There will most likely be some spoilers...otherwise, enjoy!

CHEERS, of course, to this week's issue of Batman. I already wrote that I thought it was good, so the cheers should not be much of a surprise, but hey, can't hurt to make it clear, right?

JEERS, of a sort, to the art on the comic, though. Lee Garbett actually does a good job on the book (and I like Garbett's work, really, I do), but to think that, if the rumors are not true about Morrison returning to Batman (with Frank Quitely in tow for at least an arc!), then Morrison's last issue of Batman will have been drawn by...Lee Garbett? Just sounds wrong, doesn't it? Possibly the last story of his run on Batman and its done by a fill-in artist?

CHEERS to Duane Swierczynski and Tim Green for the latest issue of Immortal Iron Fist. It's a one-off story set in the future with the Iron Fist of the future and it is amazing. It's hard to beat a 24-year-long punch, coolness-wise.

JEERS to Billy Tan's artwork in this week's New Avengers. It was quite bad. Of particular awfulness was his take on the new Captain America - it just sort of popped off the page with awfulness. It was bad enough that it honestly took me out of the story for a moment as I adjusted to how bad Cap looked.

Some JEERS to the story of the latest issue of New Avengers, too. Particularly the part where Iron Fist quits the team, is in the room when they find out that his namesake, the daughter of his best friend, is missing - and then he isn't shown helping to look for her so that we could get a full-page spread of the new line-up of the Avengers? Huh?

CHEERS to this latest part of Lady Bullseye in Daredevil. If this is how Brubaker is going to write Milla out, then cheers to that. But overall, it was a great issue with a goodly balance of action and character development. Great art from Lark and Gaudiano, too.

Extra CHEERS to Daredevil for making it look like White Tiger is not DEAD dead. I could see her dying, I can't see her AND Black Tarantula dying.

CHEERS to Audrey Loeb's Hulk short stories at the back of Hulk with Red Hulk, Green Hulk and Blue Hulk. Very cute stuff every time around. CHEERS also to the neat Christmas covers Marvel came up with as Variants for the latest issue of Hulk. Finally, CHEERS to Art Adams' artwork on his Hulk story arc. Man, Adams is amazing.

JEERS to the last issue of the Flash. Talk about going out with a whimper. I surely don't blame the creative team (any more than I blamed Joey Cavalieri for the last story arc on Flash before Infinite Crisis, which was EERILY similar to this last issue of Flash), as this seemed to reek of "wrap this up quick and make sure to keep everything REALLY open-ended!").

JEERS to the new Wonder Woman villain, Genocide. I'm not saying you can't work in the atrocities of Darfur, Auschwitz and World War II-era Croatia into a comic book. Of course you can. But to work them all into the origin of something as goofy as Genocide - a Doomsday riff who looks like a sillier version of Jimmy Olsen as Turtle Boy? Not a good idea.

JEERS, in fact, to Genocide, period. Forget the fact that Genocide is made up of soil from Darfur, Auschwitz and World War II-era Croatia. Toss that out. If you forget that, Genocide is still a Doomsday riff who looks like a sillier version of Jimmy Olsen as Turtle Boy.

Doomsday is already a silly concept - to out-silly Doomsday is not a good thing.

ESPECIALLY when the current storyline is being sold as super serious (heck, make that super DUPER serious). You know it's serious, because Wonder Girl and Donna Troy spend most of the issue standing around telling us how serious it is.

CHEERS, though, to the super sweet Frank Quitely variant cover for the issue! It thankfully did not feature Genocide on it.

CHEERS to the monkey in a dress doing the dance for Number 5 in this week's Umbrella Academy. Delightfully bizarre (in a book that's far from super duper serious).

JEERS or CHEERS, I really don't know where I'm going with Hank Pym taking on the heroic identity of the Wasp. It's a tough call. I think I am going to go with a tentative cheer.

Definite CHEER, though, for Dan Slott's work with Jocasta. There's a lot to work with there, so it's nice to see him go for it.

JEERS, of a sort, to Synarr from Rann/Thanagar: Holy War. I mean, I can't really begrudge Starlin too much for wanting to continue writing Thanos, as Thanos is a cool character...but man, this is getting a bit silly now, no?

CHEERS to Eric Wight for the Buffy Animated Series part of the latest issue of Buffy. Top-notch work.

CHEERS to the great Jo Chen cover, as well.

Heck, let's give Jeph Loeb some CHEERS, too, for the story for the issue in question.

JEERS, though, to Loeb's Ultimatum #2, which was a step-up from the first issue of the series, but mostly in the way ____ is a step up from ______ (fill in your own snark!).

CHEERS to Fred Van Lente's brilliant re-imagining of Hank Pym's origin in Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes #6. He actually made Ant-Man funny and charming - wow! Nice art from Matthew Loli on the issue, too.

JEERS and CHEERS to this week's Scooby Doo, as it has an incredible take-off on It's a Wonderful Life starring Shaggy (if it were not for the gang, lots of people would be run off their land by bad guys). Very well told. The jeers are for the fact that it's a reprint from LAST YEAR! That is a bit quick to be reprinting a story - even one as good as this. And yes, I know that the hope is that the kids reading Scooby last year are going to be replaced by new kids this year, but still, it seems soon anyways.

CHEERS to this week's time-traveling Thor story. I am not a huge fan of JMS on this book so far (although Coipel has been ay-MAY-zing to this point), but this one-off issue was a clever look at Loki using time travel to manipulate his own past in clever ways. Coipel getting to draw Loki as a man for the first time is a delight - he captured Loki's essence perfectly.

CHEERS to Daniel Way's latest issue of Wolverine Origins. He almost made me interested in Daken.

JEERS to Daken - on principle.

Okay, that's it for this week!

Have a Cheerful New Year, folks!

20 Comments

• At December 31, 2008, suedenim wrote:

  Sales on The Flash are apparently approaching Street Poet Ray levels, at least if my shop is any indicator. ...

• At December 31, 2008, Matt D wrote:

  I think that Duane Swierczynski is actually getting better and better each month with his comics. Obviously he's an experienced ...

• At December 31, 2008, Stephen wrote:

  "JEERS to Billy Tan’s artwork in this week’s New Avengers. It was quite bad. Of particular awfulness was his take ...

• At December 31, 2008, T. wrote:

  Wait, so is it Turtle Boy or Turtle MAN? People on line always say Turtle Boy but that cover ...

• At December 31, 2008, Bishop wrote:

  "Some JEERS to the story of the latest issue of New Avengers, too. Particularly the part where Iron Fist quits ...

• At December 31, 2008, Jim wrote:

  Sales on The Flash are apparently approaching Street Poet Ray levels, at least if my shop is any indicator.

  --------------

  Did ...

• At December 31, 2008, Michael Mayket wrote:

  Seriously, they had to know they were going to get the Turtle Boy comments, right? It couldn't have escaped ...

• At December 31, 2008, T. wrote:

  I propose a "Cheers" to Jim's Street Poet Ray joke. Well played, sir! ;)

• At December 31, 2008, SanctumSanctorumComix wrote:

  I had a great example for the :" ____ is a step up from ______ " quiz, but I don't ...

• At December 31, 2008, aboynamedposh wrote:

  Except Danny Rand is shown helping look for his near-namesake on page 13. He and Spider-Woman bust up a Hydra ...

• At December 31, 2008, Ian A. wrote:

  I made the mistake of googling Street Poet Ray.

  JEERS to me for not knowing better.

• At December 31, 2008, DubipR wrote:

  Cheers to Air #5 and one of the better endings of an issues in a long time. Cheers to ...

• At December 31, 2008, Ron wrote:

  I was actually going to make a joke about how diarrhea is a step up from constipation but it looks ...

• At December 31, 2008, Anonymous wrote:

  @T.: Ya, isn't it funny that both of Loeb's kids can write but he can't? His late son ...

• At December 31, 2008, Stefan wrote:

  Mm. Maybe I'll give DS on Iron Fist another shot.

  Gotta disagree about Gabrett. I thought the art was ...

• At December 31, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  You should at least give this one-shot issue a chance, Stefan. It's only one issue! And it has Tim Green ...

• At January 1, 2009, S_O wrote:

  "CHEERS to Audrey Loeb’s Hulk short stories at the back of Hulk with Red Hulk, Green Hulk and Blue Hulk."

  You're ...

• At January 1, 2009, Paul C wrote:

  CHEERS to Daniel Way’s latest issue of Wolverine Origins. He almost made me interested in Daken.

  Got to disagree with ...

• At April 1, 2009, Scott MacIver wrote:

  "“CHEERS to Audrey Loeb’s Hulk short stories at the back of Hulk with Red Hulk, Green Hulk and Blue Hulk.”

  You’re ...

• At August 7, 2009, Speed Reading for the New Year « Speed Force wrote:

  [...] Should Be Good jeers the final issue of The Flash as “out with a [...]

There will most likely be some spoilers...otherwise, enjoy!

Two books I already complimented, but just for completion's sake...

CHEERS to Final Crisis #5 for being a fun action-packed comic with a ton of awesome little moments, as well as strong developments towards the "Fifth World" and CHEERS to Phonogram: Singles Club #1 for being a delightful read, including a great amount of value for the buck, with a strong lead story (that is fresh to new readers) and two nice back-ups, including a brilliant short story about the plight of women in emo music.

CHEERS to Reactron being "The man with the Gold Kryptonite heart." Very clever.

JEERS to this whole "Joker killing people while in police custody" routine in Batman Confidential. I think I'd be happier with it if the deaths were actually clever, but come on, talking a lady into killing herself (off panel, of course) in a minute or so? That's not cool. And getting a lawyer to slip on a banana peel in such a way that she falls and cracks her head, killing her? The Joker's not Bruce Banner, calculating the odds in his Hulk fights - he's just some crazy maniac!

JEERS to the idea of Bruce Banner calculating the odds in his fights as the Hulk so as to not kill anyone.

CHEERS to Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #2. This quick mini-series was an intriguing look at the villains of Warren Ellis' run, particularly this issue, which is set in an alternate universe where things went differently at the beginning of the X-Men's encounter with the other-dimensional mutants in recent issues of Astonishing X-Men. By showing the readers what would have happened if things had not gone exactly how they did, Ellis allows us deep insight into the motivations and machinations of the villains. It is a very clever way for Ellis to deliver a whole pile of info to the readers. Also, great artwork by Kaare Andrews on the second story!

JEERS, though, to the not very good artwork of Clayton Crain on the first story.

JEERS to Ed Benes' artwork in the introduction of the Milestone heroes. Especially his take on Iota and Donner ("Can't...draw....women...who do not...look like...swimsuit models").

CHEERS to the Milestone heroes returning period, and having Dwayne McDuffie being the one handling it - very cool.

JEERS, though, to the idea of the Milestone heroes just "always being in the DC Universe - just no one talks about them." What is the point of having a multiverse if you do not use the perfect opportunity for it like here - the Milestone heroes belong in their own universe. It is fine if they cross over, Earth 1/Earth 2 style - totally cool, but the idea that Dakota is part of the DC Universe? That really doesn't work.

Even MORE JEERS for the issue, for the return of the "Doctor Light is a bitch!" characterization. I get the idea of bringing back earlier characterizations if the earlier characterization was, like, important or integral to the character, but Dr. Light was shown as a bitch for about, what, three issues? Three issues almost TWENTY-FIVE YEARS ago! But somehow, all her character development since then is to be thrown out the window to make her main characteristic being that she is a bitch? Lame!

The final JEER for the issue - the wholly inappropriate sex dream Hawkgirl had with Hawkman. Don't get me wrong, I think the scene could be done well if it was not handled by Ed Benes, but, well, when you're writing a book where Ed Benes is the artist - don't work in sex scenes! They are not going to be handled well - they're going to look cheap and jarring.

CHEERS to the first issue of Garth Ennis' Punisher mini-series for being an amusing sequel to Ennis' "Welcome Back Frank" story.

JEERS, though, that Marvel chose to return to "Welcome Back, Frank" and not the much superior Punisher MAX series. If you're gonna get Ennis to come back to do a mini-series featuring the Punisher, I'd much rather it be with the Punisher MAX style than the Marvel Knights one.

CHEERS to artwork by Guillem March in the first part of Denny O'Neil's Batman story in Detective Comics. Strong work by an artist that I am unfamiliar with.

JEERS to the artistic inconsistencies in Final Crisis #5. I get that they're rushed, but there were a lot of silly little mistakes in the book that I'd really prefer to see fixed.

CHEERS to Marco Rudy, who filled in at the last moment in Final Crisis #5. If Pacheco was rushed enough that he was making little mistakes all over the place, can you imagine how rushed RUDY must have been? I wouldn't be surprised if it was "get these done over the weekend please," and yet Rudy produced some extremely strong pages, including the scene of Darkseid's ascension.

CHEERS to Terry Moore's artwork and character development in his new series, Echo. Both are top rate. I am also pleased that he seems to have a much firmer grasp at the direction of this series as opposed to Stranger in Paradise (then again, that's kind of hard not to do, right? As SiP was about as direction-less as comics get - until the end, of course, when Moore came up with his ending, and the last 25 or so issues were quite tightly written).

JEERS to the notion that comics are still dealing with the effects of the Black Panther's mis-use of the Ebony Blade. As I've said in the past, I subscribe to Michael Bolton's position in matters like these...

CHEERS to the fun (if a bit "by the book") storyline in Superman/Batman, where Superman and Batman switch powers. Great artwork by Rags Morales.

JEERS to Namor's characterization (visual and otherwise) for most of Secret Invasion: Dark Reign (although he ended up fairly well).

CHEERS, though, to the general concept behind Dark Reign. It's basically like when Lex Luthor became President of the United States, except it appears to be actually coordinated with the rest of the Marvel Universe, so it will have ramifications - Luthor as President really didn't have much in the way of ramifications.

In fact, let's just give out JEERS to the wasting of the idea that Luthor was President.

A double JEER for his choice of Pete Ross as his running mate ("Remember that guy who was appointed as Senator as part of a government conspiracy and resigned after he almost assassinated a U.S. General? We want THAT guy as our veep!")

MAJOR CHEERS to Skottie Young's artwork on the Marvel adaptation of the Wizard of Oz, but CHEERS to Eric Shanower, as well, for a strong story.

JEERS that Terry Moore's delightful run on Mary Jane was just a mini-series.

CHEERS to Judd Winick's clever "the fight is going on inside Dick's mind" plot in Titans.

JEERS, though, to the idea Winick introduced in the same issue (in an otherwise clever plot point where the Titans have certain "security questions" that no one else knows to test their identities in case of impostors infiltrating the group) that Wally kissed another woman while with Linda.

CHEERS to the "1.076 seconds" plot device Andrew Kreisberg used to introduce his run on Green Arrow/Black Canary. Very clever, and certainly did make him stand out.

JEERS, of a sort, to the unclear ending (so they just left him in the alley? the guy, what, burst through the man's window? huh?) as well as the unclear explanation for how Dinah got into her predicament.

CHEERS that the lady in Nightwing is alive. It's quite hokey, but hey, I'm happy!

Okay, that's it for this go around, folks! I may have a new one next - I may not. We shall see what we shall see!

49 Comments

• At December 15, 2008, Birmy wrote:

  Yay! The return of my favorite feature on this site! Don't wait almost a year between installments next ...

• At December 15, 2008, Stephen wrote:

  "CHEERS to the fun (if a bit “by the book”) storyline in Superman/Batman, where Superman and Batman switch powers. Great ...

• At December 15, 2008, Sam wrote:

  I'd prefer Pete Ross to Cheney.

• At December 15, 2008, Stephen wrote:

  "In fact, let’s just give out JEERS to the wasting of the idea that Luthor was President."

  About the only really ...

• At December 15, 2008, David Uzumeri wrote:

  Honestly, they can do whatever they want with Bane so long as he continues to wear a suit. Bane + ...

• At December 15, 2008, T. wrote:

  CHEERS, though, to the general concept behind Dark Reign. It’s basically like when Lex Luthor became President of the United ...

• At December 15, 2008, Glen Newman wrote:

  In recent press it was stated that the new Punisher War Zone series was in fact written a few years ...

• At December 15, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I did not know that, Glen!

  In that case, yeah, it's totally reasonable!

  Thanks for the info!

• At December 15, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Marco Rudy did a great job stepping up, as well. He basically got handed the highest-profile oh-shit assignment in comics ...

• At December 15, 2008, T. wrote:

  JEERS, though, to the idea of the Milestone heroes just “always being in the DC Universe - just no one ...

• At December 15, 2008, Shaun wrote:

  It's interesting to see opinion fairly split on "Green Arrow/Black Canary" #15. I thought it was the weakest issue of ...

• At December 15, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Note, Shaun, that I did not say that the issue was good. ;)

  Just that the plot device was good.

• At December 15, 2008, Shaun wrote:

  Noted!

• At December 15, 2008, Dave wrote:

  I remember Ennis mentioning that War Zone was going to be an Marvel Knights miniseries with John Romita Jr. during ...

• At December 15, 2008, Cass wrote:

  Can we have Jeers for how terrible that Denny O'Neil issue was? Jeers for Two-Face's revival of Victorian English? "To ...

• At December 15, 2008, Dalarsco wrote:

  What is Micheal Bolton's take on the Ebony Blade? Oh, and I would have phrased that as a CHEER ...

• At December 15, 2008, Rusty Priske wrote:

  I like this column but two things pop out (and I don't THINK I am a normally negative person, but...)

  The ...

• At December 15, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Final Crisis doesn’t make any sense! Maybe we could help you out - what are you having problems with following?

• At December 15, 2008, T. wrote:

  My problem with Infinite Crisis is that I can generally follow it, but it just feels like I'm reading a ...

• At December 15, 2008, T. wrote:

  I mean Final Crisis

• At December 15, 2008, Shaun wrote:

  but it just feels like I’m reading a book were every fourth page has been omitted and at least one ...

• At December 15, 2008, Neal K wrote:

  It seems there is an interesting debate brewing as to which of Ennis' Punisher runs is superior (Knights or MAX). ...

• At December 15, 2008, Jesse Farrell wrote:

  "The Joker’s... he’s just some crazy maniac!"

  Ha.

  Just what he wants you to think.

• At December 15, 2008, Apodaca wrote:

  " Maybe we could help you out - what are you having problems with following?"

  I won't be surprised if he ...

• At December 15, 2008, suedenim wrote:

  I still think President Luthor could have been a decent idea if handled by someone who showed even the slightest ...

• At December 15, 2008, Matt D wrote:

  I love the Banner probability thing. It's such a fun, goofy comic idea.

• At December 15, 2008, Jeff Holland wrote:

  JEERS, though, to the idea Winick introduced in the same issue...that Wally kissed another woman while with Linda.

  But Wally ...

• At December 15, 2008, Stephen wrote:

  "I can generally follow it, but it just feels like I’m reading a book were every fourth page has been ...

• At December 15, 2008, Jeff Ryan wrote:

  Luthor-as-Prez could have been a good idea, but now no one in the DCU is allowed to say "Wow, what ...

• At December 15, 2008, T. wrote:

  I'm sorry, but no way no how could Prez Luthor have been a good idea, no matter who handled it. ...

• At December 15, 2008, sgt pepper wrote:

  I love Ennis's fun Punisher (what a weird concept, but it works) but I agree that his MAX series is ...

• At December 15, 2008, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  I'm afraid I have to agree with Sgt. Pepper's comment.

  We had 5 years of deathly depressingly serious adult Punisher MAX ...

• At December 15, 2008, Annoyed Grunt wrote:

  It's not like the Ennis mini series was a choice between MK or MAX style. If he felt like ...

• At December 15, 2008, Shawn wrote:

  JEERS to this whole “Joker killing people while in police custody” routine in Batman Confidential. I think I’d be happier ...

• At December 15, 2008, Shawn wrote:

  JEERS to Namor’s characterization (visual and otherwise) for most of Secret Invasion: Dark Reign (although he ended up fairly well).

  Again, ...

• At December 15, 2008, stealthwise wrote:

  Most of those ideas sound pretty stupid.

• At December 16, 2008, Heimdall wrote:

  JEERS, of a sort, to the unclear ending (so they just left him in the alley? the guy, what, burst ...

• At December 16, 2008, JdRavnos wrote:

  "JEERS to the notion that comics are still dealing with the effects of the Black Panther’s mis-use of the Ebony ...

• At December 16, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Cornell's Captain Britain has been good, because he tells good stories.

  If he wants to work in some continuity into his ...

• At December 16, 2008, JdRavnos wrote:

  Ah, I get it now. "Why should I change? He's the one that sucks."

  But I disagree. While they are ...

• At December 16, 2008, Omar Karindu, back from an Internet Thogal ritual wrote:

  Eh. It's a bit hard to play the "no continuity needed" card for a series that got its big ...

• At December 16, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  I’m sorry, but no way no how could Prez Luthor have been a good idea, no matter who handled it. ...

• At December 17, 2008, Dalarsco wrote:

  T., what you cite as why President Luthor was a bad idea is a summary of the point of the ...

• At December 17, 2008, Walid wrote:

  "You probably should have jeered the $3.99 cover price of Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes, however…"

  Amen. Paul O'Brien makes a good ...

• At December 17, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Especially when you say in the same sentence that he can work continuity into the stories. IMHO, stories that fix ...

• At December 17, 2008, Diabolik wrote:

  "The fight is in Dick's mind" theme isn't that original.

  The Teen Titans cartoon had "Robin vs. Slade" all in his ...

• At December 18, 2008, Michael Mayket wrote:

  Are they good stories on their own, or good because they are fixing up some ‘mistake’ from the past?

  People are ...

• At December 18, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Yeah, it was a misuse of the term "mutually."

• At December 24, 2008, Glenn Simpson wrote:

  I don't see why a story being "good" because it fixes some bit of continuity is less "good" than being ...

There will most likely be some spoilers...otherwise, enjoy!

CHEERS to the cute "bullet through the goggles" bit in Booster Gold #6

JEERS to Maxwell Lord being a big supervillain. Seriously, such a dumb idea. I hated it when Gerry Jones did it, and I hated it when Johnuckanick did it (haven't used that baby in awhile ).

CHEERS to seeing Jon Bogdanove getting some work (I was all set to correct my spelling when it turned out that I spelled it correctly on my first shot! Woo-hoo!) for DC.

JEERS to Predator-X. Seriously, what a weird idea, with an even weirder name.

CHEERS to Sword! It is so good to see a nice book from the Luna Brothers again! I'm totally cool with all the graphic violence - just so long as there's some soul backing it up, and this book has some in spades. I especially loved how the lead character is honestly broken up over being accused of killing her family.

JEERS, ever so slightly, to how similar Luna Brothers faces are. I mean, if you give them something to go on, they seem to be able to draw a variety of faces - but when it's on their own, it seems like they've got one or two fallback looks. Not that uncommon, of course, but still, worth a slight jeer, I think!

CHEERS to Ron Frenz' facial work in Spider-Girl. It is really impressive - really evocative stuff - I especially loved the look on the assassin's face early in the issue, and the smile on baby Ben when May was leaving for school.

JEERS to Mindworm. Not knocking his usage - just jeering him period. He weirds me out.

CHEERS, BIG TIME, to the artwork of Bing Cansino and Geirrod Van Dyke on Spawn #174. Holy hellspawn, was that some nice artwork! It was painted, but it flowed extremely well!

JEERS to the stereotypical yoots who attacked the new Witchblade in the latest issue of Witchblade. I sincerely hope they are all part of a plan by the guy that she met right before they attacked (you know, hire some guys to attack them, so they can bond together).

CHEERS to the latest issue of Checkmate. Again, Rucka is better when he doesn't have to worry about sticking it to Waller every issue. A great issue, with excellent artwork by Chris Samnee, and if Rucka leaves this book when his deal with DC runs out, Trautmann seems capable of following Rucka's footsteps.

JEERS, belated ones, to Rucka for having Montoya rip on Bullock in the latest issue of the Question. I still remember how irked I was when Montoya was all, "I can't tell Harvey I'm gay." LAME!! Then again, I should be nicer - it has got to be a bit annoying for Rucka to spend a lot of time (with Brubaker's assistance) writing Bullock out of the comic completely, only to have him Superboy punched right back in.

CHEERS to Rucka adding the great Mike Barr character, the Bad Samaritan, to Checkmate, as the new White Bishop (going along with the Russian White Queen). And having Rocket Red being the White Knight was cute, and the whole differences between the Samaritan (who is from Georgia) taking issue with the White Queen and Rocket Red (who are Russian) was wonderfully handled.

JEERS to Rucka for killing the coolest Rocket Red of them all for basically no good reason. That death might actually have galled me more than Beetle's, because at least there was SOME point to Beetle's death (as cheap and as clumsy as it was).

CHEERS to the New Gods countdown special. Three Jack Kirby New Gods comics for $5 is a good deal, I say!! And a great Sook cover!

JEERS to making Catwoman tie in with Salvation Run. And double jeers for taking Deadshot out of the Suicide Squad to put him on the Salvation Run planet. And triple jeers for the concept of Salvation Run, period!

CHEERS to Bill Willingham for disassociating himself from Salvation Run quickly.

JEERS to Dan Slott for killing Spider-Man in the latest issue of Amazing Spider-Man.

What?

The issue ends with Spider-Man looking like he's going to die! That will probably happen, right?

Just like how Booster Gold ended by saying Ted Kord is here to stay!

Right?

CHEERS to the latest issue of Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man by Fred Van Lente. High-larious.

Venom decides he wants to be Spider-Man's sidekick - it all leads to a pretty darn funny punchline.

JEERS to me for being so mean with that Blue Beetle joke.

CHEERS to the debut issue of New Exiles, for making a nice step forward for the series.

JEERS to the same issue, for having WAY too much old continuity. What's the point of having a #1 issue if so many plots from the past series (plus OTHER series) are going to be so important? This was not a great "jumping on point" for new readers, which is too bad, because there are enough intriguing new characters that Chris Claremont could have spent a lot more time developing all the NEW ideas he has introduced (by making the team almost entirely new), rather than go back to OLD plots (especially Diana Fox, from New Excalibur).

CHEERS to Tom Grummett's art on the issue, though!

JEERS to the third straight Exiles story arc under Claremont that uses the Fantastic Four.

CHEERS to the "furry" discussion in the latest issue of Shadowpact. Funny stuff.

JEERS to the New Warriors, which consists of a bunch of established characters, but most of them neither look NOR ACT like the characters they are. What the heck is the point of using Beak and Angel if they do not LOOK like Beak and Angel and do not ACT like Beak and Angel. What the heck!??

And what's up with Jubilee going on about how "this is the first time I've felt like I had a family, unlike when I was with the X-Men." Like my pal Ben said when I mentioned the scene - "Foooooooorced."

CHEERS to Macon Blair for a really good back-up story in the latest Avengers Classic (with nice Nick Dragotta artwork), where he has Rick Jones try to apply the lessons Cap has taught him to the dating world - with some interesting consequences.

JEERS to the Authority not having their own title. The longer they don't have their own title, the more often they're going to be used to make other characters look good, like in the latest Wildstorm: Revelations.

CHEERS, though, in general, to Wildstorm: Revelations so far. It has made me hate Nemesis a LITTLE bit less. And it has great Wes Craig artwork! Is he related to the fellow who draws the Ash/Freddy/Jason comic?

JEERS to the ending of the latest issue of Steve Niles' Strange Cases. Could someone fill me in as to what was the point of ending on the scientist lady watching the dude kill all the Wendigos? I mean, I get that it was trying on her to see all that death in front of her eyes - but it still didn't seem all that clear why you'd end the book there. But I'm sure there's a fine reason why! Someone fill me in!

CHEERS to Steve Niles' Strange Cases as a whole, though! Each issue has been very enjoyable so far. Well done by writer Dan Wickline and artist David Hartman. I liked the first two issues better, though, as they had endings that made sense to me.

JEERS to Flash's kids. I'm sorry, Mr. Waid. I don't mind Wally being married. I don't mind him having kids, even. But the whole Incredibles riff, while a cute concept, just isn't working for me.

CHEERSto the latest issue of Fallen Angel. Very strong issue by Peter David, and I especially loved Dolf's role in the comic.

JEERS to Joyce Chin's artwork in the latest Marvel Comics Presents.

CHEERS to Merrill Hagen's story in the latest issue of Marvel Comics Presents.

That's it so far!

Maybe I'll come back later, when I finish the rest of the books!

40 Comments

• At January 17, 2008, Michael wrote:

  I should point out to the geographically disinclined that "Georgia" refers to the former Soviet satellite state, and not to ...

• At January 17, 2008, Gonger wrote:

  Cheers to ASM's opening page kiss … I thought this issue was better than last week's …

• At January 17, 2008, Mike wrote:

  I really want to like Waid's latest Flash run, but the kids are killing it for me. It's going ...

• At January 17, 2008, Derek B. Haas wrote:

  Relatedly, you've never lived until you've seen otherwise-intelligent Harvard students boggle at a professor with a thick Russian accent talk ...

• At January 17, 2008, suedenim wrote:

  Am I the only one who's enjoying Salvation Run and all its permutations? It's fun! And I liked ...

• At January 17, 2008, Sallyp wrote:

  I trust that you are referring to Dmitri as the greatest Rocket Red.

  *sniff*

  I LIKED Dmitri, darn it!

• At January 17, 2008, Brett wrote:

  Self promotion alert: I agree totally about Angel and Beak, and I put a visual graphic to go along with ...

• At January 17, 2008, Bill Reed wrote:

  What's Bogdanove doing?

• At January 17, 2008, Birmy wrote:

  Yay! The return of my favorite CSBG feature!

• At January 17, 2008, Dan (other Dan) wrote:

  I thought you were mad at the Luna bros. for looking alike. It was a very confusing minute.

• At January 17, 2008, joffe wrote:

  I completely agree about New Warriors. New Warriors started great, if a little goofy. But once the first arc ended ...

• At January 17, 2008, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  Where does anyone get the idea that New Warriors just suddenly started getting characters wrong in the last few months? ...

• At January 17, 2008, T. wrote:

  You know what's funny? When I read Fabian Niciez's New Warriors #1 way back in the 80s, I had ...

• At January 17, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  It's a good point, T, which I think I've actually noted in the past (I forget what piece, in particular, ...

• At January 17, 2008, Scavenger wrote:

  Dimitri blowed up back in IC. Did he die again?

  As for the Authority...good! Something I'm loving about Authortiy ...

• At January 17, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Then again, I should be nicer - it has got to be a bit annoying for Rucka to spend a ...

• At January 17, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Sod’em.

  They pissed all over a great character, I’ve no problem with them having it all reversed.

  He’s like Foggy Nelson - ...

• At January 17, 2008, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  Two things about Bullock:

  1. I hope Rucka is now forced to use him in every single title he writes from ...

• At January 17, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Well I think the lesson is 'don't make another character look bad to make your pet look good'.

  Bullock was a ...

• At January 17, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  And I say this as someone who doesn't follow Bullock from book to book or anything - he's just a ...

• At January 17, 2008, MarkAndrew wrote:

  1. I hope Rucka is now forced to use him in every single title he writes from now on, up ...

• At January 17, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Oh yeah, Funky, I agree that Bullock was totally ruined by Rucka (and, to a lesser extent, Brubaker), for seemingly ...

• At January 17, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  I am just noting that, from a creator’s standpoint, I sympathize with Rucka

  I do and don't at the same time.

  If ...

• At January 17, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  My thing is that Rucka, like all creators, is perfectly aware that his ideas can very likely be changed as ...

• At January 17, 2008, T wrote:

  I wish you could remember that post Brian, I'd love to read it. Be great if we could compile ...

• At January 17, 2008, joffe wrote:

  T, I don't mind changing the characterization much if its for the better (I think the first two issues was ...

• At January 17, 2008, Andrew Collins wrote:

  Brian said:

  "My thing is that Rucka, like all creators, is perfectly aware that his ideas can very likely be changed ...

• At January 18, 2008, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  I think it'd be hilarious if Giffen suddenly rose to power in DC, and he forced Johns, Winick, and Rucka ...

• At January 18, 2008, Rohan Williams wrote:

  I love what Waid's been doing on The Flash this time around. The kids are adorable (and, you know, I ...

• At January 18, 2008, comb & razor wrote:

  sounds like i need to take a look at The Flash...

• At January 18, 2008, Scavenger wrote:

  Has it ever been explained how Bullock went from being a Bishop in Checkmate to being a schlub detective in ...

• At January 18, 2008, suedenim wrote:

  He actually went from a Gotham detective to Bishop in Checkmate (a previous, more domestic law-enforcement oriented version) and *back* ...

• At January 18, 2008, Apodaca wrote:

  yoots

  This word is new to me. Is it an analogue for "thugs"?

• At January 18, 2008, Mark wrote:

  "Yoots" was used in the movie "My Cousin Vinny" as the way Joe Pesci mispronounced "youths."

  Trust me, it would ...

• At January 19, 2008, Evan Waters wrote:

  "Johnuckanick"? "Johnucka" I get, but who's the "nick" there?

  But agreed on Maxwell Lord (and glad I'm not the lone voice ...

• At January 19, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Countdown to Infinite Crisis was co-written by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka and Judd Winick

  They're a scarier three-headed beast than Cereberus.

• At January 19, 2008, Comics Should Be Good! » Hopes Raised…then Dashed wrote:

  [...] The other day, in Cheers and Jeers, I noted how I was quite confused by the ending of Strange ...

• At January 19, 2008, T wrote:

  I prefer Johnuckanickio to include the overseer Dan Didio AKA the Double D.

• At January 20, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  I think it’d be hilarious if Giffen suddenly rose to power in DC, and he forced Johns, Winick, and Rucka ...

• At January 27, 2008, David wrote:

  "JEERS to Rucka for killing the coolest Rocket Red of them all for basically no good reason."

  This is what puzzles ...

There will most likely be some spoilers...otherwise, enjoy!

CHEERS to Jeph Loeb, for writing one of the strongest issues he's written in awhile for Hulk #1. CHEERS, too, to Ed McGuinness for a strong first issue, art-wise. The best part of the first issue was definitely McGuinness' art. It is fun to watch him draw Doc Samson, Iron Man, She-Hulk and some Soviet heroes.

JEERS to the killing of Abomination in the first issue. Is that, like, now a THING for Loeb? The first issue, you kill off a major character? What is the point, exactly, in killing off the Abomination? He obviously is not going to stay dead, so what is the point? I don't even mind the idea of having the Hulk kill an established character. I understand why that might be useful for this story - to show that this Hulk is a lot different than past Hulks. But come on, just have it be some negligible character, not one people are actually going to want to USE in the future!

CHEERS, though, to the last page. McGuinnes utterly NAILED the last page.

JEERS to Countdown: Arena. I was hoping there would be some surprises - there were none.

CHEERS, though, to Keith Champagne for his Atom fill-in, with nifty Jerry Ordway art. I will not blame Champagne for Arena, because it was just an awful project to begin with, and as the latest issue of Atom shows, Champagne CAN write well.

JEERS to the whole destruction of basically ANOTHER of the 52 worlds in the latest Countdown, including the classy "having Jean Loring burned to a crisp in front of the Atom" bit.

CHEERS to the entire creative team of Jonah Hex #27 - that was a great issue, introducing Star Man - a man who hunts down, kills, and collects the badges of dirty cops.

JEERS to the dearth of content in Giant-Size Avengers Special #1. At least the reprints were pretty good.

CHEERS again to the idea of Supergirl having her memories of Krypton. It is a really nice twist for the character, to give her something that makes her a lot different from Superman.

JEERS to Ghost Rider being an angel. What the heck?

CHEERS to Paul Dini for writing a very neat little issue of Detective Comics, which also features the new art team of Nguyen and Fridolfs, and they look GREAT.

JEERS to the return of Ra's Al Ghul finish up as a storyline, and then, right away, for Ra's to be locked away in Arkham! It seemed like a bit of a false start, no?

CHEERS to Christos Gage for doing such a marvelous job approximating the "voices" of the various titles he did an "Armageddon" one-shot for (where different cast members from Wildstorm comics are shown a glimpse of an apocalyptic future), especially the Welcome to Tranquility one-shot. Gail Simone has a very unique voice on that comic, so Gage's ability to approximate it was quite impressive.

JEERS to how weirdly whiny Gage makes a lot of the Stormwatch characters seem in the current Authority/Stormwatch crossover mini-series. It read sorta meta, as we all know Warren Ellis did not exactly give the Stormwatch crew a nice send-off when he grew disinterested in them and interested in doing Authority, but to see the characters whine about how The Authority treated them - it was pretty strange, especially the crazy position that even though the Authority was responsible for SAVING ALL OF THEIR LIVES, that doesn't count, because it was specifically one member of Authority who did that. Two different characters give almost the same argument, word for word. Authority member says, "Why are you so pissed at us? We saved your lives!" Stormwatch member says, "That wasn't you, that was The Doctor (who is a member of...The Authority)!"

It's like someone bitching at Superman because when the Justice League showed up to save the day, it was Green Lantern who specifically saved the person.

Just an odd deal all around.

CHEERS to Joss Whedon for coming up with some pretty amusing sexual fantasies for Buffy and Willow in the latest issue of Buffy. I especially liked the two different versions of Christian Bale showing up.

JEERS to Loki being a woman. Change for the sake of change?

CHEERS to the new Batman villain - The Globe. A big round guy who steals ancient maps, etc.

JEERS to the latest issue of GI Joe charging $5.50, and for what? For a bunch of extra PROFILE pages in the back! That's right, an extra two bucks so you can read the backgrounds of a bunch of new Cobra characters. LAME!

CHEERS to a strong first issue of Teen Titans Year One, especially the fanTAStic Karl Kerschl artwork.

JEERS to the whole "Batman is acting out of character!" argument. When a dude is clearly being mind-controlled, I really don't think there's much of an argument for any of their actions being "out of character," even if they do something as unsettling as having Batman smack Robin. If it is clear that something is wrong with Batman (and it is), then I think such a scene is acceptable, even if it possibly gets CLOSE to the "in bad taste" line.

CHEERS to Repo, which was another excellent series by Rick Spears.

JEERS to the idea of the Avengers West Coast voting Machine Man as a reserve member. Did they ever explain where that vote came from, and what the logic was?

CHEERS to J. Torres' 50th issue celebration in Teen Titans Go, which sets up (in a cute way) the concept of Teen Titans Unlimited.

JEERS to some confusion in the latest JLA Classified as to when the comic was meant to be set. Was it BEFORE Lois knew who Superman was? It seems that way, but Linda Park is dating Wally in the comic, so that confused me.

CHEERS to Doll Man, in Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters, having a good explanation for seeming to be a bad guy.

JEERS to the idea of reprinting the wedding of Peter and Mary Jane in the issue that the wedding is erased from history.

CHEERS to Vinyl Underground, for a strong conclusion of the first story arc.

JEERS to anniversary issues that involve heroes getting armor (Catwoman #50, Batman #500 and Web of Spider-Man #100 all come to mind).

CHEERS to Jack of Fables for using Hawkeye as a reluctant bad guy.

JEERS to the fact that Neron and Felix Faust are both back in the game so soon after Ralph Dibney gave up his life in 52 to trap them both "for good."

CHEERS to the idea of doing a Spanish edition of a comic book (Marvel's FF: Isla De La Muerte). What a great idea!

JEERS to this upcoming "Blue Beetle is back!" storyline in Booster Gold. It is bad enough that they killed the guy off, but to then be all, "He HAS to die, or else it will ruin history!" is annoying.

That's it for this installment!

30 Comments

• At January 9, 2008, Michael wrote:

  Wait, Loki's a chick now? The Marvel Loki?

• At January 9, 2008, Steve Flanagan wrote:

  "Soviet" heroes? So, is "Hulk" set sometime between 1917 and 1991?

• At January 9, 2008, tom fitzpatrick wrote:

  The Marvel Loki change might have been more interesting if s/he was a hermaphrodite. or just a cross-dressing transgendered god/dess.

• At January 9, 2008, suedenim wrote:

  I'm all in favor of more transgendered characters in comics, but what bugs me is that, of all the potential ...

• At January 9, 2008, Filrouge wrote:

  About Machine Man getting a vote by a still unnamed West Coast Avenger when the then active members were voting ...

• At January 9, 2008, Darth Krzysztof wrote:

  I missed the whole "Batman out of character" argument, but I'm sure it's because he's a Skrull.

  ... what?

• At January 9, 2008, jazzbo wrote:

  Jeers to a story that hasn't even happened yet? That seems a little ridiculous. Booster Gold has been one of ...

• At January 9, 2008, Dan (other Dan) wrote:

  Any cheers or jeers regarding the recent Hulk vs. Fin Fang Foom comic? I didn't pick it up because ...

• At January 9, 2008, sean wrote:

  "JEERS to the killing of Abomination in the first issue."

  Are we even supposed to be able to pretend to believe ...

• At January 9, 2008, Mark wrote:

  The Norse Loki could take female form. He did so once to become a giantess and refuse to mourn Balder's ...

• At January 9, 2008, Scavenger wrote:

  Well it was a different Doctor who saved Stormwatch, and given how crapily they were killed off, I'm glad for ...

• At January 9, 2008, suedenim wrote:

  There's at least one instance of Marvel Loki taking female form before, from the ridiculously comprehensive source for this sort ...

• At January 9, 2008, M Bloom wrote:

  The ongoing destruction of Earth-51 in Countdown is really disappointing. I can't see anyone really missing the very dull Earth-15, ...

• At January 9, 2008, red-Ricky wrote:

  JEERS to the whole “Batman is acting out of character!” argument. When a dude is clearly being mind-controlled, I really ...

• At January 9, 2008, red-Ricky wrote:

  Oopps, I meant child abuse. I must've had an Identity Crisis flashback.

  My bad!

• At January 9, 2008, LordBuff wrote:

  Jeers to saying Gail Simone has a very unique voice, you can't quantify unique.

  Other than that, love the coloumn, keep ...

• At January 9, 2008, Cayman wrote:

  Jeers to jeering Lady Loki. She's hot.

• At January 9, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  JEERS to the fact that Neron and Felix Faust are both back in the game so soon after Ralph Dibney ...

• At January 9, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Well, Funky, I think it's on Champagne in the sense that he wrote a crappy comic. That's gonna be on ...

• At January 9, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I'm sorry, red-Rickey. It was not my intent to offend. I guess I did not see it as poor form, ...

• At January 9, 2008, Franks_Castle wrote:

  Just what is Loeb's deal? Cheap thrills by offing a major character in every one of his books? ...

• At January 9, 2008, Jack Norris wrote:

  Nah, he shouldn’t get a free pass even if it was an uphill battle from the get go.

  He took the ...

• At January 9, 2008, Apodaca wrote:

  "Free pass" in the sense that he's somehow not responsible for the book he wrote. I agree with Funky that ...

• At January 9, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Dan got it, Jack.

  If Champagne takes the money for Arena and WWIII, then his name will be associated with the ...

• At January 10, 2008, jazzbo wrote:

  So this seems like as good a place as any to mention this, but did anyone see this weeks' Comic ...

• At January 10, 2008, DanCJ wrote:

  What were they?

  I always had my eye on him as I was a big fan of his Swamp Thing run ...

• At January 10, 2008, Gonger wrote:

  Red Hulk irks me more than Lady Loki, but maybe I'm a racist.

• At January 10, 2008, Jack Norris wrote:

  I never said we shouldn't say he wrote a bad comic, I was more just asking how long it should ...

• At January 10, 2008, Apodaca wrote:

  I never said we shouldn’t say he wrote a bad comic

  I know. I didn't think we were having an argument. ...

• At January 11, 2008, Salamurai wrote:

  Dan (other Dan) said …

  "Any cheers or jeers regarding the recent Hulk vs. Fin Fang Foom comic? I didn’t pick ...

There will most likely be some spoilers...otherwise, enjoy!

CHEERS to Matt Wagner, for somehow being able to write a brand-new story about Hunter Rose without it feeling like a rehash (A "take it for granted" cheers for Wagner's always amazing artwork).

JEERS to the lack (so far) of much of a point to Messiah Complex as a whole. Someone had a great line (I'm paraphrasing, as I don't recall where I read it) - Endangered Species had a point to it, but nothing really happened in any of the chapters...Messiah Complex has a lot happen in each chapter, but it's all quite pointless.

"Oh NO! Not CALIBAN!!!!!!! How could you kill CALIBAN?!?!!?"

It seems that the general point is to get the X-Books all set-up for their respective new status quos, which may be good for the book themselves, but it doesn't make Messiah Complex any better of a read.

CHEERS to DC for having a comic where part of the comic is drawn by Jeremy Haun and another part of it is drawn by David Hahn. Next, Frank Miller and Mark Millar need to write a comic together.

JEERS to DC for not getting a new cover for Batman and the Outsiders #3, instead using the Eric Battle cover that was drawn for an entirely different #3, with the end result being a cover that did not even REMOTELY fit the story in Outsiders #3 (for one, Martian Manhunter is no longer in the comic).

CHEERS to Rex the Wonder Dog's appearance in this week's Shadowpact. It was very well handled. Heck, cheers to the whole issue - including Kieron Dwyer's excellent artwork.

JEERS to the idea of wasting all these worlds (of which DC only has 52) for ridiculous story ideas in Arena - like "the world where Blue Beetle is really a giant bug" or whatever.

CHEERS to Peter Tomasi' first issue of Green Lantern Corps, which was a strong issue for a book with little plot development (Tomasi even managed to successfully deal with Ice's return to Guy Gardner in a convincing manner, even though I'd prefer her to just come to outer space with Guy).

JEERS to Arena, also, for having Apollo be considered an alternate version of the RAY!!!

CHEERS to Patrick Zircher's artwork on Terror, Inc. It continues to impress me a lot.

JEERS to the abrupt ending of the Ra's Al Ghul storyline in the Batman books. The whole thing seemed like it was just set-up for future plot-lines. That, sadly, seems to be about 75% of all comic crossovers nowadays.

CHEERS to David Tischman for his clever usage of having a character beat death in the latest issue of Star Trek: Year Four.

JEERS to the latest issue of Justice League of America being a promo for some upcoming Tangent mini-series. Meanwhile, Jeers to Red Arrow beating up one of the most powerful Tangent heroes off-panel.

CHEERS to Chuck Dixon's classic Simpsons style of storytelling in the latest issue of The Simpsons, as Dixon cleverly takes us from one plot to the next, with the first plot unexpectedly setting up the second one. It's a classic Simpsons episode maneuver, and it worked well in comic form.

JEERS to the whole Psylocke/Cypher "almost sorta kinda" romance.

That was Mary Kay Letourneau scary.

CHEERS to Kyle Baker for giving us something as outrageous and as beautifully drawn as Special Forces (#2 might have been better than #1, even!).

JEERS to the whole concept of House of M: Avengers. I thought with such a great creative team, it would be something of note - but instead, it's filling in the blanks on ciphers from a story from two years ago. At least House of M Misty Knight is not being forced to fight Ultimate Misty Knight and the regular Marvel Universe Misty Knight to the death in some stadium.

CHEERS , BIG ones, for the latest issue of Umbrella Academy. Such a great new comic book. I am not familiar with My Chemical Romance, and, to be frank, I am a bit doubtful that being a good songwriter means that you would be a good comic book writer, but damn, can Gerard Way write! It doesn't hurt that he has Gabriel Bá rocking the comic artistically.

JEERS to the whole "New Earth" thing. It sounds so corny, and it will only sound worse as time goes by.

CHEERS to Greg Rucka for the latest Checkmate issue. The book reads a lot better when he is not ripping on Amanda Waller every issue.

JEERS (slight ones) to the last issue of the Metamorpho mini-series, which ends with Rex watching Sapphire Stagg cuddle with some bo hunk in front of him. How does it follow that Sapphire would do that? It's not like she didn't know he was there! So what's the deal?

CHEERS to Andi Watson's Glister, for being so continually awesome.

JEERS to the lack of a reveal of Beast being alive in Ultimate X-Men. In the latest issue, he reveals himself to the X-Men who thought he was dead, but if they were surprised to see their fallen comrade alive, we don't know, because it happened off-panel. Unless they already know he is alive from a previous issue, in which case, the Jeer goes to me!!

CHEERS to John Ostrander for bringing back William Hell in Suicide Squad.

JEERS (tentatively) to Ostrander for the whole "You're not really Rick Flag!" bit in the latest Suicide Squad issue. I find it hard to believe that this can amount to anything worthwhile (but I do tend to trust Ostrander, so it's just tentatively jeers now)

CHEERS to Michael Green's first issue of Superman/Batman. I'll try to do a full review later.

JEERS to Connor Hawke's death. You don't get much more pointless, death-wise, then getting blasted by a laser from the sky. And again, SHOCKINGLY, the storyline appears to not even be going address in the actual pages of Green Arrow/Black Canary.

CHEERS to the Frank Frazetta cover series from Conan. A well done package containing a very nice comic by Cary Nord and Kurt Busiek.

JEERS to Leinil Francis Yu's art in the latest issue of New Avengers. There were times in the big fight scene where I don't think Yu even really knew what was going on. He is truly amazing in his capacity to either be really awesome or really...you know, not awesome.

CHEERS to Marvel for a quick printing of corrected versions of X-Men: First Class #6. It took them less than a month to get them out! Good work.

JEERS to Mike Pellowski for doing a funny Betty and Veronica story (the girls get backstage passes to a famous rock band, but discover that the guys are not like their public personas), but one involving, as the rock band, a satire of the Rolling freakin' Stones (young versions of them, of course)!!! Come on, try to stay a LITTLE current!

CHEERS , though, to Kathleen Webb, in the same issue, pulling out both a cute "Veronica is so rich" story and an interesting study on Betty and Veronica's friendship, where Betty dwells upon the fact that Veronica is both her best friend AND her worst enemy.

JEERS to Marvel, for replacing Frazer Irving's awesome cover for this year's Holiday Special with Ron Lim's, well, not as awesome cover. LAME!!

That's it for this installment!

Quick question - do you folks prefer that these things stay mostly about current stuff, or would you like me to sprinkle in more cheers and jeers from the past?

42 Comments

• At December 21, 2007, Greg Burgas wrote:

  Why the hatred of the 20-year-old Psylocke/Cypher thing? Yes, I agree it deserves jeers, but what made you think ...

• At December 21, 2007, T. wrote:

  JEERS to Connor Hawke’s death. You don’t get much more pointless, death-wise, then getting blasted by a laser from the ...

• At December 21, 2007, T. wrote:

  "Pete Characters" should have been "Pet Characters" in my post.

• At December 21, 2007, Rohan Williams wrote:

  I couldn't agree more on the jeers aimed towards the latest Detective and JLA issues. Cheers to me for having ...

• At December 21, 2007, Jordan D. White wrote:

  Aw, Cypher/Psylocke?

  I was a young boy at the time, and I was fine with it.

• At December 21, 2007, Matthew E wrote:

  T:

  I actually prefer it as Pete Characters.

• At December 21, 2007, mojo wrote:

  Is it me or has Ultimate X-men been missing panels for a couple issues now? Its like they keep ...

• At December 21, 2007, T. wrote:

  I actually prefer it as Pete Characters.

  Colossus and Spider-Man are my two favorite Pete Characters.

• At December 21, 2007, Teebore wrote:

  Sprinkle in some old stuff. Should be fun.

• At December 21, 2007, John wrote:

  Man, Chris Claremont's habit of stretching a sentence across two (or more) word balloons drives me nuts.

• At December 21, 2007, David wrote:

  Brian, thanks for bring back the Cheers n' Jeers! I missed it tons! I definitely prefer the focus on new ...

• At December 21, 2007, Stephane Savoie wrote:

  Re: Connor Hawke's death

  While the DCU has too big an archer family (who thought THAt was a good ...

• At December 21, 2007, Lynxara wrote:

  Death Comics is fine as long as the characters dying are ones you don't like. It is certainly inconceivable a ...

• At December 21, 2007, Loren wrote:

  Oh my god, they killed Caliban! You bastards!!!

  JEERS to Connor Hawke’s death. You don’t get much more pointless, death-wise, ...

• At December 21, 2007, jccalhoun wrote:

  I would say Jeers to the Superwoman-Batwoman world not having the male superheroes in skimpy outfits. I was looking ...

• At December 21, 2007, avengers63 wrote:

  YOu could do a cheers & jeers every week as far as I'm concerned. Mix in stuff from the ...

• At December 21, 2007, sean wrote:

  "There aren’t ANY DC universes where non-whites have the cool powers?"

  There were, until the white people got there and conquered ...

• At December 21, 2007, yo go re wrote:

  I was looking forward to the skimpy male Black Canary and Phantom Man to show just how silly the female ...

• At December 21, 2007, jccalhoun wrote:

  Take a look at Phantom Man costume again on that double-page spread , and keep in mind that that isn’t ...

• At December 21, 2007, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Matt Wagner should get a "horray"!!! first, second, and third for the Grendel mini.

  Betcha he'll get a standing ovation for ...

• At December 21, 2007, Bill Reed wrote:

  Meh. Pointless characters deserve pointless deaths.

  Yeah, but Connor Hawke's "Zen archer" premise automatically makes him more interesting than the awful, ...

• At December 21, 2007, Pitr wrote:

  Re: Apollo as "the alternate Ray"

  Yes! Thank you! Is it too reactionary to think that decision was made ...

• At December 21, 2007, Rebis wrote:

  Anybody got a link to the Frazer Irving cover Brian mentions?

• At December 21, 2007, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  Connor Hawke was a good character that Winnick & Co. didn't know what to do with. Morrison & Dixon wrote ...

• At December 21, 2007, Ian Astheimer wrote:

  CHEERS to DC for having a comic where part of the comic is drawn by Jeremy Haun and another part ...

• At December 21, 2007, T. wrote:

  Yeah, but Connor Hawke’s “Zen archer” premise automatically makes him more interesting than the awful, awful Roy Harper, or the ...

• At December 21, 2007, T. wrote:

  Even if he is a Mary Sue (and I still don’t think any character who was shown to be as ...

• At December 21, 2007, BizarroBeachHead wrote:

  Re: New Avengers — there were several moments in the big fight scene where the dialog barely seemed to fit ...

• At December 21, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  As for the Hood, I'm just going with the demon thing. It helps explain away everything, really.

  It doesn't make the ...

• At December 21, 2007, Tee Jay wrote:

  Double JEERS: For aging then killing off Bart Allen for the current crappy Flash and the "Hyper" twins series. Heaven ...

• At December 21, 2007, Franks_Castle wrote:

  Huh? House of M Avengers is blowing any of the other Avengers titles away. This is what it ...

• At December 21, 2007, Rohan Williams wrote:

  I'm assuming (and hoping) it's still in-continuity, because that (and Bruce's use of his inner-city residence in another issue) seems ...

• At December 22, 2007, Darren K. wrote:

  Mary Sue and Pete Character should date.

• At December 22, 2007, Sanagi wrote:

  I see the Psylocke/Cypher thing as a glimpse of an alternate reality that probably turned out way better than the ...

• At December 22, 2007, Marionette wrote:

  Which comic was it with the cool Betty and Veronica stories? They publish so many, it could take ages ...

• At December 22, 2007, Ian wrote:

  Messiah Complex doesn't have a point? I'll give you Caliban's bizaare sudden death, but the story is driven by ...

• At December 22, 2007, Greg Hatcher wrote:

  CHEERS, though, to Kathleen Webb...

  Kathleen always deserves cheers. She is awesome. I think she's one of about eight people in ...

• At December 22, 2007, TimCallahan wrote:

  I thought Ultimate Beast reappeared two issues ago?!?

  Didn't he? And weren't the characters surprised? Or did I make ...

• At December 22, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  He showed up a couple of issues ago, but it wasn't at the X-Mansion, right?

• At January 2, 2008, Diagnull wrote:

  On the Cypher\Psylocke thing...

  I say cheers for that because of 3 reasons:

  1) Although a little creepy, it was realistic and ...

• At February 27, 2008, Tramadol. wrote:

  Tramadol.

  Tramadol. What is the street value for tramadol.

• At May 25, 2008, anon wrote:

  Oh, fuck off.

Jeers to the shipping date...December 28th.

9 Comments

• At November 29, 2007, John Trumbull wrote:

  My first thought on reading this was "Oh, no... what's wrong with the first printing of Black Dossier?" (I'm picking ...

• At November 29, 2007, Ryan H wrote:

  28th? Really? Who does a major release four days after the last day of Christmas shopping?

• At November 29, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  To be fair, Ryan, these are RE-releases, but yeah, the same basic principle applies.

  It boggles the mind.

  It's not like ...

• At November 30, 2007, Justin Davis wrote:

  Weak? Really? Some of the biggest sales days usually happen post-Christmas. I know I put off buying some things until ...

• At November 30, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Weak? Really? Some of the biggest sales days usually happen post-Christmas. I know I put off buying some things until ...

• At November 30, 2007, Rohan Williams wrote:

  This might not work out too badly. Since the Heroes hardcover and (especially) the Black Dossier probably aren't the sorts ...

• At November 30, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Maybe there’s some logistical problems with getting them out early? Most likely.

• At November 30, 2007, Stony wrote:

  Well that's two days before my birthday...

• At November 30, 2007, Ryan Day wrote:

  It's maybe not so bad on its own, but overall it's kind of an indicator of the general bad planning ...

It may not actually be fair to jeer this, because, hey, ad revenue is ad revenue...but seriously, a Goldfish ad on the back cover?!?! Maybe if this was on a Marvel Adventures book, but it seems quite out of place on most of Marvel's material.

22 Comments

• At November 10, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  I'm assuming you're talking about the Goldfish crackers?

  Those things are delicious and addictive, to children and adults alike.

• At November 10, 2007, Ron wrote:

  that add is offensive to me, as i am lactose intolerant. i can not enjoy the deliciously cheesy flavor of ...

• At November 10, 2007, Jack Fear wrote:

  Rampant fanboy entitlement much?

• At November 10, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  Psst. I think he's joking.

• At November 10, 2007, km wrote:

  Don't quite see how Marvel can be faulted for assuming its readership is excessively fond of snack food...

• At November 10, 2007, Greg Hatcher wrote:

  Don’t quite see how Marvel can be faulted for assuming its readership is excessively fond of snack food…

  I'll own ...

• At November 10, 2007, Greg Hatcher wrote:

  Damn it, I keep forgetting I can't do edits outside of my category.

• At November 10, 2007, Lucion wrote:

  If it makes you feel any better the Goldfish ad is on the back of Marvel Adventures Two-in-One #4 which ...

• At November 10, 2007, Patrick Joseph wrote:

  I thought you meant the Bendis book for a minute, then was very confused at his Goldfish being advertised in ...

• At November 11, 2007, Cornelius Savage wrote:

  We should really look at the violence against goldfish: They are small and lack the defenses to give them a ...

• At November 11, 2007, Michael wrote:

  Eh, they're less obtrusive than the stupid inserts in the middle of the DC books.

• At November 11, 2007, Mullon wrote:

  I miss this segment of the blog. I wish it would come back.

• At November 11, 2007, The Mutt wrote:

  I haven't seen the ad. I'm assuming...

  "Holy Cheese, Batman! The Joker is making a getaway!"

  "Don't worry, Robin. I'm stall ...

• At November 11, 2007, Michael wrote:

  Oh, if only, Mutt. If only.

• At November 11, 2007, Tom from West Chester wrote:

  I'm sure it's been discussed elsewhere, but this is a column cheering the supplemental material in Marvel books making my ...

• At November 11, 2007, Alan Coil wrote:

  Extra ad pages? Hasn't Marvel done this like 3 years in a row now?

  Extra ad pages cut into the retailers ...

• At November 12, 2007, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  That just makes sense. You see, Bendis writes about half of Marvel's output and he has written a comic named ...

• At November 12, 2007, Discogod wrote:

  I was a little confused by all the crap in the back of the latest AXM. I stopped reading Marvel ...

• At November 12, 2007, buttler wrote:

  Yeah, goldfish are a sign of slipping standards. It should be sea monkeys.

• At November 12, 2007, ThiefTMA wrote:

  My favorite part of the Goldfish ads is that they say "Special Advertising Section" across the top, as if we ...

• At November 12, 2007, Bully wrote:

  That Goldfish is a Skrull!

• At November 13, 2007, Mark wrote:

  My seven-year-old daughter used a profane word when DC's mega-Goldfish ad ground her Scooby Doo reading to a halt. I ...

There will most likely be some spoilers...otherwise, enjoy!

CHEERS to a new Martha Washington comic book coming out.

JEERS to the new Martha Washington comic book basically being a promo for the upcoming trade release of Martha Washington.

CHEERS, though, to Martha Washington as a whole. Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons rule.

JEERS to the killer in Stormwatch PHD #9. Granted, Christos Gage gave himself some breathing room by specifically noting that the killer's mental faculties might have been compromised a bit, but even so, it seemed pretty silly to see this character go the extremes that took place in the issue. "No, I just meant to nicely lobotomize him! I didn't know that might hurt him!" Silly.

CHEERS to the frenetic pace of the second part of the Sinestro Corps storyline in the Green Lantern books.

JEERS to the amount of times Hal Jordan is referred to as the greatest Green Lantern in the latest issue. I think it was about 112 times.

CHEERS to the idea that at least we all know that Parallax is a temporary thing, and that's made pretty clear IN the comic, too.

JEERS to the latest issue of Veronica, which makes promises on the cover about Veronica's secrets being exposed, but only the opening story really uses the idea to any good effect.

CHEERS to Mike Allred for trying to draw pretty much every other panel in the latest Madman in the style of a different artist.

JEERS to the actual finished project, which really didn't read all that well. But identifying the artists he is homaging is fun!!

CHEERS to the artwork on the interiors of Consumed #1, the latest comic from Platinum Studios. Dennis Budd and Joe Caramanga do a great job.

JEERS to the artwork on the exterior of Consumed #1. I don't mind Joe Linser's proclivity for posteriors that much, really, so long as it makes some sense. The cover of Consumed, however, does NOT feature a...ahem...zoftig woman, and yet, there she is on the cover drawn that way.

CHEERS to the title of the second Nextwave hardcover - "I Kick Your Face."

JEERS to the entire concept of the "Gamma Corps." Rarely do you see a more blatant "yeah, this is for this crossover, and you'll probably never see these characters again" comic than this one.

CHEERS to Yanick Paquette's Psylocke in the latest Ultimate X-Men.

JEERS to most of the rest of the issue. Seriously, Ultimate Stryfe and Ultimate Zero now? LAME!!

CHEERS to Burnout in the latest Gen13 getting more character development by Gail Simone in one issue than Burnout got in years of old Gen13 comics.

JEERS, though, for the "rasta" part of Burnout's origin. I get that Simone specifically has Burnout point out that things didn't change for him as soon as he heard Bob Marley on the radio - but that's basically the gist of the plot. He hears Bob Marley and is almost instantly transformed. Seemed quite silly, which was out of place in a dramatic flashback sequence to Burnout's youth.

CHEERS to the nice character work Geoff Johns did in the latest Justice Society of America with Citizen Steel and his family. Quite cute.

JEERS to how long we've had to wait for this issue of Nexus!!

CHEERS to the latest Nexus, which may actually have been worth the wait!!

JEERS to the introduction in the latest Superman of Squad K. I think the idea of a government team designed around stopping Superman when/if he ever becomes controlled by an outside force is a good one, but it seems out of place in the middle of the big Arion storyline in Superman.

CHEERS to Denise Mina's Hellblazer, which is now completely available in trades. Yay!

That's all for now! Maybe I'll add a few more before Wednesday!!

32 Comments

• At July 16, 2007, fanboy d wrote:

  gotta peek inside ultimate x-men to see what you mean about psylocke but i will not be buying it...seriously thing ...

• At July 16, 2007, ED wrote:

  Squad K . . . didn't Busiek create a "Cadre K" at Marvel?

• At July 16, 2007, Sean wrote:

  Hear, hear on the cheers & jeers for Martha Washington and Madman. The latter is really vexing me: ...

• At July 16, 2007, Dave wrote:

  About the only thing I can say for Mina's run of Hellblazer was that it was slightly less awful than ...

• At July 16, 2007, Ken Raining wrote:

  Thanks for mentioning Nexus. It was soooooo awesome to be buying a new issue of my absolute favorite comic ...

• At July 16, 2007, -alistairw wrote:

  What, no cheers for P-Cat, the Penitent Puss?

• At July 16, 2007, The Kirbydotter wrote:

  I'd also like to add my Cheers for NEXUS!

  Storywise, it's better that anything that was produced during the time at ...

• At July 16, 2007, Birmy wrote:

  I have to admit that this is my favorite feature on this blog, TV Guide be damned.

• At July 16, 2007, MushroomJones wrote:

  [quote]But aside from that, I really have to agree with you on Ultimate X-Men. Kirkman has basically destroyed the series ...

• At July 16, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  It is really staggering how bad Kirkman is on Ultimate X-Men.

  It's like there was absolutely no advance warning - just ...

• At July 16, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I have to admit that this is my favorite feature on this blog, TV Guide be damned. Thanks!

• At July 16, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  I love the artwork and have fond memories of the Allred’s earlier work on the character, but I’m not sure ...

• At July 16, 2007, ATOM HOTEP wrote:

  I must say it is shocking how Kirkman can go from Invincible down to Walking Dead ALLL the way down ...

• At July 16, 2007, M Bloom wrote:

  "JEERS to the amount of times Hal Jordan is referred to as the greatest Green Lantern in the latest issue. ...

• At July 16, 2007, km wrote:

  "Ultimate Stryfe"? OK, yeah, that's a little scary, creative-bankruptcy-wise. Is it even possible to have an Ultimate version of a ...

• At July 16, 2007, BizarroBeachHead wrote:

  Just want to chime in and add my own dismay to Kirkman's Ultimate X-men. I haven't read the book ...

• At July 16, 2007, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  I actually like Ultimate X-Men, albeit in the same way one would watch a train crash-- perverse amusement. In my ...

• At July 16, 2007, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  It is really staggering how bad Kirkman is on Ultimate X-Men.

  It’s like there was absolutely no advance warning - just ...

• At July 16, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  You have to remember that Kirkman does love his 90’s comics, and that’s what the x-men were like in the ...

• At July 16, 2007, Patrick wrote:

  I'll be the sole dissenter and note that I kind of enjoyed the last issue of Ultimate X-Men, but I ...

• At July 16, 2007, sean wrote:

  Funny, that’s the only reason I’m buying the book. Allred’s never been much of a writer and the dialogue in ...

• At July 16, 2007, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  And then I wondered: Is it possible that he’s enough of a genius to be purposefully writing the comics to ...

• At July 17, 2007, John Seavey wrote:

  The Voodoo mini is collected, under the title "Dancing in the Dark". (ISBN 10: 1563895331.) His whole WildCATs run is ...

• At July 17, 2007, sean wrote:

  "When will they release some of that Moore “gold” in trade?

  I’d love to sit and read the Voodoo mini, or ...

• At July 17, 2007, Ben Herman wrote:

  And then I wondered: Is it possible that he’s enough of a genius to be purposefully writing the comics to ...

• At July 17, 2007, km wrote:

  I s'pose it would help if Kirkman had a similar track record of creating metatextual commentaries...

• At July 17, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I read this comment, and suddenly that it occurred to me that if the exact same issue had appeared as ...

• At July 17, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  Gosh, people just look for any excuse to push their agenda, don't they?

• At July 17, 2007, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  But since Kirkman wrote it, nah, it’s unintentionally sucky.

  When has Kirkman ever shown interest in something like that?

  He's done ...

• At July 17, 2007, ATOM HOTEP wrote:

  Morrison's pitch for DOOM FORCE at the end of Doom Force is hilarious. Also, if I remember correctly, the last ...

• At July 18, 2007, Ian wrote:

  "MEGA-JEERS to Dr. Strange’s “My powers won’t work in these conditions” excuse in the latest New Avengers. He can resurrect ...

• At July 23, 2007, Mecha-Shiva wrote:

  Kirkman on Ultimate X-Men makes me weep inside. I had been reading it since #1, but now I don't ...

Here are a bunch of cheers and jeers from me, mostly having to do with this week's new releases!

There will most likely be some spoilers...otherwise, enjoy!

CHEERS to Grant Morrison, for taking a modern look at the Bizarro World in All Star Superman without a hint of cynicism. It is a rare gift that Morrison has to depict the silliness of Silver Age concepts in a modern story without it appearing as though he is mocking the original concept.

Very few writers can achieve such a feat.

CHEERS, too, to Morrison allowing such silly creatures as the Bizarro-people to experience touching demonstrations of sacrifice, all while remaining absolutely silly creatures.

CHEERS, finally, to the way that a writing critique was one of the focal plot points of the latest issue of All Star Superman.

JEERS to us having to wait so long for each issue of All Star Superman.

CHEERS to Stan Lee, for giving us a half-way decent comic book about a dude who won a reality superhero contest.

JEERS to the fact that the comic was only half-way decent, and was mostly lame. Still, the material Lee had to work with was pretty darn sparse.

CHEERS to Brian Stelfreeze's great art in the latest issue of Midnighter.

JEERS to Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray's fairly hackneyed fill-in story. I know it's the luck of the draw and all, but it sure didn't help them out to be following Christos Gage's awesome previous fill-in issue.

This is following right up on Palmiotti's pretty poor installment in Spirit #7, which he also should have gotten JEERS for.

CHEERS to Walt Simonson, by the by, for writing the best of the three Spirit short-stories in #7.

JEERS to Kyle Baker for basing his entire story in that Spirit issue around one lame joke. Great artwork by Baker, though!

CHEERS to Jason Pearson's artwork in the latest issue of Welcome to Tranquility, which was ALSO broken up into three stories.

CHEERS, too, to writer Gail Simone for giving us three flashback stories that wove with each other beautifully.

JEERS, though, to Emoticon's origin. I really, really did not like that. I mean, I liked the basic framework - but the idea of the Typist coming up with a giant Emoticon mask just reads false with the character as presented to this point.

CHEERS, and big ones at that, to Marc SumerakFred Van Lente's expert integration of Franklin Richards into being friends with Power Pack, and Sumerak Van Lente does a beautiful job of setting up the next issue.

JEERS, slightly, though, to the idea of the Wizard being some weird lame dad who falls asleep and lets his son break into his lab to steal weapons. That was super strange.

CHEERS to a strong conclusion to the most recent Punisher storyline. Man, Garth Ennis is writing this series like it is one gigantic graphic novel, and I am loving it (and he is still managing to make each issue strong on its own).

JEERS of gross magnitude to the terrible Thor #1. UGH. That was just so bad. It was probably the worst comic I have ever seen from JMS, and he wrote Sins Past, people!

CHEERS to Dynamo 5 #5 for being such a fun comic. Quite often, I'll see the phrase "this is the comic fans SAY they want to read," and it will often be some book where I will think to myself, "Really? I don't get that." However, as Greg mentioned, Dynamo 5 really IS the superhero comic that fans always complain they don't see anymore. A real throwback comic.

JEERS to this whole "entirely new personality for Julie Power" thing they got going on in Loners. The lesbian thing is whatever (it smacks a bit of exploitation, but whatever, I'll give CB Cebulski some slack there), but she just doesn't REMOTELY resemble the character who rocked so much in Power Pack.

CHEERS to two more fun stories by Kathleen Webb in the latest issue of Betty and Veronica.

JEERS, though, and fairly strong ones, to the storytelling in one of the stories. In it, Veronica and Betty are drawing rave reviews from the other teens by virture of wearing bathing suits that match each other (with Veronica wearing the top of one and the bottom of the other, and Betty wearing the reverse). Veronica wants the attention to hereself, so she mustard all over one of Betty's outfit. Later in the story, Jughead makes them match by spilling mustard on Betty. We are then led to believe that Jughead did it on purpose because he saw what Veronica did. Fair enough - however, we never see Jughead actually SEE it happen. It would have made the story so much stronger if Jughead was actually depicted in the scene where Veronica spills the mustard. That way, there is a direct line to the ending. Otherwise, it just doesn't make sense.

A mixture of CHEERS and JEERS to George Gladir who, later in the same issue of Betty and Veronica, attempts to give Nancy, Chuck's girlfriend, a personality trait. She is interested in chemistry.

Cheers for actually trying to make Nancy anything except simply Chuck's girlfriend/Betty and Veronica's token black friend. However, Jeers for the sheer randomness of it all. They're sitting around, talking about what they want to study in college, and Nancy is all, "Yeah, I'm big into chemistry."

Huh?

How random is THAT?

THAT's her thing? She's "into chemistry"? So silly, especially as we've never seen any predilection from Nancy before towards that interest.

So while I admire the effort from Gladir, the execution was off.

CHEERS to Marvel reprinting Stern and Byrne's Captain America. That was some damn fine comic books, right there.

JEERS to this Battlin' Jack Murdock comic book. It's so weird getting four issues re-telling stuff we all basically know by heart by now if we followed Daredevil.

I mean, it's a GOOD re-telling and all, but it just seems so unnecessary.

CHEERS to John Cassaday's art on the last Final Son issue.

JEERS to Jeph Loeb's story. Weak sauce.

CHEERS, ever so slightly, to the latest issue of Countdown, which featured the funeral for Bart Allen, for only being PRETTY bad, and not awful like previous issues. The tape of Kid Flash they play at the funeral was awesome. The rest was okay (except for the Forerunner and Monarch stuff and the Jason Todd/Donna Troy stuff - lame).

JEERS to DC's weird "answering" of what the old teaser image for Countdown represented, and, like, half of the images really WEREN'T answered.

"As you can see, Bart Allen has one foot in the grave" or something like that. How is that a TEASER for ANYthing?!!? What silly nonsense.

CHEERS to the latest issue of Supergirl, for spending the entire issue basically going, "Yeah, Kara has been super lame this entire series. She'll be better now, though! Promise!"

JEERS to how dorky the latest Countdown teaser poster looks.

CHEERS to Mateo Casali for actually writing a comic featuring the Millenium Giants that was actually GOOD (the issue was Justice League Unlimited #35, by the by).

JEERS to the whole Darick Robertson situation at DC Comics. He's only one of the best artists DC has, and what do they do with him? Fill-ins. It is quite annoying. He did a great job on the latest issue of Exterminators, though.

CHEERS to Adam Kubert's artwork on the latest issue of Action Comics.

JEERS to New Avengers/Transformers. That was weirdly lame.

CHEERS to Exterminators, for ending the issue with a huge bug pissing in some dude's mouth and making it actually work for the story.

JEERS to Greg Land's Scarlet Witch in the latest Ultimate Power.

CHEERS to Greg Land's Nick Fury in the latest Ultimate Power.

JEERS to Nightwing getting his ass kicked AGAIN. T has turned me on to you, Mr. Wolfman! I know read each issue of your Nightwing expecting Nightwing to get beat up, and it happens each issue!!

CHEERS a lot to the latest issue of Scalped. Damn, Jason Aaron is turning on the afterburners on this baby!! An excellent look at the head of the casino. A fascinating examination of the justifications an evil man can make for his actions.

A late CHEERS to Don MacPherson, for this interesting look at superheroes and war that he wrote for the Fourth of July.

Well, that's it for last week! Maybe I'll have a new one up for y'all as soon as TOMORROW! Wouldn't that be amazing?

30 Comments

• At July 11, 2007, James wrote:

  The second Countdown teaser poster is meant to resemble Leonardo da Vinci's painting The Last Supper. I pass no value ...

• At July 11, 2007, BizarroBeachHead wrote:

  JEERS of gross magnitude to the terrible Thor #1. UGH. That was just so bad. It was probably the worst ...

• At July 11, 2007, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  That particular Power Pack issue was written by Fred Van Lente, not Mark Sumerak!

  Best,

  Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

• At July 11, 2007, The Wandering Parakeet wrote:

  RE: Julie Power being a lesbian, the weirdest part is that "Loners" spun out of "Runaways" in which one of ...

• At July 11, 2007, Joseph wrote:

  Hmmm. So, I guess the Millenium Giants were the inspiration for the Destructoids in Astro City.

• At July 11, 2007, sean wrote:

  "JEERS to the whole Darick Robertson situation at DC Comics. He’s only one of the best artists DC has, and ...

• At July 11, 2007, Scratchie wrote:

  "... without it appearing as though he isn’t mocking the original concept."

  I assume you meant to say "... appearing as ...

• At July 11, 2007, Matt D wrote:

  BUT

  Mega Cheers from me for FVL managing to write so great an issue of Fantastic Four/Power Pack that there ...

• At July 11, 2007, stealthwise wrote:

  Booo, Palmiotti's Spirit story was the best one!

• At July 11, 2007, Mullon wrote:

  I liked the Wizard being a lazy idiot dad. I thought it was funny. The Best part was when Ben ...

• At July 11, 2007, sumerak wrote:

  "BUT

  Mega Cheers from me for FVL managing to write so great an issue of Fantastic Four/Power Pack that there ...

• At July 11, 2007, GarBut wrote:

  "CHEERS to Marvel reprinting Stern and Byrne’s Captain America. That was some damn fine comic books, right there."

  Agreed BUT why ...

• At July 11, 2007, Bill Reed wrote:

  You're right. Thor #1 was feckin' terrible.

  And JLU brought back the Millenium Giants? Awesomesauce.

• At July 11, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  CLAWS was a good idea

  Characters get together because they both have claws? No, that would be a stupid idea.

• At July 11, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  What is particularly stupid about the Van Lente/Sumerak mistake is that I KNEW that Van Lente was writing an upcoming ...

• At July 11, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I assume you meant to say “… appearing as though he IS mocking the original concept.” Because he really isn’t, ...

• At July 11, 2007, Anonymous wrote:

  I don't get why this place constantly uses the adjective 'dorky' to imply something sucks, and wishes to be jeered. ...

• At July 11, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  It's in the American Heritage Dictionary!!

  "stupid, inept, or foolish"

  Works for me!

• At July 11, 2007, GarBut wrote:

  APODACA said: "Characters get together because they both have claws? No, that would be a stupid idea."

  Clearly, Cheers/Jeers is not ...

• At July 11, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  It’s a Marvel heroes take on the classic short story/film The Most Dangerous Game. Which is a great idea.

  No, that's ...

• At July 11, 2007, Greg Burgas wrote:

  Well, I've never used "dorky." Using it seems so ... dorky.

• At July 11, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  LIES!! Dorky is nicer. I like to be nice when I am saying things are bad. Ethan Van Sciver gets ...

• At July 11, 2007, Bret wrote:

  Yes, Van lente's work was great.

  It was, however, apparent there was a writer switch.

  Not a bad thing, but when I ...

• At July 11, 2007, stealthwise wrote:

  Actually, BKV did a version of "the Most Dangerous Game" in Ultimate X-Men, even titling the arc that, and paired ...

• At July 11, 2007, Darren Cawsey wrote:

  [Q]JEERS to DC’s weird “answering” of what the old teaser image for Countdown represented, and, like, half of the images ...

• At July 11, 2007, ATOM HOTEP wrote:

  A special CHEERS should go out to Frank Quietly's work on All Star Superman #8 - my favorite little detail ...

• At July 12, 2007, Scavenger wrote:

  CHEERS, and big ones at that, to Marc SumerakFred Van Lente’s expert integration of Franklin Richards into being friends with ...

• At July 13, 2007, Cap'n Num Nums wrote:

  I'm probably the only person ever to not only think that Yu's Avenger art is really good, but is getting ...

• At July 13, 2007, Cap'n Num Nums wrote:

  My fault, thought this was "what I bought."

• At August 31, 2008, fornetti wrote:

  I do not believe this

There will most likely be some spoilers...otherwise, enjoy!

CHEERS to Jeff Parker's opening issue of X-Men: First Class, where even artist Roger Cruz is on top of his game, as Parker delivers an issue of the Invisible Girl teaching Marvel Girl some lessons, and seeing how the rest of the X-Men deal with the possible loss of their teammate. Well-written stuff, and Cruz has some very good moments, artistically, in the issue.

JEERS to Kyle as Parallax. It is especially weird as he's APPARENTLY in other Countdown related books as Ion, so, well, what's up with that? I mean, if it is just for this storyline - then cool beans, but as a longer term thing? Doooooooorky. Also, Superman Prime (I love that he's now SuperMAN Prime...hehe) as a Sinestro Corps member? Isn't that kinda, well, stacking the deck a bit TOO much? There's nothing inherently wrong with making the good guys seem like they are really screwed, but it certainly opens a writer up to a tough situation, vis a vis making the good guys win at the end.

CHEERS, though, to Ethan Van Sciver's artwork on the Sinestro Corps one-shot. Some of his better work. Also cheers to the cool scene where all the rings start looking for replacements. Eerily effective.

JEERS to the ending of Silent War, in the sense that it wasn't REMOTELY in tune with World War Hulk, which, you know, is kinda a big deal, no? How did no one think to coordinate the two books?

CHEERS to the inclusion of Traci 13 in Blue Beetle as the new love interest for the Blue Beetle. Very clever by John Rogers.

JEERSto the whole Monarch thing in Countdown (the whole Monarch thing, period). How ridiculous is it that this is now the SECOND time that a writer has come up with some convoluted way to make Captain Atom Monarch - all in some silly homage to a story THAT NEVER ACTUALLY EXISTED!! So silly. Almost as silly as Captain Atom all of a sudden talking like Doctor Doom.

CHEERS to John Rogers, also, for continuing with his appreciation for the Giffen/DeMatteis leaguers, with a really touching moment where Traci 13 references Ralph and Sue Dibney. Very nice artwork by Rafael Albuquerque, as well!

JEERS to the whole "Wonder Girl and Supergirl side with the Amazons" part of Amazons Attack. Will Pfeifer, please tell me that wasn't your idea!!!

CHEERS, of a sorts, to the backups in Countdown, where Dan Jurgens retells all the old Multiverse stories. It is pretty darn funny to read condensed versions of these old stories, because they come off as so ridiculously stupid. Hearing the plot of Crisis on Infinite Earths squeezed into a couple of pages is absolutely high-larious.

JEERS to this week's Invincible. This issue was some serious meandering, although with some nice character moments mixed in.

CHEERS to Kathleen Webb for a strong opening story in this week's Betty, detailing the things Betty comes across while cleaning her room. Webb does a cute story in the end, too, about past summer romances of Betty's older sister.

JEERS to Disney's Junior Graphic Novel of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. I was really interested in this project, in that I didn't know how they would manage to condense the movie into one graphic novel. The answer to "how they would manage" is "poorly." I cannot even slightly imagine anyone who was not well-versed in the film this is adapted from having any idea what is going on in the comic.

CHEERS to Jeff Parker for a cute story in this week's Marvel Adventures: Avengers, where the Avengers work with a group of villagers from another dimension to teach the villagers how to fend for themselves.

JEERS, though, to Leonard Kirk's artwork, which looked pretty darn rough. Maybe he just did breakdowns? He was listed as penciler, though...

CHEERS to Christos Gage and Andrea DeVito for telling perhaps the best issue I have read so far out of any of the crossover tie-in mini-series Marvel has been doing for their event books.

JEERS to the Hulk being impervious to stuff like telepathy. That seems like a reach.

CHEERS to Chris Bachalo's artwork in X-Men #200. Very nice job.

JEERS to the way the new Witchblade beats the bad guy in the latest Witchblade. She literally just walks into the bad lady's house, knocks her out after like, a half-page fight, then drags her out for her comeuppance. It was one of the most half-hearted resolutons to a plot-line I have seen.

CHEERS to Fabian Nicieza, for handling the removal of one of his main characters with style and grace.

JEERS to the X-Men in Ultimate X-Men being all, "All's forgiven, Nightcrawler!" Uhmmmm...dudes, seriously? He did and said some pretty effed up stuff!

CHEERS to Esab Ribic's sweet artwork in Silver Surfer: Requiem.

JEERS to Craig Boldman's opening story in this week's Jughead. He sets up a scenario (Jughead must win a burger-eating contest or else never return to Pop Tate's), and then fails to give the story a resolution! It was absurd!

CHEERS, though, to Boldman for the other two stories, which were much stronger, including a delightful final tale of the hijinx that occur when Jughead tries to partake in "one of the exquisite joys of summer," drinking from a hose!

JEERS to Robin Furth's lead story in Legion of Monsters: Satana. Wow, so Satana makes a promise with a mortal but ends up screwing the mortal over? WHAT A TWIST!! So silly.

CHEERS, though, to Kalman Andrasofsky's interior pencils. I knew he could draw!! CHEERS, also, to Jonathan Hickman's awesome art on the backup story in the issue.

JEERS to Humberto Ramos' artwork on X-Men #200. And it was an IMPROVEMENT over his past work on the X-Men, but it was still pretty poor.

CHEERS to Alan Burnett for at least trying to get Superman/Batman back on track with the latest issue, although I think, ultimately, it was a bit too disjointed. Schrocken was waaaaaaay too under-developed for a character shown quite often in the issue.

JEERS, too, to the name Schrocken.

CHEERS to Dan Slott's legal work in the latest She-Hulk. I think even my pal Loren will be impressed!

JEERS, though, to even still be addressing the whole "Did She-Hulk sleep with Juggernaut?" thing. People, we all get it, Chuck Austen-penned comics rarely make sense! Just feel free to ignore them!

CHEERS to Garth Ennis for this week's The Boys. The Tek Knight situation is hilarious, but by totally committing to the concept, Ennis is even able to elicit poignancy out of the situation. Very nice work.

JEERS to the coloring on the latest issue of Superman/Batman. The art could barely be seen at times!

CHEERS to the latest issue of Criminal. Another strong, character-driven issue.

JEERS to the same coloring issues on Thunderbolts. Everything is so dark and hard to decipher.

CHEERS, though, to the great work Warren Ellis has been doing with obscure superheroes in Thunderbolts. I love it when a writer does stuff like Ellis is doing here - honest, non-cynical, non-ironic superheroes. Classic stuff.

JEERS to not enough comics out there with Russ Heath artwork. This week's Iron Fist shows he can still bring it!

CHEERS, though, to this week's Iron Fist in general. A rip-roarin' good time.

JEERS to the opener of Endangered Species. Like the Endangered Species one-shot, it was pretty good writing, but it was just an entire comic of the Beast talking to people, about mostly exposition. Pretty darn weak as far as openers go.

CHEERS to Dave Finch's X-Men #200 cover. That was a great idea for a cover for a 200th issue.

JEERS, just because I haven't said this in awhile, to the name "Daken" for Wolverine's son. So lame.

CHEERS to David Michelinie's ability to work Scott Lang into comics without it seeming too dorky. I was always impressed by that. He never gave the impression that he was pushing the character on us.

JEERS, though, for Tarantula in the Bat-books. The pain of reading her appearances never goes away!

CHEERS to the Extremists getting their own mini-series!

JEERS to the idea of Captain Atom recruiting Lord Havok to be his top lieutenant. So Giffen's Justice League run just never existed?!?

That's all I got!

49 Comments

• At June 28, 2007, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  Looks like I missed reading some really, really shitty comics this week.

  Yay for me!

• At June 28, 2007, Black Lutefisk wrote:

  You repeated the ending to Silent War jeer (unless you just hated it that much).

• At June 28, 2007, M Bloom wrote:

  I'm agreeing with a lot of these. But the Countdown back-up features isn't one of them. I genuinely hate those ...

• At June 28, 2007, J To The AAP wrote:

  Also, Superman Prime (I love that he’s now SuperMAN Prime…hehe) as a Sinestro Corps member? Isn’t that kinda, well, stacking ...

• At June 28, 2007, Matt D wrote:

  The "Oh hell! The Heroes are really in for it now!!!" feeling, which you really don't get in any meaningful ...

• At June 28, 2007, BizarroBeachHead wrote:

  Bah, Invincible has been treading water for the last thirteen issues. Kirkman really needs to get back on the ...

• At June 28, 2007, T. wrote:

  JEERSto the whole Monarch thing in Countdown (the whole Monarch thing, period). How ridiculous is it that this is now ...

• At June 28, 2007, Theo wrote:

  -> "CHEERS to Garth Ennis for this week’s The Boys. The Tek Knight situation is hilarious, but by totally committing ...

• At June 28, 2007, Theo wrote:

  Or not. Sorry. Idiot mate posting as me over a silly private joke (honestly, you make One Simple Mistake...)

• At June 28, 2007, Jeff K wrote:

  yeah, it seems like they just sort of hung Silent War out to dry and refused work it into bigger ...

• At June 28, 2007, John Seavey wrote:

  The first time Monarch turned out to be Captain Atom after all was in Extreme Justice...and doesn't it just sum ...

• At June 28, 2007, DanCJ wrote:

  When did Armageddon 2001 become a story that "never happened"

• At June 28, 2007, T. wrote:

  I think the revelation of Captain Atom as Monarch in Armageddon was the story that never happened.

• At June 28, 2007, Julio Dvulture wrote:

  Armageddon 2001 happened, but Captain Atom officially becoming Monarch in that series never happened (spoilers were leaked prior to ...

• At June 28, 2007, Dave wrote:

  I'm pretty sure Silent War avoided tying into WWH because the events of WWH are largely irrelevant to whatever plans ...

• At June 28, 2007, Rebis wrote:

  I like the Kyle-as-Parallax twist. I agree with J To The AAP: It's too early to jeer the storyline. (Although ...

• At June 28, 2007, Blackjack wrote:

  >>

  You're missing the point in DC logic. Follow with me:

  Kyle is Parallax. Now he can bring back Bart ...

• At June 28, 2007, Levantine wrote:

  "Also, Superman Prime (I love that he’s now SuperMAN Prime…hehe) as a Sinestro Corps member?"

  This reminds me of a jeers ...

• At June 28, 2007, DCD wrote:

  Daken spelled sideways is "Naked."

  ...I wonder if HE'S the best there is at what he does, too?!

• At June 28, 2007, Ian wrote:

  "JEERS to the ending of Silent War, in the sense that it wasn’t REMOTELY in tune with World War Hulk, ...

• At June 28, 2007, Ian wrote:

  Oh, and WWH X-men DID deliver. Gage needs to be writing New X-men regularly because thats the first time ...

• At June 28, 2007, Mer wrote:

  I still think "Daken" is a perfectly fine name. Although, I prefer the "Dakin" spelling of it.

• At June 28, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  You repeated the ending to Silent War jeer (unless you just hated it that much). I like that explanation!

• At June 28, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I’m agreeing with a lot of these. But the Countdown back-up features isn’t one of them. It was more of ...

• At June 28, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  So there’s a pretty good chance this will eventually deserve a JEER but we won’t now until the story’s over, ...

• At June 28, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  When was the first time someone came up with a convoluted way to make Captain Atom Monarch to homage the ...

• At June 28, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I still don’t see the problem with “Daken”? Do you not buy it as a real name or do you ...

• At June 28, 2007, Jason wrote:

  I didn't go to the shop yesterday...Kyle is Parallax? Is DC trying to kill all the characters I "grew up" ...

• At June 28, 2007, Neal wrote:

  JEERS to the idea of Captain Atom recruiting Lord Havok to be his top lieutenant. So Giffen’s Justice League run ...

• At June 28, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  It's the plot of the upcoming Extremists mini-series by Frank Tieri. Monarch/Captain Atom goes to recruit Lord Havok, and we ...

• At June 28, 2007, Eriata wrote:

  Alas, Daken is just one more bad celebrity name in a long list of them =3 There just seems to ...

• At June 28, 2007, T. wrote:

  Hey, I resent that! Us blacks were on the "name your kids something ridiculous that you swear sounds unique ...

• At June 28, 2007, Eriata wrote:

  Sorry =P You gotta admit, though, the celebs got you beat. Moon Unit? Heavenly Hiraani Tigerlily? Zowie Bowie?

• At June 28, 2007, T. wrote:

  You just know more about the celebrity names because they're famous and get more exposure, but trust me, blacks got ...

• At June 28, 2007, Eriata wrote:

  Urhines Kendall Icy Eight Special K is still the worst name ever. Poor kid. Seriously, if you don't believe me, ...

• At June 28, 2007, Mullon wrote:

  Damn there are a lot of DC jeers this week.

  ...NO! I will not be tempted back to Marvel. I'm still ...

• At June 28, 2007, km wrote:

  Chiffonia? Really?

  ...wow.

• At June 28, 2007, Dave Sikula wrote:

  Given all the Earth 1 references in Countdown, and having that "unbeatable" team on the last page of Sinestro Corps, ...

• At June 28, 2007, Alejandro wrote:

  CHEERS to Dan Slott’s legal work in the latest She-Hulk. I think even my pal Loren will be impressed!

  JEERS, though, ...

• At June 28, 2007, M Bloom wrote:

  "It’s the plot of the upcoming Extremists mini-series by Frank Tieri. Monarch/Captain Atom goes to recruit Lord Havok, and we ...

• At June 28, 2007, Linkara wrote:

  Personally I so far like the Captain Atom as Monarch thing. Nothing I've seen so far indicates he's a ...

• At June 28, 2007, Cayman wrote:

  Yay, Traci 13! Jeers to not having her cute little iguana familiar though.

  I suppose the Satana story was predictable, but ...

• At June 28, 2007, Sleestak wrote:

  I enjoyed how much the Sinestro Corps story was compressed. Lot of story in one book.

• At June 28, 2007, Jason wrote:

  I remember a "Twisted Toyfare Theatre" where Daredevil sued Ben Affleck for the crap movie about his life. At one ...

• At June 28, 2007, yo go re wrote:

  The whole Juggernaut thing reminds me so much of the "Hulk does/doesn't kill people" back-and-forth snitfest writers have been engaging ...

• At June 29, 2007, Sanagi wrote:

  "Dakin" is a company that makes teddy bears. When I was very young I had a teddy bear that had ...

• At June 29, 2007, DanCJ wrote:

  I think the revelation of Captain Atom as Monarch in Armageddon was the story that never happened.

  Duh - Stupid me

• At June 29, 2007, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  So Austen wrote a comic where She Hulk slept with Juggernaut?

  Honestly, it's the sort of thing you'd do if you ...

• At July 1, 2007, Shamus wrote:

  Daken sounds like a farm machinery company. Not something you would name your child.

  http://www.daken.com.au/

There will most likely be some spoilers...otherwise, enjoy!

CHEERS to Wally West returning

JEERS to Bart Allen being killed by basically being kicked to death (after catching a blast of cold, fire and lightning, granted, but still!). That was awfully lame.

Double JEERS to the systematic ruination of a good character in Bart Allen. Forget killing him. Killing him is one of the NICER things they've done to the character since Impulse's title ended.

"A fun character? Let's shoot him in the kneecaps!" "Now let's make him super-serious." "Now let's age him and take away any vestige of a personality!" "Now let's give him a good writer, just in time to KILL him!"

Wow, that's pretty messed up, huh?

CHEERS MAJOR cheers to Christos Gage and John Paul Leon for one of the best "done in one" issues I've read in awhile from Marvel and DC, Midnighter #8, which is about Midnighter trying to find a little girl's lost cat. SOOO awesome. Buy it, people!!! Probably the best issue Gage has written so far in comics.

JEERS to the whole "just inventing new personalities" tact of New Warriors #1. Why not just create new characters?

CHEERS to Don MacPherson on his continued excellent annotations for the JLA/JSA crossover.

JEERS to Countdown, just in general.

CHEERS to Jason Pearson on all the personality he puts into the faces of the characters on his Loners covers for Marvel.

As an example, just check out his drawings of the face of one character, Turbo, on each of the covers...

Naturalistic and cartoony at the SAME time! Impressive work by Pearson. We need to see more interior work from him!

JEERS to the fact that the last time Pearson did interior work, it was for Body Bags. Why, Mr. Pearson, why?!?!?!

CHEERS to Andy Diggle's Hellblazer run (so far). It is a great look at John Constantine's skills as a con man/magician. Especially his quick thinking. Very enjoyable stuff, with the usual great artwork from Manco.

JEERS to the latest issue of Iron Man, for basically being the same story as World War Hulk #1, only from Iron Man's perspective. LAME!! Way to make the book worthwhile there!

CHEERS to Gail Simone bringing Ice back, thereby correcting one of Mark Waid's biggest mistakes (he already corrected the other one, bringing the Rogues back from the dead)!

JEERS to Rusty Noble being acquitted in Noble Causes. Rarely will you see a more open and shut case than that! I mean, I can think of some clever defenses (maybe "a villain took over Rusty's robot body"), but the book didn't show us HOW he was acquitted, and I do not like that.

CHEERS to Brian Azzarello for the little people soldiers in Deathblow pretending to be his children. So wrong...but so right.

JEERS to Star Wars Legacy, slightly, for the sheer amount of new characters they keep introducing. It is a bit difficult to keep them all straight, as it seems like the book is written like we know these characters already, ya know?

CHEERS to Steven Butler for his redesign of the male characters of Riverdale. A huge improvement over the female characters from the first issue (who still look weird).

JEERS, though, to the storyline with the redesigned characters. Holy crap, Melanie J. Morgan's story is just awful! The dialogue is ridiculously poor, the plot is entirely unbelievable (the "bad boy" is the worst cliche of a bad boy, and it just makes Veronica look like a complete idiot for not thinking otherwise). Really, it's not THAT hard to make this exact storyline, only make it make sense. It's like Morgan has just simply decided to not put the slightest bit of effort into the story. It's really that bad.

CHEERS to Re-Gifters. Such a great book. I'll try to have a review up soon.

JEERS to Gen13 actually re-doing the original Rainmaker/Fairchild "Rainmaker coming on to Fairchild" thing, this time with an almost full-page kiss! Total Cousin Larry trick.

CHEERS to Gen13, though, for getting a nice "Executioner during Simonson's Thor" moment with Lynch and Roxy's "mother." Very nice bit.

JEERS to Amanda Waller being such an antagonist in Checkmate. Making Amanda Waller a bad guy is just so lazy.

CHEERS to Ed Brubaker for having Matt's new partner apologize for getting Matt into the Gladiator mess. It was a minor detail, but one that I think is very nice to have addressed. Not many writers would have thought to include it.

JEERS to Slaymaster still being around in Exiles.

So lame.

CHEERS to Marc Sumerak for thinking up the whole "Energizer soaking up Hulk's gamma radiation." Clever AND cute.

JEERS to the latest Ghost Rider only tying into World War Hulk on, like, the last couple of pages. It was a good issue on its own, but fake tie-ins are annoying. What is the term for them? "Red sky" crossovers, right? LAME!

CHEERS to PS238 #23 for finally coming out with an issue of PS238 that is new reader friendly! Folks, if you have any interest in a school for superhero children, give PS238 #23 a shot!

JEERS to the whole Skrull thing in Avengers.

CHEERS to Tania Del Rio for having Sabrina reveal her witch nature to Harvey in the latest issue. It's a good idea, and I don't think it really runs the risk of ruining their relationship, even if they end up not together.

JEERS to the X-Men: Endangered Species one-shot. It was like the well-written first part of a comic book, where people talk before something happens...only nothing happened!!! There's more plot advancement in the Curtis comic strip!

CHEERS to the last issue of Nova, which so nicely summarized why Robbie Baldwin as Penance makes, well, little to no sense.

JEERS to the people who are freaking out about Lynn Johnston's decision to pair Elizabeth with Anthony. Yeah, the match-up IS a bit odd, but what the heck, people!!

CHEERS My pal Jake wants to give this JEERS, but I say CHEERS to the editor's notes in the latest issue of Amazing Spider-Man.

JEERS, ever so slightly, to Faryl Dalrymple's story in Superior Showcase #2. It was basically just a standard superhero comic, only with a goofy-looking guy. I was hoping for something a little more clever than a Batman story, just with a goofy-looking guy instead of Batman.

CHEERS to Greg Pak's reasoning for Angel siding with Hulk. Having him basically be forced into doing it was very clever on Pak's part.

That's all I gots!

48 Comments

• At June 21, 2007, Anthony Strand wrote:

  Do people really spend their free time thinking about For Better or For Worse? Really?

• At June 21, 2007, Michael wrote:

  A surprising number of people, yes.

  And Brian, I respectfully disagree with you on Endangered Species.

• At June 21, 2007, Greg Burgas wrote:

  I agree with you about Endangered Species, plus you got in a shot at Curtis, which is just awful. ...

• At June 21, 2007, Jeff Holland wrote:

  Jason Pearson had some interiors on the first few issues of "Blue Beetle," right? And before that the three issue ...

• At June 21, 2007, Andrew Collins wrote:

  Was it Mark Waid who killed Ice? Wow, I must have done a better job than I thought of blocking ...

• At June 21, 2007, Andrew Collins wrote:

  "Jason Pearson had some interiors on the first few issues of “Blue Beetle,” right?"

  That was Cully Hamner

• At June 21, 2007, Scavenger wrote:

  Why Jeers to Jason Pearson for not doing interiors but on his creative owned property? If Marvel or DC ...

• At June 21, 2007, Rebis wrote:

  I agree 100% with the cheers for bringing Wally (and family) back, and for the double jeers about ruining Bart ...

• At June 21, 2007, Paul wrote:

  Do people really still care about Ice? It was like 15 years ago. And it was even longer ...

• At June 21, 2007, Ye Olde Iowa wrote:

  I'm going to disagree with your Jeers on Iron Man #19. Yes, it did retell much of World War ...

• At June 21, 2007, T. wrote:

  I didn't read the new New Warriors #1, but I remember that the original. New Warriors #1 brought in all ...

• At June 21, 2007, Luke wrote:

  >>JEERS to the latest issue of Iron Man, for basically being the same story as World War Hulk #1, only ...

• At June 21, 2007, Norton Zenger wrote:

  Anthony: Have you ever seen joshreads.com?

• At June 21, 2007, Jeff Holland wrote:

  Oh jeez, yeah, I've been thinking Cully Hamner. Thanks, Andrew. Well then...MORE JASON PEARSON!

  As for the whole Flash thing, it's ...

• At June 21, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Why Jeers to Jason Pearson for not doing interiors but on his creative owned property? If Marvel or DC would ...

• At June 21, 2007, Bry wrote:

  Thank you for summing up the Bart Allen issue so well. Impulse was probably my favourite character at DC ...

• At June 21, 2007, Andrew Collins wrote:

  Paul said:

  "Do people really still care about Ice? It was like 15 years ago. And it was even longer than ...

• At June 21, 2007, Jason wrote:

  Is it okay if I believe that Bart can and will be brought back to life? I mean, it's not ...

• At June 21, 2007, Morgan wrote:

  I'm going to disagree with the JEER to "turning Amanda Waller into a villain", because they really haven't changed her ...

• At June 21, 2007, Michael wrote:

  The way I read that page of Flash, because it was a little confusing, was that Heat Wave, Captain ...

• At June 21, 2007, Paul wrote:

  "I’m not sure about DC readership as a whole, but I know I’m personally excited. I always thought her death ...

• At June 21, 2007, The Kirbydotter wrote:

  So they killed Bart Allen too hey?

  I haven't read Flash in a great while, but, I'm not surprised. I ...

• At June 21, 2007, Dave wrote:

  On Jason Pearson, I have to agree with Brian: Body Bags is pretty abysmal. If that's the best Pearson ...

• At June 21, 2007, Andrew Collins wrote:

  Paul said:

  "There’s no evidence that any current writers are going to do anything with her"

  That's my one worry too. Now ...

• At June 21, 2007, Scavenger wrote:

  Body Bags, a book that is notable for the really good Jason Pearson artwork and….well….

  And an underage cheerleader with guns! ...

• At June 21, 2007, Bill Reed wrote:

  Elizabeth and Anthony really makes perfect sense, though of course it would never happen in reality. I always root for ...

• At June 21, 2007, Scavenger wrote:

  Kirby Dotter says {They spoiled Mary Marvel } (Can somone tell me how quotes work?)

  How have they spoiled Mary ...

• At June 21, 2007, Scavenger wrote:

  DC had become such a dark and violent place where FUN characters have no place anymore.

  Wasn't the point of IC ...

• At June 21, 2007, lauren wrote:

  Ice was recently featured in FKATJL mini (or was it hte JLA classified?) and the appeal to ice is that ...

• At June 21, 2007, M Bloom wrote:

  Definitely agree on the Cheers for Ice's return. It's only June, but I don't care what happens in the remaining ...

• At June 21, 2007, T. wrote:

  Wasn’t the point of IC that DC was going to be fun again?

  Everyone keeps saying this. It's simply not ...

• At June 21, 2007, Peter Gasston wrote:

  I picked up the last few issues of TF:TFMA to see what the fuss was about, and I found the ...

• At June 21, 2007, Lambo wrote:

  I agree Brian on Midnighter #8, I thought it was excellent. I wish Leon was doing stuff more regularly, ...

• At June 21, 2007, Blackjack wrote:

  >>SO yeah, the point was not to decry the modern darkness of DC but to proudly proclaim it shamelessly>>

  Until they ...

• At June 21, 2007, BizarroBeachHead wrote:

  JEERS to the X-Men: Endangered Species one-shot. It was like the well-written first part of a comic book, where people ...

• At June 21, 2007, Bully wrote:

  Totally agreeing that we need to see Jason Pearson do more interiors.

  I have five pieces of original comic book ...

• At June 21, 2007, T. wrote:

  Also jeers to the the whole Endangered Species crossover format. I must be the only person on the planet that’s ...

• At June 22, 2007, Glenn Simpson wrote:

  I really miss Kole.

  Oh, well, anyway...count me in on the crowd who could have sworn that Dan Dideo, when asked ...

• At June 22, 2007, T. wrote:

  If Didio ever said that, please find the link. Personally, I think that rumor got started because people saw ...

• At June 22, 2007, T. wrote:

  Hit "reply" to early.

  Anyway, the impression I got from Identity Crisis in light of all that was that DC stood ...

• At June 22, 2007, Morgan wrote:

  I don't think they're completely backing away from the darkness, but you're incorrect in your statement that the heroes of ...

• At June 22, 2007, Mark wrote:

  Wasn't Bart Allen billed as the future greatest Flash of all times (or some such time warped title)? Is that ...

• At June 23, 2007, T. wrote:

  Morgan, I honestly think that you mentioned was just to give the story SOME type of illusion of growth so ...

• At July 26, 2007, Marcus Brainard wrote:

  One of the worst segments was the first Mage series where Edsel gets killed off in Issue #13. The good ...

• At July 26, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I don't get it. What's the connection to Mage in all of this?

• At August 10, 2007, Markie Brainard wrote:

  Dear Brian,

  Markie's Back! And believe it for not there was supposed to be a movie about Matt Wagner's epic for ...

• At September 17, 2007, Marcus Brainard wrote:

  In 1967, 40 years ago there was The Hanna-Barbera verison of The Fantastic Four & they did a good job ...

• At September 17, 2007, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  In the Ning-Nang-Nong all the cows go 'bong', and the tea pots jibber-jabber-joo!

There will most likely be some spoilers...otherwise, enjoy!

CHEERS to Stagger Lee for winning a bunch of Glyph Awards, including Story of the Year!!

JEERS to the choices the fans had for the Glyph "Fan Award for Best Black Comic of the Year"

Black Panther: The Bride, Reginald Hudlin, Scot Eaton & Klaus Janson
Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre, Will Pfeifer & Cliff Chiang
Firestorm #28-32, Stuart Moore, Jamal Igle & Keith Champagne
New Avengers #22, Brian Michael Bendis & Leinil Francis Yu
Storm, Eric Jerome Dickey, David Yardin & Lan Medina and Jay Leisten & Sean Parsons

CHEERS to Don MacPherson, for continuing to put together fun annotations to the Justice League/Justice Society of America crossover. The latest one is here (and it has links to his previous ones).

JEERS to Ed Benes' art on the latest part of the crossover. It was like having a cheese grater rubbed on my eyeballs, it was so bad. I was never a fan of Benes' art, but I have absolutely no idea why he determined that what his style needed was to render it like crazy - it just takes away whatever dynamism or power his art once had (and it wasn't like he had a lot to begin with here), and just makes everything static and dull. There's a scene where a bunch of gorillas race each other on dinosaurs - and it's the most boring gorilla dinosaur race you could ever imagine (and I have imagined quite a few gorilla dinosaur races).

CHEERS to the whole "the belt carried the lightning rods" thing, that was cute.

JEERS to the concept of basing a crossover on a plot point from a comic book forty years ago.

CHEERS to the concept of the seven Legionnaires being flung into the past. That is clever, I just don't like the idea of it all being done so they could redo a forty-year old plotline.

JEERS to the folks complaining about Randy Schueller asking for an acknowledgment that he came up with the idea for the black costume. The defensiveness from some fans on this point is bizarre.

CHEERS to that Andy (DC tells me Adam, but yeah, it does look more like Andy, and the signature sure looks like Andy) Kubert Countdown cover featuring the Joker.

That is some strong artwork.

JEERS to the actual issue of Countdown. It is almost unfathomable how lame Countdown is after two issues. Especially the bit where it just reshows scenes from an issue of JLA from LAST month?

CHEERS to Sean McKeever's ending for the last issue of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. The twist of having Harry only PRETENDING to be having problems with his father to sucker Mary Jane into getting involved in his life (using advice given to him BY his father) was brilliantly handled by McKeever.

JEERS to the last issue of Ultimates. How detached was that issue? "Look! A bunch of bad guys we never met!" "Look, to save the day - a bunch of GOOD GUYS that we never met!" And then the ending that APPEARED to be a book end to Millar's run, except it really didn't even tie in to the first issue of his run. Actually, take away a jeer to the ending. I don't think it worked, but I admire Millar's ATTEMPT to do a book end. That's kinda classy, even if it didn't make sense.

CHEERS to Black Widow's death. Nicely handled.

JEERS to the end of The Rise and Fall of The Shi'Ar Empire. The whole story is about Professor X putting together an X-Men team to stop Vulcan, because Xavier feels responsible. At the end of the issue, Vulcan is not stopped, but Xavier, for some reason, does not seem to have as much of a problem with it as you would think he would. Why doesn't Xavier just go right back out to space? The whole POINT of the story was that, right?

CHEERS to Walt Simonson's Hawkgirl/Batman crossover. Well handled.

JEERS to the end of the Titans East storyline. Wow, that was a wretched, wretched comic book.

CHEERS to Marc Guggenheim's take on Hannibal King in the pages of Blade. I love it. Very "back to basics"

JEERS to this weird story plot Wolfman has in Nightwing where he gives Nightwing, like, a team of lame supervillains, only I do not know if we are SUPPOSED to think they are lame, even though they are about as plainly lame as you can get. And still, the book is a SOLO book, so why is it a team book? JEERS!!

CHEERS, astonishingly, to Jeph Loeb for the latest issue of Fallen Son, where he has Iron Man attempt to convince Clint Barton to become the new Captain America. Good stuff (with great John Romita, Jr. artwork). This issue was good, so why did the first two parts have to be so bad?

JEERS to Noble Causes for bringing up the whole "Liz is from another dimension" plotline. I think Faerber was totally correct when he said "Yeah, I am just not going to mention it, as it is is too complicated." But even if he was incorrect, once he committed to that, it is bizarre to suddenly refer back to it after, what, three years?

CHEERS to the latest issue of Local. Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly really nailed this one beautifully.

JEERS to the latest installment of the Elevenaire. The Elevenaire is a concept that Craig Boldman came up with for Archie, where this guy shows up and gives characters eleven dollars, and that somehow comes into play during the story. Isn't that an interesting plot idea? "How will it come into play?" is a great writing exercise. The problem being, in the latest issue, it came into play in such a stupid, pointless way that I think it really defeated the purpose of the character, which is to come up with clever ways for a gift of eleven dollars to actually have a purpose to it. Still, I give credit to Boldman for trying clever things on Archie Comics.

CHEERS to the Sperm Bank line in All Star Batman and Robin.

JEERS, though, to the entire effect of the latest issue. Jim Lee's art just does not go with what Frank Miller is doing in this book.

CHEERS to Plain Janes. I was hoping to have a review of it up this week, but it doesn't look like my co-reviewer (I was thinking of a He Said/She Said thing) is ready.

JEERS to her for not being ready with her Plain Janes review!!

CHEERS to the latest issue of Death Jr. Very cute book.

JEERS, though, to the small amount of panel time devoted to the other Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They looked interesting.

CHEERS to the origin issue of Hero Squared. Really nicely done stuff there.

JEERS to the current X-Factor artist. YIKES, that's some bad art.

CHEERS to Slaymaster not continuing on in Claremont's Exiles. Right? He's not, right? Please tell me we're done with him.

JEERS to the latest Supergirl. What the hell was that all about?

CHEERS to Greg Burgas on turning the big three six.

Okay, that's it for this week!

45 Comments

• At May 21, 2007, Cayman wrote:

  CHEERS to the Sperm Bank line in All Star Batman and Robin.

  Best line of dialog Diana has ever had!

  Not a ...

• At May 21, 2007, Ian Astheimer wrote:

  JEERS to Ed Benes’ art on the latest part of the crossover. It was like having a cheese grater rubbed ...

• At May 21, 2007, Rebis wrote:

  First off, I guess I should be clear that I really dislike Benes' artwork. BUT I actually prefer it within ...

• At May 21, 2007, Andrew Collins wrote:

  CHEERS to the whole “the belt carried the lightning rods” thing, that was cute.

  JEERS to the concept of basing a ...

• At May 21, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Meanwhile, Brian: How do you give a cheers to the lightning-rods-hidden-in-the-belt reveal, then jeer that entire plot twist?They introduced the ...

• At May 21, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  So, did Benes turn over a scratchy new leaf, or did Hope ink the pages to death? I think it's ...

• At May 21, 2007, Tyler wrote:

  I really dig these, Brian. Keep up the good work.

• At May 21, 2007, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  Wait, Hannibal King had to be rebooted BACK to being a detective? He was a private eye the last couple ...

• At May 21, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I meant the whole take on the guy. Remember what he was like in Nightstalkers? SO LAME!

• At May 21, 2007, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  Oh, God, yes. Where he wore the cape and the whole bit?

  Still better than the Ryan Reynolds version, though.

• At May 21, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Yeah, he was almost unrecognizable from the original Wolfman/Colan take on the character.

• At May 21, 2007, yo go re wrote:

  Having given up on All-Star Batman, what was the line?

  CHEERS to that Adam Kubert Countdown cover featuring the Joker.

  Of the ...

• At May 21, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  It all comes down, yo, to whether the comment is made at a time when I can retrieve it.

  If there ...

• At May 22, 2007, Stony wrote:

  Why is Clint Barton still alive??

• At May 22, 2007, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  Because YOU DEMANDED IT!!!

• At May 22, 2007, Barry wrote:

  I can't believe anyone would cheer All-Star Batman and Robin. Miller's take is way out of character for both ...

• At May 22, 2007, salamurai wrote:

  Black Widow died? when the hell did that happen?

  also, that wasn't actually the last issue of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, ...

• At May 22, 2007, Conor E wrote:

  That would be "Ultimate" Black Widow, in Ultimates #13.

• At May 22, 2007, J To The AAP wrote:

  JEERS to the choices the fans had for the Glyph “Fan Award for Best Black Comic of the Year”

  Black Panther: ...

• At May 22, 2007, John Seavey wrote:

  I'd just like to point out that while I, too, CHEER 'Fallen Son' part three, I have to JEER the ...

• At May 22, 2007, Graeme Burk wrote:

  You see, I'm totally loving the Lightning Saga. It may be the most I've enjoyed a JLA story since Morrison ...

• At May 22, 2007, Jon wrote:

  I can't say that I hate Countdown, but seriously, what was up with reprinting the JLA scene?

  Also, since when does ...

• At May 22, 2007, adam wrote:

  actually, you've got the wrong Kubert, two weeks straight. Andy's drawn the first two "Countdown" covers. I don't know ...

• At May 22, 2007, Tally wrote:

  the link for the JLA concordance is bad. Otherwise, good article. Also, ASB&R #5 SUX!!! Not even the sperm bank ...

• At May 22, 2007, Scavenger wrote:

  Pretty much agree on the jeers for the resurrection of the Proty/LL story for JSA/JLA/LSH.

  (Though I think it's not to ...

• At May 22, 2007, Scavenger wrote:

  Adam: IIRC the plan is that a different artist does each month's covers..so Kubert in month 1, someone else in ...

• At May 22, 2007, Tally wrote:

  Liefeld? Doing a cover? Did somebody at DC lose a bet? What year is this? 2000? What's next? Joe Mad ...

• At May 22, 2007, Dave wrote:

  The Sensational Spider-Man Annual came out weeks ago, although judging from everything else you're saying, I kind of doubt you ...

• At May 22, 2007, Tally wrote:

  Yes it did. However, in my corner of the world, paying bills trumps picking up a bag of funny books. ...

• At May 22, 2007, T. wrote:

  why did the first two parts have to be so bad?

  Jeph Loeb wrote them, isn't that reason enough?

• At May 22, 2007, Josh wrote:

  Nothing about All-Star B&R should get CHEERS. The whole thing reads like something Miller scribbled on a cocktail napkin ...

• At May 22, 2007, Tally wrote:

  Amen... did I miss Miller's announcement that he hates all women and a large part of the DCU as well? ...

• At May 22, 2007, Scavenger wrote:

  Liefeld was just an example used to point out who truly bad things can get.

• At May 22, 2007, Tally wrote:

  I know...but I would not be shocked to see it happen.

• At May 22, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  also, that wasn’t actually the last issue of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, was it? I thought there would be four ...

• At May 22, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  What’s wrong with New Avengers #22? I thought it was a great issue, one of the best stories out of ...

• At May 22, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I can’t say that I hate Countdown, but seriously, what was up with reprinting the JLA scene?

  It was just bizarre, ...

• At May 22, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  the link for the JLA concordance is bad.

  It works for me. Anyone else having a problem getting to Don's site ...

• At May 22, 2007, Tally wrote:

  Disregard about the link...after 4 hours of trying...the link works.

• At May 22, 2007, Andrew Collins wrote:

  I had problems with the link earlier too, but it works fine now. Damn good summary of the JLA issue ...

• At May 22, 2007, Tally wrote:

  Can I get my 3 bucks back from when I voted to off Jason Todd the first time? He was ...

• At May 22, 2007, Anonymous wrote:

  "That would be “Ultimate” Black Widow, in Ultimates #13."

  "Just using “last” to point out which issue it was. It was ...

• At May 22, 2007, salamurai wrote:

  ... and knew how to fill in the freakin' blanks, too ...

• At May 22, 2007, Happy wrote:

  There’s a scene where a bunch of gorillas race each other on dinosaurs

  I actually released a small quantity of urine ...

• At May 23, 2007, J To The AAP wrote:

  I was complaining more about the whole pile than any one of the selections.

  Storm, by the way, won the Fan ...

There will most likely be some spoilers...otherwise, enjoy!

CHEERS to Dennis Calero, who is really hitting a stride now as an artist. I knew all he needed to do was get away from that big dumb wolf head in X-Factor! Check out this week's JSA Classified. Sweet artwork.

JEERS to the World War III one-shots. Wow, those were awful. I don't blame the writers involved (as I think both men, Keith Champagne and John Ostrander, are fine writers), because the concept of the one-shots were just god-awful. "Come up with explanations why these X amount of characters did Y! No, no, it doesn't have to make sense, just so long as character X ends up in position Y!" So lame.

CHEERS, though, to the strong artwork in the World War III one-shots, including some very nice work by Andy Smith (who tends to be a bit too much of Bart Sears-lite for my tastes, but not here).

JEERS to how rushed the ending of the Connor Hawke mini-series was. How poorly paced was that? You have SIX issues to tell the story, but major events in the last issue had to be done off-panel. Lame.

CHEERS to Don MacPherson, for providing annotations to Justice League of America #8 at his website, Eye on Comics, here.

JEERS to Justice League of America, for even possibly requiring annotations.

CHEERS to Bart Simpsons Comics #35, for a fun story where they show how to a real-life scientific "prank." I love when comics do stuff like, "Look, kids, you can try this trick out!" That is, of course, if you actually CAN suck a hard-boiled egg into a bottle using cold water. If not, then LAME!

JEERS to Nightwing Annual #2, for not giving much of a reason for why Barbara and Dick are no longer engaged. But that's not that big of a deal, as that isn't the sole reason the annual existe...oh wait, that IS the only reason the annual existed? OOPS.

DOUBLE JEERS to Nightwing Annual #2, for this super creepy scene where Dick shows up to visit Barbara after she got shot, has sex with her, then tries to sneak out in the morning and leaves her a (pardon the profanity that follows) FUCKING INVITATION TO HIS UPCOMING WEDDING TO STARFIRE!!! It is dumb enough that they had sex, but to sneak out and leave her an invitation to your wedding?! Wow, that's awfully lame.

Speaking of the whole Dick Grayson/Barbara Gordon, retroactive JEERS to DC of the late 80s/early 90s for being so darned compartmentalized that there never WAS a reaction by Dick Grayson to Barbara Gordon being shot. And no reaction from Dick when Bruce's back was broken. I get the whole "letting Dick do his own thing" deal, but that was a bit much.

CHEERS to Fabian Nicieza for this "Bob the Hydra Guy" character in Cable & Deadpool. Funny stuff.

JEERS to Fabian Nicieza for feeling the need to address continuity issues from Joe Kelly's run on Deadpool. You know, the run that ended almost EIGHT years ago! I have absolutely no doubt that there are folks out there who really wanted to see T-Ray's plot resolved - but ignore them, Mr. Nicieza! Ignore them!! That way Johns-ian madness lies!

CHEERS to Marvel Adventures: Avengers #12, for having Ego the Living Planet come by to try to pick Earth up. "I was just cruisin' through your little system here and I said to myself, "WHO is that fine blue number three over there sporting the ice caps?"

JEERS to Girls for ending the series worse than I even imagined, considering how poor the first 23 issues were.

CHEERS, though, to Girls for at least getting rid of that one really, really irritating character. The lady who reacted unlike anyone would ever react, but we were supposed to see as an example of "what would happen if people were left to their own devices." So lame.

JEERS to the cover of Justice Society of America #5 for not even SLIGHTLY hinting that it was part two of a crossover with Justice League of America.

You know, that crossover with DC's HIGHEST-SELLING title? Nah, why would the book want to promote THAT?

At least Sand was heavily featured in the issue.

CHEERS, though, to the issue itself. A good piece of writing by Geoff Johns (and a significant improvement over the first part of the crossover), and I especially enjoyed artist Fernando Pararini's "throwback" style of art.

JEERS to the half-assed ending given to Firestorm. I get that he's going to be part of Countdown, but it just seems like a disservice to Dwayne McDuffie to make him write such a limited story arc.

CHEERS to Andy Diggle, for opening his Hellblazer arc quite strongly, with Constantine coming up with a brilliantly last second con job to save himself - and it appears that Diggle has the book set up for some good future issues, too.

JEERS to the complaints about Black Panther and Silver Surfer's altercation in this week's Fantastic Four. Is it silly that Black Panther would even be able to pin Silver Surfer's arm behind his back? Yeah, kinda, but that's about it - everything else Black Panther says is totally moot as we didn't actually see any proof that he could do anything but pin Silver Surfer's arm behind his back for a few seconds.

CHEERS to Nemesis actually using his disguise skills in this week's Wonder Woman!

DOUBLE CHEERS for Sarge Steel being revealed to be an imposter. I was really afraid we were going to see another Max Lord deal. "Eh, who cares about him? Let's just make him a psycho villain!"

A mixture of JEERS and CHEERS to the whole Ted Kord ret-con thing DC has going on. Besides Gail Simone's tribute (as Beetle WAS a Birds of Prey supporting cast member) to Ted, these other writers who are going overboard having characters express their deep love/admiration for Ted Kord is just getting a bit silly. I mean, I appreciate John Rogers (this week's Blue Beetle, having Guy Gardner talk about how great Ted Kord was) and Marc Andreyko (having Wonder Woman talk about how great Ted Kord was) trying to make up for the lameness that was Countdown to Infinite Crisis, but there's no unringing that bell. DC had an issue that was built entirely around the concept of every notable DC hero being a dick to Blue Beetle, so this retroactive "he was awesome" stuff just seems silly. I appreciate the sentiment, though, hence the mixed bag of JEERS and CHEERS.

CHEERS to Paul Cornell for his Widsom mini-series, which gave us John the Skrull, a Skrull who was part of a planned invasion of Earth by impersonating the Beatles, which fell apart when the four Skrulls decided to disband (although they often call each up to talk about re-uniting to do the invasion).

JEERS to Chris Claremont for trying to convince us that the Slaymaster is badass.

CHEERS to David Tischman for making this Star Trek: The Next Generation series he is writing for IDW totally feel like the various Next Generation eras it is set in. It's a neat trick.

JEERS, though, for the concept of the series not being explained. Why not just have a bit on the inside front cover, where it says "These are the tales that slipped between the cracks, hence the title being called 'The Space Between'"?

CHEERS to the 52 crew for Mister Mind hatching from Skeets.

That's all, folks!

23 Comments

• At April 29, 2007, Greg Burgas wrote:

  Slaymaster was bad-ass before you were born, Cronin!

• At April 29, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  And the best way to demonstrate that is for the characters in the book to whisper amongst themselves, "Wow, he's ...

• At April 29, 2007, MarkAndrew wrote:

  But super ultra mega gazillion jeers to the new, re-designed Mister Mind.

• At April 29, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Yeah, the design was poor.

• At April 29, 2007, Dan K wrote:

  "CHEERS to Paul Cornell for his Widsom mini-series, which gave us John the Skrull, a Skrull who was part of ...

• At April 29, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Just commenting on this week's issue of Wisdom, and figured now was as good a time as any to throw ...

• At April 29, 2007, John Seavey wrote:

  I don't get the hate for WWIII. I mean, I wouldn't get it if there was major love for it ...

• At April 29, 2007, M Bloom wrote:

  "JEERS to Justice League of America, for even possibly requiring annotations."

  Eh, I didn't need any annotations to understand this issue. ...

• At April 29, 2007, Matt Bird wrote:

  I promise you that New Titans writer Marv Wolfman was one hundred percent certain, as were we all, that "The ...

• At April 29, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I don’t get the hate for WWIII. I mean, I wouldn’t get it if there was major love for it ...

• At April 29, 2007, Adam Jones wrote:

  Dick had sex with the newly crippled Barbra and then left her an invite to his wedding!?!!

  WOW! What a ...

• At April 29, 2007, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  That Nightwing business sounds odd.

  Has retroactively making two characters have sex ever worked in a comic?

  I can only think of ...

• At April 29, 2007, MarkAndrew wrote:

  Also if you read their only Silver Age team-up in Brave and the Bold 60? 61?

  It COMPLETELY makes sense ...

• At April 29, 2007, Anun wrote:

  I don't know what's bad about WW praising Ted in Manhunter. For one, absence does indeed make the heart ...

• At April 29, 2007, Matt D wrote:

  Wasn't Dick in the middle of a mental breakdown (#2) when he proposed to Starfire?

  Not that it was referenced in ...

• At April 29, 2007, Rob wrote:

  Actually I get the Blue Beetle thing. It's typical to not appreciate somebody when they are here, and to ...

• At April 29, 2007, yo go re wrote:

  DC had an issue that was built entirely around the concept of every notable DC hero being a dick to ...

• At April 29, 2007, T. wrote:

  Actually I get the Blue Beetle thing. It’s typical to not appreciate somebody when they are here, and to go ...

• At April 29, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  That's exactly my point, T, thanks.

  These writers appear to feel bad about how poorly Beetle was handled in Countdown, and ...

• At April 30, 2007, Matthew wrote:

  RE: John the Skrull - I take it you're looking forward to possibly seeing the whole fake band next issue ...

• At April 30, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  You bet, Matthew!

• At April 30, 2007, Michael wrote:

  I'm glad someone else thought all the bitching about the Panther/Surfer scene was unnecessary. I thought it was a rather ...

• At May 1, 2007, The Mad Monkey wrote:

  Okay...deep breath and here we go...

  What's worse than Dick Grayson having a cheap one-nighter with a "best friend" who was ...

There will most likely be some spoilers...otherwise, enjoy!

CHEERS to Marc Guggenheim, for bringing Hannibal King back to his Tomb of Dracula roots in this week's issue of Blade. Man, King and Frank Drake can have quite the battle over who was ruined more post-Tomb of Dracula...

CHEERS to Stephan Nilson, for coming up with an interesting use for Guy Gardner in last week's Justice League Unlimited #32 - the Green Lantern of the Fourth World! Clever, eh?

JEERS to Daniel Way for naming Wolverine's son Daken. Daken? What kind of ridiculous name is Daken?!?! And how dorky does Daken look?

In fact, let's add a new jeer.

JEERS to what Daken looks like...

Yuck.

This Daken talk just reminded me - even though he wasn't in a comic the past two weeks, just a general JEER to Judd Winick for Constantine Drakon. Possibly the worst creation Winick has ever had - and yet Winick keeps bringing the guy back! Jeer, I say!

CHEERS to Barbara Slate, for coming up with an interesting angle for the lead story of Archie #574, with the parents of Archie, Betty and Veronica all going out for dinner together, leading to the teen trio fretting over what embarrassing things their parents are telling each other about their respective children.

CHEERS to David Hahn, for following up his debut issue of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, where he seemed to be almost trying to make his art look like outgoing artist, Takeshi Miyazawa,with this past week's issue, where he does a totally new style, while still fitting the mood of the book. Well done by Hahn - giving the fans a "transition" issue. Clever.

JEERS to Nemesis not using his disguise talents in Wonder Woman since issue #1 (at least, I don't recall him using it after that issue). Isn't that, like, his entire gimmick!?!

CHEERS to JG Jones for the awesome James Bond homage cover for 52 #49, featuring Will Magnus and the Metal Men.

CHEERS to Grant Morrison for Zibarro.

CHEERS to Warren Ellis for the photograph gimmick in this week's Fell. Quite clever (and perpetual CHEERS to Ben Templesmith for his artwork).

JEERS, though, to Ellis, for not exactly following the gimmick the whole issue. It was kinda distracting.

CHEERS to the return of Madman! What a beautiful looking first issue by Mike Allred!

JEERS to New X-Men #37's for the pages drawn by Skottie Young, but...

CHEERS to New X-Men #37 for the pages drawn by Niko Henrichon.

JEERS to the Spectre story from Tales of the Unexpected. Each month, they are awful. I think this is pretty clearly the worst work that David Lapham has ever done, and Lapham wrote a couple of issues of the DARKNESS, for crying out loud!

CHEERS, though, to the Dr. 13 story from Tales of the Unexpected, in particular, Cliff Chiang's artwork. Why isn't he doing something higher profile?!

JEERS to the lettering in Gen 13 #7. Lordy, purple "handwriting" style letters? Highly distracting.

CHEERS to Mahmud A. Asrar, artist of Dynamo 5. Damn, does Jay Faerber have an eye for talent!

JEERS to the coloring/printing process of this week's Thunderbolts. Das Boot had better lighting.

CHEERS to Jonathan Hickman's art in Nightly News...I forget if I supported him or Scherberger back in CBR Comic Idol...

JEERS, in the loosest sense, to a typo in the latest issue of Nightly News, unless one of the folks in the issue became President of NBC News at the age of 17...hehe.

CHEERS to Gabrielle Bell, for telling a full, compelling story on ONE page of this week's MOME.

JEERS and CHEERS to Adrian Tomine, for doing an excellent job of detailing the exploits of one of the most irritating protagonists in comics, Ben Tanaka...(that was a facetious jeer, for the record)

JEERS to the artwork of Superman #661 last week. I totally understand that most likely, Richard Howell and Eduardo Barreto had, like, ten minutes to complete the issue's artwork, but boy, was it unpleasant.

CHEERS to the second printing covers for Marvel's Back in Black comics...amusing homages. I like seeing effort put into second printings, and not just sketches of the original cover's art...

JEERS to this week's Back in Black Official Guide to Marvel Universe Handbook, because it reminds me that there are people out there who have been waiting for Delilah to get a Handbook entry...

CHEERS to the twist in Two Guns #1, but...

JEERS to the ending of the first issue, which didn't give us a lead-in to the next issue.

CHEERS to Marc Sumerak, for his fun Hulk and Power Pack mini-series.

JEERS to DC for screwing over Mark Verheiden's Superman/Batman storyline. What was it, five different artists for a six-part storyline?

CHEERS to Michael Ryan's art on Joss Whedon's first issue of Runaways. Marked improvement. Impressive.

Oh, a belated CHEERS to Craig Boldman, for a moving story in Betty and Veronica #225. One of those stories where you play with the audience's expectations based on what they "know" about the characters. Good stuff.

That's all, folks!

24 Comments

• At April 15, 2007, Sleestak wrote:

  Man, I hate bone claws. I hope Daken turns out to be a disintegrating clone.

• At April 15, 2007, Greg Burgas wrote:

  Both Asrar and Cinar (who's drawing Noble Causes) are Turkish. Faerber apparently knows where to look, too. Nice ...

• At April 15, 2007, Matt D wrote:

  I don't think that Mark V needed much help screwing up that S/B run.

  And the Power Pack & ..... issues ...

• At April 15, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I was not a fan of the writing, either, Matt, but I meant more from a sales momentum standpoint. Big ...

• At April 15, 2007, The Mutt wrote:

  Wasn't Daken a Hair Metal band back in the '80s?

• At April 15, 2007, Greg Burgas wrote:

  That's DOKKEN, Mr. The Mutt, and you will speak their name with RESPECT!!!!!

• At April 15, 2007, Dan K wrote:

  I think Paul O'Brien put it best: Daken is the Marvel equivalent of Poochie.

• At April 15, 2007, DanLarkin wrote:

  This is the first I've heard of this Daken. I think it would've been better if I'd remained ignorant of ...

• At April 15, 2007, T. wrote:

  I don't think Drakon was a bad creation, in fact I think he's a great Winick creation, and I usually ...

• At April 15, 2007, david brothers wrote:

  So let's say that Wolverine is Scooby Doo.

  Does that make Daken Scrappy or the dumb one?

• At April 15, 2007, Michael wrote:

  Daken is *definitely* Scrappy.

  And, while I emphatically don't give a damn about 52, that is a great cover.

• At April 15, 2007, bryan young wrote:

  So wasn't the whole selling point of Wolverine:Origins that is was supposed to offer, you know, origins of Wolverine? ...

• At April 15, 2007, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  So wasn’t the whole selling point of Wolverine:Origins that is was supposed to offer, you know, origins of Wolverine?

  Origins doesn't ...

• At April 15, 2007, Ian Astheimer wrote:

  I don’t think Drakon was a bad creation, in fact I think he’s a great Winick creation, and I usually ...

• At April 15, 2007, David C wrote:

  The words describing what the Archie trio was fretting over at dinner got chopped off somehow....

• At April 15, 2007, Matt V wrote:

  I'm glad someone felt the same way about the art in New X-Men #37.

• At April 16, 2007, Mer wrote:

  I kind of like "Daken". I'm more familiar with the "Dakin" spelling of the name, but it's not that ...

• At April 16, 2007, entzauberung wrote:

  I kind of like “Daken”. I’m more familiar with the “Dakin” spelling of the name, but it’s not that unusual. ...

• At April 16, 2007, Mer wrote:

  Denmark. I have two guy friends there with the name. I was told it was popular. Perhaps ...

• At April 16, 2007, Paul C wrote:

  Double jeers for Daniel Way for writing such a crap book.

• At October 28, 2007, DeepRedTiger wrote:

  Well, I don't know too much about this book, I lost the lust to read it becayse there are simple ...

• At October 28, 2007, DeepRedTiger wrote:

  Sorry about the type Os lol i just go too fast when I get going.

• At February 16, 2009, Daken is Badass wrote:

  Daken is badass

• At August 19, 2009, (>. wrote:

  Daken...his mother was japanese...DA-KEN. Why is the name then so hard to understand? I <3 the way the drew him ...