Comic Reading Update #3

I've decided that I really hate January. It's cold and there's a lot of snow. I don't really care for either and I think if my family wasn't so entrenched in Ohio that I would move to North Carolina for the beaches and better weather. The one nice advantage to awful winter weather is it gives you plenty of time to catch up on your reading.

I read Justice League #2 Sunday morning. Some aliens come to Earth and want to get rid of all the nukes. They eliminate the stockpile of a small country and the leader of that country starts to manipulate them for his less than honest goals. Not a bad issue as it was mostly set up. It appears that they're trying to make this book very Avengers like with the team bickering and being dysfunctional. It also has a pretty oddball collection of characters and that always wins me over with a book. My biggest complaint with this book is that it doesn't feel like a reboot at all. That's one of the really annoying things about the Post-Crisis era. Properties like Superman and Wonder Woman got a hard reboot while other titles like Batman really didn't have much done to it. It can be a confusing mess at times due to factors like that. Black Canary's costume is also beyond awful in this series. I don't know, I was only 6 when this came out but 1987 seems to be a little late to still be rocking the Pat Benatar head band. I think I can safely add this to my list of worst costumes of all time. Just bad on every level imaginable.


I read Blue Beetle #4 before I went to bed on Sunday night. I felt a little embarrassed that I didn't know who Dr. Alchemy was from the last issue. As a Flash reader, I've actually seen him pop up a couple of times. Dr. Alchemy gets away and merges with his Philosopher's Stone. This goes badly for him and he slowly gets consumed by his powers before turning into a statue by the end of the issue. This issue was really good. All of those plot points seemed to merge really well into this issue and it felt much more focused. I'm really enjoying Ted Kord. It's nice seeing a hero with a bright outlook on life in a comic book. I also love his Beetle ship. It might be the coolest form of transportation ever in comics. I think this series has started to hit it's stride and I'm excited to see where it goes. Vic Sage, aka the Question, appears towards the end and he'll be taking on the Blue Beetle in the next issue. That should be a good one.

Monday was a bad day where I live. With the wind chill it got as cold as -30 degrees outside. I thought I lived in Ohio, not Minnesota. With that said, I didn't feel like moving outside of my pile of blankets so I read Blue Beetle #5. All the youth gangs of Chicago are teaming up with the backing of a Mister M. This draws the attention of the Blue Beetle and the Question. They bust up the gangs but Mister M bails them out and the escape. Mister M reveals himself as the Muse as the issue ends. Again, this issue was much more focused like the previous one. The gangs were very 70s down to the lingo. But it is comics so it's not like they are usually on the cutting edge of what "the kids" likes these days. I enjoyed this issue quite a bit. This series has been a really fun romp. I say it over and over again, but Ted Kord is a really great character. I wish I would have had a larger amount of exposure to him in my earlier comic reading days. This series only lasted 24 issues and that's a real bummer to me. Unfortunately, this is the kind of series that never catches on for whatever reason. The Blue Beetle has just never had any real pull as a solo act.

I didn't get as much read this week as I wanted but I'm hoping to get a few issues in tomorrow.

2014 Comic Counter: 10