Reviews of Stuff Bought on Free Comic Book Day

So some of you may notice come very subtle changes done to the template of this site, but more than likely not. I made some of the text have capitalization and added a list of blogs created by some friends of mine. Jon Ben's, Trapped in an Optical Lattice, doesn't really have a theme to it. He more or less just puts down things going on in his life and whatnot. Rob Ferdman's, Stuck in the Sun, however, is quite musically oriented and has links to all sorts of cool stuff. I encourage anyone to check them out. Most likely though, you've arrived at this page from there's so you already know what I'm talking about.

Anyhoo, on with the reviews of stuff I picked up this past Saturday.

Check the post to see what images I am referring to.
From left to right and top to bottom:

Formerly Known as the Justice League TPB
My interest in this Trade PaperBack (TPB) was piqued after reading DC Countdown to Infinite Crisis, which featured the Blue Beetle, Ted Kord. I must say this is one of the most humourous comics I've read in a LONG time and it was really quite refreshing. From Fire's libido, to the sickening goodness of Mary Marvel, to the marriage-like relationship between Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, this book really focuses on the characters rather than big fight scenes (though there is a great one between Mary and Captain Atom). I think I might pick up the creator's sequel to this called "I Can't Believe it's Not the Justice League!" in JLA: Classified. Very funny stuff.

JLA: Earth 2
This would seem like an Elseworlds title except it does take place in regular continuity. Written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quitely, this book shows evil, anti-matter versions of our favorite heroes that oppress the people of their world and ingage in inter-office debauchery. It was a really good read except I would have like to have seen a bigger fight scene between the good versions and their counterparts rather than the "common enemy" cliche. Something that did kind of irk me was that it was $22 and not very big for a TPB. But oh well, I got it, Ultra (see below) and FKATJLA (above) in a buy 2 get one free sale, so it's not too bad.

Ultra TPB
This collects the 8 issue mini-series from Image Comics. I must say, I was very impressed by this series. This is the Luna brothers first published work and it's very well done. The premise is that heroes work alongside the police force and are represented by various superhero agencies. The heroes also have celebrity status in the community and all the scandals that go along with it. It has a definate Sex in the City feel to it as all the main characters are female and like to chat about sex and other regular stuff (Olivia = Samantha buy the way), but there's also elements of Powers as well while remaining original. I look forward to the Luna Brothers' next project, Girls set to release this month.

Young Avengers #1-3
Yes I've jumped on another bandwagon. The reason I did was because there was three issues out and I succumbed to the temptation of the "buy two get one free" sale. Written by Allan Heinberg of The OC fame, the mystery of who these kids are is the main focus of the story. Like all new titles, I'll give it 12 issues and see how it is. The first three issues seemed a little slow for my liking but the story was interesting and #4 (which comes out this week) features Kang (the evil one).

FreebiesBatman Adventures/Strikes
Just stories seen in the animated shows.

Wizard's Top 100 TPBs of All Time
This was a cool reference to have. Cooly enough, I have all of the top 12. So maybe if I get more $$$ in the near future, I may go around trying to hunt these suckers down like I did for Wizard #60's "Top 100 Comics Every Modern Day Collector Should Own" article." There is a wealth of good stories in here and it would be interesting to see an updated version of the list (it only goes to about 2003ish).