Setting the Cosmic Table - Infinity Gauntlet: Warzones!

 

Review:

This is an engaging, absorbing and visually stunning book. Perhaps the best of the Battleworld Warzones! tales.

Author Gerry Duggan has penned an emotionally powerful story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It puts high expectations on the reader, to be able to follow some jumps in both time and space, but the brief, well-written narrative exposition sections hold our hands just enough to get us through.

The giant bugs that have wreaked havoc on this civilization, reappear several times to threaten Anwen and her family. The threat is so intense that it must have been a miracle that she has survived this long, with her little sister, father and grandfather. And dog Zigzag, whose fate will have you holding your breath more than once.

Thanos and his pursuit of the Infinity Stones adds a whole different twist to the tale, and his use of the Time Stone leads to some intra-story revisions to their history. Especially poignant is his fireside chat with Anwen about the freedom of being alone vs the weakness of family.

When they are all given Nova Stars, their odds of surviving the Bugs rises, although their near-instantaneous mastery of Nova powers is one of the very few weak spots in this amazing tale.

As strong as the story is, the art matches it perfectly. Dustin Weaver has drawn an amazing book. His characters jump off the page and from panel to panel, flowing from the dystopian destruction of their society to the mountains, the forests, outer space, and more. Yet it all fits and meshes into a single jaw-dropping whole. The bugs are monstrously huge and ferocious; Thanos is intense, inscrutable, weathered and wrinkled.

The promotional blurb, when I first read it, seemed overblown, claiming that this book would "set the cosmic table for the Marvel Universe for years to come!" Yet at the end we are left with the sense that it may just have accomplished that aim. Well worth the time and money, 4.5 capes out of 5.

Description:

Think your life is hard? Anwen Bakian's family lives in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, scrounging for food and avoiding giant bugs intent on eating them. Mom left years ago to join the Nova force and never came back. So it's just Anwen, her dad, her sister and her grandpa against the huge insects. That is, until she finds a mysterious stone that may or may not hold incredible cosmic power. Don't miss this incredible new book by DEADPOOL writer Gerry Duggan and EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE writer/artist Dustin Weaver that will set the cosmic table for the Marvel Universe for years to come!

Collects: INFINITY GAUNTLET #1-5

Authors: Gerry Duggan
Artists: Dustin Weaver
Published By: Marvel 
Published When: Dec 22 2015
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN-10: 0785198741
ISBN-13: 978-0785198741
Language: English
Pages: 112 pages

The Disheartening Dystopia of Batman Beyond Vol. 2: City of Yesterday

 

Review:

Collecting and reprinting issues #7-11 of the 2015 Batman Beyond series, this book brings us the return of Superman and the Justice League to the post-Brother Eye scene.

But while their return should be cause for celebration in this world, and a source of excitement for us readers, it is ultimately buried under the weight of their dark and dystopian setting. A world laid waste by the ravages of Brother Eye and his cybernetic army, filled with untold numbers of refugees fleeing their broken homes and failed systems and institutions. The reanimated Superman surveys the challenges facing the heroes, not villainy but endless despair and destruction, and concludes this book by saying "The devastation and desperation. It's disheartening."

This reviewer agrees. Author Dan Jurgens spins a fine yarn, with dramatic tension building as Tim Drake seeks to grow into the hi-tech Bat suit while Matt McGinnis, younger brother of Terry the original 'Beyond' Batman, travels alone and on foot to Metropolis with some illicit Eye hardware. But the pervading sense of depression leaves little space for fun in this universe. Pain and struggle and ruins are everywhere, and their weight prevents these stories from standing up and taking off.

The art by Bernard Chang and Stephen Thompson also contributes to the mood of destruction and disheartening depression. The pages are filled with heavy inks and muted or dark shades, and when they offer backgrounds the panels are filled with the remnants of shattered lives, from crumbling buildings to wastelands to throngs of hopeless refugees.

The end of this story arc would, in other hands and circumstances, have been a happy ending, or at least a positive one. Not so here, it feels little more than a chance to catch one's breath before the struggle begins anew. In the creative vision for this series that may be exactly as designed. But the result is a rather unpleasant read.

I give it 2 capes out of 5.

Description:

THE WAR IS OVER.

RECONSTRUCTION BEGINS...

He won the fight of his life, but Tim Drake is still a man lost in time. Thanks to the sacrifices of countless heroes, he was able to free Earth from the cybernetic menace of Brother Eye. And with Bruce Wayne and Terry McGinnis gone, the mantle of the Batman is his. Stranded in a strange future, he must defend Neo-Gotham as it becomes a magnet for refugees from the rest of the devastated world.

As tensions rise and blood is shed, this new Batman has an even more urgent mission. With the last Green Lantern’s power ring, Terry’s brother Matt has set off for the ruins of the once-great city of Metropolis, hoping to use the ring’s power to unlock the forces of justice once more. But Batman must track him down before he unwittingly unleashes a new evil upon an already devastated world!

Is this the dawn of a new Justice League, or the end of the world as we know it? Find out in BATMAN BEYOND VOLUME 2: CITY OF YESTERDAY

Collects: BATMAN BEYOND #7-11

Authors: Dan Jurgens
Artists: Bernard Chang
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: Oct. 4 2016
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN-10: 1401264700
ISBN-13: 978-1401264703
Language: English
Pages: 128 pages