All-New, All-Different Avengers #4: Asrar and Craig have a great shot here where they use shadows to hint that Vision has turned. (He is, after all, Victor Shade.) It reminded me of the cover of "Dragons of Spring Dawning," where Elmore used shadow to turn black the bottom of Raistlin's red robes. Great stuff.
Grayson #16: We've still got a lot of questions on the table here. First, I'm still not sure why Agent 1 is helping Dick take down Spyral. Is he simply using Dick to further Dr. Netz's agenda? After all, Agent 8 revealed to him her role in assassinating the Spyral agents (under Netz's orders) in issue #11. That would make some sense. But, the problem is that we still don't actually know what Netz's agenda is. It seems like it's taking down Spyral, but King and Seeley haven't confirmed that yet. This issue also picks up a plot point from issue #11, as Dick colludes with Maxwell Lord of Checkmate, the organization that Netz and Agent 8 used as the fall guy for the assassinations. Dick alludes to having previously met Lord here, but I honestly don't know when that happened. My best guess is the "Forever Evil" event, based on Dick's comment that Lord referred to his stripped secret-identity when they previously met, but it's unclear. I've learned to be patient with this series, because that patience is generally rewarded, but I'm anxious to learn what we're really seeing here.
Justice League of America #7: Why exactly did Rao have to return to the past? Based on his comments, it seems like it's because the Justice League defeats him in the present, so he had to return to the past to harvest the still-pure Kryptonian DNA to regain his strength. (I still don't get the pure part, though. It would make more sense to me that he needed to go to the past to access a large number of Kryptonian worshipers, something that doesn't exist in the present. After all, he does have access to Clark's power in the present. It isn't pure, based on Rao's definition, but it's still pretty effective. But, the problem is that he just has Clark's.) But, I'm not totally sure about that theory. After all, doesn't Rao still have all those other worshipers spread around the universe? Is the pure Kryptonian DNA that essential to his power? Putting aside the logistics, Hitch raises some interesting theological issues here. If Rao did as Superman asked and revealed the truth -- that his "worshipers" were sacrificing a few days of their life in exchange for their newfound happiness, peace, and prosperity -- I actually think that a lot of people would take that deal. Superman doesn't seem to think so, but Hitch implies that it's his blindness as a meta-human that makes him think that. After all, happiness, peace, and prosperity are, at least theoretically, a lot easier for him to get. Sure, it's a little "Matrix"-y, but I enjoyed Hitch working on a deeper level here than we've seen so far. This arc is proving to be a much more interesting -- and innovative -- Justice League story than the umpteenth fight with Darkseid that we're seeing in the other series.
Also Read: Batman and Robin Eternal #17; Bloodshot Reborn #10; Extraordinary X-Men #6
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