The Week in Reviews

Well now this was certainly a nice week. I thought that the Shade was going to be coming out too, but no such luck. Darn it!

Batgirl #8

You know something? I liked this. Batgirl has been fighting this guy in a mask, who just shot a man for a bottle of wine. That's a tad hardcore! On the other hand, it was REALLY good wine! But as she's fighting, in the sewer no less, she recognizes one of the henchmen as one of the goons who stood there next to the Joker when he shot her. She's stunned and intrigued,and in the melee lets him...go. This confuses Mister Grotesque, the guy in the mask, the one with the taste for the best, and a newly awakened interest in Batgirl.

Barbara does a bit of soul-searching once she gets home. She still can't quite bring herself to forgive her mother for walking out on them, but she at least gets to the point where she feels she can talk to her, and they visit, and her mom says she left because Barbara's little brother was a psychopath, and she feared for their lives if she stayed.

Really? I'm not a huge Bat-Fan, but this is the first that I have heard of this. Is this accepted canon, or a new story?

So...she tracks down Danny the goon, Grotesque shoots him after Danny the goon tried to save Batgirl,and they have a lovely moment together, because it turns out that Danny the goon was the one who called the cops after the Joker left, and that's why she's alive. Or something. Oh, and her evil little brother is now stalking her roomie.

There is a LOT going on in the book this month. I'm not quite sure how this is all going to tie together, but it is interesting to say the least.

Batman & Robin #8

Whew! After the stunning ending to last issue, with Damian killing Nobody, we actually have an issue that has a little bit of downtime in it...a chance for Bruce and Damian to catch their breath, heal a little bit, and perhaps come to a greater understanding of each other. Alfred is on hand, to sew up and bandage their wounds, and to hand out good advice. They even play a little bit of catch with the new Bat Hound.

It is a rather lovely issue, to be frank. I like action as much as the next person, but I also like it when they take a step back and calm things down for just a little while...before jumping right back into the action again. Too much action all of the time, has a tendency to exhaust me as a reader, and I can't imagine that it does much for the protagonists either!

I really am getting to like Damian, the little bugger!

Batwoman #8

Beautiful as usual, although I have to confess to being slightly confused by all that is going on. And there is a LOT that is going on! Chase is riding Kate to get more information, and it turns out that both Kate and Maggie are working the same case, and are actually at odds, and the bad guys just keep escalating things, and there is this girl that ends up helping...and like I said, I'm still trying to keep all the actors straight here. But it certainly is exciting.

And pretty. So so pretty.

Demon Knights #8

Well, they won. Sort've. Vandal Savage is trying to convince them that deserting them was his plan all along, and they aren't really believing him. And Madame Xanadu turns out to be Nimue, which rather surprised me. She ends up telling the story of how she's the girlfriend of both Etrigan and Jason, which turns out to be quite intriguing...although, as Etrigan himself points out...you can't really trust any of them to tell the truth.

And there are multiple Camelots? And Merlin gets a bit of a surprise. Darn it, I like this book.

Green Lantern #8

Normally, I would wait and review this tomorrow, but I am going to be gone all weekend, on my yearly jaunt to the Mohegan Sun Casino for the NETSA Trade Show and Bachannal, so I won't have time.

Anyhoo...

Wow! The Indigo Tribe has captured both Sinestro and Hal, and are trying to convert Sinestro. Indigo was nice to Hal, but still stuck him in a jail cell, something that he's getting a bit tired of at this point. The Indigos have decided that Sinestro really needs to learn some Compassion and begin the induction process...whether he wants to go through it or not. Sinestro being the magnificent bastard that he is, decides that he does NOT want to become compassionate, and does a bang up job of resisting. Too bad that it's just not enough.

Meanwhile, who should show up to talk to Hal, but Black Hand! Hal is a bit surprised to see him of course, and they get to talking, and Black Hand is eager to show that they can access ALL of the various emotions, including Willpower. This is what Hal wants, so he grabs Black Hand by the collar, and shoves his ring into the Green Lantern emblem on Black Hand's forehead...and recites his oath! And it works!

To a degree it works. It isn't a full charge, and it isn't pure willpower and he can't fly and his constructs are a bit iffy, but what the hell...Hal will take what he can get. He decides to get the heck out of Dodge, and tries to find sinestro only to discover that the place is HUGE. He also stumbles upon an enormous statue of none other than Abin Sur, which confuses him a bit. Then the rest of the Indigos show up.

Including Sinestro.

Nok.

Woo! This was great! This shows Hal being resourceful, and determined, and not a jackass. It shows Sinstro being ruthless and desperate and fabulous. It also shows the Indigo tribe as being a little less than the Good Guys. I'm dying to find out more!

Gorgeous art my Doug Mahnke as usual.

Resurrection Man #8

Poor Mitch continues to try and find out who he was. He knows now that he was apparently a real sonuva bitch, and he has some of the pieces of the puzzle, but he can't find out anything about himself by the usual means. In the meantime, a crackerjack detective has been hired to find him, along with a Necromancer, who is NOT a pleasant kind of fellow, but they've actually been hired by two different parties.

Kim Rebecki uses psychometry to find people and she's good at it and she finds Mitch at the library first. The Butcher uses the life force of people to do his thing, and he also shows up at the library. Naturally, Mitch ends up saving her life, and she realizes that he's actually nothing like the jerk that she thought she was tracing, and naturally she tries to help him. And the Butcher is just there to kill him for good.

And then the Suicide Squad shows up. I'm always happy to see Deadshot of course, and this is the exactly the sort of thing that Amanda Waller would be involved in, but I can't help but miss the Six. And Deadshot doesn't have his banging mustache anymore!

Still, very good.

Journey Into Mystery #636

God, I do love this book so much. Loki is my favorite character at Marvel right now. Nightmare has been trying to fashion a crown from the fear left over from the Serpent, and Loki ends up helping him. Or does he? Meanwhile Leah and Daimon Hellstrom are also on Loki's side, trying to save the rest of the children that Nightmare has been harvesting the fear from.

Loki naturally Has A Plan. Loki may be a kid, but he's still Loki, and of course he has a plan. They get all the OTHER Fear Lords together, and naturally they all start bickering over who gets the crown,and they end up fighting over it in perpetuity...or at least for a little while anyway. And the page where the giant Squid Head of the Dweller-In-Darkness gives a recap is simply hilarious.

I wish this book came out every single week.