Batman: Arkham Knight #34 Review

Don't Fear the Reaper

Written by: Peter J. Tomasi
Art by: Ig Guara, Julio Ferreira, Andrew Dalhouse and Deron Bennett
Cover Price: $0.99
Release Date: October 16, 2015

I do love me some Arkham Knight.  I know that's not a big surprise for anybody who has been reading my reviews, but I actually like saying it.  In fact, I love it.  That's right, I love loving it and I love loving that I love it.  Yes, I'm on my thirty fourth review of Arkham Knight and I am running out of accolades to shower it with in these introductions.  It shows, huh?  Screw it then, let's get on with the review...

Top 5 Fridays: Moments that NEED to happen in Injustice Year 5

 

Welcome back to another Top 5 Friday! This week Injustice Year Four concluded and...I'll give it a C. It's not the worse thing I've ever read, but it wasn't the action packed comic we've grown to love these past four years(comic time). If I had to describe Year Four as anything, I'd call it the Year of Politics. Year One was the Invasion, Year Two was the Revolutionaries, Year Three was Espionage with Magic, all of which were a part of the same war.
 Year Five is supposed to be the final year before we reach the actual game's story, so this week we'll be taking a look at the top 5 moments that NEED to happen this year. These moments are things that happened before the events of the game, but not in the comic. This list will have spoilers for both the comic and the game, so be warned. ENOUGH RAMBLING! Lets begin!

Arrow Season 4 Episode 2 "The Candidate" Review *SPOILERS*

My name is Oliver Queen 

and I Approve this Message

This review is filled with SPOILERS

Another week, another Arrow review. Last week we had the awesome premieres of both Flash and Arrow, and it seems they have switched up their approaches. Where Flash got a little darker, Arrow got a little brighter, which could be good after seasons of being a TV equivalent to Batman
We last left Star City with the reveal of the Green Arrow and the team swears to take down the Ghosts and Damien Darhk. So how is that new mission going? Lets find out...

Bat-Mite #5 Review and *SPOILERS*

Bat-Mite, But He Doesn’t

Written By: Dan Jurgens

Art By: Corin Howell, Mike Atiyeh, Tom Napolitano

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: October 14, 2015

*Non-Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Have you noticed that the comic books Eric doesn’t want to review are the ones that have the most potential to bring joy to children? I’m not saying there’s a definite connection, but it sure seems to me like the laughter of innocent young boys and girls makes Eric’s blackened heart wither and pierces his dark soul with a painful, cleansing light. Bat-Mite is a silly comic, a goof, an irreverent romp through the DCU where the Dark Mite is jazzing up its lesser-known properties. It’s been a decent laugh so far, but how does the comic fare when Bat-Mite teams up with completely forgotten novelty crusaders the Inferior Five? I’m not sure, but I’d bet you can read on to find out!

The Twilight Children #1 Review and *SPOILERS*

All Balls Don’t Bounce

Written By: Gilbert Hernandez

Art By: Darwyn Cooke, Dave Stewart

Cover Price: $4.99

Release Date: October 14, 2015

*Non-Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Here’s a tip: when you see Gilbert Hernandez’s name on a comic book, you buy it. Here’s another tip: when you see Darwyn Cooke’s name on anything, you buy it. Don’t hesitate, don’t whine, don’t act “over” anything, just slide your goddamned money that you probably would have spent on drugs or candy bars across the counter of your local comic book shop and exclaim your praises to the holy mother of God that you are allowed to hold such a work in your greasy, sullied hands. I had high expectations going into the first issue of the Twilight Children, but was my faithfulness well-founded? Where do you think we could learn how I felt about this book? Seems like it should be somewhere around here, it would be stupid for me to pose these questions when…oh yeah! Read on and find out!

Batman/Superman #25 Review

Tech War

Written by: Greg Pak
Art by: Cliff Richards, Beth Sotelo and Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 14, 2015

If any book has had an identity crisis lately, it has to be this one.  A depowered Superman and a mecha suit Batman who happens to be Jim Gordon?  Yea, this is far from the World's Finest that most are used to.  I'll give Greg Pak credit, he has at least kept things interesting throughout this current crossover mainly with the crazy guest stars...Ukar, the Dawn Command and Aquaman to name a few.  Now that the Truth arc is over, I am wondering where Pak will take this book and if he will continue the trend of it being the one to go for some goofy fun.  Well, is it?  Let's find out...

Red Hood/Arsenal #5 Review and *SPOILERS*

Three's Company Too

Written By: Scott Lobdell

Art By: Denis Medri, Blond, Dave Sharpe
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 14, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Red Hood and Arsenal might just be the funnest book that DC Comics is putting out right now and that's do to Scotty Lobdell just killing this book every month and putting our duo back in Gotham......even if it's just a short time, was just brilliant.  Yeah, we're used to Red Hood and Arsenal galavanting across the world in their fight against evil, but there's just no place like Gotham and as we saw from our previous issue, it looks like they'll have their hands full not only taking on Underbelly, but also Jim Gordon's Batman.  Let's jump into this issue and find out the secret origin of Underbelly and how Jason will react when he comes face to face with a father figure he thought was dead.  Let's check it out.

DC Comics Announces Green Lantern: Edge of Oblivion Coming in January

Ever since Green Lantern: Lost Army's cancellation was announced, we here at Weird Science have been wondering how the story of John Stewart and his fellow "lost" Corps members would end.  Of course, there was always the outside chance of a massive info dump in the final issue (due out in November), but today's announcement means something a whole lot better.

Justice League of America #4 Review and *SPOILERS*

Gooble Gobble, One of Us

Written By: Bryan Hitch
Art By: Bryan Hitch, Daniel Henriques, Alex Sinclair, Chris Eliopoulos

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 14, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Wow, it seems like a long time since I jumped into this out of continuity Justice League story..... and you know what?  It has been.  This book just kept getting pushed back and each week I thought I was going crazy because I swore that it was supposed to keep coming out, but it's finally here and we can see how evil religion really is........ oh man, I'm really projecting onto you good people here...... but seriously........evil.  In the previous issue we saw Flash transported from 250,000 years ago in Krypton's past to 1961 on Earth, where he met up with that mysterious Infinity Corporation, while Hal stayed behind to meet with the Kryptonian God Rao.  Wonder Woman was in a dark void that was once Olympus, while Batman worried about Superman and Superman appreciated it..... you know, because he thought it was sweet.  All of this and Rao cured the world of sickness, hunger and bigotry.  With god's like these, who needs heroes?  Well, let's find out as we jump into this issue.  Let's check it out.

Batman and Robin Eternal #2 Review

What a Dick

Written by: Tim Seeley
Art by: Paul Pelletier, Tony Kordos, Rain Beredo, and Carlos M. Mangual
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 14, 2015

While I have gone on record against reviewing a weekly book, I simply loved last week's premier issue of Batman and Robin Eternal.  James Tynion definitely took the "go big" route by giving readers tons of characters and one of the craziest cliffhangers I've ever seen.  The mystery of what Batman did to set up the Robins had me talking (and guessing) all week and I couldn't wait to jump into this issue.  Of course, I realize that we aren't going to get too much...this is a six month long event you know, but I'll take whatever goodness Tim Seeley has in store.  So, did this second issue continue the greatness?  Let's find out...

Superman: Lois and Clark #1 Review

Black and White 

Written by: Dan Jurgens
Art by: Lee Weeks, Scott Hanna, Brad Anderson, Joshua Cozine and Troy Peteri
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 14, 2015

Dan Jurgens and Lee Weeks' Superman book was my favorite story of the entire Convergence Event. So, when this book was announced, I was pretty psyched that not only were we going to continue the story, but Jurgens and Weeks were on board.  I do have to admit, however, that as it got closer to release, I started to wonder what the hell "continue" would mean.  Where and when would this book take place?  What roster of characters would we see?  The time for answers is now...

Earth 2: Society #5 Review and *SPOILERS*

The Fastest Ass Alive

Written By: Daniel H. Wilson
Art By: Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sanchez, Travis Lanham
Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: October 14, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Let's head back to Earth 2, where our Wonders are in the middle of a crisis.  After spending an issue finding out Val-Zod's relationship status and how things ended terribly between Power Girl and him, our issue finally started getting interesting when Terry Sloan's old spaceship, Overwatch-One was hacked and forced down into a collision course with Neotropolis.  Too bad that this development was our cliffhanger and all we had to show for our time with our Wonders was us seeing how creepy Val-Zod has gotten since his baby left him and Batman and Flash deciding that they should team up with the Earth-2 Man of Steel so they can find out who was behind Terry Sloan's assassination.  Let's jump into this issue and see how our Wonders will save the day against a crashing spaceship.  Let's check it out.

Batman #45 Review and *SPOILERS*

Batmanium

Written By: Scott Snyder
Art By: Greg Capullo, Danny Miki, FCO Plascencia
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 14, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

We're finally back to the main story and I couldn't be happier....... because I don't want to get internet slapped again.  Yeah, I'm feeling a lot pressure on this one, but don't worry; I'll keep it real like I always do and won't succumb to peer pressure or any kind of nonsense like that.  When last we left our Robotic Knight, Jim Gordon decided that he wanted to go after Mr. Bloom on his own and to do that off the grid, he had to keep his big bad Batsuit at home...... and man was that a mistake because when we left our hero he had been led into a trap and looked like he would be burned alive.  If that wasn't enough to keep you interested, we also saw Mr. Bloom go all Slender Man on Penguin's ass and possibly kill him.  Yeah, that's some shit right there....... we also had a story about Batman five years earlier in the last issue, but I don't want to talk about that.  So let's see where our story is heading with this issue and if Batman can handle the Devil Pigs when they turn up the heat.  Let's check it out.

The Flash Season 2 Episode 2 "The Flash of Two Worlds" Review and *SPOILERS*

Multi-Mind Blowing

With the awesome opening last week, especially with the ending, I couldn't wait until this week's episode. Episode 1 already promised so much, and with my favorite subject, the Multiverse, being prodded at this season, I know this season could potentially blow the first season out of the water.
So we now have not just metahumans but Earth 2 doppelgangers endangering the city, so maybe it's time we had two speedsters helping out! Did that happen? Lets find out...

Weird Science DC Comics Podcast Episode 40: Really Bad One-Liners

Jim and Eric are at it again, whatever that means.  They get right to it on this one and discuss what little news came out of New York City Comic Con and then tackle this week's DC Comics offerings.  Something must have been in the air because they agree so much that it even freaked them out.  Also included is Listener Mail, Reggie's Recklessness, a super sized edition of Ryan's Clark's Other Side and Professor DC's lesson on Swamp Thing.  We hope you enjoy it and "Make yourself scarce like the dirt on a tire in the middle of the forest during sundown!"

Batman/Superman #25 Preview

Written by: Greg Pak
Art by: Cliff Richards
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 14, 2015

What impact will the revelation of Superman’s secret identity have on the rest of the heroes of the DC Universe? As Superman seeks to serve justice to the villains behind his power loss, find out who the Man of Steel’s new crimefighting partner will be! 

I am looking forward to seeing where this issue takes the Truth story as well as what happened in Action Comics last week.  I really hope that this issue gives me hope for the entire story going forward.  Let's all cross our fingers, okay?

Injustice: Year Four #24 Review

Year of Our Discontent

Written by: Brian Buccellato
Art by: Bruno Redondo, Juan Albaran, Rex Lokus, Wes Abbott
Cover Price: $0.99
Release Date: October 13, 2015

Year Four is coming to an end and while I was not a fan of the entire Year of the Gods story, it had it's moments.  While I wish that the New Gods would have shown up earlier and became more integral to the overall story, at least they finally did show up.  After a couple of setup heavy issues, visions of Superman vs Darkseid vs Batman vs Highfather vs Zeus have been dancing in my head.  I know, that's a crazy thing to dream about, but nobody ever said I was sane.  Least not my bevy of doctors on call.  Well, I say the hell with them and let's get on with the review of the final issue of Injustice: Year Four.

Earth 2: Society #5 Preview

Written By: Daniel H. Wilson
Art By: Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sanchez, Travis Lanham
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 14, 2015


As the hunt for the traitor who stalks Earth-2 comes to a close, the Fastest Man Alive may not be quick enough to escape his fate on this new world!

I love all the characters in this book, but I haven't been a fan of them on this alien world....... Damn, Tim Drake going back in time and preventing them from coming to Earth-0....... Tim always ruins all my fun.  Hopefully this book starts grabbing me because I'm starting to get a reputation for being a Negative Nancy and that's just not me.  I'm more of an Optimistic Ofelia, but I just don't get the chance to show it.  Well, we have Flash getting fleshed out a bit here and I can't see anything wrong with having a story about Jay Garrick.

Gotham Season 2 Episode 4 "Strike Force" Review and *SPOILERS*

The (Strike) Force Awakens

So a lot of people are mourning the loss of Jerome in last week's conclusion to the opening story arc. I can see why, he was a solid character with a fantastic actor. However I've also seen people saying that they were going to stop watching the show because of it...yeah, no this isn't the Jerome show. He was just a character and it opened the door for Galavan, who I find a much interesting villain, to step up as a new threat to the city.
Now with the Maniax away, Theo Galavan shall play. So what happened when Galavan stepped up as well as the GCPD? Let's find out...

Red Hood/Arsenal #5 Preview

Written By: Scott Lobdell
Art By: Denis Medri, Blond, Dave Sharpe
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 14, 2015


The brawl with Batman continues as Roy and Jason go head-to-head with both the new hero of Gotham City and the villainous Underbelly in the streets! Plus, a shocking revelation leads Jason to a secret rendezvous with an old friend…

I just want to say that I love this series...... I love it so goddamn much because it doesn't try to be more than it is and it's not ashamed to just be fun.  Also, it helps that I love Jason Todd and if we could just get Roy and him back into their old costumes, this could be a almost perfect book.  I can't wait to see this issue.

Constantine: The Hellblazer #5 Preview

Written By: Ming Doyle, James Tynion IV
Art By: Scott Kowalchuk, Riley Rossmo, Ivan Plascencia, Tom Napolitano
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 14, 2015


John Constantine’s first new adventure comes to a harrowing conclusion when he and Georgiana come face to face with a supernatural serial killer. The conclusion of this vicious mystery will shake the Hellblazer to the very core of his filthy little soul.

After last issue's cliffhanger, I can't  wait to see what Constantine does to get out of his current predicament......  especially, since it looked like he was ready to give up completely and surrender himself to the ghost killing monster that's been following him.

Batman #45 Preview

Written By: Scott Snyder
Art By: Greg Capullo, Danny Miki, FCO Plascencia
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 14, 2015


When Batman almost gets taken out by a new threat, Jim Gordon might have to reevaluate what it means to wear the cowl before it’s too late for Gotham City!

Man, did I catch a lot of hell for not liking the last issue of Batman.  With any luck, now that we're back to the main story, I'll be able to enjoy Batman to the fullest so all you suckas can get off my back.

Bat-Mite #5 Preview

Written By: Dan Jurgens
Art By: Corin Howell, Mike Atiyeh, Tom Napolitano
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 14, 2015


Bat-Mite faces his greatest makeover challenge yet when he comes up against those dolorous denizens of the DC Universe, The Inferior Five! The Light Mite wants them to go from Inferior to Superior, but the half-witted heroes are not quite ready for prime time.

Wow, Bat-Mite's finally here and for all the times it was pushed back, I hope that it was worth the wait. 

Batman and Robin Eternal #2 Preview

Written by: TIM SEELEY and JAMES TYNION IV
Art by: PAUL PELLETIER
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 14, 2015

It’s here at last—the sequel to the blockbuster weekly series BATMAN ETERNAL!
Five years ago, Batman and Robin worked the most disturbing case of their crime fighting careers—bringing down the organization of the ultimate human trafficker, the mysterious woman known only as Mother. At the time, Dick Grayson never quite understood the scope of that case, but now its darkest secrets are coming back to haunt him and everyone else who ever worked with Batman! With Bruce Wayne now lost to them, Dick and all his allies are out in the cold! Who can they trust? Is someone among them not who they say they are? And who is the deadly, silent young woman in black who’s come to Gotham City looking for Batman?

Prepare yourself for six months of international intrigue, twists and turns, and new additions to the world of Batman and Robin, from showrunners James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder, and writers Tim Seeley, Steve Orlando, Genevieve Valentine, Ed Brisson, and Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly!

Besides the repeated solicit, I love every thing about this book.  Seriously, the first issue of this series may have been one of my favorite issues in a long time. While I liked Batman Eternal enough, having this book focus on the Robins (and Dick Grayson in particular) has me so excited.  Of course, the mystery of what the hell Batman did is a big draw and finding out that Harper Row plays a huge part was awesome.  I can't wait.

Batman: Arkham Knight #33 Review

Fear Factor

Written by: Peter J. Tomasi
Art by: Viktor Bogdanovic, Richard Friend and John Rauch
Cover Price: $0.99
Release Date: October 2, 2015

If you haven't been to our site before, let me fill you in on one of our worst kept secrets...I love Batman: Arkham Knight.  I'd love to say that love transcends all mediums, but in fact, I still haven't played the game.  I actually think that's a testament to the quality of this series, that I am fully invested in it without even knowing if I'll ever play the game it ties into.  I have enjoyed the various guest stars Peter Tomasi has included in his story, but maybe none so much as Calendar Man and Scarecrow...who teamed up at the end of the last issue and look to be a thorn in Batman's side going forward.  Does this new "Scare Tactics" arc continue the fun?  Let's find out...

Secret Six #6 Review and *SPOILERS*

 No One Suspects the Drill-Handed Dummy

Written By: Gail Simone

Art By: Tom Derenick, Jason Wright, Wes Abbott

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: September 16, 2015

*Non-Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

It’s time once again to enjoin our merry band of criminal misfits and doofuses, the Secret Six. Eric promised his Imaginext play sets he would devote a few more hours per week hanging out with them, so I agreed to take on reviewing this series since I have no prior commitments with my toys and I like it better anyway. This issue teases a macabre wedding on the cover, but that doesn’t even begin to explain the contents within this whirlwind of a comic book. Sure, the hijinx are wacky, but is this issue any good? Read on and see!

Green Arrow Annual #1 Review and *SPOILERS*

Hating On The Wolf Man

Written By: Ben Percy
Art By: Szymon Kudranski, Gabe Eltaeb, Rob Leigh

Cover Price: $4.99

Release Date: October 7, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

How the hell have we gone this long in the Green Arrow series without an Annual?  It's very odd and even odder is the placement of this Annual.  You'll see when I get into this review, but having this Annual here just seems like a big mistake and will only make me more disappointed in this series than I have already been since it's new creative team.  Alright, with this being an Annual, I don't have much to say before we get started so let's just get right to it I guess and see what's going down in Seattle on Halloween night.  Let's check it out.