gotta hand it to you, Arthur

i still don't know where Brightest Day is headed, but just to keep our attention from meandering from the meandering series, they give us some (regurgitated) shock and awe. in 2028, some other villain will use telekinesis to rip off Aquaman's hand once again.

the Devil makes work for idle hands, while God cuts them off - wait, what?

on break

goodbye, Hurricane Earl!

also, gimme a break before figuring out what to do with my template, as i just discovered its the same as one sentientforcefieldblogspot.com. sorry, TS.

still haven't found what they're looking for

drive-by readings

Brightest Day #9 (DC) "Lost and Found" Geoff Johns/Peter Tomasi Patrick Gleason/Ivan Reis/Joe Prado Rebecca Buchman/Keith Champagne/Tom Nguyen Peter Steigerwald Rob Clark Jr. David Finch (cover) Reis/Hi-Fi (variant cover)

what we learned: ah, so the black dude with the eel tattoo is Black Manta's son. why did it only take this long for him to get up his butt and look for him? J'onn's search for the telepathic black hole lands him in Oliver Queen's enchanted forest and they needed to hightail it out of there before the forest ate them up.
oh shit moment: never saw Black Manta this cool and aggressive. but that costume is still funny.
what's next: message in a bottle, yeah.


Ollie didn't like his first session with The Mentalist.

buildup

drive-by readings

Brightest Day #8 (DC) "Defiance" Geoff Johns/Peter Tomasi Patrick Gleason/Ivan Reis/Ardian Syaf Vicente Cifuentes/Rebecca Buchman/Mark Irwin Peter Steigerwald/John Starr Rob Clark Jr. David Finch/Scott Williams/Steigerwald (cover) Ryan Sook/Fernando Pasarin/Joel Gomez/Randy Mayor/Carrie Strachan (variant cover)

what we learned: Shiera fights for her life with her mommy issues, and while Carter finds himself an army to fight against Queen Shrike. meanwhile, J'onn tries to find out where's that Green Martian who jumped M'gann and it leads him to Star City. the White Ring is still messing with Deadman's, Dove's and Hawk's heads. i have no idea what its rapping about.
oh shit moment: how many creators does it take to finish a book? or should we just blame Blogger for having a 200-character tag limit???
what's next: they promised us an Aquaman/Black Manta rematch. they promised!!


and so Hawkman found himself leading the Thundercats AND the mutants ...

protect this house

drive-by readings

Brightest Day #7 (DC) "The Secret of Life" Geoff Johns Peter Tomasi Ivan Reis Ardian Syaf Scott Clark Joe Prado Vicente Cifuentes David Beaty Mark Irwin Peter Steigerwald John Starr Rob Clark Jr. David Finch/Scott Williams/Steigerwald (cover) Ryan Sook/Fernando Pasarin/Joel Gomez/Randy Mayor/Carrie Strachan (variant cover)

what we learned: apparently, the entity in the White Lantern has been the DCU's version of the Watcher (unlike the Watcher, it hasn't made any moves beyond watching - until now). the 12 revived characters are here to protect this world until the arrival of its "new protector". huh? like this world needs more protection, given the long list of DCU her- oh you mean this time, its a competent protector? are you suuuuuuuuuuuuuuure?
oh shit moment: we'll go with what a Deadman could feel ... eating a damn burger after far too long. ohhhh, man. that is the shit.
what's next: the White Lantern has issued instructions for each of them (burn what, J'onn? stop Magog, Max Lord?), so get cracking! move it, move it, move it!


why? what's wrong with the current crop of protectors?

worming up

drive-by readings

Action Comics #891 (DC) "The Black Ring Part 2" Paul Cornell Pete Woods Cafu Bit Rob Leigh Brad Anderson David Finch/Matt Banning/Peter Steigerwald (cover)

what we learned: Mr. Mind is much more cuter than you think, and i hate caterpillars or multi-legged creatures (even Spider-Man has only two!). and turns out he's the son of the original and he almost got Lex trapped in a state of mind. but "almost" doesn't count with Luthor.
oh shit moment: Superman as an outlaw in Sheriff's Luthor's mind? i smell a mini-series!
what's next: who put up the worm to this? suddenly i want Lex Luthor to kick his ass. Paul Cornell got me hooked. in the absence of Captain Britain and MI:13, this will do for now.


aaaaawww, isn't he cuuuuute??

dead like them

drive-by readings

Brightest Day #6 (DC) "Dead Zone" Geoff Johns/Peter Tomasi Ivan Reis/Patrick Gleason Scott Clark/Joe Prado Vicente Cifuentes/David Beaty Mark Irwin/Christian Alamy Peter Steigerwald/John Starr Rob Clark David Finch/Scott Williams/Steigerwald (cover) Reis/Dave McCaig (cover)

what we learned: Mera is from an Atlantean tribe tasked to assassinate Aquaman. Firestorm has multiple personality issues (there's always something with the powerful ones. Molecule Man, The Sentry ... ). J'onn is looking for a killer who's just like him. and Deadman hasn't eaten yet, because he's been Deadman for so long. may i recommend: Red Robin ... yummmmm.
oh shit moment: could the killer J'onn is hunting be his ... wife?
what's next: does anyone want M'Gann to live, or bite the dust? call 1-800-DIE-ALIEN to vote now!


Arthur's best gift was 20/20 vision ... in water.

snaps: Batman #700

... where Grant Morrison and a bunch of artists craft a time-tossed tale that's not the Return of Bruce Wayne. whodathunk? anyhoo, anything related to time and history is Morrison's bailiwick so i end up going whoa several times during the read. and he certainly puts it out there that Damian IS going to be the Batman soon (wait, how does Terry McGinnis figure into that when Bruce is still alive in McGinnis' time?). ok, maybe in some alternate branch of reality. or Bruce is just reaaaally old. whatever. added bonus: various pinups by major talent (love Shane Davis' and Juan Doe's), and a Batcave tour courtesy of Freddie Williams II.

you know the implication, right? Joker's CHOKING THE CHICKEN.


weren't those his staves during his time as Nightwing?


like they needed any more rumors about their relationship


I, blogging.


McGinnis? Terry McGinnis? is that you??


but who's watching your teef?

snaps: Brightest Day #1

... where we find the resurrected heroes from Blackest Day go about their business. apparently, there's no big meeting with the rest of the DCU (maybe that happens in JLA?), especially Aquaman and the Hawks. there are mysteries in place that Johns and Tomasi dangles in front of us, though am not sure am sufficiently intrigued. i know its the White Lantern thing and all, but for something called Brightest Day, this thing's still a bit dark (pirate rapists and zombie sea creatures anyone? oh, and wait till you see the return of the real "egghead"). also, that character line intros are tolerable and kinda smart-ass sometimes in Matt Fraction's Uncanny X-Men, but here its becoming annoying.

man, that chin itself is a lethal weapon.


this is Sinestro defending himself from unpowered mortals.


here's a thought, guys: Ronnie, hang out with Jason, and be his girlfriend.


hey, isn't that the Infinity Gauntlet??


i don't really get that helmet. it screams L-O-S-E-R.

aaaaaaaaaaand ... she's back.

and here it is. the closing chapter of the Messiah trilogy in the X-books, billed as the return of Hope Summers in the 616 universe and determination of her role in the future of the X-Men. she was born during Messiah Complex, and spent the rest of her life so far surviving in multiple timelines in the company of her foster father, Cable (whose own trials as a time-tossed baby she's echoing), and dodging her would-be murderer, Bishop. having Lucas Bishop turn into a caricature villain may have made sense with the X-writers, but it always bothered me. he just simply turned into an unkillable and unlikeable cockroach whose sole purpose in life was to put a bullet into a little girl's head. my fondest memory of Bishop was in a '90s sort of way, a cop out of his time, colorful, scarved, long flowing curly hair, and also single-mindedly out to find the X-traitor that presumably betrayed his boyhood heroes. his struggles to fit in were somewhat endearing. past that, he's been yo-yoed around the X-universe, and now he really struggled to find his place. i can get his being a cop for Mutant Town and being the resident mutant detective (remember him trying to find who shot Emma Frost into itty bitty diamond bits?). but shacking him up with Deathbird? being a flat out government stoogie during Civil War, putting him at odds with rest of his friends? and now a bald headed angry stereotype, like if Michael Clarke Duncan suddenly became this raving mass-murdering lunatic? good thing for me he's stranded in 6700 AD (but am sure there's a storyline being written as i type this, bringing him back to unleash holy hell on his former friends).


but back to Hope.

the first mutant born after that crazy stunt pulled by the Scarlet Witch ("oh hey, am crazy, i hate my kind, let's just wipe out everyooooooooone!"), Hope seems like the idea born out of "hey, we need a Jean Grey back, how do we do that?" well, first they send Rachel up into space to be part of the new Starjammers (speaking of which, how come no one's been talking to each other - imagine all the stories missed? Gabriel's probably dead, and Alex doesn't even bother to tell Scott.). now we get a new red-haired young telepath/telekinetic who's sure to rile up Emma, for starters. Cable, by virtue of his raising Hope, is sure to keep her under his wing (hey, watch those young mutant boys in Utopia go after this new bombshell). Cyclops, de facto leader of all the mutants (probably annoying the hell out of Xavier and Magneto), has faith that Hope will be the, well ... savior of the beleaguered mutants. Bishop believed otherwise. if that's true, Cyclops would be doing some kind of twisted Kool Aid commercial, shown below:

well before and after Necrosha, writers Craig Kyle and Chris Yost have been (not-so-quietly) assembling all of the old X-villains in the pages of New X-Men and X-Force. despite the annoying style of resurrecting comic characters, i like the fact that they put in touches where the new generation of actual readers can learn through the reaction of the new generation of characters. here we see Pixie making an observation of a Right soldier.

the Second Coming crossover will also deal with the repercussions of the (re)formation of X-Force as a mutant black ops team, and this will presumably split the X-ranks. right in this issue, we get X-23 staking a Sapien Leaguer in the head with a claw during interrogation. the pro-life Nightcrawler takes exception to this. i expect lots of yelling and screaming and punching in the coming days, and that's within the X-Men.

sidebar: the Simster thinks Kurt has the highest odds of not making it through the summer alive.

and there might still be a higher body count. i wasn't really sold when he first appeared, and not even when they brought him back, but now i feel there isn't any better villain out there who fits in this whole storyline than Bastion. Scott Lobdell, take a bow.

they've always been able to beat this Nimrod/Master Mold combo before, but they need to ground him to a fine dust this time around. or else there's no hope.

-----
X-Men: Second Coming

he ain't Daken

well, the claws were a dead giveaway.

so this is Jimmy Hudson, son of the late (Ultimate) Wolverine. for now, he's got his dead dad's healing factor, and the bone claws. as an added bonus, he can coat the claws with liquid steel. next issue, he's gonna sprout feathery wings, show a modicum of telekinetic ability, turn into a snowcone machine, and shoot laser beams out of his left eye.


so ... X-Man or Mimic?

/Ultimatum sucks, and they're perpetuating it. thanks a lot, Jeph Loeb.