The Doomino Effect: Week of 1/24/07


Last week was a slow one for me. I only picked up four comics.

Wolverine #50 was our LOD Book of Doom this week, and I shared my thoughts there. But for those who missed it, I thought the book was weak on content and disappointing in its handling of Wolverine’s past.

Which leads me to another book that I thought was a bit weak on content, 52: Week 38. I have a tough time accepting that nothing happened this week in the struggle between Booster Gold and Skeets, and I could have done with a little less of Renee Montoya dragging the Question around, for example. But that’s one of the problems with telling a story that’s supposedly happening in “real time.”

I’m more interested in where this is going, especially with the Dominators out in space. The Dominators dropped a clue several months back about 52, but it wasn’t in the pages of the DC weekly.

Which leads me to Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes #26, which has consistently been one of my favorite books. Sadly, I forgot to include it in my picks for Best ongoing series of 2006. I started reading the series having never read anything starring the LoSH. I know nothing about the elaborate and conflicting histories of the team. The great thing is that I haven’t needed to read up to be able to make sense of or enjoy the series. It’s just a great read every month.

So anyway, for those who haven’t been following the series, Supergirl showed up in the future after Infinite Crisis, apparently zapped there by way of that time-warping battle in space. And in the past few months, various clues about the current DCU have been scattered about. As I alluded to before, the Dominators muttered something about not forgetting “the fifty-two” several months back; now Mon-El, who I assume is the Kryptonian that’s popped up in the pages of Action Comics, has just been released from the Phantom Zone.

But even though these references to other DC Comics are tied to other stories that are either happening or have happened, one doesn’t need to be reading a bunch of titles to enjoy what is essentially just a great, well-written comic.

Which leads me to X-Factor #15. I’m not the first Doomy to rave about the book, and if there are any of the Legion who haven’t yet, I won’t be the last. Peter David has managed to take a cast of D-listers and make it consistently one of the best books out there simply through strong characterization and dialogue. Madrox was a great mini-series, and his run on X-Factor during the early-90s X-reload was classic; hopefully this series will last long enough for more readers to appreciate how David clearly loves working with these characters and superhero tales in non-traditional superhero settings.