Batgirl #18 - Steph has to help Klarion the Witch Boy with a couple of retrieval missions. First, they have to track down Teekl, Klarion's familiar, who is looking for a hookup. He had found one, but Klarion - fearful of losing his friend - blocked him by turning him into a werecat, which makes finding a proper mate a little harder (though surely there are werecats in the DCU). They travel to Limbo Town, where Klarion's from, to find another familiar for Teekl to hit things off with. It works, at least as far as giving Teekl a chance for "The Coupling". No word yet on whether he'll ditch Klarion permanently for her or not.Is this a normal portrayal of Klarion? The only other story I've read with him was in Chase, and he seemed more devious, and at the end of the story, definitely more malevolent. I don't mind so much if this is out of step, because that other style wouldn't have lent itself to an amusing Valentine's Day tale.
I thought this issue was hilarious. I usually find Steph's inner monologue amusing, and Klarion's such a different person from her their conversations are rather odd. I loved the pages where Dustin Nguyen did his own coloring. The rest of the book looks fine, it's his usual high quality work, but the painted sequence (which I guess refers strictly to the part in Limbo Town, or do the opening and closing pages count also?) was outstanding for how much it made Limbo Town different from Gotham, and how much Steph stands out amongst the typical residents.
Heroes for Hire #3 - Paladin is busy checking up on Misty's acquaintances, until he tries it with Iron Fist, who objects by beating Paladin up (though Paladin does better than I'd expect). Meanwhile, Moon Knight investigates a club where a crook is bringing in girls abducted from the Savage Land for nefarious purposes. Oh, and said crook is also bringing in dinosaurs for animal fighting entertainment purposes, so Moon Knight must fight a Velociraptor. Well, that's what he says it is, even though it's much too large to be one, ala Jurassic Park. My explanation is it's actually a Deinonychus (I'm really impressed with myself for being able to spell that without looking it up), which were 11-foot long dinosaurs in the same family as the Velociraptors. I wouldn't expect Moon Knight to know the difference. Too busy watching The Flintstones. Or else Velociraptors are that large in the Savage Land. Why not, it's a tropical jungle maintained by alien technology in the middle of Antarctica! Or these are some descendant of Velociraptors that have grown to a larger size because there was an ecological niche available.I'm bothered by how Danny acted. He's hurting over the phantom pregnancy. Fine. He and Misty agreed to stay away from each other. Fine. But if she's in trouble, how could he not be willing to at least make sure she's OK? Paladin has to offer to hire him to get Iron Fist interested. I'm just going to blame this on the stupid stupidness that was Shadowland.
Power Man and Iron Fist #1 - That is. . . an incredibly dull cover. What, did Marvel decide DC's January theme covers were a good idea? They were not.Our heroes help to keep a West Indian Carnival in Brooklyn from being disturbed by violence perpetrated by the Don of the Dead. That guy was in van Lente's recent Taskmaster mini-series, wasn't he? Later, Danny finds out his and Luke's old office manager is in prison, accused of murder. Danny wants to believe she's innocent, but isn't positive, while Victor (Power Man) is certain she's been railroaded and is going to investigate with Danny or without. This leads to him investigating the victim's apartment, being shot with some sort of shadow bullets by someone called "Noir", and falling off a building in front of someone who appreciates opera, I guess. Meanwhile, Danny has actually unearthed something that makes him believe Jennie is innocent. Oh, and he's in a relationship with the daughter of the man who killed his father. They're sleeping together, at least.
Having not read the Shadowland mini-series that introduced the new Power Man, I appreciated how van Lente works to fill in the gaps. I think I have a pretty good idea of Kevin's personality and powers, and I had no idea who Jennie Royce was, but van Lente covered it in panel. On the art duties is Wellinton Alves, who I haven't seen much of since the end of his stint on Nova. He still does that thing with energy where the swirls make me think of Spirograph patterns, which is nice. I think someone (Alves or inker Nelson Pereira) goes a little heavy on the shadows, because the faces end up looking lopsided. As though the shadows make the head smaller in that spot.
R.E.B.E.L.S. #25 - Vril Dox is captured and ends up with a Starro on his face. Lobo has given chase, not to rescue Dox, but to find the lady who smelled like a Czarnian to him last issue. He does find her, but I can't imagine it'll end as neatly as the last page suggests. While Lobo chases her to Dox, Adam Strange rounded up the rest of the group to chase Lobo, figuring that'll lead them to Dox. Except that's precisely what Starro the Barbarian is counting on, and so that'll probably go poorly starting next issue. Starfire noticed that Captain Comet's been drinking, so we'll see if he tries to fight evil drunk. That rarely works. Vril's son, who insists on being called Brainiac 3, has been left in charge of getting Tribilus up and running again. Tribilus needs the help, what with a giant axe buried in one of the slots? vents? in the top of its head.This is mostly a set-up issue. Characters are being moved around to get ready for what I presume will be lots of fighting and conflict next month. Which fits with Starro's plan, which seems to be about drawing the good guys to where he wants them, while he strikes behind their lines. I don't having anything new to say about Claude St. Aubin's art. Starfire is still drawn as being very tall, which I like. Lobo still looks too clean to me. Maybe a few flies buzzing around would help. Space flies, naturally.
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