An Abundance of Comics

Morning Ramble 391: An Abundance of Comics

Today I didn’t get a chance to put in any game time but I read a bunch of comics…here’s a few rambles about them…

Marvel 1963: Journey Into Mystery #88: The Vengeance of Loki

This issue seems to follow a standard pattern for Thor dealing with Loki, though it appears Loki now knows Thor’s secret identity. I understand the 60 second timing for geting his hand back on the hammer is important to the character right now, but it seems to be the turning point of each issue right now. It’s time to move away from this crutch. I rate this issue a C and hope to see some other story mechanisms in the next issue.

Marvel 1963: Strange Tales #104: The Human Torch meets Paste-Pot Pete

With the introduction of Paste-Pot Pete, I can see why this issue displays the ‘Essential’ moniker on the Complete Marvel Reading Order site, but it’s still not that great of an issue. Pete is basically a small time criminal who, using his special paste gun, tries to punch way over his ability, including trying to steal the most powerful rocket invented. Even though he encounters some small setbacks, the Human Torch handles Pete pretty easily and actually exhibits some new abilities but it doesn’t raise my rating of this issue above a C+.

DC Darkseid War: Justice League #41, #42, and #43

In my reading of DC comics, I’ve made it to the Darkseid War and keep forging ahead to get to the actual Rebirth issues. These 3 Justice League issues I read are a bit confusing for someone just starting out in the DC Universe since I’m not familiar with all the players. On the super team itself, I’m not very knowledgeable about Shazam and I only really know Cyborg from the Teen Titans cartoons. Then they throw an army of bad guys that I may have heard their names before, but I’m pretty ignorant of their abilities, loyalties, and nature. But putting all the confusion aside, I enjoyed the story.

The basic idea seems to be that Darkseid is determined to destroy the Earth because the Justice League previously thwarted his plans. But while he’s sent agents to begin the process, other forces are at work trying to stop him, and they’re not of the Earth. Apparently Darkseid’s daughter, Grail, doesn’t like him very much and she’s working with a being called the Anti-Monitor to stop her father. But they’ve got a timing problem, Darkseid is not on Earth yet, so Grail and the Anti-Monitor start kicking the crap outta the Justice League. When things look really bad, a guy named Metron shows up and teleports the team away with his device called a Mother Box. Apparently a bunch of these alien types have Mother Boxes and they allow people to bounce from place to place and provide all kinds of information. In any case, the team was saved by this guy and to repay him, they knock Metron off his super knowledgeable chair and Batman jumps on it, gaining access to all kinds of neat info – except the origin of the Anti-Monitor.

Meanwhile, Superman and his ‘best friend’ Lex Luthor find themselves transported to Apokolips, Darkseid’s world, by Lex’s sister who also shot him. The idea was to destroy Superman who, away from the sun’s radiation, would slowly lose his powers. While the minions of Darkseid begin their assault and actually bloody Superman in his weakened state, Lux grabs him and throws him into the fire pits…and Superman regains his powers but comes out a bit less of a boyscout. Now he’s looking to hurt Luthor (I knew the friendship wouldn’t last).

The whole set of issues end up with the Anti-Monitor and his buddies facing off against Darkseid and his minions in what looks like Seattle. The Justice League are there but who knows what side they’re gonna end up on and then there’s this guy Mister Miracle, a.k.a. Scot Free, who’s also trying to help out but… like I said, it’s a bit confusing but the story is enjoyable.

My rating for the 3 issues are as follow:

• #41: B+ – This one’s got a bit of mystery to it and a touch of the Terminator hunting for Sarah Connor but it really shines when showing Grail beating up on the Justice League.
• #42: B – Things start to solidify as to what’s going on since we now know all the players and see that there are at least 3 different sides to the battle.
• #43: B+ – The big battle finally gets started and Superman second guesses why he hasn’t killed Luthor before now.