Reviews, ruminations, and (occasional) ramblings.
Back in the Bottle – Director: Rick Jacobson/Story: Steven L. Sears, Rob Tapert/Teleplay: Steven L. Sears
This one starts with Xena trying to use the inner power she mastered last episode to cook a rabbit, but all she can do is turn it to stone (and a pile of stone rabbits testifies to her failure). Continue reading “Xena Reviews: Season 5, Episode 7”
Legion of Super-Heroes #54 – “Strength in Numbers” – Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen/Mike DeCarlo
This one starts with Polar Boy doubting himself as leader, which he’s been doing a lot lately. He’s worried because a lot of Legionnaires (including most of the heavy hitters) are absent. His fears are justified when he gets a report of a jailbreak on Labyrinth. Apparently the Khundian Garak of the Glow (who we saw imprisoned on Labyrinth last issue) was bioengineered so the energy cells have no effect on him. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: Legion of Super-Heroes 54, New Titans 51, Suicide Squad 21”
Justice League International #21 – “Apokolips Wow” – Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis/Ty Templeton/Joe Rubinstein
Last issue, Big Barda, J’onn J’onzz, Gnort, and Rocket Red tracked Manga Khan to Apokolips, where Khan was trying to open trade relations by selling Barda’s husband (Mr. Miracle). When they were attacked by a horde of Parademons, Barda boomed to Earth for reinforcements, bringing back the rest of the team (plus Lobo, who’s been hanging around headquarters waiting for Barda and the others to return so he can kill them and fulfill his contract with Manga Khan). Continue reading “Comics Reviews: Justice League International 21, Young All-Stars 20”
Purity – Director: Mark Beesley/Writer: Jeff Vlaming
This one starts with Xena, Gabi, and Joxer on their way to Chin. (I’m not sure when Joxer joined them; he wasn’t there last episode, so he may have followed them, or maybe they arranged to meet him after seeing the Amazons.) A half-dead monk stumbles into camp with a scroll written by Lao Ma saying that “The Hawk and the Dove must be made One with the Wisdom”. Continue reading “Xena Reviews: Season 5, Episode 6”
Batman #427 – “A Death in the Family Chapter 3” – Jim Starlin/Jim Aparo/Mike DeCarlo
If you’re wondering what happened to Chapter 2, it was last issue; these issues are double-sized and DC published a couple extra issues of most titles (labelled Winter and Holiday) at the end of 1988. Speaking of last issue, we saw Jason (Robin) Todd figure out that the woman he’d thought was his other was actually his stepmom. He narrowed his biological mother down to three possible candidates: Sharmin Rosen, Shiva Woosan, and Sheila Haywood, all of whom were overseas. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: Batman 427, Detective 594, Green Arrow 12”
Wonder Woman #23 – “A God Among Men” – George Perez/Will Blyberg
This one starts with Vanessa Kapatelis getting all kinds of attention from her classmates at school because she’s in a magazine article about the Amazons. Vanessa’s friendship with Wonder Woman has made her pretty popular, so much so that she ignores her supposed best friend Eileen (who she never treated all that well, actually) to hang out with the cool kids. Eileen even sticks up for Vanessa with Lucy Spears, but Lucy’s surprised to learn that Barry was Vanessa’s boyfriend, since he didn’t tell her that when they started hanging out. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: Wonder Woman 23, Firestorm 78”
Them Bones, Them Bones – Director: John Fawcett/Story: Steven L. Sears, R. J. Stewart/Teleplay: Steven L. Sears
This one starts with Gabi gathering mushrooms to ease Xena’s morning sickness. Xena starts having terrible pains and Gabi takes her to a healer. Xena has a nightmare about a skeletal baby bursting out of her stomach like in Alien. She wakes up in the healer’s hut and says they have to go see Yakut and the Northern Amazons because someone wants to harm her baby. Continue reading “Xena Reviews: Season 5, Episode 5”
Legion of Super-Heroes #53 – “Hunters and Hunted” – Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen/Mike DeCarlo
Last issue, Magnetic Kid, Lighning Lass, and Tellus went to Braal (Magnetic Kid’s home planet) to help figure out what was causing some unnatural earthquakes. They uncovered a rogue Gil’dishpan named Hywyndr who was using his powers to create the quakes. This issue starts with the trio searching for Hywyndr and walking into an ambush. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: Legion of Super-Heroes 53, New Titans 50, Suicide Squad 20”
Justice League International #20 – “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Apokolips” – Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis/Ty Templeton/Joe Rubinstein
This one starts on Apokolips, with Manga Khan and Virman Vundabar pontificating at each other. Khan has been trying to open trade with Apokolips for decades, but now he finally has something they want … Mr. Miracle. Khan gets a message from L-Ron that the Cluster blew the Justice League ship to hell as soon as it warped in, and that they still haven’t heard back from Lobo (who Khan hired to kill the Leaguers). Continue reading “Comics Reviews: Justice League International 20, Young All-Stars 19”
Animal Attraction – Director: Rick Jacobson/Writer: Chris Manheim
This one starts with Xena, Gabi, Joxer, and Amarice travelling through some woods. Joxer is still hot for Gabi and his constant attention is making her uncomfortable, even though he swore there were no strings attached to his admission of love a couple of episodes ago. Amarice thinks love is stupid (and men are generally worthless) and says she’ll never fall into that trap. Continue reading “Xena Reviews: Season 5, Episode 4”