Comics

Secret Six #13

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Secret Six #13As Strix adjust to her new life with the League of Assassins her former teammates begin making preparations for a suicide run against the deadliest group of killers on the planet in order to get their friend back. With Catman calling in a favor to Scandal Savage, next month’s final issue is likely to be a mix of classic and New 52 members of the team against incredible odds (not unlike the previous volume’s farewell).

Strix’s perspective inside the home of the League proves to be a bloody good time (literally as she kills her way through the test subjects put in her path by Lady Shiva, each in the garb of one of her teammates). Not only surviving Shiva’s challenge but excelling in a way that even surprises the world’s most dangerous woman, I wonder whether or not we will get to see these two square off before the dust settles.

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Batman #51

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Batman #51The final issue, an epilogue if you will, to Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s 4-plus year run on Batman comes to a close with what is very much a microcosm of Batman‘s self-titled comic during the New 52. Filled with some striking art, some questionable choices (why is Batman driving a penismobile?), humor, and a somewhat tantalizing mystery that ultimately leads nowhere all that interesting, Batman #51 is a fitting end to a period of the Dark Knight’s history I’d rather forget.

After the lights go out in Gotham, Batman is on the scene to keep the peace. However, in a switch that’s more than a little hard to swallow, nothing really happens on a night the lights went out in the crime capital of the DCU. While it works as a coda for the pair’s run, this is one of the most forgettable Batman stories I’ve read recently (which is still better than most the New 52 mediocrity).

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Velvet #14

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Velvet #14Searching for answers about who killed X-14 and framed her as a traitor, and connecting that to the Watergate break-in, leads Velvet Templeton to Washington, D.C. where the spy makes a bold move in blackmailing Vice Gerald President Ford and kidnapping President Richard Nixon. You know, just another day for the world’s greatest spy.

Although the truth of what she discovers is kept from the reader, the answers to Velvet’s questions taste more like ash than victory. Her capture by Colt, who has continued to track her from her recent shoot-out in Washington, to end the issue only compounds the sense of failure as Velvet is staggered by what she learns from Nixon in the few moments she spends with the President in the subway tunnels under D.C.

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Daredevil #6

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Daredevil #6For the first time since Matt Murdock reset reality to hide his dual identity, both the lawyer and Daredevil have run-ins with Elektra. Murdock’s evening with his ex in a dive bar goes far better than the vigilante’s as Elektra proceeds to hold nothing back while beating Daredevil bloody (unaware who is under the mask).

Daredevil #6 showcases the positives and negatives of allowing Marvel Comics to reset Matt Murdock’s past. On one hand the issue provides the kind of throwdown between Daredevil and Elektra we wouldn’t have gotten before such a change. On the other hand such a move messes the waters of Daredevil’s past with one of key characters in it (he’s not even sure just what version of events Elektra remembers of her time with what she now believes are two separate individuals).

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Astro City #34

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Astro City #34

Steeljack‘s three-issue arc comes to a close as the former super-villain turned private detective and one-time squeeze Cutlass come up against the arc’s true villain: a greedy collector grabbing and using super-villain tech for his own amusement (and to decorate his garish restaurant). Astro City #34 is the weakest issue of the arc but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still plenty for fans to enjoy including a nice (if a bit hokey) epilogue as dejected Steeljacket is surprised by the support of his friends which helps the man of steel put the entire sordid mess behind him.

[DC, $3.99]

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