5 reasons you should care about … Leviathan

“Leviathan is coming.”

“Who?”

“Leviathan”

“The mythical sea beast of the Old Testament?”

“No.”

“The eidolon that crashes the ship in Final Fantasy IV?”

“No.”

“The evil organization from Grant Morrison’s Batman run?”

“No. I mean, yes, it’s an evil organization, but this one’s Marvel.”

“Oh, so it’s like Hydra?”

“Wellllllll…”

The big bad of Marvel’s Agent Carter series has been hinted at as Leviathan, as bespake by the electro-throated men doing its bidding. If you’re like me, you heard the name and thought of all the above examples. But it’s none of those. Here’s what it is.

1. It’s the Cold War Hydra: Just like Hydra was a by-product of Nazi Germany, Leviathan was a by-product of Communist Russia, except most of its members were cryogenically frozen, much like a certain Winter Soldier, which is a great way to explain away how new characters with Cold War roots were supposedly always there and able to still operate in the 21^st century. Apparently, back in the day, SHIELD, Hydra, Leviathan and the Hand used to play war games, but as could be expected, things got out of hand and double-cross-y.

2. It was created by the architect of the Marvel Universe’s destruction: Jonathan Hickman created Leviathan during his run on Secret Warriors, the book about original-recipe Nick Fury’s underground special ops team made up of the children of supervillains. Hickman also wrote the SHIELD series that traced the agency’s origins back to the Egyptian Imhotep in a sort of League of Extraordinary Historical Gentlemen. Hickman can currently be found preparing to smash the multiverse together for this year’s Secret Wars event that may or may not be the end of the Marvel Universe as we know it.

3. One of its members was killed by Bill Paxton: Well, not really, but Magadan, Leviathan’s leader, was assassinated by cybernetically enhanced SHIELD Agent John Garrett, whom Paxton played on the TV show as the eventual big bad of Season 1. Garrett was created by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz for the 1980s Elektra: Assassin miniseries.

4. Nick Fury’s girlfriend was one of its leaders: Among the Leviathan brass was the Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine, regular flame of Fury and creation of SHIELD progenitor Jim Steranko. The contessa acted as a mole inside SHIELD and Hydra but was apparently working for the Russian organization the whole time. … except at some point she had been replaced by a Skrull, according to Secret Invasion. Twice.

5. There’s Brood stuff: X-Men fans know the Brood as the Chris Claremont-created Alien ripoffs that like to try to lay their eggs in mutants. Apparently, SHIELD, Hydra, Leviathan and the Hand at one point tried to use Brood technology to create super soldiers (because that’s all any global Marvel organization wants), which is where all the double-crossing comes into play.

Read this: Secret Warriors 1-28 by Brian Michael Bendis, Jonathan Hickman and Stefano Castelli

Watch that: Agent Carter, 9 p.m. Tuesdays on ABC.

Dan Grote has been a Matt Signal contributor since 2014 and friends with Matt since there were four Supermen and two Psylockes. His two novels, My Evil Twin and I and Of Robots, God and Government, are available on Amazon.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 1/28 Part 2

Abigail and the Snowman #2
Story & Art: Roger Langridge

Friendship is an important theme in a lot of the all ages work I've read by Roger Langridge. It is a tent pole of the Muppet franchise, was the key theme in Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow, and it's the friendship of the Carpenter and the Prince and Princess that make the selfish Walrus become a better person in Snarked!. Once again, Langridge looks at unconventional friends in Abigail and the Snowman. After befriending the Yeti she dubbed Claude, young Abigail brings the Abominable Snowman only children can see with her to school. When the other kids see Claude, they begin to open up to Abigail. The sad, lonely little girl of the previous issue is happy, something her father notes. Abigail's dad is a wonderful character, loving and doping his best by his daughter while struggling to make ends meet. Of course then men in black from the previous issue are still hunting Claude, but a run in with Abigail's teacher, who will not permit people to wear sunglasses in doors (a little beat set up early in the issue, so when it comes up with the agents it makes perfect sense), has them remove the classes that allow them to see Claude, and we get a series of slapstick moments that are very funny. Langridge has a talent for balancing comedy and character, so we get scenes of Claude snoring away on Abigail's floor balanced with scenes of Abigail's father hustling to get work as an electrician. The happy scene of Abigail, Claude, and her new school friends at Burger Thing for Abigail's birthday is a picture of joy, and is shortly juxtaposed with the appearance of a new threat, a new man called to hunt down Claude who looks considerably more competent than his previous pursuers. It's high stakes without being scary; Langridge knows exactly how far to push the story and keep it all ages. Two issues down means the series is half over, and Abigail and the Snowman is another example that Boom! is publishing the best all ages line of monthly books in comics right now.  And , by the way, boy does Langridge draw an awesome Nessie. If that sentence doesn't pique your interest, I don't know what will.

The Dying & the Dead #1
Story: Jonathan Hickman
Art: Ryan Bodenheim

Ah, the Jonathan Hickman first issue... I'm a huge fan of Hickman's creator owned works, with both East of West and Manhattan Projects on my list of the best books Image is publishing right now. And Hickman is a master of giving you a first issue that has a ton of story and is loaded with potential. And that's even more clear when he has a first issue that's the size of two issues. The feel in this book is more fantasy than anything I've read by Hickman. While East of West has it's apocalyptic overtones, that fantasy is set in a very science fiction world. Here, we're dealing with a "real" seeming 1969 that has mystical ancient beings, artifacts, and magic sounding words. What I found most interesting about this issue is how it feels more intimate than any Hickman comic I've ever read. His series usually charge out of the gates with these sprawling casts. Here, while we meet quite a few characters, including a legion of identical women whose names all seem to begin with an A (Hickman's own Clone Club?), the mysterious Bah al Sharur, and the pale denizens of the mystic City, the Courier, the Bishop, and his Advisor, this is very much the story of The Colonel. Hickman has addressed this as the last story of the greatest generation, and the Colonel was a war hero of that generation, and is now about to lose his wife to cancer. But he is offered a chance to save her by the Bishop, who he has some past association with, by retrieving a stolen object. This is a classic story, a variation of sorts on Orpheus. This is going to be a series about love and about one man's attempt to save the one thing he loves. A Hickman comic is always full of big, crazy ideas, but this time it's more grounded in statements of what love is and means. Ryan Bodenheim's art fills the world with almost balletic violence, while designing a wonder in The City. A world of conspiracies, artifacts, and magic seems perfectly fit to Hickman's style, and I'm curious to see which direction he takes this new series.

Graveyard Shift #2
Story: Jay Faerber
Art: Fran Bueno

It's hard to find fiction nowadays where the primary purpose of a vampire is to scare you. Thanks to the likes of Anne Rice, Joss Whedon, and Stephanie Meyer, vampires are sex symbols, tortured souls who only need to be loved. And there's nothing wrong with that. I like Lestat and Spike as much as the next genre fan. But I do miss days where vampires were freakin' terrifying. Jay Faerber and Fran Bueno's Graveyard Shift is putting that terror back in vampires. After being attacked by vampires the previous issue, and finding his fiancee has been turned, police officer Liam runs from the collected vampires, dragging Hope along with him. Safe in a mausoleum, the two discuss what they should do next once she comes out of her vampire form. It looks like we're dealing with vampires in the mostly classic sense; they're vulnerable to holy objects as well as the sun. Bueno does a great job of making the vampires scary looking, and the action sequence as Liam and Hope flee the vampires is excellent. As Liam tries to learn more about the case that earned him the dubious honor of the vampires' attention, he tries to figure out what to do with his new status quo with Hope. We're still in the story phase where Liam is up to his neck in questions and doesn't have many answers. Horror has always existed closer to the real world than it's sister genres of science fiction and fantasy because the horrific encroaching on the real is part of what gives the genre its power. The ending of the issue is tragic but not unexpected, as it seems clear that vampires in this world are monsters, but ti's still sad when you realize the repercussions. Faerber is working a slow build this issue, after all of last issue's action. It's not drowning in exposition, but it spends a lot of time setting up the action that the series will climax in, which I think is the way a second chapter should work. It definitely has me hooked to see exactly what Liam is going to do as the vampires close in.

King: Flash Gordon #1
Story: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker
Art: Lee Ferguson

This week saw the debut of the first two of five titles from Dynamite that will celebrate the centennial of King Syndicate, the company that published many of the great newspaper strips, by creating a universe where these characters will coexist. I've never read many of those classic strips, but with the creators involved in these books, I had to give them a try. Flash Gordon comes from Thrilling Adventure Hour creators Ben Acker and Ben Blacker. Thrilling Adventure Hour is a throwback to classic radio, so it seems appropriate that they're writing something here that hearkens back to another classic form, but with their usual modern take. Acker & Blacker throw you right into the action on this one. There's no exposition to explain who Flash is or exactly who the people around him are, but the story does a good job of getting that across. You get to know Dale Arden and Dr. Zarkov, and while Ming the Merciless doesn't have a large role in the action, it's not hard to understand his place as despotic dictator. The issue opens with Flash waking up in Dale's bed after a night of drinking, and him being sure they must have slept together, despite Dale never confirming it, and it's pretty clear there's more there than what is being said, but the joke of Flash just being, :Well, we're together now," is charming. The action of the issue has Flash and Dale infiltrating a mine to get a telestone, the substance that allows Ming's minions and governors to communicate over distance. Of course, things don't go according to plan and soon they're running from robots and Ming's men. Flash is a charming meathead, not stupid but always referencing his sports prowess and being a bit full of himself, while Zarkov is the egotistical jerk he is often portrayed as. If you read the 2014 Flash Gordon Annual, you could tell that Acker and Blacker love Dale from the short featuring her they wrote, and that comes across here, with her as the most together of the trio of heroes.This comic is classic space opera, full of the fun and action you can expect if you know Acker and Blacker's Sparks Nevada, only inverted, with a bit more action than humor. Oh, and at one point, one of the alien princesses says of Flash, "Will you save every one of us?" His response? "I'm just a man." You quote Queen, you've got me sold.

King: The Phantom #1
Story: Brian Clevinger
Art: Brent Schoonover

And the second of these King titles is The Phantom, coming from Atomic Robo co-creator Brian Clevinger. For a character who I only know from cartoons and that Billy Zane movie, I'm suddenly reading two books featuring him (the other from Hermes Press written by Peter David). Clevinger starts out by introducing a new Phantom, and by doing this has a good way to explain the legacy of the character. But the new Phantom is not a member of the family that has long held the name. Lothar Kehwabe is serving as a sort of Phantom regent, seeking out the person who should rightly hold the name. But he's capable, fighting modern pirates and warlords in Africa with the aid of Guran, his tech guy. We learn that Earth was targeted by an alien warlord (no details yet, but I can only assume it's Ming) and tech has been reset to pre-internet levels (think the early 80s). It does make for different story choices, and works well with the throwback feeling of these books. By issue's end, Lothar and Guram have to infiltrate the Vultures, a clan of pirates that numerous previous Phantoms have fought, whose leader has set himself up as a warlord. Along the way, we also meet intrepid reporter Jen Harris, who is also investigating the Vultures. Of course, being an intrepid reporter in comics whose name doesn't rhyme with Dark Trent, she is captured, and looks to be meeting our hero next issue. The comic has all the pulpy feelings you'd expect from The Phantom, action and excitement, something that is right up Clevinger's alley. Like everything Clevinger writes, it's a fun, action packed, engaging comic, and is well worth checking out, even if you don't know anything about The Phantom. This could make you a fan.

Rasputin #4
Story: Alex Grecian
Art: Riley Rossmo

Alex Grecian and Riley Mossmo's historical fantasy about the like of the Mad Monk Rasputin reaches the point where he comes into contact with the Tsarina Alexandra, the moment that sets him down the path that will lead to his eventual... I don't know what exactly. Going to the palace to attend to the ailing prince, Rasputin must prove his abilities by first healing the dog of little Anastasia, an act that costs Rasputin dearly. But Rasputin is a good man, although one literally haunted by his past. and he does it. But the animal nature enters him, and now part of the dog resides in Rasputin, a part that is in the fore for much of the issue. Rasputin snarls, snaps, and eats like a dog, a contrast to the soft spoken monk who we have seen in previous issues. And still, we know his fate is coming, as these scenes are flashbacks told from the moments of Rasputin's betrayal, as he flees after being shot, stabbed, etc/ I never imagined sympathizing with a monster like Rasputin, but the series has done it's job well, fleshing out a character who is historically known to be a vulgar glutton who dealt in the pleasures of the flesh. Riley Rossmo's art on the issue astounded me; his feral Rasputin is a terror. The wild designs as Rasputin using his abilities are aided by the tremendous colors of Ivan Plascenia, who has done impressive work throughout the series. Rasputin is an excellent character study, building a portrait of a man, not a monster.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters #4
Story: Erik Burnham & Tom Waltz
Art: Dan Schoening

The crossover of the century ends with a satisfying bang. As Donatello and Egon attempt to get the portal to send the Turtles home ready before the window to get them home closes, the rest of the teams must face the forces of Chi-You, the Chinese ghost/god. It's an issue packed to the gills with action, with possessed people, evil gods, and possibly exploding containment units. Burnham and Waltz again perfectly capture the voices of all the characters. I am really impressed with how they've written Winston of the Ghostbusters. In the movie, Winston was the straight man and the audience proxy, there to ask the questions so the big brains could explain the crazy technobabble, hence his classic, "Tell him about the Twinkie." But over the course of Burnham's run on Ghostbusters, Winston has been given the background as an ex-Marine, and the most steadfast of the Ghostbuisters. As an ex-soldier, he connects with the Turtles on a different level than the others, as one fighting man to another. But the Science Bros of Egon and Don have their own plot, and I like how the two, who spent early issues arguing over the existence of ghosts versus aliens, now come together to save everyone from getting blown up. This series seems to mark the end of the Ghostbusters line from IDW, probably in preparation for a big relaunch around the new movie, and I'm sad to see it go; especially under Burnham and Schoening, a lot was done to really expand the Ghostbusters universe and both flesh out the classic characters and add some new members. But if it has to go, this mini-series was a great send off.


And this week, Dan Grote gives us another book from Image

Bitch Planet #2

Words by Kelly Sue DeConnick

Art by Valentine De Landro, Cris Peter and Clayton Cowles

We’re two issues in to Kelly Sue DeConnick’s women in prison in spaaaaaace tale, and already we’re going for the Hunger Games thing. But I have a sinking feeling we’re not headed for an on-the-nose ripoff.

The administration of the Auxiliary Compliance Outpost (aka Bitch Planet) has extended an offer to inmate Kamau Kogo, the central character, to participate in a series of brutal games called Megaton. She smells a setup from the start, but her fellow inmates try to talk her into it with visions of sabotaging the system, in a great multipanel sequence in which plus-sized inmate Penny Rolle wordlessly starts a riot in the background.

At this point, we don’t have a great handle yet on the individual women of Bitch Planet, but one face that’s already familiar is that of the author herself. The pink hologram that appears in different forms to the inmates is the spitting image of DeConnick, and I get a kick out of it every time, be it dressed as a Catholic nun, a workout instructor, a news anchor or a heretofore unseen member of the Hellfire Club.

We also meet the literal patriarchy that runs the government, headed by a man who insists on being called Father and who believes that pitting us vs. them is what makes a society work.

If you find the misogynist conspiracy in this book a bit overreaching (as if the concept of a prison planet for “noncompliant” women weren’t out there enough), definitely read the backup essays by feminist authors, who do a great job of explaining why the book’s message matters.

Also, the book’s ’60s pulp-movie covers and fake Silver Age comic book ads on the back are perfect works of pop art.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 1/28

Arkham Manor #4
Story: Gerry Duggan
Art: Shawn Crystal

The mystery murderer in Arkham takes a backseat to the menace of the Joker/Clayface monster "Clownface" in the new issue of Arkahm Manor. Batman is still in his identity as inmate Jack Shaw, and has to deal with the Clownface without burning this new identity and without any of his trademark gadgets. I like stories where Batman has to operate on wits alone, and so this speaks to something in me, and having him work with Mr. Freeze makes perfect sense. Gerry Duggan writes a good Freeze, one more in line with the more homicidal and emotional version in the New 52. The issue has much more action than the previous ones, less mystery and more punches, which is fine with me in this case. There are some nice character beats mixed in, with Batman finding one of the crooks he beat pretty badly in issue one, an emotional lapse I was uncomfortable with, and Batman feeling empathy and remorse for that beating this issue worked for me; a Batman who relishes beating on criminals is a step too close to the Punisher in my book. I still think Duggan's Batman could use a little work; as clever as he was in defeating Clownface, I can't picture him not being clever enough to find a way to keep Freeze from escaping, or just shrugging his shoulders and saying that is the lesser of two evils. Batman finds a way to stop both evils. It's what he does. We do get a nice character moment out of Freeze in that moment, though, so I guess it's a writer's choice moment. We also get the escape of Sybil Silverlock, a plot point I see playing out in future issue's of Gotham Academy, so I'm glad to see that plot moving forward, and more on Gotham Academy shortly. The issue ends with both a return to the over arching Arkham killer plot, and hints that Jeremiah Arkham is slipping again. Jeremiah has never been the most stable guy, and if this book was surviving the upcoming DC cull, which it isn't, I could see this playing out further. With only two issues and a special left, it's sad to see this book hitting it's stride, mixing black comedy, superheroics, and a touch of horror, just for it to end. But I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Batman #38
Story: Scott Snyder & James Tynion IV
Art: Greg Capullo & Sam Keith

Is there any more I can say about "Endgame" that I haven't in the first few parts to indicate how exciting this story is for me? Well, I guess I'll try. Scott Snyder has built a very nice corner of the Batman universe for himself over the course of his run on this book, and he calls back to it in a story that if it were his last with Batman, would serve as a perfect coda. Joker's plan continues to roll out, and every new step makes it more macabre. Using Jim Gordon as a pawn in his attack on Batman is well within the Joker's usual psychosis, and it delivers the emotional gut punch to Batman, and makes for a perfectly eerie visual that Capullo runs with in a Jokerized Gordon. Getting Julia Pennyworth out of the Batcave and aiding Batman is something I hope we get more of in this story and the future of the Bat books; she's a capable, competent agent, and I like how she plays off Batman. Speaking of capable and competent agents, it was nice to see Batman getting in touch with Dick Grayson; Snyder writes their rapport perfectly, and how he clearly cares about Batman is something I miss. Dick's horror when Batman tells him Joker knows Batman's identity is tangible. Having Batman hunt down the doctor who helped Joker create the new Joker virus is a logical step, and I was a bit shocked to see it was Paul Dekker, better known as Crazy Quilt (OK, probably not better known as anything. Crazy Quilt is about as D-list a villain as you can get). The only connection to his pre-New 52 identity is the quilt he has wrapped around him, one matching the pattern as his old costume. This new version of Dekker is a scientist, one obsessed with immortality, and he continues to propagate the story Gordon discovered and that Julia reinforces with her own research, the the Joker is an immortal. I like how Snyder ties Vandal Savage and Ra's al Ghul together with Joker in this immortality, and creates a single mythological point in the DC Universe where all immortality springs from. Whether or not that's true, though, we'll have to wait and see. And speaking of waiting and seeing, that last page of the main story is a real kicker, and something that ties all of Snyder's run together. For a story where the Joker doesn't appear for more than a few panels, his presence and madness permeate the whole story; like Dracula in Stoker's novel, the Joker doesn't need to be present for him to cast a long shadow. This month's back up is a soldier who was part of the squad injured during "Zero Year" (another nice call back to earlier in the run), who believes Batman is actually a military program of numerous super soldier. As crazy ideas go, it's not the wildest, but the extent to which it's taken is what makes it nuts. And when you're drawing a story from the point of view of someone not quite in touch with reality, there are few artists better than Sam Keith, whose style always seems a bit out of line with reality.

Gotham Academy #4
Story: Becky Cloonan & Brenden Fletcher
Art: Karl Kerschel

The mysteries at Gotham Academy are starting to unfold, and Olive Silverlock is up to her neck in it. After the encounter with something in the North Hall last issue, we start the issue with a shell shocked Olive and her frenemy Pomeline, trying to figure out what they saw. But soon, Olive is called before the headmaster who delivers veiled threats, and we get another cameo from Olive's mysterious benefactor, Bruce Wayne. Olive and her friend/sidekick, Maps (who continues to be my favorite part of the book, this buzzing, energetic geek girl), continue their investigation into the school's mysteries, now focusing on the symbols etched into the stones around the school. Their good cop/bad cop interrogation of outsider kid Eric is charming and hilarious. And as the mystery of ghost of Millie Jane Cobblepot comes to a conclusion, new mysteries open as Olive discovers the secret passages throughout the school. The cast is an ensemble, and while Olive and Maps get the most face time this issue, we still get hints of others. The couple scenes with Pomeline continue to develop her beyond the stereotypical mean girl, and her hipster boyfriend Heathcliff gets a great scene with Olive. It's a testament to Karl Kerschel's skill that Kyle, Olive's sort of ex and Maps's brother, appears in one silent panel and we still get a good impression of what's going on in his head. There's also the matter of the mysterious blonde haired boy who seems to know far more about Olive's lost summer than she does, but we can't expect answers to everything in one issue. We also meet another member of the Academy staff, and it's another wonderful Easter egg for long time Batman fans. Along with Aunt Harriet and Bookworm from the classic 60s Batman series, the matron of the girl's dorm and librarian respectively, we now meet Simon Trent, drama teacher, who was the actor who played Batman's boyhood hero, the Grey Ghost, in Batman: The Animated Series. Speaking of B:TAS, we get an appearance from Killer Croc this issue, whose design is very much reminiscent of the design from the seminal series. It seems answers are coming about Olive's mother as well, but I'm sure that even with those answers, there will be plenty more questions coming up in Gotham Academy. With it's large and diverse cast, it's plots that feel like classic teen mysteries mixed in with Gotham's usual sense of dread, and love letters to classic Batman, this is a book that has all the charms to be a breakout hit.

Gotham by Midnight #3
Story: Ray Fawkes
Art: Ben Templesmith

While the first two issues of Gotham by Midnight were enjoyable, they felt like they suffered from a case of first-issue-itis, a condition where exposition abounds, although they did better about having stuff happen around the exposition, so that was a point in their favor. This third issue, though, feels like a home run, versus the solid grounds rule double of the previous two. With the mystery of what dark is rising in Gotham firmly established, we see Jim Corrigan and his partner called to a Gotham hospital to investigate a girl who seems to be demonstrating signs of smallpox. While this doesn't sound mystical, we soon see the girl has an autonomous shadow, like a very malignant version of Peter Pan's shadow, and that the shadow is what is carrying the disease. I like the new dynamic for Jim Corrigan. I didn't read his appearances in Phantom Stranger, so I don't know if this was established there, but this Corrigan seems much less inclined to let the Spectre, the angel of vengeance he houses, get full reign, something that is understandable if the Spectre is always like he is like when he was released in Batman: Eternal; collateral damage isn't something the Spectre seems to care about. We got some more time with Szandor Tarr, the team's resident scientist, who for some reason jumped out at me as one of those quirky characters I tend to like. The spotlight of this issue falls on Corrigan's partner, Lisa Drake. I liked the flashback's to Sister Justine's past last issue, and I'm glad to see Drake get hers this issue. It looks like we'll be getting flashbacks tied into each issue's A-Plot as a regular occurrence in the style of Lost and Arrow, which I like as a way to get backstory out there without tons of exposition. I didn't see the twist of what Drake is coming, and it's not something I want to spoil in this review, but I also like that she used her brain to defeat the shadow demon and didn't rely on her gift/curse. There are comics like Justice League Dark that are superhero comics with trappings of horror; my problem with early issues of Constantine was that they had that vibe as well, while I thought they should be different. Gotham by Midnight is a horror comic with some superhero aspects just sort of thrown in for flavor. Gotham is a city that lends itself to horror, and now those threatened by the mystical in Gotham have the hero's they deserve.

Harley Quinn #14
Story: Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti
Art: Chad Hardin

There are certain characters that would have an issue titled "A Day in the Life," and would give you exactly what you'd expect. Then there are characters like Harley Quinn, where any day in their life is so screwy you get nothing that you'd expect. Harley's been burning the candle at every end you can imagine between being landlady to a building of bizarre characters while holding down a job as a psychiatrist and one in an illegal roller derby, and this issue all that collides. Between one the exo-suits of the egg man who lives in her building running amok, a broken water heater, reports and patients, and a derby bout, there aren't enough hours in the day for Harley. Oh, and she has her first real date in ages lined up. If you've never read Harley Quinn, this issue does a great job of both throwing you in the deep end and letting you know everything you need to know to get the fullest experience out of this issue. We see Harley in and out of costume, and we see exactly what kind of person she is. The Harley we get from Conner and Palmiotti is much more akin to her classic personality, and less in line with the more deranged version from the recent Suicide Squad series. Harley will chase after muggers who steal from a little old lady, but will still tie up an annoying S&M enthusiast at the nursing home she works at, and then save the life of another old lady whose oxygen tank was stolen, the latest in a series of thefts at the nursing home that are a plot point that seems to be building towards something. And she is still haunted by her past with the Joker, as we see from her nightmares. By issue's end, everything has gone completely wrong: she missed her bout, lost her date, and still has problems at her homestead. This is all done with a ton of humor, something artist Chad Hardin captures beautifully. If Amanda Conner herself can't be drawing this comic, Hardin is an excellent choice. If you're looking for a madcap comedy that is deeply comedy driven, you should definitely be reading Harley Quinn, and this is a great jumping on point.

Multiversity Guidebook #1
Story: Grant Morrison
Art: Various

Grant Morrison is a writer who can take something simple and twist it around into something you don't expect. Here, he take the typical guidebook and crafts a narrative comic around it, creating stories within stories in the way the readers have come to expect out of Morrison. More akin to DCs Secret Files and Origins of the 90s, this isn't simply pages after page of each of the fifty two universes, although that's in here too. It mixes the narrative around Earths- 42, 51, and the comic books that tie the worlds together. Earth-42 is the home of the Little League, childlike versions of the DC heroes, and ones who are attacked by the legion of Sivanas from the previous Multiversity story, "Thunderworld," before the Batman of the radioactive Earth-17 arrives on his grail hunt. Morrison makes the Atomic Knights of that dystopian world more akin to the Knights of the Round Table, which is one of those Morrisonian tropes that seems perfectly logical when you read it. Pretty soon Li'l Batman has opened a comic that gives him a view of Earth-51, the Jack Kirby Earth created out of the end of Final Crisis, where Kamandi finds caves that have a history of the multiverse on them. This elegant bit of story lays out how all the Crises that have affected DC continuity exist in one continuum, a love letter to DC history. We do get the breakdown of the 52 Earths (or 45, as seven are mystery Earths), and the issue ends with the more details of the menace of the Gentry and the Empty Hand that they serve. The Empty Hand is something DC fans can recognize from the past, as nearly everything in this issue nods to past stories. Morrison loves DC Comics, loves it's history, and this series is him telling us why. Mix in Marcus To's art on the top level Batmans narrative, Paolo Siqueira's on the Kamandi narrative, and a murderers'  row of artists on the guidebook pages, you have a comic that speaks to everything we love about superhero comics.

The Unwritten: Apocalypse #12
Story: Mike Carey
Art: Peter Gross

Bidding goodbye to a long-running series you've been reading since the beginning is a part of being a comic book fan. I've done it before, and I'll do it again. But The Unwritten is a special case. It's a book I went into super psyched for, and came out of even more psyched for. There was never a lag, never a wasted moment. This final issue ties up the story in a neat bow without seeming pat. The way that all the worlds are saved, how Leviathan (the great beast of story, not the DC terrorist organization or the Marvel Cold War Soviet Hydra-analogue) is healed, it's all a perfect, elegant solution that stared you right in the face from issue one of the current volume but only on second reading. It's a tragic ending, like most endings to long term Vertigo series are, but every character gets the end they deserve, or have earned. A heroic death for a man who never viewed himself as a hero is a good death. And some characters have learned something about themselves. I will say the Pauly Bruckner gets to return to Willowbrook Wood, and Wilson Taylor, like Roland Deschain at the end of Stephen King's Dark Tower, sets out on a journey he's made before in a way he never would have before the last journey. Tommy does finally face down Pullman and Madame Rausch, the (pun intended) puppet master behind everything that has gone before. And we get to see the fates of pretty much every important character from the book's long history. More than any other comic, this final issue is appropriately meta, and if you've read the series, you know that is a high complement.  I'm planning a longer retrospective piece on The Unwritten timed to post around the time the final trade is released, and this isn't an issue new readers can just jump into, but take it from me, this is a comic that is well worth the time to read.

Recommended Reading for 1/30: Wednesday Comics

One of the great things about comics is that you can play with format, both within an issue, a full graphic novel, or across a series. I love to see creators experiment with the idea of comics. Whether it's some of the page layout tricks Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons did in Watchmen, J.H. Williams III's love of two page spreads, or the occasional; experiment with comics produced in landscape, not portrait, it's interesting to see what people can do. Back in 2009, DC Comics did a very cool, very unusual experiment with Wednesday Comics.

Inspired by the classic, full page Sunday color strips of the heyday of newspaper comics, DC did a twelve issue weekly series from A-list creators. They then let the creators work using pages that are far larger than a standard comic (if you're familiar with IDW's artist editions, we're talking roughly that size). The comic folded out four ways, creating a page that allowed the creators to really use the fullness of their artistic talent. It's not the only time this format has been used, the annual Thought Bubble anthology does it each year, but this is probably the most ambitious use of it.

Each creative team would do a serialized story, telling one story over twelve weeks, one page each week. DC editor Mark Chiarello gathered an amazing selection of creators to work on the anthology, and each set of creators brought something different and interesting to the table. With fifteen different stories, there was something for everyone's taste, be it a war story, a straight superhero tale, a crime comic, or a horror story. While the synthesis of art writing is important, as it is in all comics, the large format makes for an artistic tour-de-force for some of the very talented artists here, so I'll probably be talking about art a little more than I usually do. The choice of characters is interesting as well. While all the usual suspects are included (what would a DC Comics anthology be without Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and many other members of the JLA?), some creators chose to go into DC rich history and pick out some more obscure characters to feature, making the anthology well rounded and letting the creators work with characters they really have an affection for.

Instead of trying to do a generalized talk, I'm going to break out each story and give a short review/discussion of each one,

Batman: Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso weren't strangers to Batman when they worked on Wednesday Comics, having done the six issue "Broken City" story that followed up the famous (or infamous, depending on who you talk to) "Hush" story in the regular Batman ongoing. Best known together for the conspiracy and noir series 100 Bullets from Vertigo, they are a natural fit for the grimy city streets of Gotham. "Broken City" and the later Flashpoint: Batman both featured these creators working with many of Batman's classic and colorful rogues, but the story here is a classic noir. The story features Batman as a detective, really pulling out all the stops in it's depiction of crime in the city; it could have worked as a Sam Spade or Slam Bradley story as well as a Batman one. Batman investigates the murder of Franklin Glass, a wealthy Gothamite, and it leads down a path of betrayal and murder, featuring a classic femme fatale; Risso has a very distinct style for his female characters, and Luna, Glass's much younger wife, is the prototypical Risso woman.

Kamandi: One of the stories most beholden to its forebears in the classic newspaper strips, Kamandi from Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook follows the format of classic Prince Valiant strips. There are no word balloons, just extended caption boxes. This allows Sook to use the full panel, not worrying about the balloons covering parts of the art, and he uses it to the best effect. His backgrounds are beautiful, and the animal men that populate the dystopic future of Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, are impressive to view. The story, of Kamandi entering the territory of the ape men to aid his friends of the Tiger tribe, only to find, and lose, a beautiful human girl, has the grand sweep of the Arthurian epics that Hal Foster's Prince Valiant are known for, and it's clear that Dave Gibbons has a deep appreciation of those classic Foster strips

Superman: John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo tell a story of Superman doubting his place in the human world. While the end of the story reveals it all to be part of an alien plot, the hook of Superman wondering if he belongs among humans allows the creators to travel all over Superman's world, spending time with Lois, with Batman, and mostly with Ma and Pa Kent in Smallville. We get visions of Krypton, and we get a final battle between Superman and the aliens that shows exactly how Superman would fight in the confines of the small town he grew up in to protect the lives of the people there, and the story truly asserts exactly how human a character Superman really is. While Risso in the Batman strip moves away from drawing Batman's rogues and most of his supporting cast, Bermejo shows off his abilities to draw Superman's varied cast, many of them popping up for just a panel or two as Superman thinks about them. If you're a fan of Bermejo's art, this is a great opportunity to watch him spread his wings and draw some big super hero fight scenes, things that he wasn't able to do as much in his other Superman works.

Deadman: Artist and co-plotter Dave Bullock works with scripter Vinton Heuck to conjure a story of Deadman on a journey to a Hell world to save the soul of a girl whose murder he witnessed. In this world, Deadman is corporeal again, so we get the pathos of Boston Brand having a body (a classic plot for Deadman), while getting a view of a dark dimension where Bullcok can go wild drawing monstrous demons and bleak locations. It's a story tinged in horror while still maintaining an edge of the super heroic, and it's end is more on line with the tragic stories of Deadman than the more super heroic ones.

Green Lantern: There are a couple kinds of Green Lantern stories that really work for me. I prefer my Green Lantern cosmic, but I do understand the people who see him as an Earthbound hero. This story, written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by Joe Quinones, actually falls closer to the second kind of story, as Hal Jordan must deal with an alien presence menacing Earth, and it sells me pretty well on the Earthbound Lantern. Hal Jordan must stop an old friend of his who just returned from space who was infected by an alien fungus, and prevent an alien invasion. The story setting is very much set in the 1950s/1960s, and that is a time period that I think Hal Jordan works in better than any other. That was the era of the test pilot as modern cowboy, the space race was in full swing, and a swaggering character like Jordan, with his cocky attitude and bomber jacket, fits right in. The plot, with a man turned into an alien monster by space fungus, also seems like something out of a 50s B horror movie, adding to that retro feel. I'm always amazed Busiek hasn't written more Green Lantern, as it seems a character who would be right up his alley, and I'm glad he got the chance to write him here.

Metamorpho: I'll read anything Neil Gaiman writes, and I admit I was surprised to hear he would be writing Metamorpho for this project. One of the most obscure characters of the lot, Gaiman has a sideways connection to him, as Element Girl, a supporting character from classic Metamorpho stories, featured in the classic Sandman #20, "Facades." And Gaiman has a ton of fun with the story, writing a wacky story of treasure hunting and monsters,tossing in game boards and related mini-strips, while playing on the comedic attributes of Metamopho's supporting cast. But it's Mike Allred, king of the madcap comic, who takes what Gaiman gives him and runs with it. Allred draws the character with customary style, completely off the wall, but this feature has one of the best uses of the oversized format. There is a two page spread (spread out over two weeks, but beautifully presented together in the collection) that has Metamorpho and Element Girl making there way through a periodic table, the dialogue with each box fitting the element abbreviation into it. It would take a pair of mad geniuses to pull that off, and fortunately Gaiman and Allred are exactly that.

Teen Titans: One of the most traditionally super heroic stories in the book, Editor Eddie Berganza and artist Sean "Cheeks" Galloway turn in  a Titans story featuring a best of the team line-up, mixing classic Titans like Nightwing with newer members like Miss Martian, Galloway's energetic, anime influenced style carries the story, making for some of the most kinetic pages in the series.

Strange Adventures: If you're a fan of cult favorite cartoonist Paul Pope, his take on Adam Strange, the Earthman who becomes hero of the alien world Rann, is going to blow you away, and if you're not, this is a story that will make you one of his devotees. It's a story populated by alien warrior baboons, magic, and warrior princesses. His take on Adam's adopted home of Rann owes a debt to Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars books, with Alanna, Adam's alien beloved, bearing a resemblance to Carter's alien princess Dejah Thoris, and Rann having a very Barsoom (that's what the Burroughs books call Mars) vibe. Pope's hyper detailed art is on display throughout the series and is served very well by the gigantic pages.  Pope adds some interesting other wrinkle to the Strange mythos, giving him a different, older body on Earth, which is a nice touch, and he even tosses in a cameo for Doctor Fate, whose design looks gorgeous under Pope's pen. This is a story deeply influenced by the pulps, and has that big crazy pulp vibe throughout.

Supergirl: This is another of my favorite stories in the anthology. Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner give us a story of Supergirl and the Super Pets, Krypto the Superdog and Streaky the Supercat. The Super Pets are acting up, and so Supergirl must chase them all over, encountering Aquaman and Doctor Mid-Nite along the way. The resolution is a fun little twist, and this is the funniest of the stories collected, a completely all ages adventure. Conner is at the height of her artistic power, not just showing off her talent for drawing expressive faces, but her delightful talent with animals. Krypto and Streaky are absolutely adorable throughout. This is a perfect story to share with your kids, and the big pages and colorful art are great for little eyes.

Metal Men: DC head honcho Dan DiDio and legendary artist Jose Garcia-Lopez contribute with a story of the Metal Men, robots with personalities who fight crime and other robots. Lopez has a classic, clean, Silver Age style that works perfectly with characters like the Metal Men, whose concept is so very Silver Age. They foil a bank robbery and fight their arch-foe, the chemical behemoth Chemo. It's another simple, fun retro-Silver Age story.

Wonder Woman: Ben Caldwell goes full cartoonist on this Wonder Woman story, and provides on the most technically stunning pieces in the entire anthology. Taking full advantage of the expanded page size, Caldwell uses panels like no one else. There are pages that have dozens of tiny panels, and ones that have one massive panel taking up the entire right side of the page. The story, a dream sequence (or maybe not), fits well with the trippy art, pulling you down deep into the experience in the way a dream can. This is admittedly the most divisive piece in the anthology, with many hating it, and some saying it missed the point of the format. I think it would only have worked in this format. It is an interesting exercise, and I appreciate nit from a technical standpoint at the least.

Sgt. Rock and Easy Co.: It's interesting to place this story right after the Wonder Woman one, as the two could not be more diametrically opposed. Written by Adam Kubert and drawn by his father, the late great Joe Kubert, this story of the Kubert co-created World War II hero Frank Rock escaping capture by Nazis. What makes it so different from the previous story is how direct it is. It's told using the traditional comic book nine panel grid, and is straight to the point. It's a testament to Joe Kubert's talent that in his eighties his art was as impressive as it ever was, full of grit and perfectly paced. No one drew war comics like Joe Kubert, and adding that genre to the anthology spotlighted the variety of DC Comics catalog of characters and the history of different genres from the company.

The Flash: The Flash strip was quite possibly my favorite in the anthology. Starting out as two related strips, a Flash strip and an Iris West one, the two stories head towards an inevitable collision. Again, this is a story that would not have worked in any other format, as it is intentionally drawing from the history of newspaper strips and that format. There are also Gorilla Grodd strips mixed in over the course of the series, and the story ends with merged, full pages that are a glory to behold. From current Gotham Academy creative team Karl Kerschel and Brenden Fletcher, it's a story of heartbreak, as Barry Allen nearly loses his wife, and triumph as he goes to save her and win her back. One page features panels inspired by other classic strips, like Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes; the whole thing is a love letter to comic strips. Filled with heart, humor, and action, for me this is the crown jewel of Wednesday Comics.

The Demon and Catwoman: Walt Simonson and Brian Stelfreeze join together to tell a story of two characters I don't think had ever really teamed up before: Jack Kirby's Demon Etrigan and one of comics greatest villainesses/anti-heroines, Catwoman. Trying to steal from Jason Blood, Etrigan's human host, Selina gets caught up in the rivalry between Blood/Etrigan and Morgan le Fey. Along the way, Catwoman gets turned into a literal cat-woman, and the two titular character team up to defeat Morgan. Stelfreeze is an artist who draws great monsters, so this story is perfectly catered to his skills, as he draws a mean transformed Catwoman and Etrigan.

Hawkman: Another creator not known for his work on traditional super hero comics, Kyle Baker rounds out the anthology with a story of Hawkman versus terrorists, aliens, and dinosaurs. Drawing from that same obscure corner of the DC Universe that Kamandi and Metamorpho exist in, part of this story is set on Dinosaur Island, DC's answer to Marvel's more famous Savage Land. It's an action packed story, as Baker said in an interview, "Hawkman carries a mace, and it's important for a writer to create dilemmas which can be resolved with a mace." The art blends Baker's usual style with some more computer generated elements, it has one of the best T-Rex's in comics this side of Jack Kirby.

On top of all that, if you go out and buy the collection, which collects each story in continuous pages, so you get all twelve pages of each book back to back, you get some sketch work from each of the creators and two additional one page stories. Keith Giffen writes and Eric Canete draws a story of The Creeper that is, well, creepy, and Evan Dorkin and Stephen Destefano provide a comical tale of Plastic Man and Woozy Winks day at the museum. It's a gorgeous collection, as befits such an ambitious project.

Wednesday Comics is in print in an oversized hardcover.

5 Reasons You Should Care About... The Purple Man

Earlier this week, it was reported that David Tennant, the 10th Doctor himself, has been cast as Zebediah Killgrave, aka the Purple Man, in A.K.A. Jessica Jones, Marvel’s second Netflix series, after Daredevil.
The Purple Man is the perfect villain for a series starring Jessica Jones, to be played by Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad, Veronica Mars). In Brian Michael Bendis’ Alias series (not to be confused with the 2001-06 ABC series), Killgrave tortured Jessica and used his mind-control powers to force her to live with him and do his bidding. This led to her being ordered to kill Daredevil and getting beaten up by the Avengers before they realized she was brainwashed.

Before the series is made available for streaming later this year, here’s a quick study in Purple:

1. He’s an OG Daredevil villain: The Purple Man was created by Stan Lee and Joe Orlando and first appeared in Daredevil #4, way back in 1964. And just like the Man Without Fear, Killgrave’s powers and purpleness were the result of a chemical accident.

2. He’s got beef with the whole Jones family: At the end of Bendis’ New Avengers #2, amid the breakout at the Raft supervillain prison, Killgrave tries to take control of Jones’ boyfriend/father of her child, Luke Cage (“Do me a favor. Kill all these other ‘hero’ friends of yours, and then kill yourself”). However, Purple’s caretakers put drugs in his food that negated his mind-control powers. So instead, Cage starts punching the crap out of him, stopping only because Captain America ordered him to.

3. He once helped Dr. Doom enslave the world: In the graphic novel Emporer Doom by David Michelinie and Bob Hall, Doom hooks Killgrave up to a machine that allows him to control every mind on Earth. The plan is thwarted by Wonder Man, who snaps out of it due to time spent in a sensory deprivation tank.

4. He was in one of the last episodes of the ’90s X-Men cartoon: In the Season 5 episode “No Man Is an Island,” Cyclops takes a sabbatical from the team and returns to the orphanage where he grew up, only to find it being funded by Killgrave, who hides his purpleness under the same makeup used by shows filmed in HD. Killgrave later appeared on Disney XD’s Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, voiced by Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation).

5. His kids are every bit as messed up:  The latest volume of Daredevil reveals Killgrave has a number of Purple Children, born of different women he’d mind-controlled over the years but with the same skin color and power set. The children united against their father and used their powers to make him walk in front of a moving train, and went on to wreak havoc in DD’s new home of San Francisco, stealing a police car and taking over an arcade. They’re not all bad though: Killgrave’s daughter Kara was a member of Alpha Flight who went by the codename Persuasion.

Read this: Alias #1-28 by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos

Watch that: Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Season 2, Episode 19: “Emperor Stark”

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 1/21

Batman and Robin #38
Story: Peter J. Tomasi
Art: Patrick Gleason

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's... Damian Wayne? Yes indeed, Damian is back from the dead, and he has superpowers. Now that Damian is back from the dead after the events of Robin Rises, it's time to establish the new status quo. Pete Tomasi and Patrick Gleason, one of the longest running teams on any book since the New 52 reboot, start to look at Damian and how he reacts to the new powers he received after his resurrection. And it starts out rough. Damian was always impetuous at best, and flat out aggressive at worst, and the new powers he demonstrates aren't helping. Flight, invulnerability, and super strength are a suite of powers that can be easily abused, and Batman clearly is concerned that Damian, who has a history of homicide, might just abuse them. We see a patrol, and Damian flings himself into danger with no concern. In all fairness, if I knew I was bulletproof, it would be hard for me to not just go for it. But Damian has once again proven he has a hard time taking orders, and so once again, Batman scolds him. But as the issue progresses, we see Damian's death and return have left more scars than he lets on. It's nice to see that Damian is suffering nightmares about the circumstances of his death; death has to be traumatic, especially at the hands of someone you loved. The trauma of death and resurrection is something rarely touched on in super hero comics. And after Damian's nightmare, he once again disobeys Batman and flies off. Tomasi then once again uses Alfred as the voice of reason to Batman, telling to have a little faith in Damian. I think Alfred might have some experience dealing with an angry, traumatized young man of exceptional abilities. Tomasi and Scott Snyder on Batman have both done tremendous work with the relationship between Batman and Alfred, really making Alfred the sage adviser who Batman listens to and is almost always right. This is not the Alfred of Gotham, this sort of gruff, angry badass uncle. I like an Alfred with a real paternal streak, something that really works when he serves as a father figure to all these young men. The issue ends with Damian going to Atlantis to tie up a thread from the "Hunt for Robin" story, and it's a scene that really shows the growth that Damian has gone through since his introduction as a spoiled brat. Seeing how Damian reacts to the deformed clones of himself is touching, witnessing that Damian has really learned to care about others. I'm hoping that Tomasi and Gleason continue their run for quite a while after Convergence to further explore the changes to a character that I've come to really love.

Lumberjanes #10
Story: Noelle Stevenson & Shannon Watters
Art: Carolyn Nowak

Somehow, I'm not surprised that the day at Lumberjanes camp where everyone can just kick back and do their own thing is not as relaxing as it sounds. The second arc of Lumberjanes begins with Mal and Molly going off to have a picnic while April, Ripley, and Jo decide to try to get some of the more mundane badges that monster hunting time preclude (they promised to not do anything exciting til Mal and Molly get back). While the trio provide the comic relief throughout the issue, with April frustrated about getting the boring badges, the issue's heart is Mal and Molly on a date in the woods before the action starts. I've rarely seen those early sparks of infatuation and love played out as well in comics as I have here. As Mal talks about her friends at home and all the fun she would have had if she hadn't been shipped off to camp, artist Carolyn Nowak paints Molly's face showing all the doubt that someone can feel when they think that the person they have feelings for doesn't have the same depth of feeling for them. After ten issues, it's really impressive how well rounded these characters are, and how much the reader has come to care about them. Of course, this is Lumberjanes, so pretty soon the craziness starts, as Mal and Molly see the Bear Woman, and follow her through the woods and fall through a time portal behind her. There's another charmingly awkward moment as the girls land in the past in one of the classic romantic adventure poses and there is some adorable blushing. And not only are there time portals, but pretty soon there are dinosaurs! And you know anything with dinosaurs gets a thumbs up from me. Lumberjanes is one of my favorite comics coming out right now, and it looks like it will be moving into even surer footing now that it's into its new life as an ongoing. Also, the issue title of "Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fondant," is one of those puns that is so groanworthy that I have to laugh; I love those puns.

The Valiant #2
Story: Jeff Lemire & Matt Kindt
Art: Paolo Rivera and Jeff Lemire

The Valiant finds a way to move from its excellent first issue into an even better second issue. After the stakes and characters were established last issue, this one brings the Eternal Enemy front and center, hunting down neophyte Geomancer Kay McHenry in the form of Mr. Flay, a boogieman from a childhood story Kay loved. Co-writer Jeff Lemire draws the storybook sequences, which works perfectly. Lemire's style is slightly off the norm, not the same realistic lines as series artist Paolo Rivera, and that art works because of the fairy tale aspect of the story and because it seems of another world. Speaking of Rivera, his work on Mr. Flay/Eternal Enemy is really impressive. It's an incredibly creepy design, both in it's hideous monster form as the Enemy and as it's evil gentleman form as Flay; that sort of elderly gentleman thing hearkens back to classic vampires and The Gentlemen from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is great horror trope. Aside from Kay and the Eternal Enemy, with see Eternal Warrior and Ninjak retrieve someone who will be of use in this battle, and an end of issue appearance from Bloodshot painting him as a white knight, a role he will be unaccustomed to, I am sure. There's also a last page that is so classically superhero that it made me smile. I've realized that The Valiant takes a lot of classic tropes, not just the monster, but some superhero tropes, the hero's journey for Kay, the man haunted by his past failures for Eternal Warrior, and shines them up and fits them together as if they were meant to be together all along. It's a perfect introduction to the Valiant universe, while still rewarding long time readers. Seriously, if you like superhero stories, The Valiant is a book not to be missed.


And Dan Grote bids a fond farewell to a Matt Signal favorite...

All-New X-Factor #20

Words by Peter David

Art by Carmine Di Giandomenico, Will Sliney and Lee Loughridge

Cue up the sad Boyz II Men song. Either “End of the Road” or “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.” Your choice. We’ll wait.

We here at the Matt Signal have made no secret of our love for Peter David and his band of misfit mutants, so without belaboring the point, we’re sad to see another incarnation of X-Factor go after only about a year in service.

But David and artist Carmine Di Giandomenico go out the only way they possibly could: with robot sex and a cliffhanger ending that would make Alf jealous.

If the upcoming Secret Wars is intended to be a greatest-hits tour of the Marvel Universe before it ends, All-New X-Factor #20 is the Peter David version of that. In addition to the book’s main cast, we get a visit from Miguel O’Hara, aka Spider-Man 2099, who offers a glimpse into the rewritten future. Without spoilers, it’s a future David fans have seen before.

The good news is, it looks like David wants to pack up his pets and move them to his other book. X-Factor’s final pages reveal Serval CEO Harrison Snow’s true intentions for the team, which tie in closely with the world of future Spidey. Also tying things together neatly is Spider-Man 2099 artist Will Sliney, who drew the O’Hara scenes.

Oh, and I think this bears repeating: This book has robot sex in it. Suffice it to say Cypher and Warlock are now eskimo brothers.

5 Reasons You Should Care about... Vixen

The CW recently announced it was developing an animated series about the DC superhero Vixen for its Web-content hub, CW Seed. The series would be in the same continuity as its live-action Arrow and Flash series. In related news, the CW is considering adding a third live-action DC show, possibly starring Brandon Routh (Superman Returns, Zack & Miri Make a Porno) as the Atom. Which means my hopes for an Ambush Bug show remain a dream deferred.

Anyway, in the pantheon of DC’s super friends, Vixen isn’t exactly Big 7. So here’s a few fun facts and some recommended media consumption.

She’s kinda like Shazam for animals: When Billy Batson yells Shazam, he inherits the powers of the ancient gods. When Mari Jiwe McCabe touches the Tantu totem around her neck, she channels the powers of any number of animals, from the mass of an elephant to the speed of a cheetah to the regenerative abilities of lizards and worms.

Her first appearance was shelved for three years: Vixen, created by Gerry Conway and Bob Oskner, was to be DC’s first major black female superhero and was to start off in her own series in 1978. Her title and many others fell victim to a wave of cancellations known as the DC Implosion, and that series never saw the rusty metal of a spinner rack. So her first appearance became 1981’s Action Comics #521.

She’s been a member of the Justice League: Vixen joined the league in the mid-1980s, when the team featured an obscure lineup that included Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Zatanna, the Elongated Man, Gypsy, Vibe and Steel. Conway, Vixen’s creator, was responsible for this era. She also featured in a post-Infinite Crisis league that included Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Black Canary, Red Arrow, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl and Black Lightning. Vixen would at one point lead the team. In the New 52, Vixen was a starter member of the since-canceled Justice League International.

She’s been a member of the Suicide Squad: Thanks to the upcoming movie no longer starring Tom Hardy, the Suicide Squad is like Hansel – so hot right now. Vixen joined the team of mostly villains during the original John Ostrander run after some of her modeling colleagues were killed by drug smugglers. She briefly dated one of the squad’s members, Bronze Tiger.

She’s dated Green Lantern: In Justice League Unlimited, Mari was involved with Green Lantern John Stewart. One of the show’s running subplots was a love triangle among Vixen, Stewart and Hawkgirl, Stewart’s previous girlfriend. That triangle became a square when Hawkman arrived on the scene.

Read this: Vixen: Return of the Lion, a five-issue 2008 miniseries written by G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel).

Watch that: Justice League Unlimited. Vixen appeared in five episodes of the 2004-06 series, voiced by Gina Torres (Firefly). Episodes include “Grudge Match,” in which female superheroes including Vixen, Hawkgirl, Huntress, Black Canary and Wonder Woman are mind-controlled into doing battle for the delight of supervillains; and “Ancient History,” in which the Shadow Thief reveals Hawkman and Hawkgirl to have been lovers in a past life, only for past-Hawkgirl to have had an affair with past-Stewart.

Dan Grote has been a Matt Signal contributor since 2014 and friends with Matt since there were four Supermen and two Psylockes. His two novels, My Evil Twin and I and Of Robots, God and Government, are available on Amazon.