JUSTICE LEAGUE 3000 #14: The Justice League 3000, reunited Ice, go about learning how she lived this long while Lois Lane and Sinestro spy on them all. It seems that her best friend Fire ended up in Hell and Ice slept for over 100 years, only to wake up to find the Great Disaster had occurred. Along the way, she met a boy we all believe is Kamandi, along with the talking animals and Atomic Knights that populated the world post Great Disaster. Eventually she set up camp on Camelot Nine and Etrigan also moved onto the planet, bringing his general and lover Fire with him. In the end, Etirgan makes his plans for his next victory and discusses that with the head of a fallen combatant that he keeps in a jar: Darkseid
So, the good news is that Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis write another killer issue of this bizarre and twisted take on the Justice League. The bad news is that Howard Porter is not doing the artwork and Andy Kuhn is. Unfortunately we go from the tight, beautiful pencils of Porter to these truly loose and overly angular pencils of Kuhn which really ruins it for me. I am the first to admit that I am no artist but I think I could draw these characters as well as Kuhn does. Hopefully, we’re back to our regular crew next issue and wrapping up this tale in preparation for JUSTICE LEAGUE 3001.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #39: A hive mind has affected all those with the Amazo Virus and forces Superman to work with Lex, who is responsible for this in the first place. Using his heat vision, Superman cuts through his skin to provide Luthor with a blood sample. Wonder Woman gets help from Captain Cold and the A.R.G.U.S. team and she realizes that cold is an ability Patient Zero can’t copy. Superman leaves Lex and freezes Patient Zero in place, allowing Lex to dole out the vaccine with the restored League to all those affected. Patient Zero the person is dead, although the body is still alive, having been taken over by the virus. Right now, it is simply Amazo and one day it plans to infect Lex. Later, Steve Trevor meets with Neutron, who is dying of cancer. He tells Trevor that if Luthor can do something for him before he dies, he will reveal who hired him to kill him. Meanwhile, The Flash has made friends with Jessica Cruz and has arranged for Green Lantern to return to Earth and help her adjust to her new life.
Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok do a nice job of tying up this story, even if I don’t totally agree with this interpretation of who Amazo is. Johns story is nice and tight and Fabok’s art is as crisp and clean as always. With one more issue to go before the break for CONVERGENCE, it will be interesting to see where Johns and Fabok go. We do know that the Darkseid War will begin following CONVERGENCE and that will be the major story for the remainder of 2015. So, here’s to the end of this continuity and the birth of a new one.
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #39: Trapped in the Heart of Chronos, ruptures in the Timestream continue. The creatures causing the ruptures consume all of our heroes except Madame Xanadu, Nightmare Nurse and Zatanna who claims there is no way to stop time from collapsing before they cast a spell to freeze time. The creature responsible is named Pralaya who claims that K'am'deva curse John Constantine and Zatanna cast was responsible for weakening the fabric of reality.She also claims that the Multiverse exists only because of her and tries to convince each member of the Justice League Dark to give up their lives and embrace the peace of the void. They all deny her except for Zatanna who begs Pralaya to take them and the void does.
J.M. DeMatteis and Andres Guinaldo brings this series one step closer to its’ conclusion. With our team trapped in the void, we all know they will find a way home because DARK UNIVERSE is coming. DARK UNIVERSE the comic will replace this title following CONVERGENCE and will be by James Tynion IV and Ming Doyle. DARK UNIVERSE the movie is being directed by Guillermo del Toro and is supposed to feature Constantine, Swamp Thing, Madame Xanadu, Deadman and Zatanna. So let us assume that Xanadu, Deadman and Zatanna will definitely survive. This time next month, we’ll all have our answer. My guess: Nightmare Nurse will sacrifice herself to save the team.
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNITED #9: While the Legion of Super-Heroes and Justice League United fight Infinitus, Brainiac and Sardath are working to create a bomb to trap him, which they will launch with a rocket. Supergirl chases after Byth who plans on using Infinitus reshape the universe the way Byth wants. A group from both teams head to Thanagar to fend off the Infinity Wraiths and Wildfire is killed in battle. J’onn manages to get his hands on Katar's memories break him away from Byth’s control. Byth is crushing Supergirl when Hawkman distracts him long enough for Colossal Boy to reach through a rift Dawnstar has created and pulls him through. J'onn tries to talk Ultra out doing what is causing him to be Infinitus, but he has no desire to go back to being a child. Brainiac 5 launches the rocket even as J’onn reaches into Ultra’s mind and imposes his will upon him. Infinitus collapses and the Infinity Wraiths fall apart, with J'onn carrying Ultra out of the rift. Unfortunately, the bomb’s detonation will open a black hole.
As I have said in the past, I love Jeff Lemire’s writing and am always blown away by Neal Edwards’ amazing artwork. But this story is just going on way too long! I do really like having the Legion of Super-Heroes here, even if we’ve decided to kill off Wildfire, but this team just does not work for me. And it really hasn’t worked since the first issue. This title lives on after CONVERGENCE in the form of the creative team of TBD, Travel Foreman & Paul Pelletier and apparently will continue the numbering. Will the team be the same? I would guess but with CONVERGENCE, I guess all bets are off.
KLARION #5: So Klarion and Zell watch Noah and Beez battle each other as Klarion prepares to eat a nanobot. Beez drives off and meets up with his daughter while Klarion sings the praises of the swagbot that he says was the bomb. Meanwhile, Rasp is at the Neapolitan Club and getting busy with his girlfriend Contessa. Later, Coal shows up and tells how his father had tried to kill himself but only succeeded in blowing off the top of his head, causing a skull fragment to lodge in Coal’s heart. Klarion’s swagbot bursts from his hand, giving birth to his future buddybot daughter, which he immediately runs out on to go battle Coal.
So, is this the worst comic I have ever read? Yes…yes it is.
LOBO #5: Lobo meets up with another of his targets in the form of Zarielle Thane and eliminates her. He goes to the top of a skyscraper in search of his next target, The Businessman only to find a lot of dead security guards and a woman. Her name is The Pariah, she hails from Czarnia’s sister planet Xrexia. They battle at length, ending when she blows out most of his midsection with a blaster. He packs his innards back inside of him and heads out, finding half of The Businessman crawling across the floor. His message to Lobo: Pariah was responsible for destroying Czarnia.
I have not mentioned on numerous occasions how much I HATE this version of Lobo. While I like the gory action as written by Cullen Bunn and love the art by Reilly Brown, who has some help from Alisson Borges and Cliff Richards for this issue, I so hate this version of the bastich! I can deal with a modified origin and all, but give me the guy he offed in issue #1.
NEW 52: FUTURE’S END #40-43: In issue #40, Clark puts on a costume and heads off to face Brainiac while Constantine faces Brainiac's creatures while having a summoned demon protect him. Meanwhile, the remains of the Carrier, piloted by Ray Palmer, show up near the Justice League Satellite. Brainiac repossesses the Engineer who attacks, saying that Brianiac has arrived. Cyborg sends Dawnstar to follow her wherever she goes, seeing her building something on Brainiac's planet. Projectiles fall from space forcing Plastique, Batman and Tim Drake to take cover in Terrifitech, where they find everyone murdered. Brainiac continues to attack New York City, cutting the Lincoln Tunnel in half as it sets up a grid around the city. The Air Force picks up a fast-moving object on their radar and realizes it’s the real Superman.
In issue #41, Superman discovers that he needs to find away to defeat Brainiac besides trying to attack it head-on. Michael Holt looks on in horror as Brother Eye mocks him.
Plastique reminds Tim that she doesn’t make it out of this timeline alive, but McG will and thus change the timeline. Meanwhile, heroes in space hear the screams of thousands of people coming from Brainiac’s planet. Hawkman sees multiple versions of people screaming in agony and gets split into to different versions of himself. He fades from existence, screaming Shayera's name. Ray Palmer launches himself towards Brianiac’s ship but is eradicated by a beam of energy that also connects with New York City.
In issue #42, Billy Batson discovers Superman is alive and is surprised by these developments while Doctor Polaris teleports them back inside the domed grid. Realizing that the real Superman is back, Billy returns to being Shazam. Superman realizes that Brianiac isn’t trying to attack New York, he is trying to collect it. inside Terrifitech Terry McGinnis battles the Batman/ Joker cyborg while A.L.F.R.E.D. tries to find a pattern to the projectiles falling on the city. Terry sees that Brother Eye, promising to protect everyone, is now in control of every video screen in Manhattan. Brainiac finds the beam that was lifting up Manhattan has been disrupted, causing him to destroy some buildings and Lois finds the unconscious body of Superman. In space, Cyborg tries to destroy Brainiac's ship, unaware that Ray survived by shrinking himself down. Ray finds the Engineer's location and cuts some wires which free her and cause the tentacles crushing Cyborg to stop their attack. Soon after, Ray emerges with The Engineer in his arms.
In issue #43, Superman regains consciousness, explaining to Lois that he has been gone all this time to recover from what the war did to him. While Brainiac tries to initiate another option to pull New York City out of the ground, Brother Eye explains to everyone that he will be their protector. Tim Drake and Plastique encounter Key and Coil who tell them they are about to face a nightmare when the cyborg Plastique attacks. It says that Tim doesn't exist in the future, meaning it can easily kill him. Terry saves him before being attacked by the creature, which knocks the real Plastique through the window. Terry saves her and the pair shares a kiss. Batman shows Michael footage of what is happening in New York because of Brother Eye, leading Holt to say that he needs help.
The countdown is on. With nine issues to go, the question is how will all of this lead into CONVERGENCE or how will this be AFFECTED by CONVERGENCE? Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, and Keith Giffen wrote it while Patrick Zircher, Jesus Merino, Andy MacDonald, and Scott Eaton drew it. Fans have been totally divided on this title, with some loving the mystery and others absolutely feeling that this will never come to pass so why read it. Personally, I have loved the path this took and am dying to see how it all turns out.
NEW SUICIDE SQUAD #7: While Deadshot is at Belle Reve trying to recover from his wounds, with less than excellent results, the Squad continues to track a clone that escaped from a Chinese metahuman production facility. Black Manta has them head towards a ghost town replica of Metropolis to wait for extraction. The metahuman arrives, attacks one of the Man-Bat Commandos, and nearly beats him to death. Amanda remotely triggers the bomb in Man Bat’s neck, killing him, which causes the metahuman to stop his attack as he no longer wants any deaths. Surrounded by the Chinese Army, he gets blasted by a tank into the replica of the Daily Planet. The globe falls off the building and heads down towards Harley.
How do they get out of this? Manta wants to quit, Harley is about to be crushed, Reverse-Flash blew out his leg and Amanda Waller has an itchy trigger finger. This is another great issue from Sean Ryan, Tom Derenick, and Rob Hunter. We get one more issue with this team before CONVERGENCE arrives and the creative team gets a slight change as Derenick and Hunter depart and Carlos D’Anda arrives. I liked the last run of this title and have liked where this has gone. Hopefully the next run will be as good.
RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #39: Jason, Roy and Crux are flying off to find Starfire, who is in the clutches of her sister Komand’R , who reveals she is here to save Kori from the Citadel. Crux and company crash land, only to find Rose Wilson waiting for them. As the battle rages, Kori, fresh from a tearful reunion with her sister, arrives to take Rose out. They explain to her that she is actually working for intergalactic drug traders and then they all realize that the Citadel has amassed a huge force in the jungle. Can it get any worse? Maybe…as Helspont arrives.
So…did you really think that Blackfire was turning face? No…she was just trying to make it look like she was a good girl. After all she had done to her sister over the years, you knew she couldn’t turn it all around. Scott Lobdell and Tom Derenick presents this penultimate issue as this title goes away to be replaced by RED HOOD/ARSENAL by the team of Lobdell and Denis Medri.
RED LANTERN #39: In El Sobrante, Guy battles this red monster and tries to protect a little baby. Then the baby fills with rage and attacks Guy. Eventually, the beast is driven out of the baby and he and the baby head off on a road trip together.
Boy, it didn’t take long for Carles Soule to leave and this title to start sucking like a chest wound! Larry “Crybaby” Walker wrote it(there’s a joke there…Johnny Depp’s character in the movie CRY BABY was Cry Baby Walker), Jim “Naptime” Caliafiore drew it and I’m sorry I spent three bucks on this. With that said, this title has reached the end of the road and this issue proves it. Just a real silly mess.
SECRET ORIGINS #10: In the first story, Barbara Gordon is undergoing has just undergone a series of medical tests designed to one day get her out of her wheelchair. While in the hospital, she meets Frankie Charles, who is having her own issues with mobility. We then get images from her past adventures while learning that she has created some aggressive and dangerous computer code based on data from her brain scan. And it appears that the code has developed into A.I. and thinks it is Batgirl.
In the second story, Jason Rauch and Ronnie Raymond are about as different as two people could be. But then Zithertech arrives on campus to take Martin Stein’s discovery. We then get a recap of some of their career highlights.
The third story begins with Pam Isley arriving on a farm to find that a Descanto has been experimenting on corn and it is damaging the farmer’s crop. So Pam heads to the other farm, has a little talk with her friends in the green and kills some Descanto employees. Later, she visits Mr. Descanto and influences him with some of her Pheremone powers. She tells him how her father, who she killed with a special toxin she had developed, killed her mother. She had run-ins with the law, Bruce Wayne and eventually just gave in to the allure of The Green. She forces Descanto to swallow his own seeds, which kills him as she declares herself the Guardian of the Green.
This issue has become the biggest seller in the history of this title. And the reason is the first story, which adds much needed details to the current Batgirl storyline. The story is by Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher with Irene Koh handling the art. It still looks and feels like the current BATGIRL series, so…well: we all know what I think about that. The second origin, by Dan Jurgens and Sean Chen looks GREAT, but really doesn’t add a whole lot of info to the existing origin. So, I see that as a waste of paper. The third story, by Christy Marx and Stjepan Seijic did a nice job of adding some new details, even despite the obviously Monsanto swipe in Descanto. Seijic’s art is really nice and I can’t wait to see more of it. All in all, it is another average issue that limps towards an ending.
SECRET SIX #2: Thomas Blake, better known as Catman, had been forced into twelve months of imprisonment for something called Project Mockingbird. Thirty weeks in, a woman arrived saying she couldn’t free him but gave him a present in the form of a kitten. Near the end of his year, his cell was unlocked and he was told he was free to leave, being told that the girl who gave him the cat had been punished. Now, he finds himself trapped again with five other people. They are told they have only one minute to answer the question, "what is the secret?" before one of them is eliminated. Catman panics and Strix thinks she should kill him to relieve his agony. Running out of time, the mysterious voice demands that they select one of them to be eliminated. Thomas convinces the The Ventriloquist to use her powers to move the box they are trapped in. The voice selects Black Alice and the jailer begins to electrocute her, leading Shauna to jump into action as the Box is moved above the surface, killing the power. Porcelain weakens the wall and Catman crashes through it, seeks out his jailers and rips them to pieces. Lori transforms into the demon Hezkinvade and joins in the attack. The mysterious voice tells them to return to the Box or they will all die instead of just one. The captives invite the jailers to come down so they can “burn them down and piss on the ashes.”
I have two problems with this book. First off: book only had one issue out and it was delayed for issue #2. With issue #2, now out, we learn that issue #3 is delayed until the middle of June, when it should have been out in March. Second: does anyone know where this title is going? Hopefully, Gail Simone and Ken Lashley do because I love the character mix, but don’t understand where it is going. Let’s all recall that Gail Simone was responsible for THE MOVEMENT, and no one could quite figure where that was headed either. Let’s hope this title gets back on track soon and answers some questions too. Comic readers are very fickle and won’t stick around with this for long.
SINESTRO #10: Last issue, Sinestro was defeated by the Apex League, which caused him to surrender. Accepting his surrender, Mongul takes great pleasure blasting him while he is down. He sends a distress signal to the rest of the Corps on New Korugor as they mourn over the dead they had recently discovered. It seems that Mongul has discovered Relic’s ring-draining technology and plans on making the rest of the Corps his slaves when they arrive. Sinestro gets to talk to Venomous Shade and puts the thoughts of doubt into his head concerning Mongul. The Sinestro Corps arrives and so does Bekka, wearing both a yellow ring and a Corps uniform.
Okay, so Cullen Bunn and Brad Walker have combined to bring us another in a long line of “just okay” issues of this title. Here’s my problem with it: Sinestro as anti-hero just doesn’t work for me. Let’s face it: he’s a villain and always will be one. No matter how much I want to like him, I keep seeing him in the awful GREEN LANTERN movie and want him ground into paste! His supporting cast is pretty lame too and now we introduce a potential love interest into the picture. Honestly, when did this become DAYS OF OUR LIVES?
STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES #7: Gravedigger tortures Duke for information while Cat and Tiffany, off in Utah, are trying to escape the Rinaldi spas before it gets nuked. On the plane, Forrest expresses his displeasure that something went wrong and informs his passengers that they will start getting ready to release Black Ice as soon as they reach San Francisco. Jared, realizing he can’t turn off the device in time, drives off as fast as he can and barely escapes the blast. The blast not only bathes the area in radiation, it also unleashes gas that turns people into zombies. Upon arriving in San Francisco, Tiffany makes her escape, but ends up at a heavily armed roadblock which could ultimately cost her her life.
Like so many other series in the NEW 52, this one prepares for it’s final curtain call. And, this seems to be a problem for the team of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray who, despite pushing the envelope, have had two series now shot out from under them with the other being ALL STAR WESTERN. And I loved both series, but they just never found that audience they were looking for. As always, the book has really creepy, moody art from Scott Hampton that sets the tone for this adventure into weirdness. Maybe that’s the problem: it’s not that Palmiotti and Gray are writing bad stories, just weird ones. And, with DC becoming a place where it appears that numbers and new fans are more important than pushing the boundaries of creativity (despite their preaching canon over continuity), that means the pair have to concentrate on writing what’s hot: like a Harley/Power girl mini-series. The only question I have about that is which Power Girl do we get and what outfit-with or without the peek-a-boo cleavage window.
SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #16: Five years ago, David Reid watched his mother by carried away by a Parademon. Today, he is Magog and under the control of Circe. While holding up the George Washington Bridge, Superman uses his heat-vision to burn the monsters holding hostages, leading to Magog attacking him. Circe traps Wonder Woman in stone, even as Magog tells how the Justice League’s failure allowed his family to perish. Superman apologizes to Magog before breaking his staff in two, leaving him to be captured by A.R.G.U.S. as the Man of Steel is magically transported away. Circe, has taken Diana to the island of Aiaia, where she will be forced to endure her wrath for what Hippolyta had done to her. Apparently, there had been a deal where Circe would enchant the armory of the Amazons in exchange Circe being able to create Ani-Men. But Hippolyta made a deal with Hephaestus where she traded those men for weapons that would protect her magic. Wonder Woman breaks free and confronts Circe, who has now enchanted Superman into attacking the woman he loves.
Peter J. Tomasi writes a killer script, as anyone who has read his BATMAN AND ROBIN work can attest to. And Doug Mahnke and Ed Benes are two tremendous art talents, so you know they rock when you put them together. Now, that being said, throw Magog into the mix, a crazy witch and two of the most powerful beings on the planet and you get a rip-roaring good time! I am so liking this run so much more than the last creative team, despite how great it looked.
SWAMP THING #39: The corrupted Alec Holland has made Swamp Thing sick as the former Lady Weeds, who reveals herself to be the Machine Queen, explains that she intends to kill him for having her be paralyzed from the neck down. She orders Holland to eat Swamp Thing, telling him that everything that has happened so far is his fault and he sees that the grove of The Green is also corrupted. Weeds tell Omega Calculus that Holland has done what none of the Calculi has been able to do: defeat the Avatar of the Green. They remind her that their plan was to unify all the kingdoms, but she has managed to poison the Green and she should be removed as Avatar. What Omega Calculus means is he wants her to give back her power in exchange for her life. She drains the Calculi of their energy, forcing A Calculus to promise to serve her. Since she does not trust it, she destroys it. Abigail discovers that Anton joined forces with the machines to rot the Green. Soon the Avatars of Green and Rot are in a pub Bolton, England, meeting with Constantine. He gives Alec a pint of ale that contains just enough power of the Green to allow him to reconnect with it. Alec and Abby return to the grove, and, after she drains the rot from the water, he dives in and confronts Arcane, while releasing the Parliament of Trees from their prison. Unfortunately, they are not happy about what Alec has done while they were gone.
Seems like Alec is in a world of hurt because of everything that has gone on. Charles Soule and Jesus Saiz bring us the penultimate issue of this series which has truly had its’ ups and downs. We all know that Alec will live on to fight another day, but what happens to the supporting cast? Despite the ups and downs, I will miss this series, complete with it’s mystical feel and sometimes even more mystical read. While some feel that Soule has been phoning it in over the last few issues, this one is right on the money and leads to what I hope will be a moving climax to it all.
TEEN TITANS #7: We begin with the team investigating the pit that was S.T.A.R. Labs before it was ravaged by a nuclear blast. Manchester Black tells the team about Operation Paperclip, where former Nazi scientists came to work for the government and S.T.A.R. Labs. Power Girl finds one of the scientists and Raven, reading his mind, discovers that they are planning to erase part of New York City because they have mastered time travel. They all get frozen in time except for Raven and Beast Boy, who are left the Eraser from being activated. They destroy the device that freezes time and teleport in the rest of the team to shut down The Eraser, although beast Boy transforms into a rhino and destroys it. Later, Black tells Red Robin this is the second worse thing the scientists ever built. One of the scientists breaks the fourth wall and tells us this was “all according to plan.”
So Will Pfeifer comes to a place where this feels comfortable to him, as opposed to being in Scott Lobdell’s shadow. And Kenneth Rocafort’s art is starting to be less glaring to me. Maybe it’s because I know there is an ending coming soon and I’m just weary of this title, even tough it is only seven issues old. I so long for the classic Wolfman/Perez team that looked great, was a fun read and made me care about the lives of these characters. These are cardboard people who wish they were being writen and drawn by that team. Sigh-let’s see what post CONVERGENCE looks and feels like.
TRINITY OF SIN #5: The Trinity of Sin are trapped inside the Cube of Redemption where they have been crucified and tormented. The Question gets free of his prison and wonders who he truly is. Eventually, he meets The Caretaker who offers him salvation and The Question goes back to his friends, who have been ravaged by the beast that attacked them. But he quickly discovers that the creatures were only in their mind. He shatters the Spear of Destiny and stabs them with it, freeing them and allowing them to find paradise within the cube. But there is no real paradise as they are actually trapped by Nimraa
Is it over yet? Is it? I don’t think I can take much more of this poor attempt at philosophy. J. M. DeMatteis and Yvel Guichet hands us a penultimate issue filled with more existential garbage than you can shake a stick at! And, when this thing rides off into the sunset next month, there had better be some kind of inkling as to who The Question is. Calling Renee Montoya!
WONDER WOMAN #39: Inside the volcano, Batman and Wonder Woman find Superman's destroyed communicator. As they move further alone, they find the missing villagers that have been built into the walls. Diana sees a figure standing among the bodies and he responds that humans are just food for the queen. Diana buries her sword into his chest and, as she is about to strike the killing blow, Superman stops her saying this isn’t the woman he knows and loves. She breaks down in tears, saying there wasn’t to save. Later, Batman wants to know what happened to her and she responds that Superman stopped her from killing the person that Cyborg is trying to save. While Batman argues that it is their responsibility to not be role models, Diana says their responsibility is to save lives. Diana returns to Paradise Island and speaks to her mother who appears as an apparition and answers her. Hippolyta explains that she will always be asked to manage conflict. She also shows her smoke coming from where the Sons of Themyscira have been living. Diana discovers that the men are leaving because the Amazons in Themyscira have closed their gates to them. In Themyscira, the Amazons have selected Donna Troy as their new leader, who wants any man on the island killed. Diana reminding her that men are under her protection at which point Donna raises her sword and declares herself Queen of the Amazons.
I really want Brian Azzarello back. And that is not because I think Meredith Finch’ writing is bad, I just don’t care for the sudden shift in direction. We go from a conflict involving classic gods in new form to this being more of an action adventure. David Finch’ art is nice, though not as good as some of his previous work. In all honesty, it looks rushed. So the team rumbles on towards CONVERGENCE with Donna Troy, the former dead Wonder Girl, poised to be the newest villain. Sorry-I want Brian Azzarello AND Cheetah back! And maybe even Steve Trevor for good measure!
WORLDS’ FINEST #31: In Part Five of the Secret History of Superman and Batman, we see the devastation that the attacks on Metropolis and Gotham have caused. In Metropolis, Superman and Batman are there to lend a hand while, in Gotham, Catwoman and her daughter Robin are helping out but welcome an assist from Supergirl. Kara heads back to the island fortress when she meets Intri, who is inside and causing mischief. Saying she is beneath her, Intri heads back to Apolokilps via Boom Tube. Meanwhile, Batman breaks into Terry Slaon’s house and steals the Kyrptonite that was used in the last issue to attack Superman. Sloan is thrilled that Batman took the bait and didn’t go after the captured Val-El. As the world breathes a sigh of relief, Lois Lane decides it’s okay to go back inside the Daily Planet, even despite the warnings of a police officer. As she relates, it was the “last big mistake” of her life.
And this title too does the big wind down as the end is near. And, unfortunately for some, we all know how that end will be. Earth 2’s heroes suffer a devastating loss in the form of the Trinity, Lois dies and Helena and Kara end up on our Earth. While some have criticized Paul Levitz for this storyline, I personally feel it’s some of his best work in a long time. And the art by Jed Dougherty just rocks this book, falling somewhere between cartoon style and Trina Robbins meets Reed Waller, which is high praise as far as I am concerned. I will be sorry to see this go and look forward to more work from Dougherty in the future.
Friday, March 20, 2015
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
DC's NEW 52 Month 39, Part 1
ACTION COMICS #39: Superman, Steel, Mr. Santiago and Mrs. Takahara have been trying to do what they could to save Smallville. They believe that if they close the Phantom Zone portal, they can keep Superman from falling into a trap. But Lana is trapped and Superman and Steel enter to face the fear-parasites. Steel uses his organic steel to shroud them, to hide fear about Lana from the creatures. There is a voice in their head and Clark is told to think back twenty years to when it caused the fire that brought him out of school. This is back when he was known as the Ultra-Humanite-back before Clark imprisoned it in the Phantom Zone, until Doomsday broke out of the Zone and it came with it. As creatures escape the portal and begin attacking the people of Smallville, Superman tears his armor off and is immediately overwhelmed with fear. Clark forces himself to continue facing his fear so the creature can feed on it. Once it has called back all the creatures, the decision is made to close portal …with Superman still inside. The creatures get so full of fear, they can’t stand anymore. Claiming he hasn’t been harmed by the experience, he gets John Henry and Lana out of the portal before the townspeople close it for good, saving Smallville. The next morning, Clark and Lana hold a funeral for both their parents. She also apologizes for blaming him for her parents' deaths.
Greg Pak and Scott Kolins do a nice job of ending what I thought was an overly long story arc. But they end it on a really good note as we find out that the baddie in this story was the Ultra Humanite! Very cool! So, from here, we have one more issue and then CONVERGENCE and then…let’s see what changes happen. Rumor has it the Big Blue Boy Scout is going to be wearing his undies on the outside again!
AQUAMAN #39: Aquaman and Mera finally get to meet Arthur’s mother and she refuses to believe it. She says her first child was dead and, since Arthur wears the crest, she assumes Orm must be dead too. Defeating him, it is decided to take he and Mera as sacrifices to Karaku the Volcano God. But Aquaman has been feigning unconsciousness and throws the servant who was guarding him into the fiery pit. Mera, Arthur and Atlanna’s assistant Lenu make their escape, as the assistant says that she is sure Atlanna knows the truth but won’t accept it. They get pursued and things look bleak until Tula and Neol arrive to save them. Unfortunately, the Volcano God is awake and pretty angry.
It all ends next month. So, this is truly the beginning of the end. Will Arthur and his mother have reconciliation? Will she give up this kingdom to go back to Atlantis? Will he and Mera stay here? Jeff Parker and Paul Pelletier aren’t saying. Tune in next issue.
AQUAMAN AND THE OTHERS #10: While Vostok struggles to forget the memories of his childhood, the launch codes are being sent to Cheshire and company. Ya’wara may be dead in the water but Mera fishes her out while Cole stops Korec from leaving the ship and forces Torrez to force Korec out of his body, killing him. It seems that the Operative also sent the wrong launch codes to the bad guys, thanks to The Others, which means they got infected with a virus instead. They get transported to an island where both teams brawl until it becomes evident that they have launched the missile, even if they don’t care where it lands. If The Others can’t stop it, the results will be “catastrophic”.
Welcome to the penultimate issue of this series, courtesy of Dan Jurgens and Lan Medina. So, all our heroes have to do is take down the bad guys, stop the missile and make sure that Vostok finds himself. For this team: a piece of cake
ARKHAM MANOR #5: While Jeremiah Arkham tells his staff they may have to evacuate, Batman is in the walls trying to stop the murderer living here. Batman beats him and tosses him through the wall into the snow outside. He is unmasked and, when Batman demands to know who he is, the man bites his own tongue off. One of the guards tells him was one of the workmen who transformed Wayne Manor into Arkham. Although there are four prisoners unaccounted for, including “Jack Shaw”, Batman feels Seth Wickham may have gone home. When Batman arrives, the smell from inside tells him he is too late to save Wickham’s family.
So, batman has an acute sense of smell that tells him Seth Wickham has killed his family? Wow! He could take that act on the road! This is another quirky chapter from Gerry Duggan and Shawn Crystal that ends next issue. How it all turns out is anyone’s guess but, considering this title is NOT returning after CONVERGENCE, I would have to guess that Wayne Manor will be Wayne Manor again and Arkham will be rebuilt. Or maybe none of this ever happened because of CONVERGENCE.
BATGIRL #39: Burnside has decided that Batgirl is no longer their hero of choice. She meets with Qadir, restocking her armaments and wondering in there is another Batgirl out there. At home, she finds Frankie trying to fix issues with Hooq, which currently has been hacked and has an ad offering 20 million dollars for Batgirl's head. The next day, she meets with Professor Krupke, telling him she has changed her thesis. Later, she goes to see Dinah’s band at their rehearsal, apologizing for her recent actions. Dinah doesn’t have time to talk but tells Barbara that, whatever her problem is, she will find a way to beat it. That night, she hears a mugging below her apartment and ends up being saved by Dinah, as this was only a trick to try to cash in on the bounty. Dinah suggests a meeting to talk about their possibly teaming together again. The next morning they meet and spar, with Barbara saying how she is concerned that maybe she is causing her own troubles. They go to Barbara’s apartment to find Sevin there and Frankie missing. They find her phone and discover a message from someone who tells Barbara to rescue Frankie. That night, Dinah and Batgirl go to the Hooq building and make their way inside. Getting into the server room, they find Frankie, who has discovered that Babs is Batgirl. But a voice from the computer declares she is NOT Batgirl and that the real Batgirl is coming back to take what is hers.
Yeah…I really dislike where this book has gone. BUT, there is hope in the form of the current issue of SECRET ORIGINS which has a Batgirl origin that ties in to the whole thought of the computer having a conscious. I would like to think that all of this, even though the creative team of Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher and Babs Tarr, would change following CONVERGENCE. My FEAR is that even though this book is bringing female readers into comic stores, it’s going to be like TWILIGHT: a year from now, they will all have moved onto some new treat. Can we get Gail Simone back?
BATMAN #39: Batman meets with the Court of Owls, who tell him that the Dionesium they found was not as pure as what is in the Joker's blood. He warns them that The Joker will burn the city down and, pointing to a model in the ceiling, tell him to let him, as they will have anew city rise on top of the old. Batman blows the model up with an explosive Batarang. Next he battles Talon Uriah Boone, demanding to know if the Joker was alive four hundred years ago. Later, he emerges from the sewers victorious. He contacts Julia to discover that the Joker had entered the Batcave, only to be caught by Alfred as he tried to steal the Red Hood. He then chopped off the butler’s hand with a meat cleaver and stole a number of trophies. The Joker then broadcasts on every screen in the city, daring Batman to come and take the Dionesium from his spine. Batman tells his allies, including some of his greatest enemies, that they need to collect the Dionesium from the Joker to be able to create a cure. As they battle the infected on their way towards him the Joker promises that his best trick yet is coming.
In the second story, the Arkham prisoners bring Dr. Zaheer to the Marquis Publishing Group offices, where she had made her book deal to tell the Joker’s life story. She explains that the Joker is William Distal who, when he was sixteen, ran away to the Narrows and faked his own death during Zero Year. The inmates are outraged forcing her to lock herself in a room with the man she believed to be Eric Border, who is actually the Joker. It was he who fill in all the blank parts of her manuscript and admits that it was only a story, just as he had told all the rest. He gives her a gun with five bullets and says it is up to her to figure out which of the six stories is true and then gives the sixth bullet to her. He disappears just as the door opens and six shots are fired.
Well, I guess Alfred isn’t Batman’s right hand man anymore! I never saw that coming and I wonder where we go from here! Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo set things in motion for the final act in this drama before CONVERGENCE. And, as always, it is a page turner to say the least. The second story by James Tynion IV and Dustin Nguyen does a nice job of wrapping that up. So, who is the Joker? Has be lived longer than we ever guessed? And will anyone in Gotham live long enough to find out. This title is amazing and I cannot wait 30 days for the conclusion!
BATMAN AND ROBIN #39: Robin is using his powers to take down some of Batman’s enemies, but is being reckless about it, which is not making his father happy. Later, Bruce takes his son out fishing and chastises him about what he was doing and Damian tells him that he experienced a hiccup in his powers. He also says he wants to go home, tosses his fishing pole into the water, skewers a fish and carries the boat back to Wayne Manor. Several nights later, Damian again behaves recklessly, forcing Batman to force him to go to the Satellite, where he is unimpressed with Superman and Shazam. While there, a distress call comes in that would send the team to Ghost Island. Batman lets Damian lead the way.
Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason do a nice job here of showing that unique relationship between Batman and Damian. The boy has definitely become power hungry…actually, that’s not right. He has becomes so enamored with his powers, he believes he is invincible. Bruce is just trying to make certain he doesn’t lose him again. Of course, this title ends with CONVERGENCE and Damian gets his own gig, written and illustrated by Gleason.
BATMAN ETERNAL #44-47: In issue #44, Maggie Sawyer finds out that the Arkham Asylum inmates all the blame Professor for what is going on. He is at Gotham International Airport when he is spotted by police officers. He throws down a vial of chemicals that causes insanity. Batman arrives and subdues him but, while he tries to help the victims, Milo escapes, only to be defeated by the Batplane. Batman wants to know had him do what he did at Arkham. But, before he can answer, they are attacked by spirits. Meanwhile, Lucas Fox is trying to repair his Batwing Suit by using Nth Metal to repel the spirits. And Harper catches Stephanie trying to escape and will taser her if she has to.
In issue #45, Batman finds himself being attacked by ghosts of his parents, while Milo is being attacked by demons of his own including Mister Bygone. Fighting off the ghosts, Batman attends to Milo, but GCPD forces him to throw a flash-bang grenade and escape with Milo. Batwing has found a way to get rid of his ghosts when Jim Corrigan arrives, apologizing for what happened at Arkham. Jim then gets a call from Batman, looking for help regarding a book that Milo had with him. When Batwing and Jim arrive at the cemetery to meet Batman, Corrigan stops Milo from summoning a demon. The book was a trap that allowed Blackfire to open a hole into hell. Batman returns to the cave where he and Julia determine the person responsible is Ra's al Ghul. Meanwhile, Stephanie tells Harper she believes Bruce Wayne and Batman are responsible for the troubles in Gotham and can’t trust him.
In issue #46, Poison Ivy is living in a green house outside Gotham until the troubles are over. Meanwhile, Batman is near Karachi and fighting the League of Assassins. Ra's tells him he is not responsible, but does know who is. He has created a mystery, asking the question “is Batman Eternal”. He sends Batman through a dorrway where Batman sees Ra's in a hospital bed. He has been here ever since he was thrown into the ravine at Nanda Parbat. He says he too received an invitation to break Batman and Gotham, but had destroyed it. Elsewhere, Selina Kyle goes to Blackgate to pay her father a visit, where he swears he has done nothing to endanger what she or the family has done. She tells him that he needs to find out who is responsible. Later, Rex discovers that someone is giving gifts to Gotham's worst criminals.
In issue #47, Alfred finally wakes from his nightmares and is told by Hush that Julia has gone out. She has answered a Bat-Signal call, meeting with Selina, who gives her the file she planned to give to Batman herself. It contains the list of the weapons that have made their way to Batman’s enemies. Speaking of Batman, he calls Alfred and informs him that they were wrong about Ra’s. Meanwhile, Scarecrow and Clayface plan to unleash their plans only to be stopped by Batwing and Red Robin. Bluebird tracks down Mister Freeze while Batgirl goes to find the owner of the shipment of Kewpie Dolls, expecting to find Joker's Daughter. Jason ends up in a dive bar, where he sees Bane fighting in a Luchador ring. In the Batcave, the lights go out and hush finds both Julia and Alfred knocked unconscious by a guest he invited in. Alfred finds hush released and Julia shot out of the cave into Gotham River in an escape pod. Hush activates the emergency override on the Batplane, causing it to crash. Meanwhile, Cullen watches Stephanie use Harper's computer to contact Vicki Vale.
The countdown to issue #52 continues and we STILL don’t know who is behind all of this. The list of suspects keeps getting shorter and I thought sure it would finally be revealed as Ra’s. I mean, who else hates Batman this much? Joker? Seriously-WHO’S LEFT? Ray Fawkes, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Kyle Higgins, and Tim Seeley gives us the story while ACO, Javi Fernandez, Alessandro Vitti, Christian Duce, Ronan Cliquet and Juan Ferreyra handle the art. Five issues to go…
BATMAN SUPERMAN #19: Dr. Ray Palmer has shrunk Batman and Superman down small enough so they can make their way into Kandor and attack the tower. Once inside, Kara and Superman discover vandalism using the crest of the House of El. Accidentally stepping on a device that recognizes his genetic code, Superman discovers that his aunt and grandmother, Mara and Dame Kela-Van, lived on Kandor and he hopes they survived Krypton’s destruction. It says that Jor-El framed Xa-Du and Kal-El imprisoned the city in the bottle. A group of soldiers see Superman and one of them commits suicide, leading Batman to realize the whole place is a trap. If they attack the tower, Xa-Du will kill Mara and Kela. Superman and Kara destroy the tunnel that has been firing the Kandorians like bullets while Batman made his way to the control room to free the Kandorians. Superman discovers that Xa-Du is responsible for all of this. He reveals that Kara’s family has been afflicted with his living death and is ready to fight for him.
So, why didn’t I see this? Xa-Du is The Joker in Superman’s mythos. It makes perfect sense, as Xa-Du has had an axe to grind with the House of El since Jor-El stuck him in the Phantom Zone. This was a nice plot twist that I really didn’t seen coming. Kudos all around to Greg Pak and Ardian Syaf for this one!
BATWOMAN #39: Beth Kane, insisting to be called Red Alice, is at Kate’s apartment where she comments how she is surprised to see Kate with Nocturna instead of Maggie. This leads Nocturna to become angry, causing the two to trade insults. Beth tells Natalia that she knows crazy. While Kate and Beth go out on patrol, Maggie goes to Natalia’s to discuss the murder of Alex Witherspoon. Kate receives a call from Rory. Who is trying to convince Clayface that his amnesia is his chance to start fresh. Meanwhile, Jason Blood goes to his apartment where Morgaine le Fey is waiting for him and says she has captured Etrigan. Jason claims he has no memory of her, which prompts le fay to through him aside and take the stone she has been seeking. Batwoman and Red Alice join Ragman and Clayface, just as Morgaine throws Jason out of his apartment window. Morgaine escapes, leaving the heroes to free Etrigan, who explains that Morgaine is more powerful than before now that she possesses the stone. Morgaine heads to Slaughter Swamp where she uses the stone to raise the dead and creates her demon army.
Marc Andreyko and Georges Jeanty move us closer to the end of the series with this issue that gives us Morgaine leFay. Morgaine? Okay…this is the NEW 52 after all. And I believe this is the first modern world appearance of Jason Blood, who has now knowledge of his past. Or at least Morgaine’s past. And what about that steamy kiss between Natalia and Kate. Don’t see CNN talking about that now, do ya?
CATWOMAN #39: Because of Ascolat, which is run by Aiden Mason(who has claimed to be Selina’s brother), Black Mask has ceased territory from her and the united crime families, specifically land near the Docks. This leads Selina to donate to the Gotham Free Clinic, the Fine Arts Museum and the Narrows Community Center. Black Mask promises his allies that it is possible to get rid of Selina and they vote unanimously to have her killed. Afterwards, the representative from the Sons of Forster Lane called Detective Keys to report the attempted murder, which was yet to occur. At the announcement of the donation, one of Falcone’s men pulls a gun and Bruce Wayne warns her, allowing her to hide behind the podium. By the time Keyes and Antonia reach him, they find that someone else has shot and killed him. Selina worries that they have lost the Falcones to Black Mask, as Ward suggests they declare war. Trying to save her from what is coming, Selina fires Antonia, before she meets in secret with Aiden Mason. He claims he had nothing to do with the assassination attempt and was just trying to set up a deal between Selina and Sionis. Meanwhile, Keyes has Black Mask taken in for questioning, despite her superiors having previously taken her off the case. Eiko’s father reminds her that when the war comes, they will be against the Calabreses, no matter if she cares for Selina or not. She immediately goes to Selina dressed as Catwoman to warn her about the upcoming war. Selina kisses her. Later, Black Mask warns Mason to apply more pressure to their inside person in the GCPD and then has to eat crow as he learns he has been bailed out by The Penguin. Falcone’s nephew is sent to apologize to Selina but she holds onto him, telling Ward to let Black Mask arrange to send Mason to come and get him.
Oooooh: there’s THE KISS! This one panel kiss sent shock waves through Mainstream America as all the news outlets declared “Catwoman is bisexual”. If anyone bothered to read the two panels that came after, “Catwoman” asks if the kiss was for her or the suit, to which Selina replies that she didn’t know, but if she survives it, it might be “nice to find out.” Okay: so she MAY BE bisexual. This was a great story by Genevieve Valentine that is filled with all sorts of little plot points that build into one big, complex picture. However, I am still not a huge fan of the quirky art of Garry Brown, so that was a down point in the issue. And Mainstream America: GET OVER YOURSELVES! What the hell are you going to do when Midnighter gets HIS own series in a few months?
CONSTANTINE #22: The family and friends of the John Constantine he just killed are attacking our John Constantine. Doctor Fate warns that he needs to help Constantine with maintaining the spell. Doctor Fate ties the family to The Bleed, although the mother is lost into the Bleed. John's spell sends them into The Green where they find Parademons attacking the Parliament of Trees. John's father realizes they won’t be going after his mother ands threatens to kill Constantine, who explains that if he dies, they all die. Doubling over in agony, Constantine realizes his invisibility spell has failed and Darkseid knows where they are. The Mad God Darkseid says that even though they have reached Earth, he can follow them, Constantine cuts loose the people he saved, allowing them to drop into Darkseid's clutches, hoping their sacrifice will give him the power he needs to pull off one final trick.
Ray Fawkes and Jeremy Haun prove that, despite him having had a movie and a television series, John Constantine is still a miserable bastard who would do anything to save his miserable soul. He’s killed himself, his “mother” and about half the cast of the last few issues. You rotten bastard! See you in Hell…or the next issue!
DEATHSTROKE #5: Deathstroke and Batman are in a battle because of Harley Quinn, who is looking for revenge for what happened with the Suicide Squad in Russia. Harley heads off to collect the bounty on Slade’s son Jericho and leaves them with a bomb that buries them in rubble. When she goes back to check on her handiwork, Slade reaches up from the rubble and grabs her by the throat. She tells him his daughter Rose has been working for the Penguin and Jericho is with her., taking down his enemies to make ends meet. Jericho is with her.
Meanwhile, Jericho tells his sister that he can’t control his power and doesn't trust their father. She has brought him to see a man named Possum who Slade had been contracted to kill in Russia. Jericho says that he can sense evil on Possum who proceeds to activates a sound on his phone which renders him immobile. Rose cuts Possum to pieces and her grandfather appears, telling her that Jericho can't hurt anyone anymore.
Tony S. Daniel turns in another great looking action filled issue here. When the series resumes after CONVERGENCE, Daniel will continue on it. And hopefully DC won’t mess with it. I love the action and there is just enough pure blood and guts to make it a guilty pleasure title. While I still am getting used to Slade having two good eyes, I wonder which Slade we will see come June. We may even see the one from television. Either way, I’m stoked for more adventures with DC’s answer to The Punisher(oh…was that unfair?)
DETECTIVE COMICS #39: Batman, hiding in the back of Bullock’s back seat, admits they both know that he didn’t kill Lonnie but Yip did. They agree that they need to work together to stop Anarky and the anti-police sentiment going on. Two days earlier, Bruce had visited Lonnie at the Gotham University Medical Center. The next day, Bruce was trying to figure the connection between the Anarky's masks and the dead children that had been found. But Anarky had erased all county records. Currently, Harvey insists that, despite evidence to the contrary, he is not a dirty cop. Batman is trying to link Jeb Lester to the Mad Hatter. They go to a broken down building known as the "blue house". Inside, they battle with youths wearing Anarky masks, resulting in Harvey getting stabbed in the chest. While Batman battles, Harvey notices a portrait with familiar faces he recognizes. As he begins to lose consciousness, he points out that Jervis Tetch is among the children in the portrait and the girl is his Alice. The Anarky Masks are apparently based on her face. Anarky arrives and pulls the Hatter out of the trunk, telling him it is time for him to die.
Man oh man oh man! Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato are just killing this title as well as Snyder and Capullo are on BATMAN. In fact, all three of the “core” Batman titles are just among some of the best books in the NEW 52 line. So, when it all comes down to it: who is Anarky and what does he/she have to do with these children. The conclusion next month and I cannot wait!
EARTH 2 #31: In Indochina, Doctor Fate uses his power to strike out at Apokolips. He proceeds to the great hall where he encounters Arcanis and her thrall. Nabu decudes that the thrall has more power than Lhakid, so Nabu merges with the thrall. Unftortunately, Nabui quickly realizes this is a bad thing and begs to come back to Khalid. Khalid beheads the thrall and once again claims the helm and destroys the great hall. Meanwhile, in Atlantis, Aquawoman strikes out at the invaders of her kingdom, only to find that she must help the surface world as her oceans are being destroyed too. So she gathers her army and heads to the surface world.
So, this whole issue was just one big letdown. Daniel Wilson, Marguerite Bennett and Mike Johnson, with Andy Smith and Cliff Richards, gave us a one note story that was too much about Nabu being a power hungry jerk and spent an entire issue resolving it. The obvious parallel story is the comparison we were to make between Nabu and Aquawoman. Nabu craves power and Aquawoman wants to hide away from the surface world. Unfortunately, this story could have been handled in about half the length it did. One more issue to go and hopefully it will all tie up nicely, although we all know it won’t end well, I’m sure.
EARTH 2 WORLD’S END #18-21: In issue #18, Jimmy Olsen gets in touch with Batman and asks him what he knows about someone by the need of Ollie Queen. Batman visits with his grand daughter, who is recovering from her time as one of the Furies of Apokolips. In Atom’s Haven, Sato and Steel find out from jimmy that Sloan had a secret ship and a mission is taking place to steal it. On Apokolips, Darkseid has decided it is time for the world to end and commands that the Terraformer be unleashed. At the same time, the Deathspawn is affecting the Parliament of Earth and is apparently causing the death of the Avatars.
In issue #19, the Deathspawn of Apokolips tries to crack open the Earth to get to its core, leading Green Lantern to try to stop it. In Atom Haven, Sato and Steel learn that the firepits have been reactivated. At the same time, Dick Grayson continues to hunt for his missing son and Ted Grant continues to promise to help. In Amazonia, Doctor Crane gets a rocket off the ground and Fury, Mister Miracle, Mr. Terrific and Sandman head off to save the refugees. Meanwhile, Val, Kara and Lois discover that the Terraformer is preparing to devour the planet. In New York City, Batman and The Huntress search for Oliver Queen but notice that Apokolips is scorching the planet and that means they may not have time to find him.
In issue #20, Green Lantern learns that it is more important for him to tend to the Avatars then to go after Deathspawn so he heads off to Russia. Once there, he absorbs all of the other Avatars to become super powerful. In New York City, the Huntress and Batman manage to get an old computer to work and tell them where Ollie Queen is before the city goes down in flames. This leads them to a structure in the North Sea. Beneath Atom’s Haven, Dick and Ted battle with Jonni Thunder and Obsidian as they try to locate Brainwave. Aboard the TSS Endurance, the team continues their space voyage only to discover that Terry Sloan is on-board, suggesting they all need to work together.
In issue #21, the satellite battles Kara, Val and Lois while it continues to mulch the planet. In the North Sea, Oliver Queen, known as the Red Arrow, meets with Batman and The Huntress and reveals that the original Batman entrusted him with a box containing all the DNA and history of Earth 2. In Atom’s Haven, it seems Brainwave is in the process of taking control of anyone and everyone, declaring himself Savior of the Earth. On the TSS Endurance, Sloan manages to crash the ship into Apokolips as part of his master plan.
The end is near, literally and figuratively. Daniel Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, Mike Johnson, and Cullen Bunn provide the story while Scott McDaniel, Eddy Barrows, R. B. Silva, Eduardo Pansica, Jorge Jimenez and Tyler Kirkham give us the art for this next to last batch of tales. It sure looks like Earth 2 will be gone sooner than later. But what if Red Arrow brings his little DNA box to a new home. Does that mean they can start again on a NEW PLANET? Stay tuned, folks.
THE FLASH #39: Iris continues to investigate how the Flash has changed and is pressing Patty for information. Meanwhile, Barry from the future continues to look at clues that will help him find the murderer known as Overload and finds a link in the form of horse hair on the victims. In the Speed Force, Barry gets grabbed by a giant robotic flying dinosaur. Barry gets saved by Selkirk and the Singers, then they proceed to the temple to the Speed Force. Selkirk knocks him unconscious as they plan to use Barry as the lightning rod that will call down the Speed Force. Back at Central City, the Flash spots Overload and attacks him, saying how this attack was responsible for killing 207 people. He promises to kill Overload, which is overheard by Patty and Iris. Patty tries to stop him and he accidentally tosses her away, dislocating her shoulder. The mayor activates a WiFi the signal towers, which allows Overload to channel that energy into the Flash. At the same time, the Speed Force is called down to strike his past self.
So, all I really want to know is how Robert Venditti, Van Jensen and Brett Booth manage to tie up all these loose ends in just one more issue. I mean, let’s look at everything happening here. Our Barry is being used to call down the Speed Force. The Future Barry is in the present and ready to kill a potential mass murderer. Patty knows Barry’s identity and Iris doesn’t and…where is Wally during all of this? Question, questions, questions: so little time for answers.
GOTHAM ACADEMY #5: Olive found Killer Croc and asks him where he got a picture of her and her mother. He explains that he knew her because her cell at Arkham was across from his. She had asked him to watch over Olive. Maps arrives and causes Croc to scamper away, leaving the pair to continue exploring the crawlspace. They end up near the North Hall, but it has been blocked by Croc to keep anyone from following him. Later they meet with Pomeline and Colton and plan to clear the package to the North Hall, using the dance that evening as their cover. But Colton reveals they need his bag of tricks that had been confiscated on the first day of classes. That night, they meet up to steal back Colton's gear from Headmaster Hammer's office, which Maps is able to do by solving a puzzle. Gathering a handful of confiscated prizes, Maps and Olive heads outside where Olive accidentally shoots Tristan Grey with her crossbow. Grey reveals that he suffers from Langstrom virus, which means he turns into a Man-Bat. Maps and Olive go inside and use Colton's gear to blast into the North Hall. Olive tells Croc that they brought him food and he tells her that he came here because her mother told him that Arkham and the Academy were connected. That is when Batman arrives on the scene.
Okay…NOW this is getting interesting! Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher and Karl Kerschl have crafted a neat little tale here with some nice little twists and turns. What at first seemed to be an attempt to make this a Tween version of Harry Potter with a non wizard cast has turned into a neat little mystery series with an engaging cast. I never thought I would say it or admit it: I’M REALLY LIKING THIS BOOK!
GOTHAM BY MIDNIGHT #4: Jim Corrigan is drinking with Sgt. Rook when they realize that the bartender is long-dead and a demon calling itself Amodr is coming out of his head. Meanwhile, Dr. Tarr and Detective Drake find that Gotham is filled with dead bodies. Drake crushes some kind of parasite under her foot and it grows tentacles. Corrigan calls Tarr and makes him listen to the ghost language the demon is speaking. Tarr says that the creature is attacking the whole neighborhood. The Spectre comes forth and puts his fist down the throat of the monster. Tarr explains that the creature wants to show Corrigan that the city needs to be judged and now that judgment is loose in the form of The Spectre. Tarr fears that when the Spectre meets the creatures rising from the swamp, the burst of mystical will destroy the city.
Following CONVERGENCE, Ben Templesmith exits this title to be replaced by Juan Ferreyra. Personally, I am totally amazed that DC is letting this book continue as I am pretty sure the numbers are not among the top tier and DC has been cutting titles loose based on poor sales. I love Ray Fawkes writing and have always had a warm spot for Templesmith’s art. But I know that most comic fans, at least those I have talked with, don’t care for these characters, and truly want a Spectre book. Sorry, this is thes best you’re gonna get any time soon.
GRAYSON #7: Agent 37 is missing as the Fist of Cain prepares to attack Tel-Aviv. Minos tells Matron she needs to make retrieving the Paragon's brain her Number One priority. Dr. Ashemore uploads files to Helena revealing that he is being held prisoner by Midnighter, who has put Dick’s implant into his own head. While he tries to convince Midnighter that he needs to let him go to Tel-Aviv, the Gardener appears to Dick even as Helena’s Hypnos shows what is happening there. Midnighter tells the Gardener that he now believes Dick is telling the truth. The attack is scheduled to occur during a concert by Sin by Silence, where the band is actually the front for Fist of Cain. As a psychic attack breaks out, Dick and Midnighter arrive with Midnighter handling crowd control and Dick rescuing Helena. With a kiss, she sends him off to get the brain. Helena rescues an elderly man only to discover he is the leader of the Fist of Cain. As he attempts to strangle her, Minos kills him with a single bullet to the head. Later, Dick Helena tells Dick that her memory has gaps in it and she doesn’t remember the kiss they shared. Off on the God Garden, Midnighter states his anger about how the Gardener allowed her agenda to be more important than lives and leaves.
I have said it before: this is the coolest spy book since the early S.H.I.E.L.D. issues were
being published. Tim Seeley, Tom King and Stephen Mooney (filling in for Mikel Janin) continue to make this a ride and a half. Now, what I want to know is who Mister Minos is and when are we going top find this out. The good news is that this creative team remains in tact after CONVERGENCE so we may have this mystery hanging over our heads for some time.
GREEN ARROW #39: Felicity gets arrested for hacking the government’s servers where she is sent to a Supermax facility and sharing a cell with Cheetah. Cheetah promises to take revenge on her cellmate as soon as the lights go out. Oliver confronts his girlfriend Zehra, who makes him talk to King, who admits to having Felicity arrested. Zehra admits that she is responsible for making sure King has spared Oliver’s life, forcing Oliver to break up with her. That night, Oliver and Diggle argue over what their priority should be as Oliver plans to break in and get Felicity out. Steve Trevor arranges for Oliver to get past security and tells him he only has three minutes to get the job done. Just as Cheetah is ready to kill Felicity, Oliver rescues her and gets out before the three minutes are up. With Felicity safe, Oliver meets with Diggle and his new army.
As you have already noticed, all of the DC series are in the process of ramping up for the end before CONVERGENCE. Ben Sokolowski, Andrew Kreisberg and Daniel Sampere are at the point where they are completing their run and getting ready to give way to the new creative team of Ben Percy and Richard Zircher. Based on preliminary art that DC has released, there are a few costume changes. How far reaching the creative changes will be during the new era of canon over continuity is anyone’s guess right now. What we do know is that Oliver needs a new girlfriend as his old one sold him out to John King.
GREEN LANTERN #39: The Guardians are concerned as there is a crisis brewing and they feel it may be final. It is urgent enough that Constantine, Shazam, and Raven can feel the vibrations. The Guardians decide that Hal Jordan needs to go to Sector 3276 to stop it although he is trying to help some alien miners that are trapped in an asteroid belt cave-in. On his way to see the Guardians, he meets with Kilowog, who tells him he wants the guardians locked away. The Guardians tell Hal they are pleased with the job he is doing and wants him to bring the Corps back to its’ previous glory. He heads to the locker room, leaves his ring and his father’s pilot jacket in his locker next to his battery.
Robert Venditti and Billy Tan are doing a wonderful job of concluding the story of Hal Jordan. Based on what I am hearing through the comic grapevine, there are MAJOR CHANGES coming to this title after CONVERGENCE involving Hal and his future as a Green Lantern. Apparently, he will still be wielding the power, but not how we expect. June is coming and where this will go, who knows. All I DO KNOW is that Venditti and Tan are continuing on, so I assume their grand plan is a good one.
HARLEY QUINN VALENTINE’S DAY SPECIAL #1: Harley has been driving the captain of the Staten Island Ferry nuts as she has been re-enacting the scene from TITANIC. She sees the Mighty Carp kayaking up the Hudson River collecting samples of fish killed by the polluted waters. In Gotham, Bruce Wayne goes to an auction benefiting an animal shelter where he is set to be auctioned off. Harley wants to go and intends to rob some Wall Street folks who caused the 2008 recession. That night, she dreams of her future with Bruce Wayne but, when he decides he wants thirty-six children, she kills him. Then she dreams of her wedding to Bruce, with Poison Ivy as her Maid of Honor. She goes after Barney Runoff, getting the money she needs. Later, at the auction, Harley gets into a bidding war and reaches her limit of one million one hundred dollars before she strangles her nearest competitor to death. Then the Carp arrives declaring he wants the money. He sprays a puffer fish toxin that causes hallucinations on Tony and Bruce and takes Wayne away. Bruce dreams of waking up next to Harley, who fired Alfred for going through her clothes. They go after Catwoman, but have to clean bat guano off the Batmobile first. He wakes to find the Carp has kidnapped him. Bruce promises promises to give him the money he wants if the Carp unties him. Just as that deal is about to go down, Harley arrives to save him. Later, they go on their date, which they both end early. She begs for a goodnight kiss, which she receives. Back home, Batman, who thanks her for rescuing Bruce Wayne out earlier, visits her. She steals a kiss from him and declares he needs kissing lessons from Bruce Wayne.
Further proof that this character has jumped the shark? Every other month there is an expensive “special” thrown at us. This is just another one. What’s next? The HARLEY QUINN MOTHER’S DAY SPECIAL? Shame on Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, John Timms, Ben Caldwell, Aaron Campbell and Thony Silas for unleashing this upon us. Shame more on me for coughing up five bucks for it. The only highlight was the girls showing up in Bruce’s dream including Julie Madison, Silver St. Cloud, Natalia Trusevich, and Jezebel Jet, among others. Oh yeah: Amanda Conner put herself into it too. Really?
HARLEY QUINN #15: Harley is buying 122 birds and getting food for her dogs. On the way home, she tries to talk to Mason’s mother, but she hangs up on her. She sees a law office on fire and, realizing the fire department won’t get there in time, she races inside where she finds the arsonist known as Tinderbox, who she uses to break the fall of those trapped there. Everyone survives except Tinderbox, who gets squished to death in the process. Returning home, she finds that she mixed up her work schedule but also finds Poison Ivy waiting for her in a bubble-bath. Harley notes how she is too busy trying to stop bad things from happening and doesn’t have time for herself. Mason arrives later with a bouquet of roses and an invite for another date. Once he leaves, Harley and Ivy create an online want-ad seeking twelve "brassy lassies" to help battle crime and make the world better. This leads to a number of women believing this is the job for them.
Let me just say that the whole media frenzied world got their panties in a bunch when Catwoman was deemed to be bisexual but no one bothered to freak out when Harley decided to spend two-thirds of a page on top of Ivy. Here’s some of the dialogue:
Ivy: Is that your hand?
Harley: Is that yours?
Ivy: I asked first…are you gonna get off?
Harley: Are you?
Ivy: I’m not the one on top of me. Stop fooling around!
Harley: Aw, REALLY?
Oh…did I forget to mention the shot on the last page of one of the potential assistants eating a sandwich in a really obscene looking way? Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti wrote it, Chad Hardin drew most of it except for the five pages John Timms drew. Yeah…shark jumping time kids!
Greg Pak and Scott Kolins do a nice job of ending what I thought was an overly long story arc. But they end it on a really good note as we find out that the baddie in this story was the Ultra Humanite! Very cool! So, from here, we have one more issue and then CONVERGENCE and then…let’s see what changes happen. Rumor has it the Big Blue Boy Scout is going to be wearing his undies on the outside again!
AQUAMAN #39: Aquaman and Mera finally get to meet Arthur’s mother and she refuses to believe it. She says her first child was dead and, since Arthur wears the crest, she assumes Orm must be dead too. Defeating him, it is decided to take he and Mera as sacrifices to Karaku the Volcano God. But Aquaman has been feigning unconsciousness and throws the servant who was guarding him into the fiery pit. Mera, Arthur and Atlanna’s assistant Lenu make their escape, as the assistant says that she is sure Atlanna knows the truth but won’t accept it. They get pursued and things look bleak until Tula and Neol arrive to save them. Unfortunately, the Volcano God is awake and pretty angry.
It all ends next month. So, this is truly the beginning of the end. Will Arthur and his mother have reconciliation? Will she give up this kingdom to go back to Atlantis? Will he and Mera stay here? Jeff Parker and Paul Pelletier aren’t saying. Tune in next issue.
AQUAMAN AND THE OTHERS #10: While Vostok struggles to forget the memories of his childhood, the launch codes are being sent to Cheshire and company. Ya’wara may be dead in the water but Mera fishes her out while Cole stops Korec from leaving the ship and forces Torrez to force Korec out of his body, killing him. It seems that the Operative also sent the wrong launch codes to the bad guys, thanks to The Others, which means they got infected with a virus instead. They get transported to an island where both teams brawl until it becomes evident that they have launched the missile, even if they don’t care where it lands. If The Others can’t stop it, the results will be “catastrophic”.
Welcome to the penultimate issue of this series, courtesy of Dan Jurgens and Lan Medina. So, all our heroes have to do is take down the bad guys, stop the missile and make sure that Vostok finds himself. For this team: a piece of cake
ARKHAM MANOR #5: While Jeremiah Arkham tells his staff they may have to evacuate, Batman is in the walls trying to stop the murderer living here. Batman beats him and tosses him through the wall into the snow outside. He is unmasked and, when Batman demands to know who he is, the man bites his own tongue off. One of the guards tells him was one of the workmen who transformed Wayne Manor into Arkham. Although there are four prisoners unaccounted for, including “Jack Shaw”, Batman feels Seth Wickham may have gone home. When Batman arrives, the smell from inside tells him he is too late to save Wickham’s family.
So, batman has an acute sense of smell that tells him Seth Wickham has killed his family? Wow! He could take that act on the road! This is another quirky chapter from Gerry Duggan and Shawn Crystal that ends next issue. How it all turns out is anyone’s guess but, considering this title is NOT returning after CONVERGENCE, I would have to guess that Wayne Manor will be Wayne Manor again and Arkham will be rebuilt. Or maybe none of this ever happened because of CONVERGENCE.
BATGIRL #39: Burnside has decided that Batgirl is no longer their hero of choice. She meets with Qadir, restocking her armaments and wondering in there is another Batgirl out there. At home, she finds Frankie trying to fix issues with Hooq, which currently has been hacked and has an ad offering 20 million dollars for Batgirl's head. The next day, she meets with Professor Krupke, telling him she has changed her thesis. Later, she goes to see Dinah’s band at their rehearsal, apologizing for her recent actions. Dinah doesn’t have time to talk but tells Barbara that, whatever her problem is, she will find a way to beat it. That night, she hears a mugging below her apartment and ends up being saved by Dinah, as this was only a trick to try to cash in on the bounty. Dinah suggests a meeting to talk about their possibly teaming together again. The next morning they meet and spar, with Barbara saying how she is concerned that maybe she is causing her own troubles. They go to Barbara’s apartment to find Sevin there and Frankie missing. They find her phone and discover a message from someone who tells Barbara to rescue Frankie. That night, Dinah and Batgirl go to the Hooq building and make their way inside. Getting into the server room, they find Frankie, who has discovered that Babs is Batgirl. But a voice from the computer declares she is NOT Batgirl and that the real Batgirl is coming back to take what is hers.
Yeah…I really dislike where this book has gone. BUT, there is hope in the form of the current issue of SECRET ORIGINS which has a Batgirl origin that ties in to the whole thought of the computer having a conscious. I would like to think that all of this, even though the creative team of Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher and Babs Tarr, would change following CONVERGENCE. My FEAR is that even though this book is bringing female readers into comic stores, it’s going to be like TWILIGHT: a year from now, they will all have moved onto some new treat. Can we get Gail Simone back?
BATMAN #39: Batman meets with the Court of Owls, who tell him that the Dionesium they found was not as pure as what is in the Joker's blood. He warns them that The Joker will burn the city down and, pointing to a model in the ceiling, tell him to let him, as they will have anew city rise on top of the old. Batman blows the model up with an explosive Batarang. Next he battles Talon Uriah Boone, demanding to know if the Joker was alive four hundred years ago. Later, he emerges from the sewers victorious. He contacts Julia to discover that the Joker had entered the Batcave, only to be caught by Alfred as he tried to steal the Red Hood. He then chopped off the butler’s hand with a meat cleaver and stole a number of trophies. The Joker then broadcasts on every screen in the city, daring Batman to come and take the Dionesium from his spine. Batman tells his allies, including some of his greatest enemies, that they need to collect the Dionesium from the Joker to be able to create a cure. As they battle the infected on their way towards him the Joker promises that his best trick yet is coming.
In the second story, the Arkham prisoners bring Dr. Zaheer to the Marquis Publishing Group offices, where she had made her book deal to tell the Joker’s life story. She explains that the Joker is William Distal who, when he was sixteen, ran away to the Narrows and faked his own death during Zero Year. The inmates are outraged forcing her to lock herself in a room with the man she believed to be Eric Border, who is actually the Joker. It was he who fill in all the blank parts of her manuscript and admits that it was only a story, just as he had told all the rest. He gives her a gun with five bullets and says it is up to her to figure out which of the six stories is true and then gives the sixth bullet to her. He disappears just as the door opens and six shots are fired.
Well, I guess Alfred isn’t Batman’s right hand man anymore! I never saw that coming and I wonder where we go from here! Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo set things in motion for the final act in this drama before CONVERGENCE. And, as always, it is a page turner to say the least. The second story by James Tynion IV and Dustin Nguyen does a nice job of wrapping that up. So, who is the Joker? Has be lived longer than we ever guessed? And will anyone in Gotham live long enough to find out. This title is amazing and I cannot wait 30 days for the conclusion!
BATMAN AND ROBIN #39: Robin is using his powers to take down some of Batman’s enemies, but is being reckless about it, which is not making his father happy. Later, Bruce takes his son out fishing and chastises him about what he was doing and Damian tells him that he experienced a hiccup in his powers. He also says he wants to go home, tosses his fishing pole into the water, skewers a fish and carries the boat back to Wayne Manor. Several nights later, Damian again behaves recklessly, forcing Batman to force him to go to the Satellite, where he is unimpressed with Superman and Shazam. While there, a distress call comes in that would send the team to Ghost Island. Batman lets Damian lead the way.
Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason do a nice job here of showing that unique relationship between Batman and Damian. The boy has definitely become power hungry…actually, that’s not right. He has becomes so enamored with his powers, he believes he is invincible. Bruce is just trying to make certain he doesn’t lose him again. Of course, this title ends with CONVERGENCE and Damian gets his own gig, written and illustrated by Gleason.
BATMAN ETERNAL #44-47: In issue #44, Maggie Sawyer finds out that the Arkham Asylum inmates all the blame Professor for what is going on. He is at Gotham International Airport when he is spotted by police officers. He throws down a vial of chemicals that causes insanity. Batman arrives and subdues him but, while he tries to help the victims, Milo escapes, only to be defeated by the Batplane. Batman wants to know had him do what he did at Arkham. But, before he can answer, they are attacked by spirits. Meanwhile, Lucas Fox is trying to repair his Batwing Suit by using Nth Metal to repel the spirits. And Harper catches Stephanie trying to escape and will taser her if she has to.
In issue #45, Batman finds himself being attacked by ghosts of his parents, while Milo is being attacked by demons of his own including Mister Bygone. Fighting off the ghosts, Batman attends to Milo, but GCPD forces him to throw a flash-bang grenade and escape with Milo. Batwing has found a way to get rid of his ghosts when Jim Corrigan arrives, apologizing for what happened at Arkham. Jim then gets a call from Batman, looking for help regarding a book that Milo had with him. When Batwing and Jim arrive at the cemetery to meet Batman, Corrigan stops Milo from summoning a demon. The book was a trap that allowed Blackfire to open a hole into hell. Batman returns to the cave where he and Julia determine the person responsible is Ra's al Ghul. Meanwhile, Stephanie tells Harper she believes Bruce Wayne and Batman are responsible for the troubles in Gotham and can’t trust him.
In issue #46, Poison Ivy is living in a green house outside Gotham until the troubles are over. Meanwhile, Batman is near Karachi and fighting the League of Assassins. Ra's tells him he is not responsible, but does know who is. He has created a mystery, asking the question “is Batman Eternal”. He sends Batman through a dorrway where Batman sees Ra's in a hospital bed. He has been here ever since he was thrown into the ravine at Nanda Parbat. He says he too received an invitation to break Batman and Gotham, but had destroyed it. Elsewhere, Selina Kyle goes to Blackgate to pay her father a visit, where he swears he has done nothing to endanger what she or the family has done. She tells him that he needs to find out who is responsible. Later, Rex discovers that someone is giving gifts to Gotham's worst criminals.
In issue #47, Alfred finally wakes from his nightmares and is told by Hush that Julia has gone out. She has answered a Bat-Signal call, meeting with Selina, who gives her the file she planned to give to Batman herself. It contains the list of the weapons that have made their way to Batman’s enemies. Speaking of Batman, he calls Alfred and informs him that they were wrong about Ra’s. Meanwhile, Scarecrow and Clayface plan to unleash their plans only to be stopped by Batwing and Red Robin. Bluebird tracks down Mister Freeze while Batgirl goes to find the owner of the shipment of Kewpie Dolls, expecting to find Joker's Daughter. Jason ends up in a dive bar, where he sees Bane fighting in a Luchador ring. In the Batcave, the lights go out and hush finds both Julia and Alfred knocked unconscious by a guest he invited in. Alfred finds hush released and Julia shot out of the cave into Gotham River in an escape pod. Hush activates the emergency override on the Batplane, causing it to crash. Meanwhile, Cullen watches Stephanie use Harper's computer to contact Vicki Vale.
The countdown to issue #52 continues and we STILL don’t know who is behind all of this. The list of suspects keeps getting shorter and I thought sure it would finally be revealed as Ra’s. I mean, who else hates Batman this much? Joker? Seriously-WHO’S LEFT? Ray Fawkes, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Kyle Higgins, and Tim Seeley gives us the story while ACO, Javi Fernandez, Alessandro Vitti, Christian Duce, Ronan Cliquet and Juan Ferreyra handle the art. Five issues to go…
BATMAN SUPERMAN #19: Dr. Ray Palmer has shrunk Batman and Superman down small enough so they can make their way into Kandor and attack the tower. Once inside, Kara and Superman discover vandalism using the crest of the House of El. Accidentally stepping on a device that recognizes his genetic code, Superman discovers that his aunt and grandmother, Mara and Dame Kela-Van, lived on Kandor and he hopes they survived Krypton’s destruction. It says that Jor-El framed Xa-Du and Kal-El imprisoned the city in the bottle. A group of soldiers see Superman and one of them commits suicide, leading Batman to realize the whole place is a trap. If they attack the tower, Xa-Du will kill Mara and Kela. Superman and Kara destroy the tunnel that has been firing the Kandorians like bullets while Batman made his way to the control room to free the Kandorians. Superman discovers that Xa-Du is responsible for all of this. He reveals that Kara’s family has been afflicted with his living death and is ready to fight for him.
So, why didn’t I see this? Xa-Du is The Joker in Superman’s mythos. It makes perfect sense, as Xa-Du has had an axe to grind with the House of El since Jor-El stuck him in the Phantom Zone. This was a nice plot twist that I really didn’t seen coming. Kudos all around to Greg Pak and Ardian Syaf for this one!
BATWOMAN #39: Beth Kane, insisting to be called Red Alice, is at Kate’s apartment where she comments how she is surprised to see Kate with Nocturna instead of Maggie. This leads Nocturna to become angry, causing the two to trade insults. Beth tells Natalia that she knows crazy. While Kate and Beth go out on patrol, Maggie goes to Natalia’s to discuss the murder of Alex Witherspoon. Kate receives a call from Rory. Who is trying to convince Clayface that his amnesia is his chance to start fresh. Meanwhile, Jason Blood goes to his apartment where Morgaine le Fey is waiting for him and says she has captured Etrigan. Jason claims he has no memory of her, which prompts le fay to through him aside and take the stone she has been seeking. Batwoman and Red Alice join Ragman and Clayface, just as Morgaine throws Jason out of his apartment window. Morgaine escapes, leaving the heroes to free Etrigan, who explains that Morgaine is more powerful than before now that she possesses the stone. Morgaine heads to Slaughter Swamp where she uses the stone to raise the dead and creates her demon army.
Marc Andreyko and Georges Jeanty move us closer to the end of the series with this issue that gives us Morgaine leFay. Morgaine? Okay…this is the NEW 52 after all. And I believe this is the first modern world appearance of Jason Blood, who has now knowledge of his past. Or at least Morgaine’s past. And what about that steamy kiss between Natalia and Kate. Don’t see CNN talking about that now, do ya?
CATWOMAN #39: Because of Ascolat, which is run by Aiden Mason(who has claimed to be Selina’s brother), Black Mask has ceased territory from her and the united crime families, specifically land near the Docks. This leads Selina to donate to the Gotham Free Clinic, the Fine Arts Museum and the Narrows Community Center. Black Mask promises his allies that it is possible to get rid of Selina and they vote unanimously to have her killed. Afterwards, the representative from the Sons of Forster Lane called Detective Keys to report the attempted murder, which was yet to occur. At the announcement of the donation, one of Falcone’s men pulls a gun and Bruce Wayne warns her, allowing her to hide behind the podium. By the time Keyes and Antonia reach him, they find that someone else has shot and killed him. Selina worries that they have lost the Falcones to Black Mask, as Ward suggests they declare war. Trying to save her from what is coming, Selina fires Antonia, before she meets in secret with Aiden Mason. He claims he had nothing to do with the assassination attempt and was just trying to set up a deal between Selina and Sionis. Meanwhile, Keyes has Black Mask taken in for questioning, despite her superiors having previously taken her off the case. Eiko’s father reminds her that when the war comes, they will be against the Calabreses, no matter if she cares for Selina or not. She immediately goes to Selina dressed as Catwoman to warn her about the upcoming war. Selina kisses her. Later, Black Mask warns Mason to apply more pressure to their inside person in the GCPD and then has to eat crow as he learns he has been bailed out by The Penguin. Falcone’s nephew is sent to apologize to Selina but she holds onto him, telling Ward to let Black Mask arrange to send Mason to come and get him.
Oooooh: there’s THE KISS! This one panel kiss sent shock waves through Mainstream America as all the news outlets declared “Catwoman is bisexual”. If anyone bothered to read the two panels that came after, “Catwoman” asks if the kiss was for her or the suit, to which Selina replies that she didn’t know, but if she survives it, it might be “nice to find out.” Okay: so she MAY BE bisexual. This was a great story by Genevieve Valentine that is filled with all sorts of little plot points that build into one big, complex picture. However, I am still not a huge fan of the quirky art of Garry Brown, so that was a down point in the issue. And Mainstream America: GET OVER YOURSELVES! What the hell are you going to do when Midnighter gets HIS own series in a few months?
CONSTANTINE #22: The family and friends of the John Constantine he just killed are attacking our John Constantine. Doctor Fate warns that he needs to help Constantine with maintaining the spell. Doctor Fate ties the family to The Bleed, although the mother is lost into the Bleed. John's spell sends them into The Green where they find Parademons attacking the Parliament of Trees. John's father realizes they won’t be going after his mother ands threatens to kill Constantine, who explains that if he dies, they all die. Doubling over in agony, Constantine realizes his invisibility spell has failed and Darkseid knows where they are. The Mad God Darkseid says that even though they have reached Earth, he can follow them, Constantine cuts loose the people he saved, allowing them to drop into Darkseid's clutches, hoping their sacrifice will give him the power he needs to pull off one final trick.
Ray Fawkes and Jeremy Haun prove that, despite him having had a movie and a television series, John Constantine is still a miserable bastard who would do anything to save his miserable soul. He’s killed himself, his “mother” and about half the cast of the last few issues. You rotten bastard! See you in Hell…or the next issue!
DEATHSTROKE #5: Deathstroke and Batman are in a battle because of Harley Quinn, who is looking for revenge for what happened with the Suicide Squad in Russia. Harley heads off to collect the bounty on Slade’s son Jericho and leaves them with a bomb that buries them in rubble. When she goes back to check on her handiwork, Slade reaches up from the rubble and grabs her by the throat. She tells him his daughter Rose has been working for the Penguin and Jericho is with her., taking down his enemies to make ends meet. Jericho is with her.
Meanwhile, Jericho tells his sister that he can’t control his power and doesn't trust their father. She has brought him to see a man named Possum who Slade had been contracted to kill in Russia. Jericho says that he can sense evil on Possum who proceeds to activates a sound on his phone which renders him immobile. Rose cuts Possum to pieces and her grandfather appears, telling her that Jericho can't hurt anyone anymore.
Tony S. Daniel turns in another great looking action filled issue here. When the series resumes after CONVERGENCE, Daniel will continue on it. And hopefully DC won’t mess with it. I love the action and there is just enough pure blood and guts to make it a guilty pleasure title. While I still am getting used to Slade having two good eyes, I wonder which Slade we will see come June. We may even see the one from television. Either way, I’m stoked for more adventures with DC’s answer to The Punisher(oh…was that unfair?)
DETECTIVE COMICS #39: Batman, hiding in the back of Bullock’s back seat, admits they both know that he didn’t kill Lonnie but Yip did. They agree that they need to work together to stop Anarky and the anti-police sentiment going on. Two days earlier, Bruce had visited Lonnie at the Gotham University Medical Center. The next day, Bruce was trying to figure the connection between the Anarky's masks and the dead children that had been found. But Anarky had erased all county records. Currently, Harvey insists that, despite evidence to the contrary, he is not a dirty cop. Batman is trying to link Jeb Lester to the Mad Hatter. They go to a broken down building known as the "blue house". Inside, they battle with youths wearing Anarky masks, resulting in Harvey getting stabbed in the chest. While Batman battles, Harvey notices a portrait with familiar faces he recognizes. As he begins to lose consciousness, he points out that Jervis Tetch is among the children in the portrait and the girl is his Alice. The Anarky Masks are apparently based on her face. Anarky arrives and pulls the Hatter out of the trunk, telling him it is time for him to die.
Man oh man oh man! Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato are just killing this title as well as Snyder and Capullo are on BATMAN. In fact, all three of the “core” Batman titles are just among some of the best books in the NEW 52 line. So, when it all comes down to it: who is Anarky and what does he/she have to do with these children. The conclusion next month and I cannot wait!
EARTH 2 #31: In Indochina, Doctor Fate uses his power to strike out at Apokolips. He proceeds to the great hall where he encounters Arcanis and her thrall. Nabu decudes that the thrall has more power than Lhakid, so Nabu merges with the thrall. Unftortunately, Nabui quickly realizes this is a bad thing and begs to come back to Khalid. Khalid beheads the thrall and once again claims the helm and destroys the great hall. Meanwhile, in Atlantis, Aquawoman strikes out at the invaders of her kingdom, only to find that she must help the surface world as her oceans are being destroyed too. So she gathers her army and heads to the surface world.
So, this whole issue was just one big letdown. Daniel Wilson, Marguerite Bennett and Mike Johnson, with Andy Smith and Cliff Richards, gave us a one note story that was too much about Nabu being a power hungry jerk and spent an entire issue resolving it. The obvious parallel story is the comparison we were to make between Nabu and Aquawoman. Nabu craves power and Aquawoman wants to hide away from the surface world. Unfortunately, this story could have been handled in about half the length it did. One more issue to go and hopefully it will all tie up nicely, although we all know it won’t end well, I’m sure.
EARTH 2 WORLD’S END #18-21: In issue #18, Jimmy Olsen gets in touch with Batman and asks him what he knows about someone by the need of Ollie Queen. Batman visits with his grand daughter, who is recovering from her time as one of the Furies of Apokolips. In Atom’s Haven, Sato and Steel find out from jimmy that Sloan had a secret ship and a mission is taking place to steal it. On Apokolips, Darkseid has decided it is time for the world to end and commands that the Terraformer be unleashed. At the same time, the Deathspawn is affecting the Parliament of Earth and is apparently causing the death of the Avatars.
In issue #19, the Deathspawn of Apokolips tries to crack open the Earth to get to its core, leading Green Lantern to try to stop it. In Atom Haven, Sato and Steel learn that the firepits have been reactivated. At the same time, Dick Grayson continues to hunt for his missing son and Ted Grant continues to promise to help. In Amazonia, Doctor Crane gets a rocket off the ground and Fury, Mister Miracle, Mr. Terrific and Sandman head off to save the refugees. Meanwhile, Val, Kara and Lois discover that the Terraformer is preparing to devour the planet. In New York City, Batman and The Huntress search for Oliver Queen but notice that Apokolips is scorching the planet and that means they may not have time to find him.
In issue #20, Green Lantern learns that it is more important for him to tend to the Avatars then to go after Deathspawn so he heads off to Russia. Once there, he absorbs all of the other Avatars to become super powerful. In New York City, the Huntress and Batman manage to get an old computer to work and tell them where Ollie Queen is before the city goes down in flames. This leads them to a structure in the North Sea. Beneath Atom’s Haven, Dick and Ted battle with Jonni Thunder and Obsidian as they try to locate Brainwave. Aboard the TSS Endurance, the team continues their space voyage only to discover that Terry Sloan is on-board, suggesting they all need to work together.
In issue #21, the satellite battles Kara, Val and Lois while it continues to mulch the planet. In the North Sea, Oliver Queen, known as the Red Arrow, meets with Batman and The Huntress and reveals that the original Batman entrusted him with a box containing all the DNA and history of Earth 2. In Atom’s Haven, it seems Brainwave is in the process of taking control of anyone and everyone, declaring himself Savior of the Earth. On the TSS Endurance, Sloan manages to crash the ship into Apokolips as part of his master plan.
The end is near, literally and figuratively. Daniel Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, Mike Johnson, and Cullen Bunn provide the story while Scott McDaniel, Eddy Barrows, R. B. Silva, Eduardo Pansica, Jorge Jimenez and Tyler Kirkham give us the art for this next to last batch of tales. It sure looks like Earth 2 will be gone sooner than later. But what if Red Arrow brings his little DNA box to a new home. Does that mean they can start again on a NEW PLANET? Stay tuned, folks.
THE FLASH #39: Iris continues to investigate how the Flash has changed and is pressing Patty for information. Meanwhile, Barry from the future continues to look at clues that will help him find the murderer known as Overload and finds a link in the form of horse hair on the victims. In the Speed Force, Barry gets grabbed by a giant robotic flying dinosaur. Barry gets saved by Selkirk and the Singers, then they proceed to the temple to the Speed Force. Selkirk knocks him unconscious as they plan to use Barry as the lightning rod that will call down the Speed Force. Back at Central City, the Flash spots Overload and attacks him, saying how this attack was responsible for killing 207 people. He promises to kill Overload, which is overheard by Patty and Iris. Patty tries to stop him and he accidentally tosses her away, dislocating her shoulder. The mayor activates a WiFi the signal towers, which allows Overload to channel that energy into the Flash. At the same time, the Speed Force is called down to strike his past self.
So, all I really want to know is how Robert Venditti, Van Jensen and Brett Booth manage to tie up all these loose ends in just one more issue. I mean, let’s look at everything happening here. Our Barry is being used to call down the Speed Force. The Future Barry is in the present and ready to kill a potential mass murderer. Patty knows Barry’s identity and Iris doesn’t and…where is Wally during all of this? Question, questions, questions: so little time for answers.
GOTHAM ACADEMY #5: Olive found Killer Croc and asks him where he got a picture of her and her mother. He explains that he knew her because her cell at Arkham was across from his. She had asked him to watch over Olive. Maps arrives and causes Croc to scamper away, leaving the pair to continue exploring the crawlspace. They end up near the North Hall, but it has been blocked by Croc to keep anyone from following him. Later they meet with Pomeline and Colton and plan to clear the package to the North Hall, using the dance that evening as their cover. But Colton reveals they need his bag of tricks that had been confiscated on the first day of classes. That night, they meet up to steal back Colton's gear from Headmaster Hammer's office, which Maps is able to do by solving a puzzle. Gathering a handful of confiscated prizes, Maps and Olive heads outside where Olive accidentally shoots Tristan Grey with her crossbow. Grey reveals that he suffers from Langstrom virus, which means he turns into a Man-Bat. Maps and Olive go inside and use Colton's gear to blast into the North Hall. Olive tells Croc that they brought him food and he tells her that he came here because her mother told him that Arkham and the Academy were connected. That is when Batman arrives on the scene.
Okay…NOW this is getting interesting! Becky Cloonan, Brenden Fletcher and Karl Kerschl have crafted a neat little tale here with some nice little twists and turns. What at first seemed to be an attempt to make this a Tween version of Harry Potter with a non wizard cast has turned into a neat little mystery series with an engaging cast. I never thought I would say it or admit it: I’M REALLY LIKING THIS BOOK!
GOTHAM BY MIDNIGHT #4: Jim Corrigan is drinking with Sgt. Rook when they realize that the bartender is long-dead and a demon calling itself Amodr is coming out of his head. Meanwhile, Dr. Tarr and Detective Drake find that Gotham is filled with dead bodies. Drake crushes some kind of parasite under her foot and it grows tentacles. Corrigan calls Tarr and makes him listen to the ghost language the demon is speaking. Tarr says that the creature is attacking the whole neighborhood. The Spectre comes forth and puts his fist down the throat of the monster. Tarr explains that the creature wants to show Corrigan that the city needs to be judged and now that judgment is loose in the form of The Spectre. Tarr fears that when the Spectre meets the creatures rising from the swamp, the burst of mystical will destroy the city.
Following CONVERGENCE, Ben Templesmith exits this title to be replaced by Juan Ferreyra. Personally, I am totally amazed that DC is letting this book continue as I am pretty sure the numbers are not among the top tier and DC has been cutting titles loose based on poor sales. I love Ray Fawkes writing and have always had a warm spot for Templesmith’s art. But I know that most comic fans, at least those I have talked with, don’t care for these characters, and truly want a Spectre book. Sorry, this is thes best you’re gonna get any time soon.
GRAYSON #7: Agent 37 is missing as the Fist of Cain prepares to attack Tel-Aviv. Minos tells Matron she needs to make retrieving the Paragon's brain her Number One priority. Dr. Ashemore uploads files to Helena revealing that he is being held prisoner by Midnighter, who has put Dick’s implant into his own head. While he tries to convince Midnighter that he needs to let him go to Tel-Aviv, the Gardener appears to Dick even as Helena’s Hypnos shows what is happening there. Midnighter tells the Gardener that he now believes Dick is telling the truth. The attack is scheduled to occur during a concert by Sin by Silence, where the band is actually the front for Fist of Cain. As a psychic attack breaks out, Dick and Midnighter arrive with Midnighter handling crowd control and Dick rescuing Helena. With a kiss, she sends him off to get the brain. Helena rescues an elderly man only to discover he is the leader of the Fist of Cain. As he attempts to strangle her, Minos kills him with a single bullet to the head. Later, Dick Helena tells Dick that her memory has gaps in it and she doesn’t remember the kiss they shared. Off on the God Garden, Midnighter states his anger about how the Gardener allowed her agenda to be more important than lives and leaves.
I have said it before: this is the coolest spy book since the early S.H.I.E.L.D. issues were
being published. Tim Seeley, Tom King and Stephen Mooney (filling in for Mikel Janin) continue to make this a ride and a half. Now, what I want to know is who Mister Minos is and when are we going top find this out. The good news is that this creative team remains in tact after CONVERGENCE so we may have this mystery hanging over our heads for some time.
GREEN ARROW #39: Felicity gets arrested for hacking the government’s servers where she is sent to a Supermax facility and sharing a cell with Cheetah. Cheetah promises to take revenge on her cellmate as soon as the lights go out. Oliver confronts his girlfriend Zehra, who makes him talk to King, who admits to having Felicity arrested. Zehra admits that she is responsible for making sure King has spared Oliver’s life, forcing Oliver to break up with her. That night, Oliver and Diggle argue over what their priority should be as Oliver plans to break in and get Felicity out. Steve Trevor arranges for Oliver to get past security and tells him he only has three minutes to get the job done. Just as Cheetah is ready to kill Felicity, Oliver rescues her and gets out before the three minutes are up. With Felicity safe, Oliver meets with Diggle and his new army.
As you have already noticed, all of the DC series are in the process of ramping up for the end before CONVERGENCE. Ben Sokolowski, Andrew Kreisberg and Daniel Sampere are at the point where they are completing their run and getting ready to give way to the new creative team of Ben Percy and Richard Zircher. Based on preliminary art that DC has released, there are a few costume changes. How far reaching the creative changes will be during the new era of canon over continuity is anyone’s guess right now. What we do know is that Oliver needs a new girlfriend as his old one sold him out to John King.
GREEN LANTERN #39: The Guardians are concerned as there is a crisis brewing and they feel it may be final. It is urgent enough that Constantine, Shazam, and Raven can feel the vibrations. The Guardians decide that Hal Jordan needs to go to Sector 3276 to stop it although he is trying to help some alien miners that are trapped in an asteroid belt cave-in. On his way to see the Guardians, he meets with Kilowog, who tells him he wants the guardians locked away. The Guardians tell Hal they are pleased with the job he is doing and wants him to bring the Corps back to its’ previous glory. He heads to the locker room, leaves his ring and his father’s pilot jacket in his locker next to his battery.
Robert Venditti and Billy Tan are doing a wonderful job of concluding the story of Hal Jordan. Based on what I am hearing through the comic grapevine, there are MAJOR CHANGES coming to this title after CONVERGENCE involving Hal and his future as a Green Lantern. Apparently, he will still be wielding the power, but not how we expect. June is coming and where this will go, who knows. All I DO KNOW is that Venditti and Tan are continuing on, so I assume their grand plan is a good one.
HARLEY QUINN VALENTINE’S DAY SPECIAL #1: Harley has been driving the captain of the Staten Island Ferry nuts as she has been re-enacting the scene from TITANIC. She sees the Mighty Carp kayaking up the Hudson River collecting samples of fish killed by the polluted waters. In Gotham, Bruce Wayne goes to an auction benefiting an animal shelter where he is set to be auctioned off. Harley wants to go and intends to rob some Wall Street folks who caused the 2008 recession. That night, she dreams of her future with Bruce Wayne but, when he decides he wants thirty-six children, she kills him. Then she dreams of her wedding to Bruce, with Poison Ivy as her Maid of Honor. She goes after Barney Runoff, getting the money she needs. Later, at the auction, Harley gets into a bidding war and reaches her limit of one million one hundred dollars before she strangles her nearest competitor to death. Then the Carp arrives declaring he wants the money. He sprays a puffer fish toxin that causes hallucinations on Tony and Bruce and takes Wayne away. Bruce dreams of waking up next to Harley, who fired Alfred for going through her clothes. They go after Catwoman, but have to clean bat guano off the Batmobile first. He wakes to find the Carp has kidnapped him. Bruce promises promises to give him the money he wants if the Carp unties him. Just as that deal is about to go down, Harley arrives to save him. Later, they go on their date, which they both end early. She begs for a goodnight kiss, which she receives. Back home, Batman, who thanks her for rescuing Bruce Wayne out earlier, visits her. She steals a kiss from him and declares he needs kissing lessons from Bruce Wayne.
Further proof that this character has jumped the shark? Every other month there is an expensive “special” thrown at us. This is just another one. What’s next? The HARLEY QUINN MOTHER’S DAY SPECIAL? Shame on Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, John Timms, Ben Caldwell, Aaron Campbell and Thony Silas for unleashing this upon us. Shame more on me for coughing up five bucks for it. The only highlight was the girls showing up in Bruce’s dream including Julie Madison, Silver St. Cloud, Natalia Trusevich, and Jezebel Jet, among others. Oh yeah: Amanda Conner put herself into it too. Really?
HARLEY QUINN #15: Harley is buying 122 birds and getting food for her dogs. On the way home, she tries to talk to Mason’s mother, but she hangs up on her. She sees a law office on fire and, realizing the fire department won’t get there in time, she races inside where she finds the arsonist known as Tinderbox, who she uses to break the fall of those trapped there. Everyone survives except Tinderbox, who gets squished to death in the process. Returning home, she finds that she mixed up her work schedule but also finds Poison Ivy waiting for her in a bubble-bath. Harley notes how she is too busy trying to stop bad things from happening and doesn’t have time for herself. Mason arrives later with a bouquet of roses and an invite for another date. Once he leaves, Harley and Ivy create an online want-ad seeking twelve "brassy lassies" to help battle crime and make the world better. This leads to a number of women believing this is the job for them.
Let me just say that the whole media frenzied world got their panties in a bunch when Catwoman was deemed to be bisexual but no one bothered to freak out when Harley decided to spend two-thirds of a page on top of Ivy. Here’s some of the dialogue:
Ivy: Is that your hand?
Harley: Is that yours?
Ivy: I asked first…are you gonna get off?
Harley: Are you?
Ivy: I’m not the one on top of me. Stop fooling around!
Harley: Aw, REALLY?
Oh…did I forget to mention the shot on the last page of one of the potential assistants eating a sandwich in a really obscene looking way? Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti wrote it, Chad Hardin drew most of it except for the five pages John Timms drew. Yeah…shark jumping time kids!
Thursday, March 5, 2015
THE MUTLIVERSITY MASTERMEN #1 Reviewed
In 1938, Adolf Hitler has been told of a special rocket recovered from the Sudetenland. He goes to the lab where it ended up and is told there was an indestructible boy inside, causing Hitler to proclaim him the "übermensch". Seventeen years later, Overman is leading the German army as it conquers Washington DC: the day where it is said Uncle Sam died. Sixty years later, Overman wakes from a nightmare on the anniversary of Overgirl's death. At the memorial, Overman and the New Reichsmen dedicate an eternal flame. The narrator of the story, Jürgen Olsen, remarks that he will discover Overman's crime and betray him some day. Uncle Sam arrives and blows out the flame, as a man in a protective suit detonates a suicide bomb that brings down the memorial. Back at their headquarters, the Reichsmen discuss the terrorist’s agenda, based on what the Nazis did in the past. Brunnhilde comments how English is a dead language and the terrorists have weapons from a parallel universe. The bomber, who survived the explosion, has been tortured by Leatherwing and has given up information about the terrorists. Overman mulls over the fact that he continues to try to create a utopia on the world which causes Brunnhilde to tell him she will no longer be his nursemaid. On Ellis Island, Uncle Sam is giving a speech when he meets a group of super-powered followers. A Nazi scientist by the name of Herr Doktor Sivana says these are Freedom Fighters. The next day Overman gives an interview to Olsen where he says they have the bomber in custody. That night, Overman’s wife tells him she thinks ten days of mourning for Overgirl is excessive. She also demands he makes more of a substance from Krypton that has kept her young for the last quarter century, but he says he cannot. At the Eagle's Nest, the Human Bomb escapes and blows holes in the space station before Underwaterman and Leatherwing can get to the teleporter. At the opera festival, Uncle Sam appears and claims he wants to end the fascist empire. Overman tries to catch the Eagle's Nest as it crashes into Metropolis in an effort to end his never-ending battle in the service of a thousand-year Reich. He crawls from the wreckage and kneels in what is left of his city.
Wow! It’s a killer story by Grant Morrison and some really awesome art by Jim Lee. Hey: any comic book that starts with Adolph Hitler sitting on a toilet reading a comic can’t be all bad!
Wow! It’s a killer story by Grant Morrison and some really awesome art by Jim Lee. Hey: any comic book that starts with Adolph Hitler sitting on a toilet reading a comic can’t be all bad!
DC's NEW 52, Month 38, Part 2
JUSTICE LEAGUE 3000 #13: Booster Gold is battling mutated rats while Blue Beetle battles a fat pretender to his uniform and his gadgets. Sheriff Tariq arrives to save the day and formerly introduce the new Blue Beetle to the original one. Up on Camelot Nine, Terri tries to adjust to life as The Flash while a disfigured Lois lane watches the proceedings. Wonder Woman sends The Flash off to investigate the ice castle and inside they find that the ice queen is Tora Olafsdotter-Ice from the Justice League. She begins to tell how she survived all these years to Superman, Wonder Woman and The Flash as Etrigan and his minions watch through a magic pool. He gives the order: bring him the woman named Fire.
Talk about putting the band back together! This is awesome! We have reborn and rebooted versions of Superman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Batman. We have the resurrected Booster Gold and his bromance buddy Blue Beetle. Lois Lane is creeping around while Etrigan plots and plans. Now we introduce Ice and it looks like her gal pal Fire isn’t too far behind. Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis and Howard Porter: Keep doing that voodoo that you do so well! This title rocks!
JUSTICE LEAGUE #38: Although Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Lex Luthor are looking for Patient Zero so they can stop the Amazo virus, Batman has been infected and is already at stage two. He uses his new found powers to take down Patient Zero, but collapses telling Superman that Luthor can’t be trusted. Meanwhile, Luthor has survived an attack by an assassin named Bullet thanks to Captain Cold. Later, Lex wakes Neutron and demands to know who wants to kill him. If he doesn’t talk, he will let him die from radiation poisoning. Superman and Wonder Woman arrive with Batman and Patient Zero. The victims of the virus begin whispering the word "us". Luthor discovers that Patient Zero is as sick as everyone else and can’t use his blood to make the cure. He needs the blood of Superman, who he infected with the virus four years ago. Lex insists he had no intention of letting the virus out and had only planned on using it on Superman and Supergirl. Lex will help find a cure as long as he gets immunity from prosecution. Suddenly, the infected Justice League members blast their way in and claim that they are now the dominant species.
Things continue to look grim for our band of heroes, especially since the Amazo virus has infected most of them. Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok continue to do a nice turn on this title, although I am curious to see how this all wraps up in time for CONVERGENCE. And then, I am curious to see how that will affect the future of this team. And really: how slimy IS Lex Luthor? And he’s a member of the League? Couldn’t we just get one fo the magic folks in the NEW 52 Universe to show up and mind wipe him?
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #38: When last we saw half of the team, they had escaped the end of the world by sailing into the void. Nightmare Nurse’ magic is weakening and that could mean the ship being destroyed. The Green offers to help them and huge vines carry them away. In the Kingdom of Now, Madame Xanadu’s companions tell her that something broke through the barrier near The Beyond. Xanadu casts a spell to protect them from it. Meanwhile, Zatanna has discovered the World Tree that will help her get the team home if she allows it to learn about her. To do so, it shoves a root through her chest. When she wakes, Nightmare Nurse and the rest are standing over her. They explain to her that they have been gone for days although to her, they have been gone for years. The magic makes each of them dream of the things they want the most but the Tree tells them that their job is to save creation. It releases pods that send out enough wood to rebuild the House of Mystery. As they travel, Deadman informs them that they have reached the source of all time in all universes. It’s called the Heart of Chronos but it is cracking from the creatures that have been attacking it. Zatanna tries to heal it and destory the creatures. She reveals that she has nothing to lose since she has wiped her romance with Constantine from his mind. But her magic goes all wrong and the cracks gets bigger.
I so wish this journey would end soon because this long strange trip is becoming way too long and way too strange. This issue by J. M. DeMatteis and Andres Guinaldo, which was available with a nice 75th Anniversary FLASH variant cover by Kelley Jones, does its’ best to make a boring trip turn into an exciting one but fails miserably. They all get back together in the rebuilt House of Mystery (isn’t it amazing that they find a tree that can magically rebuild the House so they can go home?) and head off to save the universe until Zatanna screws everything up. Just remember: CONVERGENCE is coming and we can all hope that it will make things on this team better..
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNITED #8: The Infinity Wraiths have reached Earth as the Legion tries to evacuate the big cities of Earth. Dream Girl orders them to the Time Institute to come to the 21st Century and stop Infinitus where Byth is trying turn Ultra into Infinitus. Ultra has decided for himself to see what’s on the other side of the rift. Supergirl chases Byth’s ship and passes through the rift. Unfortunately, this is causing the rift to collapse on itself and begin to disappear.
Oh this title is running out of steam! I love Jeff Lemire’s writing and have become a big fan of Neil Edwards. But this book hasn’t decided if it’s going to be an illegitimate Justice League book or a reborn Legion of Superheroes book. Personally, I’ll take the latter, as long as the right creative team is on it and it hearkens back to the classic Legion and not the rehashed one we had prior to and at the start of the NEW 52.
KLARION #4: With Zell and Klarion being attacked by Witchhunters, he jumps into Beelzebub’s car which opens up a portal and they get away with Klarion driving and guns blazing. Zell and the robot dog with her get sucked in behind them. Beelzebub takes Klarion to meet Swag gives our hero a stiff drink as they make a deal over future-tech. Back in New York City, Piper and Noah fly around to see how their Buddybots are adjusting to life in the Big City. Later, Noah, Piper and Agent Moody, bust into Klarion’s Pocket to save Zell and Klarion from Beelzebub and Swag. Klarion sees four possible endings to all of this. He eats a swagbot and becomes wicked powerful.
I have previously said that I really don’t know what this book is about. And I still don’t! How bad is it? Klarion, while getting drunk with Beelzebub and Skag sees Zell walks in and paraphrases the classic line from CASABLANCA by saying: “of all the gin joints in the Multiverse she had to walk into mine?” Honestly-this is THE BEST Ann Nocenti can come up with? The art this issue is by Fabrizio Fiorentino and is too angular and boring to make the already confusing story any better. This is a such a mess and not even a hot one!
LOBO #4: Superman has stopped lobo and his crew from completing their mission to hunt and kill Snake Omega. Superman takes their ship to the baseball stadium where they rehash their last meeting and Superman finds out that the planet has been weaponized to kill some giant space alien. Superman decides to help Lobo save this world even as we get a flashback of Lobo NOT being able to save his own world. They catch up with Snake Omega but Superman won’t let lobo kill him so they rumble and the bad guy gets away. Well, not really because the team planted a bomb on Snake Omega’s ship. Tick…tick…tick…BOOM!
Ugh! Here’s the high points of this book. Reilly Brown’s art except for the flashbacks which are painted by Alison Borges. Yeah-that’s it. Cullen Bunn’s story is…well…it’s a Cullen Bunn story. And this is NOT MY LOBO!
NEW 52: FUTURE’S END #36-39: In issue #36, Amethyst tries to save Frankenstein by bringing him to the Justice League Dark. He weakly tells her that she shouldn’t have brought him to the House of Mystery as the Nth Metal in his blood means his life is ending. Then, with the arrival of Constantine, Amethyst shoves her sword into his chest. Constantine wakes to explain he died again while he slept. He explains to Superman that Smallville was built on evil ground while Midge, speaking for Brainiac, says that Superman’s rocket crashing her may have been a planned occurrence to balance good and evil. Meanwhile, Fifty Sue is underwater looking for the DNA vault. At the same time, the rest of her companions wonder what should be done with her. She arrives, saying she found the vault and teleports it into the room. Terry McGinnis searches for Tim Drake to try and help him stop Brother Eye. Plastique suggests they get to know each other better as Batman watches them. In the Justice League Station, Stormguard argues with Billy Batson about appearing as both Superman and Shazam. Madison Payne, now Firestorm, teleports in asking for their help.
In issue #37, Constantine explains he is an astral projection, which explains how he took a sword to the chest and lived. Amethyst reminds him of how he allowed Parademons into Gemworld, where they killed or captured everyone. He tells them the only way to save Frank is to take him to Castle Frankenstein. On the Justice League Station, Jason tries to get Madison to get one of the transporters wired to duplicate the experiment that caused them to be joined together. But Doctor Yamazake has become Dr. Polaris and calls out Firestorm or he will kill a bus filled with passengers. Stormguard and Superman arrive and stops the attack Back on the Station, the transporter overloads and Madison and Jason are still trapped. In Las Vegas, the DNA lab is so heavy it tears through the side of the skyscraper and crashes to the street below. When Sue realizes this contains the DNA that created her, Mercy uses her death-touch and kills her. Cole asks if Voodoo was in on it and she admits she was. She also says that Justin is safe with Banger and Mash. In mid sentence, Cole, Lana, Sue, and the vault disappear. At Terrifitech, people are already lining up to get their hands on the uSpheres. In New York City, Plastique and Terry are being intimate when Cal returns to find his bar and apartment boarded up. Terry, dressed as Batman, goes to meet him and gets punched in the face for his troubles. That’s when the Batman/Joker cyborg arrives.
In issue #38, The current Batman shows up to face the cyborg but is too late to stop it from grabbing Tim. Terry and Plastique take down the cyborg, Terry explains that he is here to keep Bruce from helping to create the cyborg ruled future. He has Plastique go with Bruce and Tim as he leads the cyborg away. In Metropolis, Stormguard gets trapped by Dr. Polaris but Superman retaliates, tearing apart the containment suit. Firestorm stops him and warns him to let Polaris go. Dispatching Superman, Firestorm rebuilds hiss suit and promises help him if he help her get out of the Firestorm Matrix. She will take him to the Justice League Station so he can restore her and she will let him give that technology to the world. Meanwhile, it seems Fifty Sue is not dead and she has taken Cole, Lana and the DNA vault to the Sahara Desert. Because it contains the DNA of every superhuman, Lana suggests they hide it. Cole insists that Faraday would put their lives at risk to find it and Sue sends Cole to Antarctica to cool off. Over in the Carpathian Mountains, Amethyst drags Frankenstein into Castle Frankenstein, where they are attacked by monsters. That is when Baron Frankenstein arrives to stop their attack.
In issue #39, Madison leads Polaris to the teleporters so he can bring their technology to everyone. They get a signal as their deep space probes gets destroyed, leaving them blind in space. Meanwhile, King Faraday gives Banger and Mash permission to kill Justin but it seems that Justin has just disappeared, ending up with Cole, Lana and Fifty Sue. In Smallville, Clark warns Constantine that he doesn't want to end up in the super-hero world. Midge hears Brainiac's creations calling to her and gets impaled by a stalk of corn. As she dies, she tells Constantine that Brainiac plans to take Manhattan. At Castle Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein offers to save Frank if he joins him as a slave. Frank says he would rather die and Amethyst cuts off Victor's head. Frank begs her to burn the body and asks her if he can write his story.
The countdown is on. The end is near. Heroes are dying, cities will burn and Brainiac looks to change the NEW 52 Universe to his liking. Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, and Keith Giffen join Scot Eaton, Aaron Lopresti, Andy MacDonald, and Patrick Zircher to create this tale. Thirteen issues to go, bringing the total number of issues to 52(of course). And then…?
NEW SUICIDE SQUAD #6: Sage wants off Task Force X but the government isn’t about to let that happen. At a bar, Sage is met by a stranger who claims his company rebuilt Belle Reve and claims he can get Sage what he wants. In China, Harley’s clumsiness has released a bunch of unfinished metahumans that the Chinese were creating. Reverse-Flash tries to place the explosive charges but ruptures his knee in the process. The Man-Bat Commandos arrive to help out, allowing Harley and Boomerang to place the charges. As the team makes their escape, One complete metahuman survives and vows revenge.
Sean Ryan, Tom Derenick, Rob Hunter, Norm Rapamund and Vicente Cifuentes kick out the jams BIG TIME with this issue. Reverse-Flash blows out his knee? OUCH!!! And just where do you get an army of Man-Bats? All in all, this is a fun series and I see how DC is putting an effort into this leading in to the upcoming film. But really: Jared Leto aa The Joker?
RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #38: In Arkham Asylum, a captured Crux has a meeting with a wheelchair-ridden professor who is revealed to be Red Hood. The two battle and Jason takes the worst of it. Some time later, Jason finds himself captured by Crux who thanks Red Hood making him see the error of his ways and contributing to helping him turn his life around. So, with Roy joining the duo, they head off to try and find Starfire. She is currently in parts unknown where her sister Blackfire has arrived to put her out of her misery.
Here we have another average issue from Scot Lobdell and RB Silva. We can only take comfort that there is only two motre issues to go before CONVERGENCE and then this one book becomes TWO as Roy and Jason go their way and Starfire becomes more comic character than ever before.
RED LANTERN #38: Guy Gardner is back on Earth and trying to take care of the devastation caused by Atrocitus. He discovers that the people of Calvin City are infected by this plague of rage that causes people to burn up from the inside. He discovers that he is the causes, so he lets the people of Calvin City take their rage out on him, causing them all to burn up and die.
Landry Q. Walker is the new writer who is replacing Charles Soule on the final three issues of this book and he has not showed me a whole lot here on this issue. J. Calafiore continues to handle the art in his own amazing style and that is the highlight up the book. If this is Guy’s future, then I’m glad to see DC put the fork in it.
SECRET ORIGINS #9: In the first story, Guarav Ghate, the last remaining member of the Sureen, tells the history of the Avatars, especially most recent Avatar of The Green. He tells how the Parliament of Trees had decided to have Alec Holland be their guardian. Anton Arcane, the Avatar of the Rot, tried to eliminate him through an explosion in Holland’s lab. The Parliament used his essence to create the Swamp Thing. Alec Holland was brought back to life and the Green approached to be their avatar. While fighting the Rot, he lost the love of his life to it. Guarav declares Holland to be the most human of all the Avatars.
In the second tale, we get a brief history of Power Girl, who doesn’t know all of her own history herself. One of the great mysteries is how she and her cousin left Krypton at the same time only to arrive on Earth twenty years apart. When she finally landed, Kal took her to his parents in Smallville to raise. When she had grown up, he arranged for her to go to his Fortress of Solitude to be trained and to keep her away from Kaiyo. While he was there, his wife Lois was killed in the first of the attacks from Apokolips. She came out of the Fortress to help the battle, but was too late to save her cousin. With the Wonders of the World dwindling down to just Batman, Helena, and Kara, the two girls entered a Boom Tube and ended up on this world. She started a firm and became very wealthy, plus she began a relationship with Michael Holt. She and Helena became super-heroes, even while Kara’s people worked on a machine to get them home. When they were ready to leave, Kara committed her powers to her protege, Tanya Spears, who became the new Power Girl. Kara and Helena returned home to engage in the war to try and save their world.
In the last tale, we see how John Stewart had been involved with peaceful protests in Detroit before eventually joining the Marine Corps to pay for college. He received an honorable discharge despite his ability to challenge authority. After studying architecture, he was hired by Ferris Aircraft to design a building for them. While there, the Guardians of the Universe sent a Manhunter to attack Ferris and John protected Carol, which convinced the Guardians to send him a Green Lantern Ring. He was welcomed to the Green Lantern Corps and sent to Oa for training. But the Guardians were worried he would one day find out that they sent Manhunter's attack.
Three more tales that we really didn’t need. Actually, that is not totally true. We needed all of these to see how much the NEW 52 has messed with these origins. The Swamp Thing tale was by Charles Soule and Alessandro Vitti and the idea that Anton Arcane was responsible for the explosion still bothers me. The Power Girl story is by Paul Levitz and Alisson Borges. The highlight, at least from a visual standpoint, was the John Stewart story by Van Jensen and the legendary Pat Broderick, who I had the honor to meet last November. Don’t worry folks: this title ends in two short months and I can put my five bucks elsewhere.
SINESTRO #9: While The Paling appears to be the next villain the Yellow Lanterns, Sinestro finds himself in another place mentally as he thinks of Bekka of New Genesis. He also burns with anger because Black Mercies have poisoned a large number of his people. He asks Lyssa who was responsible and they team goes off to Warworld to confront Mongul. Mongul is pretty much defeated and Sinestro is about to finish him off when Sinestro is blasted by the Apex League.
I was optimistic for this title. That lasted for about an issue or two and then I realized the best part was the art. And then that changed. Cullen Bunn and Brad Walker churn out another ho-hum issue. Sorry: the big yellow guys are just too annoying.
STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES #6: In Ecuador, a man named Leo finds out that the virus was not to be used as planned. Leo Says the next shipment is coming and Forrest better get it right this time. Carmen tries to make a cell call but is interrupted by Cat. Meanwhile, Jared is about to be cremated when he comes out of his body bag, shoving one guy into the furnace while he knifes the other one. Another of Forrest's employees shows up and Jared accidentally knocks her unconscious while trying to convince her that he means business. He hears people coming and hides in a darkened room.When he turns on the lights, he discovers an armory full of stolen guns. He makes his way to the control room only to find that the room is being monitored. Forrest wakes Libby who identifies Jared as the person she had shot in the head. Knowing they’ve been compromised, Forrest decides to nuke the place while they get away. Cat gets the message and warns Tiffany to come along.
Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Scott Hampton race this storyline and this title to its’ end, as it’s gone once CONVERGENCE comes around. This was a fun title for the first few issues but not this storyline is getting old. I mean, we’re six issues in and we’re still dealing with the virus, the rocket and Carmen undercover. Anybody heard of four and out? I guess not. That’s okay: Jimmy and Justin will get to spend their time with Amanda Connor on the new HARLEY QUINN book…because we REALLY need another HARLEY QUINN title.
SUPERMAN #38: Ulysses is planning to destroy Earth because Superman didn’t save the Great World. They both end up back in Metropolis where they battle until Superman leads him out of town. Superman hits Neil with heat-vision, which he reflects back at him. Superman absorbs the energy and Neil tells him he was only trying to save his people. That is when the nuclear blast envelops them. Later, Clark wakes up in the Batcave, where Batman explains that Superman now has the ability to unleash stored energy in the form of a solar flare. He plans to go visit Ulysses at Stryker's Island, but he won’t be able to fly there as his powers are gone until his energy recharges. Meeting with Neil, Clark apologizes but Neil tells him that he doesn't want to talk to him ever again. His parents arrive and tell him that no matter what, they will always love him. Later, Jimmy Olsen takes Clark out for lunch and admits he’s thrilled Clark is back at the Daily Planet. He explains how he gave away all of the money his parents left him and the hot dogs he just bought is the last of his money. Clark admits that he has a secret: Clark Kent is Superman. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure is thrilled that Superman has discovered his new ability because there is a package en route to him.
So, after all these years, Superman gains a new ability and the Internet goes wild! Geoff Johns and John Romita Jr. give us a nice ending to the story of Ulysses and drop the bigger bomb: Clark divulges his secret identity. But it’s NOT to Lois Lane…it’s to Jimmy Olsen. Dude: what the hell are you thinking?
SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #15: Magog throws Superman from the top of a high cliff and throws him into the Hudson River. Wonder Woman tries to tie him up with her Lasso of Truth but he blasts her off the cliff. She pulls Superman from the water and they go after him, finding him attacking people on the George Washington Bridge. Wonder Woman heads for Magog and ignores the falling cars filled with people leaving Superman to save them. Then Magog cuts the cables holding up the bridge and Superman is forced to hold them together. Magog throws someone off the bridge but when Wonder Woman tries to save her, she is caught by one of Circe’ creatures. She is here to see which hero Magog feels should die first.
This is an easy review for me. Peter J. Tomasi, Doug Mahnke, and Magog. Who could ask for anything more?
SWAMP THING #38: The Machine Queen, Arcane and Miki have joined together and given birth to Alec Holland. Miki calls out for Guarav who blasts the trio with green energy but ends up being controlled by the “reborn” Holland. To get Swamp Thing's attention, they destroy his home in the swamp. Abby and Swamp Thing go to the Arctic, where they attacked by B Calculus. He gets a message from Guarav regarding his home in Louisiana and heads home. Arriving in Louisiana, Swamp Thing has to fight the reborn Alec Holland leaving Abby to fight the Calculus by herself. Arcane and Miki make Guarav open a passage to the Grove of the Green, where Brother Jonah and Capucine try to defend it from them. Arcane asks the Parliament of Decay to give his power back so he can finish off the Green. They give him one more chance and Swamp Thing's body begins to rot.
Is it just me or does it seem like Charles Soule has just phoned the last few issues of this book in? I mean, this is the LEGENDARY Swamp Thing and it has been pretty awesome through most of this title’s revised run. But the last few issues have just seemed long and boring. There is nice art from Javier Piña, but that just can’t make me feel anything but regret as to how this book has declined. Two more issues and the big green guy will only be floating around JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK.
TEEN TITANS #6: The NEW Power Girl arrives to lend a hand against the drug-affected teens rampaging through the upper East Side of Manhattan. Later, she introduces herself, gives her back story, and brings everyone to tears when she talks about how her mother died. Then she proceeds to criticize them for going about being superheroes the wrong way. Meanwhile, Beast Boy, ion his guise as a rat, continues to spy on S.T.A.R. Labs. Over in the Bowery, Nathan and Danielle make the mistake of playing audio of raven casting a spell and call forth a creature they find totally cool. Over at Cassie’s apartment, Manchester Black shows up and tries to convince her that she needs to help him immediately. Unfortunately, that happens a bit too late as some terrorists set off a nuke at S.T.A.R. Labs.
Will Pfeifer steps up to the writing plate for this issue and comes off sounding just like the script was written by Scott Lobdell. The plot is fair and the dialogue is corny. But who let Scott Hepburn draw this? After all these years, with the exception of a few artists in the business, I have a big problem with people drawing characters with POINTED CHINS! I am curious to see who these terrorists are and how they got to fire off a nuke without killing Beast Boy. The highlight of this issue is if you managed to get the FLASH 75TH ANNIVERSARY Variant cover. A tribute to Nick Cardy’s cover for TEEN TITANS #2 from 1966, it’s by Mike and Laura Allred. And yes: I think Mike Allred’s art is cool! I always have and I always will.
TRINITY OF SIN #4: Our trio of heroes find themselves battling Nimraa’s insect creatures. Eventually, they work together to open the Redemption Box. But the insects are too many and too powerful and the trio passes out from exhaustion. Nimraa shows up and traps them in the box where they find themselves crucified
SO DONE with this book! J. M. DeMatteis and Yvel Guichet give us another issue full of existential crap that means absolutely nothing! All I know is, before this series packs it in two issues from now, someone had BETTER TELL ME who the Question is!
WONDER WOMAN #38: The Amazons are under attack again and Wonder Woman arrives too late to save many of them. When she finds her friend Dessa, she is on her deathbed and Diana promises her death will not be in vain. An Amazon crawls out from under the coils of the dead dragon and attacks. That’s when Diana wakes, crying tears of blood. Later, she heads to London and has coffee with her friend Hessia. They chit-chat about Diana’s role as a Queen and her role as God of War. Then she receives a call from the Justice League that sends her to a village in Peru that has gone missing. While Superman investigates inside a volcano, Wonder Woman and Batman verbally spar about her role as God of War. Superman has found something and gets attacked by something that looks an awful lot like Parademons. And then his communicator goes dead. Meanwhile, standing before the council of Amazons, Derinoe demands that they recognize her replacement for Queen: Donna Troy.
So, on one hand, it looks as though the events leading to the war with Apokolips are being set in motion. And, on the other hand, Donna Troy is not about to be a member of the Teen titans any time soon. And, on the other hand…just kidding! Meredith Finch continues to write a book that is making fans yearn for the days of Azzarello and Strazinski. And her husband’s art has looked better. If she is trying to make this a superhero book after we have all been spoon fed a rewriting of her mythology, she’s a little late for the party.
WORLDS’ FINEST #30: We begin a few years ago where Catwoman and Robin try to rescue some women being sold as sex slaves. Unfortunately, they fall into a trap in the process. Fortunately, Batman comes to their rescue, causing the bad guys to self-destruct to keep from talking. Later, Terry Sloan follows a spacecraft that has crash-landed in Smallville. Superman arrives and Sloan gives him a taste of Kryptonite. Before he can harm our hero, Intri shows up and tries to bring him to Apokolips. Fortunately, Batman comes to his rescue, but allows both Sloan and Intri to escape. Superman is confused and wonders how he was felled by a strange rock. Meanwhile, Sloan and his partner/butler Aadarash examine the contents of the spacecraft: Val-El.
Okay: things just got real interesting. I didn’t like the idea of this book going from a Huntress/Power Girl team-up title. But, then again, I was getting tired of the same old stuff coming from the typewriter of Paul Levitz. Honestly: there is only so far you can take two strangers in a strange land, especially when one of them wants to go home and the other wants to stay here. But I have to say, this “early days of Batman and Robin” concept has certainly breathed new life into the book. Jed Dougherty’s art looks great and totally fits the feel of the book. Although, I don’t think I needed to see Lois and Clark getting cozy on the couch!
Talk about putting the band back together! This is awesome! We have reborn and rebooted versions of Superman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Batman. We have the resurrected Booster Gold and his bromance buddy Blue Beetle. Lois Lane is creeping around while Etrigan plots and plans. Now we introduce Ice and it looks like her gal pal Fire isn’t too far behind. Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis and Howard Porter: Keep doing that voodoo that you do so well! This title rocks!
JUSTICE LEAGUE #38: Although Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Lex Luthor are looking for Patient Zero so they can stop the Amazo virus, Batman has been infected and is already at stage two. He uses his new found powers to take down Patient Zero, but collapses telling Superman that Luthor can’t be trusted. Meanwhile, Luthor has survived an attack by an assassin named Bullet thanks to Captain Cold. Later, Lex wakes Neutron and demands to know who wants to kill him. If he doesn’t talk, he will let him die from radiation poisoning. Superman and Wonder Woman arrive with Batman and Patient Zero. The victims of the virus begin whispering the word "us". Luthor discovers that Patient Zero is as sick as everyone else and can’t use his blood to make the cure. He needs the blood of Superman, who he infected with the virus four years ago. Lex insists he had no intention of letting the virus out and had only planned on using it on Superman and Supergirl. Lex will help find a cure as long as he gets immunity from prosecution. Suddenly, the infected Justice League members blast their way in and claim that they are now the dominant species.
Things continue to look grim for our band of heroes, especially since the Amazo virus has infected most of them. Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok continue to do a nice turn on this title, although I am curious to see how this all wraps up in time for CONVERGENCE. And then, I am curious to see how that will affect the future of this team. And really: how slimy IS Lex Luthor? And he’s a member of the League? Couldn’t we just get one fo the magic folks in the NEW 52 Universe to show up and mind wipe him?
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #38: When last we saw half of the team, they had escaped the end of the world by sailing into the void. Nightmare Nurse’ magic is weakening and that could mean the ship being destroyed. The Green offers to help them and huge vines carry them away. In the Kingdom of Now, Madame Xanadu’s companions tell her that something broke through the barrier near The Beyond. Xanadu casts a spell to protect them from it. Meanwhile, Zatanna has discovered the World Tree that will help her get the team home if she allows it to learn about her. To do so, it shoves a root through her chest. When she wakes, Nightmare Nurse and the rest are standing over her. They explain to her that they have been gone for days although to her, they have been gone for years. The magic makes each of them dream of the things they want the most but the Tree tells them that their job is to save creation. It releases pods that send out enough wood to rebuild the House of Mystery. As they travel, Deadman informs them that they have reached the source of all time in all universes. It’s called the Heart of Chronos but it is cracking from the creatures that have been attacking it. Zatanna tries to heal it and destory the creatures. She reveals that she has nothing to lose since she has wiped her romance with Constantine from his mind. But her magic goes all wrong and the cracks gets bigger.
I so wish this journey would end soon because this long strange trip is becoming way too long and way too strange. This issue by J. M. DeMatteis and Andres Guinaldo, which was available with a nice 75th Anniversary FLASH variant cover by Kelley Jones, does its’ best to make a boring trip turn into an exciting one but fails miserably. They all get back together in the rebuilt House of Mystery (isn’t it amazing that they find a tree that can magically rebuild the House so they can go home?) and head off to save the universe until Zatanna screws everything up. Just remember: CONVERGENCE is coming and we can all hope that it will make things on this team better..
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNITED #8: The Infinity Wraiths have reached Earth as the Legion tries to evacuate the big cities of Earth. Dream Girl orders them to the Time Institute to come to the 21st Century and stop Infinitus where Byth is trying turn Ultra into Infinitus. Ultra has decided for himself to see what’s on the other side of the rift. Supergirl chases Byth’s ship and passes through the rift. Unfortunately, this is causing the rift to collapse on itself and begin to disappear.
Oh this title is running out of steam! I love Jeff Lemire’s writing and have become a big fan of Neil Edwards. But this book hasn’t decided if it’s going to be an illegitimate Justice League book or a reborn Legion of Superheroes book. Personally, I’ll take the latter, as long as the right creative team is on it and it hearkens back to the classic Legion and not the rehashed one we had prior to and at the start of the NEW 52.
KLARION #4: With Zell and Klarion being attacked by Witchhunters, he jumps into Beelzebub’s car which opens up a portal and they get away with Klarion driving and guns blazing. Zell and the robot dog with her get sucked in behind them. Beelzebub takes Klarion to meet Swag gives our hero a stiff drink as they make a deal over future-tech. Back in New York City, Piper and Noah fly around to see how their Buddybots are adjusting to life in the Big City. Later, Noah, Piper and Agent Moody, bust into Klarion’s Pocket to save Zell and Klarion from Beelzebub and Swag. Klarion sees four possible endings to all of this. He eats a swagbot and becomes wicked powerful.
I have previously said that I really don’t know what this book is about. And I still don’t! How bad is it? Klarion, while getting drunk with Beelzebub and Skag sees Zell walks in and paraphrases the classic line from CASABLANCA by saying: “of all the gin joints in the Multiverse she had to walk into mine?” Honestly-this is THE BEST Ann Nocenti can come up with? The art this issue is by Fabrizio Fiorentino and is too angular and boring to make the already confusing story any better. This is a such a mess and not even a hot one!
LOBO #4: Superman has stopped lobo and his crew from completing their mission to hunt and kill Snake Omega. Superman takes their ship to the baseball stadium where they rehash their last meeting and Superman finds out that the planet has been weaponized to kill some giant space alien. Superman decides to help Lobo save this world even as we get a flashback of Lobo NOT being able to save his own world. They catch up with Snake Omega but Superman won’t let lobo kill him so they rumble and the bad guy gets away. Well, not really because the team planted a bomb on Snake Omega’s ship. Tick…tick…tick…BOOM!
Ugh! Here’s the high points of this book. Reilly Brown’s art except for the flashbacks which are painted by Alison Borges. Yeah-that’s it. Cullen Bunn’s story is…well…it’s a Cullen Bunn story. And this is NOT MY LOBO!
NEW 52: FUTURE’S END #36-39: In issue #36, Amethyst tries to save Frankenstein by bringing him to the Justice League Dark. He weakly tells her that she shouldn’t have brought him to the House of Mystery as the Nth Metal in his blood means his life is ending. Then, with the arrival of Constantine, Amethyst shoves her sword into his chest. Constantine wakes to explain he died again while he slept. He explains to Superman that Smallville was built on evil ground while Midge, speaking for Brainiac, says that Superman’s rocket crashing her may have been a planned occurrence to balance good and evil. Meanwhile, Fifty Sue is underwater looking for the DNA vault. At the same time, the rest of her companions wonder what should be done with her. She arrives, saying she found the vault and teleports it into the room. Terry McGinnis searches for Tim Drake to try and help him stop Brother Eye. Plastique suggests they get to know each other better as Batman watches them. In the Justice League Station, Stormguard argues with Billy Batson about appearing as both Superman and Shazam. Madison Payne, now Firestorm, teleports in asking for their help.
In issue #37, Constantine explains he is an astral projection, which explains how he took a sword to the chest and lived. Amethyst reminds him of how he allowed Parademons into Gemworld, where they killed or captured everyone. He tells them the only way to save Frank is to take him to Castle Frankenstein. On the Justice League Station, Jason tries to get Madison to get one of the transporters wired to duplicate the experiment that caused them to be joined together. But Doctor Yamazake has become Dr. Polaris and calls out Firestorm or he will kill a bus filled with passengers. Stormguard and Superman arrive and stops the attack Back on the Station, the transporter overloads and Madison and Jason are still trapped. In Las Vegas, the DNA lab is so heavy it tears through the side of the skyscraper and crashes to the street below. When Sue realizes this contains the DNA that created her, Mercy uses her death-touch and kills her. Cole asks if Voodoo was in on it and she admits she was. She also says that Justin is safe with Banger and Mash. In mid sentence, Cole, Lana, Sue, and the vault disappear. At Terrifitech, people are already lining up to get their hands on the uSpheres. In New York City, Plastique and Terry are being intimate when Cal returns to find his bar and apartment boarded up. Terry, dressed as Batman, goes to meet him and gets punched in the face for his troubles. That’s when the Batman/Joker cyborg arrives.
In issue #38, The current Batman shows up to face the cyborg but is too late to stop it from grabbing Tim. Terry and Plastique take down the cyborg, Terry explains that he is here to keep Bruce from helping to create the cyborg ruled future. He has Plastique go with Bruce and Tim as he leads the cyborg away. In Metropolis, Stormguard gets trapped by Dr. Polaris but Superman retaliates, tearing apart the containment suit. Firestorm stops him and warns him to let Polaris go. Dispatching Superman, Firestorm rebuilds hiss suit and promises help him if he help her get out of the Firestorm Matrix. She will take him to the Justice League Station so he can restore her and she will let him give that technology to the world. Meanwhile, it seems Fifty Sue is not dead and she has taken Cole, Lana and the DNA vault to the Sahara Desert. Because it contains the DNA of every superhuman, Lana suggests they hide it. Cole insists that Faraday would put their lives at risk to find it and Sue sends Cole to Antarctica to cool off. Over in the Carpathian Mountains, Amethyst drags Frankenstein into Castle Frankenstein, where they are attacked by monsters. That is when Baron Frankenstein arrives to stop their attack.
In issue #39, Madison leads Polaris to the teleporters so he can bring their technology to everyone. They get a signal as their deep space probes gets destroyed, leaving them blind in space. Meanwhile, King Faraday gives Banger and Mash permission to kill Justin but it seems that Justin has just disappeared, ending up with Cole, Lana and Fifty Sue. In Smallville, Clark warns Constantine that he doesn't want to end up in the super-hero world. Midge hears Brainiac's creations calling to her and gets impaled by a stalk of corn. As she dies, she tells Constantine that Brainiac plans to take Manhattan. At Castle Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein offers to save Frank if he joins him as a slave. Frank says he would rather die and Amethyst cuts off Victor's head. Frank begs her to burn the body and asks her if he can write his story.
The countdown is on. The end is near. Heroes are dying, cities will burn and Brainiac looks to change the NEW 52 Universe to his liking. Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, and Keith Giffen join Scot Eaton, Aaron Lopresti, Andy MacDonald, and Patrick Zircher to create this tale. Thirteen issues to go, bringing the total number of issues to 52(of course). And then…?
NEW SUICIDE SQUAD #6: Sage wants off Task Force X but the government isn’t about to let that happen. At a bar, Sage is met by a stranger who claims his company rebuilt Belle Reve and claims he can get Sage what he wants. In China, Harley’s clumsiness has released a bunch of unfinished metahumans that the Chinese were creating. Reverse-Flash tries to place the explosive charges but ruptures his knee in the process. The Man-Bat Commandos arrive to help out, allowing Harley and Boomerang to place the charges. As the team makes their escape, One complete metahuman survives and vows revenge.
Sean Ryan, Tom Derenick, Rob Hunter, Norm Rapamund and Vicente Cifuentes kick out the jams BIG TIME with this issue. Reverse-Flash blows out his knee? OUCH!!! And just where do you get an army of Man-Bats? All in all, this is a fun series and I see how DC is putting an effort into this leading in to the upcoming film. But really: Jared Leto aa The Joker?
RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #38: In Arkham Asylum, a captured Crux has a meeting with a wheelchair-ridden professor who is revealed to be Red Hood. The two battle and Jason takes the worst of it. Some time later, Jason finds himself captured by Crux who thanks Red Hood making him see the error of his ways and contributing to helping him turn his life around. So, with Roy joining the duo, they head off to try and find Starfire. She is currently in parts unknown where her sister Blackfire has arrived to put her out of her misery.
Here we have another average issue from Scot Lobdell and RB Silva. We can only take comfort that there is only two motre issues to go before CONVERGENCE and then this one book becomes TWO as Roy and Jason go their way and Starfire becomes more comic character than ever before.
RED LANTERN #38: Guy Gardner is back on Earth and trying to take care of the devastation caused by Atrocitus. He discovers that the people of Calvin City are infected by this plague of rage that causes people to burn up from the inside. He discovers that he is the causes, so he lets the people of Calvin City take their rage out on him, causing them all to burn up and die.
Landry Q. Walker is the new writer who is replacing Charles Soule on the final three issues of this book and he has not showed me a whole lot here on this issue. J. Calafiore continues to handle the art in his own amazing style and that is the highlight up the book. If this is Guy’s future, then I’m glad to see DC put the fork in it.
SECRET ORIGINS #9: In the first story, Guarav Ghate, the last remaining member of the Sureen, tells the history of the Avatars, especially most recent Avatar of The Green. He tells how the Parliament of Trees had decided to have Alec Holland be their guardian. Anton Arcane, the Avatar of the Rot, tried to eliminate him through an explosion in Holland’s lab. The Parliament used his essence to create the Swamp Thing. Alec Holland was brought back to life and the Green approached to be their avatar. While fighting the Rot, he lost the love of his life to it. Guarav declares Holland to be the most human of all the Avatars.
In the second tale, we get a brief history of Power Girl, who doesn’t know all of her own history herself. One of the great mysteries is how she and her cousin left Krypton at the same time only to arrive on Earth twenty years apart. When she finally landed, Kal took her to his parents in Smallville to raise. When she had grown up, he arranged for her to go to his Fortress of Solitude to be trained and to keep her away from Kaiyo. While he was there, his wife Lois was killed in the first of the attacks from Apokolips. She came out of the Fortress to help the battle, but was too late to save her cousin. With the Wonders of the World dwindling down to just Batman, Helena, and Kara, the two girls entered a Boom Tube and ended up on this world. She started a firm and became very wealthy, plus she began a relationship with Michael Holt. She and Helena became super-heroes, even while Kara’s people worked on a machine to get them home. When they were ready to leave, Kara committed her powers to her protege, Tanya Spears, who became the new Power Girl. Kara and Helena returned home to engage in the war to try and save their world.
In the last tale, we see how John Stewart had been involved with peaceful protests in Detroit before eventually joining the Marine Corps to pay for college. He received an honorable discharge despite his ability to challenge authority. After studying architecture, he was hired by Ferris Aircraft to design a building for them. While there, the Guardians of the Universe sent a Manhunter to attack Ferris and John protected Carol, which convinced the Guardians to send him a Green Lantern Ring. He was welcomed to the Green Lantern Corps and sent to Oa for training. But the Guardians were worried he would one day find out that they sent Manhunter's attack.
Three more tales that we really didn’t need. Actually, that is not totally true. We needed all of these to see how much the NEW 52 has messed with these origins. The Swamp Thing tale was by Charles Soule and Alessandro Vitti and the idea that Anton Arcane was responsible for the explosion still bothers me. The Power Girl story is by Paul Levitz and Alisson Borges. The highlight, at least from a visual standpoint, was the John Stewart story by Van Jensen and the legendary Pat Broderick, who I had the honor to meet last November. Don’t worry folks: this title ends in two short months and I can put my five bucks elsewhere.
SINESTRO #9: While The Paling appears to be the next villain the Yellow Lanterns, Sinestro finds himself in another place mentally as he thinks of Bekka of New Genesis. He also burns with anger because Black Mercies have poisoned a large number of his people. He asks Lyssa who was responsible and they team goes off to Warworld to confront Mongul. Mongul is pretty much defeated and Sinestro is about to finish him off when Sinestro is blasted by the Apex League.
I was optimistic for this title. That lasted for about an issue or two and then I realized the best part was the art. And then that changed. Cullen Bunn and Brad Walker churn out another ho-hum issue. Sorry: the big yellow guys are just too annoying.
STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES #6: In Ecuador, a man named Leo finds out that the virus was not to be used as planned. Leo Says the next shipment is coming and Forrest better get it right this time. Carmen tries to make a cell call but is interrupted by Cat. Meanwhile, Jared is about to be cremated when he comes out of his body bag, shoving one guy into the furnace while he knifes the other one. Another of Forrest's employees shows up and Jared accidentally knocks her unconscious while trying to convince her that he means business. He hears people coming and hides in a darkened room.When he turns on the lights, he discovers an armory full of stolen guns. He makes his way to the control room only to find that the room is being monitored. Forrest wakes Libby who identifies Jared as the person she had shot in the head. Knowing they’ve been compromised, Forrest decides to nuke the place while they get away. Cat gets the message and warns Tiffany to come along.
Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Scott Hampton race this storyline and this title to its’ end, as it’s gone once CONVERGENCE comes around. This was a fun title for the first few issues but not this storyline is getting old. I mean, we’re six issues in and we’re still dealing with the virus, the rocket and Carmen undercover. Anybody heard of four and out? I guess not. That’s okay: Jimmy and Justin will get to spend their time with Amanda Connor on the new HARLEY QUINN book…because we REALLY need another HARLEY QUINN title.
SUPERMAN #38: Ulysses is planning to destroy Earth because Superman didn’t save the Great World. They both end up back in Metropolis where they battle until Superman leads him out of town. Superman hits Neil with heat-vision, which he reflects back at him. Superman absorbs the energy and Neil tells him he was only trying to save his people. That is when the nuclear blast envelops them. Later, Clark wakes up in the Batcave, where Batman explains that Superman now has the ability to unleash stored energy in the form of a solar flare. He plans to go visit Ulysses at Stryker's Island, but he won’t be able to fly there as his powers are gone until his energy recharges. Meeting with Neil, Clark apologizes but Neil tells him that he doesn't want to talk to him ever again. His parents arrive and tell him that no matter what, they will always love him. Later, Jimmy Olsen takes Clark out for lunch and admits he’s thrilled Clark is back at the Daily Planet. He explains how he gave away all of the money his parents left him and the hot dogs he just bought is the last of his money. Clark admits that he has a secret: Clark Kent is Superman. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure is thrilled that Superman has discovered his new ability because there is a package en route to him.
So, after all these years, Superman gains a new ability and the Internet goes wild! Geoff Johns and John Romita Jr. give us a nice ending to the story of Ulysses and drop the bigger bomb: Clark divulges his secret identity. But it’s NOT to Lois Lane…it’s to Jimmy Olsen. Dude: what the hell are you thinking?
SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #15: Magog throws Superman from the top of a high cliff and throws him into the Hudson River. Wonder Woman tries to tie him up with her Lasso of Truth but he blasts her off the cliff. She pulls Superman from the water and they go after him, finding him attacking people on the George Washington Bridge. Wonder Woman heads for Magog and ignores the falling cars filled with people leaving Superman to save them. Then Magog cuts the cables holding up the bridge and Superman is forced to hold them together. Magog throws someone off the bridge but when Wonder Woman tries to save her, she is caught by one of Circe’ creatures. She is here to see which hero Magog feels should die first.
This is an easy review for me. Peter J. Tomasi, Doug Mahnke, and Magog. Who could ask for anything more?
SWAMP THING #38: The Machine Queen, Arcane and Miki have joined together and given birth to Alec Holland. Miki calls out for Guarav who blasts the trio with green energy but ends up being controlled by the “reborn” Holland. To get Swamp Thing's attention, they destroy his home in the swamp. Abby and Swamp Thing go to the Arctic, where they attacked by B Calculus. He gets a message from Guarav regarding his home in Louisiana and heads home. Arriving in Louisiana, Swamp Thing has to fight the reborn Alec Holland leaving Abby to fight the Calculus by herself. Arcane and Miki make Guarav open a passage to the Grove of the Green, where Brother Jonah and Capucine try to defend it from them. Arcane asks the Parliament of Decay to give his power back so he can finish off the Green. They give him one more chance and Swamp Thing's body begins to rot.
Is it just me or does it seem like Charles Soule has just phoned the last few issues of this book in? I mean, this is the LEGENDARY Swamp Thing and it has been pretty awesome through most of this title’s revised run. But the last few issues have just seemed long and boring. There is nice art from Javier Piña, but that just can’t make me feel anything but regret as to how this book has declined. Two more issues and the big green guy will only be floating around JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK.
TEEN TITANS #6: The NEW Power Girl arrives to lend a hand against the drug-affected teens rampaging through the upper East Side of Manhattan. Later, she introduces herself, gives her back story, and brings everyone to tears when she talks about how her mother died. Then she proceeds to criticize them for going about being superheroes the wrong way. Meanwhile, Beast Boy, ion his guise as a rat, continues to spy on S.T.A.R. Labs. Over in the Bowery, Nathan and Danielle make the mistake of playing audio of raven casting a spell and call forth a creature they find totally cool. Over at Cassie’s apartment, Manchester Black shows up and tries to convince her that she needs to help him immediately. Unfortunately, that happens a bit too late as some terrorists set off a nuke at S.T.A.R. Labs.
Will Pfeifer steps up to the writing plate for this issue and comes off sounding just like the script was written by Scott Lobdell. The plot is fair and the dialogue is corny. But who let Scott Hepburn draw this? After all these years, with the exception of a few artists in the business, I have a big problem with people drawing characters with POINTED CHINS! I am curious to see who these terrorists are and how they got to fire off a nuke without killing Beast Boy. The highlight of this issue is if you managed to get the FLASH 75TH ANNIVERSARY Variant cover. A tribute to Nick Cardy’s cover for TEEN TITANS #2 from 1966, it’s by Mike and Laura Allred. And yes: I think Mike Allred’s art is cool! I always have and I always will.
TRINITY OF SIN #4: Our trio of heroes find themselves battling Nimraa’s insect creatures. Eventually, they work together to open the Redemption Box. But the insects are too many and too powerful and the trio passes out from exhaustion. Nimraa shows up and traps them in the box where they find themselves crucified
SO DONE with this book! J. M. DeMatteis and Yvel Guichet give us another issue full of existential crap that means absolutely nothing! All I know is, before this series packs it in two issues from now, someone had BETTER TELL ME who the Question is!
WONDER WOMAN #38: The Amazons are under attack again and Wonder Woman arrives too late to save many of them. When she finds her friend Dessa, she is on her deathbed and Diana promises her death will not be in vain. An Amazon crawls out from under the coils of the dead dragon and attacks. That’s when Diana wakes, crying tears of blood. Later, she heads to London and has coffee with her friend Hessia. They chit-chat about Diana’s role as a Queen and her role as God of War. Then she receives a call from the Justice League that sends her to a village in Peru that has gone missing. While Superman investigates inside a volcano, Wonder Woman and Batman verbally spar about her role as God of War. Superman has found something and gets attacked by something that looks an awful lot like Parademons. And then his communicator goes dead. Meanwhile, standing before the council of Amazons, Derinoe demands that they recognize her replacement for Queen: Donna Troy.
So, on one hand, it looks as though the events leading to the war with Apokolips are being set in motion. And, on the other hand, Donna Troy is not about to be a member of the Teen titans any time soon. And, on the other hand…just kidding! Meredith Finch continues to write a book that is making fans yearn for the days of Azzarello and Strazinski. And her husband’s art has looked better. If she is trying to make this a superhero book after we have all been spoon fed a rewriting of her mythology, she’s a little late for the party.
WORLDS’ FINEST #30: We begin a few years ago where Catwoman and Robin try to rescue some women being sold as sex slaves. Unfortunately, they fall into a trap in the process. Fortunately, Batman comes to their rescue, causing the bad guys to self-destruct to keep from talking. Later, Terry Sloan follows a spacecraft that has crash-landed in Smallville. Superman arrives and Sloan gives him a taste of Kryptonite. Before he can harm our hero, Intri shows up and tries to bring him to Apokolips. Fortunately, Batman comes to his rescue, but allows both Sloan and Intri to escape. Superman is confused and wonders how he was felled by a strange rock. Meanwhile, Sloan and his partner/butler Aadarash examine the contents of the spacecraft: Val-El.
Okay: things just got real interesting. I didn’t like the idea of this book going from a Huntress/Power Girl team-up title. But, then again, I was getting tired of the same old stuff coming from the typewriter of Paul Levitz. Honestly: there is only so far you can take two strangers in a strange land, especially when one of them wants to go home and the other wants to stay here. But I have to say, this “early days of Batman and Robin” concept has certainly breathed new life into the book. Jed Dougherty’s art looks great and totally fits the feel of the book. Although, I don’t think I needed to see Lois and Clark getting cozy on the couch!
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