DC hates beetles

i guess this is the end of the road for the current Blue Beetle, who dies by the hand of Max Lord. again.

here's a thought: let's revive Ted Kord by the end of the year. and by 2012, have Max Lord kill him again.

of course, this could be a red herring. its too obvious, isn't it?

by the way, you mean one of the weaknesses of the Beetle armor is right on the forehead? geddouddaheah!
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Justice League: Generation Lost #19

london culling

drive-by readings

Red Hood: The Lost Days #4 (DC) "Higher Learning" Judd Winick Jeremy Haun Brian Reber Pat Brosseau Billy Tucci (cover)

what we learned: London's Russian mob wants to get the heat off them by staging a bombing that would lay the blame on Arab terrorists. with Jason Todd learning from the bombmaker himself, he's in the best position to stop the carnage before it even begins.
oh shit moment: Talia notices that all his teachers end up conveniently dead (with reason). she also informs him that he's been replaced as the Boy Wonder.
what's next: did Jason ever want to reclaim the mantle of Robin?


its your fault - if you just disconnected that 1-800 number...

out of the pan

drive-by readings

Justice League: Generation Lost #8 (DC) "Would It Be Okay With the Management If We Check Out Early" Judd Winick Aaron Lopresti Matt Ryan Sal Cipriano Hi-Fi Cliff Chiang (cover) Ryan Sook/Joel Gomez/Fernando Pasarin/Randy Mayor/Carrie Strachan (variant cover)

what we learned: our JLWRML (Justice Leaguers Who Remember Max Lord) break out of Checkmate because they got caught and they can't find Max. the chemistry between them is extremely enjoyable and i hope they keep this team intact even after the future resolution of this Max Lord thing.
oh shit moment: if you can't find Max, Max will find you (isn't that from The Losers?).
what's next: for someone who doesn't want the world to remember him, he keeps pestering the JLI. what do you want, Max?


again: the most likable Russian since Ivan Drago. oh, wait, no, i meant Nikolai Luzhin.

crash landing

drive-by readings

Power Girl #15 (DC) "Bomb Squad Part Two" Judd Winnick Sami Basri Sunny Gho John J. Hill

what we learned: the Russian arms dealer is now Crash, weaponized into a city destroyer. but to learn his Achilles Heel, Karen sacrifices her secret id to her newest employer, a former uberhacker. however, there's a catch, and its name is ...
oh shit moment: ... Maxwell Lord, who designed Crash to replicate Kryptonian cellular structure.
what's next: so Lord has morphed from a joke, to a what-he's-a-bad-guy-now (some people are still in denial he shot Ted), and now, to a real honest-to-goodness villain. bring it on.


don't complain, you got a front row seat.

breaking balls

drive-by readings

Justice League: Generation Lost #7 (DC) "Of Course, They Got Caught" Judd Winick Joe Bennett Jack Jadson Travis Lanham Hi-Fi Cliff Chiang (cover) Ryan Sook/Joel Gomez/Fernando Pasarin/Randy Mayor/Carrie Strachan (variant cover)

what we learned: our JLWRML (Justice Leaguers Who Remember Max Lord) break into Checkmate just to find out where Max is. of course, this is Checkmate we're talking about it here - the most hardcore spy agency in the DCU. and what happens is ... wait for it ... wait for it ... of course, they get caught!!
oh shit moment: i think i missed Magog #12. what the hell happened in there? is he gonna be an asshole just like in Kingdom Come?
what's next: it's clobbering you time!


the most likable Russian since Ivan Drago. oh, wait, no, i meant Nikolai Luzhin.

bam!

drive-by readings

Red Hood: The Lost Days #3 (DC) "School" Judd Winick Jeremy Haun Brian Reber Pat Brosseau Billy Tucci (cover)

what we learned: the resurrected Jason Todd learns the killing arts under Egon, a German ne'er-do-well (actually he did, until he met Jason). the former Robin still has a semblance of a conscience and deals justice in his own way. surprisingly, he's even-tempered in here. must be the Lazarus Pit. or i thought it drove you crazy eventually.
oh shit moment: i will be wary of sports energy drinks from now on. especially since i am an evil blogger who writes non-funny things about fictional characters.
what's next: what's Talia's endgame?


well, it did work for Darth Vader ...

atomic peek

drive-by readings

Justice League: Generation Lost #6 (DC) "Splitting the Atom" Judd Winick Keith Giffen Fernando Dagnino Raul Fernandez Hi-Fi Travis Lanham Cliff Chiang (cover) Kevin Maguire/Hi-Fi (variant cover)

what we learned: Captain Atom, who exists for solely nothing except to absorb nuclear explosions in the DCU, takes a positive thing out of his latest absorption exercise as he is transported into the future where Max Lord wins. so yeah, more reason to stop their former boss once and for all.
oh shit moment: the only metahuman survivor of that future is a shriveled up prune formerly known as Power Girl.
what's next: yikes .... bring me back the Amanda Conner days! damn you, Maxwell Lord!



better make a time capsule, boys ... you don't want your PG looking like the one on the right.



and then there was that awkward time between Karen and Nate ...

bombed

drive-by readings

Power Girl #14 (DC) "Bomb Squad Part One" Judd Winnick Sami Basri Sunny Gho John J. Hill

what we learned: Starrware is being taken over by the banks, given that they can't pay their loans because of embezzlement, and now the Busty Airborne Lass is torn in several directions with Booster plying his "don't you remember Max Lord?" schtick and a new alien (with a Russian arms dealer in its head) in town bent on destroying everything in sight.
oh shit moment: when i thought the title of the story was "Bomb Queen", then i realized Karen's chest was detail-washed out and it wasn't a Bomb Queen story.
what's next: we'd like to see respectable sales numbers so they don't take away our PeeGee.


one man's junk is another woman's puzzle.

recharge

drive-by readings

Power Girl #13 (DC) "...What A Difference A Day Makes" Judd Winick Sami Basri Sunny Gho John J. Hill

whatever the reasons for the departure of much-lauded creative team of Gray/Palmiotti/Conner, they will definitely be missed. but that's not a diss for Judd Winick, who takes over with issue 13. hey, its PG-13, should we be seeing some PG-13 stuff? haha you wish. Winick slightly nudges Power Girl in a less cheesier direction (and i like cheese, don't get me wrong), which is probably the logical thing to do here, as continuing in that vein will elicit unfavorable comparisons.

in one issue, we get Power Girl as far as where she is right now in the DCU - immensely enjoying her day job, the hunt for Max Lord, the forgetting of Max Lord - but the cost of playing superhero may be her company, because when money is involved, you better be on top of things.

Winick balances the flashbacks and neatly intersperses it with current events. i'm glad she's still mentoring Terra after all the crap they went through because of the Ultra Humanite.


Sami Basri's art, which am not really familiar art, is clean and simple. continuity issues aside, this book should be a draw to tweeners and the female comicbook reading demographic. the art itself helps out in this regard. sure, there's still some cheese, but it should not be enough to turn off discriminating readers.

look out, Teen Titans, you're next!

countdown for Jaime Reyes' funeral, in three, two ...

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Justice League: Generation Lost #2

who's down with Max Lordy? yeah, you know me!

"miss me?? am sure you did!"

Maxwell Lord (oh god, the smugness of the name alone) is back and first thing he does to reclaim his douchebag title is to have two cops shoot each other. bloody hell.

ever since he went over to the dark side, i'm just holding on to the memories of the old Giffen/Maguire days and even contemplated getting a lobotomy. oh wait, he can do that for me, can he?

hey, you still call it the "Bat Computer"?? Oracle doesn't call hers the 'Oracle Computer'. neither does the Calculator. see, is DC trying to be trite and kid-friendly? but with all the dead and dying happening (see Night, Blackest and Day, Brightest), that doesn't seem like it.

who else are supposed to go after Max? well, of course it'll be the old JLI gang. what you should just remember is that no one is safe and for all we know, they'll all go the way of Ted Kord soon enough.


"what kind of bomb?" let's see:
- a Nega Bomb?
- a Jaegerbomb?
- a James Bomb? ("boooooooooooooooo!")
- the kind of Bomb that Fire and Ice are (bombshells)




right, keep telling yourself that, Max.

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Justice League: Generation Lost #1

drive-by readings: Batman #688

Batman #688 (DC) "Old Sins Cast Long Shadows" Judd Winick Mark Bagley Rob Hunter Ian Hannin Jared K. Fletcher

with the new Batman out in full swing across the Bat titles, i must say the best of the lot is Grant Morrison's Batman and Robin. Judd Winick does a second tour of duty on the main title, and he aims to delineate what the classic Bat villains are up to - the Penguin's sneakily using his power-broker role to grab some himself, and Two-Face's apparently back to his old evil persona. the latter has recent history with Dick Grayson/Nightwing, and he seems to know the new Batman is none other than Grayson himself. i am not much enamored of Mark Bagley's art as i was when he was Marvel-exclusive (Thunderbolts, Ultimate Spider-Man) - looks kinda rough here, but maybe that's what they wanted to set the tone of the book to.

tipping points

with a is-he-a-murderer-or-not Jericho inside Nightwing, the latter has to make a decision when the JLA comes a-calling ... and of course, 'Wing's gonna say:


of course, we like to cheer heroes beating up on each other.

speaking of beating, Frank Castle's heart is still cool as a cucumber although Molly Von Richtofen's heart is probably doing calisthenics, and not because she spotted a hottie.

we all await the final chapter where we bury Elite and this Ma Gnucci nonsense once and for all (heh! snort!)

Queen held by bitches, film at 11

following the death (ho-hum) of Green Arrow, a.k.a. Oliver Queen, right in his honeymoon night with Black Canary (a.k.a. Dinah Lance), we find the grieving widow letting off some steam for non-consummation (among other things - yes, she actually had to kill him ... go read the miniseries, dammit).

but since this is "superhero death" we're talking about, no one accepts death anymore, they try to resurrect anyone who dies. i mean, Ra's Al-Ghul could go straight and make a fortune by selling off his Lazarus Pits. and Vandal Savage could be his technical consultant. hellooooooo??? is anyone reading this?

so Batman believes Dinah that the dead body isn't Oliver's, and so he and Dr. Mid-Nite go try to make their CSI dreams come true.

jackpot! it's not Oliver (like fans didn't know that all along!) - its some shapeshifting schmuck named Everyman (oh that schmuck!). and Dinah thinks she knows who has Oliver. yes, its those bitches who declared war against the U.S. last month, and who took down the phallic symbol that is the Washington Monument. how dare they! and how dare they prevent Oliver from consummating his marriage to Dinah!



er ... Wonder Woman? why are your people being like this? did their "time of the month" suddenly become "time of the year"? what the hell, girl??

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Green Arrow & Black Canary #1