Review from 5-8-13
By Maverike 0 Comments
Stargirl learns that Amanda Waller is using her as a public facing puppet for the JLA using her father as blackmail. The rest of the JLA fight Ivo robots of the trinity with some cool moves and funny lines from Catwoman. The blurry photos that Vibe takes aren’t used consistently enough, sometimes only he can’t be seen, but here it hides everyone in the area. Also, Waller has that photo of Vibe or her cork board. Catwoman doesn’t seem to have escaped from the same place that she did in her series. The backup shows that when Martian Manhunter looked into Catwoman she was able to look into him. I really like these looks into Manhunter’s life on Mars.
4/5
John arrives in London where a curse is causing the city to try and kill him, a good reason the series will use to not return for a while. A snare takes John and his friend to an alternate dimension where the Riddling Butcher tortures those who have been ensnared. John realizes that the Butcher is also trapped so cuts a deal for their release in return for freeing the Butcher. My favorite thing about Constantine is that, as soon as he meets this monster, John starts thinking about how it can be used to his advantage. Mister E and Sargon are torturing an old man when John arrives and after stalling the Butcher comes free from its prison to destroy the Croydon lens, which happens to be the man’s eyes. After being chased by the Cult of the Cold Flame for so long, John decides to take the fight to them.
5/5
The ghosts inside Katana’s sword scatter after it shattered. Among them was a dragon the Killer Croc followed away. The Creeper, who goes to possess the body of Jack Ryder. Also, the ghost of a small girl cuts up the girl with super tattoos. Katana can’t sleep without her Soultaker that held her husband, whose ghost told her to move on. Katana sets off to repair her sword, but the Creeper wants to stop her in case that would trap him in her sword again. I enjoy the art and content of the story, but the cuts between scenes feel too disconnected.
3/5
This debut issue by Justin Jordan could have been great, but with four different artists clashing this didn’t live up to the script’s potential. I really enjoy the voice of Superboy with many great lines that made me laugh and connect with his emotions. The story is set up as a flashback, but so little is revealed about the situation of that time beyond power loss that it didn’t bother me like it often does. The art went from good to great, but then went really bad for four of the last five pages. Changing the art in the middle of a fight scene should never happen. I still liked the issue and look forward to this new direction, but having consistent art is this book’s highest priority.
4/5
I got back on this title with this new creative team and they didn’t disappoint. Patrick Zircher’s art captures the tone of the book, especially the brutality of the Unknown Soldier as he destroys Voltaic. Through the analysis of James Gordon Junior, Ales Kot shows his interpretation of each character that really has me excited for his future plans. A large amount of this issue could have been stale exposition by Amanda Waller, but the art is able to tell the story along with the dialog in a way that enhances the tension and excitement. I look forward to the interaction between James and Amanda since she might not be the most twisted person in the room.
5/5
Evil Jericho is controlling Majestic so Terra, Rose, and Deathstroke fight together to knock him out. Rose having a power-dampening ability isn’t something I’m familiar with and felt tacked on for this fight to make sense. Slade killing his sons and losing his wife was pretty intense, but the green eyed ARGUS recovery team member ensures that Jericho will make a comeback. Overall I’m not a fan of Jericho and he is even worse as a villain so I hope he doesn’t return too soon. As a series finale I wish that it was clearer on the fate of Terra and Rose who came here as their series ended. With Majestic under the control of ARGUS I imagine he will return to the spotlight fairly soon.
3/5
After fighting off the Vampire army, the Demon Knights plot a course to find the Holy Grail. They believe it is on a hidden island, and when they arrive a giant squid attacks them. The fight was fun, but not great enough as the central conflict of the issue. It is disappointing that Bernard Chang has left the book because there was a noticeable drop in quality, especially in facial expressions. Ystin’s condition with the vampire bite, but not turning into a vampire yet is too unclear for it to be driving their exploration. There were some nice character interactions, but not enough to make up for all the other problems.
3/5
Carrie Kelly drops by to find out where Damian has gone, but instead of letting her know that he has died, Bruce claims he is away at boarding school. Jason and Bruce go to fight mercenaries who came after Damian when the bounty was placed on his head. Bruce takes Jason so that he can ask about how he came back to life where he died to spark Jason’s memory. Bruce is really a total ass about it because Jason doesn’t want to think about the worst day of his life and they fight. It is really annoying that this came out after Red Hood 19 because this issue explains Jason’s motivation. Two-Face is teased on the last page without any context. Jason fighting with Bruce is fun, but this doesn’t have an unexpected twist like Frankenstein from last issue to make it very interesting.
3/5
Clayface is attacking Bruce Wayne to draw out Batman so that nothing will stand in the way of his extortion business. Batman fights Clayface in a biohazard style batsuit, but eventually Clayface breaks the mask to find that Batman is Bruce Wayne. Batman set a trap that holds Clayface because he can no longer become his true self, Basil Karlo. The takeaway point of this short arc is Bruce not losing himself because of Damian’s death like he did with Jason, but this Bruce doesn’t fit with the crazy Bruce in the Batman and series. I didn’t enjoy the magic backup.
3/5