Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Stryder's Favourite Comics - 6/20/2012

Another big week for DC as they release not only my favourite Before Watchmen book yet, but also a ton of other titles!  Did you ever notice that most of the comics I buy on the third week of the month feature female leads?  Interesting...  Anyhow, let's take a look at what's sure to be another divisive book:


 NEW!! Before Watchmen: Comedian #1 (of 6) - It's Summer, 1962 and Eddie Blake is playing touch football on the lawn with Jack, Bobby and Teddy.  When he goes in for a drink, Jack's wife Jackie has a little conversation with him.  Something about a "Drug-Addled Peroxide Whore" who used to be "involved" with her family and is now "involved" with a known gangster.  Said "whore" definitely knows too much and will probably tell what she knows.

It's August 5th, 1962 and no one sees Eddie Blake leave the apartment where the President's ex-mistress is soon to be found.  Like the song goes, "All the papers had to say was that Marilyn was found in the nude..."

It's November 22, 1963 and the F.B.I. contacts The Comedian at the last minute to help them to take down Moloch the Mystic, who has allegedly been operating a narcotics ring, although he has never been known to get involved with drugs before.  He operates nowhere near Dallas.  Eddie bursts into the room where Moloch is hiding to find him weeping openly at the television.  "He's been shot," is all Moloch REALLY needs to say.  The T.V. plays on as the adversaries watch together... 

"...From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official...President Kennedy died at one P.M. Central Standard Time..."

An intriguing start!

But that's not all!  To learn what transpired in the REST of the DCU this week, join me after the JUMP!!


Nightwing #10 - After the events of the "Night of the Owls" and learning that the worst Talon of all, William Cobb is also his grandfather, and that he himself was meant to BE a Talon, you'd think Dick Grayson would be feeling rocky and off-course, unsure of himself and his future.  Well, you'd be WRONG!  Nightwing is more resilient than that!!

Rather than let his recent history drag him down, Dick instead lets it inspire him to take charge of his future and the future of Gotham City!  To make his city a better place!  Good for him!  Dick's always been the most light-hearted and optimistic of all of the Bat-Allies and he still shows it here, as he plans to bring the heart back to Gotham.

There is one catch...Dick can't do it alone and he doesn't want to add to Bruce Wayne's burden!  Along with Lucius Fox, Dick finds someone who may be able to help.  However, can he accept help from the daughter of his parent's murderer?  Because the only woman who is willing to finance his plans to revitalize one of the worst areas in Gotham City is none other than Sonia Zucco!

All this and more!  There's also a new group of Terrorists or whatnot causing trouble that call themselves "Tomorrow" .  Oh and there's a Gotham City Detective that seem hell-bent on convicting, (possibly even framing!) Nightwing for MURDER!  There's a lot of work on the horizon for our favourite ex-Boy Wonder!!


Wonder Woman #10 - It's wedding day for Diana as Hades finally has her at the altar.  However, as you may recall last issue, he first wants her to tell him she loves him...while her own magic lasso is wrapped around her neck!  No one can lie whilst entangled in the Lasso of Truth!

Turns out...Diana DOES love Hell!  However she WON'T marry him!  Not if he prefers PROOF over trusting her!  Hmmm...this suddenly feels like  a very male/female dynamic metaphor thing.  Oh well.  So Double-W jumps on an undead horse and attempts to make good on her escape from the Underworld!  On her way, she runs into her entourage from the last several issues who've returned (despite her orders) to try and HELP her.

Oh incidentally, Diana wasn't lying when she said she loved Hades...Wonder Woman loves EVERYBODY.   When all is said and done we learn a valuable lesson about love and honour and maybe, just maybe, if we are very luck we may be able to escape from Hell...


Supergirl #10 - "You Hurt my Friend, Monster!  You Stole my Power! And now -- I'M TAKING IT BACK!"

Woo!  Kara FINALLY shows why she DESERVES to wear the "S" on her chest as she takes control of the sinister Black Banshee!  As you may recall from last month, Supergirl learned that magic is a Kryptonian weakness but still took a gamble that the Banshee couldn't absorb all of her power as she flew straight into him, hoping to overload him and thus save herself and her new friend (and Black Banshee's daughter) Siobhan Smythe aka Silver Banshee!  Black Banshee instead absorbed her and took her power for his own!  Ooops!

This month, we join Kara in a vision of Krypton and her overbearing mother as she awakes to find that she is in some astral dream realm...Black Banshee's playground!  Here she is, nearly powerless and stuck in this strange place where her enemy is practically a God!  Does she give up?  Does she "pull a Supergirl" and just try to punch her way out with no thought whatsoever?  NO!!  She learns from her mistakes and comes up with a plan and kicks ass!!  Good work Kara!  I knew you'd (eventually) have it in you!  My favourite issue of Supergirl yet!!


Catwoman #10 - Selina Kyle is turning down perfectly good opportunities to steal!  Instead she's trying to turn her attentions to a life of altruism by attempting to stop whoever's been kidnapping "hookers and junkies" from the streets of Gotham.  I guess no-one else is about to help them and hey, they're Catwoman's people!

Looks like she may be in over her head though, as the kidnap victims are being taken to "The Dollhouse", where they are first given a chance to recover from life on the streets, and then are horribly killed and chopped up for parts, from the looks of things.  Well, I'm in favour of this Dollhouse's "helping people clean up and get off the streets" policy, but I disagree with their "murder and dismember" policy.  Catwoman seems to agree.

Incidentally this villain, who's face they've yet to show, is very reminiscent of the Dollmaker family from Detective Comics who relieved the Joker of his facial skin. Could there be a connection??

Unbeknownst to Selina, there's also a large number of crooked cops looking to get their money back from a few issues ago, and one GOOD cop who's so far only helped her, although he also wants to see her "brought to justice".  Poor Selina...even her allies are her enemies!


Red Hood and the Outlaws #10 - Princess Koriand'r has been a lot of things in her short life.  Royalty.  Slave.  Super Hero.  Unwanted Alien Menace.  Starship Commander?!?! 

A giant alien named Orn arrives on Earth to find Starfire, (along with Arsenal and Red Hood of course), and BEG her to come back to her ship and help them SAVE her home planet of Tamaran!  How can a girl say no to that?

A quick (and apparently quite dangerous) teleport jaunt later and the gang are aboard the princesses' personal battle cruiser, named (naturally) The Starfire!!  Kori's playing Captain Picard to a whole host of hostile alien troops.  Her solution?  Threaten to destroy them all of course!  In case you didn't know, Kori's a BAD ASS!!

Haha oops!  Jason was on a first date with a girl named Isabel.  She was under the impression that he owned a dry cleaning business.  Now she's in space with them.  Awkward!!

In other Red Hood news, there is also a short back-up story this issue following the enigmatic lady known as "Essence" who was introduced a while back in Jason's fight against The Untitled.  She's continuing this fight and managed to manifest herself fully by possessing the dead body of an innocent victim of one of these Untitled jerks.  Her mission?  To "stop the Untitled from using the Life Hammer to visit unspeakable horror on an unsuspecting world!"  Even she doubts her chances of success, along with her chances of living through the night...


Birds of Prey #10 - Mutant salad monsters and heat seeking missiles in the middle of the jungle!  Batman lectures the team about how they're being sloppy and dangerous!  Black Canary decides to step up her game!  Liquid cocaine gets set on fire!  Helicopters FALL from the SKY!!

Oh well, to be fair there's only ONE helicopter.  The Birds are taking a comatose and frozen Poison Ivy to a pre-determined spot in hopes that she'll miraculously heal, as per an arrangement she made with Black Canary when she joined the team.  They catch a ride with a drug smuggling pilot, but a heat-seeking missile interrupts their trip!  They don't know who launched it and there are more options than you can shake a soul-stealing katana at, currently.  The fun never stops for the Crime-Fighting Ladies of Gotham's night...

Incidentally, we still haven't dealt with that whole "Black Canary MURDERED her husband" problem.  They teased it a little more but the big reveal is going to be put off, I guess...Hey, if her teammates are giving her the benefit of the doubt, can we humble readers judge her too harshly?

And so we've come to the end of another week of DC Comics entertainment!  Don't get too sad, though, because tomorrow you can buy Aquaman, Batman Incorporated, Before Watchmen: Nite Owl, Teen Titans and more!!  It's all win!

Oh and yeah, I've got another article up at Stryder's Dementia.  IT happens EVERY week!  This week is all about how I got to see my favourite band play on the beach!  I also pass up a good opportunity for no rational reason...

See ya next week!

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