Red Robin #26 & Teen Titans #99

Let's switch gears and head over to the DCU with two titles featuring Red Robin. First up is the final issue of the Red Robin series, as well as the penultimate issue of Teen Titans before the reboot. For the first time in ages I'm looking forward to Teen Titans, which means it'll probably be painfully bad...

Red Robin #26:

Summary: Wanting to get revenge for the death of his father at the hands of Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang, Red Robin concocts a somewhat convoluted plan that leads Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang into direct odds with Mr. Freeze. Ultimately Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang and Freeze do meet up and are about to come to blows(with Freeze undoubtedly winning), but Red Robin can't allow somebody else(Freeze) to kill Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang. With that, Red Robin enters the room and knocks Freeze out, which gives Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang the opportunity to escape to the rooftops. Red Robin confronts Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang on the rooftops and winds up winging the villain with a boomerang, which knocks Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang off of the roof. Instead of letting Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang fall to his death, Red Robin snares Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang with his grappling line and ends up turning him over to the cops. From there, Batman(Dick Grayson) and Robin arrive on the scene with Bats complementing Red Robin for not allowing the man who killed his father to fall to his death. After Bats and Robin leave, Batman(Bruce Wayne) emerges from the shadows and tells Red Robin that he knew the truth(of course he does...), and that he knew that it was Red Robin who drew Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang to Gotham in order to kill Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang. Bats tells Red Robin that he should never have gotten himself involved with Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang in the first place, before leaving. With that, Red Robin stands on a rooftop and contemplates his next move.

Thoughts: I actually enjoyed this comic a lot. I'd have enjoyed it more if Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang somehow died, be it due to Red Robin or even a pure accident, but I guess I should have known better. As long as Chairman Johns is living and breathing, his beloved Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang will NEVER be harmed again. With the exception of Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang surviving this issue, I can't think of anything to complain about... Tim's plan was solid, and he should have simply allowed Freeze to ice(heh) Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang. So yeah, the story was good, the pacing was fast, the art was good, my only problem was with the outcome. Instead of this issue ending with Bats berating Tim, I'd have preferred it if it ended in a cliffhanger sort of way, with Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang falling off of the roof and Tim moving towards the ledge, but ending before we saw what he did. That way we'd get both outcomes, one for people like me, who felt Tim should have allowed Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang to die, while people on the other side of the fence could have envisioned Tim saving the formerly old, fat and bald bastard.

Score: 9 out of 10.I agree, just let him fall!!!


Teen Titans #99:

Summary: We get things underway with the Teen Titans facing off against Superboy Prime and his Evil Teen Titans, complete with not one, not two, but THREE Superboy clones(which we learn were all cloned from Superboy's old enemy, Match). The two sides battle to a stalemate for a while before Prime suddenly leads his team away from the battle and towards Titans Tower... And I mean “suddenly” literally! One page everybody was fighting and the next the villains were flying towards the tower! One of Prime's teammates, Headcase, tears apart the Golden Gate Bridge and uses his telekinesis to turn it into a giant metal monster. The angry bridge heads for Titans Tower to destroy it while the Titans themselves are busy saving the people who had been on the bridge when it was pulled apart. Prime and his team(and the angry bridge) head for the Tower, but luckily, a who's who of former Teen Titans are standing in front of the Tower ready to defend it.

Thoughts: This actually wasn't that bad of a comic. I really enjoyed the first few pages... At least until the villains suddenly headed towards Titans Tower... I seriously thought that maybe I was missing a page or something, because we go for the Titans battling against Prime and company to the villains flying towards the Tower, with NO explanation between scenes. That hurt the flow of this issue for me, but the more I think about it, I do understand why it happened like that. Maybe JT Krul had planned for this storyline to run longer than just three issues and had to cut some stuff out due to the reboot? Besides that, and this is a REALLY small gripe, but worth pointing out, there was no title for this issue... Usually you'll have the credits along with a story title on a page somewhere in the book. This issue gave us the credits, but no title... Weird. With only one more issue of this series to go, and something like 3 issues of Teen Titans released in a matter of 4 or 5 weeks, I guess that explains the little mistakes that I found here and there.

Score: 8 out of 10.Well, it's not the real Inertia, but it's something... I guess...

New Mutants #29 & Ultimate Fallout #5

With Fear Itself #5 out of the way, it's time to take a look at my other co-Pick of the Week, New Mutants #29, along with the ultra-controversial Ultimate Fallout series, which is reshaping Marvel's Ultimate Universe. Fingers crossed, both of these issues will score a 9 or higher...

New Mutants #29(Fear Itself tie-in):

Summary: Ahhh... I see it's the New Mutants turn to get sucked into the Fear Itself event... We get started with Hela being attacked and defeated in Hel by a bunch of weird creatures. Ultimately Hela turns into a murder of crows... Okay then. From there we head to Moonstar, who is flying to the remnants of Las Vegas to see if she could ask for Hela's aid against the Serpent and his Worthy. Unfortunately for Moonstar, the murder of Hela crows smash into Moonstar's plane and tear it apart. Back on Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia), some of Moonstar's teammates are worried about her whereabouts. Except for Nate Grey, who feels that the New Mutants should be in San Fransisco with the rest of the X-Men dealing with the Serpent possessed Juggernaut. Preach it, Nate!! Ultimately Cypher figures that Moonstar was heading to Vegas to help stop the Juggernaut, so that's where the team should go. In order to get there, they head down to Crazy Mutie Island's prison, where Magik is being held. As the resident teleporter, the New Mutants want Magik to take them to Moonstar, but she tells them a) that she was going to stay in prison until she regained the trust of the X-Men and b) that she knew where Moonstar was headed(to Hel) and that she'd tell Cypher how to find a spell that would take the team to Hel. As for Moonstar, she wakes up in Hel, where she finds Hela's crown and sword. Back to the New Mutants, Cypher manages to recite the spell, but botches it and instead of teleporting to Hel, the team teleports to Hell, where Mephisto is waiting for them.

Thoughts: Again, this was a Fear Itself tie-in in the loosest sense possible. I don't think the stuff with Hela had anything to do with the main Fear storyline, and we only had a one page glimpse of one of the Worthy(Juggernaut). Besides that, I have to say, this team sucks... Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to bring Cypher and Warlock back to life?! Warlock is a joke that ceased being funny like 20 years ago and Cypher is, no matter how some writers try to tell us otherwise, useless. And Sunspot? Grow up all ready... The horny teenager act isn't funny anymore... I like Moonstar, I was happy to see Magma in this issue, as she's been woefully underutilized, and of course Nate is a plus, but man, most of this team is just bad... And before the twelve Warlock fans complain, remember, that's just my opinion. If you like Warlock, good for you, although I have NO idea why you would... As for the story, it was good and made sense(Moonstar gets lost, her teammates decide to look for her), so no complaints there. The art was okay, although I have to admit, the way Nate was depicted kind of bugged me as he was kind of drawn like the Incredible Hulk, which was pretty weird...

Score: 8 out of 10.Look out everybody, it's the Incredible Nate!!!


Ultimate Fallout #5(of 6?):

Summary: Two stories here, one featuring Nick Fury written by Jonathan Hickman, with the other about Quicksilver written by Nick Spencer. We'll start with the faster story, the one about Fury. Fury arrives at the Triskelion and gets a briefing on a few of the situations affecting global security. From there, he heads off and meets with a representative from the US president who informs Fury that the president was cutting SHIELD's funding by 30%. Fury is taken aback by that steep a cut, and tells the rep that people would die because of this, but the rep tells Fury he's just the messenger. With that, the rep leaves and Fury realizes that SHIELD was stretched way too thin. The Quicksilver story deals with Quicksilver telling a businessman that he wanted to gather and train a bunch of mutants. With the widespread hatred of mutants in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, the businessman wants nothing to do with that, but Quicksilver basically tells the businessman that if given the capital to begin hunting down the mutants that were still at large, he'd basically sell them to the businessman at which point the businessman could use the mutant's powers to further his own company's interests. Ultimately the businessman agrees to this deal and Quicksilver sleeps with the businessman's assistant. While in the middle of the deed, Quicksilver's sister, the Scarlet Witch, appears to him and speaks cryptically about Quicksilver doing the right thing, and that he had to head to Egypt before vanishing. The assistant is kind of puzzled by Quicksilver's bizarre actions, at which point he throws her out to contemplate his next move.

Thoughts: The first part of the Quicksilver storyline was good. The Nick Fury part of this comic was very good. The second part of the Quicksilver story? With his sister appearing to him while he boinked that woman? Way too creepy for my tastes... Plus it hurt the story for me. I mean, if this comic would have ended without the creepy bedroom scene, I'd have probably scored this comic a full point higher. Okay, we get it, Ultimate Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch have openly had an incestuous relationship. It isn't danced around or hinted at, it's pretty much accepted fact. With that said, I don't really want to read about it! Wanda could have appeared to Quicksilver at any other time, not on top of him while he was screwing some woman! I mean for god's sake, leave SOME things to the imagination!

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Nick Fury's reaction in that last panel is awesome!

Beware, Fear Itself #5 spoilers ahead!!!

Since I'm pretty sure Fear Itself #5 and Ultimate Fallout #5 will be the most talked about comics of the week, I'm going to do a solo post on Fear Itself now, and a duel post featuring Ultimate Fallout #5 and New Mutants #29 for tonight. Okay, with that taken care of, let's hit the Fear Itself review! As always, this review will be FULL of spoilers, so if that bothers you, turn back now!!

Fear Itself #5(of 7):

Summary: We kick off the festivities with Thor being attacked by two of the strongest members of the Worthy, Thing and the Hulk... Yep, it sucks to be Thor. From there we head to New York where Captain America(Steve Rogers) is battling Sin, before finally heading to the remains of Asgard where Tony Stark is asking Odin to use Odin's workshop to create weapons to combat the Serpent's Worthy. I'm going to skip over the Iron Man stuff, since it was covered in greater detail in the last issue of Invincible Iron Man. Back with Thor, realizing that he was in a life or death situation, and that he'd be overwhelmed by the foes he was facing, he tries to get through to Thing, begging him to fight off the Serpent's influence. When Thing proves unable to do so, Thor reluctantly sends his hammer THROUGH Thing's torso(!!), felling Thing and allowing Thor to concentrate solely on the Hulk. The two children of the Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman(Franklin and Valeria) head to their fallen uncle, who tells them that after all of the awful things he'd done, he was ready to face death. Franklin isn't ready to allow it though, as he uses his reality altering powers to heal Thing as well as free him from the Serpent's influence(!). Back to Thor and Hulk, Thor realizes that he's no match for the Hulk, so he hits Hulk with all of his might, sending the Green Goliath high into Earth's orbit, before Hulk comes crashing back down to the planet elsewhere. Completely spent, Thor then collapses to the ground. To finish things off, we'll head back to Cap's battle with Sin. Cap decides to attack Sin in a frontal assault(because that worked SO well for Bucky), and gets smacked around a bit. Before Sin can finish off her second Captain America of this mini-series, the Serpent lands in New York, much to the delight of Sin. The Serpent compliments Sin on all of the havoc she had wrought in his name, declaring that the Earth was now his. Luckily for Cap, the Avengers charge over and attack the Serpent, but are easily brushed aside like bothersome insects. Relatively pissed off by the whole situation, Cap throws his shield at the Serpent, who proceeds to rip it in half(!?!?!). While Cap stares dumbfounded, the Serpent lifts his ax and sends out a massive wave of energy, destroying buildings, as well as knocking the Avengers out cold. Upon waking up, Spidey tells Cap that it was probably time to evacuate the city, since there was no hope in winning. Cap surprisingly(inexplicably?) agrees with Spidey and this issue ends with Cap telling the Avengers there was no way they could win the battle against the Serpent.

Thoughts: So a few things of note happened here. The Thing was nearly killed by Thor, but was healed by Franklin Richards. Not only was Franklin able to heal Thing, he was also able to free him from the Serpent's influence... Now that's kind of a problem because it means that Franklin is as strong as the Serpent(a god)... If Franklin can cure Thing, then there's NO reason he shouldn't be able to free the rest of the Worthy from the Serpent's thrall, as well as undo all of the Serpent's damage(ie: return Bucky to life). As a matter of fact, if Franklin does anything less, I'll be quite pissed. There's a good reason Marvel downgraded Franklin's powers after the Heroes Reborn fiasco, throughout the 90's he had become TOO strong. Allowing him to do what Odin couldn't/wouldn't(stand against the Serpent), may be a mistake in my view... Speaking of mistakes, the Serpent destroying Cap's shield. While making for a great visual, and a real, “holy shit!!!” moment, is awful. I mean Cap's shield has been indestructible for YEARS!!! It's withstood everything and anything that's been thrown it's way. Onslaught, Thor's hammer, the Hulk, you name it, Cap's shield withstood it. Allowing the Serpent to destroy Cap's shield is, for me at least, a completely unneeded, and terrible move. We already KNOW the Serpent is really powerful. Destroying Cap's shield doesn't do anything to add to that. We already KNOW the Serpent is uber-powerful. The destruction of Cap's shield, as well as Cap giving up at the end of this issue were definitely the two lowest points of this issue for me. Captain America, announcing that the Avengers were going to lose, seemed wildly out of character to me. Cap has faced down a who's who of threats in the Marvel Universe, from common Nazis to super-powered demigods. Hell, he went toe-to-toe with Michael Korvac, who, it could be argued, was more powerful than the Serpent! He didn't back down then, so I can't fathom him backing down now. Cap doesn't strike me as the defeatist type, so I'm not sure what the hell Matt Fraction was doing there. Now, with all that said, I really enjoyed this issue. Yeah, I know, I just spent MANY sentences spelling out what I didn't like, but this WAS a very good comic. The pacing was fantastic, as I flew through reading this issue. It just went seamlessly from one storyline to the other, with the threat continuing to build throughout. Cap facing Sin one-on-one, while stupid for Cap, made sense, since he was obviously furious about Bucky's death and therefore probably wasn't thinking straight. The battle between Thor, Hulk and Thing was phenomenal, with the art perfectly complimenting the story. These were three of Marvel's top heavyweights going at it, and it felt that way. Their fight had that epic feel to it. The Iron Man stuff wasn't really worth mentioning, because like I said, it already took place in Invincible Iron Man, so you already know what Odin's answer to Tony was. Overall this was a very good comic, better than almost anything else I'll read this week(I'd have to think), but there were too many parts that outright bothered me to call it a great comic.

Score: 9 out of 10.I have three words to describe this scene... Bull and shit!

New Comic Day! August 10th edition.

It's Wednesday, it's New Comic Day. You guys(and gals) know the drill by now. This is actually an odd week for me comic book-wise, but before I get into that, first allow me to take a look back at last week's comic book haul. Last week's Pick of the Litter was Avengers Academy #17, which is a series I've gone to great lengths to compliment. I love that series. As for issue #17, I gave it an 8 1/2, which is a respectably above average score. As for the Runt of the Litter, Fear Itself: Wolverine #2, it was about as bad as I expected it to be, coming in at a lowly 3 1/2... As for last week's average, it was a rather pathetic 6.47 out of 10... That's nearly a full point less than last week's all time high, and close to my all time low score(which is a 6.44). So yeah, comic-wise, last week sucked.

What of this week though? Here are the comics I managed to snag earlier today... Batgirl #24, Batman and Robin #26, Birds of Prey #15, Detective Comics #881, Red Robin #26, Teen Titans #99, Morning Glories #11, Amazing Spider-Man #667, Daken: Dark Wolverine #12, Deadpool #41, New Mutants #29, Fear Itself #5, Fear Itself: Fellowship of Fear #1, Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force #2, Iron Age #3, Ultimate Fallout #5, Super Heroes #17, Ghost Rider #2, New Avengers #15, Vengeance #2, X-Men #15.1. That's a lot of comics... Like I said last week, I'd rather around 13-15 comics, once we get over 15, that's a bit excessive... When we go over 20? That's INSANE! Now, there are two things I want to say about this week's books before I get into the Pick and Runt portion of this post... First off, that is an AWESOME line-up of comics! Seriously, I'm REALLY looking forward to at least 11 of those books! I've got to say, that's quite a relief after last week's weak showing. The other thing I've noticed is the fact that, for the first time in a while, the DC comics I'm picking up are, except for Birds of Prey, comics I'm eagerly anticipating... It's been quite some time since I've really been looking forward to a DC book, let alone 4 of them! All in all, this should be a great comic reading week... Hopefully. Anyway, this week's Pick of the Litter is going to be a split deal, as I couldn't decide on a single comic. My co-Picks are Fear Itself #5 and New Mutants #29. This issue of Fear Itself should really set the stage for the final showdown, as the next issue is the penultimate issue, and New Mutants #29 should have Nate Grey in it, which is always a good reason to call it my top pick! This week's Runt has to be Ghost Rider #2. With me looking forward to so many books this week, this week's Runt wasn't that difficult to pick out. So that'll do it. Later on today/tonight I'll have a review for Fear Itself #5(and possibly New Mutants #29) up. If I can find the time, I'll probably post a spoiler-filled Fear Itself #5 post before I get to the reviews. Until then, X out.

The Random Scan of the Week!I miss the Ray...

Secret Avengers #15 & Fear Itself: Wolverine #2

Last two comics in my new comic pile, both of which are Fear Itself tie-in comic books. I'm not looking forward to either series, so let's just get this over with...

Secret Avengers #15(Fear Itself tie-in... kind of...):

Summary: This issue begins with Black Widow crashing through the window of a Internet news company which had posted an article stating that Captain America(that would be Bucky Barnes) wasn't dead. Needless to say, Black Widow is interested in seeing where the evidence of this article is. It turns out that the reporter who wrote the article had no evidence and fabricated the entire article, which was fine by the editor since the site was getting way more traffic than ever before. From there, the two sides(Black Widow and the reporters) debate super-hero deaths vs definitive, real life deaths. Both sides make their points, and this issue ends with the editor deleting the Cap death story from the website out of respect to Black Widow.

Thoughts: Um, okay. This was an odd comic in that nothing REALLY happened. In a way, the premise here was interesting, with the reporters representing “real” people and Black Widow representing comic book characters, with each side arguing why their version of death was worse. My problem was that that kind of debate didn't make for a great, page-turning experience... I was into this comic for the first couple of pages, then I found my attention drifting a bit, and by the end I was wondering what the point was. Like I said, I enjoyed the first few pages here, but I kind of think that this argument would have worked better in like 1/4 the pages.

Score: 6 out of 10.When in doubt, post a Black Widow splash page!


Fear Itself: Wolverine #2(of 3):

Summary: While Wolverine is fighting some mercenaries on a HAMMER helicarrier, his girlfriend, Melita, is getting information on the man leading the mercenaries from Pete Wisdom. It appears that the merc's leader, a guy named Sutton, was part of a British super-soldier program that tortured it's subjects until the program was shut down by the government. Upon hearing this Melita decides that she has to get this information to Wolvie... I legitimately have NO idea how/why this information is important enough that Melita feels the need to risk her life getting across Fear Itself plagued New York to tell Wolvie, but it is apparently... Back with Wolvie, he loses to the mercs and winds up unconscious. Upon waking up, he finds himself strapped to a nuclear warhead with Sutton bragging that he was going to drop the bomb on NYC.

Thoughts: I have to admit, I could care less about this mini-series... Maybe I'm simply burnt out by the plethora of Fear Itself mini-series/tie-ins that don't actually tie in to the main Fear Itself story... I just couldn't get into this comic. So Melita is running across Manhattan to tell Wolvie that Sutton was a crazy British super-soldier or something... And Wolvie is beaten by some random mercs... Yes, the characters in this story were feeling the whole fear effect thing that the Serpent is giving off, but that was the only real connection to the main Fear event. What more can I say, Wolverine and his reporter girlfriend vs a crazy British super-soldier and his band of misfits just doesn't interest me.

Score: 3 1/2 out of 10.I had to post something from this comic, so here ya go...

Batman: Gates of Gotham #4 & DC Retroactive: Batman-The 80's #1

Hey X-Maniacs, after a one day reviewing hiatus, I'm back with the two Bat-related comics I promised yesterday. Since I've already delayed long enough, let's just get right to them.

Batman: Gates of Gotham #4(of 5):

Summary: This issue kicks off with the Architect attacking Robin and Red Robin(did Dick Grayson really think it was a good idea to team those two up?) in the home of Dillon May(who I suspect will have a hand in the outcome of this one). The Robins alert Batman to their plight, and are, rather surprisingly, handled by the Architect. Batman(Dick Grayson) and Black Bat begin to make their way to the scene of the battle, which ends when Robin kicks a support beam, separating the Robins from Architect. By the time Bats and Black Bat arrive on the scene, the Architect has flown the coop, leaving Bats and his allies one step behind yet again. Fortunately though, the Bat-clan manage to find the journal of one of the Gates Brothers in the rubble, which provides insight into why the Architect was acting as he was. That knowledge, coupled with Bats knowing where the Architect will next strike(The Kane Bridge), has Bats feeling that he'll be able to stop the Architect by proving that everything he believed was a lie. With that, Bats sends the Robins back to the Bat Bunker for some patching up, while he takes Black Bat towards the Kane Bridge for the final confrontation with the Architect.

Thoughts: I enjoyed this issue, probably more than any other issue of this mini-series. The pacing was quite good, the story was solid, everything moved along at a nice, brisk speed. Yes, the Robins getting beaten up by a no-name new villain was kind of wrong, but it didn't bug me as much as it probably should have... I guess I was in a good mood when I read this one. I'll admit that I was glad that the flashbacks wrapped up this issue, while I get why they were there and all, they did hurt the flow of this mini for me, especially early on. Um, that's about all I've got to say about this one... Let's move on.

Score: 8 out of 10.Damn, Saint Timmy sure has looked pretty bad this mini-series...


DC Retroactive: Batman - The '80's #1:

Summary: Yes, that's the official title of this comic... This is one of those Retro type titles DC put out this month for some bizarre reason... I mean seriously, since they're going to blow up the current DCU to create a Johns-topia, why bother with these? But that has nothing to do with the review itself. For the record though, the ONLY reason I picked this one up was because I saw that it had Jason Todd as Robin in it as I flipped through it at the comic shop, so there you go. This issue kicks off with Batman and Robin watching Professor Paxton concocting evil plots with his band of gangsters. The Dynamic Duo are shocked when the Reaper bursts into the room and begins to attack the mobsters. Paxton's daughter, who was assisting him in his criminal enterprises, helps her father beat a hasty retreat while the Reaper manages to sneak away from the Dynamic Duo during the fracas. After the fight, Bats heads to Commissioner Gordon and meets Gotham's new district attorney, a guy named Samuels. Bats informs the two that it seemed the Reaper was back in town before heading out to check on the Reaper's daughter, who was a nun. Bats checks the woman's convent, and finds that Sister Rachel wasn't there... Hmm... Paxton calls a meeting with another Gotham mob leader, Tommy Garnett and his son, Johnny. Batman is able to gain entrance to the meeting by disguising himself as one of Tommy's goons. While the mobsters are trying to figure out what to do about the Reaper, the Reaper bursts in and attacks the gathering, forcing Bats to reveal his duplicity to try to save the mobsters. Bats signals to Robin, who crashes through the wall with the Batmobile, which causes the Reaper to throw down some smoke to obscure the scene. By the time the smoke has cleared, Tommy Garnett and Professor Paxton are both dead at the hands of the Reaper. Bats, being the world's greatest detective and all that jazz, has not only managed to deduce that the Reaper was holed up at a construction site(based on a broken piece of the Reaper's scythe), but also the Reaper's true identity, which he doesn't share with Robin because he's a jerk. The Dynamic Duo head to the construction site and Bats tells Robin to find Sister Rachel, which surprises Robin since she was his top suspect. While Robin is sneaking around the site, Bats is walking around, knocking over pipes and making all sorts of noise to draw out the Reaper. This ploy works, but the Reaper knocks Bats into a hole and begins to fill it with concrete before leaving to deal with Robin. Robin has managed to find Sister Rachel tied to a chair and is in the process of freeing her when the Reaper enters the room. The Reaper throws some threats at Robin, but is surprised when Bats enters the room(yes, he escaped the concrete filled hole... It really wasn't THAT great a deathtrap!). A second Reaper enters the room to help Reaper #1, at which point Batman reveals to Robin that the two Reapers were Professor Paxton's daughter and Tommy Garnett's son, both of whom wanted their parents out of the way so they could take over the two crime families. The two Reapers attack, but are quickly knocked out by the Dynamic Duo. With the Reapers down and out, Robin figures the case is closed... Until Bats reveals that there was still one more person to deal with, at which time DA Samuels enters the room with a shotgun, revealing that HE was the brains behind the whole Reaper ordeal. It seems Samuels convinced the two Reapers to kill their fathers, at which point he was going to kill them, becoming the man who crippled Gotham's gangs, as well as killed the Reapers and avenged the death of the Batman. Samuels takes aim at Bats with his shotgun, but is fatally impaled by Professor Paxton's daughter, who had heard Samuels' entire confession. Paxton's daughter is shot during the murder, and is tended to by Sister Rachel, which allows Batman and Robin the chance to leave, with another case solved. There was also a reprint of Detective Comics #575 in this comic, but after how long the review for the main story was, I'm going to spare us all by skipping a review for that issue.

Thoughts: What can I say, I'm a sucker for 1980's, Jason Todd-as-Robin Batman comics. Add a decent story, a fun little mystery, with a triple-cross, and I'm a happy camper. The story wasn't anything super special, and Batman figuring out that there were THREE people portraying the Reaper was a bit ridiculous, even for Bats, but I'm not upset in the least that I spent $5 on this one. For me, a fan of the era, it was money well spent.

Score: 8 out of 10.Jason sitting on the telephone book while driving the Batmobile was a cute little touch here.

The Random Scan(s) of the Week!

So I was going to post reviews for Batman: Gates of Gotham #4 and that Batman Retro 1980's comic today, but I'm just not in a reviewing mood... You see all of the reviews I post weekly, every so often I just need a break! To make up for my laziness, here are three completely random scans that I've found on my computer for some reason... I'll have those two Bat comics up, reviewed and posted come tomorrow, but for today? Enjoy the complete and utter randomness presented below.


Hawkeye is SO much > than Green Arrow it's actually a bit sad...


Vulcan makes a very valid point here.


The devil sure does have an interesting sense of style... I doubt many demons would bust out the lime green suit...

Secret Six #36 & Iron Man 2.0 #7.1

After the last couple of pretty bad Marvel comics I've reviewed, I'm going to read a DC book as well as a Marvel book with the hope being that I'll break the streak of bad comics I've been unfortunate enough to have read these past few days. Although looking at the two books in front of me, I'm not really that optimistic.

Secret Six #36:

Summary: This issue kicks off for real with the Secret Six planning their assault on the Bat-family, an assault that Bane hopes will break Batman(the Bruce Wayne one) emotionally, since breaking Bats physically didn't work. Unfortunately for Bane, there are two problems... The first is that a homeless family was living in the warehouse the Secret Six was staging their attack from, which provides 4 potential witnesses to Bane's plans. Bane wants to kill the family and be done with it, but Scandal won't allow Bane to kill two children. Oh, and that second problem? Penguin, who the Six took captive last issue to gain insight on Batman and his associates, had a tracer hidden under his skin and had his people leak Bane's plans, which has brought a who's who of super-heroes to the warehouse. And when I say a who's who, I mean practically every hero from the Birds of Prey, to Bats and his colleagues, to the Teen Titans to Superman! In other words, the Secret Six were screwed big time. Since they did have the homeless family, Catman figured they may be able to barter for their freedom, and yells to the gathered heroes outside that they did indeed have hostages. Huntress, figuring this whole scene was going to end poorly and still having feelings for Catman, enters the warehouse and offers to let the Six use her as a hostage provided they let the family go. The Six agree to this and free the family, holding Huntress in their place. Even with Huntress, Bane realizes that his plan had been shot to hell, and offers the Six a dose of Venom to power them up with the hope being that if they were going to lose, hopefully they'd take a few heroes out first. With that, the Venom-fueled Six tear through the wall and attack the gathered heroes, ultimately falling in defeat. With that, the Six are all carted away, which is fine by Bane, since he realizes that working with individuals like the Six was a mistake, and that his next shot at Batman wouldn't fail.

Thoughts: Well, this was the last issue of the Secret Six. I have to say, it's been quite the journey... There were a few peaks, but sadly, there were more valleys. Fortunately, this series ended on a high note, as I found myself really enjoying this issue. Bane's plan to break Bats was sound, with the only flaw being his choice of team members, since they themselves were so flawed. I didn't really care for the whole, “blaze of glory” thing the team was going for as they staged their final assault on the gathered heroes, but I can understand why Gail Simone wrote it, since there was really no other way to end this one... The Six weren't going to surrender, and there was no way for them to escape. A suicide attack was really the only way this series could have logically concluded. Sadly Ragdoll didn't die, but since I didn't see him in the epilogue, I'm going to say that he did perish, just to make myself feel better.

Score: 8 out of 10.I love how smug Damian looks here.


Iron Man 2.0 #7.1:

Summary: This issue gets started with James Rhodes(War Machine/Iron Man 2.0) being briefed on the Palmer Addley case by his underlings. Yes, the Palmer Addley storyline is still going strong, although it was interrupted for a few issues by the lame Fear Itself x-over issues. While Rhodey is being briefed, some third world dictator has come to Paris to talk about ways to peacefully end the political strife that was running rampant through his country. The dictator doesn't like the idea of giving the dissenters in his country any extra freedoms, and as such is looking for any reason to leave Paris early, without a peace deal in place. While Rhodey is in the middle of his briefing, he gets word from General Babbage that some robot based on Palmer's designs was flying out of Asia towards Europe. Babbage tells Rhodey to suit up and Rhodey intercepts the robot in Paris. The two battle, and after some destruction, Rhodey defeats the robot. With the robot defeated, and no massive destruction or lives lost, Rhodey figured he thwarted whatever scheme Palmer had concocted... However, the dictator from earlier was right across the street from the battle and decides to leave Paris early since he felt threatened. With no peace plan negotiated, the dictator takes drastic actions and brutally cracks down on the dissenters in his country. In other words, it appears that Palmer got exactly what he wanted after all...

Thoughts: What can I say, I liked this issue. It was actually a great .1 issue, since any new readers learned everything they needed to know about the strange case of Palmer Addley during Rhodey's briefing, while giving us fans who have been following the series from the start a few new little snippets on Palmer's plans. I mean, I really loved the way it looked like Rhodey had won the day, at least until you realized that everything had gone exactly according to Palmer's plan, as the peace talks were scuttled. I may be in the minority, but I'm definitely looking forward to more of Rhodey butting heads with Palmer Addley.

Score: 8 out of 10.Didn't he?