Weird Science DC Comics: 2015-10-18

Friday, October 23, 2015

Top 5 Fridays: DC Comics Characters that Creep me the ^%&! Out

Welcome back to a very creepy edition of Top 5 Fridays! Halloween is next week and I felt we should cover some of the more creepier things in the next two Top 5's. This week I'll be covering the Top 5 characters that creep me out. These will be judged on how they look, act, talk and stuff of that nature. As usual I remind everyone this is my list, so if you don't see a creepy monster or villain on this list, I apologize. Enough talk! Lets begin...

Clean Room #1 Review and SPOILERS

Don’t You Know It’s Hard to Keep the Fighting Clean?

Written By: Gail Simone

Art By: Jon Davis-Hunt, Todd Klein

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 21, 2015

*Non-Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

The esteemed team of lawyers on retainer for this website have informed me that I must make this statement: the following comic book review contains depictions of a story involving a brainwashing cult created by a pulp paperback author. It could be construed that this cult is an allusion to Scientology, but Weird Science DC Comics Blog Dot Blogspot Dot Com, hereinafter named “the website,” claims no propriety or authority over the creators or publisher of Clean Room number one (1), hereinafter named “the comic,” and disavows any culpability or being followed by creepy Scientologists thereof. Please don’t microwave our pets. Read the review—perhaps this cult is painted in a positive light!

Happy Beginnings?

Written by: Scott Lobdell and Will Pfeifer
Art by: Ian Churchill, Norm Rapmund and Tony Avina
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 21, 2015

There was quite a delay between issues of Teen Titans, a fact that hits you in the face when you see it has a Green Lantern variant cover...that's actually pretty funny. The next thing that readers probably will notice is that Scott Lobdell is co-writer of the issue. Having started reviewing this book during Will Pfeifer's current run, I have to cede to my site and podcast partner Eric (you know, ~~the Witch Priest~~ America's Sweetheart) who really liked Lobdell's run and gave me the book out of protest of Pfeifer's. Since taking it over, I can't say I blame him. Pfeifer's story hasn't gone anywhere and the whole Manchester Black/Elite versus the Titans has been a mess. So, did Lobdell jump back on to right the ship? You could say that...

Arkham Knight: The Snuff Film Edition

Written By: Peter J. Tomasi

Art By: Dexter Soy, Dave McCaig, Deron Bennett

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: October 21, 2015

*Non-Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Remember when you saw Batman as a kid—in the comic books, or in animated cartoon form, or (if you happen to be unlucky enough to have been born during the final two decades of the twentieth century and therefore their marketing would have seemed relevant to you) Joel Schumacher’s terrible adaptive films—you probably thought, “Gee, wouldn’t it be swell to be Batman’s sidekick, Robin? To swing around Gotham’s rooftops and crack wise with the ol’ so n’ so?” Well this comic will disabuse you of that particular want, because it turns out being Batman’s Robin can be just about the shittiest job, even worse than working in a cardboard box factory. Just how bad does it get for Jason Todd in the third installment of his Arkham Knight-derived origin story? Put the kids to bed. It gets real gross.

Peace Be With You

Written By: Meredith Finch
Art By: David Finch, Jonathan Glapion, Johnny Desjardins, Trevor Scott, Brad Anderson, Rob Leigh

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 21, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Who's ready to get their Greek on? Well, you'd better hurry up and get ready because we're doing this shit now. Wonder Woman has been fighting an opponent named Aegeus, who on top of being a whiny bastard, who's distantly related to Poseidon, he's also got the God of War job in his sights and after being armed with a god killing bow and arrow and a Pegasus by an unknown benefactor, this entitled little fuck plans on icing Diana and taking the War God mantle for himself. If this wasn't enough to keep Wonder Woman busy, Strife went and let Donna Troy out of her cage and our little clay beauty was then framed for killing the Three Fates. Shit's just not working out for our heroes, especially with last issue's cliffhanger, where we saw that Strife wasn't behind Aegeus's attacks, but it doesn't matter because somehow he managed to break into Olympus to continue his attack. Let's jump into this issue and see how it all works out. Let's check it out.

The Magical Mystery Tour of the DCU

Written By: Gail Simone

Art By: Dale Eaglesham and Tom Derenick, Jason Wright, Travis Lanham

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: October 21, 2015

*Non-Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Do you believe in magic in a young girl’s heart? How the music can free her whenever it starts? Now do you believe that a young girl can also absorb the powers of any magical being in the DCU, thereby leaving our plane of existence vulnerable to attacks by prehistoric demons? Well then have I got the comic book for you! We’re through the first rather schizophrenic arc and into a new story about our favorite loveable gang of horrible people-things. Are there any secrets left in this series to divulge? Do we care to divulge them? Divulge on and find out!

Martian Manhunter #5 Review and SPOILERS

Get To Know Yourself

Written By: Rob Williams

Art By: Eddy Barrows, Diogenes Neves, Marc Deering, Gabe Eltaeb, Tom Napolitano
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 21, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

It's a travesty that this book isn't selling more than it is because this is one of the best written/best drawn books that DC is putting out right now.......... and you suckas wouldn't know it because you aren't buying it. I get it, Martian Manhunter is a tough sell when you only have so much money and you could buy Batman and Green Lantern instead, but come on, do America's Sweetheart a favor and pony up your three bucks to keep this book off the cancellation chopping block..........DO IT! Anyway, Martian Manhunter has killed himself to save the world from him becoming a weapon in the White Martian invasion of Earth, but apparently, J'onn had himself a back up plan to throw the White Martians off and scattered aspects of himself all over the world and now it's up to a couple of those personalities to track them down and put Humpty Dumpty Manhunter back together again........ hopefully before the Martian Man-Eater catches up to them........ or the Martian moon Phoebos gets to Earth........ because it's come alive and has a set of choppers on it........ It's cooler than I'm making it out to be so don't blame the ramblings of a man-child for not buying this book. Okay, let's get to it.

Old Man Bruce

this review is full of SPOILERS. Score at bottom

So unless you've been living under a rock, or just not a comic reader(to which why do you come to a comic reviewing site), Frank Miller is teaming up with Brian Azzarello to create the conclusion to the famous Dark Knight Returns trilogy. The Dark Knight Returns is often put on the most influential comic books of all time, and for good reason. It proved that comics aren't just picture books for kids.

In honor of that event, I have chosen to review the seven comics that lead up to this conclusion. Thats right, for the next 6 weeks I will be reviewing The Dark Knight Returns and the sequel The Dark Knight Strikes again. That is quite a lot of book, but we can get through it.

Just to be clear, this story takes place on an alternate earth where Bruce gave up being Batman after the death of Jason Todd. So what makes this different from the present day? Lets dive in and find out...

Three Words...I am Depowered

Written by: Peter J. Tomasi
Art by: Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza, Sean Parsons, Johnny DeJardins,Will Quintana
and Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 21, 2015

Now that the Truth story is behind us, I have actually enjoyed the other Superman books a bit more than I have the last couple of months. Going into this issue, I was hoping that trend would continues. Superman/Wonder Woman has been one of the better stories (second on my list going into this issue), so even though I rolled my eyes at how the Truth ended, I was hoping that Tomasi and crew would pick up the pieces and give us something better. Did this issue give me nightmares or dreams? Let's find out...

The Titans That Never Were

Written By: Dan Abnett

Art By: Paulo Siqueira, Geraldo Borges, Hi-Fi, Carlos M. Mangual
Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 21, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

For everyone who was upset that the Titans of the New 52 weren't the Titans that they grew up with, or just upset that Tim Drake's incarnation of the team was the first to make an appearance in that Universe, it seems that Convergence of all things is your savior. For as much as I wasn't a fan of the Convergence event, I have to admit that ideas like this one and Superman: Lois and Clark are something that I can really get behind and making characters that we're very familiar with in this Universe confront a past that they don't recall is a really cool concept. So let's check out our Titans and see how they'll cope when dealing with a history that was never their own. Let's check it out.

Johnny Spyral

Written by: Tim Seeley
Art by: Paul Pelletier, Scot Eaton, Tony Kordos, Marc Deering, Wayne Faucher,
Rain Beredo, Joshua Cozine and Troy Peteri
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 21, 2015

Weekly books are a funny thing. There is an ebb and flow to the storytelling that has as much to do with rotating creative teams as it does from the weekly schedule. Like the teams (or because of them), characters and plots come and go throughout the books run, but this one already feels different. While Batman Eternal dealt with a bunch of(too many?) characters, after three issues, Batman and Robin Eternal has been more focused and I am already grateful for that. It doesn't hurt that I'm a huge Dick Grayson fan, but I also enjoy the other characters and hope they remain in the forefront throughout the entire series. Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Harper Row, Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain can be in every single issue and I'd be a happy man. Who knows what the future will bring, but all the mentioned characters are in this issue...so am I a happy man this week? Let's find out...

Goddamn!

Written By: Geoff Johns
Art By: Francis Manapul, Brian Buccellato, Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 21, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Geoff Johns has really been rocking this Darkseid War story and as we saw in the previous issue, it looks like the war may be over. That's right, it looks like Darkseid died after The Anti-Monitor fused Flash with the Black Racer and sent that agent of death on a path right through the Lord of Apokolips. It was some serious shit and if you haven't read it yet, go and get on that. So yeah, we had that and a little backstory from Mobius Chair Batman about how The Anti-Monitor actually has the Anti-Life Equation running through his veins........ hence the fusing of Flash and Black Racer and that poor monitor of the anti got that way by exploring the Anti-Matter Universe....... pretty much as far back as you can fathom. Alright, that should be all you have to know going into this, so let's check out this issue and see what Johns has up his sleeve to keep us looking like slack jawed yokels. Let's check it out.

Jim and Eric get together to talk DC Comics News and Reviews and find out so much more along the way. Things like Eric is a witch priest and Jim wasn't very fond of the Superman Truth arc. Okay, the last part is no surprise, but Eric is a witch priest?!? What does that even mean? They both seem excited about the announcement of the new Green Lantern book in January and while this week's books didn't set the world on fire, they try to squeeze some enjoyment out of them. Enjoy!

Doctor Fate #5 Preview

Written By: Paul Levitz
Art By: Sonny Liew
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 21, 2015

Floods! Looting! Talking cats! All this, and the truth about Khalid’s link to the ancient power of Thoth.

This could literally be the solict for any of the Doctor Fate issues we've gotten so far.......... and I imagine that this issue will be just as bad as the rest of them. Man, I want a good Doctor Fate book. Why's "The Man" always keeping me down?

Burying The Ex

Written By: Ming Doyle, James Tynion IV
Art By: Scott Kowalchuk, Riley Rossmo, Ivan Plascencia, Tom Napolitano
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 14, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Let's get back to Constantine, where we saw our brash Brit having a hell of a time dealing with the beastie that was killing off all his ghosts. This has been an odd arc because the majority of what we've seen is Constantine walking around cityscapes monologuing and remembering the past. Even when he finally goes to London to try and get some help from an old colleague, he just ends up pissing her off and her telling him to go fuck himself. In the previous issue, it looked like Constantine was ready to give up and even sacrificed a shit ton of his ghosts to the monster before offering himself up as the final prize. As the issue closed though, we saw that the monster is actually an old girlfriend of John's named Veronica and I can kind of see where the whole "I Need To Hurt John Constantine" thing comes from because man, did John ever do her wrong. Let's jump into this issue and see if our pseudo hero still wants to end it all or if he gets a supernatural restraining order out on Veronica. Let's check it out.

Written by: Scott Lobdell
Art by: Javier Fernandez
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 20, 2015

At last! Doomed goes head-to-head with the Alpha Centurion in the avatar-battle to end all avatar-battles! But can Reiser and Roman’s friendship survive this clash of titans? And if these roommates split, who will keep all the video games they went halfsies on?! The stakes don’t get any bigger than this!

Where is the fan outcry about this book's cancellation? Maybe if I yell really loud, we can get six more issues...or maybe not. I'd probably just end up with a sore throat so I'll just write this and glare in the direction of Burbank. Maybe I'm an Army of One, but I really enjoy Doomed and wish we were going to get the complete story. At least we get a little and that includes Superman showing up this issue. Reiser's gonna have a lot of 'splaining to do! Enjoy this preview.

Starfire #5 Review and SPOILERS

Just Another Day

Written By: Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti
Art By: Emanuela Lupacchino, Ray McCarthy, Hi-Fi, Tom Napolitano
Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: October 14, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Here we are again, going south and getting some Key West Kori. I've been having a hard time enjoying this series because of how Starfire is portrayed in this book and before you roll your eyes, I know, everyone wants certain characters written the way they think they should be written and while it's a pretentious thing to say...... Yeah, I do want characters written a certain way and the way I want them is written well....... Yeah, that was pretentious as hell. It's just very weird for me because I come out of this series each issue loving every damn character in the book except the title character herself. It's a classic fish out of water story that everyone should be able to get behind, but this damn fish we're presented with has been out of water for a long ass time and it seems like she refuses to learn. In case you didn't know, Fish=Starfire. Hopefully, this series proves that it's more than a one trick pony with it's hilarity in misunderstandings and Starfire making everyone awkward with her sexiness....... I guess, that's two tricks...... But with less focus on those two aspects and real character development, I think this book could become something special...... maybe with just a little bit of sexiness.

Fear Itself

Written by: Peter J. Tomasi

Art by: Viktor Bogdanovic, Richard Friend, John Rauch and Deron Bennett

Cover Price: $0.99

Release Date: October 16, 2015

You might have heard down at the five and dime that I kind of like this book. It's true and while you drink your malt, I'll tell you why. Guest stars...each more fantastic than the last. It's almost as great as the Love Boat...almost. In the last arc, Tomasi gave us Calendar Man and this version was no joke. In fact, he probably would have killed Batman if the next great guest, Scarecrow, wouldn't have talked him out of it. Now we get to sit back and see what Scarecrow's big plan is all about. Of course, I don't know what it is, but my guess is it will be intense, scary and involve the word "fear" at some point. This issue puts us in the middle of the "Scare Tactics" arc and after the hint of Bane joining in, I have been waiting all week to get to it. Was it worth the wait? Let's find out...

WHAT A WOOKIE!

Writer: Gerry Duggan
Art: Phil Noto and VC's JoeCaramagna
Cover price: $3.99
Release Date: October 14, 2015

*Spoilers ahead, score and summary at the bottom*

Chewbacca #1 is the beginning of Marvel's newest Star Wars miniseries and it begins with a nice start. Most people know Chewbacca as Han Solo's awesome smuggling partner, but with a character that has no real dialogue, people were wondering if Chewy can actually carry a title or if we were interested in a Chewy solo. In reality, Chewbacca was the only good thing in this book.

Written By: Dan Abnett
Art By: Paulo Siqueira
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 21, 2015

CONVERGENCE is over, but the ripples are still being felt, especially by a young precog named Lilith. What are these visions she’s having of a Teen Titans team the world never knew? And why does she feel compelled to seek out Dick Grayson, Roy Harper, Donna Troy and an Atlantean named Garth and warn them that something dark and sinister is coming after them? Who are Mal, Gnarrk, Hank Hall and Dawn Granger, and what is their connection to the others—and to the fate of every soul on Earth? This is the Secret History of the TEEN TITANS!

All I want this to be is the continuation of Convergence: The New Teen Titans because when we left that two-parter.......... The Titans were transported to another world and as Jericho pointed out...... literally pointed out because of that annoying no talking thing, there was only one star in the sky and that's how the book non-ended. I loved that Titans team and I really want to know what happened with them, but looking at this solicit, it doesn't look like I'll see anything that I wanted........... I do love the Titans though and the idea of us getting our Titans that never were in this Universe sounds great.

Written By: Meredith Finch
Art By: David Finch, Jonathan Glapion
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 21, 2015

With the Fates dead and Donna Troy still on the run, Wonder Woman must confront the sins of her past and a new, growing threat that’s closing in on the Queen of the Amazons!

I don't know what this has to do with Aegeus or his quest to become the God of War and I don't care, just as long as we see that whiny bastard get what's coming to him............ and I guess seeing what this growing threat is could be cool too.

The Omega Men #5 Review

Losing My Religion

Written by: Tom King

Art by: Barnaby Bagenda, Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Pat Brosseau

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: October 7, 2015

Unless you are late to the party, you already know that The Omega Men was cancelled and then snatched from the jaws of death due to what DC called "Fan Outcry". Call me a cynic, but I don't believe that for one second. However, I think that the reason this book has survived is even better...it's too important to end. But Jim, what's so important about it? Well, imaginary person, let me tell you...Kyle Rayner. I think the Green Lantern who may still be a White Lantern has to figure into this whole Lost Army/Edge of Oblivion/Renegade story and you all will see I'm right when Spring rolls around. The best part is that even if I'm wrong, we still get more Omega Men and that's a win as well because I do love this book and may even have been part of the outcry with a couple of well placed tweets (I wrote "I'm going to miss Omega men" and accidentally sent it twice). So, does this first issue after being saved start down the road of my bold prediction and make everyone happy this book will continue? Let's find out...

What Is It Good For?

Written by: Jeff Parker

Art by: Paul Pelletier, Rob Hunter, Jeromy Cox and Steve Wands

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 14, 2015

I know that when a book's cancellation is announced, people suddenly avoid it like a hair metal band in the early 90's which always confuses me. Why, if you've been following a book during it's entire run, would you not want to see how it ends? Luckily for somebody out there, I'm not like that. Nope, I stick it out to the bitter end. I want to see if Adam Strange's band(s) of misfits can fix the anomalies in the Zeta Beam and bring peace and stability to the world. If I was the sort of guy who jumped ship, I would never know how good it was...and I am talking about Cinderella's 1994 album, "Still Climbing". What, you came here to read a review of JLU #14? Okay, let's get on with it then.

Navigation

Friday, October 23, 2015

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Don’t You Know It’s Hard to Keep the Fighting Clean?

Happy Beginnings?

Peace Be With You

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Get To Know Yourself

Old Man Bruce

this review is full of SPOILERS. Score at bottom

Three Words...I am Depowered

The Titans That Never Were

Johnny Spyral

Goddamn!

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Burying The Ex

Monday, October 19, 2015

Just Another Day

Fear Itself

WHAT A WOOKIE!

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Losing My Religion

What Is It Good For?