Mr. Terrific: Year One #3 – Al Letson, Writer; Valentine De Landro, Artist; Marissa Louise, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: This compelling miniseries continues to unfold as Michael Holt takes his first step into superheroes. In the present day, he’s deep into investigating the mysterious rifts plaguing the Justice League, and some of the visuals here are great. It’s impressive just how neatly De Landro shifts art styles between this and the more noir-accented present day. There, Holt is ready to step up as the new Mr. Terrific, just in time to stop his late wife’s work from being corrupted. That means a spy mission – but he may be in over his head against the security team hired by Athena Prescott, led by the ruthless assassin Comorant. The best part of this issue may be the corporate skullduggery, as Mercy Graves continues to infiltrate the competition from her boss, and Prescott and Luthor trade barbs. And of course, it all builds to an explosive finish as the threat level escalates from an innovation gone wrong.
New History of the DC Universe #2 – Mark Waid, Writer; Brad Walker, Mike Allred, Artists; Trish Mulvihill, Laura Allred, Colorists
Ray – 9/10
Ray: This oral history of the DCU, as told by Barry Allen, has a lot of continuity knots to untangle. This issue, which brings in two new artists including the iconic indie artist Mike Allred, takes us into the age of modern superheroes, which means a lot of the story beats are a lot more familiar and a lot closer together. It tries to combine a lot of different continuities, like Vic Stone debuting as Cyborg with the Justice League long before he was ever a member of the Teen Titans, or Supergirl being the first Super-kid to debut and dying in Crisis on Infinite Earths. It has to weave a lot of things together, and most of the origins and debuts are things we known, but the splash pages are gorgeous and Barry’s musings on some of his friends and enemies are interesting. It’ll be interesting to see how things all come together as we get into the era of modern events and continuity resets.
DC vs. Vampires: World War V #11 – Matthew Rosenberg, Cecil Castellucci, Writers; Otto Schmidt, Marley Zarcone, Artists; Pierluigi Casolino, Marissa Louise, Colorists
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: It’s the penultimate issue, as Darkseid has taken over Earth and the New Gods have betrayed both the heroes and the vampires. This leads to an emergency conclave between the two factions of Earthlings – which is upended as Damian Wayne strikes a shocking blow against the vampires. The alliances in this series shift so frequently and so shockingly that there can be quite a bit of whiplash, but this issue actually does a good job of showing the fallout of that – as the one hope for Earth might be compromised now due to Damian, forcing one character to make a shocking decision. I’m not sure if this is simply act two of the series with more to come, because it’s hard to see how this series can wrap up in only one more issue.
By far the best part of this issue is the backup by Castellucci and Zarcone, which revives their Young Animal series Shade the Changing Girl, as our oddball lead Loma reunites with the original Shade – and discovers the dark secret of his pleasure dome. Gorgeous art in particular.
Gotham City Sirens: Unfit for Orbit #4 – Leah Williams, Writer; Haining, Artist; Alex Guimaraes, Colorist
Ray – 8/10
Ray: As Lunaria takes off, the Sirens find themselves in the most fast-paced chapter yet. Despero has began the process of converting the citizens of Gotham into his thralls, transforming some with genetic mutations and branding the others with his psychic imprint. The citizens of Gotham, of course, have seen so much weird stuff that they’re largely unfazed by this, but all three of the Sirens are on duty as the spaceship rises into the atmosphere. Ivy does most of the heavy lifting, using her vines to try to stop the ship from leaving the atmosphere, while Catwoman makes Despero look like a bit of a paper tiger. Harley steals the show, though, as Despero enters her mind to try to control her – and finds out that he can’t really deal with the bizarre things going on up there. It’s a fun issue, with a bit more action and comedy than the two previous issues.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
