Recent Comics I Have Read

Batman #651: One Year Later…Gordon is back as Commissioner for no apparent reason, Robin has a new and much suckier costume, and, well, everything is back to normal. Don Kramer’s art is so stiff, the characters seem carved out of wood.

Battle Hymn #4-5: I had heard relatively good things about this series, and maybe I should’ve picked it up from the start, but frankly the idea of Golden Age heroes who are all, virtually without exception, assholes was not very appealing to me. And the ham-fisted political message was about as subtle as a rocket-powered enema. The idea of trying to draw some sort of moral equivalency between the Allies and the Nazis during WWII belongs on bizarre conspiracy-theory blogs.

Captain America #17: Better artwork this time. Cap and Sharon team up with yet another AIM fragment to fight Crossbones and Sin. Yet more clues about Bucky, triggering a Pavlovian response of rage within me.

Green Arrow #60: Yes, I read this out of order, but it hardly matters. The entire issue is a teaser for #61. I like Scott McDaniel’s artwork; it’s sort of combination of Mignola and Frank Miller. And personally, I like the return of The Longbow Hunters-style hood for GA; the little Errol Flynn hat was always pretty silly.

Invincible #17: Yet another one I read out of order. Mark graduates high school.

Iron Man #7: Daniel & Charles Knauf take over from Warren Ellis. Not sure yet if I like Patrick Zircher & Scott Hanna’s art or not. Evidently, Iron Man’s new powers are transforming him into a paranoid, self-absorbed, brutal asshole. My God! He’s becoming Batman from All Star Batman & Robin!

Ms. Marvel #2: EXTREMELY annoying; I found out only after I had bought this book and gotten it home that there was a printer’s error in the middle that cause two pages to be ripped and virtually unintelligible. Ms. Marvel fights the Brood (who we haven’t seen in a long time) and something that is apparently hunting them down. Looking good, so far.

New Avengers #18: I had no idea who the Bad Guy was until I read a spoiler. STILL don’t like Deodato’s art, though this issue seems better. Avengers seem rather, uh, disorganized and sloppy. I hate Spider-Man’s getup with the white hot intensity of a thousand burning suns.

Squadron Supreme #2: On their first mission, this dysfunctional gang of neuroses fight an African dictator with super-powers (because, you know, only Third World countries EVER have dictators). Despite knowing in advance what his powers are, they blunder right into a trap.