Shield 9 and 10

The Shield #9
Written by Eric Trautmann
Art by Marco Rudy
Co-Feature by Brandon Jerwa
Art by Michael Avon Oeming

The Shield teams up with the JSA in this issue as Baron Gestapo and new villain Dragonfly attack Happy Harbor. Having him team up with the JSA seems so obvious I am surprised I never thought about it. This was pretty good and it makes me sad the book is ending. I could see The Shield as a member of the JSA. The Fox gets his superhero name in the back-up but decides to give up being Tokyo’s hero only to find his girlfriend murdered. It was rushed but this back-up is still very strong, especially when compared to the previous Inferno back-up.

The Shield #10
Written by Eric Trautmann
Art by Marco Rudy
Co-Feature by Brandon Jerwa
Art by Michael Avon Oeming

Baron Gestapo is defeated along with Dragonfly in the final issue of this series. It is too bad that the Mighty Crusaders isn’t going to be an ongoing because I think it would be more successful then these solo books. I hope the Shield sticks around in the DCU as it has been fun following his adventures. In the Fox back-up the Dragon’s Head is defeated and the mentor is revealed as a villain, it looks like the Fox will be returning to America after this – perhaps as a Mighty Crusader. This was a great back-up.

Return Of The Fourth Reich

Justice Society of America #36
Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Jesus Merino

 

The Fourth Reich from Johns’s run return to attack the Justice Society again in this issue, this time most of the villain team consisted of old Archie Comics villains which was a cool and a nice way of showing how the Archie characters have become a part of the DC Universe. I wonder about each of these characters as they are rather interesting villains. No I don’t think the future predicted will come to pass or that Alan Scott is really dead, but anyways, this was good stuff. Willingham’s run has been a blast so far!

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.

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.