X-Men: Apocalypse could in some ways be called X-Men: Remix. A lot of characters we’ve seen before get reintroduced since the timeline was reset in Days of Future Past. Conveniently, this let them recast younger actors for almost every role. There’s also a very odd mix of keeping some character’s backgrounds, or at least pieces of them, but wholly disregarding others.
I’ve heard it said many times that no one is the villain in their own story. Stormtroopers in the Star Wars Universe are generally generic bad guys, even something of a joke. “Shooting like a stormtrooper” is something I’ve heard geeks say when someone fires a lot of shots and hits nothing. This issue, Jason Aaron does his best to dispel all that.
I’m a huge Nightwing fan, so I was very glad to see he was back in costume again. I really didn’t care for the “Grayson” title. Dick as a spy didn’t really interest me. But now he’s back, and the costume has the classic blue accents again instead of the red silliness of the reboot, which never made any sense to me.
DC has certainly had their issues with live action movies over the last several years, but their animated features continue to be great. Kind of the reverse of Marvel in my opinion. The DC Animated Universe is one of the finest bodies of work out there, and the individual ones they’ve done since have been pretty damn good. There are various spoilers below. Thou art warned, reader.
Mera disappeared during the Battle of London, with things really not looking good for her. At least part of this issue deals with what happened to her. It’s a very nicely done story, and features one of the very rare male characters in the “Bombshells” era. From the ocean, the issue moves to Berlin, where we learn more about what’s been happening to Zatanna and John Constantine. A new character makes her Bombshell debut during that sequence, and there’s the return of the Joker’s Daughter.
call myself a herogeek, instead of a comic book geek, in part because my interest goes well outside comics. I’ve done my share of research on comic book characters, sure, but also on some of the ones that came before. The heroes before comics got their starts in books, or, as the popular medium of the time, radio. The Lone Ranger, who most people probably think of as a tv character (or the truly wretched Disney movie a few years ago), first popped up on a radio show in 1933. Later, the Green Hornet was created as a spinoff of sorts.
By now, I’m presuming anyone that’s interested saw “Schism,” the season finale of Arrow. If not, be warned, there are spoilers here for that. And some news about season five. So, with that in mind, off we go.
The big shock at the end of the first issue of this book did just what Marvel wanted: it generated a lot of controversy and got people talking. At times, I think a lot of the comics industry really goes in for the “Any publicity is good publicity” idea. I was among those saying this sudden new spin on Steve Rogers made absolutely no sense and was some kind of cheap ploy to gain attention and interest.
This is the reunion I’ve wanted since they announced Mockingbird was getting her own book. I’m figuring it’s not a spoiler to say Hawkeye shows up since he’s on the cover. Their interaction is a blast to watch. Sadly, there’s no sign of them getting back together, but I didn’t really think that was going to happen. There are, however, some hysterical scenes of them in what appears to be a marriage counselor’s office.
Like a lot of long time DC Comics fans, I loathed the reboot they did several years ago. Then, recently, Rebirth started, and it seemed like the people in charge were finally listening to some of the fans. Rebirth undid a lot of what the reboot did to DC’s history.
ComicBookClog 