The List #24

Gotham City Sirens #9
Writer: Paul Dini
Artist: Guillem March
A lot of this issue focuses on the Riddler, it's his thought bubbles that are central this issue. And I have to say I find this irritating. The series is called Gotham City Sirens, not Gotham City Reformed Villains. If Dini is dying to write a series on The Riddler then go do it, but stop subjecting this series to constant detours to The Riddler when it's supposed to be about the women. It's especially insulting because it seems The Riddler appears every time something needs to be taken seriously, as if the girls are incapable of carrying a serious plot on their own. I'd say it goes so far as to suggest that female villains aren't to be taken as serious.

Another thing that gets me is since when is Ivy a reformed villain? I know Catwoman and Harley are, but Ivy just seems to have slipped into it without any real explanation. More importantly, who are the villains these days? With Ivy, Harley, Catwoman, and The Riddler all reformed it feels like all the best ones besides the Joker are gone.

This issue focuses around a body being dropped into the girls' home and Eddie trying to figure out what they were all doing before then. Harley's day is riddled with 'cutesy' crap and just details of her eccentric nature. Yet again, a mistake is made in writing Harley. The appeal of Harley is that her personality is such a contrast from her line of work. Her cuteness is odd in such a dark setting, and that's her appeal. Instead, Dini has focused in on her too much during this series and humanized her way too much. It's hard to believe she's ever been sick and twisted.

As for Ivy, it appears she was out at a job interview. Which I adore because I've already said I adore the fact that she's written to not need a man and has strong devotion to her cause. Making her a career woman just makes things even better.

As for Catwoman, apparently she was out sparring with Catman. And as a sidenote, I know I've stated before that Catwoman is the Gotham Girl I care about the least, but I've been looking into her recent appearances this past week and I have to say I find myself liking her now. I think it's up to Dini to spotlight her right now considering she's the least worked on Gotham Girl.

Anyway, the girls wrap up their stories and The Riddler goes to their home to check out the body. He makes a note of how the villain neglected to us the specific weapons and materials the girls would have which sort of brings the idea of villainy being an art (especially in such a villain focused universe as the Batman universe).

In the end it turns out the villain trying to frame the girls was none other than... Dr. Aesop!! Yeah, I have no idea who he is, but that's what I get for only reading Batman issues with Ivy in them. Conclusion: I'd say that this issue is worth the buy so long as you don't mind The Riddler.

X-Factor #202
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Bing Cansino
Here's the basic idea of this issue: Layla's working with Dr. Doom and apparently there's an impostor Doom or something from an alt. universe. I think. Whatever, anyway it turns out Invisible Woman is being kept in Castle Doom and it hooked up to a machine where she's exploring trashed fantasies with Namor. And we also finally get to know what Imperius Rex means, an explanation I certainly wouldn't deny.

In the end Monet interrupts and gets Sue out of the machine, everyone on the offensive team runs to go confront Doom. And they come upon a most unexpected scene as they come upon Doom...painting Layla's portrait. Which I kind of love because I have to say Doom humor, or as it should be called 'Dumor,' is a guilty pleasure of mine.

What a diva.

During the closing of the issue, Doom claims to just have been trying to protect Sue and reiterates that he's no longer after the FF4. As everyone is departing it seems an artist mistake was made. It seems Layla was colored to look like Monet (possibly drawn as well?), and the mistake was only fixed by having the 'M' tattoo put on the mis-drawn Layla.

Anyway, the team leaves except Layla makes Shatterstar behind with her and Doom for reasons currently unknown. Oh and back at home the evil Reed Richards is defeated. Conclusion: This issue crossed over the limbo between ok and good that David regularly visits and went into the more positive limbo of between good and great. I would say consider buying it.

X-Men Legacy #233
Writer: Mike Carey
Artist: Clay Mann
This issue is basically made up of two parts. The first is Rogue discovering that Betsy's psi-knife can de-possess and subsequently psi-knifing everyone. You can imagine how tense that was. And the second was Proteus and Magneto's fight which was filled with, "Bah, old man, you're weak, you'll die!.......BAH! Old man, you're weak..." and Magneto in the end 'surprisingly' winning.
A couple things of interests included recreating a scene from the old days of Kurt teleporting around Rogue (this time possessed and trying to possess her, not tickle her) and Rogue eventually predicting his next move. Also, since when can Paige use her bodies of different substances to make powers? Like in this issue she became a fire form while possessed and managed to shoot flames at Rogue. Proteus' reality-bending or is Paige getting an upgrade?

Anyway, possessed Husk is most resistant to Rogue and almost ends up defeating Rogue when Betsy steps in with her psi-knife. And Magneto screws around with Proteus' electromagnetic thingy to make it go away. Afterwards, Rogue and Destiny have a really cute mother/daughter scene. I've always found the Mystique/Rogue mother/daughter relationship sort of unconvincing, but when Destiny's added to the mix I have to say the dynamics make a lot more sense. And it's a tragedy that Destiny couldn't be developed more because I do enjoy her character.

Destiny eventually goes to see Blindfold and we find out that two pre-cogs cancel each other out. And I just realized almost all of the X-Men characters who've been precog at one point or another have also been blind at one point or another. (Destiny, Blindfold, Psylocke, and Gambit. Preview is the only seeing one I can think of.) Destiny tells Ruth she's not her ma and tells her what she knows. Apparently there's an evil brother in the mix, which I can imagine is going to be the subject of a future arc.

And that's it for X-Men Legacy's part in the Necrosha crossover. Probably the one with the least amount of impact yet the best one out of the three. I would definitely recommend buying this arc if you're interested a simple but good superhero arc.

X-Force #24
Writers: Craig Kyle and Chris Yost
Artist: Clayton Crain
In terms of last issue's body count, apparently it's Onyxx, Diamond Lil, and Meld, who I thought was Leech.

This issue starts with Warpath being taken to see Selene, Wither and Eli Bard get into a fight where Wither reveals he's also part-vampire or whatever Eli is. Then Selene kills Eli for his bullshit, and hopefully she'll get killed for her soon since she's just a boring villain in goth lingerie who's into S+M. Not exactly the height of originality.

Warpath is taken into the dungeons so that he can be forced to fight his resurrected brother. He resists, and Johnny can't stop himself but apparently tells James how to kill Selene.

X-Force arrives on Genosha and right as they arrive a few discoveries are made. The first being that Elixir changed Rahne's powerset a bit when he was healing her because of her pregnancy. That and apparently Vanisher's tumor is no more, but he's definitely got some sort of STD that causes spitting up blood. Vanisher ends up deciding to stay with the team though and goes to save James. And Blink, being the bitch she is, blows up Telford's arm as he's in the process of saving because no good deed goes unpunished.

X-Force's presence is discovered and there begins epic fight scene which is mixed in with Selene's ritual prep. The ritual eventually happens, can't tell if all the resurrected people die in the process, but I suppose it's to be assumed. And so now Selene's a god. The God of Boring Cliche's I'd wager.

Conclusion: This issue is only somewhat more interesting and intense than past issues, but it still ends up being pretty mediocre and not all that intense.