No Way! New Comics: Week of April 30, 2008

Note: Minor Spoilers Ahead.

DC Universe #0 - Sure it's an ad for the upcoming Final Crisis, but for just two shiny quarters, it's certainly priced right. It's easy to poo poo, but I'll admit I'm a little excited. Morrison writing the next big DC event? Even if it's a failure, it's still a success. And as far as the big, possible spolier return, I don't think that there's anyone else that could pull it off.

I have a theory, which I want to put out there. I get the feeling that Morrison's take may well be that the character-who-died that he is now bringing back may not have died in the first place. Just a gut reaction, based on the first few bits of narration and some comic book pseudo-science. Isn't it possible that instead of dying, his molecules were just dispersed throughout the universe, that he became the universe? Just a thought.

Immortal Iron Fist #14 - Fantastic. What a way to end this arc. Everything reaches a satisfying end, while new avenues are opened up. I especially like the dipensation of Davos, that he was able to step outside himself and to see what he had become. I'm sad Fraction and Brubaker are leaving this title. I feel like this arc has turned a corner for this character, for this concept. I fear the team has duplicated what Frank Miller did for Daredevil all those years ago: stamped a third tier character with their own indelible style. At this point, I don't know who could follow on this title that wouldn't fall in their shadow.

Green Lantern #30 - I enjoy this series a lot, though I've voiced my reservations concerning Johns wholesale mining of the few bits Alan Moore contributed to the GL mythology. It's worked fine so far, but I feel we're getting into a dangerous area in terms of incorporating it into Hal's origin story. Who knows? So far, it's working for me, and if ever a character needed a beefed up mythology, it's Green Lantern.

Wolverine: First Class #2 - A little late in picking this up, but man... what a fun title. It recalls my favorite era of these characters (Kitty excited about going to a Dazzler concert) and combines it with clever situations (a ninja restraunt?) and some of the most ingenious use of powers I've seen in a long time. I laughed at first when Sabretooth jammed the wasabi into Logan's nose, but then I thought that it was really smart. Slapstick + brains = comic I will buy. Who knew?

Black Gas 2 #1-3 - I had picked up the first series a while ago in dollar bins, and was intrigued enough to keep a lookout for the second series if it was similarly discounted. I understand that Ellis is trying to branch off of the mainstream, trying to develop his own creator-owned properties, but this stuff from Avatar... I don't know. I'm conflicted. Both series feel like an R&D project for a movie, an incredibly gory one at that. Maybe it's my fascination/aversion to zombie stories, that prompted me to pick it up in the first place. I was hoping for more in the second series, but kind of arrived at the inevitable end with a cartoonish sad trombone.

Tags: dc universe green lantern black gas immortal iron fist