Issue Review: Thor, God of Thunder 12

With the Godbomb story over, in all three times, Thor returns to earth.  We see a glimpse of young Thor with the ancient Norse people, enjoying the simplicity of life on Midgard. And we see old Thor returning to Midgard as well, which has become a desolate wasteland.  Most of the story, however, is taken up with present-day Thor, who visits old friends and makes some new ones as he spends time with mortals.  He visits a man on death row, an old barkeep friend, soldiers and sailors, and a monk in Tibet.   He joins SHIELD agent Roz Solomon for her graduation party (she invited him on the internet, and Tony Stark recommended that he go).  And he spends time with ex-girlfriend Jane Foster, who is now battling cancer.  At the end of the story, Thor finds Roz in the Arctic dealing with environmental damage, and offers to help.

Issue Review: Ghosted 1

Our story begins with convict Jackson T. Winters, a man just trying to survive his time in prison.  One night he hears gunfire and the sounds of a riot.   He is broken out of prison by a heavily armed woman named Anderson Lake.  Lake knocks him out and takes him to the mansion of millionaire Markus Schrecken.  Schrecken knows of Jackson's reputation as a thief, and wants him to steal a ghost from the supposedly haunted Trask Mansion.  Winters doesn't have much choice but to agree, since the alternative is going back to prison.  Winters sets about assembling a team, including pickpocket Oliver King, stage magician Robby Trick, ghost hunters Jay and Joe Burns, and psychic medium Edzia Rusnak.  Together they enter the mansion during the day for an exploration, knowing that "bad things" usually happen there only at night.  However, when they ask Edzia to use her psychic powers to detect ghosts, she sees dozens of them swarming around -- but tells the team she doesn't see a thing.

Issue Review: Justice League 23 (New 52)

As the story begins, the Alfred Pennyworth of Earth-3 narrates a summary not just in the Trinity War but events since the start of the Justice League series.  While the JL was battling Darkseid, Alfred-3 escaped his world through the weakened barriers, accompanied by Atom. And while the JL was occuppied fighting normal threats, Alfred-3 was working to bring his master to this earth from Earth-3.  The three JLs, however, are busy fighting over Pandora's box, thanks to the evil leaking out of it. They battle each other in a superhero verison of the old schoolyard game "kill the guy with the ball", until they finally stop as they realize that the box is affecting everyone else mentally but Superman is being affected physically.  Firestorm concludes that there is Kryptonite inside him, and Atom admits that she put it there, inside his brain -- because she is not with the JL, but secretly with the people of Earth-3.  Cyborg's robot parts betray him at this point, and tear themselves away from him to become "Grid," a walking virus.  In the confusion, Alfred-3 grabs the box, which he reveals is from Earth-3, the "birthplace of evil," and the box acts as a portal. He uses it to gate his allies, the "Crime Syndicate" (an evil anti-Justice League from Earth-3) to our world.  Thus the "Trinity War" (Trinity for "Earth 3") ends and the Forever Evil story begins.

New Comic-book night - 8/28

Well, I guess I am going to do another one of these after all.  I will be reviewing many individual issues in the next week, but I wanted to make a comment about my entire haul for the week and why it looks like it does.  This week, as the final week of August, not much new came out, but there were a couple of things I wanted to get my hands on from the previous couple of months, so I got myself down to the shop.  Also, I knew that issue 23 of Justice League was coming out, and that is (for the moment at least) on my pull list.  Below is a picture of the week's haul.

Two of the titles on the left are on my regular pull list (Thor and JL), but the others have not been on it.  I have reviewed the first two issues of Lazarus by Greg Rucka, which I just bought last week, and they were outstanding, so I was very pleased to find issue 3 on the stands already.  This comic is so good that it's already on my pull list (and I haven't even read issue 3 yet).

It's official -- I'm done with JLA

Back in December of last year (2012), I returned to the comic-book reading and collecting hobby after being away from it for 13 years.  As part of the process, I had to decide what to read, and I started with the company that had been my favorite since the 80s -- DC.  In fact, part of the reason I returned was learning about their "New 52" reboot. Although I normally don't like reboots because they erase established continuity, one reason the New 52 attracted me was that I wouldn't have to figure out what had been going on for the last 13 years. I could jump right in with digital copies from just a year ago, easily catch up on my favorite characters like Supergirl, and in a matter of months I'd be "up to speed." Thus, I could shortcut the normal "wading in" process that can, with a long-running continuity, take months, sometimes even years.

Obviously, with 52 titles being put out a month, even limiting myself to DC meant I would have to make some pretty quick decisions about what titles to read.  Historically, even when comics only cost 75 cents, I had always limited myself to 10 ongoing titles per month (with some allowance for additional purchases of one-shots, mini-series, and the like), and I figured to do the same thing this time -- especially with over a year of back-issues to buy even with the reboot.  After a bit of "sampling," as my local comic-shop owner calls it, I settled on a handful of titles, one of which was Justice League.

Early on, Justice League, written by Geoff Johns and drawn first by Jim Lee and then Ivan Reis, was an excellent comic-book that reminded me just why I loved them years ago.  The first story arc, which re-tells the origin of the team and how they all met, was funny, dramatic, tense, and interesting (at least until the last issue, which was a huge disappointment).  By the time I'd read a handful of issues, it was on my "pull list."

Then, just a couple of months into my renewed collecting hobby, and before I'd even gotten completely caught up on Justice League (they were putting out issue 16 or so and I was still catching up on 11 or 12), DC announced the release of a new JL-related book, called Justice League of America.  I'll be honest. I wasn't too thrilled about this to begin with.  Although I was happy to commit to an issue of Justice League every month, I wasn't sure I liked the team, or the premise, enough to commit multiple slots of my pull list to them -- and again, I refuse to allow my pull list to just balloon without limit.

Issue Review: Worlds' Finest 15 (New 52)

Power Girl hurtles through DeSaad's boom tube in search of her friend Huntress.  She arrives in a bunker-like base, where she battles para-daemons and tries to beat Helena's location out of them. Meanwhile, DeSaad usess a lightning wand to try and extract fear and pain emotions from Helena, which seem to fuel his power.  He realizes Power Girl is in his base, and heads off to confront her, giving Huntress a chance to pick her locks and escape.  Huntress defeats a strong-man slave of DeSaad's and joins Power Girl in the fight against him. But DeSaad says he has extracted what he needs from Power Girl, and uses another boom tube to return them to England.  When they arrive, Power Girl says DeSaad has "screwed up" her powers -- her costume is torn and she is cut and bleeding (both of which should be impossible due to her Kryptonian physique).

Issue Review: Lazarus 2

Forever Carlyle heads to the Family headquarters in Seattle for a Carlyle meeting.    Her sister Bethany examines her and provides some medication to help her recover from last issue's shooting, while her brothers Stephen and Jonah argue about what the Family should do to revenge itself against the Morray clan.  Family patriarch Malcolm convenes the meeting, and Forever reports on her investigation of the Morray attack on the Carlyle farm in San Joaquin.  Jonah insists they should go to war, but Malcolm dismisses everyone for alone time with Forever.  When she tells him Jonah made her kill a man she knew was innocent, Malcolm gives her a new, secret assignment, sending her to Los Angeles with Jonah and their other sister Johanna.  The two "J" twins plot against Eve, but she slips away, heading south to Mexico.  There, she comes face to face with armed men of the Morray family, and their Lazarus.

Issue Review: Lazarus 1

This bold new series by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark is set in a dystopian future where the world is ruled by a few very rich Families.  The Families are powerful, and they employ a few serfs on their lands, whom they care for and treat reasonably well (for the most part). The rest of the world population is considered "Waste," and is treated as being beneath contempt.  Each Family has invested in a single person, a guardian, a protector, an enforcer, given the best training and biotechnology money can buy -- a Lazarus.  The story of this first issue begins with Forever, the Lazarus of Faimly Carlyle, being shot repeatedly by thugs from the Waste, at one of the Family's storage facilities.  Forever should have died, but as a Lazarus, she seems to have very high regeneration properties, and within minutes, recovers from the bullets and returns to action, battling and killing the theives.   She then returns to the Family's base of operations, where James, her doctor, examines her and gives her some platelet therapy.  Forever expresses remorse at having to kill, which is trouble for the Family -- they need their Lazarus in top form.  Her brother Jonah then calls on her to investigate a break-in by rival family Morray at the Carlyle's San Joaquin harvesting facility.  They conclude it was an inside job by one of the serfs.  By Family policy, Forever threatens to kill them all unless the guilty one steps forward.  An elderly man confesses, and even though she knows he is lying, Forever kills him.  Then she returns to James for an "oxytocin treatment," which James implies to Jonah will get rid of her feelings of remorse.

Issue Review: Supergirl 23 (New 52)

Following the events of last month's issue, Supergirl flees from the population of I'noxia, who are capable of making all her memories come to life. At the behest of "Cyborg Superman," the I'noxians have become all of the superheroes and supervillains Kara has ever met, and proceed to attack her.  Supergirl battles memories of Wonder Woman, Superman, Silver Banshee, the Worldkillers, Superboy, and Simon Tycho, before finally being captured and imprisoned by Cyborg Superman.  He still plans to use her body, but first he has to cleanse it of Kryptonite Poisoning. The I'noxians do so, and then Supergirl appears to disintegrate.  As Cyborg Superman's "creator," the Brainiac, hovers overhead preparing to attack, Cyborg uses Kara's body to regain his own -- and turns out to be (apparently) Zor-El, Kara's father.

Issue Review: Red Sonja 2

As an army invades Corinthia, Sonja stands alone against the charge of her greatest friend and enemy, Dark Annisia.  The two duel each other, while the armies around them clash.  Sonja and Annisia were the only survivors of the arena in which they were slaves, and neither really wants to kill the other.  Each inflicts wounds, but they can't bring themselves to issue the killing stroke.  Annisia claims she can see all those who died before them in the arena -- she says they haunt her.  Sonja thinks Annisia has gone mad with guilt.  But as they speak, King Dimath tries to ride Annisia down, and she throws a dagger into his throat.  Sonja rises up, preparing to kill Annisia, but then Annisia reveals that Sonja has the plague.  Annsia kisses Sonja after telling her this, and then offers to let the city die a slow death, as long as they build a wall around it and no one comes out.  And as long as Sonja goes off to the frozen northland to die.  Sonja agrees, giving up her sword, and heads off into the mountains for her final days with the plague.

Issue Review: Batgirl 23

In this first part of a 3-part story, Barbara Gordon has given up her life as Batgirl, because she believes she killed her brother, James, Jr.  Comissioner Gordon, who witnessed that killing, has put out an APB for Batgirl, and is trying to hunt her down and punish her for the death of his son.  Gordon begins by approaching Charise Carnes, whom he suspects is the vigilante Knightfall.  After verbally fencing with Carnes and her attorneys, Gordon convinces her to let him review security tapes of the night Batgirl saved Ricky from the bear trap in the parking garage (way back in issue 10).  After he leaves, however, Carnes tells her team to keep their guard up, because this might all be a pretext for Gordon trying to collar her instead.

Meanwhile, Barbara tries to enjoy a normal life with her room mate Aleysia. The two of them go shopping, but end up being harassed by some low-lives, and Barbara threatens them.  She manages to pull back, but Aleysia takes her home to talk about it.  Before they can do so, however, she gets a call from Ricky, who has been threatened by his former gang members.  Ricky's brother has been kidnapped, and Ricky is going to save him. He calls Barbara to say good-bye.  Against her better judgement, Barbara puts on a black outfit (but not the Batgirl suit) and goes out to help him.

Gordon and Detective Mckenna have gotten onto Ricky's whereabouts by now, and just as he leaves, they try to arrest him.  He shoves McKenna, causing her to hit her head and lose consciousness. Gordon then puts out an APB for Ricky as well, for assaulting an officer.  As the book reaches its climax, the police, Barbara, and Ricky all converge on the gang's hide-out.  Barbara takes down most of the gang members, but when the cops get there, they shout for everyone to freeze. Ricky doesn't freeze fast enough, and although Babs tries to save him, Comissioner Gordon shoots him.  As the story ends, Ricky appears to be dead (though we will have to wait for next issue to know for certain).

Issue Review: Thor, God of Thunder 11

In this concluding issue of the epic "God Butcher" storyline that began in issue 1, we finally see the three Thors, past, present, and future, defeat Gorr the god-butcher.  In the previous issue, Gorr's bomb had begun to explode. The bomb will destroy all gods down through all of time, past, present, and future.  As this issue opens, the bomb is exploding, and Gorr gloats to the elder Thor that he and all other gods are dying.  However, modern-age Thor has entered the center of the bomb itself, with both his hammer and the elder Thor's hammer, and he uses them together to create a giant lighting-and-thunder explosion inside the bomb's blast radius.  His display of power works, and he begins absorbing the essence of the bomb into himself.

Issue Review: Justice League of America 7

This issue represents the fourth part of the 6-part (plus) "Trinity War" Justice League event, and the crossover continues to be lackluster.  The story begins with Lex Luthor salivating over the fact that Superman has somehow been framed for killing Dr. Light, and in the middle of his prison, Pandora shows up with her skull-shaped box.  She encourages Luthor to open it.

As these events unfold, elsewhere, members of the three Leagues (JL, JLA, and JL Dark) burst into Dr. Psycho's base, and battle him.  They think he used his mind powers to trick Superman into killing Dr. Light, but they find out that he was not involved.  He does, however, implicate a "secret society."  Atom finally admits that the JLA was formed to fight the JL, and everyone feels betrayed.  At the same time, Steve Trevor leads another group against a mysterious house.  Inside, they find a mirror that shows the Phantom Stranger, who had traveled with a fourth team to seek out the dead soul of Dr. Light.  Unable to find it, the Stranger returns the team to the house through the broken mirror, and then disappears.

Superman's group returns to Amanda Waller, ready to accuse her of wrongdoing, but the secret society blows up Dr. Light's body, causing the entire building to explode.  Meanwhile, back in Luthor's prison, Wonder Woman stops Pandora from giving Luthor the box and takes it herself. The issue ends with Diana drawing her sword, and the clear implication is that now she has turned evil and everyone will have to fight her ("The box has me!").

The end of New Comic-book Night (probably)

I regret to announce I probably won't be able to do "New Comic-Book Night" the way I used to each week, from now on.  In case anyone is going to leap to conclusions in a single bound, this is not because I'm doing something radical like giving up buying comic-books. I did that back in 1999, so there's no guarantee I won't ever do it again, but it's not happening any time soon.  Rather, there are two other reasons why I won't necessarily post NCN snippets each Wednesday.

First, because I now live a rather long way from the comic shop, there's no guarantee I can get to the c-shop every Wednesday.  Today is a case in point. I had a meeting at work that ran until 5:30 PM, and I wasn't about to drive 45 minutes to the shop, and then 45 minutes back home, that late in the day (battling rush hour along the way, too). The distance is now too great for me to reliably post something every Wednesday.

Second, as I said in an earlier post, I have decided to start posting more detailed reviews of individual issues rather than quick summaries in my NCN posts -- this is mostly because indexing the NCN posts is not really possible, and it makes quickly finding a review of a particular issue difficult if not impossible.  With the review content removed from the NCN post, that doesn't leave much to write about, and we'd be down to a very short post and a picture. I'd rather do longer entries.

Therefore, as I say, I will continue to post the same content I always have... I just probably won't make the NCN-specific posts every single Wednesday like I'd been doing.

The Many Faces of Supergirl - Part 3: Kara Zor-El Returns

What has gone before

In the first installment of this article series, we examined the origin, history, and death of the original Supergirl, Kara Zor-El of Krypton.  In the second installment, we explored the origin, history, and disappearance of her post-Crisis replacement, the so-called Matrix Supergirl.  That character, a shape-shifting alien from another dimension who had merged with human Linda Danvers, hung up her superhero identity at the end of her 80-issue series, and vanished from the DC Universe in 2003.  For about a year, there was no Supergirl character active in the DC pantheon.

Why I'm making September a DC-Free month

Some time ago, +DC Comics announced that this September, their annual "event" for their entire line would be something called "Villain Month."  In September, all 52 comics published by DC will be about the villains rather than about heroes.  So, for example, instead of Justice League being about Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, it will be about their arch-nemesis, Darkseid.  Meanwhile, instead of Superman's comic being about him, it  will be about Bizarro.  DC is producing these comics with special "3D" covers.  Additionally, they will be using "decimal" numbering, so that instead of being issue #24 or what have you, we will get issue #23.1, 23.2, and so on.  Thus, issue 23 comes out for most of the original New 52 titles in August, and 24 in October, with the ones in between numbered as fractions.  And finally, not all titles will be published. Lower-tier characters like Batgirl won't be published at all, to make space for multiple versions of the top tier ones like Batman.

All of this adds up to one thing: this is a pure, 100% marketing campaign. It's a giant gimmick.  And as readers of this blog know, I hate gimmicks.  I had already told my comic shop not to put aside any DC titles in September that are normally on my pull list (fortunately, my awesome comic shop was really on the ball about it and has worked with their customers to make sure we are kept happy in the face of this marketing firestorm), figuring that I would "play it by ear."  But the more I hear about this obscene marketing ploy, the uglier it gets.  Now The Outhouse is reporting that DC is basically screwing the retailers over the 3D covers and the retailers are claiming that they're not even sure at this point how many copies of each title they are going to be saddled with.  And so at this point, I've decided that I just can't support DC whatsoever regarding this marketing ruse.

Therefore, in September, I will not be buying any DC comic-books. Period.  Not one.

Issue Review: Red Sonja #1

Gail Simone makes her Dynamite Comics debut with this first issue of a brand new Red Sonja series, with art by Walter Geovani.  The story begins with a king named Dimath invading a city of the Zamoran lands.  Dimath has won victory, and he investigates the deepest dungeon. Two prisoners are left out of eighty, in terrible conditions. One of them is Red Sonja.   The other is called Dark Annisia.  The King orders them cleaned up and freed.

We then flash forward to a few seasons later. Red Sonja is asleep in camp, and three extremely stupid criminals decide to try and rob her. Before she does anything, two young girls with bows and arrows try and save her, only to be captured by the criminals.  Sonja then jumps up and kills two of the criminals, leaving the third, who did not lift his hand against the girls, to die of a strange sickness.

The girls, meanwhile, have been sent from Dimath to beg aid.  Sonja returns to his city-state in Corinthia, where she learns that his town is beset by a plague, along with other city-states.  Each city-state with the plague has been sacked by the Zamorans, and wiped out.  Dimath's city-state is next.  He asks Sonja to train his remaining citizens to defend themselves.  She gets four days to train them, before the massive Zamoran army shows up, and turns out to be led by none other than Sonja's former cell-mate, Dark Annisia.