Comic Day Again

Booya!

So today didn't yield a lot of comics for me, but it did give me some good ones to talk about. All I bought was:

Dark Reign: The Hood #5/5 - 10/10
X-Factor #49 - 7/10
The Dark Tower: The Fall of Gilead #5/6 - 9/10
Green Lantern #46 - 8/10

The Hood is one of the best villains in comics. I keep freaking saying it. This conclusion to his miniseries was not a letdown at all. When a revenge-driven widow comes after The Hood's family because his alcoholic cousin blabbed about them, and several of the members of his gang threaten to mutiny, his alter ego Parker Robbins, is forced to completely sell his soul to the demon Dormammu to save his life, his wife and daughter, and his criminal career. He managed to defeat White Fang and outed the Controller, who had been leading the mutiny, and sent his cousin to rehab far away. The art is nothing fancy, and looks a bit more like and indy book than a Marvel title, which is cool because The Hood started in the MAX imprint. The writing is good and the story was just phenomenal. The Hood's family life is headed for disaster. It's like having a drunk abusive father except instead of drunk and abusive he's possessed and schizophrenic. Plus you can't help but feel bad for the guy, since literally nobody trusts him and half the people he knows wouldn't mind seeing him dead, but the guy's got a family to protect.

X-Factor seems to be slipping a bit. Peter David was way too affected by the ridiculous fanmail about Rictor and Shatterstar kissing. First of all, neither of them is gay, they're both bisexual, which was already explained a long time ago. Secondly, if you have a problem with two guys/girls kissing in a comic book, then don't read Marvel comics (Wiccan+Hulkling, Quasar+Moondragon, Northstar+Colossus(Ult.), etc.). Marvel has lots of gay and bisexual characters. Even Multiple Man has admitted to having a gay dupe that sometimes pops out.The only good thing to come out of this nonsense is adding depth to Guido's character by making him intolerant of Rictor's sexual preference.

That said, the issue wasn't terrible, in fact it was really good. Dr. Doom, although apparently senile, is lucid enough to hatch a plan to kill mutants before they cause the alternate future in which Layla and Madrox are trapped. The problem is that David's dialogue is good, but doesn't explain enough of what's been going on. I get more from the recap page than anything else. That may be my fault as a reader, but having read the issues at least four times each, I can honestly say that A. there's not enough evidence when Cortex reveals that he is a dupe of Madrox, and B. there's not enough evidence for the reader to get that Cortex was the dupe Madrox sent to the future way back in Messiah Complex. (But I am so glad Layla's back. We all love her)

The Dark Tower (aka the most depressing mainstream comic ever written) is just too good to put down. Here, in the final chapters of Roland's journey into becoming the Gunslinger of Stephen King's novels, everything has gone to hell. His father, as well as the fathers of all the other young gunslingers were killed by Farson and his men. Now he, Cuthbert, and Alain, with the help of Aileen, the only female gunslinger, are all that stand between John Farson and the fall of Gilead. (Spoiler Alert: If you know anything about Stephen King's Dark Tower, you know that they lose.)

Geoff Johns makes me happy again with an epic showdown between Sinestro and Mongul for the planet Korugar. Mongul had claimed not only Sinestro's army, but his own home planet for himself until Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris at the behest of Indigo-1 returned Sinestro to Korugar where he would face off against the usurper. With style and ruthless efficiency, he threw Mongul into the Yellow Lantern power battery. Now the strongest members of the Green, Violet, Indigo and Yellow Lantern Corps have joined forces to fight back the Black Lanterns that Abin Sur prophesied... unless of course he too has become one of them.

That's the week in reviews! I also bought Ed Brubaker's Sleeper: Season 2, which is going to be awesome! Do you have any comic book recommendations? Share away!

-Steve