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As time has gone on I've realized that I'm not going to get a whole lot of surprise in my mainstream
comics, and that's something that I'm largely OK with. You can find some overall interesting concepts off
the beaten path at times, though. You know, with stuff like Purity, Fragile Prophet or even Atomika.
Still, I find myself wanting to get some kind of "shock" from the mainstream characters and
titles that I'm used to. The usual result? A multi-month telegraphed punch that comes in the form of
a fourth tier character like Goliath (who used to carry the additional title of "Black" in front
of his name) getting killed. Oooh, the excitement is palpable and it tastes like unflavored rice cakes.
Yet, as luck would have it this month I found myself enjoying two surprising moments! What made it
even better was that one came from Marvel and one from DC. Now, while the things that surprised me may
not have surprised you, I would remind you that I work hard at avoiding spoilers from upcoming issues and
titles. Anyway, I'd just like to share with you this month exactly why I enjoyed those moments. Please
keep in mind that there will be spoilers in what I write. I'd hate to ruin any possible enjoyment for
others.
Thunderbolts 115
Since the change to the new format Thunderbolts has been a fairly ho-hum affair to me. Yeah, I know
that is unusual considering you've got Warren Ellis handling the reigns of a bunch of nut-job villains and
borderline villains, but I think that's just the formula for what has turned into ho-hum. The characters
are too loony. They're too messed up, antisocial, unhinged and filled with murderous intent (most of them).
I don't care about any of them. I don't care if they live or die, eat a face or arm, or anything of that
nature. In fact, I expect it and that's exactly what I've gotten.
Then things finally got interesting a few issues ago. Some third or fourth tier characters appeared in
the pages of Thunderbolts. Nobody all that interesting to me, but I was wondering if they could at least
put up a decent fight with the T-Bolts when it finally came time for it to happen. There as a good start
and some nice rumbling, but for me it came to culmination in an alleyway. Bullseye vs. The American Eagle.
On the first page Bullseye making the lunging kill attack and the Eagle making a dodge while I figure it's
just a fight to the inevitable. The end result? Bullseye receiving a full-on beat down from the Eagle
without Eagle even breaking a sweat. I was OH so pleasantly surprised. I could feel the smile on my face.
Sure Eagle received some unplanned assistance, but I think it just added more pain to the process with more
damage to Bullseye than his pride.
Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special 1
I'm a Green Lantern fan. I have been since I was a kid. I'm sure I've repeated this story many times
in my articles. I like Geoff Johns' writing a lot, something else I've commented on. Yet, the combination
of the two has been one of the SLOWEST momentum gathering titles I've read in quite a while. To this day I
still don't know what Johns' problem was with the start of the series. It was disjointed, felt rushed and
was for the most part just not all that interesting. It took me to a point where I was actually getting
ready to drop the title. Recently though things have started to pick up a bit more, though I will say that
my renewed interest was mostly due to the carry over of enjoyment from the support titles (Ion and Green
Lantern Corps).
Anyway, the momentum of The Sinestro Corps has been building for a while. I wasn't really sure what it
was all about as I knew Sinestro would come back for a throw down with Hal at some point, but I didn't
really get how the heck he was building his own corps. As this issue moved forward there were lots of
things that were interesting. Superboy-Prime getting out of his prison, the revelation of Ion being an
entity similar to that of Parallax and Kyle becoming inhabited by Parallax were amongst the best. However,
the big surprise was on the final two-page spread of the main story. The Anti-Monitor. Sure I had a
feeling he would pop-up at some point, but I figured it would be in the pages of Countdown. I never
expected to see him reappear in a Green Lantern title, much less part of The Sinestro Corps.
So, while I was definitely feeling a bit disappointed with Marvel and DC's ability to still catch me
off guard and truly surprise me I must say that this month they were each able to do it, and in turn keep
me going with titles that I've been less than impressed with recently (Green Lantern was getting better . . .
but VERY slowly). Waiting for one of those moments when I'm truly surprised has finally come. Better yet,
not only did I get one of those moments, I got two in the same month.
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