Reading Comics 196 "DC Rebirth Week Eight, Divinity II, Moon Knight"

Covered this edition: Detective Comics #937, Divinity II #4, The Flash #3, Moon Knight #4, Nightwing #1, Red Hood and the Outlaws: Rebirth #1, Action Comics #960, Titans #1, and Wonder Woman #3.

Detective Comics #937 (DC)
Batman escapes from the custody of the bad guys this issue, which features the return of Ulysses Hadrian Armstrong (I remember him fondly from the pages of '90s Robin), who is a little criminal genius in the making.  As this is the bulk of the issue, it's a slam dunk of a sequence.

Divinity II #4 (Valiant)
The final issue of this particular story in the saga (an ad promises Divinity III this December, as does some quick foreshadowing) is a remarkable conclusion to Abram Adams' war with Myshka in which he's able to connect with his fellow cosmonaut-turned-god on a strangely human level.  Matt Kindst's work with Divinity remains some of the best stuff being published today.

The Flash #3 (DC)
I can't even begin to describe how happy I continue to be about this relaunch.  I haven't been (with all due apologies to Geoff Johns) been this interested in a Flash comic since Mark Waid's prime.  The cleverness just doesn't stop.  One would think Central City being flooded with new speedsters would diminish the role of Barry Allen as a significant figure, other than as budding mentor (can you say Max Mercury?), but then his new sidekick August Heart says something brilliant like, "Do you know how fast you were going?" 

Moon Knight #4 (Marvel)
Jeff Lemire continues to knock this one out of the park.  (If chosen carefully, the things you enjoy shouldn't be so difficult to enjoy.)  I decided to catch up with this weeks-old issue, and damn if this isn't one of my favorite comics in recent years.  It's really that good.

Nightwing #1 (DC)
This is a strong follow-up to the Rebirth one-shot, in which Nightwing repositions himself as a mole in the Parliament of Owls and then meets Raptor, the latest dude who thinks Dick Grayson can't hack it on his own.

Red Hood and the Outlaws: Rebirth #1 (DC)
This is Scott Lobdell's restating of the Jason Todd biography, although this time he makes the point that Jason is uniquely suited to appear like he's the compromised Batman, which is interesting.  I know Frank Miller probably has conniptions every time a comic book suggests Boy Wonders aren't destined to become lunatics, but I don't have a problem with it.

Action Comics #960 (DC)
Wonder Woman enters the fight, but other than getting some readers up to date about Doomsday's origins, nothing much significant happens this issue.

Titans #1 (DC)
This fairly Wally West-centric issue also features Linda Park.  Hey, I can't argue with that.  Dan Abnett lets other Titans in on the act, notably Lilith, who's one of the more obscure members of this family, before shockingly revealing that Abra Kadabra is claiming responsibility for Wally's disappearance.

Wonder Woman #3 (DC)
Greg Rucka does a pretty powerful study of Cheetah, one of Wonder Woman's most famous foes, who probably comes off better in this one issue than she has in all her other collective appearances combined.

Quick Hits: Red Hood and the Outlaws #15 (DC)

Part of the "Death of the Family" crossover that concluded recently, this is one of those issues that could've been something really special, especially considering that it stars Jason Todd, the first Robin to die in the line of duty, confronting the psychopath who killed him, the Joker.  Unlike the initial Batman and Robin outing, however, Red Hood and the Outlaws doesn't embrace the opportunity, which is curious, because Scott Lobdell has wisely wrapped the whole series around Jason's perspective, which is part of the reason I've been trying to make the case for it being exactly the opposite of the horrible mistake everyone else has been trying to make it.  Yet for some reason Lobdell hesitates at the moment of his greatest triumph, and this may be due to the fact that he simply wasn't sure how far he could take it, given that the Joker has similar confrontations in every other tie-in, and so inherently the moment can't help but be dimmed, because that was the weakness inherent in the apparent strength of a Joker story like this.  You can't expect him to be everything to everyone.  And so Jason doesn't get much out of what should have been a seminal moment.  Maybe the other issue accomplishes that, or maybe there's simply room for a future story where Joker and Jason are all alone together, advancing the "Under the Hood" story that much further.  Because in a lot of ways, the Joker is more of a Jason Todd villain now than he can hope to be Batman's.  Batgirl has a similar claim.  I didn't check in to see whether the moment was realized in her opportunities.

Robbin'

Batman and Robin #0 (DC)
writer: Peter J. Tomasi
artist: Pat Gleason
One of the things I absolutely loved about the idea of Zero Month (Version 2) was the chance for creative teams to refocus their attention on the characters who star in their books, and one of the great beneficiaries was Tomasi and Gleason's Damian.  Introduced in 2006 by Grant Morrison as the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul (spinning off from an earlier graphic novel, Son of the Demon, which had previously given Mark Waid a totally different interpretation in his Kingdom Come stories), the newest Robin is easily the most inspired one in franchise history.  The series was hottest this year when focusing directly on Damian, and so this issue was a no-brainer.  Exploring his relationship with Talia before being introduced to his father, Damian must prove his worth, a little Alexander the Great (most comics fan will here think of Ozymandias, but I prefer to think more directly on Alexander himself, and the underrated movie Alexander).  Though only Morrison's own Batman Incorporated deals with the current Talia storyline, the issue also serves as a good primer on what you need to know about that.

Batman Incorporated #0 (DC)
writer: Grant Morrison, Chris Burnham
artist: Frazer Irving
Well, speaking of the series, its own Zero Month contribution finally brings the concept of the book back to the forefront.  Let me go back a step or two.  This incarnation of Batman Inc. follows a previous one that did feature the Batmen of the world concept pretty heavily, but eventually started to emphasize the concept of Grant Morrison's concluding Dark Knight arc, featuring the threat of Leviathan, who turned out to be Talia as explored in the first issues of the relaunch.  All the Batmen were previously introduced in earlier eras, and were recently reclaimed by Morrison, first as the Club of Heroes and then as members of the organization Batman put together to tackle the threat of Leviathan, realizing after his return from a journey through time that he's never been alone and should probably stop thinking of himself as so isolated.  (This is a point reiterated in the issue as well.)  The most famous members of Batman Inc. are Knight and Squire, who had their own mini-series from Paul Cornell (well worth checking out).  Hopefully there will be more from this element of the series in future issues.  Another interesting aspect of the issue is that Morrison works on the script with Chris Burnham, who has been the artist on Batman Inc., and this is interesting because another artist Morrison collaborated with during his Dark Knight run, Tony Daniel, has since gone off to a successful career as writer-artist, and is rumored to be assuming these duties on Justice League when Geoff Johns departs.

Before Watchmen: Comedian #3 of 6 (DC)
writer: Brian Azzarello
artist: J.G. Jones
Recently I've been modifying my comic-buying decisions, and one of the things that means is that I will not be reading individual issues of the whole Before Watchmen project.  I realized that my favorite so far has been Comedian, and so here I am with another issue, in which Edward Blake has a conversation with Bobby Kennedy concerning events that transpired when Blake came back to the States from Vietnam, and was shocked to discover that hostile reaction to the war extends even to him, creating a sticky situation.  Which he compounds by actually aiding a riot to help end it, logic that only he seems to appreciate.  Makes sense, if you're the Comedian, or understand his psychology, which Azzarello clearly does.  I suppose what this one's helping me realize is that Comedian was my favorite character from the original Watchmen, even though he was technically dead throughout the present-day events, more of a catalyst for pretty much everything that happens.  What happens when he gets to carry the story?  Apparently still the best of the project.

Cobra #17 (IDW)
writer: Mike Costa
artist: Werther Dell'Edera
A patented piece of the Cobra experience is the character study, and that's what this issue does with Major Bludd, exploring his origins and what they mean for the present.  Costa and his collaborators perfected this long ago (to the point that Chuck Dixon copied the formula for this year's Annual that had a look at the new Cobra Commander), and still know how to use it.  As with Comedian, Cobra is a book that respects psychology, which Bludd is careful to employ in trying to explain how a man of his comparatively lowly origins was able to become a trusted and valued member of the organization, with interesting insights for characters the series (and its predecessors) have been following, including the Paoli twins (Tomax and his late brother Xamot).  And if that's not enough for you, or not traditional enough, the end of the issue promises the return of the Oktober Guard!

Happy! #1 of 4 (Image)
writer: Grant Morrison
artist: Darick Robertson
I've been waiting for this one (not as long as fans have been waiting for Multiversity, but that's a whole different story!), so it seemed like it was something like a miracle to finally see it released.  Once again, Grant Morrison takes a side project to another publisher (see also: 18 Days, Dinosaurs vs. Aliens, the latter of which I'll be writing about in the coming weeks), and perhaps part of Happy! is something Vertigo wouldn't have touched even in its woollier days, with a good chunk of its debut issue very reminiscent of artist Darick Robertson's more famous collaborator Garth Ennis (as in The Boys), foul-mouthed and featuring nasty characters looking for nothing good in relation to each other.  And yet Morrison pulls yet another rabbit out of his hat with the introduction of Happy, a tiny blue horse who comes to Nick Sax in his hour of need, when he's about to be brutally tortured for information.  It's this glimmer of the bizarre and the push against the boundaries of reality (best demonstrated in Morrison's own favorite work, The Filth) that elevates this book past shock value and novelty to something that in the next three issues will once again redefine comic book storytelling as we know it.

Justice League #0 (DC)
writer: Geoff Johns
artist: Gary Frank
Since the seventh issue of the series Johns and Frank have been exploring a new origin for the hero once known as Captain Marvel, following a rebellious orphan called Billy Batson as he struggles to find a new home with a family whose belief in mankind contradicts everything he's come to experience in his short life.  This issue he finally meets the wizard who gives him the power to become Shazam, and Johns takes the opportunity to reinvent the character, defining him first and foremost as a practitioner of magic.  Previously he was all but a version of Superman with a few quirks, not the least being the famous (and since oft-duplicated)  transformation from boy to man.  There's so much potential in all of this, it's almost disappointing to know that in the near future we're simply going to see Billy figure out what to do with his new powers.  But he's a boy, after all.  A backup story from Johns and Green Lantern collaborator Ethan Van Sciver features New 52 newbie Pandora, who's still trying to live down sins of her past, while the Question makes his debut in the new continuity.

Nightwing #0 (DC)
writer: Kyle Higgins, Tom DeFalco
artist: Eddy Barrows
The exact character of Dick Grayson has always been a little difficult to define.  For much of his existence, he was simply the second orphan in Batman mythos, the acrobat whose parents were murdered by a mobster and became Robin as a result, and later Nightwing.  What motivated him, other than the presence of Bruce Wayne, to take on these roles?  This Zero Month effort posits that it was an essential part of him long before his life changed, that Dick always had the instinct to look before he leaped, even though he always possessed the ability to know exactly where he was headed.  His problem is that he didn't always consider the consequences.  Like most youths, he was impulsive.  What made him different was what happened to him.  Higgins has been doing a good job grounding Dick back into his own particulars, and apparently now has Marvel veteran Tom DeFalco to assist him.  Since the New 52 relaunch was all about getting back to the basics, Zero Month was necessary to remind fans where those basics began, to ground the new stories after a year's worth of development back to what it was all about.  In some cases, I think this was as important to fans as it was for the creators, and Nightwing (and I'd say Batman and Robin, too) benefits a great deal from this issue.

Punk Rock Jesus #3 of 6 (Vertigo)
writer/artist: Sean Murphy
I became a fan of Sean Murphy after Joe the Barbarian, his epic collaboration with Grant Morrison.  When Punk Rock Jesus was first advertised, I knew it was a project worthy of Murphy's talent and ambition, and now that I've had a chance to experience it for myself, I can say that he's absolutely nailed it.  The first thing to note for those who may now be intrigued is that it's a rare black-and-white book from a major publisher.  Not that it matters.  Murphy's art is easily strong enough to sustain itself without color.  The story is sort of like the Jim Carrey movie The Truman Show if it featured a clone of Jesus Christ (as PRJ actually does).  As I like to say, the strength of any story is proven if you can come into the middle of it and still completely appreciate what's being done.  This is definitely the case here.  This issue handles the relationship between Chris, star of the unorthodox reality series "J2," and his troubled mother, who has grown increasingly wary of the affect of her son, who to her is simply her son, being trapped in the confines of a manipulative environment.  She has very different ideas than the producers on how to raise Chris, but the producers have all the power, and by the end of the issue, prove it.  This is brilliant, brilliant material, even if you only view it as a variation on The Truman Show and ignore its religious connections, and a revelation on the full impact of Murphy's talent.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #0 (DC)
writer: Scott Lobdell
artist: Pasqual Ferry
Completing my survey of Robin origins in the New 52 (technically Tim Drake gets his due in Teen Titans #0, but I didn't know that last Wednesday or Muse  simply didn't have the issue, as it was missing several of the comics I was looking for, including that issue of The Ultimates that makes Captain America president of the United States), Jason Todd as star of this book is featured in the Zero Month issue.  Though comparatively recently much of this story has already been retold (when Jason originally came back as the Red Hood), it's worth exploring the full story again, how he was a troubled youth even before Batman rethought his decision to name him the second Robin.  I'd been waiting for Jason to get his own book for the past few years, so I was always going to be excited to see it in the line-up last fall.  It didn't hurt subsequently when Lobdell proved that he understand exactly what to do with the character, or to surround him with characters who instantly had more chemistry with him than Dick Grayson, whom Starfire and Roy Harper had more history with (which is to say any history at all).  Neither of them appears in this issue, however (I suspect they're in the book at all because some people in the DC offices questioned whether Jason could or even should have his own series).  The truly brilliant element of the issue, however, is the backup feature wherein the Joker explains how he manipulated all the events of Jason Todd's life, except his resurrection.  Just how much will that affect the "Death of the Family" event, which clearly calls to mind Jason's bloody death at the hands of the Clown Prince of Crime?

Road to Oz #1 of 6 (Marvel)
writer: Eric Shanower
artist: Skottie Young
Following their work in four previous L. Frank Baum adaptations (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz, and Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz), Shanower and Young continue their efforts to remind modern audiences of the true character of Baum's legacy, distorted for years by the Judy Garland film as almost nothing but a series of memorable songs.  Baum was an incredibly clever and playful writer, and together Shanower and Young have perfectly embodied that spirit.  I haven't read all of their work (though at some point I will correct that), but arguably it's more important than the ambitious Stephen King projects (the Dark Tower franchise, The Stand cycle) Marvel has been doing concurrently in the past few years, more essential.  In this one, Dorothy is back once again, and the Shaggy Man is her somewhat dubious guide to Oz.  (It should be noted that even in Young's depiction he seems little better than a pedophile in the making.)

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Hive #1 (IDW)
writer: Brannon Braga, Terry Matalas, Travis Fickett
artist: Joe Corroney
For a lot of Star Trek fans, Brannon Braga was a chief architect of the franchise's destruction, driving it into the ground with one too many series and one too many ill-advised ideas.  It's an historical irony that he gets another shot, in the comics, to bring his vision to the public.  Conceiving a new Borg story (especially after all the work in Voyager and that one episode in Enterprise) seems to be one of the things you'd least expect from him, but perhaps it's worth remembering that he co-wrote Star Trek: First Contact, the one Next Generation movie that everyone loved that happened to introduce a major new element to Borg Collective lore, the Borg Queen.  The movies never returned to the Borg, though, and Voyager was consumed by the Seven of Nine arc and Captain Janeway's efforts to survive and take advantage of the Collective (ultimately use its technology to get home in the final episode).  Hive presents a version of what might have been, returning the Borg story to Jean-Luc Picard and his "Best of Both Worlds" alter ego, Locutus, the human representative (fully assimilated) of the Collective.  It's a truly epic vision, one if executed on the screen may have totally revolutionized the popular conception of Star Trek's ability to present an expansive saga.  To be completely honest, I was always a fan of Braga, and this only further confirms my respect for him.

Thanos: The Final Threat (Marvel)
writer/artist: Jim Starlin
Another reprint one-shot, this time from still earlier in Marvel lore, 1977 (there's a ton of Star Wars influences here, although some references seem to look forward as well as backward, interestingly enough), as Thanos presents a sufficient threat to unite his natural foe Adam Warlock with Captain Marvel (Marvel's version, who would famously die of cancer in a story that also features Thanos), the Avengers, as well as Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four's Thing.  The story reads like an earlier version of later epics (and seems to contradict Starlin's own efforts in the Thanos Quest reprint from some thirteen years later), including the definitive Infinity Gauntlet that in all likelihood inspired this summer's The Avengers to include the character in the end credits.  This one's far more conventional than Thanos Quest, but that only means it's easier to see what Thanos is like in context.  I suspect a lot of exclamation points were edited out of the dialogue, however, because that was the style at the time, and they're notably (mercifully!) absent.  More reprints should do this.  It would make it so much easier to appreciate older material.

Westward #1 (Kinetic)
writer/artist: Ken Krekeler
It's always worth checking out some of the smaller press efforts on the market, and always nice to find these things at my local comic book store (in this case Muse in Colorado Springs), and this is probably one of the more random ones, though very welcome, to have available, from a very small press indeed (currently soliciting Kickstarter support for future issues).  If you haven't caught on to my predilections by now, rest assured that Westward has a strong emphasis on character (and like Punk Rock Jesus also features black-and-white art), specifically Victor West, who wakes up in a hospital with barely even a vague idea on how he got there.  In a previous life, he was the spoiled son of a visionary who angered his father with irresponsibility.  As Victor stumbles into the new truths of his life, we receive clues about what's been done to him, the secrets of the West family, and the unease of the world around them, which takes into account how us folks in the real world are living.  It's impressive storytelling, hugely intriguing, even before the big reveal at the end.

Catching Up On Some Recent Comics

Action Comics #12 (DC)
Grant Morrison rounds out the first year of the New 52 Action Comics by pitting Superman against Captain Comet, one of DC's cosmic superheroes, in an epic showdown.  Hey, it's the most relevant Comet's been in years!

Aquaman #11 (DC)
Geoff Johns continues the saga he may be only spending a little while longer on, if recent reports are to be believed.  Still, if it's true, he's still done far more to make Aquaman a vital character than anyone in the dozens of attempts over the years.  If nothing else, this will make an epic, massive collection, and be put right alongside Brightest Day, where Johns and Peter S. Tomasi previously worked on the character.

Atomic Robo and the Flying She-Devils of the Pacific #2 of 5 (Red 5)
A better issue than the previous one, filled with Brian Clevinger's trademark wit, and Robo's hapless reactions to the insanity around him.

Atomic Robo Presents Real Science Adventures #5 (Red 5)
The latest issue of this anthology series is highlighted by Robo's confrontation with the man who killed Nikola Tesla (in this comics iteration), who was the creator of Atomic Robo (in the comics).

Batman: Earth One - Special Preview Edition (DC)
Yes, I bought and reviewed the full graphic novel last month, but I thought it'd be fun to see what it might feel like as a monthly-installment-sized edition.  Yes, this only covers the first fifteen pages, but it really does have a different feel.  There's a bonus preview of Scott Snyder's New 52, but the provided content is practically impenetrable, and certainly doesn't sell the Court of Owls concept, even though that's the name of the collection the preview is hawking.

Batman Incorporated #3 (DC)
The horrific shooting in Aurora, CO, delayed release of this book, though not necessarily shipments.  Morrison brings back Matches Malone, Bruce Wayne's underworld alter ego, while we learn what's really going on with Damian, who has for now assumed the identity of Redbird (which was also the name of Tim Drake's Robin-mobile).

Batman and Robin #12 (DC)
Tomasi concludes his Terminus arc with a big bang, which is a little disappointing in that Terminus didn't quite receive enough time to develop as a villain.  Long story short, the series was better earlier this year.

Before Watchmen: Comedian #2 of 6 (DC)
I read elsewhere that Edward Blake's introduction to Vietnam seemed a little generic.  I guess I haven't saturated myself with enough Vietnam fiction, since I found it to be pretty fascinating.  On the one hand, the Comedian considers this battlefield to be just another battlefield.  On the other hand, this is a guy whose best friend was just assassinated.  He has a right to be a little cynical, have an impulse to let loose a little.  That's my perspective, anyway.  Brian Azzarello also provides a fascinating insight into the possible origins of the emerging drug culture we still live in today, playing along the same notes as the second issue of Silk Spectre. (If you need a little perspective on it, Before Watchmen is an unlikely but certainly welcome forum.)

Before Watchmen: Nite Owl #2 of 4 (DC)
Whatever else I might have had to say about this issue is kind of overshadowed by the recent passing of comics legend Joe Kubert, who inked this series over son Andy's art.  I'm not a historian of the craft, but I can certainly appreciate Kubert's huge legacy, and it's a shame that he had to die in the middle of his last great contribution.  As I said in my thoughts for the first issue, Joe's inking made a definite impact on Andy's art in this book, one that spoke to the generational nature of the project.  Where some people have only been able to view Before Watchman through the Alan Moore controversy, I've relished it as a chance to view comic books in their most pure and relevant form, something creators like Kurt Busiek and James Robinson have been trying to do ever since, well, Watchmen.  Comics have, for better or worse, come to be defined by superheroes and legacies, and that's something Before Watchmen fully embraced, what the original stories were all about, in fact.  And Joe Kubert had a huge role in developing that.  Sorry to see you go.

Before Watchmen: Ozymandias #2 of 6 (DC)
The genius of Before Watchmen can also be explained this way: we're finally going to see Ozymandias and Comedian on equal terms.  That's something the original stories surprisingly avoided.  At the end of this particular issue, we begin to see a rectification.

Creator-Owned Heroes #1 (Image)
Image has slowly become the go-to home for every conceivable comic book project, and while the founders envisioned a forum to create superheroes that would contend with the popularity of the books they left behind, the projects that've come along over the past decade have redefined the company as a catch-all for creators who would otherwise look for a place in small presses.  Which has in essence made Image a large small press.  Sometimes a book like The Walking Dead can happen, but that's very much the exception to the rule.  Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, regular writing partners who regularly work for the Big Two, join forces with Steve Niles (best known for his horror efforts) in launching a new anthology format, almost magazine-like offering, working on dream projects.  The problem is that the format short-changes those dreams.  To be frank, the examples in this debut issue don't feel like they were worth the effort.  But maybe they're better with commitment.

Demon Knights #12 (DC)
Paul Cornell may be writing this series for the trades.  I think that's the best thing to say about it.  I love Demon Knights, and I also wish it could be something more.  It's a rolling, sometimes rollicking adventure, but every time it seems like we're finally getting somewhere...it's the end of the issue.  So, Cornell may be writing for the trades.  This is not a complaint.

Earth 2 #4 (DC)
James Robinson continues his chronicle of the alternate Justice Society, in which everything old is new again. This now includes Al Pratt, the original Atom, who in this version of events is a soldier in the world army that sprang up in response to the Apokolips apocalypse.

Green Lantern #11 (DC)
Black Hand puts together a creepy family reunion and Sinestro brings Hal Jordan to his own personal Batcave, allowing us our first glimpse of the next Green Lantern.  Seriously, Geoff Johns could write this franchise forever.

National Comics: Eternity (DC)
The first of a series of one-shots reimagining various DC properties ("National Comics" is what the company was before it embraced the Detective in one of its flagship titles).  Jeff Lemire sees Kid Eternity basically as a Ghost Whisperer.  That's as much as there is to see here.

Peter Parker, Spider-Man #156.1 (Marvel)
I guess Marvel is releasing Point One issues of cancelled Spider-Man series to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the web-slinger.  This one is written by Roger Stern, a veteran I know best from 1990s Superman (but he's been around!).

RASL #15 (Cartoon)
The final issue of Jeff Smith's second comic book opus (his first being, of course, Bone), and finally an explanation for the title (an acronym for Romance at the Speed of Light, which was also the name of the third collection, and title of the eighth issue).  Things've boiled down to Rob's need to destroy the journals of Nikola Tesla (yes, the same dude as the comics creator of Atomic Robo) in order to save the universe, lest they be used to destroy it (which in fairness to Rob is a process that was already started across several alternate realities).  The big problem Rob gets to overcome in the finale is the revelation that Maya, the source of the eponymous tattoo and motivating factor in so many ways for Rob's journey throughout the series, is also his biggest threat.  He's been running the whole time toward this moment.  It's still disappointing that the series only lasted fifteen issues, but as Smith himself pointed out elsewhere, that still adds up to a lot of pages for any collection, and one way or another, this will sit proudly next to Bone on any discerning reader's shelf.  Perhaps like Demon Knights, it will read better and last longer in the memory in trade format.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #11 (DC)
Again, I have to say how different this series is from just about anything else, not just because of the distinctive art from Kenneth Rocafort, but because of Scott Lobdell's writing, which moves along at its own pace, a little like Grant Morrison's.  It is, then, any wonder that Lobdell and Rocafort have been tapped as the latest replacements in Superman?  Perhaps this will solve two issues.  This is a book that deserves to stand out, but it's also one that can be alienating (much like the heroes in the book themselves, who are all alienated), as has been proven since its launch last fall.  Perhaps more a little more convention will help readers discover how awesome it is.  This issue, by the way, features some familiar and unfamilar backstory for Koriand'r, better known as Stargirl.  Apparently she has some Farscape in her.

Have Muse, Will Travel

Baby did a bad, bad thing.  See, I was about town when I discovered there’s a new comics shop in Colorado Springs, called Muse.  It carries a wide assortment of titles and keeps older issues around for continuing titles.  See, this is bad because I had a chance to catch up with some stuff I’ve missed recently.  I quite reading new comics last year because I am not, as they say, flush with cash, and since I lost my job recently, I really ought to have repeat that feat, not gotten a bunch more comics…But I’m an idiot savant (or perhaps just an idiot), so I told myself, These are good stories and need to be read.  And so I listened to myself and here’s what I got:

DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS #s 6-8 (DC)

Readers of this blog may know that I have a soft spot for the Challengers of the Unknown, basically the DC equivalent of the Fantastic Four without fancy powers, who’ve gone through a number of incarnations the past few decades (including the excellent and seminal Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale version depicted in THE CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN MUST DIE!, and a Howard Chaykin cycle that’s very Howard Chaykinian), so when I first heard of the New 52 anthology title doing a Challengers story, I worried that I’d miss out, because Heroes & Dragons does not carry the entire New 52.  Muse corrected that but good, having the complete arc (which like I said is par for the course).  This version postulates the team as stars of a reality adventure show (playing fast and loose with the concept), but otherwise keeps the concept of risk-takers living on borrowed time intact (even if many of them actually die in the story), and to my mind is a worthy take on the team.  It reads as incredibly self-contained, in case you were wondering, which is only natural for a concept that has existed since 1957 but has never been popular, making every appearance special and finite.

THE LABYRINTH: A TALE OF JORGE LUIS BORGES/NEPOTISM (Spleenland)

Muse also had a small selection of local work, which is always nice.  This one was published in 2003, and comes from the mind of Geoffrey Hawley, reading like one of the best independent comics no one ever read, which is a shame.  The lead story is based on writer Jorge Luis Borges, a philosophical kind of guy, and is like a cross between Fred Van Lente and Jeff Smith.  There are a couple of shorter works as well, and they’re fine, but the lead story is the best thing here, easily.  

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #1 (DC)

The first issue of the series was always a curiosity for me, considering that’s when the Starfire controversy that still dominates its reputation came from.  It’s actually interesting, because Starfire receives a soft reboot in the story, revealed as having a short memory, basically, which explains at least why she’s ignored Dick Grayson since almost marrying him (but still doesn’t explain Dick’s silence on the matter since that time).  The issue actually revolves around Roy Harper, and Jason Todd’s rescue of him, which explains why they hang out now.  And anyway, I love this book, and it was just nice to see how it started.  I recently learned that Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort are taking over SUPERMAN, which might be what I need to finally read an issue of that series in the New 52.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF D.B. COOPER #s 1-3 (Oni)

I’ve got a couple of biographies waiting in development at Bluewater Press, and I mentioned that I was interested in doing something with D.B. Cooper, and although I didn’t received a favorable response on that, I was a little chagrined to learn of the existence of a series called THE SECRET HISTORY OF D.B. COOPER not so long after.  I mean, what are the chances that D.B. Cooper will have two comic books, much less one, on the stands at the same time?  Cooper famously hijacked a plane in the ’70s and got away.  I figured it’d be interesting to provide an account of the search for this bogeyman.  SECRET HISTORY is about an alternate explanation for why he’s been so elusive for forty years.  Stop me if you’ve heard this one, Chuck Barris.  It postulates that he’s an agent of the C.I.A. whose career as an assassin is aided by access to a pocket dimension where he uses a sword and fights monsters that are analogies for his targets.  The creator is Brian Churilla, whom I first encountered as artist of THE ANCHOR, which is almost exactly this book, but not as awesome.  I thought THE ANCHOR was awesome, by the way.  It was written by Phil Hester, one of my favorite comic book creators (though he doesn’t seem to get a lot of respect otherwise).  So I knew what SECRET HISTORY would look like, but I had no idea how it would actually read.  It’s like a mix between AWAKE, the short-lived TV series about a man living parallel lives, and THE ANCHOR (which I’ve already alluded to, and is only appropriate).  And it’s absolutely brilliant, richly layered and featuring a teddy bear as Cooper’s main companion.  It has quickly vaulted into my favorite books of 2012.

THE SHADE #s 5-7 (DC)

That makes twice this year I’ve miraculously been able to catch up with this series, which inexplicably has been all but ignored by pretty much everyone, even though it’s James Robinson at his finest.  Featuring a supporting character from Robinson’s STARMAN, the basic story is about trying to figure out who tried to kill The Shade, and why.  So far it’s caused a lot of introspection and revisiting of his history (and just begging anyone to care enough so we can read this as an ongoing series), and in these three issues a visit with Spanish heroine La Sangre, a vampire caught in the midst of an epic feud with the Inquisitor, with his own rich history.  This whole story is steeped in history, and maybe I love it because I love stuff like this and maybe not a lot of other people do, but I love depth in comics, and that’s what THE SHADE is all about.  These are the best issues so far, too, and that was a treat to discover, and what makes it all the more wickedly fantastic that I was able to catch them.  Our antihero would approve.

THE TWELVE #s 9 & 11 (Marvel)

The interval years since the first eight and then the last four issues meant fans of this J. Michael Straczynski/Chris Weston mini-series that reads like a modern WATCHMEN means that anyone who wasn’t already thinking about it was forced to do exactly that, especially now that BEFORE WATCHMEN has come upon us.  A comic book that seeks to explore the origins and motivations of superheroes cannot help but have comparisons to WATCHMEN, even if Alan Moore’s legacy became about deconstructing superheroes rather than building them up.  THE TWELVE doesn’t deconstruct or build anyone up.  It’s a version of the Captain America story where twelve heroes were put into cryogenic suspension in WWII and then reawaken in 2008.  It’s a story about generations, but really the changing of social mores and the ability to remain relevant, to understand oneself (very few of the characters in WATCHMEN seemed interested in that, but most of them thought they did).  Straczynski isn’t interested in creating individual narratives so much as weaving a tapestry.  I suspect the whole thing reads better in one sitting, but it also reads well in single issues, and that’s most of the point, that these are characters who figure things out in increments.  Both WATCHMEN and THE TWELVE have a thru-line of a character being revealed as murdered (the Comedian and Blue Blade, respectively) and then trying to figure out the who and the why.  Both stories are then about figuring out how the resulting revelation explains everything.  THE TWELVE has a couple of happy endings, where things end badly for just about everyone in WATCHMEN, where the illusion of control is key.  THE TWELVE is about the lack of control, and whether one can find peace with that.  Each character has some kind of reckoning with that.  You don’t need to know or care about WATCHMEN to enjoy THE TWELVE, by the way.  But it doesn’t hurt to love comic books, and good storytelling.

Predator or Prey?

BATMAN INCORPORATED #1 (DC)

Grant Morrison’s vision of the Dark Knight finally returns.  For those unfamiliar with this saga, it began in 2006, with BATMAN #655, when Damian was first introduced into the mythos (having been conceived in SON OF THE BAT), adding a ripple of complication into Bruce Wayne’s life.  Damian is his child with Talia Head, daughter of Ra’s al Ghul.  Morrison previously put Batman through the ringer in “R.I.P.,” FINAL CRISIS, and THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE, though he developed the budding Damian in BATMAN AND ROBIN, and brought Bruce back up to speed the original volume of BATMAN INC.  The culmination of Morrison’s run has concerned the emerging threat of Leviathan, who has necessitated the building of an alliance around the world of Batmen (including Batwing, who stars in his own New 52 series).  This issue is the beginning of the end, and reveals the identity of Leviathan, but doesn’t miss an opportunity for another rollicking (as has been the pattern for every issue of BATMAN, INC.) adventure, this time centering around a would-be assassin obsessed over his own son, even as he puts Robin in the crosshairs.  There’s a thousand things that would help you better understand exactly what’s going on, but Morrison helpfully frames most of it in pithy moments that ground the action, and leaves you begging for more.  Well, hopefully at least eleven more issues.

COBRA #13 (IDW)

Mike Costa and Antonio Fuso have been doing some of the best comics around for a few years now, and now they’ve folded both the villains and the heroes under their auspices.  I haven’t been able to read COBRA regularly for some time now, but clearly they haven’t missed a beat.  Ever since Cobra Civil War began (which, by the way, was an event initiated by these guys), the series has been able to dive still deeper in the rich psychology available with existing characters these stories have mastered.  The best example from this issue involves the confrontations Chameleon (who used to work for Cobra) has with defector (by matter of elimination in choices) Tomax Paoli (yes, the surviving brother of the two Cobras who seemed to exist to have silly names in some previous life) and other Joes who try and walk her through this process.  She has a violent reaction, but the situation plays out beautifully, as does ever other moment in the issue, and the series, in its several incarnations at this point.  If you’ve never read any of it, you owe it to yourself to correct this omission.  This is one of the best comics being published today, and that has been true for years now.

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #9 (DC)

This is the first issue where Jason Todd might once again be considered the villain he was when he first returned as the Red Hood, back from the dead and menacing Batman.  There’s good reason for that, because he’s back in Gotham for “Night of the Owls” in a story that seems like Scott Lobdell was both rushed into this moment and therefore wasn’t entirely prepared for it, and what he embraces it like he has the whole challenge of this series.  None of this should have worked.  After “Under the Hood,” no one really seemed to know what to do with Jason (COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS seemed like just another in the series of missteps, including an awkward stint in NIGHTWING), but suddenly the New 52 fresh start seemed like an excellent way to start over.  This is a series about a team that’s not really a team, just three characters running around together, and Jason happens to be at the center, and it’s Lobdell’s narrations for him that really makes everything work so well, what keeps me coming back.  Although it seems like barely the surface of the book’s potential has been scratched so far, it’s one of the best books to come out of the reboot.  I’m hoping Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort stick together for a long time.  Then they can get around to telling that story where Jason gets to confront these Batman family chuckleheads on his own terms.  Except this time he’ll really get to make his point.

THE WALKING DEAD #97 (Image)

I’ve been meaning to read another issue of this one ever since discovering what a wonderful series the TV show has become.  I read a handful of issues fairly regularly a few years ago, but have never become a devotee.  It just never caught my imagination as something that needed to be read regularly to have processed and understood as a worthy enterprise.  Basically, it’s the same thing every issue, these survivors struggling to survive, without a lot of progress being made one way or the other.  This issue, it seems they’re finally at the point where they must decide whether they’re the predator or the prey.  Maybe that’s what Robert Kirkman has been driving toward.  You’d think after a hundred issues he’d have gotten around to something else, too, but maybe that’s what he really wants his fans to think about, the act of survival, how it changes you.  Maybe the title of this thing is more ironic than you’d think.

Teenage Wasteland

Here I go again.  I really shouldn’t have, but I opened a box at Heroes & Dragons, meaning I will be reading comics on a regular basis again, in a more limited capacity than I have in the past, when I didn’t have a ton of impulse control.  This time I’ll be reading on the stuff I really want to read.  Some of my selections have been shaped by the extended trial I’ve been on for the past year, some by decisions I made before it.  It’s really an effort to read books that may be unavailable typically, things I don’t want to miss, things I won’t have had the ability to catch if I hadn’t made this decision.  For instance, as visitors to Comics Reader will know by now, I’m a fan of Oni Press’s WASTELAND, a comic that spent a great deal of time recently not actually being published, but the circumstances that forced that particular break were recently resolved, and throughout 2012 it’s been back on a regular basis.  I haven’t seen it in any comic book store I’ve visited since Newbury Comics, so in order to read it without a lot of hassle, opening up a box was a decision that was more or less necessary.

There are two kinds of people who read comics: those with arrested development and those who are simply developing.  I don’t mean to disparage either group, but the fact is, it takes a special kind of person to be interested in stories told in illustrated form, especially when the most popular stories in the medium feature outsized personalities in colorful costumes.  Part of what drove me to reading comics in the first place was vindicated frustration from a childhood deprived of them when I was most keen to do so; I’ve been playing catch-up for twenty years.  I was a teenager by the time I was able to fulfill this ambition, and it so happened that at the time, there were a lot of comics being published that rewarded continued interest, and that helped develop a habit.  Yes, reading comics is a habit; otherwise they wouldn’t be released in monthly increments.

Again, none of this is a bad thing.  In fact, I think it’s a very good thing, because comics have an ability to remove the filter many storytellers force on themselves, making their tales more mundane, more ordinary, more constrained by things that have actually happened.  That in itself isn’t a bad thing, and in some instances can be a very good thing, but the universal is at its best in the sublime, when it activates the imagination.  There are more benefits to looking beyond the simple and embracing the abstract.  Comics do this better than any other expressive form except perhaps music.  For some reason, but you combine a static image with words, the words become more important, if you let them.

That being said, let’s look at some examples:

AQUAMAN #8 (DC)

Geoff Johns continues to expand his vision of Aquaman beyond the simple parody that pop culture has embraced in the past ten years, abetted by lackluster comic book portrayals in endless relaunches throughout many decades (Tad Williams, I contend, remains the sole exception) since the character’s creation.  Some creators have understood the potential of his unique setting, the mythology that Aquaman alone can truly tap into, but Johns is looking beyond that simple vision and tapping into how Aquaman’s life and career can be shaped outside his connections to the Justice League and embrace, like his Green Lantern stories, a far greater world than ever before.  To wit, Johns opens this issue with the young Arthur Curry attempting to distance himself from humans who could never understand him, following the death of his father, thrusting him into a dawning awareness of his Atlantean heritage.  He eventually meets others who understand him, but they aren’t the Justice League, but rather a whole myriad of outcasts.  As I’ve been saying, anyone who hasn’t read AQUAMAN yet should probably start doing so soon, because if history is any indication, Johns has a lot more planned, and this is just the foundation.

THE AVENGERS #1 (Marvel)

A reprint of the 2010 relaunch, Brian Michael Bendis (guru of all things Earth’s Mightiest Heroes) picks up the pieces of many conflicts he himself has helped engineer, reassembling the team once more and then bringing back time-traveling Kang for a more specific purpose.  There are moments where the gravity of what everyone’s been through is clear, but there’s also the trademark flippant style of Bendis that has likely built him his following (it’s no wonder he moonlights as the Ultimate chronicler of Spider-Man, since that’s his natural character vein).  This one’s a freebie, which is really smart, given the movie that pretty much everyone is going to see this summer, many in multiple visits.

AVENGERS VS X-MEN #0 (Marvel)

I got this reprint, too (had to pay for it, though), the one that looks like the most obvious gimmick in a long series of Marvel events since Bendis came aboard, but it spears someone really did figure out that there’s a story to be had, too.  Bendis started the ball rolling with HOUSE OF M (not to mention “Disassembled”), but the House of Ideas finally figured out what to do with mutant messiah Hope, too, tying her in with the Phoenix saga that was the highlight of the Claremont era that made the X-Men rise to the prominence it still enjoys today.  If this event figures out how to handle all of what it promises competently, it may be the most important story from Marvel in the past decade.

BATMAN AND ROBIN #5 (DC)

Seeing this even earlier issue from the story I snapped up in one of my previous visits, I couldn’t pass it up.  I am now thoroughly convinced that the series has already earned a prominent spot in the eventual 2012 QB50.  Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason are creating the most important in-continuity Batman stories, period.

DEMON KNIGHTS #7 (DC)

Another issue that fills in one of my gaps, Paul Cornell’s period heroics are just as astonishing as everything else he does, featuring historic heroes in ways only Grant Morrison previously approached with SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY.  If you want, consider this an ongoing series inspired by some of the mini-series in that project.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #8 (DC)

Geoff Johns again, once again putting the focus on a relative outsider, approaching the League from the outside in.  This time it’s Green Arrow, more famously depicted as an older, more cynical hero obsessed with social causes and his own legacy.  As a younger version, he does seem a little more superfluous, so it’s no wonder the League wants nothing to do with him (even if they have other reasons besides), even when he finally, petulantly, gives voice to the reasons he wants to join, which more accurately reflect the Oliver Queen we know and love.  The backup Shazam feature continues, and is already a definitive version of the character.  But what else did you expect from Geoff Johns?

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #8 (DC)

I can’t decide whether I actually want to read this series on a regular basis, but I keep getting drawn to it because Jason Todd is such a compelling character, a damaged individual with a tragic past, sometimes awful tendencies, and a road to redemption.  Scott Lobdell has captured this perfectly, and Kenneth Rocafort is an extremely unusual artist for DC (the only negative this issue is the cartoonish fat woman who’s the villain of the story), and another strong draw.  Forget the backlash concerning the costume of Starfire.  You need to at least sample this series.

SAUCER COUNTRY #2 (Vertigo)

Sometimes it’s better to miss the first issue of a comic book, and in this case, it’s almost mandatory.  Arcadia Alvarado will be running for President, but she believes she was abducted by aliens.  Do you believe her?  That’s the whole thrust of this series from Paul Cornell, finally getting the chance to stretch himself a little, with a concept entirely created by himself, in a book that has the potential to be the next great Vertigo project. 

THE TWELVE #12 (Marvel)

WATCHMEN as retold by J. Michael Straczynski and Chris Weston finally concludes.  Okay, it’s not really WATCHMEN, more like Captain America retold in the manner of WATCHMEN.  Regardless, this was an ambitious project of motivations and fate that proved fascinating and then frustrating when Straczynski took an extended break, leading many fans for several years to fear that it would never be concluded.  So important to Weston, actually, that he produced a one-shot on his own to continue the saga of the WWII heroes suspended and then revive in modern times, only to succumb to their own failings, THE TWELVE comes to a worthy if quiet conclusion, befitting its focus on character ahead of sensation.  Hopefully it will take its place among the seminal superhero stories.

WASTELAND #36 (Oni)

It’s a little strange for this reader to dive back into the series now that RESURRECTION artist Justin Greenwood has settling in as replacement for Christopher Mitten, whose distinctive style helped shape the early issues of Antony Johnston’s epic vision of the future, especially after having read (and written synopses for here at Comics Reader) the first six collected editions.  I have missed four issues between the last one featured in the paperbacks and what I was surprised to find waiting for me last week.  Michael and Abi, on their way to A-Ree-Yass-I, have stumbled into another town overrun with overblown egos.  If you were at all hesitant about WASTELAND before, it may be easier to catch exactly what this series is all about with these new issues, with new art but the same complex storytelling Johnston has been employing from the start.

Batman without Grant Morrison, Part 2

Last year I wrote about Batman comics from the perspective of someone who could just barely at that time accept that there were other writers in 2011 capable of writing a compelling story and not be named Grant Morrison.

Yes, I’m part of the Grant Morrison orthodoxy.  At that point, he’d just launched BATMAN, INCORPORATED, the last stage of an epic saga that had already delivered “Batman R.I.P.” and the launch of BATMAN AND ROBIN.  In 2012, BATMAN, INC. is slated to finally begin its endgame, returning as part of the second wave of the New 52.  Other writers have been able to dominate the bat-sandbox in the meantime.  You may have heard of Scott Snyder, for instance.  Before we reach him, let’s just go over the two books I’m not actively reading.  DETECTIVE COMICS currently features Tony Daniel continuing his fairly traditional version, while BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT is the comic any fan who isn’t already invested in the character can enjoy if they’d like.  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Daniel’s work in the past, but in an effort to streamline my comics purchases, I haven’t really attempted to keep up with his stories since last fall.

BATMAN #6 (DC)

Scott Snyder: right, then.  This issue probably does a fine job of summing up exactly the approach he’s taken with the franchise.  Where someone like Morrison takes in an expansive look at what others have done and what can be done on top of that, Snyder has built something of his own.  The issue actually reads a lot like Frank Miller’s Batman, with art from Greg Capullo that could easily be mistaken for pages from THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS (probably intentional).  It’s a little disappointing that the story in the issue falls into the same basic territory Morrison touched on in “R.I.P.” and can also be found in “Knightfall,” or otherwise an enemy that seems to not only have outsmarted Batman, but outmuscled him as well.  Yet Batman outlasts his foe Talon, embodiment of the Court of Owls, a layer of intrigue Snyder has added to the Gotham City tapestry (building on what he and Kyle Higgins established in GATES OF GOTHAM) that may or may not become a permanent addition to the landscape (depends on what’s left to play with once the big crossover’s done).  Let’s get another thing out of the way: the cover of this issue is a classic, and was something I needed to have in my collection.  But yeah, Snyder is at the head of a major crossover arc while Morrison’s feet are still in the sandbox.  It’s not sacrilegious, but it’s definitely interesting.  Will fans ultimately remember this Court of Owls business with as much enthusiasm as what Morrison is on the verge of completing?  Well, that’s what I’m talking about, Batman without Grant Morrison.  It actually has happened before, and it’ll happen again, and it’s actually happening right now. 

BATMAN AND ROBIN #s 6-8 (DC)

I was as big a fan of Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason in the pages of GREEN LANTERN CORPS as anyone, and so was pleased as punch when they were tapped as the regular successors of Morrison in the pages of the book he launched to further the adventures of the new Robin, Damian Wayne, and whichever Batman happens to be under the cowl.  But I didn’t really expect much from it.  I mean, it’s Damian.  Who writes Damian better than Grant Morrison?  I think I can now confidently say, Peter J. Tomasi.  I happened to stumble across this blockbuster story in total by complete accident.  I had no idea it happened until I looked at one issue, then another, until I had all three.  Basically the son of Henri Ducard tries to seduce Damian to the dark side, years after failing to impressive the formative Bruce Wayne.  Ducard, as BATMAN BEGINS reminded fans, was one of Batman’s main influences as he developed the skills necessary to wage his war on crime.  (Strangely, very few comics have used Ducard since the 2005 film that elevated his profile.)  Damian is no dummy, but he becomes more manipulated than he expected, leading to a shocking event the last of these issues dedicates itself to resolving, a major development in the life of the two heroes in the title of the series.  You don’t expect something like this, because most writers skirt character development as much as possible, and yet that’s what this whole story is about.  It solidifies Tomasi as arguably more important to the ongoing legacy of Batman than Snyder in the foreground of Snyder’s big moment, and makes BATMAN AND ROBIN a must-read.  At the very least, you must read these issues.  They’ll tell you everything you need to know.

I’ve got some other comics to talk about, too:

ACTION COMICS #s 7-8 (DC)

The problem with Superman is that most writers think of him more as an ideal than a functioning character, even when they’re working with all of his most traditional elements.  Do you really think Grant Morrison would make the same mistake?  Concluding his opening arc on this New 52 reboot, Morrison forces the Brainiac connection to its best possible results, forcing Superman to face his human and Kryptonian heritages in ways only Grant Morrison is capable of doing.  The conclusion is perhaps more fascinating than the rest of the storytelling, leading Superman in a typical Morrison direction, exploding all conventional wisdom, leaving him muttering in Kryptonian, and the reader wondering just where else Morrison intends to go. 

AQUAMAN #7 (DC)

Geoff Johns finally gets around to exploding mythology with Aquaman, meanwhile, introducing, brilliantly, a whole different league of allies that will hopefully allow readers and writers to finally acknowledge that Aquaman is not just some schmuck who talks to fish and serves as a de facto member of the Justice League.  If you’ve been waiting for an excuse to check this one out, this is it.

DEMON KNIGHTS #8 (DC)

Paul Cornell, meanwhile, is doing that kind of work in this overlooked series.  In this issue, Jason Blood and Etrigan are thrust into the spotlight, their weird and complicated relationship explored, all in the greater context of this brilliant comic.

GREEN LANTERN #8 (DC)

Hal Jordan is not one to accept limitations, and Geoff Johns has been exploring more of Hal in the pages of the New 52 relaunch than he managed in most of the past six years, where the most famous Green Lantern got swept from one momentous development in the greater mythology after another.  There are still big things happening, but Hal seems more ready to try and be himself again than at any point since his REBIRTH.  Too bad things like the Indigo Tribe finally playing its hand keep getting in his way.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #7 (DC)

Geoff Johns has secretly reshaped the Justice League into a team that supports the story of Wonder Woman, and this issue he gets to get back to that, spending considerable time with her forgotten lead association, Steve Trevor, who serves as official liaison for the team with government officials who are just as awestruck as the general public.  Only Steve sees things clearly, and now there’s someone who looks to exploit his budding cynicism…

NIGHTWING #7 (DC)

One of the perks of writing GATES OF GOTHAM with Scott Snyder is that Kyle Higgins gets to put Dick Grayson close to the front of the Court of Owls saga, as this conclusion to the first arc of the New 52 NIGHTWING relaunch helps make clear.  Finally discovering the awful truths behind the assassin Saiko and all the complications he discovered in returning to Haly’s Circus, Dick learns that he was supposed to be recruited as one of many Talons who are now being activated to challenge Batman’s control of Gotham’s future.  And to think I originally feared that Dick would lose all the respect he’d gained in his several years as Batman…

RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #6 (DC)

I’ll be the first to admit that there’s no real way to hide the fact that I haven’t supported this series as much as I’d like to, despite vigorously opposing the ridiculous backlash that built up against it almost instantly.  I love that Jason Todd has his own book, and that it’s being done intelligently.  This is probably the most important issue to date, with Scott Lobdell exploring how Jason met Starfire, the center of all that controversy given that she apparently still dresses in the comics the way she didn’t in the cartoon.  Starfire’s prior relationship with Dick Grayson becomes just one of the fascinating focal points of the issue, how Jason reacts against it and then accepts her as an ally, and how this is probably the first time anyone has addressed the fact that Koriand’r is an alien who has basically been marooned on Earth.  That’s why you should ignore what you’ve heard and read this series.

SUPREME #63 (Image)

Alan Moore’s final script is much the same as his other heavily-inflected Supreme stories, but it at least provides a really convenient segue to what comes next in this latest Extreme relaunch.  Worth a look.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #3

Writer: Scott Lobdell
Artist: Kenneth Rocafort

One of the more controversial "New 52" series, mostly because old readers assumed new readers would prefer to see Starfire as she was featured in the Teen Titans cartoon than how she's been presented in every comic book appearance ever (*cough*), and one of the books I was personally most interested in at least sampling (because I'M NOT READING COMICS ANYMORE).

This issue seemed like a great one to sample, since it dredges up what Lobdell presents as the happiest memories of main characters Red Hood (Jason Todd), Arsenal (Roy Harper) and Starfire (Koriand'r), three outsiders (but not actually calling them that probably helps make that point better at this point) struggling to move on with their lives. That Starfire managed to retain spoiled-princess-mode even in the worst possible circumstances should theoretically make her that much more interesting. That Arsenal is still defined in his own mind by a guy trying to overcome his worst moment makes more sense than his now increasingly tenuous ties to Green Arrow. That Red Hood can still manage happy thoughts about his time as Robin brings out so much more to his character than most writers and readers have considered in some time.

All this suggests that Lobdell is a perfect writer for all three, and that as a long-term deal, this is exactly what I hoped it'd be, one of the more intriguing developments of the "New 52," since all three characters have struggled in recent years to make a mark.