Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Weekly Rankings For 10/29/08

Here are this week’s comics ranked prior to reading them:

6. Hellboy: In the Chapel of Moloch
5. Secret Invasion X-Men #3
4. Wolverine Origins #29
3. Superman #681
2. Star Wars Legacy #29
1. Final Crisis Rage of the Red Lanterns #1

Here are the rankings after the first read through with a mini-review:

6. Secret Invasion X-Men #3

Carey & Sepulveda

The X-Men figure out how to wipe out the Skrulls. The question here is why did Nightcrawler wait so long to hand in that crystal ball? The issue has more fighting and some telepathic wars going on, but for the most part it was about Beast figuring out how to kill them. In an odd twist it seems the Skrull’s way to make people embrace change is to kill the populace. In retrospect I didn’t need to read this series, but it’s been fairly entertaining nonetheless. So what happened to Nord? He seemed to have jumped ship and his replacement is trying his best to copy his work. This isn’t helping this issue or arc at this point.

5. Superman #681

Robinson, Guedes & Magalhaes
This was a major slowdown from the previous installment of the New Krypton arc. Basically, some of the Kryptonians and Superman go to meet the George Bush lookalike president. Nothing really comes of it as a villain shows up at the end. For the most part this issue really only helps plants some seeds of mistrust that will blossom into real trouble down the road. The art is not to my liking, especially the scenes with the JLA confronting Superman. Which, by the way, felt as an unlikely situation as you’ll find. For the most part this issue didn’t move the plot along at all and really didn’t give us much of anything new with regard to the Kryptonians and their mindset.

4. Star Wars Legacy #29

Ostrander, Duursema & Parsons

If you like your comics to have plot movement then this issue is not for you. The plot inches forward a small nudge when Cade and company fight a Sith to trigger the alert to Krayt. Beyond that the entire issue is about Cade and his cast and their interactions. Cade hooks up with yet another one of the females in his cast. He can go for the trifecta next issue with Celeste. Cade is clearly a player. Cade’s childhood Jedi buddy shows signs of the dark side, which was an interesting development. Beyond that nothing really happens. Cade has some interesting conversations with Celeste which seem hollow at the very least. This felt like a stall issue.

3. Wolverine Origins #29

Way, Deodato & Beredo

Personally, I found this issue to heavily match what is being done in Legacy. And that is a very good thing. We get a lot of Wolverine/Xavier past and present comparisons and it is done very well. The shock-cutting between their dialogue from one time period to another was brilliant. The plot moves along nicely as we see that Shaw has a lot of manipulation up his sleeve. This issue is very light on Daken, which is also a good thing. Add in that Wolverine pops his claws up through someone’s jaw and you have a winning comic. The best part of the issue is I still have no idea where this arc will end up. I could see Xavier backing out and not helping. I could see Daken turning on Shaw or going after Wolverine. I could also see Daken ending up “dead” when his brain gets invaded.

2. Hellboy: In the Chapel of Moloch

Mignola & Stewart

The comic has everything you could look for in a Hellboy comic. It’s got detective work, funny lines, a battle and classic Hellboy art. I don’t know what the rationale was behind this only being a one-shot but it was a welcome surprise in the pile this week. I wouldn’t mind seeing these quarterly or so. If you have only seen the films then pick this up and you will love it as much of the movies. It’s spot on. The only reason you might find some disappointment is that it doesn’t spell out every little detail in the ending. Still this is a fun read. A passing interest in this would lead me to strongly recommend it.

1. Final Crisis Rage of the Red Lanterns #1

Johns, Davis & Hope

I haven’t a clue what this has to do with Final Crisis, but as a Green Lantern fan you need this issue. Sinestro is being transported to his home world to receive the death penalty. This provides a good character plot point to deal with the morality of capital punishment. However, the majority of the issue is the formation of the Red Lanterns with a sprinkling of some seeds for other colored Lanterns to join in. It’s a great issue. It has aggressive and gruesome artwork and so many different characters and plot threads that the issue keeps moving very well. There are a lot of Hal and his Earth supporting cast interaction in the beginning which is very boring and kind of prevented the issue from starting with a bang but it makes up for it nicely after that. The looming question is why was seven issues wasted on Secret Origin when this issue clearly did all you could ask about the Red Lanterns and more in thirty pages? In hindsight, Secret Origin looks like a waste of time and completely pointless for the preparation for Blackest Night.