Legen–wait for it—dary Comic Book Highlight for 1/2/09

As you might have noticed I did not post a review for the two books biggest books that came out last week (at least for me), Green Lantern #36 and Wolverine #70. The reason that didn’t post a review for either book is that my LCS did not ge there shipment of those two books last week. I didn’t want to post the highlights for last weeks books without having read those two big books so that is why the highlights for last week were delayed a bit. Also since this was a small week I am going to post reviews for both Green Lantern and Wolverine later in the week. In any case these are some of the highlights from last weeks books:

Cover of the Week: Wolverine #70

While we had some great covers this past week I am always a big fan of covers that actually give the reader some insight in what is inside the book. That is the case for the fantastic cover of Wolverine #70 by Steve McNiven. The fight scenes was brutal with a great reveal that can be seen later.

Avengers/Invaders #7 Highlights

I was not expecting to see Ultron appear in this maxi-series and it will be interesting to see what plans Ultron has with the Cosmic Cube.

A fight between past and present Captain Americas should be entertaining. Though Bucky will probably on the defensive for most of the fight.

Batman #684 Highlights

While Dennis O’Neil has not forgotten how to write Alfred I am sick and tired of this old plotline of Dick feeling sorry for himself and that he is not good enough to follow in Bruce’s footsteps. It is obvious that O’Neil has yet to read Tomasi’s Nightwing since in his own book Dick, in the Two-Face story that takes place after “Batman RIP,” is shown to be ready to accept his role in a world without Batman.

This issue is a few months to late since Batman and the Outsiders, Nightwing, and Robin have already explored how all these characters are reacting to a Gotham without Batman. Hopefully O’Neil will be given another shot at writing a Bat-book since this isn’t the type of work O’Neil should go out on in Batman.

Captain America #45 Highlights

Bucky continues to grow into his role as Captain America and it is great seeing how he continues to use his memories as Winter Soldier to his advantage in his fight.

While he is growing into his role as Captain America Bucky is still prone to making mistakes that Steve wouldn’t have done.

Bucky’s flashbacks to his past as Steve’s partner and Winter Soldier continue to haunt him as the current Captain America that should lead into some great storylines.

Green Lantern #36 Highlights

Just a great two page spread showing the Red Lanterns home world and all the different types of Red Lanterns.

This was another great spread showing how beautiful the Blue Lanterns home world is. I love how different each Lanterns home world as you can see from the Red and Blue Lantern worlds.

It is great how Johns used this Elephant that looks a lot like Ganesha the Hindu God as a member of the Blue Lanterns.

Just when I think that this story will only involve the Green, Yellow, Red, and Blue Lanterns Johns throws in the Purple Lanterns into the story as well.

While I don’t expect Hal to become a Blue Lantern this certainly presents Hal with a hard choice in future issues.

Out of all the twist this book had this was my favorite. I did not expect Johns to reveal Sinestro had a daughter. This was a reveal that came out of left field and I can’t wait to see how Sinestro’s daughter is going to be presented in future issues.

Guardians of the Galaxy #8 Highlights

It was great seeing Ronan the Accuser back and it will be interesting to see what role he plays in War of Kings.

Blastaar, or King Blastaar as he likes to be known now, showed in this issue why he is one character that you do not mess with

Rocket Raccon continues to be one of my favorite Marvel characters and it is great to see him try and lead the Guardians of the Galaxy, what’s left of it anyways, while still making jokes.

With all the superpowers in the Negative Zone prison Blastaar will have some serious fire power in the upcoming war. And it is nice that at least two writers remember that this prison exist in the Negative Zone.

Teen Titans #66 Highlights

While this issue wasn’t anything but average I will be interested were McKeever takes this sub-plot of The Calculator being Marvin and Wendy’s dad.

Team members leaving has become the norm of this book that looks like it will only be filled with C and D-list characters.

Wolverine #70 Highlights

With how Millar portrayed the villains in this issue it is easy to see that if the heores ever did get their act together all the heores in the 616-Marvel Universe would all be killed.

This issue was filled with scenes like this and every once and a while I like reading issues like this especially when it is a focused and brutal Wolverine that is going all out on the “villains.”

While others might have seen this coming I did not expect it to be a Spider-Man villain to break Wolverine. Mysterio was the last villain I could have thought of to pull this off but Millar made it work.

McNiven’s artwork in this issue was just breath taking and this splash page of all the dead X-Men was just awesome.

It really felt in this spread page that Wolverine died and Logan was left in his place.
While I am not the biggest Venom fan I got to say I am excited to see this Venom T-Rex in action in the next issue.