What I Bought This Past Week – Talon #10, X-Men #3, Batman Annual #2, Batman Incorporated #13, Fearless Defenders #7, Watchmen on DVD, The Hexagon Artwork (WARNING – SPOILERS)

Oh hey, it’s Wednesday, and it’s time to take a look at…

…Yeah, I kinda neglected to do this last week, and you’ll understand why when we get to it. Also, it ended up working out pretty well, since I bought something yesterday, and received a little something that I paid for a week ago and was expecting to receive at Harbour Con, but was ready for me a couple of days early. So, let’s start with what I bought last week, Talon #10.

The reason why I didn’t talk about this is because I wasn’t really all that inspired to talk about it. Maybe it was just kinda underwhelming, maybe it was because I had other stuff to talk about, or maybe I’m just used to doing bunches of comics all at once nowadays. Regardless, not much really happened. Calvin Rose got into a fight with one of Bane‘s goons, got cornered by a whole whack of them, but then was saved by Casey Washington’s buddies, which led into a much bigger fight on the horizon with Bane himself. The only thing of real relevance was that Casey managed to get herself free, and I was kinda expecting she would anyway. I will say that I DO feel delighted to know I correctly assumed the lead woman in this story, who is not a superhero, would be able to take care of herself just fine when kept in the Court of Owls‘ headquarters. 🙂

Adjectiveless X-Men #3 had a bit of a delightful mislead: Rather than the box with the ticking timer being a bomb, it instead is an override device that pretty much sets the X-Mansion against Kitty Pryde and the students, though they seem to be able to get out of danger just fine thanks to Bling (Hey, I’m finally learning people’s names! ^_^ ). Meanwhile, the rest of the team go with Sublime and track Arkea to a hospital. It seems she’s been busy with the patients, enslaving their minds, but Psylocke holds her at…erm, blade-point, while she’s in Karima’s body. She seems hesitant to go through with taking her down, though, but Karima manages to regain control just long enough to take Psylocke’s blade and damage herself enough to seemingly force Arkea out, though she leaves herself in critical condition. Overall, another great issue of a series that is definitely my favourite Marvel book thus far, with some awesome moments with Jubilee and her kid, and I honestly kinda hope Karima recovers well enough that she joins the team. Just seems like the logical step to make given how much time they used to establish just how much she means to the X-Men.

So when I learned that Batman Annual #2 was gonna be a tie-in to Zero Year, and then saw the preview pages showing him walking into Arkham Asylum in the costume to be locked away, I naturally was like “WTF?! They locked him up?!”. However, it seems Scott Snyder was kinda trolling us with those first few pages, as Batman’s actually there to test the new security systems. So how does this tie-in to Zero Year? Well apparently, while looking through files at the Asylum, he attracted some unwanted attention by a woman staying there who can walk through walls, referred to as the Anchoress. Essentially, she’s there because she actually WANTS treatment, but over the years, less attention was given to her as Batman started sending additional villains there. She breaks out when she finds out he’s present and nearly traps him in an inescapable prison of his own mind, but thanks to some help from a new guy working at the Asylum, he manages to stop her and return her to her cell, all the while the new guy arranges for the Anchoress’ treatment to be restored. Overall, a nice read, and much better than the last Batman Annual.

Y’know, there’s something to be said about a cover done like this for a book where major change happens. lol

Fearless Defenders #7 promised major change to the status quo, and it has. As you’ll recall, last time on Fearless Defenders, fan favourite Annabelle Riggs died to stop Valkyrie’s rampage as the Maiden of Rage. Well, good news to fans of the character, she’s alive again!…Sorta. I’ll admit, I’m a little confused, but long story short, Valkyrie goes to Valhalla where she finds Clea and asks her to resurrect Annabelle. Clea says it can only be done with a sacrifice of some sort, though it appears to work just fine, and they all return to Misty Knight‘s safe house, Valkyrie stating that Clea would be safer with the Defenders. However, upon arriving, only Clea and Annabelle are present, until Annabelle turns into Valkyrie, Clea stating that the two will need time to get used to some changes. I read that and was like “…Wait, WHA???” over and over for a good fifteen minutes. As near as I can tell, Annabelle’s spirit has been bonded to Valkyrie’s, and they essentially are now, as SongbirdDiamond on Twitter referred to them, the Superior Valkyrie…Except, y’know, not stupid. lol Either way, colour me intrigued.

The End Is Here…

And now, the big one: Batman Incorporated #13, the end of Grant Morrison‘s run on Batman, and……..I feel kinda underwhelmed. Now, before ANYONE calls me out on this, I am NOT saying this is a bad comic by ANY stretch of the imagination. However, I did see a couple of things coming from a mile away, namely that the mystery woman who kidnapped Jason Todd was Kathy Kane, the original Batwoman, and that Talia was going to die, killed by a bullet to the skull by Kathy. All of this is being shown to us as Bruce narrates the events to Commissioner Gordon at the GCPD, following his arrest that we saw in Batman Incorporated #1 of the New 52. He tries to be a bit vague, though, as to keep Jim from knowing that he and Batman are one and the same. However, some inner monologue boxes from Gordon suggests that he’s always had a hunch that they are but keeps it to himself, mainly because it doesn’t really matter to him who Batman really is. Then we learn that some woman (most likely Kathy) has bailed Bruce out and gotten the charges against him dropped. All the while Bruce was contemplating shutting Batman Inc. down, but a returning Alfred gives him reason to stick around: Damian and Talia’s graves, both dug up and their bodies missing. And as this goes on, Ra’s al Ghul has retaken control of the admittedly battered League of Assassins and is now breeding an army of Damian clones.

…The Game Is Over…

So why do I feel underwhelmed by this issue? Well, because this is the LAST issue of Grant Morrison’s run, and despite it ending where it began, with Bruce and Talia and Damian, I’m left with so many frakking questions! How did Kathy Kane bail Bruce Wayne out of all his charges and lift the ban on the Bat Symbol? What’s Jason Todd’s plans now that it’s been revealed he was actually working for Talia but betrayed her? What happened to Talia and Damian’s bodies at the end? If the Fatherless was the actual individual to become Batman 666, why are we getting a ‘What If?’ mini-series about how Damian becomes Batman 666? With so many Damian clones being created, does that make it possible for the real one to come back someday? Is the British Government really going to resurrect Knight somehow? What’s the status of Batman Incorporated as a group now that the book is cancelled? Is there any chance they’ll let Chris Burnham do a Batman of Japan series? And most important of all, WHO’S GONNA FEED BATCOW?!?!

…No More Pretending…No More…! NO MORE!

Now, of course, I expect that all these things will be answered soon enough. However, if Grant Morrison was going to create so many major changes to the status quo, you’d think he’d wanna give the resolution himself, unless of course it turns out he wanted to but for whatever reason he couldn’t. Either way, it leaves a lot unresolved for his LONG run with Batman. Still, as I said before, it ended where it began, and that’s oftentimes the best place for a massive story-line to end.

This city’s afraid of me. I’ve seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood. And when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout “Save us!”… and I’ll look down and whisper “No.”

So, I finally rectified a mistake I’d made for quite some time and bought Watchmen on DVD. And if you’re wondering what took me so long, the answer is simple: I honestly thought I already had it on DVD somewhere. lol Yeah, not sure why I thought that, but whatevs. I have it now. Of course, I’ve already seen it at least a couple of times, and it still remains a great flick. And yeah, I know they made it without the slimey squid, but I don’t really think that’s anywhere near as low as the standards of the 90’s Kid. 😛

Six Winds Blow As One
They Will Turn The Tide
We Are Marching On
Standing Side By Side
And We’ll Carry On
Until All The Fire Has Gone
Blown Away, Away To Lands Beyond

And finally, my friend Nikki-Lee Dyckow drew this picture of The Hexagon, my superhero team (which, I promise, I will get back to eventually). I LOVE this so much, and she even made some improvements, like giving Strix boots that more resemble an owl’s talons, and The Bard a more medieval look…She also gave her slightly bigger boobs, which is a little odd, and was a little disturbing to N. Harmonik, but at least it provided a good laugh from me while explaining it to her. 😀

So that’s it for this week. Next week, we check in with The Movement and their attack on a police headquarters, and venture back to the world known as Earth 2. Ja né!

Related articles

• Fearless Defenders #7 (comicvine.com)
• DC Histories: Grant Morrison’s Batman (ifanboy.com)
• Threat Level Wednesday – Angels, Bats, Wolves, and Physics! (whatchareading.com)
• Guide to Reading Batman Comics in the New 52 (residinginthefifthdimension.wordpress.com)
• Comicbook releases 31/7 (justpressplay13.wordpress.com)
• Bunn’s “Fearless Defenders” Protect the Marvel Universe (comicbookresources.com)
• COMICS: Preview ‘BATMAN ANNUAL #2’ And ‘DETECTIVE COMICS ANNUAL #2’ (comicbookmovie.com)
• Review: Talon 10 (comicbooked.com)
• This Week’s Essential Comics: 07/29/13 (comicvine.com)
• 5 Suggestions for Marvel’s Valkyries (houseofgeekery.com)

What I Bought Today – Detective Comics #21, Earth 2 #13, The Movement #2, Batman: Li’l Gotham #2, The Fearless Defenders #5

Well, my birthday has come and gone, but it is now officially Wednesday, so it is time to check out…

…with my birthday money. And whoo, did I get a lot of books, so let’s start off with The Adventures of Harper Row #3!…Oh, sorry, I mean Detective Comics #21. lol

Okay, I should note that I didn’t buy Detective Comics #0, since it was done by the previous team who did Detective Comics that I REALLY didn’t like, so I’m a little lost on some stuff that happens here. The jist of it from what I can tell is that an ex-lover of Bruce’s who turned out to be an assassin is back and looking to kill him. Fortunately, it’s Harper Row to the rescue, reminding us all why she’s so awesome. Unfortunately, the assassin gets away, but is punished by her boss: Ra’s al Ghul, who appears to be out of his cell and back in power. In the back-up, we see that Kirk Langstrom is back, his wife having found him and returned him at some point, but is still transforming into the Man-Bat at night. Apparently, he likes the power it gives him, and feels he needs it to be of any use to the people on the streets of Gotham City. Too bad a John Doe is discovered that leaves him to believe he may have committed murder. Uh oh.

Earth 2 #13 picks up where the Annual left off, with Captain Steel headed off to a fire pit in Rio de Janeiro, one of the many created by Terry Sloan. While he’s doing that, Hawkgirl is still tracking down clues regarding why Green Lantern‘s lover, Sam, was murdered, and how and why he’s connected to Apokolips forces. Fighting a horde of giant Apokorats, she nearly gets taken down by a surprise attack, only for her attacker to be killed by an exploding Batarang from the new Batman…Damn, this guy is one cold mother frakker. Meanwhile, Captain Steel emerges from the fire pit, horribly burnt and with his left arm completely gone, screaming they have to save the world from “her”. And who is her? The Red Lantern!

Before I get to the main plot of The Movement, I should clear up an error I made with the first issue. I said that the main cast are all completely new characters. Not so. Two of them have appeared before. Katharsis was in a couple of issues of Batgirl that I missed due to getting into the series late, and Tremor was actually a member of Secret Six before the reboot. My bad, folks. Speaking of Katharsis, it seems that she’s got a major chip on her shoulder and is pretty much out to just kill cops. This rubs Virtue the wrong way, and she and the rest of the team go looking into a lead regarding the killer in Coral City, while Katharsis goes looking for the source of the corruption in town, only to find herself in a massive brawl with the CCPD. Also, Mouse mourns one of his fallen rat friends…and then eats it… … …Gail Simone, I love ya and all, but you can be kinda sick sometimes. lol

Gotham City Sirens, HO! XD

Batman: Li’l Gotham #2, HOLYCRAPBLUENIGHTWING!!! Seriously, blue Nightwing being in this book is frigging awesome. I don’t think anything could beat that-HOLYCRAPGOTHAMCITYSIRENS!!! So yeah, plenty of awesomeness in this book, and all kept clean enough that kids can read it and enjoy. We need more books like this, for realsies.

…Huh. It’s not a video game, and yet I WANT that video game. 😛

I’d heard about The Fearless Defenders for a while now, so I decided to pick up #5 today. Lucky for me, it makes a good first impression with me, as I’m a sucker for both kickass super-heroines and situations that call for LOTS of heroes in the same place at the same time. Can’t say as I know too much else about what’s going on, only that Valkyrie has brought Hippolyta (Marvel’s Warrior Woman) and Dani Moonstar to Descanso De Deus in Brazil, they fight Doom Maidens, Caroline LeFay, and Mr. Raven, but are hopelessly outnumbered until Misty Knight arrives with MASSIVE back-up, as you can tell from the cover. Unfortunately, while victory is theirs, Valkyrie becomes Brunhilde again, which leaves She-Hulk to try to knock some sense into her. Note to self: Bring snacks for next issue’s fight, as well as tissues since someone is being advertised to die.

*SIGHS HARD* Okay, so that’s everything for today. lol Check in next week when I…Are you kidding me?! Apparently Batman, Batgirl, Nightwing, Li’l Gotham, and Superman Unchained are ALL gonna get released on the same frakking day…I’m Jyger85, and I have a serious issue. lol Ja né.

Vlog – Scaling Back

Just a short vlog letting people know what’s new with me.

The core of it is me essentially saying that Jyger’s Rant will now be bi-weekly instead of weekly, so once every other Wednesday. So with that said, the next part of the Turbo review will be next week.