Secret Warriors #1
Written By Brian Michael Bendis and Jonathan Hickman
Art By Stefan Casseli
This is a pretty good book. I mean, it creates new characters, sets up the scene, and finally moves Nick Fury past the "Vaguely lurking around at the edge of continuity dropping ominous bits of foreshadowing" that he'd been stuck in for a while. There are a couple of weird things, like Nick Fury is an asshole to the president for no really good reason, especially since he knows the president isn't involved with HYDRA and seems relatively genial to a guy who snuck into his office and began demanding answers, but I suppose that's really more a matter of taste more than anything else.
Of course, how I'm supposed to believe Nick Fury is a super-spy capable of stopping HYDRA when he's apparently been unwittingly working for them for a while is another matter. "Okay, guys, HYDRA has apparently been duping me for decades, but I feel pretty confident that with my rag-tag team of caterpillars, we're going make a difference!"
Secret Six #6
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Nicola Scott
Again, I didn't dislike this comic. Which puts me in a quandry....
Anyway, there are two things that detracted from this otherwise good comic, one of which is pretty subjective, and the other not the fault of the writer anyway.
Okay, the first thing is Junior's origin....yeah..,remember when Dan Didio said that DC trying to bring lighter, sunnier stories...well, it's not working.
The real problem is that apparently Deadshot is being written out because he was kind of killed off a few months ago in Kevin Smith's Batman miniseries starring the villain that no one ever cared about, and he was working alone at the time....But hell, in five years when that miniseries is over, and we've all seen the thrilling final battle between Batman and Onomatopeia, I have no doubt it will all have been worth it.
Cable #11
Written by Duane Swierczynski
Art by Ariel Olivetti and Jamie McKelvie
You know, ten years ago if someone had walked up to me and told me that in the future Cable would include scenes where instead of using his absurdly big gun to kill cockroach men, he decided to run away and recite the opening stanzas to "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"....well, it would have been quite surprising.
That said, I do like the fact that Bishop's plan to kill the little mutant girl is to systematically set in motion events that will destroy large sections of the world. Oh sure, it doesn't make sense that a guy with enough resources to pull off that plan couldn't come up with anything a bit more nuanced, but, hey, at least he's creative.
The Mighty #1
Written by Peter Tomasi and Keith Champagne
Art by Peter Snejbjerg
Okay, so someone murdered the captain of Section Omega. Section Omega being the independent police force created to assist Alpha One, who's the world's only super-hero. Can Gabriel Cole, newly installed leader of Section Omega find the presumably highly disillusioning truth about his predecssor's murder? How many issues will it take to find out Alpha One's feet are made of super-clay? Will he be able to save his relationship with his girlfriend when it goes through a crisis in a couple of issues? Find out in the next exciting issue of The Mighty!
Final Crisis - Legion of Three Worlds #3
Written by Geoff "Fuck You Legion fans under 25" Johns
Art by George Perez
I'd like to think I'm a reasonable man, but even reasonable men have their limits....
Here's the thing, the Levitz Legion was pretty good, but it wasn't great. To use a baseball metaphor, it was the Mark Grace of comics, consistently good, skilled at all the little things, but not a Hall of Famer. So, starting off, I'm dubious about the point of this enterprise.
But it gets worse.
In order to cement the status of the Levitz Legion as the one, true Legion of Superheroes, Johns has to carefully remove the other two Legions from continuity, carefully clipping away at any loose strands so we know that neither the Reboot nor Threeboot Legions are connected to the mainstream DC Universe. As a guy who grew up reading the Reboot Legion, it's not exactly the most pleasant read. For example, XS was a character in the Reboot Legion, but was also related to characters who are in the main continuity, and so Johns response is to make it clear that, in fact, she's not from the same universe as the Reboot Legion after all! Hooray!
About five years ago, Johns helped write the special that consigned the DnA Legion to limbo...literally. I remember thinking, "Wait, the Legion just sacrificed themselves to save the Emo Titans so that Superboy could go back to whining about not having a soul...mother-fucker!" But the Reboot Legion is back! Of course they're only back so that Geoff Johns can ensure that they never escape from the darkest depths of comics purgatory again, but, well, I suppose it's kind of nice to see them.
Oh, and the villain is Superman(boy)-Prime, which is fucking spectacular.
Also, Kid Flash is back, which is great, because the DC Universe only had three characters who hold the title of Flash, and if they lost one, and then another one, they'd only have one Flash left!
But if you're a fan of any of the last twenty years of Legion comics, I'd read this issue, because, well, you're not apt to see Gates again anytime soon.
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