Weird Science DC Comics: 2017-08-13

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Injustice #19 Review

Injustice 2 #19

Writer: Tom Taylor

Art Team: Daniel Sampere, Juan Albarran, Rex Lokus

DC Comics

Release Date: August 15, 2017

Cover Price: $ 0.99

Bombs Away!!

We’re getting far into the digital first series Injustice 2 but by no means has that made it any less enjoyable. Quite the contrary Injustice 2 is really starting to hit its stride with several plot points merging together here in Chapter 19. So, what happens to our team once they get inside of Ra’s Al Ghul’s headquarters … let’s find out.

Weird Science DC Comics Podcast Spotlight: Dark Nights - Metal #1

Jim and Eric shine the spotlight on Dark Nights: Metal. It's the big book of the week, the summer...and maybe more! If you like what you hear, check out our regular weekly podcast where we review all the DC Comic Books that come out each week.

Written by: Christos Gage
Art by: Eduardo Francisco
Cover Price: $0.99
Release Date: October 21, 2013

Bizarro has been a good guy all along. His brain was just wired wrong. Can the World get used to this "cured" Bizarro? More important, can Bizarro find his place in this World?

Back On the Chain Gang

I was away on vacation last week, so I didn't do a list of the Best Covers. Sorry about that! With all the comics-related stuff I get into, sometimes this list pops out from under the pile and rolls away into a shadowy corner. Besides, I think it's healthy if comics artists fight furiously among themselves, without an official Best Covers administrator like myself. But I won't let chaos reign! Here's the best DC Comics covers for this week!

Batwoman #6 Review and SPOILERS

Batman-451

Written By: Marguerite Bennett, James Tynion IV
Art By: Renalto Arlem, Adriano Lucas
Letters By: Deron Bennett
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 16, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

To say that the Batwoman book has been struggling as of late would be putting it too nicely. We got stuck in the Many Arms of Death storyline for what felt like forever and just when we finally thought we had gotten out of it, we got another flashback issue that dealt directly with the events of that storyline. Needless to say, we need something new and we need it immediately. So, we are starting a new story with this current issue. The question is, will that story be something completely new, or will it continue to deal with the story that we’ve been getting up to this point? It’s hard to say and honestly I have little faith in this book to provide me with anything entertaining. It’s easily one of the worst books that DC is putting out right now. Let’s just jump right in and hope that we’re wrong.

Gotham City Garage #1

Writers: Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing

Art Team: Brian Ching

DC Comics (Digital First Lineup)

Release Date: August 16, 2017

Cover Price: .99 (digital first release)

DC Does Thunder Dome

Well, well, well what do we have here … it looks like a brand new digital first comic coming out of the woodworks from DC. These books always tend to grab my attention, at least for the first Volume or so, as I feel out whether it’s something I’ll stick around for, and for .99 cents an issue there’s not much risk involved. This latest title, called Gotham City Garage, is based on the DC lineup on statues baring the same name that, as the kids say, are hot on the streets. Does Gotham City Garage find the early success and traction Bombshells has carved out for itself? Let’s find out here in this first issue what’s cooking.

Not Exactly The American Dream

Writer: John Ridley

Art Team: Georges Jeanty, Danny Miki, Nick Filardi, & Travis Lanham

Publisher: Vertigo Comics

Cover Price: $3.99

On Sale Date: July 12, 2017 and August 16, 2017

John Ridley and Georges Jeanty are back with the next chapter of American Way. The first series, published under the Wildstorm imprint, took place in 1962 and this one is jumping forward 10 years to 1972. I’ve never read the original run, but I did enough research to know the general story from those 8 issues. Being someone that likes reading comics to escape real life and knowing that these books are based on the political culture of that time period, I wasn’t going into this book with high expectations. Let’s jump into these first two issues and see if they changed my mind at all.

Written by: Kurt Busiek
Art by: Brent Anderson
Colours: by Peter Pantazis
Published by: Vertigo
Cover Price: $3.99

Pierogies are, apparently, boiled dumplings with either sweet or savory fillings, and Wikipedia helpfully tells me that they originated in central and eastern Europe. This is just one of the things I learned from reading Astro City #46, although by no means the most important. Or interesting. No. Perhaps the most significant thing to be gleaned from this issue is that, after 30+ years in the industry, Kurt Busiek remains a master storyteller and his ability to surprise, intrigue and delight remains highly impressive. In some respects, Astro City #46 is a less than ideal starting point for anyone wanting to read this title. It’s the second instalment of a two-part story and, while not absolutely essential, it is highly recommended that you read the first part before attempting this one. That said, this comic is a lot of fun and is exceptionally thought-provoking, too. Allow me to explain…

Dark Lights/Bright Nights

Written by: Rob Williams
Art by: V. Ken Marion, Ray McCarthy, Dinei Ribeiro and Josh Reed
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 16, 2017

We keep going back and forth to the Dark Trinity story, even jumping from Cullen Bunn to Rob Williams in the process. While I was not hip with the beginning of the story, it has gotten better as it went along. Now it is time to get it going for real and I am pretty excited. So, is it good? Let's find out...

Crime and Grunyan Runs

Story By: Dan Abnett

Art, Color and Cover By: Stjepan Sejic

Lettering By: Steve Wands

Cover Price: $3.99

On Sale Date: August 16, 2017

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

Back to the seedy, sandy underbelly of Atlantis, where freakish mutants run a world of crime that involves…I dunno, fish prostitution? I don’t know enough about the day-to-day operations of Atlantean life to say what the preferred crimes might be. I suppose extortion is always a mafia favorite. We left Dolphin and Aquaman in the clutches of Krunch, the crab-faced crime boss, and I can’t wait to check back in on the situation! So let’s take a look in my review of Aquaman #27, right now!

Eye For an Eye

Written By: Jon Rivera

Story By: Gerard Way & Jon Rivera

Art & Cover By: Michael Avon Oeming

Interior and Cover Color By: Nick Filardi

Letters By: Clem Robbins

Cover Price: $3.99

On Sale Date: August 16, 2017

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

I have been wondering about that android woman that the Cave Carson from another dimension made at the end of last issue—is it Mazra? Red Tornado? A mixture of both? I hope we’ll get some answers in my review of Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye #11. And hey, we’re in luck! The review is right here!

Written by: Peter J. Tomasi
Art by: Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sanchez and Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 16, 2017

Last issue's cliffhanger of old man Damian was hilarious! Yep, it was one of the best pages in a long time and I couldn't wait to see what Tomasi had in story for the Old Guy this week. Yea, the story involving Kraklow, Atom-Master, Time Commander and the Faceless Hunter was pretty good too, not to mention having better Teen Titans moments than in their actual book. All of that sounds like nothing could go wrong this week, right? Well, Let's find out if that's the case...

We are Family

Written by: Bryan Hitch
Art by: Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Brad Anderson, Richard Starkings and Comicraft's Jimmy
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: August 16, 2017

I really enjoyed last issue of Justice League and that was such a pleasant surprise. Yea, I haven't been a big fan of this run, but it looks like Bryan Hitch just may be able to stick the landing as he departs and makes everything a little bit better in the world. We shall see if that continues, but I actually looked forward to this issue and that's something I haven't felt in over a year. So, do the good times keep a rollin'? Let's find out...

The Game

Written by: Benjamin Percy
Art by: Juan Ferreyra and Nate Piekos of Blambot
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: August 16, 2017

The Hard Traveling Hero story is heading off to Gotham and I hope that means something big. I love the idea of Ollie heading cross-country to take down the Ninth Circle and clear his name, but somewhere between Washington State and Washington DC, Benjamin Percy seemed to lose his way. The story has become more about guest stars than the actual story and that's a shame. I have enjoyed the art and with Juan Ferryra back on board, this book looks fantastic. So, does the story catch up to the art this week? Let's find out...

Fear Superman's Might

Written By: Keith Champagne

Art By: Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza, Scott Hanna, Rob Hunter, Wil Quintana, Rob Leigh

Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: August 16, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Now that our Superman Family road trip has ended, now we can get back to some proper Superman adventures..........which surprisingly seem to be all about Parallax in this issue. Yeah, it's a bit weird for where Parallax and Sinestro were in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, but I'll take any Lantern action I can get, especially if you throw the Man of Steel in as well....... just sounds like fun to me. Let's see if this arc can wash the taste of that Road Trip out of my mind and get this series back on track as being one of the best titles that Rebirth has had to offer........ and if that cover is any indication, it's going to be pretty damn cool. Let's check it out.

Training Day

Written By: Sam Humphries

Art By: Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira, Alex Sollazzo, Tom Napolitano

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: August 16, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Ten billion years in the past we find out Green Lanterns on the verge of leading the first seven...... well, six Green Lantern against Volthoom...... it would have been seven but unfortunately, the seventh Lantern went and got herself exploded all over Earth's terrain after she will powered the hell out and couldn't control her ring. Hopefully, in this issue we'll see Simon and Jessica train these Lanterns to the point where they are able to go up against the First Lantern and give him a run for his money, but at this point I'm more concerned with Simon and Jessica actually making them a team that cares about their calling. Let's jump into this issue and see how the Green Lanterns handle themselves, since they were just trained themselves, plus how Simon deals without having a ring of his own anymore. Let's check it out.

Spy Hard

Written By: Tim Seeley

Art By: Javier Fernandez, Chris Sotomayor, Carlos M. Mangual

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: August 16, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Even though we've already dealt with Spyral in the Nightwing series during its short run, it's time to get back in touch with Dick's Agent 37 persona as Huntress and him track down Giz' killer and find out that Spyral is actually the Second Hand, who have been bringing advanced weapons into Bludhaven. It's such a weird progression of events though because at the end of the Grayson series, Tiger was a double agent for Checkmate, but as we began this title, he was simply the head of Spyral and all of his nefarious side dealings were wiped away, only to show up here as a bad guy again. Hopefully, that's all explained as we go deeper into this Nightwing story with this issue. Let's check it out.

Never Talk About Politics or Religion At The Dinner Table, Just Murder

Written By: Tom King

Art By: Mikel Janin, Hugo Petrus, June Chung, Clayton Cowles

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: August 16, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Time to get back to the War of Jokes and Riddles and hope to god that it starts being something that I care about because each issue in my mind seems to be getting worse and worse and it's not only that we really don't get to see anything from the war and that it's only told to us, it's that nothing seems to make any sense in the timeline that Tom King has presented to us. In our previous issue we saw Deadshot and Deathstroke go to kill Batman for each of their teams, but once they saw the other it turned into a bloodbath that lasted five days and killed over a hundred people...........even though Batman's supposed to be so good at superhero-ing, that Riddler and Joker had to start this war in the first place. Let's jump into this issue and see if Batman goes on the offensive here and starts acting a little more like Batman instead of sitting on the sidelines the whole time. Let's check it out.

Assassin Blitz

Written By: Shea Fontana

Art By: David Messina, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Saida Temofonte

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: August 16, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

In our last issue of Wonder Woman we saw Shea Fontana go the hokey route, where a character she briefly introduced in the issue before became the villain out of nowhere and stole Diana's DNA to make herself into a Amazon of sorts to beat her genetic disease.......... which didn't last long because apparently this wasn't Dr. Crawford's "Truth" and Wonder Woman's lasso was able to take the DNA strands she added to herself away, leaving the doctor to die. Yeah, it was an odd issue, but Wonder Woman's conflicts aren't over because as we saw in last issue's cliffhanger, it looks like someone has put a hit out on our Amazon Princess so she'll have more going on with her than simply nursing Etta Candy back to health. Let's check it out.

It's Coming.......

Written By: Scott Snyder

Art By: Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia, Steve Wands

Cover Price: $4.99

Release Date: August 16, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Alright, we've been forged and cast so now it's time to get into some Metal and see what all the hubbub that Batman's been investigating is all about......... which will be amazing because there was just too much thrown out at us in those preludes that need some answering. As we saw from those previous two issues, Batman's been trying to find a way to determine what exactly he saw when he was uploading the Batman persona back into his body after he was brought back to life by the dionysium, but after collecting all the magical metals that he could find and using the Wizard Shazam's Ninth Metal dagger to power his machine, all he saw was darkness........ which, even though we saw the Cult of the Bat actually blocked any vision he could have got........ maybe darkness is all there is. Let's jump into this issue and see what the Cult of the Bat is up to now that Batman broke the seal and Barbatos is about to be set free. Let's check it out.

PREVIEW: Trinity #12

Written by: Rob Williams
Art by: V. Ken Marion, Ray McCarthy, Dinei Ribeiro and Josh Reed
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 16, 2017

“DARK DESTINY” part one! Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman must turn to the mystic trinity of Dead Man, Zatanna and John Constantine when Red Hood, Artemis and Bizarro are sacrificed into the depths of the Pandora Pits by Circe and Ra’s al Ghul.

Written by: Peter J. Tomasi

Art by: Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sanchez and Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 16, 2017

“PLANET OF THE CAPES” part two! Monster maker Kraklow puts Superboy to the test during his first team-up with Damian Wayne’s Teen Titans. As wave after wave of Kraklow’s wicked creations try to overwhelm the Teen Titans, can Superboy turn the tide in this onslaught of enemies?

Written by: Bryan Hitch

Art by: Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Brad Anderson, Richard Starkings and Comicraft's Jimmy
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: August 16, 2017

“LEGACY” part two! A massive metahuman war threatens to leave the future ripe for conquest by the despot known only as Sovereign. So warn the children of the Justice League, who have come back in time to save the world. But the term “blood feud” takes on new meaning when the younger heroes declare that for the crisis to be averted, one of the Justice League must die!

Written by: Benjamin Percy
Art by: Juan Ferreyra and Nate Piekos of Blambot
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: August 16, 2017

“HARD-TRAVELING HERO” part four! Black Canary and Green Arrow’s missions converge in two cities at once! Canary’s in Seattle, where she’s hot on the trail of the Auctioneer, and Arrow’s in Gotham City, where Oliver Queen’s investigation into human trafficking among the city’s elite draws the attention of Bruce Wayne!

Written By: Scott Snyder

Art By: Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia, Steve Wands

Cover Price: $4.99

Release Date: August 16, 2017

“I’ve been planning METAL for as long as I’ve been writing Batman, but I want METAL to be built upon the stories happening now in Rebirth. Most of all we want to create new material that feels really modern and different. And above all, it’s going to be fun. Even with terror and nightmares, it won’t be grim. DARK NIGHTS: METAL will be celebratory, huge and crazy.” — SCOTT SNYDER

“I’m looking forward to rock’n and roll’n together again. Fans have been loud and clear; they want more from us. We’re primed and ready to blow it up.” — GREG CAPULLO

The superstar BATMAN team of writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo reunite for a massive, universe-spanning event!

DARK DAYS: THE FORGE and THE CASTING hinted at dark corners of reality that have never been seen till now! Now, as DARK NIGHTS: METAL begins, the Dark Multiverse is revealed in all its devastating danger—and the threats it contains are coming for the DC Universe!

DARK NIGHTS: METAL is a DC event unlike any other—one that will push Batman, Superman and heroes of the Justice League beyond their limits to take on threats unlike any our world has ever seen! It will take the combined might of the World’s Greatest Heroes as you’ve never seen them before to face what’s coming their way!

Written By: Sam Humphries

Art By: Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira, Alex Sollazzo, Tom Napolitano

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: August 16, 2017

“OUT OF TIME” part three! The death of one of their own shakes the new Green Lanterns’ resolve. Simon and Jess step up to lead the charge that may be their only hope of ever returning home to their own time.

Written By: Tom King

Art By: Mikel Janin, Hugo Petrus, June Chung, Clayton Cowles

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: August 16, 2017

“THE WAR OF JOKES AND RIDDLES” part five! Batman has done his best to keep the peace, but with neither faction backing down, he may have to choose the lesser of two evils if he wants the violence to end. Will Batman embrace the murderous anarchy of The Joker or the bloody fascism of the Riddler? If he wants to win, he’ll have to choose a side—and either way, he loses.

Written By: Tim Seeley

Art By: Javier Fernandez, Chris Sotomayor, Carlos M. Mangual

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: August 16, 2017

“SPYRAL” part two! Nightwing and Huntress have been ambushed by Spyral, and their old friend Tiger is leading the charge! Will the duo find out what corrupted their former agency—or are they about to be disavowed and burned?

Navigation

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Injustice 2 #19

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Batman-451

Gotham City Garage #1

We are Family

The Game

Fear Superman's Might

Training Day

Spy Hard

Never Talk About Politics or Religion At The Dinner Table, Just Murder

Assassin Blitz

It's Coming.......

Tuesday, August 15, 2017