This was a good week of comics and a surprising one, in that Wolverine and Axe Cop lose my Pick of the Week to...a kiss!
Justice League #12
When DC Comics relaunched all of their titles last year, Justice League was one of the new series that I tried out. It was fun in that I was able to see the characters teaming up for the first time, but the new quickly wore off and I ended up not caring enough about the team or the story to make it past the first 6-issue storyline. What brought me back this month was this cover. With the DCU being relaunched, it freed up the creative team to trade out Lois Lane for the lady who many fans felt was a better match for Kal-el, Wonder Woman. Here's what happened...
The story starts off with the League fighting an emotional battle, with each member having to confront ghosts of loved ones they have lost or let down. The possessed villain in charge of the demons could have captured or killed them all were it not for the timely intervention of WW's old boyfriend, Steve Trevor, who wakes up the League who quickly destroy the villain (who, BTW looks like he came from Snake Mountain or something). That skirmish is a small part of the book and we soon see the team back at their base in Earth's orbit watching the media feed. The people of Earth are doubting the League and wondering how much faith they should have in them. This is largely do to that lame villains plans that I only caught the tail end of. It's only important because Green Lantern resigns from the team, asking them to blame him for whatever their failure was, to try to regain the trust of the people. He then flies off into space, where most of his work is anyway. The really standout moment happens next. Superman find WonderWoman alone with her thoughts sitting on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. They have a talk about what it's like being stuck somewhere between humans and gods and as they share their loneliness, soon find themselves mugging down on a National Monument. That's pretty much the end of the issue.
The overall book wasn't great, but the moment with Clark & Diana made it great. I like Superman and WW being a couple. It makes sense. I also like that they made the moment feel natural to the characters in the story without it feeling like a comic-selling publicity stunt. I don't think I'll keep buying this series, but I DID like this issue. Nice work, DC.
Pick of the Week!
AvX Versus #5
Let's get this one over with.
In another set of bouts between the Avengers and the X-Men, Black Panther faces off with his wife, Storm, and Hawkeye takes on Archangel. This book is not meant to be a great read, but simply a fun "who would win" exercise that fits in with the larger AvX story. That being said, I barely cared enough to finish the book. I don't know or care enough to be moved by the husband/wife fight that ends in divorce in the first half and the writer's complete lack of knowledge about the characters screwed up the second half. Matt Fraction didn't know that Angel had lost his memory which is a HUGE plot point when his recently-ex-girlfriend Psylock is involved in the story. In the end, Hawkeye wins by shooting Angel in the gut at point-blank range, and apparently no one wins when superheroes divorce.
Thank goodness Lenil Yu drew the Hawkeye section, or this one would be going straight to Goodwill.
Wolverine & the X-Men #15
As AvX comes to it's climax, Wolverine and his team meet back at the mansion in Westchester to regroup before the final battle.
It's hard to write a detailed review of this book. The entire issue is made up of small character moments between various team members. Friendships are renewed. New romantic relationships are started. There's too much going on for me to write about each one. In the end, Wolverine readies his strike team, consisting of the X-Men on the cover and they head off to end the Phoenix threat one way or another.
This issue could have been a real bore, but with Jason Aaron continuing his phenominal run on this title, it was pure fun. Great, small moments that add up to a heartwarming calm before the storm.
Axe Cop: President of the World #2
In the last zany issue, a massive army of bad guys from space were launching an attack on the Earth and only Axe Cop, Goo Cop, and Junior Cobb the giant gorilla with gun fists stand in their way.
This issue starts with a back story of two evil robot brothers who destroy their own planet, then set out to become the baddest bad guys ever. The scene then shifts back to Seattle where Axe Cop is trying to save the Earth from a bad guy invasion. Luckily most of the bad guys end up killing each other, leaving only the giant Chee-Rex, who gets punched to death by Junior Cobb. Suddenly the evil robot brothers appear and blast Junior Cobb. Then, they climb the Space Needle, break off the top part and throw it at Heaven in an attempt to kill God. Axe Cop deflects the needle with his axe and it ricochets down to Hell where it stabs Satan through the back. The robots try to convince the Earth that Axe Cop is evil, but no one believes them, so they go on a rampage, beating up a zoo, leveling all the cities, destroying Axe Cop's vehicles, and blowing up the good guy universe. They leave Earth and conquer Mercury and some other made-up planets before coming back to earth and killing Satan by tricking him into eating a cake made of water. With Satan dead, the robots take over Hell and command an army of zombies and demons in an attack to destroy Earth. In the meantime, Axe Cop's buddy, Goo Cop, is killed by the evil aliens who turned him into Goo Cop, and Axe Cop vows to avenge him. The issue ends with 2 evil plans forming. The evil space scientist who orchestrated the original space bad guy invasion plans to create an "everyman" by combining the DNA of every creature in the universe who can best Axe Cop and will take over the Earth for him. At the same time, the aliens who killed Goo Cop vow to disguise themselves at the President (I think they mean Axe Cop, who is President of the World) and will then order all earthlings to kill themselves.
It's hard to explain the glory of Axe Cop without writing all the crazy details. This book is written by an 8-year-old and drawn by his 31 year old brother, so you can see where the crazy imagination comes from. They've been creating Axe Cop together for 3 years now. I know it makes no sense, but that's why I like it so much. It's random, hilarious, and pure fun. I wanted to give this one Pick of the Week, but it's hard to beat a really good take on Superman. Sorry Axe Cop, you're a close 2nd this week.
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