Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities My New Comics, Jan 5 (Spoilers aplenty)

Got my bevy of books today and I just wanted to share them and my thoughts...

...plus my personal ranks...

...and SPOILERS (though I'll try not to give away too many)!


SUPERMAN BATMAN #5 (6/10)
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Word of Supe's & Bats' capture draws each heroes' family to the White House to rescue them. It's a fun romp as we learn that the World's Finest pull a switcheroo with Hawkman & Capt. Marvel. My main complaint here is simple: why would the "families" assume that "S" & "B" are being held in the White House, or for that matter how'd they know Lex would be there? A lot of sub-plots brewing also that make me wonder: the boy in Japan, that Kryptonite asteroid heading for Earth, future Superman. One great insight that Loebs makes is: for a loner, Batman has quite a Bat-family...Nightwing, Robin, Huntress and Batgirl. I like the art as well, but McGuiness' pseudo-cartoony style is starting to get old in mine eyes...

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #1 (7/10)
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A new book from Bendis & Millar. The take on Reed & Ben is interesting. The genius-who-gets-beaten-on schtick's kinda old, but here it kinda makes sense for Reed to be portrayed in his teens as a bully's target. Kubert's work is so-so for me. No art highlights IMO, though the colorist does a decent job. I'm probably buying the first arc, then I'll see if it's worth picking up after.

EMPIRE #6 (1/10)
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The series finale...finally! Golgoth gets his hands dirty as Greenland is crushed. I have to admit this series had me until this issue. I can understand how Golgoth'd be a major pain with his daughter's death, but the "business as usual" ending did nothing for me. I loved issue 5 much better. And what the sprock are those aliens all about??? Thank heavens it's over. Kitson's art is nothing special. It's competent, but it really just felt "flat". I'm not sure if I should be worried if rumors are true they're taking over Legion.

SMAX #4 (5/10)
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Jeff faces Morningbright with the rest of his "quest-mates" and it doesn't work out the first time. Moore seems to be a bit off this issue, making me wonder why they didn't just collapse this with whatever's planned for #5 (the final ish). No characterization advanced, just reaffirmed. The art's good, especially in light of the storyline.

FLASH #205 (8/10)
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Batman confronts Wally West about being the Flash. If there was ever anyone in the DCU who'd figure it out, it'd be Batman, and he actually explains to Wally how he figured it out. But with Linda still blaming the Flash for the loss of her & Wally's twins, it's gonna be interesting how Wally finally breaks it to her that he's the Flash...as the identity of the new Mr. Element is revealed. The reveal's not that big for me since I only jumped on this book at #201. What is interesting for me is the tension between Wally and his wife over the death of their twins and Flash's "culpability". The art suits the story, though we get a preview of Howard Porter's work in 2 pages. An interesting read!

I don't undertand. Wally's identity was at one time public knowledge. What happened? Plus he's been shown in the Justice League as them knowing.

Is this a storyline in the book that I just don't get?

Ger--

At the end of issue 200, the Spectre removed all knowledge of Wally's identity as the Flash-- even from Wally himself. I can't really tell you more than that, because I only read the book for that particular arc.

I haven't read the other titles yet, but I agree 100% with your assessments of Superman/Batman and Smax. I'd probably give both a slightly higher score, but I agree with the discussion -- issue #5 of Smax seemed to be a lot of unnecessary filler banter, although I did really like how they portrayed Morningbright. Makes him (it?) seem like a serious badass. Oddly enough, over the course of five issues, I haven't really gained any insight into Jeff's personality that would make me want to feel terribly sympathetic toward him -- he seems fairly two-dimensional. I hope this changes in the next issue.

And, while I did like parts of it, the whole attack on the White House by the Super- and Batfamilies seemed illogical. I can't believe that Nightwing would have decided that that course of action was the most strategically sound.

BTW, what's that little robot-thing that's shown on the cover? Is it a little robot helper for Superman, or Batman?

re: Flash's secret identity

That's pretty much the explanation Ger & Pov. In the "BLITZ" arc, Zoom's attack caused Wally & Linda to lose their twins. After defeating Zoom, Flash felt such a huge amount of loss and regret over the attack on Linda, that he considered stopping being the Flash. In a weird twist, the Spectre and Barry Alen dropped by and talked him out of it. Wally figured his twins wouldn't have died if his identity wasn't public, so he agreed to have the Spectre effectively erase all public knowledge of Wally's identity as the Flash, but that included Wally forgetting he was the Flash.

re: Smax

Well, it seems Jeef's the tough-on-the-outside-softy-in-the-inside kinda character. Not pretty unique, but I did feel for him in previous issues when he effectively described to Toybox his motivation for leaving his world/dimension (death of that girl that left the handprint, his incestuous relatrionship with Rexa).

re: Supe-Bat

And all those dangling plotlines (old Supes, kryptonite asteroid, Japanese boy) make for a hodge-podge book. I think I should've just waited until the arc finished and read it in one pass...