This week, The Flash goes up against Farooq (guest star Michael Reventar), a metahuman who must harness electricity in order to stay alive. During their battle, Farooq attacks The Flash and siphons all his powers. Meanwhile, Tockman leads a coup inside the Central City police department and takes several people hostage, including Joe and Iris.
The end of Earth 2 draws ever closer. The planet is under attack by the female furies of Apokolips, the Superman and Batman families search the fire pits for Huntress who has been taken by Desaad, Alan Scott has a mournful reunion with his newly raised boyfriend, Dr. Fate acts and speaks cryptically, and the World Army plans to take on Apokolips.
At first, “Danse Vaudou” seems like a supernatural murder mystery with some added flavor from Emmett Scanlan’s Southern-fried police detective Jim Corrigan, but writer Christine Boylan’s script quickly takes a turn for the better by connecting the case of the week to the personal lives of the victims as well as of John Constantine himself, Zed, and Papa Midnite. The episode uses New Orleans’ voodoo tradition as well as jazz and reggae music to drive the plot and differentiate it from the other settings Constantine and Zed have investigated throughout the series.
Last month, Batwoman saw Kate Kane working alongside the likes of Red Alice, Clayface, Ragman, and Etrigan the Demon in space while fighting the forces of Hell and Morgan le Fey. It served as a proper introduction to Batwoman’s new occult themed team: the Unknowns. Now the series jumps back to explain the hows and whys of last issue. This month manages to perfectly balance both the oncoming mystical madness and the fallout from the last year or so of story lines.
Wonder Woman #36 marks the end of the lengthy Brian Azzarello/Cliff Chiang run which has defined Diana Prince since the New 52’s inception. Unfortunately, many of the newer elements introduced have been controversial to say the least. It’s difficult to talk about Wonder Woman on the conceptual level as she’s been one of the most reworked and re-imagined A-list heroes in DC’s entire roster. This makes avoiding hang ups about personal interpretations on how the character should and shouldn’t work a challenge, so please keep that in mind.
The CW has been teasing the upcoming crossover episodes for The Flash and Arrow for a couple of weeks, and now they’ve finally released the first images from the episode online. Part one of the Flash vs. Arrow crossover event (which is technically an episode of The Flash) is directed by Glen Winter with a …
This week in “The Flash Is Born,” the sixth episode of the shows first season, Flash must face one of his toughest villains thus far: Tony “Girder” Woodward, another one of Central City’s meta-humans that was affected by the same accident that turned Barry into the speed demon. Tony is able to turn himself into girded steel, making it nearly impossible for the Scarlett Speedster to stop him. Cisco becomes instrumental as the team struggles to find a way to help Barry stop the super-villain with incredible strength and skin made of steel. Meanwhile, Iris calls much attention to her blog, landing her in hot water; Eddie witnesses Tony’s abilities but naively shakes it off assuming what he saw wasn’t real; and Joe asks Dr. Wells if he can help him solve Nora Allen’s murder.
Batgirl #36 Written by Brenden Fletcher and Cameron Stewart Art by Babs Tarr Published by DC Comics I am really digging the new direction Batgirl has taken. It reminds me of the days when Yvonne Craig took up the cowl. Fun. Fresh. Hip. Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart, and Babs Tarr brought back the familiar traits of the Batgirl …
Earth 2: World’s End #6 Written by Daniel H. Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, & Mike Johnson Art by Jorge Jimenez, Tyler Kirkham & Joe Weems, Eddy Barrows & Eber Ferreira, Jan Duursema & Drew Geraci, Eduardo Pansica & Walden Wong, with Jaime Mendoza Published by DC Comics Another week means another issue of World’s End. While …
Created as the flagship title of the New 52 and the opening arc for this new era of comics, Justice League “Origin” is a cringe-worthy retelling of the League’s beginnings. Despite having the talented Geoff Johns handling story and drawn by Jim Lee, Justice League “Origin” is a boring and underwhelming tale.
Earth 2 #28 Written by Tom Taylor & Marguerite Bennett Art by Alisson Borges, Andy Smith, Trevor Scott, Javier Fernandez, Diogenes Neves, & Marc Deering Published by DC Comics This month’s issue of Earth 2 does something quite unexpected by focusing on the Furies of Apokolips. A major question that’s loomed over this series since …
All around the country, articles are announcing DC’s Convergence, which is next year’s all new event for the comics giant. Really, though the headlines should read something more like this, “DC Same Multiverse Crossover, Again.” That’s right, anyone that didn’t see this vague announcement on the horizon just hasn’t been paying attention.The series kicks off …
Earth 2: World’s End #4 Written by Daniel H. Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, & Mike Johnson Art by Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, Jan Duursema, Jonathon Glapion, Jorge Jimenez, Tyler Kirkham, Joe Weems, Robson Rocha, & Paul Neary Published by DC Comics Earth 2: World’s End rounds out its first month with issue #4 so how does …
With all the exposition and origin story trappings out of the way in last week’s pilot, “The Darkness Beneath” show readers what exactly John Constantine (Matt Ryan) does, other than con people, go to pubs, and chat with Chas (Charles Halford). This could be a typical case of the week type of episode, but writer Rockne S. O’Bannon manages to connect the monster to John’s past life, as well as some of the socioeconomic critiques that characterized early Hellblazer issues. He also introduces a new, improved female lead in Zed Martin (Angelica Celaya), who has an almost sultry chemistry with Constantine, and shows she can handle herself in a fight with the supernatural and then some. O’Bannon also doesn’t reveal his entire hand when it comes to her character, and the mysterious nature of her powers and connection to Constantine will be a intriguing mystery to follow throughout the season. “The Darkness Beneath” showcases Constantine as more of a con man than a pure spell caster, as well as someone who uses others to further his ends, even though they are positive in this case. He’s no hero. A few criticisms of this episode are that the citizens of the town exist as ciphers to move the plot, including a skeptical preacher (James Le Gros) who has some substantial screen time, and the director’s focus on pyrotechnics instead of terrifying imagery and chills.
Jeff Lemire’s Animal Man stands out as one of the strongest books from the early days of the New 52. The story follows the titular Animal Man, a.k.a. Buddy Baker, a former stuntman, turned father, turned superhero, turned animal rights activist. His powers were granted when aliens experimented on him and gave Buddy Baker access to a morphogenetic field entwined with all animal life on Earth from which he can draw many abilities: the reflexes of a fly, the strength of a rhinoceros, and many more.
Taking into account a DVR playback The Flash series pilot has risen to 6.8 million viewers since it first premiered. That’s The CW’s most-watched telecast in the network’s history. It’s also the network’s second biggest rating ever among adults 18-49. If you count all platforms, the tally rises to 13 million viewers. If anything, “Going Rogue” will only help boost those numbers. With a script that never forgets its heroes’ humanity, and two superpowered set pieces, “Going Rogue” lives up to its hype — and raises the bar for the DC canon. Not only does this episode introduce Wentworth Miller playing one of the Flash’s best-known enemies, but the special guest star turned in a great performance as the famous Captain Cold. And if that isn’t enough to tune in, “Going Rogue” was co-written by Geoff Johns, responsible for his fair share of some of the best Flash comic book stories. Finally, “Going Rogue” is also the first crossover episode, bringing Felicity Smoak over from established hit series Arrow.
Unlike Marvel, with its successful Tomb of Dracula series, DC never integrated a specific iteration of Dracula into their superhero universe. However, once the loosening of the Comics Code allowed for them, vampires of all different sorts certainly found their way into the pages of DC’s comics, but there was never a definitive Dracula that existed alongside Superman, Batman, and the rest. As such, the DC heroes have encountered a handful of different Dracula-esque characters through the years. Once such example can be found in 2002’s Superman #180.
Catwoman #1-4 (2002) Written by Ed Brubaker Pencilled by Darwyn Cooke Inked by Mike Allred Colors by Matt Hollingsworth Published by DC Comics In “Anodyne”, the opening storyline of the long running third volume of Catwoman, Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke put a fresh new spin on the assumed dead Selina Kyle/Catwoman with the help of inker Mike Allred and …
Earth 2: World’s End #3 Written by: Daniel H. Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, & Mike Johnson Art by: Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, Tyler Kirkham, Joe Weems, Eduardo Pansica,Jaime Mendoza, Jorge Jimenez, Paulo Siqueria, & Cam Smith Published by DC Comics This week’s issue of Earth 2: World’s End is where some problems with the series as …
Earth 2: World’s End #2 Written by Mike Johnson, Marguerite Bennett, & Daniel H. Wilson Art by Paulo Siqueira, Tyler Kirkham, & Eddy Barrows Published by DC Comics World’s End continues from its stellar first issue. Earth 2’s short lived peace ends as four new foes arrive bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Horsemen of …
Batwoman #35 Written by Marc Andreyko Art by Georges Jeanty Published by DC Comics Since its first issue back at the start of the New 52, Batwoman has been a problematic series. What has served as a fatal flaw of the book is how it tries to be a follow up to Greg Rucka’s excellent …
A good twist can make a good comic, just as easily as it can make a bad comic worse. Thankfully, Astro City issue 16, entitled Wish I May… has the latter kind of twist, one that makes an already strong comic even better. Of course, the problem this presents is that it makes it extremely difficult to talk about the comic and what makes it interesting without giving away the surprise, which is why this review will sadly have to come with Spoilers
With the launch of a weekly series, Earth 2 marches onward with Tom Taylor at the helm alongside Earth 2: World’s End co-writer, Marguerite Bennett. Sadly, this issue marks the departure of long term artist Nicola Scott, who is replaced by Andy Smith. His work is commendable, but isn’t quite able to leave the Nicola Scott shaped hole in the series.