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I am looking forward to DC’s Zero Month in September. This week’s BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #12 promised us “The Truth Behind the Death of the Waynes” next issue. And SUPERMAN #12 is threatening to tell us “What Went Wrong on Krypton.” And I am very curious to find out what the official New 52 explanation is for both! Plus we’re gonna get tons of origin stories and I love me a good origin story!
Nine Nominees this week.
BEFORE WATCHMEN DR MANHATTAN #1 (OF 4) – Was a very good origin story. I guess lots of it has been revealed before but I thought it was done great. And it time jumped (and quantum jumped) the entire issue. Which I normally hate. But that is so central to Dr. Manhattan’s character that they had to do it, and I thought they did it very well.
BRILLIANT #4 – So late. Lots of late shipping books this week. Never helps any series. First issue was not good. Second issue was better. Thought issue #3 was great. Thought this issue was even better. A fantastic bullet to the head totally changed the plot once again. For Bendis fans only! Multiple 12-panel talking head pages appear! And there is a conference table involved! But I totally think it’s worth reading.
COBRA ONGOING #16 – Zowza! It was bookended with some plot. It had a 13-page fight scene in the middle! Zowza! It was great. Second “OK Corral” dust-up for Lady Jaye and Ronin. Cosmic Madness will feature the Greatest Female Superheroes next year. We’re gonna have to do some cheatin’ and get them in the tournament! “Please get me out of this chair. My foot is bleeding onto my face” and “Need immediate medical response at the Zurich extraction point” sum up the issue nicely. Third best book of the week!
DEADPOOL KILLS MARVEL UNIVERSE #4 (OF 4) – Is now a must read mini-series. Taskmaster was awesome. And Man Thing was awesome. And the ending was a very nice touch. Actually gonna get some 2nd prints of issues #1 and #2. If you don’t want to wait for the trade, if you do want to read it now, let us know we can have you all four issues in two weeks!
I VAMPIRE #12 – HA! Explained/recapped everything. Perfectly. And Stormwatch showed up. James will be happy to hear that the question of, “Who are we supposed to be stopping?” was answered with, “Just look for the guy with the white hair.” HA! And according to Mindnighter — he had binoculars and a much better look — Mary is indeed naked. HA! And the non-fight with Apollo was great. As was Twig. As was the ending. Second best book of the week!
RACHEL RISING #10 – Absolutely no way they would top last issue. Was the second best book of July. But without a doubt another very good issue. Lovin’ evil Jet! 
SCALPED #60 – Just decided to win. Easily the Best Book of the Week. A great last issue caps off an extraordinary series. Even with the shipping delay I fell right back into the story and the issue reinforced to me just how good Scalped really is. And now was. Thank you, Jason Aaron. Thank you, RM Guera. Thanks to everyone involved for giving us one of the Best Comic Book Series of All Time!
SUPERCROOKS #4 (OF 4) – Had plenty of Mark Millar twist to it. It was a superhero robbery story in essence. Will have to read it in its entirety again to see how well those twists and turns actually worked. But it was very cool when I was reading it and had a very interesting ending. Will totally be a trade paperback spotlight. Keep your eyes peeled!
UNCANNY X-MEN #17 AVX – This was my complaint about the Mr. Sinister story four months ago when it started! It’s so far behind current events at this point the story doesn’t matter! But… BUT… it was good. And how they “Phoenix’d” Mr. Sinister was incredible! Plus it does look like Uncanny will catch up with the timeline next month.
Besides that, all I got to say is I hope you enjoyed your delayed copy of BATMAN INCORPORATED #3. I did like it but shipping delay and Grant Morrison do not belong in the same sentence. Not your fault, Grant! Still see no reason why we had to hold it.
And although there will still be a Voodoo Zero issue coming out and her adventures will continue in the pages of Grifter, I would like to say goodbye to my beloved Voodoo this week. VOODOO #12 summed up my feelings with one simple line. “I feel bad for you, Voodoo." As do I. If you want to know the real Voodoo, read this… or this. It will make you feel better.
See ya!
Rusty
I guess I won’t have to narrow down my weekly pics since they are weeding themselves out rather quickly. I’ll miss Voodoo. With the story coming to a point where “both” Voodoo’s were together I was eagerly waiting to see what would happen next. I guess they will have to hug it out in a page or two then say goodbye all together.
Why can’t DC get a good monthly together with a strong female lead?
Wonder Woman, Batwoman, Batgirl, Supergirl, Silk Spectre (mini-series), Birds of Prey, Voodoo, World’s Finest, Phantom Lady (mini starting soon) – not all great but DC has had a history of books with strong female leads, one area where Marvel has never succeeded.
Scalped #60 wins. Wrapped up everything nicely to a very well done series. Could not think of a better way to finish it. Dr. Manhattan #1 bugged me because it was mostly rehash of what happened in Watchmen with nothing new explored, but the ending has me wanting to read the next issue to see if it will do something interesting.
I, Vampire #12 was awesome, and the twist at the end was fantastic. The pace of that book could not be better. One problem though: I am looking forward to the Zero issues next month for the New 52 to see what they do with them, but some of them are coming at a very bad time. Swamp Thing and Animal Man finally start their crossover after about six issues of set-up, but now we have to wait a month to read it because we get the Zero issues. With I, Vampire I want to continue reading the current plot, not jump back in time. Some books it’ll work fine for, like Batman since its not in the middle of a story arc. Just my two cents, but it does seem like a nuisance in some cases.
As with any major event, individual story lines always take a back sheet. I would think, though, that most of the writers knew this was coming down the pipeline. Some writers are just better at dealing with these minor inconveniences than others. But, it is strange that Snyder was able to space in the Batman Zero issue with little effect, but not Swamp Thing. Then again, Swamp Thing and Animal Man are linked and there’s the two separate writer business to take into account.
Regardless, there’s no easy way to go about doing any event, let alone a zero issue event without some collateral annoyance. However, for the time being, I’ll cut DC some slack and go with the flow.
It the zero event fails, then it fails. Sales numbers and commentary will be all to clear if it does fail. And, we (comic readers in general), will give them an ear-full through our various social media outlets.
We’ll probably get the good with bad as with any event. Personally, I’m hoping for good self-contained stories and new takes on character origins.
Oh, BTW. I hated the art on Daredevil. And, the nostalgic story didn’t work for me. The whole issue felt half-hearted and fake. Such a shame as the preceding story arc was really good.
I want to throw some love to Justice League Dark. It got really good once Lemire took it over. I really like it.