Ratings and Rantings

Hey guys, as always this is Jason Todd welcoming you to my Red Hood for another edition of Ratings and Rantings. That's right, the time of the week where I review comics I picked up, entertain you with my crazy rants, then I give them a score, as if you didn't already know. :P This will be a relatively short edition since I only picked up five comics this week, so let's get it started.

Brightest Day: The Atom Special

Hey look, it's another guy who took the mantle back from someone who replaced him! I wonder if Barry, Ollie, Ray, Hal and some of the others get together, party and laugh at their replaced replacements. Anyway I was convinced by Kello, the poozer, to check this out after his awesome rant of it over at Hello Kello, and mainly how beautiful the cover is. I love to see random things from different viewpoints with The Atom. One thing that always annoys me is in JLA covers where he's sitting on people's shoulders. What the hell reason do you possibly have for being small in a team meeting? I'd probably forget, think he was a bug and smash him by mistake. Anyway, the comic starts with some guys apparently having broken into Ray's Lab. They took his notes as well as some of his shrinking belts and devices. Ray realizes the hostage situation he stopped earlier (which was awesome to read) may have been a distraction. We also see some flashbacks and see how Ray grew up to become the man he is today, I enjoyed reading that as well and seeing a peek at Ray's past. The ending was a tad predictable but I really enjoyed this. I learned more about Ray Palmer than I knew, and I'm looking forward to his run in Adventure Comics too. I'll give this a solid 8/10 rating.

Ray Palmer: Do you remember the nickname the other graduate students gave me when they found out what I was trying to build? "Shrink-Ray."

Batman & Robin #13

After hating the last issue and the first few, and pretty much all of them with the exception of three or four, I don't know why I continue to read this. After seeing The Joker I couldn't resist though. I gotta hear how Grant explains this. We start off with this Thomas Wayne nonsense, which I abhor. The idea of Dr. Hurt or The Devil or Thomas Wayne or whoever he's supposed to be just annoys me to no end He's no Hush, he's no Deathstroke he's just a guy who won't go away. Anyway we find out that Joker's been parading as Sexton to warn Batman, whom he knows isn't his true Batman. He's warning him and asking him too believe him, as we see the sane Joker that we always see when Batman leaves. Well Bruce Wayne leavs but you get my drift. From this we see some stuff between Batman and Gordon, and Robin beating Joker with a crowbar, which at this point is overkill. As always I come away from this series feeling nothing, ah, well. I'll give it a 4/10.

The Joker: No matter how many I killed, Batman, my Batman was gone.

Brightest Day #5

Hawkworld revealed! Is on the cover and that doesn't really excite me considering how boring the storylines have been going for The Hawks. I'm really hating this jump from story to story thing because it kills the momentum. Seeing Aquaman confronted by this mystery woman got my hopes up then we jumped to Deadman and Hawk and Dove. I like this story line as well but it still bummed me out. Then when I get into the Hawk, Dove, Deadman story it jumps back to Aquaman. It's like watching a movie on TV and someone keeps switching the channels. I'm wondering what will be the result of the things Boston Brand does with his ring, seeing as how he was warned against it. I'm also curious to see what comes from the announcement Mera makes to Aquaman, so it definitely kept me interested. The thing I hate is the jumping around, that annoys me so much. The Hawk story continues to bore me but everything else was a good read, I'll give this issue a 6.5/10.

White Lantern Voice: Boston... You shouldn't be doing this.

Red Robin #14

Red Robin's newest issue starts with the little Bat Bastard, Damian Wayne hacking Tim's computer. He finds something he doesn't like then we cut away to Red Robin taking on Brutale. Along the way, Red Robin notices he's being followed but doesn't have time to go after his would-be stalker. He also encounters the always annoying Vicki Vale, in his Tim Drake alter ego, and she hints that she knows of the nightly activities Tim, Dick Grayson, and Bruce Wayne partake in. That sounds... kinda gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Eventually, Damian makes his move while out on patrol with Tim, by cutting his line before he gets a full swing. See that's why I hate Damian. He could've potentially killed Tim and wouldn't give a damn if he did. The fight between Damian and Tim was great, but the ending was phenomenal. To see where they ended up, as well as the way Dick stepped in, commanding and demanding respect was wonderful. The ending of this comic was very cool, and I love to see Tim thinking ahead and planning because he's more like Bruce than anyone when it comes to that. I'll give this issue of Red Robin a 10/10.

Tim on Damian: I've always held back for Bruce or Dick, but as stupid as it sounds, if this idiot is ever going to respect me, I'm going to have to kick his ass!

Red Hood: The Lost Days #2

Red Hood The Lost Days has been all Talia and Ra's so far so I'm looking forward to seeing Jason say some stuff. We start off seeing Jason learn that Batman has allowed The Joker to live, he has a huge temper tantrum, breaks a ton of stuff then beats up some guys. After that he cries and rocks back and forth in the fetal position. From then we see that Ra's Al Ghul does not like Talia's decision to unleash Jason onto the world, and that Jason is a pestilence and that he may be a terror for this world now that he's armed with the knowledge of the Lazarus Pits. Jason eventually discovers Talia's been tracking him with the stuff she gave him so he ditches it all. Jason uses his awesome talents he learned from Batman to set up The Dark Knight, planting a bomb on the bottom of the Batmobile and waiting for Bruce to show up. At the last second Jason doesn't detonate it. He says it's because he doesn't want Bruce to get off that easily, but I think it's because he cares too much. We see Jason asking Talia for help, so he can get revenge on Bruce. She agrees as this issue comes to an end. I thought this was a fantastic issue. We see the ups and downs of how Jason returns and finds out about his death and Bruce not killing Joker. We'd seen a bit before but the more in-depth we get the better. Seeing Talia second guess giving Jason this second chance was also very interesting. I'm loving this storyline so far, I'll give this issue a 10/10. I may be biased but it's my blog. :P

Jason Todd: I'm going to face him. Him and Me. And I'm going to kill him. With my own hands.

So that's it for this week's Ratings and Rantings. Great issues of Red Hood and Red Robin. Speaking of which I have a video to show you guys from Under The Red Hood. It features the first peeks at Ra's Al Ghul as well as John Dimagio's  (Bender from Futurama) role as The Joker. I think he knocks it out of the park, he's definitely the best Joker voice since Mark Hamill. So check that out below, also I'll have a review up this weekend for the clear-cut winner, Batman: Mystery of The Batwoman. So until next time, I'm your Friendly Neighborhood Blogger man, and Nerds of Prey Member, Jason Todd.

Next Time on Ratings and Rantings

Adventure Comics 516 (The Atom story), Batgirl #12, Batman #701, Birds of Prey #3, Booster Gold #34, JL Generation Lost #5, Power Girl #14, Superman #701, Titans #25. (HUGE WEEK!!)