Ratings and Rantings

Hey everyone, it's that time again for a little rating and a lot of ranting! Jason Todd welcoming you guys once again to my Red Hood for another edition of Ratings and Rantings! This is a HUGE week with ten, count it, TEN reviews! I can't review Green Arrow #2 because I mistakenly put it in Falisha's bag when we left the comic shop, so once again, a comic has been bumped to next week. Everything else is on schedule though, so I'm gonna try to keep this entertaining and not boring for you guys. Also I wanna thank Falisha for the AMAZING banner she made for the site, so thanks again Ms. Falisha for the great work! So in the words of a wise man, from The Black Eyed Peas, "Let's get it started...Ha!" (And yeah... he actually does say Ha, I wasn't laughing.)

Batman: Widening Gyre #6

If you thought the Flash: Rebirth mini took forever, you must've not been following Widening Gyre! Issue one came out August 2009.... It'll be August 2010 next week! So, if you're having trouble, do what I did and check out my reviews of issues four and five for a bit of a refresher. This issue gets underway with Bruce and Silver Sable heading to a special place, and that special place is somewhere Bruce had to have gotten permission from the Man of Steel to use, and it surprised me. It seems outta character for Bruce, yet Bruce is in love so it kinda makes sense he'd do things he wouldn't normally do. Smith is also very good at the banter he does between his characters, as it comes off real and not forced. The things that followed also blew my mind, but this being the Batman mythos I know not to read into them to much. As for finding out what Silver's nickname for Bruce meant... man that was uncomfortable haha. especially for Alfred. Bruce's paranoid mind of course made him do something stupid, but can you blame the guy? Either way, I couldn't help but laugh at the way he confronted Silver while she was being dropped off by Alfred. Some of the dialogue was so out of character for Batman it was just weird, Bats would NEVER admit to someone what he did to Baphomet, not even Dick or Tim. The surprise appearances by Deadshot and Catwoman made me more into the comic since I was kind of losing touch after Batman's embarrassing statement to Baphomet. The dialogue with Deadshot was fun, I love that he's become such a good comedy character but is still taken seriously for the most part. After some more crime fighting and an interesting Catwoman moment, Batman and Baphomet talk, and Baphomet mentions (just like Jason Todd) that Bats could kill these criminals and save more lives than sending them to the revolving doors of Arkham Asylum. The comic ends with Batman, trusting Baphomet and bringing him into the Batcave. There he unmasks and... I will not ruin it for you. But that was the most shocking thing I've read in a while... I didn't see that coming at all. The story was solid, and this volume, although it took forever, was amazing. Even with the weird out of character moments, I gotta rate this comic a 9/10.

Silver: So... the JLA, what? Just gives you guys a giant dinosaur when you join?

Bruce: I had mine before it was trendy.

Deadpool #25

Deadpool #25, in 3-D!!!! It even includes 3D glasses and tells you how to put them together, and make glue in case you don't have any, but do happen to own an old horse and a blender. And I'm so serious by the way, it actually says that. OH MY GOSH!!! It's Blind AL! Somewhere X-Man is smiling while wearing his Nate Grey T-Shirt that he made himself because no one sells Nate Grey T-shirts. :P Anyway, Weasel runs to Blind Al, via telephone, and tells her how Deadpool has ruined his life recently. She tells him to basically be happy that's all he's done and to run away and never look back. Weasel, like the idiot he is, decides he's gonna show up our Crimson Comedian and take back his city. Meanwhile, Deadpool as The House whose supposed to be Weasel, stages a robbery, so that Weasel, Wildcard whose supposed to be Deadpool would try to stop him. Weasel eventually defeats Deadpool, or so it seems, making everyone think that Deadpool beat Weasel since, ya know, they switched suits last issue. Anyway, Deadpool pops up, ruining Weasel's plans once again, because he's Deadpool baby! Weasel thinks Deadpool is going to kill him, but since he's turned over his new heroic leaf, Deadpool tells Weasel he's here to help. The story ends maybe two pages after that in a really lackluster way. The whole story was confusing and nothing really happened. The bonus story was alright, oh and only the cover was in 3D, so yeah. I'll give this issue a 5/10.

Materials Needed for putting together 3-D Glasses:

1. A blade (non-rusty), sword, scissors or comparable cutting utensil.

2. Glue (if you have glue, skip to step 5)

3. Old or Lame horse

4. A big Blender

5. A steady hand (non-severed)

Green Lantern Corps #50

Two issues down, eight more to go. I should really be getting paid for this... Yeah right. My writing isn't worth twenty five cents, Canadian. Haha, well that aside, I know I say it very month but I LOVE the art in Green Lantern Corps. Clearly one of the best looking comics out today. The stubble on Kyle's face has more definition than the entire bodies of people in some comics. Anyway, we see Kyle racing to save John Stewart while Ganthet and Soranik take on the other Alpha-Lanterns. Cyborg-Superman is continuing his dastardly plans on John Stweart and sets up a mind link, causing John to see Cyborg-Superman's memories. They discuss the accident that turned him into what he is today, along with what happened to his wife and crew. Then we see how Cyborg-Superman has returned, after the events of the Sinestro Corps War and what he did during Blackest Night. This was a fantastic view into how Cyborg-Superman thinks and really made me appreciate his character, for that alone I'd recommend this issue. I really sympathized with him after reading what he did/thought during the Blackest Night storyline. We then see that all of this was done to lure Ganthet to Cyborg-Supes, which works as Ganthet distracts Cyberman (it's easier) and Kyle escapes with John. They meet up with Soranik and they decide to use their newly hatched plan to try to save Ganthet. This was a really strong issue of GLC. I know a little, but not a ton about Cyberman (upset it took me that long to shorten his name) but I really enjoy him here and his motive was very well done. I'd love to see more of him and this mysterious thing with Ganthet. Solid issue, 9/10 rating for this issue of Green Lantern Corps.

Kyle Rayner: Two former girlfriends died at the hands of my enemies. I'll be damned if that ever happens again.

 Detective Comics #867

This story starts innocently enough. Normal business man leaves home, kisses his wife and kid and heads to work. Then he cancels his meetings, goes to the mall, cracks open a tube, turns pale faced and magically looks like The Joker. Yep, normal. "The Jokerz" are running amuck, and we see Oracle tell Batman, who replies with "I have more important things to do..." while saving some people. Okay, I know Bats is busy, but for one, Batman would never say he's too busy if there's crime in Gotham. Secondly, it's daytime, So what's he even doing out?! And lastly, why not at least say, I'm busy, send Robin, Batgirl, Red Robin, Huntress or one of the other MANY Gotham vigilantes? So, I'm not gonna lie. There's a lot of comics on tap and this one didn't interest me enough, so I stopped reading it. Sorry if anyone was looking for a review on it but the re-hashed Batman Beyond "Jokerz" storyline is not something I wanna sit through, especially if I can't even have the "real" Joker. So, sorry once again, but I'll be skipping this issue and this arc. Rating is N/A.

Justice League: Generation Lost #6

A look into the history of Captain Atom kicks this issue of Gen Lost off. I actually never knew how he became Captain Atom so this was interesting. Jumping into current time, Booster wants to go after Max at the Checkmate HQ. Fire tries to talk him out of it, but when Captain Atom agrees it seems that's where their going. Then we see a flashback that takes place after the big explosion in issue one. Turns out Cap got blown through time or something, and his body has to acclimate before he can return to the present. While time traveling, Cap is asked to stay with a family instead of sleeping out in the wilderness, and he obliges. While staying with the family and talking Cap eventually notices half the moon is missing, blown to smithereens. Cap quickly finds out he's in the future, and upon mentioning Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and other heroes that things have changed. He's taken to meet "Old Karrie." On the way, we hear that Captain Atom feels like he's becoming more machine than man, and losing touch, He's afraid that he's going to outlive anyone, and much like Cyborg-Superman, feels alone. Eventually he meets up with Old Karrie and man, that shocked the hell outta me. The following conversation was haunting, and showed us why Captain Atom may be even more determined than Booster. This was an amazing issue, the last issue was filler, and this one kind of was but the way it was written, the determination and reasoning behind Captain Atom. This was a great issue, definitely one of my favorite so far and it deserves the 9/10 rating I'm giving it.

Old Karrie: STOP MAX! STOP HIM, NATE!! STOP MAX LORD!!!

Action Comics #891

This issue has a very nice and gritty cover, I love how that's portrayed to make Luthor's lab come off as a Doctor Frankenstein, evil genius. We start things off with Lex Luthor stealing fire, much like Prometheus (not the arrow-head one, the greek mythology one) and giving it to his people. We find out that this is a fantasy of Lex's that he believes is real thanks to Mister Mind. Next we see Luthor, in the persona of Dr. Frankenstein as I mentioned above, standing next to his dangerous creation with Lois Lane. They debate on whether the world is ready for such a powerful tool of destruction, and really did a good job of hyping the reveal, which caught me off guard. The conversation he has with Lois was extremely well done, and seemed to backfire on Mister Mind. All the while, Mister Mind talks to someone or something we can't see, and builds suspicion of who/what it may be. The fantasies are fun to see Lex in, it's like Lex + Return of Bruce Wayne, minus the terrible story. Seeing Big Blue walk into town was great, and I love how Superman was adapted to the timeline as well as his primary colors. Seeing Lex figure out what was going on, then confronting the parasite known as Mister Mind was a lot more unintentionally funny than it should've been but I loved it. The following "dream" I won't even ruin for you guys that haven't read it yet, other than Lex ripping his shirt open will forever be awesome due to this one page. The end of the Mister Mind fight was pretty funny as well, and Lex definitely moved up a few notches in my favorite character rankings after that. The end of the story made sense, and really answered a lot of questions I had from Titans as well. I thought this was a really well done issue, nothing mind-blowing but just very solid and fun, I'll give it a 8.5/10.

Mister Mind: If you go for your gun... I'll blow her mind!

The Flash #4

Okay, I thought maybe I was kinda harsh on the last issue of Flash, but even my buddy Kello, resident Flash fan, Fantastic Four fan, and Iced Tea consumer, ripped the last issue. I've decided if this series doesn't pick up by the time this arc finishes, which I believe is this issue, I'll drop this series and just jump in around Flashpoint, because the slow pacing of this storyline along with the lackluster story of it is a little hard to justify spending money on it when there's so many other comics I enjoy. Anywho, issue four kicks off with the Rogues sitting around watching the news report about Captain Boomerang breaking out. He talks with Flash while flinging Boomerangs, then takes down a helicopter as Flash races to save the passengers. Meanwhile the future Rogues a.k.a. the Renegades team up with Flash to take on Boomer. Heatstroke and Top have a heated (no pun intended) discussion about whether what their doing is right, ad Top decides to warn Barry of the future, an act punishable by death. Top tells Barry he wants to stop him from committing murder by telling him what's going to cause it in the future, by telling him what happens to Iris. The act that Top describes sounds genius, and definitely cements me into wanting to continue to read this series, just to see if it will in fact happen that way, or worse since Barry will obviously try to change it. This was a really good issue, action packed and the story really progressed instead of just lagging on like it has been. This is definitely the strongest issue of this series to date, and I'll continue to read on in this arc and I hope it maintains momentum, I'd give it an 8/10.

Captain Boomerang: Blimey, you folks from the future really don't know how to make your own identities, do ya? Reverse-Flashes. Reverse-Rogues. Please tell me ya don't got a Reverse-Captain-Boomerang on yer little odd squad.

Gotham City Sirens #14

The sensuous Sirens of South Gotham (not really, I just wanted another S-Word :P) are back again. Things get underway with Poison Ivy looking like a brittle dried out plant version of herself, picture Ivy mixed with Bizarro and sprinkled with a little Solomon Grundy. We then see Ivy in hr Dr. Irving persona and her new cohort, Alisa Adams explaining what they claim happened to the dehydration unit, when what actually happened was Alisa dropped the tube on Ivy and tried to blackmail her. We find out that Ivy is there to see how her predecessor caused these plants to grow at suck a huge size, something even Ivy can't do. Alisa tells her that there was a problem with the program and Ivy demands to see it. Meanwhile, our other Sirens, Catwoman and Harley Quinn are getting worried about Ivy since she hasn't checked in since heading to her new job. They decide to wait and not blow her cover mistakenly, so instead they head out on the town, in costume to run a few "errands." On the other side of town, Poison Ivy finds out shocking information about the studies of her predecessor, and the alien-plant thing he studied. The alien plant takes control of Ivy of course, since it was super predictable. Harley and Selina show up just in time looking for Ivy, and end up having to fight her. Seems like all the Sirens ever do is fight one another. This issue, thankfully ends soon after, I'm not a fan of this storyline, it's pretty boring and basically the same as every other Poison Ivy story except now she's not in control. Sirens is such a gamble because some issues are awesome, and others, like this, are just hard to make it through without predicting or being bored. I'll give this issue a 5/10.

Random Employee: Morgue's just ahead on your right, Dr. Irving.

Alisa: I'll never get tired of your pheromone trick.

Wolverine Origins #50

Um..... I could've sworn, the last issue said this was a four issue arc. Then I get this comic, and it's the series finale. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I just read this series from issue one, and got caught up around #47, and now it's over. Ah this sucks, as I really enjoyed Wolverine Origins, but I'm glad I got to read it and I wanna thank Daniel Way and the rest of the Wolverine Origins staff for writing such a great comic. Alright, let's end this. The first shot is of Wolverine, clearly confused after the last issue, wondering what caused him to shank Nick Fury. Logan uses a syringe Nick had on him, then see's his past loves again, telling him to let them go. They tell him to stop dwelling on their deaths and enjoy his own life. After that, Nick regains consciousness, and tells Logan what was in the syringe was basically a miracle cure they made from Wolverine's DNA, for emergency use only. Cloak and Dagger appear, and make Wolverine face the thing he's been running from all these years, himself. I'm not sure if that was real or more of his hallucinations. Wolverine finally comes to peace with himself and his past as this issue ends. I really enjoyed this issue, I loved seeing Wolverine settle everything, and while I feel this was a bit of a too soon ending for such a great series, I wouldn't have wanted it to end any other way. I'm interested in seeing if this change for Wolverine remains and how it'll impact future storylines. I'll give this issue an 8.5/10 and I recommend this series to any Wolverine fan, or any fan of good comics.

Wolverine: My name is Wolverine. I'm the best there is at what I do.

Green Lantern #57

Man Hector Hammond has a big ass head... he looks like a Sinestro bobblehead. Anyway, this comic starting off with Hector as an attractive Green Lantern beating up a bulbous-headed Hal Jordan makes me laugh way harder than it should. Hector's daydreaming is interrupted by the guards, and then the mysterious voice in his head that we've seen since Blackest Night. We get a glimpse of the mysterious guy, the same guy with a cloak that made an appearance in this months Green Lantern Corps. He helps free Hammond with control over some rats. There's also a very nice shot in this where you can see Hal and Carol in each of Hammond's eyes. We jump over to see Hal Jordan and a police officer, and learn that Larfleeze has broken into more than 70 places, along with his constructs and has been taken any and everything that's not nailed down. Hal goes to confront Larfleeze, who apparently claims to live on earth now. Larfleeze is writing a list for Santa Claus so he can give him what he asks for. Hal soon asks Larfleeze how he imprisoned his entity, so he, Sinestro and the others can imprison the remaining entities that are free on earth but is interrupted by Hector Hammond. He takes Larfleeze's lantern and wants to know how to release the entity inside of it. While trying to get the Lantern back from Hector Hammond, Hector invades Larfleeze's mind to find out what it is he wants. We then jump to Nanda Parbat and see Vic Sage, the former Question, laid to rest by The current Question, Renee Montoya and Saint Walker. They have a quick discussion about hope, and then the Blue Lantern entity, Adara, shows up as Saint Walker says "We will soon bear witness to a miracle." Back with Hal Jordan, Hector Hammond can't release the Orange entity, so he pulls a Rosie O'Donnell and just eats the lantern. After doing that he's able to see the location of every freed entity on earth, and the entity merges with Hector. Holy hell that looks creepy. This was another solid issue of Green Lantern, one of the most stable comics in terms of being good, I'll give this issue an 8.5/10 rating.

Hal Jordan: Dammit, Larfleeze! I'm having a hard enough time with Hector digging into my brain for pinup shots of Carol! Call off your lanterns!

So that's all for this weeks jam-packed edition of Ratings and Rantings. Here's hoping you guys enjoyed this weeks, and are looking forward to next weeks edition. I'll be back this weekend with a new poll and a review of Batman: Under The Red Hood as well as the results of this weeks poll. Well until then, lemme know what you guys think, whether you agreed, disagreed or anything else, until next time, I'm your neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd!

Next Week on Ratings and Rantings

Green Arrow #2, Brightest Day #7, Red Hood: Lost Days #3, Red Robin #15, Superman: The Last Family of Krypton #1 of 3, Shadowland #2, Shadowland: Bullseye One-Shot, and Deadpool #1000.