A-Next #3

Down 'n' Dirty With the Defenders

Doctor Strange has found out information that shows the fate of the world is at stake due to the research of Doctor Jennifer Bissette. The new mystic supreme, Doc Magus, astral projects into Strange's workshop and tells him to watch his business. Strange banishes him from the room. Magus confers with his friend Deacon, who suggests that if Strange is organizing a group then Magus should get the new Avengers. Strange is then shown tracking down the Sub-Mariner, Namor, who has secluded due to the destruction of his kingdom by Doctor Doom. At the Avengers mansion, Edwin Jarvis is showing around a new technician, Shannon Carter, when Magus pops in and requests the assistance of the Avengers. Strange is then shown finding Bruce Banner in Colorado where he has kept the Hulk at bay and has started a new life, including having a son. Strange uses a spell to bring out the Hulk and put him under Strange's control.

The Avengers all are assembled at the mansion when Jarvis makes a startling revelation that Scott Lang, Cassandra's father, would be joining the group as head technician. Before Cassandra can protest too much, Mainframe draws everyones attention to Doc Magus' problem. Magus and Strange both tell there respective teams that Dr. Bissette's research deals with harnessing the power of the Earth's core. This would eventually lead to catastrophic shifting of the Earth's mantle. The Avengers vow to stop the senseless death and try to find another way to stop her. They show up at the lab in Arizona just as Strange, Hulk, and Namor are about to lay siege. The two groups fight. J2 thinks he was able to take the Hulk down too easily after Stinger disoriented him, but the Hulk comes back and humbles J2. As Thunderstrike is about to confront Strange, Magus steps in and transports Strange with him to a temporary zone. Magus is able to subdue him there and uses the Eye of Agamotto to find out Strange's true intentions.

Back at the fight, Namor and Hulk tear Mainframe in two. Scared, J2 runs away while Thunderstrike assaults Namor, asking him is this the type person he wants to be. As J2 is running away, he is confronted by Mainframe, who reveals the other Mainframe was a robot. With renewed vigor, J2 takes on the Hulk again to get him away from Stinger. Namor stops the two from fighting then because he has seen his errors, saying he will be giving money to Bissette to safeguard the planet if Strange's prediction does come true. Back in the magic zone, Magus finds out Strange had orchestrated this to give the Avengers something to test on, to snap Namor out of his self-deprecating stupor, and Strange says that the Hulk has a destiny to fulfill. The issue ends with the Avengers congratulating themselves while their new assistant Shannon leaves to meet a mysterious group of people in her apartment.

This was a pretty good issue with an interesting story line. I know little about Strange, but what I did see of Doc Magus, I enjoyed and hope he will pop in again. We see a little bit about J2 still being young, since he becomes easily frightened when they think Mainframe is dead. The addition of Scott is interesting, as is Shannon, since she is trying to do something sneaky.

Score: 3 / 5

Doktor Sleepless 2

Tesla Boy Gangsta
Written by Warren Ellis

The first page of the comic seems to be a satirical look at possible future medical advancements ... or a way to keep check on people. At the Heavenside Police Department, Commissioner Stoker is worried about the new character Doktor Sleepless broadcasting on the airwaves, saying he is John Reinhardt. The reason he is worried is because Reinhardt is suppose to be locked up. We are next shown Sleepless dictating on the air waves about his trip to the Amazon. He was lead to believe he would be communing with a shaman, but actually the shaman is as well off technologically then just about anyone else. Even though he berates Reinhardt, he agrees to hear him out when Reinhardt says he wants to change his mind, since it isn't big enough. Sing is at the bookstore with her boyfriend talking about how she fears it might be Reinhardt. She is worried he is still as crazy as he was when he left ten years previously. Sleepless is then shown talking to Nurse Igor about her agenda, which is still kept a secret. He then describes how he made the Shrieker Girls, a hivemind-like group of women who feel everything every other Shrieker Girl feels. He also reveals to Nurse Igor that he created Clatter, the IM eye communication enhancement, before being secretive about various H signs around Heavenside. At Saint Thomas, Commissioner Stroker and Mayor Mingozzi arrive to see for themselves that Reinhardt is indeed still in his cell, where he has been for the past three years. At a local club, Sleepless has a conversation with himself about his various "Reinhardts", including the one in the mental institution. He starts to remember something about his parents and what he saw one night. He commences to go ballistic and smashes the mirror. Nurse Igor comes in and hurries him out of the club, wanting no one to see him in a panicked state. Before he gets in his car, though, he and Sing make eye contact.

I am now starting to get the comic a bit more and I am certainly intrigued by what may or may not be going on. Reinhardt/Sleepless is a very mysterious character and I find very interesting, especially since I want to see what he is planning. How will Sing be connected? He has now seen her, so it will be interesting to see his reaction in the next issue, if he has one. The multiple Reinhardt angle is something else ... perhaps he is doing something like astral projection. Perhaps the man in cell 23 is a stand-in. Looking forward to where this may be going.

Score: 3 / 5

Plague of the Living Dead 3

Issue #3
Written by John Russo

We begin by seeing a dream sequence with Private Terry Ellis and his wife Kelly making love. He is summarily awoken by Corporal Todd Clark, since he had been resting in a drain pipe with him and Private Steve Green after they "escaped" the MP's transferring them to Fort Sill. The guys then notice someone coming up the pipe and see a zombie at the other end. At the same time in Stone Mountain, Jessica and Darlene are still fending off the zombies in the Price basement when Jessica suggests they try to get out through the storm cellar door. Jessica tries to open it, but hears someone outside trying to open it as well. Her and Darlene decide to open it anyway and Jessica is shown unlatching the door as the scene switches back to the Army men fighting the two zombies. They are able to incapacitate both and make their way out of the pipe. As they walk along the road towards town, Terry talks about how he is worried about Kelly possibly being unfaithful. They are unawares that the MP's are not far away from them and have decided to use lethal force instead of reporting to their superiors that the men escaped. The final panel shows the Stone Mountain men in a cross hair.

I am surprised at how pleased I am with this series. While I am sure some people would find the diversion to the men as taking away from time spent more on the zombies, it gives the story a very human nature. I like where the script for them is going. As for the two surviving women, I pretty sure that is Patrick on the outside of the storm door. It should be interesting to see what his reaction towards the women is and if he will leave them in the cellar to die. Very good issue.

Score: 4 / 5

Plague of the Living Dead 2

Issue #2
Written by John Russo

We pick up the story of the zombie invasion in Stone Mountain in the Army truck that is transporting Corporal Todd Clark and Privates Terry Ellis and Steve Green to Fort Sill for psychiatric help. Todd starts to talk with one of the sentries watching over them, an MP named Terry, who they knew prior to going to war. He tries to sympathize with him about the crap they saw with zombies in Vietnam while Terry was able to stay home in Stone Mountain. Terry makes the drivers stop the vehicle and tells the men they have to take a piss. The men think that Terry is now under orders to execute them in the woods. Back at the Price household, Jessica is still in disbelief seeing her zombie father in the doorway. Darlene has to ax him in the head and closes the door again. Jessica is in denial, but when the zombie's burst through the door, she finds the key in her fathers pocket for the gun case. While Darlene fends off the zombies, Jessica tries to open the case, but the key snaps off in it. In the Stone Mountain woods, Terry doesn't kill the men, but instead lets them go after telling them to knock him around a bit. When Terry stumbles back to the vehicle, the others don't believe him but don't care either, since they know the three men are going head for the town where the Army knows the zombies have overrun.

I still feel like the issues are over way too fast and I am little sad, especially when I believe these are great ones. It was interesting to see how the men got there exit from the Army truck. I am glad they got help instead of having to kill/harm any of the "innocent" other troops. As for the survivors of Darlene and Jessica, hahaha! That has to suck when you see that key break. Where is Patrick? I guess maybe we will see him next issue, either dead, alive or zombie'd.

Score: 4 / 5

Smallville - S6E13

Crimson
First Aired: Thursday February 1, 2007

It's Valentines Day and Lois is given a special lovers concoction ... laced with red meteor rocks. When she falls for Clark and kisses him, things get a little out of hand at the Lana/Lex engagement dinner.

It's Valentines Day at the Talon when Chloe and Jimmy try to cheer up Clark. The problems start when Jimmy brings Lois along for the ride and tries to pair the two up. A woman can see Lois' pain, so she offers her a special lipstick that is laced with red kryptonite that makes her fall for the first guy she sees, which happens to be Clark. The next morning, she shows up at the Kent farm in very sexy garb and seriously comes on to Clark. He makes a quick exit to Metropolis to find Chloe. He fills Chloe in before Lois shows up and Chloe notices there definitely something wrong. She goes to investigate while Lois corners Clark and kisses him, causing the red kryptonite to take over. With zero inhibitions, Clark flaunts his power to Lois and, while making out Oliver's old loft, he notices an RSVP for the Lana/Lex engagement dinner. At the mansion, Lana talks to Lex about keeping the pregnancy away from the engagement dinner so that people won't think she is marrying him just because of the baby. When Clark and Lois crash the dinner though, Clark lets this slip while berating his loved ones before kidnapping Lois. He takes her back to his loft where he confesses his true feelings and kisses her, though she doesn't fight back. Chloe finds out from Jimmy about the concoction as well as the cure, a green kryptonite spray. Lex shows up at the loft and pulls a gun on Clark, but Clark fights it out of his hands before he can fire. Clark begins to strangle Lex to death and Lana grabs a sharp tool to strike Clark with. Martha shows up with green kryptonite just in time, but not before Lana sees what happened to the sharp tool after she stabbed Clark; it was all bent up. The next day, Lois confronts Clark but she doesn't remember anything. At the Luthor mansion, the doctor checks on Lana. He and Lex confer secretly about her "unusual" pregnancy, but everything is "going as planned." The episode ends with Lana looking at the tool that was bent on Clark.

Wow ... just, wow. At one point in the final 20 minutes, I actually had to get up and walking around trying to process what just happened. The final couple of scenes at the Luthor mansion, I actually had my jaw drop. So, what is going on with this pregnancy? Is Lex staging it somehow to make Lana want to stay with him? Or is it some type of experiment? What will Lana do with this information about Clark? The acting by Tom Welling was excellent and I just couldn't believe the stuff that was coming out of his mouth at the dinner. My only complaint about the episode was that the first half of the episode was slow. I actually groaned at the beginning because I thought this was going to be typical, Valentines Day theme episode and very boring. It was the only thing keeping this from a perfect score.

Score: 4 / 5

Smallville - S6E12

Labyrinth
First Aired: Thursday January 25, 2007

Something attacks Clark in his barn and we awakens in a mental institution. With no powers, he learns that the past five years have been all in his head.

Clark is in the barn with Shelby when she starts barking at something. Clark goes to see but is knocked to the ground be something. The next moment, he awakens on the floor of a common room in a mental institution during group therapy. The fellow patients mock him with Kal-El, Zoners, and other intimate details. Doctor Hudson tells him that as a child, he started to create another identity for himself after the tragic death of his real parent before being given to the Kent's. During his freshman year of high school, though, it became full blown pyschosis and he became a schizophrenics. Clark is unable to believe this and finds a way to escape. Returning to his home, he finds Lana is no living in the loft after she and Nell had bought the farm. She is madly in love with Clark and thought that he had undergone the treatment. Disoriented, Clark first goes to confront Lex. He reveals that Clark, thinking something was wrong with Lex's car, jumped in front of it, causing Lex to swerve and crash the car. He has lost both of his legs. Clark then leaves and goes to find Chloe at the coffeehouse. He finds her there, but she was also a patient at the mental institution, falling into family history of mental illness. As Clark and Chloe try to leave, some men show up and kill Chloe after she tries to pull a gun. Back in the hospital, Doctor Hudson shows Clark where he pulled all of his "memories" from and Clark sort-of comes to the realization that Chloe is dead. In his cell, the man next door, from Mars, tells Clark not to give up and that Hudson is a Zoner that will use the "treatment" to take over Clark's body. That man is taken away right before Clark is taken for the treatment. In the treatment room is Lana, watching while Hudson does the procedure. However, as the procedure starts, Lana disappears and Clark frights back, killing Hudson/Zoner. The Zoner is pulled into a crystal like Clark's but the person holding it is the Mars-man. His eyes flare up like the guy from Seattle, he calls Clark Kal-El, and then flies off into the night. The episode ends with Clark seeing Lana and almost telling her he is still in love with her, but Lex comes into the coffeehouse to find her so they can go to the wedding planner.

Following the awesome JLA episode, this was a very good episode. I like episodes that deal with what is real, what is not, and what could have been. Tom Welling does a good job acting both paranoid and still being Clark/Kal-El. One of the things I had hoped for was that everyone in his life were mad up and also in the institution. I think it would have been cool to have Lex, Lionel, Chloe, Lana, Martha, Oliver, Lois ... heck, even Raya, Jonathan, AC, Whitney, ect. be patients that Clark incorporated into his psychosis. However, they went the route where those people were really who they were, just twisted a bit. Also, we got our first real look at the "good" Zoner, who has now helped Clark two times and seems much more powerful than Clark. I am interested in finding out if this a DC character or totally new guy just for the show.

Score: 4 / 5

Smallville - S6E11

League
First Aired: Thursday January 18, 2007

As Clark and Chloe get closer to 33.1, they find that another group is just as eager to stop Lex's plans.

The episode begins at the Planet, where Chloe is waiting to speak with a doctor involved with 33.1. He shows up, Chloe grills him, and he pulls a gun on her. She is saved thankfully by a speedy blur who she believes is Clark, who shows up next to her a split second later. He says it wasn't him and Clark chases the blur. It turns out to be none other than Bart Allen. Welcoming him back with open arms, Clark is still worried about what Bart is up to. When he goes to talk to Lionel Luthor about the Luthor lawyers getting the doctor out of jail, Lionel shows him a picture from Mexico of a blur infiltrating a Luthor Corp facility. Clark confronts Bart about this, but he leaves before anything can be said. Bart then takes some information he got from Lex's personal computer to Oliver/Green Arrow. Chloe is able to back trace some of Bart's cell phone calls and they find out that he had been in contact with Oliver Queen. Clark goes to confront Oliver and they discuss 33.1. Bart goes on another mission to get the mainframe information, but is captured by Lex, who puts him in a cell where if he stops then the floor will fry him. Clark finds out about Oliver's League, which includes A.C. (Aquaman) Victor (Cyborg), along with Oliver and Bart. Chloe and Clark are able to deduce where Bart is being held, in Metropolis, so Clark goes ahead but he encounters meteor rocks and is subdued. Chloe lets Oliver and the group know where Clark was headed and the team gets ready as well. They infiltrate the base, with Oliver saving Clark. Clark then goes and gets Bart while Aquaman, Cyborg, and Green Arrow get the information from the mainframe and blow the facility. Later, Cyborg reveals there are 33.1 facilities all over the world and the group is headed to one in South America. Oliver breaks up with Lois because he has to go do this. They ask Clark to come, but he opts to stay behind to get the rest of the Zoners first. Lex talks with Lionel about his suspicions that Clark was at the facility, but Lionel covers for him. Lex seems not to buy it, though.

Wow ... welcome JLA! This was one of the better episodes of the series I have seen in a while and the best of the season, so far. There was something about the team that was so seemless and well-executed that they didn't seem too far fetched. I, for one, would welcome a JLA series with these characters because there is so much to go with here. It seems like Lionel is still good enough, or least really working at helping Clark, which I like. I am sad that the team left so soon, but I hope they make a return at some point in the seventh season. Highly recommended!

Score: 5 / 5