JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK 1 :
We open with Madame Xanadu thinking to herself and pondering the cards that have been dealt to her and how to deal with them. Next we see a young obviously lost girl wondering the city and on tv we see duplicates of her being hit and killed on the highway. We turn to Shade the Changing Man who is in a room talking to a lady as she melts away. Obviously a person he mad so he had some type of constant human contact. We see the Enchantress locked in some old house in the middle of the field as she is being driven crazy by some unseen force. The Justice League ( Wonder Woman, Superman, Cyborg ) pick up on this and follows the trail to the house. They enter and are confronted by a mystical force they do not understand and watch as Superman is shown to be vulnerable to magic. They are consumed by it. Zatanna and Batman are back at Headquarters and they discuss going in to rescue the team but Zatanna gives a spell to ensnarl Batman for a little while as she goes to the house as this is her expertise. We are introduced to John Constantine as he is dropped from the sky into the streets of London. Madame Xandau is in some trance while Shade is holding onto her. Xandau tells Shade he must help out and he responds by saying the Justice League will handle it but she tells him they have already failed. We are left with her looking to the future and what she sees is a mountain of dead bodies including most of the Justice League.
Rating : 3.5/5 - A good read and one of the better #1's from DC. I like how this book will not be your traditional Justice League and is darker and heavier than their book. A lot of characters that need some fleshing out but it is off to a great start. Art fits the mood and tone of the book.
FURY OF THE FIRESTORM 1 :
Story opens up in Turkey with a family being held hostage by a highly trained group of what looks like Black Ops. Interrogating starts and in the end the father,mother and son are all murdered. We go back to the states and see Ronnie Raymond on the gridiron practicing in front of scouts. He is hoping this is ticket out to a better life as he knows he is not the smartest of the bunch. While in the locker room a reporter named Jason trys to interview him but is blown off after their personalities clash. Back home they both discuss what happened with their parents. At a laboratory we see a scientist confronted by the Black Ops group from earlier as they are hunting magnetic bottle which they have 3 of and searching for the last one. They proceed to torture the scientist. After they are done with him they go to the high school where we see Jason and Ronnie arguing about what Jason had printed for their "interview". The Black Ops group walks into the school and starts killing faculty. Jason says the words "Firestorm" and is transformed into said person but is confused by something that happened while transforming. We see two Firestorms instead of the normal one. The proceed to fight. After a few tense moments they merge into a being referring to himself as "Fury"
Rating : 2.75/5 - Always like the none traditional superheroes and Firestorm falls into that category. The issue was a decent set up. Not used to seeing two different Firestorms at the same time and them merging is an intriguing storyline. Hopefully there will be more back story on Jason and Ronnie as they just breezed into the big fight without much else happening. A good beginning but needs to improve to continue to be readable at a monthly basis.
BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT 1 :
Issue opens with Batman flying towards a people and changing into civilian attire on the fly as he as presentation to emcee. After doing his speech he confronted by Gotham City Internal Affairs. They are finally interrupted by a lady going by the name of Jaina Hudson. We go to Arkham Asylum and witness a breakout by many super powered villains and the while the police try to control the situation Batman arrives on the scene. He suspects Two-Face is somehow involved and since he wasn't part of the breakout he insist on the police to find out where Two-Face is. As Batman battles the multitude of villains he makes his way towards Two-Face's cell and out comes a big muscled "person" with Two-Face's face and tells Batman to call him One-Face.
Rating : 2.75/5 - Only reason this book gets this high of rating is because it is Batman. Book is the weakest of the Bat books so far but holding out hope that it gets better. I guess DC expects us to be pretty caught up on all things Batman but being an issue #1 I expected more. Art is decent but story is a bit choppy as both the writer and artist are sharing both duties. Two-Face being something bigger and badder is a new twist which shows promise.
SECRET AVENGERS 17 :
The Captain is in a room with Sharon, War Machine and Valkyrie going over some footage of an energy blast taken in Serbia that was given to them by some back channels. Captain decides they need to investigate what happened and who is behind it. As they are flying over the area where the footage was taken they are attacked by crazed pilot in another plane. The team splits up as they split the plane they travelled in. They reconvene on the ground and chase after their target which is a big rig. They attack the truck and after many failed and frustrating strikes they take it and the drive down to the displeasure of the Captain. They go their other point of interest which is some camp that appears to once run by A.I.M but now looks like it is run by some shadow British agency. We are left with Captain and Valkyrie discussing what the place is and how they came into possession of the footage.
Rating : 1.75/5 - If you like cold war stories and single story issues that apparently have no real tie in to the rest of the Avengers stories then this book is great. I fall into the other half that likes everything to be linked together and other than the characters showing up in other Avenger titles these stories in this book have no connection to them. I am growing weary of this title and getting close to dropping it.
NEW AVENGERS 16.1 :
We are in the holding cell of Norman Osborn aka Green Goblin and we see him talking to someone and the view pans back and we see a manifestation of the Green Goblin. Obviously Norman is still crazy. The Avengers are informed that Harry is to be moved to another faculty and that whey will be the ones to escort them. Most of the them have reservations of doing it but in the end agree to it. Once on board of the transport Norman is asked by the security guards on where the rendezvous point is. Which means that there is some plan to return Norman to his previous position as head of H.A.M.M.E.R. It is revealed though that the Avengers thought this might happen and "Norman" really is Dr. Strange in disguise and he puts a spell on the guards. We go back to the real Norman and he has more of the security guards under his payroll and one takes a flame gun and totally burns off Wolverine's face. As he heals slowly the rest of the team trys to get to them before Norman can escape but it is shown that this was all well orchestrated and in the end Norman is able to gain his freedom. We are left with the image of Norman addressing followers within some building.
Rating : 2.5/5 - Not terrible but not great and just plain meh. Other than the actual escape of Norman there is nothing of note in the book. It is the basic escape out of confinement with words being exchanged between the foes. Since this is a Point 1 issue we should not expect too much and we don't get it either. Art looks rushed which takes away from the story. Though choppy this should set up a resuming battle with the Avengers and Norman for the foreseeable future. Look forward to it.
VENOM 7 :
Issue opens up with a father taking his young daughter that has mutated into a spider being to a church that promises to cure what is ailing people. That person happens to be Anti-Venom. He "cures" her and is being crowned the chosen one by crowd. Now inside headquarters of the Spider-Queen ( see Amazing Spider-Man review ) she is given the news of what Anti-Venom is doing and orders Spider-King to kill him. As he leaves it is revealed that Spider-King is actually Venom infiltrating the group. As Venom swings towards the church he is in contact with Betty who is still bedside with Flash's dad. His condition is worsening but Flash has higher priorities at the moment. Anti-Venom spots Venom amongst the crown and proceeds to attack him. The battle makes its way out of the church with Anti-Venom the aggressor. When Anti-Venom goes in for his healing touch Venom jumps off of Flash and trys to bond with Brock once more. Brock struggles while slowly losing the battle. Flash pleads and lies to the alien and finally it returns and re bonds with Flash. Anti-Venom is then delivered to the research lab where Reed Richards is working on a cure for everyone and Brock is willing to contribute to the cause. Flash goes to the hospital to see Betty and his father. Once bedside they come to grips with what happened between them and Flash forgives him and tells him he would never trade him for any other father as his father closes his eyes on last time.
Rating : 3.5/5 - This Venom book is a good complement to the main Spider book and if not improving issue to issue is always steady and does not get worse. Not a ton of action but the story moves forward and adds to the main Spider-Island storyline and we see chess pieces moving on the board. Closure on the father situation was perfect and probably help Flash have a little more focus on bigger matters without his father on his mind all the time.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 670 :
Things are still progressing worse as J.J. is still under locked down security while people at the Daily Bugle are mutating to another stage of the virus. It even affects Hawkeye of the Avengers as he is now spider like. We see Spider-Man witness the transformation of his girlfriend Carlie into a spider being along with others as they leave the scene of the battle from last issue with the Shocker. Mary Jane is seen running as she has yet to manifest any spider powers. The Spider-Queen finally leaves her secret lair to welcome all her transformed spider-beings into the fold. Spider-Man notices the mayors limo under attack and goes to help out but J.J. who left his locked down location is in no mood to be helped out by Spider-Man actually fends for himself with Spider-Man helping out. As J.J. decides to go back to the compound he falls under the control of the Spider-Queen as it is shown she has mental connections to all the spider-beings now. He instructs J.J. to lash out and kill. In another part of the city we see Anti-Venom and Venom battling ( See Venom review ) and Mary Jane finally obtains spider abilities in the nick of time of an oncoming attack. Back at the compound with J.J. attacking people, Reed Richards informs Anti-Venom he can help everyone but will have to give up all his anti-bodies to do so which in turn will cause him to cease being Anti-Venom. Back to J.J. he takes a potentially fatal bite out of a confined prisoner with Spider-Man looking on. To be continued....
Rating : 3.5/5 - Another all around good issue with a lot of plot movement. There are only two more main chapters of this saga and things are moving at a brisk pace now. Being Spider-Man's book he has seen the least amount of action/placement within the story which I guess is the point and if so is written perfectly. Art for the most part is good but like a few other issues looks rushed. With everything going on I am most intrigued with what will happen with Mary Jane and powers. She is Peter's better half. No Carlie or any other female will ever have that title.
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