Hey Kids! Comics!! 01-11-07

It was a light week this time around. That usually happens after a lot of my faves come out the week before.

Green Lantern Corps #8

Hal Jordan (AKA: Mr. Personality) is rarely the focus of this book and that is such a wonderful thing. I always found him to be the least interesting major character in the DC universe. I just haven't decided if I like the new direction the Green Lantern Corps is taking. Dave Gibbons was doing a nice job as the writer of this series. When he drew issue #6, I was very happy. Now he's gone. Attempting to fill his rather large shoes are writer Keith Champagne and artists Patrick Gleason and Prentis Rollins. While it's not like trying to follow Miller and Mazzuchelli, it's still not easy to make people forget. The current plot concerns an undercover mission to the Dominator's home world. Granted, the Dominators are pretty nasty characters, but why do Green Lantern's need to go undercover except under the most extreme circumstances? You'd think with the almost unlimited power of their rings, they'd probably be more effective as blunt instruments: fly in en masse and kick some major butt. I'm sure an explanation was given last issue as to why the subterfuge was necessary, but I've long since forgotten what it was. Either way, I can buy the fact that Green Lanterns would be susceptible to psychic attacks, but they still don't always act all that bright. There is some nice character play so I'm willing to give the new team a chance to grow into this book.

Superman & Batman vs. Aliens & Predators #1 (of 2)

This is perhaps the most high concept comic of the year. DC's two most popular characters co-starring with two of fandom's most well known properties. Genius! I just assumed this would suck, but how could I not pick it up anyway? Before I even read it, I assumed two things:

1. Superman will somehow be weakened — Either through a red sun, or polka-dot kryptonite, Superman's powers will be severely diminished or in some way negated. How else could this get off the ground? If Superman were at full strength, there is no comic. He'd squash the aliens and predators in half a panel, blindfolded with both hands tied behind his back. End of story. That won't happen, though, or issue #2 will be pretty uneventful.
2. Batman will save the day even though he's physically the weakest character in the entire book and is way out of his league in this crowd — I call this the JLA rule. When I was reading that book as a kid in the 1970's, Batman inevitably saved the day against some ridiculously powerful super villain, usually called something like "Mutato the Planet Destroyer", despite the fact that Mutato had just beat the living shit out of Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and the entire Green Lantern Corps a few pages earlier. Usually, this was because Batman was so super-cool-smart that he could deduce that Mutato was allergic to liquefied colubus monkey pubic hair because of the microscopic traces of limestone derivative found in Mutato's dead girlfriend's diaphragm (it made no sense to me either, but those mid-70's DC writers never let that stop them). So even though the entire adventure that month took place inside the rings of Saturn, Batman would still find a way to get there in the Bat-Rocketship (usually with Green Arrow, another out-classed regular human, tagging along), somehow manage to not get killed dodging all the flying super-heroes, sneak up on Mutato in the void of space (despite the fact that Mutato had just drop-kicked Superman through Pluto), and spray pureed colubus pubies into Mutato's face (sometimes GA would use a booby trapped boxing glove arrow to distract him), thus causing him to mutate into an ordinary, albeit evil, convenience store clerk.

Anyway... That's the long winded mindset I was in when I started reading this book. Turns out it's much better than I expected. Unfortunately, it is implied that Superman is less powerful underground when not exposed to the Sun. This, of course, is where the Aliens and Predators happen to be hiding out. But at least when a pack of aliens jump him, they still present little challenge, as one would assume. Still, it annoys me when writers get lazy and selectively use lack of sunlight as a crutch to make Supes easier to beat up. Batman also acts as I expected: He beats the crap out of some 15-foot-tall predator who looks like he could pop Batman's head like a pimple. It turns out he built some super duper electric charger into his arctic bat suit. Hey! He's Batman, dammit! he thinks of everything! Granted, this guy was no Mutato, but he's still pretty nasty in an extraterrestrial sort of way and definitely out of Batman's league. Anyway, the aliens are kind of incidental in this issue. I'm sure they'll take a more prominent role next month as it seems as if the big, bad Government will be the true bad guys. Writer Mark Schultz keeps the story energetic. It moves at a nice quick pace and artist Ariel Olivetti does a beautiful Alex Ross-inspired job with the art. Pick it up or wait for the collected edition. I was entertained!

Fables Trade Paperback #3 (of 8, so far): Storybook Love

This installment doesn't contain just one big story arch, but rather three smaller ones. All three were very good with the highlight being a plot by Bluebeard to kill Bigby and Snow White. That story was good but I really prefer the epic 7 or 8 issue story when reading about these characters. Writer Bill Willingham weaves such engrossing tales at such a nice pace, his stories really work well over a longer arch. Also included in this collection: Bigby and Snow White finally get it on, though they weren't aware of it at the time, the Goldilocks storyline is finally wrapped up (though I think she'll be back) and Prince Charming makes a move to better his standing in life in his own inimitably sleazy way. As usual, every story is worth your time. Check it out! For more comics reviews this week, check out Jared's Blog.