Ratings and Rantings

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! Once again time for that weekly cavalcade of comic content comments, Ratings and Rantings! I'm your host, your ally, your friend, and your king, Jason Todd, although I also answer to J.T., Captain Awesome, or "Hey You!" As you guys may be able to tell I'm particularly amped up because this is the second to last Ratings and Rantings of 2010, as well as the second to last post before the first ever annual "Red Hood Awards", who will leave with a coveted Hot Toddy? Lol, only time will tell. But enough about that, today we've got some last minute entrants trying to make their presence felt in 2010, so let's kick things off with a comic I didn't get to review last week, Amazing Spider-Man!

Amazing Spider-Man #650

We start things off with the usual Spidey recap, only this time it's from the point of view of one of Peter Parker's newest co-workers, Bella Fishbach. I wonder how long it takes Pete to make a lame joke about her last name. Anyway, Spidey is about to get decapitated by the Hobgoblin when he's saved due to Bella's quick thinking, and a little help from Lady Gaga. That's a name I never wanted to have to type on my blog, yet here we are. Gobby takes this as his cue to leave (They're playing Gaga, I would've left too!) and Spidey follows suit, even though he thinks his new boss is beginning to piece together his secret identity, after less than a day on the job. Spidey tries to stop Hobby from stealing what he came for, Reverbium, a very powerful type of metal, but our Amazing Arachnid is laid out by this impressively insane Hobgoblin. He's like a Joker and Deadpool hybrid. As Hobby leaves with the Reverbium, the co-workers do a head count and notice Peter isn't there. They head back in looking for the newest employee as Peter is trying to get changed to his civilian clothes, but Pete runs out of time. They walk in and see Peter, in his boxers as he's listening to music really loud with headphones and doing science equations. He tells them that's how he thinks, and surprisingly they believe him. Meanwhile, at the Fisk Building, Hobgoblin brings what Fisk asked for, the Reverbium, although he isn't the Hobgoblin that Kingpin sent. Hobby asks if he has the job, and Kingpin sics The Hand on him, asking where Kingsley is. Hobby replies that he's in "Hobgoblin Heaven", a.k.a. the dumpster behind the iHOP. I love this dude already. Back at Pete's new job, they destroy the rest of the Reverbium, using Antarctic Vibranium, which apparently is like anti-metal. Someone better run to DC and tell the Metal Men. Pete's boss, Max, tells him he'll put some samples aside for Peter to study, but he wishes he had a way to steal the Reverbium back. This leads Pete to calling Felicia Hardy, a.k.a. Black Cat, who we see in a bathtub...filled with milk...as cats lick at the milk. This wins Hot Toddy for scene of the year! I'm kidding... for now. Felicia agrees to help Spidey steal back the Reverbium (God, I hate this word.) and he tells her that he's gonna bring some new gadgets to help tackle this new Hobgoblin. Over at the Daily Bugle, Ben Urich's nephew (Uncle Ben? Weird.) brings him some video and tells him he wants to be a web reporter, and also gets Norah Winters to come watch too. He shows his video and it's the Hobgoblin break in. This of course backfires for Phil Urich, and ends with Norah making out with her boyfriend, Randy to celebrate. Sucks to be you, eh Phil? Back at his new job, Peter is creating a brand new Spidey suit to help him combat this new Hobgoblin. He's interrupted when MJ and Carlie, his past and present girlfriend's show up with donuts and lunch. Man, Peter always gets the hotties. Peter talks to the girls about his job and after some nerd talk between Pete and Carlie, MJ leaves. Soon as one Hottie McHotstuff leaves, another arrives, as Black Cat hits Pete up via some secret line they have. She tells Spidey that she just caught a guy and got some info out of him about Kingpin being the buyer for the metal that I hate to talk about now. Spidey says he'll meet her soon, and as Cat leaves her pidgeon tied up, Hobgoblin shows up, and we see that he told the guy everything to say. He then kills the guy, so no one knows he ratted out Kingpin. Back on the rooftops, Cat has grown antsy waiting for Spider-Man, when a box shows up next to her. She opens it and pulls out goggles with a note that says wear these, she puts on the goggles and see's that Spidey is standing right in front of her. He tells her how his new suit can make him invisible and impervious to sonic attacks, since it warps light and sound. That's pretty freaking cool. The issue ends soon after with Spidey and Black Cat getting ready to go get back that dreaded Reverbium! This was a really fun issue, I enjoyed everything about it, and seeing Spidey's Angel's was cool as well. I thought this was another solid issue in a line of damn good issues as of late, I'll give this one a 9/10. I would've given it a 10, but I really hate Lady Gaga.

Spider-Man: D-Did I really just get saved by Lady Gaga? No offense... But can I have the nausea-inducing laughter back?

Green Lantern Corps #55

GLC kicks off things on Planet Qward as the Thunderer's all head towards the Weaponer's castle, to give that troublemaker what-for! Over at the castle, Kyle tries to go free Soranik, as John Stewart, Hannu, Ganthet and Boodikka go after the powerful Weaponer. Sadly, the Green Lantern's have no chance, considering the Weaponer's shield ranks his opponents by threat level, then formulates a weapon to dispatch each personal threat. He dispatches of the biggest threat first, Ganthet, before taking out Boodikka and then John Stewart with a blast to the eyes. Hannu attacks the Weaponer and tells him to try to find a weakness in him. Inside, Kyle finds Soranik, but she still can't get to her ring. They go to the Weaponer's weapon cache, and they each grab something to try to help them combat the Weaponer. Back outside, The Weaponer has defeated every one of the Green Lanterns that opposed him and taken each of their rings. Ganthet is tied up but sits up, complaining he's going to be sick, before throwing up blood, much like a Red Lantern. Atrocitus' face appears in the blood and tells Ganthet their enemy is on earth and has already captured the Fear and Willpower entities. Ganthet then explains to John Stewart how the robed man is trying to capture and enslave all the entities, and how he, Guy, and Atrocitus' all had a vision of the future and teamed up in order to stop the man from getting all the entities. The Weaponer laughs at the story, but his fun is soon cut short by Soranik, brandishing an enormous gun against his head. She threatens him but The Weaponer doesn't seem afraid, and the Thunderer's show up soon after, telling her to do it, since he's pretty much ruined their planet. The Weaponer says if Sinestro had just come they could've ended this, now he'll have to dispose of the Thunderer's as well, but a surprise arrival seems to change everything as this issue ends, and it's not Sinestro. This was a solid issue, I enjoyed finding out about Ganthet and Guy's secret pact with Atrocitus, as well as seeing The Weaponer dominate, as I really like his character. I'm wondering where the next issue will take things though, as for this one I'll give it an 8.5/10.

The Weaponer: Five Green Lanterns against one man. Perhaps I should be flattered. But even if there were ten of them, I would still prevail.

Deadpool #30

The Merc with a Mouth starts things off with a bang, as he wakes up surrounded by vampires, so promptly fills them all with lead. The Vampires try to tell DP to stop shooting them but he's all gun happy so he keeps blasting them until they tell him they came to hire him, not kill him. After thinking over a decision to meet with the Vampires (or as Deadpool refers to them, Dracula's) and a small conversation with his brain, he decides to hear them out. After a hilarious conversation, Deadpool is asked to help protect those Dracula's from a group of rival Dracula's, known as the Claw Sect. The actual Dracula's son, Xarus has staged a coup against the other Dracula's and his Dracula's can walk in the day due to some magical amulet, so the "good" Dracula's need Deadpool to guard them during the day. Deadpool tells the Dracula's he's not helping, because they're Dracula's. The main Dracula of that group of Dracula's that aren't REALLY Dracula (confusing?) tells Deadpool that a hundred years ago those good vampire guys put their money together to open a hospital, and now that hospital is one of the best in the nation, and they don't turn away any patients and basically their saints. Deadpool agrees to help after hearing this, being a Hero and all. Meanwhile, above the Dracula's base is their hospital, and the Claw Sect has started to invade it, but the Regeneratin' Degenerate shows up just in time to save the day. The Hot Doctor that Deadpool saves wants to go warn everyone in the hospital but DP doesn't wanna make a panic so tells her not to, so she shoots Deadpool in the leg. Deadpool takes this as a sign that she loves him, so seconds later, Deadpool is back up and shoots her in the leg to show his love. He carries her to safety, and then drops her because he's got more Dracula's to kill baby! The issue ends soon after with Deadpool going to kill the rest of the Claw Sect Dracula's. This was a fun issue, just solid Deadpool fun. Nothing amazing happened, and there was no Doctor Bong, but as always I was interested and I laughed my butt off. I can't wait to see how Deadpool handles the rest of those dastardly "Dracula's!" I'll give this issue a 10/10.

Deadpool: Soooo... I am really surrounded by Dracula's?

Vampire: We're not... We're not all named "Dracula." The proper term is--

Deadpool: (after shooting the Vampires) Save it for somebody who wants to learn. Dracula.

Power Girl #19

This begins the four issue cross over between Power Girl and Generation Lost, I'm eager to see two of Judd Winick's current ongoing comics collide as well as seeing Power Girl meet up with her old JLI teammates. We start off with a flashback as we see the JLI consisting of Booster Gold, Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), Power Girl, Fire and Ice taking on the Royal Flush Gang! Man.. have they ever been a threat? Apparently Ace was cause the huge ten-ton robot apparent cleaned Peej's clock with a solid right hand. This leads to Power Girl delivering the groin kick from hell, causing Ace's Ken-Doll-like lower extremities to explode. Apparently that's where they kept his energy cells, which Booster, Beetle, and myself find HILARIOUS. We then see Power Girl, Booster, and Beetle laughing over the story with a younger Max Lord. We then see Power Girl in the J.S.A. All-Star Headquarters with pictures of Max plastered on all the monitors and telling the All-Stars about Max, but like usual, no one remembers Max or even see's him on the monitors. He's either not in any of the pictures or he's replaced with someone else like a random black guy or even Parasite. Peej tells the All-Stars how Max has stolen her company, how he's made a clone of her, and everything else he's done, including killing Ted Kord. Unsurprisingly no one believes her, except Batman?! He's there? And he tells Peej they've had this conversation before, and they convince the All-Stars to act. They don't get far before everyone forgets who Max Lord is again, even Peej and Batman. Back at Starrware, Karen is trying to get her stuff together with the company when Nicco tries to get her attention. She finally looks up to see her clone, Divine, standing next to Nicco, and snaps his neck. Karen attacks Divine and she's interrupted when she hears Max Lord, she looks up at her and he tells her it's all smoke and mirrors, just a distraction, before shooting her in the head, causing her to wake up from an apparent dream. Nicco explains to Peej that he's found out where Divine and CRASH are, due to one of Peej's earrings falling off in her fight with her clone, and inadvertently stuck between Divine's shoe and is now tracking her. Peej follows the trail that leads her to Vietnam, and finds a shed. She goes inside and see's a JLI teleporter, but the entire shed then disappears, but Power Girl can still hear the energy. Using her Ice Breath, she uncovers a secret base by overpowering it's temperature cloaking camouflage. Surprisingly, Dr. Ivo steps out and after some creepy small talk, introduces PG to the new Project Cadmus. The issue ends soon after as it looks like Peej is gonna have her hands full. This was another good issue in a line of good issues so far this week, and Power Girl's crossover is so well done that it doesn't make you have to buy Gen Lost, but still seems to add more if you're reading both series. I'll give this issue an 8/10, I would've given it a nine but I'm getting frustrated with everyone remembering then forgetting Max. It's like Groundhog day!

Power Girl: This is what I think of when I remember back. I remember laughing a lot. Sure. There was danger. We fought hard battles. We were constantly putting our lives on the line. But, All told, it was fun.

Streets of Gotham #18

First things first, awesome cover by Dustin Nguyen, I really like the half Bruce Wayne, half Hush cover. Out Batman in this issue is Bruce Wayne, which I gotta admit, makes me happy for the obvious meeting with Hush. We see that Batman is investigating a group of people that are apparently robbing stores while sleepwalking, courtesy of Bedbug. Still a very lame villain, but oh well. Batman watches as the people loot and even see's the Penguin looting a cash register in his sleep, causing Batman to take a picture on his camera phone for his trophy room. Um...sure. When Commissioner Gordon shows up with some frequency device Batman requested, he punches in an override code that cancels out the messages from Bedbug's bugs. Batman then finds Bedbug since he's nearby to watch his handiwork. Bedbug hops around like a flea but Bats knocks him loopy with a Batarang. Bats tries to remove Bedbug's mask, but he has bugs under it which infect Batman, making him one of the people who Bedbug can control once he goes to sleep. Over with Hush, he's questioning Pierce about what happened on the missing pages from his Mother's diary. Pierce tells him how Thomas Wayne had grown up and started to fund Leslie's clinic and had also taken a shine to Martha Kane. He's then cut off by Hush, (what a jerk, ask a question then interrupt?) The issue ends as Hush and his new allies go to see Dr. Death. Okay, well, this was bad. Sorry but when I'm told there's a six issue arc on Hush, I expect it to be MORE ABOUT HUSH. Not his parents, not Bruce's parents, not some old mobster, not a stupid character like Bedbug, but about HUSH. Hush was a freaking force to be reckoned with in his debut, now he's reading diary's and swapping stories with old men. What the hell is happening?! Oh, and did I mention this was about 12-pages long because the rest is a Ragman co-feature? Oh, and the Ragman story is over TWENTY pages long. I'll give this a 2/10.

Penguin: You can't hold me! I'm innocent!

EMS Guy: We know, Mr. Cobblepot. Go home.

JL Generation Lost #16

We start things off with our newest JLI incarnate being attacked by the Creature Commando's, which are pretty much like an army version of 70's horror movies. Over with the females of the JLI, Ice is trying to find something to help Fire after being shot in the chest and stomach. Fire starts to talk about her past as well as her parents, and how she believes she's going to hell when she dies for all the people she killed when she worked for Checkmate. From there we see Power Girl and Batman in the Bat Bunker. They receive a transmission from the Black and White Kings of Checkmate, telling them they think Captain Atom is innocent due to them finding an encrypted message that apparently told Magog that Checkmate wanted him to kill Captain Atom. Back with the guys of the JLI, after trying to fight off the Creature Commandos in a non-lethal way, Booster decides to have everyone retreat, and sends Beetle to go find out where Fire and Ice are. He finds them but Bea is on her way out of the land of the living. Ice pleads with him to do something but Beetle can't really do anything to help, and as Fire prepares to take her last few breaths, Jamie remembers something and flies off like a rocket. He grabs one of the Creature Commandos, their apparent medic since he's been healing the injured commandos. They rip the Mummy Medic's bandages off and place them on Bea, but are interrupted by an attack by more of the Commando's, led by Medusa. Medusa uses her um... "Medusa Hair (?) to incapacitate Ice. Fire recovers quickly and tries to gain her composure, causing Beetle to get distracted and blasted into a wall. We then see that one of the Creature Commando's is actually Maxwell Lord in disguise. The issue ends with Max taking one of the JLI members away via teleporter. This issue was kinda bland, I didn't get into it like the others, maybe because I don't see the Commando's as a threat? Either way this issue bored me more than it should've. I still love the series but I never felt anyone was in danger here besides Bea. I'll give this issue a 6/10.

Fire: When I die... I'm going to hell.

Well that's it for me everyone, for the most part this was a pretty good week for comics. Join me next week for the final Ratings and Rantings of 2010 as well as the first annual Red Hood Awards. Also, last week's poll results are below and feel free to vote on this week's poll as well. Until next time, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd, signing off!

Last week's poll asked "Which Comic Character had the worst year?"

Last Place with 0% - Wally West, Coming in last wins this race for Wally West.
Second Place with 12.5% - Tie between Green Arrow and Superman.
Winner with 75.0% - Arsenal, that's right, the former Red Arrow had the worst year in 2010. Congrats...I guess.

Next Week on Ratings and Rantings

Action Comics #896, Green Lantern #61, Detective Comics #872, Carnage #2