Every. Last. Panel.

Holy shit, what an awesome book this is.

The mythology of this rebuilt world is already so well realized that the creative team has begun to use it to create really evocative imagery through callbacks and subversions. Wonder Woman tears up when she sees the rendering of Paradise Island, and as the reader, I actually felt something as well.

Also, underboob.

Speaking of imagery, though he’s no Cliff Chiang (hint: no one is), Tony Akins is getting better with every issue, and anyone who can render THIS shit as creepily as he did is pretty damn good in my book.

Speaking of evocative and creepy imagery, this is the greatest wedding dress I’ve ever seen. I want to see someone cosplay it. Send pics to Every Last Panel.

There were 6-7 panels in this issue, like the one above and the one I’m about to post below, that just hit you in the face with their greatness. Without Chiang in the fold, Azzarello and Akins still hit an absolute home run and probably the most memorable issue in the series to date.

No matter which path this miniseries goes down, it’s always as wonderful as comic books can get. James Robinson is so attuned to this world…to this manner of speech and the voices of this world…that he can seemingly do no wrong. Every story is layered and poignant and interesting. In this case, the eternally youthful Shade meets his grandson, Albert Caldecott.

Caldecott got mixed up with a cultist who ended up producing a demon (a homunculus) that goes off on raping and pillaging sprees. One of which we are, most unfortunately, privy to seeing in the pages of this very issue. The results are frank and rather disturbing.

But, bad ass that he is, we know that The Shade isn’t going to abide this shit going on for very much longer. Especially with his own blood having been caught up in it…

There are few things more satisfying than watching Richard Swift casually talk down to someone that he’s going to destroy very quickly and very easily.

How easily? Well, he swiftly dodges some fire breath and tosses a single, tiny bit of his Shade-magic onto the demon’s tongue, and, well, let’s just say it doesn’t turn out well for the creature…

And in the end, everything wraps up nice and tidily, with just the right amount of tug on the heartstrings. A masterstroke - just like every other issue of the Shade has been. A miniseries I will surely treasure for as long as I read comic books.

Supergirl has been a sneaky good book since its very first issue. Despite the fact that there have been tons of hard-hitting fight scenes already, this has been a relatively low-key book. It hasn’t touched up against many of the other books in the DCnu (Superman being an obvious exception) and the writers seem to be really allowed to tell the story they want to tell. It’s a slow burn story, but it doesn’t feel like decompression. It just feels like progress being made at a natural pace. She’s finally found her first ally, and it really feels like there’s an honest friendship being created here. I’m sensing some sort of heartbreak in the near future, but I would really like to see these two bro around in this book for a while.

Of course, Siobhan’s curse isn’t going to make that easy for anyone involved…

But that’s why Siobhan is an intriguing partner for Supergirl. In a way, they both have a “curse” - Supergirl’s curse is having to figure all of this out on a planet that she isn’t ready for. One that doesn’t understand her and probably won’t take kindly to all of the damage that she’s inadvertently causing. Like I said, I hope this friendship is allowed some time. I’d hate to see it cut short.

The Red Hood, Mr. Freeze, and the Court of Owls clash in Gotham City. Once again, Kenneth Rocafort’s sharp, angular art creates a breathtaking landscape.

I commented in an earlier capsule that the Talon in the Batgirl issue wasn’t acting like any other Talon we’ve seen. That’s also the case in this issue. The Talon is given a personality, and a backstory that lends itself to some sympathy. It draws a connection between the adversary and Jason, himself. I’m not sure how I feel about this. As with Batgirl, it’s a pretty effective story on its own…but I’m not sure it feels like a “Night of the Owls” issue…

But like I said…it’s evocative, nonetheless.

We see Babs’ first run-in with Jason in the new 52. We’ve seen a couple flashbacks of Jason’s time in the Bat Cave…we’ve seen him interact with Tim Drake…and now we see him have a little less than affectionate banter with Barbara. How long until the inevitable face-to-face with Bruce?

Sick burn with the “legs” comment, too.

I actually liked an issue of Legion of Super-Heroes.

Oh my god, I can’t believe what I’m typing.

But there’s a lot to like here, actually. There are fewer scenes in this particular issue than we’ve seen in other ones. Or, at least the scenes that we get in this one feel like full scenes, instead of bits and pieces of story that we have to try to follow over dozens of characters’ day-to-days. 

It doesn’t hurt that this issue has a little more personality than I think I’ve seen from any of the previous ones so far. The following two scenes succeed on their timing, brevity, and humor.

Scene 1:

Scene 2:

Do you think that Duplicate Damsel ever feels insignificant when compared to Triplicate Girl?

No sign of the Mon-El vs. Brainiac 5 elections yet, but there is another rift created in the Legion of Super-Heroes this month. I’m still holding out for those elections, and I’m voting Brainy, FYI.

In the 9th issue of Justice League, we begin to see hints from all of the character’s pasts, before they became the heroes they are today. We see Bruce Wayne as a child, trying to escape the reminders of his parents’ tragic end. (We also see the letter from Thomas Wayne that Barry returned to Bruce from the world of Flashpoint. Interesting.) We see Cyborg and his father and the lack of warmth between them. We see Clark and his junior high struggles. And finally we see Steve Trevor and Wonder Woman in the early throws of a relationship…and then the inevitable conclusion to said relationship.

This issue is titled The Villain’s Journey, because it begins to deal with in-comic writer David Graves (who has been chronicling the Justice League’s rise) and the journey he has taken to becoming a villain, as the cancer within him takes hold. In reality, this issue contains many examples of the journey that everyone takes toward being a good or a bad person. We see how Hal and Barry bring their true natures to their individual hero mantles. Everyone has demons to overcome. It’s a common theme in fiction, where good vs. evil is a constant focus. This issue handles it pretty subtly for a blockbuster comic book.

Geoff Johns continues to delight me as a HUMOR writer, above all else. He might be the funniest writer that DC has right now. I actually chuckled at this panel. Hal is bluffing about the Flash reaching in and scrambling the Weapons Master’s brains.

Here’s a menacing shot of what David Graves has become…

In the Shazam backup, Gary Frank draws one of the greatest “shitty kid” faces I’ve ever seen. Even if we knew nothing about Billy Batson in the new 52, we’d be able to tell that he’s just a little shitty dickhead of a kid.

That said, he’s a winner in this issue, because he tells some rich asshole where to shove it when his kids start acting even shittier than Billy does. Billy may be a jerkoff, but at least he seems to have some sense of honor. And is there any better way to draw a rich asshole than by making him look like Richard Branson?

And once again, that Geoff Johns is one funny dude.

This is the Green Lantern Corps after the Alpha-Lanterns come for John Stewart, but before they realize the truth about what happened to Lantern Kirrt. This comic book has a history of shining character moments and breathing life into the corps when everyone isn’t too busy flying around and blasting things. This is probably the best issue since the relaunch, because it’s a focused, dramatic character piece.

We also learn more about what is to come, as we see the guardians continuing to plot the decommissioning of the Green Lanterns and the rise of the mysterious “third army.” Is this a Green Lantern backup plan? Is this some new and improved corps that will react more favorably to the guardians’ meddling nonsense?

Pasarin’s pencils afford us a lot of close-ups on the faces of our team this month. There’s a variety of emotions running high this month, and I was surprised at how affecting they were. His art is typically very solid, but this month it did a little more work to convey a lot more emotion than we’re used to seeing.

James Robinson, you magnificent bastard.

His scripts have been completely on-point since he re-entered the DCU with The Shade 8 months ago. Everything that he’s written has been gold, whether it was every issue of that series, the opener of Earth 2, his short story in a recent issue of Men of War, or this very issue I’m going to talk about now. He’s inspired again. Just as DC did, Robinson has given himself a clean slate and the comic world is richer for that fact.

He writes depth into his characters more easily than most writers today can. Little tidbits that he drops into their dialogue naturally, such as Vandal’s reference to Sigmund Freud in the above panel, are things that most writers don’t bother with or attempt in their work. And that’s why James Robinson is who he is, and everyone else is everyone else.

Here, he writes Vandal as quietly sinister and charismatic. The contrast of a man behind bars and casual confidence is one that has historically worked well in fiction to create some of its most memorable villains. There’s something unsettling about a character being imprisoned, while they still act like they have the upper hand in any situation.

Hannibal Lecter is the obvious reference here. I’m sure I’m not the first one to make this connection. But that’s the role Vandal Savage is playing in this comic arc.

I love this panel. I imagine Vandal quietly watching his daughter dispose of this criminal, pleased with the tenacity and skill that she shows.

Bernard Chang’s art, too, is incredibly strong. His bold lines and restrained lack of stylistic flourishes put the focus of this issue on the two people at the center. Vandal Savage and his daughter. Vandal’s demeanor and posture match his subdued control over the situation, while the handful of emotions that Kass experiences are rendered well on her face. A nice, subtly good match for letting Robinson’s script take center stage.

Every issue of the Night of the Owls crossover is giving us some unique aspect of the Court or the Talon henchmen to latch on to. In Catwoman, we have a semi-disgraced member of the Talon undergo some shame in front of the court. In the end, he is probably regarded by the court in the same way that Catwoman is regarded by the world of superheroes and villains. Depending on who’s looking at her, she’s a menace…or a joke…or a villain…or a hero. Catwoman’s story has always been one of perception.

The last issue featured the Penguin and his owl dagger. In this issue a member of the Talon has come for Cobblepot’s life, and takes specific notice of that dagger. In fact, he strongly wants it back. These three panels tie all of the major players together quite nicely.

Judd Winick’s addition to the Night of the Owls event was fun (with the best panel coming at the end of this capsule…), but I want to highlight Guillem March’s art.

He’s really learning how to draw “ugly.” I don’t mean that in a negative way though. While he was drawing Gotham City Sirens, his pages were full of curves and sexy fun. In Catwoman, while there is a little bit of that, he’s really trending toward the seedy and the ugly. The issue opens with an extremely obese, extremely nude victim of the Court flopping around before his eventual demise. Likewise, Penguin is drawn as a horribly grotesque man, lacking in the stuffed-shirt refinement that some artists tend to give him.

In the last issue, Captain Atom got a glimpse of an awful future where he is worshipped like a god. On one hand, he’s responsible for the resolution of all kinds of conflict and tragedy throughout the world. On the other hand, his existence is about to bring about some sort of religion-driven apocalypse. Oh well.

Meanwhile, a bunch of Captain Atom duplicates split off and travel the globe to check on the state of things throughout the rest of the world. Meh. It’s actually a really good excuse to have Freddie Williams draw a bunch of landmarks and landscapes from around the globe. I’ll take it.

It would just be so much more interesting if the “energy ball” enemy was a metaphor for something. A thematic exploration of what it means to be an atomic weapon. Something actually psychologically connects the Captain Atom of today to the Chrono Mota threat to the human race in the future. As it is, everything that the issue sets up just dissolves into another mindless set of action scenes without any thematic heft. I’m sorry, but this book doesn’t have anything to say. It pretends that it has something to say about a man becoming a god…or a man becoming a monster or a weapon…but it always drops that exploration in favor of something shallow. It does it without fail, every single issue.