DC's ZERO MONTH, WEEK TWO

BATGIRL #0: The story begins four years ago where Barbara Gordon was studying Criminology. She and her brother James spend an afternoon at GCPD and took an interest in an alleged mass murder named Harry X. An attempted breakout occurs and Barbara and James are trapped. Barbara gets free and dressed in a Batman costume the department was working with. She eventually gets lucky and gets a blow in that knocks him out. Over the next year, she trained and became Batgirl. But one day she made a big mistake and hung up her costume. Three years ago, the Joker showed up at her door and crippled her.

Well, Gail Simone adds a bit more history and color to our heroine, but still doesn’t reveal the whole miracle of Barbara getting her legs back. And we get to see that James Jr., even at his young age, is being seen as defective. By the way: Ed Benes artwork is stunning throughout this entire issue!

BATMAN #0:  Six years ago, the Red Hood Gang decides to rob the newly redesigned Gotham National Bank. The Red Hood poisoned the celebratory cake and killed everyone. Red Hood #5 turns out to be Bruce Wayne in disguise. Bruce manages to escape while the GCPD battles with the gang. Bruce retreats to a brownstone he lives in not far from Crime Alley. There he tests out a type of boomerang he designed. Lieutenant Gordon arrives to discuss some possible dirty dealings that Bruce’s cousin Philip Kane may have been involved in. Gordon also asks what he may know about a vigilante in the area, meanwhile, the Red Hood Gang recognized Bruce's brownstone and decides to take him out of the game. In the back-up story, Lieutenant Gordon is preparing to move to Gotham City. Young Timothy Drake gets in trouble for hacking into a school computer but manages to blackmail his way out ofd trouble. Elsewhere, two guys rob a convenience store. One of them kills a hostage having heard the others’ name-Jason. Jason ran after his partner and beat him up until the police arrived, Meanwhile, Dick Grayson, taking a night off from Haly’s Circus, takes out a purse snatcher. Then, up in the sky, it’s the Bat Signal, seen by all partners involved.

Two interesting tales here. In the first, we see the infamous Red Hood gang and realize that the Red Hood was insane before he became The Joker. The idea of Bruce operating out of the mansion? I’m not too keen on that concept but that is a minor thing with me. As far as the back-up, I like how it ties together the lives of Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd, Tim Drake and Dick Grayson. This serves as a perfect reminder that there will a deaths in the upcoming DEATH OF THE FAMILY storyline in the Bat books.

BATMAN AND ROBIN #0: This is Damien’s life story,  beginning with his birth from an artificial womb, complete with the death of a nurse killed by his beloved mother Talia. On his fifth birthday, Damien began  to be trained in swordsmanship.At this age, Damien began inquiring as to who his father was. He soon discovered Batman’s cowl and gets to wear it. Talia tells him  he has some of the Bat in him. She also says his name means "to tame." Soon he was training with the League of Assassins. On his tenth birthday, he escaped a team of assassins while in free-fall from thousands of feet above the ground. After defeating them, she throws a giant man-bat at him, which he also defeated. He battled his mother to discover the truth about his and defeated her. They traveled to London where Batman was introduced to his ten year old son.

Peter Tomasi and Pat Gleason do what they do best: write a clever, kick ass comic book!  The secret upbringing of Damien Wayne within the house of Talia al Ghul. We get treated to the curiosity of a child wanting to know his father. We get countless battle scenes as he spends each year trying to defeat his mother in combat and learn that information. Best of all, we get the final line where Damien says to his father: “I imagined you taller!” He is a trained, hardened killer who will never totally fit in to the Wayne/Batman family. But it sure is fun watching him try.
DEATHSTROKE #0: Slade Wilson meets his future wife Adeline who trains him to be a member of Team 7. During a mission to Gamorra, Slade is badly wounded and is experimented on while going through rehabilitation. Following his recovery, they are married, Shortly after, he discovers that his close friend Wintergreene was being held in Somalia and he goes to rescue him. This is the night that Deathstroke is born. After that, he became a contract killer for hire to support his wife and tow sons. Many years later, the family, which now included Wintergreene’s son Peabody, is attacked, apparently killing his wife and son Joseph. He also loses his eye in that battle. Soon it is a two man army as Slade’s son Grant joined him in his mission. In the present day, Slade received a special present from his wife and son, now known as Jericho.

Hey look: it’s another Rob Liefeld craptacular where the only thing worse than the art is the story. Every single character looks the same and don’t even get me started about his lack of proportion! As far as that story goes: really?! Let me get this straight: his wife is his trainer, he gets experimented after a mission gone bad, raises a family, gets his family killed but not really and now they seek revenge? Didn’t we already have ONE SON seeking revenge? Real original Rob!
DEMON KNIGHTS #0: The Demon Etrigan serves Lucifer, who treats him like a lesser demon. He is forced to fight all of the demons in Hell to gain favor. Jason of Norwich toils in King Arthur’s court and gets no magical assistance from Merlin. He is also not very good at it and ends up in prison after laying hands on King Arthur himelf. Merlin meets with Morgaine LeFay, who tells him of Jason’s cursed future. Merlin goes to Hell and meets with his father, Lucifer and tells him of a bargain. Lucifer banishes a rebellious Etrigan who ends up in Merlin’s cage. The next thing you know, the castle is being attacked by Stormwatch and Merlin binds Etirgan to Jason of Norwich.

Paul Cornell and Bernard Chang gives us the origin of Etrigan and Jason Blood…and I don’t care. Somewhere I expect Jack Kirby is spinning in his grave. And must Wildstorm appear in EVERYTHING? Oh yeah, I forgot: Stormwatch is responsible for everything since the dawn of time. Jim Lee needs to take his Wildstorm stuff and pack it out of DCville. And yeah: I’m an old school Wildstorm fan.  But enough is enough! Next issue resolves the cliffhanger. Depending on how that goes, I may go too!

FRANKENSTEIN AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E. #0: We witness the birth of the Frankenstein monster. When he frees himself from Victor, he begins what becomes known as the ten thousand mile journey. But he is pursued by Victor and his army of creations all the while. The creature ends up making a home in the Amazon and becomes one with the natives. ut Victor soon arrives and slaughters the natives, angering the beast made from the dead He defeats his creator and gets to meet father: a woman in a dress and carrying a parasol. From there, Frankenstein becomes an agent of justice.

Matt Kindt and Alberto Ponticelli weave a wonderful story that continues to humanize the creature. We also discover that S.H.A.D.E. manages to slip through time, as they took parts from Victor’s failed crations to make Frankenstein’s future mate.  just love this book and am finally getting totally comfortable with Ponticelli’s art. It’s truly quirky and truly fits!

 

GREEN LANTERN CORPS#0: We see Guy Gardner as a long=haired Green Lantern in trasining and watgching his team be slaughtered in the process. We get a flashback to three months earlier, as his sister graduates from the police academy. Guy gtries to make amends with a retired policeman father who he has grown distant from and that goes badly. He hears a police distress call from his brother(yeah…the whole family afre police officers except Guy) and heads to the rescue. His brother is in the midst of a shootout and his partner is dead. As Guy tries to drive the officers from the scene, a gfreen ring seeks him out and he gains the power to put the two officers into a hospital(and assuming the partner is now alibe). Back in the recent past, Guy proves himself and takes out the enemy. He goes to Oa and gets to graudate from being a trainee. He, Kilowog and Hal Jordan head off for a drink together.

This was a nice fun issue from Peter Tomasi and Fernando Pasarin that fleshes out Guys’ story beautifully. If this kind of storytelling had continued early in the series, I probably wouldn’t have dropped the title.  The art rocks and Tomasi actually puts a ton of  character into one of DC’s greatest characters. He’s not such a pompous ass here: he’s still learning how to do that. For now, he’s just a guy with family problems that I trying to make a go of a new job. Great stuff, guys!
GRIFTER #0:  We begin two years in the past, with Cole Cash, Max Cash and John Lynch on a mission. Things start to go wrong and we meet Warwick, who is actually a hologram. Cole Cash is hooked up to machines and being programmed by the Daemonites and infused with Daemontie DNA to battle Helspont. Warwick breaks in to the facility and busts Cash out. He leaves a change of identity and disappears. When he awakes, he is confused, as this is the third time this has happened.

First off, I have a question for writer and cover artist Rob Liefeld. Rob: are those guns on the cover or are you happy to see your audience??? What the hell? Now on to the story. So Grifter was a member of Team Seven two years ago? Wasn’t Team 7 GONE more than two years back. Hello? CONTINUITY is a BITCH, ain’t it guys!!! And we start with a Team 7 adventure. Or not. No, it’s a ruse and now non-readers like myself are confused and don’t care(that would be me personally!). Art by Scott Clark ngoes from really good to really bad; in some cases it looks like hastily drawn pencil sketches. Strill not enough to make me run out and by the book, even with the addition of Voodoo, who had her own series shut down earlier in the year, joining the book next issue.
LEGION LOST #0: We get treated to Timber Wolf’s origin. Sometime in the 31st Century, a young Brin Londo watches as his father experiments. He has developed a serum that can cure any disease by tapping into the host’s Genomes. Lord Vykor wants it delivered to him immediately. When Brin’s father refuses, Vykor kills Brin’s mother and leave him with an ultimatum: one month to finish the serum or he’ll come back and kill Brin. Over the next month, his father finishes his work and then injects Brin and himself. Vykor arrives, Brin’s father attacks and gets his son out before blowing the placer up. Brin, now an orphan, spends most of his young life searching for Vykor and acting as a sometimes vigilante. Eventually finding him, he battles Vykor’s enhanced son Tor. Asnhe is about to slaughter Tor, Vykor pleads for his life saying that Tor is innocent, as was Brin’s mother. Brin does the right thing and turns them over to the police. He names himself Timber Wolf “for sentimental reasons”.

What is it about Tom DeFalco, Legion titles, and boredom? They all reign here. I used to love the LEGION OF SUPERHEROES, especially back in the good old days when greats such as Cary Bates, Jim Shooter , and Paul Levitz was writing with James Sherman, Paul Broderick, Keith Giffen, Bruce Patterson and others were illustrating the team with a cast of thousands. This book, which is a NEW 52 version of the 12 issue mini-series that Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning were responsible for, is a shadow of that book. Everything I have seen in recent years that said Legion on it was boring. This book does not interest me, just as issue #1 didn’t. If you are a Legion fan, I’m sorry: sorry for not sharing your enthusiasm and sorry this is the best you can get without hunting through the back issues.
 

THE RAVAGERS #0: Some time ago, Gar Logan is under the Antarctic in The Colony and is being experimented on. It turns out his DNA has been tweaked and he turns into a red beast. Running the experiments is Harvest and his crew. They are also experimenting on Tara Markov, who has been given the codename Terra. They are also experimenting on Thunder, his sister Lightning and an individual named Ridge. Tara and Gar eventually end up in an arena and impress their captors.

YAWN!!! Sorry, I recall now why I do not read this series. That is because it is a watered down variation of GEN 13. Only it doesn’t have J. Scott Campbell’s art (not that Ian Churchill is too shabby). But Howard Mackie’s script is convoluted and cliché ridden.

RESURRECTION MAN #0: Continuing from where issue #12 left off, Hooker and the Transhuman are still dead and Mitch meet Mitch: the mysterious man in charge. Now comes the flashback. Five years ago, the original Mitch Shelley was doing biotech testing on the soldiers in Iraq. When Mitch lost his arm during an attack, Deathstroke helped evacuate them. Everyone injured gets injected with the Tektite solution including Shelley, Hooker and the soldiers who became the Body Doubles: Carmen Leno and Bonnie Hoffman. Mitch’s arm gets reattached and begins to heal.  But soon it must be removed as his body began to grow a new arm. The rejected arm was burned but its’ ashes eventually led to the building of an exact copy of Mitch Shelley. The real Mitch, behind the scenes, put Hooker and the Body Doubles in charge of finding the new Mitch so he could use him to help heal himself, as he was becoming weak and dying (the real Mitch, that is). Mitch realizes he lives because it’s his destiny to balance out the evil the original Mitch did. Then the forces of Heaven and Hell arrive to collect a Mitch soul. Suriel plunges her sword into the original Mitch and claims his soul. The demon explains that Mitch’s soul get more powerful with each resurrection and THAT is the soul this demon will someday take to Hell.

This was kind of a weird and wonky ending to one of my favorite series. So we learn that the Mitch Shelley we have followed all this time is actually made from material left by a burned up reattached arm from an evil Mitch Shelley. And the Body Doubles were actually teammates of the evil Mitch Shelley, along with Hooker. So, are they evil…well-Hooker is dead. But the Doubles are almost able to live forever. So…maybe we can get a REAL Body Doubles series like we once had, but in the NEW 52 style! I’d be okay with that. Until then, Andy Lanning and Dan Abnett’s classic character rides off into the sunset. Hope to se you soon although, with the mystery finally revealed, I don’t know if it will be as much fun.
 

SUICIDE SQUAD #0: Set in Malaysia in the “not so distant past”, Staff Sergeant Lawrence Duren was sent to find Captain Amanda Waller. Once found, she is asked to return to active duty but says after Team 7, she was one a permanent vacation. Apparently Duren was presumed dead but ended up running CIA Black Ops in Afghanistan. He tells her the mission he needs her for has to do with Regulus. It seems that Basilisk (regular SUICIDE SQUAD readers know that name) was somewhere in Malaysia with a WMD ready to be detonated in the next 24 hours. In Melenka, Amanda, Duren and his team track Regulus. Waller ends up facing Regulus who explains that Duren and his men were the keys to a gene bomb that would create metahumans. The bomb detonates, Regulus escapes, and all of the townspeople, including Duren are horribly transformed. Waller has no choice but to kill her old friend. She return to America and informs Duren’s mother of his death. Soon after, Waller ends up in Washington, D.C. to pitch her plan for a Suicide Squad.

Spurred on by revenge and guilt, Amanda Waller decides to create Suicide Squad with expendable forces. Great story from Adam Glass and Fernando Dagnino. I have always stood up and claimed this was one of my favorite NEW 52 titles. And this is why. We get a great story full of action, intrigue, and back-story. We get huge art from Dagnino and every issue ends up making me want the story to continue and find myself hating to wait 30 days for the next installment. With the exception of one of two issues, this is still the star of the NEW 52.
SUPERBOY #0: Hundred of years ago, we meet Krytonian warrior Kon, who led a clone uprising on the planet. The clones get betrayed and destroyed and cloning gets outlawed on the planet. Flash forward to several months ago as Lord Harvest, aware of the legend of Kon, observes N.O.W.H.E.R.E. making their own Kryptronian clone. While Superbpy is being programmed on one level, harvest has attached a second program to him that features him as Kon-El leading the rebellion on Krypton. Of course, he is also being taken down by Superboy-the Superboy we all now and love from before New 52, Does that mean this Superboy will try to remake this planet in his own image? We shall see.
 

I am no longer impressed with this title now that Tom DeFalco has taken over. R. B. Silva’s art continues to impress, but I am tiring of this Boy of Steel. In the last few issues, he has become money hungry and has managed to do whatever he wanted to because he could. Now we understand that maybe his demeanor is due to his programming. Either way, I no longer care. The following issue promises that the police will be on his trail. I don’t expect to be continuing on after this issue.
TEAM 7 #0: Set five years ago, the US Government began working on the so-called Majestic Project, in case the newly discovered genome spreading throughout the Earth got out of control. Thus Team 7 was created with John Lynch in charge. The team consisted of Dinah Drake, Kurt Lance, Slade Wilson, Alex Fairchild, James Bronson, Captain Summer Ramos, Cole Cash, Dean Higgins and Amanda Waller. Each was chosen for their various abilities. With his team in place, Lynch states that “the superhuman arms race” had begun and it was time for Team 7 to save the world. had already begun. It was time for Team 7 to save the world.
 
Well, this is an action filled issue that only exists to set the plate for what is to come in the coming months. Justin Jordan writes a really fun story while Jesus Merino does his usual capable job of drawing it. The real test for this book will come starting next month when the TEAM 7 book debuts. For the uninitiated, the old Wildstorm version of Team 7 featured Lynch, Fairchild (who should be revealed as Caitlin Fairchild’s father at some point), Cash(who we all know as Grifter), Mark Slayton (Backlash), Michael Cray (Deathblow), Christie Blaze, Stephen Callahan, and Jackson Dane (Arclight, who was in WETWORKS). I would love to see some of these characters introduced into the NEW 52  mythos.