Batman: Streets of Gotham
by Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen, Manhunter backup by Marc Andreyko/Georges Jeanity
This comic periodical will heretofore be referred to as "Batman: SOG" or "SOG" for short. Because that acronym is awesome.
The actual comic, on the other hand, not so awesome. Dini jumps all over the place, introducing all kinds of threads and all kinds of characters without capitalizing on any of them. The ADHD-ness of it ultimately ends up in "Oh look. Gotham City's on fire. How 'bout that," plotwise. I am a fan of Dini and Nguyen, but not for this. Not for $3.99.
Although I LOVE that Harley cameos in the opening pages, I feel that Dini's pushing the button a little by making a man called "Abuse" be the savior of women on the street.
Marc Andreyko provides the back-up that pushed SOG to $3.99. It doesn't do much but establish Kate Spencer's place in Gotham (the interm D.A.). I'm pretty disappointed with this first issue. I wish people would just come out and tell their story. I think I'll have to forget about this comic; it just costs too much.
Power Girl #2
by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Amanda Conner
You know, I actually have both Uncle Sam miniseries-es from Palmiotti and Gray. They weren't that great. They tried to do some wacky concepts, but for the most part they tended to be bland adventure comics.
Suffice to say, I don't have too much faith in the writing team, but I do have a lot of faith in Amanda Conner. She is a heck of an artist, and Palmiotti/Gray even humanize the Ultra-Humanite by giving him a past.
There's a great fight scene in the first half of the book. Great dialogue, great art, great way to flesh out the Ultra-Humanite. The second half of the book works on Ultra-H's past, and his relationship with a sadistic woman called, surprisingly enough, Satanna.
Twisted! The only problem is, Ultra-Humanite is more fleshed out than PeeGee now! Although to be fair, PeeGee uses her laser vision pretty creatively.
Suffice to say, I can hang on for next ish.
