Although I only picked up 5 comics this week, three of them are $5 comics with extra material, whether it’s Batgirl 50, Poe Dameron 1 or Spider-Women Alpha. At the one comic store I also picked up the entire Chewbacca mini-series for $15 – that store is awesome with their bundles sometimes.
The comics I picked up include Poe Dameron 1, Spider-Women Alpha, Black Widow 2, Old Man Logan 4 and Batgirl 50. Here are my first impressions, and links to full reviews will be added when they’re posted.
Star Wars: Poe Dameron 1 review
Before I get into this week’s comics though, let’s briefly talk about Batman v Superman. As promised I didn’t pay a cent of my own money to see it, but a friend paid for my ticket, in exchange for me paying for his Civil War ticket. In any case, I didn’t hate the movie as much as Man of Steel, nor did it anger me nearly as much, but I still really didn’t like it.
Ben Affleck is fine as Batman and Bruce Wayne, and I don’t actually have a problem with him killing. After all, in the early comics, Batman killed people all the time. The opening scene that takes place during MOS’s final fight, while it reminds me of why I hate Man of Steel so much, does a great job at establishing Batman’s motivations. So why does Lex Luthor need to motivate him again with trickery? And really? After all the deaths he’s witnessed Superman causing, and the several times Superman directly stopped him from doing his job at Batman, learning their mothers have the same name is enough for Batman to instantly consider Superman a friend? I take that back, Bruce Wayne is an idiot in this movie, fooled by Lex Luthor when he’s supposed to be a brilliant detective. Affleck still acted the part well though, I’ll give him that.
The movie is a mess that feels like it’s a 5 hour movie chopped down into 2 and a half hours. I never found the movie hard to follow, but when there’s an explosion in a major government building that’s never mentioned again after the 2-minute immediate aftermath, your movie is bloated with too many sub-plots. Superman’s characterization is even worse than Man of Steel – he’s also a hypocrite in this movie, telling off Batman for his vigilante methods when he was directly responsible for thousands of deaths in Man of Steel.
And what exactly is Lex Luthor’s plan? “I don’t like this Godlike being that I can’t control, so I’m going to create an even more powerful Godlike being that I can’t control to kill Superman.” And Jesse Eisenberg didn’t feel like Lex Luthor at all – he felt more like a cross between the Joker and the Riddler. Eisenberg would be much better off playing one of those two characters. Anyway, enough about Batman v Superman.
Black Widow 2 is great. After a very fast-paced first issue, this one explains at least some of Black Widow’s motivations for taking something from SHIELD. There’s also some good action as Natasha protects some of the top SHIELD commanders from would-be assassins. Black Widow fans should be reading this series – 2 issues in and it’s already kind of awesome.
Old Man Logan 4 is good. This first story arc is, by its very nature, predictable, but with this being the issue where Logan realizes he’s not in his universe’s past, but a very different universe, the predictable story arc is coming to a close. This issue basically ends with the very moment where you first see him in Extraordinary X-Men. Now that the opening story arc is out of the way, it’ll be interesting to see where this series goes from here. Wolverine fans should at least check out this series.
Batgirl 50 is good. This double-sized issue concludes Batgirl’s conflict with her memory-wiping enemy, Fugue. While there are plenty of fun moments in this comic, there are also several moments that feel anti-climactic. It’s fun to see Batgirl team up with a bunch of other female characters from the Batman universe, sure, but when most of their enemies are so easily defeated, it’s a bit disappointing. Still, Batgirl fans should enjoy this issue.
healed1337 
Spider-Women was good. A fun kick-off to the crossover.
Black Widow was great. Exciting stuff! Samnee’s clearly having a blast with the book. He and Waid are doing a Black Widow movie here, and once it’s over, I would love it if it was adapted into a movie.
OML was good. Gorgeous art, and a pretty nice story. And gorgeous art. I loved the star and maple leaf layouts.
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