Friday, April 22, 2011

Ratings and Rantings

Woooo it's that time again everyone, time for your weekly cavalcade of comic content comments, Ratings and Rantings. As always I'm your host JT, and we have a nice collection of comics this week. We've got the continuation of the War of the Green Lanterns, The fallout from The Return of The Joker in Gotham City Sirens as well as Hell's Angel, Azrael, testing Catwoman, as well as our favorite busty Kryptonian, Power Girl. So, with an all DC Comics edition of Ratings and Rantings, let's kick things off with The War of The Green Lanterns!


Green Lantern #65

Here we are with part four of...something of the War of the Green Lanterns. We kick things off on Oa with everyone under Krona's control with the exception of a beaten but still defiant Kilowog. Krona taps into Kilowog's mind to see the reason he can deny falling under control is due to himself, Ganthet and the four Earth GL's having been exposed to Parallax before. Krona forces Kilowog's ring back on him and gains another member to his brainwashed Green Lantern Corps. Over on an non-inhabited world known as the Green House, Hal and Guy are wondering around looking for what's basically a Green Lantern Batcave which has a Green Lantern spaceship... Yep. They use the ship, which Hal calls the fastest in the universe, and plan to go find Kyle and John since it can track their rings. They arrive on Oa and Kilowog welcomes them by smashing up this ship, meaning it lasted all of five pages, bravo! Hal and Guy jump into an escape pod which takes them to Kyle and John. Once the four team up they realize they need rings or they'll certainly get caught or get killed, so Hal whips out the Color rings of the people who got sucked into the black book. They each pick a ring, Guy picking Red of course, Hal takes Sinestro's ring, Kyle takes Hope (looking more like Nighwting everyday Rayner.) and John wants Orange but Hal advises against it so gives him the purple ring for compassion. The issue ends with an awesome shot of everyone with their new colors, especially John who has a makeshift army uniform. This issue was more of a set up than anything but I really loved the last page where we got so see everyone with their new rings. I'll give this issue a 7.5/10 only because nothing else really happened.

Hal: That better be your belt buckle.
Guy: Don't flatter yourself. (I had this same conversation with X a week ago...)


Green Lantern Corps #59

And we continue with part five of this big War of the Green Lanterns. This issue starts with Ganthet trying to fight off hundreds if not thousands of Green Lanterns while we hear John Stewart compare this to a war with his own soldiers. We then see John, Kyle, Hal and Guy all sporting their new colors trying to decide what to do next. John cites that he knows the Indigo Lanterns can tap into other emotions and tries to tap into Guy's rage but can't because he's using Willpower to do it. He tells Kyle to charge his ring but Hal tells him that only works for Green Lanterns. They ask why Kyle picked Blue since there are no Green Lanterns to feed off of and Kyle says he though Ganthet gave him a hint when he said he had hope in him and now he hopes he isn't useless. Just pick another ring Kyle, don't whine about it. Kyle then starts to glow brighter when more GL's get close. They attack our four Earth Lanterns and Kyle's blue ring just supercharges all the Green Lantern rings. Damn, that's bad luck. John saves Kyle from a grim fate before they escape to go find Ganthet. They finally find Ganthet who pretty much unleashed a huge Green Lantern bomb to subdue all of his attackers when he see's the Crayola Cavalry as Guy calls them. Ganthet is upset to say the least, saying the rings shouldn't be on them as they are ill-suited (John), Not ready (Kyle) or condemning themselves to death (Guy). Ganthet tears into Hal for his idea but more attackers show up, as well as Mogo who BLASTS Ganthet. The issue ends with our four lanterns and Ganthet outnumbered by many to continue in Emerald Warriors #9. This was another fine issue, our guys basically ran around but I'm interested to see how this turns out, I'll give this issue a 7.5/10 as well because nothing really happened from the last issue.

Guy Gardner: The Crayola Cavalry has arrived!


Gotham City Sirens #22

We start things off with Catwoman recapping her decision to leave Ivy to deal with Harley trying to kill the Joker and how she now has to deal with a test by Azrael and the Crusader, who are on the way after Red Robin has failed his test. As Catwoman searches for the Angels of Death (cool name from the Red Robin issue) when they happen to find her sister who says she's Catwoman's test, and tonight she (her sister) will die. Meanwhile, Catwoman breaks into Azrael's Sister-In-Law's house and ties her up, then claims that his sister-in-law is for the lack of a better or funnier word, boning Azrael. She then ties her up for no reason and leaves. Catwoman finds the Crusader and kicks him to the ground. When he gets ready to attack he's interrupted by Red Robin, who even though he failed his test, sticks around to help Catwoman. They fight for a while until Azrael shows up and asks Catwoman to confess to her one biggest sin, the one she's never forgiven herself for. He stabs her with his fiery hail sin-telling sword which prompts her to have flashbacks about herself and her sister Maggie as a kid up to their fight in Sirens about ten issues ago.When Selina comes to, Maggie is there. Maggie and the Angels of Death tell Selina that Gotham will live on if she sacrifices her sister in the name of God. Catwoman grabs the blade given to her and tries to stab The Crusader, but his armor doesn't give and he decks her with a punch. Maggie begs Selina to do it, send her to God, cleanse her soul and save Gotham but Catwoman just can't bring herself to kill her baby sister. The issue ends with Ra's Al Ghul saying that Dick Grayson is the only one who can now save Gotham, as a defeated Selina is shunned by her sister. Well this was... something. Red Robin kinda had no point here, we got none of the Joker/Harley stuff that had me interested in the first place, everything was a bust for me. Plus that chick being tied up for no reason was dumb, I hope it leads to something in Batman, but I'll give this a 4/10.

Catwoman: He's gone crazy.
Jenny Lane: Says the lady who broke into my house dressed in a skintight Cat costume.


Power Girl #23

Kryptonians visit Jurassic Park as this issue starts off with my two favorite Kryptonians, and Superman. Okay, I couldn't resist. But nah, really, my two favorite Kryptonians, Superman and Power Girl are taking on what can only be classified as Magical Dinosaurs. Some even have Machine Guns for arms or are wielding Axes, and I'm serious. They decide to call up my favorite Magician (Sorry Criss Angel, Penn and Teller) Zatanna, but sadly she's all tied up. Zee is literally all tied up by some dude in a hoody who has her subdued up with tape over her mouth. Luckily, Zee's message on her phone says if she hasn't picked up she's in trouble and tells the caller to track her G.P.S. to save her. Peej calls up Nicco and has him track the G.P.S. We then see Zatanna's captor, known as Siphon and find out that since he was a teenager he's been able to use magic, but he has to be in close proximity with another magician. If he's around a magician for three hours then he can use their powers permanently. He tells Zatanna he doesn't want to hurt her or steal her powers, he just wants to copy them. Would've been easier to just get a date with her, taker her to go see Avatar and go to dinner, boom, instant powers for life buddy. Anyway, Siphon only needs two more hours but Superman and Power Girl show up and free Zatanna. What ensues from there are some back and forth spell-throwing which includes Supes and Peej being attacked by magical Sasquatches, the trio being turned into giant rock people (Shout out to the Thing!) and more. When Siphon finally has Zee on the ropes, Power Girl shows up and whisks into the sky, which knocks him out due to the speed and lack of oxygen. After dealing with a now locked up Siphon, Power Girl tells Zatanna and Superman she has a press conference to get to, and tells Supes she intends on making Karen Starr a real person. As the issue ends we see Karen Starr at the Starrware conference sporting glasses and red hair! Somewhere Kello just said "Hubba, Hubba." Now THIS was a good issue, I loved the change to making Karen look less like Power Girl and giving Power Girl a life outside of the Cape. I also loved the duel with Zee and Siphon as well as Siphon as a character, he should be interesting. And lastly I loved how Superman was here but never made the women look second tier, everyone was on a nice equal playing field, so I'll give this issue a 9/10 rating. Keep it up Judd, you just made Power Girl my favorite female hero.

Superman: She's got a Magic line?
Power Girl: She's a magician. She's got magic everything. Dinnerware, car, washing machine, bras, magic out the wazoo!

And that's it for me everyone. I Hope you enjoyed this short edition of Ratings and Rantings. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think. And of course the results from last week's poll are below so be sure to vote on this week's newest poll. Until next time, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd, signing off.

Last week's poll asked "Which comic couple would you like to see most?"
Last Place with 6.7% - Batman and Black Canary 
Third Place with 20%- She Hulk and Deadpool
Second Place with 3.33% - Booster Gold and Power Girl
Winner with 40% -Huntress and Jason Todd - Make it happen DC!

Next Time on Ratings and Rantings

Action Comics #900, Brightest Day #24, Generation Lost #24, Deadpool #36, Amazing Spider-Man #659, and Venom #2

21 comments:

  1. Well I'm saddened to see the score for Sirens is low, I'm ecstatic to see PG got a good score. At least the cover for Sirens was 10/10 quality lol. And I can't wait to get to PG. As for the poll gald to see Huntress and JT dominated lol.

    Can't wait for next weeks reviews either.

    Nice reviewing babe.

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  2. I'm going to be picking up all of War of the Green Lanterns (I picked up the first part) since I'm getting a lot of money (like $100 from my grandfather) for my birthday, buy 22-24 of Brightest Day, and Action Comics #900! Excited for comics this week! (except for BD 23 & 24)

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  3. One more thing, Jason... I was just wondering if you could put my blog up on the side with all the other blogs? If not, that's fine...I was just wondering. Thanks!

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  4. Lisha - Thanks babe. Sirens would've been better if they focused on the Harley storyline at hand instead of tying over with Batman and Red Robin but meh, whatever. PG was fun and a good read as always though. And thanks for the comment :) Also glad Jason and Huntress won, shows you, myself and X aren't the only ones in that boat.

    Caz - Awesome news dude, I'm looking forward to War of the Green Lanterns review and no problem at all, you should be up there now.

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  5. I already bought pt. 1 of "War" and I think I'm going to review the Booster Gold episode of Smallville that I'm watchin right now!

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  6. I think a lot of people are google searching "Booster Gold" and are finding your "Booster Gold-The Golden Road" thing. All because of Smallville! :D

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  7. That damned poll... It's gonna be Kyle... It's gonna be Kyle, and I'm gonna be just about done with DC when that happens... Dead serious. I WON'T tolerate a DCU where both Kyle Rayner(my favorite GL) and Wally West(my favorite Flash) have been eradicated by that bastard Chairman Johns. You think you've seen me angry before? Wait.........

    Anyway, let's move on to more cheerful things! :P I'm kind of bummed that you didn't enjoy Sirens, I thought it was better than a four, but hey, we can't agree on EVERYTHING... Yet... Ahem. You know JT, you managed to get me to read Amazing Spidey after I swore I wouldn't, you got me to buy those Gen Lost comics(which I STILL haven't read!), and you got me interested in Batman Beyond, got me to collect Morning Glories, all within the past few months(what are you, a witch or something?!). These PG reviews have me SO close to picking up that series. I'm just afraid that I'll start reading it, enjoy the hell out of it, and then DC will cancel it... That's why I haven't picked up the Batman Beyond singles yet. I just don't trust DC anymore. But MAN am I tempted!

    Oh, and I thought that belt buckle conversation we had was private!!! :D

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  8. I've seen solicitations that point at Kyle, and I've heard rumors it's Kyle but I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, cause rumor is their gonna make him a Blue Lantern or something...

    Damn, I did get you to read a nice amount of stuff didn't I? All I'll say is, I think you'd enjoy Power Girl. If they cancel it, so be it. I hope they don't cause it's better than Teen Titans and a few other series I read, but point blank, You like Peej, you like Judd, and you trust my decision, so I'd say pick it up and enjoy it while you can.

    Lol I didn't mean to put it out there, but eh? :P

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  9. Yep, since I'm done with the GL books during the War storyline, I was checking out the rumors and stuff, and there was one pic that REALLY made me think it was gonna be Kyle. I'm telling ya JT, I'll... I'll snap! I will!!! Ugh, Kyle Rayner: Blue Lantern. Lame... I'd rather Hal Jordan: Black Lantern... But I guess a Blue Lantern is better than being dead, crippled or Wally Wested. Hey, check me out discussing spoilers and stuff! :D

    You did! I still say it must be blood magic, but I have no proof... Yet. I'd just hate to start it up and then watch it get canned, while suckier comics keep coming out. You saw how poorly I took the REBELS cancellation... I doubt we'd want a repeat of THAT debacle!

    Damn you and your wagging tongue! :D

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  10. Haha, that Black Lantern thing made me laugh. I say just make Kyle the White Lantern so no one complains :D I hate that Kyle may just be pushed aside for no reason, same with Wally. Man I wish they'd just make new Outsiders with Jason, Kyle, Wally, Connor Hawke, Grace, Cass Cain and Donna Troy and just let Judd write it.

    Haha, that's me, the world's most despicable Blood Mage. And I see your point, I guess you could always catch up later, but you know how DC is with trades. Hell, the longer you wait, the closer it is to cancellation :P

    Haha, I don't even have a reply to that, outside of "Your mouth says no, but your body language says torch that sucker!"

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  11. It's funny AND true! :D HA! God, making Kyle the White Lantern would have actually made more sense than... No, I'm not even gonna go there yet... Yeah, I'm sure we've talked about this before, but seriously, why WON'T DC just take characters like that, characters who used to have their own series, and thus have fans, package them together and put a guy like Winick on the book? Like I said before, jackasses!

    I KNEW it! You ARE a blood mage! Oh, btw, I'm playing a blood mage playthrough right now on hard(which is WAY tougher than on normal!), and I've got to say, after you max out the blood mage tree, there are some sweet powers there! HA! That is SO true! I'll get the second trade and the series will be gone!

    HA!!!!!!!! Good night everybody! :D

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  12. Who knows, you know that draft we mentioned? We should also do a Team draft, like draft a team of 7 people per team taking turns, no main eventers (The Batmen, The MAIN Flash and GL's, Supes etc.) and no reusing someone else's pics. That'd be interesting.

    Awesome, I really need to play DA but I havent even started Fallout 3 and I'm still playing the hell outta MK. But that's pretty awesome to hear about the Blood Mage tree. And yep, hell that Birds of Prey trade with the first six issues just came out last month I think...

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  13. You know, when you said "The MAIN Flash and GL's" I ALMOST exploded... *sobs hysterically* I hate you, DC!!!! *continues sobbing*

    Okay, I'm now recomposed(mainly). I'd be down for that. You've only played through DAII once, right? I think I'm on my 7th playthrough! :P And believe it or not, I'm STILL doing new things! Like just today, something totally different happened with Mother Petrice and the Qunari! And yeah, blood mage SUCKS at first, but when you max it and can control certain enemies and then make them EXPLODE, dealing like almost 2000 in spirit damage to everything around them? Awesome!

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  14. Lol I said that so I wouldn't have to say Hal and Barry, but alas, you know what I mean.

    Yep, I haven't played it since that day I beat it. I may wait for some DLC then start all the way over with a new character. Damn, Blood Mage sounds like where it's at, and that sounds interesting. Did you ever hook up with Aveline?

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  15. Hey can I point something out? About Green Lantern and Kyle Rayner and such? I think it's going to be either Hal or Kyle but I really hope it's actually Guy.

    Anyway, the Green Lantern ongoing series hasn't appeared in the July solicitations. I don't know, maybe they're skipping a month for whatever reason...but there's still a chance?

    And about the Kyle situation: It doesn't HAVE to be Johns that makes all of the decisions at DC. It bubbles down to Johns, Tomasi, Bedard, and Berganza. So I probably look like a suck-up to Johns because of this, but it would have to be a joint agreement.

    My hopes that it's Guy: It was revealed earlier this year that Milligan will be doing a Red Lantern Corps ongoing series later this year. I think (I'm not entirely good at remembering this stuff) that he may have mentioed the "addition of a new character". Maybe I'm mistaken, but if I'm right then I'm 100% certain that would be Guy. Guy has shown the ability in the past to join the RLC and I would actually be happy if it were Guy that left rather than Hal, John, or Kyle.

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  16. Yeah, waiting for DLC is probably the way to go, JT. That is if they ever fix the PSN! And yeah, I'm having a blast being a blood mage and sucking people's life-forces away and such. Ahh the life of a blood mage... And no, I never did get with her. I'm honestly not sure if it's even possible. It seems she'll either get with Donnic or not, but she's never gotten with me...

    I couldn't agree more with you on Guy, Caz. Although I really can't stand Hal, I def wouldn't mind seeing Guy go to the Red Lantern Corp(although I don't know HOW that series is gonna work!). As for Johns, I think as the CCO(or whatever the title they gave him was), he's the guy who controls how things shake out in the GL and Flash books. I'll always remember an interview by Dan Didio stating that it was his and Johns' vision to bring both Hal and Barry Allen back to life, regardless of fans, sales, stories, etc. Tomasi and Bedard are just writers, so they'll write what their told, and I've never heard any interviews stating that Berganza was really hands on with creative. Personally, I always blame Johns and Didio whenever I see something in DC I don't like!

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  17. True, true. But I still think there are other people that could tell Johns 'no' besides DiDio. Isn't Lee still up there in power, too?
    The Red Lantern Corps series doesn't seem that bad of an idea, but I wish it was a Sinestro Corps series.

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  18. Yup, Lee is co-publisher with Didio. You know, it's weird, you hardly ever hear anything from Jim Lee... I mean in theory he should have as much power as Didio, but you hardly ever hear anything from him. It's always Didio who's doing those editorials, or giving interviews. Personally I'd love to hear more from Lee!

    I actually wasn't that excited about the Red Lantern Corps series until you mentioned that Milligan was attached to it... Now I might just give it a read!

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  19. Hahaha. Yeah, you'd think Lee would be out there as much as at least DiDio. But he's an artist and, from what I can tell, artists don't usually like to do interviews and editorials and such.

    Yeah they said in January that Milligan would be writing a Red Lantern Corps ongoing series. I am kinda torn about it. On one hand...it's Milligan. On the other hand...it's the Red Lantern Corps... Hmm... I dunno. I'll pick up the first issue and see how it works out. If any of the Corps deserve a series I'd say it's the Green Lantern's (obviously), the Sinestro Corps, and (to most people's surprise) the Indigo Tribe. I dunno. I've always like their whole concept and I'd like to see more of them in the DCU.

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  20. http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2011/01/03/dcu-in-2011-peter-milligan-announces-red-lanterns/
    Here's the link to the announcement.

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  21. Sorry for just getting around to this, but I've finally had a chance to look at this week's R&R. Good work as always!

    And wow, John Stewart really got the shaft on that GLC cover...lol. Seriously, what the HELL is he wearing??

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