Mixed Plate Comics- Week of 10.13.2010

Feeling a sense of nerd-drawals from missing out on NYCC and APE this week.  Ugh, I really gotta do something about my love for karaoke & sake that made me a hermit all weekend.  The positive to all of this was all the great GL & Batbooks that filled my usual social-time and of course catchin up on all those Avengers animated minis.  These are the weekly reads I busted thru- Justice League: Generation Lost #11 / Bruce Wayne the Road Home: Red Robin #1 / Titans #28 / Booster Gold #37 / Bruce Wayne the Road Home: Batman & Robin #1 / Shadowland #4 / Adventure Comics #519 and ...

5    The Untold Tales of Blackest Night #1     Johns/Tomasi/Krul/Van Sciver & Reis/Benes

Everything that has been released with the Blackest Night label, has been like a seal of authenticity on quality reads.  Even with the DCU in Brightest Day mode, these "deleted scenes" remain relevant by making connections with other characters besides the resurrected 12.

The ensemble mini-stories center on Lyssa Drak, Ragman, Donna Troy, Animal-Man, Scarecrow and Karu-Sil with each tale executed by creators that handled the relevant themes or were a part of the BN writing/art team.


If the Lyssa Drak and Karu-Sil parts were told as expanded stories that took up the other more somewhat-filler tales, I woulda ranked this as a top 3 book.

I guess what I am really saying is give us some more pages for Van Sciver and Reis to wreck!


4   Bruce Wayne the Road Home: Batgirl #1    Bryan Q. Miller & Pere Perez 

Sure, timing-wise it kinda sucks that these Road Home one-shots come out prior to the finale of Morrison's Return of Bruce Wayne mini, but we all knew he was coming back and how damn bananas is it that Bats new tech (as the Insider) replicates all the powers of his Justice League homies!! 

Willpower, heat-vision, speed-force, teleportation-mode...this would definitely level the playing field between Bats 2.0 and his meta-enemies out there.

So I have read all about how we don't need Batman to be like, well-- Iron-Man-- but how would a billionaire technophile upgrade his arsenal without making some REAL additions to his firepower.  Admit it, batarangs are more appropriate to be thrown by Batgirl, Robin and Red Robin...not this legendary brute.

Perez destroys pages with his mad style that is on some Ryan Sook-level, since his work on Action Comics and Miller's characterization on the Bruce/Stephanie dynamic is on point.  With the approval and retcon deets of how it was Bruce that was responsible for Spoiler becoming the new Batgirl, leaves me feeling less anxious that this great character will go away into the pages of Batman Inc.  I hope that some elements of the Insider tech stays with the new Batman!!


3   Green Lantern #58    Geoff Johns & Doug Mahnke

Carol Ferris accepts her new role as Queen of the Zamarons, without the approval of Hal and reminds him that he already has a GF with a cowgirl construct, that is effing hilarious.

GL continues to get pushed back as more an anchor character in his own book that is pretty smart, being it allows more fleshing out of Larfleeze, Atrocitus, Saint Walker and the new Hope-entity wielder, Adara.
Many cool and creepy moments aplenty as expected with the Johns/Mahnke duo...like Adara selecting an abducted-kid.  Man, Mahnke really makes me feel dirty after some of his imagery, whether it was the pedophile or the stalker dood that was taken over by Predator.

Larfleeze as usual, takes the grandiose spotlight wherever he shows up...or as he would say, "IT'S, MINE, MINE!!!


2   Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #3    Peter J. Tomasi & Fernando Pasarin   Guy and his warriors three(Kilowog, Arisia & Sodam) book has done the unthinkable, in surpassing the highly-biased top title I always look forward to slipping out of its mylar, yes..that's GL.  The Tomasi/Pasarin combo is on the realm of friggin-ridic in how well it reads, flows in dialogue thru panels and just bounces from the pages.   

More of the sinister plot thickens with the shadowy figure (who is collecting the Lantern Entities like farmville) let's just call it Scar for now yeah-- meets with the familiar, savage baddie who has been de-powering the whole of the GLC.  Duh-duh-duh!!! 

It's a good thing that Red has chosen to keep his Rage powers intact, oh and of course thanks to Bleez-- which is a great scene, but what the hell is up with his pact with Atrocitus..did I forget something or is this just another story thread to unravel..hmm??



1   Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5     Grant Morrison &  Ryan Sook/Pere Perez 

Morrison does it again baby.

Now, lets forget about Batman's classic origin on Crime Alley for a bit on the reason for Bruce's demented, vigilante ways.  How about we say it's really cause his parents, Thomas "Dr. Hurt" aka Black Glove...and his wife Martha (crazy b*tch-pyro) Wayne are f*cking nuts!!!

And well, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

The art via Sook/Perez and Mo'scribe-work are at it's peak, just in time to close with a faceoff against..the Justice League??!!  Here comes the Omega Bat-bomb ya'll!!!!


This post was written by:
big O