Comic Reading Update #1

  






Like most Americans, I had the day off for New Years and it seemed like a good time to get a jump start on one of my goals for the year. I want to read at least 200 back issues over the course of the year.

I started off with Suicide Squad #1. This has been on my to read list for at least a decade and I just never seem to get around to it. It seemed like a great idea to sneak this in with my Superman reading since it started just a few months after the Post-Crisis Supes stuff really kicked off. The basic premise of this book is that super villains are recruited onto a top secret government team. They then run suicide missions and if they are successful they get part of their sentences commuted for each mission they come back alive from. Being that these are suicide missions, a lot of people die over time. The team in this book is Rick Flag, Deadshot, Bronze Tiger, Captain Boomerang, Enchantress, Mindboggler and Plastique with Amanda Waller calling the shots behind the scene. This issue was mostly set up for the concept of the team. Their first mission will be taking down a group called Jihad in the terrorist nation of Qurac. Like I said, really enjoyed this one.

I hit Superman #6 a little later in the morning. This was part 2 of a story that started in Superman #5. This issue wasn't as good as part 1 of the story. Part 1 was a fun battle with Supes and a giant mummy. This issue brings in a race of aliens and things have to come to a halt so the aliens' backstory can be explored and explained. Superman did use his brains to beat the aliens in this issue which was a nice change though. The aliens never appear in a comic again as far as I can tell so it makes their backstory an even bigger waste of time. The mummy from issue 5 was actually a robot carrying the minds of 500 of these aliens. Superman played dead while battling the robot and the aliens all tried to possess his body at once and it destroyed the robot. Pretty clever solution on his part there. I would say this was a pretty so-so issue. Not bad or anything, just not very interesting or fun.

Adventures of Superman #429 provided me with some afternoon reading. This issue was a tale of two stories for me. The character development with Cat Grant was really good and I enjoyed that stuff. The Circle storyline was bad. Concussion is a villain that's very typical of this era. Stupid name, paper thin character, etc. I have to say that Marv Wolfman has been a real disappointment when it's come to his Superman work thus far. The Circle storyline just isn't that good or interesting. I kind of wish he would just get it over with and do something more interesting.

I also added Blue Beetle #1 to the mix today. It's not June 1987 cover dated like the other books I'm reading but it is Post-Crisis. This issue mainly introduced Ted Kord into the DCU proper. You get his origin, a quick introduction to his supporting cast. Kord takes on a villain named Firefist. Pretty generic if you ask me but this issue was about creating a world for Ted Kord to exist in. Decent enough issue and I think a fairly good intro to this series. Looking forward to reading more.

That's it for what I read on New Year's Day. I think I'm off to a great start for my comic reading in 2014.

2014 Comic Counter: 4