Comic Book Case

Superman #27 (AMERICA!)

Deciding to take a break, the Kent family decides to go on a road trip across America and we get a nice education for Jon about the world. He learns about Deborah Sampson, the women who pretended to be a man to fight in the Revolutionary Army, he learns about Independence Hall and they even treat a veteran to dinner and help him get a job. I'ts a nice little adventure which I think takes Superman back to his roots as someone who embodies the American way and I think the issue itself (especially considering the 4th of July) that the issue was about honoring that. There isn't much here in terms of big adventure over the atmosphere created by a family traveling through America's great monuments.

Green Lanterns #27 (IT'S A BABY!)

Simon and Jessica find themselves on a strange planet and things really couldn't be worse. Not only is the planet full of all kinds of werid creatures but Simon doesn't have his ring and Jessica cannot get a message through or find any other Green Lantern. Jessica's ring says that because her ring was Volthoom's it was connected to the Travel Lantern so they accidentally tapped into that lanterns powers. All seems good when Jessica's ring picks up traces of White Lantern power and thinking it is Kyle the head to it only to find a giant baby as the source. The sleeping baby is revealed to be the Life Equation in it's incubation period, too early to awaken or even move. Jessica's ring later finds out where they are, on Earth 10 billion years before their own time. As if that isn't enough, they find themselves attacked by seven unidentified Green Lanterns before the comic ends.

This issue was pretty fun and it was nice to see Simon's tattoos possibly become his new ring in a way similar to one of the Sinestro Corp members as it seems the shards of the ring or at least the energy has infused with them. Jessica has shown that her training with Guy has helped her remain cool under pressure but is also still the same adorable goof she's always will be. The seven unidentified lanterns that attack Simon and Jessica are clearly the lanterns chosen to fight Volthoom and they will more than likely  play a role in getting Simon and Jessica back home.

Detective Comics #960

Batman and Zatanna have a back and forth about Batman wanting to finish his training. Zatnna shows him the Gnosis Sphere; the God Machine that reveals hidden secrets, created on Mt. Olympus. Zatanna says that the sphere is dangerous because while it can answer any question, it will keep answering all questions a person has on their mind continuously, one human was unable to move or even speak and died of hunger. Ascalon reports to his higher ups about his work and the figure known as Azrael. Meanwhile Luke and Kate are attacked by Azrael as Luke tries to use a bunch of Batwings to process and break down Ascalon's coding.

As interesting as the Ascalon story is, Zatanna and Batman steal the issue as we knew they would. Zatanna tells Batman what it means to have and use magic, how when you realize the laws of nature are totally irrelevant to her and how her show is just one way of her feeling connected to any sense of normalcy. When she warns him about the Gnosis Sphere, she questions whether or not he can only ask it ONE question as he has other questions, about if he could have saved Tim, if he could have been able to let him go, about the mysterious metal, and various other questions. I always have a complicated relationship with Zatanna in that I don't really care about her until she shows up, really wish the Justice League Dark book was back.

Batman #27 (You Blockhead)

The War of Jokes and Riddles rages on and this time we see the story through the lens of Chuck Brown and is involvement.  A while back he was one of the people who helped with the Jokermobile and Joker kept only him alive, Batman wants him to find a way to contact the Joker so he goes to Floyd Lawton (Deadshot) and he gets Joker in contact with him to set up a meeting. Chuck later takes his son Charlie (yeah Charlie Brown) and the two spend the afternoon together to make up for not being able to make it to his birthday party. Later Chuck is apprehended by Clayface and Riddler who found out about the meeting and it just escalates from there with Batman finding out that Riddler knows and it becomes a sort of horrible disaster that Joker saves him from. Ridller later contacts Chuck and Chuck finds out that he poisoned the strings of his sons kite which killed him. Chuck later designs a costume and shows up to Joker as Kite Man.

This issue really showed us a rather tie-in origin story for Kite Man. We don't get a lot of origin stories of villains like him and it is fitting that like most Gotham Villains, it makes sense that the origin story would be tragic. The idea that someone who is really just trying to get out of it alive as he is caught up between the Joker, Riddler, and Batman. At the same time we get news reports on how the war is escalating with the news reporters even thinking that it may be best to side with either Joker or Riddler just to help the war come to a better end. The problem is though that we aren't seeing anything going on. As good as this story is, we don't get any real explanation of how we got to this point, why everyone is on this side or that.