Ratings and Rantings

Hey everyone, it's that time of the week again for the best weekly dose of comic content comics! Yes, as you can tell I really like that tagline, but I digress. I'm your host Jason Todd and I'll be your guide as we trudge through the good and bad of weekly comics.We're a little late this week due to some monetary issues but better late than never right? I forgot to pick up this Month's Teen Titans since I'd been skipping the series the last few months but the first arc starts next month so I'll just grab that one. So let's kick things off this week with Lex Luthor in Action Comics!

Action Comics #893

The cover is pretty awesome, it's the most menacing I've ever seen Gorilla Grodd look as well. Also, Smallville fans that read the Jimmy Olsen co-feature will note this issue as the debut of Chloe Sullivan's character in the DC Universe. The issue starts out pretty funny with Lex telling everyone not to worry about Gorillas, their more afraid of humans than humans are of them, all while Gorillas sit in trees above Lex with guns.The Gorillas communicate to Grodd, as Grodd wonders why Lex is there and what he's looking for. Grodd goes to his big cabinet of Brains in Jars...seriously... and grabs one of someone who worked for Lex and eats it to consume his knowledge. I didn't know brains worked like that, but I guess it's good to know? After witnessing a tender moment with Lex and Robo-Lois, Grodd sends his gorillas on the attack and to kidnap Lois, which they succeed in doing. The best part of the issue is Gross having a conversation with Lois, then pausing and trying to eat her head off her shoulders, only for nothing to happen since she's a robot. When that fails, Grodd uses his super mind powers on the Android, since he um.. apparently can do that. He asks Lois what Lex's weaknesses are, but before we can see the answers we jump back over to Lex.  Lex's teammates try to get him to turn back but he tells them they will head forward, find the source of the Black Energy and rescue his assistant. I guess no one notices that she's Lois Lane, the woman that's ALWAYS in the newspaper for being saved by Superman. This issue goes from funny to downright hilarious when Grodd completely rips off General Zod's line and charges into battle with a spoon. Don't worry, it'll be line the of the issue below. Grodd then decapitates Lex with a gigantic spoon... I'm not making this up. Grodd, content with himself and a spoon decapitation (Who wouldn't be content with that?!) quickly devours the head of Lex, before receiving a huge electrical shock throughout his body. We see a flashback and apparently Lex sent his employee with fake knowledge of Luthor 's fears to be killed by Grodd, which happened, then Grodd ate his brains and received the fake knowledge that Lex was afraid of giant spoons. Turns out Lex and his second in command, Spalding, were in Gorilla suits and this was all a huge ploy to get the codes out of Grodd. Lex and his crew end up escaping with a sample of the Black Ring energy. That is, until an upset Grodd regains consciousness and goes for revenge. I won't ruin the ending, although readers of Vertigo's Sandman series may be pleasantly surprised. This issue started pretty comical but got very good near the end, and even did the comedy well which I enjoyed. I'd say overall this was a pretty good issue, I'll give it an 8/10.

Gorilla Grodd: Lex Luthor!!! Kneel before Grodd! You have walked into my ambush! And I have brought my biggest combat spoon, to eat your tasty brains!!!

Gotham City Sirens #16

This months issue of Gotham City Sirens features the two ladies of Bruce Wayne's life, Selina Kyle and Talia Al Ghul. We start things off with Selina Kyle, Catwoman, reminiscing on a romantic night she spent with Bruce years ago. From there we see Alfred, he notices there is magical activity in Grid coordinates J19, wherever that is. He notifies Batman and Robin, who already know, and promptly puts Damian in his place when the little bastard hits Alfred with a "Duh." Batman's idea is to put in a call, when Alfred asks to who, we jump over to see Selina Kyle taking a bubble bath. Her relaxation is cut short when Zatanna pops into the bathroom. She tells Selina to keep Ivy away from her, as she needs to tell the Sirens something before teleporting away. I should commend the artist, Andres Guinaldo, for drawing a great Catwoman, too often she just looks like a woman with black hair, but here she comes off with her own style and flavor, which I enjoy. From there, Selina tells Ivy and Harley what Zatanna said, Ivy gets upset of course, but the situation is quickly defused by the spunky blonde known as Harley Quinn. Harley then notices a huge fire breaking out not far from their base, and Harley alerts Selina and Ivy. Meanwhile, Oracle is watching the firefighters put out the fire since she has cameras everywhere apparently. She's soon contacted by Talia, asking where Selina is. Oracle gets defensive, asking why she would tell her, and Talia says because Selina is walking into a trap. Next we see the Sirens at the burned forest, Ivy gets upset as Selina warns her that Zatanna is not someone to mess with. Zatanna shows up and paralyzes Ivy, and Catwoman and Zatanna get into an argument. Must have something today with their mutual love of Bruce. The argument is cut short when all four women are blasted by a huge wave of water. They are then swarmed by some type of mud men. Selina convinces Zatanna to release Ivy, who confesses her hatred for Zatanna, and then receives the same from the Magician. Meanwhile, the four fight off the mud men, as well as a fire monster as Talia shows up and warns Catwoman. A giant hand bursts from the ground and grabs Selina and pulls her underground. Zatanna tells Talia to explain what she knows, and Talia tells her that the reason Catwoman was kidnapped, is so someone can make her relive time and they can find out who Batman is. It's a very intricate plan that seems like it would take way too much time, but it makes sense. This was a fine issue, nothing amazing, but not bad in the least, I'm invested enough to pick up the next issue. I'll give this one a 7/10.

Harley: After all Red, you haven't been yourself since that alien plant guy and his.... watcha call it...smell thingies.

Ivy: Pheromones.

Harley: Right. Feral Moans.

Time Masters: Vanishing Point #3

We start off this issue of Time Masters, written by Booster Gold creator Dan Jurgens, with a young Rip Hunter flying around the Legion base with a Legion ring while an older Booster Gold talks to Brainiac 5. Rip explains how his childhood wasn't ordinary, and it allowed him to play around in time which was always fun for him. Rip and Booster soon leave after Brainiac 5 has finished giving Skeets and upgrade, and Brainy tells them the Carter family is always welcome there. We then fast forward to Rip Hunter and his newest warrior ally, Claw, being caught in tentacles by the huge prehistoric monster from the last issue. Rip and Claw free themselves and are now in the presence of Serhatuu, a being known as Evil Incarnate. So in other words he's a cloaked black figure that's pure evil. Where's Superman when ya need him? Serhatuu see's images from Rip's mind in his reflective pool that show him heroes such as Booster, Superman and Green Lantern. He says he wants to bridge the gap of time, allowing him to go into the future with the heroes, and he says Rip will help him achieve his goal. Things with Booster don't seem to be going better as he and the other woman known as Starfire are surrounded by a bunch of warriors looking for a fight. Of course they have to banter first like only Booster and a pretty lady can, before deciding to take on the murderous horde of enemies. They make quick work of most of the enemies, before Booster goes after the giant Dragon that holds Superman and Green Lantern between it's talons. The female magician that's riding the Dragon seems to be no pushover, and it also explains how she knocked out the Man of Steel. Booster succeeds in freeing GL who in turn frees Supes. Booster goes back to help the other Starfire as GL and Superman note that the fight is taking too long and that's not what their there for...even though they're the ones that wanted to help. O....kay. After that Superman knocks of the Dragon with one punch and GL uses his ring to tie up the Sorceress. The Sorceress quickly frees herself (Sinestro should recruit her!) before zapping the ground and forging stone golems to help her win the fight. While our heroes are dealing with the Golems, we see that the Sorceress is working with Serhatuu. The two try to bridge the time gaps when Skeets interrupts and zaps the Evil Incarnate. Back with our heroes, Superman demolishes a stone Golem, since he can shatter mountains and such. When Booster complains about not signing up for this, Hal goes outta his way to be a "Red Hood Phallic Helmet a.k.a. a dick" and start ripping Booster saying why should he be there if there's no camera crew. Pretty soon tentacles shoot up from the water, the same that captured Rip and Claw, and capture Superman, GL, Booster, and the non-Tamaranian Starfire as the Sorceress accompanies them underwater. We then jump over to see Despero, Black Beetle, Ultra-Humanite and Degaton at the debris of the destroyed Vanishing Point. They discuss how they should kill Rip and get it over with, before Black Beetle states that it would be pointless since no one knows where he comes from, and killing his associates like Booster Gold would solve nothing. HA! Black Beetle then explains that other people have held Rip's title like Waverider  and the Linear Men, and when the Linear Men disagreed with Rip he locked them away, in Vanishing Point. So he finds the only chunk of Vanishing Point left big enough to house a cell, and looks to release them. This was a solid issue, it seemed really boring though. I could never really commit to it all the way because the pace seemed weird and with us not knowing much about the villains they never seemed like a threat. I'll give this issue a 6/10. And yes I do notice the rating dropping one for each comic today.

Green Lantern: Right. Why bother with this when there are no media around to chronicle the heroic exploits of the brilliant Booster Gold?

Green Arrow #4

Hm.. another very nice cover. I think I may do a Top twenty five covers of the year around December, would anyone care to see that? Anywho, this issue of Green Arrow starts off with a quick recap on the last three issues. From there we see a big Green glob attacking the forest and headed for the White Lantern symbol, basically the same scene we saw in Brightest Day, just from Green Arrow's perspective. After getting Martian Manhunter out of the forest, the two heroes discuss how the forest apparently takes power from anyone who enters it, with Ollie mentioning what happened to Hal. J'onn tells Ollie that his vision told him to burn down a forest but the White Lantern symbol on the tree showed him it wasn't that forest. He also mentions how he kills all plant life near him, and Oliver points him towards the forest which is now full of life again now that Martian Manhunter is no longer in it. Martian Manhunter tells Ollie he sees the appeal of the forest, and while in it his telepathic abilities didn't work, and how he hasn't felt that alone since he was on Mars. The two then part ways, a much less hostile way than from Brightest Day, which bothered me in that so I'm glad it was changed here. From there, Galahad steps out of the shadows and delivers a comical line asking Oliver if all his friends are Green, citing MM and GL. Oliver and Galahad discuss the forest for a bit with Galahad saying Oliver must have a sense of Faith, with Oliver saying he has something stronger, a sense of duty. We see the woman Green Arrow saved in the forest in the first issue leading a rally against Queen Industries and it's "Royal Guard." When she gets to close to one of the guards, he backhands her away, causing Ollie to spring into action and hit him with an electrical arrow. A huge fight breaks out between the Guards, Green Arrow and the Civilians, before Ollie helps Mary escape. We see the new owner of Queen Industries is watching the big fight and takes note of the woman Oliver helps escape, seemingly to use her as a pawn. The issue ends soon after that, and I really enjoyed it. They mix a lot of action with great dialogue and come out with a good comic. Surprising right? Well I once again enjoyed an issue of Green Arrow, and I'll give this issue an 8/10, for a solid enjoyable issue.

Galahad: Are all of your friends Green?

Green Arrow: The Good ones.


Well that's it for this week everyone. Just a few comics, but nothing really bad. Here's hoping next week we have a really good haul of issues. Since this weeks Ratings and Rantings was late, I'm gonna kill two birds with one stone by posting the poll results from last week below as well as a new poll. And under that you can see what I plan on reviewing next week. So that's it for me everyone, here's hoping you enjoyed it. So until next time, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd!

Last week's Poll question asked "Who do you think would make the best Green Lantern?"

Second Place with 20% - A Three Way Tie between Deadpool, Tim Drake and Daredevil. Man that's a close vote.
Winner with 40% - Dick Grayson, I'd pay to see that. Ya hear that DC? Give Grayson a ring!

Next Week on Ratings and Rantings

Brightest Day #11, Red Hood Lost Days #5, and DeadpoolMax #1