A bunch of first issues from various places.
AVENGERS STANDOFF: WELCOME TO PLEASANT HILL #1: Have you ever seen THE PRISONER? How about STEPFORD WIVES? WESTWORLD? Then you don’t need to read this book. The bottom line is S.H.I.E.L.D. is playing games with a prison town that is equal parts BACK TO THE FUTURE 1950’s and any old TV sitcom. Seems Maria Hill is the Mayor and this is a prison for super villains-kind of a quite version of The Raft. Well, it turns out that the bad guys get mind wiped and have false memories implanted. But in the end, Fixer restores Baron Zemo’s memory. What this does is serve as a lead-in for the forthcoming THUNDERBOLTS reboot. Nick Spencer did a nice job with the writing but the star is Mark Bagley’s art.
BLACK WIDOW #1: Black Widow takes something from S.H.I.E.L.D. and spends the entire book running and fighting with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. It’s a Mark Waid, Chris Samnee joint and if you liked their run on DAREDEVIL, you will love this, although there are less than 150 words in the whole book…not including sound effects. It’s non-stop action and that’s what counts here!
DEADPOOL & THE MERCS FOR MONEY #1: In case you are not reading the regular adventures of Deadpool, here’s the scoop: Deadpool has a team of Deadpools now, made up of Stingray, Terror, Foolkiller, Slapstick, Solo and Massacre-the Mexican Deadpool. They are a team and they do the job for coin. That’s it! No fancy plot-just that. This is Marvel’s version of the Gang of Harleys. It’s Cullen Bunn and Salva Espin and that’s followed by a reprinting of SPIDEY #1 because…they could. Nothing here to make me want to come back for another run.
THE DISCIPLINE #1: If you like your book with alien creatures, kinky sex, bondage and a good share of bloodletting, then this could be your book. Peter Milligan, never one to shy away from controversial topics, writes this occult version of 50 SHADES OF GRAY while Leonardo Fernandez draws it. Do not expect this to be a superhero title, as it is far, FAR from it. It looks great and reads like a good old fashioned smutty underground comic.
HYPERION #1: I hate to disappoint fans of this Squadron Supreme member, but this book is plain awful. We have some girl named Doll who is being hunted by this bizarre freak show and she hitches a ride with a truck driving Hyperion, who doesn’t know he IS Hyperion until the last three pages. Chuck Wendig’s story is plodding and slow moving and Nik Virella’s art is too. There is nothing here to make me want to read more, not even the curiosity factor of who Doll really is.
INTERNATIONAL IRON MAN #1: because we need a SECOND IRON MAN title. Actually, I like this title. I mean, it’s Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev just tearing it up. The story is shrouded in mystery but will evolve into a tale of Tony Stark investigating his mysterious parental origins. We get some cool flashbacks of Tony, a LONGHAIRED TONY, in school and an early love interest that comes back into his life before the book’s end. The book looks great, as this is some of Maleev’s best work in some time. And Bendis: hey-the guy KNOWS how to write a killer story. This book is highly recommended!
LOST IN SPACE-THE LOST ADVENTURES #1: This is not the first time that the LIS franchise has had a comic book. But AGP, the comic imprint of Captain Company and the folks at FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, has brought to light the unproduced scripts of Carey Wilber from back in the day. Yes, these issues will represent what should have been episodes 84 and 85. Holly Interlandi has handled the script adaptation admirably while Kostas Pantoulas does a beautiful job on the art. It’s classic LIS. We all know how bad the third season of LIS was, but this reads so wonderfully that it feels more like it came from the first season. If you are a fan of the series, you need this book.
MOCKINGBIRD #1: Mockingbird has been dosed with the Super Soldier Serum AND the infinity Formula. That means you can live forever but there may be consequences. Like you may see dead people and develop telekinetic capabilities. Really? So…Nick Fury and captain America had these abilities? You may also bleed out of your ears. Anyway, Chelsea Cain and Kate Niemczyk deliver a book that I really could care less about. The art is cartoony in a BATGIRL style while the story remind me of the earlier run of CAPTAIN MARVEL. I’m all in favor of women in comics, but some of these female writers need to take a lesson from Gail Simone and Colleen Doran regarding creating great characters and compelling stories. This is neither.
POWER MAN AND IRON FIRST #1: Sweet Christmas-let’s all rejoice that the classic team is back. Well, not really! Iron Fist has gone from being a composed, David Carradine styled Kung Fu Master to being a mouthy sidekick in the Spider Man vein. And Luke Cage feels more like he stepped out of the bar on JESSICA JONES rather than the cool Blaxsploitation take he styled in the Seventies. While he may be dressed like a pimp, he acts more like a confused second banana, especially compared to legendary characters like Tombstone and Black Mariah. I like David Walker’s work, but this is not his best. And Sanford Greene has a style which is for discriminating tastes. I think I’ll go back to the original run of HERO FOR HIRE and wallow in the greatness of Archie Goodwin and George Tuska.
SPIDER-MAN #1: What we have here is Miles Morales, the former Ultimate Spider-man, now in OUR world. Somehow, since we still have no idea what happened during the infamous eight-month gap following the end of SECRET WARS, Miles and many of his cast mates are here and he is under the tutelage of Peter Parker. Mile has to deal with the trials of being a high school student and also a superhero while also having an almost book long battle with Blackheart. It’s pure Brain Michael Bendis coupled with the killer art of Sara Pichelli. If you were a fan of Miles in the Ultimate world, you’ll love this book.
VAMPIRELLA #1: You know: I am a LONG TIME fan of this classic character. Yeah, I was there when she went from being a horror-story hostess to a main eventer. I grew up with Jose Gonzalez art and the supporting cast of Conrad Van Helsing, his son Adam, Pendragon, the Blood Red Queen of Hearts, Pantha, Lilith and more. There have been great stories and downright silly ones. I even suffered through the direct to video movie with Roger Daltrey. But this…this takes the cake! Who in their right mind decided it was a good idea to move her to Hollwood and dress her up like something out of THE HUNGER GAMES, complete with mini-crossbow? I mean…really? This is called reimagining a character. Sorry-this is called screwing UP A CHARACTER. Kate Leth wrote it, Eman Casallos drew it and the only REAL reason, except for being a completist, to buy this is for the Jay Anacleto variant cover.
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Saturday, March 5, 2016
DC YOU Month 9, Part 2
JUSTICE LEAGUE #48: The League meets with the Crime Syndicate and, despite their better judgment, even as gods, they realize they must work together to kill the Anti-Monitor. The deal is that once it is done, the Syndicate will return Cyborg to them. So they allow Ultraman to feed on Kryptonite and it’s off to battle. Arriving in Gotham City, they find Mobius attacking everyone and destroying everything. Green Lanterns arrive to lend a hand and many of them fall, as does Ultraman who is claimed by the Black Racer. Lex Arrives with an army of Parademons, Superwoman goes into labor, and Grail kidnaps Steve Trevor, saying she has plans for him.
This is just what you want and need in a JUSTICE LEAGUE book: non-stop action! Geoff Johns continues to give us a knockout of a story and Jason Fabok totally kills it in the art category. He brings it with three gorgeous two-page spreads and two great looking splash pages. This all comes to an end in JUSTICE LEAGUE: DARKSEID WAR #1. And then, with REBIRTH, the book will ship twice a month.
JUSTICE LEAGUE 3001 #9: Lady Styx has given Terrance Magnus new powers and he is now Eclipso, who will be in command over her Legion of Death in the upcoming battle against the new Justice League. Meanwhile, Supergirl and Ice are trying to figure out how to save the Universe while Wonder Woman, Flash and Batgirl find the remains of Cadmus. That’s when the Scullions arrive and the battle begins, with Flash saving the day by identifying their weaknesses. Supergirl and Ice head to the planet Bohdi, which was the first planet Lady Styx conquered. But all they find is a wasteland and a giant monster. In the back up, Lois Lane and Ariel Masters discuss Lois’ plans for the universe.
This title is off the schedule when the NEW 52/DC YOU ends and REBIRTH begins and I, for one, will be very sad to see it go. I so love the way Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis write together and have been a long-time fan of their combined work on various DC titles. Scott Kolins provides the art for the main story while they always talented Colleen Doran turns it loose on the back up. So, by my calculation, we have three more issues to get this whole thing sorted out. Personally, I hope that Giffen and DeMatteis get their hands on a new title post REBIRTH…maybe someone in Editorial can resurrect PLASTIC MAN or even THE CREEPER.
MARTIAN MANHUNTER #9: We begin with John Constantine trying to recover from a night of drinking with a lady demon when he notices there’s another Mars coming our way. That sends him running out wearing only his trenchcoat. Back on Mars, the giant robots are battling each other while Daryl and The Pearl are trying to come to grips with themselves. J’onn J’onzz transforms into a giant robot too and Alicia agrees to team up with him rather than arrest him. In the end, Mister Biscuits makes his way to the Martian child who plans to tell Biscuits how the Martian Manhunter was created.
I have said that this is one of the weirdest and strangest titles out there. Well, Rob Williams continues to baffle us all with his style and story. The art is from Eddy Barrows, Ronan Cliquet, and RB Silva and it looks great, as expected. This title is off the schedule once REBIRTH kicks in, so enjoy it while you can.
MIDNIGHTER #9: Midnighter is talking with his Spyral handler about how Task Force X has stolen the Perdition Pistol as he is waiting to be shot out of a railgun towards their Crow's Nest space station. He battles his way through a defender in a Mercury Mantle, but his super speed is no help and Midnighter takes him out. Our hero finds something interesting and then proceeds to blow up the station along with the Perdition Pistol. Back at Spyral, he tells Helena that Henry Bendix is involved with Task Force X. Next stop, Boston where Midnighter and his friends eat jalapeno poppers, drink some tall cold ones and talk about Robert’s documentary. While they are out shooting the documentary, members of the Suicide Squad show up and, because of a character called Afterthought, Midnighter gets his butt whipped.
So the highlight of this book was…the reintroduction of Henry Bendix? Wow! If there was a true lunatic in the DC Universe, it was Bendix. He wasn’t a lunatic in the same way that The Joker is. Bendix was just a crazy megalomaniac. Major props to Steve Orlando, Aco, and Hugo Petrus for this beauty. So, I just want to know what will happen to our homosexual homicidal maniac come June, as this title is not on the schedule.
NEW SUICIDE SQUAD #17: We start out three months ago when two Americans from the Horus Organization run into problems in Moscow. One of the two, Adam, tells his partner Seraphine that the world needs is the Victory V’s. Over in Belle Reve, Waller is giving a tour to Mr. Ashemore, who is looking for Britain’s answer to Victory V. he gets to check out Cheetah, Harley Quinn, El Diablo, and Deadshot. Next, the team is sent to Hong Kong to protect a politician named Chen Ho from the Triads. Despite their best efforts, the Triads grab Chen Ho, while a strange blue beam kills all the Triads and the Suicide Squad.
Leave it to Tim Seeley and Juan Ferreyra to give us a thoroughly boring first half of this title and make it up with the last 10 pages. The whole deal with Moscow, Victory V, and Mr. Ashemore’s tour is just plain filler, unless the Moscow piece is some sort of set up for a future issue. But the action in the last 10 pages more than makes up for it. Come the Fall, this title goes away and get replaced by SUICIDE SQUAD, which will ship twice monthly. Hey-you knew this title wasn’t going away. There’s a movie coming!
POISON IVY CYCLE OF LIFE AND DEATH #2: Ivy is still reeling over the death of Doctor Cruz and goes about questioning some of her co-workers and eliminating them as suspects. Meanwhile, the cops are suspicious that Pamela Isley has no real history that they can find. But they also can’t see any reason to suspect her. In the end, Ivy delivers two seemingly human babies from her pregnant plant and Darshan find a dead Doctor Grimley. Guess when can rule Grimley out as a suspect, huh?
Amy Chu and Clay Mann deliver another issue which, unfortunately, spends far too much time with own green heroine playing detective.
RED HOOD/ARSENAL #9: We begin with Jason battling Iron Rule and not doing a very good job of it. But he is reminiscing about the training he got from Batman and Ducra. Meanwhile, Arsenal is in The Nethers, looking for Duela, and manages to get captured and brought to Charon. The good news is that they toss him into where they are holding Duela and that gives Charon more time to monologue about his master plan. Just then, Jason drops in…literally. Duela, no longer wearing Joker’s mask, apologizes to Charon and then tries to kill him and herself by jumping into the lava below. Roy saves her and in the end, she leaves her Joker face behind so the people of the Underground know someone is watching over them. Oh yeah-there’a cliffhanger that hints that Roy once led the Iron Rule before they became the zombies that Jason faced.
This truly is a title that DC doesn’t know what to do with. I thought that Scott Lobdell and Javier Fernandez MIGHT have been trying to turn this into a threesome with the addition of Duela, but now that she has left the mask behind, I doubt that’s gonna happen. Plus, there’s this whole thing with the Iron Rule? Well, either way, this title goes away in July and, once again, becomes…drum roll please…RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS! Last time around, it was Roy, Jay and Kori. This time? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
ROBIN, SON OF BATMAN #9: Damian watches as his father interacts with Julie and the kids at the Youth Center and then hangs out and watches his father while he sleeps. Then, he takes on a bunch of lame villains and defeats them, before heading underwater to battle Snowfox and Wunderfox, who are in Ducard’s ship. Just when things look their bleakest, Goliath shows up to pull him out. The Fox guys follow and explain that they’re mad because Maya paid them and then went dark, leaving them out of work. They leave him and Robin decides to spy on his friend. Dejected but happy for her, he heads back to the Bat cave, rounds up Titus the dog, Pennyworth the cat and Batcow, introduces them to Goliath and declares that it’s time to get to work.
So here’s a Bat-title that’s off the schedule with the REBIRTH event. Patrick Gleason, with inking assist from Mick Gray, continues to work wonders with this character. First off, Gleason’s writing is truly from the heart, even if his dialogue is sometimes a bit over the top. And his art is always top notch. I expect that the “Son of Batman” will make his way into something like the Teen Titans and that is where we’ll see him in action. Two Robins on one team? There’s a concept!
SECRET SIX #11: While Catman is walking the dog and the sheep/fly, Batgirl crosses his path and lead to a fight…after he leaves her with his bag of dog poop. The whole battle is based on the fact that Batgirl needs to talk to Strix, and she tells him Strix’ orgin as they head back to the team’s headquarter. Meanwhile, Porcelain is giving Strix a makeover, which takes a lot of work and a lot of makeup to accomplish. Big Shot gets a phone call from Sue Dibny, who he believed was dead, and she begs him to let her come home. Strix’ makeover is amazing but, in the end, she reverts back to her old self and busts the mirror. That night, Ralph heads out to meet Sue, with Black Alice and the Ventroloquist, tagging along. Unfortunately Lady Shiva attacks them, as she wants to recruit Strix for the League of Assassins.
I am SO MUCH A FAN of this book. Gail Simone continues to write a ravishingly weird story that puts all these misfits together. Dale Eaglesham blows away the level of artistic beauty on this book each and every time. It’s a complete artistic package as the inking of Tom Derenick and Jason Wright’s colors tie it all together. This book is off the schedule with the arrival of REBIRTH and I hate to see it go. This is such a quirky title, I can only hope there is a place for it in the future DCU.
SINESTRO #20: Sinestro’s Corps, complete with the new inductees such as Superman and Wonder Woman, are battling The Paling while Sinestro is fighting The Pale Bishop. The Corps provide him with their power and he destroys The Pale Bishop and thus the Pale Vicars also die. But the fight has taken far too much out of him and he turns over his leadership to his daughter Soranik.
Cullen Bunn and Brad Walker bring this act to a conclusion and it must have been easy to write as it’s all about the action this month! So, Soranik is the new Sinestro, so to speak, and you have to wonder if he is going to be out of action for some time, as this title is gone with REBIRTH. Or…is he going to be a part of HAL JORDAN & THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS?
STARFIRE #9: Atlee wants to take Stella and Kori to her home in the middle of the earth, so, after spending some time with a little creature named Syl’Khee…and also some sunabthing…they head off to the Everglades. Once there, they meet up with former Strata resident Billybob, who is the gatekeeper to Strata. He sends them off in an underwater bubble. Unfortunately, he goes back to his shack to find his sister in the clutches of an orange snake man who makes him give him a communicator in exchange for her safety. Once they arrive in Strata, Atlee is concerned as there are no guards around. Kori goes on ahead and lets out a scream, causing Atlee and Stella to comes running, where they find Atlee’s parents have staged a surprise party for her. The bad news is that King Neala-Tok has arrived to capture the city and kill anyone who resists.
Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti and guest artist Elsa Charretier turn in another lackluster issue. The plot is tired, the art is reminiscent of Darwyn Cooke (not a bad thing but not right for this title), and I really can’t stand most of the cast. This title is gone when REBIRTH happens and I can only guess that Kori will end up back with Jay and Roy in The Outlaws.Too many cheeky jokes, too much sexual innuendo and too much of Kori being a bubblehead.
SUICIDE SQUAD MOST WANTED-DEADSHOT AND KATANA #2: Katana saves the people of Markovia from Kobra but allows Lady Eve to escape. While Captain Narz tries to run out of town, she saves Violet Harper from a jail cell and they proceed off, complete with Harper going through withdrawal, to find the missing Dr. Jace. Lord Kobra, who threatens her with torture if she doesn’t comply with his requests, is holding the good doctor. Katana, Harper and stowaway Anna (and her cat) end up getting into a confrontation with Kobra’s team. Anna gets captured and Katana surrenders and is about to be executed when…the Suicide Squad arrives to take her instead.
In the second tale, Deadshot has gone off the grid and has come to where his father is. The story Floyd Lawton has always told of how his mother, father and brother died as a result of a drug deal gone bad, is a lie. His father used to beat him and his brother, so he decided to kill him. Unfortunately, Floyd’s sniper shot missed dad and kills his brother by mistake. He finds his father dying with his mother at his bedside reading to him from a Bible. Floyd is here to kill the man, but he dies before Floyd can exact his revenge. With mom cursing him out and blaming him for his brother’s death, Floyd executes her. He also discovers that they know of his daughter and he worries what they have told her. Meanwhile, Waller sends the Suicide Squad to come after him.
In the second issue of this mini-series, Katana lays a big fat egg, courtesy of Mike W. Barr and Diogenes Neves. The art by Neves is top notch but the story is filled with too many cliches for me. And I saw most of them played out in SEVEN SAMURAI and everything it inspired. I guess I’m most bugged by saddling our hero with a junkie, a kid and a cat. The Deadshot back-up, which I really felt unattached from last time, comes back with a vengeance as Brian Buccellato rewrites history and creates a completely new origin for Floyd Lawton. Viktor Bogdanovic’s art is great and reminds me a lot of Vince Locke’s classic style. One has to wonder: is this the origin we are going to be fed in the movie?
SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #26: Superman is chasing after the Fortress of Solitude that Vandal Savage stole only to find that it has merged with the Stormwatch Carrier and the Justice League Watchtower. Savage tells the Puzzler that they need the Fortress to capture the comet that gave Vandal his powers. Superman busts in to battle Savage and his crew but is stopped by a force field. Vandal and his twins leave as Wonder Woman arrives, but she can’t get him free either. The twins return to battle Superman and Wonder Woman while a tractor beam grabs the comet and pulls it to Earth. Unfortunately, the Thermosphere and Superman can’t hold it up and it crashes to Earth with him under it. The next chapter is in SUPERMAN #49.
Peter J. Tomasi and Doug Mahnke give us another killer chapter in the continuing saga of a depowered Superman. We all know Tomasi writes a great story and the same is true with Mahnke’ art. This title falls off the schedule in the REBIRTH era, as TRINITY is probably absorbing it in the process.
SUPERMAN #49: Continued from SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #26. Wonder Woman struggles to free Superman from the wreckage of the Thermosphere. Luckily Lois lane and her personal guardian Metallo arrive and he helps to dig him out. Savage is pretty disappointed to find that Superman has survived, but is thrilled that he has been able to latch onto the comet and now there will be enough power to give to all of his descendants throughout the world. But since Hordr_Root no longer has original body, he gets left out of the power distribution and Salvaxe kills him with an axe to the back of Hordr's head. As all of Savage’s offspring begin their attack, Mister Terrific and many of Superman’s Mythbrawl friends arrive to lend a hand. Metallo gets taken out and, to help the cause, offers his Kryptonite heart to Superman so the Man of Steel can continue the fight. John Corben gives his life and his heart to Superman.
Gene Luen Yang and Jack Herbert bring us one step closer to the resolution of this story. Hordr_Root is written out of the family, Savage brings his army together, and Metallo goes out a hero. Sure, the ending is a bit sappy, especially his comments about how his heart has always been for Lois alone but Superman’s heart is for everyone. But John Corben gets to leave the New 52 as a hero. Come June, this title will revert to #1, ship twice monthly and MAY be written by Peter J. Tomasi.
SUPERMAN LOIS AND CLARK #5: In a flashback, our Batman gets saved from a ninja’s arrow by Clark from the Pre-Flashpoint Earth. The flashback continues as Lois and Clark celebrates Jon’s 5th birthday. In the present, Clark is buried under a mountain and trying to free himself while Blanque convinces Hank to fly the spaceship hanging inside the Fortress. Lois calls Clark, but Blanque answers and threatens her and Jon. That’s when Clark breaks in and smashes Blanque in the mouth. But Blanque uses his telekinesis and uses a Khund War Suit against Clark. Henshaw saves the day as he uses the gun on the spaceship to take down Blanque and allow Clark to put the madman back in his cell. In the end, we meet the next big villain on Clark’s horizon and Lois tells her husband about running into Bruno Mannheim. Oh yeah: it looks like Jon may have discovered his father’s secret.
This book, along with TITANS HUNT, are the greatest surprises of the last batch of titles. I so expected this to fall flat but Dan Jurgens, with Neil Edwards handling the art, continues to absolutely amaze me. I mean, it’s obvious that Jurgens has a great love for these characters that he knows so well. This title will go away during the REBIRTH Era and, guessing here, will probably be replaced by THE SUPER-MAN. We’ll all have a better idea after the big DC Presentation at WonderCon during the first weekend in March.
SWAMP THING #2: We begin with Swamp Thing pulling himself back together after being ripped apart by Lazlo. He then heads to New Orleans, where he meets with Shade the Changing Man, who tells him that Lazlo was resurrected and turned him into a zombie buy his parents. Swamp Thing is given a needle, thread, and a bag of sea salt: the idea to fill Lazlo with salt and then sew his mouth up. He tracks Lazlo down, as the creature is going after his parents, and disposes of him using the salt. But Swamp thing leaves the deceased creature with his parents and, as they are trying to dispose of the body, the police show up and arrest them. In the end, The Phantom Stranger shows up to chat with Swamp Thing while Matt Cable checks into a motel near the swamp.
Len Wein jumps back into this character that he helped create and it feels like the good old days once again. And with Kelley Jones on board, the book looks like the days of Bernie Wrightson, as this was the book that thrust Wrightson into major popularity. This is a fun take on the classic character and it’s great to see Matt Cable back! Unfortunately, it is not slated on the schedule after REBIRTH, so enjoy this while you can.
TEEN TITANS #17: The Titans are off in the woods hiding from the police, but not very well as Cassie keeps hearing voices. This leads her to seek out her father, with the Titans in tow. That’s a good thing as suddenly hyena men show up and the real fight begins. They eventually defeat the creatures and end up inside the apartment, only to discover her dad’s decapitated head turned to stone. In pops her Aunt Cassandra who declares that Cassie is the Grand-Daughter of Zeus. Off they all go except for Tim, who is faced with Wonder Woman'’ wrath for trashing her apartment.
The minute that Greg Pak and Ian Churchill jumped on this book, the quality jumped up with it. What a fun issue! The story was a roller coaster that ties Cassie in to the gods of Olympus while Churchill’s art is so right for this book. A new number one will replace this title in the Fall but, until then, let’s see where this wild ride takes us.
TELOS #5: Telos leaves the rest of his group on Colu and heads off into battle. That’s when Parallax shows up to join the fight. He convinces Telos to build him his own Coast City in return for telling him where his family is. Telos agrees and Parallax reveals what he knows-which is a lost sector of space. He beats down Telos and goes off to rebuild his Coast City.
That’s quite the set-up for the finale! And it seems Parallax is making his presence felt through the New 52 in preparations for the REBIRTH. Jeff King and Igor Vitorino give us an action-packed issue that literally is non-stop action! The first half of the book is Telos wailing on the bad guys and then the “evil” Hal jumps in and does the same before screwing Telos over and beating him down too. Next issue is the finale and we’ll see if it’s a happy ending or not.
TITANS HUNT #5: In the past, Herald is captured by Mister Twister and told to climb a spiral staircase to save his friend. In the present, it seems the past is repeating itself. Over in Hatton Corners, Garth, Donna and Dick get filled in by a policeman on what happened with a monster here four years ago when the local kids called the Teen Titans to town to help. Dick decides they should investigate, saying that “Robin, Wonder Girl and Aqualad” can handle it, to the amazement of Donna and Garth. Dawn takes Hank to see Lilith and that’s when Roy and Gnarrk show up, leading to a big brawl. Hank becomes Hawk, Dawn becomes Dove and Lilith faints. As the trio heads into the forrest and confronts Mammoth, Mister Twister forces Herald to use his talent and play tha amplified spiral staircase horn.
I have said it before and will say it here again: I never thought this title would be as cool as it is. While we still don’t know how all of this ties together, and with REBIRTH looming and the NEW 52/DC YOU ending, maybe it doesn’t really matter. But Dan Abnett, with Paulo Siqueira and Geraldo Borges handling the art, nails this thing! I love seeing all these classic Titans showing up here. Now, with everything changing in June, I am still pretty positive that this title will lead into TITANS in July, although this was a 12 issue series, which means it will end in September, unless we get some double sized issues or a change thanks to DC Editorial.
WE ARE ROBIN #9: Smiley starts to make his presence felt among the punks of Gotham. Izzy discovers that she may be flunking out of school. Duke meets with her and explains how he found his parents, but they are unresponsive because of their exposure to the Joker Toxin. Riko beats up a racist in a convenience store while Dax tries out a grappling gun. Dre watches the news and learns of the troubling events surrounding Smiley’s parents. Later, when Smiley and his gang try to rob a family, a masked hero breaks it up, to the support of the kid in the family.
So, there is a reason why this book is off the schedule once REBIRTH rolls in. Just read this issue and you’ll see. While it tries to be a story that gives us some fleshing out of the core characters, it just becomes a laborious read as we get two page snippets of these characters. If you’re going to do an expose like this, give each character half the book or the full book. This was way too disjointed to enjoy and Smiley is just annoying. Lee Bermejo wrote it, Jorge Corona drew it and I read it…so you won’t have to.
WONDER WOMAN #49: Zola, Hera and Diana are going crazy because Zeke is sick and not waking up. Hera seems to think that his illness has to do with everything what has been going on with Olympus. Diana goes to the hidden temple of Gaia, but finds Hecate instead, who explains that Gaia won't respond to a god of Olympus. Hecate shows a vision where Hera convinces Zola to leave the baby with her. Diana needs to get three orbs from the bottom of Hera's scrying pool. In the process, Ares and Eirene, and then Artemis and Apollo come through, but Diana is unseen and gets the orbs. Unfortunately, she gets knocked out by a cyclops that carries her away.
Meredith and David Finch continue on their journey with the Amazon queen who is the God of War. It looks great, reads better than it has in past issues and has a nice cliffhanger ending. This title will ship twice monthly starting in July with a creative team to yet be revealed, possibly including Marguerite Bennett, at the helm. Maybe Diana will be back in her old uniform…or a white pantsuit!
In addition to all this, the other new DC REBIRTH titles coming in the Fall include BLUE BEETLE, SUPERGIRL, SUPERWOMAN, and SUPER SONS. As of this writing, there is no information floating about on these but a lot of speculation. Blue Beetle could either be Ted Kord, who is alive again thanks to CONVERGENCE, or Jaime Reis. Supergirl is currently in JUSTICE LEAGUE 3001 unless we want to have Power Girl come back from Earth 2 and do her thing here. The current Superwoman is a pregnant, evil one from the Crime Syndicate, although Earth-1 and Earth 2 Lois Lanes WERE Superwoman in the past. Or they could really screw around and make Power Girl Superwoman. And the Super Sons? Could they REALLY be reviving Batman Jr. and Superman Jr. from the old WORLD FINEST days? Don’t forget: in the New 52 Multiverse, the Chris Kent and Damian Wayne lived on Earth-16 as Superman and Batman. Heck…they could even bring back the ORIGINAL Nightwing and Flamebird!
Stay tuned, fans!
This is just what you want and need in a JUSTICE LEAGUE book: non-stop action! Geoff Johns continues to give us a knockout of a story and Jason Fabok totally kills it in the art category. He brings it with three gorgeous two-page spreads and two great looking splash pages. This all comes to an end in JUSTICE LEAGUE: DARKSEID WAR #1. And then, with REBIRTH, the book will ship twice a month.
JUSTICE LEAGUE 3001 #9: Lady Styx has given Terrance Magnus new powers and he is now Eclipso, who will be in command over her Legion of Death in the upcoming battle against the new Justice League. Meanwhile, Supergirl and Ice are trying to figure out how to save the Universe while Wonder Woman, Flash and Batgirl find the remains of Cadmus. That’s when the Scullions arrive and the battle begins, with Flash saving the day by identifying their weaknesses. Supergirl and Ice head to the planet Bohdi, which was the first planet Lady Styx conquered. But all they find is a wasteland and a giant monster. In the back up, Lois Lane and Ariel Masters discuss Lois’ plans for the universe.
This title is off the schedule when the NEW 52/DC YOU ends and REBIRTH begins and I, for one, will be very sad to see it go. I so love the way Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis write together and have been a long-time fan of their combined work on various DC titles. Scott Kolins provides the art for the main story while they always talented Colleen Doran turns it loose on the back up. So, by my calculation, we have three more issues to get this whole thing sorted out. Personally, I hope that Giffen and DeMatteis get their hands on a new title post REBIRTH…maybe someone in Editorial can resurrect PLASTIC MAN or even THE CREEPER.
MARTIAN MANHUNTER #9: We begin with John Constantine trying to recover from a night of drinking with a lady demon when he notices there’s another Mars coming our way. That sends him running out wearing only his trenchcoat. Back on Mars, the giant robots are battling each other while Daryl and The Pearl are trying to come to grips with themselves. J’onn J’onzz transforms into a giant robot too and Alicia agrees to team up with him rather than arrest him. In the end, Mister Biscuits makes his way to the Martian child who plans to tell Biscuits how the Martian Manhunter was created.
I have said that this is one of the weirdest and strangest titles out there. Well, Rob Williams continues to baffle us all with his style and story. The art is from Eddy Barrows, Ronan Cliquet, and RB Silva and it looks great, as expected. This title is off the schedule once REBIRTH kicks in, so enjoy it while you can.
MIDNIGHTER #9: Midnighter is talking with his Spyral handler about how Task Force X has stolen the Perdition Pistol as he is waiting to be shot out of a railgun towards their Crow's Nest space station. He battles his way through a defender in a Mercury Mantle, but his super speed is no help and Midnighter takes him out. Our hero finds something interesting and then proceeds to blow up the station along with the Perdition Pistol. Back at Spyral, he tells Helena that Henry Bendix is involved with Task Force X. Next stop, Boston where Midnighter and his friends eat jalapeno poppers, drink some tall cold ones and talk about Robert’s documentary. While they are out shooting the documentary, members of the Suicide Squad show up and, because of a character called Afterthought, Midnighter gets his butt whipped.
So the highlight of this book was…the reintroduction of Henry Bendix? Wow! If there was a true lunatic in the DC Universe, it was Bendix. He wasn’t a lunatic in the same way that The Joker is. Bendix was just a crazy megalomaniac. Major props to Steve Orlando, Aco, and Hugo Petrus for this beauty. So, I just want to know what will happen to our homosexual homicidal maniac come June, as this title is not on the schedule.
NEW SUICIDE SQUAD #17: We start out three months ago when two Americans from the Horus Organization run into problems in Moscow. One of the two, Adam, tells his partner Seraphine that the world needs is the Victory V’s. Over in Belle Reve, Waller is giving a tour to Mr. Ashemore, who is looking for Britain’s answer to Victory V. he gets to check out Cheetah, Harley Quinn, El Diablo, and Deadshot. Next, the team is sent to Hong Kong to protect a politician named Chen Ho from the Triads. Despite their best efforts, the Triads grab Chen Ho, while a strange blue beam kills all the Triads and the Suicide Squad.
Leave it to Tim Seeley and Juan Ferreyra to give us a thoroughly boring first half of this title and make it up with the last 10 pages. The whole deal with Moscow, Victory V, and Mr. Ashemore’s tour is just plain filler, unless the Moscow piece is some sort of set up for a future issue. But the action in the last 10 pages more than makes up for it. Come the Fall, this title goes away and get replaced by SUICIDE SQUAD, which will ship twice monthly. Hey-you knew this title wasn’t going away. There’s a movie coming!
POISON IVY CYCLE OF LIFE AND DEATH #2: Ivy is still reeling over the death of Doctor Cruz and goes about questioning some of her co-workers and eliminating them as suspects. Meanwhile, the cops are suspicious that Pamela Isley has no real history that they can find. But they also can’t see any reason to suspect her. In the end, Ivy delivers two seemingly human babies from her pregnant plant and Darshan find a dead Doctor Grimley. Guess when can rule Grimley out as a suspect, huh?
Amy Chu and Clay Mann deliver another issue which, unfortunately, spends far too much time with own green heroine playing detective.
RED HOOD/ARSENAL #9: We begin with Jason battling Iron Rule and not doing a very good job of it. But he is reminiscing about the training he got from Batman and Ducra. Meanwhile, Arsenal is in The Nethers, looking for Duela, and manages to get captured and brought to Charon. The good news is that they toss him into where they are holding Duela and that gives Charon more time to monologue about his master plan. Just then, Jason drops in…literally. Duela, no longer wearing Joker’s mask, apologizes to Charon and then tries to kill him and herself by jumping into the lava below. Roy saves her and in the end, she leaves her Joker face behind so the people of the Underground know someone is watching over them. Oh yeah-there’a cliffhanger that hints that Roy once led the Iron Rule before they became the zombies that Jason faced.
This truly is a title that DC doesn’t know what to do with. I thought that Scott Lobdell and Javier Fernandez MIGHT have been trying to turn this into a threesome with the addition of Duela, but now that she has left the mask behind, I doubt that’s gonna happen. Plus, there’s this whole thing with the Iron Rule? Well, either way, this title goes away in July and, once again, becomes…drum roll please…RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS! Last time around, it was Roy, Jay and Kori. This time? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
ROBIN, SON OF BATMAN #9: Damian watches as his father interacts with Julie and the kids at the Youth Center and then hangs out and watches his father while he sleeps. Then, he takes on a bunch of lame villains and defeats them, before heading underwater to battle Snowfox and Wunderfox, who are in Ducard’s ship. Just when things look their bleakest, Goliath shows up to pull him out. The Fox guys follow and explain that they’re mad because Maya paid them and then went dark, leaving them out of work. They leave him and Robin decides to spy on his friend. Dejected but happy for her, he heads back to the Bat cave, rounds up Titus the dog, Pennyworth the cat and Batcow, introduces them to Goliath and declares that it’s time to get to work.
So here’s a Bat-title that’s off the schedule with the REBIRTH event. Patrick Gleason, with inking assist from Mick Gray, continues to work wonders with this character. First off, Gleason’s writing is truly from the heart, even if his dialogue is sometimes a bit over the top. And his art is always top notch. I expect that the “Son of Batman” will make his way into something like the Teen Titans and that is where we’ll see him in action. Two Robins on one team? There’s a concept!
SECRET SIX #11: While Catman is walking the dog and the sheep/fly, Batgirl crosses his path and lead to a fight…after he leaves her with his bag of dog poop. The whole battle is based on the fact that Batgirl needs to talk to Strix, and she tells him Strix’ orgin as they head back to the team’s headquarter. Meanwhile, Porcelain is giving Strix a makeover, which takes a lot of work and a lot of makeup to accomplish. Big Shot gets a phone call from Sue Dibny, who he believed was dead, and she begs him to let her come home. Strix’ makeover is amazing but, in the end, she reverts back to her old self and busts the mirror. That night, Ralph heads out to meet Sue, with Black Alice and the Ventroloquist, tagging along. Unfortunately Lady Shiva attacks them, as she wants to recruit Strix for the League of Assassins.
I am SO MUCH A FAN of this book. Gail Simone continues to write a ravishingly weird story that puts all these misfits together. Dale Eaglesham blows away the level of artistic beauty on this book each and every time. It’s a complete artistic package as the inking of Tom Derenick and Jason Wright’s colors tie it all together. This book is off the schedule with the arrival of REBIRTH and I hate to see it go. This is such a quirky title, I can only hope there is a place for it in the future DCU.
SINESTRO #20: Sinestro’s Corps, complete with the new inductees such as Superman and Wonder Woman, are battling The Paling while Sinestro is fighting The Pale Bishop. The Corps provide him with their power and he destroys The Pale Bishop and thus the Pale Vicars also die. But the fight has taken far too much out of him and he turns over his leadership to his daughter Soranik.
Cullen Bunn and Brad Walker bring this act to a conclusion and it must have been easy to write as it’s all about the action this month! So, Soranik is the new Sinestro, so to speak, and you have to wonder if he is going to be out of action for some time, as this title is gone with REBIRTH. Or…is he going to be a part of HAL JORDAN & THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS?
STARFIRE #9: Atlee wants to take Stella and Kori to her home in the middle of the earth, so, after spending some time with a little creature named Syl’Khee…and also some sunabthing…they head off to the Everglades. Once there, they meet up with former Strata resident Billybob, who is the gatekeeper to Strata. He sends them off in an underwater bubble. Unfortunately, he goes back to his shack to find his sister in the clutches of an orange snake man who makes him give him a communicator in exchange for her safety. Once they arrive in Strata, Atlee is concerned as there are no guards around. Kori goes on ahead and lets out a scream, causing Atlee and Stella to comes running, where they find Atlee’s parents have staged a surprise party for her. The bad news is that King Neala-Tok has arrived to capture the city and kill anyone who resists.
Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti and guest artist Elsa Charretier turn in another lackluster issue. The plot is tired, the art is reminiscent of Darwyn Cooke (not a bad thing but not right for this title), and I really can’t stand most of the cast. This title is gone when REBIRTH happens and I can only guess that Kori will end up back with Jay and Roy in The Outlaws.Too many cheeky jokes, too much sexual innuendo and too much of Kori being a bubblehead.
SUICIDE SQUAD MOST WANTED-DEADSHOT AND KATANA #2: Katana saves the people of Markovia from Kobra but allows Lady Eve to escape. While Captain Narz tries to run out of town, she saves Violet Harper from a jail cell and they proceed off, complete with Harper going through withdrawal, to find the missing Dr. Jace. Lord Kobra, who threatens her with torture if she doesn’t comply with his requests, is holding the good doctor. Katana, Harper and stowaway Anna (and her cat) end up getting into a confrontation with Kobra’s team. Anna gets captured and Katana surrenders and is about to be executed when…the Suicide Squad arrives to take her instead.
In the second tale, Deadshot has gone off the grid and has come to where his father is. The story Floyd Lawton has always told of how his mother, father and brother died as a result of a drug deal gone bad, is a lie. His father used to beat him and his brother, so he decided to kill him. Unfortunately, Floyd’s sniper shot missed dad and kills his brother by mistake. He finds his father dying with his mother at his bedside reading to him from a Bible. Floyd is here to kill the man, but he dies before Floyd can exact his revenge. With mom cursing him out and blaming him for his brother’s death, Floyd executes her. He also discovers that they know of his daughter and he worries what they have told her. Meanwhile, Waller sends the Suicide Squad to come after him.
In the second issue of this mini-series, Katana lays a big fat egg, courtesy of Mike W. Barr and Diogenes Neves. The art by Neves is top notch but the story is filled with too many cliches for me. And I saw most of them played out in SEVEN SAMURAI and everything it inspired. I guess I’m most bugged by saddling our hero with a junkie, a kid and a cat. The Deadshot back-up, which I really felt unattached from last time, comes back with a vengeance as Brian Buccellato rewrites history and creates a completely new origin for Floyd Lawton. Viktor Bogdanovic’s art is great and reminds me a lot of Vince Locke’s classic style. One has to wonder: is this the origin we are going to be fed in the movie?
SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #26: Superman is chasing after the Fortress of Solitude that Vandal Savage stole only to find that it has merged with the Stormwatch Carrier and the Justice League Watchtower. Savage tells the Puzzler that they need the Fortress to capture the comet that gave Vandal his powers. Superman busts in to battle Savage and his crew but is stopped by a force field. Vandal and his twins leave as Wonder Woman arrives, but she can’t get him free either. The twins return to battle Superman and Wonder Woman while a tractor beam grabs the comet and pulls it to Earth. Unfortunately, the Thermosphere and Superman can’t hold it up and it crashes to Earth with him under it. The next chapter is in SUPERMAN #49.
Peter J. Tomasi and Doug Mahnke give us another killer chapter in the continuing saga of a depowered Superman. We all know Tomasi writes a great story and the same is true with Mahnke’ art. This title falls off the schedule in the REBIRTH era, as TRINITY is probably absorbing it in the process.
SUPERMAN #49: Continued from SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #26. Wonder Woman struggles to free Superman from the wreckage of the Thermosphere. Luckily Lois lane and her personal guardian Metallo arrive and he helps to dig him out. Savage is pretty disappointed to find that Superman has survived, but is thrilled that he has been able to latch onto the comet and now there will be enough power to give to all of his descendants throughout the world. But since Hordr_Root no longer has original body, he gets left out of the power distribution and Salvaxe kills him with an axe to the back of Hordr's head. As all of Savage’s offspring begin their attack, Mister Terrific and many of Superman’s Mythbrawl friends arrive to lend a hand. Metallo gets taken out and, to help the cause, offers his Kryptonite heart to Superman so the Man of Steel can continue the fight. John Corben gives his life and his heart to Superman.
Gene Luen Yang and Jack Herbert bring us one step closer to the resolution of this story. Hordr_Root is written out of the family, Savage brings his army together, and Metallo goes out a hero. Sure, the ending is a bit sappy, especially his comments about how his heart has always been for Lois alone but Superman’s heart is for everyone. But John Corben gets to leave the New 52 as a hero. Come June, this title will revert to #1, ship twice monthly and MAY be written by Peter J. Tomasi.
SUPERMAN LOIS AND CLARK #5: In a flashback, our Batman gets saved from a ninja’s arrow by Clark from the Pre-Flashpoint Earth. The flashback continues as Lois and Clark celebrates Jon’s 5th birthday. In the present, Clark is buried under a mountain and trying to free himself while Blanque convinces Hank to fly the spaceship hanging inside the Fortress. Lois calls Clark, but Blanque answers and threatens her and Jon. That’s when Clark breaks in and smashes Blanque in the mouth. But Blanque uses his telekinesis and uses a Khund War Suit against Clark. Henshaw saves the day as he uses the gun on the spaceship to take down Blanque and allow Clark to put the madman back in his cell. In the end, we meet the next big villain on Clark’s horizon and Lois tells her husband about running into Bruno Mannheim. Oh yeah: it looks like Jon may have discovered his father’s secret.
This book, along with TITANS HUNT, are the greatest surprises of the last batch of titles. I so expected this to fall flat but Dan Jurgens, with Neil Edwards handling the art, continues to absolutely amaze me. I mean, it’s obvious that Jurgens has a great love for these characters that he knows so well. This title will go away during the REBIRTH Era and, guessing here, will probably be replaced by THE SUPER-MAN. We’ll all have a better idea after the big DC Presentation at WonderCon during the first weekend in March.
SWAMP THING #2: We begin with Swamp Thing pulling himself back together after being ripped apart by Lazlo. He then heads to New Orleans, where he meets with Shade the Changing Man, who tells him that Lazlo was resurrected and turned him into a zombie buy his parents. Swamp Thing is given a needle, thread, and a bag of sea salt: the idea to fill Lazlo with salt and then sew his mouth up. He tracks Lazlo down, as the creature is going after his parents, and disposes of him using the salt. But Swamp thing leaves the deceased creature with his parents and, as they are trying to dispose of the body, the police show up and arrest them. In the end, The Phantom Stranger shows up to chat with Swamp Thing while Matt Cable checks into a motel near the swamp.
Len Wein jumps back into this character that he helped create and it feels like the good old days once again. And with Kelley Jones on board, the book looks like the days of Bernie Wrightson, as this was the book that thrust Wrightson into major popularity. This is a fun take on the classic character and it’s great to see Matt Cable back! Unfortunately, it is not slated on the schedule after REBIRTH, so enjoy this while you can.
TEEN TITANS #17: The Titans are off in the woods hiding from the police, but not very well as Cassie keeps hearing voices. This leads her to seek out her father, with the Titans in tow. That’s a good thing as suddenly hyena men show up and the real fight begins. They eventually defeat the creatures and end up inside the apartment, only to discover her dad’s decapitated head turned to stone. In pops her Aunt Cassandra who declares that Cassie is the Grand-Daughter of Zeus. Off they all go except for Tim, who is faced with Wonder Woman'’ wrath for trashing her apartment.
The minute that Greg Pak and Ian Churchill jumped on this book, the quality jumped up with it. What a fun issue! The story was a roller coaster that ties Cassie in to the gods of Olympus while Churchill’s art is so right for this book. A new number one will replace this title in the Fall but, until then, let’s see where this wild ride takes us.
TELOS #5: Telos leaves the rest of his group on Colu and heads off into battle. That’s when Parallax shows up to join the fight. He convinces Telos to build him his own Coast City in return for telling him where his family is. Telos agrees and Parallax reveals what he knows-which is a lost sector of space. He beats down Telos and goes off to rebuild his Coast City.
That’s quite the set-up for the finale! And it seems Parallax is making his presence felt through the New 52 in preparations for the REBIRTH. Jeff King and Igor Vitorino give us an action-packed issue that literally is non-stop action! The first half of the book is Telos wailing on the bad guys and then the “evil” Hal jumps in and does the same before screwing Telos over and beating him down too. Next issue is the finale and we’ll see if it’s a happy ending or not.
TITANS HUNT #5: In the past, Herald is captured by Mister Twister and told to climb a spiral staircase to save his friend. In the present, it seems the past is repeating itself. Over in Hatton Corners, Garth, Donna and Dick get filled in by a policeman on what happened with a monster here four years ago when the local kids called the Teen Titans to town to help. Dick decides they should investigate, saying that “Robin, Wonder Girl and Aqualad” can handle it, to the amazement of Donna and Garth. Dawn takes Hank to see Lilith and that’s when Roy and Gnarrk show up, leading to a big brawl. Hank becomes Hawk, Dawn becomes Dove and Lilith faints. As the trio heads into the forrest and confronts Mammoth, Mister Twister forces Herald to use his talent and play tha amplified spiral staircase horn.
I have said it before and will say it here again: I never thought this title would be as cool as it is. While we still don’t know how all of this ties together, and with REBIRTH looming and the NEW 52/DC YOU ending, maybe it doesn’t really matter. But Dan Abnett, with Paulo Siqueira and Geraldo Borges handling the art, nails this thing! I love seeing all these classic Titans showing up here. Now, with everything changing in June, I am still pretty positive that this title will lead into TITANS in July, although this was a 12 issue series, which means it will end in September, unless we get some double sized issues or a change thanks to DC Editorial.
WE ARE ROBIN #9: Smiley starts to make his presence felt among the punks of Gotham. Izzy discovers that she may be flunking out of school. Duke meets with her and explains how he found his parents, but they are unresponsive because of their exposure to the Joker Toxin. Riko beats up a racist in a convenience store while Dax tries out a grappling gun. Dre watches the news and learns of the troubling events surrounding Smiley’s parents. Later, when Smiley and his gang try to rob a family, a masked hero breaks it up, to the support of the kid in the family.
So, there is a reason why this book is off the schedule once REBIRTH rolls in. Just read this issue and you’ll see. While it tries to be a story that gives us some fleshing out of the core characters, it just becomes a laborious read as we get two page snippets of these characters. If you’re going to do an expose like this, give each character half the book or the full book. This was way too disjointed to enjoy and Smiley is just annoying. Lee Bermejo wrote it, Jorge Corona drew it and I read it…so you won’t have to.
WONDER WOMAN #49: Zola, Hera and Diana are going crazy because Zeke is sick and not waking up. Hera seems to think that his illness has to do with everything what has been going on with Olympus. Diana goes to the hidden temple of Gaia, but finds Hecate instead, who explains that Gaia won't respond to a god of Olympus. Hecate shows a vision where Hera convinces Zola to leave the baby with her. Diana needs to get three orbs from the bottom of Hera's scrying pool. In the process, Ares and Eirene, and then Artemis and Apollo come through, but Diana is unseen and gets the orbs. Unfortunately, she gets knocked out by a cyclops that carries her away.
Meredith and David Finch continue on their journey with the Amazon queen who is the God of War. It looks great, reads better than it has in past issues and has a nice cliffhanger ending. This title will ship twice monthly starting in July with a creative team to yet be revealed, possibly including Marguerite Bennett, at the helm. Maybe Diana will be back in her old uniform…or a white pantsuit!
In addition to all this, the other new DC REBIRTH titles coming in the Fall include BLUE BEETLE, SUPERGIRL, SUPERWOMAN, and SUPER SONS. As of this writing, there is no information floating about on these but a lot of speculation. Blue Beetle could either be Ted Kord, who is alive again thanks to CONVERGENCE, or Jaime Reis. Supergirl is currently in JUSTICE LEAGUE 3001 unless we want to have Power Girl come back from Earth 2 and do her thing here. The current Superwoman is a pregnant, evil one from the Crime Syndicate, although Earth-1 and Earth 2 Lois Lanes WERE Superwoman in the past. Or they could really screw around and make Power Girl Superwoman. And the Super Sons? Could they REALLY be reviving Batman Jr. and Superman Jr. from the old WORLD FINEST days? Don’t forget: in the New 52 Multiverse, the Chris Kent and Damian Wayne lived on Earth-16 as Superman and Batman. Heck…they could even bring back the ORIGINAL Nightwing and Flamebird!
Stay tuned, fans!
DC YOU Month 9, Part 1
ACTION COMICS #49: A young boy is being bullied but Vandal Savage's Black Mass changes him to his favorite character Salvaxe the barbarian king. Meanwhile, Superman busts out of his self-imposed Kryptonite prison, battles the Puzzlerbot and destroys it with one punch. Etta Candy warns Superman that the Kryptonite is still killing him, as he flies off to rendezvous with Wonder Woman. As they approach Savage's ship, Salvaxe attacks and he and Superman brawl. Wonder Woman tells Superman that Savage's ship blasted Jupiter and it looks like it’s going to pull it’s moons into itself. In the end, everything was a diversion for the REAL mission: stealing the Fortress of Solitude.
Want to know what happens next? Head over to SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #26. The “Savage Dawn” storyline rumbles on and…yay: Superman is getting repowered again. He has a new power set and I know we’ll see that develop as the months go on. What you need to know is that Greg Pak, Aaron Kuder and Ardian Syaf are responsible and this will probably all come to a head before the “rebirth” in June, when this title will be renumbered to #957 and ships twice a month! Double the pleasure…and possibly Dan Jurgens at the helm. STAY TUNED!
AQUAMAN #49: Mera and Arthur are hanging out at the lighthouse when Erika shows up and asks them to go to the Amnesty Sea Festival and bring friends. That means Tula, Garth and Murk are going with them with humorous results. Arthur tells Mera that he wants her to head the Atlantean embassy on land while he wants Tula to do the same in Atlantis. That means Mera treats herself to a new costume. Meanwhile, a mysterious creature or creatures seem to be making their way towards attacking the surface by attacking from a number of everyday water sources.
Wow! While the action wasn’t prevalent, Dan Abnett makes quite the impression in his first issue of this title. Abnett knows how to write a story and he demonstrates it here as he does a beautiful job of characterization here. Husband and wife are back together again and they are as sexy as they were in the first issues of this title. Vincente Cifuentes art is top notch and just the final image of Mera on the last page of the issue is enough to illustrate his ability. Come June, this title reboots to #1 and will ship twice monthly. It remains to be seem what the creative team will be, but I hop it could be this duo.
BATGIRL #48: A rooftop picnic between Batgirl and Batwing gets interrupted when the video game villains team known as Co-Op attempts a robbery. Batgirl has met these two before in the 8 page preview from last May but she has no memory of it. Back at her apartment, she finds Black Canary roughing up Greg, who she found rifling through Babs’ personal affairs. The pair do some digging and that leads them to the basement of the Hall of Records, where they battle the Fugue: the mystery figure from Barbara’s dreams. Quickly defeated, he is revealed as Greg, who quickly escapes in a jet tube. Unfortunately, it looks like Batgirl may be dead.
Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher give us another story of what I like to refer to as the teen Batgirl. Maybe it’s me: how do we go from a paralyzed Oracle to a crime-fighting member of the Birds of Prey to a seemingly juvenile Barbara Gordon. And I still do not like it. The industry actually refers to this transformation as the “Batgirling” of a character. While Stewart and Fletcher are good writers, it still doesn’t mean it makes for a pleasing character. Babs Tarr handles the art with some breakdowns by Rob Haynes. I cannot recommend the book only because I can’t picture THIS Batgirl being played by either Yvonne Craig OR Alicia Silverstone! And, by the looks of the new DC REBIRTH, July will see TWO Batgirl titles: BATGIRL #1 and BATGIRL & THE BIRDS OF PREY #1.
BATMAN #49: Despite his protestations, Alfred shows Bruce to the Batcave and explains how he destroyed the machine that Batman had created which would clone him and put all of Batman’s knowledge inside the clone's head. But he only destroyed the hard drive containing Batman’s mind, so the machine still works. Once strapped in, we learn that the machine is trying to force false memories of Batman onto Bruce's new mind. Alfred tries to convince Bruce not to erase his mind because that would be the equivalent of having Joe Chill kill Bruce’ parents again. Julie Madison shows up and, as she admits that she has always known Bruce was Batman, she presses the button that leads to Bruce experiencing brain death. They restart the machine and shove the Caped Crusader’s consciousness into Bruce's wiped mind. In the last panel, a dark, brooding Bruce says that it’s time to go to work.
First off, images or alternate timelines that never occurred bombards us. Once we wade through that, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV and Yanick Paquette take us on a tale we all knew what be coming once the DC Universe reacted to the NEW Batman. While we know that Snyder and Capullo, who are leaving with issue #51, are wrapping up their run, what we don’t know is what this NEW NEW Batman will display for his personality. What we do know is that this title gets a new number one issue in June, the book will ship twice monthly, and MAY have Tom King at the helm. And with Julie Madison knowing his identity, does this make her a new addition to the Batman family? I can’t wait for the next issue.
BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL #18-21: In issue #18, we find the Robins at St. Hadrian's where they are teaming up with Spyral to figure out what Mother’s end game is. In the flashback, Mother reveals to Batman that Cassandra is the person responsible for killing Harper’s mother. Then she bites a cyanide capsule, forcing Batman to save her even as the Arab boy rushes in with the police and attempt to apprehend the Dark Knight. In the present day, Harper is horrified by Orphan’s revelation to her and how Batman knew, but never made her his Robin. In the end, it seems that Mother is using an audio signal to trigger the Ichthy’s Virus, so they lock themselves down in the bowels of St. Hadrian's. They also realize that Harper is missing.
In issue #19, a bus filled with children triggered by crashes into a coffee shop in Suffolk and kills one of St. Hadrian's teachers. At St. Hadrian's, Paris Pantoja saves Miss Gold as the students attack. In the basement, Harper has freed Orphan and Poppy and Jason Todd has been taken down with the taser Harper carries. In Spyral Control Center, Tim figures out that Mother is after Spyral's Hypnos and the Somnus Satellite. Just then, he and Cassandra are taken over by the Virus, forcing Dr. Netz to hit Tim and Cassandra with Scarecrow's Fear Gas, which neutralizes the virus. They head down to find Jason and Harper and Cassandra puts the fear gas mask on Harper. It breaks her from Mother’s influence, but also allows her to see Cassandra as a monster, and attacks her.
In issue #20, St. Hadrian's is under attack by it's students that are being controlled by Mother's signal. Miss Gold and Paris Pantoja barricade themselves in the Gym while , Tim, Dr. Netz and Helena try to shut the signal down and Dick and Jason try to stop Harper from killing Cassandra. Dick and Helena end up battling Poppy and Orphan, who use their abilities to gain access to the Somnus Satellite. Tim succeeds in shutting down the signal just as the students are bursting into the gym. Somnus was created in case Dick ever wanted to have the world forget who he was. Unfortunately, Mother has access to that satellite. Luckily, Damian Wayne and Goliath are here.
Issue #21 is a complete flashback issue that begins with Harper Row holding her dead mother in her arms. Following this, Bruce goes to Eastern Europe to meet with Miss Marchenko regarding Mother’s history. She grew up in the principality of Gardevia where, one day, the Red Army came in and massacred the town. Mother was gravely injured but survived. That night, after digging herself out from under the bodies of the townspeople, she slit the throats of all the soldiers. She left Gardevia and hid out at Miss Marchenko’s home, killing her parents and declaring herself Miss Marchenko’s mother now. When Bruce leaves, the presumed dead Mother kills Marchenko. Back in Gotham, Batman tells Harper’s father that he will straighten up and take care of his family. And then the Dark Knight goes back to the Batcave and erases all traces of his computer records about Mother.
And the end is now near. So, Batman has a pretty good sized skeleton in his closet. James Tynion IV, Scott Snyder, Tim Seeley, Ed Brisson and Scot Eaton are responsible for the stories in these for issues while Paul Pelletier, Roge Antonio, Geraldo Borges, and Tony S. Daniel handle the artwork. Five issues to go…
BATMAN BEYOND #9: While the refugees desperately try to talk their way into New Gotham, Batman heads off to Metropolis to find Matt McGinnis. He disguises himself and goes to a shantytown to get some information that sends him off to what is left of the Justice League Watchtower. Matt is already there, but the animal men capture him before he can get closer to the remains. Batman arrives and fights them, but loses and is turned over to their Dr. Cuvier. During the fight, John Stewart's ring flies out of Matt’s pocket and he gives chased, leading him right into the Watchtower where he finds the preserved bodies of the Justice League.
Dan Jurgens and Bernard Chang continue to make this a better book that I truly expected it to be. If you were a fan of the television series, then you will start to recognize these characters who are dropping in. First off, we have Superman, Aquagirl, Big Barda, Green Lantern and Warhawk, although I thought we saw a robotic version of Barda destroyed. With the appearance of Dr. Abel Cuvier, we now know that the animal men are Splicers and the result of his experiments. Sorry-I was REALLY HOPING that we would get Kamandi out of all of this. What all this means is that Jurgens and Chang need to wrap this up in the next few issues as this title will get a new first issue when BATMAN BEYOND goes through REBIRTH in the Fall.
BATMAN SUPERMAN #29: The father of the dead alien arrives on the moon and Superman goes off to investigate a spaceship that is filled with angry aliens. It seems they are using a Kryptonian to power their ship. But leave it to Batman, who suspected it was a trap and the alien girl’s father is responsible for it. Lobo shows up and confirms that the alien father hired him to kill of Batman. The Dark knight has rigged the spaceship with explosives and sets them off, scarring Lobo and angering the alien. He tries to warn Superman, but it’s too late, as he is attacked by the freed Kryptonian.
Considering that Kal-El was supposed to be the sole survivor of the planet Krypton (well…except for all those Kandorians), we have had an awful lot of Kryptonians showing up lately. Tom Taylor writes a great second part to this tale, Robson Rocha, the talent that was behind LOBO, illustrates it, and the whole thing rocks! There is some great, humorous dialogue between Batman and Superman and it makes me miss this team, since we have been dealing with a brief Jim Gordon/Superman team. It’s up to Taylor to now find a way to finish this off before the Fall as this title and SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN will go away and be merged into a new title called TRINITY.
BLACK CANARY #8: The police interrogate the band about the supposed deaths of Ditto and Kurt, but fail miserably, leading to the band being released. Outside the station house, they get handed an envelope containing a flyer for a show in Berlin and a note from Kurt explaining that Dinah is in trouble. On the plane, they discover that Ditto and Maeve are going to Berlin too. Meanwhile, Dinah and Vixen are being held in an abandoned Nazi amphitheater in Germany where Dinah is forced to battle a group of armed warriors while a mysterious blonde woman Vixen calls Grey Eyes watches. Dinah is powerless thanks to a collar bolted around her neck and Vixen is also powerless because Grey Eyes has her totem. The white ninja arrives and explains that she is Dinah’s Aunt Rena and this is all part of a plan to infiltrate Grey Eyes’ organization and find out who is killing people connection to Dinah’s mother’s martial arts institution. Vixen purposely starts a fight with Dinah which leads to the guards arriving and forces Dinah to take them down, ruining her aunt’s plans. She removes the collar and takes down Grey Eyes, which allows Vixen to get her totem back. The pair head back to America while Black Canary and Maeve arrive in Germany.
Brenden Fletcher bombards us with all sorts of important information in this issue, although I still don’t get this whole book. I mean, I don’t get the whole Kurt Lance time traveling thing. The revelation that the white ninja is Dinah’s aunt can only make me believe that we will see mom in the near future. Guest artist Sandy Jarrell does an okay job, but certainly is no Annie Wu. The DC REBIRTH in June seems to leave this title out in the cold and the fact that the cover DC has revealed for the May issue seems to echo that a change is on the way. Since BATGIRL & THE BIRDS OF PREY is on tap, I assume the band is breaking up and Dinah and Babs team-up again.
CATWOMAN #49: Croc has Catwoman in his clutches and plans on cashing in on the million buck Penguin is offering for her. Luckily, Batgirl arrives and unknowingly to makes the save while showing up to arrest Selina for murder. As the pair fight, Croc makes his way back into the game and takes Batgirl down. Just when it looks like he is going to collect his bounty, Gotham PD helicopters arrive and Croc creates a diversion to allow her to escape. No sooner does she reach ground level, she runs into the Riddler, but she knocks him out and gets away. It turns out that the Frost Diamond is really a fake that contains a USB drive with all of Penguin’s blackmail files on it. Selina goes to meet with the one person she believes she can trust-Bruce Wayne. But Bruce isn’t the person he used to be and he has notified the police and that means she’s busted…again!
I like this run by Frank Tieri so much, except for what I see as a really bad couple of plot points in this issue. Why is Batgirl is Gotham City? Did she get tired of being in Burnside or did DC Editorial forget to tell Tieri about this development. And how come Bruce, with his memory gone, doesn’t have the beard he has been sporting since his battle with the Joker? Other than that this issue, with guest art by Inaki Miranda, was nicely done. Oh wait: this will come to a conclusion soon as this title is off DC’s title list come REBIRTH.
CONSTANTINE: THE HELLBLAZER #9: Constantine and Papa Midnite are being tortured by Neron in the city of Dis in the Ninth circle of Hell. He pulls out Constantine’s heart and lets his chest heal, so he can do it again later on. Neron tells how he plans to get every human to sell their souls so they can learn the secrets of magic. Constantine’s demon lover Blythe shows up and offers to get him and Midnite out, as long as he takes her with him, which he agrees to do. He also finds out that Midnite didn’t poison Oliver and only pretended to do so to gain John’s help. Using his blood, Blythe opens a doorway and he splits, leaving Midnite and Blythe behind. Constantine finds himself being attacked by evil elves and a centaur.
Ming Doyle & James Tynion IV have ramped out the action in the last two issues and it has made the book a million times better! Our hero and Papa Midnite find themselves in Hell and the dialogue couldn’t be wittier! Riley Rossmo adds to the delight with some spacey art and that just makes the whole thing that much more fun. This title goes away come July and gets replaced by THE HELLBLAZER. DC is still barely releasing info about the new series, so what we will get when it arrives is anyone’s guess right now.
CYBORG #8: Almost two months ago, Cyborg and his father discuss the upcoming Cybernetics Regulation Act and what it will mean from Victor. Then he shows his dad the ghost of his mother that had been hanging around as of late. Meanwhile, the government drafts Zirrozinski to work for them. Cyborg and Shazam fight and defeat a villain known as The Zookeeper. That’s when Zirrozinski and the governemnt show up and try to arrest Cyborg
Someone PLEASE tell me that, come the Fall when this title goes twice monthly, that it is going to get better! PLEASE! David Walker wrote it and some of his dialogue is just so corny! Things are so bad, and I don’t know if we blame Walker, artists Felipe Watanabe, Daneil Hdr and Julio Ferreira, or DC Editorial, but there is a conversation between Victor and his father with a word balloon attributed to dad that I think should be Victor’s. Why is dad asking his son to “pass the syrup” when he has it in his hands? And that’s just the surface of this. Badly executed time jumps, a slimly veiled plot and worst of all, the bad dialogue, and this book needs to be rebooted badly!
DEATHSTROKE #15: Slade finds himself in an issue long battle against Lex Luthor’s Bizarro clones that ends when he creates an energy loop that shuts them down. His search for Rose leads him to a box with what he fears may be a part of her but turns out to be her comb with some hair on it. It seems a character known as the lawman has her and he is making her watch all the developments happening that is involving Slade. Continuing his search he runs into Victor, who saves him from a sniper. Not satisfied, Slade attacks Victor only to be interrupted by Red Hood, who challenges Deathstroke to a fight.
Enough with the lame crossovers and long, boring fight sequences that lead nowhere. James Bonny is just going through the motions as far as I’m concerned and it’s a good thing that he has Tyler Kirkham handling the art, because that’s what saves this book. He brings us two spectacular two-page spreads and a pair of equally amazing splash pages. Beyond that, this book doesn’t have much to offer. Here’s hoping that come the Fall, when this book ships twice monthly, that the quality will be better.
DETECTIVE COMICS #49: Batman is investigating the latest mysterious historical murder, as we have a corpse in Alan Shepard’s spacesuit. That causes Batman to end up at the Old World’s fair Exposition Grounds where he brings his detective talents into use. Meanwhile, someone in a Joan of Arc face mask kidnaps a young woman and tries to burn her at the stake. Batman makes the save, but the bad guy gets away in the process. This allows him to stage a new act, featuring a bunch of Union soldiers being paraded down Aparo Avenue.
Right off the bat, let me say that the tag team of Fernando Pasarin and Matt Ryan makes this book just look amazing! There are a couple of spots where the gymnastics that Jim Gordon is performing looks a bit impossible, but that’s minor. Many an artist has made careers with overblown proportions in their style. Peter J. Tomasi is writing a really wild tale that keeps posing more questions than answers. I love the back and forth between Bullock and Gordon, especially Bullock showing how much he is a NASA geek. And when we next see DETECTIVE COMICS in June, it will be bi-weekly, begin it’s numbering where the pre New 52 continuity left off with issue #934, and might POSSIBLY be written by Scott Snyder. One thing for certain is that is ships twice monthly.
DOCTOR FATE #9: There are protesters at the United Nations and they are being severely beaten by possessed New York City Police officers. Khalid gathers them up in a fence and drops them into the river, waking them from their trance. Then he splits the street in half, to separate the protesters from the police. He decides to look for Akila and finds that she was arrested by the police, which leads him to the police station where he gives them a mild electric shock and breaks her out. He heads to the Egyptian consulate looking for the others who were arrested and finds them in holding cells in the basement. Unfortunately, the ghosts of Egypt are there too and bearing arms.
Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew do their best to try and make this series fun and interesting, but I just can’t get a warm, fuzzy feeling for this book. I don’t like Khalid’s character or any of the supporting cast. And I know that many people out there would throw the Race card at me, but that has nothing to do with it. I just find them all so flat and one-dimensional. Here we are, nine issues in, and he’s still whining about trying to be a hero. He is certainly NO KENT NELSON. And DC must agree too, as this book is gone from the lineup when REBIRTH happens.
EARTH 2: SOCIETY #9: Ark Home Colony and Erebus City on the verge of war and the Wonders are doing their best to let cooler heads prevail. Commander Sato and Sandman become aware of a situation in Clearwater Valley, they send Power Girl to handle it, and she gets an assist from Green Lantern. Meanwhile, Batman, Red Arrow, and Wildcat are teaming up to take down the Energy Company that has been stealing and murdering. Flash, Val-Zod and Captain Steel have discovered that this planet is a lie-there are no natural resources here and this planet is not capable of sustaining human life. In the end, Kendra finds out that Amazons have replaced everyone who was on Fury’s ship.
Dan Abnett and Jorge Jimenez are doing their best to make this series interesting but, unfortunately, this book goes nowhere. And I love Abnett’s history of work, but this is not a great one. When the NEW 52 Earth 2 characters were introduced, I relished them as they were just different enough to work. While the mainstream media were whining about Green Lantern being gay, I welcomed the change and where it could go in the character’s motivations. But that was a long time ago and all these characters do is taken up space on a page. This title will go away in the Fall and replaced by a new EARTH 2 title. I can only hope that the classic Earth 2 comes home!
FLASH #48: Captain Frye explains that Barry's new assignment is as the forensics specialist on a task force made up of The Rogues. The goal is to catch The Flash and this leaves Barry a bit concerned, of course. Frye has drone’s send out throughout the city to track The Flash’s speed energy. Meanwhile, Barry heads off to have a coffee with his father but a planned accident in the Industrial District causes Barry to put on his costume and head there, not knowing that it’s a trap. He rescues two stranded workers, but Frye and the Rogues arrive and begin fighting The Flash. He wins and gets away while we see that Wally is at home and experiencing strange, speed related vibrations. Meanwhile, the mysterious character who started the fire in the Industrial District is toying around with a new experiment: Heat Wave.
Robert Venditti and Van Jensen weave another great FLASH story and enjoy it while you can as Jensen will be leaving the book after issue #51. Jesus Merino makes his debut on art, handling both pencils and inks and while it’s not Brett Booth, I love his work. Starting in June, this title will go back to #1 and ship twice monthly. Rumors have been flying that we may see Wally West, a WHITE Wally West, back in the fold. All of this remains to be seen. I just hope Flash maintains some classic traditions and doesn’t become an adaptation influenced by the television show.
FLASH #49: Trickster is meeting with the mysterious stranger, which causes him to be late for a meeting with the rest of the Rogues and increases the tension between them. Meanwhile, Wally experiences a burst of Speed Force energy and that triggers the drones, leading the Rogues to his school. This leads The Flash to the school to battle them but, when Trickster appears to attack one of the students, it turns out to be a swerve that traps our hero. Frye and The Rogues have arrested the Flash.
We get a double dose of the Scarlet Speedster this month as issue #48 was late last month. Again, Robert Venditti and Van Jensen provide the story while Philippe Briones is doing the art. The shudder moment for me was the variant cover by Neal Adams and Frank Miller. If you had any doubts about Miller’s waning art ability, just check out the cover.
GOTHAM ACADEMY #15: “Yearbook” continues with a series of stories. The first story features Maps and Colton as they spy on the staff party, featuring such characters as Egghead and Bookworm. In the second story, Olive and Maps meet a magic crow while playing Serpents and Secrets and end up in a real life game where they face off against a Lich. Our heroes retrieve a special book and it gets returned to the rightful owner, who wants to know why someone wanted his wife’s special locket that was hidden inside. The final story follows Professor McPherson's dog who has a hiding spot for many of Gotham Academy’s treasures.
Brenden Fletcher, Adam Archer, Zac Gorman, Eduardo Medeiros, Rafael Albuquerque, and Helen Chen pool their talents to give us four more previously untold tales of Gotham Academy. I have to admit that these “Yearbook” issues feel like fillers to me. I want a story not a bunch of cute vignettes. Although I have to admit to being totally captivated by Gorman’s first story, featuring Egghead and Bookworm. I bet Vincent Price and Roddy McDowell would be thrilled with the way they were presented. My guess is that this is all we will get until the title ends and it gets replaced by GOTHAM ACADEMY NEXT SEMESTER in the Fall.
GRAYSON #17: We begin with Grifter chatting with Tao and trying to get him to piece the puzzle of Helena Bertinelli together. Their ultimate goal: kill Helena. Meanwhile, Agent 1 and 37 are in Honduras to meet with Maxwell Lord and Checkmate and have to deal with Frankenstein and a bunch of crazed monkeys. Our heroes go to Mexico City where they get into it with Grifter and Keshi and figure out that Spyral is the real target.
Well, this was a bit of a bummer. Tim Seeley and Tom King seemingly fell down on the job on this one as the usually rocking story fell flat. Maybe it has to do with this being their swan song as the last three issues of the title will be be Jackson Lanzig and Collin Kelly. While it was nice to see Grifter back in the game, he was totally underutilized and the appearance of tao was wasted here. And to have Carmine DiGiandomenico fill in for Mikel Janin was another mistake, as his line work is not up to Janin’s incredible work. The last three issues of this title will be by Roge Antonio. GRAYSON is nearing the end of his time in Spyral as this title, which will be published twice monthly starting in July, will be replaced by NIGHTWING.
GREEN ARROW #49: Back in Seattle, Ollie is trying to deal with the racists making speeches about the Wargs. He goes off to a Queen Industries business meeting that all goes to hell and leads to a fight between a beastly Oliver and a Korean gangster named The Kraken. The Kraken gets away and Oliver’s potential business partner gets killed in the process. Luckily Emiko shows up and hits him with a tranquilizer arrow, allowing her to capture him and inject him with something to take the Warg out of him. Meanwhile, the Patriots work on their plan to break Marrock out of the Super Max he is in. In the end, Oliver realizes a war is coming and neither side is worth fighting for.
I am still having a tough time warming up to Ben Percy’s work on the Emerald Archer, but it is getting better. It’s just that I want the Oliver Queen who fought against authority, was a Mayor with an iron fist and got it on with Black Canary. On the plus side, Ollie is not a werewolf anymore and Szymon Kudranski’s art delivers! This team has three months to finish this up because this title goes back to #1 in June and rolls out twice monthly.
GREEN LANTERN #49: Hal flips out while watching the television report on his attack on the Modoran training camp. Unfortunately, that leads to a fight with his brother Jim over it, which leads to Hal heading off the United Nations to stop a potential attack. Hal busts in, puts a green muzzle on everyone and collects their translators before they explode. Saving everyone there, Hal receives their applause and adulation. In the end, Howard comes out of his coma and the Modorans blow up their hideout, preparing to fight another day. Oh wait: the OTHER Hal is ready to meet our Hal and keep him from destroying Coast City.
Robert Venditti continues this tale of Hal on the road to possible ruin while the parallax Hal prepares to duke it out with him. Personally, I cannot wait! Martin Coccolo provides the pencils with the exception of the final page, which is by Billy Tan. This title will ship twice monthly in June as it will become GREEN LANTERNS. Personally, that tells me the title will feature Hal and Hal. Well…that could be fun!
GREEN LANTERN CORPS EDGE OF OBLIVION #2: The Lanterns discover Mukmuk and that the creature known as Marniel, who lives within Perduron, is to blame. Then Marniel sends out her followers and they destroyed the planet’s engines. The team saves the planet but Marniel fires off missiles causing Arisia and B'dg to be sucked into a void. And that leads to an upset Guy punching Kolowog in the mouth in frustration.
Tom Taylor gives us a disappointing second chapter that seems to throw a lot of stuff at us with no real payoff, as far as I see. Either way, Ethan Van Sciver still turns in a kick-ass performance on the artistic side. But the downside is that he is off this book after the next issue to go work on REBIRTH. This book is only a six-issue series and it drops off the schedule in July, when it is replaced by the twice monthly title HAL JORDAN & THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS.
HARLEY’S LITTLE BLACK BOOK #2: Two guys meet a dying alien who hands them a box that has Green, Black, and Red Lantern power rings inside. The rings go up on WeBay and Geoff Johns outbids Harley for the Green ring. The Black and Red rings get joined together because of their clumsiness and that’s where they fun begins as Harley buys it. When the ring arrives, she gets super evil and Hal Jordan gets involved to try and stop her, which leads to a Power Ring arm wrestling match over the Brooklyn Bridge. An Azakarian warship arrives to reclaim their ring that Harley proceeds to lose in the battle against them. So she steals Hal’s ring and beats up the bad guys a giant mallet. With victory assured, Hal kisses Harley and she squeezes his butt. Meanwhile, the London Legion of Heroes have arrived in Coney Island to hang out with Harley.
This title is off the schedule come the REBIRTH and it’s a good thing. While Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner are quite good at writing smarmy innuendoes and stuff into Harley’s books, it just doesn’t work for a 38 page comic. John Timms and Mauricet share the art duties and it’s just okay. Again, my biggest complaint is that the book is too long and doesn’t have enough to make me laugh. Sure, there is a couple of great jokes but spread throughout a book of this length, it just doesn’t work.
HARLEY QUINN #25: Poison Ivy comes to visit her friend Harley, who is looking to get into Arkham and bust out Mason. After some quality time together, she makes her way into Arkham and unleashes a gas that “Ferrignofies” the guards and most of the inmates. She gets Mason out of his cell, but finds herself being tempted and taunted by The Joker, who is in the cell next door. Harley goes in and that leads to a knock down, drag out fight between the two, complete with Harley biting off the Clown Prince’ lower lip. Once outside, the pair chats until Ivy shows up in the Batboat. Of course, that means Batman is here too, along with Queenie, Eggy, Tony and Madame Macabre. Batman puts Mason into witness protection and his mom is going with him, so she leaves Harley in charge of her business. In the end, Harley has big dreams and big ideas.
Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner brings this story to a close with promises of even more craziness in the months to come. Chad Hardin brings his usual A Game to the artwork and the fact that he has a way with the female figure helps! Come the Fall, this title will ship twice monthly. With the other Harley title off the schedule and the hope that the multiple mini-series and one shots will end, maybe the husband and wife team can truly concentrate on making their ONE BOOK a real winner.
Want to know what happens next? Head over to SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #26. The “Savage Dawn” storyline rumbles on and…yay: Superman is getting repowered again. He has a new power set and I know we’ll see that develop as the months go on. What you need to know is that Greg Pak, Aaron Kuder and Ardian Syaf are responsible and this will probably all come to a head before the “rebirth” in June, when this title will be renumbered to #957 and ships twice a month! Double the pleasure…and possibly Dan Jurgens at the helm. STAY TUNED!
AQUAMAN #49: Mera and Arthur are hanging out at the lighthouse when Erika shows up and asks them to go to the Amnesty Sea Festival and bring friends. That means Tula, Garth and Murk are going with them with humorous results. Arthur tells Mera that he wants her to head the Atlantean embassy on land while he wants Tula to do the same in Atlantis. That means Mera treats herself to a new costume. Meanwhile, a mysterious creature or creatures seem to be making their way towards attacking the surface by attacking from a number of everyday water sources.
Wow! While the action wasn’t prevalent, Dan Abnett makes quite the impression in his first issue of this title. Abnett knows how to write a story and he demonstrates it here as he does a beautiful job of characterization here. Husband and wife are back together again and they are as sexy as they were in the first issues of this title. Vincente Cifuentes art is top notch and just the final image of Mera on the last page of the issue is enough to illustrate his ability. Come June, this title reboots to #1 and will ship twice monthly. It remains to be seem what the creative team will be, but I hop it could be this duo.
BATGIRL #48: A rooftop picnic between Batgirl and Batwing gets interrupted when the video game villains team known as Co-Op attempts a robbery. Batgirl has met these two before in the 8 page preview from last May but she has no memory of it. Back at her apartment, she finds Black Canary roughing up Greg, who she found rifling through Babs’ personal affairs. The pair do some digging and that leads them to the basement of the Hall of Records, where they battle the Fugue: the mystery figure from Barbara’s dreams. Quickly defeated, he is revealed as Greg, who quickly escapes in a jet tube. Unfortunately, it looks like Batgirl may be dead.
Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher give us another story of what I like to refer to as the teen Batgirl. Maybe it’s me: how do we go from a paralyzed Oracle to a crime-fighting member of the Birds of Prey to a seemingly juvenile Barbara Gordon. And I still do not like it. The industry actually refers to this transformation as the “Batgirling” of a character. While Stewart and Fletcher are good writers, it still doesn’t mean it makes for a pleasing character. Babs Tarr handles the art with some breakdowns by Rob Haynes. I cannot recommend the book only because I can’t picture THIS Batgirl being played by either Yvonne Craig OR Alicia Silverstone! And, by the looks of the new DC REBIRTH, July will see TWO Batgirl titles: BATGIRL #1 and BATGIRL & THE BIRDS OF PREY #1.
BATMAN #49: Despite his protestations, Alfred shows Bruce to the Batcave and explains how he destroyed the machine that Batman had created which would clone him and put all of Batman’s knowledge inside the clone's head. But he only destroyed the hard drive containing Batman’s mind, so the machine still works. Once strapped in, we learn that the machine is trying to force false memories of Batman onto Bruce's new mind. Alfred tries to convince Bruce not to erase his mind because that would be the equivalent of having Joe Chill kill Bruce’ parents again. Julie Madison shows up and, as she admits that she has always known Bruce was Batman, she presses the button that leads to Bruce experiencing brain death. They restart the machine and shove the Caped Crusader’s consciousness into Bruce's wiped mind. In the last panel, a dark, brooding Bruce says that it’s time to go to work.
First off, images or alternate timelines that never occurred bombards us. Once we wade through that, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV and Yanick Paquette take us on a tale we all knew what be coming once the DC Universe reacted to the NEW Batman. While we know that Snyder and Capullo, who are leaving with issue #51, are wrapping up their run, what we don’t know is what this NEW NEW Batman will display for his personality. What we do know is that this title gets a new number one issue in June, the book will ship twice monthly, and MAY have Tom King at the helm. And with Julie Madison knowing his identity, does this make her a new addition to the Batman family? I can’t wait for the next issue.
BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL #18-21: In issue #18, we find the Robins at St. Hadrian's where they are teaming up with Spyral to figure out what Mother’s end game is. In the flashback, Mother reveals to Batman that Cassandra is the person responsible for killing Harper’s mother. Then she bites a cyanide capsule, forcing Batman to save her even as the Arab boy rushes in with the police and attempt to apprehend the Dark Knight. In the present day, Harper is horrified by Orphan’s revelation to her and how Batman knew, but never made her his Robin. In the end, it seems that Mother is using an audio signal to trigger the Ichthy’s Virus, so they lock themselves down in the bowels of St. Hadrian's. They also realize that Harper is missing.
In issue #19, a bus filled with children triggered by crashes into a coffee shop in Suffolk and kills one of St. Hadrian's teachers. At St. Hadrian's, Paris Pantoja saves Miss Gold as the students attack. In the basement, Harper has freed Orphan and Poppy and Jason Todd has been taken down with the taser Harper carries. In Spyral Control Center, Tim figures out that Mother is after Spyral's Hypnos and the Somnus Satellite. Just then, he and Cassandra are taken over by the Virus, forcing Dr. Netz to hit Tim and Cassandra with Scarecrow's Fear Gas, which neutralizes the virus. They head down to find Jason and Harper and Cassandra puts the fear gas mask on Harper. It breaks her from Mother’s influence, but also allows her to see Cassandra as a monster, and attacks her.
In issue #20, St. Hadrian's is under attack by it's students that are being controlled by Mother's signal. Miss Gold and Paris Pantoja barricade themselves in the Gym while , Tim, Dr. Netz and Helena try to shut the signal down and Dick and Jason try to stop Harper from killing Cassandra. Dick and Helena end up battling Poppy and Orphan, who use their abilities to gain access to the Somnus Satellite. Tim succeeds in shutting down the signal just as the students are bursting into the gym. Somnus was created in case Dick ever wanted to have the world forget who he was. Unfortunately, Mother has access to that satellite. Luckily, Damian Wayne and Goliath are here.
Issue #21 is a complete flashback issue that begins with Harper Row holding her dead mother in her arms. Following this, Bruce goes to Eastern Europe to meet with Miss Marchenko regarding Mother’s history. She grew up in the principality of Gardevia where, one day, the Red Army came in and massacred the town. Mother was gravely injured but survived. That night, after digging herself out from under the bodies of the townspeople, she slit the throats of all the soldiers. She left Gardevia and hid out at Miss Marchenko’s home, killing her parents and declaring herself Miss Marchenko’s mother now. When Bruce leaves, the presumed dead Mother kills Marchenko. Back in Gotham, Batman tells Harper’s father that he will straighten up and take care of his family. And then the Dark Knight goes back to the Batcave and erases all traces of his computer records about Mother.
And the end is now near. So, Batman has a pretty good sized skeleton in his closet. James Tynion IV, Scott Snyder, Tim Seeley, Ed Brisson and Scot Eaton are responsible for the stories in these for issues while Paul Pelletier, Roge Antonio, Geraldo Borges, and Tony S. Daniel handle the artwork. Five issues to go…
BATMAN BEYOND #9: While the refugees desperately try to talk their way into New Gotham, Batman heads off to Metropolis to find Matt McGinnis. He disguises himself and goes to a shantytown to get some information that sends him off to what is left of the Justice League Watchtower. Matt is already there, but the animal men capture him before he can get closer to the remains. Batman arrives and fights them, but loses and is turned over to their Dr. Cuvier. During the fight, John Stewart's ring flies out of Matt’s pocket and he gives chased, leading him right into the Watchtower where he finds the preserved bodies of the Justice League.
Dan Jurgens and Bernard Chang continue to make this a better book that I truly expected it to be. If you were a fan of the television series, then you will start to recognize these characters who are dropping in. First off, we have Superman, Aquagirl, Big Barda, Green Lantern and Warhawk, although I thought we saw a robotic version of Barda destroyed. With the appearance of Dr. Abel Cuvier, we now know that the animal men are Splicers and the result of his experiments. Sorry-I was REALLY HOPING that we would get Kamandi out of all of this. What all this means is that Jurgens and Chang need to wrap this up in the next few issues as this title will get a new first issue when BATMAN BEYOND goes through REBIRTH in the Fall.
BATMAN SUPERMAN #29: The father of the dead alien arrives on the moon and Superman goes off to investigate a spaceship that is filled with angry aliens. It seems they are using a Kryptonian to power their ship. But leave it to Batman, who suspected it was a trap and the alien girl’s father is responsible for it. Lobo shows up and confirms that the alien father hired him to kill of Batman. The Dark knight has rigged the spaceship with explosives and sets them off, scarring Lobo and angering the alien. He tries to warn Superman, but it’s too late, as he is attacked by the freed Kryptonian.
Considering that Kal-El was supposed to be the sole survivor of the planet Krypton (well…except for all those Kandorians), we have had an awful lot of Kryptonians showing up lately. Tom Taylor writes a great second part to this tale, Robson Rocha, the talent that was behind LOBO, illustrates it, and the whole thing rocks! There is some great, humorous dialogue between Batman and Superman and it makes me miss this team, since we have been dealing with a brief Jim Gordon/Superman team. It’s up to Taylor to now find a way to finish this off before the Fall as this title and SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN will go away and be merged into a new title called TRINITY.
BLACK CANARY #8: The police interrogate the band about the supposed deaths of Ditto and Kurt, but fail miserably, leading to the band being released. Outside the station house, they get handed an envelope containing a flyer for a show in Berlin and a note from Kurt explaining that Dinah is in trouble. On the plane, they discover that Ditto and Maeve are going to Berlin too. Meanwhile, Dinah and Vixen are being held in an abandoned Nazi amphitheater in Germany where Dinah is forced to battle a group of armed warriors while a mysterious blonde woman Vixen calls Grey Eyes watches. Dinah is powerless thanks to a collar bolted around her neck and Vixen is also powerless because Grey Eyes has her totem. The white ninja arrives and explains that she is Dinah’s Aunt Rena and this is all part of a plan to infiltrate Grey Eyes’ organization and find out who is killing people connection to Dinah’s mother’s martial arts institution. Vixen purposely starts a fight with Dinah which leads to the guards arriving and forces Dinah to take them down, ruining her aunt’s plans. She removes the collar and takes down Grey Eyes, which allows Vixen to get her totem back. The pair head back to America while Black Canary and Maeve arrive in Germany.
Brenden Fletcher bombards us with all sorts of important information in this issue, although I still don’t get this whole book. I mean, I don’t get the whole Kurt Lance time traveling thing. The revelation that the white ninja is Dinah’s aunt can only make me believe that we will see mom in the near future. Guest artist Sandy Jarrell does an okay job, but certainly is no Annie Wu. The DC REBIRTH in June seems to leave this title out in the cold and the fact that the cover DC has revealed for the May issue seems to echo that a change is on the way. Since BATGIRL & THE BIRDS OF PREY is on tap, I assume the band is breaking up and Dinah and Babs team-up again.
CATWOMAN #49: Croc has Catwoman in his clutches and plans on cashing in on the million buck Penguin is offering for her. Luckily, Batgirl arrives and unknowingly to makes the save while showing up to arrest Selina for murder. As the pair fight, Croc makes his way back into the game and takes Batgirl down. Just when it looks like he is going to collect his bounty, Gotham PD helicopters arrive and Croc creates a diversion to allow her to escape. No sooner does she reach ground level, she runs into the Riddler, but she knocks him out and gets away. It turns out that the Frost Diamond is really a fake that contains a USB drive with all of Penguin’s blackmail files on it. Selina goes to meet with the one person she believes she can trust-Bruce Wayne. But Bruce isn’t the person he used to be and he has notified the police and that means she’s busted…again!
I like this run by Frank Tieri so much, except for what I see as a really bad couple of plot points in this issue. Why is Batgirl is Gotham City? Did she get tired of being in Burnside or did DC Editorial forget to tell Tieri about this development. And how come Bruce, with his memory gone, doesn’t have the beard he has been sporting since his battle with the Joker? Other than that this issue, with guest art by Inaki Miranda, was nicely done. Oh wait: this will come to a conclusion soon as this title is off DC’s title list come REBIRTH.
CONSTANTINE: THE HELLBLAZER #9: Constantine and Papa Midnite are being tortured by Neron in the city of Dis in the Ninth circle of Hell. He pulls out Constantine’s heart and lets his chest heal, so he can do it again later on. Neron tells how he plans to get every human to sell their souls so they can learn the secrets of magic. Constantine’s demon lover Blythe shows up and offers to get him and Midnite out, as long as he takes her with him, which he agrees to do. He also finds out that Midnite didn’t poison Oliver and only pretended to do so to gain John’s help. Using his blood, Blythe opens a doorway and he splits, leaving Midnite and Blythe behind. Constantine finds himself being attacked by evil elves and a centaur.
Ming Doyle & James Tynion IV have ramped out the action in the last two issues and it has made the book a million times better! Our hero and Papa Midnite find themselves in Hell and the dialogue couldn’t be wittier! Riley Rossmo adds to the delight with some spacey art and that just makes the whole thing that much more fun. This title goes away come July and gets replaced by THE HELLBLAZER. DC is still barely releasing info about the new series, so what we will get when it arrives is anyone’s guess right now.
CYBORG #8: Almost two months ago, Cyborg and his father discuss the upcoming Cybernetics Regulation Act and what it will mean from Victor. Then he shows his dad the ghost of his mother that had been hanging around as of late. Meanwhile, the government drafts Zirrozinski to work for them. Cyborg and Shazam fight and defeat a villain known as The Zookeeper. That’s when Zirrozinski and the governemnt show up and try to arrest Cyborg
Someone PLEASE tell me that, come the Fall when this title goes twice monthly, that it is going to get better! PLEASE! David Walker wrote it and some of his dialogue is just so corny! Things are so bad, and I don’t know if we blame Walker, artists Felipe Watanabe, Daneil Hdr and Julio Ferreira, or DC Editorial, but there is a conversation between Victor and his father with a word balloon attributed to dad that I think should be Victor’s. Why is dad asking his son to “pass the syrup” when he has it in his hands? And that’s just the surface of this. Badly executed time jumps, a slimly veiled plot and worst of all, the bad dialogue, and this book needs to be rebooted badly!
DEATHSTROKE #15: Slade finds himself in an issue long battle against Lex Luthor’s Bizarro clones that ends when he creates an energy loop that shuts them down. His search for Rose leads him to a box with what he fears may be a part of her but turns out to be her comb with some hair on it. It seems a character known as the lawman has her and he is making her watch all the developments happening that is involving Slade. Continuing his search he runs into Victor, who saves him from a sniper. Not satisfied, Slade attacks Victor only to be interrupted by Red Hood, who challenges Deathstroke to a fight.
Enough with the lame crossovers and long, boring fight sequences that lead nowhere. James Bonny is just going through the motions as far as I’m concerned and it’s a good thing that he has Tyler Kirkham handling the art, because that’s what saves this book. He brings us two spectacular two-page spreads and a pair of equally amazing splash pages. Beyond that, this book doesn’t have much to offer. Here’s hoping that come the Fall, when this book ships twice monthly, that the quality will be better.
DETECTIVE COMICS #49: Batman is investigating the latest mysterious historical murder, as we have a corpse in Alan Shepard’s spacesuit. That causes Batman to end up at the Old World’s fair Exposition Grounds where he brings his detective talents into use. Meanwhile, someone in a Joan of Arc face mask kidnaps a young woman and tries to burn her at the stake. Batman makes the save, but the bad guy gets away in the process. This allows him to stage a new act, featuring a bunch of Union soldiers being paraded down Aparo Avenue.
Right off the bat, let me say that the tag team of Fernando Pasarin and Matt Ryan makes this book just look amazing! There are a couple of spots where the gymnastics that Jim Gordon is performing looks a bit impossible, but that’s minor. Many an artist has made careers with overblown proportions in their style. Peter J. Tomasi is writing a really wild tale that keeps posing more questions than answers. I love the back and forth between Bullock and Gordon, especially Bullock showing how much he is a NASA geek. And when we next see DETECTIVE COMICS in June, it will be bi-weekly, begin it’s numbering where the pre New 52 continuity left off with issue #934, and might POSSIBLY be written by Scott Snyder. One thing for certain is that is ships twice monthly.
DOCTOR FATE #9: There are protesters at the United Nations and they are being severely beaten by possessed New York City Police officers. Khalid gathers them up in a fence and drops them into the river, waking them from their trance. Then he splits the street in half, to separate the protesters from the police. He decides to look for Akila and finds that she was arrested by the police, which leads him to the police station where he gives them a mild electric shock and breaks her out. He heads to the Egyptian consulate looking for the others who were arrested and finds them in holding cells in the basement. Unfortunately, the ghosts of Egypt are there too and bearing arms.
Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew do their best to try and make this series fun and interesting, but I just can’t get a warm, fuzzy feeling for this book. I don’t like Khalid’s character or any of the supporting cast. And I know that many people out there would throw the Race card at me, but that has nothing to do with it. I just find them all so flat and one-dimensional. Here we are, nine issues in, and he’s still whining about trying to be a hero. He is certainly NO KENT NELSON. And DC must agree too, as this book is gone from the lineup when REBIRTH happens.
EARTH 2: SOCIETY #9: Ark Home Colony and Erebus City on the verge of war and the Wonders are doing their best to let cooler heads prevail. Commander Sato and Sandman become aware of a situation in Clearwater Valley, they send Power Girl to handle it, and she gets an assist from Green Lantern. Meanwhile, Batman, Red Arrow, and Wildcat are teaming up to take down the Energy Company that has been stealing and murdering. Flash, Val-Zod and Captain Steel have discovered that this planet is a lie-there are no natural resources here and this planet is not capable of sustaining human life. In the end, Kendra finds out that Amazons have replaced everyone who was on Fury’s ship.
Dan Abnett and Jorge Jimenez are doing their best to make this series interesting but, unfortunately, this book goes nowhere. And I love Abnett’s history of work, but this is not a great one. When the NEW 52 Earth 2 characters were introduced, I relished them as they were just different enough to work. While the mainstream media were whining about Green Lantern being gay, I welcomed the change and where it could go in the character’s motivations. But that was a long time ago and all these characters do is taken up space on a page. This title will go away in the Fall and replaced by a new EARTH 2 title. I can only hope that the classic Earth 2 comes home!
FLASH #48: Captain Frye explains that Barry's new assignment is as the forensics specialist on a task force made up of The Rogues. The goal is to catch The Flash and this leaves Barry a bit concerned, of course. Frye has drone’s send out throughout the city to track The Flash’s speed energy. Meanwhile, Barry heads off to have a coffee with his father but a planned accident in the Industrial District causes Barry to put on his costume and head there, not knowing that it’s a trap. He rescues two stranded workers, but Frye and the Rogues arrive and begin fighting The Flash. He wins and gets away while we see that Wally is at home and experiencing strange, speed related vibrations. Meanwhile, the mysterious character who started the fire in the Industrial District is toying around with a new experiment: Heat Wave.
Robert Venditti and Van Jensen weave another great FLASH story and enjoy it while you can as Jensen will be leaving the book after issue #51. Jesus Merino makes his debut on art, handling both pencils and inks and while it’s not Brett Booth, I love his work. Starting in June, this title will go back to #1 and ship twice monthly. Rumors have been flying that we may see Wally West, a WHITE Wally West, back in the fold. All of this remains to be seen. I just hope Flash maintains some classic traditions and doesn’t become an adaptation influenced by the television show.
FLASH #49: Trickster is meeting with the mysterious stranger, which causes him to be late for a meeting with the rest of the Rogues and increases the tension between them. Meanwhile, Wally experiences a burst of Speed Force energy and that triggers the drones, leading the Rogues to his school. This leads The Flash to the school to battle them but, when Trickster appears to attack one of the students, it turns out to be a swerve that traps our hero. Frye and The Rogues have arrested the Flash.
We get a double dose of the Scarlet Speedster this month as issue #48 was late last month. Again, Robert Venditti and Van Jensen provide the story while Philippe Briones is doing the art. The shudder moment for me was the variant cover by Neal Adams and Frank Miller. If you had any doubts about Miller’s waning art ability, just check out the cover.
GOTHAM ACADEMY #15: “Yearbook” continues with a series of stories. The first story features Maps and Colton as they spy on the staff party, featuring such characters as Egghead and Bookworm. In the second story, Olive and Maps meet a magic crow while playing Serpents and Secrets and end up in a real life game where they face off against a Lich. Our heroes retrieve a special book and it gets returned to the rightful owner, who wants to know why someone wanted his wife’s special locket that was hidden inside. The final story follows Professor McPherson's dog who has a hiding spot for many of Gotham Academy’s treasures.
Brenden Fletcher, Adam Archer, Zac Gorman, Eduardo Medeiros, Rafael Albuquerque, and Helen Chen pool their talents to give us four more previously untold tales of Gotham Academy. I have to admit that these “Yearbook” issues feel like fillers to me. I want a story not a bunch of cute vignettes. Although I have to admit to being totally captivated by Gorman’s first story, featuring Egghead and Bookworm. I bet Vincent Price and Roddy McDowell would be thrilled with the way they were presented. My guess is that this is all we will get until the title ends and it gets replaced by GOTHAM ACADEMY NEXT SEMESTER in the Fall.
GRAYSON #17: We begin with Grifter chatting with Tao and trying to get him to piece the puzzle of Helena Bertinelli together. Their ultimate goal: kill Helena. Meanwhile, Agent 1 and 37 are in Honduras to meet with Maxwell Lord and Checkmate and have to deal with Frankenstein and a bunch of crazed monkeys. Our heroes go to Mexico City where they get into it with Grifter and Keshi and figure out that Spyral is the real target.
Well, this was a bit of a bummer. Tim Seeley and Tom King seemingly fell down on the job on this one as the usually rocking story fell flat. Maybe it has to do with this being their swan song as the last three issues of the title will be be Jackson Lanzig and Collin Kelly. While it was nice to see Grifter back in the game, he was totally underutilized and the appearance of tao was wasted here. And to have Carmine DiGiandomenico fill in for Mikel Janin was another mistake, as his line work is not up to Janin’s incredible work. The last three issues of this title will be by Roge Antonio. GRAYSON is nearing the end of his time in Spyral as this title, which will be published twice monthly starting in July, will be replaced by NIGHTWING.
GREEN ARROW #49: Back in Seattle, Ollie is trying to deal with the racists making speeches about the Wargs. He goes off to a Queen Industries business meeting that all goes to hell and leads to a fight between a beastly Oliver and a Korean gangster named The Kraken. The Kraken gets away and Oliver’s potential business partner gets killed in the process. Luckily Emiko shows up and hits him with a tranquilizer arrow, allowing her to capture him and inject him with something to take the Warg out of him. Meanwhile, the Patriots work on their plan to break Marrock out of the Super Max he is in. In the end, Oliver realizes a war is coming and neither side is worth fighting for.
I am still having a tough time warming up to Ben Percy’s work on the Emerald Archer, but it is getting better. It’s just that I want the Oliver Queen who fought against authority, was a Mayor with an iron fist and got it on with Black Canary. On the plus side, Ollie is not a werewolf anymore and Szymon Kudranski’s art delivers! This team has three months to finish this up because this title goes back to #1 in June and rolls out twice monthly.
GREEN LANTERN #49: Hal flips out while watching the television report on his attack on the Modoran training camp. Unfortunately, that leads to a fight with his brother Jim over it, which leads to Hal heading off the United Nations to stop a potential attack. Hal busts in, puts a green muzzle on everyone and collects their translators before they explode. Saving everyone there, Hal receives their applause and adulation. In the end, Howard comes out of his coma and the Modorans blow up their hideout, preparing to fight another day. Oh wait: the OTHER Hal is ready to meet our Hal and keep him from destroying Coast City.
Robert Venditti continues this tale of Hal on the road to possible ruin while the parallax Hal prepares to duke it out with him. Personally, I cannot wait! Martin Coccolo provides the pencils with the exception of the final page, which is by Billy Tan. This title will ship twice monthly in June as it will become GREEN LANTERNS. Personally, that tells me the title will feature Hal and Hal. Well…that could be fun!
GREEN LANTERN CORPS EDGE OF OBLIVION #2: The Lanterns discover Mukmuk and that the creature known as Marniel, who lives within Perduron, is to blame. Then Marniel sends out her followers and they destroyed the planet’s engines. The team saves the planet but Marniel fires off missiles causing Arisia and B'dg to be sucked into a void. And that leads to an upset Guy punching Kolowog in the mouth in frustration.
Tom Taylor gives us a disappointing second chapter that seems to throw a lot of stuff at us with no real payoff, as far as I see. Either way, Ethan Van Sciver still turns in a kick-ass performance on the artistic side. But the downside is that he is off this book after the next issue to go work on REBIRTH. This book is only a six-issue series and it drops off the schedule in July, when it is replaced by the twice monthly title HAL JORDAN & THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS.
HARLEY’S LITTLE BLACK BOOK #2: Two guys meet a dying alien who hands them a box that has Green, Black, and Red Lantern power rings inside. The rings go up on WeBay and Geoff Johns outbids Harley for the Green ring. The Black and Red rings get joined together because of their clumsiness and that’s where they fun begins as Harley buys it. When the ring arrives, she gets super evil and Hal Jordan gets involved to try and stop her, which leads to a Power Ring arm wrestling match over the Brooklyn Bridge. An Azakarian warship arrives to reclaim their ring that Harley proceeds to lose in the battle against them. So she steals Hal’s ring and beats up the bad guys a giant mallet. With victory assured, Hal kisses Harley and she squeezes his butt. Meanwhile, the London Legion of Heroes have arrived in Coney Island to hang out with Harley.
This title is off the schedule come the REBIRTH and it’s a good thing. While Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner are quite good at writing smarmy innuendoes and stuff into Harley’s books, it just doesn’t work for a 38 page comic. John Timms and Mauricet share the art duties and it’s just okay. Again, my biggest complaint is that the book is too long and doesn’t have enough to make me laugh. Sure, there is a couple of great jokes but spread throughout a book of this length, it just doesn’t work.
HARLEY QUINN #25: Poison Ivy comes to visit her friend Harley, who is looking to get into Arkham and bust out Mason. After some quality time together, she makes her way into Arkham and unleashes a gas that “Ferrignofies” the guards and most of the inmates. She gets Mason out of his cell, but finds herself being tempted and taunted by The Joker, who is in the cell next door. Harley goes in and that leads to a knock down, drag out fight between the two, complete with Harley biting off the Clown Prince’ lower lip. Once outside, the pair chats until Ivy shows up in the Batboat. Of course, that means Batman is here too, along with Queenie, Eggy, Tony and Madame Macabre. Batman puts Mason into witness protection and his mom is going with him, so she leaves Harley in charge of her business. In the end, Harley has big dreams and big ideas.
Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner brings this story to a close with promises of even more craziness in the months to come. Chad Hardin brings his usual A Game to the artwork and the fact that he has a way with the female figure helps! Come the Fall, this title will ship twice monthly. With the other Harley title off the schedule and the hope that the multiple mini-series and one shots will end, maybe the husband and wife team can truly concentrate on making their ONE BOOK a real winner.
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