Comic Book Discusions

I was thinking it would be fun to discuss some comics as they come out, kind of like the book club type thing we were discussing a while back. Since we will be talking about recently released comics I want to warn that these are going to be spoiler filled discussions. I'm unsure if there will be enough people up to date with the same comics I am reading, but if you are not reading what I am, then post something about what you are. I will post my thoughts here on a couple different comics as they come out and if no one ever responds I will take that as a lack of interest.

I'll start us off with Justice League #18. This is the issue where they are recruiting new full time members for the Justice League and I gotta' say I am really happy with who they picked! During the issue I was hoping Firestorm and The Atom would join the team and I got my wish and then some! The Atom, Firestorm, and Element Woman are now official members of the Justice League. This is the first I've heard of Element Woman and if someone is going to get booted in the first ark I hope it is her. As always the art is great and the dialog between the characters is a lot of fun. I'm not exactly sure where this story ark is going to go from here unless it is about just about introducing the new team into the league. I'm glad Hawkman is not a part of the team after seeing him in the last ark. The impression I got was he is a ruthless killer "hero"(Perhaps in the vein of The Punisher) and I don't want that type of person on this team. All in all it was a fun, relaxing issue after the huge Atlantis storyline.

I thought for sure they would call her "Metamorpha" or something like that. She feels like just another demographic box being checked. I'd rather they stuck with the Rex Mason Metamorpho character and just given him a great background and story to re-launch with.

I'm reading Justice League of America as well, and even though they recycled a Hawkman joke, it was still good. He is definitely a barbaric character and I think he'll work well in JLA as opposed to JL.

(again, Spoilers)
I got issue #7 of Avengers Arena days after I submitted my review for the listener created episode, and it is a definite change of pace from the previous six issues. This issue focused solely on Arcade before he created the arena and his motivations and mindset behind his actions.
This actually could be a pretty good jumping on point for the series which surprised and impressed me because as of yet you would pretty much have to start from the beginning to know what all is going on. It is still a good idea to read from the beginning so you can see the big picture, but if you don't want to get back issues or wait for the first trade paper back then start here.
This once again focuses in on the meat and bones of the character instead of just having flashy action or pretty art. That said, the art is good, but is different from the previous issues, not worse necessarily, but noticeably different. I don't know if this is a permanent change or just a single issue/ark.
The biggest problem I see with this issue is that since it focuses on Arcade, there is no one to root for and he just isn't a very relatable guy. That said it is interesting seeing into the mind of this psychotic murderer. In the end this is yet another solid entry into this series, not my favorite of the bunch, but very good indeed!