Biff Bam Pow Comics

Firstly - what a brilliant cover. It instantly reminds you of the pre-Crisis (1) DC books - dripping with action and excitement. And happily, just like issue one, this book doesn’t disappoint.

***SPOILER ALERT***

At the tail end of issue one, we saw Captain Comet in the midst of an explosion, leaving readers dangling on a ‘how does he get out of this one’ cliff edge. Well, as you might expect, he most certainly does get out - but probably not quite in the way you were thinking…

Moving through the book we see Adam Strange, Animal Man, Hawkman and Starfire execute an all out offensive against Thanagar troops on Rann, only to be met with a Monarchasaurus (a Rannian dinosaur) upon capturing their prisoners. It has to be said - a truly supreme moment.

On Throneworld Prince Gavyn encounters some trouble with Bizarro (who is eating the planet into a famine), and has to rely on Earth Cartoons to save the day…

Happily, just like the first issue, Rann-Thanagar: Holy War is a truly worthwhile purchase. Jim Starlin does a fantastic job on the script, creating real energy between some of the ‘B-team’ characters within the DCU, and when combined with Ron Lim’s beautiful pencils - you can’t help but say it again…

Please DC - give this team an ongoing book of its own!

Pete’s Score: 4 out of 5
(another excellent issue - could this be the best thing currently on the shelf from DC?) 

DC of late, is consistently surprising me. In one hand, they’re missing the mark totally, spitting out what I’ll call ‘utter garbage’ like Countdown and promoting the hell out of them. In the other hand - they’re pulling together great books like this one that are sadly not mainstream enough to grab the attention that they really deserve.

As you’ve probably guessed, I was mildly happy with this book. I’ve grown to seek out the team-up books between Starfire, Adam Strange and Animal Man, as of late they are rapidly becoming a ’seal of DC quality’.

***SPOILER ALERT***

In this respect - the first issue of Rann-Thanagar: Holy War is no different. The artwork from Ron Lim is wonderfully futuristic with some obvious manga influences, and the script from Jim Starlin is nice and punchy (although there are a couple of moments that don’t quite sit right [Animal Man's comments when Adam Strange is requesting help, for example]).

Much of the storyline picks up from the conclusion of the recent ‘Countdown to Adventure’ mini-series, but the book also touches upon surfacing problems on Thanagar, and pulls in a couple of additional space faring characters along the way (such as the younger Captain Comet) to lay the groundwork for future issues.

I’m fairly sure I’ve said this before - but on the offchance I haven’t - Starfire, Animal Man and Adam Strange need their own team book. DC - feel free to team them up with (almost) anyone - I will buy that book each and every month, if you strap on a pair and create it.

In the meantime - I’ll be on the lookout for the next issue of the series, and any other books where there is consistent great writing.

Pete’s Score: 4 out of 5
(needs its own series - but buy this book in the meantime)