Comic releases are weird. Last week saw the release of a metric ton of comics I’m reading, so much so that I had to skip a few reviews just so I could fit this column into my busy schedule. But this week, I’ve only got two reviews because not much came out that I’m interested in. If Black Panther and Fantastic Four came out this week, I would have caught up and reviewed them!

Comic Book of the Week goes to Avengers #6, mostly for a backup feature starring a more obscure Marvel superhero, Firebird!

Meanwhile, a week from now, we’ll all be playing Spider-Man 2! Until then, I toil away on a Cyberpunk 2077 replay. Can I beat the game by Friday? Honestly, probably not, but I’ll give it a try. Beyond that, I’m enjoying Loki season 2, Lower Decks season 4 and the second season of Killing It. Have you seen that? Really fun show.

Comic Reviews: Avengers #6 and Batman and Robin #2.

Avengers #6
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Ivan Fiorelli
Colorist: Federico Blee
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

The first major storyline comes to an end and I am not impressed.

The various Avengers figure out how to defeat the Ashen Combine, one-by-one, including freeing the Impossible City from their control. Once they regroup, the City asks to become an Avenger and they’re cool with that.

In a backup story, by Kalinda Vazquez and Alba Glez, random Marvel hero Firebird teams up with Captains America and Marvel to help a little girl who managed to summon some alien lights.

Comic Rating: 5/10 – Alright.

And so the Ashen Combine is defeated without any twist or cleverness or deeper reveal about their nature. They were just a handful of overly designed bad guys who spent a few issues trying to impress how cool they were, only to all be defeated by each individual Avenger rethinking their strategy. So yeah, the Avengers all split up to take on the Ashen Combine one-on-one, and after a couple of issues spinning wheels, the Avengers each come up with a strategy that instantly wins. And that’s it. They don’t switch opponents. They don’t team up. They just switch strategies and swiftly defeat their chosen villain. And then the Ashen Combine are put back into their prison stasis on the Impossible City and that’s that.

I like the general idea of the Impossible City becoming a member of the Avengers. Who doesn’t love a sentient homebase? Though the last Avengers run had the team based in a giant, dead Celestial, so is MacKay just trying to one-up where the Avengers are HQd? Not that they’re automatically going to live in the Impossible City, but it might become a fun ally going forward. And hopefully the stories and the villains going forward are also fun, because the Ashen Combine were a huge let down.

The back-up feature wasn’t anything special either, but I love the idea of an Avengers comic featuring cameos from obscure Marvel superheroes. I love the idea of the Avengers being a network of heroes, and specialists can be brought in from time to time. So that was a little fun.

TL;DR: The bad guys that have been built up over multiple issues now are quickly defeated without much fanfare and no deeper meaning behind them (unless that is to be revealed later?).

Batman and Robin #2
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Simone Di Meo
Letterer: Steve Wands

This series is now pretty weird considering Batman abandoned Robin in the latest issue of his main series.

Batman and Robin escape the out of control bats, while the audience meets their secret attacker: Shush, the female Hush. She’s organized this animal-themed crew, and they’re taking orders from a mysterious boss. Meanwhile, Damian heads to school and meets the typical bully character, along with typical principal and teacher characters, though he sneaks out before class even starts to go check on White Rabbit in prison to get her to talk. Batman is also there, and he’s mad that Damian skipped school. But then the bad guys show up to get to White Rabbit first.

Comic Rating: 5/10 – Alright.

So the one really unique and interesting aspect of this comic: Damian going to high school, and it’s immediately filled with cliches and then cut short. Jeez. We have a million Batman comics. And they’re all about Batman fighting his familiar bad guys, whether they’re classic foes, like the Terrible Trio, or they’re adaptations of foes, like a female Hush. But you know what we don’t really have? A comic where Robin goes to high school and has to juggle that against his duties as Robin. We don’t have a comic where Bruce and Damian struggle with father/son stuff alongside their crime-fighting. This comic has had a little bit of that stuff so far, but it’s mostly interested in its villains and their scheme.

And, unfortunately, that little bit of high school we get is pretty cliche. No sooner does Damian, who seems pretty cool, walk into that school than some generic bully character steals his notebook and reads all his doodles and makes fun of him for it. Really? Damian Wayne gets bullied within the first 10 minutes of being at this school? It felt trite. And then Damian skipped out before the start of his first class. That’s fitting with his character, but who cares? So Robin goes out to fight some more bad guys? How is that more interesting than Damian forced to suffer through his first day of high school? I suppose this is just a me thing, and it’s just what I want, but it swerved this issue in a direction I don’t care for.

Also, maybe I don’t know, but whatever happened to Gotham Academy? Was that a middle school and not a high school? Why not send Damian to Gotham Academy with its pre-established characters and structure?

TL;DR: Story continues apace with the super-villain stuff, while downplaying the actual unique aspects of this comic.

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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