Superman: Lois and Clark #4 Review

Taking Back the Fortress

Written by: Dan Jurgens
Art by: Lee Weeks, Marco Santucci, Sergio Cariello and Scott Hannah, Jeromy Cox and A Larger World Studios
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 27, 2015

I can't say that I know what DC Comics is up to nowadays, but it really does seem as if they are trying to alienate every fan they have.  Oh, you're a Batman fan?  Here's Jim Gordon in a mecha suit. You love the Green Lanterns?  Well, the Corp has vanished and Hal Jordan is on the run and doesn't even have a ring.  So, I hear you're a Green Arrow fan...Werewolf!  Really, a werewolf?!?!  You may disagree, but I think that the Superman books have seen the biggest change and it's been a slap in the face of all his fans.  I'm not talking about him losing his powers (kind of) or his identity.  I'm talking about the writers seemingly losing their grip on what makes him "Super" in the first place.  When all is said and done, Superman is a great guy.  He does what is right and almost never thinks of himself. Seriously, one of the reasons people give for not liking him is that he is so good that he is boring. That has to extend to the writers and when details of the Truth started coming out, I was worried, but figured that by taking away his powers and the safety of his secret identity, they were going to give us a story showing that no matter what happens, Superman is always super.  Sure, there have been hints of that, but he just became a selfish jerk for the most part and while I don't talk for any other Superman fans out there, I believe that it has turned most of us off.  So, what is a Superman fan to do?  Read this book...Superman: Lois and Clark.  Dan Jurgens is giving us a Pre-Flashpoint Superman that reminds us why we fell in love with the character in the first place and also a great Lois Lane and one of the cutest little boys in the DCU in their son, Jon.  Eric summed it up on our podcast last month when he said that he could read a book with these characters just going through their daily routines, but when you throw in a reimagining of Cyborg Superman, Lois versus Intergang and the hint that Jon getting his powers, it really is tough to beat.  I will now step down from my soapbox and get on with my review for this month's issue.  Did it continue kicking ass?  Let's find out...

Aquaman #48 Review and *SPOILERS*

Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't My Baby?

Written By: Cullen Bunn

Art By: Vincente Cifuentes, John Dell, Juan Castro, Guy Major, Tom Napolitano
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 27, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

This is it all you Aqua-fans, the end of Thule and this strange, strange run of our King of Atlantis.  Everybody always talks about how weird and out of sorts Batman and Superman became after Convergence, what with Batman being Jim Gordon in a robot suit and Superman becoming powerless and being outed as Clark Kent, but what people don't seem to realize...... or at least talk about is that Aquaman has suffered even more.  The dude didn't only just get a costume change, but a whole new power-set, while being hunted by his own people........ on top of having an alien world force itself on our world like some kind of inter-dimensional rapist.  Shit is all over the place, but hopefully now that Arthur has gotten the help of the Justice League and Mera has freed herself from her shape shifting captor, things will be able to get back to some kind of semblance of normalcy and we all can get back on the Aquaman trolley again.......  This was just a weird run, but it will be okay.......... I gotta keep telling myself that it will be okay.......... it's over now........ Alright, let's jump into this issue and see how the Thule invasion ends and hope to whatever god you want to believe in that Mera doesn't find out that Arthur banged her doppelganger and holds a grudge against him for it.  Let's check it out.

Justice League 3001 #8 Review **SPOILERS**

Authors: Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis
Pencils & Inking: Scott Kolins
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letters: Rob Leigh
Price: 2.99
Release Date: January 27, 2016

What can I say about the esteemed Messrs. Giffen and DeMatteis that hasn't been said before? Authors of one of the most iconic and successful runs the Justice League has ever had and famed creators of the Blue Beetle/Booster Gold bromance; these two creators have earned a spot on every DC fans heart. That said, as we all know comics have to be judged by their quality and not the by reputation of their respective authors. So with that in mind, let's jump into my review of Justice League 3001 (a wacky futuristic version of the DC Universe created exclusively by Giffen, DeMatteis and their ever-changing roster of artists of course).

Grayson #16 Review

Thirty Seeeeeeven

Written by: Tom King
Art by: Mikel Janin, Jeromy Cox and Carlos M. Mangual
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 27, 2016

I know that a ton of people have been down on DC Comics since they debuted the DC You in June (I know, some of you haters out there have been on the negative train even longer) and I can't blame them because I'm right there with them.  However, there have still been a couple of things I liked and one of them is DC’S focus on Dick.  With Batman and Robin Eternal, Robin War and even Starfire, it seems like you can't go anywhere in the DCU these days without running into Dick and I love it. However, the one book that I worry the most about is this one, Grayson.  Not only do all these other stories present timeline and continuity issues, but also took Tom King away from this book.  Now, word has come down the pike that both King and Tim Seeley will be off this book and replaced by Jason Lanzing and Colin Kelly and while I'll reserve judgement, I am already close to being devastated.  Well, at least we have a couple of issues to go with the original team and with King back on script this month, it is so good.  Too good in fact, because it just makes me more upset he's leaving.  Darn you Tom King...darn you for being so good!

We Are Robin #8 Review and *SPOILERS*

The Next Generation

Written By: Lee Bermejo
Art By: Jorge Corona, Rob Haynes, Trish Mulvihill, Jared Fletcher
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 27, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

After all the hubbub that was the Robin War, we left our street Robins at a turning point in their lives, where the Midtown crew kind of disbanded and went their separate ways.......  But like Jason Todd showed us after years of being dead, you can't keep a good Robin down....... Oh, and to all of you who rolled your eyes at that, the hell with you.  So yeah, the Robin War didn't really pan out to be that big epic event that we all hoped it would be, but all of that is in the past now and we can get back to the things that made this book so great to read and that's these damaged characters, written so real and emotional by Lee Bermejo.  I have no idea why this book isn't selling as well as I would like it to, but hopefully now that it can get back to the main story, people will gravitate all over it and I can stop worrying about this book going bye-bye when that mysterious "Rebirth" takes place.  Let's jump into this issue and check it out.

Top 5 Fridays: Top 5 Strangest Elseworlds Stories

Welcome back to another edition of Top 5 Fridays! If you know me, then you might know my love for Elseworlds stories. I love the continuity, but its always awesome to see some strange take on the worlds we love. In my travels across these worlds, I have found an assortment of strange and interesting stories, so that's what we'll be talking about today. Obviously the amount of Elseworlds is staggering so it's impossible to read them all, so I apologize if you don't see your own favorites. Enough talk! Lets get right into the trip into the strange...

DC's Legends of Tomorrow Episode # 2 Review and **SPOILERS**

Director: Glenn Winter
Writers: Phil Klemmer, Marc Guggenheim, Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg

DCTV has been a resounding success for quite a number of years now. Since Batman: The Animated series first debuted in 1992 (and even before that) DC has been massacring it's competition on the small screen. More people got to know B and C list DC characters like the Flash and Zatanna from television than anywhere else; and before Marvel began their onslaught of movies you could have bet money that those characters were better known than Iron Man or Ant-Man. That said,  for the past couple of years, Marvel has been building a presence in television; and with hit shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, DCTV's dominance is now called into question. In response, DC has released what essentially amounts to a TV version of the Justice League: Legends of Tomorrow. Last week, Legend's of Tomorrow premiered with a half episode that this reviewer found kind of underwhelming and this week I got to see the second part. How did it fare? Let's find out...

Batman and Robin Eternal #17 Review

Written by: Ed Brisson
Art by: Scot Eaton, Wayne Faucher, Allan Passalaqua, Corey Breen
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 27, 2016

We have a little over two months left of this book and while it hasn't been my favorite so far, it has been better than the previous Bat weekly, Batman Eternal.  I'm not saying it's perfect...hell, it's not even close to being great, but after the last handful of issues, I am having fun reading it and that's something I rarely said during that other weekly.  The last couple of issues have focused on Cassandra Cain, Azrael and Jason Todd all while jumping back in time to show Batman's increasingly dark interaction with Mother.  It's  all lead to this issue and it really seems like we are about to get the first big reveal of the series in the back alleyways of Cairo.  So, do we and is it possible that Batman did the unthinkable?  Let's find out...

The Twilight Children #4 Review and *SPOILERS*

All Wrapped Up in a Tidy Little Clusterfuck

Written By: Gilbert Hernandez

Art By: Darwyn Cooke, Dave Stewart

Cover Price: $4.99

Release Date: January 27, 2016

*Non-Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Here were are, at the twilight of Twilight Children. See what I did there? This is the last issue of the miniseries, so it’s like its sun is setting. Which I guess would make this the “dusk” issue. Well it’s dusk on the Unnamed Latin Fishing Village that has been beset by secret government agents and glowing orbs that make people vanish and steal their sight, and our last chance to find out what’s really going on. Because if you’ve been reading this series as I have, then it’s likely that you have a few pertinent questions. For instance: what? Also: how? And furthermore: huh??? The last issue served only to deepen this mystery, and I aim to get some answers, by gum! And there’s only one way you can find out if I did get those answers: read on!

Omega Men # 8 Review *SPOILERS*

Writer: Tom King

Penciler: Barnaby Bagenda

Colorist: Romulo Fajardo Jr.

Letterer: Pat Brousseau

Price: $ 2.99

Release Date: 27 of January, 2016

There’re three things everyone should know about comic books: Tom King is a fantastic writer, Kyle Rayner is the best Green Lantern and Batman once had a sidekick called Batman Jones. Now the last fact has nothing to do with Omega Men, but the first two should clue you in to my expectations for this book. I like Omega Men, I like it a lot and the first few issues have all met or exceeded my expectations; so I’m hoping for greatness. That being said, as I learned during my time in college, there’s always room for more failure in the world. So let’s forget about all the fluff and butter of the preamble and get to the review…

Suicide Squad Most Wanted: Deadshot and Katana #1 Review *Jim's Take*

I have been looking forward to this book since Katana was announced as it's own six issue mini series back in July and then when they added Deadshot to the mix, the deal got even sweeter.  Sure, some will write it off as a quick cash grab for the upcoming Suicide Squad movie, but if you like either character (or both), who cares...just open it up and enjoy the ride.  Of course, that's an easy thing to say before reading the issue, but that's why I'm here, to do the dirty work and tell you if I think it's any good.  Then it's up to you to decide if my opinion means more to you than a handshake and a cup of water.  I sure do hope it is...

Black Canary #7 Review and *SPOILERS*

For Those About to Infodump, We Salute You

Written By: Brenden Fletcher

Art By: Annie Wu, Lee Loughridge

Letters By: Steve Wands

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: January 27, 2016

*Non-Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

We return to the inaudible sonic blast known as Black Canary, a comic book containing some of the best visual representations of sound anywhere. It’s been a fun ride, but at seven issues in we don’t know a whole lot more than we did at the outset. Perhaps this issue will turn that trend around? Perhaps we will finally get some answers as to what Ditto is about, and why Kurt Lance has been farting around, and what the hell was the deal with that dimension-warping song that Dinah and Bo Maeve sang in tandem? Perhaps I am asking a bunch of questions that will be answered in my review of the issue? Perhaps you should read on!

Justice League of America #7 Review and *SPOILERS*

Time Travel...........Why'd It Have To Be Time Travel?

Written By: Bryan Hitch
Art By: Bryan Hitch, Daniel Henriques, Andrew Currie, Alex Sinclair, Chris Eliopoulos
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 27, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Goddamn, is this book all over the place.  Not only do we have to deal with the constant delays that make remembering what happened the issue before almost impossible, but we've got individual stories of each of the Justice League members that range throughout time and space......... Plus, there's a god involved and whenever anyone involves a god, shit always gets complicated.  So yeah, I guess I'll just run off what everyone in this book is doing in their attempt to stop Rao....... or for some of them, they're just like us because they're just trying to figure out what the hell is going on.  Okay, we've got Flash in 1961 with that mysterious Infinity Corporation and their wanna-be Infinity Stones, Superman got his ass kicked by Rao, Batman and Cyborg are attempting to find a way to stop the vampire god, Green Lantern is two hundred and fifty thousand years in the past on Krypton, hanging out with a young Rao and Wonder Woman and Aquaman might have been blown up when Rao's prophets made their way to the remnants of Olympus and went all kamikazi on our heroes.  Yeah, so overall shit is fucking weird and I don't see it getting much clearer.  Let's jump into this issue and see how confused we can get here.  Let's check it out.

Superman #48 Review and *SPOILERS*

No Pain, No Gain

Written By: Gene Luen Yang

Art By: Howard Porter, Ardian Syaf, Don Ho, Jerome K. Moore, Hi-Fi, Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 27, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Out of the frying pan and into the fire for our pal Supes here.  After giving up the whole hero thing so he could get the admiration of the people through underground god wrestling, Superman is finally feeling like he needs to get back into action again and maybe now more than ever, we need him to.  I haven't been the greatest supporter of this Superman series when placed next to the other Superman titles dealing with the Truth, but now things just might change because where this series felt off before was in the fact that it took place before the rest of our titles and then somewhere after them in an unspecified time, but finally we've got a decent timeline going on where this issue takes place right after Superman's time in the last issue of Superman/Wonder Woman.  In that issue we saw Superman dying after falling to Earth in a Kryptonite powered suit, from his battle with Vandal Savage and Wonder Woman asking the gods of Olympus to heal him.  Yeah, he went through some weird mental trials, but by the end he was all healed up and Hermes seemed really adamant to tell all of us that Superman was mortal now...........whatever that means.  Let's jump into this issue and check out Superman's next path in his journey to take out Vandal Savage and his little Savages.  Let's check it out.

Arrow: The Dark Archer Chapter #2 Review and *SPOILERS*

The King is Dead. Long Live the King!

Written By: John Barrowman and Carol E. Barrowman

Art By: Daniel Sampere, Juan Albarran, Kyle Ritter

Letters By: The Unknown Letterer

Digital Price: $0.99

Release Date: January 27, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Okay, Arrow fans, are you ready for the next installment of Malcolm Merlyn’s secret origin? No, not that secret origin we learned about on the show, where he left Starling City to train with the League of Assassins after his wife’s murder. This is a whole new secret origin that predates his other secret origin! It’s so secret, it involves Malcolm’s real name. Oh, you didn’t think the guy’s real name was Malcolm fucking Merlyn, did you? Might as well have called himself Johnny Mysterioso for crap’s sake. Last chapter we set the stage, this chapter we start getting into the nitty gritty. So let’s get into it! Read on!

Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Five #6 Review

Bytes and Pieces

Written by: Brian Buccellato
Art by: Bruno Redondo, Juan Albarran and Rex Lokus
Cover Price: $0.99
Release Date: January 26, 2016

The Year of the Villains continues this week and while I wasn't a huge fan of last week's issue, Year Five has been good so far.  It's kind of a tricky situation for Buccellato since this is the final Year (unless we get a post game continuation...yes please!)  and if you've played the game, you know what happens.  Of course, the whole “he/she can't die because they are in the game” thing has always been there, but the window of storytelling freedom is getting narrower and narrower with each issue.  That's why I love the whole villains thing...it's a combination of awesome characters to get excited about and cannon fodder to up the death and destruction count that fans of this series love.  It even goes a bit deeper than that as Buccellato is using the villains, and which side they are recruited on, to further show the gap between Superman and Batman and what they feel is right and just.  Like I said earlier, I wasn't a huge fan of last issue, but it did set up what should be a cool issue this week. Did it and is the final Year back on track?  Let's find out…

Suicide Squad's Most Wanted: Deadshot and Katana #1 Review *Jody's Take*

Bullets and Blade

Written by: Brian Buccellato, Mike W. Barr
Art by: Viktor Bogdanovic, Richard Friend, 
Diogenes Neves
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: January 27, 2016

A new year, a new mini-series begins! The birth child of the DC You and the Suicide Squad movie, we have a pair of stories starring the most famous member, Deadshot, and the one people probably know only from Arrow season 3, Katana.

I originally thought that these two would be working together on some suicide mission to take down a big bad that was threatening the government or something. Instead we have a double sized issue containing two different stories...With that in mind, this review will have 2 smaller reviews that will form a cumulative score at the bottom. So how do these tales of warriors fare? Lets find out...

Martian Manhunter #8 Review and *SPOILERS*

Robots In Disguise 

Written By: Rob Williams
Art By: Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, Gabe Eltaeb, Tom Napolitano,
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 20, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Mars is alive people!  The only problem is, it's on a collision course with Earth and if that wasn't bad enough, we've got the people of Mars recreated from the past with Martian mumbo jumbo.  It's all very strange, but don't confuse strange with not interesting because goddamn is this book keeping me on my toes in trying to keep up with Rob Williams' train of thought in what he's built for our Martian Manhunter.  So yeah, planets colliding, our title character selling out the people on Earth so that he can relive some kind of touchdown or something from his time at Martian High.......... whatever the reason is, like maybe something selfish like he doesn't want to be alone anymore, whatever, our hero is choosing the side of Mars and hopefully his other selves and a grownup, war torn, hard ass Alicia can talk him into being the protector of Earth again because like him dying in the second issue to this series, if he goes and becomes a bad guy to us Earthlings, well that's some bold ass story telling and is completely out of left field.  Let's jump into this issue and check it out.

The Weird Side #4

Story and Art by: Paul B.

Hello Weirdos and welcome to another issue of The Weird Side.  This week we say goodbye to Dan forever...or do we?!?!  We also see little Eric Shea's moving day in the latest Glen's Revenge and some toilet humor in Tales from the Cast.  So, Grab your toilet paper rolls and hope that your local supermarket has a public bathroom because it's time for The Weird Side!

Five Questions With...David Messina

We haven't done a Five Questions With... interview in a long while, but it's 2016 and that means no more being lazy at the Weird Science Clubhouse.  So, to kick off  a new phase of interviews, I give you David Messina.  Messina is one kick ass artist.  His Catwoman run with Genevieve Valentine was one of my favorites and his art was such a big part of it.  Recently,  he showed up on Midnighter and gave fans a reimagined Freedom Beast and some of the craziest The Fly inspired art that I've ever seen.  He's also done work on Angel, The Bounce, Star Trek and some very sexy erotic comics. Plus, he agreed to put up with our nonsense and do this interview, so that's pretty awesome in and of itself!  So, without further ado, I give you Five Questions With...David Messina.

Batgirl #47 Review

Do the Math

Written by: Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher
Art by: Eleonora Carlini, Moritat, Serge LaPointe and Steve Wands
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 20, 2016

I can't say that I've been a huge fan of Batgirl since Stewart and Fletcher took over, but I haven't been a big detractor either.  That's the problem...I really have no emotions either way and that sucks.  This is Batgirl for Christ's sake and I want to love it!  I keep waiting for something to hit me, but each month I'm left waiting some more.  I think the main reason is that Barbara hasn't faced a threatening villain in quite some time.  I mean, I loved Velvet Tiger's fashion sense, but as a bad gal, she was H-list at best.  Before her, I was excited to see Livewire enter the story, but she was gone before we knew it.  So, does this new arc's villain have what it takes to snap me out of my doldrums?  Let's find out...

Adventures of Supergirl Chapter #1 Review and *SPOILERS*

That (Super)Girl

Written By: Sterling Gates

Art By: Bengal

Letters By: Saida Temofonte

Digital Price: $0.99

Release Date: January 25, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Here’s something you may not have known about me: I love Supergirl. I loved her as a plucky teen in the Silver Age, I loved her when she got a perm and a headband and went to college, I loved her as the protoplasmic goo Matrix that Alexander Luthor shaped into Supergirl, and I loved her as the young lady struggling with her responsibilities (both powered and not) by Gates and Igle in the early 2000s. Heck, I even loved her as a Red Lantern for that brief time a couple of years back. So when I heard Sterling Gates was back on a Supergirl title, I had to check it out. I’m not going to use this space to write about DC’s inefficiency by not having a Supergirl comic to run in tandem with the CBS show to begin with, I want to celebrate the fun and quirky joy that is Supergirl. Keep reading if that sounds good to you!

Weird Science DC Comics Podcast Episode 55: That's How Painkillers Work

Jim and Eric get together and talk a bunch of nonsense...only to find out they weren't recording it. Yep, an hour and a half of the podcast just disappeared and while others may have given up, these two idiots started over and ended up with over 5 hours of...well, something.  They talk all of the DC Comics that came out this week (including Poison Ivy with guest, Reggie), discuss the news and more.  If they aren't the #hardestworkingguysinpodcasting, they are the stupidest.  Enjoy!