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Good morning, Destroyer fans!
I hope everyone had a good break...even if Peach didn’t, judging by today’s comic. You’ll also note the new art style, which is still a little rough around the edges, but I like the general idea. It still needs to evolve a bit. Don’t worry, you’ll start seeing things like mouths next week.
In case you’re wondering why we’re starting off with a slow comic like this after that crazy cliffhanger...well, I like to think this might be someone’s first time on the site, so I thought it would help these hypothetical new readers to start off slow.
- Justice League #8
- So...yeah. I’ve been looking forward to this issue for, like, months. I’ve made my love of Green Arrow well-known...well, basically everywhere, so even with lame fill-in artists, this issue has to REALLY screw up to disappoint me.
- And right away we start off awesome, with Steve Trevor talking to government bigwigs about adding a sort of “plant” onto the Justice League. Cut to Green Arrow asking the same question I’m sure a ton of nerds are asking: “What the hell am I doing here?”
- Aquaman flat-out calls it like it is: “Go away, Arrow.” I guess since we can’t have
- This issue quickly devolves into a hilarious montage of Green Arrow showing up at Justice League missions, trying to prove his worth as a potential team member. He fails spectacularly and the issue ends with the STUNNING reveal as to why the League tries to resist new members (seriously...that 2-page spread blew my friggin’ mind).
- The Shadow #1
- Okay, a warning: I basically know jack about The Shadow, other than the fact that Jack Donaghy played him in a movie that I still haven’t seen. So I have exactly zero expectations.
- What I came away with was...interesting, but I’m not sure if I’ll stick around for future issues. Since The Shadow has such a long history, I kind of assumed he was cut from the same cloth as Green Hornet (another property with a Dynamite-label comic that I haven’t read [and friggin’ Phil Hester writes that one!]). Turns out...not so much. He can see glimpses of the future and apparently talk to the dead...it’s an interesting bag of tricks for a guy in a coat with twin pistols.
- Overall, I’d say this was a good glimpse into the world of The Shadow and I’m glad I gave it a look, but I’m just not sure if I’m the target for this particular book.
- Supergirl #8
- Going from a hero I knew nothing about to a villain I knew nothing about, this month we get a glimpse of the DCnU’s Silver Banshee! Things start off well enough with Kara meeting Siobhan, a recent immigrant from Ireland who can pick up on an entire language just by hearing a few words (this basically gives Kara someone to talk to, since she still doesn’t know English and we puny Earthlings don’t know Kryptonian [I’d complain about asking how these linguistic powers are possible, but some punches you just have to roll with]).
- Siobhan invites Kara to stay at her place (I’m REALLY hoping Siobhan becomes a more central version of Alysia Yeoh, Barbara Gordon’s roommate over in Batgirl) and go see her perform at a coffeehouse. Seeing Kara out on the streets of New York getting sensory overload just makes you feel sorry and you just want to give her a hug.
- And then, during her performance, Siobhan’s dead father possesses the crowd and appears as the Black Banshee, crowing about how she needs to embrace her destiny (and that phrase alone is bringing up memories of Smallville). In our big cliffhanger, Siobhan turns into the Silver Banshee!
- Maybe it’s just because I liked Siobhan, but I kinda want the Silver Banshee curse to either somehow be lifted from her or have her pull a Ghost Rider and use this curse to do good or something. I dunno. We’ll see.
- Wonder Woman #8
- Umm...Wonder Woman goes to Hell. As always, it’s REALLY interesting to see what any creative team comes up with for Hell. Here, the dead are used to fashion the environment (so if, say, Hell looks like an abandoned London, then the dead make up everything from the buildings to the cobblestone roads). Yeah, it’s a new concept for me.
- Wonder Woman took her pick of weapons from Hephaestus’s armory, and even got to borrow Eros’ love pistols. This...comes back to bite her in the end when Hades barters away the love gun, only to turn around and shoot Wonder Woman in the heart.
- Birds of Prey #8
- The team spends the entire issue fighting government goons that seem to have been purposefully selected to hone in on a particular team member’s weakness (i.e. Katana fights a guy with unbreakable skin, a guy with flamethrowers spends the whole issue complaining about how he’s supposed to take down Poison Ivy, etc.)
- This FINALLY builds to the moment that it feels like this book has been waiting for for eight issues now...Black Canary’s admission that she murdered her husband (and probably not the one I’m familiar with...)
- My only problem with this revelation is it happens on the same panel that the tease for next month’s issue is, which is a tie-in with Batman’s Night of the Owl. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve heard downright AWESOME things about Scott Snyder’s run on Batman and the whole Court of Owls, but...either Canary’s husband better be tied in with all this Owl business or maybe this plot line should have been reshuffled. Just sayin’
- Batman Beyond Unlimited #3
- This was...kind of a melancholy issue broken up into three stories.
- We began with a Superman Beyond story (without any sort of titlecard...though Superman does dominate the cover this month [for the record...on the actual cover, they did at least tuck Batman into the corner to remind you what book you’re reading]). This story was...frankly, kinda depressing. The Fortress of Solitude is basically a museum (complete with old copies of the Daily Planet with the most annoyingly visible gibberish filler text I’ve ever seen), Metropolis police have these Lex Luthor super-suit lookin’ things that basically make them Superman, and oh yeah, THE PEOPLE OF METROPOLIS DON’T RECOGNIZE SUPERMAN! That is just sick and wrong! Oh, and some girl finds out she’s Lex Luthor’s daughter. Yeah, that’s gonna be the plot next month, a whole lot this month was just world-building. Lemme just say it one more time: Metropolis doesn’t recognize Superman. Sick. And. Wrong.
- On the Batman side of things, Batman has to stop Mad Stan from bombing the city because Russians stole his dog. And his kind-of-ex-girlfriend Dana wants him to help find her crazy Joker brother. Yeah...next month should be ALL kinds of crazy.
- And on Justice League Beyond...look, I really hated the whole Kobra cult thing when they did it on the show. At first, they were used for one 2-parter that was interesting, but then these guys kept coming back. And coming back. Ugh. So, anyway, Old Woman Waller explains about how they stole a magic book that’s going to help them find this worldkiller of a beast. Oh, and she namedrops something called “The Genesis War,” which I guess is supposed to be the new “Near-Apocalypse of '09.” We also get token cameos of a TON of Kirby characters, including Kamandi, OMAC, and The Forever People. Oh, and...um...this worldkiller beast apparently kills Aquaman. Yeah.
Well, that wraps things up this week. Make sure you're back here next MONDAY (remember that, kids) for more brand-new Peach the Destroyer adventures!
