Booster Gold #1000000: Writers Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz conclude their run in style, putting a much-belated DC One Million tie-in, a welcome trademark Johns loophole resurrection of an unjustly-deceased character, one mindblower revelation that rivals anything in Secret Invasion, and a crisis of conscience on the part of the titular character into 22 pages of story so packed it has the feel of a silver age DC three-part ‘novel.’ The final two story pages (not counting the epilogue/teaser image) alone are absolute killers. I’m sorry to see these guys leave; between this series and 52 Johns has done more to rehabilitate Booster than anyone. Though I’m hopeful whatever regular writer comes on after upcoming Chuck Dixon’s fill-in run will be up to the standard set by Johns and Katz, in my heart I doubt it’ll happen (ironically, I feel much the same about Blue Beetle right now). Whatever comes afterwards, the Johns/Katz Booster Gold run was consistently good and is highly recommended as a trade paperback purchase once the whole run is collected, especially as a followup for readers of 52 — I would guess it’ll be two six-issue books.
Final Crisis - Requiem: Did you read Final Crisis and want an expansion upon the Martian Manhunter scene? If so, here it is, though since it’s not written by Grant Morrison or Geoff Johns (or even Greg Rucka) you might suspect the validity of this one-shot tie-in. Honestly, Peter Tomasi hasn’t yet written anything I’ve read that’s really knocked me out, but he’s generally good for a B+ script — not in the Johns/Bendis/Morrison/Brubaker league or anywhere near it, but safely out of the Beechen/Jones/Winick/Bedard gutter. This alternately maudlin and morbidly violent tale sports knockout art by Doug Mahnke and should serve as an appropriate sendoff for J’onn J’onzz fans seeking such, but the story’s connections to Final Crisis proper seems secondary to the function it serves as setup for James Robinson’s upcoming Justice League book. Nothing too unexpected happens here, really, which is somewhat disappointing. Midway the book turns into a recital of events from J’onn’s history that’s actually pretty deadly boring, but the last-page nod to the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League was cute. In the end, unless you really honestly truly care that much about the Martian Manhunter I’d say you could probably skip this one pretty safely.
Secret Invasion #4: As we hit the halfway point of Secret Invasion, the contours of the story are fairly well established — a certain amount of the “anything could happen” sense of excitement that the first few issues of any event book carries has abated, and the basic plot is pretty clear. This issue’s Black Widow fakeout with the green-eye motif was well-executed but the issue comes up otherwise short on big revelations. The first look at Nick Fury’s Secret Warriors was underwhelming (and the size of Nick’s gun recalls the bad old Image days) but the lead-up to the next issue works so well one is willing to forgive the lack of big surprises here. More consistent goodness from the Bendis/Yu/Morales team page after page, but ultimately it feels like more of a chapter than a complete unit of entertainment in itself.
0 comments ↓
There are no comments yet, but you may add your thoughts by filling out the form below.
Leave a Comment