Welcome to another week of comics! It's another good mix, without quite the numbers of last week's pulls.
This go around, there are twelve comics I'll be discussing. Of those, two-thirds are Marvel, with a weak single issue from Image and the last quarter brought in by DC. Surprisingly, no Black Label books this week! I've been trying to do my comic book pick lists at least every other week, but I put out one for this past week, coinciding with pull list #29! You can check that out in a new tab here, where I go over five separate #1 issues that stood out among the rest of last week's 24-issue list. This week's representation spotlights are a lot of fun for me! I'm talking about Jessica Cruz from Justice League Odyssey, Marvel's apparent wedding issue special for Hulkling and Wiccan, and then Kelly Thompson's surprising female-led mini-series, STAR. Between an agoraphobic Latina Green Lantern, a flagship same-sex marriage, and a reporter-turned-villain-turned-Reality-stone-holder written by one of Marvel's most successful modern female writers, there's a lot to discuss on terms of representation in this week's comics. Continue Reading for all this and more!
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Spotlight on POC in Comics: Jessica Cruz of Justice League Odyssey
For my spotlight on people of color in comics this week, I'd like to talk about one of my favorite characters at DC comics, Jessica Cruz. A formerly agoraphobic Mexican and Honduran-American, Jessica stands for a massive sector of marginalized peoples. In Rebirth's Green Lanterns, Jessica teamed up with Simon Baz, a Lebanese-Arab-American and Muslim Lantern, making it one of the best comics in terms of representation at DC at the time. Jessica's road to heroism has not been an easy one. Her origin, as you might call it, started when she was on a camping trip with some friends, and wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time. They came across a group of men burying a dead body, and Jessica was the only member of the group to escape with her life. This event sends Jess into a spiral of anxiety and depression, and it ends up being years before she ever leaves her house again. During DC's New 52, a villain called Volthoom created a Ring of Power than feeds off of fear, unlike a Green Lantern's courage. The ring finds Jess due to her traumatized state, but she fights it the entire time it tires to possess her. The ring puts her through incredible pain and anguish, trying to break her spirit. She manages to beat the ring, with the help of Batman and Hal Jordan. Not long after, she winds up helping the Justice League stop the Black Racer from killing the Flash. The Black Racer is a diety of death, specifically for those in the speed force. When Jessica throws herself between his blade and Barry, the Racer kills the bit of Volthoom still inside Jessica, destroying the evil Power Ring in the process. This act of bravery awards Jessica with a proper Ring of Power, making her an official Green Lantern. My first encounter with Jess was the first issue of Green Lanterns from Rebirth. I was trying to diversify my pull list, and I'd never read much Green Lanterns lore before. It just so happened that the ongoing Green Lanterns book starred some of the most interesting and unique Lanterns DC has ever created, and I was hooked immediately. Jessica's story through the Green Lanterns series was shockingly relatable. I remember one particular issue that had me in tears as Jess narrated about her history of anxiety, the daily fears that haunt her every moment, and wha the hell she does about it all. I remember feeling incredibly welcomed as I read about this strong, stupendous woman, an incredible role model, who deals with her own faults on a regular basis, and still pushes forward each day. Green Lanterns didn't get the hype it deserved, and was cancelled around its fiftieth issue. While Simon Baz has been almost impossible to find int he comics since their series ended, Jessica remained, starring in Justice League: Odyssey. Her role in the story starts stationed at a remote space outpost, further from anything she's ever been. When Braniac's ship starts crashing through her designated zone, she takes it upon herself to stop whatever he's up to. But the ship was being driven by Starfire, Cyborg, and Azrael, who were all answering the call of a nameless voice in their minds. When it turns out the call is from Darkseid, Jessica is the only one of the group who believes the entire mission from Darkseid is a trap. Unsurprisingly, she ends up right, but it's too late. Darkseid kills her with his Omega Beams. Even then, Jessica's willpower is too strong to quit. Her power ring, it seems, managed to soak up some of Darkseid's power, and used that to resurrect Jessica. When she comes back fully, Jess has a whole new level of power available to her. Even when the time lords send her back into the past, she works out the time and appears right back where she was, years later. It seems that anything anyone throws at Jessica Cruz, she can handle. Which is remarkable, because there was a time--not too long ago--where Jessica wouldn't even handle leaving her home. The character growth since we first meet Jessica Cruz in 2014 is one of the most satisfying arcs to witness. With the cancellation of JLO, I'm not sure what the future holds for Jessica and her Lantern ring. It would be my hope that she and Simon get another series, or at least are pulled back into the spotlight, but who knows. Speaking from my own experience, Cruz is a character well worth every letter on the page, every line of ink that forms her. Not only is she the most powerful Latina in the DC universe, she's a woman who has overcome and continues to work to overcome her daily fears and anxieties. In this modern age, anxiety is no stranger to any of us. Seeing Jessica continue to fight the good fight for the universe while she battles her fears away is something the world needs to see, these days. Check out the last few issues of Justice League Odyssey to see how Jessica's team up ends!
Spotlight on LGBTQ+ Topics: Empyre- Aftermath: Avengers #1
During the fairly ho-hum events of Empyre, Marvel announced that Young Avengers team members Hulkling and Wiccan were not engaged, but actually secretly married. Ignoring for the moment how this all came off to be very sensationalized, which I'll explain in a moment, this is a big step for LGBTQ+ topics in comics. The new Kree/Skrull emperor and his magical human partner are already married, this issue will have them publicly celebrating the wedding, which might include the renewal of vows, like a proper ceremony. Lets talk about the history of homosexuality in comics, but it's not a very pretty history. For much of their existence, basically all comics publishers were held to the Comics Code, which was a set of rules established for publishers to go by in their releases. One of the rules, set until the nineties, included no flagrant or taboo sexuality, ergo, no gay characters. Even so, creator John Byre knew that queer representation had a place in comics, so he co-created Northstar of Alpha Flight in the seventies. While Northstar couldn't outright admit his sexuality, Byrne and Claremont were sure to drop hints through the years that Jean Paul was definitely queer. It wouldn't be for a few years after the rules for gay comic characters changed that Northstar would openly state, "I am gay." Even then, his homosexuality was widely ignored for the decade after, until it was re-established in the mid-2000's. In 2012, Marvel hosted the first same-sex wedding ceremony in comics, with Astonishing X-Men #51, which saw Jean Paul marry his long-time manager, Kyle. Of course, this same-sex, inter-racial wedding sparked outcry across the nation, and was viewed as pandering to a shocking number of fans. It was also widely regarded as a publicity stunt, which is an incredibly limiting point of view, and only further exacerbates the rift between gay and straight ideology. In coming to this conclusion during my recent research on the history of LGBTQ+ topics in comics, I realized pushing my view of the wedding as somewhat sensationalized is only going to cause more of those exclusionary problems. If queer people like myself want proper representation in comics, we need to normalize talking about them, so that's what I'm doing. If a gay marriage is a publicity stunt, then publicity is clearly what the topic needs in order to be normalized. As it was left in the final issue of Empyre, Teddy is going to remain the Emperor of the Kree/Skrull alliance. His evil Skrull grandmother, plotting against him the whole time, has been imprisoned, and his advisors, who would whisper poison in his ears, have been dealt with. All parties who were against the connection of the young Emperor with his husband have been eliminated (aside from the toxic "fans," I suppose). I'm glad writer Al Ewing is purposely putting a gay couple at the forefront, and not holding back when it comes to their marriage. When you get to thinking about it, weddings are always a big deal in comics. Storm and T'Challa got married during the Civil War event, and the warring heroes stopped their fighting for a day to help them celebrate. Rogue and Gambit got married in June 2018's X-Men: Gold #30, and then that fall had a whole series devoted to their newlywed adventures called Mr and Mrs X. Sue Storm and Reed Richards, Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, Cyclops and Jean Grey, Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters, even the failed wedding of Kate Pryde and Colossus. All of them got their moment in the spotlight, and no one said "boo-hoo" about straight couples taking up valuable comic page space with their weddings. And that's just Marvel! DC and other publishers have all had wedding specials or wedding issues of their own, too. To say that a gay wedding in comics is pandering or a publicity stunt, but not say the same about straight weddings, is hugely homophobic, and highly toxic to those in the fan-base who are gay themselves. It's unfortunate that not everyone holds that opinion, but I suppose we are all works in progress. As a wrap-up and a jumping off point, this issue is marketed to tease the future of Marvel's "Space Age." Paired with how Empyre writer Ewing wrote Nova's reaction to the news of the Kree/Skrull alliance in last week's Guardians of the Galaxy #6, I'm beginning to think the events of Empyre were a bigger deal than the series itself made it seem. I'll be gladly supporting this one-shot issue this week, and am hoping it holds up to the hype. No matter what level of celebration is held for the new, powerful couple, talking about it and continuing to talk about it are how these topics get normalized. I appreciate Ewing, who seems to understand this, as well, and I look forward to how he wraps up this fallout of this event. On a more personal note, I recently found out my own brother got secretly married, as well. While he isn't a gay, shape-shifting cross-breed, and he wasn't doing it right before taking off to become Emperor of Space, it was a funny coincidence to have these reveals happen side by side in my life.
Spotlight on Women in Comics: Kelly Thompson's Star #5
This isn't the first time I've written about a Kelly Thompson comic during these representation spotlights. Between Captain Marvel's Carol Danvers, Deadpoool's Wade Wilson, and the countless other brilliant Marvel projects she's brought justice to, Thomspon has become one of the top female names in comics today. Last week saw the first issue of Thompson's Black Widow, alongside artist Elena Casagrande and colorist Jordie Bellaire. I wrote an excited review of the issue after reading it, which you can find here. Out of all her written comics, though, Star stands on its own due to her character's unique story. As a reporter, Ripley Ryan was one of the victims of Nuclear Man's attack on New York, where he literally created an island of women he intended to enslave. With the help of a number of female civilians and de-powered female heroes, Carol was able to stop the attack and free the trapped women. Ripley got away with her life, but the attack left a level of PTSD even she didn't want to acknowledge. When classic Captain Marvel villain Minn-Erva arrived on earth looking to tear down the good Captain's reputation, Ripley saw this as her opportunity for justice--to NOT be the victim, for once. Once she has some semblance of powers, Ripley overtook Minn-Erva and took over her experiments, starting by staging a Kree Kraken attack in the Hudson Bay. In the public's eyes, Star, as she called herself, was the Next Big Thing, and Carol's reputation was quickly being torn down. After almost killing Minn-Erva, Star figured out how to gain more power, and Carol found herself in a trap in the middle of New York. In her anger and desperation for Captain Marvel to acknowledge what she had put Ripley through, Star triggers a device that draws power from the life forces of everyday people around her, immediately crippling the entire city. Carol was soon to discover the power drain came from a device Minn-Erva implanted into Star's chest, and made the difficult choice to literally rip it out of her chest, risking Star's life. Ripley, de-powered, was taken to the super-villain prison known as the Raft, where she woke up in their coroner's office, under a blanket. She'd died, apparently, but woke up with the actual Reality Gem in her chest, taking the place of the device Carol removed. Ripley escapes, and begins her journey to discovering herself. Loki appears in an attempt to warn her that unsavory types will be after the stone in her chest, but in her fear, Star disappears him from reality. Unsure of where to turn now, Ripley tries going to Jessica Jones of Alias Investigations, but doesn't find the woman-to-woman assist she was hoping for. Scarlet Witch, of all people, breaks up their fight, taking Ripley off to tell her about the dangers of reality warping. Wanda Maximoff would know a thing or two about how changing your reality can dramatically backfire, and it was a good few scenes with the two of them talking. One a hero with a bad reputation, and one still finding her footing in the world. It makes sense that Star would be wary of powerful people who claim to know better than her. As seen in an issue of this mini-series, Ripley was abused from an early age by an older, female caretaker. She carried the shame of it through her early years, where people with ugly personalities would take advantage of her state of mind and abuse her further, with their words and their hands. During the attack by Nuclear Man, Ripley was forced to remember all those horrible memories, and felt, again, as if she was just a helpless little girl trapped in an ugly world. She ended up pinning the blame for these feelings on Carol, as she was the most powerful figure in the room at the time, and Ripley felt Carol should be held accountable for the mental damage she went through, again. As Star, however, Ripley was given a brief chance to hash things out with the half-Kree hero. They end up almost teaming up, and Star might even have an alright mental image of Carol after the encounter. But she has other problems on her plate now, as Thanos' Black Order are hunting her down for her reality stone. She knows removing the stone will more than likely cause her death, so she couldn't even give them what they want if she tried. The second-to-last issue ends with Star, Captain Marvel, and a few members of the Black Order falling into some kind of reality hole. This week, we'll see the conclusion of the story. Star is an interesting comic because it shows what would happen if some random citizen off the street was given ultimate power. We take advantage so often that those who are given great power choose to use it with great responsibility, and forget that isn't always the case. Not only was Ripley a random choice to give power to, she was a woman with complex motivations and a very complicated mental state. She was practically born a victim, brought into negative circumstances that she had no choice in, and continually brought down by a cruel world. When the attack by Nuclear Man happened, it was the last straw for Ripley. She was over being the weak one, being the one who always needed saving. She'd lived her life trying to stay out of sight and out of mind, and all it had gotten her was trouble. Her attacks as Star, the villain, were rooted in her belief that she was not worth anything unless she was more powerful than Carol, who she saw as the most powerful woman around. Subconsciously, all her acts as a villain were attempts to prove herself to the world, and to herself. Now that Ripley has been somewhat toned down after her talk and team up with Captain Marvel, it's possible that she is ready to try working with the other heroes. However the series ends, Kelly Thompson has done an excellent job of writing a cape mini-series that showcases "the other half." The actions of heroes in their world have a day-to-day effect on the people living in it, and Star showed those effects in a broad sense. The character arc of Ripley Ryan is definitely going to be satisfying to read, and I'm proud to say it was written by an amazing woman in comics.
Web of Venom: Wraith #1
If you're scratching your head, trying to remember where this new character Wraith came from, I can help you out. Wraith is another Donny Cates creation, and unsurprisingly is another immediate hit. Cates' work at Marvel is all oddly interconnected, in a way that is still playing out. From Venom to Guardians of the Galaxy, to Silver Surfer Black, to Thanos and Thor, to Death of the Inhumans and then Absolute Carnage, all of Cates' work so far at Marvel has shared a similar plot thread, and the driving force is Knull: God of the Symbiotes. In Cates' Guardians of the Galaxy, heroes from all corners of space gathered to hear the final will and testament of Thanos. Among those on the scene was Cosmic Ghost Rider, the traditional Guardians members, Thanos' brother, and among the others, Wraith. When the group is exchanging polite personal updates, Wraith has a single line in the whole comic, saying his only goal of late has been hunting Knull. Almost two years later, we fianlly get to follow that thread and see what Wraith has been up to. Web of Venom: Wraith is no doubt another brick in the road to this winter's King in Black Marvel event, which is supposed to herald the arrival of Knull on Earth. If Wraith is meant to be facing Knull in this one-shot, it's a safe guess to say the fight doesn't go his way. Additionally, we still haven't learned who Wraith is, exactly and I'd guess that reveal will be a big part of the plot going forward. Whether he's a long lost relative trying to stop Knull before he starts, or a former victim hoping for revenge, the battle between Knull and Wraith isn't one you want to miss!
Dark Knights- Death Metal: Trinity Crisis #1
One of biggest draws to this comic for me is the artist, Francis Manapul. Manapul first showed up on my pull list at the beginning of DC Rebirth with Trinity. Trinity was a phenominal sereis starring, you guessed it, Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Manapul wrote the majority of the series, and did interior art for a big chunk of it, as well. I remember how much the issues he controlled blew me away, so seeing his name next to another Trinity project was an excellent sign. With Manapul handling the art, the script of this one-shot is thankfully Scott Snyder. Snyder is running the whole Death Metal event, so it's good to see him at the helm of this one. There are two whole months between Death Metal #3 and #4, and it's become clear these one-shot tie-ins are totally necessary to follow along with the story properly. As the event leader writing this issue, and with a Trinity expert like Manapul at his back doing the art, Snyder should be able to find his stride in this Trinity Crisis tie-in easily. This week, we should be following the newly reunited Trinity team as they launch an assault on Castle Bat! This is the domain of the Batman Who Laughs, and will be heavily guarded by Multiversal Batmen. Expect a lot of fun, twisted, evil versions of Bruce Wayne! Based on an image posted to twitter by Manapul, there will also be at least one female Bat--someone who looks like a cross between Kate Kane's Batwoman and Diana's Wonder Woman. Is this the first evil Kate, or another twisted version of Bruce? Either way, I can't wait to find out!
Empyre- Aftermath: Avengers #1
I've already written a good deal about this issue and what to expect in the spotlight on LGBTQ+ topics this week, so be sure to check that out! As I said there, this issue is planned to be a wrap-up of Empyre and preview of the future of Marvel's cosmic comics. The solicitation actually says "Welcome to the new Marvel Space Age," which is intriguing in itself. As far as I noticed, the end of Empyre wasn't really that eventful. It seemed to be a bit like, the battle ended, the bad guys left, and the heroes looked off into the distance and did the classic/cliche "Now, we rebuild." I must have missed something, because even Al Ewing's Guardians of the Galaxy made a note of mentioning how epic the conclusion was. Nova, receiving a message from Rocket to check his news feed, learns of the new Kree/Skrull alliance, and sputters something about it meaning everything is going to change. Unless I'm really just missing the Alliance being a big deal (which I thought we already went over and moved on from), I expect this issue to have some big reveals and big news about Marvel moving forward. It's a new age at Marvel, apparently, so don't miss it!
X-Factor #3
I wrote about Leah Williams' X-Factor premier issue and second issue in their coinciding weeks' Pick List. If you have any interest in reading the, here is the link to issue #1's review and here is the link for issue #2. They both open in new tabs. Based on the fact that I've already written reviews on both issues, you can bet I'm looking forward to this third one! The new X-Factor team is still split, with Aurora at the Boneyard on Krakoa, Daken supposedly heading her way, and the rest of the team in the middle of prime streaming on Mojo World. That last, main chunk of the team is mid-investigation behind the disappearance of a mutant who danced for Spiral's livestream channel. So far, they've had to pass a viewer-vote entry, get new outfits, make a fool out of Mojo in a fight, and then fight another livestream team, just to continue their investigation properly. But they're mostly well-known mutants, and almost all have been various X-Men offshoot team members in the past. It makes sense that they're gong to have a few followers, literally, as they continue to search for the truth. Leah Williams has been knocking it out of the park with her new X-Factor team! Paired with art by David Baldeon and coloring by Israel Silva, X-Factor is a Dawn of X title you don't want to miss. The next issue is the second part of X of Swords, so just another reason to catch up before the end of the month!
Black Cat Strikes #5
Another final issue of the week is Marvel's Spider-Man: The Black Cat Strikes! Based off the PS4 game, this mini-series has followed Spider-Man, Black Cat, and MJ years after their love triangle began. Peter has been back with Mary Jane for a long time now, but she still gets a little jealous whenever Felicia swoops by, This time, Felicia needed help with a mission, and Peter took the bait. Issue #3 ended with the mission going completely awry, and Black Cat winds up getting blown up with a building. In the last issue, Peter opened up with MJ about his grief over losing Felicia. It was a remarkable scene, showing MJ caring more about her partner's mental well-being than about her self-described petty jealousy. Much like the Marvel Comics #1000 story that had MJ reveal she spent the night with Peter after Gwen died for Gwen's sake, not Peter's, the writer is showing more emotional depth and maturity to Mary Jane than she's usually given credit for. The last issue ended with Black Cat revealing herself as alive, swinging in to help Spider-Man and Silver Sable. How is MJ going to react when she learns Felicia is actually alive? All the work she's put into being a better girlfriend to Peter will hopefully pay off, and the three of them can remain friends. Don't miss the last issue of this PS4 game tie-in!
Star #5
Star is another series I widely discussed in my spotlight on women in comics this week, so make sure you check that out for more information! As the final issue of the Star mini-series, we can expect a few things. As we left them in issue #4, Star, Captain Marvel, and a few of the Black Order were falling into some kind of wormhole. It was triggered by Carol, who used the triggering mechanism at the insistence of Ripley, who was given the device by Black Swan--a member of the Black Order. A few issues ago, she had a moment of silence with Ripley, where she had her reality-stone herself into knowing Swedish. From then, they could communicate in a language no one around knew. It's been suggested that Black Swan is keenly aware of the danger of the Inifinity Gems, including the one they hunt from Ripley's chest. It would make sense, then, that she's sabotaging her teammates in an effort to stop the trouble before it really gets started. It's also been teased the Star is getting a new look in this issue! This final issue of Star is out on digital already, but I'm sticking to paper print. With a potential new look and new outlook, I hope we get to see more of Ripley Ryan's Star in the future. She's not exactly a hero, but has slipped a little from her original idea of being a villain, so it's exciting to wonder what the future holds for Star!
Red Sonja/Vampirella #10
We're down to the final three issues of Jordie Bellaire's Vampirella/Red Sonja series! It's been an incredibly fun trip, and these last issues are bound to be a hoot. The last issue of V/RS saw Vampirella ill on Drakulon, and Sonja just emerging from an endless sleep. Vami's daughter tells her the story of them arriving on Drakulon, years ago. Her mother is under a curse from a local would-be god, and none have been able to smite it. Even Sonja, when she tries, ends up with more than she bargained for. But there was a lot left unsaid by the daughter, and Vampirella filled her friend in when she briefly woke. When they arrived on Drakulon, the shift through space-time almost killed Sonja. Without any hope of other help, Vampirella did the only thing she knew to save her friend's life, and turned her into a vampire. Expecting a furious rage, the two Drakulonians are pleased to discover Red Sonja is absolutely thrilled with this development. She say that warriors are always wanting more power, and that's exactly what becoming a vampire has given her. Without a second thought, Sonja leaps from the castle and into the mountains to fight the god being once more. In her bed, Vampirella hears a mighty roar, then her illness begins to heal. In that moment, she knows Sonja the Red was successful this time. There will be more demonic fighting in this issue, as I doubt we'll start seeing the story wrap up until at least issue #11. I'm sad to see this one go, but it's been a helluva ride!
Marauders #12
Spoilers, I guess, but welcome back, Captain Kate! I don't even want to admit how stressed I was about Kate Pryde coming back to the comics, and with no good reason. People rarely stay dead in comics, especially these days. I wrote a review on the last issue of Marauders, which you can find here if you have an interest. It was such a great pay-off after all the waiting, and I have a feeling it's only going to get better. For starters, there's the cover of the issue. It's a new fan-favorite fact that Kate has "Hold Fast" tattooed across her knuckles. She earned it during a night of drunken revelry with her new team, the same night former Brotherhood member Pyro got a skull tattooed on his own face. It sounds insane, but I love it. After the events of the last Marauders issue, however, this week's cover shows Kate's knuckles tattooed with "Kill Shaw" instead. After all that she's been through, including her reputation as a meek little girl, Kate is ready for some serious payback. As far as I can tell, anything the X-Men needed from Shaw has been gotten, so he really doesn't need to be a part of them anymore. But the solicitation makes me think that Emma Frost has a more "eye for an eye" type of consequence in mind. It does seem very characteristic of Emma to take out someone Shaw cares about, since he tried to--and for a time, was successful--take out her own dear friend. The only person Shaw cares about, though, is his son, and even that is a widely contested fact. It's worth noting that Shaw's son appears to have died with his own hand through his head. While there's been no further evidence, it's possible that Kate merged the two parts together to kill him in the past. Whatever happens, this is gong to be an eventful Marauders issue. They'll likely wrap a lot of this up before X of Swords, which includes the following Marauders issue, so the dime stops here for some of these plot lines.
X-Force #12
If you're interested in reading my review on the last issue of X-Force and why it was stellar, you can do so here, which opens in a new window. I had so much fun reading that one issue, and just as much fun discussing it for the review. This week, I expect Benjamin Percy to be just as on his game with the last issue of X-Force before X of Swords! At the end of the last issue was a massive reveal, in ,y opinion. It showed Mikhail Rasputin, brother of Colossus and Magik, taking hold of the Cerebro Sword in Russia. Mikhail is a classic X-Men villain who's popped up here and there through he years, including help drown all the Morlocks, and infecting his own time-displaced sister with the Legacy Virus that kills her. If he's popping up in the mutant's world again, no good shall come of this! I can't wait to see what kind of chaos he causes. But Russia is a non-treaty nation with Krakoa, which mean they do NOT get along, politically or otherwise. Plus, Wolverine has already discovered that Russia is forming their own rival mutant nation, potentially backed by the Flower Cartel, who poses another threat altogether. If Mikhail is acting on behalf of the Russian government,this issue is bound to be the first tolls of war between the mutants of Russia and Krakoa. As with the other Dawn of X books on this list, the next issue of X-Force takes place during the X of Swords event, and this will likely be an important lead-in to the X-Force side of that. While Mikhail is a cruel and villainous character, I'm excited to see his--and other villains'--future in Dawn of X!
Captain Marvel #21
This issue marks the final Empyre tie-in for Captain Marvel, and the end of this story arc. It's been a new page for Carol, and she'll be immediately turning another in #22. This week's issue will likely be emotional, for a number of reasons. Carol was recently designated the Kree Accuser, a power she chose to split between herself and Rhodey, Spider-Woman, and Hazmat. All formidable fighters alone, this team of four quickly proved to be unstoppable as a team of Accusers. It took some convincing of the new Emperor, but for now, team Accuser is good to go to work. Meanwhile, Carol's fully Kree half-sister is on Earth, after being absolved of destroying--or rather, not destroying-- an entire growing civilization. She's still back in Carol's New York apartment when Carol's old friend comes banging at the door, pleading for help. She's the mother of Kit, a young girl created by Kelly Sue Decconick when she first wrote Carol under the Captain Marvel moniker. Kit and Carol are great friends, themselves, which was specifically mentioned by Carol during a recent conversation with her sister. She says Kit has been taken by the invading Cotati, and while there is no reason for them to have taken her specifically, there is also no reason for Lauri-el to not believe the mother. Acknowledging the seriousness of the situation, Lauri-el gears up and heads out to save the day. She gives Carol a beep on the transmitter let to her, but who knows how long it'll take her to arrive with help. The other reason this is bound to be an emotional issue is the cover, which features a coffin bearing the name Danvers, and a Hala star. The Hala star is a symbol of Kree culture, and is featured on Captain Marvel's own uniform. While it tends to be related to her, and her predecessor Mar-Vell, this doesn't have to be referring to Carol. Her sister is fully Kree, and as she was bred in tanks and raised a warrior, has no Earth name. While Danvers was the family name of Carol's father, it's possible she would want to label her sister's coffin with a familiar last name, should she die in battle on Earth. However, the solicitation for the next issue of Captain Marvel mentions that Carol has been flung across time, far into the future. It is also possible, then, that she is presumed dead on Earth, and the coffin is therefore an empty symbolic one. Phew. Kelly Thompson has been on a roll with her Marvel comics, recently, so this issue is definitely going to be killer! If you want to jump on the next story arc, issue #22 comes out in over a month on October 14th.
Justice League Odyssey #24
With only two more issues left to Justice League Odyssey, don't blink or you might miss something! JLO was cancelled a few months back, giving the series only a limited amount of time to wrap up the many plot threads they had going. In the last issue, Jessica Cruz finally made it back to the space junkyard to join the battle against Darkseid. When Darkseid took out the one beast that might have bested him, things started getting hairy. To make matters worse, the alien researcher who'd been teaming up with Jessica and the crew finally showed her true colors, as well. Under the guise of helping out, she killed the three time-lords attempting to re-write reality, and opened the room for Darkeid to enter. I have to wonder, has she been working for him the whole time, or did she jump ship when she saw that she was on the losing side? Also, is it even possible that she's trying to pull one over one Darkseid? JLO wraps up with issue #25 on October 15th. It's been a really fun read, with characters who've been otherwise forgotten. Hopefully those characters get someplace to shine when this is all over.
Wonder Woman #762
Diana's life has been plagued by random citizens losing their minds and seeing things that aren't real. She was a victim of the mind-control herself, fighting soldiers she thought were minions of Darkseid. Now, it's up to Wonder Woman to find the source and stop it before things go from terrible to tragic. Of course, we as the reader already know who the villain is. Introduced in the beginning of Mariko Tamaki's first issue on Wonder Woman, Emma is Diana's new neighbor. Her parents died in a car crash some time ago, or so she claims. Diana has a soft spot for the girl, so it makes sense that she fails to see the only common factor in the mind control attacks is Emma having been on the scene recently. Based on this cover and solicitation, Emma is the villain Liar Liar, and is causing chaos across the nation, including haven taken over the mind of Maxwell Lord. Diana still thinks Lord is behind all this, so maybe he'll end up being the key that puts the pieces together for her. We're not sure yet what Liar Liar's motives are, or why she chooses to use her powers for evil. There will be one ore issue in this story arc before I review Tamaki's first issues of Wonder Woman, so make sure to catch up! This is the Wonder Woman series I've been waiting for for years, it's been such a pleasure to read!
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