Weird Science DC Comics: 2018-10-07

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Superman Giant #3 Review

Dark Universe

Written by: Tom King
Art by: Andy Kubert, Sandra Hope, Brad Anderson, and Clayton Cowles
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: September 7 2018

This is a review for the Tom King/Andy Kubert original story Superman: Up in the Sky Part One.

One of the biggest selling points for these 100 page Giants was getting to see Tom King write a full Superman story. Well, here it is! Is it any good? Let's find out...

Welcome to the Jungle

Written by: Dan Jurgens
Art by: Scot Eaton, Wayne Faucher, Jim Charalampidis, and Tom Napolitano
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: July 01, 2018

This is a review of the original Teen Titans story by Dan Jurgens. Also included are SUPER SONS #1 (2017), SIDEWAYS #1 (2018), and TEEN TITANS #1 (2003). You can click on the Super Sons and Sideways links to read the reviews we did for those when they originally came out. So, did Dan Jurgens kick off the Teen Titans Walmart stories with style? Let's find out...

Chick Tract #032: Happy Halloween Review

Produced by: Chick Publications

Price: Free

Release Date: 1996

*Spoilers ahead, score at the bottom*

AND BY “HAPPY HALLOWEEN” I MEAN “FEEL LIKE SHIT ABOUT YOURSELF”

I have received the millions and even billions of messages from my loyal readers, clamoring for my head and threatening to drink the blood of my children because I sort of pulled your legs for the last two weeks of Chick Tract reviews. See, this was purported to be a special Halloween Just For the Hell of It Mondays Reviews event, but the last two tracts didn’t have anything specific to do with Halloween at all—they were about Hell’s corporate policies and what it’s like to join team Satan as a demonic employee. So for this, the last Chick Tract of my all-Chick Tract month of reviews, I present to you a pamphlet that is so Halloween, it’s practically covered in toilet paper and shaving cream. How Halloween is it? Well, it’s titled Happy Halloween! And considering Jack Chick’s established thoughts on the holiday, I’m sure it will be a gas. Read on if you want to confirm that the previous sentence was sarcastic!

Produced by: Chick Publications

Price: Free

Release Date: 2004

*Spoilers ahead, score at the bottom*

BEWARE THE DEVIL’S NIGHT!

Jack T. Chick is an American illustrator whose company, Chick Publications, has published a variety of materials in nearly every form of media evangelizing for Christian fundamentalism since 1970. The most well-known of Chick’s products are small, twenty-four page black and white comics known as “Chick Tracts,” which are commonly given away by like-minded Christians, then received and giggled over by deplorable sacrilegious monsters like myself. Of course, Chick doesn’t support the secular celebration of Halloween and has published several tracts explaining its evil. For the month of October, I’ll be looking at four such tracts and reviewing them for art, story, and general spookiness! How does The Devil’s Night fare? Read on!

Produced by: Chick Publications

Price: Free

Release Date: 2005

*Spoilers ahead, score at the bottom*

WORKPLACE ANXIETY IS A REAL PROBLEM IN HELL

We learned last week that Hell is sort of a crummy corporate situation, where demons have to give regular performance reports seated around a conference table as an overhead projector displays charts and graphs to the Lord of Lies and probably lawyers. But what, wondered no one, is the average workday of a rank-and-file demon like? How do the demons that punch in and out perform their jobs? What do they do? And is there a lunch break? Well Jack Chick has revealed all of that and more in this very early tract, A Demon’s Nightmare, which you’ll learn more about if you read on!

Produced by: Chick Publications

Price: Free

Release Date: 2000

*Spoilers ahead, score at the bottom*

IN HELL THERE IS NO 401K PLAN

I confess: last week’s Chick Tract was sort of a bait-and-switch. We thought we were going to see a slasher film put to comic, but it was mostly a retelling of the hoary, pagan origins of Halloween and how we can avoid Christ by accepting Hell. Or was that avoid Hell by accepting Christ? I forget, I wasn’t really paying attention. This week’s special spooky Halloween review is going to keep you gripped because it involves a story about the occult, drugs, and…forecasting the fiscal quarter? Will I get struck by lightning or struck by boredom? Read on and find out!

Produced by: Chick Publications

Price: Free

Release Date: 1991

*Spoilers ahead, score at the bottom*

TRICK OR TREAT YOURSELF TO ETERNAL DAMNATION

Okay, okay, I’ll admit that last week’s Special Halloween Just For the Hell of It Monday review wasn’t very scary. Sure, it dealt with the secret history of All Hallow’s Eve, but it was really just a creepy conversation between two little girls. This week’s Chick Tract is a true horror story with all the great 1980s slasher film trappings like foolhardy teens, an unstoppable killer in a mask, and ritual animal sacrifice. I knew I was leaving all of those Halloween parties too early! How can you protect yourself from the day known as “Satan’s birthday” by exactly no one? Read on to find out!

DC Comics Best Covers of the Week: October 10, 2018

Red and Black and Red and Black

Hey! A little bit late this week, but I've got a list of covers this week so robust that you'll crap your pants. It's worth mentioning that the regular covers this month are foiled--pretty tastefully, I might add--which explains some of the similarity between them. Let's quit with this cagey intro and get right to the list!

Your Archenemy Killed My Daddy

Hello, brand loyalists! In this episode, dimensional transversers Chris (@AceComics) and Reggie (@reggiereggie) subvert time and space to read a once rare, now extinct crossover between Marvel and DC Comics: Spider-Man and Batman by J.M. DeMatteis and Mark Bagley from 1995! After the necessary creator bios, our duo subvert the concept of intellectual property and read all of the story "Disordered Minds," which also features villains Carnage and the Joker. Then, after an informative break, they return to the creators and talk about the other crossover titles co-published by DC and Marvel–and why we don't see them anymore! It's a crazy episode with its own internal logic and continuity...so it won't really matter to Chris and Reggie's personal story arcs if you miss it. But you still shouldn't!

Writer: Justin Jordan
Artist: RB Silva, Rob Lean
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: August 14, 2013
Cover Price: $2.99
Review by: Eric

We pick up where we left off in the last issue of Superboy. Superboy is surrounded by monsters. Even a monster Krypto, and a monster Dr. Psycho. Superboy uses his TK to knock the surrounding monsters back, also making everyone human and Kryptonian dog again. But he sees one girl who looks suspicious and Krypto and him are on the hunt.

What Could Have Been

Written and Art by: Andy Kubert
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 30, 2013
Review by: Eric

What a strange title to jump into. I haven't stopped bitching about the death of Damian Wayne since it happened, and here I am reading, and writing about a grown-up version of the character. It's very odd but very rewarding. So nothing here to catch the reader up on except, Damian never died in Batman Inc. So let's dive right in.

Extremely Rotten

Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Jesus Saiz
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: September 18, 2013

Cover Price: $3.99

I will admit it right off the bat, I haven't read much of Swamp Thing. I know, I know. It's usually the best-reviewed book of its week and it has a loyal following. I just never connected with the character. Please forgive me. However, after going back-and-forth deciding whether to read Swamp Thing #23.1 I gave it a go. Fortunately, it was so good that I decided to review it.

Video Killed the Radio Star and Several Bystanders

Written by: Lauren Beukes and Dale Halvorsen

Art by: Ryan Kelly, Eva de la Cruz, and Clem Robins
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 7, 2015

Review by: Reggie

*Non spoilers and score at the bottom*

Video games and the year 1987 will always be inextricably linked, in my mind, because that was the year I plunked down $110 of my hard-saved allowance money and bought my own Nintendo Entertainment System. It was also the yearThe Legend of Zelda was released, meaning I would have no trouble logging the initial eight-hundred hours playing my NES that are required to call oneself a Game Master, a title that still earns me nothing despite my announcing it whenever I enter a room. What if, while tromping around the pixelated lands of Hyrule, I had unwittingly cursed myself to a cruel death? What if, on some long-forgotten screen in an obscure dungeon, I’d garnered some kind of unspeakable evil that would manifest itself thirty years into my future? That’s sort of where we are with issue number one of Survivors’ Club, though it is only a first issue and the story could go nearly anywhere. Where did this individual story go? Read on and find out!

Life Is But A Meme, Sweetheart

Written By: Rob Williams

Art By: Mike Dowling, Quinton Winter, Clem Robins

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: November 4, 2015

Review by: Reggie

*Non-Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

What if we lived in a world where people were mesmerized by handheld liquid crystal display screens that constantly beamed news and the whereabouts of our friends and family to our flickering eyes? What’s that you say? “Too long; didn’t read?” That’s the problem with the world today, if you can’t condense your thoughts into nine or fewer syllables, then they’re not even worth being thunk. Why, when I was a boy we’d have to read a thousand words of preamble just before we got to the Nutrition Information panel on our breakfast cereal, and we liked it by gum! If you’ve only got enough attention span to read either this review or the comic book Unfollow, then go read Unfollow. But if you’ve got it in you to know my thoughts about the issue, then read on!

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!

Titans #27 Review and SPOILERS

The Grieving Process

Written By: Dan Abnett
Art By: Brent Peeples, Matt Santorelli, Ivan Plascencia
Letters By: Dave Sharpe
Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 10, 2018

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Titans has been a bit of a rollercoaster, I really wasn’t a fan of the first two issues of this new team but then the third issue came around and was incredible. The following issue was fine but it was just a long fight sequence. We have a bunch of hanging threads from the previous issues that I’m hoping we will capitalize on. I’m hoping we get more of the good Titans and less of the bickering and unhappy Titans, though based on the cover of this issue, I assume we will have some unhappy moments. That’s fine as long as it is done well. Let’s just jump right into this issue and see what happens.

Burn Baby Burn

Written By: Joshua Williamson
Art By: Scott Kolins, Luis Guerrero
Letters By: Steve Wands
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 10, 2018

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

The Flash comic’s latest storyline hasn’t been bad but even I have to admit that the previous issue was slow and didn’t answer a lot of questions. Instead of getting more answers about the forces, specifically the Strength Force which we just dealt with, we have suddenly been drawn into a different force, The Sage Force. Heatwave has been infected with the Sage Force and has used that power to destroy Iron Heights Penitentiary. Honestly, I’m still a big fan of this book but it constantly makes decisions that I disagree with. In addition, we saw in previews that Barry won’t be dealing with the Wally situation until January, which is a really long time to wait for such a huge storyline. Let’s just jump into this issue and hope it gives us a great story.

The Great Kryptonian Escape

Written By: Marc Andreyko, Kevin Maguire
Art By: Sean Parsons, Wade Von Grawbadger, FCO Plascencia, Chris Sotomayor
Letters By: Tom Napolitano
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 10, 2018

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

The last issue of Supergirl was far from perfect. That being said, I enjoyed it quite a bit still so I’m still counting this as a good book that hit a small speedbump. We have a great mysterious toryline that we get to continue with and the Green Lanterns are involved. Kara has just gotten on their bad side before being teleported to a different place where she was approached by a Guardian who admits that he was involved in Krypton’s destruction. Where this story goes, I do not know but that’s all the more reason to just jump right into this issue.

Definitely Creepy

Cover By: Doug Mahnke

Editor: Alex Antone

Cover Price: $9.99

On Sale Date: October 10, 2018

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

It’s a special spooky-themed anthology comic just in time for Halloween! Not much more to say about it, let’s jump right in!

Me and My Dream Boat

Written By: Nalo Hopkinson

Illustrated By: Dominike “DOMO” Stanton

Colors By: John Rauch

Letters By: Deron Bennett

Cover By: Sean Andrew Murray

Edited By: Molly Mahan

Associate Editor: Amedeo Turturro

Assistant Editor: Maggie Howell

Executive Editor: Mark Doyle

Cover Price: $3.99

On Sale Date: October 10, 2018

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

Madame Ezrulie’s houseboat landed squat in the Dreaming, so what are we gonna do about it? Well, they’re gonna have to work something out. We’re gonna read my review of House of Whispers #2, which is below!

Kissed By a Curse

Writer: James Tynion IV

Pencils: Emanuela Lupacchino

Inks: Ray McCarthy

Colors: Romulo Fajardo Jr.

Letters: Dave Sharpe

Cover: Yasmine Putri

Variant Cover: Jenny Frison

Assistant Editor: Dave Wielgosz

Editor: Chris Conroy

Group Editor: Jamie S. Rich

Cover Price: $3.99

On Sale Date: October 10, 2018

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

Oh boy, it’s part two of “The Witching Hour,” the crossover between Wonder Woman and Justice League Dark happening this month! The first bookend issue was pretty good, but I wanna know more about Hecate and their evil plot to undo something-or-other! So I’m gonna review Wonder Woman #56 right away, and you can read it, right here!

Harkness. Digger Harkness.

Writer: Rob Williams

Artist: Philippe Briones

Colors: Gabe Eltaeb

Letters: Pat Brosseau

Cover: Dan Panosian

Variant Cover: Francesco Mattina

Editor: Katie Kubert

Group Editor: Jamie S. Rich

Cover Price: $3.99

On Sale Date: October 10, 2018

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

The Suicide Squad have all dried off and knocked the water out of their ears after failing to sink Atlantis in previous issues, so they deserve a little R&R. There was one regular member that was conspicuously absent during that mission, primarily because his skill would be useless underwater: Captain Boomerang. What did he get up to while the rest of the team went skinny dipping? You can find out by reading my review of Suicide Squad #47, which commences now!

If the Cabal Didn’t Exist, We’d Have to Invent It

Writer: Gail Simone

Artist: Adriana Melo

Colorist: Kelly Fitzpatrick

Letterer: Simon Bowland

Cover Artists: Tess Fowler with Tamra Bonvillain

Editor: Kristy Quinn

Cover Price: $3.99

On Sale Date: October 10, 2018

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

Pado Saskatoon! Plato asked a spoon! Task the room with matching runes. Flasks of booze! Glass spittoon! Alas, the fastest path is doom. Raspy crones in fashion swoon. Masked the moon with flashy tunes. Amassed a boon and dashed it by noon. At last, or soon, my review of Plastic Man #5, kaboom!

Saying Goodbye

Written By: Scott Lobdell

Art By: Pete Woods, ALW's Troy Peteri

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 10, 2018

We had it in the last issue of Green Arrow and now it's time to have it in what is now called Red Hood: Outlaw, but I'm still going by the original name so that review sites don't overlook it....... and that thing is dealing with the death of Roy Harper. This is the issue I've been afraid of because what is Jason going to do when he finds out his best friend has been murdered and worse.......the killer is still out there. Let's jump into this issue of Red Hood and see what Jason's reaction will be. Let's check it out.

Superman Vs. The Phantom Zone

Written By: Brian Michael Bendis

Art By: Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Oclair Albert, Alex Sinclair, Josh Reed

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 10, 2018

Who wants to go back to the Phantom Zone to see how Superman is doing against Rogol Zaar and his army of Krypton's least wanted? Yeah, I don't want to go back either, but it's something that we must do as Superman fans and just be cautiously optimistic. Maybe you've loved this run though and I should just shut my, but for me this hasn't been the book I've wanted it to be, but with that, that means that every issue is an opportunity for that to change. Let's jump into this issue and see if things are changin' yet. Let's check it out.

About Face
Writer: James RobinsonArtist: Stephen Segovia, Ivan Plascencia, Allen Passalaqua, and Rob LeighCover Price: $3.99Release Date: October 10, 2018
While I have enjoyed James Robinson on this book since he jumped on for this little stint before Peter Tomasi takes over, I thought that the last issue took a bit of a step backward from the start. Maybe it was just me, but the story seemed to focus a bit too much on the Fireflies and not enough on Two-Face. I understand that must be Robinson's plan, but I want more Two-Face, dammit!!! Since the cliffhanger involved old Harvey Dent, I am hoping my wish comes true this issue and I am fully back on the trolley. Well, am I? Let's find out...

Time Is Like The Ocean......... It's Scary

Written By: Robert Venditti

Art By: Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie, Jememiah Skipper, Starkings & Comicraft

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 10, 2018

My, my, my, welcome back to the wild world of our winged warrior as he tries to hunt down the clues that will bring him closer to remembering his past and with that, hopefully find a way to put an end to the Deathbringer visions that he's having. Previously, we saw Carter Hall wind up on Thanagar, where he fought his previous self, Katar-Hol, before working together and finding the device that sent our hero down to the Microverse for his next mission. Is this getting a bit redundant? Yeah, a bit, but I love Hawkman so hopefully this issue picks up now that Carter's old friend and old teammate in comics, The Atom has stopped by for a few issues to thrill. Let's check it out.

Navigation

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Friday, October 12, 2018

Thursday, October 11, 2018

What Could Have Been

Video Killed the Radio Star and Several Bystanders

Life Is But A Meme, Sweetheart

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

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

The Grieving Process

Burn Baby Burn

The Great Kryptonian Escape

Saying Goodbye

Superman Vs. The Phantom Zone

Time Is Like The Ocean......... It's Scary