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I don’t really have much of an intro this week I didn’t read through this as quickly as normal, I only finished reading them on Monday and writing it on Tuesday. I was supposed to go to Toronto but unfortunately things didn’t pan out so twelve hours of reading on the bus is gone. Anyway, there was a modest total of 25 this week, with one Wildstorm, 10 DC’s and 14 Marvels. Let’s just get on with the show, then.
Spoiler Alert
The Main Event
-Secret Invasion #4- The world is literally going mad, and Stark is, too. Spider-Woman, who is really the Skrull queen, has really messed with his mind trying to convince him he’s a Skrull. Black Widow shows up and and has to kill a Skrull Phoenix and Skrull Beast but Spider-Woman gets away. Wolverine shows up and the three decide they need to find Reed Richards. Meanwhile, the green-haired lady from SWORD lands on a Skrull ship where the Skrulls find her. Jarvis asks for Maria’s surrender and reveals agents of SHIELD are in fact Skrulls. The Hood and the villains decide they need to step in as Fury and his new Commandos shoot up some Skrulls in New York City. The last page is full of reveals, as Thor shows up and someone in Capt. America’s outfit watches on. This is everything a mini-series like this should be. A lot of great action, multiple stories running at the same time and actually going somewhere. We’re halfway through and you can see where this is heading, to a huge showdown between the heroes and the Skrulls. 1/1.
-Final Crisis: Requiem #1- We saw only a page on the death of Martian Manhunter but this issue’s whole purpose is to go into how Manhunter died, as well as the events that immediately followed. Basically Martian is brought by Libra to the evil villains lair where he tries to fight back, using his telepathy to incite scenes of the JLA attacking. It fails, and he is ultimately killed, but not before sending out one last telepathic message to 6 of his closest friends, who write down the story in a book and put him in his final resting place on Mars. Great issue with a touching tribute to Martian Manhunter. 1/1.
Marvel
-Amazing Spider-Girl #22- May asks for Push’s help with her friend, Sara, who is falling in with the evil mutant crowd. She doesn’t know how far in she is until Magneta strikes Spider-Girl and Push. Sara runs away as the villains scamper. Meanwhile, the Goblin Queen breaks out of prison and knows about the May in the chamber and being found by Norman and how it is fitting in with her plans. Another excellent issue, as this self-contained universe is DeFalco’s playground and he keeps things tight with his storytelling. 2/2.
-Amazing Spider-Man #565- We begin with Spider-Man captured and events leading up to it. Spidey is fighting alongside Daredevil as a new Kraven looks on. She wants to ruin Spider-Man’s life, starting with his roommate. So Peter’s new roommate, Vin, loses his job, gets hit by a car, and is an victim of identity theft. Things aren’t great for Peter, either, as he is subpoena’d by a lawyer who is representing people suing Spider-Man and is attacked at his new job as a comic book store attendant. Kraven eventually captures Spider-Man and unmasks him. It’s Vin. Yeah, Kraven thought Vin was Spider-Man. Well, the secret is safe for now. The reveal at the end was cool and the systematic destruction of their lives was well-done by Guggenheim. 3/3.
-Captain America: White #0- This introduces us to Cap and Bucky, as well as the origin of Bucky. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, Bucky walks in on Cap, Cap trains Bucky and they head to war. They show their first battle together with Steve coming down hard on Buck for not being careful enough. There’s an interview with Loeb and Sale about the upcoming mini and their other color books. We see a bunch of Sale’s sketches of Cap and Buck as well. I am pumped for this coming out and this did nothing to abate that excitement. 4/4.
-Captain Britain and MI13 #3- The Skrulls are absolutely destroying Britain and its troops and seem to have stolen its magic. They are in a dark place until Pete Wisdom makes a fateful decision. He frees Merlin from his cell and he brings back Capt. Britain, who now has Excalibur with him. I think the Skrulls are gonna be screwed. Great writing and pacing, and the return of Cap was just awesome. 5/5.
-GeNext #3- This issue focuses on Rico, mostly. Anyway, the gang is a bit bummed that No-Name has gone missing. The headmasters (Scott, Emma and Hank) wonder if these kids should become superheroes. Olivier convinces everyone they need to find No-Name, with Rico’s powers getting shown more and more in a Danger Room sequence. There was a high-alert at the X-Mansion and the GeNext kids take advantage of this and steal off in the original Blackbird. There’s a back-up written by Kurt Busiek which appeared in What The--? #’s 3 and 4, which takes a very funny look at the X-Books at the time and their crossovers. It is actually spot-on and a great parody. Another winner from Claremont, as he’s found a new breath in writing X-titles with this. 6/6.
-Guardians of the Galaxy #3- The Guardians deal with the priest and the zany religion again, and even stopping a huge blob that contained the millions of people of that planet. They take some beatings, but they have a plan to open up the shield around the planet, burning everything in sight and then leaving back to Knowhere. Only problem is, Knowhere is being attacked by Starlord, another former Guardian who takes his aggression out on Vance. Gamora, and her healing factor, eventually saves the Guardians who return home. The religious villains have what looks to be the shell of Warlock and wonder what it could be. I love how the stories are told, as a recap by the members of the mission through a sort of log. Abnett and Lanning pull this off effortlessly and don’t reveal any plot points that would be shown later in the issue. They own the Marvel Cosmic Empire. 7/7.
-Iron Man: Legacy of Doom #4- This is the end of the third Doom/Iron Man story by Michelinie and it is another winner. Doom, powered by Excalibur, and Iron Man, powered by its scabbard must deal with a huge eye-being popping into this realm. The being reminds me a lot of the one from Iron Man/FF story from a few years back. Iron Man and Doom must team-up with Merlin and Iron Man must sacrifice himself to stop the eye-monster. Iron Man is saved and Merlin erases everyone’s memory until Tony sees the tapes again. Tony buys the water where the lady is supposed to be, and gets some revenge. This was a really fun story, and I applaud Michelinie for another great Iron Man/Doom story. 8/8.
-Last Defenders, The #5- Nighthawk is brought to the past by Yandroth. He shows Nighthawk that all the events leading to him becoming a hero and a Defender were predetermined and he was in fact the Defender chosen by cosmic predestination. She-Hulk shows up at the end with some crap heroes to fight Yandroth. I just don’t get what’s going on. Why is Yandroth so important? Why is Nighthawk such a focus? What happened with the AIM cell or whatever from the first couple of issues? This is just a train wreck. 8/9.
-New Exiles #8- Okay, so Psylocke (Claremont’s pride and joy), has to deal with Slaymaster, a man who wants to kill all Psylocke’s. She meets with Ogun who will train her. Meanwhile, the French and British are still fighting with old weapons (ships) combining modern weapons. The French (led by Napolean) have something up their sleeves and take control of Manhattan. Meanwhile, Cat has to deal with the universe imploding upon itself. 9/10.
-Nova #15- Nova is stuck in Galactus’ planet-eating phase and can’t leave. He manages to go through one of Galactus’ portal and ends up on the ship, but only at the sacrifice of Worldmind, who was knocked offline. Nova finds Harrow hiding out on Galactus’ ship. Galactus finds out and incinerates Harrow, ending the threat, and spares Nova. Abnett and Lanning hit it out of the park again, with another stellar cosmic epic, ending a threat Galactus never knew about who is feeding on Galactus’ powers, and getting rid of him in a great way. 10/11.
-Stephen King: The Stand Sketchbook- This is a nice (free!) look at Mike Perkin’s sketchbook of these great characters and Aguirre-Sacasa’s notes on the upcoming story. I can’t wait for this. 11/12.
-Ultimate Origins #2- This is supposed to turn the Ultimate Universe on its head. We saw in the first issue Wolverine becoming the first mutant after he and Fury were arrested for war crimes and tested. So we look at a secret cavern used by the government which houses a weird device. The device was present at the birth of Captain America and that origin is told here, which his exactly like the origin we’ve seen since 1940. I was a little let-down by this, after all, it’s just the standard Cap origin. Maybe I’ve seen it a lot in the trades I’ve read recently but I was expecting something a little different. It ties in well with the addition of the device and sets up what should be the future origins of the Ultimate U. 12/13.
-Young X-Men #4- So Ink is a traitor, though no one knows it yet. We see he gets his powers from tattoos on his body (a bolt on his head for telepathy). So Cyclops has Wolfcub, Ink, and Rockslide invade the hellfire club, Cyclops looks on but is attacked by an unknown foe. Interesting story for these young X-kids. I wonder where Wolfcub came from (how many wolves are there in the X-Men?). I like where this is headed. 13/14.
DC
-Action Comics #867- Superman learns from Supergirl what a monster Brainiac is, and that no one has actually seen the real face of Brainiac. Supergirl remembers Krypton and the horror of Brainiac which hurts Superman a bit. Superman goes out in search of Brainiac, and finds him, but not before being knocked out in an explosion and captured by Brainiac. Interesthing stuff so far, as Brainiac is shown as mysterious and much more powerful than in the past. 2/2.
-Batman Confidential #19- Batgirl saves a falling Catwoman, but the Jim Gordon’s book is stolen by a huge Russian. Batgirl believes Catwoman really is trying to save someone so they head to the warehouse the Russians are hiding. They attack them head-on but fail miserably, and are about to be consumed by flames until Batman shows up. I thought it was a decent, if unmemorable issue. I don’t know if I like the two girls have to be saved by the titular character, but how else would you get Bats in here? Not good enough for a point. 2/3.
-Booster Gold #1,000,000- Booster ends up in the future where he meets a hero called Peter Platinum, a media whore who lives his career in honor of Booster. Booster doesn’t like that is his legacy. He returns home and quits working with Rip, then stops the Royal Flush Gang when Greens Lantern and Arrow show up and ask if it was a PR stunt. Booster can’t take it anymore and things get worse when Batman calls him to the cave. Batman reveals to Booster he had pictures of the night Barbara was shot, when Booster tried to save her. Batman tells him to keep up what he’s doing. Booster returns to Rip, where his sister is now working, and Rip is Booster’s son!? (Booster doesn’t know yet). Excellent issue that restores Booster to awesomeness, something it was lacking when Blue Beetle was on the title. 3/4.
-Detective Comics #846- I missed out on the Hush storyline when it first ran, and haven’t had a chance to read it yet. However, they give a recap of his origin, a demented boy who grew up with Bruce who tried to kill his parents, and succeeded in taking out his father. So Hush knows someone is after Batman and decides to take it upon himself to make him known. Batman and Catwoman take on a silly villain who models his crimery after Aesop’s fables. Hush kills him in front of Batman and then escapes. Hush is a cool character, and this looks to be the start of a good 5-parter. 4/5.
-Green Arrow and Black Canary #10- Speedy and Dodger deal with the villains who have found them. They can’t beat them so they run, and Batman, Canary, Green Arrow and Plastic Man are there. They fight a bit, Batman is smarter than everyone and defeats them, and reveals these people working for Ra’s have actually been duped. This was a weird one, the fight scenes were nicely illustrated but I would’ve liked to see someone other than Batman outsmart the villains. Bats may be in the title to push some sales but they need to establish the titular characters as being able to work on their own without the Trinity’s involvement. 4/6.
-Huntress #5- Huntress invades Wayne manor and finds Bruce talking to one of the mobsters. She thinks Bruce is in on it and attacks, which reveals Batgirl. Bats is not too happy Batgirl interfered and “fires” her. Batman goes to work to find out who this Huntress is. Batman confronts Huntress but Catwoman helps her escape. This has been a very enjoyable Year One book, one that I enjoyed more than I thought I would. 5/7.
-Justice Society of America #17- Gog is a god, and he continues with his miracles, getting rid of famine and disease in a small town and the JLA don’t know how to deal with him. Some of the JLA get their own wishes, too, including Damage and Dr. Mid-Nite. Starman is normal now, too, but he warns it is not a good thing. He sends Power Girl home, but noone knows where that is. Gog says he needs to rid war now, and he looks pissed. We see Gog as only peaceful with no real evil acts, but you know something is going to happen, and the JLA’s confusion over what to think of him is what makes this interesting. 6/8.
-Trinity #6- Rita keeps seeing the Trinity in her cards. The three of them recuperate after their fight with a strange tattoo appearing on Wonder Woman’s shoulder. Rita sees a great revelation that all three of them stand for Truth, Justice and the American Way, albeit in different ways (hence the name of the title). Rita is kidnapped at the end, too. The backup is Hawkman and Gangbuster meeting up and Hawky dismissing Gangbuster. What a dick. Anyway, GB asks Lois for help on these gangs, and Hawkman brings GB to the JLA tower. 7/9.
-Wonder Woman #22- Wonder Woman has a vision where she’s queen of the world, and it frightens her. So she and her compatriots are off to kill D’Grth. They eventually get there and Wonder Woman as a person is getting darker and slowly descending into complete darkness. So they show up and it is Stalker that betrays them, with Beowulf taking a sword meant for Diana. Wonder Woman takes the rock of Eternity and she and D’Grth end up on Earth where their fight will no doubt be settled. It was a good issue, Wonder Woman is heading down a path she should’ve been on after killing Max Lord and seeing her like this makes for interesting stories. 8/10.
Wildstorm
-Number of the Beast #7- I’ve been wavering a lot on this title, hating it one week, then liking it the other. This is one of those weeks where I like it. We see more of the background of what happened, that the government have cloned the High to make a group of super-soldiers, and these soldiers are sent out to attack the heroes who just broke free from their virtual reality hell. They escape with Stormwatch into the Bleed where the supersoldiers find them anyway. Good conclusion and maybe finally things will be paid off that have been building since Armageddon. 1/1.
Awards
-Book of the Week- Final Crisis: Requiem I think was the best thing I read this week, beating out two great Abnett/Lanning books. It was a touching look at the last minutes of Martian Manhunter. Just a great story.
-Disappointment of the Week- Last Defenders #5 continues to be the bane of my reading week. I can’t get through these, nothing is explained too well. I don’t know these characters but a little back-story would’ve helped. I just can’t wait until 4 weeks from today when this finally ends.
-Cover of the Week- Again, the second Wednesday of the month had little competition. The covers were all just alright but nothing really stood out to me. I have to pick one winner, and I really liked Tim Sale’s Captain America cover the most. I just love his interpretations of characters and way they look.
-The Bottom Line- Wildstorm turned in a good week, but with only one comic it was either hit or miss. DC and Marvel were solid, with the highlights from both companies being their big crossovers, Final Crisis and Secret Invasion. The Abnett/Lanning cosmic Marvel duo is a hit and I have enjoyed all their work thus far. A few misses, but overall it was an awesome week.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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