Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Weekly Rankings For 12/24/08

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

4. Batman #683
3. Hulk #9
2. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic #36
1. Indiana Jones & the Tomb of the Gods #3

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

4. Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods #3 of 4

Williams, Scott & Massengill

Forgetting that this issue comes more than three months after the last one, it just isn’t that interesting of an issue in an otherwise pretty cool story. Indy and villain-turned-ally Janice spend nine pages stranded in the water with sharks. It’s got some decent banter but it just seems to drag on. The next five pages Indy and Marcus carry on about how they have no leads and they ponder whether or not to trust Janice before the issue finally picks up the pace again at the end. The dialogue has some great highlights, but the art isn’t nearly as Indy-conic as it could have been. This was kind of a letdown, but it helps makes the finale one that will include an awful lot of action and reveal, provided it ever comes out.

3. Hulk #9

Loeb, Adams, Cho

Both plots wrap up with interesting endings. At least there seems to be some direction for each of the Hulks here. Banner Hulk continues to morph into stranger versions of himself while Moon Knight and company call in obscure character to reverse the Wendigo disease. Red Hulk gets beaten by a whole host of female characters and then hand selects one for a little proposition. I have to admit I’m getting a little bored with the lack of pursuit each Hulk seems to have on their tails, but I guess they both have their own variations of friends to look out for them. I would think it’s unlikely we learn Red Hulk’s identity any time soon though. This was a decent issue in a string of so-so issues in the series.

2. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic #36

Miller, Dazo & Atiyeh

A completely new direction for this comic. If you were looking for a reason to “jump on” then now is the time. Zayne and Gryph and company are basically con artists wandering around causing trouble now. They find a huge scam going on involving selling airspace based on speculation. They basically throw a monkey wrench in the works. It’s an interesting story that moves away from Jedi and the Force and more towards a Han Solo type of an adventure. It’s a solid little story.

1. Batman #683

Morrison, Garbett & Scott

As angry as I am that I read RIP only to find out the conclusion is really in Final Crisis (a book I’m not reading) I can say I sure liked this story. I finally figured out what was happening as Bruce was getting his mind probed or duplicated. Basically, Bruce is taken down a path as if he were not Batman or one where his parents had lived as a distraction. The issue has a lot of roots in an Elseworlds tale but it also has some real solid events to ground in the regular continuity, like Jason Todd’s death and Bane breaking his back. As these elements were used as a way to put his mind through some pain. It’s interesting that this two-part arc is billed as Alfred’s story about Batman but I really had to stretch to see how the real Alfred has anything to do with this story. I liked it. I am pretty mad though that I have to buy Final Crisis #6 just to find out what happens to Batman.