Comic Reviews - Boy, I Bought a Lot of TPBs.
Saga #4 - The memorable scene in this issue is The Will walking onto a sex planet (leaving the Liar Cat in his ship), where we see a lot of graphic and novel acts/beings. He gets introduced into a sex slave, who turns out to be a six year old girl, which causes The Will to kill the guy that brought him there, showing he's not all bad. With our heroes, we see Alana and Izabel hanging out and discussing relationships until Marko wakes up. Then, Alana and Marko have a heartfelt (and humorous) about Gwendolyn, Marko's old fiancée. They make up, but just as an airship (who are they?!) comes down and Marko draws his sword (which he does a lot for a guy who vowed never to do that again). Like Alana and Marko's conversation, the issue is mostly heartfelt and humorous without going too far over the edge in either direction. Still one of the best books on the market right now.
Ame-Comi: Wonder Woman #3 - Most of this issue is Wonder Woman fighting a cheetah lady (I guess she's named Cheetah ... yeah). The art is cartoony, but not quite up to Amanda Conner's quality. Once Wonder Woman wins, we see that the attack at the UN was the work of the (female) Joker, which leads to the other series. It was alright, but WW's terrible costume and sub-par art bring it down.
Ame-Comi: Batgirl #1 - Babs and Carrie (I think based on the DKR Robin) are going for a night out on the two (we see James Gordon in a wheel chair, unsure if he's paralyzed or old). Jump to Poison Ivy terrorizing a couple (on their first date) and Batgirl and Robin swooping in to save the day. There's a pretty good fight where they beat up Ivy, but they Catwoman and Harley show up (pretty obviously using Ivy as a setup) and get into the mix. The artwork is scratchier than WW's, which I like. Interesting setup, guess we'll see where the Joker's plan is going from here.
Batwoman #10 - Batwoman's fighting her way to the person creating the nightmares which attack Gotham and has a big fight with Killer Croc. Her father is still feeling guilty over Batwoman's cousin being in a coma, while also being upset that he favored Batwoman's sister over her. In the end, we see that Sune (Batwoman's partner) is really Maro Ito (?), who wants to kill Batwoman. The time jumping is getting really annoying. We only get a couple of pages to look at each character and I've long ago lost the thread of the plot. The art's great as always, with the non-standard panels serving the story pretty well.
Legends of the Dark Knight #1-3 - Like the Ame-Comis, this is a short, made for digital, $0.99 series, this time telling one off (for now) stories. The first is about Batman being smug to Alfred, telling him he has no weaknesses. Later, while running along the rooftops, he comes across a family being threatened by a gunman and jumps down blindly to help. Turns out the family is a plant and they jump Batman to beat him to a pulp. As Batman's wondering who found out his history, Alfred comes out and tells Batman that he found a weakness. Cheaky, but fun and to the point.
The second issue has Batman systematically take out a being designed to mimic the JL's collective superpowers, all on the JL satellite. It's a really smart and well paced battle with a single mind. Good action.
The third is Batman and Robin finding out (somehow?) that some guy is planning to rob the aquarium where used to work and grab him to stop the crime. Because the guy never bought bullets, B&R give him a speech and a chance not to commit the crime, then swing off into the night. I didn't like this one. The guy's going to rob the place because his daughter is sick, but Batman's response to the cry for help is "figure it out", which is ultra-cold. Also, the plot doesn't make much sense 'cause we don't know why Batman was looking into this guy in the first place. Does he have every credit card under surveillance? And the art is pretty cold with overly air brushed.
Secret Avengers #28 - The SA are still on Hala (I think), the Phoenix force is coming to destroy the planet, Captain Marvel sacrifices his life to slow it down, then Captain Britain gains his confidence back and actually does stop the Phoenix force. It's all kinda ... I don't care.
Wonder Woman #10 - Here we get the resolution of Wonder Woman's marriage to Hell. He wants her to prove her love to him. She says she loves him, but will not be bound by marriage to anyone who demands proof, breaks her bonds and escapes. It's a pretty neat scene, where she says she loves everybody, but is basically an independent person. Also, apparently Eros' guns only work for those who love themselves (which Hell obviously doesn't). While leaving Hell, WW turns and shots Hell with Eros' gun, which ends the issue. I'm assuming he now loves her, but I don't know to what end.
American Vampire TPB vol. 02 - This volume of AmVamp takes place in Las Vegas, mostly following a sheriff trying to deal with the increase in crime/prostitution/gambling while also trying to figure out the murders of some of the big wigs that are building the Hoover Dam. The murders are being committed by vampires, which is why a couple of "federal agents" show up to help (they end of being vampire hunters, one of which is Felicia Book, the daughter of James Book and his god-daughter). There's a little side story of Felicia's mother going up to Pearl trying to figure out the weakness of the American vampires. Pearl obviously doesn't want to give this up, but her BF gives away the secret to keep the hunters off of Pearl. There's also a bit about Hattie not being dead, but being tortured to figure out her weakness, but ends with her escaping her captives and doesn't tie in with the greater story (yet). AmVamp continues to be a visceral and with really awesome artwork. I really, really love this series.
Atomic Robo and the Ghost of Station X TPB vol. 06 - Robo gets sent up to space on a fake mission in what turns out to be an attempt on his life. Afterwards, the attempts keep coming while he tries to figure out why. Meanwhile, a couple of dolts that work for Robo are sent to figure out the mystery of the disappearing building. The more they look into it, the more they find missing records so well deleted that they don't seem to have existed in the first place. The two stories end up meeting in the end when we find the building houses a computer built by Alan Turing that has evolved a consciousness and is out to kill Robo in the most round about way possible. The Turing-computer has decided to leave Earth to learn more about the universe and invites Robo along, but since the launch would destroy all life on the planet, Robo fights back and kills the computer, with a nice speech about the worth of life. Awesome book, with Robo embodying the best of humanity and its possibilities.
B.P.R.D. Being Human TPB vol. 16 - Being Human shows the BPRD characters at their earliest. We get Liz being taken by the professor to her first haunting, which ends up going bad until she figures out how to stop the ghosts. We get Liz and Abe on a mission that goes bad, Abe losing an agent and Liz helping him get over it. We get Roger (Roger!) being trusted by Hellboy and taken out on his first mission, getting over his fear of killing by learning that you sometimes have to to save the ones you love (and agonizing over it proves his humanity). Finally, we get Johann immediately after losing his body, trying and failing to avenge a murder but being found by the BPRD and given a suit and a purpose. Sweet set of stories, but they have the fill in feeling of all these out of order stories that flesh out character's pasts without moving anything forward.
The Unwritten TPB vol. 04 - This volume was all about whales. Tom Taylor goes to Melville's house and gets into the Moby Dick story. Here we learn some things about his traveling through stories, mainly that he can also jump between stories as long as they have common elements. So, from Mody Dick, Tom can jump to other stories about oceans or whales, but since there is only one story with the Pequod, can't jump to any other story through the ship. This jumping leads Tom to a generic whale that contains characters like Jonah and Pinocchio, but the whale is actually a metaphor of Hobbe's for the collective unconscious of the masses, teaching Tom that his power comes from all the people that read the Tommy books and believe that he (Tom/Tommy) can do magic. Elsewhere, we get Lizzie and Tommy sleeping together and Lizzie and Richie being controlled like puppets by Rausch (which doesn't lead to anything this volume). Probably the most literally volume that focuses on a single theme and follows it through to the end. Not a lot of action, but the story is lean and tight.
The Unwritten TPB vol. 05 - This volume of The Unwritten is a bit more action oriented. Tom's father's stuff is being auctoned off and the gang decides to break into the auction house to steal Wilson's notebooks. They get kidnapped and auctioned off to the highest bidder, but Tom sneaks his magic wand and magics his way out of the situation. The notebooks are written in a confusing manner, but Tom discovers that reading them in the locations that they describe bring about visions of what was actually happening. Through this device, we see Tom's father, before he should have even been born, working for the mysterious cabal out on a mission to kill the creator of a comic book that predates Superman. This creator ends up being a woman writing under a pseudonym and trying to create a new mythology for America. He tries to save the woman instead, but she ends up pregnant and in a madhouse. Tom eventually finds this child, who is now and old man and also the woman's comic book creation at the same time. He eventually dies, showing Tom the extent that his father manipulated both of them and with a leaving Tom with a desire for vengeance. Like I said, much more action orienented and while the back story doesn't advance the plot, it seems to give motivation for Tom to take action.
FCBD: The Hypernaturals - Hypernaturals follows a group of post singularity (how does that work???) heroes that work in a military manner to fight some sort of bad guy, I forget the details. I remember the concept being mildly interesting, but the characters and costume designs are cliché and the art not that great. Shame, a creator owned DnA book sounded cool
ASM 687 - We get Silver Sable sacrificing her life to hold back Rhino while Spider-Man defeats Doc Oct with a mixture of power and smarts. Decent conclusion, but I wish they did more with Peter's knowledge that Doc Oct is using his technologies. It's kind of mentioned, but nothing really comes of it.
Conan 5 - On his way to his execution, Belit convinces the guards to let Conan fight for his freedom, which led to a really awesome battle between Conan with his legs in chains against a bigger, slower opponent. Not much else happens in the issue, though Belit takes out a couple of guards in a sweet ambush. The writing is solid and James Harren's art works great with all the action.
Punisher 12 - Punisher's a hardass here. We start with Cole-Alves meeting up with Norah Winters and getting Norah to go to her apartment to get a picture of Cole-Alves and her husband. Punisher intercepts Norah, figures out where Cole-Alves is waiting, then basically kicks her ass. Afterwards, he gives a big speech about how they are both dead and not deserving of any comfort, basically convincing her to give up all anger and hate to focus on the mission of revenge. Glad the two of them are back on the same page, though Cole-Alves being dehumanized is pretty sad, if inevitable.
Avenging Spider-Man 8 - An epilogue to Ends of the Earth, we see a flashback to an early teamup between Spider-Man and Silver Sable with Doctor Strange helping out. Dr. Doom wants to marry a woman to increase his magic and Doctor Strange wants her to marry Spider-Man instead. He doesn't go for it, but does go find the woman's true love, which eventually stops Dr. Doom's plan and causes him to leave. The whole thing is kinda Silver Agey in the writing and art, which I didn't dig too much, and I don't think it was too fitting of a tribute to Silver Sable's death, but it was funny at times, so not all bad.
Wolverine 308 - Wolverine is mind controlled, but he manages to break through it when he confronts his ex. Then he snikts everyone to death. Not subtle, but the reveal that he is missing some of his memories is interesting, as is the discovery that the Weapon X programs has instilled other trigger phrases in his mind. Let's see if something comes of it.