Comics this week

Blackest Night #1- Blackest Night blew out of the gate last issue and the momentum is not lost here. For a series that came out of the Green Lantern Corps, it has become a truly epic story that has engulfed the whole of the DCU. The scope and plot of Blackest Night is great. It is horror-based and a lot of the characters returning as Black Lanterns are truly scary. I could feel the horror of Mera and Tempest as they battle Aquaman, Tula and Dolphin; the shock of Barry Allen and Hal Jordan as they faced the Martian Manhunter, Hawkman and Hawkgirl. I have to say Ivan Reis is to thank for this. His art in this series could be what will propel him from being a respected artist to a superstar on the level of Jim Lee and Todd MacFarlane. It is that good. I was wrong in my last review; if Geoff Johns and Reis can keep this up, Blackest Night will be better than Sinestro Corps War.

War of Kings #6- From the get-go, I had some problems with the ‘War of Kings’. Although this was billed as a Shi'ar/Kree war, the main characters were the Inhumans and Vulcan. I have said enough on my feelings on the Inhumans taking over the Kree Empire, and Vulcan taking over the Shi’ar just before the war. What’s worse is that both Nova (easily the most popular cosmic character Marvel has at the moment) and the Guardians of the Galaxy had little to do with the war; Nova didn’t even show up in the main War of Kings series. At the end of the mini-series, the problems I had are still there. Instead of a Shi'ar/Kree war, it became a war between Inhumans and Vulcan. That was a mistake. To be fair, there were a lot of political background to the war with Ronan and Crystal objections to the T-Bomb, and Gladiator’s defection to the side of Lilandra, but in the end the finish was a mutually-assured destruction fight between Black Bolt and Vulcan. A disappointing finish to a series that should have been much better than it was.

Street Fighter II Turbo #8- I never thought I will see the day. The SF tournament is finally underway. All the fighters are here as Bison announced the start of the fights, and the usual suspects are through to the next round. I like the brackets for the fight; it was true to the game as the winners face one of the henchmen before facing Bison directly. As long as the fights keep coming, this series will do well.