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| Adam One's a bit thirsty at the dawn of time. |
A mid-week Cocktail? Whatever next?
I should know better by now, I really should. I see Terror's happy little face on the cover of this month's issue and I expect a happy tale about the vicious little tyke biting down on some supes' cape.
But no. The face-off between the Boys and the Seven goes off pretty much without a hitch with the exception of a very pissed off Jack from Jupiter. Wee Hughie loses his rag with Butcher and almost spills the beans about him speaking with Mallory. All of which leads to the discovery back at the Boys' HQ which sends Butcher, very methodically, off the deep end leading to Jack from Jupiter facing a very difficult question.
Everything's gearing up for a big, horrible ending and I don't know who's going to come out of this one.
Lime and Light - who owe a little too much to Resurrection Man's Body Doubles if you ask me - get taken down by Green Arrow before he answers the challenge of their leader, Rush, and ends up in a warehouse surrounded by Rush and the rest of his gang. There, the bad guys intend to deliver a beating which, in this wonderful world of technology, they're streaming live over the internet. Ollie's left on his own against eight villains with the world watching.
It's an okay story by Krul with gorgeous art by Jurgens and Perez but the thing that got me was the next issue box promising the appearance of Black Canary!
Booster and his team don't fare too well against the giant robot in Peru with Rocket Red's suit disabled and Ice injured. With the odds against him, Booster makes the decision to return to Washington and regroup which some of the team disagree with. Things go from bad to worse with the appearance of three other giant robots which, unknown to the League, are signalling a far-off alien who's intent on destroying the world.
I'm liking this on the whole. Fire and Ice have changed little since the reboot; Godiva unfortunately is something of a one-note character - if she's not flirting with Booster, she's not doing anything; Rocket Red and August General, with their ideological differences, are bound to become firm friends; Vixen, too, hasn't changed much; and Batman at least backs up Booster which counts for a lot. Guy Gardner also comes back into the frame and it's revealed that he and Ice had a couple of dates in the past so aren't together.
The dialogue's a little stilted in one or two places - "Twenty American dollars" from Godiva should surely have been "Twenty quid" and Vixen's "And that looks like my native Africa!" is more than a little cringeworthy - but, as I say, this isn't bad at all. There's also a nice nod to Beau Smith, writer of Gardner's solo series from years gone by.
And I demand that we see the Booster Caver sooner rather than later!
The moon's still attacking the Earth, despite Harry Tanner's best efforts to distract the Scourge of Worlds, while Apollo and Midnighter are somewhat reluctantly pulled closer to membership of Stormwatch. At the same time, to maintain their anonymity, they arrange for a two-bit villain to take the blame for what's happening on the moon. None of which, unfortunately, prevents the moon's missiles from landing and unleashing Cthulhu-like monsters on the Earth. The one we see lands on a farm in the middle of nowhere that looks strangely familiar and is cheekily called the Tenk Farm.
There's a lot going on here, and not just the immediate threat from the moon's surface, but it all barrels along nicely. The characters are all sneaky and manipulative with many of them planning to mount a leadership challenge against Adam One in amongst the mayhem.
Thoroughly recommended.
Issue #1 of this series didn't do a great deal for me, but this one has picked up. Holland's predecessor as Swamp Thing tells him how he came to be and also fills him in on the big bad pestilential thing that killed a bunch of people in the last issue. Apparently, Sethe is "the enemy Swamp Thing was born to defend the Green against." but even with that knowledge, Holland decides against joining the crusade. Sethe's army, however, attack him, forcing him to be rescued by Abigail Arcane but their meeting isn't all hugs and kisses.
This issue's good on the whole though starting Holland off against the Green's biggest enemy seems counter intuitive - surely if he is able to defeat Sethe then anything that follows will be easy? Still, an improvement on the first issue. And I'm assuming every body else noticed Alan Moore in the Wrightson Diner?
And what made me smile:
Oh those Stormwatch guys are bad!
I read #2 last week and found myself feeling disappointed. The story was fine actually except for one hitch. Despite several pages of conversation between Alec Holland and the Swamp Thing the writing failed to explain how either of them came to be, and also exist as separate "people". I said in my Youtube review of #1 that this will need to be explained sooner then later because as it stands this non-relaunch story line is inconsistent with what we know of the rebirth of Swamp Thing from Brightest Day #24. in BD #24 a resurrected Alec Holland is merged with the "Green" to become the Swamp Thing again. but then in Brightest Day Aftermath a naked Holland emerges from the swamp he had his lab accident years ago. so what's going on here?
ReplyDeleteYeah, big discrepancy between Brightest Day and Aftermath... which ticked me off a little, but you can't really compare either of those with the new title. Far as we're aware, Brightest Day may not have happened in the new DCU or if it did, it may not have happened as we saw it.
ReplyDeleteBrave new world, eh?
well everyone has come to the conclusion that the new ST is not a relaunch so what gives? we know that Alec Holland in the DC relaunch as well as in the previous DC Universe jumped into a swamp while ablaze and died. how is Alec Holland the man present now? you can't just not explain that. not if DC wants me to keep buying this book.
ReplyDelete