By: Robert Kirkman (writer), Charlie Adlard (artist), Cliff Rathburn (gray tones), Rus Wooton (letters) & Sina Grace (editor)

The Story: Is this promise of a new colony a blessing or a threat?

Five Things:

1. How do you know who to trust?  - I really do like how TWD continues to be about everything BUT the zombies.  How do you know who to trust?  Clearly, no one can survive in this zombieland on their own, but where do you stop your circle or trust?  Rick’s gang has added new folks before: Michonne, Abraham, the Arlington folks…  Clearly, more people is potentially better, but only if it is the right kind of more.  If “more” means “more Governor” or “more cannibals” then it’s a bad thing.  And of course anyone who has survived this long in the apocalypse is going to be a little paranoid due to natural selection.

2. How badass is Rick’s gang? - Rick makes an interesting observation towards the end of this issue: His gang is pretty darn badass and maybe they don’t have to worry about running into bad guys because they’ll just kill them if they act funny.  How true is this?  What evidence do we have that Rick’s gang is all that tough?  Let’s see, they got smashed by the Governor.  They crushed the cannibals.  So, their record would be 1-1.  I guess they did take out that other group that attacked the Arlington compound about 10 issues ago, but that wasn’t really a fair fight with Rick’s group being fortified.  And, Rick’s group is clearly tougher than the original Arlingtonites, but those sheep are so wimpy that it kinda defies reason that they would have survived this long (it’s almost a plot hole).  I think it’s not THAT clear that Rick’s group is badass.

3. Adlard does great storytelling. - Simple storytelling excellence is easy to take for granted, but when you also review books like the GI Joe comics, you realize that you can’t just assume the the storytelling will be solid.  With Adlard, you rarely get anything flashy (although there are some pretty vistas in this issue), but you can always tell the characters apart and the action is always crystal clear.  There’s even a neat fight scene in this issue where Rick smashes a dude to the pavement and each panel flows from the one before.  That’s slick because we’ve all see countless comics that make you wonder, “how the hell did he land on the RIGHT side of his face if he was being thrown like THAT in the panel before?  Did he do a flip or something?”

4. A little slow… - I know that TWD is a slow burn kinda comic and I don’t want to lose that, but I honestly wouldn’t mind if this series picked it up a little.  Nothing too fast.  Just like listening to a podcast at 1.5X.

5. Andrea?  Rick?  Carl? - Remember when it was a big deal that Rick and Andrea hooked up 4-5 issues ago?  Now that doesn’t even rate a mention?  Where’s Carl?  Can Michonne talk anymore?  These issues are becoming very Rick-centric.  If the overall story is going to advance slowly, I’d like to at least check in on all of these smaller issues, not to mention that I think the Rick/Andrea dynamic has a lot of potential.

Conclusion: After sucking wind for a few issues, TWD has a nice bit of forward momentum again and that’s great.  This series has a wonderful quality where Kirkman could probably just ad lib for years because we’ll always want to know what happens next.  Still, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if they stepped on the gas a little bit.

Grade: B-

-Dean Stell

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By: Geoff Johns (writer), Jim Lee (penciller), Scott Williams, Sandra Hope, Mark Irwin, Joe Weems (inkers), Alex Sinclair, Gabe Eltaeb, Tony Avina (colorists)

The Story: I’ll give this for Hal—the kid takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’.

The Review: Look, I get it.  Even with a whole cast of perfectly formed, likable characters, you’re going to have your favorites.  That’s no crime.  At least, it’s not if you’re a member of the audience.  If you’re the writer, favoritism can lead to some messy issues in your story.  Not only must your pet characters carry the plot forward on their own, which can’t always work, you also have a bunch of others standing around as dead weight.

That’s the situation the League finds themselves in here.  Green Lantern’s presence in this series has been pushy from the start, and now he literally shoves himself forward to take up more page-time, at the expense of his teammates.  Most of the issue features Hal trying to take down Darkseid singlehandedly, and actually, you get a certain satisfaction watching the New God shut down the cocky pilot each time, hardly breaking a sweat.  And even when Hal’s not grabbing all the action for himself, he dominates the dialogue, leaving his fellow heroes little say.

For the skeptical, let me take a number from the politician’s handbook and cite some statistics.  Superman gets all of five lines total this issue, including his exit, “Arghhhh!”  The Man of Steel gets beat by literal man of steel Cyborg, with six.  Wonder Woman happily flaunts her three lines, and poor Aquaman has to settle for a measly two.  It’d be one thing if Johns at least made the most of their brief speaking parts, offering some golden character moments to make up for their brevity.  But more frequently, he gives them just about the most nominal bits of dialogue you’ve ever read in a comic, with Aquaman (not having suffered enough, apparently) getting the stingiest: “Let’s ask him,” and “And?”

The vast, vast majority of the issue fixates on Green Lantern, with Batman and the Flash chiming in not so much as equals, but as supporting players so Hal has actual humans to talk to.  Even here, it feels like the Barry does little except remark on the obvious (“Dammit, I can’t fly.”).  Only Bruce really exerts his own voice into the mix, calmly talking over Hal’s—there’s no other word for it—bratty exclamations to keep things focused on what’s at stake.

At least Johns has made Darkseid into a plenty formidable figure.  In contrast to his crack-of-doom introduction last issue, now he says nothing at all as he swats the League around, which makes a lot of sense.  When you’re a god, why would you deign to speak with the specks you’re crushing?  You have to love that once he bowls them over (using Hal as the ball, to my delight), he just walks on, never giving them a second thought.

Lee’s art is the stuff that summer blockbusters are made of.  Given how he tends to draw his characters with a kind of blank perfection, little marred by emotion of any kind, Lee prospers in action, and he gets a lot of this issue.  Watching Hal’s fruitless spar with Darkseid is actually thrilling, as Lee gives the god such bigger proportions that the sequence really has the tone of a kid trying to headlock his big bro who got to college on a football scholarship.  And of course, Sinclair’s dazzling colors can’t be beat when it comes to splashy stories like this.

Conclusion: At some point, this issue ceased to be about a team and more about a couple guys and their tagalongs.  Johns has to rectify this soon, or this title will soon lose its credit and reputation.

Grade: C+

- Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: - The Flash and Superman have their first, unofficial race, and I think, considering Clark is the one who gets zapped here, it’s safe to say Barry comes out on top.

by Jonathan Hickman (writer), Juan Bobillo (pencils), Marcelo Sosa (inks), Chris Sotomayor (colors), and Clayton Cowles (letters)

The Story: Doom makes the ultimate sacrifice.

The Review:  Jonathan Hickman’s calling card seems to be his labyrinthine plots, composed of a great deal of moving parts, all leading to an increasingly massive scope.  This can at time lead to some mystifying issues here and there and a constant lingering dread that it’s all going to collapse beneath its own weight, yet you can’t help but admire the ambition and craft.

However, now and then, Hickman’s approach leads to fantastic comic books like this issue of FF, where everything comes together like a meticulously assembled jigsaw puzzle.  Put simply, this is an immensely satisfying issue if only because all the pieces come together and they all fit so very well.  Better still, this is accomplished thanks to, not in spite of, flashbacks and time travel elements.

I loved how Val and Nathaniel, through their tinkering with future possibilities, end up taking something an authorial position.  Through them, Hickman lets us peak behind the current so that, not only do the pieces all come together, but we see exactly how and why they come together as they do.  In seeing Val and Nathaniel’s master plan behind the scenes, get to see a good part of the greater structure that Hickman has assembled in both FF and Fantastic Four.  Really, it’s cool seeing Nathaniel and Val in this sort of meta scene (fittingly, in a different time and place from the rest of the comic and all the other characters), but it also leads to a real appreciation for the mad scientist elegance of Hickman’s craft.

There’s so much to love about Hickman’s script this month.  The scope, for starters, is massive and the stakes could not be any higher.  The result is a great deal of dramatic tension that ramps up as the issue progresses and leaves you really not knowing what’s going to happen on the next page flip.  Reading this issue, I felt nervous, expecting Doom to die every time I turned a page.

Despite all the cosmic powers and epic scope, this issue has heart as well.  Hickman writes an incredible Dr. Doom, a guy who is the definition of comic book anti-hero.  You will find it impossible not to cheer for Doom this month.  He shows heart, affection, heroism, and, in one brilliantly written panel, a tragic self-awareness that is wholly unexpected.  Hickman writes him beautifully and as he rises to become a hero, albeit with customary Doom bravado, I almost got watery eyed.

Unfortunately, Juan Bobillo’s artwork does it’s very best to work against Hickman’s script.  Bobillo’s work isn’t all bad: he draws fantastic robots, his Celestials look great, and his depictions of technology in general have an outrageous, janky feel that’s charming.  The problem is that his work remains wholly inappropriate for this comic.  It’s just too goofy looking.  In being so light-hearted and goofy, it just can’t build up the dramatic tension that Hickman’s script aims for, nor can it capture the emotion of Hickman’s dialogue.  Doom deserves better, as does this comic.  Frankly, I’m left wondering what could have been were this drawn by any other competent Marvel artist.  Bobillo simply cannot hit Hickman’s high notes and his work is a poor fit for the high drama and higher stakes, not to mention the emotional gravity, of this book.

All this said, Sosa and Sotomayor once again do incredible work and do their best to salvage the art.  Sotomayor’s colors are absolutely brilliant, full of life and charm, while Sosa’s thick inking is loaded with character.  These are two names I’ll definitely keep an eye out for in future.
Conclusion: Bobillo’s artwork does its damndest to work against Hickman’s script and was the only thing keeping this book from an A-grade.

Grade: B

-Alex Evans

Best From The Past Week: Batman #5 – It seemed that all anyone wanted to talk about with this comic was the twisting orientation of the pages, and it was an interesting gimmick, but behind this trick was a really great comic book.  It takes a really gifted creative team to effectively sell madness and insanity, but that’s what we got in this issue.  You really believe that Batman is cracking up!  And the Court of Owls is much more interesting than any of the established Batman rogues just because we don’t know what to expect from them.

Most Anticipated: The Walking Dead #93 – After a slow story arc, Robert Kirkman uncorked a promising new concept in his last issue that may jiggle a status quo that has become stale.  I’m pretty intrigued by the idea of clusters of survivors remaining separate and interacting with each other like the old Greek city-states.  Plus, you just know that something BIG will happen this summer in issue #100 and it’ll probably start building now.

Other Picks: Creepy Comics #7, American Vampire #23, The Unwritten #33.5, Bulletproof Coffin: Disinterred #1, Elephantmen #37, Captain America and Bucky #626

Alex’s Top Picks

Best From The Past Week: Batman #5 – Basically, this comic was insane.  Which is good, given that its story was the gradual loss of sanity. Great art, creepy as hell atmosphere, and a really cool use of the physical medium really made this a comic to remember.  Snyder’s ability to deliver creeping horror is really something to behold.

Most Anticipated: Justice League #5 After one week’s delay….well, after that last page in Justice League #4, I really couldn’t pick anything else. I mean, it’s Darkseid.  I cannot wait to see what happens as the JLA meet their first adversary in the new DCU.

Other Picks: The Flash #5, Aquaman #5, American Vampire #23, Fantastic Four #602, FF #14, Mighty Thor #10

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Sit down, kids, and prepare to grow old, as I tell you about the olden days.

The Review: Bill Willingham likes to throw out these semi-out-of-continuity issues from time to time, which is all well and good.  He largely does a good job with them, and an excursion from the general flow of story can be a relief every now and then.  That said, I’m not so sure it’s entirely wise to throw in essentially a bunch of filler right after a Christmas issue that was itself a bit skimpy on the plot.  Hasn’t it been quite a while since we checked in with Bufkin?

But let’s set that aside.  Like I said, Willingham does write these sorts of things very well.  What we get is a handful of short stories, each of varying length and degrees of importance to overall Fables continuity, and with a different guest artist on each one.  Each tale has a great deal of charm, and there’s something to be said for stories that don’t require a lot of familiarity with continuity to enjoy them.

Even at his most free-flowing, Willingham’s knack for making connections between stories still pops up in the most surprising places.  He starts off with one of your classic “magic spell as a lesson” parables, though the substance is a little more sophisticated than your usual fairy tales.  It’s standard practice for people to go through some kind of physical transformation in these things to catalyze their spiritual transformation, but rarely is their soul—or entire race—at stake.  P. Craig Russell draws the feature with a fitting cutesiness, which Lovern Kindzierski’s pastels complement well.  Just as appropriate is Ramon Bachs’ cheerful, cartoonier linework (and Ron Randall’s vividly golden colors) as a father and son discuss the strange physics/superstition of their world, one which has a delightful link to the tale above.

Willingham even weaves these stories into established continuity, giving them a little more importance than your usual fillers.  If anyone ever wondered why it took Gepetto so long to pay Fabletown any interest, the answer is not so simple as him simply not viewing them as a threat.  Many years of Fabletown’s peace was apparently ensured by a clever sorcerer who managed to bewitch Gepetto into giving no thought to any land where he dwelled.  Like any Willingham story, there’s an element of tragedy here, too, as the man responsible for Fabletown’s safety for so long seemed to have his own spell turn on him, and no one gave any thought to him either.  There’s a stiff quality to Zander Tannon’s art that makes his otherwise fine penciling (inked by Jim Fern) a bit bland to see, and Lee Loughridge’s drab colors don’t help.

And for those of you who ever wondered at Porky Pine’s attraction to human women—although I don’t imagine it’s ever been a gnawing concern for anyone—Willingham gives us the answer to that too.  There’s little point to the story, but it’s pretty amusing, if only for Porky’s totally inept come-ons (“Copulate with me for just one night and I grant a wish—whatever your heart desires.  Or, for just a kiss and a cuddle: a new set of steak knives.”), or for Adam Hughes’ voluptuous pin-up art, which is just as capable of great comedy.

Conclusion: A diverting issue, far from the woes and anxiety of the ongoing story, but not quite as meaty as it could be.

Grade: B

- Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: - Porky: “Did I mention the steak knives come in a really lovely gift box?”  Well, of course, let’s get to the kiss and cuddle, then, if the knives come in a really nice box.

- It’d be churlish of me to leave out Rick Leonardi, who draws the opening page, the point of which is to deliver a rather weird, slightly creepy sight-gag.

By: Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Chris Samnee (art), Justin Ponsor (colors),

The Story: Uncle Aaron learns not to trust other criminals, and Miles stops his first mugging. They grow up so fast!

The Review: When I first started reading comics, Ultimate Spider-Man was the first Marvel book I picked up. The promise of fresh stories not mired by decades of continuity drew me in, but it was the quality and charm of that book hooked me. I have been a fan of the series all the way through its run, and have really appreciated how classy and mature Marvel has been about the death and replacement of Peter Parker with Miles Morales. I eagerly awaited each issue of our new hero’s introductory arc, and savored each one. However, after reading Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #6, oddly, I am beginning to miss Peter.

Before we get to that though, let’s talk about the issue on its own merits. Honestly, it’s pretty good. While I miss the absolutely gorgeous work of Sara Pichelli, Chris Samnee does a fine job as fill-in artist. His style is far more cartoony than Pichelli’s, but he misses none of the nuance in the script, he gives the action great fluidity, and really captures Miles as still a kid figuring out the whole super-hero gig. Samnee also manages to give intensity to the more serious parts of the story, like Uncle Aaron’s encounter with the new Scorpion and Miles’ confrontation with his Mom about his family’s troubles with the law. There are some minor flaws, however; in a few panels, Miles appears to be about forty rather than thirteen, and for some reason when we see an image of Peter Parker, the spider symbol on his costume is upside down.

I’m also conflicted about the colors, courtesy of Justin Ponsor. Personally, I don’t care for such flat colors in this title. I can’t help but feel that more vibrant choices would have better matched both the inks and the tone of the story. But to be fair, Ponsor does succeed in producing an urban vibe in this issue, allowing the tones of concrete and brick to dominate the page. Also, this dull quality is actually pretty effective in Aaron’s scenes, helping Samnee’s art communicate a more sinister and unwelcoming atmosphere.

The story is good, and even has some genuinely charming moments. Coming from Bendis, it’s positively packed with plot, managing show us Miles on his first patrol, introduce a new villain, get some face time with Momma Morales and Ganke, and check in on the daily bugle. All the characters, Miles especially, are well developed and complex. But yet, this story is still missing a significant spark. And now we arrive at my problem with this issue and this comic as a whole.

In my opinion, this book’s biggest selling point in Peter’s era was his manic, adolescent passion. He was never just happy—he was thrilled. He was never just concerned—he was outright neurotic. He was quirky, shameless, and a blast to watch. Given Bendis’ signature decompressed storytelling style, this exuberance helped prevent the book from ever feeling slow, and in many ways drove the entire series’ momentum. Miles, in stark contrast to Peter, is an introvert. His doubts are well thought out, yet seldom spoken aloud. He’s guarded, cautious, and contemplative. It’s hard to believe sometimes that he’s only supposed to be thirteen. And while this makes Miles admirable and complex, it also means he lacks the wild charisma of his predecessor. I genuinely like Miles Morales, and I like reading about him. But I also am concerned there’s an element missing needed to give this title the same vitality it had before.

Conclusion: Despite my concerns, I still enjoyed and recommend this title and this issue. I just hope that as the series goes on, the pace picks up, and that Miles begins being more proactive.

Jumping on point?: Definitely. You may be a little confused about Aaron’s role in all of this, but otherwise this is an easily accessible book.

Grade: B

A Musing: -Is there a mandate at Marvel which says that all the covers for Ultimate Comics must be boring? Seriously. They’re not all bad, but Lord, they are so bland. Please, please stop this, Marvel

By: Paul Jenkins (writer), Bernard Chang (artist), Blond (colorist)

The Story: I have a question for y’all: why ask the question?

The Review: Wow, hard to believe it’s been five months since I first considered the merits of applying a story-arc format to this showcase title.  I’ve tried to reserve my judgment along the way, but now that we’re at the end, I believe we can say conclusively that this has been largely a waste of the format.  If the purpose of this series is to brighten the dimmer stars of the DCU, then it’d be difficult to consider this story a success.

To follow the recurring motif of this issue, consider this question: would you consider Deadman any more appealing a character now than he was at the beginning of the series?  After all he’s been through, and all the information he’s gleaned from various sources, both human and divine, Boston has failed to learn anything of permanent value, and certainly nothing that’s changed him in any significant way.  He first appeared to us a wise-cracking rebel, and he ends on pretty much the same note.

The first problem is so much of what he’s learned has been plot-focused.  His encounters with the Son of Morning and the demon-angel who guarded his book of life yielded much to deepen his suspicions of Rama, but little to affect his outlook on life.  By the end of the issue, it’s hard to assess exactly how much he’s accomplished.  While he’s forged a new deal with Rama, presumably with better terms, the fact remains that he is still, for all intents and purposes, her servant, and his mission is essentially the same as before.

Perhaps the only difference in his renewed contract is that he’s no longer attached to the souls he possesses, or at least those he’s possessed before.  Jenkins tries to pass this off as a major point, but he’s failed all this time to explain what, exactly, is the peril in having Boston’s fate connected to his many lives.  He vaguely states these people “deserve to go on with their lives,” maybe implying that they now exist in some kind of purgatory, but considering how many of them are still counted among the living, this explanation doesn’t entirely work.

But the biggest problem with this arc as a whole is that it resolves none of the thematic or philosophical elements of the story.  I don’t know about you, but I think that’s quite a lot of time and effort put into a series, only to basically end on a rhetorical question, whether it’s “Why me?” or “Why not me?”  Jenkins may claim that the whole point is such questions don’t have answers, and only immortal, empowered beings have enough time on their hands to search for one.  That doesn’t make the story any more entertaining or substantial, however.

The most accessible part of the issue, and unsurprisingly the most enjoyable, is Deadman’s tactic of getting war vet Johnny to move on with his damaged, but not irreparable, life.  Even so, it may make you wonder, a bit troublingly, whether the ghost’s interference means Johnny’s great dead isn’t so much his own, and thus a bit unearned.  Perhaps Jenkins would have better served Deadman and this story by answering that practical question, rather than such ethereal ones.

Chang has been more than competent on this series, but maybe not the best fit.  His sharp style lends great sleekness to the characters, which works very well in the action scenes (love that image of Johnny swinging from the rafters, Rambo-style, to fire upon the Gotham gangsters), but it doesn’t have the dramatic depth the script demands.  And his liberal use of paneling doesn’t have nearly the sense and taste J.H. Williams III or even Francis Manapul bring to their attempts of the same thing, so it’s more distracting and cluttered than artistic.

Conclusion: Beyond the flaws of the story and the unflattering portrayal of the character, I want to alert DC to the misuse of the title’s format, which now seems better suited to one-shots or two-issue arcs.  At least if the story’s a dud, you can get over it quicker.

Grade: C

- Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – Deadman to Rama: “But you never considered what would happen if I was successful.”  Really?  She went through all this trouble without thought of succeeding?  Rama’s not the brightest bulb in the bunch if that’s the case, is she?

- So the Gotham cops aren’t interested at all in how an ex-soldier got hold of what look to be all kinds of illegal firearms?  Yeah, he’s a hero, but a little curiosity would be warranted, I’d say.

By: Tim Seeley (writer), Daniel Leister (art), Carlos Badilla (colors), Crank! (letters) and James Lowder (edits)

The Story: The Hack/Slash crew goes to South America, searching for a cure to the disease that causes slashers.

Four Things:

1. Funny. – This is a comic for people who like jokes about bodily functions.  If you roll your eyes at that kind of humor, I’m not sure that Hack/Slash is the book for you.  But if you’re one of “us”, there are some great moments in this comic.  The humor is in small places and a lot of it comes from timing, which is a hard thing to have in a comic.  For example, at one point, after landing on this monster island, Cassie goes into the bushes to go to the bathroom and gets attacked by water zombies.  Since they’ve been in the water, they’re soft and they pop when she hits them.  Soon she is covered in green blood and guts.  When she comes back to the group, one of the others says, “Whoa! You really had to go!”  I mean….that’s funny.  Then I giggled again when I realized that the name of the motion picture studio that shoots films on monster island is “Monster Bait” studios.  Heh.

2. Whacky ideas all over the place. – Not only is it a funny comic, but it’s kind of an idea-a-minute issue.  There’s the nature of the monster island and how it relates to those awful 50′s era monster films.  There are attacks by about 10 different types of weird monsters.  There’s a possible link to Nazi science.  I dunno why the mysteries of Nazi science are still so fascinating, but they are.  There’s also a possible link to the slasher disease.  It’s all good stuff.

3. New colorist? – One area where I’ve been critical of Hack/Slash has been the coloring and we get a new guy for this issue.  The coloring is still highlighted, but it is less shiny than it used to be.  Big improvement!  I’ll still say that I think the comic would POP if you tossed some flat colors onto it.  My specific complaint is with this type of soft highlighting is that it makes rock hard characters look softer than they should.  For example, Cassie is probably pretty defined since she gets lots of exercise smashing monsters AND she doesn’t eat much (because they’re always so poor).  Her arms/back/legs wouldn’t have the softness of a plus-sized model yet that’s what we get with soft highlights.  Still, this is a huge step in the right direction.  I even like the color palate better.

4. Pretty good art. – Sometimes I take sequential storytelling for granted just because it’s usually pretty good in the average Marvel comic.  Not that Marvel = Great Art, but they do tend to snap up a lot of top talent because they pay cash upfront.  But, I read a lot of non-Marvel/DC comics that have some screwed up storytelling, especially during fights.  Leister’s fights are always crystal clear.  You can see precisely what happened and I thank him for that!  Otherwise the art is pretty good and I also applaud him for keeping the ladies sexy.  This won’t win any Eisner’s but the line-art is holding up its end of the bargain.

Conclusion: Another solid issue of Hack/Slash.  If you’re an adventuresome reader who has an affinity for old horror movies and bodily function jokes, this is a series you shouldn’t be missing.  This issue is even is decent jumping on point.

Grade: B

-Dean Stell

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By: Duane Swierczynski (writer), Jesus Saiz (penciller), Javier Pina (inker), June Chung (colorist)

The Story: I don’t suppose anyone thought to write down what we were doing on a Post-It?

The Review: The best part about a title that features a group of solely women is for once you get (when executed properly) the kind of variety among characters of a single gender that you’ve been getting with dude-focused titles for years now.  It’s remarkable how many comic book writers tend to approach scenes featuring more than two women as if their only experience of such interactions is from what their girlfriends made them watch of Sex and the City.

In sharp contrast to the sameness of females over on Justice League International, each Bird has an immediately recognizable and distinctive voice and bearing.  Poison Ivy is brusque and to the point; Starling is equal parts brash and sensitive; Katana, while cool and businesslike, reveals a sense of humor beneath a surprising shyness; and Black Canary, as the emotion center of the team, has a little bit of everything bubbling her cautious exterior.

You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned anything of Batgirl yet.  The reason is simple: she doesn’t really get much of an appearance in this issue.  And the reason for that?  Well, it’s complicated.  As Canary very efficiently sums up, “Last thing I remember, we were on Choke’s secret floor fighting a dozen of those creepy ‘Cleaners’—and all five of us were kicking ass.”  Cut to the first page, and the Birds (minus Batgirl) are under military fire in the midst of a rubble, with no clue what’s gone on in the last few hours.

It’s not just that they’re missing time out of their lives.  None of them seem to have consistent memories of what’s happened (some remember Batgirl being there, others don’t).  Starling’s broken hand has mysteriously healed up.  More significantly, each of them comes away from the experience troubled and out of sorts, which they each deal with in their own way, revealing interesting bits of backstory along the way.

Ev can’t settle herself at the range, so she goes to visit a lady-acquaintance with whom she seems to have a complicated past (“I know what you said…but I really, really needed to see you.”).  Also intriguing is Ivy’s dealings with an unidentified businessman, which may bode ill for her loyalty to the Birds—or it may not; his question of, “You’ll still honor our arrangement?” could mean treachery, or it could mean he’s asking if she’ll keep up an earlier, unrelated bargain with him while having a go at “the hero thing.”

By the end of the issue, Swierczynski succeeds in setting up a plot where at any moment, disaster can spring out of nowhere and break the whole team apart in its infancy.  He’s slowly developed Choke’s manipulative reach to the point where beyond turning innocents into his watchers and recorders, he can make them into sleeper agents, his very own Cleaners.  That gives you a hint as to the kind of havoc he can secretly wreak on the Birds, since he got them in his grasp last issue.

Saiz gets to draw a lot of action sequences this time around, and each one is superb.  Just as Swierczynski gives each Bird an equally strong yet deeply personal voice of her own, Saiz draws their movements with the same grace and force, yet specific to each woman: Ivy’s is wild and predatory; Katana swift and agile; Starling direct and blunt; and Canary, a balance of all.  Incidentally, I love how he draws Katana covering her mouth as she laughs, a subtle but effective detail which possibly shows her former life as a dutiful, refined Japanese wife.

Conclusion: With the Birds, you get a little bit of everything, written and drawn with a lot of expertise and craft.  Rock-solid, with only a few hairline cracks in the plot.

Grade: B+

- Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: - “My Uncle Earl had a great take on paranoia.  He’d tell me, ‘Kid…most times, they really are out to get ya.’”  Ev’s uncle sounds like a man I’d love to get to know.

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: For taphophobes, consider this immersion therapy; you’ll feel better if you don’t die.

The Review: I must say, I was rather amused by the tagline inscribed on this issue’s cover: “NoMan’s dark secret revealed!”  For one thing, the tease is horribly melodramatic—italics have that effect on anything you write.  For another, it sets some very high expectations for the story, as any use of the word “dark” tends to do.  Your instinct is to wade in with some good-natured skepticism, unsure if the issue can succeed, but willing to see it through anyway.

But if anyone can actually live up to the “dark” standard, Nick Spencer can, and NoMan’s secret turns out grim indeed, in both substance and style.  From previous issues, we know experimental detonations of atomic weapons in the Subterranean land wreaked havoc on their country, and we know war between them and us surface-dwellers ensued.  What we didn’t know until this issue is how that conflict ended, and unsurprisingly, the end involved an atrocity of the grossest kind.

I mentioned last time how Spencer likes to add some clear real-world reflections in what he writes, and the use of a Doomsday weapon—make that several Doomsday weapons—against the Subterraneans to coerce their surrender is all that.  Very telling is how even now, presumably decades after the war, the Subterraneans have left open a mass grave, exposing the remains of all those who perished from the Higher United Nations’ deadly attack.  “Six million,” by NoMan’s calculation.  For perspective, the combined bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in somewhere between 150,000 and 246,000 deaths.

What makes these revelations all the more powerful is that we see them through the eyes of a man responsible for all this mess.  It’s NoMan’s pensive brooding that forms the spine of tension throughout this issue.  He reminds us that he was a scientist before a soldier, but under both guises, he was persuaded to do things he’s not proud of.  Yet for all the impressions he gives of cynicism and regret, it’s not lost on you that he continues his mission as he broods, leading you to believe he may not be capable of truly feeling those emotions anymore.

Meanwhile, we can’t forget the action happening with the other Agents.  Predictably, Raven’s hopes to see a new world are both fulfilled and dashed as she witnesses the chaos raging across the Subterranean lands, but she seem to adapt well to the situation.  More worrying is Toby’s increasingly overt resentment against the people barking orders at him: “‘Put the helmet on, Toby,’ ‘Get in the chair, Toby’—everybody always telling me what to—”  The Menthor helmet may keep him in line for a while, but he can’t wear it all the time, and when it’s off, what then?

While Walter Simonson’s style is endearingly simple, a reflection of the simpler times in which it arose, it has aged very well.  Clean lines and sharp detail never go out of style, whatever decade you’re in, and in many parts, his work (as inked by Bob Wiacek and colored by Lee Loughridge) looks not unlike something an artist like Jock would draw.  In many ways, Simonson’s pages are more pleasing to the eye than Wes Craig’s, whose habit of putting pouty lips on the characters gets a bit annoying.  Still, he draws a mean action scene, and with Hi-Fi’s gorgeous colors, some of the dramatic sequences are quite affecting.

Conclusion: As always, Spencer delivers a lot of food for thought in addition to the fun stuff, and always in perfect measure.  It’s a shame the series isn’t an ongoing—hint, hint, DC.

Grade: B+

- Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: - Oof—nothing says old-man nerd than the diamond-patterned sweater-vest.

- Kinda makes you wonder, though: where’s the Higher United Nations putting those Doomsday weapons to use now?