Comic Book Case

Wonder Woman #7: This Kind of Ties Together

Diana and Cheetah prepare to save Steve and take down Calduo and Urzkartaga. The two talk about Urzkartaga and why he wants the girls and Cheetah says that women have always been worshippers of him and that one would be the Cheetah who is his bride and protector. Because Cheetah wasn't a virgin, Urzkartaga cursed her and Diana says something about it isn't true. As Calduo prepares the ritual, Steve tells him that Wonder Woman usually gives three warnings before she goes full Warrior Woman but this time she won't, which she says as she jumps through him. Steve and Diana hug it out real quick before Urzkartaga gets an edge on her, and she reveals to Cheetah that the girls and the Cheetah are actually the keepers of Urzkartaga and that she and the women can imprison them which they do with Diana's lasso, reducing him to a flower. The curse placed on Cheetah breaks and she turns back to her human form.

I've talked earlier about how I wasn't a big fan of how Rucka decided to switch between two different stories for Wonder Woman week after week but this kind of works. Last week Barbara Ann was just introduced in Wonder Woman's origin story and at this week in an issue taking place in the present she is freed from the curse. Honestly it wasn't that great an issue or story and that came from the back and forth between past and present events and I think this would have been worse if this was a monthly book. That isn't to say that this issue was bad as it keeps the focus on Wonder Woman and Cheetah and it is great to see the two of them work together and even more at seeing Barbara Ann being freed of the curse. For me the best part was seeing Steve and Diana together again, they may be one of my favorite undecided couples in DC and honestly, DC confirming she is bisexual (duh) doesn't change anything. A good ending to decent story overall that makes me confident for the issue after the next.

Before Watchmen #1: Ozymandias: Understanding Him More

Adrian Veidt stands upon the precipice of his goals towards a better world and as he does he reflects on his life and prepares his memoirs on the minute chance he should fail. What ensues is the story of how his family came to the U.S. fleeing Nazism in Germany, how he was intellectually gifted and no one believed him except his parents and how he resolved to fix his own problems through learning whether it be to defend himself from school bullies, Harvard, and following the path of his namesake Alexander the Great after the death of his parents. All of this leading up to the event that makes hin don the costume of Ozymandias.

If I'm honest with myself, Ozymandias is possibly by least favorite hero in Watchmen only after Doctor Manhattan but it doesn't mean I don't admire them in a way or at least understand them. Adrian's life, at least in this issue so far does show us a rather by the books prodigy story. About how he was naturally gifted, how he was bullied as a kid and at some point stopped caring about what people thought and just became himself. We see how he is infuriated by the apathy of people like the principle who made his father pay the consequences just because Adrian stood up to a bully who'd been beating him up. He reforges himself after the deaths of his parent's, following the trail of Alexander the Great and realizing what he wants to do and even more after he finds his "girlfriend" (it's hinted pretty heavily he is gay/bisexual) overdoses in their apartment. Once again, Adrian is upset about what happens to people when they are preyed upon, whether it was his father who was preyed upon the principal and almost bankrupted him or the dealer who sold his girlfriend the drugs.

Hal Jordan and the Green Lanterns #5: So it Takes Two Issues

Guy Gardner has been captured by Sinestro and Hal Jordan has not made it to Sinestro's palace, Soranik has intercepted his delivery and taken him into her custody. While Guy is being tortured for information by the Fear Faith of the Sacrament, Soranik tends to Hal's injuries and while he doesn't totally trust Soranik at first, he does come to trust her after hearing how she has peacefully led the Sinestro Corp and that there are Sinestro Corp members that are as like minded as her. But Hal also reveals that something has been happening to him since he put on the ring he made: he's becoming Will or is at least connecting to it in a big way, he can control it but not in a fight which was why he lost to Sinestro's squad in the first place. Later, John Stewart and the rest of the lanterns go looking for Guy and finding out where they are when they encounter a group of people in space fleeing the Sinestro Corp and they agree to help John and the others if they help stop Sinestro.

It's a bit sad that it takes two issues to really get something started in this book. It's nice to see Hal, Guy, and John all meeting up at the same point which I figured they would. The problem is that I think the book was totally forced to try to forge three separate books (Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, and Sinestro) into one and it shows that at least from my perspective. If you only read one of these three books, then you are going to feel lost a bit as the writer tries to bring those three points to a head at the beginning just to get them on board for this story. If anything, I feel that Sinestro's story seems largely underdone from my experience, as I felt Sinestro by Cullen Bunn was the best we had seen of Sinestro since Geoff Johns was writing for him as again it feels like we ruined Sinestro's work by having Sinestro use the Fear Sacrament to power the corp. I really do like this book but honestly, the Green Lanterns book is much better, utilizing a smaller cast feels and reads better. 

Doctor Who, the Fallen Angels: Short and Sweet

Newlyweds Joel and Gaby are enjoying their honeymoon at the Sistine Chapel but as Joel sees something wrong with Michelangelo's statue of Moses, namely there is no Moses, only the statue of an angel. The next thing they know they find themselves in 1511 and separated, how did they get here, can they get home, and who is the mysterious man with a piece of celery on his coat!?

I've come to love Big Finish since I first heard Spare Parts and I was really excited when I heard this was happening. While the idea of a Weeping Angel in an audio play is a bit strange (they have always been about the visuals), I honestly wasn't disappointed with what they gave me. Joel and Gaby as characters may be my favorite one time companions and it is nice to see a married couple as companions; I don't know about you but I am tired of the "girl from present day Earth" companion we keep getting on tv. At the same time Michelangelo and his apprentice Pierro are great characters with Pierro feeling not only sympathetic but fun and Michelangelo came off as the kind of artist you'd think he would be. The take on the Angels here was great. Since Angels Take Manhattan, they've never really been used  in any real way but the idea that the Angels have started their own religious cult is an idea that feels very "Classic Who" and a bit like "Vampires in Venice". In a lot of ways it also feels a bit like the episode "Blink" where we hear stories about them instead of actually meeting them. The Doctor himself was in great form. Peter Davison isn't exactly my favorite Doctor (top six though usually) but he's yet to let me down in Big Finish. Like the other "Classic Doctor, New Monster" specials, the 5th Doctor isn't given a lot to work with, more the idea, playing the fun adventurer but with the element of the professor. I'd easily recommend this as a listen to for anyone who wants to get into Big Finish or even Classic Doctors.

Captain America Steve Rogers #5: Nice to See Something Happening

We open up to another flashback of young Steve with Ms. Sinclair leaving his apartment and his mother. She tells him that he will see his mother later on but also that Steve is destined for something great and she wants to help him and takes him to meet a Daniel Whitehall and Doctor Sebastian Fenhoff. We skip to the present or rather an even early in Civil War 2 where we see that Steve has arranged for everyone at Stark Tower to be killed by members of HYDRA after their battle with a celestial invasion but he calls it off with is phone when he hears about Ulysses. He reports it to Doctor Selvig who says they need more information or that he needs to be killed because if he really has vision of the future then he could have visions of their own plans which could ruin them.Steve decides to kill him but when he gets to him, he finds that Tony Stark is already there and he leaves. After consulting with Selvig again, Steve has a letter and flash drive sent to Bruce Banner, leading to the event of Hawkeye killing Banner because of the vision Ulysses has. Later on, Carol Danvers sends a message to Steve saying that Ulysses had a vision of a HYDRA plot that Steve knows doesn't exist and that was planned by a person that isn't in HYDRA. Steve hands  Selvig the data and goes to Red Skull who tells Steve to side with Carol and switch to Tony's side if need be. Fast forward to the previous issue of Civil War 2, and Cap sees the vision of Miles Morales Spider-Man killing him.

This was honestly the best issue of the run since the first two issues and that isn't to say anything bad about the other stories but this one had Steve actually doing something outside of just planning. He's gotten a bit darker in some places but at the same time he seems mostly himself. His flashback with Ms. Sinclair have given us a few hints to what HYDRA at this point wants though we don't know exactly how manipulated these memories are. The fact that Steve may have been manipulating or in control of most of Civil War 2 is a bit frightening while at the same time showing us how far he's willing to go to not only kill Red Skull but also to protect HYDRA. It's a bit sad that this is kind of the best "Civil War 2" has been in a while.