Comic Book Case

Batgirl #41

Batgirl encounters the new Batman while she and her friend/sidekick Frankie investigate a mysterious cult trying revive an enemy she had defeated while back, presumably the algorithm that went rogue in her last story. When meeting with her father the next day he reveals that he is serving as the new Batman for Gotham city and before she can tell him that she is Batgirl he tells that he has orders to arrest all the vigilantes in Gotham City. At an arcade/bar called Quarters, Barbara and Frankei are attacked by Leslie Willus A.K.A Livewire an enemy that she and Supergirl defeated in the animated series. Batgirl tires to fight her but nothing seems to work until Batman shows up and Livewire escapes after Batman fires on her and he puts out an APB out for her before placing Batgirl under arrest.

Honestly, I haven't been 100% sold on Fletcher's take on Batgirl. Maybe it comes to preference but I much rather liked Simone's take on the character better, there isn't much internal dialogue from her and considering that Burce Wayne is presumably dead you'd think that would warrant some thought. The best thing about this would definitely be the one on one she has with her father and Fletcher has been good with showing happy moments from her childhood. His first story with her was on and off but I'm willing to keep reading.  The art is another story I don't really like the cartoony look it gives off sometimes, it may be my least favorite artwork with Batman Inc taking the first spot.

Aquaman #41

Aquaman 41 takes it to Missouri where a mysterious temple appears and this sort of black ink comes fring out and starts pulling people in. Aquaman shows up and starts cutting it up with a sword which turns out to be his new trident. Aquaman thinks about how things in his life are starting to spin out of control before telling whatever is in the temple to come out and he reveals how the creatures in their are fighting to survive. We then get a flashback showing how he first encountered the temple and the ink in the ocean and he finds out from Vulko that they are another civilization that cold threaten Atlantis but before we can find out more Aquaman is attacked by Atlantean ships and he later teleports away where we flashback to when he was in Atlantis and telling Mera how he wants to investigate on his own and wants her to stay behind to rule in his stead.  Coming back to present day we see Aquaman has teleported to the Amazon where he enters one of the temples and he his greeted by the people of the civilization, revealing that he is also protecting them and that is why he is on the run from Atlantis.

It seems the issue was rather weird. The idea is good but it really is too much to take in in just a few pages. We don't really get enough to explain what's going on. Aquaman has chosen to protect the enemy that is threatening to destroy Atlantis and he is on the run from it, though we don't know why. We also do't know exactly what the enemy is but the last page shows us what looks like regular people in the temple and the preview says that it is the "Other"Atlantis. All interesting but this felt a bit clumsy with no real ques to the flashbacks.

Green Lantern, the Lost Army

Our new Green Lantern story goes all n with John Stewart and a group of new and old lanterns as well as the guardian Krona fighting off a  horde of orange creatures that erase foreign called Cleaners matter in a strange universe/dimension. As they fight them off John thinks about aggression and how ti can help as well as how the other lanterns don't see it and he thinks about his time in the army. When they are able to break away from them they enter a telepathic chat about Krona while following a signal from other lanterns. This Krona appears to be younger and not yet the one who put Parallax into the Central Power Battery on Oa. When they find the signal origin they find a the lanterns dead encased in a red crystals and when scanned it's revealed the spears used are full of the emotion of rage. Krona is able to trace the emotional energy back to it's source but before they head off they see another group of Cleaners but they are destroyed by Guy Gardner who shows up wearing both a green and red ring. He says that he wasn't even wearing his ring before he wound up here wearing both. They find the source of emotional energy, a red pyramid fueled by rage.

This was a bit interesting though they never mention where they are because they don't know, the fact that a younger version of Krona is here with no knowledge of the rings implies they may be in the past. John Stewart is back in classic form, he's always been the most reliable of the Earth Lanterns and seeing him taking point here is a good call to the Green Lantern Corp books. It's interesting to see Guy wearing two rings, something he had only done in War of the Green Lanterns but this time he isn't showing any real strain and seems fine. The Red Pyramid is interesting and it almost looks and is described like a power battery but Guy doesn't seem to recognize it.  I originally wasn't sure if I was going to keep reading this but it does seem fun and the fact that Arisia and Killowog is in this story is more than enough to keep me interested.

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