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| You'd be amazed how often that describes my working day. |
It's Sunday afternoon so let's look at comics, eh?
Jonah Hex proves to be as slippery and conniving as the bad guys he's up against when it's revealed Doc Arkham's capture and subsequent metaphorical gut spilling were all part of Hex's plan to draw the August 7 out into the open. With them neatly corralled, Hex heads off to find the head of the child slavery ring that brought him to New Orleans in the first place, forcing an appearance of an Owlwoman to tie into the current Night of the Owls crossover in the Bat books. They end up back in Gotham just in time for Tallulah Black to make an appearance.
It's another good issue, spoiled a little by the unnecessary Night of the Owls crossover which feels a little forced. The Nighthawk and Cinnamon back-up finishes as well and while it's been good, it's nothing special.
Black Manta continues to hunt down the members of Aquaman's original team, The Others, focusing on the Prisoner of War who can apparently channel the abilities of his lost comrades in arms. Meanwhile Aquaman and Ya'wara fight Manta's crew in the Amazon rainforest, Aquaman's previous squeeze proving to be a bloodthirsty soul not afraid to kill. And back at Professor Shin's place, we get to learn his connection to Aquaman, why they're no longer friends and he tells Mera why Manta is so pissed off at her fella: Aquaman apparently murdered Manta's dad.
Another cracking issue that moves the plot along and looks gorgeous as well.
Leon works out how to get revenge on his redneck friends and family by cooking them up a batch of smack deliberately tainted with blood from one of the Crossed and all too soon as the camp goes crazy, he makes his escape. Eventually he holes up at the same shack the twins are using and they make an uneasy peace. Steve and Greg also end up in the swamp and come across the same shack just as they all hear Leon's father and his dogs out hunting him, looking for revenge.
It's another round of depravity and survival and you know what? I think Greg's going to somehow manage to come out alive and ride off into the sunset.
While the rest of you might have seen this a couple of weeks ago, I missed out and have only just picked it up. The Trinity of Sin - Pandora, the Question and the Phantom Stranger - are sentenced by seven celestials all of whom bear a lightning bolt insignia in one form or another. In Detroit, Cyborg's father and his colleagues pick up a signal from Earth-2. In Washington, Pandora breaks into a government area and steals back her box. Then, in the "near future" the League are seen battling each other and/or other characters, some of which we've seen before, some of which appear to be new.
There's a lot going on in here some of which I've discussed before and most of it's building towards next year's Trinity War. As I said in that post, I think we're looking at a new Earth 3 and that the trinity battling each other are the heroes of three earths. Again, my gut's saying an Earth 3/Crime Syndicate story and it'll be timed for Justice League #21/#22 which would fall around June/July next year and which would be a lovely nod to the first JLA/JSA crossover in the original Justice League of America series.
As Firestorm, Firehawk and Hurricane attempt to stop the Eiffel Tower from exploding, Justice League International arrive and, as all good first team-ups go, end up fighting with Jason. Thankfully they put aside their differences long enough for OMAC to go berserk and stop the terrorists, leaving Firestorm and Firehawk to deal with an imminent nuclear explosion. Jason attempts to replicate the same process he had with Ronnie but with Firehawk but, sadly, it doesn't work out so well. While the JLI are interested in having Firehawk join the team (lending further hope to JLI #12 not being the final issue) Ronnie and Pozhar head to the Middle East.
It's a good issue on the whole, though the whole heroes fighting heroes when first meeting is a little old by now. Worth a look.
Saint Walker gets home to Odym just in time for the Reach - those alien bad guys who created the scarabs, one of which powers Blue Beetle - to invade en masse. The Zamarons find out a little more from Fatality about the White Hole that allowed Invictus, sworn enemy of Larfleeze, to return to the universe, at the same time, word reaches them about the Reach's invasion which sends Fatality off to help, strangely worried about Saint Walker. Elsewhere, Kyle manages to contact the other Rainbow Corps members, all of whom head for Odym while the Blue Lanterns try and hold out.
Another good issue; plot moves on nicely, most of the Rainbow Corps get a look in, even in cameo, and Saint Walker's shown to be a fighter, not just someone who hopes everything will turn out okay. I do wish Fatality would zip her top up, though. Poor girl must be freezing.
The Titans, the lost Legionnaires and the members of the Ravagers have teamed up against the bad guy Harvest and his battle royal scenario where he pits super-powered teens against one another, forcing the survivors to join his team. There's some team-work between the various groups and a nice little scene where Superboy and Wonder Girl work together. Eventually, though, Harvest escapes to fight another day, the teams go their separate ways, some of them heading off into the new Ravagers title coming soon.
Not having followed the cross-over in the other titles, this was a little bit like playing catch-up. While not the best issue, it was serviceable enough and hopefully normal service will be resumed next issue.
Voodoo heads down south (as in South America) to an ancient temple where Helspont, a very powerful Daemonite lord, is hanging out being bored. He spins her a tale of a Daemonite city on Europa where a deadly weapon was discovered which caused the aliens to flee and never return. Not surprisingly, he wants Voodoo to get it for him. Meanwhile, Priscilla's being trained up by the Black Razors where she meets Axel Walker who lets slip what Voodoo did (the whole stripper thing at the start of the series) when she was pretending to be Priscilla. Due to a shared psionic link, Priscilla knows that Voodoo's headed to Europa and before you can say "captured alien space ship that only works for Priscilla" she's on her way with a team of razors to stop Voodoo.
It might sound a little crazy and while the story's rocketing on from one scene to another, this is actually not bad. It's quickly ramped up from an espionage story to one involving clones, spaceships and impromptu extra-planetary activities, but it's kind of fun. And Sami Basri's art means everything looks gorgeous at least.
And what made me smile:
Priscilla finds out about Voodoo's job back in issue #1.
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