Future’s End: Red Hood and the Outlaws

The whole concept of this series has really connected with me, with Red Hood, Starfire and Arsenal doing their own version of super heroics around the New 52 universe.

The story pretty much deals with what happens to the group in the friends, and basically none of them wind up being friends anymore. Starfire goes back to her home planet of Tamaran to take the throne, rightfully. That seems to be at the root of the break up of the group, as both Arsenal and Red Hood were at one point romantically involved with her. It’s just like Nikki Sixx used to say; chicks equal trouble.

Since then, Arsenal has attempted to become a higher profile super hero. At one point he was a member of the Justice League and took Green Arrow’s spot. I assume Green Arrow died, since his Future’s End special had a headstone on the cover. That didn’t work out to well and he’s back on his own.

Red Hood has wound up becoming a lethal vigilante ala the Punisher. This has put the two at odds with each other; they are no longer on speaking term. The rest of the issue has Red Hood plotting the deserved murder of Global Broadcasting head Morgan Edge, who has been involved in some highly evil organized crime.

Scott Lobdell does a great job with these characters and it’s a compelling story. I like how it’s all contained in a single issue. Great stuff all around and that’s why this series is currently my favorite monthly published by DC.

Future’s End: Booster Gold

I think I’ve said it before, but anything that involves Dan Jurgens writing/drawing Booster Gold is a must-have for me. Future’s End: Booster Gold falls into that category.

In this one-shot, Booster Gold is being forced to jump through time and the Multiverse, jumping from the “Gotham by Gaslight” era, to the end of the New 52’s Justice League International series where he witnesses himself disappearing from the time stream, to even the world where the Carlton characters are still around. He even winds up fighting the tiger-people from Kamandi’s future in a perfect homage to Jack Kirby.

As this is going on, there is another Booster Gold being tortured by robots under the control of Brainiac who hope to learn the secrets of time travel. Eventually the two Boosters meet up (along with his sister Michelle) and one of the Boosters winds up being willing to explain the concept of the Vanishing Point to Brainiac to save their sister. A lot of that stuff I really didn’t understand, since I’ve been avoiding the Future’s End story line.

But hey, all I wanted was some more Jurgens doing Booster Gold, and that was what this issue was all about. Plus it came with a cool lenticular cover so I have nothing to complain about.

Angela: Asgard’s Assassin #1

I’ve really liked how Angela has been integrated into the Marvel Universe, and I think that this series is in more than capable hands with Kieron Gillen and Phil Jimenez’s hands.

There is a lot of exposition in this issues, as told in a sub-story by Sera, an angel from the realm of Heven that has been her friend for some time. By the end of the issue, Angela and Sera appear to be in Oklahoma somewhere in the vicinity of New Asgard. The two are confronted by a super angry Thor, Sif and the Warriors Three, setting up the next issue.

Between Angela and the previous runs on Journey Into Mystery that have focused on Kid Loki and Sif, the non-Thor characters of Asgard have been getting quite a lot of exposure the last few years. After being supporting characters for the Thunder God, it’s great getting to see them being moved to the forefront.

But what really sticks out in this issue is Jimenez’ artwork. His take on Angela looks great; she’s still sexy as anything, but doesn’t look like a bikini model running around with a sword like some other artists would do.

This is a great series that I think will be really fun to read as a trade. This is on my hit list.

Deathstroke #1

Sometimes all it takes is a #1 on the cover of a book to get me to buy it. That was the case with Deathstroke #1.

I haven’t followed Deathstroke too much in the New 52, except for Rob Liefeld’s run on the character which introduced the new version of Lobo. That said, I’ve always thought the character was pretty cool and I know that Tony Daniel gets a lot of positive buzz.

So what did I think?

Deathstroke is off to Russia on a job, to take out someone who looks to be another metahuman assassin named Possum. He doesn’t know who is paying him for this. I think if I were an assassin, I would want to know this sort of thing. This is set up of some sort; he winds up being set up and chased by a small army. A really beaten and bloody Deathstroke instinctively looks for this old monk named I-Ching. I mean, what luck would you have to have to not only have someone to turn to in the middle of Russia, let alone would be conveniently located for you to walk to after you’ve had half of your head shot off.

Deathstroke wakes up in front of a group of monks who have apparently saved him and allude to having hired him to come to Russia in the first place. He now owes them, as they have saved him from certain death. The last page has him standing, looking much younger, mostly recovered and having both of his eyes.

This is how you do a first issue kids. I can’t wait to find out what happens next.

Spider-Woman #1

Spider-Woman #1 was a bit confusing for me, as I’m not currently reading the Spider-Verse stories. However, I really love Jessica Drew. She really is probably one of my top ten characters. Needless to say, I was surprised that this series starts out with her, along with Silk and Spider-Man Noir, riding dinosaurs on an alien looking world.

The group is fighting these weird Team Rocket looking brother and sister duo called the Inheritors, who are killing all the Spider-heroes throughout the multiverse to feed off their life energies.

The whole Spider-Verse story does interest me, but I think this might be something that I’ll revisit once it gets back to just being a book about Jessica. On the plus side, I think this is the best art that I’ve ever seen from Greg Land.