This Week’s Comic

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA (vol. 4) #3: Huntress, Doctor Mid-Nite, Stargirl, Jakeem Thunder, Wildcat, the Golden Age Flash, and the Golden Age Green Lantern are tied to a clock.
  • References in Justice Society of America (vol. 4) #4 to Per Degaton’s history in both All-Star Comics #35 (Jun–Jul 1947) and JSA #72 (Jun 2005).
  • We finally get to meet the Justice Society of the present-time DCU in this issue (although it’s still reading closer to a future-Huntress book than I’d personally prefer). Apparently Beth Chapel and Yolanda Montez were resurrected as a prelude to the Lazarus Planet events; they were originally killed back in Eclipso #13 (Nov 1993). (How this fits with Doomsday Clock #12 is left as an exercise for a reader who reads more event minis than I do.)
  • The “Next Issue” line is very, uh, Zero Hour.

This Week’s Comics

FANTASTIC FOUR #5: In five diagonal swatches with different layers and color patterns, the Fantastic Four fight in the Dark Dimension.
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #21: "This is it!!! The story arc you've been waiting for!!!" Peter Parker (in Spider-Man attire from the neck down) and Mary Jane Watson, holding each other, face the reader and an unseen person—whose shadow reaches them.
BATMAN #133: Batman digs up Bruce Wayne's grave, and Alfred comes at him from behind with a rapier.
THE FLASH #794: "One: Minute:War Part 00:05: Like Father, Like Daughter..." Irey West, in costume, crouches beside her father as at a starting line.
  • Hey, the Amazing Spider-Mail printed my letter!
    Dear Albert and Nick, It was nice to see the Coffee Bean crowd together again, even just briefly. I've seen plenty of letters asking when the big 'What Did Peter Do?' mystery will get resolved, but what I want to know is when we'll get to see the Randy Robertson/Janice Lincoln wedding! Lots of good potential for gang-related hijinks, methinks. Martin Pyne, Sunnyvale, CA. Hey, Martin! Hope all is sunny in Sunnyvale! More Randy and Janice is coming down the pike sooner than you may think! Maybe they're responsible for what happened to Peter and MJ?!
    Unfortunately it is quite rainy today.
  • The actual solution to the “What Did Peter Do?” mystery appears to call back to the Zeb Wells-written Wolverine team-up back in Amazing Spider-Man #555–557, which I had honestly entirely forgotten about except for Chris Bachalo’s art.
  • Irey West unlocked “choose her own hero name!”
  • I see Chip Zdarsky felt the need to subtweet everybody who says that Bruce Wayne doesn’t spend money on charity.

This Week’s Comics

FANTASTIC FOUR #4: The Fantastic Four fight aliens over Manhattan.
SPIDER-MAN: THE LOST HUNT #4: "The Origin of Kraven the Hunter Finally Revealed!" Gregor Kravinoff thrusts his sword up at Spider-Man. The background is a hazy visage of Orisha.
  • It continues to be nice to read about married Peter and MJ.
  • I really appreciate how the current Fantastic Four volume has so far managed to tell a complete story in each issue. Don’t see that too often these days. (I don’t assume this will hold forever, and I wouldn’t want it to—but I very much prefer it to the usual six-issue arc format one tends to see.)
  • Timeline note: it’s at least five months after the previous Fantastic Four volume.

This Week’s Comics

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #19: “Guest-Creators Joe Kelly, Terry & Rachel Dodson bring you the worst date ever!” Spider-Man and Black Cat stand on top of the pile of ninjas that they're fighting.
BATMAN #132: Selina Kyle greets an off-cover Bruce Wayne at a fancy party, with a similarly-posed Catwoman and Batman reflected in the window behind her.
THE FLASH #792 (“One:Minute:War Part 00:03”): “Grand Theft Speed Force”: Impulse and Kid Flash are inside an alien vehicle, commanding it. Impulse is much more excited about this than Kid Flash is.
  • See, Bruce Wayne can cook.
  • Tim Drake and Bernard Dowd finally got to kiss on-panel!
  • The Flash featured a Bart Allen / Wallace West team-up, and I have to say that watching Wallace deal with Bart’s, ah, impulsive style of superheroing was quite entertaining.
  • I’m also kind of amused that Mr. Terrific showed up in both of my DC pulls this week.
  • Continuity note: Amazing Spider-Man #913 takes place after the denouement of Dark Web but before the epilogue, as it’s still winter. Per the recap page, it also takes place after the Mary Jane & Black Cat miniseries that’s currently running.
  • And speaking of the recap page, I have to say that confirming that MJ and Paul are actually married is a hell of a thing to just casually drop there!

This Week’s Comics

Chasm and the Insidious Six pose above the DARK WEB: FINALE #1 logo. Upside-down, Magik, Iceman, Spider-Man, Cyclops, and Jean Grey pose below it.
THE FLASH: ONE-MINUTE WAR SPECIAL #1 ("Race Against the Clock"): In four vertical panels showing half their bodies, Kid Flash, the Flash (Wally), the Flash (Barry), and Impulse rush forward.
  • The epilogue of Dark Web is set in “Spring,” which marks roughly a three-month timeskip from the main events of the story. Factor in Amazing Spider-Man #908 (which also began with “Spring”) and it’s been at least a year since “Beyond.” (Although I could see the next issues of ASM picking up before the epilogue, particularly with the next two issues being by a guest creative team.)
  • From the lettercol:
    I’ve only been reading comics for about a year and a half, so I haven’t encountered too many crossovers yet.
    Oh you sweet summer child.
  • Things I missed by not reading the other tie-ins: Eddie Brock turning into Bedlam.
  • The Flash special was mostly side-stories, which is honestly a fine use of a tie-in issue, even if I’m always amused when none of the characters on the cover appear in the issue. It was nice to see Avery Ho again.
  • I’m not hugely into DC Comics’ potential futures, seeing as we’ll never actually get them, but I do rather like the one we’ve seen in Adams’s run—part of it, I think, is that the Flash legacy extending well beyond Wally West has been a well-established thing for a very long time.

This Week’s Comics

Justice Society of America #2: Huntress pursues the glowing Helm of Fate. Behind her are Jakeem Thunder, the Golden Age Flash, Stargirl, Wildcat, Doctor Mid-Nite, and the Golden Age Green Lantern.
Tim Drake: Robin #5: Robin, perched in front of a wall of heads, readies a throwing weapon.
Amazing Spider-Man #18: "Dark Web". Spider-Man faces a crab-like demon.
Action Comics #1051: “1st Super-Sized issue! More pages! More Action!” Superman leads Superboy, Power Girl, Steel, Jon Kent, the Super-Man of China, and the Super-Twins in floating above the Earth.
Detective Comics #1068: The halves of Two-Face’s face are separated; Bruce Wayne, with Batman’s shadow, appears in the middle.
  • In Justice Society of America (vol. 4) #2, the events of Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #3 (September 1994) is captioned as “eight years ago” and those of Doctor Fate (vol. 4) #1 (August 2015) is captioned as “one year ago.” As with most things related to DC Comics timelines, I don’t entirely buy this—all of Rebirth occurring within one year seems absurd even without getting into specific textual points (for instance, I seem to recall Tim Drake saying that he’s been dating Bernard Dowd for six months). And all of the Johns-written stuff since Doomsday Clock has seemed like it’s happening in its own, kind of disconnected corner of the DCU anyway. But eight years since Zero Hour would put the Young Justice generation in their early 20s (Tim was 14 at the time) which seems to be about where they really should be? (I am begging artists to give Kon back his stubble.)
  • Speaking of timelines, I’m still not sure when in relation to anything else this “Gotham Nocturne” Detective Comics arc is taking place. Given what happened with Two-Face this issue, feels like it might matter at some point.
  • I’m not saying I wouldn’t read an entire issue of Kon and Kenan hanging out. But I’m not not saying that.
  • The villain rant in Tim Drake: Robin #5 is impressively obsessive.
  • I am pretty ready for Amazing Spider-Man to go back to being self-contained. (“Back” may be overly generous given all of the tie-in issues last summer.) This issue opening with Madelyne Pryor’s plot being resolved in a different tie-in that I didn’t read was kind of funny, though.