Green Lantern #1-6

DC Comics' universal relaunch, the New 52, has been very successful.  It allows a lot of people to jump in to comics that they either have had no exposure to, or perhaps some peripheral exposure.  A couple lines of books remain untouched, for the most part.  The Batman and Green Lantern titles still have a lot of the same themes running through the new books that were present prior to the relaunch.

Light spoilers ahead.

Hal Jordan is no longer a Green Lantern, but Sinestro is.  In fact, these first six issues are just as much about Sinestro as they are about Hal Jordan, if not more so.  In a nutshell, Sinestro doesn't want to be Green Lantern, but uses the opportunity to save his home planet of Korugar from his own Corps, the Sinestro Corps.  It turns out our friends in yellow have decided to enslave Korugar, and Sinestro will have none of that action.

He enlists the help of Hal Jordan, who the Guardians kicked out of the Green Lantern Corps.  Sinestro creates a ring for Hal, but the kicker is that Sinestro controls Hal's ring.  Lots of arguing between the two, double-crosses, and some pretty cool moments for each throughout.  The Guardians have a plan to replace the Green Lantern Corps, and will kill anyone who gets in their way.  What?  I am not sure where this is all headed in regards to resolution, but I just want Hal to be back in the driver's seat.

I have not yet read GLC, Red Lanterns, or The New Guardians, but from what I have heard, Red Lanterns is a little iffy.  We'll see!  It's tough to read some of the stuff out there in regards to comic reviews because they are always so inherently negative.  I swear sometimes some comic fans truly are not happy unless they are bitching about something.

Buck up, little campers!  Enjoy the ride!

Xbox 360

Not that you have asked, but I am on my 5th xbox.  FIFTH.  For anyone who has had an xbox, they know what the red ring of death means.  That is what happened to all my prior consoles.  Finally, I bought a new one.  I still have the old one, and it just collects dust upstairs on a shelf.

With my current xbox, I am now unable to load discs.  This is a little inconvenient when I want to, oh I don't know, PLAY MY XBOX.  Sure, I can play arcade games until I am blue in the face.  But, I would rather get blue in the face playing some of the discs I've spent over a thousand dollars on.

I will send it in, probably pay the 90-100 bucks to get it fixed, which is to say they will just send me a refurbished xbox that had already junked out before.  I can get a disc to play, but I just need to keep trying over and over again.  Yesterday, it worked on the 2nd try.  Today it worked after at least 20 times.  So I bought a game from the marketplace.  Battlefield Bad Company 2.  

It's supposed to be pretty fun.  My brother and nephew are fans, and that's good enough for me.

In the meantime, I'd like to tell my good friends at xbox: STOP SUCKING.  Seriously.  Soon I will be on xbox #6.  Xbox is easily the best and worst gaming system all at once.  Awesome games, excellent multiplayer and tons of extras through Xbox Live, and the most unreliable hardware known to man.  I'd rather have drunk monkeys make me a new xbox.

Batman & Robin 1-6

Dickhead.

Issue #1: 12

Issue #2: 4

Issue #3: 9

Issue #4: 9

Issue #5: 6

Issue #6: 2

12 + 4 + 9 + 9 + 6 + 2 = 42

42 times so far I have wanted to see Damien Wayne accidentally get run over by the Batmobile.  In the last entry, I discussed Jason Todd and his role as Red Hood.  Jason was voted off the bat-island because he was not popular with fans.

Damien is 50 times worse than Jason ever was as Robin.  I thoroughly dislike this character.  But...I can't wait for the next issue.  I can't wait because I really enjoy Peter Tomasi's writing.  Infinitely superior to Grant Morrison's drivel.  I also can't wait, because part of me WANTS to see Damien ran over by the Batmobile.

I would also like to see Damien become less of a jackwad.

This is a great series, truly.  Sure, disliking the character of Damien Wayne as Robin is one thing, but it's also pretty great to see how Batman and Alfred react to this little psycho.  Six issues in, and the storyline is still rolling.  Now I have to wait a month.  AARRGHH!

Red Hood and the Outlaws

After issue #1 of this series, especially if  you are a fan of these characters before the "new 52", you might want to stop reading this series altogether.  My problem is I let books stack up so I can enjoy them all at once, or in the case with novels, to make them last longer.  Reading, to me, is like episodic television.  It is not uncommon for me to be reading 3 or 4 books at once.  I am currently reading Extinction Agenda by Marcus Pelegrimas, Sandstorm by James Rollins, and Star Wars: Survivor's Quest by Timothy Zahn.  It's like turning the channel.  AND IT'S HOW I ROLL.

So it goes with comics.  I let Red Hood and the Outlaws stack up, and I am glad I did.

Jason Todd's Most Precious Memory

Jason Todd is the Red Hood.  Todd, you might recall, was the 2nd Robin to be under Batman's tutelage.  Back in the day, there was a storyline where readers could call into a 900# (not that kind of 900#...so disappointing) and determine whether or not Jason Todd would live or die.  The readers decided Jason needed to go.

The character was becoming a loose cannon, and as a result, Robin got to die at the hands of the Joker, via explosives.  The story was quite sad, and really shaped the Batman character for years and years to come.  Anyway, he's back.

Roy Harper, the former sidekick to Green Arrow, is also in the book.  Roy Harper, formerly known as Speedy had a name switch to Arsenal when DC finally realized the name Speedy was inherently stupid.  The character gained some fame in the 70's as the sidekick who turned to heroin in the infamous Green Lantern/Green Arrow series.  Social relevance and all that.  Dated stories, but man were they great. To this day I will still break them out.

The last Outlaw is Starfire.  She was a Teen Titan regular, former girlfriend to original Robin, Dick Grayson, and current slut with a selective memory.  This was the character that made me want to throw the first issue into the fireplace to use as kindling.  It became clear to me that I do not have a fireplace, so I had to scrap the idea.  

After finishing the 1st five issues, I suggest you go out and buy it.  Some minor dialogue annoyances and predictable formulas aside, I am interested in the story, and I am interested mostly in what happens to Jason Todd.  A very fun book. 

4 out of 5 Red Hoods.

Grifter

So I am pretty behind on comics.  Real life keeps me busy!  Real life is also a definition for family, work, and Call of Duty: Black Ops or MW3, you choose.

I want to care.

Grifter was the first thing I caught up on, because I recall not disliking the first few issues, but I wasn't really getting too into it, either.  So I stacked up my comics from "marginal" to "good" to "I can't wait".

Unfortunately for Cole Cash (Grifter), he was up first.  Five issues in, and I like the art, I think Grifter could be cool, but I just can't bring myself to give two shits about the Daemonites.  I hope I spelled that correctly.  I would check, but that would require me reaching to my right about a half-arm's length to open one of the issues.  There are things I cannot be bothered with, mind-control, sushi, speaking Mandarin Chinese, and trying to look up the correct (comic) spelling of Daemonite.  You might argue that with the insane rambling I've done in this paragraph, I could have looked it up.  You're absolutely right.  But what concerns me even more, is the origin of the phrase "I couldn't give two shits..."

Don't even get me started.

Grifter has one issue left to rope me in.  If not, I will replace it with a few songs to download off of iTunes.

The rest of the reading order...

We are going to the Bat-verse and will be reading these titles...

Red Hood and the Outlaws

Batgirl

Nightwing

Batman

Then we hit the GL universe...

New Guardians

Red Lanterns

GLC

GL

After that, we will hit the "others".

Flash

Aquaman

Justice League

There is still Catwoman, Stormwatch, some Marvel stuff, and the latest Maxim, but they will have to wait.