Randy Reviews

Its Friday, and I'm worn out from the week. Need sleep this weekend.

But, I did also buy five books. Only five. At least 4 of the 5 were pretty darn good. One was only ....meh.

No spoilers ahead.

JSA #84
When the Dead Call

Meh. It was alright. I liked the Gentleman Ghost, so I wanted to pick up this series til this arc completes, but then I dunno. Its just kinda blaise. There is no real action or excitement occurring in this book.
There is far more...character development in this book, that I will say. But I just arent' really "grabbed" by any of the toons. The only two that I have interest in are Mr. Terrific and PowerGirl. (More on Mr T. in IC)
The art was pretty darn good. Nothing to complain about there either.
The book just keeps on going its merry little way, and as for OYL, really? You won't even know.

Overall Rating: 2/5. Its just kinda....meh.


Jonah Hex #6
Goin Back to Texas in a Box

Did someone hear all the complaints from the last issue? Wow, did this book take a Huge upturn from #5. The art was 100% better, but that is because the regular artist, soon to be leaving, returned. Thank you.
The story - it involves some nuns, some guns, a weird arse town and a tweak to Jonah.
Lets just say "I dont' know how anyone could pass up a western with nuns with guns"!
Lots of chaotic scenes, yet well drawn panels so it wasn't a jumbled morass of "whats this crap?" Quite a bit of action in this one.
And I liked it.

Overall Rating: 3/5. This one is a fun read


Infinite Crisis #6/7

This was almost a great book. Whoa. I just had tingly in me head, and smoke filled the room, but you know what, this really was a far better book after the first read.
Why? Because heroes step up that I did not expect to. And that surprised me in this issue.
Two big parts to this ish:
A.) Batman and his crew headed up to Brother Eye
B.) Alex y Superboy Prime vs. Tower heroes and....Teen Titans?

Lets start with Batman and crew. Now, that was classic Batman- giving orders, people listening and doing it. He was outstanding. Black Lightning and Mr. Terrific were outstanding as the interlopers. The whole satellite invade sequence was just superb, and everyone involved connected well, probably because the Bat made sure they all knew exactly what was going on.

Now the Tower scene. Teen Titans? Superboy Prime? Tower Trapees? I thought this was the weak link. But, harking back, reading a second time, I was impressed with this sequence also. Yeah yeah, Superboy Prime being all powerful may be a bit much, but still, the action sequences were pretty intense and outright damn good. The fight between Black Adam and SuperBoy Prime was quite fun.
Teen Titans coming in to save the day. I thought this was kinda lame. But then I thought..."hey, everyone is expecting the "Triad" to save the day", and here we have the next gen of heroes stepping up. I was actually impressed. And I don't care for the Teen Titans one bit. But this really worked for me.
Do I really need to discuss the art? Incredible. There, I"ll one word it.

Overall Rating: You know what, this gets a 5/5 this week. This book made me go back and read it. It was that good, and it wasnt' that convoluted, like some of them have been. You may all laugh at me for the Teen Titan comments, but I really was impressed on how Johns wove them into the major players.



The OMAC Project
The Lazarus Protocol

I was hesitant to buy this book at a $5 price tag. But since I was only getting four other books, and no beer this week, ok, what the hell.

And I am glad that I did.

This was a thoroughly entertaining book. It has Amanda Waller, it has Fire (ooo...I am very surprised by Fire), Rocket Reds, an OMAC and Sasha.

This was well written by Mr. Rucka. It was a great leadup to the conclusion. Some may say it was slow paced, but that is what set the tone for the book. It wasn't slow, but it was what I would expect from a US spy agency book, which was basically a big ass Checkmate #0. I"m fine with that.

Can't go into great detail on this book- it'd be too many spoilers then.

Overall Rating: 4/5. I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed it so much, I am going to give Checkmate a go even.


And Last, But Not Least:



Moon Knight #1
The Bottom Ch. 1

There may be spoilers here, so be forewarned:

Alright, to be fair, this is my favorite toon in comics. So please note this before you read further, because there will be obvious biasing, but I'll try to behave.

#1- this was NOT my book of the week. That was IC #6.
#2- this was still a very well done book.

We get to see the darker side of Moon Knight on the street as he reflects back on his history. There was no "here is what made me Moon Knight in the first place" scenes. I was fine with that. I bet its coming though. That's fine.
He makes very valid points. At least he knows groups are bad for him, so he'll stay working alone from here on out. We all knew that.
I really was a little tweaked on the whole "priest/investment" comments. Never would have had that take on it. So, that was really cool. That alone could take this in a whole different direction, and I am psyched.
I see Frenchie and Marlene, which is always good. He needs those two. They are so interwoven into Moon Knight history that it would have been a sham to NOT have them there.

But then reality comes crashing down. We see Marc Spector from the end of not Marvel Knights, but the end of his regular series. He wasn't that chewed up in Marvel Knights, but he was REALLY chewed up in the end of his reg (heh, supposedly dead.) So he now lives in a wheelchair. Not walking. Not looking too good. Broke. Probably living in an abandoned church for all we know. Oh, is this considered "the bottom?" Gotcha...
This part I think was a taaaaad bit overdone. Sure, its nice to add emotion and all, but this got weary real quick.
Until the last page. That was a f'ing fantastic last page.
The whole tone of the book was dark, much like Moench/Sienkiwicz (forgive any mispelling). Good.
Spector being a prick-- that's not so Moench. That's too DC. I hope some of the moody goes away. It may when things are a little less bleak.
I remember in Vol. 1 MK, that Khonsu was a pain in the ass for Spector. I like the role reversal.

There was not a lot of reading in this book. Word wise. There was a lot of speaking with the art though. This is incredibly well drawn, to say the least. You go Finch!!!

Overall Rating: 4/5. I sooooo hope they follow up on the priest aspect in detail. Looking back, he was in a lot of churches for one reason or another...maybe I was just too young to actually think deeper into things back then. OK, and maybe a few more words next time. But Finch...mmm....