Moon Knight is the New Black and White of Comics

Brian Michael Bendis wrote a volume of Moon Knight a few years back to coincide with his Secret Avengers team which included the hero. I recently read through this 12 issue run. I have to say that the reasons for me reading this was due to All New Marvel Now's(Yeah that is a mouth full) run coming out in the new year of 2014. Also I've always known of the character, but I've never felt the need to read anything with him in it until now. The reason other than his new series is that Warren Ellis is going to be the main storyteller on this upcoming book. Ellis has written stories including MK within the same volume of Secret Avengers, Issues #16-21 for the curious. I will be reading that before the new series comes out as well, just to feed my fix on the character. Also, Valkyrie is in the series, and she's one of my favorite female super-heroines in Marvel.
So why am I blogging about Moon Knight? Let's just say whilst reading the 12 issue series I was enthralled. I haven't read a series this fervently in quite some time. Which would be the reason why I'm writing a blog after taking quite a substantial hiatus. I genuinely enjoyed this series. Some might say it may have to do with how short it was. It was only a year long run by comic standards. I honestly don't think that's the only reason though. It was more to my liking, with the street based hero work Marvel has given in the present with Mark Waid's excellent Daredevil.
Growing up I mostly enjoyed reading Marvel's X-men. They were a strange bunch with super powers that dipped into the unfathomable. I still enjoyed Detective Comics for it's hard hitting stories and gritty, yet realistic approach to life as a man dressed in his pajamas fighting thugs. So let's add some elements of fantastical to a gritty individual. Who really in all seriousness, is just a guy trying to get a Xena like TV show of his past glory spread onto your local tube. Let us then have him face off against a guy that killed one of the founding members of the second bunch of mutants to stake claim to the name X-men. Thunderbird if you're wondering and Count Nefaria as the villain.
So we have this poor fellow Marc Spector dressing up as a super-hero in all white with a crescent on his chest. He falls in love with a temporary(full-time during Marvel's Civil War) Avenger, Echo. Who is a deaf super-heroine. MK faces both Hollywood and a guy who can level a street with his sheer audacity. Everyone says he should call the Avengers. He really should, he doesn't have any powers like Spider-man, Wolverine, or Captain America. All people who he obviously looks up to. He just emulates them.

Spector doesn't have powers, but he does have the power of being super crazy. He is suffering from Multiple Personality disorders on levels that would have him committed, if not for the fact he utilizes them in ways most people can't. Honestly the crazy super-hero thing has been explored in multiple ways, and truly I haven't read any of the old Moon Knight books to know that Bendis has changed anything. But, Bendis does make a character with a serious issue into something likable. Everyone likes the heroes listed above, they have powers and responsibilities and issues that make them likable for a reason. This may be the reason Bendis chose them specifically, but later on in the series you find an almost Star Wars representation of ghosts for Marc.
Brilliantly done in the writing department, only if you enjoy a story about a guy just trying to do the right thing with the right capabilities. The art is standard for Alex Maleev, who is a personal favorite of mine. His work is just so stark and harsh for these kinds of stories involving the Marvel street fighters. He's done work on Daredevil in the past and Spider-Woman. 
This like Taskmaster's Unthinkable, made me look at a character in a new light. It helped me to understand that people like Batman and Spider-man aren't the only heroes that deserve our attention when we read books about fantastic stories. Comics are much more than our social conscience saying Iron Man is the best, or Superman for that matter. It's about what really makes us enjoy good stories and good characters.

Suggested listening: Beach House - Myth
I listened to a lot of their music for while I read the issues, it somehow fit.

Age of Ultron 5-9 Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned To Love the Paradox

Defenders, Assemble!

OH BOY! I'm finally writing this. Which is funny since issue 10 is coming out next week. Ah well, I think it's long overdue, so let's get right out of the gate. By the by, kind of big spoilers for these issues. Now onto my ramblings!

Wolverine goes back in time against most peoples wishes to kill Hank Pym. Which will mean that Ultron never existed. Sue Storm stealths along for the ride, and Wolverine has to deal with her "Maybe you shouldn't do this" speeches. He kills Pym, and oh look Sue never tried to actually stop him. She just stood outside next to Nick Fury's flying car. Here is where the interesting element of reprecussions and paradoxissessesesesss... come in. See Hank Pym is kind of a big deal in the Marvel Universe, and I'm amazed that it took Bendis, who never seemed to show much love for the guy, to prove it.
By Pym's creation of Ultron we get the Vision, because the Vision was created by Ultron. AI begat AI. This means that Vision exists to marry the Scarlet Witch, who has kids and eventually breaks down when they're not real and kills almost all the mutants off. That's just one thing Hank Pym did. Another is that Thor ditched Earth and Asgard didn't back it, because Hank Pym is important to science, which Asgard revered at one point(The joy of the 70's folks, Space Science Magic God Vikings(That should be the name of a band(PARENTHESES!))). This means Morganna le Faye takes over in an alternate universe where Cyclops is called Cable, and Captain America is Nick Fury. The Avengers are called the Defenders and everything else is whack. During that alternate timeline we get a tie-in with Uncanny Avengers, which is by far my favorite issue of that book. Havok and Rogue lead the Morlocks and Kang brings in the children of Apocalypse-Archangel. 
Now I know this all sounds wonky, and you might be asking why I haven't talked about the original plan to go into the future with the big group led by Captain America and Nick Fury to stop Ultron? Because it fails and they all die.
Now if you're still with me, Wolverine realizes what he did was stupid, so he goes back and stops himself from killing Pym. Which works out... Pym decides "OKAY I'LL PUT A FAIL-SAFE INTO ULTRON". Sue Storm finally comes in and says that Pym probably should make himself forget any of this happened so that the world can run it's course like it had.

Is this confusing to you? Did anything I just wrote make a bit of sense to you? If it did, cool. If it didn't, yeah that's pretty much the entirety of this event. It's overly complicated, it has a lot of time hopping, and at one point I swear I read that Tony Stark from Morganna le Faye world mention that paradoxes are made up. Why make a story like this? Why have all this over-reaching to stop Ultron. Ultron is considered one of the Avengers greatest enemies, and he even screwed over the Kree home world Hala at one point. Why not just have a simple slug'em out battle royale like always.
One reason, Marvel is planning something big involving time. The timeline in the 616 Marvel universe is so screwed up with people going back to the past and forward to the future that it has created so many different universes. In the comic New Avengers the alternate earths and their universes are crashing into each other. X-men has an upcoming event called Battle of the Atom which is about a future group of X-men(gee we haven't seen enough of those). I think Marvel is about to do a Crisis on Infinite Earths level event, and time manipulation is the central catalyst.
Oh did I mention Wolverine kills his future self. And it's done off camera. I wonder how he did it? Decapitation probably.

Pym, after someone said he beat his wife

Next and last issue of this event will be co-written by Neil Gaiman. I wonder if she comes down and essentially tells them how bad they're screwed. Hopefully she says she will send a great champion to the land. Then a Miracle Man/Marvel Man monthly series starts next month Whoo! Alan Moore returns to big two(Marvel and DC(HAHA)) comics and writes a few issues double Whoo! God I wish this would happen.

Man of Steel: Unchained

So I just got back from seeing Man of Steel. It was good, showed what Supes could really do if he ever had too. I'll try to keep this as spoiler free as possible. I also read Superman: Unchained this week, and I'll be talking about that too.

Probably the best thing about Man of Steel was the fight scenes. The only characters that recieved decent development through the movie were Zod, and well... Superman. Lois was your base go-getter "I wear a flak jacket" reporter that instantly fell in love with the man in the red and blue. Perry White was lacking his normal trademark "Great Ceasar's ghost!", but Laurence Fishburne did a good job. Jimmy Olsen wasn't even in the film. The military guys were cool, if not a little refreshing on the way they handled trust with Supes. Jor-El was pretty good, but they could've explored a little with him and a possible Brainiac for future movies. It was nice though to see Jor-El kicking some ass.
This doesn't mean that the acting or casting choices were bad, just maybe the pacing of the movie. almost 3 hours of movie, and they still had a hard time squeezing everything in. Instead of just showing us Superboy, we get flashbacks that seemed to show up throughout the movie. Kevin Costner really did an amazing job as Pa Kent. I think he and the writing really did a superb job to show how he raised Clark to be a good person. Ma Kent did an alright job, and I hope to see her have more of a hand in future movies with being Clark's guiding light, but she didn't seem to carry the same torch as Clark's father.
The only real detractor for the film however came with a scene where Lois and Superman kissed. Yeah if you've ever heard of Superman, this isn't a spoiler. It just felt so forced and I didn't see any reason to necessitate it other than Lois was just overwhelmed at how awesome Supes was. I mean he did just save her from death(again), and I could see it just being the heat of the moment. It just took me out of the movie, but only briefly before we got one of the best fight scenes in a movie I've probably ever seen. Seriously, this movie just raised the bar for Super-powered fighting. Faora who was Zod's second in command proved to me that a Flash movie could be possible.
So why did this movie get bad reviews from some "top" critics? I'm not exactly sure, but I have a feeling they were expecting a Man For All Seasons Superman, and not a Red Son or All-Star Superman. I repeat this movie did not have Christopher Reeves in it, it's not your father's Superman. And that's okay. There are plenty of ways you can re-interpret a character. This Superman has the same amount of heart and cheerfulness that all the rest have. He just knows when to get his hands dirty, because sometimes you have to. He's okay with doing it because no one else should have to when he can do it for them. He carries your burdens, and that's what makes a Superman super. 
I would give it a solid 7/10, but I don't really like to give out grades because that makes my opinion of it solid. I don't want to convey my thoughts of this movie onto you. If you like Superman, then go see it. Make up your own mind.

Now for Superman UNCHAINED. While it probably is the best Superman book that DC is currently publishing since Grant Morrison's departure from Action Comics. It's not that good. It has potential and I'm curious as to where Scott Snyder is going to go with this idea that the bomb dropped on Nagasaki wasn't a bomb, but another super-being. An alternate Earth Superman from the 30's would be a neat idea, but I doubt it. Superman's inner-monologues were kind of annoying, but yet again this is a first issue, and if they continue with them they possibly could form to be something better. I'm holding out hope for this book, and with Superman/Batman coming out at the end of this month Superman might be readable again. Don't screw this up DC.


Suggested Listening: The Man of Steel OST, really great and powerful music that lended to the movie very well. I got tingles during some scenes because of it.

Aquaman is cool you guys, I swear!

Damn right he's cool. He's king of Atlantis and has his own team of adventuring heroes! They're called the Others, and I'm quite a fan of them and this issue. We continue with Atlantean weapons being spread across the globe thanks to Scavenger and other people selling them to land-dwellers and ocean poachers. While Aquaman is only in the first few pages the rest of the book does well without him and is more of a "let's get to reacquaint ourselves with the Others" issue. I assume they will play a part in the upcoming story arc which is being called the Death of a King. Which could allude to Arthur or his brother Orm. Probably Orm since he's sitting on death-row after what he did to the eastern seaboard.

Anyway the real fun stems from these characters called the Others, and there possible new member. She's a young girl who is half in the world of the living and half in the waking world of ghosts. A shaman by her Native American ancestry. I really liked how quickly they integrated her into the team to help take down the baddie with the item that Aquaman wanted to retrieve(It's in Arizona which is dry as all get out). It felt natural the way she slid in and worked well with them, especially Prisoner of War who can control a few ghostly soldiers. Even the villain Skinwalker's motive and characterization felt right. All in all a good book I recommend it, and it's a great jumping on point.

he didn't come back

Also this passing week we saw the release of Superior Spider-man, and his love for midgets and the rise of Jareth the Goblin King(Green Goblin is calling himself the Goblin King now). Also, don't leave a midget on a counter-top it could be trouble for them to get down, stupid Spidey-Ock... Avengers was good, even had some moral lessons all kids should know, like how to ride a stegosaurus. It also taught us a little bit more about this particular Hyperion. I liked the reveal at the end, and Iron Man phoning it in, literally. Other then that Daredevil continues with where it left off the last time I talked about him. Ikari is one hell of a villain, and when you find out who he's working for it only gets better.

That's it for this week in reviews. And yes the Age of Ultron 5-8 is coming soon. Have a great Memorial Day!

X-Factor, what the Hell

HUR, NOT THAT X-FACTOR

So, I've recently caught up with X-Factor. The Hell on Earth War just ended this week. It's one of their story-arcs where the multiple lords of Hell in the Marvel Universe clash in an attempt to kill Rhaine Sinclaire's(Wolfsbane) son, Tier. He was the 7 billionth child born in the world, and essentially was the trophy for whoever wanted to rule Hell. Of course he's quite over-powered against the Hell Lords, and slays Pluto quite handedly early on. This sets the tone for what he can do. By the way, yeah he ages pretty fast, and is nearly a "teenager" when this story starts. I guess being half demon dog has some benefits?

Some background about X-Factor; It's a cadre of mutants not dissimilar from the X-men. The original X-Factor was actually the original X-men team of Cyclops, Marvel Girl(Jean Grey), Beast, Angel, and Ice Man. They were government sanctioned and then of course replaced by Cyclop's brother, Havok's team; Strong Guy, Polaris, Multiple Man, Wolfsbane, and Quicksilver...You know what screw it, Here is the Wikipedia entry. X-factor's history is hard. I don't want to really spoil anything for the issue either.

Spoilers...

Also, this week FF came out. I liked it very much so. My love for Matt Fraction's Marvel work currently does not waiver. Bentley 23 was a class act, and of course good old Scott Lang's face from this issue now takes the place of Clint Barton(Hawkeye) on my Blog. Why do I like this series? The art is fun, the stories are fun, and I've always had a sweet spot for the Fantastic Four. Albeit the Fantastic Four book is not really doing it for me. Fraction also writes that book, but it's just not up there like this book. I really suggest getting into his FF though. A new Dr. Doom story is about to start! Also, Blackbolt was in this issue, I love me some Inhumans.

God I hope that's Parker

Ontop of all of this, I think the new Nova finally has moved from a guilty pleasure, to a great read. I hope Jeph Loeb (who is still one of my favorite writers on Batman) continues with his good work on the series. Yeah, I'm singing a new tune, I loved Richard Rider, but Sam Alexander is slowly becoming a favorite. He still has the option of joining the Avengers in the future, as was hinted by Ed McGuinesses' Cover for issue 7.

Suggested listening. LOLOLOL SEE WHAT I DID THERE?!

Don't hate me...

Battle Royale Rip-offs and Neil Gaiman

Yeah so I read Avengers Arena. I like to think of it as one of my guilty pleasure books. That and the new Nova, god I miss Rich. Hey it wouldn't be my blog if I didn't mention Nova, right? This week's issue of Avengers Arena, also known as the comic that ripped off Battle Royale/Hunger Games, starts in semi-high gear and then spins down to first. After that it shoves down the accelerator like a pile of Scrooge McDuck's money. Sentinel Kid Juston is a character in this series, so is Chase from Runaways. Chase grabbed the power of Darkhawk from Chris Powell. Okay, all of this is going over your head, why should I bother? 

Basic point of why I like this book and I've continued to read it for nine issues is pretty basic. Why do old ladies like to watch soap operas? No, I'm not trying to be mean saying only older women watch soaps. I know a few people who watch them and they're around my age or younger. The point is simple, I like to watch people be conniving jerks, I also like to see people try to be nice and mediate situations with said jerks. It like watching Thomas the tank-engine drive(rail?) into a tornado. "I think I can, I think I can!" Doesn't usually work out, sorry Thomas. I really enjoyed the British show Skins, mostly for this fact as well. Yeah it's essentially a soap opera or one of those reality TV shows like survivor. Big thing about this book though is people die. Some very beloved characters by certain groups of Avengers Academy, or more recently, oh wait that's a spoiler. I'm trying to not do those anymore.

Bottom line, if you like just stupid mindless dribble where kids punch and yell at each other and get decapitated, but with super-powers. Read this book. Get out of your, "Oh, it's just a rip-off of 'X' thing", and  try something new. You might end up liking it. I'm not trying to tell you want to do... please don't stop reading.

I like the big belt

In other news Angela's re-design for the Age of Ultron issue written by Neil Gaiman is looking nice. Doctor Strange movie is a go. Daredevil and Ghost Rider are back in the hands of Marvel Studios, but nothing is currently planned(Poor DD). I'm getting really hyped for the Man of Steel movie. I haven't seen Iron Man 3, but from what I know of it I believe I'll enjoy it. The Walking Dead comic that came out this week was fantastic, and I'm hoping things start to speed-up. Uh, yeah that's pretty much all I wanted to talk about.

As always, Thanks for reading. Here's your Suggested Listening. I couldn't remember that Danzig song, you know the one, about Angels falling... Crap.

Free Comic Book Day

So this Saturday was Free Comic Book Day. It was good. I haven't gotten around to reading what I got, but I figured I'd post pictures of what I grabbed. Really happy about the New Avengers poster I got from Realms. All in all, like Ice Cube said; today was a good day.

Don't tell me to make my bed

Jupiter's Legacy Review

First issue, while not available digitally upon it's release was an enjoyable read. What was Mark Millar(guy who wrote Kick-Ass and Ultimate X-men) thinking? He was thinking, damn this is a great book I hope people enjoy it in the paper format! Besides it's antiquated political undertones this book was enjoyable for being a cape comic. It's delivery was perfect, and not short on information to setup the series in the long run. A lot of first issues about super-heroes leave you wanting. This one conveyed it's general idea quickly and precisely in it's first issue. I say bravo to that!
The general idea is this; some people in the 30's searching for an answer to the woes of the depression and America's hardships venture to an island foreseen in the dreams of Sheldon Sampson. They are delivered there and blessed with being the first super-heroes of their age. Fast-forward to the present and their descendants have totally misconstrued their parent's values. Abusing their powers for fame and endorsements, while the regular people fall to the whims of the government's failing economy and even super-villains they could care less about fighting. The story seems to follow the idea of Robert Kirkman's(Walking Dead) Invincible, but makes it much more adult in it's tone. I'm not bashing Invincible, but it always felt a bit too corny for what I read. The idea of what real super-heroes in a real world setting is nothing new, but this felt inventive enough to be a good start to an endearing story.
On the flip-side it could also end up being a horrible story where people's values are washed away to make way for the superior beings and controlled by them in a police-state fashion to earn a dishonest Utopia. Which we've seen plenty of in comics (Evil Superman for President!). I don't think it will be long before we get this answer since two brothers who have opposing views on the current government structures are already butting heads towards a meltdown. I see one becoming a villain and the other standing by the current regime and believing that the people can work it out for themselves and not fail. These two brothers are two of the first people to go to the island, and one of them happens to be Sheldon Sampson.
A nice cliffhanger ends the book, I won't spoil it, but it does involve one of the degenerate children. A child who sounds so yuppy I wish I could squish her like Galactus on a bad day, or good depending on your outlook of Galactus. It's a good read, I advise everyone to check it out!

Suggested Listening

Daredevil is Awesome

DD was confirmed back in the hands of Marvel Studios today, by Kevin Feige: here's an article about it. Daredevil has recently become one of my favorite characters and books from Marvel. Mark Waid's run really had a lot to do with this. Whether it's saving blind kids from a wrecked bus ontop of a snowy mountain, or making the reader hate Foggy Nelson and then make you feel bad you did. Daredevil recently has been a pound for pound great superhero book. The art is top-notch and much like Fraction's Hawkeye fits well with the type of story we're reading.

Last week Daredevil #25 was my favorite book that came out. Hence why I didn't really write a pull-list bit. The new villain they introduced and his shocking twist towards the end just made me happy. Even his design and attitude feels like a callback to Frank Miller's run on the book. Ninjas are cool again. I really want to know where we go next on this crazy roller coaster known as Matt Murdock's Melancholy Life. The turns and reels of emotion when he falls and then comes back to triumph are perfect comic book mechanics. That's why I'm saying it now DD is my favorite current on-going book. I may do a top-ten of this in the future... So uh, spoilers.
Ideas of how to introduce Daredevil into the Marvel movie universe? Someone on Reddit had a great idea for street level hero movies eventually combining in a New Avengers movie. I like this, and also this would give a good home for the Dr. Strange movie coming out soon. Iron Fist, DD, and Hawkeye on the same screen?! Yes please.

Suggested Listening Red Batman approved.

Batman and Robin's Prof. Pyg Versus Beware the Batman's

So Beware the Batman is coming out soon. One of their villains has no chance in hell of being true to it's bone. That poor bastard is Professor Pyg! First gracing his smug oinks in Grant Morrison's post Bruce death Batman and Robin series. He did become something of a significant villain with the first three issues. His hack and slash attitude, and poetic non-sense leads him to a combination of the Mad Hatter and The Joker of insane crack cocaine. He literally carved the faces of his child victims off and replaced them with faces of that he felt suited his life all the whilst quoting Darwin's Origin of Species.

Oink, Oinkety, Oinkety, Oink

How in the 9 levels of Hell could this character possibly translate to a cartoon presented by Cartoon Network's series Beware the Batman?! I have no clue, but I do intend to show you how it will not work. It even makes Damian Wayne vomit with rage! I have to say I do understand the need to re-invigorate new readers/viewers of Batman with villains that are contemporary  but maybe Pyg isn't the right choice... Oink Oinkety, Oinkety, Oink. I mean I could understand Black Mask who is featured in "Under the Red Hood" a movie I really liked, but still not suitable for children under the age of 12? He could be re-worked to fit the mold and break away from the Joker, Penguin, Two-Face, and Mr. Freeze.
Regardless of that this villain was introduced after Bruce's death, post Final Crisis. Which means the first Batman to face him was Dick Grayson, and his Boy Wonder, Damian Wayne. Maybe I should say Robin, and Batman the Boy Wonder... Even if eventually Damian grew to respect Dick, the man who taught him how to be nicer than just wanting to fight justice and for his father's memory. Nothings ever good enough!

Pre-Boston, He'd been there though.

Back to the poor children, seriously that's what Pyg does... He takes their faces and replaces them. Essentially he's just a bat-crazy(heh) individual with a penchant for saws and surgery. I really can't see how they pull this off like a poor child's face, on Cartoon Network. Professor Pyg is going to be the worst villain on that channel since they cancelled Young Justice and the Green Lantern Animated Series on the same day. Whoever that guy is serisously, I want to shank you. I wanted a Young Justice VS. Darkseid as much as I wanted Wolverine and the X-men's show heroes fighting Apocalypse. Sheesh. Channel Executives are sometimes un-caring to us fans...
I don't know how they'll handle Lazlo Valentin and his "Pig Pen", but I know it can't be regarded as a great endeavor. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. The Le Cirque D'Entrange continues without me.

Thanks

Yeap, so uh... A suggested listening is what you'd want here right? Well while re-reading Batman & Robin 1-3 and thinking about writing this article I was to listening the new Fall Out Boy CD. Yeah, that may sound gay, but meh. They grew on me and aside their recent "Light It Up" song, I have to say half their new CD isn't terribad, and I like that song a lot. I'm sure you've heard that already a lot, so let's do something different this week. The Pheonix? Oh Jean Grey!

Suggested Listening Oh Yay videos are now a regular thing! Thanks Youtube! Now imagine Prof. Pyg disco dancing to this song...

Action Comics New 52 1-8

I just recently finished reading the first arch of Action Comics for the New 52. It's written by Grant Morrison, and I've expressed my interest in him before on this blog, so I don't see any reason to re-hash said interest. His work on this book is pretty great in my opinion. Not excellent or bad, just great. I'm sad that he left after issue 18, and that after his tenure with Batman INC. he will be leaving cape comics for a while(I read this somewhere, not sure where though). After the reboot, Superman needed a fresh take, I think it was prominently delivered with this title. I like that we get not one but multiple villains origins in this run. Metallo's is great, and also gave us the birth of the new Steel. Lex's xenophobic sensibility is prevalent through the first arch, even if he sides with another alien in order to remove Superman. The collector of Worlds/Brainiac... Internet? Plays the main villain throughout, and did what he always does to Kal-El, torture his friends and city. Jimmy plays the perfect best-friend in this series while Lois is... well Lois, and not much more. The Legion of Superheroes short story in the middle did distract, but I still enjoyed the story it presented. I liked the idea of a Tesseract being in his brain, regardless of how it got there(a bullet...). This allowed his villains to enter there with Kryptonite. It's something I would've never thought of, and something that the writers of Dr. Who should look into. "The Tardis... it's well, it's inside your head Doctor." Awesome!

All in all I recommend reading it, at least just issues 1-4, and then 7-8. The Legion issue is 6 if you want to check out that Tesseract story. 5 is just baby Kal-El riding his ship to Earth and being saved by the Kents, with some slightly depressing undertones. The latter to which I listened to Rocket Man by Elton John, which I guess would be the suggested listening for this piece. I plan to finish Morrison's run, and then check out Andy Diggle's issue((s?)He wrote Green Arrow: Year One which I liked). Scott Lobdell will be taking over the book after that and I think I'll give his first issue a look-see. He however is writing almost every other Superman book, and I've heard those are pretty bad.

I still can't wait for Batman/Superman, I hope it's great. Especially after that last bit at the end of Batman 19, which I thought was the best part of that book.

Suggested Listening

They Avengered it out of me!

Left to Right
Black Widow, Mockingbird, Spider-Woman

Hawkeye 9 was pretty good, continuing the events from the last issue the tree ex-lovers of Clint Barton, Black Widow, Mockingbird, and Spider-Woman all go about finding Hawkguy and finishing what seems to be an awful Valentine's day for him. Good old Kate, with her Lolita movie poster on her bedroom wall is confronted by the trio. It's at this point that it may seem that Matt Fraction wants us to believe Kate and Clint might have a thing. Even if it's one-sided. Considering her a fourth in the "affairs" of Hawkeye. Mockingbird and Hawkeye's marriage is finally put out to sea, as he finalizes the divorce papers, and some bro's get beaten up. Then some guy comes up and shoots a fan-favorite of the book in the head, Oh no... Oh da.

Why is Bruce Wayne pointing a gun at Jim Gordon on the cover of Batman 19? Better yet, why is he robbing a bank. Oh it's Clayface. That's dumb. I was hoping it was Hush, or Bruce finally lost his marbles after Damian's recent death. Nope just Clayface, and he's "evolved". Seriously this book is starting to go down the pooper. It was really good, and one of the best at the start of the whole New 52, but it seems like Snyder has gotten lazy with his recent acclaim and is pumping out slop monthly with the title. That slop just happens to look like Clayface, sigh...

Poink!

I like how Bendis is essentially writing a weekly X-men books even if it has two titles. After the events in All New X-men where Cyclops comes to the Jean Grey school, and offers the students an alternative. We see that the Stepford Cuckoo's are a dominant telepath over Emma now, and Cyclops gets Goldballed. Also past Angel joins present-time's Cyclop's team. Where does the story go from now? Magik is having troubles controlling her powers now, just like Cyke and Emma.

More stuff to come this weekend. Hope you enjoyed this. Also, Apple is dumb, and stupid.

Suggested Listening: Neko Case - I Wish I Was The Moon

Age of Ultron 1-4+

So there are currently two major events or cross-overs going on in the Marvel universe right now. One of them happens to have Ultron in a future dystopian world he won. Spidey is running around without a shirt, and Hawkeye is killing people with a crossbow. All while Captain America sulks that he doesn't have a plan, and Tony Stark is still a pretentious paranoid individual. Also, Luke Cage says sweet Christmas. Yeap this is Brian Michael Bendis writing about the Avengers.
Now let me speak about the good parts of this "Maxi-Series". First things first, Taskmaster is awesome, even without his cape. Hawkguy is awesome, and I hope to god, Franklin Richards is awesome. We finally get Bendis' impression of how Spidey-Ock would handle things... with his ego. I know Bendis didn't write the tie-in for Superior Spider-man, but he is lead creative officer on the event. I think he is anyways, it's hard to tell after his awesome work with X-men. Age of Ultron isn't awful, it's just slow. I did really enjoy the tie-ins so far, which is odd. I usually don't care too much for tie-ins, because they deviate other books from their point.
However, thank you Marvel for doing something right for a change with your big events. Instead of the usual de-railing of a book's main story to tie-in to a big event, they have instead decided to do one-shot stand-alone stories that don't interrupt the flow of the source book. I hope this is a practice that catches on as they continue with the new Marvel NOW. 
So who is Ultron? He's this robot with A.I. that was created by Hank Pym, or as you know him better; Giant-man, Ant-man I, and Yellow Jacket. He developed him for the Avengers as an assistant and, soldier when things got crazy. He however has become one of the Avenger's number one villains. He has this bad habit of continually popping up, even after being thought dead for a good while. He even branches out to the cosmic universe of Marvel in Annihilation: Conquest by fusing with the Phanlanx. He's one of the top 5 villains in the Marvel Universe right after Doom, and Thanos. Yeah, he's a pretty big deal.

I guess I'll come back to this event when it's 8 issues in, or I don't and just leave you hanging on my thoughts of the series as a whole.

Suggested Listening: Placebo's "For What It's Worth"

Top-Ten Marvel Cosmic Heroes

So this is a blog and most blogs have top what-ever's. My first top what-ever is going to be a top ten of Marvel Cosmic Universe Heroes. I've written a lot about the recent Marvel cosmic universe. It's a reboot of sorts in my mind, and I feel like I should help out some people with the past, just a bit. Marvel has recently done a sort of reboot with their old cosmic mythos. Nothing super serious, just a slight re-interpretation of characters that have been around for a while. And I wouldn't stretch that they've gone too far off the rails.


10
Peter Quill (Star-Lord)
Peter was a simple dope who gained powers through his birth-right, he had Ship, a sentient being who carted him around space. It was very similar to how the Doctor Who series runs now-a-days. His father as we now know was a king of the Spartax system, and had mated with a human of Earth (Check out Guardians of the Galaxy 0.1!). Peter is a clever and fun character he's like Peter Parker of space. He was the person who started the newest form of Marvel's present Guardians of the Galaxy during the Annihilation: Conquest saga.

9
Beta Ray Bill
First appearing in the year of my birth 1983, in issue 337 of Thor. This character moved on to be one of the coolest wielders of Mjolnir, and later Stormbreaker. With his famous swing at the the front cover of Thor books people still imitate this cover design to this day. Bill is pretty awesome, and you probably should look for him in other stuff, Like the Planet Hulk movie on Netflix. I just like his design, and his backstory of being able to go toe-to-toe with Thor regardless of not having Mjolnir. Also, he was found on a ship called Scuttlebutt.

8
Moon Dragon
She was a young child when she was first brought to Mentor, who is father to Thanos the mad Titan. Heather Douglas was the daughter of Drax before her and her father were sucked up in to space to meet their destiny. She was gifted with the power of telepathy, and so forth, she became the greatest of telepaths. Unfortunately she gained a side-effect through her training with monks, and became possessed by a real Moon Dragon, a fearful beast of death. This beast she actually came full-on with in Annihilation: Conquest. Also, she is totally in love with Phyla-Vell, "daughter of Mar-Vell, or the original Captain Marvel of the Marvel universe.

7
Gladiator
Leader of the imperial guard for the Shi-Ar empire. He was there for the rise and fall of Jean Grey becoming the newest host for the Phoenix and sub-sequentially Dark Phoenix. He has equal powers to Superman from the DC Universe, but has a bad ass Mo-hawk. During the War of Kings and Realm of Kings events he became emperor of the Shi-Ar. Who like Vulcan as emperor anyway?

6
Black Bolt
He is one of my all-time favorite characters from the pages of Fantastic Four. Blackagar Boltagon can level a mountain with but a whisper. His powers come from the Terrigen mists planted on Earth to speed up the evolution of humanity by the Kree. Someone who he eventually goes and conquers during the War of Kings event. His wife is Medusa, who is currently a member of the Earth based Fantastic Four in FF. Also, he's pretty awesome in Earth X. I really like his costume too...

5
Rocket Raccoon
Oh boy! A talking anthropomorphic Raccoon with a penchant for big guns and missile launchers?! Do I really need to say more? Okay he's best friends with a tree-like entity who can re-grow himself from a splinter, and does regularly. I also imagine him with an Australian accent, and it's raspy like he just finished a bottle of whiskey.

4
Phyla-Vell
Sadly she was only Quasar for a short time. I do like her being the embodiment/harbinger of death however. If you've watch the second season of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon then you are familiar with her being the quasar from the Guardians of the Galaxy episode. I like her Quantum Swords a lot. Biggest thing about her is her role and Moon Dragon's as lesbian lovers. And it didn't suck, or talk down to your intelligence.

3
Drax
Is he still a destroyer? Yes, very much so. He's a destroyer and damn good at it. He's space Wolverine essentially. He has a long and historic past, and was quite awful back in the day. Thank you Keith Giffen for making such huge alterations to this formerly "Superman Clone one billion in the Marvel universe". He has a major role involving Thanos. He is always the best answer to when Thanos has started running amok, as he was essentially bred and taught to be his assassin. Also, I'm a fan of Cammi, a no-nonsense companion of Drax.

2
Silver Surfer
Okay, so this guy named Galactus came to this guy Norrin Radd's place and totally destroyed it, then Norrin was like "no!" So, Galactus was like "I'm listening". Herald of Galactus Silver Surfer was born. He is by far of everyone's definition by normal standards "that guy from space in the Marvel comic books". It's hard to top him. Not many people really know a lot about him now though, and that kind of makes me sad. He was really big in the 70's and 80's. He even had a cartoon on Fox in the 90's. I loved that show, and was really my first full introduction to him and the Marvel Cosmic stuff. His best book is Silver Surfer: Requiem. Check it out.

1
Richard Rider (Nova)
You shouldn't be surprised by this really. I love the Nova Corps., and I think of them as a better version of the Green Lantern Corps. in DC. They're very similar, but the Novas don't rely on some emotional spectrum, just raw determination and skill. Rich is my favorite for mostly his involvement with the world-mind, and how it brought the Marvel's cosmic universe out of horrible funk in the mid 2000's. Just like a Nova he burst out and led the distant planet-hopping heroes into a new time. Nuff' Said.



Honorable Mentions: Adam Warlock and ROM Spaceknight

Hope you enjoyed this, and I really hope you got some inspiration to read about these characters or the recent major Marvel Cosmic events I've mentioned. They're really good, and I can't wait to see what the Marvel movie company does with these properties.

Thanos Rising: It is Imperitive that your read this.

So Thanos Rising issue 1 came out today, and I liked it tons. It's a prequel setting for how the mad Titan became the avatar of death, and near conqueror of the universe. It also, show a more estranged younger version of his father Mentor. First thing I want to say is, young Thanos is cute as a button. He doodles dead iguana things, but doesn't have the heart to perform a simple dissection in class. So he doesn't hold sociopathic tendencies, he just has an inquisitive and creative streak. In another scene he's in a cave and can't wait to look for gems! 

Yeah Fun Fact: Thanos is a Mutant

I really enjoyed his interaction with the other kids as well, he even has a crush on one! His brother Eros isn't seen, but is mentioned. I assume Jason Aaron is saving him for the next issue or a following one. And on Sui-San being a crazy psycho mom who wants to kill her son first chance she can get, because she sees death in his eyes. Well, I think it's up in the air if that is real, or her madness. Thanos mentions having dreams about that, and decides sleeping is not needed to avoid those said dreams. So, you could make a case that Sui-San his mother is the reason for his downward spiral... well that and Death. I'm not really sure if this is a reboot or just a re-imagination. I don't think Thanos' backstory has been touched on in quite some time. And with the way Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova has been re-invigorated, and focused more on the backgrounds it would seem that Marvel NOW for the Cosmic universe is pulling up it's britches for some major changes.

I'm gonna miss that mullet

Animal Man post Rot World arc is coming to a close, after Buddy Baker's son stopped his little sister from dying by giving up his own life, the Baker family is in turmoil. Buddy, just wants everything to go back the way it was before the Red the Rot, and all the events that have happened. His wife fights with him on what their daughter Maxine is, whether she's just a little girl like her mother wants or the avatar of the Red like her father has to accept she is. Buddy has a run in with the paparazzi, one of which gets a gorilla slap, and buddy is finally pushed over the edge. He's fed up with all this ridiculous god-speak. So he takes his anger fueled self to the Red itself, and demands they leave him and his family alone. This ends in disastrous fashion for poor Buddy. I have to ask if Animal Man can get anymore gripping/depressing after this last issue, and I hope the answer is yes.
I'll be back later this week touching on the first 4 issues of the Age of Ultron Mini-series. Until then, enjoy the rest of your week!

Suggested Listening: Crosseyed by the Bad Veins, thanks Mikey.

Final Crisis is Final

I was doing a read-along of Final Crisis from DC, written by Grant Morrison and drawn by J.G. Jones. I stopped doing this after the 3rd issue. The series has been over for almost five years if not more than. So I'm not honestly spoiling anything for anyone that cares. However, after finishing the series I honestly don't think I could write more about it than I already have, other than how it ended. Batman dies while shooting a gun at Darkseid with a Radion laced round(the same that killed Orion). Superman stops the anti-life equation by bringing a bunch of Elseworld Supes to stop Mandrakk who attempts to fill the void of a failing universe. Also, Superman uses some Miracle Machine granted to him by Braniac 5 from the 30th century, and reduces the entire population to petri dishes to save them after Wonder Woman somehow breaks her gasp from said equation after destroying he crappy mask and using her lasso of truth to break the bonds of the humans from Darkseid's control with truth. Convoluted as that may seem, it's much worse to describe in the blog. So I'm not bothering. I'd suggest reading it yourself, or looking up a summary of the events on a Wiki. Sorry, I guess I just picked the wrong thing to do a read-along with. This is not to say I want do another Read-Along, but it does say I will choose more wisely in the future. Also, this isn't to say it's poorly written, Morrison did a great job, and Jones did well conveying the plot. It would just be too taxing to do what I was doing with it.

Guardians of the Galaxy NOW!

So Guardians of the Galaxy is essentially the flagship title now for Marvel's cosmic universe. Nova is already out, but that's just a kid. Thanos will have a mini-series coming out soon, but that's just a ramping up for a bigger cross-over. No the team of Star-lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Groot, and Rocket Raccoon are essentially the main book if you want your space cape book from Marvel. And they've done a pretty good job with the first issue. You have Peter Quill(Star-Lord) hitting on Kree, the King of the Galaxy his father interrupting it. Was he really hitting on her? Yeah, but I think there was some other plan going on.
There is a new addition to this team, Iron Man. Yeah Tony Stark for some odd reason chooses now to leave Earth behind and go on vacation. Not like he couldn't have done that before the events of Civil War. He may have had a clearer mind when he got back and saw his buddies being thrown in jail for not signing up to be a government lap-dog. For whatever his reasons for going to space, and he gives several. He's not a member of the Guardians after a trial-by-fire recruitment against a Badoon ship that is going to invade Earth. Groot gets turned into a splinter... again.

Gamora VS. Spartax Royal Guards

I suppose I should talk about the upcoming movie, and the possible cast. I think what we see in this book is officially the cast. Yes, that include Iron Man. Stark has a space-suit in Iron Man 3, so why not? It only makes sense to me, that or keep it in storage until Thanos comes. Whom he doesn't know is coming, so yeah going into space to take a break after all the events that have happened to him in such a short span of time. He runs into the Guardians, and things get weird. I've heard rumors Chris Pratt from Parks and Recreation and Zero Dark Thirty will take the role of Peter Quill, and honestly I think that's great. Vin Diesel as Drax is the only answer, the man has had experience playing a badass alien before. As for the rest I don't really care, John DiMaggio(Bender) would be great at Rocket.

Badoons versus Dr. Who?

I'm sure I'll talk more about this series as it progresses and inevitable crosses over with the Thanos book. It already has crossed over with Nova, technically. I think Brian Michael Bendis is doing a bang up job after spreading away from the Avengers books. All New X-men and Uncanny X-men are great, Guardians is good, and hopefully he'll be writing a Heroes for Hire book with Cage and Iron Fist. His Age of Ultron mini-series is too new and going too slow to really gauge it's worth. However, the ending should be A+ since Neil Gaiman will be co-writing it. I smell Miracleman...

Dammit Jeph Loeb

Huehuehue... hur

So Nova is still coming out. I've still been reading it, in fact I just finished number two not to long ago. Thing is, no matter how corny it comes off, I feel as though I'm enjoying it... slowly. It's similar to how Avengers Arena is a guilty pleasure of mine. It's not a great and magnificent book; like Hawkeye or New Avengers. It's just fun and filled with children dying. Some children who I've grown attached to over the years in other books. Guilty pleasures work that way I suppose. And in the realm of comic books being corny and whimsical is kind of the founding father. I like Fear Itself and Avengers Vs. X-men, where others bemoaned them. I think sometimes people forget comic books are well... comical. So dammit Jeph Loeb, you made me enjoy your book.
So Nova was last left off with Gamora and Rocket Raccoon in a hospital bed. His father is now presumed dead and the helmet is in his custody. Not at all does he think, wow my dad was serious, maybe I should pay attention to these people, and listen to what they have to say about my father. No instead he bolts out after Rocket shoots his pillow because he called him a, and I quote "Talking Raccoon". Why did Rocky shoot, just because he was called what he is? I understand if it was a short joke, but Rocket still wouldn't have gone all insane for that statement. I could've understood a growl in the least. Samuel runs out to a nurse and never mentions the word gun, but somehow she thinks there is... Gamora and Rocket are gone when they return to the room. Big surprise said no one. This is just 2-3 pages of this issue that make no sense whatsoever.

All Over Me...

Sam gets the helmet that was still there, and changes in to Nova, and well... the book gets fun from there. I don't know what it is, but Nova always seemed like a cool dude to me. His powers are very basic, but yet fun! Nova was amazing in Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest. I'm maybe getting a bit too excited to see what the corps and the world mind are up to. Also, Guardians of the Galaxy came out yesterday. I haven't read it yet, but I'll probably talk about it Saturday. I promise this time, I'm actually kind of itching to read it as we speak. God I hope it's not crap.
Also, from last week Captain America's newest issue came out. I've been wanting to talk about the series for a while. So Cap is in Dimension Z and has a son that follows him around for over 10 years. Lone Wolf and Cub would be proud of  Remender's run on Captain America. I'm curious as to how they'll explain the passing of time for Cap, but I assume time works differently in Dimension Z. You know, all wibbly wobbly timey-wimey. It's a great book, but I suggest maybe waiting until the first trade comes out before you read it. It's probably Remender's best work right now, and yes that means better than Uncanny Avengers.
Superior Spider-Man, is a touchy subject with me. I hate what they've done, but I still read it, and I'm still angry. However, that being said I kind of like the book. I just wish it had been delivered in a better way, and they would get rid of that ghost parrot, on Spidey-Ock's shoulder. He has been around annoying the readers for 6 issues. There are only 6 issues of Superior Spider-Man(7 if you count the new Age of Ultron tie-in). I do like the midget however, I hope she honestly becomes his love interest.

Wat

Finally, I'm going to talk about Savage Wolverine. Issue 3 was great, it had the right amount of dinosaurs, boobs and cavemen for my liking. Also, Amadeus Cho, who is arguably one of the coolest Asian Marvel characters(right behind Wong and Shang-Chi). Dude is smarter than Einstein, from Manhattan Projects. Just so happens he is now a god of some tribal people in the Savage Land, and is trying to solve why he's there. He even turns down Snoo-Snoo, because his mission is so damn important. Meanwhile, Wolverine says Cripes a few more times, and Shanna the She-Devil looks hot until she gets a spear through he gut. Also, is it me or does Cho look a bit like Archer in that picture I'm using?
Until Saturday, enjoy your weekend. Whoa I posted only about Marvel Comics. Guess I'll have to talk about Aquaman next week.

Suggested Listening: The Amadeus motion picture Soundtrack. Watch the movie too, it's glorious.

Comics From The Last Few Weeks

Just wanna clear up that there are some spoilers for Walking Dead in here, well honestly there are spoilers for a lot of comics. But mostly Walking Dead, since it's a major TV show now, a lot of people don't want to know where the show will possibly go, so read at your own risk. You can skip to the second break after this one to get to some X-men and Manhattan Projects talk.

NAILED IT! (Jesus jokes are kind of wrong)

So I haven't written much lately, and you can yell at me if you want to. I've been re-playing through Dragon Age: Origins so that I can start up playing Awakening and eventually DA2. I've been reading comics randomly and I'm a week behind. Actually I still haven't read Green Arrow or Animal Man from 2 weeks ago. I Just finished reading Walking Dead 108 and I liked it, the book has been sagging a bit as of late. So, it was nice to read about a new kingdom. I just wish it wasn't actually called "The Kingdom". It's a bit silly. I did like that Kirkman finally touched on something that has been missing in this post-apocalyptic zombie world. Nerds. Ezekiel honestly is the first person I've seen that I would consider a true nerd. Yeah you can say that guy with the walkie-talkie is kind of nerdy, but I disagree. I think that dude is just smart and kind of weird... Okay so Ezekiel is maybe more like a geek. So Ezekiel is the first geek in this post-apocalyptic zombie world. That's cook I like geeks, I'm a geek. Geeks like comic books, or well we obsess over them. I mean I am writing a blog about comics. I believe that qualifies me for geekdom.
So Ezekiel is pretty awesome, he's got a damn tiger. The tiger is named Shiva and doesn't dig violence, neither does Ezekiel. But yet Ezekiel wants to launch a major assault on the ping-pong champion Negan. Honestly that bit didn't make much sense to me, but I can see him making a stand to stop the violence with violence. Another odd thing about this issue, Carl just realized he can't see out of his right eye. Oh look a blindspot. I mean really, it took you almost 20 something issues to realize that? Also, why is Michonne starting to act like a bitch? I like her characterization a lot in the book, and she's pretty awesome in the show as well. She's cold and distant I get that, but she's always been the quiet person with the katana(which isn't in Google's dictionary apparently). She has just really fallen off the wagon lately and she does remark on this in this issue. Noticing that she has a bad time pretending to be a socialite individual amonst numerous individuals makes sense for her character, but honestly I could do without the whining from her. She's supposed to be a badass who keeps her feels to herself, but everyone can read them on her face. Not some dour lady who's in the kitchen and wants someone to break the cuffs to her oven free for her. She does that with her katana. Well, the character isn't mine and I can't tell Robert Kirkman what to do with her, but I can take my toys and go home.

In other comics; Uncanny X-men is off to a pretty good start. I never understood why The Bros of Mutant Evil(And Mystique) never got their own comic. I mean it really does make sense to have book that portrays the opposing side of the heroes. It doesn't have to shine a light on the bad guys as being good in there own way, but at least make them seem a bit more human than just some guys who disagree with the good guys. Yeah, I know the word on if Cyclops is a baddie is still not out. I just think this is the obvious progression that Marvel is going with the character. I actually like Cyclops I think he's a good person at his core, but a lot of people have crapped on him over the years. Dude lost his wife, then his girlfriend, well that's still up in the air. Now Captain America wants his head on a silver platter. Dude is priming up to explode like a bag of TNT outside the start of a new mine in the olden times. Besides that obvious tendencies Marvel is going with his character and that cadre, Magik has been the shining spot in the book for laughs. She actually catches me off guard with her facetious humor. Oh, and look Magneto is a double agent. He's probably a triple agent, that wouldn't be surprising.

Best part of the book; the covers

X-men Legacy is just as good as it always has been, I'm really digging Legion being the main character. And now the relationship with Blindfold, who I've kind of had a soft spot since she was created. I just want to read more about these two and maybe even Chamber. I could deal with just these three guys doing stuff, kinda like X-factor Investigations did when they first started out. Sadly on another note, I'm starting to lose interest in Manhattan Projects. I will take the wait and see approach, but the last issue(10) was kind of overdrawn. I mean the whole Oppenheimer thing seems to be a bit too convoluted and over-the-top. I still enjoy reading "Hmmm..." in varying ways though. I really just want more of that talking Russian space dog. Also, check out the newest Batman and Robin(18) It's pretty amazing and will make you cry a bit if you loved Damien as much as I did. It's a silent issue, as in it doesn't have any dialogue, but the panel work and art direction pretty much sum up everything that would be necessary to say.

More will be coming this weekend or maybe Monday, it depends on how lazy I am. I'm very lazy.

Suggested Listening: Anything by Nero, it's actually decent Dubstep. Not like the Skrillex guy.

Saga number 10

Holee crap on a stick. I really don't need to write much about this issue. I just have four words for you. Giant Flaming Gorilla Ghost. Hands-down this made my night while reading it. Also, God I hope Lying cat is okay. He's one of my favorite animals(aliens?) in comics along with the talking Russian dog from Manhattan Projects. Enjoy this image, and let it burn in to your brain. It's fantastic.

That one chick on the right looks a bit like Cthulhu

Weekly Pull-list will be on-time. I'm just catching up with a bit from last week. And yes Captain America and Cub was awesome. I bet Dimension Z works in a shortened time space in relation to Earth's.

My Thoughts

Batman and Robin
Mostly Robin in this regard, Robin is the sort of character that didn't start the sidekick wave, but he sure as hell made it spread throughout in a way that was enjoyable. Robin in my opinion is the definitive sidekick. He's a protege and a character of his own breed. After hearing of recent events involving the character in it's fourth iteration(technically 6th, but who's counting(me obviously)). Those events still up in the air, aside Grant Morrison himself saying that Damian Wayne is dead himself, and several news sources confirming this. I thought it appropriate to talk about the characterization of Robin, and his many forms.

I'm A Little Late On This

Final Crisis Part Three
Open up to Frankenstein in Bludhaven, trying to keep that mess under wraps. When the Question pops in and there is a little tussle. The Question points out the mummified corpse of the former Darkseid. And well, she presents Frankenbeans with a... question. "What kind of gandland violence leaves a man mummified?" She then asks what happened to Turpin, and leaves Frankenstein to these questions. 

Ripping her faceless face off revealing Renee Montoya, where she goes to blend in to the crowd. Frankenstein and Father time talk about some sort of prophecy in the form of an old Mac hand cursor. The words Know Evil pop up, and Some guy on a screen, or Father time, I honestly don't know the structure of this part of the comic is very confusing. Anyway this guy points everyone in SHADE to go to a bunker somewhere in Bludhaven. Montoya comes to a crowd gathered around a fallen German Ms. Marvel.

Renee is then asked by some guy to come back with her. Next we see burger flipping cave-guy from the future(yes that does sound as ridiculous) and he then gets fired for his freak-out and saying the word Gravitons, I'm not even joking. People find the symbol he had drawn on the ground and date it back to paleolithic era while other people say it's exactly like this crop circle they found. Sad cave-guy maybe Monitor walks away from TV's in an electronic shop's window(do these even still exist?). Next we find Jay Garrick talking with family and recounting the events that transpired, and sure enough Barry Allen is alive. And it looks like he's been running from a dark knight on skis.

Death Skis

It seems they were attempting to use their light-speed force to chase down the bullet that killed Orion before it killed him. Jay unfortunately wasn't able to keep up due to his age, and Barry and Wally are still attempting sort of attempting to break free and stop it at the same time. Time and the speed force is weird. In the next scene we find the Legion of Doom swamp location where the Human Flame and Libra are talking about the Flame's endeavors for the future. Libra forces a helmet on Flame and the Anti-life equation takes him over. Enter Lex Luthor at bad timing. Lex demands to know whats going on. Libra lays it all on the table that either Lex could join or be forced to join, as Apokolips is coming.

At Metropolis Memorial Hospital, Clark is at Lois's side as she is barely being kept alive by his heat vision or some such. Jimmy is there and says he's going to go find Superman, since he's been missing for almost an entire day(Jesus... does Supes ever get you know, time off?). Some weird person enters the room and says she knows that Clark is Superman, and he needs to join her. Hal is in green energy shackles as the Alpha lanterns are taking him away. Alan(Golden age GL) and Wonder Woman attempt to sway the decision that Hal was the cause of this since there isn't any proof that he did it, but Hal says he doesn't recall anything during the time that Orion was killed and it would be better to go to the Guardians and figure this out. 

I wonder what Article XXX is?

Alan and Diana talk more after the Alphas leave and decide they need more help with a possible fight against Darkseid and the evil gods. A draft is in order. We get varying different scenes of heroes such as Freddie(Marvel Boy) and his tiger butler talking about how that Billy and Mary have gone missing, and he should do something. Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance post coitus, Super-girl talking to her cat, and even some mysterious new Aquaman. A bunch of Superheroes decide to show up for the draft.

I love these kinds of images.

Next we return to Mister Miracle and Sonny Sumo talking about how sometimes Mister Miracle can't even explain his powers. Sumo-san suggests that Motherboxx is probably a big help in this. They're attacked by some unknown assailants wearing very similar helmets to Human Flame's new head accessory. Oh god, that stupid kid group from last issue shows up. One even remarking how he still want's Sumo's autograph. God this was so cringe-worthy to read that Mister Miracle got saved by these snotty brats in costumes. 

Ugh

The smug bastards even remark after Mr. Miracle asks them go back that they've done stuff like save the earth, because they're super-hero teenagers or some such nonsense. I hope these kids earn there keep as cannon fodder. Cut over to Diana standing outside of what looks like an irradiated area of Bludhaven, or maybe that warlord guy in the bunker did something nasty. These knight dudes on riding dalmatians warn her she shouldn't go in without an escort. So they follow her in. 

They come to a scene where a guy from SHADE called Replika(Madrox rip-off) is seen disemboweled, hung, flayed etc. in his multiple bodies. I'm guessing one of them didn't get away... Standing over the bodies is Ms. Marvel gone all punk-rock. Oh wait, that's not Mary, it's some evil god using her body. BY HERA, that's how they've been getting around unnoticed Wonder Woman exclaims. They fight quite a bit, one of the knight chicks by the name of Marene who is a great admirer of Diana gets cut in half by Mary. And her brother holding her dead body screaming at the two, is all the time that Mary needs to land a diseased blow to  Wonder Woman. 

WW is now the carrier for some sort of Omega disease. Meanwhile back at the Hall of Justice, Oracle who has taken over as hub director after MM's death catches an odd e-mail being sent out to everyone in the world. It's a virus and it somehow magically opens itself. Luckily it looks like Oracle was able to pull the plug before she gets caught by the Anti-life Equation and becomes a drone for Darkseid. Barry and Wally finally catch up with time, and it seems they may have jumped a week in to the future. In front of them a group of ball-gag wearing nefarious looking former super-heroes and villains show up with Wonder Woman looking really demonic leading them. 

Ball-gag on the left

I'll see you next time in Final Crisis Part Four!