The Weekly Stack

A lot this week, so let's dive in!

Astro City 37
The Broken Man is back narrating, this time two tales from Astro City's past that focus on music. Not my favorite type of Astro City story, but a nice overview of race relations history that is all too relevant now.

Superman 2
Somewhat confusing for me as I haven't read any New 52 Superman stories, but the gist is that something called the Eradicator wants to purify Jon's mixed genome to be all Kryptonian. This can't end well.

Adventures of Supergirl 6
This digital-first series based on the show turned out to be quite entertaining. Kara and her family and friends find a way to defeat Facet in a satisfying manner. I don't know if more stories are planned, but I wouldn't mind seeing this continue.

Batgirl and the Birds of Prey Rebirth 1
This ended up being half recap of Babs' life, and while there's a fair bit of deviation from the pre-New 52, I can live with it, though the lack of a bigger BoP team than just Babs and Dinah does bug me. At any rate, Babs is back as Batgirl thanks to experimental surgery and she coaxes Dinah into helping her find the hacker claiming to be Oracle, a role that belonged to Babs. Then Huntress shows up, seeking the same guy Babs and Dinah are after in hopes he can provide a clue. Not bad, and it shows promise.

Green Arrow 3
The hits keep coming. We learn a bit more about why Shado and Emiko are going after Ollie. Ollie discovers his company has been seriously co-opted by evil, while Dinah works her own investigation into Ollie's death. The art is nice and I'm really enjoying this.

Thunderbolts 3
I am not enjoying this. Seriously, the only reason I'm reading this is for Bucky. The Thunderbolts battle the Inhumans who think the Thunderbolts destroyed a batch of Inhuman pods, but they weren't Inhuman pods, just some nasty alien pods, but who cares about details when a full-out battle can be fought. This book is a bit of a mess.

Black Widow 5
Wowzers, this is a good book. I loved the previous version, but this is just as good, with an intriguing mystery. Just what is Natasha's darkest secret that she'd steal files from SHIELD and the Red Room for the Lion to protect that secret? Not that it matters after things go sideways. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Lazarus 23
The war between families rages on, Johanna is fully in charge, with her father's blessing, Forever continues to heal while Eight, her younger clone that she doesn't know about continues to train, and things continue to get more complicated. And what is Sonja Bittner, the Bittner family Lazarus, up to? I don't know what the endgame is here, but I'm sure Rucka has one. This does feel like a science fiction novel in graphic form. I half want it to have an actual ending and half want it to never end.

Velvet 15
The first Velvet Templeton story comes to a satisfying close, and more anchored in real life politics than I'd expected. This female James Bond deserves her own movie. Or TV series. I hope we don't have to wait too long for the next story.