Full review posted to comixtreme.com.

Story: 4/5
Art: 4/5
Overall: 4/5

By James Robinson (writer), Eddy Barrows with Allan Goldman (pencils), Ruy José with Eber Ferreira (inks)

The Story: Superman is getting the stuffing beat out of him by Black Lantern Kal-L and Superboy. Ma Kent is being stalked by Black Lantern Lois Lane. Psycho-Pirate is turning Smallville into a warzone. Welcome to the final issue of this miniseries.

What’s Good: I mentioned in my last review that James Robinson had let the tension slip in issue #2. He brought it back. The last issue is wall-to-wall action with people we care about and villains we desperately want to see getting their just desserts. The dialogue is sharp now that we don’t have those clunky Norman Rockwell moments out of Smallville. On the plot, there are a lot of ways this could have gone wrong, considering the scope of the event and how it has been built up. Robinson pulled this off well, because (this isn’t really a spoiler) in this issue the heroes discover two weaknesses of the Black Lanterns. Also, I was wondering why Robinson included Supergirl and New Krypton in this miniseries. I now see why he did and it works. I expect that we’ll see the results of this issue brought back to the larger Blackest Night series, hopefully in issue #4 next week. It also makes me wonder if the other Blackest Night minis will be discovering similar vulnerabilities. All that being said, great story, satisfying conclusion.
On the minor players, Geoff Johns seems to have been conspiring to make Krypto cool. James Robinson helped out big time here. Krypto is awesome. All dog. All super. He’s like lassie…with a cape…and he’s indestructible…and he chews zombie arms right off…oh, and he’s got heat vision. The art team was critical in making Krypto work. A lot of books deliver solid heroes-in-tights moments, but Barrows and company brought dog expressions to the DC zombie apocalypse and that’s what made Krypto cool….along with heat vision. I’ve also got to give kudos to the art team for the color work on the different emotional states, some brilliant action sequences, a burning naked old zombie Lois Lane (trust me, she’s no Red Sonja), and some larger-than-life heroism.

What’s Not So Good: The first big splash page with Kal-El was so busy that I had a bit of trouble figuring out what was happening. Otherwise, nothing but nit-picking.

Conclusion: Robinson, Barrows and team brought this miniseries to a satisfying conclusion that will tie effectively into the larger Blackest Night book. A lot of fun. I’m looking forward to the other Blackest Night minis, especially Wonder Woman’s.

Grade: B

-DS Arsenault

Sem saídas fáceis para suas tensões sociais, os norte-americanos logo recorreram à fantasia para colocar a casa em ordem. Com muitas cores, músculos e poderes extraordinários, os super-heróis nasceram nas HQ, conquistaram o cinema, a TV, o mercado de brinquedos, e públicos como brasileiro. “O Brasil é um dos maiores consumidores de quadrinhos americanos no mundo. Não sei ao certo, mas acho que só perdemos pros EUA. O público brasileiro gosta desse tema”, conta Allan Goldman, quadrinhista carioca, criado no Ceará, que já desenhou para as revistas “Action Comics” (título principal do personagem Superman), “Superman e Batman”, “Liga da Justiça” e “Jovens Titãs, todas da poderosa DC Comics.

Ao lado do cearense J.J. Marreiro, ele lança amanhã o primeiro número de “Comando V”,,história que transpõe o conceito de super-herói para um cenário brasileiro. A HQ, que segundo os planos de Goldman deve ter periodicidade trimestral, foi publicada pela Jupiter II, editora paulistana tocada por José Salles, que se dedica exclusivamente a publicação de quadrinhos nacionais. O lançamento é amanhã, às 16 horas, na Gibiteca de Fortaleza, equipamento da Prefeitura que tem promovido semanalmente eventos ligados à nona arte.

Dupla dinâmica

Em “Comando V”, J.J. Marreiro, ele também um dos grandes talentos do desenho para quadrinhos no Estado, ficou com o roteiro. Allan Goldman, com o lápis e a arte final – para o processo de finalizar as páginas, aplicando a tinta nanquim, ele contou com a ajuda de Nat Garcia, Julio Ferreira e Daniel Brandão (outro ban-ban-bam da área no Ceará).

Na história, um grupo de heróis brasileiros, ligados à Central de Inteligência Brasileira (CIB), enfrenta nazistas remanescentes, numa aventura de 24 páginas, formato padrão das HQ norte-americanas. No entanto, o percurso que vai das primeiras idéias à publicação levou quatro anos para ser trilhado. “Esses não foram os primeiros personagens que criei, mas certamente foi os com os quais mais me envolvi. O João é meu parceiro de trabalho, e dividimos gostos parecidos em história em quadrinhos. Há tempos, tínhamos a vontade de criar uma história que emulasse as HQs de super-herói dos anos 80, e até as mais antigos. Elas eram mais voltados pra diversão, eram também mais simples. Não tinham tanto dramáticos ou violência, como hoje em dia”, revela Goldman.

Tabu
Com “Comando V”, Marreiro e Goldman entram num terreno tabu no quadrinho brasileiro: é possível, ou desejável, trazer o conceito de super-herói para a realidade brasileira? A questão divide opiniões, e entre elas há a daqueles que acham inviável. Garra Cinzenta, Velta, Raio Negro, Judoka, Meteoro e Capitão 7 são alguns super-heróis nacionais, que tiveram longa vida na memória dos fãs e vida curta nas bancas. “Sinceramente, não entendo qual problema de super-heróis aqui no Brasil, de quadrinhos nacionais. O público se interessa pelo tema. Agora, não sei se o problema é a qualidade do material ou preconceito do leitor. Mas essa não é uma preocupação que eu e o joão tenhamos. Nossa preocupação é a de fazer uma história boa, de qualidade. Como mercado vai aceitar ou não, isso foge das nossas mãos. Mas vamos apostar que sim”, afirma Goldman.

Fonte: Diario do Nordeste

     At long last, we have a new team.  The four issues of this arc of Teen Titans often had next to nothing to do with each other, so they really should never have been an arc in the first place.  It gave the mistaken impression that there was some sort of main plot thread.  The only thing that could be considered that is the formation of the new team, which really only happens in this issue.  Wonder Girl, Blue Beetle, Red Devil, and Bombshell were already on the team, and Kid Eternity doesn’t join until this issue.  With Brother Blood popping up two issues ago, you got the impression that he was the villain for the arc too.  But no, it’s nothing that clear.  In this issue, all the survivors from the Dark Side Club pop up on the Teen Titans’ doorstep, and within the course of five pages, about half of them leave because the Teen Titans now just suck that much.  I’m not sure what Sean McKeever’s intentions were with that, but it certainly doesn’t make the team look good.  Oh yeah.  Sean McKeever is only credited for the “original story” in this issue.  As the rest of the internet is currently wondering, “who is actually responsible for writing this?”

     To be honest, this issue is pretty much crap.  How much of that is Sean McKeever’s work, I don’t know.  But it’s terrible.  Miss Martian turns into an obnoxious caracature of herself with one of the worst lines I have ever heard in comic books.  “Which button is for hugging?”  Seriously?  And The Face isn’t just a creep.  He’s a crappily written creep.  I’m glad he died really fast.  Then, we have Allan Goldman, whose art is basically the kiddie version of Eddy Barrow’s art.  In particular, I dislike how he draws Static and his hair.  Good thing he won’t be around after this issue.  And why are Terra and Aquagirl the only ones injured?  More importantly, why does no one do anything about it?  And let me tell you, that whole pose thing near the end is just dumb.  There is nothing about this team that deserves an “iconic” Titans Together pose.  I mean, Red Devil doesn’t even have powers anymore.  All in all, the Teen Titans have sucked for a long time.  And that trend continues today.  I really hope that the new writer that comes in a few issues actually knows how to write teenaged superheroes.  It’s sad how much this once amazing series has fallen.

Plot: 3.2      Art: 4.6      Dialogue: 4.0      Overall: 3.8

Michael Green, Mike Johnson, (writers) Ed Benes, Matthew Clark, Allan Goldman, Ian Churchill, (pencils) Matt “Batt” Banning, Norm Rapmund, Marlo Alquiza, Rob Hunter,(inkers) John Rauch, (colors) Andrew Robinson, Greg DiGenti, (Krypton sequence), Rob Leigh, (letters) Ethan Van Sciver, Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines,  Dave McCaig (covers)

This issue has The League rebuilding Smallville and fighting it out with more rogue Kryptonian tech. As great as Superman is he just can’t seem to save us from his planet’s technology. After Brianiac, The Phantom Zone, and a Kryptonian probe, what’s next? But throw in a chance meeting between Thomas Wayne and Jor El and you’ve got a great start to this new arc.

Michael Green and Mike Johnson have done an excellent job with their run on this title. It’s unclear to me if the connection between Thomas and Jor El will carry through, or if it’s just a standalone scene – I’m thinking it’ll probably be the latter – in either case it’s very effective. Personally, I found it a little annoying that Batman and Superman are barely in the issue. Still, learning the details of their fathers meeting is great. It makes me wonder what things would’ve been like if Superman had crashed in Gotham.

A highlight of the book is definitely the pencils. The team is pretty massive, but everyone does a great job. The battle scenes are chaotic, but very detailed and easy to follow. My favorite of which is the fight between Batman, Superman and the crystal projections in The Fortress of Solitude. Not only does it feature their best villains, but awesome action as well. The backgrounds on Krypton during the flashback have a lot less detail, but it still fits really well. I’ve always thought Krypton would have a very streamlined architecture. I’m a big fan of the coloring during this sequence and the use of cool blues is a great choice, definitely better than your standard black and white.

Batman and Superman are like brothers in many ways, and this story reinforces that. Having Thomas Wayne reverse engineer much of Wayne Tech from his time on Krypton is a great touch. That said, I feel my biggest complaint is that it doesn’t seem like much happened; since most of the issue is a flashback it’s hard to really feel that progression. While it remains unclear if we’ll continue to see Thomas Wayne and Jor El in this book it’s still a good read with lots of good stuff for any fan. (Grade: B-)

-Ben Berger