DC'S NEW 52 VILLAINS MONTH Week 4

ACTION COMICS #23.4 METALLO: John Corben was the first subject of Project Steel Soldier with the Code name Metal-Zero. Although he was believed dead after the Brainiac Incident, General Lane has upgraded him. A year and a half earlier, one officer suggested they transfer Corben to long-term care at Walter Reed Hospital. Bur he gets a new power core made from Kryptonite. But the government feels Corben is mentally unstable but General Lane rules otherwise and Metal-Zero goes live. Metal-Zero is deployed to the Middle East where, despite technology that would save helpless lives, he opts for the most violent solutions. Unfortunately, he blows up a hospital and it gets caught on videophones, which now leads to major embarrassment for Lane who arranges to have Metal-Zero put on an unmanned aircraft and has it detonated over the ocean. Metal-Zero survives and makes his way to Project Steel Soldier Headquarters where he meets with Lane and unravels a conspiracy theory has he constructed. Sergeant Brizaula has been reborn as Metal-Two-Point-Oh. The two battle but the sergeant arms a self-destruct button and both are consumed by the blast. But Metal-Zero has been teleported out by the Secret Society. John Corben agrees to the deal they offer and Metallo is born. 

Sholly Fisch, King of the back-up story and Steve Pugh turn in a really good story here. John Corben, the arrogant tool of General Sam Lane, gets his revenge on the government by escaping from ultimate destruction three times: in his first appearance, when they try and blow him up and when the Secret Society saves him. The tale moves at a decent pace and the art is nice and clean. This could have been a lot worse than it was. 

AQUAMAN #23.2 OCEAN MASTER: We begin with Ocean Master leading his troops in the war again the surface world. but that was then and this is now. Belle Reve is his new home until the sudden appearance of the Crime Syndicate leads to the prison being torn down. Along with all the other prisoners, he breaks out, soon discovering that walking to wherever he is bound is a pain. He comes across a diner where other Belle Reve escapees are menacing the proprietor. Orm intervenes. More chaos is running rampant and a family is being menaced, including a woman with a small child. Orm walks away, even as it looks as though the mother and child will be slain. He enters the ocean and then quickly rises once more claiming “Eight is too young” and heads towards the town, seemingly revived.

Geoff Johns, has he has done on many during this month, provides the plot, along with Tony Bedard who is responsible for the “words”. So we get Orm moving from the mastermind of mass murder on the surface world to an actual attempt to humanize himself by saving some of them. Interesting. Geraldo Borges does his best Paul Pelletier meets Ivan Reis imitation and does a decent job at it. All in all, it should be interesting to see what happens next…whenever next is with this whacked out chronology.

BATMAN #23.4 BANE: Bane is going back to Gotham City and injects the prisoners of Pena Dura with venom, where he challenges each of them to kill him. This is his way of sharpening his skills as he heads back to the city that he will make his own, especially with word that the Batman is dead. While Bane continues to practice his skills on his own people, we hear the legend of Bane: how his father had been a revolutionary who was imprisoned at Peña Dura. But he escaped  and his young son, the man we know as Bane, was made to take his place. Meanwhile, at Blackgate Prison, interim warden Agatha Zorbatos realizes it won't be long before the prison is over-run and she will probably die. She orders her men to do all they can to keep 2000 of the most dangerous criminals in the country away from the rest of the world. Bane has men within Blackgate's guards who arrange for everyone’s release. And the police are too busy handling the breakout at Arkham. And Bane has sent venom-fueled assassins to kill the Scarecrow as a sign that HE is in control.

Well, we get a retooling of Bane’s origin and actually take pity on him…for about three pages until we realize that the hero of his country is still a crazy drug fueled murderer who broke the Batman. Yes…that story is still current even in this NEW continuity. Peter J. Tomasi does what he does best: he creates characters that are totally believable and peppers it with dialogue that sparkles. I wish half the people in this business could write dialogue as cool as this. And the fact that we pair him up with the legendary Graham Nolan is just the icing on top. This is a great story with a great look to it. Thanks DC Editorial for making a GOOD CHOICE on this one!

BATMAN AND ROBIN #23.4 KILLER CROC: Pity poor Waylon Jones who, as a child, had his Auntie Flowers scrub the scales from off  his flesh. In Crown Point, he could become a target so he needed to do it himself if she wasn’t there to do it for him. One day he was bullied by the other kids in his neighborhood. But he found a friend in Officer Hoolihan who explained that, no matter what, he might be a king someday. Six years later, Waylon had joined the Ed Geisel travelling circus where he would fighting a real crocodile. This was where he earned the name Killer Croc. It didn’t take long though for Waylon to realize that the promised $100 per show would become $40. Three years ago, he met Batman and Robin for the first time and was insulted when Robin said he was too dumb to pull off a job on his own. Today, Detectives Boone, Greer, and Sanchez are in the sewers searching for Killer Croc, who kills Sanchez in the process. They encounter street-people loyal to Croc and they break Greer's leg, forcing Boone to leave him behind. But the first door he finds contains the body of Officer Hoolihan, who Boone and the others had killed weeks before. The day before all this happened, the trio had received a note threatening that evidence against was in the form of a key and they would need to go to the sewer and bring money. Boone finds the key on Hoolihan's body only to find his surviving partner has been torn to pieces by Croc. Boone flees, falling from a ledge and being impaled on some junk-metal. It is obvious that Croc sent the note crushes Boone’s skull. With his friend avenged, Waylon prepares to take rule of HIS Empire under the city.


Before this book, Tim Seeley was known for writing GI JOE titles…and this little success story/soon to be a major motion picture called HACK/SLASH. This could be one of his FINEST pieces as he truly humanizes the villainous Killer Croc, who we already known does have a good side as we know of his trying to be a substance abuse mentor for Roy Harper. But this tale of torment and eventually revenge is just totally moving. Francis Portela art is perfectly suited for it and this could possibly be the best single book of Week Four. It sets Killer Croc up as his own King and, while the other villains fight to carve up Gotham City, he can just sit here and let his followers do his bidding. Awesome plan, dude!

BATMAN SUPERMAN #3.1 DOOMSDAY: Beginning many years ago on Krypton, Lara El encountered a monster we now know as Doomsday. Colonel Zod saved her life , though thousands died in the process. Eventually, Zod was sent to the Phantom Zone for his crimes. But the legend goes on from there in the House of El. The story is told of the last knight of the House of El who went to a new world but found himself feared and hunted him. One day, the monster arrived, he fought the creature, saved the people and died in the process. But many finally understood the Word of El and followers took his place. The legend we learn is being told by Zor-El to a young Kara, who we also learn had been in communication with Zod. He explained that is was he who had set Doomsday loose on Krypton to teach them how to be strong. She also told herself that it was all only just a dream and that the monster was not real.

Greg Pak, known for his great storytelling abilities, along with the ultra fine illustrations of Brett Booth, put a unique twist on the DEATH OF SUPERMAN storyline. What makes this take completely interesting is that it is told ON Krypton by Kara’s father. The legend is about something that happens long after Krypton is destroyed. Also very cool is Booth’s versions of the followers of “The Word of El”: the replacements who arrived during the REIGN OF SUPERMEN storyline. So, for all who complain that DC doesn’t respect it’s past, it truly does. And while I don’t always agree with the direction it goes in, I find myself satisfied with this one. And the cover by Tony Daniel, especially in the Lenticular version, is pretty awesome!

BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #23.4 JOKERS DAUGHTER: Duela Dent lives in Gotham City’s Nethers with her decidedly ugly cat. People live there and she survives by trading goods that she finds. One day, she finds the Joker’s face floating in the water and decides to wear it. She comes across a couple eating and decides that it is no longer permisable for the men of the underground society to always eat first. She makes a weapon with some metal she finds in the water and, before branding a crescent shaped grin on his mouth with the weapon, gets him to tell her of the leader of the tribe: a man called Charon. Apparently, he gives safe passage to anyone who comes from Arkham, which is where he believes this female Joker is from. The man takes her to the very handsome Charon and they battle. Defeated, she tells her depressing life story. Her parents were perfectionists who complained about her imperfections. She battled anorexia and dysmorphia and cut her face. Her parents had her institutionalized. Surgery was performed to correct her wounded face, but she fought it and the doctors’ knives caused more damage to her face. Hearing her parents plan to send her away permanently, she ran away. Charon asks her to join his tribe and she brands him as he realizes that all the men in the tribe have been branded and now allow the women to lead the tribe. She orders that his coat, which represents his position as leader, be removed, and he is sent away. Now Duela wears the coat and plans to show how the ugly rule.

This was the hottest book weeks before its’ release for a whole host of reasons including the great looking cover, the introduction of Duela Dent into the NEW 52 Universe and the whole concept of the Joker’s Daughter had fans intrigued. It turns out to be a bit of a Feminist statement by Ann Nocenti and Georges Jeanty. Women are downtrodden in the underground society so the demented Dent, whose family history may or may not be real, decides to become a one woman crusader for the rights of those women. Yeah-this might have been super relevant when Denny O’Neal was writing GREEN LANTERN, but women’s rights have progressed in the last few decades. While the art looks good, the story falls flat. Somehow, I don’t see her as a major player in the future, although she will spend some time in CATWOMAN.

DETECTIVE COMICS #23.4 MAN BAT: Dr. Kirk Langstrom has been waiting at Gotham Square Park for his wife Francine, currently addicted to her version of the Man-Bat Serum, to arrive so she can feed. He too is addicted to the serum and now the two Man-Bats battle. Transforming back to her human self, she realizes that he must have combined both formulas to become this strong and mocks him, forcing a frustrated Kirk to leave as the police arrive. Francine is charged with the murders she committed. Kirk worries that the combined formula may have affected him so he downs another vial, convinced that he will not become addicted. He declares himself the new protector of Gotham and spends the next 10 days doling out his own brand of justice. He also has become very addicted to the serum and every day his attitude becomes more based on total hatred. By the book’s end, about a month after his journey began, Kirk is scouring Gotham Square Park for possible victims.

Well, that was quite the depressing read. Ladies and gentlemen: allow Frank Tieri and Scott Eaton to bring you the story of Kirk Langstrom and his fall from grace as he ends up addicted to the Man-Bat Serum and follows in his wife’s footsteps. As he moves from vigilante protector of Gotham City to hungry Man-Bat, I felt just a little disappointment. I thought for sure, with Francine as the “evil” Man Bat, the folks at DC might let him be more of the hero this time. I guess I was wrong. 

GREEN LANTERN #23.4 SINESTRO: Lyssa Dark reveals the slightly slanted history of Sinestro. He is an archeologist who witnesses a spaceship crash. he finds a Green Lantern dying, defeats his attacker, a Weaponer of Qward, with the power ring he has taken from the dying man and then puts the Lantern out of his misery rather than save his life. Abin Sur recruits him and he becomes the greatest Green Lantern ever. He even meets his future wife Arin Sur. On Korugar, Sinestro helps develop the society and eventually becomes leader to the people. His wife argues that they are spending too little time with their child and it is during this period he mentors Hal Jordan, who would replace him in the Green Lanterns. Hal and Sinestro battle after Hal sees what Sinestro has done to his planet and the people revolt. Sinestro’s wife dies at the hands of a child’s suicide bomb. The Guardians banished Sinestro to the Anti Matter Universe, where he forged a Yellow Lantern team: a team he eventually destroyed when they revolted. He once again became a Green Lantern and saved Korugar from his Yellow Lantern Team. he also saved the Universe from the threat of the First Lantern and destroyed the Guardians for their treachery. Finally we learn that, even though the planet has been destroyed, not all of the Korugarians are dead. And Lyssa must find Sinestro to let him know that his people still need him.

Matt Kindt presents the slightly twisted tale of Sinestro’s origin. Slightly twisted is a bit of an understatement as it is filled so a bunch of lies. But lies are only a perception in the comic world. We know that Sinestro was a Lantern and betrayed the Corps. Lyssa’s view has him being the hero of the piece, when we all know that Sinestro nearly destroyed the world, both in this Universe and the last one, on multiple occasions. But the story is great and Dale Eaglesham’s art is phenomenal, complete with extremely intricate borders around each page. All in all, a real nice effort.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #23.4 SECRET SOCIETY: We begin with a flashback, via Alfred Pennyworth of Earth 3, to the Wayne family being mugged by this version of Harvey Bullock and Rene Montoya. Young Thomas Wayne Jr. grew up to become Owlman and be a founding member of the Crime Syndicate. Pennyworth also was responsible for murdering Thomas’ parents and created the partnership that they share. On this world, Dick Grayson was Talon and it seems that the Joker, on the night Wayne told Grayson the truth about the death of his parents, killed Talon, as he had Talon’s parents. Grayson had gone seeking revenge and paid the ultimate price while Owlman was busy having an affair with Superwoman to be around to protect his protégé. On this night, the Joker and Owlman would battle with Joker warning Owlman that he would cause Gotham to die one day. Owlman responded by killing Joker by throwing him into the blades of a police helicopter. Even as the police turned against Owlman, a threat to Earth 3 came and he could not save it. Alfred and Atomica escaped to the NEW 52 Earth, where Atomica looked to find a way to bring their friends here. In the meantime, Alfred built the team known as the Secret Society of Super-Villains. The Crime Syndicate are here and so is a captured Dick Grayson, who Owlman wants to be HIS new Talon. Alfred regrets that he didn't kill this Grayson.


Geoff Johns, Sterling Gates and Szymon Kudranski cram this issue with so many juicy bits that I want this whole event, once concluded, to lead to an EARTH 3 or CRIME SYNDICATE title that would flesh out the world of Earth PRIOR to it’s destruction. And how much do you want to bet that the threat to that world was good old Darkseid and his demons? This was so much fun to read! The art was a little lacking in style for my taste, but the story more than made up for it. I had WAY too much fun with this issue! Nice job Mr. Johns!

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #7.4 BLACK ADAM: Over 4,000 years ago, Khandaq was viciously ruled by Ibac the First. That was until he was defeated in battle by Black Adam and turned to stone. To some, this is only legend. But to the revolutionary group the Sons of Adam, it is law and they plan on taking back their government, and the current Ibac, by any means possible. They enlist a young man by the name of Amon, whose translation skills will come into play for them. Amon’s sister, Adrianna, tries to talk him out of it, as she believes in change through peaceful protests and Twitter videos.  That night, the Sons have Amon read a sacred scroll which will return Black Adam from the dust he became when he lost his fight with Shazam. In the process, Ibac soldiers arrive, most of the Sons are slain and Amon is critically wounded, dying in his sister’s arms before he can read the last word: SHAZAM. Instantly Black Adam returns from the dead, eliminating the army and leading the revolution to the palace. Once there, he crushes Ibac with his stone throne and declares that Khandaq no longer has a ruler, only a protector. Suddenly he receives the message from the Crime Syndicate that “the world is ours” and Black Adam declares that “the world belongs to no one”.

Geoff Johns and Sterling Gates write a wonderful return to power for Black Adam, who appears poised to be part of the Anti-Crime Syndicate League of Super Villains. This is such a great story as it follows the revolution and the revolutionaries, including Adrianna who, by tales end has gone from pacifist revolutionary to full on commando taking up weapons. And Edgar Salazar’s art is so close to what Gary Frank had cone on the SHAZAM stories in JUSTICE LEAGUE, that it’s hard to tell the difference sometimes. Overall, this may be the best book of all 52.

SUPERMAN #23.4 PARASITE: Three weeks ago, a bike messenger with an attitude named Joshua Michael Allen gets into a tangle with a “giant booger monster”.  He ends up out of work and his girlfriend dumps him, calling him a Parasite. But S.T.A.R. Labs wants to speak to him concerning his health after the incident with the monster. They run some tests and turn him into The Parasite: an alien looking creature that hungers and feeds by draining life and growing as he does. He attempts to commit suicide by jumping off a building in Suicide Slums, getting larger and larger. But Superman arrives to investigate and the Parasite sucks up some of Superman’s power, which doesn’t last long. He finds himself in Belle Reve where he is always hungry and they feed him 9 volt batteries. But then the breakout occurs and we see him hitching a ride to Metrpolois while menacing a mother and child.

Aaron Kuder, primarily known for his art, which is really nice looking and all, handles all duties on this one. And what we get is an arrogant character I really couldn’t care about getting turned into a power hungry alien that I also didn’t care about. I found myself not having any sympathy for him and just didn’t like who he is. This isn’t a guy in a costume: he’s a freaking alien! And menacing a little kid at the end of the book: truly in BAD TASTE! Not my favorite title of the VILLAINS MONTH but not the one I disliked the most either.

WONDER WOMAN #23.2 FIRST BORN: Apollo is creating graffiti at in L.A. when three oracles in a limo arrive with a seriously wounded First Born. Apollo asks the question of who the First Born truly is/was. They explain that the first born son of Zeus and Hera was destined, because of something foretold by a witch on the day of his birth, to rule Mount Olympus. Not wanting to give up his throne, Zeus ordered the witch put the baby to death. Unable to do it, she left the baby to die in the desert, where he was raised by a protective female hyena. He grew up as one of the pack, protecting them and learning to hate the natural predators the hyenas feared. Over the centuries, he fathered hundreds of half-god half-hyena children and the First Born traveled the world and conquered the world. Olympus paid him no mind, so he declared war on them. Neptune and Zeus destroyed his army and the war ended as quickly as it began. Zeus would not kill him but stole the First Born’s pride by wiping his very existence from history. But Zeus did say that if he ever left the throne, it would be the First Born's to try to claim. Hades sent him into the pit and 7,000 years later, he managed to climb out. Apollo refuses to relinquish the throne and the oracles warn that a terrible war will reveal the real fate of the throne. They explain there will be three people involved: Apollo, the First Born and a naked woman who arrives too late. With his fortune told, Apollo burns the oracles to death, puts his brother into the car and promises that the torture has just begun.

Leave it to Brian Azzarello to give us more insight into the Wacky Olympian Family! What I love about this title, and the WONDER WOMAN title in general, is that is isn’t JUST ABOUT WONDER WOMAN. It’s about the entire Olympian family and I believe that is what frustrates comic readers but fascinates me. This is like watching an episode of THE SOPRANOS on Mythology. It is TRULY about THE FAMILY Aco provides the art and it is very reminiscent of Paul Pope’s early work, so I’m okay with that. Another great issue here that furthers along the legend of the Olympians.