Thunderbolts, Runaways, Man of Steel, Justice League

Starting off with some new comics from the week.

Runaways 10

That ended exactly as I expected, and I’m okay with that - Julie Power gets restored to her normal age, which means that Molly’s friend Abigail will be stuck at thirteen forever.  Julie breaks up with Karolina and Molly loses her best friend.

Everyone stays consistent with their characters, and there’s something very reassuring about that. The team takes care of their own, and if that comes at the expense of an outsider, so be it.  Given what they’ve all been through, I can respect that.

Justice League 2

I was extremely disappointed last week when I discovered that Jim Cheung was only drawing issues 1 and 7 of this story arc.  But Jorge Jimenez’s art passed muster during the in-store flip-through, so I took the issue home with me. (Oh, he did the pencils for Super Sons.  I didn’t realize. Makes sense that I like the art here.)

Storywise, Snyder’s...fine.  The Totality is feeling like the ultimate MacGuffin, and I’m really not caring about the stakes here.  But as long as I get scenes like this, I’ll stick around for a little while longer:

Man of Steel 4

What a perfect splash page:

You and me both, Superman.

I’m going to try to remember this guy’s name right now, having read and forgotten it for the past four week: Rogal Zaar.  Okay, how close was I?

Rogol Zaar.  Pretty close.  He’s about as interesting as Doomsday, which isn’t very.  I’m also getting sick of the constant “Dad, what is that?” flashbacks.  Revealing an additional page every week isn’t making me any more invested in the scene.  

This is deconstructed storytelling at its worst, and it’s all the more disappointing coming from the pen of a master of the device.  

Back to the box.

Thunderbolts 144-147

Did I read good things about Jeff Parker’s Thunderbolts?  Is that why I picked up this trade? Maybe it was Kev Walker’s art, I do like his stuff.  

This team is a major letdown for me after just reading Warren Ellis’ version.  It hews too closely to DC’s Suicide Squad, which never really sung to me. All of the villains’ motivations aren’t nearly as deep or interesting as the previous group’s.  While both teams had nanotech and other such implanted devices to keep them in line, I never felt that they were the actual reasons Ellis’ team members behaved - They had other reasons to stick around.  “A clone of the dead sister I have unspecified feelings for” is far more compelling than “Years off of my sentence.”

Oh right, summary: At the request of Captain America, Luke Cage reforms the Thunderbolts, using inmates at The Raft (Juggernaut, Moonstone (she just can’t quit this team!), Crossbones, and Ghost, with the help of Songbird, Mach V, and Man-Thing).  He spends an issue demonstrating how they can’t escape, then another leading them on their first mission against big blobby things. They wrap things up preventing another breakout on The Raft.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice