Broken Frontier

Final Crisis may have dominated the first part of this week’s DCU roundup but it’s the themed cover "event" Faces of Evil that is the main focus today. Look out for the handy links guiding you to collections of relevant story arcs and don’t forget our important Spoiler Warning: Read no further if you’ve not had your DC fix this week and don’t want to read about key story elements.

Wanted! The World’s Most Dangerous Villains

Superman #684 is a power-leeching spotlight on long-term Man of Steel Rogue - the Parasite. Picking up on story points from "New Krypton" Rudy Jones is returned from the Phantom Zone alongside a number of Superman villains. Having absorbed the Daxamite powers of Mon-El while there, he’s able to make a swift escape from his subsequent incarceration, no doubt setting up future storylines when Mon-El takes a prominent role in the Super-books very soon. Elsewhere, Guardian becomes the new head honcho of the Science Police and Superman learns that Alura is now working with General Zod.

Catwoman’s vengeance on Hush, after her ordeal at his hands in the "Heart of Hush" arc, reaches a conclusion in Batman #685 which also carries the Last Rites banner. Using him to put down an illegal poaching operation, Selina ensures he also ends up in the custody of Nightwing and Robin when she has finished manipulating him. With Tommy Elliott now transformed into a Bruce Wayne double, the Dark Knight’s protégés take him into their own custody and imprison him in a special cell in Wayne Tower. Let’s wait and see if this backfires on Dick and Tim when the battle for the cowl begins...

Wonder Woman #28 is the latest chapter or the "Rise of the Olympian" saga. Wonder Woman, Donna Troy and Wonder Girl do their best to stop Genocide from liberating Dr. Psycho from the Department of Metahuman Affairs at the Society's behest. Psycho, though, has already switched minds with DMA director Sarge Steel. Meanwhile Zeus’s new race of "Manazons", the Olympians, interpret the Amazons’ mission of peace a little more radically – by warring on the warmongers!

My Brother, My Enemy

Faces of Evil: Kobra #1 provides the serpentine terrorist with his first solo title, albeit a one-shot, since the short-lived Kobra title was cancelled with #7 in 1977. Following on from dangling plot threads in last year’s Checkmate #25 this issue sets up a new status quo for the Cult of Kobra and its attempts to bring about the Kali Yuga, or age of chaos.

The original incarnation of the book, which included work by Jack Kirby, was one of those 1970s flirtations with villain-themed comics evidenced in contemporary DC stablemates like Secret Society of Super-Villains and The Joker.

The basic premise of Kobra was that twin brothers Jeffrey and Jason Burr were separated physically and yet maintained a psychic link that bonded them, seemingly, inextricably. While Jeffrey followed his supposed spiritual destiny as leader of the terrorist group that bore his villainous name his brother Jason opposed him at all turns. Notoriously, the mid to late 70s saw a number of DC books that lasted just a handful of issues and Kobra was one of them. The book’s loose plot threads were tied up in DC Special Series #1/Five Star Super-Hero Spectacular wherein the brothers’ psychic link was finally broken and Batman himself failed to stop Jeffrey killing Jason.

There’s scarcely a super-hero that Kobra and his organization haven’t troubled in the years since. Jeffrey finally met his match, however, when he was cold-bloodedly executed by Black Adam in JSA #51 (Oct 2003), although he came very close to death at the hands of Ravan in Suicide Squad #47 (Nov 1990) some years earlier. The Kobra cult has been factionalised since and followed a number of dead ends in its attempts to regroup and find a new leader.

The current one-shot features the surprise resurrection, via what I assume to be a Lazarus Pit, of Jason Burr. This is not the good guy of past stories though. There’s little motivation or explanation for Jason’s sudden turn to the dark side so let’s put it down to the trauma of his rebirth. What is certain is that Jason has revitalised the Kobra organization, removing its dead wood and drawing a line under his brother’s reign and the cult’s recent activities. This is horribly emphasised when our new Kobra infiltrates Checkmate and murders the snakelike babies, bred as potential future messiahs of the cult, that were last seen in Checkmate #25. It’s a new dawn for this longtime DC terrorist group with a new mission statement that includes killing off the super-heroes of the DC Universe one by one...

My Greatest Adventure

There’s a cracking conclusion to the latest volume of LSH  as Jim Shooter’s run ends with a bang in Legion of Super-Heroes #50. The final battle with the inhabitants of the Intruder Planet has some interesting parallels with the Purge in current issues of The Brave and the Bold. Just like B&B’s recent cosmic villain, these aliens view the material world as inherently evil and see themselves as "saving" those on the mortal plane by destroying all physical life. This one is a satisfying conclusion to a 14-part epic that pays off our investment on that plot thread and gives more than one happy ending for the cast.

However, on the negative side, those hoping to see Princess Projectra getting her comeuppance are going to be disappointed as the major storyline of the former monarch’s revenge plot against the Legion over the destruction of Orando is left completely unresolved. Also dangling is the mysterious disappearance of Karate Kid and Triplicate Girl back in Legion of Super-Heroes #43. Will that play into Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds as we speculated some time back here? Time will tell...

Justice Society of America # 22 seemed to imply that the classic Legion’s future was on Earth-22. Taking this speculation a step further there are the odd clues and possible hints about where the Threeboot Legion fit but they’re very vague. This Legion are aware of the existence of Deadman, for example, and know of the "legend" of the original Brainiac from old Superman comic books. All of which could imply New Earth as their point of origin. They have, of course, also counted Supergirl among their membership but that isn’t too relevant given the Superman of New Earth’s membership of the classic Legion is now once more in continuity. While I suspect another streamlining of Legion continuity, post-Legion of 3 Worlds, I shall miss this incarnation of the team and it’s a true shame that the book couldn’t have been given a couple more issues to satisfactorily conclude all its storylines.

The answers are finally beginning to come in The War That Time Forgot #9. The aliens toying with the greatest warriors of DCU history turn out to be not so alien after all! Rather, they are mutated humans from a future where the planet has been ravaged by nuclear war. Going out on a fanboy limb this could possibly be the same post-apocalyptic future seen in the mid-eighties Hex series and, later, in the Time Masters maxiseries, though the technology seems more advanced. What we do learn is that Akisha, the future warrior, is also from this time; her humanity marking her out as a genetic throwback. Whatever is occurring on Dinosaur Island is part of the future humans' desperate bid for survival in their own radioactive timeline. Their plan to preserve the future is collapsing though and the issue ends with the dramatic abandonment of their schemings.

There’s a fun 6-page battle between Jaime Reyes and a number of his predecessor Ted Kord’s villains in Blue Beetle #35. Assuming the current Beetle is a legacy hero the villains believe his defeat will be a moral victory against the deceased Ted. Present in this grouping are the Squid Gang (below left), the Masked Maruader and the Madmen (below middle) who all originated in Ted’s Charlton Comics run in the late 1960s. Alongside them are Catalyst, Firefist and Carapax (below right) from the 1986 DC revival of Blue Beetle.

This issue also introduces the Khaji-Da Revolutionary Army, a band of former Reach operatives who have taken their inspiration from Jamie and his scarab and have overthrown their oppressors on a dozen worlds. Unfortunately they have decided all "oppressive" organizations must be dismantled including individual governments, the JLA and the Green Lantern Corps!

Finally, in Trinity #35 Enigma’s guilt at his role in so much death and destruction begins to eat away at him and we learn more about his past. His betrayal of Le Fay must surely be imminent. And over on Earth-Krona the Trinity’s loved ones finally come face to face with their mentors – now transformed as the gods of this reality.

And that wraps up this mammoth week of DC releases. Don’t forget you can join in the speculation on the ATDCU message board thread here. See you next week and thanks for reading!