52 WEEK TWELVE
“Mighty”
Written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid
Breakdowns by Keith Giffen
Pencils by Barrows
Inks by Stull
Letters by Travis Lanham
Colours by Baron
Edits by Stephen Wacker
Published by DC
DAY 85 – In Gotham City, we are again informed of how Renee Montoya used to be a cop but is now playing by her own rules and drinks too much for her own good because she’s a rebel without a cause and that she can handle the pain of her arm wound since she’s Riggs without the penis and that Charlie is a smarmy git but he really knows his stuff and this is one big run-on sentence but that is fitting considering the run-on, repetetive nature of this plot. Hell, Renee even calls Charlie out on it, telling him to hurry up and state the obvious – they are going to Khandaq to investigate the Intergang plot to move armaments into Gotham.
Meanwhile, in Khandaq, Black Adam softens up a bit by trying to impress his new lady friend, Adrianna. Since he’s Black F’N Adam, Muffathukka, this doesn’t merely involve buying the movie tickets or patiently spending hours on the phone or not farting at the dinner table. Rather, it involves changing the coure of a river and disarming mine fields. Sure, but I bet he still couldn’t write a decent DatingDirect.com bio. The couple discuss Khandaq’s internal and external strife and how Adam’s power might best be utilised for his people’s benefit. Then he takes her to a hidden underground passage, which somehow leads them to the Rock of Eternity. Billy Batson is still there in Captain Marvel form to guard the Seven Sins following Shazam’s apparent demise in DAY OF VENGEANCE and, to be fair, he has seen better days. Looks like someone put cocaine in his triple espresso. Anyway, Adam presents Billy with another one of those conveniently found magic amulets and says he wants to add Adrianna to the Marvel family. SHE’S RONIN! No, wait… never mind…
Meanwhile, in Philly, Ralph Dibny waits in Cassie Sandsmark’s flea-ridden apartment and moans about how The Big Show should never have become the ECW Champion. They discuss the Cult of Connor and its leader, Devem, and his plans to resurrect the dead, starting with Sue Dibny. Ralph says he wants to help.
Back in The Rock, Adrianna umms and ahhs and eventually takes the amulet, turning into Isis. She is scantily-clad, of course. Adam looks very Brando here. Billy looks bored, as though he’s finally twigged just how lame his current role actually is. Isis wants to track down her sold-into-slavery brother.
And there’s a brief bio for Wonder Woman too. Hipployta made her from clay with the gods’ permission and then she left Themyscira to spread the Amazonian ideals of peace to the rest of the world. No info is given about her sister, or Themyscira’s destruction, or Maxwell Lord’s murder, or her role (if any) in the founding of the Justice Society and/or Justice League.
Glad that’s all cleared up then.
Grade: B
52 WEEK THIRTEEN
“Haystack”
Written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid
Breakdowns by Keith Giffen
Pencils by Todd Nauck
Inks by Marlo Alquiza
Letters by Nick J. Napolitano
Colours by Alex Sinclair
Edits by StephenWacker
Published by DC
DAY 93 – Still in Philly, Ralph Dibny is at the Cult of Conner’s inaugural resurrection ceremony, which aims to bring back Sue from the dead. Still unsure about whether this cult is legitimate or a scam, he has brought along some friends to help him make up his mind. These include Hal Jordan, since bringing a loved one back to life might be a little bit too exciting and he can counter it with some emphatic boredom; Ollie Queen, who acts like he is half-sloshed; Metamorpho, who could presumably just be hired by Ralph to pretend to be Sue and give us some very disturbing scenes; and Zauriel, because nobody f*cks with an angel. Devem goes through the ritual, assisted by Cassie, as Ralph and his friends use the Lantern ring to telepathically discuss how Hal, Ollie and Rex have all come back from the dead and how nobody f*cks with an angel. Intervene or participate? It has to be Ralph’s decision…
Meanwhile, in south-west Asia, Black Adam and Isis bust up another slavery ring on the hunt for Adrianna’s brother. They take the rescued orphans back home to Khandaq with them. You know, if I had to pick one DCU superhero to bring into the real world, it wouldn’t be Superman, it wouldn’t be G’Nort, it wouldn’t even be Zatanna (well, actually, it probably would be, but honesty is at odds with the truth of this sentence, so let’s continue it), it would be Black Adam. Hey, I live in a country run by a clown, which is overseen by a lap-dog, which is clinging to an imbecile. Can you blame me?
By the way, the kids they rescued have truly disturbing eyes. They look like little Billy Batsons, whacked out on sin.
Back in Philly, Ralph decides to bust up the party, which is awfully rude of him till you remember just whose body Devem is using for his test run and the underhanded manner in which he went about getting it ready. Wonder Girl fights back but is outnumbered, while in the confusion a fire spreads out of control and starts burning Sue’s body. Either Rex is very ignorant or he can’t use his elemental powers to counter fire, or at least divert it. The building goes up in flames as Devem and Cassie fly away… and Sue’s body starts calling out to Ralph. As the others evacuate the building, Ralph stays inside with Sue, embracing her remains with a look of sheer love on his face… and the building explodes.
DAY 94 – Hal and the others can’t find any remains but the ring indicates that Ralph got out alive. It doesn’t seem to detect the yellow/golden wedding ring belonging to the Dibnys though, which is just plain sloppy. Across town, under a bridge, Ralph is burnt but alive, if tragically broken. He cradles the charred, limb-less, face-less remains of Sue, muttering “…try again…” to nobody in particular. In the background, a shadowy cloaked figure that kinda resembles Hush watches him. Has this whole thing been an elaborate scam on Ralph?
The first of the main story threads is wrapped up, though it raises more questions than it provides answers. However, it did manage to turn Ralph Dibny into a thoroughly likeable figure. He has been crapped on more than most in the pre-Splat build-up and in 52 and his One Year Later fate remains unknown, yet there cannot be a single decent-minded reader out there that is not now willing him to heal. This is a man driven by nothing but the love of his wife. Nothing. Who else can the same truly be said of?
C’mon, Ralph, you can beat this.
Grade: B
52 WEEK FOURTEEN
“Sand & Rust”
Written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid
Breakdowns by Keith Giffen
Pencils by Dale Eagelsham
Inks by Art Thibert
Letters by Travis Lanham
Colours by Alex Sinclair
Edits by StephenWacker
Published by DC
DAY 104 – In Khandaq, Renee and Charlie arrive distinctly unrefreshed following a 31 hour flight from Gotham. After making it through customs in a surprisingly easy manner (fingers crossed my upcoming trip through Heathrow will be so smooth), they are taken aback by the street celebrations building to the Adam/Adrianna wedding. Renee even gets flowers, which must surely cause her to get docked a few Dyke Points or something.
Meanwhile, in Metropolis, Dr Kala Avasti visits John Henry Irons at the Steelworks. Well, she tries to, but ends up just blathering away to the locked door about Natasha Irons and her work for Lex Luthor’s metahuman hitsquad. Given the size of John’s work place, there’s no chance he could have heard all of her ramblings about how things were not his fault, but I’m sure the nearby winos were pleased to hear it. He does eventually let her in after hearing the persistent and emphatic knocking though, and Kala sees that he has been busy working on a Steel suit for Natasha after all – the one he refused to make originally because she had to ‘earn’ it herself. John cracks and crashes, but Kala is armed with a comfort hug aimed somewhere between Just Friends and Who They Kiddin’.
Meanwhile, somewhere else, a couple of conceited government agents visit Dr Magnus at home to try and persuade him to sell them the old Metal Men robots for research and development purposes. Magnus is not willing to co-operate though, particularly since he can’t get the Responsometer Technology to actually work anymore. He tries to operate Mercury but winds up blowing the poor guy up. He yells “UUUUMMMAAAAAGAAA” as he goes though, so clearly he’s been paying attention to Raw lately. Magnus cuts out early to go and visit Professor Morrow, yet he has somehow vanished from his heavily-surveilled locked room prison, leaving only a bit of paper with some machine code behind.
DAY 105 – Back in Khandaq, Charlie gets a tip-off from a friend about a Ridge-Ferrick facility in the Temple District of Shiruta. However, by the time he and Renee get there it is too late and the place has been trashed, the people inside literally ripped apart, presumably by the werewolf creatures that they encountered back in Gotham. It’s all a set-up of course, and they get arrested by the local police. Should be interesting to see how much Black Adam knows about all this. They really did waste a lot of page space on superfluous conversation between these two. Johns needs to curtail his Montoya addiction somewhat.
Meanwhile, over in wherever the hell they are, Magnus uses Morrow’s machine code note to successfully activate Mercury. Yikesaroonie.
And there’s a recap of Metamorpho’s origin. The world turned.
Grade: B
EX MACHINA #22 – In which we see a fat guy sitting around his apartment in the nip, smoking a joint as he gets a kinky blowjob from a gas mask; get a good ol’ fashioned taxi car chase courtesy of the latest Great Machine flashback, which includes a highly impressive ambulance bump from his cycling target; another random and not-quite irritating historical, mayoral factoid offered up in conversation with Mitchell Hundred; an emphatically random, shocking and violent death that will pile on more pressure points for our protagonist; and the continued subplot mystery about January’s partner-in-possible-crime. All of this plus the aftermath of having a woman intentionally set herself on fire on the stairs outside his office. Did Giuliani ever have it this bad? As holding issues go, this is exemplary work.
Grade: B
MARVEL TEAM-UP #23 – In which Kirkman sees fit to split his third-last (triultimate?) issue in two, with one half following the evil Tony Stark, the Iron Maniac, in a fight with Wolverine and Spider-Man that even the characters admit is perfunctory. As this happens, Freedom Ring returns from hospital and is pleased to learn that his cosmic ring can still allow him to walk despite his natural paralytic state, then embarks on a strange training schedule with a neighbour of his that happens to be a Skrull keen on getting into the superhero game himself as The Crusader. This whole scene feels like one big fat non-sequitir that would have played so much better had the Skrull been replaced with Freedom Ring’s potential boyfriend. I imagine that certain aspects of this issue might have been altered due to the CIVIL WAR effect and this series’ cancellation, but excuses don’t hide lack of quality. As ever with Kirkman, certain little things help charm the issue along – such as Maniac discovering a handy design flaw in Spidey’s new suit, or Aunt May’s milk carton politics remaining firmly at odds with Logan’s. In true report card style – could do better.
Grade: C
SPIDER-MAN FAMILY: AMAZING FRIENDS – It’s time for some unessential randomness. Heavens be praised. To be honest, I don’t even remember ordering this book, though I’m sure that when the solicitations came out I was suitably keen about the idea of Sean McKeever writing some Spidey. McKeever does a solid job but unfortunately not enough to shake off the inherent disinterest in a story that reminisces about Ol’ Webby’s involvement in Iceman and Firestar’s tumultuous relationship – and the use of four pencilers really doesn’t help matters. Still, the six-page, fourth-wall busting Mini Marvels strip that follows it is ridiculously cute fun, with Chris Giarrusso providing such simple and vibrant art that you’ll be left craving more. The rest of the book has reprints of Batwing and Spidey 2099 stories, plus something from the #-1 issue of UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN and, let’s face it, issues with negative numbering can’t possibly be worth bothering with. This succeeds at the randomness, if not much else.
Grade: D
TRANSFORMERS: STORMBRINGER #2 – It’s time for the Wreckers to enter the IDWTFU and you will be glad to note that they are of the chew-bubblegum-and-kick-ass variety. In fact, you may well hear Clint Eastwood’s voice in your head when reading Springer’s lines. None of that ‘Arcee might let me third-wheel it’ crap for him this time, he’s just off leading his deadly hitsquad into raging battles in furious hellholes, grabbing the enemy by the tit and the eyeball and kneeing it in the crotch en route to nicking its mother’s purse to buy a nice, fresh edible can of Hard Bastard Beer. In fact, Springer is probably a better leader than Optimus Prime in this issue given that all the chosen one does is stand around looking dazed, mumbling to himself. There are good reasons for his faded attitude though, much as there are for most of the rather large cast here. The motivations of the Big Bad that is Thunderwing and Bludgeon’s Pretender goons are still vague but there is plenty time left for further reveals. At the moment Simon Furman is setting the scene nicely for what should prove to be an explosive ending of escalating exhiliration. Good work.
Grade: B
SHADOWPACT #4 – Just a good ol’ day in the life of the good ol’ Blue Devil in his good ol’ hood. This issue read like the front cover should have had the Marvel insignia on it rather than DC, what with the down-to-earth, street-level banter complete with local kids at play and sweet old ladies doting on BD’s behalf. Had he never bothered with the mask in the first place, this is probably what Peter Parker’s life would be like right now. Top it all off with a couple of Whedon-esque demon baddies and a variety of cute encounters and it all makes for an entertaining, if inconsequential issue. On its own merits, this is fine, but if after only four issues (the first three of which were one story) the series has to resort to showcasing individual characters rather than actually establishing why the Shadowpact should bother teaming up, it doesn’t exactly bode well for the future. I mean, at one point BD just flat-out states that making the team meetings is not a top priority for him, so why should anybody else care? Still, as a ‘prequel’ issue of sorts, it can be made to be slightly more fitting, and it is certainly a fun read.
Grade: B
Okay, the above was all the reviews I had written before my surgery, computer breakdown, house move, holiday, the painting of the website and various other intrusions of real life. Here’s a quick peep at what turned up on my doorstep after that point:
ASTONISHING X-MEN #16 – Pretty pictures, cheap funnies from Wolverine and two big reveals – one spectacularly incomprehensible, the other retrospectively very obvious. It’s back on a monthly schedule now, with things boding well for the home stretch.
Grade: B
TRANSFORMERS: SPOTLIGHT – SHOCKWAVE – The Shockwave/Dinobots feud gets an update and not only is it logical, it makes for a good stand-alone story that ties into both STORMBRINGER and the upcoming ESCALATION. These IDW TF books have already surpassed the Dreamwave versions in quality. If they keep going at this rate they’ll be nearing Marvel UK levels soon enough.
Grade: A
TRANSFORMERS: STORMBRINGER #3 – It’s the penultimate, scene-setting issue before the explosive finale and it looks so dynamic that you’ll swear it’s the first HD comic book. Also – no ads during the story! Ingenious! Now, how about a Thunderwing figure?
Grade: B
ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #5 – I’ll make it easy – this is the best Superman series of the past twenty years. Ditch Bryan Singer, let Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely handle the next movie.
Grade: A
MARVEL TEAM-UP #24 – The gay guy dies, which may or may not have anything to do with Marvel’s peculiar views on homosexual characters in all-ages books but certainly renders the past five issues completely pointless. There’s only one more issue left but at this point there’s no enthusiasm remaining.
Grade: D
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1 – Exceptionally flawed. All this issue does is make Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman seem insufferably smug, muddle the entire concept of the League and make it feel like an unnecessary addition to the existing teams in the DCU, and make me wish that Meltzer had just done a RED TORNADO mini-series instead. And yet it topped the sales charts! When do we learn…
Grade: C
FELL #6 – It just isn’t fair. How can he write this and NEXTWAVE and still have enough alcohol left over to work on other projects? Damn goat-licker…
Grade: A
EX MACHINA #23 – The inside isn’t quite as intereseting as the cover (and the ad on the back is just confusing, since I haven’t heard a thing about the Spyhunter movie coming out). It looks like we’re gearing up for something major though – and it’s about time, frankly.
Grade: B
DOC FRANKENSTEIN #5 – Mad as hell, yet it demands that we pay attention to earlier issues for plot points and supporting characters. So, since the book comes out only two or three times a year, why can’t we get a recap page? Maybe I should have stuck to SHAOLIN COWBOY instead…
Grade: C
And now, as quickly as possible, back to 52…
52 WEEK FIFTEEN
“Outshined”
Written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid
Breakdowns by Keith Giffen
Pencils by Shawn Moll
Inks by Tom Nguyen
Colours by Alex Sinclair
Letters by Jared K. Fletcher
Edits by Stephen Wacker
Published by DC
DAY #106 – Booster Gold gets a letter from Carol Ferris, terminating her company’s sponsorship deal with him. Fuckin’ Jordan…
DAY #108 – As the angry letters pile up, Booster gets miffed at Supernova and expresses his miff by doodling on a photo of him. You MANIAC!
DAY #109 – The Daily Planet website shows Booster no love, favouring Supernova, so Booster for some reason pours water on his keyboard. Angry, fella?
DAY #110 – The mythic protocrustacean beast known as Ballostro turns up in Metropolis, clutching a submarine like a child clutches a teddy bear. He just wants to play! Booster wants to save face though, yet succeeds only in making things worse by shutting down the power grid. Supernova turns up to save the day and the two come to blows, yet Booster almost dies a hero by tugging the radiation-leaking submarine into the sky before it explodes. Skeets says this was’t supposed to happen and I’m inclined to agree. After all, what about the fall-out? Or the debris? Shouldn’t Supernova have been able to drag it all into space instead of standing around chatting with Clark Kent? Silly bugger.
Meanwhile, in Khandaq, Renee and Charlie do some man-lesbian bonding by beating up their prison guards and walking away. Well, so far it’s still more creible than Chasing Amy.
And we get the origin of Steel, who presumably must have great difficulty inbuffing himself all-over these days.
Grade: B
52 WEEK SIXTEEN
“Uhebbuki”
Written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid
Breakdowns by Keith Giffen
Pencils by Joe Bennett
Inks by Ruy Jose
Colours by David Baron
Letters by Pat Brosseau
Edits by Stephen Wacker
Published by DC
DAY #113 – In Khandaq, Black Adam takes Isis to a garden planted by the orphaned children the two of them saved and proposes to her. Oh, he’s good.
DAY #118 – It’s the day of the wedding (Adam wastes little time, except perhaps in the marital bed) and the rogue Renee and Charlie finally realise that Intergang are going to target the wedding. It’s the biggest state event Khandaq has ever seen and yet the two great detectives took five days to figure out that the huge crime syndicate targeting the nation might want to disrupt it somehow? Things like this make it seem as though the writers are losing perspective of the real-time gimmick.
Meanwhile, the Marvels turn up to help the wedding preparations. In what might be the greatest bit of dialogue in the entire series to date, Adam starts fretting about his receding hairline and Captain Marvel has to reassure him.
Also, Isis’ wedding dress appears to be a belt and a couple of tea towels, getting married with her arse hanging out. Tramp.
Renee and Charlie fight through the haystack crowd to find their needle bomber, which turns out to be a kid who is in way over her head. While Cap conducts the ceremony, Renee is forced to shoot the would-be bomber for the greater good. Kudos to Giffen for this scene. He gets overlooked a lot for his part in this project, but this scene was broken down tremendously well.
Anyway, Renee starts whinging about it, since that’s seemingly all the character can do these days, while Adam and Isis “head inside”.
DAY #119 – Way back over yonderwhere, on Planet Fruitcakes, Starfire, Animal Man and Adam Strange are finally able to get their ship up and running and head for home. Good to see that Morrison remembered they were out there.
Also, there’s the origin of Black Adam, with a hairline that would make even Namor buy him hairplugs for Christmas if there were ever a DC/Marvel Black Adam/Sub-Mariner Christmas Crossover sponsored by a hairplug company. Ahem.
Grade: B
52 WEEK SEVENTEEN:
“Last of the Czarnians”
Written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid
Breakdowns by Keith Giffen
Pencils by Chris Batista
Inks by Ruy Jose & Jack Jadson
Colours by David Baron
Letters by Phil Balsman
Edits by Stephen Wacker
Published by DC
DAY #120 – Luthor’s motley dream team of artificially-created super-powered, would-be heroes watch news footage of their latest mission. That was a lot of hyphens. Lex gives them some pointers, though one of the team quits. Her name is Eliza ‘Dynamo’ Harmon, apparently, and she is having serious adverse effects to her newly-acquired super-speed. That’s some more hyphens for you. Natasha Irons looks concerned.
By the way, one of them is called Hannibal Bates. Personally, I think Norman Lecter has a better ring to it.
DAY #121 – The starship AnimalStarStrange flies through a meteor shower. Badly. Well, why not let the alien warrior drive instead of the blind guy?
DAY #123 – LOBO! turns up.
LOBO! kills the Galactus wannabe, Devilance, that had followed the ship from the planet.
LOBO! can smoke a cigar in the vaccuum of space.
LOBO! barters with Starfire by removing her top.
LOBO! drags the ship and the dorky New God guy’s head away on his motorbike.
LOBO!
DAY #126 – The Red Tornado’s head and torso turn up in Aboriginal Australia. I see…
In keeping with the theme of the moment, we get the origin of LOBO!. Of particular interest is his teenage Elvis hairstyle. That alone is enough to make this the first issue of 52 to be boosted from a Grade B to a:
Grade: A
52 WEEK EIGHTEEN:
“Dismantled”
Written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid
Breakdowns by Keith Giffen
Pencils by Eddy Barrows
Inks by Rob Stull
Colours by Alex Sinclair
Letters by Travis Lanham
Edits by Stephen Wacker
Published by DC
DAY #127 – Detective Chimp and a couple of people who need introductions yet get none go into something called the House of Mystery and find Dr Fate’s helmet on a man’s body, which collapses into liquid as soon as it is touched by a woman. Paging Dr Freud…
[And, no, Detective Chimp shouldn’t be here. For those not in the know, it was established in SHADOWPACT #1 that the group spent the OYL gap trapped in a time bubble that surrounded a small town being held captive by their sinister counterparts. Then again, that same issue showed Superman flying around at a time when he should have lost his powers, so perhaps the entire series should now just be considered out of continuity…]
DAY #128 – In Khandaq, Adam and Isis award Renee and Charlie with the highly prestigious Order of the Crescent for preventing the suicide bomber at the wedding. Lord only knows how the pair were found and brought to the royal court. If Adam knew about the bomber, wouldn’t he or one of the Marvels have done something about it? If so, wouldn’t he consider it an insult of sorts to presume that they needed help from a couple of American fugitives? Confusing. Adam finds drunk lesbian sex confusing, while Renee finds it a better option than accepting her reward, and Charlie just finds it harmless fun. So when does DC show a couple of naked men in bed together without causing a fuss? Anyway, as Renee whines some more and Isis calms Adam, Charlie reminds everyone that they still need to sort out the Intergang problem.
DAY #129 – In Marseilles, Detective Chimp talks to Ralph Dibny about Fate’s helmet. Dibny looks much healthier now. He suggests calling in the entire Shadowpact. Sure, why the hell not?
DAY #130 – In Cincinatti, Clark Kent oversees the funeral of Booster Gold. Some Z-list wannabe superheroes are there, desperate for any publicity, but nobody else other than Skeets wants to be there. I’m not sure why the funeral came nearly three weeks after the death, but at least the time lapse is acknowledged by the characters this time around. A dorky-looking blonde kid in a JLA shirt walks by… Skeets thinks he looks familiar and does a quick scan… yes, it turns out to be Daniel Jon Carter, an ancestor of Booster Gold.
DAY #131 – In Giza, Dibny and the Shadowpact have gathered to investigate Fate’s helmet in its place of origin. However, Dibny has a private conversation with the helmet, which, in a roundabout and interpretive manner, offers him the resolution he so dearly wants (Sue) and he takes it away on his own instead. Ralph Dibny = The All-New Doctor Fate? We shall see…
Finally, the Question is the latest to get his origin told. Sure, but THE SPIRIT #1 comes out in December, so why waste time with Faceless Joe?
Grade: B
52 WEEK NINETEEN
“History Repeats”
Written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid
Breakdowns by Keith Giffen
Pencils by Patrick Olliffe
Inks by Drew Geraci
Colours by Alex Sinclair
Letters by Pat Brosseau
Edits by Stephen Wacker
Published by DC
DAY #132 – Skeets and DJ Carter have a chat. Turns out that he shares a number of traits with Booster – he’s a once-promising football player who had to quit after an injury and has been desperate to get into the limelight ever since. Egotistical, living in the past, wasting money… he’s certainly up for whatever Skeets has in mind.
DAY #133 – LOBO! is a fish-archbishop.
LOBO! has a nifty, pontiff hat.
LOBO! has a big, squidgy, all-seeing eye thing.
LOBO! speaks of matters confusing.
Meanwhile, in Metropolis, Supernova stops a Weather Wizard bank robbery with an assist from Wonder Girl. She seems to be over her Cult of Connor days, yet is still not over his death and now apparently thinks that he is Supernova. Well, really, who is?
DAY #135 – Skeets has taken Carter to the Rip Hunter timebase in Arizona that freaked Booster Gold out so much when he went there many weeks ago. Carter wears the Booster visor and looks uncannily like his descendent will/would do/did. Skeets has the visor wired so that he can see what is in the lab too. When he sees the various “It’s all his fault” photos that Rip has put around the walls, the penny finally drops and it becomes clear that, as speculated, Rip was referring to Skeets and not Booster Gold. Skeets has somehow broken time. This is a heel turn of Hogan-is-the-third-man proportions. He locks poor Carter in the base, seals it until the year 1,000,000 AD, and a vortex appears to whisk Booster’s great-great-great-grandwhatever off into it. Skeets flies away, saying “He knows“.
I love a time mystery…
So, if Skeets has removed Carter from the picture then Booster Gold never came to be, which means Skeets was never in the 21st century, which means Carter was never removed from the picture. Ugh, paradox. Answers won’t arrive till after Rip Hunter gets on the scene – and many are now saying that we’ve actually already seen him in this series – but it sure is fun to speculate.
Also, there’s an Animal Man origin strip. And it isn’t written by Grant Morrison.
Grade: A
Next time…
Things get back onto a more regular schedule, with weeks 20 and 21 of 52, a final verdict on whether SHADOWPACT #5 is enough to get me to continue buying the series or not, and the usual high expectations associated with ASTONISHING X-MEN #17 and LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #22.
All that and the conclusion of the highly memorable Bendis run in DAREDEVIL VOL. 6 HC. Can’t wait!
