Okko and his traveling companions have arrived at Okko’s hometown. It appears that Okko comes from noble roots and is not the scummy lone samurai he appears to be. Although Okko is a ronin samurai, he is the master of others, including: a monk named Noshin, a Honyo (A child born of a demon and human) named Noburo, and a young fisherman named Tikku. Okko is their master but really their friend and protector at times.
Copycat continues to narrate the teams experiences on an Earth filled with simple native people. She recalls her first encounter with former team-mate Bliss and her tribe. Bliss’ first encounter was different than the other members of the team. She was forcefully taken by a tribe of Amazon-type women. She’s fascinated as she attempts to use her powers of emotions on them, only to find that they don’t work. Apparently the “Drones” that found Bliss were raised to be emotionless to better serve the tribe.
From there Bliss is held prisoner until approached by a member of the tribe. Bliss attacks her and kills her before being detained again. Later that night she’s given a way to earn her freedom by saving two lives. One of the tribe is struggling to give birth and the tribe is afraid that she’ll not only loose the baby but also her life. Bliss is more of a giver of pain than joy, so it’s an unusual task to help someone with positive emotions. She calms the pregnant woman allowing her to have an easy birth and saves two lives earning her freedom.
Sam and Twitch are two detectives that have seen their share of the strange and crazy. Not only are they friends with Spawn, but they played a role in helping him stop Armageddon from happening (Spawn 150-164). Now Sam and Twitch are the top dogs at the police station and are given all of the high profile cases. “The Writer” is a serial killer that carves stories into his victim’s bodies. In fact the victim is more of a canvas than a target, making his profile difficult to construct. Because it’s a high profile case it falls right into the laps of Sam and Twitch.
The issue begins with Sam showing up late to a crime scene. Sam is fat, smokes three packs a day, and showers less than that in a week. It’s not unusual for him to be late, in fact his partner Twitch, expects it. Twitch is everything Sam is not. He’s a family man; he’s thorough and catches all of the details, but most of all he’s bathed. The thing about their partnership is that even though they are the classic “Odd Couple”, it has nothing to do with their friendship or interaction. Rather it is more of a statement of how others interact with them.
Alex O’Roark is a werewolf… that works for the F.B.I. Alright that’s a bit miss leading. Alex is a F.B.I. agent assigned to stopping an elusive serial killer that’s been killing for sixty years. Alex made the biggest break in the case by getting a photo of the unknown killer. Alex’s real problem is that the serial killer, named Herod, is a werewolf and the reason that Alex has become one as well. Now Alex must not only stop Herod, but save himself from turning into a werewolf permanently.
The story opens up with Alex and his partner, Jezzie, attempting to get to Herod’s next victim before he does. Alex’s curse has given him extra senses such as: Smell and hearing. He’s able to smell others with the Lupine blood so he’s shocked to find a sixth grader beating the hell out of another kid. The sixth grader is Herod’s next victim and now Alex must find a way to protect the boy.
Rescue is another in a series of one-shots starring the Women of the Marvel Universe. Rescue, for those not following Iron Man, is the name of Pepper Potts’ armor. Since the armor has no weapons and was made for search and rescue, it became the obvious choice in names. This is humorous, since this entire issue deals with choice.
The events of the book take place during Stark: Disassembled, in which Tony is in a coma forcing Pepper to wait for his return. She does what she does best and organizes someone else’s mess by cleaning a locker room. What she doesn’t count on is help from her dead husband, Happy, as she finds a boxing glove. No Happy is not back from the dead, but that doesn’t stop her from holding a conversation with him. She walks Happy through an event that happened to her on her way to saving Tony.
Gail Simone (Wonder Woman) continues where she left off with the re-launch of Birds of Prey. This time around she’s joined by one of the best artists in the industry, Ed Benes (Justice League of America). The issue is under the Brightest Day banner since its stars one of the twelve resurrected characters. The group consists of mainstays like Oracle, Black Canary, Huntress and Lady Blackhawk with the addition of Hawk and Dove. Hawk being the dead man walking.
Story weaves from one character to the next as Oracle must unite the team. Black Canary and Lady Blackhawk find themselves in Iceland trying to rescue a kidnapped girl. After a lengthy but futile conversation, Black Canary takes down the scummy kidnappers showing why she’s bad ass. When Huntress receives Oracles call, she’s pounding on some street punks and making it look easy. The avatars of Peace and War, a.k.a. Dove and Hawk are engaged in battle with an evil Pep Squad. Hawk forces himself to deal with the idiot teenagers with restraint. Hawk is still dealing with being resurrected and figuring out his place in the world.
With House of M, we saw the destruction of the mutants and the Avengers. This forced both groups to rebuild. With Civil War, we saw the war of two ideologies at battle. One represents comics of old while the other demonstrates a more modern take on superheroes and comics in general. Then, there was the Initiative. Finally, the Heroes and Brains were running the show! They introduced a new way of doing everything including training and registration. It was a short lived success that was soon spoiled by the Secret Invasion. Skrulls had placed themselves within every organization in the world by replacing people with doppelgangers. The Skrulls made their push to take over the world but the heroes retaliated and won.
Have you heard? Batman died. Not actually. You see near the end of Final Crisis, Darkseid hit Batman with his omega beams, which normally destroy people on contact. Batman, being Batman, was not killed but displaced in time. The Return of Bruce Wayne is just that, Bruce Wayne finding his way through time to return home. Each issue deals with Bruce in a different era trying to survive. The first issue has him at the dawn of man-kind surrounded by Cavemen.
The story begins with a group of men huddled around a crashed rocket. How the rocket got there is a mystery. The cavemen speak in broken English and are amazed by the find. They’ve arrived to turn one of their boys into a man and to do so they must visit the one called Old Man. What they find instead is Bruce. The Old Man has died after drawing several of DC’s embalms on a cave wall. The one called Man, takes the place of Old Man as the prior Old Man had done before him. The group stays the night as they study Bruce. Before the night ends the group is attacked by a warring clan. Everyone but the boy and Bruce are killed.
In years past, each book was done by different teams. But this year all of the titles are written by Robert Kirkman (Walking Dead, Invincible). The third book released in 2010 is Stealth. With this release, Robert Kirkman attempts to tell an interesting story of a father and son dealing with loss of family in their own way. The son Todd, dealing with his daughter and ex-wife. Plus watching his father’s loosing battle to Alzheimer’s.
This issue marks the first issue of the Heroic Age at Marvel and also premiers the brand new suit for Iron Man. Previously Stark was forced to erase his brain, which had been changed into a hard drive after the Extremis experiment. Tony’s brain possessed all of the Super-hero Registration information, but to keep it out of Norman Osborn’s hands, he needed to wipe the drive clean. Now he’s running on a back up hard drive. He has gaps in his memory and isn’t aware of some of the horrible things he did in the name of protecting the world.
Tony and his supporting cast find themselves healing, as well as helping to rebuild Asgard and the neighboring town. As for Tony, he is spending most of his time learning about everything he has missed and everything he has done. With his new power cell (similar to the movie version), he finds himself upgraded. His body produces more energy, and his mind runs at a higher capacity. Apparently Matt Fraction (Immortal Iron Fist, Uncanny X-Men) felt that Tony just wasn’t smart enough.
