The Weekly Round-Up: 09/22/10

Alrighty folks, if there's one thing I've learned from my summer of useless blogging, it's this; I like doing multiple review in one post. Let's face it; I don't review much outside of the stuff I'm already reading. I may occasionally pick up something new, but that only happens every once in a blue moon. Meanwhile I want to talk about what I'm reading and what I'm reading is stuff I've talked about at length multiple times. And since (a) piracy is wrong and (b) I'm not getting any review copies, it seems I'm just stuck writing about the same things over and over. Now then, ONTO THE WANK!

So first up this week is the book that should be the main Justice League book, Justice League: Generation Lost. First off, let's talk about that cover. Goddamn is that a sexy cover. If I ever saw that cover at a bar, I'd buy it a drink and then I'd try to hit on it, only to fail and end up back at home in a puddle of shame. That's how sexy this cover is. If I have one gripe with this cover it's that it's more misleading than the first Bleach Opening-a-majig. Batman appears in this long enough to give us a hint at just how powerful Max's trick is working. It's actually one of the cooler parts of the issue.

As far as the rest of the story in this issue goes: pretty standard. We get the team figuring out what they're going to do next (hunt down all of Max's little bases to see what they can find) and we see what Max is up to (tricking Magog into working for him). Still, there are three really cool moments in this issue: a nice moment between Fire and Ice, the already mentioned scene with Batman, where he and Power Girl show us just how powerful Max's world wide mindfudgery can be, and the final page, which has the appearance of an awesome group of characters that I'm not spoiling for you. Honestly, if you aren't reading this book right now, then you should be, because it's freaking awesome.

Meanwhile, back in Marvel Land, Jonathan Hickman is tearing it up on the Fantastic Four. And this time, he's got STEVE EPTING on art duty, as we start up "Three" which promises to kill one of the FF. Now before I get to what I liked, I do have to say that I'm disappointed in Hickman for doing the whole "Someone dies" story: not only is this a tired cliché, but it's the hook to a story that Mark Millar did on his run on FF, which was the run before this. Still, that being said, this isn't bad for a tired cliché story that the previous writer already covered. We've got a great little scene between Valeria and Doctor Doom, we've got the FF doing their fantastical thing and fighting against fantastical baddies, and we've got hints of something happening involving Doom, Reed, and third guy that I have yet to recognize hooked up to some weird machine. It's all over the place, yet I had no time following what was happening save that part with the weird machine. And much like Justice League, this issue closes with an "OH S#!%" moment, which got me really excited for what's next.

Art wise, Steve Epting is off to a nice start, with the high point being that last page. His art is definitely a big factor in the crazy awesomeness of the last page and his art is just all around good. I look forward to next issue, which will have Ben Grimm de-Thinging, which promises to be heartwarming. (I can't even tell if I'm being sarcastic here)

And while I didn't bother to scan their covers, the Ultimate Universe got it's monthly dose of Bendis with the release of both "Ultimate Mystery #3" and "Ultimate (Comics) Spider-Man #14". Ultimate Mystery continues to be a pretty great Spider-Woman and Fantastic Four tale. We get to see the new Ultimate FF smack down the Ultimate Nova, while Jessica continues her infiltration of Roxxon. We also finally get to meet the guy behind the attacks from Ultimate Enemy, and if it is who I think it is, then holy crap Bendis really pulled one over on me. Still, I can't advise anyone to buy this in issues, because this is just gonna read better in trade. But definitely pick it up in trade, because this is pretty awesome.

Meanwhile, Ultimate Spider-man ends "Tainted Love" and what an ending it is. The (boy)Chameleon faces off against Johnny Storm and Iceman in a fight that does nothing but satisfy. The Creepy Chameleon sibs end up getting their comeuppance, which involves one of the coolest displays of the human torch powers that I've ever seen. Still, the status quo of the Ultimate Spider-man story is once again shaken and it looks like Pete's gonna be single again. Oh, and did I mention that David Lafuente is a beast, because he is.

Finally we've got The Flash #5, which may or may not feature a typo: the chapter title reads "Dastardly Death of the Rogues Part Four", though I do believe this story started in issue #1, which would make this part 5. Again, it may not be, but I'm too lazy to look this type of thing up.

The issue itself is pretty good, with The Rogues and the Renegades facing off over who gets the Flash. There are some really cool Rogues moments here, like Mirror Master escaping an attack from the Flash by hiding in the little wings on his cowl and the reveal of what is hidden in Scudders giant "Break In Case of Flash" mirror. There's also twist I actually did not see coming and it's a big one. And for those of you who either listen to Tom vs. the Flash or are familiar with silver age Flash, there's a reference to the fact that time cops are always dicks who only care about their era.

Much like Lafuente, Francis Manapul is owning the art in this book. While we don't get any huge awesome Flash sequences where we get to see the Flash doing his thing, we do get a full page spread of the Rogues and Renegades fighting, there's the sequence with the Flash getting trapped in Scudder's big trap, and an awesome page where we get to see the Weather Wizard show off his weather wizardry! This may not be the best book DC is putting out at the moment, but it certainly is the best looking book they're putting out right now. (Joe the Barbarian is a very close second!)

Tomorrow (maybe!): I take a look at Thor #615 as I do a THORSDAY REVIEW OF THOR-Y GOODNESS of the first issue of Matt Fraction's run on the book! And (maybe!) then I'll talk about Avengers and the Infinity Gauntlet, by two of my favorite Brians: Brian Clevinger and Brian Churilla!