Comic Mini-Reviews Week of February 22nd, 2012

This week: Jonah Hex kicks a bat, Mera is exaggerated to almost satirical proportions, and Wolverine is fun.

All Star Western #6 – Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti's romp through Old West Gotham comes to an end as Jonah Hex parts Doctor Arkham's company and heads to New Orleans. Hopefully, a brief trip to Nawlins will recharge All Star. The first issue of the series was filled with promise that the subsequent issues haven't really captured. The series has never been bad, just kind of stagnant. Arkham was a fun way to introduce Hex to the audience but, after issue one, there really isn't much for him to do. The reveal at the end of issue six promises a more shoot'em up type of team up during Hex's sojourn to the Big Easy. Moritat is still one of the best monthly artists associated with the New 52. There is just something classic looking about his lines and facial expression work.

Aquaman #6 – After spending five issues trying to convince us Aquaman is awesome, Geoff Johns switches to Mera. The problem is that she's kind of a weird character. Few outside of comic-fanboydom even know who she is, and most of those readers would already know she is pretty bad-ass. Issue six deals with current plot points but is mostly a diversion from the storyline. I mean, I like Mera but there's something so exaggerated about Johns' characters in Aquaman that the book feels almost satirical.

The Flash #6 – Flash continues to be one of the best looking books of the New 52. The writing is solid, but nothing spectacular. Even though the book is pretty good, I'm not sure how well some of the character changes work. For example, I feel like they stole Mister Freeze's back-story just to fill out Captain Cold motivations. (Not to mention that this apparent change represents another in a long line of female superhero/supervillains that seems to have been depowered.) Regardless, it's a freaking gorgeous book thanks to Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato's art.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #6 – I know it isn't good, but I enjoy it. Seriously, I have no idea why I like it so much. I mean, Kyle Rayner is my favorite Green Lantern, but that doesn't mean I like everything he's in as a general rule. New Guardians is just a classic C-level comic book with a fun premise and classic superheroics. Sometimes comic books don't need to be brilliant--they can just be fun.

Justice League Dark #6 – After kind of a piecemeal, somewhat organic team-building first few issues, the second arc of Justice League Dark takes a slightly more structured approach to story-telling. Peter Milligan still refuses to write the team like a traditional book but that's fine. I would rather have a book like that than an point A to B, Super Friends-style series. Strangely, I feel like JLD is a book where no one has much to do. I realize things are accomplished in each issue, but often I couldn't tell you exactly what.

The Ray #3 – If I had to compare The Ray to another book that came out this week, it would be Green Lantern: New Guardians. As much as I like them, neither series is really anything special—just traditional comic book fun. The art by Jamal Igle is solid and the story-telling by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti is straightforward. One of the most important things is that the new version of The Ray is perfectly likable. The hardest to achieve goal for a new legacy character is to win over the fans of the old version character and I think The Ray is achieving that so far.

Wolverine and the X-men #6 – Still one of the most fun books on my pull-list. There's just an energy to Wolverine and the X-men that none of the other books I read monthly can match. Every character in the book is likeable and, despite juggling a huge cast, it feels like everyone gets enough screen-time. Really, I can't say enough about this book. It's not groundbreaking and the plot points are nothing we haven't seen before, but the story-telling is just so smooth and energetic. Jason Aaron, with help by current artist Nick Bradshaw, has created a book that is as fun and enjoyable as Scalped isn't. (ZING! I know, it's a good book...I just can't deal with it!)