Comic Book Case

Detective Comics #943 (It starts to fall apart as we try to rebuild it)

Someone has attacked Wayne Enterprises and killed some of it's employees, nothing was taken, all the attackers said was "We wish to file an official complaint" and sprayed a red bat symbol on the pillar, Batwoman's symbol. Meanwhile Stephanie is talking to Harper Row who is working as a volunteer nurse and the two talk about Tim and how Stephanie doesn't feel she can do it anymore. Orphan and Clayface are working on their teamwork and it all goes fine until Karlo tells the simulator to show the biggest threat they have, which turns out to be a giant monstrous Clayface and Karlo is clearly shaken and probably still affected by what happened earlier when he had to scare people to save them. Kate and Bruce have a conversation about who to get to help run the Belfry as without Tim, all of the tech projects and day to day duties there will just fall apart. Kate also says that the team is falling apart and that something needs to be done. At a Wayne party gala to raise money for repairs to Gotham City following the tower explosion and the Monster Men, Kate meets the man Bruce wants to help out, Luke Foxx, son of Lucious Foxx and former Batwing. Stephanie, Harper, Orphan, and Karlo meet up at the gate but unknown to the others, Karlo is having trouble keeping his form. Everything seems to slowly go bad, with Kate writing Luke off as a rank amateur but then the party is attacked by a group of five relatively grotesque people calling themselves the Victim Syndicate, blaming Batman for messing up their lives.

This issue was pretty good. Night of the Monster Men never felt like it really dealt with the death of Tim Drake properly save for Batman. What we have hear is a look at how everyone is doing after that event, they are all falling apart in one way or another. Batman only goes to the Belfry to interrogate Kane and he will only speak to Kate while Stephanie is not sleeping and not returning calls, it doesn't seem like she plans to really be a hero anymore. Karlo is the one that worries me the most, he's wanted to turn his life around but it seems the battle with Colony and the simulation have made him a bit more unstable. Hopefully Luke will be able to help the team not just on a technical level but on a moral level. Speaking of Luke, last time we had seen him was in Batgirl and it was one of the last issues of the book I reviewed. Honestly that version looked like he was still in high school but this one looks like the character we knew him as, as Batwing though I never read that book people were excited about him and hopefully this will help me like him.

Wonder Woman #9 (Go Steve, Go Steve!)

Steve and company drop off Urzkartaga with director Sasha Bordeaux (yay!) while Diana and Barbara Anne get her some new clothes and Barbara Ann says that she will need satellite maps to help her find Themyscira. Later on, Steve and Diana talk about love, namely her own love life in regards to the two of them and Superman and the two kiss before they get a call from Barbara Ann. She says that it is possible Themyscira exists in a separate dimension and that the reason Diana cannot find it is because she has lost some of the gifts that she got from the Patrons though she still retains some of her super abilities that she received before so the answer to finding it may be where the barrier separating the two places is weak. Diana and Steve head to an island where the two of them find Queen Hippolyta and the Amazons, or is this another lie?

This issue was more touching than it it was really good in my opinion. It's a good issue but it is more of cool down from the story we just had, this works because it also sets up the next story with Hippolyta and the Amazons. What really made this issue of course was the interaction between Diana and Steve, and what looks to be the start of their own relationship finally. Early on in New 52, Steve had mentioned that he was in love with Diana and even confessed but we never really found out how she felt because soon she was dating Superman and they almost came close to kissing during Darkseid war but then crazy Superman attacked. The scene with the two of them really sums up their relationship, Diana is good at love, not romance and what I think that means is she likes it to be simple over complicated which is why she dated Superman. The kiss the two share is a brilliant one and made the issue totally worthwhile.

Captain America and Civil War 2 #6 (Same story, different Cap)

Captain Marvel and Ironman ague about what to do with Miles Morales and it is ultimately Captain America (still a member and driving force of HYDRA) who has Thor (Jane Foster) take him to his home and T'challa announces that he is quitting Captain Marvel's side. Doctor Strange teleports Tony's team back to one of Nick Fury's old secret hideouts before S.H.I.E.L.D. can apprehend them as do Medusa and the Inhumans. T'challa tells Tony that Ulysses' visions have at times been wrong before but in varying degrees and they wonder what to do about Spider-man though Miles doesn't seem to know what to do himself and Steve seems totally all right with meeting him again. Ms. Marvel, Nova, and the rest of the younger Avengers say they need time off when Tony and the others ask if they can bring Miles to them. Carol meanwhile seems to feel lost as she is comforted by her friends (mostly females for some reason) as she is remembering Rhodie and what Steve told her in regards to Rhodie and Banner. As she she and Hill almost talk about studying Ulysses, Hill gets a message from S.H.I.E.L.D. that they have found Spider-Man. Steve meanwhile says that he has no problem dying at the hands of Spider-Man as he remembers when he was little and tried to escape the HYDRA training camp and met Kraken who got him to work harder. He remembers what he saw that no one else saw, a destroyed White House behind Spider-Man.

These issues were so similar that I couldn't bring myself to actually review them separately. It's the same day and talking about the same event with the only difference is that one has Steve telling us what he saw in the vision Ulysses showed them, a victory for HYDRA though I question that myself. It is ultimately seeing how far Steve has gone tearing apart the Avengers, he's making both Tony and Carol question themselves and making the two groups fight each other after he manipulated the death of Bruce Banner. Steve is out to destroy the Avengers in a way that no one has ever tried before, from the inside and on a personal level.

The Flintstones #4 (Fred the progressive? YEAH!)

Marriage has been the topic of the hour in Bedrock as Fred and Wilma head to a marriage retreat while Bedrock speaks out against the idea of matrimony. Will Fred and Wilma decide to stay married or will Bedrock put an end to the idea of holy matrimony?

Honestly, when this book was announced I wasn't 100% sold on it. I think I was like everyone else when I heard that this was one of the books DC was bringing as part of the DCRebirth, I mean The Flinstones? Really? However I was presently surprised with how in line with the original tone of the show but also in how it really played off the idea of marriage, or rather same sex marriage. It's all played for laughs as marriage is totally viewed as evil with most of Bedrock preferring to live in sex caves and the idea that it takes a village to raise a child. Fred and Wilma really are just kind of there to be involved, though Fred does provide some great insight into his own fears about marriage and that Wilma may stop loving him. The idea isn't that any one type of marriage is wrong, it's the idea of total matrimony and commitment to ONE person. The world of the Flintstones is really great as always, with the appliances being in their own little world of humor and it does feel like that rather mature series people remember. I do feel that in a larger series we would see both Fred, Wilma, Betty, and Barney in the story but the whole issues does make you question why Fred and Wilma are there since it seems that the two of them still love each other and love being married. The ending is really good and I won't spoil it but I will say this: Adam and Steve.

Unworthy Thor #1 (That's what I'm talking about!)

Odinson has had better days. Since losing his hammer he has essentially been traveling the cosmos, just looking for a fight, the words Nick Fury uttered to him still echoing in his head (though we still don't know what he said). After a failed mission to take down some Trolls hiding on the Moon for S.H.I.E.L.D. he begins to sulk even more, but then he is met by the Unseen, a being similar to the Watcher but he seems to see things that even the Watcher didn't see, namely another hammer. It belonged to a Thor from another universe and was so powerful that when that universe died it found it's way to this one and that if it was anywhere it would be in Old Asgard, the home of the gods before Asgardia was built. When he arrives there we see an old familiar face, Beta Ray Bill who says that what they are looking for was taken to Asgard and that it was stolen. When Thor tells BRB about how he lost his hammer, BRB offers him his own.

So this was one of the two new Marvel books I read out of three I wanted to read and this was the best so far (I'll talk about the other one later on). Honestly, as good as Jane Foster is I was really more interested in what Odinson was doing and how he would get his hammer back (if he would at all) and this story was what I wanted. Odinson feels lost and disgusted, mostly with himself. Whatever Fury said to him made him unworthy, with just a few words Thor has become unworthy to wield his hammer. He doesn't feel like the person he used to be and I think a part of him doesn't want to. When he was Thor, a group of Trolls would be nothing and the thunder would accompany even his yawns but now he feels that the thunder doesn't even heed his calls. The chance for this hammer is a way for Odinson to get back to being not only Thor again, but a better Thor, wielding the hammer of a much more powerful Thor. The story honestly feels like the trials King Arthur took in Gargoyles to get Excalibur, could Beta Ray Bill be a test for him, and why is Beta Ray Bill there at all? Who told him about the hammer? Was it the Unseen? He seems to have his own plans though they don't seem malicious as all he says as Odinson leaves is that they have said too much to each other already implying that the Unseen may either be breaking some rules or that something else may be coming on the horizon and that this hammer may be what Odinson needs to either cause it to happen or to prevent it.

Batman #10 (He warned you.)

Batman is on his way to Santa Prisca, invading the country telling Bane he wants the Psycho Pirate and if he doesn't get him he will break his back. As the story progresses with Batman engaging Bane's forces and later Bane himself, there is a letter from Catwoman and that makes up the story a she talks about not only the differences and similarities between her and Batman but also about what she did and why. As Batman lands on Santa Prisca he is jumped by what looks like the entire Priscan military and brought to Bane and still Batman says the same thing; that he wants Psycho Pirate and that he will break Bane's back if he doesn't get him. Bane tells Batman that since he invaded, the Justice League can't help him and that even though he can no longer use Venom, he can still break his back which he does and then Bane throws him in a cell. Batman goes total badass and pops his back back in and escapes his cell to meet Catwoman and the Ventriloquist who tell him the others are ready and they set to work to, as Batman said "break his damn back."

This was honestly an issue that required a second reading but you get what's going on, the question was the letter. At first I honestly thought it was from Bane, especially when it talked about parents and never knowing them, but when the orphanage was mentioned it all fell into place. There wasn't honestly a lot going on from Batman's perspective, he goes to Santa Prisca apparently prepared for Bane to to not give up Pyscho Pirateas he had the others ready. Catwoman's letter serves to make the book really interesting, not just because it tells what she did, killing members of a terrorist cell who blew up the orphanage she grew up in, but also informing us that she knew Batman was Bruce Wayne. Catwoman comes off, at leas tin the letter as someone who sees her and Bruce as very similar people, but that Selina sees herself as someone who has given up on everything and that Bruce himself soon will. It's possibly the closest I've ever heard Catwoman come off more like the Joker or Two-Face, challenging Batman on a mental level. It really made this rather straightforward issues more intricate and interesting, I can't wait for next issue.

Superman #10 (Tomasi finally does it)

Jon and Kathy end a day at school before Christmas Break meeting a new student, Maya who seems to have garnered Jon's attention much to Kathy's chagrin. Deciding to find a tree for Christmas, he heads into Dead Man's Swamp and gets pretty spooked by the animals that live in such a place like snakes and owls who are super scary cause it's Dead Man's Swamp which triggers his heat vision and starts to set the swamp on fire. Before he can put it out he gets spooked by a moose which freaks him out but before he can do another power he is picked up by a red creature controlled by someone wearing  a sort of space suit. The creature, named Goliath seems to trigger Jon's allergies and awakens his Freeze Breath and Jon passes out and wakes up in front of Damian experimenting on him. Damian says that while the league may trust him, he hasn't earned Damian's, primarily because Jon killed an endangered Falcon and a cat way back when. Damian plans to study Jon's physiology and before he can start Batman shows up and tells Damian he's messed up and sure enough Superman shows up enraged looking for his son and it looks like Batman and Superman are about to throw down before Jon uses his Freeze Breath which calms Superman down and the two talk and Jon undergoes a physical Batman style after the armored girl who controlled the creature is revealed to be Maya. While Superman and Batman go over Jon's data, Damian and Jon "talk" and see Damian's pets and one thing leads to another and the two start fighting and before it goes all BvS, Batman and Superman interrupt them and their not amused.

When Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice started I think it was always in the minds of fans that someone at DC would at some point show the two of them fighting and this issue teased that. For those of you that don't know, Peter Tomasi writes Superman and during New 52 he wrote Batman and Robin. It was nice to see his take on Robin again because Tomasi really showed you the father/son dynamic between Bruce and Damian, and to see that duo interact with his new duo of Superman and Superboy is just great. Jon and Damian are also getting their own book later and this is where it starts. The two of them are so different but with similar legacies that they both want to live up to. Batman and Superman also have a really touching moment as they discuss Jon's physiology as they talk about if their fathers worried about them like they do their own children. I kind of can't wait until the next issue starts, and I might take a look at at the new book they will have soon.

Green Lanterns #10 (So it's like the One Ring)

Simon has dawned on the Phantom Ring and is experiencing flashes of the emotional spectrum, and it starts to overwhelm him and Jessica and Rami are barely able to get it off him. Rami says that the Phantom Ring doesn't check to see if you are worthy and it doesn't have any safety features that other rings have. Rami says that people are after the Ring and he needs to be kept safe, Simon suggests space and finding Hal but Jessica says that staying on Earth is best since they don't know where Hal is and space in itself is too dangerous but before they can do anything more, a house fire needs their attention. The fire in reality was started by Frank Laminski who used it as a distraction to get the Phantom Ring and with help from Volthoom, he gets it and says the words, he is now the Phantom Lantern and able to tap into the emotional spectrum at will, able to go from a Green Lantern to a Yellow Lantern. Volthoom tells Frank they need to leave before the lanterns return and that they will need Rami so they take him away, Frank has gotten what he's always wanted, he is a lantern and in his mind, is a hero.

I liked this issue so much that it made me want to read this book over Hal Jordan and the Green Lanterns. The Phantom Ring has become a really great part of the GL mythos and has brought up some questions. We've seen in other stories that a person has the potential for more than one ring which is why I used the variant cover for this because that is usually how it is shown though with more detail. The Phantom Ring itself seems to have a certain allure to it as while Jessica goes searching for the little girl in the house fire and Simon tries to contain the fire, both of them feel that a green ring may not be fore them and that the Phantom Ring may be what they need. Frank as he becomes the Phantom Ring seems to be able to switch his colors at will or rather based on his emotions as he only turned yellow when Farrid came at him with an axe. This highlights a potential danger to the ring, it requires more emotional focus and control, which is why Rami wanted Hal, John, or Guy to guard the ring, because anyone can use it it can be danger to anyone. My question still is what does Volthoom want and how will the Phantom Ring be destroyed?