I’ve been feeling lucky this week! I’ve gotten a couple of A’s in my homework,
books I ordered came in, I have done shockingly well playing Marvel: Avenger
Alliance, and most importantly; every book I read this week (besides one) was
very good. No mehs or nays to be
found! As such, let’s dive in.
Be warned, there will be spoilers below!
Avengers #9:
Okay, this is the one book I mentioned that I thought wasn’t good. It continued Hickman’s tradition of slow pace
story telling that’ll end up putting you to sleep while you wait. However, this was one of the comics I
reviewed for Adventures in Poor Taste, so go check out my full thoughts of
there on this one:
Batman #19:
The comic starts off with a bank robbery committed by none other than Bruce
Wayne himself! It ends with him running
over Jim Gordon with a motorcycle at the end.
Flashback six days and we find Batman investigating the unexplained
suicide of a friend of his. Through his
research into the case, he discovers that Clayface is responsible and has been
impersonating his friend, even managing to match his DNA! The issue ends with Clayface attacking Bruce
Wayne, preparing to steal his identity.
Now this issue was very different than usual in
comparison to the rest of Snyder’s Batman run so far, with it being rather small
in focus and focusing more on Batman’s detective skills. Also, the comic isn’t has overwritten has it
usually is for once, focusing more on letting the images tell the story or
normal dialogue scenes between the characters.
Sure, there are some of parts that tend to get over-wordy, but those
moments are less and some of them are very interesting (like the stuff about
Clayface for instance).
All of this change is actually rather refreshing and
highly welcomed by me. Sure, I have
enjoyed the longer and bigger stories this comic has offered, but this smaller
scale tale was really good. Snyder
really shines when his Batman stuff is like this, harking back to his Black
Mirror tale. Add in some great looking
artwork and you have easily the best issue of Batman this year. I have little compliants towards this and I’m
proud to give this comic the pick of the week for me.
Constantine #2:
Like Avengers, I covered this comic over on APT, so you can check it out over
there. I will say though that this comic
was an improvement over the last one:
Saucer Country #14:
And so the series closes out for now in this issue as the election night has
been finally reached and the votes start to be tallied. Like before, I’m going to keep quite on this,
but I will say the final outcome was surprisingly to me.
I have really enjoyed this series while it lasted. All the mystery, the characters, the
interactions and dialogue, and world building in this series has been
completely topnotch from start to finish in my book. This issue continued this trend, though I do
admit the ending still leaves a lot on the table and many questions left
unanswered, which can be disappointing.
Still, the writer Paul Cornell promises us that the
series will return in the future when he gets the rights back from
Vertigo. As such, this is not a real
true ending, but a conclusion to one part of the series. When this series returns, I’ll there and
ready to return to its world. I highly
recommend this comic and hope you guys enjoy it as well.
Team 7 #7:
Team 7 heads to a small island nation to put a stop to its leader and his
growing metahuman weapons. The team is
backed by their new pilot, Steve Trevor, and their newest weapon,
Majestic. All seems to be going well
until the team learns just how dangerous their mission is and ends up being in
the way of Majestic ultimate plan to defeat the enemy, by wiping out the island
with a giant tidal wave.
With one issue left after this, a glaring problem can be
seen. This comic feels extremely rushed
as it tries to squeeze in every last bit of plotline and answers it can before
it is cancelled. It succeeds, but it’s
kind of clunky. There’s no time for
character development, emotion, or other building of any kind as this story. Heck, it ends feels a bit disjointed between
this and the last issue, like we jumped ahead at least three issues.
Not to say this is an awful comic by any stretch, it’s
just stretched far too thin. I enjoyed
the dialogue bits, the action, and how this is all coming together. It’s just not completely firing on cylinders
liked I hope it would. Still, if you are
still with this comic, I say stick it out to the end to see how it all finishes
out.
The Fearless
Defenders #3: Last issue we had Hela, Queen of the Dead, resurrecting the
former leader of the Amazons, Hippolyta, to help aid Valkyrie’s mission of
creating a new set of Valkyries and to now fend off the threat from the Doom
Maidens. Reluctant, Valkyrie and the
others agree to letting her join them and track down where the Doom Maidens are
being resurrected. When arriving on the
scene, they are a bit too late and the evil warriors have been resurrected,
though they do manage to rescue Moonstar.
During their fight with the baddies, Valkyrie is shocked when they refer
to her as their long lost sister, another Doom Maiden.
This issue was not as good as the last one, but was still
enjoyable in my book. The characters are
all memorable and work great together, their interactions and dialogue scenes
being a true highlight. The action is
good and the evil Valkyries all do have a nice and interesting look to
them. I do admit though that the true
villain that resurrected them, Caroline, isn’t all that deep of a character,
and that the facial expressions are extremely limited in the art. All I kept thinking was: Dull Surprise!
Still, I would be lying if I was not enjoying this
comic. It’s quickly become one of my
favorites that Marvel is producing and one that I really hope everyone is
checking out. It’s probably the best all
female team book out there right now.
