Weekly Pick-Ups 12/25/13

So it turns out there actually will be a belated Weekly Pick-Up this week. While most comic publishing companies did not release comics for the week of Christmas since Christmas actually fell on a Wednesday, Marvel and DC still released some very big issues for this holiday week. Evil does not take holidays off. The fourth issue of the Forever Evil story arc along with another Justice League issue to tie-in with it came out for DC, along with a flurry of variants. And for Marvel, the first Avengers post-Infinity and leads us into the new year along with Origin II #1, which unfortunately M. Deanpool was unable to pick up.

CLARIFICATION FOR FUTURE WEEKLY PICK-UP POSTS: M. Deanpool brought it to my attention that a few things were a little unclear. So these Weekly Pick-Ups will mainly feature comics that came out that week, and for those who don't know, comics typically come out on Wednesdays. This one is considered belated since it's already going into the week after Christmas. And also, this will be roughly a review and summary so expect SPOILERS.

Rogue Planet and Earth.

Avengers #24.Now- M. Deanpool swore to me that after the Infinity story, he would not pick up a single Avengers issue anymore. Then I see him reading this one. And now he’s considering retracting that statement. While the Avengers are enjoying some downtime with Thor manning a grill, Tony Stark and Steve Rogers continue working persistently, preparing for whatever threat might come next. How about a rogue planet heading toward Earth? After fighting off basically TWO alien invasions, now they’ve got to deal with a planet-sized bullet heading toward the Earth. But they kind of catch a break when some Iron Man from the year 3030 (who has a suit that resembles Samus)

Iron Man 3030
(or Samus Aran?!)

gives the Avengers the gameplan on how to avoid the end of the Earth. M. Deanpool can’t even hold in the spoiler that the Iron Man 3030 is actually Tony Stark’s future granddaughter (who’s black and was referred to as Rhodey in the future. How awesome is that?!) A) A black descendant of Tony Stark is named after War Machine Colonel Rhodes, awesome, B) if Tony's granddaughter is from the year 3030, over a thousand years into the future, who's the one who figures out how to extend the length of human lives? Another spoiler: basically the Avengers with the help of Iron Man 3030 make the rogue planet inhabit the exact same space as the planet Earth but at a different frequency, which made this possible. After revealing her identity to Tony Stark, the Iron Man 3030 addresses that in her timeline, the Avengers blow up the rogue planet before it hits Earth but tells Tony that the method they employed is much more resourceful for the future. Of course, by rules of time travel paradoxes, she couldn’t say much more and disappeared as we assume her timeline may have been altered. But not before warning Tony that he must prepare for everyone’s attempt to murder him. Talk about leaving cliff-hangers for the next issue, better yet the next story arc for the series. Who’s out to kill Tony Stark and why? How is this occupying of two planets in one space supposed to work? Where did the planet even come from or was it intended to hit Earth? Will M. Deanpool really get the next issue? Find out more soon! Fun scenes with a rooftop picnic, followed by a planet-sized threat and excellent artwork. We hope this series can become more a stable read, but still give it 8/10.

God of Thunder barbeques for everyone.

Catwoman said it right.

Forever Evil #4- If you’ve read any DC comics at all this past year, you most likely could not escape this Forever Evil story that’s taken over the DC universe. Up to this point, this 7-part story-line has had the disappearance of the Justice League (including Justice League of America and Justice League Dark), an evil facsimile of the Justice League from another universe, self-appointed Crime Syndicate, has taken over the Earth and recruited super-villains to their cause, and the formation of an Injustice League, consisting of Captain Cold, Black Manta, Black Adam, Bizarro and led by Lex Luthor, to overthrow this new league in order to take back the Earth.  Essentially, a superhero book in a world devoid of heroes. Yes, we get to root for the bad guys! In this issue (spoiler), we already have seen that Batman, Catwoman, and half of Cyborg (more like just the Victor Stone half) have survived the clutches of this evil Justice League. Catwoman wants Batman to admit defeat and runaway with her, but the only thing on Batman’s mind is planning the counter-attack. Being the realist that he is, Batman has contingency plans for all the members of the Justice League (minus Wonder Woman) in case they ever got out of control. The question is whether or not these plans will be effective against the parallel counterparts. He hopes that kryptonite and a yellow ring that he’s kept will be able to at least take down Ultraman and Power Ring, the Superman and Green Lantern parallels, and he’d figure out the rest later. Being the evil genius that he is, Lex Luthor led his team to Wayne Enterprises’ storage facility hoping to find something useful to aid their cause. Along the way, we see a scene where Geoff Johns tries humanizing Lex and create an interesting relationship between himself and his creation, Bizarro. Bizarro’s character also appears to have more dimension than the traditional bumbling idiot with powers that he’s portrayed as. We also see more of the dynamic of the Injustice League as readers come to peace with Lex Luthor being the world’s only savior. Back to the story, these two factions meet in this facility not realizing they’re fighting for the same cause yet and of course start fighting each other… only to be interrupted by Power Ring in his search to track down Captain Cold. 

Realizing that members of the Justice League have survived the Crime Syndicate’s attack, Power Ring focuses the attack on Batman and Catwoman… and Batman responds by using what’s left in the yellow ring. People, we’re talking about Batman wearing a yellow ring here. He shot a bat out of it! Sadly, there wasn’t enough juice to take down Power Ring (or enough of that scene, it lasted all of 2 pages), but the issue ends with a surprise appearance by… SINESTRO!! Will a real wielder of the yellow ring of fear be enough to take down the fearful Power Ring?  Will Batman and Lex remain separate groups or come together for the greater good? The preview for the next issue looks to be where a lot more action will unfold. The cover alone alludes to the cover of the first Justice League issue but this time consisting of the unlikely team of Lex, Bizarro, Black Adam, Black Manta, Batman, Catwoman, and Sinestro. Awesome issue, Geoff Johns handles DC crossovers masterfully, and this gets 9/10 from M. Deanpool, and also is the Pick of the Week.

Yellow Lantern Batman,
the coolest part of this issue.

Batman shooting a yellow bat, the thing he fears most,
the 2nd coolest part.

Grid,
Crime Syndicate's Cyborg.

Justice League #26- With the Justice League issues being tie-ins to the Forever Evil story, the previous two both developed the dynamics of characters like Ultraman and Owlman by showing their background and history. So it seemed only right to expect a story about the conniving Superwoman who was seen in earlier issues to have a relationship with Ultraman, but also a secret one with Owlman. Playing with both of their heads, she reveals to both that she is pregnant but has been mysterious about who the father is. Unfortunately, this was not a Superwoman story issue. By looking at the cover, it looked like we were going to get a direct follow-up from the end of Forever Evil #4 with a showdown between Power Ring and Sinestro. But NO, we did not get that either. Instead we got an issue narrated by Grid, who separated from Cyborg at the end of the Trinity War and revealed himself to be the Crime Syndicate's version of Cyborg. However, after separating from Cyborg, Grid wants to feel the human sensations that Cyborg was able to feel from his human half. And in his attempts to try, he dug into his collected files on his teammates and revealed the origin stories of Power Ring, Johnny Quick, Atomica, and Deathstorm. We see Harold Jordan (contrary to Hal) undergo a similar journey in obtaining a green ring but Harold’s weak-willed nature and inability to have the power to overcome his fear is what attracts the ring. Conversely, it’s Harold’s want for power that attracts him to the ring. Unlike the typical green ring, we see that this ring causes Harold to feel great physical and psychological pain, yet this does not instill any sort of feeling in Grid. Side note: A) Abin Sur look monstrous but in a cool way, B) charging this power ring is quite disturbing: tentacles reach out from another dimension, Harold screams, the Ring laughs moments later the charge is complete. That’s borderline rape. With Johnny Quick (aka Jonathan Allen) and Atomica, (aka Rhonnie) killers/thieves/lovers on the run, we see a lightning strike Johnny (not too different from Barry Allen’s lightning and chemical accident) and Rhonnie fall into this universe’s S.T.A.R. Labs where an “Atomico” (this Earth’s version of Atom) experiment was being held. This couple, as twisted as they were, did nothing for Grid to feel any sort of affection or want for love. My favorite part from this mini-story was probably seeing the Central City cops of this Earth being the people we generally recognize as the Rogues from Central City. Nice touch to the fact that the Rogues really do care a lot about their city, despite being famous villains to the Flash. Lastly with Deathstorm (as opposed to Firestorm), we see a biologist hired to find weaknesses for the Crime Syndicate in order to overthrow them. His experiment with a corpse goes wrong, and he becomes Deathstorm, the link between life and death. I’m sure you’ve realized by now just like most readers, that again Grid is as numb as… well a robot. His search for files on Superwoman, however, have been deleted, which leaves Grid with some suspicion. 

Who's this masked prisoner
with the creepy smile?

The story finishes off with a glimpse of a prisoner (not Nightwing) that also came from the Crime Syndicate’s parallel Earth, yet is unidentified (due to a bag over his face) and is apparently feared by the Crime Syndicate as he is constantly given anesthesia to keep him in a disordered state of mind. Though through a bag in one of the ending panels of his scene it appears that he is smiling? (Could it be a Lex Luthor from another world? If so, this is starting to sound a bit Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.) Lastly, we see Cyborg… well more Victor Stone than Cyborg, becoming conscious. For those counting, there are like 3-5 heroes that are actually back into play and not stuck in some weird matrix jail and conscious: Batman, Catwoman, Cyborg, and we think Stargirl and Martian Manhunter (kinda).  Some cool art, with a big tease from the cover, don’t care too much for Grid but a nice way to reveal origin stories for the almost the rest of the Crime Syndicate, but all in all, M. Deanpool says 7.5/10. He claims it would be lower, but the seeing how similar yet slightly different the parallel universe is (like Power Ring essentially being Green Lantern with no balls) helped it gain a little extra love.

Sorry Harold, Grid may not feel disturbed, but M. Deanpool does.

Pretty good grades dished out for this pick-up. Since there were less issues, M. Deanpool felt the freedom to expand a bit more on these. Thanks for reading!

I support shipping Batman and Flash.