Doom DeLuise, Fin Fang Doom and I will be participating in an unofficial 12 Hour Comics event today in Lincoln. We’ll do our best to attempt some live blogging as we sort of did during 24 Hour Comics back in October. But with the time crunch amplified, that leaves less time to draw and thus less time to blog, so I’m not making any promises. At the same time, we’ll do our best to keep you in the loop throughout the 12-to-12 marathon.
Jim Doom says: Hal and Carol, Green Lantern #34
Hal Jordan’s anger had been getting the best of him, and Sinestro lectured him about letting that anger get in the way of doing his job. “You need to grow up, deal with it and get on with your life,” Sinestro tells him.
So Hal decides to do just that and orders the ring to take him to the source of his anger – Carl Ferris, the man whose plane exploded, taking the life of Hal’s father. Carol Ferris confronts Hal at the door, but he busts in, demanding to speak to “the old man.” He charges upstairs to find Carl Ferris lying sick in a bed hooked up to various life support machines. Carol explains that the crash consumed her father with guilt to the point of wrecking his health. Carol had only been pretending to be the public face of the company — her father had nothing to do with the operations, as he’d been too sick to get out of bed.
Learning of what Carol had done for her father and what her father thought of Hal was a huge revelation to him, and suddenly all of his selfishness and resentment was put into perspective. “All these years, all this time. And I’ve wasted it. I’ve wasted it at hating someone. Being angry at someone. Someone who didn’t deserve it. A lot of people who didn’t deserve it.”
The scene ends with a rain-soaked embrace between two lonely people. It’s a formative moment for the man who would become Green Lantern, but it’s also a touching moment between two very human characters. I wrote at the time “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.”
Geoff Johns has been the go-to guy for great moments over the past few years, and a lot has come from the pages of Green Lantern. Off the top of my head, I’m thinking about the people of Coast City showing their support of Green Lantern, plus that awesome moment when a Sinestro ring chose Batman.
Fin Fang Doom says: Rick’s crazy, The Walking Dead #51 (more…)
Jim Doom says: The Wasp is dead, Ultimatum #2
There were two striking contrasts in how Marvel chose to treat the death of Janet Van Dyne. In the regular universe, it involved a world of heroes mourning and several issues devoted to reflection.
In the Ultimate Universe, it involved the Blob chewing on dead Janet’s intestines and saying “Tastes like chicken!”
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Jeph Loeb.
Honorable Mention: Martian Manhunter’s Funeral, Final Crisis #2
As I said at the time, “You know that life and death have lost their dramatic impact when the eulogy at the funeral talks about hoping for his resurrection. We know it happens all the time in comics. Let’s not have the characters shrugging off their friend’s death because the editors might want to relaunch his series in a few years.”
Doom DeLuise says: “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you to death!” Countdown to Final Crisis #13 (more…)
Fin Fang Doom says: The Walking Dead!
No title embodied change the way The Walking Dead did in 2008. In the first few months, writer Robert Kirkman killed the majority of the cast and kicked the survivors out of the prison they’d called home for 36 issues. The he switched things up to be about a kid and his somewhat crazy father trying to survive alone. Then the cast ballooned again as old cast members were brought back and new ones were introduced. Now the new gang is on the road to Washington DC, making a stop to check on those two guys Rick met back in his hometown just when this zombie apocalypse thing had started.
The great thing about The Walking Dead is that you never, ever know what to expect. A moment that seems mundane can turn absolutely terrifying in an instant, and characters can be killed or permanently disfigured at a moment’s notice. If the first issue of 2009 is any indication (and the “on time in ‘09” promise actually holds), this series could easily be on the top of the heap next year too.
Jim Doom says: Captain America! (more…)
Doom DeLuise says: The Flash!
I’m not sure if this series has been any good in the past couple years, at all, but this year it was so bad that I actually dropped it. This coming from a guy who’s such a huge Flash fan that he even stuck with it through Bart’s awful run, no pun intended.
Wally West’s kids developed super powers, and it became this stupid little Flash Family Happy Hour, and it was freaking atrocious. It seems like every single issue was just the two kids getting in over their heads and having Wally bail them out, followed by a couple pages of Wally and his wife talking about how they don’t know where the kids got their powers or how stable they are.
What a snooze-fest.
The good news for the Scarlet Speedster is that Geoff Johns is going to be writing a Flash story in 2009. You may have heard about it. It sounds pretty badass.
Oh, and, technically, I think this Flash series is over now, as of the last week of the year. Beats me. I don’t pay enough attention to know these things.
Honorable Mention: Nightwing
I thought this baby was getting better for awhile there, but it’s still pretty bad. Thankfully, it’s getting the boot here soon. How hard is it to write a decent Dick Grayson story? I mean, seriously, he’s so much fun, it seems like it’d be hard to screw up.
Jim Doom says: Justice League of America! (more…)
Fin Fang Doom says: Secret Six!
Both Birds of Prey and Gail Simone have suffered in quality since the two parted ways a while ago. Tony Bedard’s BoP is mercifully being put down in a few months, and Simone hasn’t been able to do anything to hold my interest (and I gave Wonder Woman plenty of time to do so). But when Simone re-teamed with her Birds of Prey partner Nicola Scott on a Secret Six ongoing, I was instantly hooked.
Secret Six has become the action caper comic that Birds of Prey used to be. The only difference is that this time there’s a lot more dudes (which the all-female creative team doesn’t hesitate to exploit) and the good guys aren’t quite so “good.” Heroes with questionable morals always make for interesting stories, so throwing six of them in together makes for one entertaining comic.
Doom DeLuise says: Guardians of the Galaxy! (more…)
Matthew Yglesias at Thinkprogress.org argues Marvel needs to pay Samuel L. Jackson whatever he wants to play Nick Fury in the Avengers movie.
Apparently Marvel’s plans don’t necessarily include Jackson.
Have you been keeping up with New Krypton? All of us here at Doomkopf were in agreement that it’s the Best Crossover of 2008. This week’s new issue of Action Comics marks the conclusion of the event, so we’ve decided to review it for this week’s Book of Doom round-table discussion (coming up on Saturday).
So join us then, when we’ll all talk about how we wouldn’t have picked it as best of anything had we been privy to the final chapter! Oops, that’s a spoiler. Sue me!
Here’s what DC has to say about it:
Written by Geoff Johns; Art by Pete Woods; Cover by Ladrönn
The “New Krypton” finale and a “Faces of Evil” issue! The rapidly rising tensions between the people of Kandor and Earth can only lead to expulsion or war! But even as the governments of Earth begin passing anti-Kryptonian laws, Superman’s people have plans of their own – beyond anything you can imagine! Writer Geoff Johns and artist Pete Woods (SUPERMAN: NEW KRYPTON SPECIAL #1) wrap up this cosmically important chapter in Superman’s life by introducing a major change to The Man of Steel’s status quo!
Jim Doom says: X-Force!
It’s hard to be too informed in a judgment of a bad series. Typically, when something is terrible, I just stop buying it.
The launch of X-Force was just part of the shallow stupidity that concluded Messiah CompleX. In my review of issue #1, I said “My big problem with X-Force is the philosophical situation set up in which Cyclops thinks he can keep the X-Men’s hands clean by having X-Men dress up in different costumes and call themselves X-Force. The leader of the X-Men is still ordering these hits. […]
The reason I think my nitpicking is more than just standard complaining is because we are supposed to buy these comics because we’re supposed to care about these characters […] But these kids are being used as weapons – just like in Weapon X, and those guys were bad guys, remember? – by Cyclops.
It would be one thing if I felt there were any indication that Cyclops were being set up for a judgment of some sort, but I don’t get that feeling. Instead, I get the feeling that this is just a shallow way to prop up Cyclops as the new and improved Tougher Scott Summers who’s doin’ what it takes to get the job done!”
Honorable mention: Hulk
This was another disappointment I dropped quickly, but it doesn’t get the top spot because I’m not as annoyed by the awful mistreatment of a new character as I am by the awful mistreatment of characters and a franchise that I have a long attachment to.
Doom DeLuise says: Eternals! (more…)
With all the holidays and weird shipping schedules, the Doomino Effect has taken some time to adjust, but now it is back with two weeks worth of comics.
Starting off is Batman #684, which is the second part of “Last Days of Gotham” by Denny O’Neil. I have to say, I sure could’ve done without this story. It wasn’t particularly bad, but it wasn’t particularly interesting either. Let’s start off with the opening page, in which Nightwing has to be rescued by a pizza delivery boy. Actually, let’s just stop right there. I take back what I said about this not being particularly bad. The premise seems to be all about Nightwing doubting his abilities and questioning that he’s anywhere near as good as Batman. I have to give O’Neil credit — I originally thought Nightwing would be a great Batman, but he’s convinced me otherwise! What a dork. Gotham’s screwed.
But hey, if the people of the city are stupid enough to think that a pony-tailed guy in a t-shirt with half a mask on is actually Two-Face, they’ll be fine with Nightwing. He could probably just wear a t-shirt that says “Batman” on it and everyone would think Batman is back.
(more…)