A friend of mine and new reader of this site (why has yet to leave any comments) suggested that I should recap what is happening in each comic prior to just referring to the Last Week In Comics. The more I thought about his suggestion, the more it made sense so I now present to you the new and improved:

Last Week In Comics:
A fresh take on 5 day-old comics.

Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance #2

During “Final Crisis” Grant Morrison recreated or re envisioned many of Jack Kirby’s “Fourth World” characters into different more modern versions. “Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance” revolves around the Super Young Team who is a modern incarnation of the Forever People. These fun loving, media craving, pop culture focused teenage heroes helped save the Multiverse in Final Crisis and are now ready to take the super-hero gig seriously.

LWIC (Last Week In Comics) the Super Young Team continued to break the mold they created before Final Crisis. Before the Crisis they craved attention that they now don’t really want. This issue was a little slower than the last one, but the pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together as to why the Japanese government is forcing their “multiverse saving” super-heroes to live the MTV lifestyle.

I look forward to seeing these young media crazy, selfish, pop culture stereotype heroes continue to grow into the heroes they now want to be if only their own government would let them.

Supergirl #42

Recently Braniac attacked Earth in hopes of finally capturing Superman and putting him in the bottled city of Kandor with the remaining survivors of Krypton. See that was Braniac’s thing – he destroyed planets after shrinking down the capital city and placeing it in a bottle for his personal collection. Well as we all know the bad guy never wins and Superman ultimately beats Braniac and frees millions of Kryptonians. Anyway to make a long story short(er) the US military led by Lois Lane’s father wasn’t too happy with that many super powered being flying around Earth so they sent the Kryptonians packing.

LWIC Kara (Supergirl) confronted and accidentally killed the rouge Kryptonian working for the US Military only to find out that she was not a rouge Kryptonian, but a human in a special “super suit.” Not only was her enemy not a traitorous Kryptonian, but she was the daughter of General Sam Lane and the sister of Superman’s wife Lois. In this issue Kara confronts Lois telling her the truth about the death of her sister.  The interaction that Sterling Gates writes is emotional and Jamal Igle’s art makes the scene even more emotional. Lois is not the only one who takes the death of Lucy Lane with pent up emotion… her father who was out to kill all Kryptonians as it was now vows to double or triple his effort after the death of his daughter.

and

THE BEST COMIC OF LAST WEEK
BATMAN: STREETS OF GOTHAM #1

Avid readers of the Batman family of books know that Bruce Wayne is dead. Well maybe not dead dead, but lost in time and no longer around in any comic books. While Bruce is lost in the time stream and considered “dead,” Batman is alive and kicking ass. Dick Grayson, former boy wonder and solo hero known as Nightwing, has taken over the mantle of the Bat . Robin is not who he used to be either he now is Bruce’s genetically altered son Damien and former Robin Tim Drake is traveling the world as “Red Robin.” Ok now everyone should be up to speed with the Batfamily, on to last week’s installment of Gotham’s favorite soap-opera.

LWIC the new Batman and Robin make their second appearance showing the difference between them and the old dynamic duo. Paul Dini, the writer for most of “Batman the Animated Series” episodes, focuses not on the characteristics of Batman and Robin, but how they interact with the  people, the criminals, and the city of Gotham itself. Dini writes each character with their own distinct personality but does not make that the focus of the story, instead the story not the character is the big picture. For example Damian is shown as a violent little Robin who craves wanton destruction, but the reasons are not explored in this comic and are left for the other writers of the Batman books to explore.

The simple fact that this is a “crime/detective” story similar to the ’90s Batman cartoons and not a deep character study is why this comic is easily the BEST COMIC OF LAST WEEK.