Reading Comics #114 "Rounding Toward Third"

Batman Incorporated #9 & 10 (DC)
The issues that follow the death of Damian Wayne are pretty interesting and speak to the significant impact of the event as well as how it fits into the rest of what Grant Morrison has been doing in his final Batman arc.  #9 cuts between the immediate aftermath of Damian's death as Batman and Nightwing attempt to handle the other Damian (a clone matured to adulthood by proud mama Talia, who was nonetheless displeased that one killed the other) and the funeral, where Bruce lets Alfred know that he too is displeased in the butler's tacit approval of his late son's last caper.  That's probably the best moment of the issue.  The former Squire also decides to replace the late Knight (the two were the most prominent members of Batman Inc., featured in an excellent and very British mini-series by Paul Cornell).  The city of Gotham, meanwhile, gives in to Leviathan a.k.a. Talia's demands and officially outlaws Batman, the agent provocateur.  #10 sees Morrison circle back to his earliest issues in this run, where Manbats were flying about.  It's also a direct evocation of Batman's origins, as Bruce decides that the only way to defeat Talia is to literally become a bat, thanks to the Manbat serum.  It's a powerful, meaning-filled development.  There are three issues left, plus a jam issue a month later featuring the international heroes technically represented in the title of this series.

Batman: Li'l Gotham #1 (DC)
I've been following the blog of Derek Fridolfs for a while now, and by extension his Facebook posts, and it's always been a little weird because Fridolfs is mostly a digital-first creator, his stories originally appearing on the DC website and then being printed later.  He's best known for his comics based on the Arkham City games (and as such that was the basis of the excellent Endgame Joker story I read last year) and Batman Beyond landscape, though recently he's been collaborating with the great Dustin Nguyen on Li'l Gotham.  This issue is a collection of the holiday specials that served as the introduction of these incredibly fun tales.  Fridolfs is clearly a fan of continuity, and he's always finding new ways to explore it, mindful that for some readers, especially in these fringe adventures, it could very well be their first exposures.  Since he doesn't write New 52 material, Fridolfs can do whatever he wants.  Li'l Gotham is technically considered a young readers title, but it can easily be enjoyed by anyone strictly as a humor series.

Before Watchmen: Comedian #6 (DC)
The conclusion of this mini-series and the whole Before Watchmen event, I've been waiting months for this.  Comedian became the only part of the event I tracked for every issue of original publication thanks to Brian Azzarello's masterful character study of Edward Blake and his relation both to the Vietnam War and the John/Robert Kennedy saga.  Azzarello made a few changes to Blake's classic arc; for instance the infamous face scarring that forced him to wear a mask doesn't occur in this comic.  The lead character in this series remains more of a hero than antihero, though certainly stained by the events of his times.  Edward and Bobby end the issue trying to make the best of a bad situation and not really succeeding.  Bobby, of course, is assassinated.  Edward's demons are more psychological, but they're impactful.  I read someone's assessment of the Before Watchmen project, and they labeled Comedian as one of the disappointments.  I still contend it was the best of the whole thing, and I think history will side with me, just as anyone who read Watchmen itself ended up thinking a lot differently about Edward at the end of it than they did at the beginning (or...every other point).  That's the magic of the character.

Django Unchained #3 (Vertigo)
Now that I've actually seen the movie, it's a different experience reading the comic book adaptation of Quentin Tarantino's complete script.  With the first two issues, I was discovering the story outside of the movie's direct influence.  Now it's harder to separate the two, although the adaptation is still making the story its own, retaining all the distinct advantages of the comic book format, and new artist Denys Cowan continues to keep the art equally distinctive, evocative and yet unique.  The series is halfway through, and on the final page introduces Calvin Candie, the character portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film.

Justice League #18 (DC)
This will probably be my final issue of the series.  While Geoff Johns continues work on Justice League (and its spin-off I'll be talking about next) and is gearing up for "Trinity War," the event that he's been working toward since the start of the New 52 and introduction of the mysterious Pandora (very soon to be featured in her own series), I'm not really in the financial means to continuing reading new comics on a regular basis.  I've been in the position to have a much smoother conclusion than in 1999 (known as cold turkey) or my abortive efforts in 2011 (when Flashpoint and the start of the New 52 sabotaged a similar design).  Grant Morrison concludes his Superman and Batman stories this year, and Johns is stepping down from Green Lantern.  I couldn't ask for a better exit.  Justice League has been consistently excellent, and this of all issues is a fine place to stop (and just as well to begin for readers in a different situation than me).  It's the customary recruitment issue.  Morrison did something similar in his JLA run, and it's been a staple for subsequent writers like Brad Meltzer.  Lots of new faces are here.  The issue also features the tenth installment of the Shazam! backup feature from Johns and Gary Frank, where the erstwhile Captain Marvel and always-kid Billy Batson finds it increasingly difficult to avoid the inevitable confrontation with Black Adam.

Justice League of America #2 (DC)
Another comics blog I follow, Crisis on Earth Prime, found this Hawkman/Vibe moment pretty memorable: Vibe says "Are you okay?," to which Hawkman responds "Why?"  Vibe next says "You're covered in blood," and Hawkman says "It's not my blood."  Vibe spends the next two panels putting some distance between them, and there are no words.  They're not necessary.  Johns wrote Hawkman both in the pages of JSA and his own title for years, but this may be the best scene he's ever done with the character.  There's also a pretty interesting Catwoman moment where she realizes how similar she is to Steve Trevor in the department of being spurned by giants.  This is the strength of the series, that Johns is able to write characters who aren't necessarily icons.  He actually writes both his League books in much the same way, but this one just feels more intimate.  These characters all have something to prove and they know it.  There's a backup feature in this series, too, featuring Martian Manhunter, who gets my vote as the best character too many people don't really care about.  He would make for an excellent movie.

The Mice Templar, Volume IV: Legend #1 (Image)
The series featuring fuzzy rodents that everyone who cares knows about is Mouse Guard, but Mice Templar has always had my vote for the better of them.  It's an iconic new take on the traditional hero's journey, always taking original twists and turns.  After a considerable absence, I'm glad to see it return.  I started reading these adventures in 2007.

Nova #2 (Marvel)
I loved the first issue of this new Jeph Loeb series, an integral element of Marvel's renewed Guardians of the Galaxy push (seeing that there's going to be a movie and all).  I didn't just love it, I adored it, one of the best single issues I've ever read.  You may have guessed at this point that I wasn't so wild about the second issue.  That's okay.

Saucer Country #13 (Vertigo)
The penultimate issue of this series (although Paul Cornell contends that he will attempt to revive it elsewhere) busts one of the key bits of mythology.  The previous issue had a distraught Professor Kidd apparently about to commit suicide, which turned out to be a ruse in order to get the "Pioneer space probe couple" stand revealed as a hoax.  The whole series has been about perception and reality in the world of alien abduction, following the presidential campaign of Arcadia Alvarado, who has been trying to come to grips with her own apparent abduction, which has only been complicated by the fact that she shared it with her estranged husband Michael.  It's been a fascinating ride.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Hive #4 (IDW)
The conclusion of this Borg epic that represents Brannon Braga's ultimate vision for the Collective and the roles Jean-Luc Picard and Seven of Nine (featured in Voyager) play in it.  In a lot of ways, it's a rephrasing of Voyager's final episode "Endgame."  There's also a little of a Star Trek Nemesis hangover involved as Future Data reveals how he returned (and not because as fans thought simply reborn as B4), which serves as an excellent ending after an emotional farewell to another character.  Pretty good stuff, although it would certainly be interesting to watch as filmed material.

Star Trek #19 (IDW)
This series is based in the rebooted continuity of the 2009 J.J. Abrams film and was originally set up to adapt classic episodes from the original series with the new interpretations of the familiar characters.  I don't know how many issues have deviated from this mission, but this one in particular certainly does and it's well worth enjoying for it.  Simply put, this is the secret origin of Scotty, from his family heritage to the incident with Admiral Archer's beagle (evoking similar characters from Enterprise but not the exact ones, because that was a hundred years in the past).  Good stuff.

(Justice League of America's) Vibe #1 (DC)
I had to go back and catch this one after initially skipping it.  Both spin-offs of the new series look like they're well worth checking out, this one and Katana.  What's intriguing about Vibe is that it follows a character who in his previous incarnation was all but a punchline, more famous as a casualty of a forgettable League lineup than anything he did or represented personally.  As with Earth 2, this is another series that builds on the initial Darkseid arc of Justice League, and brilliantly at that.  Departing Earth 2 writer James Robinson is still most famous for Starman, a series he cleverly hinged around legacy, but in a twist that no one would have seen coming when Jack Knight quickly replaced his more traditional brother David as successor to their father Ted.  Geoff Johns does something very similar here with the new Vibe, who is also notable for having the ability to see beyond the regular limits of this particular reality.  It's Geoff revising his own Booster Gold revision, the also-ran who became a multiverse champion following the breakthrough 52 experiment.  I don't know how long this series will last, but to my mind Vibe has everything to gain from all of this.  He's just become one of the most fascinating characters in DC.