Tic Tac Checkmate, King Me.
The Good: Rocket Red.
Rocket Red
And Rocket Red. He's proven himself to be an excellent character. Not only is he the greatest source of comedic relief, he's proven his worth as a fighter, and even a powerful emotional force. He represents some of the best attributes of the entire rest of the team put together. The heavy heart hidden under a complete joke of Booster Gold, the unshakable devotion to his mother country of Captain Atom, the flame of battle and recklessness of Fire, the battle suit of Blue Beetle, and…. ok I can't think of something for Ice.
Seriously though, Rocket Red really came out as a character. His devotion to the team, taking one for the team, and his heart-to-heart with Fire were all excellent scenes.
Fire too, she warmed up completely to Rocket Red (Pun seriously not intended). And she's not having the bullshit continuing to pretend to be unimpressed slow coming around character development characters like her usually get, she's already impressed by him 100%. This series does an excellent job of shoving the threat of horrible cliches at you, and then blatantly, brilliantly avoids them. It's so excellently paced and written, I love this series so much.
This issue especially, it had my favorite of the 3 artists rotating on this series, so bonus for me.
The first page had a really nice scene where they show everyone out of costume, then points out that they're in costume. It makes no sense here but is really cool in context.
The scene between Fire and Booster is also really touching.
The end reveal is fucking awesome-tastic.
The Bad: Ice. I mean, she was upset at the end and mad at Booster for thinking he'd be ok because he didn't take his costume off, but neither did she! Why is she throwing a hissy fit at Booster?
In Conclusion: 5/5
What more can I say to praise this series? It's such a great read every other week, and the rotating artist schedule rarely seems awkward, each artist compliments the others fairly well. Plus, I love long story arcs, and this is shaping up to be a doozy, but a well paced doozy that goes through several phases. At this point in the series, you should all be reading it by now, It's just great.
On a side note, why the hell is Keith Griffin not writing for this series anymore? This is like, his golden baby egg of DC. And weirdly, even though he's gone, you can't feel his touch missing from the title. Judd keeps up the same sense of humor without losing the epic seriousness he brings to all his works. But still, I miss knowing he's working on it, because this is really his team.
