Weekly Comic Review for 7/10/13

And I’m finally caught up just in time to read my new stuff…

Avengers Arena #12 – It’s a year into the title and, thankfully we’re only down 5 characters… or are we? I’m really glad to say that the writers pulled a nice little trick out and brought back our resident sorceress. We left off a couple issues ago with Nico trying to reach the staff. Looks like she made it and she joins the ranks of the living again. This leaves her power mad and, well, just plain mad. (Wouldn’t you be too though?) All healed up, she takes off after Apex, “Chasehawk” (really??), Death Locket, and the Sentinel. The battle doesn’t go easy for anyone as the life bars drop. Nico ends up burying Apex and Death Locket and they drop into an underground base. Apex in lying in the dirt and we’re not sure what her health levels are but Death Locket decides to explore and finds the bodies of the deceased heroes. Wonder what’s going on there. Is this title actually starting to pick up? Other than the Arcade issue, this is one of the best so far.

Demon Knights #22 – The knights return to Al-Wadi with the box containing the Holy Grail. Seems a little too easy? Yes, it was because right on their trail are the giants after Vandal Savage betrayed their location. (You didn’t really trust him, did you?) The city works to fight off the giants and the box comes open, releasing the grail and causing all sorts of mischief before one of the knights puts it back in the box. Just this little contact means good news to one member though. At least there’s something positive happening before the series ends.

Green Lantern Corps #22 – The Star Sapphires notice the issues that the other Lanterns have had and it’s not just affecting the rings but the central batteries as well. Meanwhile, John arrives on Oa just in time to miss the big battle but gets saddled with the new recruits. He’s not happy about this. While Fatality watches the Durlans, John has to take the newbies on a mission which puts them at odds with the Khunds. (Surprisingly, John’s team is seen as the bad guys.) When the rings fail again, it leaves them in a really rough spot. Just before we leave though, we get a view at why the problem are occurring. It seems the entities that power the rings and batteries are dying. This can’t be good. Tho, unless they are going to get rid of all Lanterns everywhere, I think we can guess something is going to save them.

Justice League #22 – Trinity War part 1 – Interspersed throughout the story are scenes of Madame Xanadu doing a reading pointing out things that were ocuring in the story. The main tie-in to the Trinity War was Pandora trying to get Superman to right the problems of her box. She really thought Superman and magic would mix? Chocolate and peanut better, yes. Superman and magic, no! Elsewhere, following the battle with Black Adam (and his turn to dust), Billy decides he should pour the dust on Kahndaq. The problem is that they don’t want people going there. So, the Justice League fly off to stop him… and the Justice League of America fly off to stop them. I think you can see where this is going. Yay hero vs. hero vs. hero battles. Of course, Superman ends up killing a member of the JLA nice and early in the battle which didn’t lead to anything good. (I was really waiting to see what they were going to do with Doctor Light too. Guess he was a throw-away character.) Just going to have to wait and see where things go next.

Quantum and Woody #1 – I remember this title from the original incarnation. Of all the titles, it is one of the most bizarre. (Given Archer & Armstrong, that says a lot.) You’ve got a black boy and his adopted white brother. The former is dedicated, smart, and overall responsible. The latter is anything but all that. When their father gets killed they go to see if they can find out why. An accident at the father’s lab is what causes them to get stuck wearing the power bracelets… and not much else. These two stuck together is nothing but a recipe for trouble.

Young Avengers #7 – With the new issue, we’re back to the team. It’s them (some of them in new costumes — don’t like them) vs. Skrulls. The only thing is that it’s not Skrulls but another shape shifting race called… get this… Skifflefuffles. What were the writers drinking when they chose that name? The bizarreness doesn’t stop there. There’s a page of social network/Twitter type stuff from the group. This is actually pretty great and made me laugh. Back on Earth, Prodigy tracks down the team and tells them about Speed. They go back to where he was taken from and we get to see that Miss America, as well as being strong, can apparently create star shaped holes between alternate universes which is where they find the creepy version of Patriot. No clue where this one is going next.

OK. Six titles so it’s a 50/50 week for the Top 3. Oddly enough, my top 3 this week go to Avengers Arena, Justice League, and Young Avengers. I’m not sure what it is this week but something about these books just hit the right points that the others failed to.