Weekly Pick-Ups 1/15/14

Deanpool is catching up with these! Thankfully only he only got 4 issues that came out last week. We have another balanced plate of 2 DC comics and 2 Marvel comics. Like the other Marvel first issues that came out last week, Miracleman #1 will be on its own review with the link found at the bottom. Let’s get to it.

Justice League 3000 #2- You can read Deanpool’s reaction to the first issue in an earlier Weekly Pick-Ups post. As for this second issue, some of the same problems are still being presented. Readers are still lost as to who the girl in the beginning of the first issue is. This reincarnated Justice League team still has chemistry problems, which isn’t a problem since it makes for a fun story. It’s also still unclear what type of identity this team will take, will they become just like the heroes they are based off of or will they keep the personalities they have now? As one of the Terry twins put it, “brain-damaged children in super-powerful adult bodies.” Of course after saying that, now this team is out to prove themselves worthy of being called the Justice League. Green Lantern showed off more of his character’s power when he carries the team through space. He mentions how he is still full of willpower like the Hal Jordan before him, despite not having a Green Lantern ring. And he’s also acting like the voice of reason for the team? Not exactly the Hal Jordan way, but then again none of these heroes are acting much like the characters they’re supposed to be. There is some development as far as who their villain might be. As advertised on the cover, the Justice League 3000 encounter their first real test as they are confronted by Locus, a girl with godlike reality bending powers and a connection the larger threat, “The Five.”

Silly Superman 3000,
flying is for the real Superman.

The intriguing part is that while she has the power to split atoms, distort reality, and all that good stuff, she acts like teenage high school girl. Deanpool made a bit of comparison between Locus and Harley Quinn with the way the act and talk. One of example is when she’s at a bar and she is telling a story about how her “boyfriend” was sleeping with another female alien (or whatever there are in the future) and she killed them both. Another example is how she was attracted to Green Lantern 3000 (still going by the name Hal Jordan), but had no interest in the other members. With the rest, she either banished them to another dimension or killed them (let’s just say Deanpool is especially upset with this one)? Hard to tell at the moment, but she keeps Hal to investigate his connection with the now-ancient Green Lanterns. It was noted in the first issue that the Green Lanterns are associated as the most despised organization in history. But a big standout for Deanpool is the humor with all the character personalities. Superman is an arrogant jerk who can’t accept the fact he can’t fly and refuses to be called Clark Kent because he only sees himself as Superman. And let’s not forget the constant quarrels between Superman and Batman. It’s a stark difference from the humble Clark Kent we’re accustomed to, but that’s the fun part! It was nice seeing that Flash and Green Lantern still get along. Deanpool was especially fond of when Flash still called Green Lantern, “GL.” Wonder Woman’s extreme Amazonian personality is starting to get old, but all is redeemed as soon as she’s put into action and fight scenes. While some may not be pleased with the art, Deanpool thinks the art is fitting for the dark futuristic setting and the character art has been refreshing compared to the standard looks shown in the other New 52 titles. Deanpool is waiting for the team to settle into this new series and new setting and hoping things begin to click with the team soon. But until then, he’ll settle for this team acting like a bunch of children with something to prove. 8/10 from Deanpool for seeing Batman let Superman fall for a while after failing to fly before Green Lantern saved his pompous butt. This one barely pulled off the Pick of the Week, and is even 2/2 for Pick of the Week, but Night of the Living Deadpool just didn’t do enough to set up more of the story for its series.

Locus will be a true test to JL3000's power.

This series has become more of
a showcase of these two heroes.

Justice League of America #11- Justice League of America has been a pretty good series. Its purpose was to be the government’s counterforce against the Justice League if things ever got out of control. The members were carefully selected to counteract each member of the Justice League. Martian Manhunter-Superman, Catwoman-Batman, Green Lantern Simon Baz-Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Aquaman-Hawkman, so on and so forth. They didn’t possess the most interesting of rosters but they were still interesting nonetheless. We finally get to see a bit of a showdown between the two teams in the Trinity War, but now that we’re in the Forever Evil story arc JLA has been stuck to doing the Forever Evil tie-ins. And it just about seems that the last 3 issues have all been singing the same song. With almost all of the members of both JL and JLA stuck within a prison of Firestorm’s matrix, only a few have managed to either escape and/or got away before being imprisoned. Batman, Catwoman, and Cyborg have had stories in Justice League of their survival, but JLA has been focusing on Stargirl and Martian Manhunter. Hard for two characters to hold up the series when readers expect 6 to 10.

Clayface appearance.

Martian Manhunter can be seen as the most seasoned hero on the JLA roster, and the comics have emphasized Stargirl being looked at as the rookie. In fact, one of her main purposes on the team for a majority of its issues pre-Trinity War was to be the cover girl of the team who would handle interviews and media to boost the PR of the JLA team. But instead of going the normal route of a young hero trying to prove herself, Martian Manhunter stresses her genuine nature to help others and do good. Having just escaped the Firestorm matrix, a weakened Martian Manhunter is focused on finding Firestorm before the Crime Syndicate detonates him, killing the members trapped inside and thousands of others. Stargirl, on the other hand, is focused on returning to Los Angeles to help her family. However, she feels that she can’t separate from Manhunter until he has enough strength to carry on his own. They encounter villains along the way that have taken over the country since the League’s disappearance, like the Clayface battle shown in the cover. Martian Manhunter continues to praise Stargirl’s emergence into an adult heroine and a focus is shown on a failure in Stargirl’s past that plagues her performance as a heroine. She chooses to bury this part of her past in her memories but it affects her ability to focus. This will likely be the center of the next issue’s story as we finally see what the tragic memory is. We also see the return of Despero who made an appearance in the Justice League comics just before the Trinity War. Martian Manhunter took care of him that time, but will he have the energy and strength to battle with him again? Or will he see another step forward in Stargirl’s heroic breakthrough performance? The story is being dragged out as Forever Evil hosts the major plot lines from this crossover event, but with only a couple months left (about 2 more issues) for this event perhaps the next issues will pick up some speed. 6.5/10 from Deanpool.

Courtney (Stargirl) is growing into a real heroine 

What tragic event is Stargirl trying to hide from?

What's Despero's role in all this? And will he
bring some life back to the series?

Night of the Living Deadpool #1-

Deadpool and zombies. It sounds like a good idea, and it’s playing out as such thus far. No tie-ins to the Marvel Zombie universe, this is simply a Deadpool with Zombies story. It’s the first of a four part mini-series and so far it’s everything you’d expect in a Deadpool story. All the zombies of Walking Dead with all the comedy of Deadpool. The only weak point is the common zombie-story formula that this comic seems to follow. Deadpool has woken up from a coma to find a world deprived of human life. Though it should be noted that it was a food coma from eating too many chimichangas. This leads to Deadpool having to carry the load of dialogue with his humor and voice to avoid the otherwise silence of this post-apocalyptic world. No explanations as to how the zombie outbreak happened but Deadpool does recall strange instances where he should’ve expected something was wrong. Oh he also compares himself to Will Smith a la I Am Legend. Classic Deadpool humor. Eventually, the zombies do show up and at one point Deadpool is surrounded by an army of the dead. Cue Deadpool slicing and shooting up countless zombies. An interesting thing to note is that the zombies can speak. One even warned Deadpool not to use a gun or else it will attract more zombies. Not sure if the ability to speak is meant to humanize the zombies, but it does seem like the zombies are unable to control their desires to “eat others,” and may still have some of their consciousness of their former selves. This may play a big factor in how the story plays out. As expected, Deadpool eventually finds a group of survivors who have not turned into a zombie yet as they make way for a military safe-haven. So much for a solo Deadpool vs. Zombie Apocalyptic world story. Deanpool’s favorite part of the comic by far is the artwork. The palette is mostly black and white except for Deadpool (other than when Deadpool recalls the past).

It highlights Deadpool and really makes the art standout. It’s an appropriate scheme and it’s done well. The first installment of the miniseries has the typical zombie opening story elements: hero realizes the world has changed, takes out a bunch of zombies, gets saved by a third party. No ideas as to where it may have started from and no reason for Deadpool to ultimately care yet. But we’ll see where it goes. 7.5/10 for being funnier than Walking Dead since everyone is pretty much dying in that comic as of late. And also for having more color than Walking Dead.

Deadpool killing zombies was definitely expected.

Miracleman #1- 6/10. Click the title for the review.

What could've been an exciting batch of pick-ups didn't turn out to be so. 3 out of 4 comics are still relatively new (either issue #1 or #2) so they still show a lot of potential to develop. JLA is getting dragged on to keep pace with Forever Evil. But perhaps the biggest disappointment was the Miracleman issue. Nonetheless, pick up these issues for yourself if you're interested! The Night of the Living Deadpool and Justice League 3000 are great series to jump into. Thanks for reading! We'll get the Pick-Ups from 1/22 out soon!

Deadpool, that's what got you into this mess.