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There were a mind-numbing 33 titles waiting for me in my pull box this week. Almost half of them were Marvels, with 15 in the mix this week. DC also had 15 titles in the pull box. Wildstorm rang in two titles and Image pulled up the rear with 1. Still, 33 is a lot of fricken books. A Toyfare is added in as well. I don’t have time to writing the introduction anymore, I have to read 33 damn books! Let’s get to the TPL.
Spoilers Ahead
The Main Event:
-World War Hulk #5- This would be the end of World War Hulk and it was everything I had hoped it would be. This was a mini-series that did not disappoint, at least in my eyes. The Hulk shows he actually has a heart and won’t allow Mr. Fantastic to kill Iron Man, but he’s still gonna level the city to show their shame. Sentry shows up and it really is a fight for the ages. They are both bruised and bloody and when the dust settles Hulk is now back to Bruce Wayne. He seems content until Miek gets pissed and goes after Banner. Rick Jones pushes him out of the way and gets stabbed. Hulk gets pissed now as it seems Miek was behind it all. He destroys Miek and just loses it, getting so angry it was possible he could break off the Eastern seaboard. Iron Man calls in some satellites to strike Hulk down, turning him back into Bruce Banner. They store him in a state of stasis and throw him 3 miles below the Mojave dessert. The heroes are the same, though they have some wounds to heal, Rick Jones is still injured and fate is unknown. We zoom on Sakaar and see a baby Hulk pop out of the waters! Uh-Oh! The WWH saga has ended but we will have some Hulk tie-ins coming around the corner with The Incredible Herc, A red Hulk, and Skaar: the Son of Hulk. Awesome mini-series.
-Wonder Woman #14- This would be Gail Simone’s first issue on Wonder Woman and I was expecting a lot. Especially coming after the Amazon’s Attack debacle and the Heingberg storyline. I have to say, I think I hyped myself up for this and so I was a little let down by this issue. We see Hippolyta talking to prisoners and one of the prisoners vowing to tell Wonder Woman some secret Hippolyta is hiding. Wonder Woman stops some gorillas’s courtesy of Grodd, reports her findings to her job. We meet a new associate of Director Steel named Lt. Candy. Wonder Woman flies to a new lead and runs into Captain Nazi. It seems the Society has plans to take Themyscira as their own. I was definitely expecting more but what was here was definitely an improvement.
Marvel
-Amazing Spider-Girl #14- May is a little depressed lately. Her brother is deaf because of her but he also seems to be developing wall crawling abilities. Her best friend, Davida, asks out a boy she liked and Moose hates Spider-Girl for not allowing the Carnage symbiote to bond to his dying father. Her future doesn’t look too good either. Hobgoblin visits Madame Webb, but she is not there, so another oracle is in her place. She tells him the origin of Tarantula (which was pretty cool) and mentions something about the heart of a spider. Hobgoblin leaves and we learn that mystic was actually Arana. Hobgoblin returns back to his lair and Mindworm informs Hobby that Spider-Girl’s mind is troubled now, and they can exploit that. I really enjoyed the origin of Tarantula here and there was a really interesting letter in the letters page of a reader questioning the destruction of China in the F5 mini-series. Good stuff.
-Avengers: The Initiative #7- A team of Scarlet Spiders (men dressed up in the Steel Spider outfits) try to stop Vulturions from stealing important gamma documents. Peter Parker sees this and gets pissed that someone else is using his costume. He attacks them but then finds out villains are getting away. He helps them, and the three spiders actually help Peter escape. The Initiative aren’t too pleased and we see some shocking things about the three spiders, they are actually clones of MVP! Really good issue. MVP’s cadaver seemingly smiles at the end and the mystery of MVP continues, as Justice continues looking for him.
-Captain Marvel #1- Although Captain Marvel didn’t return to the Marvel Universe the way that some would’ve liked, at least he is back. This issue shows this is a conflicted man. He knows he is going to die. He hangs low in France for a while, stops a villain called Cyclone and doesn’t save him from falling and until finally a SHIELD agent finds him. Marvel doesn’t tell her that he has holes in his memory. He also doesn’t want people to remember him dying in a bed, on his back, but as a warrior. Meanwhile, in America, a strange Capt. Marvel cult has sprouted. I really enjoyed this issue. Some awesome stuff was laid down here. This is only a five issue mini-series, so I wonder if he will go back to the past at the end of the mini?
-Ghost Rider Annual #1- We are introduced to a new character in the Ghost Rider mythos. His name is Eleven and he was at the cross when Jesus died. He was not accepted in heaven and was shunned from hell and now he travels the Earth. He sometimes works for Heaven, sometimes for hell. He is basically a mercenary. He has a run in with Lucifer and follows him to his fight with Ghost Rider. He goes to help Ghost Rider for his own personal reasons and even saves Ghost Rider. He leads Ghost Rider to believe he has died when in fact he is alive and biding his time.
-Ghost Rider #17- Ghost Rider battles a host of Satan and learns of another one of his hosts trapping a bunch of kids. The host will only tell Johnny Blaze so GR changes back. He learns the location of the other host and travels there. The two angels take it upon themselves to go over and help. Ghost Rider battles the evil host, this time in the form of a coach, and defeats him. However, the barn where the kids were trapped is engulfed in flames and Ghost Rider thinks they are dead. The two angels sweep in and tell Ghost Rider they have saved the kids and then kill the evil host. It seems Ghost Rider has two new allies. Both Ghost Rider titles were pretty good this week.
-House of M: Avengers #1- We return to the storyline that set the Marvel Universe on fire a few years back, the House of M. This is just a set-up to the events that I am sure will unfold in the next four issues. Here we see the revamped origin of Luke Cage. He was still in jail and subjected to testing, but this time to battle the mutant threat. He broke free and repaid a dept to a mutant who got him arrested. He is intent on battling back against the mutants and assembles a team of his own. The team is called the Avengers and its members include other humans like Moon Knight, Iron Fist, Hawkeye and Tigra. He is well known in the underground and a retiring human cop, George Stacy, wants to prove that humans can still do the job and assigns Misty Knight to take him down. It sets up the story nicely and I look forward to the next few issues.
-Iron Man and Power Pack #1- The Power Pack are enjoying a day off when an Ultimo Robot attacks. It seems that The Ghost has stolen this from Stark Industries. The Pack and Iron Man team up to stop the Robot, but the Ghost gets away and gives Puppet Master an interface chip. I wonder what Puppet Master has to do with this, and wasn’t he killed in Ms. Marvel? I think this is out of continuity anyway. Really fun story.
-Marvel Comics Presents #3- There are four stories here. The crime-thriller Vanguard reveals new things about the investigation. It seems that a man was nearby when the murder occurred and a homeless man swiped his wallet. That man was Jaafar Yoosuf, a guy trying to buy super-powers on the black market. Second is Magneto meeting with someone named Whisper. Whisper promises him a lot of information but when Magneto finds out he was a guard at Auschwitz so Magneto kills him. The Weapon Omega story continues with Sasquatch and Arachne picking up some criminals, and more testing occuring to Weapon Omega. There’s some mysterious government testing, too. The Hellcat story continues to get crazier as the different Patsy’s It seems all these versions are different things Patsy’s thought of herself in the past. Things get weird when Hellcat appears at the end. Good stuff here.
-New Avengers #36- The Venom virus is quickly averted, as Iron Man created some cure for it. The New Avengers and Mighty Avengers team up to help and the NA leave without being arrested. The MA go to Doom’s castle to invade him since he was found as the source of the Venom bomb. The NA investigate the Hood some more and find he was responsible for a 10 million dollar heist. The NA find him and his hideout and plan on attacking. Hood has back up muscle with him so they call some friends. Luke Cage, who narrated most of the story, bursts in with the NA, MA and the FF behind them. I thought they stopped the Venom bomb storyline very quickly, and in the past tense, too, which was kind of weird. This was okay, though.
-Nova #8- Nova is still at the edge of the universe and finds himself in a strange vessel. There is blood on the wall and it appears to be some sort of writing. He finds some beings called Luminals, basically the protector’s of Xarth III. She is killed in the fight, though not directly by Nova. The other Luminals show up and Nova runs away, since he is not at full power. He runs into a talking dog (a Russian dog at that) and they find out they are actually floating in a beheaded Celestial. The blood on the wall is actually a countdown and when the countdown finishes, Zombie Luminals show up. More with the Zombies? I think the well may have run dry with that. I thought this was a downturn for the series. More Zombies, a talking dog, and everything was just, I don’t know, weird.
-Punisher War Journal #13- The Rhino pulls a heist with two cronies and accidentally kills a man working there. Rhino actually regrets this but can’t mourn at all since the Punisher, who heard about the death, kills the two cronies and attempts to kill Rhino. He is shocked when Spider-Man saves Rhino and even more shocked when Kraven shows up, drugs Spider-Man and steals Rhino. It seems that Kraven is capturing all the animal themed villains for his own personal zoo. GW Bridge also recruited Domino for his quest to capture Castle. This was a lot more lighthearted than previous issues, which was good. We need a break sometimes.
-Thor #4- Donald Blake is called to go to Africa to help children ravaged by war and fighting amongst the tribes. He meets three guards there who all volunteered to help. Donald’s friend who he traveled with was killed by a young girl carrying a bomb and the agitators of the war attack. Donald Blake transforms into Thor and causes the troops to retreat. The three guards are not all they seem and Thor reveals that they are in fact Fandral, Volstagg and Hogun. He brings them back to Asgard but not before seperating the two warring lands with a huge chasm. It seems that Thor has found new Asgardians and vows to find more. Still not villains or threats and we are four issues in, but the story of Thor finding the Asgardians is driving the story nicely.
-Wolverine #59- Wolverine is still in purgatory and Strange is there to help him. It is a trip through the psyche of Logan, as he remembers events from World War I, fights different versions of himself, and finally remembering this all starting when the Gorgon killed him. He was dead, but resurrected. He’s been different since then. It is because of some woman, and some silent man there the whole time as well. Wolverine finally awakes from his brain dead status knowing who he has to kill now.
-Ultimates Saga #1- This is a recap of the events of Ultimates and Ultimates 2. The two series took about 5 years to complete, if I were to guess, so this is a nice summary of the events in those books, narrated by the new leader of the Ultimates, Tony Stark. It was a good summary and I loved the touch at the end with Stark playing Solitare on his computer while talking to his associates.
DC
-All-Star Superman #9- Superman has been away with the Bizarro’s and returns home to see that he has been replaced by two Kryptonian space travelers! They have been modeling the world like Krypton and basically tell Superman he is a fool, and that he has turned back on his Krypton ways. They battle and throw Superman through the moon, breaking it in half. The Kryptonians fix the moon with bridges and almost give away Superman’s secret identity. Then, they mysteriously collapse. It seems they passed through a radioactive cloud in space, turning the minerals in their blood into Kryptonite. Superman sends them to the Phantom Zone to stop their dying and they will act as the law their. Awesome issue. I just love the feel of these books, they are free from years of continuity and its just fun to read.
-Batman and the Outsiders #1- Batman sends the Outsiders on a secret mission to uncover what is being hidden at the North American headquarters of Jardine Industries. Katana, Catwoman and Metamorpho break into the facility while Martian Manhunter provides a distraction. Lightning is pissed at Batman for not including her on the mission which he tells her she is not ready. Grace is in the sewers underneath the facility but doesn’t come into play this issue. At the end, Catwoman, Katana and Metamorpho uncover a huge underground lab and a mysterious cacoon. At the end, an OMAC bursts from it! Very good opening issue and I sense it was delayed, though, since the DC Nation page is a bit old.
-Black Adam #4- Black Adam evades the soldiers ready to kill him by transforming into Black Adam. He goes to a veterinarian to heal his human form and then leaves. When he sees the soldiers have tracked him there, he actually saves them. He gets information from a soldier and learns the JLA can track his lightning signature. He flies into space, with the soldier (killing him) and destroys the satellite the JLA uses to track him. Look like he is off the map now. This title is getting better. I wonder how Damage will play into this, since he has Isis’ finger and all.
-Booster Gold #4- Booster continues to be awesome. Booster, Rip and the Flash’s head to Central City. We meet the supervillains, Jason Goldstein is someone who tried to join Rip’s time hunters and has now gone rogue, wanted to erase the heroes and villains from history. They almost erase the Flashes from history but Booster and Rip are able to stop it. We find the identity of Supernova, it is Booster’s father. Supernova gets away in the end. Rip tells Booster that before they can save his friend Blue Beetle, they must save Batgirl. She was never supposed to be being shot and crippled. Another stellar issue.
-Captain Carrot and the Final Ark! #2- The crazy conquests of Captain Carrot continues! The group bands together to defeat Frogzilla from destroying Gnu York City. They are able to do that with the help of Alley-Kat-Abra. She is supposed to be imprisoned but we learn it was a doppelganger that commited the murder. The Frogzilla attack was just a ruse to get the heroes away from the real crime, Rash Al Paca brokered a deal between the land and sea creatures for peace, thus enabling him to send a giant aerosol spray can into space to melt the polar ice caps and get rid of all the land. It looks like his plan has worked, and the Zoo Crew are powerless to stop him. Fun story.
-Countdown to Final Crisis #24- This was quite a packed issue of Countdown. Prime bursts onto Earth 15 looking for a suitable Earth for him, kills that Earth’s Superman, Lex Luthor, the JLA, Wonder Woman, Batman and finally their Earth itself. Well, let’s scratch Earth-15 off the list. Desaad was in control of Firestorm at the end of last issue and after a scuffle with the Atomic Knights just as quickly loses control of Firestorm. Desaad retreats. Mary Marvel confronts Darkseid as Desaad returns. Hal tells Donna that people change and that’s their page quota for the issue. The issue focused mainly on Prime and his becoming the destroyer of Earths in this Final Crisis. Decent issue.
-Green Arrow/Black Canary #2- Black Canary and Speedy show up on Themyscira with an offer to Black Canary to train the Amazonians. She mulls the offer (for an hour) while Connor goes to save his dad, and thankfully, gives him some underwear. They try to escape but are surrounded by some Amazonian warriors. That’s really about it. Decent story and a naken Ollie running around provided some humor. Let’s see where this goes.
-Nightwing #138- Nightwing gets the call from Batman that Robin and Damian are under attack and he shows up. The place is covered in ninjas and he does his best to help. However when three of Talia’s female assassins show up to take Damian the ninjas poison them and Dick must save them. Unfortunately, the ninjas take the time to get away with Robin and Damian. Looks like a little problem there. We also see some mysterious people who want to get rid of Ra’s. Not as good as Part One but it was serviceable in the overall storyline.
-Salvation Run #1- I thought I would have some trepidation going in with this but I was pleasantly surprised. The Flash rogues show up on a planet thanks to Rick Flagg and Amanda Waller. They are sick of these metahuman rogues and think it would be best to just ship them off to a deserted planet with food and suitable living conditions. The Five Rogues are there for two weeks, battling many robots and monsters when a new team, including Joker and a whole host of villains show up. They are attacked right away and we see two mysterious figures in shadow watching their progress and noting that they hid all dangerous lifeforms when Waller and Flagg arrives. It seems they want these villains here, and dead, for some reason. Very good opener.
-Suicide Squad #3- We (finally) get the origin of the relationship between Rick Flagg and Rustam and its pretty interesting. Rustam helps them as allies when his family is killed by mistake by a US bomb. This leads to enmity between the two and when they are saved by the scimitar from the bomb and after finding the source of the power, they battle and Flagg kills Rustam. He teleports away, right to Qurac. He is captured and imprisoned for three years until he is rescued (as seen in Checkmate). Waller gives Flagg his new team, including Boomerang and Shaggy Man. The first two issues were really boring but this one really picked up the pace and made for a really interesting issue.
-Superman/Batman #42- Superman is in the Source and learns he can’t escape. He tries anyway. Batman makes love to Bekka then she and him go to get the staff. Desaad tries to become Darkseid but fails and Darkseid regains his powers. Batman and Bekka burst in and Superman actually gets the staff back and returns from the Source Wall. They defeat Darkseid and return home. Orion comes back for Bekka and brings her home, where she dies at the hands of the mystery New Gods killer. I am glad this arc is over because I was sick of seeing Batman swooning like a schoolboy over Bekka. Superman seemed pretty weak, too.
-Superman Confidential #9- Superman meets Orion for the first time and is taken to New Genesis. Superman escapes before being taken to the Highfather and evades capture for a few pages before being subdued. Highfather tries to lure Superman and Earth onto New Genesis’ side in their war against Apokolips. Superman refuses but then sees Metropolis being attacked by Apokolips forces and demands to go back home. I thought this issue took a very long time to get from point A to point B and could’ve been more streamlined to focus on some more pertinent story points. I did enjoy the art, especially the opening splash page of Orion.
-Titans East Special #1- Cyborg remembers an old Titans mission and tries to get the old team together to help out the new team he is forming but you know what the saying says, you can never go home again. They all say no and Cyborg is the only one to train the Titans East. The new teams consists of Anima, Little Barda, Hawk and Dove, Powerbou, Lagoon Bou and Son of Vulcan. They play around at first, trying to capture Powerboy but things get deadly when lasers start picking off the new members and finally a bomb is dropped on the whole team and Cyborg. I wonder who is behind it all!? Deathstroke? This leads to the all-new Titans #1.
-Wonder Girl #3- Wonder Girl learns from Hercules that the Female Furies are there to recruit Wonder Girl to their cause. They are worried about all the New Gods dying and wonder if other Gods are targeted. Hercules is unable to convince her to join the Furies so the Furies try something else, kidnapping her mother. Looks like Wonder Girl may have to help out whether she wants to or not. The art can be iffy sometimes (the eyes are too far apart sometimes) but overall it is enjoyable.
Wildstorm
-Gen13 #14- The team finds themselves in NYC with little money and the need to have some time apart from each other. They each head off their different ways while IO, the corporation that created the Gens, have a new scheme called, “15 Minutes,” and they seem to have entrapped a few of the Gens. This was the first issue penned by someone other than Simone (I think) and it was pretty good. I enjoyed the team finally getting out of Tranquility and the team is now playing off each other nicely. It combines humor with story and really the only thing missing is a strong villain for them, but I hope the 15 Minutes thing can cure that.
-World of Warcraft #1- Ok, I’ve never played World of Warcraft but I am familiar with it since my father is obsessed with the game and probably devotes about 15 hours a day playing it. I wanted to pick it up and see how it was. I probably don’t get most of the references so please excuse me if I overlook something. The opening story deals with a human washing up on shore and being imprisoned by a bunch of orcs. It seems they have a whole group of prisoners they use to watch fight. The head orc ends up fighting our hero at issues end. It took me a while to get through this issue. I don’t know if it was because it was boring or if it was because I was just so tired when I read it. I think it was the latter and when I look back on it now, I enjoyed it. I think I will pick up the next issue and see where it goes but I will probably be giving this to my dad.
Image
-Mice Templar #2- I had forgotten about this due to the length of time between the issues but luckily there’s a recap in the opening page. Oeming and Glass have created a wonderful mythology with these mice. It seems like they are just jumping on the success of Mouse Guard and although there are similarities, I have to say I have enjoyed Templar a lot more than Guard. This issue focuses on young Karic and exiled Templar Pilot. Pilot and Karic escape and Pilot starts training Karic in the ways of the Templar. Karic has dreams (visions) of the great eye of Wotan and how it split from day into night and the great battles of the owls and bats. Pilot keeps telling Karic that the Kuhl-En he heard about with the salmon of knowledge is not one person and is a myth. They find some dead rats and using some magic to talk to them, one of the rats say not to trust the hooded one (Pilot). They are then attacked and cornered by red ants at issue’s end. This was extremely interesting and I loved being transported into this world.
The Awards
-Book of the Week- World War Hulk #5 was the hands down winner this week. This was just awesome and everything I had hoped and expected from this. I thought the conclusion was well thought out and made sense.
-Disappointment of the Week- This was a really tough one to decide. I really liked all the books I read this weekend. I would have to with Superman/Batman #42 though. I didn’t like the way Batman was portrayed and thought it could’ve been written a bit better.
-Cover of the Week- There were a lot of great Marvel covers this week, but I think when it comes down to it, Mike Deodato’s cover for Marvel Comics Presents #3 rules the roose. It’s just an awesome imposing picture of Magneto.
-The Bottom Line- This was an awesome week for comics. The Marvel books really kicked ass this week especially with World War Hulk rounding things off. I loved Mice Templar, Gen13 was pretty good and for the most part the DC titles rocked as well. This was just a very solid week and you’d think that with 33 comics being pulled this week there would’ve been some bad ones but that wasn’t the case here. I was very pleased with this week in comics. I think it was so heavy since this Wednesday is the day before Thanksgiving. I am hoping it would be a little lighter (on me and my wallet!) but this was a very good week.
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