It's spring break, so I'm reading

There's been way too much reading this spring break (there probably should have been way more productive work going on, but that's life, dangit)...So with little time at the end of the break to sum everything up, I'm going to go with quick hit reviews here...

Dig the Robin series, and this volume: To Kill a Bird is a pretty good addition. Interesting take with Robin avoiding the question of Bruce trying to adopt him and then Bruce beginning to accept him as more of an adult, able to take care of himself.

Worth reading...

---

Generally, I dig the Ultimates line from Marvel. This one didn't do much for me, primarily because of the differing tones of the annuals. The Fantastic Four one was pretty good - return of the Mole Man, kidnapping of geniuses, slight surprise ending. The others - Daredevil/Spiderman/Punisher which I've seen reprinted somewhere else, maybe an Ultimate Spiderman and X-Men which isn't nearly as good as last year's one with Kitty and Peter starting to date (the coolest understory in the Ultimate Universe - not so much.

---

The end of the Bendis run on Daredevil saw some phenomenal storytelling and great artwork to match. Luckily, the new run of talent has maintained every bit the high standard.

Daredevil: Inside and Out continues from where the last volume left off - with Murdock in stir but with Daredevil patrolling the streets at night, a clear impossibility. From there, the screws get tightened as Murdock has to defend himself and his friends on the inside without revealing beyond any doubt that he truly is ol' Hornhead.

More good stuff from Marvel's finest ongoing series...

---

Meh...

The reintroduction of Supergirl and subsequent issues with her and Power Girl via Infinite Crisis have left me cold. both from Krypton? One from Atlantis? Both back on Krypton (of Kandor, at least) in this volume and without much of their powers? Meh...

The artwork's a mess, too, as the various artists all seem to be in the mold of Jim Lee - too many lines for my taste.

And it just feels like another diversion into a semi-imaginary tale.

Then they bring back references to the excellent Batman/Superman Absolute Power run but in a severly weakened down way. Blech...

---

Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes, on the other hand, is a very interesting take on the character, allowing her to show up in the future, amidt the turmoil of the league. She gets to be the lone stongest hero around (no big cousin to take that spot) while playing dumb and joking that she must be in some sort of dream/imaginary tale.

Self-awareness with a sense of humor always grabs me...

Plus, the surprise of how happy she is in this new imaginary (to her, at least) world echoes nicely with the LSH episode of the final season of JLU (review forthcoming, I promise).

Good stuff...quality series...worth reading from the beginning (about two collected volumes ago...

---

I dunno about the Teen Titans anymore. One of the strengths of the series has long been that they were a family, a place that younger heroes could go to get out of their mentor's shadow and be the big dog while having people around to support them.

That held true even through the pre-IC times when the team was shaken by the death of Superboy and near destruction of the rest of the team by seeing one of their possible futures.

And now, One Year Later TT: Ttans Around the World gives us a fractured team with a revolving door of second-rate newbies (Zatara, Kid Devil, the Terminator's daughter, some junior Captain Atom girl). They don't trust each other, and they aren't much of a team.

I know there's every new team's typical "get to know each other issues" where they "learn to fight as a team", but this one doesn't work for me. Too much distrust, too much cliquishness.

Another pass...

---

Supposedly Kyle Raynor's a big deal. There's some sort of gig about him being the "Torchbearer" for something or another.

I don't get it.

The GLCorp were destroyed and brought back because some kernel of something or other in Kyle's ring, but now he doesn't need that ring because he got some rock or power or something from his dying girlfriend.

In Ion: Torchbearer, Kyle is tested by some sort of plot that the Guardians knew about but didn't do anything about. Meh...

The plot's never explained thoroughly enough for my tastes, and there's some new Earth girl who doesn't talk but who wanders through much of the story, seeming to exist solely for the authors to introduce a new character.

But she's never introduced, never does anything. Just wanders around...either she's to be the new love interest - in which case she should do something - or she's a gag by one of the writers/artists who lost a bet and had to include a useless character in as many panels as possible.

---

Poor art seems to be the downfall of Firestorm: Reborn.

I'll admit that I didn't come in at the beginning of this newbie Firestorm - him seemingly having been born in Infinite Crisis, but I just don't get the whole story.

Firestorm's long been a combo of two people - prof and student. Here both people have been replaced, and I don't know either one.

But somehow they explode or something if they get too far from each other because the Firestorm Matrix is unstable unless it's the prof (who's dead by the end of the volume.) I know - it sound like I'm making this crap up, but I'm not.

No connection to the characters, no coherent story. New villian who doesn't inspire much fear.

Again, and for too many times this week, blech...

---

Good quality start to Justice. Superheroes getting the crud kicked out of them by the newly reformed Legion of Doom.

But it's dragging along a bit at this point.

The heroes have been whomped so badly that they have to lick their wounds and regroup in this middle of three volumes of the collection, and the story suffers a bit from lacking either the big buildup of the first volume or the expected big finale of the next volume.

The artwork from Art Ross is still gorgeous, and the middle chapter has to be read, but I'm not as excited about this one as I was about the first volume.

---

Hey, look, Marvel!

Road to Civil War collects a number of comics from different sources, some of which don't really go together, but all of which are supposed to lead into major plot points of Civil War - which I haven't been able to find in trade form just yet.

I like the idea of self-appointed reps from various constituencies coming together and planning the future of the world. It's a great plot device, and the choices are fully appropriate (except that Reed/Stark seem like double representation for the US humans.)

They stories are interesting and show a lot of retcon-thoughtfulness from the authors, and they make for interesting reads. I look forward to getting to Civil War whenever it wanders onto the local shelves.

---

All right, at least we close with a good one.

This is one of the few One Year Later plots that I've gotten to and actually enjoyed. Catwoman: Replacements sees Selina Kyle hanging up the Catwoman togs because she's got a bun in the oven. We come into the plot after the bun's been delivered and Selina's got a protege in the Catwoman suit - because the East End needs a protector.

The story's not too far from experienced-crimefighter-trains-replacement territory, but it's well done with an old bad guy looking to revenge on the rook and then realizing that he's after the wrong Kitty.

Neat new villian - Film Freak...
Interesting touches from the Bat (great first visit to see the baby)...
Weird bit with Zatana at the end as she mind wipes another couple of bad guys...in spite of all the crap that I thought that did a while back, sheesh...