DC YOU Month 14

BATMAN BEYOND #14: Beginning with Tim and Matt out on a run, Matt tells the tale of when he found out that Terry was Batman. Batman was fighting Shriek and Matt is collateral damage in the process. At the hospital, as he is feeling guilty, Terry tells Matt about his double life. In the end, Tim takes Matt to Wayne Manor and the Batcave and Matt gives a short glance at the Robin costume in the glass case. Meanwhile, Spellbinder, in the guise of an old woman, has convinced Terry that he is Davis Dusk.

Wait: how is Terry alive when he is dead? I’m confused! Thank you Dan Jurgens for telling a great story and throwing in a couple of major curveballs while Bernard Chang continues to provide us with great looking visuals. So, we all know this series is winding down and getting rebooted with Terry back in the suit. Does that mean his brother becomes Robin? And what happens to Tim? Wait a few months and we’ll know!

BLOODLINES #4: Officer Blake and Haley have their night in bed interrupted by Duncan, who wants to kill them before they get a chance to become monsters. Meanwhile, Eddie, Dana and Albert are hanging out at Pine Ridge High School when they hear screaming coming from the big homecoming football game. There they find a gigantic monster made up of the bodies of several people attacking and absorbing more people. Luckily, Blake, Haley, and Duncan show up to help in the fight and the six of them take the parasite-infected person down. In the end, the local infected priest talks with his equally infected parishioners.
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Ugh…is this series done yet? J.T. Krul gives us another issue of this mini-series and it just plods along. Krul’s dialogue is fine, but the plot just rumbles about and goes nowhere. We could have had the events in this issue drop in place in issue #2 and we would be none the worse. V. Ken Marion handles the art and I have no problem with it, as it is very reminiscent of Brett Booth’s work. But that is truly the high point.

DEATHSTROKE #20: We begin in the now, with Deathstroke and Ra's al Ghul are dueling it out on Danger Island. Flashing back to earlier, Deathstroke, Rose, Jericho, and Ra’s agree to go to Danger Island to take down Snakebite and company, who are preparing for their arrival. Upon arriving, the two teams battle, with Slade demanding that no one takes Victor down. As the battle winds down, Ra’s offers to spare the lives of their opponents if they swear allegiance to the League of Assassins, which they all do. All but Victor, who is killed by Slade before he gets a chance to say otherwise. This is what leads to the opening battle we saw. Jericho steps in an threatens to kill everyone with his power unless the duo stop fighting, which they do. Ra’s releases Slade from his allegiance and leaves, while Slade orders his kids to leave him.

James Bonny and Paolo Pantalena bring this chapter in the life of Slade Wilson to a close. I was a huge fan of this series when it began, thanks to Tony S. Daniel, who was the creative force behind it. But that didn’t last long as he left the book and I lost a lot of interest. I like the idea of bringing Slade’s kids back into the NEW 52 and really liked a bunch of thew supporting cast of villains. But I was never a fan of the “Slade gets young” and all and I can only hope this is corrected during his upcoming REBIRTH run.

DOCTOR FATE #14: Kent Nelson berates Khalid for leaving a doorway to open after he returned from the land of the dead, which let a monkey djinn loose in New York. So, it’s up to Khalid to go off and spend the rest of the issue closing the door to Anubis' world. We also get a back-up story dealing with racial prejudice and how Dr. Fate uses his powers to calm an angry mob.

I’m sorry: I want the REAL Dr. Fate back. Not Khalid, not even this version of Kent Nelson. Paul Levitz and Inaki Miranda gave us the main story, which totally feels like a fill-in story. The back-up is by Levitz and Breno Tamura and also feels like a fill-in. So…we get a full issue with nothing to move the story of our hero along. In fact, it’s the same every issue: Khalid gets a near impossible task that he must accomplish on his own and spends most of his time whining about it before he actually goes off and gets it done.

EARTH 2 SOCIETY #14: Batman, Khalid, Power Girl and Huntress tell Fury about their idea to use the Pandora Vessel to bring the old Earth 2 back to life. She proceeds to tell them their plan is ludicrous and dangerous. The Ultra-Humanite's altered group of children show up and try to take the casket. Turncoat steals Power Girl's powers, while Scalpel cuts up Captain Steel. Fury shows up, giving enough time for the Wonders to get Captain Steel some medical help. Firepattern arrives and reveals himself to his dad, Dick Grayson.

Dan Abnett is trying his best to tie all these multiple plots together before this series comes to an end. With the artistic help of Federico Dallochio and Angel Hernandez, Abnett turns out one of the best-written issues in awhile. While I really can’t stand this version of Dick Grayson, who spends way too much time continuing to whine and grieve the loss of his family, I do like where this story is going with father meeting son and ultimately resolving that. Will the old world get reborn? We’ll have to see in the next few issues. 

HARLEY QUINN #30: While Harley and the gang are watching a movie, she steps out for some snacks and steps into a weird world of her mind. Wait: it’s all in her mind as she has actually chained herself to a tree to save it and has been dreaming. She convinces Big Tony to take her place, so she can go handle her job at the Assisted Living Facility. By the time she gets back, the company looking to tear the tree down has upped its’ game and that means Harley calls out the big guns in the form of a Transformer type truck. But the “Man” has better ideas and that leads to the gang ending up at the local bar where the wait for Poison Ivy to show up. She ends up creating a whole jungle where a tree once stood and that’s how you get a happy ending.

When did all the villains becomes heroes? First harley and now Ivy and what is up with their relationship? Anyway, Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti and Elsa Charretier put an end to this series with this issue. But wait: DC’s answer to DEADPOOL is back next month with a brand new REBIRTH series which, I am sure, will pick up where this one left off. More of the same smutty dialogue, more of the usual Chad Hardin art and more one-shot specials.

LEGENDS OF TOMORROW #5: We begin the FIRESTORM tale with Ronnie and Jason back in high school and Professor Stein figuring out where Multiplex is. Ronnie doesn't know if he should take that football scholarship and Jason is trying to interview for an internship again. Of course we know what happens: Stein gets a lead on Danton Black that calls the boys back to him and allows himself and Ronnie to become Firestorm again. Not only has Black used a Quantum Field Generator that has shattered the boundaries of realities, Mulitplex is here to give Firestorm a butt whooping!

In the METAMORPHO tale, Metamorpho takes on and quickly defeats Kanjar Ro. Meanwhile, Sapphire Stagg, who took the Orb of Ra for her dad, regrets her decision and returns it. Unfortunately, she doesn’t bother to tell Rex that Java has arrived to handle the task himself by killing Rex.

In the SUGAR AND SPICE tale, Spike tells Bernie of his attraction to Sugar and how it all began. They were private investigators that ended up catching Computron violating his parole. Things looked bad until The Flash arrived to handle it. From that point on, they have been hired by the superhero community to deal with stuff they would rather have go away. In the end, Sugar calls to say they have been given office space in the museum they busted last issue.

In the METAL MEN tale, the old Metal Men and the new Metal Men battle it out to see who is the BEST Metal Men. The Calculator gets caught and…Chemo is back!

And one to go. Firestorm is by Gerry Conway and Eduardo Pansica, Metamorpho is by Aaron Lopresti, Sugar and Spice is by Keith Giffen and Bilquis Eveley, and Metal Men is by Len Wein and Yildiray Cinar. All in all, this is just an attempt to keep the name LEGENDS OF TOMORROW in the forefront and see if thee is some kind of interest in these characters. I’m not a fan of Firestorm or the way Sugar and Spice have been treated, although it has been nice to see some old characters come sliding into their tales. I have mixed  feelings about the other two, although I really like what Lopresti is doing with Metamorpho as a character and the look. And I would like some tweaking to Metal Men, specifically bringing Doc Magnus back as the "older" Doc Magnus. Personally, I would really like them to come back in legit REBIRTH stories.

NEW SUICIDE SQUAD #22: Harley Quinn analyzes Harley Quinn. She meets Batman, rides a roller coaster known as the Death Trap, flashes back to her childhood, her time as a doctor at Arkham Asylum, her father’s death, and more. In the end, Harley is in her cell at Belle Reve and hallucinated the whole thing.

While Sean Ryan does a great job of giving a look into the mind of Harley Quinn and Ronan Cliquet does a great job illustrating it, the book IS CALLED the NEW SUICIDE SQUAD, NOT THE CONTINUING ADVENTURES OF HARLEY QUINN. What a disappointing way to end this series. Hey kids: there’s a movie about these guys!

TEEN TITANS #22: The team finds Tim missing because he has been captured by Amanda Waller and is being held in Belle Reve Prison. The team tracks him down and it’s a full-on assault of Belle Reve. This is all a ruse though, as Tim has been free for some time and this is all to prove to Waller that they are their own team.
 
Really? This was all to prove a point? Sounds like a waste of time to be, Tony Bedard and Ian Churchill. And it was a waste for me as, although it was fun and looked great, it meant NOTHING to continuity or plot or anything!