Comic Book Moments of the Week for 09/19/12

 

It's Friday, so that means only one thing. Well, two things, because Dredd is now out in theaters to many well received reviews (like our very own review by Taylor!). So you'll go check out the movie and come back to view your weekly Moments of the Week, or vice versa, we're cool either way. Today sees the origins of many of the Bat-family and Wonder Woman, the Ultimate Universe drops three books this week including a media spoiled presidential reveal, and Justice League shows Billy Batson finally becoming Shazam. Much more as always after the jump!

Atomic Robo: Flying She-Devils of the Pacific #3

Fringe Japanese Nationalist fighters are attacking the island, but there is always time for Robo to show off his skills. Later on in the fight Robo decides to tag in for the jetpack ladies, in a way only a robot could:

Needless to say, Robo got captured by the Japanese after this stunt (and the She-Devils island got destroyed!)

Atomic Robo: Real Science Adventures #3

I love this setup. Everyone is fine, almost reacting as best they could to a robot walking out of the water. But then for Robo to talk about something like a monster, of course you're going to create more confusion and panic.

Batwoman #0

In a story written as a thank you letter to her father, we see Kate's first meeting with Batman, after stopping a mugger on the street in her downward spiral after leaving the Army. She gets a rush from the fighting, and when her dad finds out, he decides to set her up with his old unit:

I wonder if it's coincidental or intention to have Kate start her training in Paris, the same way Bruce seems to have started with Ducard. Anyways, Kate saw it all during her training, and even went on a hostage rescue run near Chernobyl:

And with that, we get caught up with Kane's story as we saw by Rucka and Williams a few years ago.



Daredevil #18

Yeahbuwha? Matt comes home from a nice date with Kirsten, but Milla's in his apartment acting like nothing's wrong. Well, aside from being terrible with placing cups on the nightstand. Even though Foggy has cut ties with him, he offers to check in on Milla upstate, and you can see where this is going.

So what is going on? Waid is doing a really good job of not showing his hand yet, as even a new criminal seems to be messing with Matt's radar sense. Could it just be a feint, has Matt really gone off the deep end yet again?

Justice League #0

Billy meets the Wizard, who is old and dying after spending years trying to find the perfect person. Billy finally confronts him on it being a fool's errand, and after seeing the potential good in Billy grants him the power of Shazam and dies. Naturally, Billy in his current state shows off for his friend Freddy the way a kid would:

But that's not all, Billy tries to help out a lady being robbed:

At least the guy said something and isn't dead.

This reminds me a lot of Wally West when he first became the Flash, working as a for-profit hero. 20 bucks is 20 bucks, and the two kids realize they can be rich with this new gift.

Nightwing #0

Robins meant something to Dick's mother, so there's your new connection to his namesake. Bruce takes in Dick as his ward, and while Batman is out on the streets so is Dick, sneaking out to find the man responsible for his parents deaths. Of course the two would run into each other:

Dick puts two and two together, and Bruce realizes this, so you might as well show the lad the Batcave:

No oath, and less Batman telling Dick to join his crusade but more of Dick volunteering for the job. At first he's just learning basic detective work and training in the cave, but leaves to help Batman when he gets poisoned by Lady Shiva:

Dick's new costume, no pixie boots or bare legs. The issue also sets up Shiva as being Dick's first rogue, which we will see in later issues.

Peter Panzerfaust #6

The second arc of the modernized fairy tale shifts focus to Curly, as the boys stay in occupied France in an attempt to save their captured friend Felix. To do so requires being a spy, and having a plan to break him free:

Tiger Lily in WWII, that should be an interesting interpretation of the character. All I remember of her is being the quiet one in the Disney cartoon.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #0

Jason's revised origin sees him living with both of his parents until his teenage years, and then both his parents dying and forcing him to become a kid of the street. And after being beaten badly one night, Leslie Thompkins patches him back up:

No more bat-hubcaps, but prescription drugs. After this everything seems to play out the way we know it. But wait, you might be saying, "Wasn't Jason's mom a big part of Death in the Family?" You are correct, and as we see in this final reveal, this was all planed by one person:

This is a pretty big rewrite, making everything about Jason up to his resurrection being planned out by the Joker, from his father being arrested to leaving him for Leslie to find him. And of course magical flowers to fake death.

Spider-Men #5

Good thing Wolverine isn't around in the Ultimate Universe anymore. The issue really isn't action packed (the mini itself was rather lacking in that department), but you do have some nice interaction between the two. And back in the regular universe Peter decides to Google Miles Morales:

Aw come on, no cliffhangers for an event like this!



Ultimates #15

It's election day in the fractured USA, but the Ultimates are trying to stop out of control sentry wasps from killing refugees in the West Coast tech utopia. Seeing how the whole thing (and the next issue) were spoiled by Marvel, here's the first big moment:

And no real tension either, as we know Cap accepts.



Ultimate Spider-Man #15

I wonder if Miles could say Ganke should be his Alfred, or would that be a problem for Marvel's legal department?

Ultimate Spider-Man has been in a really big bubble compared to Ultimates and Ultimate X-Men, and we finally see it showing up in this series. With the school closed for the time being, Ganke tells Miles to join the Ultimates, and it doesn't sound like such a bad idea:

I want to see more and more of these failed attempts at webswinging and slamming into glass, with people not fascinated by it, but just going "......wha?"

Venom #25

Flash tells it like it is, and ultimately controls the monsters to turn on Hellstrom in a rather violent way:

And now for the big reveal, how exactly Flash can control monsters and suppress demons:

That's a pretty cool way to bring the circles back, as they are simply the markings of current demons in hell establishing their demonic offspring when the apocalypse comes.

Wonder Woman #0

Azzarello and Chiang go retro for this origin story, with thought bubbles and narrator boxes to really give it a silver age feel. Diana runs away from the others, but runs into Ares (now known as War) who has taken a liking to her fighting skills:

Diana learns a lot, and even gains mercy from War in a fight to the death, and for her final test she is sent to kill the Minotaur:

And like that Diana's first father figure leaves her, but not before giving her all the skills we see in the present. This is what I expected the 0 issues to be more of, as opposed to just kind of checklists of things that might have happened, check it out for a genuinely good one and done issue.

Related Posts