THE MOVEMENT #9: Batgirl’s in Coral City hunting a guy named Reese, who quickly knocks her out with a blast of solar energy. When she wakes, people wearing masks and warning her to leave Reese alone surrounds her, allowing Reese to escape. Meanwhile, Virtue convinces Mouse to bathe himself and, once clean, asks Tremor on a date with him. Batgirl goes to visit Pastor Mike at the Angel's Hand Presbyterian Church. Virtue arrives, demanding to know what Batgirl is doing in Coral City. She explains she needs to bring Reese back to Gotham to face justice. Katharsis arrives and battles Batgirl for the first time since she worked for Knightfall in Cherry Hill. Mouse has his rats surround Batgirl, suggests they discuss things over doughnuts and milkshakes, which they agree to. Katharsis explains that she left the Disgraced after she saw Ricky get his leg amputated. Batgirl explains Reese had been acting as a vigilante and he’s being hunted for killing two criminals. Katharsis knocks her out and they take her back to the Sweatshop. Over at the Police Department, we find out that Virtue had a seizure at age eleven that killed her. Her was shot and killed by Captain Meers during an incident and Erik Yee that she’s been after him ever since. Not far away, two police officers encounter Reese and burns them to death with his solar fire-insisting HE is a hero.
Based on what sales figures were like, I am guessing I am one of the few dedicated fans who are totally disappointed that this title will end with issue #12. Gail Simone and Freddie Williams II have put their hearts and souls into this book Okay, so that’s a little bit on the corny side. But I truly believe it’s true. These issues, while being someone confusing at times , has introduced a great supporting cast of characters that I am sure will end up being used in another books from time to time. Kartharsis has already appeared in BATGIRL and could probably do it again. This has been such a fun book and I hope that it won’t lose steam in these last three issues.
NIGHTWING #28: Nightwing is in the middle of a battle with a shape-shifter named Spinebender, who is seeking revenge on Nightwing because of a battle some time ago with himself, Nightwing and Batgirl. Nightwing is forced to unleash the same electric jolt that wronged Spinebender in the first place, and the power of the current causes him to harden into glass and shatter. Later, Dick and Michael are at their job in the bar when Sonia Branch walked in. She had visited her father, Tony Zucco, in prison and he explained why he faked his own death. She explained how she planned to make sure he never gets out of prison because he killed John and Mary Grayson. She tells Dick that she was leaving Chicago, as she was let go from her job at the bank. When Dick returns home, he learns that Cheryl and Greg were both murdered. In private, Jen tells Dick she knows whom he is and she knows who killed her parents. He leaves the room and when he returns, she is gone to hunt their killer. Joey tells Dick that the police know who killed her parents: Victor Zsasz.
Kyle Higgins continues to do a great job of writing this book, even with the end coming in just two issues. Of course, he is also trying to juggle multiple storylines and wrap them up in a short amount of time. You’ve got poor Jen, having just lost her parents, knowing Dick is Nightwing and going off to hunt Zsasz because she thinks she can be his Robin (someone tell her Robin is DEAD!). You have Sonia Branch telling her father she will make sure he rots in prison for the Grayson murders. Then she’s leaving on Dick besides. Wait: didn’t she leave on him before? And isn’t the reason he came here was to put Tony Zucco behind bars. And where does this all fit into FOREVER EVIL? Obviously, it’s BEFORE that mini-series, as everyone knows Dick is Nightwing, not just this little girl. Russell Dauterman handles the art chores this issue and that is all he needs to do, as the glory days of this title, sadly, is long gone.
RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #28: Isabel enters her house following a date and discovers robots broadcasting a hologram of Jason Todd in her living room. He invites her to go to Elysium, which she does, although she does so with much hesitation. Beneath the island, a man called Midas feels his criminal operations are being infringed upon, especially with the presence of the Red Hood there. Meanwhile, dancing at a club, Jason expresses his feeling for Isabel who reminds him that the problem they had was not with having fun, but with the danger involved in their relationship. Roy and Kori are also exploring their relationship with some guy steps in the dance with Kori and she breaks his arm. At this point, she and Isabel begin to dance, leaving the guys on the sidelines. Midas sets robotic members of his Army of the Golden Hand loose on the dance floor, but they are soon defeated. After all that has happened, Isabel knows this relationship can never work so she says goodbye and returns home to Gotham City. She calls up her date from the evening before she left and decides that maybe he’s more of the man who deserves to be in her life. Meanwhile, the Outlaws pursue Midas and his Army of the Golden Hand.
I really like James Tynion IV’s writing and have spoken great volumes about it on many occasions. But this is one of the WORST READS I have had to wallow through in awhile. There is nothing wrong with Tynion’s writing skills…but the story stinks! We bring back a minor character from a few months back, with the intention of patching things up between her and Jason. And then we spend an entire issue with the “kids” dealing with relationship issues while this crazy guy named Midas, who was once courted to be part of Suzy Su’s operation, comes out of the woodwork to break up the fun. REALLY? This is a fill-in issue after a great run in the last few months. And Stephen Segovia is another hired gun fill-in artist for the month. If you cannot give us consistent quality all around make the title bi-monthly and save me some money. Sorry guys: you know what I think of this title but this was a waste of my time.
RED LANTERNS #28: Guy Gardner and Ice arrive in Paris to save Skallox and Zilius Zox from Shadow Thief that they eventually do. Guy invites Ice out to dinner and she refuses…refuses to have a relationship too. So the Lanterns head back home and meet the Green Lanterns, from the closing page of GREEN LANTERN #28. That ends up in a battle with the Red Lantern Supergirl and theyt end up putting her in the river of blood. When she eventually arises, she explains to guy and Hal that she is Kara Zor-El and Hal thinks that means she might be related to Superman. Meanwhile Rankorr and Bleez defend themselves against a resurrected Atrocitus, Dex-Starr and Klarn.
This issue was the other half of the GREEN LANTERN #28 flipbook and is by the usual crew of Charles Soule and Alessandro Vitti. My problem with this issue is that we have three storylines running through it. Granted, the first one is the conclusion of the Shadow Thief fight from issue #27, but we still have the fight between Rankorr and Bleez and Atrocitus, and then bring in the story with Supergirl. Oh…and let’s not forget the ongoing NON-ROMANCE between Ice and Guy. I love the direction this title is going in but right now, it has more subplots than a telenovela.
SUICIDE SQUAD #28: King Shark and Kamo are battling O.M.A.C. while Amanda Waler has an online conversation with Kevin Kho, who begs her for help in regaining control over O.M.A.C.. Meanwhile, Power Girl and the newly rescued Suicide Squad, land on the roof at Belle Reve where they encounter Harley Quinn and James Gordon, Jr.. No one is trusting anyone right now, but they watch the battle between the trio below them. Power Girl, Unknown Soldier and Steel intervene, but are no match for the Thinker controlled O.M.A.C.. Harley and Deadshot make their way inside where they find a case of bullets filled with a super-powered serum. Finding Waller, she tells them the bullets will infect them with a nano-virus that will give them a chance against O.M.A.C. Deadshot shoots Harley in the chest, puts one in Waller’s chest, and then turns his gun on himself.
Okay, we all know that this series is finished with issue #30, but things are looking like they will not MAKE issue #30. O.M.A.C. is whipping everyone’s tails, and now we have three heroes with bullets in their chests that may OR MAY NOT give them super-powers. And where is James Gordon in all of this. He WAS with Harley but she’s with Waller and Deadshot. Anyway, I will truly miss this book when it all ends in two issues. Despite creative changes, this title has always had something different to offer-which is what the original SUICIDE SQUAD titles were all about. Matt Kindt continues to do a killer job-emphasis on the phrase “killer”-with the plot and the total script while Jason Masters keeps the book looking good.
SUPERMAN #28: We begin this issue with Lois Lane caught in the middle of a police ambush in Suicide Slums. When one of the officers takes a bullet, Lois uses her new psychic powers to stop the mobsters. Superman has discovered a doorway above the Earth and Dr. Shay Veritas has suggested monitoring it. When he returns home, he Jimmy Olsen sleeping on his couch. Jimmy claims that he doesn’t feel normal living as a billionaire, so he asks Clark if he can stay here and Clark agrees. Cat shows up telling Clark about Morgan Edge wanting to buy their website, which Clark convinces her not to accept. Jimmy comments that if Edge wants it, it must be because they are close to a story someone wants hidden. Meanwhile, General Lane and a female companion are subjected to a break-in and hostage taking. But Lane saves the day and is informed that he should spare the intruder’s life if he wants to learn about the Tower. Superman arrives at the Metopolis Police Department and interrogates one of the mobsters, who claims that someone gave them the power to destroy him. Just then, Starfire arrives claiming she needs to save the planet and needs him out of the way.
Scott Lobdell actually wrote an issue of this title that did not completely drive me nuts! Actually, maybe it was just the fact that I was blown away by the amazing art of Brett Booth. The plot was okay, although I still don’t get Lois having psychic powers after she has come out of her coma. And I don’t know if I’m going to like what looks to be a RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS non-crossover…perhaps just to get SUPERMAN readers into a book that is NOT BEING read. And the dialogue wasn’t as childish as it has been on most of his other NEW 52 writing assignments. All in all, it was an okay issue with some killer artwork!
SWAMP THING #28: With Swamp Thing back as Avatar again, he has brought several former avatars back to the real world with them, and they have reverted to human form. The Wolf isn’t happy about it but Brother Jonah is. Lady Weeds has decided to live in a tree and is wondering why he saved her. He reveals that he hadn’t intended to save her and she just happened to come along with the others. He sets them up in the house that was Abby Arcane’s and they get dressed. Alec takes the three to a Mardi Gras parade on Bourbon Street. After they get home, Alec goes out to search the Green for Capucine. He finds her at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Nevada. After she attempts to kill him by firing a rocket at him, he convinces her that he is not Woodrue and that he is the last Avatar. She proceeds to tell her story. Born in 1114 in France, she and her brother were given 1,000 years of life, along with enhanced strength and speed, by a strange man who we learn was Etrigan. They return home to find that a group of unsually dressed humans calling themselves The Sureen are there waiting for him.
Charles Soule continues to weave a nice tale of the TRUE Avatar of the Green. Now that Jason Woodrue is gone, it is nice to see some sort of sanity, if that can truly be said about Swamp Thing, come back to this title. We finally get the origin of Capucine and see that good old Etrigan is to blame for her problems. But what is going to happen now that there are former Avatars loose in our world? I personally think it’s going to go back and go bad quickly. Soule’s story is really good and Javier Pina’ art is great, starting at the cover and going all the way through the book. And will the Sureen REALLY make Alec’s fondest dreams come true? I’m thinking not and this could be an issue too. Come back next month and let’s all see.
TRINITY OF SIN PANDORA #8: Already reviewed as part of THE BLIGHT storyline. See earlier blog post
TRINITY OF SIN THE PHANTOM STRANGER #16: Already reviewed as part of THE BLIGHT storyline. See earlier blog post
WONDER WOMAN #28: Wonder Woman, Artemis, Hermes, and Hera go into the London Underground trying to find Zola and Zeke. In Provence, Dio chases Zola, who is also being by a minotaur. Dio controls the vines in the forest to stop the minotaur, but he breaks free and breaks Dionysus' neck. Zola watches as the minotaur leaves with Dio’s dead body, ascending into Cassandra’s ship. Diana and company arrive and she gives chase after the ship, holding on as it flies away. Cassandra tells Dio, who is not truly dead, that she just needed A God to gain entry into Olympus. On Mount Olympus, Apollo is battling the First Born, who has managed to escape the torture he was experiencing. Just as Cassandra's plane reaches the top of the mountain, Apollo sets off a huge burst of energy and destroys the tower.
I really cannot say a lot about this title, because, if you have been reading me at all in the last 28 months, you know how much I love this title and the work of Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang. And, since there are fans of this book and people who equate Azzarello’s work to that of J. Michael Strazynski, and hate his work as much, I won’t go any further. Have an open mind and try this title, before the team of Azzarello and Chiang pack it in sometime this summer.
WORLD’S FINEST ANNUAL #1: The Prelude to FIRST CONTACT. In Chapter One, set long ago on Earth 2, Helena Wayne(Robin) and her father, Batman investigate a brothel in one of the better neighborhoods in Gotham. Robin does most of the work, with Batman observing. Helena ends up taking out the pimp and ends up trying to convince the prostitutes that she was there to help. Batman arrived and explained they were suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. He insists she leave them for the police and caseworkers. In Chapter Two, Kara uses a fake ID to get into a club and is afraid that her cousin Kal will find out. She meets a guy named Ken and picks him up. They go for a walk and kiss. As she is about to revealk her secret to him, an explosion at the WorldGov tower deeply concerns him, as his father is the leader of Gamorra and AT the tower. As he raced to the tower, Kara put on her uniform and flew off to the tower. She saved many lives and fixed the building, she was too late to stop a falling piece of debris from killing ken as he went to search for her. In Chapter Three, Kara visits Helena and learns that Batman had recorded the whole incident. Watching the video, Helena discovers a blurry frame of a woman in the wreckage. Arriving at the scene, they are attacked by Fury and have to let her go when Helena gets trapped under rubble. They start investigating readings and head to a cave where Fury again knocks out Kara. Wonder Woman intervenes and tells her to go home, leading to a battle between Kara and the Amazon that allows Fury to go free. Wonder Woman explains they would all be killers one day and Fury was her daughter.
Although this is listed as the Prelude to the FIRST CONTACT storyline, (which runs through BATMAN SUPERMAN #8, WORLDS' FINEST #20, and BATMAN SUPERMAN #9), it really is just a tale from Earth 2 BEFORE the battle with Apokolips that resulted in the deaths of the super Trinity. The revealing piece, in this tale by Paul Levitz and Diogenes Neves is that Fury IS Wonder Woman’s daughter. So, if Fury is from Apokolips, just who did the Amazon DO to have a child of Apokolips? My bet is she was doing the horizontal bop with Orion, since she and he were a bit friendly on our Earth.
WORLDS' FINEST #20: In Part 2 of FIRST CONTACT, Batman, Superman, The Huntress, and Power Girl head to New Gamorra. Power Girl’s powers have returned to normal as it seems that Superman is now being affected by Gamorran Nanites. Batman buts the necklace with the Kryptonite ring around Superman in hopes that it will revert him to human power levels and counteract the Gamorran Nanites. A Gamorran Super Soldier arrives and The Huntress takes him out, since Superman is too weak. Batman and Power Girl infiltrate New Gamorra, where she discovers that the son of Kaizen Gamorra is Ken and he has been using Kara’s DNA to build an army Kryptonian Clones.
Okay, so I guess I need to go out and buy BATMAN SUPERMAN #8 and BATMAN SUPERMAN #9 to get the full story, like HOW they end up looking for New Gamorra in the first place. Anyway, Paul Levitz’ story is typical Levitz and now I DO understand why the Annual WAS a Prelude as it introduced Ken, who apparently DIDN’T die in that book. So Levitz’ story is cool but R. B. Silva’s art, based on breakdowns by Scott McDaniels, is so block that I had a hard time really enjoying it.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Friday, March 21, 2014
NEW 52 Month 28, Part 1
ACTION COMICS #28: Ukur brings Superman and Lana to Imperial Subterranea, where they meet Queen Kokya, who wants to talk to Lana, who she thinks is the queen of the surface world. Superman and Lana, who get taken to a room to clean up and, hearing a scream, discover a creature having its’ energy drained. As Superman attempts to save it, the Ghost Soldier gets involved and reveals himself as Leonard Sawyer. Stone warriors attack the pair while Kokya tries to convince Lana into giving Superman to her. Lana refuses and Ukur attempts to capture her, but is saved by Baka. All four make their way topside but the creature, not used to sunlight, turn into monsters which prompts Ghost Soldier to stab Superman, saying that he won’t side with monsters.
So: let’s all be honest. Is this not the book in the NEW 52 that has made the biggest and best change in the last few months or what? Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder have turned this into a beautiful to look at, fun to read romp! Underground cities! Lana Lang! Monsters! Aliens! Cute little creatures that turn INTO monsters! The Ghost Soldier! This book has become one of my favorite reads each month and…it is appropriate as it comes out during week one every month!
ALL-STAR WESTERN #28: When last we saw Jonah Hex, a truck had hit him. He gets hospitalized and ends up in a three month long coma with his doting girlfriend watching over him. He finally wakes and discovers that the doctors did facial reconstruction surgery and removed the cataract in his right eye. The take off the bandages and our bounty hunter is truly a new man. After a night to contemplate his life, he leaves the hospital and Booster Gold arrives, wanting to set things right. After a quick costume change back into a Confederate uniform, and with Gina by his side, he travels back in time to his home era. It isn’t long before they encounter Apaches. Jonah explains who he is but they don’t believe him, as he no longer bears the Mark of the Demon. Their plan: kill Hex and take Gina.
First off, we get an AWESOME COVER from Darwyn Cooke. Yeah-DARWYN COOKE! From there, it becomes a waiting game until Jonah comes out of his coma and comes face to face with a new him. How do you top that? Go back home and have a band of Apaches think you’re a liar because you no longer are scarred. Yeah, that is a bad position to be in! As always, a killer story from Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray with art this issue from Staz Johnson and Fabrizio Fiorentino rather than the usual Moritat. As much as I like Moritat’s work, I quite enjoy the change of artistic pace.
ANIMAL MAN #28: We begin where last issue ended with Brother Blood about was about to choke Maxine to death in order that he could rule The Red. Meanwhile, Buddy is fighting against the last of the Totems and slays him with his own horns. He heads to help his daughter, who is fighting back, calling herself ANIMAL GIRL. She transfers her power to Shepherd even as Blood drags Ellen Baker in The Red and holds her hostage, telling her to surrender her power or he will kill Mom. Buddy arrives and defeats Brother Blood, promising to never leave the family again. However...a promise was made and Buddy will have to live up to it.
So how DOES Buddy baker get out of this one? Personally, I think somehow that Buddy’s son Cliff gets reborn and he goes off to be the new alien on the block. But then again: I’m not making a living writing comics. So that would be for Jeff Lemire and Rafael Albuquerque to decide. We’ll all find out next month as the final issue of this series rolls off the presses.
AQUAMAN #28: Aquaman saves the poor diver from the end of last issue, despite having torpedoes fired at him. He manages to get him aboard what is known as Triton Base and renews his friendship with Dr. Shin. Later, he and Mera return to Amnesty Bay where he discovers there is a High School Reunion on the next night. He refuses to go because he beat up a kid who was carving his name into a live-beached whale, putting the kid into a coma. Back on Triton Base, the wounded diver is an amputee in a vegetative state. So the commander allows Dr. Orson to experiment on him. Arthur and Mera go to the reunion and many old classmates meet and greet him. Some treat him with respect and some with disrespect. But almost all of them have had some experience with him since he became the Sea King. Then finally, Kevin Bernard has his meeting and he is scared stiff as he was the one who keyed Arthur’s car Senior Year. Arthur forgives him, even those he has no recollection of the incident, and Kevin feels relief. And the guy he beat up in high school? He spends the days bragging how he got knocked out by Aquaman. Meanwhile, the shadowy guy who has been asking too many questions in town has stolen the trident, flown to the Azores and , put it in an ancient runestone. What happens next? Wait until next month.
A high school reunion? This is the highlight of this issue? If you had told me that in the advance solicitations, I probably would have thought it was an early April Fool’s joke. But it isn’t. It IS the main story in this issue. And it’s…AWESOME!!! This hasn’t been this much fun since the very early issues when Geoff johns was writing some incredibly funny dialogue for the Sea King.
Jeff Parker delivers some good moments in this issue with the highlight being the reunion. Having lived through several high school reunions, this is the epitome of them. We discover most of the townspeople have stayed behind and do not have much to say except be in awe of their classmate. At most reunions, it is a matter of who can brag the most about their accomplishments. As always, outstanding art from the ever-reliable Paul Pelletier. But what IS the purpose of the trident in the rune stone and what will that bring about?
BATGIRL #28: We meet Mr. Uchida, who believes that The Joker, Penguin and Two Face are Freedom Fighters and Nightwing, Batman and Batgirl are the Nocturnal Destroyers that he is planning on hunting. Batgirl is scouting out a group of copycat house theives wearing Halloween masks. But by the time she gets to street level, she discovers that Strix has taken them out. She wants Batgirl’s help to find a missing 8-year-old girl that can’t speak. Uchida watches from a distance and sees Strix and Batgirl as vampires feeding on the thieves they just apprehended. Batgirl contacts Charise Carnes (Knightfall) and asks for a favor to took for the girl. Meanwhile, Silver (Mr. Uchida) goes to the apprehended thieves and decides they are vampires and he dispatches them. Strix and Batgirl, disguised as detectives, question the missing girl’s mom and then get attacked by Silver, who believes they are in league with the vampires. The Gotham City Police arrive and break up the fight as Sliver tells Barbara he has their vampire queen: 8 year old Cissie Chastain.
Okay: this is a totally confusing issue! I mean, it seems to begin with some crazy guy getting ready to hunt the remaining living members of the Bat Family and then we find out he thinks that the Bat family are vampires out to hunt EVERYONE. Okay, so Silver is nuts and Gail Simone and Fernando Pasarin have crafted another unusual chapter in the legacy of Batgirl. And if Knightfall is involved, things could get rough for the Girl Wonder.
BATMAN #28: The police accost Harper Row because she is in violation of the 8 o’clock curfew. One of them is about to beat her when she says: "Midnight in Gotham is the bee's knees." She is shoved into an armored van, only to find herself at the only nightclub still in Gotham: The Egyptian. She is here because her brother became infected because they were in the Narrows at Ground Zero. Come to find out her password is three days old and now it looks like she is going to pay. She kills the power in the room and Batman appears, chewing her out for bringing the thing he told her not to bring and orders her to put her uniform on. Batman and Bluebird fight their way through the casino and to the club owner: Selina Kyle. He asks for the key to winning Gotham back and she responds by wrapping her whip around his throat. He reminds her that people are dying because of what she is keeping from him. She has her men lead them to the safe and they open it. Inside is Stephanie Brown-The Spoiler. And apparently she is the only one who can stop what’s coming.
Okay…if you are a bit confused here, you are not alone. We stop the ZERO YEAR story that has been running and will continue to run through BATMAN for the foreseeable future (or until Scott Snyder leaves the title, which may be happening very soon) to give the introductory part of the new weekly BATMAN ETERNAL series. Set somewhere in the future, or possibly in another timeline totally (or even another Earth…who knows?), we see Harper Row as a Robin of sorts(FINALLY!) and Selina Kyle as the Queen of the Gotham Underworld. But best of all, we get the NEW 52 introduction of Stephanie Brown-The Spoiler. Finally-STEPHANIE BROWN! So who knows if this is in the future or an alternate future. WE GET STEPHANIE BROWN! Thanks to Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV and Dustin Nguyen for this tale. See the next part in BATMAN ETERNAL #1.
BATMAN AND ROBIN #28: Picking up from where we left off last issue, Two-Face has been captured and is about to be executed live on television. Batman figures out where he is being held, but ejects Erin into the waiting arms of the Gotham City Police Department. He bursts into the courtroom where Harvey is being held and manages to free him and discovers that Harvey knows his secret identity. Jim Gordon and the Gotham Police arrive to escalate the situation. Dent and Gordon end up isolated and Harvey spins his coin and it lands on the edge. Frustrated, he flees. Meanwhile, Erin is beginning to make friends in jail and is beginning to lead her own following. Back in his home, Two Face flips the coin and puts a gun to his head. We hear a gun go off and see blood splattered on a picture of Gilda.
Yeah…I love the work of Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason. And it looks like we may have a reboot in the works. We have lost The Joker and replaced him with The Joker’s Daughter . We had a temporary Penguin for a time. And now, it looks as though we may have a changing of the guard as Harvey Dent gives up the mantle of Two Face and it looks like it is going to passed to Erin McKillen. It is amazing that this title is still being published. I thought that this title would end up being tanked after the death of Robin but Tomasi and Gleason have kept this book rolling with a rotating co-headliner in what is becoming the best team-up title out there. I can’t wait to see who is next on the agenda. Keep up the GREAT WORK guys!
BATMAN: JOKER’S DAUGHTER #1: In case you didn’t read the VILLAIN’S MONTH issue. Here’s the quickie on this character. Duela Dent, who spent her life struggling with dysmorphia that made her disfigure herself, eventually headed to the Gotham Underground. She found the Joker's face floating by and wore it, becoming the Joker's Daughter. To please her father, she targets the Batman by staging a bus crash filled with mannequins, along with a note containing a tracker. Batman the sewers and Duela attacks him. She refuses to believe that the Joker is dead, and he offers her one chance to get help. He gets a police report and leaves her, but she follows. And is surrounded by police and arrested. She chews through her skin and slides out of her handcuffs, causing the cruiser to crash and kills a policewoman. She heads to Arkham and encounters a group of maintenance workers, demanding information about her “father”. One of them describes the horrors he saw and says that she is not the Joker-she is just a nobody and her namesake would be disgusted with her. She heats her smile-brand on a light-socket, shoves it into Roger's chest and kills him.
She finds the cell of the Anchoress, who grabs her and calls her a trespasser. She proceeds to Duela’s mind and tells her she is so confused she doesn’t even know who she is, causing Duela to flee the Asylum. She decides to seek out The Dollmaker and, when she finds him, she convinces him to sew the Joker's face onto her own. Reluctantly, he agrees - in exchange for new flesh to play with from the Underground. As his needle and thread pierce her flesh, and attach the face firmly to her own, she decides that so long as the Joker is absent, she will be his prophet and heir. She will rule in Gotham. She then has him inject some of the Joker’s blood into her bloodstream. She flees to an abandoned farmhouse she used to live in after she initially ran away from home. Then she sees a note attached to her cat’s collar reading: "Hello Beautiful." She now realizes that the Joker has been watching her and approves.
So, if you thought that the guy whose face she wears was the crazy one, you haven’t met this whack job! In all honesty, she is truly as insane as her “father”, if not more so. And this should just really upset people with Mental Illness who read this tale as it’s obvious that she is writing the book on insanity. Marguerite Bennett and Meghan Hetrick present a tale of a confused girl who only wants the acceptance of the man whose face she wears and, apparently in the end, she may have done that. I do not see this leading to a regular monthly for her, but I do see her popping up to cause problems for the various members of the Bat Family.
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #28: It seems that people are once again being drained of blood by some one of the Man Bats. Immediately Batman questions Dr. Kirk Langstrom. But it seems there is another Langstrom in the business of using the Man Bat formula: Abraham Langstrom-something quickly confirmed by the Bat Computer. Bruce meets with Lucius who informs him that Patriarch Biopharmaceuticals is the exact opposite of Wayne Enterprises. It turns out that Langstrom the father hates his son because he is weak. The elder Man Bat goes out on patrol again and Batman is well armed. Or so he thinks as the hypodermic needle he has containing the antidote breaks on Man Bat’s skin. And when last we see the Dark Knight, he is falling from the heavens to the street below.
Greg Hurwitz makes up for two silent issues here by peppering this issue with a ton of dialogue. And isn’t it interesting to know that we have three Man Bat’s plaguing the city? Of course, I am slightly confused and this all goes back to that whole thing about continuity again. I seem to recall that Kirk and Francine Langstrom ended up in Arkham Asylum recently at the conclusion of the last story involving them. So, Kirk’s out, daddy’s a bigger, badder Man Bat and the corporate spy/wife is…where? As with all of Hurwitz’ work, this one is a winner and it is SO NICE to see Ethan Van Sciver back again. Alex Maleev’ work is great, but I so missed the detailed work of Mr. V. Looking forward to the next part next month as this title races towards its’ last issue with the next issue.
BATWOMAN #28: Last issue ended with Maggie’s daughter catching Kate Kane changing out of her Batwoman costume. This issue begins with a bit of juxtaposition between the indecent and the battle Batwoman is currently in, where she wants to know who the Wolf Spider really is. Flashback to sometime earlier as Kate runs into her old high school friend Evan at the police station and he is almost as beat up as she is. She meets up with Maggie for a private conversation, after Maggie has one of the other officers take Jaime out of the room. Maggie expresses her love for Kate and insists that she see a professional concerning her PostTraumatic Stress Disorder that she is suffering from. Meanwhile Bette Kane has been doing some research on the paintings that have been stolen. They are all by an artist named Alden Eisenstadt and they are hiding maps beneath them. There are two more paintings to be stolen: one is in Arkham Asylum and the other is on the Kane Family Estate.
Marc Andreyko continues to attempt to put his own spin on the legend and loves of Batwoman while Jeremy Huan has the impossible task of creating artwork that was as captivating as J. H. Williams III did. This is truly a difficult task for both writer and artist. But the book continues along and is trying to be a straight out adventure book while trying not to shift slightly away from the controversial topic of Maggie and Kate’s relationship. This issue, there is a lot of time spent with Maggie and Kate trying to examine their relationship after Maggie’s daughter realizes that Kate is not as innocent as she may have seemed. And am I the only one who thinks that Evan is really Wolf Spider? I mean, is it a coincidence they BOTH were at the same party and they BOTH ended up with injuries? Hmmmm…
BIRDS OF PREY #28:A GOTHTOPIA tie-in issue. We learn that the Birds have been reimagined as The Wings of Truth and they are Artemis (Strix), Eagle(Condor), Warbler(Black Canary) and Bluebelle (Batgirl) and life in Gothtopia is wonderful. Except that Eagle feels he is missing something in his life. That night they try to enjoy movie night but the Bat-signal appears, calling them to the scene in DETECTIVE COMICS #27 Catbird, Brightbat, Gothamite and Flying Fox have apprehended Batman and are taking him to The Crane Center for Health and Wellness.). They spend the next few days picking up the slack left by Batman’s incarceration. They even end up trying to bring Batman and Poison Ivy to justice after the pair attempt to break loose (this happens in DETECTIVE COMICS #28). Later that night, Ra’s al Ghul shows up and offers her the antidote to all of this as long as she and her team does not side with Mother Eve. Black Canary tricks Condor and Strix into leaving so they are no longer influenced by drugs that are affecting everyone else. Eventually Batgirl rejoins the team on Mother Eve’s boat(these events follow events in DETECTIVE COMICS #29) and Canary tells her to lead the team from now on, as she ponders what decision she needs to make.
Christy Marx and a host of artists (Romano Molenaar, Daniel Sampere and Scott McDaniel) weigh in with their take on GOTHTOPIA and it is far from a smashing success, aside from the awesome cover by Jorge Molina. We get more canned dialogue, an incredibly goofy sequence in the team’s apartment as the two lovebirds (did she REALLY have to write that line) argue over the type of movie to watch, a Bat Signal appearance (this is a plot device? The Bat Signal is needed in a crime free city) and a mysterious Ra’s al Ghul appearance with a promise of an antidote. So, if everything comes out fine at the end of the issue, based on whatever happens in next month’s DETECTIVE COMICS, and then why should Canary have to make a deal with him? So, we have a plot point with no reason…much like most of this issue.
CATWOMAN #28: A GOTHTOPIA tale. We begin with Selina working the Suicide Prevention Crisis Hotline trying to convince people to see through Scarecrow’s illusion of what Gotham is. She meets with Steeljacket and finds out that he is light as a feather as his bones were hollowed out when he was in the V.A. That night dressed as Catwoman, she breaks in to a place and steals some jewels, wallets and scratches her victims up(but she did provide Band Aids). The next day, Detective Alvarez investigates the robbery while Catbird saves a young bride from committing suicide. Later that night, she and Steeljacket get into it with the rest of the Batman’s assistants and they manage to get away. Selina breaks down, saying she loves her new life and never wants to be Catwoman again. Does that mean she wants to fight to keep Gothtopia going?
Hey-at least Ann Nocenti is consistant, as she once again spells Bluebelle wrong. It IS NOT BLUEBELL. Again, maybe something got missed in Editorial. But, two months straight? This is another waste of a tie-in as Selina Kyle spends the whole book wavering between the person she is and wants to be. And, in the end, it looks like she may WANT to be Catbird forever.
Pat Oliffe and Tom Nguyen (with Keith Champagne) provide the art and, once again, it really helps to get through the boring writing. Again, the highlight of the book is another awesome cover by Terry and Rachel Dodson. I so love the character and so dislike what has been done to this book. But I can’t give it up BECAUSE I love the character. Someone help Selina…PLEASE!
CONSTANTINE #11: Already reviewed as part of THE BLIGHT storyline. See earlier blog post
DETECTIVE COMICS #28: A GOTHTOPIA TIE-IN: Batman is in the Crane Center for Health and Wellness-at least that is what he is supposed to believe. He is convinced it is merely a hallucination. Even though his utility belt is gone, he has everything he needs in his suit and, since he toured Arkham’s security system recently, he can get into a backdoor he put into that security system. He sneaks into the Control Room, knocks Flamingo and Nocturna unconscious, and loops security footage of him sleeping in his cell. He makes his way to Scarecrow's lab and discovers the cause of this hypnosis is similar to Fear Toxin. Earlier in the day, “Catbird” visited and was told by Dr. Crane that Dr. Valentin will be performing brain surgery if he doesn’t return to the delusion. He tracks down Poison Ivy so she can speed up the anti-toxin needed to reverse the delusional states. And because of the way the toxin works, it creates greater fear, which is why the suicide rate is up. With the anti-toxin complete, the pair spread a sedative through the building, which they are immune to. They make their way outside, only to run into the rest of the Bat Family-who are under Scarecrow's control.
John Layman and Aaron Lopresti present the penultimate chapter in GOTHTOPIA. Although this started out like a torn out page straight out of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, and has had some fairly lame chapters thrown in along the way(BIRDS OF PREY being a perfect example), the concept and the pacing of THESE CHAPTERS(issues #27 and #28) have been Layman’s usual great work. His dialogue is witty and while it tends to be wordy, he packs a ton of plot into each issue I have been a major fan of Aaron Lopresti’s art going back to his Malibu Comics days on SLUDGE and his work now is more amazing than ever! Thanks to Art Thibert for some great looking inks on the title and then you slide it into a Jason Fabok cover and you have a great read. I am really looking forward to the finale of this story/.
EARTH 2 #20: The current, cobbled together version of the Justice Society, Batman, Aquawoman, Hawkgirl and Sonia Sato battle a sky full of Parademons until Aquawoman manages to whip up the ocean and drown the villains in the sky. Back underground, Most of the team, including Jimmy Olsen, Red Tornado, and the mysterious Kryptonian Val-el. Meet with Red Arrow (Connor Hawke) and Doctor Fate. While Doctor fate babbles incoherently, Val has a panic attack as we learn that he agoraphobic, having never been out of the capsule until today. Meanwhile, Superman and the Parademons begin an all out assault on the religions and religious icons of the world, declaring there is only one God and he is Darkseid. Back in the underground cave, while Jimmy spends part of his time ogling the former Lois lane, she goes off and talks to Val and explains his role in all of this; convincing him that he needs to embrace the sun and embrace his real powers. At last, he ventures outside to begin soaking up the warmth and the energy of the Earth’ sun.
First off: Jae Lee and June Chung provide the amazing cover to this book which right away jumps off the comic shop’s shelves. With Red Tornado, Hawkgirl and Aquawoman beautifully rendered, all you want to do is dive in. And dive we do, as Tom Taylor and Barry Kitson take us on another great ride this month. We have Parademons galore and super heroics all over the place. PLUS, despite being a robot now, Lois Lane looks HOT as rendered by Kitson! And what is the deal with this Superman? Is he truly Superman possessed by something from Apokolips? Is he a clone of Superman that was bred by Darkseid? I WANT ANSWERS! But I guess we will get those when Taylor is ready and he’s not spilling his guts anytime too soon.
GREEN ARROW #28: Last issue we learned that Robert Queen is alive and is the one responsible for Oliver Queen’s trials on the island. He threatens to kill the person he thinks is an imposter until Robert tells of Oliver’s first “battle scar” as a child. When Lacroix betrayed Queen, he knew what had to be done so, with Magus’ help, he and Emerson arranged faked. Then he bought the island and, when the time was right, arranged to have him end up on the island. Oliver’s last day on the island was a test by his father to see if he was prepared for the war to come. Magus help nurse Robert back to health and Emerson arranged for Oliver's rescue. Everything to this point, including Oliver’s meetings with Magus and Shado, has been arranged. Oliver is angry with his father AND Shado, but has no time to fully express it as Kodiak of the Shield Clan attacks. After a lengthy battle, Robert kills Kodiak. Oliver grabs Kodiak, knocks his father out and tells Shado to go to hell and take his father with her. Meanwhile, Naomi and Henry Fyff get surprised by John Diggle, who used to assist the Green Arrow. Since Oliver is not around, he insists that it be their jobs to stop Richard Dragon. Over in Prague, Lacroix and Emiko argue over the Outsiders. She suggests he should kill the others and take over the leadership of the group, to which he responds with a slap to her face. The leader of the clans tells the rest how Kodiak has fallen and Lacroix criticizes them for not sending him. Golgotha orders Onyxto kill Lacroix but she refuses as Lacroix kills Golgotha with an arrow through his head. Simon Lacroix now leads The Outsiders.
If you think this recap was long, you should have read the original comic! Once again, Jeff Lemire proves why he is an incredible storyteller as he fully explains the machinations of Robert Queen within his son’s life. Of course, this sort of blows away the whole origin of Oliver Queen that Judd Winick gave us in GREEN ARROW #0. As a refresher, Oil stealing terrorists attacked Oliver’s yacht and blew up the yacht, killing all on board except Oliver and his friend Tommy Merlyn. Does that mean, if we are to believe that version of the origin, that Robert Queen arranged for the alleged “terrorists” and Oliver just really screwed things up by being a drunk jerk and causing the explosion? If so, then Robert Queen is more of a schemer than we first thought. Oh wait: we thought he was DEAD! What can I say: this was another amazing issue from Lemire and artist Andrea Sorrentino.
GREEN LANTERN #28: Red Lantern Supergirl attacks Green Lanterns Lok and Barreer before she collapses from exhaustion during their battle. On Mogo, Hal is trying to swear in some of the ex-convicts off the prison ship into the Corps with one of the silliest swearing in speeches ever written. Soon there is a great commotion and it seems Supergirl has broken loose. With additional forces, they apprehend her and Hal, discovering she is Kryptonian, decides they will find a way to cure her of her affliction. Meanwhile, Saint Walker is still depressed over the loss of his entire race and decides, since he cannot remove Supergirl’s red ring, that solitude is best for him. So Hal and some of the other Lanterns head off to Ysmault to confront guy and the Red Lanterns. They confront him first and Guy reminds Hal that THEY are now in charge of Sector 2814, NOT the Green Lanterns.
This is a double, flip issue where we get BOTH GREEN LANTERN #28 AND RED LANTERNS #28. That’s right: 21 pages of each for the price of ONE BOOK! Of course, if they were both AMAZING, I would be happy. And, if DC can give us 42 pages of story for three bucks, why can’t we get this EVERY MONTH-make it the NEW 26! Or, give us 21 pages for $1.99…like the old days! Anyway, Robert Venditti and Billy Tan continue the tale of the whiniest version of Hal Jordan YET! He’s more boring than Ryan Reynolds was in the movie. Please give this guy whatever he lost when someone emasculated him!
HARLEY QUINN #3: A potential assassin again attacks Harley Quinn as she rides the Scare-O-Rama ride at Coney Island, but she uses his own shotgun to make him pay for ruining her Valentine’s Day. When she arrives him, Big Tony gives her the flowers that were for Queenie. She apparently was with another man, so Harley suggests she could be his date, but he turns her down. So, after a bath, she decides that spending the night alone with her beaver is not going to work. She notices that one of the plants Poison Ivy left her has berries, so she eats them. Discovering she got a job as a therapist at the nursing home, she heads out for a night in a singles a bar in Sheepshead Bay. Once outside, she suddenly finds everyone from corrections officers to criminals to shop owners immediately are falling in love with her. Soon she finds herself defending herself with a weed-wacker and starts cutting her way through her stalkers. A policewoman tries to arrest her but gets one whiff of her and falls in love too, claiming she smells better than the best doughnut. Figuring out that it must be the effect from the berries, she races home and chucks the plant out her window. Tony enters and asks for his bouquet back as he decides he needs to fight for Queenie. She gives him the flowers and some of the berries. Unfortunately, Queenie AND her date are now in love with Tony.
Who do you feel sorry for in this tragic tale: Harley or Tony. Has to be Tony because Harley, although she ends up alone with her dogs, he gets stuck with two lovers when he seems like a one woman man, not a one woman and one man man!. I love the humor in this title, especially the policewoman who could eat Harley up like a “strawberry filled donut”. Yeah-that is an awesome visual there. Speaking of visuals, the monthly schedule seems to be affecting Chad Hardin as his work doesn’t appear as clean or tight as it has. Maybe he should stop trying to do it all by himself and let an inker step in every now and then. Despite that, the Amanda Conner/ Jimmy Palmiotti story is a ball of fun. If you are expecting high drama from this book, you’re in the wrong book.
JUSTICE LEAGUE 3000 #3: Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman end up on a disgusting, waste filled planet known as Takron-Galtos. And they eventually end up surrounded by the followers of Sheriff Aaban Tariq. They learn that Coeval set Tariq up as the law and that Takron-Galtos was once Earth a long time ago. Meanwhile, the Wonder Twins decide that maybe it is time to shut this experiment down, especially considering the team in lost, Green Lantern has been eaten and The Flash has been rendered to pieces. Reality bending nineteen-year-old named Locas has decided to expel Green Lantern and keep him in a prison, threatening to give him cancer if he doesn’t confess his love for her. Ariel gets a call from Aaban Tariq and learns that the Trinity are with him and he learns that this may be the REAL Trinity which Ariel has managed to reconstruct. So she heads off to Talkron-Galtos and, unbeknownst to her, may find something named Kali waiting for her when she arrives.
This book is so messed up that I find it to be my newest guilty pleasure title from DC (believe it or not, I have actually checked out some of Marvel’s ALL NEW MARVEL NOW titles and found some of them…intriguing. Maybe a blog on them soon…). We have twisted versions of our classic heroes and I LOVE IT! J. M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen, always known for putting bizarre twists into things, have really turned this into a wild, weird and totally unexpected surprise. Howard Porter’s always sweet looking artwork. Pick this book up, ESPECIALLY if you feel jaded by all the changes the NEW 52 brought to continuity. This will make you realize that, in the end, they are just FUNNY BOOKS, KIDS!!!
JUSTICE LEAGUE #28: Victor Stone, the new and improved Cyborg, has gone to see Dr. Will Magnus to help him put a new team together. Magnus refuses because of something that happened six months ago. We find that the US Defence department recruited him to work on Project: Metal Men but he decided that people make mistakes but robots do not. He built the Responsometer and installed one in each of the six robots he built. Each robot was formed and developed their own personalities and developed something he had not expected: free will. The Secretary of Defense manages to have the door to his lab blown open. They learn they were designed to be used on assassination missions for the government and make their escape. As he searched for them, he learned someone stole the prototype Responsometer and dropped it into a vat of hazardous waste. When he returned home, he found them there. But so did the chemical creature and the Metal Men defend their creator by sacrificng themselves. As the story ends, Vic explains that their Responsometers still contain their minds and hearts. At last, Will grabs a Responsometer and agrees it’s time.
Okay…the old (yes…I am old) fanboy in me just got SO EXCITED! OMG!!! It’s the freakin’ METAL MEN!!! So everyone knows: I GREW UP loving THREE classic DC characters more than others (okay-I LOVED LOTS of old oddball DC characters including Gunner and Sarge, Sea Devils and Brother Power): the Inferior Five, The Doom Patrol and The Metal Men. How I loved reading the exploits of Gold, Iron, Lead, Mercury, Tin, and Platinum. Unfortunately the series had ups and down, was cancelled in the Sixties, reborn again for a while in the mid Seventies and then…got retconned in the Nineties in a horrible way I would like to forget. But this…THIS is so much closer to the Metal Men I knew and loved, obviously visually tweaked for the new Millennium. And don’t try and tell me that the toxic waste shouldn’t have a name and that name needs to be (all together now): CHEMO! Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis blow the top off this issue by continuing the plot AND giving me characters I could cuddle up with and remember my childhood. THANKS GUYS!
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #28: Already reviewed as part of THE BLIGHT storyline. See earlier blog post.
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #12: Stargirl is drowning at the hands of Despero but channels her strength and memories into Cosmic Staff and frees herself from her watery grave. Thinking he has killed one hero, Despero attacks Martian Manhunter and beats him to a pulp. Stargirl finds him weak and dying. He insists she go to Los Angeles, because she is the only one who can free the Justice Leagues. He relates a story from his youth on Mars as a fable to convince her to leave him. While she doesn’t understand the moral of the story, he begs her to leave and she does, knowing thousands of lives are at stake. She wrestles with the memory of the home invasion in her past and wants to go to her family before seeking out the Firestorm Matrix. As she continues onwards, Despero attacks her again, and then proceeds to destroy her home and her city. As Firestorm reaches critical mass, J'onn takes his last breath.
Things are NOT looking good for any of our heroes, or the city of Los Angeles. Courtney is plagued by guilt by something that happened to her brother in the past, J’onn is lying in the snow dying and Firestorm is ready to blow up and take heroes and most of L.A. with him. It all comes down to next issue, which sets up the change to JUSTICE LEAGUE UNITED. This was a nice issue by Matt Kindt and Eddy Barrows that proves these two characters actually COULD carry this title on their own for a number of issues. How do they paint themselves out of this corner and will anyone be left standing? Tune in next issue!
So: let’s all be honest. Is this not the book in the NEW 52 that has made the biggest and best change in the last few months or what? Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder have turned this into a beautiful to look at, fun to read romp! Underground cities! Lana Lang! Monsters! Aliens! Cute little creatures that turn INTO monsters! The Ghost Soldier! This book has become one of my favorite reads each month and…it is appropriate as it comes out during week one every month!
ALL-STAR WESTERN #28: When last we saw Jonah Hex, a truck had hit him. He gets hospitalized and ends up in a three month long coma with his doting girlfriend watching over him. He finally wakes and discovers that the doctors did facial reconstruction surgery and removed the cataract in his right eye. The take off the bandages and our bounty hunter is truly a new man. After a night to contemplate his life, he leaves the hospital and Booster Gold arrives, wanting to set things right. After a quick costume change back into a Confederate uniform, and with Gina by his side, he travels back in time to his home era. It isn’t long before they encounter Apaches. Jonah explains who he is but they don’t believe him, as he no longer bears the Mark of the Demon. Their plan: kill Hex and take Gina.
First off, we get an AWESOME COVER from Darwyn Cooke. Yeah-DARWYN COOKE! From there, it becomes a waiting game until Jonah comes out of his coma and comes face to face with a new him. How do you top that? Go back home and have a band of Apaches think you’re a liar because you no longer are scarred. Yeah, that is a bad position to be in! As always, a killer story from Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray with art this issue from Staz Johnson and Fabrizio Fiorentino rather than the usual Moritat. As much as I like Moritat’s work, I quite enjoy the change of artistic pace.
ANIMAL MAN #28: We begin where last issue ended with Brother Blood about was about to choke Maxine to death in order that he could rule The Red. Meanwhile, Buddy is fighting against the last of the Totems and slays him with his own horns. He heads to help his daughter, who is fighting back, calling herself ANIMAL GIRL. She transfers her power to Shepherd even as Blood drags Ellen Baker in The Red and holds her hostage, telling her to surrender her power or he will kill Mom. Buddy arrives and defeats Brother Blood, promising to never leave the family again. However...a promise was made and Buddy will have to live up to it.
So how DOES Buddy baker get out of this one? Personally, I think somehow that Buddy’s son Cliff gets reborn and he goes off to be the new alien on the block. But then again: I’m not making a living writing comics. So that would be for Jeff Lemire and Rafael Albuquerque to decide. We’ll all find out next month as the final issue of this series rolls off the presses.
AQUAMAN #28: Aquaman saves the poor diver from the end of last issue, despite having torpedoes fired at him. He manages to get him aboard what is known as Triton Base and renews his friendship with Dr. Shin. Later, he and Mera return to Amnesty Bay where he discovers there is a High School Reunion on the next night. He refuses to go because he beat up a kid who was carving his name into a live-beached whale, putting the kid into a coma. Back on Triton Base, the wounded diver is an amputee in a vegetative state. So the commander allows Dr. Orson to experiment on him. Arthur and Mera go to the reunion and many old classmates meet and greet him. Some treat him with respect and some with disrespect. But almost all of them have had some experience with him since he became the Sea King. Then finally, Kevin Bernard has his meeting and he is scared stiff as he was the one who keyed Arthur’s car Senior Year. Arthur forgives him, even those he has no recollection of the incident, and Kevin feels relief. And the guy he beat up in high school? He spends the days bragging how he got knocked out by Aquaman. Meanwhile, the shadowy guy who has been asking too many questions in town has stolen the trident, flown to the Azores and , put it in an ancient runestone. What happens next? Wait until next month.
A high school reunion? This is the highlight of this issue? If you had told me that in the advance solicitations, I probably would have thought it was an early April Fool’s joke. But it isn’t. It IS the main story in this issue. And it’s…AWESOME!!! This hasn’t been this much fun since the very early issues when Geoff johns was writing some incredibly funny dialogue for the Sea King.
Jeff Parker delivers some good moments in this issue with the highlight being the reunion. Having lived through several high school reunions, this is the epitome of them. We discover most of the townspeople have stayed behind and do not have much to say except be in awe of their classmate. At most reunions, it is a matter of who can brag the most about their accomplishments. As always, outstanding art from the ever-reliable Paul Pelletier. But what IS the purpose of the trident in the rune stone and what will that bring about?
BATGIRL #28: We meet Mr. Uchida, who believes that The Joker, Penguin and Two Face are Freedom Fighters and Nightwing, Batman and Batgirl are the Nocturnal Destroyers that he is planning on hunting. Batgirl is scouting out a group of copycat house theives wearing Halloween masks. But by the time she gets to street level, she discovers that Strix has taken them out. She wants Batgirl’s help to find a missing 8-year-old girl that can’t speak. Uchida watches from a distance and sees Strix and Batgirl as vampires feeding on the thieves they just apprehended. Batgirl contacts Charise Carnes (Knightfall) and asks for a favor to took for the girl. Meanwhile, Silver (Mr. Uchida) goes to the apprehended thieves and decides they are vampires and he dispatches them. Strix and Batgirl, disguised as detectives, question the missing girl’s mom and then get attacked by Silver, who believes they are in league with the vampires. The Gotham City Police arrive and break up the fight as Sliver tells Barbara he has their vampire queen: 8 year old Cissie Chastain.
Okay: this is a totally confusing issue! I mean, it seems to begin with some crazy guy getting ready to hunt the remaining living members of the Bat Family and then we find out he thinks that the Bat family are vampires out to hunt EVERYONE. Okay, so Silver is nuts and Gail Simone and Fernando Pasarin have crafted another unusual chapter in the legacy of Batgirl. And if Knightfall is involved, things could get rough for the Girl Wonder.
BATMAN #28: The police accost Harper Row because she is in violation of the 8 o’clock curfew. One of them is about to beat her when she says: "Midnight in Gotham is the bee's knees." She is shoved into an armored van, only to find herself at the only nightclub still in Gotham: The Egyptian. She is here because her brother became infected because they were in the Narrows at Ground Zero. Come to find out her password is three days old and now it looks like she is going to pay. She kills the power in the room and Batman appears, chewing her out for bringing the thing he told her not to bring and orders her to put her uniform on. Batman and Bluebird fight their way through the casino and to the club owner: Selina Kyle. He asks for the key to winning Gotham back and she responds by wrapping her whip around his throat. He reminds her that people are dying because of what she is keeping from him. She has her men lead them to the safe and they open it. Inside is Stephanie Brown-The Spoiler. And apparently she is the only one who can stop what’s coming.
Okay…if you are a bit confused here, you are not alone. We stop the ZERO YEAR story that has been running and will continue to run through BATMAN for the foreseeable future (or until Scott Snyder leaves the title, which may be happening very soon) to give the introductory part of the new weekly BATMAN ETERNAL series. Set somewhere in the future, or possibly in another timeline totally (or even another Earth…who knows?), we see Harper Row as a Robin of sorts(FINALLY!) and Selina Kyle as the Queen of the Gotham Underworld. But best of all, we get the NEW 52 introduction of Stephanie Brown-The Spoiler. Finally-STEPHANIE BROWN! So who knows if this is in the future or an alternate future. WE GET STEPHANIE BROWN! Thanks to Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV and Dustin Nguyen for this tale. See the next part in BATMAN ETERNAL #1.
BATMAN AND ROBIN #28: Picking up from where we left off last issue, Two-Face has been captured and is about to be executed live on television. Batman figures out where he is being held, but ejects Erin into the waiting arms of the Gotham City Police Department. He bursts into the courtroom where Harvey is being held and manages to free him and discovers that Harvey knows his secret identity. Jim Gordon and the Gotham Police arrive to escalate the situation. Dent and Gordon end up isolated and Harvey spins his coin and it lands on the edge. Frustrated, he flees. Meanwhile, Erin is beginning to make friends in jail and is beginning to lead her own following. Back in his home, Two Face flips the coin and puts a gun to his head. We hear a gun go off and see blood splattered on a picture of Gilda.
Yeah…I love the work of Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason. And it looks like we may have a reboot in the works. We have lost The Joker and replaced him with The Joker’s Daughter . We had a temporary Penguin for a time. And now, it looks as though we may have a changing of the guard as Harvey Dent gives up the mantle of Two Face and it looks like it is going to passed to Erin McKillen. It is amazing that this title is still being published. I thought that this title would end up being tanked after the death of Robin but Tomasi and Gleason have kept this book rolling with a rotating co-headliner in what is becoming the best team-up title out there. I can’t wait to see who is next on the agenda. Keep up the GREAT WORK guys!
BATMAN: JOKER’S DAUGHTER #1: In case you didn’t read the VILLAIN’S MONTH issue. Here’s the quickie on this character. Duela Dent, who spent her life struggling with dysmorphia that made her disfigure herself, eventually headed to the Gotham Underground. She found the Joker's face floating by and wore it, becoming the Joker's Daughter. To please her father, she targets the Batman by staging a bus crash filled with mannequins, along with a note containing a tracker. Batman the sewers and Duela attacks him. She refuses to believe that the Joker is dead, and he offers her one chance to get help. He gets a police report and leaves her, but she follows. And is surrounded by police and arrested. She chews through her skin and slides out of her handcuffs, causing the cruiser to crash and kills a policewoman. She heads to Arkham and encounters a group of maintenance workers, demanding information about her “father”. One of them describes the horrors he saw and says that she is not the Joker-she is just a nobody and her namesake would be disgusted with her. She heats her smile-brand on a light-socket, shoves it into Roger's chest and kills him.
She finds the cell of the Anchoress, who grabs her and calls her a trespasser. She proceeds to Duela’s mind and tells her she is so confused she doesn’t even know who she is, causing Duela to flee the Asylum. She decides to seek out The Dollmaker and, when she finds him, she convinces him to sew the Joker's face onto her own. Reluctantly, he agrees - in exchange for new flesh to play with from the Underground. As his needle and thread pierce her flesh, and attach the face firmly to her own, she decides that so long as the Joker is absent, she will be his prophet and heir. She will rule in Gotham. She then has him inject some of the Joker’s blood into her bloodstream. She flees to an abandoned farmhouse she used to live in after she initially ran away from home. Then she sees a note attached to her cat’s collar reading: "Hello Beautiful." She now realizes that the Joker has been watching her and approves.
So, if you thought that the guy whose face she wears was the crazy one, you haven’t met this whack job! In all honesty, she is truly as insane as her “father”, if not more so. And this should just really upset people with Mental Illness who read this tale as it’s obvious that she is writing the book on insanity. Marguerite Bennett and Meghan Hetrick present a tale of a confused girl who only wants the acceptance of the man whose face she wears and, apparently in the end, she may have done that. I do not see this leading to a regular monthly for her, but I do see her popping up to cause problems for the various members of the Bat Family.
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #28: It seems that people are once again being drained of blood by some one of the Man Bats. Immediately Batman questions Dr. Kirk Langstrom. But it seems there is another Langstrom in the business of using the Man Bat formula: Abraham Langstrom-something quickly confirmed by the Bat Computer. Bruce meets with Lucius who informs him that Patriarch Biopharmaceuticals is the exact opposite of Wayne Enterprises. It turns out that Langstrom the father hates his son because he is weak. The elder Man Bat goes out on patrol again and Batman is well armed. Or so he thinks as the hypodermic needle he has containing the antidote breaks on Man Bat’s skin. And when last we see the Dark Knight, he is falling from the heavens to the street below.
Greg Hurwitz makes up for two silent issues here by peppering this issue with a ton of dialogue. And isn’t it interesting to know that we have three Man Bat’s plaguing the city? Of course, I am slightly confused and this all goes back to that whole thing about continuity again. I seem to recall that Kirk and Francine Langstrom ended up in Arkham Asylum recently at the conclusion of the last story involving them. So, Kirk’s out, daddy’s a bigger, badder Man Bat and the corporate spy/wife is…where? As with all of Hurwitz’ work, this one is a winner and it is SO NICE to see Ethan Van Sciver back again. Alex Maleev’ work is great, but I so missed the detailed work of Mr. V. Looking forward to the next part next month as this title races towards its’ last issue with the next issue.
BATWOMAN #28: Last issue ended with Maggie’s daughter catching Kate Kane changing out of her Batwoman costume. This issue begins with a bit of juxtaposition between the indecent and the battle Batwoman is currently in, where she wants to know who the Wolf Spider really is. Flashback to sometime earlier as Kate runs into her old high school friend Evan at the police station and he is almost as beat up as she is. She meets up with Maggie for a private conversation, after Maggie has one of the other officers take Jaime out of the room. Maggie expresses her love for Kate and insists that she see a professional concerning her PostTraumatic Stress Disorder that she is suffering from. Meanwhile Bette Kane has been doing some research on the paintings that have been stolen. They are all by an artist named Alden Eisenstadt and they are hiding maps beneath them. There are two more paintings to be stolen: one is in Arkham Asylum and the other is on the Kane Family Estate.
Marc Andreyko continues to attempt to put his own spin on the legend and loves of Batwoman while Jeremy Huan has the impossible task of creating artwork that was as captivating as J. H. Williams III did. This is truly a difficult task for both writer and artist. But the book continues along and is trying to be a straight out adventure book while trying not to shift slightly away from the controversial topic of Maggie and Kate’s relationship. This issue, there is a lot of time spent with Maggie and Kate trying to examine their relationship after Maggie’s daughter realizes that Kate is not as innocent as she may have seemed. And am I the only one who thinks that Evan is really Wolf Spider? I mean, is it a coincidence they BOTH were at the same party and they BOTH ended up with injuries? Hmmmm…
BIRDS OF PREY #28:A GOTHTOPIA tie-in issue. We learn that the Birds have been reimagined as The Wings of Truth and they are Artemis (Strix), Eagle(Condor), Warbler(Black Canary) and Bluebelle (Batgirl) and life in Gothtopia is wonderful. Except that Eagle feels he is missing something in his life. That night they try to enjoy movie night but the Bat-signal appears, calling them to the scene in DETECTIVE COMICS #27 Catbird, Brightbat, Gothamite and Flying Fox have apprehended Batman and are taking him to The Crane Center for Health and Wellness.). They spend the next few days picking up the slack left by Batman’s incarceration. They even end up trying to bring Batman and Poison Ivy to justice after the pair attempt to break loose (this happens in DETECTIVE COMICS #28). Later that night, Ra’s al Ghul shows up and offers her the antidote to all of this as long as she and her team does not side with Mother Eve. Black Canary tricks Condor and Strix into leaving so they are no longer influenced by drugs that are affecting everyone else. Eventually Batgirl rejoins the team on Mother Eve’s boat(these events follow events in DETECTIVE COMICS #29) and Canary tells her to lead the team from now on, as she ponders what decision she needs to make.
Christy Marx and a host of artists (Romano Molenaar, Daniel Sampere and Scott McDaniel) weigh in with their take on GOTHTOPIA and it is far from a smashing success, aside from the awesome cover by Jorge Molina. We get more canned dialogue, an incredibly goofy sequence in the team’s apartment as the two lovebirds (did she REALLY have to write that line) argue over the type of movie to watch, a Bat Signal appearance (this is a plot device? The Bat Signal is needed in a crime free city) and a mysterious Ra’s al Ghul appearance with a promise of an antidote. So, if everything comes out fine at the end of the issue, based on whatever happens in next month’s DETECTIVE COMICS, and then why should Canary have to make a deal with him? So, we have a plot point with no reason…much like most of this issue.
CATWOMAN #28: A GOTHTOPIA tale. We begin with Selina working the Suicide Prevention Crisis Hotline trying to convince people to see through Scarecrow’s illusion of what Gotham is. She meets with Steeljacket and finds out that he is light as a feather as his bones were hollowed out when he was in the V.A. That night dressed as Catwoman, she breaks in to a place and steals some jewels, wallets and scratches her victims up(but she did provide Band Aids). The next day, Detective Alvarez investigates the robbery while Catbird saves a young bride from committing suicide. Later that night, she and Steeljacket get into it with the rest of the Batman’s assistants and they manage to get away. Selina breaks down, saying she loves her new life and never wants to be Catwoman again. Does that mean she wants to fight to keep Gothtopia going?
Hey-at least Ann Nocenti is consistant, as she once again spells Bluebelle wrong. It IS NOT BLUEBELL. Again, maybe something got missed in Editorial. But, two months straight? This is another waste of a tie-in as Selina Kyle spends the whole book wavering between the person she is and wants to be. And, in the end, it looks like she may WANT to be Catbird forever.
Pat Oliffe and Tom Nguyen (with Keith Champagne) provide the art and, once again, it really helps to get through the boring writing. Again, the highlight of the book is another awesome cover by Terry and Rachel Dodson. I so love the character and so dislike what has been done to this book. But I can’t give it up BECAUSE I love the character. Someone help Selina…PLEASE!
CONSTANTINE #11: Already reviewed as part of THE BLIGHT storyline. See earlier blog post
DETECTIVE COMICS #28: A GOTHTOPIA TIE-IN: Batman is in the Crane Center for Health and Wellness-at least that is what he is supposed to believe. He is convinced it is merely a hallucination. Even though his utility belt is gone, he has everything he needs in his suit and, since he toured Arkham’s security system recently, he can get into a backdoor he put into that security system. He sneaks into the Control Room, knocks Flamingo and Nocturna unconscious, and loops security footage of him sleeping in his cell. He makes his way to Scarecrow's lab and discovers the cause of this hypnosis is similar to Fear Toxin. Earlier in the day, “Catbird” visited and was told by Dr. Crane that Dr. Valentin will be performing brain surgery if he doesn’t return to the delusion. He tracks down Poison Ivy so she can speed up the anti-toxin needed to reverse the delusional states. And because of the way the toxin works, it creates greater fear, which is why the suicide rate is up. With the anti-toxin complete, the pair spread a sedative through the building, which they are immune to. They make their way outside, only to run into the rest of the Bat Family-who are under Scarecrow's control.
John Layman and Aaron Lopresti present the penultimate chapter in GOTHTOPIA. Although this started out like a torn out page straight out of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, and has had some fairly lame chapters thrown in along the way(BIRDS OF PREY being a perfect example), the concept and the pacing of THESE CHAPTERS(issues #27 and #28) have been Layman’s usual great work. His dialogue is witty and while it tends to be wordy, he packs a ton of plot into each issue I have been a major fan of Aaron Lopresti’s art going back to his Malibu Comics days on SLUDGE and his work now is more amazing than ever! Thanks to Art Thibert for some great looking inks on the title and then you slide it into a Jason Fabok cover and you have a great read. I am really looking forward to the finale of this story/.
EARTH 2 #20: The current, cobbled together version of the Justice Society, Batman, Aquawoman, Hawkgirl and Sonia Sato battle a sky full of Parademons until Aquawoman manages to whip up the ocean and drown the villains in the sky. Back underground, Most of the team, including Jimmy Olsen, Red Tornado, and the mysterious Kryptonian Val-el. Meet with Red Arrow (Connor Hawke) and Doctor Fate. While Doctor fate babbles incoherently, Val has a panic attack as we learn that he agoraphobic, having never been out of the capsule until today. Meanwhile, Superman and the Parademons begin an all out assault on the religions and religious icons of the world, declaring there is only one God and he is Darkseid. Back in the underground cave, while Jimmy spends part of his time ogling the former Lois lane, she goes off and talks to Val and explains his role in all of this; convincing him that he needs to embrace the sun and embrace his real powers. At last, he ventures outside to begin soaking up the warmth and the energy of the Earth’ sun.
First off: Jae Lee and June Chung provide the amazing cover to this book which right away jumps off the comic shop’s shelves. With Red Tornado, Hawkgirl and Aquawoman beautifully rendered, all you want to do is dive in. And dive we do, as Tom Taylor and Barry Kitson take us on another great ride this month. We have Parademons galore and super heroics all over the place. PLUS, despite being a robot now, Lois Lane looks HOT as rendered by Kitson! And what is the deal with this Superman? Is he truly Superman possessed by something from Apokolips? Is he a clone of Superman that was bred by Darkseid? I WANT ANSWERS! But I guess we will get those when Taylor is ready and he’s not spilling his guts anytime too soon.
GREEN ARROW #28: Last issue we learned that Robert Queen is alive and is the one responsible for Oliver Queen’s trials on the island. He threatens to kill the person he thinks is an imposter until Robert tells of Oliver’s first “battle scar” as a child. When Lacroix betrayed Queen, he knew what had to be done so, with Magus’ help, he and Emerson arranged faked. Then he bought the island and, when the time was right, arranged to have him end up on the island. Oliver’s last day on the island was a test by his father to see if he was prepared for the war to come. Magus help nurse Robert back to health and Emerson arranged for Oliver's rescue. Everything to this point, including Oliver’s meetings with Magus and Shado, has been arranged. Oliver is angry with his father AND Shado, but has no time to fully express it as Kodiak of the Shield Clan attacks. After a lengthy battle, Robert kills Kodiak. Oliver grabs Kodiak, knocks his father out and tells Shado to go to hell and take his father with her. Meanwhile, Naomi and Henry Fyff get surprised by John Diggle, who used to assist the Green Arrow. Since Oliver is not around, he insists that it be their jobs to stop Richard Dragon. Over in Prague, Lacroix and Emiko argue over the Outsiders. She suggests he should kill the others and take over the leadership of the group, to which he responds with a slap to her face. The leader of the clans tells the rest how Kodiak has fallen and Lacroix criticizes them for not sending him. Golgotha orders Onyxto kill Lacroix but she refuses as Lacroix kills Golgotha with an arrow through his head. Simon Lacroix now leads The Outsiders.
If you think this recap was long, you should have read the original comic! Once again, Jeff Lemire proves why he is an incredible storyteller as he fully explains the machinations of Robert Queen within his son’s life. Of course, this sort of blows away the whole origin of Oliver Queen that Judd Winick gave us in GREEN ARROW #0. As a refresher, Oil stealing terrorists attacked Oliver’s yacht and blew up the yacht, killing all on board except Oliver and his friend Tommy Merlyn. Does that mean, if we are to believe that version of the origin, that Robert Queen arranged for the alleged “terrorists” and Oliver just really screwed things up by being a drunk jerk and causing the explosion? If so, then Robert Queen is more of a schemer than we first thought. Oh wait: we thought he was DEAD! What can I say: this was another amazing issue from Lemire and artist Andrea Sorrentino.
GREEN LANTERN #28: Red Lantern Supergirl attacks Green Lanterns Lok and Barreer before she collapses from exhaustion during their battle. On Mogo, Hal is trying to swear in some of the ex-convicts off the prison ship into the Corps with one of the silliest swearing in speeches ever written. Soon there is a great commotion and it seems Supergirl has broken loose. With additional forces, they apprehend her and Hal, discovering she is Kryptonian, decides they will find a way to cure her of her affliction. Meanwhile, Saint Walker is still depressed over the loss of his entire race and decides, since he cannot remove Supergirl’s red ring, that solitude is best for him. So Hal and some of the other Lanterns head off to Ysmault to confront guy and the Red Lanterns. They confront him first and Guy reminds Hal that THEY are now in charge of Sector 2814, NOT the Green Lanterns.
This is a double, flip issue where we get BOTH GREEN LANTERN #28 AND RED LANTERNS #28. That’s right: 21 pages of each for the price of ONE BOOK! Of course, if they were both AMAZING, I would be happy. And, if DC can give us 42 pages of story for three bucks, why can’t we get this EVERY MONTH-make it the NEW 26! Or, give us 21 pages for $1.99…like the old days! Anyway, Robert Venditti and Billy Tan continue the tale of the whiniest version of Hal Jordan YET! He’s more boring than Ryan Reynolds was in the movie. Please give this guy whatever he lost when someone emasculated him!
HARLEY QUINN #3: A potential assassin again attacks Harley Quinn as she rides the Scare-O-Rama ride at Coney Island, but she uses his own shotgun to make him pay for ruining her Valentine’s Day. When she arrives him, Big Tony gives her the flowers that were for Queenie. She apparently was with another man, so Harley suggests she could be his date, but he turns her down. So, after a bath, she decides that spending the night alone with her beaver is not going to work. She notices that one of the plants Poison Ivy left her has berries, so she eats them. Discovering she got a job as a therapist at the nursing home, she heads out for a night in a singles a bar in Sheepshead Bay. Once outside, she suddenly finds everyone from corrections officers to criminals to shop owners immediately are falling in love with her. Soon she finds herself defending herself with a weed-wacker and starts cutting her way through her stalkers. A policewoman tries to arrest her but gets one whiff of her and falls in love too, claiming she smells better than the best doughnut. Figuring out that it must be the effect from the berries, she races home and chucks the plant out her window. Tony enters and asks for his bouquet back as he decides he needs to fight for Queenie. She gives him the flowers and some of the berries. Unfortunately, Queenie AND her date are now in love with Tony.
Who do you feel sorry for in this tragic tale: Harley or Tony. Has to be Tony because Harley, although she ends up alone with her dogs, he gets stuck with two lovers when he seems like a one woman man, not a one woman and one man man!. I love the humor in this title, especially the policewoman who could eat Harley up like a “strawberry filled donut”. Yeah-that is an awesome visual there. Speaking of visuals, the monthly schedule seems to be affecting Chad Hardin as his work doesn’t appear as clean or tight as it has. Maybe he should stop trying to do it all by himself and let an inker step in every now and then. Despite that, the Amanda Conner/ Jimmy Palmiotti story is a ball of fun. If you are expecting high drama from this book, you’re in the wrong book.
JUSTICE LEAGUE 3000 #3: Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman end up on a disgusting, waste filled planet known as Takron-Galtos. And they eventually end up surrounded by the followers of Sheriff Aaban Tariq. They learn that Coeval set Tariq up as the law and that Takron-Galtos was once Earth a long time ago. Meanwhile, the Wonder Twins decide that maybe it is time to shut this experiment down, especially considering the team in lost, Green Lantern has been eaten and The Flash has been rendered to pieces. Reality bending nineteen-year-old named Locas has decided to expel Green Lantern and keep him in a prison, threatening to give him cancer if he doesn’t confess his love for her. Ariel gets a call from Aaban Tariq and learns that the Trinity are with him and he learns that this may be the REAL Trinity which Ariel has managed to reconstruct. So she heads off to Talkron-Galtos and, unbeknownst to her, may find something named Kali waiting for her when she arrives.
This book is so messed up that I find it to be my newest guilty pleasure title from DC (believe it or not, I have actually checked out some of Marvel’s ALL NEW MARVEL NOW titles and found some of them…intriguing. Maybe a blog on them soon…). We have twisted versions of our classic heroes and I LOVE IT! J. M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen, always known for putting bizarre twists into things, have really turned this into a wild, weird and totally unexpected surprise. Howard Porter’s always sweet looking artwork. Pick this book up, ESPECIALLY if you feel jaded by all the changes the NEW 52 brought to continuity. This will make you realize that, in the end, they are just FUNNY BOOKS, KIDS!!!
JUSTICE LEAGUE #28: Victor Stone, the new and improved Cyborg, has gone to see Dr. Will Magnus to help him put a new team together. Magnus refuses because of something that happened six months ago. We find that the US Defence department recruited him to work on Project: Metal Men but he decided that people make mistakes but robots do not. He built the Responsometer and installed one in each of the six robots he built. Each robot was formed and developed their own personalities and developed something he had not expected: free will. The Secretary of Defense manages to have the door to his lab blown open. They learn they were designed to be used on assassination missions for the government and make their escape. As he searched for them, he learned someone stole the prototype Responsometer and dropped it into a vat of hazardous waste. When he returned home, he found them there. But so did the chemical creature and the Metal Men defend their creator by sacrificng themselves. As the story ends, Vic explains that their Responsometers still contain their minds and hearts. At last, Will grabs a Responsometer and agrees it’s time.
Okay…the old (yes…I am old) fanboy in me just got SO EXCITED! OMG!!! It’s the freakin’ METAL MEN!!! So everyone knows: I GREW UP loving THREE classic DC characters more than others (okay-I LOVED LOTS of old oddball DC characters including Gunner and Sarge, Sea Devils and Brother Power): the Inferior Five, The Doom Patrol and The Metal Men. How I loved reading the exploits of Gold, Iron, Lead, Mercury, Tin, and Platinum. Unfortunately the series had ups and down, was cancelled in the Sixties, reborn again for a while in the mid Seventies and then…got retconned in the Nineties in a horrible way I would like to forget. But this…THIS is so much closer to the Metal Men I knew and loved, obviously visually tweaked for the new Millennium. And don’t try and tell me that the toxic waste shouldn’t have a name and that name needs to be (all together now): CHEMO! Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis blow the top off this issue by continuing the plot AND giving me characters I could cuddle up with and remember my childhood. THANKS GUYS!
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #28: Already reviewed as part of THE BLIGHT storyline. See earlier blog post.
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #12: Stargirl is drowning at the hands of Despero but channels her strength and memories into Cosmic Staff and frees herself from her watery grave. Thinking he has killed one hero, Despero attacks Martian Manhunter and beats him to a pulp. Stargirl finds him weak and dying. He insists she go to Los Angeles, because she is the only one who can free the Justice Leagues. He relates a story from his youth on Mars as a fable to convince her to leave him. While she doesn’t understand the moral of the story, he begs her to leave and she does, knowing thousands of lives are at stake. She wrestles with the memory of the home invasion in her past and wants to go to her family before seeking out the Firestorm Matrix. As she continues onwards, Despero attacks her again, and then proceeds to destroy her home and her city. As Firestorm reaches critical mass, J'onn takes his last breath.
Things are NOT looking good for any of our heroes, or the city of Los Angeles. Courtney is plagued by guilt by something that happened to her brother in the past, J’onn is lying in the snow dying and Firestorm is ready to blow up and take heroes and most of L.A. with him. It all comes down to next issue, which sets up the change to JUSTICE LEAGUE UNITED. This was a nice issue by Matt Kindt and Eddy Barrows that proves these two characters actually COULD carry this title on their own for a number of issues. How do they paint themselves out of this corner and will anyone be left standing? Tune in next issue!
Friday, March 14, 2014
FOREVER EVIL Month 6
FOREVER EVIL #6: The issue begins with Lex Luthor complaining about how the last two things he ever expected to do in life was help Superman and Batman to save Earth. Lex blames the superheroes for all the troubles, saying that when they banded together, that was when villains began to attack the Earth. The League has failed and the Injustice League will have to save the day. Off in Maine, the Crime Syndicate is trying to decide what to do about the red lightning that has appeared in the sky. The Outsider contacts Owlman and tells him to come back to the Watchtower immediately because of what the Grid did to Nightwing. The Injustice League arrive at the Watchtower and Sinestro's ring says there are 2 people inside. Batman and the League find Nightwing hooked to an inescapable device called "The Murder Machine". There is a heartbeat monitor hooked to Nightwing which is hooked to a bomb that will destroy the Watchtower and everyone in it unless his heart is stopped in the next five minutes. Batman tries to defuse the bomb, but Dick insists that Batman leave him. Lex tries to suffocate him to diffuse the bomb and Batman promises to kill Lex if he kills Dick. Alfred ignores Owlman’s orders, checks on the second prisoner, and is quickly killed by Black Manta. Sinestro, Black Adam and Captain Cold discover that Firestorm is below them, but are attacked by Owlman, Johnny Quick, Ultraman, Superwoman, Deathstorm, and Atomica. Captain Cold unmasks their prisoner and takes off the tape on his mouth Atomica takes his cold gun, which he activates with the voice command: "Jingle bells, Batman smells". It freezes Johnny Quick's leg to absolute zero and is then shattered by a kick from Captain Cold. The prisoner screams his magic word "MAZAHS!" and calls down the Black Lightning from the heavens. Alex Luthor stands up, snaps Johnny Quick's neck, and absorbs his powers. Alex Luthor, now bearing a lightning bolt on his chest, tells how he intends to kill every member of the League and the Crime Syndicate and then become the greatest hero on the Earth.Geoff Johns and David Finch race towards the climax of this mini-series that has managed to introduce characters to the NEW 52, retool some other characters and made everyone make a choice in their actions. Just in this issue alone, we have seen Johnny Quick and The Outsider bite the dust, the possible demise of Dick Grayson and the rebirth of Alex Luthor’s alter ego, MAZAHS. Just what we need-an evil SHAZAM. I thought that was what Black Adam was all about. How this series will end is anyone’s guess right now. All we DO KNOW is that the ending will result in the ending of both NIGHTWING and JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA.
FOREVER EVIL A.R.G.U.S. #5: Steve Trevor and Killer Frost are hunting Cheetah because needs the Lasso of Truth to save the Justice League. They head into Central Park and is attacked by the Weasel, who is quickly flash frozen. Cheetah soon arrives with her team including Primape, Hell-Hound and Lion-Mane, among others. Quickly, Steve and Frost are taken captive. Meanwhile, The Crimson Men promises Dr. Light that they can make him human again in exchange for information on Steve Trevor. Back in Central Park, Cheetah decides to try to get Steve Trevor to confess his love for Wonder Woman while Frost lures Mäuschen to her cage and makes use of his life energy to feed herself and free herself. With the help of Cheetah Trevor subdues Cheetah and some of her followers. That is when Dr. Light arrives with a promise to make certain Trevor dies.
And, after this long-winded series, I almost WANT Steve Trevor to die. This continues to be the least effective of the FOREVER EVIL tie-in books. It is filled with a bunch of third string characters who just need to go away. Killer Frost had her moments early on in the series where I felt a little sympathy for her, based on her VILLAINS MONTH origin issue. But she has become a whiny little villain, Martin Stein is just boring and Trevor-why Amanda Waller hasn’t shot him years ago is anyone’s guess! Unfortunately, this is another lackluster issue from Sterling Gates and Neil Edwards.
FOREVER EVIL ARKHAM’S WAR #5: After rescuing Agatha from Blackgate Penitentiary, Jim Gordon gets his men into boats in an attempt to get them back to the city where Talons are at war with former Blackgate inmates. But Bane, wearing his Batman cowl, along with Talon William Cobb, takes on the Talons under Scarecrow’s control. While Bane fights the Talons at street level, drops a helicopter blade down and cuts the Talons in two. This allows the Talons' regenerative abilities to come to life and freeing them from Scarecrow’s control. They are now united with Bane. Meanwhile, the Scarecrow realizes that there is a chance his plan has failed. But he has a back-up plan and gasses his fellow inmates, including Mr. Freeze, Professor Pyg, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy and others, with Venom. Now they head off to kill Bane.
Peter J. Tomasi has made this one of this a toss-up between which title in these tie-in issues is best-this one or ROGUE’S REBELLION. But I think this one wins by a nose. Bane, the "Protector of Gotham", and his army of Talons prepare for the final assault by a Venom powered gang of super villains without recuperative powers. This sets up what should be a amazing final issue. And, as in past issues, the art look awesome in the form of the work from Scot Eaton and Jaime Mendoza. Gotham is so war torn right now, it might take a while to put back together. Now, if we can only figure WHERE in continuity GOTHTOPIA fits in.
FOREVER EVIL ROGUES REBELLION #5: We begin with Trickster complaining that his teammates should not have given themselves up to the Royal Flush Gang. Mirror Master explains that they did it because the Royal Flush Gang has taken Lisa Snart captive. Weather Wizard blasts a hole through the truck, causing the truck to crash. The Rogue’s are soon fighting with each other as Heat Wave is dead (maybe), Lisa is in a coma, and they have lost Captain Cold (who we know is with the Injustice League). Weather Wizard is convinced that the Rogue’s are finished and he leaves Sam and Axel, who head off to Central City. He creates illusions of Heat Wave and Weather Wizard and demands Lisa back from the gang's leader, demanding Lisa back, offering to exchange their lives for hers. A firefight errupts and Sam comes along driving a van with a mirror attached. Every time he hits one of the gang, they end up in the Mirror World. Axel gets Lisa and gives her to the Pied Piper to keep her safe.. Unfortunately, Johnny Quick and Atomica attack. They receive a call from The Grid to go back to The Watchtower and refuse. Weather Wizard, arrives and freezes Johnny Quick. Before anyone can react, one of the Royal Flush Gang shoots Marco as Grid teleports Johnny Quick and Atomica back to the Watchtower. Instead, Grid teleports in Grodd, with a whole bunch of the Secret Society.
Yeah…I AM going to say it yet again: I truly love the new Rogues and they need their own title.
Here we have bad guys trying to be good guys and managing to screw up at almost every turn.
Brian Buccellato writes a great story with these characters he knows and loves while Scott Hepburn does a great job with the art. Bring us a ROGUES monthly title…provided they survive the next issue!
Saturday, March 8, 2014
FOREVER EVIL: BLIGHT Parts 11-14
TRINITY OF SIN: THE PHANTOM STRANGER #16: Part 11 of FOREVER EVIL: BLIGHTThe issue begins with Constantine in a straight jacket at the House of Mystery, suffering from the Blackmare Curse he used previously. To help relieve the curse faster and allow them to find the Missing Justice Leagues, Phantom Stranger places himself and Nightmare Nurse into one of Constantine's memories of himself as a child, which is a pretty scary place. The Stranger convinces John to use the light within him and that cures him of the demons he faces. Alert again, Constantine and Pandora combine their magic and discover that the rest of the team is being held in Nanda Parbat. When they arrive, Deadman, who is still in the dead Sea King's body, fights his way into the entrance to the temples and discovers that Felix Faust and Nick Necro are behind this. With an invisibility spell concealing them, the rest of the group enters.
J. M. DeMatteis and Fernando Blanco bring us the next chapter of The Blight Saga and, despite a really slow start, reveals a whole bunch of information. What I was creeped out by was Nightmare Nurse trying to seduce The Phantom Stranger. Really? We really don’t know a whole lot about her and we know that Stranger…well, he used to be Judas and …eww! Just saying! Once we got past that and the deep dive into Constantine’s head, the plot picked up and off we go to Nanda Parbat, which is where the team finds themselves in the next entry.
CONSTANTINE #11: Part 12 of FOREVER EVIL: BLIGHT. As soon as the team enters the temple area where Zatanna and the others are being held, they trigger a magical trap rigged up by Nick Necro that makes the team disappear. Constantine and Nightmare Nurse get separated from the rest of the group and come across the Constantine and Nightmare Nurse travel further through the temple, where they eventually come across the Thaumaton Wheel. Attached to the wheel are all the other mystics being used to power this project: Black Orchid, Cassandra Craft, Shade, the Changing Man, Enchantress, Blackbriar Thorn, Blue Devil, Papa Midnite, and Sargon. John realizes that Nightmare Nurse is actually Necro and the pair fight. But he gets captured by Faust and is strapped to the wheel with the rest of the team, finding himself across from the woman he loves: Zatanna.
Ray Fawkes brings us the next chapter in this saga with art from Aco. The story is typical Fawkes and Aco’s art is a little on the sketchy side-not a lot of detail and you have to do a little squinting to make it look REALLY GOOD. Okay, so we now know that we have moved from The Blight Saga to the next chapter where we see that Felix Faust and Nick Necro are channeling almost all of the mystics in the NEW 52 to build the ultimate weapon for the Crime Syndicate. That tends to beg the question: what does the Crime Syndicate need a magical weapon for? When last we saw, they were concerned that the being that destroyed their world was coming here. Is that being magical?
TRINITY OF SIN: PANDORA #8: Part 13 of FOREVER EVIL: BLIGHT This issue tells a story parallel to CONSTANTINE #11. Deadman, in the body of the Sea King, is shown around by Nick Necro and Felix Faust and learns what their project is all about. But Necro realizes that Sea King is not who he seems and that Deadman is in his body, allowing Faust to take him out. Faust activates security measures that take out the rest of Justice League Dark that had entered with Deadman. Pandora surrenders and allows herself to be put in the Crime Syndicate’s Thaumaton Wheel. They test fire the Wheel and it fries Nightmare Nurse, who is badly burned and slowly starts to regenerate. On the second test, Pandora begs Necro to use her and he does, overloading the machine and transforming Pandora into a being of Light. She teleports The Phantom Stranger and Cassandra Craft and herself to an island somewhere in the South Pacific but then she tells them they must go back because there is a chance that the temple may collapse and kill everyone in the process.
Ray Fawkes is back again, as he fleshes out the story he started in CONSTANTINE #11. Actually, it’s the same story, but told from a different perspective. We now understand how everyone got into the predicament they were in. And we see how they get loose. Well, not everyone is loose. Looks to only be Stranger, Cassandra Craft and Pandora. And what is with the sudden change from her red clothes to a Zauriel like attire? She becomes a being of Light like Chris did when he was purged from the Blight? So, how NASTY a weapon is this thing? If it can fry Nightmare Nurse, a certified demon, how mean is this thing? And what the heck is it supposed to stop? Great looking art by Francis Portella makes this a winning chapter.
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #28: Part 14 of FOREVER EVIL: BLIGHT We pick up where Part 13 left off with Pandora, The Stranger and Cassandra Craft on a South Pacific island. Meanwhile, Necro and Faust take Zauriel off the wheel, bring him outside, and manage to use him to drain off the energy threatening to blow up the machine. As a thank you, Faust rips the wings off Zauriel before they drag him back inside. We discover that Constantine and Zatanna are on another plane where he confesses that if he had to choose between the world and her, he would choose her. And this makes her very upset. She tries to call up her team but they end up being caught between reality and Limbo, so she lets them go. Nekros shows up and tries to convince them to join him in defeating the Crime Syndicate, but Constantine rejects him which means he and Zatanna get roasted in the machine over and over again until Faust stops him. Meanwhile, the trio leaves the island and head back to New York, where the Stranger seems to think Chris can help their cause. That was before the Spectre interfered.
J.M. DeMatteis brings us the concluding chapter, for this month, in this saga. And while we still don’t know what the purpose of the Wheel is, we do know that it is nasty and is looking to use the mystic energy to create a weapon of mass destruction. But the question still needs to be asked-what is so horrible that this kind of weapon needs to be built? Vicente Cifuentes does a killer job on the art and the Mikel Janin cover is the equally awesome and reminds me how much I MISS his work on a regular basis. So the countdown is on to the end of this saga, which I wonder can even be called FOREVER EVIL: BLIGHT anymore as the Blight piece has been resolved and it’s even missing from the covers of these titles. Either way, the end is near.
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