Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Batman #694, Justice Society of America #34 & Superman #695

Sticking with the new format, I'm going to take a quick look at the three comics listed in the title. Don't expect a page by page recap of every little thing here, no, instead I'm going to touch on the main points in an attempt to make this post as quick and painless as possible. Since I'm reviewing three DC books tonight, it's only fair that I'll be reviewing three Marvel comics tomorrow. Well, with that said, away we go!

Batman #694: This issue deals with the Black Mask attempting to keep his turbulent hold on the Gotham City underworld. The Penguin makes a play for power, and nearly gets himself killed by Mask's underlings as a result. Batman and Robin are continuing their hunt for Mask, and Batman learns that the boy who was shot by Mask's men last issue had died after being rushed to the hospital, making Batman's war against Mask even more personal.

Eh, I didn't really care for this comic one way or the other. Maybe my apathy is due to the Penguin appearing in these pages(I do HATE the Penguin!), or maybe it's the whole disjointed feel this series has going for it right now... Nothing really clicked for me. Black Mask is talking to himself(sort of like the Red Skull did while he was in possession of Aleksander Lukin's body), Dr. Death is killing mobsters, Penguin is annoying Mask, some girl is working against her mobster family and working for Penguin, it was all just a convoluted mess.

Score: 6 out of 10.Batman seems like he's about to bust out his best tortured Shakespearian soliloquy here!

Justice Society of America #34: With the destruction of their New York Brownstone, this portion of the JSA has taken residence in the cave the Justice League and Young Justice used to call home. Dr. Fate gets possessed by a mystery being and scouts out the JSA while they're unpacking and hanging out. Kid Karnevil, who is a prisoner of the team, taunts them with knowledge of Obsidian's whereabouts, and this issue concludes with the team confronting Dr. Fate after they realized something was wrong with the way he was acting. Upon knocking out Fate, Mordru emerges from his body, ready to do battle with the JSA once again.

This issue was OK, but it wasn't quite up to the high standards the past few issues had reached. I got a huge kick out of the Mordru possessed Fate acting like a jerk to his teammates, and I enjoyed Karnevil as usual, but for the most part, nothing of note really happened here.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.If Dr. Fate acted like this all the time he'd be one of my favorite characters, hands down!

Superman #695: Before Bizarro and the Parasite are able to kill the momentarily powerless Mon-El, Guardian and the Science Police arrive on the scene to buy Mon some time. When Mon's powers return, he chases Bizarro back to Bizarro World, and the Science Police manage to take Parasite in with relative ease. After arriving back at Science Police headquarters, Mon tells Guardian that he was tortured by Gen. Lane for the last month, and that he wanted to warn the public that Lane is evil. Before Mon can make a move though, Lane goes on TV and claims that Mon had suffered Kryptonian brainwashing, and that his words were not necessarily to be trusted. From there Mon meets up with his former Science Police teammate, and the two end up sleeping together. This issue ends with Guardian and the Science Police calling Mon in to help them arrest Nightwing and Flamebird.

I've always been a very stout supporter of James Robinson(the writer of this series), but this was by far my least favorite issue of Superman in quite a while. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what bugged me about this issue. It could be that I'm getting a little bit tired of Mon's powers conveniently cutting out whenever he's about to go into battle, and then miraculously returning at just the right moment, it could be Mon's new attitude(I liked the old, stiff Mon, not the new tough Mon), or it could have been the dialogue, which was painfully bad at times... Whatever it was, hopefully things will improve with the next few issues crossing over with Action Comics.

Score: 5 out of 10.Ugh, worst pillow talk EVER!!!

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