Best of DC: Week of July 17th, 2019

Best of this Week: Justice League #28 – James Tynion IV, Javier Fernandez, Daniel Sampere, Juan Albarran, Hi-Fi, Tom Napolitano

Doom is coming.

Martian Manhunter, J’onn J’onzz, is hearing the whispers of the people. He hears them asking for Lex Luthor to grant their wishes, for power, money, confidence and J’onn is determined to stop him. With Hawkgirl, the two fly to the last place that J’onn traced Luthor’s presence. Luthor, however, was already in J’onn’s head and commands him to knock Hawkgirl unconscious so that they may talk.

Elsewhere on Qward, in the Antimatter Universe, the rest of the League stand on the lifeless world looking for The Anti-Monitor. Daniel Sampere has few pages in the book, but he makes the best of every one that he is given. The first splash page is absolutely beautiful as it establishes John Stewart as the head of this mission given his numerous battles with Sinestro and his Weaponeers. The rest of the League also look badass with Batman’s broody darkness flanked by Superman’s big blue hope. Even with the World Forger and the Monitor behind The Flash and Wonder Woman, they stand out as uber-imposing figures with the League.

They find that the planet is lifeless with a message left by the Anti-Monitor in the Weaponeers blood. He warns them not to follow and the team is left at a loss because the being could be literally anywhere in the multiverse. J’onn and Luthor walk around a secret lab/refuge that Luthor had been hidden for a very long time. Luthor explains that his Offers are going out to the worst of the worst and the Manhunter asks why Luthor is telling him all of this, the newly reborn villain replies with “Why not?” because he did broadcast it to the world before his “suicide.”

What makes this most interesting is the uneasiness at watching Lex Luthor, the man who held his sanity and guile above all things, slip into the realm of madness and resignation to his vow of Doom. He tries to convince J’onn that there’s no more need to fight for the greater good given how willing people were to embrace Doom. He says that J’onn’s own desire to save or rehabilitate Luthor is part of his own eventual downfall.

Luthor praises something higher than himself by waxing poetic about Perpetua’s vision of what man and Martian was supposed to be. He acknowledges his own jealousy of Superman after having a conversation with Perpetua at length. Apparently she tells him that humanity AND Martiankind would have been immortal, apex predators, conquerors of the multiverse. He Offers J’onn a choice; to join him or not.

J’onn calls him insane.

Luthor had hoped that things wouldn’t come to this but i left with no other choice than to activate tech that had been in J’onn’s mind since one of their earlier encounters. It slowly undoes the Martian’s cellular structure as Hawkgirl wakes up and attempt to save him. Fernandez has always been good with faces and the way that he conveys her terror at watching J’onn slowly come undone as Luthor grins evilly is masterful. Hawkgirl cries as Luthor absorbs J’onn’s body into himself, the rest of the Legion attack the League and Starman, Shayne and Jarro see the end of the world at the Legion of Doom’s hand.

This book was absolutely stellar. Ending the Apex Predator arc on a very low note was probably the best decision to showcase how much more powerful Luthor is in this form. He’s gone completely mad and yet lucid. He’s sure of his path and even the best that the Justice League has to offer isn’t enough to stop his plans from coming to fruition. With the Anti-Monitor keeping away from the League, one has to wonder what it is he’s afraid of or what he’s trying to avoid and what is the horrible end that Starman has seen?

The stakes are getting higher and higher as we continue to make our way to the culmination of everything as the Year of the Villain soldiers on.

Best of DC: Week of July 3rd, 2019

Runner Up: Batgirl #36 – Mairghread Scott, Paul Pelletier, Norm Rapmund, Hi-Fi and AndWorld Design

It finally seems like the Batfamily troubles have finally met Batgirl.

For the last few months, Batgirl has gone through something of a transformation in the way that her stories are being told. Back in 2015 she received an upgraded costume and status quo during the DCYou era, but with that came this unfortunate lack of seriousness and gravitas as she remained hopeful through all of her problems. She had a good support network and being the owner of a multimillion dollar start-up, she was absolutely set.

But that era came and went, DC Rebirth happened and I don’t know, her books just sort of foundered to me because they lacked the importance of other Bat-books, until Mairghread Scott took over. She’s been putting Batgirl through the ringer and has been bringing her back down to the gritty and hard nature that the rest of the Batfamily has been going through and this issue is no different.

After being put up for an auction to see who would finally kill Batgirl. Barbara escapes, defeating the Terrible Trio’s Shark as the auction house catches fire, trapping everyone inside. Batgirl fights her way through to a metal gate that she can maybe cut her way through, but The Trios Vulture throws a knife into her back. She states that letting these people go would be bad for business and that Batgirl sealed their fates when she escaped their trap. Vulture is willing to let herself and many others die to protect her reputation.

This kind of callousness stuns Batgirl because villains usually want to live, but Vulture is absolutely on the side of culling weakness from the world and the Terrible Trio failing to kill Batgirl is something she can’t abide and will take everyone down with her. Fox betrays Vulture, allowing Batgirl to free everyone, including the carrion villain. Shark, however, is unable to move after his beating and Batgirl, still wanting to be hopeful and helpful tries to save him. With everything crumbling down around them, Shark pushes her out of the way of debris, killing him as Batgirl watches on.

As she crawls out of the ruins, nose bloody and face full of dejection, she heads to a meeting that she was supposed to attend in order to talk with her investors. Her friend Alysia, who she placed in charge in case she wasn’t able to attend meetings, tells her that the investors forced her to make a decision that ultimately led to Babs being pushed out of the company. Now, broke and homeless, Barbara’s thoughts drift to Shark and in the face of everything, she still sees positivity.

She gets her stuff from Jason Bard, the guy who she worked with on a Mayoral campaign or something along those lines with in earlier issues, and seeing how caring he’s become since their last few encounters, she actually kind of sees him as a friend. Black Canary hooks her up with a dingy apartment in The Narrows, but Babs sees it as a good start, thinking of Shark and Jason, even as her life is collapsing, she still has hope.

I know earlier I said that the stories prior to this also had hope as the ultimate ending to everything, but at the same time, Barbara also had a safety net of things to fall back on. She’s not calling on Bruce to help her, she doesn’t have Dick to confide in and she doesn’t have the money that she used to have and to her, that is perfectly fine.

With her Year of the Villain tie-in coming up soon, I can’t wait to see where things go for her.

Best of Marvel: Week of June 26th, 2019

Runner Up: Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #20 (Legacy #720) – Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, Jason Keith and Cory Petit

I love She-Hulk.

She’s always been a fun, sexy character that’s easy for me to project my McMahon-esque muscle fetish on and this issue deconstructs that in the most brutal way that needed to be acknowledged.

Starting off with a trial of the She-Hulks, Attorney She-Hulk accuses current She-Hulk of flushing Jen’s reputation as the jolly yet sassy, beautiful She-Hulk down the drain after her powers were enhanced by the Celestials in the first arc of this Avengers series.

Effectively, Killing the Fun. Current She-Hulk objects and the two get into a fist fight as we cut back to reality and see that it’s just Jen giving herself some therapy to control her powers.

But the theme of “No Fun” runs throughout the issue almost to a maddening degree. It’s the name of this chapter, Jen makes nods to it and even wears a shirt with the saying on it. I don’t take this to mean that Aaron dislikes the old She-Hulk, but that the objectification that came with her was not fun or good at all and that is a strong stance to take.

Sensational She-Hulk was an amazing series, not only for the writing and art, but also because of those spectacular pin-up covers. She-Hulk has been one of Marvel’s top tier sex symbols for decades almost to the point where it overshadowed a complex character with a fantastic personality and maybe more heroic deeds than her cousin, especially as he’s a Horrifying Gamma Monster now and she’s an Avenger saving the world.

Through the book, Jen tells us how villains would make crude jokes at her old form, grope her during fights and just in general not take her seriously. As she fights Ulik, King of the Trolls (a title that doubles as a use against some fans that didn’t accept Jane Foster Thor as he makes a comment about Thor being a name and not a legacy to pass on) he asks her to marry him as she beats his ass to a pulp. This, though contrary I think to the point that only her slim form got this kind of harassment, is the objectification and invalidation of her character.

Deadpool, for whatever reason, suddenly appears. He asks her why she stopped being funny. She replies so that she’s free to be ugly, to which Deadpool replies as she jumps away, “Can’t you do both?” This gets expanded on as Jen monologues of a conversation that she and Bruce had, where he said that he was envious of her Hulk looking the way that she did and that people didn’t run away in fear of her.

Of course, we then learn that she’s been hit on during team ups, groped, had topless pictures taken of her while she was in the Fantastic Four and just had horrible stuff happen to her that would never happen to Bruce. She thinks that being an “ugly monster” sounds good sometimes.

This book was powerful in exploring why Jen doesn’t necessarily miss being The Sensational She-Hulk. Even after that’s what it seemed like she was going back to after Mariko Tamaki’s Hulk series, I can see how Aaron feels about her character and the respect he has for her. She’s still not as strong as Bruce, but goddamn if she isn’t still one of the strongest Avengers.

And now to ruin any good will and intent I had with this review by gushing and arguing against the “Ugly Monster” statement with my own personal opinion.

Ed McGuinness has a very cartoony and exaggerated style of drawing and I absolutely love it, especially when it comes to heavily muscled characters. Back when he was doing pencils for every Hulk series, McGuinness always drew the She-Hulks exquisitely and now that Jen Walters She-Hulk has taken on a more JACKED look, she’s only gotten better.

Jen knows her Hulk form to be ugly and that gives her all of the validation and strength that she needs. I, HOWEVER, see “ugly” and all I can ask is WHERE?

In ny OH SO HUMBLE OPINION, this Hulk design is one of her best and most appealing. I loved the design of the “Broken” She-Hulk from Mariko Tamaki’s run with the character and McGuinness’ design builds on that with AN EVEN BIGGER FRAME and the MUSCULATURE to carry it.

Jen’s biceps and triceps are so large that both Scott Steiner and Hulk Hogan would blush and cower in fear. Her hands are boulder hard and could easily crush ANYONE with no effort. Her shoulders are wide and imposing in a way that should strike fear into even Mephistos heart.

Her legs and abs ripple with the strength to RIP KICK CELESTIALS APART and DO CRUNCHES WITH THEIR MASSIVE REMAINS as weight. Her chiseled jaw and face of anger make her a FORCE to be reckoned with. Any coward that runs away in terror of the sight may be justified, but anyone who sees this is as “Ugly” does not deserve the gift of being crushed under the weight of any of these muscles.

This She-Hulk is TOP THREE in most beautiful HULK designs and it takes up all three spots. Maybe this issue was directed at me, in regards to undue comments about Jen Walters appearance, but to mirror Ulik’s statement – Marry Me tho.

Best of Marvel: Week of June 26th, 2019

Best of this Week: Conan the Barbarian #7 (Legacy #282) – Jason Aaron, Mahmud Asrar, Matthew Wilson and Travis Lanham

Conan’s heart is as cold as ice.

As such, he has great trouble letting people in and, in all honesty, why would he? He’s a thief and a killer in a world of thieves, killers and maniacs around every corner. The very idea of trust and love is something that Conan keeps far away from his heart as either a distraction or something that can be a grave detriment to any traveler. As such, when this book begins and Conan requests a few ladies of the night to join him on a journey, he is very cold to them initially.

He rides ahead of them on his horse to avoid unnecessary talk while they gossip amongst themselves over his intentions; whether or not he’s going to sacrifice them to a savage god, or planning a robbery and they laugh at the barbarian. It’s not uncommon for anyone to underestimate Conan, but his lack of willingness to touch them or even share a tent with them, given the nature of almost everyone in the Hyborian Age, is a little bit suspicious. We then get our first hints of what the underlying plot of this issue might be as Conan is unable to sleep because of memories of a certain Pirate Queen.

The next morning, one of the girls holds a blade to Conan’s throat and the barbarian doesn’t flinch. The Khitan woman asks where he is leading them and he surprises her by acknowledging what kind of hardships that they’ve shared in life, without any prior knowledge and she, the coldest of the girls sort of falls for Conan, earning him the respect of all of them. That’s what makes Conan great and so admirable, he has lived a life that most Hyperborians could only dream of and has suffered almost every pain imaginable. His eyes are filled with conviction and a darkness that commands respect.

Not only are Conan’s words hard, but his body is as well. I haven’t commented on it in a while, but Asrar’s work still shines amazingly as he draws Conan as a rock hard, man of power as he protects the girls from wolves. Though only one panel, Conan looks as ferocious as the beasts, driving his sword through the wolves, blood splashing from their wounds. His biceps and triceps tighten as he overcomes the animals in his frothing rage. Conan is intimidating and as the girls look on, their various faces from stunned bewilderment to gazes of lustful want only makes this entire book that much more beautiful to look at.

Not only is the action good, but the scenes of downtime are even better. With Wilson’s spectacular coloring, their evening feast feels all the more intimate. Conan, unable to fetch more than a rabbit, is surprised when the girls show up with a nice dinner and the way that they look at him, lit with the warm orange of their fire, is fantastic. Conan sat by and ate their food, thinking it was the finest meal he’d had in months and that was the moment they’d entered his heart. He listened to them tell tales of their various homes and stunning sights and when he did speak after being asked why he left Cimmeria, he looked at all of them and said that he knew that there was a world with sights that would leave him stunned.

He didn’t sleep with memories on his mind that night. The next morning, he reveals his plan to the girls, that they would sneak upon a pleasure ship so that Conan may kill a man that he had his eyes set upon for quite some time, telling the girls of a great reward for his head. Making fun of him for looking like a shipwrecked hobo, they clean him up nicely and board the ship. Unfortunately, Conan’s drink was poisoned and he finds himself dangling over croc infested waters at the mercy of the ships owner, Pheidus, an Argossean money lender. Love had made him sloppy. Pheidus, thinking he has the upperhand because he knew Conan was coming, drops him into the crocs, while taunting him about having the girls captured.

But, amazingly, the girls kill the guards holding them, toss Conan a sword to free himself and tear through Pheidus’ men. Violence is sexy and this scene might as well have been porn because not only did Conan rip and tear as normal, but each of the five girls did as well. They slashed and sliced with daggers and fists, grit their teeth in rage and screamed the same mad scream that Conan is famous for. As Conan tosses Pheidus from the ship, his inner monologue explains why he targeted him with such fervor.

Conan’s thoughts drift to his one true love, Bêlit, and how Pheidus ensured that her father would flounder on a sand dune until he died. This was all personal to him and the sheer amount of depth this adds to his character is astounding. Conan and Bêlit had one of the most beautiful and storied romances in Conan’s history before her death due to greed MANY, MANY years ago. Conan taking revenge on a man that wronged her family whose vice also happens to be greed is mighty poetic.

This book, as with the others in this series was absolutely beautiful. Jason Aaron really understands this character, his moods, his wants and desires and Mahmud Asrar is able to capture it with perfect line art and intensity. The action is amazing and using these one-shot stories to connect the overarching narrative is masterful and I cannot wait to see where this all ends up, high recommend!

Best of DC: Week of June 19th, 2019

Best of this Week: Teen Titans #31 – Adam Glass, Bernard Chang, Marcelo Maiolo and Rob Leigh

Lobo came to bring the pain.

Starting off with a bang, Lobo completes a contract on a Dhorian at the behest of Kanjar Ro, blowing up the disguised alien’s bodega before shooting him right in the face for his cash. After completing the contract, he receives a job from The Other to take down the Teen Titans. After an initial rebuff of the job, his interest is piqued after he’s shown an image of Crush, the only other living Czarnian. (not counting Twink Lobo that should still be trapped by Larfleeze)

Cutting back to the ending from the last issue, Lobo confirms that Crush indeed her daughter and proceeds to absolutely DESTROY the Titans. All of my love comes for this book comes from just how amazingly dominant Bernard Chang makes Lobo look and how terrifying Glass scripts him.

All of the Titans rush the Main Man with Roundhouse being the first to face his wrath. Lobo takes Roundhouse, who has taken the form of a ball, and uses him to BEAT THE OTHERS. He slaps Kid Flash with his best friend, he smacks Red Arrow upside her head, Robin dodges, but his cape is used against him as he’s crushed between Roundhouse and Lobo’s hands. Kid Flash tries to come back with a flurry of punches, but Lobo has none of it and decks the Kid in his face.

Djinn teleports him into Crush’s room and he sees her wall of pictures and articles about her dad. Djinn tries to bind him with magic, but he uses a mirror to turn it against her and just as he’s about to kill her, Crush saves her in the nick of time, suplexing him out of the Titan’s hideout. Lobo, unaffected, uses her as a basketball, throwing her into the backboard before using his hoop as a bat and hitting a home run with her as the ball. Throughout the carnage he has nothing but a smug grin, like he’s playing with these kids; because he is.

Lobo has killed a lot of things, including his own children, so killing the Titans would be nothing to him. At the very least, he’s jovial and having a fun time beating their asses. Chang draws him as being kinda relaxed and casual about his violence. He’s still rippling with muscle and almost appears to be showing off a little, it’s really charming in a sick way.

Catching up to Crush, he shows no restraint against her. He breaks her ankle to test if she has his healing factor, grabs her by the hair and smashes her into a train. The impact is hard and brutal with the train crumpling as Crush’s face kisses it. Back at the hideout, Djinn has the idea to loose Crush’s chain, Obelus, as it might be the only thing that can save her. Crush, however, is not a fan of the idea because the chain came from Lobo and may not obey her. In her anger, she crushes her communicator and LOBO CRUSHES HER WITH A TRAIN.

This splash page made me lose it. Lobo just leans on the train car as Crush is pinned underneath, reaching out in pain and the bottom is EXPLODING in a hail of debris and fire with a deep red and some blood spatter effect acting as the background to the insanity. Lobo taunts her, saying she was lucky that he wasn’t around to mess her up for all of her years, but that there was still time for him to let her down. The absolute CHAD hasn’t been in her life at all, comes back and IMMEDIATELY threatens to ruin it, absolutely. I can’t believe how callous and brutal it is.

Crush spits blood in his face and just as Lobo is about to deliver his coup de gras by smashing her head into a fine red past on the ground, Kid Flash swoops in and saves her, setting up Round 2 for the next issue.

This issue was absolutely insane thanks to The Main Man. Lobo just brings out the crazy in everything that he’s in and introduced the Titans to a WORLD OF PAIN. Crush was absolutely an overpowered member of the team because almost nothing could hurt her and to see her absolutely dominated like this was astounding. One thing that truly stood out was her anger when seeing Djinn in danger because of her, pun intended, crush on the young Genie. She had a burst of rage and actually slightly overpowered Lobo, but of course he continued the beating.

Lobo’s ferocity stood out in a way that we haven’t seen in any of his fights with Superman or his time in the Justice League of America. He wasn’t angry at all, but was having fun. While he could have swatted any of the kids into dust, he played with them, dragging out their pain. His fight with Crush was hard to read/watch at times with his banter. It was almost scary how ready he was to straight up murder her to keep his rep as the last Czarnian, (again, not counting the pretty boy) but at the same time he was weirdly fatherly in his own murderous way.

Honestly, this issue was just a ton of fun. I love Lobo and any chance that I get to see him act like a madman, I enjoy. Adam Glass wrote him so very well that it kind of feels like a callback to Giffen and DeMatteis’ series and Change makes him look like an imposing freak of nature that eats nothing but protein and drinks rage. Seeing Crush express even a little bit of fear was fun because all we’ve gotten out of her is anger and snark. I can’t wait for the next issue and her eventual win just to see what she’ll be capable of. High recommend.

Best of DC: Week of June 12th, 2019

Runner Up: Superman #12 – Brian Michael Bendis, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Oclair Albert, Alex Sinclair and Josh Reed

Reunited and it feels so good.

The House of El has been separated for a long time. Jon went on adventure with his Grandfather and came back as a seventeen year old, though it’s only been three weeks on Earth. Kara went off into space to find out who destroyed Krypton and why and hasn’t been on Earth almost as long as Jon. That just left Superman while Rogol Zaar rotted in the Phantom Zone.

After Jon’s return, the father-son duo go on to rescue Jor-El, who’s in the middle of a war of his own design. Suddenly, Kara and Krypto join the fight, on the way back to Earth after discovering who killed Krypton. The family reunites just as Rogol Zaar, Jax-Ur and General Zod escape the Phantom Zone and go after the House of El.

Ivan Reis plays up this reunion like it’s been years in the making with Superman immediately intercepting Zaar with Kara, Jon and Zod in the background, all fighting in this amazingly drawn battle. Their blues and reds stand out as colors of hope as they fight against the Khunds, Thanagarians, Trilium Collective and the Enemies of El.

Superman fights with intensity, knowing the destruction that Zaar is capable of. When Zaar breaks away to take his ax/staff from Kara, she rocks him with a HARD punch. The impact almost shakes the page. The same things play out in her book, also released this week, but she knows that she has to keep the item away from Zaar, lest his power increases exponentially.

While the battle is going on, Krypto and Jon play around a little bit and this wholesome moment puts a smile on Clark’s face before Zod ambushes him. The two clash and briefly enter super speed before he and the rest of his family make a dash to Jor-El’s ship following Zaar’s retreat and the end of the battle.

The family, excluding Jor-El who looks salty as hell in the next panel, embrace. They go their separate ways soon after as Kara wishes to confront the leader of the Trilium Collective as they’ve been the main roadblock in her book. She takes Jon, leaving Superman and his father time to reconcile as Jor-El leads Superman to the remains of Krypton for a cool cliffhanger.

This book was great. Ivan Reis continues to be a fantastic artist for Superman, drawing on his and the others sheer amount of strength to make things look impactful and cool. His sense of scale makes things seem so much bigger, especially with all of the action going on in the background. With Sinclair’s help, colors are vibrant and give the book all of the life that makes it good, especially on the non-gloss paper.

One thing that I hold in high regard for this story is how it seems to be working towards making General Zod less of a tyrannical villain and more of a tyrannical anti-hero, at least for the moment. In most other cases, seeing Superman would be fight-on-sight because of his hatred for the House of El, but his Kryptonian pride won’t let him compromise the chance to take revenge on Zaar and anyone else responsible for Krypton’s destruction.

This allows him to form something of an alliance with Superman. Coupled with the two or so dream sequences we’ve seen that allude to peace between the two, there’s real hope for a mutual understanding between them. So long as Zod never learns of Jor-El’s involvement in Krypton’s destruction.

Best of DC: Week of May 15th, 2019

Best of this Week: Teen Titans #30 – The Terminus Agenda: Epilogue – Adam Glass, Bernard Chang, Marcelo Maiolo, Hi-Fi and Rob Leigh

It’s official. Damian is the WORST leader that the Teen Titans has ever had.

Everything comes to a head in the aftermath of Terminus Agenda as Red Arrow, Kid Flash and Damian are confronted by Crush, Djinn and Roundhouse after all that transpired. They’re angry, but at least for a moment are willing to work with the others on a solution to things. Damian rationalizes that his secret prison for supervillains is needed to put a stop to the villainous criminal organization, The Other.

Kid Flash initially relents and wants to put a stop to the prison, knowing he should have as soon as he found out about it. Red Arrow, sees differently and threatens to shoot him with an arrow if he attempts it. What makes this even worse is that it is these kinds of squabbles that led to Damian putting this team together in the first place, but because of his lies and cruelty it’s tearing apart at the seams.

Djinn, upon hearing his reasoning, remarks that thoughts like that are what led to her brother imprisoning her and making her commit atrocious acts in her past. Damian tries to take her arm and make her see his side, but Crush tosses him into the sign above their building in a rage.

Everything breaks down from here and Bernard Chang struts his dynamic art skills in one long string of action scenes.

The disorientation and weight from Kid Flash smashing Crush through the ceiling is heavy and Roundhouse plowing into the Speedster is even worse. Red Arrow manages to take Djinn down and Damian rocks Crush with a brutal kick to the face and it is magnificent. Everyone regains their composure and Damian gives something of an apology and says that THIS is why it was supposed to be kept secret, “to keep the burden on him.” The moment is ruined, however, with the sudden and violent arrival of a certain someone’s father.

While I generally love when a team comes together, I like it even better when their internal issues flair up, resulting in things like this. Damian didn’t want to be like his father, but became worse, Kid Flash hid things from his friends and tried to play innocent just like Barry does and Red Arrow regressed back to her murderous nature to kill Deathstroke. The new kids aren’t any better. Crush routinely lets her anger get the better of her and pushes people’s buttons, Djinn practices a level of self-righteousness that can be seen as naive and Roundhouse is just an awkward kid playing hero.

This team was a recipe for disaster.

I don’t really know how they can recover from this. Djinn’s trust in Robin, especially after she gave him control of the ring that controlled her, is broken and Crush hates him. I could see Roundhouse possibly staying with the team, but given his close nature with Kid Flash now kinda being severed… I don’t know. Red Arrow and Robin aren’t too far removed from the same motivations so they could stay together, but Kid Flash is likely done with the both of them. I did like this team, but aside from the upcoming issues focusing on one character, I don’t know how much further they can go together.

Best of Marvel: Week of March 15th, 2019

Runner Up: The Amazing Spider-Man: Hunted pt. 5 #21 (Legacy #822) – Nick Spencer, Gerardo Sandoval, Victor Nava, Erick Arciniega and Joe Caramagna

Kraven has always seen Spider-Man as his greatest opponent.

The Spider has thwarted his greatest plots and schemes and proven himself to be the stronger man half of the time. The only time that Kraven has ever felt superior was when he “proved himself better at crime fighting” than Spider-Man in Kraven’s Last Hunt, killing himself soon after. He found peace in the dark only for it to be ripped away years later and surmises that the only way for him to achieve true death was for Spider-Man to kill him.

This Hunt that he set up with the animal themed villains served three purposes. To rid the world of these undeserving hunters, to kill off the more pathetic animal themed villains and to finally push Spider-Man over the edge.

Swarmed by clones of Vermin, Spider-Man monologues internally about how “this is it” and apologizes to Mary Jane, thinking that the Vermin are going to kill him only for Kraven to come to his rescue. He passes out and later wakes up, injuries healed and chained to the floor in a new Black Suit. (Not actually the Symbiote, just what Kraven considers Spider-Man’s most significant costume, unknown how many he’s made)

Doctor Curt Connors is also in there with him. He explains that the collar around Spider-Man’s neck is rigged to explode and that his inhibitor chip won’t let him rip the collar apart as it prevents him from hurting people. Kraven then shows a live feed of his son catching up to Black Cat and Billy Connors, almost certainly with a killing intent.

Dr. Connors says that the only way that he can save his son is by taking the chip off, but given that it’s attached to his spine, Spider-Man thinks it’ll kill him. In a great moment, Connors says that it’s a chance he’s willing to take and hearkens back to Peter’s power and responsibility speeches and that Spider-Man doesn’t know what real responsibility is because he doesn’t have kids yet.

It’s a good character driven moment that brings Connors full circle. When he didn’t have control of the Lizard, he actually killed Billy. After his resurrection, he wondered if his son remembered what happened, but was too fixed on just having his family back to ask. And now he has the chance to make up for his horrible actions by becoming a beast again? It’s good stuff.

Peter begrudgingly agrees to help, but this is what Kraven wanted. He needed to test Spider-Man to see if he could go the extra mile, to see if he was finally ready to face the Hunter. By removing the chip, he’s also removed a part of himself; the part that would have held back, the part that would have found another way, the part that wouldn’t rip Kraven apart.

Garardo Sandoval’s art absolutely smashes this issue. It’s visceral and makes everything look so much more serious while still maintaining an almost 90s look. The thick jagged lines give everything an edge, making you feel when Peter’s being attacked by Vermin. Kraven showing up in his iconic clothing has weight to it as he’s portrayed in ominous shadow and The Lizard looks absolutely horrifying.

This story is almost at its conclusion and I’m so excited. In story time, all of this couldn’t have been more than a few hours, but it will have aged Peter considerably. As much as any story has pushed him to the brink, everytime he has to deal with Kraven at his most dangerous, he loses something major in himself. Honestly at this point, I want to almost say that Kraven is absolutely one of Spider-Man’s arch enemies and Hunted is the cement of that.

Best of Marvel: Week of March 15th, 2019

Best of this Week: Daredevil #5 (Legacy #617) – Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, Sunny Gho and Clayton Cowles

The “Man Without Fear” miniseries brought Matt Murdock low, but Chip Zdarsky managed to bring him even lower.

Beginning right after the end of the last issue, Matt goes after The Owl and his crime ring, hoping to put a stop to whatever big plans they have going on. Still wearing Punisher’s shirt, Daredevil takes on all comers. With expertly drawn art by Checchetto, he manages to take down a guy with Iron Man level armor using the momentum of a speeding truck and a hook, sending the truck careening into the air and letting the guns and drugs spill out. Soon after, Matt grabs one of the doors and storms through a hail of gunfire and begins tearing through Owl’s men before getting overwhelmed and being saved by the other Defenders; Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist.

He passes out and wakes up later in Danny’s apartment and breaks down, saying that he just wanted to do one last good thing as Daredevil before they take him in for accidentally killing a criminal. What I liked best about this is that they’re there for him. Jessica assures him that they’re not going to take him in and they’ve all been in the same position. Jessica’s likely killed people under Killgrave’s influence, Luke’s killed one or two of his villains and Danny’s entire Immortal Iron Fist run by Ed Brubaker and later Matt Fraction was dark. They know what it’s like to work through all of that pain and guilt.

Matt, however, struggles with the idea that they’ve all killed people and runs away from his friends because of it. One of the biggest themes of this run thus far is how Matt is coping with what he did and his religion on top of it. Murder is a cardinal sin to Catholics and Matt Murdock has more Catholic Guilt than any of them have ever had. He dresses as the devil for chrissakes and uses the mask to blind himself to the violence he commits out of his personal sense of justice.

When he returns home, he senses the presence of someone strong. Someone he says has immense power, but doesn’t know it. The best of them. Spider-Man then confronts him in his home, telling him that he can see that Daredevil’s not all there. He wouldn’t have been able to follow Daredevil home if he were and acknowledges everything that Matt’s done up to this point, calling his attack on the Owl a “suicide mission.” He tells Daredevil that he’s done and if anyone sees him out there, they will stop him.

All of this scene was a work of art. When we see Spider-Man he’s shrouded in shadow. Spidey is often considered one of the biggest beacons of light in the Marvel universe and having him stand in the dark drives home the message of how serious things are. Every close-up shot with Daredevil feels even more personal as the weight of his actions are drawn on his also heavily shadowed face. It feels personal, depressing and as he slumps back into his wheelchair – gut wrenching.

It breaks my heart to see Matt like this again. He’s tried so hard to pull himself out of the hole he’s been digging for long, but the whole time we’ve been reading, the hole’s just gotten bigger and bigger. Eventually just engulfing him in darkness as his mistakes catch up to him.

I don’t know where he goes from here. Back to the life of a lawyer? He’s been disgraced and was serving out of a broom closet the last time he tried. Another position in city office? Wilson Fisk would NEVER risk that again. Maybe a position in the church? I don’t know, but whatever the future holds, I know it’s going to be an amazing and somber one.