Monday, August 30, 2010

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
Marc
Paul C.
X-Man
Falisha


Top Five Marvel/DC Team-Ups You'd like to see

Spider-man and Nightwing
Daredevil and Batman
Batman and Captain America
Jason Todd and Bucky Barnes
Deadpool and Booster Gold (It'd be hilarious)

Legion of Superheroes/X-Men
More Superman/Spider-Man
Batman/Howard The Duck
More JLA/Avengers (the Busiek/Perez mini series was awesome!)
Teen Titans/Young Avengers

Nightwing (Dick Grayson)/Spiderman
Hawkeye/Green Arrow
Dr. Doom/Lex Luthor
Vril Dox and ANY Marvel Character!
Batman/Deadpool

Venom/Lobo (Interesting, I'd read that.)
Wolverine/Nightwing
Black Cat/Catwoman
She-Hulk/Wonder Woman
Deadpool/Zatanna (I can see her using magic blowing his mind, lol.)

Spider-Man/Booster Gold (Someone make this NOW!)
Gravity/Nightwing
Captain America/Batman
Punisher/Deadshot
Wolverine/Batman



Top Five Marvel vs. DC Fights you'd like to see

Green Arrow vs. Hawkeye
Batman vs. Captain America
Deathstroke vs. Daredevil
Bullseye vs. Nightwing
Elektra & Daredevil vs. Green Arrow &Black Canary

Legion of Superheroes vs. X-Men (Timber Wolf vs. Wolverine would be so cool)
JSA vs. Invaders
Lex Luthor vs. Dr. Doom
Aquaman vs. Namor (Just so Aquaman can kick his ass again)
Superman vs. Sentry

Batman vs. Daken
Iron Man vs. Lex Luthor
Galactus vs. SAINT Barry Allen :P
Bucky vs. Dick Grayson
Hawkeye & Mockingbird vs. Green Arrow and Black Canary

Black Widow vs. Black Canary
She-Hulk vs. Power Girl
Wolverine vs. Green Arrow
Mr. Fantastic vs. Elongated Man
X-Men vs. JLA

Daredevil vs. Two-Face
Superman vs. Hulk
Batman vs. Thor
Fantastic Four vs. Green Lantern
Spider-Man vs. Joker




Top 5 Comic Characters who you wish had a TV Show, Cartoon or Movie

Booster Gold
The Flash (Wally West)
Birds of Prey (better than that old show they had)
Titans (Nightwing, Arsenal and some Teen Titans like Superboy, Robin, Kid Flash)
Green Arrow and Black Canary

Concrete (should be a TV series)
Legion of Superheroes (should be a movie!)
Howard the Duck (should be a movie, but a good one this time)
She Hulk (TV Series, Ally McBeal/Boston Legal with Superheroes)
Aquaman (movie!!!)

Daken (on HBO naturally!)
Capt. America
The Classic Avengers
Birds of Prey
Impulse

Wonder Woman (Cartoon/Movie)
Birds of Prey (Movie/Cartoon)
Green Arrow (Movie)
Deadpool (Cartoon)
Booster Gold (Cartoon)

Spider-Man (Wish he had a live-action series that didn't suck!)
Wolverine (TV Series starring Hugh Jackman)
Booster Gold
Ambush Bug
Haunted Tank


Top 5 Most Overrated Characters

Superman (by some people, I still like him though)
Silver Surfer
Wolverine (See Superman)
The Hulk
Damian Wayne

Deadpool
Spawn
The New Gods
Cable
Lobo

BARRY ALLEN!!!!!
Hulk
Damian Wayne
X-23
Skarr

Superman
Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)
Lex Luthor
Spider-Man
Green Arrow

Gambit!!!
Storm
Catwoman
Wasp
Quicksilver
Top 5 Five Characters you'd like to put on a team together

Nightwing
Jason Todd
Ravager
Arsenal
Huntress
(The New Outsiders)

Brother Power the Geek
Captain Strong
Joe Potato
Chunk
Mopee 
(The Forgotten Heroes!)

Daken
Batman
X-Man
Kid Flash
Huntress

Power Girl
Ravager
Black Widow
Huntress
Elektra

Captain America
Iron Man
Spider-Man
Gravity
Punisher


Category Winners

Top Marvel/DC Team-Up - Batman & Captain America and Nightwing & Spider-Man
Top Marvel vs. DC - N/A
Top Comic Character who needs a show etc. - Booster Gold and Birds of Prey
Most Overrated - Hulk, Superman and Damian Wayne
Most Used Character on Teams - Huntress

Well I've gotta say, these were some damn good picks you guys. I'd love to see most if not all of these things happen, especially Bucky vs. Dick or Jason. The top Marvel vs. DC fight was kinda hard to find an average on so I didn't have that one. I've also been clamoring for some Booster Gold in media for a while now, so with the Golden One appearing on Smallville this season, hopefully it leads to bigger things. Superman and Damian are both overrated in their own ways so I can see how they tied for that category, and Huntress is the MVP as the most recruited member, so maybe she should get a little more page time in Birds of Prey. Thanks everyone for participating, feel free to discuss everyone's picks below in the comments and what you like or dislike about them! And I'll be back later this week with Ratings and Rantings. Until then I'm your friendly Neighborhood Blogger-Man, JT!

Edit: The Poll results and a new poll will be posted along with the next Ratings and Rantings.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Top Five 5 Reminder

Hey guys, just reminding everyone that I'll be posting the Top Five 5 tomorrow, the deadline for picks is tonight and I only have mine and Paul C's so If anyone wants to be included be sure to send your picks to KevinKavalier@gmail.com. Remember to send me your top five choices for each category, the categories are:

Top 5 Marvel/DC Team-Ups You'd like to see
Top 5 Marvel vs. DC Fights You'd like to see (for the first time or a rematch)
Top 5 Comic Characters who you wish had a TV Show, Cartoon or Movie
Top 5 Most Overrated Characters
Top 5 Five Characters you'd like to put on a team together


Here's hoping I get a few more picks from you guys, and I'll be back tomorrow with the main post.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Ratings and Rantings

Hey everyone, JT here, welcoming back to my Red Hood for another edition of Ratings and Rantings! Last week's was a little late, but we're back on schedule this week. I was gonna review Dark Wolverine #90 but I didn't know Time Masters came out this week so I picked that up instead. I'll review Dark Wolverine's final issue next week though. Other than that, I'm not gonna stall or keep you guys bored because I know ya come here for reviews, yes I know where my bread is buttered. But I do wanna ask anyone who isn't to follow the new blog started by myself and X-Man75 of X-Man's Comic Blog dedicated to Saint Barry Allen. So make sure you check out our fun little blog and be sure to follow it and get all the Saint Barry Allen-Goodness at the All Hail Saint Barry Allen blog!


Batman #702

The second issue in the two-part mini where we see what happened to Batman between the events of Batman R.I.P. and Final Crisis has finally arrived. As you guys and gals may or may not remember, I enjoyed the last issue, but with Grant Morrison stuff is either hit or miss with me, so hopefully I'll have good things to say about this issue. We start off with Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman updating the JLA on the seriousness of the fact that a New God has been killed and how dangerous whatever and whoever killed him must be. They put the JLA on condition Amber. The little things, like Batman calling Wally West "Wallace" are things that help you remember that this is Bruce and not Dick Grayson after a year of him under the cowl. We see things that we've seen clips of in the past like Batman talking to Superman about the time traveling bullet, and when he confronted Alpha Lantern Kraken in Final Crisis. All the while we see excerpts from his diary or a note he's writing, discussing how he's a man who tries to fight against Aliens and Gods. We also find the back story between the Batman that was resurrected in the Lazarus Pits in Batman and Robin a few months ago. We also see the huge scene where Batman stands face to face with Darkseid before taking him out with the Radion bullet. This issue was really well done so I've gotta commend Grant, I may not like some of his work but I do love some of his other comics, and this is a great one. Although he just showed us scenes we've seen already from Batman's point-of-view it was still interesting and kept me wanting to know more. I'm sure it also unlocked some secrets for Return of Bruce Wayne readers but I'm not following that series, anyway this was a really good comic, nothing epic or mind-blowing but a good solid comic. I'd give this issue an 8.5/10.

Batman: I made a very solemn vow about firearms. But for you, I'm making a once-in-a-lifetime exception.


Justice League Generation Lost #8

Generation Lost, my favorite Bi-Weekly comic right now, picks up where issue seven left off with our heroes, Booster Gold, Rocket Red, Blue Beetle, Fire and Ice, dressed up in their Rocket Red attires surrounded by a bunch of armed Checkmate guards. Booster takes control and has Skeets patch the Checkmate computers to find Maxwell Lord's location, then has Rocket Red talk some communist stuff at Checkmate to stall them, but sadly they discover that Max isn't in the building. Our heroes, stuck in a stalemate with Checkmate decide to resign from the game. (I love Chess lingo :P ) Anyway, during their escape from Checkmate, Rocket Red takes some office via some type of electric scrambler that was placed on his suit. Fire gets angry and causes her suit to explode off of her, so the rest of the team decides to stop hiding and use their powers to subdue the Checkmate guards. With a little help from Captain Atom, the former JLI make their way back to their base. While there, Ice talks about how she never asked to be apart of any of this and doesn't want to do it anymore. We also see a nice moment between Fire and Rocket Red, who I think may become the resident couple, if Red isn't killed or something, which I hope he isn't since I'm starting to like him. The ending caught me by surprise, a common theme in this series, as I gotta say I didn't expect what happened to happen this soon, but I'll be waiting for the next issue to see how this goes from there. I'd give this issue an 8/10 rating.

Rocket Red: I love this woman! I know vhy she is called Fire!


Action Comics #892

This issue starts off with Lex, Lois and Slade Wilson getting off of Lex's personal Jet in Antarctica. It's said that Lex has brought Deathstroke to help him find a remaining Black Lantern Ring, as they are near the residual energy source. They eventually find the black source of the ring. Slade goes first to check out the energy because he has a bad feeling about it, as he should. While he's by the power source, Lex starts talking about how great an accomplishment this is, and Slade freaks out for some reason and rushes towards Lex. Lex has his people keep Slade occupied by being killed by him while Lex puts on his portable power suit. The former President of The United States takes on Deathstroke and sends his scientists to go scan the power source. Another one of his scientists succumbs to the power of the black sphere and it causes her to become homicidal as well. We also finally find out why Lex's head is unprotected when we see him in his power suit, because he has a force field surrounding it. Not the best explanation but it's better than him being so stupid that he leaves his head vulnerable. Our Bald Genius also figures out that strong emotions cause you to lose control quicker. The ending of this issue leads us to a showdown of the minds for the next issue that should be pretty good. This wasn't a bad comic, the pacing just seemed kinda slow and hard stay interested in so I'll give this issue a 6.5/10. Oh, and the Superboy Co-Feature made me 100% that I have no interest in reading the series now... man that was bad.

Lex Luthor: I'll deal with Deathstroke.


Time Masters: Vanishing Point #2

I wasn't aware this came out this week until I saw it in the store so this was a pleasant surprise. We kick things off with a young Rip Hunter and his father watching a great moment in time. They're watching the moment Superman's rocket lands on the planet earth. Rip's father tells him that he has to protect moments like this in the time stream to make sure no one ever ruins them and changes history or the future, and that one day it will be Rip's job. We then jump up to present time, whenever that may be, and see Rip fighting some type of savage man that thinks Rip is a murderer. With some help from Skeets, Rip subdues the Savage and talks to him, telling him he's not the man he's looking to kill. Rip decides to help the savage known as Claw on his mission, due to there being a stream of chronal energy, and maybe it will lead him back to Booster Gold, Green Lantern and Superman. From there we see Black Beetle (whose red for some reason) and a team he's put together consisting of Despero, Degaton and Ultra-Humanite from different moments in time so they can work together and get control over time. We then catch up with Green, Gold and Big Blue, in the middle of a war zone where some armed guys are shooting at unarmed humans, so Supes decides to jump in, even though Booster reminds him Rip said not to. They help and Superman and Green Lantern, like the arrogant jerks they are take shots at Booster for being a glory hound and such. Then like the hero he is, Booster saves GL. We then see Rip and Claw heading forward to find this evil wizard when they are attacked by some tentacles that pull them under water, when they arise, Rip see's that he can see various moments in time in the water. We then jump to Booster's sister Michelle (Goldstar) and his cousin Daniel (Super Nova) in Rip's lab. The ending of this issue was a bit surprising, but the comic overall was a good read, nice pacing and a really well done story. I'd give this issue a 9/10.

Green Lantern: I can see why you'd like to help find Batman. A guy like you could parlay that into a million-dollar payday. Maybe even get your own Reality show.


Superman/Batman #75

It's the historic 75th issue of Superman/Batman! Who would've thought that by combining the two biggest names in DC Comics and you'd get a nice ongoing series? Well this big action packed issue kicks off with some dude who looks kinda like Lex but greenish in the future, fighting past the Legion of Superheroes and going back in time. Supes, in our present time is flying around relaxing and hears the time barrier cracking around his favorite tree (who the hell has a favorite tree?!) and heads there expecting the Legion. The Lex-look-alike pops out and socks Supes in the face, drawing blood. We then jump over to The Dark Knight in his Batcave, listening to the bats fly around as he stitches himself up. Suddenly, Dawnstar flies in with Superman cradled in her arm asking Batman to help him. We soon see Batman has been sent on some errand at Lexcorp and he's not too happy about it. Batman finally gets in and finds a Luthor cloning speciman which is in a tiny test tube. Shrinking Violet (Too many Legionnaires!) pops out of Bats' utility belt, drops something into the tube then they replace it and leave. We eventually find out that it was a Kryptonite powered Lex clone that poisoned Supes....well thanks for telling us now! After some arguing the Legionnaires go back in time while Batman takes care of Superman like a big burly nurse on Halloween. The Legion then go back and help Superboy beta the Kryptonite Lex clone...then end. well if that were the only story I'd give this issue a 1 because that was awfully boring. Then we see a two page story that was boring.... very boring. Then there was another two page story that took place at a comic-con where I chuckled. There was a nice little quick story where Tim Drake asks Dick Grayson if he should tell Superboy he kissed Wonder Girl, and SB asks Superman what he'd do it Bruce kissed Lois. There's also a funny page long story with Joker and Lex that's clearly channeling the old Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. Overall there was more bad than good in this 75th issue which is sad because I like most of the series so far, but this one doesn't keep up with the other issues. I'd give this issue a 2/10. I wanted to like it but I felt like I ended up wasting my money, so I wouldn't recommend it.

Dick Grayson: I can't believe you made out with Cassie... I'd never be stupid enough to make out with Selina.


Gotham City Sirens #15

It's that time of the month again, for the lovely ladies of Gotham's former crime elite, The Gotham City Sirens, take center stage. We start things off with Catwoman and Harley Quinn armed with two tanks of defoliant on their backs looking for Poison Ivy and her new "ally" from the last issue. Harls and Selina use the defoliant to clear a path from the many plants that have sprouted up due to some pollen being spread, if ya catch my drift. *wink wink* For the record, I don't even catch my drift, so if you don't that's fine. We finally see Poison Ivy and she's turning purple for some reason, but unlike Violet Beauregard I don't think she's eaten any Willy Wonka chewing gum. Oh yeah, I'm dropping all types of references today. Ivy tells the plant-alien how she used to be human until Jason Woodrue injected her with some compounds that changed her Dioxy-Ribonucleic Acid or DNA (Told ya I could use it in a review X!) and made her into a Plant-woman. Selina and Harley continue to burn down all the plants in their way until Ivy steps out of the plants. She confronts the other two Sirens about killing her plants and gets angry, as a fight breaks out between Catwoman and Harley versus Ivy and her new "boyfriend." The best part of this issue was Harley comparing Ivy and the plant guy to herself and The Joker, because it was a great comparison and a nice way to show that Harley is evolving from just being Joker's sidekick. The ending seemed kinda last minute, I would've liked something better but it was fine for what it was, as was this issue. The next issue is billed ad "The Return of Talia Al Ghul" so hopefully that should be the start of a good arc. I'll give this issue a 6.5/10.

Harley Quinn: He's using you... just like you use normal guys... like Mister J used Me...


Superman: Secret Origins #6

And the comic with second longest wait of the year, hailing from DC Comics..... Superman: Secret Origins!!!! The first issue came out in September of 2009, this blog hadn't even debuted yet, now here I am reviewing issue number six. Things start off big with General Lane and his men commandeering the Daily Planet. When Lois confronts her father and claims Superman would never attack the U.S. Military without being attacked first, Gen. Lane asks his Lois trusts Superman. When she replies, "More than I trust you." he drops the bombshell and asks if Superman ever told her that he was an alien, leaving Lois, Perry and the rest of the D.P. staff shocked. Elsewhere we see Lex Luthor in a lab, operating on someone before breaking into a huge grin says "He's alive." From there we see some members of the military in the sewers looking for the Man of Steel, they stumble upon him but he uses his super speed to dodge their bullets, take their guns apart and then burst out of the sewer, and asks everyone to hold their fire so they don't harm innocents but they continue to bombard him with Rocket Launchers and bullets. Back in the Daily Planet, General Lane explains that Superman is an alien and they know his weakness, then plans to shut down the Daily Planet. Jimmy and Lois hatch a plan so she can get out of the office and to Superman. Back with Superman, he's trying to subdue the men and women of the military when he's attacked from behind by Sergeant Corben wearing a new suit. Lois warns Big Blue to leave the planet so they don't kill him with the meteorite, he doesn't back down and rushes towards Corben to fight him, punching off his helmet, revealing what's basically a corpse in a big metal suit, and starts calling himself Metallo. Eh, I like the other version better. I won't ruin the rest of the fight, but afterwards a very well-written (by Geoff not Supes) speech by The Man of Steel shows us why he is the embodiment of hope... and not Saint Barry Allen. :P Other great moments were the big Superman/Lex Luthor confrontation that was expected, and the Superman/Lois Lane confrontation the dialogue was very strong and seemed true to the characters. Overall I think this was a really good ending to the mini-series, there's not much you can deviate from with the history of Superman but Geoff did a fine job, I'd give this issue a 9/10.

Lex Luthor: You don't belong here! You never will! Why don't you go back to your own world

Superman: Because I can't. And even if I could, I wouldn't. This is my home. And I'm not going to let you ruin it anymore.


Green Arrow #3

This cover is so gruesome that it looks awesome. It's definitely one of my favorite covers this year, maybe ever. How fitting is it that Green Arrow gets "Prometheus'd." We start this issue off with Green Arrow lying there with an arrow in his skull, waiting to die, as he compares it to his days on the island, waiting to die until he found a reason to live. We even see a few panels that reminded me of the fantastic Green Arrow: Year One comics. He lies there, surprisingly not dead, while three big dogs run toward him, until he's saved by the big guy that X-Man called Thor over on his blog not too long ago. The man picks Ollie up and takes him to a part of the forest and holds him underwater in a lake, where it asks "Do you deserve to live?" In Ollie's thoughts, he mentions that he's abandoned his son, murdered, alienated everyone he loves and couldn't keep anyone safe, including Star City. We see flashbacks that show us Ollie as a kid, and his parents, who had problems of their own, as Mr. Queen was unfaithful and was suggested to have done things with his secretary. After this, we see Ollie rise out of the water, and the flying water makes the White Lantern symbol. Oliver, being the jerk he is, blames the man who saved his life for trying to kill him, but the Mystery Man deflects all of Ollie's attacks until he can convince him he didn't try to murder the Emerald Archer. We then jump to Mary, the chick Ollie saved in the forest in issue one, trying to help sick people, but not having the resources due to Queen Industries snatching up all the health contracts. Back with Green Arrow we see he was saved by someone who believes he's Knight Galahad, of King Arthur's Round table. After discussing why he's there, Oliver interrupts by saying he doesn't know what's more confusing, why the forest saved him, or who tried to kill him. With another flashback we see the life of a young woman who encountered Robert Queen back in the past, he was drawn to her and even called her "Pretty Bird." We come to find out that this is the woman that is currently the new owner of Queen Industries. Back with Oliver and Galahad, they discuss like in the forest before a blinding white light shines, and Oliver, looking for answers, runs into the light. While there he sees the forest go through all four seasons, in a matter of seconds while Star City remains unchanged, before the issue abruptly ends. I mean like, next page ends. I liked this comic but the ending was so random and abrupt that it threw me off guard. But the majority of this issue was damn good and interesting, I'll give this issue a 9/10 rating as well.

Green Arrow: As Green Arrow, I've stood up to every adversary to cross my path. But as Oliver Queen, it seems I'm my own worst enemy.

So that's all for this week's Ratings and Rantings everyone, as always thanks for reading and feel free to comment. Also, this weekend since I couldn't last week, we're going to have another Top 5 Five! Oh yeah, I can hear that excitement rumbling in the pit of your stomach, or it may just be gas. Either way, the categories are below, so make sure you send me your top five for each of the five topics at KevinKavalier@Gmail.com by Sunday Noon EST. Time and I'll make sure your picks are counted.

Top 5 Marvel/DC Team-Ups You'd like to see
Top 5 Marvel vs. DC Fights You'd like to see (for the first time or a rematch)
Top 5 Comic Characters who you wish had a TV Show, Cartoon or Movie
Top 5 Most Overrated Characters
Top 5 Five Characters you'd like to put on a team together

The sooner the better people so send those picks in! I'll make sure I post the results this weekend, until then, I'm your Neighborhood Blogger-man and Saint Barry Allen worshiper, JT!


Next Time on Ratings and Rantings

Brightest Day #9, Red Hood: Lost Days #4, Dark Wolverine #90 and Shadowland #3...That's it?! I guess so....

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Ratings and Rantings

Hey everyone, Jason Todd here welcoming you to his one and only, Red Hood. So As I'm sure you'll notice, the Ratings and Rantings was late this week due to me being tired as hell from having to get up WAY earlier than usual, so both this and a new poll will be up today. I hope to have next week's R&R up aeround the usual time and we'll probably do a Top 5 in that post too since it was originally scheduled for this weekend. But, I don't wanna keep you guys waiting, we've got seven comics from DC and Marvel that need reviewing, let's lets get to it!

The Amazing Spider-Man #640

The third issue of "One Moment in Time" starts where we left off with Peter and Mary Jaime discussing how Aunt May avoided death after being shot that fateful day. We see the Doctor explained Aunt May's recovery as Love, and that's the reason her body's fought back so well during her hospital time. The Doctor tries to send Pete home but he doesn't oblige, and wants to stay with Aunt May. Good thing too, since Kingpin has someone working at the hospital, giving him updates on May Parker. When he finds our she's recovering, he tells his mole to finish the job. She turns him down, and since he's in jail there isn't much Mr. Wilson Fisk can do about it. He tells her he'll send someone else, and to keep an eye out on May Parker, the nurse says sure, then leaves the hospital. Maybe if Kingpin looked more like Michael Clarke Duncan in "Daredevil" she would have listened. Anyway, Kingpin makes a call to a mysterious man, and also mentioned the nurse, leading me to think he's a hit-man. Oh, then Kingpin pays the prison guard to bring him his dinner, because he's cool like that. Anyway, MJ's Aunt calls her and tells her she heard a noise, much like all old people. Anyway, she was right in her concern because it turns out to be a robber. (For the record if I was robbing a place, which I don't, but if I WERE, and I heard the woman say she heard a noise, and I'm not even in the house yet.... I'd just leave... and go to another house. Anyone else?) Anyway we find out the Robber is actually a hit-man wearing a Luchador (Mexican Wrestler) mask for some reason... is about to kill MJ's Aunt when MJ hits him with a lamp. It doesn't knock him out, because unlike most people, he's not a wimp. I also doubt a breakable lamp would knock me out... it'd just hurt. Anyway, he chases after MJ since she's also on his list, leaving the old woman knocked out upstairs. Pete finally wakes up after a call from MJ's Aunt Anna, and heads out looking for his fiance. The hit-man continues to chase MJ around the neighborhood, and finally closes in on her, saying this isn't anything personal, but she's Spidey's woman so she's being dealt with. The unmasking of the hit-man was great, and what he said to Spider-Man after was even better. The conclusion of the comic was awesome, I have to say O.M.I.T. has been really damn good at rewriting what happened, or at least how everyone remembers it. I'd give this issue a solid 10/10, there was nothing wrong with it, it was high-octane and kept me interested all the way throughout.

Hit-Man: And to be honest, this is really all your niece's fault. Somebody needs to tell her that it don't pay knocking boots with Spider-Man.


Power Girl #15

Power Girl #15 starts things off with a brief background on Randall Mikavic, or as we know him, the mobster that became a big purple monster in the last issue. From there, we see Power Girl taking on the big purple guy that would make kids have Barney nightmares. Randall is really taking it to PG, knocking her through three buildings before saying he has to go rip New York City apart with his bare hands. And after typing that Barney line I see that it's used in this issue... Great minds think alike eh Judd? Anyway, Karen Starr (Power Girl) uses her assistant or whatever, Nick Cho to help Power Girl, by having him use his hacking skills to find out what US Military thing turned Randall into a big purple man of destruction. And based on the fact Nick is an expert hacker but can't figure out his large chested boss is friends with PG and claims to be helping her yet she's only talking to him makes him an instant candidate for the article X-Man wrote up, then again she may be pulling a Superman, as explained by Paul C. From there, PG gets back in gear and tries to stop our big purple Hulk-wannabe. She grabs the big man and drops him in to the ocean, assuming since he's so big he's not a great swimmer, but he jumps out as if he were trying to leap tall buildings in a single bound. We find out from Nick Cho that Peej has to keep the big man busy for a total of four hours before his powers wear off, and she has an hour to go. When finding out that there's no human inside for her to hurt anymore, the kid gloves come off. When PG faces Crash (the big purple dude) for the final hour, we see a grueling fight, but the reveal at the end is what made this comic. It was done great too, I can't wait to see the next issue and how PG reacts. I'd give this issue of Power Girl an 8/10. Also, maybe I shouldn't have judged Nicholas Cho so quickly after all. *wink wink*

Crash: Now, you are impeding my ability to complete my primary objective... And seriously pissing me off.
 
Deadpool #26

We're introduced to issue twenty-six of Deadpool with a man who we don't see enjoying some coffee at a Diner out in the middle of nowhere. He overpays with a twenty dollar bill and tells them to keep the change. From there someone warns him to be careful because it's supposed to be over a hundred degrees outside and it's going to get even hotter according to the weather man. The mystery man replies, "The Weather man's right. From there we seen Deadpool in Vegas, dressed as Wild Card telling everyone he quits. DP leaves as he hears one of the bosses say they can get any idiot to wear the suit and there's nothing special about Pool, he in turn, goes back and beats the hell out of everyone. From there we see Deadpool standing face to face with our mystery man, the one and only Ghost Rider. (He's everywhere this month!) Ghost Rider wraps his chain around the Merc with a Mouth's neck and drives off, dragging him behind and saying he'll make him pay for his past transgressions. DP tries to explain that he's a Mercenary, not an assassin and there's a difference. (Look it up folks, I won't do everything for ya :P) But when that gets him nowhere he just pulls the break handle on the motorcycle, shooting him and Ghost Rider off the front of the bike. A battered Deadpool recovers just as Ghost Rider lifts him up by his neck, and makes him watch into the lives of people he's wronged and destroyed. When he starts it for some reason knocks Ghost Rider powerless, and we see flashes of Deadpool's life, that are pretty well-written and sympathy inducing. We also see that Marvel is in the process of making Deadpool an American and not a Canadian... good for him I guess. When Deadpool finally wakes up from his stroll down horrifying memory lane, he knocks the hell out of Johnny Blaze. From there he and Johnny talk about Ghost Riders intentions and what this means for Deadpool. This was a really good issue, a nice solid, self-contained story that was pretty interesting. We've seen Deadpool's past a lot but this was a little different from the parts we usually see. I'd give this issue an 8/10 rating.

Deadpool: You're him right? You're the Ghost Rider?
Johnny Blaze: Yeah. Sometimes.
Deadpool: Well, I'm Deadpool. All the time. An' I don't need to be reminded of it.


Brightest Day #8

Brightest Day #8 kicks off with Hawk, Dove and Deadman discussing why everyone is back. Hawk is upset because he feels like a puppet used to help the arrival of this new hero, whereas I'd just be happy I was no long dead, but whatever. The ring tells Deadman to get looking for the replacement, so he tells it to take him to Hal Jordan, and Dove jumps into the white light with him, leaving a confused Hawk at the cemetery. From there we jump to Martian Manhunter and Miss Martian, they discuss his mysterious healing powers and what attacked her. Miss Martian looks pretty odd here, not like she usually does in Teen Titans or anything, but I can't place my finger on why. She tries to convince J'onn it was another Green Martian like himself, but he doesn't believe her, so she opens her mind to him. We see the brutal fight where Miss Martian is more or less dominated by the mysterious evil Green Martian. Then, we jump over to the aptly named, Hawkworld. Hawkman walks and talks with some animals, gets a history lesson and that's about it, while Hawkgirl fights Hath-Set and realizes she knows more about his queen than she thought. Back with the Martians, they look for the evil Martian, and find out there's some black hole in Star City, which is obviously the forest Green Arrow is living in. Well, that was lame. The Martian stuff was alright, we learned nothing from Deadman and company and the Hawks stuff continues to bore me, I'd give this issue a 4/10.


Green Lantern Corps #51

An enraged Cyborg-Superman (from this moment called Cyber-Man) grabbing Ganthet by the neck and yelling "SAVE HIM!!!" is how things get started in this issue of Green Lantern Corps. Ganthet claims since he left the Guardians before they made the Alpha Lanterns, he doesn't know how to reverse the process. Cyber-Man tells Ganthet that since he won't try he'll just make the Lanterns kill themselves, he starts with an example but Ganthet tries to stop it and says he'll try, to which Cyber-Man says "That's all I'm asking." before making one of the Alpha Lanterns kill himself anyway. Meanwhile, John Stewart comes up with a plan, and explains it to Kyle and Soranik. We see from John that Cyber-Man's plan is to turn himself to an Alpha Lantern because he thinks they can be turned normal, and if he were, that would make him Human again. It is a pretty genius plan actually. John, Kyle and Soranik then try to convince the robots on the planet Grenda to help them take on the Cyborg-Superman. The robots are afraid of him though, but Kyle remembers someone who can help, although calling will give away their positions, and John tells him to do it. Then we see some guy I don't recognize, so if anyone knows, fill me in with the info, who has the White Lantern safety net that Deadman made a few months ago and wants to make it into a weapon to defeat Sinestro. On the other side of the planet, Ganthet fails trying to turn one of the Alpha Lanterns normal again, thanks to the harsh actions of Cyber-Man. When Kyle's secret weapon arrives the tide turns and the Lanterns seem to finally have a chance in this fight. This was a pretty good issue, nothing amazing but far from bad, I'd have to give this issue of GLC a solid 8/10 rating.

Ganthet: What is this terrible.... ache in my chest?
Cyborg Superman: It's called grief. One of hose wonderful emotions you little blue know-it-all's ignored for so long.


Batman Beyond #3 of 6

We start off with a brief synopsis by Batman, Terry McGinnis, who runs down Hush for people who haven't been reading or have forgotten. He talks about how tired he is, and that could get him killed since he's off his game. As they fight, Hush lets it known that he knows that's not the original Batman, Bruce Wayne, giving us more credibility that it may be the original Hush, although he's not wearing his green Necklace that the original Hush wore. Hush pretty much dominates Batman, all the while, Bruce Wayne is asking Terry what's going on via the transmitter in his suit. He mentions the costumed baddies being the only family Bruce ever loved, which gives me a few ideas on who the Hush may be. Bruce shuts down Terry's suit since he doesn't reply, and Hush kills Calendar Man, before escaping Batman, once his suit is back up and running. After being chewed out by Bruce for failing to say Julian Day or catch Hush, Terry tells him he's done listening to him and hangs up the com-link. We then see one of the employees at Cadmus labs trying to convince Amanda Waller to send people after Hush, and when Waller says if the woman mentions anything about Hush's connection to Cadmus, she'd turn her into the GCPD, the woman learns her place. Then we see Terry eating Spaghetti like X-Man eating Hamburgers (which is carnivorous!), and we also see Terry's little brother who looks freakishly like Damian Wayne. Terry then heads off to see his Girlfriend, who basically tears him a new one for always being late or working, or as I call it, the Peter Parker complex. From there Terry goes to see Bruce, and finds out he's been building Batman Robots to replace Terry, (really Bruce? That's low, even for you.) and of course Terry gets upset because he's spent all this time away from his family and friends helping Bruce clean up Gotham. Bruce claims that the robots are back up for Terry, who says he doesn't need any, and he's gonna bring Hush in, then he quits. Terry first goes to question Tim Drake, which makes sense because he had the Joker Gene in him. (explained here) Tim recommends someone else that Terry can ask, and while on his way to see this person, Tim has another run-in with the new Catwoman. They fight and talk, and before long she disappears, leaving out Non-Caped Crusader alone and confused. Finally Terry McGinnis arrives face to face with the first Robin, Dick Grayson. We also see that Catwoman is working for someone, whose eye-slots make me think I may know who he is. She tells the mystery man that a she placed a tracker on the New Dark Knight, before getting attacked by her employer. Well this was a very good issue, made me anxious to see how a future Grayson feels about Batman and his past, I think I finally know who Hush is, and I think we may be closer to seeing a futuristic Batman/Catwoman team up. Also seeing more Terry outside of the Batman suit was a welcome change, I'd give this issue a 9/10.

Terry McGinnis: Sometimes I think you won't be happy until I'm dead in the street with some crazy black cape gadget sticking out of my chest!


Batman: Streets of Gotham #15

So, this was a let-down for me, not because of the story but because I thought it would continue the Hush stuff, which it did not, the whole story was about Two-Face for the co-feature from last month. While I liked the Co-Feature, I ended up not buying this issue for this story because I was already low on cash and it was mandatory. I just wrote this in it's own section you everyone would know why I didn't review it/but it. Rating: N/A

Well, that's it for this week's reviews, I wanna thank you guys for being patient and thanks for taking your time to read. Below are the results from last week's poll, also make sure you vote on the new poll I just put up today. So thanks again for reading, and until next time, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger-Man, JT!

Last weeks poll asked "Which of the following is your favorite DC Comics Writer?"

Last Place with 0% - Judd Winick, even redeeming Jason and writing PG couldn't get him a vote.
Third Place with 18.8% - My personal pick, Gail Simone, flies under the radar. Get it, Birds? :P
Second Place with 31.3% - Grant Morrison, some people must enjoy Batman and Robin.
Winner with 50% - The DC Silver Age Golden Boy, Geoff Johns!


Next Time on Ratings and Rantings

Action Comics #692, Batman #702, Gotham City Sirens #15, Green Arrow #3, JL Generation Lost #8, Superman/Batman #75, Superman: Secret Origins #6 and Dark Wolverine #90.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Ratings and Rantings

Hey everyone, Jason Todd here once again, welcoming you to my Red Hood. I've broken away from watching Supernatural (great show by the way), to bring you another edition of Ratings and Rantings.  It's hard to believe that I've been running this blog for about nine months now and already have 22 followers. I wanna thank you guys for reading, voting in polls, sending in picks and commenting, even the readers who don't comment. Just thanks for being apart of this little thing I call a comic blog.

I have a pretty big announcement, a personal announcement, nothing really blog related, but I'll announce it near the end of the post. Also I'll post the results from this weeks poll, as well as a new poll today. And lastly, my shop didn't have Booster Gold this week, I guess they messed up the order because the guy said they had much less than they ordered and sold out earlier that day, so sorry to anyone looking for that review. Well we've got some good things scheduled for this week, Batgirl and Birds of Prey so I won't stall, let's jump right into things.


Birds of Prey #4

Finally, the issue we've been waiting for, we finally find out who White Canary is! I was gonna save this for the end of the review but I couldn't wait, so let's see who she is. We start things off with a flashback into the mysterious White Canary's past, and see that she is destined for great things. We jump back into present time with Black Canary taking on White Canary, telling her she knows who she is. They continue their brutal fight, in which White Canary breaks Dinah's wrist. Meanwhile, we see Savant is holding Oracle on a the top of a damn, threatening to push her off of it. We find out that the reason Savant is so pissed off is because of his inability to conceptualize time correctly, he believes that past transgressions have happened more recently than they actually did. (Oh yeah, I dropped those SAT words on ya!) In the middle of the Canary vs. Canary fight, Dinah lets loose with what may be the most powerful Canary Cry I've ever seen. The other Birds of Prey run into danger too, and it seems like this may be the end for one of our ladies. We jump back over to Canary, where she confronts her newest foe, who we find out is very unstable when it comes to protecting her families honor. On the Dam, Savant and Oracle have a heart to heart that ends in a way I didn't expect to happen, until a certain redhead tries to intervene. Back with the canary's, White Canary threatens to murder Dinah's friends and family as she makes her watch, including The Birds of Prey, Roy Harper and Oliver Queen. Hawk and Dove have a quiet, interesting moment to themselves, and the previously mentioned showdowns that I won't ruin all crescendo at this one moment in the comic, giving it a very important feel. The ending of this comic surprised me, and left a lot of questions to be answered, but I can honestly say this is one of the best opening arcs for a series I've ever read. I'll give this issue of BoP a solid 10/10.

White Canary: I killed them Ms. Lance. To save my father's honor, I hunted them down and beat each one of them to death. It wasn't difficult. They trusted me.


Titans #26

From the cover this looks to be a Cheshire-centric issue, with a special guest that I think we all can guess who. We start things off with a regretful Cheshire at Lian's grave, vowing to make everyone pay for her death. After some "delightful" banter with our special guest star, she asks him to help her kill someone, that person is Slade "Deathstroke" Wilson. She talks him into helping her after throwing Lian's death in his face. We jump to Cinder, the Human Torch of this band of miscreants known as The Titans. This is where I noticed the art is a little odd, it's more like general outlines of people with no definition, Ink doesn't even look the same, I wouldn't even know who he was if he wasn't the only black person on the team. Anyway, after talking to Cinder he finds out she can never go home, before she can elaborate, a pissed off Osiris blames her for the crack on the Isis statue, and takes a shot at Ink when he tries to calm him down. Ink retaliates and appears to cut Osiris, confusing the super powered teen, who takes off, thinking of how much he hates his team. Orsiris' rant is soon cut short as he's interrupted by the voice of the White Ring (as mentioned in Brightest Day 7) telling him to bring back his sister, Isis. One of the most shocking things is what happens when Slade and the Mystery Man finally meet up, but as always I won't ruin that for anyone who hasn't read it. The last fight scene, along with the mystery of what happened to Osiris was the only part of the comic where I could fully emerge myself, and then the issue ended. It wasn't a bad comic, but it wasn't amazing, it was average, like most of this run has been, I'd give it a 6/10.

Cheshire: Titans. That's what he calls us. He's stealing everything you stood and fought for all those years. Doesn't that mean anything to you?

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors

This cover is amazing, definitely one of my favorites of the year. The way Ganthet and Atrocitus stand behind guy, and you can see the Red Lantern symbol in his eyes, it just looks great. Anywho, things start off with the main protagonist of this new series, Guy Gardner, watching out over Oa. He heads back inside and records a message, he starts to talk about the future and how he may not be around for it, but his recording is cut short when his ring reports a crime. We see an awesome action scene where Guy, utilizing his ring makes a motorcycle, and makes a hit with a Bat-construct that would make Jose Canseco do a double-take. Guy, victorious in his mission, says he now has an idea about his other mission, the one he made with Ganthet and Atrocitus. He actually gets permission from the Guardians to go to the Unknown Sectors and heads on his way. Over in the orbit of Daxam, Sodam Yat falls to the planet, and is pulled into the dark shadows by some kids, protecting him from people whose faces we can't see. Back on Oa, or um.... under Oa, Ganthet raises a book that has the Black Lantern symbol on it, Scar's book, and one of the pages shows Guy fighting Kyle (or Hal, but I think Kyle.) They decide to study it later, but hide it away for now, and discuss their partnership with Atrocitus, whom Guy doesn't trust. We jump over to Atrocitus to see him saying the same about Guy and Ganthet, before sending one of his Red Lantern's, Bleez, to join Guy Gardner in his mysterious mission. The final page of this issue raises a lot of questions, and will definitely keep people tuned in, this opening issue did it's job in keeping me interested and wanting the next, and for that I'll rate it a 8/10.

Guy Gardner: You have the right to scream as loud as ya want while I kick your ass!

Adventure Comics #517

The Atom comic only for the newer readers. I'll only follow it for this arc since I don't see the point in paying for two comics to read one. Anyway, things pick up where they left off last time, with Atom's head under his foe's boot. We get an interesting story of a moment with Atom and Batman, where the Caped Crusader asked how Atom breathes. Anywho, Atom shrinks down himself and his enemy to escape the pathogen that was released in the last issue. We see a flashback where Ray won a science fair and his father didn't show up but his mysterious Uncle Dave does, I'm starting to think he may be Palmer's biological father, but that's just a guess. Anyway, he encourages Ray to keep studying and not let his academics fall just because he doesn't have the most supportive father. Back in the present, Ray pops out of Oracle's computer with his newest enemy, who doesn't know of Oracle's identity anymore, and she's ready with an inoculation for The Atom. Ray intimidates his latest foe (man I work hard to keep from spoiling for you guys) into giving him the information he needs. When Ray calls to check up on Professor Hyatt, the issue ends in suspense. I never really got into the issue, unlike the other two, it was okay but nothing really special. I'd like to see more than just a chase and flashbacks in this comic, I'll give it a 5/10.

The Atom: Or I could bring you back inside that computer and leave you there. You like information so much... how would you like to become some?

JL Generation Lost #7

This week's issue of Generation Lost gets things underway with recently the returned from the dead Maxwell Lord talking to someone, telling them to keep an eye on some people while using code names. He's interrupted by the white light, which appears in other comics this week and seems pretty cool that all these different comics are synced up. The white light tells him to stop the war before it starts, and we see a bloody and battered Magog murdered by Max Lord, who proclaims he's saving the world, before snapping out of this image. We then get a glimpse of the "JLI", and see that Fire wants the team to break into Checkmate to go after Max, even though she was against this plan two weeks ago in the last issue. They use a distraction plan, with Captain Atom bringing out the big guns to keep everyone at Checkmate occupied so Fire, Ice and Rocket Red on Team One, and Booster, Skeets and Beetle on Team Two. Fire and Ice have an interesting discussion, Ice thinks they should still try to convince people to remember who Max is, instead of going straight into the Lion's Den. It was pretty cool seeing the JLI in Rocket Red costumes, and hearing Red's Nazi-act to fool Checkmate was funny to see. The plan doesn't work out the way intended (of course) and we're left with a cliffhanger, wondering how our team will get out of this one. In the theme of the week, this issue sadly is nothing special, just average. If you read it you wouldn't be disappointed, yet if you skipped it you wouldn't miss much, I'll give this issue a 6/10.

Ice: At some point while we've all been running around, I think Booster's become the team leader.
Fire: OhMiGod, You're right!
Ice: I know! What the hell, right?!

Daredevil #509

Shadowland continues with this issue of DareDevil, we start things off with a welcome face taking down a guard in an awesome way, and that face belongs to super ninja extraordinaire, Elektra, the associate of Master Izo. We see some Hand members or something (still new to Daredevil) talking about the Hand members recently killed, yet they don't know Elektra is responsible yet. They check in with White Tiger, and learn that Daredevil has crossed the line into being a killer. The old dudes tell White Tiger to hunt down and kill all of Daredevil's former friends. Elektra and Master H-to-the-Izo (I couldn't resist...) overhear the plan, and Izo seems to know why they chose Daredevil for this experiment, and exclaims he and Elektra must get to New York as quick as possible. We also catch up with Foggy and Dakota, who are attacked by members of The Hand, following the car accident from last time we saw them. Meanwhile in Japan, Izo tells Elektra to go to New York, find Matt Murdock, and she knows what she must do, before staying to face the Hand members that were following them. We also see Daredevil make his first recruitment in the hero/villain community, and his first member surprised me. This issue did a great job of filling in the blanks between the last Daredevil issue and Shadowland. I like that everything seems to happen in real-time and fit in between certain events we've already read. This Shadowland story continues to keep up it's great pacing in Daredevil and the main series, I'll give this issue an 8/10 rating.

Hand Ninja: Prepare to meet your death!
Ivo: Oh, I've been prepared since before you were born.

Superman #702

Supes walks through my hometown of Detroit, Michigan in this issue of Superman. Things start with some lazy guy sitting on his porch, his wife tells him that someone says Superman is walking through the neighborhood, but he's too lazy to see, and when Superman walks by, he's too lazy to even lift his head up and see who he's saying "Good afternoon." to... now THAT'S lazy. Supes then plays basketball, and uses his Super speed to destroy the guys he plays, then let's a nerdy kid block him, so he looks cool and everyone loves him. Eventually the Man of Steel fights someone who made a big robot suit to attack him. We then find out that the guy and his neighbors are aliens who immigrated to planet Earth.... what?! There are aliens living in Detroit? And no one told me? I live here, I have a right to know these things! Supes then encounters an old man who used to work at an abandoned factory (someone did their homework, JMS.) and he and Supes talk about how times change and whatnot. The old man asks Superman to fly for him, because he's never seen anyone fly in person (no, really?) and The Man of Steel does what he asks. As Superman goes to leave, the guy keels over, and Supes picks him up, flies him to the aliens and ask them to help... I cannot believe I just typed that sentence. Well, things happen from there, but I'll leave you guys to read that. The best part about this issue was the last page, which kept me interested in knowing what will happen, since this issue almost killed my interest. I expected this issue to be more like the last, since he's grounded and solving human problems, I didn't expect aliens and robots. I'll give this issue a 4/10.

Old dude: Didn't figure you'd come by Detroit or Flint. Figured you'd go someplace sunny on vacation.

Batgirl #13

This issue starts with Stephanie Brown, who secretly masquerades as the Gotham's female protector, Batgirl, having an intense game of Ping-Pong at school with a fellow student. She gets a call from Proxy, who she mistakes as Oracle, telling her that there's a shooting at the financial district and Batgirl is needed there. She also manages to use the phrase "Po-Po" which was very out of place, but Steph called her out on it, so that makes me aware that Bryan Q. Miller is poking fun at himself. There's also a cool scene where Steph runs off and her shadow makes the Batgirl symbol, it's used a lot it Batman comics but I still mark out for it. We see Detective Nick Gage, a little love interest of Batgirl, trying to take down the shooter, who runs away on foot. Nick follows and when the two are alone on a rooftop, the shooter reveals himself to be Clayface, and knocks Nick off of the roof. He's caught just in time by The Caped College Crusader (just made that up) who engages in witty banter that would make Dick Grayson smirk. Meanwhile, with help from Proxy, Batgirl follows Clayface's trail, and manages to lockdown the Bank in the way only Steph can. I've haven't read a comic that mixes action with humor this well since the beginning of the Booster Gold series. The Clayface fight is awesome, and the first time Stephanie, as Batgirl is taking on a major villain in the Rogue's gallery. This issue is more of a stand-alone story but it was great, and gives us a little insight into Nick Gage's background. We also got to see the first Batgirl/Proxy team-up without Oracle, and I really enjoyed this issue, I'd rate it a solid 9/10.

Stephanie: Nothing like the wind... and bullets... whipping through my hair on a beautiful spring day.

So, that's it for this weeks edition of Ratings and Rantings. Thanks for reading guys, I appreciate it and as always comments are appreciated. As for my big news, I've recently gotten a Temp Job working at Chrysler making 14$ an hour (INSANE!), I start Orientation next Wednesday so don't be surprised if I have to push Ratings and Rantings back a few days some weeks, but it will be done because I love typing these reviews and hearing what you guys think. The main reason I'm letting you know if because you guys are like family, so I wanted to keep ya updated. But that's all, below are the poll results from the last week. So until next time, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd.

Last week's poll asked "Who would you like the chance to play as in Batman: Arkham City next year, even if it's just in Challenge Maps?"

Last Place with 0% - Batman Only
Third Place with 12.5% - Tie between Catwoman and Two-Face.
Second Place with 25% - Tim Drake as Robin.
Winner with 50% - Nightwing, Let's have Escrima Sticks!

Next Time on Ratings and Rantings

Batman Beyond #3, Batman: Streets of Gotham #15, Brightest Day #8, Green Lantern Corps #51, Powergirl #15, Amazing Spider-Man #640, and Deadpool #26.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Top Five 5's

Hey everyone, once again welcome to the Top Five 5's! The newest bi-weekly feature here at JTCS. So, we're gonna do things just like always, I'm going to list each category along with each person's picks. Sounds simple enough right? So let's get into it. And just to make this simple I'm assigning everyone who sends in their picks a color. So this is the color guideline:

Jason Todd
Marc
Nagash
Paul C.
X-Man
Falisha




Top Five Characters you want back from the Dead

Ted Kord
Garth (Tempest)
Vic Sage (The Question)
Damage
Owen Mercer

The Question
Nightcrawler
Genis-Vell
Ezekial
Ben Reilly

Ares (Marvel)
Blue Beetle (Ted Kord)
Damage
Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders)
Lian Harper

Madame Fatal
Blue Beetle (Ted)
Ben Reilly
Karate Kid
Tempest (Garth)

Jean Grey (that's right, I'm THAT guy!)
Damage
Captain Boomerang II (Owen Mercer)
Genis-Vell
Ted Kord

Hippolyta
The Question
Sue Dibny
Ralph Dibny
Black Mask




Top Five Characters with Untapped Potential

Connor Queen (Hawke)
Static
Geo-Force
Ravager
Aquagirl

Gravity
Sub-Mariner (should have his own series again!)
Blink (bring her into the main Marvel universe already!)
Willie Lumpkin
Batman (very obscure character I doubt anyone else has heard of...he should at least get his own miniseries, in my opinion)

Aquagirl
Connor Hawke
Miss Martian
Pixie
Steel

Madame Fatal
Matter Eater Lad
Tempest (Garth)
Jimmy Olsen
Terra Man

NATE GREY!
Bart Allen
Chamber/Decibel
Max Lord
Jericho

Ravager
Static Shock
Captain Atom
Creeper
Donna Troy




Top Five One-Shots

DC Universe: Last Will and Testament
Faces of Evil: Deathstroke
Detective Comics #826 (Slayride)
Joker's Asylum: Killer Croc
Batman Annual 25 (That counts right?)


Hmm, I can't really think of any off the top of my head. Other than Punisher: The Tyger, which was awesome.

I can't do this one, as I don't have many, if at all, and haven't read many. 
Latest I read was Namora, which was good, but can't make a Top Five from one 
entry

Batman: Holy Terror
Batman: The Killing Joke
Superman: Speeding Bullets
Batman: Gotham By Gaslight
Preacher: Cassidy, Blood and Whiskey

The Death of Captain Marvel
DC Universe: Last Will and Testament
Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans
Punisher: The End
Captain America: Who Will Wield The Shield

The Killing Joke
Titans: Villains For Hire
Brightest Day: The Atom
Joker's Asylum: Harley Quinn
Tales From Wonderland: Cheshire Cat


Top Five Worst Comic Series

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne
Countdown
Batman and Robin
Oracle: The Cure (Talk about a misleading title..)
All Star Batman and Robin

It would be easy enough to just list a bunch of Rob Liefeld books, because honestly I'm sure all the worst comics series are by him, but I'll just stick to things I've actually read.
Captain America (1996 series by Liefeld)
Sabretooth: Mary Shelley Overdrive (awful, just awful.)
Secret Wars
Spawn
X-Men/Fantastic Four

All-Star Batman and Robin (in a so bad it's good sort of way)
Anything written by Kathryn Immonen
Countdown to Final Crisis (excluding the Piper/Trickster bit)
Secret Invasion
The Dark Knight Strikes Again 


Spider-Man: Chapter One
Millennium
Amazons Attack
Countdown
Spawn

Brightest Day (Damn already? lol)
X-Men Legacy
Batman & Robin
Uncanny X-Men
Flash

Spider-Man: Black Cat
Wonder Woman: Land of The Dead
Brightest Day 1-6 Lol
Batman & Robin
The Return of Bruce Wayne



Top Five Male/Female Team-ups


Green Arrow & Black Canary
Nightwing & Batgirl
Spider-Man & Black Cat
Nightwing & Huntress
Batman & Catwoman

Luke Cage and Jessica Jones
Hawkeye and Mockingbird
Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel
Spider-Man and Firestar (Amazing Friends!)
Superman and Wonder Woman

Batman (Bruce Wayne) & Red Hood (Jason Todd) - the bit in Under the Hood where 
they work together again = win
Batman & Superman
Green Arrow & Green Lantern
Green Hornet & Kato
Spider-Man & Human Torch
(I should've cleared up that I meant Male and Female, coed teams. Haha.)

Hawkman and Hawkgirl
Vision and Scarlet Witch
Aquaman and Mera
Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl
Knight and Squire

Robin/Spoiler
Superman/Wonder Woman
Cyclops/Jean Grey
Hawkeye/Mockingbird
Green Arrow/Black Canary

Batgirl/Red Robin (Steph & Tim)
Black Canary/Green Arrow
Elektra/Daredevil
Harley Quinn/The Joker
Huntress/Nightwing

Category Winners

Top Character Revived from Death: Blue Beetle (Ted Kord)
Top Character with Untapped Potential: Static/Ravager/Aquagirl/Connor Hawke
Top One-Shot: DC Universe: Last Will and Testament/ Batman: The Killing Joke
Top Worst Comic Series: Batman and Robin
Top Male/Female Team-Up: Green Arrow and Black Canary

This week we had for the first time ever, we have a four way draw in a category. Static, Ravager, Aquagirl and Connor Hawke each had two votes each so with no clear cut winner they all won that category. Another tie took place as both Last Will and Testament and The Killing Joke each had two votes a piece, giving them a co-win in that category. Ted Kord winning didn't surprise me, I'm still holding out that he may be on his way back from the dead, even part of my thinks he'll be the new White Lantern entity but I wouldn't hold my breath. Batman and Robin being worst series doesn't surprise me, because while some people love everything about it, there are a fair share who hate everything in the series, much like myself. And Green Arrow and Black Canary being the most voted team didn't surprise me much, although I was shocked to see there weren't many Robin and Batgirl votes.

I wanna thank everyone for voting, I'll be back this week with another edition of Ratings and Rantings, also don't forget to vote on the new poll, and the results from last week's poll are below. Until next time, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd.

Last week's poll question asked "Which story would you like to see become an animated film?"

Last Place
with 0% - Green Lantern: Rebirth, no votes? I blame Sinestro.
Second Place with 21.4% - Tie between Superman: Last Son and Green Arrow: Year One
Winner with 57.1%  Batman: Hush gets the win, I'd pay to see that.



Saturday, August 7, 2010

Top Five 5 Reminder

Hey guys, just reminding everyone that I'll be posting the Top Five 5 tomorrow, the deadline for picks is tonight and I haven't gotten many so If anyone wants to be included be sure to send your picks to KevinKavalier@gmail.com. Remember to send me your top five choices for each category, the categories are:

Top Five Characters you want back from the Dead
Top Five Characters with untapped potential (Ex: Ravager)
Top Five One-Shots
Top Five Worst Comic Series
Top Five Male/Female Team-Ups


Here's hoping I get a few more picks from you guys, and I'll be back tomorrow with the main post.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Ratings and Rantings

Once again it's that time of the week, Jason Todd here, once again welcoming you guys to my Red Hood. This week's Ratings and Rantings should be interesting as Marvel invades, I plan on reviewing Shadowland #2, Shadowland: Bullseye One Shot, Deadpool #1000 and this marks the beginning of me reviewing Amazing Spider-Man on a regular basis. So along with those Marvel Comics, I've also got some DC Comics to review as well as Green Arrow #2, which I'll review first since it didn't make the cut last week. But before that, I wanna remind everyone that this weekend I'll be doing the Top Five 5, so remember to send me your picks, and the topics will be at the bottom of this review.

And lastly, I wanna thank Falisha for pointing out if you Google Jason Todd, that my blog is the first thing on the second page. That's pretty cool to know and definitely makes me wanna keep running the blog and see if I can crack the first page. But enough of that, let's kick off this week's reviews!


Green Arrow #2

This month's Green Arrow picks starts with a mysterious man wondering around the Star City forest, filling up his canteen with water before the story jumps over to the best buddies since Cory and Shawn on Boy Meets World, Green Arrow and Green Lantern. We find out that electronics, as well as Hal's ring won't work in the forest for some reason. Hal and Oliver continue to talk about the forest and the White Lantern power, then Ollie tells Hal that he knows the forest better than anyone since it's his home now. Ollie uses his Lantern (hmmm) as he guides Hal deep into the forest to show him where he's living, he somehow has tables, a couch, a bookshelf filled with books and many places to write his memoirs I'd assume, "How to live in a forest, the Green Arrow Way!" After showing Hal around, the Oliver tries to show Hal the way out of the forest, while mercenaries drop into the forest, looking for Green Arrow. They find him and Green Lantern, and Hal proves he doesn't need a ring to fight, as he and Green Lantern lay out the would-be-attackers. But when more attackers come, Green Arrow and Lantern decide they need a new plan, and try to figure out a way to get Hal's ring working again. The plan works and with a power boost, Green Lantern helps Green Arrow clear the forest of the invaders. This issue ends with a very interesting cliffhanger, that keeps me interested to see how Ollie will get out of it. As for this issue, I enjoyed it a lot, not much happened but we saw a new conflict, and got introduced to someone else in the forest, I'd give this issue a 7.5/10.

Green Arrow: You have your sector Hal, I've got mine.


Brightest Day #7

This issue of Brightest Day has been called "The one where we find out why those who returned did" so hopefully we can finally get some answers. The issue starts off with Deadman and Dove getting a cheeseburger (who saw THAT coming?! *sarcasm*) because the ring told him to last issue. I wanna know why Dove is dressed all clean with hair flowing and no one can get Deadman a T-Shirt and some pants? He's just walking around in the costume he DIED in and a trench coat. They talk about why Deadman may be back, and then talk about Hank and Dawn's roles as Hawk and Dove. After eating his cheeseburger the ring says "I hope you enjoyed your meal." (really?) and magically sens Deadman, Hawk and Dove, in costume, to the site of the White Lantern. In the crowd watching is Jackson Hyde, the kid we were introduced to a few issues ago. When Boston inserts his ring into the Lantern, Jackson's arm glows as he states he doesn't feel well to his friend, Maria. Boston asks the Lantern why did it bring them back, it replies they need to embrace life and Boston's costume turns all white, with the White Lantern symbol on his chest, and his face returns to his usual Deadman face/mask. The Lantern's entity tells Boston that he has been watching over the earth since the beginning of existence and a replacement must be chosen. The returned Heroes and Villains are there to protect the world until the arrival of it's new champion. We jump to Martian Manhunter whose trying to revive Miss Martian, when a ring manifests on his finger and tells him he must burn down the Star City forest. The rings continue to show our returned heroes what they need to do, and even manages to switch who's in control of the Firestorm body. Some of these prophecies are extremely interesting, and make me care about some stories I didn't before, especially Hawk and Dove. I think this was what this series needed to inject a little life (no pun intended) back into it. I'll give this issue of Brightest Day an 8/10 rating.

Hank: The Jukebox is broken.
Dawn: It was just playing the Dixie Chicks.
Hank: That's why I broke it.


Shadowland: Bulleye One-Shot

We start things off with everyone mourning and crying at Bullseye's funeral...wait...what?! Everyone's saying nice words and how great he was when someone yells out that he was an evil man and this funeral is a farce. The old man runs away but doesn't get far before he's presumably killed by one of the other participants. We find out that this funeral is more of a hostage situation as everyone is being made to show their "respects" to Bullseye. Someone who I don't know named Denny (I'm new to Daredevil so I apologize) sees Bullseye's ghost and says if he were alive than the old man with the shurikens in his back wouldn't be. The sixth sense kid tells Ben Urich (Hey, someone I know!) that the man isn't dead yet and they should help him, but they can't due to the armed guards that are running the fake funeral. We find out that eight hours earlier, Urich was abducted for this "funeral" for Bullseye. Mayor Jameson's announcement that no money would be spent on a horrible vigilante like Bullseye's funeral, so a bunch of Bikers who owe it to Bullseye decide to give him one. Denny Deaver, the kid from earlier, is doing this so he can get Bullseye out of his head, since he can see and hear dead people. They continue to make the rounds and kidnap people for the funeral until finally, thanks to a top off from Urich, Daredevil and his crew find our what's going on. I'll stop here as not to spoil things for anyone. The ending really made this story, but all the back tracking kind of killed the pacing in my opinion. It was still a good one-short but far from the best I've read, I'd give it a 5/10.

J. Jonah Jameson: As far as I'm concerned, toss Bullseye into the incinerator, then flush the ashes into the sewer... which is still better than Bullseye deserves.


Shadowland #2

Shadowland #2 starts off with an opening monologue by Moon Knight, while we see a Cab Driver swallow what I'd assume to be a balloon of something, so I'd assume the Cabbie was Moon Knight. He smashes up the taxi with a baseball bat until The Hand descends down, ready to attack, as he tells them to bring it on. We then see Luke Cage and Iron Fist (as Danny) at the Soup Kitchen, discussing Daredevil murdering Bullseye. Danny brings up a good point that they've all killed nameless Hand ninjas and HYDRA members over the years, and if anyone deserved it, than it was Bullseye. They have to cut their discussion short because two men get into a fight, Luke breaks it up, and in walks Wilson Fisk, The Kingpin. After discussing how the people in the city are turning on each other due to the Shadowland events, Kingpin states that they're going to have to take down Daredevil. Jumping inside his lair, we see Daredevil, who feels no remorse or guilt after killing Bullseye. He tells Tarantula that he needs better trained warriors for expanding their territory. He states that any costumed heroes are now invited to join him and The Hand, and if they're not with him, they're against him. Luke Cage, Iron Fist and some other heroes go to meet with Daredevil, only saying they'd join so they can talk to him. They tell Matt that he's going crazy for the most part, bringing up his recent murder, he replies by saying he put down Bullseye for the greater good. In the midst of this, Spider-Man joins the intervention, via the rooftop windows. Moon Knight, now with the captured cops and other people "arrested" by The Hand, heaves up the balloon from earlier, revealing Lockpicks. He goes to escape and runs into the last person I expected to see. When hearing of this infiltration, Daredevil blames his former allies, saying they caused this distraction and attacks. This was a great issue, the first issue was amazing and this one was almost as good. I don't know why this one seems a little smaller, maybe because this focused on more dialogue and the last one had the big Bullseye murder. But so far Shadowland has been great, I can't wait for issue three. I'd rate this issue a 9/10.

Spider-Man: And hey, can I just add on a personal note.. that whole Black Costume thing? Never ends well. Trust me on this.


Amazing Spider-Man #639

I remember issue #600, man time is flying. So as most people know, this is the thing that fills in the blank after One More Day, and in the last issue we discovered (Highlight for Spoilers) that the reason Peter and MJ didn't wed is because Spider-Man got knocked out and missed his own wedding. (Spoilers over) In this issue, Pete and MJ continue to discuss the past. We see Spidey, in his black suit, listening in as his friends and relatives talk about how awful he is for leaving Mary-Jane at the alter. Spidey tries calling her but gets the voicemail, he swings to MJ's home as fast as he can so he can explain how he missed their wedding day. When he finds that she isn't home, he swings around the city, frantically yelling "MJ!!!!" at the top of his lungs, trying to find his almost-bride. He finally heads to his own home, and finds Mary-Jane waiting on the couch. She tears into him, having heard about what he said about having cold feet to Flash and Harry in the last issue. She demands for him to take his mask off, and when he does, and she sees his bruised and battered face, she tells him it's not about cold feet, it's about how Spider-Man will always come between them. She's about to ask Pete to stop being Spidey but he cuts her off, saying he can't. She leaves Peter, and tells him she never wants to see him again, but with a talk from her Aunt Anna of all people, she realizes that she still cares about Peter. MJ goes and apologizes through the door before Pete lets her in, they talk and she tells him, she wants kids. After a deep conversation, MJ says she can stay with Pete, but doesn't wanna get married or have kids, unless he puts the mask and costume up for soon, and he agrees. I summed it up, but it was a very touching and well written moment. This issue ends like something you've seen before but with a BIG twist, if you think Spidey never un-masked in public, you'd be wrong. I won't ruin it for you, but It's definitely got me ready for the next issue. I'll give this issue a 8.5/10. I liked most of the comic but the left at the alter thing seems kind of over-played, so I'm glad that wasn't the main factor of the break up.

Mary-Jane: Because, I've come to realize that I would never bring a child into a life like ours.


Superman: The Last Family of Krypton #1

What would happen if instead of sending Kal-El to the planet Earth alone, his parents, Jor-El and Lara joined him on the rocket sent to earth? This is what we will find out in the three part Elseworld story,  Superman: Last Family of Krypton. We see the traditional voyage to earth for Kal to start things off, except he crashes on the way to Earth, then we find out it's a dream by Jor-El. We find out that the House of El members are already on Earth, having left Krypton. We jump back eighty-seven days to see their arrival on Earth, where they actually say "We come in peace." and someone mentions the cliche'd line, which made me smile a bit. An energy anomaly causes the authorities to mistakenly attack the ship, but the weapons do nothing but ricochet, causing one of their helicopters to fall from the sky. The inhabitants are saved by Jor-El, as Lara uses her super breath to blow the helicopter into the water, meanwhile Kal is floating, giggling and speaking Kryptonian...um...okay then. The planet Earth quickly accepts the El's as a part of their society, and the El's go around saving countless lives due to their super powers. Pretty soon everyone wants the El's, and they let Kal pick where they'll live for some...reason, and he picks Metropolis by shooting his heat ray onto a gigantic globe. Anyway, the would-be Brainiac constructs a huge mansion in the middle of Metropolis for the El's to live in. Back in present time, Lara is talking to the house about Jor-El's recent dreams, before finding  Sanctum that Jor-El has to himself in the building. She questions Brainiac (referred to as B) about it and also finds out that Jor-El is starting a company called JorCorp. Um....what in the hell is happening here? Meanwhile, Lara is looking for Earth couples that could take care of Kal-El for some reason, people on the list include Perry and Alice White,  and even Thomas and Martha Wayne. So they give Kal to the Kents for some stupid reason, so he can choose if he wants to live as an Earthling or a Krypytonian. Meanwhile, Lara writes a book and goes on TV to talk about it... I'm not making this up. Some other boring stuff happens, Lex as a kid becomes friends with Jor-El, and Lara has two more kids. Okay, I'm done with this series. This seemed like a really interesting story, but instead it's just a weird mix of the regular story and a bunch of unnecessary events. I don't plan on finishing it, and I could care less about The El's on Earth now, 2/10.

Pa Kent: I sure didn't see this coming.
Clark Kent: I've got X-Ray vision and I didn't see it.


Red Robin #15

Oh hell yes, this issue starts off with something I've been waiting for since he returned, Tim Drake, face to face with Digger "Captain Boomerang" Harkness. Tim's in leg braces and on crutches for some reason, he lets Boomer know that he hopes he rots in prison. Tim, is then shown as Red Robin, breaking into Vicki Vale's apartment and seeing that she does in fact know the identities of most members of the Bat-Family. He tells Dick and Alfred about the problem, before Damian interrupts with his well-documented hate of Tim. They decide they need a long-term plan to convince Vicki that she's wrong, and Tim seems to have an idea. Another surprise appearance in this issue, in the form of Tim's Ex-Girlfriend, Stephanie "Batgirl" Brown. He enlists her to help him catch Scarab, who's now in town thanks to Tim's recent crime-fighting. In his Tim Drake alter-ego, Tim, along with the Fox sisters, requests a meeting with Commissioner Gordon, and set up an appearance at a press conference.  By the way, I loved Tim's explanation of if his last name is Drake or Wayne, because it makes more sense than him just taking the Wayne name because Bruce asked him. At the press conference, Tim's plan goes into action, when Scarab attacks. The ending, although I should've expected it still surprised me, and was a great plot twist by Mr. Fabian Nicieza. And the big reveal of another villain was great as well, Red Robin is quickly moving up the ranks to becoming one of my favorite series each month, I'd give this issue a 9/10 rating. I love that Tim is continually being shown as the best planned of the Bat-Family because he is the best Detective of them all, even Bruce has said Tim may be better than him, so I love the psychology involved as of late. Also, the cover actually had something to DO with the issue, that's so rare these days...

Damian: I am on record as recommending we simply terminate the reporter.
Dick: Let's call that plan B for now...


Deadpool #1000

It's time for Deadpool #1000! Is it really Deadpool's thousandth issue? Probably not, but with all these comics he's got floating around, it honestly wouldn't surprise me. Anywho, this is cut into multiple stories, not unlike the Superman and Batman #700 issues a few months ago. The first story follows Deadpool, in Reno, Nevada, The biggest little city in the world, scoping out some babe to take back to the Merc Cave...or whatever he calls his base. It's filled with classic bad Deadpool jokes, gambling, and a TON of sexual innuendo. The story is much better than it sounds, completely switching gears and showing you not to read books by their cover, when Deadpool and the woman he's with start discussing other gamblers at his table. I won't ruin it but the first story was one of my favorites. The rest of this comic features appearances by Deadpool-faithfuls like Outlaw, Hydra Bob, Weasel, and Blind Al. Not eeverything is good though, there's one story where Deadpool goes looking for some kid who was sent to Fat Camp, and becomes overweight himself due to being fed and then fights the villains with his farts...yeah, that was horrible. The Blackest Night spoof was pretty funny as well, only because of the sheer absurdity of it all, with six more stories that I haven't even mentioned, this is pretty packed with Deadpool. So mix a few good Deadpool stories, some bad ones, and a Ryan Reynolds reference and you get this issue of Deadpool #1000, and I'd rate it a solid 6/10.

Deadpool: (Depends) How hot it's making you.
Desire: Human Torch hot.
Deadpool: My "Thing" likes to hear that.


Red Hood: Lost Days #3

Lost Days #3 kicks things off with Jason, training, learning how to increase his skills for his inevitable meeting with Batman. He states that Bruce taught him how to fight, defend, battle and disable, but never how to maim and kill. We see he's continuing his training with a skilled murderer named Egon. (Not the one from Ghostbusters.) We find out Jason has been training for months now, spending five weeks with a sniper and a chemist each, becoming proficient with guns and toxins. We also learn that although Talia loves Bruce, she's not exactly saving herself for him. Jason eventually discovers the men who have been training him in fighting, maiming and killing are running a slave trade, with over forty Asian children, all under the age of ten. Jason, being the ANTI-HERO he is (sorry about that.) decides to save the kids, something I doubt a villain would do. The showdown between Jason and Egon was handled well, and this issue showed Jason isn't heartless, nor is he a a hothead that rushes into battle without a plan. We also see where Jason's future Red Hood mentality starts and why he makes the choices he does. This was another great issue but it wasn't as mind-blowing as the other two, I'd rate this issue an 8.5/10.

Egon: You get Angry to easily. Zhen you become an idiot.
Jason Todd: Duly noted. (He still hasn't learned his lesson...)

Alright guys, thanks for reading, don't forget I'll be back this weekend with the Top Five 5. For those who don't remember or are new, I'll name five topics, you pick your top five answers for each topic and send them to me at KevinKavalier@gmail.com, I'll post everyone's answers this weekend and we'll see how they compare. So the topics are below, and make sure you send me your picks before Sunday, as I'll post everyone's picks then. So, until then, I'm your neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd!

Top Five Characters you want back from the Dead
Top Five Characters with untapped potential (Ex: Ravager)
Top Five One-Shots
Top Five Worst Comic Series
Top Five Male/Female Team-Ups


Next Week on Ratings and Rantings

Adventure Comics #517 (Atom Story), Batgirl #13, Birds of Prey #4, Booster Gold #35, Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #1, JL Generation Lost #7, Superman #702, Titans #26 and Daredevil #509.