Ratings and Rantings

Hey everyone, it's that time of the week again for the best weekly dose of comic content comics! This week we've got another the conclusion of Bruce Wayne's Road Home, we've also got Kick-Ass 2 and Carnage #1 making their JTCS debuts, so without anymore stalling let's get this show on the road.

Action Comics #894

On our last issue of Lex Luthor's Action Comics run, we ended things off with our chrome-domed psychotic friend being shot by Gorilla Grodd and coming face to face with Death herself. We start things off with Lex and Death standing over Lex's lifeless corpse. Lex doesn't believe that a teenage girl could be Death, so she proves it by touching his nose, and when it starts to decompose he changes his tune. Death tells Lex she can let Lex have a life review, but he doesn't want to see his life over again. She shows him anyway and we see some iconic scenes like him standing over Superman's casket, his recent fight with Superboy in front of his sister and niece, and Lex with the Legion of Doom. Lex gets upset but Death explains how often she has to deal with dying people and how she doesn't want to be treated as a villain for doing her job. I'm really starting to like this chick, she seems like a very interesting character. Lex then starts to barter with Death, asking her what he has to do to return back to life. Lex starts to go through the five stages of grief as Death watches on, unaffected after dealing with it so much. Lex and Death then talk about what Lex believes in, and Lex, a devout atheist, says there's no one to judge him and sentence him to hell of heaven if not Death herself. Lex then wonders if it is real will he get to make a case, and defend his actions. After some more discussions we find out that Death is just checking up on Lex, as she never stated he was dead, before placing him back in his body, now in on his plane with a neck brace on, wondering what the mystery is behind his meeting with death. Well this was a solid comic, very good read, and a great introduction to Death, who I've heard of but never read about from her appearances in Sandman. The only think I disliked was the last two or three pages which I omitted from the review as not to spoil the ending. This was a nice solid issue of a solid series since it's featured Lex. I'll give it a 7/10.

Lex: ...My life.

Death: Yup. There it is. With lots of people fighting. And lots of people being clever.

Justice League Generation Lost #12

We start this issue back with a view into the past of Tora Olafsooter, also known as Ice. We see that she loses the ability to control her power when she loses her temper apparently, which explains why she's always been a more quiet and timid character when compared to the outgoing and friendly Fire. We then fast forward and see an angry Tora, more in her Goddess state than her usual quiet self. Rocket Red tells Fire that the temperature is dropping rapidly, to 30 below Fahrenheit and how his suit won't function at below 60, so she tries to snap some sense into Tora by talking to her. Fire gets to close and gets decked by Ice. She tells Gavril to get himself and the Metal Men to safety and to leave her to try to handle Ice on her own. We then cut back to more of Tora's past and see her playing soccer with some kids while her father discusses stealing some money from an old folks home with his associate, who happens to be his father. When one of the kids playing with Tora falls and blames Tora, they get into a fight, and Tora unleashes her powers. No one see's them really, but Tora's father tells his wife to go pack up so they can leave town. We fast forward back to present day and see Fire and Ice have huge fight with the two friends taking each other to the limit. We see more of Ice's past and see they've moved to Germany. Tora's grandfather shows up and says he plans on taking her back with him to rule as the Goddess she is. Ice's father refuses and when she's taken by her Grandfather and his men, Tora's father tells her to make it colder than she ever has. She freezes everyone and everything around her, including her father, who's last words to her are be careful, be quiet, be calm. Remembering this snaps her out of her almost primal state, and returns her to the normal Tora. The issue ends soon after, but not before Booster, Beetle and Captain Atom get an unexpected and unwanted guest. I thought this was a great comic and showed us a ton about Ice, her past and a few new revelations. I really find Ice as an interesting character due to this comic, and it's continued to build the characters up so well that it's become a better series because of it. I'll give this issue a 9/10 for a great character establishing issue, although the background of Tora's mega powers could've been explained better.

Tora's Father: No! This isn't magic or destiny! It's genetics! It's in our bloodline! She's just a girl with a gift! I won't let you make her into a monster!

Carnage #01 of 5

First things first, this comic has some AMAZING art. I mean freaking amazing. The art looks so real, and on one page you can even see the lines on someones fingers, that's just amazing. The issue starts with Spidey heading over to see an expo he was invited to by Tony Stark. It's about a new type of prosthetic that works with thoughts instead of deciphering binary. There was even a fun part where the prosthetic flipped off Tony Stark as apart of the demonstration, which the crowd loved. Tony did not on the other hand, and has Pepper Potts pull public reports of any patents or companies owned by the demonstrator, Michael Hall, so he can see how Hall came up with this technology. We see Tony step outside and notices an armored truck trying to be run off the road by a smaller truck, and someone who looks like Spider-Man following it, only he has more arms and an insane laugh. We see Peter Parker at home eating cereal and watching TV when he gets a call from Tony asking him how many arms he currently has. When a confused Pete replies that he has two arms, Tony tells him about what he just saw and Spidey, with a bowl of cereal in his hand, heads out to meet up with Iron Man. The multi-armed maniac causes a crash between the armored truck and the car following it, causing Iron Man to try to stop him, but he's quickly rendered inactive while the thing tries to escape again. Spidey shows up ans from Iron Man's description he figures out the symbiote is Mayhem, to his dismay. Our heroes are then attacked by an angry mob, as a result of the anger given off by Mayhem. Meanwhile, our symbiotic psychopath catches up with the armored truck and rips the door off. Back with Spidey and Stark we see two new heroes, also in power suits by the names of Royal Blue and Firebrick as they subdue the mob and Spidey and Iron Man. They then attack Mayhem, and kill him with one blast through the back as well as a woman who tried to stop the blast from hitting him. The issue ends soon after with us finding out who was in the truck as well as our first view at Carnage. This comic was a great way to start off, it was solid, raised a lot of questions and had beautiful artwork. Probably the best Spider-Man and Iron Man I've ever seen drawn. The bad news is this comic will only drop ever two months, but it'll keep me waiting. I'll give this first issue an 8/10.

Spider-Man: The crowd's not thinking straight, Tony... push them back but be gentle.
Iron Man: Got it. Recalibrating repulsors for minimal trauma.
Spider-Man: Oh yeah, yeah... I'm recalibrating my web-shooters for, uh...minimal...

The Road Home - Oracle

And here we are, on our second to last stop on Bruce Wayne's road home. We start off with more of Bruce's casebook and he mentions there are some people he didn't worry about while he was away, because he knew they could push past the grief and adversity and keep fighting the good fight, and Barbara Gordon is one of those people. We see Oracle finding out that the Seven Men of Death, Ra's Al Ghul's personal hit squad, are in town so she figures Ra's has the hit on Vicki Vale. Man, Vale is bigger in this series than Bruce it seems. Babs gives this information to The Insider by hacking his frequency that he claims no one should have been able to hack. He lets Oracle know that he's currently with Vale, and he then has to yell at Vale for her to realize how much trouble she's caused due to her trying to find out everyone's secrets. When Oracle asks if Insider is alright, he replies that's he needs a little help, then asks which of her Birds of Prey are near. She tells him a few and asks if he has any requests, and he replies that he trusts her. Oracle looks over her files to see who to send, and she remarks that she thinks The Insider is Bruce but she can't prove it. We see a great flashback scene with Bruce first coming to see Babs in the hospital after she lost the use of her legs. We see how much it pushed her to not just give up and to keep going, prompting her to become Oracle. We then see in present day that Oracle's called in Hawk, Dove and Batgirl. I was definitely glad to see Batgirl get some love, she's quickly become one of my favorite comic characters. Oracle does some hacking to lead the Seven men to her traps, where shre springs teams of three on them consisting of Ragman (he has a phone?!), Manbat and Manhunter, and Batgirl, Hawk and Dove. Meanwhile, Vicki narrowly escapes an explosion thanks to The Insider, but when he can't get up after the blast he tells her to run. Bruce eventually finds out Ra's plan, and Oracle tells Bruce she knows it's him due to his mannerisms and being around him long enough. Oracle wonders is Batman and Robin know but Bruce says he needs to finish what he's doing first and find Vicki. This was another great issue, that set up the final issue with Ra's. I'm wondering what will happen from here and how Vale will be handled but I loved seeing how Bruce helped fuel Babs to become Oracle. I'll give this great issue a 9/10, another great issue in this Road Home series.

Babs: You can't fix this, Bruce. You can't give me my legs back.

The Road Home - Ra's Al Ghul

We start the final Road Home issue with Bruce summing everything up in his casebook, saying how Ra's wants Vicki out of the way because he wants to be the only one to ruin everything Bruce has built. We then see Ra's Al Ghul, ashe talks about how he's forgotten the detective's name, I guess that's the first sign of old age, eh Ra's? Back with Vicki, we see her about to be killed by one of Ra's men, but The Insider shows up at just the right time thanks to the JLA transporter in his suit. Vicki runs away and finds the police while The Insider fights off her attacker, but they pull their guns on her, obviously working for Ra's. They fire shots but miss because their apparently near-sighted (really?!) and Vicki escapes. When The Insider catches up with the rogue cops he uses his Wonder Woman like lasso to find out that there's an open hit on Vicki, to which he of course realizes is courtesy of Ra's. The cat and mouse game continues with Vicki trying to run but continually being led in one direction like Ra's has planned with the Insider trying to catch up in time to save her. When Vicki decides she's tired of running she goes back to her apartment to trash her findings so her secrets die with her, but Ra's is already there waiting. The Insider finally finds out where Vicki is and heads there but his suit is on zero reserve battery power. The Insider finally arrives between Vale and Al Ghul, as Ra's welcomes him back. He comments in his casebook that seeing her work laid out it makes his secrets seem obvious, and he regrets that he's had such a fear of living life all this time, before unmasking in front of Vicki. The issue ends soon after with Vale making a major choice, and we finally end the Road Home series. This was a fine issue, the ending with Ra's was pretty anti-climactic though, but other than that this was another fine issue in a series of issues, I'll give it a 7.5/10.

Bruce Wayne: She doesn't deserve to die, Ra's, just because she did her job... and my job prevented me from being honest with her.

Kick-Ass 2 #1

We start off this first issue in the second chapter of Kick-Ass with our heroes, Hit-Girl and Kick-Ass training in a boxing ring, which seems more like Kick-Ass getting his ass kicked by the young heroine. Kick-Ass wants to call it a day but after a little confidence boost in the form of verbal abuse from Hit-Girl, he guts it out. We then cut over to Mindy McCready's (Hit-Girl) new home, and when asked about school she spouts off a bunch of believable stuff, until her new guardian, Marcus, tells he he knows that she's been with Kick-Ass training and trying to assemble a new team of heroes. She denies but when they go up to her room and she sees all the weapons of hers that Marcus has found, she admits that he's right. He asks her to give up the weapons and masks and she promises. We then see a flashback from when Mindy went home and how her being Hit-Girl is a secret between her and Marcus, since her mother wouldn't be able to handle it. We then see that Kick-Ass' house was blown up and his father is brain-damaged all due to his secret identity being discovered, but that's yet to happen yet, so we fast forward back. Dave (Kick-Ass)'s dad had just broken up with the woman from the last book, so he and Dave were back to eating Chili seven-days a week since that's all Dave's dad knows how to cook. Dave was also still very lonely and crushing on his own personal Lois Lane, Katie Deauxma. Later on we see Kick-Ass hit the streets with a new ally by the name of Doctor Gravity, who gave me a hilarious laugh at the expense of Kick-Ass. Doc Gravity tells Kick-Ass that a few guys on his facebook are talking about making a Justice League of sorts, and Kick-Ass jumps at the opportunity. He and Doc Gravity are then with with a sneak attack by two angry thugs, but Kick-Ass handled both thugs, proving he's learned a lot since he started out. When he goes to meet with his Super Friends, he texts Hit-Girl about joining him but she declines, due to the promise she made Marcus. The issue ends soon after with Kick-Ass coming face to face with his future team of allies? This was a great comic, the ending was great, and I really enjoyed it. I'm wondering how Hit-Girl will get back in the game and all the questions about what's going to happen with Kick-Ass, Red Mist and this new team. I'm also glad they added Marcus to the comic since in the movie he became Hit-Girl's legal guardian. This was a great way to continue a great story, I'll give Kick-Ass 2 a 10/10.

Hit-Girl: My dad would have had you doing a hundred push-ups for all this whining.

Kick-Ass: Not if he'd cracked my goddamn ribs, man. I feel like Rihanna after a quiet night in.

Well that's all for me this week gang, as always I thank you for reading my ratings and rantings, and feel free to comment with questions, disagreements or just tell me how awesome I am. The answer is very by the way, so until next time, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd, signing off.

Next Time on Ratings and Rantings

Brightest Day #13, Red Hood: Lost Days #6, Batman & Robin #16, and Amazing Spider-Man #647.