Meaningless Awards of the Week- 4/25/07

Artist of the Week- Alex Ross, Justice #11, covers to Justice Society of America #5 and Astro City: The Dark Age Book Two #3

Y’know, three great covers in any given week would probably be enough to give this award to Alex Ross, but he had to go one better and paint an entire issue on top of it. I may be the only one of the Legion still reading Justice every time an issue comes out, but I’ll be damned if this issue wasn’t just amazing to look at. It was even a pretty good read, watching the Justice League’s master plan to thwart the Legion of Doom (no relation) play out through the issue. Just look at this double page splash:

If only all comics were that pretty.

Hero of the Week- Gorilla Man, X-Men: First Class #8 and The Agents of Atlas hardcover

I honestly don’t know why it took me so long to pick up a comic starring a talking gorilla. Seriously, that’s a no-brainer. But this week, a talking gorilla showed up in two books in my pull list, both written by Jeff Parker. First Class #8 was the final issue in the unbelievably fun mini-series, and may have been the best of the bunch to boot. Agents of Atlas turned out to be one of the best trades I’ve read in a long time, and certainly the best Marvel mini-series to come out in a very long time. That is the power of the talking gorilla.

52 Tie-In of the Week- Supergirl & The Legion of Superheroes #29

Years ago (as of a thousand years in the future), the Dominators signed a peace treaty with the United Planets. The UP would stay on one side of the universe; the Dominators would stay on the other. As long as neither crossed the agreed upon line, neither side would take up arms against the other. Something tells me writers Mark Waid and Tony Bedard might be fans of Battlestar Gallactica. Obviously the Dominators aren’t abiding by the treaty anymore, though. The only clue we have to their motives is three words: “Remember the fifffdee-tu.” But surely this war a millennium in the future can’t have anything to do with the events of 52, right?

Well, they certainly can if a time traveler is involved. Years ago (as of a thousand years in the future, but after that other time), Booster Gold popped out of the time stream on the Dominators’ homeworld and pilfered some big ray gun he needed to save, “52 worlds.” Not understanding Booster’s primitive language, the only thing that stood out to the Dominators was the sound, “fifffdee-tu.” After translating Booster’s words in Dominese, the Dominators were convinced Booster was a representative of the United Planets, who had allied 52 worlds against them. So they take the fight to the UP before the fight can be brought to them. And once again Booster Gold f@%ks something up without realizing it.