Well, some of the others that caught my eye anyway

First off, Rann-Thanagar Holy War #6.  Its back!!!! Going from the cover, Adam Strange has his Planet Heist kit back.  Yay

JSA #20 features the New Earth JSA and the Earth-2 JSA with Power Girl torn between the two.   I’m really looking forward to this storyline, as is probably most of DC fandom.  But I’m still really intrigued to see how this Earth-2 JSA is going to be approached.    As I’ve mentioned before, the Earth-2 JSA shouldn’t be the Golden Age JSA, so I’m wondering how they’re going to reconcile this.   Earth-2 in 52 was shown to have some kind of link to events on new Earth (both Kryptonians missing), but it also showed differences to the classic Earth-2 we see here.  Of course, there was obviously something going on with Earth-2 during Infinite Crisis (it was the only unpopulated world, E-2 Lois and E-2 Wonder Woman seemed to hint at being drawn somewhere - in the trade at least), so I wonder if this story arc will start to address that.

Booster Gold has a new writer in October in the form of Rick Remender. I’ve not read any of his other stuff (off the top of my head), but I love the sound of this arc, with Daniel unwittingly being possessed by Starro. It sounds like the kind of light-hearted adventure that suits this series down to the ground.

The Tangent Comics crossover is another mini I’m really loving (although it has been pointed out that the JLA really didn’t come out of the last issue looking that great. Powergirl versus Powergirl should be an entertaining matchup and I’m really intrigued to see where this series takes the Tangent Universe. I’ve been really enjoying the trades they’ve been releasing and re-casting Superman as the villain makes a lot of sense for the character.

Finally, the Superman titles explore the fallout of the Brainiac story, with 100,000 Kryptonians living on Earth.    Sounds like a really interesting story setup.  I guess I’ll be picking up the titles for a little while after the Brainiac arc ends.  It certainly gives them a lot of scope to really dig into where Clark sits in between both cultures.  Supergirl’s part in the story should be incredibly interesting, as I imagine she’s going to be really pleased to be around Kryptonians again (especially since this iteration of the character has really struggled to find her feet on Earth).

Yup. October’s going to be an expensive month for this DC fan.

After last month’s slightly slower issue, issue 3 kicks things into high gear, with the Holy War itself being kicked off, and the space team all coming together to investigate what’s going on (leading to classic scene where the Weird suggests they all form a permanent group like the JLA, only to be ignored).

I’m still finding Captain Comet’s character in this to be a bit of a departure from how he was portrayed in Mystery in Space. There was was fairly typically heroic, whereas now he’s almost cowardly, relying on Tyrone to set him right. Its an understandable shift though. Next to the rest of the space characters, some of them are going to start looking quite generic without changes. Aside from his telepathy, there’d be a real danger of Captain Comet and Adam Strange being inter-changable. And the character shift has resulted in some amusing scenes (Comet realising that by going to Rann he’s actually jumped right into the middle of trouble, rather than avoiding it for example).

I also found a scene at the end interesting, from the point of view of my “Why has Adam’s revamp been retconned” rant. Adam Strange’s suit clearly has the ability to manifest the same hardlight weaponary that he got in his Planet Heist revamp. Since in Countdown to Adventure it was explicitly stated that Adam’s suit was his old one, we can only assume this suit is new, but with a deliberately retro look.

It still irks though that they ditched such a good revamp.

There’s a nice little aside aside with Animal Man admitting that he’s not told his wife that Kory’s there. That gave me a laugh.

On an unrelated note, this week’s DC Nation is hilarious. Especially in light of the recent “Didio must go!” online witchhunts.

Quite a big comics week this week for me, and strangely the first comics week in years where the Marvel stuff has vastly outnumbered the DC stuff.

So, I’ll probably do a couple of comics posts this week, but first up is the first issue of Rann-Thanagar Holy War.

I loved the Mystery in Space and Countdown to Adventure series, so picking up this title is a bit of a no-brainer. It surprised me how much it was a direct continuation of both series. Obviously I was expecting to see the fallout from the Countdown to Adventure series factor in heavily, but I was surprised to see the return of the Church of Eternal Light, having setup shop on Thanagar with the Deacon still clearly smarting from his defeat by Captain Comet’s hands.

We also see the space team getting back together. The residents of Rann are still worshipping Lady Styx, despite being cured of the plague back in Countdown to Adventure the other month. They’re refusing to listen to reason about her true motives, so Adam Strange (still sporting his classic look - a pity as I really liked the Planet Heist update) travels back to Earth to recruit Starfire and Animal Man, while trying to hire Captain Comet to broadcast their true memories of Lady Styx to the population of Rann.

Unfortunately, since his miniseries, Captain Comet has decided to play things safe. Determined not to go through dying again (in a really nice scene he tells Tyrone that de-aging 40 years and a new set of superpowers didn’t make up for the horrific experience of his death) he’s sticking to low-risk jobs. Sadly these jobs don’t pay well and his finances are dwindling, much to Tyrone’s concern.

Its a great opening issue. I wasn’t too excited about this series, and while there are minor gripes (Rann’s population worshipping Lady Styx is a fairly negative portrayal of worship - although this could be a plot point, Adam Strange not getting back his Planet Heist gear, and Captain Comet still trying to drop the “Captain” from his name - although again this could be a plot point, we learn here he’s trying to hide the fact he’s the original Captain from people) the story has grabbed me straight away. Ron Lim’s art is great as well (I’m glad I picked up his cover, I far prefer it to the Starlin one shown on the right).

Great first issue. So far it feels like the Mystery in Space magic is back.

Right, catching up with my comics ranting

Countdown #5 continued the transformation of the Earth to the world of Kamandi. While this and issue 6 were an interesting read, they also felt like a diversion from the main event of Countdown. I realise the Great Disaster’s been what the Search for Ray Palmer storyline was playing towards, but these issues, while fullfilling that, just didn’t seem part of the main story to me for some reason. Possibly this is related to the decision to focus on this Earth’s Buddy Blank for the narration, a character only in these two issues, while every other character in Countdown took a back seat. Given that we should be firmly in the “wow! This is finally paying off!” stages of Countdown, frankly it just served to underline the disappointment of the title for the last 45ish issues. I’m pretty much sticking with it because there’s only 5 issues to go, but frankly, there’s no chance of me picking up the next weekly, and Countdown’s left me fairly unenthusiastic for Final Crisis. If they’re smart Superman Prime’ll turn up next issue and blow something up, because those were the best issues.

The other Countdown monthly I’ve been picking up was Countdown to Adventure. I’ve really enjoyed this epilogue to the Space Team’s adventures in 52. I’m a sucker for Adam Strange stuff and he, Animal Man and Starfire work well together. The Forerunner backups seemed fairly pointess, just serving a character that appeared briefly in Countdown. Its a structure that was handled much better in last year’s Mystery in Space title. Talking of which, I’m now really looking forward to Rann-Thanagar Holy War. Adam Strange and Captain Comet. Two characters I’ve really enjoyed the last few years. Although I see they’re still trying to drop the “Captain” from Captain Comet’s name. Gah!

Well, Newsarama have got the January solicits up and there’s some good looking titles that month.

In Green Lantern terms we’ve got our first (albeit hard to make out clearly) look at an Alpha Lantern from the arc in the main title. I must admit, I’m intrigued to see how this arc goes. I’m betting the Alpha Lanterns are some Ion-derivative, but given that Hal and John are against it, its a fair bet there’s something more sinister than the power-boost Kyle got. It looks like Boddika certainly is one of them. Will all the Lost Lanterns become Alpha Lanterns? I can’t see Arisia being involved (and she’s part of the GLC title anyway).

I’m unsure what to make of the GLC solicit to be honest. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it’ll be a good story, and there’s only so much you can tell for a solicit, so there are a lot of assumptions involved. However, the image of Mongul with a Sinestro ring does automatically make me wonder how many GL foes are going to end up in the Sinestro Corps. I can’t help but think its possibly going to be too soon after the event to revisit it, and a couple of issues dealing with something else (or the fallout from the war in another way that doesn’t involve actually bumping into someone with a yellow ring) might’ve been an idea.

I suspect I’ll be eating those words come January though

Various other non-GL things catch my eye as well. I’ve enjoyed the first two issues of Countdown to Adventure a lot, so I’m looking forward to it. I notice that Adam Strange seems to be in his original outfit, as opposed to his Planet Heist makeover, so I presume he has to dig some of his old kit out of storage at somepoint. I hope he gets his Planet Heist look back at the end of the series though. A really good updating I thought.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the Black Adam mini wraps up and I’ve been enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. I’m hoping it gives us some indication of why Adam’s powers seem to be driving Mary evil, and I can’t help but think something happens to his powers during this series that leads him to give them to Mary as an act of revenge against Billy.

Booster Gold #6 should be a good issue as well. I like how they’re dealing with the issue of Ted in this first arc and getting it out of the way. I don’t think anyone’s actually been expecting him to save Ted though, so I suspect this issue will be a bit of a tearjerker.

Picked up a good few comics this week, but my top comic of the week has to be the second issue of Countdown to Adventure. Its only issue 2, but its already got me hooked.

I was never big into Adam Strange or Starfire, and Animal Man completely passed me by. I didn’t get into their storyline in 52 (but 52 is a discussion for another time), but this series is really clicking for me. Having read Planet Heist, I now really like the Adam Strange character, and his storyline has me gripped, with his life on Rann going down the toilet. Can’t wait to see what happens. The central mysteries of the virus infecting people, and Animal Man and Starfire’s powers being wonky are really engaging as well. Kory trying her hand at a normal life is a really interesting story.

Kyle popped up again in the Challengers section of Countdown. I’ve always enjoyed the Earth-3 stuff in the past, so I enjoyed this sneak peek, and look forward to picking up the special next week. Still not buying the Donna/Kyle/Jason love triangle though. Its not been as believable in Countdown as Ron Marz made it in his Wildstorm special.

On a related note, I re-read the “Under the Hood” trades the other day that reintroduced Jason. He was so much more interesting in them than anything I’ve read him in since. I really enjoyed the story up until the “Superboy Punch” annual. They really ruined his whole comeback with that.

It does seem odd that the heroes are letting him run around as well after what he did in those stories.