BB Review Group week 37 - JLA: Classified #10 (spoilers)

[Thudpucker]

the fine print is at the bottom of the post*

This week, we are reading / reviewing:

JLA: Classified #10 (DC) by Warren Ellis and Butch Guise, chosen by DrSettleton.

Next week were are reading: Justice #1 (DC) by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger and Doug Braithwaite, chosen by The Saint


Our Reviewers are:

Thudpucker - 7
TIP - 7
TonyFleecs - 7.5
Kirby's Corpse - 7.7
neophyte - 7
rodnunley - 7
Jaypee - MIA
dEnny - 8
J. R. Scherer - 7
Criden - ?
Nathan Patton -
anThONY_s - 7
Frozen Sooner - 5.5
alan - 9
Freeway2k - 7.5
The beggar - 7
Raydawggie - 9
**Blake4000 -
Opus Croakus - 6
JABSEN - 7
itsdlevy - 8
Mad Monkey - 7
DrSettleton - 6
The Saint - 7
Slingy - 8
IamLegend - 7
Boris the Blade - 7
Shepherd - 6
seesoul -
joey pizza - 8
MudshovelForYou - 7.5
PeteL - 8


Our Previous 16 weeks of reviews (scores lost during the Image Board crash)

Week 1 - 11/17/04 – Captain America #1
Week 2 - 11/24/04 – Flash #216
Week 3 - 12/01/04 – Darkness Vol. 2 #17 (av grade 3.7)
Week 4 - 12/08/04 – Demo #12
Week 5 - 12/15/04 - Plastic Man #13
Week 6 - 12/22/04 – Goon #10
Week 7 - 12/29/04 - Legion of Super Heroes #1
Week 8 - 01/05/05 – Flaming Carrot #1
Week 9 - 01/12/05 – Majestic #1
Week 10 - 01/19/05 – Human Target #18
Week 11 - 01/26/05 – Conan #12 (av grade 8.3)
Week 12 - 02/02/05 – Black Panther #1
Week 13 - 02/09/05 – Young Avengers #1
Week 14 - 02/16/05 – Ex Machina #8 (av grade 8.4)
Week 15 - 02/23/05 – X-Men #167
Week 16 - 03/02/05 – Ultimate Iron Man #1

Week 17 pick - Shining Knight #1 (Morrison & Bianchi) av grade - 7.8
Week 18 pick - Invincible #21 (Kirkman and Ottley) av grade - 6.3
Week 19 pick - Expatriate #1 (Moore and Latour) av grade - 5.4
Week 20 pick - Temporary #2 (Hurd & Smith) av grade - 7.4
Week 21 pick - GLA #1 (Slott and Pelletier) av grade - 6.8
Week 22 pick - Nightwing #107 (Grayson and Hester) av grade - 5.8
Week 23 pick - Iron Ghost #1 (Dixon and Cariello) av grade - 4.9
Week 24 pick - City Of Tomorrow (Howard Chaykin) av grade - 6.2
Week 25 pick - Villains United #1 (Simone and Eaglesham) av grade - 5.7
Week 26 pick - Desolation Jones #1 (Ellis and Williams III) av grade - 8.9
Week 27 pick - Guardian #2 (Morrison and Stewart) av grade - 6.1
Week 28 pick - Adv. Of Superman #640 (Rucka and Kerschl) av grade - 6.1
Week 29 pick - Son Of Vulcan #1 (Beatty and Grant) av grade - 3.7
Week 30 pick - JLA #115 (Johns, Heinberg, Batista) av grade - 6.9
Week 31 pick - Wildsiderz #0 (Campbell and Hartnell) av grade - 2.9
Week 32 pick - Astro City: The Dark Age #1 av grade - 7.3
Week 33 pick - Albion #1 (Moore and Oakley) av grade - 5.0
Week 34 pick - Gotham Central #33 (Rucka, Brubaker, Kano) av grade - 8.5
Week 35 pick - Mutopia X (Hine and Medina) av grade - 5.2
Week 36 pick - Athiest #2 (Hester and McCrea) av grade -


Our higest average grade so far was for Desolation Jones #1 with 8.9
Our lowest average grade so for is Wildsiderz #0 with 2.9


Our Sponsors:

Isotope Comics (SF Bay area)



Orbit Comics (Hillsboro, OR)



(If any other retailers would like to sponsor our reviewers in your area, I'd be happy to promote your store in the thread too )

*This review group is the 'mainstream' one now - that means we only review books from the 4 main comic Publishers: Marvel, DC, Image, and Dark Horse (and any imprints like Vertigo, Wildstorm, and Icon).

A list for what books are shipping can be found here:

http://www.diamondcomics.com/shipping.asp.

What we do is take turns picking and talking about a new book every week. We work our way down the list, so that everyone gets a turn chosing a title and then we all buy and read that choice. After we read it, we review it and grade it (the grading is optional, you can just talk about the book if you'd rather)

Everyone is welcome, all we ask is that you participate in some way every week. If you need to drop out for awhile, cool. You are always welcome back. If you would like to join, just PM Thudpucker or Denny and we'll get you on the list.

I will never pester people about participation, I don't like doing that. Instead I will simply put a * next to your name when you skip a week. And I take those back off again after a few weeks. If you had a reason to skip, PM me and I'll take them off.

It's just a simple reminder to please participate.

* means you skipped a week, ** means you skipped 2 weeks. at the third one, I drop your name from the list until you ask to join back up again. And anyone dropped from the list really is welcome to return when they want, please come back if you want to participate again.

[Slingy]

Why isn't this sticky? Anyway:

This story looks promising. Ellis rarely disappoints, and this is not one of those times. I'm a little less familiar with Butch Guice's work (didn't he used to be Jackson? What's the deal there?) but it was pretty solid the whole way through. I loved the banter between Clark and Lois and the detective guy, though some of it felt more Ellis and less Clark or Lois. The one problem I had was the characterization of Perry: he had some great lines but they were FAR out of character for him, or at least the Perry I remember from a few years ago. It sounds more like the Daily Planet was taken over by Mitchell Royce: Two-Fisted Editor. Regardless, the story moved along at a good pace; there wasn't a lot of action, but there's plenty of intrigue and we get enough of a look at the major characters in the story (so far) that I feel pretty compelled to check out the rest of the arc. And the first page was pretty great. 8/10.

[neophyte]

Butch Guice's most recent works include Ruse (from Crossgen) and Birds of Prey (from DC...he followed Greg Land on the title). Can't remember the one-shot he did with Geoff Johns through Humanoids

[Shepherd]

This story has potential. I like Ellis, and I trust him to write a good story. However, this story alone doesn't do a lot for me. Sure, it'll probably build into something, but at the moment, not too much. I'll give it a 6/10.

R

[TIP]

Haven't read this yet but was thrilled to see Guice's name as artist. Some of his earliest work was on the Micronauts way WAY back in the day (end of the first series and then the start of the second series...great stuff).

T

[DrSettleton]

JLA: CLASSIFIED #10

After the dismal debut of Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, and my complete lack of interest in all things with the word "crisis" involved, I really thought it would be a long time before I enjoyed a comic book featuring DC's main heroes. (All Star Superman maybe?) This issue didn't exactly floor me, but it was good enough to merit buying a consecutive issue. It is hard to say where this arc is going, because this issue is entirely set-up. Ellis gives us three seemingly seperate plot threads (spending most of his time in one that involves a whole bunch of banter between Lois Lane and Clark Kent- some of which is amusing, some of which is obnoxious-like Lois calling Clark Smallville one too many times) with the feeling that all three will eventually intertwine and unite DC's "big three". The art here is decent enough, the backgrounds (Gotham in particular) are highly detailed without being cluttered or distracting. My only qualm is that Wonder Woman's posture and loose fitting costume make her seem more like somebody dressed up to look like Wonder Woman rather than the real deal. (I was sure that was the case on first reading)
This issue was interesting enough to warrant me buying issue #11.

6/10.

[Ray G.]

Now this is what a JLA comic should be. A massive, complex thriller that really demands the combined skills of the trinity. Why am I not surprised that it's Ellis' name on the cover? It's just a crime this wasn't in the real JLA book instead of Austen's story or Buseik's. I wish this had been released a year ago, so it didn't get overshadowed by Infinite Crisis, because this is an excellent story in it's own right. The art was actually the only weak link for me. I found it competent, but not beyond that. Still, that's my only complaint, and this gets a 9/10

[Rod Nunley]

It's like the JLA done as a movie thriller. I get that this issue is only setup and so I didn't mind the lack of anything real happening.

Ellis sure writes the supporting cast of the book a little darker than I am used to. It took a moment to get used to that.

But solid story telling all the way.

7 out of 10

[Adam Witt]

JLA: Classified hasn't really been on my radar, but I picked this issue up. Can't say it was that awful; it's got the typical Warren Ellis charm, and Butch Guice's art, though I haven't seen much of it in the past, was not bad at all. Decent dialogue [although I agree that Perry's dialogue was a bit messed up], and altogether a fine read. Looking forward to seeing where Ellis is going with this one. I'll give it nice, bendy, 7/10

[JABSEN]

I completely dug the art.As for the writing,I dug the Clark and Lois stuff and Batman's dialouge.But some of Elli' attempt at being clever were too damn obvious.When did Perry White become Jameson?
A nice set-up issue.

7 out of 10