What I Read This Week

I got to the comic shop this weekend despite being out of town on business all week (more on this visit to the shop in a later post), and so I did in fact manage to snag my weekly comic books.

Final Crisis #7 -- The entire world is broken, as the mortally wounded Darkseid meets with the Black Racer and destroys reality as we know it.  But that's only the tip of the iceberg, since Mandrakk the Dark Monitor waits to drink up the very nature of Earth-Zero for his own insatiable thirst, and only an army of Supermen can stop him.  At least, I think that is what is going on.  I need to re-read this one to get a better understanding, as Morrison's jumping around gets to what can only be called the final degree here, making for a confusing reading experience.  This is doubly true if you have not read Superman Beyond, which I have not.  But even in it's jumbled state, I enjoyed this comic book quite a bit.  The art is odd, with Mahnke being inked and colored by various different contributors, but it still looks pretty solid.  Just what is being conveyed is not always clear, but Morrison has delivered (admittedly a little late) his epic and the Fifth World has begun.

Justice Society of America #23 -- The issue starts with a bang (literally and metaphorically) and goes up from there.  The Justice Society has to address the actions and motivations of their entirely too-numerous members in the wake of the Gog debacle, but another problem boils over when Black Adam manages to track down his love Isis, who is being held by Felix Faust.  Johns is Johns and Ordway is Ordway; as a bow for Johns's time on JSoA this story has all the earmarks of being one for the ages.  

Unknown Soldier #4 -- Dr. Moses Lwanga's odyssey in the hellish world of the Ugandan bush continues, as he finds himself and his young orphan charges caught in a crossfire between the Ugandan Army and the LRA.  This title is as brutal a war comic as I have ever read, and the fact that it's based on a ton of research done by author Joshua Dysart makes it all the more unsettling -- and Ponticelli's art doesn't alleviate any of that.  Definitely a worthy purchase.

The War That Time Forgot #9 -- Lt. Carson and Akisa get some alone time to try to sort things out, while the Ancients and Moderns begin an alliance which seems beneficial to both.  But the observers are starting to feel like this experiment is a failure and in need of being scrapped.  Kind of a draggy issue, but it picks up towards the end and gives us some answers to a few of the mysteries the series has been treading on.  Also has a fun sequence with a robotic pteradactyl being tamed as a mount.  At this point I am pretty sure I am the only person on the planet reading this title.  

Nova #21 -- The Nova Corps is reborn, but why does Richard Ryder remain suspicious of the idea?  And what does this have to do with Ego, The Living Planet showing up in orbit of Earth?  The strange saga which Richard has been on since the start of Annihilation nearly three years ago takes another bizarre twist here.  And the fact that we have a new armed force in the cosmos as we head in War Of Kings cannot be anything but bad.  Well, good for readers, bad for everyone else that is.

glamourpuss #5 -- Sadly, I did not have time to read this one yet.  Ah well.

Phantom Annual #2 -- The Ghost-Who-Walks teams up with Mandrake the Magician and his partner Lothar to investigate the murder of Lothar's cousin, a Bangallan, in Manhattan.  The story leads back to the jungle, where a rare native root may give the dark elements of the world the ultimate resource -- a potion which can turn anyone into an assassian!  Strong and fast-paced adventure, which seems to serve much more as a pilot of sorts for a Mandrake & Lothar series than a Phantom story.  Samicler Goncalves's art has texture and weight, making this a nice looking story as well.  The Phantom is being relaunched shortly from Moonstone, will Mandrake follow as well?

The Pick Of The Pile is Justice Society.  I like that while we are seeing the fallout, the new story simply will not wait.  Final Crisis was good but I need to re-read it.