wednesdayINreview: Death and doom
Ever since the dawn of four-color heroics, some books each week have risen above all the others. With spoilers now lessened due to 24 hours 1 week, the gaijINside staff have decided to tell you what they liked. It’s time for another wednesdayINreview.
Ian Perez
Secret Six #15: Veteran scripter John Ostrander guest-writes this issue; naturally enough, it focuses on Deadshot, one of the characters he helped define during his run in the Suicide Squad. In something of a departure for the book, it’s a small, personal story, featuring only Deadshot, a pastor friend of his who may or may not have existed before this book, a couple of incidental characters, and Deadshot’s sudden compulsions to kill without reason. A nice little character piece that expounds on the characterization of Deadshot that, at best, got a mini-series a few years ago.
Doom Patrol #4: This issue’s Metal Men story shifts gears a bit, and introduces a trio of new maybe-villains, the Clique. A trio of artificially-intelligent mannequins unwittingly created by an academic rival of Doc Magnus’ trying to create his own brand of Metal Men, they break the mold by not being evil by default (although one of them is trying her best). Also notable, as always, is Kevin Maguire’s art, which, as always, is fantastic. While some people have commented that the book might have been better served by switching Metal Men to the main feature and the Doom Patrol to the back-up, the fact that the shorter page count allows him, in theory, to draw all of it without requiring fill-ins makes the current set-up worth it. As for the main feature, it’s the book’s contribution to the Blackest Night arc, as dead former members of the team haunt the current ones as Black Lanterns.
Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love #1: One of the enjoyable things about creator-owned titles is that the work itself is the result of a single, consistent vision. Given that, having a creator-owned universe worked on by somebody else, as with this mini-series, can feel somewhat like light sacrilege. Fortunately, writer Chris Roberson has got the Fables voice down pat.
The story, as indicated by the title, focuses on Cinderella, a character who shows up approximately every twenty issues of Fables for madcap spy adventures (she’s a secret agent, you see). Here’s she’s been charged with obtaining information on a string of black market deals involving Fable items. Very good introductory issue—then again, almost everything connected to Fables is.
Seth Talley
Batman: The Widening Gyre #3: In this issue Kevin Smith finally reveals the name of the new player in the comic, Baphomet. Baphomet once again comes to Batman’s aid. Baphomet then tells Batman about how he is just starting out and he choose the name thinking that it would scare the crap out of anyone who heard it. Bruce is also shown visiting with his lady friend on her families private island, when Aquaman shows up out of nowhere. Aquaman, by far, has the best one liners in the book. The issue is very funny and really the only thing that it reveals is Baphomet’s name and purpose.
The Boys #36: The rest of the origin of Mothers Milk is how he is tied to Butcher, and how he went and got his child back. Milk tells Hughie about how he was there the day of the attack on the Brooklyn Bridge in this universe’s 9/11. How Milk was helping a woman whose lower torso was torn to shreds, and how this was the day that Milk decided to go against the Supers. The story shifts showing Milk and Butcher back in the past at what looks to be a house of ill repute. Milk is seen talking with the man in charge demanding his child, while the man yells at Milk saying that the child probably isn’t even his. Butcher starts a rumble so he and Milk fight their way out with the child, and that is all that is revealed.
Captain America: Reborn #4: The master stroke of the Red Skull’s master plan is finally revealed in this issue. Steve is still shown going through crucial moments in his life. While Norman Osborn has caught Sharon Carter and is transporting her to Latveria to meet with Doom and Zola. On the other side of the world all of Marvel’s Mightiest Minds are gathered trying to figure out what is going on with Steve, while the Vision comes and reveals that he has a message for the group that would only be revealed if a certain phrase was uttered nothing more is revealed. At the end of the issue Dr. Doom finally gets Red Skull and Zola’s machine to work and it is shown that the Red Skull’s mind is now in Captain Americas.
Haunt #2: After the ending of last issue with the two corpses Kurt convinces Daniel to call a man only known as the cleaner to come by to fix the situation. After a few minutes of a back and forth between Daniel and the cleaner about how much he missed Kurt. Daniel and Kurt then head to try to have a normal day but Daniel gets annoyed by Kurt’s ghost and yells at him causing others to stare. Later a man called Cobra comes to try and kill Daniel so Kurt jumps in to Daniel and they become Haunt and fight Cobra. Cobra escapes and Daniel and Kurt head to one of Kurt’s organizations entrances where there are two guys who are high on something, and as soon as Kurt and Daniel drop in they are meet with about ten guys with guns pointing at them.
Lobo: Highway To Hell #1: The issue starts off with someone who is not shown throwing some Space Dolphins with a knife in them through Lobo’s window with a note that says “Call me 1-800-C U N Hell (yes that is a real number) Satan”. This sends Lobo on a killing rampage to Hell so he can confront Satan. Along the way he runs into countless soon to be corpses. Lobo stomps through Hell and at one point writer Scott Ian tells the reader to hum along a song to a certain scene, if you have iTunes handy pull up the song and just play the preview it fits perfectly. The Issue ends with Lobo getting to Satan, which happens to be a little girl.
These are the books that the gaijINside staff felt noteworthy. While these may not be all the best books out there, and are likely not all they read that week, these are the books we consider worth checking out. Want to let us know what you read? Post in the comments, or as always, use the tag #medi8 to tell us on Twitter.
This article was co-written by Ian Perez and Seth Talley.
There are no comments, yet.
Why don’t you be the first? Come on, you know you want to!