Katana #1 Review

I am going to be honest here; I know pretty much nothing about this character. I understand that she will be in the JLA book coming out, and I thought she looked pretty badass so I decided to pick up this #1 issue of her new series. I was not too sure whether I would purchase any more issues past this one, but now after reading it, I know I am definitely in for at least one more.

One thing that hit me while reading this issue was how much history this woman has. I have not heard of her before as I mentioned, so was kind of expecting a weak back story, but ended up being very pleasantly surprised. She has a background which would liken her to a Japanese Punisher kind of character. If you guys read this blog regularly then you know that this already is right up my street.
What this book does with the backstory is very clever. It gives us bits and pieces and leaves out the rest. It is designed to make you want to pick up more issues to find out more, and for me it has pulled off very successfully.

It is not just the backstory that impressed me in this issue, but also the way it set everything up. I do not know how often some of the characters featured in this particular issue will feature in the future, but their appearances in this book sat with me well. I really hope we will be seeing more of her landlord type character, as well the girl Shun; who has old Japanese legends drawn all over her body. I have a feeling we will definitely be seeing more of the latter.

The overall bad guy in this issue, Coil, seems pretty interesting too. He has a sword that is just crazy as it acts like a snake for some reason. It wraps itself round his opponents and squeezes and cuts them. I don't think I have seen anything like it previously in comic books. This issue has teased what group Coil is part of, but I am sure we will be learning more about that in future issues. You see what it is doing here now? Giving us a bit and making us want to come back for more.

Overall, I really enjoyed this issue, a lot more than I thought I was going to. I originally bought this issue believing that it would be my only one of this series; oh how wrong I was. I hope the next issue does a good a job at answering some questions about certain characters for us, while also throwing new questions at us about them and the future. This could turn out to be a very interesting title. I do not think that it will ever become essential reading, but I think if you want to read a decent story with a very intriguing character, then you should check in right here.

Rating: 7.3 / 10

Supergirl #14 Review

This is probably the most under the radar book in the DC universe. I do not believe that it has a massive readership at all compared to the Superman books for example, however this book rules each and every month.
This month we have a H'el on Earth tie in, which for once in comics actually felt like a tie in issue should do. It filled in gaps for readers who have not read any of the other tie ins, and we got a really good explanation of who H'el really is. For someone who wasn't went into this issue not too keen on this crossover event, I have come out on the other waiting desperate to read more issues. It does everything that it needed to do.

The main thing in this issue was the confrontation between H'el and Kara. He was trying to convince her to help him save Krypton, seeing as it is her home planet as well as his. Kara was at first unsure whether to trust him, yet she got persuaded that he was on her side. I do not know much about this H'el character but I believe that he is going to be bad guy (surely?). What I really like about this confrontation was how naive Kara still is. She is desperate to see Kryptonian people once again, and her longing for this is making her believe what she feels she has to believe. She was on the verge of ordering H'el to kill Superboy, and she actually believes that at some point it needs to be done.
Kara is not evil at all, she is just very misinformed. She is a teenager lost on what is an alien planet to her, not too sure what is going on. She is still vulnerable 14 issues in to this series, and it is very easy for the reader to feel sorry for her.

I also really enjoyed seeing her new home under the see once again; Sanctuary. It is her Fortress of Solitude, and I really really like it. However, I am not too sure how she is overcome the problem of the large distance that it is from the Sun. Whenever she spends large amounts of time there, she loses a lot of her powers. I am sure a solution will become available, and to be completely honest it is not something that I am too worried about.
What was also very cool was the gift given to her by H'el; she can now understand and speak English. I hope this is something that is going to remain after this crossover event is done with. It is something that I did not expect to happen, and it is something that has needed to happen for some time now. It was a very nice way to do it.

This was yet another solid Supergirl issue. Mike Johnsons' run has been nothing but good and he deserves so much credit. Kara has always been a great character, and I think that this New 52 version of her may be my favourite yet. The art was once again awesome, and it seems to be getting better and better with each issue. I think I may have said that in my review of issue #13, and the art is even better this month than last months issue. This issue left on a cliffhanger, and I cant wait to see what happens in the next issue. This is a series that deserves to be read, and it does really deserve to be one of DC's best selling books.


Rating: 9 / 10

Green Lantern #14 Review

I am going to go on record saying this as I really believe it to be true: "Green Lantern is one of the most consistent books out there today". There I said it.

I cant comment on the other Lantern books, but in this series I think Rise of the Third Army has been awesome thus far. The pace is perfect. Every issue you can feel something building, getting closer and closer to breaking point. It feels great.
What is really great about this comic is once again Baz is leading the way, and successfully pulling it off too. His confrontation with the Justice League showed just how normal and likeable he really is. His conversation with his sister also went a long way in doing that too. He is still getting used to the ring, but it is cool to see how he is progressing along with that. As Flash points out; he is learning fast. This is shown by the way he eventually got away from the Justice League. Inventive and very smart indeed.
Speaking of the Flash, his line about Guy Gardner made me laugh out loud. I love the Justice League version of him, but that is a story for another book.
I also really enjoyed the conversation between the Guardians and the First Lantern. The fact that even he believes that what they are doing is wrong just goes to show how deluded the Guardians are. It also highlighted that we should not forget about the First Lantern just yet. I have a feeling he has more of a part to play in this than first thought.
 The Black Hand' brief appearance was also awesome, acting as a way to give a quick recap on current events for readers who may have missed an issue or two.

I have mentioned this before but I will mention it again; the pencils and colours in this book are exceptional. I would go as far as saying that the art in this book is my favourite out of all the current DC titles. I think that is really saying something. There was no two page spread in this particular issue, but when one is included it is always mind blowing.

We may have only had one panel showing the Third Army in this entire issue, but the danger they pose flows throughout the book very nicely. I am looking forward to see Baz continue on his personal mission in the next issue, as well as what lies ahead for Hal and Sinestro due to what was teased on the very last page. Of course we cant forget the Rise of the Third Army. Yeah, I am pretty much hyped for everything about the next issue. It can not come quickly enough.

Rating: 9 / 10


Note: It is funny writing reviews for comics. I read this comic and thought " yeah I will give this a 8, maybe an 8.5". However, when I collected my thoughts on this issue and put them down on the computer screen in front of me, it became clear to me just how much fun I had with this book. This is what saw the score rise. I have found this with a few books that I have reviewed. It is not a bad thing at all, in fact I think it is great. I am getting a sense of how much I am enjoying reading some of these books when I have to really think about what I have just read.
So thanks guys for checking this blog out. You are making me realise why I love comics so much.  :)

Batgirl #13 Review

Here is my first review of this weeks comic books! I actually only have a couple of books at the moment due to a late delivery with my other books. However, I am anticipating them coming tomorrow, so there will be 2-3 reviews put up for tomorrow afternoon. Enjoy!

Firstly, let me just say that this cover is incredible. It acts as a handy check list for all the "Death of the Family" books, and it just looks so so cool! The Joker really does look like a total badass. However, the main man himself is not included in this book, most probably due to it being a prologue for the forthcoming story arc.

The first thing we see is a bloody and beaten Batgirl crawling along the floor as Knightfall stands over her triumphantly. We then get a brief back story explaining why Knightfall punishes criminals for their actions, followed by a pretty intense fight between the two women. After this, Knightfall gets escorted away and all is well and good. As you can see, not much has happened yet to set up the big story arc, and while reading it I was starting to feel a little frustrated as I only really bought this issue due to the fact that it was a prologue. Don't get me wrong, Batgirl is a great title, and I am collecting it in trade format. However, I was expecting this issue to be more orientated towards The Joker, but I guess that is just personal preference.

The last few pages do go on to set up the forthcoming events with a couple of nice set pieces. Firstly, we see Barbara get a terrified phone call from her mum, as three men with joker masks storm through her front door. We then see Batgirls' first three villians of the New 52 era being released from their respective prisons with one mission in mind: Kill Batgirl...

As you can probably gather I was not really amazed by Batgirl #13. I was expecting it to be tied a bit more closely to the "Death in the Family" story arc, but oh well! If you have been reading Batgirl all the way through from the start, then this issue will obviously slip really nicely into the ongoing story. However, if you are collecting the trades like myself, or just picked it up due to the very heavy advertising campaign, then you may be left feeling a little disappointed.

6.5/10

Detective Comics #13 Review

I am going to be honest from the start here. I have read maybe two detective comics issues at the most in the New 52, and did not like them whatsoever. I found the story a bit overcomplicated, however I think I chose a bad time to attempt to jump on board with it. The book now has a new creative team consisting of Layman and Fabok starting with this issue so I decided to give it another go, hoping I would like it.

Luckily for me I really enjoyed this issue, and I'm hoping for more of the same from these guys. The story focuses around the Penguin who has hired a group of assassins called the "Ghost Dragons" to assassinate Bruce Wayne. This is in order to stop him from attending the opening of the new Martha Wayne children's wing at Neville community centre, so Penguin can have it named after his own family instead. During the night of the ceremony, Batman is away on the other side of the city tackling crimes that have been started by The Penguin's cronies. These have been set up to keep him out of the way of the planned assassination. Batman soon figures this out so leaves Nightwing to deal with the criminals so he can attend the ceremony. We then see the Penguin convincing the head of the community centre to name the ward after the Cobblepots, which he agrees to do out of fear. The Penguin then attempts to call off the hit on Bruce as he was late arriving for the opening anyway due to his Batman duties. However, the Ghost Dragons do not accept failure and seem to like to finish off their jobs...

I think this is a really solid first issue from the new creative team and sets up what looks to be an interesting story arc. Yes, the Ghost Dragons will end up to be no match for Batman, but I am keen to see the inevitable confrontation with The Penguin. Only complaint about this issue is that I'm not too sure about The Penguins' motivations yet ( doing this so people will respect him out of love and not fear) seems pretty odd.. However I see this arc as probably just being used as a jumping on point for people like me who failed to jump on at other points. The back up story, which was also written by Layman, was very interesting and fun. This focused solely on a couple of The Penguins henchmen doing their bit in setting up the operation. It did a great job of showing the individual character traits of both men in such a small space of time, which is obviously pretty hard to do.

Faboks' art was brilliant throughout the book, from the cover to the last page, and I am looking forward to seeing him draw more on this book. There is one panel in particular which shows The Penguin threatening the head of the centre to change the name of the ward, which emphasises the fear on the guys face to perfection.  This has started off as a promising new start for detective comics, from an exciting creative partnership. I encourage anyone to pick it up, even if you have not read any detective up to this point in time.

Rating:  8/10