Detective Comics #985: This series increasingly feels like they asked someone who's never read a "Batman" comic to tell a "Batman" story. It turns out "Karma" is a "gun-runner" who was operating in Markovia "years ago." He was also apparently a torturer, even though a gun runner, by definition, is the person selling the illegal weapons and generally not the one using them. But, whatever. Karma was a gun runner and torturer who Batman exposed to Scarecrow's gas for his crimes. Surprised Batman would punish someone with Scarecrow's fear gas? Yeah, me, too. Wondering why Bruce was in Markovia in the first place? OMG, me, too! (In the flashback, Bruce says the people of Markovia needed freedom, but is he really a freedom fighter now?) Anyway, Batman "accidentally" creates Karma when, shocker, Scarecrow's gas fractured his mind. All that said, it's still not clear why Karma wants to purge Bruce of his "weakness," i.e. the Bat-family. But, do I care? No. No, I really don't. Hill seems unaware that he's just repeating the plot from the much better (but not actually good) "Death of the Family." He also seems unaware that Barbara isn't a child like Cassandra and Duke. I'll give it one more issue, but this series is officially on notice.
Doomsday Clock #6: Not much actually happens in this issue, but I'm not complaining. Snyder continues to tell character-driven stories here, as we get the sad origin of Marionette and the Mime: crooked cops murdered their store-owning parents for not paying protection money. Story-wise, the Riddler tries to convene a League of Villainy to decide whether or not the super-villains (presumably of the United States) should band together in the wake of the Superman Theory hysteria or take up Black Adam's offer of sanctuary in Khandaq. The Joker brings along a still-paralyzed Batman in a wheelchair, though the group is unexpectedly underwhelmed. (Only Scarecrow seems to want to look under the mask.) The group scatters when the Comedian suddenly starts assassinating people in his search for Ozymandias. Marionette realizes the Comedian probably knows where Dr. Manhattan is, and the Joker is likely to join them in the search because he's (not really all that surprisingly) taken a shine to the two of them. But, perhaps the most interesting twist here has nothing to do with the narrative but with the costumes. It seems pretty clear we're dealing with the pre-DCnU versions of these characters based on what they're wearing, and it seems like we have to conclude the DCnU is progressing at least in part alongside the DCU. I have no idea how Snyder is going to resolve that, but it seems likely it's where this entire endeavor is going at this point.
The New World #1: I like Ales Kot a lot, not just for his amazing run on "Secret Avengers" but also for his Tumblr feed. I'm a pretty buttoned up guy and he...isn't, and he makes his kink (for lack of a better word) accessible to me in a way it wouldn't normally be. This issue is another aspect of that accessibility. In fact, one of Kot's great skills as a writer is the ability to present a narrative that seems, on the face of it, disconnected but intuitively feels coherent. Here, Stella the guardian has sex with Kirby the hacker at a club only to learn she has to arrest and possibly kill him the next day. It's all more complicated than that, obviously. Her grandfather happens to be the president of New California, one of the successor states to emerge from the dissolution of the United States after five nuclear warheads exploded without explanation over five cities. At some point, her parents tried to flee to Mexico, but the Great Wall prevented them from doing so. (The art team makes New Los Angeles seem so colorful you wonder why anyone would want to leave it, accentuating the realization that the reality must be dark indeed.) It seems like she was raised in her grandfather's care, and she's now one of the top three "guardians" of a popular reality TV show where they hunt down criminals. If she doesn't get to Kirby, her colleagues (including the one who doesn't share her aversion to following the crowd's wishes to see the perps killed) will. It's that ability to bottom line it while hinting at the larger dynamic that makes me glad to see Kot back.
The Realm #8: Haun and Peck create a creepy as fuck vibe here as Molly and her crew get caught in a series of traps: they go through a door that closes and locks behind them, the stairs go flat so they tumble into the goblins' lair, and then even that door disappears, leaving only a goblin-sized exit that only Zack can enter. Along the way, David displays even more magical ability, summoning (possibly unconsciously) a barrier when a goblin leaps at him. Meanwhile, Will is having dreams of becoming a full-fledged demon, awakening to find himself suspended on a wall in the weird webbing the goblins apparently can produce. Elsewhere, we learn "the Queen" needs to find the party because the artifact they're carrying is key to re-opening "the portal." (I assume she means the larger portal that allowed the mass invasion and not whatever means she seems to have -- I think -- to move between the dimensions.) But, the artifact is hiding itself (and the party) from her. Good times for the gang, I'm sure. Basically, it all feels like a "Dungeons & Dragons" session come to life, and I can't think of higher praise than that.
Also Read: Dungeons & Dragons: Evil at Baldur's Gate #3; Pathfinder: Spiral of Bones #5
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