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.