The New World #3: I don't have a ton to say about this series at this point, other than it's a trippy combination of art and words that seems to be telling a larger story than the art and words imply. I don't know how it is, but it is. On the face of it, it's about Stella trying to flee her oppressive grandfather and his use of her to advance the police state he rules, but she won't flee without her cat. Her priorities are in the right place, I say.
Oblivion Song #7: I am not a fan of stories where the author drags out "the secret" as long as s/he possibly can, so I'm thrilled Kirkman gets right to the heart of the matter here. Nathan confirms what we already mostly know or suspect. He and a team of researchers and scientist at a think tank activated a device that caused the Transference. All but one of the team is killed in the first few moments. While Katherine (the other surviving member) works on a way to reactivate the device, Nathan gathers batteries. Katherine sacrifices herself to turn on the device, but it only has enough juice -- as originally should've been the case -- to send back Nathan. He explains why it became his life's work to correct his wrong. Although disgusted, Director Ward keeps Nathan in prison partly to save him and partly because he wants to provide the device to the Defense Department to use as a weapon. Meanwhile, Heather tells Nathan he's right when he says to her that he should've told her sooner, because she understands now just how much of a hero she is. She gives him two darts: one to send him to Oblivion and one for him to return. Kirkman does a great job of building the suspense throughout the issue as we watch a still-stranded Ed try to grapple with his new reality. I can't imagine Ed's wife is going to be thrilled to see Nathan return without Ed. At this stage, the only mystery on the books is why the energy field on the other side of the dimensional door amplified the device the way it did, but I have confidence Kirkman will get there sooner rather than later.
The Wild Storm: Michael Cray #11: Honestly, I've kind of lost the thread here. I keep confusing Dion with Diana Prince, and I'm not really sure why Constantine and Diana "need" Cray at this point. If Constantine just needs access Diana's energy grid to summon whatever demon he wants to summon, can't he get that access without Cray? Hill seems to be writing for the trade at this point. Ellis has done an amazing job somehow keeping us in touch with the overarching story with each new issue of "The Wild Storm." Hill seems to have given up trying to do so, and it's a shame. I don't really get why we deviated so much from the series' original premise of Cray hunting down this Earth's versions of DC's heroes with his untrusty band of sidekicks. Instead Hill has killed off his supporting cast and we're mired in a story that Hill seems unlikely to conclude nicely in his one remaining issue. I guess we'll see.
Showing posts with label Oblivion Song (2017). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oblivion Song (2017). Show all posts
Friday, November 2, 2018
Monday, September 24, 2018
Not-Very-New Comics: The August 8 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)
Amazing Spider-Man #3: This issue makes not a lick of sense. Don't get me wrong, it's fun. In fact, it doesn't make sense in part because Spencer is trying to invoke the same sense of fun (and wackiness) that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko did: Peter and Spider-Man are split into two separate people thanks to yet another accident involving the Isotope Genome Accelerator. Suddenly, Peter sees the real possibility of living his life without the burden of being Spider-Man. He won't have to feel guilty that he's not out there as Spider-Man, because Spider-Man will still be out there, fighting terrible evil like the...Tri-Sentinel. On the downside, Peter discovers Spider-Man got his intellect and his powers, but not his sense of morality and responsibility. Uh-oh. Unfortunately, this premise gets a little...wobbly the more you think about it. For example, the creative team shows Spider-Man only in costume, almost implying if you lifted up his mask his face would be blank. It's just a little over the top, particularly as Peter doesn't seem anywhere near as worried about it as I think Peter probably would be. I guess we'll see where Spencer goes from here.
Bloodshot Salvation #12: I was tempted not to continue reading "Bloodshot" the last time Lemire seemed to give Ray a happy ending, but I’m happy I hung in here. This issue isn’t perfect, as Lemire seems to be in a rush to hit his marks to get us to the finale. For example, we never really confirm the identity of his 4002 A.D. doppelgänger or why Baron Samedi wanted the maintenance worker killed. Moreover, Punk Mambo’s powers seem a little too conveniently strong here, as she essentially shuts down all of Omen’s systems to let Magic and the Bloodshots invade. But, I’m willing to look past the plot holes because the excellent character beats remain the same. Lemire never turns Ray into a full-fledged good guy; he murders the maintenance worker because he had to murder him. Lemire makes it clear that Ray feels some guilt, but he doesn’t regret it, because he did it for his family. Lemire also reminds us Magic has never been just a scared girl hiding in a hotel room; her childhood left her comfortable with mayhem and murder, making her a match for Bloodshot’s neutral-goodish outlook on life. Their happiness at the end feels hard won, and it feels like a good time to exit this train with Lemire. Good luck, Ray. I’m sure you won’t need it.
Detective Comics #986: Yup, I’m definitely canceling this series. I’m not going to stand for Barbara Gordon getting treated like a rank amateur in favor of some C-list hero from Metropolis. Firstable, she was right to question Jefferson's "plan." His attempt to keep everyone from the fight likely would’ve resulted in the children dying, because Orphan wouldn’t have been on hand to save them. Second, I’m also not exactly sure what Jefferson’s powers are. He controls lightning...and explosions? Whatever. Then, Batman announces Black Lightning — a guy he barely knows — speaks for him. He still can’t let Dick Grayson totally into his circle of trust, but this random guy from Metropolis is basically the new Alfred? I’ll stay for James Robinson’s arc but then I’m done.
Fantastic Four #1: Look, Dan Slott and I have been on a long, rough road, and I'm not saying I'm here for the long haul. But, I've loved what Chip Zdarsky has been doing with "Marvel Two-in-One," so I'm definitely here for as long as it takes to tell the story of Reed and Sue's return. However, as Skottie Young himself says in the Mr. Impossible short that ends the issue, I'm not quite sure what that timeframe is. In "Marvel Two-in-One," Ben and Johnny are stranded, powerless, on an alternate Earth. However, they're back on our Earth here. Moreover, Victor has apparently lost his pretty face, which I don't think we've seen happen in "Marvel Two-in-One" yet. It raises questions how Marvel could've timed these releases so poorly, particularly because they seem to have done so intentionally. To make matters worse, Slott still struggles with conveying emotions here, despite Ben proposing to Alicia and Johnny tearfully accepting Reed and Sue's fate. I can't exactly put my finger on the problem, but these emotions never feel organic. It's like a dog trying to explain what they hear to us. But, it is what it is. I'm tired of complaining about him and he'd be tired of hearing about it if he knew who I was. We'll see where we go from here.
Hunt for Wolverine: Adamantium Agenda #4: I initially bought this mini-series reluctantly, annoyed with Marvel for using the reunion of the New Avengers as part of its bloated “Hunt for Wolverine” “event.” But, I can’t say I’m disappointed. Not only was it great to see the team together again, but Taylor takes us some interesting places here. First, his character work is excellent. Tony recalls Wolverine beseeching him to see people before potential after Logan reveals he knew Tony created the superhero suicide-machine. Logan accepts Tony’s explanation that he’d never use it, but stresses to Tony how its deployment nonetheless proves his point. As such, Tony caves to Jessica and Peter ordering him to destroy Mister Sinister’s catalogue of the DNA of every living person. However, he had initially started to decrypt the catalogue, and he learned two things along the way. First, Laura Kinney isn’t a clone; she’s the actual daughter of Logan and Sarah Kinney. (I don’t follow X-23 closely enough to get all the implications of that, but I get why it’s important.) Second, one of the X-Men isn’t a mutant; s/he’s been genetically engineered to appear as one, possibly as a sleeper agent. Given we don’t know who set loose Tony's suicide machine or invaded Sinister’s catalogue in the first place, Tony seems to be onto something. This mini-series still doesn't really show us how Logan was resurrected, but that's almost besides the point. Taylor told a self-contained story that raises some interesting questions for Logan and the X-Men down the line. I'm not saying it's essential, but it's one of the better examples of the tie-in genre out there.
Oblivion Song #6: Whoa. I really didn’t see that one coming. Kirkman reveals here that Nathan and his team of scientists were the ones who caused the Transference, after a device they built to explore an alternate dimension went haywire. Nathan explains they built the device because they sensed energy on the other side of the field, but he tells Bridget the field shouldn’t have expanded the way it did. He initially hypothesized it was because some energy on the other side amplified his device’s power, but he hasn’t seen any technology capable of that on the other side. To make matters worse, he’s relaying this information in handcuffs, after the feds arrested him for building the device they found in the storage locker. It's particularly bad timing, too, as he’s convinced his brother Ed to return with him to see what Earth is like. As such, Ed is functionally stranded on Earth. Underlining how no one is really having a good go of it, Benjamin appears at Bridget and Duncan’s doorstep when they’re already fighting about Nathan. Shit’s getting real, folks.
X-Men: Blue #33: Yet another time-travel story, yet another unclear situation. Magneto arrives in the future he's previously hinted he's seen and intuitively knows the devastation he sees there is his fault. A Nightcrawler-looking child exposits that he assembled a Brotherhood of Mutants — Magic, Toad, Exodus, the Blob, Sabretooth, and someone I think is Unuscione based on her head gear — to stop the "Reaver virus" from destroying the world. The Avengers and X-Men had been unable to stop the virus because it meant killing the hosts, and Nightcrawler, Jr. tells Magneto that he and the Brotherhood were the only ones willing to do so. Before we learn more, an Iceman-less team of the original X-Men appears, less than thrilled to see Magneto. It makes you wonder if Nightcrawler, Jr. isn’t skipping over some parts, since he seems to view Magneto as a hero. This story ties into “Extermination,” so I wonder where we go from here.
Also Read: Darth Vader #19; The Wild Storm: Michael Cray #10
Thursday, August 2, 2018
Not-So-New Comics: The July 11 Everyone-but-Marvel Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)
Detective Comics #984: We learn in this issue the figure who attacked Duke and Cassandra isn't a new O.M.A.C. but a guy named Karma. He bought some sort of (possibly alien) mask off a (presumably Russian) weapons dealer. However, it's still unclear why he's using the mask's power to read thoughts to go after Bruce's network of teenage crime-fighters. Conveniently, Bruce has brought on board Black Lightning to take over teaching and mentoring said teenagers, because Bruce seems to agree with Karma: they make him weak. I will admit this part is starting to feel like an Elseworlds story, as Black Lightning seems a fairly random choice to bring into the Bat-family. But, we'll see where we go. My excitement about the Bat-titles in general is waning after "Batman" #50, so I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to hang around here.
Oblivion Song #5: The interesting part here is Kirkman doesn’t take the easy route, having Ed reject Nathan once it’s revealed he’s the one returning the transferees to Earth. Each brother makes his own argument for his actions, and they’re both compelling. We learn Ed was something akin to a criminal on Earth, and it’s only in Oblivion that he’s found his purpose, emerging as the transferee’s leader. But, Nathan also notes no one returned to Earth ever asked to be returned back to Oblivion (though Duncan seems close to that). It seems entirely possibly each brother will embrace the other one’s view, and that’s what makes this series so interesting so early in its run.
Also Read: Bloodshot Salvation #11; The Wild Storm: Michael Cray #5
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
New-ish Comics: The June 13 Everyone-but-Marvel Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)
Batman: Prelude to the Wedding - Batgirl vs. the Riddler #1: This issue is a miss, though it's hard to put my finger on why. First, it feels very color-by-number, as Babs easily solves the Riddler's wedding-themed clues. But, I think it's mostly because of the Riddler's creepy and unexpected expression of love for Babs. I get where Seeley is going with it, as other installments of this series have supporting characters reflect on what the wedding means and how it's going to affect their lives. (For her part, Babs calls Dick at the end.) The Riddler wonders why he doesn't have a lid for his pot. He admits he would have to fall for someone like Babs, who's smart enough to answer his riddles. But, it feels forced. Given their long histories, you'd think the Riddler would've previously come to this conclusion, whereas Damian and Dick's crises were much more directly tied to the feelings the wedding inspired in them. At any rate, it's not a terrible issue, just an odd one.
Bloodshot Salvation #10: Is Ray going to have to kill his son to save his daughter? ‘Cause that would s-u-c-k. It’s probably true, though, knowing Ray’s luck.
Oblivion Song #4: Kirkman is making it pretty clear Nathan has stopped listening when it comes to the various people in his life warning him about his overly rosy view of his crusade. Bridget confides to him that Duncan just isn’t getting better, after he almost beat her in his sleep the previous night during a nightmare. Duncan has also refused to attend a survivors' group and gets mad at Bridget whenever she suggests it. Nathan simply suggests she try harder, a sign of how blithely he seems to take the consequences of his actions. In his mind, he’ll always be the hero, even if it’s more complicated than that. Meanwhile, Ed’s team forces Keith to reveal the location where he encountered Nathan, so they’re ready for him when he eventually reappears. When Nathan does reappear and mentions Ed might be his brother, the group's leader asks if he's Nathan, and he displays a shining grin. But, Kirkman has hinted Ed might not be as happy to see Nathan as Nathan will be to see him, so we'll see where we go. In other developments, someone is spying on Nathan as he works in the storage shed that serves as his lab. Also, the group's leader insists Keith is a pariah for killing his family, refusing to believe his claim something called the “Faceless Ones” did. In a world of monsters, I’m not sure why they’re so quick to dismiss the monsters Keith describes. But, I guess we'll see.
The Weatherman #1: Wow. That issue was fucking intense and not just because they killed the dog. RIP, Sadie. :(
LeHeup does a great job of using media reporting to give us the background we need; it's particularly appropriate since our protagonist Nathan, as the title suggests, is a weatherman on the local news for Redd Bay, Mars. The year is 2770; seven years earlier, a group called the Sword of God killed everyone on Earth, all eight billion people. (It’s unclear if all Earth was destroyed or just the people on it.) We also learn about how telepaths are persecuted on Mars like Marvel’s mutants and “nemo” addiction rates are increasing.
In the present, a group of space pirates, for lack of a better term, are en route to Mars; someone named the Pearl has hired them to take a prisoner. One of the pirates, Kade, is worried another of the other pirates, the Marshal, is going to kill the prisoner first over a "debt." Meanwhile, on Mars, after his hilarious news broadcast, Nathan manages to convince a bartender named Amanda to go on a second date with him. They stop by the Earth memorial we saw Amanda visiting at the start of the issue with an older woman, and Amanda is rattled when Nathan approaches it so cavalierly. He apologizes later, and Amanda wonders if they’ll ever get over their collective grief. He says it would help if they caught the perpetrator, and Amanda asks who he lost in the attack. He says he lost everyone, but he tries not to think about it; in fact, he hopes his antics help people forget about their own grief, too. At that moment, someone shoots his beloved dog Sadie in the head, and Amanda is suddenly fighting off the space pirates as she calls for backup. A hysterical Nathan eventually kills Kade before he can kill Amanda and then clutches Sadie’s body in his grief. Then, Amanda and her team arrest him for the murder of eight billion people.
In other words: whoa. I admit I’m all shaky after reading this issue, since the murder of the dog is pretty graphic and, yes, I care more about the dog than the people. (People suck.) But, LeHeup and the creative team somehow completely immerse you in this story from the first moment, and I honestly cannot believe I have to wait a month to see what happens next.
LeHeup does a great job of using media reporting to give us the background we need; it's particularly appropriate since our protagonist Nathan, as the title suggests, is a weatherman on the local news for Redd Bay, Mars. The year is 2770; seven years earlier, a group called the Sword of God killed everyone on Earth, all eight billion people. (It’s unclear if all Earth was destroyed or just the people on it.) We also learn about how telepaths are persecuted on Mars like Marvel’s mutants and “nemo” addiction rates are increasing.
In the present, a group of space pirates, for lack of a better term, are en route to Mars; someone named the Pearl has hired them to take a prisoner. One of the pirates, Kade, is worried another of the other pirates, the Marshal, is going to kill the prisoner first over a "debt." Meanwhile, on Mars, after his hilarious news broadcast, Nathan manages to convince a bartender named Amanda to go on a second date with him. They stop by the Earth memorial we saw Amanda visiting at the start of the issue with an older woman, and Amanda is rattled when Nathan approaches it so cavalierly. He apologizes later, and Amanda wonders if they’ll ever get over their collective grief. He says it would help if they caught the perpetrator, and Amanda asks who he lost in the attack. He says he lost everyone, but he tries not to think about it; in fact, he hopes his antics help people forget about their own grief, too. At that moment, someone shoots his beloved dog Sadie in the head, and Amanda is suddenly fighting off the space pirates as she calls for backup. A hysterical Nathan eventually kills Kade before he can kill Amanda and then clutches Sadie’s body in his grief. Then, Amanda and her team arrest him for the murder of eight billion people.
In other words: whoa. I admit I’m all shaky after reading this issue, since the murder of the dog is pretty graphic and, yes, I care more about the dog than the people. (People suck.) But, LeHeup and the creative team somehow completely immerse you in this story from the first moment, and I honestly cannot believe I have to wait a month to see what happens next.
(I edited the texts of my "The Weatherman" reviews in November 2024 as I occasionally called Cross "Amy" instead of Amanda and the Marshal as "Cowboy" or just "Marshal.")
Also Read: Detective Comics #982; The Wild Storm: Michael Cray #8
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
New Comics!: The April 11 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)
Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider #17: This issue is an uncharacteristic miss for David. Ben prattles on all issue about his soul and his deal with Mephisto, and at some point I realized I just didn't care. I'm OK with the existing supernatural component of this series -- Ben's need to repair his soul after his brush with Death. But, the deal with Mephisto just feels like overkill at this point, as if Batman suddenly spent all his time hunting vampires. Even David winking at us -- with Ben berating himself for thinking he's the only person dumb enough to make a deal with Mephisto -- made me roll my eyes. David is usually great at playing the long game, but even the premise of Ben having to save Abigail is starting to feel old. I feel like we could use a refresh here.
Captain America #700: I’ll be honest and say I’m not sure Waid is the best writer for “Captain America.” He leans into Cap's corniness in a way that makes him even more unbelievable than he normally is. Cap stories are usually their best when he's forced to question his ideals, but for most this arc Cap spouted nothing but inspiration-poster bromides. When he finally faces a seemingly unwinable challenge, he caves completely. It's not my Captain America, to be honest.
We start several weeks after Steve and his allies defeated Babbington. Liang and Banner want to send Steve to the present, so he can stop Rampart before it launches the missile and prevent the future from happening. Steve refuses, saying he can't just abandon the future for Banner's "Hail Mary" pass. However, this commitment to the future felt dishonest. Waid never really explored the psychological repercussions of Cap finding himself displaced in time yet again. In fact, Cap seems not even to remotely care he's never going to see Sharon or his friends again. He's just a stalwart of dependability and determination and we leave it at that. In so doing, Waid winds up undermining Cap's bravery in committing to this era, because he makes it seem like he doesn't care.
We watch as Cap and his supporters spend a year trying to expel the foreign invaders who have taken over large swaths of America while also rebuilding the agriculture and infrastructure of areas they control. But, when someone nukes New York just as Cap and his troops liberate Philadelphia, Cap just surrenders. He faces the reality he entered this conflict too late, and he accepts the only possible option is Banner sending him to the present. It's jarring, to say the least, for him to go so dark so quickly. (Even Banner is surprised by Cap claiming hope isn't a strategy, but, per pet peeve #3, I'm not going to give Waid credit for having a character point out the logical failings of the plot.)
Safely in the present, future Cap sacrifices himself to stop the rocket, and the ensuing explosion frees present Cap from the ice almost immediately after he was frozen. It means present Cap doesn't take with him the lessons future Cap learned, and I'm not sure where we go from here. Waid seems to be returning to Cap traveling America, but I don't really get why we detoured from that story for this one in the first place. I think my main problem is I'm intrigued by this arc's premise, where Cap can't save the day. That would've been a story worth telling. We could've seen a story like Remender's "Dimension Z," where we watch Cap lose more and more ground and see how he handles that. Instead, Waid essentially jumps to the end, and it cheapens Cap exactly at a time we're supposed to be celebrating him.
Detective Comics #978: Whoa. One of the advantages of Tynion -- beyond being a great writer with a clear sense of the characters he's portraying -- is that he's been working on Batman-related titles for years now. He's been dropping hints for months about Tim's delicate mental state, given his alleged death, subsequent imprisonment, and Future Tim's subsequent arrival. However, Tynion makes it clear we shouldn't have been worried, because Tim is still Tim. Even in his weakened state, he rejects Ulysses' attempt to co-opt him, recognizing Ulysses is crossing a line that shouldn't be crossed. In fact, Tynion takes a different perspective on recent developments than we've seen. Previously, Tynion has mostly left the reader supporting Kate's position about some lines needing to be crossed to save lives. However, Tim's resoluteness here reminds us how dangerous it is when someone like Ulysses -- and, by extension, Kate -- takes matters into his own hands. Tim quickly realizes Ulysses is controlling the Colony soldiers while Bruce is at "stately Kane Manor" hearing from Kate and Jake that they didn't order the soldiers to open fire. Watching the drama from afar, Ulysses wryly notes the Joker and the like have always had it all wrong: the best way to take down Batman is to leave breadcrumbs to a mystery he feels a compulsion to solve. Ulysses kicks up the crazy a notch here as he shaves his head and starts calling himself the General, using the Colony's integrated network to unleash the OMAC virus on its soldiers as well as Tim. At this stage, the tension driving this story isn't just related to the (legitimately scary) rise of Ulysses and Brother Eye. It also has to do with the sense Tim is quickly facing the moment where he will past the point of no return when it comes preventing his dark future. We saw Future Tim was born when he kills Batwoman for killing Bruce for activating Brother Eye. But, given the events of this issue, it's hard to see how that sequence of events would happen, particularly since Ulysses has already activated Brother Eye. Does Kate take out Bruce because he activates it again at a later date? Or, has Ulysses already changed the future (through his knowledge of it) by preemptively activating Brother Eye? I guess we'll see.
Oblivion Song #1-#2: In his letter in issue #1, Kirkland tells us he'll be telling a very different story at issue #30 than the one he's telling here, and it's easy to believe him when he says it's going to be a fast-paced story. As you read issue #1, you're pretty sure it's going to be a story about a man trying to find redemption by finding his brother. Like Dr. Richard Kimble catching the One-Armed Man in the series finale of "The Fugitive," I expected Cole was finally going to find his brother Edward in the last issue and embrace him, a man at peace. The only problem with that scenario is we've already met Edward, on the last page of issue #1. It's a sign Kirkland means what he says; he's not going to dragging out stories too long.
The first two issues pretty convincingly lay out the basic framework of the story. Somehow, Philadelphia and land from another dimension changed places. Cole -- our main character -- was able to find the right frequency to access Philadelphia in this new dimension. He and his team were able to save many people stuck on the other side. However, at some point, Cole and his team stopped finding new people, and the government cut his funding. We start the series with Cole in Oblivion (i.e., the transferred part of Philadelphia) finding and rescuing a married couple. The couple reveals they were part of a group of 100 or so people living on the outskirts of the city; they only came into the city on supply runs, hence why Cole hadn't found anyone for a while. Making matters worse for Cole, the couple have revealed their leader is named Edward, fueling Cole's anxiety over the possibility of finally finding him. However, this group doesn't seem to want to be found, and we end the first issue with Edward observing Cole (not realizing who he is) and telling his followers to set a trap for him.
At this stage, I still don't think we know how people escaped Philadelphia after it was transferred to another dimension. When Cole walks the couple through the museum dedicated to the "Transference," he explicitly mentions all sorts of people who escaped and survived in the first few days. Did it take a while before the transfer was complete? Cole shows the couple he rescued the barren area where Philadelphia used to be located, implying Philadelphia is (at least now) completely in the other dimension. Moreover, we obviously don't know why the Transference happened, though it seems likely the government played some sort of role given their reluctance to keep funding Cole's excursions. After all, why else would the government not want him locating people? Cole is running everything using his own resources, so it's not like it would cost the government that much to give him a workable team.
Kirkland also doesn't sleep on the interpersonal drama. Cole is supported by a married couple, Duncan and Bridget, though Bridget is carrying on an affair with the man she was dating before Cole saved Duncan from Oblivion. Also, Cole asks Marco, one of his former team members, for help, but Marco refuses, commenting he has kids -- and sleep -- now. It's an immediate refusal: he doesn't even let Cole finish his beer before he walks into the house. Cole himself is portrayed as a man possessed. Although he's in a relationship with a woman who works for the government agency he wants to provide him funding, Marco's comments on how Cole just appeared after a year of no contact imply he exists solely for the mission.
All in all, it's a strong début. I wouldn't say I had the same visceral response to it as I did the first issues of "The Realm" or "The Wild Storm," but I'm definitely intrigued.
Rogue and Gambit #4: Gambit and Rogue learn Lavish's powers here: each time she drains someone of his power (which she then stores in a cloned body), she also steals his memories. It's why Paraíso has so many mindless zombies wandering around the health unit. Rogue realizes she and Remy have been getting along so well because, at this point in their stay, they've been stripped of almost all their baggage. Disturbingly, Lavish can only access the power when she destroys one of the bodies (as she does here after Gambit injures her and she destroys a body with healing powers). Rogue and Gambit make this discovery as they both take out one of the other's doppelgängers, resulting in them absorbing not only the other one's powers but also a specific memory. (For Gambit, it's the love Rogue felt as he put the garter on her at Scott and Jean's wedding. For Rogue, it's the hurt Gambit felt when Rogue didn't trust him enough to join the Avengers.) They realize they need to take out only their own clones to limit their exposure to the other's innermost feelings and gain back their specific powers. Rogue considers just standing pat, allowing them to leave behind their baggage by never reclaiming their memories. But, Remy tells her essentially to have faith in them and their ability to find each other again. Man, Thompson better keep them together this time. I have a lot invested in this story.
X-Men: Red #3: I was sort of skeptical where Taylor was going with this series, but I have to admit he got me with this issue. Trinary reveals she believes humanity is being programmed to hate mutants; someone (Cassandra Nova?) is using algorithms that push decontextualized stories and lies to people with known biases and concerns. In other words, someone has essentially weaponized social media. (Sound familiar?) Gambit sees that first hand, as he tries to save a young woman who dared to defy an anti-mutant mob. However, he fails to stop a gun-totting protester (similar to the ones we saw in India who Jean couldn't control) from opening fire. In India, we learned the trio was able to resist Jean's power due to the presence of nano-Sentinels in their bloodstreams. Taylor is taking a page from Spencer's playback in being obvious in his disdain for the far right; it doesn't take a journalism student to recognize the allusion to Charlottesville when Gambit makes fun of the protesters for using tiki torches in their march. As folks in the letters page said, this series feels like it matches our time perfectly. It's not trying to capture an old feeling (like Guggenheim on "X-Men Gold"), but instead tells an updated story about the persecution mutants face in the present. It would be wrong just to repeat "Fall of the Mutants." Taylor is telling a new story even if the theme is familiar. The letters page also focuses on the fact Jean is finally standing on her own two feet; she's no longer defined by Cyclops or Wolverine. Cyclops repeatedly got to spread his wings without Jean; it's time for her to do the same. Finally, I totally agree with Tom from Columbus, who says Jean not knowing what to do but wanting to do something is all of us right now.
Also Read: Avengers #688; Bloodshot Salvation #8; Darth Vader #14; Falcon #7; X-Men: Blue #25
Captain America #700: I’ll be honest and say I’m not sure Waid is the best writer for “Captain America.” He leans into Cap's corniness in a way that makes him even more unbelievable than he normally is. Cap stories are usually their best when he's forced to question his ideals, but for most this arc Cap spouted nothing but inspiration-poster bromides. When he finally faces a seemingly unwinable challenge, he caves completely. It's not my Captain America, to be honest.
We start several weeks after Steve and his allies defeated Babbington. Liang and Banner want to send Steve to the present, so he can stop Rampart before it launches the missile and prevent the future from happening. Steve refuses, saying he can't just abandon the future for Banner's "Hail Mary" pass. However, this commitment to the future felt dishonest. Waid never really explored the psychological repercussions of Cap finding himself displaced in time yet again. In fact, Cap seems not even to remotely care he's never going to see Sharon or his friends again. He's just a stalwart of dependability and determination and we leave it at that. In so doing, Waid winds up undermining Cap's bravery in committing to this era, because he makes it seem like he doesn't care.
We watch as Cap and his supporters spend a year trying to expel the foreign invaders who have taken over large swaths of America while also rebuilding the agriculture and infrastructure of areas they control. But, when someone nukes New York just as Cap and his troops liberate Philadelphia, Cap just surrenders. He faces the reality he entered this conflict too late, and he accepts the only possible option is Banner sending him to the present. It's jarring, to say the least, for him to go so dark so quickly. (Even Banner is surprised by Cap claiming hope isn't a strategy, but, per pet peeve #3, I'm not going to give Waid credit for having a character point out the logical failings of the plot.)
Safely in the present, future Cap sacrifices himself to stop the rocket, and the ensuing explosion frees present Cap from the ice almost immediately after he was frozen. It means present Cap doesn't take with him the lessons future Cap learned, and I'm not sure where we go from here. Waid seems to be returning to Cap traveling America, but I don't really get why we detoured from that story for this one in the first place. I think my main problem is I'm intrigued by this arc's premise, where Cap can't save the day. That would've been a story worth telling. We could've seen a story like Remender's "Dimension Z," where we watch Cap lose more and more ground and see how he handles that. Instead, Waid essentially jumps to the end, and it cheapens Cap exactly at a time we're supposed to be celebrating him.
Detective Comics #978: Whoa. One of the advantages of Tynion -- beyond being a great writer with a clear sense of the characters he's portraying -- is that he's been working on Batman-related titles for years now. He's been dropping hints for months about Tim's delicate mental state, given his alleged death, subsequent imprisonment, and Future Tim's subsequent arrival. However, Tynion makes it clear we shouldn't have been worried, because Tim is still Tim. Even in his weakened state, he rejects Ulysses' attempt to co-opt him, recognizing Ulysses is crossing a line that shouldn't be crossed. In fact, Tynion takes a different perspective on recent developments than we've seen. Previously, Tynion has mostly left the reader supporting Kate's position about some lines needing to be crossed to save lives. However, Tim's resoluteness here reminds us how dangerous it is when someone like Ulysses -- and, by extension, Kate -- takes matters into his own hands. Tim quickly realizes Ulysses is controlling the Colony soldiers while Bruce is at "stately Kane Manor" hearing from Kate and Jake that they didn't order the soldiers to open fire. Watching the drama from afar, Ulysses wryly notes the Joker and the like have always had it all wrong: the best way to take down Batman is to leave breadcrumbs to a mystery he feels a compulsion to solve. Ulysses kicks up the crazy a notch here as he shaves his head and starts calling himself the General, using the Colony's integrated network to unleash the OMAC virus on its soldiers as well as Tim. At this stage, the tension driving this story isn't just related to the (legitimately scary) rise of Ulysses and Brother Eye. It also has to do with the sense Tim is quickly facing the moment where he will past the point of no return when it comes preventing his dark future. We saw Future Tim was born when he kills Batwoman for killing Bruce for activating Brother Eye. But, given the events of this issue, it's hard to see how that sequence of events would happen, particularly since Ulysses has already activated Brother Eye. Does Kate take out Bruce because he activates it again at a later date? Or, has Ulysses already changed the future (through his knowledge of it) by preemptively activating Brother Eye? I guess we'll see.
Oblivion Song #1-#2: In his letter in issue #1, Kirkland tells us he'll be telling a very different story at issue #30 than the one he's telling here, and it's easy to believe him when he says it's going to be a fast-paced story. As you read issue #1, you're pretty sure it's going to be a story about a man trying to find redemption by finding his brother. Like Dr. Richard Kimble catching the One-Armed Man in the series finale of "The Fugitive," I expected Cole was finally going to find his brother Edward in the last issue and embrace him, a man at peace. The only problem with that scenario is we've already met Edward, on the last page of issue #1. It's a sign Kirkland means what he says; he's not going to dragging out stories too long.
The first two issues pretty convincingly lay out the basic framework of the story. Somehow, Philadelphia and land from another dimension changed places. Cole -- our main character -- was able to find the right frequency to access Philadelphia in this new dimension. He and his team were able to save many people stuck on the other side. However, at some point, Cole and his team stopped finding new people, and the government cut his funding. We start the series with Cole in Oblivion (i.e., the transferred part of Philadelphia) finding and rescuing a married couple. The couple reveals they were part of a group of 100 or so people living on the outskirts of the city; they only came into the city on supply runs, hence why Cole hadn't found anyone for a while. Making matters worse for Cole, the couple have revealed their leader is named Edward, fueling Cole's anxiety over the possibility of finally finding him. However, this group doesn't seem to want to be found, and we end the first issue with Edward observing Cole (not realizing who he is) and telling his followers to set a trap for him.
At this stage, I still don't think we know how people escaped Philadelphia after it was transferred to another dimension. When Cole walks the couple through the museum dedicated to the "Transference," he explicitly mentions all sorts of people who escaped and survived in the first few days. Did it take a while before the transfer was complete? Cole shows the couple he rescued the barren area where Philadelphia used to be located, implying Philadelphia is (at least now) completely in the other dimension. Moreover, we obviously don't know why the Transference happened, though it seems likely the government played some sort of role given their reluctance to keep funding Cole's excursions. After all, why else would the government not want him locating people? Cole is running everything using his own resources, so it's not like it would cost the government that much to give him a workable team.
Kirkland also doesn't sleep on the interpersonal drama. Cole is supported by a married couple, Duncan and Bridget, though Bridget is carrying on an affair with the man she was dating before Cole saved Duncan from Oblivion. Also, Cole asks Marco, one of his former team members, for help, but Marco refuses, commenting he has kids -- and sleep -- now. It's an immediate refusal: he doesn't even let Cole finish his beer before he walks into the house. Cole himself is portrayed as a man possessed. Although he's in a relationship with a woman who works for the government agency he wants to provide him funding, Marco's comments on how Cole just appeared after a year of no contact imply he exists solely for the mission.
All in all, it's a strong début. I wouldn't say I had the same visceral response to it as I did the first issues of "The Realm" or "The Wild Storm," but I'm definitely intrigued.
Rogue and Gambit #4: Gambit and Rogue learn Lavish's powers here: each time she drains someone of his power (which she then stores in a cloned body), she also steals his memories. It's why Paraíso has so many mindless zombies wandering around the health unit. Rogue realizes she and Remy have been getting along so well because, at this point in their stay, they've been stripped of almost all their baggage. Disturbingly, Lavish can only access the power when she destroys one of the bodies (as she does here after Gambit injures her and she destroys a body with healing powers). Rogue and Gambit make this discovery as they both take out one of the other's doppelgängers, resulting in them absorbing not only the other one's powers but also a specific memory. (For Gambit, it's the love Rogue felt as he put the garter on her at Scott and Jean's wedding. For Rogue, it's the hurt Gambit felt when Rogue didn't trust him enough to join the Avengers.) They realize they need to take out only their own clones to limit their exposure to the other's innermost feelings and gain back their specific powers. Rogue considers just standing pat, allowing them to leave behind their baggage by never reclaiming their memories. But, Remy tells her essentially to have faith in them and their ability to find each other again. Man, Thompson better keep them together this time. I have a lot invested in this story.
X-Men: Red #3: I was sort of skeptical where Taylor was going with this series, but I have to admit he got me with this issue. Trinary reveals she believes humanity is being programmed to hate mutants; someone (Cassandra Nova?) is using algorithms that push decontextualized stories and lies to people with known biases and concerns. In other words, someone has essentially weaponized social media. (Sound familiar?) Gambit sees that first hand, as he tries to save a young woman who dared to defy an anti-mutant mob. However, he fails to stop a gun-totting protester (similar to the ones we saw in India who Jean couldn't control) from opening fire. In India, we learned the trio was able to resist Jean's power due to the presence of nano-Sentinels in their bloodstreams. Taylor is taking a page from Spencer's playback in being obvious in his disdain for the far right; it doesn't take a journalism student to recognize the allusion to Charlottesville when Gambit makes fun of the protesters for using tiki torches in their march. As folks in the letters page said, this series feels like it matches our time perfectly. It's not trying to capture an old feeling (like Guggenheim on "X-Men Gold"), but instead tells an updated story about the persecution mutants face in the present. It would be wrong just to repeat "Fall of the Mutants." Taylor is telling a new story even if the theme is familiar. The letters page also focuses on the fact Jean is finally standing on her own two feet; she's no longer defined by Cyclops or Wolverine. Cyclops repeatedly got to spread his wings without Jean; it's time for her to do the same. Finally, I totally agree with Tom from Columbus, who says Jean not knowing what to do but wanting to do something is all of us right now.
Also Read: Avengers #688; Bloodshot Salvation #8; Darth Vader #14; Falcon #7; X-Men: Blue #25
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