Batman Beyond Unlimited #9, by J.T. Krul (writer), Howard Porter (pencils), Livesay (inks), Carrie Strachan (colors). Saida Temofonte in "Eradicated!"; Dustin Nguyen (writer, pencils), Derek Fridolfs (writer, inks), Randy Mayor (colors), Saida Temofonte (letters) in "Konstriction, Chapter 10"; Adam Beechen (writer), Norm Breyfogle (artist), Andrew Elder (colorist), Saida Temofonte (letterer) in "10,000 Clowns - All Hands" - I'm what, 8 or 9 months into this "list the credits" thing and I'm still trying to figure out how to handle anthology titles smoothly? Hmm, Nguyen is a listed as cover artist in the credits of the Justice League story, but it's definitely Howard Porter again. Are they ever gonna give Breyfogle a turn? Does he not want to do a cover? I bet he could do a pretty good job.Superman shows to in his Eradicator armor to fight the giant mech. First he has to contend with the super-cop, who tries to absorb the Eradicator tech into himself. So Supes decks him, beats the giant robot, starts arguing with Lucinda and holographic Lex. Then holo Lex has all the Kryptonite fragments combine into a new moon, which causes severe gravitational problems. Until Superman shoves it into the Sun. Then Batman helps him create a new identity and he becomes a fireman.
I wonder what the risk of the Eradicator armor was Superman referred to last issue. I thought he perhaps wouldn't be able to get it off, or it might try and control him, symbiont style, but nothing happened. Unless that piece of it Walker got is what Krul's hinting at. There's nothing new I can say about Porter's art. I still find it clunky and sort of lifeless. Maybe sound effects would help.
In the Justice League story, the Serpent arrives and even with a bunch of Thanagarians and Green Lanterns, things still go south. Micron being controlled by Spellbinder again to turn on the team doesn't help. What is Spellbinder getting out of this? The world is gonna be destroyed! Anyway, with all hope lost, McGinnis follows Bruce's instructions and. . . huh, it was Etrigan after all. Now we know why Bruce didn't warn Terry what would happen, but I can't see how Etrigan can turn the tide where all those others failed. I also don't understand why, if you get a bunch of GLs to help, you waste them protecting the Watchtower instead of, you know, blasting the damn world-devouring Serpent with their magic wishing rings! Olsen, Waller, and Warhawk can't direct the damn battle from some place else? It's a poor allocation of resources is what I'm saying.
In the Batman story, Terry and Catwoman disarm some bombers, Vigilante brutalizes (but stops) another, and even Grayson gets involved. But Terry needs someone to analyze a blood sample he took from a Joker (he noticed a chemical smell), and with Bruce out of commission, and Max not answering, that just leaves Tim Drake. Who was expressly promised he'd be left out of all this. I imagine he'll help, eventually, but it might cost them his services down the line. Beechen and Breyfogle and doing a very good job of making this seem big. Characters are scrambling about all over the place. Even in the few moments it takes Terry to try calling Max, we see 3 more explosions. It's a relentless assault. There's also a bit on the third page from the end, as McGinnis is pleading with Tim, where Tim is declaring his intention to leave as he looks down and to the left, and right down there is the next panel, with Terry making his case while looking back up at Tim.
Dial H #5, by China Mieville (writer), Mateus Santolouco (artist), Tanya & Richard Horie (colorists), Steve Wands (letterer) - I've liked most of Bolland's covers so far (except the 0 issue, but that was a problem with the template he had to follow for the theme month being boring), but his version of Abyss is just not scary compared to Santolouco's. It's too solid looking, like it's just some big guy, rather than a living void.The Squid tries to fight Ex Nihilo while Nelson and Manteau hustle of to try and fix Nelson's dial. The Squid doesn't fare well, but Nihilo is enraged to find Abyss isn't working with her, and starts to attack it as it gives birth. The dial gets going, Nelson swipes it, turns into Cock-a-Hoop, and rushes off to battle. And, while Abyss is too powerful for he or Nihilo to defeat, they can defeat the new voids, and use them to destroy their father. Not before the mysterious figure Nelson saw 'on the line' emerges, making the dial work perfectly for him, defeating Nihilo in two pages. The only reason it doesn't destroy Nelson is his dial had broken again, so it can detect active dials, but may not know anything about how many there are or where if they aren't being used.
Cock-a-Hoop is as absurd looking as it sounds, but Santolouco makes it work. There's even a nice panel where you can see Nelson's face mixed with the rooster's, to showing the dial's not right. The panel stretched across two pages of Nihilo trying to stop the new arrival is pretty well done, too. It didn't make much sense on the first readthrough, when I was zipping along, but when I slowed down for a more thorough second go, it's nice. The sound of the dial and Nihilo's attacks guiding the eye through the crazy forms. I also noticed Abyss seemed more coherent the closer it came to death, which could be significant, amongst all the talk about nothing eating nothing and thus leaving something.
Green Arrow #13, by Ann Nocenti (writer), Freddie Williams II (pencils, inks pgs. 6, 11), Rob Hunter (inks pgs. 1-5, 7-10), Tom Derenick (inks, pgs. 12-15), Art Thibert (inks, pgs. 16-20), Richard & Tanya Horie (colorists), Rob Leigh (letterer) - I think putting the fight on the cover at the Great Wall was more than a little cliched, but it's still one of the better covers this title's had since I started buying it.I was pretty sure Tolibao was solicited for this issue originally. The sheer number of inkers makes me think I'm right. The first half of the book, Hunter and Williams' inks maintain a fairly consistent style. But Derenick and Thibert's pages show a more distinct shift. Derenick's especially seem smoother, thicker lines, deeper shadows. I'd still call it a major step up in legibility from prior issues, but hopefully this isn't going to turn into Green Lantern, where they need 7 inkers every month just to get the book finished.
As to the story, Ollie finally gets his showdown with Fang, and things go pretty well until the dead grandparents get involved. Then he gets bailed out by Suzie Ming, who explains it's going to be a serious international incident if Ollie doesn't give the Wolf Tech to Fang, since it was developed in the labs of Ollie's company. At the same time, she knows Fang shouldn't have it. Which is a conundrum, if not the one I was interested in (what's best for Ollie's employees, versus the people Fang will use it against). Arrow and Suzie eventually defeat the elderly undead, by dropping statues supposedly built to fight in Hell on them. I'm not sure it's that was a magic solution, or a psychology solution (Suzie said you can only trick them into thinking they're dead again). Anyway, Ollie does sort of find a solution, though how willing you are to go with it depends on how willing you are to trust Suzie Ming's intentions.
Oh, and she might be a little sweet on Arrow. Not Ollie, since she (and Fang) don't seem to have put 2 and 2 together. Unless they're just humoring him. Loudmouth blonde American superhero in expensive outfit shows up at the same time as loudmouth blonde American billionaire. Maybe it's a joke? All Caucasians look alike/ The Thibert pages do give Oliver Queen a very different hair style from Green Arrow. Some sort of poofed up perm looking thing. I don't know. Anyway, I really dug that. Pity Hawkman's showing up next. No, I will not be buying the Hawkman issue to get the full story.
That was a very good selection. I mean, I was really happy with everything. Except the Superman story, but that's not a new development, and even it has some interesting ideas. In theory.
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