Comics I Read: Catching up #7

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X-Men Legacy Annual 1, 228-229: A pretty good story featuring mutant predator Emplate and how he’s affected by the vastly reduced number of mutants, but (a) I don’t care much about Emplate because he dates from one of the times I wasn’t reading the X-books and (b) I like the idea of the book’s alleged new direction – Rogue mentoring young mutants – and I wish they’d get on with that instead of this distraction.

Thor 603, Finale: A satisfying and touching conclusion for William, JMS’ best character in the series, but the rest of his plot is left for Kieron Gillen to handle starting next issue. Which is a good thing – the preview pages look great – but with all the time it took for these last issues to come out I’m surprised that it still feels like JMS’ departure was so abrupt.

Supergirl 46-47: The end of the Reactron story in #46 is good, and the reconciliation between Supergirl and Flamebird is welcome. Much better is #47: a very well done story from Alura’s POV – she even takes over the logo on the splash page. Sterling Gates does a great job of showing us why she’s made some of the choices she has, which makes her more sympathetic even though she’s still wrong. The flashbacks to her life with Zor-El are terrific, and in a subtle way even manage to reconcile the Silver Age and John Byrne versions of Krypton. My only quibble is a reference at the end to Supergirl going back to Earth, which shouldn’t be possible after the end of “Blackest Night: Superman”. (Unless I have the timing wrong, but I thought that miniseries took place after the Reactron story.)

Red Robin 5-6: Great, great stuff from Chris Yost showing the re-emergence of the Tim Drake we all know and love. Basically, he had this arc of Tim’s change in personality well planned from the beginning, and I’m sure it will read really well in the collected edition.

Superman: World of New Krypton 7-9: The Jemm appearance in #9 didn’t do much for me, but the Thanagarian stuff was good, and I love the whole story arc of Kal having to take over General Zod’s job. The cliffhanger at the end of #9 is great – though I wonder if it’s really who it appears to be since that character’s in another book in another part of the galaxy – and Pete Woods’ art is consistently terrific.

Strange 1: I usually love Mark Waid’s work, of course, but this is a surprisingly light and wonderful story of a demon-infested baseball game. Basically, it’s the kind of thing Sorcerer Supreme Dr. Strange would never have lowered himself to get involved in, but plain old Steven Strange is just trying to help where he can with his now-limited abilities and it makes him more human and sympathetic. Recommended.

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