Category Archives: Robin

Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 5/11/13

Another week, another good load of comics. Everything is mostly good this week, except for, well…I’m not digging Justice League of America. Maybe some of you are, maybe there are people who really enjoy that comic, but for me, it’s a total dud. And that’s just disappointing overall. I think it’s a surefire sign that, in the end, DC’s New 52 reboot is going to crash and burn. This JLA was given a big push, and it’s written by Golden Boy Geoff Johns, but I just think it sucks. I think DC is floundering these days. They come up with strange comics like The Movement or The Green Team as if they think those will actually sell. Then they cancel those titles in six issues because they couldn’t match up to the popularity of Batman.

Pretty soon, all DC Comics are just going to be extensions of the Batman, Superman and Green Lantern franchises.

Fortunately, Marvel is still kicking butt with their Marvel NOW! campaign. It’s proof that you don’t need to reboot your entire universe to make things feel fresh and exciting. In fact, much to my surprise, Comic Book of the Week is going to Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers this week! I’ve generally disliked that comic, but Hickman hits it out of the park this week – possibly because he finally focuses on a little team interaction and character development.

I’m going to say that now every time I go gambling

Plus watching Sunsport and Cannonball make pals with some disenfranchised A.I.M. henchmen is just awesome.

Comic Reviews: Avengers #11, Batman #20, Batman and Robin #20, Justice League of America #3, Thor: God of Thunder #8, Uncanny Avengers #8.

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The Greatest Justice League Video Ever Produced!

This may be the greatest Justice League anything ever produced!

The animation is amazing, the jokes are hilarious, and the voice acting is stellar. Wow. That is a tour de force of awesomeness! I’m even willing to ignore the Robin jokes. I live for cartoons this good. If I had this kind of skill, I would spend my life making movies like these and hope that I could find someway to get paid for them. The video was made by ForestFire Films, with help from Sean Willets.

I bow to their greatness.

Review: Teen Titans #19

We are off the rails here, people. We are through the Danger Zone. Forget everything you thought you knew about Teen Titans and prepare yourselves for ultimate dissatisfaction. Everything I have ever complained about with Teen Titans has come home to roost. We are through the looking glass so hard that my hyperbole machine is going to crash. Wow. This is a terrible comic book, but it almost feels par for the course for Teen Titans. Not since the horrors of Harvest and N.O.W.H.E.R.E. has this series been so bad.

Teen Titans #19

Everything I have hated about this comic is here in this issue. Terrible characterization, clunky, obvious exposition, characters and villains who come out of nowhere, an almost painful lack of subtlety; this one is off the chain.

Comic Rating: 1/5: Terrible!

This comic is bad from page one. It’s one of the most chaotic and leaden comics I have ever read. This is supposed to be the big, New 52 introduction of Trigon, but I couldn’t have imagined it being more mishandled. Trigon was one of the big bads in the pre-reboot continuity. He was one of the Teen Titans’ biggest enemies. But now he’s just pathetically wasted. There’s nothing new or interesting about this rebooted version of Trigon. Any mystique he used to have has been stripped away. The new Raven had a bit of mystery as well, but that is cruelly torn from her with this new issue.

There’s maybe one or two good things about this comic, and I’ll mentioned them in the synopsis, but they seem like flukes. Or they have more to do with different comics, which doesn’t help the Teen Titans much at all.

This is the worst possible version of the Teen Titans I could have imagined going into the New 52. The characters are poorly defined, their relationships are underdeveloped, they spend 90% of their time in costume playing superhero, the villains are terrible, and the comic has little to nothing to do with the DC Universe as a whole. I’m probably most disappointed in that.

But we might as well get to it. Join me after the jump for a full synopsis of this crapshoot.

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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 4/13/13

We’ve got some good and we’ve got some bad this week, sometimes down to the very franchise. I’ve already ranted a lot about my disappointment with Batman and Red Robin, so at least the regular Batman book is good enough. On the Marvel side of things, the Avengers have a mediocre to strong output, whether it’s Age of Ultron, Avengers or Uncanny Avengers. You might even be surprised to learn that some kind of plot finally develops in Age of Ultron! I didn’t see that coming!

But speaking of Avengers, the star this week is Thor, as his series, Thor: God of Thunder, easily hammer-smashes the competition to win Comic Book of the Week! I was disappointed last issue with the weak origin for Gorr. But when Jason Aaron focuses on his various Thors, the comic is gold! It’s also the funniest comic you’ll read all week. Perhaps even the sexiest.

Sounds like my kind of woman!

Comic Reviews: Age of Ultron #5, Avengers #9, Batman #19, Batman and Red Robin #19, Hawkeye #9, Thor: God of Thunder #7, Uncanny Avengers #6, Uncanny X-Men #4.

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Watch Out, Tim Drake Fans! DC is Still a Den of Liars!

Do not buy this week’s issue of Batman and Red Robin #19! Well, I mean, you can buy it if you want to. But if you, like me, were looking for any examination of the Bruce/Tim dynamic in the New 52, you will be grossly disappointed. The two barely have anything to do with one another, and when they do interact, it’s just a circumstance of the plot.

This is almost as bad as when we were teased about Red Robin getting an issue of Night of the Owls. Seriously, if you were planning on buying this comic just for the Tim Drake appearance, save your money.

I guess you could buy it for Carrie Kelley, maybe

I’ll post some spoilers after the jump. Just know that this issue is not a team up between Bruce and Tim. DC Comics is a Den of Liars and Thieves!

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