Best of DC: Week of October 9th, 2019

Best of this Week: The Joker: Year of the Villain One Shot – John Carpenter (yes, that John Carpenter), Anthony Burch, Philip Tan, Marc Deering, Danny Miki, Jonathan Glapion, Jay David Ramos and Gabriela Downie

John Carpenter understands horror.

Helming the incredible Halloween franchise, the remakes of The Thing and a slew of iconic (and absolutely godawful) movies, Carpenter helped lend his skill to yet another psychopath in the form of the Joker in his comic debut and it is unsettling. While the rest of the Year of the Villain One-Shots have followed a particular villain and what Lex Luthor had to offer them, this book takes an entirely different route and chooses to focus on one of the Joker’s henchman while he and his boss tear through Gotham after another recent breakout from Arkham Asylum.

Referring to himself only as Six of Hearts, this mostly somber tale sees the man examine his own mental illness through the lens of freedom while saddling alongside the Joker as they attempt to “stomp out crime” in Gotham City. Initially, he sees his illness as something that he needs to hide or repress since he is unable to get a grasp on whether whether his world is real or if everything is in his head.

He admires the Joker for his supposed freedom, the wackiness he displays by being open and free with his crazy and how unapologetic he is. Philip Tan shows this by drawing Six or “Of” as Joker refers to him, with this glazed over look of wonder as Joker blows up the other 51 henchman because they didn’t break him out. Watching Six’s face appear as if it’s being pulled into the explosion gives the idea that all of the anarchy is drawing him in. He doesn’t fear Joker, he’s willing to follow him through anything.

Joker doesn’t take notice of the kid until he randomly speaks up as the Clown Prince is dumping Scarecrow’s fear gas into the Gotham River. He asks Six of Hearts to drive him somewhere and puts a gun to the henchman’s head once boredom creeps in, ordering him to say something fun. We’re then treated to Six of Heart’s backstory of abuse for his mental illness. Gabriela Downie does an excellent job of using letters in the place of traditional borders for this scene, each border reading “Ha,” for Joker’s maddening laugh.

The scene is horrible and we see Sox’s father beating him, asking if it would kill him to be normal for two seconds before cutting to Six of Hearts holding a bloody skillet over the battered head of his father as his mother cries after trying to calm him from the beating. It’s a devastating scene that shows how the misunderstanding of mental illness can lead to needless violence.

Joker appears sated and removes the gun from Six of Hearts face and smiles, calling his tale fun. The two then stop at a gas station and encounter Condiment King. The…F-List villain attempts to rob Six, using a flurry of sauce based pins before Joker emerges from one of the aisles to put the fear of God into the villain. Putting his arm around Condiment King’s shoulder, grabbing the mustard gun and putting it directly against his head as he blubbers and cries, he fires and nearly drowns Condiment King in mustard.

Joker’s face is absolutely terrifying, shrouded in shadow with only his real eyes and red mouth, he appears far more demonic and scary than normal. His teeth are a gross yellow, making him appear gross as well. Tan does a great job of selling the fear and danger of the Joker with Condiment King’s face being absolutely great with tears and snot coming from every orifice.

With justice dispensed, Joker finds his “true” calling and makes Six don a Robin costume with himself in a Batman costume as the two then go out and fight crime. In the same way that Batman Odyssey was insane, this part of the book pulls no punches either, with mad grins from the Joker, ill fitting costumes on both men and absurd over the top violence. A man and his dog are just walking on the street when Robin Six accuses him of some sort of crime before letting him go after seeing his innocence. Just as he’s about to walk away, Joker shoots him, saying he’s got a gun, then shoots the dog saying the same thing before planting the gun on the dog.

I audibly laughed at how ridiculous it was. It was so sudden and so random that I couldn’t contain it and the rest of the book continued that way. This is when the cracks began to show and Six slowly realized that Joker might not be all that he seemed. After an incident with Enchantress and Joker almost shooting a server in the face while commenting about Sox’s mother from earlier, Six gets terrified and tries to run from Joker. He returns home only to find Joker in his Bat costume holding a knife to his mother’s throat.

This scene felt terrifying. Coated in a slight red tint, we see the true madness from the Joker as he’s been listening to every word Six had said, knowing that he knew what he was doing all along. Six of Hearts realizes that Joker’s been done the entire time and that he’s not like his former idol at all and he attacks him in a rage. He somehow gets the upper hand before Joker puts the Batmask on Six and croaks “harder” as Six of Hearts chokes him to death. This catches the boy off guard and Joker sees the opportunity to beat him half to death with a crowbar before sauntering off.

The faces and the colors make for an absolutely great experience as we’re able to watch Six of Hearts explode with rage, Deering, Miki and Glapion’s various inks showcasing the darkness of the scene. Joker’s evil is palpable with all of this darkness. Jay David Ramos’ dark, but intense colors set an amazing tone for the somehow warm feeling that we’re supposed to get from this scene. Six of Heart earns something of a clarity, realizing that while the Joker doesn’t care about him, his mother still does and he loves her. As long as he was able to protect her and do something good with his life, then everything was worth it.

She embraces him and their broken relationship begins to mend itself unexpectedly. For an unbelievably dark and morbid story, this was amazingly sweet at the end.

I don’t know how much Anthony Burch had to carry the script for this issue, but I can definitely see Carpenter’s influence heavy in the book. Joker is amazingly terrifying and well directed and Six of Hearts is an excellent stand in for the general reader. This story was fantastic and in an event where Doom is the ultimate goal, it’s nice to get a little bit of hope.

Philip Tan’s art and the rest of the creative team from the various inkers to Jay David Ramos on colors were fantastic. Joker looks like an absolute maniac and the colors are so full and beautiful. The inks are appreciably dark to match an equally dark character and the story therein.

I really, really want John Carpenter to do another book in much the same vein. Maybe Joe Hill and the rest of the Hill House imprint can have a place for him?

Best of Marvel: Week of October 9th, 2019

Best of this Week: Powers of X #6 – Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, R.B. Silva, Marte Gracia, David Curiel and Clayton Cowles

Moira MacTaggert just became far more powerful and dangerous than we could have imagined.

When I wrote the review for House of X #2 all those weeks back, I was under the impression that Moira MacTaggert had an overall purpose for her deaths and reincarnations in regards to making a mutant utopia that works and now I’m not so sure. I’m not saying that that isn’t the main goal, but there’s now a far more nefarious edge that’s been given to her intentions that aligns with my uneasy feeling about Charles throughout this story. I thought this was a story about mutants finally being able to flourish and slowly outnumber humanity.

But it’s about the first steps to utter annihilation.

The book begins with Moira’s 7th or 10th life (around Powers of X #1), I’m very unsure, and gives us the answer to what she showed Charles that set him on the path that we see him on now. Powers of X has been mainly focusing on a dystopian future where mutantkind has been nearly exterminated and both humanity and various forms of sentinels are flourishing. One of the main characters we’ve observed in this future is The Librarian, an evolved human acting as the receptacle of all knowledge of humanity.

The vision begins with him entering a secret entrance to a place called The Preserve, very reminiscent of Krakoa, at least in terms of how to enter it and the residents therein. He’s immediately attacked by a beast-like man who is then revealed to be Logan, still alive after a thousand or so years and he stops him. The Librarian makes it a point to tell Logan that he’ll never be fast enough to kill him as he can’t feel everything about to happen and stop it before Logan has a chance to react. They have a short conversation about how English is now a dead language, but the Librarian has learned it to have a conversation, not with Logan, but with Moira X.

She emerges from the shadows and the Librarian laments that the time of the last Mutants is about to come to an end because of the Phalanx. He also muses that he will separate Moira from the rest to prevent her from dying as that will immediately reset the timeline, stopping the Phalanx and The Librarian from ever coming into existence and he doesn’t want anything to have that power over him if he’s to exit outside of reality.

That’s the first definitive answer to how powerful Moira is that we’ve gotten thus far. We know that no matter what, she will die and come back to life and something like this has been speculated, but actually just resetting the timeline, erasing EVERYTHING that came before and starting again with the wealth of a thousand plus years of knowledge is insane to me.

The Librarian, however, also knows that he likes to observe and see the wonders of the world and asks Moira how she would prevent this future from happening if she could, taunting the pair with their “evolutionary inevitability.” He notes that Mutants have never been able to see their true enemy, always blaming the creation of machines as their ultimate downfall. The book turn everything on its head when it’s revealed that it has never been the machines, but humanity itself.

Mutants adapt traits to their environments, but that doesn’t hold a candle to genetic engineering. Think about heroes like Captain America, The Hulk, Luke Cage, all of them were just regular joe schmoes that gained insane abilities from accidents or experimentation and can rival any one mutant. If you add machines and nanotechnology to that mix, then things become even more insane as they’re constantly able to be upgraded, reprogrammed and will destroy any threat that humanity sees until eventually consuming their masters.

Maybe there’s a reason Charles was so willing to give away the Krakoa drugs. Speculation gives way to the idea that Moira, in her infinite knowledge, found a way to imbue those drugs with DNA chemicals in them. (That is in no way supported by this story) But I would love the idea that Logan proposed, to stop post-humanism, you have to do it at the humanity part. It aligns with Charles’ overall goal of using The Five and Cerebro to bring back the 16 million mutants killed on Genosha and overpower the number of Humans in the world with far greater numbers.

The Librarian turns his back to Logan and Moira and says that maybe since they have no alternative, then maybe it is also his destiny to become as a God…and then Wolverine kills him, quicker than he could have prevented. Armed with this new knowledge, Moira tells Logan to kill her and this scene is beautiful. I believe R.B. Silva draws this part of the book but the gravitas of the scene – Moira gently feeling Logan’s hand to reveal his adamantium claws, their silhouettes juxtaposed against the colors of morning light and the slight smile she gives are perfect. Marte Gracia and/or David Curiel’s colors as he impales her with his claws are immaculate as the lighting implies that life is leaving her body and sort of fits my motif of the bright morning shining on mutant kind.

With all of this, we find out that Moira’s been the one that’s had to break Charles Xavier of the notion of peaceful coexistence with humanity. It’s also revealed that because she’s gotten too close to everything, that she’s had to fake her death to operate in the shadows and let Xavier and Magneto act as figureheads to the movement when in reality, almost everything is according to her plan.

But of course, not everything is as good as we’d hope as Moira’s been hiding the biggest secret from everyone else on Krakoa aside from Charles and Erik – Mutants will always lose.

Everytime, in every scenario, humans and mutants clash and inevitably, mutants are defeated. Moira has set a rule that mutants with precognitive abilities are not allowed to come back to life because if they’re allowed to see the future and they destroy the very foundation that Krakoa is built on, then everything will have been for naught. This could also allude to the visions that Blindfold had before she killed herself in Matthew Rosenberg’s Uncanny X-Men.Charles and Erik promised Mystique that they’d bring Destiny back to life and Moira lambasts them for even promising that, but they explain that they’ve been putting her off as long as they can, but eventually they will tell the truth.

We see the celebration from House of X #6, but it’s been recontextualized. Under all of the celebration, the hope, is the feeling of dread. The feeling of utter hopelessness, knowing that it will all reach its end within a thousand years, all because of the idealism of men.

House of X and Powers of X have been amazing reads thus far. I love how circular this story is, how referential it is to past history of the X-Men and paints a new ideal of the futility of mutant life as long as humanity is still around to destroy them. It separates the X-Men from the numerous other superheroes by pointing directly at the lengths humanity will go to make sure that they remain the dominant species on Earth.

RB Silva and David Curiel have done a phenomenal job of giving this book life. From the cheery beginning of a lush and hopeful green to the ending of the dark night sky, lit by the explosions of fireworks, the flickers of hope with the true darkness behind it. Silva makes sure to draw Charles with an unearned smirk, the look of a man that’s very sure that his part of the plan will be perfect, at least after his initial spirit has been crushed. Moira has the look of determination, the kind of look only gained from centuries of experience and she maintains it even in the face of death.

Hickman has evolved these characters from just a Scottish doctor that used to care for the mutants on her island and hapless man that only wants to be peaceful – to the cold revolutionaries that want mutants to have one day in the sun before it’s ultimately ripped away again.

What does this ultimately mean for the X-Men? For Mutants in general? Hopefully we’ll see in the coming months as seven or eight new series will shine a light on what the rest of them are doing while Charles, Erik and Moira sip tea and wait for the apocalypse.

Best of DC: Week of October 2nd, 2019

Best of this Week: DCeased #5 – Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, Stefano Gaudiano, Rain Beredo, Saida Temofonte

You can almost hear the sound of hope fading away.

After the explosion caused by Captain Atom decimates the cities of Baltimore, Washington and Metropolis, Superman and Wonder Woman are left in shock and horror. They stand in the ruins of Washington, gathering their thoughts on what they’ve just witnessed when they suddenly remember everyone in Metropolis. Clark rushes off to his city, expecting the worst possible outcome, only to find the top half of the Daily Planet safe: protected and saved by a distraught Lex Luthor.

Trevor Hairsine’s art paired with Rain Beredo’s colors create this brutal air of bleakness initially.. The initial few pages are drawn in wide shots, making Superman and Wonder Woman look small amidst the sheer destruction. The pages are colored in a cold grey with a gust of smoke wafting in the distance. The first color we see outside of their costumes is the green from Lex’s protective dome. Green sort of becomes a hopeful motif through the book as it’s presented a few times as the color of saviors.

In the darkest hour, even devils turn to the light.

All things seem amazingly hopeful from that point on. Superman finds his family safe and sound. Damian, Dinah and Ollie enlist the help of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy in establishing a safe zone for other living people among the newly growing forests of Gotham. The Hall of Justice acts as a refuge for other heroes and regular citizens, they even start making plans for arks to escape the Earth. They destroy everything that’s able to mass broadcast and even make new land on Themyscira.

Throughout all of this, however, you still never get the feeling that everything is all right. While the League are doing harrowing feats to save the planet, backgrounds are still colored in a washed out manner while the colorful heroes are juxtaposed against them. Even the greener backgrounds in the Harley/Ivy scenes have this dark twinge to them despite the green of Ivy’s new forest refuge being so prominent. Beredo likely does this on purpose to slowly sew the idea that not even the goodness of green is guaranteed, this being backed up by an infected Killer Croc showing up during.

Things seem hopeful until they all hear a buzzing in their minds, distracting them just long enough for something invisible to cut Lex in half and scratch The Flash, Barry Allen. Martian Manhunter somehow managed to get infected at some point and through the combined efforts of the heroes, mostly Firestorm, he is killed, but not before Barry is infected and runs away. Superman stops Wallace West from going after him and chooses to stop Barry himself. He knows he’ll never be able to catch Barry, so after confirming with Cyborg that Barry’s dead, Superman runs into him head on, obliterating his body.

Martian Manhunter’s sudden appearance is the exact moment when the motif is betrayed. J’onn is one of the most powerful heroes in all of the DC Universe and he’s almost always seen as a figure of goodness and help. To see him as a monster and the brutal way in which he kills Lex is a shock. The only warning we get is everyone feeling the buzzing before Lex’s torso is removed from his legs. Hope is shattered in an instant.

Barry’s scream of agony, J’onn’s dead eyes of rage and the look of horror on Ollie’s face sells the sheer terror of all that’s happening. They allowed themselves to relax a little and it’s cost them everything.

*SUPER SPOILERIFICS AHEAD*

Unfortunately for Clark, he finds two of Barry’s infected fingers impaled into his abs.

It’s unexpected, distressing and unreasonably cruel as we watch Superman say his final goodbyes before the infection takes him too. He tries to fly away from Earth, but succumbs to the infection when he nears the moon.

*SPOILER SWIM IS OVER*

DCeased does everything that it can to build up the idea that maybe there’s a way out of this situation. The heroes do everything that they possibly can to ensure that the Anti-Life Virus doesn’t spread any further than it already has. It’s decimated the Earth through its initial spread, Captain Atom and there’s no telling how much damage the Flash was able to cause by himself. I had high hopes that maybe Superman, Wonder Woman and Mera could be a beacon of light in this time of utter darkness. Hell, even seeing Harley and Ivy do their part filled me with joy.

But I loved it even more when that sense of hope was ripped right away from us.

I hope there are even more stories like DCeased in the pipeline because even a few one-shots from the perspectives of outer space heroes like Adam Strange or the rest of the Green Lantern Corps at large would be amazing. I know I’ve trashed Marvel Zombies for doing much the same thing in the past, but It’s been a long time since then and we need new zombie media to sate our own rabid appetites.

Best of DC: Week of October 2nd, 2019

Runner Up: Batman #80 – Tom King, John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson, Tomeu Morey, Clayton Cowles

Batman is Broken no more.

For 79 issues, Bane has been orchestrating a convoluted plot in an effort to prove himself Batman’s most superior foe, the man who broke the Bat twice. He’s pulled Bruce’s father, Thomas Wayne, from another universe, caused Catwoman to leave Batman at the altar and has completely taken over Gotham City after Thomas defeated Bruce at Ra’s al Ghul most powerful Lazarus Pit.

Everything has been in an effort to leave Bruce broken, without help, unable to stop Bane. It would have worked too, if not for Catwoman. The last two issues have been mostly filler issues for Batman and Catwoman to rebuild their relationship by fighting crime together again. They’ve recontextualized their relationship with Bruce realizing that he can be happy and still be Batman and Catwoman realizes that she’s not taking anything away from Bruce by being with him.

They make each other better with Bruce taming her more criminal aspects and Selina taking away some of the more brutal rage that got him in trouble for beating the crap out of Mister Freeze several issues ago.

Tom King does very well with writing relationships like this even if sometimes it seems heavy handed on the part of it being a woman’s duty to fix her man. Catwoman and Batman ounce off of each other in the most adorable and loving ways, but when it’s time for business, no one can hold a candle to them. Batman #80 succeeds on the merits of their skills and the skills of the entire creative tem of this book.

Right off the bat, the book begins with a noir Batman feel as Bruce, in his beach disguise (or rather his Matches Malone guise) walks through the streets of Gotham on a rainy night before being stopped by Officers Pyg and Dent. The two criminals attempt to accost him, not knowing he’s Batman and they get the crap kicked out of them. Batman doesn’t even break a sweat before he’s punched them both in the throat and gives Harvey another to the face for good measure. Harvey shoots him in the chest twice, but Bruce slowly opens his shirt to reveal a Bat emblem before tossing the bullets away like a boss.

John Romita Jr. knows his way around a fight scene and conveys Batman’s strength and the terror of his presence in general by how Harvey reacts upon realizing it’s him. Tomeu Morey sets the scene with his amazing coloring by tinting these pages in yellow, DC’s general color for fear before it transitions into darker colors when Batman reveals himself. Klaus Janson’s inks set the tone for how unknown this mysterious stranger is before the ultimate reveal and in only a few pages, this book has me sold.

Opposite Batman who likes to be seen and feared, Catwoman strikes from the shadows. Mad Hatter is just patrolling Gotham when he spies a cat, musing about laws over strays and pulling the longest pistol ever recorded in comics out of his hat. I’m not kidding, this gun was comically large. While Batman’s scene was tinted in yellow, these pages are split between the cool blue of a street light and the seductive purple of the night sky in another, non-rainy, part of Gotham. It plays well into Selina’s finesse as she quickly and quietly takes down Mad Hatter, saving the cat.

Batman pretty much makes the rounds, letting his villains know that he’s returned to Gotham, Kite-Man gets an amazing scene as Batman drops him from a building while saying “Hell yeah” in response to Kite-Man asking if it’s actually him and later has a standoff with Officer Hush. The stand off has no reason to happen other than it’s badass visual as these perfect opposites just trade philosophic barbs as Batman disables Hush with a batarang. In all of it’s rainy, sepia toned glory, it’s a nice double page spread, made even better by Janson’s inks giving everything the perfect black shadows.

Throughout the issue is a thread for Thomas Wayne as well. Because he’s a father that lost his child, he treats Gotham Girl as if she’s his own, giving her a new costume and consoling her however he can. He’s gotten very close to her and as such when she’s in distress over not having any more of the serum that can keep her alive as she uses her powers, Thomas is there for her. He tells her that she doesn’t need powers and that she’s skilled enough without them. He tells her to just rest as Albert Wesker walks in to tell him that Bruce has arrived.

Bane gave a standing order that if any of the Batfamily were to reenter Gotham City, then someone close to them would die. Damian did it and got Alfred killed which left the child as the only prisoner. Batman had to know this as well as he monologues after defeating Hush that his father has to make a decision: will he kill his own Grandson?

Batman is getting very intense as Tom King is reaching the end of his run with this book. With only five issues left, I’m actually shaking in my boots with excitement.

In reflection, I’m also mostly glad with the entirety of this almost three year story and the leaps and bounds it’s made to cement Bane in a firm place at the top of Batman’s Rogues Gallery. Bane had always been one of Batman’s most deadly enemies, but this manipulation, the guile and deception, the audacity that he had to hatch such an amazing(ly insane and convoluted) plan just to ruin the life of his most hated enemy is insane.

Joker may always be Batman’s most popular villain… but Bane will always be his greatest.

Best of Marvel: Week of October 2nd, 2019

Best of this Week: The Immortal Hulk #24 (Legacy #741) – Al Ewing, Joe Bennet, Ruy Jose, Belardino Brabo, Marc Deering, Roberto Poggi, Paul Mounts and Cory Petit

There are two people in every mirror.

The central theme of The Immortal Hulk has been the reconciliation between the two sides of oneself. For Bruce Banner, it’s himself and the many other personalities that reside inside his mind and body, most notably that of the Devil Hulk. Banner, knowing that because of The Hulk and his connection to the Green Door to Hell he’ll never be able to die or find true peace, has given himself all in to The Devil Hulk’s plan of ending the world as they know it. The Devil Hulk himself is a dark and menacing entity that has some kind of good intention, but a myriad of evil hidden under it.

With an unkillable Hulk and a massive ego, some people are trying to do whatever they can to bring Hulk down and save humanity. One such man is General Reg Fortean. Over the course of this series, Fortean has observed Hulk, taken measures to contain or defeat him time after time. His most recent effort of using Rick Jones’s body to resurrect that of Abomination seemed to work until Banner ripped Jones out of the Abomination shell, saving his old friend. Fortean, however, get s it back and transplants himself into the body of the villain.

This was his biggest mistake. There’s something about peering into The Green Door that corrupts the soul and Fortean cast himself into that rabbit hole with reckless abandon.

This book begins with an amazing shot of the end of all things, potentially the first. We see Galan of Taa, the future Galactus, bathed in the green glow of the Cosmos, the first sign that The Green Door has always been there and that at one point it was wide open. Soon after we cut to the accident that gave Bruce Banner his Hulk powers with the caption of there being two faces in the mirror, “the one you think you know…and the other one.”

Paul Mounts colors each of these of these pages with varying levels of green. The first of Galan with bright shots of green offset by other colors, most notably Galan’s signature purple, echoing back to his origin by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. Banner’s accident, in the form of a double page spread, is drawn and coated in an overwhelming Green tint while the rest of the book keeps the sinister Green relegated to Hulk and several backgrounds. It gives off a dark feeling that the Hulk and the presence of the Green Door in general is always lurking about, Mounts does his best to sow that feeling of uncomfortability throughout the book with darkly vibrant colors.

Joe Bennett doesn’t let those colors go to waste as his pencils are as amazing as they have been for the entire run of this story. His art has been instrumental for the success of the story with its focus on body horror, general gore and the extreme sense of scale that makes you feel like intense weights are bearing down on you in every instance. Every shot of the Hulk talking with half of his face ripped off is terrifying as Cory Petit letter it perfectly, emphasizing that at the moment, Hulk has no lips to speak of. It’s fleshy and gross and made even worse as Hulk throws his removed face at another soldier and it sizzles, burning him.

Fortean also goes about using his Abomination bodies abilities to try and spit acid at Hulk. It splashes forth in all of its frothy, bright green goodness. Hulk dodges, it hits reinforcement soldiers and turns them into gross masses of boils, blood and bones as they scream, unable to stop what’s happening to them. Bennet makes you feel the pain and terror by drawing their mouths agape, teeth bared and eyes wide open in pain. Their blood is overpowered by the green of the acid spit and they just melt away.

By this point, Shadow Base’s second-in-command, Doctor Charlene Gowan reconciles with who she is and what she’s done in all of her efforts to contain The Hulk. she realizes that she’s enabled Fortean to become this monster and that she had many opportunities to stop him. She felt the need to serve under Fortean when her obligation to him was the fact that he got her out of prison, gave her a second chance, but that’s changed. His obsession had taken him over and he’s killed his own men and allowed himself to become the monster that he hates. She tells the other personnel to stand down, leaving only Fortean and Hulk to fight it out.

Fortean sort of manges to get the upper hand with a mean right cross and acid directly in the face, but Hulk plunges a finger into Fortean’s eye and ultimately his brain, killing him. They end up in the Below-Place, the realm of The One Below All and Fortean sees the error of his obsession. He sees the hellscape that his soul would be damned to every time he died and he panics. He is terrified, but there’s no time for him to correct what he’s done as Joe Fixit snaps his neck, killing his soul and any chance of him coming back to life.

It’s nihilistic. It’s dark. It’s a sign that once you cross that threshold, there’s nothing left for you but a hellish wasteland. Even at the end of all things, once everything has died and the new world is supposed to begin…there’s a flicker of green and a post credit sequence that spells doom for the future of the Marvel Universe, hell – every Marvel Universe, if The Green Door isn’t closed.

Al Ewing, Joe Bennett and the rest of this creative team have forged something evil. Something dark and twisted that Marvel hasn’t quite seen in years. I gleefully anticipate every issue of the Hulk to see just how dark things will get. There’s this cold certainty to every word that The Devil Hulk says and Banner’s father being the main demon of the Below-Place has this awful feeling of depraved destiny, that maybe the world was right to fear Hulk. Bruce Banner and his alter egos will end the world and it can’t be pretty. It will be violent, bloody and ultimately hopeless.

The other person in the mirror is the one you don’t want to see.

Best of Marvel: Week of October 2nd, 2019

Runner Up: Ghost Rider #1 (Legacy #237) – Ed Brisson, Aaron Kuder, Jason Keith and Joe Caramagna

The Riders roar again!

After months of teasing and anticipation, we finally have a new series centered around Danny Ketch, Johnny Blaze and their constant conflict with the forces that stand against them in Hell.

With Mephisto locked away in his Las Vegas prison (which also makes his appearances in other recent stories very confusing), Johnny Blaze has been crowned the new King of Hell and has inherited all that comes with the position. He’s required to torture souls, oversee the operations in Hell and ensure that demons never escape which seems to be the most common occurrence as some do NOT respect Blaze.

One such breakout results in Blaze having to leave Hell for a bit to hunt down the escaped demons and to do that, he tries to enlist the help of his brother, Danny Ketch. Ketch, having gone through the ringer while watching another Rider get murdered by Carnage, has decided to do his best to stay away from the horrid life of being a Rider unless the urge for Vengeance becomes too powerful for him to take. One such evening brings him back to help his brother defeat a wandering demon, but declining his offer to hunt them down.

Danny laments becoming the Rider at his mother’s funeral, the lack of stable relationships he’s been able to maintain and the life of death and destruction he’ll never escape. He visits his mother’s grave and, of course, his mother’s spirit comes with a warning about Johnny Blaze. As it turns out, the once semi-noble Blaze has let hell corrupt his soul and only Danny (and to a lesser extent Robbie Reyes in the Avengers) can stop him.

Aaron Kuder has been a hit or miss artist to me in the past, so I’m glad to say that his art was a stellar hit on this first awesome issue. While a lot of backgrounds lacked the gory details that other depictions of hell have had this far, that’s more than made up for by the detail on characters like Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch as well as the various demons they encounter through the issue.

Johnny and Danny look very similar as Riders, but they do have some things that differentiate themselves from the other. Johnny is shown to have fiery horns above his head, symbolizing his crown as King of Hell, silver gauntlets and a grey outline for a chest plate(?), similar to the rectangle that used to adorn his leather jacket. Danny, of course, still maintains a spiked leather jacket and spiked gauntlets in Rider form.

The fight visuals are something else entirely, consisting of stylish motorcycle combat with flames shooting out of the back of Danny’s bike as well as his chain waving through the air as if it had a life of its own. Jason Keith on the colors was an amazing choice as the entire story feels like it came out of the mid 90s grunge era. There are badass dark reds, bright oranges and yellows as well as very dark inks to show just how dark the Ghost Rider story is. Kuder does his best to bring the cool back to Ghost Rider, though did it ever really leave?

There’s also this slight feeling of dread as a new villain emerges and with Mephisto musing of change on the horizon and the final page stinger, there’s this feeling that something big is coming for the Ghost Riders. In much the same way we had a revival for Venom post Space Knight, this series is likely to be that amazing set up for bigger and badder things.

Best of DC: Week of September 25th, 2019

Best of this Week: Harleen #1 – Stjepan Šejić and Gabriela Downie

Hindsight is 20/20.

Looking back through the history of Harley Quinn, you’d be a fool to think that she hasn’t taken a strong look back at her life before she became the psychotic Clown Princess of Crime at The Joker’s side. We’ve seen the story told many a time in movies, comics and cartoons, but there’s just something so inviting about the way Šejić presented this absolutely tragic origin story, at least for the first issue. As Harleen describes it, “it felt like one of those cheesy romance novels.”

Harleen separates itself from the other Harley Quinn origin stories by taking that cheesy romance and turning it into a long form car wreck centered entirely around Dr. Quinzel’s point of view and her early interactions with The Joker and the other criminals of Arkham Asylum. If I had to level a complaint at the book, it would have to be that, at least initially, everything is quite flowery and light. To counteract that point, it makes sense for the story to be told in this manner to show the often manipulative nature of abusive relationships like Harley Quinn’s and how ultimately, they don’t end well.

The book opens with Harleen in a dream sequence taking place in a distorted Gotham City. The style here is very reminiscent of Šejić’s work on Death Vigil with dark cityscapes, many shining lights and gothic imagery throughout. Dr. Quinzel walks down a winding road, expecting the same nightmare that she’s had many times before, but there’s something different about this particular dream. Instead of being eaten by an unknown monster, she’s met with the arrival of a bat monster and a pale man with green hair that’s being attacked by him and she chooses to intervene, smiling back at the pale man as he smiles at her. With the narration of this book, it’s easy to assume that this dream sequence takes place a little while after her relationship with the Joker is fully formed as she even acknowledges that smiling back was the biggest mistake of her life.

We get a beautiful page of Joker and Harley dancing and looking happy with each other as Harley’s future transformation occurs in the panels behind them. As beautiful as these shots are, the way that Šejić draws these panels, looking like glass shattering in the background is very telling of what we’re to expect in these future issues. Things transition to a little bit before Harleen meets Joker for the first time as she interviews a veteran who tells her about his “one bad day.” He describes how he and one of his Battle Buddies had each other’s backs until the other guy got his throat slit by a woman in a local bar during their deployment. The veteran describes how he just snapped in that moment and we have something that will be called back to in later pages.

A few years later, Doctor Quinzel presents her interview and findings to a Scientific Symposium in Gotham and it appears to be going badly. She shows her research notes and tells the crowd that the veteran then shot up a hospital full of injured kids and that her research, if implemented, would help decrease the recidivism rate of crime in Gotham by identifying what exactly made them go bad in the first place. She starts to flub her words and get nervous as some in the crowd check their watches, look disinterested or just leave altogether.

Harleen and her friend Shondra go to get drinks and talk about how the good doctor thought she nuked her presentation, they leave separately and it’s almost as if fate was just waiting to kick down the door when an explosion rings out and Harleen faces down the barrel of The Joker’s gun.

This moment is when I fell in love with this book. In a beautiful double page spread, Harleen looks on in abject horror as The Joker aims his gun directly in her face with a wide, toothy grin. The most disturbing part of this is how he’s framed as still being a sexy bad boy. He’s tall, slim with medium length hair and gives off a sickening charm. He’s very distinctly a Sějić Joker and his art style lends well to that.

In an instant, however, he sets the entire tone for how their relationship will be in the future – threatening her life, but pulling back after seeing her face full of cold fear. In the background we see her life flash before her eyes. From her childhood of uncertain career choices, to her adulthood of being attracted to people that she’s not supposed to be, like one of her professors and eventually her current job as a criminal psychologist.

Through this we see exactly what kind of roller coaster her life had been and how, from an early age she just wanted to help people. It’s the very definition of “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” which is one of the central themes of this story.

Joker let’s her go after savoring her fear before he is stopped by the Batman. This action sequence is fairly standard Batman faire, but from Harleen’s point of view it becomes something more. She is absolutely terrified, not just because she almost died, but because she’s found herself interested and immersed in the Joker and Batman’s struggle. Everything in her mind is telling her to run away, but as Batman catches an escaping Joker and pummels the tar out of him, she follows and can’t look away.

She hears the others in the crowd and feels that there’s something wrong. The panels are arranged into a deranged smile of blood as Batman holds Joker by his collar and the sounds of his punches are replaced with the rabid howls of bloodthirst. She feels a bit of sympathy and the agony of post trauma nightmares over the next few days. After coming in to work soon after, one of her bitchy coworkers asks who she slept with to “get it,” and she soon finds out that her research has been funded by the Wayne Foundation as she is met by Lucius Fox.

During their conversation we see more of her own pre-crisis personality come forth. Finding her nervous, insecure and initially unsure as to why she was called into her bosses office in the first place gives us perfect insight as to how the Joker will be able to manipulate her in the manner that he does. She not dumb or naive by any means, but she appears to lack a serious emotional strength. Sejic is good at writing characters like these as seen in his work on Sunstone and Switch and it gives her a good flaw in her personality.

Fox tells her that she’ll soon be transferred to Arkham Asylum to talk to the worst that Gotham has to offer and this last third of the book is rife with on the nose symbolism. As soon as she arrives at Arkham, the shadow behind her morphs from Harleen Quinzel into the form of Harley Quinn and the shadow of Arkham’s ominous gate sign becomes the perspective of someone on the inside looking out.

Within her first few days, she meets people that will be very close to her in the future such as Pamela Isley and Killer Croc to real headcases like Victor Zsasz and The Riddler. She’s also met with the disrespect of having her name mispronounced numerous times by the Arkham staff, outright dismissal of her theories by Dr. Hugo Strange and pushback from Gotham District Attorney, Harvey Dent.

Harvey in particular is most interesting because of his firmness in his ideals. He doesn’t believe there’s any rehabilitation for the residents of Arkham and that they should be sent to Blackgate Penitentiary instead. Harleen is steadfast in her beliefs that there’s more to each of these patients than simple violence and crime. Harvey notes that Arkham has a breakout rate so high that it might as well install a revolving door.

Throughout their argument, half of Harvey’s face is covered in shadow, specifically the half that would later become the deranged side of Dent’s future alter ego, Two Face. This is intriguing because in many ways this meeting feels like a shakedown, a foreshadowing of the man that he would soon become. In one instance he remarks of the beauty of Gotham City and in the next he just flat out tells her what he wants, almost threateningly while rolling his coin over his fingers. His moralizing is betrayed by his furrowed brow and eyes of fury over the sheer thought of Gotham having criminals like Zsasz freed because lawyers blame his mental illness for his horrid actions.

Harleen, infuriated that Dent would ask her to end her research and refuse the Wayne grant so smugly, found herself driven to conduct the one interview that she had been avoiding after going through the likes of Mad Hatter, Killer Croc and The Riddler. The night before her meeting with Harvey, Harleen had gone through all of the Joker’s interview tapes. One thing that stood out to her was Joker’s propensity to retell his “troubled” past in a variety of different ways, Šejić’s own take on the Multiple Choice origin story of the Clown. She felt mildly annoyed by how underwhelming they all were until she found a tape of Joker being arrested and him speaking the way that he did the night that they first met, saying that Gotham is full of civilized monsters and all they needed was a push to send them over the edge.

Just like the veteran in the beginning.

Harley needed a full nights rest to get the courage to interview The Joker and tried a multitude of methods from horse tranquilizers, to a chiropractor, to just simple drinking, but it was Dent that gave her what she needed to go. When Joker and Harleen meet face to face again, he doesn’t recognize her until a sudden SLAM on the glass brings back her look of shock and terror, allowing the Joker to remember her.

With their pleasantries exchanged, he asks her to refer to him as Jay and we jump into the inferno.

Stjepan Šejić is an amazing artist and writer with a knack for writing fun and silly characters. He can also delve into dak territories and themes when he needs to and while this issue is more comedic and funny, it does hide some very dark bits of story underneath. The best way to describe it would have to be…a calm before the storm. Everything in Harleen’s life is at a perfect place. She’s got the dream job that she’s wanted for her research, she’s found very interesting subjects and one in particular that might be the break that she’s been looking for. But we all know what’s on the horizon for her.

The problem I can see people having with this is the common, “this story is going to glorify the abusive relationship between Joker and Harley!” I don’t see it turning out that way. I think it’s very clear to Dr. Quinzel and the reader that The Joker is wearing a mask. His charm is an ugly façade worn to hide the monster underneath, but she just can’t turn away, especially since he’s been the subject of her dark dreams for a while.

I think that the next issue will show just how the cupcake stage of their relationship with the dark underpinnings slowly transforms her from a reasonable psychologist into a sympathetic beauty that’s found her beast. Šejić only showed us a small part of his writing and art powers and since the second issues of these Black Label books tend to be the best issues, I have no doubt that the next Harleen will be amazing. High recommend

Best of Marvel: Week of September 25th, 2019

Runner Up: Christos N. Gage, Mike Hawthorne, Wade von Grawbadger, Jordie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles

Norman Osborn is the bane of Spiders everywhere.

After the explosive end to the last issue, Otto has found himself at the end of his rope with Osborn going after everyone that Otto has begun to care about since his turn toward the side of good. Friends, colleagues and even young children that he’s helped after their parents died. At every single turn Osborn has outsmarted him and made him look like a simpleton by comparison.

When Otto goes off to rescue James Martin, the kid he saved back in issue #4, Osborn is already there on James’ heels. Otto does his best to help James escape, but Orborn and his six arms mollywhop Otto and punch him in the ribs 65 times. Absolutely defeated, Otto begs Norman to let the boy go and Norman does agree… on the condition that Otto murders three innocent civilians in full view of broadcasting cameras. Not criminals, not terminally ill people, but three innocents that very well still have a future ahead of them. Osborn then flies off, holding little James by the throat.

Mike Hawthorn continues to really sell this story with his amazing art and Jordie Bellaire’s even more amazing coloring. It’s very easy to tell that Otto is tired, he’s frantic. Even seeing one eye partially under his mask is more then enough to convey his worry alongside his body language. He doesn’t make the coordinated moves that he used to when he had everything planned out, but fights like a cornered animal.

Bellaire captures this best NYC giving most of the pages in this issue a red tint offset by Grawbadger’s dark inks to give things an even more sinister feel. It also shows just how dire the situation is, how intense Otto’s emotions are after suffering such traumatic losses in a single instant. I don’t know if this is meant to foreshadow the rest of the issue, but it absolutely paints a picture of who exactly may be the blame for all of Otto’s hardship, even adjacently.

After passing out from his fight with Osborn, Otto wakes up to the company of Anna-Maria in his lab. He has a fit of anger over his losses and is brought to tears over losing James. Anna Maria asks him if he’s really considering killing innocents for Osborn and Otto says that he won’t, knowing Osborn would betray him anyway. Seeing no other options, Otto summons the second Bane of all Spiders: Mephisto.

Otto asks Mephisto if he’ll change him back into his previous, devious and smarter self for just one day in Hope’s that a ruthless Otto Octavius can outsmart one Norman Osborn. Mephisto taunts him and says that that’s not a deal he’s willing to take, but will change him back into Otto Octavius completely, free of any ailments he supposedly had. Since then beginning of this series, Otto has said that all of his villainy and evil was caused by his addled mind and Mephisto is giving him a chance to prove just that.

I won’t spoil what his ultimate answer is, but I can guarantee you that everything has been leading up to this moment. We’ve seen Otto become an actual symbol for good. A hero that walks the same path as his former enemy Spider-Man. He’s found love, actual friends and intellectual equals that he’s not bent on destroying because of his ego. He’s grown and is still growing to become the man that he’s always believed he could be.

Superior Spider-Man isn’t just a name that Otto chose to show how much better he is than Spider-Man (even though that’s the exact thought process), but a symbol of what a genius he is and how his methods differ from that of the regular Spider-Man. He’s more calculated, more willing to take down crime and not let emotions get in the way…until they ultimately do.

Gage, Hawthorne, Grawbadger, Bellaire and Cowles have done their best job with an amazing character and an even better story of redemption for one of Spider-Man’s greatest foes. With this issue likely being the penultimate, who know just where this story will go. High recommend!

Best of Marvel: Week of September 25th, 2019

Best of this Week: Punisher Kill Krew #3 – Gerry Duggan, Juan Ferreyra and Cory Petit

My God, this had me actually laughing.

In an effort to get revenge for children that lost their parents during the events of War of the Realms, Frank Castle alongside the trusty goat of Thor, Toothgnasher has gone on a mission to exact that revenge while picking up new allies along the way like Franklin “Foggy” Nelson. The last issue ended with a cliffhanger of the pair finding a few frost giants trying to take the power of Cytorrak from Juggernaut. This third issue was slapstick, visual and dry comedy all in one in a way that only Gerry Duggan can manage and only Juan Ferreyra can capture.

Frank comes off as a more comedic version of himself with all of his funny coming from how seriously he takes the entire situation. Surrounded by Frost giants, gigantic weapons, ineffective guns and an unstoppable force, Frank Castle is unflappable in his resolve. He decides to wear a horned helmet the entire time, the only piece of armor he puts on at all and looks like a gun toting Dovahkiin. He’s still amazingly violent, cutting down the Frost Giants with his patented rage.

In one particular panel, Frank is shooting his shotgun, his muscles ripple as the weapon rattles and bangs. His mouth agape in righteous fury, the ignition from the barrel as the gun fires is hot with orange coloring and the background has more speedlines than I have seen in months, made even more dynamic with its own red-orange color. Shell casings fly back with each blast and you can just feel the imminent satisfaction of seeing a Frost giant aired out with holes… but then the next panel shows them nonplussed and before they shoot the ground in front of him and send him flying.

Surprisingly, Foggy was absolutely hilarious as hey was played as another unwilling straight man and faced near death many times, but survives in hilariously lucky ways. After trying to run away from the giants attacking Frank, he trips on a human skull, sends the sword he was carrying straight into the ropes holding Juggernaut and frees the brute. Juggernaut then runs through the giants and covers Foggy in giant blood. After they escape the cave, another attacks Foggy, but he slips on the ice and impales his face on Foggy’s sword. Each time, Foggy replies with a “huh,” the same reaction any of us would have if we miraculously got saved by the Frank Castle field of impossible luck.

Juggernaut though… oh my God. I already love Juggernaut, but seeing him here in this situation, especially after appearing in the first arc of 2018’s Thor relaunch, bringing him back into the bullpucky of this magic nonsense because of his nonsense magic powers is hilarious. After being freed, he wastes no time in absolutely decimating the Frost Giants. He runs through them with the rage of a bull, Ferreyra drawing him like a madman as he then gets coated in the blue blood and viscera of the monsters, their limbs and other assorted body parts flying behind him after a speedy charge.

After the group makes their escape, the giants see Frank and Foggy coming out of the cave and threaten that the two aren’t leaving and laugh… then they see Juggernaut and Juggy removes their legs thoroughly. As one of them lies on the ground and Frank finds himself out of shells, he just… chucks the shotgun into the giants face. There’s no warning. It’s just a small panel insult that I found maddeningly hilarious. That same frost giant tells Frank that the other giant they’re looking for is sleeping with Frank’s woman and Frank just cuts his head off from the jaw.

Another proceeds to try and attack Frank and he calls Toothgnasher who sends the car that Frank uses as a carriage into the balls of the attacking Giant before headbutting him to death. The final frost giant catches an ice stalagmite from the Juggernaut in the chest before being tortured by Frank. Ferreryra introduces him so awesomely, posing like a badass, saying that Frank and Co. will pay dearly for the massacre. Juggernaut responds accordingly, saying that they giants destroyed his small garden and rent controlled apartment in New York when they kidnapped him, so he does his best javelin throw and impales the son of a bitch.

Frank’s proceeding torture is only glimpsed as we see his silhouette of his sword in between the toenail of the giant before Juggernaut vomits all over Foggy in the car as they watch it all happen. Normally that kinda thing would gross me out, but by this point I was all in.

Gerry Duggan is probably the only guy I trust to do this kind of humor and pull it off so well, to the point where I didn’t just give a we little chuckle, but an actual hearty laugh. When he was writing Deadpool, I felt much the same and this series has been a treat on the same level. Frank Castle doesn’t always have to be all doom and gloom, but can be absolutely hilarious in the hands of the right writer. (I mean look at the Cosmic Ghost Rider miniseries…and not the Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys the Marvel Universe miniseries.)

Juan Ferreyra caught my serious attention with his amazing and stellar art on Killmonger. He does fantastically with badass serious art and upon remember he did stuff for Green Arrow Rebirth, I went back to those issues just for his art and was blown away by what I didn’t pay attention to. His art here is not only some of his best, but the comedic edge he puts to it makes it so much better and shows just how versatile he is at his own comedic timing alongside Duggan’s story.

Punisher: Kill Krew is an amazing concept that sounds like what happens when a Dungeons and Dragons Game Master lets the inmates run the asylum. Punisher running through the nine realms for the sole purpose of killing anything and everything that has wronged all of those so very adorable children is astoundingly bad, but when given a creative team this good, it’s only a recipe for a sweet cake of comic book goodness. High recommend!

Best of DC: Week of September 18th, 2019

Best of this Week: Year of the Villain: Lex Luthor #1 – Jason Latour, Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie, Tomeu Morey and Tom Napolitano

Doom is Here.

Lex Luthor has gone through an amazing transformation over the last few years. He was just a rich douchebag when the New 52 started and this eventually led to him becoming a hero in his own right, even taking up the mantle of Superman after Clark died during DCYou’s Superman: Truth arc. When the status quo needed resetting after the League destroys the Source Wall and Luthor was called to join a large group of heroes and villains to stop a new threat to the universe. He saw the error of his heroic ways and embraced Doom after seeing just how powerful entropy could be.

Everything he’s been planning has been leading up to Year of the Villain and things are in full swing with the bad guys finally having the edge, but there’s just something that Luthor can’t satisfy yet: His own urge to be the ONE Luthor. His ultimate belief that he himself is the pinnacle of the multiversal Luthors and this book sets out to prove him right in a variety of ways.

Starting out on Earth-38, a universe reminiscent of the 1960s Superboy comics, Lex recruits the aid of Alexander Luthor, a younger version of himself that still rocks the ginger bowl cut and genius of his future self. Lex likely sees the malleability of this Young Luthor and sees just how similar their upbringings were ad hopes that this child can see the pending darkness and failures that other Luthors have succumbed to. Lionel Luthor is drunk and hears it all, insisting that Lex take him instead, but the Apex Predator incinerates him as Alexander looks on with nonchalance.

Bryan Hitch might be in his finest form in years right now. Somehow, he manages to make a middle school science fair eerie and uncomfortable and make a bowl cut mildly threatening. Tomeu Morey’s coloring of these first pages paints a picture of the perfect suburban setting with darkness just sitting underneath and curiosity from the Young Luthor, the same glint in his eyes.

The next two Earths play in parallel to each other as opposite futures. Earth-45 is a desiccated world where brands brought the world to its knees along with a Doomsday Luthor that squandered the world and destroyed it. Earth-32 seems to be a world of peace where a Martian Kal-El and Lex Luthor coexist as best friends in the Superman and Batman roles.

Luthor has a special hate for this Lex as he’s chosen to live in the shadow of the alien and sicks the Doomthor on Kal-El, thinking that Bat Lex will abandon his fight with Apex Lex to save him, but a Luthor is still a Luthor and he calls Apex Lex’s bluff, but he’s seen all that he has to. He knows that Bat Lex is absolutely Doomed because of his heroic nature and chooses to let him suffer on an Earth that will absolutely be killed by Doomthor.

Luthors hate for both of these other versions is palpable though. Lex has made body modifications for power before, but never once has he allowed himself to become a mindless brute because of it. He doesn’t want to see society utterly destroyed like Earth-45 Luthor did. Even his transformation into the peak form of what a Human-Martian hybrid should be is more enlightening than dangerous.

He very likely also sees Earth-32 Luthor as one of the bigger multiversal insults. Lex Luthor stands in no one’s shadow and seeing him become a creature of the night, the Batman to a Martian Superman, is low. It also echoes back to the years when all he got was guff from the Superhero community and the American populace at large by portraying himself as a hero. It’s the opposite of his current goal of absolute Doom in that this peddling the false hope of Justice.

Doomthor is revealed in his full form during the Earth-32 scenes and he looks amazing. Bryan Hitch draws him like a bald Doomsday, but has the LexCorp logo adorning his chest. He’s an absolute unit of grey and white, muscles pulsating, arm cocked back ready to take Kal-El’s head off and face so full of rage. Of all of the alternate Doomsdays we’ve seen, I think this might be my favorite.

Lex travels to Earth-1 to a future that I certainly hope we see published one day because I absolutely love the Earth-1 stories. This segment begins with who I believe to be Perry White telling an unknown individual of the day when Lex absolutely broke the Superman of that world using the Black Mercy parasite. While the Lex of Earth-1 died after being caught in a fight between Superman and Zod, I suppose as with most other things, DC is choosing to retcon and ignore a past story in favor of this excellent story instead. Lex finds Earth-1 Lex in a hospital bed, likely in a coma and angril screams at him for being made so small, asking how his obsession with Superman is worthy of the name Luthor… but then Apex Lex takes a moment and thinks.

He sees the ultimate Doom that this will lead to. This world, without its great symbol of Hope and Justice, will crumble as it is already a darker reflection of the Prime universe. Bryan Hitch draws Apex Lex’s face with a heated rage contrasted by Morey’s use of muted colors in the room, the sterilized feeling of it all. He grasps the Comatose Lex’s head, preparing snap his neck, but then he relents with stunned silence. Hitch captures this moment with solemn beauty and revelation for what Lex will really have to do to achieve Doom. The Comatose Lex just lies there, smiling. He’s absolutely pleased with himself and finds himself living up to the Luthor name.

After Luthor travels to Earth-50 and likely kills the Luthor of that world, in front of a statue of him replacing the Lincoln Memorial, he has a conversation with Alexander. Alexander asks “why don’t we just kill all of the Luthors when they’re babies” to which Apex Lex answers, “There is no ‘we’ only Luthor.” To me this sounds like Lex could do exactly that, but at the same time, he has to teach Alexander how exactly to be Luthor by seeing all of the mistakes that others have made in the name. By showing him alternate realities, pasts and futures, Alexander can see every possible path there is for him to take and sidestep their particular hurdles to realize his destiny.

The two Luthors meet three more over the course of their adventures, one who became a cobbler and another from the age of Merlin who became a Wizard, two drastically different paths, but neither good enough of the name of Luthor. The final is the one that intrigues me the most, however.

The final Lex appears to be the absolute opposite to Apex Lex. The Luthor who gave up his ambition, his visions of grandeur and embraced the down to Earth nature of his humanity (and a good ginger beard). Through drinking tea mixed with pieces of the Blak Mercy himself, he has lived multiple lives and experienced multiple realities and has seen the many paths just as Apex Lex and Alexander are doing now. The difference is that Bearded Lex sees through Apex Lex, he knows that his hubris and need to be the one and only Lex Luthor is why he’s willing to give up his humanity despite knowing that he will never be. He is but one of many.

This is illustrated excellently through Hitch and Morey portraying Lex in many of the positions of other heroes like Shazam, The Flash, Orion and even as Brainiac himself among others. Morey makes these colors slightly more sepia toned to illustrate that they are potential pasts and futures to give a lived in feel. There’s also no way for Lex to ever be the one true Lex at all and every attempt is just another way to fool himself.

Hearing enough, Alexander killed Bearded Lex, gaining the respect of Apex Lex and finally becoming Luthor…only afterwards, it is revealed that at some point, Alexander was given the Black Mercy plant and acts as back up human DNA for Lex, likely for when his own status quo needs to be reset if his path towards Doom is also the wrong path. Despite the lessons that he was trying to teach, Lex still has an ace up his sleeve, he still has some of his humanity and he knows that no matter what happens, he will remain the one true Lex Luthor.

Of all of the Year of the Villain spotlights, this one is my absolute Favorite. It might just be things that put Luthor in the forefront in general, but there’s just something so great about his new form of evil. He wants to see the utter ruination of good and he’s actually making headway and earning from his past and future mistakes before he can even make these decisions. It peels back the layers of all the men that Lex Luthor could have been and shows us just why Apex Lex is the best version of all of them, because his plans have succeeded without him being subservient, comatose or a mindless beast.

Lex Luthor is here for Doom and I am on board for it.