I am a Print Addict

I love prints.  I have many of the 11 x 17in that I have purchased.  I like these small ones though because I can scan them to share.  They also are easier to find frames for them when getting them protected and hang-able.

This Aquaman was from this year's Hickory ComicCon.  I love it.  The use of the Orange for the setting or rising sun.  The playfulness of the print is something else that drew me in.  Just a cool look.

It was a two for one price on the Aquaman print and the one that had to go home with it was this Phantom Print.  I love the character and this pirate ship piece was just a perfect fit for my collection.

The Hickory ComicCon event was where this Wonder Woman print was purchased.  I liked the simple look and the way the background is used.

Which lead to this year purchasing a Power Girl print by the same artist.  This is a really nice look for the lesser known character for mainstream people.

I bought a Harley Quinn print by this artist along with a Hulk print for a gift when at HeroesCon.  I saw this print of Mysterio by the same artist that I just had to get it.  This is a really neat drawing of a classic Spider-Man character.  I love pieces like this one.

BDS

Power Girl #27 Good-Bye Karen

 This week I lost the second book I have most enjoyed in the past two years.  Power Girl was not a character that I have ever really followed.  Mostly Fan Art bought and the Infinite Crisis was how I knew her.  Gray, Palmotti, and Conner began a humorous action filled adventure book that I ranked up there with Batgirl as my most anticipated read each month.  It was a book that I felt good reading.  I was sad as Winnick took over but hung around because I figured it was temporary.  I just didn't realize the temporary was a line wide revamp that would eliminate this title.

Matthew Sturges wrote the last story.  It would have been nice to have read his run on this title.  He brought back the Power Girl I fell in love with at the start.  She is smart and confident without arrogance.  This is a heroine that despite her impressive curves is to be admired.  I like that he included a character here that Power Girl knows well, but that I do not, Cyclone.  I kinda figured where Sturges was going with Cyclone, but how he did it was a neat twist.  It also displayed just how smart Power Girl really is here in this adventure.

I added the cover without the writing on it.  This is just an amazing work of art.  No, her chest is not what draws you in either, it is her eyes.  They are simple amazing in this artwork.  I also am amazed at how her outfit stands out on a white background.  It is just breath taking.  I read for the stories, but I can appreciate a great piece of art as well.

So long Power Girl.  No more reading of you dealing with the stinky cat, neighbor fanboys, or cosmic gigolos.  I loved reading and collecting your adventures.  Hope they use you soon and in a way that lives up to this run of your adventures.  Up, Up. and Away!


BDS

Girl Power: Birds of Prey #12, Power Girl #24, Supergirl #64, and Zatanna #13

            I guess this could be a Girl Power collection of comments.  I just want to give some opinion on this books that I read.

Birds of Prey #12 – Oracle is dead, long live Oracle.  Barbara has let the world believe Oracle is gone and now Gail Simone is free to just return to her set of stories for a bit.  This is a neat covert ops story.  It has a very twisted ending as well.  It is neat seeing Lady Blackhawk do more than drive a car or fly a plane.  Since Gail returned she has really brought this character to the forefront of the group.  Most reviewers I read commented on the Question being in the story.  Everyone is speculating that She will join.  I am not sure she needs to be a regular.  The team is a bit crowded as it is right now.  Great book as always.

Power Girl#24 – Had DC not announced the reboot of some characters and the new number 1's I was on my way to dropping PG.  I love the character and supporting cast, but like normal Judd Winick just does nothing for me as a reader.  I have nothing against the guy.  I gave him a chance.  I just do not find his storytelling all that fascinating.  I have this sense/fear that many of the DC titles I read will disappear when this reboot that is not a reboot happens.  So I am basically on until August.  Either I am wrong and the fact that Winick remains writer has me drop the book, or I get to try a new creator out on the book.  If I am correct and it is canceled, then I have no decision to make.

Supergirl #64 – The current story concludes.  It is a nice little team up tale of how Supergirl is capable of defending Metropolis while Big Blue is wandering the country.  Has two of my favorite newer characters, Blue Beetle and Miss Martian and the little boy we are to love to hate, Robin.  Just a nice tale that respects the fact that Supergirl is a great heroine.  Plus I still love the new look.  All women do not keep long hair.  Her current hairstyle fits what many women I see and know have as there personal cut.

Zatanna #13 – I use to use the term “bridge story” when I was reviewing comics at PBR.  It was how I describe a story that was a connector to the things that had come before and the new action about to happen.  It is a way to catch your breath as a reader.  This issue is one of those.  It has some humor with the weird fortune telling cat.  The Spectre is a foreshadowing of future plot development.  What is of most importance is that Detective Colton finds out something very important about himself.  Brother Night escapes and finds out as well.  It will lead us into a neat place for the story of Zatanna I think.

            So there is a bit of my thoughts on some of the books I read.  No time for full reviews, but I wanted to comment.

BDS

Rapid Remarks!

Untold Tales of Blackest Night #1                Think of this as the “Deleted Scenes” of the Blackest Night.  That is what we get here.  The book has tales that are glimpses of moments we did not get to see.  Donna Troy and the effects of the baby bite.  Some dumb Flash villains trying to become Black Lanterns.  Animal Man in the middle of his struggle with being a former dead person.  Scarecrow and his Yellow Ring, which I had hoped for more of a tale.  A tragic look at the result of the Black Rings on Ragman.  Costly, it runs $4.99.  Might be for completist only.  It will probably be collected with the trades.

Power Girl #17                       Why does Winnick have to write this?  I want to follow this character.  I really do.  I am not liking Judd Winnick on this book.  I rarely enjoy his work.  I am trying to wait out his run and see if someone else takes the writing chores soon.  If not, then I might be dropping PG in the near future.

Secret Six #27             Spawn is on the cover.  Not really, but that is what it looks like to me and apparently many of the people who saw the cover in the store.  I like Simone’s writing, but this piecemeal story telling is getting old.  Back to basics please.  Still, an Awesome Amanda Waller tale in these pages.  So that is worth the price of Admission.

Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #3                       Still great.  Has some of the best of the Lantern Corps present.  Other Lanterns here as well.  $3.99 price so you must weigh the financial side of reading this in single issues.

Green Lantern #58                The mystery of the Lantern Entities continues.  Looks like Carol will be Queen of the Zamorans.  This book has Hal Jordan, Sinestro, Atrocious, Carol Ferris, and Larfleeze.  C’mon you know you are reading this in single of trade versions.  This issue has the Blue Entity saving a child and choosing her as the vessel.  Plus Atrocious kills a bunch of murderers.  What I want to know is when are we getting the DexStarr One Shot?

Green Lantern Corps #53                  One image.  Kyle punching the crap out of Sinestro.  We see what the Weaponer did with the White Lantern Ring energy net that Boston Brand made.  It is intriguing that he can use it that way.  All action issue with cool concepts for ring energy.  This is a must read right now.  Been where the cool stories have been.

Batman Beyond #5 of 6                    You know they gave Terry McGuiness his own series right?  This issue shows us why it is a great book.  Bruce expresses his softer side.  A Dick Grayson cameo times two and the new Catwoman.  It is just a great read.

Zatanna #6                 A really good book so far.  I like the almost Fanfiction mind-control element here.  This is a nice look at the magical side of the DCU.  We get her cousin Zach here as well.  Very good read.

            This may become a regular post.  I can cover what I am reading and get just the basic thoughts out there.  What do you think?  Hey tell a friend.  I really hope to have rebuilt some recognition before I get to the Convention buys.  I want the people to get a bunch of coverage if I can.  Thanks for dropping by.

BDS

Power Girl #15

 
                I was worried about this title when the creative team changed.  This was right there with Batgirl as my favorite buy of the month.  I am still hanging with the book, but that is because it has not totally undone all that was good about the start.  I miss the humor that was in Power Girl, but the character is still doing well.  Wonder where Terra is though.  Seems the new team is gutting the supporting cast.

                Not able to push Power Girl on you anymore.  While enjoyable, it has become just another DC book right now.  The very unique flavor of the start of the title is gone.  What is left is a typical comicbook.  We have the elements of the genre.  Hero plus baddies plus conflict equals story.  The book is readable and better than some on the market, but it honestly could be any female in the title and role of character.

                Seems I am talking myself out of buying Power Girl.  Maybe.  I guess that is what Winick is for me.  I mean I tried really hard to stick with Green Lantern when he started writing early on in his career.  I left because of the same thing.  His stories were bland and I just could not justify the cost versus enjoyment.  Now comics cost even more and I face the same dilemma.  What do I do, stay or go?

                Still not sure about that right now.  I am really hoping that this is a temporary assignment for Winick.  Maybe DC is just filling a hole until they change writers.  I hope so.  This is one time that Winick being bounced around from title to title would be a good thing.

BDS

Power Girl

I want to apologize for taking a bit of extra time after a very rewarding, yet tiring week at camp.  I had hoped to put a few thoughts on via email, but a lack of accessible wi-fi kept me away.  I now will work on catching up while money rebuilds in the bank account so I can buy new comics.

During the past year there were two comics that I have enjoyed and also saved for the honorable last read of my books.  I read the books I enjoy most last, which may be odd, but it is what I do.  What two books have those been?  Well, the image to the left should give a clue to one, Power Girl.  The other is Batgirl.  The problem is that like so many of my favorites at DC I get a drastic change when a creative team comes.

What I loved about the Gray, Palmotti, and Conner Power Girl was a sense of fun.  Along with the action and the adventure, I laughed.  That is a rare gift anymore.  I also digged the softer and cartoony look to the book.  It was just this well oiled machine that delivered on so many levels.  Funny and stylish with subtle humor and jokes could be a tag line for the title.  It really worked and I was able to follow a character I have always liked and yet never really been drawn to in other books.

So, now comes a nice fellow with talent, but whom I always seem to leave a title when he comes on it, Judd Winick.  I do see improvement with his writing as I have read the tie-ins to various DC events.  Yet, when he came to Green Lantern years ago I left the book.  Now he has been given the title of Power Girl and to his credit, a saddled tie in to this Max Lord story that will carry through the DCU for a while.  I worry that my light-hearted adventure book will become a constant tale of bad things happening with more bad things happening and just to throw it in more bad things happening.  Winick writes reality, but for me the unreality of Power Girl is what I loved.  I mean the whole book had strange characters that worked and Karen just took it all in stride.

I am going to give the book a chance.  The art is different, yet works well.  I would encourage you to buy the trade of the first 12 issues.  It is a great example of comicbook wonderfulness.  

Happy Reading!
BDS