Now with even more spoilers than usual! You’ve been warned!
Annihilation Conquest Starlord #3: As was the case with the previous issue, I don’t know any of the characters except in passing (like the name Rocket Raccoon.) But the book is still a blast to read, with a diverse bunch acting as an irregular unit to stop the Phalanx, the bad guys behind the whole Conquest series of books. Here, they discover what the Phalanx’s plan is, and try to stop it, but end up mostly captured and infected. (Actually, that seems to be how most of the Conquest books are going, with all the good guys losing.) Just for this series alone, A:C is worth picking up in trade.
Casanova #9: The opposite of a “new reader friendly book”- even readers who have been reading from the beginning (like myself) won’t necessary know what’s going on. But somehow, Fraction pulls it off. Zen Crime, a 6-armed Doctor of Catastrophic Temporal Entropy Manipulation Theory, alternate universe escape artists and more. It revolves around the central question of: when is Casanova Quinn? (And the first issue where he doesn’t appear at all!) And what does it have to do with his sister Zephyr being assigned to assassinate their father?
52 Aftermath The Four Horsemen #2: The Four Horsemen assemble at last and start to take over the country of Bialya. We get some background on what the Four Horsemen are (much more than we received in 52, actually) and some great Justice League banter. Also: Calculator gains diplomatic immunity. Nothing groundbreaking, just solid superhero stuff… the kind I’d like to see in regular books, and not just random miniseries.
Green Arrow Year One #5: Oliver Queen, stranded, decides once and for all to dedicate his life to crime fighting, and starts to use his arrow skills to kick some smuggler butt. What’s especially great about this issue are all the winks for all the major Green Arrow events to come: the origin of his trick arrows, reference to coming back from the dead. And the art is great to boot (Jock!). With this coming out, can Green Arrow really be dead?
Immortal Iron Fist #9: Iron Fist loses the next round of the tournament, and is lead out of the city via secret portal. Plenty of over the top kung-fu action, that leads immediately into…
Immortal Iron Fist Annual #1: …which is about Danny Rand visiting the biographer of his predecessor, Orson Randall. If you’re a fan of pulp, this is the issue for you. And if you’re a fan of Planetary, there’s similar awesomeness in this issue. It’d be great if the pulp heroes here were put into the chronology of the Marvel U.
The Initiative #6: Gauntlet, the drill sergant of the Initiative, is attacked, and secrets start to come out among all the members of the base. There’s a lot of interesting things going on here- secret romances, cover ups, Hank Pym blowing up (literally and figuratively). But the big reveal is confusing, at best, and the whole time it’s tough to track exactly what’s going on with everything going on. The art is oddly “3D animationish” which works for some parts and not for others.
Cable Captain America and Deadpool #45: Deadpool and Bob, Agent of Hydra are thrown through time and run into Captain America and Bucky during WW2. There’s a lot of jokes with making Bucky into a psycho, which don’t really deliver. For such a good premise, the jokes were not up to the level that this book usually maintains. Some of the “space fold” jokes were good, and Bob, Agent of Hydra continues to be both funny and interesting.
Countdown to Adventure #2: Another split issue, with the cover actually covering the second (much lamer) story. The first, Animal Man, Starfire, and Adam Strange all deal with a mundane life without their powers. They start to realize that people around them are acting oddly, and finally realize that Lady Styx, their space-nemesis from 52, is back and causing havoc. The second half is total crap. Forerunner, a new character introduced in Countdown who’s not interesting in the least goes to Nazi-world with Nazi-Justice League and tells us that Nazis are bad. Then she recruits Nazi-Justice League at the orders of the Monarch, who we’ve been told is actually Captain Atom… so we have to believe that Captain Atom is OK with having super bad guys as part of his army? Not likely. I had to split the difference: first story, pretty good. Second half, total crap, total is Meh.
Iron Man #22: Iron Man does some investigating over the death of Gadget in previous issues, and finally puts the pieces together to solve it. But we’re left with too many questions for the issue to be satisfying in and of itself, and the way he figures it out is pretty classic “deux ex machina.” I do like the idea of the Mandarin using Extremis, and claiming that he’s making a new Captain America with it.
Justice League of America Classified #43: Another issue where the Martian Manhunter talks to his telepathic dead brother about JLA stuff. This one had an interlude in the middle where he talks to Green Arrow in a bar about relationships interspersed with a retelling of the JLA’s first fight with Starro. Nothing great here, nothing total crap either.
Shadowpact #17: Shadowpact versus Zombies! Totally new art style! Dr. Gotham gets an assistant! Enchantress trains Warlock’s Daughter! No plot advancement, but a new danger! That is all.
The Order #3: Speaking of Zombies, we find some Zobos here, hobo zombies with cyborg tech! Anyway, the format of the series continues with this being an interview with the cyborg-speedster Calamity. There’s interesting team dynamics at play here, I just don’t know if the series is going anywhere. Maybe after all the introductions are done.
Batman/Superman #40: Superman is still under the control Desaad, and Batman is barely saved by Orion’s hot wife. She has the shocking revelation that… Darkseid has become EMO! It then ends with Batman and Orion’s wife Bekka falling for each other.
Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #1: If you cared about the new Red Bee gaining powers, then this is the issue for you! There’s also a long winded thing about the Freedom Fighters becoming, uhh, like the Initiative. And it seems to be impossible to keep track of who the President is in the DCU, unless it’s Luthor.
All-Star Batman and Robin #7: Batman humps Black Canary in the rain under a cape, captures the man who murdered Dick Grayson’s parents. Grayson decides not to hack up the guy with an axe, they find out he was sent by the joker. Oh, and the phrase “the goddamn Batman” is used a million times. This is the one comic that I can count on to be consistently “so bad it’s funny.” Is Miller doing an over the top parody of, well, himself? Or has he just lost it? Regardless, this is the only book that is a “Miss” that I can hardily recommend reading… for a laugh.
Countdown to Mystery #1: Another split story (couldn’t there be a better format for all this?) First half is the origin of the new Dr. Fate, whose name is the same as the old Dr. Fate, but isn’t the same guy. It’s essentially a long recap of several preceding mini-series that dealt with the Helmet of Fate, accompanied by ranting voice overs. The second half is the return of Eclipso (return in the sense that she’s shown up everywhere since her “permanent exile”) with the Spectre worried, and she starts to turn Plastic Man. You do not mess with Plastic Man.
Countdown #31: Kyle Rainer, Donna Troy, Jason Todd, and Bob the Monitor fight the Injustice Society, until they leave, taking with them the good version of the Joker. Holly leaves for the Amazon Island. Mr. Myxzptlk is pulled out from his home (into our world?) Eclipso turns Mary Marvel evil, so she kills some guys. Karate Kid and Luna find Buddy Blank, who I finally remembered is the guy who was OMAC. Jimmy Olson gets turned into a big blob. The Monarch offers the Crime Society a chance to rule everything. The Monitors are mad. Issue ends. Any of that sound interesting? Then we get the origin of the Joker, which is the best part of the issue.
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