Not-So-New Comics: The October 4 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Astonishing X-Men #4:  Detrimental to the story Soule is trying to tell, I’m not really sure what the criteria are for someone falling under the sway of Shadow King vice someone getting “saved” by Professor X.  Here, Fantomex, Gambit, Mystique, and Rogue all seem to embrace their hearts’ fondest desires, but it's Gambit who the Shadow King winds up possessing; Professor X is able to whisk away the other three.  It might seem nitpicky, but the whole point of this arc is Professor X and the Shadow King are playing chess for the X-Men's lives:  it would help if we understood the rules.  (It all feels more like checkers to me.)  But, we get a shirtless Angel with some chest hair here, so I’m not complaining all that much.

Avengers #672:  I stopped reading Waid’s run on this title because everyone was acting like assholes, and I have to say it’s unfortunately still true.  For a guy who just inspired Earth's mightiest heroes to unite against HYDRA, Falcon is a full-on jerk here, overruling Kamala like she’s a cadet Avenger.  Presumably at the end of this cross-over story everyone is going to learn something about respecting each other’s differences and seeing them as strengths, but it just makes me roll my eyes.  I'm intrigued a new satellite orbiting the Sun proved Counter-Earth doesn’t exist but also revealed a rift that belches a meteorite filled with an angry-looking bull dude at Earth.  You don’t see that every day.

Batman #32:  I really didn't like this story.  I mean, it says something when said story involves an artist as capable as Janín drawing Bruce in his tiny, tiny underwear all the damn time.  But, putting aside all the baggage, King delivers as close to a decent resolution as I could've imagined here.  First, Riddler reveals he engineered the entire war with Joker to get him to laugh.  It was the only interesting riddle left for him:  how do you make a Joker who doesn't laugh anymore laugh?  The answer was to create a foil like Kite Man and have him be the reason Riddler lost their war.  But, Joker doesn't laugh at this revelation, to Riddler's fury.  I loved the moment where Batman tries to interrupt Riddler's tirade and Riddler rebuffs him, telling him every story isn't about him.  (He also says they all don't kill him because he's fun, and it's probably as good of an answer to that existential question as I've heard.)  We now finally learn Bruce's deep dark secret:  he tried to kill Riddler in that moment.  He was so appalled Riddler callously killed Kite Man's son, whose last words to his father Bruce overheard, he couldn't take it anymore.  However, Joker stops the blade with his hand and finally laughs again.  Bruce is obsessed over this moment:  he tells Selena Joker "made" him because he "allowed" him (Batman) to be the guy on the right side of the line.  He asks Joker about it in Arkham and Joker tells him he'll understand why he did what he did when he understands the difference between a riddle and a joke (a confounding theme of this arc).  It's here where Selena shines and reminds us why Bruce loves her in the first place.  She tells him the answer:  who cares?  It's also her answer to Bruce's question if she can love him even though he tried to kill Riddler:  who cares?  Selena quite rightfully states that we're all the sum of our baggage.  If Joker made Batman, does it matter?  Is that all he really is?  This moment produces the single best page of the series since the two of them had sex under a starry night:  Selena has Bruce ask her to marry him again, but as a question and not a demand.  He asks.  She says yes.  I admit, I felt like a crowbar would immediately go through her, but hopefully the writers all do the unexpected and have them live happily ever after.  That would be something novel.

Batman:  White Knight #1:  Murphy does a solid job of selling us on a reformed Joker ready to take on Batman.  He has to use some sleights of hand to get there, but they mostly work.  He’s successful in doing so because everyone here is easily recognized.  Sure, Batman’s a little more violent than he is in “our” Universe, but we’ve seen him behave that way before.  As such, you can reasonably believe the set-up that starts the issue, of a careless and distant Batman single-mindedly pursuing Joker while Batgirl and Nightwing try to limit his impact on civilians.  The hand-waving part comes in the form of the pills Joker has Batman administer to him to “cure” him.  Here, Murphy is playing both sides.  On one hand, Joker seems pretty sane before he takes the pills.  He rails against Batman’s claim he doesn’t matter by stressing he only ever gave Bruce what he could handle.  In other words, he could’ve razed Gotham to the ground if he had wanted to do so, but he didn’t because he was really in it for the game.  The “cured” Jack Napier also echoes that sentiment.  He said he turned to crime from comedy because Gotham was a city so traumatized it couldn’t laugh; he had to start killing people to get a rise from it.  This continuity of thinking raises the question what exactly the pills cured.  The Joker we get here doesn’t seem like he’s suffering from a mental illness; he just seems like a guy whose moral code is different from everyone else’s.  Murphy might still reveal exactly that, so I’m not rushing to judgment.  After all, Napier’s first action is to sue Batman and Gotham for the disproportionate attack on him:  he stole a scooter, and, in chasing him, Batman drove a tank over rooftops, injured three construction workers as he blew past them, and knocked down the guard standing outside the factory where the pills were manufactured.  He then beat Joker senseless and administered the pills until Joker couldn’t breathe.  This lawsuit leaves the impression everything happening here is happening as part of a larger scheme; Joker might not be “cured” so much as playing a long game.  I’m definitely intrigued.

Darth Vader #6:  The Jedi at the end of this issue is so peaceful looking that I find myself wanting to cancel this series immediately.  After all, we’re about to watch Darth Vader and the Emperor’s Inquisitors stomp across the galaxy killing any Jedi who escaped their purge.  Soule and Camuncoli use this final image - of a Jedi petting her pet while sipping tea - as not only a sign of things to come but as a reminder of how completely Vader has embraced the Dark Side if he's willing to ruin this peace.

Hawkeye #11:  It’s rare for me to be 11 issues into a mystery and not feel confused.  Usually, I’m re-reading half the issues to try to remember all the breadcrumbs the writer left along the way.  But, Thompson has done a bang-up job of weaving enough clues into each issue that you remember where we’ve been and where we’re going.  As a result, Kate’s maturing in this issue feels hard won.  Thompson has revealed her father and Masque’s plans slowly but surely, even making sure to highlight areas where we’re not sure what the truth is, like whether Aggregate self-destructed or Masque detonated him lest he reveal his connection to her.  When Kate tears down her bulletin board and only tapes up the word, “Mom,” it isn’t cleaning the slate; it’s a sign we’ve moved onto the next chapter.

Iceman #6:  Grace almost went too far here with Judah, Bobby's love interest.  First, they meet cute.  Bobby and the Champions have assembled in Los Angeles to mourn Natasha, and this trip down memory lane leads Bobby to worry he's always just "trying stuff on to see what fits."  He returns to the college where Professor X sent him to get his accounting degree, and he buys some self-help books.  This part is fine.  In fact, Bobby's text conversation with Kitty revealing these concerns is really well scripted; it's a clever way to drag this information from Bobby "I don't talk about my feelings" Drake.  (This characteristic is a theme of the issue, with Bobby realizing a woman was building a Sentinel in her backyard just as Warren was trying to have a heart-to-heart conversation with him.)  At any rate, Bobby is reading his "Born to Gay" book on line to buy a new pair of sneakers, where he meets Judah.  (Bobby is into sneakers, apparently.  He also apparently wears size 12s.)  As Bobby said, Judah spouts the sort of cheesy lines Bobby would, and it pushes the boundaries of believability:  it's like watching a poorly written "Will and Grace" episode.  (He tells Bobby he can teach him more about being gay than a book (sigh) and invites Bobby to a WeHo bar that night.  Here, we go from poorly written "Will and Grace" to even worse written "Queer as Folk.")  But, Grace pulls out a win when he has Judah kiss Bobby on a dance floor and then admit he's tired of the teacher/student shtick.  He tells Bobby he only goes to a bar twice a year, and he invites him to his place to talk.  But, as usual, Bobby has to X-Man as the aforementioned Sentinels attack.  (The woman building the Sentinels is trying to go from building weapons for super-villains to running her own prop company.  Bobby and Warren's appearance in her backyard earlier that day inspired her to have the Sentinels attack the X-Men to drum up business.)  Initially, I felt like Grace was moving Bobby too fast here.  Most of us don't have a remarkably handsome guy pluck us off the streets of Los Angeles and usher us into gay life in a West Hollywood club.  But, as Judah himself says, most of us don't have Bobby's arms.  That said, the more I thought about it, the more similar it was to my own story.  You just have a moment where you throw on your light and get out there, making stuff happen.  See, I was all cynical until I realized Grace really knew what he was doing here.  Grace and Thompson on "Hawkeye" are really working on making Bobby and Kate Peter Parker's heirs, focusing as much, if not more, on their personal lives as their superheroing.  I'd really be quite happy for Bobby to stay in Los Angeles, and I can't wait to see where we go from here.

Nightwing #30:  I get why Raptor decided to announce his presence in Blüdhaven by attacking a Paul Ryan analogue.  After all, Dick would quickly put two and two together when someone attacked a blue-blood politician making a name for himself by cutting health-care benefits for the poor.  (That said, Higgins should leave the politics to Spencer.)  I don’t get why (or even if) Raptor involved the Kobra Lanceheads, since they’re apparently a chaos cult seeking to sow discord.  Blüdhaven politics seems a little...specific for them.  Dick is confused, too, though, so I get the sense Higgins will get there.  But, I don’t understand what the point of Raptor revealing himself to Dick is or why, as Dick himself wonders, he’s suddenly willing to risk the lives of blue-collar workers.  (Sure, he knew Dick would save the waitress he slung over the balcony to buy him time to escape, but, as Dick says, the Raptor we've previously seen wouldn’t risk it.  He’s usually so confident he wouldn’t need an escape; he’d just beat Dick silly and leave.  Why the ruse?)  I also don’t understand why the Run-Offs are wearing their super-villain costumes for their group meeting about not being super-villains.  I really don’t understand why Dick tells himself he can’t endanger his friends in trying to find Raptor when, in reality, his friends (including Detective Svoboda) rejected him.  Whatever.  Hopefully we'll just wrap up this arc soon.

Spider-Man #21:  Huh.  It turns out Cable, not Jefferson, gave Miles the suit.  Apparently Cable is a spy now?  He seems to be starting his own agency to fill the hole S.H.I.E.L.D. left.  I guess it's cool, but it feels forced to me. In fact, it feels like Bendis had an extended stay in Japan planned for Miles, but he was forced to cut it short because of the Legacy re-launch.  Tomoe was an interesting character, and she seemed to have a vision for her relationship with Miles.  Bendis made it clear Miles was also intrigued as he uses flashbacks to show how Miles' Uncle Aaron taught him not to lie to girls.  But, Miles somehow knows Tomoe is queen of the Japanese underworld, despite the fact I'm not entirely sure how he knows that.  OK, the underground casino is probably a solid hint, but a lot of people who aren't queens of the Japanese underworld run underground casinos.  Miles eventually calls his father and discovers Jefferson didn't give him a tuxedo.  Somehow, he winds up finding himself in conflict with Tomoe, who declares he can't leave the building alive.  It's all very...sudden.

Star Wars #37:  Based on Gillen's name appearing on the cover for next issue, this issue appears to be the last one for Jason Aaron, and he doesn't waste it.  He somehow manages to tour his greatest hits, reminding us just how brutal this galaxy far, far away really was.  It's one of the few times I'm sad we don't get a valedictory letter from a departing author, because I'd love to get Aaron's thoughts on his run.  But, I guess his work speaks for itself, really.  He reminds us how dedicated both sides are as Kreel and his men seek to redeem themselves in Vader's eyes by destroying a Rebel outpost on Horox III.  Kreel is fanatical in his devotion to the cause, a fanaticism stoked not only by enjoying the faith Vader shows in him by allowing him to keep his lightsaber but also by finding himself in the Emperor's presence when he comes to speak with Vader.  We get an amazing sequence where he's basically the Empire's own action hero as he and his colleagues take out the Rebel base.  Aaron also keeps his face hidden from us, even as he sits on his victims without his helmet.  Kreel believes the Empire brings protection, and SCAR Squadron's victory here hopefully means he'll continue to be a presence in this series.  But, Aaron reminds us the other side is just as dedicated as our crew (with Sana) arrives at the remains of the Rebel base, appalled by the brutality.  Kreel and Sana are probably Aaron's greatest contributions to the Star Wars mythos.  Given we don't see them in the movies (yet), it's clear their fates lie somewhere else, and I honestly find those stories enthralling.  Aaron concludes with a final entry from the "Journals of old Ben Kenobi."  Sorrentino's indistinct lines are the perfect choice for this dark story of an orphaned Tusken Raider trying to survive on Tatooine.  Ben provides a helping hand, and Aaron reminds us one last time just how difficult the lives of every day people in this galaxy are.  Although I didn't really like Chuck Wendig's "Aftermath" novel, this story reminds me how many opportunities we're getting to see these sorts of stories.   Thanks, Jason Aaron, for your amazing contribution to that effort, bringing life to Star Wars that I didn't think possible.  You come back now, ya hear?

Also Read:  Batman:  The Dawnbreaker #1; Journey to Star Wars:  The Last Jedi - Captain Phasma #3; X-Men:  Gold #13