Justice League of America #4 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (story), Brett Booth (pencils), Norm Rapmund (inks), Andrew Dalhouse (colors), Andres Guinaldo (feature pencils), Rauldo Fernandez & Walden Wong (feature inks), Wil Quintana (feature colors)

The Story: Not every coin you pick up off the street turns out to be lucky.

The Review: Writing one ongoing comic book series is tough enough, but writing multiple ongoings seems to be asking for trouble.  Besides the sheer difficulty of shifting between various storylines and character arcs at the same time, taking on that much work means less time to craft and polish what you’ve written.  This might explain why in any given month, you’ll never find Johns really firing on every single issue he has out.

Just as he’s beginning to develop some new momentum for Justice League, his work on Justice League of America is starting to dip.  His blunt, unsubtle style of writing has become even more so, occasionally failing to take into account his visual medium altogether.  After all, it feels very awkward and a little dull for Waller and A.R.G.U.S. scientist Arthur Light to spend several panels describing and explaining the significance of a Secret Society coin when one or two close-ups of the coin itself could have given us everything we needed to know.

Justice League #20 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (story), Zander Cannon (layouts), Gene Ha & Joe Prado (art), Andres Guinaldo (pencils), Rob Hunter (inks), Art Lyons & Hi-Fi (colors)

The Story: Despero makes it clear that he, too, disapproves of American fast food.

The Review: Nothing like a little new blood to bring some life to a title, huh?  One of the problems with the core Justice League was that their dynamic had become so familiar and overdone that no matter what attempts Johns made to liven it up, it mostly felt mechanical and bland.  With rookies the Atom, Firestorm, and Element Woman being so new to us, they add a degree of unpredictability this series has desperately needed from its cast.

Actually, our trio of newbies are fairly entertaining on their own, such that you wouldn’t mind more stories featuring just them as a group.  It helps that in this issue they’re backed up against a wall in a satellite plunging uncontrollably to Earth.  If you want to get the best out of superheroes, you’d best throw them into a situation they can barely handle, and that’s exactly what happens as the three Leaguers try to contain a rampaging Despero.

Vibe #2 – Review

By: Geoff Johns & Andrew Kreisberg (story), Pete Woods (art), Andres Guinaldo (pencils), Sean Parsons & Bit (inks), Hi-Fi (colors)

The Story: Vibe fails to stop Agent Gunn from killing the messenger.

The Review: More than ever, I realize that Johns has a special gift of endearing characters to readers.  He does his best work with characters who seem a little overwhelmed, hapless, or out of their element, and trying to navigate the obstacles and responsibilities placed on them in the best way they can.  No wonder that Johns resonates most with the superheroes who are new to the game and have something to prove.  He likes getting you to root for the underdog.

Vibe certainly qualifies in that respect, not just from his publication history.  Of all the various characters Johns has taken in hand, Vibe has the deepest self-doubt problem.  This is something that won’t go away in just one or two issues, and probably not even after a whole arc.  But wishy-washiness isn’t exactly a trait one admires in a hero.  If Johns-Kreisberg expect us to stick by Cisco in the long run, we need to see qualities that surpass his crisis of confidence.

Gotham City Sirens #16 – Review

By: Peter Calloway (writer), Andres Guinaldo (pencils), Bit (inks), JD Smith (colors) & Travis Lanham (letters)

The Story: The Sirens respond to an emergency that is a trap for one of them.  Guest starring Zatanna and Talia Al Ghul.

What’s Good: This series works best when it revolves around Selina Kyle/Catwoman.  Of the three sirens, she is the strongest & best character.  Some folks may dispute that, but Catwoman has been able to carry her own ongoing titles much better in the past and has a much more interesting character than either Poison Ivy or Harley Quinn.

So, it is good news that this issue uses Selina to best effect.  It plays off her heroic-in-a-pinch nature by sending her to deal with a problem that none of the other Bat-family members has time for, but then pulls a switcheroo by having the ultimate bad-guy plot linked to her relationship with Bruce Wayne.  The whole thing is very nicely done with well-executed, in-character supporting bits from Ivy and Harley.  Ivy and Harley are nice characters, but if you need them to carry your comic title for an extended period of time…you might have a problem, so background is a perfect place for them.

This issue also gets bonus points for good use of two other Batman-associated ladies: Zatanna and Talia Al Ghul.

Gotham City Sirens #15 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Andres Guinaldo (pencils), Lorenzo Ruggiero (inks), JD Smith (colors) & Steve Wands (letters)

The Story: Will Catwoman & Harley be able to save Gotham from Poison Ivy and her new alien-plantman boyfriend?

What’s good: These are exactly the types of stories I like to see from a title like GCS.  Neat, short, fun and not requiring the reading of any other series to enjoy, but still furthering some longer term plot points for the overall GCS story.

As I think I mentioned in last issue’s review, the basic set up here is fun with Ivy getting roped into her boyfriend’s scheme to turn Earth into a vine-entangled jungle so that his queen can take over.  It’s a new twist and preferable to some of the other story arcs that GCS has featured were pretty much retread material.  So, I have to give Bedard kudos for thinking outside for box.

It is also pretty clear that Bedard “gets” these three characters: Catwoman is the closest to heroic and that shows here as she is leading the charge to stop Ivy.  Harley has a good heart inside, but is mostly a follower and falls in to help Catwoman.  Of the three, Ivy is the most villainous and you get the sense that she can fall into this sort of scheme pretty much any old day of the week.  And, this “getting” the characters comes through with a few nice bits of dialog including a moment when Catwoman tells Harley (who is dubious about using the flamethrowers on the jungle) that the flamethrowers are bound to work better on vines than Harley’s big old hammer.

Gotham City Sirens #14 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Andres Guinaldo (pencils), Lorenzo Ruggiero (inks), JD Smith & Tomeu Morey (colors) & Steve Wands (letters)

The Story: Poison Ivy’s new job has some nasty surprises that they didn’t fully explain during the interview process.

What’s Good: This is exactly the type of story that I want from Gotham City Sirens.  There’s no nonsense about how Catwoman may or may not be possessed by a cat demon (I loathe these human embodiment of animal themes).  What we get is a straight up story of sinister doings at Star Labs where Ivy has recently taken a job (a few issues back).  It turns out that she took the job to check out this “Super Miracle Grow” that Star was developing.  Unfortunately, the special sauce that Star Labs was using was most definitely NOT good, old-fashioned compost, it was an extract from an alien plant-man whose spaceship crashed to Earth.  So, what we’ve got is basically “The Thing from Another World” going down in Gotham.

What makes this story fun is that it involves all three of our pseudo-heroines.  They all get their little moments to shine in this story.  It also has a fun bad guy that appeals to my sci-fi loving sensibilities and leaves us with a good comic book cliffhanger.  Nicely done!

Gotham City Sirens #13 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Peter Nguyen & Andres Guinaldo (pencils), Jack Purcell & Raul Fernandez (inkers), Tony Avina (colors) and Steve Wands (letters)

The Story: Catwoman and Harley Quinn finish their fight with Catwoman’s crazy sister who thinks that Catwoman has been possessed by a cat-demon.  Only by killing the cat-demon can Selina be set free….

What’s good: If you’re a big Catwoman fan, this issue will probably make you happy.  The whole issue revolves around Catwoman and her sister, Maggie.  Maggie is a crazy former nun who thinks she must exorcise this cat-demon that has possessed Selina Kyle/Catwoman.  Of course, since Maggie is crazy she is trying to perform the exorcism with a sword, which is not exactly the approved technique.

I also got a kick out of seeing Harley Quinn running around with her big hammer again.  For some reason, this element has been missing from a lot of issues of Gotham City Sirens as Harley has mostly just been doing cartwheels in the background.  The hammer is kind of her trademark, so I liked seeing her at least trying to blast Maggie with it…of course, since they’re fighting in a graveyard, she ends up pulverizing tombstones.

The final interesting thing this issue did was actually tossed in some doubt that perhaps Selina IS possessed.  There is one scene where Harley is compelled onto Maggie’s side of the fight and we see Catwoman with this freaky 6-eyed cat-thing emanating from her, which makes sense since cats are avatars of wickedness.  Since Tony Bedard is a guest writer for this issue, I’ll be curious to see if Paul Dini follows up on this.

Joker’s Asylum: The Riddler – Review

By Peter Calloway (writer), Andres Guinaldo (pencils), Raul Fernandez (inks) Tomeu Morey (colors) and Patrick Brosseau (letters)

The Story: From his cell in Arkham, the Joker tells us a story about Edward Nygma’s attempt to solve one of the greatest riddles of them all: what makes a person fall in love?

What’s Good: I’m of two minds about this book, but before we dive into the details, let me answer the most important question right up front by saying that this book is quite good, and it’s worth the $2.99 if you’re any sort of fan of the Riddler (or the Joker, for that matter.)

Now here’s the thing about this story: it’s tremendous fun (and quite moving to me, but then I’m a sentimental sap at heart), but calling it a Riddler story is something of a misnomer. Joker (in full forth-wall breaking mode) is the one telling this tale, after all, and so the book becomes less about the Riddler himself and more about the Joker and his unreliable narration. We are ultimately left having no real idea what parts of this story are truthful; in fact, we have no real assurance that the whole thing isn’t simply a tall tale spun entirely out of the Clown Prince’s own deranged imagination—an elaborate joke on the reader, if you will.

With that established, the key question now becomes how it affects the quality of the reading experience. I will say that if you’re coming to this hoping for a straightforward Riddler story, you may be disappointed in ambiguous nature of the story’s reality. If you are willing to roll with it, however, and look beyond the plot, I think any Riddler fan will find plenty of (surprisingly deep and astute) characterization that will stand and endure well past the narrative itself.

In addition to being very well written and lovely to look at, the detail-oriented reader will have a fantastic time picking up all of the little details and references in the panels. As one who has a thing for riddles and visual puzzles, that aspect of the book made it well worth the price of admission alone. If you have a similar proclivity, I recommend it even more highly. (And just how many card references ARE there in the Riddler panels? I’ve managed to count six so far, but I’m sure there are more than that.)

Gotham City Sirens #11 – Review

By: Paul Dini (writer), Andres Guinaldo (pencils), Raul Fernandez (inks), Ian Hannin (colors) & Steve Wands (letters)

The Story: Harley and Selina look for missing dogs and Ivy starts her new job in this slice-of-life (Gotham-style) story.

What’s good: This title is the popcorn of the Gotham comics.  Whereas other Bat-books are dealing with, “Who is the Black Mask? ” and “Will Damien kill Dick?” and “When will Bruce return?” this issue just consistently follows our three ladies as they get into minor troubles.  They are always fun stories and nicely drawn and they never taken themselves too seriously.  The fate of the planet will never be determined in these pages.  It’s kind of a palate cleanser.

One of the things that either works or not in this title, is Harley Quinn’s weirdness.  A lot of times, I don’t like her but the situation that occurs in this issue between her pet hyenas (yes…you read that right) and some stray dogs and the unintentional competition between the hyenas the local dog-fighting ring is kinda funny (in a very dark sort of way, but don’t worry…nothing is shown on page).

On a more serious note, Ivy starts her new job as botanical researcher at STAR Labs.  She’s trying to be somewhat legit, but you just know that it won’t turn out well and she has herself in a pretty pickle by the end of the issue.

Gotham City Sirens #10 – Review

By: Paul Dini (writer), Andres Guinaldo (pencils), Raul Fernandez (inks), Ian Hanin (colors) & Sal Cipriano (letters)

The Story: Doctor Aesop has resurfaced and is trying to frame the Sirens for murder.  Will the girls and Edward Nigma have any luck stopping him?

What’s Good: Well, for starters, Paul Dini wrote this issue.  Since Gotham City Sirens was launched last summer, Dini has missed a few issues on both this and Streets of Gotham.  New series need to establish their story pretty fast, especially when they are a secondary title like GCS.  So, it was nice to have Dini back at the keyboard telling his story.

One of the main story points I’ve enjoyed on GCS has been the tale of the Riddler.  He’s been “good” for awhile now and you just know that he is going to revert to form at some point.  It’s almost like waiting for a character to come back from the dead.  Eddie isn’t too pleased with how the Sirens treat him in this issue and you have to wonder if this is going to make him flip.

The art is a huge positive in this issue.  Guillem March has been the regular artist on this title, but I found I much prefer the less cartoony style of newcomer Guinaldo.  This seems to be his first work for DC and it looks like he went all out to impress the new bosses.