We’re back with more comic book reviews! I do apologize that these will be more haphazard from me going forward. Sometimes there just aren’t any comics coming out that I really have an opinion on. And sometimes I can be pretty lazy. But this week saw some solid releases, like Batman and The Ultimates.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Scarlett #1 for a clean, enjoyable new chapter in the ongoing Energon Universe.

Meanwhile, I beat God of War: Ragnarok and it was an excellent game! Just as big and fun as the first. I’ve burned through a couple of TV shows. I enjoyed Mr. and Mrs. Smith, didn’t care for the first two episodes of The Acolyte and absolutely adored Hazbin Hotel. That show lives up to all its hype! This weekend is the third and final season of Sweet Tooth, so hopefully that’s fun.

This week also saw the final issue of the Krakoa Era for X-Men, but I checked out awhile ago, so it won’t be reviewed this week. Bring on From the Ashes!

Comic Reviews: Batman #148, The Boy Wonder #2, Scarlett #1 and The Ultimates #1.

Batman #148
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Artist: Jorge Jimenez
Colorist: Tomeu Morey
Letterer: Clayton Cowles

With a big crossover story coming along, Zdarsky finishes off his major storylines with a nicely bombastic issue.

Batman calls in the Family to finish this once and for all. Everybody teams up to take on Failsafe/Zur and Bruce’s old mentor, and it’s a knockdown, drag out brawl with all sorts of clever twists and tactics. It’s fun stuff, all drawn with excellent style.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

Who doesn’t love a comic where Batman and his Family team up to defeat the bad guy in a big, awesome fight? Throw in some creativity and ingenuity and you’ve got a stew going, baby! I really enjoyed this issue because Batman and his crew have a very fun way to defeat Zur-Failsafe that absolutely fits the characters and everything we know about the villain. No spoilers here, but it’s just the right amount of clever to make all this time and storytelling worthwhile. And then beyond that, we just get a lot of fun fighting with good guys vs bad guys.

Though I’m not a fan of Tim Drake’s hopefully temporary new costume.

Tim has worn some bad costumes in his day, but that one is a stinker. Maybe it was made so that he’d look different from Zur-En-Robin? And he’s a bit of a dud, by the way. Again, no spoilers, but Robin-En-Arrh was not as exciting as I’d hoped he would be, considering how long he’d been teased. Still, he serves his purpose and the good guys win in excellent fashion. This is a solid, enjoyable conclusion to this part of Zdarsky’s ongoing Bat stories.

TL;DR: Big, bombastic and fun wrap-up to this chapter of Zdarsky’s Bat-saga. It’s got some creative ways to wrap things up, which I enjoyed.

The Boy Wonder #2
Writer and Artist: Juni Ba
Colorist: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar

Someone previously asked me if I was going to check out this comic, and I surely was! I just missed the first issue. So I’m all caught up and can gladly say this is an enjoyable comic.

Damian Wayne continues his team-up adventures with the other Robins, this time it being Jason Todd, the Red Hood. They come face-to-face with the villain, Rok, and he plays them for chumps with his sorcery.

Comic Rating: 9/10 – Great.

I won’t have much to say about The Boy Wonder because, honestly, it’s such a unique and fun little comic that there isn’t much to critique. It’s one half an original (if basic) story about Damian teaming up with his brothers to take on a new bad guy, and it’s one half just an exploration of those other Robins through a bit of fairy tale narration. And it all works splendidly, with some truly unique and spirited artwork. The Boy Wonder is another exploration of the various Robins and how they relate to one another. The original story, against this Rok fellow, is just enough to bind everything together, but at least he’s got a rather unique and cool design that works splendidly with the artwork. And then it’s some quality Robin time, which I love, obviously. It’s like a Robin anniversary special or the like. Just a big, slightly weird, but very in depth exploration of the various Robins. It’s fun.

TL;DR: This is a very fun series exploring the various Robins with a very true and enjoyable narration style, and some truly inventive and gorgeous artwork.

Scarlett #1
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Marco Ferrari
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Rus Wooton

I do enjoy how Image and Skybound are approaching the G.I.Joe segment of the Energon Universe. They’re doing it MCU style. All the major characters are getting their own, introductory solo series before they will — theoretically — be brought together. I dig it.

Though no signs of Snake Eyes, Shipwreck or Ice Cream Soldier comics yet…

Scarlett is a top notch military field officer who saves a bunch of trafficking victims at a fancy party in the opening scene, during which she also catches a glimpse of her old pal Jinx. But she violated her orders in order to save the hostages, so she’s drummed out of her service. Stalker later recruits her to infiltrate Clan Arashikage to try to bring Jinx home.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

This is a very well-crafted, awesomely drawn introductory chapter for Scarlett that hits all the right notes and checks all the right boxes. It’s smooth as butter. We meet our hero in an opening scene that combines stealthy spy stuff, heroic action and hints about the larger story to come, along with another Joe cameo in Jinx. Excellent. We get a good feel for the main character and her heroism. Then we jump right into the main story, with Stalker coming over from the Duke series to bring her in, though not yet for G.I.Joe. Instead, Scarlett gets an assignment that takes her deep into classic Joe lore. The Clan Arashikage stuff is always popular for the Joe stuff, so I’ve got no problem introducing it so soon.

I have no idea if the Scarlett/Jinx stuff in this series is a new adaptation of the characters or what, but it works for me. It puts Scarlett on a mission that will clearly be important to the bigger picture, and perhaps even her character. I think she was ‘shipped in the past with Snake Eyes, right? Either way, it’s entertaining and pretty awesome. Ferrari does an excellent job with everything thrown at him, from cool spy scenes to happy domestic flashbacks to action-packed fights and double-page spreads. This first issue is the whole package and quite enjoyable.

TL;DR: First issue of the Scarlett series goes about as well as possible. Fun, breezy and fulfilling character introduction and writing, paired with truly excellent artwork.

The Ultimates #1
Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Juan Frigeri
Colorist: Federico Blee
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham

The original Ultimates comic by Millar and Hitch is probably my #1 favorite comic of all time, but I’m not judging this new series by the old one.

The Ultimates have 18 months until the Maker escapes his prison and comes after them, so Tony Stark came up with a brilliant idea: send superhero origins-in-a-bottle back in time 6 months so that the heroes would be waiting for them in the present instantaneously. We saw this play out in Ultimate Spider-Man. But it turns out Spider-Man was really the only time it worked. So the Ultimates track down Hank and Janet Pym to recruit them directly, and they become heroes in the heat of battle.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

I still think this new Ultimate stuff is too insane of an idea to sustain a whole universe. And The Ultimates leans very hard into all this stuff about the Maker and disabled superheroes and Reed as Doom and all that stuff. It’s wild. But this first issue proper is solid and entertaining. We get a good sense of most of the team members, though all of the exposition does overshadow most of them. We do get a nice meet up for Hank and Jan, the new members that join the team this issue, so that was nice. It’s a big, cool scene. All of this is just really going to come down to how invested you find yourself in this very weird universe.

Personally, I’m rather disappointed that Tony’s plan to create instant superheroes through time travel didn’t work. We got a taste of it in Ultimate Spider-Man and it sounded neat! But now we learn, in this issue, that it mostly got people killed. That’s a shame. But this is the story we’ve got and this issue makes good use of it. I feel like we get a solid exploration of the team, and the recruitment of Hank and Jan is done very well. The fight scene is cool and the artwork really holds its own in the big superhero stuff. So I think I’ll be sticking around for a couple of issues to see how this all plays out.

Though it is a little weird that they don’t go and recruit Spider-Man, considering he’s the one person where Tony’s plan actually worked. But then that wouldn’t line up with the timeline currently happening in Ultimate Spider-Man, so it’d probably be too wonky.

TL;DR: Heavy on the world-building and lore, but there’s more than enough strong character work and excellent artwork to make an enjoyable issue of superhero comics.

The comics I review in my Hench-Sized reviews are just the usual comics I grab from Comixology any given week, along with a few impulse buys I might try on a whim. So if there are any comics or series you’d like me to review each week, let me know in the comments.

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