Greetings, ‘Rama readers! Ready for your Rapid-Fire Reviews! Then Best Shots has you covered, as we dive into this week’s new digital offerings! Let’s kick off with Jellicle Justin Partridge, who takes a look at Lois Lane…
Lois Lane #10 (Published by DC; Review by Justin Partridge; ‘Rama Rating: 10 out of 10): Greg Rucka and Mike Perkins detail the quiet devastation of the DC Multiverse in Lois Lane #10. Attempting to spring a trap for the series’ antagonist assassin the Kiss of Death, Lois and Renee Montoya try to enlist the help of one Jessica Midnight, another “Prime-Earth” citizen who can feel the multiverse just outside of their grasp. To convince her, Rucka and Perkins deliver some showstopping double-page splashes detailing the “myth” of the multiverse and staging beautiful tableaus of DC’s past history, using Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman as well as Renee’s own “lives” as a focal point. It all culminates with another heartfelt one-on-one with Lois and Superman and a rollicking cliffhanger to send readers into the last two issues. With a strong sense of history and a quiet sense of poetry, Lois Lane #10 might be the comic to beat this week.
Ghost-Spider #9 (Published by Marvel Comics; Review by Kat Calamia; ‘Rama Rating: 6 out of 10): Ghost-Spider returns in its digital-first incarnation, as Gwen Stacy is still reeling from the events of the Champions-led event Outlawed. While Sue and Johnny’s sinister background makes for some intriguing reading, Gwen’s angsty attitude towards the events surrounding the Champions comes out of left field, losing the emotional resonance that Seanan McGuire tries injecting into this arc. That said, Ig Guara does a great job visually exploring these beats, which is especially fascinating to watch since Gwen’s symbiote powers are attached to her emotions. Following a long hiatus, McGuire finds strength in her exploration of Earth-65’s mythology, but this causes this Outlawed tie-in to feel even more out of place.
Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace #4 (Published by DC; Review by Kat Calamia; ‘Rama Rating: 5 out of 10): Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti introduce a new superhero, Socialite, in their fourth installment of their digital Wonder Woman title. The issue uses this character to try and pull at readers’ heartstrings, but the plot is too scattered to fully feel engrossed into Diana and Socialite’s friendship. Meanwhile, a certain Batman villain makes a twist appearance that doesn’t quite land, but instead causes the story to lose the emotional resonance Conner and Palmiotti were setting up towards with Socialite’s character. On artwork, however, Daniel Sampere’s pencils are the strongest yet, which are accentuated by Hi-Fi’s colors. But overall, Wonder Woman: Agent of Peace continues to struggle to find its place within DC’s new digital format.
Avengers of the Wastelands #4 (Published by Marvel Comics; Review by Pierce Lydon; ‘Rama Rating: 6 out of 10) Marvel’s Old Man-iverse has an odd sort of appeal. In theory, we are getting to see what happens to the characters we are familiar with in a world where they grow older or their legacies live on. But even with the changed state of the world, Ed Brisson’s Avengers of the Wastelands plays about as straightforward as an Avengers book can. These may not exactly be the Avengers you know, but Brisson doesn’t write them all that much differently. The real draw here is Jonas Scharf’s art. His work with the villains, MODOK and Green Goblin specifically is a lot of fun. But he delivers on facial expressions throughout the book and his lines work well with Neeraj Menon’s colors to give the world a real lived-in grittiness. Avengers of the Wastelands won’t blow you away, but it’s a solid little adventure book.
Justice League Odyssey #20 (Published by DC; Review by Justin Partridge; Rama Rating: 6 out of 10): It’s Green Lantern Jessica Cruz versus time itself in Justice League Odyssey #20. After a pitched battle with the Anti-Life-infected Jean-Paul Valley, Lantern Cruz stops thinking about superheroics in linear terms, turning to Epoch’s Revision Mechanism to give her the edge to save her now fallen friends and “deny Darkseid.” Dan Abnett’s appropriately lofty and cosmic script is fun enough, though the energy of him having to walk through the temporal threads of Jessica’s plan sap the energy a bit after the impressive opening fight. The art side also slows down quite a bit here, with artists Cliff Richards and Rain Beredo trading the swashbuckling action of Cruz and Valley’s energy sword fight for tightly packed panels of discussion and debate on the ethics of time travel. Though grandiose and strange as would befit any DC cosmic title, Justice League Odyssey #20 drags a bit in the middle when it should be soaring.
Aquaman: Deep Dives #4 (Published by DC; Review by David Pepose; ‘Rama Rating: 8 out of 10): DC editor Dave Wielgosz flexes his writing chops in Aquaman: Deep Dives #4 with two very different takes on the Aqualad-Black Manta relationship. Wielgosz evokes the sort of Geoff Johns style of engaging characterization with Jackson Hyde, hooking readers in as Jackson is shot down by his crush (who helpfully gives us needed exposition in the form of a dating profile) before being literally shot down by a rampaging Electrocutioner. Artist Jose Luis also turns out some really strong work here, nimbly balancing Wielgosz’s panels while occasionally shaking up the visuals when the combat flares up. If there’s anything that hurts this issue, it’s that Wielgosz and Luis double-dip with two separate Aqualad/Black Manta stories, both of which are strong but feel totally at odds with one another — in one, Black Manta is a hateful absentee father who puts a hit out on his own kid, while in the other, he talks of being a scavenger with a code who clearly wants to reconnect with his long-lost son. It’s a testament to this creative team that both interpretations could be valid, but it’s jarring to see them back-to-back. Still, this is perhaps the best installment of Aquaman: Deep Dives yet.
Ravencroft #4 (Published by Marvel Comics; Review by Pierce Lydon; ‘Rama Rating: 2 out of 10) There’s potentially something compelling in Frank Tieri’s exploration of Ravencroft, Marvel’s equivalent to Arkham Asylum, but even four issues in, it doesn’t feel like we’ve really gotten anywhere. Tieri spends so much time trying to give his story depth that it feels like he never pushes the plot forward. Meandering narration over flashbacks is meant to give the story some semblance of style or tone, but they are mismatched with visuals that are too clean and rendered. Angel Unzueta isn’t a bad artist by any means, but there is absolutely no personality in the linework here. Ravencroft is an attempt to shine a light on a somewhat forgotten corner of the Marvel Universe, but it’s only making the case that it should have stayed forgotten.
Metal Men #6 (Published by DC; Review by Justin Partridge; ‘Rama Rating: 6 out of 10): Platinum goes on a journey of self-discovery in Metal Men #6. While the rest of the team revels in their newfound independence, Tina decides to find answers on her own, tracking down the woman she was molded from to ask about the real nature of her and Will Magnus’ relationship. While the idea is solid, Dan DiDio and Shane Davis’ script is still too stiff for its own good — there’s no real personality to the overall story despite the strong central conceit. That said, Davis and colorist Jason Wright mine a great deal of pathos on the art side with more old-school visuals, rendering this more like an old romance comic than one about sentient robots. David and Wright give a nice little jolt of action in the interlude as well, cutting a hemisphere away to show a new nuclear-powered robot escaping its enclosure in a big, splashy and largely wordless sequence. But even with that jolt of pep, Metal Men #6 stands largely inert.