Oh what a week, what a week. Can it really be possible that some of my current favorite comics are all coming out in the same week?! Do we really have new issues of Power Rangers and Superman in the same week?! I must be in comic book heaven.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Nightwing #105 for an artistic achievement that should be praised for all time. Kudos to Bruno Redondo and the entire creative team for this masterpiece!

Meanwhile, I’ve taken a slight break from Tears of the Kingdom to play some Diablo 4! I’ve been playing the Diablo games since the very beginning, though I’ve never engaged in the postgame stuff. I just play the story and try out different classes. It’s fun. I also saw the first episode of Secret Invasion but wasn’t all that impressed. The pacing and tension felt off. Hopefully I’ll like it more as it goes along.

Also, in terms of comics, I’ve decided to stop reviewing Saga because I don’t think I should be giving my thoughts on each individual issue in isolation. I enjoyed the Scarlet Witch annual, but I tend not to review annuals for no particular reason. And the first issue of Ultimate Invasion was solid, though we’ll see if this revival is worth a damn in due time.

Comic Reviews: Avengers #2, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #109, Nightwing #105, Superman #5 and Titans #2.

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Avengers #2
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: C.F. Villa
Colorist: Federico Blee
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

I’m still on board with MacKay’s Avengers. It’s a solid second issue.

Kang the Conqueror is dying from a mortal wound, delivered by the villain Myrddin in one of those Kang comics from last year. But before he dies, he wants to tell Captain Marvel and the Avengers about the Tribulation Events, which is just the next big danger they’re gonna have to face. Happens every new Avengers series. Anyway, Kang lists off a bunch of upcoming stuff and then gets Carol to believe him by revealing to her several events in the next day that would have killed 1,000 people. The Avengers are able to prevent those deaths, meaning Kang might be telling the truth. And the issue ends with the first big event, the Impossible City, arriving in Earth orbit.

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

I like the general idea at the heart of this story. Kang the Conqueror has got something going on, so he uses his knowledge of future events to bribe the Avengers with the chance to save 1,000 lives in 24 hours. MacKay makes great use of this idea, and we get a ton of little scenes in this comic of the Avengers saving people in fun and heroic fashion. I really liked the scene where Captain America stops a trucker from getting on the road hopped up on pills, then volunteers to do the driving himself because the trucker was bound for a hospital with much-needed medical supplies. It’s a fun little scene.

I’m less thrilled about the larger problems introduced in this issue. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and basically, superhero comics are rarely about anything small these days. Every single story is an insane world-ender. And I guess the Avengers are supposed to be that sort of thing, but do they never get time to breathe? Every week some insane new thing falls in their lap. And MacKay teases the upcoming things just by listing some vaguely curious sounding things, like “The Impossible City” or “INSERT OTHER THING HERE”. This is a me thing, though. Maybe other people are super into that trope of just listing future threats off like that.

TL;DR: Solid second issue has a lot of fun with general superheroics, though I think it could have been a bit more subtle with its foreshadowing.

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Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #109
Writer: Melissa Flores
Artist: Simona Di Gianfelice
Colorist: Raul Angulo, with assistance from Jose Enrique Fernandez
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire

I feel like this story has been going on for just a touch too long, but it’s still very good.

Drakkon has freed Kiya and escaped with her through the Master Arch, possibly to create his own Drakkon Rangers in a spin-off comic. And not before Kiya gets to see that her Omega Blue powers were given to a cat. At Promethea, Rita taunts Grace, then Rita fights Zedd, Grace tries to escape, but she’s captured by Vessel, who later refuses Rita’s order to kill Grace.

In Angel Grove, the Rangers continue to fight Matt, who taunts Kimberly and Aisha. Tommy figures out that they need to destroy his sword to free him, and it maybe works, but he teleports away before talking to the team. And in Safehaven, a fleet of warships arrives over the planet.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

This issue was a bit more all over the place than this comic usually handles, so that left things feeling a bit disjointed. But it’s still otherwise an exciting story, with a lot of interesting things going on. I’m enjoying every single face-off in this issue. But there are so many face-offs that none of them get enough time to really shine. So the issue is just jumping rapidly between them, trying its best to give everybody some good, strong dialogue. I would have loved more between Matt, Kimberly and Aisha, but he just had to go and teleport away immediately. But maybe I’m just super into the Matt/Aisha thing.

I remain excited to see where this story goes. It still feels like it’s building to something big and awesome. But this is just another issue that continues to move the pieces forward. The piece-moving can be really fun. I enjoyed the silliness of Kyra learning that Omega Blue is now a cat. But I’m disappointed to learn that they’re moving to a spin-off series. I’ll read it, probably, but still. I’m ready for this storyline to come to a head, to reach the climax, to give us that big, awesome action and character development that we know and love. I’m ready for this whole thing to blow up! Let’s go!

TL;DR: Another issue spent moving the pieces around the board. They’re good pieces, and they’re good moves, but I’m ready or the climax.

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Nightwing #105
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Bruno Redondo
Colorist: Adriano Lucas
Letterer: Wes Abbott

So, uh, Taylor wrote and Redondo drew this issue entirely in the first person, from Nightwing’s perspective. Best comic? Best comic.

Shortly after waking up, Nightwing is told that Double Dare have stolen a biological weapon and are escaping on the M Train. Nightwing and Batgirl head out and get on the plane, where they find one of the twins fleeing for her life. She explains that she has been injected with a vaccine, which she and her sister were hired to steal from Shel Pharmaceuticals by the country of Vlatava. They have a virus, and Shel is charging too much for the vaccine. And they kidnapped her sister.

Batgirl poses as the unkidnapped twin in order to get kidnapped by the bad guys, so they can find the location. This involves the bad guys blowing up the train and Nightwing fleeing with the sister. He then breaks in, finds that Batgirl has already freed herself, and they fight to freedom. Then Nightwing is invited to have a word with the CEO of Shel, who is really Heartless’s civilian identity. They have a few words and Nightwing leaves with a zinger.

Comic Rating: 10/10 – Fantastic.

What can I possibly say to praise this comic high enough? Jeez la-freakin’-louise, people; just go and ruin it for everybody else why don’t you? Gimmick comics happen all the time, but I feel like this one is really unique. A superhero comic, with a ton of gymnastics and fighting, entirely from a first-person perspective? That’s genius in concept alone. And it works so well for Nightwing. And then Redondo pulls it off like a god among men. How is this not an automatic comic book of the year?! Just look at this detail, look at this dynamism!

To say nothing of the story! This story is super fun on top of the great art. I like Double Dare as antagonists for Nightwing and Batgirl, and I really enjoy stories where villains can be reasonable people. It’s super fun to have our heroes work with Double Dare to save the day, and Taylor wrings a lot of fun out of Batgirl posing as one of the twins in order to track the bad guys. It’s a hoot! To say nothing of the general dialogue and humor from the whole issue. It’s chockfull of interesting characters doing interesting things with the story, and having a lot of fun with the dialogue. And then the art is all-time Hall of Fame worthy. So what else could you want from a comic as perfect as this one?

TL;DR: The artistic feats in this issue make it an all-time great, a comic that should be talked about for years to come.

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Superman #5
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Jamal Campbell
Letterer: Ariana Maher

I know I love the Nightwing comic, but Williamson and Campbell on Superman is nipping at their heels for best comic at DC.

In flashback, we see how Jimmy Olsen and Silver Banshee had a meet cute and then a loving relationship. Now she’s been infected by Graft and Pharm into fighting Superman, but she doesn’t want to, so she tries to flee the city. Superman and Jimmy Olsen grab a hypersonic suppressor (and jetpack) from Supercorp to go get her. It requires Banshee to scream as loudly as she can to clear out whatever they infected her with. She screams so loud that she bursts Superman’s inner ear, cutting off his super hearing.

After all is settled, Superman visits Graft and Pharm’s lab demanding they show themselves. They taunt him via hologram. Later Clark and Lois join Jimmy and Siobhan for a double date, to hear her band. Clark cuddles with Lois and reveals that, for the first time in a long time, he can’t hear the rest of the world. It’s just him and his loved ones in that club. It’s great.

Except without his super hearing, he can’t hear as Lex Luthor is ambushed and stabbed to death in prison.

Comic Rating: 9/10 – Great.

This is comic book storytelling at its absolute finest. Holy cow, people. I was already fully on board with the adorable love story of Jimmy and Siobhan. I love when villains can become good guys, or at least act reasonable. But then Williamson weaves it all into a greater story, as Lex tries to ponder why the villains would infect Parasite and Silver Banshee first. And then he finds out…it was to destroy Superman’s hearing so that he wouldn’t be there to save Lex! What an ending! What a carefully constructed story! I love the cleverness, I love the devastation! And the panel-by-panel storytelling as Clark celebrates with his loved ones, while Luthor is shivved in prison, is chef’s kiss gorgeous. The whole issue is gorgeous.

This is such a fun comic. It perfectly balances the human side of things and the superhero side of things. The Jimmy/Banshee relationship is adorable. Jimmy standing up to Superman in order to help save Banshee is badass and handled so well. The Supercorp is neat! The only gripe I have is that Pharm and Graft have yet to make a real impact on me. They’re just some evil villain types who are one step ahead of everybody else, because that’s how they’re written. They could stand to be fleshed out a little bit more. I’m confident we’ll get that in time.

And if I haven’t said it enough, Campbell is killing it on art. So full of life, so full of color, so full of depth; DC has some amazing artists on staff these days and Campbell is making their career here.

TL;DR: Story, art and characters weave together so well in this enjoyable, hugely entertaining and very clever issue.

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Titans #2
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Nicola Scott
Colorist: Annette Kwok
Letterer: Wes Abbott

Man, DC is killing it this week with three great comics!

Wally West is dead and everything is worse now. Oh wait, no, Wally is fine. He shows up shortly after the Titans discover the body, and they run some tests and decide that the dead Wally has come from the future so that the Titans, including Wally, can solve his own murder. Neat! Meanwhile, the Titans are called away to a large explosion in the rain forest in Borneo. Donna leads the team in saving the day, and Cyborg determines that the blast was Tamaranean in nature.

Back at HQ, as everybody settles in for the evening to watch some TV, they see that Brother Blood is on a talk show to discuss his church’s rebranding. They are now the Church of Eternity, and they on a mission to explore space to find some other planets to live on, what with Earth slowly dying and all that. Makes sense, considering we already know that cosmic DC is full of aliens and habitable planets. But check this: Tempest has joined the church!

Comic Rating: 9/10 – Great.

Tom Taylor is killing it on Nightwing, and he’s now killing it on Titans as well. Great stuff in this issue. He takes the joy and cheerfulness of his Nightwing comic and spreads it to a whole team. Everybody’s got a voice, everybody works well together with those voices, and we’ve got plenty of interesting story going on. I loved how the Flash showed up just as the Titans were grieving about the death of the Flash. That was a neat twist, and having Wally in the story is better than him being dead the whole time. That story is dropped shortly thereafter, but it’s replaced by a couple of even more interesting stories! An attack on a rainforest, with the Titans — especially Beast Boy — rushing to help. Fun stuff there, with added character drama of Donna taking the lead.

Then the Brother Blood stuff is really interesting, in my opinion. If you’re going to bring back a classic villain for a comic like this, giving him a total makeover is a great idea. It really breathes new life into the character and the upcoming conflict. And I really like the new direction. The idea of fleeing Earth to live among the aliens of the DC Universe makes perfect sense. Has it ever been done before? It works perfectly, seems perfectly reasonable, but it also feels like there’s just something sinister going on. And the mystery with Garth works for me too. Can’t wait to see where that goes and how that evolves. Taylor has really set up a lot of interesting stories for the team going forward.

TL;DR: This second issue easily takes the ball and keeps running, with a lot of interesting story set-ups and some great character work and artwork.

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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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