Manhunter #31 ~ She's back! If you recall my reviews of the first two Manhunter trade paperbacks (October 10th and October 17th), you'll know I quite liked them, and - though volumes three and four are still on my depressingly long and under-funded to-buy list - I've picked up enough info to be roughly up to date on Kate Spencer's situation up to the present. Even if I hadn't - or had never heard of her at all - this issue would have gotten me up to speed quite effective, with a two-page retro-style recap of her origins and recent activities. The issue's story kicks off quickly, and covers a lot of ground - there's something for everyone in the cast, with Kate battling a one-shot villain (in a nicely done scene that shows her moves without seeming staged), and dealing with a new complexity in her trouble-fraught family life, while her gadget-maker Dylan makes a disturbing discover, and to top it all off a new plotline is started, which by the end Kate herself is up to her neck in. So there's a lot going on - and the recap pages were definitely a good move, because some of these subplots draw heavily on stuff you won't know if you haven't read earlier issues. Until new readers can get caught up on the subtleties of Manhunter, it's just as well that the main storyline is well introduced and easy to follow. Michael Gaydos's art, with murky, moody colours by Jose Villarrubia, maintains the basic art style of Manhunter pretty well (though she does seem to resemble Michelle Rodriguez a bit more than usual, not that I'm complaining), but it's Andreyko's writing that once more proves its worth - Manhunter is his character, and so long as he's at the helm, this title deserves to be bought.
Secret Invasion #3 ~ This is a bit of a difficult issue to talk about - it's very much middle-of-the-story material, with a lot going on but nothing really progressing. What we have is glimpses into several of the various theatres of war that the Skrull invasion has opened up, Times Square's all-in super-brawl being the main set piece, but also with asides at Thunderbolts Mountain, in the Savage Lands where Tony's trying to get himself back in the game (and Spider-Woman's up to some nasty tricks), at Camp Hammond where the Initiative is having a bit of a panic, and in the Bermuda Triangle - no really - where the SHIELD helicarrier has made splashdown and Maria Hill is being gorgeously bitchy under pressure. It's all fun to read, and nicely fast-paced, but it's really only the final page cliffhanger that means anything - the rest is a bunch of fight scenes, a couple of deaths (notable characters some of them, but no-one I've personally been following so my feathers aren't really ruffled), and some neat character moments, such as the Skrulls trying to mess with Tony's head by suggesting that he's actually a Skrull sleeper agent. That last one is actually quite a neat twist, with the Civil War et al being cited as Tony's deeply-buried Skrull programming making him weaken the superhero community, and it's easy to imagine how that'd tear him up, because in the situation he's in, he really can't be sure it's not true - that he's been subconsciously betraying what he believes in all along. It's just that we out here know he's not a Skrull, because if he were, it'd undermine all those stories, Marvel has specifically said they won't do that with Tony, and I believe them - and think it's best that they don't.
Trinity #1 ~ I'd pretty much made up my mind to sit this one out - what with Countdown being a complete wreck and all, and myself only being interested in one third of the 'trinity' anyway. But I heard good things about it, and decided to pick it up - not with a view to buying the whole title, but just to get a sample of it, so I know what's what. And it looks good thus far. The major set piece this issue is a meeting between Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, and Diana Prince - and it's a well-written meeting that's full of interest, and faithful in its characterisation to all three characters and their various modes of 'secret identity'. Briefly, all three have had a dream that seemed out of the ordinary, and the fact that they all had it - yet no other superheroes they contacted did - suggests something's afoot. The rest of the issue is filled with the Flash and his kids battling Clayface, and a backup story featuring a couple of villains who've had some variation on the same dream, going about discovering its meaning in their own way (and seemingly getting a lot deeper than the trinity did). The quality of writing is excellent - it has to be, to keep me interested in Clark and Bruce - but I do wonder how well this title is going to be able to sustain itself for 52 weeks. 52 had its various plot threads, so one could simmer while another took centre-stage for a while, and Countdown... well, that was just a disaster, as events had to be dragged out of nowhere to fill up the space. The risk I foresee for Trinity is twofold. One: that scenes like the Flash sequence will appear regularly, showing off secondary characters who aren't connected to the main storyline - that runs the risk of being like Countdown, where whole subplots were invented and discarded just to fill up the pages, and it was obvious that they had no purpose. Two: if the trinity works as a team, it's going to require a lot of storyline to keep them and them alone at the heart of this book for a whole year, while if they split up and go their own ways, segments of the readership risk being alienated by issues featuring characters they're not interested in.
I'm in for three issues - it seems the first three covers will form a complete picture, with one hero per cover, so besides just getting the Wonder Woman one (#3), I think three issues will be a decent sampling of this book. But the next two will have to be very good, and answer the concerns I've just laid out, for me to keep buying - right now, my plan is to stop at #3 and, if it turns out to be the greatest story ever told, pick it up in trades.
Justice Society of America #16 ~ Gog, huh? Gotta give Geoff Johns credit, he doesn't do things by half-measures, so when a godlike being shows up, he's seriously godlike. The key question of this issue (vocalised by Damage) is: do we trust this guy? Anyone who's read comics, or seen fantasy or sci-fi TV, knows how the story goes - godlike being shows up, claims to be here to do good for everyone, we buy into it, it turns out he/she has darker motives (or said 'good' involves the sacrifice of free will or somesuch thing), and then it's on with our heroes versus the god. It's a testament to Johns's writing that he can start up a story which seems to be playing in that direction, yet I still find myself wondering - is that where this is going? Could Gog be on the level? Obviously the DC world isn't going to become a utopia, so something's gotta give, but the strength and conviction of the writing at this stage makes it unclear what - only that I feel it won't be a cliche that we see coming. There's got to be something more to this than just 'you can't make the world better by waving a hand and making it so' - but it's a mystery what that something more will be, because JSA has proven itself to be a more intelligent comic than to introduce a giant event like this and just wrap it up again so quickly. Colour me intrigued. In other news, Black Adam! Maybe I was too hasty predicting that the 'coming up' panel of him and Isis would be a flashback - I adored Isis, so the prospect of her return is so, so tempting. Too good to be true? We'll have to wait and see.
The Blackbeard Legacy #4 ~ Final issue already? These limited series are getting increasingly limited. Anyway, it's worth pointing out that this issue doesn't conclude the story, but rather resolves a lot of its questions while bringing it to a cliffhanger... where it's left. It's branded 'The End... for now', but I've learned to take that kind of 'for now' with a grain of salt, so for now (pardon the pun) I'm going to assume that this is it. The revelations in this issue are decent, in terms of clarifying exactly what's been going on, but there's one key shortcoming - it's not really about Hanna. She's the central character to this story, yet she hasn't really gone on a journey within herself - Hanna now seems pretty much the same as Hanna at the beginning, so what importance do the events of the comic seem to have? Not a lot, frankly - it's been a fun ride, with cheerful art and a nicely abrasive style to the piratical goings-on, but is there anything here that I feel I'd be poorer for not having read? Honestly, no. If this is reprinted in a trade, and it's cheap and pirates are your thing, give it a look, but it's the kind of thing to buy because it's pirates and you like pirates, not because you're looking for something groundbreaking.
American Dream #3 ~ Not the strongest issue so far, sadly - I like American Dream in the present, but when she flashes back to her formative years this issue, it's really pretty shoddy stuff. Seriously, she went to a dojo (run by Hawkeye), and when she and the others graduated, he gave them costumes and codenames? I don't know if that was previously established MC2 backstory or what, but even if it was, in this post-Civil War environment (even if Civil War didn't happen in this continuity), it might be a good idea not to dwell on story points that sound like some teenage fan-ficcer thought them up, you know? Even a simpler, more carefree superhero tale can be smartly and plausibly written without relying on this kind of stuff. Anyway, back in the present things are better - aside from DeFalco's tendency to have his characters think in exposition and helpfully recap for new readers, which is getting a bit tiresome - and hey, more Maria Hill, works for me. I do wish she wouldn't be portrayed as such a one-note bitch, though - there's such a thing as subtlety. And since it looks like this review is just going to be me complaining - I did basically enjoy the issue, I swear - when you name a new villain, try to avoid the syllables 'silly'. Silikong? Really, that's what you want his name to be? Sigh. With two issues to go, I'm hoping things will pick up - really, the main problem here is that it's the middle of the story, and too early for answers, so this issue trod water a bit to fill in time, leaving me with nothing much to concentrate on besides noting the weak points.
