Hey y’all!
Not a ton of comics this week. The big DC events start here so we’ve got the
introduction of those as well as the continuing of the incredibly fun Young Justice. I also read Uncanny X-Men #17, but I just don’t have
anything left to say about it. Matthew Rosenberg still doesn’t understand the
characters and the art is still good. Jonathon Hickman can’t get here fast
enough. But let’s get into the other comics!
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| I needed somewhere to throw this dope Francis Manapul spread |
Comics Reviewed: DC’s
Year of the Villain Special, Young Justice #5
DC’s Year of the Villain Special
Writers: Scott Snyder, Brian Michael Bendis, and James
Tynion IV
Artists: Jim Cheung, Alex Maleev, and Francis Manapul
Colors: Tomeu Morey, Maleev, and Manapul
Inks: Cheung and Manapul
Letters: Tom Napolitano and Joshua Reed
Cover: Greg Capullo and FCO
Man, this sure is a comic book-ass
comic book, it's a one-shot meant to setup the two upcoming events in the DC
Universe: the titular Year of the Villain
and the atrociously named Event Leviathan.
It serves one of those stories better than the other.
This
comic is split into three chapters, the first of which is focused on Lex
Luthor. He attacks the White House before returning to his office and laying
out his plan for Brainiac (Who isn’t dead I guess?). This is a fine prologue
for the upcoming event, but I have to question it being in the same issue as a
prologue to the Event Leviathan
comic. In the current “Leviathan Rising” arc in Action Comics, pretty much every major spy or intelligence agency
has been destroyed. And yet, Amanda Waller shows up to the White House in this
issue as a representative of the 650 agencies she runs. I understand not every
story can match up perfectly with every other story, but DC has repeatedly
touted how collaborative everyone is and how the comics are going to be more
interconnected of late. I would definitely expect the two big events have
communicated with each other. Maybe it will all make perfect sense when the
stories are finished. But in the meantime, it doesn’t seem to fit.
Then
there’s Lex Luthor’s grand plan. I’m pretty far behind on Justice League so I
haven’t been clued into Luthor’s mindset, but this doesn’t seem like the
greatest plan. He plans to dissolve his wealth and assets and provide them any
villain that accepts “The Offer.” Although it isn’t actually explained here,
said offer appears to be whatever they need to defeat their assigned villain.
However, Luthor heavily implies that some villains (i.e. Bane and his crew) are
already unknowingly working for him. So I don’t really understand what this
event is going to be. Are all the villains teaming up or aren’t they?
This is
a problem that rolls over into the third chapter of this issue. This chapter is
split into two sections. The first one features the Justice League evacuating
planets to save their peoples some expanding void. I assume said void has
something to do with the hole in the Source Wall, but who knows. They then
gather to talk about how long they’ve been away from Earth and that the Legion
of Doom has probably found a way to free Perpetua, the creator of the universe.
They’ll need to call in all the heroes to beat Perpetua and the Legion. The
last few pages are dedicated to a third-person Perpetua monologue. This
basically acts as a way to show us that the Legion of Doom and The Batman Who
Laughs are going to be integral to her plans. She also has a Lex Luthor in a
stasis tube, but I have no idea if this is the OG Luthor or some sort of clone.
But she says he’s evolving soo… cool, I guess? I really have no idea what this
event is going to be about.
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| I dig the dueling hero/villain spreads in this comic |
The
middle chapter of this issue is my favorite, but also isn’t much. Batgirl and
Green Arrow take down Merlyn, who is trying to escape whoever (Presumably
Leviathan) is taking down various organizations across the world. They are all
caught in the big white explosion that has been taking out organizations in Action. Batgirl wakes up in darkness and
is spoken to by a weird robotic looking masked character. Meanwhile, in the Batcave,
Bruce and Damian Wayne have a meeting where Damian reveals he believes Jason
Todd is the culprit.
I
thought this was a fascinating tease, something that is one of Bendis’
strengths. Not a ton happens. The mysterious Leviathan character that speaks to
Batgirl says they just want peace and a better world. Many a villain, both in
and outside comics, has used this as a justification for their actions. I
certainly hope there is more to this story than a mysterious villain that wants
to “save” the world. Which is where the final scene comes in. By making Jason
the primary suspect, Bendis has already made me question everything I had been
assuming about where this story is going. Color my interested.
Unlike
the overall uneven story in this issue, the art is fantastic throughout.
Cheung, Maleev, and Manapul are some of the best artists in comics. There isn’t
much for me to say, everything is clear and features good composition and some
interesting panel layouts. My only quibble is that I miss Manapul’s old, more
watercolor art style. That was maybe my favorite comic art I have ever seen.
But his current style is still really good.
Verdict: Buy (Its free)
Young Justice #5
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: John Timms, Kris Anka, and Evan “Doc” Shaner
Colors: Greg Eltaeb
Letters: Wes Abbott
Cover: Patrick Gleason and Alejandro Sanchez
This
sure is a good comic. It is basically a big fight scene with a break to tell us
how Tim Drake got from the end of James Tynion IV’s Detective Comics run to being a superhero in Metropolis in the
first issue of this series. Tim and his girlfriend, Stephanie, are making out
on the hood of their car outside the Hall of Justice. They met their future
selves (from another timeline) at the end of that Detective run and have been investigating whether or not that is
their actual future ever since while everyone thinks they’re off at college.
Zatanna shows up and they ask her to look inside Tim’s head and try to find out
why it has stuck with him so much. She does and his memories of the OG Young
Justice return. Stephanie has to go deal with her supervillain father and Tim
needs to go figure out what happened to Young Justice so they split up for now.
In the present, Dark Lord Opal’s powers start ripping reality apart.
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| Was Lobo's daughter always a YJ character? |
The
actual story this comic is telling is pretty mediocre, but the character
focused stories are excellent. Every issue’s flashback segment is the best part
and is the best part of any comic I read that week more often than not. Bendis
really understands these characters and what makes them tick. I
almost wish the entire series was that kind of story. Hopefully we get more of
that once this story arc is over and the characters return to their world.
Because the super heroics are just fine. They can be interesting at times, but
not as a whole.
As
for the art… Look, for whatever reason, Patrick Gleason didn’t draw this comic
and has been struggling to finish the last two or three issues. I know he isn’t
exactly a young man and I hope he is taking care of himself. I also he can
return to this comic as soon as possible because the three artists in this book
good, but they’re not Gleason. Eltaeb does a fantastic job in this issue to
make the switch between these artists not jarring. I barely noticed when the changes
occurred.
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