Resurrection Man #8

This cover is completely stupid. Stupider even.

Resurrection Man #8 begins with two additional people looking for Mitch Shelley: a detective named Kim Rebecki who uses Psychometry (psychically finding people?) and a guy named The Butcher who uses Necromancy. Besides these guys, the Gotham Police and all law enforcement agents want him because he escaped from the Gotham Police morgue Arkham Asylum. Also, Body Double wants to find him because he's their asshole leader of whatever covert group they work for. And Suriel the Angel and some Demon Guy are also trying to find him. I think that makes for an exciting comic and a very easy story to come up with.

Dan Abnett, Writer: How did you like my story arc about him going to Portland and fighting the hot chicks and the old guy? Pretty cool, hunh?! Now it's your turn to write and I left you one hell of a wicked cliffhanger by turning Mitch to dust!
Andy Lanning, the other Writer: Oh, just wait until you see my idea! I'm going to completely fucking ignore your stupid cliffhanger (I mean, seriously, DEAD DEAD? The angel killed him TOO much?) and start over completely with him waking up in Gotham! He'll still feel compelled to go from place to place like before but the angel can't find him!
Dan Abnett: Cool! But you know what this comic needs? More people trying to find him!
Andy Lanning: Oh yeah! Of course! We literally can't get too many people chasing him! And everyone wants him dead!
Both Together: BUT HE CAN'T DIE! Bwa ha ha ha ha!

The part of the story that probably made them giggle and hug themselves was the part where they called the story Manhunt not because two new people were searching for him but because Mitch Shelley is searching for himself! For his old self, to be a tiny bit more precise. That's just the sort of thing writers orgasm over and can't wait to point out to other people. "Look how clever I am, you fucking tart! I'M A GODDAMNED WRITER!"

Wow, I'm really being bitchy to Dan and Andy! But I think they deserve it! Five issues in and the story seems to be going somewhere and then they completely fucking derail it. It's like Legion Lost over here!

Well, the internet should surely know who you are! Maybe you should check your Myspace page. Or your Friendster. Soul Exchange!?!

Mitch Shelley seems a bit old to think his answers can be found on the internet. This is a work of fiction, though, so he might find something. Over at my normal webpage, Places and Predators dot com, I've been slowly (ever so slowly) working on a Bible Study and Commentary. Because of this page, most of the search terms used to find my site have to do with The Bible. I think it's hilarious how many people read The Bible, find a portion that is unclear (the whole thing?), and then ask the internet to clear it up. Like the internet is some source that has the answer to everything! The Internet trumps The Bible. I mean, really, it does. But that statement is still pretty funny and possibly blasphemous. But it still doesn't stop people who believe The Bible is the ultimate manual to life from looking to the internet for answers The Bible won't give up.

Yeah, that's it Mitch. You don't show up on the internet because you're too classified. Maybe you just don't have an internet presence because you've been roaming the world as an amnesiac super hero.

While heading to the newsprint archive, he runs into Detective Kim Rebecki and she gets an overload Psychometric message from him. She collapses from the overwhelming power and he touches her boobies. No, no. Um, well, maybe!

He might have even touched her Twiddle Crevice!

And then Alan Moore The Butcher crashes the party! Literally! Well, he literally crashes the figurative party!

He's a Fatomancer.

The Butcher kills Shelley and tries to use Shelley's life force to cast a spell as Shelley resurrects. Once Mitch resurrects, he takes his life power back from The Butcher and The Butcher's spell backfires, using The Butcher's life force to power it and destroying The Butcher! Like using Black Razer against an undead opponent!

Once he's out of the picture, Mitch begins speaking with Kim and realizes she knows a hell of a lot more about him than he does. He wants her to tell him all about himself but she won't do it here in public. But before they can go anywhere, well, you can guess what happens again.

And guess who killed him this time! Guess! GUESS!

Way to go, Deadshot!

Resurrection Man Issue #8 Rating: No change. Hopefully this comic is moving ahead and will get past this Who Am I? crap pretty soon. It's not really interesting when that point is shoved at you ever other panel. It would be more interesting if he were just doing things and his journey of self-discovery was more of a background notion. But this gets old pretty fast. It's like when a caller on Coast to Coast calls up George Knapp to tell him some crazy story where he ran into some aliens. Instead of telling the story in a concise way, the caller will pause and wait for reactions and ask things like, "Can you guess what happened next?" and other annoying things. The caller thinks it's somehow building tension in the story simply by dragging it out. But it's really just building the obnoxiousness. Or something. So hurry up and get on with it, Resurrection Man. We're waiting for the real story to start.

Resurrection Man #7

Every time Mitch is killed, all of his past offenses should be forgiven, right?

Mitch escaped Arkham by getting his head blown off. Now he's on the run and he's found himself in Metropolis reading articles by some schlub named Clark Kent.

Maybe the rest of his article deals with the people driven out and displaced by the process. No wonder Superman and Batman don't get along!

Mitch awakens to the sound of Metropolis PD outside his building. He thinks they've come for him but it turns out they've got a lead on a Mr. Untouchable and his meth lab a few floors below Mitch. During the chaos, Mitch wonders why he's even in Metropolis. Something drew him there but he doesn't know what it was. Just like something drew him to Portland. And apparently Arkham although that was kind of completely different in a disintegration kind of way.

What it seems is happening to Mitch is that he's back to where the comic started. He's one of those Kung Fu / David Bruce Banner guys going from city to city looking for answers. His dream seemed to give him a whole bunch of answers but he had forgotten it until now. He remembers it because Mr. Untouchable comes crashing out of the apartment wearing one of those force fields that Mitch was wearing in his dream.

I'm beginning to wonder if Mitch even remembers being in Portland with Body Double and the Transhuman? Or if Dan Abnett even remembers it!

Mitch uses his Blue Fire power to save a bunch of people by controlling the flames and making a safe passage out of the building. One of the Metropolis Police recognize him and tries to arrest him even though he's helping out. But an explosion allows Mitch to escape. The only problem is he heads back into the building to rescue more people.

Mitch is killed again by Mr. Untouchable but comes back to life with psychokinesis. He manages to contain the explosion when the hotel meth lab blows and mob arms and ammunition blows up. He's also able to remove Mr. Untouchable's force field and leave him for police. He then wanders off to the Metropolis Library with his new-found wisdom about who he might be and what might be causing him to do the things he's doing.

Yeah but how did you end up in Gotham after being disintegrated in Portland? Answer that already!

Resurrection Man Issue #7 Rating: -2 Ranking. If you're just going to ignore one story arc right in the middle to begin another story arc, at least make it different from how the first story arc began! It's like this comic book is just starting over from scratch.

Resurrection Man #6

I think the hand directly beneath the K belongs to Zsasz.

Five days after the end of the last issue, Mitch continues to be restrained in Arkham Asylum. Nobody there believes his stories of resurrection. Hopefully something in this story will explain how he went from Portland to Gotham by way of being disintegrated by an angel.

The doctor studying his case must be another ESL character.

Mitch has told the staff that he resurrects with a new super power whenever he dies. In a place for the mentally insane, no doctor is going to believe him. The ineffective staff at Arkham have dubbed Mitch "Deathwish" since he keeps trying to kill himself or get them to kill him so that they'll see he's telling the truth. At least the staff is known for their gentle touch and kind manner.

Maybe Batman should just kill the crooks instead of placing them in this sadistic "hospital".

Mitch starts a fight in the cafeteria refectory and gets his ass thrown in the bin with the really loony inmates. I don't know what kind of weird line exists at Arkham to have the severely dangerous and mentally deranged kept in a special section and the not too dangerous and mentally deranged kept in another section. I imagine the non-dangerous section is still somewhat dangerous or super crazy or the inmates would probably be in a normal mental hospital instead of Arkham. Maybe the loonies have just given Arkham a bad reputation. Maybe 95% of their work is great work and terrific care of the mentally ill!

How many guards die during every breakout? Don't they have any common sense to not accept bribes to shut down the grid? How many prisoners has this guard kicked in the stomach and he doesn't think one of them is going to get a little revenge when he shuts down the system? Gotham Security Guards are some of the stupidest characters having no self-preservation instinct. They're just a little smarter than Red Shirts in The Federation.

During the riot, Mitch shocks Sumo while chastising Fletcher the security guard about 'supplementing his base pay' and 'putting someone like Sumo back on the streets.' Mitch has not been sedated since being thrown in the bin so he has some shock power that he uses to try and stop Sumo. Or to try to get Sumo to kill him, probably. Which is what Sumo does!

I hope Sumo didn't kill him dead dead or Mitch might wake up in Belle Reve!

Commissioner Gordon and the Gotham City Police Department arrive on the scene almost immediately. They've probably set up a station just across the street that only deals with Arkham riots. Mitch comes back to life with super strength and stops Sumo from escaping. He tells Jim and his team to hold their fire while he subdues Sumo and Gordon complies. But one of his men doesn't!

It was Fletcher!

Mitch ends up in the Gotham Coroner's office but that only lasts a little while. Eventually he's back up and the first thing he does is visit Fletcher at Fletcher's apartment. Who cares how he knew where to go, right? It was probably part of his current weird blue fire Firestorm type power. Or maybe he logged on to White Pages dot com and found his residence. He doesn't kill Fletcher although he should have. Fletcher killed him, right? I think the one person who has absolute right to kill a person is the person that has already been killed by that person. Get me?

Oh quit blabbing! He let you live! You gotta have bigger balls than that to work security at Arkham.

Resurrection Man Issue #6 Rating: No change in ranking. Maybe I'm just being lazy and I don't want to change the list. But if I don't find out what happened to put Mitch in Arkham in-between Issues #5 and #6 in the next issue, I'm going to drop it by 2 Ranks! It feels like Dan Abnett just got bored of the story line happening in Issues 1-5 and decided to clean the slate and start a new story. I'm sure Suriel and Body Double and the Transhuman will all meet up with Mitch again at some point. But before that happens, I want to know why he woke up on a gurney in an ambulance headed to Gotham after being disintegrated by an angel!

Now that's a television show I would have watched. Disintegrated by an Angel. Or Highway to Arkham even!

Batwoman #8

Did Gotham City ever go with a 'Got Ham?' tourism campaign?

This issue continues the big fight that was about to start at the end of last issue. And it apparently started before the reader arrived!

Get it? She's a lesbian! So she needs her mouth just as much as she needs her vagina!

When I was in elementary school, I was naive and innocent for a long time. If I'd read the panel above, I would have thought she meant if her mouth was messed up, she wouldn't be able to say yes when a guy asked her out and then her love life would suffer. Someone told me this joke: Why can't the Go Gos get pregnant? Because their lips are sealed! And I laughed appropriately because it was a joke and laughing is what you do! But I didn't get it. I thought maybe they couldn't say yes to their beaus' proposals if their mouths were shut up with glue or something.

I also learned a lot of stuff that was considered dirty or inappropriate because of adults telling me not to say something that I didn't know previously was dirty. Then I would backwards engineer what it could possibly mean. And thus my innocence was eroded little by little because adults were punishing me for things I said. So when I said my paper airplane "sucked the big one" in 2nd grade and my teacher yelled at me for saying filthy things, I figured out what that meant. Before it was just something you say when displeased with something. My mother also told me, "That's disgusting. Don't say that," when I was singing the part in Greased Lightning where "the chicks will cream." I didn't immediately understand why that was gross but you can bet I asked around until I found out!

Where was I? Oh yeah! Batwoman was fighting a bunch of Urban Legends. I think Killer Croc fits in because of the alligators in the sewers thing. I hope she defeats Falchion by exploding a can of Pillsbury Biscuit Dough on the back his head and, in his own belief that he's been shot, he'll die from Maro's magic!

Batwoman defeats all of the Urban Legends simply by commanding a Robotic AI Alien Technology DEO Dart that really does the job of a Super Hero, turning the user into its sidekick! Batwoman shocks Croc with her new Taser Bat Gloves. The Dart shrieks which cracks Bloody Mary (because she's just a mirror!) and Batwoman smashes her to the ground. And then the Dart emits flame to put down La Llorona.

I think Batwoman has to kill all the believers to defeat the Urban Legends! She needs the help of Jan Brunvand! Boy, I've never seen his picture before. He looks like a Super Villain himself!

Falchion threatens to kill one of the children unless Batwoman turns off her Alien Dart. She does this as, behind her, the man without the hook is busy putting the hook back on his wrist. Or the hook without a body is busy getting the body to put it back on its wrist. One of those.

In the flashbacks, we see Rush (the hook guy) getting the hook attached to his hand by Maro. The hook is actually called the Ashoth. And Rush is actually a child molester. Also, Cameron gets Kate to mine Maggie for information (hee hee). And then Batwoman kidnaps Sune and messes up Maggie's prisoner transfer. She also manages to stick Maggie with the sedative that's mixed with Scarecrow's Fear Gas during the extraction. This relationship might just be more trouble than the sex is worth.

And then back to the final fight where Batwoman finds her super bullet proof armor is no match for Falchion's falchion which was forged by the Mother. He claims it's tasted Amazonian blood and Batwoman's blood is next when he's peppered by arrows.

I think two archers in one Super Hero universe is enough. Pick a new weapon, Sune.

Batwoman Issue #8 Rating: No change in the ranking. Nothing great, nothing horrible. Just a continuation of the story. I don't think this chapter revealed enough. It existed in a place where parts were already implied previously and they didn't really need to spend pages on them (they did simply to show how Hook Guy's hook will be reattached so easily) and other parts were just executions of plans that were talked about before (mainly to show that Sune is now with the DEO with an offer of immunity). It was kind of like treading water until the big fight next issue.

Batwoman #7

I'm having difficulty seeing how the font and style of this title relate to Batwoman. Except, you know, it spells 'Batwoman'.

This issue begins with "Batwoman's Story. Now" so it looks like we're going to continue with the ripped asunder narrative from last issue. I like when stories are told in ways other than chronologically. But this format is eroding my interest. If it's done well, I suppose the final chapter of To Drown the World will have all of the character's stories from the differing times line up into some kind of 'a-ha' cool moment. I guess I don't trust DC to succeed at this goal.

Last issue, Batwoman was beating up the guy who gutted Flamebird. She'd just turned the tables on him but even now, in a choke hold, the guy doesn't know when to shut up.

They're having a pleasant chat about Flamebird.

Except it isn't the guy who doesn't know how to shut up!

It's a sentient hook!

The hook's voice is represented by the yellow speech bubble. Which means when the hooked thug yells, "Gonna split that sexy skull wide open. I wanna moosh my face into your pretty brains," it makes more sense than the picture I had in my mind of the thug shoving his face into Batwoman's gray matter (her brains, you pervert! I know everything else on her is gray as well!) and giving it a good old raspberry.

As you can see from the panel, Batwoman tears the guy's hook off and he transforms into a normal looking man. Batwoman calls him Rush and he tells her, "You promised to protect me!" I don't know if I'm supposed to remember this guy from the DCnU or if he was part of the old DCU. Or maybe he'll be introduced later in this exploded story line.

The guy in the gladiator garb leads a bunch of chained children out across the steps in the room and begins saying how he loves all of his monsters. Is this the well-dressed man that helped create La Llorona? I didn't describe him as well-dressed earlier because he was wearing gladiator leathers! He looked more like Ward Cleaver at that time.

Is that Kate's sister who became Alice?

Meanwhile, three weeks ago, in the hospital, Kate's dad continues to watch over Flamebird in her coma. Mostly he talks about his daughters, Kate and Beth. He's telling Flamebird all of the things he should be telling Kate.

One week after three weeks ago, Kate and Maggie are on a date when Kate notices a guy staring at them through the window. She goes out to confront him and dredges up a bunch of old DCU crap.

The Religion of Crime are those guys in All Star Western killing prostitutes, right?

This guy, Abbott, says that Medusa's leader is a warrior named Falchion. That must be the guy in the gladiator garb wielding the, you know, falchion. And so Batwoman scores a little bit more Intel while she was just out trying to score in general.

It turns out the woman I thought might be Alice is actually Bloody Mary. You know the one? The one you summon during slumber parties? When I mentioned that perhaps Batwoman would be fighting urban legends, I was pretty close to the mark. This guy Maro is going around creating monsters from superstition and urban legend because his magic relies on the power of belief to make these creatures real.

The other monster is a crocodile man named Waylon Jones. I don't know what belief makes him real.

Duh. Sometimes I forget that this is all taking place in Gotham City. The crocodile man is, of course, Killer Croc. He is working for Medusa and they're busy destroying the Religion of Crime and all of its werebeasts. Falchion may be the leader with a face but they all seem to be working for Mother. That's either Medusa or a guy who is more like a moth than a normal moth guy.

Detective Maggie catches one of Medusa's leaders, a woman by the name of Sune. She'll probably learn a little bit about Medusa in interrogation and then pass the news on to Kate during a steamy bout of fucking.

Back to Cameron Chase's story, the DEO wants Sune working for them. So forget about learning secrets during sex. Batwoman's new mission is to kidnap Sune as Detective Maggie transports her to a new location. I'm starting to think Kate should just start dating a clerk at the local Buy and Bag. But then she'll probably start having to shoplift cigarettes for Director Bones and she'll get into conflict with her girlfriend anyway.

And then the issue ends with Batwoman about to fight Killer Croc, Bloody Mary, La Llorona (who I thought was dispelled but I guess it didn't take), and Falchion. I believe the chained up children are just kept to power the monsters with the children's belief and tears.

Batwoman Issue #7 Rating: No change in the ranking. This issue was executed better than the last. And I did like the sentient hook thing. The only trouble I'm currently having with the book is that Amy Reeder is trying a bit too hard to keep Williams style while never really coming close to succeeding. Her art is much better in this issue and that might be because she's the only penciller. She would do well to just find her own style for Batwoman and stick with it. I liked Williams' style because it felt ghostly and haunted, like we were in a fringe part of Gotham that even Batman doesn't take any notice of. But now it's just regular comic book art with the occasional odd panel lay outs that don't have the same texture and feel that Williams' style had. I don't think that oddity will last for long though. The majority of this book looked really nice after the opening pages that tried to capture the old feel. Failed but tried. Overall, a good job and I'm glad the comic picked back up after that last issue.

I'm entirely sure that many of my critiques rely more on how manic I'm feeling and less on the actual comic book! How's that for biased?!

Batwoman #6

What happened to the stylized covers? Now this is just another normal comic book!

It's too bad J.H. Williams isn't doing the art anymore. The striking difference in look from the other comics was a big plus to the feel of this series. Now the new artist draws in the standard style but is still trying to keep the same loose and misty feeling. It just looks uncomfortable.

Last issue, Bones twisted Batwoman's arm to get her to help the DEO in their investigation of Medusa. Since Medusa is supposedly behind the kidnappings of the children in Gotham, Batwoman agrees. She also agrees so that her father doesn't get fired from whatever military branch he's in.
Batwoman begins the new story, "To Drown the World," by fighting the thug with the scythe hand. He no longer looks like a Frankenstein Monster because the new artist was probably afraid to draw it. Now it just looks like a big dumb thug with a crew cut. I think she's fighting him in some kind of Diving Bell while some old timey warrior guy watches. In a few pages, I guarantee we'll get a 24 hours ago caption.

And it looks like she found the children!

Batwoman gets gutted almost immediately. On the following page, the caption reads, "Jacob's Story. One month ago." One month! That's a new record! But I guess she really needs to spend a few issues discovering where the kids are. She can't just find them on the first page of the comic after she takes the job from Bones!

Colonel Kane has been visiting Flamebird's bed every day since she ended up in the hospital. He's reading a spy novel to her called, You Only Live Twice.

Jumping through time again, Detective Maggie (the woman dating Kate Kane) is visited by the mother of the children stolen by La Llorona at the beginning of Issue #1. This takes place one week before Batwoman gets gutted. Her is what she says: "WHINE WHINE ME ME ME WHINE CLICHE SOB ACCUSE ACCUSE WHINE CLICHE WHINE SOB ME SOB CLICHE."

The cops waste time their way while you waste time your way.

Four months prior to Batwoman getting gutted, Maro, a mystic Asian man, drowns Maria's children. By doing so, he ensures that Maria will drown herself and then he can take control of her spirit and use her as La Llorona. He is with a well dressed man and they are discussing their plans to harvest children. La Llorona will be their cover.

Three weeks before Batwoman loses her guts, Kate and Maggie have sex. Possibly more times than that across the whole month as well.

Two weeks before Batwoman gets the wind knocked out of her, we see her in action with Cameron Chase as Batwoman gets riddled with bullets and they just bounce off of her new DEO armor. Which is why I changed the gutted line to wind knocked out of.

Back to the present, Batwoman stands up and threatens the thug before the issue ends.

Why replace a lost hand with a scythe? You've just limited your job opportunities!

Batwoman Issue #6 Rating: -1 Ranking. I did not care for this issue. I also did not care for the direction the art has taken. You can tell how uninterested I was because I don't feel like saying anything else. I didn't even feel like saying that.

Batwoman is also still gray, just in case you were wondering. I wonder if that will ever be explained! Okay, I'm done typing now.

Teen Titans #8

Taste the Teen Rainbow.

The Teen Titans encountered Harvest at the end of last issue and even though there wasn't a fight (okay, okay. There was one page where Harvest mentioned he was controlling them completely. You know, just like that. Easy peasy), this issue begins with the Teen Titans captured and being tortured by yet another new villain named Omen. Haven't all the words in the dictionary been used to create villains yet? Especially these one shot villains that really won't be around for much more than this one story. The New 52 feels a lot like when DC did the Bloodlines Annual event. Writers are just creating new villains every other issue and slapping a trademark and a Created By label on them just in case they somehow become popular. But they're all basically the same. One shows up with a new name and costume (and if the writer put any thought into it, at least a gimmick or reason for being) where they proceed to kick the shit out of the super hero for one or two issues. Eventually the super hero will pull himself or herself up by her Goddamned Batstraps and defeat the new villain who was so crazy powerful in the previous issue. Unless you're the Justice League International where you'll just get killed or put into a coma or cry in a corner and feel useless.

Well, here are a few more. Harvest and Omen. Omen has the Teen Titans captured and is currently torturing Red Robin by sticking him in her womb (no, seriously. Her own words) and showing him what he most fears. Apparently he most fears turning into an actual Robin.

I would think his worst fear was disappointing Batman. Or never getting laid.

Since Solstice has been through this shit before, Wonder Girl turns to her for advice (and yes, I'm going to continue to call Cassie 'Wonder Girl').

Oh well. I guess they should just give up and die then.

The rest of the Teen Titans continue to say heroic things (except Solstice who has decided they are doomed) while not actually doing anything. I guess that's what makes a true hero. A person that always talks back to the person in power with no fear of sounding trite or stupid. If I'm ever arrested, I'm going to spout off with "Is that all you've got?!" and "You'll be sorry!" and "You'll never get away with it!"

Omen must be foreign.

Cassandra fears being Wonder Girl. Her lariat is not a lasso and her invisible armor is not a jet. So don't fucking call her Wonder Girl, okay?

Next up is Skitter and Omen separates the bug from the girl. And at this point, we find that Celine knows more than she is saying about why she and Skitter have been merged.

How did Skitters know Omen was Lilith? Even I didn't know that! Stupid Teen Titans history I missed in the double aughts.

Lilith, Terra, and Beast Boy have all made appearances. When do we get Raven? Or maybe Harvest is Raven? Who else might Harvest be? I don't think I can think of any Teen Titans that were dead in the old DCU that could end up being Harvest now. I'm currently sucking at my Teen Titans history. Maybe it's Jericho since he is able to take control of their bodies? NOWHERE has managed to adapt other super powers like that Grunge guy. Maybe Jericho can now possess people without disappearing inside of them. Or maybe it's Phantasm or Wildebeest, right?! Actually, Phantasm is a good guess!

Back in New York City, Amanda Waller is hanging out with some guy named Kurt Lance who I should probably recognize but don't.

My supposition is that they made Amanda Waller thin and attractive because most comic book artists can't actually draw anything but skeletons with muscles and boobs on them.

Why does Amanda even bother with the secrecy thing? Everybody fucking knows about your Squad, you dumb totebag. And why introduce this new plot into the mix? Do we really need another person out there hunting down the Teen Titans? Are the Teen Titans ever, in their entire history, going to be a super group that does good or are they just going to be a super group that attracts trouble?

When it's Kid Flash's turn, things go awry for Omen. She can't quite tap into his mind because it's layered over with a bunch of false memories and time travels and masturbation fantasies (probably). She takes off his clothes because that will help her somehow. Actually, it just helps the writer with the excuse for Kid Flash's powers to go all wonky again now that Static's Suit of Quantum Control is keeping thing in check. Kid Flash has a power surge which breaks Omen's psionic connection. Kid Flash zips out, picks up Bunker and Solstice, and flees.

Except that none of that happens. It was all in their minds! It was all Omen controlling reality the whole time! What a stupid issue! What did we learn? We learned Kid Flash is afraid of dying. We learned Wonder Girl's lariat is killing her. We learned Bunker has nothing we needed to learn. We learned Skitters is keeping the world safe by being Skitters. We learned Red Robin is the leader of the Teen Titans and keeps fighting to the very end. And we learned that Leash is just another super villain that can completely control his enemies which is a convenient way of making him win every fight until he doesn't. And making it seem like the Teen Titans have finally met their match. Which they haven't.

Leash? I can't wait until we meet Plunger and Walking Stick and Tennis Shoe.

Teen Titans Issue #8 Rating: -1 Ranking. This was barely even an issue. I'm particularly getting sick of Scott Lobdell's version of Super Powered Conflict. The Good Guys meet a Bad Guy. The Bad Guy is immune to the Good Guy's Telekinesis when fighting Superboy. Or the Bad Guy can control everybody with a single thought. Harvest controlled everyone with a single thought. Leash controls everyone he touches. Omen controls reality so they can't fight back because she is basically controlling them all. Grymm controlled everyone with a single thought. Detritus can erase everyone's memories until Lobdell is ready to bring him back (hell, even I forgot about him!). I think Red Hood and the Outlaws hasn't resorted to this bullshit yet. I really can't remember.