Birds of Prey #13 & Wolverine #9.

Two posts today that have pretty much nothing to do with each other... Seriously, I can't think of a single correlation here... Oh well, here they are anyway.

Birds of Prey #13:

Summary: Huntress and the Question are rushing towards Black Canary and Useless #2's last known location since Huntress was told how dangerous Junior was by Catman... That's a bit of a stretch... Anyway, Babs can't raise a signal at BC and Useless #2's location, so she's stuck sitting around helplessly. As for BC and Useless #2, they are being trounced by the apparently invincible Junior, who was able to outfight Black Canary AND survive a close range sonic scream. Junior winds up stabbing Useless #2 with a large pair of scissors, at which point BC realizes that retreat was probably the best option here. Huntress and Question manage to catch a ride on a helicopter and get to the building Junior was holed up in, while Babs calls Catman asking for any weaknesses Junior might have. Catman tells her that Junior hated to be seen(?!) so Babs manages to tap into the lights in the building Junior was living in and turn the lights on in Junior's den. This sends Junior into a panic, at which point Huntress, who just arrived, kicks Junior down the stairs before leaving with BC and Useless #2. This one ends with Babs declaring Huntress the new leader of the Birds, and swearing revenge on Junior for injuring Useless #2.

Thoughts: Meh. It's not that this comic was bad per se, I just hate Useless #2(that would be Dove) and Junior. I mean if you'd have replaced Useless #2 and Junior with any number of characters, I'd have enjoyed this one WAY more, because it was a good, fast moving story. But alas, instead we get Useless #2 and Junior... If you don't have a problem with those characters, you'd probably enjoy this one more than I did.

Score: 6 out of 10.HA!!


Wolverine #9:

Summary: Wanting to shut Mystique up permanently, the Red Right Hand hires Lord Deathstrike to hunt down and assassinate Mystique. While Mystique is being hunted by the surprisingly awesome Lord Deathstrike, Wolverine is also hunting her down, since she had information on the Red Right Hand. Oh yeah, plus he wants to kill her for her hand in the whole, “Sending Wolvie to Hell” thing. Wolvie manages to track Mystique down while she was battling Deathstrike and tries to kill her himself. Mystique hurls a grenade at Wolvie to get him off her back(literally!) and tells Wolvie that she WANTED to tell him what the Red Right Hand was up to since they were trying to kill her now. Mystique manages to tell Wolvie that the leader of the Red Right Hand was living in a beach house in Mexico, but is shot again by Deathstrike before she could reveal what the Red Right Hand was planning on doing to Wolvie when he arrived. Tired of Deathstrike, Wolvie goes after him, but Deathstrike phases through the street to escape. With the distraction of Deathstrike gone, Wolvie turns his attention back to the bloodied Mystique. Mystique tells Wolvie that she wasn't sorry she helped send him to Hell, but that she didn't want to be a part of what the Red Right Hand had planned next for Wolvie, because regardless of all the animosity between herself and Wolvie, Wolvie was there for Nightcrawler up until Crawler's end. Mystique seems willing to offer up more info on the Red Right Hands plans for Wolvie, but having tired of hearing from her, Wolvie fatally stabs Mystique, leaving her corpse lying on the street. This issue ends some time later at an underground auction house, where we discover that Lord Deathstrike had managed to acquire Mystique's corpse and was selling it. After some bidding, the corpse is sold to the Hand for a cool five million dollars...

Thoughts: What's there to say? I enjoyed this one. It was basically Mystique trying to fend off attackers from two different sides, as both the surprisingly cool Lord Deathstrike and Wolvie were out for her blood. The only real gripe I had with this one was the way in which Wolvie killed her... He stabbed her through the chest. I've seen Mystique walk away from gunshots, stabbings, explosions, you name it, but being stabbed by Wolverine's claws in the chest was her kryptonite? I mean she's such a talented shapeshifter she's been known to shift her vital organs to different spots in her body to avoid fatal harm. Why didn't she simply shift her heart to her leg or something? I guess she died from the accumulation of injuries she suffered this issue, but I'd have preferred it had Wolvie decapitated her, because that seems like the one sure injury she wouldn't be coming back from. Besides my issues with Mystique's death, I liked everything else here. From Wolvie learning where the Red Right Hand was holed up(which is exactly what they wanted), to the Hand taking possession of Mystique's corpse, undoubtedly to turn her into one of them, this was a good, quick, action-packed ride that definitely has me looking forward to Wolvie's inevitable confrontation with the mysterious Red Right Hand.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.So long, Mystique!