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This past Wednesday was Halloween and DC treated us to two Halloween themed comic books (the subject of this week’s main event). This is a very DC heavy week (14 titles) to go along with 1 Wildstorm, and only 5 Marvels. I also got the newest Wizard, opting for the 25 Ugliest Crimes cover since as Diane notes at Royal Collectibles, “there are too many covers with Spider-Man, and this one has Bizarro.” Well said, so it’s the Bizarro cover for me. Finally, Batman Chronicles Volume 4 dropped today and I picked that up, so look for a review in a few months when I finally get around to reviewing that! Enough intro, onto this week’s edition.
Spoiler Alert
The Main Event
-Infinite Halloween Special #1- The cover tells us this has 13 tales of terror and I wondered how they would put this together. They actually did a great job of putting these stories together. Basically, the criminals at Arkham are waiting for midnight to break out of jail and since its Halloween they tells crazy stories. Scarecrow tells a story of Zatanna taking vengeance on druggies putting fear gas in kid’s candy, Two-Face tells a story about Robin and the “Watch-Dogs,” werewolves who hunt other werewolves who are criminals. This one was actually written by David Arquette and his likeness makes an appearance in this story. Other stories include appearances by Red Rain Batman (which also included a promo for a Countdown tie-in comic book), Lobo getting scared, Aquaman, Kid Frankenstein, Bizarro Batman and Bizarro, Superman and Zombies, a Smallville story, Flash’s dead grandfather reappearing, Blue Devil fighting a Pumpkin monster, a Killer Croc story, and an ending to the Arkham escape. The stories were no longer than 6 pages so there wasn’t much substance behind them but they were enjoyable stories focusing on Halloween and all things creepy.
-Robin Annual #7- There are two stories in this annual. The first is of Robin finding a serial killer. The story is pretty simple, actually, but the art by Derec Donovan is what really impressed me. I don’t know who he is, or what he’s done, but I loved the art on this story. The second story was of Damien being tested by a mysterious being. This story was used more as a introduction to the coming “Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul” storyline that will be running in the Bat-titles starting next month. Both stories were fine, simple, but fine.
Marvel
-Annihilation Conquest – Quasar #4- Quasar and Moondragon unite with the denizens of whatever planet they are on to battle the Phalanx. Quasar takes on the Super Adaptoid head on, using her powers to absorb back some of her quantam band power then uses her imagination to defeat the Super Adaptoid and his programming. They uncover the person who they were protecting, the Supreme Intelligence of the Kree (who died Wraith?) and a man in a cacoon, a man who turns out to be Adam Warlock! Great conclusion, let’s get this party started in Annihilation!
-Iron Man #23- The silliness continues. Basically, Tony Stark is given 2 weeks off by Samson, as decreed by provisions in the Superhuman Registration Act and he cannot use his powers. He actually has an adamantium dampener put on him to stop the extremis armor. Tony uses this time to pursue the mystery of the missing people in Nebraska, without his powers, as Mandarin pulls the strings of Maya to continue the testing of Extremis without Tony’s interference. I haven’t enjoyed this much at all, I may be dropping this title soon.
-Mythos: Fantastic Four- This is the best of the Mythos titles so far. The FF are being questioned by the US government about the events of what happened on their space station. We know the story, bombarded by cosmic rays and all, but this style of telling the origin worked very well. You can see the pain in the Thing’s voice, and Mister Fantastic’s bravado at the end made this a winner.
-Sub-Mariner #5- Subby confronts his son about his dissension and when his son refuses to go back to his side Subby treats him as a prisoner of war. He returns to Atlantis to see the traitors fighting against his army. He quickly stops the fight, decrees that all traitors have their hands cut off and sends his son and the leader of the rebel troops to prison. He goes to talk to Stark about what happened at issues end. I was pissed that this issue didn’t actually show Sub-Mariner saving the humans in Seattle. He talks to his kid for a while and then the next thing we know he is back in Atlantis. They say he saved them but since it was a main theme of last issue they should’ve shown him save them.
-Ultimate Power #8- Here a second Squadron Supreme shows up after a Scarlett Witch spell went awry. The dual Squadrons end up fighting each other and are saying the same things. Nick Fury unleashes the Hulk (with Spider-Man as his conscious) to band the three sides together. This series could’ve easily been told in 5 issues but Marvel was intent on dragging it out to 9, and making it bi-monthly. This is a disappointment.
DC
-52 Aftermath: The Four Horseman #3- The story continues to move at a snail’s pace as there’s lots of talking this issue. In the end, the Four Horsemen are remade and attack Superman and Batman after Wonder Woman flies into an army of zombies. Very boring so far.
-Action Comics #858- This tale features Clark coming into contact with Brainiac 5 of the super-hero team from the 31st century, the Legion of Super-Heroes. Clark first met them when he was youngster in Smallville. He is sent back in time and Brainiac tells him that he’s needed for some major disaster. He goes, the LSH finds him, and they tell him they haven’t seen Brainiac in months. Superman is a bit shocked and even more stunned when a laser beam goes right through his hand. Yes, in the 31st century he is powerless since we now have a Red Sun. This was a nice intro issue though I am confused with the continuity here. Was Superman’s time with the LSH retconned at any point post-Crises? Also, White gets on Clark for not having any friends at the Planet. Isn’t he married to Lois Lane? That doesn’t count? I don’t know how they’re playing Clark here. Is he still the lovable loser or the more suave guy we’ve seen previously.
-Countdown to Adventure #2- There are two stories told here. The first is Lady Styx’s apparent control over one-third of the people in San Diego (where Starfire and Animal Man are) and in Rann, where Strange is. Coincidence? I think not. It seems Animal Man has a thing for Kory and his wife is catching on. The madness continues. The second story is more of the origin of Forerunner. Here she is captured in Earth 33 by magic versions of our heroes. It seems Dark Angel (not Jessica Alba) is behind it all. The Forerunner story doesn’t have my attention at all but the Animal Man/Strange/Starfire story is all kinds of awesome.
-Countdown to Final Crisis #26- The countdown to Final Crisis begins one issue before the halfway point (remember it ends at 0). This issue was really there to set the tone for the next half of the series. Basically, it’s the Monitors banding together to fight a war to save the Multiverse. This was done with about 20 pages of word balloons but that was the main point. They show two interludes. The first deals with the Challengers. It seems Bob teleported Donna away when Jason shot her, as the two had planned, and Donna was not too pleased to be left out of the idea of the plan. The second interlude is a man in black taking Lex Luthor from Earth 15. This was actually a good issue.
-Countdown to Mystery #2- CTM continues to be one of the best Countdown tie-ins. The first story deals with the new Dr. Fate (a homeless boxer) coming to terms with his powers and even saves the life of the man who stole his money in the latest bum fight. The second story deals with Eclipso being told by Darkseid to go to Earth and cause chaos. She meets with the Creeper and her influence on Plastic Man is already felt, as he returns to a life of crime. The Spectre is feeling this shift in magic and his human host can actually feel again because of this.
-Countdown Presents: Lord Havok and the Extremists #1- This was another great debut from DC this week. This issue sort of poked fun at Marvel a bit, I think, as Lord Havok is a rebel who gathers a small army to battle the new president, who has initiated a meta-human act where all meta’s must register or be placed in concentration camps, or killed. Havok goes on what can be called a brutal murder spree to combat this and when the Challengers show up at the end, he thinks it is just reinforcements that the President has sent.
-Crime Bible: Five Lessons of Blood- DC is two for two in debut issues this week. Here is an author publishing secrets about the Crime Bible and Montoya (Question) is on the trail. She investigates this auther and concludes he is actually a member. She shows up to stop him from murdering his wife and child to sell more copies of his book to spread the word. This issue is all about deception so there’s a bit of a twist at the end. The Question is saddened she couldn’t stop the murder that occurred. Very good intro that puts Question in a position to find out more about this Crime Bible.
-Death of the New Gods #2- Superman goes with a darker Mister Miracle to the home of the New Gods and they learn of the genocide being heaped on the New Gods. They don’t know who the killer is but they believe Darkseid has information on it that he is not sharing. It seems the New Gods souls are being ripped out of their bodies. Superman, Orion and Mister Miracle head to Apokolips for answers as two other New Gods head to the source wall to see why they’ve lost contact with it. They are shocked to see another wall built there with all the dead New Gods, a trophy wall for the killer! Very good issue.
-Justice Society of America #10- So the Superman from Earth-22 (The Kingdom Come Earth) is in our Earth and in the JSA’s brownstone. The JSA don’t know what to do with him but they call the JLA. To ensure that Superman doesn’t leave they lock him in the room. He leaves anyway when he hears a voice of woman about to commit suicide. He saves her and returns to the JSA as the JLA show up. I wonder what will happen with this displaced hero? This is one good reason to bring the multi-verse back, these great stories with characters from different timelines.
-Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #35- This series is sorely missing Mark Waid and Barry Kitson. I haven’t enjoyed Bedard’s work on this so far and the art by Calero seems very dark and gritty, which doesn’t befit this book. Here we see Atom Girl using her smarts to stop E.R.G. from killing the president. All is fine now with two of the three teams so we look at Supergirl’s team. Supergirl, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad run into a super advanced human who quickly disposes of them and focuses on traveling to the 21st century. Like I said, not really interested in this yet.
-Superman Confidential #8- I assume that since this is Confidential it deals with early Superman tales. In this he meets the New Gods for the first time, they are New God children, and meets the power of Darkseid for the first time as well. The New Gods and Superman battle his flunkies and Darkseid escapes and Orion shows up for Superman at the end of the issue. I don’t really like the way this is going. Am I to believe this is telling the tale of the first time Superman met the New Gods, or is it just a story that takes place out of continuity. Coupled with the fact that the New Gods are currently in their own mini-series, in Countdown and in Superman/Batman, do we really need them in this title?
-Trials of Shazam #9- Freddie battles Apollo and uses his wisdom to convince him to take over for the deceased Atlas. Apollo doesn’t want to give up his life so he grants Freddie only half of his power to heal. The other half he has given to the mysterious woman going around taking the powers of other gods. Seems like its leading to a big battle between Freddie and this woman. Too bad we still have three issues to go and its coming out so infrequently we may not get there for a while. The one positive about this book, the art is beautiful.
Wildstorm
-Midnighter Armageddon #1- Midnighter gets taken by Void of the Wildcats to a bleak and dismal future whereby the Midnighter’s massive ship has crashed into London. He learns of an event (called Armageddon) that caused worldwide turmoil with massive casualties and meta-humans fighting each other. Midnighter is brought back to the present and tells him teammates of this event he must stop.
Awards
-Book of the Week- There were some very enjoyable books this week but none that really jumped out at me as spectacular. I think if I had to hand it out it would go to Crime Bible: Five Lessons of Blood. It was an interesting debut and I have to admit I do love the Question.
-Disappointment of the Week- Iron Man #23 was a very hard story for me to get into. The art is very dark, and seems muddy. The story is very convoluted right now and the way they’re bringing back the Mandarin doesn’t seem to interesting, yet. So this issue sets up a powerless Tony Stark looking for the missing in Nebraska. I just didn’t like it.
-Cover of the Week- The covers were just sort of average this week but if one stood out it would have to be Mythos: Fantastic Four. It is a beautifully painted cover with an awesome looking Human Torch.
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