Comic Book Case

Wonder Woman #45 (Everybody beats up Wonder Woman)

Aegus is on Olympus and declaring his intentions to kill Wonder Woman, he is enhanced enough to beat her bloody and she still won't fight him. I just can't figure anything out about this book. Aegus has proven to be highly inconsistent as a character. Maybe the idea is that he isn't good at anything but his backstory of being abused by his father and having to fight his whole life (and apparently steal other people's identity) make him generic and dull as well as annoying. It is sad that the best character here was Strife who not only seemed consistent with her character but also showed that she did care about Diana to an extent. Donna Troy's own little adventure with Violet I felt was just pointless and only serving to put her back on the track of opposing Diana just for her to be turned to stone. Nothing about this makes much sense, especially Aegus who after meeting his benefactor again he seems to have a complete change of heart as we reveal that the god behind Aegus was Eirene, the Goddess of peace who is upset about Diana killing Ares. I just don't know anymore.

Justice League #45 (people becoming gods like saiyans becoming super saiyans)

Darkseid is dead but the fight is actually farther from over than we could ever imagine. Superman, Lex Luthor, Batman, Flash, and Shazam have become gods (of strength, Apokalypse, knowledge, death, and gods respectively). It's an interesting idea that if nothing else is good enough to get tie-in issue which is why I had to temporarily drop Green Lantern: Lost Army. The book primarily focuses on what everyone is doing after the death of Darkseid and what this new state of godhood has done to our heroes. The Anti-Monitor is about to become Mobius while Hal returns to Oa to deal with the Paradaemons who are heading towards it. At the same time the people of Apokalypse infuse Lex with the Omega Effect as Shazam becomes overwhelmed by the gods of New Genesis taking residence within him. Wonder Woman (who still has beautiful dialogue), Steve Trevor, Cyborg, Mister Miracle and Power Ring are left to deal with the forces of Darkseid. I honestly have no idea how this will play out and I couldn't be happier.

Doctor Fate #5 (still raining, and still unsure)

So I don't really like this cover but it works. Khalid seems to be really good at doing very little throughout the book while still actively doing things. He still has no idea about exactly what to do though not for lack of trying as Besat just tells him heal the world and his is trying. At the same time his girlfriend, his mother, neighbor girl, and teacher trying to get ahold of him in one form or antoher. What really makes this issue is the last half where Khalid, Anubis, and Mohammad are all together. Anubis mentions that Khalid's grandfather knew the words to banish Anubis but couldn't and that dad doesn't know the words (or he might, we don't know).  Anubis essentially manipulating Khalid into giving up the helmet just show he can blind Khalid does seem like something a god would do and it is interesting to see Khalid make these decisions but it does seem faulty because Khalid seems to have forgotten that the flood is still coming and saving his father just to be unable to save the world seems stupid. I would fault him more for it but Khalid really doesn't seem to grasp any of what's going.

JLA #5 (Batman is always right, and Rao is messed up)

Ignoring that this cover implied Wonder Woman and Aquaman would be in this issue and weren't, this was really fun. With Hal Jordan meeting Rao in the past and heading to Argo city with him while at the same time Superman and Batman uncover exactly what Rao is doing to people (reprogramming people's brains and even DNA to live better lives and worship him) and it felt a bit like Identity Crisis where Zatana and the others considering magically rewriting Dr. Light's personality. I do feel that it should have been dragged out a bit, like Superman trying to understand Rao more and become more manipulated by him and Batman and the others find out more about what Rao is doing and it comes together there but I don't think this series is actually designed to really last that long or at least the story itself. We still don't know about Wonder Woman or Flash in terms of what they are doing to get back to either Earth or their own time but maybe next month. This was still fun. 

Martian Manhunter #5 (Maybe I'M Martian Manhunter)

So we have a new Martian Manhunter host in the form of Mould, a guy that looks like a classic old man who needs change but he looks awesome enough. He seems to possibly be the main Martian Manhunter host, the original apparently split himself into different identities and that when they all get together, it will recreate the actual Manhunter. The story itself isn't that interesting as the story story itself really seems to be moving into it's own arc with Mr. Biscuits and his group go looking for others. Mould and Pearl head down to see a crater in Ghana where Mould reveals that J'onn split himself to make it harder for him to find and that the Solar System can only hold one sustainable planet and Mars wants to switch back. Lots of interesting ideas concerning J'onn soI really do want to see how this plays out.

*Due to Doctor Who being two parters this season, I will only be reviewing the episode after both parts have been seen.

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