Runner Up: Justice League #29 – Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Bruno Redondo, Hi-Fi and Tom Napolitano
Jarro is the best new member of the Justice League and I will not be persuaded of the otherwise.
Since the events of No Justice (2018), the Universe has been without Starro, the sentient and powerful telepathic starfish that served as the Justice League’s first ever villain. In an uncharacteristic act of heroism, the conqueror sacrificed his life in an effort to save the universe from being destroyed. All that was left a small part of him that was kept in a jar and maintained his sense of heroism, becoming Batman’s newest son, Jarro.
Jarro is the epitome of “doing his best” as this book involves him single handedly taking on the Legion of Doom.
Lurking in the shadows of the Hall of Doom, listening to their top secret plans, lies Jarro dressed as Robin! He waits for the perfect moment and strikes at Lex and the others! They’re all stunned that someone had the knowledge of their location and the gall to attack them. They all think that they can overpower him, but forget that Jarro still has all of the memories of his former self and creates an energy weapon that knocks them all back, including Sinestro and his constructs.
Though things take a turn, even after Jarro manages to take control of Brainiac for a moment, and Lex gains the upper hand, pinning Jarro to a wall. As he’s about to lay the final blow, the Justice League arrives to save their companion!
Throughout the book, however, there are numerous questionable things that makes it seem like it’s just too good to be true. Jarro is referred to as Batman’s favorite Robin by Sinestro. How did Jarro even find the Hall of Doom and how did the League track him? Hell, when Batman sees Jarro, he SMILES. That’s a huge red flag.
When Jarro begins to spawn more stars and takes over the minds of the Legion, Batman chides him for his actions and eventually realizes that he’s had a star on his face the whole time. Jarro had been showing the good guys a vision where the League wins after deciding that control is the only path to victory after the shared vision he had with Starman in the last issue.
It’s all very reminiscent of any time that the Black Mercy plant is used and while what Jarro did was horrible, Batman manages to convince him that everything will be okay. So he releases the hold on everyone, jumps on Batman’s shoulder and tells the others to prepare for war.
What this book does best is simply allude to the idea that not everything is as it seems. It has little hints planted with things that only a could would say about themselves or their parents thoughts. Told through Jarro’s perspective, it’s good to see that Batman has raised him to be a being of hope and a cute one at that. Even his little Robin costume made me absolutely giddy and excited for the little guy.
Once again, it’s Batman that has to save the day because he’s always the most sound of mind. Though what this story does is shine a light on just how powerful Jarro could be. He managed to take over the minds of the Justice League without anyone being the wiser and shows just what an asset he is. It’s even implied that he has a potential that even he can’t see yet and I’m excited for his future.
Best of this Week: DCeased #4 – Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, Stefano Gaudiano, Rain Beredo and Saida Temofonte
This book went out with a bang and it’s only been four issues of the six!
Captain Atom is one of the strongest heroes of the DC Universe. He’s right on par with Superman and under the reigns of the government, he’s an asset that they have complete authority over. The Atom, likely Ray Palmer, has dived into the body of an infected girl to see if there were a way to solve the crisis before it gets any worse, but then he goes dark. Captain Atom tells Amanda Waller to just way for The Atom to chime back in, but she orders him to go outside and clean the mess up.
He does so, but soon realizes that something is horribly wrong. The next thing we see is The Atom tearing his way through Captain Atom’s body, infecting him with the Anti-Life Virus.
We cut to the aftermath of the last issue with Clark bringing Martha Kent to the Daily Planet, crying about Jonathan as the entire Kent Family embraces each other over the loss. One of the big themes of this issue is the loss of family as there will he two big examples later on, each feeling more devastating than the last.
Soon after Superman returns, he’s ready to go back out there and rescue more people, but Dinah reminds him of the danger everyone could be in if he were to become infected. He counters that with the fact that he’s been using x-ray vision to counter the effects of the virus as it’s transmitted through screens. Lois makes a transmission to any hero or villain still alive and tells them to all come to the Daily Planet building.
It’s one of the few bits of hope that we get in this issue as we see that some people have boarded up their homes, some of the Titans are still alive and even Lex Luthor is listening in. Best of all, the transmission makes it to Themyscira and Wonder Woman makes her presence felt as she tells her mother and an arriving Mera that she’s going to Metropolis.
In Keystone City, Superman and Green Lantern Canary find Flash and Kid Flash who are doing their best to stay down as them becoming infected would be a nightmare for the world. In Gotham, Harley is being rescued by Ivy, who kills the infected versions of Catwoman, Huntress, Batwoman and Batgirl. I really liked this because, on top of finally getting one over on the Joker, Harley is saved by the true love of her life, albeit in a gory and bloody manner that I’d hoped I’d never have to see for some of my other favorite characters. But they do make for a really adorable couple.
Back in Metropolis, however, things have taken a horrible turn for the worse. Hairsine struts his stuff in an amazing double page spread that shows an infected Giganta tearing her way through the city like a Kaiju. She looks absolutely monstrous with a giant scar running down her face, eyes and clothes caked with the blood of untold tens or hundreds of people that she’s likely killed or eaten. With only Black Lightning, his daughters, Green Arrow, Robin and Superboy to defend the Planet, things look incredibly dire.
That is, until a surprise Batwing appears and distracts her… only to get knocked out of the sky, but saved by a returning Canary, Superman and the two Flashes. Wonder Woman also appears and prepares to cut the head off of the infected Giganta as she is knocked over by Superman. However, he stops her, pleading that there may still be something left there.
The little bit of hope that he may have had is crushed as Cyborg reappears and blows a hole straight through her head, explaining that none of them are alive anymore. While it’s a mostly clean shot, the few bits and blood that do fall out feel gnarly as hell and her dead eyed expression is enough to send chills down the spine.
While the other heroes are talking, the Batwing’s hatch opens and Damian somehow expects it to be Batman only to be met by Alfred. He hugs his grandson and tells him Bruce’s last words before his untimely passing and we’re brought back to another tearful embrace.
*HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD*
But this somber moment doesn’t last as Hawkgirl appears, crashing down into Diana’s arms, telling everyone that Captain Atom is infected and that he’s about to explode. Superman and Wonder Woman do their best to contain it, but the sheer power of Captain Atom proves too much as his eruption destroyed Washington DC, then Baltimore and eventually…Metropolis where Black Lightning tells his daughters to close their eyes as he embraces them, the bright light engulfing them all.
*SPOILERS OVER: PRESS ON*
DCeased has gone way beyond the gimmick that a lot of us thought it might have been. Exploring themes like the loss of family, love and hope versus hopelessness, we see these characters placed in a new light where they have to adapt to a harrowing situation that no one was prepared for. Black Canary taking over as Green Lantern after Hal gets infected is a new and fresh take for her and she absolutely fits the role like a glove. Superman having to dissociate in order to keep himself focused on saving people gives him more depth as it clashes with who he is as a hero. Diana is far more willing to cut the head off of Giganta where normally she would try to talk her down or knock her out, she’s ready for the high stake over the situation. Also seeing Damian actually show his feelings, crying as Alfred hands him the briefcase of Batman’s gear, gives a lot more humanity as he’s been showing a lot of it because this is legit one of the first times he’s been truly afraid and didn’t have a plan.
Trevor Hairsine’s art by itself is enough to sell the book on. It has a flavor of horror that hearkens back to some of DCs Vertigo stories, but also has the color and flair of normal superhero stories. The feelings of despair are very clearly shown and the gore, for how little there is in this issue is still unsettling to see. It’s all very high quality and appropriate for the story. Unlike most Marvel Zombies books, I’m actually scared for everyone here and I love it. High recommend.
Runner Up: House of X #2 – Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia and Clayton Cowles
I have never been more interested in Moira MacTaggert than I am right now.
I’ve always seen Moira as just another supporter of mutants that tragically had their life ended because of The Brotherhood’s evil schemes. I loved that she supported Charles dreams and wanted to help mutants, but never actually knew that she herself was a mutant. She’s always had something of a tumultuous history and this issue of House of X expands on that in the most amazing way and shows how important she truly has been in the advancement of the lives of mutant kind this entire time.
In her first life, Moira MacTaggert lived a fairly normal existence. She went to school, married, had kids and died at the rope old age of 78. Soon after, she woke in her mother’s womb, capable of remembering everything that she had done in the past life. It was strange and she couldn’t let on what she knew, but she knew that she was special somehow. It wasn’t until she saw Charles Xavier on the news that it all clicked for her. When he said the word mutant, everything changed for her. She went to try and meet him, only for her plane to crash, ending that life.
In her third life, she dedicated herself to biology and sought out a cure for the X-Gene, achieving as much only for it to go horribly wrong when Mystique and Destiny, a character who died in Fall of the Mutants(1988) and was last seen in Necrosha (2010), appear and murder all of her fellow scientists. Destiny tells Moira that she knows what her abilities are and that if she continues down a path that could lead to the extinction of mutants, Destiny will always be there to stop her. She tells her that the only path to stop this cycle of reincarnation is to do whatever she can to help mutant kind.
As a reminder, Destiny has Pyro slowly burn Moira alive so that she never forgets what it will be like to die at her hands.
From here, Moira becomes a radical, leading lives that take her away from Xavier’s dream and push her further into darkness. Everything becomes a lesson in repeating the past, however. At first she lives the normal life and history that we already know. Forming a school for gifted youth, the schism between Magneto and Charles, The X-Men and eventually Charles’ and mutantkind’s death at the hands of Sentinels.
In the life after that, she shows Charles her past lives and turns him into a radical, managing to take over America before Sentinels kill them again. The next sees her kill the Trask family line, only for someone else to design Sentinels instead. She aligns with Magneto or Apocalypse in different lives, all reaching similar or even worse endings.
Eventually, she realizes that there’s only one path that she hasn’t truly tried: Embracing the dream and making it real. This is the House of X timeline.
We’ve seen Moira passively protect mutants, but never engaged with Charles in a way that could truly help him. With knowledge of past events, the two can find a path forward that would not only save mutants, but propel their evolution farther. I believe that’s why Charles has sought to UNITE everyone. Apocalypse, Magneto, Mystique, Mister Sinister, all of mutantkind under one banner to make the lives of all better. It’s certainly a dream, but Moira MacTaggert is the linchpin that makes that dream a reality.
She’s always been one of the X-Men’s smartest and loyal friends. With her help, her genius behind Charles’ vision there’s no way that the House of X can fall. It’s very telling that every path that utilizes violence or tries to eradicate one side has always lead to ruin. It’s even more telling that even the peaceful path requires some bit of strong arming, but if that’s what it takes to get humans to stop killing mutants, then it really doesn’t matter. Charles will have peace between the two sides and Moira is more than willing to embrace this beautiful new path.
Best of this Week: Absolute Carnage #1 – Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin and Clayton Cowles
God is Here.
The seeds have been sown all over the Marvel Universe for the re-emergence of Carnage in a big way for months. He’s had single back-up pages in The Avengers, Black Cat, Captain Marvel, Immortal Hulk and many others portending his arrival and the sheer amount of people and creatures that are now within his thrall. Everything is coming to a head and it is absolutely terrifying.
The book begins with Eddie Brock recalling the events of everything Donny Cates has written since he took over the character.and other past events that have ultimately shaped what will soon happen. Eddie tells his son Dylan, who doesn’t know that Eddie is his father, about Knull, the God of the Symbiotes, and how he’s being kept asleep by the planet of symbiotes surrounding him. The only way for Knull to be woken up is if someone collected enough symbiote pieces and DNA to reconnect to the hive mind and if Knull is reawakened, he will begin spreading a new age of darkness across the cosmos.
Eddie references the fights against the Dragon of Knull in the beginning of his run, but also talks about the other people who have held the Symbiote or symbiotes. He pulls so much history out in so few sentences, along with a stellar double page spread by Stegman that one might be convinced to check out other great stories just to see how deep the rabbit hole goes. Characters from Maximum Carnage are shown, heroes that may have been changed during Venomized and of course Captain America, The Thing and Wolverine from the amazing Carnage USA.
After Eddie recounts the danger that the two are in, they see that Eddie is a wanted man after killing many inmates at Ryker’s Island. Of course Eddie was never there and after suspecting that they’re being followed, Eddie tells Dylan that they need to make a break for it and they run away from their tail into the subway. Unfortunately for them, Cletus Kasady was lying in wait and pushes them onto the tracks, only for them to be saved by their tail; Venom.
Eddie re-bonds with the symbiote after derailing the train and a new and terrifying Carnage confronts them. Stegman wastes not a single stroke in making Carnage look like a menacing force of pure psychotic evil. His teeth are jagged, his limbs are gangly with “skin” that looks like it’s constantly dripping with blood an his ribcage and spine are exposed, but covered in the same material. He could almost be considered skeletal if not for the pumping veins all around him. This is a Monster Carnage, even more terrifying than 2015’s Carnage series and many times more powerful.
Carnage, like most children of other symbiotes, has always been stronger than Venom. Though, with enough force and maybe some help, Carnage has always been defeated one way or another, but not this time. Kasady beats the ever living hell out of Venom, smacking him in the face and smashing him into the ground. He gets right on the cusp of killing him before Eddie grabs the third rail of the subway line and electrocutes the both of them, a temporary victory so that he and Dylan can escape. The symbiote puts Eddie into something of a coma while he heals the body and takes them to the one person that can help.
In a little diner where they think it’s safe, Eddie, Dylan and Spider-Man talk about what’s been going on. Spider-Man is taken aback and annoyingly jokes to Eddie about all of this being out of his league before a news report is shown depicting a mass grave of people that have had their spines ripped out, likely for the Symbiote DNA or Codices (plural for Codex) as Eddie calls them. After some chumps try to rob the diner, Spider-Man takes them out handedly while formulating a plan with Eddie, saying that Reed Richards could have made a machine to help remove the Codex from anyone that has ever been attached to a symbiote, but he would have needed to start long ago.
We then cut to The Maker, the Reed Richards from the Ultimate Universe that has taken up residence in the 616 Universe, as he’s actually been working on such a machine for use on Flash Thompson. The Maker’s goals and those of his employers are unknown and that makes for horrifying implications because there is no way that he is up to any sort of good at all and makes it clear that he too is trying to reunite the symbiotes.
Spider-Man shows up with Normie Osborn as the first possible test subject, but doesn’t want it to be used until he knows that it’s safe. Maker moans that if he has to be so sure, then he should find someone else with a codex, someone dangerous that Carnage may in fact go after next. Peter and Eddie get the same thought: Norman Osborn.
Norman had used the Carnage symbiote to become the Red Goblin not too long ago and after his defeat at the hands of Spider-Man, lost his mind and gained the memories and personality of Cletus Kasady. Things go to hell in a handbasket very quickly as John Jameson, the guard who let them into Ravencroft also known as the Man-Wolf, reveals himself as another of Carnage’s infected puppets.
Mayer then coats the book in an intense and overbearing red hue, signaling nothing but danger as Carnage throws pieces of himself into each cell. There are elements of body horror as he pulls these tiny bits of himself out of his chest and they burrow into the victims. Kasady’s mouth and eyes also seem to drip with his symbiote form as he and the other barrel down on Venom and Spider-Man. A giant and beautiful brawl ensues with the infected ripping and tearing at the pair. The mass of bodies overwhelm and Eddie almost begins to kill before being reigned in by Spider-Man. Unfortunately Spider-Man gets caught by Carnage.
It was around here that I had the realization that Pete and Cletus haven’t actually clashed in YEARS. Maybe as far back as 2011’s Carnage USA was the last time the two fought, so to see Pete finally see him again with half of his mask gone, there’s a small bit of fear in his body language. This is doubled as Carnage throws Spider-Man into Norman’s cell door, breaking it open to reveal a deranged Norman who appears to have been slicing himself with a piece of glass in his cell. With the combination of the bright red of his blood juxtaposed against the darkness of his cell, Norman stands out, not as the cunning genius that we knew him, but as another victim of Carnage and he smiles with mad glee.
Absolute Carnage #1 absolutely lives up to the hype that has been built for it. This story can expand so far and with the tie-ins that have been announced, I’m actually very excited. Carnage has been scary, but this is on a whole new level for him. You never quite know who is one of his thralls! Hell, John Jamson appeared to be completely normal until the trigger was pulled in him and turned him into another monster. Carnage has always been a problem for the larger Marvel universe whenever people have had to fight him individually. Deadpool had a hard time fighting him. Captain America, Wolverine, Hawkeye and the Thing almost died fighting him. Even when he was temporarily a good guy during AXIS, he was still horrifically dangerous.
With new god-like abilities, lack of weaknesses and unimaginable unpredictability, what can anyone do?
Ryan Stegman’s art needs to be absolutely praised as well. His lines are crisp and heavy in an almost perfect way. He manages to give things a darkness and depth to them that makes everything feel absolutely brutal, disgusting and weighty. He can capture faces of absolute terror, rage and every wonderful expression that Venom makes. Personally I love how emotive he makes Spider-Man’s mask with the eyes widening and shrinking with his surprise or incredulity. He also has a talent for spreads as there are about three really good ones that really shows his skill for depth of field. Venom and Spider-Man also look incredibly strong. We all know that I love muscular art and all of their muscles are accentuated through their costumes. Spider-Man has his lithe and athletic body and Venom is nothing but raw strength and I love it.
Absolute Carnage hit every correct note. There was violence, horror and even a little bit of family drama. The stakes are very high and while not on the same scale as War of the Realms, the sheer amount of murders caused and their horrifying nature is more than enough to be concerned about. Donny Cates looks like he’s going to do it again with his first big Marvel event (I think, I don’t really remember) and bring us all to another level of badass storytelling.
In an age where we’re inundated with superhero media on all fronts with their bright colors, cheery jokes and positive outlooks, it’s easy to slowly become sick of it, feel the “superhero fatigue” as it were. Where Marvel ruins some stories with far too many jokes (looking at you Thor: Ragnarok) and DC is far too dreary and serious for its own good with a lack of levity, where can one turn to for a GOOD happy medium?
Well, in comes Seth Rogan and Evan Gold, the brilliant minds behind the amazing adaptation of Preacher with yet another brutal and slightly more cynical series. The Boys absolutely stuns not only by being a genuinely compelling series, but also by being one of the few adaptations that improves on the original medium in a few aspects.
Story
The story centers around Hughie Campbell and the titular Boys as they work to expose the horrific deeds of The Seven, a collective of the world’s greatest superheroes, and the company that sponsors them, Vought American.
In this world, superheroes are everywhere. They’re on breakfast cereals, TV shows, movies, pretty much every piece of media and entertainment imaginable while also protecting America from crime. Sounds familiar, huh? The kicker here is that, much like every asshole celebrity that lets the fame and fortune go to their heads, these heroes are massive cunts. They take performance enhancing drugs, routinely cause accidents that hurt or kill people, sexually harass people left and right and just lie to their adoring public like they’re children.
For the most part, the show follows the initial story beats of the comics with a few select differences before splintering off in an entirely new direction. Hughie’s girlfriend still gets blown apart by A-Train, he denies Vought America’s hush money which draws the attention of Billy Butcher and Starlight joins the Seven after the “death” of the hero Lamplighter.
Unlike the books, however, The Boys team isn’t the well oiled machine that’s been taking down and blackmailing superheroes for years and the first four episodes are spent introducing the different team members.This is likely due to wanting to give people time to care about them individually and the limited number of episodes in the season. This definitely works in also retooling the characters themselves for TV since they may not have seventy-two issues of character development ahead of them
This also means that there’s less time to focus on smaller plotlines and teams that are referenced to in passing dialogue like the Teenage Kix, a pastiche on the Teen Titans, or Payback, the number two group of superheroes to The Seven. While seeing the team take these guys down on the small screen would have been fun, I like the idea of keeping the plot focused on just the core group of antagonists. This way, we don’t have to slog through three or four seasons of small fry and get the big bads in the last few.
After the first half, fans of the comic may start to feel a little bit of the familiar, but then things start to take a drastic turn when Billy’s pride and the rest of the teams sloppiness gets them all burned and branded wanted criminals. This never happens in the books because The Boys are funded and protected by the CIA, but here they’re just another group of concerned citizens that are completely in over their heads, adding to the tension and keeping everyone guessing as to what will happen for the rest of the season and in Season 2.
Themes
The original series was written during the latter years of the Bush Administration. Tensions were high and America was still embroiled in the Iraq War. The president was a simpering fool and companies were fucking people over left and right in the name of patriotism. Reality TV and the awful personalities on our screens were on nearly every channel and all of this only fueled the anger that is Garth Ennis’ pen and Darick Robertson’s pencils. It was a product of its time and it was perfect.
We’re now in the Information Age where superheroes and social media are the only things that matter in everyone’s mind, where women’s empowerment is stronger than ever and our leaders speak bombastically with shit eating grins full of lies. Rogen and Goldberg have kept the series modern and take everything to task.
Media. Marvel and DC are everywhere nowadays with some indie companies managing to scrape up their own part of the pie. The Boys makes fun of the seemingly endless cycle of sequels and the goody-two-shoes images of America’s favorite heroes. Everything is carefully managed and curated by a media team, similar to how Disney micromanages even the smallest details of their properties to make everything so sickeningly squeaky clean.
Not only do the heroes stop crime, but they star in their own movies about themselves as well, some have sponsorships for shoes and have to compete with each other for everything. Almost everything is done for the cameras, even intimate moments whenever Vought can find a way to make it work. The heroes are never too far from the spotlight even when they want to be and oftentimes their acts can go viral without them knowing.
Sexual Assault. In the comics, Starlight is sexually assaulted by Homelander, Black Noir and A-Train in a gross scene to establish that there’s nothing good in that world. It was good for its time in its own dark way, but today there are absolutely consequences to such things as there should have been back then. In the show, Starlight is assaulted by The Deep, her childhood crush, alone.
It’s dark and makes use of the imbalance of power as The Deep threatens to have her kicked off of the team. Soon after, Starlight comes forward with what happens to her, not allowing herself to let what happened stand and unlike in the books, The Deep gets his comeuppance. Though this also unfortunately leading to him getting assaulted as well. It’s powerful and allows for Starlight to move what could have been an image of weakness, though Vought uses this to their advantage as well, painting her a feminist icon. Best for business right?
Politics. While not everything has to be an allegory for Trump, it’s hard to say that Homelander isn’t just that. He’s what the president thinks he is, a strong, blonde haired man that the entire country loves. Homelander has the people eating out of the palm of his hands and he’s only feeding them shit. He hates the common man and will just as easily let many die if it can somehow serve his interests. He’s not above a little sexual harassment himself and he is just an evil bastard.
There’s also a subplot of military application of superheroes that I feel mirrors the discussion on the use of drones in war. Drones are absolutely deadly and have caused the deaths of hundreds, even innocents when things have gone really wrong. Even President Obama was criticized for how reckless and dangerous their use could be. The world could only imagine the hell that would rain down if superheroes were allowed to duke it out over national security.
Characters
The Boys as a comic series was an unrepentantly cynical take on the superhero genre in an established universe of heroes. The creator, Garth Ennis, didn’t grow up with many superheroes and actually felt disrespected by a few of them, like Captain America. He brought on the amazing Darick Robertson and other artists to realize this horrid world of drugs, hardcore sex and brutal violence. Many of the stories are fun and hilarious, but with the unfortunate feeling of a lot of them feeling one note due to the one dimensional nature of a lot of the “heroes” and the ever escalating level of black humor to the point of being cartoonish.
Our main character cast is absolutely fantastic. Jack Quiad’s Hughie is much like his comic counterpart, aside from being like six feet tall and not Scottish. He’s surprisingly smart with a lot of awkwardness about him. He has a good heart and doesn’t see ALL superheroes as being evil, but does have a slight sense of justice that wants to see The Seven and Vought taken down.
Karl Urban’s Butcher was the absolute perfect casting choice. He’s got that wry British wit, the fury to capture Butcher’s rage against supes and can play a manipulator like nobody’s business. His character arc is one of the few regressions that I can actually appreciate for how it’s done, especially as things become more fucked because of him and how he chooses to blame everyone else.
Everyone else is a slight bit of an improvement over the comics versions. The Frenchman, played by Tomer Capon, is similar to his comics counterpart, but we’re given reason to care about him and The Female. In the comics, Frenchie and the Female knew each other prior, but I don’t think it’s ever revealed how they met or became close. In the show Frenchie frees The Female, played by Karen Fukuhara, from thugs that had been keeping her prisoner and he slowly gains her trust over the course of the next few episodes after her introduction. We see their friendship grow, learn a little bit of her backstory and get a better understanding of what she wants versus just following Frenchie around and being terrifyingly adorable.
Annie January aka Starlight, played by Erin Moriarty, is probably the second best change in character in the series. She starts out as a bright eyed, bushy tailed hero looking to do good, but after being sexually assaulted on her first day in The Seven, decides that it will never happen again. In the comics, Annie stays around in The Seven and takes the abuse for a little while before speaking out and fighting back against the rest of them. What makes things even better, not only does she challenge her uber Christian beliefs during an event sponsored by Vought, but she does so while also getting Vought to force her abuser into giving a public apology at the mere thought of her causing their stock prices to crash.
Consequently, Mother’s Milk, portrayed by Laz Alonso, one of the most layered characters in the comics isn’t made better, but the more ridiculous aspects of is character have been toned down. We don’t hear of his disabled mother and his addiction to her breast milk that fuels his own superpowers, nor is his wife a crack addict that makes pornos with their daughter. He’s simply a reliable member of the team that loves his wife and will give Butcher the truth when he’s acting like an asshole.
The series actually brings a lot of grey to most of these characters. A-Train never once shows remorse for his actions in the books, but in the show he’s painted as kind of sympathetic, while still being seen as a monster for what he does and the reasons behind them. The Deep could go either way after his actions with a redemption arc or a full turn to villain, but is shown to be knowingly aware of how little regard there is for him. He calls himself a “diversity hire” and acknowledges his own ineptitude, but he’s still an absolutely terrible person.
Queen Maeve may be one of my favorite changes that manages to be even more sympathetic than her already pretty great comic counterpart. She, much like Starlight, did want to change the world, but she let the apathy and jaded nature of the job take her over. She’s an alcoholic that sees a bit of herself in Starlight. The change comes in how she reacts to what I think might be Homelander’s most heinous act in the show. She shows far more remorse and guilt over what happens than she does in the comic, showing us a side of her makes you want to root for her and to see her get better.
The best character… dear Lord, is Homelander, played by Anthony Starr. Homelander is a bastard. The worst thing imaginable because of his sheer strength and power. He’s a sociopath with all of the powers of Superman and none of the goodness. In the comics he’s simply just another asshole.
He’s the most powerful of the Seven and absolutely revels in the hedonistic lifestyle that he’s accustomed to while also hating being under the rule of Vought. In the show, he’s shown as being supportive to Vought, especially it’s current Senior VP of Hero Management, Madelyn Stillwell. He has something of a mommy fetish as shown with his interactions with her and later in the series actually expresses emotions over learning of his own tragedies, but instead of trying to change for the better, he doubles down on his hatred and anger to become an even bigger monster than before.
In the comic he just wants all of the superheroes to conquer the world, but here, he just wants to hurt everyone who hurts him. He plays games like a child, threatening and revealing secrets to toy with people before absolutely breaking them. He’s horrible in a very personal way and his sneering smile only makes him so much more hateable. He knows there isn’t a damn thing you can do to stop him and he revels in that fact, I love it.
Pacing and Direction
Coming in at an hour for each episode, the first two to three can feel a bit slow. Getting all of the story elements to sit just right can take time, especially as new things are introduced every few minutes. This slow burn approach easily helps to build the tension before things get really crazy by episode four. By that point, the story is unfolding at a perfect rhythm, the team is mostly together, they’ve made their plans of action and it’s all so smooth.
Thankfully each episode is directed by different people to avoid each feeling so similar. The common humor and tone is kept the same, but some episodes are very hopeful almost before being met with one that absolutely makes you hate certain characters and the actions that they take. In particular, the episode where Hughie and Butcher visit a group therapy session and Butcher flies off into a rage about the weakness of the attendees as they basically lick the balls of the heroes that have maimed them was amazing. The director pulls so much emotion out of that scene and continues on as the episode moves along in a far more dramatic fashion than some of the others.
Some others lean heavier on the debauchery such as the episode where Hughie and Butcher venture into a superhero sex club and watch as these guys do some pretty amazing feats with their abilities in some really gross ways. There’s a good balance of levity and drama that makes neither feel too overwhelming.
Overall
With a great cast, impeccable acting and an unpredictability that I actually enjoyed, The Boys absolutely blew me away. I was wholly prepared to rip it apart if I felt like it didn’t do the story justice, but Rogen and Goldberg are fans and knew what we all wanted. It’s unabashedly a comic book show, but still has enough to it that people who have never heard of the series will be floored by how much they can find to enjoy.
It’s for the nihilistic and jaded comic book fan. It’s for the casual watcher who’s gotten enough of Marvel’s colorful displays of happiness and it’s absolutely for the happy person who just wants to have some fun with what they watch.
I thoroughly enjoyed this season of The Boys. So much so that I’m aching with anticipation to re-read the comic series in preparation for Season Two. It’s unlikely that it’ll follow the plot much, if at all after the ending, but with Stormfront (as a woman) being announced as the new Hero joining the Seven in the next season, I’m excited as to who else they might pull. This first season absolutely earns a high recommendation from me.
Runner Up: Justice League Dark Annual #1 – James Tynion IV, Ram V, Guillem March, Arif Prianto and Rob Leigh
The world needs more Swamp Thing stories.
This annual was dark, far darker than most of the Justice League Dark tales so far because of how self contained it was and the sheer weight of the situation therein. Sure, it wasn’t a world ending cataclysm like the one they just stopped, but that doesn’t make it any less horrible. I’d never heard of Ram V before, but their storytelling, combined with Guillem March’s art makes me feel like I’ve been pulled back into the old days of Vertigo.
Magic is broken. After Wonder Woman and Zatanna used the Ruby of Life to repair the damage they did to magic after defeating the Lords of Order, magic itself is repairing itself, but in a manner that throws the old rules out of the window.
Consequently, the Parliament of Trees has been destroyed and now Swamp Thing has no one to answer to as the new Parliament of Flowers is seeking a new champion. After confronting Constantine about coming on as a consultant for the League, the con-man convinces Swamp Thing to go on the search for the new Avatar before he loses his humanity like Swampy did. Swamp thing tries to act like he doesn’t care, but goes off to find the man.
The story descends into something of a tragedy as we’re introduced to Oleander Sorrel, a flower botanist, and his wife Natasha.
What makes this story so great is that, like the best Swamp Thing stories, it focuses on other characters and their own personal situations. The pair suffer in a broken marriage after the death of their son which causes Natasha to leave Oleander and himself delving deeper into his work, later resulting in his death. He becomes the Avatar of Flowers, but refuses to let go of his humanity after Swamp Thing tries to convince him that he is no longer a man.
He seeks out his wife and watches over her until Jason Woodrue, a very old DC villain that really hasn’t been seen since the early days of The New 52, whispers in Oleanders ear. Oleander listens and suddenly a boy that looks very close to their son appears at the door. Natasha is happy, then another child appears and another until Natasha is absolutely blind with love for her new kids.
But not all gifts are good. There’s no way that Woodrue doesn’t get something out of this himself. There’s always an underlying plot and Swamp Thing manages to uncover what really happened to Oleander. The fire that killed him was actually a pool of caustic that he laid in his flower bed and kills himself in. Oleander did die in the pool, but his memory lived on in the flowers that he planted. This revelation stuns Oleander and the children he created out of flowers begin to dissipate. He grows weary, knowing that Swamp Thing was right and Woodrue manages to convince him to rest for a while before feasting upon his flower flesh, regaining his own connection to The Green.
This annual definitely fit the title. It was Dark, not only from a storytelling standpoint, but also visually. Natasha’s post crying face was heart wrenching to see and Gullem March squeezed every bit of emotion out of it that he could. Her lips quivered, her eye makeup ran just a bit and there was a hopelessness that could be felt. Oleander’s transformation was a beautiful kind of macabre with his appearance, composed entirely of flowers, looking very sinewy and skeletal at the same time. Colors are very warm, juxtaposed against an ever growing sense of dread that culminated in the most haunting scene of Oleander growing more and more flower children. The shot is perfect as Oleander is shown to be a hapless man whose only intent is to make his wife happy, but his methods are horrifying almost wrong.
When the children begin to disappear following the revelation, light is shown on them while the background remains dark. Their petals waft away with the night winds as Natasha has to watch in horror, likely to be absolutely broken by the experience of losing her kids. Woodrue eating Oleander afterwards, however, is brutal. The color shifts to a deep red and Woodrue furiously munches on the flowers, gnawing and tearing his way into Oleander’s body and emerging as a new creature unto himself.
I haven’t been able to find anything about this Ram V person, but I want to read more of their work. This book was absolutely stunning and I hope that it does well enough to warrant another Swamp Thing mini-series or full run. Amidst the cancellation of the show after just one season, it’s definitely something the world needs more of. This story was chilling, well paced and had a great focus on someone else while keeping it’s main star tangential as he should be in things like these. This is a definite high recommend from me.
Best of this Week: Batman: Last Knight on Earth #2 – Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia and Tom Napolitano
The last case Batman will ever solve, might just be his most terrifying.
Beginning with Batman confronting an older Joe Chill in the past over the dead child in Crime Alley that looks eerily similar to Bruce. Our hero kind of surprises and disarms him by removing all of the weapons he’s hidden around his apartment. Chill seems to have been expecting him, preparing what he calls an “end of an era feast” for Bruce, implying he knows his identity. To make matters even more interesting, he insinuates that he didn’t even kill the Waynes for Marth pearls and makes it seem like there was an even larger plan afoot than anyone realized.
Cutting back to the Nightmare future, Batman and Joker’s Head are taken by surprise as a Speed Force Storm tears through the desert. Never let it be said that Greg Capullo hasn’t been improving his skills at body horror because the tornado is terrifying. Consisting of the constantly shifting, twisting and stretched bodies of Barry Allen, Bart Allen, Jay Garrick and possibly others, the faces scream and cry for Bruce to help them. It’s a shocking and unsettling sight as one can almost hear the deafening cries of atom splitting agony that they’re going through. The deep red of the storm doesn’t help as it just makes things FAR more threatening than they need to be. Bruce and Joker sit in a cave for safety while Bruce laments that there is absolutely nothing that he can do to save them.
The pair continue on, hang gliding through the air, crossing over a base named Fort Waller. Joker tells Batman that originally it was the last bastion of hope, where Mr. Terrific, Dr. Sivana, Ivo and others could combine their knowledge with the powers of the new avatars of the Green and Red to repel those incensed by Luthor. Batman asks him what happens and Joker’s narration ends as they watch the battle. Unknown Soldiers fighting abominations of the Red in a hellish battle of blood and fire until a Swamp Thing appears from the crimson dust of their fight, no longer appearing to have any faculties or emotion other than: KILL.
The tone shifts as they reach an area known as the Plains of Solitude, seeming a mass of crystalline structures similar to Superman’s secret base. The cool blues of this area offer something of a safety in a book that has otherwise been overbearingly tense since it began. It doesn’t help that Joker’s been doing variations of “can I be Robin, are we there yet, and knock knock jokes the entire time. Bruce snaps that he could never be Robin because Robin was a good guy and who in this world was still like that? Pods shaped like Superman’s baby rocket start landing close to Bruce and Joker before the pair are saved by… Superman?
Or so we think, this “very talkative” (end sarcasm) Superman leads the pair to a farmhouse in the middle of the plains where a surprisingly alive and potentially insane Lex Luthor greets them. Batman, furious at the state of this world demands to know what happened, what did Luthor do? Luthor answers that he had a debate with Superman. What makes this so interesting is that, Luthor says that he knows that he should have lost. The stakes were such that, the loser would be impaled by spike of Kryptonite and Luthor, having almost crapped himself a speech mostly using platitudes from others in his own words, didn’t hold a candle to Ka-El… but in the end, Superman ends up skewered and the world goes to hell with him.
It begs the question of, what happened? Did all of the people just side with Luthor on impulse? Did something happen to sway them or was someone else manipulating things? Everything is speculation. Things are cut short, however as Bane and Scarecrow show up to punish Luthor and bring Batman to their new God, Omega. Bane appears to be absolutely rotting with venom as his veins are green and his skin is pale. Scarecrow looks absolutely scraggly with long, gnarled fingers with syringes at the end of his fingers. Scarecrow has poisoned the Superman clone and forces him to try and break the Bat.
Suddenly, as Superman lifts Batman above his head, a sword pierces his chest as it’s revealed that Wonder Woman has returned to save the Caped Crusader. The two are told to run away by Luthor, to save the world as he opens a portal for them and is summarily torn apart by other infected Superman Clones.
We see the full extent of the utter destruction Luthor’s actions have caused as they land on the cloak of The Spectre. Wonder Woman tells Batman that the fighting eventually spilled over and destroyed both Heaven and Hell. It only makes sense, doesn’t it? The forces of magic are very powerful in the DC Universe. How much trouble would it take for a Mordru or Neron to tangle with Doctor Fate or Zatanna, culminating in the ruination of the afterlife, damning everyone to a non-existence at the end of everything?
They enter the cloak and take a ride down the River Styx. Diana tells Bruce that the voices of the dead will be calling out to him for sending them there. Capullo stuns with a double page spread of many of DCs biggest heroes, showing Batman the sheer weight of what his as-of-yet unknown role in Luthor’s scheme was. There are far too many to name, but I will say that I appreciate Capullo putting Kyle Rayner among those in the front. His deaths in many alt-stories will always irk me, but I do like seeing him recognized and put higher than Hal Jordan or even John Stewart.
Things take an even darker turn as Alfred shows up among the dead and Batman almost climbs out of the little boat, knowing that he just saw Alfred not too long ago and he and Wonder Woman make it to the real Gotham City with a cliffhanger and a surprising reveal at the end.
Last Knight on Earth pulls no punches when it comes to depicting a desolate world where Doom wins. I want to say that it’s almost dour to the point of being almost being hopeless and that’s exactly what I love. I adore how much is being packed into this story, how many references to the greater DC universe we’re getting. Capullo’s art is probably the best it has been in years and the quality of the writing is right on part with Dark Knights: Metal. It’s a righteous trip as Batman lugs the annoying head of the Joker around like a planet hopping adventure. It’s really fun and very dark.
Runner Up: Conan the Barbarian #8 (Legacy #283) – Jason Aaron, Gerardo Zaffino, Garry Brown, Matthew Wilson and Travis Lanham
Very rarely do we get to feel the cold of the hills of Cimmeria.
Conan doesn’t often return home as far as I know. He’s always off on an adventure in Zamora, Khitai, Stygia or any number of other places, not thinking of venturing back home. What makes this story so interesting is Conan’s sense of familiarity and how things are turned on their head when the people that he knew and trusted are suddenly against him. We see his normal rage and anger, but with a restraint that is almost never given to anyone else. It’s strange, but leave it to Gerardo Zaffino and Jason Aaron to give us another amazing tale.
The cold air wafts from Conan’s mouth, the warrior clad in a heavy pelt and a large rucksack on his back. He walks through the blizzard until he comes upon a collection of huts and a dog with piercing red eyes, the first sign that all is not as it seems. He is met by a man with two axes, likely the community butcher, named Ailill. Ailill prepares Conan some food while explaining a sickness that has infected the people of Conan’s clan and that the town shaman had run away. The sickness is one of the mind and as the panels go on, we slowly get a small twinge of dread until Ailill reveals that he himself and the rest of the villagers are infected, also with piercing red eyes.
Conan punches Ailill and tries to escape only to be cornered by the others and his Grandmother, who is drawn with a face almost as horrifying as Norton Sinclair’s from Gideon Falls. This is also one of the few times we see Conan truly afraid as he runs away into the forest to avoid killing his people. He is later found in the freezing cold, half dead, by the village Shaman. He nurses Conan back to a semblance of help and tells him that the curse upon his people was inflicted by a dark wizard by the name of Thoth-Amon, one of Conan’s arch-nemesis. The shaman asks Conan if he’s ready to kill everyone he loves and Conan replies that he had brought gifts for his people and that going South had saved him, so maybe it can do the same for them.
We see how Conan earns the name Conan the Cunning as he lays traps for his people using the gifts he had brought them. Sugar cubes for the dogs to keep them distracted, spices and grog to incapacitate some of the men and spiderweb rope from Zamora for others. Things look to be going surprisingly well until his Grandmother catches him off guard, allowing the others to catch up and corner Conan again. He fights hard, but also doesn’t want to kill them.
Zaffino draws this scene expertly with flashes of Conan’s rage juxtaposed against his feelings of live. He allows himself to be stabbed and battered while just trying to pummel strike or punch his friends. His lines are thick and he makes excellent use of hatching to shade everything. We get the sense of how strong everyone is because of their movements and how large they all are. Conan is the biggest, but his grandmother is still a wall of muscle and anger.
Faces are another thing of beauty as the madness in their eyes is clear. These people are without their faculties and act like simple hounds, hounds that can talk and use tools, but with the bloodlust of hungry animals. Thoth-Amon’s hate of Conan reflects amazingly in them and their lack of restraint only makes thing ever more brutal.
Garry Brown’s colors also make things look so beautiful and desolate. Only a man as hard as Conan could come from a place that feels so cold and isolated. During the fight there are flashes of orange to indicate how dire the fight is becoming. There’s also a deep red as Conan can see the snake coming out of the ear of the Dog Keeper, the first to be infected, showing who the true enemy is and true to form, green is a color of evil as the snake is the perfect shade of vile.
Conan’s grandmother, able to break free of Thoth-Amon’s control, cuts the head off of the dog keeper to keep him from hurting her boy. The rest of the villagers are saved and thank Conan for coming back to them, the good times don’t last as the infected dogs return and all of the Cimmerians join together for another fight.
I loved Jason Aaron’s exploration of Conan’s people. They’re all the same breed of strong as Conan only they’ve never ventured out of their home. They’re rugged, hardy and they’d have to be to survive in the wilderness as they do. It was also amazing to see Conan not kill people when usually a single swing of his sword is enough to begin a tear through armies. Truthfully, he would have done so here too if there were no other way, but he had faith that he could save them and it paid off.
Zaffino gets the most praise from me because of his art style. It rings back to the days of Marvel’s 1970s-1980s Conan series with a sort of pulpy look combined with the expert techniques of the modern day. He conveys emotion, action and even tells a story through the art alone. He’s got skills that makes me want to check out the other books he worked on.
Conan the Barbarian continues to excel as a fantastic story, not only through showcasing new and awesome adventures of the titular barbarian, but by continuing to remind us that by the end of all of this Conan will die. These happy times won’t last and it’s amazing that Aaron has managed to keep that thought looming in the back of our minds. Around every turn we get a new reminder and the dread comes right back. I can’t wait for the next chapter in this story or the many others coming like Esad Ribic’s story of Conan’s youth. This book get another high recommend from me.
Best of this Week: Black Panther #14 (Legacy #186) – Ta-Nehisi Coates, Daniel Acuna and Joe Sabino
Since the beginning of this new series, we’ve been left wondering if this escaped slave, turned warrior, turned legend was the real King T’Challa. We’ve been introduced to an M’Baku, though M’Baku has been dead for years and a Nakia that isn’t an emaciated mess of a supervillain. There’s also a living N’Jadaka even though Killmonger too has been dead for a long time. We’ve gotten hints that maybe things aren’t as they seem, especially when Manifold shows up as a mind controlled slave. The last few issues had finally cleared things up and it’s official; the King i back.
The book begins with Manifold helping to evacuate the Teku-Maza, a group of alien warriors that have agreed to help the Rebel Maroons fight against the “King” N’Jadaka. In the middle of the evacuation, N’Jadaka’s forces appear from hyperspace and engage the Teku-Maza and the Maroon forces in battle.
T’Challa, now with all of his memories back has finally contacted Wakanda Prime. Shuri, Storm and his mother all answer the call and tell T’Challa how the country has flourished despite his absence and that his request for aid in space might risk this newfound peace. Shuri even asks why should Wakanda Prime even be concerned with all of this and Nakia snaps back with the fact that N’Jadaka won’t just stop at the few galaxies that he has. Honestly, this should be a grave concern for them.
The Space Empire has managed to go unnoticed by the Black Panther and others for thousands of years. With the technology that N’Jadaka wields, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that he could give Earth’s heroes a run for their money. Shuri’s dismissal of such things comes off as naive at best, but outright dangerous at worse. T’Challa is one of the smartest and most capable of Earth’s heroes and he too fell to the Empire.
The call is unfortunately cut short as the Teku-Maza’s planet of Agwe is under attack and only T’Challa and the rest of the Maroon Elite can stop the Empire. Under M’Baku’s command, T’Challa, Nakia and the Goddess Bast take the fight to the Empire.
I’ve been waiting for Acuna to come back for large scale battles such as this. His art style is absolutely perfect to capture the sense of scale, speed and harrowing nature of this kind of space fight. He also has the perfect Afro-Futurist feel to each scene with ship designs that feel, maybe West African in nature, as well as the M’Baku’s body modification and the design on his sash. The colors are heavy with striking reds, intense greens and screaming hot yellows. Some pages also have a bit of a holographic/3D effect in some panels that adds a little bit of a trippy factor, especially as Bast uses her powers.
The battle is harrowing with each side taking casualties. The Teku-Maza leader tells his men that no matter what happens, N’Jadaka must not escape and he has them arm a weapon called the “Core-Killer,” a weapon capable of destroying the planet it’s armed on as well as almost everything within close enough range. N’Jadaka tells his people to fire on the population centers of Agwe and the Teku-Maza leader tells the Maroons to retreat as the core killer has been activated. Bast chastises M’Baku as he resigns himself to ask his forces to retreat and the Maroons get away just as Agwe goes up in flames.
This war has cost so many lives and having to give up an entire planet of people is absolutely devastating. On the possible upside, a tyrant may have finally been destroyed, leaving his people able to find freedom much like the Maroons have. I think what I like best about this is the position it puts T’Challa in. He’s lost his people many times over, so either his heart is completely hardened to it, or he values absolutely every life lost that he himself was unable to save. I don’t know how he’s going to handle this stunning climax to the war, but I can’t wait to see. High Recommend.
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?
Ty Talks Comics 