“Weekly” Comic Review for 7/13/11
OK. I’ve caught up a couple weeks of reading and now (while I’m not spending my weekend doing work for my job) I’m going to try to catch up on at least one week of books. (Maybe tomorrow I’ll get the next week.) I did find a few things under the “Fear Itself” area that I missed before. The stupid headers made me miss a couple things I would have picked up. (Two were things I’ve been picking up recently and needed to have added to my list and one will be added to my list.) I’ll get those out of the way first.
Alpha Flight #1 (of 8) – After the .1 issue, I thought they were getting a new series but I guess it’s just a mini-series. Still, it’s better than nothing. It starts off with Alpha Flight fighting off a pumped up version of Attuma. In the middle of battle a politico of the new party coming into power tries to talk to Guardian. Not the best time but he didn’t seem to care. Alpha Flight takes care of the attack and heads their own way only to get attacked by Box units. (Looking like the original Bochs Box, not the Jeffries one.) The issue ends with Vindicator taking down Guardian while the other members are getting attacked. Time to get out the tin foil hats everyone!
Herc #4 – Herc had it bad enough with Kyknos and Hecate, but when they turn civilians on him, he’s between a rock and a hard place. Who ends up saving him? None other than the Griffin, now in a fully animal form and intelligence level. Herc bandages himself up, takes a look at what he’s got going on around him, and gets ready to try to do what he can to stop the bad guys. It would be a lot easier with his god powers.
Heroes for Hire #9 – Welcome to the book that’s a cross between Birds of Prey and Secret Defenders. Still waiting to see how well it works out. The third missed Fear Itself book deals with a breakout. So, who do you send to deal with a breakout during the time of fear but some of the characters who like to stay hidden… Shroud, Electra, and Gargoyle. What a motley crew. Gargoyle was cool in the old Defenders team because he sort of fit in but to call him in on random hero stuff like they’ve been doing since the whole Initiative thing? It just doesn’t work. You’re talking an old man here. The Defenders were like family to him so he fought with them but this stuff is different. That aside, things are going to get a little stranger and dangerous since on top of the escapees, our group also needs to deal with Killgrave the Purple Man.
And now on to the regular stuff…
Alpha Flight #2 (of 8) – We start out with a little background on the Hudson’s daughter and then move on to Alpha Flight getting their asses kicked. Everyone except Vindicator (who seems to have turned traitor) and Northstar get captured. Vindicator warns them of what Northstar used to be before he was a super-hero. A skier? Not sure what that matters. He does break in though and saved Guardian while Unity starts messing with the minds of the other Alphans. (Now we know what happened to Heather!) The problem is that Aurora’s mind is messed up enough as it is and was finally getting cleared up. This can’t be a good thing. While Northstar and Guardian try to figure out what to do next, they are joined by another hero who I didn’t think we’d see, Puck. He seems a little messed in the head too (Please don’t let Marvel mess him up like they did Moon Knight!) talking about his throne in Hell. It’s good to have Eugene back tho. Can’t wait to see this all unfold.
Birds of Prey #14 – The original Phantom Lady joins Black Canary and Lady Blackhawk for a flashback episode back to WWII when Dinah’s mother fought beside the other 2 heroines. With all the jumps back and forth, we seem to have forgotten where the last storyline left off. *sigh* I guess no one really cares at this point. Even Hawk and Dove are nowhere to be seen.
Booster Gold #46 – Our Flashpoint tie-iin picks up with Booster fighting a now uncontrolled Doomsday. Smash lots of stuff. Do stupid things. Follow Doomsday towards Metropolis. (After all, even with no Superman, he’s still going to head there to look for him of course. *facepalm* They really don’t care, do they?) In the end, Booster gets the helmet back on Doomsday and the military continues to blame him, call him an Atlantean, and try to kill him. Yes, sometime “military intelligence” can be an oxymoron. *sigh*
Flashpoint: Citizen Cold #2 (of 3) – The Rogues form up to go after Citizen Cold. Pied Piper sneaks around doing his thing. Citizen cold chases after Iris West who is only chasing after her story. Cold’s sister gets killed and things explode with Cold collapsing at Iris’ feet. It’s a good thing this doesn’t have to really go anywhere.
Flashpoint: Emperor Aquaman #2 (of 3) – This issue is mostly the telling of the origins of this reality’s Aquaman around a few background threads. Interesting but it won’t really matter when the reality is gone.
Green Lantern #67 – The Corps gets their senses back and takes on the Guardians. While they do that, Hal takes Kyle to write in the Book of Black the story of the release of the captured Lanterns. As the rings go to return to them, Krona steals them though. What good are they without their rings? Well, in Sinestro’s case, we don’t need to worry since it seems he’s back in the Green Lantern Corps much to everyone’s surprise — including his own. Hal manages to take down the even more powered up Krona somehow and the other lanterns get thier spectrum rings back… except for Sinestro who still has his green one. The Guardians don’t like that Hal saved the universe by killing one of their own that they probably would have killed anyway so they take his ring away and send him back to Earth. This leads into the New Green Lantern #1… starring Sinestro! WTF?!? What are they smoking/drinking over at DC?
Green Lantern Corps #61 – With the war over, a lot of the new Green Lanterns who got abducted (instead of inducted) into the Corps turn their rings in but one of them wants to stick it out. She turns to John Stewart (who isn’t too popular after killing Mogo) for advice. When a distress call draws the new Lantern to her quadrant, John tags along to help the rookie out. Overall, a nice story.
New Mutants #27 – It’s the New Mutants versus Sugarman and his minions. Somehow, even though he’s supposedly one of the best hand to hand (to hand to hand?) combatants around, Danielle Moonstar is able to take him on easily. And then when X-Man opens a portal to get rid of Sugarman back to his own reality, Moonstar stops him and pulls him back to go to jail. Sure… lets keep him around to escape and cause more trouble. DUH! And then Steve Rogers come in to clean up the situation that the New Mutants found easily but that the government never even noticed in all their times around there. There’s a level of disbelief in comics but this week is flying well past it. *headdesk*
Teen Titans #97 – It’s the Titans vs. Rankor in their final battle. Here’s a real spoiler for you — Solstice saves the day and the Titans win. Bet you never saw that coming! And she joins the Titans in time for it’s last 3 issues. Yeah, I guess they are doubling up so get issue 100 in before the reset. At least the final storyline may have some potential with Superboy/man Prime returning.
With all the cringes in the storylines this week, it’s a bit harder to pick the top 3 without hitting into the missed books. Alpha Flight is an easy choice and Green Lantern Corps was a nice story. Despite all the dumb drama of the old queens known as the Guardians, I’ll give the third spot to Green Lantern. Hopefully I’ll be caught up soon on the rest of my books.
