Category Archives: Comics
Everybody Lives! (At Least the Characters I Care About)
The final issue of The Clone Conspiracy landed in our laps this week and it was actually pretty cool! The last issue was probably the best issue of the event. It had excitement, tension, team-ups, funny bits and a deep and abiding use of some of Spider-Man’s strongest relationships.
And best of all, my favorite characters are still alive!
Sure, it looks bleak now
No spoilers here in the opening crawl. You’ll have to join me after the jump to see who I’m talking about.
For now, I enjoyed The Clone Conspiracy for the most part, especially this final issue. But the problem with The Clone Conspiracy is that it was more idea than actual story, and even then, not a very clever or original idea. Basically, the Jackal comes back, clones a bunch more people, and when Spider-Man refuses to join him, he threatens to kill everybody. Spidey and his allies then flip a switch and the day is saved.
The event was mostly characters explaining the idea to Spider-Man, with a few twists and sub-plots peppered into inflate the running time.
Like I said, it was fine. Not writer Dan Slott’s best Spider-Man event, but I enjoyed it all the same.
Now then, who gets to live?
Why Does Batman Name His New Team the ‘Justice League of America’?
DC has relaunched a new iteration of the Justice League of America this past week and I’m a little confused. According to Justice League of America Rebirth #1, Batman forms the team to be a grounded, more human-focused group of superheroes as opposed to the god-like regular Justice League.
Batman is a big fan of The Flash TV show
We all know the branding reason why the new comic is called ‘Justice League of America’, but after reading this prologue issue, I’m wondering what the in-story reason is for Batman being so patriotic in naming his new team. When has Batman ever been a flag-waving character?
The Rebirth issue is a prologue about Batman going out and recruiting Black Canary, Lobo, the Ray, the Atom, Vixen and Killer Frost to form his new team. This isn’t the first time Batman has formed his own, more grounded Justice League. Any comic book scholar worth her salt would see this as an obvious Batman and the Outsiders-style group.
JLA is definitely the name he picks
But no, it’s not called ‘Batman and the Outsiders’. For reasons that go unexplained, Batman just copies of the name of the regular Justice League and tags ‘of America’ at the end, as if his team is only going to fight bad guys in the continental United States. It makes zero sense.
Especially when you remember that there already was a ‘Justice League of America’ in the New 52 continuity, which I’m pretty sure still applies in the Rebirth era. That team had a reason for using ‘of America’ in their name. They were legitimately government-based.
Remember them?
Has Batman forgotten about them? Is her purposefully co-opting the name for his new squad? What reason could that possibly serve?
Batman is a superhero who knows how branding works. And he’s clearly put a lot of thought into this team — hence why he’s recruited complete newbies Ray and Atom, and why he recruited Lobo for a grounded, more human-focused group of superheroes. So it just doesn’t make any sense why Batman, of all superheroes, would call this team the ‘Justice League of America’ instead of literally anything else.
But I suppose even Batman recognizes that ‘The Outsiders’ just isn’t marketable.
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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews -2/11/17
The superhero movie bombardment has begun! This year is going to be bursting at the seams with new superhero movies, and The LEGO Batman Movie has kicked things off with aplomb! It’s a super fun film and a great celebration of Batman! I’m going to put my review into next week’s List of Six, so stay tuned.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any Batman comics to review this week. Granted, about half a dozen different Batman-focused comics came out, but I don’t read them well enough to add them to the review pile. So you’re only getting fun Marvel Comics this week! Including the Comic Book of the Week, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl!
Old school crime fighting
The latest issue of Inhumans vs. X-Men also came out this week, but it was kind of a non-issue. A bunch of stuff happened that will move the story along, sure, but none of it had much thematic or dramatic weight. The story just moved along, but at least Marvel didn’t make any more new blunders to vilify Cyclops.
Comic Reviews: Jessica Jones #5, Ms. Marvel #15, Power Man and Iron Fist #13, Unworthy Thor #4 and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #17.
Tim Drake Works to Reclaim His Title as Best Robin Ever
Now that his stint in the Teen Titans is over, and even though he’s believed to be dead, Tim Drake is still taking steps to reclaim his title as the Best Robin Ever. Don’t believe that’s true? Just ask noted Batmanologist Chris Sims. Simple as that.
But when Tim was rebooted into Red Robin and leader of the Teen Titans for the New 52, a lot of that energy and magic went away. Suddenly he didn’t have much to do with Batman overall. And now everybody’s calling Damian Wayne the Best Robin ever. Please.
Fortunately, even in death, Tim is around to set the record straight, like in this week’s new issue of Detective Comics!
Also, Redbird is back!
It’s all leading towards this year’s big Batman stories, in which the not-dead Tim Drake will hopefully play a big role. But until then, join me after the jump for how Tim proves he’s the best, better than all the rest.
SPOILERS for Detective Comics #950.
Mosaic is an Alright Guy, But Marvel Might Not Know How His Powers Work
I want to get one thing straight right off the bat: I kid because I love. I love Marvel Comics. I love the X-Men. And from Schism to Secret Wars, I absolutely loved what Marvel was doing with Cyclops. They made him the most fascinating character in their universe, with more shades of gray than a steamy, fan fiction romance novel.
Which is why I’m so disappointed that Marvel is completely futzing up Cyclops’ story in the current Inhumans vs. X-Men crossover. All the nuance and complexity is gone as they forcefully paint Cyclops and the X-Men as monsters — until the new issue this week, which might just prove that Marvel knows what they’re doing after all. And it all hinges on that most interesting of new characters, Mosaic.
Words to live by
For those of you who don’t know, Mosaic is a new Inhuman with the power to jump into your mind and control you like a puppet. He’s also the star of his own brand new ongoing solo series, which is very rare for Marvel these days. They don’t just go around handing ongoing solo comics to brand new characters.
I’ve been reading Mosaic and it’s alright. Personally, I think it’s wasting time on surface level stuff instead of diving into the real drama that’s simmering in the background, but maybe that’s just me. Regardless, Mosaic is a pretty interesting dude, and he plays a pivotal role in this week’s issue of Inhumans vs. X-Men.
How pivotal? Join me after the jump to find out! Also, between all of his appearances in this event, I don’t think the memo is going around about how Mosaic’s body-control powers work.
SPOILERS for Inhumans vs. X-Men #4, as well as the Mosaic ongoing series.
Henchman-4-Hire 