The Longbox Chronicles: New comics July 8, 2009

This book was immediately my pick of the week.

Acting as a prologue to Blackest Night, this issue introduces us to the first Black Lantern (clue: look at the cover), and doesn’t even feature the title character except for a few flashbacks. Geoff Johns gives us a look into what made the Black Hand into who he is: a sick fucker obsessed with death. I don’t want to go into too much detail because this book really should be experienced spoiler-free. It’s great.

Doug Mahnke’s gritty art is tailor made for this sort of creepy comic.

If you’re even remotely interested in the upcoming (probably next week) Blackest Night, do yourself a favor and pick this issue up. Highly Recommended.

This issue kicks off Mark Bagley’s short run as the series artist, and it looks amazing. Winick’s story starts near what I imagine is the end before flashing back to the beginning. It’s a common technique in fiction (I’ve used it a couple times, myself) and I get the feeling it’s going to work better in TPB format since the story doesn’t catch up to where it started in this issue.

Dick Grayson is showing that he is a different Batman by not disabling cameras before smacking some gun-runners. He’s making sure there is plenty of evidence available at the crime scene to get a conviction.

My favorite scene is when Dick is bitching about the costume to Alfred. The cowl is limiting his peripheral vision, and the cape feels like “a ball gown made of kevlar”. The dialogue is great, and makes the book that much more fun to read. Recommended.

This issue was kinda “meh”. It felt like it took way too long to get to the point where Ra’s Al Ghul wants to “team up” with Tim on his quest for Bruce. Plus, there was some odd scene between Tim and Stephanie Brown (Spoiler) just before he took off for Europe. I’m guessing her return to Gotham wasn’t exactly hearts and roses for Tim, but that must’ve happened before Robin ended because I’m sort of clueless there.

This issue concludes the first arc of the new beginning of G.I.Joe. The best part: we get to see Snake Eyes in action ( a little). Scarlett was a little too damsel-y in this one. I think she could’ve taken Chimera on her own, but whatever. Plus, it looks like the Pit has been discovered. Definitely worth reading if you’re a G.I.Joe fan.