Take It Or Leave It – August 29, 2012

I love me some Green Lantern. OK, really I like the idea of Green Lantern and the power ring. I still have the DC Direct Kyle Rayner Silver ring I bought my senior year of high school on eBay for $200, even though Kyle is a pussy and Hal is the man. Back then Green Lantern didn’t get any love and it was all that was available as far as wearable rings went. I haven’t really read a lot of GL books, mostly just enjoying the ring, but I did read all 94 parts of Blackest Night, and what I understood of it was cool. I bought this for the homage to the cover of Superman 75, and <spoiler>Hal and Sinestro die</spoiler>. Green Lanterns die so often that it’s really lost all meaning. They’ll be back in six months anyway. If they really are dead, they need to go out way better than they do here, they just kinda get sucked into an abyss, but it’s totally setup for them not to be dead.

This is the setup for another big GL crossover similar to Blackest Night, in that it also deals with zombies of some sort. Apparently the Guardians have decided that their first two ideas of why the universe was so messed up, emotion and fear, were wrong, and now they want to eliminate willpower, the source of the Green Lantern Corps power. So they plan to start a new army to turn all life into their mindless slaves, kinda like the Borg. There is a lot of mythology setup going on here (just who/what is this first lantern they speak of?) that probably won’t play out for a while. Geoff Johns has a good track record at mythology building, and if the Rise of the Third Army can stay more limited in scope that Blackest Night/Brightest Day and it’s hundreds of issues, it’s worth picking up.

Verdict: Take It

Like I said, I haven’t been following the New 52, but after reading a few issues, I gotta say, I’m really enjoying it. I picked this one up for the obvious reason based on the cover, and to see if what Brodie said back in Mallrats was true. I really like Jim Lee’s artwork, and even though I don’t really know the what the deal is since the reboot, it’s written in such a way that it doesn’t really matter and you can pick it right up. Geoff Johns does double duty on writing in my picks this week, and does a really good job of it. This story really does a lot to humanize the League, and show that even superheroes are people too, with feelings and emotions just like everyone else. The seminal scene depicted on the cover plays out in a way that makes sense in the scheme of the book and feels natural. What it’s consequences will be (I’m sure Lois won’t be too happy, if she’s even involved, I dunno what her deal is in New 52), I don’t know, but it was pretty cool to see. After this issue, the League is left fractured and broken, and it looks like they have some good stories planned coming up, so this is a good spot to jump on.

Verdict: Take It

I didn’t even realize this was a vampire book when I picked it up until I looked closely at the cover and realized the photo on the viewscreen had bitemarks on the neck. I just saw a red lacy corset, and that it was a one shot, and I was sold. I don’t know where this sits in New 52, as it’s part of a series of one shots under the National Comics subtitle. It’s still a fun little romp regardless. Looker is a supermodel who was turned into a vampire, and since one of the main drawbacks of being a vampire is you don’t show up in photos, she gives up the being a model and opens her own agency. The story goes that she tries to throw a fashion show, but her star model is kidnapped, so she has so go looking for her, and ends up fighting a demon. The story has a dark funniness to it that I liked, and the art is sexy throughout. Also, the premise is a spin of the vampire genre I’ve never heard of and it makes for a fun take. I don’t know if Looker appears elsewhere in the DCU, apparently she helps out Batman sometimes, but I liked it and would read more of her adventures is she had them.

Verdict: Take It

I picked this up because it sounded funny, and when I glanced inside, the middle had a fun activity page where you could cut stuff out. However, like most Simpsons‘ related things since about 1995, it failed to live up to it’s potential. That activity page? It was a cutout of li’l Homer, but his accessories were a record player and records, including sleeves. That just seems like it should be funny, but it kinda falls flat, literally. All the accessories are just flat pieces of paper, even when ‘constructed’. Don’t get me wrong, I did find myself chuckling quite a bit, but that’s it, just chuckles. I just can’t help feeling that something Simpsons related should really make me laugh, and I just wasn’t laughing. The artwork was at times weird too. It was mostly consistent with the show, but there were a few frames here and there where everybody looked really odd. If you’re a die hard Simpsons fan, you’ll probably like it. If like me you only watch the Simpsons because you forgot to change the channel to something else, you can safely pass.

Verdict: Leave It

This is early in the series run, and like a bunch of this weeks other books, this seems to be about mythology building. The little blurb on the inside of the front cover explains it nicely. Josie’s mom was a superhero, now she’s following in her footsteps. Easy enough. What it doesn’t really address is why the cat ears and tail, much less an entire team of catgirls. Not that I’m complaining mind you. If you’re into the whole fanservice thing, you’ll totally dig this. The story is a little loose, but that just may be because I jumped in at issue 3. But it may also be the Big Dog Ink is a real small indy company, and isn’t too experienced. I mean, the main villian, if you can call him that, his name is Grayson Wayne. Really? Really? Are you even trying? Other than that, cute little book that I wouldn’t mind trying more of to get a better sense of who these people are and what they do, as Josie seems to not really have any idea herself.

Verdict:Take it

I’ve been a fan of the Wizard of Oz since my high school did a production of The Wiz, or as I like to call it, “The all white version of the all black musical of the all white movie of the Wizard of Oz“. Now that all of L Frank Baum’s work is in the public domain, it’s made appearances all over the place, from Sci-Fi channel miniseries to The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I picked up the first issue on a lark because the idea of it sounded cool, and the cover of a sexy Dorothy shooting guns and wearing a cowboy hat was hot. This tale twists the basics a bit, casting the setting as a western. Instead of ruby slippers, Dorothy has ruby spurs and a pair of ruby guns that shoot ruby bullets. It comes off as really cool, and Dorothy is totally bad ass riding her horse, Toto. You know the basic story beats already, but they are skewed in new interesting ways that you’ll like it. It’s been announced this mini-series is getting picked up into a new ongoing series like several other Big Dog Ink books have been, so I’d recommend either getting the trade, or jumping on when the new ongoing starts in a month or two. This is defiantly the better of the two Big Dog books I got this week.

Verdict:Take It