Comic Book Moments of the Week for 04/27/11

A momentous end to the month for this version of Moments of the Week. Action Comics hits 900 on the odometer, Age of X comes to a close, foreshadowing of the next event in Avengers, and the end to both Brightest Day and Justice League: Generation Lost. So hit the jump to find out who renounced what and the return of some old fan favorites!

Avengers #12.1

Ultron reappears, and Iron Man  has seen where this is going from those dreams in Invincible Iron Man. This seems to be the Ultron from Annihilation Conquest, reappearing from the husk of a Space Knight found by The Intelligencia, not the one that Jocasta married at the end of Mighty Avengers.

Action Comics #900

Lex Luthor confiscated the power of a Phantom Zone alien, which wants to remove negative emotions from existence. So the universe is being bombarded with feel-good rays, and all Luthor has to do to hold onto this infinite power is to not use the power in a negative way, like destroying Superman. Luthor's ego just can't let that happen, so the infinite power is lost and Luthor disappears into the Phantom Zone.

Here are the key moments from a David Goyer backup story that is making the rounds on the internet, taking away from the big conclusion to Paul Cornell's Lex Luthor story. After standing between police and protesters in Tehran for twenty four hours straight, Superman decides that he's too global a figure and renounces his US citizenship. As a lifelong Superman fan, the idea to make Superman a global character is fine and in many ways he's been just that for years, but it shouldn't have to come at the removal of US citizenship. Just simply do what they did in the 70's and have the UN bestow Superman honorary citizenship to every nation on Earth. Add to, don't take away, and certainly don't have Superman go to the UN to make a speech about it. Goyer's story just comes across very ham-fisted and political, which is something that shouldn't show up in a Superman comic. Sorry about that little rant, on with the moments!

Amazing Spider-Man #659

Carlie Cooper gets drunk with her girlfriends and decides to get a certain Green Goblin tattoo that all the convicts and crazy villains are getting these days, as seen in the current Osborn miniseries. The only way Carlie could make this any worse is to get the tattoo right on the back of her neck.

Batman Inc. #5 

The Hood, DC style. And he's a spy to boot! Nice use of the bat symbol over the face, it helps distinguish from Azrael. The Hood does have a point about Batwoman being mistaken for a vampire, but at least she doesn't glow or shimmer.

Detective Comics #876

Scott Snyder continues making Gotham become a city that adapts to whoever is under the cowl, foreshadowing events for his upcoming Gates of Gotham miniseries. This issue marks the appearance of Sonia Branch, daughter of Tony Zucco, the man who killed Dick's parents. She seems to be a genuinely good person caught up in the dealings of a new crime boss in the city. Lovely splash page by Jock of Dick preferring to go acrobatic in the city as opposed to swinging around like Bruce.

Brightest Day #24

Swamp Thing returns, and kills his Black Ring counterpart. And the elements are returned to the world in their normal state, except Hawkgirl, who is dust in the wind. Swamp Thing, however, is really running with the idea of "restoring balance," which involves killing a bunch of business executives who have polluted the earth. Only one person can help figure out what's going one with Swampy, a certain British bloke with a penchant for smokes...

John Constantine returns to the DCU proper, a lot younger than his Vertigo counterpart. DC have said we're looking at a Punisher/Punisher MAX situation here.

FF #2

Spider-Man being looked down upon is always fun, but somehow with kids doing it it makes it even better. Doom has a memory problem that is blocking access to certain recent memories and his mystic arts, and this requires finding Kristoff, Doom's successor with implanted memories from the John Byrne Fantastic Four era.

With Doom and Kristoff hooked up, Reed was given the chance to really stop the tyrant, but doesn't go through with it. Doom is restored back to his old ways, now a member of the FF at the behest of Val.

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #9

In order to escape Mogo, the Crayola Cavalry (TM) dig underneath Oa to the Foundry, the batcave of Oa. We also run into Shedd, who seems to be a hidden protector of the guardians similar to Sloth from The Goonies. Guy takes Krona's original willpower device from billions of years ago, looking to relive his glory days days of using the Power Glove on his NES. The group splits into two after this; Hal and Guy to stop Parallax in the Central Battery, Kyle and John head to Mogo to stop him sending out rings to bolster the ranks with brainwashed recruits.

Justice League: Generation Lost #24

Captain Atom forces Max Lord to make the world remember him and everything he took away before going through with another time jump. Max escapes and puts up videos on the internet telling the world he and Checkmate are going to keep an eye on the world's trouble making meta population, but also exonerates the JLI heroes from what happened in Chicago when Max killed Magog. So Max Lord kinda sorta wins in getting some support from the public.

Bruce is already financing one worldwide team, why not another one? With J'onn back to normal, it looks like all the key players are aligned for this, maybe even Guy will show up by the end of The War of the Green Lanterns.

Thunderstrike #5

The new Thunderstrike, Kevin Masterson, takes out Mangog with the help of Thor and fellow Asgardian Gruenhilda. On top of that, getting Thor to show humility to a teenager is always pretty big. Kevin is actually a really good character and this is a nice way to continue the Thunderstrike name, I hope we see him show up in Avengers Academy at the request of Steve Rogers.

Venom #2

The symbiote suit is showing a greater need to bond with Flash, which is nothing new, but Flash seems to be listening and agreeing to it a lot more now. This never ends well.


New Mutants #24

Who says you can't avoid genocide AND recycle at the same time?

Legion erases his Moira persona and reverts Utopia back to the way it was. Frenzy and Cyclops were married in that alternate reality, but Emma is marking her territory again. Look for some other repercussions this year in the X-books, like Chamber getting his powers back and Jean/Phoenix returning, although it might be a brand new character or simply the Phoenix Force itself.

Uncanny X-Men #536

Cyclops has offered the people of the Breakworld refuge on Utopia, and now has to figure out what to do with them. A nice scene of Scott just realizing that sometimes good intentions go beyond simple gestures.

Kruun still has revenge on his mind, using the "cure" from Astonishing X-Men's first arc on Magneto and looking to go after the Breakworld group, primarily Colossus.



X-Men #10

I think Spidey was going to kick Wolverine no matter what, just to try out that new line of banter.

Emma probably doesn't know what's worse in this situation, the sewage or Spider-Man jabbering away. Nice page layout by Chris Bachalo using the pipe as a panel guideline.

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