DC Comics, Checkmate #2 and Checkmate #3 Spoilers and Review follows.
A Robin Joins Team As Mark Shaw’s Leviathan Plans…
…Progress With A Traitor?!
We’ll start with Checkmate #2 including…
…its creators credits, dramatis personae and storyline catch-up page.
As Checkmate investigates Leviathan, the latter makes a boat house they were to explore disappear; seemingly through teleportation.
We also see that Green Arrow villain Merlyn is also in league with Leviathan now and his ship also disappears.
It looks like its a been a bad few weeks for Mark Shaw as Green Arrow’s arrow explodes when Merlyn returns to base and…
…due to the carnage caused by Talia Al Ghul of Leviathan operatives?!
Superman confronts Mark Shaw as he’s battling Talia and he’s accused of trespassing on soverignn soil; Leviathan has taken over the cover the country of Markovia, famous of sibling super-beings Terra and Geo-Force, and renamed it.
The book ends with Mark Shaw having kidnapped Superman’s wife for seemingly altruistic reasons?!
Now onto Checkmate #3 including…
…its own creators credits, dramatis personae and storyline catch-up page.
Superman ends the battle between Talia Al Ghul and Mark Shaw by…
…whisking her away to jail presumably.
Elsewhere, it seems Damian Wayne Robin joins Checkmate…
…as Mark Shaw ends his meeting with Lois Lane due to a unexplained Code Silver; he transports her to the Hall of Justice.
That gives Lois Lane a sense of what Shaw’s plan is…
…attacking and comprising the network that connects Superman’s Fortress of Solicitude with Batman’s Batcave and the Justice League’s Hall of Justice.
We also see Daemon Rose on the hunt for Talia?!
Well, it turns out all was not as it seems as Talia is seemingly in league with the man who took over her organization from underneath her nose (or did he?) as…
…the mystery of Jacobs Kingsley may be revealed next issue.
Checkmate #4 (of 6) hits stands on September 28, 2021.
The Pulse:
I’m picking up this series because I have been a long-time fan of Checkmate and Manhunter lore. Yes, there have been a few iterations over the last few decades, but 2021’s take is the most different from the original concepts.
I’m still a sucker for that Checkmate agent armor and for a anti-hero Mark Shaw vs. full-blown villain.
However, Kate Spencer fills that Manhunter role, in a fashion, while Shaw is deluded megalomaniac Leviathan. Anyhow, these last two issues do progress the overall plot, and have elements of intrigue throughout, but I still find the transitions between past and present jarring. The secure communications I&IT pathways between various super-hero landmarks and bases do seem like a worthy target for a terrorist state. That said, we also have zero information on seemingly new characters Daemon Rose and Kingsley Jacobs, but a promise of one of the cover to #2 that doesn’t manifest plus a tease of more to come about the other at the #3 that we’ll need to read in issue #4 to believe. The strength of the issues remains the art though. 5.5 out of 10 for the deuce.
