Justice, Lost Souls, and Painkiller Jane

On Dec 31st, my free one month gym membership ended. I took these 2 comics to read while I biked and listened to the ipod. Everyone else was watching ESPN or reading Self, but there I was with my comics!


Justice 3
Writen by Jim Krueger, Art by Alex Ross and Doug Braithwaite
The art, is as ever with Ross, stunning. Alex Ross oil paints over Doug Braithwaites pencils. There is nothing like it in any comic on the market. The oil paint and color add such depth and texture, that Aquaman's scales come off the page. Martian Manhunter, green and blue cape painted on green and gray background-- that could be a muddled mess if not for the talent of shading and coloring here.
Why else do I love this? How about Priscilla Rich, in a spotted Cheetah coat and hat with two cheetahs, bathed in yellow sunlight? Or closeups of Aquaman's tortured face with Brainiac? The Riddler leaving Joker behind in jail...

"Nigma? You can't do this! I only stay here as long as I think it's funny! And it's not funny anymore."

Book of Lost Souls 3
Jonathan and Mystery, the talking cat, encounter a gothic punkish artist girl who lives on the streets. She's a runaway who lost her love, Lee, to heroin. He believed in her art, and Jonathan tries to have her avoid being sucked into the darkness because of her pain. Lee was a romantic, telling her-
"I would shower you with such affection as would make the sky lament the insufficiency of rain."
Strazynski continues to ask life's big and difficult questions, about love, art, pain, reason, resentment and madness. The art style isn't my favorite, in the gothic blacks and deep purples, but the writing keeps me coming back.

And I watched the Painkiller Jane on Sci Fi. It was OK, a little too calculated. A female soldier is exposed to biocontamination that makes her able to heal faster, make mental connections faster, run faster.