My CBR Shame

Grant on Flash was OK, but not as great as I expected. Back then I had already been a fan of his work for a long time time, so having him as the regular writer for my favorite character ever was a dream come true. But...well, "Hell To Pay" was such a great ending for Waid's run it became a tough act to follow to anyone who had to step on his shoes. Plus, he went out with the promise of coming back one year later with "Chain Lightning" which, back then, was hyped to be this super-cosmic-time-and-space-spanning-Flash-epic that was gonna change the world for ever and all that crap. So Grant's stuff was OK, but by coming after "Hell to pay" and with the hype behind "Chain Lightning", his run turned out to be a bit underwhelming and it ended up being a mildly fun way of killing the time until Waid's return.

er because Millar used to write Sonic The Hedgehog monthly, I would not be surprised that the plot where Flash races Sonic The Hedgehog across the universe came from him rather than Grant.

Their usual writing practice was to divvy up dialoguing issue-by-issue, rather than story-by-story, so that would fit. Also since there's no way Grant didn't write that one with his new version of the Mirror Master, which wouldn't fit with the three-on three-off pattern. (of course it all got thrown wonky when he had to bail from the last three due to overcommittment, which might be what you're thinking of?)

G-Mo! On the FF! Cool! Not really. A pretty thin plot (Doom manipulates reality but underestimates the FF's innate goodness) allows GM to trot round some icons without really seeming too enthused by any of it. Nice Jae Lee art - murk is boring but he does it better than most - is it really true tho that the Torch's powers stop working if its RAINING??? (ok I think it was some sort of mutant super-rain)

All Colossus stories in which he is painting are funny and this is no exception as he expresses his inner torment by drawing a mid-90s Simon Bisley picture. When you think about it it's amazing that the X-books have never done the "his name is Rasputin yes Rasputin WHO ELSE HAD THAT NAME" plot before, but David Hine is a pretty decent low-key writer so this works as a good read and a stupid larff. Hine's rise to mild x-prominence is a bit odd though - who'd have thought when I was reading "Sticky Fingers" in CRISIS all those years ago that he'd end up doing a hokey Colossus mini?

12 issues of nothing but fighting drawn by John Romita Jr = pretty good fun! I read it all in about 40 minutes but so what? Wolverine murderises lots of good guys then gets turned good again and murderises all the bad guys instead: in some ways this is the quintessential Wolverine story and certainly seems to have been a crowd-pleaser, but on the other hand you can't imagine it having been done at any time prior to now.

I'm not sure the comic's ever been better to be honest.

The great thing about the Baron FLASH (& the Messner-Loebs run) is that in 6/8/10 years time some writer is going to come along and revive it all in the same way Johns is all about the Cary Bates rogues galleries and soapy set-ups.

:)

quick question, the person who started the thread about martian manhunter's 'demise' - are they really that person?

also: it roxx. so hard.

One of them (don't ask me which one) died in some crossover or Flash event some years ago. He was running up the wall of some building when he lost his powers, fell down and SPLOTCH!

And yes, Messner-Loebs' Flash was lovely.

quick question, the person who started the thread about martian manhunter's 'demise' - are they really that person?

Is what who now?

chuck register and then go to the introduce yourself thread/forum which will be one of the few things you'll see and start a thread introducing yourself, post it, and then immediately you'll have access to the rest of the site. look for the tracker 'forums' at the bottom then.

I don't remember reading this, but it sounds very much like the Gene Bomb in INVASION!, doesn't it?

Signed,
A confused stupid comics pirate.

Also d/led:
The Brave & the Bold #200, final issue, Batman/Batman by Mike W. Barr & Dave Gibbons. Turns out, I used to have this as well, but I had completely forgotten about it. A strange tale of Earths 1 & 2 and a man named Brimstone (with AWESOME hair) who traversed the multi-dimensional barrier using only his hatred for Batman.
Justice League of America #171 & 172 Another Earth 1 & Earth 2 story. This one concerns the annual team-up of the JLA/JSA and the death of the original Mr. Terrific. I remember getting the first issue from a used bin when I was a kid, and then I never found the conclusion, so I've just been walking around like a moron for all these years wondering who killed Mr. T. Turns out it was Jay Garrick, but the JL/SA decided that since they've always liked Jay Garrick more than Terry Sloane anyway, they'd just wipe their own minds and forget about it.

The Brave & the Bold #85, Peak Neal Adams, 1st appearance of Green Arrow's beard! Amazingly, I've read this before! It must have been reprinted in one of those DC Blue Ribbon Digests. Still, fantastic non-fantastic Bob Haney story. Bruce Wayne, congressman! Batman and GA share a psychiatrist! Psychiatrist uses self-hypnosis to remove knowledge of their secret IDs! Who needs Zatanna?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/eriebooksgalore/dccos92/dccos080.jpg

I can't believe Big Sir got his own card. Did any of the other Injustice Leaguers?

No, that's fair enough. Being really quick reads also helps me get through 60-odd in a day.

Anyway:

Teen Titans Go! 1-20 odd

This is definitely the comic book of the TV Series, with the return of actual editor's captions, which refer to episodes of the TV show rather than other comics. Does the current rake of 'Adventures' (comics of DC TV animations) do this? I assume old-school toy comics (G.I.Joe, Transformers, Zoids) must have done this a certain amount.

The comics all read really quickly, like they'd be a good five-minute time-filler in one of the TV episodes. I never realised until reading them, what a strange continuity situation the series was in - they're characters from 20 years ago, in the modern world. Because I'd read Gotham Central's Dead Robin arc just before this, which has a Titans containing Beast Boy, Cyborg, Raven and Robin III, I didn't notice that this one was Dick Grayson until it's (literally) spelled out. Though guest stars from Wildebeest and Speedy should probably have tipped me off :)

Also I read Power Pack 1-5, out of a massive torrent of all of them ever, and thought "Yes, this is roughly what I remember, I'll stop now". They're great characters, but that might be the problem: they're so like actual kids that spending more than a short amount of time with them can get pretty annoying.

No, old school G.I.Joe and Transformers had continuities independent from the actual toys and the other tie-ins. And in the case of Larry Hama's Joe and the British Transformers, their continuities were way more intricate and way, way more awesome, although Hama's eventually died from an overdose of the crappy new toys he kept having to shoehorn in to his stories. (Well, OK, the ninja thing didn't help after a while either.)

Over the weekend, I d/led THE GREAT DARKNESS SAGA (whose central mystery is spoiled by the cover of the trade, dirty fuckers) and the first 37 (complete pre-Zero Hour?) issues of the Five Year Gap Legion.