Batgirl #7, Justice Society of America #36 & Wonder Woman #41

I'm going to skip a lengthy intro tonight and just get right into the reviews, because these three books were really good! So without further ado, let's get started.

Batgirl #7: Writer: Bryan Q. Miller. Pencils: Lee Garbett.

This issue gets underway with Batgirl(Stephanie Brown) and Robin(Damian Wayne)attempting to reach Batman before he is killed by a bunch of Roulette's goons. Unfortunately for Bats, Dr. Phosphorous catches up with him and prepares to kill him in order to collect the bounty Roulette placed on the head of the Caped Crusader... You know, I loved Dr. Phosphorous from the old Starman series. Man was he some kind of evil piece of work, but I digress... Before Phosphorous can put an end to Bats, Damian arrives on the scene to save his partner. While Damian tangles with Phosphorous, Steph catches up with Roxy Rocket and causes Roxy to crash her rocket into Phosphorous... Trust me, that scene wasn't nearly as lame as I made it out to sound... By this time, Riot has appeared on the scene and along with his army of duplicates, attacks the stricken Dark Knight. Steph and Damian attack Riot, and Damian holds Riot and his dupes at bay long enough for Steph to get Bats out of harms way. She then rejoins Damian and quells the Riot(heh heh...). While all of this fun was going on, Barbara Gordon(Oracle)was hacking into Roulette's computer systems, and is eventually able to locate Roulette. Before Roulette is able to escape from her now compromised base, Batman, Batgirl and Robin arrive to take her into custody. This issue ends with Batman giving Babs and Steph permission to use that Batcave as their base of operation since he is now operating out of Wayne Tower.

This comic was flat-out, full-on awesome. Everything about it was perfectly done. The only thing I could possibly take any umbrage with was how weak Dick looked here, but since that helped the story along, I honestly can't complain... From Steph and Damian, to Babs and Dick, to the villains, to the reveal at the end with Francisco and Steph's comical reaction to it, this comic had me smiling from cover to cover, which is something that unfortunately hasn't really been happening all too much recently with many of the books I've been reading. Unfortunately the next issue begins the x-over with Red Robin, which sucks because I refuse to read anything written by Red Robin writer Chris Yost, so I'll only be able to read half of that x-over. However, as long as the next few issues are anywhere near as good as this one was, I sure won't be complaining!

Score: 10 out of 10... Wow, it's been a while since I've given out a 10 to a DC comic...God help me, I actually like Damian when he appears in this series...

Justice Society of America #36: Writer: Bill Willingham. Pencils: Jesus Merino.

This issue begins twenty years in the future, where we find an older version of Mr Terrific standing in a prison cell, telling a woman about the day the JSA died. He begins his story by telling the woman how Alan Scott met his demise. From there we travel back to the present where the JSA is still holding Kid Karnevil captive in one of Alan Scott's holding cells. Karnevil taunts the team by telling them that in a few minutes he's going to be sprung by his mystery teammates. Although the team doesn't exactly buy his story, they send the Flash(Jay Garrick)away to search the JSA headquarters. While this is happening, Alan Scott comes across a large wooden crate standing in the middle of a hallway, and he decides to clear it out of the way. Since his powers don't work on wood, Alan approaches the box and when he touches it, it explodes, sending pieces of wood into his body, killing him instantly. Jay comes across the body of his longtime friend and after realizing Alan was dead, he sends an emergency call out to the rest of the team. As the JSA prepares for battle, the Forth Reich(basically a whole mess of Nazi-wannabes)bursts into to the JSA base and begins their well planned assault. The battle rages back and forth, and we head back to the future, where the comic comes to an end.

Hmm, this was an interesting comic... The story was very interesting(although I don't buy that things are as they seem), and the next few issues should give us one hell of a battle between the JSA and the Forth Reich. Of course I don't believe that Alan is dead, or that the future we saw a glimpse of during Terrific's story(where the Reich had seemingly taken over the USA)is actually going to come to pass, this story was still good enough to have me quite intrigued as to seeing how things are going to turn out next issue.

Score: 8 out of 10.Damn Nazis...

Wonder Woman #41: Writer: Gail Simone. Pencils: Aaron Lopresti.

This issue opens up with Achilles being sent to some hotel to meet some guy for some reason... OOOOOOK... From there we head to the main event, the fight between Wonder Woman and Power Girl. PG is suffering under the mental domination of the children of Ares, and is under the mistaken assumption that WW is responsible for the recent unrest plaguing the city of Washington DC. The two women fight for a while, until WW saves a bus full of people from crashing. Seeing WW do something so heroic begins to cause PG to doubt that WW is the menace she thought she was. However, before PG can figure anything out, two of Ares kids arrive on the scene and cause PG to see WW as some kind of horrific demon. PG resumes her attack, and WW finally has enough, and uses her far superior hand to hand combat to lock PG in a full nelson. While holding PG, WW is able to get through to her and the two women get off the streets to try to figure out what was going on. WW figures out that PG's actions, as well as the riots in DC, were being caused by the children of Ares, so she has PG wrap her up with her own lasso(so the Ares spawn couldn't mind control her)before heading to find the little hell raisers. While WW goes to find the kids, PG lands in the middle of the rioting people and tries to convince them to halt their madness. WW finds the evil kids and gives them a spanking before sending them away to an Amazon island of reformation. With the children's influence gone, the riots quiet down, and this issue concludes with WW and PG making nice with each other.

For the most part, I liked this issue. The fight between WW and PG was perfectly done, and played out exactly as I would have expected it to, with WW using her vast fighting skills to defeat the ultra-powerful PG. So I thoroughly enjoyed the WW/PG stuff. I also liked the parts where those evil kids were running around DC driving the people(and PG)into fits of rage. I've got to say, I liked those crazy kids. So I liked the stuff with the kids as well. I didn't like how anti-climatically WW defeated the kids though... She catches up to them, spanks them and sends them to an Amazonian reform school? Wha?!? Here I was figuring that WW would have all kinds of trouble dealing with the children of Ares because of the fact that they were just that, only children. Instead, she spanks them and sends them on their way??? Ugh... So, the beginning, the fight scene, and the middle of this comic was top-notch. The resolution? Not so much...

Score: 8 out of 10.Yeah, you DO NOT want to get into a hand-to-hand altercation with Wonder Woman... EVER!