Weekly Comic Review for 4/23/14
All-New Invaders #4 – Gods and Soldiers part 4 – The book starts off with a couple page flashback to 1944 with the Invaders (including Toro, Union Jack, and Spitfire… so hopefully we’ll see more of them) captured by a bunch of Nazi bad guys. Then we’re back to the current Invaders caught by the Kree who have Ikaris in their control. The Winter Soldier takes one for the team and “gets killed” so that when the battle breaks out, he can slip away and get to Aarkus. Things are finally starting to wind down on the first arc.
Avengers Undercover – The kids are caught in the middle of the party when Arcade has it go all battle arena. This means they have to protect themselves while they try to go after Arcade. But do they really kill him or not? They’re heroes, but he put them through a lot. In the end, Arcade killing Mettle is enough to push Hazmat into taking matters into her own hands and she fries Arcade. This impresses Zemo and Madame Masque who were watching the whole thing. This is a path they need to be careful of.
Harbinger #22 – Death of a Renegade part 1 – Following Faith and Torque sleeping together, the team starts planning for their assault on Harada’s base. Flamingo notes that after his time with Faith, Torque seems smaller and more “real”. This comes to play during the battle when Torque is weaker and more easily harmed during battle. The Renegades really have their hands full in this battle.
Justice League Dark #30 – Following the battle with Blight, the team tries to find out where they are going from here. Constantine showing up and messing with the team doesn’t help but they make it clear he isn’t welcome. Frankenstein and Black Orchid leave the team and Nightmare Nurse flirts with Zatanna (unsuccessfully). After everything settles down… well, they don’t. Asa gets attacked and in the end, says her name is Alice. It looks like things aren’t going to settle down for them.
Justice League United #0 – Justice League Canada part 1 of 5 – There’s a lot going on for a 0 issue. The new league is pulled together – Stargirl, Animal Man, Martian Manhunter, Adam Strange, and Green Arrow. The bickering team for the book seems to be Green Arrow and Animal Man as they keep cutting each other down. The team is caught up in some Rann/Thanagar stuff via a zeta beam. Also out there to make things worse is Hawkman fighting Lobo. In Canada, a new character is introduced in the form of a girl who says “Keewhatin” and becomes a super-hero. Although she really doesn’t seem to know much about her powers, she’s confronting something called a Whitago. (I’d say it was like a Wendigo but it seems totally different.) Lots of pieces so it’s just a matter of seeing where time will lead the group. Also, Supergirl is on the cover but not in the comic.
Red Lanterns #30 – We start out learning about a judge on Primeex who gets shot for ruling against the prince. Back with the Red Lanterns, Bleez is getting healed up just as a red ring finds the judge. The judge takes her job to the next level of judging around the planet. This brings Guy and the team to the planet, but it also bring Atrocitus and Dex-Star. So, which side will the Judge choose?
Super Pawn #0 – The book is actually a collection of the first 7 chapters of a strip by local Phoenix creator Jeff Pina. Called “Grand Opening”, the issue tells the story of 2 brothers who run a pawn shop that buys and sells items from heroes and villains. I think everyone can see what would go wrong here. It’s a cute story and the art is pretty good. (It’s definitely got the more cartoony style to it as compared to what you expect in a Marvel or DC Comic.) It was a run read and definitely worth the purchase even if I didn’t know the creator already.
Teen Titans #30 – The comic picks up with the team battling Thunder and Lightning as part of the Forever Evil storyline. (It’s not an official tie-in.) This is the last issue of the book so it’s time to tie up all the loose ends before it gets relaunched. Raven suddenly realizes she is separated from Trigon so all the stuff from the last few issues is all moot. Skitter comes back. We also catch up with Solstice and Kid Flash for a couple pages. And just so it doesn’t look totally overlooked, there’s a back-up story showing what happened with Bunker and Beast Boy when they went on their trip to see Bunker’s boyfriend. It turns out they run into Brutale and stop him just in time to find out about what’s going on with Forever Evil and head back. Overall, it’s all just tossing stuff together to close out the book. Not very impressive.
Definitely an interesting week for comics. Nothing really stands out this week, most having both their good and bad points. I guess it’s going to DC teams this week — Justice League Dark, Justice League United, and Red Lanterns.
