Waiting on Wednesday - 7/10/07

This is my 100th post, and I could not have done it without the warm response I have gotten from all of you, even those who come here looking for Jessica Alba nude, for whatever reason. To be honest, after 100 posts, there is a bit of burnout, if any of you have noticed slightly fewer posts this past week or so. But have no fear, I have lots of good ideas coming up. I have a couple of articles to finish up, then we will get started with a lot more comic goodness. On to the comics!

As I said last week during the Release Reviews post, there are quite a few good comics being released this week. As a result, I will likely miss one or two that some of you think are worth reading or reviewing. So I encourage you, if I miss something here and you want to review it yourself, send me your review in an email at thecomicrack @ yahoo.com and I will post it Friday with the rest of my Release Reviews and give you full credit.


Marvel

• Deadpool/GLI: Summer Fun #1 - The all-important first spot (which really means nothing) goes to the one and only... Deadpool! Good ol' DP gets out of the shadow of his geriatric and boring partner Cable for a team-up special with none other than his old foes turned comrades the Great Lakes Avengers.
  
  The GLA has been appropriated in the Superhero Registration Act and has changed their name yet again to the Great Lakes Initiative and is solely responsible for all of greater Wisconsin! Expect lots of classic Deadpool goofiness, and Marvel is promising lots of ninjas. My only hope here is that Marvel will see the value of releasing Deadpool and his fans from the hell that his series with Cable has been.
  
  Deadpoolite, I am calling you out for an iin-character review of this issue. Either send it to me, or post it on your site, and I'll link it up.


• World War Hulk: Gamma Corps #1 - The entire premise of this mini-series seems a little dumb to me to be honest. General Ryker has taken the DNA of the Hulk, Abomination, the Leader and Doc Samson among others to create a team of gamma-powered killers who only job is to kill the Hulk. The characters to be featured are Grey (Hulk and the Leader), Griffin (based off the Betty Ross harpy mutation), Mess (a female red-headed Abomination), Mister Gabriel (black Doc Samson) and Prodigy (another Leader).
  
  I may be wrong about this like I was about Frontline, but it just doesn't stir any excitement in me. It may be because I have never been crazy about books centered around villains (you'll likely never see Thunderbolts on here as something I would read), or it may be because that lineup sounds like a poorly thought out idea. They took each of the gamma powered beings and slightly bastardized the ideas that made them great for all these years. If it would be that easy to take down the Hulk, don't you think the military would have come up with it a long time ago? And why no She-Hulk clone?


• New Avengers #32 - Last month in New Avengers they revealed that Elektra has been a Skrull for who knows how long, and it has sent the entire Marvel Universe into a tailspin wondering who they can trust and who they can't. But despite it being such a huge revelation, you have heard absolutely nothing about it in any other books.
  
  So here we are at the next issue hoping Brian Michael Bendis throws us a bone, and I have to be honest, I don't think he will. I can see him dragging this out throughout his run before they involve the rest of the universe in it. But being such a compelling story means that I will definitely be reading this and hoping to find out who is also a Skrull and what the hell that creepy looking baby was looking at at the end of the last issue.


• X-Factor #21 - What Marvel has to say about this issue:

  In a castle of ice in a far off land, a fearsome being called the Isolationist sits and waits and plans...except he need wait no longer. He is coming to Mutant Town, and is seeking out Jamie Madrox. But whether he and X-Factor will be enemies or allies pales in comparison to the shocking developments involving Guido's new job offer, Rictor's unexpected call to action, Siryn and Monet's new case, and--most stunning of all--Layla's disturbing discovery of something even she didn't know.

  Here's what I have to say about it:

  Who cares about all that, it has an 8-page Endangered Species story at the end of it, and that is the only reason I am going to buy this.

  Seriously, I have not paid any attention at all to this comic despite reasons I should love it. First off, it is part of the X-universe which I love, and secondly, it is written by Peter David, one of my all-time favorite writers. But I still don't care.

DC Comics

• Green Arrow: Year One #1 (of 6) - After last weeks Black Canary #1, this is the next "filler" series to span from GA #75 until their wedding and beyond. It has been said they will restart the Green Arrow series after al this is done, so take this series as an opportunity to either catch up on your GA history or to get acquainted with Oliver Queen for the first time.
  
  The creative team of Andy Diggle and Jock aim (get it, aim? hahaha)to tell the definitive origin story of the Emerald Archer. And judging by DC's sneak peek of the issue, it looks pretty good. I have never heard of Jock before this, he was previously the artist on The Losers which I am not familiar with, but his style of art looks like it will fit perfectly with Green Arrow.
  
  What makes me the most excited for this series above everything else, though, is that we get to return to the original Oliver Queen. We get to see the smart aleck, philandering playboy we grew to love before he got castrated in the One Year Later story where he became the Mayor of Star City and suddenly seemed excessively responsible.


• Green Lantern #21 - DC kicks off the Sinestro Corps War here as we see Hal Jordan and the other GL's of planet Earth go on a rescue mission. What the hell that means? I have no clue. There is an absolute lack of information about this issue, so I assuming that there is another big surprise in store for us.
  
  DC promises hundreds of villains, and the promotional poster they released (pictured, right) shows the Sinestro Corps and the Manhunters. Those, along with the Anti-Monitor, Superboy Prime and Parallax (Kyle Rayner) look to be the single most formidable force to ever face the Green Lantern Corps. I have said it before, I just don't see how the GLCorps can survive this. There will have to be enormous losses of life because that group just isn't going down easily, if at all. This soon after a reboot and introduction of so many characters seems to point towards a destruction and rebuilding of the Corps.


• Justice Society of America #7 - The first issue of JSA after the huge Lightning Saga crossover, and we get introduced to a new member. Well that is if you consider a third generation superhero "new". Citizen Steel joins the team that his grandfather (Commander Steel) and cousin (also Commander Steel) were both a part of, however, Geoff Johns promises that this is a brand new character, not just another rehash of an old concept. Because DC never rehashes old concepts...
  
  Citizen Steel was introduced in JSA #2 as Nathan Heywood, wo was attacked by a bunch of nazis under the control of Vandal Savage. He had some liquid metal spilled on him which eventually bonded with his skin and gave him a metal skeleton and superhuman strength. Also mentioned is that the JSA will begin to feel the effects of 52 on their little corner of the Multiverse.


• Countdown #42 - Looks like Countdown is finally going to kick into high gear... yeah, right. We have been hearing that for 10 weeks now. But this time it looks like it could possibly be true. This week we see the Suicide Squad, who made a small appearance last week in subduing Piper and Trickster, and also finally Ray Palmer, the Atom.
  
  While I look forward to more action, and I am not crazy about some of the characters already in the series and welcome new blood, I see adding more characters making the time we spend with every segment even smaller. I am also wondering why Mary Marvel and The Riddler are mud wrestling on the cover, and don't you wish they would go back to the stark single character covers they started the series with? Like the Joker cover or the more recent Mary Marvel cover?


• Also check out the Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters TPB coming out this week. I doubt I will get it myself, because of budget more than anything, but if you are looking forward to the upcoming Uncle Sam series this would make for some good reading to refresh you.

That's about all for this week. I haven't taken the time to look at what's coming out next week, so you'll just have to wait and see. I won't likely be posting tomorrow, unless something important happens, so I will see you all back here on Thursday for the next installment of Hulk vs. Bizarro and hopefully more information on the other stuff I have been up to lately causing some of this to be a little late.

CG