From Caleb Gerard:
Another edition of the non-musical 18 Lines About 9 comics.
Green Lantern #42 continues to give readers the post-Convergence life of Hal Jordan. Taking a page from the decompressed world of Marvel not a hell of lot happen in this issue and we find out almost next to nothing about how Hal got long hair however the dialog was incredibly engaging and was enhanced by the amazing Billy Tan art.
Action Comics #42 is the next chapter in the strangely published out of order life of Clark Kent. Said it before and happy to say it again Greg Pak has refound a fan in me with his plotting and dialoging of this latest version of Superman.
Omega Men #2 could be the 2nd issue of DC’s latest awesome superhero political thriller. Rarely has Kyle Rayner been more intriguing to me which is in no smart part due to his being a part of team rather than a solo character… he is not a marquee character, just saying.
Guardians Team-Up #7 gave me the unlikely teaming of 2 of my current favorite MU characters: the doofus-driven Ant-Man and the humorless-Drax. “Convoluted” is the path that leads Drax to Miami and is forced to work with the hung-over Scott Lang to retrieve one of Marvel’s most iconic destructive devices.
X-Tinction Agenda #2 is a Secret Wars tie-in using one of the my least favorite of the many x-overs from the last 20 years of many x-overs. This is one of those examples of a comicbook that is elevated by having a marvelous artist presenting an otherwise just-OK story so I’m giving this a relook just to check out Carmine di Giandomenico’s art even if I really don’t care much what happens.
Secret Wars #4 is a Secret Wars tie… no wait, this is the main series, my bad. This issue finds most of the “survivors” from the old universe finding each other and comparing notes and smacking each other around while trading engaging dialog thanks to Hickman’s plotting and dialog.
Ultimate End #3 gives a couple of the Ultimate architects, Bendis and Bagley, a chance to close the door on this innovative direction. New York is one crowded town usually but never more-so than when the regular MU heroes and the Ultimate heroes are all crammed in there… let the misunderstandings explode while Ultimate Nick Fury acts like a big douche.
Batman Beyond #2 is taking this title just where I hoped it would as we find that the world is NOT all post-apocolyptic. As the very-fallible adult Tim Drake blunders his way through the future world that he really should not be in this part-time fan of the cartoon gets to see him get his ass kicked by my favorite villain from the ‘toon: Inque.
New Suicide Squad #10 focuses on some of the core members of the team as they attempt to infiltrate one of the MANY “secret” terrorist groups in the DCU. This comic, for me, is proof that there are NO bad ideas if a great writer gets their hands on them… Sean Ryan knows exactly how to engage me as a reader which means I need to find more of what he’s written to this point.