Comic reviews for May 5-9

Here are my thoughts on the comics I bought today.  You'll notice that they're only DC at the moment.  This is because I have a Marvel Unlimited subscription that I use to read Marvel comics.

Smallville: Lantern #9

As a digital first series, the Smallville Season 11 comics have two different numbering schemes. This is digital issue #9, which will make it the last third of print issue 3 when it comes out, so it drops us right into the action with John Stewart (the Green Lantern, not the comedian) trying to hold off Parallax on his own. He manages for a while, but he is being overpowered while Superman returns to Earth to try stopping the swarm of yellow rings which turned most of the inmates at Arkham Asylum into Yellow Lanterns. Meanwhile, Green Arrow is called on to help the DEO (Department of Extranormal Operations) capture Prometheus.

I did appreciate more references to the other human Green Lanterns during the confrontation between John and Parallax. In this continuity, they are saying that when Hal Jordan was possessed by Parallax, he killed Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner, leaving John as the only human Lantern. This leads to an interesting cliffhanger at the end of the issue that I'm not going to spoil.

I liked them bringing Prometheus in early in this arc, but with all the focus on the Lantern based storylines, I don't think they're doing enough with him. I'm hoping he evades capture and remains a threat for a while, but with both Green Arrow and Wonder Woman after him, I kind of doubt that'll happen. I'm not sold on the armor Ollie had the Watchtower's 3D printer make, but we haven't seen it in action yet.

The idea of yellow rings descending on Arkham is an interesting one since fear is a strong part of the Batman section of the DC universe. I don't get why they haven't had Scarecrow show up with a yellow ring though. Fear is far more part of his act than it is for Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, or Bane. I wish they had done more with Superman as a Green Lantern before he went back to using his Superman powers, but there are still 3 more digital issues to go in this arc, so it could happen.

There was a lot going on in this issue, to the point where by the time I was into one scene, it was already moving on to the next one. With the digital format, that tends to happen from time to time.

New 52: Future's End #1

This is the start of a new weekly series which was previewed with a #0 issue for Free Comic Book day. Terry McGinnis, the Batman from the Batman Beyond animated series was sent back in time by Bruce Wayne to stop the creation of Brother Eye, an artificial intelligence which had taken over their world (after being created by Michael Holt and Bruce Wayne himself). The time travel device wasn't configured for Terry and sent him back 7 years after he planned to arrive, making his mission even more difficult and pressing.

I am getting a kick out of the banter between the Alfred AI in the Batman suit and Terry. In the preview issue, I was afraid it would be a bit too much like Tony Stark and Jarvis in the Iron Man movies, but

I don't really know anything about any of the Stormwatch members other than Hawkman, but seeing them defeated so efficiently does set the stage for the threat of Brother Eye. The scene also made me wonder if there was some kind of extraterrestrial AI involved in making Brother Eye what it becomes.

Other than the Stormwatch scene, this issue was mostly about setting up characters for the rest of the series. I'm not all that familiar with Grifter and only know Firestorm from Justice League and Blackest Night, but it's clear they're going to be big parts of this series. They also set up that anything could happen with the death of a major character (though since this is an alternate timeline, it doesn't really have an impact on any other series.

The Batman scene was the best part of this issue, but that might be because he is the character I know best. I'm not sure if I'll stick with this series long term, but I'm willing to give it a few more issues. With the time travel aspect, I'm hoping Booster Gold shows up at some point.

Batman/Superman #10

This was a bit of a stand alone issue to allow the story to take a breath after the First Contact crossover with World's Finest. It starts with Batman in a coma and Superman finding Dr. Ray Palmer to investigate the unusual discovery he made in Batman's bloodstream. Using Palmer's miniaturization technology, they enter Batman's brain and find an alien starship that was taken over by its society's supervillains. They defeat one of the villains, but not before the other one gets expanded into the real world. Dr. Palmer manages to extract the ship, bringing Batman out of his coma to fight the escaped villain.

This was a fun issue and with an art style I like much better than most of the other issues of Batman/Superman.

Earth 2 #23

Earth 2 continues the story of an alternate world where Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman were killed defeating an alien invasion. Which made it a bit annoying when the last few issues have been focused on Batman (Thomas Wayne this time) and a brainwashed Superman who is working for Darksied. This issue shifted back a bit more toward focusing on the original stars of Earth 2, with Alan Scott returning to save Hawkgirl and the Kryptonian they found a few issues back. It also did more with the Earth 2 Red Tornado, an android with the consciousness and memories of Lois Lane.

I'm hoping they're getting close to wrapping up this invasion storyline which has been going on for what seems like forever. While I do like many of the characters, I think it's time to move on to trying to rebuild Earth. If not, it might be time for me to move on from this series for the time being.