Longbox Review

Adventure Comics #529: Eh, it ended. I’m not sure why I’m sticking with this latest incarnation of the Legion. Actually, I do know why: 1) I love the characters; 2) Paul Levitz is writing them, only, I’m not caring for what he’s writing this time around. I keep hoping that things will be more like I felt about his 80s run on the title, but I don’t think it will be. I’ll read a few issues of the relaunch, but since the word is that the Legion is largely untouched in the DCnU, I don’t have high hopes that I’ll continue with any Legion title.

Flashpoint #4: A lot of focus is given to the S!H!A!Z!A!M! family kids, but it’s only a few tidbits in this issue that make this worth reading. Flash pleads with Thomas Wayne to stop what looks to be the final surge of the Atlantean/Amazonian war, but Batman refuses because it doesn’t matter if Barry succeeds in restoring reality as he knows it. Of course Barry doesn’t want to hear this, and compels others to join him, even Batman in the end, for he tells Thomas, “Bruce would’ve come.” And they call our Batman a master manipulator! Finally, the last page where Prof. Zoom appears to gloat, pointing at the devastation around him and telling Barry, “Look what you did.” I really am looking forward to the final issue coming out at the end of the month to see how all this contributes to the relaunch.

Flashpoint: Batman #3: The secret origin of the Joker! Yet again, we are shown what a bastard Thomas Wayne is. When he recounts the infamous alley death scene, he says two shots are fired, “bang, bang”, causing Martha to scream, “NOOOOO!”. But then he tells her what could happen if Flash is successful (which means that this story fits somewhere between Flashpoint issue one and two, I guess, thus connecting to the main series–which  I like immensely). The ending of this series is pitch perfect, and Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso did an awesome job overall. I almost didn’t buy this title, but I wanted to get the trinity tie-ins to see what DC would deliver, and this, so far, has been the best that I have read.

Flashpoint: Secret Seven #3: What the hell was the point of that? And by that I mean the whole series. Just to show that Enchantress is a betrayer, and Shade is an unwilling murderer? Waste of time. I thought the Lois Lane mini was the worst of those I’m reading, but this one takes that no prize thus far.

Flashpoint: World of FP #3: When I read the first issue of this, I thought perhaps it would have some sort of impact on the larger world of Flashpoint, but it’s really only a story between a daughter and her father with familiar tropes of loss, anger, and reconnection that kind of fall flat for me.

Mystic #1: What a breath of fresh air. I went into this with some reservations because I didn’t know the series when it was at CrossGen, and because the two restarts of old CrossGen series at Marvel were a bit lackluster. This is not. The story itself (by G. Willow Wilson) is a bit of trodden ground, but the characters and setting help make up for that. The art, however, is wonderful. David López (pencils), Álvaro López (inks), and Nathan Fairbairn (colors) do a fantastic job at conveying this world in a very accessible manner. Even the backgrounds are done well. The only complaint I have about the book visually is the choice to have the characters talking in purple text. I think that’s an unnecessary and distracting detail. I can’t wait to see issue two.

Secret Six #36: How bittersweet. I would have liked to see what story Gail Simone would have done with these characters if DC hadn’t gone down the relaunch path (not to mention the Bane transformation to fit him into the upcoming movie), but this is what we got, and it ends very well all things considered. I love love love the opening panels featuring Bane and his new girlfriend, Catman’s oft repeated mantra of “leave Huntress alone”, King Shark, Scandal proposing to the two loves of her life, and especially Huntress. It is through Huntress’s eyes and narrative through which the hero-side of this story is told, and it is a perfect way to end this story about these “criminals”: “In the end, we won. Of course we did. . . . Because we’re heroes. Right?” LOVED IT! I wish and hope and pray that DC brings these characters back together with Gail Simone writing them.

SHIELD #2: There is so much going on in this book, and if you didn’t read the previous seven issues, I can see someone getting very lost. Hell, I don’t understand everything and I’ve read it all. It is something that will require a reread once all 12 issues are published. But it is lovely to look at and I love the concept.

I also read Batman: Gates of Gotham #4.