"The Full Circle:" Gwen Dylan is a zombie who is desperately trying to hang on to her humanity. By eating brains (of the dead) regularly, she can maintain being human and functioning normally, but as she cant remember her own life, she also inherits the minds of those she has taken for a short time. Joining up with her friends, Scott the were-terrier, Amon the mummy, and Ellie the ghost girl, Gwen tries to deal with the increasing weird happenings in her hometown.
Summary: Although not nearly as good of a jump-on point as the previous issue, this book does offer new readers some background on what's happening. Our story opens up with Gwen living out the last wish of her most recent meal: leading her team to the State Skee-Ball championship. We get a brief conversation with Amon about his love for Skee-Ball, which is good because he has been a really bare character so far. And ridiculous characterization is better than none, I say. Turns out, zombies have been running rampant in the city and Scott and Ellie have been dealing with them, which leads to Scott being trapped underground. Gwen is too caught up in the Skee-Ball tournement to even realize that her friends are in trouble. After winning the championship, Gwen is approached by a woman known only as Galatea who may or may not be the Frankenstein character of this story. It is revealed at the end that Gwen knew Amon before she died. The comic also features the second backup entry featuring the Dead Presidents, a group of monsterous government agents named after dead presidents, lead by a zombified Abraham Lincoln. Interesting, but it was too short to really be enjoyed fully. Your feelings on President Lincoln, Mr. President?
High Points: The pacing of the story has been really great and if I had started last month with this blog, I could completely suggest picking this title up. The art feels very indie and simple, which adds to the feel of the comic. It was great to see how Gwen has started to get more comfortable with her zombieness and assist the dead.
Low Points: This issue seemed like a lot of the plot points were tacked on and not enough attention was given to the Scott/Ellie bits. Not bad overall.
Verdict: B+: The series doesn't seem like it would be any good, especially in a world of of zombies, vampires, and werewolves at every turn, but it never fails to deliver a great read.
Lobo: What can I really say about Lobo that hasn't been said? He is definitely the 80's personified into alien form. Costumes from the Lost Boys movie, face right out of The Crow, Wolverine's superpowers, uber violent bounty hunter, and vocabulary right out of The Warriors. Famous for being the Last Czarnian (he killed all the rest), and one of the few characters able to take Superman on, head to head, Lobo has either been a fan favorite or fan forbidden for nearly 25 years. In Lobo's story, he collects the bounty on a shape changing purple alien who is wanted by his government. Like many bounty hunting stories, the bounty is not what it seems and Lobo sets to make it right. This would seem like a pretty simple story, and I think that's the flaw here. Over the course of 6 months we get, by month: 1- Lobo gets to the bounty and finds out he can shape-change, 2- Lobo finally beats the guy and captures him, 3- on the way back they run into another bounty hunter, 4-we get the scoop on what is actually happening and why the guy is being hunted, 5- the two break into the fortress that set the bounty and then get captured, and 6- they escape, Lobo gets his money, and kill they evil monarch and the bounty takes his rightful place as the new monarch. No surprises, no real twists... its kinda boring... unless you love Lobo. Here, the character is given a great arc and is written extremely well. Grade: B-
Summary: The issue opens up with a vision of Abin's childhood, where his sister teaches him the value of all life, even bugs. Jumping forward to now, Abin is fighting Manhunter robots who are out to destroy all emotions. After dispatching the robots and rescuing the defenseless populace, Sinestro shows up asking for help. He wants to form a squandron to take on the Black Lanterns who seem to still be trying to send the universe into emotionless death. Sinestro seems unchanged by the reality altering effects of Flashpoint as he is still rallying against the Guardians and willing to use force to establish his will. We then find out that Nekron killed Kilowog and that all the dead Lanterns are returning as Black Lanterns (Yeah, half the plot is the setup to Blackest Night... which has been over for more than a year). Abin turns him down and Sinestro insults his quest to protect life, saying that he can no longer see the greater threats in the universe. We cut to the Guardians who are sitting around discussing the threats of both the Manhunters and the Black Lanterns, but are more concerned about the war between Wonder Woman and Aquaman on Earth. They ask Abin to report to Oa for his mission. (Ok, here's an aside that is completely unrelated to anything here: Every issue I've read in the last two days has had this Super 8 comic inside that is absolutely pointless. If anyone at DC is reading this... stop it. It only pisses readers off.) Cut to Oa, where Abin is told to stop the war as it is tearing the Earth apart. Inside the Earth is the hidden Entity of Life that must not be harmed. Abin must find and rescue it, even if that means destroying Earth. While flying to Earth (Hang on... GL's use their rings to fly... they don't need ships. So I don't get why Abin has always been known for a spaceship), Abin is hit with a purple... or violet... beam of light, and he has a crash landing in Coast City, home of Hal Jordan. We cut to Sinestro on a red planet covered in blood, striking up a conversation with the captive Atrocitis, the leader of the Red Lanterns. Its revealed that Atrocitis is the one who caused the Blackest Night by murdering Black Hand. Sinestro asks Atrocitis about the prophecy of the Flashpoint. Bum bum BUUUM... Yeah, not really climactic at all.
High Points: Now this is how you do an issue of a new "alternate" series. The hints are dropped in rather subtle ways, but not shoved down your throat. Dent may be the one exception, but since he's a main character it may just be how much exposure his character gets. This Batman is apparently very effective, so we readers actually have to ask which Batman is better in the long run. The art just fits really nicely here and Gotham just feels right for atmosphere. I'm very excited for more info on the Joker here.
Summary: I have to admit that when I started this book, I was hoping for some tie to Secret Six, the best series being put out right now and I'll have a new issue of it reviewed soon. This however is more closely related to Grant Morrison's 7 Soldiers miniseries about random heroes in time who save the world, but never meet. This issue focuses on Shade, the Changing Man, whose Vest of Madness can... well, detect madness. Shade is abducted by aliens who want to take his vest but is teleported out by June Moone, a split personality version of Enchantress from the Shadowpact team. Pretty short, I know, but this comic is incomprehensible. Magic trenchcoat is kinda cool... but not as cool as a cape, right Max?
Summary: Now this will be shorter than my previous entry for a number of reasons. First off, half of the issue revolves around the "twist" from the previous issue, as well as events from it, so if you haven't read the events of that issue, I suggest picking it up... or just highlighting the dark text from my last entry. Second off, I have a number of these to get through, so here goes. We open up to the Flashpoint Deathstroke, who is apparently a pirate (think soldier of fortune Somali pirates, not the "Arrr" variety) now, with a crew made up of B list villains like Clayface, Icicle, and Electric Eel. Upon finding a graveyard of ships, the crew, and the reader, is introduced to Flashpoint Aquaman, who basically looks and acts like Ivan Drago from Rocky IV. We then cut back to Batman and Barry Allen, discussing how this Batman came to be and how the world is different from Barry's. Barry finds a ring in his jacket and believes it to be his Flash costume ring, but it actually contains the costume of the Reverse Flash, who is probably going to be the Big Bad of this event. Batman agrees to help change things back to normal, 