Want to keep up with the ever-advancing continuity porn of the DC and Marvel universes, but simply don’t have the time or money to buy every ongoing? We’re here to help. The Weekend Week In Review aims to give you ((usually) very) brief synopses of what happened in a select few of DC and Marvel’s titles – with a helping of sarcastic commentary – so that when some nasty old writer wants to punish you by heavily referencing a title you didn’t pick up, you won’t be left in the dark. Of course, that means that spoilers are in abundance after the cut, but I figure that you could figure that out.
Marvel’s summer event Fear Itself moved into its third issue this week. Betty-Hulk was busy saving innocent civilians from Bruce, who – I assume – was on a rampage caused by him being angry at Fraction ignoring what was going on in his book. Up in New York, the Thing got ahold of the hammer on Yancy street, surprising everyone without internet access. Meanwhile, in Asgard, Loki roofied Thor’s guards and broke him loose. Though the pair were caught by Odin, the King of Asgard surprised everyone by not being a total dick and letting Thor try to save the earth.
Oh yeah, and Bucky died.
Over at the DC Universe, Flashpoint entered its second issue. Confronted by a very, very irate Thomas Wayne, Barry hastily explained his history and the world that he came from, and tried to get the alternate timeline Batman to help him set things back to normal. After confirming that changing things back to normal would allow Bruce to have lived instead of him, Thomas agreed to help Barry replicate the experiment that turned him into the Flash. All while this was going on, Wonder Woman and Aquaman demonstrated that they were absolute jerks and killed some people. Being constantly spit on by DC will do that to you. Back in the rundown Wayne Mansion, Barry learned the hard way that splashing some chemicals on you won’t necessarily make you invulnerable, and was singed to a crisp by a bolt of lightning, as tends to happen when someone is struck by lightning. Turns out Flashpoint was much shorter than we thought it would be.
In the first issue of Flashpoint tie-in Secret Seven… actually, no matter how many times I read the issue, I doubt I could tell you what happened. It truly is the spiritual successor to Shade the Changing Man, in that regard.
Herc began his most recent issue (#4) facing off with Kyknos, the resurrected son of Ares and his large band of minions. After making a hasty exit on the back of the more lion-birdy Griffin, Hercules tried to get a group of neighbors that had been swept up in the chaos to calm down, only to be stabbed in the back by a little girl. After making another hasty retreat to the roof of Rhea’s restaurant, Herc found out the hard way that even Rhea’s father was under the sway of madness – that way, of course, was by being shot. After coming to, patching himself up, and passing out again, Herc woke up in an even worse situation: Rhea had been kidnapped by Kyknos’s followers, and Kyknos had teamed up with Hecate to transform New York into a place “worthy of the god of war.” You see, warriors like foliage, I guess.
Slott’s latest issue of Amazing Spider-Man revisited one of his arcs from Brand New Day, “New Ways to Die,” featuring the return of Eddie Brock, now known as Anti-Venom. Looks like Brock is back on the tail of Mister Negative, and he has no problem with going through Spidey to get to him (remember, Pete doesn’t know that Negative’s secret identity is the beloved Martin Li). Not only that, but the new Wraith is someone I though we would never see again: the supposedly deceased Jean DeWolff, taking her brother’s mantle as the Wraith. I would ask “Is nothing sacred?” but this is the comic where the main character sold his marriage to the devil. Kinda the opposite of sacred, that.
Continued belowThe first issue of Flashpoint: Abin Sur served as a sort of primer on how Blackest Night happened in this new universe. Without Hal Jordan as a Green Lantern, Atrocitus was able to kill William Hand and prompt Necron’s appearance earlier on – though he’s out in space, for whatever reason, and slowly making his way toward earth. Without Hal, Sinestro is still a Green Lantern, though it seems that his bromance with Abin Sur is on tentative ground at the moment. And without Hal, Atrocitus looks like a dinosaur that ran face first into a wall. That’s not cool, Zoom.
Moon Knight #2 showed that Mark’s new Avenger buddies aren’t just in his head. They’re on his wrist, too. Looks like everyone’s favorite schizo rigged up some sort of device that can emulate both Wolverine’s claws and Spider-Man’s webs. He may be crazy, but you can’t say he isn’t resourceful. Moon Knight’s attempts at getting some information from a group of classy ladies tied to the criminal underworld ended up in failure when he got smacked around by Snapdragon and some bouncers. Lucky for him, Echo was undercover and was able to bail him out just in time. After the two escaped, Snapdragon reported Moon Knight’s involvement to the Kingpin of the West Coast: the dreaded monocle and fancy cape man.
Flashpoint: Batman Knight of Vengeance presented us with a Batman that’s even more of a jerk than the one in the main DCU. Turns out, Thomas Wayne isn’t as against killing criminals as his son. Not only did the one-faced Harvey Dent mention a few unfortunate souls that Wayne put out of their madness, but we actually got to see him shove a blade through Killer Croc’s skull while looking for the Joker, who had kidnapped Dent’s twins (I see what they did there). And, yeah, it was pretty rad. Apparently, though, Thomas hasn’t been able to bring himself to kill the Joker. If you notice that Martha is never shown as being shot in the flashback sequences, and the Joker’s heavy emphasis on “mommy,” though, I’m sure you can deduce why.
Anything that we didn’t get to that you’re interested in? Email me at the link below! This also applies for if you read something that we didn’t and want to share it with others, as I, too, have only so much money and time to spend on comics. Don’t worry, I’ll give you credit.
