Image © DC Entertainment. Written by Tim Seeley, art by V Ken Marion & Sandu Florea, colors by Dinei Ribeiro, letters by Dave Sharpe. Alternate cover above by Brandon Peterson.

I feel like I’m missing some of the story here, probably because I came in late. The Justice League don’t seem to have a lot to do except get captured and rescued. I do like the role for John Constantine as magic consultant. The main story is what’s happening to Jessica on a world inside the villainess Singularity Jain. There she’s trying to deal with the loss of some old friends, while being helped by Simon, though he does not have his power ring. This kept my interest despite art that doesn’t completely work for me. I must add the cover above is excellent, though it’s not by the interior artist. Not a bad read, but I can only mildly recommend it.

Image © DC Entertainment. Written by James Robinson, art by Stephen Segovia, colors by Romulo Fajardo Jr., letters by Saida Temofonte.

I haven’t read WONDER WOMAN since Greg Rucka left as writer last year, but I like James Robinson’s writing too, the art is appealing, and this new story arc seems a good place to jump on again.

Diana’s friend Dr. Barbara Minerva has been changed permanently to her alter-ego The Cheetah by Veronica Cale, who now learns that Cheetah has escaped the place where Diana had put her. She recaptures Cheetah to resume experiments (shades of Dr. Moreau), but Cheetah escapes from her too, babbling of some new Dark Gods that are coming, and that she must prepare for. When Wonder Woman appears on the scene, she finds she can’t reason with Cheetah, and perhaps catches a glimpse of these new gods. Meanwhile, a man named Jason in heroic armor has broken into a Kobra research base in Montenegro to free his father, and a surprise attacker, also obsessed with the new Dark Gods, faces Wonder Woman on the final page.

Nicely done by all, the story is intriguing, and I will read on. Recommended.

Image © DC Entertainment. Written by Lee Allred, art by Michael Allred, colors by Laura Allred, letters by Nake Piekos.

The final issue of this series is, like the rest, trippy fun with lots of Jack Kirby overtones and characters. Bug has reached New Genesis to find it has been converted into a board game, with the New Gods as cardboard place markers. His nemesis, Chagra, the cause of trouble on the many worlds Forager has visited is revealed as someone a little different, and the unleashing of The Black Racer seems to mean certain death for the title character. Meanwhile, two Source Walls and the connections between them are explored, the conflicts are resolved and final mysteries revealed amid philosophizing and reunions.

I enjoyed this series particularly for the great art, and the fun everyone is having with the Kirby concepts and characters (much less grim than many recent versions). Recommended.

Image © DC Entertainment. Written by Lee Allred, art by Michael Allred, colors by Laura Allred, letters by Nate Piekos.

The software glitch that happened a few months ago kept me from reading the last two issues of this miniseries, but I’m getting to them now. I found that I didn’t remember many details of the plot, but it really didn’t matter in this case, as my enjoyment of the series is based on other things. The art is terrific, the colors are excellent, the lettering is tops, and the writing is fun in a sort of free-flowing, trippy way, as if Lee was simply looking at each page and making cool things up for it as he went along. Could be so, I don’t know.

Essentially this is a romp through and within the worlds of some lesser Jack Kirby creations: Bug, the main character, and in this issue, OMAC, as well as other new characters, villains and oddities that Jack might have thought of but didn’t. Elements of the story are magnificently fantastic, such as the villain stealing entire oceans and the answer to Kirby’s Mother Box, a Brother Box. Mike Allred clearly loves Kirby, and though his art sticks to his own unique style, he does a fine job with Kirby homages and styling.

One issue to go, which I will get to soon. Recommended.

Image © DC Entertainment. Written by Steve Orlando, Gerard Way, Jody Houser, Ccil Castellucci, Jon Rivera, Magdalene Visaggio. Art by Aco, Ty Templeton, Mirka Andolfo, Langdon Foss, Dale Eaglesham, Nick Derrington, Sonny Liew. Colors by Tamra Bonvillain, Marissa Louise, Keiren Smith, Nick FIlardy. Letters by Clem Robins, John Workman, Saida Temofonte, Todd Klein. Cover by Frank Quitely.

First, let me tell you about my small involvement in this project: four two-pagers introducing the new character and series ETERNITY GIRL that ran in the back of the individual issues of this crossover. I wasn’t involved in the rest, and hadn’t seen it until now.

So, crossover events are meant to bring characters from different series together in hopes of introducing new readers to ones they don’t know and sparking sales. They are inevitably highly plot-driven with too many characters to get to know well. This one is no different. Crossing the Young Animal characters with each other might have been an easier task, adding the Justice League makes it harder, even assuming readers will know at least the main ones: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Their appearances here are in some ways welcome way-stations of familiarity, but in others weird versions of the characters that don’t act or seem much like they usually do.

I’m lettering one of the Young Animals series, DOOM PATROL, and read SHADE THE CHANGING GIRL and CAVE CARSON, and while I found concepts from those here that were familiar, at times I was still confused, and even more so about the characters from the other Young Animal books I don’t read. The reader is thrown into the deep end, on a version of Earth where a horrific version of Superman called Milkman Man is distributing a kind of milk meant to homogenize the entire population of the planet, and forcing them to drink it, or killing them, he doesn’t seem to much care which. Cave Carson is gathering the Young Animal characters and the Justice League to oppose him, with much of the book telling of that gathering. Finally, the big battle and confrontation with Milkman Man and his masters, with a reveal about the anti-hero I found very weird indeed.

There’s some nice art here, some moments of interesting writing, but overall I found this story confusing and not very fun to read. I can’t really recommend it. Perhaps I’m too old for it, and it requires a younger animal.