This week: Owl poop hits the fan, Green Arrow becomes a stalker, and there's gonna be a wedding!
Batman #8 – While I have placed
pretty significant praise on Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's New 52
Batman run (particularly, issue number five), I readily admit that it
is a pretty slow burn. Issues one through seven, while interesting,
have not exactly moved at a breakneck pace. In fact, I would argue
that issue number eight felt like the story was moving forward for
the first time. That's not to discount the buildup to this moment,
it's just an observation of the pacing that Snyder has purposefully
employed. The Night of Owls explodes into the DCnU with this issue
and Batman rallies the troops for the biggest fight the Bat-family
has seen post relaunch. The main part of the story, illustrated by
Capullo, had the right amount of menace for the characters involved
while the backup, drawn by Snyder's American Vampire collaborator
Raphael Albuquerque, set the tone well for the crossover.
Batman Beyond Unlimited #3 – What a
dense issue! In this book there is a Batman Beyond story, a Superman
Beyond Story, and a Justice League Beyond story. I am
horrible at counting comic book pages, so I won't even try, but this
issue felt like an incredible deal for four bucks. Not only
did it continue the solid Dustin Nguyen/Derek Fridolfs future Justice
League story, it also gave us more Mad Stan by Adam Beechen and Norm
Breyfogle. Not to mention that the Superman Beyond story was
actually one of the most solid things I have read by JT Krul since he
started working for DC. The art by Howard Porter and John Livesay was
spot on and the story was actually touching without ever becoming
mopey. However, it was not perfect. For example, Krul introduces a
Lisbeth Salander clone as Lex Luthor's long lost daughter. While
that's a potentially fun mashup, I feel like the character is a bit on the nose.
Birds of Prey #8 – The most solid
b-level book in the New 52 continues to be pretty good. Duane
Swierczynski, Jesus Siaz, and Javier Pina take the team into the
second storyline where we finally find out why DCnU Black Canary has been
on the run from the police. It turns
out she killed Green Arrow. Just kidding! She killer her husband.
Wait... So what we find out is that the New 52 version of Dinah Lance
was married to someone (not Oliver Queen) and killed him. The BoP
square off against a team of terribly named metahumans (no,
seriously, so bad it almost has to be intentional on Swierczynski's
part) that were hired to bring Canary into police custody. It's a
strong teamwork issue with a nicely choreographed payoff at the end.
As always, I love Saiz and Pina's art. I will be sad to Saiz
go...thankfully, his replacement is the awesome Travel Foreman!
The Defenders #5 – Issue five
seemed like a bit of a mess to me. It was a book with some solid
stuff in it, but just about all of it fell flat in my opinion. Maybe it's
my lack of knowledge about Namor's backstory but nothing that
happened in The Defenders made any sense to me. I am a big
proponent of trusting the narrative of a story and there are few
writers that I trust as much as Matt Fraction. So, I will give him
the benefit of the doubt and trust that it will all make sense in the
end. (I call this the Reading Grant Morrison 101 Method.) Mitch
Breitweiser's art is fine but I am looking forward to James McKelvie
taking over in a few months.
Justice League #8 – What in the world
is going on!? The main story of issue number eight involves Green
Arrow following the Justice League around like a stalker asking for
membership. Look, I know that the secret meeting between Oliver
Queen and Steve Trevor hints at a larger story that has yet to
unfold, but it was just kind of sad. I am not opposed to change and,
for the most part, I have enjoyed the way the New 52 has shaken
things up, but Justice League continues to be baffling. The sad
thing is, that this isn't that much of a change from older versions of the story. It's actually in
line with the pre-DCnU continuity established in Mark Waid, Brian
Augustyn, and Barry Kitson's JLA: Year One. Yet, the
retelling/re-imagining in issue eight lacks all of the original's
subtlety and characterization. (I won't go into details
because...spoilers). The saving grace of issue eight is the second
installment of Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's Shazam revamp. I am sure
that there are people out there that are unhappy with it, but I think
Captain Marvel is the kind of character that could use some
reconfiguring.
Manhattan
Projects #2 – After focusing on Robert Oppenheimer almost
completely in issue one, Johnathon Hickman opens up the world of
Manhattan Projects and gives us more insight into how things work and
who the major players are. Most of the issue revolves around the
United States government's mission to recruit Werner Von Braun near
the end of the war in Europe. There are a ton of neat little ideas
and interesting moments. Von Braun in particular gets a few
opportunities to shine showing off his personality and establishing
him as a possible threat in the future. The art of Nick Pitarra fits
the tone of the book incredibly well. His pencils are heavily
stylized and his detailed style lends itself well to the craziness of
the Projects. Even if I wasn't enjoying this book quite a bit (which
I am!) I would keep buying it just because of how genius Hickman's alternate universe's version of Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. is.
The Punisher #10 – I can't believe I
own an issue of Punisher. What have you done to me, Mark Waid?! Who
am I!? I just don't know anymore! Waid, Greg Rucka, and Marco
Chechetto's three part crossover flows nicely into this issue. It's
not quite as sharp as last week's Avenging Spider-man, but it's still
a good little yarn. The ending is kind telegraphed but that has more
to do with the nature of superhero team ups and the fact that there's
still one issue to go before resolution. All in all, it was a good
issue with great art and characterizations. Spider-man flirts with
being annoying but never quite falls over the edge. There's a whole
discussion that could be had about how I feel that writers overplay
Peter's science skills, but that's an issue I am in the minority of
so I'll leave it be.
Wonder Woman #8 – As far as I am
concerned, this is the premiere book of the New 52. Not to beat a
dead horse, but Wonder Woman is one of the few series to actually
live up to the full potential of the relaunch. Issue eight goes a
long way to showcase just how good the series has been. Brian
Azzarello's story is tightly written, Cliff Chiang's art is gorgeous
and the ending is a diabolical cliffhanger. Azzarello's versions of
the Greek pantheon might not look like they are traditionally
portrayed but he sure infused the gods with their classic intrigue
and backstabbing. This was a stellar issue that ranks with Manhattan
Projects as my favorite this week.
Wolverine and the X-men #9 – I've
said in the past that I am trying to avoid Marvel's big summer
crossover Avengers Versus X-men. I was hoping that the Jean Grey
School would be left untouched by the events. Sadly, it looks like
AvX is unavoidable. Thankfully, this issue wasn't too bad. Jason
Aaron proved that he can write a tie-in book that stands up well on
it's own. I have to admit that seeing Captain America hop through
the Danger Room was a fun little sequence. Chirs Bachalo's art is
good but at times it can be a little busy. Issue nine was a solid
book with several great moments—even Toad got a chance to shine!
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