This was one of those weird weeks where all the comics I read were a bunch of enjoyable, entertaining reads, but then none of them really stood out as particularly interesting or worth writing about. But I did it anyway! For comics like Absolute Green Arrow and Daredevil, even! But if my reviews seem a bit drab, that’s why.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Avengers: Armageddon #3 for a solid, energetic twist at the end.

Meanwhile, I’m just killing time until I pick up Star Wars: Zero Company next week. That should be fun! I’m keeping an eye on all these Grand Theft Auto VI leaks but don’t really care about them. I looooved the first episode of Lanterns, and the only thing I don’t like is that I don’t have the entire season available to binge watch right away! Gonna have to be patient on that one. Next weekend is also Coyote vs. Acme, so that’s good too!

Comic Reviews: Absolute Green Arrow #4, Avengers: Armageddon #3, Daredevil #5 and Uncanny X-Men #34.

Absolute Green Arrow #4
Writer: Pornsak Pichetshote
Artist: Rafael Albuquerque
Colorist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Jeff Powell

We still don’t know the identity of the Absolute Green Arrow, but that’s OK. We’ll get there.

Dinah dispatches Solomon Grundy, but loses Roy Harper in the chaos. She heads deeper into the facility and finds a bunch more mutilated bodies, as well as Hector Hammond and his mad scientist, Dr. Iker, performing even more evil experiments. Dinah gets the drop on them and Hammond promises to take her to Ollie — and he takes her to his cut up body! And then Hammond is able to revive Grundy to attack Dinah, but the Green Arrow shows up to help. But Grundy might be too much for him.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

Parts of this issue felt a little disjointed, but it otherwise comes together nicely in the end. For example, I didn’t quite realize at first that Hector Hammond and this Iker fellow — apparently an old school Hourman villain — were in the same facility as Dinah. But I quickly figured it out and moved on. There’s also an extended flashback of Ollie having a chat with one of the earlier victims, talking about how they’re the good billionaires, and it’s their responsibility to use their money for the betterment of all. And that’s a little dicey, considering the other major themes of this book, of billionaires being bad. I don’t need this comic to sanitize billionaires just to make sure that Oliver Queen isn’t a total schmuck. But we’ll see where that’s all going.

The main story was perfectly enjoyable and very entertaining. Dinah and the Green Arrow team up to take on this monstrous Solomon Grundy, and Albuquerque does a phenomenal job of making the monster truly grotesque. He makes all the villains look truly grotesque, which is a hoot! The action is good, and I like that Dinah and the Green Arrow are finally on the same page. I don’t have any good guesses for who it might be under the skull mask. I doubt it’s going to be Roy Harper, which would be fine. But yeah, some really good imagery this issue, even if I felt it could be a bit disjointed at times.

TL;DR: Nicely grotesque, with solid story forward movement, makes for a nice little chapter in this comic.

Avengers: Armageddon #3
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Artist: Ario Anindito
Colorist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

I’m sticking with this Big Event for reasons that I perhaps don’t fully understand.

David Colton is off the leash and he’s started using his immense power to take away all nuclear weapons from every country on Earth. The superheroes aren’t happy about this, but they can’t stop him, so they settle for trying to talk to him about not rocking the boat. Bucky decides to join Colton. Ross wakes up in Russia. And Nick Fury Jr. reveals that his new SHIELD is actually anti-superhero.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

This issue actually really succeeds in building tension and coming up with some cool, exciting reveals. I was very whelmed by the new SHIELD in Zdarsky’s Captain America comic. They didn’t seem like anything. But revealing that they exist as an anti-superhero element sounds amazing to me! I love it and it works great as a big reveal at the end of this issue. So that’s why it gets such high marks. It actually made the story exciting for once. I might actually look forward to the post-Armageddon world that Marvel keeps going on about. So I can honestly say I finally enjoyed and felt excited about an issue of Avengers: Armageddon.

I’m also making my peace with David Colton probably being a bad guy by the end of this. I wasn’t a big fan of all the preachiness in this issue, of all the superheroes trying to talk Colton out of disarming the world of its nuclear weapons. Such a weird fine line to have to walk. I think Superman did this in one of his movies? I don’t remember how it went. But yeah, it feels just like what happened with that last Doctor Doom big event. He’s making the world a better place! Oh, but we superheroes must preserve the status quo, no matter what! Getting rid of all the nukes in the world would be a good thing! Nah, we have to resist, because of people. I hope this Big Event can eventually commit to something exciting and worthwhile going forward.

TL;DR: Some interesting twists and reveals elevate this issue of the Big Event to give it a little juice, which is always a good thing when we’re mostly slogging our way through.

Daredevil #5
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Lee Garbett
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: VC’s Ariana Maher

The Omen storyline wraps up for a moment and it’s a solid ending.

Daredevil checks in with Detective Forte after Omen killed his partner. Daredevil realizes that Omen might target Foggy Nelson, who has just returned from Florida. Daredevil finds Omen in Foggy’s apartment and they fight, until Forte shows up and shoots Omen dead. But his body is stolen in transit.

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

I know I’ve harped on this before in my reviews of this series, but the idea that Spider-Man and Daredevil took it upon themselves to name Omen feels even weirder when Daredevil uses that name to talk about him with other people. Maybe Omen had his own supervillain name picked out! You don’t know, Daredevil. Don’t be rude about this. But I kid. This was a solid, enjoyable issue. I’m sure the storyline isn’t fully wrapped up, but it comes to a pretty definitive end for now. And it’s good. The fight is bolstered by the friendship between Matt and Foggy, which is always helpful. And Detective Forte is on edge. I just sort of feel like it didn’t come to as big of a bang as I would have liked. That might also just be because I don’t dig Omen all that much overall.

TL;DR: There’s more than enough emotional character moments to carry this issue, though I personally feel the villain is a bit lacking and that is compounding.

Uncanny X-Men #34
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Luciano Vecchio
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles

I’m gonna try to stick with Uncanny X-Men going forward. We’ll see how it goes. And we’ll see if I ever get around to going back and reading all the issues I’ve missed so far.

Gambit and Rogue battle some really cool demon Sentinels that come for Remy’s soul, and the violence gets them and Father Gabriel kicked off the island. So Gabriel takes them to a new character, Repent, who is an exorcist for mutants.

Meanwhile, back in Louisiana, a somewhat feral hyena/dog mutant kid is found in the family chicken coop. Monet leads the charge in making the boy feel welcome as he slowly starts to reveal that he comes from a really bad place where they treated him and others like dogs.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

It’s an enjoyable comic. No doubting that. I like how all the characters are written. The action is good, the emotional heft is good. Lot of great moments of Rogue and Gambit being there for one another, which is bolstered by how they came off in the final episode of X-Men ’97. It’s all good, entertaining writing. Same with the stuff in Louisiana. We’re introduced to a new character, Howler, who I think looks like a hyena mutant. He looks cool, that’s for sure, and he’s a solid set-up for the Louisiana team.

I’m a big fan of gnolls in fantasy stories, and a hyena mutant sounds cool to me. Hopefully he doesn’t go the way of that stegosaurus mutant from Exceptional X-Men.

Anyway, what I really want to talk about are the haunted demon Sentinels we got this issue!

That is a cool as hell design that easily bumped this issue’s rating up a notch. Those cool damn good, so kudos to Vecchio for the artwork, and Wilson for the perfect colors. Very nice blend of classic X-Men baddie with the current demon storyline. Gambit turning into a literal demon is a bit weird, but I read the first few issues of this run, so I know the gist. And those demon Sentinels make it very easy to understand. Very entertaining battle sequence. Looking forward to where this goes from here.

TL;DR: Some amazing visuals really elevate this issue as we move the various stories along.

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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