Peach the Destroyer: Issue 047

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Okay, guys. Are you ready for some hyperbole? I'll assume you said yes. I'm pretty sure this is my favorite issue of Peach the Destroyer ever. I'm not sure if it's because we finally see Dr. Felis outside of a video screen and/or a flashback, because we finally get to see the infamous C.A.T. Force 5 (see issues 018 to...see them get mentioned), or because I got to work in a freakin' A-Team reference (I know I didn't really need to link to that...that one was just self-indulgence on my part).

Anyway, with no further ado, onwards to spoiler-filled comic reviews!

• Bionic Man #7
• The Solicit: Steve is reunited with Jaime for the first time since his transformation, but can even his true love find a place in her heart for a lover who is now more machine than man? The truth about the homicidal Hull's origin and its ties to Oscar Goldman come out, and Steve learns that being an O.S.I. agent is a lifetime commitment... sometimes an involuntary one.
• There’s something...relatable about a protagonist who can still get slapped by his gal, which happens in page 2 when Steve apologizes to Jamie about, y’know, her having to bury him when he “died.”
• Jamie tells a nice, sad little story about her parents. I don’t know if this particular scene was written by Kevin Smith or Phil Hester, but it’s a great, quiet little character moment in a story about a cyborg dude who punches people and sometimes you need those.
• The majority of this issue is spent as an infodump on our crazy bionic supervillain, Colonel Avery Hull, who’s described as “a real life G.I. Joe” before he even got to be bionic. Long story short, he’s (as I’m sure the viewers at home have already surmised) Bionic Man 1.0, and Steve’s mission is to “deactivate” him.
• By the way, I’m not linking to the cover here, but be warned that the cover is, fairly literally, a spoiler for the end of the book. Which bugs me.
• The solicit’s fairly honest for the book, really, though I’m not exactly pleased with how they ramp up the “will Jamie still love Steve?” angle.
• Justice League #6
• The Solicit: The Justice League is united at last against Darkseid. The awesome consequences of this high-stakes battle will resonate within the series for years to come! Geoff Johns and Jim Lee end their historic first arc with a bang!
• We get our first glmpse at Desaad and Steppenwolf and...yeah, let’s just say I can see these guys and the “New 52” Parademons coming from the same planet now.
• Okay, stand back, because I’m gonna unleash the one-two punch of badass moments of the week: Wonder Woman stabs Darkseid in the eye with a sword. Then Aquaman stabs the other eye with a trident. SERIOUSLY, STUFF LIKE THAT DOES NOT JUST HAPPEN! THAT IS JUST PLAIN AWESOME!
• Some groundwork gets laid when Batman saves Superman and Supes exposits “The death and torture Darkseid’s spread across a...multiverse. I think I saw...me.”
• I’m not ruining it for you guys, but...there is a beautiful 2-page splash page that literally made me exclaim “god I love comics!”, it was that good.
• Directly after the Magnificent Crowning Moment of Awesome (jeez, there were a lot of those in this issue), we get two pages of the League working as a team. Maybe it’s because you usually don’t see “teams” working as a team in superhero-related stuff (just watch about any of the X-Men movies to see this exemplified), but seeing this team fire on all cylinders after bickering for 5 issues felt like icing on the cake.
• We end with a ceremony thanking the League in Washington, DC (paying, I think, fairly blatant homage to Justice League: The New Frontier, which I highly recommend reading or watching, depending on your preference) and a backup comic featuring everyone’s favorite cloaked woman, Pandora (you remember her, right?).
• Kirby: Genesis - Dragonsbane #2
• The Solicit: Spinning out of KIRBY: GENESIS, Sigurd Dragonsbane and his band of Norse champions explore the astonishing Mythlands, where the heroes and legends of every culture on earth now reside. But when they venture into the Olympian region, they run afoul of both Circe and the Cyclops...and the power and majesty of Ulysses might not be enough to save them! Plus: Balduur reveals an incredible secret power...at the possible expense of his own life!
• Okay, that solicit offends me more than most because 90% of it’s just a plot summary of issue 1. Did that issue not sell well or something? Did people need a “previously, in Dragonsbane!” for issue 2?
• As if to prove a point that Dragonsbane is the book where anything can happen, friggin’ Ulysses shows up to save our pig--err, heroes from Circe’s clutches.
• I’m not sure why (or if it’s intentional), but something about our Nordic heroes reminds me of Jack Kirby’s Forever People. Just an observation.
• I’m going to say it: if you’ve remained on the fence on the entire Kirby: Genesis line, Dragonsbane is the best book to get you started. Much like Jack Kirby’s Fourth World, each book has a different flavor and manages to stand apart from one another, but add in the facts that this book A) rocks and B) is only at issue 2 make it an easy recommendation.
• Batman Beyond: Unlimited #1
• The Solicit: A new era begins with the debut of the oversized, monthly Batman Beyond Unlimited, featuring the print debut of the new Justice League Beyond! In the Batman Beyond chapter, legendary Batman artist Norm Breyfogle returns to draw the Dark Knight of the future with best-selling writer Adam Beechen. In “10,000 Clowns,” an onslaught of new Jokerz is plaguing Gotham City – and the implications of this chaotic clown menace could have disastrous consequences for Terry McGinnis and Bruce Wayne! And the debut of the Justice League Beyond is here, courtesy of the Batman: Streets of Gotham art team of Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs, as the first two digital-first chapters are available in print for the first time! Batman Beyond is a new recruit in the mighty Justice League, but the team will be immediately tested by a very Neo Gotham-related enemy! How will the team work together to combat this threat?
• So...does this mean Batman Beyond is canon in the New DC Universe? I suppose it’s easier to accept a walking Commissioner Barbara Gordon in a continuity where Barbara’s retaken up the cowl as Batgirl, but I still have to ask.
• I was surprised to discover that the writer for the Batman Beyond half of the book, Adam Beechen, didn’t have a history of writing for the show when it was on (as far as I could find), because this story felt like I was watching an episode of the cartoon (albeit with a far more detailed art style than the Bruce Timm “barrel-chested and angular” motif would allow).
• Surprisingly, it doesn’t take long for a ton of familiar faces to crop back up. In the Justice League Beyond story, we see the re-appearance of some of the Jokerz crew from Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (and an appearance in a Justice League Unlimited 2-parter). Heck, even a few of the genetically spliced “Animal Kingdom” gang are familiar to me.
• Hey, Justice League Beyond? Know how you have “Barda: Exiled god from New Genesis” on your team? Yeah, I’m ignoring that and saying that’s Mister Miracle and Big Barda’s daughter. Why? Because I like legacy heroes, darnit.
• Overall, this was a good book and definitely worth a buy, especially if you grew up on the cartoon (though that’s not a requirement).

That's all for this week, everyone. Come back next week for another chapter in the adventures of Peach the Destroyer!