Action Comics #960
"Path of Doom" continues, and it makes some forward progress this issue. Wonder Woman arrives to help against Doomsday, rescuing Clark Kent and pulling him away from Doomsday as Superman reappears to press the fight. Superman borrows "a trick from the Flash" and starts hitting Doomsday with super-speed punches, reaching about 4000 hits in a few seconds because he's counting them. I was amused.
He actually bloodies up Doomsday before the creature stops him and fights back. Jon and Lois are back to watching the fight on tv, and Jon shouts so loud cheering on his dad that he shatters the windows, continuing the theme of him not really knowing how to control his powers. Doomsday, 300 miles away in Metropolis, hears the shout and actually leaves the fight to go investigate.
There's a conversation between Superman, Wonder Woman and Lex Luthor where they discuss Doomsday's origins, which Luthor admires and finds fascinating. The story is taken from the three part Superman/Doomsday prestige series from the mid-90s, which Jurgens wrote and drew (so he ought to remember it!). Among other things, we're reminded that Doomsday hates anything to do with Krypton, and both Lois and Clark separately realize the probable significance of Doomsday's retreat, because he'd never leave a fight. Lois takes Jon and leaves the farm, only to be found by Superman as they leave. But Doomsday finds them as well, and the issue ends with Superman urging them to get as far away as they can, while he and Diana fight the creature. There's a nice scene before that happens where Lois and Diana meet for the "first" time, and both are very gracious to the other. Who are these calm, mature, friendly DC characters and where have they been for the last five years?
After four issues, this book remains heavy on plot and action (appropriately) with nice character moments in between the other scenes. This style of comic storytelling is one that I enjoy. The story feels like it has dragged a bit after four issues and lots of hints with very little resolution, but that's my only real complaint. Taken as individual issues, they've all been enjoyable.
Detective Comics #937
After a Batman-light issue two weeks ago, this one gives Batman plenty of page time to be awesome as he escapes from the soldiers who have him trapped and who are inventorying his utility belt. He's in the Colony's base, and after some exploring, he runs across the teenage tech support genius who explains (after some threatening from Batman) that this whole thing started with the events of Zero Year, which I think was Scott Snyder's New 52 origin story for Batman. The military saw Bruce alone do what whole squads of their soldiers couldn't do, and they've been monitoring and studying him ever since, learning his methods and fighting style. They've built a whole unit of soldiers who have the skill and to some extent the weaponry of Batman... a small army of Batmen, built to fight the League of Shadows. Batman dismisses that as a myth, but Kane assures him that they are not a myth, and they're a very real threat, and that an army is what's needed to fight them, not one man. Batman refers to the man as "uncle", which makes sense since Batwoman is his cousin, but I hadn't really thought about it until now. The issue ends with Batwoman, Robin and the others arriving at the base to attack the Colony and rescue Batman.
It's an interesting concept, and having a military unit model themselves on Batman makes good sense. Given how effective a fighter Batman has trained himself to become, without any superpowers at all, it follows that he would catch the attention of someone who would try to do what he had done. And the story mitigates a lot of what Kane is doing, because his methods and reasons for employing them, assuming he's telling the truth, make sense. He's the best kind of villain: one who thinks he's doing the right thing, and is in fact at least partially justified in his actions. But I still wonder if there's a plot twist or two down the line.
Titans #1
"The Return of Wally West" is the storyline, and it very much appears that Wally will be the main character in this ensemble book, at least for now. All the Titans get things to do and a scene or two to contribute to the plot, but the main storyline is the Titans investigating their memory loss and Wally's report about the timeline having changed. Lilith is trying to get inside his memories and learn what she can, and the first thing she learns is that he's constantly thinking about Linda Park. He gets some ribbing from his friends about this, since they don't know her, and we get some flashbacks to Wally in the traditional Flash costume, meeting her, and their marriage... but still no mention of Jai and Iris. It's an omission that I hope is corrected down the line. Linda herself gets some scenes where she recalls Wally appearing to her from the Rebirth special, and she decides to go investigate.
And in the final pages of the book, Lilith thinks she's done too much probing of Wally's memory and awakened someone who should have been left alone. It turns about to be Barry and Wally's old enemy, Abra Kadabra, the magician from the future. He claims to have been the one who made Wally West disappear. And unlike the other books I'm buying, I'll have to wait longer for the next chapter since this one's on the old standard monthly schedule.
Hal Jordan and the GLC #1
Robert Vendetti's writing style and the voice he gives Hal Jordan have become very familiar after three years of reading his Green Lantern, so this issue doesn't feel so much like a new beginning as much as other Rebirth titles have. Hal's back on track and wearing the Green Lantern uniform again, and he's searching for the Corps, but his dialogue and the aliens he encounters feel like any other alien criminals we've seen in recent years. There's not a lot of spark or innovation to the dialogue and action. That being said, the actual overall storyline has a great deal of promise. The Sinestro Corps have supplanted the Green Lantern Corps throughout the universe, and Sinestro has decided that while he's finally achieved his goal of imposing order, the inhabitants of the universe will test him unless they are made to fear the Sinestro Corps. And so he sends his army out with orders to make everyone afraid. This behavior is entirely in character for Sinestro, and it's exactly what he's been shown to have done in the past, primarily on Korugar. And he absorbs power from Parallax to regenerate himself physically, so he's no longer old and frail.
Two of Sinestro's followers have the misfortune of running into Hal as they head out into the universe, and they're shocked to find a Green Lantern right in front of them, since they understandably believed all the GLs were gone. But the last few pages show Mogo, John Stewart, Guy Gardner and all the others emerging from the white void, having escaped the collapse of the previous universe. John says that he thinks they're home.
The writing lacks punch, but the art is a few steps up from Billy Tan. I'm glad he's off the series. There are so many plot threads to tie up that I wonder just how many Venditti will get to? We don't know how the Lanterns were sent to the previous universe (though how people in the universe saw it happen is described in this issue), we don't know where the Templar Guardians are, we don't know what was going on with Relic and Krona, we don't know what Hal did with the gauntlet of Krona, and all the inhabitants of the last city that escaped into this universe need to be resettled. All of that is in addition to the story itself, with the GLs struggling to regain what they've lost to the Sinestro Corps.