Comics

Suicide Squad: Rebirth #1

/ / Comics

Suicide Squad: Rebirth #1Suicide Squad: Rebirth #1 proves to be an intersting way to introduce a streamlined version of Task Force X. Presented from the view of Amanda Waller, who almost has her program decommissioned by the President, the comic focuses largely on the Suicide Squad’s creator offering a job to Rick Flag.

Waller finds Flag rotting in Guantanamo Bay (although he still appears to be a honest man and good soldier who just refused to accept the wrong order). With so much focus on Waller and Flag here we don’t really get much in the way of the team itself who is operating in China to stop a criminal army possessed with super-powers thanks to a meta-bomb created by a kidnapped scientist.

…

Suicide Squad: Rebirth #1Read More »

Suicide Squad: Rebirth #1 Read More »

Batgirl #1

/ / Comics

Batgirl #1The first issue of the new Batgirl solo-series takes Barbara Gordon to Japan on a pilgrimage in search of elite martial artists who can help improve her fighting skills. In Okinawa, Barbara runs into an old friend who it seems has drawn the interest of some unsavory locals as well as meeting the elderly Fruit Bat who, after showing off some still impressive skills, shares some cryptic advice with our heroine.

Batgirl #1 has the right tone I want in a Batgirl series. Sure, it would make much more sense having Stephanie Brown bouncing around as Batgirl (with Babs as Oracle), but the ship apparently has sailed. Japan is an interesting destination to take Batgirl especially as we’re still a bit unsure how much training Barbara got from anyone other than Batman her first go-around as Batgirl.

…

Batgirl #1Read More »

Batgirl #1 Read More »

Mockingbird #5

/ / Comics

Mockingbird #5The next stop on Mockingbird‘s search for answers about the unusual virus in her system is a super-secret S.H.I.E.L.D. medical lab deep below New York City where S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists have been experimenting with Bobbi’s blood on cadavers and accidentally created a group of rampaging zombies. You know, an average day in the life of a Marvel hero.

There’s plenty of action here along with Bobbi’s unusual new “glow stick hand power” which seems to repel zombies. Since that’s kind of a limited resource, I’ll be curious to see if Mockingbird can find additional uses for the new power. However, once overrun by zombies the hand power proves less than effective and it’s time for our hero to fall back to more traditional means of zombie fighting. Mockingbird smash!

…

Mockingbird #5Read More »

Mockingbird #5 Read More »

Red Hood and the Outlaws: Rebirth #1

/ / Comics

Red Hood and the Outlaws: Rebirth #1Red Hood and the Outlaws: Rebirth #1 doesn’t introduce us to the new Outlaws, but the issue does catch-up readers on the history of Jason Todd from street urchin to Robin the Boy Wonder to the Red Hood. It also introduces a plot to keep Jason a part of the extended Bat-Family but still separate from its core members. It’s a little odd that both Red Hood and Nightwing are going undercover with underground criminal organizations, but the set-up (at least for me) works far better here than with Dick Grayson.

We’ll have to wait for Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 for the introductions of both Bizarro and Artemis, and the how and why they team-up with the vigilante. While certainly doing its job to reintroduce Jason to the DCU the comic doesn’t do much to explain the set-up of the new series with two of its key figures (and their relationship to Jason) unexplored.

…

Red Hood and the Outlaws: Rebirth #1Read More »

Red Hood and the Outlaws: Rebirth #1 Read More »

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten #29

/ / Comics

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten #29Stymied by the limitations of his role as a Vengeance Demon and the rules still in place on the Vampyr tome (which seem to come out of nowhere by the way) by Willow not allowing him to expand his power any further, D’Hoffryn and his minions (who include the no longer ghost duplicate version of Anya) attack Buffy and her friends.

The first-half of the season finale finally pits the Scoobies directly against the big bad Buffy’s decision making helped create. Revealing Anya to the rest of the team, to the suprise of all the Scoobies except Xander, D’Hoffryn takes special glee in how his new disciple deals with her kinda-sorta former fiance.

…

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten #29Read More »

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten #29 Read More »