Aquaman is back! After more than a month between issues my favourite DC hero returns. Another favourite series based on the 1977 TV Wonder Woman and Bionic Woman concludes, Dark Nights turns truly dark and Batwoman begins a new adventure.
Aquaman #28: Underworld (Part 4)
Aquaman is back! Once again he and his new sidekick, Dolphin, escape the clutches of the undersea mobsters. Is Arthur ever going to figure out that sending Dolphin away from danger is a bad idea? That girl is awesome! But things take a more serious turn as Arthur tries to explain that he isn’t the saviour he thinks she is looking for. I suspect Dolphin knows him better than he does right now.
Unknown to Arthur, Vulko is attempting to get into the magical weapons vault to find something that will break through the Crown of Thorns. He has a clever way to evade the spectral guards, but he’s much too cocky and it backfires spectacularly!
And then there’s Mera, who has recruited Garth/Tempest to help her break through the barrier from the outside. Garth seems powerful enough to do it, but King Rath isn’t content to wait and see. He sends his forces to stop them. I suspect the next issue will be action-packed!
Batwoman #7: Fear and Loathing (Part 1)
After last month’s hop into the future (a future I hope we will get to revisit at some point), we are back to Kate’s present day mission to stop “The Many Arms of Death” from dealing in monster venom and other bio-weapons just as bad.
The issue here seems a strange one on first reading, with Kate apparently lost in the Sahara, her wandering interspersed with memories of the near and distant past. Odd memories, too.
But it all makes sense when the true identity of her quarry is revealed – and it’s unfortunate this reveal is spoiled by the cover! Kate believes she is pursuing an agent of the Many Arms, known as the Needle. But Needle turns out to be Gotham’s Dr Crane, the Scarecrow, and Kate has obviously been infected with one of his fear-inducing poisons.
Dark Nights Metal: Batman The Red Death
Okay, so if I’ve got this right, the Dark Multiverse holds an infinite number of parallel worlds, each of which is an unpleasant twist on the world the regular DC heroes inhabit, Batman’s fall in Dark Nights: Metal #2 opened a door between the dark multiverse and that regular world.
So we meet a pretty nasty version of Batman, who has failed to save Gotham and has come to steal the speed force from Flash, believing this will give him the power he needs, Flash refuses to give it up and Batman does this thing that carries them both into the speed force, essentially shattering both heroes and merging them into one. This is the Red Death: evil Batman with the powers of Flash, and with not-evil Flash’s voice in his head. It’s pretty dark stuff…and, yeah, I do get that dark is the point. As long as this hybrid is confined to his own dark universe it’s not a big deal, but the story ends with the implication that Red Death is going to break through into regular universe. Nasty.
Also the artwork is cool. I love that FlashBat has a gazillion bats in his wake instead of lightning!
Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman #6
The final issue of this series and it has been so good! Written with real love for the characters,so many nods back to their TV adventures and a veritable rogues gallery of villains from both. The team up was inspired. I loved howJaimeis apparently the only person to notice that Diana looks an awful lot like Wonder Woman. I loved how they came to rely on each other as the adventure developed. I absolutely adored Jaime flying the invisible jet! In the final part, with the bad guys and their robot army invading Paradise Island, Diana and Jaime work together to save the island, but their plan risks exposing Themyscira’s location to the world.
Though it is the last issue, the door is left open for further adventures and I really hope to see them. This was just plain fun!