I’ve been noticing something weird lately…I don’t really care for Marvel Comics at the moment. All the best comics are coming out of DC. Wild. Anyway, here’s a review list that’s mostly DC Comics!

Comic Book of the Week goes to Wonder Woman #19 for an excellent end to the first story arc, and all the teases for the next story arc. I’m quite satisfied.

Meanwhile, I’m still working my way through Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. The game is everything I hoped it would be and I’m having a blast! Gonna spend a lot of time in this world. I’m currently working my way through the newest season of Invincible. Fun stuff, as expected.

Comic Reviews: Absolute Martian Manhunter #1, Absolute Wonder Woman #6, Batman #158, Power Rangers Prime #5 and Wonder Woman #19.

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Absolute Martian Manhunter #1
Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Javier Rodriguez
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

I’m going to try out each and every one of the Absolute Comics, even if it kills me.

FBI Special Agent John Jones is caught in an explosion in a coffee house caused by the Human Flame. The doctor, his wife and his bosses want him to take some time off to recover, but John lies to all of them and insists he should keep working. He investigates the bombing (despite being told to stay away) and finds himself surrounded by colored smoke that allows him to know more about people than he should. The smokes and the madness get worse and worse until it’s mostly clear that this is a new interpretation of telepathy? Maybe? And then he’s confronted in a full psychic breakdown by the Martian Mindfucker.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

Right off the bat, I just want to say that these types are stories are not usually my thing. I’m just not into psychedelic freakout stories, and that’s exactly what Absolute Martian Manhunter is going for. And by all means, it should. The creators involved clearly have an insanely cool vision for this story, and I want them to push themselves as far and as freakily as they want. Just know that it’s not my thing and I’m probably not going to react as positively as someone else might. The story and artwork are just too trippy for my tastes. That being said, I can easily and obviously recognize the artistic merit of the work in this issue. Here are some creators, both writer and artist, who have something wild and crazy they want to showcase, and they’re being allowed to do exactly what.

I really, really love the use of color in this comic. The rainbow is as vibrant as anything you’re ever going to see in the funny pages, and I love, love, love the use of colored smoke to denote mindreading. That’s an insanely cool idea, and used to perfection in this first issue. Telepathy has always been part of Martian Manhunter’s character, and it’s an interesting choice to focus in on, but they do it extremely well. A lot of mystery is set up in this first issue, not the least of which is what the heck is going on with the main character. So there’s a ton to explore moving forward, if I stick with this comic.

Also, there’s a freaky deaky bit at the end where, if you bought a physical issue, you can play with light and paper. I read my comics digitally, so I missed out, but I saw an example of what was supposed to happen and I fully endorse doing weird things with the medium itself!

TL;DR: The creators have a trippy, colorful vision in mind of this comic, and they are allowed to push that envelope to the breaking point. I applaud the artistic creativity at play in this issue, even if trippy, psychedelic storytelling is not my cup of tea.

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Absolute Wonder Woman #6
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Mattia De Iulis
Letterer: Becca Carey

And so begins the second story arc, with a new artist, and I am still fully on board!

Diana is in the throne room of Hades, and she tells the stories of how she unbound Prometheus to get his blood for a weapon (and he also gifted her Pegasus), as well as how she slew the last Basilisk. But Hades has as surprise of his own: a bound Circe!

Comic Rating: 9/10 – Great.

First up, let’s talk about the art. It’s fantastic, and I can’t quite put my finger on who it reminds me of. Not UDON. But maybe UDON? Doesn’t matter. What matters is that this issue is gorgeous. Wholly different from the normal Absolute Wonder Woman art, and maybe not as unique, but still an excellent choice. Wonder Woman looks amazing in this issue. It’s clear and crisp comic book artwork, which I enjoy, with an extra level of computer touch up, if that make sense. And it’s good to have clear, dynamic comic book artwork for a series that always, always goes for the epic page or panel.

This issue was mostly just a chance to tell some awesome stories from Wonder Woman’s life, and I’m totally fine with that. Both stories are quite fun, and each unique. Wonder Woman befriends and aids Prometheus, and Wonder Woman fights and slays a giant basilisk. These are two very cool scenes that highlight a lot about Diana, from her compassion to her intelligence to her badassery. And if that’s all this issue did, just a few short stories about her life, that’s fine by me. But we also get a fun back and forth with Hades, my favorite Greek god, and then a solid cliffhanger. So yeah, another great issue of Absolute Wonder Woman, even as we start a new story and get a new artist.

TL;DR: Even with a new artist and a new story, Absolute Wonder Woman doesn’t miss a beat in telling large scale, deeply personal stories.

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Batman #158
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Jim Lee
Inker: Scott Williams
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Richard Starkings

For some reason, we’re doing Hush 2 all these decades later, reuniting both Loeb and Lee. While I oppose the idea on the surface, I enjoyed the first Hush as much as the next person, and who doesn’t love a good Batman comic?

The Joker is back in town and is once again dumping Joker Fish (piranhas) into the reservoir. Batman goes to stop him, but he’s beaned in the head and falls into the water. He’s forced to use his cowl’s self-defense electricity to stop the ravenous fish, and it knocks him out as well. Fortunately, Talia and her allies show up to save Batman and kidnap the Joker…at least I think they’re working together? They arrive at the same time. One of the allies is Hush, who surgically injures the Joker with internal bleeding, giving him a few hours to live. Hours that Batman uses to track down his location and find him near death, with Hush taunting Batman about just letting the Joker die.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

I love a good Batman comic! And that’s essentially what this is, at least this first issue. We’ve got Batman, we’ve got the Joker, we’ve got some new characters and some familiar faces, all with Hush operating in the background. The character of Hush has been run into the ground, in my opinion, ever since his original appearance. Remember when he got plastic surgery to look like Bruce Wayne? Yeah, whatever dude. Anyway, this first issue is a really nice start to whatever story they’ve cooked up. Personally, I like someone getting one up on the Joker, and I wish they’d gone ahead and had Hush kill him. That would have been a really bombastic way to start Hush 2! But putting him in mortal danger is good too. And Jim Lee remains Jim Lee, though I feel like the artwork here is a step down from the original Hush, but then time comes for us all.

So the artwork is not as sharp as 20 years ago, but that’s hardly a major detraction when you’ve still got Jim Lee drawing a Batman comic. The writing is good, even if Loeb has dropped some real stinkers in his day. And like I said, I enjoy putting the Joker in harms way in order to create a tense situation for Batman. All in all, this is just a straight forward, enjoyable Batman story. No muss, no fuss.

TL;DR: Hush 2 doesn’t need to be a thing two decades after the original, but we’ve got some consummate comic book creative team producing an entertaining Batman adventure. What’s not to like?

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Power Rangers Prime #5
Writer: Melissa Flores
Artist: Michael Yg
Colorist: Fabi Marques
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire

I missed the previous issue of Prime because it was a weird week for me, but it wasn’t too big of an issue. This is the one where everybody is finally morphed and fighting, so this is the important one.

The full team of Power Rangers have morphed and they get into a hectic, uncoordinated fight with the VR Troopers. Rita goads the Red Ranger into retreating, and once they’re clear, there is definitely division in the ranks. Valentina, the yellow ranger, doesn’t want any of this, and after briefly fighting Rita, she demorphs and flees. Jun, the black ranger, joins her. Only Lauren, the red ranger, and Orion, the pink ranger, are left, and Orion notices that Mark, the blue ranger, is missing!

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

So my hope for a surprise member twist didn’t pan out, and the characters we assumed would be the new Power Rangers became the new Power Rangers. I’m slightly disappointed, but that disappointment was easily replaced by a stellar first issue with the team where everything goes higgledy piggledy. I love that most of them don’t know how to fight and being a Power Ranger doesn’t automatically imbued martial arts skills, so most of them were just flailing against the VR Troopers. I love that, by the end of the issue, the team is very splintered, because a lot of groundwork was laid that becoming a Power Ranger wasn’t going to be all candy and roses for these characters. Valentina, very specifically, is in a very complicated place because of this and I liked how that was handled.

This was an excellent issue with some good, chaotic fighting and some very good character development. I wish we had an explanation for what each of the Rangers is based on, though. I think Black is supposed to be a snake, and he’s got a cool snake bo staff. But what about the others? Pink’s mace doesn’t look like anything in particular. Maybe there were clues hidden in the background of the museum shots the past few issues? I probably should have looked for that. But beyond that, I love the look of the Prime Rangers, the detail is excellent and the artwork is stupendous in bringing them to life. And then everything goes to belly up in the end, which is a great way to debut this new team.

TL;DR: We finally see the new team fully morphed and in the action, and it’s great debut for this new crew. They’re awkward, they’re emotional, they’re not very good; exactly what I love to see in this Power Rangers revival.

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Wonder Woman #19
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Daniel Sampere
Colorist: Tomeu Morey
Letterer: Clayton Cowles

And so, at long last, we come to the end of this epic story arc. It’s a fitting end, and quite satisfying, while spending a lot of time teasing even crazier stuff to come in the future.

Trinity confronts the Sovereign in his cell to get the final part of the story: Wonder Woman confronting him in the Oval Office. He tells how he groveled for mercy, and Wonder Woman made him strip down to his bare chest and carve a word into his own flesh with a magic Amazon dagger, the word “Liar”. But then we also get teases of future stories, of the rogue Amazon Emelie, who kicked off this story but disappeared from the telling. And Emelie’s child, Lyssa, who Etta Candy played midwife for, and who might be responsible for the ultimate death of the Amazons. And then something about Mouseman? I dunno. That part was weird.

Comic Rating: 9/10 – Great.

Part of me feels that this confrontation is a little underwhelming, considering we’ve taken 19 issues to get here. But that part of me is dumb and needs to get on board, because overall, this is an excellent ending, with a lot of great teases for what comes next. In the end, the Sovereign is an old, whimpering man, systematically stripped of his power and prestige over the past few issues. As he says on the page, he’s just an old man in an old house, and Wonder Woman takes him down with grace and just enough of a kick in the teeth to mean something.

Then the rest of the issue is a bunch of teases for what’s to come, and I’m totally on board for everything we see here. I love how King expressly points out that he let Emelie slip from the story without any fanfare. I definitely noticed. I love the way Etta Candy is finally brought into this comic. That’s a nice touch. I’m unsure if the implication is that the Sovereign is the father of Emelie’s baby? Is that what I’m supposed to take from this? If so, gross, obviously. But I guess it could work. The tease of the new villa, The Matriach, is excellent. And then we end with the Mouseman — who I never knew, until a Google search just now while writing this review, is an actual, classic Wonder Woman villain?! Holy cow! That’s pretty exciting. I thought King was making up someone new after that story of Doctor Domino, who is also a classic Wonder Woman villain!

I love taking obscure, classic villains and breathing new life into them.

TL;DR: The first story in Tom King’s Wonder Woman comes to a satisfying ending, and then teases a whole bunch of other craziness to come! That’s good comics.

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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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