It's a set up

MIGHTY AVENGERS #9 BM Bendis, Mark Bagley. Bendis got lazy. He thought he could fool me into liking his Mighty Avengers if he put three spreads of the Avengers fighting Doombots. Well, he almost did, I get hypnotized by spreads and pretty colors. But after reading the last page, I realized that the dialogue balloons were completely useless (since nothing significant was said) and that you could understand the story easily (since nothing much happened). To make sure that I buy the next issue, Bendis threw in a cliffhanger. I wonder how the battle in Latvia is connected to Secret Invasion?

NIGHTWING #141 Peter Tomasi, Rags Morales and Michael Bair. Bruce Wayne is filthy rich! Nightwing is setting up in New York and in order for him to be able to get around the city fast he needed strategic bases. He sent the addresses to Bruce and he bought all the buildings for Dick in a snap. Nothing much happened in this issue in furthering the story of the mystery of the body thieves but Tomasi wrote little special moments that satisfied my geeky heart. The JSA and JLA all pitched in to build his new HQ. Imagine having John Stewart as you architect! I was wondering when a Titan would come over and help him then Wally shows up. They shared a beer and talked—Tomasi and Morales succeeded in making the moment special.

BIRDS OF PREY #115 Sean McKeever, Nicola Scott, and Doug Hazlewood. PERFECT! Like Avengers and Nightwing, the BoP issue is setting up the stage for the big story in the arc. Avengers overdosed on fights and Nightwing was character driven but I missed the brawls. McKeever told a “set-up” story where characters evolved, the story moved forward, and there were fights! The Huntress and Lady Blackhawk went to go after Shark and they found his hide-out on a deserted island. In a few pages, Lady Blackhawk’s history with the villain was told and that Helena’s loyalty and respect for her has grown. They also fought giant eels and a damn big fish with big teeth. Oracle is still obsessed with trying to find out where their last operation in Metropolis went wrong. She enlisted Black Alice and Misfit threw a tantrum over what she believed was favoritism. Charlie was angry that Barbara considered another kid like her a Bird of Prey while she wasn’t considered to be an official agent. Just as Barbara and Lory were at the verge of a breakthrough on the case they were working on, Charlie teleported in to fight Lory. Meanwhile, Helena found Zinda drugged and transformed into an evil bitch. PERFECT!

BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #4 Chuck Dixon and Julian Lopez. Batgirl is back and Green Arrow hates her guts! (Come to think of it she’s the X-23 of DC – raised as an assassin and all but I think X-23 have more social support than Batgirl.) Anyway, after being betrayed by his kung fu master and how he and his family were hunted down by the league of assassins (the Black Canary and Sin arc) Green Arrow’s hate and distrust of Batgirl is completely understandable. The thing is Batman didn’t tell Ollie that Cassandra would be part of the team. It was typically manipulative of Batman. I have a problem with Ollie becoming a match to Cassandra in a fight. Cassandra was trained to read body language instead of verbal language—thus she could anticipate moves. Pretty much like Midnighter but without the enhancements—just human abilities but so honed and perfect that Batman once wondered if she was a meta. Unless, she was letting Ollie win so that he will feel better. Thunder is still hanging around Grace and the supposedly top secret Outsiders hideout. I don’t understand why Batman allows this. Maybe he has a plan for her, I don’t know why he didn’t put her on the team but he lets her hang out at their HQ. The reformatted OMAC is interesting—it can imitate anyone, George Clooney or Brad Pitt. I wouldn’t mind having one of those.