Meanwhile... (SPOILER FOR BATMAN ETERNAL!!!!!)

Remember when Stephanie Brown walked in on her dad having a meeting with some Y-List Batman villains, and their mysterious leader, concealed in the shadows, who clubs her from behind? You know the only worse thing for a teenager to walk in on than her parents having sex? To walk in on one of her parents having a meeting with Lock-Up and Signalman.

I wrote about the big reveal in Batman Eternal #50 at Robot 6 this week, and was somewhat surprised to see all of the comments attached to the article, but I suppose that's a good thing. Skimming it, I noticed that several commenters mentioned Lincoln March, Wayne's maybe brother (or a crazy guy who thinks he's Wayne's brother) from Scott Snyder's first big story arc after the New 52-boot. That's actually who I was worrying it would be all along, but am pretty confident that DC wouldn't use a character that hasn't yet appeared in the series (I mean, Identity Crisis was a terrible mystery comic that didn't make any sense at all, but the culprit was there all along, even if the motivation for the crime and the specifics of the crime made no sense at all).

As I mentioned on Twitter, there's a good chance it could be someone else pulling Cluemaster's strings—Rex "Calabrese" The Lion being the most likely suspect, Mr. Mind posing as Alfred's mustache being the most awesome suspect—but Snyder and company are just plain out of room. They've only got 40 pages left to have Catwoman and appear, chuck Cluemaster off a room and say, "My dad says 'hi'" or something, and then explain all that. Like I said, I don't think they played quite fair—it was either Hush or Bard in the kitchen with Cluemaster and company in the Cluemaster's first appearance, before it was revealed that there was another shadowy figure aside from Hush—but it's going to be a big, hard-to-execute swerve if a chunk of those last 40 pages reveal another villain behind the villain (Cluemaster) behind the villain (Hush) behind the villain (Bard).

So I'm about 95% confident it is Cluemaster. And while I'm sure the World's Greatest Detective is frustrated he didn't figure it out himself, I think it's fair to Batman to note that Cluemaster is really only a suspect over March because of the rules and trends of fiction that we can see from outside the comic. Batman, as a character, doesn't have to eliminate suspects that haven't appeared in the first 49 issues (in fact, that's why he bothered to go after Ra's, who did not appear previously), nor does Batman know he's in a comic book series that only has two issues left to go.

I had one more piece that ran somewhere that wasn't here this week. Las Vegas Weekly is trying something a little new in their comics coverage, so instead of a review of the sort I've been doing, here's a preview of four upcoming, interesting-looking comics: Big Hard Sex Criminals, Archie Vs. Predator #1, Groo Vs. Conan and Supermutant Magic Academy.

Oh, and as long as I'm linking to things, here's a story I would have written, if Juliet Kahn didn't beat me to it (these kids today with their devices, reading digital-first stories digitally before we old men can read them on paper!): How James Tynion IV and Noelle Stevenson's "Wonder World" story from this week's (paper version) of Sensation Comics is the best thing ever (It is!). Sadly, the best panel—Wonder Woman eating ice cream—was not in the article, probably for the same reason I couldn't stick it in my post Wednesday night, it was irregularly-shaped. But that may just be the best, most iconic image of Wonder Woman ever. I hope DC commissions a poster, statue and action figure of Noelle Stevenson's Wonder Woman Eating Ice Cream.

Comic Shop Comics: March 11-18

Please note: There are two covers. I got this one.

Batgirl #40 (DC Comics) This is the concluding issue of the first story arc of the new direction of Batgirl by Cameron Stewart, Babs Tarr and Brenden Fletcher, although it's well worth noting that each of the six issues that make up the arc have stood fairly well on their own as complete stories, with plotlines running through each (in that regard, it was somewhat like a TV show, much more so than a written-for-the-trade comic book arc). The cliffhanger ending of the previous issue was the revelation of who Batgirl's villain is, the character claiming to be the real Batgirl/Barbara Gordon, and here we learn the exact origins of that particular villain.

I'm not sure to what extent co-writers Stewart and Fletcher might have intended their arc to read as a sort of rebuttal to the previous, thirty-odd issues by Gail Simone—with their dark, ugly, angry and violent tone—but this sure seems to underline a major difference between their Batgirl and who she was (And to be fair to Simone, a large part of her portrayal of Batgirl was likely editorially mandated, as I'm sure she didn't decide all by herself that The Killing Joke was going to be the only post-Crisis story to remain in continuity).

So in this issue, Batgirl battles herself—rather literally—in order to save Burnside and all of the supporting characters we've been introduced to over the course of the last few issues.

Also, Batgirl and Black Canary totally make up just as the latter announces she's off to star in her own series (I honestly teared up a bit when they hugged in the second-to-last panel*) and, while I'm not 100% sure, I think the New 52 Oracle gets introduced in this issue, although "she" is facing away from the reader, for the sake of suspense.

By the way, among all of the trivial bullshit various comics professionals have been arguing about online in the past week that I half paid attention to, I could have sworn someone very talented, hard-working and professional pointed to Batgirl as an example of people wanting all the superheroines to "cover up."

Reading this, I wonder if that pro even reads Batgirl (a title whose title character who was never really un-covered, and went from wearing a goofy suit of Hollywood superhero movie battle armor to this more realistic, cosplayable homemade costume). Because not only is the book full of beautifully drawn beautiful people—like a CW drama, the cast of Batgirl seems to very between sexy and drop dead gorgeous—but I can't recall ever seeing Black Canary wearing less clothes than she did in this issue.

Of course, that's what she was wearing to perform in a rock show, not fight crime in.

I was a little taken aback by this, the first page in a four-page house ad for DC's upcoming, two-month Convergence event, which appeared in all of the DC books I got that were released this week:

DC and Marvel quite often seem to parallel one another in eerie ways—both Convergence and Secret Wars sound remarkably similar in an abstract synopsis—but I found the working on this page weird, as that is exactly the conflict of Jonathan Hickman's New Avengers run, which has been leading up to Secret Wars since it launched a few years ago.

Batgirl: Endgame #1 (DC) Jeez Babs, such language!

First off, I'm glad that DC decided to go this route for their tie-ins to the current Batman story arc, rather than having it intrude on the regular titles as they previously did with "Death of The Family" and "Zero Year," as those ended up interrupting the other books in sometimes weird ways, and lead to some weir collections. Also, while I'm reading Batgirl monthly, I'm reading Batman in trade, so it will be a few months before I get to the "Endgame" story arc, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to follow along.

I was actually planning to skip this book, assuming it would be collecting with all the other tie-ins in an eventual Endgame trade, but then I noticed that the regular writing team was still writing (Cameron Stewart does not provide breakdowns, however), and while it's missing Babs Tarr's art, maybe the chief pleasure of Batgirl, the art inside was so gorgeous I didn't want to not read it.

That's provided by Bengal, of whom I know nothing. Is Bengal a man, woman, or tiger...? I don't know. But Bengal's art is, as I said, gorgeous.

The biggest difference between this book and the regular issues of Batgirl, however, is that while each of the current creative team's issues on the monthly have been very full, very satisfying reads, this took about three to five minutes to read, and that's with occasional pauses to drink in Bengal's expressions or laugh at Babs having a Batsmiley emoticon on her Batphone.

That's mostly because this is a silent issue.

Now, I have no idea what's going on in "Endgame," although it appears to involve The Joker jokerizing the Justice League and the populace of Gotham City, as he did in Joker's Last Laugh. Here it appears that the Joker venom turns people into rictus-grinned zombies (had they different expressions, this wold just read like a zombie comic), and they appear to be attracted to sound, like the zombies in World War Z (the movie; I didn't read the book).

That would explain why this is a silent issue.

As for the plot, it's so tangental to "Endgame" that one need not have any idea what's going on in it; "The Joker has jokerized people" is the takeaway as it applies to this book, and it's apparent from what's in the issue itself. Batgirl is helping to evacuate the non-Jokerized, and she saves a little girl from the Joker zombies, through a combination of punching, kicking, coaching, bus-crashing and hang-gliding.

Beautiful art, lots of action, a few funny moments—it's worth reading, but man, I was acutely aware of how goddam expensive comic books are these days while I did so.

Batman Eternal #49 (DC) Okay guys, quit screwing around. There are only three more issues to go in this series. That's sixty pages. That is not very much time to reveal the identity of your mystery villain (It's not Cluemaster is it? Is that why he gets a scene in this issue? No, that wouldn't make sense...), have a climactic battle and then work on some sort of denouement in which various characters have their new status quos revealed (and so much has changed in this issue, it's actually going to take some pages to reveal things like how many Pennyworths will be leaving in the Batcave, where Bruce Wayne will live, where the criminally insane will be incarcerated, what Jim Gordon's next job will be, etc).

This issue has another great cover by Cliff Chiang, and interior art that's less so—but not bad at all—by Fernando Blanco. At least Chiang has the advantage of being a little more symbolic on his cover than Blanco had to be in his interiors. In the scene depicted on the cover, Bane is actually wearing a giant suit of robot armor, and Baman appears to be about to ram him with a fighter jet, despite the fact that he's on a crowded city street (I'm pretty confused about what's going on with Bane in general here; he put on a giant robot suit of armor to fight in a cage match for the entertainment of the patrons of a dive bar in Gotham? And then he fought The Red Hood for a few issues? And here he just sort of wanders away from Red Hood? Maybe it's not Bane, but a Bane mask on a robot; he barely even talks, let alone gloat and speechify like Bane, after all).

So in this issue, scripted by Kyle Higgins from Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV's plot, Jim Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth both get to beat the hell out of major Batman villains, the sidekicks all have their equipment restored so they can continue their fights with the various "leveled up" Arkham escapees, Cluemaster has an exchange with Spoiler which seems to indicate they both know who the real villain is, and, as previously mentioned, Batman flies a jet at Bane.

The series has grown rather frustrating for me, but in a good way, I suppose, as I'm frustrated by not knowing the solution to the mystery. I just hope it's not who I suspect it is, and that it turns out that Snyder and the rest of the writing team have been playing fair with us all along. And that the resolution and denouement of this gigantic story arc turns out to be a satisfying one, whether it occurs in this title or elsewhere.

Batman Eternal #50 (DC) Hooray, the ultimate villain of the piece is finally revealed and it's not who I feared it would be. In fact, series plotters Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV ended up playing fair: It was a character who appeared early in the series, and was checked in on throughout the series, and never explicitly eliminated as a suspect (There's no scene where he flat out tells Batman it's not him, or shows an invitation from another villain indicating that he was just one more player in this grand Take Down Batman scheme). I think there was a bit where they cheated early on in the series that rather ruins the reveal here, but I don't want to discuss that here—hell, the guy on the last page of this issue who is claiming responsibility may not actually be responsible, but I rather expect it's him, as there are only two more issues left to go.

All in all though, I like the villain used for several reasons...one of them being that it's a villain I've never, ever been the least bit interested in (So you know it's not The Scarecrow then, right?) and another what a surprise it is that it's him.

So once again we have a pretty incredible Cliff Chiang cover, of the sort that really makes one wish he was drawing interiors for this or another Batman series. I especially like how his Tim Drake looks like a teenager and his Batgirl looks young, but significantly older (and taller!) than Tim. Chiang also does a nice job of drawing them all banged-up pretty badly, but still making it clear that this is not a group you want to fuck with, no matter how many pints of blood they might be down. Batgirl still looks tough and determined, like she's getting her second wind; Batman looks like he's about to rip someone in half. Also, the color scheme—Chiang seems to have colored this himself—mutes the more garish, lame-ish aspects of Red Robin and Red Hood's costumes, while highlighting the characters' wounds.

Really a great, great cover. Unlike the other DC weekly I'm reading, Batman Eternal hasn't had a single cover artist throughout its run. While Ryan Sook's constant presence on the covers of Futures End have really allowed him to essentially tell the story of the book in 50-some images, Batman Eternal's covers vary in style and quality as often as the interiors do. After the last few weeks though, I kind I find myself wondering what the book might have looked like if every issue had a Chiang cover on it.

This issue opens with Batman having just crashed a fighter jet into Battle Armor Bane (yes, that's insane, and kind of dumb), and then Batman goes from sidekick to sidekick, helping them win their fights with their respective mini-bosses, before ascending to the rooftop where the first page of Batman Eternal #1 was set and meeting the mastermind of the whole plot.

Like I said, it's an interesting reveal, and it's more-or-less fair, which was something I was really starting to worry about, as so many clues pointed to it being a character that hadn't appeared in the series at all.

Alvaro Martinez pencils and Raul Fernandez inks this issue. It's a fine-looking book; not the best in the series by any stretch of the imagination, but not one of the worst ones either.

Frankenstein Underground #1 (Dark Horse Comics) The letters page of this comic opens with editor Scott Allie writing, "First of all, to anyone who picked this up because Mike Mignola doing Frankenstein was too good to pass up..."

Hey, that's me!

I did pick this up specifically because I thought it was Mignola doing Frankenstein—and it is—and because I assumed it was divorced from the "Mignola-verse" stuff, as it didn't have "Hellboy" or "BPRD" in the title or on the cover. When I picked it up to read it and saw the tiny "From the pages of Hellboy" atop the cover, I sighed. I haven't kept up with Hellboy at all. I started it in trade many, many years ago, but it just got so big that I've never had the time or sense of direction to sit down and read it all. I will someday, I'm sure.

Luckily, as Allie went on to explain, Mignola's Frankenstein and a few of the other characters in this issue did appear in previous titles, but having read those titles is not terribly important—certainly I didn't feel all that confused while reading the issue, even when Hellboy and Frankenstein's monster appeared in a Mexican wrestling ring together in a flashback—and what little history one needs to know is in the book itself.

Mignola restricts his drawing to the cover, which is really too bad, as I think his art style is a perfect match for this character, particularly the square-headed, movie version, which seems to have informed the design a bit. He writes, with Ben Stenbeck providing the interior art and Dave Stewart coloring. I liked Stewart's art quite a bit, it's got a touch of the Mignola-esque about it, particularly when drawing monsters and totems and creepy people, but is otherwise a bit rounder, softer, fuller...more realistic, I guess.

It's the mid-1950s, and the monster stumbles upon a witch in a temple in the jungle. He recounts his life story to her, in a series of panels that show the troubles he's endured over the century and a half of life he's had since his creation, while a guy who looks like George Washington watches him in a magic mirror, and sends one of his several strange minions after Frankenstein, intent on adding him to his collection.

It's really too bad that I read most of the Dark Horse comics I read in trade format, because their serially published comics are a pretty great package. It's 22-pages of ad-free comics, a four-page preview of an upcoming Mignola book, and a two-page letters page—for $3.50, a nice compromise price between DC's standard $2.99 and Marvel's standard $3.99, but with more content presented in a more reader-friendly way.

As for the title, it looks like it may be quite literal, as this issue ends with Frankenstein plunging into darkness when the temple he's in collapses on him. I'm hoping he lands in Wonderland, but only because Frankenstein's Adventures In Wonderland would be awesome. Not that this is shaping up to be the least bit shabby or anything. I just want to see Frankenstein flip the table at the Mad Tea Party and go "HHRRNNNGH!" to all the wordplay the Wonderlanders through at Alice, I guess is what I'm saying.

Lumberjanes #12 (Boom Studios) This appears to be the end of the Noelle Srtevenson and Shannon Watters-written, Carolyn Nowak-drawn story in which Mal, Molly and Bear Woman go to the land of dinosaurs to recover the lost reading glasses of "B-Dubs," while the remaining 'janes try and fail to earn easy merit badges.

This comics has dinosaurs fighting dinosaurs in it, and is therefore worth your time.

The New 52: Futures End #45 (DC) Hmm, I wonder if this would have been a more satisfying read if, instead of actually published 53 issues of a 20-page comic on a weekly basis, they just put out a single, oversized 53-page comic featuring nothing but Ryan Sook's covers, and let readers just imagine what was happening between those static images? The covers are often very nice, after all, and each tell a bit of a story, at least in that they suggest major events.

This one maybe a little les so, although it does check in with four different groups of characters—five, if you separate Superman from Captain Marvel Shazam, Firestorm and Dr. Polaris—at least suggesting what they might be facing or dealing with, in terms of tone or mood if not specifics.

This week's issue is drawn by Stephen Thompson, Jack Herbert and Vicente Cifuentes, and the story they're tasked with drawing seems to be one that's entered the tying-up of loose ends phase. Unlike Batman Eternal, there's no mystery mastermind to puzzle out here, as the main villain was revealed at the beginning of the story and the series has been all about stopping him/it from coming to power, and what's next for the characters and plot lines started here is pretty apparent: It will continue, or at least lead in to, Convergence.

Frankenstein dies in Amethyst's arms, giving her new resolve. Superman, Shazam and Firestorm do some clean-up in New York City, with assistance from Dr. Polaris...until he escapes. The book reminds us that King Faraday, Sgt. Rock and some dumb lady superheroes that filled up page-space earlier in the series still exist. And Mr. Terrific, The Atom, the Batmen and friends realize that as bad as Brainiac might have been, Brother Eye is going to be whole other problem. The book ends with Brother Eye turning the corpses of all those dead SHIELD agents into cyborg zombies, which, you'll recall from the nightmare future of the #0 issue, is what he did with all the dead superheroes in 2044.

The New 52: Futures End #46 (DC) Skynet Brother Eye is online, cyborg murder-bot zombies are shambling around and it looks like Terry McGinnis has failed to prevent the nightmare future he traveled back to the year 2019 to stop. But he's got a plan! Send someone else back to the right time, that is, the present, in order to stop all of this from happening. He does this by giving his time belt to Batman 2019, Mister Terrific and The Atom, telling the super-geniuses, "Hey, I've got a time-travel device. Fix it and save the future." Why didn't he do this in, I don't know, issue #5? Because this is a year-long weekly series.

He also totally dies this issue (That's not a spoiler is it? It's on the cover). But I wouldn't worry too much, as another Batman is going to go back in time to fix all this crap—and I assume that will explain how this ties into Earth 2: World's End and Convergence—and he's got a new monthly book coming up in June.

Scot Eaton penciled and Scott Hanna inked this issue, which also seems to provide a happy ending of sorts for Grifter, Earth-2 Lana Lang and Fifty Sue, who end up having pretty much nothing at all to do with the overarching story arc, aside from being among the earlier characters to run afoul of Brother Eye. So what exactly was the point of the whole Grifter/Cadmus/Fifty Sue storyline? Oh right; year-long weekly series.

Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #8 (DC) The biggest disappointment about this issue is the cover. It's a really nice cover by Jae Lee, of course, but, well, it promises the Silver Age Justice League—look, there's J'onn J'onnz in his original costume and with his regular head and everything!—but they're just on the cover for, um, some reason. Wonder Woman is the only character on the cover who actually appears insdie the book.

I really like Wonder Woman's expression on that cover. I imagine the heroes are all supposed to be looking up at...something, bt Wonder Woman looks like she's regarding the logo of her book, and not feeling particularly enthused about it.

This $3.99 issue has two stories in it, the first of which is one of the better I've read in this anthology series. It's written by James Tynion IV, who is not a guy I would have expected had a really great, really funny Wonder Woman story in him based on his previously published work, and drawn by Noelle Stevenson, who I would have expected to have a really great, really funny Wonder Woman story in her, based on her previously published work.

In their story, "Wonder World," a 15-year-old Diana visit Man's World and discovers a few of its joys, like ice cream, friendship, rollerskating, ice cream, video games and ice cream. It's great stuff, and oh how I wish it wasn't just a single story in the Wonder Woman anthology book, but the first issue of a new Wonder Girl series by Tynion and Stevenson.

That's followed by writer Heather Nuhfer and artist Ryan Benjamin's much more conventional story, in which Wonder Woman does more typical superhero stuff: Punches meteors, fights robots, discovers and thwarts corporate sabotage by Lex Luthor. It's basically a Superman story with Wonder Woman playing the part of Superman. Benjamin's art is art is incredibly dynamic, but sacrifices clarity in a few key moments.

SpongeBob Comics #42 (United Plankton Pictures) The latest issue of this criminally under-appreciated series—Criminally, I say! People should go to jail and do hard time for not appreciating this comic sufficiently!—is a "special interactive issue," and I'll be damned if every single story in the thing doesn't have some clever interactive component, from the cover, to the inside front cover, to the eight stories within to the fold-in back cover. There are search and finds, "spot the differences," finish-drawing-the-images, a mixed-up strip you an cut-out and paste together, a choose-your-own-adventure strip (or two), and so on. Al Jaffe (!), Graham Annable, James Kochalka, Jason Shiga, Dave Roman, Michael T. Gilbert and Travis Nichols, and Jacob Chabot are among the cartoonists who contributed to this issue, which, in addition to being of high quality, is simply impressive for he quantity and variety of its different takes on interactivity.



*Last night I read Kinoko Inu - Mushroom Pup Vol. 1, and I was sobbing at the end of the last chapter, when Mushroom Pup gives Hotaru his message. That is one great comic.

DC's June previews reviewed

June looks like it's going to be a big month for DC Comics...maybe their biggest since September 2011, when they launched the New 52 branding and its accompanying rebooted and redesigned version of the DCU. The publisher is launching a ton of new series, which are remarkably diverse in artistic style, apparent tone and audience.

They've got books rated "E for Everyone" apparently set in the DCU, they've got new work from the creators of books like Batgirl and Harley Quinn on books that seem to be shooting for something similar, they've got work by creators brand-new to the publisher, they've got work by people I've never heard of.

I hate to judge the month too prematurely, but, at this point at least, June 2015 sure looks like what September 2011 should have looked like, if the publisher was sincere about wanting to reach a new and wider audience.

For the complete solicitations, you can visit Comic Book Resources by clicking here; for my discussion of DC's plans for June of this year, you can read on.

Spoiler warning: The Joker variant of Batgirl #41 isn't discussed, although I might have alluded to it once in passing...

Those are the cover's for June's issue of Action Comics, the official one by artist Aaron Kuder and the Joker variant by Darwyn Cooke.

The former shows off what appears to be a new "costume" for Superman, although it really just looks like he got a slightly tighter t shirt with a slightly differently colored S-shield and lost the cape he was wearing in The New 52 "Year One" era. I don't really like it much; I think "red cape" is maybe the baseline requirement for a Superman costume, but then, I'm sure it will be as temporarily as his cape-less "electric" phase was. And hell, after over three years of seeing his high-collared, Kryptonian-armor costume, I'm pretty used to Superman not looking all that much like Superman in modern DC comics, you know?

I'm actually more intrigued by his haircut—no spit-curl?—and his bloodied, bandaged hands. If you look close, you'll see some...stuff coming from his fists. Are those drops of blood, or did he tape broken glass to his fists, for increased bad-ass-itude...?

Only time will tell.

As for the Cooke Joker variant, I just wanted to point it out as being one of the better Joker variants, saying a little something about both characters (Superman's invulnerable, The Joker's the kind of villain who will shoot Superman in the face with acid anyway, and then shrug, smile and accept his medicine) in addition to being a really nice drawing. Cooke tweaks a pretty classic Joker outfit to look modern and stylish, and his Superman looks so damn Superman, particularly among all the other Supermen appearing on covers this month.

Behold Walter Simonson's Joker variant cover for Aquaman! Those sharks are fantastic, but I feel weird about the giant Aquaman head in the background...I think I would have preferred a full figure drawing scaled to the sharks.

AQUAMAN: SUB-DIEGO TP
Written by WILL PFEIFER
Art and cover by PATRICK GLEASON and CHRISTIAN ALAMY
On sale JULY 1 • 192 pg, FC, $16.99 US
In these stories from AQUAMAN #15-22, a devastating earthquake hits San Diego, leaving thousands dead. But someone survived the cataclysm...and their survival will require Aquaman to take on a new role that draws upon all his experience as a hero and leader of a nation!"

Here's maybe the biggest head-scratcher of the month, a collection of Will Pfeifer's run on the Aquaman title, from the time in which the publisher was seemingly casting about at random for radical new takes on the character, with almost every new creative team launching their own, highly idiosyncratic idea of what an Aquaman comic could or should be (This period, by the way, started when Peter David's run on the book ended and stopped...I don't know, maybe around the time of Brightest Day? During all that time, the best Aquaman comics appearances were the ones in Justice League books).

In this take, someone sinks a portion of San Diego, transforming a swathe of the population into water-breathers in the process. I remember really liking the art, and finding the story incredibly slowly paced. Perhaps the most noteworthy element was the introduction of the second Aquagirl, who Pfeifer positioned as Aquaman's (sole) sidekick/partner. Like Tempest and Aqualad II, she didn't survive the The New 52-boot.

Also, this was during the time when Aquaman had a left hand made out of magic water.

Here's an Alex Ross painting of a gorilla playing the drums. I wonder how many people will pick up their very first issue of Astro City in June of this year, simply because it has a painting of a gorilla playing the drums on its cover.

BATMAN #41
Written by SCOTT SNYDER
Art by GREG CAPULLO and DANNY MIKI
Cover by GREG CAPULLO
THE JOKER Variant cover by SEAN MURPHY
On sale JUNE 10 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for more information.
The all-new Batman makes his debut! Who is he, and what happens next? Find out here as a new era begins in Gotham City!

You know, I'm fine with Batman...even an "all-new" Batman...being a robot or a person inside a robot suit for a story arc or whatever (As with Superman's new look, I'm willing to bet that this is a very, very temporary change...probably even more temporary than Jean-Paul Valley or Dick Grayson being Batman for a while).

What I don't get is why he has "ears" that don't look the least bit bat-like. This is honestly the least bat-like his bat-ears have ever looked. Whether drawn as the tiny little nubs of the Silver Age, or a the three-foot demon horns of Kelley Jones, they were always at least vaguely bat-shaped. These look more like a rabbit's ears, or perhaps the antennae of a moth, but, lacking wings, the suggestion is more rabbit than moth (Weird too because we've seen so many Bat-bots and robot battle suits for Batmen over the years, and those always had bat-ears).

As for the identity of the new Batman? Well, I'm going to guess...let's see...Julia Pennyworth. But mostly because I'm not sure where she's going to go after Batman Eternal (Provided she's not the villain of the piece, of course). Botman up there appears to be carrying a big gun, so whoever the new Batman is, it must be someone who is okay packing heat, like one of the Pennyworths or Jim Gordon or someone.

BATMAN BEYOND #1
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art and cover by BERNARD CHANG
...
On sale JUNE 3 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
...
At last, Batman Beyond gets his own ongoing series in THE definitive future of the DCU! But this isn’t the Beyond you think you know! With the Justice League missing and without Bruce to guide him, this new Batman will need to explore this bizarre world on his own while fighting to raise humanity from an opponent that’s already won.
The heroes Batman knew have failed, the world he knew has been turned on its head, and every step he takes will lead him either toward finding home – or further down the road of disaster!

Hmmm...

The solicitation indicates that this is not going to be set in the setting of the Batman Beyond animated series or the Batman Beyond comics based on the series DC's been publishing, and yet one half of the cover is dominated by the characters from that universe. It doesn't appear to be set in the nightmare future of New 52: Futures End, either. That series featured Batman "Beyond" Terry McGinnis coming back in time from the Brother Eye-ruled, Terminator-like future to change it for the better...so I suppose he succeeds, and now the future will have a mish-mash of various Jack Kirby created concepts in it?

I don't know. It's written by Dan Jurgens, whose name will be popping up an awful lot this month, who was one of the four writers on Futures End, so I assume this will spin out of that series in some fashion.

I'm curious about how many people are reading Futures End because this particular version of Batman happens to be in it, because once you remove him from the context of the setting and premise of the cartoon, you seem to remove pretty much every aspect of the character other than his costume and name.

BAT-MITE #1
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art and cover by CORIN HOWELL
1:25 Variant cover by CORIN HOWELL
On sale JUNE 3 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 6, $2.99 US • RATED E
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for more information.
Bat-Mite is here to fix the DC Universe – one hero at a time! Convinced that he’s the imp that put Batman on the map, he’s spreading his expertise all over the DC Universe, eager to boost the careers of heroes he thinks need his “help.” Don’t miss the start of this six-issue all-ages miniseries!

Never heard of Corin Howell, which may actually be a good thing, as it means some new blood at DC (there will be a lot of unfamiliar names popping up in this round of solicitations). I'm not crazy about that cover image, which is apparently by Howell, however. His Bat-Mite doesn't look quite...right to me, but maybe that has more to do with my expectations of the character than anything else. I'm certainly excited to give this book a try, especially since I'm rather sympathetic to the title character's goal: "To fix the DC Universe."

I'm a little surprised to see "Written by DAN JURGENS," however, as he's not a writer I associate with Batman, humor or all-ages comics. So let's say I'm somewhere between cautiously optimistic and hopefully anxious.

BIZARRO #1
Written by HEATH CORSON
Art and cover by GUSTAVO DUARTE
1:25 Variant cover by KYLE BAKER
On sale JUNE 3 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 6, $2.99 US • RATED E
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for more information.
“Hate HARLEY QUINN? Then you will super hate BIZARRO! Bizarro star of worstest comic ever! Go ahead and miss it! If there’s one thing this issue not have it these two things: Jimmy Olsen and Chupacabras!” Don’t miss the start of this six-issue all-ages miniseries!

Bat-Mite and Bizarro both getting their own miniseries? In the same month? I'm only in the B's, and so far I'm 1,000 times more excited about June of 2015 than I was about September of 2011...

I'm not familiar with the work of Corson or Duarte, which is a good sign, even if it does mean that there's a chance they will be terrible and I will hate the book...

Of course, it's Bizarro, so unless they're doing the murderous caveman version that appeared in Geoff Johns, Richard Donner and Adam Kubert's short-lived run, it's kind of hard to make a Bizarro comic no fun. The words "Jimmy Olsen" and "Chupacabras" certainly presage some degree of fun.

BLACK CANARY #1
Written by BRENDEN FLETCHER
Art and cover by ANNIE WU
1:25 Variant cover by BABS TARR
On sale JUNE 17 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details.
Dinah Lance hits the road! After years as a soldier and vigilante, the LAST place Dinah saw herself is on stage…but she’s quickly learning she’d die to protect the gang of misfits she’s fallen into. And she just might have to – for some reason, the newly rechristened band Black Canary seems to be a magnet for trouble…and Dinah’s not gonna believe it when she finds out the reason why! Martial arts, super-spies, and rock ‘n’ roll combine, from Brenden Fletcher (BATGIRL) and Annie Wu (Hawkeye)!

That is honestly, swear to God, the most exciting image I've ever seen of Black Canary. The premise of the series sounds pretty unusual for the character, but it's no more insane than having her be a member of Team 7 with Grifter and whoever, and at least it's insane in a more fun and interesting way. I'm glad they changed the name of the band too, as the band had a pretty terrible name. I hope they share a bill with Boojum at some point.

That's an extremely promising creative team, too.

I suppose the silver lining of She-Hulk's cancellation is that it frees up that book's cover artist Kevin Wada to do another cover on a monthly basis, like his kick-ass regular cover for Catwoman.

The Joker variant, is coincidentally (?) by She-Hulk interior artist Javier Pulido. It strikes me—but not as hard as it strikes The Joker! (Because he's getting punched on the cover, see)—as on of the better ones seen among those in CBR's solicitations.

CONSTANTINE: THE HELLBLAZER #1
Written by MING DOYLE
Art and cover by RILEY ROSSMO
...
On sale JUNE 10 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for more information.
The dark adventures of DC’s foremost occult detective continue in an all-new series as he investigates the cruelest case he’s ever come across – his own dark history!

I imagine DC was pretty surprised by how poorly John Constantine and Swamp Thing's titles sold when they imported the characters back into the DC Universe proper. I wonder if it would have helped if their introduction didn't happen in such a disorganized fashion, with the pair appearing at the conclusion of Brightest Day and then getting their own pre-Flashpoint miniseries—was it The Search for Swamp Thing, or something like that?—before The New 52 happened, and they got re-re-introduced.

Personally, I think I'd give the character a rest as a solo star after the crashing and burning of his previous solo title, but then, he does have a TV show now, so maybe DC feels he has to have an ongoing.

Will this be any better than the last go round? Eh, can't be any worse.

Just out of curiosity, is Ming Doyle the first woman to write the John Constantine ongoing, be it Hellblazer or Constantine? It seems like everyone wrote Hellblazer at one point or another, but I can't think of any women who have done so. Perhaps just because I have a bad memory, though.

DOOMED #1
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL
Art and cover by JAVIER FERNANDEZ
...
On sale JUNE 17 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details.
In this startling new series, a Metropolis U student gains the power to transform into the monstrously powerful Doomsday! The power may be the key to fixing his life, but every time he transforms he risks getting stuck forever as Superman’s most heinous adversary! How far can he go before he’s doomed?

Look out! It's a Scott Lobdell book!

This is...well, it's an idea, anyway. I don't want to tell DC how to sell comics or anything, but wouldn't it be better if when the Metropolis U student transforms into Doomsday, he look like Doomsday? I think that might be a strong selling point in your Doomsday comic.

DR. FATE #1
Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art and cover by SONNY LIEW
1:25 Variant cover by IBRAHIM MOUSTAFA
On sale JUNE 17 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for more information.
You thought global warming was bad? Anubis, the Egyptian Lord of Dead, is preparing the flood to wash the world away. Standing in his way? An overwhelmed Brooklyn med student who’s been handed the helmet of Fate, without an instruction manual.

That's weird. For a second I thought that said the art was by Sonny Liew, but that couldn't possibly be—Wait, it soes say Sonny Liew! Holy ish, Sonny Liew is drawing a monthly DC superhero comic? I could take or leage Levitz (okay, leave), but Liew's art is enough to make me want to try this book out.

Given that this appears to be a new Dr. Fate from the last new Dr. Fate, introduced just like three years or so ago in the pages of Earth 2, I'm assuming that the helm of Fate ended up on Earth-0 at some point, or there are helms on both Earth-0 and Earth-2 (and a couple of other Earths as well, like Earth-20).

Yeesh, and I thought the costumes in Earth 2 were bad...it looks like those in Earth 2: Society will be worse still. That may just be the worst Batman costume I've ever seen anywhere. Wait, there have been a lot of Batman costumes over the years, let me think...

...

...

Nope. I can't think of a worse one than that.

GOTHAM BY MIDNIGHT #6
Written by RAY FAWKES
Art by JUAN FERRERYA
Cover by BILL SIENKIEWICZ
THE JOKER Variant cover by JOHN VAN FLEET
On sale JUNE 24 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details.
The Midnight Shift is in danger from both its members and the rest of the GCPD! In a deadly new Gotham City, does the paranormal really still pose a threat? As the task force struggles to rebuild after their tragic loss, their only weapon against the supernatural and Internal Affairs both might be in the form of attorney Kate Spencer. Ray Fawkes and new series artist Juan Ferreyra are ready to take Jim Corrigan and his motley crew on the adventure of their lives – or afterlives!

I'm surprised they've replaced Ben Templesmith with pretty much anyone on this book, given that his art provided the entire visual identity of the book, and was probably the most noteworthy aspect of it (Otherwise, it's pretty much just a Gotham Cental with a tiny cast and a focus on the supernatural instead of the supervillainous).

Perhaps they'll change artists ever arc or so, though. If the book were to take on a rotating staff of artists whose styles are as atmospheric strange as Templesmiths--Sam Kieth, Kelley Jones, Ashley Wood, Scott Hampton--then maybe that would establish a new visual identity for the book.

Otherwise, I get the feeling this book may not be too long for this world, which is kind of a pity, as it's an interesting angle for a Batman/Gotham book (I enjoyed the first three issues, but not so much that I felt compelled to keep buying and reading them as they came out, for what it's worth).

Bill Sienkiewicz's Joker variant for Green Arrow is another nice one, albeit in a very, very different style from Cooke's and Pulido's.

Wow. That's Eduardo Risso's Joker variant for Harley Quinn. I can't recally seeing Harley look better since her New 52-boot makeover. I see Risso's super-art so infrequently that I tend to forget how incredible he is at drawing these out-sized colorful characters.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1
Written by BRYAN HITCH
Art by BRYAN HITCH and WADE VON GRAWBADGER
Cover by BRYAN HITCH
THE JOKER variant cover by HOWARD PORTER
AQUAMAN variant cover by BRYAN HITCH
BATMAN variant cover by BRYAN HITCH
CYBORG variant cover by BRYAN HITCH
THE FLASH variant cover by BRYAN HITCH
GREEN LANTERN variant cover by BRYAN HITCH
SUPERMAN variant cover by BRYAN HITCH
WONDER WOMAN variant cover by BRYAN HITCH
1:100 seven-panel foldout cover by BRYAN HITCH
On sale JUNE 3 • 56 pg, FC, $5.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with ten covers. Please see the order form for more information.

It’s massive widescreen JUSTICE LEAGUE action and adventure from superstar writer/artist Bryan Hitch! In this extra-sized debut issue, the League comes up against an armada of aliens heading for Earth that claims to be a peaceful religious tribe. But something sinister is lurking in their ranks...something with ties to ancient Krypton!

This amazing kick-off issue is available with seven different open-to-order variant covers by Bryan Hitch, each spotlighting one of seven core members of the JLA, plus an incredible 1:100 seven-panel foldout variant cover that presents all seven open-to-order covers together!

The variant schemes and the high price-tag should help make this book a hit...for the first issue at least. Bryan Hitch had an opportunity to draw the Justice League before, when he and Mark Waid launched their highly-anticipated run on JLA following Grant Morrison, Howard Porter and John Dell's run, with the pretty damn good, oversized graphic novel JLA: Heaven's Ladder...Hitch never actually completed another story arc after the original graphic novel, however. Instead, he provided covers and started a bunch of the Waid-written arcs, but fill-in artists were always needed to finish them.

I can't imagine that writing in addition to drawing the book will somehow improve his timeliness and efficiency, but who knows, maybe he started drawing this in 2011 and already has eight issues in the can.

This book should be interesting for several reasons, including the fact that secondary Justice League titles usually star different teams, not the same line-up as the primary Justice League title (although do note that this is the New 52's Big Seven, and newer additions to the League like Captain Marvel Shazam and Lex Luthor are absent), and, of course, to see how Hitch writes.

The regular Hitch cover's pretty generic, really, but the Howard Porter Joker variant is interesting. Many of the characters just look like their regular old selves, with only little hints of their New 52 duds (The cut of Superman's cuffs, for example, or the ribbing on the red part of Wonder Woman's outfit). The one exception of Batman, who looks...really, really wrong. I think this is the first time I've seen a drawing of Batman in which his bat-ears look absolutely nothing at all like bat-ears.

MARTIAN MANHUNTER #1
Written by ROB WILLIAMS
Art and cover by EDDY BARROWS and EBER FERREIRA
1:25 Variant cover by GABRIEL HARDMAN
On sale JUNE 17 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for more information.
Shape-shifting Martians are invading Earth – so where is J’onn J’onzz to stop them? Trust no one as the Martian Manhunter tries to stop these ruthless alien terrorists from destroying everything!

While I love Martian Manhunter, there are few better examples of characters mangled beyond recognition by The New 52-boot. Once you divorce Martian Manhunter from Justice League history, none of which ever existed, he becomes little more than a set of powers and a particular costume and design, and even these have been fluid.

I know nothing at all about the character any more, and haven't seen a thing in any of the comics I've read featuring him to make me like, care or even be mildly curious about him. This looks like it could be a good candidate for the first of the June series to be cancelled, but then, it will have some serious competition (Doomed, Earth 2: Society, Midnighter, Omega Men, Red Hood/Arsenal).

MIDNIGHTER #1
Written by STEVE ORLANDO
Art and cover by ACO
1:25 Variant cover by BRYAN HITCH
On sale JUNE 3 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for more information.
Spinning out of GRAYSON comes a solo series starring the man who can predict your every move… but no one will be able to predict what he’ll do next! A theft at the God Garden has unleashed a wave of dangerous biotech weapons on the world, and Midnighter intends to put that genie back in the bottle by any means necessary. But something else was stolen from the Garden as well…the secret history of Lucas Trent, the man Midnighter once was

DC previously tried a Midnighter solo series written by Garth Ennis and spinning out of The Authority, and that didn't last too long...I can't imagine the future will be any brighter for one written by Steve Orlando and spinning out of Grayson, but I guess we'll see. On paper, a gay Batman with Deathstroke's powers should be a pretty easy sell.

PREZ #1
Written by MARK RUSSELL
Art and cover by BEN CALDWELL
...
On sale JUNE 17 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 12, $2.99 US • RATED T
...
Meet Beth Ross, the first teenaged President of the United States. In a nation where corporations can run for office, the poor are used as human billboards, and tacos are delivered by drone, our only hope is this nineteen-year-old Twitter sensation. But the real question isn’t whether she’s ready for politics – it’s whether politics is ready for her. Don’t miss the start of this new, 12-issue miniseries!

Okay, I know that the single most important trait of this particular character is that the character needs to be a teenager, rather than a male or a female, but I can't help it—Prez being a girl instead of a boy just feels wrong to me.

I mean, I'll still read the comic and all—it's got Ben Caldwell art, after all—but changing the gender of the character seems to be a pretty big change. Not that Prez is that popular a character or anything. In fact, I bet he's best-known for appearing in an issue of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman...of course, that also means that there are probably thousands of people out there who have heard of Prez but have never heard of any of Legion of Superh-Heroes. Weird.

RED HOOD/ARSENAL #1
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL
Art by DENIS MEDRI
Cover by HOWARD PORTER
...
On sale JUNE 10 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
...
These brothers in arms face off against incredible odds while burning their way through the underbelly of the DC Universe – and it’s only a matter of time until they get gunned down in return!

So the Scott Lobdell-written book Red Hood and The Outlaws has been selling particularly poorly of late. So DC is going to relaunch it as the Scott Lobdell-written Red Hood/Arsenal, excising 1/3 of the cast? Not sure how that helps do anything but stave off cancellation by a few months, but I don't know, maybe there are enough Arrow super-fans out there that they will see the "Arsenal" in the title and try a copy...?

ROBIN: SON OF BATMAN #1
Written by PATRICK GLEASON
Art by PATRICK GLEASON and MICK GRAY
Cover by PATRICK GLEASON
...
On sale JUNE 17 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for more information.
The son of a Bat and a Demon, Damian al Ghul has set out to forge his own destiny – and atone for the shameful Year of Blood! Will he be aided or hindered by the behemoth Goliath? And what mysterious legacy trails behind him? Join writer/artist Patrick Gleason as he chronicles the globe-hopping adventures of ROBIN: SON OF BATMAN!

I think "Robin" would have sufficed as a title, really.

Please note that this is being both written and drawn by Gleason, who was the artist on the Peter Tomasi-written Batman and Robin series.

SECTION 8 #1
Written by GARTH ENNIS
Art by JOHN McCREA
Cover by AMANDA CONNER
1:25 Variant cover by JOHN McCREA
On sale JUNE 10 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 6, $2.99 US • RATED T+
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details.
The greatest super heroes of all time, unseen since the end of the hit series HITMAN, have returned for the greatest super hero story ever told! Befuddled hero Sixpack returns to Gotham City, desperate to rebuild the all-star team known as Section Eight in the face of a deadly threat. He gathers old friends Bueno Excellente, Baytor and the seemingly reborn Dogwelder, along with some new faces – but he still needs that elusive eighth member. And that’s when the Dark Knight Detective gets an offer he can’t refuse in part one of this unforgettable six-issue miniseries.

I may be a little biased here, seeing as how Ennis and McCrea's Hitman is my favorite comic book series of all time—not necessarily the best, mind you, but my favorite—but I couldn't possibly be more excited to see the pair reuniting, and on a Hitman spin-off of sorts, of all things.

Is there a mistake in the solicitation, or is McCrea providing the 1-in-25 variant cover while Amanda Conner draws the regular cover? That seems backwards.

STARFIRE #1
Written by AMANDA CONNER and JIMMY PALMIOTTI
Art by EMANUELA LUPACCHINO
Cover by AMANDA CONNER
...
On sale JUNE 10 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
...
From the writers of the outrageous smash hit HARLEY QUINN comes former Outlaw Starfire in her all-new ongoing series! She’s an alien warrior princess trying to find peace on Earth, and she’ll fight anyone and anything to get it!

Hey, it's the least terrible Starfire costume I've ever seen in a comic book! I've never been terribly interested in the comic book version of the character, although I like the version that appeared on Teen Titans and now on Teen Titans Go!, so I don't know that this is something I'll actually want to read on a monthly basis, but I do confess some curiosity regarding how the Harley Quinn writing team (and the Harley Quinn cover artist) will do with this book starring another fan-favorite DC leading lady. Is it their writing that has turned Harley Quinn into such a hit, or does that character just so happen to have a particular something that when meshed with their approach made it into a hit...?

SUPERMAN #41
Written by GENE LUEN YANG
Art and cover by JOHN ROMITA, JR. and KLAUS JANSON
THE JOKER Variant cover by KARL KERSCHL
On sale JUNE 24 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details.
The epic new storyline “TRUTH” continues with the debut of the amazing new creative team of new writer Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese) and continuing artists John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson! What will happen when the big secret is revealed?

In a month full of surprises, this may be the biggest one (Well, aside from Ennis and McCrea doing a Section 8 series, anyway). Gene Luen Yang's name might not seem that big to many in Direct Market circles (at least, not compared to that of the writer he's replacing, Mr. Geoff Johns), but he's a hell of a get for DC.

Paired with John Romita on art, this is now officially a DC Comics creative team I would never have imagined possible, let alone likely, as recently as a year or two ago.

I have no idea why Yang's run starts with what appears to be a crossover story running through all the Superman books.

Oh and hey, get a lot of that Karl Kerschl Joker variant. Strange how Batgirl got one of the relatively few covers to depict a scary, menacing Joker, while so many of the other books—books that tend to be much darker than the current run on Batgirl—got these light-hearted Joker covers...

These are the covers for June's Superman/Wonder Woman #18. The first one is by Paulo Siqueira, who has either never seen a t shirt before, or was told to draw Superman in the tightest t shirt a grown man has ever worn ever—like you know those tiny t shirts Chris Evans wears in the Captain America movies? One hundred times tighter than those!

He's standing next to Wonder Woma in her new, dumb, hopefully extremely temporary costume, which now includes giant gold wristbands with retractable Azrael-like blades (At least, I think they're retractable).

I know Wonder Woman writer Meredith Finch and artist David Finch don't like, know anything about Wonder Woman, but the bracelets are kind of integral to the character, as is the fact that she weaponizes them into weapons of defense, rather than their being things she can stab people with.

But whatever, there's Sensation Comics to tide fans over until the Finchs' run ends.

The Joker variant for Superman/Wonder Woman, by former Wonder Woman artist Cliff Chiang, is, let's see, one billion times better. Wait, let me check the math on that...yes, it is exactly one billion times better.

Do note that Superman, Wonder Woman and The Joker are all instantly recognizable as Superman, Wonder Woman and The Joker, even with Chiang exaggerating the figures more than he usually does.

Review: Avengers World Vol. 2: Ascension

Avengers World is the apparent tertiary Avengers book of the moment, the one that's not written by Jonathan Hickman and not telling the same interconnected story from different angles that his Avengers and New Avengers are telling, but one that does feature the very, very large line-up of his Avengers team from the pages of Avengers.

Given the ever increasing drama and tension of Hickman's other Avengers books, it's a little difficult to tell where exactly this might fit in to the larger story, but I suppose it helps that it's timeline is extremely compressed (the whole series, so far, seems like it might have taken place between a few of the earlier issues of Avengers) and that it's tone and focus are so different. If Avengers has assembled a massive team to tell massive stories, all tied to a more massive one still, this one is focused on the character that make up that massive team, and giving many of them more of a spotlight than they tend to get in the pages of Avengers.

The premise involves The Avengers' foes Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) causing all sorts of chaos on a global scale, and the Avengers splitting up into smaller squads to deal with the machinations of A.I.M . and other big superhero problems simultaneously.

I had pretty much completely forgotten what exactly was going on in the first volume of the series, as there was much going on, but it ended up being remarkably easy to catch-up, in large part because of the way this second volume is structured. Each of the four issues collected in this volume checks in with one of the squads of Avengers and their big, crazy superhero problem. And then there's a random issue from another series—Avengers #34.1—tacked on at the end, presumably because Marvel didn't know where else to stick it, and thought it might fit better here than in Avengers.

The usually reliable Nick Spencer writes all four issues of Avengers World, while Mighty Avengers writer Al Ewing handles the tacked-on issue of Avengers. Marco Checchetto and Stefano Caselli split duties on the Avengers World issues, alternating back and forth—both are fine artists, with styles that are complimentary enough to fit, and the fact that each issue changes casts, settings and situations further smooths over any potential visual hiccups. As for the "Point One" special, that's penciled by Dale Keown and inked by Norman Lee.

So, what are our heroes up to? Manifold teleports Hyperion, Thor and Captain Marvel to A.I.M. Island, where they try and fail to rescue Smasher, who A.I.M. has somehow taken control over. In the midst of the fighting, Hyperion chats with agents of A.I.M., who brought him to this universe, and flashes back to some conversations with Thor regarding his Savage Land projects: Trying to raise these fast-growing, hyper-evolving zebra skinned people.

Then we move to Madripoor, which is currently sitting on top of the head of a gigantic dragon (this is somewhat at odds with what's going on in Madripoor in the pages of Uncanny X-Men, where it most certainly was not being worn like a hat by a giant dragon). Wolverine, Black Widow and Shang-Chi are all there, but The Falcon gets all the attention this issue, as he takes to the skies and discovers a SHIELD like group with its own, Chinese Version of The Avengers, The Great Ten The Ascendants.

Next issue? Spider-Woman, Hawkeye, Nightmask and Starbrand in a city of the dead beneath Italy, where they encounter a group of European superheroes, lead by The Black Knight (Yes, he's American, but his magic sword is European, as he explains).

And then Sunspot and Cannonball, the team's too-little-seen comedy relief pair, take a daring secret mission into the far-flung future.

Each plot works fine on their own, and each proceeds a bit here, but the book is somewhat oddly disjointed, as there's so little connection between the four sub-plots—at least in this volume—that they read like single issues from four different ongoing series. I imagine that feeling is only magnified if one is reading the series monthly, rather than in trade.

As for the "Point One" issue, it sticks out like a sore thumb, and seems to be here only to fill space—justifying a $16.99 pricetag—or because Marvel had to collect it somewhere, and it seemed less intrusive to attach it to the less tightly-plotted of the books with Hyperion appearing in it.

Because it's just a Hyperion story, and has nothing else to do with the Avengers really. Actually, because Hyperion is nothing more than a Superman stand-in, and few folks bother to do anything different or interesting with the character to differentiate him from his inspiration (is it weird that the modern Superman—who is now getting a haircut, ditching his cape and opting for a T shirt and jeans instead of tights—seems to be distinguishing himself more from Superman than Hyperion is?), it's really just a Superman story.

Hyperion uses his amazing powers to solve a crime. He's tempted to let loose and use his powers to humiliate and hurt a villain, but takes the moral high road, ultimately flying up into space to look down on the Earth he protects. Throughout the story, he flashes back to his origins story here and there, and these are all that really differentiate him from Superman (at least a little) save his color scheme. It's a really weird issue to exist at all, let alone to appear here, but I guess everything really does get collected these days.

Huh.

That's the cover of Detective Comics: Endgame #1, followed by the DVD cover of the film The Purge. I haven't been reading the current Tec arc, or the Batman story arc "Endgame" this special issue ties in to, but from what I understand, Tec is in the process of introducing the new, New 52 version of Anarky.

The character, created by writer Alan Grant and artist Norm Breyfogle, was visually inspired by the lead character in V For Vendetta. I've heard that in this new version, he's passing out copies of his mask around Gotham City, somewhat duplicating real-life usage of V's Guy Fawkes masks by Anonymous and people that appear at pretty much every protest of any kind these days. While I'm uncomfortable with other creators taking characters whose creators are still around in such different directions, that seems like a valid enough update, tracking the character's late 1980s/'90s inspiration into the our own decade to update him accordingly.

"Endgame," meanwhile, has something to do with The Joker Joker-izing people, thus the smile drawn on the mask above...which only serves to make the mask look like that on the cover of The Purge. That horror movie, about a world wherein all crime in legal one night a year, was popular enough to spawn a sequel.

The title of the sequel? The Purge: Anarchy.

Huh.

Review: Howard The Duck #1

There are going to be inherent levels of wrongness involved in any Howard the Duck comic, perhaps even more so than in most other characters with creator vs. company legal issues and hard feelings in their past, on account of those conflicts involving the character being fresher than those of, say, the first generation of Marvel characters.

The level of that wrongness a reader feels will likely depend on the reader, of course. If you were around and reading comics in the 1970s, then you'll be familiar with writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik's introduction of the character, the character's meteoric rise to fame (there's a reason the character was the first one to make the jump from Marvel comic book to silver screen by a a dozen years) and the ensuing clashes over creative control between the late Gerber and Marvel. In fact, you probably lived through parts of it, seeing the results or reading the coverage of it. For you, Marvel Howard The Duck comics likely seem wrongest.

If you've just heard about all of that well after the fact, then new Howard The Duck comics are still going to feel somewhat wrong, but likely less so.

And, of course, if you've never heard of Gerber, Marvel and The Duck's contentious history, and are only familiar with the character for his rather random, weird-ass appearances in oddball Marvel Comics (Marvel Zombies 5, Marvel Zombies Destroy, Fear Itself: Fearsome Four) and his brief after-the-credits cameo in Guardians of The Galaxy, then perfect! Has Marvel got a comic for you! In fact, you may be able to enjoy Howard The Duck #1 completely guilt-free, and without wondering if you should off-set your purchase with a donation to the Hero Initiative or a comics charity of some sort (Sure, go ahead and do so! Never hurts to donate $3.99 to the Hero Initiative).

So Howard the Duck #1 is really a bad news, good news sort of comic book. Yes, it will feel weird and slightly wrong for a lot of readers and potential readers that such a book even exists (Asking if the world needed more Howard The Duck comics, by the way, is a sucker's game; The Big Two are kinda sorta built on continuing to publish comics that the world doesn't really need, but portions of it want).

On the other hand, if a Howard The Duck comic must exist—and given Marvel's business model, it must exist eventually—then you couldn't really ask for a stronger creative team, nor a better comic. And it's nice to see a "created by" credit and that the creators aren't doing anything even approaching a Gerber pastiche. This is, instead, a misanthropic, down-on-his-luck talking duck in an pure comedic version of the Marvel Universe. Like, up to his shoulders in the Marvel Universe. In this issue, the first 20-pages of the series, there are substantial appearances by Spider-Man, Black Cat, Rocket Raccoon, She-Hulk and the supporting cast of her just-canceled series (Shulkie and Howard have offices in the same building).

The comic is the work of writer Chip Zdarsky, probably currently best known as the artist of Image Comics' irreverent Sex Criminals, and artist Joe Quinones, a major talent well-deserving of a high-profile, monthly showcase like this (If not higher-profile, but hey, this is good for now).

Quinones' style is pretty straight, meaning his Spider-Man and She-Hulk look like the ones that would appear in their own comics, his "sets" and "extras" are those of the "real" Marvel Universe, not some warped version of it. That is, Quinones isn't trying to draw "funny." (Did I use too many quote marks in that paragraph? I think I did. Imagine how annoying it would be to actually be talking to me right now, instead of reading this post; I'd be air-quoting, like, constantly.)

That sets up the important clash between appearance and content that powers the book's comedy. The delivery is deadpan, so no matter how over-the-top the gag might be—the training montage, for example, or Howard's "receptionist"—they never feel forced, but just scroll by.

And there are a lot of gags in this book, which is actually a rather dense read—always welcome these days, when Marvel charges $3.99 for 20-pages of ad-filled comics. Character humor, fishduck-out-of-water humor, minor visual gags, snappy dialogue, making fun of Spider-Man*...few panels go by without a joke of some kind, and those that do are usually preceded and followed by one with a joke.

As for the plot, it involves Howard having set up a new business venture. In the past, oh, decade or so he's been a lawyer, a member of the Fifty-State Initiative an an agent of ARMOR (the Alternate Reality Monitoring and Operational Response, created for the Marvel Zombies franchise). Now he's a private investigator, and not a terribly successful one (This issue opens and closes with him in jail cells). He meets a pretty nice human lady who owns a tattoo parlor he makes his unofficial partner, he takes a case retrieving a stolen piece of jewelry from The Black Cat** and he gets collected by an agent of The Collector.

But as to the pressing question regarding a new Howard The Duck series, the answer is, I'm sad to say, yes, yes he still wears pants. You may recall—if you're one of those readers for whom there's a level of wrongness about the book—that Howard originally looked like Donald Duck, only in 1950s businessman's attire instead of a sailor suit.

That was, in fact, the joke from which the character sprung. He was another kind of comic book character wandering into an entirely different kind of a comic, from classic funny animal comics to mainstream horror comics. He looked so much like a Disney duck, however, that his appearance lead to the other controversy involving the character, the end result of which Howard had to wear pants and have his head rearranged, pupil to bill, until he looked less like a cartoon duck and more like a real duck...or at least the movie version of himself.

Those of us who thought that a positive aspect of Disney buying Marvel might be that Howard The Duck could finally take off his pants and assume a form closer to his original, well, those hopes are now rather thoroughly dashed.

This Howard still looks somewhat wrong then—to me, at least—but then I suppose that too has a benefit, further distancing the title from the previous, original run, and thus any aura of pastiche.

Like every other aspect of the book, then, it's wrong done right.



*Spider-Man's a good example of the variety of humor in this comic. When we first meet him, he's playing with an old gadget of his, the one that shoots a sort of Spider-Man's Face-signal from his belt, and cracking jokes, as is a thing that Spider-Man often does. When we see him later, he's breaking down and sobbing about Uncle Ben, when he thinks his own selfishness might have resulted in Howard's death. So, you know, you get normal, funny Spidey and you get Zdarksy taking the piss out of the character, by making fun of his emotional trauma regarding his dead uncle.

**She's first misidentified as "The Cat-Woman" and, oddly enough, her own status quo seems to mirror the recent status quo shift that DC's Catwoman has undergone. While Catwoman set herself up as the boss of Gotham City's organized criminal element, Felicia Hardy is apparently trying to be more of a Kingpin of Crime sort, Spider-Man says, then The Black Cat who flirts with the city's premier superhero and, while technically a thief and villain, still has a heart of gold.