Ratings and Rantings

Hola Todd Squad, Me Llamo Jason Todd welcoming you to another edition of Ratings and Rantings! This is in fact only stop numero dos on our three post week, and if you're wondering why I'm speaking Spanglish, it's because I have nothing better to do! Anyway, we've got three comics on tap for this review, so we're gonna get through all three of those and I have a special surprise at the end of this post. But for now, let's get things underway with our first comic, Batman Beyond!

Batman Beyond #5

Things start off with a man named Paxton Powers being released from prison. Paxton Powers is the son of the former co-owner, Derek Powers of the company Wayne-Powers, before he was arrested which granted Bruce Wayne one-hundred percent ownership. A week later all of the Wayne Powers workers are causing a huge scene outside of the building after breaking off negotiations, Batman swoops in and drops off some tear gas and drops down to get some peace but manages to get attacked instead. Bats disposes of his attackers and decides to leave once Bruce tells him he's gonna look into some things.  Terry decides to go meet Dana for a meal and she gives him the cold shoulder when he tries to kiss her on the cheek bad sign McGinnis. She tells Terry she's been waiting around the corner for the last thirty minutes trying to get up the nerve to tell Terry it's over. Terry tries to defend his choices and mistakes but Dana sticks to her guns and tells him he's a great person, but a lousy boyfriend, before leaving. On the other side of town, Bruce Wayne meets with the new negotiator his men hired to represent them, Mr. Godfrey. He has a shady past and Bruce doesn't seem to trust him too much as he cuts their meeting short. In other news, Dana's brother Doug has been released from prison which Dana, although apprehensive at first, seems to be very happy about. Meanwhile Bruce and Batman are talking while Bats is on patrol when they spot Powers entering the Wayne Powers building. Bats follows him and confronts him but Powers says this is a misunderstanding and he was told by someone to meet them there. Bruce yells to Terry that it's a set-up and to get out of there but the building suddenly explodes. The issue ends as we see who arranged for Paxton's release as well as tried to blow him up, and it's surprising to say the least. Well this issue was really show, nothing happened and I found myself so bored I almost stopped reading a few times, but the reveal was interesting. Sadly everything else was pretty boring and slow-paced so I'll give this a 5.5/10.

Dana: You're a good person, Terry... You're just a lousy boyfriend. (I'm the EXACT opposite of that... :P)

Deadpool Annual #1

And finally, stop two on the three part Identity Wars mini-series. To see my review of part one's Amazing Spider-Man Annual, click here. Anyway, we start off with Deadpool in this alternate world, about to be slain by an alternate Doctor Doom by the name of Death Mask, Overlord of the Underworld. Yes, he DOES have an awesome nickname. He sends Deadpool out to sea with the help of his henchman, a big buff guy who looks kinda like Bane, named Dead Weight. (Clever.) While out there DP's boat apparently explodes, and we get a flashback to how this started. We see Deadpool in the alternate world hanging out with what he calls the yin to his yang, the peanut to his butter, the Cagney to his Lacey, the Green and Black Clad, apparently not affiliated with D-Generation X, Death Wish. After skipping through flowers, taking pictures with sharks, and having an old west duel, the duo go grab some Ice Cream. While eating their frozen desserts, Deadpool asks Death Wish why his healing factor is so much slower than his. Death Wish doesn't know what DP is talking about so he says that the healing factor is what makes Deadpool Deadpool, and in his case makes Wade Wilson Wade Wilson. DW then replies that he's not Wade Wilson, so DP asks who is, and is immediately zapped by the big beefy Doctor Doom guy. He says this is the last time Death Wish lets him down, and knocks Deadpool out of the way. Death Mask tells Death Wish he's failed him for the last time by not procuring the thing he was supposed to from Parker Technologies, and now he's gallivanting with a cartoon counter-part. Death Mask then kills Death Wish and tells him Wade Wilson didn't become the world's greatest criminal mastermind by forgiving mistakes. Deadpool is heart-broken that his buddy is dead, and vows revenge. Over with Bruce Banner and The Amazing Spider (Peter Parker in disguise) we find out that the reason Bruce Banner can't become Hulk in this world, is because their Bruce Banner went under Dr. Strange's wing and learned magic and inherited the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme. Deadpool then shows up and tells Spidey he needs his help. We soon find out that Doom became Death Wish after the Fantastic Four disbanded when The Amazing Spider defeated Galactus by himself, so they felt they were no longer needed. Deadpool manages to distract Spidey long enough to get his info on Death Mask and go after him. Deadpool then goes after Death Mask's Deadpool based villains including Brain Dead (Hammer Head), Deadeye (Bullseye), Dead Head (M.O.D.O.K.) and Bob (Bob). After handling the lackeys, Deadpool heads for Death Mask and watses no time attacking him. He throws him a bomb which Death Mask catches, and it blows up in his face, which only knocks him out due to his healing factor. Deadpool takes this time to switch costumes with Death Mask. Dead Weight who is apparently Wilson Fisk (Bwhahahaha!) walks in and Deadpool-dressed-as-Death-Mask has him tie up Death-Mask-dressed-as-Deadpool. Which puts us where we started with Death Mask (secretly Deadpool) watching as Dead Weight and Deadpool (secretly Death Mask) blow up in the middle of the water. Deadpool then goes to Wilson Towers, spray paints over the Wilson, and above it rechristens it "Wilson" Tower. Later on Deadpool is relaxing, still dressed as Death Mask when the Amazing Spider attacks. He beats the hell outta Death Mask before Deadpool finally gets to tell him he is in fact Deadpool. He explains to Spidey how he's deactivated and blow up all of Death Mask's bases and robots and moved all of his cash into a new memorial called the Make-A-Death-Wish Foundation. Genius...just plain genius. Spidey is shocked at Deadpool's heroic ways and Deadpool asks for a hug which Spidey gives him. The issue ends as we see Death Mask at the feet of Mephisto, offering his servitude if he releases the monsters to Earth, as we see a giant horned-Hulk emerge from a portal. Now THIS was great, I really enjoyed the first part of Identity Wars and this second part was just as good. It had everything I love in a Deadpool comic as well as an awesome Alternate World story, I'll give this a solid 10/10 rating. Bring on Part three!

Deadpool: Sorry, Spidey. Hey, did I ever tell you about the time I created that great diversion? Keep looking at me and I'll tell you...

Morning Glories #9

We start things off with a Flashback to ten days ago when Jun tried to break out of Morning Glories Academy. He suddenly has a gun to his head and turns around to see none other than himself, well not himself, but his twin brother. We then go back even further to five years ago as we see Jun and his brother Hisao fighting like most brothers do. Their mom tells them to relax cause their expecting guests, and the guests are none other than Morning Glories faculty members Miss Daramount and Mr. Gribbs. Jun introduces himself with the always graceful "Die Alien Scum!!!" as his mother looks disappointed. She tells Miss Daramount the one with bad manners is Jun and his slightly-better-behaved brother is Hisao. Jun's mom offers the teachers some Tea while the boys get ready. Hisao asks Jun where his bag is and Jun says he's not going. When Hisao tells him the place looks nice in the pictures and booklets Jun says the teachers seem weird and the woman doesn't know he understands English and he overheard them saying strange things. Hisao tries to convince Jun but he says no and pushes him, which causes a statue to fall over and break. Downstairs Jun's mom calls them to get ready to go, while she mentions how proud she is her boys have been accepted to such a prestigious school. The boys are afraid as to what she'll do about the statue being broken as it's the last thing they have from their father. Hisao tells Jun to tell her that Hiaso broke it and that if he says it's an accident she'll believe it, as opposed to Jun whose been in too much trouble lately. He tells Jun to go tell her while he cleans it up, and to pull her aside so she doesn't make a scene in front of the guests. Hisao tells Jun not to worry about the school because they'll be together and he'll never let anything happen to him. We then jump forward to see Jun turn around as Hisao has a gun pointed at him, shocked to see his brother. Hisao asks Jun why he's there and he says he came there for his brother, but Hisao doesn't believe him. Jun says he was warned Hisao may be brainwashed but he's there as a friend, but Hisao says he's there to hurt people that he cares about. Jun asks how can he care about them after what they did to them. We go back once again as Jun's mom call them down and mention how Jun is often late but Hisao is never late, except for his own birthday. She mentions how he was born thirty minutes after Jun and almost missed their birthday. Daramount and Gribbs exchange a look and Daramount mentions that she thought they had the same birthday and birth-time 23:59 (11:59 p.m.) on May 4th. She mentions that the nurse made a mistake and just took down Hisao's birth and time. Well that confuses me since Jun was apparently born first but whatever. Daramount mentions that funding has been cut short and sadly they can only accept Hisao, which obviously has something to do with their birthdays. Their Mom gets upset and says they can't just take one of the boys, they've lost too much already and she refuses to have them lose one another. Miss Daramount says it's not that simple and tells Mr. Gribbs to take over. He then beats Jun's mother to a bloody pulp but unaware to them Jun is watching. He runs as Daramount yells to Gribbs to get the one in the blue shirt (Hisao). Back with Hisao and the Gun he asks what they did to him. Jun asks Hisao if he even knows who he is, and Hisao replies that he's his failure of a brother Jun, a little boiy that was supposed to die a long time ago. He thinks Jun has come to take everything from him and Jun asks why would he do that. We see Jun run upstairs in the flashback as Hisao asks what happened, he grabs Hisao and switches shirts with him, and tells him to hide. Gribbs busts down the door and grabs the kid in the blue shirt (now Jun) and takes him as they set fire to the house. Back in present time (yet ten days ago) we see Jun tell Hisao that he saved his life and switched shirts with him, and that Jun is Hisao and Hisao is actually Jun which I saw coming a mile away to be honest. Jun (the brain-washed brother) punches Hisao (formerly known as Jun) and puts the gun to his face, he tells him that he's the chosen one and he'll prove it. He's interrupted by security guards who take him back to his dorm, and give Jun (Hisao) detention with his buddies. His brother yells asking who pulled him out of the fire and saved him, as we see Abraham, the same man Zoe met as a kid in a flashback in an earlier issue. He helps a young Hisao escape and promises he'll see his brother again as the issue ends. Well this was interesting. I'm wondering what the back story is with Abraham, as he gives me a Jacob from Lost vibe as I'm sure each of the kids has come in contact with him over their lifetimes. I saw the swap between the two brothers coming the second they were wearing different colored shirts and one was acting up but it was still enjoyable, plus gave us more insight into how ruthless these people are. I'll give this issue a 9/10.

Jun: You are not the one they wanted. You are not Hisao... I am.

Well that didn't take long at all eh? Thanks for joining me guys, here's hoping you enjoyed this weeks Ratings and Rantings. As for this surprise, it's the return of the Top Five 5! For those of you that don't know how it goes, you send me your top five picks for each category at KevinKavalier@gmail.com and I'll post the answers this Monday and compare everyone's results. Make sure ya send your picks in ASAP so you don't forget. The topics are below, and here's hoping you guys participate. Until next time, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd. You stay classy, Todd Squad.

Five DC Villains/Anti-Heroes You'd put on Deathstroke's Titans Team (Not counting Deathstroke)

Five Characters You wish you could write for

Five Characters you wish were used more

Five Characters you want resurrected

Five Characters who you wish stayed killed off

Next Time on Ratings and Rantings

Batgirl #21, Batman: Arkham City #1, Birds of Prey #12, and Red Robin #23