INFINITE CRISIS #5-7 + TIE-INS REVIEW!

 

• Infinite Crisis #5 - "Faith" = A perfect Earth doesn't need a Superman! Freaking brilliant! That whole E2 sequence was great, but I am confused as to how the logistics of Alex Luthor's multiverse spawning works. If the new Earths are manifesting in the same space as New Earth, then what is the point of the rift at the center of the universe with the hands? Booster and Jaime arrive in the Bat-Cave to both join and form the squadron to take down Brother Eye. Booster claims that the future records informed him of the members but claim that Bats would never have found the satellite without the help of Jaime. Could he be lying? Most likely. Although I believe that the Wonder Woman tie-ins rehab'd Diana extremely well, the sequence with the E2 Wonder Woman was pretty cool. Rucka's prose was much better than Johns' one page stitch-up conclusion to put Diana on a brave new path going forward, but it was nice I guess. I've mentioned the Firestorm stuff since it keeps popping up, but I have no desire to read those tie-ins and seeing Martin Stein back as the co-pilot is good enough for me. Three great scenes finish this issue, with Dick and Conner teaming up for an assault on the tower, Alex Luthor dropping a banger line before unleashing a thousand parallel earths, and the return of both the Flash and Superman-Prime with the Anti-Monitor-esque armor!
• Superman #226 - This Is Your Life, Part I : "My Heart" = One of the most fascinating kinds of tie-ins; a three issue mini-arc-interlude that takes place between the pages of the main title's fifth issue (specifically between page 17 and 20). And it's written by Joe Kelly alongside an A-Tier artist-mix? Count me in! Loved the scrap book and the idea that the brawl between two Supermen is in itself breaking continuity and connecting them on another dimensional plane to where they will experience each other's origins. I genuinely believed this was just a recounting of the E2 Superman's origin until we got to the Renato Guedes drawn sequence where it hits you that NE Supes is going to play by his own rules.
• Action Comics #836 - This Is Your Life, Part II : "My Soul" = Well gah damn! The road to hell is paved with good intentions! Fascinating way to characterize E2 Supes, a man stuck in the Manichean mindset, two sides, two colors, one solution! The redux of the Post-Crisis Superman history was pretty hilarious and kind of terrifying towards the end; two men of steel embarking on twin crusades to fix their opposite's worlds, all to save the life of one woman, their soul be damned!
• Adventures of Superman #649 - This Is Your Life, Part III : "My Folly" = And just like that, a brilliant arc culminates in an even more brilliant segway into the line that made #5: "A perfect world doesn't need a Superman." Joe Kelly gives us doomsday in two dimensions as both Supermen are faced with impossible enemies shattering their impossible dreams. On one hand we have a modern age Superman coming to the realization that the Golden Age could never last forever. On the other we descend into absolute chaos as a Golden Age Superman enacts his own authority upon a reactive reality. Obviously the E2 Supes-led Authority is so much fun to watch delve into an even crazier crisis than what is occurring in the actual Infinite Crisis, but the fall of E2 at the hands of the Anti-Monitor as Superman reflects on Bruce's words from the first issue is extremely powerful and poignant.
• Teen Titans #33 - "The Brave & The Bold" = Fantastic! Wolfman and Johns, both Crisis writers, both Titans writers, unite their respective darling boys for a quiet moment among the chaos! Very powerful writing for both protagonists, and so immensely human interactions from the first sons of the world's finest. Cassie also gets a spotlight in this where we get an escape route to prevent her from losing her powers. Her arc finally comes full circle from the beginning of Teen Titans to the Land of the Dead arc in WW to now: Ares and Cassie are to be tethered via blood relation so he can exist in this reality as the rest of the Olympian Pantheon departs. Very cool.
• Infinite Crisis Secret Files - "Heaven" = Some very intriguing character development for The Survivors very late in the game, but Wolfman presents it in such a believable way that it ends up working pretty well. E2 Superman is so blinded by his love for Lois that it clouds his judgement and feeds the negative aspects of his outdated moral compass. Superboy-Prime is psychologically manipulated by Alex Luthor via the crystal looking glass walls of the Heaven dimension. Super-powered teen-angst paired with the destruction of your entire world is already a cross to bear, but stuck in a timeless prison as you are tormented by past trauma is beyond worse. Alex Luthor might have it the worst of all: grown to a man in less than a tenth of that time, he is at war with himself. He has no past, a survivor of a dead universe only to be raised between moments by a primordial celestial watcher. He has no future, trapped within a paradise purgatory of his own making. Even worse, he is a Luthor of Earth-3, an anomaly of virtue in a world of vice: but just like the New Earth Luthor occasionally phases between good and evil, this Luthor begins to tread the line as well. There are a couple of continuity mess ups that bugged me: one in particular was Superboy viewing the death of Max Lord even though that didn't happen until after he and Alex started their machinations. We also learn that Alex was the one who zapped the files from Brother Eye in the Countdown special, though if he gave the satellite sentience and pushed it to fall into the hands of Lord from the get-go, then why would he have to delete them? Could he not access them? Or did he not give control of the satellite and Lord just stole it from Bruce on his own? One of the few mysteries in Infinite Crisis that remains unclear.
• Batman Annual #25 - "Daedalus & Icarus: The Return Of Jason Todd" = A fun epilogue, but Winick goes a little overboard with the justifications and the intrigue regarding his paradigm shift, and jeez that moment in Hush with the Clayface switcharoo. Was it editorial, or did everyone unanimously agree to have their cake and eat it too? We'll never know. The Ra's and Talia stuff was interesting, but the Lazarus factor might have cluttered it too much. Yes, I love the movie adaptation where it's the only reason for his resurrection, but when you start the issue with Superboy-Prime's cosmic reality-altering punches, I'm already inclined to accept that without the need for the intertwining with Ra's soul energy or whatever.

• Infinite Crisis #6 - "Touchdown" = Full circle dammit! RIP Conner Kent, you went out like Superman, putting the lives of the universe above your own. There's a lot to love in this chapter, the split narrative as Batman leads his squadron against the eye in the sky while the children of the trinity assault Alex Luthor's tower. I'm laughing pretty hard at the fact that I've mentioned the irrelevance of Firestorm's presence throughout this event only for him to save both Supermen and Wonder Woman from Alex by blowing his freaking finger off. The feedback from division of the Earths appears to consume a large portion of the space league, threads left to be picked up by 52. Spectre returns to kill off Star Sapphire (setting up plot points for Carol in the GL title?). The nuTrinity frees the prisoners from the tower allowing us to get an awesome moment where Black Adam kills Psycho Pirate. Loved seeing Alex Luthor reach out to the reader to access Earth-Prime, and the splash seeing various alter-earths in Perez glory was great. The fact that it's a new Blue Beetle that brings about the fall of OMAC and the legacy of Max Lord is so earned, and I just can't help but recall that moment in the Countdown special where Ted says: "I am the second man to call himself the Blue Beetle. I tell myself there will be a third. And I hope whoever he or she may be, they do it better than I have." FULL CIRCLE, DAMMIT! IT'S OVERTIME!
• OMAC Project Special  - "The Lazarus Protocol" = What a great reveal! The person who imbued Sasha with the anti-OMAC power was Brother Eye himself! In the Countdown mini the characters had postulated that it was Max who did it as a failsafe against Brother eye going rogue, but that didn't explain why she could resist his powers back in #3. Now we have a final answer: Eye had planned to use Sasha as his own failsafe if system failure was imminent. Really enjoyed the espionage vibe we get in this, something that I wholeheartedly hope is continued in Rucka's Checkmate series. Waller being promoted to Black King is very interesting, and having Fire, Jessica Midnight, and possibly Mister Bones of the DEO as the supporting cast has me hooked! Sasha's freedom in that last page makes me so happy; she is one of the best things to have come out of this era of DC.
• Villains United Special - "A Hero Dies But Once" = War drums beat as an army of evil-doers assemble, aiming annihilation at the city of tomorrow! Gail Simone's sharp prose and Dale Eaglesham's stunning art give us cracked mirror POV's: Oracle on one side coordinating damage control as heroes are scattered to contain the various breakouts, while on the other side the Society puts the finishing touches on their grand design. J'onn gets a great moment and splash page, while the Secret Six themselves are reduced to an ancillary role, providing Green Arrow with a head start before the final act. As battle lines are drawn, a black sun rises to unveil only Doomsday for the heroes!
• Infinite Crisis #7 - "For Tomorrow" = An epic for the ages! We are officially done with "Post-Crisis" DC, now we enter the event era of the Hypercrisis! We get some really great moments in this issue: Bart is revealed as the Flash that emerged at the end of #5, J'onn's line of "Take to the skies", the Thin Green Line, and the battle upon Mogo were all so much fun. My favorite however was Batman's dance on the brink of the abyss, the staring contest with oblivion as he wields the weapon that killed his parents to enact final vengeance over justice. He hasn't really had his therapy session like Supes or Wondy yet so it's all up for grabs: will the Bat finally break? But like the first truth of Batman (something Morrison eventually touches upon in Return of Bruce Wayne), he was never alone. The bell is rung, and Diana comes to pull him back from the forever pit. Brilliant. Very sad to see E2 Supes go, but the Survivors (besides Prime) were never really meant to survive past this event. Prime himself, as Alex stated last issue, has been changed by the New Earth, he's become a part of its narrative. I loved the extra lines they added in the trade collection during E2 Supes last moments, and that depiction of him and Lois embedded in the stars is beautiful. As for the status quo cleanup: space gang is still missing, Crispus is our new Spectre, some kid finds the Tangent universe GL staff washed up on shore, the Speed Force is gone along with Wally and his family, while the Trinity depart to find themselves on their own spiritual and introspective journeys. I'm assuming Diana's Invisible Jet is from the E2 WW which is great, and a depowered Clark sets us up for Busiek and Johns Up, Up, & Away! Our overarching villains get what they deserve in the end; Prime is locked up on Oa, while Alex fails to predict a wild card as his doppelganger gets the last laugh.

And that's a wrap for Infinite Crisis and Countdown everybody! This was a huge journey that took more than a year to complete (including planning and research for the optimized reading order), but I'm so happy to have made it in one piece! I can't say I'm sad it's over since there is so much good material to read following it, but to catch up on the highlights of 2000's era DC was way too much fun. To read over a dozen series intertwined to recreate a sense of suspense and excitement within a design built by the architects at that time is something I recommend to any comics fan. This truly reminded me of when I first got into comics during the Rebirth era, and every title I picked up felt like it mattered in some way and was contributing towards the grand narrative. Although Rebirth didn't turn out the way it was supposed to, the building blocks behind Infinite Crisis and Countdown sure did, and I'm so glad I was able to do this! I'd like to thank the DC Wiki and Half-Price Books for enabling me to find literally every single tie-in I needed, and some great trades they put out alongside the main one. Finally, thank you to Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Judd Winick, and every single artist and writer who worked to create this wonderful event!

INFINITE CRISIS #2-4 + TIE-INS REVIEW!

[#2]

• Infinite Crisis #2 - "The Survivors" = Spotlight: Power Girl! We've been brewing on this Power Girl origin madness for so freaking long that I can't help but be satisfied at her getting the revelations she deserves. The History of the DCU segment by Ordway and Perez was wonderful, a much-needed streamline of Crisis continuity through the eyes of the Survivors! Buddy Baker joins the Space-League (after his power begin to go wack due to Spectre's war on magic I assume?). Superman decides to stop moping around and take action following the Ruin two-parter from Rucka's AoS. What does fake-Luthor want with the Marvels, and now Black Adam? Why is real-Luthor still having headaches? Did the New Earth cause the decay of Alex Luthor's Paradise Dimension and the decline of E2 Lois' health? Love that we get Donner crystal Kryptonian tech in the new Fort Superman. Booster returns from the future with a new and rebuilt Skeets after departing in tOP #6; why does he need Blue Beetle's scarab? Brother Eye gives us some huge confirmation and expo on how he came to be: Bruce created him after realizing he got mind-wiped, but once Max Lord took control, he implemented the OMAC project via 1.3 million sleeper agents. But what caused Batman to lose control over the satellite? Finally, the survivors reveal their plan to PG: to bring back Earth-2 in place of the current New Earth.
• JSA #81 - "My Heroes" = And Stargirl to bookend the JSA run! What a journey it has been, and only natural to end it all with a piece on the stars and stripes! Even though not much happens, we get sort of a conclusion to Courtney's daddy-issues arc that ties up her dynamic with Pat pretty full circle. A bit of expo and dev on Liberty Belle and Jesse with a cameo by Shade to top it off, presented beautifully by Dale Eaglesham's brilliant pencils.
• Wonder Woman #224 - "Marathon, Part II : "War In Paradise!" = Nothing comes without cost! The cunning of Brother Eye has secured one more victory against the heroes of Earth! Io's endeavor is revealed, her work has turned the purple ray of life into a violet beam of death. The mission is over. What will Brother Eye's final attack be? Are the Amazons & Paradise Island gone forever?

[#3]

• Infinite Crisis #3 - "Divine Intervention" = The gods have their own laws! Atlantis is decimated by the Spectre, as Athena and her pantheon of Goddesses remove Paradise Island from the Earth. Although I enjoyed Rucka's depiction of this sequence in WW #224, I appreciate that Johns thought this was important enough to be in the main title (and seeing it drawn by Jimenez was dope too). Is Aquaman killed in the destruction of Atlantis? Rehab'd Superman returns as Jaime finds the scarab, while we get one page referencing the space stuff to remind us of the "few seconds" foreshadowing. Sidestepping the Firestorm tie-ins was a good idea IMO and I hope we get the answers to the mystery of this elemental Firestorm in the coming issues or the RTW special. Wally check in is much needed (we've barely seen him since Rogue War). The E2 Supes and Batman sequences were great and I love the use of Dick as Bruce's north star to guide him back to sanity, an idea that is integral to Batman's rehabilitation in the midst of this OMAC and Red Hood stuff. The Luthor mystery is revealed; fake-Lex is E3 Alex Luthor who's theta brainwaves have been mucking up real-Lex's head. Though the power armor gets smashed, he escapes with a shard of the paradise dimension via neck shrapnel! Final dual revelation segments were wonderful, as we learn it was Superboy-Prime who destroyed the Watchtower and abducted J'onn to use in a cosmic tuning fork tower built from the corpse of the Anti-Monitor alongside other captured individuals such as Lady Quark, the Ray, and the freshly betrayed Black Adam.  But what is the purpose of this tower? IIRC the Monitor used these in the OG Crisis to merge the remaining Earths back into one; could Alex and Superboy be trying to do the opposite to restore E2?
• Day of Vengeance Special - "The Ninth Age Of Magic" = A sufficient wrap up to the Day of Vengeance death of magic plot line. Shadow-Pact and the magical heroes of the DCU hunt down seven deadly sins in Gotham City, Zatanna reconstructs the Rock of Eternity, and Nabu and Spectre have a final showdown. By killing Fate, Spectre ends the Ninth Age of Magic and begins the Tenth, alerting the Presence to his campaign and relocating himself to a new host. Nightshade gets nabbed by Felix Faust, presumably for the cosmic tuning fork we saw at the end of IC #3. Aquaman is confirmed to be alive (as I pondered in last issue's reflection), and Captain Marvel becomes the new "Wizard" within the Rock. As they send the helm of fate into space to find a new host, a bittersweet victory is all that remains for our heroes. Did they really win after all?
• Batman #648 - All They Do is Watch Us Kill, Part I : "Late Arrivals" = This isn't the end! It's a trick! Black Mask is so stupid for offing his lieutenants that it's kind of funny. At least we get a fantastic brawl illustrated by the brilliant Doug Mahnke. Seeing Sionis in combat was really cool since most stories don't tend to have the mob bosses get their own hands dirty. Choreography and use of set-pieces like Winick and Mahnke do is so great; I especially love it when Mask just breaks a chair over his head after Hood trolled him into cleaning house. Alfred's anecdotes continue to be fun additions, and I enjoyed how we get a frame of Batman over a deactivated OMAC. It really cements this story as a focal point of Infinite Crisis.
• Batman #649 - All They Do is Watch Us Kill, Part II : "Lazarus & Pagliacci" = The cover says Mahnke but it has pencils by Eric Battle! Art is obviously not as good, but Winick's story has such momentum that a switch like this is not going to slow it down. Jason and Joker's back and forth steals the issue and Winick does a phenomenal job of capturing the prime essence of each of them. Very cool and heartbreaking to have Batman witness the destruction of Bludhaven right as he's about to face off against Jason; really puts the emphasis on Infinite Crisis being an outright attack on the Trinity, actively pushing these characters to their breaking points. The trauma here segways nicely into the reborn-prime-ultimate Bat-Bruce that emerges in 52 and Morrison's run.
• Batman #650 - All They Do is Watch Us Kill, Part III : "It Only Hurts When I Laugh" = It ends just like it started: with a bomb, a bat, a clown, and a fallen son. The speeches by Bruce and Jason are more than enough to cement this issue in my top 5 Batman stories ever, though I do wish I lived in that alternate universe where it was illustrated by Mahnke. As for that last page with the multiversal Batmen, I'm sure that's a reflection of the fallout of Alex Luthor's machinations.

• Infinite Crisis #4 - "Homecoming" = Dump dump dump! Bludhaven gets blown up while the Titans get torn apart. Some continuity troubles with Batman finding Dick and claiming he was in New York when it happened even though he was in Gotham fighting the Red Hood when he saw Chemo's point of impact. The iconic fight between Prime and Conner and the Titans/Doom Patrol/JSA is great and made ever better by the Flashes intervening. I'm assuming Bart and the speedsters took Prime into the Speed Force, but Wally and Linda have departed for dimensions unknown. What does Jay mean when he says, "the Speed Force is gone?" Still don't care for the Firestorm stuff in space, but Jason has lost his co-pilot and might merge with this elemental? Also Air-Wave gets offed in one panel and Crispus Allen becomes our new Spectre! Now let's get into the reveals: Alex Luthor explains that he and Superboy-Prime escaped from the Paradise/Heaven Dimension while E2 Superman is distracted by Lois' failing health. They are the impetus behind all four of the Countdown minis: 
• Alex poses as the fake-lex, creating the Secret Society based on vengeance against the super-hero mind-wipes. They collect certain individuals to build a machine, a machine they believe will mind-wipe the entire super-hero community. Only Psycho-Pirate is in on the plan since he remembers the Crisis and the previous multiverse.
• Superboy-Prime finds the Heart of Darkness and Psycho-Pirate gives it to a mentally insane Jean Loring, who ends up convincing the host-less Spectre to wage war on magic.
• Alex wrests control of Brother Eye from Batman, giving it sentience as it falls into the hands of Max Lord, preying on the designs of the OMAC project.
• Superboy-Prime moves planets around space to shift the center of the universe away from Oa to where it was in the E2 universe. This creates the battleground for the Rann-Thanagar War.
• All of these endeavors worked in tandem to build Luthor's machine: a tower based on the Monitor's design of the cosmic tuning fork, but this time built from the remains of the Anti-Monitor's corpse. Using super-powered individuals who hailed from different universes before the crisis, this tower will do the opposite of its function during Crisis; it will divide the New Earth into a Multiverse so Alex Luthor can find the so called "Perfect Earth". The destruction of magic into its raw form will be the fuel, Brother Eye will be the programming, and the new center of the universe will be the playground for Alex to build the new Multiverse.
• Using the tower, Alex Luthor succeeds in bringing back Earth-2 as all the denizens of the former reality are returned.
• Teen Titans #32 - "Doom's Day" = Some nice extended sequences for the brawl against Prime from IC #4 along with an extra side-plot about Gar and the Doom Patrol. The John Byrne DP reboot seems to be undone in favor of embracing the OG Drake/Kupperberg/Morrison/Pollack runs which is an obvious plus. We get hinting in regards to Prime's place in altering continuity via his reality punches which will be explored soon.
• Wonder Woman #225 - "Nothing Finished, Only Abandoned" = THE MISSION NEVER ENDS! Gah damn Rucka is a freaking good writer. If I had to recommend one WW comic to anyone it would be this one. Athena's monologue was as brilliant as you can get with thesis/essay comics on certain characters. Interesting foreshadowing regarding the end of the Old Gods and the coming of the New Gods, I definitely did not expect any kind of hinting towards Final Crisis this early. I love how each of the Trinity has had their rehab issue so far: Diana in this, Superman in #647, and Batman being the last in his partial therapy sessions of #650 and IC #3. One more issue left to go in Rucka's run and I couldn't be more devastated!
• Rann/Thanagar War Special - "Hands of Fate" = And now Jenny! Why do we have to lose darling characters in mid books?! Giving it the benefit of the doubt since I enjoyed the framing around Alex Luthor's hands causing absolute chaos paired with the reveal that Superboy-Prime was actually the one who destabilized Thanagar's orbit back during the Adam Strange: Planet Heist series. The Kyle/Ion stuff is interesting, and it forced me to do a bit of research regarding pre-Johns GL stuff. From what I understand: Kyle became Ion a while ago from taking all the power of GLC, but then gave it up to restore the Guardians of the Universe. Before giving it up however, Kyle used some of the Ion power to restore Jade's star-heart ability, which is why when she is offed in this, he ends up reassuming that personality. Least favorite parts of this were witnessing Jade's corpse get disintegrated by Luthor's cosmic storm, and any panel with Blackfire in it was repulsive to the highest degree.
• Wonder Woman #226 - "Cover Date" = Loved it! If #225 was the finale, then this is the epilogue, a walk through the history of Diana and Clark up to this moment. The only gripe I have is the fact that the Challenge of Artemis storyline happens before Diana's death and return from Underworld Unleashed, whereas this issue has it backwards. I'm a huge continuity freak so what can I say. Really going to miss Rucka on this title, he's truly one of the few who understands Diana fundamentally to her core, and when I say few, I mean very very few. Thanking my past self for picking this and AoS as Countdown and Infinite Crisis adjacent pre-reading because it was so worth it. At the end of the day, I'm not sad because it's ending, I'm happy because it happened.
• Adventures of Superman #648 - "Look... Up In The Sky!" = I mentioned in my last review of A/S #647 that I could tell the difference between Rucka's prose and the fill-in couple's prose, but after this issue I'm pretty torn. This was a really well put together issue and a much-needed breather segment within the constant chaos of Infinite Crisis. I loved using an article by Lois as the framing device, as well as the mentions of the other heroes. I think that these kinds of issues can feel preachy sometimes, but all in all this was really honest in my opinion, and a wonderful way to cap off Rucka's run on Adventures of Superman.
• Teen Titans Annual #1 - "Love & War" = Last Night on Earth! Loved having Superboy focus in this, and the relationship stuff with Cassie is much needed after the events of the Insiders crossover. Lex in his Super Friends garb just reminds me of his appearances in the RCDC specials, but I'm excited to see more of him in this event and what Connor ends up doing with the shard. Very interesting to see the fallout of DOV affecting Raven's abilities and the fact that the Amazons + Greek Pantheon leaving is having similar effects on Wonder Girl as well. The Raven sequence of her empath power picking up residual feelings brings some good foreshadowing for #5, but I'm reading this before since it works better as buildup for #5 than reading after.

INFINITE CRISIS #1 + TIE-INS REVIEW!

 

• Infinite Crisis #1 - "A Trinity Torn Apart" = One of the best openers to any event I've ever read. The crux behind this event (and everything that's been brewing since Donna Troy's death back in early 2003) can be summarized in a quote from an interview with Greg Rucka: "The thesis basically is when those three [the Trinity] are not in synch, when they're not in harmony - and that doesn't mean they always love each other, that doesn't mean they always agree - but it means if they're not working together, VERY BAD THINGS happen." The death of the Freedom Fighters was pretty horrific, but in a Crisis you can't help but use characters as cannon-fodder for symbolism! We get a great homage to Moore's FTMWHE, check-ins with each plotline, and a revelation setting up the orchestrators behind the entire event. The Survivors return to save New Earth from the abyss! Who do the Survivors need to save by returning? Why is Psycho Pirate taking The Ray? Why is Luthor in Alaska? Who blew up the Watchtower, and where is J'onn? What is the OMAC protocol 'Truth & Justice'? What is and what caused the rift in the Polaris system? How will the 'few seconds' Donna mentions save reality?
• Gotham Central #37 - "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" = In the midst of annihilation for the DCU, Rucka gives us a beautiful character piece on Crispus Allen. This is how tie-ins are supposed to be written, it's all about those quiet moments building off of a sequence in the main title. Steve Lieber had some great art as well, and I'm eager to go back and check out the first 36 issues of Gotham Central.
• Teen Titans #29 - "Life & Death" = Tim vs Todd, battle of the Robins! As Donna Troy returns to recruit fellow Titans for the war in space, Jason continues his psychological war on the bat-family, choosing his newfound younger brother as the next target. This definitely went off the rails the minute Jason ripped off his Red Hood outfit to reveal the classic short-shorts and elf boots Robin costume, but I guess it fits his MO of mental attrition. Glad we check in with Conner, but that last segment with Raven and Beast Boy was near incomprehensible due to Daniel's art/panel economy. I have no idea what happened, but I assume Raven's vision of the Spectre caused her to get zapped away and replaced by an undead Lilith, who is now referred to as Brother Blood's mother? Hopefully these questions will be answered.
• Wonder Woman #222 - "Blood Debt" = Curse of the Cheetah! Bound by blood to a God-groom with no mercy! This was really good, and I'm glad we get to see more of Rucka's take on Cheetah since the Flash crossover we had a while back. Loved the origin recap and the framing of her stalking Diana in the Hague. Fascinating that Diana pleads no guilty; I'm very interested to see how she and Garibaldi play this affirmative defense out. It's very much a darkest hour scenario for Wondy, having to stand alone and reject Donna and Kara's invitation to escape while her island home is besieged by the US military, and now about to be invaded by the remaining OMAC centurions. Is that what protocol 'Truth & Justice' was? An attack on Paradise Island?
• Teen Titans #30 - Lost & Found, Part I : "The Doorway" = Interesting format Johns is playing around with by splicing the Titans narrative with the Watchmen-esque Zoo Crew comic book. I'm assuming the kid in the opener will be the Kid Devil we'll be introduced to after Infinite Crisis, but will he get his powers from this demonic invasion? The commentary & themes Johns tackles with this arc are pretty interesting given that he himself is a proponent of the resurrection/revamp trope (Hal Jordan, Carter Hall, and Barry Allen in a couple of years...). Love bringing back Mia Dearden, and I'm intrigued by the mystery of the blue arrow. I don't really care about Brother Blood and his group of undead Titans, but I can only hope it ties more into the overall Crisis plot.
• Teen Titans #31 - Lost & Found, Part II : "Eternity" = Slam the door! Johns brings back the first character he killed all the way in JSA #1 for a revamp! Deus Ex Eternity cleans up the demonic infestation and we end up exchanging one edge lord for another! While KE held open the door for Blood, it wasn't him who allowed recent resurrections to come to pass. Beginning with the Death of Supes back in the 90's, something has been pounding at the walls of reality, causing tremors in the afterlife. Could it be Superboy-Prime himself? Unfortunate that the Zoo Crew stuff amounted to nothing, but still fun!
• Green Lantern #7 - A Perfect Life, Part I : "Mercy" = All I could think of while I read this was how much I miss Carlos Pacheco. Rest in peace Carlos, you channeled Neal Adams like no other! Fun follow-up to Mongul's appearance in IC #1, and we find out that the item he nabbed from the Watchtower's wreckage was none other than the Black Mercy! He's used it to infest farmland in Ohio on his endeavor to continue his father's quest to conquer Earth. Loved that little bait & switch at the end; what paradise-prison does the black mercy have in store for these hard traveling heroes?
• Green Lantern #8 - A Perfect Life, Part II : "Family Ties" = Meeting with the Monguls! Crazy inversions on the themes of family; the black mercy filling the void with false realizations, a facade born from a lineage of amber oppressors, warped by their twisted perception of bloodlines. Among Monguls, there can only be one. On Earth however, heroes must step away from the crusade to treat their own households, a lesson we can all take to heart. Better not to live in the land of ifs and whens, but instead seek the now with those you love the most.
• Adventures of Superman #646 - Rack & Ruin, Part I : "Take Me Home" = You can clearly see the difference between when Rucka writes the script vs when he hands the plot to DeFilippis and Weir. The pacing was wonderful, and Kerschl's art has grown on me since he joined this series. We get some resolutions and convergence of a number of plots while Mxy acts as our narrative reference point. Lupe and Lana are played by Ruin like a fiddle while Supes and Mxy are drawn in all according to the maestro's design. Putting the tension and suspense of these plots aside, the sequences with Lois dealing with Checkmate and finding out that the shooter was none other than the beloved Sasha Bordeaux is freaking crazy, and a brilliant arrow to the heart. Keep doing what you are doing, Rucka!
• Adventures of Superman #647 - Rack & Ruin Part II : "Speeding Bullets" = Fun enough! Though it's pretty much void of Rucka's narrative complexity and much more of a classic smash-em-up cape serial, it was still good. The stakes, seemingly unending in their escalation, had sufficient resolutions born of Superman's unfaltering determination to succeed. I like to think that the conclusion for this story arc is truly what exorcises Clark's demons from Sacrifice and allows him to become the inspirational hero he needs to be.
• Gotham Central #38 - Corrigan II, Part I : "Right Here" = God damn. As someone who hasn't read the complete build-up to this moment, I must give props to Rucka for presenting me just the right amount of context to still have this hit hard. This pulled no punches, and the framing allowed for narrative gravity even if we knew it was going south for Crispus. That's effective storytelling, when you can show the audience the guillotine coming down and keep them hoping for a saving grace until the last second.
• Gotham Central #39 - Corrigan II, Part II : "I Can't Feel Anything" = After that last page, I can definitely feel that something is off. The discovery of the gun, the alibis and interrogations; it seems too easy. What does Corrigan have up his sleeve? What gambit does he have planned to evade justice once more? Renee's grief is only matched by her anger... will she screw up the entire investigation in pursuit of vengeance?
• Gotham Central #40 - Corrigan II, Part III : "Nothing Left" = Wow. What a gut punch. I really did expect Montoya to kill Corrigan, and there's a part of me that wanted it too. The interrogation sequences were masterful; just enough hope fed with the tease of the alibis not corroborating, but then destroyed by the rug swept from underneath by the weapon switch. The proof was there but it just wasn't enough. Justice failed, Corrigan walks... and so does Montoya.
• Wonder Woman #223 - Marathon, Part I : "Amazons Attacked!" = As much as this is a Wonder Woman book, Artemis completely stole this one. Through her eyes we witness the end of the Amazons, under attack from enemies both faceless, soulless, and unending. Diana departs from the Hague to save her sisters; the mission is over, Themyscira is all she has left. What device has Io constructed, and how will it spell the doom of both the Amazons and their aggressors?
• JSAC #4 - Power Trip, Part IV : "Parallel Life" = The final verdict! The veil is lifted as we bear witness to the truth we all knew was coming; Power Girl is Kara from Earth-2! The various false memories we've seen throughout this arc were apparently a self-defense mechanism created by her altered brain to prevent her from going crazy if she found out she was from a universe that never existed. Nice little Psycho Pirate origin on the side with some cameos from hallucination Robin and Huntress as well. The epilogues were way too crammed to segway into IC's second issue, but it works nonetheless!