LEGENDS OF TOMORROW #2: In the first story, Professor Stein has figured out that Jason's quantum waves are causing problems and begs them not to become Firestorm until he figures things out. His solution is to take the Firestorm Matrix away from Jason and transfer it to himself. That results in a Ronnie Raymond/Martin Stein Firestorm. Oh yeah: Multiplex is loose and General Eiling is gearing up Major Force for a battle with Firestorm. And Tonya reveals that she is gay.
In the second story, Java has accidentally freed Rex Mason, which allows Metamorpho and Sapphire to make a break for it. They head to Egypt where Rex tells her how the combined powers of the Orb of Ra and a chemical her dad had used on him to kill him resulted in his new form. Inside the Pyramid of Ahk-Ton, Metamorpho places the Orb into its’ receptacle and they are transported to a strange planet. Meanwhile, Simon Stagg is visited by Kanjar Ro who reminds him of a bargain that had.
In the third tale, Sugar & Spike have been sent by Superman to his Superman shaped island and retrieve the Kryptonite he has stored there. When they arrive there, they discover the construction team being held at gunpoint by a robot toy lady and her toy followers. The duo defeat her and make their way to Superman's Kryptonite room, where they retrieve the green rock and leave. But a mysterious lady who is using the robot’s eye to spy is unknowingly watching them and threatening that this means war.
In the fourth tale, Will Magnus manages to sneak out the decommissioned Metal Men and hides at Robot Man’s heavily fortified cabin in the woods. But, since Nameless can't get the Metal Men, he hacks his way into Dr. T.O. Morrow's project Cyclone, which causes Red Tornado to attack an amusement park to try and draw the Metal Men out of hiding.
Firestorm is by Gerry Conway and Eduardo Pansica and I don’t like the fact that Martin Stein looks like Victor Garber. Sorry…I want my comics to be a little separated from the television world. The Metamorpho story is by Aaron Lopresti. It looks great, even if I’m not a fan of his Sapphire’s strong character. I’m sorry: I liked her as a bit of a lovable ditz! Sugar and Spike is by Keith Giffen and Bisques Evely and has just enough fun moments to make it worth reading. Really-a Superman shaped island? Metal Men is by Len Wein and Yildiray Cinar and, while I love these characters…and Robotman and Red Tornado too, I have a dislike that Will Magnus is as young as he is. Personally, I liked the old pipe smoking Will Magnus who had a thing going on with Platinum. All in all, eight bucks is a bit hard to swallow all in one shot, but you do get four stories for that price.
MARTIAN MANHUNTER #11: Martian Manhunter and Pearl have gone through transformations and are ready to face off against Ma'alefa'ak, who has apparently killed Mr. Biscuits and buried Agent Wessel in a cave in. Ma'alefa'ak takes the Martian Child and Alicia, who will be his blood sacrifice to give life to Mars yet again. Over on Earth, Constantine, Etrigan, Zatanna, Sargon The Sorceress and Doctor Fate are at work to create a magical barrier to save Earth. Wessel believes that he's dying, but the living hand of the dead Mr. Biscuits convinces him that he needs to start acting like Martian Manhunter and he frees himself. Just as Ma'alefa'ak is ready to do the blood sacrifice with Alicia, Wessel arrives and shoves a spear through his head. The Martian Child sees Alicia ready to sacrifice herself for him and he realizes there is good qualities on Earth and drops the barrier around the planet so Martian Manhunter and Pearl can get through. But it may be too late as it seems that the planet is about to crash into Earth.
Wow! Thank you Steve Williams and Ben Oliver, filling in for Eddy Barrows, for giving us one incredible issue. Although we watch Mr. Biscuits storyline end, we do get some nice guest appearances and the end of the bad guy. Now it’s up to everyone to pull themselves together and save Earth. I feel that next issue will be a very emotional one and could be Williams’ finest hour.
MIDNIGHTER #11: Midnighter survived the explosion from last issue and wakes to find he was saved by and is being cared for by his former lover Apollo. The two of them team-up and head off to take on the various Suicide Squad members throughout the world including in Tacoma, Turkmenistan, Spyral Base, and a Suicide Squad Safe house. They take down everyone who had done Midnighter wrong before ending up in Modora, where they are ready foir a one-on-one with Bendix, who has managed to get the Kryptonian DNA he needed for the Unified.
Yes, this is one big fight issue with the loving couple back together again. It’s wild and violent thanks to the writing of Steve Orlando and the art of Aco. Next issue is a big finish and we’ll see if these do ride off into the sunset together.
NEW SUICIDE SQUAD #19: Adam Reed is a member of the Fist of Cain and his team of killer ninjas are eradicating a lot of Wildstorm heroes in a strange version of a game show where each hero is worth a certain number of points. Also, Reed promises the corpse of the Saint of Cain that he will personally kill Amanda Waller. And the Suicide Squad can’t escape or he will activate their neck bombs. So the surviving Wildstorm hero, Deathtrap, and the team join up to make their way through this. Meanwhile, Waller informs Mister Ashemore that she knows he is the former villainous Hunky Punk and it appears she wants him as part of the Squad. She also wakes up Captain Boomerang and it looks like a recue mission is under way.
A lot of blood and guts, a lot of action and a lot of Wildstorm heroes bite the dust.Thank you Tim Seeley and Juan Ferreyra for delivering a fun issue. And extra points for giving us a DC WHO’S WHO page featuring The Hunky Punk. Nicely played!
OMEGA MEN #11: Kyle Rayner, having seen the light, goes about buying an army to fight against the Citadel. He also gets his long lost crucifix back. Scrapps goes back to Broot's planet and forces the Pope to get her an army. Tigorr faces a trial by combat and he gains an army in the process. Primus goes on television, explains that he is a pacifist, but convinces the viewers that they need to go to war. Kalista kills her father and takes his place on the throne. The war rages for 182 until the Omega Men finally reach the home of the Citadel Empire.
Tom King and Barneby Bagenda totally bring it as this series winds down. I know many who were not fans of this run, but it did such an amazing job of redefining this team and also Kyle Rayner. I hope that his character will still maintain some of what he has learned when REBIRTH comes around. This is a series, much like PREZ, that needs to be re-examined in the future.
POISON IVY CYCLE OF LIFE AND DEATH #4: Catwoman is visiting Ivy and finds out that she has plant babies. Ivy also believes that her research has been stolen and that leads to Ivy, Catwoman, and Darshan breaking into the Botanical Gardens, where they find a bunch of dead researchers and Victor in the fridge. They also find a living plant girl and a bunch of failures in jars. Ivy flips out, kills Victor, and then uses her powers of the green to destroy the lab.
Amy Chu continues to write this rambling mini-series with pencils from Robson Rocha, Julio Ferreira, and Ethan Van Sciver. You know a book has issues when you have three pencillers working on it. The story just manages to promote the fact that Ivy is really not a bad girl after all. Sorry…you were a villain before DC made you into a role model for young girls!
RED HOOD/ARSENAL #11: We begin with Roy having a dream about his days with Iron Rule. He goes investigating and that leads to a final confrontation with them. Meanwhile, Jason and Duela talk about her starting school again and putting the whole concept of her being the Joker's Daughter behind her. Then he pulls out Joker’s face that she had hidden behind the baseboard and the jig is up. She dons the mask and pulls a gun
So this series is quickly coming to a merciful end. And I say merciful because the character that has been the most fun over the last few issues just got plugged in the chest. Bad move, folks…really bad move. Scott Lobdell write it and Dexter Soy drew it.
ROBIN, SON OF BATMAN #11: Robin, Goliath, Talia Al Ghul, Maya, the League of Assassins and Batman all converge on Gorilla City where they battle Lu'un Darga and his followers. Darga gets to put the crown relic that gives him his power on and Maya, during their battle, gets transported with him to the location of the final artifact-Dinosaur Island.
While I am a fan of Ray Fawkes work, I do miss the previous creative team of Tomasi and Gleason, as they had his character nailed, stylistically and thematically. Ramon Bachs art is nowhere near as in depth as Gleason’s and it hurts the book in my opinion. It’s not that his style is bad, it just doesn’t fit the book.
SECRET SIX #12: Lady Shiva is indoctrinating Strix and that means her garden gnome has to die. She is given a text-to-speech tablet to replace her notepad and uses it because her former teammates lives are in danger if she doesn’t. Shiva sets up a test for Strix. She introduces six people who play the parts of the Secret Six and tells Strix she needs to kill each contestant within a minute or the real life Secret Six individuals will die. If she loses, they all die. In short order, she kills them all. Meanwhile, Ralph Dibney, once again the Elongated Man, has a barbecue while they figure what to do next. Catman gets a phone call from Scandal Savage and it looks like she and her friends want him for a sperm donor.
The end is near and I’ll be sad to see this really crazy series go. Gail Simone’s story has been wonderfully appealing since the first issue and Tom Derenick’s art has set the bar for great looking characters in comics. This has truly been one of my favorite if not THE favorite title from the DC YOU books introduced a year ago. It all ends next month and we can only hope that all these characters will find a place in the post REBIRTH DC Universe.
SINESTRO #22: Soranik is totally overwhelmed with the responsibility of leading the Sinestro Corps while Sinestro is still injured. But she has done some good, including sending out Lanterns to find out what happened to the Green Lantern Corps besides policing the universe in their absence. She has also agreed with her father to send out the Manhunters to search for the Lanterns. Oh wait: Dex-Starr, Bleez, Atrocitus and company are back and they take out Dez Trevius.
Cullen Bunn and Martin Coccolo bring back the Red Lanterns! Yay! Now if we could only get them to be more active in the forthcoming REBIRTH. This title is at the end of the road and it will be interesting to see where they end up in REBIRTH too. Bunn’s story is nice but not overly exciting while Coccolo’s art shines here.
STARFIRE #11: The attack is over and Kori, Stella and Atlee are enjoying some rest and relaxation, when they find out that you don’t rub Choor on the head or he will pop out little furry babies. Meanwhile, Sol is bonding with Kori’s pet Syl’Khee. The girls head home and discover a street party. Did someone say party?
What a mess! Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti and Elsa Charretier give us a miserable T&A title mixed with an episode of THE GILMORE GIRLS or PRETTY LITTLE LIARS. This book has so much touchy-feely girl stuff in it that I can only see it appealing to 13 year old girls. Now I know we want more women involved with comics, but if this is how to do it, then I think the industry is doomed. Maybe Kori will actually get her brain back when REBIRTH starts.
SUICIDE SQUAD MOST WANTED-DEADSHOT AND KATANA #4: Katana and the Suciide Squad has been captured by Kobra and his forces, but Captain Boomerang finds a way to get free and that leads to a bit of a tussle among the players. Kobra grabs hold of a gun from Eve and, when he fires it, it causes the neck bomb in Battleaxe’ head to go off, leading to a hasty retreat by the Squad, along with Prince Brion. They end up at Brion’s secret base where they all lick their wounds and Enchantress heals the injured cat. Later, Katana uses the sword’s powers to get a slain Kobra follower to reveal vital information. Enchantress reveals to Deadshot that she has gained Katana’s trust, which will make it easy for them to get the sword that Amanda Waller wants. Kobra’s ship arrives but it finds the signal that brought them there is not recognized, which leads them to seemingly incinerate our heroes. Meanwhile, Dr. Jace gets a special viewing of an amazing mystery.
In the Deadshot story, the new Deadshot is on a mission with the rest of the team to capture the twelve board directors running the annual red marketplace: a trade show for crooks and drug dealers. But Evans has his own agenda and begins taking out everyone in sight, which encourages the rest of the team to do the same. Unfortunately, Evans is also executing board members, totally against orders. He goes completely rogue and executes Santana, before going after the remaining board members and their helicopters. When Olivia goes to trigger his neck bomb, she discovers his trigger is missing and it costs her her life. This leaves Evans free to destroy the helicopters, killing all of the directors. In the aftermath, Waller realizes she made a mistake with bringing him on board and goes about seeing to free Floyd Lawson. But he is gone…
This series continues to baffle me. The Katana tale by Mike W. Barr and Diogenes Neves reveals some nice things about the soultaker sword we had not seen before and I love seeing Prince Brion again, especially in Barr’s hands. Can we resurrect the Outsiders, PLEASE? But the story itself is running long with no real payoff other than some fleeting moments with a bunch of C level Suicide Squad members. The Deadshot story by Brian Buccellato and Viktor Bogdanovic has been a winner since the first issue. And what started as a vendetta by Floyd to free himself from the ghosts of his past has now turned into a hunt for him AND the man who replaced him. Personally, I could go for a DEADSHOT series…again!
SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #28: Read ACTION COMICS #51 before you read this review. Diana and Clark discuss his pending death and that ultimately leads to…the kiss! They end up going to Stryker’s Island to check on the super-powered parolee who thinks he is Superman and it may have something to do with Clark’s acquisition of the Solar Flare. Superman goes to visit Ulysses while the parolee manages to break free, causing a power failure that frees Ulysses. The two rumble until the power eventually comes back and Ulysses realizes Superman is dying. Continued next month in BATMAN/SUPERMAN #32.
Peter J. Tomasi and Ed Benes brings us to the halfway point in THE FINAL DAYS OF SUPERMAN, which has now gone to second printings through DC because of the interest in this. We all know that the new REBIRTH series will feature the Pre-Flashpoint Superman and his family, so the death of this Superman is not only foretold but is going to be a reality. I’m sure the media will climb all over and that last issue will be a HUGE success. For now, it’s just a moment in time and this issue does a nice job of propelling the overall story along. Let’s face it: this was supposed to be about the Super-League Clark was going to form, but now it’s all about dealing with his own mortality.
SUPERMAN #51: The issue begins with testing himself and realizing that, after his recent battles with Rao, the exposure in the Kryptonite chamber and the fire pits of Apokolips, he is dying. He goes off to Lana Lang, informing her of what is happening to him and asking that she makes sure he is buried next to his parents. He also visits Lois Lane and asks her to tell the world about the life of Clark Kent and Superman. Meanwhile, a mysterious Chinese woman tries to hack into the Fortress of Solitude. She also has a mysterious being in a stasis tube, promising its’ the being’s time to shine. Also, an individual violating his parole gets struck by lightning and turns into a fiery looking version of Superman.
Peter J. Tomasi and Mikel Janin set into motion an arc that could possibly end with the demise of the NEW 52 Superman and give way to OUR Superman during REBIRTH. The story is pretty cool and pretty much allows out hero to begin wrapping up things in his life as he prepares to transition to the end of his life. Are they really going to bump off the NEW 52 Superman? It sure it anyone’s guess, but it definitely looks like Clark is doing what many people at the end of their lives do: make their peace and prepare for the next place in their journey. And could this individual in China be the forthcoming Chinese Superman? Pretty cool stuff!
SUPERMAN LOIS AND CLARK #7: Beginning many years ago with the beginnings of Author X's published career, we soon shift to the here and now where Jon is saving his mom from the fire that Manheim’s men have left them in. Meanwhile, Clark and Blackrock are battling and Clark just gets incredibly angry when he finds out this is all part of a reality show gone wrong. He eventually gets free and helps save Jon and Lois, leading to him having to fully explain things to Jon, who wants to know if his father is the real Superman. In the end, Hyathis confronts Chambers and Henshaw, demanding the other half of the artifact. They don’t have it, but we all see that it’s in a case…in his Fortress of Solitude.
Dan Jurgens and Lee Weeks are turning out some absolutely amazing work on this title, which I have to admit, I thought would just be an attempt to cash in on these character’s appearances during CONVERGENCE. But this title has been a great surprise and it just gets me excited to see where the creators of REBIRTH are going to take this. You should be reading this book because it is that fun rush we all got back in the day of reading a FUN book!
SWAMP THING #4: Alec Holland has been returned to human form and Matt Cable is now the Swamp Thing. So it’s up to Alec to train Matt on how to be Swamp thing and how to use his new powers. Unfortunately, he hasn’t quite gotten it all down, as he tears a hunter into pieces. Cable goes on his own personal one-man power trip and begins to trash the town of Houma and almost everyone in it. In the end, he makes a throne for himself and drags Alec into the ground.
Len Wein and Kelley Jones continue to try and replicate the classic days of this title by making it look and feel like the days of Wein and Wrightson. But let’s be honest: the Seventies aren’t coming back any time soon. However, they do a nice job of bringing that feeling to the title and having brought Matt Cable back was a great touch. Now, how long before we get Abby and Arcane in the picture? This title is not coming back during REBIRTH, so they better make a move and soon.
TEEN TITANS #19: Cassie has found out that she is the child of Lennox and Cassaandra wants her to use the Rod of Asclepius to bring him back to life. In actuality, Cassandra wants her to use the rod to restore her mind-controlling voice. She actually convinced herself that she wanted to save Lennox, which is how she tricked Wonder Woman’s lasso. Bunker blocks everyone’s ears with his bricks so they can’t hear her command to die. Wonder Girl dons her armor and slits her throat again. Then she uses the last wish from the rod to heal Cassandra’s throat but not her voice.
Yeah…this was fun! Greg Pak wrote the script, while Ian Churchill and Alvaro Martinez handled the pencils. While it is not a great read, it is far advanced from the work the Scott Lobdell was doing on it. I like Cassie as a character and can see how Pak has put pieces in motion for a possible future series(hint…hint).
TITANS HUNT #7: Honey Bun and Ding Dong Daddy are at Lilith’s clinic and easily taking down the Hawk and Dove. Then Lilith, Roy and Gnarrk get entangled in the fight and discover that Honey Bun and Daddy are “Strike Droids”. It takes a complete effort and a combined one, but they eventually take the droids down. Meanwhile, Bumble Bee fears for her life at the hands of Neil Richards, but suddenly manifests powers she didn’t remember she had. In the end. Nightwing, Donna Troy and Garth climb the spiral stairwell and see Mal and Mister Twister.
Dan Abnett and Paulo Siqueira just rip it up here. We all know that this is going to lead to the new TITANS series during REBIRTH. So this acts as a great lead in to that. My question will be how this will all play out with Dick, Donna and Roy living in this book along with WONDER WOMAN, NIGHTWING, and RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS. Abnett has a true love for these characters and it shows in everything he has them do. I can’t wait to see how this all ends.
WE ARE ROBIN #11: Smiley and his Jokers gang have broken into Middletown High School and are terrorizing everyone. Riko and Duke hide in the ladies room while they try to contact Izzy, who simply ignores the text. Soon, developments have hit Twitter and the police arrive. This leads Smiley to threaten to execute teachers if any police try to enter the building. Izzy finally meets up with Dalton, who is armed to the teeth with a pair of grappling guns. Inside, Dre finally reveals himself, having been undercover with the gang and he, Duke and Riko, with help from Izzy and Dalton, take down the gang. Later, The Nest appears, but the team tells him they are doing their thing their way.
We’re almost at the end here and I really don’t know if the powers that be know what they are doing with this book…or if they ever have. Lee Bermejo has tried his best to create a fun book with interesting characters. But my problem is I find almost all of them, except for Duke, to be somewhat interchangeable. And Jorge Cornoa’s obtuse art style hasn’t made me a fan either. What happens when this series ends? My guess would be the promising Robins end up as part of Batman and Batwoman’s training squad.
WONDER WOMAN #51: Diana is in the Tartarus Pit to free the Hecatonchires, but the Pit continues to bombard her with images of what she fears, like zombie versions of Zola and Zeke blaming her for not protecting them. She eventually meets with Hera, who has appeared here thanks to the orbs that Diana stole. Diana uses the lasso of truth to get them out, but they return to Mount Olympus where they find Zeke missing and Zola dead.
PLEASE…let’s get out of this and get to REBIRTH. Meredith Finsh spends an entire issue giving us Diana’s fears, including a date with Clark. But it all feels like padding. I do have to admit loving Miguel Mendonca’s art. Seriously, I like how it feels better than Mr. Finch’ art. So, the book is on its’ way to a new creative team led by Greg Rucka’s writing, and I welcome that! It can’t get much worse than this.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
DC YOU Month 11, Part 1
ACTION COMICS #51: Read the synopsis for BATMAN SUPERMAN #31 first. Superman breaks into the Department of Extra-Normal Operations and saves Supergirl, although she is far from happy about it. She explains that she was having issues with her powers being drained and D.E.O. was trying to solve the problem when he came busting in. He explains that he is dying and he gives her the key to the Fortress of Solitude. That is when Wonder Woman shows up and wants to know why he hasn’t told her about his problem. Meanwhile, the surviving Chinese Dragon returns to Dr. Omen, who cuts off the Dragon’s hand which is covered in Superman's blood. Also, the parolee with the powers shows up at the Daily Planet and causes a world of mayhem, including using his heat vision to kill three security guards. Luckily, Lois knows how to use a taser.
Peter J. Tomasi and Paul Pelletier gives us the third chapter in what may be Superman’s last stand. I love that we have dropped the D.E.O. and Cameron Chase back into the mix…can we get her into the REBIRTH world? Tomasi’s story is great, especially with Lois zapping the big bad guy with the taser. And Pelletier’s art looks great, especially with Sandra Hope Archer inking him. Head on over to SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #28 for Part Four.
AQUAMAN #51: Scavenger gets a call from an FBI informant, telling him that Aquaman is hunting for him. Going back 12 hours earlier, we find that Jonah Payne, the man who was Dead Water, is being interrogated an, in its’ own way, being tortured. Payne is in a container that allows him to have no access to any water. The FBI shows up and Mera tells Payne that Dead Water has killed a bunch of people who allegedly wronged him, including his ex-wife. The last thing he remembers was working salvage for a guy named Peter Mortimer-The Scavenger. Arthur goes off after him and ends up being subdued by his huge aqua suit. Meanwhile, Payne breaks down and manages to crack his container, which also allows him to cry over his dead wife. That leads to Dead Water coming back.
Dan Abnett and Vicente Cifuentes continue to bring this arc to a conclusion before the NEW 52 becomes REBIRTH. Abnett’s story is fun, with Aquaman being tough as nails. And the appearance of The Scavenger was killer. Cifuentes is not Paul Pelletier, but his art style is pretty darned close. This book hasn’t had this much momentum since the first few issues. Hopefully, when it goes to twice a month during REBIRTH, this will continue. After all, Marvel’s answer to the King of the Sea is dead.
BATGIRL #50: We start three hours from now and it looks like the end for Batgirl. Back in the present, Fugue has put together a team made up of Dagger Type, Velvet Tiger, Killer Moth, The Jawbreakers and Corporal Punishment to go after Batgirl and her friends. From here, it’s a whole series of fight scenes between Batgirl’s friends and the villains. Batgirl finds out that Fugue is doing all of this just to be able to rob the Gotham Bank. She arrives and he tries to use her Neural Implant against her, so she uses the edge of her Batarang to cut into her head and disable the implant. This brings us back to the beginning of the book and Fugue shoots Batgirl, allegedly killing her. But it turns out that she has him in one of his tubes and has implanted false memories into him. In the end, Frankie patches up Barbara and introduces her to the new headquarters of Batgirl and Operator.
So, Brenden Fletcher and Cameron Stewart with art from Babs Tarr, Roger Robinson, John Timms, Eleonora Carlini, James Harvey, and Stewart, bring this story arc to an end and prepare to turn over the reigns of this series to a new direction come June. What was one book will become two as BLACK CANARY leaves the schedule and BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY arrives. I have not been a fan of this series since Fletcher and company took over and have been pretty vocal about it. A sleek and sexy super-heroine seemed to get young and just did not appeal to me. There was actually a point where I hope we would go back to Pre-Flashpoint Batgirl as Oracle. Now we will see what we get.
BATGIRL #51: We begin with spoiler chasing after a stolen SWAT van and it seems that Gladius is back in town. Unfortunately, Barbara gets wind of the fact that Frankie is running ops behind her back involving Qadir and chews her out for her troubles.While Black Canary is in Poland digging into the plot and the plot involves breaking out Gladius Commander. Batgirl arrives on the scene, but can’t keep her from getting away. Following this, Barbara asks Alysia to run Gordon Clean Energy and tells Luke and Frankie that she has to go away for a while. She also runs across Olive and Maps while she is in the Gotham Library doing research. The bad news is that Black Canary and Vixen arrive to let the cast know that Gladius Commander wants revenge on Barbara’s family and friends.
Brenden Fletcher is the only person left from the “critically acclaimed” BATGIRL run and he’s done a nice job with handling his character. In fact, I actually like this issue better than most because he has done a good job of bringing other Bat characters into the mix. Eleonora Carlini, Minkyu Jung, and Roger Robinson handle the art here and they are all just doing their best to look like Babs Tarr. But I want to know when Black Canary’s hair turned white!
BATMAN #51: This issue is all about different views of what Gothan really is. But we begin with Alfred and Bruce in the Batcave and Alfred has two hands again thanks to crazy Quilt’s Healing Stitch. While out on patrol, the power goes out in Gotham and that means the Dark Knight is going about to find out why. This takes him through Arkham, the Labyrinth of the Owls, the Iceberg Casino, Black Mask, Great White Shark, and someone who used to be the Joker. In the end, he meets with a columnist for the Gotham Gazette who writes a column called “Gotham Is”. In the end, the power outage was just a power outage.
I’m sorry: I thought last issue was Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s last. At least that was the word on the street. Anyway, it’s nice to see them together here again and this is a low-key but fun issue that is more about characterization than action. It looks great and it’s obviously these two have big shoes to fill with REBIRTH. But it was cool to see Bats in drag with the Court of the Owls!
BATMAN BEYOND #11: Batman has survived his apparent death last issue by using a cloaking device in the suit to escape and it was thanks to Matt McGinnis yelling C-3 that helped to activate it. At this point, Matt and the Bat are going to attempt to free Superman, specifically Superman’s son Jon. But Dr. Cuvier activates him first and sets him to kill Matt, but Tuftan breaks Cuvier's mind control remote, which puts the Man of Steel back into a right mind. That also leads to the rest of the League being freed from their mind control. The Justice League head to Neo Gotham and convince the rioters to stop their actions, bringing peace to Neo Gotham. But, in the end, Rewire is talking to his mysterious boss concerning conquering Neo Gotham while the Justice League are trying to rebuild Earth.
Dan Jurgens and Bernard Chang just keep making this series such a delight to me. I was not reading the previous series and wasn’t ever a fan of the television show. But the coolness of this series, especially over the last six issues, has made me a believer who is now searching for the DVDs. I can’t wait to see where this series will go with REBIRTH.
BATMAN SUPERMAN #31: Read the review of SUPERMAN #51 first! We find Superman heading to Gotham to see Batman and explain to him that he is dying. Batman insists he can help save him, as he was able to bring Damian back from the dead. All he wants is help in finding his cousin Kara. Over in Metropolis, a flaming Superman, who is really a parole violator who THINKS he is Superman, rescues some people from a fire and seems to think he knows Jimmy Olsen. In the end, Superman and Batman encounter The Four Pillars of the Chinese Zodiac, who implode rather than be captured. That means, with all the questions swirling about, Superman needs to get to National City to rescue his cousin.
Peter J. Tomasi and Doug Mahnke give us a killer second chapter in THE FINAL DAYS OF SUPERMAN arc. There are some great moments throughout, especially between Batman and Superman. The introduction of the creatures of the Chinese Zodiac adds a nice little bit of intrigue to where this whole thing is going with REBIRTH and I love we finally get to see Supergirl again in our own time. Of course, I am curious to see how we’re going to get the explanation of how she ended up back here.
BLACK CANARY #10: Dinah meets with Barbara Gordon, who is fangirling all over the place because her friend is in the band Black Canary. They end up together, investigating an old recording studio where they are searching for clues about Dinah’s mother. The “ninja death cult” shows up and fights our heroes, as they want to get their hands on the Five Heavens Palm. Batgirl gets taken down and Greyeyes insists Dinah show him the Five Heavens Palm or he will have Batgirl killed. She shows him another move and that just buys Barabara time, who has now taken out his minions, leading to a one on one between them. Dinah wins, leading to Greyeyes committing suicide. In the end, Barbara, Frankie and Dinah go off to try and save the band, as it appears they may be walking into a trap.
Brendan Fletcher writes this issue alone with art by Moritat and Sandy Jarrell. This series has bounced around from really good to really bad and this is certainly somewhere between the two. The story rolls along nicely in the recording studio scenes until we get this dumb fight, a self-immolation, and a rushed ending. All in all, I look forward to seeing Dinah hooked up with Oliver Queen in the forthcoming GREEN ARROW series after REBIRTH.
BLACK CANARY #11: Dinah heads off from Burnside to Berlin where she is looking to free her band from the German ninja cult that is holding them captive in suburban Berlin. She arrives at Club Unverhofft Kommt Oft to find the band playing backup for Izak Orato, who has hypnotized the band with a strange German song. He then proceeds to do the same to her until she sees Ditto in the crowd and that makes then all wake from their slumber. As they fall through a trap door and into a hall of mirrors, he shows her visions of her past. She unleashes a Canary Cry that not only shatters the mirrors but reveals Orato as a monster with a great big mouth in his chest. She gets outside and joins Vixen in battle against the ninjas. Dinah’s aunt arrives and then runs a samurai sword through Dinah, before revealing herself as Orato.
Because of the dreaded deadline doom, we get two issues this month as this titles races towards its’ end. Brenden Fletcher and Sandy Jarrell combine to give us a wild story with a great cliffhanger ending! I am really dying to see how Fletcher writes himself out of this one.
BLOODLINES #1: In the quiet town of Pine Ridge, we meet Eddie: a young man who suffers from a degenerative disease that has him needing crutches to walk. On his way to school, his friend Graham gives him a ride and it turns out to be a semi-regular day at school for him. We also meet Dana, Faith, Haley, and Ricky-the rest of the supporting cast. That night, the students of Pine Ridge High School are having a party when this strange deer-beast creature bursts onto the scene and begins attacking the kids. Eddie gets angry and transforms into a big blue creature with red eyes and destroys the creature by tearing it’s head off. Unfortunately, it’s too late to save his buddy Graham.
What the heck is this all about? Based on the title, I thought it might possibly have a connection to the old series of the same name from back in the day. But, apparently I was wrong. Or not. This six issue mini-series will obviously continue on even after REBIRTH begins, so maybe there is a chance it will tie into REBIRTH. J.T. Krul wrote it and V. Ken Marion is responsible for the art, which is very much like Brett Booth in style. My curiosity is piqued and that means I will read the next issue to see where this is going.
CATWOMAN #51: We begin with a new report announcing the imminent death of Black Mask’s father, Richard Sionis. That takes us back to a flashback where Selina and a guy named David are pulling a credit scam at Richard Sionis’ expense. It comes back to bite them, however, as they get stopped by the False Face Society and their leader, Richard Sionis. Back in the present, Catwoman almost has a run in with the False Face Society and their new leader, White Mask, as he grabs the Faceless Mask She goes off to spy on the group and finds out that White Mask is actually her old friend David, who is supposed to be dead. In the end, Black Mask, dressed as a a nurse, visits his dying father and finishes the job.
Creepy…very, very creepy! I love it! Frank Tieri and Inaki Miranda do a great job of weaving the past and the present together and leaving the mystery of the not-dead David as a mystery. Black Mask, White Mask and the False Face Society: this is a war waiting to explode. And I can’t wait!
CONSTANTINE: THE HELLBLAZER #11: Constantine is in Los Angeles and he is not happy. He storms into a Hollywood party being thrown by the Archangel Gabriel. John is looking for help concerning the Neron problem, but Gabriel has more important things on his mind and refuses to help. So Constantine ends up at an amusement park with his old friend Bartleby. John says that he is through with trying to save New York City…until Bartleby reminds him that his boyfriend Oliver is still in New York City. He heads off to Declan’s Bar & Grill to drown his sorrows and ends up being possessed by Deadman, who kidnaps his body and forces him back to New York City, where he finds out that Oliver’s daughters have been kidnapped.
Ming Doyle & James Tynion IV gives us this continuously weird story while Travel Foreman provides the art. This book is soon going to be like the television show: missing an audience because it has been pulled from the lineup, although he will be back in a new book after REBIRTH begins. I would like to say I’m happy, but I really wanted this series to work out. John Constantine is a legendary con man and anti-hero. For him to go from being a lovesick puppy drooling over his Justice League Dark teammate to looking to shag with anything that moves. Maybe the next time around the powers that be will actually get it right.
CYBORG #10: Victor and his dad get to spend some quality time with Victor’s “mom” before he turns himself over to Holmes, who is going to experiment on him, even though it’s illegal according to the Cybernetics Act. It turns out the Holmes is really being controlled by the Technosapiens and that Victor’s mother is really a creation of the Technosapiens. But Victor is one step ahead and has managed to infect the Technosapiens systems, making them easy pickings for Cyborg and Shazam. In the end, Victor destroys the hologram that wasn’t his mother.
Marv Wolfman: the Eighties called and they want their plot devices back. Sorry…I have always been a huge fan of Wolfman but this issue just didn’t do it for me. Too many cliches, too predictable (there was a whole conversation between Vic’s father and his “mother” that just tipped off the “something’s not right” radar early on). Ivan Reis did the layouts while Felipe Watanabe, Daniel Hdr and Julio Ferreira did the pencils.
DEATHSTROKE #17: Slade has been captured by Lawman, who he discovers is his old partner Wardell Chambers, who was killed on a mission many years ago. Well, apparently he is not, as he is here and now has mind control powers that he has used to manipulate the hatred in Slade’s daughter Rose. The two begin a fight to the death that is interrupted by Red Hood, who has come to help out Deathstroke while Snakebite assist Lawman. But Lawman uses his powers to convince Red Hood that Batman has arrived and needs his help, which leads to a battle between the two again. In the process, Rose gets run through by Lawman and so does Slade. It looks like she is done until the pair disappear before the villains’ eyes thanks to a bit of mind control from Jericho who introduces his father to Ra’s al Ghul.
Things look like they’re going from bad to worse for Slade Wilson. Not only are he and his daughter seriously wounded, his estranged son has now brought him to Ras al Ghul himself. James Bonny and Tyler Kirkham give us a great issue that sets up for the big finish next month.
DETECTIVE COMICS #51: An old Marine buddy of Jim Gordon warns him about stuff going down from their past. That doesn’t last long as his friend is killed and his killer takes himself out with a foaming mouth suicide. After finding out that his friend and his killer had large strips of flesh stripped off their body. Gordon heads off to Afghanistan and he meets up with some of the Marines who know about what is going on with their comrades dying. He ends up doing some Batman style investigation and ends up at a meeting between Colonel Stone and one of the followers of Amun-Set who wants Gordon and all the rest dead. Gordon heads out in the desert and gets caught in a sandstorm. That is when we find out that Gordon and his fellow servicemen interrupted a ritualistic torture chamber.
Peter Tomasi and Fernando Pasarin give us what started to feel like a fill-in issue, but by the end, we realize that this is just the first act in the final arc before REBIRTH. The story is Tomasi’s typical solid writing and, of course, Pasarin just knocks it out of the park, especially with Matt Ryan inking him. The book just looks amazing! I can’t wait to see how Tomasi gets this out and makes the transition to REBIRTH, with Bruce back in the costume.
DOCTOR FATE #11: Khalid has been captured by the ghosts of Caesar and his Roman soldiers and they have brought him to a General who has great interest on his amulet. Unfortunately for the general, it does have a magical power that burns him when he tries to take it for himself. That angers the general and he demands that the ghosts eliminate Doctor Fate. Khalid figures out that the general has the knife that killed Caesar and that is what is giving him his power over them. Khalid uses his powers to free the knife from the general and that causes the ghosts to go to their rest. Without his ghosts, the general is powerless and is captured by Khalid. Good thing too as he has received word that he is about to get kicked out of school. Meanwhile, Khlaid’s mom and Puck the cat have a talk.
Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew have struggled through this series and it has never made a foothold in DC’s Universe. Personally, I think it has to do with the character, as Levitz has tried too hard to make him a Peter Parker clone. It has never really worked for me and I have never really warmed up to Liew’s art style. I will be curious to see what happens with REBIRTH. When Doctor fate gets introduced, who wears the helm?
EARTH 2: SOCIETY #11: Red Arrow and Ted Grant come charging through a window to try and save Batman from Hourman, but he has already found a way to take him down by using Anti-Miraclo. So Batman sends Arrow and Ted after Kyle Nimbus and they take him down as a team. Meanwhile, Green Lantern sets up a meeting between the soon to be warring Governors, but they blame Lantern and the Wonders for everything, including the fact that their planet is barren. Because of this, Sato, Steel and Sandman issue Martial Law and that means killing anyone who gets out of hand. In the end, Fury tells Hawkgirl how almost everyone on the Aphrodite died of radiation poisoning so she used the Pandora vessel to merge the souls of the Amazonians the dead to save them both.
Dan Abnett continues his run on this title, with Federico Dallocchio handling the art duties. I so wish I could love this series but I just don’t love these characters and it feels like Abnett is trying to put a Band-Aid on this book to keep it from getting worse. The characters got really flat at the end of the last series and now it just seems like it’s all going to hell for our heroes. There is a future for EARTH 2 in REBIRTH. I just hope it’s the CLASSIC EARTH 2!
THE FLASH #50: The Flash has been captured by the Rogues so Captain Frye has him sent to Iron Heights. Barry’s dad hears a radio report about it and immediately calls in a favor. Girder and Overload break loose and take the Flash with them, thanks to that phone call from Henry Allen. As Iron Heights loses power and an explosion almost kills Frye, Barry now has to deal with a whole bunch of loose convicts. The Rogues get involved but the Trickster has betrayed them in favor of supporting the person who has Heat Wave: The Riddler. In the back-up, we see Wally West understanding what makes up the Speed Force from his future self.
Van Jensen, with Jesus Merino and Paul Pelletier, handled the main story while Jensen and Joe Eisma did the back-up. The back-up was obviously a great lead in for Wally West’s new role in REBIRTH. The big bang was in the main story where we see that The Riddler is the bad guy here. Boy, for a guy who was a low grade, although classic, Batman villain, he sure has made a name for himself in the new 52. One more issue to go and then it’s REBIRTH time for the Fastest Man Alive.
GOTHAM ACADEMY #17: In YEARBOOK PART FOUR, Maps is freaking out because Robin broke in and took her book. This leads to a tale where the gang meets up with Heathcliff, who is acting as road manager for Black Canary. He then goes to talk to his crush, Pomeline, and they go off for a walk, where he hands her a special cassette tape that Lord Byron made for her and also autographed. He decides to play her a song, but she runs off, listening to him from inside her room. Then we get the story of Maps and Olive running into Teekl, who is in the process of bringing Klarion back his first spell book. Then we get the tale of what happened to the Gilkey Warlocks, who called forth a creature while playing a game of Serpents and Spells and were never heard from again. In the end, they might have another meeting real soon with a Robin who is doing his best to hide in plain sight.
We’re almost at the end here, as there is one more chapter to go in YEARBOOK. This issue was kind of fun and was brought to us by Brendan Fletcher, Adam Archer, Annie Wu, Michael Dialynas and David Peterson. It is a wonderful mix of writing and illustrated style here and my favorite piece was seeing Klarion come back in something resembling his CLASSIC FORM.
GRAYSON #19: Doctor Dredalus has return and his daughters are a bit upset about it, especially because Luka is tasked with killing her sister. But she is not dead and Dredalus kills Luka. Max Lord shows up and tells Netz he will save her if she turns over the Minos Files and reveals that he created Mister Minos and Minos is Max. She deletes the files as she dies, leaving Lord empty handed after all. Elsewhere, Dick and Tiger, who is working for Checkmate, fight it out while Midnighter, having seen that all that has happened was about bringing Doctor Dredalus back, splits the scene. In the end, Dick confronts Doctor Dredalus, who is in the body of Helena.
Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly take over the story, Roge Antonio has taken over the art, and that means this issue is a big disappointment. The story is fun, however, as the sisters die, Helena needs to be saved from Doctor Dredalus, Tiger is working for the bad guys and Max Lord proves, once again, that he is a major player in the world…and not in a good way. This is the penultimate issue that will wrap next month and lead to Dick Grayson becoming Nightwing again.
GREEN ARROW #51: Green Arrow, Emiko and George have been captured by an African militia who plan on ransoming our heroes. They also have Doctor Miracle, who they are using to heal their various injuries. Deathstroke is also here as he wants Doctor Miracle too, so that means he’s blasting his way through the camp. Slade kills all the militia and that leads to him killing Green Arrow. Really? Yeah-big old knife in the chest as Deathstroke captures Doctor Miracle.
Ush…that was a long issue with not much happening. Ben Percy has painted Ollie into a corner that I’m pretty sure that Doctor Miracle will get him out of and, I’m sure, will purge him of his current wolf illness. The highlight here is Szymon Kudranski’s art. Actually…that was the ONLY highlight here. Sorry…I didn’t need another Deathstroke book!
GREEN LANTERN #51: Hal is a green construct of what he was recently in space but doesn’t know who he really is. His brother Jim fills the construct in on Hal’s history Jordan, which finally convinces Hal to become Hal again. Now that he has become himself again, he decides that he needs to find the Green Lantern Corps and he leaves Earth. Out in space, Trapper and Virgo are being attacked by the Gray Agents and Darlene is getting disabled. They get transported to the Gray Agent's ship, where they decide to head to Earth. But Hal shows up and is preparfed to make sure that doesn’t happen.
I totally love Robert Venditti’s work, but this is not his best work. The whole Hal as a construct part of the story, complete with life history that tied up the first half dozen pages of the book was annoying. Then we have three pages of Hal deciding that he must search for the lost Lanterns…how did he know they were missing? And the rest of the book revisits a pair we haven’t seen in ages. On the plus side, Rafa Sandoval’s art is really great!
GREEN LANTERN CORPS EDGE OF OBLIVION #4: As Kilowog tells Guy that he was right to be concerned about protecting these aliens, the team gets beat up while fighting against Marniel. But Xrill-Vrek reveals that Marniel isn't the villain here, but that Ausras and Dismas are. It also seems that they can control minds and that leads to Guy want to have the rest of the Lanterns protect them.
Well, now that we have lost Ethan Van Sciver to the REBIRTH project, we get Aaron Kuder. That’s not a bad thing, but he’s not Ethan Van Sciver. Tom Taylor continues to write the book and the fact that we’re now two-thirds of the way through the series and we get the big reveal makes me a bit upset. Did I really just waste three issues of my reading life only to find out that this was a swerve? Looks like!
HARLEY QUINN #27: Harley battles Red Tool, but he gasses the place and takes her with him, singing all the while. He takes her to the top of the Wonder Wheel Ferris wheel where he feeds her Nate Man’s hot dogs and fries. He starts to show her his secret origin, but the battery on his phone dies, leading to Harley eventually getting free and dumping him out of the Ferris wheel. Once she gets back to her Gang of Harleys, she finds out that what she thought was a bruise on her but is actually a phone number that Red Tool tattooed on her posterior. This leads her to a certain address where she discovers that Red Tool has set up their wedding day.
Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, with art by John Timms, continue with their brand of sophomoric satire, complete with Red Tool being their version of Deadpool. It’s more of the same old same old. You will either like it or not. It’s not Chaucer, but it has it’s moments.
HARLEY QUINN AND HER GANG OF HARLEYS #1: Meet the Gang of Harleys! We have Erica Zhang as Harley Queens, Antonia Moore as Harlem Harley, Shona Choudhury as Bolly Quinn, Harvey McPherson as Harvey Quinn, Carlita Alvarez as Carli Quinn, Hannah Borgman as Hanuquinn, and Holly Hamden as Coach. There job is to protect Coney Island from all manner of annoying people. Harley goes into a Port-a-Potti to drop a deuce and disappears. Apparently, she has been kidnapped right off the potty! The team takes to the town, going to Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island too in search of their fearless leader. In the end, it seems there is a new Harley in town-Harley Sinn
The first thing you notice is that Amanda Conner is nowhere to be seen and that makes all the difference. Jimmy Palmiotti and Frank Tieri wrote this and that means there are nowhere near as many off-color jokes in here (except for a reference about playing with her beaver). So I guess we know who the dirty one is in the Palmiotti household! Mauricet provides the art and it looks good. Of course, when you fill a book with that many scantily clad women(and one man), how could it not look good?
HARLEY QUINN AND THE SUICIDE SQUAD APRIL FOOL’S SPECIAL #1: Harley gets an invitation to join a villain support group called Evil Anonymous and she decides that she will actually use her psychiatrist’s degree to help the villains. She tries to subdue Man-Bat and gets knocked out in the process. She ministers to Enchantress, Ratcatcher, Starro, Toyman, Poison Ivy , Killer Moth and more. But then the Justice League busts in an captures her. This reveals that she has been dreaming all of this, as she has been under the hypnotic control of Amanda Waller. She is about to become part of the NEW NEW SUICIDE SQUAD, coming in June, starring Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Killer Croc and Katana.
While I did find parts of it humorous, I wouldn’t call it an April Fool’s Special. Rob Williams wrote it, which makes for a nice change from the usual Amanda Conner/Jimmy Palmiotti hijinx. However, it all just ends up being a lead-in for the June REBIRTH title. Sean “Cheeks” Galloway provides the bulk of this issue, as his cartoony style provides the fantasy piece where Harley does her therapy. The real highlight here is getting 20 pages of beautiful Jim Lee art. Lee is the guy responsible for the new series in June, so let’s hope that his stay will be lengthy, because this stuff looks awesome!
HARLEY QUINN’S BIG BLACK BOOK #3: An old amusement park ride called Hellgate 2 is ready to be torn down but it is haunted by Rick the Ringmaster, Betty the Tattooed Lady, and Bob the Lobsterman and they aren’t happy about that. Over at Harley’s apartment, she is dealing with her drunken British visitors while Tony’s newest boarder, Zatanna, is dealing with a visit from the ghosts. She scares them off, so they [pop upstairs to visit Harley who responds with some violence of her own. This leads to Zatanna showing up and the two girls teaming up. The ghosts explain that Jolly Straton, the original operator of Hellgate 2, was infected by a partially-summoned demon and he has been after them since 1911. Of course, they are safe within the confines of the ride, which is going to be torn down and that makes them vulnerable. Zatanna and Harley go to the spectral plane and ask Jolly to release the three. But he says he is a prisoner of a demon named Nad Oidid. So they go off to his pleasure palace filled with sexy naked people, where he sees he is in the presence of his favorite murderer in Harley and he agrees to free everyone if she spends a month with him in Hell. But she drives him nuts and he sends her home within 24 hours.
Here is all you need to know about this. Issue: Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner wrote it in their usual ridiculously silly style. And the demon is Dan Didio spelled backwards. The highlight? Joseph Michael Linsner drew the whole freaking thing! So, if you can wade through the silliness, you truly get treated by Linsner’s always amazing art! That IS the reason to buy this book. And, if you’re lucky, you can also find a copy with the Linsner variant cover.
JUSTICE LEAGUE THE DARKSEID WAR SPECIAL #1: Jessica Cruz’ consciousness is trapped inside Volthoom, along with everyone who ever wore the ring at some point, specifically the former Power Ring, Harold Jordan. He tries to convince her to stay and give into her fears. But she races to the light that she believes is Volthoom's main Power Battery. Actually, it turns out that it’s Cyborg. The other main story is the origin of Grail, who was born on the same night that Hippolyta gave birth to Diana. It appears that just as Hippolyta is about to name her daughter, Myrina spies something she shouldn’t and is chased after by the Amazons. Myrina and Grail flee Themyscira and spent their lives dealing with Grail’s quest to find the Anti-Monitor so she can kill Darkseid. In the end, we learn that Grail has captured Steve Trevor and transfers part of the Anti-Life Equation into him with a kiss. What happens next? Tune into JUSTICE LEAGUE #49
Geoff Johns contributes the story in this off shoot of the Darkseid War that seems to be going on forever. That’s not so much because the story is running long, it is just running behind. Two issues behind most of the rest of the New 52 books, in fact. The art is great and it should be, considering that Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Oscar Jimenez, Paul Pelletier and Tony Kordos all leave their stand on it. Just remember that this will all lead to a new status quo for when REBIRTH begins. At least…that is the promise.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #49: While Superwoman prepares to give birth to the baby that the Crime Syndicate believes is the secret weapon to kill Mobius, Lex Luthor arrives and battles with Mobius. Superman shows up and joins the fight, along with Wonder Woman, while Lex is visited by the Black Racer influenced Flash, who informs him that death is coming. Big Barda, having realized that Lex and the Parademons are here, heads off to Apokolips to free the slaves. As the baby boy child is born, Grail, Myrina, and a powerful Steve Trevor arrive and Trevor uses his new found powers to kill Mobius. At this point, Grail announces that Steve is going to kill all of them next.
Picking up from where the DARKSEID WAR SPECIAL left off, Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok nail this one! The story is totally captivating and Fabok’s art is just utterly amazing. So, who is REALLY the father of Superwoman’s baby-a child that was supposedly going to have the powers we now see that Steve Trevor has? My guess: Darkseid. And that would lead to his resurrection somehow. This has been a weird, wild ride so far and I can’t wait to see how Johns gets out of this one!
JUSTICE LEAGUE 3001 #11: While G'nort and Supergirl debate the good and bad points of Larfleeze, Ice convinces him to turn his attention to Lady Styx. Guy Gardner is fluctuating between the Guy and Shiryalla Tome personality and Ice tells Larfleeze that Lady Styx has his ring. Meanwhile, Eclipso tells Lady Styx that he will destroy the Justice League and she informs him to keep Teri alive. Over on Takron-Galtos, Wonder Woman, Flash and Batgirl make the decision to head back to Paradise Island where they talk with G'nort, until Eclipso and his Legion of Doom arrive, leading to a knock down, drag out fight between the two teams. During it all, Terry and Teri have a less than happy reunion. In the end, Lois Lane and Ariel Masters are on the run from the Scullions, who figure the best way to stop the girls is to neutralize the whole planet.
I am so sad that this book is not continuing with the coming of REBIRTH, but that will just free up Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis and Scott Kolins for some other greatness. This book has been fun from the beginning and this issue is no exception. With Batgirl in a Batsuit singing the Batman theme and Guy Gardner having a personality crisis of epic proportions, this title is just one long joke with some plot and action thrown in. How does that differ from HARLEY QUINN, which also has pushed the boundaries of humor? Well…this is actually funny!
Peter J. Tomasi and Paul Pelletier gives us the third chapter in what may be Superman’s last stand. I love that we have dropped the D.E.O. and Cameron Chase back into the mix…can we get her into the REBIRTH world? Tomasi’s story is great, especially with Lois zapping the big bad guy with the taser. And Pelletier’s art looks great, especially with Sandra Hope Archer inking him. Head on over to SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #28 for Part Four.
AQUAMAN #51: Scavenger gets a call from an FBI informant, telling him that Aquaman is hunting for him. Going back 12 hours earlier, we find that Jonah Payne, the man who was Dead Water, is being interrogated an, in its’ own way, being tortured. Payne is in a container that allows him to have no access to any water. The FBI shows up and Mera tells Payne that Dead Water has killed a bunch of people who allegedly wronged him, including his ex-wife. The last thing he remembers was working salvage for a guy named Peter Mortimer-The Scavenger. Arthur goes off after him and ends up being subdued by his huge aqua suit. Meanwhile, Payne breaks down and manages to crack his container, which also allows him to cry over his dead wife. That leads to Dead Water coming back.
Dan Abnett and Vicente Cifuentes continue to bring this arc to a conclusion before the NEW 52 becomes REBIRTH. Abnett’s story is fun, with Aquaman being tough as nails. And the appearance of The Scavenger was killer. Cifuentes is not Paul Pelletier, but his art style is pretty darned close. This book hasn’t had this much momentum since the first few issues. Hopefully, when it goes to twice a month during REBIRTH, this will continue. After all, Marvel’s answer to the King of the Sea is dead.
BATGIRL #50: We start three hours from now and it looks like the end for Batgirl. Back in the present, Fugue has put together a team made up of Dagger Type, Velvet Tiger, Killer Moth, The Jawbreakers and Corporal Punishment to go after Batgirl and her friends. From here, it’s a whole series of fight scenes between Batgirl’s friends and the villains. Batgirl finds out that Fugue is doing all of this just to be able to rob the Gotham Bank. She arrives and he tries to use her Neural Implant against her, so she uses the edge of her Batarang to cut into her head and disable the implant. This brings us back to the beginning of the book and Fugue shoots Batgirl, allegedly killing her. But it turns out that she has him in one of his tubes and has implanted false memories into him. In the end, Frankie patches up Barbara and introduces her to the new headquarters of Batgirl and Operator.
So, Brenden Fletcher and Cameron Stewart with art from Babs Tarr, Roger Robinson, John Timms, Eleonora Carlini, James Harvey, and Stewart, bring this story arc to an end and prepare to turn over the reigns of this series to a new direction come June. What was one book will become two as BLACK CANARY leaves the schedule and BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY arrives. I have not been a fan of this series since Fletcher and company took over and have been pretty vocal about it. A sleek and sexy super-heroine seemed to get young and just did not appeal to me. There was actually a point where I hope we would go back to Pre-Flashpoint Batgirl as Oracle. Now we will see what we get.
BATGIRL #51: We begin with spoiler chasing after a stolen SWAT van and it seems that Gladius is back in town. Unfortunately, Barbara gets wind of the fact that Frankie is running ops behind her back involving Qadir and chews her out for her troubles.While Black Canary is in Poland digging into the plot and the plot involves breaking out Gladius Commander. Batgirl arrives on the scene, but can’t keep her from getting away. Following this, Barbara asks Alysia to run Gordon Clean Energy and tells Luke and Frankie that she has to go away for a while. She also runs across Olive and Maps while she is in the Gotham Library doing research. The bad news is that Black Canary and Vixen arrive to let the cast know that Gladius Commander wants revenge on Barbara’s family and friends.
Brenden Fletcher is the only person left from the “critically acclaimed” BATGIRL run and he’s done a nice job with handling his character. In fact, I actually like this issue better than most because he has done a good job of bringing other Bat characters into the mix. Eleonora Carlini, Minkyu Jung, and Roger Robinson handle the art here and they are all just doing their best to look like Babs Tarr. But I want to know when Black Canary’s hair turned white!
BATMAN #51: This issue is all about different views of what Gothan really is. But we begin with Alfred and Bruce in the Batcave and Alfred has two hands again thanks to crazy Quilt’s Healing Stitch. While out on patrol, the power goes out in Gotham and that means the Dark Knight is going about to find out why. This takes him through Arkham, the Labyrinth of the Owls, the Iceberg Casino, Black Mask, Great White Shark, and someone who used to be the Joker. In the end, he meets with a columnist for the Gotham Gazette who writes a column called “Gotham Is”. In the end, the power outage was just a power outage.
I’m sorry: I thought last issue was Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s last. At least that was the word on the street. Anyway, it’s nice to see them together here again and this is a low-key but fun issue that is more about characterization than action. It looks great and it’s obviously these two have big shoes to fill with REBIRTH. But it was cool to see Bats in drag with the Court of the Owls!
BATMAN BEYOND #11: Batman has survived his apparent death last issue by using a cloaking device in the suit to escape and it was thanks to Matt McGinnis yelling C-3 that helped to activate it. At this point, Matt and the Bat are going to attempt to free Superman, specifically Superman’s son Jon. But Dr. Cuvier activates him first and sets him to kill Matt, but Tuftan breaks Cuvier's mind control remote, which puts the Man of Steel back into a right mind. That also leads to the rest of the League being freed from their mind control. The Justice League head to Neo Gotham and convince the rioters to stop their actions, bringing peace to Neo Gotham. But, in the end, Rewire is talking to his mysterious boss concerning conquering Neo Gotham while the Justice League are trying to rebuild Earth.
Dan Jurgens and Bernard Chang just keep making this series such a delight to me. I was not reading the previous series and wasn’t ever a fan of the television show. But the coolness of this series, especially over the last six issues, has made me a believer who is now searching for the DVDs. I can’t wait to see where this series will go with REBIRTH.
BATMAN SUPERMAN #31: Read the review of SUPERMAN #51 first! We find Superman heading to Gotham to see Batman and explain to him that he is dying. Batman insists he can help save him, as he was able to bring Damian back from the dead. All he wants is help in finding his cousin Kara. Over in Metropolis, a flaming Superman, who is really a parole violator who THINKS he is Superman, rescues some people from a fire and seems to think he knows Jimmy Olsen. In the end, Superman and Batman encounter The Four Pillars of the Chinese Zodiac, who implode rather than be captured. That means, with all the questions swirling about, Superman needs to get to National City to rescue his cousin.
Peter J. Tomasi and Doug Mahnke give us a killer second chapter in THE FINAL DAYS OF SUPERMAN arc. There are some great moments throughout, especially between Batman and Superman. The introduction of the creatures of the Chinese Zodiac adds a nice little bit of intrigue to where this whole thing is going with REBIRTH and I love we finally get to see Supergirl again in our own time. Of course, I am curious to see how we’re going to get the explanation of how she ended up back here.
BLACK CANARY #10: Dinah meets with Barbara Gordon, who is fangirling all over the place because her friend is in the band Black Canary. They end up together, investigating an old recording studio where they are searching for clues about Dinah’s mother. The “ninja death cult” shows up and fights our heroes, as they want to get their hands on the Five Heavens Palm. Batgirl gets taken down and Greyeyes insists Dinah show him the Five Heavens Palm or he will have Batgirl killed. She shows him another move and that just buys Barabara time, who has now taken out his minions, leading to a one on one between them. Dinah wins, leading to Greyeyes committing suicide. In the end, Barbara, Frankie and Dinah go off to try and save the band, as it appears they may be walking into a trap.
Brendan Fletcher writes this issue alone with art by Moritat and Sandy Jarrell. This series has bounced around from really good to really bad and this is certainly somewhere between the two. The story rolls along nicely in the recording studio scenes until we get this dumb fight, a self-immolation, and a rushed ending. All in all, I look forward to seeing Dinah hooked up with Oliver Queen in the forthcoming GREEN ARROW series after REBIRTH.
BLACK CANARY #11: Dinah heads off from Burnside to Berlin where she is looking to free her band from the German ninja cult that is holding them captive in suburban Berlin. She arrives at Club Unverhofft Kommt Oft to find the band playing backup for Izak Orato, who has hypnotized the band with a strange German song. He then proceeds to do the same to her until she sees Ditto in the crowd and that makes then all wake from their slumber. As they fall through a trap door and into a hall of mirrors, he shows her visions of her past. She unleashes a Canary Cry that not only shatters the mirrors but reveals Orato as a monster with a great big mouth in his chest. She gets outside and joins Vixen in battle against the ninjas. Dinah’s aunt arrives and then runs a samurai sword through Dinah, before revealing herself as Orato.
Because of the dreaded deadline doom, we get two issues this month as this titles races towards its’ end. Brenden Fletcher and Sandy Jarrell combine to give us a wild story with a great cliffhanger ending! I am really dying to see how Fletcher writes himself out of this one.
BLOODLINES #1: In the quiet town of Pine Ridge, we meet Eddie: a young man who suffers from a degenerative disease that has him needing crutches to walk. On his way to school, his friend Graham gives him a ride and it turns out to be a semi-regular day at school for him. We also meet Dana, Faith, Haley, and Ricky-the rest of the supporting cast. That night, the students of Pine Ridge High School are having a party when this strange deer-beast creature bursts onto the scene and begins attacking the kids. Eddie gets angry and transforms into a big blue creature with red eyes and destroys the creature by tearing it’s head off. Unfortunately, it’s too late to save his buddy Graham.
What the heck is this all about? Based on the title, I thought it might possibly have a connection to the old series of the same name from back in the day. But, apparently I was wrong. Or not. This six issue mini-series will obviously continue on even after REBIRTH begins, so maybe there is a chance it will tie into REBIRTH. J.T. Krul wrote it and V. Ken Marion is responsible for the art, which is very much like Brett Booth in style. My curiosity is piqued and that means I will read the next issue to see where this is going.
CATWOMAN #51: We begin with a new report announcing the imminent death of Black Mask’s father, Richard Sionis. That takes us back to a flashback where Selina and a guy named David are pulling a credit scam at Richard Sionis’ expense. It comes back to bite them, however, as they get stopped by the False Face Society and their leader, Richard Sionis. Back in the present, Catwoman almost has a run in with the False Face Society and their new leader, White Mask, as he grabs the Faceless Mask She goes off to spy on the group and finds out that White Mask is actually her old friend David, who is supposed to be dead. In the end, Black Mask, dressed as a a nurse, visits his dying father and finishes the job.
Creepy…very, very creepy! I love it! Frank Tieri and Inaki Miranda do a great job of weaving the past and the present together and leaving the mystery of the not-dead David as a mystery. Black Mask, White Mask and the False Face Society: this is a war waiting to explode. And I can’t wait!
CONSTANTINE: THE HELLBLAZER #11: Constantine is in Los Angeles and he is not happy. He storms into a Hollywood party being thrown by the Archangel Gabriel. John is looking for help concerning the Neron problem, but Gabriel has more important things on his mind and refuses to help. So Constantine ends up at an amusement park with his old friend Bartleby. John says that he is through with trying to save New York City…until Bartleby reminds him that his boyfriend Oliver is still in New York City. He heads off to Declan’s Bar & Grill to drown his sorrows and ends up being possessed by Deadman, who kidnaps his body and forces him back to New York City, where he finds out that Oliver’s daughters have been kidnapped.
Ming Doyle & James Tynion IV gives us this continuously weird story while Travel Foreman provides the art. This book is soon going to be like the television show: missing an audience because it has been pulled from the lineup, although he will be back in a new book after REBIRTH begins. I would like to say I’m happy, but I really wanted this series to work out. John Constantine is a legendary con man and anti-hero. For him to go from being a lovesick puppy drooling over his Justice League Dark teammate to looking to shag with anything that moves. Maybe the next time around the powers that be will actually get it right.
CYBORG #10: Victor and his dad get to spend some quality time with Victor’s “mom” before he turns himself over to Holmes, who is going to experiment on him, even though it’s illegal according to the Cybernetics Act. It turns out the Holmes is really being controlled by the Technosapiens and that Victor’s mother is really a creation of the Technosapiens. But Victor is one step ahead and has managed to infect the Technosapiens systems, making them easy pickings for Cyborg and Shazam. In the end, Victor destroys the hologram that wasn’t his mother.
Marv Wolfman: the Eighties called and they want their plot devices back. Sorry…I have always been a huge fan of Wolfman but this issue just didn’t do it for me. Too many cliches, too predictable (there was a whole conversation between Vic’s father and his “mother” that just tipped off the “something’s not right” radar early on). Ivan Reis did the layouts while Felipe Watanabe, Daniel Hdr and Julio Ferreira did the pencils.
DEATHSTROKE #17: Slade has been captured by Lawman, who he discovers is his old partner Wardell Chambers, who was killed on a mission many years ago. Well, apparently he is not, as he is here and now has mind control powers that he has used to manipulate the hatred in Slade’s daughter Rose. The two begin a fight to the death that is interrupted by Red Hood, who has come to help out Deathstroke while Snakebite assist Lawman. But Lawman uses his powers to convince Red Hood that Batman has arrived and needs his help, which leads to a battle between the two again. In the process, Rose gets run through by Lawman and so does Slade. It looks like she is done until the pair disappear before the villains’ eyes thanks to a bit of mind control from Jericho who introduces his father to Ra’s al Ghul.
Things look like they’re going from bad to worse for Slade Wilson. Not only are he and his daughter seriously wounded, his estranged son has now brought him to Ras al Ghul himself. James Bonny and Tyler Kirkham give us a great issue that sets up for the big finish next month.
DETECTIVE COMICS #51: An old Marine buddy of Jim Gordon warns him about stuff going down from their past. That doesn’t last long as his friend is killed and his killer takes himself out with a foaming mouth suicide. After finding out that his friend and his killer had large strips of flesh stripped off their body. Gordon heads off to Afghanistan and he meets up with some of the Marines who know about what is going on with their comrades dying. He ends up doing some Batman style investigation and ends up at a meeting between Colonel Stone and one of the followers of Amun-Set who wants Gordon and all the rest dead. Gordon heads out in the desert and gets caught in a sandstorm. That is when we find out that Gordon and his fellow servicemen interrupted a ritualistic torture chamber.
Peter Tomasi and Fernando Pasarin give us what started to feel like a fill-in issue, but by the end, we realize that this is just the first act in the final arc before REBIRTH. The story is Tomasi’s typical solid writing and, of course, Pasarin just knocks it out of the park, especially with Matt Ryan inking him. The book just looks amazing! I can’t wait to see how Tomasi gets this out and makes the transition to REBIRTH, with Bruce back in the costume.
DOCTOR FATE #11: Khalid has been captured by the ghosts of Caesar and his Roman soldiers and they have brought him to a General who has great interest on his amulet. Unfortunately for the general, it does have a magical power that burns him when he tries to take it for himself. That angers the general and he demands that the ghosts eliminate Doctor Fate. Khalid figures out that the general has the knife that killed Caesar and that is what is giving him his power over them. Khalid uses his powers to free the knife from the general and that causes the ghosts to go to their rest. Without his ghosts, the general is powerless and is captured by Khalid. Good thing too as he has received word that he is about to get kicked out of school. Meanwhile, Khlaid’s mom and Puck the cat have a talk.
Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew have struggled through this series and it has never made a foothold in DC’s Universe. Personally, I think it has to do with the character, as Levitz has tried too hard to make him a Peter Parker clone. It has never really worked for me and I have never really warmed up to Liew’s art style. I will be curious to see what happens with REBIRTH. When Doctor fate gets introduced, who wears the helm?
EARTH 2: SOCIETY #11: Red Arrow and Ted Grant come charging through a window to try and save Batman from Hourman, but he has already found a way to take him down by using Anti-Miraclo. So Batman sends Arrow and Ted after Kyle Nimbus and they take him down as a team. Meanwhile, Green Lantern sets up a meeting between the soon to be warring Governors, but they blame Lantern and the Wonders for everything, including the fact that their planet is barren. Because of this, Sato, Steel and Sandman issue Martial Law and that means killing anyone who gets out of hand. In the end, Fury tells Hawkgirl how almost everyone on the Aphrodite died of radiation poisoning so she used the Pandora vessel to merge the souls of the Amazonians the dead to save them both.
Dan Abnett continues his run on this title, with Federico Dallocchio handling the art duties. I so wish I could love this series but I just don’t love these characters and it feels like Abnett is trying to put a Band-Aid on this book to keep it from getting worse. The characters got really flat at the end of the last series and now it just seems like it’s all going to hell for our heroes. There is a future for EARTH 2 in REBIRTH. I just hope it’s the CLASSIC EARTH 2!
THE FLASH #50: The Flash has been captured by the Rogues so Captain Frye has him sent to Iron Heights. Barry’s dad hears a radio report about it and immediately calls in a favor. Girder and Overload break loose and take the Flash with them, thanks to that phone call from Henry Allen. As Iron Heights loses power and an explosion almost kills Frye, Barry now has to deal with a whole bunch of loose convicts. The Rogues get involved but the Trickster has betrayed them in favor of supporting the person who has Heat Wave: The Riddler. In the back-up, we see Wally West understanding what makes up the Speed Force from his future self.
Van Jensen, with Jesus Merino and Paul Pelletier, handled the main story while Jensen and Joe Eisma did the back-up. The back-up was obviously a great lead in for Wally West’s new role in REBIRTH. The big bang was in the main story where we see that The Riddler is the bad guy here. Boy, for a guy who was a low grade, although classic, Batman villain, he sure has made a name for himself in the new 52. One more issue to go and then it’s REBIRTH time for the Fastest Man Alive.
GOTHAM ACADEMY #17: In YEARBOOK PART FOUR, Maps is freaking out because Robin broke in and took her book. This leads to a tale where the gang meets up with Heathcliff, who is acting as road manager for Black Canary. He then goes to talk to his crush, Pomeline, and they go off for a walk, where he hands her a special cassette tape that Lord Byron made for her and also autographed. He decides to play her a song, but she runs off, listening to him from inside her room. Then we get the story of Maps and Olive running into Teekl, who is in the process of bringing Klarion back his first spell book. Then we get the tale of what happened to the Gilkey Warlocks, who called forth a creature while playing a game of Serpents and Spells and were never heard from again. In the end, they might have another meeting real soon with a Robin who is doing his best to hide in plain sight.
We’re almost at the end here, as there is one more chapter to go in YEARBOOK. This issue was kind of fun and was brought to us by Brendan Fletcher, Adam Archer, Annie Wu, Michael Dialynas and David Peterson. It is a wonderful mix of writing and illustrated style here and my favorite piece was seeing Klarion come back in something resembling his CLASSIC FORM.
GRAYSON #19: Doctor Dredalus has return and his daughters are a bit upset about it, especially because Luka is tasked with killing her sister. But she is not dead and Dredalus kills Luka. Max Lord shows up and tells Netz he will save her if she turns over the Minos Files and reveals that he created Mister Minos and Minos is Max. She deletes the files as she dies, leaving Lord empty handed after all. Elsewhere, Dick and Tiger, who is working for Checkmate, fight it out while Midnighter, having seen that all that has happened was about bringing Doctor Dredalus back, splits the scene. In the end, Dick confronts Doctor Dredalus, who is in the body of Helena.
Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly take over the story, Roge Antonio has taken over the art, and that means this issue is a big disappointment. The story is fun, however, as the sisters die, Helena needs to be saved from Doctor Dredalus, Tiger is working for the bad guys and Max Lord proves, once again, that he is a major player in the world…and not in a good way. This is the penultimate issue that will wrap next month and lead to Dick Grayson becoming Nightwing again.
GREEN ARROW #51: Green Arrow, Emiko and George have been captured by an African militia who plan on ransoming our heroes. They also have Doctor Miracle, who they are using to heal their various injuries. Deathstroke is also here as he wants Doctor Miracle too, so that means he’s blasting his way through the camp. Slade kills all the militia and that leads to him killing Green Arrow. Really? Yeah-big old knife in the chest as Deathstroke captures Doctor Miracle.
Ush…that was a long issue with not much happening. Ben Percy has painted Ollie into a corner that I’m pretty sure that Doctor Miracle will get him out of and, I’m sure, will purge him of his current wolf illness. The highlight here is Szymon Kudranski’s art. Actually…that was the ONLY highlight here. Sorry…I didn’t need another Deathstroke book!
GREEN LANTERN #51: Hal is a green construct of what he was recently in space but doesn’t know who he really is. His brother Jim fills the construct in on Hal’s history Jordan, which finally convinces Hal to become Hal again. Now that he has become himself again, he decides that he needs to find the Green Lantern Corps and he leaves Earth. Out in space, Trapper and Virgo are being attacked by the Gray Agents and Darlene is getting disabled. They get transported to the Gray Agent's ship, where they decide to head to Earth. But Hal shows up and is preparfed to make sure that doesn’t happen.
I totally love Robert Venditti’s work, but this is not his best work. The whole Hal as a construct part of the story, complete with life history that tied up the first half dozen pages of the book was annoying. Then we have three pages of Hal deciding that he must search for the lost Lanterns…how did he know they were missing? And the rest of the book revisits a pair we haven’t seen in ages. On the plus side, Rafa Sandoval’s art is really great!
GREEN LANTERN CORPS EDGE OF OBLIVION #4: As Kilowog tells Guy that he was right to be concerned about protecting these aliens, the team gets beat up while fighting against Marniel. But Xrill-Vrek reveals that Marniel isn't the villain here, but that Ausras and Dismas are. It also seems that they can control minds and that leads to Guy want to have the rest of the Lanterns protect them.
Well, now that we have lost Ethan Van Sciver to the REBIRTH project, we get Aaron Kuder. That’s not a bad thing, but he’s not Ethan Van Sciver. Tom Taylor continues to write the book and the fact that we’re now two-thirds of the way through the series and we get the big reveal makes me a bit upset. Did I really just waste three issues of my reading life only to find out that this was a swerve? Looks like!
HARLEY QUINN #27: Harley battles Red Tool, but he gasses the place and takes her with him, singing all the while. He takes her to the top of the Wonder Wheel Ferris wheel where he feeds her Nate Man’s hot dogs and fries. He starts to show her his secret origin, but the battery on his phone dies, leading to Harley eventually getting free and dumping him out of the Ferris wheel. Once she gets back to her Gang of Harleys, she finds out that what she thought was a bruise on her but is actually a phone number that Red Tool tattooed on her posterior. This leads her to a certain address where she discovers that Red Tool has set up their wedding day.
Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti, with art by John Timms, continue with their brand of sophomoric satire, complete with Red Tool being their version of Deadpool. It’s more of the same old same old. You will either like it or not. It’s not Chaucer, but it has it’s moments.
HARLEY QUINN AND HER GANG OF HARLEYS #1: Meet the Gang of Harleys! We have Erica Zhang as Harley Queens, Antonia Moore as Harlem Harley, Shona Choudhury as Bolly Quinn, Harvey McPherson as Harvey Quinn, Carlita Alvarez as Carli Quinn, Hannah Borgman as Hanuquinn, and Holly Hamden as Coach. There job is to protect Coney Island from all manner of annoying people. Harley goes into a Port-a-Potti to drop a deuce and disappears. Apparently, she has been kidnapped right off the potty! The team takes to the town, going to Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island too in search of their fearless leader. In the end, it seems there is a new Harley in town-Harley Sinn
The first thing you notice is that Amanda Conner is nowhere to be seen and that makes all the difference. Jimmy Palmiotti and Frank Tieri wrote this and that means there are nowhere near as many off-color jokes in here (except for a reference about playing with her beaver). So I guess we know who the dirty one is in the Palmiotti household! Mauricet provides the art and it looks good. Of course, when you fill a book with that many scantily clad women(and one man), how could it not look good?
HARLEY QUINN AND THE SUICIDE SQUAD APRIL FOOL’S SPECIAL #1: Harley gets an invitation to join a villain support group called Evil Anonymous and she decides that she will actually use her psychiatrist’s degree to help the villains. She tries to subdue Man-Bat and gets knocked out in the process. She ministers to Enchantress, Ratcatcher, Starro, Toyman, Poison Ivy , Killer Moth and more. But then the Justice League busts in an captures her. This reveals that she has been dreaming all of this, as she has been under the hypnotic control of Amanda Waller. She is about to become part of the NEW NEW SUICIDE SQUAD, coming in June, starring Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Killer Croc and Katana.
While I did find parts of it humorous, I wouldn’t call it an April Fool’s Special. Rob Williams wrote it, which makes for a nice change from the usual Amanda Conner/Jimmy Palmiotti hijinx. However, it all just ends up being a lead-in for the June REBIRTH title. Sean “Cheeks” Galloway provides the bulk of this issue, as his cartoony style provides the fantasy piece where Harley does her therapy. The real highlight here is getting 20 pages of beautiful Jim Lee art. Lee is the guy responsible for the new series in June, so let’s hope that his stay will be lengthy, because this stuff looks awesome!
HARLEY QUINN’S BIG BLACK BOOK #3: An old amusement park ride called Hellgate 2 is ready to be torn down but it is haunted by Rick the Ringmaster, Betty the Tattooed Lady, and Bob the Lobsterman and they aren’t happy about that. Over at Harley’s apartment, she is dealing with her drunken British visitors while Tony’s newest boarder, Zatanna, is dealing with a visit from the ghosts. She scares them off, so they [pop upstairs to visit Harley who responds with some violence of her own. This leads to Zatanna showing up and the two girls teaming up. The ghosts explain that Jolly Straton, the original operator of Hellgate 2, was infected by a partially-summoned demon and he has been after them since 1911. Of course, they are safe within the confines of the ride, which is going to be torn down and that makes them vulnerable. Zatanna and Harley go to the spectral plane and ask Jolly to release the three. But he says he is a prisoner of a demon named Nad Oidid. So they go off to his pleasure palace filled with sexy naked people, where he sees he is in the presence of his favorite murderer in Harley and he agrees to free everyone if she spends a month with him in Hell. But she drives him nuts and he sends her home within 24 hours.
Here is all you need to know about this. Issue: Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner wrote it in their usual ridiculously silly style. And the demon is Dan Didio spelled backwards. The highlight? Joseph Michael Linsner drew the whole freaking thing! So, if you can wade through the silliness, you truly get treated by Linsner’s always amazing art! That IS the reason to buy this book. And, if you’re lucky, you can also find a copy with the Linsner variant cover.
JUSTICE LEAGUE THE DARKSEID WAR SPECIAL #1: Jessica Cruz’ consciousness is trapped inside Volthoom, along with everyone who ever wore the ring at some point, specifically the former Power Ring, Harold Jordan. He tries to convince her to stay and give into her fears. But she races to the light that she believes is Volthoom's main Power Battery. Actually, it turns out that it’s Cyborg. The other main story is the origin of Grail, who was born on the same night that Hippolyta gave birth to Diana. It appears that just as Hippolyta is about to name her daughter, Myrina spies something she shouldn’t and is chased after by the Amazons. Myrina and Grail flee Themyscira and spent their lives dealing with Grail’s quest to find the Anti-Monitor so she can kill Darkseid. In the end, we learn that Grail has captured Steve Trevor and transfers part of the Anti-Life Equation into him with a kiss. What happens next? Tune into JUSTICE LEAGUE #49
Geoff Johns contributes the story in this off shoot of the Darkseid War that seems to be going on forever. That’s not so much because the story is running long, it is just running behind. Two issues behind most of the rest of the New 52 books, in fact. The art is great and it should be, considering that Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Oscar Jimenez, Paul Pelletier and Tony Kordos all leave their stand on it. Just remember that this will all lead to a new status quo for when REBIRTH begins. At least…that is the promise.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #49: While Superwoman prepares to give birth to the baby that the Crime Syndicate believes is the secret weapon to kill Mobius, Lex Luthor arrives and battles with Mobius. Superman shows up and joins the fight, along with Wonder Woman, while Lex is visited by the Black Racer influenced Flash, who informs him that death is coming. Big Barda, having realized that Lex and the Parademons are here, heads off to Apokolips to free the slaves. As the baby boy child is born, Grail, Myrina, and a powerful Steve Trevor arrive and Trevor uses his new found powers to kill Mobius. At this point, Grail announces that Steve is going to kill all of them next.
Picking up from where the DARKSEID WAR SPECIAL left off, Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok nail this one! The story is totally captivating and Fabok’s art is just utterly amazing. So, who is REALLY the father of Superwoman’s baby-a child that was supposedly going to have the powers we now see that Steve Trevor has? My guess: Darkseid. And that would lead to his resurrection somehow. This has been a weird, wild ride so far and I can’t wait to see how Johns gets out of this one!
JUSTICE LEAGUE 3001 #11: While G'nort and Supergirl debate the good and bad points of Larfleeze, Ice convinces him to turn his attention to Lady Styx. Guy Gardner is fluctuating between the Guy and Shiryalla Tome personality and Ice tells Larfleeze that Lady Styx has his ring. Meanwhile, Eclipso tells Lady Styx that he will destroy the Justice League and she informs him to keep Teri alive. Over on Takron-Galtos, Wonder Woman, Flash and Batgirl make the decision to head back to Paradise Island where they talk with G'nort, until Eclipso and his Legion of Doom arrive, leading to a knock down, drag out fight between the two teams. During it all, Terry and Teri have a less than happy reunion. In the end, Lois Lane and Ariel Masters are on the run from the Scullions, who figure the best way to stop the girls is to neutralize the whole planet.
I am so sad that this book is not continuing with the coming of REBIRTH, but that will just free up Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis and Scott Kolins for some other greatness. This book has been fun from the beginning and this issue is no exception. With Batgirl in a Batsuit singing the Batman theme and Guy Gardner having a personality crisis of epic proportions, this title is just one long joke with some plot and action thrown in. How does that differ from HARLEY QUINN, which also has pushed the boundaries of humor? Well…this is actually funny!
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
DC YOU Month 10, Part 2
MARTIAN MANHUNTER #10: Agent Wessel and Alicia are hunting for the mysterious Martian child, but they first find Mr. Biscuits, who brings them to the child. The child then proceeds to tell Martian Manhunter’s origin. Millions of years ago, a technologically advanced Mars was threatened by a vision that convinced most Martians that they were going to be attacked by a giant tentacled beast. Ma'alefa'ak convinces the Martian Council that they need to make a Martian super weapon to battle the beast and that J'onn J’onzz needed to be the soul of the machine. Ma'alefa'ak started using Martian blood magic which caused the death of the planet and the creation of the Martian Manhunter, who ended up on Earth where he spent the next million years trying to forget. Ma'alefa'ak came searching for him, so he split himself up into multiple personas to make him harder to find. In the end, Mr. Biscuit's reveals himself to be a normal looking Martian Manhunter. And that is when Ma'alefa'ak comes out of nowhere and murders him.
If you think this is your daddy’s Martian Manhunter, you are so wrong. Rob Williams and Eddy Barrows give us an origin story that is so weird, so wild and so twisted that I cannot even believe I just read it. I will so miss this title when REBIRTH comes along. The GOOD NEWS is that the amazing Eddy Barrows will be illustrating DETECTIVE COMICS when REBIRTH does occur.
MIDNIGHTER #10: Marina and Helena Bertinelli are in Boston, where they find Robert and a lot of destruction, but no Midnighter. He is in the clutches of the Suicide Squad who are in the process of torturing him to no avail. He breaks loose and tracks down some of the A-listers: Harley, Parasite and Deadshot. He quickly takes down Harley and Parasite and then proceeds to break Deadshot’s hands, but the Squad comes back and ends up riding in a plane that Harley blows to pieces.
Steve Orlando gives us a ton of action here while Hugo Petrus and Aco, sharing the art duties, give us a nice dose of blood. This was a good issue that once again was full of action and very little of the “romancing of Midnighter”. This title is off the schedule come June, so it’s anyone’s guess what happens to our hero. But I think I can say that DC isn’t killing off this crazy guy!
NEW SUICIDE SQUAD #18: The Squad was injected with nano particles at the end of last issue, which explains why they are not dead. It seems that Seraphine and Adam Reed, of the Horus Organization, freed them from Belle Reve and now they are being taken to have their neck bombs removed. When they get to their location, Kilgore, Hellslayer, Razer, Deathtrap, and Brutus greet them at gunpoint. But the mercenaries tell the Squad how they are big fans and it turns into a team-up. That is until Adam stabs Seraphine, releasing the spirit of the Rose Tattoo and setting the castle on lockdown. The Fist of Cain is here and they are about to kill of the Squad, because that’s what they do.
Tim Seeley and Juan Ferreyra come back on their second issue with some confusing moments and a bunch of action, complete with Brutus taking a nasty head shot. By the way, if you didn’t know, Kilgore, Hellslayer, Razer, Deathtrap, and Brutus, along with Rose Tattoo, are all leftovers from the days of the Wildstorn Universe. So, by taking out members, is this DC’s way of eliminating their past?
OMEGA MEN #9: Kyle and the Omega Men walking into a negotiation room that actually is the site of a debate between Kyle and the head of the Citadel Empire. During the debate, which Kyle is losing, Kalista has Scrapps' robot assistant blow itself up and taking the planet Voorl with it. Guns start blazing and bodies start dropping. Just as Scrapps is about to die, Kyle summons his white lantern ring and turns into a hero wielding the greatest force in the universe.
This is one of the best books on the market today. Tom King and Barnaby Baganda have been just totally turning out quality work since issue #1. The White Lantern is finally back and I couldn’t be happier. Find back issues and don’t take my word for how great this title is!
OMEGA MEN #10: The war against the Citadel rages for 41 days until the Omega Men win the battle and get to celebrate their hard fought victory.
Read the above review. Tom King and Barnaby Baganda kill it here.
POISON IVY CYCLE OF LIFE AND DEATH #3: People keep dying at Ivy’s work and that means everyone is getting involved in the investigation. But, at the same time, Ivy is enjoying nurturing her twin sporeling babies, Rose and Hazel. Her super creepy co-worker shows up and he meets his demises at the hands of her man-eating plants. In the end, Darshan shows up at her apartment and that presents a bit of a problem for Ivy AND Catwoman.
After two great issues, this one crawls to a bumpy stop! Clay Mann’s art still looks amazing, but Amy Chu’s story just stumbled from page one. Is this about a murder investigation or a superhero remake of BABY BOOM? Poison Ivy as a mommy? And if Chu wanted to be CLEVER, she should have named the twins Rose and Thorn. Yeah…us old timers would have gotten it!
RED HOOD/ARSENAL #10: We jump forward to find the boys on the U.S.S. Excelsior fighting some folks from HIVE before finding this giant doomsday bomb on board. Going back five hours earlier, Tara Battleworth is meeting with the boys when they ask her to get a therapist for Duela, which she does…in the form of Lilith Clay (see TITANS HUNT). While she undergoes intensive therapy, the boys are on the U.S.S. Excelsior shutting down that bomb. They become heroes while Duela passes her psyh test, which leads her back underground where she retrieves her mask, promising to do bigger and badder anything daddy Joker could do.
Thanks to Scott Lobdell and Dexter Soy for actually rounding out Duella’s character. Now if they could have done something ELSE with the boys’ story. It was just long and boring and uninteresting, except for bringing the HIVE into it. Let’s have Duella lead the team in the future and let the fun begin!
ROBIN, SON OF BATMAN #10: Damian grabs hold of Goliath and heads to Mexico where they have to retrieve three items stolen from the Year of Blood vault. So off he goes while Maya fights ninjas and runs into Talia, who takes her as a captive onto her ship. With Damian on the hunt for the last of the artifacts, we discover that Suren Darga has them and he is ready to bring them to Gorilla City.
Ray Fawkes and Ramon Bachs handle this adventure of the newest Boy Wonder and what we discover is that Maya’s story is more interesting than his. Fawkes script is spot-on and Bachs art is fun in a cartoonish kind of way. Overall, it was a fun issue and I can’t wait to see what happens in Gorilla City next issue!
SECRET SIX #12: The issue begins with a celebration by an interesting trio of ladies. Meanwhile, Shiva has taken out a ton of cops and is moving in for Strix and Porcelain when Catman and Batgirl show up. After a brief battle, Shiva explains that she is here for Strix and if she goes with her, she will spare the lives of the others. Strix agrees and, after receiving Batgirl’s boots as a gift, she leaves with Shiva to start her new life in the League of Assassins. Back inside, Catman explains what happened to Big Shot before he gets to go upstairs and meets with his long lost wife Sue. With her support, the decision is made to put the family back together as Big Shot becomes Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man!
Nothing makes me happier than watching Gail Simone work her magic and the team of Dale Eaglesham and Tom Derenick illustrate the Holy Hell out of it! And we get the return of the REAL RALPH DIBNEY!!! This book is so much fun, so great to look at and I will be totally bummed when it is gone!
SINESTRO #21: Soranik is now in charge of the Sinestro Corps and, while she is not happy about it, the people of Earth are thrilled. With the crisis ended, the yellow rings leave the converted heroes and head back to find other prospects for the Sinestro Corps.
The people of Earth panic, afraid that they no longer have someone to assist our heroes so Arkillo and Saint Walker agree to stay behind. Some of the Lanterns investigate the defeat of the Paling, but only find Mongul, who quickly ends their lives and promises revenge.
Cullen Bunn and Martin Coccolo do a nice job of wrapping of the story from the past few issues and set the scene for the upcoming battle with Mongul. It was an average issue that suffered from Brad Walker’s NOT being on the art. This book goes away with the start of REBIRTH, so I expect this upcoming arc to be wrapped up fairly quickly.
STARFIRE #10: Stella takes Kori’s body to a hospital in Hollow Earth, while King Neala-Tok continues his assault. Luckily Atlee has the sense to wipe out his cricket army with a bomb. But he has a second plan and calls forth the Chida to attack. Kori wakes at the hospital and she heads off to join the fight, using her powers to defeat King Neala-Tok. She collapses after this and it’s back to the hospital where they have Stella wear a ceremonial gown and use their underworld sun orb to bring Kori back to life. That means it’s time for a party! Meanwhile Rave and Sol share a tender moment,
Really? A party? Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Elsa Charretier are responsible for this tragic issue. And I do mean tragic. The art is cartoony and the story…well: I really didn’t know that Stella “groomed” herself.. Nerxt thing you know, we’ll get references to Sol and his need to manscape! Totally embarrassed!
SUICIDE SQUAD MOST WANTED-DEADSHOT AND KATANA #3: Deadshot’s father has just died on him and he has just taken out his mother. So Amanda Waller sends in the Suicide Squad to take him out. He takes out the whole team but Harley, which gives Evans a chance to take him out. Back at Belle Reve, Evans explains how the classic “my parents were killed by drug dealers” origin was actually his own. Evans now proudly proclaims that HE is the New Deadshot. In the Katana story, the Squad arrives to save Katana and her friends, but the cat dies in the process. The team comes together and goes after Kobra, before coming face to face with King Kobra.
So here’s my take on this series: give me the Deadshot story by Brian Buccellato and Viktor Bogdanovic and keep the Katana story by Mike W. Barr and Diogenes Neves. I just love what is being done with Floyd’s character and the art. And, to be fair, there is nothing wrong with the Katana story…except I find her totally uninteresting…which was the reason I didn’t read her series in the first place. So give me a $2.99 comic with Floyd and be done with it.
SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #27: Superman and his team battle Vandal Savage's children. When we come across Savage, he is lying on the ground with a pipe stuck through his side. Beastmaster battle with Savage and he ends up being run through by the pipe for his troubles. Vandal’s children begin to disintegrate while Vandal and Superman duke it out in the middle of an approaching meteorite storm.
Well…that was a complete waste of time. Well…almost a complete waste. Cliff Richards art rocked, complete with several killer two page spreads! Peter J. Tomasi’ story was just filler as far as I am concerned. Here comes the big finale in SUPERMAN #50.
SUPERMAN #50: Superman comes face to face with a powered up Vandal Savage and the Puzzler and suddenly Superman finds himself experiencing the vision of an alternate reality where he experiences what life would have been like if that comet never came towards Earth and gave Vandal his powers. It seems that Superman’s parents and a young Kal-El would have been alive. His next vision is in the future and shows Superman as Vandal’s General. He is leading a team of made up of Aquaman, Giganta, Grodd, Lobo, Captain Atom, Black Adam, Shazam, Killer Croc and Blockbuster and they proceed to take on the Dominators. After their victory, the team celebrates. But not really, as Lois, Jimmy and Perry show up to serve their victory meal, much to Superman’s displeasure. The last vision has Earth turned to ash. Savage says this is what will happen is Superman doesn’t join him. Vandal tries to push the comet down to Earth faster and Superman, along with Puzzler, stops it. The comet breaks apart, sending Vandal out into deep space. In the end, Superman rekindles his friendship with Loid and Jimmy, who has been hired back by Perry White.
Gene Luen Yang ends this long-winded story and sort of resets the status quo. The art was by Howard Porter, Adrian Syaf, Patrick Zircher, and Jon Bogdanove and I have no issues with that. My issue is with Yang writing his own version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL with Clark playing Scrooge. THIS is how we end this story? For real? Honestly…I thought we deserved better than that. Come June, Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason and Doug Mahnke take their shot at the Man of Steel.
SUPERMAN LOIS AND CLARK #6: We opening with a flashback to that moment when Lois outed Superman. Back in the present, Clark is trying to find Cora by listening for her ringtone. Luckily that works, as he finds her in a cabin near San Francisco and frees her. Also lucky is that he wrapped that up quickly as he needs to fix the mess that Bad-Ass Nation has made. Meanwhile, Manheim’s gang has captured Lois and Jon. Luckily, jon has discovered he has powers and is prepared to save his mother. Lastly, Hyathis shows up at The island looking for the Oblivion Stone.
I SO CANNOT WAIT to see where these characters are going when REBIRTH comes! Dan Jurgens and Lee Weeks have been absolutely blowing it away on this series. This is MY Superman, not the guy running around each month and in June, I get the chance to see MY Clark and Lois doing what they haven’t been able to do for the past four years. So…is it June yet?
SWAMP THING #3: Swamp Thing is wrestling with a huge boa constrictor in his swamp for fun when a mysterious stranger kills the snake. Turns out it’s Matt Cable and he thought he was saving his friend. After a warm reunion, Matt tells Swamp Thing that he has been working on getting a cure for him. He ended up in Nanda Parbat and got his hands on the Hand of Fatima, but he doesn’t know how to make it work. So they go off to Shadowcrest, New England to meet with Zatanna. She works her magic and Alec Holland is human again. The consequence-Matt Cable is now the Swamp thing.
Okay…I’m just a little bit confused. Based on what we KNEW about Alec Holland, what with his redone origin in the NEW 52, how can a creature turn into something he wasn’t? Or was he all along? Again…really confused. I’m going to chalk that up to Len Wein, the man behind the Swamp Thing way back when, coming on board and trying to right the wrongs of the past four years. And if you can’t get the legendary Bernie Wrightson to draw your book, then I guess Kelley Jones will have to do.
TEEN TITANS #18: Wonder Woman learns from Red Robin that the demigoddess Cassandra is taking Wonder Girl to see her real dad. On the way to Greece, where the rest of the team is fighting Cassandra and her Hyena Men, she explains to Tim how she was in cahoots with The First Born and they killed hundreds of Gods and Amazons. At the same time, Cassandra explains to Cassie that she knows she did wrong and now she is trying to make up for it. But then she goes and grabs the Rod of Ascelpius and suddenly there are three giant snakes emerge from the Temple of Apollo. The Titans can’t seem to take the snakes down, but Wonder Girl dons her armor and carves up the beast, which causes the Temple to collapse. Wonder Woman steps in to save the day and that leads to her tying it up with Cassandra. Diana wraps her in the Lasso of Truth and it reveals that Cassandra IS telling the truth: she is here to introduce Cassie to her dad. That leads to Cassie figuring out that Wonder Woman is her Aunt.
While Greg Pak presents a so-so story (hey…it IS the TEEN TITANS you know!), Ian Churchill and Tom Derenick nail it with their artwork. What I DID like in the story was that Pak has managed to do fill-in flashbacks so anyone not reading WONDER WOMAN knew the whole First Born story. It’s nice to see Cassandra is still as wild and wacky as she was there! And I have to admit this story is far better written than we have been experiencing in the past, so that is a plus. Don’t forget: we get TWO Titan themed books when REBIRTH arrives. Who will be playing on this team, if it is even a team from the NEW 52, is anyone’s guess.
TELOS #6: Parallax has claimed Telos' power shard so he can defeat Mongul and Cyborg Superman. Apparently this is not the first time Telos and Parallax have done this dance because they keep losing Coast City to the bad guys. Eventually Parallax and Telos finally beat Cyborg Superman and Mongul, but Telos has turned the people against Parallax so he kills everyone in Coast City. Telos goes up against Parallax, who loses his hold over time and everything gets destroyed. Parallax tells Telos that the shard only has enough power for one of them. Parallax leaves Telos stranded in space while he goes off to kill Hal Jordan.
What? That’s it? BOOO!!! Boo to you Jeff King and Igor Vitorino for giving us this really crappy ending.
TITANS HUNT #6: Mal is singing into Mr. Twister's bone organ while Dick, Donna and Garth battle Mammoth. At the hospital, Bumble Bee is being told of her husband’s past by Neil Richards, who was Mad Mod in the original 1967 series. When he finishes with her, he makes a phone call and orders the deaths of the Teen Titans. Hawk, Dove, Roy, and Gnark meet with Lilith, who explains that she made them all forget Mr. Twister to stop him five years ago, but he began whispering to her a year ago. In the end, Honeybun and Ding Dong Daddy show up at Lilith’s to eliminate the team.
I so love what Dan Abnett and Stephen Segovia are doing on this book and look forward to REBIRTH. With Abnett pulling out all sorts of characters, no matter how obscure, from the classic team’s past. We have Mad Mod, who was one of the first of their villains, who made a brief appearance during Dan Jurgens’ Nineties run on the title. And then we have DDD and Honeybun. They come straight out of the Sixties and, I have to admit, I needed to research them, as he has been absent from the books for a long time (although he was in the television show). I have often said what makes Dan Abnett’s writing so great is that he has a great love of comics of the past. This book is truly a loving tribute to the Titans of the past.
WE ARE ROBIN #10: We begin with Smiley trying out his stand-up comedy skills at a local club, to less than ideal results. Elsewhere, Duke and the rest of the Robins deal with their daily lives before they all see the breaking news about Smiley's attacks on television. While they all make plans to get involved, Dre plans on going after the Jokerz himself, so he infiltrates the group. In the end, Smiley and his Jokerz enter Middletown High School where they plan on making a name for themselves.
Lee Bermejo and Jorge Corona give us another issue and it’s another month with lots of character driven action but no real action to speak of. Bermejo gets all sorts of credit from me for fleshing out these characters, but the lack of action means this feels like an Indy comic as opposed to a superhero book. I will be very curious to see where these characters end up when REBIRTH arrives.
WONDER WOMAN #50: Dina has been knocked out the cyclops and finds herself in a trap set by Hephaestus. It turns out that the cyclops are being beaten by Hephaestus and they are only doing his bidding, so Diana tries to free them, but can’t. She does vow to return and free them as she goes off and return Hera's orbs to Hecate. She returns to Hecate, learns that the orbs are actually the eyes of the cyclops and that Gaia is behind Baby Zeke being sick. It all boils down to Donna Troy being cast as the new Fate. To save him, she is given a series of impossible tasks, beginning with battling Ares, who feels she is not fit to be the God of War. She releases Typhoeus, the Father of Monsters, who flies her back to Hecate. Diana’s next task: go back to Themyscira and head into Tartarus. In the back-up, Donna Troy learns how important her job is as fate, whether she likes it or not.
Meredith Finch, with David Finch and Johnny Desjardins handling the art, weaves another confusing tale. I mean, orbs are really the eyes of cyclops? Honestly? I didn’t see that coming. And the Goids are liars? NO!!! Say it ain’t so! The back-up by Finch and Miguel Mendonca is a beautiful tale and possibly her best work to date on this title. The good news: June brings us Greg Rucka, Liam Sharp and Nicola Scott on what should be more of a throwback to classic Wonder Woman. Pantsuits not included!
If you think this is your daddy’s Martian Manhunter, you are so wrong. Rob Williams and Eddy Barrows give us an origin story that is so weird, so wild and so twisted that I cannot even believe I just read it. I will so miss this title when REBIRTH comes along. The GOOD NEWS is that the amazing Eddy Barrows will be illustrating DETECTIVE COMICS when REBIRTH does occur.
MIDNIGHTER #10: Marina and Helena Bertinelli are in Boston, where they find Robert and a lot of destruction, but no Midnighter. He is in the clutches of the Suicide Squad who are in the process of torturing him to no avail. He breaks loose and tracks down some of the A-listers: Harley, Parasite and Deadshot. He quickly takes down Harley and Parasite and then proceeds to break Deadshot’s hands, but the Squad comes back and ends up riding in a plane that Harley blows to pieces.
Steve Orlando gives us a ton of action here while Hugo Petrus and Aco, sharing the art duties, give us a nice dose of blood. This was a good issue that once again was full of action and very little of the “romancing of Midnighter”. This title is off the schedule come June, so it’s anyone’s guess what happens to our hero. But I think I can say that DC isn’t killing off this crazy guy!
NEW SUICIDE SQUAD #18: The Squad was injected with nano particles at the end of last issue, which explains why they are not dead. It seems that Seraphine and Adam Reed, of the Horus Organization, freed them from Belle Reve and now they are being taken to have their neck bombs removed. When they get to their location, Kilgore, Hellslayer, Razer, Deathtrap, and Brutus greet them at gunpoint. But the mercenaries tell the Squad how they are big fans and it turns into a team-up. That is until Adam stabs Seraphine, releasing the spirit of the Rose Tattoo and setting the castle on lockdown. The Fist of Cain is here and they are about to kill of the Squad, because that’s what they do.
Tim Seeley and Juan Ferreyra come back on their second issue with some confusing moments and a bunch of action, complete with Brutus taking a nasty head shot. By the way, if you didn’t know, Kilgore, Hellslayer, Razer, Deathtrap, and Brutus, along with Rose Tattoo, are all leftovers from the days of the Wildstorn Universe. So, by taking out members, is this DC’s way of eliminating their past?
OMEGA MEN #9: Kyle and the Omega Men walking into a negotiation room that actually is the site of a debate between Kyle and the head of the Citadel Empire. During the debate, which Kyle is losing, Kalista has Scrapps' robot assistant blow itself up and taking the planet Voorl with it. Guns start blazing and bodies start dropping. Just as Scrapps is about to die, Kyle summons his white lantern ring and turns into a hero wielding the greatest force in the universe.
This is one of the best books on the market today. Tom King and Barnaby Baganda have been just totally turning out quality work since issue #1. The White Lantern is finally back and I couldn’t be happier. Find back issues and don’t take my word for how great this title is!
OMEGA MEN #10: The war against the Citadel rages for 41 days until the Omega Men win the battle and get to celebrate their hard fought victory.
Read the above review. Tom King and Barnaby Baganda kill it here.
POISON IVY CYCLE OF LIFE AND DEATH #3: People keep dying at Ivy’s work and that means everyone is getting involved in the investigation. But, at the same time, Ivy is enjoying nurturing her twin sporeling babies, Rose and Hazel. Her super creepy co-worker shows up and he meets his demises at the hands of her man-eating plants. In the end, Darshan shows up at her apartment and that presents a bit of a problem for Ivy AND Catwoman.
After two great issues, this one crawls to a bumpy stop! Clay Mann’s art still looks amazing, but Amy Chu’s story just stumbled from page one. Is this about a murder investigation or a superhero remake of BABY BOOM? Poison Ivy as a mommy? And if Chu wanted to be CLEVER, she should have named the twins Rose and Thorn. Yeah…us old timers would have gotten it!
RED HOOD/ARSENAL #10: We jump forward to find the boys on the U.S.S. Excelsior fighting some folks from HIVE before finding this giant doomsday bomb on board. Going back five hours earlier, Tara Battleworth is meeting with the boys when they ask her to get a therapist for Duela, which she does…in the form of Lilith Clay (see TITANS HUNT). While she undergoes intensive therapy, the boys are on the U.S.S. Excelsior shutting down that bomb. They become heroes while Duela passes her psyh test, which leads her back underground where she retrieves her mask, promising to do bigger and badder anything daddy Joker could do.
Thanks to Scott Lobdell and Dexter Soy for actually rounding out Duella’s character. Now if they could have done something ELSE with the boys’ story. It was just long and boring and uninteresting, except for bringing the HIVE into it. Let’s have Duella lead the team in the future and let the fun begin!
ROBIN, SON OF BATMAN #10: Damian grabs hold of Goliath and heads to Mexico where they have to retrieve three items stolen from the Year of Blood vault. So off he goes while Maya fights ninjas and runs into Talia, who takes her as a captive onto her ship. With Damian on the hunt for the last of the artifacts, we discover that Suren Darga has them and he is ready to bring them to Gorilla City.
Ray Fawkes and Ramon Bachs handle this adventure of the newest Boy Wonder and what we discover is that Maya’s story is more interesting than his. Fawkes script is spot-on and Bachs art is fun in a cartoonish kind of way. Overall, it was a fun issue and I can’t wait to see what happens in Gorilla City next issue!
SECRET SIX #12: The issue begins with a celebration by an interesting trio of ladies. Meanwhile, Shiva has taken out a ton of cops and is moving in for Strix and Porcelain when Catman and Batgirl show up. After a brief battle, Shiva explains that she is here for Strix and if she goes with her, she will spare the lives of the others. Strix agrees and, after receiving Batgirl’s boots as a gift, she leaves with Shiva to start her new life in the League of Assassins. Back inside, Catman explains what happened to Big Shot before he gets to go upstairs and meets with his long lost wife Sue. With her support, the decision is made to put the family back together as Big Shot becomes Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man!
Nothing makes me happier than watching Gail Simone work her magic and the team of Dale Eaglesham and Tom Derenick illustrate the Holy Hell out of it! And we get the return of the REAL RALPH DIBNEY!!! This book is so much fun, so great to look at and I will be totally bummed when it is gone!
SINESTRO #21: Soranik is now in charge of the Sinestro Corps and, while she is not happy about it, the people of Earth are thrilled. With the crisis ended, the yellow rings leave the converted heroes and head back to find other prospects for the Sinestro Corps.
The people of Earth panic, afraid that they no longer have someone to assist our heroes so Arkillo and Saint Walker agree to stay behind. Some of the Lanterns investigate the defeat of the Paling, but only find Mongul, who quickly ends their lives and promises revenge.
Cullen Bunn and Martin Coccolo do a nice job of wrapping of the story from the past few issues and set the scene for the upcoming battle with Mongul. It was an average issue that suffered from Brad Walker’s NOT being on the art. This book goes away with the start of REBIRTH, so I expect this upcoming arc to be wrapped up fairly quickly.
STARFIRE #10: Stella takes Kori’s body to a hospital in Hollow Earth, while King Neala-Tok continues his assault. Luckily Atlee has the sense to wipe out his cricket army with a bomb. But he has a second plan and calls forth the Chida to attack. Kori wakes at the hospital and she heads off to join the fight, using her powers to defeat King Neala-Tok. She collapses after this and it’s back to the hospital where they have Stella wear a ceremonial gown and use their underworld sun orb to bring Kori back to life. That means it’s time for a party! Meanwhile Rave and Sol share a tender moment,
Really? A party? Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Elsa Charretier are responsible for this tragic issue. And I do mean tragic. The art is cartoony and the story…well: I really didn’t know that Stella “groomed” herself.. Nerxt thing you know, we’ll get references to Sol and his need to manscape! Totally embarrassed!
SUICIDE SQUAD MOST WANTED-DEADSHOT AND KATANA #3: Deadshot’s father has just died on him and he has just taken out his mother. So Amanda Waller sends in the Suicide Squad to take him out. He takes out the whole team but Harley, which gives Evans a chance to take him out. Back at Belle Reve, Evans explains how the classic “my parents were killed by drug dealers” origin was actually his own. Evans now proudly proclaims that HE is the New Deadshot. In the Katana story, the Squad arrives to save Katana and her friends, but the cat dies in the process. The team comes together and goes after Kobra, before coming face to face with King Kobra.
So here’s my take on this series: give me the Deadshot story by Brian Buccellato and Viktor Bogdanovic and keep the Katana story by Mike W. Barr and Diogenes Neves. I just love what is being done with Floyd’s character and the art. And, to be fair, there is nothing wrong with the Katana story…except I find her totally uninteresting…which was the reason I didn’t read her series in the first place. So give me a $2.99 comic with Floyd and be done with it.
SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #27: Superman and his team battle Vandal Savage's children. When we come across Savage, he is lying on the ground with a pipe stuck through his side. Beastmaster battle with Savage and he ends up being run through by the pipe for his troubles. Vandal’s children begin to disintegrate while Vandal and Superman duke it out in the middle of an approaching meteorite storm.
Well…that was a complete waste of time. Well…almost a complete waste. Cliff Richards art rocked, complete with several killer two page spreads! Peter J. Tomasi’ story was just filler as far as I am concerned. Here comes the big finale in SUPERMAN #50.
SUPERMAN #50: Superman comes face to face with a powered up Vandal Savage and the Puzzler and suddenly Superman finds himself experiencing the vision of an alternate reality where he experiences what life would have been like if that comet never came towards Earth and gave Vandal his powers. It seems that Superman’s parents and a young Kal-El would have been alive. His next vision is in the future and shows Superman as Vandal’s General. He is leading a team of made up of Aquaman, Giganta, Grodd, Lobo, Captain Atom, Black Adam, Shazam, Killer Croc and Blockbuster and they proceed to take on the Dominators. After their victory, the team celebrates. But not really, as Lois, Jimmy and Perry show up to serve their victory meal, much to Superman’s displeasure. The last vision has Earth turned to ash. Savage says this is what will happen is Superman doesn’t join him. Vandal tries to push the comet down to Earth faster and Superman, along with Puzzler, stops it. The comet breaks apart, sending Vandal out into deep space. In the end, Superman rekindles his friendship with Loid and Jimmy, who has been hired back by Perry White.
Gene Luen Yang ends this long-winded story and sort of resets the status quo. The art was by Howard Porter, Adrian Syaf, Patrick Zircher, and Jon Bogdanove and I have no issues with that. My issue is with Yang writing his own version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL with Clark playing Scrooge. THIS is how we end this story? For real? Honestly…I thought we deserved better than that. Come June, Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason and Doug Mahnke take their shot at the Man of Steel.
SUPERMAN LOIS AND CLARK #6: We opening with a flashback to that moment when Lois outed Superman. Back in the present, Clark is trying to find Cora by listening for her ringtone. Luckily that works, as he finds her in a cabin near San Francisco and frees her. Also lucky is that he wrapped that up quickly as he needs to fix the mess that Bad-Ass Nation has made. Meanwhile, Manheim’s gang has captured Lois and Jon. Luckily, jon has discovered he has powers and is prepared to save his mother. Lastly, Hyathis shows up at The island looking for the Oblivion Stone.
I SO CANNOT WAIT to see where these characters are going when REBIRTH comes! Dan Jurgens and Lee Weeks have been absolutely blowing it away on this series. This is MY Superman, not the guy running around each month and in June, I get the chance to see MY Clark and Lois doing what they haven’t been able to do for the past four years. So…is it June yet?
SWAMP THING #3: Swamp Thing is wrestling with a huge boa constrictor in his swamp for fun when a mysterious stranger kills the snake. Turns out it’s Matt Cable and he thought he was saving his friend. After a warm reunion, Matt tells Swamp Thing that he has been working on getting a cure for him. He ended up in Nanda Parbat and got his hands on the Hand of Fatima, but he doesn’t know how to make it work. So they go off to Shadowcrest, New England to meet with Zatanna. She works her magic and Alec Holland is human again. The consequence-Matt Cable is now the Swamp thing.
Okay…I’m just a little bit confused. Based on what we KNEW about Alec Holland, what with his redone origin in the NEW 52, how can a creature turn into something he wasn’t? Or was he all along? Again…really confused. I’m going to chalk that up to Len Wein, the man behind the Swamp Thing way back when, coming on board and trying to right the wrongs of the past four years. And if you can’t get the legendary Bernie Wrightson to draw your book, then I guess Kelley Jones will have to do.
TEEN TITANS #18: Wonder Woman learns from Red Robin that the demigoddess Cassandra is taking Wonder Girl to see her real dad. On the way to Greece, where the rest of the team is fighting Cassandra and her Hyena Men, she explains to Tim how she was in cahoots with The First Born and they killed hundreds of Gods and Amazons. At the same time, Cassandra explains to Cassie that she knows she did wrong and now she is trying to make up for it. But then she goes and grabs the Rod of Ascelpius and suddenly there are three giant snakes emerge from the Temple of Apollo. The Titans can’t seem to take the snakes down, but Wonder Girl dons her armor and carves up the beast, which causes the Temple to collapse. Wonder Woman steps in to save the day and that leads to her tying it up with Cassandra. Diana wraps her in the Lasso of Truth and it reveals that Cassandra IS telling the truth: she is here to introduce Cassie to her dad. That leads to Cassie figuring out that Wonder Woman is her Aunt.
While Greg Pak presents a so-so story (hey…it IS the TEEN TITANS you know!), Ian Churchill and Tom Derenick nail it with their artwork. What I DID like in the story was that Pak has managed to do fill-in flashbacks so anyone not reading WONDER WOMAN knew the whole First Born story. It’s nice to see Cassandra is still as wild and wacky as she was there! And I have to admit this story is far better written than we have been experiencing in the past, so that is a plus. Don’t forget: we get TWO Titan themed books when REBIRTH arrives. Who will be playing on this team, if it is even a team from the NEW 52, is anyone’s guess.
TELOS #6: Parallax has claimed Telos' power shard so he can defeat Mongul and Cyborg Superman. Apparently this is not the first time Telos and Parallax have done this dance because they keep losing Coast City to the bad guys. Eventually Parallax and Telos finally beat Cyborg Superman and Mongul, but Telos has turned the people against Parallax so he kills everyone in Coast City. Telos goes up against Parallax, who loses his hold over time and everything gets destroyed. Parallax tells Telos that the shard only has enough power for one of them. Parallax leaves Telos stranded in space while he goes off to kill Hal Jordan.
What? That’s it? BOOO!!! Boo to you Jeff King and Igor Vitorino for giving us this really crappy ending.
TITANS HUNT #6: Mal is singing into Mr. Twister's bone organ while Dick, Donna and Garth battle Mammoth. At the hospital, Bumble Bee is being told of her husband’s past by Neil Richards, who was Mad Mod in the original 1967 series. When he finishes with her, he makes a phone call and orders the deaths of the Teen Titans. Hawk, Dove, Roy, and Gnark meet with Lilith, who explains that she made them all forget Mr. Twister to stop him five years ago, but he began whispering to her a year ago. In the end, Honeybun and Ding Dong Daddy show up at Lilith’s to eliminate the team.
I so love what Dan Abnett and Stephen Segovia are doing on this book and look forward to REBIRTH. With Abnett pulling out all sorts of characters, no matter how obscure, from the classic team’s past. We have Mad Mod, who was one of the first of their villains, who made a brief appearance during Dan Jurgens’ Nineties run on the title. And then we have DDD and Honeybun. They come straight out of the Sixties and, I have to admit, I needed to research them, as he has been absent from the books for a long time (although he was in the television show). I have often said what makes Dan Abnett’s writing so great is that he has a great love of comics of the past. This book is truly a loving tribute to the Titans of the past.
WE ARE ROBIN #10: We begin with Smiley trying out his stand-up comedy skills at a local club, to less than ideal results. Elsewhere, Duke and the rest of the Robins deal with their daily lives before they all see the breaking news about Smiley's attacks on television. While they all make plans to get involved, Dre plans on going after the Jokerz himself, so he infiltrates the group. In the end, Smiley and his Jokerz enter Middletown High School where they plan on making a name for themselves.
Lee Bermejo and Jorge Corona give us another issue and it’s another month with lots of character driven action but no real action to speak of. Bermejo gets all sorts of credit from me for fleshing out these characters, but the lack of action means this feels like an Indy comic as opposed to a superhero book. I will be very curious to see where these characters end up when REBIRTH arrives.
WONDER WOMAN #50: Dina has been knocked out the cyclops and finds herself in a trap set by Hephaestus. It turns out that the cyclops are being beaten by Hephaestus and they are only doing his bidding, so Diana tries to free them, but can’t. She does vow to return and free them as she goes off and return Hera's orbs to Hecate. She returns to Hecate, learns that the orbs are actually the eyes of the cyclops and that Gaia is behind Baby Zeke being sick. It all boils down to Donna Troy being cast as the new Fate. To save him, she is given a series of impossible tasks, beginning with battling Ares, who feels she is not fit to be the God of War. She releases Typhoeus, the Father of Monsters, who flies her back to Hecate. Diana’s next task: go back to Themyscira and head into Tartarus. In the back-up, Donna Troy learns how important her job is as fate, whether she likes it or not.
Meredith Finch, with David Finch and Johnny Desjardins handling the art, weaves another confusing tale. I mean, orbs are really the eyes of cyclops? Honestly? I didn’t see that coming. And the Goids are liars? NO!!! Say it ain’t so! The back-up by Finch and Miguel Mendonca is a beautiful tale and possibly her best work to date on this title. The good news: June brings us Greg Rucka, Liam Sharp and Nicola Scott on what should be more of a throwback to classic Wonder Woman. Pantsuits not included!
Monday, April 4, 2016
DC YOU Month 10, Part 1
ACTION COMICS #50: The issue opens with Vandal Savage monologuing about his plans to the captured heroes on the Justice League. Superman, powered by Metallo’s Kryptonite heart, heads off to fight the villain and his children while Jim Gordon’s Batman, Wonder Woman, Mr. Terrific and others show up to lend a hand. Superman and his friends free the captured heroes, leaving the Man of Steel free to face off with Savage. The villain shoots Superman with a toxin bullet that leaves him completely powerless and falling into the Fortress of Solitude. Miraculously, Superman is fully restored and back to full power again. In the end, Steel, Stargirl, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman head off for the final battle.
Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder write this next to penultimate chapter in the entire TRUTH story. While the story results in Superman getting his power back, the way we get there is pretty confusing, with him apparently being resurrected by the Fortress. If he would have known that, he could have fixed this problem a year ago! The worst part of this issue is the multiple artists used including Kuder, David Messina, Javi Fernandez, Bruno Redondo, Vicente Cifuentes, Gaetano , Juan Albarran, Tomeu Morey, Arif Prianto and Wil Quintana Carlucci. It should be interesting to see where this title goes from here, especially when it goes back to its’ previous numbering come REBIRTH, with Dan Jurgens and Patrick Zircher at the helm.
AQUAMAN #50: With the FBI investigating the water murders, Aquaman is drafted into helping out on the most recent one-in the pool of a high rise. Midway through his investigation, a creature that the media is referring to as Dead Water attacks him. They brawl and end up underwater, much to the concern of the two FBI agents. In the end, Aquaman defeats the creature that is actually a man who has been transformed. Meanwhile, Mera introduces herself at a press conference as Aquawoman and explains what Spindrift is all about.
Dan Abnett with guest artist Brett Booth brings an end to this storyline and we prepare to see where Abnett and Brad Walker take us in June. For a 50th issue, this felt a little light and unsatisfying, although I did like the cute little banter that the FBI agents had with Aquawoman. It reminded me of the cute bits of dialogue that inhabited the first few issues of the series. So, I really don’t expect major changes post NEW 52, especially with Abnett at the helm.
BATGIRL #49: The issue begins with Barbara and Frankie trying to figure out who Greg/Fugue really is. In actuality, it’s all in Barbara's mind as Frankie is trying to figure out what is going on my using neural implants. Frankie resorts to desperate measures as she implants the Evil A.I. again and goes in with it. She meets up with it and explains that if it messes about with either she or Barbara, she will arrange for it to be permanently deleted. The pairs find Batgirl arresting a named Vinton Burwell and THAT is who Greg really is. Frankie ends up in a life or death battle with Fugue before the A.I. comes to save the day. But the A.I. isn’t done and turns on Barbara, trying to take over. Frankie blasts the A.I. out of existence, allowing Barbara to come back from the brink of madness. She explains how Fugue was able to get to her and how he plans to use the Negahedron to destroy Burnside. Batgirl, Frankie, Black Canary, Spoiler and Bluebird team up and head off to stop him.
So…there is a moment in the middle of Frankie’s jaunt through Barbara’s brain where we are bombarded by images that are part of her life…allegedly. While we know that Batman didn’t get unmasked by Two-Face or that Jim Gordan is dead, but we DO know that there was a time where Batgirl did get attacked by the Joker and DID end up in a wheelchair. THAT splash page made this whole issue a winner. Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher gives us a rambling story with some cool moments in it while the art is by Babs Tarr, Horacio Domingues, Roger Robinson, Ming Doyle, and James Harvey. This all leads to a 50th issue that will finish the storyline and set things in motion for…REBIRTH, where Hope Larson and Rafael Albuquerque take over.
BATMAN #50: Jim Gordon is badly injured, but has survived his encounter Mr. Bloom, although his followers aren’t quite with Jim yet. Luckily the original Batman returns to save his old friend. That’s when the pair discover that a super seed in Bloom’s back is channeling the collider at Powers Industry and making an energy surge that could destroy the city. The GCPD are all wearing robotic Batman, but Bloom has gained control of them, along with a giant Joker Batsuit. While Batman battles the robots, Duke Thomas finds that Daryl is not only the person responsible for Mr. Bloom, but was also the original Bloom in issue #44. He used his money from his Crowne Grant to develop a prototype that would allow Gothamites to be their own heroes, but it all went wrong and Bloom was born. Batman gets to make his way past the robots and uses his own giant Batman robot to take out the giant Bloom. Gordon shuts the dark star down and destroys Bloom in the process. In the end, Jim is recovering nicely and even his hair and mustache are growing back. He also is reinstated as Commissioner. Batman and Jim share a moment that seems to illustrate that Jim knows Batman is Bruce Wayne, even as the woman he loved mourns how Bruce Wayne is now lost to her.
Say goodbye to Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo with this issue, which I found a bit disappointing. For a plot line that has been bubbling since not long after Jim Gordon took over the suit, I expected the reveal to be better than Daryl having created the big bad Mr. Bloom. Come June, you will get to say hello to the team of Tom King, David Finch and Mikel Janin. Snyder and Capullo have been the guiding force on this title since the NEW 52 began and King and company will be hard pressed to keep up the quality. However, I have faith in King, who has been doing some tremendous work throughout the industry.
BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL: #22-25: In issue #22, Mother and her team are getting the Somnus Satellite in position while Orphan and poppy transports a captured Harper and Cassandra to her base. When they at least arrive, Mother illustrates that she has a problem with failure and kills Orphan. That completed, she activates the Somnus and the world prepares for the worst. Meanwhile, Damian has arrived to meet with the rest of the Robins and gets them to come together and finish off Mother’s operation.
In issue #23, Harper is calling Cullen when Red Robin doors in to gather up Spoiler and have her go watch over Scarecrow while Tim takes Cullen to Midnighter's apartment. Scarecrow tries to screw with Spoiler’s head when Red Hood shows up to threaten crane to make enough trauma toxin to disrupt Mother's signal. Midnighter and Cullen bond while Grayson heads off to Mother’s stronghold and the rest of the team battle the activated children.
In issue #24, Dick is ready to enter Mother’s fortress when he receives word that the rest of the team, including Katana, Catwoman, Batwoman, and Talon are losing badly to the gangs of children. A plane crashes and out-steps Azrael who wants to take Mother out by himself and begins to fight with Dick. Inside Mother’s fortress, Mother is showing Harper how badly everyone is doing and monologuing about her plans for the world, based on her horrible childhood trauma. Midnighter doors into where Spoiler is watching Crane and dispatches her to help in Tokyo while he watches Scarecrow. In the end, Mother trys to convince Harper to kill Cassandra.
In issue #25, Midnighter tells everyone that Scarecrow needs more time to finish making his toxin while Dick and Azrael continue to battle. Mother continues to try to convince Harper to kill Cassandra so she can close the circle. Scarecrow finally finishes his toxin and Cullen figures out how to deliver it to the Orphans and Dick makes his way to Mother, setting up the final issue to resolve it all.
In issue #26, Harper and her mom share a tender moment in a scene from years ago, which transitions to Mother STILL trying to convince Harper to kill Cassandra. Harper has been pausing all this time because she has been scoping out the electrical infrastructure and proceeds to take it out with the twin knives. This gives Harper a chance to attack Mother, but Mother is prepared, pulls out a gun, and takes a shot at her, but Cassandra jumps into block the shot. Just when Mother thinks her plan is foolproof, the connection to Somnus is severed, thanks to Azrael. So she releases her orphans and they all brawl while Mother reminds everyone that she built her palace on an active volcano. Cassandra decides that, if they are all going to die, she is going to take Mother with her. But Orphan, presumed dead after what went down in issue #22, comes out of nowhere and runs Mother through with a sword. He says his goodbye to his daughter and takes Mother into the volcano as the ice palace comes tumbling down. In the end, Batman meets with Harper, who temporarily hangs up her costume and heads off to a possible gig at the Gotham Technical Institute. When she leaves, Cassandra arrives, renamed Orphan and prepares for her training. But before that can happen, Batman and all the Robins need to take care of business.
So, after a half year investment, we find out that all this managed to do was reunite ALL the Robins and set up Cassandra and The Spoiler for future roles in the Bat Family. James Tynion IV, Scott Snyder, Genevieve Valentine, and Steve Orlando were responsible for writing it while Fernando Blanco, Christian Duce, Alvaro Martinez, Javi Pina and Scot Eaton drew it. Next up: the new kids get to be trained by Batman and Batwoman in DETECTIVE COMICS.
BATMAN BEYOND #10: Batman is battling a handful of Splicers while Dr. Cuvier and Tuftan look on. Meanwhile, Matt McGinnis revives the Justice League, only to have them attacked by a giant elephant man with the power of mind control. Off in Neo Gotham, the refugees break down the gates of the city after one of the refugees’ daughter dies. In the end, Batman finds himself being attacked by a mind-controlled Justice League as Barda uses her mega rod to disintegrate Batman.
So, this title is not on the schedule come REBIRTH until the Fall. Maybe this is why…you kill of Batman and what are you supposed to do? Oh wait: I would let Terry’s brother Matt become Batman. Anyway…that’s for the future. Thank you Dan Jurgens and Bernard Chang for bringing King Tuftan into the mix. I still have hope that Kamandi will end up in this series!
BATMAN SUPERMAN #30: Batman is flying through space in Lobo’s ship and trying to communicate with Superman, who is being held captive by the ancient Daxamite named Si Bar. Superman reveals that he can see that Si Bar is dying and he admits that all he truly wants is his freedom. Superman convinces him that if he frees him, he will make certain Si gets home. Meanwhile, Batman calls up Hal and asks for a favor before Superman finally get in touch with him. Lobo eventually catches up with Batman and chains him to the outside of his spaceship as he brings his dead body back to the evil alien who sacrificed his daughter to lure Superman here. But Batman isn’t dead as it turns out to be Superman in disguise and he tosses Lobo into space. Then Green Lantern Corps shows up and they take the evil alien away. In the end, Batman and Superman take him to Earth, whee the three of them watch the sun set and Si dies.
This is some pretty heavy stuff here, especially the ending, even if we did see this in 30 DAYS OF NIGHT! Tom Taylor writes a great story and I love what he has done since his return to DC from Marvel. And Robson Rocha shows us just what made his work such a hit on LOBO. This title will disappear come June and we can only hope that Taylor and Rocha end up on TRINITY.
BLACK CANARY #9: Black Canary had been hired to play Carmine Flacone’s granddaughter’s Sweet Sixteen party. The guests include Dr. Hugo Strange, Black Mask, and Professor Pyg. We also find out that Dinah’s former Suicide Squad teammate Valentine Chan is here, having been hired to girl the birthday girl. But there are other assassins here too. Dinah takes out five or the six assassins and takes the stage. During the show, it turns out that the birthday girl’s crush, Louis Barbiere, is the sixth hired gun. Dinah takes him out, but this upsets Julia and she cries and comforts him. You know what that means: the band isn’t getting paid.
Really? A full length issue about a Sweet Sixteen party? Ugh! Well, at least Matthew Rosenberg wrote some funny dialogue while Moritat brought it home on the art. Unfortunately, that’s about all I could say about it. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send Dinah back to the Birds of Prey and leave the band behind! Come August, BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY comes to us from Julie and Shawna Benson and Claire Roe, featuring Batgirl, Huntress and…yes-BLACK CANARY!
CATWOMAN #50: Selina is behind bars with Penguin’s million dollar bounty on her head, so it quickly looks like an episode of ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK. Luckily, she has friends in high places as Clayface, Firefly, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn show up to bust her out. After she and Alice Tesla find out what is on the flash drive, Selina meets with Lex Luthor, who wants the drive. She learns that Alice is being held by Lex’ men and will die if Selina doesn’t turn over the drive. In return, he clears Selina’s name and gets the bounty removed. In the end, all the players get what they deserve, including Luthor who ends up with a useless flash drive. In the first back-up, we get the origin of the Faceless Mask and see that Selina plans on making it her own. In the second back-up, Catwoman breaks into the Justice League Watchtower, just to tell them their security sucks.
Frank Tieri does triple duty on this issue as he writes all three tales, with Inaki Miranda, Dan Panosian and Alex Konat, and Steve Pugh providing the art respectively. I liked the main story, as we put an end to that tale in a satisfying way. She gets revenge for her friend, Luthor gets nothing for his trouble and Penguin gets a date with Croc. As for the back-ups, unless the Faceless Mask is setting up for a future storyline, I found it and the Watchtower tale to be just filler.
CONSTANTINE: THE HELLBLAZER #10: Constantine has found himself in Faerie Land where it is revealed that this place is almost as bad as Hell as the faeries kill a unicorn and bathe in its’ blood. Despite his best efforts, Constantine is captured and discovers that Lord Neron has threatened the fairies with disruption if they hand him over. John convinces a fairy named Flutterbee to take him to New York, where John breaks the creature’s neck. He goes off and rescues Oliver, telling him to get him and his daughters out of New York. Unfortunately, Oliver leaves his girls with a babysitter who is really Blythe.
Ming Doyle, James Tynion IV and Travel Foreman give us a weird and long-winded tale this month. While it was cool to see that Faerie Land is not something out of MY LITTLE PONY and a little closer to I HATE FAIRYLAND, the ending with Oliver’s rescue went on far too long for my liking. Suddenly we have two kids thrown into the mix that we didn’t know about? That’s a little too convenient for me.
CYBORG #9: CyForce is here with Shazam and they want Cyborg, which leads to the two Justice Leaguers to battle each other. As it turns out, this is all part of a plan that the two of them worked out a month ago when the Cybernetic Regulations Act went through. In the end, Bobby Zirrozinski, transforms his cybernetic arm into a chainsaw, cuts Cyborg's arm off and the government takes him into custody.
OMG…REALLY? David F. Walker with Felipe Watanabe and Julio Ferreira give us another less than great tale. It has nothing to do with the ability of the storytellers, It has to do with Cyborg just being so boring. I was a fan of the CLASSIC CYBORG in Wolfman/Perez NEW TEEN TITANS. This guy is a shadow of his former self.
DEATHSTROKE #16: Beginning 12 days ago, Rose’ best friend Rachel gets taken out by Lawman’s folks and he takes off with her. Meanwhile, Deathstroke is wailing on Victor Ruiz until Red Hood arrives, leading to them battling each other.Ruiz seemingly comes to the rescue by helicopter, taking Deathstroke to where he says Rose is being held. They make their way to Montana where Deathstroke runs into Snakebite. At that point, Ruiz stabs Slade in the back…literally! Lawman arrives with Rose, who claims her father will die by the hands of justice.
Is it me, or is this the LONGEST STORY ARC in history? I mean, it seems like Slade Wilson has been looking for his daughter forever. James Bonny wrote it and Paolo Pantalena, filling in for Tyler Kirkham, handles the art. The issue was just okay but this story arc needs to come to a conclusion and DC’s answer to the Punisher needs to get back to his roots.
DETECTIVE COMICS #50: Gordon and Bullock are shaking down local criminals in an effort to try to figure out where and when the villain, who is off making bone soup, before donning a dog’s head and kidnapping a young couple. Bullock and Gordon are called to the Gotham Zoo, where they find the dog the killer took out, missing a bone. Batman finally figures that the killer sees himself as St. George and he is about to slay a dragon by calling up the devil and fighting him. Batman arrives, frees the couple dressed as Alice and Lewis Carroll, and subdues the crazy killer. There is also a 13 page tribute to 11 curious cases of Batman from the past.
Peter J. Tomsi, Fernando Pasarin and Scot Eaton bring this wild story to an end with a question. Is the villain dead or still alive? It is kind of hard to tell, as Batman stabs him and then finishes him off by submerging him until he passes out or drowns. Anyway, this tale ends and prepares for the coming change, when Bruce Wayne reclaims the suit, and Jim Gordon reclaims his role at Commissioner. Regarding the back up: it’s an excuse to pay tribute to some classic covers by such luminaries as Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson, Mike Kaluta, Norm Breyfogle, Klaus Janson, Gene Colon, Bernie Wrightson, Jim Aparo and Dick Giordiano by today’s artists including John Paul Leon, Kelley Jones, Cam Stewart and John Timms. Come June, James Tynion IV joins forces with Eddy Barrows and Alvaro Martinez to tell tales featuring a team fronted by Batman and Batwoman and made up of Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain and…Clayface?
DOCTOR FATE #10: Deep beneath the Egyptain Consulate, Doctor Fate finds himself surrounded by the ghosts of ancient Egyptians and that leads to a brief battle among them all. Khalid discovers that his magic light can banish the ghosts and he sets all the protesters free. But that only lasts long enough for them to get away as Roman ghosts arrive and prepare to serve Khalid to Caesar. Meanwhile, Khalid's social life and academic life are quickly going into the toilet.
Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew brings us another chapter in the life of the least effective Doctor Fate in DC Comics history. I understand that Levitz is trying to equate Khlaid’s life to Peter Parker and, at the same time, illustrate that being a superhero with powers has a huge learning curve. But we’re 10 issues in and Khalid is still knee deeps in NOT GETTING it.
EARTH 2: SOCIETY #10: Batman confronts Kyle Nimbus about his greed and how it is not good for the world. He calls forth his bouncer in the form or Hourman. They battle and it turns out that Nimbus is also a Wonder and it seems that Batman is at Hourman’s mercy. Meanwhile, the World Council is trying to figure out what they are going to do on a planet where the natural resources are a lie. Ma Kent shows up on television telling the world that her son was Superman, that he killed Pa Kent and that Earth 2 should ban the Wonders from the city. In the city of the Amazons, Hawkgirl has decided she needs to warn people that Fury had all the non-Wonders on her ship killed. Unfortunately, she may never get that chance as Aquawoman is in cohoots with the Amazons.
Is the series over yet? I mean, I have nothing against Dan Abnett’s writing or Jorge Jimenez’ art, but I totally do not like these characters. They are one dimensional, cliched and just annoying. And, no matter how good a writer you are, you can’t fix that!
GOTHAM ACADEMY #16: Damian Wayne sneaks into Maps and Olive’s dorm room and digs up her scrapbook. This is the basis of the issue. The first story is about Maps coming up with a crazy plan to meet Batman and become his sidekick. But after turning on the Bat Signal and waiting for the Dark Knight to show, she falls asleep, only to wake up in her bed and finding out that Batman signed her pictures. Pomeline comes into Mps room and that scares off Damien, who leaves with what turns to be Maps’ fake scrapbook. In the second story, a boring Sunday gets interesting with the discovery of a box labeled “time capsule”. This leads to a treasure hunt/scavenger hunt.
Brenden Fletcher, James Tynion IV, and Ken Niimura team up, along with art from Niimura, Adam Archer, and Christian Wildgoose to give us the third installment of YEARBOOK. I have not been a big fan of this series, as it just totally feels like filler. Fletcher and Archer are responsible for the two Damian Wayne vignettes, which are nice and playful. The other two were cute, but nothing to make me jump up and down about, especially because the final tale by Niimura was just overly long with a silly payoff.
GRAYSON #18: While Helena gathers her girls, we learn that The Syndicate is on it's way to kill her and it seems like King Faraday’s team may have succeeded. Dick and Tiger show up to lend a hand as Netz takes Helena away to try and patch her up, where Spyder tells her that her father is alive and coming. Agent Zero shows up and convinces the Skull Squad of girls that Dick and Tiger are the traitors. Agent 8 shows up and blows up the dorm, possibly killing off the girls. Grayson calls for Midnighter, who takes great pleasure in battling The Syndicate. Tiger confronts Agent 8 and she taunts him, telling him he doesn’t have the guts to kill her. In the end, the Netz sisters fight over their place in the organization when…Mom shows up?
There is a new creative team here in the form of Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly with Roge Antonio and Geraldo Borges handling the art. They replace the creative team of Tom King, Tim Seeley and Mikel Janin, who have moved onto other projects with the advent of REBIRTH. That having been said, the issue feels okay, but it certainly doesn’t have King and Seeley’s bite to it and the art is nowhere near Janin’s level. This title gives way for NIGHTWING in July, by Tim Seeley, Javi Fernandez and Marcus To and it should be interesting to see how much of NEW 52 Dick Grayson remains.
GREEN ARROW #50: Warg Marrock has been sprung from prison by The Patriots and now he has a plan, which leads to him breaking into a blood donation center. From here, he makes the center director take his blood and selling it to hospitals, which causes the disease to spread. Meanwhile, Fyff shows Oliver the new drone that he has fixed up from one of Zimm’s drones that they can now use to run surveillance. The drone reveals that the person behind the blood centers is a 130-year-old vampire named Paragon who is surviving because of multiple blood transfusions. At the same time, over in Africa, we meet Doctor Miracle, who travels around the world, injecting his blood into the sick and curing them. The Patriots shut down the blood tampering operation but at the cost of the arm of the one who shot his hand in the GREEN ARROW ANNUAL. Green Arrow, Emiko and George follow Deathstroke to Africa, but he shoots down Oliver’s jet which leaves the heroes surrounded by gun toting natives.
Ben Percy and Szymon Kudranski give us some pops and shocks and some blood and guts. C’mon-we get a Patriot getting bit by a Warg and orders one of his partners to carve it off with a chainsaw to stop the possible infection. Sure, it’s something out of a horror movie, but it works! The art looks cool, Percy writes a fun ride and where else can we have a hero who is part werewolf and a bad guy who is vampire? This may not necessarily be the Ollie we grew up with or the one we see on television, but he is somewhere in between. But honestly: I want the hard riding, Black Canary loving mayor to come back!
GREEN LANTERN #50: Parallax has come to Earth, remembering what his Coast City looked like and marveling in what this Coast City is like. Now he is ready to take down this Hal Jordan, who has organized a homecoming party for his nephew Howard. Parallax reveals himself and explains that he plans to kill Hal so history doesn’t repeat itself and this Coast City doesn’t get destroyed. The pair battle, with Hal taking the brunt of it until he rallies and drives Parallax away…for now.
For an oversized 50th issue, I really thought there would be more substance here. While Robert Venditti writes a good story and the team of Billy Tan and Vincente Cifuentes give us some killer illustrations, I truly wanted more. What we get is a long set up for something we knew was coming and we knew the rationale behind it: Pre-Flashpoint Hal, filled with the energy of the Green Lantern Corps, wants to prevent the destruction of Coast City. But…if CONVERGENCE wiped out all that history, how did Coast City die? Ah…it is puzzlement!
GREEN LANTERN CORPS EDGE OF OBLIVION #3: The Lanterns are trying to get to Mogo after losing their friends to Marniel’s forces. That leads to Guy Gardner and Kilowog coming to blows over the whole affair. But they eventually patch things up as they lead their team, with the help of a Lantern constructed drill, attack Marniel inside the planet. Marniel’s supporters quickly meet them, but it is Marniel who provides the biggest challenge. She is the last of her people and she uses the ghosts of her people to take down the Lanterns. She also reprograms their rings and transforms herself into a Lantern.
This third issue hits on a few more cylinders than the last issue and a lot of that is due to the phenomenal artwork of Ethan Van Sciver. This may possibly be some of the best pages I have seen him turn out in his long career. While he has inked his own work, which certainly helps maintain a true look, Gregory Wright’s colors are dynamic! The downside of all this is that Van Sciver leaves this project to work on REBIRTH, so it will be interesting to see what his replacement turns out. Oh yeah…I should mention that Tom Taylor’s story is pretty cool too!
HARLEY QUINN #26: After a troubling dream, Harley and the gang end up back in Coney Island, where her quiet day at the beach becomes an excuse to beat up some thugs. A tourist who spends way too much time discussing the merits of her behind also hits on her. And while the Mayor plots and schemes against Harley again, we meet a paraplegic looking for revenge against her. After getting a movie makeover for her hair, Harley goes to Skate Club, where The Red Tool challenges her in what should certainly be a blood-match.
What it is that Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti do so well is write satire. How else could they get away with tearing off someone’s mohawk, someone else’s earlobes and then spend two pages discussing Harley’s mud flaps! Oh yeah: we also get a new hairdo that now makes our girl look totally like she stepped out of the new SUICIDE SQUAD movie. John Timms and Chad Hardin handle the art and hey…it’s HARLEY QUINN! You were expecting WAR AND PEACE?
JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA # 8: With Rao’s cathedral on the moon destroyed, he and Superman continue to fight it out. Wonder Woman and Aquaman show up, leading to Rao being run through by Aquaman’s trident before being tossed into a boom tube sending him back to the Clean Energy Power Plant. Parasite is here and ready to suck away all that energy from Rao and the Justice League gives him their power too. The Flash returns from 1961 with the Infinity Corporation and gives Parasite access to the Speed Force. In the end, Rao is defeated, his followers are freed, the Parasite is betrayed by Batman and Superman is dead.
So the book looks great and that is thanks to Bryan Hitch. But I really don’t known want he is writing. Green Lantern is still missing, but Flash is back and it seems that the only reason he was gone is because we needed to do something to get him out of the book. Personally, I find this a major mess.
JUSTICE LEAGUE 3001 #10: Supergirl and Bea battle against some nasty looking creatures called Scavvies when Tora finds out they aren’t that bad. The person who tells them that is her old pal Gnort. He also reveals that his boss is the infamous Agent Orange, Larfleeze. Meanwhile, the Convert, currently in Tarriq’s body, gets beaten out of it by The Flash and then jumps into Wonder Woman. Lastly, Eclipso gathers his forces and prepares to eliminate the Justice League. In the back-up, Lois and Ariel find a pole dancing Sinestro before being attacked by Scullions.
So, this series ends with the advent of REBIRTH, but that leaves Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, and Scott Kolins free to work on BLUE BEETLE come September. As much as I love this book and will hate to see it go, I have been enjoying the back-up more. When do you ever get a chance to watch Sinestro pole dance in an intergalactic strip club? And when the ever amazing Coleen Doran illustrates it…absolutely gorgeous!
LEGENDS OF TOMORROW #1: Firestorm returns to the DC Universe with Professor Stein running tests on a merged Jason Rusch and Ronnie Raymond. Meanwhile, Multiplex kidnaps Dr. Marla Cunningham while our hero discovers that the Firestorm Matrix is causing problems severe enough that it looks like Firestorm is going to explode! In the second story, Simon Stagg, his daughter Sapphire, and his ape-man lab assistant Java, are experimenting on Rex Mason, who has become Metamorpho after the Orb of Ra gave him powers. But Sapphire finds out what her dad’s experiments are all about and frees Mason. Unfortunately, Java has the hots for her and has decided that he is going to kill Rex Mason. Oh yeah…Kanjar Ro is heading to Earth. Next up, a grown up Sugar & Spike are private investigators who are on the hunt to get a zebra Batman suit from Killer Moth and return it to its’ rightful owner. In the final tale, the Metal Men return to help out a town under siege from robot missile men. Later, because of the events that the Nameless caused, the government demands that the Metal Men get decommissioned
First off, this semi-tie-in to the television show is one expensive monster-eight bucks. But when you realize that you’re getting four full length tales for eight bucks, it’s a good investment. But…are they worth spending the money on. Well, you get Firestorm by Gerry Conway and Eduardo Pansica and it’s just okay. Personally, I get having Dr. Stein resemble his television counterpart but don’t have to like it. Metamorpho by Aaron Lopresti with inks by Matt Banning is my favorite of the bunch. It’s a great story that retells Rex Mason’s origin with new details. And I’m a big fan of Lopresti’s work anyway. Sugar and Spike by Keith Giffen and Bisques Evely is just a weird, quirky tale. Heck-it’s Giffen. What else would you expect? Metal Men by Len Wein and Yildiray Cinar is my second favorite, as this team, despite having made Will Magnus far younger than I remember him, is one I grew up with. Personally, I like the concept of it all, but would have preferred slipping Firestorm out and maybe sliding Rip Hunter in.
Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder write this next to penultimate chapter in the entire TRUTH story. While the story results in Superman getting his power back, the way we get there is pretty confusing, with him apparently being resurrected by the Fortress. If he would have known that, he could have fixed this problem a year ago! The worst part of this issue is the multiple artists used including Kuder, David Messina, Javi Fernandez, Bruno Redondo, Vicente Cifuentes, Gaetano , Juan Albarran, Tomeu Morey, Arif Prianto and Wil Quintana Carlucci. It should be interesting to see where this title goes from here, especially when it goes back to its’ previous numbering come REBIRTH, with Dan Jurgens and Patrick Zircher at the helm.
AQUAMAN #50: With the FBI investigating the water murders, Aquaman is drafted into helping out on the most recent one-in the pool of a high rise. Midway through his investigation, a creature that the media is referring to as Dead Water attacks him. They brawl and end up underwater, much to the concern of the two FBI agents. In the end, Aquaman defeats the creature that is actually a man who has been transformed. Meanwhile, Mera introduces herself at a press conference as Aquawoman and explains what Spindrift is all about.
Dan Abnett with guest artist Brett Booth brings an end to this storyline and we prepare to see where Abnett and Brad Walker take us in June. For a 50th issue, this felt a little light and unsatisfying, although I did like the cute little banter that the FBI agents had with Aquawoman. It reminded me of the cute bits of dialogue that inhabited the first few issues of the series. So, I really don’t expect major changes post NEW 52, especially with Abnett at the helm.
BATGIRL #49: The issue begins with Barbara and Frankie trying to figure out who Greg/Fugue really is. In actuality, it’s all in Barbara's mind as Frankie is trying to figure out what is going on my using neural implants. Frankie resorts to desperate measures as she implants the Evil A.I. again and goes in with it. She meets up with it and explains that if it messes about with either she or Barbara, she will arrange for it to be permanently deleted. The pairs find Batgirl arresting a named Vinton Burwell and THAT is who Greg really is. Frankie ends up in a life or death battle with Fugue before the A.I. comes to save the day. But the A.I. isn’t done and turns on Barbara, trying to take over. Frankie blasts the A.I. out of existence, allowing Barbara to come back from the brink of madness. She explains how Fugue was able to get to her and how he plans to use the Negahedron to destroy Burnside. Batgirl, Frankie, Black Canary, Spoiler and Bluebird team up and head off to stop him.
So…there is a moment in the middle of Frankie’s jaunt through Barbara’s brain where we are bombarded by images that are part of her life…allegedly. While we know that Batman didn’t get unmasked by Two-Face or that Jim Gordan is dead, but we DO know that there was a time where Batgirl did get attacked by the Joker and DID end up in a wheelchair. THAT splash page made this whole issue a winner. Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher gives us a rambling story with some cool moments in it while the art is by Babs Tarr, Horacio Domingues, Roger Robinson, Ming Doyle, and James Harvey. This all leads to a 50th issue that will finish the storyline and set things in motion for…REBIRTH, where Hope Larson and Rafael Albuquerque take over.
BATMAN #50: Jim Gordon is badly injured, but has survived his encounter Mr. Bloom, although his followers aren’t quite with Jim yet. Luckily the original Batman returns to save his old friend. That’s when the pair discover that a super seed in Bloom’s back is channeling the collider at Powers Industry and making an energy surge that could destroy the city. The GCPD are all wearing robotic Batman, but Bloom has gained control of them, along with a giant Joker Batsuit. While Batman battles the robots, Duke Thomas finds that Daryl is not only the person responsible for Mr. Bloom, but was also the original Bloom in issue #44. He used his money from his Crowne Grant to develop a prototype that would allow Gothamites to be their own heroes, but it all went wrong and Bloom was born. Batman gets to make his way past the robots and uses his own giant Batman robot to take out the giant Bloom. Gordon shuts the dark star down and destroys Bloom in the process. In the end, Jim is recovering nicely and even his hair and mustache are growing back. He also is reinstated as Commissioner. Batman and Jim share a moment that seems to illustrate that Jim knows Batman is Bruce Wayne, even as the woman he loved mourns how Bruce Wayne is now lost to her.
Say goodbye to Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo with this issue, which I found a bit disappointing. For a plot line that has been bubbling since not long after Jim Gordon took over the suit, I expected the reveal to be better than Daryl having created the big bad Mr. Bloom. Come June, you will get to say hello to the team of Tom King, David Finch and Mikel Janin. Snyder and Capullo have been the guiding force on this title since the NEW 52 began and King and company will be hard pressed to keep up the quality. However, I have faith in King, who has been doing some tremendous work throughout the industry.
BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL: #22-25: In issue #22, Mother and her team are getting the Somnus Satellite in position while Orphan and poppy transports a captured Harper and Cassandra to her base. When they at least arrive, Mother illustrates that she has a problem with failure and kills Orphan. That completed, she activates the Somnus and the world prepares for the worst. Meanwhile, Damian has arrived to meet with the rest of the Robins and gets them to come together and finish off Mother’s operation.
In issue #23, Harper is calling Cullen when Red Robin doors in to gather up Spoiler and have her go watch over Scarecrow while Tim takes Cullen to Midnighter's apartment. Scarecrow tries to screw with Spoiler’s head when Red Hood shows up to threaten crane to make enough trauma toxin to disrupt Mother's signal. Midnighter and Cullen bond while Grayson heads off to Mother’s stronghold and the rest of the team battle the activated children.
In issue #24, Dick is ready to enter Mother’s fortress when he receives word that the rest of the team, including Katana, Catwoman, Batwoman, and Talon are losing badly to the gangs of children. A plane crashes and out-steps Azrael who wants to take Mother out by himself and begins to fight with Dick. Inside Mother’s fortress, Mother is showing Harper how badly everyone is doing and monologuing about her plans for the world, based on her horrible childhood trauma. Midnighter doors into where Spoiler is watching Crane and dispatches her to help in Tokyo while he watches Scarecrow. In the end, Mother trys to convince Harper to kill Cassandra.
In issue #25, Midnighter tells everyone that Scarecrow needs more time to finish making his toxin while Dick and Azrael continue to battle. Mother continues to try to convince Harper to kill Cassandra so she can close the circle. Scarecrow finally finishes his toxin and Cullen figures out how to deliver it to the Orphans and Dick makes his way to Mother, setting up the final issue to resolve it all.
In issue #26, Harper and her mom share a tender moment in a scene from years ago, which transitions to Mother STILL trying to convince Harper to kill Cassandra. Harper has been pausing all this time because she has been scoping out the electrical infrastructure and proceeds to take it out with the twin knives. This gives Harper a chance to attack Mother, but Mother is prepared, pulls out a gun, and takes a shot at her, but Cassandra jumps into block the shot. Just when Mother thinks her plan is foolproof, the connection to Somnus is severed, thanks to Azrael. So she releases her orphans and they all brawl while Mother reminds everyone that she built her palace on an active volcano. Cassandra decides that, if they are all going to die, she is going to take Mother with her. But Orphan, presumed dead after what went down in issue #22, comes out of nowhere and runs Mother through with a sword. He says his goodbye to his daughter and takes Mother into the volcano as the ice palace comes tumbling down. In the end, Batman meets with Harper, who temporarily hangs up her costume and heads off to a possible gig at the Gotham Technical Institute. When she leaves, Cassandra arrives, renamed Orphan and prepares for her training. But before that can happen, Batman and all the Robins need to take care of business.
So, after a half year investment, we find out that all this managed to do was reunite ALL the Robins and set up Cassandra and The Spoiler for future roles in the Bat Family. James Tynion IV, Scott Snyder, Genevieve Valentine, and Steve Orlando were responsible for writing it while Fernando Blanco, Christian Duce, Alvaro Martinez, Javi Pina and Scot Eaton drew it. Next up: the new kids get to be trained by Batman and Batwoman in DETECTIVE COMICS.
BATMAN BEYOND #10: Batman is battling a handful of Splicers while Dr. Cuvier and Tuftan look on. Meanwhile, Matt McGinnis revives the Justice League, only to have them attacked by a giant elephant man with the power of mind control. Off in Neo Gotham, the refugees break down the gates of the city after one of the refugees’ daughter dies. In the end, Batman finds himself being attacked by a mind-controlled Justice League as Barda uses her mega rod to disintegrate Batman.
So, this title is not on the schedule come REBIRTH until the Fall. Maybe this is why…you kill of Batman and what are you supposed to do? Oh wait: I would let Terry’s brother Matt become Batman. Anyway…that’s for the future. Thank you Dan Jurgens and Bernard Chang for bringing King Tuftan into the mix. I still have hope that Kamandi will end up in this series!
BATMAN SUPERMAN #30: Batman is flying through space in Lobo’s ship and trying to communicate with Superman, who is being held captive by the ancient Daxamite named Si Bar. Superman reveals that he can see that Si Bar is dying and he admits that all he truly wants is his freedom. Superman convinces him that if he frees him, he will make certain Si gets home. Meanwhile, Batman calls up Hal and asks for a favor before Superman finally get in touch with him. Lobo eventually catches up with Batman and chains him to the outside of his spaceship as he brings his dead body back to the evil alien who sacrificed his daughter to lure Superman here. But Batman isn’t dead as it turns out to be Superman in disguise and he tosses Lobo into space. Then Green Lantern Corps shows up and they take the evil alien away. In the end, Batman and Superman take him to Earth, whee the three of them watch the sun set and Si dies.
This is some pretty heavy stuff here, especially the ending, even if we did see this in 30 DAYS OF NIGHT! Tom Taylor writes a great story and I love what he has done since his return to DC from Marvel. And Robson Rocha shows us just what made his work such a hit on LOBO. This title will disappear come June and we can only hope that Taylor and Rocha end up on TRINITY.
BLACK CANARY #9: Black Canary had been hired to play Carmine Flacone’s granddaughter’s Sweet Sixteen party. The guests include Dr. Hugo Strange, Black Mask, and Professor Pyg. We also find out that Dinah’s former Suicide Squad teammate Valentine Chan is here, having been hired to girl the birthday girl. But there are other assassins here too. Dinah takes out five or the six assassins and takes the stage. During the show, it turns out that the birthday girl’s crush, Louis Barbiere, is the sixth hired gun. Dinah takes him out, but this upsets Julia and she cries and comforts him. You know what that means: the band isn’t getting paid.
Really? A full length issue about a Sweet Sixteen party? Ugh! Well, at least Matthew Rosenberg wrote some funny dialogue while Moritat brought it home on the art. Unfortunately, that’s about all I could say about it. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send Dinah back to the Birds of Prey and leave the band behind! Come August, BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY comes to us from Julie and Shawna Benson and Claire Roe, featuring Batgirl, Huntress and…yes-BLACK CANARY!
CATWOMAN #50: Selina is behind bars with Penguin’s million dollar bounty on her head, so it quickly looks like an episode of ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK. Luckily, she has friends in high places as Clayface, Firefly, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn show up to bust her out. After she and Alice Tesla find out what is on the flash drive, Selina meets with Lex Luthor, who wants the drive. She learns that Alice is being held by Lex’ men and will die if Selina doesn’t turn over the drive. In return, he clears Selina’s name and gets the bounty removed. In the end, all the players get what they deserve, including Luthor who ends up with a useless flash drive. In the first back-up, we get the origin of the Faceless Mask and see that Selina plans on making it her own. In the second back-up, Catwoman breaks into the Justice League Watchtower, just to tell them their security sucks.
Frank Tieri does triple duty on this issue as he writes all three tales, with Inaki Miranda, Dan Panosian and Alex Konat, and Steve Pugh providing the art respectively. I liked the main story, as we put an end to that tale in a satisfying way. She gets revenge for her friend, Luthor gets nothing for his trouble and Penguin gets a date with Croc. As for the back-ups, unless the Faceless Mask is setting up for a future storyline, I found it and the Watchtower tale to be just filler.
CONSTANTINE: THE HELLBLAZER #10: Constantine has found himself in Faerie Land where it is revealed that this place is almost as bad as Hell as the faeries kill a unicorn and bathe in its’ blood. Despite his best efforts, Constantine is captured and discovers that Lord Neron has threatened the fairies with disruption if they hand him over. John convinces a fairy named Flutterbee to take him to New York, where John breaks the creature’s neck. He goes off and rescues Oliver, telling him to get him and his daughters out of New York. Unfortunately, Oliver leaves his girls with a babysitter who is really Blythe.
Ming Doyle, James Tynion IV and Travel Foreman give us a weird and long-winded tale this month. While it was cool to see that Faerie Land is not something out of MY LITTLE PONY and a little closer to I HATE FAIRYLAND, the ending with Oliver’s rescue went on far too long for my liking. Suddenly we have two kids thrown into the mix that we didn’t know about? That’s a little too convenient for me.
CYBORG #9: CyForce is here with Shazam and they want Cyborg, which leads to the two Justice Leaguers to battle each other. As it turns out, this is all part of a plan that the two of them worked out a month ago when the Cybernetic Regulations Act went through. In the end, Bobby Zirrozinski, transforms his cybernetic arm into a chainsaw, cuts Cyborg's arm off and the government takes him into custody.
OMG…REALLY? David F. Walker with Felipe Watanabe and Julio Ferreira give us another less than great tale. It has nothing to do with the ability of the storytellers, It has to do with Cyborg just being so boring. I was a fan of the CLASSIC CYBORG in Wolfman/Perez NEW TEEN TITANS. This guy is a shadow of his former self.
DEATHSTROKE #16: Beginning 12 days ago, Rose’ best friend Rachel gets taken out by Lawman’s folks and he takes off with her. Meanwhile, Deathstroke is wailing on Victor Ruiz until Red Hood arrives, leading to them battling each other.Ruiz seemingly comes to the rescue by helicopter, taking Deathstroke to where he says Rose is being held. They make their way to Montana where Deathstroke runs into Snakebite. At that point, Ruiz stabs Slade in the back…literally! Lawman arrives with Rose, who claims her father will die by the hands of justice.
Is it me, or is this the LONGEST STORY ARC in history? I mean, it seems like Slade Wilson has been looking for his daughter forever. James Bonny wrote it and Paolo Pantalena, filling in for Tyler Kirkham, handles the art. The issue was just okay but this story arc needs to come to a conclusion and DC’s answer to the Punisher needs to get back to his roots.
DETECTIVE COMICS #50: Gordon and Bullock are shaking down local criminals in an effort to try to figure out where and when the villain, who is off making bone soup, before donning a dog’s head and kidnapping a young couple. Bullock and Gordon are called to the Gotham Zoo, where they find the dog the killer took out, missing a bone. Batman finally figures that the killer sees himself as St. George and he is about to slay a dragon by calling up the devil and fighting him. Batman arrives, frees the couple dressed as Alice and Lewis Carroll, and subdues the crazy killer. There is also a 13 page tribute to 11 curious cases of Batman from the past.
Peter J. Tomsi, Fernando Pasarin and Scot Eaton bring this wild story to an end with a question. Is the villain dead or still alive? It is kind of hard to tell, as Batman stabs him and then finishes him off by submerging him until he passes out or drowns. Anyway, this tale ends and prepares for the coming change, when Bruce Wayne reclaims the suit, and Jim Gordon reclaims his role at Commissioner. Regarding the back up: it’s an excuse to pay tribute to some classic covers by such luminaries as Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson, Mike Kaluta, Norm Breyfogle, Klaus Janson, Gene Colon, Bernie Wrightson, Jim Aparo and Dick Giordiano by today’s artists including John Paul Leon, Kelley Jones, Cam Stewart and John Timms. Come June, James Tynion IV joins forces with Eddy Barrows and Alvaro Martinez to tell tales featuring a team fronted by Batman and Batwoman and made up of Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain and…Clayface?
DOCTOR FATE #10: Deep beneath the Egyptain Consulate, Doctor Fate finds himself surrounded by the ghosts of ancient Egyptians and that leads to a brief battle among them all. Khalid discovers that his magic light can banish the ghosts and he sets all the protesters free. But that only lasts long enough for them to get away as Roman ghosts arrive and prepare to serve Khalid to Caesar. Meanwhile, Khalid's social life and academic life are quickly going into the toilet.
Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew brings us another chapter in the life of the least effective Doctor Fate in DC Comics history. I understand that Levitz is trying to equate Khlaid’s life to Peter Parker and, at the same time, illustrate that being a superhero with powers has a huge learning curve. But we’re 10 issues in and Khalid is still knee deeps in NOT GETTING it.
EARTH 2: SOCIETY #10: Batman confronts Kyle Nimbus about his greed and how it is not good for the world. He calls forth his bouncer in the form or Hourman. They battle and it turns out that Nimbus is also a Wonder and it seems that Batman is at Hourman’s mercy. Meanwhile, the World Council is trying to figure out what they are going to do on a planet where the natural resources are a lie. Ma Kent shows up on television telling the world that her son was Superman, that he killed Pa Kent and that Earth 2 should ban the Wonders from the city. In the city of the Amazons, Hawkgirl has decided she needs to warn people that Fury had all the non-Wonders on her ship killed. Unfortunately, she may never get that chance as Aquawoman is in cohoots with the Amazons.
Is the series over yet? I mean, I have nothing against Dan Abnett’s writing or Jorge Jimenez’ art, but I totally do not like these characters. They are one dimensional, cliched and just annoying. And, no matter how good a writer you are, you can’t fix that!
GOTHAM ACADEMY #16: Damian Wayne sneaks into Maps and Olive’s dorm room and digs up her scrapbook. This is the basis of the issue. The first story is about Maps coming up with a crazy plan to meet Batman and become his sidekick. But after turning on the Bat Signal and waiting for the Dark Knight to show, she falls asleep, only to wake up in her bed and finding out that Batman signed her pictures. Pomeline comes into Mps room and that scares off Damien, who leaves with what turns to be Maps’ fake scrapbook. In the second story, a boring Sunday gets interesting with the discovery of a box labeled “time capsule”. This leads to a treasure hunt/scavenger hunt.
Brenden Fletcher, James Tynion IV, and Ken Niimura team up, along with art from Niimura, Adam Archer, and Christian Wildgoose to give us the third installment of YEARBOOK. I have not been a big fan of this series, as it just totally feels like filler. Fletcher and Archer are responsible for the two Damian Wayne vignettes, which are nice and playful. The other two were cute, but nothing to make me jump up and down about, especially because the final tale by Niimura was just overly long with a silly payoff.
GRAYSON #18: While Helena gathers her girls, we learn that The Syndicate is on it's way to kill her and it seems like King Faraday’s team may have succeeded. Dick and Tiger show up to lend a hand as Netz takes Helena away to try and patch her up, where Spyder tells her that her father is alive and coming. Agent Zero shows up and convinces the Skull Squad of girls that Dick and Tiger are the traitors. Agent 8 shows up and blows up the dorm, possibly killing off the girls. Grayson calls for Midnighter, who takes great pleasure in battling The Syndicate. Tiger confronts Agent 8 and she taunts him, telling him he doesn’t have the guts to kill her. In the end, the Netz sisters fight over their place in the organization when…Mom shows up?
There is a new creative team here in the form of Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly with Roge Antonio and Geraldo Borges handling the art. They replace the creative team of Tom King, Tim Seeley and Mikel Janin, who have moved onto other projects with the advent of REBIRTH. That having been said, the issue feels okay, but it certainly doesn’t have King and Seeley’s bite to it and the art is nowhere near Janin’s level. This title gives way for NIGHTWING in July, by Tim Seeley, Javi Fernandez and Marcus To and it should be interesting to see how much of NEW 52 Dick Grayson remains.
GREEN ARROW #50: Warg Marrock has been sprung from prison by The Patriots and now he has a plan, which leads to him breaking into a blood donation center. From here, he makes the center director take his blood and selling it to hospitals, which causes the disease to spread. Meanwhile, Fyff shows Oliver the new drone that he has fixed up from one of Zimm’s drones that they can now use to run surveillance. The drone reveals that the person behind the blood centers is a 130-year-old vampire named Paragon who is surviving because of multiple blood transfusions. At the same time, over in Africa, we meet Doctor Miracle, who travels around the world, injecting his blood into the sick and curing them. The Patriots shut down the blood tampering operation but at the cost of the arm of the one who shot his hand in the GREEN ARROW ANNUAL. Green Arrow, Emiko and George follow Deathstroke to Africa, but he shoots down Oliver’s jet which leaves the heroes surrounded by gun toting natives.
Ben Percy and Szymon Kudranski give us some pops and shocks and some blood and guts. C’mon-we get a Patriot getting bit by a Warg and orders one of his partners to carve it off with a chainsaw to stop the possible infection. Sure, it’s something out of a horror movie, but it works! The art looks cool, Percy writes a fun ride and where else can we have a hero who is part werewolf and a bad guy who is vampire? This may not necessarily be the Ollie we grew up with or the one we see on television, but he is somewhere in between. But honestly: I want the hard riding, Black Canary loving mayor to come back!
GREEN LANTERN #50: Parallax has come to Earth, remembering what his Coast City looked like and marveling in what this Coast City is like. Now he is ready to take down this Hal Jordan, who has organized a homecoming party for his nephew Howard. Parallax reveals himself and explains that he plans to kill Hal so history doesn’t repeat itself and this Coast City doesn’t get destroyed. The pair battle, with Hal taking the brunt of it until he rallies and drives Parallax away…for now.
For an oversized 50th issue, I really thought there would be more substance here. While Robert Venditti writes a good story and the team of Billy Tan and Vincente Cifuentes give us some killer illustrations, I truly wanted more. What we get is a long set up for something we knew was coming and we knew the rationale behind it: Pre-Flashpoint Hal, filled with the energy of the Green Lantern Corps, wants to prevent the destruction of Coast City. But…if CONVERGENCE wiped out all that history, how did Coast City die? Ah…it is puzzlement!
GREEN LANTERN CORPS EDGE OF OBLIVION #3: The Lanterns are trying to get to Mogo after losing their friends to Marniel’s forces. That leads to Guy Gardner and Kilowog coming to blows over the whole affair. But they eventually patch things up as they lead their team, with the help of a Lantern constructed drill, attack Marniel inside the planet. Marniel’s supporters quickly meet them, but it is Marniel who provides the biggest challenge. She is the last of her people and she uses the ghosts of her people to take down the Lanterns. She also reprograms their rings and transforms herself into a Lantern.
This third issue hits on a few more cylinders than the last issue and a lot of that is due to the phenomenal artwork of Ethan Van Sciver. This may possibly be some of the best pages I have seen him turn out in his long career. While he has inked his own work, which certainly helps maintain a true look, Gregory Wright’s colors are dynamic! The downside of all this is that Van Sciver leaves this project to work on REBIRTH, so it will be interesting to see what his replacement turns out. Oh yeah…I should mention that Tom Taylor’s story is pretty cool too!
HARLEY QUINN #26: After a troubling dream, Harley and the gang end up back in Coney Island, where her quiet day at the beach becomes an excuse to beat up some thugs. A tourist who spends way too much time discussing the merits of her behind also hits on her. And while the Mayor plots and schemes against Harley again, we meet a paraplegic looking for revenge against her. After getting a movie makeover for her hair, Harley goes to Skate Club, where The Red Tool challenges her in what should certainly be a blood-match.
What it is that Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti do so well is write satire. How else could they get away with tearing off someone’s mohawk, someone else’s earlobes and then spend two pages discussing Harley’s mud flaps! Oh yeah: we also get a new hairdo that now makes our girl look totally like she stepped out of the new SUICIDE SQUAD movie. John Timms and Chad Hardin handle the art and hey…it’s HARLEY QUINN! You were expecting WAR AND PEACE?
JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA # 8: With Rao’s cathedral on the moon destroyed, he and Superman continue to fight it out. Wonder Woman and Aquaman show up, leading to Rao being run through by Aquaman’s trident before being tossed into a boom tube sending him back to the Clean Energy Power Plant. Parasite is here and ready to suck away all that energy from Rao and the Justice League gives him their power too. The Flash returns from 1961 with the Infinity Corporation and gives Parasite access to the Speed Force. In the end, Rao is defeated, his followers are freed, the Parasite is betrayed by Batman and Superman is dead.
So the book looks great and that is thanks to Bryan Hitch. But I really don’t known want he is writing. Green Lantern is still missing, but Flash is back and it seems that the only reason he was gone is because we needed to do something to get him out of the book. Personally, I find this a major mess.
JUSTICE LEAGUE 3001 #10: Supergirl and Bea battle against some nasty looking creatures called Scavvies when Tora finds out they aren’t that bad. The person who tells them that is her old pal Gnort. He also reveals that his boss is the infamous Agent Orange, Larfleeze. Meanwhile, the Convert, currently in Tarriq’s body, gets beaten out of it by The Flash and then jumps into Wonder Woman. Lastly, Eclipso gathers his forces and prepares to eliminate the Justice League. In the back-up, Lois and Ariel find a pole dancing Sinestro before being attacked by Scullions.
So, this series ends with the advent of REBIRTH, but that leaves Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, and Scott Kolins free to work on BLUE BEETLE come September. As much as I love this book and will hate to see it go, I have been enjoying the back-up more. When do you ever get a chance to watch Sinestro pole dance in an intergalactic strip club? And when the ever amazing Coleen Doran illustrates it…absolutely gorgeous!
LEGENDS OF TOMORROW #1: Firestorm returns to the DC Universe with Professor Stein running tests on a merged Jason Rusch and Ronnie Raymond. Meanwhile, Multiplex kidnaps Dr. Marla Cunningham while our hero discovers that the Firestorm Matrix is causing problems severe enough that it looks like Firestorm is going to explode! In the second story, Simon Stagg, his daughter Sapphire, and his ape-man lab assistant Java, are experimenting on Rex Mason, who has become Metamorpho after the Orb of Ra gave him powers. But Sapphire finds out what her dad’s experiments are all about and frees Mason. Unfortunately, Java has the hots for her and has decided that he is going to kill Rex Mason. Oh yeah…Kanjar Ro is heading to Earth. Next up, a grown up Sugar & Spike are private investigators who are on the hunt to get a zebra Batman suit from Killer Moth and return it to its’ rightful owner. In the final tale, the Metal Men return to help out a town under siege from robot missile men. Later, because of the events that the Nameless caused, the government demands that the Metal Men get decommissioned
First off, this semi-tie-in to the television show is one expensive monster-eight bucks. But when you realize that you’re getting four full length tales for eight bucks, it’s a good investment. But…are they worth spending the money on. Well, you get Firestorm by Gerry Conway and Eduardo Pansica and it’s just okay. Personally, I get having Dr. Stein resemble his television counterpart but don’t have to like it. Metamorpho by Aaron Lopresti with inks by Matt Banning is my favorite of the bunch. It’s a great story that retells Rex Mason’s origin with new details. And I’m a big fan of Lopresti’s work anyway. Sugar and Spike by Keith Giffen and Bisques Evely is just a weird, quirky tale. Heck-it’s Giffen. What else would you expect? Metal Men by Len Wein and Yildiray Cinar is my second favorite, as this team, despite having made Will Magnus far younger than I remember him, is one I grew up with. Personally, I like the concept of it all, but would have preferred slipping Firestorm out and maybe sliding Rip Hunter in.
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