Comics

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #5

/ / Comics

btvs-season-nine-5-coverAfter surviving the Siphon, Buffy starts having dreams of the first Slayer. At first she thinks the Slayer is angry at Buffy breaking the line but she begins to suspect someone is using her dreams for their own purposes.

With the help of Willow Buffy goes back into her dreams to confront the Tinkerbell who was hijacking her dreams and find out what the Slayer really wants from her. Although she gets her answers, the truth will mean the departure of one of her closest friends. But that isn’t the comic’s biggest surprise which comes in the form of a final panel that’s sure to change Buffy’s life forever (and no doubt enrage quite a few fans).

Karl Moline takes over the art from Georges Jeanty but once again we’re left with several panels where the characters only vaguely resemble their on-screen counterparts.

It’s not a great single issue but it does set out a new path for Willow and set up an entirely new challenge for everyone’s favorite slayer. Worth a look.

[Dark Horse, $2.99]

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Amazing Spider-Man #677

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amazing-spider-man-677-coverMark Waid gives Dan Slott a week off for the first issue of a two-part crossover with Daredevil. When the Black Cat is arrested for burglarizing Horizon Labs Spider-Man calls on an old friend for help (much to the dismay of Matt Murdock who is still trying to convince people he’s not Daredevil).

The issue has some fun Spidey/DD moments and banter including a race between the two from the top of Manhattan to the bottom and Spidey’s recognition how helpful it is to team up with the blind guy against a villain who has stolen a holographic projector that makes the hero doubt what he sees. The banter between Black Cat and Spidey to open the issue is also a lot of fun.

I haven’t been keeping up with Amazing Spider-Man lately given my lack of interest in Spider-Island and sheer the number of issues the title puts out every month. However, I have to say I love what Waid does with the ol’ Web-Head here and I’m eagerly anticipating the conclusion of the arc this week. Best of the week.

[Marvel, $3.99]

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Batman and Robin #5

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batman-and-robin-new-52-5-coverOffered an alternative to being Batman‘s sidekick, Damian accepts Nobody‘s offer to work as his partner without the limitations Damian has been forced to accept as Robin. I really want to want to like this title more than I do, but once again we’re left with an issue which is good but that could be so much better.

The Nobody/Damian storyline is limiting because we already know the outcome. There’s no way DC is going to turn the current Robin into a cold-blooded killer this early in the New 52. However, if the arc softens the Bruce/Damain relationship all won’t be in vain.

What’s interesting to note is how much better this story would have been if Nobody’s part had been played by Jason Todd, a former Robin, whose current outlook is far more like that of Damian than Batman.

Patrick Gleason’s art has gotten better as he’s gotten more comfortable with the characters, but writer Peter J. Tomasi struggles with Batman’s epiphany about his behavior to his son. It feels far too forced for the version of Batman we’ve seen so far. Worth a look.

[DC, $2.99]

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Secret Avengers #21

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secret-avengers-21-coverThe final issue of Secret Avengers by writer Warren Ellis isn’t bad, but then again it isn’t all that great either. I won’t go so far as to say he phoned it in, but this is a rather lackluster end to his run on the comic.

Steve Rogers as his team fake an emergency to break into the Office of National Emergency and rout out a high ranking traitor who has been finding intelligence to the Shadow Council.

The team learns the Super Soldier experiments taken from Paraguay and brought into O.N.E. have been activated by the traitor once the Avengers appeared. The creatures have been unleashed in the bowels of the building.

Rogers interrogation of the traitor works okay, but the team fighting the (rather generic-looking) monsters in the basement is far from thrilling. The comic also ends with a thoroughly unsatisfying ending as Captain America either allows a woman five feet away to commit suicide or was simply too stupid or too slow to stop her. I don’t know, maybe the years are finally catching up with him? Hit and Miss.

[Marvel, $3.99]

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Green Lantern #5

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Hal Jordan and Sinestro‘s partnership comes to an end as the pair are able to successfully free Sinestro’s homeworld of Korugar from his Sinestro Corps. Sinestro is good to his word by allowing Jordan to keep a ring, but returns him to Earth without the ability to charge it.

Once again writer Geoff Johns gives us a good Sinestro story but at the cost of Hal Jordan looking more and more like a chump. For a writer who has gone on record as how much he likes Jordan as a character, Johns sure has a lot of fun showcasing how little he knows about using his ring.

I’m not sure any character in the New 52 has fallen as far in terms of stature in his own title as Hal Jordan has. Seriously, why is Johns so intent on turning Hal Jordan into Kyle Rayner – a character who got the ring out of chance and has still never mastered it? Although I like the title, and I’m glad to see that the Hal/Carol relationship is as co-dependent as ever, I’d like for Hal to actually feel like the hero of old. Where is the universe’s greatest Green Lantern? Worth a look.

[DC, $2.99]

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