Comic Reading Update #6

Tuesday night I started off with Suicide Squad #3. This issue featured the Furies of Darkseid breaking Glorious Godfrey out of prison. This was a good issue as it showed the internal struggled within Task Force X and it also showed the difficulties relying on super villains can create. When the chips were down Captain Boomerang and Deadshot were nowhere to be found. I really liked the development they did for Amanda Waller in this issue. It really establishes her as the tough, no nonsense leader that we all love to hate. I was also kind of surprised to see the Squad straight up lose in this issue. It was kind of refreshing to see in a comic book. I believe this was a one shot issue but we'll see if there's any follow up on this later. I'm still loving this book.

I read The Flash #2 on Wednesday night. A lot of this issue cleans up the plot points from the first issue. Wally collects his lottery winnings and starts to spend it. He has two encounters with Vandal Savage along the way. It appears they beefed Savage up in the post-Crisis as he displays some abilities that he had forgotten during his battles with Barry Allen. They did a really good job of establishing Vandal Savage as one of the top threats in the Flash book in this issue. He came across as a very weird and very eerie villain. As I've mentioned previously, I've read these Flash issues before. I started this series in the mid 2000s on a whim and absolutely fell in love with the Flash as a character. I'm really enjoying the revisit with this series. Anyways, I think this was a good issue. They are setting out to establish a world for Wally to live in and I think they've done a good job so far. I can't wait to get deeper into this series.

I also read Blue Beetle #8. This was a little different as it was told from the perspective of an ex-con named Ed Buckley. He tries to get a job at Kord Industries and after not getting it falls in with a villain named the Calculator. They set up a job at CES and Buckley ends up saying the Blue Beetle at the end of the issue. This was a predictable kind of story but it was a fun read. I think this issue benefited from not having to keep track of all the dangling plot points that Len Wein had created and maintained through the first 7 issues. He did a good job of making you root for Buckley and wanting to see him come out on top. The Calculator becomes a big player down the road in the DCU. He loses the stupid costume and becomes more of a professional organizer for the super villains in the DCU. He actually becomes a really cool character when they go that route. He was pretty lame here. I enjoyed this issue like most of the others in this series. I really need to step it up and finish this series off as it's only 24 issues.

I finished the night off with Superman Annual #1. This was the story of Titano. A chimp that grows to a large size after a science experiment goes wrong and battles Superman throughout the issue. This was kind of interesting as it read more like a comic you'd find at the shop today. There was less text with the focus on the art telling the story. That was really weird to see in a comic from 1987. I had a mixed reaction this issue. I really enjoyed the story but the narration was an article that Lois Lane wrote for the Daily Planet. That's where this book just fell apart. Lois is supposed to be a journalist with few equals in the field. I doubt such a celebrated journalist would resort to such cliched and corny lines as they used in this issue. It really hurt my buy in with this story because you knew that someone like Lois Lane wouldn't write that article. With that said, I still enjoyed this issue. Titano appeared in one of my favorite Superman Animated Series episodes and so he became a character that I like. Unfortunately for me, he's a very minor character and I don't think I'll be in for anymore appearances any time soon. Ultimately this was an Annual and those can be mixed bags but I think it was enjoyable enough overall.

I'm currently at 10% of my reading goal for 2014. That's not where I want to be but I still feel I can reach my goal of 200 issues by years end. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm really digging the post-Crisis DC right now and I plan to continue forging ahead with it.

2014 Comic Counter: 22