New-ish Comics: The June 27 Everyone-but-Marvel Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Batman:  Prelude to the Wedding - Harley vs. Joker #1:  We learn the answer to the question many of us have been asking since “Batman” #49:  if Joker died in that issue, how is he alive here?  The answer is disappointing:  he’s not.  I mean, he is alive here, but this issue precedes issue #49.  I don’t know why DC didn’t ship this issue in time, but it really undermines what otherwise is yet another great story on Seeley’s part.  Harley is trying to prevent Joker from ruining the wedding because she wants to see a fairy tale come true, just once.  For his part, Joker lets her capture him because he admits he’s always been jealous of her death traps, and he needed inspiration for the one he planned for the wedding.  It’s a classic struggle, particularly with the revelation Joker was in control the entire time.  But, if you’ve read issue #49, you spend most of this issue wondering when it takes place, because Joker is (theoretically) dead.  It’s one of the too frequent examples of a creative team’s work being undermined by forces outside their control.

Detective Comics #983:  I don’t remember Black Lightning’s failure in “Dark Days:  The Forge” that Bruce mentions here, but it's pretty clear he's re-forming the Outsiders despite this failure.  If you’re worried the Bat-family already has enough people, you’re not alone:  an OMAC lookalike seems intent on killing members of the Bat-family for making “him” weaker.  In a way, it seems to be a rehash of Joker’s crusade in “Death of the Family” (though I'm not entirely convinced the "he" OMAC mentions here is Bruce).  Right now, it’s unclear how his war on the Bat-family will mesh with Batman pulling together the Outsiders, other than the possibility the villain isn't aware of them and they'll need to save the day.  We shall see.

The Realm #7:  Well, everything goes from bad to worse here.  Will and Molly agree they’re nervous of proceeding without Rook, but they had little choice as Rook made it clear she was traveling with Ben (as we saw last issue).  Her absence is almost immediately felt when Will trips down a ravine in search of water and gets kidnapped by creatures that look like a cross between Ewoks and nuclear reactors.  The group descends the ravine to find Will, but they're surprised when he's gone without a trace.  In their search, David reveals his power to the group when he uses it (whatever it is) to open the door of a temple.  (Earlier, he told them he sensed Will had been kidnapped.)  With only Eli, Molly, and Zack with him, the odds aren’t in their favor, I have to say.  Meanwhile, scary bloody lady from last issue reveals she’s been sent to check on Johny Eldritch, and he’s none too happy about it.

Also Read:  Pathfinder:  Spiral of Bones #4

New-ish Comics: The June 20 DC Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Batman #49:  Usually, if I have a problem with King's writing, it's because he goes a little too Jonathan Hickman.  By that, I mean he exaggerates his economy of words to such an extent that it's unclear what he was trying to convey.  Here, we have the opposite problem.  Catwoman and Joker lie on the floor of the ruined church, clutching the wounds they gave each other to prevent themselves from bleeding to death.  So, despite Catwoman having clawed out his throat, Joker is able to hold up his end of a chatty conversation.  He insists Batman can't be both Batman and happy, and it's why he opposes the wedding:  if Selina makes Batman happy, Joker will lose his north star.  (For her part, Selina is able to hold up her end of the conversation despite a gun shot to the stomach.)  But, the final sequence is a little...much.  I had to re-read the issue to realize Selina's hysterical laughter in the last panel implies she won, taking Joker off the board.  But, are we really supposed to believe Joker is dead?  After all this time and all those deaths?  Plus, if he is, isn't Batman going to be furious?  The whole point of him and Selina going to Khandaq a few issues ago was because Selina wasn't the killer the authorities and public believed her to be; she needed the friend who actually committed the murders to confess to them.  But, it's OK for her to murder Joker now?  It seems unlikely Bruce is going to be OK with that.  Plus, it's problematic at this stage that we're getting almost all our information about the wedding from non-"Batman" sources, particularly the "Batman:  Prelude to the Wedding" miniseries.  If you were just reading this title, you'd really have very little context, after this arc and the terrible Booster Gold story.  I also still don't fully understand what King plans.  Is Bruce not going to marry Selina because she killed Joker?  Is all this hoopla really over a fake-y "superhero" wedding?  I can't have two of them in one month.

Batman:  Prelude to the Wedding - Red Hood vs. Anarky #1:  The fact Bruce asks Jason to keep an eye on Selina while he attends his bachelor party with Clark and Dick is a pretty good summary of their relationship.  But, Jason says he's honored in his own way, though not honored enough not to ask for $150,000, which he later uses to buy off the mob Anarky assembled.  (Lonnie is clever, I have to say.  He convinced everyone in the mob that she was meeting people who thought like her for a rally.  Instead, Lonnie assembled a series of groups with wide-ranging and conflicting beliefs and planned explosions to scare them.  As their fear hit a crescendo, he'd use the Anarky masks he sent them to show their affiliations, kicking off a riot.  Pretty brilliant, I have to say.)  The highlight of the issue is Jason punching out Lonnie as he laments how he was just a street kid who couldn't do anything right.  No one deserved that punch more.  I'm increasingly wondering why Seeley isn't writing all the Bat-family books, because I would 100 percent read his "Red Hood and the Outsiders."  His Jason is all about repression, where you feel his struggle to control himself to stay on the side of angels.  (He must do a lot of yoga.)  I'd love to read that Jason.

The Wild Storm #14:  I'm not sure how, but it was only as Alex Fairchild was describing her Thunderbook implant rewarding her violence with strength that I realized Michael Cray was also a member of Thunderbook.  Based on the Wikipedia entry of Team 7, long-time Wildstorm readers obviously put together a long-time ago that Lynch is contacting former members of the team, as he does here with Alex.  His intentions are unclear, but we know he's going to go find Alex's daughter Caitlin...dun dun DUN!  Lynch mourns Alex here as she heads on a suicidal mission to take out the gang that harasses her adopted town, and Ellis hints pretty clear that she's doing it in part to silence the Thunderbook implant after too many years with it.  It's possibly the first time we've seen real emotions from him, and maybe he really is just on a mercy mission.  (Davis-Hunt and Buccellato have perhaps never been better than they are here, using the gorgeous emptiness of the Utah desert as a metaphor for Fairchild's lostness.  Moreover, the simple gestures Alex and Lynch use throughout their conversation make you forgot you're reading a comic and not actually witnessing two people chatting.)  Meanwhile, Miles warns a screaming Bendix that his crimes against IO -- hitting Hightower station, invading his servers, and killing Mitch -- results in this one warning.  Elsewhere, the Doctor cures the Mayor of his illness (which seems to drive his need to eat cities' pollution), and Slayton (I think) encounters a Skywatch "altered person," confirming his suspicion IO wasn't the only one to create them.

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.

(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

New-ish Comics: The June 6 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Astonishing X-Men #12:  I like Charles Soule, but, man, this story was a mess.  We learn the Shadow King has been pulling the strings all along, using Proteus to seed the world with reality gardens that Farouk could then use to control the world.  (I still don't understand what these "reality gardens" are at this point, but whatever.)  Then, it turns out X was pulling the strings.  Surprise!  He teaches Betsy how to ask -- not demand, as they did last time -- every psychic in the world join their Psychic Friends Network, and Betsy somehow uses this energy to dismiss Farouk.  (It's not entirely clear the mechanics of that, but, again, whatever.)  Wrapping up loose ends, X finishes giving the X-Men his "gifts," wiping all memory of his existence from their minds...except for Betsy's.  Despite his claim to be free of Farouk's influence, he allows Betsy to retain her memory of him, just in case he isn't.  Um, OK, way to reassure us, X.  I don't really know what Soule wants us to feel here.  Xavier...I mean, X...could've easily just set up the Network the first time they tried it.  Why wait until now?  In other words, Soule doesn't explain why Xavier suddenly realizes permission is the key to harnessing the Network's power fully.  Moreover, X doesn't remotely feel like Xavier.  To be fair, he insists he's not Xavier, but then who is he?  He feels more like the latest iteration of Xorn, a convoluted plot device that future authors are likely to use and abuse for their own purposes.  It's just a mess, from start to finish.

Batman: Prelude to the Wedding - Robin vs. Ra’s al Ghul #1:  This issue is great.  Seeley draws such a good bead on the characters that every development flows logically from the previous one, as characters respond the way you think they would.  But, it doesn’t mean they don't surprise us with moments of growth either.  The issue starts slow, with Selena taking Damian to be sized for his wedding outfit and Damian rehashing his troubled origin for her as a way of saying he doesn’t need her.  Damian pops into the arcade to try to best his previous score on Cheese Viking, but he finds himself confronting Aion, who claims to be Bruce and Selena’s son from the future.  The conflict shifts to the future, where Damian from "Batman" #666 seemingly awakens from hallucinating the arcade sequence only to face Aion in his present.  But, the miniature Nightwing on his shoulder lecturing him about not killing Aion is his clue this moment, too, is a hallucination.  He then finds himself in the arcade once again, realizing his grandfather is his enemy.  He knows the drugs al Ghul used on him brought out his subconscious fear that Bruce will replace him with a "real" son.  For his part, al Ghul is here to kill Damian for allowing Catwoman to replace him.  Damian doesn’t win the fight so much as he persists.  Later, as Selina returns from her bachelorette party, he asks if she and Bruce are going to have children.  She resists answering the question as she doesn't see it as part of his business, but Damian puts his anxiety on display for her, a surprising sign of how deeply concerned he is.  But, Selina also surprises as Seeley allows her to be the adult we rarely see her be.  She tells Damian she can’t imagine raising a child, because s/he would have to carry not only her/his own baggage but also hers (and, implicitly, Bruce's).  Bringing a tear to everyone's eye, she then says she could never have a child who could overcome that baggage, because they'd never be as strong as Damian Wayne.  Damian is surprised and touched by this confession.  Selina tells him they need to stick together, as the only people in the house who aren’t goody-goodies.  She promises to have his back if he’ll have hers, and he agrees, with a smile that lights up his face.  It’s a lovely moment, and it feels hard-won.  Damian may be the bastard child Aion said he was, not raised from birth by Batman as Aion allegedly was.  But, Seeley makes it clear here he’s all the son Bruce and Selina need.  (That said, I’d be totally down with DC bringing back Aion!)  For all the cynicism I feel about this perceived money-grab series, this one is really worth the money.

Batman: Prelude to the Wedding - Nightwing vs. Hush #1:  This one is, too!  Man, who knew a tie-in series could be so good?  Seeley again nails characterization here.  Clark and Dick are taking Bruce to a pocket universe to go fishing for his bachelor party (after dinner at Batburger), but Hush unexpectedly attacks.  He and Dick tumble through the portal and find themselves in the Betwixt, a place where people without strong senses of self go to disappear.  The ghosts of these people attack Dick and Tommy, and their (convenient) guide to the Betwixt tells them to flee to Wayne Manor, since it’s where their identity is the strongest.  Seeley’s greatest twist here is to have Hush realize something he (and, frankly, we) should’ve realized long ago:  he wanted to be Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne’s best friend, not Bruce himself.  He reveals he’s changed his face to look like Dick, but the ghosts arrive and ultimately absorb him as he has no personality of his own.  Bruce and Clark rescue Dick, and, as he recovers, Dick overhears Bruce telling a departing Clark not to forget the ring.  Dick then asks Bruce if he made Clark his best man and Bruce awkwardly confirms he did.  When Bruce starts apologizing, Dick tells him not to do so:  Clark is always there for him, but Dick isn’t, because he left for Blüdhaven to find his own path.  Just as Selina is the unexpected adult in Robin’s version of this series, Dick is so here.  In other tales like this one, Dick could never accept this outcome.  But, here, he owns his decision to leave Bruce's side.  After the wedding, he makes Bruce promise they’ll spend time together, much to Bruce’s glee.  Like the Robin issue, this issue isn’t perfect.  Just as Damian’s recitation of his origin story was a drag, Hush’s insistence on becoming Bruce’s friend is so cartoonishly juvenile it's annoying.  But, it’s still a solid character study that reveals not really Hush’s fear, but Dick’s:  he, too, is afraid he’s being replaced.  But, like Damian, he realizes he needn't worry.  Meanwhile, Hush confirms it’s the Joker telling all of Batman’s villains about the wedding.  Oddly, we also learn Bruce and Selina themselves aren’t actually getting married, lest it raise too many questions about their secret identities.  After all, a billionaire marrying a criminal is a bit of a stretch.  (I still don’t understand how they’re going to keep that under wraps.)  Finally, can I make a pitch for Wilson drawing “Nightwing?”  Dick Grayson is often handsome, but he’s never been more handsome than he is here.  All in all, it's just a great issue.

Captain America #703:  I'm honestly just enduring this arc until we get to Coates.  Looking over the nine issues Waid has penned on this title, I'm still not sure what point he is trying to make.  First, I'm not sure it was a great idea to spend so much time so early in this run on two alternate-reality stories, particularly as one of them didn't feature Steve at all.  But, even if you put that aside, it also doesn't help that Steve's descendant Jack is a bumbling idiot.  He survives here only because his enemies -- first General Pursur and then the Red Skull -- very conveniently get so busy they ignore him.  Continuing with overly convenient plot devices, Jack gets out word that Pursur is using humanity as sleeper agents for the Kree via the Skull's apparently supernatural ability to manipulate technology to broadcast Jack's discovery to everyone.  Um, OK.  At this stage, we're also supposed to believe that Jack's son Steve is the key to somehow fending off the Kree, whose armada Pursur has dispatched to destroy Earth lest it successfully rebel.  We're supposed to believe Jack is a master strategist because he was "chosen" as a historian, but it's hard to believe he is if he didn't see Pursur taking this step, which he apparently didn't.  Unless we learn Jack's son Steve is the Phoenix, it's hard to believe he's going to single-handedly fight off the armada.  But, even if he does, I still don't get what this story tells us about Cap.  To repeat myself, it's a mess, from start to finish.

Dazzler:  X-Song #1:  I (heart) Dazzler.  I have every issue of her 1980s series.  Hell, I even read her cross-over appearances in "Secret Wars II."  Unfortunately, I'm sad to say she deserved better than she got here.  I'm not saying this issue is awful.  In fact, the premise is great:  Dazzler has to grapple with the fact anti-Inhuman mutants start appearing at her solidarity shows to make it clear that Inhumans aren't welcome.  However, Visaggio stumbles as every conversation in this issue dissolves into activist speak.  Although it makes sense, to an extent, that anti-Inhuman activists speak in talking points,Visaggio overdoes it.  Alison repeats her lines like a robot, particularly when it comes to rebuffing Piotr's oddly persistent attempts to get her to join the X-Men again.  If it were just a filler issue it would be OK, but it isn't OK when this issue was supposedly issue #43 of that 1980s series.  It's a disappointing color-by-numbers enterprise.

Infinity Countdown #4:  This issue is weirdly anticlimactic.  Surfer convinces Galactus to become the Destroyer once again, taking out Ultron's planet before he can spread his virus throughout the Universe.  (In exchange, Surfer becomes Galactus' herald again.)  Surfer's intervention helps Warlock get back the Soul Gem, though Ultron manages to escape.  After the Guardians squabble amongst themselves and with the Nova Corps over the Power Gem, Drax takes the Power Gem as Nova departs -- against Gamora's wishes -- to find his brother.  We also have a weird interlude where the Collector and Gamemaster present Peter with an Infinity Gem from another Universe.  That Universe's Phyla-Vell and Moondragon appear to collect the Gem, and we learn they're also looking for the identity of someone called Requiem, who seems to be the menacing figure in the intro pages these last few issues.  The weirdest part is how easily the Gems change hands throughout the issue; at one point, Adam Warlock literally just lops off Ultron's hand to grab the Soul Gem.  We'll see where we go from here.  Although the Gems have changed hands a few times, I'm not sure this mini-series is really bringing us to a different place than where we started.

Nightwing #45:  This issue is clever because it's so obvious.  Stories about AI and VR going haywire are rife at this point; Remender's "Tokyo Ghost" covered that ground well.  But, Percy goes one further here, as Wyrm -- the entity behind the Phantasm devices -- makes his play for Dick.  He comments how most people's information is useless, but some people's information is really important.  Figuring the former ward of billionaire Bruce Wayne is privy to a lot of secrets, Wyrm has uploaded a virus into Dick to steal them.  Meanwhile, Mirage -- the company behind Phantasm -- is rebuilding the train line destroyed as part of the "crypto-attack" we saw last issue (I think).  It's a project the mayor of Blüdhaven is (ominously) calling "Blüdhaven:  the City of Tomorrow."  It's clear we've got more going on here than just Wyrm making a play for cash, and Percy does a good job of building the suspense even as we learn more.

Star Wars #49:  The resolution of the Mon Cala rebellion is anticlimactic and rushed.  Despite an entire sky full of Imperial Star Destroyers, the Mon Calamari and Millennium Falcon manage to hold on long enough to allow some ships from the Rebellion fleet to join the battle.  Ackbar sacrifices one of the Mon Calamari ships to take out an Imperial Star Destroyer, somehow breaking the entire Imperial blockade.  (I guess the other Destroyers were only there for moral support?)  Initially, I thought Gillen was building to a long overdue defeat for the Rebellion; instead, they yet again miraculously pull out a win.  Moreover, I still don't understand the events of last issue, where Urtya goes from confiscating the video of Lee-char's call to arms to hurriedly playing it for all Mon Calamari.  Urtya claims he had to act quickly because the Imperials were imminently going to seize the Mon Calamari fleet.  Didn't he already know that?  I feel like their intent was pretty clear.  If he did know that, why not just explain the situation to Leia when she and the guys arrived on Mon Cala with the videotape?  If he didn't know that, how did he just suddenly learn that?  Did it happen off panel?  I don't feel like we saw any such revelation last issue.  At any rate, the good guys win.  Yay.  Gillen tries to make it interesting with the revelation that Trios has been working for Darth Vader all long and they intend on destroying the 12 fully crewed Mon Calamari ships.  I'm hoping Leia sees this treachery coming, because if she doesn't, I'm going to start losing some faith here.

Also Read:  Batman #48; Ben Reilly:  Scarlet Spider #19; X-Men:  Gold #29; X-Men:  Red #5