Comic Reviews - Part II
Glory #34 - Months after the invasion, Glory is sulking over the deaths of her friends. She ends up making a deal with the gods, letting her enter the afterlife to say goodbye (ie, spring them) in exchange for never going there herself when she dies. There, she finds her friends happy and unwilling to return. They all say goodbye and await the day she will join them, Glory not telling them it will never happen. The issue (and series) ends with Glory, her parents, and her sisters in a space Winnebago going on an adventure, which seems like an awesome story that won't be told. The entire series was great, bringing pathos to an ultraviolent superhero story with amazing art. Sad to see it go.
Deadpool #6 - Deadpool ends up defeating Washington by rushing into Washington's protective bubble, using his healing factor to survive, and ends things with a big fight. It's an ending. The interesting development is that the dead SHIELD agent who hired Deadpool is now living in his overcrowded mind.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Infinite Comic #3 - This issue follows Gamora and most ties into the Guardians of the Galaxy series proper. Gamora fights a bunch of Badoons who were enslaving a people. The story is set up with some captions, then is a mostly silent fight scene, ending with Peter Quill showing up and asking for help to deal with his father. Since it's mainly a long fight scene, it hinges on the art. The art itself nice. The creators played with the "Infinity Comics" part a lot, seemingly throwing things against the wall to see what will stick. Lots of interesting "camera" moves and opening introduction reminds me of anime or video game. Most of it works and I'm anxious to see how others will take these experiments with the story telling.
The Private Eye #1 - BKV and Marcos Martin write a digital comic about a future post privacy (if that makes sense). The citizens all conceal their identity (kind of like using usernames online) using masks and such and society seems to run on one's identity. Newsmen essentially act as police and our main character is a paparazzi, essentially acting like a private investigator. He gets a client who wants him to find out everything he can about her so she knows what information is out there. After accepting the job, the client goes home and gets killed. The issue sets up the story and universe more than anything, but the universe is super interesting, the art is kinetic and brightly, colorfully inventive. I'm going to stick around for this.
Secret Avengers #2 - While AIM is doing things, "Nick Fury" and the Secret Avengers break Taskmaster out of that villain city from the previous city. The leader of AIM wants to ramp up AIM's reach and do the take over the world thing and the Secret Avengers are sending Taskmaster in undercover to help. It is what it is.
Thanos Rising #1 - Jason Arron is telling how Thanos became Thanos. We follow him from his birth (where his mother tries to kill him) until he becomes a young child at school. He is eternally upbeat and optimistic despite being shunned for his purple skin. Eventually, a strange girl tells him about something in some caves and he takes his friends there. The caves collapse, trapping Thanos and killing the others. In his escape, Thanos finds his dead friends eaten by lizards that he thought of as friends and, in his grief, the strange girl pushes Thanos to go out and kill the lizards in anger. It's the first time we see Thanos being angry and acting out. Wondering who the strange girl is, though. I'm mildly interested in the story so far, but I hope Arron ramps the excitement up a bit. The art is pretty nice, but I dislike airbrush quality to the coloring.
Uncanny X-Force #3 - Bishop has run off with the girl, so X-Force and Spiral team up to hunt him down, leading a sweet, extended fight sequence in a train tunnel. It ends with Spiral escaping with the girl and Psyloche going into Bishops mind, which seems to be a trap laid for her. Also, Fantomex and Lady Fantomex have hijacked a plane to California to find Psyloche before their evil version finds her, which I find fairly interesting in an uncomfortable way. On the whole, a fun action comic.
Wonder Woman #18 - Wonder Woman has a pretty brutal fight with Hermes (why did he turn on her?) with Orion coming in for a last minute save. At the same time, Death has an encounter with Demeter and runs off with Zola's baby. When WW finally gets to Demeter, she finds the baby gone and is depressed for trusting Death and failing in her mission, but Orion manages to cheer her up a bit. When she returns home, she finds Death did actually return with the baby and we are left with one fucked up family "photo" on the last page. Elsewhere, the First Born fights Poseidon and gets eaten, so that's that. Pretty fun issue, ending one part of the tale, but leaving plenty of open questions to be explored further.