Quick Hits – Wolverine And The X-Men #3, Green Lantern Corps #4, And Ghost Rider #7

Call this post “The Good, The Bad, and WTF”. Here are some books we’ve talked about before. Let’s check in to see how they’re doing now.

The Good

Wolverine And The X-Men written by Jason Aaron with pencils by Chris Bachalo, Duncan Rouleau and Matteo Scalera wraps up the opening story arc of Wolverine’s first day trying to run a school for young mutants. I enjoyed the first issue. Aaron continues to bring humor to this tale, now up to issue #3. He pens an engaging story that reminds the reader that your typical teen can be an obnoxious handful who believes deeply that they are the hero of not only their own story but everyone else’s. Still, all the kids want to do is fit in somehow, in his or her own way.

More goodness, badness and wtf-ness after the jump…and spoilers.

Yeah, well, did any of you make the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs? No? Then shut up.

And the art team also brings me the panels that may be the new wallpaper for my computer. With attacking Krakoas, Saurons and Wendigos being just a few of the issues Wolverine needed to face today, you’d think the man would deserve a quiet drink when it was all over. Not so much:

No! Not the whiskey!

The Bad
After demonstrating some improvement in issue 3, Peter J. Tomasi decides in issue 4 that he can’t figure out a way to write himself out of a corner during an interrogation scene between Guy Gardner and a foot soldier for the new bad guy without having Martian Manhunter show up, seemingly randomly, find out the vital information Gardner has been unable to retrieve, and then mindwipe Guy like he was never there in the first place. I’m sorry, but that’s just fucking lazy. Newsarama has the details on the first crossover event in the new DCU and it’s not between Green Lantern Corps and Stormwatch…although a nameless DC exec goes on to say:

there are more crossovers coming in the DCU in 2012, but they’re being approached as a way to expand upon stories and characters instead of a sales gimmick.

Hey, DC – I’m already buying both Green Lantern Corps and Stormwatch. I don’t need a crossover to pull me in. Furthermore if the lazy writing continues, they’re going to get dropped from my weekly pulls. You’ve been warned.

Oh, but Fernando Pasarin’s pencils are well drawn. That’s a help, but not enough to overcome ham fisted plotting.

The WTF?
Ok, I really enjoyed Ghost Rider #6. So, issue number 7…ok, I don’t know a lot about the back story of Ghost Rider or past villains, but…what the fuck is this:

LOL, what?

Rob Williams, oh, writer dude behind that exchange, really, what were you thinking with that? I gather the purple haired girl isn’t playing with a full deck, but people just don’t talk like her…outside of one of the Star Wars movies where they let George Lucas write the script. And those are the shitty Star Wars movies. I call Jar Jar on that.

Lee Garbett draws a nice take on Hawkeye in this issue, though. And as weird as the dialogue coming out of Purple Haired Nutjob’s mouth is, Williams has a great sense of Johnny Blaze, who makes a welcome return to the story.

So, there you have it: the good, the bad and the thing that made me go what the fuck for the week of December 23, 2011.