The Vigil #4 – Ram V, Writer; Devmalya Pramanik, Artist; Rain Beredo, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: Ram V’s look into a complex, ruthless government-sponsored Indian super-team has been fascinating, as it reveals the secrets of its members one by one. This issue, it’s Dinah’s turn, and she seems in some ways the most normal of the crew. She’s not a government super-soldier, nor is she a mysterious shapeshifter. She’s just a young woman, a boxer, and a survivor of an emotionally abusive childhood—until her powers kicked in during a fight and she killed an opponent. She was facing murder charges until she was rescued and given a second chance by their mysterious benefactor—something the entire team seems to have in common. But that’s not all they have in common, and as a mission builds to an intense conclusion and we meet a mysterious new player who seems to be looking to buy himself into the superhuman arms race, we build to a conclusion with one line that upends the entire concept of the series.
Icon vs. Hardware #4 – Reginald Hudlin/Leon Chills, Writers; Atugan Ilhan/Wade Von Grawbadger, Denys Cowan/John Stanisci, Yasmin Flores Montanez, Artists; Christopher Sotomayor, Colorist
Ray – 8/10
Ray: The current main event in the Milestone universe, this wildly ambitious series is packed with ideas—maybe a few too many ideas. After all, it’s not every day you see a comic that has time-travel rewriting the history of race one one hand, and a murder-mystery conspiracy in a Swiss boarding school in the other. Icon and Hardware seem to have put their enmity aside for now to stem the tide of time anomalies caused by Hardware’s meddling, and that pulls in most of the heroes of Dakota. One scene by Denys Cowan featuring Static and his supporting cast taking on time-traveling Nazis is fantastic, but the others featuring the Blood Syndicate don’t make much of an impact. Neither does a return to Rocket’s school, which feels actively out of place, but the presence of two major DC villains and their multiversal counterparts is a unique twist that makes this worth following—despite the art shifts and delays.
Batman: White Knight Presents Generation Joker #4 – Sean Murphy/Katana Collins/Clay McCormack, Writers; Mirka Andolfo, Artist; Alejandro Sanchez, Colorist
Ray – 7/10
Ray: As the White Knight saga nears its new arc, this mini has focused entirely on the Joker Twins, Jackie and Bryce, as they chase their father’s legacy. With the Joker program degraded and near its end, they seek out Mr. Freeze for help reviving Jack Napier—only to be met with a shocking betrayal. Mr. Freeze in this universe is pretty interesting, a morally complex character just like his main version, but with an even darker past. Meanwhile, Murphy is working towards introducing his own version of the Justice League in this world, and we see Diana Prince and John Stewart take a more active role as members of the FBI. However, this issue is plagued by one big problem—every character seems to make the most dramatic decision at any given moment, regardless of how much sense it makes, and that largely leaves us in the same place we previously were, just with a lot more shouting.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
