Mad Bat

Batman Inc. #10

In the wake of Damian’s death, Batman recruits Azrael to join the fight while Talia and Leviathan work to completely shut down Gotham City. The various Robins track down where Jason Todd is being held captive, Kirk Langstrom has a gift for Batman, Talia disciplines the Heretic, and Batman makes a fateful decision.

Verdict: Thumbs up. If anything, the stuff outside of the main storyline are the most interesting. I’m finding myself caring less about Batman vs. Talia and more about the former Squire (now the new Knight), Kirk Langstrom, and the people who kidnapped Jason Todd. That’s not really a bad thing, because these are pretty interesting stories, and I’d love to see how they’re going to play out in the story.

Uncanny Avengers #7

A lot of this story is set in space, focused on Genocide, the son of Apocalypse, who is preparing to petition the Celestials to appoint him the new Apocalypse. But he and his Horsemen are unexpectedly attacked by a couple of characters called the Apocalypse Twins, the children of Archangel and Pestilence. They thrash the Horsemen and use Thor’s old axe, Jarnbjorn, enchanted to be able to pierce a Celestial’s armor, to assassinate the Celestial summoned by Genocide. That means the Celestials are going to come to Earth to take revenge.

And the Avengers still can’t stop arguing among themselves — should they bar Rogue from the group after she accidentally killed Wonder Man’s brother? Can Alex Summers lead the team effectively? Will Wasp’s attempts to market mutant chic to the young help turn things around?

Verdict: Ehh, it’s alright, but I just can’t pronounce myself thrilled with this. Too much emphasis on Genocide and the Apocalypse Twins, who I’d never heard of before. And I thought the bit with Wasp putting the moves on Alex solely because he was the team’s leader was creepy and out-of-character. Still, the bit with the Celestial assassination is a cool, attention-grabbing bit.

Today’s Cool Links:

• AOL has shut down Comics Alliance. No, this is not good — I didn’t always agree with everything they covered, but they did excellent comics journalism that was fun, geek-embracing, and not condescending — but let’s remember some very important points. First, the very, very smart writers from Comics Alliance are probably going to get snapped up by other sites pretty quickly. And second, this says more about the financial health of AOL (probably very, very poor) and not very much at all about the success of Comics Alliance (which was very, very popular).
• Why do female supervillains trend toward the skanky side of town?
• Greg Rucka would prefer that “Man of Steel” get a PG rating.
• Looks like the teddy bear needs an operation!