to fix someone's problem by talking to her abusive ex-boyfriend, a little girl comes in and murders everyone except Kick-A**. That is where you first meat Hit Girl, and her partner/ father Big Daddy. After words Kick A** meats the Red Mist, and they go around teaming up, and saving a cat from a burning building which made them popular. (It's true, that happened in the book) Later when all four of the heros are going to team up there is a major plot twist, which I'm not going to say because I don't want to ruin the worst book ever written for those un-fourtunout few who will read it.
          I liked two things about this comic, one was the color. (as usual) Crisp blocks of color just appeal to me. The second thing was the superhero and comic references, for instance, when Kick-A** was describing the team up between himself and the Red Mist he described it like a Brave and the Bold team up. (my favorite series) I didn't like a lot of things about this comic, one: it used way to many swears, it used F**k more than a countable number of times. Two: The violence was more excessive than needed, in Watchmen the violence was gruesome yes, but short lived, it was also part of the story, most of this violence was not. Three: The "romantic scenes" were absolutely pointless, this time they were short lived (thank goodness) but unlike Top-10 or Watchmen (I'm in an Allen Moore mood) They weren't crucial to the story. He walked in a direction, saw one, walked away, he walked in on his dad, and walked away. Pointless!  As I said before, Mark Millar was trying to hard to be edgy, and to be honest even though I liked Superman Red Son so much, I lost all respect for Millar.
          Like I said before, I read this because I wanted to see the movie, but now I don't think I'm going to do that, I might see it, but it's not on my priority list right now. In the comic's defense I could sort of connect with the character because he was a comic geek, but that wasn't enough for me to connect fully, nor was it enough for me to like the comic. So I would not read it if I were you, if you have read it, I would like to hear your feed back, but for those of you that haven't don't if you do you are wasting money, people called  it the greatest superhero comic of all time, but thats because they were shocked and didn't want to look stupid, the greatest superhero comic of all time is still Watchmen.

Grade: 2/10
I recommend not buying at: www.mycomicshop.com

The Spirit #1

              A while back I went to www.mycomicshop.com and I had recently seen the Spirit movie, so I bought a bunch of 70's Spirit comics, expecting them to be like the old newspaper comics, with a little more edge. I could not have been more wrong, they were goofy, and silly, and I didn't like it at all. This comic on the other hand was not silly enough, which is better than over "sillifying" but it still wasn't great, there were a couple moments where the Spirit said some funny stuff but overall ehh... They mentioned the Octopus a couple times, and the Octopus hired an assassin to kill the Spirit, but he never made an appearance. Neither did San Saref, so really they made the Spirit into Batman. Relations with the police commissioner, better relations with his daughter, disturbed city. I'm not saying they're twins, but it's getting a little close. Also they had the Spirit get in someone's face and interrogate him "Batman style" which I didn't like. Lastly the art was very good, each page, or section of the story had it's own color scheme, which made the comic fantastic and fun to read, but they did something that they did in the movie as well, the color red stands out allot, again just another thing that is visually pleasing. So overall it would have been a better comic if it wasn't the Spirit but it was pretty good none the less.

Grade: 7/10
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Brightest Day #1

           This comic is just a bunch of separate stories, and I'm guessing thats how the series is going to be, and they make it work but it is hard to review.The sword and the stone has reached the Detective Comic Universe. Will, Love, not even fear can lift the white lantern power battery. After attempts by Sinestro and Hal Jordan the comic shifts to Deadman who is busy destroying his own headstone. (remember he is alive now) A white ring forces its self onto his ring and takes him to see the ex-black lanterns. It looks like Deadman is going to be the white lantern, which is just very cool. After that there is some stuff about people finding Hawkman and Hawkgirl's original bones, what I found surprising was that Hawkman's original bones were the famous pharaoh Khufu. Also there is Aquaman fighting on a ship, but for some reason he can only summon dead aquatic creatures. (like when he was a black lantern) To be honest I have no idea what is happening with Firestorm, I don't know that much about him, but I'm happy he is back. Lastly you see Black Manta go berserk and kill several people who are admiring Aquaman, but thats about it. Oh...I almost forgot, Martian Manhunter found a water supply on Mars and is nurturing it and trying to bring life back to Mars. I hope he fails, If there were more Martians he would lose his loneliness which is a big part of his character. I hope they don't make the same mistake that they made with Superman.

Grade: 8.5 / 10
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Captain America #605

           This was a fantastic conclusion to a fantastic story arch, one of the best I have ever seen in my comic reading years. In this issue Bucky broke free of the Bad Cap's control, (using his metal arm) and Falcon got in a helicopter and flew above to help defeat "Captain Un-America," before he blew up Hoover Dam. In this comic there was a couple thought bubbles that intrigued me very much.

[This is during the fight between Bucky and Bad Cap]

"My biggest problem here isn't the watchdogs or how strong this crazy cap is...
Or even the bomb their scientist is assembling.
No. My trouble is that I've read this guy's [bad cap's] secret file.
I know all about him
Well... Okay the bomb is a problem too
but this guy, he started out with the best intentions. As a patriot.
Wanted to be just like Cap an' me.
To fight for what's right
But the chemicals that made him a super-soldier drove him crazy...
Twisted him all around.
Turned him into a guy who's willing to use bombs to make a point.
And I know firsthand, a bomb only has one thing to say.
But somewhere inside this guy...
there's a good man who thinks he is doing the right thing."

For a while I had been wondering about villains like this, people who think that they are doing the right thing. What happens then? Especially for a WW11 character like Captain America, this comic related to WW11 a lot. Did Hitler think that he was doing the right thing? What was going through his head?
But even besides the relation to WW11 and Bucky's thought bubble, this comic was really good. One thing that I noticed when I went back to this comic, was the panels, I love the way they are thrown like cards onto the page, it makes the comic slightly more fun to read.
        There is one thing that I noticed and did not like. Flacon was talking to a scientist, and they were wondering how to get off a high speed train full of explosives, and then from nowhere he picks up a watchdog and interrogates him. (mind you that he already threw all the watchdogs off the train. But after thinking about that one panel for a while you disregard this and go back to praising the book. I am concerned that Captain America or even Marvel will  be able to top this story arc in the next ten to fifteen years.

Grade: A
buy at: www.mycomicshop.com

Amazing Spiderman #628

                  This issue did not have a clever little plot, it was a guy named Captain Universe trying to blow past Spiderman and get to the Juggernaut. That was it really, except that you learned barley anything called the Enigma Force. I'm a huge DC fan, so I really like the Riddler, so I know what the word Enigma means.

enigma |iˈnigmə|
noun ( pl. -mas or -mata |-mətə|)a person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand.• a riddle or paradox

Really they just called them selves the Puzzling force, or the Difficult to Understand Force. I can put up with names as lame as Mr. America, but the Enigma Force, come on! But besides the lack of creativity that Marvel has, this comic was pretty good. I spend allot of my time trying to understand a difficult story, and it was nice to have just a random "beat-em-up." This issue reminded me of Superman Dooms-Day, and epic battle that goes across many cites with an indestructible man. One thing that I didn't like was that, after Captain Universe knocked him senseless, the Juggernaut lost his helmet, so he took an arm restraint and fashioned himself a new one. For one this restraint was not red, yet somehow the Juggernaut made it red, and second, it was absolutely perfect, smooth and everything, and I never imagined him to be a master sculptor. But those were only minor details, the rest of the comic was very good, and I was glad to see Parker's humor back. Lastly, Marvel always has this very block of color thing, and for some reason it really stood out to me this time and was easy on the eye, and ever since I thought that Marvel had messed up it's series I have been reading only DC, and they don't have that kind of color.


Grade: A-
buy at: www.mycomicshop.com