Comic Book Case

Doctor Fate #9 (Riots and Ghosts? Classy)

Khalid head into the world of protests as he tries to find his friend Akila. Outside of the ending there really isn't much here save for the awesome use of Khalid's powers. I do like the idea of the officers being possessed by the ghosts/spirits from Ancient Egypt though what they are exactly is promising. This seems more like a short little adventure before the next big one so I'm not sure how good it will be because we have a lot of character moments. We see Khalid's mom teaching an intern in archaeology, his girlfriend explaining to their teacher why Khalid isn't in class, and Akila who I'm not sure what their relationship is, especially since he has a girlfriend.  It is nice to see Khalid trying to solve problems using both the helmet and as a human. 

Martian Manhunter (Grand Theft Mech)

Martian Manhunter takes control of a giant mech, nothing else matters. On another note, it seems that this issue is taking itself less seriously with it's dialogue which felt a bit heavy last month. This one is a bit more fun and emotional as we see Pearl having a rather downplayed identity crisis and getting helped by Darly. The two of them went from being really important to just background characters. Mr. Biscuits encounters the Martian child, who I think may be the consciousness of Mars or something that fun. My favorite moment is when J'onn in his new mech form catches Alicia's mech and reaches out to her to help him save both Mars and Earth and how she believed in him when she was little.It really does feel like this is hitting a climax where before it felt like it was setting up for a much longer and more drawn out story. Also again MARTIAN MECH-HUNTER!

Wonder Woman #49 (She can't be this stupid)

While we still don't have any info on how Zeke got poisoned and what role Doctor Poison played, we are at least heading into some fun territory with the gods again. Looking for a way to heal Zeke, Diana goes to Gaia and encounters Hecate who convinces Diana to steal Hera's orbs to heal him. What ensues is something interesting in terms of whether or not Diana can trust Hera to help save Zeke when it could cost her her power or position on Olympus. The problem here is that we are told that the death of Zeke won't hurt Zeus so there is no reason to care since Zeke is more of a vessel than a character. The premise, that Diana doesn't know the gods that well is in how interesting Hera's little story is going as she (or something else) may have ideas of her own with Zeke/Zeus. With the idea of Diana seeing Wonder Woman as separate from herself I kind of wonder how far she herself is willing to sacrifice to save Zeke. I really can't see why we should care about Zeke when he is really only a vessel for Zeus. I more care about what it would mean to Zola but Diana acts as if she and him have been through so much after the Firstborn story.  This idea does sound interesting and with any luck this may be the story Meredith Finch has been promising us. Also, I'm not sure if it's the dialogue or the art, but Diana praying to Gaia just seems so fake, like she herself doesn't believe Gaia will help.

Justice League #48 (It's time!)

This issue finally gets back to the Darkseid War as the League teams up the Crime Syndicate to stop the Anti-Monitor. The battle with Mobius quickly goes downhill as he deals with everything the league can throw at him though I wonder if Ultraman and Superman working together would have helped make a difference. I would have liked to see them interact with their duplicates or maybe mismatched, just for the dialogue. Mobius is a rather hard character to get your head around as opposed to Darkseid so what little we got from him told us that he is pretty much the monster we thought he was at the end of Forever Evil. We got a couple of bits of interesting moments with Hal and Jessica and seeing the GL's are always nice. It is interesting to see that Barry as the god of death CANNOT stop someone from being killed.  With Steve Trevor under the ownership of Grail, I wonder what role he needs to play but also how this plays into DC's Rebirth. I'm willing to bet this is where it happens before the ACTUAL Rebirth story.

Aquaman #49 (Atlantis on the Beach)

So Arthur and Mera show how awesome they are as a couple for the second time in the books run. Arthur takes a couple of Atlanteans to a festival to help them understand life on the surface. It was a bit downplayed when it could have been it's own story, especially with the cotton candy. However there is something else going on as people are being kidnapped or killed by something from different bodies of water like cups and fish tanks. What makes this issue really work is Arthur and Mera. We've seen Arthur come to terms with being king and dealing with Atlantis but we've never really heard him trying to improve relations in this way. I do love the little moments Arthur and Mera share with a song Arthur's mother loved and even more as we see it stuck in Mera's head throughout the issue or their photo op. It's a lot of looking towards the future; future plans, future foes, future jobs and even new costumes. This may be my favorite issue in a long time and had the same kind of positive feel that happened after the Death of the King story Geoff Johns did. Where Cullen Bunn's story had the problem of already being a story told with flashbacks, I feel a bit more at ease here going in fresh.

Sinestro #20 (Sinestro Spirit Bombs to Victory!)

The battle with the Paling comes to an end as the Sinestro Corps and their new recruits of Superman and company. Where the last issue was Sinestro leading the corp in the fight, this time it is Sinestro vs the Pale Bishop himself. It's interesting to see Sinestro talking about fear but this time it is the fear in himself and how he understands his own fears and the fear of others as the Pale Bishop tries to purge him of emotion. This may be the closest Sinestro has come to losing and it is interesting how we see how the Pale Bishop came to be, someone who saw the emotional spectrum with the other guardians but was afraid of it. It shows a fun parallel between the two of them, the Pale Bishop is afraid of emotion and Sinestro uses the emotion of fear. The moment where Sinestro realizes this is pure gold as he alerts the corp of his need for help as they give him the energy needed to completely destroy the Pale Bishop. I kind of wish we could have seen more of the new Sinestro corp members of Earth but I doubt they will remain members for long.It was fun to see Arkillo get hugged by a little girl and Black Adam chastising Wonder Woman about not believing in redemption. Sinestro's victory comes at a cost as he is forced to step down to recover from his injuries with Soranik as the leader and I'm looking forward to it. Easily one of my favorite issue this month.

Superman Lois and Clark #5 (pointless cover?)

Batman is in this book and it's a lie. He's there for two pages as Clark tells Lois that he almost approached him for help because he still reminds him of the Batman on his Earth. Clark is getting his ground back in his fight with Blanque who has some sort of control over Henshaw and is able to put him away in a different cell where he can't use his powers. What makes it interesting is who else is in these cells who I'm guessing are from other adventures who are there because they need it to survive. We have another little story coming with a Bradley Glenn getting out of prison and offered a job on a reality show which feels a lot like a set up to something like Civil War but it's also more than likely a story to reveal this Clark Kent to the world. Added this with the threat of Intergang's boss knowing Lois and Johnathan's identity as well as John finding out the identity of Superman, next issue promises to be exciting at the least.

The Mighty Thor #4 (Marriages and Trials)

This is the best marriage story I've seen in comics, putting the number of marriages I've seen in DC and Marvel to  . . . . . .. 2, but that isn't important right now. Queen Aelsa has tried to enter peace negotiations with Malekith only to be forced to marry him to avoid war between light and ark elves. We later see a trial between Odin and Freya. It's hard to sympathize with Odin here thought that may be the point. Odin represents the old way of a monarchy and everything happening according to his will. With This new Thor and the Congress of Realms, Odin finds himself in control of nothing when in reality he still pretty much is. Freya speaks of change and that the people of Asgard need him to change with the growing times. It's all interesting and I find myself liking Freya more and more. I kind of wonder if this again is subtle nod to the negative fan base who refuses to accept change with Odin being the fans and Freya being the rational fans as they support the new Thor and changes made to the Marvel Universe. Loki is doing really well in this less center stage role of last issue, just offsetting the tension by being Loki. The ending of this issue is possibly one of my favorites with Thor and Odin getting ready to throw down.