Panel Discussion: Scans from Secret Invasion #1, Detective Comics #843, Buffy #10 and More

Every week Geekanerd brings you the best, worst and weirdest panels from our week in comics. If you didn't read your books, there will be giant SPOILERS. Click the images for high res action!

Best Moves - Detective Comics #843

AHR: Zatanna kicks ass in this issue. So she's hanging out with Bruce at a party, and someone asks if they're an item, and he's all, "NO WAI!" And she's like, "O RLY?"
Man, how are you going to be that cavalier about asking out Batman? Do the words severe dissociative disorder mean anything to her? But seriously, Dini's run on Detective has featured a lot of great work on recovering relationship between these two, so I buy it. And there's a nice visual touch in the first panel - instead of asking Bruce to hand her a glass of water, she levitates it over to herself. Pretty cool customer.

More Zatanna, plus a racist vampire, an awesome comic cover and more after the jump!

Best Comeback - Zatanna, Detective Comics #843
AHR: This is just a good line any time someone tries to stick you with a label. I'm gonna remember it. Although it probably doesn't pack as much of a punch if one of the other things you are isn't a magician who can zap people's brains if she feels like it.

Coolest Development - Secret Invasion #1
Albo: The only interesting thing that really happened in the first issue of Marvel's newest big event was this panel--a Skrull ship crash lands on Earth, and when Luke Cage pries it open a bunch of throwback heroes flow out saying things like "At last we're back!" Are they Skrulls? Are they the real deal and their counterparts the Skrulls? Or are they time-displaced heroes destined to team up with their current time counterparts against a massive Skrullian menace? Who the heck knows, but I can't wait to find out. (Ooh, I hope they're the real deal)

Best Acting - Xander and Renee, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8: #10

AHR: When Xander and his slayer GF Renee go to visit Dracula, it quickly devolves into a melange of awkwardness. Dracula calls Renee a "moor", which is what they're reacting to in this first panel. Wonderful facial expressions here, also great nervous hand gesture from Xander.
Before long Xander is back under Dracula's ledgendary thrall, as Renee facepalms...This next panel is the height of comedy as far as I'm concerned...
Xander's blithe expression and Renee's goggle-eyed take are absolutely perfect.

And much later, as Dracula learns of some Japanese vamps stealing his powers...
Facepalm again! I love when artists use dot-eyes for really silly gags. Let's hear it for Georges Jeanty!

Worst Dialogue - Countdown #4AHR: "Like, totally ohmygosh you guys! I'm so sweet and innocent I can't even take the Lord's name in vain when the world is ending! Even though I get my powers from a number of Greek gods!" Where are the editors on this book? Honestly, who's minding the store?

Albo: Could it also be some writer self-commentary on the reviled series?

Sweetest Cover - Omega: The Unknown #7
Albo: Gary Panter really comes through in his artist guest spot, not only contributing a sweet ass comic within a comic but also the best cover of the series... Or any series in recent memory, for that matter.

Most Horrific Plot Development - The Walking Dead #48
AHR: For all the hemming and hawing over at Marvel about how Secret Invasion "CHANGES EVERYTHING", the developments of Walking Dead #48 make all the stuff at Marvel seem like small potatoes. For the last several years, The Walking Dead has been a story about a band of families, lovers and strangers, forced together by the need to survive. After this issue, in which about half of the cast dies including the hero's wife and new baby, I have to believe much of the rest of this book is going to be about grief.

Most Effective Small Talk Killer - American Splendor #1
Albo: Can't say the guy's off base. If anyone needs a little perspective it's Harvey Pekar.

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Snap Judgments: Quickie Comic Reviews for April 2, 2008

Short comic reviews based on initial, lizard-brain opinions. There are probably some spoilers herein. Arranged from BEST to WORST.

American Splendor #1: B
New home at Vertigo, same old book. This ish has eight stories, some better than others (the David Lapham-illustrated lead story about a visiting "fan" stands out) and featured without ads. Yay! - Albo

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #13: B
High on situational comedy, low on plot progression, lol racism. -AHR

Omega: The Unknown #7: B from Albo, B- from AHR
While perhaps not quite as tight as last issue, in general this book just keeps getting better. The intro comic "drawn" by the titular hero is extremely cool and I really wish I didn't have to wait for the last three issues because I'm really pumped to see what happens next. -Albo

Issue includes a beautiful comic-within-a-comic sequence by Gary Panter, a very funny scene about movie theater etiquette, and some unsatisfyingly rapid plot development in the last few pages. It lacks the hypnotically smooth story progression of past installments, and feels like an issue without a theme. -AHR

Reviews for The Walking Dead #48, Secret Invasion #1 and Kick-Ass #2 after the jump!

The Walking Dead #48: B-
We finally get to the action Kirkman has been promising for months, and though the events certainly shake up the long stabilized status quo, the extremity of what happens left me more stupefied than upset. Probably wouldn't be an issue if I was reading this in a trade, but as it is this issue feels like an story experiment and not a chapter of a larger whole. -AHR

Secret Invasion #1: C
Ho hum beginning to this year's Mega Marvel Event. There's a good twist near the end that I really hope turns out to be legit, because it would make the oncoming story much more interesting than the big fistfight I fear it's going to become. -Albo

Kick-Ass #2: D from AHR, D from Albo
I wish the main character actually had died in the first issue. That would have been some realistic (and nihilistic) shit. Instead, mere months after being stabbed, beaten and hit by a car, not only is this skinny nerd eating non-tube-based meals, he is trashing four gigantic gang members and winning over the criminally depraved inhabitants of the ghetto (lol racism). You can ultra-violent it up as much as you want, it's not hardcore unless there are consequences. -AHR

I told a lot of people about this book after thoroughly enjoying the first issue, and now I have egg on my face and it makes me angry. This issue was boring as all hell: the first half is all about our hero sitting in a hospital bed and the second half ditches the "realism" that I so enjoyed about the first issue and has our hero kicking the crap out of a group of beefy hoodlums. This is a skinny kid that's never had any fight training, mind you. But even without the realism problem, this book has already jumped the shark in terms of writing quality. There wasn't a single satisfying moment to be found within these pages. -Albo

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