Civil War #3
Okay let's just get this out of the way: Thor being a government toadie, not to mention pro-registration at all, is very out-of-character especially considered what he supposed learned from being King Thor. There's just no getting around it. Now with that said, I'll point out that we don't know the full story behind this and Millar might have a completely reasonable, not-at-all out of character explanation for this. I doubt he will, considering how out of character others such as Reed Richards and Spider-Man has been written...but that's always a possibility yet to come. As it is, I have to admit I'm curious as to what Millar's planning. I wish Thor had a better return to the Marvel U than this -- completely spoiled months in advance and way out of character -- but I am curious.
Something I did like was Emma Frost's exchange with Iron Man, during which she says exactly what everyone wishes the X-Men would say more to more mainstream superheroes: where were they when the mutants needed them? Where were the speeches and the rallies and the public opinion-altering appearances from mainstream heroes when mutants were getting publicly lynched throughout the Marvel universe? When their race was being massacred on Genosha?
A nitpick; Millar had been doing of decent job of keeping his Millarisms -- ludicrously excessive usage of pronouns like "sir," "buddy," "pal," at the ends of sentences -- to a minumum during the first two issues, and unfortunately they seem to be creeping back in starting with this conversation.
A decent enough issue I suppose; the first two were stronger I think, and generally I really don't think that this whole Civil War business is my sort of entertainment, seeing as how I just don't like seeing good guys be *****ebags and fight and be negative all the time. I practically skipped all of season 3 of Angel, for poop's sake, and I never skip Joss Whedon.
(7.7 out of 10)
Ion #4
Oh, there's about to be all kinds of badass up in here.
As soon as I saw that yellow demonish thing on the cover of #5, I'd suspected Alex Nero. He's an obvious choice given his connection to the former power of Ion...but, on the other hand, it was almost too obvious. Too unsubtle. We'll see how it plays out, but I'm definitely on board.
Interestingly, Alex Nero isn't even a Marz villain; he was Judd Winick's creation. It just goes to show how well-versed Marz is in Kyle's history and how much he's willing to respect that.
It was actually a tad disappointing just how little actually happened in this issue. Kyle and Hal fight, we find out it wasn't Kyle, and then the real Kyle appears. In a way I almost wish it had been the real Kyle and not an imposter, so that those scenes would have carried a bit more relevancy to the character. But again, we'll see how this all works out.
(7.8 out of 10)
X-Factor #8
As much as I love what PAD has done with Layla, I do hope that he gets around to making her just a tad more sympathetic soon. I mean, she is sympathetic, but I have a sore spot against characters who seem to know everything and yet won't say anything about it because they just can't or whatever.
Jamie Madrox was the guy who got me into this series from his miniseries, and it's nice to see him grab the spotlight almost for this entire issue. Like Frontline, at this point this book is pretty firmly anti-reg, with some pro-reg comments thrown almost grudgingly, and it's nice to see that this is the one matter of all matters that really gets Jamie to make a firm decision one way or another.
As for the Astonishing X-Men team being portrayed as *****ebags; maybe I'm just getting numb to people all of a sudden acting like *****ebags in the Marvel U, but it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would.
(8.5 out of 10)
52 Week 11
Continues to be a solid book. I'm not really as interested in Renee's storyline as some others might be, but with Batwoman on the scene it's beginning to pick up. As for Batwoman herself, the girl of the hour, well...she needs to have a more intricate characterization than "rich buxom lesbian" if she's going to survive the critical fan masses, but we'll give it some time (I've been saying that a lot this week, haven't I?).
On the other hand I am interested in Ralph's storyline, but almost nothing's been going on in it. Hmm...
History of the DCU rolls to a finish, with an interesting surprise guest star at the end. It was an ambitious gesture for the DCU, but pretty much ended up feeling a bit lukewarm. I actually don't see what the big deal is that Donna and some others survived the Crisis when she should have died. First of all it's a bit of a curveball, considering that during no point in the Crisis was Donna in a position to die in lieu of Jade. Secondly, well...the future gets changed all the time in the DCU. There's no such thing as a set timeline, a set future; it's all fluid. Things that are supposed to happen change all the time. Most of DCU: One Million as envisioned by Morrison is already moot. What's so important about Donna and Kyle and Dick not dying when they should have? So things didn't go according to what destiny or whatever said they were going to go...big whoop. Instead of "HMM! This is so strange! This bears monitoring!!", the Monitors should really be saying "Again?"
(7.5 out of 10)
Checkmate #4
The book that everyone should be reading but, unfortunately due to the very nature of the book being political espionage, probably no one will. That's too bad, 'cause you'd be missing out on a lot of Alan Scott's badassery.
The China plotline wraps up in a very old school, Saturday morning cartoon sort of way wherein Alan simply flies in to the rescue and admonishes those who need to be admonished and everything ends pretty okay. And that's okay, since Alan is old school, the oldest school, and that's exactly the "lesson" that he wants to drive across: that you can look to other methods than the obvious violent ones and still get the result you want. It's a classic superhero stance, and to see it here in a very shady political government climate is interesting.
What's also interesting is that, in a way, Alan is also wrong. Like Sasha said a few issues ago, not everyone has the power of the Starheart to make their choices easy and their lives uncomplicated. The more power you have the more leeway you have in which to do things, and the problem is that all that power in the hands of one nation, or one person, is what starts most of these problems in the first place.
Anyway, the ending seems to suggest that Alan may not be the White King for very long. It's probably a fakeout, but if it's true then that'd be a shame, since he brings a lot to this book.
(9 out of 10)
Justice League of America #0
First of all, let me just say that the writing is superb. Meltzer is amongst the best in this field and this issue shows why. The emotions and the dialogue all hit the right spots where they should, over and over again.
With that out of the way, let me just say that some of this issue left me feeling...awkward. Uncertain. I'm not sure if I liked his technique of showing some future events in addition to the past. Like I said in the 52 review, the future in comic books is completely fluid. Why show these events if they're just going to be easily contradicted in an issue of Superman or Wonder Woman or, indeed, if they never really come to pass at all? I'm not really interested in alternate futures or alternate realities or timelines or whatever if they have no relevance to our current universe, to the present.
Another thing is that I'm not crazy about is the refoldings of history as Meltzer has done in this issue. Once again, Wonder Woman has been made a part of the DCU and the League for as long as Superman and Batman. I'm of mixed feelings about this because, in a way, this is a retcon that undoes another retcon and sets things back to the way that the DCU was originally. How can I complain about retconning when it is, to put it bluntly, actually an anti-retcon that brings us back full-circle?
On the other hand, if events unfolded the way they unfolded in this issue then very important portions of George Perez's revamp of Wonder Woman in the eighties, which was simply flat-out superb, is rendered invalid (In Perez's retelling, Wonder Woman wasn't a part of the League until the international phase, and this was directly and numerously commented upon in her books). I know that DC's policy on these CRISIS!!!!! reboots is that events did happen the way that they originally did and that's how it got us to this point of continuity, but it's still just slightly unsettling. Hearing Diana talk about how she could never have another sidekick after Donna when, in terms of continuity, Donna was never Diana's sidekick...it's just raises some unwelcome eyebrows.
But again, Meltzer shows his immense knowledge and respect and admiration for the DCU's history, incorporating it all into one single issue, and I can't get too upset at that no matter what. When Marvel seems to be doing everything in their power to forget their past, the DCU's embrace of it is incredibly touching.
(8 out of 10)
8/10
