COMICS AIN'T CHEAP! 4/20/11

AVENGERS #12 – 5 whiskers
Standing tall at the top of the very short stack this week is the wrap-up of the “Infinity Gems” storyline by Bendis and Romita Jr. Wow. The arc has had its ups and downs, but mostly ups and this issue was definitely an up – I’m pretty sure that both creators are doing some of the work of their careers currently in this title. I’ve really grown to appreciate what Bendis does in his scripting, something that really surprises me because I’ve never been that big of a fan of that kind of “flip-hip” style of dialogue. But, Bendis makes me almost believe these characters are real and that’s a pretty cool deal. With the ending of this issue, he hit me right between the freakin’ eyes. I mean, it’s like I painted a target directly between both my eyes and he just BLAMMM punched me right there in the middle. It made me work up emotions about what happens – and that ain’t hay.

GREEN LANTERN #65 – 4 whiskers
Again, here’s another fantastic last page, courtesy of the Master of Last Pages, Geoff Johns. I don’t know how he does it, but he’s managed to build event after event in the pages of this book for YEARS and I just sit and gobble it all up, happy and content. The scope of the GL universe is immense and though I used to get a bit miffed that the book seemed to be very little about Hal Jordan himself, now I just don’t give a damn – this stuff is classic space opera. The scene of the choosing of the rings among our GL heroes was wonderful…though I wonder at the somewhat-stereotypical choice of costume for John on the last page.

BATMAN #709 – 3 whiskers
This issue was just okay. I feel a bit foolish because I bought this two-part “Judgment on Gotham” story by accident – see, last month I grabbed BATMAN thinking I was getting Tony Daniel and his continuing saga and got a guest-writer and artist and a story that was shoe-horned into the title. Looking back, it appears as if this thing was originally supposed to play out in the other Bat-titles, but I assume that Tony needed some time to catch up – no argument from me, do what you have to do, Tony – and David Hine and this story filled the gap. I should have looked more closely at the cover credits, and that gaffe is completely on me. But, that said, I thought that #708 was okay enough to buy the second part. March’s art is actually pretty nice and the story wasn’t half-bad. Now, let’s get back to Daniel and the fantastic work he’s been doing lately, which is five times or so past what Finch is failing to deliver in his own Bat-book.