Runner Up: The Flash #75 – Joshua Williamson, Howard Porter, Hi-Fi, Steve Wands, Scott Kolins, Luis Guerrero and Christian Duce
Flash has never been one to let anything slow him down, be it his job, relationship with Iris West or even speed sapping supervillains. He’s always moving forward and this anniversary issue cements that very idea as he recollects events from his past and figures out how to become a better hero, a better man through it. At the same time, one of his most deadly enemies moves forward towards Doom.
Beginning with the final minutes of his intense battle with two versions of The Turtle, one from the far future and one from the modern day, at least at the time. Sneaking through the structure that Future Turtle brought to the past to enslave the citizens of Central City, Iris West screams that The Fash isn’t the only one who can fight back and destroys the control panel, freeing them. Inspired by The Flash’s efforts while he fights the two Turtles, the citizens fight back against the villains forces. Flash begins to get overpowered by the combined might of the turtles, but he digs deep and pulls out his greatest weapon: Hope. He runs faster and harder, using his brain to push through and defeats Turtle.
It’s an inspiring moment made even better with Porter’s kinetic and amazingly stylized art work. Lines are jagged, but clean, Hi-Fi’s colors are bright and vibrant to give even more energy and brightness to each panel. I love how each spark of lightning glows on Flash’s costume to give this chapter the sense of speed befitting the hero. What makes the even better is the shift downward, back to Barry just being his normal self, helping the modern day Turtle instead of just sending him back to prison as Iris looks on in love. Time passes and on presumably one of the first of many Flash days, Iris brings her nephews Wally and Wallace to meet Barry before they join the parade and this chapter ends with Wally and Barry talking about the Flash before a two page spread of The Flash and various members of the Flash Family new and old, a sign of things to come maybe?
Coming back to the modern day, Barry meets the new Avatar of the Still Force who has chosen to show Barry this vision of a time that he’s forgotten to remind him of the hope that he had lost after the events of Heroes in Crisis. Ultimately, Barry decides that he has to prepare, find new allies, work with enemies, but the first step… rebuilding the destroyed Flash Museum. He puts everything back together by himself, the building, the exhibits and all of the statues of Wallace, Impulse, The Flash of China and both statues of Wally West, the one he truly let down. Barry looks towards the future with bright eyes and nothing but hope.
On the other side of the world however, Leonard Snart is going through the motions. After having been transferred to the Suicide Squad following the murder of another inmate of Iron Heights, Snart has grown wary of seeing the people he’s worked with die. He watches as some villain named Snakebite tries to make an ultimately fruitless escape and has his head exploded. Snart reminisces of the days when he had a reliable and smart crew of people that he could trust on his side. He misses The Rogues.
He sits in his cell and simply thinks that he’s “playing it safe” just like his awful father. When he was a Rogue he made his own rules, did things on his terms, but with the Suicide Squad, he’s on someone elses dime. He absolutely hates it and when he’s called in for another missions, not five minutes after his last, he just screams for Waller or the guard in front of him to kill him. Suddenly the guards head explodes and the wall to Snart’s cell is blown open and a drone comes through.
Lex Luthor has an Offer for Snart if he’s willing to take it. Snart doesn’t even question it and only asks that the other Rogues get the same deal, then they’ll go after the Flash. I almost lost my mind here, not only because Luthor referenced Snart acting as his bodyguard in the middle of the New 52, but also their time on the Justice League and how foolish they were. Doom is the only way forward for them and Snart has become a hard man. The Rogues have always been a particular brand of non-violent, but Snart is absolutely a killer now and who’s to say how time has changed the rest of the gang?
Best of this Week: Wonder Woman #75 – G. Willow Wilson, Xermanico, Jesus Merino, Vicente Cifuentes, Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Pat Brosseau
Ever since the beginning of DC Rebirth, Wonder Woman has been trying to get back home to Themyscira and on this amazing anniversary issue of her book, she’s finally home, but not in the way that she expected.
The book begins with Grail, the daughter of Darkseid, sitting on Hippolyta’s throne. She muses about how boring it was to listen to Ares stories as they were both trapped elsewhere and when he escaped and died, she was freed. The first thing she did? Take the God Killer Sword and take what she believed to be rightfully hers.
Grail has been a thorn in Wonder Woman’s side since her introduction during the Darkseid War (2017). She’s appeared regularly as an enemy of Wonder Woman with her schemes normally involving a way for her to take over Themyscira and it seems as though she’s finally gotten her with. Even more so that a few of the Amazons, including one of Wonder Woman’s most trusted friends, Nubia, is apparently among their ranks.
General Antiope and a few others welcome Wonder Woman back to a realm just outside of Themyscira known as Dimension Chi and they inform her of what has happened. Some Amazons decide to dance to welcome back their beloved princess, but Antiope does not as she worries that they aren’t yet prepared for battle, especially not Maggie, the woman who found Antiope’s sword in a lake. The two decide it’s best to train them all up before the fighting starts.
We get a wonderful training montage of Wonder Woman masterfully teaching her fellow Amazons and Maggie, but she and Antiope still worry that it all might not be enough. Wonder Woman thinks she has an ace up her sleeve as she has Atlantiades, a goddess of love and light that was previously trapped on Earth and who is also in love with Wonder Woman, fitted with armor for the battle.
Grail, having held Hippolyta prisoner, tells the queen to renounce her crown in front of her warriors, but Hippolyta is having none of that. She would rather be drowned in the sea than acquiesce to Grail’s cowardly demands and shames the Amazons that have joined her. Before she could push the Quen into the water, an arrow lands at Grails feet and Wonder Woman Amazons break through the barrier of Dimension Chi and attack Grail and her forces.
Wonder Woman grasps Grail right by the throat as her God Killer Sword suddenly goes missing, but decides to give Darkseid’s daughter a fighting chance. Jesus Merino takes over the art for these pages and the fight itself is pretty damn fantastic. Wonder Woman and Grail look like amazing pillars of strength and beauty surrounded by the clashing swords and spears of the other Amazon Warriors.
Merino has a knack for action scenes as his shots are absolute quality. Grail has absolute fury in her strikes with little to no finesse. Diana, of course is a very defensive and honorable fighter, a fault that Grail makes use of as she trips Diana to run away. On the other page, Antiope and Nubia engage each other in battle and their faces are drawn in warriors anger, Nubia telling Antiope that maybe not all is what it seems after Antiope chastises her for betrayal.
Maggie tries to make a break to the cave where Hippolyta has been moved to, but Grail takes a knife and makes a mad dash herself, knocking Maggie out of the fight before Wonder Woman follows suit after a distraction by the radiant Atlantiades. Wonder Woman corners Grail who reveals her best leverage – Isadore, the daughter of Wonder Woman’s arch enemy Veronica Cale who hasn’t been seen since the early days of this Wonder Woman run. Wonder Woman drops her weapons in order to see the girl unhurt, but, of course, Grail is a snake and attempts to slit her throat before an arrow catches in her hamstring. Nubia betrays Grail, saving Isadore and Hippolyta and ends this book with Grail back in chains and a hug between mother and daughter… until a new Offer is made involving the God Killer Sword and a certain feline villain.
G. Willow Wilson took the ball and ran with it when she took over Wonder Woman. Her run, so far, has been action packed, funny and heartwarming. It took her time to find footing, but this has been mostly great. I’m certain she’s going to continue, hopefully to issue #100 and I’m glad because she’s found an effective way to build upon Wonder Woman’s relationships and her mythology. Now that she’s back in Themyscira, for however long it lasts, I wonder what kind of stories Wilson will be able to tell, especially with Year of the Villain going on.
Best of this Week: House of X #1 – Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia and Clayton Cowles
“You have new Gods now.” – Erik Lehnsherr, 2019
The new era of X-Men is here and for all of its familiarity, it does something new and sort of unsettling with a tried and true formula. This is thanks to the beauty and scale of Larraz’s art and the far and wide nature with which Jonathan Hickman is crafting yet another saga to rival both his SHIELD and Avengers runs. If you let it, House of X will engulf you in a rich new mutant world filled with happiness and untold amounts of pride by it end, but also with a good helping of fear… as if everything is just a little bit off.
The book begins with a great wide shot of a figure staring up at what appears to be the root of or at least some important part of a tree. Two other figures, a woman with red hair and a man with glowing eyes, are birthed from two sacs under the tree and we get the familiar line, “To me, my X-Men. Presumably, this is Charles Xavier and as we progress, this idea is made clear as it seems we are doing away with the “X” identity he took up during Astonishing X-Men (2018). This also serves as some clear symbolism of a new rebirth for the X-Men.
Over the next few panels, we are shown shots of various X-Men planting flowers, plucked from the island of Krakoa, in various areas from their home in Westchester, New York to Mars, the moon and the Savage Land. The book is then framed around Magneto and two of the Stepford Cuckoos giving ambassadors from various countries a tour of the various locales that Krakoa has been placed upon as they ponder Charles’ proposed deal. This deal would allow them to make use of the flowers of Krakoa for various medicinal purposes, possibly making the world a much better place, so long as they agree to recognizing the sovereignty of the Krakoa nation state. A new Haven for Mutantkind.
Of course there have been such efforts made in the past. Genosha, the first and most prominently mentioned example, is alluded to have been the catalyst for humankind not being taken over by the mutant X gene. Mutantkind apparently would have become the dominant race on the planet Earth within ten years if not for Genosha’s destruction. Asteroid M and Utopia weren’t mentioned, but my guess is that they simply weren’t as impactful in regard to mutant kind likely because of the events of House of M (2005) dwindling their numbers to nothing. As it stands now, after the implementation of Krakoa spiking the birth rates to much higher than previously calculated, that humanity has about 20 years left.
These estimations are made by a brand new organization known as The Orchis Protocol, a network built for the purpose of monitoring evolutionary anomalies and preparing a doomsday protocol in case humanity is threatened by Homo Superior. The organization apparently consists of ex assets from practically all major organizations in the Marvel Universe from AIM, SHIELD and Hydra to even Hammer, Alpha Flight and SWORD. Some of Larraz’s best shots are in the scenes where we’re introduced to this mysterious group. They pilot a ship towards the sun and we get a good shot of the outside of a portion of their space station as they dock their ship.
Karima, an Omega Sentinel character that hasn’t been seen since sometime after Second Coming (2010) accompanies an Orchis higher up as they talk about the state of absolutely giant station so close to the sun. We get a bit of a tour before we get the best and most ominous shot of the full station. It appears to be the head of MASTER MOLD surrounded by hexagonal plates, the most terrifying shape in all of fiction. Master Mold hasn’t been really seen since about 1994, and again in 2010 because of universe jump in Second Coming. Master Mold was one of the X-Men’s most dangerous threats for it ability to produce sentinels at a rapid rate, so there’s no way that this can mean anything good.
Cutting back to New York, Mystique, Sabretooth and Toad are stealing information from the Damage Control Database. Mystique and Toad manage to get away, but Creed is captured by Invisible Woman and the rest of the Fantastic Four. Scott Summers shows up to remind them of the amnesty that’s apparently been granted to mutants, including thieves and possible killers like Sabretooth. Scott and, normally even tempered, Reed butt heads a little bit as Reed has a problem with Sabretooth getting away with his crimes and Scott acquiesces, seeing that Reed is serious. Scott does leave them with one sick burn as he tells Reed and Sue that Franklin has actual family on Krakoa when he’s ready.
What I love best about this scene is just how smug Reed is about all of this. For years, mutants have tried to stay out of the affairs of the greater Superhero world out of fear for their reputations. The shoe is on the other foot now that they have all of the leverage and the power that they so deserve. Even more awesomely, Scott’s new costume is a fantastic design combining the best of his Astonishing costume with the angular design of his Uncanny X-Men costume, minus the X mask, with blue lines instead of red.
Speaking of colors, Marte Gracia excelled in this regard. There’s so much symbolism to be gleaned from something as simple as a color change. Cyclops wore that suit in a red hue when he was a violent radical; having it recolored blue gives off the hint that he’s still a radical, but in the way that he dealt with the situation between Reed, he’s more hands off, non-violent even. Magneto normally wears red and purple when he’s angry and evil and gray during the AXIS (2015) era and that alluded to his anti-hero nature during that time. This go around he’s wearing white. He’s also peaceful, but at the same time he’s as graceful and imposing as he always has been, never betraying the idea that he is still the same man, but won’t harm anyone as long as they respect mutants. The most glaring example is the change in color from the AIM scientists where they’re wearing red instead of yellow.
In between each different scene we’re given these little interludes in the form of documents called Xavier files. These give some background on the new elements introduced in the book and the best one is the Omega Level file. There have been hundreds of mutants introduced over the years, many of which could have been considered Omega Level mutants, but thanks to Hickman’s expert writing, things have been parsed down to just fourteen. On Twitter, he stated that the X-Men lore was nothing but chaos, so he wrote a 14,000 word memo on what the new status quo would be, including limiting the use of the term “Omega Level.” This undoubtedly helps to establish something of a power structure given the high number of mutants that are known about while also acknowledging other heroes. Notably, while Forge is a master of technopathy, his level has been surpassed by humans in the past, but Magneto is the only master of Magnetism.
I want to bring things back to the tour. After it is over, several of the ambassadors agree to support Xavier. Russia’s ambassador never had intentions too, neither did one of the representatives of STRIKE as he was simply assigned to watch another ambassador. The last ambassador had a weapon hidden and Magneto immediately dismantles it and promises to each of them that things will be different. He wants them to tell their superiors that while Charles made the offer out of grace and love, it is NOT a negotiation.
Magneto takes pride in this. So much so that his assurance and steadfastness in his stance is powerful. It moved me. He tells them to be grateful for the bounty they’re receiving out of graciousness as mutants, like Thanos, are inevitable. It’s like he can actually see a future, one not shrouded in darkness for mutants and he’s smiling because he knows it’s coming.
This is one of the more interesting aspects of the book. Charles Xavier had always wanted to coexist with humanity, but after years of divisions and attacks, he seems to mostly be done with that. He’s willing to give humanity Krakoa’s flowers to make pills that will help them as long as they leave mutants alone. He’s effectively made something that will definitely topple the pharmaceutical market and he has to know that humanity would start to get very afraid. Not only that, but Krakoa has the ability to create portals that can move mutants from place to place without humans being able to track where they’re going. Of course the ambassadors are afraid of the use they could have as far as movement and positioning in case things went to war, but Magneto assures them that it is only them that wants war.
Everything seems perfect. Everything seems like it’s going to be alright, but that helmet… something about that helmet and the bodysuit reminds me of The Maker, another Jonathan Hickman creation from his turn on The Ultimates. It scares me and I needed that, I needed something to keep me hooked and the fear that everything is not as it seems is just that.
House of X hit the ground running. While it does little to acknowledge the fantastic Uncanny X-Men run from Matthew Rosenberg, that’s probably for the best. Jonathan Hickman does his best work when he has a fresh slate. He took over Avengers from Brian Michael Bendis and made an amazing story over the course of nearly four years. He reinvigorated SHIELD and the Fantastic Four with innovative stories that had nothing to do with the books prior to them. Hell, the reverberations of his runs on each of these are still being felt to this day.
Pepe Larraz was possibly the absolute best artist to capture Hickman’s vision for this project. His high angles and wide shots give credence to the size of the story. His facial expressions give into the idea that mutants have won this time, there’s hope where previously there was none. Body language surprisingly upbeat, bouncy even. There’s a lot to say about symbolism in terms of sun positioning in many scenes. The book has many showing the sun rising, symbolically showing a rise for the mutants. I see Orchis base near the sun as an allegory for Icarus flying too close to it. As the book ends with a sunset over Jerusalem, I see things as the sun setting on the time of humanity.
X-Men and their vast history is absolutely ripe for fine tuning if not complete destruction only for it to be made bigger and better in the years to come. I have no idea where this story is going and with 80,000 spin-offs incoming with a bunch of different creative teams, there will absolutely be something for everyone. In an attempt to revitalize a part of the world that used to sell like gangbusters, Jonathan Hickman is gearing up to shoot the X-Men right back up to the moon and light the world on fire behind them.
Runner Up: Wonder Woman: Come Back to Me #1 – Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Chad Hardin, Alex Sinclair and Travis Lanham
After all of the Doom and gloom, sometimes it’s nice to get back to something simple.
As part of the Walmart Exclusive 100 Page Giants that DC published, each giant gets 15 pages of original story content and two of those have been published in this fun book. Where Tom King’s Superman was dreary, overbearingly awful and melancholy, Brian Michael Bendis’ Batman was interesting and fun, Conner and Palmiotti’s Wonder Woman is awe-inspiring and badass.
Before the book starts, we’re treated to a title page that’s just a splash of Wonder Woman posing like a badass, goddess of muscle and beauty. It showcases Hardin’s talent for shots of nice landscapes and backgrounds, but also an understanding of what Diana is all about; regality, strength and a love/respect of nature.
We begin with Diana and Steve Trevor enjoying a day at the beach. Within just a few panels we see just how much these two love each other with both of them making cute quips and Steve preparing their picnic lunch. Steve tells her that he’s going to be testing an experimental aircraft that he’d been working on, but he wishes that he had more time off with her. Steve drops her off at her house after a good swim and the two make out before he has to leave.
She and Etta Candy, who’s living in Diana’s house until her apartment gets repaired, watch the news and get word of a huge fire that’s trapped several firefighters and animals. Wonder Woman races off to save the day and in an epic shot, stuns the firefighters who were starting to get very distressed. Floating above them all, Wonder Woman looks amazing, a beacon of light in a dark situation, ready to help in any way that she can!
After making plans on how to get everyone safe, she displays an ability that has either been long forgotten or is new from Conner and Palmiotti as she talks to the animals to calm them down. I don’t actually know that she’s talking to them or if she’s just able to tell what they’re thinking by looking at them, but it’s an absolutely amazing ability that I hope gets used in the normal continuity of books too. The backgrounds in most of these shots looks great though. The harshness of the fire contrasted with the hopefulness of Wonder Woman’s presence gives me a warm feeling. The sight of the trees burning and the embers wafting away almost makes it feel like it could be touched.
Wonder Woman uses an entire tree to slap her way through the forest with the firefighters strapped to the backs of moose and bears. After extinguishing the flames she celebrates with the firefighters that she’s saved with drink before heading back home. Once she arrives, Etta tells her that Steve’s plane was lost somewhere near the Bermuda and it’s up to the two of them to save him.
The latter half of the book involves them being sucked into a weird storm that destroys the Invisible Jet and leaves Wonder Woman without most of her powers. They arrive on a strange island where some of the animals talk back and others are HUGE masses of death.
While not featuring the world ending stories of Year of the Villain or City of Bane, it’s nice to take a step back to simple rescue missions. Whether it’s saving the man that she loves or an entire department of firefighters, Wonder Woman does what she can for everyone. She gets along with everyone, everything and definitely comes off as the most compassionate of the Trinity. Conner and Palmiotti wrote this simply enough, but also injected their brand of comedy to give things a bit of levity, especially when Etta wakes up and finds that she can talk to crabs.
Chad Hardin deserves a ton of credit for his art too. His lines are thick, his focus on anatomy is apparent and his faces are very expressive, showing all manner of sadness, joy and shock. With Alex Sinclair’s coloring, things are given a lot of depth. This helps a lot in seeing how bad the forest fire is, how far Etta and Diana fall after the jet breaks and most importantly, how jacked Wonder Woman is.
Of all of these reprints, this might be the one I’m looking forward to the most. High recommend!
Best of this Week: Justice League #28 – James Tynion IV, Javier Fernandez, Daniel Sampere, Juan Albarran, Hi-Fi, Tom Napolitano
Doom is coming.
Martian Manhunter, J’onn J’onzz, is hearing the whispers of the people. He hears them asking for Lex Luthor to grant their wishes, for power, money, confidence and J’onn is determined to stop him. With Hawkgirl, the two fly to the last place that J’onn traced Luthor’s presence. Luthor, however, was already in J’onn’s head and commands him to knock Hawkgirl unconscious so that they may talk.
Elsewhere on Qward, in the Antimatter Universe, the rest of the League stand on the lifeless world looking for The Anti-Monitor. Daniel Sampere has few pages in the book, but he makes the best of every one that he is given. The first splash page is absolutely beautiful as it establishes John Stewart as the head of this mission given his numerous battles with Sinestro and his Weaponeers. The rest of the League also look badass with Batman’s broody darkness flanked by Superman’s big blue hope. Even with the World Forger and the Monitor behind The Flash and Wonder Woman, they stand out as uber-imposing figures with the League.
They find that the planet is lifeless with a message left by the Anti-Monitor in the Weaponeers blood. He warns them not to follow and the team is left at a loss because the being could be literally anywhere in the multiverse. J’onn and Luthor walk around a secret lab/refuge that Luthor had been hidden for a very long time. Luthor explains that his Offers are going out to the worst of the worst and the Manhunter asks why Luthor is telling him all of this, the newly reborn villain replies with “Why not?” because he did broadcast it to the world before his “suicide.”
What makes this most interesting is the uneasiness at watching Lex Luthor, the man who held his sanity and guile above all things, slip into the realm of madness and resignation to his vow of Doom. He tries to convince J’onn that there’s no more need to fight for the greater good given how willing people were to embrace Doom. He says that J’onn’s own desire to save or rehabilitate Luthor is part of his own eventual downfall.
Luthor praises something higher than himself by waxing poetic about Perpetua’s vision of what man and Martian was supposed to be. He acknowledges his own jealousy of Superman after having a conversation with Perpetua at length. Apparently she tells him that humanity AND Martiankind would have been immortal, apex predators, conquerors of the multiverse. He Offers J’onn a choice; to join him or not.
J’onn calls him insane.
Luthor had hoped that things wouldn’t come to this but i left with no other choice than to activate tech that had been in J’onn’s mind since one of their earlier encounters. It slowly undoes the Martian’s cellular structure as Hawkgirl wakes up and attempt to save him. Fernandez has always been good with faces and the way that he conveys her terror at watching J’onn slowly come undone as Luthor grins evilly is masterful. Hawkgirl cries as Luthor absorbs J’onn’s body into himself, the rest of the Legion attack the League and Starman, Shayne and Jarro see the end of the world at the Legion of Doom’s hand.
This book was absolutely stellar. Ending the Apex Predator arc on a very low note was probably the best decision to showcase how much more powerful Luthor is in this form. He’s gone completely mad and yet lucid. He’s sure of his path and even the best that the Justice League has to offer isn’t enough to stop his plans from coming to fruition. With the Anti-Monitor keeping away from the League, one has to wonder what it is he’s afraid of or what he’s trying to avoid and what is the horrible end that Starman has seen?
The stakes are getting higher and higher as we continue to make our way to the culmination of everything as the Year of the Villain soldiers on.
Runner Up: The Superior Spider-Man #9 (Legacy #42) – Christos Gage, Mike Hawthorne, Wade von Grawbadger, Jordie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles
The “Superior” Spider-Man is actually starting to live up to the ideal.
After the events of the War of the Realms, the Spider-Man of San Francisco is awarded the key to the city for his efforts in making sure that there were zero casualties as Frost Giants stomped their way across SanFran. He accepts the gesture, but “crime” calls him away, only it’s not a crime, he simply thinks he has better things to do with his time than deal with the trivialities of ceremonies. He heads back to his lab and converses with Anna Maria about her making him go to the ceremony and summarily dismisses his colleague Emma after she apologizes for freaking out on him on their first date.
Otto seems to be in a bigger huff than usual and takes his frustrations out on a minor villain by the name of Turner D. Century. Century’s quickly defeated after a savage beating by Otto and the surprise appearance by Spider-Man, Peter Parker. Peter shows up at the request of Anna Maria and being one of the men who knows Otto best, he simply asks what’s wrong. Otto has been irritable, moody and angry since he saved the city and he obviously has no one to talk to.
He immediately spills to Peter that while he was able to keep San Francisco safe, thousands of people still died in the US, more abroad. He removes his mask and Hawthorne paints the face of a man that’s tortured by guilt and doubt. Otto feels that he’s the greatest mind in the world and that he should have thought of something. He doesn’t want to hear Pete say that he can’t save everyone, but it’s eating him up inside that he can’t.
By far, this is some of the best character work and advancement that we’ve seen from Otto in a while. He tried to become a hero, tried to be a good guy while he was inhabiting Peter’s body, but now that he’s doing it on his own and seeing the fruits and consequences of his labors, he sees how hard it is. He’s becoming a good guy and I’m here for it.
After Peter tells him that he’s doing the hero thing right, Emma shows up on the roof that they’ve swung up to and Otto breaks down in tears in front of her. He tries to posture that he’s a loner and asks if he looks like someone that needs anything from anyone before being held by her. He cries in her arms and they finally go on a second date with a surprising enemy spying on them.
I love it when heroes become good guys, no matter how brief it might be, watching Otto rise before his inevitable fall is interesting. I love the fact that he’s sort of mended fences with Anna Maria, I love that he’s found a near intellectual equal in Emma. He has a life and is using his smarts as a teacher and a hero in San Francisco. His ego is still huge, but he’s finally starting to see his faults, becoming Superior than Doctor Octopus.
Mike Hawthorne’s art is stellar. He has a talent for faces and body language. Otto expresses frustration, annoyance and grief; not only in his face, but with the slumping of his shoulders, the shaking in his hands and the tension in his fists. He even somehow finds a way to differentiate between Peter and Otto’s bodies given that Otto’s is cloned.
This Superior Spider-Man has far more emotion in this one issue than Otto’s had in the many years since the original run. It’s a joy to see the once horrible villain embrace his own good emotions for the benefit of others. This is a definite high recommend!
Best of this Week: Uncanny X-Men #22 (Legacy #644) – Matthew Rosenberg, Salvador Larroca, David Messina, GURU-eFX and Joe Caramagna
It’s the end of an era and for once, I’m terrified.
I’ve been a fan of the X-Men for a long time. I’d even go so far as to say that they’re my favorite team in all of comics ever because of the range that their stories can go, from tales of marginalization to various stories of abuse and moral relativism, the X-Men have been amazing so why has it taken them so long to feel relevant again? At some point even the best books run out of good stories to tell or end up retreading old waters for a drink of nostalgia and that’s been the X-Men for the last five to six years.
Cyclops had become what Magneto was, young versions of the original five were brought to the future, villains like Mojo and Exodus were brought back, Sentinel threats reemerged X-Men died and were brought back. In the grand scheme of things, it was all a mess with no cohesive direction and Marvel noticed. In comes Matthew Rosenberg who, I admittedly, was very wary of because I hated both his time on Astonishing X-Men and the Multiple Man mini-series. I don’t know if it was all his idea, but he decided to wipe the slate clean with a new Uncanny X-Men series and… it was stupendous from start to finish.
In the aftermath of Emma Frost’s actions from the last issue, the X-Men that are still on our Earth have found a peace that Mutants have never known. With humanities knowledge of mutants erased, Scott Summers is at a loss and questioning what his role in life is now that no one needs protecting. He and Dani Moonstar, aka Mirage, wax poetic on the nature of mutations and what their next course of action is. Scott is morose, seeing as his mutation made him function primarily as a weapon to fight back against humanity as it tried to destroy him, but now that they don’t know he exists, what is he good for?
The dynamic between them is interesting. Scott has been fighting since he was a teenager and he’s only ever seen this life as one big war. Dani is still young, but has the experience of several lifetimes and all that she can think of is helping people. Both of them have experienced loss but process it differently. Scott sees all of his friends as soldiers in the fight where Dani sees them as family. Of course this is because Scott has been leading everyone for so long and Dani has gone through thick and thin with the New Mutants, the Fearless Defenders and the X-Men themselves.
This causes a disagreement between the two and she simply walks away from him as Alex Summers, aka Havok, speaks with his brother about the freedom of being ignored over being targeted. On their way back to the Hellfire Mansion, Alex explains that every bit of leadership he’s ever had to exhibit was learned from Scott. Even with all of his brooding, Scott has been a great leader and it definitely helped when Alex was an Avenger, and he lets his brother know that he’s thankful for it before they’re attacked by some kind of golden Sentinel.
Scott’s unable to damage it and Alex surmises that they’ll never make it back to the mansion before the Sentinel kills them both, so in an act of self sacrifice, knowing that his powers won’t affect Scott, he self destructs and destroys the evil machine. Soon after, more arrive under the control of the General that originally help Emma Frost captive and target the remaining mutants. The battle is hard fought with heavy casualties before the rest of the X-Men return from Nate Grey’s utopian world, winning the battle for mutantkind.
This is the final issue of Uncanny X-Men and it ends on a bittersweet note.
*Slight SPOILERS BELOW*
Havok, a man who was on top of the world, brought low and tried to climb his way back up made the ultimate sacrifice just so that his brother could continue being the leader he is. Madrox, who was just brought back to life has met yet another grisly end, but the status quo has reset though very similarly to the Astonishing X-Men or Mutopia eras in a way. Jean Grey has returned to Scott, Emma and Magneto appear to be on the side of angels again and the X-Men are choosing not to hide anymore.
Shifting focus from this amazingly written and fantastically drawn book, I want to look towards the future and the threads left untied. House of X begins next week and I don’t know how to make heads or tails of things. Who is the man with the giant globe on his head? Is it professor X who had recently taken over the body of Fantomex and is now known as X? Will Magneto ever make use of the Brotherhood he established late last year? What will happen to Illyana now that she’s a demon again? I don’t know, but I am very excited.
This run was great. Rosenberg wrote everything in the most dire way possible given the situation and it fit each and every month. Scott remained hopeful in the face of ever present adversity, flanked by Logan who back up almost all of his actions. Characterizations were great from Dani acting as a voice of reason and Hope being a militaristic badass and the surprisingly black humored Jamie. Larroca’s art never faltered in being action packed but also still and dark.
Whatever comes next from this team, I have high hopes for.
Runner Up: Batman #74 – Tom King, Mikel Janin, Jordie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles
Tom King’s Batman can be hit or miss sometimes, but this one is definitely a hit.
For the entirety of his superhero career, Batman has been driven by one singular goal: to make sure what happened to him as a child didn’t happen to anyone else. He’s vowed to protect the streets of Gotham and to honor the memory of his parents and the city they loved.
This vow has become increasingly harder to honor over the course of this run; from being unable to save a possible replacement in the Superman-like Gotham, to being told to stop being Batman by his father from an alternate universe, and ultimately being left at the altar by the love of his life. One man is responsible for it all, Bane.
Part of the (admittedly) convoluted scheme to break the Batman was to somehow bring the Flashpoint Batman from his Universe to finally convince his son to stop. Thomas rationalizes that all Bruce needs is the love of his parents and his sickness, his broken need to be Batman will go away. As revealed in the last issue, Thomas’ goal is to resurrect Martha Wayne in Ra’s al Ghul’s most powerful Lazarus Pit and reunite the Wayne family.
Mikel Janín’s art remains amazing as always. I could gush for days about how he’s able to make Thomas and Bruce solemnly expressive through body language and only using the lower halves of their faces, but Jordie Bellaire, is the real star of this issue. She manages to color this story in a way that makes it seem like it takes place in three acts.
The first act takes place in the beautiful drawn and barren desert after Bruce and Thomas reconnect while fighting Ra’s ninjas. Everything is bright and the yellows, contrasted to the Blacks of the Bats give things a slightly warm feel. Thomas is happy for his son to join him and give up his crusade.
The second act shows Bruce and Thomas reaching the edge of the pit and is coated in the cool blue hues of night. The scene feels somber and intimate as Thomas tells Bruce how stubborn he was as a child, crying because he wanted to hear his favorite story over and over until he fell asleep. Thomas says that Bruce absolutely got that from his mother, who would constantly insist that Thomas read him that story, how she always had faith that Bruce would sleep. The two begin to climb down into the pit.
Throughout the issue the Russian Folk Tale, “Animals in the Pit” had been told and spoken about in the usual Tom King style. The tale involves a group of animals that get trapped in a pit and perform contests where the loser gets eaten. In the end, one of the two remaining animals tricks the other into ripping himself open and feasts on his flesh.
In the final act, in the dark of the pit, the book takes on a harsh red hue. Thomas is finally there, at the end of his journey to give his son the happiness and family he deserves. Saying that he couldn’t deny Bruce his childish wishes as a kid, but now he will deny him remaining Batman.
Bruce tells him that the reason he wanted to hear the story constantly was because, despite the horror, his father told him the story with a bit of levity. Bruce gained hope that one of the animals just might escape and even if he knew it was impossible, he never gave up hope. He then betrays his father with a right cross to the face.
Janín can draw a beautiful, flashy fight scene when he wants to, but this fight is anything but. It’s raw and brutal, it’s close quarters and every emotion is felt, accentuated by the excellent coloring. Bruce punches his father, Thomas punches his son right back. Even when the fight pivots away from them to focus on the coffin, the tension is still there. Their ideological struggle is felt through the shadows on the wall and when Thomas is thrown into the coffin, things spiral downward for him.
Right on the heels of the hopefully amazing “City of Bane” storyline, this two issue filler arc strengthens Batman’s resolve for what will be the final confrontation with one of his greatest enemies and all of his pawns in Tom King’s Batman run. While the issue does suffer from the usual King-isms (long winded diatribes taking up entire pages, lack of explanation for possibly crucial plot points, like how Thomas came to this world, and the general pretentiousness in dialogue structure) they don’t pull the issue down in a distracting way. While mildly annoying, they fit this story very well and continue to expand on Bruce’s reverence for his mother, introduced in the “I Am Suicide” arc and furthers him being resolute in his mission.
Bane’s going to have hell to pay when the Batman comes for him. High recommend.
Best of this Week: Batman and the Outsiders #3 – Bryan Hill, Dexter Soy, Veronica Gandini and Clayton Cowles
Batman’s Outsiders has a lot to learn before they can properly function as a team.
After losing Sofia, the girl that they were charged with protecting, Baman gathers the team together and tells them that they are going to get her back, but first they need to be tested. On the other side of the coin, Sofia finds herself in the clutches of Ra’s al Ghul, who places the man who killed her father in front of her. Ra’s tells her to kill him, her own test to see if she’s worthy of being trained by him.
The book flips the focus between two central characters specifically, those being Sofia and Duke Thomas, aka The Signal. As mentioned in my last review of Batman and the Outsiders, this book was slated to come out around the same time or after an arc in Detective Comics where Batman’s sidekicks were being targeted by a murderous villain by the name of Karma. His primary targets were the Cassandra Cain and Duke Thomas, the latter of whom is still suffering from PTSD after failing to save a kid with a bomb strapped to him by Karma and being injured in the explosion.
Ishmael, the man who killed Sofia’s father, kneels before her and goads her into attacking him, telling her that he heard her father’s last thoughts before he died. He says that her father wishes that she were killed instead of him and Sofia succumbs to her anger, striking Ishmael. After a smokescreen clears, Duke is met by someone wearing Karma’s gear and attacks the figure in a rage. “Karma” tries to convince Duke that he doesn’t deserve the metahuman power that he has, the ability to see what others cannot (see Dark Knights: Metal), and that Batman must be disappointed.
After thoroughly thrashing Ishmael, Ra’s gives Sofia a sword, telling her to end Ishmael and become another of his weapons. She holds the sword in her hands and thinks long and hard about her decision. Ultimately, she decides that vengeance is the only option and chooses to plunge the blade into Ishmael. Ra’s reveals the test for what it is, allowing Ishmael to defend himself and telling Sofia that if she joins him, nothing will hurt her again.
Cornered and afraid, Karma approaches Duke and asks him where is his team now, making him think that The Signal is all alone. Suddenly, Cassandra kicks Karma in the face, Katana slashes him in the face of the mask and Black Lightning picks the kid up from the ground. Bruce reveals that he was the one under Karma’s mask and tells Duke that he is very proud of him.
This issue was made great by the duality of the situations presented. Batman normally takes in broken kids and builds them back up to be strong, compassionate and in tune with their emotions. Ra’s al Ghul takes young men and women and turns them into unrepentant killing machines under his will. Duke could just as easily have been in the same position that Sofia is in now and vice versa. Sofia, however, will be a harder case to bring back to the light now that she knows that she has given in to her darker side. Sofia has a chance to become like Damian if she’s lucky, but who’s to say?
Duke has already been to the dark depths since his late childhood, watching his parents get forever Jokerized, dealing with an army of wannabe Joker kids as a teen and fighting against the Dark Multiverse as Batman’s new ward. Duke has been through a lot, but he’s also been able to overcome every threat in his way. Karma took that security away from him when he made Duke watch his own failure and this left the young man angry and broken, unwilling to take orders from anyone lest he make the same mistakes again.
Batman and the Outsiders succeeds at placing it’s focus on characters other than Batman, leaving him as more of a support player while the stories hone in on individuals or team dynamics than Batman’s leadership. Duke Thomas has been out of the picture for a while and having the gates flood open on his headspace in particular made me very happy. I also kind of like Sofia. While not exactly super fleshed out yet, she shows a lot of promise especially making the decision to have this new character go down a dark path in the beginning. She has good motivations and I actually hope that by the end of this arc, she earns a place on the team properly.
Runner Up: Miles Morales: Spider-Man #8 (Legacy #248) – Saladin Ahmed, Javier Garrón, David Curiel and Travis Lanham
Something about black people and being experimented on makes me uncomfortable.
In the last issue, Miles was captured by some sort of weird teleporting being after helping Bombshell fight off some ridiculously strong robots. This issue begins with him in some dark room, strapped to some kind of operating table with a heart beat monitor and only a creepy robot-thing to keep him company.
Miles looks absolutely terrified. Not only because he doesn’t know where he is or who captured him, but the robot interacting with him says that its boss, The Assessor, will target Miles’ family and friends if he doesn’t comply. Miles agrees to the experiments and tests if only just to keep them safe.
The Assessor tests his combat, speed and climbing abilities and pushes Miles to his absolute limits. He’s run ragged in a way that is seldom seen except in cases where the threat is life or death. It goes on and on for an undetermined amount of time until Miles wakes up in an operating room where doctors discuss his DNA and maybe kidnapping his family for more subjects.
This angers and scares Miles into breaking free, beating up the doctors and defeating the teleporting enemy from before to make his grand escape.
Only… it turns out to be another test.
Saladin Ahmed absolutely nailed this issue with his focus on the bleakness and fear in Miles and the situation he’s in. He made me genuinely terrified to turn the pages and see the next torture Miles would have to go through. Ahmed writes Miles like the scared teenage superhero that he is, he’s hopeful, but frantic in the face of an enemy that knows who he is and how to hurt him.
Javier Garrón and David Curiel do their best to nail the unsettling feeling of the sanitized experimental environment that Miles finds himself in and utilize panel layouts to make the book even more terrifying.
Every blank space around each panel is black compared to the normal white. Every panel is also small and feels claustrophobic, leaning heavily into the nature of the facility Miles finds himself in. In it’s own way, it’s clean and very structured to the point where it feels like you could be trapped reading the book.
I also feel like there’s something here in the fact that it’s the black Spider-Man being experimented on. Of course Pete has been poked and prodded every which way for years, but the way that the doctors and the robot were talking about Miles, made him seem less than human. He was never called a kid, just “the Subject.”
Truly there are three absolutely horrifying pages in this issue. The first is where Miles has been ordered to sleep and he’s shrouded in darkness aside from his face and the heartbeat monitor. The other is the double page spread of about 18 – 26 panels of Miles running, fighting, being scared, bleeding and all of the tortures he’s put through while captured.
This issue is a high recommend because it’s a well written and fantastically drawn chapter in this Miles Morales run. Saladin Ahmed draws heavily from his Black Bolt series in terms of storytelling and Garrón makes it all so real and visceral. As far as this run goes, this issue and the one prior are pretty good starting points if you’ve missed the rest!
Ty Talks Comics 