Comic Book Case

Batman #18 (Day Four?)

Batman begins his fight with Bane and Bane honestly goes all Dark Knight Rises on Batman. He demands the return of the Psycho Pirate only for Batman to say no as Bane beats and breaks him down. Bane tells Batman how he isn't his clown, a riddle, a penguin, a scarecrow, any of his regular opponents, he is a step above him. As he breaks Batman's back, Bane tells him to return the Pirate, to which Batman responds with no. Bane contacts his henchmen, telling him to kill the hostages to which Catwoman responds, showing that she has his men tied up with the phrase "I AM CAT" carved on their chests. Bane then heads towards the Asylum as Catwoman berates him.

This issue was really really great. Throughout the issue we see moments from Bruce and Bane's life, starting with the deaths of their parents and how they talk to their mother. We see them go through life missing their mother in their own situations with Bruce at Wayne Manor and Bane in Santa Prisca. We see them grow and get stronger with the memory of their mother egging them on and we ultimately see how different the two of them are juxtaposed to how different they are in their lives and their choices.

Detective Comics #952  (She's Heeere!)

Months earlier the great Ra's Al Ghul met with Lady Shiva, telling her that she is in under her head to which Shiva just asks him what he wants. Ra's tells her to stop and that in exchange, he will tell her where her daughter is to which Shiva turns down, and Ra's sends his men to attack her to which SHIVA JUST MURDERS ALL OF THEM! In the present the battle with the Jokerized people continues, with the team getting pretty overwhelmed by the people until Clayface makes copies of himself, even that doesn't help much as Batwing and Azrael are injured. Orphan meanwhile confronts Shiva, who says that she was watching her and the two begin to fight only for Shiva to dominate the fight and strikes her down, asking what Cain did to her, her daughter. Batman drops down with Batwoman and Batman engages Shiva, who quickly dispatches him. She tells him that the only reasons he isn't kill him was because leaving him alone would hurt more and that she primarily came to see her daughter, and that Gotham is now hers. Shiva leaves and Batman and co head back to the Bellfrey to recover. Renee tells Batwoman that the GCPD is still out for Batman, believing he killed the mayor. Batwoman gets a rundown from her father about how dangerous Shiva and the League are while Orphan listens in and she hugs Batman in tears, asking why a woman like her has to be her mother.

This issue was in a lot of ways scary. Even Bane has never dispatched Batman so quickly let alone Orphan and the same could be said about the rest of the team when they fought the Colony. It's not a new formula, it's the Court of Owls story with less aesthetic and I think that also adds to it; less flash but more efficiency. Shiva comes off as like a female Bane, a force of nature and Jake's story about her cruelty and his fear of her I think is well earned. Shiva herself also had an interesting dynamic with Cassandra, who was also her mother Pre-Flashpoint though I'm not sure how well she handled it then; here though Cass is very much distraught over who her mother is: a monster. One thing that doesn't really work is the idea that the GCPD are so quick to believe Batman actually killed the mayor, this works better in stories like Mask of the Phantasm where there was a driving force about Batman but even with the Victim Syndicate story this makes little sense as Batman still saved the city earlier from the Monster Men. Overall this story so far has been really great.

Superman #18 (it is now war)

Someone has escaped Mr. Oz's tower of "we still don't know what's going on", leaving quite an upset as Tim cheers and Oz looks rather miffed. Meanwhile in Hamilton, Lois and Clark celebrate their anniversary as Jon presents presents to his parents who talk about how much they love him. When someone knocks on the door, Jon answers it to find no one, only an album as Clark Kent from the Daily Planet watches from a distance as Krypto sees something off about him. Our Clark sees/hears him and quickly assumes his Superman Suit as they go out to meet him only to find him gone. They look at the album they see photos of the lives of Lois and Clark from their old life when all of a sudden the curtains catch fire but don't burn, just get consumed by the flames as they spread, even to Jon. Jon disappears only to end up in the attic, Superman then wraps his son in his cape and tries to get him out of the house but he still begins to disappear as the flames consume him until he finally vanishes. Superman and Lois resolve to find their son and to find him they have to find the one responsible: Clark Kent.

So when I heard this event was starting I instantly started to pick up Action Comics again, luckily volume 1 was already out. This is part of an event that will span both Superman, and Action Comics and will answer questions concerning Superman's existence and Jon's future. This issue had a very classic set up: people having a good time while something big is happening. This other Clark Kent, who we saw early in Action Comics has been nothing short of a creepy mystery; he come soff as someone just totally obsessed with Lois and no one has been able to follow him, building he goes into have no record of him, and he doesn't seem to have super powers despite being so fit while eating a diet of burgers and fries. Now he seems to have played a role in Jon's disappearance but what does this have to do with who escaped Mr. Oz? Could Clark be Martian Manhunter (doubt it), Mr. Myxptlyx (possible) or Superboy Prime (that would be scary awesome)? We don't know but we do know that a line has been crossed for Lois and Clark, everything they've done up till now has been to protect Jon, woe be unto whoever takes the child of essentially the most powerful and experienced superhero on Earth!

Action Comics #975 (Oh Boy that was heavy!)

Superman and Lois begin their search for Jon and Clark Kent at his apartment and after finding nothing but snacks in the refrigerator, they find Clark. He says that he kidnapped Jon because Superman never told him about him and asks why Superman never tried to save him as he pushes Superman back. He says that he has done everything he could to make Superman's life easy, even using a spell so powerful that even he himself thought he was Clark Kent. As the room changes and Superman is attacked, Clark changes into Lex, to Bizzarro, Parasite, Cyborg Superman, Doomsday, and Mongul before finally turning into Mxyzpltk. He says that he will make it so no one will remember Jon by the time he is through and he disappears before Superman can reach him, when Superman tires to comfort Lois about Jon, Lois asks who he is talking about. 

So this story was interesting enough and the reveal of Mxyzpltk made sense as much as I (admittedly my hope made no sense) hoped it would be Superboy Prime. The next story that accompanied this issue was Mxyzpltk telling Jon how he got here. How Mr. Oz had kidnapped him in the Pre-Flashpoint universe and how he waited for Superman to save him but he never showed up. Mxyzpltk comes off a bit like the Joker here in that he does believe he is his enemies greatest friend more than enemy but I honestly feel with Mxyzpltk it is more genuine, at least he feels it is. At some point he says his name backwards and it breaks open his cells and he ultimately takes a big risk, multiplying his heads and saying his name again to break out and he escapes, as a way to hide himself he turns into Clark Kent and honestly believes he was. He has some gaps in his memory, especially when as Clark Kent, the world seemed to think he was Superman, and he remembers when he heads to Smallville for answers. He gets his memories back and is still hurt and angry about Superman forgetting him and not trying to save him to which Jon says that he never knew he was missing and he just assumed that he (Mxyzpltk) had just grown up. It's an interesting story which makes Mxyzpltk come off a bit like Syndrome from The Incredibles, a fan that was let down by his supposed best buddy.

Green Lanterns #18 (legends aren't born, they're made)

Our story opens with Volthoom laying on the ground after the events of his battle with Hal Jordan using the power of Nekrom to defeat him. Beaten and battered he waits to die but first he tells his story. He was a scientist on Earth-15 where he and his mother had invented a Travel Lantern that would enable them to travel the multiverse via the Emotional Spectrum but in a very Superman-esque story, his planet is about to be destroyed so his mother sends him away to find a way to save their world and he ends up traveling the multiverse. He ends up in a variety of different Earths, like Earth-17 where they use it to grow plant life or Earth-47 where they use it for music based technology. Even Earth-3 where he clashes with a wizard who used a piece of his soul to create a Power Ring. He finally comes to Earth Prime and meets the beings who will come to be known as the Guardians of the Universe; the Maltusians. Volthoom begins working with them to better understand the Lantern and the Emotional Spectrum and when they seal their emotions away, it creates a ring, the first Power Ring and Volthoom uses it and becomes the First Lantern. As he becomes a bringer  of order and justice to the galaxy and the Guardians experiment on him more to help make him stronger he starts to lose himself until finally the Guardians have no choice but to lock him away. Fast forward to the present and Volthoom wants Nekrom to kill him but Nekrom says he can't because Volthoom is part of the Emotional Spectrum, he will just come back to life. Volthoom is about to just float through the ether of the universe until he sees Rami, flying around with the Phantom Ring, which would allow him to tap his full power, and he finds the key to returning his power.