MONDOmagazine

Batman and Robin #3
Grant Morrison (w), Frank Quietly (a), Alex Sinclair (c). DC Comics.

Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly wrap up this arc of Batman and Robin in a way that speaks to the true mastery of their storytelling abilities. Together they’ve introduced to Gotham another villain, albeit one a little more sick and twisted than usual, just a little. I think they’ve got the creep factor down pretty well. There was something about Professor Pyg’s “sexy disco dance” that had me intrigued and slightly disturbed for enjoying it so much. The art is just amazing and the pacing of the story is quick and action packed. Quietly’s fight scenes have seamless transitions, with each image capturing the precision and accuracy of every hit. Morrison’s writing is just…awesome. It’s great to see two masters of their craft come together and create something so good. — Sandra Yao

Sandra’s rating: 4.5 out of 5
Isaac’s rating: 4 out of 5

Dark Avengers #8
Matt Fraction (w), Luck Ross (a), Rick Magyar and Mark Pennington (i), Dean White (c). Marvel Comics.

Well, this addressed all the problems I had with the last issue of this crossover. I shouldn’t have doubted you, Matt Fraction. The plan that Cyclops has been talking about for four issues finally becomes more than posturing; double-crosses abound, as does villainy; and we get lots of chest stabbing. Though, I must admit, I feel pretty bad for people who like the Dark Avengers. Daken aside, they only appear on two pages of this comic. It’s really all about the X-Men, and I’m fine with that because they’re my crew. — Miles Baker

Miles’ rating: 4 out of 5
Owen’s rating: 3.5 out of 5

Deadpool #14
Daniel Way (w), Shawn Crystal (p), John Lucas (i), Lee Loughridge (c). Marvel Comics.

Ah yes, Deadpool, not only is he the Merc with a Mouth, he is now also the Scourge of the Seven Seas. In this conclusion to a two-part arc, Daniel Way brings Deadpool’s pirating adventures to a close in a very wacky way. I’m starting to really appreciate the comedic approach Way has taken with Deadpool. Trying to get to Jallarka, an exclusive resort island, Deadpool runs into some difficulties when he meets Wackbeard, an actual pirate who has taken his gold-laden ship. The issue is filled with great one-liners and is an overall hilarious issue that seems to end with Deadpool starting to turn what seems to be a new leaf in his life. — Sandra Yao

Sandra’s rating: 3.5 out of 5

Detective Comics #856
Greg Rucka (w), J.H. Williams (a), Dave Stewart (c). DC Comics.

The introduction of Alice to the slew of Gotham villains has been a perfect fit. Her delusional insanity really plays well with the overall mood Greg Rucka is creating. But what really makes me pick up this series, despite being a fan of Rucka’s writing, is — hands down — J.H. William’s art. It goes beyond what the story requires. I could pick out my favourite panels, but really I’d just be talking about the whole thing. This issue was about Kate and her life outside the cowl: the supporting cast in her life is revealed and, as with any superhero, it’s not always the perfect picture. — Sandra Yao

Sandra’s rating: 4 out 5

Fantastic Four #570
Jonathan Hickman (w), Dale Eaglesham (a), Marvel Comics

Screw you, Marvel. Screw you for taking a title I don’t care much for and putting two of my favourite creators on it, thus forcing me to at least try it. Jonathan Hickman’s Secret Warriors is one of my favourite new titles and Dale Eaglesham did some of my favourite artwork in the last two years on Justice Society of America. So yeah, I wanted to check this out. How did I end up liking it? I loved it. This issue does a great job characterizing the family and making you care for them, then on top of that it introduces an engaging, unusual, and completely compelling conflict. To top it all of Eaglesham has a huge challenge when it comes to character design this issue and knocks it out of the park, his artwork is every bit as wonderful as I’ve come to expect of him. A world where I can’t wait for the new issues of Ghost Rider and Fantastic Four… has the world gone topsy-turvy? — Owen Craig

Owen’s rating: 4.5 out of 5

Flash Rebirth #4
Geoff Johns (w), Ethan Van Sciver (a). DC Comics.

I don’t think Geoff Johns is enjoying writing this book. It feels like he finally convinced DC to bring back Barry Allen, and then realized there was no need to. As a result, every issue is buried in exposition and unnecessary retcons. Here we’re told that the accident that created Barry Allen also created the speed force, and Professor Zoom created another speed force and blah blah blah. It’s not needed. Nothing in this book is needed.

It’s often said that one of the things that keeps superhero comics from greatness is their lack of real endings. Why destroy one of the best endings DC ever published? — James O’Connor

James’ rating: 1.5 out of 5
Isaac’s rating: 4 out of 5
Owen’s rating: 3 out of 5

Gotham City Sirens #3
Scott Lobdell (w), Guillem March (a). DC Comics.

Three issues in, and we’re already missing Paul Dini. Also missing? The titular sirens, for the most part, replaced with the Riddler playing detective. I’ve been enjoying this revamped and “reformed” Riddler since he was introduced in Dini’s run on Detective, and even though Lobdell’s writing isn’t quite up to that standard, with some muddled storytelling and twists, it’s still good fun. Also fun is March’s incredibly cheesecake art, ridiculous though it may be. — James O’Connor

James’ rating: 3 out of 5

Herogasm #4
Garth Ennis (w), John McCrea and Keith Burns (a), Tony Avina (c). Dynamite Entertainment.

For a story that started with a lot of naked superheroes doing lots of naughty things, it has quickly become pretty intense. To be quite honest, I feel as though I’m not getting as much out of the story as I should be because I’m not a regular reader of the main series, The Boys. That is not to say that I can’t appreciate the sort of storytelling Ennis brings to the table. The art is fitting to the story, but really isn’t mind-blowing or anything. The issue focuses on the events of 9/11 in The Boys world and sort of starts to reveal the all the strings behind the current political situation. It’s a very good read. Perhaps I’ll have to start reading the main series in order to appreciate it more. — Sandra Yao

Sandra’s rating: 3.5 out of 5

The Incredible Hercules #133
Fred Van Lente & Greg Pak (w), Rodney Buchemi (a), Marvel Comics

It has come to my attention that (unless I’m mistaken) I am the only MONDOcomics writer reading The Incredible Hercules. In honour of that I am choosing to speak directly to you, the reader. You should be buying this book! This is a fantastic book! I would go so far as to say that this book is my favourite book Marvel is publishing. As it turns out, both this issue and the last one serve as excellent jumping-on points for this series (the title is alternating stories, last issue was the first issue in a story about Hercules, this issue is the first in a story about Amadeus Cho, his sidekick). If you’re wary of jumping in then check out any of the trades, although I particularly recommend The Incredible Hercules: Love and War. This issue, much like the last, is entertaining, hilarious, and awesome. Plus this one has floating brains. So please, listen to me, readers. Drop that title from your pull list that isn’t that great (we all have them) and get one that is: The Incredible Hercules. I did it a couple of years ago and haven’t regretted it. — Owen Craig

Owen’s rating: 4.5 out of 5

Justice Society of America #30
Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham (w), Jesus Merino (a), Allen Passalaqua (c). DC Comics.

I really rather enjoy the art in this book: the new Dr. Fate is looking cool, and in the back of one panel is that Tapeworm guy I complained about before is blown to bits because he tried to wrap around an exploding man. Generally, the story itself I didn’t care for. There’s far too much infighting for these guys, never mind the fact that this particular group of villains they’re facing off with would never in a million years stand up to the JSA — at least not the way they were portrayed here. If you can’t make your antagonists a credible threat, you’re starting off on the wrong foot right away. However, I really enjoyed the back and forth of Wildcat versus Magog. I don’t care how tough you think you are, you’re going to be a little embarrassed when the other guy in an argument can say “Oh, you hear that? He’s a marine! What did you serve, three years?”, especially when it’s coming from a guy that’s been fighting in wars for five decades. Don’t worry Magog, I still think you’re tough (not really). — Isaac Mills

Isaac’s rating: 3 out of 5
James’ rating: 1 out of 5 (Someone please get Willingham the hell off this book before I kill something)

The Muppet Show: The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson #2
Roger Langridge (w + a), Boom Studios

As I reached for this comic I started thinking to myself that while it’s been fun for a while, I may have had my fill of Muppet comics. Boy was I wrong, this comic is as fun as ever. Scooter’s obsession with a hypnotist being evil made me laugh many times, and a news report about the hidden treasure of the studio was hilarious. Plus, there was a penguin catapult. That’s awesome. – Owen Craig

Owen’s rating: 3.5 out of 5

New Avengers #56
Brian Michael Bendis (w), Stuart Immonen (p), Wade von Grawbadger (i), Dave McCaig (c). Marvel Comics.

Immonen knows how to handle a Bendis script. He gets it, and he’s a goddamn great artist too. So, New Avengers, I’m not sure what to make of you. I keep checking in on it and it keeps being a war against the Avengers and The Hood’s gang of thugs. And it’s, fine, you know. Lots and lots of obscure villains teaming up — like the guy who takes centre stage has been around for 35 years and has appeared in less than 20 comics since then — and they throw down every couple of issues or so. The best part here is a really great fight sequence that has some great character commentary. The weak part is what The Hood is up to in the side plot — part of that is frustrating because there’s a Hood mini-series going on right now and the two plots are fairly disconnected and I like the mini-series one more. But, you know, if you checked out New Avengers before and had problems with how Bendis wrote the team it might be time to check back in. He’s getting a lot better at it.  — Miles Baker

Miles’ rating: 3.5 out of 5
James’ rating: 3 out of 5

New Mutants #4
Zeb Wells (w), Diogenes Neves (p), Cam Smith with Ed Tadeo & Craig Yeung (i). Marvel Comics.

I’m going to be honest: I’ve been picking this up only because I want to see the Warlock/Cipher team back in action. So far it’s been failing hard in that respect, though it looks like the next issue will be better. As it stands, #4 wraps up the current Legion storyline by clearing up his myriad of multiple personalities, and in the process getting rid of the one interesting character. It’s a pretty boring book full of pretty boring mutants, at least until next month. — James O’Connor

James’ rating: 1.5 out of 5

Nova #28
Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (w), Andrea Divito (a), Bruno Hang (c). Marvel Comics.

When I remembered what happened last issue I was all “Oh NO is Robbie dead?!?” and I was pretty excited to find out. We quickly learn he’s alive, and better yet, he gets to do the whole “Luke Skywalker in a healing tube on Hoth” thing, while talking about the Luke Skywalker healing in a tube on Hoth thing. I’m pretty happy about that. Also the line “Never get within head-butting range of anyone wearing a psionic dampener in his bucket hat!” A bunch of other villains show up thinking they’re all bad, but proceed to get handily beaten thanks to Nova and his partners. Which is how things should have gone down over in the Justice Society book. This is a great book: they even addressed a small small problem I had with a previous story arc, and all is very forgiven. — Isaac Mills

Isaac’s rating: 4 out of 5

Runaways #13
Kathryn Immonen (w), Sara Pichelli (a), Christina Stain (c). Marvel Comics.

Dang, there’s a lot of things I like going on in this comic but I was lost — confused as to what was happening — about five separate times, and that’s not good at all. Like, Neko casts a spell that builds a glowing house (she says “Abraham Lincoln” to build it, and I didn’t get that either) and the panel shows that they’re just on the beach… but then later the Runaways are in some underground basement that’s not really explained well. I don’t get it. And, like, Chase’s supposed Uncle is there and they don’t really talk about why the hell he’s there at all. They just keep on saying “can we trust him” — about what? He has barely said anything. People keep cutting him off. I know these kids have trust issues but this is infuriating. However, great art from Pichelli and Immonen gets in some great jokes. So it’s a 3. — Miles Baker

Miles’ rating: 3 out of 5
Owen’s rating: 4 out of 5

Secret Warriors #7
Jonathan Hickman (w), Alessandro Vitti (a), Sunny Gho (c). Marvel Comics.

This issue was a lot like pizza for me. When it was over I had this feeling like, “I’m full, but I want more right now.” This was a great issue. A lot got done, but I really want the next issue today. Any series where Nick Fury and his covert ops team rob a bank owned by Baron von Strucker and leaves a note saying “Baron, I.O.U. 1.2 billion dollars” wins with me. That, plus an amazing video conference call where Strucker thanks Osborn for killing his son — you gotta love a villain that evil. Seriously, this is a great new comic with some new characters and people should be supporting it. Isn’t it nice to read about some characters that haven’t been killed and brought back to life every now and then? — Miles Baker

Miles’ rating: 4.5 out of 5

Sonic Universe #7
Ian Flynn (w), Tracy Yardley (p), Jim Amash (i), Jason Jensen (c). Archie Comics.

A couple of characters show up at the beginning, taking another step in the direction of useless fan service. If you needed these characters to fill out the team’s roster for the adventure, okay, I get that, but they didn’t do anything in the book. At all.

Let’s check out the rest of the story. Two things: when Tails’ kid tries to fly and gets all dizzy, it’s actually really cute. Second, the bad guy eliminates his own henchman, by crushing an armband of hers that protected her from a change in her past — we’ve got a Doc Brown “erased from existence” thing going on, and it is DARK. Combine that with a surprise uber-villain at the end, and we’re looking at a good next issue. — Isaac Mills

Isaac’s rating: 3 out of 5

Timestorm 2009/2099 #4
Brian Reed (w); Eric Battle and Jon Bosco (p); Drew Hennessy, Alex Silva, and Nelson Pereira (i); Bruno Hang (c). Marvel Comics.

Hey good news, this mini-series is finally over. They sort of left it open for a follow up, but I can’t imagine this book will be popular enough to warrant it. The actual reason behind why everything has happened isn’t explained. I guess artificial intelligence is just always evil? The cover has a very small “featuring Dark Avengers and the New Avengers” like they were ashamed to go for that cheap move to pull in readers — as well they should be. Those characters appeared, that’s about it. To be fair, it’s not like the main characters in the story did anything either. I was really excited about this story back when that first cover showed up, that painted beauty of a figure half Spider-Man of the present and half of the future. If they just sent me a poster of that cover for buying all the Timestorm issues that’d almost be a fair trade. — Isaac Mills

Isaac’s rating: 2 out of 5

Wonder Woman #35
Gail Simone (w), Aaron Lopresti (a), Matt Ryan (i), Brad Anderson (c). DC Comics.

So I caved and bought into the new Wonder Woman arc. Wonder Woman is on an adventure with the Black Canary in Japan in search for Dr. Psycho and the remains of Genocide. The dynamic between the two is really great and it’s easy to hear Dinah’s sassy voice play against Diana’s more reserved personality. In this issue Wonder Woman finally meets up with the foes she has been on the hunt for and still struggles with the consequences of the choices in the previous arc, Rise of the Olympian. Just when she feels as though she has brought some closure to a part of her life, she comes home to see that another is falling apart. Simone has been great at developing Wonder Woman as a character. I think it’s just a matter of developing the right story. — Sandra Yao

Sandra’s rating: 3.5 out of 5

Crossover Corner
How important is this issue to Blackest Night? Enjoy our special “crossover relevance” rating scale: Essential, A Pleasant Addition, Take It or Leave It, Adds Nothing, or Completely Unrelated

Green Lantern #45
Geoff Johns (w), Doug Mahnke (p), Christian Alamy, Doug Mahnke, Tom Nguyen (i), Randy Mayor (c). DC Comics.

They crammed a lot of good stuff into this book right here, but it isn’t really that hard to follow. Okay, Black Lantern Pariah appears for a panel, and that could throw people off if they haven’t read any Crisis stuff before. But, you know what? There’s a sort of statute of limitations on how long you can go without reading the Crisis books. We keep telling you to read them, so go out and read them! Otherwise it’s mostly a fight between Carol Ferris and Sinestro, and we get to enjoy some really clever psychoanalysis of both Hal Jordan and Carol. Sinestro even attacks Carol with a yellow construct of Hal Jordan that just fit perfectly with their conversation. More Green Lantern battles need to be debates with accompanying diagrams courtesy of their power rings. I’m not joking. — Isaac Mills

Isaac’s rating: 3.5 out of 5. Crossover rating: Essential
James’ rating: 2.5 out of 5. Crossover rating: A Pleasant Addition

Blackest Night Titans #1
J.T Krull (w), Ed Benes (p), Ron Hunter, Jon Sibal & JP Mayer (i)

So far, the Blackest Night tie-ins have been following a pretty strict formula. Zombie versions of popular characters loved ones come back from the dead and try to murder them. It’s a pretty obvious ploy to both get the bigger characters out of the way so Green Lantern can deal with the actual crisis and to cash in on always profitable characters (Batman, Superman. I’m actually kind of surprised the Titans got one.). As a result, they feel pretty unnecessary. Maybe I’m wrong. There are hints here that the dead Dove is important, but you’re getting those in the main Blackest Night book. Slightly entertaining, but completely inessential. — James O’Connor

James’ rating: 2.5 out of 5. Crossover rating: Take It or Leave It