Weekly Comic Review for 8/21/13

What a crazy week. At least I’m getting to this before the new books come out.

Batman Beyond Universe #1 – This book collects the digital issues of the new Batman Beyond 2.0 series. The book is in 2 parts. The first part is about Terry. He is in college now and has broken up with Dana. Now, the voice in Terry’s ears is Dick Grayson. Bruce is still around but isn’t the mentor any more. Barbara is still around as the commissioner and she’s trying to find out who caused the death of Gotham’s mayor. The second story is about the JLB. There is still old time members Superman, Warhawk, Aquagirl, Barda, Micron, Kai-Ro (Green Lantern), and Batman. The team has been bolstered with Captain Marvel (Not Shazam, tho it’s the same magic word), Mister Miracle, and a female Flash (who seems to be taking queues from Bart). Superman’s cells have gotten super-charged and his powers are out of control. (Really? Isn’t it bad enough that this is happening over in the Trinity War?) Until things change, he has Micron help him disable his powers and he goes on to live as Kal Kent, a firefighter, for a while. Does this cause him problems? It sure does when a building his working on explodes. (Hope he manages to save the cat still.) Both stories seem pretty solid so I’ll be looking forward to the next issue.

Bloodshot #0 – This book chronicles the creation of Bloodshot (and his predecessors) through the eyes of a scientist who helped create him. The story is pretty interesting, showing both what happened as well as some subjective comments on the project. The one problem I had with the comic was that the writing on the “paper” (which signified the scientist’s journal) was very thin and small and was hard to read. Normal chat balloon text was easy to read but the narration was giving me a headache. I actually got a magnifying glass to read that part of the book (which was about 75% of the reading). This was a major issue with enjoying what could have been a great book otherwise.

Green Hornet Legacy #40 – Things are really changing in Century City. Green Hornet has been turned into more of a hero (with the 2.0 version killed). The Katos are gone and presumed dead. Nikki Stripez has taken Kato’s place at Britt’s side (both in costume and in bed). A man making zombies is loose in the city. And now we have heroes showing up to work with the Hornet. A group of four show up to join the cause. The group consists of an Egyptian shield flinger named Pyramid, a MTF black transsexual named Blamazon (Realy?!? They couldn’t pick a better name?), an axe wielding brute who claims to be a god named Galactic Axe Max (who kinda reminds me of a human version of Galactus’ herald Terrax), and a man in an armor suite (claiming to be a robot) named Killroy Styx. Max ends up getting pissed off and leaves while Styx ends up turning to the dark side. The others are accepted on as part of the team though. It’s a cute storyline but I really like the Hornet on his own with Kato. I think this is going a bit too far astray.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #23 – Relic attacks and decides to take out the Green Lanterns’ best allies, the Blue Lanterns. Without their ability to boost the green power, the corps is weakened. It’s weak enough as it is after Adara flies the coop… errr… lantern. Kyle fights as well as he can but Relic is too powerful and the blue lanterns make the ultimate sacrifice to save Kyle, Carol, Saint Walker, and the Guardians. This leaves only one blue lantern left. I can’t believe they wiped out all those characters at once. At least the whole corps isn’t gone.

Justice League Dark #23 – Trinity War part 5 – The heroes from the various leagues fight over who will get Pandora’s box as it’s power draws them all in. When Shazam get the box, it rocks magic to it’s core, even to Earth 2 it seems… This allowed Deadman to sense where Madam Xanadu (and every other mystical hero) was so that section of the teams heads off to save her while Constantine is able to save the box. Supposedly he’s too corrupted already though even Vandal Savage was turned into a weeping mess by touching it. The mysterious figure behind the Secret Society is shown and it appears to be the Outsider from Flashpoint and he knows the box isn’t really a box but a gateway. Part 6 is coming up and I guess we’ll find out what’s really going on then.

Legion of Super-Heroes #23 – If you really wanted to piss me off, this would be the way to do it. The title is cancelled. Sun Boy is gone for no good reason. They officially state that they killed Star Boy too, again, for no good reason. (He missed the ship so he’s dead. One of my favorite characters in the Legion…) Phantom Girl is still missing. The UP Council disbands the Legion and sends them to their home planets just as worlds are trying to pull themselves together. The last few issues have been like a kid having a temper tantrum. “If I can’t have my toys, I’m going to break them so you can’t have them either.” The Legion (both the ones in the future and the ones left in the past in Legion Lost) has been so disrespected since the New 52 that it’s ridiculous. I hope that whatever reboot happens next reverts the changes in the last 2 years. DC is really pissing me off.

Trinity of Sin: Pandora #3 – Trinity War tie-in – The story in this runs parallel with the section of part 5 involving Pandora, telling it from her side instead. (Since it’s a battle, not too exciting.) There are flashbacks to her past training as things go on which helps her piece things together. She is able to put some pieces together and finally take down one of the 7 sins, Envy. She’s killed envy? I’m taking this aren’t really the actual sins after all if he actually is dead because I doubt there’s no envy left. Guess we’ll find out more next issue. On top of all this, A.R.G.U.S. and S.H.A.D.E. track down the man who makes Pandora’s weapons.

Wow. A lot of really annoying or not too exciting books. There’s only 3 books that could even qualify: Batman Beyond Universe, Green Lantern Legacy, and Justice League Dark. It’s sad how let down I’ve been with Marvel and DC lately. If Valiant hadn’t been around lately, I might have been a lot more tempted to walk away from comic books. I hope things look up soon because the way things have gone, I don’t have half the interest in comics that I did 5-10 years ago. Both of the big 2 were SO MUCH better back then. The writing, art, and storylines were much more enjoyable. When I’m looking at independents (like Dynamite and Valiant) for the best books, it’s depressing. (Good for independents but not for the general comic scene.)