#now Barry has to spend a MONTH seeing theories of Bruce Wayne actually being the Flash on the front page of every newspaper he reads

[just-your-average-supervillain]

DP x DC: The Rivalry

It's a little-known fact among the Watchtower residents that there is a fierce rivalry going on amongst its members. On one side, the Flash, a core member of the Justice League. On the other, Daniel "Danny" Fenton, Head of Engineering for the Watchtower.

Nobody knows when the rivalry started. Some rumors say that it began when, after hearing the Flash rant about how stupid it is to believe in ghosts, Danny took the effort to reroute all of his outgoing calls to the advice line of the JLD. Others say that after Danny doubled the max speed of one of the jets, Flash took it upon himself to have a joyride in it and then submit a complaint about it being too slow... twelve separate times, each one no more than 24 hours after Danny had finished the last speed improvements.

Ever since, the two have been taking potshots at each other with pranks large and small. Danny arranged a standard maintenance check to change room authorizations... resulting in the Flash being unable to access the kitchens for a week. In return, the Flash spent an entire week replacing every single cup of coffee Danny had with the cheapest, most watered-down decaf he could find - and he swapped out the mugs for Flash-branded ones as well. Danny's modification of the Flash's suit to change colors to randomized sets of the most eye-searingly-bright, clashing colors possible for exactly one second after being exposed to the Speed Force were met with "Kick Me!" signs taped to Danny's back.

But... surely this has gone too far, right? Flash... really can't think of what he can do to top this.

He stares as every single Watchtower engineer zips between tasks using the Speed Force as if it's nothing. It's not a permanent change, thank god, he can see the packs on them that apparently give them the Speed Force, but it's still ridiculous.

You know what, no. He's just... not gonna engage with that. He turns around and leaves the engineering department.

It becomes a lot harder to avoid engagement when, over the course of the day, he has to witness each and every member of the Justice League speed around with a Speed Force pack of their own. Shouldn't Batman and Wonder Woman be above this sort of thing? Why does Superman need to be faster?!

[totesmccoats]

Batman: Lost #1

A 78 year old Bruce Wayne reads his granddaughter a story from his adventures as Batman, the very first story: The Case of the Chemical Syndicate.

Except, this isn’t Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne was sent into prehistory, where he drew a bat on a wall in a cave, inspiring a tribe of followers.

But that’s not Bruce Wayne either. Bruce Wayne is Batman, and he is trapped in the Dark Multiverse, shown visions of the past, future, and alternate dimensions by the dark god Barbatos to break his psyche. Barbatos taunts Batman through these visions, telling of how Batman had summoned him from the Dark Multiverse, and how he had molded Bruce Wayne from the dawn of history to one day take up the mantle of the Bat and swing open the door for his conquering of the multiverse.

If you have the prerequisite knowledge to understand all the places in from the Batman mythos that this issue plays with and connects, then you will love this issue. Barbatos presents his unified theory of Batman as he drags Bruce deeper in deeper into his own stories, trapping him in inevitability. He breaks Batman by taking away his agency, his ability to prepare, his confidence in his own experience and memory. He confronts Batman with futility. And as readers, Snyder, Tynion, and Williamson take us on a whirlwind tour of Batman, from his beginnings to multiple possible ends.

The team of artists, Mahnke, Paquette, and Jimenez on pencils; Mendoza, Paquette, and Jimenez on inks; and Quintana, Fairbairn, and Sanchez on colors, give each iteration of this Batman story it’s own distinct look and feel, from the golden-age pulp noir throwback of the Case of the Chemical Syndicate, to the hyper digitally-effected detail of a possible future where Damien leads an army against his father. This book is gorgeous from cover to cover, as rewarding just to look at as it is to read.

  Mister Miracle #4

Orion decides to hold a trial for Scott, and appoints himself judge, jury, and executioner, to find out if he is an agent of Darkseid, possessed by the anti-life equation. It’s as much a kangaroo court as it seems, with Orion forcing Scott to answer only in “true” or “false,” but nevertheless, Orion may be onto something. As his questioning becomes more and more leading, he probes into Scott’s serious depression, including his suicide attempt, and posits that he may be feeling as he does because of the anti-life equation.

Honestly, part of me would hate it for a comic that seems to be so sympathetic to the mental plight of those affected with depression to explain it away as a side effect of an evil god armed with an magic equation that makes you hate yourself; but also, Darkseid and the anti-life equation have always been a metaphor for our darkest impulses and weaknesses. “Darkseid is” the part of you that hates yourself and others. “Darkseid is” what causes antisocial behavior. And that’s why the heroes can’t let him win. At the least, you can’t argue that making depression a dictator god who hates the concept of freedom itself is undercutting what it actually feels like to live with depression.

King continues his streak of making comics feel surreally domestic, this time with the simple addition of a veggie platter that Scott and Orion pick from during the trial; and the image of the new gods, in full costume, squeezed together on a couch in Scott and Barda’s living room. And Gerad’s use of repetitive panels in a rigid 9-panel grid masterfully builds suspense, and smart use of distortion effects to emphasize moments where things get particularly tense or revealing, is a masterclass in doing more with less. Despite taking place almost entirely within a living room, this issue of Mister Miracle may be the biggest turning-point in the story yet.

  Ragman #2

The demons – who call themselves the Ruah Tum’ah, Hebrew for “impure soul,” – capture Rory, and try to psychologically break him by pressing into his survivor’s guilt, so that they can claim the rags. But, with some help from the souls of his company, who are trapped in rags and who are the people that Rory feels guilty over surviving; he’s able to see past the ruah tum’ah’s illusions, and absorb them into the rags before they can hurt anymore people.

With the demons contained in his rags, Rory tries to interrogate them for information, but is told that doing so drains the power of the other souls trapped in the rags, which would mean losing his friends a second time – so he plans to get to the bottom of things using other methods.

This issue gives us a bit more explanation to what the rags are and how they work, and I always appreciate a story with some jewish mysticism in it; but the book’s biggest weakness continues to be a failure to tie in Rory’s PTSD with the rest of the story in any meaningful way, and also failing to give Rory much of a character outside of his trauma. Rory’s fighting outer demons, but so far his inner ones remain underdeveloped.

Miranda and De La Cruz are illustrating the heck outta this book, giving Ragman himself an interesting and creepy figure and ways of movement and fighting, but again, without a firm anchor for Rory as a character, none of it really coalesces.

  Wonder Woman #34

Wonder Woman finally meets her long-lost brother, Jason; who was raised in secret by Glaucus (who, wasn’t an Argonaut. Don’t know why this issue insists he was.) to protect him from Hera’s jealousy. He reveals to her that he also has powers, including flight; and the two fly off his boat to a small abandoned island for some sibling bonding time.

When discussing family resemblance, Wonder Woman mentions how she wishes she were taller, which, given that she’s supposed to be a like, over 6-foot Amazon, doesn’t exactly track. Also, I really hope I’m not the only one who thought their discussing seemed to be a little too flirty for brother and sister, because I really don’t want that sorta thing to be projection.

Regardless, at sundown, Jason reveals that he was just keeping Diana busy so that Grail could set up an ambush! Because surprise, Jason’s evil! He and Grail manage to overpower Wonder Woman, Grail pinning her with her sword, and Jason promising to kill her himself.

Feels like this issue spent way too much time spinning its wheels before it’s Jason’s heel-turn reveal. Like, this is the first time we’re meeting Jason; there’s no way that we can learn to care for him enough in the space of 2/3rds of an issue where him being evil would feel like a huge betrayal. Either spend more time building a relationship between him and Diana, or reveal that sooner, you know? Really not the sorta thing you can half-ass.

  The Flash #34

Meena is back, and Barry and Wally are happy to have her, even if Wally is still having a hard time trusting people. But Meena’s return isn’t all good news; she tells Barry that the negative-speedforce is killing him from inside, but adds that if she can study it, she may be able to find a cure.

The three speedsters go to the demolition derby so Barry can let loose and create data about the negative-speedforce for Meena to collect; but quickly loses control over his powers and becomes to scared of the repercussions to continue. But despite Meena telling him that sometimes losing control is helpful, she did get all of the data she needs; and promptly reveals that she’s been working with Black Hole the entire time by ambushing the Flashes with a small army. And then she steals the negative-speedforce from Barry…which, despite giving her more power, might have also saved Barry, so…yay?

Meanwhile, the rest of the CCPD inform Kristen of the mysterious new crime boss moving in on Copperhead’s territory.

There’s honestly just not that much going on in this issue. I’m not even sure if Meena revealing that she’s with Black Hole is even a twist, because I’m pretty sure we knew that a few months ago. Same goes for the negative-speedforce negatively affecting Barry. And the Copperhead turf war. Really, the only thing of consequence this issue happens in the last couple of pages, and even then, it’s more a return to status quo than anything else. And yeah, now Barry considers Meena an enemy, but before this issue, he thought she was dead so…I mean, alive is still technically better, right? After how much I’ve enjoyed this series, this issue is really disappointing.

  Moon Knight #188

The new Moon Knight is off to an amazing start, and its first issue doesn’t even have Moon Knight in it. Instead, we follow Dr. Emmett, a psychologist at Ravencroft Asylum working on the case of a nameless man, Patient 86, a pyromaniac who burned his fellow army officers to death after they bullied and tortured him.

Emmett also has a preoccupation with Marc Spector, and believes that just as he was able to focus his multiple personalities through the symbol of Khonshu to become Moon Knight; 86 may benefit from a symbol to focus on, and chooses the Egyptian sun god, Amon-Ra. But she may have succeeded too much in duplicating Marc Spector’s circumstances.

This is one of the most novel approaches I’ve ever read for a first issue, but one that works incredibly; introducing new readers to the idea of Moon Knight by having his origin told by-proxy through the creation of a foil. Dr. Emmett doesn’t succeed in curing 86, only in creating a second Marc Spector. And by showing us what 86 becomes capable of, it hints as to the abilities and mindset of the Moon Knight that Bemis has yet to introduce.

It also helps that Bemis’ dialogue and narrative monologue are electric, lending Emmett an edge to her professionalism, and giving 86 a personality that gets colder as he identifies more with Ra.

Burrows’ art with Lopes’ colors reminds me a lot of Davis-Hunt’s work on Clean Room and Wild Storm, especially the way they illustrate burned skin, and red-haired women doctors. Sorry, too glib. The comparison is a compliment, and the issue looks great.

  Ms. Marvel #24

Ms. Marvel is able to push the runaway train onto a different track at the last second to prevent a collision, but she and Red Dagger remain unable to stop it on it’s briskly paced run through Jersey. And while they think of what to do about this slow emergency, Dagger notices that Ms. Marvel seems exhausted, and not just because she just lifted a train. He suggests that she take some time to take of herself instead of everyone else.

Ms. Marvel checks in on the engineer, who lets her know that they’ve made the news, which reminds Kamala that she’s no longer Jersey’s favorite hero. But, looking at the railroad map of Jersey also inspires her with an idea to stop the train; guiding it to a hill-heavy corridor and let gravity do all the work.

It’s a great plan, or it would be if Ms. Marvel had factored in the speed gained by the train going downhill before going back up. But she’s prepared for that – mostly.

Ms. Marvel, the character and the series, continues to feel a little lethargic this arc, with the high point of the issue being when she’s forced into reacting by the train accelerating as it goes downhill.

The other bright-side to the issue is Olortegui and Herring’s art. Dagger describes Jersey as magical, and though Ms. Marvel is hesitant to agree with him, the art in the book; which illustrates America’s armpit with a golden-hour glow, and at a scale both intimate in terms of showing small towns, and sublime as the train joggs through open expanses of forest.

  Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #26

I can’t believe that Ryan North and Erica Henderson have made me purchase a Jim Davis product of my own volition, with my own money. You monsters. And the first strip he illustrates is just the first Garfield strip, but with Galactus and Silver Surfer instead of Jon and Garfield! Vile.

Despite that, this is still a very fun issue, and I honestly hope becomes an annual thing. A bunch of bad-guys recently destroyed a library, so Squirrel Girl rounded up a bunch of her friends to contribute short comics to a zine she’s selling to fundraise for repairs. All but one of this issue’s ten stories are written by North; the other is written by Henderson, and each is illustrated by a different artist, ranging from, yes, Jim Davis, to Chip Zdarsky, Michael Cho, Anders Nilsen, and Rahzzah.

Each mini-comic is a burst of the same humor found in a typical issue, but from the perspective of this series’ unique take of characters from Spider-Man, Wolverine, Howard the Duck, and Galactus. There’s even a fake letter’s column, where Tony Stark and J. Jonah Jameson write in. It really is a treat, and a not completely cynical take on the resurgence of zine culture and small-press comics and stuff.

  Injection #15

The Spriggans have opened the Cold House wide open, using it as a portal to this world to slaughter as many people as possible, but Brigid has a plan to stop them. It’s not the smartest plan, but effective: drive back to the Cold House, hoping the car continues to act as a faraday cage protecting them from spriggan attacks, and then slap a construction vehicle into one of the Cold House stones to break it.

Unfortunately, once that problem is taken care of, another one emerges. Maria tells Brigid that Morel has cut off FPI, making everything she just did illegal, and making her an enemy of the state. She and Emma decide to run to Ireland together, but surely that won’t be the end of their adventures.

Barring the opening pages of the spriggans indiscriminately slaughtering people, this really could be the last ten minutes of a Doctor Who episode, with the final pages especially tipping Ellis’ hand. It’s an issue long mad dash implementation of a plan that was made up as the heroes go.

Bellaire owns this issue, coloring the climax of the book entirely in three colors: black, white, and a light blue that make it one of the most bold and striking comics of the week.

Comic Reviews 11/8/17 Batman: Lost #1 A 78 year old Bruce Wayne reads his granddaughter a story from his adventures as Batman, the very first story: The Case of the Chemical Syndicate.