mrblasphemy

December 17, 2012 2:29 pm It's OK, but considering that it's Rucka and Robertson, it's stunningly inessential. I think Rucka is unsuited to writing a character with a healing factor and holes in his memory, because so many of his stories involve someone being deeply scarred by the past.

November 16, 2012 4:13 pm Wizard did a Preacher parody of these, too. Jesse and Cassidy fight "Pope Pie-us". Arseface does appear. You will not be surprised to learn that Kieron Dwyer drew it. http://kierondwyer.com/LCD/ART/VERTIGO.htm

October 8, 2012 11:01 am As far as I can tell, there was no best panels feature last week, but I have never laughed louder at a comic than I did at Wolverine & the X-Men 17. Not the Funk!

August 29, 2012 9:06 am Yeah, agreed. Gage is exactly the kind of writer I love to see on the X-titles, because it's so obvious that he's read a bunch of back issues and knows the characters. He's interested in past continuity but his stories aren't ABOUT old stories the way continuity-conscious comics can be at their worst.

August 23, 2012 4:42 pm I'd say it's right up there with the best of Gotham Central.

August 31, 2011 3:04 pm It is definitely better than the first Meltzer Justice League, I'll give it that. But that's a very low standard.

August 31, 2011 2:08 pm @JokersNuts: I think your assessment is accurate. Except imagine that Ultimate Spider-Man #1 had involved Mary Jane and Aunt May fighting one of the Lava Men for a few pages, with Peter appearing at the very end as the Big Reveal. That's the level of decompression we're talking about here, and I don't think it works for a flagship title of The New 52. I really don't want to be too hard on this book, which is not bad at all. It's just that it's nothing special, and it really should be.

August 31, 2011 9:56 am My LCS had a "midnight sale" for this, so I got to read it late last night. I really liked seeing everyone lined up, and there were definitely people in line who were not regular comics readers, which is nice to see. Many of them bought Flashpoint #5 as well. As far as the book...it's certainly not bad. I would have said three stars, both art and writing. I feel like, for the story to be pulse-pounding, there would have to be a villain who does more than the demonic parademon (?) Batman and Green Lantern fight here. All he does is run away, growl about Darkseid, and blow up. And I guess the police in helicopters are also villains of the piece, but they're also anonymous. Not every story needs an articulate, fully-formed villain, but that is one of the main ways to create interesting conflict. I honestly think they would have been better off using a generic mugger, and fleshing out the cops. Or using Lex Luthor as the villain, or an evil mayor or crime lord. There's really no compelling conflict or mystery to bring you back, and if the villain had said or done more, there might have been. And while I have absolutely no problem with decompressed storytelling, I do think that Justice League should not have it. Justice League is the story of powerful people coming together to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges. I think this story would have been better off if it at least nodded in the direction of all the members of the team. It wouldn't even take up much space; the spaceship that brought the parademon could fly over Themiscyra and Atlantis, with appropriate reaction shots. Something to tie the overall theme of the book (the greatest team fighting the biggest threats) together. However, Conor is absolutely right that Johns' characterization of Green Lantern and Batman is great. I also found the Cyborg introduction to be interesting; I feel like his origin, which is actually very tragic, will make a good emotional piece of this first story arc. I'm sure that, if you like the style Jim Lee has used in recent years, you'll like this art. It's just not my cup of tea; the characters look too square-jawed and stoic, without the intense attention to seemingly even microscopic detail that was Lee's signature back when he first broke out. For example, the scene where Batman snatches Green Lantern's ring...there's no emotion to it. An artist like Amanda Conner would have used facial expressions to make that funny, or Darwyn Cooke would have used superior panel-to-panel storytelling to make the joke. For me, as drawn, it just fell flat. But it's just like the art on Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, so if you liked that, you'll like this. That said, Green Lantern's fire engines are an incredible visual. It's clear to me that machinery is more interesting for him to draw than people. As far as this being the flagship of an inspiring new line of comics, I'd go so far as to call it a failure. With the caveat that Howard Porter is probably an inferior artist to Jim Lee, something like JLA #1 by Morrison, Porter, and Dell would have been much better. Big threat, entire team comes together quickly, basically professionals going about their business, like a SWAT team. Like Conor says, that's not really Johns' style. He may have been miscast on this book.