The Movement Book 2: Fighting For The Future (#7-12)

"So are we supposed to be heroes or something equally dumb?" - Katharsis

This is the second and final volume of the cult New 52 comic penned by Gail Simone and drawn by Freddie Williams II.  The first book introduced us to the titular Movement, an team of superpowered individuals in their late teens and early twenties made up  of Virtue, who can ride peoples emotions and use the power she takes offensively and acts as the defacto leader of the group; Tremor who can cause localised earthquakes, Mouse who can speak to and control rats, Katharsis (who was introduced in Simone's Batgirl run) who doesn't have powers but can fly using home made wings and has superior hand-to-hand combat skills, Vengeance Moth who can form a glowing green moth shape around her and use it as a shield and fly when doing so, and Burden whose powers manifest as a demonic style possession.  They are part of a wider social movement in a fictional US city called Coral City, made up of the general underclass who don't feel the police and ruling class are serving their best interests.  In the first volume, after two Coral City cops are caught sexually harrassing a minor on video, they are kidnapped and put on trial by The Movement, they escape through tunnels created by Tremor who thinks the whole thing has got a bit out of control.  Also causing problems is the mysterious "Cornea Killer" who targets the homeless and is the son of crooked mayor of the city and leader of the city council, Mr. Cannon.  He in turn has called in his own team of metahumans called The Graveyard Shift to deal with The Movement and they attack Movement member Mouse on his own, leaving him strung up from a lampost where Tremor and Katharsis find him after they have talked out their differences in a nearby diner.  And it's directly on from that, where Book Two starts.

Mr. Cannon is speaking with his son Terry, the Cornea Killer.  Terry says he didn't harm anyone today much to Mr. Cannon's relief.  He tells his father he wanted to though, "I like it daddy, I really, really like it".  He goes on to say he killed his mother because she caught him "doing something naughty".

Katharsis and Tremor rescue Mouse.

Katharsis and Tremor cut Mouse down from the lampost and calls for an ambulance.  Katharsis calls Virtue who had just done a fake exorcism on Burden to trick him into thinking he was free of his curse.  She leaves Vengeance Moth in charge of their HQ.  The ambulance is going to take an hour to arrive, so Virtue bought Katharsis's wings with her and Katharsis flies Mouse to hospital.

The Graveyard Shift follow the "breadcrumbs" of energy Virtue left behind to track back to Movement HQ.  It was why they left Mouse alive, to lure her out.  In the HQ Burden confesses he is having "sexytime feelings" as Vengeance Moth puts it.  He asks if they can do an exorcism to get rid of those as well.

Vengeance Moth and Burden in The Movement HQ.

The two cops that were captured by The Movement are being patched up.  Whitt says they should get down there and clear "the punk scum right the hell out".  At said HQ, a jamming device has been activated by the Graveyard Shift who approach the entrance through the tunnels.

Katharsis arrives at the hospital with Mouse while The Graveyard Shift arrive at Movement HQ. Vengeance Moth is there to meet them while Burden looks on.  She activates her energy form and blasts them, but one of them "Monster Baby" says she's blind already and punches Vengeance Moth.

Vengeance Moth activates her power.

At the hospital the others are now there and are told Mouse is in bad shape and might not make it.  We then join the cops, one called Yee says he is not going to let Whitt attack The Movement and Whitt threatens him.  At Mouse's bedside, The police captain Meers hands Virtue a folder with information on The Graveyard Shift, who "the shadow council hired to clean you out".

Vengeance Moth is putting up a fight but is outnumbered.  Burden runs up to help her and is knocked back for his trouble. Vengeance Moth say they need his help, the exorcism was a fake, they need his power, "you are our only hope for those people" she says.  So he transforms into his demon self and begins fighting.

Burden goes full demon.

The police are still arguing, Yee tells Whitt, "you're a bad cop" and Whitt punches him.  At Movement HQ, Vengeance Moth drags herself back into her wheelchair, while Burden takes on all of The Graveyard Shift.  She thinks they might be too much for him as she goes back to the fight.

Virtue, still at the hospital, is on the phone to Rainmaker (an independant female metahuman), saying she'll have to cancel their date.  Rainmaker says she got dressed up, even wore a skirt.  Virtue says she'd "like to see this miracle garment" next time.

At Movement HQ, Burden is beginning to tire, Vengeance Moth sneaks up on the leader "Anguish" and belts her with one of her crutches.  Captain Meers is called to come to where Whitt and Yee are fighting.  Whitt has won, but more police are standing up to him, including Pena his partner who says he, "requested a new partner this morning".

Even wheelchair bound, Moth can beat you down.

Anguish recovers and goes to hit Vengeance Moth with the crutch, but she says while Anguish was temporarily incapacitated, she smashed the jamming device and called the others. Then rocks start to fall from the ceiling because of how intense the fighting has been.  Vengeance Moth thinks back to how she was terrified of being buried alive, "tapehephobia" her shrink called it, and it still frightens her.

At the hospital, Virtue gets Vengeance Moth's call as she, Katharsis and Tremor watch over Mouse.  He mumbles something so Tremor gets closer to hear and he kisses her, "I kissed you and you're a girl.  We're in love now" he says.  Virtue runs in saying it's time to get back to HQ the others are in trouble.

The Graveyard Shift decide to cut their losses and leave before the roof caves in.  Anguish looms over Vengeance Moth saying she wants a "souvenier".  Katharsis appears and punches her away from Vengeance Moth. 

Virtue is scary when she is mad.

The Graveyrd Shift fight back, but Virtue takes Vengeance Moth's fear of being buried alive and fires it at anguish much amplified, causing her to freak out in terror.  Virtue then says:

Virtue: "Leave Coral City, that's the good news.  The bad news is is you ever come back I will bury your soul so deep you'll think hell is a mile higher".

The Graveyard Shift take the hint and leave.  Back with the cops, Captain Meers is finally able to fire Whitt for punching Yee.  Yee baited Whitt deliberately much to Whitt's anger.  He then tells Meers he looked into Virtue and has found out she died six years ago.

Mouse seems to have some kind of enhanced healing ability as he is able to join the rest of them on a roof looking out over the city.

Virtue: "Maybe someday everyone looks up and sees something beautiful".

And this chapter closes on an image of Batgirl in front of the "Welcome to Coral City" sign.  She is in town on the trail of a wannabe superhero who killed some people.  His name is Reese, or "Horizon".  She finds and confronts him and he fires some energy at her and escapes.

At Movement HQ, Katharsis, Virtue and Burden are in the bathroom trying to make Mouse presentable to Tremor.  Virtue asks the cowering Burden if he can help?

Burden: "Me?  That boy is buck nekkid.  I can see his.. I can see his teats.  I shouldn't even be in here!"
They get Mouse under the shower and when he admits he doesn't know how to use shampoo, Virtue gets in with him to give him "the full treatment."

On a lighter note, Mouse hates bathtime.

Batgirl has recovered from the attack and finds herself surrounded by the masked "I.C.U" crowd telling her to leave Reese alone.

Batgirl: "Well this spiralled out of control fast. What in the world is for real going on here?"

She goes looking for Reese, meanwhile Mouse is all dolled up in a suit and even wearing shows.  He goes up to Tremor and reads his declaration of love and offers her a box of chocolates.

Courtship, Mouse style.

Tremor screams at the rat and Katharsis drily remarks "it doesn't sound like that went too well".  Batgirl goes to the one person considered an authority in the area, Pastor Mike.  She tells him she wants to talk with The Movement and she's in luck, Virtue appears right away.

Batgirl tells her she is looking for a criminal called Reese Cahill.  Virtue says they don't go giving people up to the cops.  Batgirl tries to threaten her with blackmail if she doesn't play along.  Virtue thinks, "my first real superhero and she's kind of a bitch to be honest".

Batgirl vs. Katharsis round two.

Then Katharsis appears.  She and Batgirl have history, they fought when Katharsis was a member of a group called "Knightfall" in Gotham.  They get into a punch up and Batgirl manges to disable Katharsis with a kick to the stomach.  They are still in the church and Pastor Mike says:

Pastor Mike: "Church or no church.  This is a terrible way to solve problems".

Then Mouse rides in on his wave of rats who surround Batgirl.  Virtue says they can sort things out over doughnuts and milkshakes so they go to their local diner to talk it out.

Meanwhile captain Meers is digging into Virtue's history and finds out he shot her father who was robbing a bank at the time.  At the diner, Batgirl says Reese tried to stop a mugging but was attacked himself and killed two of his assailants and put the other two in hospital badly burned.

Ice cream and donuts are way better than fighting.

Katharsis points out he did it because he was acting in self defence, then gets up to use the toilet.  Virtue says she can sense there is someone Batgirl hates very much (image of the Joker) and would she kill them if she could?  Batgirl gets annoyed and says to keep out of her way while she looks for Reese.

Then Katharsis cold cocks her from behind and knocks her out. Their plan is to take her back to HQ and photo her unmasked for leverage against her.  The chapter ends with Reese killing two cops saying, "I am a hero can't you see that?  I'm a hero."

They bring the unconcious Batgirl down to their HQ and lay her out.  Tremor thinks what they are doing is a bit skeevy.  Virtue says the photos will just be for them.  Katharsis goes out to look for Reese herself.  They point a camera at Batgirl and start to peel off her mask.

Hey! Not cool Movement, not cool at all.

But she starts to come round and sees an image of the Joker standing over her with a camera (the events of The Killing Joke are partly canon, but she wasn't permanently crippled this time), and she punches Virtue hard.  She disables Tremor too as she imagines herself shot in the gut on the floor of her home.  The approaches Burden who says, "I am a little bit frightened right now ma'am!".

Batgirl starts to help the others up and says they triggered a traumatic memory for her.  One of The Movement's eyes on the street says she's seen Reese.  The location is transmitted to Katharsis who locates him.  He tells her to leave him alone, she replies "you're sort of bringing a ruckus"  They fight while Katharsis compliments him on his good looks.

Katharsis finds Reese.

Elsewhere the Graveyard Shift hand their notice into Mr. Cannon.  He calls them cowards, Anguish says "maybe but we're still alive". Mr. Cannon says to Terry they have to find another solution to their "little Channel M problem".

Batgirl apologises to Virtue for practically breaking her nose.  She looks around the HQ and is told they feeld, clothe, house and protect those society has failed.  Batgirl thinks she may have misjudged them.  Virtue says she has Katharsis dealing with the problem of Reese, "I trust her good judgement".  Cut to Katharis and Reese kissing in the air.

With things a bit quieter  Tremor tries to have a word with Mouse over his infatuation with her.  She says she is flattered but:

Tremor: "Mouse, I'm asexual".

Mouse doesn't understand, ("A sexual what?") and nor does Burden much to Vengeance Moth's amusement.

Superheroing doesn't always result in sexy times, alas.

Virtue tells Batgirl they'll take care of Reese, but Batgirl says that's not happening.  Reese and Katharsis meanwhile have made love. "They are going to kill me" says Reese to her.  But she reassures him she won't allow that.  She flies him to a bridge to explain it doesn't matter what he does, because on one side of the bridge is the 'Tweens.  Every city has them.

The others are waiting on the bridge too.  Katharsis defends Reese, but Virtue tells him he's killed two Coral City cops earlier.  Angered she turns and says to him:

Katharsis: "Dammit.  Did you we just.. just do that when you still had cop blood on your hands?"

Deciding Reese's fate.

Reese looks sad and says he was going to be a hero.  Katharsis gets ready to chop his head off, but Batgirl disarms her.  Virtue says, "there is no good side here... none that I can see."  They decide to let the Coral City cops deal with him which satisfies Batgirl.  Before she leaves she invites Virtue to Gotham, they need some positivity.

Virtue: "We don't always get a choice Batgirl.  We don't always get to choose."

Some days later The Tall Man arrives in Coral City saying he is looking for the devil, "An' I've come to take him home".  Rainmaker and Virtue have managed to have a date, and have a passionate snog at the end of it.

Well sometimes superheroing DOES get you sexytimes!

The Tall Man comes to the soup kitchen Burden and Katharsis are helping at.  Katharsis notes Burden has a real thing about family when one of the homeless calls him "son".  Sadly Burden admits, "they did not think well of me". The Tall Man comes over and says it is because of the blood on his hands and he has come to take Burden home.  He is Jacob, Burden's brother.

Katharsis tries to stop him and Jacob beats her almost unconcious.  Burden hugs her and thanks her and goes without a fight with Jacob before he can hurt anymore people.  Later the rest of the group convene and Virtue tries to follow Jacob's emotional trail but is overwhelmed by the rage and hatred it is made up of, "he is made of hate.  Made of it".

Burden's brother Jacob is a dick.

Katharsis suggest following Burdens emotional trail instead and we get a shot of Jacob flying home carry Burden with him.  They arrive at their religious commune an Elder York says they didn't want Burden back after he killed his father, it is due to Jacob's kindess that he is back "for the dignity of the trials.  Thank him for the merciful scourge you are to receive boy".

Burden is dragged to a cross and tied to it.  He says he admits killing his father but can't recall doing it.  Jacob tells the story of their childhood, but his self aggrandising words are at odds with the images showing the truth.

We see him flying as a child.  He says he was "born of angels and given to a Godly woman".  We then see him telling his parents that the newly born baby is "the devil's own leavings". He says he prayed and prayed for Burden until his knees bled, while we see that actually he tried to drown a young Burden to bring his devil power out.

Burden's unhappy childhood.

Father scourged Burden daily, "but in the end he was too kind, too gentle by half" as we see Burden tied to a bed being whipped across his naked back. One day Jacob woke Burden up and showed him their father's dead body saying Burden did it.  That's when Burden ran away.

He opens his wings and is about to brand Burden with a hot iron, Katharsis appears and punches him, saying "he's not your brother anymore.  He's our brother."  While they fight, Virtue tells the crowd Jacob is lying.  Burden then changes into his demon self and takes Jacob on.

Jacob: "I have the face of an angel and a heart of filth.  While you are my opposite brother.  They will always choose me".

Demons are cooler than angels anyway.

Burden rams Jacob's face into the hot coals, and as he turns back their mother runs to Jacob saying "you hurt my beautiful son.  You monster!  You abomination before God".

Burden and the others leave, but before he goes, Burden turns as says to the crowd, "also?  I like other boys."  And they head home.

Burden triumphant with his new family.

The final issue starts with captain Meers  finding Virtue leaving her place of work.  He asks, "why The Movement?  What was the endgame here?"  She replies that she has a "silly little dream" where they could be part of something better, "where people cared about each other".

She says that they live in the 'Tweens, they'll never join the club that lives on Mount Olympus.  He tells her she's a kid and the world isn't her responsibility.  She tells him when she was younger she manifested her power and her mum made a "terrible decision" and had her declared dead and sent away to live with an aunt with her father none the wiser.

Mr. Cannon meanwhile is contemplating his wife's grave and asks her to forgive him for his weakness. He then asks an assisstant if she has found the cop, she says yes and "he's agreed to you terms."

Down in Movement HQ, Virtue fixes Mouse up with a woman who works in a pet shop and loves rats.  She has even bought him cheese.  Mouse tells Tremor he is with Margaret now, much to Tremor's relief.  Katharsis says Virtue is amazing at this sort of thing.  Burden wonders if their is the perfect guy out there for him as well.

Mr. Cannon needs help.

Then Vengeance Moth detects someone approaching via the tunnels.  It's Mr. Cannon.  One of his aides swipes Mouse's rats and he attacks her, but Mr. Cannon says he is here to negociate not fight.

Virtue carries on telling the story of what happened next.  He wonders why they agreed to work with Mr. cannon, she says she could detect his feelings as a father, it's the nature of her power that she finds "something to hold on to in even the worst of people".  She says the reason she was sent away and declared dead was because she lashed out at her father when he grounded her for seeing a girl she liked and hospitalised him.

Anyway, they agreed to help Mr. Cannon catch the Cornea Killer, and go to the graveyard where he says he'll be.  But Terry fights back, wounding Mouse with a knife to the chest.  Then ex-police officer Whitt fires on them from the bushes.

The death of the Cornea Killer via corrupt ex-cop.

It was a set up to kill The Movement and have Terry take the credit but also die a hero. Whitt's first shot just skims Katharsis.  He gets Virtue in his sights but Terry pushes her away and he gets shot in the head instead.  They leave Mr. Cannon to greive his son's death.

Virtue tells Captain Meers that she hated him for a long time because of him shooting her father, but now she knows he is a good man.  He says he doesn't see much of his own daughter nowadays, so perhaps he could look in on her from time to time.  They hug.

He tells her to be careful, "they'll never change enough fit in with the Justice people".  Virtue responds:

Virtue: "Oh I know.  That was never the plan.  But sooner or later captain, they're going to have to change to fit in with us".

And they all lived happily ever after...

And that brings the whole series to a premature end.  It's a real shame tumblr popularity couldn't be reflected in sales.  It was never going to be a mega seller, but it's a shame it was felt there was no place for a metahuman team of young immigrants of varying sexualities, working at street level to protect the "little people".  The series at least comes to a decent end, and doesn't feel too abrupt.  We were just getting to know the characters thanks to Simone's skillful way with words, the coversations felt authentic and not some embarrassing attempt to be hip.  She was helped immeasurably by Freddie Williams II's down and dirty artwork adept both at showing superheroes fighting or showing one character having to be enticed into a shower.  DC took a risk with The Movement and got exactly the right author writing it, but like future attempts at diversity in the DCYou, the word just didn't get out to the less social media inclined comicbook readership.  I also have this terrible fear that now Gail Simone is gone from DC, the characters will end up expendable cannon fodder in some future "Crisis Crossover" type event.  Don't do that DC, please leave them alone with their happy ending.  Please....

The Movement Book 1: Class Warfare (#1-6)

"Your whole world is over" - Virtue

Superhero comics need more diversity and I think the lack of it is slowly killing the genre as older more set in their ways readers are not being replaced fast enough by newer, younger fans.  There I said it.  It's ridiculous still that in 2016 we still have so many pale, male and stale heroes running about the DCU and Marvelverse.  Strides have been taken towards getting more black and female heroes out there, but it isn't enough. And you can count the number of homo/bisexual heroes allowed to headline a book on the fingers of one hand that is missing nearly all its fingers (where are you now, Batwoman? you will be missed Midnighter. Stay swinging both ways John).  Fortunately there are creators like Gail Simone out there who have made exceptional amounts of effort to include minority characters in her stories.  The Movement was a New 52 series that sadly only ran for twelve issues before cancellation (Deeee Ceeee!! *shakes fist*), but which gave us a team of that included not only gay and lesbian members but also a disabled one and even the return of a Bengali female hero she created for Secret Six who is officially asexual, a sexual preference that is usually treated with pity and "oh you'll grow out of it when you fall in love" type crap. Yes, The Movement is basically the most "Gail Simone" comic there has ever been, but I applaud her for it.  She also shows an interest in dealing with issues raised by the Occupy movement as well as being unafraid to show a city where the police are corrupt and bully the underclass relentlessly hence the formation of "The Movement" to stick up for the less fortunate of Coral City where they are based.  Simone is aided in this by Freddie Williams II's expressively gritty, thick lined artwork that gives the whole thing a more down-and-dirty look than your more usual superhero comic.

I'll introduce the characters before we get started, they are Virtue, who can ride peoples emotions and use the power she takes offensively and acts as the defacto leader of the group; Tremor who can cause localised earthquakes; Mouse who can speak to and control rats; Katharsis (who was introduced in Simone's Batgirl run) who doesn't have powers but can fly using home made wings and has superior hand-to-hand combat skills; Vengeance Moth who can form a glowing green moth shape around her and use it as a shield and fly when doing so, and they are joined in the first issue by Burden whose powers manifest as a demonic style possession.  They range from being in their late teens to early twenties which helps explain some of their more ill thought out plans.

Officer Whitt sexually harasses a minor.

It is night time in Coral City.  Two cops, a brutish older one called Whitt and a younger one called Pena are busting a couple for drug dealing.  The man insists he is not a dealer. Pena wants to let them go with a warning, Whitt says Ok but they keep the drugs and "your girlfriend gives us a little peak." 

Before he can ogle her boobs, he hears his words being played back, suddenly they are surrounded by masked figures with smartphones replaying his words over and over.  Back at the precinct the Captain is shown video footage of the incident being played on the news, provided by the hacker group "Channel M".  Furious he tries to fire the officers, Whitt laughs the incident off saying the girl looked older than sixteen.  Officer Yee says the captain can't fire them as the force is now run directly by the city council and he'll have to go through them.  Then he is told "The Cornea Killer" has struck again.

We cut to a young man, Burden standing outside a church.  He looks lost and lonely so the pastor invites him inside even though Burden says bad things happen to him in churches.  The captain is at the scene of the Cornea Killer's latest victim and notes a puddle of water under the dead body, same as the other victims.  He tries to send Whitt and Pena away from the scene, another officer called Yee says they are "good cops."

Burden's power manifests.

Inside the church Burden suddenly turns demonic, his head spins round 180 degrees much to the alarm of the pastor who runs away.  The police are informed and they think it might be the Cornea Killer.  The captain leads the cops to go check it out.  We are then introduced to the winged Katharsis and Mouse with his beloved rats who are lurking nearby checking out what is going on.

Inside the church, Burden is levitating and tells the captain "hell says hi by the way."  Mouse then rides in on a wave of rats and introduces himself as the Prince of them.  Burden turns normal again and begs the pastor for help.  Outside, Tremor uses her earthquake powers to disable the cop cars.  The captain, now outside the church, calls for reinforcements, then Virtue comes up behind him saying "I see you captain, and you are trespassing".

Mouse, the Prince of Rats.

Katharsis confronts Whitt and baits him into a fist fight which she wins, knocking him out. Virtue tells the captain she is part of "The Movement", she uses his emotions to ride to his home.  When she returns she tells him his wife is having an affair with officer Yee. Then she informs him:

Virtue: "You're in the tweens.  From tenth street to twentieth street, that's ours now.  No one wants you here."

The captain says there is a killer in the church.  Virtue says there isn't, there is just a screwed up kid who has been told he was possessed and has the superhuman powers to make it happen, "we'll look after him".

They will find the killer themselves, then she tells him to "get the hell out."  The captain goes into the church now Burden is gone with the Movement but the pastor and his flock are now all wearing masks and tell him he is no longer welcome.

Mouse, Tremor, Virtue, Katharsis, Burden

The Movement also capture Whitt and Pena in all the chaos and are leading them cuffed and blindfolded to their headquarters.  Whitt makes various threats that Virtue brushes off.  She takes off their blindfolds and reveals them to be in an old garment factory that was once a sweatshop where many women and children died due to negligent health and safety.

They have quite a few normal people hanging around there as well, one of them is the girl Whitt tried to sexually assault and she slaps him hard.  Virtue puts them in a cell, Pena says they are sorry for what happened but Whitt tells him to shut up.  Whitt says putting them in prison makes them no better than the factory owners who locked the workers in and caused their deaths.

Tremor says he has a good point.  Virtue agrees, "that kinda stung actually".  Then Vengeance Moth appears and says Mouse is losing it and freaking some of the kids out.  Virtue leaves her guarding the prisoners, she offers them a fruit snack.  Mouse is grieving the loss of his favourite rat "Mr Trouncer."  Virtue comforts him and gets him to calm down.

Nooo, not Mr. Trouncer!

Elsewhere, the Captain is brooding about being thrown out of the Tweens.  Then he is told Whitt and Pena are missing.  The captain says he witnessed a man on a tidal wave of rats, the cop cars were swallowed by an earthquake and he saw a boy turn into a biblical demon.  They will return, but they are bringing more firepower.

The Movement have a meeting in the childrens playroom.  Virtue asks the others what she thinks they should do with the prisoners.  Tremor says they should let them go, "this whole plan is ridiculous".  Angrily, Katharsis says they should mess them up.  Virtue says no, that's evil, which is what they are trying to fight.  Katharsis also asks why Burden is there with them, Virtue says they need more muscle.

Burden: "You are speaking of me as if I had superpowers.  I don't. I'm possessed by a dark lord of hell.  My soul is foreit."

Tremor returns to the subject of the prisoners. She says she thought the whole point was to show them confessing their misdeeds, "if we start torturing prisoners, I'm out".

Katharsis accuses her of being a spy, someone has been leaking Channel M secrets and she believes Tremor is the source.  Katharsis says the Cornea Killer is out there taking eyeballs from homeless people and she is going to investigate and she departs saying she knows who to ask about all this.  The others decide it's time to go and see "the Witch".

Katharsis questions James Cannon.

Katharsis arrives at the home of James Cannon.  The man who runs Coral City.  He insists he is just a developer, but Katharsis says he tells he city council what to do.  At the homebase of the Witch, the Movement are attacked by her loyal followers, at the same time Cannon sets a load of armoured goons on Katharsis.  After fending off their attackers, the Witch appears to take them on, she is better known as "Rainmaker" (a hero from Gen 13, a comic from the Wildstorm universe).

Katharsis puts up a good fight against the goons, but is overwhelmed.  Cannon says to take her to the precinct, he is going to interrogate her himself and when he is done she'll beg to tell him where her friends are.  The others are not doing very well battling Rainmaker.

Elsewhere a homeless man is begging out on the streets when a small raincloud appears above his head.  Realising this is the calling card of the Cornea Killer he tries to run but is cornered.  He begs the Killer not to harm his dog, "I'm not a monster" replies the Killer.

At Movement headquarters, Vengeance Moth brings the cops some burgers.  Whitt deduces that because the burgers are still warm they must be close to a burger joint.  Vengeance Moth says she'll have to be careful round him.  Whitt says that imprisoning them for a first offence is something the police wouldn't do, so are the police "more merciful" than they are?  Vengeance Moth says she isn't the person they should be talking to about all this, they should talk to the person who set it all up, Virtue.

Introducing Rainmaker.

Rainmaker keeps up her attack, but Mouse manages to grab one of her followers and Virtue says he'll bite his neck if Rainmaker doesn't stop.  She does so and Virtue is finally able to tell her they don't work for "the man."  She tells Rainmaker that the Cornea Killer is killing people and leaving evidence making it look like she did it.  Rainmaker says they need to talk to James Cannon about all this.

Rainmaker: "He looks at Coral City like it's a failing business and he smells blood in the water."

He wants a perfect city, with everyone in their neat little boxes.  He doesn't hate them, they are just "in the way".  Virtue asks her to join them, but Rainmaker refuses saying she just wants to be left alone.  But before she departs she gives Virtue her number and tells her to call her sometime.

Then they get the news that the cops have Katharsis. She is shackled to a chair in the police station and is being brutalised by Cannon.   Virtue appears in the captains office and she apologises for telling him about his wife cheating on him.  She proposes an exchange of prisoners, he explains she doesn't get to come in here and make demands.  Virtue says she tried to be nice, then she shows him a large crowd of protestors that have gathered outside.

Virtue:  "I tried to be nice.  Now we tear your damn 'house' down to the ground."

Virtue says she can read his emotions, he is angry but there is fear there as well.  He says her people will never win and will get hurt trying.  Virtue just wants her "soldier" back.  The captain asks her who made her this way "who are you?" Virtue responds soon it'll be "easier to ask who we aren't."

Virtue and captain Meers.

And the protestors start rioting, overturning cops cars and beating down the precinct door. Time for some flashbacks, Mouse was born into a life of wealth and priviledge.  But he didn't fit in and left home, feeling he was "born wrong.  Wrong species" and down in the sewers with the street kids he found he could communicate with rats.

Mouse: "Being poor doesn't make someone bad.  I just want people to know that."

The captain orders everyone into riot gear to quell the mob now in the station.  Virtue meanwhile has flown off.  Down in the interrogation cell, one of the officers is having second thoughts about what they are doing to Katharsis.

She has a flashback, she was an immigrant to the US as a child from Laos.  She joined the police force, but one day, frustrated by a creep who murdered an immigrant girl like her and got off, she hunted him down and showed him the meaning of fear.  And so she ended up on the run.

Katharsis being "interrogated".

Cannon is informed the station is under attack and as he leaves, heavily implies they should kill Katharsis to cover up what they did to her.  Amongst the chaos, Tremor says to herself that this isn't right.  She remembers her childhood, and how her family came to the US from Bengal after she got the label "witch" for showing off her powers.  One day she got in a fatal car crash in which she was the only survivor.  She couldn't face her family and left home.  Lost, Amanda Waller, the DCU black ops specialist found her and asked her to infiltrate the underground that wants "to overthrow our country".  So she became a spy.

Virtue finds her and says she senses Katharsis is going to be killed, also a tank and choppers are on their way.  The rioters corner a cop and start crushing him, Burden comes to his rescue and has a flashback too.  His deeply religious father scourged him daily to try and beat the devil out of him.  But it didn't work, so Burden left home to protect his loved ones.

Tremor faces the tank and disables it saying The Movement are her friends, "I have much to atone for.  And please tell Waller I quit".  Rainmaker also appears and takes out the choppers for them.  The captain makes his way down to the sub-basement where Katharsis was being held, but Mouse, Burden and Virtue have got there first.  He allows them to leave, and Virtue tells him to clean his house, "it's positively filthy".

The Movement take care of their own.

We then see a TV newsreader reporting on the riot and it informs us that in at least six cities, new branches of The Movement are being formed.

Newsreader: "Some citizens, discontented with what they see as an abusive, uncaring authority structure, have called these people 'heroes'.  For all our sakes, let us pray that they are right".

Next day there us a meeting of the city council.  Cannon says he is bringing in some additional firepower.  The council is considering abandoning the city, but he shows them news reports of The Movement in other cities saying where would they go?

The captain meets with Virtue in a diner, he tells them he knows they are planning to put the two cops on trial.  Virtue realises they have a leak.  He tells them superhuman help has been summoned to deal with them.  He offers her a civilian board to deal with police malfeasance, they go back to patrolling the tweens and civilians can ride along with police at their own risk.  Virtue thanks him but says they can't stop it now, it's already in motion.

Whitt and Pena on "trial".

We cut to Whitt and Pena on "trial" in Movement headquarters.  They are charged with sexual harassment of a minor.  Pena pleads guilty immediately much to Whitt's disgust.  This isn't enough for the girl Whitt tried to grope.  Tremor puts the case for the defence noting both men have multiple citations for bravery.  Whitt says he doesn't have to explain himself, but Pena admits they messed up.  The trial is being viewed online via live streaming, as Pena says he puts his life on the time every day only to be called "pig" by the kids he is trying to help.

Whitt keeps raging that he has nothing to say, and "you're fooling yourself if you think this changes anything."  Meanwhile Mouse is outside composing a love letter to Tremor.  A sex worker nearby is confronted by the Cornea Killer and one of Mouse's rats goes and tells him, so Mouse goes to investigate.  He rides in on his wave of rats and starts fighting the Cornea Killer as the sex worker makes her getaway.

Vengeance Moth escorts the cops back to their cell while the "court" deliberates.  Whitt grabs her chair and tips her out of it.  Pena is immediately apologetic, but angrily she floats upwards surrounded by a moth shaped energy field.  Katharsis tackles Whitt saying he has reached a new low attacking a woman in a wheelchair.

Vengeance Moth gets mad, Mouse comes to the rescue.

Tremor disables Katharsis briefly and creates a tunnel for the cops to escape down having had enough of all this shit.  Katharsis calls her a traitor to The Movement and Tremor says maybe she doesn't want to be in it anymore if this is how they carry on.

Mouse and the Cornea Killer fight to a standstill, then suddenly a gang of superhumans appear.  The Cornea Killer introduces them:

Cornea Killer: "Coral City's new police force, the Graveyard Shift.  Consider yourself an all your little friends evicted."

Katharsis and Tremor start brawling as they do so the people viewing the live stream start tweeting about it.  Vengeance Moth evacuates the building as people are scared of what Tremor's powers could do.  Then Virtue appears and breaks them up.  She reads Tremor's emotions and says she is scared, scared for Katharsis's soul if she becomes a murderer.

Tremor and Katharsis work out their differences.

Sadly, Tremor says they were supposed to help people, but look at Burden cowering in a corner, "he's in pain all the time.  What have we done to help him?"  The Cornea Killer is still out there, they used Burden as a weapon and they were just worried about a show trial for two dirty cops.  Vengeance Moth wonders if they can actually help Burden.  Virtue thinks they can.  She then sends Tremor and Katharsis off to the diner to eat ice cream and not leave until they have shaken hands.

In the tunnels, Whitt makes plans to return and "bust a few heads".  Pena says he just wants to forget this place.  Who really scares him is the guy with the rats, who is currently battling Graveyard Shift.  He puts up a valiant struggle but the sheer numbers tell against him.

Mouse vs. The Graveyard Shift.

Virtue ties Burden to a bed and takes Vengeance Moth aside to say they are going to perform a placebo exorcism using her emotion powers.  Tremor and Virtue go to the diner and order sundaes.  Katharsis says she isn't going to apologise, Tremor says "you are a soldier not an executioner".  They tuck into their ice cream.

Burden has transformed into his demonic self.  She pretends she has some holy water she is going to pour on him and his emotions show extreme fear.  She pulls that fear out of him and tells Burden he is free now.  He is delighted, saying "Bless you. Bless you" in gratitude.

Cannon is outside walking home to his penthouse when a single rain cloud appears above him. Then the Cornea Killer appears and says "Hi dad.  You won't believe the night I've had."  Tremor and Katharsis are much more friendly to each other now and grudgingly Katharsis says she'll rein herself in a bit more.  The call a truce and shake hands.  They leave the diner only to be confronted by Mouse, badly beated and tied up, strung from a lampost with the sign "I've been a bad rodent" hanging off him.  End volume one.

Poor Mouse!

I really enjoyed this.  Speaking as a member of the Class War Federation in my misspent youth and a currently paid up member of the lefty, commie, pinko feminist-homosexualist axis some of this read like Anarchy 101 to me, but I appreciate Simone is writing for a younger, more conservative audience than me.  I like a group that is full of dysfunctional people but still stays together like a family, Secret Six was the same, also written by Simone.  The idea of having real street level heroes representing the underclass is a pretty radical one, and having it made up of immigrants and having a majority female membership only makes it more appealing to me.  Suggesting the police aren't paragons of moral authority is also quite brave in this day and age too.  The art is excellent, Williams II excels at facial representation and puts in detail where it matters, just check out his rendering of Mouse's rat friends. Simone gives us a collection of divergent personalities and allows the conflicts to work themselves through in a way that feels natural.  Like I said in the intro, they are all pretty young, who didn't make questionable decisions at that age?  Coral City is just lucky the two most powerful members are the level headed ones.  Unfortunately there is only one more volume, six issues left to go as Tumblr popularity didn't factor into sales success.  I'll be covering volume two in a couple of months time.  See you then.

Seven Soldiers Of Victory: Mister Miracle (#1-4)

"How about you and me escape together?" - Mister Miracle

Once upon a time in the 1970's a man called Jack Kirby came to DC comics and created many popular and long lasting characters and concepts some of whom we've already met during this series.  By far the most popular and enduring creations to come out of that time were The New Gods.  Two sets of alien Gods, the good ones of New Genesis led by High Father and the evil ones of Apokalips led by Darkseid, who you may have heard of, he's probably the DCU's most prominent uber villain now.  They decided to form a pact in which the two leaders exchanged sons, Darkseid sent his rambunctious son Orion to New Genesis, and High Father's son, known only by the name he got given there "Scott Free" went to Apokalips and became an escapologist who could escape from anything.  He finally escaped to Earth and became a sometime member of the Justice League for a while and still active in the DCU to this day.  He is NOT the Mister Miracle this miniseries is about, although the background of The New Gods is still hugely relevant to it.  This mini contains a third Mister Miracle also created by Jack Kirby called Shilo Norman, who is Scott Free's apprentice and who was fairly obscure and unused by the time Morrison picked him for Seve Soldiers.  This I have to say is my least favourite of the series, mainly due to it requiring so much backstory knowledge of the New God's pantheon and also for basically being a prequel to the Grant Morrison penned crisis crossover that followed Seven Soldiers - Final Crisis - sharing with that series the same unclarity of writing that can make Morrison's work infuriating at times.  It's also the only miniseries to suffer inconsistent artwork Pasqual Ferry does the first issue and I assume deadlines got the better of him as Freddie William's II take's over for the rest on the mini.  Both artist's work is fine, but there is a slick, soulessness to it that isn't really my cup of tea.  Anyway, moving on.

Escaping a black hole (or not)

The story begins with Shilo doing the ultimate act of escapology, escaping an artificially created black hole.  He has a Motherbox, a sentient computer owned by the New Gods, which was given to him by Scott Free. Something goes wrong and he finds himself face to face with Metron, the science God, who tells Shilo he is needed:

Metron: "I am Metron.  Observer/Calculator/Traveller/Rebel."

Motherbox tells Shilo the void inside him is about to be filled.  He is told about the War in Heaven and that the "Dark Side" won.

Metron: "The choice is simple.  Freee the bright ones of be slaves to the dark.  Live and join us or die for the Dark Side."

Then Shilo appears out of the black hole.  Later his friend and manager wants him to join a party celebrating his feat.  Shilo says "There has to be more than this."  He ponders his vision of Metron, his friend says maybe he is having a mid-life crisis.  Shilo, retorts he's only twenty-three.  We then cut to him in therapy.  He tells his therapist he was taken to some girls at the party, a woman offering him them has a forked tongue. Shilo cries "They're not even human. They're from the Dark Side." And he runs outside.  His therapist is skeptical about this whole, War Of The Gods thing.

Therapist: "You gamble with death because you can't face life Shilo.  Maybe this is life forcing you to change."

Shilo: "I've been coming here for three years, how come my self-esteem never improves."

Shilo and his therapist

Later outside a man in a wheelchair accosts him. Shilo intitally mistakes him for Metron. He says he is not, but sometimes they share a wager.  He says he made a bet on Shilo's life:

Man: "I said you'd lose everything at the beginning.  Death the Black Racer tells it like it is.  You've attrached unwelcome attention from the Dark Side."

Then a black car attempts to kill Shilo as the man says it was "time he was tested.  Can he escape death itself?"

Another man in a wheelchair shows up and tells Shilo he is being tested for his first experience with the Dark Side.  Shilo jumps and leaps to avoid the black car.  The two wheel chair bound men discuss him.  The second man says he is "freedom's spirit", the other one says he has a motherboxx, the last one in existence.  Shilo then escapes into the sewers, outrunning the black car.

Outfoxing the "Black Racer"

He comes across who the thinks is the Metron in a wheelchair, but the man is heavily disabled and freaks out.  A huge guy comes and yells at Shilo for upsetting him,but also calls the man Metron. Shilo says he has a motherboxx so they large guy takes him to a gang of homeless people.  But when Shilo pulls out motherboxx they run and the big guy tells him to go away.  Back in therapy:

Shilo;"Down in the dirt there was a brotherhood and community and vision.. like human life, all human life was so precious and every individual human story worthy of.. I don't know.. mythology."

The therapist says his experience in the black hole was a quasi-religious one, leading to him seeing every bum on the steet as a prophet.  Shilo says he did the stunt in the black hole not for symbolism and his motherboxx is just a childish thing.  He imagines her talking to him and it keeps him calm.  His therapist wants to see it but Shilo says it's personal and leaves.

Next we see the therapist taling on the phone about how he intends to get Shilo to hand him the motherboxx.  He also has a forked tongue.  Then he puts the phone to the ear of a distraught woman in his office and infects her with the anti-life equation.  The issue ends with a huge grinning black guy thanking the therapist for bring Shilo to their attention.

Never trust a beard like that.

The action then cuts to a new escapologist called "Baron Bedlam" who also does impossible stunts.  Shilo tells his therapist that he intends to invite the Baron to open for him at his next big show, even if it is weird having so close and imitator.  Back home he obssessively watches Bedlam's stunts saying it's impossible for him to have survived them.

His friend, ZZ say's it was unwise to tell the newspapers about all the war between good and evil stuff as people are laughing at him now.  Shilo realises ZZ is going out with Lashina, one of the dubious girls from the last issue.  And he makes them go away.  Later Jonelle, Shilo's girlfriend, goes to find ZZ to get him to make up with Shilo.  She finds him hooked up to lots of thing wires, and "Granny" grabs her saying "You're mine now."

Next Baron Bedlam confronts Shilo, saying he intends to replace him, all of Shilo's friends including Jonelle are with him.  His therapist - Dezard - appears and says:

Dezard: "Poor insane Shilo.  Your New Gods have abandoned you.  Now is the time of evil gods.  Now is the time of your soul's extinction."

Baron Bedlam and Shilo's friends.

And he has Motherboxx.  The huge black guy they all call Dark Side appears and whispers the Anti-Life Equation in Shilo's ear.  Shilo staggers out into the street in emotional pain from the equation, but a random act of kindness on the street brings him to his senses and he returns for Jonelle.  Dark Side says Shilo must be immune to the Equation but not the Omega Sanction. 

Then the others start beating him, as he cries for Motherboxx which is being taken apart by Dezard.  He is then set on fire and put in a car boot and pushed over the edge of a cliff.  The issue ends with him heavily bandaged in a wheelchair, buying adult nappies, which Dark Side finds amusing.  Finally two strangers approach and say:

Stranger 1: "The life equation has you in its grip."

Stranger 2: "And there's only one way out."

Boss "Dark Side"

The final issue begins with the disabled man from the end of the previous issue dead from an overdose.  Back to normal, Shilo is barbequing stuff as Jonelle reads him an article about a man called Shilo Norman who commited suicide the day they moved there.  Then Shilo embraces his daughter, then time jumps and she is a teenager, then he is an old man on a hospital bed.  Then we find Shilo working at a prison, his co-worker saying he "wound up sacrifcing your dreams to a steady pay-check."  He goes to see a huge prisoner called Aurakles.

Aurakles: "Did.. did the spear find it's mark?"

He then tells Shilo he sees a dying man inspiring a hero in him, but "what have you become?"  He says he was broken in the torture camps of the "Sheeda at summers end".

Aurakles, actually important for the finale.

Aurakles: "Thou are lost as I am.  Only set me free and break this chain....wilt thou give up thy life for me?"

Shilo then says he'll set Aurakles free.  Meanwhile Dezard has dissected motherboxx but her consciousness has escaped and merged with Shilo's.

Dark Side: "There can be no escape from Omega.  Each new existence more degraded than the last."

After being forced to live many lives, we finally see Shilo in the void.  He addresses Omega - the "prison he can never escape".  But Shilo says Omega is suffering too and why don't they escape together.  Dark Side angrily says to Dezard that Shilo is turning Omega against him and attacks Dezard.

Child Shilo is being talked to by a different therapist who says he has let the death of his brother overshadow his life:

Therapist: "Forgive yourself and remove those chains you wear.  Become what you were born to be."

Then he is back face-to-face with Metron, who says he survived the first initiation into the "mysteries of the New Gods."  And he is spat out of the black hole one week after going inside it.

Scientist: "Welcome home Mister Miracle."

Meeting Metron again and escaping properly.

And so this miniseries ends,  Apart from one mention of the Sheeda they are entirely absent from this mini, in the same way all the New God's shenanigans is absent from all the other miniseries.  This is basically, as I said at the start a set up for Final Crisis, especially all the Boss Dark Side stuff.  Aurakles will be important in the finale, as will Mister Miracle, although the threads tying all this stuff to the main Sheeda plot is incredibly thin. If you know nothing of Darkseid, Metron, the Anti-Life Equation and the New Gods this is a baffling to the point of incoherence miniseries as no time at all is spent explaining them nor why they are messing about in human shape.  Artistically it is decent, even if it is somewhat undistinguished and totally overshadowed by the quirky excellence of several of the other miniseries.  So, definitely my least favourite of the collection, still decent but also frustrating and suffering from severe unclarity in place.