WEIRD WESTERN TALES #71 - Blackest Night - Everybody has to die sometime and now the major figures of the old west are all back as Black Lanterns! Jonah Hex, Bat Lash, Scalphunter, and Firehair.



WONDER WOMAN - Blackest Night #2 (OF 3) - The walls are closing in as the Black Lantern Maxwell Lord pits familiar faces against Wonder Woman that she hoped never to see again, like that guy she slept with after a heavy night of boozing it up. She thought he was Vin Diesal, only to wake up and find out it was Elmer J. Fudd.



SUICIDE SQUAD #67- Blackest Night - Former less fortunate (dead) Suicide Squad members are back for Deadshot. And so are active members! Can the Secret Six keep them off their marksman?



DOOM PATROL #6 - Negative Man goes over the history of the Doom Patrol.



JSA ALL STARS #2 - The Liberty Belle and Hourman co-feature begins here

Which I'm going to need to read again to be able to make sense of it (a lot happens, it's not easily explained, and I kinda wasn't paying attention).

I didn't think much of issue #1, but Roxy (the A.I. invented by Rex Tyler) might just save this title for me. She's hilarious.

SUICIDE SQUAD #67- Amanda Waller decides to shut down the S6, at the same time the S6 assault Belle Reve. Meanwhile, The original Fiddler rises from the grave along with many, many dead squaddies - forming the (Black Lantern) Homicide Squad.

Deadshot shooting Flag point Blank and Black Alice taking Gigant's powers were the highlights for me. Heck the whole issue was a huge highlight for me.

I'm totally geeking out over this issue.

Yeouch! That smarts!

ugh Again: I like Alice...didn't enjoy her recent Appearances.


HOWEVER THe issue as a whole was a win... Yishem giving that speech and Floyd Just shooting her...Wonderful.

I'm hyped for the Catman Bronze Tiger Showing down.

Amazons get nasty beer goggles it seems.

Just BL 6 (finally). Was nice to see it in print.

(Also Deadpool for Marvel. Yar.)

Hey, she got the speech impediments mixed up. Big deal -- stuff like that happens when you're drinking.

(One time I thought I was going to bed with Cassandra Peterson and I woke up next to Judy Tenuta)

Suicide Squad #67 - Great issue that blends the sensibilities of the two titles seamlessly. Simone and Ostrander have some great chemistry as a writing team. Waller lays a trap for the Six in Belle Reeve, while she and Multiplex invade the House of Secrets to get Scandal. While I was hoping Salvation Run would be quietly forgotten, S&O make lemonade out of lemons here, giving Deadshot a reason to pick sides. Loved seeing Vertigo taking down a powerhouse again and loved seeing a lot of the Squad (Dead and Alive) back in action. I will be very upset if Bronze Tiger doesn't rip Simone's Mary Sue a new one though. Catman shouldn't even be in the same league as him.

Greek Street #7 Eddie and Sandy make their way back to London, the Furey's start a war with the Chinese after secrets are revealed, Daedalus gets closer to the truth and one of the chorus decides to join the story. The pace is really starting to pick up and I like where it's going. Great series.

Gotta go with BN Wonder Woman and JSA All Stars. Think I'll pass on the rest.

I like it a lot

Add me to the legion of folks that appreciated Suicide Squad #67: I just re-read #66 a few days ago! I haven't been keeping up on Secret Six, but I'm reconsidering replacing JSA with S6.

that'd be worthwhile investment....I mean its like Suicide squad except without the Every issue roster change.....OH wait....yeah its every Story Arc that Secret Six get a New Member or lose one...

And like the DatDA teacher at Hogwarts, that's the gimmick. I don't expect the 6's 6th seat to EVER be anything but a rotation point. It allows Gail to bring in fresh blood, and gives the Six a new character to relate to - for better or worse. It really is a good storytelling device.

Great Ten #3 - 4.5 out of 5
"They look at me with a mixture of wonder and fear, the way neanderthals must have greeted the first cro-magnon. I always find that awkward. After all, these powers of mine slumber deep within every human being."

Doing it once may have been a fluke, two times maybe a fluke plus some good fortune, but in three issues straight, Bedard, Daniels & Owen have had wild success in making me utterly fascinated with a new member of the Great Ten each issue. That, my friends, is skill.

This issue's star is Thundermind, kind of an enlightened Buddhist Superman. Without skipping a beat in the larger story that the Great Ten faces - a seeming invasion of modern China by ancient Chinese gods - the story very naturally finds a way to highlight this specific hero and with equal deftness, finds a way to retell his origin.

If you miss the old Pre-Crisis love triangle between Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Superman, you might find Thundermind to be amongst your new favorite heroes. This guy not only has a Superman-level cache of powers, but he also knows how to rock the mild-mannered secret identity, the lovelorn hero who knows it can never be, and the good guy's goodguy who will never let an innocent be harmed.

We are teased with a bit of knowledge concerning the Chinese gods, but Thundermind has more important things to do than to give us the full scoop. I can't wait until next issue.


Suicide Squad #67 - 4.5 out of 5
"He doesn't get to tell me 'no.'"

As I become a little more disenchanted every month with Blackest Night the longer it drags out, I am really trying to avoid buying more of it. I am unable, though, to resist buying the zombie issues of comics I really loved in the past. As a result, I am going into these with very, very limited expectations.

Suicide Squad #67 exceeded those expectations. It was a great, fun comic book that really felt like an issue of the old Suicide Squad series, while at the same time, giving me another dose of Secret Six, something discriminating fans can never get enough of.

Deadshot's replacement on the Suicide Squad isn't working out and Amanda Waller decides she's getting him back, so we are treated to a full-on Suicide Squad vs Secret Six fight on two different fronts. Black Alice distracts, Scandal's date gets grilled, Deadshot is as cold as ice, Amanda Waller lays down the law, and the Fiddler rises.

Sure the Blackest Night stuff only barely takes place in this comic, but I suspect that is one of the reasons why it is so good.

Doom Patrol #6 - 4 stars
"Doom Patrol. Trust me, it bears repeating."

Negative Man gets the spotlight in a disturbing, creepy update of who, exactly, he is. On the way, we get a taste of how New Earth has reconciled the various versions of the Doom Patrol. Sure, some things had to get fudged a bit, but oddly enough, it didn't seem to be all that hard.

I am a big fan of Giffen's darker Doom Patrol. DC doesn't really have a good team of hard-luck heroes. The other teams either deal with the world in a more positive light, deal with angst in a more teenage frame, or are only heroes on occasion. Giffen's Doom Patrol finds an unoccupied space of adult, intelligent angst for this team of adventurers, one that seems to work well with the various histories of the team. I only bring up this general comment about the series in this review because it is really epitomized in this particular issue. Negative Man is not a happy guy, but he is an intriguing one. If this all sounds down and depressing, though, be aware that a surprisingly tender moment shines through that really sells the story by the end.

Also: Metal Men is fun and goofy, but, alas, on its way out.

Weird Western Tales #71 - rated 3.5 out of 5
"A pretty young thing like you shouldn't be losin' her heart over some coward!"

I couldn't resist buying this zombie-Western mash-up. It wasn't all that bad. The art looked great and despite the increasingly tired Zombie Lantern plot that has been done over and over again at DC in the last 6 months, there were a few gems to be found here and there in this issue.

Joshua Turnbull, great-great grandson of Quentin Turnbull, is introduced in this issue. He runs a secret energy facility on behalf of Simon Stagg in an old Western ghost town. In trying to analyze the properties of a captured black ring, the dead of the wild west rise and attack the facility. While I cringed at the Scalphunter dialogue, and I have never liked Super Chief, the appearances of Bat Lash and Jonah Hex were a treat. The dialogue from both were pretty fun and there was even a nice little horror twist at the end that is too good for me to spoil.

As long as they swap out black Alice ASAP ....I'm seriously never going to be cool with this unless Gail rewrites her personality or shows some personal growth.


ALso Anyone else sad that Boomerbutt didn't appear in SS?

I was hoping for a Black Pie TO Smack Everyone In the Face