Black Canary Book 2: New Killer Star (#8-12, Gotham Academy #17)

"I've been in a real bad situation, making bad decisions.  I didn't want to tell you" - Dinah Lance

Ladies month returns to a happier time with more from the DCYou, yes there is still stuff there I want to cover and no I'm not letting it go, with a look at the second and final volume of Black Canary.  Black Canary is a character with a very long history in the DCU and you can read about it here.  This incarnation actually has Dinah Lance as lead singer of a punk rock band called Black Canary, with her still having awesome martial arts prowess and a superpower in her "Canary Cry" sonic scream.  In the first volume we spent our time showing her on the road with her band and being stalked by a woman in white ninja get-up.  At the end after Black Canary beat an alien called The Quietus the ninja revealed herself to Dinah and that was the cliffhanger of the previous volume.  This final five issues unfortunately tries to wrap up several plot threads that were obviously expected to run over a much longer period than five issues and so everything feels somewhat rushed as the music takes a back seat to Dinah searching for the truth about her monther and unlocking her ultimate martial and sonic art.  There is also a single issue crossover with the wonderful (and cancelled of course), Gotham Academy which was also written by Brendan Fletcher and which shows band member Heathcliffe hooking up with Black Canary.  This volume has a few artists who manage to keep to a style consistent with the prior volume and give the comic a nice punky vibe.  So let's wrap up this incarnation of Black Canary.

We begin with a fanzine article telling us that Dinah is missing, the lead guitarist is presumed dead and the rest of the band is being held for questioning by the police, "it seems like Black Canary is all but done."  We then cut to the interrogation room where we are told the band have been questioned for two weeks and they still say they have no idea where their lead singer "D.D." has gone. 

The lead cop says that their old singer "Maeve Tivana" is behind bars and the promoter is pressing charges, the only reason they are being kept free is the lawyers their record label has sprung for them.   The lawyers finally arrive and Byron says are they free to go now?  The cop says they shouldn't count on being free for long thanks to property damage, injuries, missing persons and possible deaths.  They are not to leave Gotham because they'll want to speak to them again soon.

The band leave and outside the police station one of their lawyers says that Kurt Lance sends his thanks for keeping "Ditto" the lead guitarist out of it.   Ditto is "an alien made of living sound" and is hiding out at Kurt's place.   Kurt is apparently convalescing in a remote area.  He wanted them to have something urgently, it's a message saying Dinah is in Berlin and needs their help.  A cabaret performance will be their cover, all travel and accomodation has been arranged for them.  So they are back on tour.

Dinah fighting ninjas.

We cut to Dinah fighting and beating a whole bunch of attackers.  Then a woman dressed like Adam Ant in the "Prince Charming" video orders her to be sent back to the cells.  Dinah is caged up with a black woman who asks if the woman in charge was wearing her totem necklace?  Dinah gives her a thumbs up, seems she cannot speak.  The black woman is actually a hero called Vixen who wears the totem necklace to give her the power of any animal she wishes.

Dinah has a bad cut on her upper arm so Vixen rips her skirt to bandage her up as she explains about her necklace to her.  Then the white ninja appears on top of the cage saying she could free them right now...

Ninja: " But them my neice might never find out what happened to her mother."

Vixen demands she set them free but the ninja says she has searched a long time to find Dinah and she loves her and trusts her to get the job done.  She had taught Dinah new martial arts forms and "there were times I almost believed I was looking at my sister."

Dinah's aunt.

If Dinah keeps fighting they'll believe she has what they want and they'll bring her before "Headmistress Ravanahatha" and then they can strike and make her talk.  Vixen says she didn't sign up for this "weird ninja-cult family drama" and she is going to get out with them or in spite of them.

The ninja tells Vixen that she doesn't understand what's at stake here.  Before Dinah was born she was one of the worlds most talented martial artists.  She founded this institution with her friends making it a place of learning.  She left it in safe hands and built a family but a terrible evil began to grow up in the school.

She left her family to sort things out at the school, "she never returned."  Her schools former teachers are now turning up dead and these warrior women would not fall easily. The killers were looking for something and they think they have found it in Dinah.   They'll make her fight until they see her use the "Five Heavens Palm.  Her mothers secret technique".   That had something to do with her mother's disappearance.  Dinah allowed herself to be captured to get closer to the truth.  Vixen asks where she had been all these years and the ninja says "family business" and departs.

We then cut to the rest of the band on their way to Berlin by plane.  On board they bump into Maeve who has been released and is also coming to Berlin, she is here to help and make sure no one messes with Ditto who smiles at her.  Back in the jail cell Vixen admits to being a big Black Canary fan. She says they both have a lot in common, both raised in foster family, both with jobs in the public eye as she is a model.  She believes they can be friends.

However when these people came after her they attacked her manager and abducted her in this death cult prison.  She then head butts the bars and falls to the ground yelling that Dinah is trying to kill her.  The guards arrive and call for advice from "Master Greyeyes".  They open the cage and Vixen attacks, knocking them all out.  But before she can escape the ninja kicks her back into the cell telling her to stay put.

The guards keep beating on Vixen and Dinah can't take it so she knocks the rest out and activates a button on the wrist of one which releases the collar round her neck so she can speak.  The ninja says it's good to hear her voice even if "your actions have put all of our work in jeopardy."

Vixen busts them out.

Greyeyes appears and Dinah tells the ninja, who she finally names as "aunt Rena" that she is packing away her emotions right now.  And she unleashes her Canary Cry on Greyeyes and knocks her out.   Vixen takes back her totem necklace and unleashes the power of an elephant, smashing her way through the building's wall to the outside.

There are a lot of ninjas outside and before Dinah can shout them down a chain wraps round her neck cutting her off. The chain is held by Greyeyes and she and Dinah trade insults then Vixen takes on a bear's power and punches Greyeyes so she releases the chain.   Greyeyes then powers up a ball of energy which Dinah matches with her cry and she knocks Greyeyes unconcious.  Dinah wants to go back for Rena but Vixn says she is using her and does she even have proof she really is her aunt?

Dinah then takes on the ninjas and beats them all saying she needed to get that out of her system.  Vixen takes on an eagle's power and flies them away.  They land some wayaway and Dinah says she needs to get back to Gotham and Vixen says she needs to get back to Rome and find out if her manager is OK.  She asks where they are and Dinah says outside Berlin.

Dinah says she wishes she could tell the rest of the band where she disappeared to, but she knows they'd come after her.  And "I refuse to put Black Canary in danger.  Never again".  We then cut to them arriving in Berlin missng Dinah as she buys a ticket to Gotham at the same airport.   Maeve is excited that "Izak Orato" the coolest 80's dude ever will be at the club although another one of the band tells her not to get too excited, "this club is not what it seems."

We begin the next chapter with Dinah hanging out with Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl.   Barbara is a big fan of the band, though Dinah says the person on stage isn't her.  Barbara says it is, just another her.  Dinah tries to shut down the conversation about her but Barbara keeps pushing when Dinah admits that meeting aunt Rena.

Barbara: "I get it.  You finally found some real family to hold on to and it's causing you to doubt who you really are."

Dinah doesn't want to talk about it. Barbara says their old team, the Birds of Prey disbanded, she ran out on her band, lost Kurt a second time and finally she's found a relative who redifines who she is as a person. Dinah says it makes her "feel like punching something."

Out on the town with Dinah and Babs.

So Barbara gets dressed up as Batgirl and they go out and punch some criminals.  They fight in a record shop and the gang leader surrenders so his precious records don't get broken.  Dinah then confesses to Barbara about getting suckered into joining a ninja death cult by her aunt and recounts what had happened to the school her mother set up  She had come back to Gotham to figure out what happened to her mother.  When the gang leader realises she is D.D. from Black Canary he asks if she can sign his black eye for him.

Later Dinah asks Barbara to use her photographic memory to think back to her dojo before it burned down and find the photo on her desk.  Barbara says her memory doesn't work that way but she does remember asking about the photo which is apparently the only one Dinah hasd of her mother.  Written on the back was several names, one of which was the name of Vixen's manager and another two had been assasinated in recent months. They need to track down "Judy Slade" another name on the back of the photo, so Barbara gets her friend Frankie on it.

Next day they visit the studio where the picture was taken, it's now owned by a "Juniper Vega" and has left it how it was when the photo was taken.  Barbara asks if her mum was in a band too, Dinah says she wasn't as far as she know so she isn't sure why she and her friends were here.  Then she finds a photo showing her mum as a dancer.  Her teammates too.

Dinah: "This can't be right.  You don't go from teaching martial arts to dancing in videos."

Barbara picks up a picture of a goth looking guy named "Izak Orato" and Barbara asks if she knows who he is.   Barbara remembers her mother saying she didn't like his videos.  They find a bunch of reel-to-reel tapes ad start listening to them.  Babara thinks her mum was right about Izak's music.

Izak Orato

Dinah is watching one of the old Izak videos on Barbara's phone.  It's definitely her mother, she moves just like Dinah and she is in quite a few of them too.  Then Barbara finds something on one of the tapes, Dinah's mother is being threatened by Izak on it but the tape cuts out before they can hear much more.

Dinah ponders that her mum and dad were working somekind of angle with this Izak fellow.   Her father was a P.I. so Barbara figures that her dad was investigating Izak and her mum jumped in to be his inside guy but when they got close things got serious so she called in her old kung fu buddies.  Then Dinah's father was found dead and mum ran off to Berlin to fight a ninja death cult, "it doesn't add up" says Dinah.

Then Frankie calls and tells them Judy Slade was murdered over twenty years ago.  She was alive on the set of a Izak Orato music video one day and a "dry shell of a body the next."  The M.E.'s report says it was liked the life was sucked out of her.

Suddenly a bunch of shurikens are thrown at Dinah and Barbara.  It's Greyeyes who has managed to track them down.   Dinah tells Barbara they are after the Five Heavens Palm her mum made up.  But Dinah doesn't know it.  Barbara is always prepared and has attached a small explosive to the drumkit which she sets off.   There is a mega brawl and Greyeyes manages to get ahold of Barbara and chokes her into unconciousness.

Another ninja brawl.

With Barbara slumped at her feet, Greyeyes says she could kill her right now to provoke Dinah into using the "technique you're going to great lengths to conceal."  Greyeyes asks what it would take, how desperate would she have to be to finally use it.   So Dinah says she gives up, she'll reveal it but Greyeyes must be alone, so Greyeyes orders her ninjas out taking Batgirl with them.

Greyeyes tells Dinah she wants to take her down.  She knows how gifted she is but she watched her every move and knows she can beat her.  The headmistress has commanded Greyeyes get the technique even at the cost of her own life. Now Dinah must perform the Five Heavens Palm or Batgirl dies.  Dinah makes a move but it's the "Silent White Crane kata! Liar!"  Knocked down, Greyeyes yells for Batgirl to be killed but Dinah isn't fazed as Batgirl renters saying Dinah knows she can take care of herself.

Dinah starts punching Greyeyes saying they should fight with no Canary Cry or electric powers, Greyeyes agrees and a physical throwdown starts.  Dinah beats Greyeyes and demands to know who the headmistress is.  Greyeyes says she is  called "Ravanahatha" and many years ago Dinah's mother injured her. Dinah asks if she killed her mother.  Greyeyes says her mother was pushed in the fight into using the Five Heavens Palm which left her mistress broken and she requires it again to make her whole.

Greyeyes them powers the electricity power up, grabbing Dinah's leg demanding she use the move.  Barbara yells at Dinah to get away, Greyeyes is going to blow.  She uses a grappled to swing across and get ahold of Dinah and swing them both to safety as Greyeyes goes boom.

Greyeyes combusts.

They watch the fire from a short distance away.  Barbara can't believe Greyeyes killed herself for kung fu.  Dinah says it can apparently save the life of the person she follows.  She says aunt Rena said the headmistress could tell them what happened to her mum.  Barbara wants to know more about aunt Rena who Dinah never mentioned before. Dinah says she didn't know about her until a few weeks ago and she's a world class fighter.

Barbara is suspicious, referring to a villain who had convinced everyone he was a friend of hers until they realise he was actually rearranging their memories, "people coming out of nowhere tend to be bad news.  I'm sorry Dinah."  They return to Barbara's place and Frankie tells her that the band Black Canary are in Berlin.  When Dinah realises the club they are playing in is owned by Izak Orato, it has to be a trap.  But Black Canary need her and Dinah needs answers so it's back to Berlin with her.

We begin chapter three with Dinah back in Berlin with Frankie on the phone to her. Dinah is outside the club saying the place "reeks of villain's lair."  Barbara is on the line too, they've contacted Vixen to come help but no response from her yet.  The drones they have tapped into have picked up some people, "they appear to be armed and waiting for you."  Barbara pleads with Dinah to wait for Vixen rather than take them on alone.  "Sometimes it's like you don't even know me, Batgirl" grins Dinah.

Jump cut to Dinah standing atop a pile of unconcious bodies. Barbara can't get a scan of what's in the club, they are blocking signals inside  It stinks of being a trap, and Frankie backs her up saying when Dinah walks through the club's door she will be on her own.

Dinah: "Wouldn't be the first time.  Won't be the last.  Thanks for the hand ladies.  Canary out."

And into the club she goes.  She is confronted by Izak Orato on stage with the Black Canary band behind him looking somewhat hypnotised.

Izak Orato and Black Canary.

Izak says that now their vocalist has arrived they are ready to begin their headline performance.  Dinah says she isn't here to put on a show, she's here for a friends.  Izak says they are free to go anytime "but they live to entertain". Dinah says she doesn't entertain, she's a soldier.  But he says he is going to remind her of her true nature.

Izak: "Now, birth sounds that stir the hearts of men to dream memories of stardust newly formed... reveal to me your true heart Dinah".

Dinah gets up on stage and sings, then realises Ditto isn't there.  The rest of the band come around and are surprised to find out where they are and what they are wearing. Apart from Maeve the others hug Dinah, then she tells them they have to go.

Izak says there is at least one song left in the set.  Dinah orders Black Canary to run. As the weird horned ninja attack, Maeve takes the rest of the band to safety while Dinah confronts Izak who says he just wants her and they drop through a trapdoor.  As the rest of the band fight their way out, Byron says that Dinah can look after herself when Heathcliffe says they need to go help her.

Dinah is now in a hall of mirrors. He tells her that he hasn't hurt her friends, she did by abandoning them.  "You truly are your mother's daughter" Izak says. She starts to say she was trying to protect them, then she gets slashed across the upper arm and sees a reflection of her mother in the mirrors, "walking away from little Dinah again... and again.. and again.."

Izak says her blood is delicious, "I need another taste."  Dinah asks if that is why he brought her here to ffed on her like he did on Judy.   He says she was a small morsel,  those women stalked him and pretended to be his entourage, his dancers. He would have given them the world, but then he drank the life of their friend.

He slashes Dinah again, and she tries to goad him into coming out and facing her one-on-one.  He says she sounds like her mother "the women who wanted to destroy me."  Dinah says her mother was not a killer she just wanted to stop him taking more lives.

Izak: "She fought me!  Hurt me in ways I didn't think possible.  For the first time in a millenia I felt true pain. But ancient beings don't falls so easily, nor do we forget."

Dinah asks if killing her is his revenge.  He says no, he wants her to fix him, to heal him.  He needs the Five Heavens Palm.  Her mother tore him apart with it, he needs Dinah to put him back together.

Dinah says she doesn't know it.  Izak tells her it taps the very fabric of the universe on a microscopic scale. Vibrating in perfect harmony manipulated with great power and cocare by a master artist.   He knows Dinah is such an artist but she might need careful influence to find her power, he thought performance might be the key but perhaps it demands something more traumatic.

Dinah gets pissed.

He then shows Dinah how he killed and fed on her father, taunting Dinah by saying how he still dreams of the taste of his blood and watching the life flow from him.  Dinah throws Izak's aura off her and powers up as he is finally revealed.  They fight and Izak opens his chest vertically to reveal a mouth full of spiked fangs. 

She escapes from him to where Vixen and her manager, one of Dinah's mother's friends Sandra McCanlies, are battling the horned ninjas.  Then aunt Rena appears, accusingly she says Dinah betrayed her and turned her bac on the mission. She was guiding her down a path that would have led them to uncover the Five Heavens Palm.  Vixen then drops a bombshell:

Vixen: "That woman is not Dinah's aunt!  That's one half of the demon Ravanahatha."

And the demon imapales Dinah through the stomach with a katana.  As Izak appears behind her along with the not-aunt they hiss that now she has no choice but to use the Five Heavens Palm and it will make Ravanahatha whole again.  It tells her she is all alone, but as she lies dying, Ditto comes up to her and whispers "you're not alone.  You've never been alone."

That's no aunt!

We now go through a voyage into Dinah's psyche.  We see her performing her final gig saying it's the last they'll ever do.  One yea later, she is being interviewed on TV, the presenter says she's lost a lot of her glitter in her new act with Izak Orato.  He says that having met her she feels more like an off-duty superhero.

Dinah says that isn't too far off, the presenter says that he knew a lady who said she didn't want to meet Dinah feeling that she is into kung fu magic and it would make her nervous and others she her as a skilled performer who changes from time to time.  Dinah says she was picking up the pieces her mother left behind, "she was a performer in another life..." The interviewer asks if she taught her the moves she uses, Dinah just says she's putting on a show. The interviewer asks if it wouldn't be better to use those skills to help people, "why keep singing when the world is falling apart around us?"  Dinah is silent.

Another year later Dinah is in the studio with Izak, and various groupies lounging around, who says that music gives them meaning, "there's little more we can do for a fellow sentient being than bring them joy."  Dinah says nothing.  Then mumbles they need to go and Izak says she doesn't need the distraction of flesh, "let me bring you back to life."

Two more years later, Dinah is solo now and listening to playback on a track he just recorded.  Then Wonder Woman teleports in looking beaten up.  She asks Dinah to come and command them in battle "save the world".  There is a war going on between the Justice League and a villain called "Ravedeath".  They need Dinah, but she says that she can't help.  What she is doing now is important, Wonder Woman says "your friends will die.  You'll be alone".  Dinah just says she has to get back to work because her future depends on it.

Dinah refuses to superhero.

Six more years later, Dinah has had her first mainstream hit with her first dance album, "Scream Heels".  Her past work has been critically well received but didn't breakthrough.   Dinah appears at a press cobference. She tells them that times are hard in the world, so if her music can bring joy then she's done her job. She tells them she won't go back to experimentally stuff, nothing but hits from now on.

Four more years later, she is being interviewed over the phone about her recent albums, her most recent being "like your first peice of purely commercial art."  When the interview starts probing into her past work saying they sounded like she was searching for for a way to connect with her mother after all these years. The interbiewer says that she told a magazine in the past she had found a frequency that allowed to communicate wth her mother.  Dinah snaps that this interview was supposed to be about her new record.  The interviewer presses her saying did she find out Izak Orato wasn't responsible for her death and that's why she agreed to work with him. And was there any clue he'd become Ravedeath in the early days with him?  Then the interveiwer asks her about the new album.

Six more years later, Dinah has Paloma and Byron round to ask if they want to reform Black Canary.   She says she hasn't been feeling the music in so long, "so many soulless stadium shows."  We wants to feel the energy again.  She snuck into Gotham to watch them play saying it took all her willpowet not to run up to the stage and do a song.  Paloma gets up to leave and Byron apologises saying it's not the right time for any of them.  Dinah asks where Ditto is, Byron says she has no idea who she is talking about.

Seven years later on, she arrives heavily pregant meeting with Barbara and Diana (Wonder Woman).  They have a serious message for her though.  Her husband Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow was serving the Justice League again at Barbara's request.  Ravedeath was spreading throughout the universe and they didn't want it to strip other planets like it did Earth.  And Ollie was killed in deep space, when he was supposed to be with his family.  "I'll never forgive your for this Babs.  Never" she says coldly.

Sixteen years later, her daughter is a teenager and tells her mum she is not supposed to be out of bed.  Dinah eppears to still be recording despite being ill.   She gets into bed and her daughter tells her to "leave the music now.  Just close you eyes." Dinah says when she closes them her daughter isn't there. Suddenly the rest of Black Canary appear and tell her she is not alone and never have been.  Ditto appears and tells her "time is flexible".

Black Canary surround her saying she's alive and she is going to be OK.  Dinah remembers that they are in so many places at once and there is that hum again, "everything's buzzing".  Then a vision of her mum appears and clasps her hands.  She tells Dinah she remembers how powerful she was when she left, "that power inside your cry is everything, love." The vibration is the music of the heavens and the music of the universe and she taught her to channel it.

Time gets wobbly.

She was shown how to use it as a child and she learned though she did not know, "use it.  Fight for your life and the lives of your friends and family."
Dinah: "The Five Heavens Palm!"

And with that she returns to the present, she pulls the katana out of her belly and stands with Ditto putting her hand on her wound and it heals up.  Black Canary all give her a big group hug as Maeve notes Ditto brought them back to save Dinah.

But there is still the matter of Ravanahatha to deal with.  Both halves, Rena and Izak say they will become whole again now she has unlocked the power. The demon joins together although not fully, they are still powerful though when attached to each other.  A big brawl ensues with Black Canary joining in as well as Vixen and her manager.

Ravanahatha: "Youuuuuu can't win. If you use the Five Heavens Palm we will let you live. We will even give you yor hearts desire.  Fame!  Fortune! Family!  We can make sure you're never alone again."

Dinah says she has never been alone and if it wants her power it can have it. But she warns it that the Five Heavens Palm won't put it back together it will be it's death.

The Five Heavens Palm.

Five Black Canarys appear with they palms all pointed inward.  Ravanahatha lets out a terrible scream and disperses.  The rest of his ninja cult run when they realise their master is gone.  Dinah asks if she did that and Vixen says she defeated an ancient kung fu demon with a secret technique her mum buried inside her, so yeah she did do it.

She accomplished what her mother didn't.  It would have sucked the world dry, and her mum split it in half but Dinah actually destroyed it.  Sent it to the place between time and space. Dinah says she saw her mother and other instances of herself. She is told to trust what she knows and that she is a superhero.  Dinah apologises to the band for getting them involved. Byron asks if the can go home now.  Then Dinah thinks about her husband Kurt.

We cut to her laying a flower on his grave.  Amanda Waller, she of the Goverment superhero black-ops agencies arrives to pay her respects.   She asks what the future holds for Black Canary.  Dinah says she has her eye on a new pair of boots.  She asks Amanda what her intentions with Ditto.  Amanda pretends she doesn't know about her and just says "who?"

We end this story and this truncated series with Dinah announcing at a concert that she is quitting the band. It woun't be the end of Black Canary, they will be having their original vocalist back, Bo Meave. She and Bo are going to duet but before they do she says she knows there are many possible futures but nothng can stop her "loving these women like my own flesh and blood.  Aren't they incredible?"  She counts the song in one last time and sings her final song.

She walks down backstage and changes her high boots for a part of buckled combat boots. As she walks out of the venue the narration asks who is Dinah?  A singer.  A daughter.  A  friend.  A fighter. Each tones of a complex chord.  Made stronger by those ringing with it.  Made stronger still by those against it.

Narration: "That's the power behind the voice of Dinah Lance.  That's the sound of Black Canary."

The end of this chapter of Dinah's life.

The end.  Well not quite, there is issue #17 of Gotham Academy included in the trade, which recounts how Heathcliffe hooked up with the band.  But as I am also covering that series on this blog it makes more sense to write about it when I reach that volume of Gotham Academy.  There is also a sneak peek of Dinah taking the Black Canary identity and  becoming part of The Birds of Prey again as part of the DC Rebirth.  All very safe and samey and typical of DC to try something new with a character like this version with Black Canary being a band and Dinah its lead singer, then panic and pull their head back into their shell and just return to the same old, same old stuff.  Oh well.  Anyway as for this story, it does indeed suffer from obviously having to resolve itself in too few issues, but it still manages to be remarkably coherent.  I'm a huge martial arts buff so I enjoyed the fight scenes and of course the search for a super special technique that was in you the whole time is a martial arts movie trope it was fun to see used here.  I'd like to have seen more of the band as they were definitely sidelined in the issue, although the team-up with Batgirl made up for it.  Also nice to see Vixen again, she is one of those charaters who has bounced round the DCU for a long time, never finding a comic of her own just guest starring in other peoples.  The rushed ending also meant we didn't get to see  Ravanahatha do something more heinous that would really warrant revenge, I mean it was evil don't get me wrong but I feel it could have been shown to have done even more eveil things than just snacking on Dinah's father.  And interestingly she never actually tracked down her mother, only seeing her in her vision.  That seemed to satisfy her at anyrate, but maybe they'll continue her hunt in Birds of Prey, though that's doubtful considering the clean slate approach the DC Rebirth took. The art was excellent all the way through, Sandy Jarrell, Moritat, Annie Wu and Wayne Faucher all worked hard to keep the style consistent and writer Brenden Fletcher's writing was naturalistic despite having to contain some egregiously huge infodumps.  I could have read a lot more of Dinah the lead singer of Black Canary but alas it was not to be.  Anyway, join me again on Valentine's Day when Squirrel Girl has to deal with her toughest adversary yet.  A Nice Guy...

Batwoman Book 3: World's Finest (#12-17, #0)

"We will go to Gotham together.  And when we do find Medusa, she will regret ever leaving the safety of her cell" - Wonder Woman

So my month of comics devoted to the ladies continues. When I did my first of these estrogen soaked months I failed in a big way because I did not pay tribute to the ultimate female superhero - Wonder Woman.  Reader I will now 'fess up I own no Wonder Woman comics. The runs I've been interested in like Gail Simone and Greg Rucka's can be hard to find. But for this month I present the next best thing, Wondy teaming up with lesbian superhero Batwoman.  This is the New 52 incarnation of Batwoman, created by Greg Rucka but now written by JH Williams III and W.Haden Blackman.  I make no bones about it, I am reading this series mostly for Williams's amazingly beautiful art and layouts.  The writing has been average to poor at best mainly tied to the fact they have dragged the first story arc out to an incredible seventeen issues with a lot of extraneous padding along the way.  Batwoman is Kate Kane by day, a socialite who is dating policewoman Maggie Sawyer who is unaware of her secret identity.  Maggie is looking for some missing kids, unbeknownest to her they've been taken by an Occult organisation called Medusa.  Batwoman has been blackmailed into working for the D.E.O - The Department of Extranormal Operations who have kitted her out with all sorts of nifty technology in return for her help.  This volume sees Batwoman working with Wonder Woman to bring down Medusa for good and save the kids.  There is also a zero issue which explores Batwoman's origins but you're better off reading Greg Rucka's single volume reboot of Batwoman that I already covered with art by JH Williams III.  So lets have some World's Finest action.

We start with the narrative switching between Wonder Woman and Batwoman. Batwoman sums up the story so far by thinking that Maro the leader of Medusa has taken the kids they kidnapped through a wormhole and though she has "interrogated" a lot of Medusa agents and has all the resources of the D.E.O at her fingertips, she is no closer to finding them.  Meanwhile Wonder Woman contemplates her nature and how there are many stories about her:

Wonder Woman: "But in this moment, I'm only this flashing sword, impaling an eye the colour of fallen leaves.  I'm only the gleaming shield, blocking my enemy's arrows with the ring of wind chimes.  I'm only this golden cord, coiled and waiting for the truth."

Batwoman has teamed up with her werewolf allies lead by Abbot, to investigate the Bloody Mary legend, because Medusa has been using urban legends to capture children and battle her.  She's catalogued several variations on the legend but they all end in Bloody Mary's death and her being summoned by chanting her name in front of a mirror.

Wonder Woman at work.

As Batwoman summons Bloody Mary, Wonder Woman slices up serpents that have murdered children, as she kills them she thinks that "Clark would be horrified, Batman would be reluctantly impressed, Aquaman would call it defence of the realm".  As Bloody Mary appears to Batwoman, Wonder Woman keeps laying into the serpent monsters.

Batwoman smashes Bloody Mary's mirror and demands to know where Maro took the children.  Mary says Maro abandoned them "and fled to Medusa's lair".   She says Medusa is "not a group.  Medusa is the Queen of Monsters".  She says she can't be stopped and Batwoman crushes the piece of mirror Mary was talking through.

Then we cut to Batwoman as Kate Kane on board a yacht with Chase and Mr. Bones of the D.E.O. Kate tells Chase Maro isn't in Gotham anymore and they are going to need some help so what about Wonder Woman, Medusa is a Greek myth after all.  Mr. Bones agrees but they are going to mike her up so they can get some intel on one of the World's Finest.

Mr. Bones, Kate and Chase.

Meanwhile  the families of the missing children are protesting outside the Gotham police station because it's been months now and the lead detective on the case, Maggie Sawyer is no closer to finding them and they want her replaced.  The media is there as well and even as Maggie assures them they are working hard on finding the kids the TV people record one of the couples saying if it was Maggie's kid missing she wouldn't be satisfied with just updates. Commissioner Gorden brings the press conference to a close after that.

Back at home with Kate and Maggie, Kate says she has to go out tonight. Angrily Maggie says if Kate cared she'd stay with her tonight and not be so selfish.  When Kate says she can't really tell her where she was the night before they made love the first time Maggies shows her the door saying, "don't come back until you can."

We then visit Kate Kane's father who Kate isn't speaking to right now and who is taking care of his neice Bette "Flamebird" Kate who is still recovering from being gutted by one of Medusa's minions in book one.  He promised to teach her how to be a hero who is even better than Kate.  She tells him "I am going to hold you to that promise."

Wonder Woman has defeated all her enemies.  She washes herself in the sea thinking how she is "more than just my brilliant sword... more than my balanced shield... more than just my nimble rope... more than Amazon... more than demigod.. more than human." Then something rises out of the sea and startles her, it is Batwoman in a small sub.

Batwoman finds Wonder Woman.

After one year, every series that was part of the New52 took a one issue break from their on-going stories and did a prequel issues.  Thing is Batwoman had the perfect prequel story by Greg Rucka that established her origins.  I covered it here and as the issue zero pretty much just summarises it, so I am skipping it and carrying on with the Wonder Woman storyline.

Wonder Woman and Batwoman sit together as the sub takes them to where Medusa is supposed to be.  Batwoman thinks that what she is doing is the only way she can think to help Maggie.  Wonder Woman thinks about what Batwoman might think when she looks at her, "a goddess wrapped in her own nation's flag? Does she see a warrior?  A hero?"  She also ponders Batwoman cloaked in the colours of death and war, one of Batman's loyal soldiers.

They arrive at the prison that holds "mythology's most dangerous villains".  Batwoman says it sounds like "an Amazon Arkham Asylum".  Medusa is supposed to be held in the deepest cell far from the world she wants to destroy. There is no sentry on guard which doesn't bode well as the venture inside.  The place is strewn with dead bodies. They venture further inside:

Wonder Woman: "Be wary.  Any creature worthy of being imprisoned here has been deemed more dangerous than me."

They come across a surviving guard, a minotaur.  Wonder Woman questions him and he says this is the work of "Black hearted Nyx.. Mistress of the night".

Attacked by Nyx.

Then huge black centipedes come after them and start attacking.  They are both quickly overwhelmed and everything goes black. We are then privy to Wonder Woman's thoughts against a black background.  She feels like she has been buried alive as the centipedes wrap tightly round her.

Nyx speaks to her, saying "Medusa has brought you as my morsel" and that she is guarding the gate for her, Medusa is the "mother of all monsters."  Then Batwoman interrupts, tells Wonder Woman to close her eyes and sets off a flash bomb, freeing them.   Then she uses a explosive flare gun to blast open a way out through the wall.  Then they escape the island by hi-jacking Black Manta's flying sub, the D.E.O might be super shady but they do have some wonderful toys.

We take a quick visit to Kate's dad and Bette meditating together. Unfortunately all she can think and brood about is what it felt like to be gutted and how much pain she is still in and how she must try and be stronger than Kate.  Back with Batwoman and Wonder Woman they are in a desert looking for Medusa's other son "Pegasus" the brother of Falchion who was defeated in the last book.  Wonder Woman calls Pegasus out of his lonely home and out he comes.  He has festering wounds showing through to the bone in places.

An ailing Pegasus.

Wonder Woman warns Batwoman to be careful of him, he is still Medusa's son, but Pegasus collapses at their feet saying "only her bastard. But now I am gutted and clipped."  Batwoman kneels by him and checks his wounds and realises it was Falchion who inflicted them.

Pegasus: "Dying. For a thousand years I will die.  If we live forever so too do our wounds.   Mortals will have vanished from the earth before I am whole again."

She says to him that Falchion tortured him, Pegasus says his brother would call it "coercion". He has tried to recruit Pegasus to their mother's cause and Pegasus declined.  Many times over.

Wonder Woman asks him why Falchion wanted his help.  Pegasus says for "horror.  Madness. Death.  A reaping of all mortalkind.  I don't know how..."  Batwoman says does he know where this will happen.  Pegasus says yes, and he will tell them for a price.  Wonder Woman must take his head, "give me a warrior's death."  This shocks Batwoman and Wonder Woman tells him humans have no faith in him now he will not be brought back.  "I do not care" he says sadly.  So Wonder Woman, over Batwoman's protests, agrees.

Pegasus then tells them it's a "city where shadows are deepest and evil is born".  Batwoman realises what that means, "Gotham".  Then Wonder Woman cuts off Pegasus's head. She asks if Batwoman thinks she committed murder.  Batwoman doesn't know and asks if he can come back like Bloody Mary and The Weeping Woman.  "Maybe" says Wonder Woman.  "Then I choose to believe" says Batwoman as she immolates Pegasus's corpse.

Then Batwoman expresses her irritation that she dragged Wonder Woman halfway around the globe when Medusa was in Gotham the whole time.  Wonder Woman says Medusa is a powerful witch who has kept herself concealed for centuries, "but she will come out of hiding to complete her dark ritual." Batwoman asks if Wonder Woman wants to come with her, "or do I smash this bitch in the teeth all by myself?"  Wonder Woman will come.

Medusa in Gotham.

Batwoman thinks to herself how much she wished she had telepathy to warn Maggie to get out of Gotham, but it's already kicking off there.  Killer Croc in his new, even more mutated form is rampaging through the streets as Maggie and Harvey Bullock are fighting him.  Then they come across Medusa herself:

Medusa: "Long have I sat in darkness sharpening  this dream like a blade...My dream is a blade to carve out the heart of this city, bleed its lambs into goblets of gold. A blade to hack off our enemies heads to make the world safe for all my kind".

As she and her minions fight the Gotham PD she thinks about how Falchion failed her, but did at least raise this army for her.   They are the ones who scoured the world and freed her.  Falchion also found Maro who created her supernatural army.  So s/he wasn't totally useless then.

Medusa then tells Killer Croc he can become more powerful, Maro using a blood ritual causes Killer Croc to mutate massively becoming a hydra like creature, "the beast of Babylon" says Medusa.  Backed into a corner by Medusa, things look bad for Maggie and Harvey then suddenly down swoop Batwoman and Wonder Woman to the rescue.

Kick ass.

Trevor McCarthy takes over as artist for the next issue meaning the loss of the lovely layouts of Mr. JH3.  Maggie is stunned and confused by the arrival of her rescuers and a fractured narrative follows showing us the events leading to this moment.   She flashes back to an hour ago as she reviews the missing kids case for the umpteenth time. Then we see her shooting Medusa's soldiers, there are no cries of pain where the bullets hit, the dying call for "Mitera" (Mother).

Everything is confusing out on the streets, "why is a Chinese gangster speaking in ancient Greek?"  She demands to know who "Mother" is from someone she has a hold of.  "She is the end of Gotham.  The end of your world" she is told.  "Zealots in my city" she thinks.  She bumps into Agent Chase of the D.E.O and wants to know why they aren't helping the GCPD on the front lines.  Chase says that is not her orders.

Chase tells her to have the GCPD fall back and the D.E.O will cover them.  Maggie doesn't trust her.  She and Harvey head towards a church where she has been told some people are preparing to become matryrs.  It's a Catholic church and inside are the mainly hispanic parents of the missing children.  They have heard "that these monsters have our children.  Then have our children on chains."

Maggie defuses the mob.

Maggie tells Isabella the leader of the mob that they should let the police handle this. Isabella says "you will just keep failing".  Maggie says the things can't be fought with baseball bats and kitchen knives nor guns either.  Maggie points her gun at the man toting a shotgun telling him to put it down.  When he won't she says:

Maggie: "I'm trying to save your kids. But if you get killed, what will happen to them?  Where will they go?  Who will take care of them?  Foster homes? The street? The church".

She then disarms the shotgun wielder.  But Isabella starts to freak out, her husband Felipe went out there alone looking for their children.  So Maggie goes back out to find and save him.

He is outside shooting down Medusa minions until he runs out of bullets.  Maggie and Harvey find him, but then water coutesy of the Weeping Woman sweeps over them.  Felipe kneels before her and when she tells him she will "free" the whole place he forgives her and she fades.  Maggie comes over and comforts the distraught man and when he says of his kids "I miss the so much" she hugs him.  And she worries maybe she'll never be able to bring them home.

Maggie comforts Felipe.

She returns Felipe to Isabella at the church then she and Harvey venture out through the rubble of Gotham's streets. Then we arrive at the moment when BatwMoman and Wonder Woman arrive, and as they do so Maggie thinks "God loves me enough. To keep Kate out of this madness. And bring her home safe."

JH Williams III is back on art for the rest of the book now.  Batwoman drops down to where Maggie is in the middle of all the chaos.  But Maggie yells at Batwoman to forget about her an Harvey and take out what Killer Croc has turned into before it destroys the city.   She starts to fight her way to it, horrified that it is breaking her "building... my base.. home... everything". Wonder Woman meanwhile is also fighting and feeling oddly responsible for Medusa, and now her senses are "dulled by shame, guilt, rage".

As Batwoman head towards the Hydra, Wonder Woman stops her saying she is not capable of taking it on. Batwoman says she's lost her home, her pictures of her sister, her mother's journals... she tails off.   Wonder Woman promises to kill the Hydra, but Batwoman needs to concentrate on getting back the children.

Medusa is waiting for Ceto, the mother of all monsters to appear from the sea.  She will rise, devour all mortals and make a world safe for the monsters.  Then Mr. Bones appears pointing a gun at her.  Medusa says he should be an ally what with him being a skeleton and all.   She tries to uses her petrifying eyes on him but fails. 

Flamebird back in action.

Then the hook handed creature attacks Chase, she fires on him but he shrugs it off and advances on her, but then Bette Kane as Flamebird appears ready to extract revenge on the being that so badly injured her. Her inner monologue has her as terrified, but she punches him and keeps punching him but he manages to grab a hold of her and she wishes that if he guts her again she wants to die.

Medusa stands at the sea's edge with the children and Maro.  The children ask if they are going to be killed.  Medusa says Ceto needs "your souls to bind her to this world".  Right now Ceto is a "dream. A ghost. A myth" says Maro, but once she was feared throughout the world.

We then get a quick history lesson on her. She became Goddess of the Oceans, she fell in love with Phorcys, Mystery of the Deep.   Many wonders were born from their union. Those wonders brought awe and adventure to the world. "We gave their frail lives meaning".  They were killed by mortals who wanted to prove they had mastery over all the primordial forces putting them and their followers to the torch and spear.  Ceto was brought to Mt. Olympus and judged.  "Zeus claimed there was no room for both mortals and monsters on Earth". He banished her, stripped her of her beauty and power reduced to the one cruel epithet, "The Mother of all Monsters".  So that's what she will be "and the mortal world the gods love will suffer for it".

Batwoman is fighting her way to Medusa and fighting the urge to go back to Maggie.  Also Abbot and his werewolf coven are also helping her despite how mean she usually has been to him in prior volumes.  Wonder Woman is taking on the hydra.  She discovers that whipping her sword fast enough makes it hot enought to cauterise the neck and stop another head growing.

Wonder Woman takes on the Hydra.

Batwoman and Abbot arrive at where Medusa, Maro and the children are.  Medusa calls the Weeping Woman again, but Batwoman shouts "what if they were your children, Maria?!" And Maria pauses remembering the two that were.  She attacks Maro who killed them saying "you are my grief" and melts Maro's face. Medusa says the Batwoman it doesn't matter now, "My mother is coming."

Batwoman can't process what she sees next,  "it's a tear in the fabric of reality.  As if it's something we can just stitch up". A huge squirming, many tentacled thing has appeared.  She realises there are somethings you can never unsee and never fix. Wonder Woman jumps down saying "please tell me you know what the hell this is, Batwoman".  Batwoman can only tell her Medusa and Maro performed a ritual and summoned the Mother of all Monsters.

The Mother of All Monsters is summoned.

Wonder Woman says "Ceto".  Batwoman says so she knows her name but does she know how to stop her.  "Haven't a clue" replies Wonder Woman. So Batwoman decides they should start by kicking Medusa's ass. We return to the hook-handed monster holding Flamebird by the throat.  Flamebird using arm mounted flame throwers (!) blasts the hook-man in the face then as he kneels holding his bubbling face she attaches a bomb to his hook and blows it off his arm then tosses it in the sea where it fastens onto a crab.  Catharsis!

Maro makes it to shore, but her twin who inhabited the same body is dead now.  On land an almight ruckus is taking place.  Batwoman, Wonder Woman and the werewolves versus Medusa's minions.  Abott gets turned to stone by Medusa and as she kneels by him, Flamebird appears and helps her up.  They quickly formulate a plan, they shatter Bloody Mary and use a piece of her mirror to reflect Medusa's glare back on her and she turns to stone.  Batwoman then smashes the statue for good measure.

Medusa defeated.

They look out to sea and there is no monster, just some rainbow smoke. Wonder Woman thinks "we broke the spell somehow."  The Weeping Woman holds Medusa's head and says she was as Medusa made her, but actually she wants to erase all the stories ever told about her.  Wonder Woman is about to kill her saying her stories always end in death but Batwoman stops her.  And Wonder Woman helps her up saying she keep her safe instead.

Flamebird points out the D.E.O is about to arrive so she makes herself scarce telling Batwoman her new name is "Hawkfire".  Wonder Woman says she too has no wish to meet the D.E.O.  Before she leaves Batwoman gives her the recordings she's made of her the past few days.  Wonder Woman crushes them and says, "if you ever need me again, just ask."

Chase catches up with them and is pissed about the loss of intel on Wonder Woman.  She then takes the children to a park close by where Maggie is moodily sitting on a swing. When she realises Batwoman has bought them all back and has called her "Mags" she realises who she really is:

Batwoman: "Marry me Mags".

The book then ends with Mr Bones interviewing Alice, the crazed supervillain sister of Batwoman and he says "oh I know who you are.  You have our sister's eyes."

And that was the end of the series and they both lived in marital bliss and lalalalala can't hear you DC editorial!

Once again it's the art that sells me this series, with stunning layouts and gorgeous renditions of everything from eldritch abominations to caped crimefighters.  His depiction of Wonder Woman is superb, she fit and athletic looking rather than skinny and top heavy. She looks like a woman who gets shit done as does the bustier fetish clad Kate Kane.   But I keep circulating round to my major problems with the series so far, this arc went on far too long, the dialogue is often stilted and unnatural which suits the narration of the mythological aspects of the story but not the voices of the characters. Also the happy ending is somewhat soured by knowledge of what happened next which was DC vetoing the marriage. In their sort of defence I don't think that was homophobia at work, DC simply didn't want any of their New 52 characters to be happy.  Seriously, that was an editorial edict.  This then resulted in Blackman and Williams III quitting the title and DC spiking their final issues.  I haven't read any further Batwoman after this one mainly for those reasons, while the series had flaws it had potential and this just felt like the straw that broke the camels back regarding DC's overbearing editorial attitudes during this period. Still, curiosity might compel me to check out the next volumes and If I do I'll cover it here.

JLA Ultramarine Corps (JLA Classified #1-3, Spawn/WildC.A.T.s #1)

 "These "no-nonsense" solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel" - Superman

And so we reach the end of teambook month with a look at a miniseries containing the greatest team ever, the late nineties, early noughties era Justice League America.  The first story in this slim volume I'm looking at particularly because it functions as a prologue to next month where I'll be looking at Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers Of Victory series.  JLA Classified features the Sheeda and Neh-buh-loh who go on to play a significant role in Seven Soldiers, this appearance being a prepemptive strike by them. Fans of Paul Cornell's brilliant Knight and Squire miniseries should also be interested in this as the wonderful Squire, Beryl, gets a starring role here. The trade paperback also contains a bumper length one shot that, in a pleasing Alan Moore-esque "end leads back to the beginning" is a team up starring the WildC.A.T.s and like Spawn/WildC.A.T.s it's really not that brilliant. Although it's definitely better as it doesn't treat the reader like a moron, the art though completely average at least works sequentially and the JLA are far more interesting in their interactions with the WildC.A.T.s (especially since several of the WildC.A.T.s are rip-offs of them) than Spawn was.

JLA CLASSIFIED - This comic starts out with the International Ultramarine Corp's in action.  These are made up of characters created my Grant Morrison for the crossover event DC One Million.  The original core team of four are Warmaker 1, Flow, 4-D and Pulse 8.  They were artifically created to oppose the Justice League, but rebelled and now police the planet from their flying city Superbia.  Other members include Knight and Squire, Goraiko, Jack O'Lantern, Vixen, Olympian, Kid Impala, Tasmanian Devil, Little Mermaid and Fleur-de-Lys.  The main thing that sets them apart from the JLA is their willingness to use extreme violence and kill to deal with difficult situations, making them similar to the Wildstorm superteam The Authority.

Gorilla Grodd in action.

The story begins with the Ultra-Marine Corp battling the forces of Gorilla Grodd - a super intelligent, telepathic ape - in the African city of Kinshasa.  Squire, who is Knight's side-kick fills them in on Grodd, he is number three on the "global most wanted" list. Goraiko, who is a mindless construct controlled by a young Japanese girl manages to take Grodd down, but Warmaker (a disembodied presence inside an armoured suit) thinks there is more to come.

They find a mysterious cube and Grodd tells them he burned Kinshasa to attract their attention.  It's a trap!  Goraiko suddenly sends out an electro-magnetic pulse that takes out Superbia's power.  The cube starts to absorb 4-D to gain a humanoid shape while Squire escapes the crashing Superbia on a flying bike and Grodd smashes Warmaker's armour.

Narration: "Savagery is crowned King.  Civilisations defenders fall."

The action cuts to Batman, Squire contacts him via the Bat-Phone to Batman's Bat-surprise.  When he is filled in on the situation he goes to his "sci-fi" closet to get outfitted to go help.  He tells Alfred the rest of the JLA are off saving someone else's universe. Back with Grodd, he is ranting about using Superia to smash human civilisation. He asks Neh-Buh-Loh what's in it for him.  he responds that he is preparing a way for "my Queen of terror".

The sci-fi closet.  Note the Dalek there.

Back with Beryl, she is blasted off her bike by flying jet powered apes.  Luckily Batman catches her with the small flying saucer he is riding.  He uses a "boom tube" to transport the pair of them to a JLA base near Pluto.  There is the same universe cube that turned into Neh-Buh-Loh, which Batman refers to as the "infant universe."  He believes Squire, whose powers relate to communications can contact the JLA inside it, while he goes and fights Grodd with his robot JLA.

Squire Beryl gets saved by Batman in a flying saucer.  Aren't comics awesome?!

Inside the Infant Universe, which Wonder Woman names as Qwewq, the JLA are watching the super-villain "Black Death" go about his business of being an evil dick.   It seems this universe is devoid of superheroes of it's own.  Then a payphone rings which Black Death answers and says "wrong number".  It was Squire trying to contact the JLA and we cut back to her telling Batman she "had something there."

The action then returns to the Ultra-Marines.  Knight, 4-D, Jack O'Lantern and The Little Mermaid are barricaded in the armory.  They intend to go on the offensive but 4-D has a little Sheeda "spine rider" on the back of his head controlling him, and he makes tumours appear in the Little Mermaid to force the others to give up and they all end up under Sheeda control.

A Sheeda "spine rider".

Batman and the robot JLA attack, but are easily taken out. "That went well" comments Batman sarcastically, and Grodd grabs him saying he always wanted to eat him.  Squire finally gets through again via phone.  The JLA arrest Black Death who says his goal was to waste their time anyway so Grodd could enact his plan.  Superman speaks to Squire and they all Boom Tube their way out of Qwewq, which is about time as Grodd has Batman tied to a spit, all ready for roasting.

The real JLA arrive on the scene and Green Lantern engages 4-D who restores his weakness to yellow.  As he falls Flash creates a vortex that cushions him and sends him flying back up where he punches 4-D out.  Wonder Woman takes on several of the Corp, including Vixen and Tasmanian Devil. Grodd keeps rambling and ranting about the superiority of the gorilla race to Batman, who when Grodd's back is turned, breaks free and kicks Grodd hard in the groin.

Olympian takes down John J'onzz.

Martian Manhunter goes to take on Goraiko but is intercepted by Olympian who uses fire against him, John's only weakness.  Superman meanwhile makes his way to fight Neh-Buh-Loh.  Batman has disabled and tied up Grodd, Batman got free thanks to the help of Warmaker in his disembodied form.  Jack O'Lantern and Knight appear to attack Batman next.

Olympian attacks Aquaman, while Wonder Woman uses her Lasso of Truth to overide Tasmanian Devils mind control and lets him battle his teammates.  Aquaman knocks Olympian out, while Batman does the same to Jack O'Lantern.  Before he can fight Knight, Squire appears and appeals to Knight not to fight Batman.  Knight manages to pull the Spine Rider off the back of his head and crushes it.

But John is too badass to stay down.

Martian Manhunter breaks free of the fire he was trapped in and goes to find Goraiko.  But it has no mind of it's own that he can reach, luckily Aquaman finds it's controller and frees her from the Sheeda.

Superman reaches Neh-Buh-Loh and demands to know what he is.

Neh-Buh-Loh: "The seed of evil Black Death planted bore fruit in me!  I am Neh-Buh-Loh the adult universe of Qwewq".

He doesn't fight Superman, saying he has tested them, then he teleports away saying next time he will be back with his people and the takeover will be less ostentatious.  With the rest of the Ultramarines freed of Sheeda control and the gorilla's imprisoned, Superman scolds the Ultramarines.

Superman: "You were a disaster waiting to happen, Warmaker. 'Superheroes' who don't mind killing to achieve their ends can be dangerous in the wrong hands."

He suggests they all go into the universe of Qwewq and become the heroes that universe needs, which might stop it becoming Neh-Buh-Loh.  They agree and Boom Tube into Qwewq and we'll find out what happened to them in the upcoming Seven Soldiers Of Victory series.

Tune in next month folks to see how they do.

If I have one criticism to make of this mini is that it's very crowded.  An extra issue might have ironed out the leaps the plot takes in places.  But it feels a little churlish to complain when at the very least you're getting value for money with the amount of story crammed into these three issues.  The lighter Batman of this story is much more to my taste than the grim, humourless avenger running about the DCU these days, and Beryl (Squire) is always fantastic. The artwork by Ed McGuiness is particularly praiseworthy, it's a style I really like, ie. heavily cartoon-like with characters given a real weight and heft, as well as good sequential flow making it a pleasure to read.  The Sheeda and Neh-buh-loh are set up as intriguing villains leaving you wanting to know more about them, which was part of this mini's job as a prelude to Seven Soldiers of Victory, the Grant Morrison maxi-series I'll be devoting a whole month to in February.

Pictured: The 90's.

JLA/WILDC.A.T.S - The story starts with Wally West when he was Kid Flash running through the countryside.  Suddenly he is attacked by a cackling maniac in an armoured suit.  He tells Wally it's a 41st Century "telekinetically controlled, super-conducting, liquid polyalloy". He then introduces himself as "Epoch, Lord of Time".  Fortunately Wally is saved by his older self and his JLA compadres.  Epoch disappears saying he'll target another of them in the past.  The Flash notes the weirdness of briefly having his memory in stereo then they return to their time travelling cube-ship, leaving behind a bewildered Kid Flash:

The Flash: "Trust me on this Wally.  It's like kissing: just one of those things that won't make any sense until you're older."

They chase Epoch back and forth through time, foiling each attempt he makes to kill them.  Finally Epoch sends them into the future but keeps the ships time drive in the past. They end up stranded in AD 55, Batman realises the time drive might still be around but buried in the ground, so Green Lantern makes a plough and they dig it up, the other four hold onto Kyle's ring to boost the will that powers it and jump start the time drive. They return to the present (1997, the date of publication), but it's definitely not their right present.

Stuck in the Wildstorm Universe a year before it was cool.

The WildC.A.T.s ( Covert Action Teams) are busy fighting people who's latent gene-active tendencies have been activated by powerful fluctations in the quantum foam (oh Grant...), a disturbance which is coming from outside the universe.  Suddenly the JLA's timeship lands and the JLA come out to see what's happening. To stop the narrative getting too cluttered, the full roster of each team is not present.  There is Superman during his electric blue phase, Wonder Woman, Batman, The Flash and Green Lantern.  For the WildC.A.T.s there is Majestic, Zealot, Grifter, Void and Maul, part of the post-Alan Moore run line up of the team. 

When two superteams who are unfamiliar with each other meet there is always some fisticuffs over a misunderstanding before the inevitable team-up occurs.  When Majestic rather arrogantly says the following to a curious Superman:

Majestic: "I am Majestros of the Kheran Empire. These are the WildC.A.T.s and if you dare subject me to another electromagnetic scan, I intend to tear your head from your body".

Superman responds by punching him far outside the building they are in.  As Majestic is the WildC.A.T.s Superman rip-off (he was absent from Spawn/WildC.A.T.s I assume simply because he'd have been able to take out even a powered up Spawn easily) there is something quite satisfying about Superman's response to him, even if it does feel a little out of character for him.

Zealot versus Wonder Woman.

So Zealot takes on Wonder Woman, Zealot is also a "homage" to Wonder Woman, a proud warrior brought up and trained in the art of battle by an isolated sisterhood.  She isn't as super strong and resilient as Wondy is and she's also something of a humourless cow.  So all Wonder Woman does in the fight is defend herself while asking Zealot nicely to stop as she isn't really go to be able to hurt her no matter how hard she attacks.

Grifter isn't a direct copy of Batman.  He is the only WildC.A.T member with no superpowers so is alike in that respect, and he is probably the most "badass" of them too, also like Batman.  But he uses guns, which of course is Batman's big no-no, and he's intelligent enough to see just how much Batman outclasses him by the fact Batman managed to disarm him before they even started fighting and he correctly decides not to push his luck.

Flash and Void.

Void and the Flash are similar in that they both move at great speeds, but Void moves by teleporting herself and manages to stay a short step ahead of the Flash as they size each other up and realise they aren't a threat to each other.  This leaves the size changing Maul and Green Lantern battling, although they are definitely nothing alike.  Green Lantern is the only one of the JLA who really throws himself into his match-up and get's harmlessly disabled quite quickly by Maul as a result.

Superman and Majestic sort out their differences off screen, they realise they share a common enemy and finally Zealot calms down which she does out of respect for Wonder Woman's fighting prowess, they then try and work out what their next move should be against their reality messing, time-travelling opponent.

Batman: "We still don't know where we are.  According to the Grifter here this is 1997 but he's never heard of Metropolis, Gotham City or the Justice League."

Grifter: "Great name though guys.  Says what it means and it's not afraid to get laughed at."

Cheeky blighter!  I assume this is Morrison actually poking fun at the supposedly more "realistic" Wildstorm universe characters who are in fact just as silly as those of DC and Marvel.  Anyway, the Justice League set about the monsters that have just arrived.  Majestic is still a bit dubious about their tale of coming from a parallel universe, but Void, who's "thing" is space and time travel says it makes sense with what's been happening.

Void: "This 'Time Lord' they spoke of has disrupted probability so severely on their timewave that the distortions are leaking through to our universe, look!  This chaos will continue to accelerate unless we stop it at source."

Some metaphysical folderol.

They come up with a plan to cross into the JLA's universe to take on Epoch.  Void and Green Lantern both enter "Void-space" a trippy 4D place.  There are beings there who in return for Green Lanterns "concepts" which he doodles with his power ring will help them go back to the DCU.  It works and Void installs the technology into the time drive of the JLA's time machine.  It will make a bridge for them that will last a few hours, the WildC.A.T.s can help them for a short while but will have to return before the bridge decays.

They make it, but in the short time they have been away, Epoch fused with with the ultimate weapon of the 68th century, a self evolving supercomputer.  Now he can't tell where he ends and it begins.  He has used his power to summon troops from the future to subdue Earth, and he intends to convert the Earth into a huge time travelling engine with humans as it's slave population.

The villain "Epoch"

The JLA and WildC.A.T.s spring into action.  Epoch goes into high alert and downloads all the anti-JLA codes he has.  Superman absorbs electricity from the clouds then he and Majestic unleash powerful energy beams at Epoch's protective shield. Meanwhile on the ground Batman and Grifter and Zealot and Wonder Woman fight through the future army of monsters.  Maul grows to a huge size and smashes Epochs weakened protective shield.  Then Superman tells Majestic it's up to his people to finish dealing with Epoch as he has no defences programmed against them.

Void manages to disable the forcefield around Epoch and they hit him with energy beams, bullets and a sword. Before Epoch can overload and destroy Earth the JLA arrive with their time cube which they have programmed to follow a circle in time, a temporal prison.  Epoch screams that the records promised he would be master of the earth and he disappears locked in a timeloop for all eternity.

The WildC.A.T.s save the day.

The JLA and WildC.A.T.s bid each other farewell.  Superman says he and Majestic should meet again and talk some day.  Majestic isn't sure they would have much in common, but he does think Superman should wear a cape.  Batman tells Grifter he doesn't need guns to fight with,  Grifter says he'll still use them, but gives one to Batman as a souveneir and as they disappear back to their home universe he says it was a "pleasure and a privilege working with you Batman."  The story ends with a page showing a totally insane Epoch trapped in the timeloop forever.

And they return the their own universes.

JLA/WildC.A.T.s is a bit of fluff.  It's a fairly bland and flavourless read but has some nice moments sprinkled here and there.  It does throw into sharp relief just how uninspired most of the Wildstorm characters are when placed in a story with the iconic DC characters they emulate.  Grifter comes out of it best, mainly because Morrison writes him as a pseudo Batman type and he gets the pick of the good lines.  The art by Val Semeiks is... uninspired to say the least.  Oh, don't get me wrong, it's not full of confusing splash pages nor sequential fails like Spawn/WildC.A.T.s and the female characters are drawn with respect. But this is another Morrison "cosmic" tale and the art doesn't really capture the spectacular weirdness parts of the script seem to call for. Of course one is left with the question of how the Wildstorm Universe can exist when at this point in the DCU timeline there was one universe and one universe only.  But I pick nits.  Buy JLA Ultramarine Corps for the lovely JLA Classified mini and enjoy JLA/WildC.A.T.s as a decent bit of extra value.