Back again. This time with 5 titles. I’ll be honest here, with some of these books being 16 issues long, this has been the hardest wave of books yet. With some of these books, I was just begging for them to be over. Still I press on.
Blue Beetle
by
Tony Bedard, Ig Guara
Jamie Reyes is a highschool student. The biggest worry he has is if his crush will like him back. That is until now. After a alien artifact bonds with him, he finds himself with new responsibilities and challenges from this world and from the artifact’s creators. Will he fulfill the artifacts desires for world domination or will he fight back and forge his own path? Will I stop leaning on the “ending synopsis’ with a question” crutch?
Story
There are some really neat plot twists on the stereotypical high school superhero origin. I like that the scarab has it’s own antagonistic personality. The supporting cast is fun, but the home life to superhero life balance is kind of thrown off about half way through the series.
A very easy book to read and the issues went by pretty quickly, even if it does start to feel really unbalanced towards the end
Art:
Fun, but unremarkable art really. Fits neatly into DC’s 2000’s house style really. Good and clear enough to carry the plot along the way.
Did It Deserve Better?
Nah. Fun while it lasted and didn’t overstay it’s welcome. It kinda ends on a cliffhanger to get you to buy a different book too, which is quite frustrating.
GI Combat
by
Various Artists
This is an army anthology series. There is a Unknown Soldier serial with a rotating second tale in each issue.
Story
Pretty basic and kinda boring Unknown Soldier tales. The first backup isn’t very good, but it has a crazy premise of Dinosaurs vs. Army Men that is just dumb enough to totally rule. After six months of that, they run a couple issues of something called The Haunted Tank. That’s that
Art:
The art for the Dinosaur vs Army Men tale that runs the first six or so issues is incredible. The dinosaurs look kinda 3D rendered and it’s so much fun to see the army try to blow them up. The art in the other stories didn’t really stand out to me in any major way. I recommend tracking down the dinosaur stuff for the art alone, it’s really great stuff.
Did It Deserve Better?
I don’t really love army comics, so I might not be the right person to ask. I don’t think so, though. It is nice to see DC invest in non conventional superhero stuff instead of a million Batman books, but this didn’t really land for me.
Grifter
by
Nathan Edmonson,Cafu,Scott Clark, Rob Liefeld, Frank Tiere, Various Artists
Cole Cash, former US Army Special Ops soldier turned con artist has lost 17 days. Where was he and why does he have these new abilities? As Grifter, Cole must navigate this world as a wanted man and figure out just what the Daemonites are up to.
Story
This has all the hallmarks of the Wildstorm 90’s style. Grifter is kinda a flat character and never, y’know, grifts. They almost show him planning a scheme, but then he just doesn’t. This book has several writers and one of them is Rob Liefeld. Nuff Said!
Art
This book has a rotating cast of artists on it and none of it really does anything for me. It’s fine, I guess.
Did It Deserve better?
Nah. Grifter isn’t a well fleshed out character and I really could care less about the Daemonites. This was a really rough 16 issues to get through.
Legion Lost
by
Fabian Nicieza, Pete Woods, Tom Defalco,Adres Guinaldo
They are from the 31st century, but after an accident they are trapped in the 21st century. Trapped along with them is Alastor a bio-terrorist from the future intent on infecting everyone. Can they stop him before he destroys the future? Can they get back to their own time?
Story
A big problem I have with a lot of these teams books is that they kinda drop you in the middle of a situation and expect you to empathize with the characters without a proper introduction. Now, with the Justice League, I get it. Those are established characters with tropes that are obvious. These are Legionnaire B players and it doesn’t work quite as well. I really don’t get why DC needed two Legionnaire books at the same time anyway, seems like padding to me.
Art
The art is fine. I’d rather it honestly be dog shit or really good. At least that would give me something interesting to say about it.
Did It Deserve Better?
Nope. There are a million superhero books like this and there will be a million more. It was really nothing special.
Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E
by
Jeff Lemire, Alberto Ponticelli, Matt Kindt..
As a member of The Super Human Advanced Defense Executive, Frankenstein and friends must come across supernatural threats across the globe.
Story:
It’s Frankenstein, he’s into poetry, he’s exploring supernatural mysteries across the globe with other supernatural allies. Do I have to tell you anymore?
Ok, I will. This very much feels like a riff on Hellboy and the BPRD books by Mignola with the occasional DC cameo. Lemire and Kindt are both very good writers and they always keep it interesting. There is some crossover stuff, but I never feel like I need to know what is happening in Rotworld to understand the plot.
Art:
This book has the benefit of one steady artist, whose art fits the work very well. It’s honestly a joy to look at.
Did It Deserve Better.
Yes, Yes, One hundred times, yes! Seriously this book should be continually running at DC at all times. There are so many interesting DC supernatural characters and public domain characters they could draw from. I still don’t understand why this hasn’t been relaunched since.
Another batch of book done. I can’t say I really loved this run of books for the most part. But, nonetheless, I proceed.
This Is Art, Kids! 
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