Mini Reviews!: Axe Cop, World's Finest, Earth 2, The Hypernaturals

I'm a little short for time this week, so instead of doing a review of a single issue like usual, I thought I'd give some brief thoughts on a few of the books I read this week. 

Axe Cop: President of the World (#3 of 3): When I started reading this miniseries, I wondered if I would continue to find its random plot and general silliness as amusing after this third issue. Thankfully, Axe Cop continues to find laughs in the most absurd, childlike plot twists. For example: an ordinary man gets forcibly injected with "the blood of everything," turning him into the villain Every Man, who has the power of--everything? This is exactly the kind of comic book I imagined when I was 8, except perhaps with more knock-offs of 80s slasher villains and some kind of Aeon Flux-y super spy. 

Axe Cop is a simple pleasure, but not a guilty one. If you don't like it, you probably have humour cancer.  

World's Finest #5: I don't disagree with those who say that this book doesn't move the plot forward in any meaningful way, or that it seems to be stalling between the first arc and the next, but you know what? I'm OK with that. For a standalone issue, #5 is packed full of story and art from Jenkins and Perez, and half of that story is so good that it's worth the $2.99 price point by itself. Seriously, Huntress saves a Take Back the Night rally from a woman-hating gunman. How awesome is that? Huntress is becoming my favorite member of the Bat-family, and while Power Girl needs to put some R&D money in designing a costume that doesn't burn off her body every issue (or just GIVE HER BACK HER OLD COSTUME DC), her characterization is great too. Sorry for shouting. 

World's Finest isn't breaking the mold, but it's the kind of fun, good-natured comic that I wish DC would publish more often.

Earth 2 #5: Speaking of great DC comics, Earth 2 continues right where #4 left off, with the new "Wonders" taking on one of my favorite Pre-52 villains, Solomon Grundy (just "Grundy," here). What can I say? I love Earth 2. This is how a reboot should be done.  There would be far fewer problems across the DC line if they would have just wiped the slate clean like they have with this title.  I have no doubts that Alan Scott is going to choose to be hero over spending eternity with his dead lover Sam, and will save the day by defeating Grundy with the help of The Flash, Hawkgirl, and The Atom. Beyond that, I have no idea where this series will go. 

In these past 6 issues, the groundwork has been laid for an exciting new chapter in DC Comics history and can't wait to see where Robinson and co. take these characters next.

The Hypernaturals #4: Hypernaturals is a good cosmic superhero story, if, and only if, you are a fan of the Legion of Superheroes. I know this title is creator-owned and supposedly therefore less restrained but in four issues, this book has just failed to make me care about the future of the series. The art is great. The production of this book is quite excellent, and has been far more consistent in this regard than either Extermination (great story/terrible art) or Higher Earth (good story/good-to-terrible art). Even so, I can't just get excited about this series when I feel like I know exactly what it wants to be: The Watchmen meets the Legion of Superheroes. There is clearly a mystery going on and one of the heroes is going to turn out be evil or something like that but I just don't care. 

Overall, I felt that this was a really strong week for DC, as Animal Man, Swamp Thing, and Dial H, which I also read, were all excellent.

The Hypernaturals #2: "Oh my Quant"

The Hypernaturals #2
Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Artists: Brad Walker and Tom Derenick
Boom! Studios
August 1, 2012

My feelings about this comic are perfectly summed up by the characters' exclamation, "Oh my quant!"  First reaction: cool; second reaction: wait, what?

I really liked this comic the first time I read it--each issue begins with a "Q-data link," or a little info-sheet about the world you're entering and what's happened in the story so far.  The next page is a "We Want You" ad, except for the Hypernaturals instead of the army.  It's in those ads that the reader finds out more about the main characters and about how the Hypernaturals become a team (they try out! Who knew?).  Each issue also ends with an interview with one of the characters, which are really informative reads because they explain some things that the action in the comic doesn't have time to get to.

However, on my second read-through, there were a couple things that bugged me, in a "something's-just-a-little-off-here" way.   First, we find out in this issue that the "secret" to Creena Hersh's super-speed/acceleration powers is "hyper-metabolism."  What?  Having a fast metabolism gives you super powers?  So, Barbie should be slicing holes in aliens and beating up all of the Ken dolls, if that were a thing.  How is this an empowering model for women?  You stay skinny because you have special powers, unlike all of those other slow, heavy women?  If you starve yourself by "accelerating" all the time, you won't age and you'll stay thin?  She even admits that accelerating isn't good for her body--it could end up killing her if she isn't able to replace the energy by eating.  Did I mention that Creena is also a fashion model?  And their Media Relations Coordinator?  It's like she's just there to look good.

On the other hand, her mask IS pretty cool, she eats bug guts, and she blows up aliens with sonic booms.  Oh, but wait...she's divorced from an alcoholic husband, she's fooling around with a so-called boy-toy, and she STILL teases her ex-husband about their first meeting AFTER finding out that the boy-toy is PROBABLY DEAD. Something's just not adding up here.

The other character who feels off to me is Deedee Cadiz, aka "Halfshell."  She is your stereotypical angry black woman.  Oh, and she thinks she's too hot for the Slave-Leia-bikini-suit that is her uniform.  In what universe do women think they're TOO hot to wear a bikini? 

Halfshell gains points for being a hothead in battle (total bloodlust thing going on there) but loses them for telling the corporate heads that they cut her for being "too hot for [their] squeaky clean corporate profile."  Huh?  Why is the warrior woman putting so much emphasis on how she looks?

The world-building is cool in this comic though.  Don't get me wrong, there are some really interesting, well-thought out, other-worldly devices, aliens, weapons, etc, in this comic.  The writers' strong suits really lie in the world-building, not so much with female character-building. 

What We're Reading: August 2012

Reviews of today's comics will be up later on this evening, but in the meantime, here's an update on what we're reading this month:

What We're Reading, August 2012: 

-Animal Man (DC)
-Archer & Armstrong (Valiant)
-Axe Cop: President of the World (Dark Horse)
-Bloodshot (Valiant)
-Black Kiss II (Image)
-Dial H (DC)
-Extermination (Boom!)
-Glory (Image)
-Hell Yeah (Image)
-Higher Earth (Boom!)
-The Hypernaturals (Boom!)
-Harbinger (Valiant)
-Hit-Girl (Icon)
-Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files of Judge Dredd Vols. 1-5 (Rebellion)
-Prophet (Image)
-Revival (Image)
-Saga (Image)
-The Secret Service (Icon)
-Super Crooks (Icon)
-Swamp Thing (DC)
-X-O Manowar (Valiant)

And depending what comes out each week, possibly more!