Oh man, what a week. It’s not been particularly busy or crazy. There was that whole orange sky over my home in Central New York. But other than that, it’s just been me sitting here reading comics like Batman and Fantastic Four.

Comic Book of the Week goes to X-Men: Before the Fall – Mutant First Strike #1 because of its awesome use of some really neat obscure mutants.

Meanwhile, I’m still playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and hope to be playing for a long time to come. Just heading out into Hyrule, exploring, doing this and that. It’s fun as heck! I watched the first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and it was fun. Nothing revolutionary, but fine and enjoyable. And the Ted Lasso series finale was as disappointing as the rest of season 3.

Comic Reviews: Batman #136, Fantastic Four #8, Shazam! #2 and X-Men: Before the Fall – Mutant First Strike #1.

Batman #136
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Artist: Belen Ortega
Colorist: Tomeu Morey
Letterer: Clayton Cowles

Batman is back in his normal reality and nothing is the same.

Batman has returned to his own universe and everybody is worried about him, but he tells them all that he’s fine and goes out on patrol to take stock of his city. Some of the Penguin’s children have started setting up shop, and Selina broke out of jail. Batman is pushing himself too hard, and it all comes to a head in a confrontation with Selina, in which she reveals that the Penguin faked his death and Batman didn’t kill him, which means Failsafe didn’t need to come online. This sends Bruce reeling. He’s a bit of a wreck. Then he alarms at Wayne Manor get tripped so he goes out to investigate…

…and finds the Bat-Family cooking food and preparing a big, family meal. He’s invited to sit and join them, and Bruce admits this is nice. But in his mind, it’s all burning.

There’s also a back-up story exploring how Batman of Zur-En-Arrh built Failsafe.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

As longtime readers might remember, I am a sucker for happy Bat-Family stuff. So for everybody to get together to make dinner and trick Bruce into attending, that’s comic book joy for me. It’s an adorable scene. I love Bruce sitting at the head of the table, admiring his family and admitting to himself that it’s a nice feeling, a nice moment. Because it is. Then I also love how Zdarsky is exploring the character, of a Batman on burnout. He’s not on the edge. He’s not pushed to the extreme. He’s been pushed beyond those. He’s human, and he’s burned out; but he’s also Batman and he’s unable to admit it. I’m loving this character exploration.

That scene with Catwoman is great. She reveals that Penguin is still alive, unaware of what that means to Bruce and his psyche in this moment. And his reaction is to take off his mask and sit down. It’s such a real, human moment. And every page of this issue hammers home just how far Batman has allowed himself to be pushed, and how it’s really tearing him apart in ways he can’t acknowledge and refuses to accept. It’s a fun new avenue to explore for the character and I am fully on board.

I am also very, very curious about all the Robin of Zur-En-Arrh teases we keep getting. Can’t wait to see what Zdarsky is building there.

TL;DR: I don’t think we’ve ever seen Batman like this before: burnt out. It’s a really neat exploration of the character, and I’m very eager to see where all of this goes.

Fantastic Four #8
Writer: Ryan North
Artist: Ivan Fiorelli
Colorist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

The big Doctor Doom anniversary is out of the way, so we’re on to more stories!

The Fantastic Four are still living on the farm, and Sue and Alicia go into town to pick up supplies. They go to the hardware store first and meet the owner, a nice lady named Cathy. But not 10 minutes later, the store is closed and nobody around them remembers Cathy at all. So they return home, and Johnny is there, but he can’t remember Reed or Ben ever existing. So they all head back into town and find the monstrous Xargorr, who has mental powers that turn people into her servitors, while making everybody else forget they ever existed. And she’s got Reed and Ben to do her dirty work!

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

Seriously, though, can the members of the Fantastic Four go one day without some crazy, universal threat showing up right at their doorstep? They’re not even in New York City right now! They can’t even go on one shopping trip into a quiet little town without coming under attack from the mighty and fearsome Xargorr?! I kid, but jeez louise. I think I would have liked the story of Sue and Alicia just going into town and picking up supplies. I know this is a weird complaint to make, but there’s just something off about the casual way this story comes about. It’s slightly off-putting, especially with how often in North’s run so far the members of the FF have encountered small towns with strange sci-fi problems.

My weirdness with the story aside, the issue is still solid and enjoyable. North writes all of the characters exceptionally well, and I really enjoyed the friendship between Sue and Alicia as they went into town. Everything is fleshed out nicely and the tension builds well as the villainy is revealed. The artwork is top notch, the humor is pretty fun, the villain seems menacing, and it’s a real pickle the team finds themselves in. No complaints with the way the story is told, the characters are written and the artwork being superb.

Though if I may point out one nitpick. North has Sue and Alicia wonder why the hardware store in the mall built so many checkout lanes if they only have one employee, and why the mall seems so empty. I realized it’s set-up for the eventual reveal. But two things: I doubt the store had a say in how many tills were built if they’re leasing a spot in the mall. Also, what mall in America today isn’t empty? Don’t need no freaky mind control aliens to empty out a mall in this day and age.

TL;DR: Fairly simple story is bolstered by the usual strong character writing and artwork.

Shazam! #2
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Dan Mora
Colorist: Alejandro Sanchez
Letterer: Troy Peteri

This second issue is pretty much as fun and as enjoyable as the first, so I’m still on board.

Billy’s outburst as The Captain has gone viral and his family is all freaking out about it, but he has no idea what came over him. Then a dinosaur shows up to explain all about the intergalactic laws that Billy broke by helping that dinosaur family repair their spaceship in the first issue. Billy heads out because his day can’t get any worse — and he runs into Psycho Pirate robbing a local museum. Billy says the magic word and Shazam goes after the villain, only he does so as a cruel jerk of a guy. He causes a lot of damage to artwork in the museum and to a subway car when the villain flees. Something is definitely wrong! So Billy decides to never became The Captain ever again!

Meanwhile, Freddy goes to search the Rock of Eternity for something to make him magical again, and he finds the various gods of the name SHAZAM playing some kind of organized game against Billy.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

This is a good, quality Shazam comic that uses the characters well and is telling an interesting story. No fuss, no muss. Waid is a total pro, who has been in the business for decades. And Mora is a hugely talented, up-and-coming artist. Together they’ve been making great comics at DC, and they’re doing it again here. The characters are on point, the superhero action is a total blast, and the creativity is through the roof. Intergalactic dinosaur red tape?! Heck yeah! I especially enjoy the current problem, of Billy struggling to contain a Shazam out of control. All because the gods and beings that make up his acronym of a name have decided to conspire against him. That’s just plain fun, while keeping things focused on this specific character. It’s a neat idea and it’s being executed exceptionally.

TL;DR: Fun, well-written and very well-drawn second issue of this new series. Does everything I’d expect a Shazam series to do, and it does it all well.

X-Men: Before the Fall — Mutant First Strike #1
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Valentina Pinti
Colorist: Frank William
Letterer: Travis Lanham

I am not looking forward to any Fall of X stuff if it means the end of the Krakoa era. But I read this comic out of curiosity, and also didn’t have much to say about the new X-Men issue this week, so I decided to talk about this issue.

The small town of Milford, New Hampshire is rocked by a big explosion, which seems to be some kind of mutant attack. It’s actually Orchis making it look like mutants for propaganda reasons. Bishop leads a huge team of mutant rescue workers into Milford to use their powers to help people and restore order in the city, all while dealing with some prejudice on the ground. The mutants help and Milford is made better, and the people know it wasn’t that them caused this. But the larger court of public opinion is still blaming mutants, in large part thanks to some other Orchis propaganda work.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

I really enjoyed this issue. It’s full of the sort of interesting ideas I love to see and want to see in the Krakoan era. It’s a real shame that we’re only seeing this humanitarian team in this single story ahead of the Fall of X. Those jackets are really snazzy, and I love how Orlando just plucks a bunch of obscure mutants to put them to work. That is 100% what I want from Krakoa. There are all these mutants, all can be useful, and it’s great to see them put to good use. We’ve got Eye-Scream handling child morale! We’ve got Multiple Man helping get people fed. It’s so much fun and absolutely makes this a fun comic.

There’s also a very good job done in setting up Orchis’s propaganda campaign. It felt a little too stifling at times, but perhaps I just have a weak constitution for that sort of thing. Part of me feels like the X-Men should be doing something better to win over hearts and minds. They’re always one step forward, two steps back with Orchis and it can be a bit demoralizing. But I suppose that’s what it’s like in the real world fighting these sorts of evil types. So successful villainy there, to be sure.

Also, how neat is it that Marvel is making new use of Judas Traveller? Wild.

TL;DR: This is a really fun, really pointed issue that touches on a lot of things that I enjoy about the Krakoa Era of the X-Men. This is the X-Men, a whole bunch of them, doing good in the face of prejudice and evil.

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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