Ratings and Rantings

Hey everyone, Captain Awesome here, that's right, Jason Todd as always, welcoming you to my Red Hood. I hope you're ready for the continuous cavalcade of Comic content comments continually creating controversy! Oh yeah, alliteration for the win! This week we've got a short edition Ratings and Rantings with only three comics but my shop's Marvel comics hasn't been delivered by the time I got there (or gotten stocked...damn my earliness!) so I just grabbed my DC comics and took off. Now that that's taken care of, let's get down to business with the last Ratings and Rantings of 2010!

Green Lantern #61

Green Lantern starts off with two people, a woman and a man that looks oddly like Sinestro (that poor ugly man) are in a car arguing, and it's apparent that the man has been beating up and verbally abusing the woman. She tells him she won't take it anymore and he pulls a gun out on her, but his car crashes into a monster, that monster being Atrocitus. This either brutally injures of kills them, and an uncaring Atrocitus uses the man's blood to find out where "The Butcher" is, the Red Lantern entity. From there we see a convicted rapist and or murderer I would assume, that is about to be executed by electric chair. The evil bastard then goads the girl's father and talks about how much his daughter "loved it." The father gets angry and says he wishes he could kill the prisoner himself, and this causes the Red Lantern entity to burst through the wall telling him he has great anger in his heart, and that he's hungry. The Raging Red Bull is soon stopped in his tracks by the attacking Spectre, who tells him Earth is his domain. He tells him to leave earth and quit searching for a host but The Butcher refuses and attacks. After a brief fight the Spectre is about to try to decapitate the Red Lantern entity but Atrocitus shows up and says the entity belongs to him. The entity then takes the body of James Kim, the angry father, and he wastes no time in dealing out punishment on the man that killed his daughter. Spectre tells Atrocitus to make the entity leave Kim's body, and tells Kim that the murderer is not his to judge. James Kim starts to fight the entity but it goads him as well by repeating the murderer's words, causing him to spaz out and attack the Spectre. The rage infused James Kim then kills his daughter's murderer, then Atrocitus tells the Butcher he belongs to him and the rest of his Rage Corps. The Butcher then tries to fuse with Atrocitus by looking at his past, but Spectre knocks it out pretty much while it's doing that. Atrocitus then contains The Butcher in his lantern and tells the Spectre he will take it back to the Red Lantern homeworld of Ysmault. The Spectre pretty much doesn't care as he's about to judge James Kim, but Atrocitus speaks up and says how the man who lost his daughter has not gained equality by killing her killer. Atrocitus pretty much understands since he also lost his daughter, and the Spectre allows James to live as the issue ends. Well that was bland, we learned some about Atrocitus and he has his entity but that's it, nothing else happened. Oh and this is the DCU synopsis "Plus, another being seeks the red entity – The Spectre! And he has no patience with his former host Hal Jordan, who happens to be in the way…" and guess what.....Green Lantern didn't appear ANYWHERE in this comic, which is his comic! This was okay but nothing amazing and nothing really happened, it was also pretty boring as Spectre isn't the most interesting character around. I'll give this a 5/10.

Atrocitus: I am Atrocitus the Red Lantern. There is nothing else you need to know.

Action Comics #896

This issue of Lex Luthor's Action Comics (Nice ring to it right?) features an appearance by the Secret Six as well as Vandal Savage. We start out with the Secret Six going to save Lex Luthor, prompting Deadshot to ask why. We see a flashback to a dinner where Lex and Ms. Vandal Savage. and how he pretty much offered Scandal something that we don't know about if she agrees to help him on the one time he calls for help from her and the Secret Six. Scandal obviously shows up but is surprised to see the person trying to attack Lex is her father, Vandal Savage. From there we see Robo-Lois and after a quick reboot to get over a virus, she starts to chat with a woman being controlled by Mr. Mind. Over the course of questioning the Robo-Lois over their previous encounter, he realizes that she's working for someone else besides Lex, which Robo-Lois neither confirms nor denies before incapacitating Mr. Mind's host body. The Secret Six finally springs into action and Lex uses the opportunity to knock the bomb detonator out of Vandal's hand, which is caught in the nick of time by Scandal. This causes a argument between the Savage's but it's interrupted when Robo-Lois and her vast array of guns joins the fight. When Robo-Lois takes out Scandal, causing her to drop and a pool of blood spreads, Vandal goes ballistic and slices Robo-Lois in half with an axe. Vandal helps Scandal up and she appears to be fine..okay then. After more fighting by the Secret Six and Vandal's henchmen, Lex tries to talk sense into Vandal and the issue ends soon after with the detonator possibly going off. This will continue in Secret Six, which I won't be reading but I'm sure Lex will live, but the next issue will feature Lex and The Joker, so I'm ALL OVER THAT! This issue was fine for what it was though, I'll give it a 6.5/10. I would have given it a seven but all that hooplah over Scandal and she's perfectly fine annoyed me.

Scandal: Luthor, I have cutlery.

Lex: Oh, please. I wouldn't let you near nice dinner things with a dozen snipers aiming at your heart. You KNOW that.

Detective Comics #872

I didn't review last months issue of Detective Comics because I read a buddy's copy but it was good enough that I picked up this issue. For those curious on last month's issue you can read a review by my good buddy X-Man75 by clicking here. The issue starts with Batman (Grayson) trying to question a man by the named William Rhodes, and while trying to avoid Batman the guy crashes and apparently dies. Smooth move, Dick. This leads to him and Oracle using the guys credit card to make him seem not dead and buying some vintage wine online. Um...okay? After some more Babs and Dick talk which was written very well, Batman takes off to search for more clues about the mysterious murders as of late. From there we see Dick find out from Tim that Lucius Fox has got a new invention for the Batman Inc. guys that allows you to sculpt light and make you look like anyone, meaning Dick can now pretend to be that Rhodes guy he inadvertently helped kill. After meeting with Harvey Bullock since Gordon was busy, Dick gets a lead from Oracle and springs into action by stealing Rhodes' face and heading to a party as him that may have the culprits that Batman is looking for. Once entering the "party", Dick is given a gas mask, and like the other people his mask is to filter out the gases that are coming into the building during the auction, I guess to keep people from removing their masks? One of the first things for auction is Joker's crowbar, that's right, the same one he pretty much beat Jason Todd to death with, and like vultures the patrons bid for the Clown Prince of Crime's murder weapon. Unluckily for Batman, the people suspect that he isn't Mr. Rhodes, so his mask hasn't been modified and he's soon rendered helpless by the chemicals. The issue ends right there, or it would before we see that after Dick left, James Gordon and his daughter Barbara met and he told her that her brother was back in town. After a talk about how her brother James is a killer, Babs leaves, and the issue ends with James Gordon Jr. sitting down across from his father, Commissioner James Gordon. This comic was kind of slow up until the end, then it really picked up. Aside from the slow parts it was pretty good, I especially liked the ending for both Batman and with the Gordon family, as well as the talking between Dick and Babs, but I didn't like how Dick pretty much helped kill that guy, even by mistake, and didn't seem to care too much. I'll give this issue a 7/10 rating and I'll be grabbing the next one to see where Scott Snyder takes the story from there.

Tim Drake: I guess that means we'll be retiring the old beard and wig trunk?

Well, surprisingly that didn't take too long. We're all done for 2010, here's hoping 2011 has more Jason Todd, more Booster Gold, more great comics and more good times and great memories. Be sure to join us in two days when I post the first ever annual Red Hood Awards, it should be lots of fun and cause a lot of debating, which I'm looking forward to. So until next time I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd, signing off.

Ratings and Rantings

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! Once again time for that weekly cavalcade of comic content comments, Ratings and Rantings! I'm your host, your ally, your friend, and your king, Jason Todd, although I also answer to J.T., Captain Awesome, or "Hey You!" As you guys may be able to tell I'm particularly amped up because this is the second to last Ratings and Rantings of 2010, as well as the second to last post before the first ever annual "Red Hood Awards", who will leave with a coveted Hot Toddy? Lol, only time will tell. But enough about that, today we've got some last minute entrants trying to make their presence felt in 2010, so let's kick things off with a comic I didn't get to review last week, Amazing Spider-Man!

Amazing Spider-Man #650

We start things off with the usual Spidey recap, only this time it's from the point of view of one of Peter Parker's newest co-workers, Bella Fishbach. I wonder how long it takes Pete to make a lame joke about her last name. Anyway, Spidey is about to get decapitated by the Hobgoblin when he's saved due to Bella's quick thinking, and a little help from Lady Gaga. That's a name I never wanted to have to type on my blog, yet here we are. Gobby takes this as his cue to leave (They're playing Gaga, I would've left too!) and Spidey follows suit, even though he thinks his new boss is beginning to piece together his secret identity, after less than a day on the job. Spidey tries to stop Hobby from stealing what he came for, Reverbium, a very powerful type of metal, but our Amazing Arachnid is laid out by this impressively insane Hobgoblin. He's like a Joker and Deadpool hybrid. As Hobby leaves with the Reverbium, the co-workers do a head count and notice Peter isn't there. They head back in looking for the newest employee as Peter is trying to get changed to his civilian clothes, but Pete runs out of time. They walk in and see Peter, in his boxers as he's listening to music really loud with headphones and doing science equations. He tells them that's how he thinks, and surprisingly they believe him. Meanwhile, at the Fisk Building, Hobgoblin brings what Fisk asked for, the Reverbium, although he isn't the Hobgoblin that Kingpin sent. Hobby asks if he has the job, and Kingpin sics The Hand on him, asking where Kingsley is. Hobby replies that he's in "Hobgoblin Heaven", a.k.a. the dumpster behind the iHOP. I love this dude already. Back at Pete's new job, they destroy the rest of the Reverbium, using Antarctic Vibranium, which apparently is like anti-metal. Someone better run to DC and tell the Metal Men. Pete's boss, Max, tells him he'll put some samples aside for Peter to study, but he wishes he had a way to steal the Reverbium back. This leads Pete to calling Felicia Hardy, a.k.a. Black Cat, who we see in a bathtub...filled with milk...as cats lick at the milk. This wins Hot Toddy for scene of the year! I'm kidding... for now. Felicia agrees to help Spidey steal back the Reverbium (God, I hate this word.) and he tells her that he's gonna bring some new gadgets to help tackle this new Hobgoblin. Over at the Daily Bugle, Ben Urich's nephew (Uncle Ben? Weird.) brings him some video and tells him he wants to be a web reporter, and also gets Norah Winters to come watch too. He shows his video and it's the Hobgoblin break in. This of course backfires for Phil Urich, and ends with Norah making out with her boyfriend, Randy to celebrate. Sucks to be you, eh Phil? Back at his new job, Peter is creating a brand new Spidey suit to help him combat this new Hobgoblin. He's interrupted when MJ and Carlie, his past and present girlfriend's show up with donuts and lunch. Man, Peter always gets the hotties. Peter talks to the girls about his job and after some nerd talk between Pete and Carlie, MJ leaves. Soon as one Hottie McHotstuff leaves, another arrives, as Black Cat hits Pete up via some secret line they have. She tells Spidey that she just caught a guy and got some info out of him about Kingpin being the buyer for the metal that I hate to talk about now. Spidey says he'll meet her soon, and as Cat leaves her pidgeon tied up, Hobgoblin shows up, and we see that he told the guy everything to say. He then kills the guy, so no one knows he ratted out Kingpin. Back on the rooftops, Cat has grown antsy waiting for Spider-Man, when a box shows up next to her. She opens it and pulls out goggles with a note that says wear these, she puts on the goggles and see's that Spidey is standing right in front of her. He tells her how his new suit can make him invisible and impervious to sonic attacks, since it warps light and sound. That's pretty freaking cool. The issue ends soon after with Spidey and Black Cat getting ready to go get back that dreaded Reverbium! This was a really fun issue, I enjoyed everything about it, and seeing Spidey's Angel's was cool as well. I thought this was another solid issue in a line of damn good issues as of late, I'll give this one a 9/10. I would've given it a 10, but I really hate Lady Gaga.

Spider-Man: D-Did I really just get saved by Lady Gaga? No offense... But can I have the nausea-inducing laughter back?

Green Lantern Corps #55

GLC kicks off things on Planet Qward as the Thunderer's all head towards the Weaponer's castle, to give that troublemaker what-for! Over at the castle, Kyle tries to go free Soranik, as John Stewart, Hannu, Ganthet and Boodikka go after the powerful Weaponer. Sadly, the Green Lantern's have no chance, considering the Weaponer's shield ranks his opponents by threat level, then formulates a weapon to dispatch each personal threat. He dispatches of the biggest threat first, Ganthet, before taking out Boodikka and then John Stewart with a blast to the eyes. Hannu attacks the Weaponer and tells him to try to find a weakness in him. Inside, Kyle finds Soranik, but she still can't get to her ring. They go to the Weaponer's weapon cache, and they each grab something to try to help them combat the Weaponer. Back outside, The Weaponer has defeated every one of the Green Lanterns that opposed him and taken each of their rings. Ganthet is tied up but sits up, complaining he's going to be sick, before throwing up blood, much like a Red Lantern. Atrocitus' face appears in the blood and tells Ganthet their enemy is on earth and has already captured the Fear and Willpower entities. Ganthet then explains to John Stewart how the robed man is trying to capture and enslave all the entities, and how he, Guy, and Atrocitus' all had a vision of the future and teamed up in order to stop the man from getting all the entities. The Weaponer laughs at the story, but his fun is soon cut short by Soranik, brandishing an enormous gun against his head. She threatens him but The Weaponer doesn't seem afraid, and the Thunderer's show up soon after, telling her to do it, since he's pretty much ruined their planet. The Weaponer says if Sinestro had just come they could've ended this, now he'll have to dispose of the Thunderer's as well, but a surprise arrival seems to change everything as this issue ends, and it's not Sinestro. This was a solid issue, I enjoyed finding out about Ganthet and Guy's secret pact with Atrocitus, as well as seeing The Weaponer dominate, as I really like his character. I'm wondering where the next issue will take things though, as for this one I'll give it an 8.5/10.

The Weaponer: Five Green Lanterns against one man. Perhaps I should be flattered. But even if there were ten of them, I would still prevail.

Deadpool #30

The Merc with a Mouth starts things off with a bang, as he wakes up surrounded by vampires, so promptly fills them all with lead. The Vampires try to tell DP to stop shooting them but he's all gun happy so he keeps blasting them until they tell him they came to hire him, not kill him. After thinking over a decision to meet with the Vampires (or as Deadpool refers to them, Dracula's) and a small conversation with his brain, he decides to hear them out. After a hilarious conversation, Deadpool is asked to help protect those Dracula's from a group of rival Dracula's, known as the Claw Sect. The actual Dracula's son, Xarus has staged a coup against the other Dracula's and his Dracula's can walk in the day due to some magical amulet, so the "good" Dracula's need Deadpool to guard them during the day. Deadpool tells the Dracula's he's not helping, because they're Dracula's. The main Dracula of that group of Dracula's that aren't REALLY Dracula (confusing?) tells Deadpool that a hundred years ago those good vampire guys put their money together to open a hospital, and now that hospital is one of the best in the nation, and they don't turn away any patients and basically their saints. Deadpool agrees to help after hearing this, being a Hero and all. Meanwhile, above the Dracula's base is their hospital, and the Claw Sect has started to invade it, but the Regeneratin' Degenerate shows up just in time to save the day. The Hot Doctor that Deadpool saves wants to go warn everyone in the hospital but DP doesn't wanna make a panic so tells her not to, so she shoots Deadpool in the leg. Deadpool takes this as a sign that she loves him, so seconds later, Deadpool is back up and shoots her in the leg to show his love. He carries her to safety, and then drops her because he's got more Dracula's to kill baby! The issue ends soon after with Deadpool going to kill the rest of the Claw Sect Dracula's. This was a fun issue, just solid Deadpool fun. Nothing amazing happened, and there was no Doctor Bong, but as always I was interested and I laughed my butt off. I can't wait to see how Deadpool handles the rest of those dastardly "Dracula's!" I'll give this issue a 10/10.

Deadpool: Soooo... I am really surrounded by Dracula's?

Vampire: We're not... We're not all named "Dracula." The proper term is--

Deadpool: (after shooting the Vampires) Save it for somebody who wants to learn. Dracula.

Power Girl #19

This begins the four issue cross over between Power Girl and Generation Lost, I'm eager to see two of Judd Winick's current ongoing comics collide as well as seeing Power Girl meet up with her old JLI teammates. We start off with a flashback as we see the JLI consisting of Booster Gold, Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), Power Girl, Fire and Ice taking on the Royal Flush Gang! Man.. have they ever been a threat? Apparently Ace was cause the huge ten-ton robot apparent cleaned Peej's clock with a solid right hand. This leads to Power Girl delivering the groin kick from hell, causing Ace's Ken-Doll-like lower extremities to explode. Apparently that's where they kept his energy cells, which Booster, Beetle, and myself find HILARIOUS. We then see Power Girl, Booster, and Beetle laughing over the story with a younger Max Lord. We then see Power Girl in the J.S.A. All-Star Headquarters with pictures of Max plastered on all the monitors and telling the All-Stars about Max, but like usual, no one remembers Max or even see's him on the monitors. He's either not in any of the pictures or he's replaced with someone else like a random black guy or even Parasite. Peej tells the All-Stars how Max has stolen her company, how he's made a clone of her, and everything else he's done, including killing Ted Kord. Unsurprisingly no one believes her, except Batman?! He's there? And he tells Peej they've had this conversation before, and they convince the All-Stars to act. They don't get far before everyone forgets who Max Lord is again, even Peej and Batman. Back at Starrware, Karen is trying to get her stuff together with the company when Nicco tries to get her attention. She finally looks up to see her clone, Divine, standing next to Nicco, and snaps his neck. Karen attacks Divine and she's interrupted when she hears Max Lord, she looks up at her and he tells her it's all smoke and mirrors, just a distraction, before shooting her in the head, causing her to wake up from an apparent dream. Nicco explains to Peej that he's found out where Divine and CRASH are, due to one of Peej's earrings falling off in her fight with her clone, and inadvertently stuck between Divine's shoe and is now tracking her. Peej follows the trail that leads her to Vietnam, and finds a shed. She goes inside and see's a JLI teleporter, but the entire shed then disappears, but Power Girl can still hear the energy. Using her Ice Breath, she uncovers a secret base by overpowering it's temperature cloaking camouflage. Surprisingly, Dr. Ivo steps out and after some creepy small talk, introduces PG to the new Project Cadmus. The issue ends soon after as it looks like Peej is gonna have her hands full. This was another good issue in a line of good issues so far this week, and Power Girl's crossover is so well done that it doesn't make you have to buy Gen Lost, but still seems to add more if you're reading both series. I'll give this issue an 8/10, I would've given it a nine but I'm getting frustrated with everyone remembering then forgetting Max. It's like Groundhog day!

Power Girl: This is what I think of when I remember back. I remember laughing a lot. Sure. There was danger. We fought hard battles. We were constantly putting our lives on the line. But, All told, it was fun.

Streets of Gotham #18

First things first, awesome cover by Dustin Nguyen, I really like the half Bruce Wayne, half Hush cover. Out Batman in this issue is Bruce Wayne, which I gotta admit, makes me happy for the obvious meeting with Hush. We see that Batman is investigating a group of people that are apparently robbing stores while sleepwalking, courtesy of Bedbug. Still a very lame villain, but oh well. Batman watches as the people loot and even see's the Penguin looting a cash register in his sleep, causing Batman to take a picture on his camera phone for his trophy room. Um...sure. When Commissioner Gordon shows up with some frequency device Batman requested, he punches in an override code that cancels out the messages from Bedbug's bugs. Batman then finds Bedbug since he's nearby to watch his handiwork. Bedbug hops around like a flea but Bats knocks him loopy with a Batarang. Bats tries to remove Bedbug's mask, but he has bugs under it which infect Batman, making him one of the people who Bedbug can control once he goes to sleep. Over with Hush, he's questioning Pierce about what happened on the missing pages from his Mother's diary. Pierce tells him how Thomas Wayne had grown up and started to fund Leslie's clinic and had also taken a shine to Martha Kane. He's then cut off by Hush, (what a jerk, ask a question then interrupt?) The issue ends as Hush and his new allies go to see Dr. Death. Okay, well, this was bad. Sorry but when I'm told there's a six issue arc on Hush, I expect it to be MORE ABOUT HUSH. Not his parents, not Bruce's parents, not some old mobster, not a stupid character like Bedbug, but about HUSH. Hush was a freaking force to be reckoned with in his debut, now he's reading diary's and swapping stories with old men. What the hell is happening?! Oh, and did I mention this was about 12-pages long because the rest is a Ragman co-feature? Oh, and the Ragman story is over TWENTY pages long. I'll give this a 2/10.

Penguin: You can't hold me! I'm innocent!

EMS Guy: We know, Mr. Cobblepot. Go home.

JL Generation Lost #16

We start things off with our newest JLI incarnate being attacked by the Creature Commando's, which are pretty much like an army version of 70's horror movies. Over with the females of the JLI, Ice is trying to find something to help Fire after being shot in the chest and stomach. Fire starts to talk about her past as well as her parents, and how she believes she's going to hell when she dies for all the people she killed when she worked for Checkmate. From there we see Power Girl and Batman in the Bat Bunker. They receive a transmission from the Black and White Kings of Checkmate, telling them they think Captain Atom is innocent due to them finding an encrypted message that apparently told Magog that Checkmate wanted him to kill Captain Atom. Back with the guys of the JLI, after trying to fight off the Creature Commandos in a non-lethal way, Booster decides to have everyone retreat, and sends Beetle to go find out where Fire and Ice are. He finds them but Bea is on her way out of the land of the living. Ice pleads with him to do something but Beetle can't really do anything to help, and as Fire prepares to take her last few breaths, Jamie remembers something and flies off like a rocket. He grabs one of the Creature Commandos, their apparent medic since he's been healing the injured commandos. They rip the Mummy Medic's bandages off and place them on Bea, but are interrupted by an attack by more of the Commando's, led by Medusa. Medusa uses her um... "Medusa Hair (?) to incapacitate Ice. Fire recovers quickly and tries to gain her composure, causing Beetle to get distracted and blasted into a wall. We then see that one of the Creature Commando's is actually Maxwell Lord in disguise. The issue ends with Max taking one of the JLI members away via teleporter. This issue was kinda bland, I didn't get into it like the others, maybe because I don't see the Commando's as a threat? Either way this issue bored me more than it should've. I still love the series but I never felt anyone was in danger here besides Bea. I'll give this issue a 6/10.

Fire: When I die... I'm going to hell.

Well that's it for me everyone, for the most part this was a pretty good week for comics. Join me next week for the final Ratings and Rantings of 2010 as well as the first annual Red Hood Awards. Also, last week's poll results are below and feel free to vote on this week's poll as well. Until next time, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd, signing off!

Last week's poll asked "Which Comic Character had the worst year?"

Last Place with 0% - Wally West, Coming in last wins this race for Wally West.
Second Place with 12.5% - Tie between Green Arrow and Superman.
Winner with 75.0% - Arsenal, that's right, the former Red Arrow had the worst year in 2010. Congrats...I guess.

Next Week on Ratings and Rantings

Action Comics #896, Green Lantern #61, Detective Comics #872, Carnage #2

Top Five 5

Hey everyone, once again welcome to the Top Five 5's! My favorite, and only bi-weekly feature here at JTCS. So, of course we're gonna do things just like always, I'm going to list each category along with each person's picks. So let's get into it. And just to remind everyone, here's the color guideline:

Jason Todd

Kello

Paul C.

X-Man

Falisha

Top Five People that should never be on the same team

Deathstroke
Bruce Wayne
Sinestro
The Joker
Deadpool
 

Saint Barry Allen and anybody

Wolverine and Sabretooth

Red Robin and Robin(Damian)

Deadpool and Spider-Man(they'd NEVER stop talking!!!)

Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi...

Can't think of anyone! I love superhero team-ups so much!

Deadpool

Lobo

Wolverine

Bullseye

Taskmaster

Beast Boy
Power Girl
Raven
Wonder Girl
Booster Gold

Top Five Comic Fights you wish would happen

Batman (Bruce) vs. Deathstroke
Deadpool vs. Daken
Arsenal vs. Dick Grayson
Black Canary vs. Huntress
Jason Todd vs. Bucky Barnes
 

The Beyonder vs Saint Barry :D

Spider-Man vs Batman(Dick Grayson)

She-Hulk vs Wonder Woman

Hawkeye vs Green Arrow(Oliver Queen)

Captain America(Bucky Barnes) vs Captain America(Steve Rogers)
 

New Earth Legion vs. Reboot Legion vs. Threeboot Legion

Legion of Superheroes vs. X-Men

Lex Luthor vs. Doctor Doom

Doctor Who vs. anyone in the DC Universe

Doctor Who vs. anyone in the Marvel Universe

Invaders/ JSA

Batman vs. Batman

Steve Rogers vs. Buck Cap

Murmur vs. Mr. Zsasz

Power Girl vs. Psylocke (in a discussion about which has the more confusing origin)

Power Girl vs. Supergirl
Aquaman vs. Black Manta (now that Aquaman is back)
Superboy vs. Aqualad
Ravager vs. Huntress
Wonder Woman vs. Big Barda (I am LOVING those last two picks especially.)

Top Five Characters you wish had Ongoing Comics

Jason Todd
Cassandra Cain
Captain Marvel (Freeman)
Bart Allen
Wally West

X-MAN!!!

Wally West

Bart Allen

The Young Avengers...

Hawkeye

Madam Fatal

Aquaman

Brother Power the Geek

Wally West

The Reboot Legion wandering the multiverse looking for other lost survivors

Sinestro Corps

Wally West

Captain Marvel

Spectre (Crispus Allen)

Kid Flash

Maxwell Lord
Huntress
Fire and Ice
Vixen
Captain Atom

Top Five Lamest Comic Characters

Azrael
Mad Hatter
Penguin
The Ventriloquist (Arnold Wesker)
Blue Beetle

Mad Hatter

Penguin

Humpty Dumpty

Toyman

Puppet Master
 

Spawn

Nightwatch (Marvel's Spawn rip-off!)

Any Liefeld X-Force character

Any Youngblood character

Any DC 'Bloodlines' character
 

Onomatopoeia

Prometheus (after his first appearance)

Eradicator

Pretty much all of the Legion of Superheroes (sorry JT, I’m lazy today)

Slapstick

Beast Boy
Raven
Blue Beetle
Wonder Girl
Mad Hatter

Top Five Hero and Villain Team Ups you wish would happen (Ex. Batman & Joker)

Batman (Bruce) and The Joker
Batman (Bruce) and Deathstroke
Batman (Dick) and Deathstroke
Superman and Lex Luthor
Deadpool and Daken

Can I say Red Hood(Jason Todd) and Joker? Meh, I'm gonna say it anyway!

Steve Rogers/Red Skull

Deadpool/Two-Face(Because it would be HILARIOUS!)

Bart Allen/Inertia (I'd mark so hard for that!)

Cyclops/Mr. Sinister
 

Batman/Lex Luthor

Reed Richards/Lex Luthor

Fantastic Four/Fatal Five

Batman/Norman Osborn

Spectre/Mephisto

Kid Flash and the Reverse Flash

Power Girl and the male Dr. Light

Batgirl and Penguin

Superboy and Lex Luthor

Night Nurse and Dr. Death

Batman and The Joker
WW and  Max Lord
Black Canary and Lady Shiva
Superman and Lex
Huntress and Cheshire

Category Winners

Top Member that would cause problems - Deadpool
Top Fight People want to see - Bucky Barnes vs. Steve Rogers
Top Requested Ongoing Comic - Wally West
Top Lame Comic Character - Mad Hatter
Top Hero and Villain Team-Up - Batman & The Joker/Superman & Lex Luthor

Hey everyone, thanks for participating in the last Top Five 5 of 2010, you've all made history! Well, not really, but it was fun right? As for the results, I'm not surprised that Deadpool woul be one of the most dysfunctional members of almost any group. I, much like you guys, really would like to see more Bucky vs. Steve Rogers, I saw a tad in the Winter Soldier storyline, which was amazing. Wally continues to get support for an Ongoing, nothing says he can't have one, there's like five Batman series between the two Batmen alone. Mad Hatter gets the win for lamest comic character, Now THAT'S good hat! Or should I say good hate? And lastly, a huge team up between Bats and Joker which is coming next month written by Brian Azzarrello with art by Jim Lee should keep us busy until we hopefully get another Superman/Lex Luthor team-up. But that's it for me guys and gals, be sure to vote for this week's newest poll and I'll be back later this week with more Ratings and Rantings but until then I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd, signing off.

Last week's poll asked "Which Comic Character had the best year?"

Last place with 0% - Captain America, he couldn't be shielded from defeat.
Third Place with 11.1% - Spider-Man, The Web-Slinger pulls in at third place.
Second Place with 38.9% - Deadpool, The Merc with a Mouth is bumped off from Numero Uno.
Winner with 50.00% - Dick Grayson, The First Robin and Second Batman gets first place.

Ratings and Rantings

Hello world, hello friends and hello Todd Squad, Jason Todd here a.k.a. Captain Awesome, to once again to welcome you to my Red Hood for another dose of weekly comic content comments, Ratings and Rantings! With only two more Ratings and Rantings left in the year until my first annual JTCS Year End Awards, I'm trying to enjoy everything I can and spread love and goodwill and all that stuff. That is, before I saw Brightest Day came out today! Nah, I'm kidding, as always I'm looking for the good in these comics so I'll go in with no opinion and here's hoping I only have good things to say. Before we get started, sadly by the time I went to the comic shop, they were all out of this week's Amazing Spider-Man so I'll review that next week, hopefully they should have more in stock by then. Also, after flipping through Deadpool MAX which featured a female Baron Zemo, I decided to pass on that issue, but with that out of the way, it's time to kick things off with Brightest Day.

Brightest Day #16

We get things started with Aquaman and Jackson Hyde a.k.a. Aqualad are in Aquaman's um... underwater base? Aqualad is looking at pictures that Aquaman has up and comes across one with Arthur, Mera and their son. When Jackson asks about the picture, Aquaman tells him who they are, citing that his son was killed by Jackson's biological father, Black Manta. Awkward... Aquaman then tells Jackson his parents will be safe there but he and Jackson need to go fight the war between his people and Mera's people or the entire world will be destroyed... okay then. We then see the Firestorm boys trying to get their powers under control with the help of Doctor Mid-Nite and Mr. Terrific. From there we jump over to the super 90's type villain, Deathstorm. Duuuuuuude! After talking with Prof. Stein about how much more powerful he is than Firestorm, he says that the only way he can be killed is if the host he's bonded to dies, before letting Jason's father take over the body and giving him a gun. He pretty much eggs Jason's dad to kill himself, only because he knows he won't do it. He tells Stein and Mr. Rusch to remember they had an opportunity to end this all when he makes the boys scream in agony when he turns their blood to acid and their eyes to cockroaches. Mr. Rusch asks Stein what to do and Stein says do it, so Rusch pulls the trigger, but Deathstorm, being the groovy villain he is tells them he forgot to create bullets, before taking back over the body and laughing. Back with the Aquaguys, they go to some spot as Arthur leads them and find another chest that Jackson needs to open. Jackson opens the chest which allows him to get a pre-recorded message from a younger Mera which tells him why he can open the chests and also gives a little bit of insight onto his past and his mother. Aquaman helps Jackson regain his composure then tries to give him a costume that was in the chest, but naturally Jackson gets afraid of the responsibility that's been thrust upon him and wants to leave. Aquaman won't let Jackson leave so he gets defensive and attacks Aquaman. After a failed attempt of beating up the King of the Sea, Aquaman explains to Jackson how he was tapped early for his destiny as well, and convinces Jackson to step up and accept what he's been born to do. The issue ends with a very dumb ending that definitely dropped the rating of this book down by three points... beforehand this was gonna get a 7 but due to the super stupidity of how this ended, I'm dropping it to a 4/10.

Aquaman: One is my wife, Mera. The other...

Aqualad: Your kid?

Aquaman: My son. He was murdered by your biological father, by Black Manta.

Green Lantern #60

The 60th issue of Green Lantern gets underway with a quick rundown of Blackest Night, which apparently in the DC Universe was only six weeks ago. He talks about how entities have been possessing people, which leads us to him getting the hell beat out of him by a Parallax-controlled-Flash or as I'll refer to him, Barralax. After taking a bit of a beating from the "Fastest Entity Alive", Hal gets his second wind and boosts Barralax up into the air, interrupting his ability to run anyway. Barralax makes Hal look like a chump and explodes free of Hal's Green Lantern binds and continues his attack. In the midst of this they talk about how Barry used to guve Hal a book to read every two weeks and Hal would never read it. Um... okay? He also gave him his favorite book, H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" and Barry talks about how much he wishes he could time travel. I could've sworn he'd been doing that for the last twenty-plus years before he came back but hey, what do I know? After more random talking, Hal realizes that this is just Parallax trying to play off of Barry's memories, and he comes up with a plan of his own, by offering himself to Parallax. Parralax, being fooled into it like an idiot is about to try to possess Hal for like the third or fourth time but is stopped by the mysterious robed figure that has been collecting entities. Hal accuses him of being a Guardian but the small figure makes it known he's not one. He says he's the keeper of the entities and once watched over all of them. He even shows Hal that by controlling not only Parallax but also Ion, he can control the Will Power in Hal's ring, and demonstrates by dropping Hal's constructs with ease. The robed figure doesn't establish dominance for long because he's attacked by Saint Walker, Indigo, Larfleeze and a few other Lanterns and entities. Hal then asks Saint Walker to help use his Blue Ring to exorcise Parallax from Barry Allen. In a quick link up with Green Lantern Corps, we see Sinestro, with Atrocitus, and he's told by a fellow Sinestro Corp member how The Weaponer is threatening to kill Soranik Natu if Sinestro doesn't appear, since he's demanded it. For some reason, Sinestro finally decides to go save his daughter. Back with the Lanterns and entities, they try to exorcise Parallax from Barry, but the robed figure uses this opportunity to steal the Indigo Corps and Blue Lantern Corps entities and once again Parallax. This issue soon ends, but not before revealing who the robed figure is. This was an alright issue, too much talking from Barry and Hal for me and not enough action, I figured since they talked more in the last issue that this would be a action-heavy issue, but it's okay for what it was, I'll give this issue a 6/10.

Larfleeze: Where is my Lantern and the entity that I trapped inside? Tell me before I steal your eyes from their sockets!

Birds of Prey #7

Birds of Prey starts off with the Calculator, wondering why certain people like The Riddler and Joker continue to operate in Gotham when they could easily go somewhere else and not have to worry about dealing with The Dark Knight. He then welcomes in Savant, who apparently is working for Calculator and has double...or triple...or quadruple crossed Oracle? He tells Calculator he has what he wants, Oracle's exact location. We then jump over to see Babs Gordon out in the middle of the city, and about to be attacked by a bunch of thugs. They attack and Oracle lays them out like only a former Batgirl could, but when someone from afar pulls out a gun on Babs, Batman steps in and lays out the would be shooter. Batman tells the thugs, who are high off a drug called Blue, to go to Dr. Leslie Thompson and get clean, and he never wants to see them in that area again unless they're clean. When Batman (Bruce) finally walks over to Oracle, she's expecting to be admonished by the Dark Knight, but surprisingly he compliments her and offers her a hug. Next we jump over to see Dawn (Dove), Helena (Huntress), Zinda (Lady Blackhawk), and Dinah (Black Canary) at a strip club for Dawn's birthday. When Dinah asks Dove (who doesn't seem to be enjoying the meat suite known as strip club) where Hawk is, she explains that Hank is a hard to like individual but he's loyal, but Birthdays aren't his thing. We then see Hank with a gift for Dawn outside of the club, but throws it away and leaves, I'd assume for fear of being too close. Next we see Bruce and Babs talk about her new fortress of nerditude, and how only thirteen people have access. Those special thirteen are Bruce, Dick, Tim, Dinah, Helena, Stephanie Brown, Zinda, Hank, Dawn, Misfit (Woooo!), Savant, Creote and James Gordon. So no Jason Todd, Cass Cain, Alfred or Damian eh? When Batman and Babs finally enter her new base, Creote is standing guard and asks Batman to remove all his weapons, Batman doesn't do it so Babs interrupts and allows it, as not to cause a big ruckus between the two. Batman and Babs continue to talk and he tells her how the way he operates means he'll need everyone, from Huntress to everyone else, and especially Oracle. Babs says that he shouldn't call her that because Oracle dies tonight. Before she can elaborate, Savant enters the room, and when Babs asks him how it turned out, he says he's not sure they believed him, but she thanks him anyway. Best part of this issue, and a extra point, was Gail Simone basically rewriting it to make it show that James Robinson's claim made by Hal Jordan that he slept with Zinda and Helena at the same time was not true. Excellent work Gail. Back at the strip club, our girls are interrupted when some villains decide to attack for some reason. Canary, Huntress and Lady Blackhawk try to take them on since Dove isn't much help after passing out from drinking one beer. Lightweight! Things end when one of Calculator's newest goons steps in asking which of the Birds is Oracle. This was a nice solid issue, I liked seeing Babs and this softer Bruce meet up again, as well as wondering what happens to Babs since she's gonna kill off the Oracle name. I think this storyline has potential, and I'd expect Hawk to show up soon to help out the ladies in the next issue, as for this one I'll give it an 8/10.

Babs: Aren't you going to give me a lecture, Batman?

Batman: Actually... I was thinking of a hug. Something of that nature. Does that seem appropriate?

Batman: Orphans #2 of 2

The second part of Batman Orphans kicks things off when Bruce Wayne in the alley with his date, the female reporter from the last issue. Bruce starts to spaz out due to the Scarecrow toxin he's come in contact with earlier in the night from touching that Robin costume in the last issue. Bruce attacks his date but Alfred shows up in time to restrain him from causing any real harm. Of course, this ends up being a major headline. Back with the group of "Orphans", Francisco is upset at being shot up with Venom by his so-called teammates. Monica then enters the room and says she can "relax him." Man, that girl is quite the slut, eh? Who does she think she is, Dick Grayson?! She pretty much throws herself at Francisco, literally, and just as the two are about to get down to business the Bat-Alarm goes off, and she gives Francisco a pep-talk as well as a kiss. Over at Arkham Asylum we see our Journalist and her camera man are trying to get some dirt on someone named Dr. Nigaff. Also in Arkham, Bruce Wayne and one of his employee's son's named Tom (actually Tim Drake) are there as well, to get info of their own with Tim posing as a troubled youth as they speak to Dr. Nigaff. Dick Grayson is also at Arkham (what is this a party?) and runs into our journalist, Samantha Locke, telling her what a big fan he is and laying on that old Grayson charm. Take notes Monica, take notes. When Samantha finds out that Grayson is aligned with that "loon" Bruce Wayne, she tells him that Wayne needs to be locked up, but also gives Grayson her card. We find out that Nigaff once studied under Hugo Strange, leading Bruce to think that Nigaff is finding troubled kids for Strange, who believes he's Batman, to make his own Robin's. Meanwhile, some mysterious package is being sought after by everyone, so this leads to a showdown between The Riddler, Talon, Merlyn, The Orphans and some more characters that all want this FedLex package, and yes, I did purposely say FedLex.... it's owned by LexCorp. When the dust is settled, the current faux-Robin, Lance, is fricasseed by Firebug, and Crunch dies or a ton of wounds that he didn't feel while hopped up on Venom. Monica starts to realize that people are dying and gets hysterical, but the little nerd tech wanna-be Robin slaps her and tells her to get a grip. Monica pulls her sword out and attacks the pint-sized genius and he pulls out a gun and shoots her through the stomach. When he's questioned by Francisco about shooting Monica, Merlyn chimes in and says the nerd is just like his father and brother who were also killers. The first Robin we saw dead was the nerd's brother, and people thought Merlyn killed all the people in the airport but apparently it was the Faux-Robin, so there would be no witnesses of his murder. Francisco asks the little nerd if this is true and he confirms it's true and zaps Francisco with a stun gun. The small nerd leaves with the package as his former allies are all laid out or dead on the battlefield. Batman, Robin and Nightwing arrive soon after, and question Merlyn (Merlin?) on the package and find out he was sent by Talia Al Ghul to get it and to help Batman if need be, and tells Batman he placed a tracker on the package. We then see Francisco in a car leaving with a bleeding Monica, trying to get her help. Back at the fake Batcave, Batman shows around his newest guests, Samantha and her camera man, Sam Jackson. He tells them how he's caused all this destruction and how he's assembled groups of allies and followers, when the little nerd with the FedLex package shows up. Fake Batman has his followers take away the reporting duo as the nerd asks him about the package, and stuns Batman with the stun gun. The Fake Batman tells the nerd how he's earned a prize by figuring out what was going on, but this is interrupted by Francisco, now wearing the Robin suit, and Monica, who's apparently fine thanks to a shot of venom. Francisco tackles Batman, trying to get the package and Monica gives the nerd a big kiss, with a razor in her mouth which definitely kills the kid. Damn, these kids are ruthless. When the package falls, the faux-Batman spots the tracking device that was placed on it and is upset that they've led people there. Francisco continues to go after the Faux-Batman, and our fake Dark Knight sounds the alarm and tells his newest recruits to attack anyone in the building that's not with them. The new recruits throw Sam and Sam (really?! I JUST caught that?!) in the holding cell with Hugo Strange... showing us he isn't the fake Batman. Back with Francisco, he's come back just in time to see that Monica is dying, which makes him sad. He turns around in time to spot the real Batman and attacks him, not knowing what he's actually doing. Francisco really takes it to Batman, since Bats trying not to fight back. Meanwhile, Nightwing and Robin catch the fake Batman and unmask him, showing us he's actually _________. Well that was fairly obvious. I won't spoil it though. Anyway, the issue ends after as a bunch of Gotham villains all try to find out what's in the FedLex package. Well...okay. This was alright, the ending was kinda bland and predictable, and what was in the package was so lame I don't even have words, I'd rather it stayed a secret instead of that reveal. I did connect with Monica and Francisco near the end, I just find it annoying instead of taking her to a hospital he went to get venom and confront Batman. Really? Are you THAT stupid? Anyway, I'll give this a 5/10.

Two-Face: The only thing I'm undecided about is how I will get rid of your bodies. (That made me chuckle.)


Well that's it for me, thanks for reading everyone. I also wanna thank all my newest followers for stopping by and following the insane ramblings that I post week in and week out. You guys are great, and feel free to comment and gimme any comments you want. But that's it for this week's Ratings and Rantings, but we've also got the last Top Five 5 of the year this weekend! For those that haven't participated before, I'll list five topics, and you send me your top five answers for each topic to KevinKavalier@gmail.com , and I'll post all of the replies this weekend so we can compare. It's fun so feel free to join. I'd say try to send your picks in as soon as possible and expect the Top Five up by this Sunday. The topics are below, and until next time, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger Man, Jason Todd, signing off!

Top Five People that should never be on the same team
Top Five Comic Fights you wish would happen
Top Five Characters you wish had Ongoing Comics
Top Five Lamest Comic Characters
Top Five Hero and Villain Team Ups you wish would happen (Ex. Batman & Joker)

Next Week on Ratings and Rantings

Batman: Streets of Gotham #18, Green Lantern Corps #55,  Power Girl #19, JL Generation Lost #16, Deadpool #30, and Amazing Spider-Man #650

Ratings and Rantings

Hey everyone, JT here with another weekly dose of comic content comments with my favorite and only weekly feature, Ratings and Rantings! This is another small week for me, as I only have five comics to review this week, but they're big ones. A few of my favorites like Batgirl, Gen Lost and Red Robin as well as what should hopefully tie up some loose ends of Shadowland. I also picked up that What If: Wolverine Father but due to leaving it over Falisha's and being too lazy to go pick it up, I decided I'll review it another time. So, enough of my introduction, let's get to the meat and potatoes of this post, the reviews!

Batgirl #16

We start off this issue of Batgirl with our heroine, Stephanie Brown as Batgirl, running from the police after finding out she apparently killed one of her fellow students, which is news to Steph. Batgirl tries to escape from the Gotham City Police Department, and with the help of Oracle, she finally does after a long arduous chase. Batgirl then finds herself face to face with Detective Nick Gage, who knows that Batgirl is innocent. The two talk about what's happened, and Detective Gage even pops Batgirl's recently dislocated shoulder back into place. When the cops close in, Nick buys her time as Batgirl gets away and heads home. The next day at school Steph finds out that her classroom enemy Jordanna is now an enemy of Batgirl's as well, as she does a protest against our Blonde Bat, claiming her grief due to a classmate being "killed by Batgirl" has affected her studies. Stephanie, not in the mood to argue about Batgirl's innocence just walks away. Later on, Babs tells Steph that the reason she was believed to have killed the student, because Gage found a bloody Batarang, was wrong because the blood had been added after the death of the student along with some radioactive isotopes. Upon further analysis Oracle figures out where the isotopes originated and tells Batgirl where. Batgirl goes to crash the party and subdues the robed bad guys that are trying to steal things from the abandoned building. Batgirl is then shocked as the GCPD show up, and Gage tells her that bthanks to a tape sent by Oracle, Batgirl's been exonerated by the evidence that she didn't kill that college student. The cops arrest the robed goons but they soon escape due to someone that Batgirl expects must be a Speedster. The issue ends soon after as we find out who is behind the "Order of the Scythe." This was a solid issue, nothing amazing but nothing bad either, just solid. I enjoyed it and loved the smart remarks by Wendy when we saw her, even if she still does talk to her dead brother. Anyway, I'll give this issue a 8/10.

Batgirl: What's in the bag, Detective?

Det. Gage: Your Boomerang--

Batgirl: --Batarang.

Det. Gage: You realize that sounds more ridiculous, right?

Batgirl: Ridiculously awesome.

Shadowland: After the Fall One-Shot

After the Fall starts off with us getting the inside scoop from our narrator, Ben Urich, discussing the impact Daredevil had on Hell's Kitchen and how he changed the city due to recent events. We then start to follow Detective Alex Kurtz, as he discusses how his Captain wants him to bring in Daredevil, even though he's retired. What? If I was retired.... getting paid after doing my job long enough to be done doing it, and someone called me and asked me to go take down someone that fights heroes and villains for a living.... why the hell would I do it?! Anyway, from there we see both the detective and the reporter looking for info on Daredevil, asking everyone from Spidey to Luke Cage to Iron Fist, and coming up with no answers. After coming up with nothing, both men go to meet with Foggy Nelson, and when all three are at the same place, they discuss Murdock and if he's contacted Foggy, and if he's even still alive. Ben finally goes home after Foggy kicks both he and Alex out, and finds a micro-cassette. He plays it and hears a message from Matt Murdock, Matt apologizes for screwing up, trying to change The Hand and everything else he did and says he doesn't know when he'll be back or if he'll be back. The message ends and a Sai flies through the player, destroying the tape as Elektra tells Ben he'd best forget about Matt's message, much like Matt requests when the message ends. Back with Kurtz, he witnesses a crime and tries to stop it but it's broken up by Black Panther for some reason who looks like The Insider in the Batman: Road Home comics. He tells Kurtz he's watching over Hell's Kitchen now. Well who the hell asked you to? Back at the Police Station, the Police Officers all want to talk to Kurtz and ask him to stop looking for Matt, citing how he's saved them and when he was arrested the crime rate skyrocketed. The issue ends soon after with Urich telling Foggy how his article will be on how Daredevil helped change Hell's Kitchen to a better place and was an inspiration before the events of Shadowland. Well, that was a waste of four dollars. Nothing happened... at all. We found out nothing, we don't know why T'Challa is in Hell's Kitchen or anything. It was just a waste of time, the only good thing was seeing how some officers stood up for Daredevil. Anyway, I guess this was okay for what it was, but it wasn't much. I'll give it a 3/10.

Ben Urich: Hell's Kitchen isn't what it used to be. We've all seen it changing, recently changing for the better.

Red Robin #18

We get things kicked off with Timothy Drake, a.k.a. Red Robin in Russia thanks to the help of the former Anarky, Lonnie Machin. Tim is there to try to take down the villainous communication grid known only as the Unternet. Red Robin is soon joined by Mother Russia's former Teen Titan member, Red Star. Red Star is noticeably different, more hostile than we've seen him in the past, and even gives Tim a veiled threat when asking why Red Robin is there and tells him to tread lightly. Next we see Tim with Tam Fox, enjoying breakfast in their hotel room and discussing the plans for their meeting with Viktor Mikalek, and Red Robin's meeting with Mikalek, as he tries to find out if he's involved with the Unternet. When Tim and Tam meet with Mikalek, they convince the rich Russian mogul to invest in a Russian Neon Knights chapter and successfully hack into his computers with help from Lonnie. Just as the two are finishing up the meeting, a woman bursts through the window, guns-a-blazing. She tells Mikalek he will pay for his crimes and subdues his guards with rubber bullets. Tim determines he needs info from her and wants her to escape but Red Star shows up on the scene. Tim puts himself in the way, although making it look like a mistake, and the woman, known as Promise, uses Tim as a hostage to allow Red Star to let her escape. After changing into his Red Robin costume Tim goes after Promise, having secretly planted a tracer on her. When Tim arrives, Promise is taking a shower. And like the confused, non-sexually active horny seventeen year-old gentleman he is, he doesn't look and waits for her to finish, but she's aware he's there and blasts him with a bar of soap. Promise attacks Tim and he fights her off until he can tell her he didn't come for a fight. He offers to help her go after Mikalek if she has a good reason, and she explains that he hurt her brother, destroyed her home and various other reasons that make Mikalek look like a jackass. Red Robin and Promise's conversation is cut short as Red Star comes through a wall (Use a door jerk... who are you, the Kool-Aid Man?) and says that she's under arrest for being a terrorist. Red Robin stands between Promise and Red Star and Tam let's him know via comm link that Mikalek has been working with Calculator. Red Robin tells Red Star but he quickly refutes it by saying that Wayne Enterprises once worked with Lex Luthor to rebuild Gotham. Realizing he's in trouble, Red Robin hits a sneak attack on Red Star and tells Promise to run. Red Robin keeps avoiding attacks from Red Star and even boards his ship and tries to find something he can use against the big Russian Bruiser. The issue ends soon after with a very interesting ending for Red Robin, Tam Fox and Promise. This was another great issue, it seems like Red Robin keeps getting better and better under Fabian's writing. I love the character development in each issue, and I'm wondering what the deal is with the ending for this issue. It definitely has me hyped up for next months. I'll give this issue of Red Robin a 9/10.

Red Robin: Now I'm even more intrigued than I was with the whole shower thing... Lynx, Scarab, Steph, Cass and now this. (And Tam! Dayum, when did Tim become such a PLAYA?!)

JL Generation Lost #15

It's time for more Gen Lost, featuring in the spotlight a character that I've really taken a shine to lately, Captain Atom. We start off with a quick recap on Max Lord and how he controlled Superman and forced Wonder Woman's hand, which led to her snapping his neck like a twig. We see that Max learned since coming back to never underestimate Wonder Woman, as he damn well shouldn't. We then learn that Max has a problem of his own, because apparently no one else remembers who Wonder Woman is. Max has been tracking her but suddenly can't find the Amazonian Princess, and he of course has to see the irony in no one remembering him or the woman that killed him. I'd assume this is due to her new background and past as of late but that's just my guess. Max, clearly upset, orders the people at Cadmus labs to send someone or something after Wonder Woman and find her, because when he does find her, he promises to finish her off. Next up we see various news reports of how Captain Atom has caused destruction and murder in Chicago, even though that's not what actually happened. Turns out Captain Atom is back in his original time, now in the old J.L.I. headquarters with Rocket Red, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. (Such colorful names...) He tells his teammates how each time he goes to the future everything is bleak and it always comes back to Max Lord, and him killing Wonder Woman is the common denominator so to speak, so he says to stop that he has to kill Max Lord. Booster tries to talk him out of it but Cap doesn't want to hear it, citing how now he's a monster in the eyes of civilians and fellow heroes, and how they can't convince anyone to help them now due to them thinking he's a murderer. Booster tells Captain Atom to grow up, surprising everyone, including me. Booster tells Atom in no uncertain terms that he's not gonna be allowed to kill Max, regardless of what Max has done to him. He says that as good guys they don't kill, they're going to catch Max, arrest him, throw him in a cell with power dampeners, and let him rot there, but first Booster is going to "beat the ever-loving sh*t out of him!" Atom finally agrees, but his and Gold's conversation is cut short when both Rocket Red and Blue Beetle ask who Wonder Woman is. Booster checks with Fire and Ice and they recall our favorite Amazonian, meaning only Booster, Atom, Fire, Ice and Max Lord currently remember who Wonder Woman is, but not even Skeets remembers who she is. The team decides they need to find Wonder Woman and see what's going on but the team is soon ambushed by... The Creature Commandos? The issue ends soon after with one of our JLI'ers down for the count and not looking too good. This was another solid issue of one of the best damn comics out today. The mystery of wondering where Wonder Woman is (no pun intended), the anger shown by Captain Atom, as well as more character development on how much Booster Gold has evolved over the last six years and I couldn't be happier with this issue. The team attacking was kinda bleh, only because I've never heard of them but that's my fault I guess. Anyway, this was another fine issue of a great comic, I'll give it a 9/10.

Max Lord: WONDER! WOMAN! She's--She's a hero! The Amazon Warrior Princess, The--WONDER WOMAN, You Jackasses! None of you have ever heard of her?!

Well that's all for me this week guys, I'll be back with more Ratings and Rantings next week though. Below are the results for the poll from last week, and be sure to vote on the newest poll for this week. Until next time, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd.

Last Week's poll asked "Who do you think should have won Battle for The Cowl if Dick Grayson didn't?"

Last place with 0% - Stephanie Brown, she's best as Batgirl anyway.
Third place with 7.7% - Damian Wayne, the young Robin wasn't ready for the Cowl
Second Place with 30.8% - Tim Drake, the favorite in my opinion for this poll falls short.
Winner with 61.5% - Jason Todd, I gotta say this shocked the hell outta me.

Next Week on Ratings and Rantings

Batman: Orphans #2 of 2, Birds of Prey #7, Brightest Day #16, Green Lantern #60, Amazing Spider-Man #650, Deadpool MAX #3

Top Five 5

Hey everyone, once again welcome to the Top Five 5's! Sorry for the late post, I had this done yesterday but had internet problems courtesy of Comcast. Anyway this is the Top Five 5,  My favorite and only bi-weekly feature here at JTCS. So, of course we're gonna do things just like always, I'm going to list each category along with each person's picks. So let's get into it. And just to remind everyone, here's the color guideline:

Jason Todd

Marc 

Kello

Paul C.

X-Man

Falisha

Top Five X-Men

Wolverine
Deadpool (He counts!)
Iceman
Cyclops
Gambit (Yeah... I said it.)

Wolverine
Beast
Angel
Iceman
Chamber

Wolverine
Storm
Cyclops
Gambit
Nightcrawler

Nate Grey (hey, he WAS an X-Man for like 3 issues!)

Wolverine

Jean Grey

Beast

Cannonball
 

Kitty Pryde

Cyclops

Banshee

Beast

Wolverine

Colossus

Nightcrawler
Wolverine
Armor
Pixie

Top Five Robots/Cyborgs

Metallo
Brainiac
Skeets
Cyborg-Superman
Boodikka (I guess?)

Cyborg Superman
The Vision
Hourman (android version)
Ultron
Metal Men (can I count them as one?) (I'll allow it buddy!)

Cyborg from Teen Titans of course~
Metallo
MODOK
Brainiac
Skeets

Ultron

Umm, Cyborg?

Machinesmith

Machine Man

Vision(he's an android, but he should count, right?)

R2-D2

Optimus Prime

Vision

H.E.R.B.I.E.

The Terminator

Cyborg Superman

Skeets

Beta Ray Bill

The malfunctioning Doombot from Matt Fraction’s Punisher: War Journal #4 (the classic “Funeral of Stilt-Man” issue)

Cyborg (Vic Stone)

Top Five Spider-Man Characters (Not including Spidey)

Black Cat
Eddie Brock (as Venom)
Norman Osborn
J. Jonah Jameson
Carnage

J. Jonah Jameson
Norman Osborn
Harry Osborn
Flash Thompson
Ben Reilly

Venom
Black Cat
Aunt May
Green Goblin
Carnage

J. Jonah Jameson

Mary Jane

Venom(Eddie Brock)

Norman Osborn

Carnage
 

Mary Jane Watson

Aunt May

J. Jonah Jameson

Ezekiel

Kitty Pryde (in the Ultimate Universe)

 

Mary Jane

J. Jonah Jameson

Gwen Stacy

Green Goblin

Robby Robertson

Top Five books that seem like they should have been cancelled a long time ago…

Titans
Teen Titans
Azrael
Outsiders
Deadpool Team-Ups

Deadpool Team-Up
Deadpool Corps
Deadpool Max  (he really doesn't need more than one book)
Can't think of any more.

Brightest Day
Teen Titans
Titans
Batman and Robin
Streets of Gotham

Brightest Day!

X-Men Legacy

Booster Gold(sadly)

All of the Hulk books

Flash

Spawn (who still reads this??)

Savage Dragon (same question as above...)

Hulk (the Jeph Loeb one)

Any one of Deadpool's five dozen ongoing series

Brightest Day (from what you guys tell me!)

Azrael

Outsiders

X-Men: Legacy

Superman/ Batman

Doom Patrol

Top Five Comic Writers of The Year

Judd Winick
Gail Simone
Bryan Q. Miller
Geoff Johns
Daniel Way

Grant Morrison
Matt Fraction
Geoff Johns
Paul Cornell
Sterling Gates

Gail Simone
Judd Winick
Bryan Q. Miller
Jodi Picoult
J.H. Williams III

Ed Brubaker

Bryan Q. Miller

Tony Bedard

Daniel Way

Marjorie Liu

Have to pass on this one since I haven't read enough comics from the last year!

Judd Winick

Jonathan Hickman

Bryan Q. Miller

Dan Slott

Sterling Gates

Category Winners

Top X-Men Member - Wolverine
Top Robot/Cyborg - Three way Tie - Cyborg, Cyborg-Superman, and The Vision
Top Spider-Man Character - Tie between Norman Osborn/Green Goblin and J. Jonah Jameson
Top book that seems like it should've been cancelled - Brightest Day
Top Comic Writer of The Year - Bryan Q. Miller!

Thanks everyone for participating, and these picks are really shocking. I didn't expect to get a three way tie on the Top Robot or Cyborg but I think we all expected Wolverine to dominate the Top X-Man category. Jameson and Osborn show that nice guys do finish last since they are the top characters voted for Spidey's Universe besides the web-head himself. Brightest Day being the book that's voted to have been cancelled, that's pretty sad on DC's part but hey, what can ya do? And lastly, I'm glad that Bryan Q. Miller walked away with the writer of the year, the guy has been amazing so far and does deserve even a little recognition on my tiny blog. He's been great on Batgirl consistently, and especially on her Road Home issue, so great picks everyone. That's all for me, until next time, I'm your friendly neighborhood blogger-man, Jason Todd!

Ratings and Rantings

Hey everybody! Hey Dr. Nick! Oh wait, wrong thing. Hey everyone, JT here with another weekly dose of comic content comments with my favorite and only weekly feature, Ratings and Rantings! This week we've got a short list of comics with only Brightest Day #15, Shadowland #5 and Batman: Orphans being subbed in for Batman 80 page Giant since I didn't have enough money at the comic shop. Ah well, I'll get to it eventually. Anyway, this post will also include the surprising results for last weeks poll along with a new poll posted this Sunday, and the topics for this weeks Top Five 5!So, without further adieu, let's get into it with Brightest Day. *groan*

Brightest Day #15

This issue starts out with everyone looking old, I guess 25 years older according to Batman, on Mars, surrounded by Martians, with the JLA talking up Martian Manhunter, saying how great he is. An old Hal that looks like Hal looked about twenty years ago (irony, eh?) even calls Martian Manhunter "my favorite martian" (ha ha ha /sarcasm/) Anyway, we then find out that J'onn, who is already powerful enough on his own, and as strong, if not stronger than Superman, is now Hal's sector partner in the Green Lanterns. So... did you guys kill off Guy, John and Kyle? I'm not even gonna talk about how asinine it would be to give MM a Green Lantern ring. From there we see a big love fest and everyone talking about death, and I should mention the art is horrendous compared to the usual art. In one scene Bruce Wayne looks like freaking Marlon Brando. You know what? Matter of fact I'm gonna have Falisha photoshop a pic of the two next to each other so you can SEE what I mean. Anyway, after everyone being horribly drawn shares their emotions, they leave and J'onn goes home with his "wife." He then feeds his dog some Oreos even though that stuff would kill a dog, I guess the dog realizes J'onn is trying to secretly assassinate it so it bites him. J'onn is shocked the dog bit him and walks off with his wife. J'onn then finds out someone has killed Batman with pearl bullets... lmao. That may have been the dumbest thing I've ever typed. Anyway, J'onn goes to warn everyone since if Batman was killed they are all fair game. Okay... I get that Bats is powerful and stuff, but just because he gets killed with pearl bullets, how does that put Wonder Woman, Supes and the rest in jeopardy? We then find out someone has hanged (hung?) WW with her lasso, buries Aquaman in the desert.... and cut of Flash's head while he runs around. Lmao, X is gonna love that. Oh, and someone cut off Hal's ring hand and he died in space. Okay.... God this comic sucks. J'onn then reads all the Martian's minds to find Superman... and he finds him underground with a Kryptonite mask. The remove the mask and find that Supes is still alive. Okay wait, if you can read everyone's mind to see where he is... and FIND him... then shouldn't you know who put him there?! Anyway, J'onn helps Kal get revived by the sun, and he tells Superman what happened then takes him to the dead JLA members corpses. Martian Mahunter then talks to Superman about how he was lucky he didn't have to see Krypton die like he saw Mars die. They talk more about being the last of their kinds then J'onn stabs superman in the neck with a big pointy slab of Kryptonite. Where the hell did that come from? Superman says "Wake Up" as he dies, then J'onn looks afraid wondering why he killed Superman. He flees and Mars is on fire with all the Martians saying "Wake Up!" J'onn heads home and attacks his "wife" and snaps out of his dream induced world to find that all the Martians were just their skeletons. You gotta be kidding me... we then jump over to freaking CONGORILLA?! Okay, I'm done. This was the second to last page and I was gonna give this a one but now it gets "the big ol fail award!" This comic gets a N/A.

JT: Wait... so Marlon Brando is Batman?

Batman: Orphans #1 of 2

Batman: Orphans has a pretty interesting synopsis which you can read here. Anywho, this issue starts off with Robin, laid out in the rain with arrows sticking out of his chest, courtesy of Merlyn. We're introduced to our narrator, female reporter Samantha Locke, along with her photographer, Sam Jackson, who quotes Samuel L. Jackson's movie quotes all the time. I like this guy already. They try to take pictures of the grisly scene and we soon see the newspaper headline "DEAD ROBIN!" We see a nerdy, glasses wearing Timothy Drake and the always cool Dick Grayson, as they discuss how someone impersonating Robin was killed. From there we see a Hispanic woman leave her home and get mugged before a young Hispanic teenage boy jumps in to help her, he dispatches of her would-be robbers and tries to return her purse, but the lady runs off. Our young hero turns around to see a shrouded figure resembling Batman, telling the boy to come with him. From there we see our Dynamic Duo of reporting try to get into the morgue to inspect the dead "Robin", but they're turned away by the guard. Nightwing (Man I miss that costume) and Robin show up soon after to inspect the body as well. They talk to the coroner who tells them about the alleged Robin before he unmasks and we find out the coroner is actually Batman. How'd he fit Bat ears, a mask and a cape under that? Anyway, we then see our young Hispanic Hero in the sewers with the man he believes to be The Dark Knight. The fake Batman asks the young man if he's ready to do good, before introducing him to "The Bat-Grotto" which is actually an underground city from No Man's Land that was built over by LexCorp. The Faux-Bats drops the young hero into the Lion's Den so to speak with other wanna-be heroes who attack him to test him. When the young hero prevails for the most part, but is soon taken down by another young hero by the name of Lance. I guess he does enough to impress the Faux-Batman, and Lance is the next to claim the Robin costume. Next up we see Lance and another Robin hopeful, a young woman named Monica making out and maybe more. After his session with Monica, the newest Boy Wonder springs into action. We finally find out your young Hispanic Hero's name is Francisco when one of the other teenage wanna-be's shoots up with some Venom. He offers it to Francisco who turns it down, but he takes down Francisco and injects him with some Venom for his own good. Interesting twist this is. The young heroes head to see Batman who scolds them for showing up so late after the alarm sounded. Back at the true Batcave, Bruce, Dick and Tim are trying to find out information on the missing kids. When Dick mentions how great Samantha Locke has been at digging up information, Bruce decides to see what she knows by running into her at a big movie premiere. Back with Samantha Locke and Sam Jackson, they try to get into the movie premiere but can't, until they're requested by Bruce Wayne, well make that just Samantha. Back at the Batcave, Tim and Dick try to find a motive for the dead Robin and the missing kids, counting out Joker, Riddler and more of their more popular rogues. We then see the young team of wanna-be heroes, and as we see each one we also see an article write-up of each of them. Each of them have pretty grim backgrounds, all with the similarity of running away. The kids confront someone and show unbridled aggression in taking him down and even kill their enemy. Back in the Batcave, Tim and Dick relive attacks and bad memories of attacks by The Joker, Killer Croc and other rogues. After a very trippy moment, Dick figured out that the Robin costume has Scarecrow Toxin on it and shoots both himself and Tim with the antidote. The issue ends soon after with Bruce Wayne, in Crime Alley with the Scarecrow Toxin taking effect. All in all this is a very interesting story, I really like the potential, and the fact it's only two issues makes me think a lot will be left out but hopefully it maintains momentum. I did enjoy the first issue a lot, which is funny since the Bat-Family members were barely in the first part. It did seem to drop in quality near the end but for the most part I enjoyed it, I'll give this issue an 7/10.

Batman: Oh, we're taking the National Whisper as a reliable source? Does it mention that they were taken by aliens?

Nightwing: I wouldn't diss aliens. Some of them have Super-Hearing, y'know.

Shadowland #5

The final issue of Shadowland kicks things off with the residents of Hell's Kitchen, fighting against the SWAT Team that's trying to subdue them. Back with Daredevil, he's demolished the entire Avengers team from the last issue, and as Ghost Rider shows up to bring him the fight he ends up eating a HUGE super-kick from Daredevil. Ghost Rider tries to fight back but his attacks are pretty ineffective against the super-powered, evil Daredevil. He even sucks out all of Ghost Rider's Hell-Fire, leaving a very tired skull-headed Biker. From there White Tiger finds Foggy Nelson in Daredevil's lair, she plans on slitting his neck in front of Daredevil but DD decides he wants to kill Foggy himself. Foggy pulls the old "I know this isn't you" thing that everyone has used for this entire series but for some reason it works here. Iron Fist takes advantage of the distraction and BLASTS Daredevil in the chest. He uses his chi to heal Matt....um... okay then. We see inside Matt's mind as he's a child again, in a dark room, and he tries to call out to his parents but both abandon him. He's then met by Elektra in his mind, and she tries to instill some hope in The Man Without Fear, then gives him a sword, and Matt commits suicide for some reason. Alright then.... that was very anti-climactic. The angry Hell's Kitchen dwellers snap out of their rage and start hugging and making up. Yeah... alright then. As all the heroes regain consciousness, Foggy realizes that Matt is missing. We then Elektra sneaking away to a secret passage and is holding Daredevil's mask. We then see Kingpin show up to claim The Hand, saying he's now the rightful leader, and showing that Typhoid Mary was working for him all along as well. This issue was pretty... something. It was so far off from the awesomeness that was this mini-series. I mean... Ghost Rider was there for NOTHING. He showed up, got kicked in the face and that was it. Unnecessary, like most appearances in this comic. I'll give this issue a 5/10, and the entire mini would probably get a 7/10.

Ghost Rider: What in the name of Hades' Mercedes?

Well that's all for this week from me guys. Hope you enjoyed this weeks short review. As always, comments are appreciated. And this week's Top Five 5 will be going up on Sunday evening so make sure you send your picks to me before then at KevinKavalier@gmail.com . The topics are below. After that are the results for last week's poll and be sure to vote on the newest poll which will be up this Sunday with the Top Five 5. Until next time, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd!

Top Five X-Men
Top Five Robots/Cyborgs
Top Five Spider-Man Characters (Not including Spidey)
Top Five books that seem like they should have been cancelled a long time ago…
Top Five Comic Writers of The Year

Last Week's Poll asked "Which Hero should've been added to the Young Justice Cartoon series?"

Third Place with 18.2% - Tie between Ravager and Static
Second Place with 27.3% - Blue Beetle (Shocking.)
Winner with 36.4% - Wonder Girl, well she was an original!

Next Time on Ratings and Rantings

Batgirl #16, JL Gen Lost #15, Red Robin #18, Shadowland After Fall, What If Wolverine Father