Light week for me - Detective continues the Face the Face arc; Outsiders makes some revelations that explain some of the out of character behavior we have seen or think we’ve seen, and ties in with one of the subplots running in 52, and into the plot over in Teen Titans. The new Wonder Woman debuts - bringing with it Sarge Steel and Nemesis! The first one, not the later JSA chick. I like what I see so far.
JSA sputters along at a snail’s pace towards its end and relaunch; Invincible is solid as always.
And then, 52.
Spoilers.
Cyborg and Firestorm, yup. Explanation of what happened to the space team, and possibly of Supergirl’s omnipositional status. The Red Tornado is a fatality, but everyone else lives - albeit in a horribly mangled fashion in some cases.
Well, Aminal Man and Starfire don’t seem to have gotten mangled. Otherwise, yeah. And no clue yet about Hawkman, Starman, the L.E.G.I.O.N. bunch and the Omega men who were also at the space rift.
Wonder Woman #1: I admit that I went in to the thing looking for an excuse to not subscribe to the new run (my pull list is bloated as is, and I’ll be adding some personal favorites soon, like Shazam and Martian Manhunter), but well… It didn’t rise to the occasion to win me over. I’ve never been a huge fan of Donna Troy, but I kind of liked her as “continuity victim/keeper” as presented in 52’s history of the DCU. That’s gone here. And really, was anyone actually fond of the era referenced at the end there? Blah. On the positive, at least they’re building up WW’s rogues gallery, which she desperately needed.
52 #5: Wasn’t impressed with the art, but other than that, really solid. I hope we’ll see more of Alan’s (or perhaps another hero on the front lines of the Crisis) breakdown. Superhero PTSD. This is the “Lost” of the comics world. There’s so much going on, and it’s being meted out in expertly measured doses. The suspense is terrible, I hope it lasts. And it’s pretty damn creepy that Alan Scott has Adam Strange’s eye! At least Adam lives! Yay!
Y: The Last Man #46: “I’m an Ivy League Lesbian, bitch. You honestly think I’ve never fenced before?” Heh (although I’ve always thought field hockey was the most sapphic sport). Sex droids, ninjas, monkies, and tanks. Yet it still holds together.
Detective Comics #820: Man, he’s really mellowed, hasn’t he? An interesting revelation about Officer Harper, I hope that doesn’t mean the Manhattan Guardian won’t be seen again. (See if you can win the nitpicker’s award for continuity error, looks like someone was using the rough draft of Infinite Crisis)
Jonah Hex #8: This book is so up and down for me. One month it’s delivering awesome levels of western badassery, the next it’s a stock plot and predictable as all hell. This is the latter.
52 #5: Mmmm. Fan service… Oh, right. The story was great too. 52, eh?
Action Comics #839: Okay, but the art was terrible. This issue felt a little Smallvillish to me, but that’s not a bad thing as long as they don’t dwell on Supes’s separation from man too long.
JSA: Classified #12: Ah, finally! Action! Great stuff.
Invincible vol. 3: Perfect Strangers: Damn! I knew it was coming, but damn! I love this comic.
I’ve yet to read Birds of Prey, GL, JSA (sorry to hear it hasn’t picked up pace), Invincible, and a book called “Emo Boy” which caught my eye.
Nemesis, eh? I only know ol’ Tom Tresser from Suicide Squad, but I always liked his sense of honor, and how he’d always show up in different disguises. What has he been up to lately?
Also, in 52 (I picked up #4 and #5 today), I have a question…
This space team, were they from the Donna Troy miniseries, or Infinite Crisis itself? Do we know how they got whupped so badly, or are we in the midst of finding out? And how did Alan Scott and Adam Strange all lose eyes?
Donna Troy, Rann-Thanagar War, and IC itself. We know part of it from those series - Jade’s death, and the completely botched attempt at saving the universe. This is the first mention of the reality waves in the wake of the Earth team fixing things, and the messed up zeta beam transfer. What happened to Alan and Adam’s eyes - at least, beyond the likely fact that the one good eye Alan has used to be Adam’s - has, as yet, not been mentioned.
I <3 Ellen Baker. And Buddy. (Starfire’s RIGHT THERE, naked and wet, and he can only think of his family. Sidenote…Star looks WAY better with her hair wet so it’s straight instead of bad-70s-perm floofy.)
Time-freezing drugs, eh? I wonder if they’re available to normal doctors.
Luthor’s…pronouncement is…intriguing. Clearly, little, if anything, came of it, since there’s no huge overflow of metas in the OYL books, but it’s interesting. Maybe that’s what happened to Eddie.
JSA - One thing I notice about this arc…every issue seems to include a fix for an art error in the previous issue - the third issue fixed Alan’s ring from the second, this issue gave Alan the missing eye, although both were intact in the hospital scene last issue. I’m sure there was one last issue fixing a cockup from the third, too. I haven’t spotted anything that’ll have to be fixed next issue. But I’m sure there’s one there. (Actually, I’m not familiar enough with the Gentleman Ghost…should what he stole be ghostly like he is? Maybe that’s one.) I’m enjoying the story (in general…last issue drove me nucking futz), but the art is killing me - I never enjoy Rags’ art, but this makes most of his stuff look great.
Wonder Woman - Lovely art. Nemisis is back. All around, I enjoyed it. Although I’m disappointed Cheetah’s not fuzzy any more. And Wondie STILL doesn’t need a secret identity. But minor complaints.
Jonah Hex - Can anyone translate the German? I caught the woman calling Hex’s buddy a child killer, and she seemed to be calling him a sexual killer (although I admit I might be falling for a false cognate), but that’s as far as my German stretched.
Here’s the glorious “space team” summary report for Infinite Crisis and 52. I went back and checked I-Cri #6 and #7 this morning to confirm. (I need to check #5 as well, but it wouldn’ve taken effort to get at)
Hawkgirl, Green Lantern, Bumblebee, Mal Duncan, Cyborg, Firestorm - back on Earth in various stages of disrepair.
Red Tornado - Destroyed, but we know how that goes.
Animal Man, Starfire, Adam Strange - trapped on Paradise planet, Adam’s blinded.
Kyle Rayner, Hawkman, Kilowog, Donna Troy - Didn’t disappear in the reality wave seen in I-Cri #6 that seems to be when these others got into trouble. Kyle, Donna, and Hawkman return to Earth in a panel in I-Cri #7. Kilowog is active in adventuring over in Green Lantern.
Ultra the Multi-Alien, The Omega Men, Captain Comet, Starman (Gavyn), Jemm - Son of Saturn, Shift, Air Wave - still MIA. All but Shift and Airwave would have no reason to return to Earth afterwards anyway.
Jade - Dead.
Supergirl - Poof!
The nitpicker’s prize from Detective would be Robin’s assertion regarding the status of Superboy-Prime.
Tom Tresser, despite an apparent demise in the pages of Catwoman, is alive and well. And working for the Department of Metahuman Affairs - or whatever it was called. I wouldn’t be hasty to attribute his resurrection to Infinite Crisis, though - the DC Encyclopedia entry for him foreshadows his death may not have been what it seemed, to begin with.
I’d add that we know that Starfire has yet to return as of OYL, and is still counted as MIA by the rest of the Titans. Supergirl has come back (to the present), and is adventuring in Kandor with Power Girl.
What’s the story with Supergirl in 52? Legion is one of only two DCU books I read these days (and was very close to the axe before Supergirl showed up and made the book fun), but if there’s explanation elsewhere of who she is, etc., I’m curious. Gracias.
What I’ve read so far: The Thing #7 – After a weak start this title has become one of my very favorite books in recent months. In this issue Ben uses the time machine to take Alicia to ancient Greece to watch the sculpting of the Venus de Milo. The highlight is when they go into the time machine room and Reed has placed several signs about that say “BEN, DO NOT TOUCH!”, “THIS IS NOT A TOY,” and my favorite, “REMEMBER THE ALAMO!”
Runaways #whatever – Another solid issue, but I’m not sure either Gert or Nico would be so willing to let things fall apart while Molly is being held hostage. But then again, they are just kids, so I’m willing to believe it. And I like the way that Chase is forced to develop a level head for the first time in his life because those around him are losing it.
Kara’s mostly the same deal as her silver age counterpart. She was sent from Krypton as a teen, landed on Earth (no Argos this time). She got training from Wonder Woman and until recently lived semi-cloistered on Paradise Island. She’s a bit edgier than her older version.
She went to the future with others to observe a giant hole in space, that turned out to be a manifestation of Alex Luthor’s attempts to rehape reality. When the hole collapsed, it sent off warping waves that combined with a portal Mal Duncan opened and Adam Strange’s Zeta Beam to have a variety of effects, apparently including shunting Kara to the future. We know (from the One Year Later titles) that she got back, but we don’t know how or when, or if she’ll be continuing her association with the Legion.
I like this title too, so of course nobody reads it and it’s been canceled. I think #8 will be the last issue.
Manhunter got a reprieve over at DC though. They have an extra five issues to try to build an audience. I’ve really enjoyed that book, so I hope it catches on with more people.
This whole series was kind of weird. Not at all what I wanted.
Appaently the US and the Inhumans are at a cold war status concerning the government seizing the stolen terrigen mists from Genosha.
So Pietro exposes himself constantly to his stash of Terrigen mists in order to focus his time travel powers. He goes as far as he can into the future and returns. The last scene is him looking sickly and walking down the street. He sees a guy sitting on a stoop. He says “You were a mutant.” The guy denies it then Pietro lays hands on him and in a burst of energy the guy turns into… Reaper from the MLF (X-force early 90s)? I’ve been out of the loop for the most part for a while. He gets a black circle around his right eye and his hand turns into flesh scythe (in the Liefeld X-force era Reaper actually carried a scythe). Pietro than continues walking.
So is Pietro goijng to walk the Earth seeking out former mutants and give them back their powers?
Luba Comics and Stories #8 – Add DC’s 5 year gap plus one year later and we get a six year jump. Venus was a character that I never wanted to grow up, but I could have said the same about Guadalupe. It’s very rare that a comic gets me crying, but the last few pages of this one did. I guess it hit too close to home.
