Category Archives: Reviews

Mo’s Flash Volume 2 Reviews: Review Two

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Flash #3, August 1987

Story overview:
This issue is not a good day for Wally. First, he gets a speeding ticket (oh the irony, Flash getting a speeding ticket) and he says ‘I’m not going to let this ruin my day.’ He gets home to his mansion and there’s a note for him from Fran. It reads:
Dear Wally –
I have moved out. It was a mistake to move in with you. Things are happening too fast. I still love you, but I need some time to myself.
I’ll be in touch!
Love,
♥ Francine
Wally’s response is once again: ‘I’m NOT going to let this ruin my day. Flash has an appointment with a few doctors at S.T.A.R. Labs in Utah the next day about this speed, which can’t even pass the speed of sound. There are rumors going through the Lab about a mechanical monster that is near the Labs. Flash hears of them but of course disregards them. His main doctor is Professor Schmitz and his nutritionist is Tina McGee. Flash wakes up for an early jog when he passes a huge mechanical robot monster in the desert not too far from S.T.A.R. It attacks him, so instinctively he runs back to S.T.A.R. and the robot follows. It starts attacking everyone outside of the building and during the attack Professor Schmitz loses a finger. Everybody is forced inside by security, only to be locked in by the robot that controls all the computers in the world. It calls itself Kilg%re and announces its control of computers and play to rid the world of humans through S.T.A.R. Labs’ computers. The National Guard eventually breaks in and Kilg%re’s message is spread upon every television and computer in the USA telling everyone to flee the country or die. Flash, Tina, Professor Schmitz, and two of the National Guard are in a car driving back to the local town when flash notices that Professor Schmitz’s finger grew back.

Review:
Overall a very good issue. I liked the “This is not going to ruin my day” motif throughout the book. I feel like in Flash books, a lot should happen fast and this issue does just that. Very action packed, a lot of high paced crazy robot fighting goodness. The Flash getting a ticket for speeding in his Porsche is pretty funny… oh the irony. Kilg%re’s is a little bit iffy, it seemed very far out. I definitely liked how it ended, very cliffhanger-y. It makes you question whether Professor Schmitz is completely innocent, something I for one took for granted.

Rating:
Writing: Five out of five stars. Loved it. Pacing, action, and cliffhanger all were nicely excicuted.
Art: Four out of five stars. Anatomy and consistency were a little off.

Favorite Quote:
“That does it! Everyone into the building right now!…”-Security Guy, time passes, “Its coming in the building! I think everyone should get the hell out!” –Wally; page 13

More after the break:

Continue reading →

Quick Look: Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #3

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This will be less of a full review and more of a first reaction to the issue.

I’m sure some people won’t believe this, but I actually felt more lost reading the first half of this book than I did reading Final Crisis itself. It’s been months since the last issue came out, and I’ve never been very familiar with the three incarnations of the Legion of Super-Heroes. The only time I read them on a monthly basis was the “Five Years Later” period that started around 1989 or so — and it’s not represented in this story! I have read the occasional issue of other series, particularly the “Reboot” Legion with its connections to Impulse. After a while I just went with it.

That settled out later in the issue, especially as it began to focus on XS and the various lightning-powered Legionnaires as they learned about the legacy of Barry Allen’s brief sojourn in the 30th Century. Geoff Johns attempted to clear up some of the questions of whether Bart Allen was from an alternate universe, and while I think the answer ended up being more complicated than was necessary (since they had already established that sometimes time travelers will end up in an alternate universe), I suspect it’s in the service of setting up threads that will tie into either Flash: Rebirth or the inevitable Flash ongoing that spins out of it.

And speaking as a Flash fan, the conclusion of this issue was fantastic.

Spoilers after the cut: Continue reading →

Mo’s Flash Volume 2 Reviews: Review One

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Hey guys, its Mo! Really happy to be here, this is a really cool opportunity to share my reviews with people not on the ‘Bloc! Thanks Kelson!

Alright, here’s the first review, and when I did this one, I was just getting used to how I was going to go about this, so don’t worry it only gets better!

Flash #1, June 1987

Story overview:
In the beginning, Wally buys lotto tickets and 6 Baby Ruths. He gets home for a ‘surprise’ party, which he knew about. The Titans and Wally’s girlfriend Francine throw it for him and for about 5 minutes and they have a great time. Wally gets a pair of shoes with ‘a special fiberglass sole which is good for 100,000 KM at 700 MPH’ made by S.T.A.R. Labs from the Titans. At the party, Wally eats an enormous amount of hamburgers, as eating is a theme throughout the issue. Before they even get to the cake, the party is cut short by a phone call from a Dr. Aikens who tells him that he needs to deliver a heart for a transplant that won’t make it in time due to bad weather. Note that when Wally walks in his office, Dr. Aikens calls him Kid Flash, which is corrected by Wally as Flash. Wally says he’ll do it for a price which the Doc isn’t too happy about. The deal finally is decided for the hospital to call on Wally whenever they want, as long as they take care of his medical bills. On his way out, an unnamed doctor calls him Kid Flash again, to be corrected by another unnamed doctor. He runs for quite a while when he sees Vandal Savage killing a detective who was on Savage’s case. Wally runs the detective to the local police station and as he runs to give the heart transplant, he can’t get Savage’s name out of his head. He gets to the hospital just in time for when he passes out, and sleeps for seventeen hours before awaking in perfect health. He runs to McDonald’s and gets five double cheeseburgers and four chocolate malts before he comes back to the hospital to see the patient who he ran the heart for. She happens to be an author that Wally has read books from and talks with her for a while before returning home on an airplane. On the airplane, he stops a hijacking and sprains his hand in doing so. He has six dinners and sleeps until he gets off the plane. When he gets to his apartment, nobody is there but his happy birthday banner is still up. He turns on the TV and realizes he won the lotto when the lottery comes on. He sees a present which he didn’t see before he left, opens it and in it there is a heart. Like the type you’d find in a human. The issue ends with Vandal Savage in Wally’s apartment.

Review:
The story seemed a little flat to me and although there were some surprises (Vandal Savage and the heart present), I just didn’t feel like it was that intense. In the issue, Wally can’t top the speed of sound which really sets a slow pace for the book. It takes him something like three hours to get to Seattle from the hospital, which frankly isn’t that impressive. Of course at the time, his top speed was 705 MPH and that was very fast for him at the time, which compared to his speed today is fast. I guess if I was reading this in 1987 and I was used to Wally being that fast, I wouldn’t think twice of it. My favorite part of it was when he was stopping the plane hijackers, which took him all of three seconds. The way that part was paced was perfect. And when he jumps back into his seat, the guy next to him asks Wally, ‘Did you see that?’ which was a nice way to end the scene for me. The ending did make it so I want to read the next issue, so I’m going to go do that now!!

Rating:
Writing: four out of five stars. I really liked this issue, but I’m holding back that one star because it didn’t seem like a first issue of a series to me.
Art: five out of five. I had no problems with the art.
Favorite Quote:
“All of a sudden, I’m a millionaire.” –Wally, page 20

Keep reading for issue #2! Continue reading →

Review: Final Crisis #7

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Final Crisis #7

This is it. The conclusion to Grant Morrison’s tour-de-force exploration — and dismantling — of the DC Universe. Plagued by delays, DC finally brought in a committee of artists to finish the whole thing just one month after it was originally intended to wrap up.

So how was it?

The word I’d actually go for is bittersweet.

Final Crisis is more ambitious and, in a way, more epic than Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, or Infinite Crisis. They destroyed alternate universes, revised the current universe, or went back in time to adjust the beginning of the universe, but despite the fade-out pages in the middle of Zero Hour, none of those ever gave the impression that it was all over for the good guys, and they were left picking up the pieces.

In this issue we learn just how hard it is to kill a god. We learn what super-heroes do when they can’t save the world by fighting. Multiple plots by multiple characters come together, and we learn just why some characters are in the book in the first place.

The narrative structure has fragmented even further, with some events only getting a panel or two and maybe a caption, much of it told in flashback from the end of all things. I’ve been saying for several months that it’s a 12-issue story chopped down to 7 books, but now I’m beginning to think to really do justice to all the ideas presented, and all the plot threads, you’d have to expand it to at least 24 issues, possibly more.

There’s also a heavy meta-textual emphasis on story, which I suppose I should have expected after reading Superman: Beyond. Thinking about it, this goes back at least as far as Morrison’s run on Animal Man, in which the title character learned that he literally was a comic book character, with writers artists and editors dictating his life. But it also made some parts of the issue feel like I was reading Sandman (more about that later).

It’s only in these last two issues that I really felt like pieces of the story from tie-ins were missing. I didn’t have a problem with the bits of Batman’s story that were told only in “Last Rites,” or the story with Black Lightning and the Tattooed Man from “Submit.” But then I didn’t read either of those, and just took things in stride. I did read “Superman: Beyond,” and while I felt that the yellow submarine and the multiversal Superman mission would have worked fine without that story, the introduction and nature of Mandrakk the Dark Monitor still felt out of place, even after having read the side story. (Interesting: I just realized I’ve actually provided supporting evidence for my Final Crisis Theory of Impenetrability.)

Anyway, at this point I don’t think I can say anymore without revealing too much, so spoilers after the cut. Continue reading →

Review: Final Crisis #6

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Final Crisis #6

You know how sometimes, when an issue of a comic book has been delayed for a long time, it finally shows up and it’s absolutely worth the wait? The last few issues of Fray and Midnight Nation come to mind. Unfortunately, Final Crisis #6 does not fit into that category.

The first few issues were structured like a mystery, presenting various fragments that slowly piece themselves together into a coherent picture. But now that the whole picture has been put together, we’re still only seeing fragments. It’s kind of like watching Cloverfield, except the reason we’re only seeing bits and pieces isn’t because we’re following a single viewpoint, but because we’re following too many.

The weird thing is, as unsatisfying as it is to read (though it does improve the second time through), I’m half-convinced that the fragmentation is intentional. It fits with the disintegrating cover design, and it fits with the theory that theme is more important than plot in this book. And, in fact, it fits with Grant Morrison’s comments about paring a comic down to the bare essentials like dance music. Of course, not everyone likes dance music.

Some specifics, so watch out for spoilers: Continue reading →

Review: The Batman Season 5

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The Batman Season 5I recently watched the complete fifth season of The Batman. I’d only ever seen one episode, “A Mirror Darkly” (the one with the Flash, of course!) before, and when I decided to watch the two-parter with the Justice League, I figured I might as well watch the rest of the season.

The series follows Batman, a young Robin, and a teenaged Batgirl as they battle the usual assortment of Gotham City villains. While the 1990s Batman: The Animated Series essentially translated the comic-book versions of these characters into a style suitable for animation, The Batman has redesigned virtually everyone…and that’s the main problem I have with the show. They’ve taken the villains and dehumanized them, making them into little more than monsters.

Introducing the League

The main thread for season 5 is showing Batman as he works with the Justice League, with 8 of 13 episodes featuring guest stars. Unlike the Gotham villains, the heroes’ designs are practically lifted from the comics. It’s also a much more Silver Age League (at least compared to the animated Justice League and Justice League Unlimited from earlier this decade)*, with Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, Hawkman as a Thanagarian policeman, and Barry Allen (though his name is never mentioned on screen) as the Flash. Conspicuously absent is Wonder Woman, an oddity considering the larger role given to Batgirl in this series. That, and some of the visuals in the final episode, reminded me of Filmation’s Justice League cartoons from the 1960s.

The season opens with a two-parter pitting Batman against a mind-controlled Superman. Lex Luthor and a host of Batman villains guest star. Oddly enough, I found myself looking up the casting, even though Superman, Lex and Lois are voiced by the same actors as in the Dini/Timm cartoons. The takes on each character were enough different that I didn’t notice the voices at first.

Batman goes on to team up with Green Arrow, the Flash, Green Lantern and Hawkman over the course of the season, as they fight Count Vertigo, Mirror Master, Sinestro and the Shadow Thief. The Green Lantern tie-in, “Ring Toss,” was particularly fun, as the Penguin obtains GL’s ring. He figures out the basics pretty quickly, even though he doesn’t have the experience — or willpower — to use it to its full potential.

The Flash

According to the producers, the Flash in this series is Barry Allen, though his real name is never mentioned onscreen and his personality is somewhere between the Timmverse Flash and Impulse.

The Scarlet Speedster teams up with Batman and Robin in “A Mirror Darkly” (on the first disc of the set). Mirror Master has come to Gotham City seeking components for a weapon (of course), and uses mirror duplicates of heroes — including both Batman and the Flash — to help him steal them. I like the portrayal of Mirror Master as a smug know-it-all mad scientist, and the redesigned costume works fine for me. He’s been given a sidekick/assistant named Smoke, and thankfully the show’s staff resist the urge to point out the pun in the name (though I keep thinking of the episode, erroneously, as “Smoke and Mirrors” because of it).

Mirror Master’s plan proves to be one of those totally bizarre schemes that would ordinarily seem out of place in a Batman story, but feels right at home in a classic Flash story with new pseudo-scientific feats appearing on every page.

On a related note, I could swear I remember an episode of Batman: The Animated Series that also featured a showdown in a room-sized orrery at a planetarium, but I just can’t place it.

Finale

In a sense, there are two series finales. “The End of the Batman” has Batman and Robin going up against Wrath and Scorn, opposite numbers who have dedicated themselves to protecting criminals and wiping out the Batman. They bring in half a dozen Batman villains in on the scheme, one which will not only make them all rich, but end the threat of the Batman for good.

Then the two-part “Lost Heroes” brings the Justice League thread to the foreground, as all the heroes who have guest starred over the season show up just long enough to be abducted, leaving Batman and Green Arrow to track them down. The heroes must battle robots that have stolen their powers, then head off another alien invasion. Robin and Batgirl aren’t left out of the action either, and their reactions to meeting the League — and seeing its headquarters — are priceless.

(This story also has the oddest portrayal of Hugo Strange that I’ve seen, but then I’m mainly used to the version from Legends of the Dark Knight, so I’m not sure what “standard” is. Now that I think about it, he looks like a cross between Dr. Scratchensniff and Ralph the Guard, and now I can’t unsee it.)

*I realize I’m probably going to compare almost any animated DC show to the DC Animated Universe for quite a while. Even though I grew up on Superfriends in the early 1980s, it was the 1992 Batman series that really resonated with me and my friends in high school. It was a show that actually managed to present complex characters and storylines without talking down to their audience. It featured the best portrayal of Two-Face until this year’s The Dark Knight. The direct-to-video Batman: Sub-Zero was a better Mr. Freeze movie than Batman and Robin, which came out the same year. And it introduced Harley Quinn. How can you argue with that?