Okay: welcome to the third month of DC's NEW 52 project and my take on those books I still read from that line. Are they all gonna make the cut? Well, we shall see...
ACTION COMICS: Right off the bat, we're on Krypton with Jor-El defending his wife Lara and a baby Kal-El from some sort of alien that is absorbing Krypton's database. In present day, Clark is being rousted by the Police and he sarcastically sends them away. But his landlady is holding his costume and asking about this rumor that he's from outer space. A little later, he and Jimmy are watching a news broadcast where Glen Glenmorgan bitches out both The Daily Star AND Superman in the sames news conference. A strange homeless woman later tells Clark that a "ghost is watching" over him and that there's a "white dog". When Superman tries to rescue a cat stuck in a tree, a crowd pelts him with bottles and bricks. We see him looking at a picture of his earthly parents and they don't resemble the Ma and Pa Kent I grew up with. Later, the three journalists end up at a job site for an interview and mysterious robots come out of the sewers. As the book ends, John Corben prepares for a transformation and gets more than he bargained for in the form of an alien consciousness within him.
This book continues to get better and I can now say that Grant Morrison has begun to redeem himself. I am still not totally thrilled with the Clark Kent attitude and miss my old 'blue boyscout'. But it wears on me less and less each month. And talk about multiple subplots! Let's see: the alien on Krypton who may be somewhat related to the alien inside of Corben who SHOULD be transforming into Metallo. Plus, what's going on with Clark's landlady-a subplot left dangling midway through the book. One thing immediately noticeable, to me at least, was that Gene Ha's inking is becoming much more prominent as the fact that I'm positive he pencilled the Kryptonian prologue to this issue as it just screams TOP TEN at me. Love it. Okay Grant: keep this going-you're on a roll now.
ALL STAR WESTERN: Jonah and Dr. Arkham battle the horde from last issue and capture the Gotham Butcher in the process. At some sort of a victory celebration, a mysterious guy driving a wagon with a Gatling gun opens fire and of course, it's payback time. Seems the Followers of Cain have taken hold of Gotham. So Jonah Hex decides it's time for him to leave Gotham. But not before he sets up for a good old fashioned gun fight in the streets. The back-up story finishes the initial appearance of El Diablo. And then ANOTHER back-up story introducing the new Ray.
Really DC: you give me a main story that's 20 pages long and two back ups tales and I eat $3.99? I love the Jonah Hex tale, although the wrap to this storyline seems to come up a bit quicker than I expected. But then I get the second half of a back-up story that I really didn't care about the first time and then a preview that is in most of this month's DC books which, again, I DON'T CARE ABOUT!
ANIMAL MAN: Maxine and Buddy continue to battle their way through the Red. In our world, the rest of Buddy's family has to battle their way through the growing numbers tries to escape from the rot that has invaded. Mrs. Baker contacts Detective Krenshaw and arranges a meeting. Unfortunately, by the time Krenshaw arrives, he's not the man she thought he was.
Continuing weirdness in this series. If you're not reading this, you should be. For that matter, if you're reading this WITHOUT reading SWAMP THING or vice versa, then you are missing half the story. Jeff Lemire weirdness at his best!
AQUAMAN: Aquaman and Mera continue their battle with the undersea creatures and continue to deal with the constant verbal abuse from the townspeople. Aquaman makes the decision to visit marine biologist Stephen Shin, who once tried to kill a young Arthur Curry because he wouldn't take the scientist to Atlantis. Shin gives his opinion on one of the creatures and once again asks to go to Atlantis. Instead, Mera and Arthur make the trip, wondering if the creatures are only trying to survive rather than conquer.
Interesting issue. Not as bang up as the first two, but we get some action and a little back story and the introduction of a member of the supporting cast who, in Aquaman's word, could be a very dangerous man. Always great art from Ivan Reis. Hopefully the next issue will have more of a payoff to the current arc.
BATGIRL: Batgirl continues to chase after The Mirror and unfortunately can't stop him from blowing up an elevated train. She visits her father and then spends the rest of the book talking and sparring with Nightwing. She tells him that she has a mission that she needs to do alone and is he won't agree to her terms, then they can't be friends.
Slow moving issue this time around. Barabra
BATMAN: we start the issue out with a flashback that has Alan Wayne being haunted by owls. Back to the present, where Batman is doing a pretty poor job of getting Intel on the Owls.What he discovers is that the Owls have made their way into the homes of some of Gotham's most prominent folks and have been there for a long time. That's when the building our hero is in blows up with him in it.
A load of back story dropped in this issue, dealing with the Owl storyline. A lot of dialogue and a lot of true detective work on the part of Batman. Good stuff here. I know it doesn't seem like a lot happens because of the short synopsis, but trust me: this one if jammed with goodies. And as always, killer art from Greg Capullo. Can't wait to see how this whole story arc turns out.
BATMAN AND ROBIN: Damien and Alfred play chess and we find that Damien is NOT a good loser. We also find out he has no interest in the dog Bruce bought for him. So he splits and gets into some action. Morgan shows up, in costume of course and tries to lure Damien into going over to his dark side. Batman shows up trashes him for a bit before both he and Robin get taken out. They wake up in an abandoned drive-in theater and get ready for the big reveal.
Another stellar issue here as we learn that Damien is truly affected deep down from his raising and his family lineage. This is fast becoming more of a Robin book than a team book. And I'm okay with that. This dark Robin has been underplayed over the years and letting him come forth is great! Deep down we know he won't totally turn, as we already have one former sidekick who is a little more to the vigilante side of justice and don't need a second one. Peter Tomasi's story is moving along nicely and Patrick Gleason does another bang up job on art.
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT: So we quickly find out that this morphed Joker is actually Clayface, who has also been modified by the same thing affecting many of Gotham's nastiest. The Flash races to save the day as the White Rabbit makes her escape. Bruce ends up on a date with Jai who reminds him of someone else. He gets word that the White Rabbit has been seen and makes a hasty departure. He and The Flash go to Poison Ivy's place but things don't look very good there.
Great, great issue. The storyline just keeps moving forward and is much better than the first issue was. Paul Jenkins art continues to impress and just who is the White Rabbit.
BATWOMAN: Our heroine struggles with a lady in the lake(pun intended) before breaking free and getting to the surface. Immediately thereafter, Agent Chace wants to bring her in for terrorist activities but she breaks free. Meanwhile, Detective Sawyer is trying to reach Batwoman's alter ego only to find she's not home. Kate, totally freaked out by her experience, fires her trainee and they have a bit of a spat about it. Kate showers and goes to see Maggie, breaks down and they share a passionate kiss.
Wow! Yes kids: we have just had a one third of a page same sex kiss in a Mainstream comic. And the Apocalypse didn't happen despite it. I love this story and can't say it enough. This is a book like an onion filled with so many layers and levels that it's scary. A killer story with equally addictive art. One of my top three favorite NEW 52 books!
BIRDS OF PREY: The team that is starting to come together starts to deal with their potential new member: Poison Ivy. They try to interrogate a prisoner but he recites some gibberish and blows up(not like we haven't sen THIS before!). The Birds end up on a plane flight and things go from bad to worse when Canary is plagued by voices in her head asking her to tell a nursery rhyme. That can't be good-sounds like someone has a bomb in their brain.
Duane Swierczynski turns in another interesting issue as this team continues to try to work out their differences and come together. Not to mention solving the whole mystery of this exploding nursery rhyme thing. Jesus Saiz' art rocks and the book is just a huge bunch of good, not always clean fun.
DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS: Deadman continues to grill the Librarian and she threatens revenge. He takes the book of his life and proceeds to end up back in the body of the legless veteran he seems to be responsible for working with. He recalls being assigned to a prisoner named Larry Glock who he could not save. He gets involved with the League of Anarchy and does a nice job of screwing up their big operation. For a finale, he ends up at the circus and gets ready to take a ride on The Devil’s Dive.
Another fun issue here as Boston Brand tries to find out his purpose in the “afterlife” and provides an interesting contrast to the way he is portrayed in JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK. This is more about trying to define the character and I credit Jenkins and Chang for moving the story along-remember: they only have five issues to get this done before they give way to the next mini-series. Anyway, pick this up. If you’re a long time fan of Deadman you will be thrilled to see someone handling the character with some grace and caring.
DEATHSTROKE: Deathstroke takes out an unknown assailant, then proceeds to meet with his close circle of friends. He is off to Colorado to kill one Elmer Burnham. In the process, a green and pink assailant, identical to the one Deathstroke killed on the first few pages, arrives to join the fray. Same results though: Legacy(yeah…this particular mercenary has a name) is toast! And someone gets to Burnham before our hero. No problem: Christoph delivers on the cash. But here comes the twist. Back in issue #1, our anti-hero killed off the partners he had been assigned. Well, the parents of poor little April are hiring meta-humans that fit the suit-giving the lifetime contracts: Deathstroke or Legacy to the death.
Okay, so the mindless and violent book gets itself a conscious! Nice! Looks like Slade Wilson may have to pay for his cries after all. Great book just keeps getting better and better thanks to the team of Kyle Higgins, Joe Bennett and Art Thibert. Keep it up guys-you may yet turn Deathstroke from a second rate Punisher to the number one position.
DEMON KNIGHTS: Xanadu casts protection spell that costs the woman her youth and possibly her life. Etrigan is a little burned up by it and takes it out on a cleric. So the rest of the knights prepare to fortify the stronghold. Vandal Savage does his best to rile up the troops, Etrigan goes back to hell long enough to release Jason Blood and Exoristos has a conversation with a young girl who gets motivated and goes out to scout the enemy. But she gets beheaded for her troubles.
Wow! When you first heard DEMON KNIGHTS, can you HONESTLY say you thought the book would be THIS? What a wild ride. Paul Cornell is doing a great job of crafting lengthy back stories to some of DC’s oldest characters and some new ones too. And there is a promised tie-in down the road to GRIFTER, STORMWATCH and VOODOO and can’t wait to see how that gets pulled together. Pick up this title! Seriously good fun!
DETECTIVE COMICS: Batman finds himself knee deep in the Dollmaker’s lair with a body who ISN’T Jim Gordon. Jim is being held captive and has had an organ removed. But Olivia is free and Gordon send\s her to find Batman and deliver a message to him. Escaping fro Dollmaker’s lair, Batman deduces that the real identity of his foe is Barton Mathis who is seeking revenge on Jim Gordon, who once shot Mathis’ demented, cannibalistic father. Olivia gets Gordon’s message to the Caped Crusader but she takes out a cop and it seems like Dollmaker is her father. Batman anticipates a trap as he arrives to do battle with a handful of constructed Jokers.
Kudos to Tony Daniels and Sandu Florea for making this one of the darkest superheroes titles on the shelf today. It is like reading SAW, only without the deathtraps. Dollmaker is one creepy villain, and the plot twist that Olivia is one of his “children” is awesome! This arc ends next issue and I can’t wait to see how it shakes out.
GREEN LANTERN: Hal and Sinestro come to an uneasy truce as Sinestro wants to destroy the Yellow Lantern Corps he created. Ganthet, no longer the Guardian he once was, seeks to do away with the Green Lantern Corps and replace them with something he calls the Third Army. The two Lanterns head off to Korugar where Sinestro witnesses the atrocities first hand that his Corps is inflicting on his people. He loses it and begins an attack, as does Hal who ends up disintegrating in a Yellow Lantern battery.
I love where this book is going. Geoff Johns takes the baddest of the bad, Thaal Sinestro, and tries to make him a good guy. Say TRIES because we all known Sinestro is serving his own desires and not the good of all. But he still maintains enough of his smarminess to make him TOTALLY unlikeable. Killer read with equally killer art fro Doug Mahnke.
THE HUNTRESS: Helena continues to hunt Moretti even as he makes plans to deliver girls to “The Chairman”. She gets into a tussle with one of The Chairman’s muscle men and even that will not keep her from Moretti.
Okay-so there isn’t much to where this story goes. We can see that, by issue #6, Helena will get her man and that will be that. What makes this fun is seeing how any immovable objects get thrown at her to try and stop her. The mini-series is half way home.
I, VAMPIRE: John Troughton fills us in on how he met Andrew Bennett while he attempts to care for the injured vampire. We discover that most of the U.S. is suffering through a vampire plague, including Boston, Star City and Coast City. As they travel through the tunnels of South Station, they encounter a young vampire hunter named Tig and she joins the merry band of vampire hunters. Next stop, Gotham City. Yeah-this is gonna be fun!
Joshua Hale Fialkov and Andrea Sorrentino turn in a winner this time. We get a little more back story, the introduction of some new characters and try to figure out exactly where in DC Continuity this fits in. Or does it? Could this be one of 52 different realities’? We shall see. Glad to see this issue as an improvement from the last. It’s pretty obvious this title isn’t going to be an action blockbuster, but it does have noteworthy characters.
O.M.A.C.: Poor Buddy Blank. He gets arrested for trying to rob and A.T.M. and he needs to call on and off girlfriend Jody Robbins to bail hi out. He discovers the warden is dead and ends up being taken to a meeting with the New 52;s version of Psi-Man. Psi-Man calls O.M.A.C. out of Buddy’s body just as Maxwell Lord’s Checkmate Elite team arrive via what comic purists would call a Boom Tube, Sarge Steel and company do battle with O.M.A.C. who eventually escapes their grasp, as does Psi-Mon who is now loose in the world.
I have quickly found that the only people who like this book are crazies like me who have a love for Jack Kirby’s quirky styled characters. Dan Didio and Keith Giffen have embraced the legacy of Kirby here while carving a bold new path. Somewhere Jack is smiling that his creations are getting treated with such respect.
SUPERBOY: We start with two meta-killers from the NATURAL BORN KILLER school of killing. Superboy is having a meltdown which leads to his escape, even as Red and Rose debate. Like I said, he escapes in ends up right in the idle of a make-out session between Tony and Alison. He ends up scaring away Tony and flies Alison back home, just in tie to be attacked by a female creature from out of Pen 51. If that wasn’t enough, he heads back to N.O.W.H.E.R.E. to talk to ‘Red”, who morphs into a super strong woman that bursts out of her clothes. Interesting…
This book thrills me and kills me. Who is this mysterious girl? Where does she get the powers? How long before Superboy realizes his destiny? This book is not at all going where I thought it would and I like it that way. If this is supposed to be one of the future of DC titles(that IS what we were told the YOUNG JUSTICE line was all about, then I consider this the cornerstone.
SUICIDE SQUAD: The Squad tries to get out alive with the baby they secured in the last issue. The problem is that Mad Dog(boy-they basically dug up the Wild Dog character and bent him sideways) . Before that happened, Spider and Diablo become friendly(not like that) and discover that Voltaic was shot, not eaten(but we already knew that). Meanwhile Deadshot, and Harley become friendly(yes-EXACTLY LIKE THAT!)
So Mad Dog arrives and Spider gets shot, but looks to pull through thanks to Harley and Diablo. Mad Dog appears to get chopped by King Shark and just when you thought it was safe to go back to Belle Reve, here comes a new mission. And who left Captain Boomerang in charge?
Yeah…this is MY GUILTY PLEASURE TITLE!!! Harley looks hot, Deadshot is a slime ball and we’ve taken the THUNDERBOLTS concept of villains acting as heroes and turned it upside down. It’s MISSION IMPOSSIBLE on a whole new playing field. An Adam Glass story with art from Cliff Richards (no…not the singer) and this book totally rocks. Still very highly recommended as a good read! But…how did we end up with the OLD Capt. Boomerang? Is this POST BRIGHTEST NIGHT or did that NEVER happen? I’M CONFUSED!!!
SWAMP THING: Alec Holland gets to hook up and meet, for the first time as Alec Holland, Swamp Thing’s former long time lover Abigail Arcane. She fills him in on her past and warns him of the approaching rot coming to take over the green. They end up at a hospital when they get to see first-hand the atrocities of her half brother William Arcane.
Great issue that touches on the mythology and continues to pay tribute to those who came before. There is a beautiful rendition of Swampy and Abigail kissing which is taken straight from an issue of the old series. At least Yanick Paquette had the decency to put YEATES where it should say LEVIS. I know some people feel this title a\is an insult to the classic series, but I love it and continue to be excited as it races towards an eventual intersection with ANIMAL MAN.
WONDER WOMAN: All you need to know is this: Queen Hippolyta had sex with Zeus and that resulted in Princess Diana being born. Yeah-the story about Diana being made of clay is a lie.
Talk about rewriting continuity! This is the big one! Brian Azzarello hits one out of the ballpark with this issue and is sure to piss off long time fans of the character. But I like the twist and I’m not a huge fan of change in a title. This one certainly changes everything! Wonderfully written and nicely illustrated by Cliff Chiang. With each issue his art style gets closer to the style of one of my favorite “old school” artists, Trina Robbins. And that’s a good thing! Hop on the bandwagon and get this book. It is breaking new ground with each issue.
More #3 issues next time.
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