Mighty Avengers #9

There’s a short bit at the beginning and the very end where we learn who Ronin really is — but there’s absolutely no suspense or surprise about this because Marvel leaked that he was Blade months and months ago.

But the bulk of our story focuses on the Blue Marvel, whose son Max Brashear has become a supervillain called Dr. Positron, hoping to open the Neutral Zone to rescue his long-lost brother. But exposure to the energies of the Neutral Zone has turned Kevin Brashear into a gargantuan extra-dimensional monstrosity whose emergence into our reality could end up blowing up the entire solar system. And he’s composed of energy that could kill the Blue Marvel if he’s exposed to it. Can She-Hulk and Monica Rambeau manage to team up to resolve the situation?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Yes, even with Greg Land back doing his tracework. The whole story is pretty good, but maybe the most fun is seeing what adventures the Marvel and his son Kevin were up to over the years. (Although it’s plenty weird that according to this comic, the Fantastic Four fought Galactus for the first time sometime after 1999. Maybe that little tidbit should’ve been kept vague or just omitted, don’tcha think, Marvel?)

Astro City #11

Raitha McCann has a very nice job as the personal assistant for a busy executive — namely, the Silver Adept, Astro City’s version of the Sorcerer Supreme. The Silver Adept is maybe a bit of a flake, but she’s very good at her job. But there’s so much work to do when it comes to stopping magical disasters across multiple planes of reality, and she really needs Raitha’s help getting everything coordinated. But when the Adept is unavoidably off-planet when a trio of mystical bigwigs called the Nightflying Lord, the Queen of Dust and Decay, and Tumorr show up on the doorstep. Can Raitha keep them happy before they decide to wage war on our corner of reality?

Verdict: Thumbs up. The story is alright, but not particularly outstanding. It’s really a couple excellent character studies — overworked but hyper-competent Raitha, trying to keep up with the impossible tasks she has to deal with, and the wonderfully non-serious Silver Adept, who I’d love to see in as many other stories as possible.

Captain Marvel #2

Carol meets up with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Hijinks ensue.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I know, it’s not much of a plot, but the hijinks are great, the art is great, and it’s great to have an all-fun issue, especially with future movie stars.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Whatever happened to Tom Lehrer?
• This video of two 70-year-old women going on their first plane flight is absolutely marvelous.
• A short film on the overview effect, which is the most awesome condition that astronauts get.

Captain Marvel #1

The good news is we got new Captain Marvel comics! The bad news is it’s a pointless new #1 issue when we could’ve been enjoying a few months of comics about Carol Danvers between the end of the previous series and the beginning of this one.

Anyway, we start out with Carol on a distant alien world, hanging out with a bunch of aliens, all on a secret mission to find some trinket. Then we flash back to a mere six weeks ago, when Carol was still on Earth. She and Iron Patriot (better known as James “War Machine” Rhodes) intercept an apparent missile that actually contains an unconscious alien life form. Later, Carol visits with her young friend Kit — who is living, with her mother, inside Carol’s apartment inside the Statue of Liberty — which has really gotta be a nice crash pad. She and Tony Stark bust some muggers while discussing assigning her or Rhodey as temporary Avengers reps with the Guardians of the Galaxy. We learn that Carol and Rhodey have actually been an item for a while before Carol finally decides to take her trip into outer space.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s great to see a new series starring this character — even though the original series never should’ve been cancelled in the first place. It’s also fantastic to see that Marvel has finally put a competent artist on the book — the previous series had gorgeous covers and inept interior artwork, and I hope they keep more A-list artistic talent on the book. The writing, dialogue, and plotting are all outstanding. My only real quibble is that we completely missed out on the Carol-Rhodey romance — but I also always think Earth-based stories are more interesting than stories set in space.

Astro City #10

Winged Victory, Samaritan, and the Confessor are working to track Karnazon and the missing women from Winged Victory’s shelters. She returns to be judged by the Council of Nike, which is debating whether to remove her powers for good. But in the midst of their interrogation, one of her signal devices activates — a teenager who’d sneaked into Karnazon’s hideout triggers it when the villain’s troops attack him. The heroes rout the bad guys, and W.V. returns to the Council, which is unhappy that she associates with male superheroes instead of serving as a symbol of female empowerment. She rejects their judgement, saying it’s wrong to insist that women can only be strong by standing alone, and that there are times to stand alone and times to join with like-minded allies. Will it be enough for the Council?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Though it’s probably not the strongest ending possible, but the entire storyarc was making it clear that this wasn’t going to be something that ended with a perfect moment of awesomeness and triumph. It’s more of a mixed victory, ’cause that’s more how the world works. Still, great art, dialogue, and everything else we’ve come to expect from Astro City.

Mighty Avengers #8

The Blue Marvel, Spectrum, and She-Hulk head out after they receive an alert about someone in the Pacific Ocean trying to open up a portal to somewhere called the Neutral Zone, an interdimensional plane where positive and negative matter coexists. Meanwhile, the White Tiger makes peace with the tiger god that gives her superpowers — and by “make peace,” I mean “taunts it into giving up and giving her all of its powers.” And back in the Pacific, our heroes run up against a supervillain calling himself Dr. Positron — and he has a serious surprise in store for the Blue Marvel.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Lots of nice action and surprises. Excellent dialogue. Great art. Just an all-around fun issue.

Astro City #9

Winged Victory has been targeted with attacks designed to make her look like a secret terrorist to destroy her credibility as a superhero. While she deals with some marauding villains, the Confessor has been investigating the problem and suggests that she may need to lay low for a while ’til the heat cools down. She considers returning to her unpowered form, but decides she’d rather not get through her troubles by hiding. She meets a member of the Council of Nike, which chose her for her superheroic identity. She tells Winged Victory her life story and inspires her to fight on. But the investigation isn’t going well…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Nicely done story, most effectively in the tale of Maisie Shimura of the Council of Nike. We’re getting closer to the end of this one — hope it turns out well…

Batman: Li’l Gotham #11

Batman is taking Damian for an All Saints’ Day visit with his mother Talia — yeah, this Batman is a lot more casual about his kid hanging out with the al-Ghul family. The Batplane crashes in the desert on the way — Batman almost immediately gets rid of his shirt — because that’s what Batman does when he’s in the desert — and Damian has hilarious hallucinations about ridiculous superheroes wearing wearing armored costumes with high collars. They also meet up with Azrael before getting to the al-Ghul compound. And then Man-Bat shows up. And then the zombies show up.

And in the backup story, the Clock King successfully stops time, but not before Batman summons a whole bunch of alternate universe Batmen to stop him — including Adam West Batman, Vampire Batman, Knightfall Batman, elderly Bruce Wayne, Zebra Batman, and Fruitbat-Man. Can the motley crew of Batmen save the world?

Verdict: So very many thumbs up. All the variant Batmen were great, and it’s great to see that someone working for DC gets to make fun of the Nu52’s stupid costumes.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Here are three different links about how racist and sexist douchebags in comics, gaming, and science fiction all end up hurting themselves.

Batman: Li’l Gotham #10

Poison Ivy is completely depressed because autumn is her least favorite season — yes, even more than winter, which she considers peaceful and calm, with less environmental destruction. But in the autumn, all the leaves are dying, and she can’t muster any enthusiasm for anything. Harley and Selina demand the Joker do something to cheer her up — and dangit, the Joker is just not any good at cheering people up! Meanwhile, Damian has noticed Alfred creeping into the east wing of Wayne Manor — carrying a body?! Soon, Damian, Tim, and Katana have decided that Alfred must be a mad genius performing unholy experiments. Can nothing stop the butler’s reign of terror?

Verdict: Thumbs up. As always, beautiful artwork and charming stories, all set in the pre-Reboot DCU. It’s good all-ages fun, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Daredevil #35

The racist Sons of the Serpent think they have Matt Murdock over the barrell. They know every one of his secrets, and they’re prepared to release them all to the press and to his enemies — but they’ll keep it all secret if he’ll defend the son of one of their leaders who’s been accused of murder. They know he’s innocent but they can’t say that in court without giving up their secrets, so they want Murdock to figure out a way to get him free. He meets up with Elektra and they beat up Constrictor and Mamba of the Serpent Society (which doesn’t have any real connection to the Sons of the Serpent, despite the name similarity) while Matt tries to figure out what to do. Does he take the case and defend the evil Sons of the Serpent? Or does he stick to his principles and ruin his life and the lives of his friends? Or does he seek a third way?

Verdict: Thumbs up. The action is pretty good, but the real focus in this story is on Matt’s cerebral gymnastics. Next to the last issue — at least until Marvel relaunches the title with a brand new #1 in a few months. Doesn’t constant relaunching just to get lots of #1s strike you as just about the silliest thing around? I mean, it’s not as silly as most of the things out of Dan DiDio’s mouth, but it’s definitely the silliest thing Marvel’s been up to lately.

Astro City #8

An unknown enemy is trying to paint Winged Victory as a secret supervillain — and the ploy seems to be working. She has both the Samaritan and the Confessor on her side (though they have to fight each other first because you just know how superheroes are always fighting each other), and even the authorities woh come to search her compound are giving her the benefit of the doubt. But her confidence is still severely shaken because she’s relying on protection from men — and the idea that women have to rely on men for protection is something that she’s been fighting against her entire career. Is the future hopeless for her?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Beautifully illustrated, beautifully written. Tons of glorious characterization and a plot that really digs into the heart of Winged Victory’s character. It’s an absolutely fantastic comic book, and we’re only in the middle of the storyarc.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Today, it’s worth remembering that most of the media tends to not understand what Martin Luther King, Jr.’s real impact was. It was a lot more significant than merely marching and making speeches.
• If you want to make yourself furious, read this article about the how-can-this-be-legal “troubled teen industry.” Why these thugs haven’t been dragged out of their torture camps and strung up, I’ll never know.
• Booth babes are an offensive relic on any convention floor — but it turns out that they don’t make good business sense either, because they just don’t translate into sales.
• The high-velocity (and high-larious) Slingshot Channel has devised a condom gun that’ll make you swear off sex forever.

Astro City #7

It’s the beginning of a new storyarc focusing on Winged Victory, the Samaritan, and the Confessor. While Winged Victory’s and Samaritan’s relationship seems to be going swimmingly, someone is plotting against the heroine — a group of supervillains have claimed to be working directly for her. Winged Victory has always been a controversial figure in the world of Astro City, and the media is completely eager to believe she’s a secret supervillain. Mixed into all this is an abused teenaged boy who wants to learn self-defense from Winged Victory, plus we learn W.V.’s secret origin.

Verdict: Thumbs up. A great story, wonderful art, great characterization, and an excellent mystery. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing where this is going to lead over the next few months.

Batman: Li’l Gotham #9

Batman and Robin have to track down Clayface as he hides out in the Gotham City Comic Con. Can the Dynamic Duo find the shapeshifting villain in the maze of cosplayers, and will Robin be able to hunt down all the cool toys he wants? And in the second story, we meet Jenna Duffy, the Carpenter for Gotham’s underworld. She’s trying to take a vacation day, but all the villains keep bugging her to rebuild stuff wrecked by Batman. Is she ever going to get the free time she needs?

Verdict: Thumbs up, of course. The art is great, the stories are fun. And there’s a cool little bonus at the end of the first story for anyone bummed about the nonexistence of their favorite characters in the New 52.

Mighty Avengers #4

The Inhumans’ city of Attilan has crashed in New York, exposing people around the world who have some Inhuman ancestry to the mutagenic Terrigen mists, and various unsavory characters want to get their hands on anything hidden in the city’s ruins. Meanwhile, the Falcon joins up with the Mighty Avengers, Spider Hero adopts the costumed identity of Ronin (even though we all know he’s actually Blade), and the Superior Spider-Man has decided he wants control of the team.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Nice story, fun dialogue and characterization, some excellent humor, too. The worst thing about it is, of course, the fact that no one has fired Greg Land from Marvel yet.

Watson and Holmes #6

Someone has killed the wife of Dexter Wainwright, a prominent NYC politician who’s been an inspiration to many in Harlem but whose campaign is plagued by money troubles. Holmes and Watson are on the case — while Holmes suspects Wainwright, Watson wants to see him freed from suspicion because he’s done so much for the community. A key link in the case proves to be a woman named Dominique Jiminez who is being pursued by the Russian mob. What’s her connection to Wainwright, and who is the killer?

Verdict: Thumbs up. A very well-done mystery, nice characterization and dialogue, and a excellent author’s note at the end in which Brandon M. Easton talks about how and why he wrote this particular story. I’m really pleased with how thoroughly enjoyable this series has been.

Astro City #6

Meet Thatcher Jerome, a fixer for the Mob. He’s got a nice cover job as an official in the longshoremen’s union, which he uses to get into the interdimensional door of the mysterious Ambassador. And he somehow convinces the guy that he needs all kinds of supplies that Thatcher and his Mafia pals are able to provide. And while delivering goods, Thatcher manages to steal one of the Ambassador’s alien artifacts. What’s it do? Well, Thatcher accidentally turns his brother-in-law into a supervillain called the Ore-Master. Is this weapon the key to moving Thatcher to a leadership position with the Mafia? Or is it all some sort of devious plan or test by the Ambassador himself?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Thatcher Jerome is a wonderful character — heck, this series is pumping out awesome character after awesome character, and thank goodness someone’s still willing to do that these days, right? That’s really the main thing that makes this issue so much fun — we get introduced to Fletcher Jerome, meet the people who make up his world, and watch him run around Astro City doing cool stuff.

The Manhattan Projects #16

Oppenheimer tries to figure out the other Projects’ technologies. General Westmoreland tortures Gagarin. Oppenheimer prepares to inject Groves with truth serum. Einstein and Feynman explore alien worlds and hunt alien monsters — and let some of them out into the lab…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Everyone’s devious and horrible — and at least half the fun of this series is watching mild-mannered historical figures act completely devious and horrible.

Rocket Girl #1

Here’s a brand new series, funded in part by a Kickstarter campaign, written by Brandon Montclare and illustrated by Amy Reeder. Our main character is Dayoung Johansson, a 15-year-old rocket-pack-wearing cop from the far-future world of 2013 who has travelled to the distant past of 1986 to save the world from a timepocalypse. The problem is that the crime being investigated was apparently committed by Quintum Mechanics, the company that invented time travel and saved New York City from financial ruin. Can Dayoung survive the high-crime world of 1986 armed with just her rocket-suit and a head full of moxie?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Beautiful art by Amy Reeder, which is a good reason to buy the comic all by itself. The story is very cool, too — the weird time travel, along with the bizarre alternate-future/present Dayoung comes from, are both a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to seeing what other badassery she’s going to get into.

Astro City #5

I don’t know why you — yes, you. You specifically! — are working with the Broken Man. He doesn’t seem at all stable. He collects all these strange storytelling artifacts, and then he gets mad when you watch the stories that unfold. The monster-fighting G-men and their battles against the eldritch horrors all around us? He gets mad at you right when you get to the good bit. The strange tale of Lord Saampa, the Serpent’s Tongue? He gets mad at you right when you get to the good bit. He finally allows you to watch Dame Progress, steampunk crimefighter, as she pursues the terribly nimble Mister Cakewalk in pursuit of a stolen jewel. What does the Broken Man want with you anyway?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Excellently weird story, great art, fun characters. I’m really not sure I like the Broken Man at all, but his artifacts are a great way to tell a bunch of different stories. It’ll be fun to see how they all connect.

Batman: Li’l Gotham #7

Aquaman is in trouble. Oh, of course he is. And he asks Batman for help. So Batman gets a fancy wetsuit, Damian gets an underwater mecha. And Oracle gets an even bigger underwater mecha. In our second story, it’s the Fourth of July, and the Joker is organizing a party for all of Gotham’s villains. All they have to do is steal all the fireworks they can, and they’ll make the biggest boom ever. Can Batman, Robin, and Nightwing extinguish the party in time?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Very cute and quite funny. Babs Gordon driving a giant mech is muy cool.

Worlds’ Finest #16

Huntress is stuck doing a lot of crimefighting solo, because since her run-in with Desaad, Power Girl’s powers have been extremely unreliable. Who’s the mysterious energy-wielding acrobat who keeps setting fires at high-fashion events? What’s wrong with Karen’s powers?

Verdict: Ehh, I dunno. The art is pretty darn nice, but for the most part, this is just very by-the-numbers, uninspiring stuff. The series needs a lot more WOW moments, or a return to the fun character interaction, which has fallen off a lot in recent issues.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Meet the dad behind BatDad.
• The Oatmeal points out that Christopher Columbus was just a terrible, terrible person.
• ROCKET ATTACK! SHOOT DOWN MARAUDING INFIDEL!
• You gotta admit — he makes a lot more sense than Ted Cruz.

Astro City #4

This standalone issue focuses on Martha “Sully” Sullivan, an older woman with telekinetic powers. She’s not a superhero or a supervillain — she works in the movie business, helping make special effects look convincing. There are quite a few folks like her — superpowered people who are better suited to civilian jobs, either because their powers fill an employment niche or because they simply have no interest in doing hero-vs.-villain stuff. Sully knows superstrong people who work in construction, telepaths who work as employment consultants or DJs, fire controllers who work as glass blowers. But someone is targeting Sully and her friends, planning to make them work toward world conquest. Can anything save these low-powered civilians?

Verdict: Thumbs up. As always, a great Astro City tale. Sully is yet another in a long, long line of cool characters Kurt Busiek has created for this series, and the story highlighting her and the other “Sideliners” is fun, unexpected, clever, and satisfying.

Watson and Holmes #3

Watson and Holmes take a break from solving mysteries to get lunch — with Sherlock’s big brother Mycroft, a heavy, suit-wearing, somewhat mysterious rich guy. He asks John to keep an eye on Sherlock and help rein in his obsessions. They also discover a photo of a tattoo on the arm of a dead mercenary involved in the murders — and John recognizes it from a design worn by some kill-crazy corporate soldiers in Afghanistan. And they soon find themselves being pursued by those same mercs while they try to save the life of the final victim on the hit list — Darius Rice, a local preacher and secret drug dealer. And they locate the preacher just in time to get ambushed by the mercs. What hope do the two of them have against a squad of professional killers?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Really outstanding story going on here. Characterization, dialogue, action, mystery, and much more — and it’s still got that great Sherlock Holmes vibe going for it. This is a really fun comic, and I hope y’all are getting to read and enjoy this one.

Astro City #3

A small mountain village in Ecuador has been revealed as the secret headquarters for a gang of international terrorists and mercenaries called the Skullcrushers. They’re laying waste to the local police forces, the army, and the villagers — and Marella Cowper, the newest employee of the secret dispatch center that helps the Honor Guard respond to global emergencies, is convinced that it’s all her fault, because she assumed that an emergency call a few days ago was merely a domestic situation instead of a supervillain crisis. Wracked by guilt, she takes several days off work so she can use the Honor Guard’s teleportation systems to volunteer as an aid worker. Can she ever forgive herself for her mistake? Can she find the family who originally called her for aid? And when it turns out that all the Skullcrushers haven’t been captured yet, can she even survive?

Verdict: Thumbs up. An outstanding story, worlds of suspense and drama and compassion, grand characterization, very nice action, and so much more. If you love comics, you need to be reading “Astro City.” But all you guys already love comics, so you’re already reading “Astro City,” right?

Batman: Li’l Gotham #5

In our first story, Mr. Freeze has been diagnosed sane and discharged from Arkham Asylum. He’s very pleased with what he sees of Gotham — everyone is happy and friendly, even to a former supervillain. And since everything has gotten so nice, he decides he wants things to stay nice forever. And that means he’s gotta freeze everything. Looks like the Bat-family is going to have to drag Mr. Freeze back to Arkham again. Meanwhile, in our second story, everyone’s celebrating Cinco de Mayo, mostly by fighting Bane and his gang of luchadors and… making tacos?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Very cute and funny all-ages comics. Both stories have a ton of action and humor, but I probably enjoyed the Cinco de Mayo story a lot more. And how nice is it to have stories that spotlight Damian, Oracle, and all of the pre-Reboot members of the Bat-family? It’s very, very nice, that’s what it is.

Astro City #2

Our focal character in this issue is Marella, who has just taken a call center job — but it’s no mere phone bank. This is a job helping run the call center for the Honor Guard, the world’s premier team of superheroes. She and her coworkers take calls and emails from all over the world from people who need the help of the world’s greatest superheroes — and Marella has to work to determine which calls really need the Honor Guard and which can be handled by more mundane authorities. Everyone who works there wants the glory of being the person to supervise an alert for a serious Honor Guard emergency, but they don’t come often. Luckily, there are perks — travel around the world, getting to meet the Honor Guard, and much more. But there are some serious dangers if you ever screw up on the job…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Fantastic story and art. A fun glimpse behind the scenes at how a major superteam would operate — monitor duty for the whole planet wouldn’t be handled by just one overworked superhero, but by a team of dispatchers keeping track of potential crises. And I’m still just plain charged up that we’ve got Astro City comics on the shelves again. So yeah, people, go read this great stuff, alright?

Young Avengers #7

The Young Avengers are still roaming around Earth and space, avoiding New York City and any contact with their parents — otherwise, Mother, the interdimensional reality-warping parasite, is able to attack them. They tangle with a bunch of Skrulls (or at least “Skrulls”). Hulkling worries that Wiccan may accidentally be mind-controlling him. We learn that Marvel Boy actually has mind-control saliva. And Prodigy seeks the team out to recruit their help in finding Speed, who vanished mysteriously last issue.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Great story and dialogue. Amazing art and design. People, this comic is just plain crazy-fun. And it looks like we get to go alternate-dimension hopping next issue, so come on, let’s go for a ride!

Worlds’ Finest #14

Desaad’s forces are still moving against Huntress and Power Girl, burning up their safehouses and labs and hideouts to force them into a direct confrontation. And eventually, a direct confrontation is just what he gets.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s a simple enough plot, but there are lots of things to like about it. We get some nice characterization and dialogue, lots of fine action, and Desaad being a twisted freak. I’m enjoying Paul Levitz’s work on this one just fine.

Today’s Cool Links:

• It’s too bad Geoff Johns’ title at DC is “Chief Creative Officer.” Because he isn’t very creative at all. And his writing is likely getting even worse.
• Wanna see improved research and technology? Then fund the humanities and fund science fiction.
• Don’t be a party pooper.
• This is the happiest, most baby-goat-filled video of all time.