Bad Boys: K is for Kalibak

Time for the first of 2010’s Friday Night Fights! The new theme is villains and their moments of hero-smacking glory.

Check out Space Booger for details on this whole shebang.

We join a battle in progress, so a quick recap: Kalibak – younger son of Darkseid – has been calling out his sibling Orion for like an issue and a half, doing a lot of yelling from the rooftops of Metropolis (amazingly not attracting the attention of any Kryptonian interlopers). Finally, Orion responds:

Looks like Orion’s gonna get the better of ol’ K-bak again, don’t it? But wait, our shaggy villain had an unfinished line there: 

And not only does he finish that sentence in the next panel:

But he finishes it a second time in the panel after that:

These epic blows come to us (of course) courtesy of writer/penciler/editor Jack Kirby and inker Mike Royer, in the classic “The Death Wish of Terrible Turpin”  from New Gods (volume 1) #8, cover dated April-May 1972.

Recently Charlotte

Here's a little slideshow of some iPhone snaps of the wee one taken over the recent holiday (and one from a touch earlier).



The holiday has been very nice, with visits to the Aquarium (on a rainy Christmas Day) and the Christmas Train (on Boxing Day -- no rain) and assorted hanging as a fam.

Boxing Day Nerd Shopping

Local Comic store had a nice sale on a variety of recent back issues, of which I availed myself:

They also had some sweet deals on various toys they had in overstock, so I picked up a bunch of DC Mini-Mates and the Dodson Diana Prince action figure for a steal:

And finally, while getting a digital cam for my darling wife, I also grabbed  Fable II for a low price:

Happy Boxing Day indeed!

Two More the Spread

Picked up a couple of Marvel trades yesterday - ones I had missed on Wednesday:

And here’s what I thought of ’em:

• Agents of Atlas – Dark Reign TPB : More excellent fun from Jeff Parker and crew. These characters continue to be very compelling and full of life. The extras (various Secret Invasion / Dark Reign bits, and a crossover with the Marvel Adventures Avengers) are also very nice.
• Dark Reign Young Avengers : Don’t get me wrong, this is a fine mini-series and includes some very nice bits, but well it just doesn’t quite sing as much as I wanted it to. Paul Cornell is my current writer crush but this series felt like his writing was sort of stuck in 3rd. Both in Captain Britain and MI-13 and his Doctor Who episodes, Cornell has deftly put his protagonists through the emotional wringer, revealing new insights into the characters and leaving them changed. Here, the YA crew just doesn’t evolve. The “Dark Young Avengers” – more properly the protagonists of the series – do go through some harsh stuff, but there’s very little in the sense of growth or reason to want to see them all again. All felt too one-note – from a writer whom I expect to have a whole melody.

Rapid-Fire Reviews (Dec 23rd Releases)

• Detective Comics 860 : Detective continues to be a real pleasure to read. Rucka is hitting them out of the park in both the main feature and the Question back-up. Kate’s origin manages to be compelling, straightforward and unique all at once and the noirish vibe of the walking wounded that permeates the story is awesome. The Question meanwhile has a different pace, but equally compelling.
• Justice Society of America 34 : Some decent character bits here in the first post-split book – I liked Mr. Terrific (who is usually so on top of it) making a gaffe and back-pedaling. I’m not crazy about the team seeming so at a loss, though. I missed Jesus Merino too.
• Fantastic Four 574 : Hickman’s FF continues to be a joy, most especially his treatment of the Richards’ kids. I definitely missed Dale Eaglesham this issue, though. A little surprised that Reed and Sue didn’t recognize their visitor, too.
• Wonder Woman 39 : And so concludes Warkiller, nicely bringing Diana back into the Amazon fold. Ares was nice and creepy here, but I did find Zeus’ contrition a little hard to swallow. I like what Gail Simone has been doing with Donna Troy and Artemis – although the choice to put Artemis in her mid 90s “Requiem” green-and-white costume still baffles. At least it’s not adorned with skulls any more.
• World’s Finest 3 : Arg. I’ve liked Sterling Gates work on Supergirl and have been enjoying Brian Q. Miller’s Batgirl, so I really hoped this issue would sing. And at least the vibe between Kara and Stefanie was right, and there was a nice bit about Batman’s “passing.” But Gates’ plotting was downright ham-fisted. Catwoman is present only to provide a single and extremely minor plot point and the terrible threat of Toyman and his composite robot just doesn’t live up. Plus, remember when Oracle was this mysterious uber-hacker / info broker to the super set and Barbara Gordon’s foibles where a nice contrast behind the mask? Yeah, now she’s sounding general super-hero alarms and having her comms surveilled without realizing it.
• Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade : Nice all-ages fun. For some reason, I just love the naming of the clone of Linda Lee as “Linda-B” or Belinda.

Weekly Spread for Dec. 23 2009

And here’s the comicly goodness released on Dec 23 and acquired by moi:

  

And one older collection that I had been meaning to pick up for a while.

Rapid-Fire Reviews

And here’s some quick thoughts on recent comics:

• Batman Streets of Gotham 7 : Paul Dini’s new Batman stories have yet to rock my world and the Szasz stuff this issue felt like pretty generic “I am psycho” stuff. I continue to enjoy the Manhunter co-feature. (Too bad it’s getting the ax.)
• Justice League of America 40 : The Robinson/Bagley JLA has been a pretty bleak place thus far, and this issue continued the trend. I’m looking forward to his new roster, although I will miss Vixen a great deal. Hopefully, we can look forward to some grander stories to come.
• Power Girl 7 : A fun issue picked up on a lark. I enjoy Amanda Conner’s art and the breezy writing, although I’d like to see us get past PG’s tits and see her do some real ass kicking at some point.
• Secret Warriors vol 1 TPB: I’m not wholly sold on the retcon of Hydra and SHIELD’s true relationship, but the comic itself is a solid read with some really nice Badass Nick Fury moments.
• Batman False Faces TPB : A decent collection of Brian K Vaughn’s early DC work. I liked the Wonder Woman/Donna Troy/Clayface story best. Scott McDaniel’s cover features the ugliest Wonder Woman in recent memory, unfortunately.
• World’s Finest 1 & 2 : No quite firing on all cylinders is this mini. The idea of new Bat/Sup family pairings is a good one, but the first two issues seem only to have highlighted the different worlds. The Chris Kent/Tim Drake issue should have soared, but instead fell flat as the two characters never got past their current somewhat one-note focuses.