What I Bought 10/17/07

I get the feeling I'm probably not going to be posting much on Tuesdays the next couple of months. I just find myself in such a foul mood by the time I get home. Irregardless, I'm in moderately high spirits this afternoon, which is good since I've got four books to review, though two of them came out last week. But it's nice to spread the books out a little, plus when I do fewer reviews, I think I do a better job of not just summarizing the plot. Which isn't to say there won't be spoilers; there almost always are, you know.

Bloodrayne: Red Blood Run #2 - Well, it's been three months. They say you can't rush art, but it still looks like they did for this issue. Faces are a bit more consistent from one panel to the next than they were in the last issue, but Rayne's pants still seem too low. Or maybe they always were, and there's just more rear end views making it noticeable. I don't think that's the case, though.

As to the story, Rayne seems to be caught up in something that stretches back at least 500 years, that involves the people she works for, and a particular Nazi she thought she killed back in WW2. By the end of the issue, Rayne's placed in one of those classic "You got your wish; are you sure this is what you wanted?" situations. We'll see if that resolves in #3, or if the new status quo holds up for awhile. They do promise that everything will change after the next issue.

There is one scene I'm not sure I like, where Rayne has fed on a villain, and she and the vampire she's working with begin discussing which nationality has the most flavorful blood. I've seen a similar discussion in Hellsing Volume 7, but those were dirty Nazi vamps, so of course they'd be so casual about it. Rayne is ostensibly the (anti)hero of the tale, so it seems odd. To be fair, the writer, Troy Wall, admits he had the same misgivings about putting that scene in there (as aprt of the extras at the back of the comic). I guess I should also mention the issue included a roughly seven-foot tall, cross-eyed, apparent immortal in a bondage mask calling himself "El Pulverizador", who promises to 'palfodize' their faces. He obviously went to Deadpool's School For Making Up Verbs For Violent Acts. Even though I'm not thrilled by the art, I am intrigued by the issue, so 3.5 out of 5.

Brave and the Bold #7 - Impulse buy. The cover makes more sense once you read the story, but I think just drawing Wonder Woman and Power Girl fighting might have more effectively told us about the story. It's a pretty cover either way.

Is Power Girl usually this rash? I do recall from the JSA Classified arc that she's not big on sharing her feelings, especially about things that trouble her, but wowee, she was really gung-ho in this issue. I mean, I definitely approve of the "punch mummies" strategy, but she seemed to turn it up to 11, whatever that means. I guess it makes sense, since Power Girl had issues with who she was, and where she was from. I suppose she wouldn't take kindly to anyone messing around with her mind.

What I enjoy about this issue (besides George Perez' nice artwork, which makes me miss him on The Avengers), is that even though it's very clear that Waid has some overarching plot going here, he still tells a complete story within the issue. Power Girl oddly says she's going to kill Superman, Wonder Woman tries to help her get to the bottom of it, they do. There are still questions as to the "whys" of the attempted murder, but that's doubtlessly part of the larger arc. 4.6 out of 5.

New Excalibur #24 - Sigh. Another cover of everyone posing. I think that accounts for roughly 85% of all New Excalibur covers, which is kind of depressing. Tell me something more about the story, please. Sell it, you know what I mean? I suppose it's moot, since this is the last issue of Claremont's big 7-issue arc, and the end of the title, period, if the last page is to be believed. And well, it certainly wraps up, I guess. Can you "guess" that something "certainly" does something?

Things are still a little disjointed. I'm not sure whether having bigger panels or smaller ones would have helped the flow of the fight. Maybe it would have helped if the story had advanced more before the final two issues. And I imagine this is the last we'll see of the Dark X-Men, unless Claremont decides there's more than one version of them, so he can bring them out for New Exiles. "New Exiles", sigh. Even though there are a few panels where the dialogue balloon goes to the wrong character, and some of the art is unclear, we do get sound effects during the fight (old school!), and Lionheart gets a happy ending, which is the primary thing I was hoping for. Hey, someone has to care. Why not me? I can't give it a high grade, because it was kind of rough, but I can't say I actively disliked it enough for a real low grade, so 2.9 out of 5. I doubt most others would grade it as high.

Suicide Squad: Raise the Flag #2 - People with knives riding dinosaurs. Always a good sign, I think. So General Eiling started the Suicide Squad? And then what, it flopped, he dropped it, and Waller ran with the idea? Or did he put Waller in charge so he'd have "plausible deniability"?

General impressions: I like that when Flag mentions how he and Rustam used to work together, and Rustam mentions that was before the U.S. killed his family, Flag just starts talking about needing to find water and shelter. There's no speech bubble indicating a pause (you know, one with the "...." in it), so Flag must have realized as he finished his first comment, what rustam would say in response, and had his topic-changing comment prepared. Or, he just doesn't give a crap.

I don't know why, but it seems like every time there was a close-up of Rustam's face, you could only see one eye (assuming the view was close enough to view the eyeballs). Though there was one panel that showed Rustam's torso and lower half of his face, but stopped just short of the eyes. I don't know if that means something, but I noticed it.

Also, is this issue saying Eiling placed a post-hypnotic control in Flag? 'Dies irae'? "Day of Judgment"? I don't get it. The issue is an interesting sort of look at Flag, and what he's willing to do, and his general outlook on life. Plus, it has dinosaur fighting! 3.6 out of 5.

Well, Blogger's not letting me add images, so I'm just going to publish as is, and I'll try and add some pictures later this evening. {Edit, 9:08 p.m.: Well, got some images added. Now to sign off and shut down before this storm knocks out the power. Stupid crappy weather.}