Review Time

Birds of Prey #96 - It has been more than a year, both in real time and DC Comics time, since Ted Kord was murdered, and he is finally given the memorial he deserved. It was a bit melancholy, a bit dignified, and very, very funny; the perfect tribute to the second Blue Beetle. Oh yeah, and the Society (remember them?), in the form of Talia, Felix Faust & Cheetah, attempts to manipulate Black Alice into joining up, leading Alice to steal Wonder Girl's powers and lay the smackdown on the ladies. Oh yeah, one more thing: Batgirl returns. The original one: red hair, yellow cape, the whole shebang.

Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways #1 - Earlier this week I predicted doom and gloom for this book. Was I right (as usual)? Not this time. While it wasn't great, Zeb Wells nailed the motivations and tone for most of the characters and the action scenes were nicely done. It does fall into the same trap that almost every other Civil War book by portraying the pro-Registration side as one dimensional bad guys, but I'll be ranting about that later.

American Way #6 - Right now this has to be the front runner for miniseries of the year. It's a fascinating deconstruction of the whole superhero/supervillain dynamic that goes the extra mile by setting up shop in the middle of 1960's era U.S. politics. John Ridley & Georges Jeanty tackle topics like racism, the Cold War, gender issues and most of all fear that lesser writers woudn't touch with a ten foot pole, but they do so without turning it into a polemic.

Quick Hits

Amazing Spiderman #534 - In war, everybody is an unlikeable jackass. Even Spidey.

Daredevil #87 - Yeah the mystery of who the fake DD was inadvertently spoiled a few weeks ago, the new mysteries, and revelations, more than made up for the spoiler.

Batman #655 - Grant Morrison at his best takes the bizarre and makes it approachable. Grant Morrison at his worst requires a tab of acid to understand what the hell he's trying to say. This one was definately more of the latter.

52 week 12 - Awww, Black Adam has a girlfriend. How cute. I <3 Black Adam & Isis.

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