I don’t know what was going on with me this week, but I wasn’t particularly jazzed by any of the new comics I read this week. There might be something wrong with me if I can’t enjoy Absolute Green Arrow or Wonder Woman!

Comic Book of the Week goes to Fury of Firestorm #7 for a nice start to the new story.

Meanwhile, I just finished the second season of Haunted Hotel on Netflix and it was just as much fun as the first! Definitely recommended if you want a fun little cartoon. I’m going to see Wildwood this weekend and I’m very excited about that. And I’ll be playing 007: First Light until Nov. 19.

Also, thank you to everyone who ordered Cover Bard #1 through my Kickstarter! We hit our fundraising goal and someday soon I’ll have printed copies of my newest comic in hand!

Comic Reviews: Absolute Green Arrow #6, Fury of Firestorm #7, Wonder Woman #38 and Avengers Armageddon #5.

Absolute Green Arrow #6
Writer: Pornsak Pichetshote
Artist: Rafael Albuquerque
Colorist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Jeff Powell

The first chapter of Absolute Green Arrow wraps up in this issue, with most everything revealed and our anti-hero ready to rock and roll!

Absolute Green Arrow is Connor Hawke, the apprentice of Malcolm Merlyn. He faked his death earlier. And there’s some complicated backstory between him and Oliver and Oliver’s attempted run for the presidency. It’s a mess. But Connor and Dinah defeat Solomon Grundy, and then Dinah’s overwhelmed emotions lead to a massive, devastating Canary Cry that takes out Hammond’s armed guards and the whole facility. The good guys get away.

Comic Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good.

As I’ve mentioned before, the problem with Absolute Green Arrow is that there are too many people involved in the big mystery and few of them are memorable enough for everything to fully make sense here at the end. It’s not like we’re reinventing the Batman mythos, where the writer could namedrop “Harvey Dent” or “Oswald Cobblepot” and we would all understand who we’re dealing with. I don’t even know if half these people named are from Green Arrow mythos. But now that all is revealed, I’m just lost at the timeline of things, of who Oliver Queen knew and when, of how Connor Hawke plays into all of this, of the Zytles and Garcias and Hammonds and then Mia and Roy. The central mystery is a big mess.

Fortunately, that’s not the only part of the comic.

I liked everything else with this series. Connor Hawke as the Absolute Green Arrow works perfectly fine for me. I don’t know him to be Oliver Queen. Oliver’s death at the hands of Hawkman was great and I wanted it to stick. And I very much enjoyed the scene of Connor making friends with those guys from a previous issue. The scene establishes, quite on the nose, in fact, that Green Arrow can be a modern day, billionaire-killing Robin Hood figure and people will support him. And that’s exactly what I want from this series. That’s how you make Absolute Green Arrow stand out. And I’m also down with Dinah, Roy and Mia being their own, separate squad of do-gooder characters. Both avenues sound good to me going forward, now that this confusing mystery is behind us.

TL;DR: I feel the big mystery of Absolute Green Arrow is dead on arrival, but the action, the artwork, the characters and the set-up for the rest of the series remain strong.

The Fury of Firestorm #7
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Rafael De Latorre
Colorist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Lucas Gattoni

Fury of Firestorm wasn’t meant to go beyond those first six issues, so let’s dive in to some off-the-cuff content!

Firestorm has been reborn in his early ’90s look, but he’s confused and wanders into a nearby town. A child version of Ronnie Raymond shows up (probably just in his head) to try to get him to come around. Mr. Terrific and Captain Atom question Lorraine about what’s going on as part of an official Justice League investigation, but they won’t agree to her request that the League back up Ronnie and blame all the damage on the Firestorm Matrix. Terrific and Atom are then called away to try to capture the reborn Firestorm, but the military get to him first and lock him up.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

I continue to enjoy the use of Lorraine as the real protagonist of this book. She’s this D-list superhero who has been thrust into this larger-than-life matter, fighting for someone she loves while being up against the likes of the government and the Justice League. It’s neat! I don’t know anything about this 90s version of Firestorm, but it’s a great way to keep the story going while touching on classic Firestorm stuff. Let’s explore as much as we can with this character. Take everything from his past and rework it into new and interesting stories. And this issue does that nicely. We get some quality fallout from the previous storyline, we get some quality Lorraine time, especially with another check-in with Jason, and then we get the new mystery/threat of this revived 90s Firestorm. And the artwork remains excellent.

TL;DR: The new storyline in Fury of Firestorm is off to a very good start, with new mysteries, new concerns and a lot of great character work.

Wonder Woman #38
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Daniel Sampere
Colorist: Alejandro Sanchez
Letterer: Clayton Cowles

Tom King’s Wonder Woman is coming to an end soon and hopefully it goes out strong.

Matriarch poisons Lizzie and uses that to negotiate her escape from Diana, with Matriarch taking both babies. But Nubia and the Amazons are not about to let her go and take her down. Except the Sovereign and brought some of the other villains to the island, including Dr. Psycho and Angleman, to fight the Amazons and save Matriarch.

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

I feel like the wind has come out of the sails on this comic and I’m not sure why. I still think the writing and art are strong. Maybe I’m just bored of Matriarch? In this issue, she just seems to be a baddie with a Green Lantern ring. I didn’t read that one-part story where she fought her way out of Hell, but when Nubia can solo Matriarch by just dodging the ring, she doesn’t feel all that evil for this final part of King’s Wonder Woman saga. So I’m just not as jazzed as I was at the start of King’s run. The arrival of the Sovereign and the other villains at the end should be fun, I hope. I’m still expecting a grand finale here to tie it all off. But the artwork is excellent, the writing is fine and the issue moves along nicely, so it’s not a total bust or anything like that. I just feel like the early series energy is gone.

TL;DR: Matriarch has not really developed as an all-encompassing villain, which seems to be what the comic insists she is at this point.

Shorter Reviews

Avengers Armageddon #5 by Chip Zdarsky, Delio Diaz, Frank Alpizar, Ario Anindito, Jesus Aburtov and VC’s Cory Petit

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

So ultimately, Avengers Armageddon was just set-up for Zdarsky’s Avengers comic. The explosion from the previous issue killed a lot of people, but I wouldn’t call it ‘Armageddon.’ This issue is spent setting up what’s going to happen going forward. Why do the characters who join Zdarky’s Avengers feel the desire to be on that team. What is the public opinion going to be on superheroes. We don’t learn anything new about David Colton’s transformation into Miracleman, except that, apparently, there already exists a Miracleman in the 616 Marvel Universe. Why was his power box different from the power boxes that apparently came from the Ultimate Universe? I dunno. I think this issue does a pretty OK job of setting up Avengers, which I’m definitely going to check out.

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.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –