Weekly Comic Review for 8/31/11
This is it. The week that everything changes for DC. Will it be a good thing? Only time will tell. With only 2 titles this week, we only get a glimpse of things to come.
Flashpoint #5 (of 5) – It’s all out war with Barry and Professor Zoom in the middle of it. It turns out that this was all Barry’s fault when he tried to save his mother’s life and blew up all of history for the people around him. On top of it, he made it do that Zoom could kill him without affecting his own history which isn’t good news for Barry. Luckily, Batman isn’t good news for Zoom. While everyone else fights, the Flash takes off to try to stop himself from creating this reality. In doing so, he crosses some unknown being who says that there’s 3 realities (The old one, the current one, and the one coming up, I guess.) After waking up in the new reality, Barry delivers the letter to Bruce that his father wrote. Barry ends up in the new universe supposedly with memories of all that happened before. I wonder if that means he’ll remember the original one and notice the differences. I wonder if this “3 reality” thing will allow them an out should all this fail in the long run.
Herc #6.1 – It’s the attack of the Marvel.1s again. At Zeus’ behest, Hermes starts tracking down Hercules who has been dubbed a thief for taking the armor and weapons he’s been using. When he finally finds is a hero using those items for good. It’s an interesting character study on both Herc’s side and that of the gods.
Justice League #1 – It all starts here. Start being the optimal word. Actually, it starts 5 years ago with Batman meeting Hal as the green Lantern of Earth. The regular people seem to hate and fear vigilantes as they are something new. (I guess this means there was no Justice Society to build off of.) After running across one of Darkseid’s minions, Hal and Bruce take off to Metropolis to find Superman because he’s an alien too. While the 2 heroes make their way to the big city, we get our frst view of Victor Stone, high school football hero. He’s still human so that means we’re getting a new origin. Yay reboots. 😛 Back in Metropolis, we find Kal beating up on Batman and Green Lantern. So far, I’m fairly underwhelmed.
Secret Avengers #16 – This issue focuses on the team of Steve Rogers, Beast, Black Widow, and Moon Knight. As has been the theme too lately, the best description they could come up with for Marc was “crazy person” after describing the others as “super-soldier”, “mutant genius”, and “super spy”. There’s even pot shots at this within the issue This is really getting to annoy me as I’ve been a big fan of the character and know there’s more to him than that. There’s a new artist too which barely makes me able to look at the pages. The story itself is very lackluster too about a time platform based on Dr. Doom’s. If this is the new path, the book which started out with promise may be getting dropped real soon.
Ultimate Comics Hawkeye #1 – It’s the Ultimate World’s Clint Barton at his finest. I’ve always enjoyed the Marvel Universe’s Clint but this one has even more bravado and less compunction about harming people. An agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Clint is in Bangkok to check into a situation only to discover things are worse than expected. (Would you expect any less?) The Chinese government has created a virus that is made to eliminate the x-gene forever. And then there’s the Serum which given great super-powers to those who get it. The government is using this to create and army to step again in the super powered arms race. Clint does he best to take down the first few who attack the helicarrier but there’s more to go. Things are about to get really interesting.
Big dichotomy in the books this week. A couple really good and a couple not so great. With only 5 books on my pull list this week, only 2 don’t make the Top 3. Normally I list alphabetically but this time I’ll list in order. Ultimate Comics Hawkeye hits at the definitely top with Herc following up after that. Both are very good books. Flaspoint will take the third spot. The story isn’t too bad but the lead into the new world puts me off a bit.
Since I’ll be on vacation next week, I won’t be picking up my comics until a week from Monday when I return. Enjoy the first week of the number ones. I’ll try to write-up something while I’m gone too.
