Thursday, April 14, 2011

New Comics!: The Teens Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Avengers:  The Children's Crusade #5:  OK, now we're getting somewhere.  After the somewhat odd (and ridiculously-named) "Avengers:  The Children's Crusade - Young Avengers" one-shot, we see Iron Lad fully intervening in the timestream, not only by saving Wanda and Billy from Wolverine (as he did last issue) but by bringing the Young Avengers and the Scarlet Witch into the past, or, more precisely, the moment Jack of Hearts blew up Ant-Man at the start of "Avengers Disassembled."  I'm torn on how I feel about the events in this issue.  Focusing just on the issue itself, it's exactly what I was hoping we would get.  The action moves quickly, it has funny lines, and we at least get to see some progress in the plot.  I actually gasped at the last page, the reveal that the Scarlet Witch was back, so clearly Heinberg is doing something right.  Focusing on the larger story the series is telling, though, I'm worried.  I liked Ant-Man so, to be honest, I'd be excited to have him return.  If it ends there, I'm good.  But, this issue reads like a thinly-veiled attempt at ret-conning not only "Avengers Disassembled" but also "House of M."  I mean, on some level, it makes sense that Iron Lad would want to make Stature happy and help her to see her dad again.  I can see how Patriot would be unable to stop him from doing that, despite accurately predicting what would happen in that event.  But, the fact that Iron Lad swears his technology works and, surprise, it doesn't just strikes me as overly convenient.  The fact that it's such a deus ex machina makes me feel that the editors are more concerned with undoing Wanda's actions than making us believe the story.  If they go all the way here and undo the mutant genocide, I have to wonder what the whole point of "Second Coming" and Hope Summers was.  I mean, it won't have been that big of a deal that Hope activated five new mutants if, a few months later, the Scarlet Witch is just going to re-activate all the depowered mutants anyway.  The "House of M" event has brought something unique to the X-Men, giving the team a certain focus that it lacked in previous years, when it was just Magneto v. all.  The introduction of Hope (who herself veers toward deus ex machina status) was at least allowing it to be undone slowly and elegantly.  Having Wanda just wave her hands and undo it would be cheap, and it would make some of the interesting stories still left to be told in a post-"Second Coming" world moot.  I complained before that not enough was happening in this book, but, now, I wish I was more careful in my wishing, because I'm worried where we're going here.  If it ends with the resurrection of Ant-Man, cool.  If it goes further, I'm concerned. 

Batman Beyond #4:   So far, "Batman Beyond" stories have existed on two levels:  the plot itself, focusing on the near-future present in which the comic book is set, and the back story, revealing - slowly - where this universe fits in Batman continuity.  This issue incorporates two significant elements of the current Bat-books -- "Batman, Incorporated" and the Unternet -- into the Batman Beyond Universe.  After having his identity revealed publicly, Dick Grayson announces that he was, indeed, Nightwing, the first employee of "Batman, Incorporated," and ceased being the costumed hero due to a catastrophic accident (he's wearing an eye-patch, which I'm guessing was part of it).  The back-up story involving Batman's best friend, Max, mentions the Unternet, which has appeared frequently in "Red Robin."  The "Batman, Incorporated" angle is clever; we see here more of the idea, elaborated in the other Bat-books, that "Batman" could've been multiple different people, a clever dodge that, to be honest, I didn't initially anticipate when Bruce revealed himself as Batman's financial backer.  As always, the Bruce/Dick relationship is the core of the Bat-books, so it'll be interesting as more is revealed showing us why the two aren't speaking.  The plot itself isn't super strong independent of the back story, but Beechen is building a world here, so I'm happy to give him the time to do it. 

Teen Titans #93:  Meh.  I continue not being super-impressed with this series.  This story's OK in a totally formulaic way.  Red Robin narrates about how they're all trying to be more than sidekicks, someone gets zapped into another dimension and the other Titans have to go find her (because it's never a boy), Kid Flash acts impulsively, Ravager is a jerk, etc., etc.  Even the love triangles are pretty boring.  I miss Damian, whose all-too-brief stay was the only thing that seemed to move the characters outside their very well-established portrayals.  We saw a positive side of Rose (and a negative side of Cassie and Connor) that we hadn't seen before.  I'll stay for the conclusion of this arc, but, if it doesn't get better, I think I'm done, sadly.

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