• The Goon #8
• Mary Jane #3
• Terra Obscura vol2 #1

• JSA Strange Adventures #1
• EXILES #51

This is the first issue of a new limited series featuring the Justice Society of America. It’s set in World War II, and is very well written by Kevin J. Anderson. He manages to capture the feel of the 40’s perfectly; the story is made that much more enjoyable due to the details being paid very close attention by Anderson and the series penciller, Barry Kitson. Kitson’s work is, as always, very striking; I have always liked his art, all the way back to the first time I remember noticing him on L.E.G.I.O.N. (which feels like about a million years ago, lol).

The story deals mainly with the fact that Johnny Thunder is looking to gain some notoriety for himself by writing stories about the JSA’s adventures. Assisting Johnny Thunder in his quest is Jack Williamson, who was a real writer for the pulp magazines beginning in 1928 (and also a winner of the Grand Master award, given by the Science Fiction Writers of America on only one other occasion). This story also introduces a new villain, Lord Dynamo, into the history of the JSA. We start this chapter of the story with Green Lantern and Starman, with the rest of the team to be brought into the battle in the next issue. We do get to see a meeting of the JSA early on in the story, including a funny scene between Wildcat and the Atom.

This looks like it’s going to shape up to be a great story, and I am definitely looking forward to the next installment.-TMC-

Last issue the Exiles were teleported into a reality where they found that “The Big M,” leader of the Brotherhood, is Calvin Rankin, aka Mimic (this world’s counterpart of the Exile of the same name) and not Magneto as everyone expected. This is only the second time in the title’s run that one of the Exiles has encountered another reality’s version of themselves (the only other time was Sunfire), and is cleverly executed by Tony Bedard. As it turns out, this version of Calvin Rankin (Mimic’s real name) turned down Charles Xavier’s offer to join both his school and the X-Men. Instead, he killed Xavier after copying his powers; he then killed Magneto as well, assuming leadership of the Brotherhood in the process.

The end result is that all Hades breaks loose when the Exiles go to the Vault, ending with the evil Mimic borrowing Blink’s powers to escape his cell after a power outage. The two versions of Mimic then find themselves facing each other…with the evil version using Xavier’s stolen telepathy to look into the past life of his double. In an interesting twist on the “copied powers” ability, our Calvin then steals the stolen telepathic powers after being told by his counterpart that taking Xavier’s path has made him soft and weak. The end result of this telepathic “war” is that one of these two’s life is changed forever; I’ll let you read the issue for yourself to find out how it all plays out. I have to say I was definitely satisfied by this story arc, and Sakakibara’s art is growing on me with each issue.-TMC-

The creative team of Moore, Hogan, Paquette and Story return for another run with the Terra Obscura characters in this ABC Limited Series. I thoroughly enjoyed the first six issue series and am definitely getting the same feeling about this one. It’s not easy to establish a new super-hero “universe” and do things that haven’t been done, but the immensely talented Moore manages that…and more (pun intended). Paquette and Story’s styles mesh nicely, and the art is clean and stylistic without being distracting.

This six issue series is set about six months after the end of the previous series ended. Events have continued to evolve in the lives of the characters; Tom Strange and Princess Pantha have developed a relationship; the same for Ms. Mask and Fighting Yank II, who began a tentative relationship at the end of the previous series. The heroes of this universe find that time is acting strangely, with events such as Tom Strange’s car from the 1950’s appearing suddenly out of the blue, with no explanation. We find out, as the issue ends, that the reason for the time anomalies is that Captain Future’s ship is headed toward Earth. Adding to the mystery of this is the fact that it was revealed in the last limited series that Captain Future had been murdered in the 1960’s!

I’m very eager to see where they are going with this. I read mostly mainstream Marvel and DC books, but this (and Kurt Busiek’s Astro City) are exceptions that I will gladly make.-TMC-