Blackest Night is Here!

Welp, it has arrived. The event of the year for DC. Blackest Night.

Three books this week... Blackest Night #1 Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #1 Titans #15 Titans #15 starts us off this week with The Return of Tempest.

Tempest was formerly Aqualad, Aquaman's sidekick. He sprung up during DC's sidekick phase and was a Teen Titan back in the day. Tempest, quite honestly, has turned into an interesting character, and this story was his return to a war-torn Atlantis. An Atlantis without its king. Aquaman is dead, see, but he also figures into Blackest Night.

As I type this, that was the only book I have read so far. I will post up little mini-reviews like this when I get through them.Titans #15 gets 5 out of 5 sperm whales, especially after I was hoping for MAYBE 3 out of 5.

I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

Blackest Night = tomorrow. AARRGGHH!!!!! My time machine is not working, so I can't get them. Nor is my teleportation wand, so I can't zap into the UPS compound and run off with them.

I am apparently screwed.

This Week's Loot...

My good pal Marcus put a gun to my head and forced me to get Dark Avengers and Dark X-Men.

Red Robin and Batman came out, to add to the chaos. Maybe Damien will die and have his eyes picked out by crows.

And lastly, Green Lantern #43, the prologue to Blackest Night!!

Vigilante

Dorian. That's the only name we know Vigilante by, save his alter ego of "Joe Flynn". That is the name he uses as he infiltrates the underworld.

Seven issues into his own title, I have to say that Marv Wolfman is doing excellent work, as usual. Wolfman was the Titans writer back in the 80's when that was one of the hottest titles on the market. As a result, we see a pretty solid Titans influence throughout the series. One example is Vigilante actually breaking into Titans tower to hack into the computer, only to be caught by Donna Troy in a very cool scene.

This comic has superheroes and over the top bad guys (Shark), but is a great read, because Vigilante has no super-powers, only his mental and physical abilities. Any similarities to Batman or Nightwing pretty much end there. Dorian has a clouded past, and we know he has done some bad things that he is trying to make up for. It's a very good series, and I hope it lasts as long as Marv wants it to. With my luck, it'll be cancelled by issue 12.

There is a small, but interesting supporting cast, involving his Microchip (Punisher) style partner, an agent with the FBI who is on his tail, and a mob boss that is fairly creepy.

It's good stuff, and a nice balance from all the books I read with power rings all the color of the rainbow.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars. Check it out!

Magic: The Gathering

Okay. WAY back in the day (I'm old, see), I used to play D&D and Star Frontiers. That was pretty much the extent of my RPG days. I preferred Star Frontiers so much more due to the insanely easy rule system. In fact, there is an awesome Star Frontiers site out there that has all the game materials remastered! Go here!

In my local comic shop, there is an entire room dedicated to people playing RPG's. You see quite a mixed crowd in there...non-descript high school kids, normal looking dudes, and guys with Chewbacca-like hair who wear their trenchcoats in July. I stick to a budget, so comics and video games are pretty much my hobby.

Xbox Live Arcade recently released a Magic: The Gathering game. I saw it, and was feeling a little RPG nostalgic, and bought it. It's not an RPG in the same sense as D&D or anything, in that it's a card game. Holy crap is it fun!! I am addicted to this freakin' game and probably will be for quite some time.

Side note: I was looking at the comic shop and checking out their Magic cards in the glass case. I saw a couple for 300 dollars. I about shat myself. Wow.

Anyway, 5 out of 5 mana cards. This game rocks.

Here's a card that costs a couple bucks.

Captain America: Reborn

Steve Rogers is on his way back! Oh yeah...spoilers.

Issue number one, of five, brings us up to speed with what happened to Cap, from the point of being assassinated until now, where we find the new Cap, his former partner James "Bucky" Barnes and the Black Widow off on a mission to recover some of the Red Skull's crap.

The mission leads them to Norman Osborn's helicarrier.

You see, Sharon Carter, former lover of Steve Rogers and alleged murderer of Rogers, believes Steve is alive. Information she obtained while being held captive by the Red Skull and that goofy looking bastard Zola has led her to believe he is not dead after all.

Lots of dialogue ensues, setting up the remainder of this series, and we see Bucky and the Black Widow being ambushed by Ares and Venom, of Dark Avengers fame. At the end, we see flashback city, all the way back to WW2, where Cap is alive, and apparently back in that time period.

Will Cap come back to the present? What will become of Bucky, who did an unbelievably great job as Cap in Steve's absence? Is Zola a sex offender? What about the charger for my electric screwdriver? Will it turn back up? STAY TUNED!

Coming up: the last couple issues of Vigilante, Justice League: Cry For Justice, Gears of War, and more!

Zola has no neck. ------>