Weekly Comic Revew for 12/19/12 & 12/26/12

Since this past week had less than a dozen new books (at least at my shop), I decided to combine the 2 into one single post.

All-New X-Men #4 – Scott (the older one) flips out seeing the younger team. Once he realizes they are the real thing, he and the others take off. Jean’s appearance really freaked them all out and her not having full control doesn’t help. Both Emma and Scott (who are still fighting) figure out it’s Hank but the way his health is going, he may not be able to do much more. So far, the only other mutants at Weapon X are the time stopper and the healer. Not sure what will be going on with these guys.

Avengers #2 – The story jumps all about in both time and place. We have the group on Mars at current time, going back to Steve and Tony discussing plans originally, and a number of other periods in time where the other new members were recruited. The storyline is scattered and not overly easy to put together. I’m sure it will be fine soon but right now, it’s not too interesting and the team is getting too big.

Avengers Arena #2 – Despite Reptil being on the cover, this issue centers around new character Ryker. As I mentioned in the review for issue 1, she is the daughter of the creator of Deathlok. The story follows her through her origin and trying to connect with other people. She ends up with Kid Briton, Bloodstone, and the other characters created for title. The book starts out with losing another character though in the form of the new Red Raven. We don’t learn anything about her origin but given that she died by flying into the air and breaking her neck when she hits the force field dome, I guess it really doesn’t matter. Overall, not much happens other than learning her origin and seeing how she connects with the other young heroes.

Green Hornet #32 – While we see a little of Green Hornet going through the sewers, the issue mostly centers around Scowl. He drops come clues to the mayor (which I’m sure is going to come back to hurt the team) to get her to investigate things at the Hornet’s Nest. Then, he sets himself up as the armored Green Hornet v2.0. Despite all the non-lethal gadgets he built before, he ends up killing his friend’s father in revenge.

Green Lantern #15 – Rise of the Third Army – Simon ends up inadvertently clearing his name but runs up against the Third Army. This also leads to him meeting his first other Green Lantern. Plus, in a short cameo, Hal and Sinestro are told that they are actually dead.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #15 – Rise of the Third Army – Kyle confronts Larfleeze to learn to channel the color orange which he manages to do after using the orange power battery. The only problem is that the Third Army shows up and Sayd has to hold them off while the lanterns escape. (She is a Guardian after all.) The Gamorans are keeping a close on on the Guardian’s army tho since you really can’t trust the Guardians.

Harbinger #7 – Peter and tea, manage to get hold of a list of the potentials to activate and recruit. The first one they go after is a stripper in an abusive relationship named Flamingo who ends up being a pyrokinetic. Given Flamingo’s personality (The first thing she does with her powers is kill her boyfriend.), this could play out a number of ways. Guess we’ll have to see what happens next issue.

He-Man and the Master of the Universe #5 – Adam and Teela escape Evil-Lyn and make their way down through her castle. Once they reach the bottom, they find 2 more parts of the puzzle, Cringer (who is a lot braver and ferocious than usual) and the sword. Adam manages to pull the sword from the stone (Really?!?) and turns into He-Man. Finally, everyone gets their memories back. Looks like things might start getting more interesting soon.

JSA Liberty Files: The Whistling Skull #1 of 6 – I can’t believe they are actually pulling an Elseworlds story out. Oh, I’m not complaining. It’s really cool. I just never expected it with the New 52 stuff. (Yes, the comic is NOT branded as New 52.) This takes place in 1940 and centers around The Whistling Skull (whom I’ve never heard of) but also includes the Cat (Wildcat), the Owl (Dr. Mid-Nite), and the Clock (Hourman). You get a little bit of when he was a kid but most if about him and his sidekick on their own mission. It’s interesting but not knowing the character, it’s taking a little to grow on the title so far. I’m a big JSA fan though.

Legion of Super-Heroes #15 – Recap: Glorith gets captured and is used to create a time flux which the Legion has to fight. That’s about it. No one knows why it happens and the solution of Glorith creating a bubble around herself and solving it is lame. Mostly, it’s all just Legion vs things from all through time. *yawn*

Nightwing #15 – Death in the Family – This is a tie-in to the big Bat title crossover. It’s got the mask cover that some of the other titles have had. The Joker kills the clown from Haly’s Circus to get Nightwing to track him down. This leads to discovery of why the Joker helped Raya escape and leads into a showdown at Amusement Mile next issue.

Scarlet Spider #12.1 – Kaine takes on the Hand and A.I.M. when he finds a dead girl bearing a mark he used to use when he was a bad guy. Most of the book is some background on Kaine and him tracking down the bad guys.

X-Men: Legacy #3 – Legion travels to China to find a couple mutant siblings who end up being part of a a group who worship Wolverine’s old sparring partner, Ogun. As usual, it’s always fun seeing inside his head as he tries to get something other than the telepathy he had. Just as the kids join Legion, Wolverine and crew show up to try to shut him down. Next issue should be interesting.

And then we have the only comic I picked up Wednesday.

Amazing Spider-Man #700 – For an $8 book and the last issue of the title, I was really disappointed. The first story, which takes up just over half of the comic is about Peter (in Doc Ock’s dyning body) taking on Otto Octavius (in Spider-Man’s body). Peter had to try to get his body back before Doctor Octopus dies. In the end, he isn’t able to and Peter’s mind dies in Doc Ock’s body but not before he unlocks all his memories in his body to Otto. This makes him want to be a good Spider-Man and leads into Superior Spider-Man #1. *sigh* They can’t keep this up. They have to get Peter back in his own body. If they leave Otto as the new Spider-Man, this will be worse than the New 52. After the first story, there’s a story of a guy named Martin telling about “when he was Spider-Man” though the heroes’ names are all wrong. In the end, he takes his great grand nephew out for a swing on spider webs so I guess he was but I don’t know if this is another reality, if he mixed up the names on purpose, or if he’s just senile. Then there was a Black Cat story with really bad/cheesy art that I couldn’t even bear to read. There’s also a gallery of all the covers and some other artwork.

And this leads us on to the top 3. For this week, I’d go with All-New X-Men, Harbinger, and X-Men Legacy. Interesting that after a while of not readying x-titles, 2 of my top 3 end up with them.