The Doomino Effect for the week of Sep 3, 2008

Starting off the reviews is Secret Six #1. I really got a kick out of this team back when it was Villains United in the pre-Infinite Crisis days, and I’m hoping this series will re-hook me on this cast of characters.

We start off seeing that there’s a bad guy who lives in a box guarded by twins in matching plaid suits. Then Deadshot and Catman are out for a drive, and Catman explains how he did some bad things in Africa. As the team comprises a half-dozen or so villains, this is perhaps not as profound as Catman feels it is, except for the fact that he feels some kind of existential dilemma over the rightness and wrongness of it all. Deadshot, a.k.a. Martin Blank, feels assured that if he’s supposed to assassinate someone, they probably did something to deserve it.

The duo turns a botched convenience store robbery into a clinic for a few amateur hoodlums for the requisite comedic irony. Meanwhile, Ragdoll and Bane are trying to cheer up Scandal, who is mourning the loss of her girlfriend. I love that Scandal sleeps with her claws on. I’m not up on my Bane, but he seemed more like the dullard from Batman & Robin and less like the guy from Knightfall. I don’t know if something happened that made him speak in painfully obvious and abrupt sentences, but he seems way less interesting now, but probably more useful for a team book like this.

Anyway, Catman goes back to the store, indulging in this heroic phase. The rest of the team tries to cheer up Scandal by hiring a stripper to dress up like her dead lover. Once she snaps back to reality, she tells everybody she’s accepted a mission — but it turns out that mission is a TRAP and the Secret Six will DIE! And next issue, CATman will fight BATman!

I was not thrilled with this issue, but I didn’t dislike it either. Nicola Scott’s artwork was great. The story had the balance of comedy and drama that made this outfit work in the first place, with well-defined personalities making up most of the fun. All of that is still intact, and I’m curious to see where this goes, but it didn’t grab me enough to where I’ll be able to absolutely declare that I’m picking up issue #2, especially since it’s being promoted for the Batman guest-appearance.

Speaking of Batman, though, that leads me to Detective #848, part 3 of Heart of Hush. Batman knew Hush was going after him through his personal life, but he assumed it was in the form of Tim and Dick. He forgot about Catwoman! Considering Tommy Elliot’s entire adult life of supervillain terror is based on a grudge from his childhood, he was not about to forgive Batman for leaving him hanging during that whole pacemaker ordeal with the Joker several years ago. Not only does he end up literally stealing Catwoman’s heart, but he’s remaking his face too.

We see a flashback to some social gathering many years ago, in which Tommy Elliot meets Peyton Riley — the current (late?) Scarface. I’ve pretty much given up trying to predict where comics stories are going these days, but I would venture to guess that this meeting with the future Scarface is going to have something to do with this story’s surprise ending. How’s that for a prediction? Dini has also said Hush may be a candidate for Batman’s successor after the real deal is taken out of the picture. So I’m going to say Tommy Elliot realizes the only way he can outdo Bruce Wayne is to be a better Bruce than Bruce was. He’s going to take his face. And what better way to outdo stealing Catwoman’s figurative heart than by stealing her literal heart? I also recall Batman and Hush having a “Should heroes kill?” conversation a while back, so maybe he’ll be the lethal vigilante since DC has neutered Jason Todd.

Anyway, I’m enjoying Batman R.I.P. proper quite a bit, and this Dini story is a good complement. Dustin Nguyen’s art has a nice angular quality that I dig.

Speaking of art that I dig, that leads me to Green Lantern #34, part 6 of Secret Origin. By last issue, Doom DeLuise and I were bored sick of the pacing. Well stuff happens in this issue, and it wasn’t until I sat down to write this review that I remembered this series had been really boring for a while!

We see more of the early partnership between Hal Jordan and Sinestro as they battle Atrocitus. I don’t know if I’ve ever thought about this much before, but man, if you’re ever going to see an evil turn coming, wouldn’t you think it would probably be from the guy named “Sinestro” ? Anyway, the interplay between the two is just enough to make Sinestro kind of likable. And Hal is able to use his ring on yellow. How about that.

So William Hand, whom Atrocitus proclaims to be “Doorway to the black,” finds this little golden gadget Atrocitus was carrying, which presumably sucks away green lantern power. (According to Wikipedia, the pre-Crisis origin of Hand has him inventing this device. His fascination with death also appears to be a new invention.) The super-analytical detection skills of the power rings were fooled when Hand hid the gadget in his suit coat, and the Lanterns left none the wiser.

My favorite part of this issue was the scene with Carol Ferris. Nothing like watching the hero get his emotional guts ripped out, and I think Geoff Johns is the only mainstream comic book writer who knows how to believably portray tenderness between two fictional adults with real feelings. It made me say “Wow.” And as always, Ivan Reis nails it with his art.

I knew I was going to keep buying this even though it had gotten boring, but this issue definitely got me re-excited for where it’s going.

Speaking of comics in which my continued purchasing is up for consideration, that leads me to The Goon #27. I had dropped The Goon about a year or so ago because it just kept getting so very very bad. I heard that the past few issues had been pretty good, though, so when issue #25 came out, I picked up some back issues to get caught up. My friend was right — it had gotten good again.

This issue is an 8-page story by Eric Powell and then two stupid meaningless backup stories (backup stories which take up more pages than the “main” story) by people who aren’t as good as Eric Powell even when he’s not very good.

It’s crap like this that makes me keep dropping the book. I’m not going to keep plopping down 3 bucks for these half-assed filler issues. This was really bad timing for such a stinker, especially as the book had just finally started getting good again. Turds like this need to be “Goon Summer Specials” or something, because man, I’m tired of Powell trying to pass these issues as something they’re not. Rectum, feces, anus.