Maximum Carnage Part 10: Web of Spider-Man #103

Maximum Carnage part 9 was possibly the best part of this entire story thus far. Considering how mediocre the past several issues prior to that had been, that's super impressive. Besides that, we're really in the home stretch now, as we've reached double digits! Part 9 shook up a lot of things, let's see what part 10 does for an encore.

Maximum Carnage Part 10: Web of Spider-Man #103:

Summary: Picking up from the last part, Spidey and Firestar are in Avengers Mansion with Captain America strategizing. Carnage and Shriek are torturing the helpless Venom, while Black Cat, Morbius and Cloak had gone after Carnage's crew, splitting from Spidey and Firestar. Doppelganger, Demogoblin, and Carrion are sent by Carnage to deal with the pursuing heroes. The three villains encounter the three heroes, which gives us yet another donnybrook. The villains take control, but Nightwatch(!!?!!) shows up to help out the good guys.

What's Spawn doing in the Marvel Comics Zone!!??

Demogoblin decides to have his group beat a hasty retreat, with Nightwatch and Morbius following them.

Oh wait, it's Marvel character, Not-Spawn...  Nevermind...

As for Cloak and Black Cat, Cat decides to head home to heal up a bit, while Cloak needs to do some soul searching. Over at Avengers Mansion, Cap catches Deathlok and Iron Fist trying to hack into Avengers files for information about Carnage. This leads to Cap inviting Deathlok and Iron Fist to join with himself, Spidey and Firestar.

One guess on which one of these characters never made the Avengers.

Thoughts: There was also a scene with Spidey heading home to see Mary Jane, but it wasn't anything we haven't already seen in this event. This issue was weird in that it was mainly the B-teams going at it, while the A-teams didn't really do much. Honestly, if you looked up “filler issue” in the dictionary, this comic would be there... Although I don't know what kind of dictionary would have a definition for “filler issue” Hmm, I'm wracking my brain trying to think of something to add here, but I'm coming up blank... Oh! Nightwatch! That dude is SUCH a blast from my 90's past! He's pretty much the Marvel version of Spawn. Except a zillion times lamer. Um, that's gonna do it for now, I guess I'll move on to the next one.

Teen Titans #15

After sneaking a peek at the cover after this issue, I now know that this is the last issue of this storyline! Huzzah!! Honestly though, this storyline hasn't been that bad, even though it revolves around the most useless of the current Teen Titans. Well, let's polish this one off.

Teen Titans #15(Nov. 2004)

Summary: Cyborg goes to check on Beast Boy and Dr. Register(who is now going by the Zookeeper), which leads to him attacking the Zookeeper after he finds Beast Boy drugged on the floor.

Ahhhh, Barney's on a rampage again!!!

The two fight, which brings Starfire, Wonder Girl(who has returned from Ares's lair after Ares spouted vague gibber-jabber at her) and Kid Flash to the scene. While the Titans try to deal with the Zookeeper, Beast Boy reinfects himself with the virus that turned him into Beast Boy in the first place and engaged the Zookeeper one on one. Beast Boy winds up winning, and takes the Zookeeper in. Then it gets confusing/stupid. All of the kids in San Fran are cured thanks to Beast Boy's blood canceling out the Zookeeper's blood(although Kid Flash says it the other way around, thus the confusion).

How did that woman know which random animal child was hers?

Besides that, Robin calls Superboy on the phone to tell him he was back to being Robin again.

Thoughts: Let's just get right too it, according to this, if I'm reading it right, Beast Boy would have donated enough blood for literally thousands of kids! All in like 36 hours! How is that even possible?!! I guess we'll add “blood transfusions” to genes on the list of things Geoff Johns doesn't understand. The Ares scene was totally unnecessary because it added nothing at all. Ares was all, “Somebody will die! You have to make the right choice!” It was all just empty words that mean nothing... Tell her what this choice is, or who's gonna die, or omit the scene. We also had a scene where Raven asked Wonder Girl how to dress/what to wear, even though we saw Raven in street clothes like 2 issues back when she was dressed hip and was getting tattoos! Now all of a sudden she doesn't know how to dress?! UGH!!!

Agreed.

JT Review: Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane #8

Hey Todd Squad, It's that time once again for another JT Review! (A JT review with an added bonus, a side helping of X!  That's right, I'm crashing this party, and making this review palatable for you poor, poor readers!  Suck it, JT!!  Also, stop saying "Todd Squad"!!!)This time we're checking in with Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane. After my last review featured Jimmy Olsen in the wrestling ring, I thought, what could possibly follow that?(More wrestling?) Well more wrestling of course!(Yep) So let's checkout a story from issue 8, entitled "The Ugly Superman".(This series went more than 6 issues?!?!?  How?????)

 Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane #8

Plug-ugly. Well damn, what happened to those Smallville manners?

Summary:  This issue starts with.... just straight up racism!(Huzzah!!!) Okay, so Lois gets assigned to cover the wrestling show because women are becoming interested in the sport, according to Perry White.(Who'd know about the composition of a wrestling crowd better then Perry White?) Lois goes to the show and watches a match between Hairy Sam and... Injun Ike.(Ah the 50's/60's and it's casual racism...  Where would we be without you?) Yep... it's gonna be one of those, ladies and gents!

I'm just glad there's no one with an "N" name...(Jesus is that dude hairy!  He's more ape than man!!)

Lois watches the show and dissects it all like your typical Smark (smart mark wrestling fan), she quickly deduces that it's entertainment where people want to see the hero win and the villain lose.(Lois seems like the kind of person who'd also tell kids the Tooth Fairy is fake and that there is no Santa Claus) She states that wrestling, unlike boxing, has become a colorful comedy designed strictly for laughs. Well fuck you too, Lois. The main event features The Dutch Devil (sigh.) vs. the undefeated Ugly Superman. Ugly Superman seems to actually have super strength as he destroys the dastardly Dutch Devil and puts him through the ring! Lois is shocked to see the crowd is booing Ugly Superman because he's SO DAMN UGLY!(You've never jeered an uggo on the street, JT?  How are we even friends?)

He tried to enter an Ugly contest and the judge said "Sorry, no professionals!"(Oh TAG!)

Lois goes backstage and interviews Ugly (I'm calling him that to save time and also because it's funnier.) in hopes she can make the crowd like him with a nice write up. Lois literally pats this poor bastard on the head and compares giving him praise to being like kindness for dumb animals. Man, Lois really comes off unlikable in this story, even when she's trying to be nice. She even calls "restoring this poor creature's confidence" her deed of the day.(He's ugly and therefore sub-human, and as such is worthy of disdain.  What's so hard to understand?)

There, there, ugly.

Lois' plan backfires the next morning when Ugly becomes her newest admirer. He brings her chocolate and flowers, and has even gotten a tattoo of a heart that says "Lois Lane loves The Ugly Superman" on his arm! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! He even calls HIMSELF the Ugly Superman!(HA!!!  That legit made me laugh...)  Lois tries to straighten this out by explaining to Ugly that she's not interested, but Ugly isn't hearing it.  Lois ropes Clark into this and says they have plans, but Ugly pushes Clark down like a bitch.

That's how I push X around, Top hat and all.(He's an asshole...  It's true...)

Clark pretends to let Ugly beat him up so his cover isn't blown. Lois agrees to go out with Ugly if he'll stop beating the shit out of Clark, so they head out for a night on the town! Clark follows from a distance to keep an eye on Lois. Ugly takes Lois out to dinner and he says how excited he is to show Lois off to his friends at the wrestling show. Ugly then takes Lois to the theater to see an Opera... damn Ugly, you know how to treat a lady!

He's eating Rice Crispies before they added that Pop character.(HA!!  Superman's an ass here!  She only went out with him so he'd stop beating Supes up!)

Clark decides to dress up like an old man named Methuselah... HA! He heads down to the gym to embarrass Ugly in a test of strength. Ugly is at the gym bending horse shoes with his teeth, lifting two ton weighs and snapping chains with his chest when Superman arrives in disguise. "Methuselah" eats the horse shoe and says it's actually licorice, the two ton weight is papier-mache and has Lois break the chains while he actually melts them with his X-Ray vision. Ugly may be ugly, but he ain't stupid.(He tattooed "Ugly Superman" on himself...  I'd say he's both ugly AND stupid) Obviously this old man is a magician, so Ugly charges at him and reveals it's actually Superman. Ugly tries to attack Superman but Supes throws embarrasses him even further.

THAT'S what they mean when people say "That shot was ugly!"(HA!!  Goddamnit, I laughed at that line...)

Ugly tries some more but he's outclassed and outmatched by big blue. Ugly realizes if he's not the strongest than he doesn't deserve Lois Lane. Two months later, Clark takes Lois to a wrestling show and they discover that The Ugly Superman is now working as The Gorgeous Superman(As opposed to the... Regular Superman, I guess?), because he's gotten plastic surgery. Sure, why the fuck not. Gorgeous asks Lois out on a date now that he doesn't look like he was beaten to death with an ugly tree, but Lois turns him down. She's saving her heart for the true Superman, while Clark whistles nonchalantly because he's secretly dating Lana Lang... probably.

Clark: Keep waiting, toots!

Thoughts: So... I enjoyed this as crazy as it sounds. Sure, it was weird, we got a sweet ugly idiot becoming a crazed, possessive, monster and then he was humiliated in front of all of his peers by the literal strongest man on the planet... so he got plastic surgery and now he's hot.(That sounds oddly like my bio...) Why he didn't do that from the very beginning, I have no idea. That said, this was a goofy, fun read. It was nice seeing that Lois wasn't superficial in the sense that she'd just happily be with Ugly once he was no longer Ugly.(Condescending?  Yes.  Superficial?  No.) It was also nice watching Superman destroy a man's livelihood by using his powers instead of just talking some sense into a crazy guy who just wanted some attention. Well.. not so much fun as tragic, but whatever. Tomato, Tomasso Ciampa.

# of pages: 9
# of panels Ugly beat up Clark for: 8
# of times the word Ugly was said: 13(Huh, I'd have expected more...  JT used the word like 50 times!)

Maximum Carnage part 9: Spectacular Spider-Man #202

Hey, we are rapidly motoring towards the end of this storyline! After I get through this next issue, I only have 5 left. That definitely deserves a huzzah!! Let's see how Spidey, Venom and the rest of the good guys do now that Carnage has shown them that he can keep respawning his symbiote whenever he bleeds.

Maximum Carnage part 9: Spectacular Spider-Man #202:

Summary: With Carnage back to full strength, Venom attacks him again along with Cloak and Morbius. Spider-Man and Firestar stand around pondering how they could work with somebody as blood-thirsty as Venom...

We get it!  You guys hate Venom!!  Either pitch in or move on!

Sheesh, this again? Black Cat yells at them for debating when they should be working on defeating Carnage, which shames the two into action. Shriek defeats Cloak and sends him running away by telling him that if he hadn't driven her insane to begin with, Dagger would still be alive. Shriek then reveals that she was the cause of all of the riots and madness in Manhattan since the whole Maximum Carnage thing began, since she could amplify Carnage's crazy and make others feel it. Or something like that... That whole thing really came out of left field... A mob of crazed people wander into the fight, causing Morbius to get fried by Demogoblin. Firestar discovers that sonics may not harm Carnage much anymore, but that flame is still a large weakness. Venom tells her to burn Carnage until there was nothing left,

I've said this a lot during this event, but once again, Venom is the voice of reason.

but Firestar bucks at the thought of murdering somebody. However, Spidey tells her that it was the only way(?!!?), which leads to her attacking Carnage with all of her power.

Man, Carnage can be quite the bitch at times...

At the last second though, Spidey realizes that wasn't who he was, and tells Firestar to stop. She does, which infuriates Venom, who goes to kill Firestar. Spidey tries to intervene, but is knocked a few blocks away by the furious Venom. By this point, Carnage and Shriek have regrouped and attack Venom, soundly defeating(heh heh, because she uses sound!) him thanks to Shriek's sonic abilities. Shriek tries to finish Venom off, but is stopped by Carnage(?!?), who wants to slowly torture Venom to death instead. With that, Carnage and Shriek escape with Venom. This issue ends with Captain America(!) arriving to help Spidey to his feet.

Oh snap, business just picked WAY up!

Thoughts: Well, this was a really good issue! There's a lot of stuff I enjoyed about this one, so I'll get my little quibbles out of the way first. The reveal that Shriek was somehow amplifying Carnage's madness and driving regular people crazy seemed really out of the blue and unnecessary. I'm not really sure what it adds to the story overall... Like, would things be any different if Shriek wasn't doing that? I guess it's to show that Spidey is more on edge than usual, but with all the evil shit Carnage is doing, wouldn't that be enough to push him to the brink? Also, Carnage stopping Shriek from killing Venom made no sense... His whole thing is chaos and murder... Why would Carnage suddenly decide to waste time torturing Venom when he could kill him, and then a few dozen others? On the plus side? Everything else! The legendary Sal Buscema did the artwork, which was really strong. I loved the scene where Spidey finally gave in and told Firestar to kill Carnage, before he realized what the hell he had done/said. Venom's reaction to that situation was perfect, especially since that was the second time in as many issues that Spidey has stopped somebody from killing Carnage.

For the record?  This is my favorite scene from this entire 14 part event.

And then it ends with frigging Captain America popping up to (literally) lend a hand. Cap showing up is a real game changer, due to the leadership he'll bring to Spidey and his crew. Let's face it, Spidey was a terribly ineffective leader. Venom is too crazy to lead, and the rest of the group is filled with lifetime followers. So Cap showing up really felt like a huge moment. Yeah, this was a great issue that has me eager to pick up the next one!

Teen Titans #14

It's time to continue our trek through the Teen Titans comics with a Beast Boy story... You know, the same Beast Boy who is completely unnecessary to this series... With Kid Flash on the team serving as the comedy relief, he's completely redundant, with his lame powers adding nothing to the team. So yeah, I'm not exactly a fan of him... With that said, I'm going to cross my fingers that this is a quickie two part storyline and after that we can move on to stories revolving around the more important Titans, ie: not Raven or Beast Boy...

Teen Titans #14(Oct. 2004)

Summary: It turns out that every child under 13 in San Francisco has been infected with the virus that lets Beast Boy do Beast Boy things. On top of that, the kids all seem stuck in the first form they took, so they are just stampeding around San Fran mindlessly. Oh, and in 48 hours they'll all die from the virus. So yeah, good times. Beast Boy learns that he's been completely cured of the virus, and is just a regular dude now. The rest of the Titans(with the exception of Superboy and Robin) are rounding up the infected kids and... putting them in cages, I guess? As for the aforementioned Superboy and Robin, they're in Gotham City where Superboy learns that Tim Drake has quit being Robin after his father (FINALLY) found out about his secret double life.

Superboy on his knees in Robin's bedroom...  Big shock there.

Superboy is bummed about that since that means their secret nighttime trysts will no longer be occurring. Back to San Fran, a doctor who had worked with Beast Boy's parents back in the day comes to San Fran to work with Beast Boy to try to discover a cure for the infected kids. However, SWERVE!!, the doctor turns out to be a bad guy and only wants to experiment on Beast Boy for his own evil-tastic reasons. And he seems to be a purple skinned Beast Boy who was responsible for infecting the children.

Thoughts: God help me, I actually liked this comic... A Beast Boy-centric comic and I liked it... Now, with that out of the way, I have to say, the reveal that Dr. Register was evil and behind infecting the kids was painfully obvious...

Why is Beast Boy dressed like he just came back from an African safari?

I mean, like the second his name came up, anybody who DIDN'T see his heel turn coming should just turn in all of their comic books. It was that obvious. Besides that, the virus seemed weirdly specific in that it infected every under 13 year old in San Fran... Like, how does THAT work? Why only people 13 and under? How does the virus know NOT to infect any 14 year olds? I mean I get storywise why it happened, but that's an awfully convenient virus, if you ask me... We also had a quick scene between Cassie and Ares that I'd be remiss for not mentioning here because it was so incredibly stupid... I mean, she calls Ares a pedophile! The God of War Ares!

Ares has done nothing but help Cassie and the Titans...  That's definitely grounds to insult him.

She... She's not even a child! Ugh, sometimes I just don't know with Geoff Johns...

Maximum Carnage part 8: Spider-Man #36

Yay, we're on the backside of the Maximum Carnage event! And since I've been enjoying it so much, I'm already thinking about what I can review next! I'm leaning heavily towards a certain Dark Knight, and am narrowing the choices of stories down. But that's down the road, right now let's see what Spidey and company are going to do against the awesome might of Carnage!

Maximum Carnage part 8: Spider-Man #36:

Summary: Spidey and company head to the Daily Bugle and have Jameson print a headline telling Carnage to return to his home...

Good ol' helpful Jameson.

That home being the Brooklyn orphanage. Carnage heads there with his crew, unable to resist the chance to kill Spidey and Venom. Meanwhile, Iron Fist pops up to assist the firemen who were trying to cut Deathlok down from the marque Carnage hung him from. Back to the orphanage, Spidey and his team attack Carnage's group and we have another brawl on our hands. This time though, the heroes are firmly in control, probably due to the fight spilling outside, meaning Carnage can't use his trump card, collapsing the roof on Spidey and escaping. Venom, with the sonic blaster, along with Firestar, blast away at Carnage, destroying his symbiote and leaving him vulnerable.

I don't know what "face meat" is, nor do I want to know...

Venom moves in for the kill, but wouldn't you know it, Spidey pulls Venom away... Ah Spider-Man... Shriek slashes Carnage with her nails, drawing blood, and causing another symbiote to grow out of Carnage, much to the surprise of the heroes. This issue ends with Carnage renewed and ready to fight again.

My plan B is always, "Fall down and pretend to cry" but that doesn't help here.

Thoughts: I know Spidey doesn't kill... And I knew that he'd, of course, stop Venom from killing Carnage, but I couldn't help but shake my head a little bit when he did step in to halt Venom from finishing off Carnage... It would have been so easy for him to just turn his head, or punch Demogoblin or something. I mean, I totally get it, I know how Spidey operates, but jeez, if anybody deserves the Venom, “eat your brains!!” treatment, it's definitely Carnage. Moving on, I really liked Iron Fist showing up to help Deathlok, as that helps to negate some of my complaints about no other New York heroes appearing in this crossover. I also liked the touch with Carnage being able to just continuously respawn his symbiote. It means that, unlike Venom, you can never separate it from him, which makes him that much tougher to defeat.

JT Review: Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #82

Hey Todd Squad, JT here once again with another review! Now I know what you're thinking... Why do you keep reviewing these Jimmy Olsen comics? Well the answer is, I have no earthly idea. While they are dreadful, they're sometimes so asinine that they're fun. And we should be in for a fun one tonight! Something you all may not know, is that X and I are HUGE fans of pro-wrestling. So after seeing this cover, I HAD to review this baby.

 Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #82

Superman tapping out? John Cena would be ashamed.

Summary:  Things start off when Jimmy visits his pal, Professor Potter. Old Potsy tells Jimbo that he has a formula that can make whoever takes it stronger than Superman. It's called Crack. I'm kidding... partially. Jimmy puts the formula in his pocket then heads to work. Perry remarks that Superman is wrestling for charity at a Daily Planet event tonight but he needs an opponent... seems like something you should've set up before the day of the event. Jimmy vows to beat Superman without using Kryptonite, so Perry takes him up on his bet and raises to stakes to a hundred bucks!

Why... why can't Jimmy call him Chief?

Jimmy stops at the pharmacy to buy a bottle of water to take with the formula, then heads to the big match. As Jimmy heads to the ring, Perry scans him with a Kryptonite detection device that Superman once gave him, ensuring that Jimmy is clean. Once Olsen gets to the ring, our introductions get underway!

Red-Headed Demon? Well shit...

Superman tells Jimmy it would be unethical to throw the match, but he'll take it easy on him. Jimmy tells Supes to bring everything he has and the match begins! Jimmy beats Superman in TWO panels and makes him tap out as the crowd watches in disbelief. Jimmy and Superman shake hands to show there's no hard feelings and Muscles Olsen heads to the back. Backstage, Jimmy overhears some street toughs (I wrote that for you, X) telling Lionel the Lion Man to take a dive in his next match. You stupid marks... Jimmy gets involved and tells them he's going to kick their ass, but in a PG way. Jimmy attacks but they don't budge... oh God, this is going to be one of those Superman let Jimmy win and now Jimmy gets his ass kicked stories, isn't it?

Yup...

Jimmy gets knocked the fuck out, then heads to his car. Lucy Lane hops in and is ready to go "celebrate", but Jimmy would rather go see Prof. Pothead. Oh Jimmy, you're such a moron. Jimmy gets more of the super ser- oops, I think that's a Marvel thing. Super... powered... drink from Potter, and luckily Superman is there doing experiments for some reason, so Jimmy has someone to test it on. Jimmy goes into the other room and beats up Superman like a dick-ish older brother. Jimmy hears Lucy screaming so he runs outside and sees she's being accosted. He leaps into action and gets knocked out once again!

At a certain point, this is just Superman's fault for being an asshole.

Jimmy questions big Potta, why can he beat up Superman but no one else? Potter tells him not to doubt the serum, so the next day Jimmy waits for Superman to show up at the planet then takes a swig of the drink. Jimmy runs over and punches Superman in the gut and damn near breaks his own hand. Jimmy's confused, because the night before he made Superman his bitch in the squared circle. Superman explains that he was on a space mission the night before. Superman and Jimmy decide to go spy on old man Potter.

I can honestly say, I did NOT see this coming.

It turns out... Potter was dressing up like Superman somehow and faking all these interactions with Jimmy, so Jimmy wouldn't lose faith in him when yet another one of his experiments was a flop. Dude... you need a woman or a hobby or something because that shit is sad and depressing. Superman waits for Potter to put away his Superman disguise then he and Jimmy enter Potter's home. Instead of calling Potter's old crazy ass on his shit, Jimmy and Superman pretend to wrestle and Superman "wins" thanks to Potter's miracle drug!

Am I fucking going over?

Somehow, this charade allows Potter to come to his senses and become normal again. Pot-Pot thanks Superman and Jimmy for restoring his sanity. Yep, he actually said that. The issue ends with Supes and Jimmy going to get Hero sandwiches.

Thoughts: Okay... So ignoring the whole old man dresses up like Superman and fools hundreds of people thing, and the whole, Jimmy doesn't ACTUALLY have superpowers, he's just beating up some crazy old dude... there are ACTUAL criminals that just get away with shit! Like, those dudes told the Lion dude to take a dive and then they beat up Jimmy and left! So they actually bullied that dude into taking a dive. And some creep tries to get handsy or worse with Lucy Lane and he just GETS AWAY! Meanwhile, Superman is putting on wrestling shows for an audience of one! What if something happened where Jimmy tried to use that strength and got himself killed because of this damn old man? "Ah well, Jimmy's dead, back to my experiments!"

# of pages: 8
# of criminals that got away: 3
# of times Jimmy attacked "Superman": 5

Teen Titans #13

Well, we've made it through two story arcs and 12 issues of this series. I have to say, so far this series hasn't lived up to my memory of it. I remember really liking these early issues, while souring on the later issues. But these first 12 issues really haven't been very impressive at all... If these were supposed to be the good issues, I'm literally terrified by how bad the later issues are going to get! As for this issue, from the looks of the cover this will probably be a one and done comic, which is a nice change of pace. Well, let's get to it.

Teen Titans #13(Sept. 2004)

Summary: The Titans get some bloodwork to make sure they haven't been diseased by Brother Blood before getting some R&R.

What time is it?  It's time for the gun show!!!

Or at least most of them do, as Superboy refuses to get his blood checked, while Robin is a no-show. Also, Beast Boy seems to be sick, which I only add in case that turns out to be important to the story later on. From there we head to Gotham City, where Superboy is looking for his little buddy Robin, but instead finds Spoiler back when she was Robin. Or as known sexist pig Dan Didio would call her, NOT Robin EVER!!!!! Superboy asks for information on Robin's whereabouts(the boy Robin that is... This is going to get confusing fast...), but Robin(the girl one...) refuses to tell him anything. And then, of course, Batman pops up and tells Superboy to leave Robin(the girl one...) alone and to figure out a way to find Robin(GAH!!!!) with his super-powers. From there we head back to the other Titans, who are shocked to see a bunch of green animals charge out of an elementary school. While they wrangle the animal children, Beast Boy loses his green pigmentation and seems to be powerless.

Thoughts: Ugh, now we get a Beast Boy story?! What the hell, Geoff Johns? What the hell??? Actually, now that I think about it, this series has been really heavily focused on the older Titans, at the expense of the younger ones. Robin has no storyline at all going, Superboy has the stupid Lex Luthor storyline, which is on the back burners right now, Wonder Girl has something going with Ares, but it's barely been explored at all, and Kid Flash had a costume change. The villains have been Deathstroke, Jericho and Brother Blood, and the story lately has been all about Raven.

Why is the bird flying into the ground/Raven's ass crack?

All of those people are connected to the older Titans. That honestly makes me wonder why DC even bothered to cancel Young Justice and fold the YJ characters into the Titans book in the first place... Clearly Johns has more interest in the older characters(Geoff Johns only interested in old characters?! Perish the thought!), so why not just make this series about them? But then, I don't understand anything DC does(New 52 anybody?), so why try to figure this out? All in all, this was an inoffensive comic book with some legit funny moments. I just wish it revolved around anybody besides Beast Boy...

Man, Wonder Girl is another character who is just super bitchy for no good reason in this series.

Maximum Carnage part 7: Amazing Spider-Man #379

We've finally made it to official halfway point of this here Maximum Carnage event. So far it's been like a roller coaster, we started on a high, dropped down a bit, but started to pull back up with the last part. The cover of this issue promises that “Things get even wilder!” I think that means I should get to reading!

Maximum Carnage part 7: Amazing Spider-Man #379:

Summary: We open with a strategy session between the good guys.

Aww, that Venom is a good guy.

They decide to recruit Firestar to help against Carnage due to fire being a weakness of the symbiote he wears. They also decide to break into the Fantastic Four's headquarters to swipe the Mr. Fantastic's sonic gun in order to exploit the other weakness of Carnage. Also, we learn that the Avengers and the Fantastic Four(as well as all of the New Warriors save one) are out of town at a super hero convention or something... On top of that, an unnatural wave a violence is starting to move through the normal people of Manhattan. Carnage's crew is joined by Carrion, who just randomly starts to kill people along with them without saying a word...

Hey look, it's Carrion!

Okay then... Deathlok steps in to attack Carnage and his gang, but winds up getting overwhelmed by the numbers game and strung up on a billboard. On the other side of the fence, Spidey and company are successful in stealing the sonic blaster from Four Freedoms Plaza, while Cloak manages to locate Firestar, who is eager to help out.

Wait, does the sonic blaster have it's own room?  Shouldn't it be in an armory or something?

And that about wraps this one up.

Thoughts: This issue was more about setting up the pieces on the game board more than anything else. The good guys added Firestar and Mr. Fantastic's sonic gun, while Carnage recruited Carrion in order to bolster his side. Demogoblin is still teetering on the edge of turning on Carnage due to Carnage's stubborn refusal to put any type of a plan into effect. I'll also add that I really liked the fact that Deathlok stepped up and tried to halt Carnage, because that's an aspect to this story that hasn't really been touched upon at all. We have Spidey and the good guys, and we have Carnage and the bad guys. But that's it. I mean, in the Marvel Universe there's like a zillion super types living in Manhattan, but none of them thought it would be helpful to try to stop Carnage? Yeah, the FF and Avengers are conveniently out of town, as are the New Warriors, except for Firestar(once again, convenient), but what about the Darkhawks,Luke Cages or Sleepwalkers of the world? Or even a guy like Iron Man, who wasn't an Avenger at this time, why couldn't he fly in to help? Or hell, the frigging X-Men live right upstate, they could lend a hand. Shit, even Firestar should have been out there doing something before being asked by Cloak! She said she was at the New Warriors headquarters, and that her teammates weren't around. Shouldn't SHE have been out and about trying to assist people? Instead of just ignoring the c-list heroes, why not have Carnage tear through a few of them like he did to Deathlok here? That was definitely a step in the right direction, but also served to shine a light on the fact that nobody else is bothering to do anything...

Teen Titans #12

Okay, we've reached the (merciful) end to the second Teen Titans storyline, which involves Brother Blood and Raven. On the plus side, we know why Blood wants Raven(to launch the end of the world). On the negative side, everything else. Oh yeah, and Jericho is randomly back too! I almost forgot about that. Hopefully his story with Deathstroke gets wrapped up in this issue too, although with the way things have been going, I'm not gonna hold my breath on that.

Teen Titans #12(August 2004)

Summary: Ah, okay. All of the Titans weren't sucked into Raven, Cyborg, Superboy and Wonder Girl remained defeated on the outside. Brother Blood doesn't kill them though because he's clearly an idiot. Meanwhile, inside Raven, Jericho continues to rant about children in costumes and starts to body hop into various people, all while promising he'd get into Deathstroke and kill him. Next, Raven randomly summons... Um, demons? Her soul self? Shadow demons? I'm not sure which, but something along those lines. The demons begin to attack Blood's hooded goons, which Blood is fine with since they obviously weren't that dedicated to him anyway.

This also happened.

The Titans inside of Raven also get expelled because reasons. Cyborg decides that the way to get Raven under control was to put that gem back on her forehead(when the hell did that become a thing?!). Beast Boy collects the gem from inside of Brother Blood(that dude eats everything...) and pushes it back on Raven's head. While all of this is going down, Cyborg tricks Jericho into jumping into him, which allows Cyborg to put Jericho on a disk...

No, he's on the disk labeled "Not Jericho"  Moron...

Uh-huh... Raven manages to send the demons as well as Blood and his followers somewhere(a hell-like dimension? Inside Raven? Somewhere else?), which ends Blood's threat. With that, Raven is offered a place on the Titans... All of this story just to put her on the team?!? This one ends with Ravager stabbing herself in the eye to prove to Deathstroke that she was committed to him.

Thoughts: It's over!!!!! Huzzah!!!!! Wooo baby was this storyline a headache and a half to get through! I will say this though, outside of Superboy and Luthor, along with Deathstroke and Ravager, all of the story arcs from the first 12 issues did get wrapped up here. Jericho is a disc now(and only a measly 210 mbs), Brother Blood is off in Parts Unknown, and Raven is on the Titans. Like I said in the thoughts section, this was a whole lot of work just to get Raven on the team... Especially since she doesn't really add anything except MORE angst. I'm sure we'll be getting the ridiculous Superboy/Luthor storyline soon, but until then, hopefully we get some good stories... Please?

JT Review: Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #88

Hey Todd Squad, (X always hated that name, so I'm bringing it back!) JT is back with another review! I  know, I'm shocked too! Two weeks in a row? Who'd a thunk it?! This time we'll be checking in with our favorite ginger, Jimmy Olsen!

 Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #88

With a cover like THIS, how could I not review this issue? So, let's see what has Superman grooving out, daddy-o!

Summary: We start things off with Jimmy picking up Lucy Lane from the airport. He discovers Lucy was the stewardess on a private plane for a rock star named Rick Rock. Turns out Rick wrote a song for Lucy and invites her to be his special guest during his "rock-n-roll dance sessions." Jimmy, much like myself, can tell that clearly Rick is talking about banging Lucy, so he calls Rick a "small-time tonsil tickler.", thus ruining Jimmy's credibility AND getting him beat up by a bunch of Rick's female fans. Jimmy gets his ass beat by girls so badly that he calls Superman for help. Superman saves Jimmy, and a distraught Jimmy tells Superman to take him home. HAHAHA! Oh Jimmy... poor, stupid Jimmy.

He's gonna cry when he gets home.

Jimmy decides that since he took guitar lessons ONCE... he's going to start a band. For some reason, Perry and Superman help him out and they announce this via the newspaper and announce that Superman will be the master of ceremonies for the debut of Jimmy Olsen's band. What's the name of Jimmy's band you ask, dear reader? Why it's "Jimmy Olsen and his Carrot-Top Cut-Ups" of course! Jimmy and his band practice and for some reason a photographer from a magazine is assigned to take pictures of them all week until their big debut. The night of the "big" debut, the drummer flakes, probably because he was tired of being teased for being a Carrot Cake Clip Clop or whatever. Luckily for Jimbo and the rest of the Cut-Ups, the photographer just HAPPENS to know how to play the drums! The photographer puts on one of the spare red wigs and joins the band on-stage. Before the show begins, Lois wishes Jimmy good luck and hopes he can win her sister back from the rocker she left Jimmy to be with... well, alright. Also, Superman shows up and gives a speech, because it's apparently also the Fourth of July.

This alien just compared the birth of our nation to a group of gingers starting a band. No wonder Lex hates you.

The band starts playing and Superman tells Jimmy that his music triggered his super-memories of his babyhood on Krypton... WHAT?! I... how would that even work?! And what makes them SUPER memories? Anyway, Superman starts this story with a memory of his dad using a rope gun on his mom, so we could get some of that sweet, sweet, Superwoman bondage action in this comic.

In front of your son? Damn Jor-El, you one freaky sumbitch.

Superman's dad was taking this super useful sex device to the patent office when his family sees a bunch of Kryptonians doing the latest dance craze, The Krypton Crawl. Kal-El, whom to my knowledge was a fucking BABY when he left Krypton, asks his mom "Why you dancing in the street, Mommy?" It turns out, there's some crazy ass sea monster that had a siren-like call and was luring the Kryptonians into it's mouth. How the fuck does he remember this?! Also... Krypton sounds horrifying! I'm glad it blew up. Anyway, Jor-El saves the day with his magical bondage gun.

Bondage. James... Bondage.

So Superman finishes this story... then tells Jimmy he remembers the music and it was catchy, so he writes it down for him and his band to perform. I'm sorry, what?! They play the song and Superman loses all control and starts dancing. He didn't think that this could possibly be a terrible idea? Superman dances so much that a flag pole broke and is careening towards him but Superman has gots to keep grooving, so he stops it with his head while continuing to dance. 

Look at him go! He's like Showtime Dynomite!

Superman keeps dancing all the way to the docks just like the Kryptonians of old, and his "friend", Jimmy Olsen allows this to happen. Superman dances all the way to a ship that's full of beasts, then the spell of the Kryptonian Crawl wears off for some reason and they leave the ship and never interact with any of the beasts because why would they?! 

Anyway, Jimmy's drummer leaves after taking a few more pictures. We soon learn that the drummer is ACTUALLY an international spy. He actually DRUGGED the real drummer then he doused Superman with red Kryptonite then told him to lie about that childhood story,The reason for this convoluted plan was so the photographer/drummer/spy could plant some explosive gas under the life boat to free the dangerous creatures so they could be free to menace all American shipping freighters. Holy shit that is a stupid plan! And it gets dumber, because Superman somehow realizes this is the plan so he FAKES THE EXPLOSION and then catches the criminal! But the icing on the cake is how Superman discovers that he was hoodwinked!

That's a HUGE leap!

So the issue ends with the drumming spy getting arrested and The Krypton Crawl becoming a top hit, even though it was only played live at a Fourth of July show. Jimmy and Lucy dance to the song as Jimmy asks Lucy what happened to Rick Rock. Lucy replies, "Who cares?" which I can only assume means they had sex and he never called her back. Rock on, Jimmy, Rock on!

Thoughts:  Good lord. I've read some bad comics before but this thing was all over the place. Jimmy loses his girl on the SECOND PAGE, then we get a random ass story about Superman's childhood which made no sense because it shouldn't have happened. Then we get an explanation that basically says, oh, by the way, that was all a lie and Superman got drugged by red Kryptonite. Then we learn that this whole plan was put in place by international spies, and Superman catches them due to the fact that the fake photographer didn't take enough pictures?! For this to be a Jimmy Olsen comic, he was barely in it! He just lost his girl, started a band and got his girl back because the other dude didn't want her!

Also, If Superman's whole story was a lie, how the hell did he write up the melody of that Krypton Crawl song?!  And why even make a story about his dad taking a sex gun to the patent office?!

# of pages: 8
# of panels of Superman dancing: 11!
# of times freaky Jor El used his bondage gun: 2

Maximum Carnage part 6: Web of Spider-Man #102

And we're up to part six. That's pretty much all I have for an opener here... Um yeah, let's get to it!

Maximum Carnage part 6: Web of Spider-Man #102

Summary: Hey hey, it's an all out action issue, kids! We get started with Venom adding Morbius to his team, which is something Black Cat isn't exactly pleased about. Meanwhile, Mary Jane is partying at a dance club to forget her recent troubles with her husband, you know, that Spidery-guy. Unfortunately for her, Carnage and his crew set upon the place and start to kill club goers left and right. Venom and company arrive, which means the fight is on! During the action, Venom saves MJ from Carnage in a fun little scene.

Venom is fantastically dick-ish here!

Spidey eventually arrives and throws his lot in with Venom's group. The good guys begin to make some headway, which causes Carnage to order Demogoblin to destroy the roof of the club, burying several of the patrons and allowing Carnage to escape with his lackeys.

If the bad guys ever fight the heroes in a roofless environment, they're screwed.

Spidey manages to get Venom to lend a hand helping the injured club goers, and once that's done, agrees to follow Venom until the bitter end. And that about wraps this one up.

Thoughts: This was a really good issue, especially after how meh the past 2 or 3 parts have been. Sure, the mighty hammer of coincidence struck by having MJ at the very club Carnage was attacking, but I can overlook that since it really didn't add or detract from the story much. Granted, I don't know why that club was even open if Carnage was in the area, but what can ya do. One thing I will say is that Carnage's group has been nearly beaten twice now, and had to resort to dropping the ceiling on the good guys both times before escaping... That's slowly starting to seep into bad writing territory... Either come up with another way to have Carnage win or escape, or don't put him against the good guys in the first place. Other than that though, this was a pretty good issue that pulled this event out of the doldrums... For now!!!

You have to admit, Carnage sure does do original stuff with his costume.