Which Comics Are The Best Books Of The Stack? : New Superhero Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reviews [ Marvel / DC Comics / Image / Indie ] 07-31-19
I’m going to try my hand at comic book reviews. Here goes…
Books Of 07/31/19
House Of X #1
I know I’m late on this but I had to gather my thoughts on this one. To say the least, I’m against the grain when it comes to this comic. Most people are saying this was great, but for me, it was okay at best. When I heard Jonathan Hickman was going to write “X-men” I was apprehensive. I wasn’t big on his “Avengers” run. Hickman is very good at creating “big ideas” with universe (or multi-verse) level stakes and in the process creating some cool moments. I find that his stories lack “heart” and characters start to become little more than talking heads.
On to the comic. The X-men and mutants as a whole have made the living island of “Krokoa” the new mutant homeland. So immediately I have to say “X-men did it”. Professor X has recently sent a telepathic message to the world about this and offers three drugs that can help humans to nations that recognize this new mutant nation. Everything about what he’s doing here and the way he delivers it is out of character for Xavier. These drugs (made from plants on Krokoa) that he offers include:
- One that can extend life for five years – …I know this is a comic book but this makes no sense. There are millions of variables that contribute to how long you live and that’s if only include natural means of death. Something like “senzu beans” from “Dragonball” are ridiculous (and retconned completely from their original purpose) but they are at least understandable. They heal literally any amount of any type of damage done to someone as long as they are still alive. The properties of this drug are way too nebulous and abstract. This needs either a lot more explanation or should have been changed.
- Another that is a universal antibiotic – Okay this is fine.
- And finally, one that cures “diseases of the mind specifically in humans” – Again this is way too vague. What exactly is meant by “disease of the mind”? Hickman should have went with something like “it cures Alzheimer’s and dementia”.
Krokoa also has plants that allow teleportation to any place one of those plants is placed. There are other plants as well but they don’t seem all that relevant yet so I’ll skip them for now. We briefly see Xavier, Jean Grey (who looks younger and in one of her earlier costumes) and some young mutants on Krakoa. Meanwhile, ambassadors come to meet with Magneto. In space, we see some people on some kind of space station. It seems all of Mavel’s “secret organizations” (“S.H.I.E.LD”, “S.W.O.R.D”, “A.I.M.”, etc.) have formed some supergroup to monitor what is going on with mutants. There are quite a few pure text pages that explain most of this. I found this pretty lazy. The story itself should explain all of this without needed purely informational pages.
Elsewhere “Mystique”, “Toad”, and “Sabretooth” steal data from a “Damage Control” facility. The “Fantastic Four” show up and capture “Sabretooth” while the other two escape through some kind of portal. “Cyclops” comes and tries to take “Sabretooth” in his custody, but the “Fantastic Four” are against that. “Cyclops” is kind of a dick about it for a bit but he eventually lets them keep him.
We’re then given another text-only page the goes into “Omega Level” mutants. One specific thing that is pointed out is that “Jean Grey” is an omega level telepath. This seems strange (wrong) to me because it seemed clear “Jean’s” main ability was always telekinesis and that people like “Xavier” were much better telepaths than her. We then end with the discovery that all the ambassadors were planted there for some reason and with “Magneto” announcing that humans have “new Gods now” in mutants.
This all seems grossly out-of-character for the “X-men” so there seems to be three possibilities (all of which are kind of lame):
- These aren’t really the “X-men” and they’re “pod people” or something. So this big relaunch of “X-men” didn’t even feature the actual “X-men” in it.
- These are really the “X-men” and they just suck now. They’ve become exactly like “Magneto” and can barely be considered heroes if they can be at all.
- These are really the “X-men” but they’re under some kind of mind control which has been done about a million times.
The art is pretty good and despite the comic’s flaws, it’s interesting. That’s more than can be said for a lot of recent “X-men” related comics. In the end though, I don’t think it lives up to the hype. It’s okay. I’d give it maybe a B- if I were feeling generous.
Verdict: Middle Of The Stack
Powers Of X #1
In this comic, we see pre-”X-men” “Xavier”; current “Xavier”; mutants one hundred years in the future; and mutants one thousand years in the future. The comic begins with showing Xavier meeting Moira MacTaggart for what at first seems to be the first time. They chat about Xavier being happy about having his dream for peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants. They are at some kind of fair and for some reason, there are images that directly relate to stuff we will see one hundred years in the future. Jonathan Hickman has sworn up and down that “House Of X” and “Powers Of X” are not time travel stories so I don’t see how that makes any sense. It should also be noted that the only indication that the woman “Xavier” is talking to is “Moira” is a caption quoting something she says at the very beginning of the comic. “Moira” indicates that they already know each other and “Xavier” then reads her mind. He then seems somewhat surprised.
We then go to current day where we learn that is was “Xavier” that had “Mystique” and the others steal information from the “Damage Control” facility in “House Of X”. If you didn’t read “House Of X” this would make little to no sense to you. If these two stories are connected this directly they should probably simply be made into one story. “Xavier” then somehow uses telekinesis… That was strange…
We jump to one hundred years in the future. A mutant is being captured by “Sentinels” and other cyborg people. A woman who looks like a fusion of “Colossus” and “Magik” along with a red “Nightcrawler”-looking guy see this. The three are communicating telepathically and the “Colossus”/”Magik” chick wants to rescue her and the other two are against it. The woman being captured is a “Hound” (a mutant bred by humans specifically to hunt down other mutants) who defected and joined “The X-men(?)” or whoever these guys are. The “Colossus”/”Magik” chick is called “Rasputin” and she attacks anyway in a really well-drawn fight sequence. She is unsuccessful and forced to retreat.
We’re then “treated” to three whole purely informational pages that explain how at some point the mutant population becomes so low that “Mr. Sinister” is allowed to breed mutants. Keep in mind that for a fairly long time the mutant population was less than two hundred. Also if you have to “create” mutants are they really mutants? Are they preserving a race of people or just the idea of an “X-gene”? Anyways this text goes on to say that “Sinister” then started making mutants that were the combination of two different mutants and eventually reached a point where he could combine the powers of five. Stop! Let’s think about this… If you were even mildly creative and given the chance to make a being with five different powers you could easily make someone that is nigh-invincible. After this Sinister tried to make some kind of super Omega level mutants and for some reason, it failed spectacularly and basically screwed up everything for mutants. It is then revealed that “Sinister” had his own purposes for doing all this and he ends up betraying the mutants. What a dick?!
After these informational pages, we return and meet “Nimrod the lesser”. He’s a robot that’s emotional and kind of goofy but seems to be in charge. There’s some back and forth between him, his henchmen, and the captured mutant. They end up turning the captured mutant into pure information. There’s another information page about the hounds that doesn’t seem super important so I’m skipping it. We then see “Rasputin” and the red “Nightcrawler” guy walking through a portal to meet “Wolverine” (or some version of him); Green “Magneto”; some version of “Xorn”; and a guy who looks like “Groot”. They’ve brought back something and the “Wolverine” guy says “the old man’s waiting”. Xavier?
Guess what? We get two more pages of pure information. This time we’re told (not shown of course) that there are less than ten thousand mutants and most of them live outside of our solar system in parts of the “Shi’ar” empire. There’s literally only eight mutants left in the solar system (the “X-men?”). So why do humans (or man-machines as it seems everyone is a cyborg in the future) even care?!
We end with a glimpse into one thousand years into the future. A blue guy called the “the librarian” talks to this small floating robot called “Nimrod the greater”. “Nimrod the great” is some kind of database of all mutant kind or something. Then it is suggested that humans don’t exist anymore… Man… This one was rough. I gave “House Of X #1” a little bit of a break because it was the beginning of all this. This though just seems to be nothing but pointlessness and fluff. It’s lore with no substance and a cool fight scene. If this isn’t a time travel story then what is the point of any of this?! The information pages take the laziness to a new level. Seriously, get to the actual “X-men” doing actual “X-men” stuff already! I give this a C+ and that’s almost entirely on the back of the art (which I’d give an A to).
Verdict: Middle Of The Stack (Only Because Of The Art)
Avengers #22
This is one is pretty basic. Robbie Reyes’ (the current Ghost Rider) car is out of control and he wants the Avengers to help him get rid of it along with his connection to the Ghost Rider. So the members of the team at “Avengers” Mountain (“Captain America”, “Captain Marvel”, “Blade” and “Black Panther”) try to do that. Things go wrong and the “Son Of Satan” is called in to help them.
Meanwhile, the rest of team (“Thor”, “Iron Man”, and “She-Hulk”) are investigating a cave in “Wakanda” after the “War Of The Realms” event. An ancient “Iron Man” mask is discovered and that is left as a mystery for later. The “Son Of Satan” gives “Blade” some kind of special gun and then does a ritual on Robbie. This seems to send him to hell where is in his car in a traffic jam. Then another “Ghost Rider” (“Johnny Blaze”?) pulls up next to him.
This comic was fine. Not bad. Not great. Perfectly down the middle. I’d throw it somewhere in the C level.
Verdict: Middle Of The Stack
Death’s Head #1
“Death’s Head” is a character I barely heard of. All I knew about him before this comic was that he was a robot or a cyborg or something. This is one of those books where I said: “what the hell I’ll give it a shot”. So to start off, the art was not my taste, to say the least. It’s very “indie” looking and would probably work better in that type of book.
We begin with “Death’s Head” being established as being used as an amp by some band and it’s confusing. It seems like we then access his memories of how he eventually gets in this situation. Apparently, “Death’s Head” is a bounty hunter and “Yondu” (the blue “he’s ain’t your daddy” guy from “Guardians Of The Galaxy”) has put a bounty on his head because “Death’s Head” owes him money. “Death’s Head” is being outdone by several female robots or cyborg bounty hunters. A fight ensues on the spaceship they are on and “Death’s Head” ends up being sent through a portal or something that sends him to “New York”. He lands in a trash bin.
The art again makes things super confusing but it seems like he was found unconscious by the band in the beginning and his parts were used by them. Death’s Head then wakes up and reassembles himself. After this, he runs into “Wiccan” and “Hulkling” from the “Young Avengers”. They then get into a fight. I never read “Young Avengers” so all I know about them is that they were on the team and I heard they were gay. “Wiccan” eventually teleports “Death’s Head” way.
This leads to a bunch of boring talk about “Wiccan” wanting to be on an “Avengers” team or something. He then searches through realities trying to find where “Death’s Head” came from. “Death’s Head” returns from wherever he was teleported to and tracks “Wiccan” and “Hulking” back to their home. He attacks them and in the process, it is revealed that another “Death’s Head” was under their bed and “Wiccan” knows something about it.
The story-telling in this comic was particularly poor so it was really hard to understand what was going on. There was also little or no attempt to explain any of the characters. I gave this a shot, but I won’t be giving this series another. C- at best.
Verdict: Bottom Of The Stack
Marvel Team-Up #4
Before we even start this needs to be said. “Marvel” needs to stop trying to force people to like certain characters. It never works and it turns people off. This comic features two characters that “Marvel” is guilty of doing this with: “Ms. Marvel” and “Captain Marvel”. To be clear, I’m not one of these people scowling every second of Brie Larson because she wanted a diverse press junket or whatever people are mad at her for. The “Captain Marvel” movie was actually pretty good. Not great, but good. I also think “Ms. Marvel” is okay in “Champions”. Otherwise, she’s mostly boring. Point blank though, neither character is very popular. This is why their series don’t sell well and need to be relaunched over and over.
I say all this because usually, every version of “Marvel Team-Up” has “Spider-Man” paired with some other “Marvel” hero. It now seems to “star” is “Ms. Marvel” instead. This is doing the opposite of what this title used to do which is pair two popular characters together or have “Spider-Man” as the popular character lend his popularity to a less popular character.
Let’s get to the actual comic. To start off, most of the art is okayish but some panels look pretty bad. Specifically, the look and color of “Ms. Marvel” costume look pretty bad throughout the whole book. The story begins with a guy in a weird robot suit knocking out a guard and looking for “Kree stuff” in a “Damage Control” warehouse…With something similar happening in “House Of X” maybe they need to up the security at these places. The next morning we see “Ms. Marvel” and “Captain Marvel” at the warehouse. The warehouse is in Jersey City, New Jersey where “Ms. Marvel” lives. It’s revealed that there’s been a number of these “Damage Control” places where “Kree stuff” has been stolen. For some reason, “Captain Marvel” told “Ms. Marvel” to watch this place. “Ms. Marvel” couldn’t watch during the night because she got grounded for sneaking out to be “Ms. Marvel”. In a world full of superheroes why would you ask a kid to do this? “Captain Marvel” then comes up with a plan to fool “Ms. Marvel’s” parents so she can get around being grounded. Why bother though? The place she can watch has already been robbed. Call in one of the numerous other adult heroes if you need help. Seeing as “Captain Marvel” is pretty powerful she shouldn’t need it anyway. “Ms. Marvel” is no powerhouse so if “Captain Marvel” can’t handle it she’d be of little help to her.
Despite all this, “Captain Marvel” gets all dressed up and goes to “Ms. Marvel’s” house to talk to her parents. She makes up some story about an “internship where she’ll learn about a female Pakistani scientist”. “Cap” then adds she was picked for this because of her “Avengers” fan-fic””… Cue the lady from the commercial that says “that’s not how anything works”. “Ms. Marvel’s” mom then says something about mothers that triggers a flashback for ‘Captain Marvel” to the death of her own mother during “The Life Of Captain Marvel” series. “Ms. Marvel,” says something about an “honorarium” and for some reason that convinces her parents. I have no idea what an “honorarium” is or why this convinces them but… *Shrug*.
“Captain Marvel” then gets a report that someone stole the spear that killed her mom from another warehouse. Something happened where the stuff stolen from the Jersey City warehouse has been “decloaked” so “Cap” flies “Ms. Marvel” to the abandoned building it has been tracked to. They enter it and get attacked by the robot guy from the beginning and some green dude with tentacles. It is revealed these two are working for someone named “Wastrel” who is revealed to actually be… *Drumroll*… “Mar-Vell” the original (at least in “Marvel Comics”) “Captain Marvel”.
Honestly, I really didn’t like this comic at first but looking at it again to write this softened me on it some. There’s some interesting talk about heritage. This heritage being the shared “Kree” heritage of “Captain Marvel” and “Ms. Marvel”. Originally, I was gonna put this one the bottom of the stack and quit “Marvel Team-Up” but I’ll at least give it one more issue to see where this goes…
Verdict: Middle Of The Stack (But Barely)
Batman: The Last Knight On Earth Book Two
I’ll say upfront that I wasn’t a big fan of the “Old Man Logan” story in “Wolverine”. This is basically “Old Man Logan” but “Batman”. To me, both mostly come down to being well-drawn nonsense. The basic setup is a version of “Batman” (supposedly a clone) is wandering in a dystopian future while carrying “The Joker’s” head in some type of lantern. Everything got messed up in this future when humanity turned against all the heroes. This is all framed around the idea that “Alfred” made the “Batman” clone think he’s delusional and just imagined his entire career as “Batman” in the previous issue. He tried to trap him in a fake “Arkham Asylum” to stop him from being “Batman” in a world that no longer seems to need or want him.
There’s a lot of random “DC Comics” lore thrown at you throughout as “Batman” travels and I guess you’re supposed to be impressed by it. So if just naming something “Fort Waller” or mentioning things like “nuclear men”, “haunted tanks”, or “animal men” does something for you then this is the comic for you! About a quarter of the way in, we see “Alfred” as he encounters versions of “Bane” and “Scarecrow”. They seem to be working for a man named “Omega”. “Alfred” shoots at “Bane” with a shotgun but it seems to do nothing. “Alfred” is then hit with needles by “Scarecrow” (some fear chemical?). “Omega” then appears and “Alfred” knows who he is. “Omega” then says something about “Alfred” “saving the Waynes” by somehow preventing them from going to the showing of “Zorro” where they end up shot after leaving. “Alfred” then falls asleep (due to the “Scarecrow” needles?).
Back with “Batman”, he while carrying “The Joker” he reaches the “Plains Of Solitude” where he hopes to find “Superman”. He finds a bearded “Superman” who leads him to the “Kent” farm where he finds “Lex Luthor” along with many clones of “Superman”. It is noted that these clones are much weaker than the original and the bearded one was a clone as well. “Lex” then reveals he has some overly complicated time manipulation plan to bring back the real “Superman”. He then describes how “Superman” was killed in an overly complicated plan that came down to everyone on Earth choosing between “Justice” or “Doom”. If people voted for “Justice” Lex would be killed. If people voted for “Doom” “Superman” would die. “Luthor” expected people to choose “Justice” but “Superman” would die saving “Luthor”. People instead chose “Doom”. If you’re reading the current “Justice League” story this should all seem familiar. After choosing “Doom” people not only turned on all the heroes but eventually all the villains as well. He then mentions trying to create a “Batman”. This is “Omega”.
The bearded “Superman” then attacks both of them and somehow “Bane” and “The Scarecrow” are suddenly at the “Kent” farm. The bearded “Superman” is now somehow under their control. Luckily, “Wonder Woman” (the only other hero left in this world) is also suddenly somehow there and she kills the bearded “Superman” clone. “The Scarecrow” somehow drugged all the “Superman” clones gaining control of them all and sends them to attack “Lex”, “Batman”, and “Wonder Woman”. “Lex” opens some kind of portal so the other two can escape and he is seemingly killed by his clones. Note how many times I’ve used the word “somehow”.“Batman” and “Wonder Woman” then appear on top of what looks like the giant cape of “The Spectre”. They go under it and seem to enter the underworld as we see all the dead heroes along with “Alfred”. 😥.
They continue traveling and reach “Gotham City” but they are soon surrounded by members of “The Court Of Owls”. “Batman” recognizes the voice of the one who seems to be leading them and it’s revealed to be… “Dick Grayson”.
I won’t go as far as saying this is bad, but it feels like a bunch of stuff crammed together. Things don’t seem set up well or developed enough. Something significant happens; it’s not explained or not explained enough; then we move on to something else. Maybe I’m missing a lot because I haven’t read most of Scott Snyder’s run on “Batman” and I hear this refers to all of it. For me, this one teeters between a B- and a C+ because the art is mostly great.
Verdict: Middle Of The Stack
Iron Hammer Annual 1 Secret Warps Part 5
The “Infinity Warps” from “Marvel’s” “Infinity Wars” crossover ranks among the laziest of ideas I’ve ever seen in comics. Ya know how “DC” and “Marvel” combined characters from each other’s universe to create “Amalgam” characters during the “DC Versus MC” crossover. This is that but only “Marvel”. So two completely random “Marvel” characters are combined making a new one. The most amount of thought put into this is creating “Soldier Supreme” by combining “Captain America” and “Dr. Strange” because both of their real names are Steve. For everyone else, they just threw darts at a dartboard or something.
I’m not going to get two deep into the story because it’s mostly nonsense, but this is the fifth part of connected “annual” issues for these characters. Annuals for characters that don’t have a series that tell one big story. Would’ve made a lot more sense to simply make this a mini-series called “Infinity Warps: Secret Warps” or something but why not make this whole thing even more needless confusing.
Speaking of “needlessly confusing”, this series is about the “Infinity Warps” characters fighting “Squadron Supreme” and “New Universe” characters. The “New Universe” being something that “Marvel” has been trying to get people to care about since they created that line of comics in the ’80s. Anyways, characters from these two universes have merged (a “Squadron Supreme” character with a “New Universe” character). At the same time, the “Infinity Warps” characters have been double merged. To be clear, this means now each “Infinity Warp” is comprised of four different “Marvel” characters. This gets even nuttier when as the story processes eight “Marvel” characters are merged.
Does it even need to be explained how dumb and pointless all this is? Probably my favorite part of this is that some of the characters used in this are so obscure you wouldn’t know them unless you happened to just read the original “Squadron Supreme” maxi-series or the old “New Universe” books. So this literally appeals to basically no one. The sad part is there’s a small bit of potential for this idea if some thought was put into it. If the two characters shared something interesting in common and the two characters individually gained something from it. In fact, I’m just going to give you this idea “Marvel”. Combine “Daredevil” and “Cyclops”. These are two characters who obviously have eye-related issues and see only in red. “Daredevil” could have literally “walked in the shoes of a mutant” and gained some understanding of their struggle. Maybe “Cyclops” could learn something from how “Daredevil” fights and uses his senses.
For now, just stop doing this. It’s a waste of time and effort. The art is pretty decent and there are books you’re selling with bad art. Put this guy on one of those. C- for art that doesn’t suck.
Verdict: Bottom Of The Stack
Angel #1-3
Why three issues in one for this? Because after reading the #0 issue I had honestly forgot about this series for a while. We have some background to cover before we get into the comics. “Angel” as you may know is a spinoff of the “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” TV show. “Angel” is a vampire who regained his soul and is forever trying to atone for all the evil he did when he didn’t have one. Both characters’ stories continued on in comics, but after the comics moved from being published by “Dark Horse” to “Boom! Studios” they were rebooted. Both have started over as far as continuity goes. Overall I have not liked the “Buffy” reboot so far. Generally, the characters have been stripped of everything that made them interesting and given changes that are in no way improvements. I’ll probably get into that more the next time I review a “Buffy” comic.
So the prognosis for “Angel” doesn’t look good, right? Well despite some changes I don’t like these were actually great comics. The story starts in the past with a female axe-wielding warrior wearing a dragon helmet named “Mara”. She fights some vampires attacking a village and kills several of them, but she gets hit by an arrow shot by a redheaded female vampire. Another vampire hits her with a hammer and knocks the helmet off her head. “Mara” is subdued by the vampires and is now dying. We then learn that these vampires are being led by “Angel”. “Angel” then tells “Mara” that he wants to turn her into a vampire and bites her neck (the first part of the process). “Angel” then cuts his own wrist offering his blood for her to drink (the second part of the process). “Mara” refuses at first, but then admits she doesn’t want to die and accepts “Angels” blood becoming a vampire.
Cut to present day where “Angel” is sitting on a bench as his thoughts narrate about how due to phones and social media kids “document everything and experience nothing”. As he’s narrating we are shown pictures and responses from the “Instagram-like” accounts of three teenage kids. The last being a somewhat heavy-set redheaded girl. A Black kid then walks up to him wanting to take a picture to capture his “all black everything look for the ‘gram”. “Angel” lets him try, but because he’s a vampire he doesn’t show up on the kid’s camera.
“Angel” then goes to the house of an old friend named Francis. It is revealed that “Angel” saved this man’s life when he was ten years old. Francis wants “Angel” to meet his daughter but “Angel” is adamantly against it. Francis then mentions that his daughter is having trouble in school. “Angel” leaves after Francis tries again to convince him that he should meet his daughter. “Angel” then returns to his home where a Black woman is already there waiting for him. This woman is “Lilith”. They talk and she makes a nice crack about “Hollywood always making her a White woman”. She then tells “Angel” about something that is going after kids and how he needs to avenge them. As she’s saying this we are shown the heavy-set red-headed girl before. Someone with the username “FriendOfTheLonely” sends her a message on her phone that she is beautiful with a link. The girl clicks the link and her eyes turn black. We then learn this girl was “Francis’” daughter and she burns the house down killing herself, “Francis”, and her mother. This ends issue one.
We begin issue two back in the past with “Angel” and “Mara”. “Angel” gives “Mara” a young girl to feed on. “Angel” tells her that the war he and his group are waging isn’t against humans because they don’t matter. The war they are waging is against “all things of the darkness”. Wraiths, dragons, demons, and ghouls are listed specifically. This is all a pretty big departure from the original version of “Angel”. That “Angel” seemed to go around killing and causing people misery for fun.
“Angel” is at the scene of “Francis’” burned down the house. “Lilith” is also there and she tells him how the being that caused this feeds on envy. “Lilith” is kind of annoying here and talks in riddles so “Angel” tell her to “get to the point”. Being commanded by him makes her lose her temper and she takes on a more demonic form for a second as she yells back at him that he doesn’t command her.
We move on to the next morning outside of “Sunnydale High School” (“Buffy’s” school btw) and three girls are talking. One of them is a brunette named “Brewster”. These girls are talking about the funeral for the Francis’ daughter. “Brewster” isn’t going to go because she didn’t know her and she has to volunteer at an asylum. Something is then mentioned about “Brewster’s” mother and how funerals are hard for her. It should be noted that one of the girls is blonde and looks a lot like “Buffy”. She even sports a hairstyle that “Buffy” had during the show. Not sure if this is a coincidence or this is significant.
“Brewster” leaves the other girls and goes to the asylum. She is then messaged by the same being that messaged “Francis’” daughter. We actually see that the being is a man with an extremely wrinkled face wearing a trench coat. He is always in shadows so we don’t ever get a full view of him though. The man is somehow reading her messages back to him and speaks his messages to “Brewster” without a phone. The man says she’s beautiful and that “he has something to show her but she has to ask for it”. She asks for it and he sends her a photo. She taps to download the photo and her eyes turn black like “Francis’” daughter did. She’s in the bathroom at this point and she bashes her face into the mirror scarring it.
We then cut to a woman in the asylum named “Winifred”. She is counting to herself when “Lilith” appears in her cell. Lilith tells her “it’s time to see me again” and “when it comes scream so he can find you”. “Brewster” then comes to attack “Winifred” with a shard of the broken mirror but “Angel” jumps through a window into the asylum and kicks “Brewster” away. Issue two ends with “Angel” knowing “Brewster” right behind him ready to attack.
“Winifred” or just “Fred” as she’s usually called is a character originally appeared much later in “Angel” the show. She was a character I didn’t like much at first but grew on me over time. Then something I won’t spoil happens to her and she becomes awesome. I’m not big on bringing her in so early though…
Issue three begins with “Angel” and “Brewster” fighting a bit until “Angel” throws a water balloon filled with holy water at her. This turns “Brewster” back to normal. “Angel” then takes “Winifred” back to his place to protect her. Back at his place “Winifred” tells “Angel” “the nice ones call her “Fred”” and repeatedly says stuff about “ones and zeroes”. “Lilith” appears again and give him three clues about the future. One seems to reference “Willow” from “Buffy” turning evil; a Black guy named “Gunn who is another of “Angels” allies; and his eventual relationship with “Buffy” (who he hasn’t even met yet). The fact he hasn’t met Buffy also kind of annoys me. “Lilith” then says something about how “Fred” is leading the way for him and “Fred,” asks for chalk. She then draws a symbol on the floor that has many “zeros” and “ones” in it. “Angel” stands on the symbol and rings of energy surrounds him as he decays into a corpse. “Lilith,” tell “Fred” that “if “Angel” survives she’ll be sane again” and we end with seeing “Angel” in some kind of giant maze saying “where the hell am I?”
These issues were by far the best comics this week. The writing, art, and overall storytelling were excellent. This is an interesting well-told story that has great pacing. Despite the changes to continuity that I don’t prefer this an A series so far. By far these three comic books are…
Verdict: Top Of The Stack
