Not-Very-Deep Thoughts: The June 29 DC and Valiant Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Bloodshot Reborn #13-#14:  Wow.  It initially seemed weird to me that Lemire chose to send us into the future in the "Analog Man" when we had so many mysteries on the table after those first two arcs ("Colorado" and "The Hunt").  But, the revelation that it was all a dream created by Project Rising Spirit after they kidnapped him and Magic was mindblowing.  It shows just how in command of this story Lemire is.  I loved him using Livewire as Ray's savior, even if we don't actually encounter her here.  In the past, she was smart enough to implant a virus in him that would help him fight Project Rising Spirit's programming if they ever tried to get their hands on him.  The revelation that his search for the "Man in the Tower" was the metaphor for his fight against the programming was jut awesome.  His problem is that he still awakens to find himself in the "care" of Project Rising Spirit on something called Bloodshot Island.  After a disorienting run through the jungle, he encounters several other Bloodshots, one each from previous wars (Gulf War, Vietnam, etc.).  But, we don't really get a lot of insight into that, because Project Deathmate appears.  She's some sort of robot, seemingly the next generation of Bloodshots, and we learn that they're all essentially playing the "Dangerous Game" every day:  the Bloodshots flee into the jungle, Deathmate kills them, Project Rising Spirit heals them, and then they start all over again the next day.  Lemire makes sure that we understand how awful it is, as Vietnam (as he's known) says that he's been doing the same thing for five years.  I had barely recovered from the shock at the end of issue #13, so Lemire is really getting us into Bloodshot's mindset of confusion and disorientation.  Lemire also does a great job of making the odds against Ray clear:  Project Rising Spirit seems so in charge, and it's hard to see Ray escaping, particularly if the other Bloodshots haven't.  Needless to say, I'm excited about next issue.

Dark Knight III:  The Master Race #5:  Azzarello (because if Miller isn't even pretending he's writing it, let's just call a spade a spade) is almost too clever here.  Bruce manages to take down the Kandorians by seeding the clouds with synthetic kryptonite, weakening them to the point that the mob that gathered to demand his head on a platter (per Quar's request) turns on them.  Again, it's clever.  But, it's so clever that it becomes almost self-evident.  Of course Bruce had synthetic kryptonite lying around the Batcave.  As a result, it's anti-climactic, making you wonder what Azzarello even has left to tell in the next issue.  (Oh, yeah, Bruce also resurrects Supes.  He's doing fine.  Thanks for asking.)

Grayson Annual #3:  For a one-and-done story (actually, four-and-done story), this annual is really required reading for any fan of "Grayson."  It examines the four aspects of Dick:  charmer, savior, gymnast, and superhero.  In so doing, we really do get a deep insight into his character, particularly the way that he's viewed by other folks in the DCnU.  During "One More Day," Reed Richards commented to Dr. Strange and Iron Man that Peter Parker was really the best of them, and I often think that Dick fills that role in the DCnU.  Some people want to be him, everyone else wants to be with him.  This issue reminds us why everyone feels that way.  (Aterici even gives a nod to the fact that his teenage self often found himself in bondage, and Constantine appropriately gets to be the one that enjoys his adult self in that pose.  It's a sight to see.)  I'll be sad to see "Grayson" go.  It was born from the eye-rolling premise of Dick's secret identity getting exposed to the world, but Seeley and King took that premise and ran with it, creating one of the most original and solid DCnU series.  By the time Dick inevitably got back his secret identity, it actually felt sort of irrelevant.  We learned that Dick can be a hero under any circumstances.  I'm just happy he's still here, regardless of what we call him.

Not-Very-Deep Thoughts: The May 25 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

In a programming note, I'm going to handle "DC Universe:  Rebirth" #1 in a separate post tomorrow.

Amazing Spider-Man #1.5:  Lately, I've been trying to be less...cranky on this blog.  I feel comfortable discussing aspects of issues that I don't like, but I regret some posts in the past where I made my dislike extend to the author, particularly with Matt Fraction on "Fear Itself" and Jason Latour on "Winter Soldier" and "Wolverine and the X-Men."  After all, I learned my lesson:  I came to love both of them during their respective runs on "Hawkeye" (at least in the early issues) and "Spider-Gwen."  (I stand by my dislike of Chuck Austen, though.)  As a result, I'll try not to get personal here.  I think I understand what Molina is trying to do with this mini-series, but he's really, really not getting there in terms of the execution.  Each issue I find increasingly incomprehensible.  With this issue, you have the same terribly forced jokes and unexpected emotional fluctuations that we've had all series.  But, now, we add even more truly absurd moments, like when one of the Santerians asks a de-aged and naked Anselmo if he's Jennifer Lopez.  His colleague asserts that he's obsessed with Jennifer Lopez, but I don't even see how it's supposed to be funny.  Does he think that Jennifer Lopez is a man?  Is that why he would confuse a man (particularly a naked one) with her?  I could continue, but I think the ridiculousness of this moment explains my point.  This story has been a mess from the start, and I'm surprised that the editorial staff didn't take a firmer hand at some point.

Captain America:  Steve Rogers #1:  Let's start with the good. Spencer does a phenomenal job showing the Red Skull's gift when it comes to rhetoric.  Over the course of a speech that he delivers to a packed room, he brilliantly pivots from the right to the left of the political spectrum, finding scapegoats wherever he can to illustrate his point.  He plays upon the fear that certain people feel in seeing migrants and refugees "invading" their homeland and decries the failure of politicians to stop it.  (Clearly, only he can stop it.)  He shifts left to observe that the bankers are taking advantage of this paralysis as they feast on the "carcass" of America.  It's important to understand this genius to understand why people buy the vision of hope, in Steve's words, that the Skull is selling.  If you do, you understand why they're willing to join HYDRA and sacrifice their lives for the cause.  Moreover, Spencer doesn't let the Skull's leadership of HYDRA go unchallenged, as Baron Zemo pledges to take back control.  Spencer has a great read on Zemo, particularly how his delusions of grandeur fly in the face of reality.  At least the Skull often comes close to achieving his goals.  Spencer reminds us that Zemo rarely does:  only three D-Listers heed his call to form a new Masters of Evil.  But, it would certainly be fun to watch Zemo try to dethrone the Skull as the head of HYDRA, just as it would be fascinating to see what the Skull could do in that role (assuming Zemo never actually succeeds).  Spencer could spend at least 25 issues just playing with these two plots.

Unfortunately, let's now get to the bad.  Spencer isn't going to focus on those two plots.  This issue is really about the fact that HYDRA recruited Steve's mother when he was a kid and that he's been a sleeper agent all this time.  To be fair, Spencer doesn't actually say that.  We're left to draw our own conclusions about the developments that we see here.  For example, Elisa Sinclair, the woman that courts Sarah Rogers in the past, simply gives her a flyer; we don't actually see Sarah join HYDRA.  (One of the many ridiculous aspects of this plot is that any sane person would see the creepy ass HYDRA logo and question Sinclair's assertion that they're a "community organization.")  Moreover, Steve simply says "Hail HYDRA" at the end of the issue.  I mean, he does say it after pushing Jack Flag from Zemo's plane, because Flag saw Selvig alive there.  It's pretty safe to say that he's probably not just on some sort of secret Avengers mission.  As such, we're left to assume that Steve is a HYDRA agent, presumably implementing the vision of Zemo's father (since he's pretty clearly not working with Zemo, Jr. here).  We also don't know why Flag seeing Selvig was a problem in the first place.  Finally, Spencer and his collaborators set up their back door by hinting that something is amiss in the past.  Saíz and Caramanga use coloring and lettering to imply that Elisa is somehow apart from her surroundings, and her seemingly prescient comments about Steve throughout the issue could imply some form of time travel.

The problem is that it all seems unnecessarily complicated.  I get that Spencer is trying to make a splash, but this one is a bridge too far, to be honest.  You could never connect all the off-panel dots that you would need to connect to sell anyone on the idea that Rogers has been a HYDRA sleeper agent for decades.  Moreover, these sort of storylines just don't work, as Dan Slott learned on "Superior Spider-Man."  You can keep them going for a while, but, at the end of the day, no one believes the central component, that Otto was going to be Spidey forever or, in this case, that Steve is going to be a HYDRA agent forever.  It's a lot of effort to get us to engage in a story that everyone just believes will eventually be ret-conned.  As such, it's hard to really embrace what Spencer is doing here, because experience tells me that it won't last long.

Captain Marvel #5:  When DeConnick initially took Carol off-planet, I was concerned, because it meant leaving behind her amazing supporting cast.  But, as Fazekas and Butters conclude their first arc, I have to say that it's now hard to see Carol anywhere else but the stars.  After all, the authors have given Carol a new amazing supporting cast, fleshing out the relationships just as well as DeConnick did in her run with her cast.  I could see future issues of this series focusing more on the Alpha Flight members than Carol herself.  That said, I did have to read the Marvel Wikia entry on the Eridani to figure out why "Garcia" sabotaged the negotiations.  (It eventually makes sense:  she's part of the slave class, and a renewed contract to haul waste from the space station means more hardship for the slaves.)  I feel like it's mostly a writing-for-the-trade problem, since it would probably have been easier to follow this sub-plot if you had read all the issues at once.  But, it's really a minor complaint.  This first arc has me pretty excited about where we're going.

Grayson #20:  For the fact that Lanzing and Kelly had to jump on this horse mid-stream, I think that they did a solid job wrapping up the loose ends as well as they could.  In particular, they make it clear that King was playing a long game from the start.  Dick offers his body to Dedalus in exchange for Helena, and, as expected, Dedalus uses Somnus to wipe clean all files and memories involving Dick.  To the world at large, he never existed.  (Dedalus does it so no one can track him in said body.)  But, Dick's years of training under Batman allow him to fight Dedalus in his own mind.  He destroys him, and he's able to awaken a new man, with the events of "Forever Evil" behind him.  Moreover, Helena reveals that she put an exception list into Somnus when she was trapped in Dedalus' mind, allowing people like Barbara and Bruce to still remember him.  Although it's certainly a ret-con of "Forever Evil," it doesn't feel cheap.  King -- and then Lanzing and Kelly -- mapped out every step to get us to this point; it feels like the logical conclusion to this series.  That said, some mysteries remain on the table.  We never learned (as far as I can tell) why Dr. Netz was using Agent 8 to kill Spyral agents.  Tiger assassinates Agent 8 here, so it seems unlikely that we'll learn the truth (or what she told him back in issue #11).  He also reveals that he's left Checkmate for Spyral, though Lanzing and Kelly don't tell us why.  But, to be fair, those are pretty minor loose ends, given how complicated this story has been.  After all, Dick ends his spy days in this issue, presumably returning to his role as a superhero; the loose ends related to the spy game are no longer his (or our) concern.

Justice League #50:  At some point, the "Darkseid War" started feeling more like a history lesson than an exciting event.  I acknowledge that it was perhaps the most ambitious attempt within the "New 52!" to update the DC Universe, tackling the histories of the Anti-Monitor, Darkseid, and the New Gods all at once.  Although Johns did his best to throw some emotions in there -- mainly through Diana's narration -- I found that I enjoyed these issues more when I stopping thinking about them as an emotion-provoking story and more as a non-fiction narrative.  That said, it was still confusing.  At some point between issue #42 and #46, I started to conflate Metron with Mobius.  (As you can imagine, I've been pretty confused for the last five issues.)  Wikipedia informs me that Metron succeeded Mobius -- the Anti-Monitor -- as the possessor of the chair, though it's unclear to me when we learned that.  (I'm also not sure why Mobius gave up the chair in the first place.  Presumably when he became the Anti-Monitor after the chair led him to discover the Anti-Life Equation?)  This confusion contributes to the sense that Johns has been writing-for-the-trade, since I'm pretty sure everything would make more sense if I read all these issues in one sitting.  It's also exactly this broad scope that makes the task of concluding the story so challenging.  Johns mostly sticks the landing, though it feels a little like Apollo 13 crashing into the ocean:  everyone's just happy to be on the ground.

First, let's start with the positive:  the death of Superwoman is amazing, a testament to Fabok's skill.  We learn that the father of her child is Alexander Luthor from Earth 3 and that he inherited his father's ability to steal other people's powers.  After killing Superwoman, Grail uses the baby to re-absorb the powers that some of the League members received when Darkseid died, starting with Clark and Lex.  Eventually, her plan is revealed:  she uses an Amazon ritual that resurrects an enemy in a chosen host to bring back Darkseid in the form of Superwoman's son.  As part of the ritual, Darkseid (and his now re-accumulated powers) is completely under her control.  Moreover, she also controls the Anti-Life Equation after using the baby (Darkseid's host) to re-absorb the powers from Steve Trevor.  However, I'm still not clear what her plan was once she accomplished that goal.  She orders a now fully grown Darkseid to destroy the League.  Was that it?  Couldn't she do that herself?  Last issue, Grail talked about how the Anti-Life Equation could be used for something more than destruction.  What did she have in mind?  All her motives remain really unclear to me.  Eventually, her mother convinces her to destroy Darkseid, and she does.  (For some reason, she has to do it by firing her blast through her mother.  This part made no sense to me.)

In the end, we're left with a radically changed status quo for a lot of characters.  First, let's start with the Crime Syndicate.  Grail used the baby's powers to free the Black Racer from Flash, and he demands a death before he'll leave.  We're left to believe that it's Jessica who dies, after she asserts control over Volthoom long enough to save Flash.  But, it's actually Volthoom that died:  Jessica is resurrected as a Green Lantern now that she has conquered her fear.  Owlman and Grid seem to be the only Syndicate members to survive, after Owlman sits on the vacated chair (once Grail had the baby re-absorb the God of Wisdom powers from Bruce) and Grid uploads himself into it.  But, the final page of this issue has a mysterious blast incinerating Owlman.  Theoretically, I guess Grid could still be alive, the last possible member of the Syndicate, though it's just as possible that they're all now dead.

But, Jessica isn't the only League member with a changed reality.  Johns sets up a number of plot hooks for the remaining members, though I'm unsure whether we'll see them carry into "Rebirth."  We learn that Grail used Steve as her God of Anti-Life because of an Amazonian prophecy about the first man to step foot on Themyscira being some sort of "chosen one."  However, we learn from Bruce -- and a dying Myrina confirms to Diana -- that Steve wasn't the first man to step foot on Themyscira:  it was Diana's twin brother, Jason.  (Todd?)  Moreover, Bruce tells Hal that the chair didn't give him the Joker's name:  it informed him that there were three Jokers.  (Dun-dun-DUN!)  Finally, Victor's father confirms that Superman is dying from the power that he gained on Apokolips while Lex returns to Apokolips to liberate it.  Again, I'm not sure how these revelations are going to play into "Rebirth."  The issue essentially ends with Grail holding the baby after she faked their deaths.  She's reverted him from his Darkseid form to the baby form and pledges to raise him to the light, though his glowing eyes cast doubt about that happening.

In the end, I couldn't help but wonder:  is that it?  The League prevented the Anti-Monitor from destroying the Earth?  It's hard to remember what the threat was.  How did Darkseid get involved again?  As I said early, what did Grail want?  Again, I suspect that it would all make more sense if you read it in trade form, because, right now, I'm heading to the Wikipedia page to see if it makes more sense that my memory does.

Star Wars #19:  Whoa.  This issue is intense.  As expected, the "villain" that took over the prison is Eneb Ray, from "Star Wars" Annual #1.  Aaron adds a twist, though, because Ray is revealed to have a deformed face; he implies that it's somehow related to the Emperor's touch and that he's dying as a result of it.  I don't recall anything like that happening during Annual #1, but Aaron also implies that we don't know the full story when it comes to Ray.  Similarly, Aaron hints that Aphra and Sana were more than just partners in crime (literally), as Sana is all too eager to follow Ray's demands and kill Aphra in exchange for Luke and Solo's lives.  But, Leia is the star of the show.  We see her tactical side as she has Artoo implement a previously developed plan, releasing an emp blast that takes out the bombs that Ray planted on Han and Luke as well as his gun.  But, she's not just a tactician on the battlefield:  she eventually allows Aphra to escape.  It may seem odd that she would, but Leia seems to know that Aphra has nowhere to go, with Vader on her heels.  I'd guess that Leia is betting on Aphra, too, realizing that the Rebellion is her only option, but she knows that Aphra will only get there if it's on her own terms.  Although Ray insists that Leia isn't sufficiently ruthless to defeat the Empire (a position to which Aaron shows some sympathy, given Ray's experience), Aaron reminds us that she really is.  (She does win in the end, after all.)  Leia is in full control, even if dark days may still be ahead.

Also Read:  Batgirl #52; Extraordinary X-Men #10; Mighty Thor #7; Ms. Marvel #7; Red Wolf #6; Tokyo Ghost #7

Not-Very-Deep Thoughts: The April 27 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Amazing Spider-Man #11:  I've read a lot of time-travel stories.  Most of them I don't like, because they're either too confusing or they fail to think through the impact of characters' actions in the past on the present.  This one?  This story takes the cake.  Vernon reveals himself to be the grandson of the original Scorpio and uses the Zodiac Key and the Orrery to open up a doorway that allows him to see a year into the future.  (Slott doesn't explain who created the doorway.  He just tells us that the other Scorpios didn't use it is because it required a specific alignment of the planets to open.  We do learn that the Zodiacs are ordinary civilians turned into Scorpio's henchman via masks, though I was pretty sure that Slott had hinted in previous issues that they were LMDs "related" to Scorpio.)  Spidey doesn't know what he should do, so he simply shoves Scorpio through the door, allegedly a year into the future.  [Sigh.]  Can he maybe just fight the Shocker next issue?

Avengers Standoff:  Assault on Pleasant Hill - Omega #1:  As I mentioned in a previous review, I haven't really had much to say about this event, since it's been extremely well done.  The ending is no less satisfying.  The World Council finally seems ready to hold Maria Hill accountable for her remarkable string of disasters, Wendell Vaughn (one my favorite characters from the '80s) has returned to train a new Quasar, and several classic Avengers villains -- namely Baron Zemo and the Red Skull -- have returned to prominence.  Most importantly, the series has brought together the two major Avengers teams, with Steve Rogers realizing the importance of looking past their differences and working together.  (Just in time for "Civil War II!")  The only remaining question hanging over the series is that I'm not entirely sure if Spencer ever explained why we had two Maria Hills, though I'm just going to chalk up that oddness to Kobik.  But, given that most of these events end with me having no clue what I just read, one loose end is pretty much an A+ on the curve.

Batman #51:  This issue is like something you'd read in "Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, Part IV" a one-off tale focusing on the legend of Batman.  It explores the role that Batman plays in Gotham, picking up the theme from "Superheavy" of Batman inspiring people to be their own heroes (as opposed to scaring villains into going straight, as he's normally portrayed).  The most notable part of it, though, is Bruce exhibiting something akin to a sense of humor.  The narrator of the issue refers to Gotham as having gotten lighter since Batman came on the scene, and this remark seems to Snyder's way of driving home the idea that Bruce himself may be lighter after his "death."  It seems that it's not just the physical scars that have gone.  The issue also wraps up Snyder and Capullo's run.  I've been pretty open about the fact that I found Snyder's time portraying Dick Grayson as Batman to be a much more compelling run.  I never bought into his view of Batman as functionally incompetent, as we often saw him be during events like "Night of the Owls" and "Death of the Family."  But, in the wake of "Batman and Robin Eternal," I feel happy at least with the way that Snyder is leaving him.  He's whole for the first time in a long time, both in terms of his emotional and physical well-being as well as his relationships.  Onwards and upwards!

Grayson #19:  Again, this issue isn't exactly full of heart, but Lanzing and Kelly give us the answers that we wanted, for the most part.  Dr. Dedalus has taken over Helena, revealing that his plan was always to be resurrected (and not to pass on his title to one of his daughters, as they thought).  That said, Luka shoots her sister to earn the right to join him as Leviathan.  However, she eventually has enough and attempts to assassinate him, to take her place at the center of the web.  Of course, he expected that and (a little too easily) throws her from a train.  Meanwhile, Maxwell Lord reveals that he created Mr. Minos (a "radical Wikileaks wannabe" to whom he anonymously gave resources) in order to get the identities of the Justice League members.  A dying Dr. Netz's last act is to destroy the archive, bringing this series full circle.  (Hilariously, Lord describes Minos creating the Justice League gestalt as Minos going mad with power, dismissing a plot from early in the series that still doesn't make much sense to me.)  Meanwhile, Tiger is revealed to have been a Checkmate agent focused on stopping Dedalus from the start, and he and Dick fight to get to Helena:  Tiger to kill her, Dick to save her.  We'll see which one wins next issue!

Justice League #49:  Is Darkseid Superwoman's baby daddy?  Is that the threat to Mobius?  At this stage, we still don't know why Mobius wants to return to his chair and, presumably, become the Anti-Monitor again.  But, to make matters worse, Johns adds another layer of confusion here, as we learn that Grail believes that the Anti-Life Equation can do something other than destroy.  (I believe Myrina hinted at that in the "Justice League:  Darkseid War - Special" #1.)  Honestly, it's getting hard to see how Johns is going to wrap up this "event" in three issues.

Star Wars #18:  Seriously, I don't know how many times I can say it, but this series continues to be the best one on the market, hands down.  I don't know how Aaron does it, but, after 18 issues, he still manages to get the characters' voices exactly right.  Even new characters, like, Dr. Aphra and Sana, "sound" like I think they should sound.  Moreover, everyone reacts to situations the way that you'd expect them to react:  Leia remains determinedly in charge even as chaos erupts around her, Han is confident in his bravado, etc.  Aaron also constantly shows us that it's only the tip of the iceberg.  In this issue alone, we've got Leia trying to discover the identity of the guy that took over Sunspot Prison as well as the mysterious beef that Aphra and Sana have.  Aaron makes it clear that it's a big galaxy with a lot of great stories.

Also Read:  Batgirl #51; Dark Knight III:  The Master Race #4; Ms. Marvel #6; Spidey #5

Not-Very-Deep Thoughts: The March 23 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Batman #50:  The revelation that Daryl is the inventor of the technology that created Bloom is a sad but brilliant twist.  Brilliant, because Snyder makes it very clear that he knew exactly what he was doing with Daryl from the moment that he first appeared.  Sad, because Snyder is also showing us how desperation can push someone like Daryl over the edge.  We learn that Daryl tested the original seed on his cousin Peter, explaining how he plummeted from the sky (and presumably survived the four gunshot wounds) in "Batman" #44.  Re-reading my review of that issue, Snyder had us believe that Bloom gave Peter some sort of serum to gain his powers, but I think that Batman was forced to draw that conclusion based on the information available at the time.  Daryl is more or less correcting the record here (I think).  Peter never met Bloom, because Bloom (as we know him) wasn't created until after his death.  Instead, after Peter's death, Daryl started experimenting on homeless people; one of them steals the seeds and becomes Bloom.  Amazingly, it means that even Daryl doesn't know who Bloom is.  Although we've seen hints throughout "Superheavy" that Bloom knows Gordon, we're really not left with more information about his identity than that.  In fact, all we really knew is that Bloom knew of Gordon:  any small-time hood could have the same vendetta against Gordon that Bloom has.  It's a great twist.  In the end, Snyder also makes it clear that it's been Gordon's story.  Bruce reminds Gordan that he defeated Bloom, and the pair explicitly discuss Bloom as Gordon's own version of the Joker.  I like the idea that Jim gets this collar as Batman, because it makes his time in the suit more real.  It also supports the lesson that Snyder wants us to take from this arc, that superheroes exist simply to inspire us to be the heroes that we need to be.  Snyder is saying that Jim didn't need to become Batman to be a hero; he always has been.

Grayson #18:  I haven't been a fan of Lanzing and Kelly's work on "Batman and Robin Eternal," generally finding it to be effective narratively but emotionally weak.  As such, I was worried when I saw that they've taken over the series from Seeley and King, particularly with so much left on the table.  However, their narrative effectiveness is exactly what this series needed, as they move through a lot of revelations as well as can be expected for replacement authors wrapping up a series earlier than expected (a DC hallmark if I've ever seen one).  They even manage to add an air of mystery to the affair, flipping our perspectives by implying here that Dr. Netz is actually the one trying to save Spyral and Luka is the agent of Leviathan.  For it to stick, though, they then have to explain why Dr. Netz and Agent 8 have been killing Spyral agents.  We'll see how they pull that rabbit from the hat.

Star Wars #17:  This issue is possibly the best issue ever.  First, we have the mysterious protagonist committed to doing what Leia won't, killing the prisoners in the titular "rebel jail."  (Is he the guy from the Annual?  Man, I hope so, because he was great.  After this arc, if he survives, I could totally see Leia employing him as the head of an "X-Force" sort of team.)  But, the best part is the fact that it throws Leia, Sana, and Aphra together as they try to stop the protagonist while simultaneously not get killed by the prisoners.  Aaron, Yu, and Gho all work together to create an "Alien" vibe to this story, and it's just a wonder to behold.

Also Read:  All-New Hawkeye #5; All-New, All Different Avengers #7; Batman and Robin Eternal #25; Bloodshot Reborn Annual #1; Howling Commandos of S.H.I.E.L.D. #6; New Avengers #8

Not-Very-Deep Thoughts: The January 27 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

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

Grayson #15 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

King does a solid job here of picking up the ball from "Robin War" #1 and running with it.

Dick arrives at the Robins' underground training facility and basically opens "Robin School."  He and the other "originals" soon identify the top four recruits.  Not surprisingly, they just so happen to mirror the abilities of one of the originals:  Dre is similar to Tim, Dax to Jason, Duke to Dick, and Isabella to Damian.  Dick sends out the originals and these recruits in pairs to get more information about the cops' plans for the Robin War.  However, it's a trap:  Dick has been transmitting his planning conversations with the other originals to Jim Gordon, because he wants the cops to arrest everyone.  That way, he can be sure that they're all safe and sound while he tries to get to the bottom of the problem.  (I was wondering why he was awkwardly referring to Tim as "Red" and Jason as "Hood" during their conversation.  I have to say, though, I'm not sure that I buy that Dick would be so careless in risking that one of the other Robins would call someone by their real name.)  To make matters "worse," Dick makes sure that Damian, Jason, and Tim are also imprisoned with the rest of the Robins (including the ones left in the training facility) so that they can help everyone escape when Dick sends the signal.  He tells Duke the truth (before abandoning him to the cops) so that he can make sure everyone knows the plan, because he knows that everyone sees him as the leader.  But, I'm not sure the guys are going to be happy about it.

In truth, though, it's a pretty solid plan, if a devious one.  In fact, it sort of proves the point that Damian was making, one that Dick disagreed was true.  Damian believed that the original Robins were superior because Batman taught them.  He was right, because we see here that the original original learned the lessons the best.  This plan is as Bruce as Dick gets, even if he doesn't want to admit it.

*** (three of five stars)

Grayson #14 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Seeley pretty much puts all the cards on the table here, giving us the history of Otto Netz, a.k.a. Doctor Dedalus, a.k.a. Agent Zero.

In a flashback, Netz narrates the story of his life to his younger daughters, Katarina (Luka) and Elisabeth (the current Dr. Netz).  He worked for the Nazis to create the perfect bio-engineered warriors.  After the war, "a union of frightened men" asked him to help destroy these "supermen," since they were overflowing from labs around the world.  He created Spyral to do so, and this modus operandi fits with the current organization's goal of discovering superheroes' secret identities to neutralize them.  (That said, we don't know if this "union" is still supporting Spyral's work or if Spyral is now working on its own.)

However, Otto came to grow bored with his success.  His experience supporting the Nazis made him realize that all wars come to an end, so he created Leviathan to keep the war going.  It was created to be the Grendel of our age, "anti-capitalist, anti-freedom, anti-god, anti-man."  It's an interesting description, because it certainly implies that Spyral -- at least to Netz's mind -- is a heroic organization, or a sort.  We haven't necessarily seen anything to disprove that, since you could certainly make an argument that superheroes cause more damage than they prevent.  At any rate, Spyral's Agent Zero became Leviathan's Doctor Dedalus.  Not surprisingly, Netz refers to the ouroborus as typifying the relationship between Spyral and Leviathan.  However, he eventually developed Alzheimer's disease and was thus forced to put into action a plan to secure his legacy.  He transferred his mind to a machine, becoming Spyder.  One of his daughters would eventually claim it, becoming Agent Zero, while the other one would become Leviathan.

Although this information is incredibly expository, Seeley makes it flow more or less organically.  He uses the conversation between Netz and his "daughters" to unspool the information, though, in reality, Dick is getting this information after using his Hypnos to get Ladytron to hack into Luka's system.  In fact, the main theme of this issue is less about Netz and more about Dick's resourcefulness.  When Tiger originally wanted Ladytron to create an emp blast to take out the cyber-spiders attacking the trio, Dick knocked him unconscious and hypnotized her instead, because he needed to make sure that the emp didn't erase the information in Luka's systems.  Once he gets that information, though, he also knew that Spyder would order Helena to use the nanobots in his system to kill him.  As such, he had Ladytron deploy the emp then to destroy them.  He's a clever guy, our Dick.

That said, I can't say that I really enjoyed Ladytron in this issue, since her banter felt terribly forced.  (Her comment about getting her C.E.T.R.A. - Cyborgs for the Ethical Treatment of Robot Animals - card revoked for killing the cyber-spiders was particularly awful.)  But, she serves the purpose that Seeley needs her to serve, and it gets me the answers that I wanted, so I guess I can live with her.

It's unclear where we go from here.  I'm still not sure if Luka or Dr. Netz is Leviathan, since they're still both theoretically working for Spyral.  It feels like Luka was the one to win Netz's brain, but, if so, doesn't she know that her sister is Leviathan?  Moreover, Dick tries to recruit Tiger into helping him take down Spyral, but I'm not sure what Dick learned in hacking Luka's systems that would convince him to do so.  Moreover, it's not like Tiger shares Dick's goal of securing superheroes' secret identities.  Was the information that he found that damning that he expects Tiger (and presumably Helena) to help him?  Is Spyral really Leviathan, under Luka or Dr. Netz's manipulations?  Spies, man.  They're an unclear lot.

*** (three of five stars)

Grayson #13 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Even though I was able to follow the details of this issue, I'm still not sure how they fit in the overall "X-Files"-esque narrative that King and Seeley are crafting here.

We start with a monster-of-the-week story, as Dick and Agent-1 have to ensure that Tiger Shark doesn't steal a priceless rug that the father of one of Saint Hadrian's students is shipping home.  (Agent-1 tries to take a dig at Dick by asking if he's upset that they're essentially playing body guards for the one percent, but Dick reminds him that he owned a circus and knows that sometimes you have to do a private show for the "blue bloods" to pay the bills.  It's always nice when King and Seeley take the chance to remind us that Dick's past -- in all its forms -- hasn't been erased.  DC has been playing so fast and loose with continuity that such reminders are definitely welcome.)

But, we quickly move onto the larger story.  Dick has set Tim on discovering Agent-Zero's identity and, not surprisingly, Tim does so in pretty short order.  The problem is that King and Seeley do a lot of waving their hands in front of the blackboard to make it work.  I had to re-read last issue to remember that Dick and the team managed to hack into Hypnos, allowing Dick to see Luka Netz's face when she spoke with him at the end of the issue.  The fact that they were able to hack into Hypnos based on a sub-agent's access to the database was problematic enough, but that's a problem for last issue.  The problem for this issue is that Tim admits that Netz has no records, so it's unclear how he was even able to identify her in the first place.  It's not like she had a Facebook account.  Then, King and Seeley take another step closer to the unbelievable as we learn that Netz has been following Batman and Dick for years:  using an image-searching program, Tim discovers that she's in the background of every photo ever taken of the Dynamic Duo in action.  Dick isn't too surprised by that, since her goal (and Spyral's) was to discover their identities. But, King and Seeley go even one step further.  Tim put out an alert to discover when someone searched for those images and learns that Netz has been scrubbing them from the Internet.  (He confusingly calls her "Ms. Howard" here, though I have no idea why.)  It leads him to discover her location outside Berlin.

As I said, my initial problem with this sequence is Tim being way too successful, way too quickly in tracking down Netz.  But, I also can't believe that Bruce himself wouldn't have discovered Netz in the background.  As Tim acknowledges, only a limited number of photos exist of the Dynamic Duo in action, and it seems like the type of thing that Bruce would scour.  In other words, Tim discovering her identity so quickly raises the question of why other people haven't done so, undermining exactly the story that King and Seeley are trying to tell, of Agent-Zero as a shadowy agent with unclear goals.  (Is she even technically working for Spyral?)  The best part of this sequence is the banter between Dick and Tim ("sweet humble brag, brah"), even if Seeley seems to conflate Jason and Tim a bit.

Once we move past the hand-waving explanations, the issue gets markedly better.  Tim encourages Dick to use his "charms" on Helena, in the hopes that she'll reveal everything she knows about Agent-Zero.  (If you need a reminder of Dick's "charms," just see the first page of this issue, where he's stripped naked and inspected by Dr. Netz while Helena watches.  Vapors, I had.)  Dick reminds Tim that Helena's "cool," so his charms don't work on her.  But, he tells Tim that his charms do work on someone:  cue Midnighter!  Dick gets Midnighter to send an agent of the God Garden into Netz's Berlin complex, raising Spyral's awareness and getting Dick and Agent-1 sent there to intercept.  (The God Garden is on Helena's enemies list.)  It's a great play and a reminder that Dick might not be the detective that Tim is, but it doesn't mean that he ain't bright.

Again, I'm not sure where we're going here with the overall story.  All the pieces connected logically, but I still don't have a good sense of the puzzle.  We have problems that creep up occasionally, like the "Ms. Howard" comment, that make me feel like I'm missing an issue or something.  Then, we still have the Agent-8/Agent-1/Dr. Netz angle; Helena thinks that Spyral's enemy is Checkmate, and we're supposed to believe that it's Dr. Netz, but maybe it's Luka?  I get that it's spy games, so we're supposed to be confused.  But, I feel like the water level is rising and we have to get some answers before we start treading water for too long.  In other words, an answer (or two) that reduces the number of open mysteries that we have to track would go a long way at this point.

** (two of five stars)

Grayson Annual #2 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I get where Seeley and King were trying to go here, but I'm not sure that they actually got there.

For reasons that I don't think we learn, Superman is in Gotham and conveniently mistakes Dick parcouring for someone trying to commit suicide.  He manages to catch him mid-fall, and Dick then reveals himself by dropping his hypnos.  After that, we get an awkward few panels of terribly scripted exposition where each hero brings the other au courant on his situation.  (Dick is now a Spyral agent, Superman is now less powerful.)  Their reunion is interrupted when the Fist of Cain suddenly arrives to kill them, with the victor winning a lot of points in their assassination competition.  We spend the rest of the issue watching the duo try to evade the various assassins.  (I'm not sure we ever learned how they knew that the two of them were together.  It's possible that they were only after one of them and stumbled upon them together by accident.  But, I'm not going to re-read the issue to confirm that hunch.)  They soon discover that the Cainers are using Blockbuster's blood to give them metahuman powers, and Clark remembers that Bruce constructed a device to block Blockbuster's powers when they battled him together years earlier.  Since neither Clark nor Dick is a technical genius, Clark calls in Lex Luthor, who builds the device for him so that he owes him one.

Beyond the Lex ex machina ending, this issue suffers from the fact that Seeley portrays Superman like he's a teenager.  I don't follow Superman regularly, but he's not just different here because he doesn't have his powers.  His use of slang is just downright weird, and it got to the point where I actually felt like Seeley got Clark and Conner confused.  I'm giving it two stars only for Dick's meditation on the fact that he's a different guy from the hopeful one that Clark used to know and Clark's refusal to believe that (the only moment when Clark sounds like Clark).  Otherwise, the issue doesn't have much to recommend it, unless you enjoy Dick constantly joking about Clark catching him in his arms being emasculating.

** (two of five stars)

Grayson #12 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Man, this issue is solid.

The premise of the issue -- at least, the premise that you're supposed to believe -- is that Agent Zero has given Dick 24 hours to tell his loved ones in Gotham that he's alive before he returns to work for Spyral.  (She half-heartedly threatens to reveal Bruce Wayne's identity as Batman if he doesn't return.  You'd think that a spymaster would know about Bruce's current "situation.")  Dick returning to Spyral makes sense in the context of the larger story that Seeley and King are telling.  After all, it's not like Dick can exactly leave Spyral if he knows that it's still out there collecting superheroes' identities (even if we still don't know why it's doing so).  But, we also understand why he needed to return to Gotham, at least for a time.  Seeley and King made it clear last issue that he was so lonely after Bruce stopped answering his calls that he couldn't take it anymore.  Dick really conveys that loneliness here as he encounters his allies, nay, his family -- Alfred, Bruce, Tim, Jason, Barbara, and Damian.  The reunions with the last four form the emotional core of the issue, and it's the type of story that we just don't see anymore with the dissolution of the Bat-family.  Even Jason shows emotion here, punching Dick for making him go to his funeral.  You understand why Dick couldn't take his separation from them any longer.  He gives each one of them a memento -- Bruce's first Batarangs to the guys, the trapeze that Babs and Dick used on their first date to her, the sword that Bruce used to fight Ra's al-Ghul the first time to Damian -- and tells them how much they mean to him.  (The reunion with Damian is perhaps the best, even if Janin's drawing of their cheek-to-cheek hug is a little...odd.)

But, the twist is that Dick has returned to Gotham to recruit help.  His speeches to the family uses a code that Tim, Jason, Babs, and Damian recognize, telling them to break open the items that he gave them to reveal instructions.  Damian is sent to take out a member of Spyral, torturing him to give up his password.  Jason and Tim -- in a move from "Mission:  Impossible" -- use the password to send Babs a file.  She then uses Checkmate's systems to read it.  The result?  Babs is able to hack into hypnos, revealing to Dick that Agent Zero is Luka Netz.

Now, it's not all flawless, particularly when it comes to trying to unravel the super-spy stuff.  Seeley and King don't really explain how the password that Damian obtained could so easily be used to break into hypnos.  (Shouldn't it be a little more secure?)  Also, I'm not sure what they're going to do with the guy that Damian tortured.  Are they going to keep him in a cell so that he never tells Spyral that Damian wanted the password in the first place?  Also, it's unclear why Dick decides that it was so urgent to break into hypnos.  He seems to want to know Zero's identity, but, again, we're not told why he needed that information now.  We learned last issue that Agent Zero was Dr. Netz's sister, though I thought that it was Kathy Kane, not this Luka woman.  But, we don't know why she's suddenly active.  We first (and last) saw her when she killed Minos in issue #8.  We know nothing about her goals for Spyral or why her sister is warring with her.  In reality, it probably would've made more sense to send Helena after Dick.  As such, why would Agent Zero risk emerging from the shadows to do it?  Plus, even if she did risk it, why would Dick decide before she did so that he needed to break into hypnos to know her identity?  Helena is running the show right now, and he knows what she looks like.  It seems likely that it all has something to do with the developments in issue #11, but I can't for the life of me tell you what it is.

But, that said, it's still an enjoyable issue.  We finally ditch the ridiculous situation where the Bat-family doesn't know Dick is alive, and everything feels a little more straight-forward at this point.  It seems more and more likely that Dick is going to take down Spyral and then resume his life under a new costumed identity not linked to Nightwing.  But, at some point, we're really going to have to get more clarity on Spyral and stop the Morrisonesque series of distractions and diversions.  For the time being, though, it was just nice to see the family together, and I can't wait to get more of that.

*** (three of five stars)

Grayson #11 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

To be totally honest, I'm not really sure what's going on here.

Let's start with the good.  Dick's fight with himself (or, at least, his doppelgänger) is hilarious at the start.  He begins by taking a good look at his ass and, noting that he's never previously seen himself from that angle, comments that he isn't really what "all the fuss is about."  (Amazing.)  He then fights the doppelgänger while delivering a commentary on how he's expecting that he's Clayface but, just once, he'd like it to be Killer Croc behind the mask.  He delivers the seeming coup de grâce -- a headbutt to the nose while leaning toward the doppelgänger to kiss him -- and remarks that it's a metaphor for every time he's had a crush on a girl.

Then, Seeley gets serious.  Recovering from the blow, the doppelgänger comments that it might've gone that way with Barbara, but Koriand'r would argue that she head-butted him first.  King does a great job here of portraying the shock on Dick's face; you can essentially see his blood run cold.  The doppelgänger then cuts to the quick as he attacks again.  He tells Dick that he's always seen the fighting as entertainment and asks what one-liners he used when Damian and Jason died or when Barbara was paralyzed.  He asks what joke comes to mind when he thinks about his loved ones crying at his fake funeral.  He asks whether he used a hilarious story to tell Agent 1 about Agent 8's death.  With each comment, Dick insists that he stops, forcing him to get seriouser and seriouser.  In the end, an enraged Dick charges him, but the doppelgänger then activates his hypnos to stop him.

It's here where it gets weird.  It's clear that the doppelgänger works for Spyral, giving the control that he possess over Dick through the hypnos.  He tells him that "they" learned everything about him and then came after him because he was weak.  He then utters a word that knocks Dick unconscious.  Meanwhile, Agent 1 awakens as the hypnos implants bleed from his eyes; seeing clearly, he discovers that the doppelgänger was Agent 8.  However, he later tells Helena that it was Maxwell Lord, the head of Checkmate, framing Dick.  Disgusted at the spy game, Dick leaves and radios to Batman that he's coming home.  The issue ends with Agent 8 walking down a street with Dr. Netz, telling her that Agent 1 will tell the story about Lord and "they'll" never know all that they did to drive away Agent 37.

I have a lot of questions.  First, I was confused why Dick was surprised that Agent 8 (as we'll now call her) knew who he was.  Doesn't everyone know who he is?  But, then I remembered that we still pretend that the world only knows that he was Nightwing and doesn't know that he was also Robin.  [Eye roll.]  More to the plot at hand, I'm not really sure what Agent 8's goals were here.  Dr. Netz refers to Dick's arrival on the scene as an "interruption" and congratulates Agent 8 for capitalizing on it.  As such, it doesn't seem that getting him to leave Spyral was the point of her impersonating him.  Initially, we found her poised to kill Agent 1.  Again, it seems unlikely then that she always intended to leave Agent 1 alive so that he would provide the cover story about Lord to Helena.  Otherwise, she would've deactivated his hypnos earlier.  If her plan was to kill him, then you have to ask where the killing was going to stop?  Was her plan to kill all of Spyral's agents as Dick?  If so, why did they chose Dick as the doppelgänger?  Even if so, what was the goal of killing all the agents?  Was it just to get Spyral to go to war with Lord and his Checkmate organization?  Instead of leaving Agent 1 alive, was she going to kill him and leave some telltale clue at his body pointing Helena to Lord?  If she was, then why risk keeping Agent 1 alive after the "interruption?"  Netz implies that the game that Agent 8 was playing here is part of Netz's competition with her sister, Agent Zero, but we haven't really seen Kathy in ages so it's hard to tell.  If it is, how did setting Helena after Checkmate help Netz in the game?  Also, at some point, someone has to explain how Agent 8 is still alive.  In other words, as I said, I have a lot of questions.

Finally, I'll say that I had a "digital-comic moment" here, where the hypnotic splash-page didn't work because I couldn't remember how to lock the screen on my iPad.  Given how crucial that scene is to the plot, it was frustrating to say the least.

I was inclined to give this issue two stars, given just the remarkable number of questions that the denouement raises.  But, Agent 8's taunting of Dick is such amazing character work -- using Dick's pathological need to keep the fighting that he does "entertaining" against him -- that I gave it a three.  But, we really, really need some clarity on what we just saw here, and we need it soon.

*** (three of five stars)

Grayson #10 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

A question that I still have, ten issues into "Grayson," is what sort of organization Dick thinks Spyral is?

In this issue, Dick expresses shock that Spyral might be selling kryptonite to Lex Luthor (the "representative" of Argus and the Justice League of America) in exchange for upgrades to the Hypnos technology.  (Lex apparently is the one that created Hypnos, and this new version allows Spyral to take control over the bearer's body.)  It makes total sense to me for Spyral to make that deal.  After all, the entire reason that Batman embedded Dick into Spyral is that they were trying to ferret out the secret identities of superheroes.  I mean, he spent the first few issues of this series tracking down organs that allowed Mister Minos to reconstruct Paragon.  Can he be that surprised that Spyral would sell kryptonite to Lex?  Sure, it's a little unclear if Helena is continuing Minos' mission to expose superheroes, but it doesn't mean that Spyral is suddenly not the organization that had that goal in the first place.  Is Dick just pretending to be that naive to throw off everyone?  Or, does he really think that Spyral is some sort of force for goodness in the world?

I feel like we probably need an answer to these question sooner rather than later.

** (two of five stars)

Grayson #9 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Díos mío.  That splash page.  I not only wanted Dick Grayson in that suit, but I wanted that suit!  (Also, him looking me in the eyes and asking if he's straight?  King is really just screwing with me at this point.)

Seeley gets right to work here.  In the wake of her murder of Minos (at least, to her mind), Matron has established herself as the head of Spyral.  We still know little about her or it, so it's unclear how she was able to establish herself as such so easily.  But, her colleagues seem to accept her, as do the international spy organizations that approach her at the start of this issue.  They call her to Brazil to bring to her attention that all the spies involved in the missions that lead to assembling Paragon would up dead.  We're supposed to believe that Dick did it, since they were beaten to death with sticks, but, as Helena herself says, it's too easy.  (The organizations order Helena to do something about it, since the killing of the spies broke the rules of the spy game.)

Meanwhile, Dick and Agent-1 have broken into the Prado to attend an event and swipe a necklace containing a Kryptonian crystal that could reveal everything about Superman.  Despite orders not to engage, Dick charms the bearer with a dance and swipes the crystal off her at some point during a dip.  During his flight with Agent-1, Helena warns Dick that Agent-1 might be the assassin, so Dick knocks him unconscious and hides.  When the real assassin appears to take out Agent-1, Dick also knocks him unconscious, leaving Agent-1 to explain why he's lying next to an unconscious man to the arriving authorities.

This issue is really a joy and not just because Dick looks so amazingly pretty during it.  We see Dick handle the mission on his own terms, using his...ahem...assets to full effect.  Moreover, Seeley leaves all sorts of new questions unanswered.  Dick was embedded in Spyral to help prevent it from revealing the identities of Earth's metahumans, but Matron sending him and Agent-1 into the field to protect Superman's secrets implies that this mission may have changed.  That said, the issue starts with Dick pleading with Bruce to allow him to come home.  It's clear that he's been forced to do things that are bringing him past the point that he can live with himself, so it seems unlikely that he's just going on missions that help him to protect his friends' secrets.  Plus, we still don't know what motivated Minos (though it's unclear if we're ever going to get an answer to that) and what Agent-Zero is doing.  (I re-read issue #8, and, given that Lois Lane has revealed Superman's identity to the world, are we supposed to believe that she really was Agent-Zero?)

Anyway, it's another great issue filled with intrigue and wit.  I'm glad to see Dick not getting embroiled in Gordon-as-Batman story, since Seeley does so much more interesting stuff with him here.

**** (four of five stars)

Grayson #8 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Wow, a lot happens here.

Most importantly, Minos defects, spilling the secret identities of the Justice League to a journalist who I originally took to be Lois Lane while also trying to take out the Spyral agents remaining on the campus.

In terms of the Justice League, we learn that Minos was assembling Paragon's organs not to re-create Paragon, but to discover the Justice League's identities.  Honestly, I don't totally follow the logic behind this revelation.  Are these organs actually connected to the Justice League members?  Did someone somehow swipe their DNA to reproduce the organs?  If they did, why didn't someone ID them earlier, when Paragon was originally created?  Moreover, it's a bit of a stretch to believe that someone has just been sitting on a DNA database of Justice League members.  If they're not actually connected to the Justice League, then how would obtaining the organs help Minos ID them?

Honestly, though, even though this assertion makes little sense to me, I got over it, because the rest of the issue is so crackerjack.  I loved Minos revealing that he had assembled Paragon, because it leads to the amazing sequence of Dick revealing to the other agent that his years of training means that he can take down the entire Justice League single-handedly, meaning that Paragon isn't the challenge that Minos thought that he'd be.

I also loved Seeley playing with us by revealing that Minos at the campus is a LMD.  I rolled my eyes when Minos warns the other agent that he's going to kill him, since he essentially becomes a clichéed Bond villain.  But, then we learn that he's a LMD, and it makes sense, since he wants to provoke the fight to buy time to escape.

If you ignore the question about the connection between the organs and the Justice League, Seeley leaves us with some exciting mysteries.  First, "Lois Lane" is revealed to be Agent Zero.  I'm not sure what we're supposed to believe here.  Is "Lois Lane" Agent Zero?  I don't think so; I think that it's Kathy Kane.  But, why would Minos trust an unknown journalist?  Did he just pick a name from LinkedIn?  Agent Zero had to be posing as someone.  Was she posing as Lois?  Second, Minos never actually reveals his identity.  He begs Kane to learn his name, but we never learn it; we also don't learn the "secret" that the LMD tells Dick that he's been carrying or the tragedy that Seeley has hinted lies in his past.  (Of course, the secret and the tragedy are likely linked.)  Third, the "journalist" implies that Spyral only hired Minos to pull in Dick; with Dick secured, Spyral doesn't need him.  The obvious question there is the connection between Dick and Minos; why would Minos (and theoretically only Minos) be able to bring in Dick?  It seems connected to his identity, but we don't know.

Honestly, if the Justice League/organs connection had been clearer, this issue would've been five stars.    It gets the fourth star from the amazing conversation between the girls, who name Dick's right and left butt cheeks "Jim" and "Juan," respectively, and decided that they need to save them.  Well played, ladies.  Well played.

**** (four of five stars)

Grayson #7 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

OK, Seeley lost me here.

Helena has Spyral upload the information that she obtained from the guy that she "interrogated" last issue to the Hypnos implant that Midnighter stole from Dick, convincing him to come to Tel Aviv and help her stop the Fist of Cain from using the Paragon brain to incite violence.  I get that part.  She knew to upload the information to Midnighter because she had Spyral replay the last five minutes of Dick's Hypnos' recording, revealing that Midnighter possessed it.  I also get that part, though it did make me raise an eyebrow.  Does Dick know that Hypnos records everything he does?  If so, how does he get around it to talk to Bruce?  If not, it's clearly trouble for exactly that reason.  I'm also still not sure how Midnighter stole the implant in the first place.

It's the part with the Gardner that left me feeling like I had missed an issue.  Dick convinces the Gardner to release him to help, talking about Bruce and his surrogate family catching him when he fell.  Although it's touching, I have no idea why he had to convince the Gardner to release him in the first place.  I thought that the Gardner kidnapped him last issue to help her fend off some sort of attackers coming for the Garden.  But, here, we learn that she kidnapped him to let the Fist of Cain succeed, so that the riots in Tel Aviv will convince people to end the "artificial superhuman arms race" that she has fought for years.  Really?  Dick implies that she was created for some other purpose than the one that she currently serves, but I don't understand how he knows anything about her when we still know nothing about her.  Didn't he just meet her last issue?  He refers to some sort of room on the Garden that she used to save people, but we've never seen it.  It just all makes little sense.  I feel like it's playing off developments from another series; if that's the case, it would've been nice to get an editor's note or something to tell us that.

Separately, the mystery surrounding Director Minos also deepens in this issue.  He seemingly saves Helena from the guy who ran the Fist (at least, I think that it's him), but then, at the end of the issue, it appears that he might have a number of clones.  I honestly don't know what we're supposed to think.  If this issue had flowed better, I might be able to care, but instead it just seemed to add to the general chaos.

** (two of five stars)

Grayson #6 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Throughout this series so far, it's been pretty clear that things were going to get profoundly weird.  I mean, it's been weird from the start, since we've been following Matron and Dick trying to assemble organs of a former meta-human (I think) named Paragon so that Spyral can create its own meta-human.  This issue is where we start to learn how weird it truly is.

First, I have to say that I (heart) Midnighter.  His comment about knowing Dick's ass anywhere is hilarious, and it's fun to see his arrogance get him in trouble time and time again.  Although he was created as an analogue to Batman, Seeley doesn't play him that way; it only occasionally feels like Dick is whaling on Bruce instead of him (and, to be honest, those moments feel pretty therapeutic).   Moreover, he serves the role of Jimminy Cricket to Dick, challenging his assertions that Spyral is the good guy in this hunt for the meta-human's body parts.  Seeley hasn't really made it clear what Dick believes at this point, whether he's just playing along with the story that Spyral has sold him to accomplish his real mission (to eliminate its knowledge of superheroes' identities) or if he's really deluding himself into thinking that Spyral is doing the right thing.  But, if it's the latter, Midnight isn't letting him pretend that he wasn't warned about it.

But, things get really weird when we learn that Midnighter is working on behalf of the Gardner of the "God Garden," some sort of satellite orbiting Earth.  Apparently, Paragon was created to destroy her, though it's unclear if Spyral is trying to re-create him to do the same thing.  Either way, the Gardner recruits Dick to help her save the garden.  This whole sequence obviously just hints at a larger story, but it's actually a nice reminder that King and Seeley really have a clear vision for where we're going.  Moreover, we unexpectedly get some insight into Mr. Minos, learning that he has some sort of pain-filled connection to this mission to re-assemble Paragon.  I really have no idea what it could be, but color me intrigued.

I did have a question about Midnighter stealing Dick's hypnos, because I have no idea how that happened.  Did he do it through touch?  How is that possible?

Also, I just have to add in here that I have no idea how we're supposed to believe that no one knows that Batman is Bruce Wayne if the whole world knows that Robin/Nightwing was Dick Grayson.  I actually thought that the world only knew that Dick was Nightwing, something that would sort of explain it, since Nightwing isn't necessarily obviously connected to Robin.  But, I was surprised that Dick admitted that he was Robin to Midnighter.  It's just ridiculous, and it'll never stop be ridiculous.  But, it wasn't Seeley's idea, so I'm not going to hold it against him.

Again, this series is really solid.  It's all cloak and dagger, but it's really clear where we are each issue, even if the larger story is being slowly revealed.  That's hard to do, and I hope Seeley keeps doing it, because it's a great read when it happens.

**** (four of five stars)

Grayson Annual #1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Unlike most annual issues, this one really ties into the ongoing story that Seeley is telling in "Grayson," with Dick and Helena obtaining the skin that Spyral needs to create its meta-human.  Dick lets us know that they've gotten five of the seven pieces that they need, though I'm not sure if that includes the heart from issue #5 that, um, slipped through their fingers.

Beyond the plot, the story itself is top notch.  King handles the scripting and does a spectacular job.  He weaves a tale about the Irish winning battles with stories, setting up the denouement, as Dick reveals that his "Rock" persona was just a story designed to get him and Helena in front of the guy with the stolen skin.  Even though it's pretty clear that Rock is Dick from the start, King does a good job not belaboring the point, just giving us a wink or two as we go.  Solid stuff, from start to finish.

**** (four of five stars)

Grayson #5 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Wow.  This issue is intense.  We start in media res, with Dick and Midnighter delivering a child in a crashing helicopter, and it only gets crazier from there.

The purpose of this issue is to show the indomitable spirit of Dick Grayson, particularly when it comes to his ability to overcome obstacles to protect the innocent.  Is it heavy-handed?  Yes.  We're supposed to believe that Dick manages to walk across the Empty Quater with little food or water, all while carrying a baby, outlasting even Midnighter and his "enhancements."  It's a stretch.  Does it matter?  No.  King still gets across his point, that Dick somehow finds a way to be true to himself despite working for Spyral.  After all, as Midnighter reminds him frequently, even if he survived the trip, he'd have to turn over the baby -- possessor of the enhanced heart -- for dissection.  But, Dick manages to save her from that fate, as Seeley and King give us the Saudi version of Superman's origin, with a couple finding Dick and the baby in the desert.  It's a brilliant moment that shows that Dick continues to be one step ahead of Spyral.

Janín helps to sell all those moments.  From Dick's sweaty athletic body striking a pretty handsome figure (lucky Midnighter!) to his determined expressions that show that he really believes that he can achieve the impossible, we're able to believe the unbelievable thanks to Janín.

I'm intrigued where we go from here.  Spyral doesn't seem to be too devastated by the loss of the heart (and its power to see behind the mask, whatever that means), despite the fact that you'd figure it would be an important part of whatever Frankenstein's monster that it intends to build.  It's just a reminder that we're still in the dark about a lot of what Spyral is trying to achieve.  But, Seeley encourages us not to try to rush it, to enjoy the ride.  This issue makes it a lot easier.

**** (four of five stars)