Weekly Comic Review for 6/13/12

I know I said I’d try to get this done Tuesday. I wanted to get it done on the actual day but to me, this is the end of my Tuesday. Crazy schedules! Before I get into the actual review, I want to remind everyone that this week is the release of Astonishing X-Men #51 with the wedding of Northstar. Make sure to stop by your local comic store and pick up a copy. I know mine is doing some special events and I’m going to head down and check it out tomorrow. I’ll be posting about the event later. Now, on to the comics.

Avengers Assemble #4 – It’s the Avengers vs Thanos. Well, actually, a little more than that as Thanos turns the Hulk against the Avengers and gives the Zodiac their powers back. This is not a good thing. Even the sacrifice of the Helicarrier is only a stopgap while the Avengers try to figure out what’s going on. The last page brings in a little help in the form of the modern era’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Starlord, Drax, Gamora, Bug from the Micronauts, and Rocket Raccoon). This should be interesting. As cheesy as he is, you gotta love Rocket Raccoon. Overall, the issue is a giant action scene though so not as good as prior issues.

Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre #1 of 6 – This book revolved around the young Laurel Jupiter, daughter of Sally Jupiter. Laurel is pushed by her mother to be trained to be the heroic replacement of her mother. It really isn’t something Laurel wants and given her mother’s history (a lost husband, appearances in a number of pornos and such, and just a very soiled reputation). Her mother doesn’t even let her be social which makes it even harder at her school so she eventually sneaks out with an attractive boy from her school whom she runs off with. This book is definitely starting off a lot better than last week’s Minutemen comic. There’s a good story and character build up that draws you in over the boring history lesson that that book gave us. I’m actually interested to see where this one goes.

Demon Knights #10 – The Demon Knights continue their treacherous journey to Avalon. After defeating the sea serpent (and maybe earning a little more respect for each other), they start traveling on land until they cross a mutated wolf. Then they find a new Camelot guarded by an undead King Arthur. Not quite what they expected. They take him down just to have the magic turn on them as well. Madame Xanadu may be the only one who can stop this mess. You really have to wonder what’s going to be at the source of this mystical mess this time around.

Green Lantern #10 – It’s Hal and Sinestro and their mostly drained rings vs. the former members of the Indigo Tribe and the odds aren’t great. Sinestro had to fight off the tribe while Hal tries to convince Nostromo to reconstruct the indigo battery. Luckily he can and with a little help from an unexpected source (unless you think about it), the Indigo Tribe is reborn… less 2 members. First, Sinestro is freed. You had to see that coming. Second, Black Hand finds his own freedom in death (Who will be the new Indigo lantern for his quadrant?) leading into the return of the Black Lanterns. (Uh oh!) This really can’t be good. I really can’t wait to see where this is going. I hope this means good things for the blue and red lanterns too that are each having their own troubles.

Kevin Keller #3 – It’s a summer fun issue with Cherry Blossom coming in to cause her own trouble. At least she has more of a conscience than some of her friends. On top of that, we get another gay character in the cast. Let’s hope this one sticks around some and we don’t just have the rotating extra gay character each episode.

Legion Lost #10 – The Legion take the time bubble into the future. When they get there, everything is in ruins. After getting replacement costumes (other than for Wildstar who is stuck in a cracked on with no available good ones) and listening to Yera whine about Harvest, the team returns to the past and manages to break the time bubble again. (I swear this team is worse drivers than a Betazoid on Star Trek: Next Generation!) Then they manage to get ambushed by a government team believing they are the bad guys. I guess nothing can go right for this team.

Ravagers #2 – The team splits up more but pulls back together when they need to and proves they can be as ruthless and bloodthirsty as needed. Plus, their escape seems to be all part of Harvest’s plan. We also find out the Bright Eyes and Windshear are both actually still alive and there’s something about Beast Boy that is making it hard for Harvest’s cronies to track him. It should be interesting to see what they’ve done with our little shape changer other than make him red instead of green.

Resurrection Man #10 – Kim and Mitch track down what turns out to be the Transhuman’s lab. While there, they end up getting tracked down by some angel (Yes, Suriel’s back.) and a demon of some sort. Mitch convinced both sides to give him a week to figure things out and then he’ll turn himself over to one of them. Given the book’s about the end, I guess that’s as good a plan as any.

Scarlet Spider #6 – I can’t believe we’re this far into this book already. As they say, time flies when you’re having fun. The name of the Scarlet Spider is spreading but Kaine isn’t happy. He is becoming quite the hero in the city even if he didn’t get to choose his own name. When he took his costume, it was black which is why he liked it but it seems to be “stuck red” now. Meanwhile, Aracely tracks down Kaine and we learn that there’s more of a connection between them than we knew. But she isn’t the only one tracking him. Ana Kraven’s hot on his trail in a plan that involves her father who had previously been killed. Things are definitely getting messy for our new hero. We also have an appearance by Madame Web as well.

Shade #9 of 12 – Shade finally gets on the trail of who is doing bad in his family. Along the way, we get introduced to another throwaway hero (Irish this time), Silverfin. Eventually, he tracks him down but his descendant may have someone even more powerful on his side. Let’s just hope the Shade can do better next issue than he is this issue.

Thankfully, most of the books this week turned out to be decent reading at least. The three that rose above the rest though are Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre, Green Lantern, and Scarlet Spider. Let hope we can keep up some good competition for the top spots each week.