JLA #105
by Chuck Austen & Ron Garney
Oh wow. For a minute there, I actually thought that Austen might have something to say with this penultimate issue of "The Pain of the Gods." After a way too long and pointless fight scene with Wonder Woman and an unknown villainess (it takes up half of the comic), WW defeats her foe, then breaks down and cries. I thought that we might get an examination of the pointlessness of the fight, how Diana feels empathy for her foe, or how we use violence as entertainment. But no, Wonder Woman was crying because she had been afraid that she was going to die. Excuse me? Diana is a warrior--she goes into every combat knowing that death is a possible outcome, and has faced death many times before. This issue was even more infuriating than the previous four, due to the opportunity wasted.
Rating: 1.5 (of 5)
Action Comics #819
by Chuck Austen, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Marc Campos & Jon Sibal
I'm not even going to review this. I'm still too pissed off about JLA.
Rating: 2 (of 5)
Teen Titans #15
by Geoff Johns, Tom Grummett & Lary Stucker
Johns wraps up his three-part rectifying of Beast Boy's origins, after John Byrne's dismantling of any possible Doom Patrol roots. Which after being one of the people who successfully rescued Hawkman from retcon purgatory must have seemed downright easy. The only character to suffer as bad as Hawkman in post-Crisis chaos was Donna Troy, and glory be she makes a brief one-panel cameo, hopefully setting the stage for an upcoming Troia mini by Phil Jimenez. Johns also sets several other subplots in motion ina manner that would make Paul Levitz proud, and even includes a gratuitous page one cameo from Aquaman. Tom Grummett began he career many years ago by penciling over George Perez's layouts on The Titans, so he's always a welcome fill-in on any Titans project. Plus, this comic has giant purple & green dinosaurs duking it out--what more could a super-hero fan want in a 22-page comic?
Rating: 3 (of 5)
Outsiders #15
by Judd Winick & Tom Raney
Boy, the art in this issue sure was muddy. The colors are too dark--this is a super-hero slugfest, not a moody Vertigo book! It is pretty much wall-to-wall fight scene, and even includes the good ol' cliché of a shot to the gonads. And where exactly did pseudo-Metamorpho's parachute and goggles suddenly appear from? But I have a soft spot for the Fearsome Five (and thanks to Winick for resiting the temptation to spread this story out over five issues!) and it's good to see Dr. Sivana taking on an evil mastermind role in the DCU.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)
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