What a week, what a week! I was off from work this week and mostly spent my time lounging around not doing much of anything. Good times. I got caught up on a couple of comic series that I’d abandoned a while ago. So that was nice. And we’ve got review for those comics, like Absolute Flash and X-Men.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Batman #7 for doing something new and potentially interesting with the Joker.

Meanwhile, I hurt my thumb somehow so I couldn’t play anything video games with a thumb stick this week. Instead, I built some LEGO and started watching the final seasons of My Hero Academia. Let’s hope the show ends well. I also watched Strip Law on Netflix and it was good. I like watching these random adult animated shows on Netflix, and this one was particularly weird and wacky in all the ways I like.

Comic Reviews: Absolute Flash #12, Absolute Superman #17, Batman #7 and X-Men #26.

Absolute Flash #12
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artists: Nick Robles and A.L. Kaplan
Colorist: Adriano Lucas
Letterer: Tom Napolitano

With my week off from work, Absolute Flash was one of the titles I got caught up on, having abandoned the series after only issue 4 or 5. And after getting caught up…I’m not into it. Not for me.

So let’s see…all the experiments at Fort Fox involved reaching an interdimensional plane called the Still Point. Barry Allen’s soul is there, and Wally went there for a bit. We don’t really learn much about it, but I guess it fuels Wally’s powers…which are still vaguely super speed and maybe something more? I dunno. Anyway, Eobard Thawne passed into the Still Point decades ago and now has emerged as a giant speed monster. Wally fights it, with help from the Rogues, and they push the monster back into the Still Point…with Wally’s dad sacrificing himself to make the final push.

Comic Rating: 5/10 – Alright.

I stand by my decision to abandon Absolute Flash. Nothing I read over the past many catch-up issues makes this series either stand out or even stand up alongside the greats like Batman and Wonder Woman. It’s just a generic, slow-moving story that didn’t arrive anywhere interesting. This issue is the big culmination, and it’s really just everybody dogpiling on a giant, lumbering monster. Giant Monster Thawne doesn’t really serve any narrative or thematical point. Wally doesn’t arrive at any special breakthrough. Nothing is revealed about the Still Point or his powers. They all kinda just beat up on a monster and then call it a day.

Absolute Flash, overall, is finely written, and the story stays on track, so it’s not a bad comic. It’s just not an interesting comic. The Flash’s powers are still very ill-defined, unless it really is just super-speed. It mostly feels like some vague red energy power. All my hopes about focusing on Wally as a normal human gaining super powers never materialized. Instead, the book is about uncovering the mysteries of the Still Point and how Wally is the key…but none of that really materializes in an interesting way either. Honestly, the book is really about the Rogues, and they probably are the best part of the comic. So at least they were fun. Also, I hate being critical of art because I’m just not good at it, but the artwork never really took off in this series, not like it’s been for the rest of the Absolute line.

TL;DR: The final issue of the first year of Absolute Flash ends mostly on a whimper. It’s entirely unfair to judge this series against the gold standards in the rest of the line, but Absolute Flash just doesn’t cut the mustard.

Absolute Superman #17
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Juan Ferreyra
Letterer: Becca Carey

Even though Absolute Superman has fallen from the heights of being my favorite Absolute book, it’s still darn good.

Superman and Hawkman take on the Parasite, though Hawkman doesn’t listen to a thing Superman suggests. After freeing Lois Lane from the Parasite’s grasp (it holds people in its gooey mind prison), Superman figures out that courage will free all the trapped citizens. So Superman allows himself to be gooed up (Hawkman already got got), and he psychically visits every single trapped person to give them a pep talk to get free. It works and the day is saved!

Meanwhile, Talia frees her father from prison and Brainiac slaughter’s Lex Luthor’s entire family line in order to convince him to turn evil.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

This issue was an excellent continuation from the previous one, in that I still really like what they’re doing with Absolute Hawkman. He’s an asshole and a villain, sure, but he’s also…heroic? That’s probably not the right word. But the dude is here to stop the monster and save the people, to a degree, and I like that complexity in an antagonist. Of course, we can count on Superman to rise up and save the day in ways outside and around Hawkman’s brute strength ideas, and I like how it all comes together in the end. We’ve got a monster, it’s got rules, and Superman figures out those rules and saves the day in true heroic fashion. I dig it and I enjoyed it.

I’m not as big a fan of Ra’s al Ghul getting free to easily, or at least not so quickly. Would have been nice if he’d truly stayed in the prison himself. Or perhaps he is changed enough going forward that what Superman did to him will have a real affect. That’s mostly what I want. And I’m not a big fan of what Brainiac does to Lex Luthor. I loved the twist that Luthor is a happy family man, so to have Brainiac just slaughter his family feels cheap…especially if he’s doing it based on some predictive algorithm that says Lex Luthor should be evil. But! I’m going to reserve judgement to see where this goes. I’m hoping it just doesn’t work like Brainiac intends, and this actually sends Lex Luthor to some new and really unique places, characterwise.

Also, the artwork is still top notch. Good fill-in work!

TL;DR: Excellent second part to last issue’s story, with a great use of Absolute Hawkman and some very good Superman heroics.

Batman #7
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Jorge Jimenez
Colorist: Tomeu Morey
Letterer: Clayton Cowles

I’m trusting in Fraction to do something new and unique with the Joker. He’s off to a good start.

Also, just as an aside, I’m in the middle of reading Fraction’s Sex Criminals omnibus. Pretty fun.

The Joker is hooked up to a bunch of machines, including Dr. Zeller’s new brain device, and is floating in a Bacta Tank in Arkham Towers. He gets word that he wants to speak to Batman, who goes to visit to humor the guy. Joker says he’s feeling much better thanks to the device and they have a tense back and forth. Joker finally reveals that he wanted Batman there to warn him that someone is coming to kill him.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

As I’ve mentioned many times on this blog, I’m just not the biggest fan of the Joker. And in this day and age, he’s very overused. But we’re already off to a very good start on doing something new and different. He’s trapped in a Bacta Tank and Dr. Zeller’s magic MacGuffin helmet appears to be working. That’s new. That’s unique. So this storyline is off to a good start based on that alone. I’ve never liked the idea of the Joker knowing Batman’s real identity…but that’s been the case for a while now, so I’m not surprised or dismayed too much by the issue-ending reveal. Again, we’ll see where it goes from here.

The issue itself is solid. Fraction continues to write an engaging Batman, and the back and forth between Batman and Joker is well done. I like the gimmick of Joker talking through the machine and how it’s portrayed in the comic. Part of my dislike of the Joker is touched upon in this issue, when he starts going on a monologue about how Batman is lonely and that only they understand one another. I realize that’s a key part of Joker’s character, but I’ve always felt it was only one-sided. For me, Batman is not obsessed with the Joker, nor does he believe they are destined to do this forever. So hopefully the story isn’t going in that direction.

TL;DR: Very interesting and potentially unique start to a new Joker story, but we’ll have to see where it goes.

X-Men #26
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Netho Diaz
Inker: Sean Parsons
Colorist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles

Man, I really don’t like Big Event crossovers. Age of Revelation really threw me off — I didn’t read a lick — but I wanted to try to get back into at least one X-Men comic. I’ve also really, really wanted to try to get caught back up on Gail Simone’s Uncanny X-Men, but I’m pretty sure I’m 20 or so issues behind…

Someone has kidnapped the sheriff, so Cyclops takes a squad of X-Men to rescue her from a ship in the bay…and it’s a trap. The Beyond Corporation and O.N.E. have set the trap. Meanwhile, Psylocke goes to help her boyfriend, Greycrow, after he got shot by cops while robbing a bank. And someone ambushes Glob when he sets up a produce stand in town.

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

This was a solid issue that eased back into ongoing stories, while still using the leftover Age of Revelation stuff to drive some of it. Everybody is used well, the various plotlines are good and we get plenty of action and downtime. Honestly, I’m a little disappointed that somebody ambushes Glob in the end. Can we not just have nice, quiet moments? Must there always be conflict? Yeah, probably, it’s a superhero comic. And therefore it does the superhero parts good. I liked the X-Men moving in as a competent strike force to save the sheriff. I like that part of this comic. But overall, I wouldn’t mind more downtime and team building for this squad. But I’d say that for any comic. This series does well what it does.

TL;DR: This issue settles well into the post-Big Event landscape, with stories and characters getting back into the normal groove.

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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