Waitasec.

I may have gotten the exact wording wrong, but you know somebody has gone off the deep end when the lead actor is already brushing off his film as an exercise in complete absurdity. while Hex has never been the biggest seller, his story is not, by definition, absurd. So what happened on the way to the movie studio? I was a fan of the original character, but there have been some other treatments of Hex over the years, delving into some weird stuff. For whatever reason, the executives decided to gloss over the core of the character and concentrate on him having the ability to interview the deceased (I'm assuming so they can deliver exposition to help move the plot along). An acquaintance let me know that he actually liked the movie, although the editing was atrocious, and it made the transitions awkward.

I saw very little in the way of TV ads, and the few interviews were not full of sterling words. As much as I actively try to avoid any marketing materials (so I can enjoy seeing just the finished product, and avoid seeing the entire movie in the previews), I could tell the marketing push was somewhat underwhelming. So how did things go? As Toy Story 3 shattered records for the weekend, Karate Kid gloried in updating movie nostalgia, and A-Team worked at building enough of an audience for a sequel, Jonah Hex pulled in... 5.3 million dollars. That's gotta hurt.

There comes a point when someone needs to step up and make a reality check, and nobody did that with this movie. Everyone just went along with whatever script changes there were, until the mess was plopped onto the movie screens with joyful abandonment. By which I mean everyone associated with the project has already abandoned any trace that can be made back to them for this stinker. What does it mean when you've already lost your base? When a die-hard comic fan like me looks at the product with his nose curled up, were they actively trying to make me mimic Hex's scarred visage? I mean, I actively try to go see every comic-themed movie there is, but my first (and all subsequent) reactions were, "Dude, I'll go see a clunker, but I'm not even going to attempt to see that."

So I may be wrong, but I won't find out for years, when I catch a glimpse of it on TV. Meanwhile, this turned out to be a perfect example to see if investing in a comic book movie would have made me any money. Turns out, when I first purchased the IPO of Jonah Hex on the HSX market, it was at $30. It went as high as $103.46, which means the market thought Hex would have an opening weekend of about $38 million. As the movie crept closer to its release date, that became considerably lower. The adjust took it down to the bottom. Since the format change of the website, though, I have forgotten to monitor things for the past couple months, so I had never made a change to my initial purchase. The adjustment, down to $12.56 million, cost me $872,001.00, meaning my investment yielded -58.13%.

Ouch.

Enter the Cantor Exchange. Approval has been granted to invest in movies using real money, and HSX let us do some electronic paper trading to see how it would work. Since I had a bad feeling about the movie, I was surprised to find the derivative for it (cx) was so high. I shorted the sucker at $130, because I just saw no way possible for the flick to do $130 million in four weeks. The theory behind the derivatives is that instead of HSX freezing trading and then adjusting the price, it would be a genuine free market. There would never be a freeze on trading, and it was up to each participant to hold or sell their shares, and that alone would drive the price. There would be no artificial adjustment to align the derivative with the actual box office gross. So how did it do?

The stock on HSX, JOHEX, dropped $16.57 to $13.73, the estimated amount it will pull in for its first month at the box office. The derivative, JOHEX.CX, went from $65.97 this week to $24.95, and is still dropping. This might mean that some investors are still hoping that it will have legs of some sort and make a small comeback, while it may just be that, like me, they forgot to sell in the past 24 hours. The artificial adjustment of HSX should be very close to the real amount, which means the artificial market could lag a little bit to more closely reflect reality, but that might be due to this all being fake money so far, and some people just can't be bothered to limit their losses in a timely manner.

So how would this work as a way to hedge against losses, which one of the ways the Cantor Exchange was marketed? Well, my short of the CX has gone from $130 to $26.03 at my last report, meaning I have a profit of 1,039,700.00 (79.98%). Wow! Take away my $800k+ loss from the regular HSX, and my profit is $167,699. I won't bother closing out the derivative just yet, because it has farther to fall, and hence more profit to be gained.

For a hypothetical case, let's say my stock in the HSX shares was a real financial holding that was fully utilized in the production of the movie, and there was no way for me to extract it (that sounds sexier than me simply forgetting to play the game and get out of a losing position). But I have no conflict of interest (not an insider), and I want to hedge against my investment in case I was wrong.

So I short the derivative JOHEX.CX, and manage to recover all of my losses, plus a little profit. Here is a prime case of an investor properly hedging his bets to minimize a potentially costly investment. What if the movie had pulled in, say, $140 million in a month? Well, then I would have had my original profit which would have been almost $5.5 million, minus $100,000, the cost of the short. My cost to hedge was almost insignificant compared to the profit, but check how well the hedge paid off when the original investment turned out to be a disaster.

For real investors, legitimately involved in the movie business, this exchange may be the perfect vehicle to allow them to mitigate losses. Now if only I could somehow convince them not to butcher the source material when they go to make the movie in the first place...

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi, Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark, and Joe Prado

Although there are some complaints about this series, I don’t think the art can be one of them. Multiple artists, all top-notch, and the inking and coloring are all great as well. Whatever else comes from this series, it has been firmly established that DC wants this to be thier flagship title for the year, and with their recent history, I tend to believe that they will keep to their publishing schedule, unlike a certain publishing adversary’s recent shortcomings (cough-Amazing Spider-cough).

As the Hawks step through a portal consisting of their own previous lives’ skeletons, they experience each and every death of their reincarnated lives, at the hands of Hath-Set. Shiera at least tried to suggest walking away, but Hawkman is the picture of obsession right now. The charcter is as interesting as he’s ever been. Deadman/Lifeman visits Hawk and Dove, and Hawk decides he wants the one remaining white ring to resurrect his old friend Don Hall, the original Dove. But will it work out that way? It’s never that easy, is it?

The mystery with Aquaman increases, as we are introduced to the guy who will become the new Aqualad, I suppose, and Aquaman is missing already, while Mera… looks like she’s become a Red Lantern again? Or at least, she’s very, very bloodthirsty. Elsewhere, Firestorm is having nightmares of Gehenna. Is the Black Lantern Firestorm still lingering, or are the two guys linked enough that their dreams can influence each other?

The complaints mostly seem centered around the idea of these vignettes each being too short, and the mysteries not being solved immediately. It’s like half the fans have attention-deficit disorder. Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi have won enough trust in the past few years that I am settling down for the ride, and enjoying the intrigue, as it is breathing some new life (no pun intended) into all of these characters, and helping me to enjoy them anew.

DCU: Legacies 2

by Len Wein, Scott Kolins, and Andy Kubert

As good as Andy and Joe Kubert’s art is, this issue feels more like a flashback on steroids than anything else. Paul Lincoln remains our narrator, but Len Wein takes up a lot of space to set the place and time within DC continuity. When they actually have scenes where something happens, like the scene with Paul’s meeting with the Newsboy Legion, it picks up quite a bit. It begs to be compared to Marvel’s recent mini-series by Ed Brubaker, who gave us a solid story without dwelling too much in well-known iconic renditions of older tales.

We end with one of the best tales of the JSA… the end of the JSA. Nixon is the Senator who insists that the mystery-men reveal their true identities, and Dr. Fate magically whisks them away into retirement, refusing to comply. It’s a classic tale, but all too familiar for old hands like me. Is this supposed to give a snapshot to younger readers? Then why wouldn’t they include editorial notes in the back to reference the original stories? This series needs more fresh story to it to kick into gear.

A backup tale by Len Wein and J.H. Williams is about the Seven Soldiers of Victory. It has all the hallmarks of a Golden Age story, including where they all split up so we can focus on one hero at a time (albeit a lot of them have sidekicks). Wein captures the feel of that era flawlessly, but it still is not enough in the end.

R.E.B.E.L.S. 17

by Tony Bedard and Sergio Ariño

Blackfire is back, and fighting for her people. Bedard throws us right into the action, introducing each member of the team on the fly while Blackfire confronts her sister Starfire, and both the Okarrans and the Rannians turn their weapons-fire onto the two new green Lanterns of the sector. It’s slightly amusing, and the art lends itself to the point where you don’t really think the consequences can be all that serious. Scott Hanna’s continuing role as inker provides a great stylistic legacy to this series that I enjoy.

Just as the Green Lanterns are teleported out of the way, the Thanagarians show up! Brainiac 2 is with them, and with a plan to solve everything. Rann is now orbiting in the Vega sector, and Blackfire agrees to settle her people on the deserted southern continent. Rann and Thanagar sign an official peace treaty, since they are not butting heads anymore, or even neighbors.

We end with Lyrl Dox creating Pulssar Stargrave, and planning revenge on his father… by doing something very bad to the original Brainiac. It’s a fun plot that keeps moving, and kudos to Bedard for so deftly handling multiple alien races and resolving all the disputes in a way that actually makes sense, proving yet again how brilliant Vril is. I enjoyed this issue more than any Marvel issue this week, except for maybe Atlas 2.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by multiple teams

Four quick stories this time, but nothing really outstanding. We start with Gravity, by Sean McKeever and David Baldeon. He’s already been there and done that, even up to the cliché of dying and coming back to life. He’s more into a normal life these days, but a stupid punk with powers named Warhead gets in the way. There, the story runs into a small problem.

Gravity decides to make Warhead attack him and burn out his powers, but Warhead creates an explosion just like Nuklo did, which started the entire Civil War. You remember, the one where the kid heroes got blamed for the children that died, and launched an entire movement to register superhumans? Well, a lot of kids lose their lives here because Warhead doesn’t care about human life. McKeever writes it off, as Gravity shrugs and says he can’t blame himself. Instead of causing severe psychological trauma, as per Speedball/Penance, this serves an inspiration instead to have Gravity go back to being a hero. Nothing like a massacre to get you pumped, huh? Ridiculous. Does nobody at Marvel watch what these guys do? If only Iron Man and everyone else had acted the same way, then the entire last couple of years didn’t need to have happened, right?

The next story is slightly better, with Brian Reed writing from the viewpoint of Norah Winters, a supporting character from Spider-Man, and one of the few bright new lights in the series. Except she’s mostly been pushed aside and forgotten for a while. Chad Hardin’s pencils are good as we see the American Son show up to stop a bad guy. The big mystery: is it really Harry Osborn in the suit? It’s a plug for the series, but not enough to really make you want to buy it.

Paul Cornell writes a quick two-page story about the Young Masters, but it doesn’t seem if they really know whether they want to be heroes or villains. Mark Brooks draws a fairly cool Thor who just “happens” to be flying right by their window for some inspiration to steer them in the right direction. Finally, we get a one page(!) story with Dan Slott and Ty Templeton showing Gauntlet serving with the soldiers in Afghanistan, reminding us who the real heroes are. Depending on your mood, it’s either corny, or right on the mark. Or a bit of both.

The Amazing Spider-Man 633

Zeb Wells, Chris Bachalo, and Emma Rios

Hey, remember when we were going to get Amazing Spider-Man three times a month? Yeah, those were the days. Well, instead of announcing a change in their schedule or something, they just fell behind schedule. So you get two comics this week, one Spidey after the other, as Marvel scrambles to catch up. At least when DC tried their Trinity and 52 experiments, they stayed on schedule.

We end the Lizard’s tale for this installment of “The Gauntlet,” as Peter battles each of his rogues, who all just happen to have gotten slight upgrades in their powers. What a coincidence for it to happen to all of them at the same time! I have a sneaking suspicion that Emma Rios was called in to help them catch up the schedule.

For all that the Lizard claims to have killed Curt Connors, some feelings still creep back in. That is all that spares Spidey this time. Peter shows back up at his Aunt May’s, all weepy because he thinks he has lost Curt and son Billy, and for some reason this has gotten to him when nothing else has. Magically, Aunt May is strong enough to wipe away her brainwashing and be there for Peter. Bachalo’s art style is easily identifiable, and it seems to have suited this story well. As much as some of his style is not my cup of tea, I appreciate his uniqueness when there is so much sameness in a lot of today’s art.

Overall, this entire Gauntlet is taking forever to build up, and it relies on the same crutch every time: upgrade the baddie, have him face Spidey, then have him gathered up by Team Kraven. How many times must we watch this? Lee and Kirby could have done all this in two or three issues. Okay, slight exaggeration, but it feels like I’ve been reading the same story for two years, and just like the prisoner who complains because his fries are lousy and there aren’t enough of them, the lousy story is also late. Ptheh!

The Amazing Spider-Man 634

by Joe Kelly, Michael Lark, and Stefano Gaudiano

The Grim Hunt is finally here! Granted, it arrives just when I’ve become fed p by the whole thing, but the Lark/Gaudiano team is always a cool treat for art. We open on Peter being sick, even though his physical body never gets normal sickness. It must be psychological, a reaction to all of his hard knocks lately. There’s no room in the book to mention that he caused some of those knocks, like when Peter, the professional life-long photographer, PHOTOSHOPPED a picture to create news.

A blood-soaked Kaine, Peter’s clone, shows up at his doorstep, and isn’t he lucky his roommate Michelle isn’t around to see it. But he has to hurry, so maybe he leaves the bllod behind for Michelle to clean up? Arachne is under attack, the same Julia Carpenter that also used to call herself Spider-Woman, and Peter swings to the rescue (somewhat clueless still). Team Kraven tries to take on both of them, and fails… but Spider-Man falls off a building after hearing some loud drums. I’m sure they’ll explain that eventually.

Arachne takes him to Mattie Franklin’s apartment, and Ezekiel shows up to hopefully explain things next issue. Mattie is sacrificed to bring some kind of wolf-creature up out of the original Kraven’s grave. Sasha claims the only way to really bring the guy back is with the “blood of the Spyder,” which we assume is Peter.

A backup tale by J.M. DeMatteis and Max Fiumara shows us Kraven’s state of mind just before his suicide (after he thought he killed Spider-Man). He is already thinking suicidal thoughts, and his hunts and sexual adventures all seem hollow, as he realizes he has little honor, and not much of things in life that make him think it is worthwhile to continue. We end with Kaine agreeing to attack him as part of a job Kraven refused to complete. It reads well, and adds a little extra something to the backstory just before Kraven’s big exit from this life.

Whatever mystery they have been building up this whole time, there’s a bigger mystery now: when will the next issue be out? Because they’re still behind schedule.

Dark Wolverine 87

by Daniel Way, Marjorie Liu and Mierco Pierfederici

Ug. Daken wakes up, his Muramasa blades removed, wandering the streets of Rome. Street urchins try to pick his pocket, as if they haven’t learned by now who is dangerous by instinct alone. Merciless Daken actually tries to give a street urchin advice, and chases her away, instead of killing her for the offense. We have way too many panels with no words and nothing happening. I guess we’re supposed to be captivated by this wretch of a guy who is feeling sad for his sorry self.

All of that effort to build him up into an enigma with his own agenda, potting and planning to rule everything, and he’s just basically bumming around Europe kicking himself for realizing that he’s never going to succeed. Then we have to waste the rest of the entire issue as another con-man tries to pick him up so he can roll him in an alley with an accomplice. The art is horrendous, with the coloring even worse, when it’s usually the coloring that tries to make up for the lack of detail. Instead, even the coloring blobs are ridiculous.

The sort is worthless, the art is lousy, and the next two issues have “Frankencastle.” Canceled. Only get the next ones if you want a four-part decompressed crossover with Punisher, where likely daddy Wolverine will have to come to the rescue or some such nonsense. Worst comic this week. This series has no purpose, and should have been put out of its pain six months ago.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by Jeff Parker and Gabriel Hardman

3-D Man meets Lao the dragon, and it takes Venus doing a siren song specifically for him to calm Lao down. Evidently when she was given a power-up by Aphrodite, it applied to more than anybody else knew. Will Lao start wearing dragon-ear plugs now? There’s a mystery of some sort going on, as Delroy has some of the memories of the original parts of 3-D Man. We know from the original What If story that 3-D Man was a part of the group, but in this universe, he wasn’t; or at least, nobody else remembers him. Lao, meanwhile, finds familiarity with the glyphs on 3-D Man’s chest, but he isn’t sharing with the other members of Atlas just yet.

Near the end, three-eyed aliens observe all of the goings-on, and order troops sent in. It’s a fun mystery, with some nice art by Hardman. 3-D Man would make an excellent addition to the team, so I’m hoping this story ends with his full assimilation, so to speak. The only worry for this title is that they are publishing those silly website ads on the cover, which do absolutely no good. It’s a tell-tale sign that sales are low, when they feel the need to run an ad for the book… on their own book. Here’s a hint boys, the nature of advertising is that you advertise elsewhere, and let them come to the book. The only ones glancing over the ridiculous blurbs are the ones already reading it, and they already know how good it is.

New Avengers 1

by Brian Bendis and Stuart Immonen

Welcome to the New Avengers, with a new #1! The creative team is… exactly the old one. The roster is… mostly the same. But it’s a #1, and it has “New" on it, so woo hoo! We waste time on an opening sequence that has Luke Cage wondering what the entire Civil War was for. Besides having Spidey reveal his identity and hype it as something that changes the universe forever, only to call a mulligan a few weeks later? Yeah, the rest of us have been wondering what the point was for some time now.

Still, it’s a useless conversation, when everyone is free to be superhuman and not be impressed into service. Cage can’t seem to get it in his head that no one is calling for registration anymore, that nobody is trying to arrest him… a simple question of if he wants to serve makes it like he’s a tool. No, he’s a tool for being so incredibly dense. Then, to make an awkward scene even worse, he has to get his cash to buy Avenger’s Mansion from, by all appearances, Iron Fist’s hidden pocket near his crotch.

The developing plot is that Hellstrom and Stephen Strange have been possessed, and now they’re going after Brother Voodoo to get the Eye of Agamotto. The eye appears and Luke Cage picks it up, with Brother Voodoo nowhere to be found, only Strange and Hellstrom trying to get it. The only new guy on the team? The Thing. Who has already done the whole Avenger thing, and he STILL doesn’t get onto the “prime” team. Immonen’s art is a little improved, although from the final panel, he could work on his facial expressions a little. In the end, we have a “student” team, a Secret team, and the main team, so this team is supposed to be… what, exactly? It is not defined at all, so it’s a bit of a waste of a first issue. It’s not all bad, but conceptually, it’s a little flat.

New Mutants 11

by Zeb Wells, Ibraim Roberson, Lan Medina, and Nathan Fox

Marvel has inherited DC’s blood-red skies thanks to the sphere encircling them, and Cyclops mostly stands around threatening his fellow mutants with death if they don’t fight. Way to rouse the troops, there, Scotty. The artists try very hard to give each person a dramatic pose, but it’s all very static, and makes you think of it as mostly a series of pin-ups. Not that the pinups are bad, but too often there is no sense of motion.

The poor conceit continues, the same problem with every issue in this sad tale: the Nimrod sentinels are so devastating, Fraction and Wells and company want you to think the mutants are doomed by piling them on, five at a time, in never-ending numbers. But. Namor has taken out like a dozen of them already, and he’s still fighting while some are getting past him to the others. The others have to triple-team Colossus just to break his arm. Visually, it’s exciting, but thematically, it’s a rip-off. You can’t take a nearly-unbeatable foe and expect us to believe they plowed through a dozen of them before lunchtime.

Cypher gets a cool moment in the future where he talks to a power suit and convinces it to eject the human controller. Back in the past, Professor X drops Legion into the fray, and each time the sentinels counter the emergent host’s power, they switch personas and exhibit a different power. More happen sin this crossover issue than in the main X-title, as Magneto gets back on his feet, another forgettable mutant or two dies, and X-Force makes it through to the Master Molds(s).

Thankfully only a few issues left to this tedious concept, but the execution of Zeb Wells, his part of it, at least, has been slightly better than his normal plots. Now if he can only take the good story beats he used here and employ them for the rest of his run, and not for plots like this, then I’ll be happy.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by Grant Morrison, Tony Daniel , Frank Quitely, Andy Kubert, and David Finch

Underwhelming. This is the 700th issue of Batman!!! We don’t get much in the way of classic artists, or a visit by any of the old hands that used to make Batman great. No, it’s all stuff by the most recent people involved. The four artists are great, of course, but Grant Morrison usurps all the writing in an attempt to do his usual thing with Batman: make something clever out of the Silver Age stories. Batman is back in the Maybe Machine, and some of his rogues gallery has come out to play.

After a quick tale of Bruce Wayne behind the mask, we skip ahead to the Grayson/Damian combo, with an impossibly-old corpse of Dr. Nichols, who possessed the Maybe Machine. The Joker’s notebook is the cheap Mcguffin that Morrison uses to help tie the plots together the next tale shows us Damian in the Batman costume, right at the point where a younger Nichols shows up via time travel to deposit his older, dying body in the past, to make all three stories make some sort of sense.

The pin-up gallery is fun, but there is no real sense of celebration for the character. I get that they have painted themselves into a corner with Bruce Wayne being gone, so maybe this is the only way they thought they could pay tribute to the idea of there always being a Batman, rather than another story direction, but it falls flat. We needed something grand for the anniversary issue, and a “grand” concept just doesn’t set the bar for DC’s biggest heroes, all of whom get anniversary issues soon. Negative points for DC’s neglect of older Batman creators who have contributed to the legend. It would have been a great tribute to give them some space.

Many fans are also grumbling about what they got for the price point, and how it feels like a bit of a let-down.

Booster Gold 33

by Keith Giffen and Chris Batista

The orphan rescued from time, Rani, is drawing on Rip’s time-chalkboard, and they finally spell out that warnings are generated about problems in the timestream show up as messages there. Giffen orchestrates a conversation between Cyborg and booster that establish that Max Lord has used his telepathy to wipe the world’s memory of his existence. Only a handful of former members of the JLI can remember his presence, and Booster gets it in his mind to go back in time and find proof of Max’s existence.

Rip tries to talk him out of it, but eventually relents. Then we get to segue to some classic memories, as Booster visits the JLI time-era. Booster gets his hands on a VHS recording tht shows Max standing next to the JLI when they received their international status, but it doesn’t come back through time. Rip explains that artifacts that are too embedded, or important to events, cannot be removed. It sounds like a cop-out actually, since entire people and other artifacts in the past have been removed. That part of the theory could use some work. That said, the art is okay, and the story is relatively solid.

Secret Six 22

by Gail Simone and J. Calafiore

Simone finally gives us some background on Catman, but only by showing us he had an inexcusably twisted father, with a warped kind of Darwinian theory that he used to justify beating on his wife. The dad decides that Thomas (Catman in his youth) has taken the mother’s side, so he kills the mom and frames his son?!? It’s pretty bad when you have villains who are so one-dimensional, you have trouble believing they can exist, due to lack of any other facet of personality. It blends right in with the feel-sorry-for-the-bad-guy-because-he-had-a-bad-childhood cliché, but there are no redeeming traits in this story to account for the cliché. It’s just cliché.

The other story has Alice melting down and finally confessing that she can’t use her powers correctly, and in attempting to help her father, she thinks she may have given him cancer. Deadshot makes stupid contradictory comments the entire way through, and Simone abuses him, utilizing him only to deliver lame punchlines. Alice decides to go home, and hopefully she leaves this group behind.

Catman takes revenge on the kidnappers, and returns to the old man who authorized it. Turns out this was a revenge plot against Chesire, but if Catman will let the child live in the safe, anonymous family in which the old man placed him, the kid will be safe. Catman bows to the logic, leaves the kid where he is, and calls Chesire to confirm the kid’s death. Then he throws the old man out the window. It’s a logical decision by Catman, and about the only thing that makes sense in this comic.

It’s getting bad enough that I may have to cancel this one soon.

Titans 24

by Eric Wallace, Fabrizio Fiorentino and Mike Mayhew

Deathstroke spies on his own people, as the villains take over this title. He reveala their target is Lex Luthor, and everyone is surprised when lightning jumps from Osiris’ chest to fry a security guard. The art is exciting and fun, but they do rely on colorist tricks to make it seem like there’s more to the background than there really is.

The trick is that Luthor hired Deathstroke to smoke out the real assassin, and on the villains’ attack, the assassin had to show an escape to the sewers, which was her way out after she planned to kill Luthor. It turns out to be Façade, and Deathstroke’s shot to her head has not killed her. Until this series gets some better direction, it looks like next issue will be captivated by the villains too, but considering they haven’t given us anything better, we might as well go along with the ride for now.

the Unwritten

by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

A new book is about to be released by Wilson Taylor, but it’s not really by him. Someone is trying to flush him out, by publishing one of the worst mash-ups of all the latest pop culture fads, rolled into one: a big, horrible bunch of clichés, sure to destroy his reputation and the franchise. Lizzie gets told she’s basically on her own, while Tom and Savoy are still trying to see if they can get to Tom’s dad.

Just as Lizzie is about to be picked up by the bad guys, Tom and Savoy arrive to save her, but Lizzie immediately pulls a gun on Tommy to take the magical doorknob! She uses it to get back to her own home, leaving Tom and Savoy behind with yet another puzzle to figure out. Tom is slowly figuring out that he is in the middle of some kind of war, and he’s just about ready to decide to win it. Now if only he can figure out what the heck is going on…

Warlord

by Mike Grell and Joe Prado

Scientists try to educate a general on the meaning of some signals, but he takes the stance that UFOs are for nuts. Given the world he lives in, and assuming he has seen Superman and Dr. Fate and others, I’m not sure why someone living in that type of world would discount the idea of aliens, or even the hollow earth theory.

Menawhile, Joshua has stepped into his father’s shoes, and enjoying his link with his new sister. Did that much time really pass, or does everybody grow up faster in Skartaris? Alysha helps save a hippogryph, and from her vantage point in the sky, she realizes some markings indicate preparations for an alien invasion. It’s interesting to see the sword and sorcery environment veer straight into alien adventures, like something straight out of Killraven. With the death of the original Warlord, everything is wide open, and I’m not sure what to expect from this book next.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by Greg Pak, Fred van Lente, and Reilly Brown

Vali Halfling was disguised as one of his own goons from last issue, and he capitalizes on that to take Athena hostage. He wants to be a deity himself, and is trying to obtain all the ingredients he will need to reach that end. Meanwhile, Cho has let himself be distracted into an actual battle with Thor! His weapon, his shield, and his advanced knowledge allow him to hold his own for a while, but it serves to remind us that for all his intelligence, Cho is still a kid, and his immaturity provides a good reason to romp around in the old cliché of heroes fighting each other before they team up.

This series is doing a good job of keeping the memory of Hercules alive, and still fitting in small doses of humor. It’s slightly different humor without Hercules himself being present, but Reilly Brown has been part of the team long enough to se his art to complement the scene to add to the humorous intent. The series still carries the tone that it’s not too serious, but the plot does still have serious consequences if the bad guys win. It’s nice to have this series as a counter-point to the plethora of too-serious books out there.

Ultimate Avengers 2 #3

by Mark Millar and Leinil Francis Yu

Flash over substance still rules the Ultimate universe, as they eat up panel space showing that Punisher has a booby-trap in his suit to keep him in line. The rest of the issue is standing around talking, and maneuvering the team into position to confront the Ghost Rider. By the end of the issue, they’ve barely done more than knock him off his bike. The plot is almost glacial, with little done to invigorate interest in any of the characters. Even Hawkeye’s attempt to talk to the Punisher seems out of place and at odds with his recent experiences. I’m not sure what direction this book is taking, but the concept needs to be revisited.

Ultimate Spider-Man 11

by Brian Bendis and David Lafuente

Nothing like a good cover depicting child abuse to kick things off. The dialogue covers mostly the recent developments with Kitty going on the run, and MJ revealing that she taped the entire incident. Peter takes her to Ben Urich, who makes MJ part of the story. In the middle of all of this, Peter’s spider-sense goes off when he see JJJ. Following, he gets ambushed and taken out by Ultimate Chameleon, who realizes Peter has powers, and takes his place.

The art is atrocious as always, and the plot just barely interesting enough to make me want to check in next month. I find myself arguing whether or not to purchase the next issue. Hmm, that is really poor art. I think I’ll drop this.

Uncanny X Men 525

by Matt Fraction and Terry Dodson

It’s the usual husband/wife team of Dodson art, which means cartoonish backgrounds, and little effort to adequately draw the Thing’s rocky form. Fraction makes the same mistake tons of writers do: he presents us with an unstoppable opponent in the form of a Nimrod sentinel, and then he ups the ante by shoving five of them into the mix. But the X-Men appear to be able to hold their own quite well overall, which ruins the idea of the Sentinels providing a serious challenge. Instead of faceless goons, they are faceless robots, just another step in the inexorable battle.

Wait, it gets worse. We have to put up with an ode to Days of Future Past with the X-Force contingent, with the emblematic brick wall holding the pictures of all mutants slain. Just one problem: in the future, when everything is digital and the Sentinels are all networked, why would anyone bother to post old pictures on a wall. Not wanted posters either, but pictures that tell you each person is dead. There is no human reason for that wall to exist. At the very least, it should have been dismantled by the government in an official celebration!

Fraction compounds his nonsense by having the Thing and Thor attack the red sphere from the outside. Remember the impenetrable sphere? Well, Reed is somehow magically able to take readings and calls them off after they have depleted its strength by 15%. Why have them stop? I would be calling in ten more guys with super strength to finish the job. How hard would it be to steer all the Hulks running around Marvel, and drop them on the dome? Meanwhile, Dr. Nemesis automatically knows that mutantkind will be extinct in a few hours, even though NOBODY CAN SEE INTO THE DOME!!!!

Sigh. At least we get cool covers by Adi Granov. The second-least appealing X-title, after the miserable X-Force.

X-Men: Hellbound 2

by Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, and Mike Choi

Yost starts us off with a visual recap that shows Illyana getting banished to Limbo and the first mistake is the narration captions in dark red that introduce the code names of each character. You can’t see them well, and it gives you a headache. One interesting thing, Gambit has come out in this environment in his Apocalypse-inspired persona, and his energy cards are converting the other heroes into similar type. Was this always possible, or made possible by Limbo? Either way, the demons bow down to him, recognizing that he is the resident alpha dog in the area.

The art does not inspire much of the chaotic sense that Limbo should instill visually; everything is a little too “pretty.” Still, the art isn’t bad, it’s just not gritty and oppressive enough to form a visual narrative to make the reader feel like they are in an exotic environment. Trance gets knocked into her physical body while N’astirh offers Pixie a deal: kill Magik, and get the piece of her stolen soul back. It’s a nice problem for the remaining heroes, and more entertaining than Uncanny by a mile.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by Christos Gage and Mike McKone

The Initiative is gone, and in its place stands this new academy. All of the “students” had already been approached by Osborn when he was in charge of things, but now Hank Pym, Tigra and Justice are gathering these kids in one place, starting their own version of the New Mutants. Add in Speedball and Quicksilver as instructors, and ostensibly the purpose is to groom them to be the next wave of super-heroes.

There is a lot of good news with this new series. Gage is smart enough to give each instructor his or her own reason for being there, and sharing it with the reader. McKone’s style lends itself well to featuring a team of young heroes, as his line style tends to have a look that translates into “young.” Thanks to some lip-reading, though, the young heroes-in-training have their suspicions raised, and it leads them to hack into the computers. There, they learn that they are not the hand-picked cream of the crop, as Pym and the others have told them. Rather, they are the ones who have been analyzed as the most at risk to turn into villains.

Most of the names hint at their powers, but the cast seems pretty cool. We have Finesse, sort of like the Taskmaster; Mettle, reminiscent of Colossus, Hazmat, Reptil, and Veil, who can turn into gas. The final guy is Striker, who controls electricity. With the good art and the interesting concept, this series is starting off with a good feel to it.

Captain America 606

by Ed Brubaker and Butch Guice

Baron Zemo encounters the Ghost, who reveals to Zemo that Bucky is the new Cap, and it sets him off with a new fervor, sending him to recruit Iron-Hand Hauptmann, a classic henchman of the original Zemo. The Falcon approaches Steve Rogers with concerns about Bucky’s state of mind, right as Bucky has a Steranko-inspired nightmare. Bucky tries to reassure the guys that he is okay. It has a nice flow to it; not a lot of action, but some good character development that feels natural.

Outside, the past activities of Zemo catch up to the present, as Sam goes to start Bucky’s cycle, just as Bucky realizes he’s been drugged. The bike explodes, and you would tend to think that no human could survive something so close-up, but Brubaker is smart enough to have the Fixer assure Zemo that the charge was basically a concussive blast, not a normal, lethal explosion. We also learn that Zemo has sprung Sin from prison. It will be interesting to see if Zemo’s appearance in Thunderbolts has any overlap with this, but regardless, Brubaker has done a good job of showcasing Zemo’s intelligence and ability to develop nefarious traps and plans. Butch Guice’s art is excellent in every panel, in some cases reminding us of the classic Kirby origins of Hauptmann, to mind-bending dreams, to the dark, modern feel reflecting both a murky bar and the villainous aims of the bad guys.

We still have a second feature with Nomad and Araña. David Baldeon gives us some child-friendly art, and Sean McKeever seems stuck on writing duty for younger girls. The story is contrived, as Nomad asks around for work, and the only guy willing to offer her small chores sends her down to lock her in a basement where there is already at least one corpse. How is it that even when in her civilian identity, she still gets into trouble? Oh yeah, because the writer had to figure out something new to happen to her. It’s pretty disjointed, even if they do a good job of making us feel for her current poverty existence.

Daredevil 507

by Andy Diggle, Anthony Johnston, and Marco Checchetto

Chechetto’s art is interesting, but the whole unshaven look that DD has going on is getting old. They should either have him develop it more as time goes on, or give him a shave. It’s like he has a permanent five-day growth thing going on, but with no grooming. The White tiger’s turn to evil is explained by her being out of the presence of the healing abilities of the Tarantula. She kills Bakuto and makes it look like seppuku.

The whole thing has been orchestrated, seemingly over a long time, by the other leaders of the Hand. The trial over, Daredevil seemingly is unaware of their manipulations, and he heads back to the states, intending to give Bakuto’s South American rule over to Tarantula. The one-dimensional Bakuto did not help the plot much, but this issue sets the stage for Shadowland, a major push by Marvel to highlight the dark world of Daredevil. The path to get here has been slow and murky, so hopefully Shadowland lives up the hype.

Invincible Iron Man 27

by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca

Pepper is asking for her repulsor disk back so she can be Rescue again, and we all know she’ll get her way. We take some time to bring Arboast back as an employee of Stark’s new company, but Larroca CGI art doesn’t give the scenes the feeling of import that they deserve. Arbogast is a classic, dignified character, but there are no lines to show the age on her face, and the backgrounds are blurred amateurishly in an attempt to make you focus on the characters. It’s the opposite of the way it should be shown, and shows some of the limitations of art drawn entirely by computer.

The Hammer family engineers a threat in Japan that encourages the authorities to sign up Detroit Steel, prompting the American military to also sign up, to keep up with the foreign governments in this new arms race. Then the whole comic dissolves into insanity, as we have to see Rhodey sitting morosely in his War Machine armor, wondering about his mortality. The entire scene feels like a betrayal of the character of Jim Rhodes, and brings the entire comic to a dead stop for no purpose. Fraction should just let go of War Machine and let the Secret Avengers have him.

This series is on the edge of being dropped by me, it’s on a month-by-month basis now.

S.H.I.E.L.D. 2

by Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver

The issue opens with the disturbing manipulation of Nostradamus to provide prophecy for some people. It’s a neat scene, but we skip back to Leonid and Leonardo da Vinci’s conversation. Dustin Weaver’s art gives us some nice Medieval-looking scenes, and makes da Vinci’s apparatus look fully functional for modern times, but still having an origin dating back to da Vinci’s original time of origin. The guy reveals to Leonid that he built all of this world they are now visiting, which is impressive. Agents Stark and Reed battle Leonid’s father, with results that are not fully explained as yet, but have an interesting effect on Nathaniel Stark, a nice splash page showing alternate versions of him reaching out to Leonid’s father during an overload explosion. I hope we learn more.

Hickman’s theme with da Vinci echoes Reed Richards’ theme over in the Fantastic Four. Where Reed just dropped out of a genius convention he founded because they have fallen behind, da Vinci intends to confront the organization of S.H.I.E.L.D., to set things right, as he believes they have stagnated, not building on the foundation he established for the group. There is just the right mixture of suspense and revelation, and it works to maintain an interest to see what happens next.

Just different enough from the standard super-hero fare we normally devour, this is one of the more interesting comics out by Marvel right now. It will be fun to see if this organization eventually crosses over to evolve into the more familiar organization we know, as this series progresses.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi, Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark, and Joe Prado

Representations of the resurrected heroes leap out of Boston Brand’s ring, straight at the Anti-Monitor, who can see him, by the way. The ring seems content to keep Boston guessing what the rules are, so the fight is a little confusing. It ends with Boston disappearing and the Anti-Monitor remaining standing where he was in the first place. The ring did tell him that the heroes and villains that came back are NOT supposed to defeat the Anti-Monitor, but what is the big A-M doing? And who is supposed to stop him?

Elsewhere, Ronnie bails on everyone, not willing to admit that he remembers every part of it when he was a Black Lantern, killing Jason’s girlfriend. Aquaman’s powers are still summoning deceased sea life, and Mera promises to stand by his side, but why does she look so worried in the last panel? J’onzz discovers there was a first visitor to Earth before him, and the white lantern starts blinking just when some group in the Bermuda Triangle declares they are free. The threads all seem different, but feel connected somehow.

The series is developing a feel to it that is more reminiscent of 52 than anything else, but 52 had a smoother flow. Here the characters are so many, we only get to see a handful of them, while others like Osiris and Maxwell Lord might have the bulk of their development take place in other titles. Still, many of us remember the short-story format that the Martian Manhunter, Deadman, and Aquaman enjoyed back in the day, and if you treat each of these as an anthology of short stories, it feels better. Having such top-notch artistic talent on all of them helps quite a bit.

The real treat is seeing a blood-thirsty Hawkman closing in on Hath-Set, but still too late. There’s a purple energy portal comprised of the bones of every incarnation of Carter and Shiera, and guess who just went through the gate? The portal is spooky and beautiful and worth the two-page spread at the end. In a competition for making us care, Hawkman’s story wins right now, but I am reasonably intrigued in each of them so far, and patient enough to wait for the payoff.

One thing that makes this a little different from 52 is that the characters are considered to be a little “higher grade” than those from 52, and perhaps make it easier to focus all the attention DC wants us to on this title.

The Great Ten 8

by Tony Bedard and Scott McDaniel

The current action is almost a byproduct, as the real story centers around the origin of the Shaolin Robot, and boy is it a little different. Originally a clockwork mechanism built as a guardian to a tomb, it is unleashed by some archaeologists centuries later. The government disposes of a bunch of the more simplistic automatons, but take this one that had been worked on further by its creator, and they manage to upgrade it and bring the technology that keeps it running into the modern age. In keeping with the Chinese culture, it also appears to have insight into the world beyond simple circuits, but it expresses itself in Chinese symbols that remind you of the wise, sparse sayings of the teachers from martial arts movies.

The Robot manages to kill one of the ”deities,” and they also capture Mister Ma. Thundermind works his mental abilities and learns there is a factory producing robots out in the Gobi desert. Next issue wraps it all up! I’d be interested to see the Shaolin Robot meet Marvel’s M-11 from the Agents of Atlas…

Joker’s Asylum II: The Riddler One-Shot

by Peter Calloway and Andres Guinaldo

This was an impulse buy for me. The Joker is keeping the inmates up with a story about the Riddler, as the guy with a thing for riddles encounters a woman and tries to win her heart. He tries everything, but nothing works. Then, a Bat-villain shows up trying to enlist the Riddler in a scheme to kill the Bat. But there’s a trick: the Joker keeps changing the villain whom he says is talking to the Riddler!

For a regular story, the reader might feel cheated, but with the Joker as the narrator, it feels maddeningly proper and expected. The villain makes the woman “fall” for the Riddler, and as soon as it happens, the Riddler loses interest, but the riddle is gone, and that was really what he liked. But Gordon shows up to arrest the Riddler, and the Joker claims to have already told us who the visitor was. He ends the story there, with his fellow inmates all still awake, and now mad as hell that he is not telling them straight out who the villain was. Which suits the Joker just fine. Not too shabby!

Superman/Batman Annual 4

by Paul Levitz and Renato Guedes

Levitz gives us another story much like his other-Superboy in Adventure Comics this week: his Superman/Batman story concerns Batman Beyond. Some spillover of criminals from Metropolis takes Mcginnis there, where he infiltrates a group of Luthor’s thugs. This allows Luthor access to Superman’s fortress, so it’s all a planned trick by Luthor.

But for all of Luthor’s planning, the team of Batman and superman still triumph. After ages of problems, Superman actually sends Luthor to the Phantom Zone, where he has been sending a ton of crooks. He leaves the device to McGinnis, with instructions to let others out, but keep Luthor in there. Then, superman leaves Earth to explore other parts of the galaxy he has not seen before now. It’s a nice “What happened to the Man of Steel?” story for Batman Beyond, and some great work on art by Guedes.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

Adventure Comics 12

by Paul Levitz and Kevin Sharpe

With certain titles shining again, it feels like DC’s own golden age. We have The Brave and the Bold, and also Adventure Comics back. In an interesting choice, Levitz takes his first story and includes a character called Superboy, but it’s not the one who has been in the book lately. It’s a young Clark Kent, actually playing hooky from school to check out the Metropolis of the future. Sharpe makes sure to have fewer lines and make you believe the characters are really very young.

Levitz takes the opportunity to have Saturn Girl explain that she will put telepathic “blockers” on Clark when he returns to his own time, so no memories of his time in the future can interfere or cause problems back in the present. We also get to see Phantom Girl, Triplicate Girl, and Saturn Girl betraying a bit of a crush on having the living legend right next to them all. He also includes small Easter eggs for longtime readers, such as some innuendo in a scene between Chameleon Boy and RJ Brande that is more meaningful if you already know Brande is the Durlan’s father.

Justice Society of America 39

by Bill Willingham and Jesus Merino

Merino’s art steals the show with nice panel work and big splash pages. Mr. Terrific continues to narrate the grim future, which includes the Green Lantern Corps, along with Darkstars, Omega Men and others trying to stop the bad guys, but the evil, strategic geniuses simply turn off the sphere, let the good guys all come in, and then flip it back on with them inside.

This ode to The Great Escape continues, with older versions of all your favorite heroes trying to make a last, desperate bid to change the outcome of time. Vivid scenes show valiant last stands by tons of good guys, including a really nice scene with Superman. It’s all so Terrific can get a message through to his past self. He succeeds, but the message seems to arrive in the present right when Dr. Midnight pronounces Mr. Terrific dead! Well, that’s just great.

The story’s execution has held up, so this familiar retread of the X-Men’s Days of Future Past still is a worthy effort. The cliffhanger is a good one, and the tale is not going to go on forever and spawn countless contradictions and problems like the original X-Men tale, but hopefully be wrapped up and knocked out of existence next issue.

JSA All-Stars 7

by Matthew Sturges and Freddie Williams II

Yet another funeral, and yet another excuse to have a ton of DC heroes standing around with their collective heads bowed. This time it’s for Damage, who lost his life during the Blackest Night. We focus on Judomaster for the rest of the issue, and how she deals with her grief. Turns out that Sand had a vision of Damage’s death and let him know about it, but Damage went and did his job anyway. Judomaster takes his resources and uses it for the health care needs of victims from when he lost control over his powers.

The art is still Williams art, so I always want to think about dropping the title, and the second feature isn’t helping. We’re STILL running around with the same foursome, and Hourman and Liberty Belle act surprised when the two villains try to double-cross them. Like they haven’t done that two or three times already. Travis Moore’s art is slipping, and even the dialogue gets weird when a chunk of stone falls on two of them, creating a trap of sorts. Jen Van Meter is writing a big run-on sentence of a comic that has no punch to it. This title needs a big change if it wants to have a chance to stay in print.

Red Robin 13

by Fabian Nicieza and Marcus To

Tim is back in Gotham, with a Batman that has Grayson’s voice, something good that is entirely attributable to Nicieza’s writing. Dick sounds just like he should in the Batman costume, but Nicieza has Tim go solo quickly, to avoid using the big Bat as too much of a crutch. There are some good developments here, such as Tam Fox telling Vicki Vale that she was engaged to Tim as a way to deflect attention from the problems with him trying to maintain his secret identity.

Tim tries to launch a plan to control crime in Gotham better, and part of it involves maintaining a fragile peace among some of the gangs. The Lynx threatens that with some recent moves, so he calls her out in public and defeats her. Just then, she reveals that she is an undercover agent of the Honk Kong police! Planted there from youth, Tim considers it, but the revelation does not stop him from turning her over to the cops. He has his own plan, and taking Lynx out of play works better for him. How many years of her life might be down the drain because of this? Or will it help her street cred? It will be fun to see if this decision works for Tim, or if it comes back to bite him big time.

In one issue, I’m already happy there’s a Red Robin title. Nicieza gave us more development in one issue than Chris Yost did in all of the last year.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

Avengers Prime 1

by Brian Michael Bendis and Alan Davis

This issue starts off ugly for the first couple of pages, but picks up better as you go. Steve Rogers spends an oddly-inappropriate amount of time trying to goad Iron Man, insensitive to the destruction of Asgard, and with Thor standing right there! It’s like if the president went to visit a tornado disaster with the governor of a state, and got in an argument with his secretary of state over eminent domain for the war on drugs. Thor does the equivalent of, “Hey, disaster over here, remember? You ignorant cads.”

The three heroes get separated when they uncover a broken area of the Rainbow Bridge, and they all get teleported to the other worlds that make up the Norse dimension. Rogers has a great moment when he tries to talk, and identifies himself as an ally of Thor. The reaction of the group? “Eat him!” It’s funny, and action-packed, and he can’t help but find a shield wherever he goes.

Alan Davis has a ton of fans, so if you like him, you’re going to like this book. Enchantress reveals herself to Thor at the end. Is she behind this on purpose, or just taking advantage of the fact that Thor popped up on her doorstep? It should be a fun ride either way.

Hercules: Twilight of a God 1

by Bob Layton and Ron Lim

This mini-series is a nostalgia piece, sort of a sequel to an older Hercules mini-series. Ron Lim’s faces feel like stock footage. I like that he has his own style, but he doesn’t seem to have improved much in the last few years either. Hercules is like a boxer who has been punched too many times, and his family wants to keep him safe. Unfortunately, Galactus just tried to devour some really weird energies from a planet with unknown components. Just as Hercules helps to stop some minor shenanigans on his planet, the new Silver Surfer shows up with a grudge.

The feel of this series harkens back to an earlier time, and it’s a little bit of a disconnect from the last few years we have seen of him. Unlike Layton’s last nostalgia mini-series with Iron Man, this one doesn’t seem to have the same magic. It’s not the worst read either, but I didn’t find much in it that made me care about anything.

The Torch 8

by Alex Ross, Mike Carey, and Patrick Berkenkotter

The Human Torch has a showdown against the Inhuman Torch, and Hammond releases all of his energy, overloading his opponent. It’s a bit of continuity related to the last time Hammond himself was de-activated, and it shows the creative team is paying attention to their history. The Mad Thinker reveals to the Nazi-wannabe that he’s really just an android like all the others in the valley, and the Thinker teleports out finally, to plague the Torch another day.

The series ends okay, although you end up feeling like there should have been a little more to it. That feeling may be over soon, because there has been a reason for the Avengers/Invaders and Torch mini-series, and it is revealed that the resurrection of some of these characters is going to allow for an all-new modern Invaders series. I have fond memories of the original, but can these guys create some excitement in the current world? I’ll check it out, and let you know!

The Thanos Imperative 1

by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, and Miguel Sepulveda

The universe is being invaded by the Cancerverse from the Fault, and the forces of the Kree, the Shi’ar, and everybody else seem powerless to slow it down. The Guardians of the Galaxy quickly realize that Thanos might be their only ace-in-the-hole, with his unique status as a symbol and servant of death, the precise thing that seems to be missing from this universe where nothing ever dies.

Sepulveda is a good choice for artist, as his version of the Revengers proves. He puts in just the right amounts of familiarity and grim menace where needed. The alternate-Avengers goes looking for anomalies, and are most likely trying to take Thanos out of the picture already. But the first thing they run into that qualifies as an anomaly is the time-tossed Namorita, the current version of which is actually dead. So they take off with the Namorita-from-the-past, with seemingly little effort on their part.

Meanwhile, Thanos collapses once he gets into the vault, and the Guardians encounter an imposing version of the Defenders! This is already as good as most of the time-travel/parallel universe/What If stories that have come our way in recent years, and this is just the first issue. Easily the best thing by Marvel this week.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by Grant Morrison and Frazer Irving

There are two ways to read this comic. One is by acknowledging that Grant Morrison only pays attention to his own continuity, and you will be unable to make sense out of the dialogue unless you see the existence of the DC universe as he sees it, and that involves some structure of Hypertime, but more than the 52 worlds at this point. You will consult annotations on the internet and have to realize that everything from the Invisibles to Final Crisis and the Seven Soldiers for Victory all have elements that are represented, as Morrison is humanly incapable of doing a fresh story without involving and attempting to build a structure on every single comic he a written in the past, weaving in Easter eggs and symbolism.

The other way is to give up the ghost and just try to read the comic in and of itself. Morrison has become convoluted and contradictory enough in his ideas that it is hard to describe exactly what the DCU looks like these days, so I’ll leave that for other people to argue. Bruce battles some hyperfauna and is tended to by a witch. Frazer Irving’s art has some definite promise, and is well-suited to Morrison’s storylines. Unfortunately, the way he draws a character like Superman leaves a bit to be desired.

Bruce adopts another identity and establishes himself as an authority figure to help a fledgling Gotham City survive. Unfortunately, his detective powers have gone rusty, as he defends a woman who is actually guilty of murder. Whoopsie. The hyperfauna reappears later so it can propel Bruce forward through time. The witch finally gets strung up, and she casts a curse on the man she calls Nathaniel Wayne, and all his line. Does the curse work when it’s really Bruce? What is the curse? Would have worked anyway? We know on occasion Bruce has said he doesn’t believe in magic. Will Morrison ever be bothered to answer that little question, or just leave it hanging?

No matter. Bruce comes out of another time vortex in front of Blackbeard, so we can have a different artist give us the Bat-Pirate, so yeah, this whole thing is basically Elseworlds on time-travel steroids. Morrison takes a rather simple origin story and weaves it so that Bruce Wayne was responsible for single-handedly saving Gotham City’s existence in the past. Yay, team. I am already bored with the predictability of Morrison using this as a vehicle to have Batman be responsible for everything important in his own history. It’s too reminiscent of what booster Gold has been doing in his own time-traveling repair series. Morrison litters this mini-series with references that we get to see over in the Batman and Robin title, just so the fans can marvel at how “important” all the clues are, so everything can tie in together. So much so that Morrison spends almost every panel in Batman and Robin trying to make them tie in, but only in his vague, “Guess what this means” style.

The other half of the story is a plug for another mini-series, featuring Superman, Green Lantern, rip hunter, and Booster Gold. They have come to the end of time looking for Batman, and try to ask an archivist for help. At some point, the archivist reveals himself to be Bruce Wayne, and he steals their time bubble. That’s your best friend, there, Clark. Oh, and by the way, the timeline is about to terminate. What a pal.

Superman tries to warn him that Darkseid did something nefarious to him, but Bruce appears to have a plan, like always, so it should reveal itself in the next three issues. As much as I like the attempt by Morrison to encapsulate the idea of cube time into a comic book, unless you know a few things about physics already, your average person isn’t going to get this. Not that I’m against a comic that calls for you to have some knowledge ahead of time, but they should at lest have some editorial comments, or handy web links, or a letter column with some additional footnotes or discussion. Without it, the comic itself isn’t as entertaining as most others on the stands this week.

Justice League: The Rise and Fall of Arsenal 3

by J. T. Krul and Geraldo Borges

Okay, now we’re just getting silly. Roy beats Chesire, one of the most deadly assassins, with a tennis racket, a stapler, and an extension cord. After that humiliating battle, she decides to have sex with him. I’m going to choose to believe that was all part of a scene out of his drug-addled hallucinations.

Borges does a little better than average with the art, but then we find out Roy has been beating up bums in an alleyway after his heroin shoot-up, and he’s holding a dead cat?!? So we possibly have the prospect of him beating up the bums WITH THE CAT. And I just did two reviews on X-Men: Blind Science 1 and Green Lantern 54 which had cats in them, and I’m wondering if there is some rule that orders cats to be featured in comic books this week. If the new cat I took in this week could appreciate the timing, I would have him read all of these, but I’m pretty sure that would take much longer than I have spare time available.

Bat-Grayson takes out Roy, and he wakes up in restraints, with Black Canary walking away from him, sadly aware that he is using drugs again. So when they called this series the “Rise” of Arsenal, were they talking about him getting high? Ehh, the art is good enough, and the story is slightly above average, although I’m still trying to decide if I should be offended about the cat or not. But understand this, DC AND Marvel: I’m keeping my cat, no matter how many strange and disgusting things you do to them in your books.

Madame Xanadu 23

by Matt Wagner and Amy Reeder Hadley

The final segment with the Martian Manhunter concludes, with Xanadu teleporting them out of the fire, with lets J’onn recover his strength. She goes back to confront Morgana, and tricks her, pulling out some hair belonging to the original host body (forgot about her, didn’t you!). She carries out an exorcism, and banishes Morgana, with J’onn rescuing her from a car crash at the end. It’s short and sweet, and not too surprising. J’onn still has his weird face, which I am chalking up to an intentional design, as this is early in his career, and he hasn’t perfected looking human just yet.

I suspect that Wagner may have accelerated through the time periods too quickly, and gotten too close to the age of heroes, such that as he tries to incorporate parts of the DCU proper, it becomes a little unwieldy. Time will tell if he is grasping for story ideas, or if he can do better in the next couple of story arcs.

War of the Supermen 4

by James Robinson, Sterling Gates, Eddy Barrows, Cafu, and Edward Pansica

Zod really hates Kal-el, and the artists show him really enjoying the beat-down. Barrows really shines for his artistic segments, but all of them do fairly well throughout. Superboy figures out that the Phantom Zone is “usable” again, and sends Krypto to get the generator. Non is the first to go. We get cheated a tiny bit, as Superwoman and Atlas are pretty much beaten up almost all off-panel, when there could have been a couple more pages devoted to that. I think there was too much in the way of cast for a four-issue series to give them all enough space and screen time.

Krypto gets to steal a scene again as he takes a kryptonite dagger intended for Conner, but he’ll be okay. For all that Supergirl has super-speed, you have to wonder why she doesn’t stop General Lane from blowing his brains out once he’s beaten. Superman decides to throw himself into the Zone along with Zod, which I can’t quite figure out, because surely he could have gotten a clean shot sooner or later, but it’s all a convenient plot-point to showcase Chris.

Nightwing has the power to send superman back to the regular universe, and the Nightwing entity leaves Chris behind. Mon-el catches up to him soon, so that leaves us wondering when Chris gets out again, because allegedly, the Zone is sealed off for good. Or until the next time a writer want to get into it, anyway, because we know Mon-el gets out in the future. So there are a few areas where the writing isn’t the best thing in the world, but for a fast mini-series, it reads pretty well. You could do worse than this if you pick it up in trade format later.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by J. M. Straczynski and Jesus Saiz

Jesus Saiz has some impressive work, and he is rapidly moving up the charts for personal favorites, but he’s not quite there for inking his own work. Almost, but not quite. If he keeps up the improvement, though, he will quickly join the ranks of the few who can ink his own work and have it come out as good as, or better than, the contributions of another inker. As it is, the spectacle of the Earth being destroyed in the future is pretty cool.

The Legionnaires do not have the ability to dismantle a black hole, but with the entire history of super-heroes at their disposal, they quickly come up with someone from the past who can help them out. Enter Negative Man from the Doom Patrol, and another unlikely team-up for this title that works out pretty well. Along the way, Straczynski shows he’s been thinking about things as he explains a quantum space that is connected to the time bubble by a ‘fourth-dimensional portal” that houses the power and control systems for the basic-looking time bubble.

There are a couple of things that happen that seem minor, but the good news is the black hole is successfully destroyed, and the Earth is saved. What makes this issue slightly more interesting than usual is that there is a second part to the story next month that explains some of the things that went on, that relate to the Doom Patrol. Will they team up with the Legion still/again? Or will we move to a different team-up? Come on and admit it, you never thought you’d see the title “The Brave And The Bold” re-launched and lasting for three years and still going strong. The Straczynski/Saiz team-up itself is particularly strong.

Detective Comics 865

by David Hine and Jeremy Haun

The cover is cool, but the interior art is simple and plain. The colorist tries hard to make it seem like there’s some substance there. The story isn’t all that much better, as we spend a lot of time dissecting the mania of Jeremiah Arkham, and learning that his three special patients were always figments of his own imagination. It’s not a bad concept, really. Hine expands on it with a description of Hugo Strange and the Joker managing to mess with his head, and basically infecting him.

Batman gets a code from Arkham to “disarm” the bomb strapped to Conrad Leblanc, but the code sets off the bomb instead. Is Batman fooled? Meantime, he is fully aware of who Alyce Sinner is, but he doesn’t appear to have any leverage to prove anything. The story falls apart when Zsasz gets in a room with Arkham. Zsasz has been established as a rough-and-tumble killer, but somehow Arkham was able to get the better of him?!? The Black Mask character was never a good idea to begin with, and this new setup has ruined whatever groundwork Hine had built up with Arkham. Now instead of shades of grey, and uncertainty filled with tension, full of the prospect of disaster and horror lurking around every corner of the Asylum, threatening to spill over into Batman’s life at any moment, we have… another garden-variety lunatic in charge of the place. Talk about precisely the wrong turn. I loathe the idea of the Black Mask as much as I loathe the idea of the Black Glove. Uber-lame.

Cully Hamner’s art is so CGI-ish “I learn it from a book,” it’s disgusting. There are no attempts to do a decent background anywhere, and it’s not like he used a lot of energy on drawing the people, either! No inker when it desperately needs one… it’s pretty bad, folks. Vandal Savage wants one of the two women to voluntarily take the mark from his face, or he will kill both of them. In Greg Rucka’s worst plot ever, they decide one of them will actually do it, because it’s not like calling in any other super-heroes is worthwhile?!? It’s like they both took stupid pills at the same time.

They fight it out and Renee seems to win, as the mark fades from Savage’s face, and the Question refuses to remover her mask. The light sources are so horrible, you get confused if it’s night or day, and how quickly it changed from one to the other. Now one of them has a permanently burning face, and they left vandal Savage on the loose. Ugh. Worst Rucka story ever, and Hamner does not belong doing art for super-hero stories. Maybe something else.

Green Lantern 54

by Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke

Okay, I mentioned this in the last Marvel review, but the new wife and I just decided this week to keep a stray kitten. On the third page of this new issue, they have a nice little Red Lantern kitty (Dex-Star). That’s it, I’m having my house swept for listening devices! Atrocitus looks awesome, and with four inkers and two colorists, you know they’re making a huge effort to make this comic a visual spectacle.

The White Lantern gives us some answers of a sort when Hal, Carol and Sinestro all grab it and use their powers at the same time. The white entity asks them to find all the other entities. Good luck with Ion, because a diminutive mystery-person just yanked Sodam Yat out of Daxam’s sun, let it turn red again (sorry to any Daxamites who might have been flying and felt their powers disappear eight minutes or so later, when the proper energy rays died out…), and kidnapped the Ion entity! It sits now side by side with the Parallax entity.

The only drawback is that too many of the pages are verbatim from the Brightest Day series, but I suppose they wanted to be clear about what everything means, and the continuity and chornology. The white entity teleports our trio of color-people to Atrocitus, and of course they fight. It’s a cool fight, with some humor for the cat, and Atrocitus chooses to make a red construct out of Mera, who held a red ring during Blackest Night. Lobo shows up to interrupt the action, complete with a dog in tow. Oh, forget if Lobo’s after more than Hal, I wanna see the dog and cat fight!

Green Lantern Corps 48

by Tony Bedard and Ardian Syaf

A neat cover starts off a new creative team. I’m not sure where this takes place in chronology, because Atrocitus is able to meet Guy Gardner and Ganthet at about the same time he’s fighting with Hal on Earth. A small matter for someone with a power ring to get back and forth quickly, though. It could just be an energy duplicate anyway. The opening sequence shows that something big is going on, and Ganthet’s plot finds an ally in both Atrocitus and Guy, but guy seems to think it will cost him the friendship of Hal Jordan? Consider me officially intrigued.

Ganthet resigns from both the Blue Corps and as a Guardian, and successfully argues with the other Guardians for the ability to act as a member of the Green Lantern Corps itself. The forging of his ring is neat and dramatic, and Ardian Syaf shows his improving ability. He’s very good, but without the most recognizable style. There are a number of modern artists who are reasonably skilled, but I would have a small problem identifying which artist did which panel in a line-up, you know? Still, he makes for a visually enjoyable comic, and Vincente Cifuentes has improved his own inking skills as well, as a bonus.

Bedard knows his history, and uses the entire Corps to maximum effect, managing to show us Gardner, Kyle, and John Stewart, while still unveiling a disturbing plot: the Alpha Lanterns are taking Corps members without asking, and adding to their ranks. Do the Guardians know about this? Is it at their direction? The specter of the failed Manhunters experiment rings loudly in our ears as we watch this group spin menacingly out of control. For both art and writing, a creditable succession from the masterful creative team of Tomasi and Gleason.

Long story short, no way am I dropping this title. It will manage to maintain high interest even without the Blackest Night increasing its visibility. Will Brightest Day also provide a sustained boost for this title?

Teen Titans 83

by Felicia Henderson and Josè Luìs

Wow. Just wow. Did you ever have such a poorly written thing in your hands that you just didn’t know where to start? I feel so sorry that the artist is stuck with this writer. He must like drawing planes and stuff, because we get a cool shot of the ship flying for a splash page fold-out. He gives up on most things later, giving us a lot of blank backgrounds that are very boring, as much as the colorist tries to shake things up and give you a little variety.

Worst of all is the writing. I think I have picked apart Henderson’s poor work before, and it does no good to take it point by point anymore. Teen Titans was ranked number 40 on the sales chart for December of last year. It has fallen to #79 as of April. That alone speaks volumes about how far the title has fallen. It’s one of those moments where you put down a book and seriously consider sending in your own script, because you can entertain yourself better than this.

The only saving grace is the new second feature, Coven of three. It has some classic demons plotting to escape to Earth. Rex Ogle writes and Ted Naifeh draws.Traci 13, Black Alice, and Zach Zatara all get decent introductions, with recaps that aren’t boring, and make you actually feel a little for them. Unlike the feeling you get reading the main feature, where you’re praying for Deathstroke to show up and kill all of them immediately.

Wonder Woman 44

by Gail Simone, Nicola Scott, and Travis Moore

It’s the swan song for Gail Simone and Nicola Scott. Diana battles her cousin while the supporting cast tries to fight off the invasion. Diana finally succeeds in calming Theana down, an act which immediately makes Theana’s mother Astarte decide to kill her own daughter. It really takes the whole “she who hesitates is lost” thing to another level, doesn’t it?

Wonder Woman defeats Atarte and becomes their captain, allowing her to depose Astarte and order the fleet to go pillage uninhabited worlds. Of course, this is a wonderful idea, because Diana will not be going along, so what could possibly go wrong with sending a bloodthirsty race to act like a vegetarian Galactus among the worlds of the DC universe without supervision? Ah well, the art is pretty good, at least.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by Daniel Way, Marjorie Liu and Stephen Segovia

Talk about a mess. The writing is so cliché, my headache is giving me a headache. When we take a break from the action, we have to spend three pages on the reaction of the military, and it falls flat. Two seconds after Cloak teleports Wolverine out of Daken’s reach, both of the bad guys have disappeared. It’s magic! Because they don’t bother to explain how the only enemies on the battlefield can disappear from everyone in two seconds.

The motivations have never been spelled out for us, so Daken is still just random, and his actions are random. After all of the attempts at subterfuge and betrayal, Daken decides to kill Romulus. For all that we are supposed to believe Romulus is this mastermind who has kept in the shadows pulling the strings of power silently, he certainly is caught flat-footed here. It ruins any sense of intellect or planning he might have had, and makes it hard to believe this was the guy behind all of Logan’s troubles. In short, it ruins the entire Origins series. I sense we will end things without ever knowing the reasons behind all of the things Romulus did, as it would take actual thinking and effort to explain them all, and these writers have no intention of doing any of that.

Plus, you know, soon they’ll have an excuse to re-launch this series so they can sell oodles of a Wolverine #1, and who cares about anything else, right?

Doomwar 4

by Jonathan Maberry and Scot Eaton

Johnny Storm’s first statement makes no sense, as he acts like the vibranium should not be resisting his attacks. The whole point of vibranium is to absorb energy, so what in the world is his problem? Maberry has set up too big a threat, with Hulk-class robots that are composed of vibranium. Just one of those should give the entire Fantastic four a run for their money, and what brilliant genius decided to split them all up?

Luckily for them, other vibranium-based weapons are all that is needed to take out the robots, so the Fantastic Four start to look like chumps for trying to use their powers when all they needed was a vibranium gun. Way to set up a seemingly-impossible foe, and then reveal your dues ex machine for beating them in two pages. What a waste of reading material.

Shuri is dismantling all of Doom’s worldwide infrastructure as fast as she can, but Doom’s timetable is faster than that. He art is fun and cool, and casualties are heavy, with Shuri and Storm losing tons of their Dora Milaje. T’challa makes a call and sends in his game-changer: Deadpool. Which might have been fun if it was the first time it had happened, but Marvel writers have already used Deadpool as their wild card something like a dozen times in various series, and all it does is sidetrack the seriousness of this series with a shtick that was tiresome the last two times I saw it done. At the end of the day, even if I like the art, the writing is not worthy of the name of the series. Something with such a cool name like “Doomwar” should be more substantial.

The Thanos Imperative: Ignition 1

by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, and Brad Walker

Setting the scene for the upcoming mini-series, we are re-introduced to Thanos, and get a recap of how he died, how he was brought back, and his current sate of rage. Brad Walker’s pencils are really good, even if it looks like Iron Man has a nose on one of the panels a few pages in. This one-shot connects all of the cosmic sagas going on and centers them around the Fault, a rip in space-time, and the cancerous threat coming from within it.

One of the fun little things is to see the Worldmind’s vocabulary worming its way into Nova’s speech patterns, as he talks about how “vital” it is to stop the Quasar imposter. Worldmind is always talking about how vital it is that Nova pay attention. Is this simple exposure, or is there something more insidious going on with the merging of Richard’s consciousness with Worldmind?

During the course of the battle, Adam Magus warps in a bunch of planets full of religious conversions, people who give him their power through worship. He ignites them all (hence the name of this one-shot), and rips the opening to the Fault open even wider. As Thanos breaks free of the restraints the Guardians of the Galaxy had him in, both the alter-Quasar and Magus bow before another alternate personality from the other side of the Fault: their master, Lord Mar-vell!

There’s also a reprint short story in the back featuring one of the battles between Drax and Thanos, and a couple pages of character sketches. All in all, this was the best read out of all six comics reviewed here in this section. If you can only get one, make this one it!

Wolverine: Origins 48

by Daniel Way and Will Conrad

Continued from Dark Wolverine 86, where Cloak teleported Romulus out of Daken’s reach at the last second, Logan lets Romulus know he will remain alive, trapped in the dimension accessed by Cloak. Then he stares at his birthplace and basically forgives the universe, and himself.

Almost at peace, he confronts Daken and beats him, with Way trying to reference the “training” that the Silver Samurai gave him as being crucial to this newfound ability. It’s nonsense, as Wolverine is one of the best fighters around, and learned to calm the raging beast and fight with his brains a long time ago. Only by ignoring about 50 years of character development can anyone think that there was something more for Logan to learn about fighting. It was ludicrous from step one. Anyway, Logan beats Daken, and carves out the deadly under-blades, leaving him the two fore-claws in each arm. Logan buries them with the Muramasa blade. It has all the feel to it of one of those urban legends about someone cutting out your liver and leaving you unconscious in the hotel bathtub.

As hackneyed as this story has become, this was about as good an ending as we could have expected, and I can only hope that Daken goes away for a while, as he was never written properly, and I am left with no good idea of what makes him tick, what kind of person he is, or anything that would make me care about him. I can’t wait for Logan to take his series back and go through some decent adventures for a change.

X-Force 27

by Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, and Mike Choi

Some readers may feel cheated, as the first ten pages are a poorly choreographed battle. They chose to let Choi’s artwork stand on its own, and not bother to give any information or even introduce the characters. This might have been okay if every character was so distinguished, or X-Force had a good artist previously, but we’ve had to deal with some really dark, too-dark drawings for the last year, and it takes me a minute to realize it’s Hellion who has lost his hands.

The rest of the issue is better written than anything from X-Force since the title started. They discover the Nimrods are a force from the future. The one chance they have to defeat the overwhelming odds is to use Cable’s last time-jump and get Cypher to a place where he can take control of a central node and shut all the Sentinels down. As the X-force contingent teleports out to the future, Cyclops says it’s a one-way suicide mission, while the rest of the X-Men hold at the entrance to the portal and fight off the incoming hordes of Nimrod Sentinels.

Choi’s art helps a lot, and it’s great to see some crisp details after the poor art of the last year. It’s a solid issue for a change, one that reads well, if you can forgive the fact that they didn’t bother giving you any words at all for about half the issue. Maybe they should do that more often. Best X-Force issue to date. I’d still go buy The Thanos Imperative: Ignition first.

X-Men: Blind Science 1

by Simon Spurrier, Paul Davidson, and Francis Portela

Here we learn that there was a lot of time that transpired in-between the scientists discovering there was a countdown, and what led to the eventual explosion of the towers used as bait to lure them out of the way. When the countdown goes to zero, the heroes are allegedly teleported to the future, where mutants are out of control. A faux-Hank McCoy asks Kavita Rao to work up the formula she once invented to “cure” mutants of their powers, to stop the death and chaos. Dr. Rao catches on, but not before Nemesis experiments on a kitten, injecting it with mutant DNA to make it a target for some of the opposition! I recently wrote an article that mentioned how many wedding references there were in comics and TV just before my real-life marriage. What I want to know is, how do the comic writers know I just took in a stray kitten?!? (See the review on Green Lantern #54 in the next DC review for more on this.) I swear, both Marvel and DC have my house bugged…

The issue doesn’t read the greatest, as Dr. Nemesis is a little too arrogant in such a way that it becomes tedious, while they make Madison Jeffries too dumb for words. Dr. Rao make an unstable pyrovirus in place of the mutant cure, and uses it to attack Graydon Creed and his goons, and THAT causes the explosion that we have already seen in another X-comic. Nemesis eats his hat and gives props to Rao, just when the big red bubble pops up. Not bad, as one-shots go. It’s not mandatory to the rest of the story, but it is a little fun. The art is good, but not fabulous.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by Zeb Wells, Chris Bachalo and Emma Rios

Bachalo’s style is well suited to this new appearance of the Lizard, as he is able to add a sense of danger and animalism. The new abilities he has, able to “speak” to the lizard part of everyone’s brain, is a little weird, but the cool part is the hints that the Connors persona may not be fully destroyed inside. The issue is a relatively straightforward and simple one, dealing entirely with the Lizard’s threat, so there are no subplots covered this issue. You get the sense that Emma Rios was only brought in to help keep the book on schedule, but she does manage to fulfill that function.

The flow of the Spider-verse may feel slowed to a stop for people who have been reading for a while, but there are probably just as many people welcome for this type of break, allowing one major story element to come to the center and let us focus on it. Still, the overall theme is wearing thin: introduce one of the rogues’ gallery, give them a revamp or power-up, and sic ‘em on the Spider. It’s something that has been done in almost every title by every writer, so why does it take such a big number of writers in the brain trust to come up with this?

Fantastic Four 579

by Jonathan Hickman and Neil Edwards

Reed Richards addresses a Singularity Conference, with small things that might remind people of the growth of the San Diego Comicon. His keynote address to these smart elite scientists is a diatribe against them as he tenders his resignation. For all that the speech is pretty good, it sounds like he’s ranting against the more recent political problems. For instance, our space budget was cut recently, and one of the essays Reed attacks is about suspending manned missions during the recession. Next, he attacks the essay of a guy who posited that one billion people is the best population size for Earth. Oh, and lest we forget, that “going green” essay that calls for people to live an “energy neutral” life. All of these ideas were hatched from the political left, some as much as 40 years ago, but they are all reflections of some current thought. Reed denies them all, and insists that our brightest days are ahead of us, and that our destiny lay in the stars. Granted, this is a comic book, but he reminds me of a physicist I know who believes much the same thing for humanity in real life.

Hickman has the entire team recruit a bunch of the kids from all of the recent adventures they have been having, and he also sneaks a two-page interlude covering much of the cast from Nu-World. Dale Eaglesham is gone this issue, but Neil Edwards does a great job in using his art to set the mood. His positioning of Reed at the conference emphasizes that these are the actions of a man who is disappointed, who feels compassion for his audience, but nevertheless, feels even more the need to chastise them. The few action scenes are cool, but the clincher is the Future Foundation that Reed establishes. You can’t help but feel the hope and optimism leaping off the page, in both words and art.

This title probably does more to embody the idea of ‘The Heroic Age’ than any other titles on the stands today.

Secret Avengers 1

by Ed Brubaker and Mike Deodato

In this day and age, if you just mention that Deodato is on the art chores, I’m pretty much there no matter what the subject is. Still I did not expect the first pages to show us Valkyrie and Black Widow under cover and being groped by a fat executive! Steve Rogers looks cool in his new costume, although the lines do make me remember Team America a little bit. He really needs a new code name now.

The cover gives away the cast, but the reveals of each member are delicious anyway. For those who remember when the Beast was an Avenger, and feel sympathy for the problems that made him leave the X-Men recently, you can’t help but cheer when you see him together with Steve. Brubaker brings along Sharon Carter for the ride as well, finally allowing us to see Steve have a chance to be happy. Heroic Age, indeed!

Moon Knight and Ant-Man are great choices for a black ops kind of team, and the way Brubaker writes the invitation from Steve to Ant-Man is beautifully perfect. War Machine is the final member, and I am so glad someone found a use for him, since his recent series was cancelled. Nova was kind of a surprise, but perhaps this focus is just what he needs to have more people grow interested him and check out his own worthwhile series.

The whole “proactive” thing has been tried before with Force Works, and recently with X-Force, so it will be interesting to see how long it takes this proactive force to being jerked around every other week by the menace du jour. But with characterization and art like this, that will be a small matter. This will potentially be the best Avengers title out there.

Secret Warriors 16

by Jonathan Hickman and Gianluca Gugliotta

Gugliotta is an interesting change to the previous artist, with a decent effort put into the backgrounds. It helps to make the story feel more substantial. The writing could use a little better direction, as the small flashbacks are not gripping enough to really make you care much for them. The story itself has slowed down too much, with too many sequences to date of Nick Fury sitting around telling everyone to get ready. This will be it, honest! The last break you get! That’s felt like three or four issues of those warnings. Dugan says he feels like he’s gotten old waiting… and I’m with him.

Leviathan and Hydra have gone to war with each other, and Fury plans to stick his forces in the middle The reveal at the end is that there is a traitor in the midst of the heroes. It seems like no mater how many plots Fury breaks up and smells out, he just can’t stop a threat from within his ranks. So much for his super-spy reputation…

Thor 610

by Kieron Gillen and Doug Braithwaite

Braithwaite’s pencils are used to great effect in the opening recap of Siege. The main issue dealt with is Thor’s exile, as Balder forgives all and welcomes Thor back. Thor’s revelation is that he cannot be the warrior guardian and king at the same time, so Balder remains king, and Thor agrees to be an advisor.

The reuniting is interrupted when the warriors Three uncover the clone Thor, Clor, in the rubble. The fighting is fun, but the outcome never really in doubt. Is it too much to hope this is the last we’ve seen of Clor? If they’re smart, they will melt down whatever remains are left.

Thunderbolts 144

by Jeff Parker and Kev Walker

Luke Cage makes his grand entrance as the new pooba in charge of the team. In a sequence slightly reminiscent of Secret Avengers, Cage goes through the formation of his team, and we get to see the reasons for and against certain people. It might have been just as interesting to see people that he had rejected, but basically we get to see everybody who has a slot on this new attempt to make the Thunderbolts mean something good.

One of the more interesting things to see is Hank Pym handing over a unique form of transportation to Cage: Using the properties of the Man-Thing to teleport them around, while giving the government a reason not to execute the beast. Just as interesting, Baron Zemo shows up at the end to toss his own hat in the ring. Not to join the team, but to usurp it and take off with all of them, leaving Cage with nothing. Not a bad way to start the revamped team with a bang. Walker’s art is good, although he does slack off for several pages on backgrounds. Based on this first issue, it’s too soon to tell how good things will be, but it’s a good enough start to keep me coming back next month.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.