This week I bought and read this lot:
Black Canary 1
Much more interesting than I thought it would be from the preview. It doesn't really feel like my Dinah though, but I guess I'm looking for a Dinah in her 30s ready to settle down with Ollie (who to be fair would never be a rock star). So this version not feeling like her isn't a criticism. It is a good comic. The only thing that pulled me out of it was that I don't buy her wearing her Canary outfit on stage. If they'd given her shorts or a skirt it would work much better.
Harley/Peej 1
This was a lot more fun than I expected. I've been underwhelmed by Harley's main series but this was far better. The two of them work well together. Unfortunately the cover is not Amanda Conner's finest hour. The inks are rather heavy and it just doesn't flow very well.
Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman 11
Another bad cover, Yeeuch. Badly composed, badly pencilled, badly inked and badly coloured. Inside is Jamal Igle's pencils which are much better but the inks are a bit too heavy handed. The colours are OK. Overall, this lacks the finesse of the Gates/Igle Supergirl work, but that's not Igle's fault. In the issue Di goes to Africa to try to get two sides of a warring nation to reconcile. It sounds a bit white saviour-ish doesn't it. I don't think it comes across that way but I'm willing to listen to other opinions.
Princeless book 4 issue 1
The story is good but I hate the art. The composition of the panels is good, the actions (and interaction) of the characters are good, but the style of faces, the inks and the colours are horrible. It won't stop me buying this series, but if you do pick it up please be aware that this art is not indicative of the rest of the series' art! And on the plus side, we do have killer squirrels:
Battleworld: Thors 1
I think I bought this for horse Thor. It's OK. I suspect it's more for Marvel aficionados than me. It seems like a bit of an industry vanity project, and I mean that in the best way possible.
Battleworld: Runaways 1
The only actual Runaway in this is Molly Hayes. The rest are mutants, Cloak and Dagger and some other randoms who I expect regular Marvel readers will know. They are all attending a school to train them as Doom lackeys, or some such. I tell you what, I do like the premise for Battleworld. It works far better than Convergence, at least for these two titles. This was a fun enough comic. It also queered up Jubilee and Pixie, which was good to see:
Are they gay in the regular 616 universe?
Ms Marvel: Crushed (trade)
This is volume 3 of the current Ms Marvel run. I really liked it, it's a good young adult comic about teenage crushes and the pitfalls that come with it, with added superpowers. The only thing I didn't like was the thinly veiled lesson about consent. It just seemed a bit too obvious to me, but maybe that's because I've been seeing this sort of stuff discussed for years and given where I am at the moment, I really could do with not having these conversations. Quite frankly, I don't care. That sounds awful doesn't it. But I don't. I'm concentrating on my pregnancy and everything else that requires energy, or passion can piss off. So, I'm wondering who the teenage audience this is aimed at would take this lesson. If they don't find it too much, then I guess it's a good thing.
Batman: The Ring, The Arrow and The Bat
I've been meaning to get this for about 2 years. Despite the name, it's a Green Arrow trade, not a Batman book. The first story is Hal and Ollie meeting for the first time. Hal is working for the government and doesn't realise he's being used, and Ollie is out for a good vigilante time, until he realises the wrongs being done, and then he gets all angry about it. It's quite a quick change. Hal and Ollie argue but end up friends. Art is by Greg Land, before his porn tracing days. If you like these two, and you like these trades, then you'll like this story.
The second story is Green Arrow and Batman meeting and working together for the first time. There is lots of snark and one liners. The villains in the story are stereotypical/generic Asian bad guys, which makes me wince, and plot development is a bit obvious, but apart from that, it's good fun.
I've also been watching Arrow season 1, and while I'm kinda enjoying it, it's a bit bloody miserable isn't it? Oliver Queen enjoys life, but Ollie in Arrow doesn't. Granted, he has just come back from the island and is traumatised, but by all accounts he doesn't get any happier over the seasons. Le sigh. I like the flashbacks to the island the best. He looks and acts more like 'my' Ollie there.
Black Canary 1
Much more interesting than I thought it would be from the preview. It doesn't really feel like my Dinah though, but I guess I'm looking for a Dinah in her 30s ready to settle down with Ollie (who to be fair would never be a rock star). So this version not feeling like her isn't a criticism. It is a good comic. The only thing that pulled me out of it was that I don't buy her wearing her Canary outfit on stage. If they'd given her shorts or a skirt it would work much better.
Harley/Peej 1
This was a lot more fun than I expected. I've been underwhelmed by Harley's main series but this was far better. The two of them work well together. Unfortunately the cover is not Amanda Conner's finest hour. The inks are rather heavy and it just doesn't flow very well.
Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman 11
Another bad cover, Yeeuch. Badly composed, badly pencilled, badly inked and badly coloured. Inside is Jamal Igle's pencils which are much better but the inks are a bit too heavy handed. The colours are OK. Overall, this lacks the finesse of the Gates/Igle Supergirl work, but that's not Igle's fault. In the issue Di goes to Africa to try to get two sides of a warring nation to reconcile. It sounds a bit white saviour-ish doesn't it. I don't think it comes across that way but I'm willing to listen to other opinions.
Princeless book 4 issue 1
The story is good but I hate the art. The composition of the panels is good, the actions (and interaction) of the characters are good, but the style of faces, the inks and the colours are horrible. It won't stop me buying this series, but if you do pick it up please be aware that this art is not indicative of the rest of the series' art! And on the plus side, we do have killer squirrels:
Battleworld: Thors 1
I think I bought this for horse Thor. It's OK. I suspect it's more for Marvel aficionados than me. It seems like a bit of an industry vanity project, and I mean that in the best way possible.
Battleworld: Runaways 1
The only actual Runaway in this is Molly Hayes. The rest are mutants, Cloak and Dagger and some other randoms who I expect regular Marvel readers will know. They are all attending a school to train them as Doom lackeys, or some such. I tell you what, I do like the premise for Battleworld. It works far better than Convergence, at least for these two titles. This was a fun enough comic. It also queered up Jubilee and Pixie, which was good to see:
Ms Marvel: Crushed (trade)
This is volume 3 of the current Ms Marvel run. I really liked it, it's a good young adult comic about teenage crushes and the pitfalls that come with it, with added superpowers. The only thing I didn't like was the thinly veiled lesson about consent. It just seemed a bit too obvious to me, but maybe that's because I've been seeing this sort of stuff discussed for years and given where I am at the moment, I really could do with not having these conversations. Quite frankly, I don't care. That sounds awful doesn't it. But I don't. I'm concentrating on my pregnancy and everything else that requires energy, or passion can piss off. So, I'm wondering who the teenage audience this is aimed at would take this lesson. If they don't find it too much, then I guess it's a good thing.
Batman: The Ring, The Arrow and The Bat
I've been meaning to get this for about 2 years. Despite the name, it's a Green Arrow trade, not a Batman book. The first story is Hal and Ollie meeting for the first time. Hal is working for the government and doesn't realise he's being used, and Ollie is out for a good vigilante time, until he realises the wrongs being done, and then he gets all angry about it. It's quite a quick change. Hal and Ollie argue but end up friends. Art is by Greg Land, before his porn tracing days. If you like these two, and you like these trades, then you'll like this story.
The second story is Green Arrow and Batman meeting and working together for the first time. There is lots of snark and one liners. The villains in the story are stereotypical/generic Asian bad guys, which makes me wince, and plot development is a bit obvious, but apart from that, it's good fun.
I've also been watching Arrow season 1, and while I'm kinda enjoying it, it's a bit bloody miserable isn't it? Oliver Queen enjoys life, but Ollie in Arrow doesn't. Granted, he has just come back from the island and is traumatised, but by all accounts he doesn't get any happier over the seasons. Le sigh. I like the flashbacks to the island the best. He looks and acts more like 'my' Ollie there.
