Weekly Comics Review for 10/14/15
I’ve got another bigger week so I’ll try to get it in before I head to bed. (OK. I got half way through and had to sleep.)
Bat-Mite #5 of 6 – Bat-Mite turns his sights on a group just as inept as him, the Inferior Five. I’m not sure how canon this book is and if this means the Inferior Five are actually in the New 52 universe or not. This story centers around a bunch of Gridlock’s goons stealing the unaired pilot of Galaxy Trek. It’s good to see villains who set their sights high. *sigh* Well, Bat-Mite decides to make the heroes better, making them more heroic and less incompetent with new names for 4 of them. On the subject of names, it’s interesting to note that Dumb Bunny has been renamed Tought Bunny which makes no sense since she still isn’t smart and “dumb bunny” is an actual phrase that the character was built off of. Well, the characters learn that they go overboard now that that are big gruff heroes and want to be who they were before. At least there’s no more to Reagan’s side story given her flip flop connection and lack of chance that anything will happen with one issue left after this.
Earth 2: Society #5 – This issue centers on the Flash, showing him to be a bit of a loser. Jay seemed pretty cool when the first series started but since landing on the new Earth 2, he’s been a wimp and a whiner. About the only interesting thing about the issue is the revelation that Jimmy is Doctor Impossible now (which isn’t a stretch since he’s technically a New God now) and associated with Anarchy and some others. And this is the final panel of the comic.
Guardians of the Galaxy #1 – Rocket Raccoon, Groot, and Drax are still around. Now on the team are Kitty Pryde (wearing Star-Lord’s costume), Thing, and Flash Tompkins (who has 2 good legs now and is just Venom instead of Agent Venom). Peter Quill has taken his father’s place as ruler and Gamora doesn’t show up until the end when she crashes to the ground. There’s strife within the group and no real explanation on how the 3 new members became part of it. Peter is failing at leader and his part of the story is more boring and awkward than funny.
Harley Quinn #21 – We pick up with the Harley and Deadshot fight. While it seems to be a serious fight between them, it doesn’t look like either is really trying to be fatal. It’s just fun watching them bat each other around while throwing insults. The fight ends when Deadshot realizes the bounties on the cowboy and a couple other guys that got offed in the battle make up for what he lost on the girl. Harley catches back up with the girl and ends up running into Deadshot at the airport for a quick and fun chat over drinks. The story’s nothing special but it has the usual cute fun of the title.
Justice League of America #4 – Doing some research on one of Rao’s followers and checking over Superman’s blood, they discover that people of Earth are being “infected” to follow him and the people of Krypton had been programmed over years to worship him. In the past, Green Lantern finds a nearly 300 year old Rao who is run down but able to revitalize using the energy of his people. There is no updates on the Flash at all. The revelations on the whole blood/generational indoctrination thing is a little lame to me really. If this title will be like this, I’m glad I never added it to my list officially.
Justice League United #14 – The battles continue. We start off with someone skewered by Stargirl’s staff. Then it’s enter the Creature Commandos. We find out the guy is actually G.I. Zombie. (Like we really expected to see someone actually die from it…) Stargirl is off with Enemy Ace. The others start fighting the commandos other than Vandal Savage who has been taken prisoner by Sgt. Rock. To make an ever bigger mess of things, at the very end, O.M.A.C. shows up. This time it stands for One-Machine Attack Construct. I swear they change the acronym almost every time you see an O.M.A.C. While it’s always fun to see the Creature Commandos, I have no idea where this story is even supposed to be going. Maybe the writers don’t know either. It would explain why there are only 2 more issues.
New Avengers #1 – Welcome to A.I.M. — Avengers Idea Mechanics. Yes, the Avengers took over an evil organization, kept the initials and couldn’t even think of a better acronym other than changing one word of it. The team is working off an island and being lead by Sunspot. I liked him when he was first in the New Mutants but after that, he’s gotten annoying. (I’d rather see Cannonball back on an Avengers team. I always liked him.) My main reason for picking this up is because Wiccan and Hulkling are in it. While I’d prefer a well written Young Avengers title with them in it, I guess I’ll take what I can get. I’ve always enjoyed Songbird since her time in the Thunderbolts too. On the other hand, the inclusion of White Tiger, the new Power Man, and (especially) Squirrel Girl are things I could do without. At least Dum Dum Dugan (or, sadly, the LMD of him) is bringing Hawkeye (Clint) onto the team to watch over things for S.H.I.E.L.D. This gives the team a 50% approval rate though. To make matters worse, the long term bad guy for the title is the Maker/Ultimate Reed Richards. (I guess we have another Secret Wars spoiler there.) For this issue though, they are just fighting creations of his… people whose heads were replaced by giant crystals. WTF? Seriously? You want this to be the first impression of the title? The team being attacked by bodies with crystals floating over the hole where their neck should be? I’m not even sure what to say about this other than “On to the next title…”
Marvel Zombies #4 – The zombies look on as Elsa and her father talk. Actually, it’s an alternate version of her father who has been collecting the bloodstones from all the other alternate version of himself. Even though he’s dead, the stones keep him “alive” and not totally like a zombie though the zombies look in better condition than him physically. He tries to kill Elsa to get her stone. He actually bites her hand off to turn her into a zombie but she starts putting the pieces together and realizes the girl is actually a personification of the childhood stolen by her father. (All the scene needs is Freud and a couch for her to lay on.) She takes in all the blood stones, merges with the girl, and heals both herself and her father. The first three issues seemed to be nothing more than action with some questions and then this issue was a whole sappy if antagonistic father/daughter moment. Really, it’s a pretty disappointing ending for the series.
Spider-Man 2099 #1 – Well, it looks like Miguel is still in the present post Secret Wars. He also has a desire to retire. How does he do this? He uses his abilities right on national TV, setting a record on the Marvel version of America’s Ninja Warriors. After getting bitched out by Peter Parker about this, Miguel uses a gate to check out the future and realizes that nothing has changed yet. He ends up meeting a girl named Roberta who is his assistant’s assistant as well as Captain America 2099. Finally, he goes to dinner with Tempest and just as she’s about to tell him she’d pregnant, a car crashes into the restaurant and blows up, leaving her unconscious (at least) under a pile of rubble. Wow. Not a great jumping on point for someone because I’m totally clueless about half these characters in the book. Unless you read the previous series, I wouldn’t even consider bothering with this one unless you like waiting and trying to figure out what’s what for a while.
Starfire #5 – We pick back up with Starfire and the mysterious guy from the boat. It seems he has the ability to cure cancer but it’s giving him a tumor. Kory gets a vision of this and also sees him killing when she touches him. We also get more on the assassin hired to kill Starfire, Starfire’s social time with Terra, and her interview for an aquarium job. She actually gets the job by kissing a dolphin (which freaks everyone out) and telling the person doing the hiring what’s actually bothering the dolphin. Yeah, they aren’t having a problem pushing the weird in this book. We finish off back with the doctor again so maybe we’ll find out more about what’s up with the rest of his story. Unlike Harley Quinn’s book, what makes it quirky isn’t keeping it fun as long. It’s only 5 issues into the run and the whole naivete things (despite being on the planet how long?) is getting old.
Superman: Lois and Clark #1 – Remember the Superman and Lois that we saw take off during Convergence? Well, this is them and they are on DC’s main earth now. It looks like Convergence is having a few effects after all. (Supposedly the Supergirl, Flash, and Parallax that went with them went off to wherever so who knows if they will show up or be elsewhere in the multiverse.) They’ve been here for a while and have been in hiding and trying to just live their lives despite Clark wanting some action. And it seems their son, Jonathan, doesn’t know anything about the secrets his parents are hiding either. Clark (who now has a beard, which I think is a good thing) has to do any side super-heroing on the downlow. He also is no longer wearing the blue tights with the red shorts. He’s traded them in for a black and silver costume which still has the S but no cape. It looks pretty cool. I’ve never been a big Superman fan but part of me wonders what’s going to happen here and how he’s going to fit into the New 52 universe.
Guess it’s one week at a time here but even if I can do one a day, I should catch up soon enough. There were a bunch of books for this week but a lot of them weren’t that great. Superman: Lois and Clark was a good read and Harley Quinn has her usual fun fluff that is enough to carry it above the other titles. After that, it got real tough. I wasn’t sure what else to even recommend so I’ll go with Bat-Mite for bringing the Inferior Five out of obscurity if nothing else.
