The Spirit Of Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman #609
Written by J. Michael Straczynski and Phil Hester
Art by Don Kramer

 

Wow Hester really manages to show us the spirit of who Wonder Woman is – not only in her various incarnations – but within people who embodies her ideals and characterization through time. It was really a great issue. And the way he showed this – through her enemy Doctor Psycho who only wants things to return to normal so that he could be close to her in some way again. It was great. I really did not expect this to be that good.

BatCon 52 – 54

Batman Confidential #52
Written by Marc Guggenhiem
Art by Jerry Bingham

Batman calls the Justice League for help and that is about it. This would seem to be before he became a full-time member. This was probably the best issue of this arc so far.

Batman Confidential #53
Written by Marc Guggenhiem
Art by Jerry Bingham

 

Okay DC you need to decide who was a founding member or not! This issue reads like Batman is definitely not a founding member of the Justice League as he has said to have been post-Infinite Crisis. How annoying. Total continuity mistake made this unreadable for me. And if they were gonna go with the Post-Crisis, Pre-Infinite Crisis continuity where Batman was not a founder – why isn’t Black Canary there! This is just dumb.

Batman Confidential #54
Written by Marc Guggenhiem
Art by Jerry Bingham

 

The continuity mistakes (And the fact that the two stories told never connect) made this arc a lousy read for me. And this issue also marks the final issue of this book. This was a book chock full of continuity mistakes with some great arcs in between. The Batgirl and the Wrath arcs come to mind but otherwise I am not going to miss this series at all.

A Villain Returns

Wonder Woman #608
Written by J. Michael Straczynski and Phil Hester
Art by Don Kramer

 

Yay! The last page reveals………………….Dian is saved by Doctor Psycho. I missed that creepy little guy! He is definitely my favorite Wonder Woman villain and we haven’t really seen much of him since One Year Later. I wonder if he remembers the Old Diana or not? Should be interesting. This whole issue was basically a big fight scene but still good.

Forever Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman #607
Written by J. Michael Straczynski and Phil Hester
Art by Don Kramer

 

It looks like that is Cheetah and Giganta with Artemis – so they don’t remember their old lives either? Wonder Woman is a real heroine here – choosing mercy over death for the minotaur and doing all she can to save the boy. I like that this is an alternate history Diana – but she is still our Wonder Woman.

The Fortress of Solidarity

Superman #708
Written by J. Michael Straczynski and Chris Roberson
Art by Eddy Barrows

 

Yup…Chris Roberson is now one of my favorite writers at DC! In two issue he has improved upon JMS’s Grounded tremendously. This issue features the Superman Squad and their Fortress of Solidarity – I love the idea of Superstar – an entire Superhero universe hahaha awesome! And Wonder Woman guest stars (I like how Superman thinks she seems so familiar) and gets inspired to be a hero while watching him. Great stuff!

Enthusiasm

Wonder Woman #606
Written by J. Michael Straczynski and Phil Hester
Art by Eduardo Pansica

 

Things are heating up as the Morrigan have created villains from dead Amazons including Artemis. One of them is called the Cheetah – hmmm?? I love how Diana is so troubled by the dolls she finds and perhaps has residual memories of her old life. I am definitely enjoying the ride and I have to say Hester has improved this book tremendously since he took over from JMS’s plot. JMS never seemed to give a crap about Wonder Woman in interviews – it was always a backseat to his Superman stories – Hester seems enthusiastic about this and I am right there with him.

Superman Batman 79 and 80

Superman/Batman #79
Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Jesus Merino

 

Roberson introduce (or re-introduces for some) to the DC Universe of the 853rd Century and I am one of the few who have never read DC One Million and therefore I am fascinated by this Justice Legion with its many worlds and I can’t wait to see more next issue. Epoch Lord of Time doesn’t seem like a new character but I could be wrong but he was a great way to frame the story and allow for the past and the future to collide.

Superman/Batman #80
Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Jesus Merino

Epoch is stopped by the Bronze Age World’s Finest and travels through time being defeated by each era’s Batman and Superman – Brilliant! I am looking forward to seeing more of Roberson’s run on the main Super-book after reading this awesomeness.

Outsiders 34 and 35

Outsiders (Volume 4) #34
Written by Dan Didio and Keith Giffen
Art by Giffen

I like the idea of The Olympian getting involved with the Outsiders – but I don’t know how I feel about him actually calling his men Manazons. That is just dumb. I think we know why that Wonder Woman arc was called Rise of the Olympian despite its focus being on Genocide – Didio. He loves this character I guess. It is great to see Giffen joining the book as artist and co-plotter as it will probably gain some quality.

Outsiders (Volume 4) #35
Written by Dan Didio and Phillip Tan
Art by Tan

Ahh and Tan comes back for one more issue! He is not such a bad artist but he never draws backgrounds and I never know what the hell is going on when he draws this comic. Not to mention the dialogue is pathetically bad once again. Ugh at least Giffen is coming back next issue. Oh and since when does Black Lightning contain Black Lantern energy??

Sitting Back And Enjoying The Ride

Wonder Woman #605
Written by J. Michael Straczynski and Phil Hester
Art by Don Kramer, Eduardo Pansica, and David Hdr

 

Despite my initial annoyance at the costume change and the timeline change that started all this, I have decided – especially after this issue – that I am going to sit back and enjoy this because it is freaking awesome! I love the idea of the amazons living in secret around the world and Diana secretly fighting injustice wherever she goes. I loved the flashbacks to her childhood where she assault the man who was beating his daughter and says she will always be watching – that is classic Diana to me! And the hints at the old timeline make me so excited! A little boy draws her in her old outfit and Diana recognizes it somehow. I like that the boy remembers her even if no one else does. And the temple with the Wonder Woman dolls. Just because the timeline has changed doesn’t mean all the artifacts of her existence are gone. And the minotaur showing up made me miss Ferdinand from Rucka’s run! The Morrigan are interesting villains too.

Trained By The Bat

Green Lantern Corps (Volume 2) #54
Written by Tony Bedard
Art by Tyler Kirkham

 

You know what made me cheer in this issue…when Sinestro asks Kyle who trained him to fight, and Kyle hits him hard and says Batman!!! Hells to the ya. Another reason why Kyle Rayner is better then Hal Jordan, Batman likes him better!  Anyways, Kirkham’s art really impressed me in this issue as he can draw scenery wonderfully. Just look at his Oa! He is a great guy to draw a book mostly set in Alien Landscapes. The moments between Soranik and the Weaponer were really great as it kinda sorta humanized the villain and showed how caring and compassionate Soranik can be. Great issue.

Timing

The Flash (Volume 3) #6
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Francis Manapul

The opening arc of Barry Allen’s return to the Flash comes to the end with this issue as the Big villain turns out to the the future version of the Top and it’s a decent ending. I just expected bigger…and the something is wrong with time thing just kind of annoyed me. I hope Flashpoint doesn’t fuck with continuity again. I want to see Wally West soon!

Like The Creators, But Not The Comic

Batman Confidential #50
Written by Marc Guggenheim
Art by Jerry Bingham

The switches between the far East and Gotham left me very confused as to what the hell was going on in this issue. The second feature with the Justice League was interesting but I still just didn’t care. Definitely not impressed with this arc so far and I like these creators.

Wonder Woman Takes Flight

Wonder Woman #604
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Art by Don Kramer and Eduardo Pansica

 

Okay the solicitations were wrong about this issue…we don’t find out why the timeline changed or anything and that is annoying as hell but whatever…I liked the issue. It wasn’t as crazy awesome as last but it was good. The guy we met last issue was a pawn, not the big bad and he is killed by Hippolyta’s ghost?? Interesting. Wonder Woman finally takes flight in this issue which is quicker then I thought she would. We learn the big baddie is called the Morrigan. I wonder what that means?

Wonder Woman 602 and 603

Wonder Woman #602
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Art by Don Kramer and Eduardo Pansica

 

Okay I’ll admit I am starting to dig this. The art is wonderful and Diana sure kicks major ass here – but damn she should keep her jacket on because there are way too many straps under that thing it looks really dumb. I miss her iconic costume. Loved the parts where she said she was ready to spit in the face of the Gods, now that is something the Wonder Woman I know and love would say.

Wonder Woman #603
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Art by Don Kramer, Eduardo Pansica, and Allan Goldman

 

Okay I think Straczysnki has won me over…while I still want to see how this all fits into continuity, this was a fucking amazing issue that saw Diana journey to Hades and back and comes face to face with the mysterious big baddie. Great art and great writing! I am impressed!

Streets of Gotham 15 and 16

Batman: Streets of Gotham #15
Written by Ivan Brandon
Art by Ramon Bachs

 

This is kinda weird…replacing the back up as the main feature in the middle of an arc. I don’t know why Dini is having trouble getting his scripts in on time but whatever this was good. It was violent and disturbing as a Two-Face story should be and ends with Two-Face getting stabbed brutally by his lackeys and thrown in a river. I doubt he’s actually dead but it sure seems that way.

Batman: Streets of Gotham #16
Written by Paul Dini
Art by Dustin Nguyen
Co-Feature by Ivan Brandon
Art by Ramon Bachs

The main story continues “House of Hush” and it is really good. It focuses once again on fleshing out a back story dealing with the Waynes and we get more moments from Bruce and Tommy’s childhood. I have said before and I will say it again that Dini has given Hush more depth then Loeb ever did or could. Zatanna showing up was weird….does Dini have to put her in everything he writes? He writes her well don’t get me wrong though. The Two-Face back up has Harvery being found and taken care of by a priest and has a pretty shocking ending I don’t want to ruin here. Good stuff.

Superman Batman 75 and 76

Superman/Batman #75
Written by Paul Levitz
Art by Jerry Ordway

 

The anniversary issue has a bunch of tiny back-up features that I won’t cover here cause most are not in continuity but the main story was an epilogue to Levitz’s previous arc as a future Lexor citizen comes back in time to kill Superman and the Legion and Batman team up to stop them. It was good and Ordway’s art was great but nothing to get too excited about. I am kinda sick of the same four Legionnaires always being used – let’s mix it up a bit Levitz.

Superman/Batman #76
Written by Judd Winick
Art by Marco Rudy

Now this was great! We finally get to see Superman’s reaction to Batman’s “death” during Final Crisis and it was a really great. Winik could have made this cliche and dumb as hell (imagine if this was written by Meltzer) but instead we get a look at how Superman views death and the fate of his friends as well as some awesome moments between him and Wonder Woman. I loved it!

Archetypical Bullet

Batman #702
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Tony Daniel

 

This concludes the lost chapter of R.I.P and I have to say I quite enjoyed this issue. One wonders why this wasn’t told back then but oh well we got a lot more information here about how Bruce was sent back in time by the Omega Sanction. I love how Morrison describes the God-Bullet as the archetypical bullet – the bullet of all bullets – therefore truly Batman’s ultimate enemy. Great writing and really cool stuff to think about. I am not sure where and how Batman recorded the message for Superman though. I will probably have to go back and reread.