LARFLEEEZE #2: Larfleeze, trying to steal stuff, battles the Laord of the Hunt who is angry that the Orange Guardian has killed Laord’s dog. While the battle occurs, Stargrave chats with Laord’s last remaining dog, Lou. Soon we meet lackey Herb(he claims to have spent time at Lackey School). It seems that Laord’s five siblings have destroyed one Universe and now they’ve come to destroy Stargrave’s universe. Larfleesze gets knocked out and Laord has stolen Stargrave, who has been made the manservant in charge of taxidermy. He is in charge of posing creatures for Laord’s Shoe Box Diorama. Unfortunately, Larfleeze is among those creatures.
Unfortunately, even with Keith Giffen at the helm, this book is very much like reading any issue of DEADPOOL: it’s one joke. Larfleeze wants everything and constantly screams: “MINE! MINE! MINE!” Stargrave is his servant and has to deal with him. To give you an idea of how uninteresting this book was: the best part dealt with the conversations between Stargrave, Lou and Herb. And I’ll bet that most of the good jokes are coming from J.M. DeMatteis. Larfleeze and Laord fighting is like watching two kids quarreling on a playground. Now someone give them a nap!
THE MOVEMENT #3: Kartharsis gets beat up by the police,
under James Cannon’s control, who orders them to bring her to the precinct so
he can personally interrogate/torture her. Officer Yee voices his concern to
Captain Meers that they are stepping outside of the line to allowing Cannon to
question her alone. He is told that the others still have two of their fellow
men in blue. Meanwhile, Rainmaker attacks Kartharsis’ friends. Virtue has Mouse
capture one of Rainmaker’s people and a truce is formed. She reveals her name
is Sarah and that they need to find James Cannon. After refusing to join the
group, Rainmaker leaves but slips her phone number into Virtue’s pocket just as
secretly. Virtue visits Meers and warns him to cooperate with them or they will
destroy his precinct. Meanwhile, a homeless Gulf War veteran gets rained on by
a man who has come to kill him and does. Rainmaker has been framed again.
NIGHTWING #22: Nightwing visits Mayor Cole of Chicago, quizzes him about protecting Tony Zucco, now going under the name of Billy Lester, and plants a bug in his office before leaving. After eight hours of listening, Zucco calls the mayor and complains that Nightwing is hunting him. The Prankster appears on every video screen in the city, revealing that the mayor is hiding Zucco and has embezzled 52 million dollars. He then derails a subway train and disrupts all the police cruisers in the city in order to convince the Mayor to pay the money back. The Prankster has captured a good sized number of police and prepares to eliminate them, by their own means, is they money isn’t paid back. Meanwhile, Micheal's bosses at the Chicago Times are thrilled by the video he was given and want him to repeat the feat.
Kyle Higgins and Will Conrad continue the
tale of Nightwing in Chicago
and I still love it. Although I wish DC could continue to have artists stay on
a title for month than a month at a time. I have gone down this road before,
but I guess the days of people like Don Heck and Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko and
many, MANY others doing multiple titles a month AND for years at a time, are
long gone. That having been said AGAIN, Higgins characterization of the former
Dark Knight is great and he has truly found a way to distance him from Bruce
and the rest of the family. How will this whole Tony Zucco thing end? It will
probably not end well for someone, possibly the Mayor of Chicago!
RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS:#22: Roy
is hooked himself up with the Untitled to help get Jason’s memory back.
Unfortunately, Jason is now hooked up with the League of Assassins and Bronze
Tiger explains that Jason has been chosen as their leader. They give him a tour of the Death Market, so named because
any tool of death can be bought. Bronze Tiger calls a meeting of the council, where
we learn that it would take four hundred Terawatts of power to take down the city's
walls. Roy has just designed a weapon capable of generating six hundred Terawatts. Drakar of the Untitled
warns Roy that
he must break into the city or they will kill him. Meanwhile, Starfire calls on
Essence and battles with her briefly. Then she explains that Roy’s plan will only bring bad to everyone. If
he destroys the gates and the seal, the Untitled will gain access to the Well
of Sin. Unfortunately, Roy
is already at the gates and heavily armed.
James Tynion IV, along with artist Julius
Gopez continues the internal turmoil that makes up this title. Jason has had
his mind wiped and is destined to lead the League of Assassins, Roy is rushing in like
The Terminator to free him and Starfire has aligned with Essence to try and
stop him from unknowingly destroying the world. FINALLY, the book has stepped
out of its’ “Soap Opera” styling to give us a depth of plot and drama. With Talis
seemingly dead, will Jason be her replacement? And how well will that sit with
Batman?
RED LANTERNS #22: We begin with the Lanterns arguing about
what to do with Guy Gardner. Before the final decision is made whether they
should kill him or not, Rankorr drops him into the lake and restores his powers
to him. After getting into a brawl with Bleez, they decide to follow his lead
and decide they should build a shelter. But before that happens, Guy decides to
steal the flagship light cruiser of Barg. During the battle, Guy finds a
storage room full of crystal corpses from Chaselon’s homeworld. Apparently they
have their arms and legs removed and are sold as aphrodisiacs. Guy unleashes
his rage and sends Captain Barg through the cockpit window and into space.
Meanwhile, a certain Red lantern cat finds Atrocitus and brings him back to
life.
Charles Soule and Allessandro
Vitti continue to win me over with their take on the red lanterns. Having Guy
Gardner bite the bullet and rejoin the team is a brilliant step in the right
direction for a title that got too wrapped up in itself by the writing style of
Peter Milligan. I find this to be a fun read again as opposed to the totally
depressing thing that came before. Keep up the great work!
SUICIDE SQUAD #22: The Squad find themselves in Las Vegas to investigate a
hypnotic device that causes pandemonium among the people it affects. Deadshot
and Harley are undercover and get called outside by a thug who Deadshot
interrogates shooting out his kneecap. The man claims that someone called
"The Mother" will save him. The Unknown Soldier learns that the billboards
are the source for the hypnosis. Waller Deadshot and Harley search for the second
switch to shut them down. Based on the tracer Soldier put on the terrorists,
Cheetah and King Shark burst into Mother's office who tells them she has
already activated the billboards. A monster, constructed of electronic parts
and dead people, by some of Mother’s people is heading for Deadshot and Harley.
King Shark arrives and begins gnawing on the creature’s ankle, causing it to
fall. The team centers their attack on the creature's chest, blowing it open
and avoiding damaged to buildings in the area. Meanwhile, Waller’s scientists
tell her that the Samsara Serum kills everyone that it resurrects, meaning both
Deadshot and Waller may be doomed.
Ales Kot continues to twist the knife on
this one, what with the team being promised their freedom in a year and now
that possibly that Deadshot AND Amanda Waller are doomed to die for good. But
will we ever get a full resolution to this as Ales Kot has told the world he is
officially off the title with issue #24 and will be replaced by Matt Kindt-who
is a great author in his own right. This book, despite all the creative changes
as of late(I lose track-will Kindt be the THIRD or FOURTH writer?), still
continues to be a fun ride. And Patrick Zircher’s art continues to be the one
true constant here. It’s good dumb fun and I like it.
SUPERMAN #22: Hector Hammond
faces off telepathically with the Queen of the H.I.V.E., with Hammond coming out on top. But he finds
himself completely destroyed by a laser cannon. Moments later he awakes to find
she has escaped, leaving the entire base abandoned. She is a mile away sending
out a mental message to her "father", promising to get revenge.
Meanwhile, Clark meets with Cat Grant where he
provides a false source that might lead him to 'The Twenty': an alleged urban
legend of young people with metahuman powers. Superman then meets with Jimmy,
who is spending his dead parents money very quickly. But Jimmy tells the Man of
Steel that his parents are missing, not dead and he is in control of the family
finances until they return. An earthquake sends Superman to investigate and he realizes
he is being attacked by Brainiac's tech. The H.I.V.E Queen embraces the
unconscious hero, claiming that her 'father' Brainiac should never have left
The Twenty behind, as they are now stronger then he ever imagined. Brainiac is
coming and Hector Hammond is not happy.
Scott Lobdell actually delivers a really
good issue! We learn that ‘The Twenty’ are real, The H.I.V.E. Queen’s father is
Brainiac and we’ll get to see him REAL SOON! And it sounds like the Brianiac of
OLD, not that horrible mechanized thing that showed up in the last few years of
the OLD DCU. Eddy Barrows art shines throughout and I find myself enjoying this
issue much more than the last half dozen or so. In fact, this is probably the
best issue since before the H’EL ON EARTH storyline.
SUPERMAN ANNUAL #2: Lois
Lane has been murdered! Through flashbacks, we
learn that the death of a young woman who sought out Lois’ help leads her to
investigate ‘The Twenty’. She meets with a soldier named Sung Lee who
apparently is NOT dead. He leads her to meet with Senator Hume, who was responsible
for trying to get U.N. Inspectors into the Fortress of Solitude. Hume explains
that all of ‘The Twenty’ had there lives altered by Brainiac, who gave them
psionic powers. The Senator finds himself dying from using his abilities and
passes those abilities to Lois
Lane. Lois sees this as a death sentence for her.
The back-up story is the next part of the WORLD OF KRYPTON story which has been
running in ACTION COMICS, where Zod prepares to take over Krypton.
Okay, we have TWO Scott Lobdell stories this month that I like. The fact
that the LEGENDARY Dan Jurgens is illustrating it helps! But seriously: this is
a really good story that unveils the urban legend of ‘The Twenty’ and it’s Lois
who gets the scoop. But now we have people dying from their ability and this
could result in bad news for Lois down the road. Either way, this story will
continue to echo throughout forthcoming issues of ACTION and SUPERMAN. As far
as the back-up tale: I haven’t liked it to this point, so why would I like it
now?
SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #2: Superman
has ended up in Dubai
where the terrorist group Ascension has a monster trashing a building with
36,000 people in it. After many seconds of figuring out how to save the people,
partly because he ends up battling a machine called the Apollodorus, he does so
with a second to spare. Later, Clark visits
Batman, who tests a new device upon him. Ascension broadcasts a worldwide
message where they claim they are going to war with the modern world and its’
technology. Superman goes to meet with General Lane, who tells him a fable about
two roosters. Superman soon finds himself surrounded by black hole lasers. Lane’s
secret weapon bursts up from below the ground and prepares to battle the Man of
Steel. Meanwhile, Lois’ plane is attacked by Ascension, who cut power to the
plane she is flying in. At the same time, Lex Luthor uses a war suit to escape
his prison, uploads his mind into the suit and prepares to save the world. In
the back-up, we learn more of Batman’s special suit which would hide him from
Superman, while we learn more about the Ascension member who washed up on Nova Scotia.
So Scott Snyder and Jim Lee continue their take on the Man of Steel. I
still find myself having mixed feelings about this series. It looks great, but
we all know how long he can keep up the monthly pace and I expect to start
seeing fill-in artists within the next few issues. Regarding Snyder’s story, it
feels like it belongs in continuity and, at the same time, feels really
disjointed and out of place. Plus, I have a hard time believing there is a
building in Dubai
that can hold 36,000 people! I know it’s a comic book, but still...! As for the
back-up, a nice job of fleshing out some details from the main story and we see
that batman is totally paranoid about his fellow superhero community. And just
who decided to let Luthor become Savior of the Universe?
SWAMP THING #22: Over in Scotland, the Seeder asks an elderly
couple what their town would wish for if it could make a wish. They would wish
to reopen the distillery. The Seeder plants a seed that grows into a tree where
the fruit is huge whiskey drops. When Swamp Thing arrives, he sees the town is
very happy and very drunk. Constantine
is also there, claiming he is there for the same reasons as Swamp Thing: investigating
the tree. Swamp Thing accuses Constantine
of being the Seeder. After arguing back and forth, Alec agrees that the pair
should be friends again, even as he drunken townsfolk begin to fight and murder
each other. He begs Constantine
to help but he realizes that he has tasted the fruit and is as crazy as the
rest of the villagers. He crushes a vial of blood against Swamp Thing and it
causes his power to slip away. Constantine
crowns himself the whiskey king and commands the villagers to play with the Avatar
of the Green.
Charles Soule continues to weave the tale of The Seeder and his mysterious
agenda. This is a great story so far and where it ends up is anyone’s
guess…except for Soule, I guess! Kano
does a great job on the art and this book continues to pay tribute to the
legacy of this classic character. Although I miss her, it’s nice to see that we
are moving from the era of the Alec/Abby love story that so echoed Romeo and
Juliet in it’s own weird way. But do we have to put John Constantine into ANYTHING
that has a supernatural tone? Just saying…
TEEN TITANS #22: Trigon attacks New York and possesses everyone but Tim, Gar
and Raven. This is basically an issue long fight scene that ends when Tim
shoves one of his wing spikes through Trigon’s eyes. He abandons control over
the Titans and leaves. Then a mysterious team arrives from "a transpatial
initiative”, take custody of Psimon and mind wipes the people of New York so they
remember none of this. It turns out that
the soldiers killed were really only an illusion created by Trigon. Later, the
Titans offer membership to Raven, who accepts, even though we learn she is
still working for her father and being accepted on the team was part of the
plan. Lastly, Kid Flash finds his name is Bar Tor and gets dragged through a
dimensional portal by a whole bunch of red hands, with one of the mysterious
abductors promising to explain everything "on their way home” to pay for
his crimes.
Bye bye Bar Tor and bye bye to
this title for me. Okay, it took me 22 issues but I’m so done with this that I
don’t even want to know what crimes Kid Flash committed. I am especially done after
the issue long fight scene that ends with Trigon just going away and we learn
that most of what happened was only an illusion. Why? Oh yeah: Raven is still
working for him and all of this was a ruse to get her on the team. Scott
Lobdell needs to have his word processing abilities taken away and this is the
place to start. The days of him writing compelling teen fiction are gone and I
just don’t care to read his work any longer. Unfortunately, I love the Big Blue
Boy Scout and feel the need to continue to read his adventures, even though
they are written by Lobdell. Can we get Ann Nocenti to write this? Or even Kelly
Sue DeConnick. Wow! Did I even suggest that?
TRINITY OF SIN-PANDORA #1: We begin 8,000 years BCE, where Pandora
was searching for myrtus berries to heal her ill brother. She found a skull
made of gold, looked into its glowing eyes and unknowingly unleashed the Seven
Deadly Sins. When she awoke and returned to her village, all were dead at the
hands of the demons she freed. Soon after, she was brought to the Rock of
Eternity to be judged and was condemned as part of the Trinity of Sin. She was
branded by scars and she was cursed to wander the world forever. After she
buried her people, she then began to walk the earth. When she could, she saved
who she could from the demons. Over the centuries, she learned magic from
druids, wizards and healers. In today’s world, she managed to build a group of allies
and planned to kill the demons she had given birth to. Just as she is about to
battle Wrath, she is pulled away by one of the council members who admits that they
were wrong to condemn her. He tells her she must find the box because that is
the key. She needs the strongest or darkest heart to get to the great power
inside. She realizes she needs someone super to open the box.
Ray Fawkes has been given the
task of explaining Pandora-the one character in the NEW 52 who appeared in
every single one of the original 52 #1 issues. This is going to be tough enough
as he is responsible for dealing with a true character of Earthly legend. And
his job gets tougher because we have no less than four artists contributing.
Zander Cannon lays out 1-7 and 16-20, with Daniel Sampere penciling and Vincent
Cifuentes inking those pages. Patrick Zircher handles full art on pages 8-15.
All of it looks really good. That having been said, this is a fun issue and the
back story is interesting. Give it a shot, because this character will tie into
the TRINITY WAR this summer and may even reveal some of the reasons for the
reboot.
TRINITY OF SIN-PANDORA #2: We
begin in Egypt
where Pride sends Envy to stop their “mother” Pandora from destroying the box
responsible for their birth. Pandora is at Marcus' armory, where she is
concerned that her actions have started a war. Knowing that the purest of heart
couldn’t open the box, now she was going to look for the darkest of heart. At
Belle Reve, Agent Kinkaid and Paul Chang, from S.H.A.D.E. and A.R.G.U.S.
respectively, decide to work together to solve the case. Later, the Secret
Society arrive at the crater and Vandal Savage has Signalman track Pandora.
Soon at battle breaks out in Belle Reve and one of Pandora’s exploding knives
gets thrown into Giganta’s eye. Savage attacks and Pandora gives him the box,
as she can see the evil within him. He collapses in pain and Pandora realizes
he is useless to her as he does have a soul somewhere within him. At the
A.R.G.U.S. field office, Chang reveals there have been sighting of Pandora as
far back as the Crusades. Kinkaid and Chang decide that she must be eliminated.
Ray Fawkes and Daniel Sampere pick
up right where they left off last issue by delivering another solid issue with
conspiracies and full-on action. Chang and Kinkaid represent the two secret
organizations in the NEW 52 Universe and they do NOT want to work together, but
must. Pandora hasn’t decided who to get to open the box, as she has tried good
AND evil. Maybe she should track down Darkseid to open the box. And if she
succeeds in takking away the evils in the world, will that affect next month’s
FOREVER EVIL event? The book doesn’t suck yet, so let’s see where it goes from
here.
TRINITY OF SIN- PHANTOM STRANGER #10: The Phantom Stranger climbs the ladder and
reaches Heaven and sees the community there, where there is a door for every
person who arrives there, as every person gets to choose their own Heaven.
Stranger is told that he can only bring back one soul from Heaven. Zauriel,
along with Chris Esperanza(the babysitter who was slain) proceed through the
various versions of Heaven until they find the family, who are sitting with Philip
J. Stark sitting with them. We learn that Stark is part of their Heaven and he
is only Stark’s friend Joshua. He insists the family come back to him but they
explain they will always be a part of him but they must remain here. When all
is said and done, The Stranger chooses to bring Chris back to life because he
was truly the innocent one during all of this. Zuriel tells him that he can
never come back to the eternal realm again or he will be erased from time and history.
Back on Earth, Chris attempts to comfort the Stranger. Meanwhile The Question
is trying to convince Terrence Thirteen that he should kill himself.
If you haven’t noticed, the title has a new name, so it ends up down here
now in the listings. J. M. DeMatteis brings this chapter in the life of The
Phantom Stranger to a close in an unsatisfying but expected way. Personally, I
would have had him try to resurrect the guy he killed two thousand years ago,
as that might have given him eternal forgiveness. That having been said, I
expected him to bring back the one innocent one as the Stark family were slated
to die one way or another. He just gave them some extra time because he killed
Stark and made him into the Sin Eater, Fernando Blanco provides the art, which
is not a surprise since it seems the NEW 52 is all about artists NOT being able
to keep up with deadlines. From here, it’s headlong into the TRINITY WAR.WONDER WOMAN #22: Once Wonder Woman is awakened from her three day induced coma, she learns Highfather had done this as she was gravely injured in her fight with the First Born and Artemis. Meanwhile Highfather is chewing out Orion for bringing foreigners to New Genesis. Diana finds Orion and attempts to comfort him. Diana asks what happened to the planet the people of New Genesis came from and he explains a great war poisoned the planets and forced them to leave. Highfather agrees to let them all go back home but orders Orion to take Zeke from Zola, before sending them through the open Boom Tube. Orion leaps onto his flying harness and follows; all part of Highfather's secret plan. When they arrive to find London in flames and finds the First Born in Westminster Abbey. He tosses Lennox's broken stone head at her feet and he unleashes an army of hyena men upon them. They all stand together to fight when War appears to assist them.
Brian Azzarello knocks it out of the park again by revamping parts of the New Gods legend AND putting our heroes against the First Born. Cliff Chiang’s art continues to provide the perfect setting for this story. I can only hope that after nearly two years, many fans can finally let go about the angst they have been feeling about Azzarello rewriting so much of Diana’s history and legend. It’s a NEW UNIVERSE and obviously some of the rules have changed. As I have stated from the beginning: I so like this take on the Amazon princess. You want traditional? Go read JUSTICE LEAGUE.
WORLDS’ FINEST #14: Helena, hiding out from Desaad and his men, wakes up in a safe house that somebody had set on fire and flees. Later Helena meets up with Karen in Woodstock where a fortune teller gives them fortune about darkness and pain. Meanwhile Desaad bemoans the fact that he is trapped on Earth Prime and needs to feed. He sends his men to attack a Starr Industries building in Oxford, where they try to steal a machine called the synchronizer. Power Girl arrives and beats the Parademons but one of them gets away and drags Helena into a Boom Tube. Power Girl follows saying: “Down the rabbit hole, right?”
Paul Levitz continues to mix
things up with this title, treating it like it’s the Earth 2 version of THELMA
AND LOUISE and I love that! While it does get very disjointed at times (we go
from a burning safe house to Woodstock
and ice cream), his work here, as I have said before, is much better than it
was on THE HUNTRESS. And Robson Rocha brings a sense of beauty to his art.
Couple to that the fact that he gets to draw a lot of cleavage…well: you get
the picture, sexist or otherwise.
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