"Ivan Reis"

Aquaman #6 Review

Mera goes in search of dog food! (Not as fun as it should be)

Aquaman #5 Review

Unfortunately Aquaman isn’t buried alive, as the cover would have you believe. But Johns continues to bury him in mediocrity.

Aquaman #4 Review

The Trench concludes and Aquaman gets a dog. Seriously!

Aquaman #3 Review

Aquaman continues to swim the waters of mediocrity with this new issue.

Aquaman #2 Review

Aquaman throws himself into his new adventure. But does he sink or swim?

Aquaman #1 Review

The King of Atlantis resurfaces in the wake of the DC relaunch. But does Aquaman have what it takes to become the star Geoff Johns wants him to be?

Aquaman #1 Preview

From the Hollywood Reporter comes our first preview to the new Aquaman #1 by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis and to no one’s surprise, it looks good.

Brightest Day #24 Review

Brightest Day #24

And there goes the White Lantern, off into nothingness.  Brightest Day concludes this week, and does anyone care anymore?  Geoff Johns and company has put us comic fans through the wringer, putting up one plot ploy after another: alternate universes, the Anti-Monitor, a resurrected Mars (in our dreams), and now Swamp Thing.  Swamp Thing!  I’m not a Swamp Thing expert by any means, so if you’re interested, head to your local comic book store and pore through those back issues.  I’ll pass this time.

When I finished reading this issue, I feel like I wasn’t the only one gypped.  Aquaman, Hawk, Dove, Deadman, Hawkman, Martian Manhunter and friends went through some tumultuous events, only to be whisked aside in favor of Swamp Thing.  I felt that their respective stories didn’t get their just due, and they were left hanging, left by themselves to pick up the pieces.  Hawkman goes nuts, Deadman still can’t get a break, Firestorm is ready to detonate again, and so forth.  I understand that these are potential lead-ins to new stories, but we do occaisonally need some closure, as do heroes.  Their emotions are genuine and appropriate, given the circumstances.  All of our heroes, and some villains, act within their character’s prescribed boundaries.  All except Swamp Thing, who murders an entire boardroom of corporate executives.

(As an aside, the whole Swamp Thing charade was a plug for the environmental movement, which I’m not against, but it read like a commerical for the Sierra Club. )

I know this sounds like more of a rant, but there it is.  Brightest Day is over, and it does ends with a moderate level of success.  It could have been worse.

That being said, I’m ready to move on, how about you?

Brightest Day #8 Review

Brightest Day #8

This issues focuses our attention primarily on Hawkman and Hawkgirl, specifically regarding their presence in Hawkworld.  This series has been trying to do too much, but I think this issue is getting closer to what fans are expecting from it.  There is less bouncing around in this issue, as most of the issue focuses on one storyline, i.e. Hawkman and Hawkgirl.  If Geoff Johns and company can stick with this formula, focusing on one story line for 75% of the issue, I think this series can still be salvageable. 

The issue opens with Deadman, who decides that he needs to see Hal Jordan.  That’s not surprising, since the Green Lantern universe has been the focus of the DC world through this whole thing.  In any event, let’s see in future issues where Deadman shows up.

So what about Hawkman and his girlfriend?  Well, the Lion King takes Hawkman into a giant statue and shows him some hieroglyphics depicting the history of Hawkworld.  The Lion King relates part of said history, but he’s interrupted by a gathering of what appears to be Hawkman’s new disciples, ready to follow him on whatever task he may have in store.  Enter Hawkgirl and her rampaging to get out of the cage in which she was placed.  Hath-Set is there as well as Queen Shrike, who reveals herself as Shiera’s mother.  I get the sense Hawkman and Hawkgirl are being set up, but I could be wrong. 

The issues ends with the Martian Manhunter discovering that there is another Green Martian around somewhere, so he and M’Gann link telepathically and learn that there’s a “telepathic black hole” in the middle of Star City.  That’s not really that surprising, but it does link to other things doing on in the DCU.

So far this is my favorite issue of this series, save for the first two.  Events don’t seem contrived like they have in past issues, and anyone who’s read my reviews of past issues is well aware of my complains in this regard.  This series is starting to pick up some steam and, like I said, above, Johns should stick to this formula and not try to pack every plot line into every issue, thereby watering each issue down into irrelevancy.  At the core of this series lies some of our favorite characters, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, characters who haven’t got their due in the last decade.  I hope Brightest Day can set the stage for these two mainstays to reenter the DCU mainstream with some flare.

Brightest Day #6 Review

Brightest Day #6

I’m still pulling for this series to do something or go somewhere.  If you’ve been reading the Brightest Day series, you know that things aren’t moving very fast.  Things happen, but then they’ll pull the bait and switch.  Nothing is revealed, only one more door to open, one more curtain to pull, one more. . . well, you get the idea.  As you can see, as a comic fan I’m getting a little frustrated with this series.

The same can be said for this latest entry in the series.  Along with the “jump through hoops” storytelling comes the contrived plot points.  I must say that I enjoyed the beginning of the issue and the lead-in story.  It features the story line involving the Martian Manhunter.  By the way, the cover features our Martian friend; I actually like this issue’s cover, even though I’ve stopped falling for misleading covers.  Too late now, though, as “Martin Manhunter!” is printed on the cover; the point is that this cover isn’t misleading like some of the other covers in this series.

Not surprisingly, this issue continues the story lines involving Deadman, Aquaman, Firestorm and, as noted, the Martian Manhunter.  The Hawkman story line isn’t featured here.  Wow, what a disappointment.  (That was sarcastic.)  No, wait, the White Lantern ring tells Deadman a big secret.  Yes, absolutely, the whole point of the Brightest Day series is revealed by the last thing the White Lantern ring tells Deadman.  You won’t believe it. . . . wait for it. . . .(drum-roll).. . . “Eat a Cheeseburger.”  Yes, I’m serious, that’s what the ring told him to do.  Apparently, Deadman is hungry.  And get this, some weird power is making Ronnie’s thoughts manifest themselves.  That’s not a uninteresting plot point in itself, but get this: his thoughts make some construction equipment turn into bubblegum.  Yes, bubblegum.

So we are not any further along in finding out what is really going on in Brightest Day.  From one comic fan to another, let’s just be patient.

Brightest Day #4 Review

Geoff Johns’ Brightest Day continues and I swear, after each issue, I’m even more clueless than I was before.  Not only that, but I’m finding myself becoming more tangled up in the story and hardly being able to wait to see what happens next.

Brightest Day #3 Review

Brightest Day #3

The mystery of why the entity of the white light of life resurrected twelve heroes and villains at the end of the Blackest Night continues to deepen in this third installment of Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi’s maxi-series.

Boston Brand, aka Deadman, has been brought before the Anti-Monitor by his white power ring.  He’s told to fight for his life as he takes on the most destructive force in all the DCU.  After delivering a nice blow to the Anti-Monitor, Brand learns a real lesson.  His days of reckless heroism must come to an end.

In Pittsburgh, the two Firestorms, Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch, awaken in the hospital after been torn from the Firestorm Matrix.  Professor Stein explains to Ronnie that he must stay away from Jason at all costs or their absorption of one another back into the Matrix would be catastrophic.  It appears that Ronnie is living with some demons of his own.

Aquaman and Mera are coming to the conclusion that they must set out on their own because they really have no true home to return to, but they must also figure out why Arthur’s power is only calling back dead sea monstrosities since his return.  Martian Manhunter also is on a quest of his own to discover why he’s received visions of a ghastly death.  Lastly, Hawkman and Hawkwoman discover what exactly Hath-Set is doing with the stolen bodies of their past lives.

What I like about this series so much is that it is much more of the opposite of Blackest Night than just the name.  In Blackest Night, we had a fair amount of ideas as to how the story will go.  We figured there would be a White Lantern.  We knew before issue #1 dropped that Nekron was the heavy behind it all.  We could pretty much tell that when the seven corps got together to take on Nekron, it wouldn’t just be that easy to combine their lights into a super weapon against the black.

Brightest Day, on the other hand, has given clues, but nothing that we can easily point a finger at as being a likely eventuality in the plot.  Each of the returned characters all have their own issues that seem to be quite serious.  Deadman has to change the way he is.  Aquaman is still calling on zombie fish.  The Firestorms have many issues with one another and their power.  This is much more of a mystery like 52 was and less of the big-time, popcorn action of Infinite Crisis and Blackest Night.  Only three issues in and I can easily say that Brightest Day is engrossing.  In fact, I have more anticipation for the next issue of this series than I did between issues of Blackest Night – and there is less time between issues.  Dammit, I just can’t wait to see what happens next!

Led by Ivan Reis, there are several artists associated with this series.  But it is seamless in transition.  Each artist brings to head the an epic feel that will make this series a memorable one for many years to come.  In thinking about every issue of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps I’ve read since Geoff Johns came on  board, the art has consistently been some of the best in superhero comics today.  Then, to have superstar artist David Finch handling the responsibility of covers, every turn of the page greets you with stellar art.

Even though I have no idea what to predict for the series or where it might be going, I’m overjoyed that I’ve punched my ticket to come along for the ride!