ElfGrove

=Marvel=
Runaways v3 #11
Looking interesting again with this new arc and creative team. Klara/Rose annoys the hell outta me, but at least the issue wasn't creepily Nico-centric again. It's a team book. Balance writers. Balance. You're starting to get it.
Downside? If this 4-issue arc ends with Chase, Old Lace, AND Gert dead, I'm done. (Given, Gert's been dead a while.) They're the characters I read Runaways for. I am/was warming up to Victor, but the-team's-emotional-punching-bag is not a fun character long term.
Not sure I care for the art.

=DC=
Superman #689
Was there a point to this issue?
Recap of current events and Mon-El does a non-compelling world tour for no apparent reason. Even the aside with Steel didn't really accomplish anything new. set-up for next issue, sure, but nothing really happened. I could've skipped this issue and never noticed.
Some of the two page spreads were done such that I wasn't sure what order I was supposed to be reading the panels in. Not good.

=DC=
Teen Titans #72
Open on an unidentified TT funeral.
Scene change. YESTERDAY.
Angst Cassie angst.
Prance the female cast about in skimpy clothing.
Newer team members go to the fair while Cassie does TT work.
Make Blue Beetle look like a socially awkward idiot. Jamie is a smart kid fer chrissakes.
Beat that by having EVERYONE ostracize Kit --who doesn't even get plain clothes and they stop drawing him into the scenes after establishing that he's there ~somewhere.
Cassie meet trap. Violence. Blood.

*HeadDesk*
I'm ready for the Young Justice '09 reunion, like NOW.
DC has promised a stable team and to start character-building again come #75. This is the closest we've gotten to a character rather than gore driven issue in ages, and they still had to beat Cassie to a bloody pulp. They've hinted the stability will be a result of returning old team members. I'm hanging in for the promise of a return to a non-gory Teen Titans.

Co-Feature: Ravager
Rose has a bad drug trip. Hallucinates Cassie. Her powers are shorting out, and she gets lost in the snow. With her, I expect the violence with minimal reason or story. It's part of her character.

So, several weeks back, when I was massively bored, I randomly picked up volume one of a comic series titled, Supreme Power.

I ended up not reading it, because, to be frank, the blatant re-use of a piece of art from Rising Stars for the volume one cover bugged me. (Oh yes, I see what you did there, Marvel.) I loved Rising Stars, and I think Straczynski can whip up a good mini-series when the company gives him the reigns to do so.

SUPREME POWER VOL. 1: CONTACT
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artists: Gary Frank, Jon Sibal
Publisher: Marvel/Max Comics

I started reading Supreme Power last night.
Thoroughly enjoyed it. It's going on my list of realistic executions of the superhero concept. Right next to Rising Stars and Kick-Ass.
Series evidently finishes out at 3 trade paperbacks plus three TPBs focusing on Nighthawk, Hyperion and a pre-war one. I plan to pick up the other two main-continuity volumes, but not the offshoots. I remember Rising Stars, the offshoots lost the edge and focus the main story had. They were clearly add-ons just digging for more money, and they detracted rather than adding to the story. I expect this will be the same. Straczynski writes a good beginning-middle-end story, his add-ons tend to be very clearly slapped on after the fact.

Gary Frank's art isn't anything to write home about. Not eye-bleedingly bad, but not an artist I'd go looking for later. (Francis Manapul is an artist I actually searched out his DA page after he started drawing Legion of SuperHeroes. I like his style.) Kinda boring to me. The way he draws eyes are kind of off-putting. Everybody looks a little crazy showing that much white all the time.

Be forewarned that this is a Marvel Max title, meaning it's intended for adults, not kids.

About the basic story:
( Spoilers below the cut. )