Between my last reviews and this one, we had a snow storm and it sucked and my world is buried in snow these days in the northeast. I can handle the bitter, negative temperatures. It’s having to move all this snow that really stinks. But at least we’ve got enjoyable comics, like a new Iron Man and an absolutely stellar Absolute Wonder Woman.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Absolute Batman #16 for an insanely good crossover with Absolute Wonder Woman, though her solo issue gave this a run for its money in terms of quality.

Meanwhile, I binged and enjoyed Wonder Man this past week. Debating whether or not to do a review. I don’t know if I have much to say about the series, other than it’s good and I enjoyed it and everybody should watch. Beyond that, started watching A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and that’s fun. And I’m still taking my time through Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. So I’ve got good stuff going all around.

Comic Reviews: Absolute Batman #16, Absolute Wonder Woman #16, Iron Man #1, Absolute Martian Manhunter #8 and Power Rangers Prime #14.

Absolute Batman #16
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Nick Dragotta
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Clayton Cowles

The second part of the unconnected Batman/Wonder Woman crossover is here and it easily and readily lives up to the fun and energy of the first part!

After a hard day’s work at his day job, Bruce’s boss, Mr. Fox, tells him to spend the weekend living a little. So Batman summons Wonder Woman to help him cure Waylon, since Greek mythology is filled with human/animal hybrids. Wonder Woman takes him to a wasteland monster dimension to fight a centaur gate keeper, whose magic might help. The two heroes bond as they traverse the landscape over several weeks, and Diana uses her magic to allow Bruce to reconnect with his dad in his dreams. It’s nice.

So they go and fight the centaur and it’s epic and awesome and has a bittersweet ending. Bruce doesn’t necessarily get the magic he wanted to cure Croc, but he comes away with a pendant that should help him from turning into a feral monster.

Comic Rating: 10/10 – Fantastic.

This is a damn cool comic that easily lives up to the hype of the crossover and lives up to all the praise and adulation Absolute Batman has been getting around the world. This is a comic that lives up to everything it has promised and garnered. It’s super fun, has a lot of great character work, and then brings it all together with an absolutely stellar action sequence and nicely touching denouement. Everything you could want in a single issue. Everything you could want in a big character crossover like this. This issue is just a super fun, fulfilling read with every creator at the top of their game and clearly loving the work. Everything about this issue shines.

I really enjoy the friendship between Bruce and Diana. It’s low key and friendly and just nice. And then it’s contrasted nicely with Bruce losing his other friends after they were destroyed by Bane. He’s finding new friends in his costumed world. It’s fun and tragic, but then we should have always known those guys would become their classic villain selves. The fight with the centaur is nifty and full of action, which this Batman is becoming known for. And I like how it’s all tied together, with Bruce being told to touch grass. Snyder likes to set up his whole story in the first page or so, and then he paid it off brilliantly, with Bruce checking off the list of things Mr. Fox told him to do for the weekend, like touch grass, ride a horse and get into a fight. Excellent set up and excellent payoff.

Of course, Dragotta’s art is as smooth, clean, action-packed and emotionally charged as it has ever been. Gotta love that.

If I’m allowed any sort of nitpick, and this one is very minor, it’s that I don’t think the issue needed the two-week timeframe since it doesn’t actually do anything with that part of the story. It’s told very quickly, with each panel or two representing a passing day as they trudge through the wasteland. But even when wearing that massive armor and not having any food or water or traveling supplies, the passage of time doesn’t really effect Bruce or Diana, so why include it? I dunno. Again, just a needless, minor nitpick.

TL;DR: The second Absolute crossover does not disappoint, bringing strong character work, action and emotional depth to an issue bursting at the seams with quality storytelling.

Absolute Wonder Woman #16
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Hayden Sherman
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Becca Carey

After the Batman crossovers, Absolute Wonder Woman is gonna get back to being the best damn comic on the stands, thank you very much.

With a bit of downtime, Steve Trevor goes before a Senate committee and reads them to filth when they try to steer him toward demonizing Diana. Then Diana and everybody attend a new museum exhibition that Barbara has put together about Amazons. But the museum gala is interrupted by Zatanna and the Suicide Squad, which consists of Dr. Poison and the fish queen we’ve already met, but also Giganta and Cheetah! And Zatanna starts the fight in control of Wonder Woman’s magic!

Comic Rating: 10/10 – Fantastic.

You want a lesson in upping the stakes in your ongoing comic book? Read this gorram issue! We knew Zatanna was going to be big in this storyline, but I didn’t know she was going to show up with a whole team! And that they’d be labeled the Absolute Suicide Squad! And that Giganta and Cheetah would make their debuts! Cheetah isn’t Barbara?! Whaaaat? How exciting!

So yeah, stellar issue! We start with a bunch of downtime stuff, which I love to read in my superhero comics. Steve at a Senate hearing, everybody getting dressed up to attend a museum gala; this is the sort of stuff you need to have in your ongoing superhero comic to make the characters really and truly matter. And it’s handled gorgeously in this issue. Everybody is dressed to the nines for the gala, and Diana readily and easily steps into the role of celebrity and role model. I love these sorts of scenes and they are so nice in a comic like this. Building Diana’s character, and her supporting cast, is so crucial.

Then, of course, we get to the explosive stuff! Zatanna has been teased for a few issues now, which qualifies as excellent story and character build-up. She’s on the cover. We knew she was coming. And then bam! Thompson delivers even more, all in one big page-turn reveal. And it’s so damn exciting! It’s a great use of expectations when it comes to creating Absolute versions of classic characters. Just like with Marvel’s old Ultimate Universe, it’s fun to see how classic characters are going to be brought over. And bam! Just smack us in the face with both Giganta and Cheetah, both of whom look great! To say nothing of the reveal that some version of Cheetah is going to exist before Barbara Minerva…

And, of course, Hayden Sherman and Jordie Bellaire do their usual career-defining, industry-setting work. From the insane panel work — I haven’t even mentioned the flashback fight with Artemis — to the illustrious museum spread to the big character reveals, it’s all so god damned glorious! Just glorious.

TL;DR: The arrival of Absolute Zatanna was always going to be big, but then everybody involved in this comic made the whole issue even bigger than just that, on so many glorious and entertaining levels.

Iron Man #1
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Carmen Carnero
Colorist: Nolan Woodard
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Once again, Marvel is relaunching Iron Man to try to find something that sticks. I didn’t care for the last relaunch and gave up pretty quickly. But this time they got Joshua Williamson, who has been writing an absolutely stellar Superman run. So I’m gonna really try this time!

Tony Stark hosts the inaugural Tony Stark Awards, giving grant money to smart people he has handpicked to excel. But Madam Masque and A.I.M. crash the party and kidnap the recipient, and meanwhile have also kidnapped all of the nominees/finalists, for some new project she’s working on. Iron Man promises to save everybody, but has to go dark from his allies and makes a secret call to Captain America: he thinks this new project is based on some “New Nightmare” contingency plans he put into place long ago. Cap agrees to meet. When he’s off the call, it’s revealed that Cap is already meeting with a who’s who of superheroes because they’ve already started working on a plan to take down Tony Stark!

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

I liked it, but I didn’t love it. It’s got all the right pieces for a new Iron Man launch, and Williamson writes them all well, with great art from Carnero. Top marks to everyone involved. But it didn’t have that electricity that I remember from the first issue of Williamson’s Superman. Should I be comparing the two? Probably not. I just want to say I have high hopes for Williamson in everything he does after his Superman comic.

The comic itself is very solid. I really like Willimason’s take on Tony Stark. He’s a very distinct character who easily commands the spotlight throughout the issue. And he does good work as Iron Man. Like I said, the artwork is excellent, and we get to see Iron Man be big and full of energy and superheroics. There’s no reinventing the wheel with this issue. Is it heavily inspired by the movies? Yeah, maybe, but not to the comic’s detriment. So we get an entertaining Tony Stark doing Tony Stark things and it definitely works. Kicking off the issue with a quick run-in with classic villain Blizzard is always a great touch. Williamson did such great work with reinventing and reusing Superman’s classic rogues, and I hope to see the same here with Iron Man.

The story is also good. Tony Stark hand selects some smart people to win a grant award and the bad guys kidnap those people because surely they’re great? Makes good sense! And then it’s revealed that it’s possibly tied to some secret plans Tony had in the past, and that he’s now got other heroes gunning for him? Solid, enjoyable cliffhanger reveal ending. All of it good, all of it works. This is a very tight, very well made relaunch issue. It just…I dunno…lacked that spark. Lacked that pizzazz. And I can’t tell you what exactly was missing. But I can tell you I’ll definitely be back for more.

TL;DR: Very strong relaunch with a lot to love in this first issue, but it lacks the spark to really elevate it to something special for now.

Shorter Reviews:

Absolute Martian Manhunter #8 by Deniz Camp, Javier Rodriguez and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

So this issue is one of those issues where it all just sort of goes over my head. I’m pretty sure I understood some of it. And I know for a fact that I didn’t understand the significance of the ending, and needed that spelled out for me on the internet. The artwork is still amazing. And I’m sure if I better understood exactly what was happening, I’d say the writing and storytelling is amazing as well. But I just don’t do so good with the super smart writing. So yeah, that’s just going to happen sometimes when it comes to me and this comic. I was able to get on board after a few issues of the first volume, but this second volume is definitely out there so far.

Power Rangers Prime #14 by Melissa Flores, Federico Sorressa, Joana Lafuente and Ed Dukeshire

Knowing this series is coming to an end in only, like, two issues has definitely taken all of the wind out of its sails. What’s even the point anymore? Last issue ended with the Rangers getting ready to assault a prison. This issue immediately cancels that idea, brings back Jun already, throws in a Red Samurai Ranger to complicate things, and then suddenly also brings in the Gold Zeo Ranger?! What are we even doing here? This series would have been better without so many obvious ties to the past. I like it as an alternate Earth, where the original Command Center is a ruin and Rita is different. But some of the direct callbacks are weird. Why are there still Samurai Rangers?

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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