Weekly Comic Review for 5/18/11
Another week, another block of reviews. There’s some interesting stuff this week so I guess I’ll get on to them.
Alpha Flight #0.1 – The whole Marvel.1 is the popular fad lately. Beyond that, we have the return of Alpha Flight following the whole Chaos War event. The team consists of Guardian, Vindicator, Sasquatch, Northstar, Aurora, Shaman, Snowbird, and… Marina? Not sure why they pulled her and left Puck and all the other later members who died still dead, but that’s who we’ve got. Plus, the cover, for some odd reason, shows Aurora in the yellow costume show wore way back when she was trying to separate her connection from Northstar. It’s good to see them dealing with Northstar’s homosexuality right from the start, showing him kissing his boyfriend. We even get the reappearance of Persuasion/the Purple Girl though she’s committing crimes for some reason. Hopefully they will explain this later. Hopefully we’ll see more of Beta and Gamma Flight in this series. I wonder if we’ll get to see Madison Jeffries and some of the other old Alpha Flight characters that are still alive in the book. I’m looking forward to this series even though they’ve turned Marina into a bit of a bitch about being an alien.
Avengers Academy #14 – With the regular Avengers off taking care of the big projects… like stopping a volcano. This leaves Tigra and the kids to go take on Electro in Paris. And — shock of shocks — it isn’t just him but the whole Sinister Six. I don’t follow Spider-Man but Doc Ock and The Chameleon look totally different. Of course, they fail and a number of them get injured and Giant-Man decides to give them training every hour they aren’t sleeping to get them “in shape”.
Herc #3 – A break-out at the Raft leaves the Griffin, Man-Bull, Basilisk and a girl with no memory of who she is running off to commit some crimes. Hercules is listening to a bunch of people from the community and getting a costume to replace his “sash ‘n’ diaper” one (Hey, I didn’t make that up. I like a hunky guy in a minimal costume) when they find out about the robbery. He shows up in the new and less revealing outfit. At least Man-Bull is still running around shirtless and hairy-chested. Mid way though the battle, Kyknos shows up and starts fighting making Herc side with the bad guys. Eventually, “Fear Itself” ticks in as we find that the girl is actually Hecate.
Heroes for Hire #7 – Spider-Man picks up where Paladin left off chasing the bad guy. The injured Paladin heads off (via cab no less) to try to help out. Spidey is stuck fighting Batroc and then Scorpion leaving Misty wondering what to do. The decision? Head out to help.
Justice League of America #57 – “The Rise of Eclipso” continues. The JLA talks to Obsidian about the insight he’s gained on what Elipso is up to. Meanwhile, the internal diatribe between Eslipso and Bruce Gordon reveals the true plans as Eclipso summons the Spectre for a battle that has devastating effects on the moon.
Legion of Super-Heroes #13 – The Legion continues to take on the Legion of Super-Villains while they try to figure out what’s going on. Plus, we get our first look at who is really behind this blue flame.
Teen Titans #95 – The titans keep searching the odd dimension… and continue to get caught by Rancor. After enough have been caught, he uses their energies to get his power levels back and get ready to cross back over to Earth. I hope they don’t drag this out for something big in issue 100. I gure they’re going to do something for that but I’m not sure if I’ll be sticking around til then or at least much past it unless things improve.
Zatanna #13 – The totally unrelated covers continue. Can’t they at least make them have SOMETHING to do with the issue? Following a bizarre dream, Zatanna gets a visit from a psychic cat who shows her some views of her future including something involving the Spectre. While she visits the Spectre, Detective Colton checks in on Brother Night. After Brother Night escapes under his watch, Colton does some research only to find out that he is Night’s son. Things are getting more and more interesting.
A few interesting stories. My top 3 for the week will go to Alpha Flight, Avengers Academy, and Herc. Justice League of America came close but there was just too much time spent on everyone trying to figure out what was going on.
