Gettin' back on track with the comics.
Okay, time to review my comics!
Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures of the Eighth Grade #6
Pure win as usual. Here's my non spoiler-y review of it, which got link referenced on Landry Walker's own blog!
www.bigshinyrobot.com/reviews/archives/5588
But since on this blog I feel free to bring the spoilers, I have to say I lovelovelove the Lena and Supergirl moments. I love how when Lena, psycho mad scientist that she is, when she was confronted with the truth (thanks to Mxy of all people) that Lina/Kara did NOT engineer her brother's defeat, that she was NOT laughing at Lena and was in fact an optimistic kid who was struggling (and how much do I love Mxy's complaint that Supergirl wasn't good for the emotion collector because despite all she went through she always looked on the bright side. Hell YES. Like I said earlier, Supergirl is all about hope. And Landry Walker gets that!) and not only that, but her friend was going to risk everything to save the world- she was able to put aside her prejudice and worry about Linda/Kara and tell her to be careful.
And Supergirl's fight with Mxy was truly awesome. I love how she broke the Kryptonite chains and yelled "And I'm Supergirl, defender of earth!" and how she got the space sidekicks from her fantasies to beat him up.
But another great moment was when Lex and Superman were doing their usual "Let's finish this! "I wouldn't have it any other way!" and about to go at each other- that they both stopped DEAD when they saw Supergirl cradling Lena and crying. It was a great moment for both of them- always at odds with each other, but they both would put that aside for their girls.
And it was a really great moment for Lex too- "Lena is my SISTER, alien. I'm going to SAVE her." Despite all his evil, he cares for his little sister. And his casual "So, I tried to reinforce her hatred and rage, but her mind fought me and she would have died, so I was FORCED to let her forgive the Kryptonians." Oh, Lex. You and your hatred and rage. But once again, he wasn't willing to let Lena die, even if it meant she'd be BFF's with Superman's sidekick. And how he blamed Superman for the whole thing! "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" So wonderfully Lex. I wish we could get this kind of nuanced characterization of him tn the regular universe.
I'm so glad Lena's on Linda's side now, because I really like her as a character. In conclusion, this rocks, Landry's Supergirl rocks, and I WILL CRY if we don't get a sequel.
A BAZILLION OUT OF FIVE!
Power Girl #1
I love Amanda Conner's art! So cartoony and detailed and kinetic and expressive! I love it so. I also love Power Girl's cat.
This was decent writing, nothing special. Good enough to keep me buying the comic, because I like Power Girl and I love the art.
The boob window's been bought up on the WFA circuit lately. I think it's stupid, of course, but I guess I'm used to it so it doesn't really bother me as much anymore. I like Power Girl because she's generally gutsy and fun, and if some guys love her boobies, I suppose that's their right. She's Kryptonian, so it's not like it matters that it's impractical (now I'm imagining someone sticking Kryptonite in her cleavage. Bad brain. Bad brain.) If she's proud of her huge gazonkas, that's fine. We all know the REAL reason the boob window is there is for guys (and girls who like girls) to get their jollies, though, so I wish they wouldn't try to justify it with "Oh, it's the HOLE in my HEART" and the like.
I DON'T think the window is integral to her character, and I hate how much focus it gets, in art and writing. Palmiotti and Gray hopefully won't focus on it much. There was a couple of lines about a guy staring at her chest, but it was while she was out of costume, and sort of like how she just gently tilted his head up with one finger.
When I saw the Adam Hughes cover in the store, I actively flipped through the stack to find the Amanda Conner cover. I thought about why I did this. I decided it was down to two things. One, in the Hughes cover Power Girl has this huge goofy empty headed expression on her face like "duuuuh, I'm teh power girl", while in the Conner cover she's confidently smiling. Also, the Hughes cover seems to have the focus on the boob window as the center of everything, what with her ripping her shirt open, while Conner's cover doesn't seem to focus on it (as huge as it is)
Um, right so. There was also this guy who was obviously set up to be a villian (He also randomly mentioned he thinks women should stick to making babies...I guess so we hate him more and Karen could reel on him for sexism? It seemed kind of forced. Though it amused me to imagine this was actually Dave Sims Karen was talking to) and wacky Ultra Humanite holding Manhattan hostage so he could put his brain in the body of Power Girl! I guess he really likes that boob window! Will his dastardly plot work? I dunno!
By the way, speaking of Power Girl, check out this Youtube video! The actress really does look like her, and though it's kind of long, it seems to get Power Girl's character and it made me giggle in some parts: www.youtube.com/watch
3.5/5
Superman: New Krypton #3
Man,last week was very Supergirl-ish! I say this because Supergirl got to ROCK in this issue.
Kal does his diplomacy thing to calm down the labor guild but when they're coming out, a rogue soldier shoots at the head of the labor guild! But BAM, out of nowhere Kara flies in and catches the bullet, because Kal told her to keep her eyes open. She has the absolute best pose and expression afterwards too (I love you, Pete Woods!) and Kal compliments her and she glows and it's all very cute. I love how Kara's not only getting to be awesome in her own book, but in others. She really is such a joy to read now.
Anyway, then Kal shows off his mad ninja skillz and GL's come. This book continues to be great. I've really been enjoying it.
5/5
Battle for the Cowl: The Network.
Oy. Mixed feelings.
Cass, for once, got to be competent. And Fabian writes a good Oracle, she seemed in character for the first time in quite a while. The Misfit and Manhunter parts were decent too.
But. Helena. Poor Helena. Her recent leaps and bounds in character development in Gail's BoP were ignored, and she got to be all stupid and "I am here to be a strawman argument for killing the criminals, only so someone else can lecture me about what a bad person I am!" again. She was a jerk to Cass for no given reason, too. And it isn't like Helena, of all people, wouldn't know how flawed the justice system is and wouldn't realize the death-row guy could be innocent. And she and Babs have been working together for so long, she'd surely take Babs advice on the situation.
Also, Cassandra got to say things like "Your perspective is too small". Which I don't care what Adam Beechen says, Cassandra does NOT use words like "perspective!" Even if she can read and all now, her deal is that she gets her point across with the the least amount of words possible.
Look, if Cass was in character the conversation would go like this.
Cass: Stupid to think I can't cheat. Almost as stupid as your costume.
Helena: Rargh I'm OOC this town may not be big enough for the two of us Oh god who talks like that!
Cass: .... (or, if she absolutely has to speak "Only you think it's so small")
There was lots of mocking of Helena's Jim Lee costume, which I appreciated. I would have appreciated it more if Nicieza didn't seem to have something against Helena, or Helena had tossed out an off hand explanation for the temporary change like "My other costume's in the wash/ battle damaged." The mocking just makes Helena look stupid, when it's Tony Daniel who's the stupid one.
2.5/5
Annnnd this week:
Secret Six #8
This...this was better than Battle for the Cowl and all it's tie ins COMBINED. Bane, Catman and Ragdoll...were so...awesome. Especially Catman and Bane's argument over which of them wanted to be Batman and Ragdoll being Robin "The Boy/Girl Wonder" and his comment that he would be a good Robin because "he likes the costume and doesn't mind an occasional crowbar to the cranium." Also him making everything sound dirty! I love Ragdoll so much.
Just awesome. And gorgeous art from Nicola Scott as always.
5/5
That's all, chums! Except I flipped to the back of the last Oracle issue in store and she's still in her wheelchair at the end! Frabulous day! Granted, it did say "Continued in BG #1" but...oh, if they were going to do it, they'd do it in their miniseries titled "The Cure" wouldn't they? (Please?) Me and my LCS guy both gleed over this. We both want Cass to remain Batgirl. My guess is DC was GOING to cure Babs, but then someone decided it was a stupid idea (that someone is a HERO!) and everyone scrambled to fix it so Babs stayed Oracle. At least, I hope that's it.
Well, off to watch Kim Possible.
Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures of the Eighth Grade #6
Pure win as usual. Here's my non spoiler-y review of it, which got link referenced on Landry Walker's own blog!
www.bigshinyrobot.com/reviews/archives/5588
But since on this blog I feel free to bring the spoilers, I have to say I lovelovelove the Lena and Supergirl moments. I love how when Lena, psycho mad scientist that she is, when she was confronted with the truth (thanks to Mxy of all people) that Lina/Kara did NOT engineer her brother's defeat, that she was NOT laughing at Lena and was in fact an optimistic kid who was struggling (and how much do I love Mxy's complaint that Supergirl wasn't good for the emotion collector because despite all she went through she always looked on the bright side. Hell YES. Like I said earlier, Supergirl is all about hope. And Landry Walker gets that!) and not only that, but her friend was going to risk everything to save the world- she was able to put aside her prejudice and worry about Linda/Kara and tell her to be careful.
And Supergirl's fight with Mxy was truly awesome. I love how she broke the Kryptonite chains and yelled "And I'm Supergirl, defender of earth!" and how she got the space sidekicks from her fantasies to beat him up.
But another great moment was when Lex and Superman were doing their usual "Let's finish this! "I wouldn't have it any other way!" and about to go at each other- that they both stopped DEAD when they saw Supergirl cradling Lena and crying. It was a great moment for both of them- always at odds with each other, but they both would put that aside for their girls.
And it was a really great moment for Lex too- "Lena is my SISTER, alien. I'm going to SAVE her." Despite all his evil, he cares for his little sister. And his casual "So, I tried to reinforce her hatred and rage, but her mind fought me and she would have died, so I was FORCED to let her forgive the Kryptonians." Oh, Lex. You and your hatred and rage. But once again, he wasn't willing to let Lena die, even if it meant she'd be BFF's with Superman's sidekick. And how he blamed Superman for the whole thing! "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" So wonderfully Lex. I wish we could get this kind of nuanced characterization of him tn the regular universe.
I'm so glad Lena's on Linda's side now, because I really like her as a character. In conclusion, this rocks, Landry's Supergirl rocks, and I WILL CRY if we don't get a sequel.
A BAZILLION OUT OF FIVE!
Power Girl #1
I love Amanda Conner's art! So cartoony and detailed and kinetic and expressive! I love it so. I also love Power Girl's cat.
This was decent writing, nothing special. Good enough to keep me buying the comic, because I like Power Girl and I love the art.
The boob window's been bought up on the WFA circuit lately. I think it's stupid, of course, but I guess I'm used to it so it doesn't really bother me as much anymore. I like Power Girl because she's generally gutsy and fun, and if some guys love her boobies, I suppose that's their right. She's Kryptonian, so it's not like it matters that it's impractical (now I'm imagining someone sticking Kryptonite in her cleavage. Bad brain. Bad brain.) If she's proud of her huge gazonkas, that's fine. We all know the REAL reason the boob window is there is for guys (and girls who like girls) to get their jollies, though, so I wish they wouldn't try to justify it with "Oh, it's the HOLE in my HEART" and the like.
I DON'T think the window is integral to her character, and I hate how much focus it gets, in art and writing. Palmiotti and Gray hopefully won't focus on it much. There was a couple of lines about a guy staring at her chest, but it was while she was out of costume, and sort of like how she just gently tilted his head up with one finger.
When I saw the Adam Hughes cover in the store, I actively flipped through the stack to find the Amanda Conner cover. I thought about why I did this. I decided it was down to two things. One, in the Hughes cover Power Girl has this huge goofy empty headed expression on her face like "duuuuh, I'm teh power girl", while in the Conner cover she's confidently smiling. Also, the Hughes cover seems to have the focus on the boob window as the center of everything, what with her ripping her shirt open, while Conner's cover doesn't seem to focus on it (as huge as it is)
Um, right so. There was also this guy who was obviously set up to be a villian (He also randomly mentioned he thinks women should stick to making babies...I guess so we hate him more and Karen could reel on him for sexism? It seemed kind of forced. Though it amused me to imagine this was actually Dave Sims Karen was talking to) and wacky Ultra Humanite holding Manhattan hostage so he could put his brain in the body of Power Girl! I guess he really likes that boob window! Will his dastardly plot work? I dunno!
By the way, speaking of Power Girl, check out this Youtube video! The actress really does look like her, and though it's kind of long, it seems to get Power Girl's character and it made me giggle in some parts: www.youtube.com/watch
3.5/5
Superman: New Krypton #3
Man,last week was very Supergirl-ish! I say this because Supergirl got to ROCK in this issue.
Kal does his diplomacy thing to calm down the labor guild but when they're coming out, a rogue soldier shoots at the head of the labor guild! But BAM, out of nowhere Kara flies in and catches the bullet, because Kal told her to keep her eyes open. She has the absolute best pose and expression afterwards too (I love you, Pete Woods!) and Kal compliments her and she glows and it's all very cute. I love how Kara's not only getting to be awesome in her own book, but in others. She really is such a joy to read now.
Anyway, then Kal shows off his mad ninja skillz and GL's come. This book continues to be great. I've really been enjoying it.
5/5
Battle for the Cowl: The Network.
Oy. Mixed feelings.
Cass, for once, got to be competent. And Fabian writes a good Oracle, she seemed in character for the first time in quite a while. The Misfit and Manhunter parts were decent too.
But. Helena. Poor Helena. Her recent leaps and bounds in character development in Gail's BoP were ignored, and she got to be all stupid and "I am here to be a strawman argument for killing the criminals, only so someone else can lecture me about what a bad person I am!" again. She was a jerk to Cass for no given reason, too. And it isn't like Helena, of all people, wouldn't know how flawed the justice system is and wouldn't realize the death-row guy could be innocent. And she and Babs have been working together for so long, she'd surely take Babs advice on the situation.
Also, Cassandra got to say things like "Your perspective is too small". Which I don't care what Adam Beechen says, Cassandra does NOT use words like "perspective!" Even if she can read and all now, her deal is that she gets her point across with the the least amount of words possible.
Look, if Cass was in character the conversation would go like this.
Cass: Stupid to think I can't cheat. Almost as stupid as your costume.
Helena: Rargh I'm OOC this town may not be big enough for the two of us Oh god who talks like that!
Cass: .... (or, if she absolutely has to speak "Only you think it's so small")
There was lots of mocking of Helena's Jim Lee costume, which I appreciated. I would have appreciated it more if Nicieza didn't seem to have something against Helena, or Helena had tossed out an off hand explanation for the temporary change like "My other costume's in the wash/ battle damaged." The mocking just makes Helena look stupid, when it's Tony Daniel who's the stupid one.
2.5/5
Annnnd this week:
Secret Six #8
This...this was better than Battle for the Cowl and all it's tie ins COMBINED. Bane, Catman and Ragdoll...were so...awesome. Especially Catman and Bane's argument over which of them wanted to be Batman and Ragdoll being Robin "The Boy/Girl Wonder" and his comment that he would be a good Robin because "he likes the costume and doesn't mind an occasional crowbar to the cranium." Also him making everything sound dirty! I love Ragdoll so much.
Just awesome. And gorgeous art from Nicola Scott as always.
5/5
That's all, chums! Except I flipped to the back of the last Oracle issue in store and she's still in her wheelchair at the end! Frabulous day! Granted, it did say "Continued in BG #1" but...oh, if they were going to do it, they'd do it in their miniseries titled "The Cure" wouldn't they? (Please?) Me and my LCS guy both gleed over this. We both want Cass to remain Batgirl. My guess is DC was GOING to cure Babs, but then someone decided it was a stupid idea (that someone is a HERO!) and everyone scrambled to fix it so Babs stayed Oracle. At least, I hope that's it.
Well, off to watch Kim Possible.