As mentioned previously, let's go with the theme of ... Teammates? meh, something like that. Anyways, listed in the order I happened to read them, here's August's book list
I Heart Skull-Crusher #6 - 10 by Josie Campbell
"Get it through your head -- Everyone is an enemy. And no Wastelander is ever welcome in the Bubble Cities."
Trini Wastelander has finally achieved her dream of joining Skull-Crusher's Screaming Pain Ball Team! Her happiness quickly fades when she learns the rest of her team won't be joining her. Instead, they're split apart and recruited to other teams managed by Tyrants loyal to Queen Mob, dictator of the American Wasteland. With the Bubble City tournament underway, the death games has an unexpected prize as the winner will be declared Queen Mob's heir. Forced to compete against her friends, Trini soon discovers a secret hidden by the ruling Tyrants, one which could change the Wastelands forever.
In the second arc of I Heart Skull-Crusher, Trini Wastelander and her former Screaming Pain Ball team must compete against each other in the American Wasteland's most popular, and deadly, game. Like with a lot of sequel sports movies ("Major League II", "Mighty Ducks II", ... umm... other ones), Trini finds that winning didn't exactly giver her everything she hoped, and must now rediscover who she is. Despite being separated from her found family and thrown onto a team that openly hates her, Trini still maintains her optimism and hopeful attitude in the face of overwhelming odds. The story continues with its over-the-top antics (the "mysterious" deaths of David the Man-Bear's teammates, the ridiculous characters and their weapons). Despite the new characters and their traits, the story never loses focus of its star, Trini Wastelander, and keeps her center-stage through the five issues. After discovering Queen Mob and the other Tyrants' secret, Trini and Skull-Crusher find themselves on the run, leading to a possible "Hunger Games: Mockingjay" rebellion third story arc. I Heart Skull-Crusher continues its under-the-radar greatness, a sleeper-hit that more people should be talking about.
The Spectacular Spider-Men #8 - 15 (completed) by Greg Weisman
The entire coffee shop family is still recovering from the psychological effects of The Arcadium where they each lived out versions of their own personal fantasies. When one of their group finally realizes her fantasy will never become her reality, the rejection leads to the awakening of her dormant super-powers. The two Spider-Men take Juliet under their tutelage, bringing along a slew of other heroes to train her to control her new abilities. Meanwhile, the two Electros set out to be the first to kill a Spider-Man with the winner claiming sole ownership of the name the two share. Can the Spider-Men survive the dueling assassins?
The end of The Spectacular Spider-Men series finds itself further away from the start of the series than I expected. Hoping for a more "buddy cop" vibe between Peter Parker and Miles Morales, perhaps fighting team-ups composed of both heroes' rogues gallery, instead we're introduced to a brand-new superhero and watch as the two Spider-Men bring in other heroes to train her, resulting in several books focused on training montages of Elementary harnessing her powers. Sure, we get to see the two Spider-Men take on the two Electros (who, in the end, agree to share the name), but even that falls flat when interrupted by Dr. Conners and The Lizard (who have somehow split apart?). Ohhh, there's some sort of pairing/duality theme going on, but whatever. Then, it ends with the coffee shop ending up in another dimension (which, I don't know, does it affect the continuity of the Marvel Universe?). It's definitely not the best despite its potential, but not the worst either. I'm just confused by the story direction when it had the potential to be so much more.
Power Rangers: Prime Vol 1 by Melissa Flores
"Do we really need heroes? ... That good will always overcome evil ... Humanity has tenaciously clung to the idea ... that good will always overcome evil ... but if evil can be redefined as order ... progress... then what signifies good? In what kind of world... would a hero be created?
On an occupied Earth, the remnants of the planet's former protectors, The Power Rangers, are hunted while their very idea is relegated to myth. Accidentally sheltering a fugitive Ranger, Mark and his classmates are pulled into a heist to help her fix her Morpher. Meanwhile the witch Rita Repulsa returns to Earth and begins her reign of terror, bringing her monsters to life. When both groups find themselves facing the Eltarian's elite VR Troopers, they'll join forces to fight for their freedom and survival.
A brand new "Power Rangers" story re-imagines Earth's heroes in a time of "peaceful" occupation. It seems that re-imagining classics in a new setting is the popular thing now with both Marvel's "Ultimate" series and DC's "Absolute" series being big hits - so why not do the same with "The Power Rangers"?0 This new series finds The Power Rangers hunted and imprisoned by the planet's peace-keeping forces as humanity lives under alien occupation. It's an interesting take so far, especially when the group teams up with Rita, becoming her Rangers. I'm interested to see where this new story leads, enough that I already pre-ordered Volume 2.
Having watched several different seasons of "The Power Rangers", I also appreciate these new teenagers and how they stand-out from other versions. Most Ranger candidates are confident and strong - the people you'd expect to save the world. Mark and his friends are not those things. Instead, they're uncertain, passive, selfish, blinded, lost. They are not who you'd expect to be fighting evil, but perhaps they are what this new world needs.
Also, the return of VR Troopers! I don't know who made the decision to include them in this story and set them as the antagonists, but it was a genius move. Having grown-up during the time of "The Power Rangers", "VR Troopers", "Big Bad Beetleborgs", and other teenage super groups, I nearly lost my mind when I saw them transform. Out of curiosity, I picked-up the first issue of VR Troopers to see what the story would be from the antagonists perspective. At the moment, it doesn't appear to have anything to do with the Power Rangers: Prime series from which it spun out. Instead, it focuses on a mysterious villain, the Troopers' background, and some sort of "multiverse" element.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return by Amy Jo Johnson and Matt Hotson
"And now here you all are, together again -- for the last time. Because I'm going to personally help keep that promise you all made ... No more Power Rangers."
Long ago, six ordinary teenagers were chosen to become Power Rangers, using their new abilities to defend Earth from evil monsters. After decades of saving the world, their battle finally came to an end with the deaths of Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, and the destruction of their moon base. The Power Rangers also lost one of their own, Tommy Oliver the Green Ranger, which caused his wife, Kimberly Hart, to walk away from the group. Years after leaving the group, Kimberly Hart is pulled back in when they find someone is drawing from the power of the Morphin Grid, and a young girl claiming to be the recently-departed Trini's niece shows up at Hart's doorstep. Once again reunited, the Power Rangers will face an enemy they never saw coming - one with the power to resurrect their greatest nemesis.
Despite being just four-issues long, the story packs in a ton of millennial nostalgia for me. Right from the start, I want to say I was really excited for this book, especially after missing out on collecting the four issues series at their original release. Co-written by Amy Jo Johnson - yeah, the first Pink Ranger! - the story quickly retcons the original series by keeping the original team intact, and then pitting them in a last battle with Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd. Kimberly Hart, still suffering the trauma of losing her husband and fellow Power Ranger, Tommy Oliver, meets with her old friends after years of hiding only to discover a mysterious entity using the power of the Morphin Grid for nefarious purposes. Despite it being the standard "Evil Has Returned" plot line, there are several surprising moments that kept me hooked and wanting more (perhaps a second story arc?).
The Return is a story of trauma and loss, and how we work to move past it. Kimberly Hart, still suffering years after the loss of her husband, hides herself and her daughter away, isolated, even going so far as to change her entire identity. The other three remaining Rangers, seeing pain and suffering around them, use the power they'd sworn off to help people - Jason going the furthest after witnessing the deaths of many as a firefighter as he tries to stay morphed at all times. Lastly is Rita and Zedd's daughter, Selena, orphaned on Earth after The Power Rangers killed her parents, tries to return the family stolen from her and killing those responsible. Each suffering character shows the extreme lengths people will go to just to ease their pain and get passed their trauma.
Ultraman X The Avengers by Mat Groom and Kyle Higgins
Attempting to rid their universe of Galactus, The Avengers accidentally transport the planet-eater to Ultraman's Earth. To undo their mistake, Earth's Mightiest Heroes will team-up with the Ultra Guard to fight off monstrous Kaiju attacks and infiltrate the base of Ultraman's enemy before setting out to subdue Galactus.
Collecting the entire four-issue series Ultraman X The Avengers sees two powerful teams teaming-up to take on the cosmic threat known as Galactus. Once again, picked-up on a whim as my eyes saw Ultraman and my brain said, "Buy it now!" because though I never grew up with Ultraman, I did watch a lot of Power Rangers and old Godzilla movies with folks in rubber suits fighting in a cardboard landscape. The story was your standard crossover, and though I didn't know much about Ultraman and his team, the whole thing felt pretty plausible without any real changes occurring to either universe. In the end, it was an okay read, but now one I'll pick-up again.
Absolute Flash #1 - 6 by Jeff Lemire
Still dealing with his mother's unexpected death and his father's constant military reassignments, anxiety-ridden Wally West is just trying to catch his breath and make his world slow down. Wally's world gets faster than he thought possible when a military experiment goes awry. Hoping to rein in the young speedster, the military sends their own super-powered rogues after him. Alone and isolated, Wally will not only seek to stay one step ahead of those hunting him, but also help those harmed in the military's experiments. After all, he already knows that by the choices he makes, he can either save or destroy humanity.
An excellent start to another re-imagined character in DC's "Absolute" series. Keeping with the "Hopelessness" theme of this new universe, Wally West no longer has the mentorship of Barry Allen and the camaraderie of the rest of the Flash family as he does in the regular DC Universe. Instead, he is an anxiety-ridden teenager hoping to slow the world down, and to his horror and detriment, is given superhuman speed - his body and mind now racing faster than ever. Also introduced are The Flash's rogues gallery, no longer just a bunch of supervillains joined together but disgraced soldiers blackmailed into subjecting themselves to the same type of experiments which gave West his own powers. They are trained in combat and, being part of the same unit, already know how to work as a team, which will make dealing with them all the more tougher for the kid. That connection is something I really liked seeing as it gives both sides a deeper bond than simply Hero and Villain - it cuts them from the same cloth. It's a good start to another series in this new universe.
Like with the other "Absolute Universe" books, Absolute Flash features an overarching theme, this time of isolation. Wally West is clearly alone having lost his mother, disconnected from his father, and not having any close friends. This is only made worse after the accident when he is hunted by the Rogues, a military group sent after him by his own father. Building on this is the whole of issue 6 where the reader is given background into the Rogues as they're initially in hiding, cut-off even from each other. Brought together once more, they agree to be experimented upon and turned into weapons, whatever it takes to get their lives back. Based on how West handles the Heatwave monstrosity, this loneliness he feels will likely shape the way he will deal with the other loosened experiments, and probably the Rogues once they catch up to him.
What If ...? Galactus by Mat Groom (The Hulk), Josh Trujillo (Gambit), Alex Segura (Moon Knight), Ann Nocenti (Rogue), Kalinda Vazquez (Spider-Gwen)
A collection of five one-shot issues re-imagining the universe if Galactus had instead chosen a different herald to assist him in satisfying his endless hunger.
Comic book nerds love debating "What if's" with each other, and publishers find it profitable (see Marvel's current "Ultimate' and DC's "Absolute" series). That said, these five stories were okay as they re-imagined five different Heralds - The Hulk, Gambit, Moon Knight, Rogue, and Spider-Gwen. The stand-out, in my opinion, was the Rogue storyline as she realizes the importance of Galactus to the universe as a whole, his consumption acting as a kind-of "controlled burn" to make room for new growth in the universe. The Hulk choosing to fight Galactus and Gambit teaching the world-eater about the pain of loss were okay. Moon Knight and Spider-Gwen both rebelling felt like a waste of their characters.
Exquisite Corpses #1 - 4 by James Tynion IV (issues 1 - 4), Michael Walsh (#2), Pornsak Pichetshote (#3), Che Grayson (#4)
"It's about power. You know that. This is when we remind ourselves why we should be afraid of each other. Imagine if all I had up my sleeve was depravity. That's no way to win. And no way to scare people. Not for more than a moment, anyways."
It's that time again! The stage is set and the players are chosen. The 13 families secretly in control of the United States of America chose killers armed with specific weapons and drop them into a small-town to hunt and kill each other with the last one standing deciding the family who will head the country for the next five years. Let the games begin!
A collective effort involving a whole bunch of different writers and artists, Exquisite Corpses is an action-horror comic setting a bunch of killers against each other in a small town filled with unaware citizens. I like to imagine this as a fun, collaborative effort amongst a group of buddies, each of them given free-rein over the issue they're working on to tell this story. As for collecting these issues, I'm really hoping I can keep picking-up the polybag issues which come with a special trading card (not that I ever plan to play). Of the shops I frequent though, one doesn't bring in the comic at all, and the other didn't have issue 4 in stock on the release day though I did manage to find it the next week in the Back Issue bin. I cheated and pre-ordered issues 6 and 7 online, but I really do like it when I can find them in stores. Well, I'll see how my collecting goes.
Every 10 years, the 13 families who control America chose a killer and set them loose in a small town to fight each other with sole survivor determining the winning family. With such a straight-forward yet insane premise, of course you need a cast of characters to match. The townspeople, of course, are pretty standard folks just going about their everyday lives, ill-prepared for what's to come. The Family Representatives, each of them using the name of one of the first 13 States as a moniker, vary widely from each other. Some eccentric, some cruel, some calculating. The one stand-out (and the focus) is Massachusetts who expresses her embarrassment at how the games have transformed, and hopes to restore some sense of dignity if victorious. The Killers, too, are a mixed group, with some being trained, professional killers while others are simply murderous psychopaths. It's a fun look at the wild and varied characters one can fit into a story this insane, and I'm interested to see what each writer plans to do with them.
Can absolute power be wielded without corrupting absolutely? Mentioned in issue one, Massachusetts states that she hates the way the game is played by the other Families who have been shown to revel in the bloodshed and cruelty they create. Besides Massachusetts' chosen killer, the others introduced thus far also appear to wield their power cruelly, murdering others for no other reason than because they can. Even those who held power in the town use it to keep those under them in-line and under their thumb. Though we have yet to hear or see how Massachusetts could be different from her contemporaries, I'm interested to see how the game plays out.
The Power Fantasy #6 - 11 by Kieron Gillen
"So part of me was glad ... I'd have hated to be facing the wrong way at the end of the world."
The world keeps turning as long as the six Superpowers maintain an uneasy truce and never come into conflict with one another. The group re-lives the events of the Second Summer of Love, and the planetary destruction caused when an emerging Superpower went berserk. Knowing the results of their last conflict, the six form uneasy alliances and backroom deals as a new Superpower once again emerges.
One of the best "not-a-superhero" superpower stories keeps getting better and better. I strongly recommend this book to anyone with a love for superpower stories with less "Punching" - as that would literally be the worst thing to happen in this universe. One of the issues even opens with the stats on the six Superpowers and the number of people they could kill per hour with the weakest measuring at 250 million while the stronger ones are estimated at 6 billion. In regards to collecting these six issues, just like the first five, I'm still trying to grab both covers of every issue for no other reason than to have them. Unfortunately, it appears that both comic shops I frequent have stopped bringing in Cover B issues, so I've resorted to buying them online instead, while picking-up the Cover A issues on my Pull List.
Despite most of this story arc set during the Second Summer of Love catastrophe which led to the destruction of Europe, the story itself still moves forward in the present day. When telling major, in-universe, historical events, it's tempting to make that the major focus which tends to loose sight of the present day. I liked that each character had a valid, present-day reason for re-living the event, keeping them grounded in the current situation of how to handle the emergence of a new potential Superpower which may disrupt their current balance. We also learn a lot about several characters during their retelling of the events, knowledge which shapes their decision at the end of issue 11, as it is the past which shapes our present. Unfortunately, we will need to wait until the next story arc to see the full ramifications of "killing" one of their own.
Being a character driven story, what I really like are the different ways each character copes with the amount of power they wield and how they contrast each other. Eti calculates when to use his power based on logic and ethics, not allowing his feelings to enter his judgements compared to Heavy who appears to be driven to action by his emotions. Valentina will do whatever it takes to ensure the wrorld keeps turning while Eliza is ashamed that she did. As much as Masumi desires to hide her power, Magus created a cult for the entire world to see just so he can be included in this elite group. These differences ground the characters, making them feel more human than the standard superhero model of doing the right thing because it is the right thing.
Absolute Martian Manhunter #1 - 6 by Deniz Camp
"I know I sound crazy. I know that. But the martian who lives in my head assures me I'm not."
FBI Agent John Jones awakens in a hospital bed after surviving a suicide bombing attack. Despite being given a clean bill of health and permission to return to duty, a colorful haze wafting in and out of his sight, knowing things about others he should have no way of knowing, and a strange voice in his head have him believing otherwise. As the rest of the city falls into madness with a spike in arson attacks, riots, and other previously unfathomable crimes, Jones will come to accept the help of the alien voice as a means to stop the chaos caused by a sinister, invisible, unknowable entity.
I'll admit, I wasn't especially excited for Absolute Martian Manhunter as I was for the Absolute versions of the other DC staples. I don't know too much about the character, his phasing and mind-reading powers aren't as flashy, and the cartoons I watched didn't make him seem too important except as a fish-out-of-water joke. How fucking wrong I was! Issue one felt a little bland to me as the story sets up the characters and the madness slowly building in the city. I wasn't even sure I wanted to continue it from that point. Then came issue two, and with more explanation into what was really happening to Jones and the introduction of a villain driving these everyday people to commit heinous atrocities, that solidified my desire to continue this superhero/detective story. It's a surprising story, especially considering the other five books in this new Absolute universe, but a welcome change and a standout for its unique approach to the genre.
Like the other books so far, there exists an underlying, darker theme to these stories set in a universe devoid of hope. In these, there is a "darkness of man" theme in which humans show they're not only filled with terrible thoughts but also capable of turning these thoughts to action. Though The Martian determined that a White Martian orchestrated these crimes, Jones knows that it simply persuaded its victims to succumb to their dark desires, that the thought to commit such horrors were within these people all along. It's a dark and bleak look into the human psyche by simply examining what we are capable of.
