Well, I'm Off Again

But only temporarily, and not due to any computer meltdowns! Which is good. It's time for the annual New England Tire Sellers Association, aka NETSA to host its fancy schmancy dinners and cocktail parties and expo and seminars at the lovely Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. Since my Sweet Baboo is on the Board, I get to tag along and help set stuff up. Oh joy.

On the bright side, there is a lot of loot and I'll probably be drinking heavily the entire weekend. On the downside, no comics and no access to a computer.

*sigh*

But it's only for the weekend. In the meantime, there were some really good books that came out yesturday!

Let's start out with Booster Gold #31, which happens to be Dan Jurgens swan song. I've enjoyed the heck out of his art and storytelling, and even though I adore Giffen and DeMatteis, I am going to miss him.

Not a HUGE story, which is fine, it ties up some ends with Michelle and Rip, and Booster fights some fairly generic baddies, one of whom flees through a park, and in the battle, a ricochet off of Booster kills a family pet. The father and daughter are angry and inconsolable, respectively, and Booster feels quite bad. Rip talks some sense into Booster, who subsequently talks some sense into Michelle, and Rip and Booster go back in time an hour or so, and end up saving the dog. Sweet, and a little fun. Oh, and something really peculiar is happening at Vanishing Point, and it probably has something to do with Bats.

Brightest Day #0 came out! I liked it. It focuses mainly on Deadman,and yes,he's the only one left with a white ring, and apparently he now has the power to restore life. He's dealing with a dissembodied voice, and keeps getting bounced around, where he can peek in on all of the resurrected heroes and villains. Oddly enough, he's still invisible. There are some very nice character moments scattered throughout. Hal and Guy visit J'onn on Mars, and bring him chocos and milk. Soranik Natu is running Jade through a battery of tests...mainly to keep her away from Kyle. It doesn't matter in the end, since Jade has already realized that Kyle has moved on. So I'm a little relieved about THAT! As is Soranik, I am sure. Arthur and Mera, and Carter and Shiera are all getting to know one another again...and how! Max Lord is practically killing himself trying to wipe out the memory of himself from everyone...getting the blood was an interesting touch. Boomerang is cranky, and Osiris is flying around with Black Adam and Isis for some reason. Oh, and Hawk is making a flaming ass of himself. I know he's supposed to end up working for Oracle, and I really hope that Black Canary settles his hash for him...and SOON! She's had practice dealing with asses anyway, such as Guy back in the day, and Ollie more recently.

The art was pretty, and it was interesting to see how the subsequent stories are going to be set up.

Fables #94 was getting back to the Farm, and the Dark Man. Beast ends up making an ominous deal with the Blue Fairy, who is hellbent on her revenge upon Gepetto...and who can blame her? Ozma is being sneaky, and King Cole proves that he's just as good a politician as ever. Rose Red is getting a wake-up call...finally.

Good as ever.

The Flash #1 was a lot of fun. Mostly set up, but I don't mind that. Flash goes back to work at the police dept, and finds that things have changed considerably in the time that he was gone. He explains his absence as being in the Witness Protection Plan, which I think is rather clever. Odd things are happening however.

I got a Flash Ring! It's lovely, and I wore it to work today, where it was much admired.

Green Arrow #32 continues Ollie's trials and tribulations. He doesn't end up actually killing the bad guy after all, and angsts about it for quite a while. In fact, he turns himself into the good people of Star City, and the corrupt guy rips his mask off of his face, and reveals that he's...THE MAYOR! Oh, the surprise!

Seriously.

So, he has a trial, and all of that. Dinah tells him they're through, and really, I can't blame her. A whole lot of the Justice League shows up at his trial, sans costumes, which is nice of them. The jury finds him not guilty, but the judge is still pissed, so basically, he "banishes" Ollie from Star City, which is not something that I thought was legal nowadays. And, basically,Ollie stumbles into the sunset.

I do want to point out that Hal was a heck of a lot better friend to Ollie during his time of trouble than Ollie was to Hal, back when he was being Parallaxed and going through such a tough time, which is something that Ollie should remember. Hal may be a twit sometimes, but his heart is in the right place.

Not great...but really not bad. A little closure at any rate.

Secret Six #20 was FABULOUS! The evil old man who employed the Six in the last issue to find his son has pulled one hell of a prank on Catman, by kidnapping HIS son, beating up Cheshire, and threatening to kill the kid. They'll grant the kid a year of life, for the death of each of his friends. Thomas is pissed, as well he should be. You see him eyeing all the rest of the Six, and you just KNOW that he's thinking about it...and then he tells the kidnappers to go ahead and drop the kid...but that he knows where they are, and what they smell like, and he'll be after them.

Whoa! Hardcore! I would have expected that from Deadshot perhaps, but not necessarily Thomas. Naturally, he runs off and starts terrorizing the kidnappers, and most of the rest of the crew decides to go after him and either save him from himself, or help him go after the bad guys. Bane, ever the pragmatist stays behind...they have jobs to do, after all, and Jeanette stays as well.

Gosh, I love this book.

Have fun reading this week!