Apr 18th Comic RoundUp

posted by JediSheltie @ 10:30 PM

Well, World War 3 happens when I'm out of town? Such bad timing.

Yes, picked up the books a day late as I was out on “the coast”, the East one, the less balmy of the 2. Spent some quality time with some Rifftrax and a dog named Daisy, who, though she is not a Shetland sheepdog, is okay in my book. Someone else was there, too, but I'm foggy on the rest...

World War III 1-4

Why not roll it all into one review, especially since most of the changes that are addressed in this mini-event-within-an-event occur to characters I'm not following. Yes, the anxiously awaited questions about what happened to Firestorm, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Batgirl, the Teen Titans, Nightwing, and a few others whose books I don't read are here. Split into 4 parts, the series examines in a bit more depth what happens in and around the events of Week 50 in 52.

The first 2 parts, A Call to Arms and The Valiant are written by Keith Champange, while the second 2 parts, Hell is For Heroes and United We Stand, are from John Ostrander. The framing device for the story is Martian Manhunter's travels through the DCU after an initial attempt to stop Black Adam after he destroys the entire country of Bialya. Adam uses Manhunter's mental powers against him, filling him with the death throes of the millions of dead innocents. J'onn J'onzz takes this harder than Vulcan Jedi, and ends up questioning his mission and place as a defender of humanity.

As J'onn watches, heroes undergo their transformations. The DC Nation section in the comics this week is the mea culpa of sorts by Dan Dido about why World War III exists, namely to show these transformations in absence of their original place in 52. While changes happen, Black Adam is off around the world, meeting new people and killing them. Various heroes and teams try to stop him in a piecemeal fashion, but all meet with failure, some disastrous, before the the final showdown in China.

Going through the changes is pointless. If someone you're following is in here, then I suppose you could pick this up. Supergirl's return is touched on very briefly in The Valiant, but little light is shed over than “she appeared and made a crater when she landed.” She flies through Martian Manhunter while he mediates in space before she reenters the atmosphere. Whether anything will be made of that remains to be seen in light of the recent issues. Carried off, unconscious, by Power Girl, she's not seen for the rest of the story, not even at the end when the heroes band together to stop Black Adam.

Having a fully charged Kryptonian around might have been useful.

As to the rest, sooner or later they'll either give the backstory in the individual monthlys, or you can probably just read Wikipeida at this point. You could probably have done that Wednesday afternoon, actually.

Taken a whole, the entire series is written reasonably well, and the art, though handled by 4 different teams, is actually fairly consistent throughout. If I had to make a call, I'd say the weakest was the first team, but that complaint is really a non-starter. The series ends with a teaser of more dire events to come by the current foreshadowing standbys, the new Monitors.

Have to “countdown” to something, after all.

Justice League of America 8

Okay, new day, new arc, big crosser. Even bigger, if you count the recent revelation the Legion of Superheroes will be involved in character, if not comic.

It is the appearance of these future characters that kicks our story off, as the JLA and JSA are enjoying a relaxing afternoon of shared training and games, Batman and Black Lightning deal with the appearance of the Karate Kid, who was so named long before Ralph Machio vied for the title.

In the early pages we have more of the little character moments of which Meltzer is so fond. Here it's less tiring than in the initial arc, only because I'm far more confident it won't overtake the story with Johns on the other end. Some quick doses of action from the new “it's not the Danger Room, really” training facility keep the story moving along a better clip.

The characters are meshing a bit more smoothly and I'm a bit more comfortable with the banter. Good banter can be nice icing on a team book, not necessary for success, but a pleasant addition. On the other hand, bad banter can drag an otherwise good effort down.

Shane Davis takes over art duties on this issue, and his detailed style complements Ed Benes' work on previous issues. It didn't immediately strike me it was a different art team when I first picked the book up. I've always liked the art on this book, and this issue doesn't disappoint in that department.

By the end, the teams are assembled and ready to do the standard, “let's split up” maneuver to find the missing Legion members who are in the past. Since these aren't horny teenagers in a slasher film (despite what the outfits of the 2 team leaders might lead one to believe), it's probably not such a bad idea.

I am definitely getting a sense of better things to come. I've never been a fan of the back story part of a superhero film (don't tell me the Smallville scenes in Superman didn't drag), so the first 6 issues pretty much dragged for me. Now we're past that, and the JLA should be saving the world full time now.

Birds of Prey 105

After the big reveal last issue, the story doesn't exactly catapult very far forward here. Ice has yet to get a line, and we discover she's the object of worship of some backward Russian peasants. The last member of the Secret Six shows up in all her red, white, and black acrobatic glory. The Birds little leadership tiff comes to a head a bad time, right about when the Six track them down. The rouge Russian general decides the Six aren't worth what he paid for them, so he sends his own merc army to wipe out everyone, Birds, Six, and the Ice-worshiping peasants.

I sense there will be an “alliance of convenience” on the horizon.

Heh, but only after Barda and Knockout beat the living crap out of one another. That alone is worth the price of admission on 106.

Of course, the real story here is Simone is abandoning the Birds for “projects unknown.” Oh, wait, ask Tygrrius, I friggin called it. I didn't post about it, so you won't believe me, of course, but it seemed like such an obvious choice.

Still... couldn't she have dropped All New Atom instead?

Well, best of luck Gail, I look forward to you taking over the Amazon. You've written Barda and Knockout, afterall. You've now reached the pinnacle of the “statuesque babe” food chain.

Oh, and this McKeever guy better not forget about Ice.