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| See? It's not all bad. |
It's Sunday afternoon in my world so let's look at comics.
Jaime starts to assert himself over the alien scarab that's intent on killing everything while La Dama begins to work out where the scarab's ended up, and the Brotherhood of Evil get a new enforcer.
It's something of a relief when a new creative team take over a favourite character and, with a little time to find their feet, start making enjoyable comics. Jaime is getting to grips with the scarab, forcing it to obey his commands, though that comes with a very painful price by the look of it. Thankfully, his family are there for him as they were in the previous series although there's a little more anger in the parental home than before. That may be excusable as his parents are obviously worried by Jaime's disappearance and there's definitely some history between them and La Dama so maybe they're just venting. Talking of La Dama, she's a lot more ruthless than we've seen before.
On the whole this is getting better with each issue.
THE BOYS: BUTCHER, BAKER, CANDLESTICKMAKER #5 - written by Garth Ennis with art by Darick Robertson.We get the aftermath of last issue's gruesome death as Butcher learns the truth about the Homelander and his part in things so when Greg Mallory comes a'calling, he's more than willing to sign up for whatever he has in mind. And first off, that means breaking into a house with a bunch of young supes relaxing the way they know how to, and killing them all.
It's a hard, ruthless issue and the Butcher that emerges on the last couple of pages is the one we've come to know and, perhaps, like despite ourselves in the pages of The Boys.
Captain Atom continues his rounds of anonymously helping people in their everyday lives and, as you do, ends up in Libya, trying to stop the fighting where he meets the Flash. Meanwhile, his handlers - well, one of them - back at the Continuum appear to have decided he's too dangerous and have enlisted a new character with an old name: General Wade Eiling.
It's something of a superhero cliche that when two heroes meet for the first time they fight and then team up. Kudos to J.T. Krul for not going down that road; here Cap and the Flash actually have a conversation and work together which is a refreshing change. Atom himself continues, at least in my mind, to be channelling more Dr. Manhattan than the old Cap what with his messiah-complex and increasing isolation from humanity but that's no bad thing. And then there's General Eiling's appearance at the end. Now an African America, he is once again at odds with the Captain and that can't be good.
While Krul's work on Green Arrow may not have been that hot, here he's doing splendidly.
Following last issue's cliffhanger, the Lanterns led by Gardner and Stewart are facing the overwhelming force of mysterious fighters who use their own willpower to overcome the Green Lanterns' ring constructs. An emergency call to Salaak sends reinforcements to aid in the retreat that's called but not everyone makes it back.
This was a full-on issue with barely a let up in the fighting and a whole host of Lanterns appear to get their arses kicked by the guys in black. It'll be interesting to find out how Stewart and the half-dozen other Lanterns who got left behind get out of this one.
Wonder Woman turns up and eats ice cream. Okay, there's more to it than that, but our introduction to this New 52 Diana is basically a warrior wandering around with a bloody great sword looking for a fight who is not above enjoying a simple pleasure. Meanwhile the nascent League deal with an infestation of Parademons and Silas Stone saves his son by turning Vic into Cyborg.
Flipping back through this issue while writing this, I'm struck by just how little dialogue Superman has: fifteen words in the entire issue. Compared with him, Batman is ridiculously chatty! Is this a deliberate characterisation of Supes? Is he such an outsider that he's reluctant to engage with the other heroes? Or does Geoff Johns simply not know what he'd say?
Still, a cracking issue all told with a marvellous last page appearance by Aquaman. Could do without the ridiculously pointless back-up - a faux cover, library card, biography, dedication and foreword to a book called The Secret History of Atlantis which adds nothing to the story at all. The sooner a decent back-up story begins in this series the better.
Knowing next to nothing about this character, I was a little surprise to find his first appearance here being regenerated in a clone body after dying in battle. That's one way to introduce your main character, I suppose! The story itself is Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers attempting to free a planet from the Shadow Empire and, ultimately, failing, Victory electing to destroy the entire world Alderaan-style rather than allow the Empire to spread further. Dotted among these scenes are flashbacks to Victory's childhood where we learn he studied at the hands of the Empire's vilest generals in an effort to toughen him up so that he may join his grandfather, the ruler of the Empire.
Despite sounding a little one-generation-removed from Vader and Luke, this wasn't a bad issue all told.
Captured by the Dark Man's border guards, Larry, Glen and Ralph are taken to Las Vegas where they end up meeting the big bad guy himself. Flagg's world continues to unravel at an alarming rate, however, and Glen goads him into killing him before time. Attempting to publicly execute the other two, Flagg is interrupted by the arrival of the Trashcan Man and his final present.
It's a good, albeit fast paced, finale in Vegas with a nice little cameo-by-pseudonym of Stephen King himself though my only complaint is of the demonic appearance of Flagg - it's just too . . . typical, I guess.
And what made me smile:
Having lost his arms and legs, Isamot Kol wears his ring on his fricking tongue! He is now, officially, the toughest Lantern.
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