DC Comics
Black Lightning #1
Black Lightning, or Jefferson Pierce, is a school teacher by day and a vigilante by night.In “Black Lightning #1,” a group of low-level thugs get their hands on some extremely advanced guns and start wreaking havoc on Cleveland, when Black Lightning shows up to save the day.
He uses his electromagnetic waves to slow down a building that was collapsing, and when it did land, it destroyed a SWAT van. The cops tried to arrest him, saying he destroyed police property, when in fact he saved the officers’ lives.
“Black Lightning #1” is a great read
and certainly doesn’t shy away from the prevalent social issues facing black people today.
Batman: The Merciless #1
“Batman: The Merciless #1,” takes place in Earth -12, and Ares has killed the entire Justice League, aside from Batman and Wonder Woman.
Ares forged a helmet that magnified his powers 100 times and fought Bruce and Diana nearly to death, when Batman put on Ares’ helmet to end it all.
The helmet corrupted Bruce and he killed every villain and hero that got in his way, when the Batman Who Laughs brought The Merciless to Earth 0, the normal DC Universe.
“Batman: The Merciless” is one of my favorite evil Batmans in appearance and
origin story.
The Flash #33
In “Bats Out of Hell Pt 1,” the members of the Justice League are split into small teams, with other heroes and anti-heroes, all trying to figure out a way to reverse the chaos that the evil Batmen have brought on Earth 0.
The League members get separated from their current partner and appear in the cave of their evil Batman counterpart.
They don’t know where Cyborg is, but he’s communicating with the rest of the League, telling them it’s too late.
“Bats Out of Hell Pt 1” starts a story arc that completely capitalizes on the success of the “Metal” and “Dark Nights” arc.
Batman: The Devastator #1
On Earth -1, Batman: The Devastator is born out of fear and desparity.
Superman goes rogue. It only kind of alludes to this, but Bruce does say that Superman killed his wife, Lois Lane, and this made Batman snap. He realized that the why didn’t matter anymore, because it was happening regardless.
Batman and Superman were fighting, and Superman cut Batman’s arm off with his heat vision. At this point, Batman tells Clark that he loved him, and inject himself with a strain of the Doomsday virus, making him powerful enough to kill Superman.
Superman going bad is about as dark as it gets, and the action and story are great.
Justice League #32
In “Bats Out of Hell Pt 2,” the Earth 0 Justice League members are still separated from each other and they confront their Evil Batman counterparts.
One of the most chilling themes in the “Metal” arc is that all of these extremely evil entities are Batman, maybe extremely unhinged, but Batman none the less.
This is intimidating. Batman alone is intimidating, but these men are twisted.
The heroes are engaged by their evil Batmen counterparts for some of the most satisfying sequences of panels to boot.
Nightwing: The New Order #3
“Nightwing: The New Order #3” takes place in an alternate future where Dick Grayson, AKA Nightwing, has removed powers from the playing field. Those born with powers must go through a series of attempts at inhibiting the powers, and if that doesn’t work, they are placed into stasis. Well, Alfred has been killed, Dick’s son is placed in stasis, and Dick is arrested and breaks out.
Dick fights Green Lantern and gets whipped when he’s taken away in a matter of seconds. When he comes to, there’s a gun-toting woman and an unidentified Flash standing before him.
Batman: White Knight #2
In “Batman: White Knight #1,” Batman beats Joker to a pulp when Joker pulls out a pill bottle and says it might cure him. Batman crams the pills down Joker’s throat, leaving his mouth over owing with blood and pills. Mean- while, the Gotham City Police Department stood by watching.
Well, Joker gets seemingly cured by these pills and starts to begin a legal case against Batman and the GCPD.
Issue 2 focuses on a seemingly throw-away arc between Bruce Wayne and Mr. Freeze, the only real importance being that Alfred is dying.
Joker, now going by Jack Napier, proposes to Harley Quinn, and takes control of Batman’s rogues gallery of villains.
Marvel Comics
Black Panther #166
“Black Panther #166” is not really a Black Panther comic. Instead, the story follows Klaw, a longtime villain of T’Challa, or Black Panther.
Klaw became Klaw when he gave up his body to become what he calls “the voice that whispers in the night, telling men what they must do.”
Klaw is after the strongest metal in the world, virbanium, most of which belongs to T’Challa’s homeland of Wakanda.
Although the entire focus was on Klaw, when he and Black Panther square up, readers will be forced to look at Klaw as more than just an evil villain.
Captain America #695
An evil clone of Steve Rogers took up the shield and almost drove the world to its end.
Then the real Captain Rogers escaped where he was trapped and fought the fake Cap, and won.
The whole idea is that the damage has been done to his name, his reputation is tarnished, and according to the cover, “Captain America battles to regain the support of a nation!”
It doesn’t carry that much weight. Cap is trying to stop an evil plot in a small town, where a Captain America celebration is going on, and it’s a bunch of fans defend- ing Cap. What about this suggests that Cap is trying to regain trust?
Guardians of the Galaxy #146
I’ve been enjoying what I’ve been reading from the Guardians pre-Legacy, and now it’s one of the best Legacy relaunches I’ve read thus far.
Starlord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket Racoon, and Groot have not only recruited a new member to the Guardians of the Galaxy, Scott Lang, A.K.A. Ant Man, but they have all joined up with the Nova Corps.
Gamora and Ant Man respond to a distress call in space, and the two heroes play off of each other extremely well. Ultron also makes a surprise appearance!
Iceman #7
In the last issue, Iceman went out with his former Champions buddies, Hercules, Darkstar, Angel, and Ghost Rider. While there, he hit it off with a guy named Judah.
Shortly after, a bunch of homemade Sentinels start attacking in West Hollywood, and that’s where “Iceman #7” picks up.
The Champions take on the Sentinels and Iceman, probably trying to show off for Judah, lets loose. He’s ring ice-blasts at all of the Sentinels and builds something I’ve never seen before, which is basically an Iceman Megazord.
Every issue dives deeper into Iceman’s character, fleshing out the gay and mutant aspects of his life, and I appreciate all of it.
Mace Windu #3
“Mace Windu #3” begins with a ash- back of the droid General Grievous hiring AD-W4, a mercenary droid, to take on Jedi Knights Mace Windu and Rissa Mano, and Prosset Dibs and Kit Fisto have broken into those respective teams and are dealing with their situation on Hissrich.
Rissa and Mace are ghting droids on the surface. Prosset and Kit are under the surface, fighting a large, insect-like predator.
Rissa’s blue saber and Mace’s purple saber slicing through droids, along with Pros- set’s and Kit’s green sabers slicing through a massive creature in almost pure darkness, makes for some beautiful, action-packed panels.
*Marvel comics have returned to original numbering since the “Legacy” relaunch.
Leave a Reply