A good week of comics, made even better by an early reading of Irredeemable coming to the stands this Wednesday. Now if spring would actually start to arrive here in Maryland I think life would be on the upside again. Of course that means the grass starts to grow and back out cutting the yard and such, but for the first few months of spring and summer I actually enjoying getting out there and sprucing up the yard, once July/August hits then I keep thinking artificial grass and/or hiring a yard service.
THE BEST

Before she learned the nurse she is out with Billy as he describes a mission where he and his fights shot rockets at large groups of men trying to escape from their opponents who had beaten them. The bombs blew the overstocked and defenseless barges to smithereens, but they fly back and strafe the water to ensure as few survivors as possible. The water is blood red with the corpses of the dead Japanese. This is war and it is brutal, but Carrie does not mind the story. In fact she manages to kill one more Japanese soldier in the hospital before a doctor tells her to leave as people have started to put two and two together and may link her to the deaths. Carrie is broken, but functioning and is taking pleasure in her relationship with Billy.
What crushes her and causes her to go over the edge is when the war is won. She hears from Billy and his American friends that reparations and trials will not be the focus of the end of the war, but a massive rebuilding effort to rebuild Japan. Carrie is horrified that these people who did what they did to her will not have to pay the price they should pay. Carrie loses it when she learns how the Japanese are going to be groomed as allies as a barriers against the Russians. She rushes out of the restaurant and Billy follows and confronts her and she asks what are we suppose to do about the Japanese and Billy says “Now we learn to love them, Carrie.”
This is a story that will stay with me for a long time and one that shows how horrendous war is and how no one every wins.

The Kingpin has come back to New York and immediately finds Turk. Wilson goes out to let the underworld know that he is back in town and things are going to get bloody.
Daredevil is attacking a private eye that photographed him and Dakota, is fighting with Master Izo about the Hand, fighting with Milla’s parents about custody of her and watching Dakota (who maybe the best match ever for Matt) walk out of his life. The Hand wants Matt as their leader and his inability to control himself and the collapse of his world is leaving Matt looking lost and hostile. Turk shows up and gets the message to Daredevil to meet the Kingpin and they meet. The Hand had set the Kingpin to go up against Daredevil, but Wilson Fisk has other plans. He tells Daredevil what happened to him overseas and proposes an alliance against the Hand, where he and Daredevil will look to take them down forever. Matt wonders what happens to their alliance after their battle with the Hand is over. Fisk delivers a great line to end the book when he says “I wouldn’t worry about after, Murdock…I wasn’t planning to survive..” Wow, can’t wait for the next issue.
The regular art team is back and Lark, Gaudiano and Hollingsworth are like a well oiled machine. Daredevil is blessed to have such a talented crew. Lark has great design, Gaudiano is the glue that always keeps this book having a consistent look and Hollingsworth keeps the book a total “noir” feeling without losing the artwork. The emotion of the story is conveyed well as is the action. The story telling is great as you are never lost reading this book.


This issue is all set up, but with a three issue series it almost has to be set-up, crisis and resolution as you have very little time to do much else. The sub-title: The Cure could refer to many things, but the fact is that Babs is focused this issue on what happened to her legs, so the obvious indication is that she may end up no longer being in a wheel chair.
The story shows Babs getting re-established in Gotham and she is tracking down the anti-life equation (not sure why). We see that she has moved into less then stellar accommodations, but still hooks up enough equipment to be Oracle. The whole being in a normal apartment building thing just rang false for me. At the same time Oracle is doing this the Calculator is visiting his daughter Wendy (the Wendy mauled by Wonder Dog in Teen Titans and now in a coma) and he is also pursuing the anti-life equation. Caught in the middle of this is a hacker who has an avatar getting their head blown off and the same thing happens to her behind her computer.
The battle is joined as Oracle and Calculator continue their long running battle with the goal appearing to be the anti-life equation and obviously a cure for Wendy or Babs. One final comment, the entire Battle for the Cowl is acknowledged as to what is happening in the city, but is part of the background of the story. It could even be argued that this feels to be an Oracle mini-series and is not a true tie-in.
The artwork is strong and Babs is shown as both smart and sexy. It is a limited action issue, but still the artwork manages to keep the book moving and the flow of the story is well done. The coloring has to jump from light to dark, to serious, to semi-comical (when in the role playing game) and manages to do a great job throughout.




THE WORST

A bunch of books to be excited about and I probably was a little too easy this week with my best list as Conan and Wonder Woman probably should have been to best of the rest, but I was just in a more positive mood (yeah, yeah – I’m the king of realism about the economy but I have a positive outlook – I’m positive the US is going bankrupt – see positive). Wow, that is the type of digression worthy of Peter David’s old column.