Injustice: Gods Among Us Years Two through Five

by Tom Taylor, Brian Buccellato, Bruno Redondo, Mike Miller, and more

In Year One, Superman murdered the Joker! This is what happened next. Years Two through Five explain Superman's transition from murderer to dictator, in an extremely decompressed manner. Around Year Four Brian Buccellato took over the scripts, from the original creator Tom Taylor.

Year Two: The Guardians of Oa try to intervene in Superman's plan for world peace, and Hal Jordan becomes a Yellow Lantern, permanently.
Year Three: John Constantine tries to stop Superman setting off a war of magic
Year Four: The Gods of Olympus intervene
Year Five: Plastic Man breaks Superman's supervillain prison, while Superman takes the next steps to quelling Batman's resistance.

For me, this was a binge-read over the course of a few weeks during the winter holidays. I find that ironic, since the whole Injustice series was originally made as a weekly digital-first title, to be digested week-by-week. The constant cliffhangers made for a just-as-excellent binge-read. So instead of a write-up proper, here's some selected moments from the series.

Lex wows the Justice League by revealing their "secret" identities. Elseworlds are refreshing, because in the normal DCU, you wouldn't be able to see situations like this!

Bizarro Superman makes his debut in Year Four, a test-tube creation from Lex Luthor. When Emperor Superman questions Lex about his involvement, there's this nice usage of Lex's heartbeat that clues us in to the situation. Only in comics could you do something like this, a very cool way to convey the information.

 The art was varied across the whole five years, but for the most part remained consistent with DC's "house style." Bruno Redondo probably held a good amount of issues. Here is just a nice action panel of punching.

A cool way that explains why Bizarro Superman has the reverse-S logo on his chest.

Year Five: Eel O'Brian adds a touch of humor to the dour life of Emperor Superman.

Crazily enough, the story doesn't even end on Year Five. Instead, it leads to a different universe with a focus on Harley Quinn, in the Injustice: Ground Zero miniseries. Who knows when I'll be able to get to that...?

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Trinity Vols. 3 and 4: Dark Destiny and The Search for Steve Trevor

Trinity Vol. 3: Dark Destiny

by Rob Williams, Guillem March, and V Ken Marion

Collects #'s 12-16 and Annual #1

What? No more Manapul on Trinity? I guess it was just going to be a spotlight run all along. Fair enough. Rob Williams takes over on the writing duties, while Guillem March and V Ken Marion split art on this trade paperback. Guillem does the endcap issues while V Ken gets the main story, 

the 3-part "Dark Destiny." "Dark Destiny" is a continuation of issue 7, where Circe gathered her own "Dark" trinity so to speak, to destroy the Trinity of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman. It leads to a host of magical guest stars, including the "mystical" trinity of Zatanna, Constantine and Deadman, as well as the "arch" trinity of Red Hood, Artemis, and Bizarro, along with the "stooge" trinity of Larry, Moe, and Curly Jason Blood, the host of the Demon Etrigan. So many Trinities.

Guillem has this dynamic, sinew-y, shaded style that translates pretty well to the heavy mystical focus of the trade paperback. V Ken Marion is a part of the "house" style of art so not much to remark on there. The story itself is pretty color-by-numbers, with a small twist by Circe at the end but it goes pretty much the way you'd expect. Only if you're into the mystical corner of DC would I think you would enjoy this story. And then for whatever reason, Annual #1 features a team-up between the Trinity and Deadshot. The Trinity fight off a group of terrorists to help Deadshot find his daughter who, apparently, is missing. I'm all for introducing new characters in media res, but it just seemed like a shoehorned introduction for an annual issue, what should have been a celebration of the main characters.

Trinity Vol. 4: The Search for Steve Trevor

by James Robinson and Patch Zircher

Collects #'s 17-22

The mystical storylines continue in this final collection of the 2016 series. The Trinity investigates a mysterious whirlpool forming in the ocean and are whisked away to the magical land of Skartaris, where there's a war going on between the native magician Deimos and the incoming Warlord.

The pacing is somewhat unique in that you're only receiving morsels of the truth at a time. You're discovering just exactly what's going on along with the Trinity, and you're not always sure who to trust -- who's a good guy and who's a bad guy. Multiple narrators all telling their version of the story in the past tense helps to cement this feeling. A reread is also valuable once you finally learn just what's going on and who's up to no good. Kudos for all the unique writing techniques here -- they turn what could have been standard super-fare into interesting super-fare.

Turns out this war in Skartaris involves some shady dealings on Earth, and it's up to the Trinity to stop them. All things told, it just felt like there was too much plot with not enough characterization. There's so many side characters that they just feel like chess pieces. For a story that's subtitled "The Search for Steve Trevor," there's really not a lot of page time given to the relationships between Steve and the three members of the Trinity. You're expected to just know that he means a lot to them. It's that kind of story expectation that rings flat. A mystical conclusion to the series, and a muted one as well. At least we got to see Batman riding a unicorn.

Read More Trinity:

Trinity Vol. 1: Better Together

Trinity Vol. 2: Dead Space

Trinity Vols. 3 and 4: Dark Destiny and The Search for Steve Trevor

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Look!

My wireless was down on the weekend, so basically I had all day Friday and Saturday to a) go to the library, b) scan a crapload of stuff and c) work on my Nietzsche paper.

This is from the second volume of Bizarro Comics, and, if you'll recall, we also looked at the first volume, the scans from which I still have waaay too many.

Two-Face: his own worst enemy

Lucky me, there's a Public Library just a walk away from campus.

Even better, they have insane shelf room devoted to all things comic-related. I didn't even know what to borrow first!

All the same, I recently b(izz)orrowed Bizarro World volume 1, which is a sizable compilation of cartoonists taking on the DC Universe. Some of the stories are a little extended (7 pages), and some of them are just a single page:

At times, the hardcover is a deconstructionist look at the conventions of comic books; at others, it's just a plain fun story that couldn't be told in the DCU proper. The entire hardcover is a smashing read, but I couldn't possibly recommend it due to its price tag of 30 bucks.

I'm cheap like that.

I am swamped

with midterms and papers. I'm gonna have to postpone posting until I get more organized and everything. I'll probably get in a review tomorrow, and a short reminder on Thursday, but I can't foresee anything else but me stressing myself out.

I apologize for this kinda crap from me guys. You deserve better.

Like, for example, Bizarro, who will be my surrogate blogger:

Cover to Cover: Superman/Batman #'s 20-25, 37-42

So there was a Superman/Batman sale over at ComiXology a month or so ago. I bought into it and picked up quite a few issues, based on the artists I liked: like Ed McGuinness or Dustin Nguyen. Since scans are as easy as hitting "prtsc" and then cropping the image, I've loaded up an unholy amount of scans for you. Here's the first third of what I read:

Superman/Batman #20-25
"With a Vengeance!" 
by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness 

Have you ever played racquetball? You whack a ball in a room such that it bounces so fast, and so hard that your opponent can't return it. After reading through Loeb's story, I now know what the racquetball feels like. In the 6 issues, he bounces you everywhere, juggling the stories of Superman/Batman, the Maximums (an Ultimates knock-off team), Batzarro/Bizarro and the Joker/Mxyzptlk. It's crazy!

He throws all kinds of scenes at the reader, and while some of it will miss, you'll find something that's a hit. The Maximums accuse Superman/Batman of murdering one of their own, and it's up to the World's Finest to defend against their charges! Along the way they meet Red Son Superman, Batman Beyond Batman, Superwoman/Batwoman, Zebra Batman, Mullet Superman holy moly how many of these guys can they fit in here. There's so much going on, it helps to just turn your brain off and look at the art.

There's this great scene when Superman and Batman use a boom tube to get to the Maximums' world. Superman runs into a scene where Spider-Man "Bug" is witnessing Gwen his girl get thrown off the bridge:

It's a nice jab that highlights the difference between DC and Marvel. Superman's line, "Where I come from, it's what we do." just kills me. A good deal of the developments are magic'ed out of continuity in issue 25, and the main point of the arc seems to be to bring Darkseid back to the DCU in preparation for Final Crisis. The arc wouldn't have worked without McGuinness to pull off all the crazy ideas.


Superman/Batman #37-42
"Torment"
by Alan Burnett and Dustin Nguyen

This story's about the New Gods, which is unfortunate, because I don't really care about them. Darkseid manipulates a few people including the Scarecrow and Superman in order to restore his power. Batman tracks them down to Tartarus in order to save Superman and then has sex with Bekka, a New God.

Dustin draws a knockout Bekka and a great Batman. Burnett writes Batman as this tragic figure who won't let love into his life, and it rings true even as he gets it on with Bekka. Superman doesn't serve more purpose here than a prop, which is one weakness in the arc. I honestly feel it didn't need 6 issues to tell.

Here is some nude Bruce Wayne, because this will get me some hits from google images:

Here's a non-nude image of Batman I like. Just look at that cape!

NEXT TIME: Superman/Batman #'s 44-49, "The Search for Kryptonite"

No Wednesday comics?

No Wednesday comics =(.

There's only one comic out this week I'm lookin' at, so I think I'm gonna wait for Friday.

There are other stuff I'm lookin' at from last week that I put on hold in my mind, so at best, I'm gonna get reviews up on Friday, or Saturday at the latest.

Meanwhile, enjoy the existential-acoustical stylings of the Man That Is Bizarro:

Mark your calendars, everyonecominginfromgoogleimages!

I'll be back Wednesday guys!

And that's something you can take to the bank.

Unfortunately, my schedule next quarter is devastating, and I can't say anything definite about the future frequency of blogging.
For the meantime, however, here is French Batman combating the evils of his society:

Painters of the Eiffel Tower: They're a cowardly and superstitious lot.

Another one from Bizarro World #1, yep.