Ratings and Rantings

Hey everyone, it's once again that time of the week for some Ratings and Rantings, Jason Todd here to welcome you to my Red Hood again. Today we've got a huge haul of comics to jump into, so we're gonna get things started off quickly. Few notes first though, No Booster Gold review because I wasn't enjoying the last few issues of this arc so I'll pick it up starting with the new one, and no Atom because I got tired of wasting money on half a comic. And just to remind everyone, there will be a new poll this weekend, as well as another Top 5 Five, and the categories will be below. Now, let's get things underway with Batman #703!

Batman #703

This issue is titled, "Prelude to Bruce Wayne: The Road Home", and is written by Fabian Nicieza, the only man besides Bryan Q. Miller to make me like their portrayal of Damian Wayne.  The issue starts off with Damian busting Dick's chops about not catching a criminal. When the criminal escapes, Damian starts to rip into Grayson, but Grayson remembers when he ripped into Batman for the same problem. They discover that the criminal was possibly "The Getaway Genius", just as Red Robin shows up with a newspaper that has Batman and Robin on the cover and says "Batman & Robin fail to stop Museum Thief", by Vicki Vale. After discussing that Vale may be involved, Dick decides to go meet with her, as Dick Grayson of course. Dick and Vicki argue, all the while she insinuates that Tim is Red Robin and other members of Wayne's entourage may be Bat-family members. Before leaving Dick places a huge tracker on her bag, which I found funny considering it's as big as a freaking quarter, so how she doesn't see it just blows my mind. We see a quick look at the Getaway Genius, and find out she's a woman, but not one I recognize. We then see Damian working out and talking to Alfred, as Damian basically shows an attitude at his father even being bothered with the Getaway Genius. Alfred tells Damian to stop making decisions on what he thinks Bruce "was...is" and started to learn the truth. From there we see Vicki Vale taking pictures for the society page and sees a crime, as someone snatches a woman's necklace. Batman and Robin arrive on the scene, have some banter, then Batman decks a guy who turns out to be our criminal using a holographic projector. The nice swerve of the Getaway Genius was a great view at showing us who Batman was, and what he may be upon his return. I like seeing different sides of Bruce and that's what this allowed us, and even made me connect with Damian a little. I'd give this issue an 8/10, it was a solid issue, with a self contained story that was well-written and built hype for "The Road Home", so you can't ask for more.

Batman: We've talked about about being overconfident.

Robin: Yes. You said it had been your most endearing trait as Robin.

Batman: And it was, but it works better with a smile than a scowl...

The Amazing Spider-Man #641

This is the finale to the four-part mini series known as "One Moment in Time" which I've been thoroughly enjoying. We start off with Mary Jane and Peter discussing the events that led to this moment like they have been for the last few issues. We see Doctor Strange conversing with Tony Stark and Reed Richards about making everyone forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Strange mentions that when he was offered a chance at anonymity he jumped at the opportunity, as did Tony Stark, and that Peter deserves the same chance. Tony acts like a tool and says it's Pete's fault for leaving the Avengers and breaking the law that his family now faces these problems, but Strange retorts that Tony is just upset because Peter stopped believing in him the way he used to. After Tony decides that Peter should have privacy, and everyone should forget, Reed interjects that everyone except he, Tony and Strange should forget, in case something happens. Tony says nothing good could come from them knowing. After some deliberation, everyone agrees to make it so only Peter remembers everything that's happened. While this is going on we see Peter standing over an unconscious Mary Jane, telling her that everything will be back to normal soon. There's an awesome panel where we see Spidey's HUGE rogue gallery. Strange snaps out of his trance and tells Peter to enter the bubble that will basically keep him from forgetting his past, Peter enters and cries as he leaves MJ behind, and suddenly runs out and grabs MJ, bringing her in while telling Strange he can't live a life without her knowing the truth. When the dust clears everyone has forgotten and Strange is knocked out as Peter, holding MJ in his arms walks away. She awakens later and Peter tells her a quick version of what happened and how only they know the truth, before telling her to get some rest and that he's explain in the morning. Pete wakes up and sees MJ is gone, but before he can go to far he finds out she's in the bathroom crying. She tells Peter not to touch her, and she asks him questions and then asks if he did what he did for them, or for him. She asks Peter why he couldn't just let her forget too. MJ cries and tells Peter it's not her family that suffers because Peter is Spider-Man, they suffer because she's Spider-Man's girl, and if someone rips off his mask the cycle will start over. The two kiss as MJ tells Peter to stop ignoring the phone or pager or something and go see Aunt May at the hospital. They talk and as Aunt May asks about MJ we see her putting her bags in a taxi and leaving New York. We all know what happened after that so I won't elaborate, but the final part with MJ and Peter talking was great. This whole Mini was pretty good, and the think tank with Reed, Strange and Tony was some fantastic writing, I can't stress how much I enjoyed that. I gotta give this issue a perfect 10/10 and a very high recommendation for the One Moment in Time story.

Peter: Face it Tiger, you just hit the jackpot. How you, feeling, gorgeous?

Aunt May: Like I was hit by something a tad bigger than a jackpot.

Batgirl #14

Batgirl and Supergirl, the first real team-up between the blond bombshells of the World's Finest takes place in this issue! Things start off with our two crime-fighting teens being held by the neck by a black and white Dracula. But hey, we're getting ahead of ourselves, so we take a jump back to about ten hours ago. We see a super bored Stephanie Brown with her mother playing Scrabble on "Family game night!" We see that Babs is off with the Birds, Wendy is updating firewall equipment and surprisingly there's not any crime going on in Gotham tonight. The doorbell rings and Steph jets to it and sees Supergirl,  who uses her super speed to put on some civilian clothes (or Civvy Skivies as I call them...) before Steph's mom can see her. The two girls decide to head out, and talk about how life is going for them lately. After a little talking, Supergirl runs around like a child while saying how much she envies Batgirl for being in college. Supergirl asks Steph if they can go to Keg Parties and have pillow fights... now that sounds like a comic worth reading! Kidding, kidding. Kara talks Steph into going to see a 3-D movie, meanwhile some nerd doesn't wanna go back to being a teaching assistant so he does something that causes the Vampires in the 3-D movie to come to life. Yes, it's as corny as it sounds. It takes Kara a minute to realize because growing up on a farm for a few years obviously makes you stupid. Anyway, the two femme fatales decide to team-up and take care of the blood-sucking movie stars. There was a funny scene where Kara rips her shirt off and has her costume underneath, and waits for Steph to do the same until she replies "Not unless you wanna see my bra." They find out that there's 24 of these pesky Dracula's around that they have to stop. We see a montage like scene before there's only one Dracula left and that's where things started in this issue. From there you can pretty much guess what happened. This was another fun issue, pretty corny but hey, what can ya say? We saw Dracula's crying in black and white 3-D, but it was STILL better than Twilight :P I'll give it a 7/10 rating.

Supergirl: Aren't you gonna... you know...

Batgirl: Not unless you wanna see my bra.

Supergirl: Does it have a bat on it?

Batgirl: I assure you it does not.

Green Lantern #57

First things first, this is a really nice cover. I don't know who the big man is in the middle but the way they used the colors to accentuate over having to draw everyone's faces is a pretty cool idea. So as we start off things, Larfleeze and Hal are avoiding attacks by Hector "The Great Pumpkin" Hammond, who looks positively creepy. After trying to eat Larfleeze, the Orange Entity'd Bobblehead flies off trying to find Carol Ferris. Hal and Larfleeze decide to head to Vegas to find Carol before Hector does. We jump over to Zamaron, the home world of the Star Sapphires and see that their power battery is rebuilt but not as strong that it was, and also for some reason it was powered by the remains of Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Alrighty, well that's pretty awkward. They talk about how the Lantern will die out soon unless they find the Predator, but Carol is already in Vegas on the case. Carol runs into some jerks and disposes of them, and is then contacted by the head of the Star Sapphires telling her to pick up the speed basically. Meanwhile, some dude with a camera is snapping pics from afar of some chick he likes then takes them back to develop them. Suddenly the Star Sapphire entity appears and pretty much merges with him so he can go talk to the woman he's been stalking. Tough love I guess. While looking for The Predator, Carol stumbles upon Larfleeze who is loving Vegas and it's all you can eat buffets. Predator and his new host attack Carol and Larfleeze but Hal shows up to join the fight. After a bunch of conversation, Carol realizes that there's more to it than the entity just being evil. She confronts the host and the entity, and tells it that he doesn't love the woman he's watched, it was just infatuation. She kisses the guy which somehow allows her to catch the entity... which was odd. But that's not the end of the comic, because I wouldn't ruin that for you guys. But I was pretty surprised by the ending of the issue. This story wasn't one of the best in recent memory but it was far from bad, I'm wondering how the ending will affect everything though, and the tag for the next issue leaves me even more excited. I'll give this issue a 7.5/10.

Larfleeze: "ALL YOU CAN EAT"?! I HAVE ARRIVED!!!!

Daken Dark Wolverine #1

Just when you thought it was safe to not get killed by Wolverine's murderous Mohawk having son, Daken has a new series that starts only two weeks after his past one ended. This one is also written by Marjorie Liu and Daniel Way who's now going by Dan Way. So in other words... awesome. We start things off with a flashback from fifty years ago, seeing a drunken Wolverine stumble out of a bar. A crying woman runs out behind him, and says that the man Wolverine just gutted was done fighting, and Wolverine did it for nothing, implying he'd just killed her husband or boyfriend or something. All the while we can see someone has Wolverine in a Sniper Scope, but at the last second Daken tells them not to take the shot because "They have time." We jump forward to Present Day, which I love because even if you read this comic eighty years from now it's still present day. Anyway, at a Modeling show we see a blond woman looking for a model, and she finally finds her in the back room, making out with Daken. After the model leaves, Daken apologizes to the blond woman who blows him off and says she's used to dealing with Jackasses. Daken then flirts with a few people, then gets a call from Johnny Storm, which is weird, sure they could've kept in touch after meeting a while back but it just seemed odd. Anyway, he tells Johnny he has to call him back because someone's about to kill him. Daken hangs up, sips his champagne out of his tiny glass, then opens a 64 oz can of whoop ass on his attackers. Daken then goes to meet with the person who sent the attackers, telling them he's done his part of the deal. The mystery man replies that Mystique betrayed them, to which Daken sarcastically replies while acting shocked considering her track record. When the man wonders how she knows of the plan, Daken says he told her, because he wants everything, and the only way to get it is to make sure no one else has anything. The issue ends while we see things wrap up and Daken in his new costume. I thought this was a well written introductory issue, it raised a lot of questions as it should, yet set the ground as well. I'd give this issue an 7/10 rating.

Daken: I'm going to have to hang up now. Someone's about to kill me.

Daredevil #510

This issue gets underway with Foggy and Dakota in a hotel room, Foggy is standing by the window like an idiot after Dakota warns him not to, so some ninjas come in through the window to attack, but Dakota is ready for them. She makes them regret ever attacking as she handles them all, but Foggy manages to get held hostage. He isn't for long because some unlikely help comes in the form of Tarantula. He warns them that Matt is losing his mind and now it's not just The Hand to worry about, but the whole city is turning on itself. We jump over to Detective Alex Kurtz, commenting on how the city is going crazy. While in a convenience store, he overhears a robbery and tries to stop it before The Hand can come and deliver their harsh version of justice. When The Hand attacks, one of the robbers shoots and runs before realizing he just shot a teenager, and that the two "Hand" members were teenagers playing crime-fighter. We then see Iron Fist and Luke Cage talking about if they want to kill the thing inside of Matt, they have to kill Matt. At just that moment, Dakota and Foggy walk into the room, catching Iron Fist off guard. After deliberation, the heroes agree that they must kill Matt, but Foggy says this is all The Kingpin's idea, which prompts The Kingpin to walk into the room. Like the genius he is, Kingpin says just the right things to convince everyone they need to act now before the city rips itself apart. We then see Tarantula confronting Daredevil, who has Elektra and Typhoid Mary with him,  telling him he doesn't approve of his recent decisions. Daredevil seems to agree with Tarantula before quickly changing his stance and telling Tarantula to get back on the streets and remind everyone who their lord is. The ending of this issue was great, (which I won't ruin, you're welcome.) I'm looking forward to the next issue of Shadowland and Daredevil just based on the last three pages of this issue. I'm wondering what will happen with Tarantula and everyone else, and that we may have a bit of Matt left to fight back is interesting. Anyway, I'll give this issue a 9/10 and recommend it to anyone who's loving the Shadowland story as much as I am.

Me: That is the worst Kurt Angle I've ever seen in my life... (Upon seeing an add for some TNA action figure things.)

Justice League Generation Lost #9

We start things off for this issue of Gen Lost with Booster Gold, Master of the monologue, filling us in on what's been going on so far for the team formerly known as the JLI. Unbeknown to the Golden One, He's a mere one room away from Max Lord, the man he and the rest of the JLI have been searching for. Meanwhile, Max has Fire at gunpoint, but our Brazilian Babe powers up and tries to engulf Max in flames, but lucky for him he has a force field. Max uses his super mind powers and makes Fire sit down and shut up. Fire tries to yell for help but the room their in allows no sound out, so Max once again tells her to pipe down while he works, before he puts a bullet in her knee. Back with the rest of the JLI, Ice says she's not happy and wants to quit the team. Captain Atom retorts that he doesn't wanna chase Max over the world either, but he's doing it for the good of the world. We then see Skeets and Rocket Red, as the injured Russian tells Skeets he's fine and wants to "up suit." Skeets announces he's found something to Gavril, and we see Max press a button that electrocutes Skeets. As Gavril tries to help, Max uses his control over Fire to make her go attack our Russian Comrade. Still able to talk, Fire warns Gavril that Max is controlling her. Gavril gets to his hand gear and rocket boots and tries to fight back, which attracts the JLA. Fire warns them that Max is there, and Atom tries to subdue her while telling Ice to help Rocket Red and Beetle to help Skeets. Booster has already found and attacked Max Lord, while Captain Atom overcharges Fire so she runs out of power. Meanwhile, Booster and Max are face to face as their force fields hold one another back, they argue as Max pulls out a gun, but drops it as his nose starts to bleed. Booster gets ready to attack but Max binds Booster using his powers somehow and leaves via teleportation, but as he leaves he tells Booster he's sorry, cause the gloves are coming off. The issue ends with Max Lord calling in a certain someone, (if you follow Brightest Day it shouldn't be hard to figure out) and asking them to kill Captain Atom. This was a really good issue, It held my interest the entire time and teased the big Booster vs. Max showdown very well. I'd give this issue a 10/10 rating, it deserves it in my eyes.

Captain Atom: It's not because we want to Ice! IT'S BECAUSE WE HAVE TO!

Red Robin #16

This issue starts with a web chat, we see that someone has been killing possible Robin's and Red Robin's based on age, body type and wealth to find the real hero. We see that this man is Tim Drake's former nemesis, Anarky. The man who as Tim put it, "Thinks of himself as my own Joker." Tim finds out about the murders that were caused somewhat because of him, and plans to put a stop to Anarky. From there we get quick updates on Lynx, Prudence, the search for Bruce Wayne, and Captain Boomerang since they all tie into Tim Drake, which I thought was pretty cool. From there we see Tim handle the running of Wayne Enterprises, as well as dealing with Vicki Vale. From there Tim and Tam Fox had lunch, and it was funny seeing how awkward Tim is with girls, guess the Wayne charm only rubbed off on Grayson... anyway the meal gets cut short when Tim gets a text message from an ally that Anarky may be striking again soon. We find out soon that Anarky is using Lonnie, the former Anarky, and that Lonnie is Tim's texting ally. Red Robin arrived on the scene just in time to stop Anarky from killing another innocent victim. While being subdued by Red Robin, Anarky activates a protocol that will blow up his apartment, killing the paralyzed comatose Lonnie and he has sixty seconds to get to him while he's fourteen blocks away. Tim hits Anarky in the vagus nerve, paralyzing him for at least twenty minutes as he heads to save Lonnie from a grim fate. The end of this issue was great, and it didn't end with the Lonnie stuff but with even more great writing from Fabian as we saw Tim stand face to face with one of his biggest enemies. Along with the hype for the next issue of Red Robin in two months I can easily say this has become one of my top five series since Fabian took over. I'll give this issue a perfect 10/10 score as well, there wasn't one thing I didn't enjoy.

Tim: They don't care about any of this. Vicki Vale or any of them. Will the first question be about my "injury" or my "engagement"?

Vicki Vale: Tim, How has your injury affected your engagement?

 Tim: That's why she's the best...

So that's all for this week's Ratings and Rantings. Thanks for reading and as always comments are appreciated from my loyal readers as well as my new ones. Also, it's that time again for the Top 5 Five! So if you wanna participate, send me your five picks for each category to KevinKavalier@gmail.com. The choices are below, so don't forget to send those in by this Sunday. Until then, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger-Man, Jason Todd!

Top Five Powers you wish you had
Top Five Supporting characters (ex. Lois Lane)
Top Five Characters you hated now you like
Top Five Characters you'd hang out with if they were real
Top Five Former Robin characters in Order of your Favorite to Least Favorite (only canon, no Carrie Kelly)

Next Time on Ratings and Rantings

Batman Beyond #4, Birds of Prey #5, Brightest Day #10, Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #2, and Deadpool #27

Ratings and Rantings

Hey everyone, it's that time again for the weekly phenomenon that's taking the nation by storm! Well, not really, but I'm sure it's giving someone a pretty big gust in the right direction. That's right, Jason Todd here, once again welcoming you to my Red Hood. Today we've only got four comics to run through but we'll also have a new poll, the poll results from last week, and a sneak peek of what I'll be reviewing next week. So without any further stalling on my part, let's jump into our first review, Dark Wolverine!

Dark Wolverine #90

As a few of you know, I was late to the party with Dark Wolverine. After trading for a bunch of issues of Wolverine Origins, X-Man75 talked me into checking out Dark Wolverine, which I don't regret because it's a hell of a series. I'd highly recommend Dark Wolverine or Wolverine Origins to anyone reading this, because they are two series that took characters I knew nothing about and made me into big fans of them. Now, I only mention this because this is the final issue of Dark Wolverine. So where does Daken go from here? Let's find out right now. We kick things off for the final time with Daken, at a peace rally against Mutants, thinking how everyone would easily settle their argument if they beat the hell out of each other with their signs. Oh that Daken, when will he learn? From there we see Daken on a bus or subway or something helping an old woman take a picture. That's what kills me about Daken, he's this ruthless killing machine yet he does things you'd never see Wolverine do, who's supposedly a hero. When Daken is near a tarot card reader, she predicts that an Emperor is coming, and may take the throne, but taking this throne will lead to death, and not just for the Emperor. As Daken walks around the city he thinks to himself how easy it would be to kill people, but how it would grant him no joy, it'd just be an action, and he has better things to do with his time. From there we see Daken walk around town, commenting on many things, one in particular is Happy Hour at a bar, where he seems to touch the neck of a woman, a woman who is out with Wolverine. That woman is Wolverine's newest love interest, Melita Garner. This issue was genius, because it's in your face the whole time and yet you never realize (highlight for spoilers) that for the entire issue Daken's been following Melita around the city. It was so genius in the sense that it was unexpected. The issue ends with Daken saying it would be easy to become Wolverine, but he wants more. This was a great ending to a really great series, I don't know what will come from Daken in the future, but I for one will definitely be watching. I'd give this issue an 8.5/10 rating.

Daken: I've always known what I am. Does she? Does Wolverine? Do you?

Brightest Day #9

Brightest Day kicks off this week with Aquaman and Mera together, discussing the White Light telling Arthur to find a young man with an Eel tattoo. When Mera speaks up as if she may know who the young man may be, Deadman and Dove magically appear underwater in front of them. After complaining about being Dumped in the water, Deadman is asked, "Remember Cap Brighton, you used to love swimming." That ring is one hell of an Intergalactic Stalker, I'll tell you that much! Pretty soon our four heroes are sitting around a campfire, (Just like the good ol Camp Brighton days, right Deadman?), discussing what the Ring wants them to do, and how the new Protector can't step up until everyone accomplishes their missions. Arthur steps up and tells Deadman to tell the other returned superstars about their missions, and how the world needs all the heroes it can get. After his speech, Mera tells Arthur she knows who the kid is they have to find. From there we cut to the mystery kid, standing on his porch in the rain, he makes the rain form around him, and he sprouts gills on his neck while his tattoo and eyes glow blue. When he finally submerges himself in his powers, his dad yells his name, and tells him they can't take risks in someone finding out about Jackson's powers and taking him from them. His dad then says it's time they tell him the truth. Meanwhile, Martian Manhunter goes to the Star City forest and marvels in it's beauty. He notes how his vision told him he has to burn it down, and he doesn't see why he should have to, before he shoots a powerful beam out of his eyes and obliterates his hands. And would you believe I'm only on page ten?! From there we see the other Green Martian, in her normal form, strolling around the store with a buggy, walking through blood of people she's obviously murdered. Well that was refreshing. Martian Manhunter turns into some big Green Blob for some reason, and it's not long before Green Arrow stumbles upon him and attacks. The White Light tells him not to burn this forest for some reason, and J'onn and the Martian scream in pain, all the while leaving me thoroughly confused. MM is killing the big White Lantern Tree and changing into all these different forms before Ollie smashes the Martian Manhunter with two huge tree trunks. From there, the two escape the forest and we see that MM destroyed it not purposely, but as a side effect since being brought back to life, and he's still killing surrounding plant life. After some talking, Martian Manhunter tells Ollie he's going back home. We then jump to Black Manta, destroy the grave of Thomas Curry, asking "Where is your son?", before being attacked by a group of men. The fight is finally stopped when we find something out many have been speculating for a while, but I'll leave that answer until you get a chance to read it, or ask me personally. Overall this was an interesting issue, we learned a lot of stuff and it wasn't bad, I'd give it an 7/10.

Martian Manhunter: I have been given a second chance at life... and I hardly believe it was so that I could hide away from the rest of the world.

Shadowland #3

Shadowland, which has been consistently good so far, I'm hoping this issue makes the main series three for three. We start off with Moon Knight doing the "People wonder why my costume is....blah blah blah" that every superhero in the history of the world has done. From there he talks with Ghost Rider, and we find out someone, who we saw last issue, is controlling the Spirit of Vengeance. After Ghost Rider leaves, Moon Knight gets ready to suit up for a fight. We then jump over to Daredevil, who raises his band on killing, telling his men to slay them all, them being Spider-Man, Iron Fist, Luke Cage and the rest. In the midst of fighting, Iron Fist and Shang-Chi try to talk Daredevil out of the fight, but he's adamant about fighting his former allies. When Matt leaps into the air like Superman then punches the ground causing it to shatter, Iron Fist proclaims "That's impossible, you're not Matt!" before getting a kick in the head that would make Shawn Michaels wince. (Wrestling reference.) Daredevil then makes quick work of Shang-Chi before jumping back towards Iron Fist, ready to land a huge punch and says "You should have joined me Danny, now you have to die." before Danny is saved by our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Spidery discovers that Daredevil is even quicker than Spidey now, and has a few tricks up his sleeve. When our heroes start to lose the fight their "Ace in the hole" steps in, which caught me by surprise. From there we see Lady Bullseye and The Kingpin having a conversation, she tells him that by summoning Ghost Rider, he will take revenge and come for Kingpin, who replies that's exactly what he wants. Back at his main base, Daredevil discusses what he thinks was a distraction plan so Ghost Rider could free all of his prisoners, and discusses with Typhoid Mary that next time his former friends will be back to get him. Tarantula tries to tell Daredevil their going to far, Daredevil claims they need better fighters and tells Mary to follow him and bring a shovel, while unbeknown to them, Moon Knight is watching from above. If Matt's doing what I think, me and X called this one. And yep, we rule. While going about his plan, Daredevil is interrupted and we finally get a face to face with him and Elektra. Back with our heroes, Iron Fist explains to everyone how different DD's fighting style is and how he doesn't think that's actually Matt Murdock. After he says that, Master Izo arrives drops a bombshell of an announcement on our heroes. This was a REALLY good issue, probably my favorite one so far, definitely a tie between this one and issue one. So much happened over the course of this issue, and it was written with such a great pace that it never felt stalled or rushed. I'll give this issue a perfect 10/10. This is clearly the best story out today, in Marvel or DC.

Daredevil: Consider my ban on killing hereby lifted! SLAY THEM ALL!

Red Hood: The Lost Days #4

In this issue we start things off with Jason on a bike, getting away from a bunch of Somalian boy soldiers after he ratted out his team of Mercenaries. The Mercenary Driver named Rip, is one that's been training Jason on how to use any vehicle in a combat situations. Next we see Jason learning how to use timing and explosions, something we know by now he's very good at doing. We also see Jason laugh and smile for the first time in a while, and we can visually see the aging process as he starts to grow a beard. When Jason mentions that his bomb experts teacher has a problem with another guy, she remarks that Jason's "investigations" are becoming a habit. She says that usually she finds him a teacher, he learns their skills, then half of them wind up dead. He tells Talia it's not without reason, before naming all the crimes his former teachers either were doing or were planning on committing. Talia mentions how he's starting to pick up old habits on his road to revenge before Jason interrupts saying that he's not like Batman, he would throw criminals in jail and Jason is ridding the world of them. After this conversation, she shows Jason a picture of Batman and his new Robin, Tim Drake. Jason doesn't show any emotional problems at first, but later back in his room he stares at the pictures of his replacement before breaking down. After that scene we see Jason has bugged his bombs teacher, and we see him meet with someone else, telling him that they need to move everything up three weeks. Jason finds out that these two criminals plan to detonate a bomb in the middle of an afternoon, killing 700 people, and blame it on on an Arab terrorist cell. Jason decides to stop this and finds where his teacher keeps the bombs he made, before replacing the wires making them duds, but sadly for Jason he's caught by a few henchmen while doing this. I won't ruin this as usual but this was another great issue, I didn't enjoy it as much as the previous three but I still thought it was really good. I'll give it a 8.5/10 rating.

Russian Guy: Yah! She was one of those-- you American! What's the expression you use? She's a "What-a-face?"

Jason Todd: Butta Face.

Russian Guy: Yes! She had everything but a face! Yes!

Well that's all for the review end of this week's Ratings and Rantings. I wanna thank you guys for stopping by and reading, and remind you once again to vote on the new poll over on the right side of the page. Below is the results of last week's poll question. So that's it for me, I'll see you guys next week for more Ratings and Rantings, until then, I'm your friendly neighborhood Blogger-Man, JT!

Last Week's poll asked "Who do you think will be the new White Lantern Hero?"

Last Place with 16.7% - a tie between A Current Mainstream and a Second Tier hero.
Second Place with 25.5% - Someone we've never seen before.
Winner with 41.7% - A currently Dead character like Blue Beetle or Don Hall.

Next Week on Ratings and Rantings

Adventure Comics #518 (Atom Comic), Batgirl #14, Batman #703, Booster Gold #36, Green Lantern #57, Generation Lost #9, Red Robin #16, Amazing Spider-Man #641, Daken Dark Wolverine #1 (That was fast...) and Daredevil #510

Ratings and Rantings

Hey everybody, Jason Todd welcoming all my comic loving friends back to my Red Hood with this weeks edition of Ratings and Rantings! I'm looking forward to this week because we finally get issue two of Birds of Prey, as well as my first ever review of Marvel's Dark Wolverine starring the son of Wolverine, Daken. Batman Beyond #1 got pushed back two weeks so I can't review it which sucks, but ah well. So enough stalling from me, let's see what I thought.

Brightest Day #4

Brightest Day picks up with The Hawks having a discussion about whether to go after Hath-set or not, for the record I agree with Shayera or whatever her name is now that they should've destroyed the gate and moved on but that's me. It was cool getting a glimpse at all the times they died during their long lives, as well as seeing their Black Lantern bones. Dove happens to look much better out of costume than in it... I find that odd. Anyway after socking Deadman in the face they talk until he gets his ass kicked again by a big Angry Hawk. Man did someone decide to make Hawk into The Hulk because he was freaking HUGE here. Anyway The Deadman story is actually getting interesting for once with Hawk and Dove. We also got introduced to Jackson, some of you may know who he is from the DCU blog, if you don't, I won't spoil it for ya. From there we jumped to a sea and some poor guys get attacked by someone... I don't know who it was but she looked kinda like Mera. Either way I'm interested in finding out. The most interesting story so far in my opinion, Ronnie and Jason got even more interesting when Ronnie was visited by a surprise guest and it seems Jason may have inadvertantly had something to do with it. I really liked this comic, instead of focusing on EVERYONE, it focused on The Hawks, Deadman, Hawk and Dove and the Firestorm boys. We got glimpses with the sea chick and Jackson but everyone else got time to establish a story, and with the exception of the Hawks I enjoyed it all, hopefully Brightest Day will stay more on this path. I'll give it a 7/10 rating.


Dove: I'm not in trouble.That's Deadman!
Hawk: This...is...Deadman? What the hell's he doing in your bedroom at three in the morning?

The Joker's Asylum: Mad Hatter

The Mad Hatter gets one but not Two-Face, Mr. Freeze or Hush? Not even Zsasz? Weird... anyway man did I hate the artwork in this comic. I mean I may be in the minority but I didn't enjoy the artwork at all, and I'm not an artist or anything but I mean... really? Moving on, the story is about Jervis Tetch aka The Mad Hatter writing a story that's basically about the same thing he's ALWAYS about. Stalking someone named Alice and being a creepy ugly little pervert with enormous teeth. Anyway he tried to avoid Tea and Hats for the whole book because he's weak and if he has a hat he can control minds or something stupid. It's really a waste of my time reviewing this and your time reading it so I'll get right to the rating. Story sucked, writing sucked, art sucked, and Joker rhyming sucked, 0/10. I hated it, no Line of The Issue. NEXT Comic!!!

The Joker's Asylum: Harley Quinn

This comic starts off MUCH better than the last, better art and The Joker says things that seems like he'd actually say them. Harley even has her trademark huge hips and whatnot. You'd think Falisha Ann drew her or something. The idea of Harley breaking out of Arkham JUST to spend Valentine's Day with The Joker is awesome because that's so in her nature. I'm a big Harley Quinn fan so seeing her get a storyline that makes sense is a bonus. And I loved the idea of the raffle as well, It's probably one of Falcone's smartest ideas to be honest. The best part was everyone underestimating Harley Quinn, it was great seeing her go all out and showing that she is a threat because she is one of the most dangerous people in Gotham, she's also a damn genius. Remember, she was a Psychiatrist so she's gotta have something up there. The mandatory Batman appearance was even done well and helped Harley keep her momentum as a dangerous person, I loved every bit of that and the final monologue with Joker made it even better. This was an excellent one shot, the art was much better than the Mad Hatter one but it still came off a little amateurish because sometimes Harley looked great and other times she looked horrible, but other than that this was a great issue, I'll give it a 8/10 rating.

Carmine Falcone: Harley Quinn. If I'd known you were coming I'd have made sure we had Kool-Aid and Coloring Books.

Deadpool #24

The House and Wildcard (Weasel and Deadpool) are getting praised by the Casino owner dude and they say Wildcard came off looking better then The House and ask who he is. Weasel denies but Deadpool blurts out who he is, which leads to him threatening them into letting him stay as Wildcard so he can rake in the big bucks. Weasel then gets chewed out for bringing in Deadpool so DP comes up with the idea of switching, so Weasel can be Wildcard and the Merc with a Mouth can be The House. Just in time for a fight with The Grizzly who attacks again. This time our boys have switched costumes and Deadpool plays around while Weasel does all the work, as Wildcard. This comic was pretty good, it wasn't one of the best and the Deadpool comedy didn't shine through much but we got to see his genius idea which he's had a lot of lately. Anyway I thought this was good but nothing special, I'll give it a 6.5/10 rating.


Casino Owner: Do you honestly think we're going to allow you to roam our casinos in a super-powered armored suit?
Deadpool: Do you honestly think you have a choice?
Casino Owner: You have a point.

Dark Wolverine #87

So this is my first ever review for Dark Wolverine but after reading the entire series of this and Wolverine Origins I've decided to start reviewing them in the Ratings and Rantings. If anyone is curious on what happened in the last issues of Dark Wolverine you can check X-Man75's site by clicking his name and it'll take you to his reviews of the Dark Wolverine issues up to this one. Daken is walking around Italy, sulking because he lost the "game" with Wolverine and says he should've known from the beginning because that's what Romulus wanted. Then some chick tries to pickpocket him, which doesn't bode well for her. The rest of the issue involves Daken conning a conman who tried to rob him. This was more than a transitional comic than anything, just something to show us Daken's state of mind following the stuff with his Father and Romulus. Other than that nothing happened, it was a good read though, so I'll give it a 7/10 rating. I don't know how I feel about picking up the next few issues seeing as how it's a crossover with Frankencastle which seems like it's outrageously stupid but Daken killed Frank in the first place so I kinda wanna see it... I'll have to think about it. If anyone has suggestions let me know.

Daken: Wolverine cut out my Muramasa claws. The only things that can take his life. He holds the key to the kingdom but he'll never use them.

Birds of Prey #2

The first thing I said when I opened this comic was "Damn the art in this comic is good." Because it is, it looks AMAZING, especially compared to those Joker Asylum's this week. Anyway damn this started off great. The HUGE fight, watching Hawk get owned, the air of mystery around White Canary. Everything works, two issues in and this is already a top contender for my favorite comic along with Batgirl. This story has action, drama, and a ton of suspense, Gail Simone knows how to write a hell of a comic. Don't know what the deal is with Penguin getting all Pervy with Dove but that came off pretty funny too. I know I mentioned the inclusion of Hawk and Dove seemed random but I gotta say I like what they bring to the team, especially Hawk being so Male Chauvinist and on a team of women. We saw "Two-Face is God/The Devil" Spray-painted on a wall, It seemed too random to be there for no reason so I'd keep an eye out for our Double Faced Fiend. The last few pages made this comic even better with Dinah's problems, and Oracle's revelation. The fact we still don't know who White Canary is (I have my guesses) and everything else makes this one of the best comics out today. Gail Simone wrote a damn good story and the art by Ed Benes was a joy to look at. Definitely a 10/10 for Birds of Prey #2, I can't wait for next month's issue.

Black Canary: Truth is, I never much liked him. (Hawk) He thought he was God's gift before he was resurrected from the dead... Imagine what he'll be like now.

Well, that's it for me everyone. An average pull this week with a surprisingly good Brightest Day and a phenomenal issue of Birds of Prey. Before I take off I wanna ask everyone to vote on the poll below to settle a debate myself and X were having, I'll announce the WINNER next week, haha. So anyway vote on that, let me know what you guys though and I'll be back with a new weekly poll this weekend. Until then, this is your Friendly Neighborhood Blogger-man, Jason Todd.

Next Time on Ratings and Rantings

Batman: Streets of Gotham #13, Detective Comics #866, Green Arrow #1, Green Lantern Corps #49, The Joker's Asylum: Killer Croc, Justice League: Generation Lost #4, Rise and Fall of Arsenal #4, Power Girl #13 and  Superman/Batman #73, and Wolverine Origins #49 Big week baby!