Comics Round Up

C'mon folks, I really need a better title for this...

Transformers Spotlight: Metroplex: My avid readers will remember that I was very excited for this one-shot to come out, but it seems as though the entirety of the Transformers franchise has decided that it is its job to let me down full-time, all the time. I hated this book for two reasons. Most importantly, the scripting left a lot to be desired. I don't know if IDW is just taking fanfic scripts off Lexicon or something, but the writing on these Spotlights has gone massively downhill since Simon Furman stopped writing them. Secondly, and this was truly soul-crushing, Metroplex appears on only 8 pages of the comic, two which are a 2-page pin up spread of Metroplex saying, "I. AM. METROPLEX." (Okay, I would put that up in my office.) The story is mostly about the Throttlebots, exciting bunch that they are, running from Sixshot. It was poorly written, boring, and I felt let down. The art was good though. Grade: C

Marvel Divas #1 of 4: I bought this book so I could write mean things about it, so I was a little surprised when it turned out to be one of my favorite things from this week's haul. It wasn't my fault for being confused. I was tricked by the offensive press release about how the book was targeted at "females" and the cheesecake cover and advertisements featuring word "FIERCE" which led me to believe that this book was going to treat women still more aggressively bad than they usually are in superhero comics.


A selection of weirdly disproportionate boobs from the cover.


Not to be forgotten: Hell Cat's boobs

However, in this instance, the sexist bark was a lot worse than the patriarchal bite. The story is about Hell Cat and her gal pals Black Cat and Captain Marvel (the black one) gommin' around, chatting about their relationship troubles. Rachelle is right, it doesn't serve well to compare this to Sex in the City. Let's just say its a woman-centric superhero-themed sitcom or something of the like and move on. There were great bits like Captain Marvel describing how Brother Voodoo flirts (below).



This comic was really good for me, because Scott Pilgrim has me craving more comedic romance books and Marvel Divas delivered in waves, despite the stupid name and cheesecake cover. This book loses a letter grade because of the sexist hullabaloo around, but it still rocks. Grade: B

Captain America Reborn #1 of 5: Captain America was actually shot by time bullets and has become unstuck in time!!! Am I the only one on the Internet that realizes that Ed Brubaker is ripping off Slaughterhouse V to explain Cap's coming resurrection? Brian Hytch's art is really solid, but I'm less than impressed with this book. Grade: B-

Uncanny X-Men #513: I have decided that I like this Utopia crossover because it is super-powered, soap operatic activist porn. If you are into super-powered, soap operatic activist porn and like to watch Cyclops doing back flips and being the man, you should be reading Uncanny and Dark Avengers right now. Grade: A-

Green Lantern Corps #38: This was the best comic I read this week and it reminded me of something that my 102 page undergraduate thesis about John Stewart had made me forget, namely that I really like Kyle Rayner. Kyle Rayner was my Green Lantern growing up in the 1990s and Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason did right by him last week.

Following a massive break out of Sinestro Corps prisoners from the Sciencells on Oa, the Guardians of the Universe order the Alpha Lanterns to execute all the unarmed prisoners. My main man Kyle and the man whose growing on me Guy hop quick to the scene to confront the blue bastards and their robo-enforcers. Guy, whose been jerked around by the Guardians for decades, resigns himself to fighting the fight another day, but anti-death penalty, liberal Kyle does not:



I love this panel by Gleason. Kyle and his stubble are like, "Hold up." Then he does this beautiful thing:



You can almost see his face shake as he realizes the implications of what's going down, but he still stands firm with the Guardians. That's good ol', Kyle, he's idealistic and little bit afraid but he certainly has the ability to overcome great fear and he always sticks to his guns. I hope he has a big role in Blackest Night, which looks like its going to be where its at this summer if this issue Green Lantern Corps is any indication. Grade: A+

I also picked up: Batman and Robin #2, Fantastic Four #568, and Cable #16. They were all good. I was sad that no Superman books came out. They've really become a high point of my week.