Comic Book Case

Batman #3 (Batman's work bears fruit?)

This week was another good one for Batman. Bruce dusts off the Matches Malone persona to get information on Gotham and Gotham Girl and finds out about who they are. It turns out the two of them are siblings who when they were younger were saved by Batman and were inspired to do good, helping the poor, joining the peace corp, and possibly buying super powers. Bruce then gives Hank and Claire (Gotham and Gotham Girl) their instructions, he will run the leads while they keep the city safe from KOBRA. Later the two of them check on a burning building and encounter Hugo Strange and Doctor Psycho.

This issue was a really fun informative issue. We find out a lot about Gotham and Gotham Girl through the narration of their parents, and finding out that they were inspired by Batman is nice. We don't really see a lot of people being inspired to this point by Batman, and their is something heartfelt when we see Batman saving Hank and his parents from a mugger and telling Hank to control his fear.In a way Gotham and Gotham Girl are personifications of Bruce's impact on the city. Then we have Hugo Strange who narrates another half about the other things Gotham has turned, that Gotham creates like the Court of Owls, Bloom, Zero Year, Strange sees himself as better than Gotham and it's creations. It's all really awesome. It's very Fullmetal Alchemist in that trailer Funimation did when the asked do you follow alchemy into the darkness or let it guide you to the light?

Green Lanterns #3 (So the gun is pointless then?)

Atrocitus has arrived on Earth and has instructed Bleez, one of his oldest follows to keep the Green Lanterns away from the Hell Tower. Meanwhile Sira and her husband are trying to keep safe, but find the Guardian we saw earlier in their house waiting for one of the Lanterns to get the Power Ring he has. While Simon and Jessica fight Bleez, he is able to break them up and tries to drag out Simon's rage and she comes close but he is able to push through and uses his ring to do the impossible like he did before when he healed Nazir and removes the rage from Bleez. Without the ring she finds herself like she's been awakened from a dream and at first wants to kill herself for everything she's done, especially when she feels the rage building up in her. As she tells Simon about the Hell Tower, Jessica strikes Bleez which pushes her back to her Red Lantern mode. Jessica and Simon bicker for a moment before heading to the Hell Tower and with their argument still in the air, Jessica becomes possessed by her rage.

This is a nice issue for Simon, who took a back seat for a while. He comes off as someone who feels he has a lot to prove to others as opposed to Jessica who seems set on proving something to herself. His gun argument is a bit stupid since if memory serves, shooting Sinestro didn't seem to do anything since they were in a dead zone. Seeing him almost succumb to his rage was a great scene, how he's mad at how his nephew is afraid, how his sister gets a lot of hate, and how it's his fault Nazir got hurt. It's only trusting in himself and the ring that enables him to "heal" Bleez. Simon seems to be very good at healing others, originally the only way to cure the Red Rage was with a Blue Ring but Simon seems to be able to do it but with difficutly. Jessica and Simon's bickering does come down to how different they are and how they don't trust each other. Simon is the more experienced Lantern but Jessica herself also fought in the Darkseid War. It's a bit sad that Attorcitus took the backseat in this issue but Bleez, who was very popular with the fans got a lot of love that makes up for it. Seeing how tormented she was without the ring and seeing her still having those thoughts with it back on promises to hopefully play a role later on.

Justice League #1 (The battle has begun, and the entire Earth is Ground Zero)

A series of earthquakes across the world brings the league into overdrive as they try to save as many people and save as much of the cities as possible. It's an intersesting story but there isn't much to it at first. I'ts nice to see them saving people, like Cyborg stopping trains, Flash saving people from rubble, and Simon and Jessica holding building together. It all goes fine until Batman finds a craft crashes/lands and these bugs come out and in other places, people seem to be possessed by something and as they talk about stolen words, stolen speed, and stolen light, Lantern Rings lose light and Flash loses speed. Wonder Woman meanwhile is attacked by a bunch of possessed soldiers and find out that they call themselves the Kindred to which Diana responds that she and her friends will stop them.

This is another big issue, more action than story but it doesn't short change the story itself. Everyone has something to do in regards to the disaster which feels very apocalyptic, like this is the day of reckoning for the planet and life itself. The Kindred seem to have some sort of history with not just Earth but the universe, and it almost comes off as if some great power is trying to take everything it gave to this planet, back to Earth. The story seems to have the right kind of scale for this and with even Atlantis not safe, this promises to be a good read in itself.

Superman #3 (What about KRYPTO!?)

Clark takes Jon and Lois to the Fortress of Solitude to figure out what is wrong with Jon as his durability seems to be very inconsistent. The trio then find the Eradicator and the Clark instantly takes to fighting him and only stops when he sees the Eradicator stop fighting to save Lois and Jon. The Eradicator explains that he was created by General Zod to bring in lawbreakers and bring them into the Phantom Zone to await trial. When Kyrpton was destroyed he began looking for survivors and found both Clark and Jon but notes that Jon's human genome from his mother is affecting his powers but he can remove it. The Eradicator begins to remove it before Clark or Lois can say anything but Krypto jumps in the way and he only the cape remains. Clark attacks the Eradicator but no one notices Jon grabbing Krypto's cape, his eyes red and his face full of rage and tears.

It seems third issues are are going strong here. I honestly didn't think it was a big deal that Jon would not be as durable as Clark would be because of his mother's genome. The Eradicator reminds me of the computer in the Supergirl comic. The Eradicator himself is really interesting and almost like the Cybermen, his purpose here is to secure the Kyrptonian lineage and he doesn't care about how far he has to go to do it. I felt Krypto's loss as well as his addition was a bit of a waste but how he affects the story, but I felt Krypto should have gotten more screen time or just something more to do.