kayuucee@cvl.UUCP (Kenneth W. Crist Jr.) (02/05/86)
"Is this good?" "Do you like it?" "Yes." "Then it's good." Rating System This weeks books and how they rate ----------------------------------------------------- **** - Excellent - *** - Very Good - Fantastic Four, Legion of Super-Heroes, New Teen Titans, Thor ** - Good - Adventures/Outsiders, Booster Gold, DC Who's Who, Iron Man, Jon Sable, Swamp Thing, Warlord * - Poor - Blue Devil, Green Lantern none - Very Bad - Here are this week's reviews: ADVENTURES OF THE OUTSIDERS #33 DC $.75 ** The first story without Batman leading the Outsiders. I miss him already. Being able to see what is in store for the Outsiders, I wish there was some way he could have stayed with them. This was a good story. The return of the Masters of Disasters was wel- come. I really liked the scene when King Gregor learned that Brion's plane had been shot down. We got to see the man, not the king. The lats page was unex- pected, but hopefully it will lead into a good or better story. BLUE DEVIL #24 DC $.75 * This months' semi-villian is the Toymaster. I dislike the Toymaster. He is one of Superman's stupid villians. Since Superman is so strong the idea of dealing with criminals like the Toymaster is ludicrous. Why are villians like this created, comic relief? No, you can have great villians provide comic relief. The Joker comes to mind right away. Overall this was a pretty poor story. It is definitely not Blue Devil at its best. BOOSTER GOLD #4 DC $.75 ** With four issues having come and gone, I am glad that i still enjoy this book. It is a lot of fun and hopefully it will stay that way. DC WHO'S WHO #15 DC $1.00 ** This book may not offer as much information as its counterpart from Marvel, but I doubt anything could. THE OFFICIAL HANBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE seems like it has more information than two sets of encyclopedias. This book is small and easy on the eyes and I like it. FANTASTIC FOUR #290 Marvel $.75 *** When John Bryne leaves Marvel, this comic will probably nose-dive. Bryne took a book everyone seemd tired of and turned it into something worth reading. The best move made was getting the Thing out and replacing him with She-Hulk. I was also glad to see the Johnny Storm/Alicia Masters relationship start up. I had been upset with Bryne after he got rid of Frankie Raye, but this lastest development in the Torch's life makes up for it. As for this issue, over all it was very good. Seeing Reed Richards forced to stay out of the battle was great. Blastaar is not my favorite villian by far, but this time Bryne was able to interest me in him. Annihilus on the other hand is always winning attraction and this time was no different. The only thing I didn't like about this issue was the last quarter of the story where we are supposed to believe that Reed Richards is dead. Not hardly. The technos at SHIELD (still stands for nothing in particular) only picked up a "weather balloon". No, no Mr. Fantastic floatingt to saftey. Just a weather balloon. And what's even worse, Nick Fury bought it. I think Bryne could have done this a little better. GREEN LANTERN #200 DC $1.25 * Well, this book went out with a whimper disguised as a bang. No more Guardians. No more Zamorans. No more Green Lantern (comic that is). Next issue begins: THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS. Who cares? DC used the Crisis to get rid of the Guardians which I think was a good move. It's how they got rid of them that I don't like. After all the "tension" as to which Green Lantern, Hal Jordan or John Stewart, would stay on Earth and which would leave, we find out both have to stay. They must protect Earth because we seem to be about to take an evo- lutionary jump in the next millenium which no other race in the universe can make and so we're "special". That's why we deserve three Green Lanterns. The third is Katma Tu who will stay because John is staying. This kind of Earth- centered greatness works worse here than it did on STAR TREK. IRON MAN #206 Marvel $.75 ** After a guest spot in Captain America, Hawkeye and Mockingbird show up in Iron Man. That is defenitely not a complaint because I had stopped reading this comic after issue 200. I picked it up because it had Hawkeye, Mockingbird and Giant-Man on the cover. What I found on the inside was a mixture of story and art that makes me think I made a mistake dropping this comic. I'll be back next month to see if I was right. JON SABLE #36 First $1.75 ** JON SABLE always takes me have the time to read as other comics and I like that. Mike Grell relies more on pictures than words and in this visual medium it works very well. I was also glad to see that First didn't treat this issue as anything special. This is Sable's third anniversary, but the book isn't celebrating. With 1985 being DC's 50th and 1986 being Marvels's 25th, I am tired of "ANNIVERSARY" issues except for this one. LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #22 DC $1.50 *** I've been worried about this book for a while. I wasn't sure if anyone knew where it was going or if anyone cared. The stories were good, but they all seemed to muddle together. Well, not this one. I enjoyed it very much espec- ially the continuing saga of Sensor Girl. There are only three comics on the market that can have more than five heroes appear in it each and every month and do it well and DC has all of them. This is one. THE NEW TEEN TITANS #20 DC $1.50 *** This one has it all! Great cover. Great inside artwork. Great story. Great dialogue. A Teen Titan team I never expected and an ending that will blow you away. SWAMP THING #48 DC $.75 ** As the most consistantly good and consistantly strange comic, I look forward to this book very much. And this month was no disappointment. Good artwork and writing do tell. This one had a couple of unexpected twists that greatly added to its basic appeal. I heard that SWAMP THING was about to be cancelled. Well, that would be a shame. In these days of mutant-madness a good comic only faintly connected to super-heroes has hardly a chance. Mighty Marvel strikes again! THOR #367 Marvel $.75 *** Thor with a BEARD? I like it. At least it beats Thor with warts. Balder dead? How many times has he died? Let someone else have a shot at death. Some reasons to read this book -- Amora (The Enchantress) finally learning that the Executioner is dead. The full page shot of Volstag and his wife. Volstag's daughter having to wear a dress and her brothers' comments after Hogun shows up. These were some of the best things I have read in comics in a long time. I wonder how long before Simonson leaves Marvel too. WARLORD #105 DC $.75 ** Travis Morgan's quest continues. This book appeals to the part of me that still loves the Edgar Rice Burroughs worlds of Barsoom, Caspak and Pellucidar. Every once in a while it suffers an issue of two of let down, but it picks itself up again and gains new heights. If you want action, adventure and good writing, look no further. Star-Lord They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes.