Alright, So here are my top 3 picks of April, plus another special mention… I think that’s just gonna be a part of this thing… No attempt at humor. Let’s just get straight to it.

First off, we have Nonplayer #1 by Nate Simpson. This was a book that seemed to just ooze buzz from all over the place. In the week before the comic’s release, I took at least 10 phone calls that were asking about the release of this book. I just thought it looked cool. So when I finally purchased it, I was happy to see that whatever was being posted all over the internet about this book, was probably well deserved. What we were given was a beautifully illustrated story about a girl and the online game that she plays. During the course of the story, she ends up killing the NPC (Non-Player Character, which essentially means computer controlled character) wife of NPC King Heremoth, things take a turn for the strange, when the game characters reacted like living beings instead of having a “scripted reaction.” With the gaming session finished, we find ourselves in a distant future where everyone can sorta “jack” into network that allows them to change how they can precept the world. It’s pretty cool stuff. It also looks like the book sold out at the distribution level immediately. But there is hope. The second printing should be out by the time this is posted, so… Here’s your chance to see something cool.

Next up is the release of Superman/Batman Annual #5 by James Robinson and Miguel Sepulveda. Readers of the Star Clipper blog should know by now that I’m a big fan of Superman and his variants, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that I’ve been enjoying the “Reign of Doomsday” event that’s been going on across the DC books. This one may be a favorite entry of the whole thing, seeing as it’s the first book since the Steel One Shot that came out a few months back that has been able to dedicate an entire issue to the Doomsday plot. The other books have had other plots going on that have ranged from interesting to kinda boring. I wont name names… But this entry saw Supergirl and the Cyborg Superman going toe-to-toe with Doomsday while Bat-Grayson was getting beat-up by JLA Satellite holograms (like when the holodecks in malfunction in Star Trek). Here we saw the Cyborg Superman actually fighting for pride, instead of wanting to die. It was beautiful. And I felt for him. I wanted him to win, even with the knowledge that he killed millions, it just seemed like the right thing to happen. But… That just wasn’t to be…

Which brings us to the third comic, Action Comics #900. This comic’s main story brought us a couple of really cool things. The first being that all the various Supermen were placed in the same room for what I believe was the first time ever. The second cool thing was that we learned who was behind the appearance of Doomsday and the secret why Doomsday kept showing off new powers. And lastly, we saw Lex Luthor win. He beat Superman, he beat the universe, and he even brought peace to it. But only for a moment. Luthor’s downfall was his rage that couldn’t be stifled when he learned of Superman’s secret identity. Yes, Lex Luthor finally discovered that Clark Kent was also Superman. No tricks would be played here. But… I wonder how long that’s going to last… Seeing as Flashpoint is right around the corner, and I, like most others, expect for the history of the DC Universe to be changed once more. I guess, since they didn’t put “Crisis” in the title, they thought that it would be ok. But I’m off topic. I enjoyed the primary story of the book. I also really enjoyed the Jor-El story that was included as well as the story that took Superman to the Middle East and back to Camp David.

Now, with that being said, I’d just like to point out that I didn’t choose this issue because of the controversy that revolves around Superman wanting to renounce his US Citizenship. No. He can do whatever he wants. He’s an alien, and what he had to say about the matter had some truth to it. That’s just how it is. This past FCBD, we had superheroes hanging out at the store the entire day. One of them was Superman. When I asked him about the comic situation and if people give him crap about it, he told me yes. He gets a lot of crap over it, but his responses for those hecklers are very much those that would come from Superman. He’s handling it very well. But come on people? Some of you out there should have better things to do than to call Superman a traitor while you’re downtown at a Cards game. And I’d imagine that every city’s Superman is getting the same grief as well. Cut it out and think of the children that are watching you badmouth Supes.

Now for my special mention… That honor goes to Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #2. Why? Because some little bastard of a child choose to steal a prehistoric egg from a museum during an “earthquake”. When he got home, he took the egg out of his backpack just in time to see a baby Rodan hatch. Being the “good” kid that he is, he decided to feed the baby Rodan his neighbor’s cat. Hours later, when he was finally able to steal the cat, the boy returned home to find that the baby Rodan was no longer a baby, but full grown. The Rodan ate kid, destroyed most of his home, then left the cat behind. This is what a Godzilla comic is supposed to be. Because if there is no chaos, then why bother? And I’d like to think that eating a child in any context is chaos. That’s why Godzilla: KOM #2 gets a special mention.

-Fleet

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