Red Sonja #35 ~ Slight skepticism on the fake-out used in last issue's ending - the baby isn't Sonja, the grown-up woman is, and it's not her baby anyway. That aside, this is a promising start to a new stage of Red Sonja's adventures, with a world introduced with plenty of potential for mayhem, yet Sonja herself - currently - occupying a fairly un-warriorlike position in it. This is Red Sonja, so I'm sure she'll be swashbuckling and swordfighting eventually, probably in her trademark made-of-coins bikini, but having her start out as someone whose main 'combat' arena is diplomacy and feuding houses promises an interesting transition. I don't hold out much hope for her husband though - him catching a sword in his vitals is something I'd wager money on pretty easily, though I hope I'm wrong because I'd like to be surprised. But overall, this is a good introductory issue, confident enough to eschew bikini-maiden mayhem for the moment in the belief that readers are willing to wait for it. I am - I look forward to reading more.
Secret Invasion #4 ~ I'm really getting fed up with Nick Fury. He's kind of like the anti-Iron Man - you know how no matter what Iron Man does, he's automatically a 'fascist jerk'? No matter how arrogant and pig-headed Nick Fury gets, he's the hero. He's the only one who knew the Skrulls were coming, and has he given any though to finding a way of telling who's who? No, he just shoots everyone not working for him. Ms. Marvel was doing just fine giving the Skrulls a headache, Nick, now who's going to pick up the slack? Jerk.
Sorry, rant over. Aside from a guy I tolerate at best zapping a woman I quite like, this was a solid issue (well, the zapping wasn't bad writing, I just didn't like it). Appropriately it takes a moment to pull back and look at the big canvas, and we see various snippets of what the Skrulls are doing to characters we haven't checked in on in a while, like Reed Richards (ick!) and the cute woman in the atmosphere-bubble floating around what's left of that space station that blew up. With all the chaos that's been going on in the last couple of issues, this is good timing - I think the story needed to pause and reflect, before diving back in for more. Framing it as Jessica Drew boasting/preaching to Tony was a clever move, in that it gave the necessary exposition both some characterful flavour in Drew's perspective on everything, and also a logical reason for the exposition to exist at all.
That aside, it's pretty much what you'd expect at this stage of this kind of story. The heroes have taken a huge hit, and having spent a couple of issues reeling, they're now either in dire peril (thanks, Nick), or working on ways to get themselves back into the game. Black Widow has a very nice moment to shine, moreso than she's really been able to in Mighty Avengers, and another couple of Skrulls are revealed from the crashed spaceship, answering the question from the Beast/Wonder Man segment of Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? about who's real and who's not. Good issue, bring on the next one.
Wonder Woman #22 ~ Diana continues her alternate reality quest, along with her motley crew of champions - and while there's interesting material, I'm starting to feel that this whole story arc is really just setup for future stories. The actual mechanics of what's going on - Stalker, the demon, the heroes - don't really have a sense of weight to them, and what I think Gail Simone is getting at is the introduction of moral uncertainty to Diana, that through this experience her composure is going to be permanently (or at least long-term) shaken, and she'll have to make a concerted effort to remain the ever-virtuous, ever-inspiring wonder woman she is. That's an interesting proposal - on the one hand, Simone has proven herself already, with her opening Wonder Woman stories, and with her long Birds of Prey run (which I'm still picking up in trade paperbacks as and when I find them), on the other, I like that Diana has her supremely enlightened moral compass, and the ability to act on it without compromising herself. It's made her stand out from the legion of flawed-but-trying heroes and heroines we're swimming in these days, and Simone herself showed (most notably in 'The Circle') that Diana being above reproach doesn't mean she can't be troubled, or that she never had to make harsh, dramatic decisions. This story isn't done yet; I guess we'll see the result in good time.
Nemesis continues to surprise me by being likeable under Simone's guidance, even when - as here - he's making a fool of himself and needlessly complicating matters. I guess that's just the difference a really good writer makes. Also, the opening sequence - which turns out to be 'just a dream', so to speak - is really impressive, managing to be laugh-out-loud fun (in a vicious kind of way - Darkseid's head on a stick, DC's best heroes assembled as Diana's personal harem, heh), and also, I suspect, creepily relevant to her state of mind. Her mother's appearance, especially, seems to be more than just an offhand joke - this person, the Diana in this dream, could well be what Diana has to stop herself turning into in future storylines, as an ongoing concern.
Justice Society of America #17 ~ First things first, Cyclone gets a really fun scene to open this issue, so I'm a happy camper. Of course, her tank top does its usual 'now you see me, now you don't' act, continuing the tradition that the poor girl can never get through an issue without either a penciller, inker, or colourist mucking her up somehow. Still, no big deal - I'm kinda used to it - and the scene between her and Damage is really well-written, and again brings up the reality that there's so much potential for storytelling among all the characters Johns has assembled here. My only worry is that there'll just never be enough issues to tell all the stories I hope will be told.
On to more pressing matters, and Gog continues his benevolent march across Africa, with crowds of believers in tow, as well as various superheroes either basking in the glow, or waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm still wondering how Johns will play this - Gog has to turn out to be 'too good to be true' (we see the start of it this issue), but is Johns really just leading up to the stock-standard story where the big powerful godlike being turns out to be unstable and/or morally untrustworthy, and has to be got rid of? This issue presents some pretty interesting material, especially in dealing with faith and religion, but... well, I just feel that on a plot level, Johns needs to surprise me somehow. I don't know how, but I hope it happens - I need something, after this terrific build-up to where we are now.
On a heroine-specific note, Power Girl gets some of the focus this issue, both in terms of her being the leader of the Society (and therefore the person other heroes like the Justice League go to), and as setup for her upcoming adventure back on Earth-2 in the Justice Society of America Annual - that'll be something to look forward to.
The Last Defenders #5 ~ Oh great, so now the Defenders are destined to be by the very fabric of the universe? Please. I'm not saying I'm opposed to grand cosmic storytelling, but there's nothing in this book that justifies its central premise - we haven't seen anything that shows that the Defenders are anything more than just another team of superheroes, we've just been told it offhand (in badly written exposition-speech) by some alien idiot who hasn't even been properly introduced. Sure, he's probably fully explained on old issues of Defenders or whatever, but assuming your readers know the entire back catalogue by heart isn't a smart way to go - if the Defenders can't even produce one entertaining miniseries now, why am I going to go back and read their old adventures? On the up side She-Hulk appears, again tied in tangentially to what Peter David's doing with her - on the down side, the 'ways to kill Tony Stark' monologue is recycled from an earlier issue, and her behaviour here really doesn't live up to PAD's work. Neither, for that matter, does Iron Man ring true - he's written as a moron just so he can be a difficulty for Nighthawk to overcome. Despite having decided to stick with this miniseries, honestly, all I'm really interested in now is the hope that Stark's apology note to She-Hulk (from She-Hulk, the comic) is followed up on in her own title, because it was an interesting development, and I'd rather not see its implications ignored by Peter David just because this title used it.
Hack/Slash #13 ~ The Bump crossover concludes, and this issue is much the same as the last one - at its usual standard on the pages Seeley writes, just average otherwise. All the situations or scenes or bits of dialogue that are genuinely funny, or moving, or psychologically interesting, they all come from Seeley. I'm sorry to say that Bump author Mark Kidwell just uses Cassie and Vlad as generic monster-hunters to show off his slasher creation - there's no spark of originality to them in those pages. If this crossover had been a bona fide crossover issue, outside the regular run of Hack/Slash, I think I'd have preferred it - I'd have known what to expect, and probably enjoyed it for what it was. The fact that it's couched in regular issues, interwoven with real Hack/Slash scenes and supporting cast pages, makes me kind of resent it - it's not bad, but it feels like it's sub-par material being forced on regular readers, rather than giving them the choice of reading a crossover (which by its nature won't be 100% Hack/Slash) or not. The good news is that the ad for next issue credits Seeley alone as writer, to hopefully things will be back to normal then.
Guardians of the Galaxy #3 ~ This issue is a good one, but nothing remarkable - until you get to the last page, and it delivers a nice juicy cliffhanger that really makes you glad you read it. The mission to the Dyson Sphere plays out entertainingly, but there's nothing jaw-dropping about it - it's confident, imaginative writing, but it's mostly a case of "Here's a problem," "Here's a solution," without any true emotional involvement from our heroes, except in the finale when Gamora gets to do something cool and unusual, and we get some interesting reactions to it, both from her and from the others. Meanwhile an intruder shows up on Knowhere, causes some chaos, and vanishes again - it's laying track for future issues, nothing is paid off yet. The Universal Church of Truth - clearly shaping up to be a significant ongoing antagonist - gets some more face time for its heavy hitters, and once you've read the whole issue, you see that they're not just a stock bad guy with some powers and a bad attitude. All in all, good work. Next issue will be a Secret Invasion tie-in, and I'm curious to see how that'll work - I'm hoping for a different take on the situation, since the Guardians aren't on Earth, and therefore aren't explicitly in the Skrulls' sights, so while every other title is revealing Skrull impersonators, this one has the opportunity to dodge that and look at the invasion in a different way.
