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.