Comics

Avengers vs. X-Men #0

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avengers-vs-x-men-0-coverAvengers vs. X-Men, Marvel Comics’ big 2012 summer event begins here. With a Zero issue. Really? A Zero issue? Apparently Marvel didn’t learn from DC’s mightily bungled New 52 that things which happened in the 1990’s should stay in the 1990’s.

The comic is broken into two stories. The first (written by Brian Michael Bendis) is the reemergence of the Scarlet Witch who, with the help of Ms. Marvel and Spider-Woman, helps save a United Nations ambassador from M.O.D.O.K. and A.I.M. Despite her concerns the pair convince her to return to the Avengers mansion where she receives a chilly reception.

The second story (by Jason Aaron) focuses on Hope‘s growing violent outbursts as she waits for the Phoenix to arrive to either embrace her or destroy her. The story begins with Hope’s altercation with Cyclops over his overprotective nature and ends with her nearly beating the Serpent Society to death before looking longingly into the sky for something just beyond the horizon.

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Captain Atom #7

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Although I enjoyed the first few issues of Captain Atom I left for a few months as it explored the mutant dog/rat creature storyline. Now that that arc has wrapped I decided to give the title another look, and I’m glad I did.

The latest issue finds Captain Atom remember pieces of his past before the experiment changed him into the near omnipotent figure he is now. We also see what appears to be a future or alien version of the Captain who (in an odd choice) appears to be modeled after the Dominators. I’ll be interested to see what the explanation for this will be (and I’ll be hoping its better than much of the ill-defined logic we’ve seen across the New 52 so far).

The art by Freddie E. Williams II is still as good as I remember from the first few issues and writer J. T. Krul continues to tell some intriguing stories that are as much sci-fi (if not more) than super-hero tales. Worth a look.

[DC, $2.99]

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Nightwing #7

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nightwing-new-52-7-coverAs the big top explodes beneath them, Saiko and Nightwing have their final confrontation as the young man with some misplaced anger delivers a huge plot dump in the middle of their climactic final battle.

As in Batman #7 (also released this week) Dick learns that he was chosen by the Court of Owls to be one of their Talon killers. So… Haly’s Circus is nothing more than an early training ground for assassins for a secret order who live beneath the streets of Gotham City?

When the Flying Graysons died and Dick left the circus and Saiko was chosen in his stead. Nice of them to have a runner up, I guess. Right? On a positive note the art by Eddie Barrows continues to impress. This is probably the best looking issue of the series yet. Too bad about the story.

We also get the same sequence of Batman knocking Dick’s tooth out to prove a point as we did in Batman #7. It doesn’t work any better here (in fact it works less because Saiko has already given him some of the information he seems shocked to hear from the Dark Knight Detective). Hit-and-Miss.

[DC, $2.99]

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Batman #7

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batman-new-52-7-cover"After his hallucinatory drug-induced experience in catacombs of Gotham City, Batman finally makes it back to the Bat Cave and immediately goes to work dissecting the body of Talon for answers into the secrets of the Court of Owls. What he founds, however, only leads to more questions.

On examining the body Batman discovers the man turned into a killing machine is actually Dick Grayson‘s great-grandfather. He also uncovers the fact that Dick was handpicked by the Court of Owls to be one of them but his parent’s death, and his adoption by Bruce Wayne put a crimp in their plans.

There was no real reason to tweak Dick’s to include the Court of Owls (which is further explored in this week’s Nightwing #7), but it’s how Batman informs him (by backhanding him so hard he looses a tooth and nearly conciousness) that I found troubling. Like much of this story arc, the latest issue of Batman is a mixed success with many more Court of Owls stories on the way. Worth a look.

[DC, $2.99]

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Justice League #7

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justice-league-new-52-7-coverThere’s so much wrong with the latest issue of Justice League it’s hard to know where to begin. First, following the success of the team’s first mission we skip 5 years ahead to present day, but the team still acts like they’ve only been working together for all of five minutes.

The conversion of Hal Jordan into early Booster Gold seems now complete as not only is Green Lantern used mainly for comic relief but he goes so far as to hit on the ex-wife of the biological warfare specialist during the fight with the spores he’s been exposed to.

The art by Gene Ha at least saves us the characters posing and looking in different directions (mainly) but it’s also dirtier and somewhat sloppier than the title’s first six issues. And Geoff Johns dialogue continues to be so mindnumbingly bad it’s getting harder and harder for me to defend him and blame it on DC Editorial. The fact that the story is also told from the perspective of Steve Trevor, a character who no relation to the team so far, seems oddly out of place as well.

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