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.

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.

let's go hunting

drive-by readings

Artifacts #1 (Top Cow) "Artifacts" Ron Marz Michael Broussard Rick Basaldua Sal Regla Sunny Gho Troy Peteri Dale Keown et al (covers)

what we learned: thirteen artifacts in the Top Cow U, when brought together, will bring about the end of the world as we know it. twelve are known, while the thirteenth, the key to it all, is still to be found. bringing together all the heavyweights in one glorious adventure, Ron Marz unveils his Top Cow masterpiece that may even rival his Green Lantern days in DC.
oh shit moment: Julie Pezzini, sister of Sara and babysitter of her daughter Hope (heyyyyy, Second Coming!) is shot in the head, just like this Green dude (not a Lantern).
what's next: would that all parents who get their children kidnapped also wielded the power of the Witchblade. run, Aphrodite IV, run.


hey, fanboys! Ron Marz is talking to you!

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.

war is a many-tentacled thing

drive-by readings

Secret Warriors #12 (Marvel) "Wake The Beast" Jonathan Hickman Stefano Caselli Sunny Gho Dave Lanphear Jimmy Cheung/Mark Morales/Justin Ponsor (cover) i don't know if other readers of this book kind of feels it like it ran out of steam in its last few issues. i like that Nick Fury took it upon himself to try and save the world on his own terms, recruiting his Secret Warriors and reforming the Howling Commandos. but there's too much going on, and this title is no longer "just" the Secret Warriors anymore. it was manageable when it was just Fury and his kids. now they're taking on Hydra, Leviathan and good knows who else, and with it the inevitable bureaucracy that running an organization entails. it doesn't help that Nick Fury sits there, lectures and he has like 46 scenarios running through his brain and you know he'll win eventually. for someone who went underground, his presence is practically everywhere - he recently helped Bucky Barnes get a new hand but hasn't renewed ties with Steve Rogers yet. i await the eventual sitdown between Fury, the resurrected Tony Stark, the two Captain Americas, Thor, and the rest of the Avengers. if this doesn't happen, i will protest in front of the Marvel offices until they do. oh wait, what happens in this issue? Leviathan captures Viper in search of the "Box" (maybe they should go to Utopia and look up Madison Jeffries?), and Hydra thinks there's a traitor in their midst, which would work well for Fury. both also have secret weapons to be unveiled. there's also a sidestory with Stonewall and Yo-Yo visiting Stonewall's Supermax-resident dad - Crusher Creel, presumably which happens after he got his ass kicked in Mighty Avengers #33. but again this thread is overshadowed by everything else that's going on.

cue in Guns N' Roses: "i used to love her ... but i had to kill her ..."


Gorgon wassn't too enthusiastic about this new acupuncture technique.

drive-by readings: Secret Warriors #7/Thunderbolts #135

Secret Warriors #7/Thunderbolts #135 (Marvel) "God of Fear, God of War"/"Black Widow vs. Thunderbolts" Jonathan Hickman/Andy Diggle Alessandro Vitti/Miguel Sepulveda Sunny Gho/Frank Martin Dave Lanphear/Albert Deschesne Jim Cheung/Justin Ponsor/Francisco Mattina (cover)

Marvel's improving somewhat in keeping their stories straight in recent years, and these two are a nice example of that (thank the editors). after the revelation that the Thunderbolt Black Widow Yelena Belanova was really the original, Natasha, the rest of the Thunderbolts have come after her and erstwhile T-Bolt leader Songbird. a crossover with the Secret Warriors was necessary because ol' Nick Fury himself put Natasha in that position to spy on Norman Osborn. unaware they were being trailed by the always-heinous Ant Man, Black Widow demonstrates to Songbird why the new Yankee Stadium is one overpriced magilla. too bad, Fury appears and they're all captured in one swell foop by the T-Bolts and presented to a gloating Osborn (previously hired by now-i'm-dead-now-i'm-alive Baron Strucker to kill Fury). but don't despair, True Believers! prior to this, Fury activates Agent John Garrett, and if we know Papa Nick, he's always two or three steps ahead of everyone else. even if he gets shot in the head. wait, ... what?!?