Action Comics #675 – With the launch of the new main characters, Nightwing and Flamebird (two Kryptonians) protect Metropolis while Superman is on New Krypton. Despite this being an opening chapter, it feels like I should have more idea of what came before and since I was reading that in trade, I spent much of this issue lost. Oh well, no more of this for me. New readers beware- this isn’t a real jumping on point. No Rating
Battle for the Cowl #1 – Well, this is far better than expected. Gotham is in crisis with no Batman and the heroes have organized to take back the streets… but so have the villains under Black Mask. Everyone wants Nightwing to take the mantle but he isn’t ready and there’s a gun toting Batman, as well as a more classic version floating around. It’s pure bedlam with great character development, even if it is a bit exposition heavy. 7/10 – Good
Fables #82 – So the aftermath of Blue dying is everyone settling into life at the farm. Glad to see the plot isn’t moving again. This book is supremely frustrating. 3/10 – Bad
Green Lantern Corps #34 – Arkillo and Mongul finish their fight to the death with neither dying, but the scene didn’t get enough space to breathe, while Kyle and Soranik’s relationship develops well and the science cells are sabotaged. This feels a bit like unrelated plot threads, but they will obviously tie together since this is still set-up for the war to come. Establishing reasons to care about characters and what occurs is as good a use of the time until then as any. 6/10 – Solid
Guardians of the Galaxy #11 – An entire issue of “dead” Phyla-Vell and Drax battling to find Moondragon is not what I wanted on the eve of War of Kings. Drax is revealed as the champion of life against the champion of death and that really works out and helps the character make sense, but beyond that… this feels unfortunately like an aside that went on too long. 5/10 – Average
REBELS #2 – Brainiac 5 implants a code in Brainiac 2’s brain to form the Legion of Superheroes. That would be great, but naturally Brainiac 2 has his own ideas and goes off to form his own team. Brainiac’s stubbornness is really unnecessary, regardless of how in character it is, since it makes sense to listen to the guy with knowledge of the future… oh well, this is better than issue one in that it has a direction for the protagonist beyond “away from baddies,” strange characterization aside. 6/10 – Solid
Walking Dead #59 – I’m running out of things to say about this book. It’s great on a monthly basis and constantly moves both the plot and characterization forward. Introducing someone inherently good but totally broken by the world they live in is a long overdo addition. 8/10 – Great
