Comics

Batgirl #18

batgirl-18-coverHere’s something you may have not known: Stephanie Brown tastes like Christmas. Not surprising mind you, just food for thought. This Valentine’s issue pairing of Batgirl and Klarion the Witch Boy out to stop his familiar from a murder spree while it searches for true love isn’t exactly you average Batgirl tale. It’s not every day our heroine finds herself shrunk and trapped in a magic snow globe.

What works here is how Stephanie Brown is immediately put on the defensive by dealing with a magic user – not something that comes up regularly in her patrols on the streets of Gotham. Still, Stephanie adapts and agrees to help the Witch Boy after Klarion returns her to normal size (dashing her dream of fighting lice alongside the Atom in what would surely be an epic team-up).

Of course this includes dimension jumping, trying to prevent herself from being burned at the stake, fighting off a Witch Boy’s cat (which turns out to be a man-sized vicious were-cat), and even kissing Witch Boy in front of her friends. Weird, but also worth a look.

[DC $2.99]

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The Deadly Art of Science

  • Title: Atomic Robo Vol. 5 #3 (of 5)
  • Comic Vine: link
  • Writer: Brian Clevinger
  • Artist: Scott Wegener

“The Deadly Art of Science” continues as Atomic Robo learns from vigilante Jack Tarot (somewhat successfully), fights a giant robot (less successfully), and learns a few things from Jack’s daughter Helen (smoochie-smoochie!).

Although Tarot has little respect for out hero’s ability in the field (he’d rather work with a gorilla), Tarot is impressed with his scientific knowledge and astounded when Robo helps make a break in the case. What else can the vigilante do but reluctantly agree to train the troublesome robot?

A very enjoyable issue all around punctuated with Tarot’s increasingly short-temper towards all of Atomic Robo’s “help.” And aside from giving or hero his first kiss, Helen also teaches him a lesson about family which gives us a nice closing sequence between Robo and his creator Nikola Tesla that brings the pair’s confrontation earlier in the issue full circle. Worth a look.

[Red 5, $3.50]

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Justice League: Generation Lost #19

justice-league-generation-lost-19-coverPower Girl finally knows the truth about Maxwell Lord, but is it too late for the JLI to save the Blue Beetle from a fate all to similar to that of Ted Kord? The cover might give you a clue.

The team sets out to save Blue Beetle from Max Lord who lets a little more about his plan slip to Jaime and how he’s used the former Justice League International members to seize control of Checkmate.

The story unfolds with the team mounting their rescue operation as Lord tortures Jaime in hope of learning more about the Scarab and how to use its technology to further his plans. Once Jaime escapes there’s a big throwdown between the Beetle and Lord (with the help of Checkmate defenses) which ends with the shocking death (even given the the foreshadowing of the cover) of an immensely popular DC character.

Perhaps its my nostalgia for Keith Giffen‘s Justice League, but I’ve always preferred Ted Kord to Jaime Reyes. I also think the best of the current run of Booster Gold centered around the issues which featured the return of one of the greatest duos in DC history.

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Comic Rack

It’s a new week so it must be time to talk about comics! Welcome to the RazorFine Comic Rack boys and girls. Pull up a bean bag and take a seat at feet of the master as we offer you this quick list of all kinds of comic book goodness set to hit comic shops and bookstores this week from all your favorite publishers including DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, BOOM!, Dynamite, Image Comics, and others.

This week includes Angel, Batman, Booster Gold, The Boys, Daredevil: Reborn, Darkwing Duck, DMZ, Edge of Doom, Fables, Green Lantern, Loki, Memoir, Spider-Girl, The Spirit, Star Wars: Knight Errant, Supergirl, the first issues of Flash Gordon Invasion Of The Red Sword, Formic Wars: Burning Earth, Hawkeye: Blindspot, Jennifer Blood, Marvel Girl, Silver Surfer, Styx & Stone, Young Justice, and the final issues of Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis, Dungeons And Dragons, Doorways, Iron Man: The Rapture, Ratchet and Clank, and Transformers: Infestation.

Enjoy issue #115

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She-Hulks #4

I honestly think Marvel and DC are in a race right now to come up with multiple insignificant versions of the same character. At this point I’m not sure if DC’s got more Flashes or if Marvel has more Hulks.

This mini-series, which ends with this issue, has been primarily focused on two of the She-Hulks (no, that’s not all of them), the original She-Hulk (Jen Walters) and Lyra, the young daughter of a Hulk from a distant future in a parallel dimension (or some such thing that makes my head hurt if I think too long about it).

Issue #4 has some nice moments, particularly two talks Jen and Lyra have together before and after the school dance. The two work well together, although I’d like Jen to have a little more to do here than simply be the voice of wisdom (and kick-ass in two or three panels). There’s also some nice humorous touches by the omniscient narrator but I’ve also got to find fault with writer Harrison Wilcox for a trite moral lesson to end the series on a down note.

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