The Doomino Effect for the week of Feb 7, 2007

Uncanny X-Men #483 was a whole lot of fighting and loving, with not one, but TWO close-ups of Deathbird’s tongue doing some tongue-loving. Maybe chalk that up to guest-artist Clayton Henry filling in for Billy Tan, who has clearly never seen an actual woman. This was a good enough issue that advances the plot just fine, but I can’t help but feel this is a 9 or 10 part story being told in 12 parts.

Which leads me to 52: Week 40. Lots of fighting and loving, but loving of a different sort, for finally we see John Henry Irons laying the smackdown on Lex and Co., just punching and kicking and hammering his way through Luthor’s goons before getting to Luthor himself. While I was happy to see Steel survive the fight, I wouldn’t have been bothered too much if he bit the dust here, because it would have been a nice honorable way to go.

Which leads me to New Avengers #27. The Civil War scheduling strikes, as a new line-up of the team graces these here pages and we don’t know the outcome of Civil War yet. But not all is spoiled, as we are left to wonder “Just how did the New Avengers line-up come to consist of Cage, Wolverine, Spider-Woman, Spider-Man, Iron Fist, Dr Strange and Ronin II? And what became of folks like The Sentry, Daredevil, Captain America and Iron Man?”

But enough of that, as I’m sure Civil War #7 and that other Avengers book will answer those questions. This issue was about fighting and dying, as the posthumous message from Ronin to Matt Murdock explains where Echo has been since we last saw her. I have to applaud Bendis and Yu, as it was an effective way to deliver a word-based story and a big huge fight without taking away from either. Exposition and ass-kicking are non-stop in this issue, leading up to Echo’s echo of Elektra’s death at the hands of Bullseye.

But speaking of lots of words and exposition, Detective Comics #828 had a little too much of both for me. I normally love everything Paul Dini puts his fingers on, and this was still way better than what’s been in the pages of Batman, but I’m sorry – the excessive marine biology and “But of course” deduction reminded me a little more of the Adam West Batman than the Bruce Timm Batman. I’m still intrigued by where this dynamic with the Riddler is going, and a great storyteller like Dini has earned a few off-months in my book.

And speaking of great storytellers, I continue to be blown away by Astro City: The Dark Age: Book 2 #2. That’s a long title. I don’t think anyone nails the everyman on the street perspective like Kurt Busiek. The shipping schedule on this book is frustrating, and I know that by the time it all comes out, I’m going to have to sit down with the whole series and re-read it, but every issue from these Dark Age stories has made me very excited for the next one. Kurt Busiek is still at the top of my favorite writers list, and I love how he’s dipping into Astro City’s past.

Which leads me to Action Comics Annual #10. Geoff Johns and Richard Donner team up to tell a handful of somewhat standalone stories, but the two standouts are tales of Superman’s past – particularly involving residents of the Phantom Zone. “Who is Clark Kent’s Big Brother?”, a callback to the legendary “Superman’s Big Brother” story from the 50s, is a rewrite of the origin of Mon-El, a.k.a. Lar Gand, who has recently made his return in the pages of Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes. We also get “The Criminals of Krypton,” which fleshes out the history of those three other famous prisoners of the Phantom Zone – General Zod, Ursa and Non.

We’re apparently back to the pre-Crisis versions of these characters, spiced up with some Superman II mythology (wonder where that came from?), as they are back to being the Kryptonian scientists turned warriors. So much thanks to the good folks at Action Comics for providing some nice explanation as to how Mon-El and the Phantom Three are popping up in my comics.