Saturday, May 22, 2010

Ratings and Rantings

Welcome back to my Red Hood for another edition of Ratings & Rantings. This week was supposed to be a low pull with Brightest Day, Streets of Gotham and Deadpool, but I'll also be reviewing this month's issue of Superman/Batman. Also there's a new poll for everyone to vote on, along with the results from last weeks poll. So no more small talk, lets get right into it.

 Superman/Batman #72

I'm a big fan of the Superman/Batman series but the last few arcs have looked blah, but I picked up this one hoping to jump back into the fray. The artwork by Jerry Ordway has a way of looking polished, and amazing as well as just drawing you in. His Superman isn't the best I've seen but it's definitely the most captivating I've seen in a while, and I've got to attribute that to colorist Pete Patazis because the colors just jump off the page. And not just Superman, as both Batman and a surprising appearance by Lex Luthor look wonderful in this comic. The story is pretty good too, it's not amazing but the art makes up for it. The story does heat up *no pun intended* near the end and It got me more excited for next month's issue which I'll be sure to pick up. As for the issue, a nice story with strong artwork, I'll give it a 7.5/10 rating. A good read but nothing worth going out of your way for.

Crazy Cult Guy: You should have been a holy vessel to bear a child of Krypton and Earth, but you spurned Superman to marry a human! (Lol who the hell says spurned anymore?)


Deadpool #23

Deadpool #23 starts with a news report of a party where people are celebrating the Avengers reuniting, and all is going well until the Club owner says, "Who are our kids supposed to look up to? Dirtbags like Deadpool?" Little does he know our Crimson Comedian is watching that news report, and next thing ya know, Deadpool is on a trip to Las Vegas to pay the club owner a visit. And man oh man, did we get a BIG Surprise when Deadpool goes one on one with The House (A Vegas hero with the Card Suits painted onto his big robotic suit.) I of course won't ruin the ending but the fact "The Box" popped up as well as an old Deadpool alumni made this a good read. It's not as good as some of the other Deadpool issues but it did entertain, I'll give it a 7/10.

The House: "Welcome to Vegas. Where the House always wins." ... genius right?

Streets of Gotham #12

This issue of Streets starts with a lovely Gotham lady hustling to suckers in a pool hall, at first glance I thought it was Harley Quinn but it's Paul Dini faithful, The Carpenter. She runs into some trouble while hustling and Batman shows up, and even notices her without her Carpenter gear which made for a pretty funny image. I'm not a fan of the cheesy one liners she used, they work for certain people like Dick Grayson, Deadpool, Static, but they just came off kind of dumb when The Carpenter used them. Also can we get some... creativity? Come on with these damn names... The Carpenter, The Director, so if I was a villain would I be The Reviewer or The Blogger? Anyway, the stuff with Damien and Colin (Abuse) was also cool, I like to see other sides of Damien and he came off alright here. Reading a comic about The Carpenter wasn't on my list but I was pleasantly surprised, I mean I really enjoyed this comic. Batman barely showed up, just like the last issue but this was a good story and Streets of Gotham continues to make me want to read the next issue very badly. My rating for this issue is an 8/10.

Colin: Is this your way of thanking me for saving your life from Zsasz?
Damian: No. It's because you look like an idiot walking around town in that trench coat.

Brightest Day #2

The second issue of Brightest day starts off with us finding out what the bad news for Firestorm is from Ray Palmer. Then we jump to some crazy lady who's not a lady.... Then we jump to Martian Manhunter, Then we jump to the Hawks, and so on and so forth. Recently X and Falisha have both expressed that this jumping around to tell all these stories is annoying, by now I have to agree. I know they have a lot of people to tell us about but two pages per person is hurting the story more than it's helping. Why not two people per issue or something so I can get into something before being yanked away to follow someone else? And really? The Hawks are premeditating murder even though that's what Ollie did and everyone got pissed? Consistency is all I ask for. We had no reason to see Aquaman who's on the cover yet was only one ONE PAGE! And the ending was more bleh than anything else. I don't know where their going from here but I'm no anxious for the next issue at all, especially with the extremely boring Martian Manhunter stuff, I'll give it a 3/10

Firestorm: If he doesn't answer I'm transmuting this door into Jello shots and getting the hell out of here. What's your favorite flavor, Jason?

And that's it for this week, four issues, pretty average except for the abomination that is Brightest Day #2. I was looking forward to that but oh well. Onto the Poll results. I asked you guys who you would like to see join Deathstroke's Titans?

Last Place with 0% - Ravager and Cassandra Cain, no one wants to see the former Teen Titan and the former Batgirl join Deathstroke.
Second Place with 11.1% - Arsenal, comes in second for Deathstroke's new recruit.
First Place with 88.9% aka 8 votes - Jason Todd dominates, so let's see it. I say Jason joins the Titans as Deathstroke's number two, and either gets kicked out for disagreement and goes for revenge against them or Kicks Deathstroke out and turns his Titans against him. What do you guys think? Well that's all for me, I'll be back next time with more Ratings and Rantings, have a good one.

- Jason Todd

Next Time on Ratings and Rantings

Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne #2, Detective Comics #865, Gotham City Sirens #12, Green Lantern #54, Green Lantern Corps #48, JL Generation Lost #2, Rise and Fall of Arsenal #3. and Teen Titans #83.

10 comments:

  1. Once again nice review. Although I'm only keeping up with brightest day and deadpool.

    I agree with those scores, brightest day really needs to pick up or this will be another disappointing comic ill have to retire from reading. Can't wait for the next installment of reviews.

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  2. Aww well thank you :) I agree, Brightest Day is starting off really lackluster so I hope it turns it around and gets interesting because as of now Brightest Day is nowhere near as interesting as Blackest Night was.

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  3. That's too bad about Brightest Day. I know some people were a little iffy about the end of Blackest Night, so this should have been DC's chance to set the record straight and deliver something really great. Unfortunately, I don't think the Countdown to Final Crisis-style plodding anthology title is ever the way to go with these kinds of things.

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  4. Yeah I agree Marc, sad thing is I liked the first two issues (0 and 1) and for this one to just fall apart was sad, plus I had faith because I enjoyed 52 so much but it looks like this won't be as good unless they make some changes.

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  5. I had to vote for Birds of Prey on the poll. That book is only one issue in and it's already delivedred on the hype.

    I love your point about the carpenter. Not too long ago Paul Dini also created a character whose whole schtick was that he was obsessed with globes (I can't remember his name...Atlas? Orienterer? I'm not sure). That was just a little too close to campy 50's Batman for me....

    I got Brightest Day 0 and knew that was it for me. I honestly think this is the year when Geoff Johns backlash begins. I've heard Brightest Day's storytelling being called "trailerism", because it's just snippets of things dressed up as a story, and at this point (although that could change) I have to agree.

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  6. I also voted for Birds of Prey, I enjoyed Titans although I hated that Choi....yeah, and I really enjoyed Generation Lost but Birds was the Total package for me.

    Agreed, you're right it does seem rather 50's Batman,I could see if she went by The Carpenter Jane Drew or whatever her name is, but eh.

    Damn Kello that's the exact best way to out it too, it is just like a trailer in comic book form, and yeah things could change but if they don't I can easily see this being one of the worst series since Countdown to Final Crisis.

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  7. Hmm, nothing overly exciting this week I see JT. I've got to say that your review for BD #2 def left me a bit surprised, because I know you were enjoying the first two issues... What happened! :P I prob won't see these books for at least another week and a half or so, and I have to say, I'm not losing any sleep over that, especially if they're as mediocre as you say they are.

    I picked BoP on the poll and I haven't even READ it yet! All I know is Gail Simone+BoP=Awesomeness!

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  8. Man... it was just so ass backwards, at least in issue one people got a few pages, this one was like two pages per person, no mention of Max, Reverse Flash, Cap. Boomerang, Jade, it's like really?! I hated it dude...

    Lol I can't say I blame ya, I liked three of the four I listed but BOP was my favorite with JL Gen in second and Titans in third.

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  9. What, no love for Return of Bruce Wayne, JT? Once I post this comment, I'm actually going to be reading the first issue of Return before I go to sleep tonight. I'll prob have a review for it up Monday night.

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  10. Nah buddy, and it looks like you'll see why in a few minutes haha. So... yeah can't wait to see what ya think of it.

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