Thursday, December 15, 2011

Comics this week

DC Universe Online: Legends #19- After a bright start, DC Universe Online has been having a hard time of it of late. Last issue was a massive disappointment, so it’s no surprise that #19 was better. However, it’s still not great. The problem I have is that while everything was going on well for the first 4/5 of the issue, at the end we suddenly discovered that the whole issue (as well as last issue) had been a flashback by the future Batman. Uh? There's had been not even a hint of that by writer Marv Wolfman beforehand and suddenly it’s a flashback? I think you can call this issue the one where DC Universe Online finally jumped the shark.

S.H.I.E.L.D #4- I had always felt that stories involving timelines are difficult to pull off. It looked great if you can pull it off but the stories themselves need to make sense as well as be different from each other. This issue shows the difficulties in pulling it off. Jonathan Hickman gave it his best shot but it just didn’t quite pay off for me. Another thing bothering me was the introduction of the 3 brothers. Frankly with the big cast S.H.I.E.L.D has already, I don’t see the need to introduce 3 more characters into the mix. This just adds to the confusion which is something the series do not need. In a way, the series has been too ambitious for its own good and could do with some streamlining.

Green Lantern #4- Ok, I’ll come out and say it. The main attraction of this new GL series is not Hal Jordon but Sinestro. Sinestro is a far more interesting character than Hal. Unbearably arrogant, he is also as good as he thinks he is. The scene where he creates over 20 rings through sheer willpower is worth the price of the issue. The only thing I dislike about this issue is the final page. It is a red herring as Sinestro had created a failsafe in his constructs. A series as good as GL do not need cheap tricks like that.

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