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Howdy! I was in Boston this weekend and during the bus trip to and from, I was able to polish all the comics listed below. That accounts for 9 Marvel comics, 14 DC comics and 2 Wildstorm titles. Of course, I was away this weekend and not at the computer and I am typing feverishly to try and finish this on time! Coupled with my online class (which eats up at least 90 minutes an evening) and selling things on E-bay (seller id: IMEMINE98), time is short nowadays. Let’s just check the comics out, shall we?
Spoiler Alert
The Main Event
-Incredible Hercules #117- This promised to be a Secret Invasion tie-in and I was intrigued. Athena was told a prophecy from Urania, about Skrulls invading the world and that is a problem for the gods. Who will worship them now? She gives Hercules a team of gods to lead, which Hercules doesn’t like at first. He is no leader! He eventually relents (thanks to Cho) and they go off on a mystical ship They get trapped somewhere with an odd message from Athena when Cho notices something about Athena, her green eyes. Yeah, not good for Herc, as he may be offworld during SI, but it was some great storytelling. 1/1.
-Countdown to Mystery #8- This was a title that I had a passing interest in at best so you may be wondering why it takes the top spot. Well, this issue pays tribute to Steve Gerber, who wrote the Dr. Fate story but passed away before it concluded with this issue. He wrote the penultimate story and instead of leaving it to die, Mark Waid, Gail Simone, Mark Evanier, and Adam Beechen each wrote a conclusion to it. First off, the Eclipso story features Spectre getting in touch with Eclipso’s human side and and when that happened, the threat was over. The ghost that followed Spectre around is still around at the end, possibly to give trouble to Spectre. I think he will be forgotten. Anyway, the real part of the title is the four writers finishing the story. Beechen starts off with a short one, Fate escapes and everyone is defeated and those that died in the story came back. Evanier has Fate use his daughter as inspiration to defeat Nagal. Waid writes probably the best of the stories, with Fate having a run-in with an old patient of his (in his mind of course) and drawing on that thought to defeat Nagal, then has the Wonderful Life moment at the end with a prescription note that Fate saw in his mind. Gail’s was the most emotional, though, writing a true tribute to her friend and using an actual note he wrote to her in the story. The continuity stuff people will argue about (which one is canon!) but those people miss the whole point of the issue, a tribute to a great comic writer who left us too soon. 1/1.
Marvel
-Amazing Spider-Man #560- Paper Doll kills her first victim, the woman from the photo who was pushed by Bobby Carr. Dexter Bennett is loving the new paparrazi photos from Peter and he even has a man on the inside giving him the scoops of wher Carr will be! Osborne has a run-in with Peter and he tells him he can’t stand the photos, as he was followed by the pappers as a kid, too. So Spider-Man follows a camera man who was about to sue Carr and has a run-in with Paper Doll, but she manages to escape. Bennett gets a tip from Carr’s manager about his girlfriend and Peter is sent off. The manager is then killed and we see Carr’s mystery woman, none other than Mary-Jane Watson. Those who wrote off BND before reading it are seriously missing some of the most packed stories, most well-done stories, and Spidey at his best. 2/2.
-American Dream #2- American Dream recovers from her fight with the huge beast from last issue but Maria Hill tells the Avengers they need to back off. So AD goes off on her own, we see some more of her history (neice of Sharon Carter) she is followed by Ion and Red Queen and she stops a rogue illegal sale and encounters two more of the deadly monsters from last issue. She takes one down into the water where the rogues blast away with a salvo of machine gun fire. Red Queen exclaims (from a distance) she finally has the means to defeat the Avengers. Good, solid, storytelling. MC2 doesn’t have all the continuity and baggage the MU sometimes has and it is free to tell any type of story it pleases and they usually succeed. 3/3.
-Avengers Classic #12- This reprints a battle of the Avengers vs. Mole Man and Red Ghost, two FF throwaway villains. Giant-Man heads down after hearing trouble from his ants and the rest of the Avengers follow. It wasn’t Lee’s best story, and I never really cared for the SA Avengers, to be honest. The back-up tales (there are two) follow the Mole Man’s subterranean creatures stuck on Earth, losing on to bullet wounds, banding together to party, then leaving. There is also a 2-page Sergio Aragones back-up tale. This is the final issue and it is good it went. X-Men classic dealt with really classic story-telling, while this, it didn’t. I can’t really recommend this. 3/4.
-Captain America #38- The Steve Rogers that Sharon sees is actually the 1950’s Cap who had surgery to look like Steve. It seems Faustus is convincing this man he is the real Captain America. Falcon and Capt. Bucky raid an AIM hideout where Arnim Zola is hiding but don’t too much information when Zola blows up the compound. Sen. Wright continues riling up America as Lukin Skull’s plan progresses. We see Faustus tell fake Cap that Bucky killed Jack Monroe, and it looks like the two will be squaring off soon. What I love about this is that it isn’t Red Skull with some harebrained attempt to take over the world that stops after two-issues. This is a long thought-out process where America folds on itself and Brubaker is handling the pacing amazingly well. The slow build is interspersed with intenst action that moves the story along at a breakneck pace and every issue leaves me wanting more. 4/5.
-Ghost Rider #23- Ghost Rider has his fateful encounter with all the pieces of the puzzle in the crazy remote Montana town. GR handles the crazy nurses, Lucas kills himself instead of suffering through this any longer and GR lost his link to Zadkiel. Ghost Rider picks up the guy who eats people and drags him along the highway where the ghosts rip him up at the end of the issue but the real surprise is that Dan Ketch (the 90’s GR) was behind it all. People have been clamoring for the return of Ketch and it is pulled off well here, as Blaze is the most desperate he’s been in a while and he will have a foe who can really match up to him in power and experience. 5/6.
-Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #29- This is the beginning of a new story. Iron Man and some SHIELD agents are scanning Kirikhstan for WMDs. One detonates and Stark stops another one from detonating. A rogue SHIELD agent steals a weapon which transforms into a mechanical monster. Tony seems to know who the perp is behind everything, but I am lost. I wasn’t able to follow along and right now Invincible Iron Man is blowing this one out of the water in terms of storyline. I wasn’t too impressed with the opening of a new arc. 6/7.
-Mighty Avengers #14- This is a reallt handy little issue of SI, where we focus on Sentry and the Skrull’s intel (from a Skrull Jarvis) on his psychotic behavior. The Skrulls want to get to Sentry so he will self-destruct and take out his teammates and make their job easier. They do that by having a Skrull show up as the Void (the Sentry’s dark counterpart of his soul) and Sentry goes mad at the end, flying into space. The Void (maybe the real one) shows up to see Sentry’s wife at the end. Sentry will definitely be a factor here, and his neural psychosis is just a great way to get some really meaty and interesting stories out of him. He really is a conflicted hero, on a scale we really haven’t seen before. 7/8.
-Wolverine Origins #25- Wolverine has the final confrontation with his son and we learn about why Deadpool was able to take out Wolverine. Wolvie planned the whole to get his son back into the picture and even had an accomplice, Bucky, put a carbondonium bullet through the back of his skull to slow the healing factor. Wolvie promises to keep his son that way until he can cure him of the mental problems he has. He leaves Deadpool on the floor without paying him. What a prick. As a bonus (and for a dollar more) you get a reprint of New Mutants #98, the first appearance of Deadpool. Rob Liefeld is his overdramatic best here, as the ankles are non-existant, the upper body is extremely massive, and the dialogue as corny as ever. Looking back, this was just almost comical (no pun intended). Amazing how times and tastes change. This was a very good conclusion to what happens with Logan’s son. 8/9.
DC
-Batman and the Outsiders #7- Batman tells the scientist he knocked out to monitor the Outsiders, who are currently captured and being tortured. Only Batgirl remains free. Metamorpho escapes from the space station of hell but sees it is actually a weapon of some sort. Nightwing and Batman say they are going to free the Outsiders and it seems that Thunder is getting a chance to come along, too. I liked this issue, the Outsiders are a lot better story with Batman in the mix. 2/2.
-Birds of Prey #118- This has a Dark Side Club heading that is also on Flash. So Misfit has been captured and is forced to fight other meta’s. She has been drugged by Granny Goodness to obey orders. Black Alice is captured as well but she is able to escape, kill the host that Granny Goodness used and free her and Misfit but not before finding out they are actually related. Black Alice writes a really nasty letter to Misfit about being related (another reason to hate you) that really packs a punch in this story. Bedard has really breathed a new life into the title since Simone left. 3/3.
-Brave and the Bold #13- This is a one-off tale featuring a team-up between Batman and the GA Flash. They team-up to battle robots made by TO Morrow and used by Penguin. The real magic behind this issue is the interaction between Batman and Flash, who haven’t teamed up by themselves in recent memory. Flash tells Batman it is time to let Robin and Nightwing go like he did with his proteges but Batman is non-committal on that. The respect Batman shows Flash comes out through the pages and is a nice ode to two Golden Age mainstays, though Batman hasn’t aged as much as Flash. This was a really fun story. 4/4.
-Catwoman #79- Catwoman returns home, finds Slam has been captured, takes out the villain, brings him for questioning, uses some techniques she learned from Batman, then fakes getting shot to find out who is financing the ones who took her life. It is a nice return to Catwoman from Oz. 5/5.
-Checkmate #26- The front page tells us a new mission starts here and we get basically three stories going along to introduce the plot. Some army troops are attacked in Afghanistan and killed, except for one who is still barely alive. He comes home but doesn’t know his wife was told he died. Meanwhile, attacks are occuring in far off lands (Venezuela and Antarctica) and finally the introduction of Chimera, a Checkmate creation who can mimic the abilities of animals and is a scary sight. There is a huge monster appearing in China and the wife of Chimera sees in a dream that he is still alive. This actually wove three different plots seamlessly into one story and I have to commend write Bruce Jones for that. 6/6.
-DC Special: Cyborg #1- This is an origin of Cyborg where he gets ready for a wedding where the groom doesn’t show. He thinks back to his parents who never let him play with the other kids, his friend who was a gang member who saved Cyborg’s life twice, his father being at the root of the explosion that killed his mother and burnt him horribly. His father made him the robot he is. Cyborg stops his gang friend from committing a crime, which led to his friend’s death. We fast forward to him with the Titans, then getting his skin back before losing it again, and finally another explosion at the wedding. This was a good first issue to grab you in and pull you into the life that is Cyborg’s. 7/7.
-Flash #240- This is another Dark Side Club header but that doesn’t come until the end. Flash comes up against Gorilla Grodd who is battling Spin, who is turning the people of Coast City mad with his powers to incite anger. So the Flashes battle Grodd and Spin (to no outcome) as Iris and Jai are captured. I didn’t care for this issue. The Spin issue hasn’t been stopped, but Iris and Jai are kidnapped to start what may be another storyline. I don’t feel like anything really happened, nothing moved the original story along in this issue. 7/8.
-Justice League of America #21- The big three have their new secret meeting room where they talk about recent JLA events in a well-written conversation. The Human Flame (who we saw the first appearance of reprinted in the DC Special JLA) is stopped by Hawkgirl and Red Arrow until Libra shows up and turns the tide (or, balances the scales). Red Tornado warns the group about Libra as Libra gathers all the villains together to lead them. Flame is a but hesitant but says he wants Martian Manhunter killed, and we see an explosion on the planey MM had been staying. The Sightings label that DC puts on relevant Final Crisis titles helped here, as this is a direct lead-in to it. It was a good prologue, too. 8/9.
-Justice Society of America #15- The JSA deal with the threat of Magog in what is a well-drawn battle sequence. The JSA throw everything they have at the beast and narrowly defeat him. Sandman returns to the Congo where Magog eventually shows up (with the JSA) and they receive troubling news. Gog is on Earth and he arises at the end of the issue. This was just a well-done issue with great fights and an even bigger threat being revealed to keep the story going. 9/10.
-Robin #174- Robin, Spoiler and Violet escape the gang (which was being watched by Penguin). Violet storms off into the night and Robin shows up with Batman to follow Spoiler back. It seems that Spoiler really is Stephanie, who Robin thought dead. It seems that Stephanie’s death was faked to protect Steph and to get her away from Gotham. She eventually came back, though, and needs to tell everyone and telsl her mother at the end. I guess this was good reveal. I didn’t read when Spoiler was on the title but the book did nothing to really prompt to catch up on it. It’s good enough for a point. 10/11.
-Spirit, The #17- This is another great, funny, interesting tale of Spirit getting to the bottom of a jewel theft/insurance fraud case, this time following the suspects on a boat that his woman of desire, Ellen Dolan, is on. Watching Spirit avoiding her to spy on the large woman at the center of the story is just a hoot. There isn’t a more enjoyable care free title on the stands right now. 11/12.
-Superman/Batman #48- The Doomsday monster is really an American soldier who was pumped with kryptonite and Doomsday DNA. Superman battles valiently while Batman is captive but a little bit of deus ex machina frees Batman. Superman and Doomsday bring the fight to Smallville, which is leveled, but Batman gets the boy’s parents there to stop the threat, then blackmails Amanda Waller into giving him the rest of the kryptonite and rebuilding Smallville. Overall it was a good little story arc, with Superman finally having his biggest fear shown, his role as Superman leading to Smallville being destroyed. 12/13.
-Tangent: Superman’s Reign #3- The JLA look for Lantern and Flash but they are in another dimension. They get discovered for using their powers, Green Lantern is captured by their version of Superman, the rest escape leaving GL captive. I am losing interest in this title rapidly. The promise of having the New Earth heroes show up on this Tangent Earth will keep me around for a while, but this issue really didn’t move the story along besides having GL being captured. 12/14.
Wildstorm
-The Programme #11- The Programme is really picking up now, as this issue sees all our main heroes and villains starting to converge for the fateful finale. The Soviets take over American airways and try to incite a race war when Joe McCarthy Max show up, rip the arms out of one of the Russians and get ready to fight the rest of the Commie bastards. This has been an enjoyable mini-series thus far, though there have been too many unmemorable side plots that had a tendency to weigh the book down. This was a fun issue, though. 1/1.
-World of Warcraft #7- Broll, Lo’Gosh (who is really a king and in search of his son), and Valeera are on a ship to a destination where Lo’Gosh will begin his journey when they are attacked by a band of Nazja sea monsters. What follows is just a fun battle between the two sides where Valeera plays with some mystic energies she shouldn’t, and Lo’Gosh sees a vision of the past (his dead wife and his coronation) that shed a bit more of his past. I thought I would hate this title, but for the most part it has been a fun ride. You have a hero who doesn’t know his past who must escape as a slave, his two companions following him around, and really you don’t need to have a love of WoW to be a fan of the title. 2/2.
Awards
-Book of the Week- This was a weird week, everything was good but nothing was so good it made me say, this is easily the best book I have read this week. I have to pick one and right now the best ongoing saga on the shelves is the epic death of Captain America that Brubaker is crafting. Captain America #38 had it all, plto development, action, intrigue. It was just the best issue of the week, and the best title of the last year.
-Disappointment of the Week- Only three title did not get points this week. DOTW is really for something that I expected to be good and wasn’t. I have no expectations for Avengers Classic so that is out. Tangent Superman, while disappointing, is just a mini-series. Flash, on the other hand, had so much going for it when the story first started, when we have this silly dark side club being thrown in before the original story even concludes. The Flash is the fastest man alive, but the story right now is going too fast and it is suffering for it.
-Cover of the Week- Justice Society of America by Alex Ross and I can’t believe that Alex has won this many in a row. Is it just that all the covers are bad? Nah, it’s just that Alex is on an amazing hot streak of just visually striking covers, with this one showcasing the JSA trying to take down Magog. Three in a row for Alex, 6 overall, and he is currently tied with the zombie man himself, Arthur Suydam.
-The Bottom Line- Wildstorm has been on a hot streak lately, going 11 for its last 12 issues to raise its overall average to 73%. If you hadn’t followed along, Wildstorm started off the point system terribly and has recovered nicely. DC has also improved nicely, with two solid weeks back to back (an overall 21/24) with Alex Ross just killing the DC covers lately. Marvel followed with an 8/9 which meant I had a great time reading these on the bus this week. I was satisfied with this week’s haul.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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