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So, the origin actually did a cool thing this time. It made me interested in someone I don't know about. How is the new Blue Beetle series? Is anyone around here reading it? Cully Hamner is slick, and I still enjoy his work on those Authority short stories from the "Earth Inferno" collection. I also picked up the first couple issues of Firestorm after Jason showed up with the "new" JLA, and while I quite enjoyed the character and the art, plot-wise felt the comic started off with too much of a "decompressed" vibe that left me feeling like nothing happened each issue.
Are people picking up new books like that, because of 52, specifically? I keep fantasizing about new series spinning off that would actually satisfy me with their playing with the concepts and some focus, but I'm not sure what else I've picked up because of this series.
With regard to that actual issue - as usual, great cover and a comic that sort of falls flat. They make reference to the 9999 steps that Ralph has to go up to see Rama Kushna, only then he's just suddenly there and it seems like he was at a doctor's office and he had to wait a long time to go in but then it was just "Go right in and the doctor will be with you in a moment." There was no journey. You could argue that stopping the yeti proved his worth but ... uh. No, no, it was kind of shit, actually, Ralph just hopped onto his back and that was that. There was never any real sense that anything was at stake. The suddenly human yeti makes reference to terrible things behind his rampage but that was it. It wasn't 9999 stairs, it was three pages of dull, listless "action." If that was all that was required we'd all be seeing God *all the time*. And then Ralph meets God(dess) and Boston Brand is mentioned but only in passing, and it sort of fizzles. Ralph feels as though he's become this bland adventurer on a quest with no real personality outside that. His detective work is laughable and I wish they had someone better suited to it writing his arc -- he just knows things, there's never any sense of legwork. He's not J'onn J'onzz and we even see Batman occasionally have to work something out. Why not Ralph?
It's like he's trying to get his groove back - ain't no way his nose is gonna twitch until he gets his twitch back. There's this angstful floating nasal-phallus metaphor underneath his story.
I enjoyed Starfire's "You both irritate me no end but I suppose we should try and save the universe." The space opera portion of 52 plays so well when the action is combined with a mildly sitcomesque vibe. I wish Adam and Buddy looked more different, though.
I'm assuming Freddy Freeman has a Wisdom-of-Solomon moment with Osiris. Osiris *is* sort of correct even if he is a bit of an ass and I love the inclusion of Sobek in the Black Marvel Family. |
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