Comic Book Case

Batman #4 (took some doing, but I got it)

Batman reaches the warehouse and sees Gotham Girl, huddled over crying and twenty seven dead people lying around the destroyed building. Batman then goes looking for Gotham after leaving Gotham Girl at the cave with Alfred and Duke Thomas. Batman tries to talk Gotham down but he flies off when Batman mentions the twenty-seven dead people but meanwhile Thomas has traced the code on the dog tag and it leads to Task Force X and Amanda Waller. Batman meets up with her and we find out that she was going to use Hugo Strange and the Psycho-Pirate to control the criminals of Gotham but Strange went rogue (big surprise). When Batman brings up the twenty-seven people that died, Waller says it was twenty-eight and Batman freaks out and heads to the childhood home of Gotham and Gotham Girl to find Gotham with his hand wrapped around a Task Force X soldier and dead bodies of his parents. Batman tries to talk him down but Gotham kills the soldier and says that Gotham City can't be fixed and it only destroys; the only solution is to kill the city itself.

This issue was a bit of a harder read because we don't actually know what the Psycho-Pirate does or that we are working on the fact that something happened and we just don't know the details. This is again interesting if for no other reason than the symbolic scene with Gotham and the man on the roof as it was very similar to "All-Star Superman". Gotham seems a bit unhinged on what to do, as he tries to build a bridge when he has no knowledge of it as Batman says. The scene at the end where Gotham resolves to stop the city before it hurts anyone else is reinforced by the cover, of Gotham falling into the city as Batman can really only watch.

Green Lantern #4 (Blood and Bonding)

Simon spends this issue trying to calm Jessica down while his ring is losing power just trying survive her. Simon tries to get to her and amidst the rage and fear he is able to get through to her but she feels she isn't worthy of her ring. Meanwhile  we find out from our new homeless Guardian and he talks to Farrid about where he's from and that the ring he has is called the Phantom Ring. Simon and Jessica are able to get back on their feet only to find themselves outnumbered by Atrocitus and the other Red Lanterns and Atrocitus says only one of them can live and that is by killing the other.

This is a really fun issue, but it was a bit hard to review because I'd have to go full in on the dialogue that makes the issue. We've had plenty of issues involving just Simon and Jessica separately dealing with their issues but this was them coming to terms with each other. Simon accepting that he needs to trust himself and Jessica learning to AGAIN have faith she can do this. I may be being a bit unfair in regards to Jessica, we got a lot out of her character and it makes sense but I just wonder how long we can keep going in this route. Her inability to make a construct seems to be tied to her own insecurities so I expect that at the end of this arc she will be able to make one.

Superman #4 (This was better than the cover)

Jon and Clark fight the Eradictor and through the power of father and son they LITERALLY knock his head off, which releases the souls that he's been holding. The ensuring explosion somehow sends them crashing into a bar because the souls are attracted to a piece of rock that has Kryptonite, A.K.A. Krypton inside it. Lois is able to calm the souls down but the Eradicator has repaired himself and is back, determined to purify Jon of his "corruption" but the souls help out and they are granted reprieve from the Eradicator. Clark, having an idea, puts Jon and Lois in a small DSV and fly towards the moon.

This was a bit of a weak issue really, at least compared to what I liked about the book which was the moments of Jon, Clark, and Lois just living their lives with a little bit of superhero moments. This wasn't a problem really and I did enjoy this more the second time. The idea of the Clark and Jon fighting against the old guard of Krypton, fighting against the more "pure" ideas of what Krypton should and shouldn't be is awesome in itself. In this the Eradicator reminds me a bit of Father and Hohenhiem from "Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood" or the souls from "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" beings who contain the souls of others inside them and those souls can have an impact on the world itself. I think what really hurt it for me was again, the lack of Jon from a story perspective, he's there but he isn't really doing anything.

Justice League #2 (A job for Superman)

The earthquakes themselves have been endured but the Kindred seem to still be possessing people and speaking through them. At Watchtower The team talks about what's been happening and Cyborg goes over what seems to be the cause of the earthquakes and he reveals that there are things in the Earth that are sending out shock waves which are causing the quakes and that another pulse will happen soon. While going over that, a swarm of mall payloads come crashing down similar to what hit Gotham, presumably also full of insects to spread a plague. Batman and Wonder Woman agree they need the help of the new Superman to go down to stop whatever is setting off the Earthquakes while Simon and Jessica deal with the issues in China and the others deal with the payloads.

This issue was good. Everything is pretty much up in front in terms of exactly what is going on, a purging as the Kindred call it. The league is certainly busy, they don't really have much time to breathe themselves but I find moments like Watchtower what the readers need to help them. I'm glad Hitch is keeping the members close and not too separate from one another as I found his earlier book with them a bit hampered by all the different characters doing different things though we never got to see how that ended. I'm enjoying this book a lot and I wonder what the Zodiac Crystals Aquaman found in Atlantis have to do with what's going on.