Welcome to day one of a brief tour of negativity.
I knew that at the back of the books was a preview of Amy Reeder's Amethyst book and I was excited to see what that book was going to look like. I have been calling for Reeder to do an Amethyst book since 2015.
Unfortunately, before I got to that preview, I was faced with this.
It turns out that the there is going to be an issue of Hell Arisen at the end of the month where the infected Supergirl will take on Lobo in 'the brawl for it all'. I like what James Tynion has done at Justice League Dark. I like Steve Epting's realistic art so I wonder how that will work here with these two garish characters.
Now I admit I am not enjoying Year of the Villain. I am not enjoying this infected Supergirl. I am not enjoying anything with the Batman Who Laughs. So I know this book isn't being written for me.
But I can't help but be a bit bummed that the only time DC seems to be promoting Supergirl is when she is somehow going down a dark path.
The last full ad was when Marc Andreyko took over. It showed Supergirl wielding Rogol Zaar's axe. Now we have the pro wrestler look of the Infected Kara blazing fire from her eyes.
Will I get this issue to help be follow Kara's story? Probably.
I can only hope that when this infected phase of the story ends that DC does Supergirl a solid and promotes her solo book.
And I can only hope that all this darkness goes away.
And I hope she beats Lobo into the ground. :)
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, if you are looking for a fantastic book, Justice League: Odyssey is worth a read. Jessica Cruz has really come into her own as a main character, and it is linked to DC's upcoming reboot...
ReplyDeleteThe solicitations for the issue of Hell Arisen make no mention of a brawl with Lobo. And, this drawing of Supergirl isn't from upcoming art in Hell Arisen #3 - it's lifted directly from the cover of #36. So - we'll see what this is soon enough!
ReplyDelete@Bostondreams, I agree JL Odyssey has gotten quite good, and to me it's the overall team of misfits that works. But is the Lord of Time really going to reset the wider DCU? Somehow I doubt it, because this book is far under the radar, a really peripheral book. And because the followup to Snyder's Justice League defeat is supposed to debut next summer.
A localized time reset of some kind, though, might be the only way to fix the mess that Joshua Williamson got Starfire, Cyborg and Azrael into. I hope those 3 get sent home to earth to recover and are not seen again in this title!
DC is not likely to let Dan Abnett be the one to do anything really big. Not unless they want the entire Snyder cult to quit in protest.
Big changes - I mean, teases of big changes that will happen in the next event title, but really we mean in the one after that, but really we mean may never happen, are currently in the hands of Snyder, Tynion and Williamson.
Meanwhile, Bendis will just do his own thing, which I think is probably more fun than waiting for the next bout of big ideas that at best go nowhere and at worst give us Doom and Dark Multiverses and Infections.
T.N.
I would just say that I found the preview for the upcoming issue of Supergirl to be interesting:
ReplyDelete"After the Lasso of Truth reveals something unexpected about Supergirl’s infection, Wonder Woman is quickly running out of ways to try to bring Kara back peacefully. Making matters worse, the government has sent robotic military backup to Smallville to deal with the possible atomic threat of Infected Supergirl—and neither Wonder Woman nor Supergirl is prepared for the innocent casualties this could mean for the town."
I still think Kara is going to be one of the characters that breaks this infection because of who she is. Shazam, Blue Beetle, perhaps even Donna Troy would likely not care at all about the loss of innocent lives....
Don't buy it, Anj!
ReplyDeleteInteresting to hear the positive comments on JLO - I jumped off the book after the first couple of issues as there's no character in there who's a solid favourite and then there's all that dull Ghost Sector stuff from the Snyder mini, and skinny Darkseid... I do like Abnett though and I've always loved the Lord of Time, I shall take a look.
Someone tell me Jessica has lost the daft panda eyepatch!
I LOVE the eyepatch!
ReplyDeleteStarfire, Azrael, and Cyborg have been turned into Darkseid's New Gods.
And any team featuring Dex-Starr the Red Lantern Kitty Cat is just the best team. Plus Blackstar! :)
Still with the heroes being gods? I jumped off a year ago or something and that sort of thing was going on back then.
ReplyDeleteAnd Blackstar and Jimmy Olsen's Cat Pal, Dex-Starr... you just saved me some money, thanks Bostondreams! :)
JL:O really one of the best books going that DC has...just saying :)
ReplyDeleteIn a digression from Supergirl content:
ReplyDeleteThe JLO "heroes becoming Gods" plot was shoved to the side a long time ago. The 3 in question - Starfire, Cyborg and Azrael become 100% brainwashed New Gods, and generally nothing has been heard from them as the title has moved away from them, though they are still part of the Evil Forces and will have to be rescued at some point.
All of their "worshippers" were turned into zombified brainwashed and upgraded warriors, so that whole weird religious cult thing has been transformed into something that makes more sense. It's just bad armies working under Darkseid and his top lieutenants (Cyborg, Starfire and Azrael) now, though we've seen little to none of the last two for a while.
Cyborg apparently is trying to fight it though and has appeared a bit, as an incompetent antagonist holding back as he fights, a kind of semi-conscious double-agent.
The title's main team coalesced around a reborn Jessica Cruz with an altered power set; Backfire (Starfire's queen sister, snappy and imperious); Dex-Starr the prickly Red Lantern cat; Orion (one of the remaining of the old New Gods); a technician named Hax, and a salvage worker named Gamma Knife who works with a half dozen small, anxious, lazy salvage drones who chime in with comic relief. (But really, Dex and Blackfire and their relationship are also comic relief.)
So it's presently a Guardians of the Galaxy style cast of misfits and with those kind of comic rhythms.
The main artist is Will Conrad, who is fantastic. The fill in artist, who drew last week's issue, is Cliff Richards, who disappoints me in general and especially compared to Conrad, but his work is passable. Conrad will be back.
T.N.
Thanks TN, that all sounds like perfect fare for fans of Abnett (and Lanning’s) Marvel work. I’m just an old fart fan, if it says Guardians of the Galaxy on the front, I want Nikki, Charlie, Starhawk and co, and if it has a Justice League tag I want at least some of the classic characters. JLO is probably very good of its type.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, apologies as necessary, Anj, for moving away from Supergirl talk - it probably shows how excited we are about Klown Kara vs Bozo.
Big fan of Kara. Big fan of Lobo. I really enjoyed Kara's earlier meetups with Lobo.
ReplyDeleteI collect all comics that Kara has an appearance in.
Even so, there is no chance I will buy this because Kara is not actually in it.
Klown Kara is no Kara
Meh I liked it better when Mark Waid simply demonstrated that a teenaged Supergirl could easily outwit Lobo and play him for a patsy...a knock down drag out fight might be fun, but not in her current GothClownGirl persona...
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah the only time DC Promotes Supergirl is when she is Cheap Heat Dark Supergirl, Sterling Gates had a tremendous run on Supergirl equal to the best books then being published, but bupkis she gets for promotion.
But thats DC in a nutshell, they can't get out of their own way even when they are toppling over.
JF