Covert Team

The Shield #6
Written by Eric Trautmann
Art by Marco Rudy
Co-Feature by Brandon Jerwa
Art by Michael Gaydos

 

I have been a big fan of the art on this book, but this was definitely Rudy’s weakest issue. The panel lay-out was like he was evoking J.H. Williams III on Detective Comics except he is not Williams and it doesn’t work at all. I found it to be distracting and confusing as the reader of this issue. For the first time since this book began, I found the co-feature to be a much better experience. I liked the idea of a team of heroes forming under Halliday who are covertly working against him. Is this how the Mighty Crusaders get together? I guess time will tell.

Kryptonian Mythology

Action Comics #886
Written by Greg Rucka and Eric Trauttman
Art by Pere Perez
Co-Feature by Rucka and James Robinson
Art by Cafu

 

I don’t have much to say about the main story – it was well executed and as a fan of mythology myself I love how Rucka and Trauttman are creating Kryptonian Mythology. I am not sure why Flamebird seems to have turned against Thara though, is she working with Jax-Ur? Maybe I missed something there. It was good stuff though. The Captain Atom co-feature was even more impressing. I have enjoyed every moment of this feature and in this issue once again Robinson shows how well he utilizes the DC Universe incorporating Skartaris, Shadowpact, and the many magical realms into the plotline. I loved it.

Integration

The Shield #5
Written by Eric Trautmann
Art by Marco Rudy
Co-Feature by Brandon Jerwa
Art by Greg Scott

 

The main story introduces two old Archie characters into the DC Universe: The hero The Jaguar and the villain Baron Gestapo. Both of these characters have a lot of potential in my opinion already. Even though I know nothing about the Archie heroes I am loving watching them become integrated into the DC Universe and both this series and the Web. It’s a real shame more people aren’t reading as they are both good books. The Great Ten guest stars but the new characters are the more important parts of the book. The Inferno back-up introduces another new character from the old Archie days, The Comet, and he seems more interesting then Inferno although I am not sure how I feel about his costume just yet. The back-up is definitely still inferior to the main story though.

More People Need To Read This Book

The Shield #4
Written by Eric Trautmann
Art by Marco Rudy
Co-Feature by Brandon Jerwa
Art by Greg Scott

This series is in a lot of way the spiritual sucessor to Checkmate or at least it definitely felt that way with Great Ten and King Faraday showing up? Does Checkmate even exist post-final Crisis? We haven’t seen them since then or even heard about them.The Shield’s back-story with his father is interesting and I like how this tied in with General Lane and the Superman books for a page there, that is nice use of continuity that really makes the this feel like a shared universe. The “Red Circle” books are really good! People need to start reading them as they are just getting better with every issue.