Wednesday: Coda
Today was apparently “Have a Meal with a Cop” Day – Perry joined us for lunch and I had dinner with Pat.

I remembered to pick up birthday cards for my father; and I took them out to the AMF to get them in the mailstream tonight.

Four-Color Coverage

  • Astonishing X-Men #22 – The X-Men face Danger, Kruun and a missile the size of a small moon. Think they’re getting out of this one without a scratch? Think again (spoiler warning). From the looks of things, it’s going to take a giant Band-Aid® to make this better. The dialogue is solid. The situation is – in typical X-Men fashion – dire. Once again, Whedon and Cassaday bring an excellent story to the table.
  • Countdown: 36, 35, 34, 33, 32 and 31 – Mary Marvel, spoiled brat. Eclipso, wearing a lovely Jean Loring skin. Karate Kid and Una, still in search of answers as to what’s killing the ‘Kid. All this, plus Klarion, Monarch and the return of the new – and expanded – Crime Syndicate Society of America. Some of the storylines are beginning to wear a bit thin for me; and I’m also starting to get… distracted… by the inconsistency of the artwork: Granted they are doing a weekly series, so they are distributing the art duties to different teams, but the artwork runs the gamut from “good” to “tolerable” to “I paid good money for this?!”
  • Green Lantern Corps #15 and Green Lantern #23: The Sinestro Corps War – Parts 5 and 6

    War.
    What is it good for?
    Absolutely nothing.    ”

    Getting Lanterns dead, that’s what it’s good for. Readers are given a rather blunt example of what happens when an irresistable force (The Sinestro Corps) meets an immovable object (The GLC).

    In this issue, the battlefront has moved from Oa to Mogo, the planet-sized Green Lantern. Leading the charge is the SC’s answer to Mogo: Ranx, the sentient city. And what will Green Lantern Hal Jordan do when his power ring loses its charge? Oh… this.

    Sinestro: This is amusing. Hal Jordan struggling to access the power of fear.
    Jordan: I can thank you and Parallax for showing me how, Sinestro.
    Sinestro: Showing you how? You are only capable of opening the ring and releasing its energy. You have no idea how to manipulate fear.

    How bad do things get? Bad enough for the Guardians to rewrite the Book of Oa, including ten new laws:

    Guardian: Officers. We have all suffered a great loss during this horrific incursion of fear. Many are dead and wounded. Many more are missing-in-action. The Sinestro Corps fight without mercy. They torture those they capture. They revel in the pain they cause. And now they approach.We understand the limitations both our code of conduct and the power rings themselves have.

    It is for these reasons we have rewritten the Book of Oa. Rewritten it to include ten new laws effective immediately.

    The First Law of Ten within the Book of Oa…

    …the power rings are now authorized to used lethal force against the Sinestro Corps.

    And, it looks like the battlefront is moving. Again. The new front line: Earth.

  • Justice League of America: Wedding Special #1 – Black Canary and Green Arrow are tying the knot. Fun, happy times and joy for everyone, right? Tell that to Firestorm, who’s getting the holy bejeezus kicked out of him. After a fight with Killer Frost, Firestorm hears the hum of a teleporter:

    Good evening, Firestorm. My associates are The Joker and Cheetah. And of course you know me, I’m Lex Luthor. Did you just wet your pants? I can’t say I’d blame you. We’re really quite terrifying.
    Firestorm: I’m supposed to be impressed? I was hoping you were Darkseid, so I could bust your skull.
    Luthor: You should perhaps consider working your way up to that. *blasts Firestorm*
    Firestorm: Uhnnn…. Okay. Caught me by surprise. But you can’t hurt me with that stuff…
    The Joker: You’re ruining the gag. You’re supposed to think it’s a regular flower. Or at the very least, just a gag flower with a squirt gun inside. *sprays Firestorm*
    Firestorm: AH!
    The Joker: But here’s the twist. It’s not harmless water. It’s my specially prepared venom.
    Firestorm: HA-HA-HA-HA… I can’t neutralize it… HA-HA-HA… but my powers…
    The Joker: See? Funny.
    Cheetah: *slashes Firestorm* You mean the same powers that should protect you from my claws? ‘Cause I don’t think they’re working.
    Firestorm: HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! HA-HA! Please, DON’T! HA! AHHH! HA-HA-HA!
    *off-panel slashing effects*
    The Joker: Life is all about perspective. If I get a hangnail, it’s tragedy. If you fall into an open manhole and die, it’s comedy.
    Firestorm: *screams*
    The Joker: Nobody gets me.
    Luthor: *to Cheetah* That’s enough.
    Cheetah: Matter of opinion.
    Luthor: *to Firestorm* You were helpless from my first shot. If you don’t want your enemies to neutralize your powers, refrain from publishing scientific papers explaining them.

    And where’s Wonder Woman? And Hawkgirl? And Geo-Force? (And Where’s Waldo, while we’re at it?!) And what happens when the rest of the League finds out what happens to Firestorm? Let’s just say that the phrase “Break one off…” comes to mind. To be continued in…

  • Justice League of America #13 – Picking up where JLA: Wedding Special #1 left off, the JLA goes on the offensive. The teams split up, with Black Lightning monitoring the action from the Hall of Justice:

    Green Lantern (John Stewart): Team Two, checking in.
    Black Lightning: Roger that — I’m reading you loud and clear.
    Green Lantern: Have I mentioned that it’s good to be working with you again? Although, I do miss your afro.
    Black Lightning: Ho. Ho.
    Green Lantern: I’m serious. Why’d you cut your hair off?
    Black Lightning: I’m trying to be more contemporary.
    Green Lantern: Good move. Welcome to the Nineties. I know why you did it. It’s a negative combover.
    Black Lightning: A what?
    Green Lantern: You’re going bald and you’re hiding it by shaving your head.
    Black Lightning: I am not going bald. I happen to look good this way.
    Green Lantern: No, you don’t. I would, though. Maybe grow a little goatee to add a little funk…

    And more of the JLA fall to the Injustice League. And the hits keep coming as Luthor, in his battlesuit, teleports in to bat clean-up.

    What I love most about the Lantern/Lightning scene is that Dwayne McDuffie (1, 2) seems to be having fun with Green Lantern, a character for whom he wrote many episodes on Justice League, Justice League Unlimited and Static Shock. But, it doesn’t stop there: He seems to have a good handle on all of the characters – both in the JLA and the Injustice League – featured in these two books (Wedding Special and Issue #13).

  • Justice Society of America #9 – Power Girl’s having bad dreams. The JSA helps out at a pancake breakfast/charity fund-raiser. And help put out a fire. And… who is the “strange visitor from another planet dimension” that just showed up? More importantly: Why is he here now?!
  • The New Avengers #34 – After what seems like eleventy-seven issues of “Are you or are you not a Skrull,” Dr. Strange, Master of the Mystic arts that he is, finally pulls a rabbit out of his hat (apparently that trick does work when not being performed by a moose) and proves to himself and the rest of the New Avengers that none of them are Skrulls… just in time for the team to go up against [message redacted].
  • Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #33 and #34 – The search for Cosmic Boy continues… and concludes. Brainiac 5 proves, once again, that he is the most intelligent sentient in the room. Tenzil Kem proves that Bismollians can – and will – eat just about anything. Atom Girl is on the hunt for a man. And we get a retconned origin story for a very pissed-off Wildfire.
  • Tales of the Sinestro Corps #1 – Parallax: The Fall of Kyle Rayner – In the Ion mini-series, readers were introduced to a painting of a young boy in a field that used to hang in the home of a then-young Kyle Rayner. He and his mother would make up stories about the boy.That is where this story starts. Sort of.
    The painting is in a room.
    In Kyle’s mother’s house.In Kyle’s mind.YeahbuhWHAT?!Kyle is “riding shotgun,” as the Parallax entity uses his body, tearing its way through the Green Lantern Corps. An aspect of the entity pays Kyle a visit. And that’s where the fun starts.

Stray Toasters

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