A Month Late and a Dollar Short: Flashpoint Friday

This week's flash reviews:

Flashpoint: Project Superman 3
Does it make it better or worse for the woman in the refrigerator to be self-aware enough to recognize that she's a woman in a refrigerator?

Personally, I'm kind of bothered that Lois sees herself as "the girl" and not "the hero." (Or, y'know, both.)

Flashpoint: Lois Lane and the Resistance 3
This book should have come out two weeks earlier. One scene leads directly into Wonder Woman and the Furies 3, which came out last week (speaking as if I'd bought all these books on their initial release date), and another scene leads directly into Project Superman 3, which came out the same week as this, but with no indication that I should read one before the other. Yes, I can put the pieces together even when read out of chronological order, but one of the appeals of a collection of miniseries like this is the connections between them and how they all come together to tell a larger story than each one tells individually. A little more planning in the scheduling department could have made that aspect work just a little better.

Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost 3
I did not expect to see Max Mercury in this comic, nor many of the other references to Bart Allen's history. Sterling Gates clearly knows his Mark Waid. I would love to see a Gates-written Kid Flash ongoing. Also, Bart being the speedster to sacrifice himself in this universe-altering crisis? I didn't expect that. (Because, you know, he's alive in Teen Titans 1 next week.) Still, a nice touch.

Flashpoint: Hal Jordan 3
The end of this issue would make a great origin story for Carol Ferris, Green Lantern, who now has Hal Jordan as her very own woman in a refrigerator.

B'dg, the Cannibal Green Lantern

We take a break from our regularly-scheduled programming to bring you some very disturbing news: You know B'dg, that cute alien chipmunk Green Lantern who replaced Ch'p, who was also a cute alien chipmunk Green Lantern, one of B'dg's own species? (This is an important point, that B'dg and Ch'p are the same species.) Well, B'dg stars in one of DC's Super Pets line of chapter books for kids, Super Hero Splash Down. The book starts out with a profile page about B'dg. Here it is:

Did you catch this part?

Yes, B'dg is a cannibal. And apparently one who likes roadkill, since Ch'p was run over by a yellow tractor in Green Lantern: Mosaic. Be warned, chipmunks of the world. And stay away from salsa.

A Month Late and a Dollar Short: Flashpoint Friday

Flash reviews for Flashpoint Friday:

Flashpoint: Abin Sur 3
It's like Zero Hour and Blackest Night remixed: Sinestro very nearly becomes Parallax, trying to destroy the universe in order to make a better one like Hal once did, and then Abin Sur becomes a White Lantern to save the Earth, like Sinestro once did.

Flashpoint: Legion of Doom 3
Well, Cyborg, to tell you the truth, yes, those pants do make your butt look big.

Also, Flashpoint Plastic Man grosses me out.

Flashpoint: The Outsider 3
It's one thing to say that Aquaman is a completely different person because he was taken from his father when he was a kid, but it's quite another to say that J'onn J'onzz, who was already an adult with a completely formed identity on Mars, would turn into a greedy, vengeful sadist because when he got to Earth he was treated like a science experiment. Sorry, I don't buy it. The character in this story is fundamentally not J'onn J'onzz.

Flashpoint: Wonder Woman and the Furies 3
I've seen complaints similar to my complaint about J'onn above, except in reference to Flashpoint Wonder Woman. I have to say, though, I like that this issue gets down to the core of who Diana is in any incarnation--the struggle between war and peace, warrior and diplomat.

After reading all these comics that end with "To be concluded in Flashpoint 5," I can see how that final chapter of the mega-story was set up to do a lot, so I'm not surprised by the many reviews out there saying it failed to meet those expectations. I'll see for myself in two weeks...

Waiting for War -OR- How I Failed to Beat the System

Right about the time I started getting interested in digital comics this past spring, I noticed that new issues of all three Green Lantern series were being published digitally pretty regularly, about a month after print. These were series that I'd been trade-waiting anyway, so it made sense to switch to digital with them. Except I'd already pre-ordered the next Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps trades, so I needed to wait until those came out before I could start buying the subsequent issues digitally. While I waited, I started buying Emerald Warriors digitally since I hadn't pre-ordered any trades for that series yet. Then my Corps trade arrived in the mail, and I caught up with all the following Corps issues digitally, so that I was up to the "War of the Green Lanterns" prelude issues in both Corps and Emerald Warriors. I expected the Green Lantern: Brightest Day trade to arrive in June, which was also when the Green Lantern film would be in theaters, so I was kind of hoping there would be a half-off sale where I could get all the "War of the Green Lanterns" issues for a buck each.

So I waited.

The week the film was released Comixology did have a half-off "Green Lantern 101" sale, but it didn't include any issues as recent as the "War" storyline. My trade of Green Lantern: Brightest Day arrived, so now I was caught up to where I could start reading "War." But what if I bought all eleven or twelve issues of the storyline for two bucks a piece, only to find a week later that Comixology had a "War of the Green Lanterns" sale, just like they had a "Blackest Night" sale last year? I'd have wasted twelve bucks. I can't do that!

So I waited some more.

Then I started thinking maybe they were waiting until the War of the Green Lanterns: Aftermath issues had been released, so they could include those in the big sale.

So I waited.

But those have now been in print for a while, and have yet to show up on Comixology, let alone be included in any such sale. And then I thought, maybe they'll put the "War of the Green Lanterns" storyline on sale right before the New 52's Green Lantern 1 comes out, you know, so readers can get caught up on the most recent history.

And so I waited.

But now the weekend before Green Lantern 1's release has come and gone, and instead of a "War of the Green Lanterns" sale, they had yet another "Batman 101" sale. Sigh.

So what do I do now? Obviously I have to read "War of the Green Lanterns" before I read Green Lantern 1. But I just know that the week I finally break down and buy the issues at two bucks a piece, they'll go on sale that weekend for half-price. Not to mention the fact that the Aftermath issues are still unavailable digitally, so I wouldn't be completely caught up anyway. So you know what? I'm going to boycott Green Lantern (and Corps and New Guardians) until Comixology has a "War of the Green Lanterns" sale. The hardcover collection goes on sale in November, and if I recall correctly, they had the "Blackest Night" digital sale around the time the collections came out. By then the New 52 debuts will be over a month old and so I'll save a few more dollars.

And so I will wait.

You will see, Comixology, I can be more stubborn than you. I will win this war.

A Month Late and a Dollar Short: Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost 2 and Flashpoint: Hal Jordan 2

In what will hopefully become the first of several cases of my wishing for something on this blog causing that thing to happen, this morning when I happened to check on the website of the comic shop I frequented when I lived in Seattle, Comics Dungeon, I discovered that they now have a Comixology-powered digital storefront, so today I bought my digital comics through them. I don't know how much comic shops actually get out of this program--I fear it's not much--but buying my digital comics through a business that's done good by me in the past makes me feel a little less like a dick for going digital at the expense of the direct market. At any rate, on to the reviews:

Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost 2
Writer: Sterling Gates
Artists: Oliver Nome and Trevor Scott
Release Date: July 27, 2011 (Print), August 26, 2011 (Digital)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Pixels

Although there's nothing really outstanding about this series, I find myself enjoying it just a little bit more than a lot of the other Flashpoint minis because it stars the same Bart Allen I know and love, not some unfamiliar alternate reality version of him. In this issue, for example, he references the time he flew the Batplane, he makes a joke about how no one ever believes him when he says he has a plan, and his virtual reality upbringing plays a central role in his victory over the issue's villain. He even makes references to cousin Jenni and her teammate, Brainiac 5. Not surprisingly, considering his close ties with Geoff Johns, Sterling Gates knows Bart Allen well, and as a result reading this issue feels like visiting with an old friend. The comfort this gives me in contrast with the discomfort at reading unfamiliar versions of characters that should be familiar in other Flashpoint tie-ins makes me worry just a little about the more permanent tweaking that will happen with the New 52. Several writers have insisted that regardless of changes to their histories, the characters will remain who they are at their core. I hope they're right.

Also, I kind of like the nod to Back to the Future with Bart's hands fading away as reality changes, but Oliver Nome makes it a little more gory than Steven Spielberg did:

Flashpoint: Hal Jordan 2
Writer: Adam Schlagman
Artist: Cliff Richards
Release Date: July 27, 2011 (Print), August 26, 2011 (Digital)
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Pixels

So despite what I said above about wanting to read stories with familiar characters, this story was just a little too familiar. Flashpoint Hal Jordan is pretty much exactly the same as regular Hal Jordan, except without the ring. This story is your standard "Hal Jordan is a cocky, immature bastard but when duty calls he grows up and saves the day, but in his own reckless way" kind of story. So I guess I want stories about the characters I know and love, but I want them to be new stories. There's nothing wrong with this issue, there's just nothing spectacular.

Also, I think it's weird that Carol Ferris's pilot nickname is Sapphire. That would be like Hal Jordan's pilot nickname being Lantern, before he ever heard of the Green Lantern Corps. They used that nickname for her in the movie too, didn't they?

Also also, I'm officially joining the camp of people who are kind of weirded out by Barack Obama not only appearing in, but having a speaking role in DC superhero comics.