So as it turns out, issue 2 of The Greatest American Hero didn’t make it out this week, at least here. (Not the first time.) So I ended up with one comic to review. (Also available at ComiXology.)
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #1 {DC}
WRITER: Matt Wayne
PENCILER: Andy Suriano
INKER: Dan Davis
COLORIST: Heroic Age
LETTERER: Randy Gentile
EDITOR: Rachel Gluckstern
After a quick adventure with Aquaman, Batman is called to London, where a multi-mouthed monster is wrecking the city. The creature is controlled by Lex Luthor and he’s using it to steal the Crown Jewels. Power Girl is also in England, and she discovers the people are formed by people (a side effect of a machine Luthor was testing that he decided to use to his advantage. Together, Batman and Power Girl save the people and capture Luthor. Yay!
What they did right: I know this comic isn’t in the same universe with DC Super Friends, or Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eight Grade, but evil scientist Luthor is back, and hopefully evil CEO Luthor is going away. (At least something good is coming out of the Didio/Johns regression of the DCU.) Power Girl is given a secret identity, which I hadn’t heard of before. (I just checked the DC Wiki, and there she is. So it’s not an original idea.) Batman is definately the TBATB Batman, but time will tell how many “Earth-1” elements will sneak their way in to be later contradicted by the cartoon. All character elements work, including Luthor’s dealings with Kryptonians (including one in particular.) Also, Luthor becoming evil has nothing to do with having his hair burned off. We learn that through the best thing they did, which is the Batman Secret Files on both him and Power Girl. It lets new readers learn who they are, and I hope they do this every issue. (With different characters. Duh.)
What they got wrong: No files on Aquaman and Carapax, the characters from the opening fight. Hopefully they’ll be in the main story soon, so they can get their own file. However, the only real issue I have are the character models for Luthor and Power Girl. Power Girl looks like an old woman, and Luthor has big jowels, like he just merged his DNA with a bulldog.
Recommendation: I wasn’t as excited reading this as I am most Marvel Adventures, but it’s a fun story with better-motivated Luthor. Fix his and Power Girl’s character models, and avoid being too tied to DCU Proper instead of the cartoon, and this shall be a good comic.
Best Scene of the Week Award:
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #1
I had a bad whale pun to put here, but thought better of it.
After taking down a giant rock monster, the Avengers head back to base to relax, and because Tony and Bruce have a business meeting. However, their new clients are part of the Serpent Society, a group that “recruits” new members thanks to genetically created snake venom. They use it to control Bruce and Tony, and then attempt to use it on the other Avengers. However, they’re able to either avoid being bitten or can counteract the venom’s effects thanks to their own abilities. The Society is brought down, the world is saved, and the head snakes turn out to just be highly but wrongly motivated pyramid schemers.
What they got right: There are so many fun sequences in this story that were it eligible for this week’s BSOTW, I’m not sure which one I’d use. There’s the Snakes on a Plane reference, the pyramid scheme joke, Spidey trying to remind his team that he is smart enough to study mutant snake venom, Spidey hamming it up at the Society meeting, “It’s only 600 to 1. Whew.” “Still, take no chances.”, Logan being used as a lightning rod…are you getting the idea yet?
What they got wrong: I’m so glad they changed Giant Girl’s outfit. This old one (see cover) just doesn’t look as good. Come on, you’ve probably read enough of my reviews to know I have to work hard to write anything in this section.
Recommendation: It’s Jeff Parker writing MA Avengers. What do you think I’m going to say? Oh, and current scribe Paul Tobin? More proof that MA:A Bruce Banner can be fun, too, so how about letting the poor guy get some non-Hulk time in your stories for once? Speaking of which…
Marvel Adventures: Hulk #1 {Marvel–September 2007}
WRITER: Paul Benjamin
PENCILER: David Nakayama
INKER: Gary Martin
COLORIST: Wil Quintana
LETTERERS: Dave Sharpe & Chris Eliopoulos
COVER ART: Pagulayan, Huet, and Sotomayer
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Nathan Cosby
EDITOR: Mark Paniccia
After the splash page that pays homage to the cover of the first Incredible Hulk comic, we get a look at our altered reality. This time Rick Jones is an intern where Dr. Bruce Banner is testing his new “gamma bomb”, which should “destroy equipment without hurting enemy combatants”, in the words of General Ross. Ross doesn’t like Banner, and his daughter, Betty, should let her father walk all over him. To test if indeed people won’t be hurt, they put a monkey in the detonation area. However, Rick decides to rescue the monkey, forcing Bruce to stuff the both of them in the bunker and getting caught in the blast. When Betty arrives at ground zero, she finds a green, hulking…ah, you know how the rest of this goes.
What they got right: We get an update of the scenario, not with some “gamma reactor” that screws up and goes boom, but with the classic gamma bomb, as a method to destroy equipment but not people. (I guess they dropped the only destroy buildings route, which would still be dangerous for the night janitor on the 8th floor.) General Ross is still the jerk we know and love, and everything is established quickly.
What they got wrong: Too quickly. Everyone knows from the start that Bruce changes into the Hulk, “Thunderbolt” sets himself up as arch nemesis just a little too fast, even for General Ross, and where the early years of the classic Hulk actually had nobody knowing Bruce was the Hulk for a while, here everyone knows from minute 1. No spy story, no real tension for Bruce. And when the hell did Rick join PETA? If your interning at a miltary base designing a “safe bomb” (we’re not sure if he works for Bruce, Betty, or Ross), he had to figure sooner or later they’d use a live subject, and it probably wouldn’t be a human just yet. He’s also too happy watching Hulk bash walls and smash tanks to be at this job. In some ways he turns out to be a bigger punk kid than his 616 counterpart that just stumbled in on an army testing ground on a dare.
Recommendation: I’m not sorry I got it, because it’s nice to see MA: Hulk’s origin story. To be honest, though, I’m not really inclined to buy any more of the title, and I’ll stick to Avengers/Super Heroes for Hulk stories.
And with that we bid adeu to another week of comics. Now it’s back to my graphic novel, and yes I will get to it allbloodyready soon enough.
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