Comics Roundup for 4/20/11

Dark Horse Presents #1 - I was never a regular reader of Dark Horse's original "Presents" series, but I did pick up all 25 issues of their full-color anthology called Dark Horse Comics. This resurrection of the series is more like the latter, shorter-lived series than the one after which it takes its name, as it's in color and has a Star Wars feature. Anyway, it's eight bucks, but it's a rather thick book, and it looked interesting enough while flipping through it at the store. I was also interested in seeing the preview of Frank Miller's Xerxes. It was interesting enough, and I'll probably pick up the first issue of Star Wars: Crimson Empire III, as I enjoyed the first two miniseries. (The Star Wars segment of this issue was a prelude to CEIII.) Still, I doubt I'll pick up the second issue of this series, as it has the same problem that all anthologies have - a lot of it just isn't very good and/or interesting to me. I figure anything that's worth reading will get reprinted in a collection somewhere.

Super Dinosaur #1 - The team of The Astounding Wolf-Man reunites to bring this all-ages series to the stands. While it all looks cool and fun enough, it just didn't grab me for some reason. Yeah, I like the idea of putting a harness on a T-Rex with huge robotic arms (which he manipulates with a couple of controllers that his tiny arms can reach) but that's not enough to get me to pick up further issues. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing really wrong with this series, and I'm sure that others will really like it, but it just didn't do it for me.

Green Lantern #65 & Green Lantern Corps #59 - Looks like I'll be picking up all the Green Lantern books until the "War of the Green Lanterns" story ends, but that's okay considering it's a pretty good story. I like how it simultaneously introduces a new story while building upon everything that's gone on since the new "Lantern" series debuted. When all of the green rings have been corrupted, how does Hal Jordan (and the other Green Lanterns from Earth) manage to fight back without using his power ring? Well, there are a whole lot of other Lantern Corps out there now. Let's see now, Jordan's been a Green, a Red, an Orange, a Blue, a White and now a Yellow Lantern. All he needs is a shot at the Indigo ring and he'll be the master of the emotional spectrum. Somehow, I think that Geoff Johns has thought of that, and hopefully they'll do something with that idea.

Hellboy: Buster Oakley Gets His Wish - This was a fun enough of an issue, and it was nice seeing Kevin Nowlan draw an issue, but I'm glad to see that Mignola is going to get back to the character's major story arc with the next minseries. This issue involves kids performing Satanic rituals and aliens trying to give Hellboy an anal probe. What's not to like?

Wolverine #8 - Not much to say about this one other than it was another fun installment. Wolverine finally gets that demon out of his head, and he's now getting ready to kick the asses of those responsible. Should be interesting.

The Avengers #12 - There were a lot of "what you think is happening is not really happening" moments in this issue, and even though I think that Bendis stretches out a story a bit too much with page after page of characters hitting one another, it was still a satisfying conclusion that set the stage for some interesting possibilities for the future.