"Post No. 636"

"COMIC BOOK REVIEWS"

Civil War limited Series (Marvel/2006) by Mark Millar, Steve McNiven and others was an alright storyline with a lot of conflict among Marvel's major players, and even a death of a rather minor one, but...hasn't this all been done before? Several years ago wasn't there this "mutant registration" thingy going on in all of the "X" titles? Looks like a recycled idea to me and something to just get more of their readers' hard-earned doe. And Marvel's making Tony Stark look like more and more of a government tool these days rather than one of Marvel's greatest heroes. Marvel hasn't treated Tony well these days, making him even more of the villian in his plans with other Marvel majors to get rid of The Hulk in recent years. (Shame, shame, Marvel.)

Superman (DC) #'s 206-215 (2004-2005) has some really nice Jim Lee artwork, but Brian Azzarello has put less "meat" into this story than the carcass of a picked-clean Thanksgiving turkey. The JLA app.'s didn't help. Less pretty pictures and more thought-out writing, please. Believe it or not it IS possible to put more than one word balloon in a panel.

Batman (DC) 635-641 (2005), mostly by Winick, Mahnke & Nguyen, was much better written, all of which involve the return of the character, "Jason Todd". What I liked the most about this is that there was no lengthly explanation for "why" he returned; he just did, and his goal is to carry out sentence against gotham's criminals to the max, beyond what The Bat-Man will allow. In the end, Bats just accepts it. Interesting way to do it. Well done.