What's Your Issue? Spotlight on Teen Titans #6

Are you reading Teen Titans?

Scott Lobdell is writing it, and his work on X-Men (and later Uncanny X-Men) was nothing short of prolific. Don't believe me? Go back and read that story about Iceman's racist dad getting beaten up for defending his mutant son. And Lobdell was writing that s@# before it got trendy.

In Titans, he's made the bold move to feature Red Robin (the Tim Drake version, natch), Wonder Girl, and Kid Flash on the team. But he's also created a host of brand new characters who are actually pretty interesting. There's Skitter, an insect-like girl who shows very little rational, coherent thought in her "bug state" (more on her this issue). Solstice; who is apparently made up of some sort of blue light in a black smoke girl form. And finally Bunker; a carefree Mexican gay character who can create purple energy constructs. For example, he likes to form "brick hands" when punching people. We still don't know much about the newbies. This issue is a direct follow up from the Superboy attack in #5, with the team slowly regaining consciousness. The immediate danger? Kid Flash was vibrated so fast by "The Superboy" (I like how they put the "The" they put in front of his name in this and other issues) that he is now in danger of vibrating out of existence.

Comic Vlog Attempt

This video is pretty bad, but I figured I would give a comic vlog a try.


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What's Your Issue? Spotlight on Batgirl #6

A new week brings new comics. Since X-Factor was a Marvel title, I figured let's switch things up with a DC 'New 52'. Since Batgirl is slightly more fun than Superboy this week, that's what I'm going to talk about. Deal with it.

Batgirl #6 is a direct let's-pick-up-right-at-the-end of Batgirl #5 issue. There's a new villain with multi-colored hairdos named Gretel that can appearantly mind control people. I guessed that it was just men last issue, and that's pretty much confirmed here. Anyway, she took control of Bruce Wayne's limo driver who I think had a gun for some reason, so Batgirl swoops in to save him. Only... Bruce Wayne is mindcontrolled, too. And he's motherf@$#ing Batman.

So Barbara is about to face off against Bruce, who has a crowbar and an angry expression. She doesn't want to hurt him, but is also worried she might lose to him in a fight regardless. He keeps repeating '338' - a signature of all of Gretel's victims. Batgirl does a pretty good job fending him off. She's also remembering Bruce's support after she got shot by The Joker, so we get some insight into their rebooted relationship. They weren't close before that, but looks like he had her back and they became buds after. I guess to get Batman to like you, just get shot. Anyway, Batgirl is winning... then she gets slammed on the head by Bruce's personal assistant. This was awesome because I totally didn't expect it. Then that female cop shows up who hates Batgirl from the first 4 issues and I think pistol whips her.

The whole issue was very violent, obviously.

What's Your Issue? Spotlight on X-Factor #231

Welcome to my new weird semi-regular segment, What's Your Issue? where I review individual comic issues because I just read 'em and have no one to talk to about 'em. For our first installment, we're talking about X-Factor #231 which came out this week.

The issue opens with Multiple Man Jamie Madrox still in the same alternate world we left off in; a dual set of Sentinel-size Iron Men are about to put him out of his reality hoping misery (which will probably just send him to another world anyway, as this keeps happening when he "dies"). A scan by of one of the Iron Men reveals that Madrox is somehow out of phase or out of sync with their world, so they decide to take him to their "boss." If you guess that to be Tony Stark, then you've read yourself some Marvel Comics in the past few decades.

The older Tryp has gained a new ally (a shadowy red-eyed figure) to help rescue Madrox from Stark's tower. Jamie is in rare form while being taken to Tony's office, giving off a lot of one-liners and zingers that make it really the best part of the comic. Tony and him have a conversation where it's revealed he was in space when Wanda reset reality, only removing most of the humans from the world instead of most of the mutants (as she did in regular continuity). They are interrupted when Tryp's friend busts in, a franken-like amalgam of Steve Rogers and Deathlok. Basically, it sums up the awesome cover.

SLJ Cover - October 2009

Ever since I created the "sidebar" on my blog of 'quicklinks' to my book reviews for School Library Journal, I have been looking online for the cover of the very first issue I was featured in. This was way back when in October 2009. The cover is nearly impossible to get, it turns out. SLJ is great about keeping all the covers up, online, and easy to find... but only after it became 2010.

Turns out, my problem wasn't that difficult to solve. Sort of. A quick trip to the New York Public Library Periodicals Room a couple of weeks ago and boom! Cover in hand. Sorry the cover isn't in color, but I was so proud of getting my hands on an issue, photocopying, and scanning it in, I just had to share it with y'all here. I consider this a personal library victory. Hope you enjoy it!