Comics

Powerpuff Girls: Super Smash-Up! #4

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Powerpuff Girls: Super Smash-Up! #4The Powerpuff Girls’ search for a mutated dimension-hopping DeeDee leads them to Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends where Bubbles is delighted to meet Mac and his menagerie of odd friends. The search for DeeDee is complicated by Bloo who, along with the rest of the creatures and DeeDee, is currently participating in a game of Hide-and-Seek and doesn’t wish to be found.

The absence of the Powerpuff Girls doesn’t mean the end of danger for the citizens of Townsville. In the issue’s B-story Dexter calls in the Justice Friends to save the city from multiple simultaneous attacks (sadly off-panel) in the Girls’ absence.

Powerpuff Girls: Super Smash-Up! #4 is a fun addition to the series (giving us the most entertaining world the Girls’ have traveled to yet). It also includes a short, if largely forgettable, back-up story demonstrating Mojo Jojo‘s inability to hold down and honest job and why he will never be anything more than a super-villain. Worth a look.

[IDW, $3.99]

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten #14

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten #14To find Spike‘s connection with the vampire whose recent kills Spike has been witnessing in his dreams Buffy takes a tour of her lover’s subconscious. Although I expected the answer to Spike’s memories of the killings to be a callback to “Somnambulist,” the truth is the exact opposite. In this case Spike isn’t viewing the killings of someone he sired but the vampire who sired his entire line beginning with The Master.

With the introduction of Archaeus the latest season of Buffy begins delving into the subject of siring vampires and introduces the idea of an ancient creature such as Archaeus leaving a piece of himself, connecting him to every vampire of his line.

Along with the introduction of the new big bad, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten #14 gives us Buffy snooping through Spike’s mind finding both beauty and horror before confronting Archaeus whose connection to Spike makes him a serious threat to Buffy in more ways than one. Worth a look.

[Dark Horse, $3.50]

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Convergence: Batman and the Outsiders #1

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Convergence: Batman and the Outsiders #1By throwing together various past and present versions of DC charaters together Convergence continues to be a bizarre mix of intriguing to truly awful. Convergence: Batman and the Outsiders #1, which gives us Batman‘s team of heroes from the 80s, is the first issue of Convergence to show us all the heroes still in costume. Despite most of the team being without their powers that hasn’t stopped the Outsiders from following Batman’s example and continuing to suit-up to do what they can for a city trapped under a dome for a full year. It’s also the first issue to really deal with the reality of diminishing resources of a city completely cut-off from the rest of the world for month.

Given how many characters the comic has to introduce it does a pretty good job (although once the dome falls, like most every Convergence title, things get less interesting very fast as Mortal Kombat begins). One odd note: Although the cover of the issue gets Batman’s look right the art inside makes a major mistake not arming the classically-clad Caped Crusader in his classic utility belt of the time. Considering the look of the old characters is the major selling point for the series it’s distracting. Worth a look.

[DC, $3.99]

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Velvet #10

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Velvet #10For only the second time since the series’ opening issue Velvet Tempelton gets played, and it almost costs the secret agent turned secretary turned fugitive on on the run her life. Betrayed by Damian Lake who, as he admitted to her, is playing his own far more dangerous game, Velvet is forced to jump from a moving train and try and avoid an entire unit of Arc-7 agents in the French countryside who were tipped-off to take her down (although not for the reasons she initially suspects).

Wrapping up “The Secret Lives of Dead Men,” Velvet #10 offers plenty of action and some nice twists as Velvet finds herself on the defensive, Damian Lake proves to have a darker agenda than even she guessed, the vast conspiracy the traitor hinted at last issue is, at least in part, corroborated, and major supporting characters meet their untimely ends.

I don’t know what writer Ed Brubaker and artist Steve Epting have in store for the comic’s third arc, or where the conspiracy will lead Velvet from here, but sign me up! Must-read.

[Image, $3.50]

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Astro City #22

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Astro City #22The latest issue of Astro City offers readers a brief look back at the life of the cosmic hero Starfighter near the end of his career. Touching more on his life outside of the tights than inside (as is the comic’s long-running custom) Astro City #22 offers a beautiful character study of a man who found love on an alien world and a purpose through the use of scrolling mysterious symbols unlocking knowledge and power to allow him to play the hero on Earth and throughout space for decades.

Jesús Merino steps in seamlessly to provide the art for an issue that looks and feels very much like any other in the current run of the series.

As with most of these one-off stories writer Kurt Busiek creates a beautiful tale that leaves us wanting more. From the man’s life as a cosmic hero, a very John Carter-ish father and husband on an alien world, to life on Earth as a sci-fi author, there are many facets to Starfighter I certainly wouldn’t mind be explored more in future issues. Worth a look.

[Vertigo, $3.99]

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