profdresser

March 10, 2009 2:13 pm I am so ga-ga over Guy Davis, it's almost embarassing. Another thing of his that should be checked out is his creator owned project The Marquis (there are two trades), and also he did the art for the European comic The Zombies That Ate The World which is currently be reprinted by DDP I believe...

November 12, 2008 10:43 am I stopped reading X-Factor recently, so I don't know any current situations, but I know that the longshot in the X-Factor/She-Hulk crossover Secret Invasion tie-in was a Skrull. So I think that leaves the current status of Longshot still up in the air... Though like I said, I don't read X-Factor anymore (stopped after that story actually) so if the real Longshot showed up later and is bopping around with them now, someone please chime in.

May 28, 2008 1:01 pm

As a (very) amateur internet reviewer myself, I feel that it's ridiculous to say that certain books shouldn't be given poor reviews. Poor reviews are not a death sentence to something, nor are they an attempt by the reviewer to protect things that they do enjoy from losing an audience. In fact, when I'm deciding whether or not to go see a movie in theaters, I usually skip the glowing reviews and go straight to the bad reviews, because everything has faults, and I want to see whether or not those faults are going to bother me as an audience member. A lot of times I say, "yeah, I can see how that would bother some, but I don't think I'm going to have a problem with it."

That said, it is up to reviewers to be as clear as possible, and for reviewers to ultimately make their own judgments. When we're reviewing books, my friend Sean and I often say, "well, this did/didn't work for me because of... but if I was a new reader I might..." In my opinion, a reviews ultimate goal is to give the audience a better idea of what the thing being reviewed is about before they commit themselves to it. As long as the reviewer is meeting that need, it doesn't matter whether the reviews are glowing or not, the audience can ultimately make the decisions for themselves.

Lastly, what are the reviewers supposed to do if they don't like the book then? I doubt anyone would say that they suck it up and give it a positive review regardless. Are they just not supposed to talk about it then? Wouldn't that be a worse outcome if no one heard about it?

April 15, 2008 8:58 am Yeah, I remember picking up issue #1 of this on a lark, and was immediately hooked! Since then I've started reading Nova and tried to find collections of the four-issue minis that precluded Conquest. Great ride. Can't wait to read the finale!

March 26, 2008 12:51 pm I guess my deal with the end wasn't so much who it was (cuz I have little idea myself), but rather with the fact that with all the crap going down at the time, the Royals had to hesitate and really think about whether or not they wanted to use the Rooks. That's what gave me my "oh shit," moment.

March 21, 2008 3:47 pm There's an interview with Brubaker over on Newsarama that narrows down the possiblities for the guy in the tank at the end of the issue.

March 21, 2008 3:46 pm There's an interview with Brubaker over on Newsarama that narrows down the possiblities for the guy in the tank at the end of the issue.

March 20, 2008 9:56 am

I gotta admit: I've stopped reading these when I get them month to month. They just don't break into issues that well for me.

Once I've got all eight, then I'll sit back and read them all in one go. I think I'll enjoy them best that way.

February 18, 2008 9:02 am

I agree 100%. I got this book on a whim (I tend to do that with four-issue minis...) and was delighted at how entertaining it turned out to be. Nice review.

February 18, 2008 8:59 am

Maybe I wasn't as disappointed, but I sure agree on many of these points. I liked the more extended stories with Batgirl and the one about Cassie's costume, but with the shorter ones I found myself saying, "Okay, so what's the point?" They didn't have enough punch to the punchline to make them work. I too was confused about who this was targeted at. Again the longer stories I think could be considered "all-ages" and entertaining, but the short ones, as you rightly pointed out, require a pretty good knowledge of the Titans to get. For once I think this book is hurt a bit by the fact that Baltazar and Franco are Titans fans (I read a Newsarama interview with them about the book), and basically writing this first issue for themselves.

While I think a lot of this first issue fell flat, the stuff I liked gave me hope that they'll work out the bugs eventually.