Take It Or Leave It – June 26, 2013

Welcome to Take It Or Leave It, where each week we pick out some of that week’s newest comics and give you our opinion on whether it was worth the price and you should take it, or if it was better left sitting on the shelf.

This was a pretty good week for comics, especially after the disappointments last week! We have the long awaited return of Hawkeye, we see that Hank Pym can be a good character, and that Aquaman isn’t as lame as everything thinks. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, so move on and start seeing what we though about this weeks comic releases!

Alphabetical by Publisher

DC Comics | IDW Publishing | Image Comics | Marvel Comics

Aquaman #21 Aquaman generally has a pretty bad reputation, even among non-comic fans he’s known to be lame. While that may have been true at one time, in the New 52 with Geoff Johns in charge of the character, he is anything but lame. Issue 21 gets us back onto the King of Atlantis after a brief break from Aquaman last issue. We continue to see that Aquaman is truly a force to be reckoned with. And is apparently more powerful than most other Atlanteans, whether that’s because he’s royal, or something else entirely, is beyond me at this point. You actually feel pretty bad for him, he doesn’t really want to be King, but he knows he has to. And to make it worse for him, a lot of his ‘subjects’ don’t really want him there either. The part where he’s bombarded with updates and questions shows how truly out of place he is, and is reaction to one piece of news shows where his heart is. It’s really weird to speak so highly of a character I’ve grown up knowing as a joke of a superhero, but these things happen. Johns is really giving Aquaman and interesting world to be a part of, and if his track record with Green Lantern is any indication we can expect some truly wild and inventive stories coming out of the oceans. Verdict: Take It Score: 8/10 Reviewed By: Chris

Batman Superman #1 I really enjoy the Batman/Superman relationship, from the few good interaction in Justice League and the recent backup story in Batman, it just goes to show that even while the shelves are dominated by these two guys separately, there’s always room for a team up. And now that I’ve got that long winded sentence out of the way lets talk about this issue. First off it is a great read, the switching perspective between Bruce and Clark is great, and we see how they really see each other in their first ever encounter years ago. The only problem is by the end of it, I don’t really know what’s going on. I’m also confused about certain character back stories. Well specifically Superman in the New 52, I don’t read his book so I’m not really sure what his history is like anymore. Are the Kents alive or dead? Could he fly when he still wore jeans and a t-shirt? Was he kind of stupid at that point? I think, even though I’m not a big Superman fan, I may go back and read early New 52 stuff just to find out about him so this book becomes more clear. Or I could just wait and see if issue 2 explains more, but where is the fun in that? Anyway, if you’re not overloaded with The Man Of Steal and The Dark Knight already you’ll probably already have this book in your pile. If on the other hand you feel there’s a few too many books with these guys, give this one a shot anyway, you won’t be disappointed. Verdict: Take It Score: 9/10 Reviewed By: Chris

Ghostbusters #5 I kind of hate myself for falling off this book during Volume 1. It was good, I had no problems with it, and it really felt like it belonged in the same universe as the movies. Now with Volume 2 I’m even more into it, they had the interested first arc with a new team of Ghostbusters filling in while our original heroes were trapped between dimensions, but now things are mostly back to normal. The biggest downfall of issue 5 is that it’s really just a “here is where they are now” issue. And on top of that it looks like, at least for now, most of the new characters are sidelined back to their normal lives. Or Chicago depending attitude. It’s not bad, and it’s handled well, especially the part with Kylie and Peter fighting a ghost train, that was fun. If you like Ghostbusters, give this book a shot, it’s a nice jumping on point and shows you at least who all the major players are and were. Verdict: Take It Score: 7/10 Reviewed By: Chris

Lazarus #1 I’m a sucker when Image has a new number 1 come out, and this one grabbed me just by the cover. Seriously look at it, girl with what appears to be a bullet wound on her head staring daggers at you. Then right below that are the names, Rucka and Lark who were part of the popular Gotham Central series from a few years back. It just seemed like a clear choice on what to do. It was a damn good choice too, the book is set in a weird future, because frankly what future isn’t weird. In this one though, the world seems to be run in sectors by families. And in these families one member is basically genetically upgraded to be the best thing ever. I don’t want to give to much away, but if you like weird futuristic sci-fi stuff this is definitely a book worth checking out, and what better place to jump on than issue #1. Verdict: Take It Score: 8/10 Reviewed By: Chris

Morning Glories #28 Like pretty much every other issue of Morning Glories, we get absolutely no concrete answers as to what the hell is happening. What we do get in issue 28 though is a lot of different events finally coming to their climax. Casey is back and about to do something that may or may not fix everything? And Hunter is still in weird land with adult Jade learning that he’s got a pretty big part to play. And that’s only two of the stories in this issue, it’s such a hard book to talk about without spoiling something. After this issue, I have a feeling things are going to be very different for the students and teachers at Morning Glories Academy, and while it’s not a good place to jump on, this is still a fantastic supernatural mystery series that should be read by everyone! Well so long as you don’t mind a lot of questions with no answers. Verdict: Take It Score: 7/10 Reviewed By: Chris

All-New X-Men #13 This story with Mystque has been dragging on for a while, but it looks to finally be getting interesting. That is to say, the best part of this issue, like the previous 12 have been the dialogue between X-Men. Wolverine constantly calling young Cyclops Slim, Kitty being referred to as Professor Kitty, and of course young Bobby being Bobby. If you want an X book with a lot of action, this probably isn’t the right one for you, try Uncanny, but if you want some of the best character interaction out there you should already be reading All-New X-Men! Verdict: Take It Score: 7/10 Reviewed By: Chris

Hawkeye #11 Pizza Dog #1 I’ve been saying for months how good Hawkguy has been, well that streak finally ended. That said, Pizza Dog is amazing, and Pizza Dog #1 is probably one of the best comic books I’ve ever read. Fraction and Aja really outdid themselves with this book. It’s hard to have a compelling comic be pretty much devoid of words. As much as the art tells the story, the words are really integral to it also. Being from the POV of Pizza Dog though, you only get every other word, if that. It’s a really inventive idea on how to handle that as it’s unlikely a dog knows exactly what we’re saying they just know tones and such. The way Aja gets across what he’s thinking is interesting too, with scents and images being attributed to different characters and how Pizza Dog feels about them. I hope next issue doesn’t take as long to arrive as this one, but with this kind of quality I’ll deal if it does. Verdict: Take It Score: 10/10 Reviewed By: Chris

Chris talks a bunch on PodQuest each week. He's also been known to write about stuff from time to time. You can Email Chris or follow Chris on Twitter @Just_Cobb or Facebook

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