Detective Comics #1031. Written by Peter J. Tomasi. Art by Bilquis Evely.

Damian Wayne removes a threat from Bruce Wayne's past. Gotham is a city divided. And an old foe returns that is manipulating the bat Family behind the scenes.

Tomasi has made Batman readable again. I like that Tec features the entire Bat Family. I like that Bruce is relying on his allies more than ever. I like the revelation that Damian hasn't gone totally rogue.

8/10.

Wonder Woman #767. Written by Mariko Tamaki. Art by Rafa Sandoval.

The final showdown between Max & Diana. Max finally attempts to get revenge on Diana. Of course she triumphs. And of course there is a twist at the end.

Tamaki continues to nail Diana's personality. However I really want to see a supporting cast developed. Hopefully this issue ends Max Lord's arc.

6/10.

See, when I first saw this I thought it was just a repackaging of PAD's old story so I passed on it; If I had known it was mew material I would have picked it up in a heart beat.

This was really solid, I honestly didn't see the twist with Hush coming.

I am getting kind of tired of the way that every other arc is either about somebody who hates masks or somebody targeting the Bat-Family, and this latest arc combines the worst of both cliches. I was especially disappointed with the way every single member of the Bat-Family was dispatched on one page!

I have mixed feelings about Hush as it seems like every Hush storyline is either very good or really terrible. This gives every indication of being really terrible, but I will try to go into the next issue without holding #1031 against it.

Nice art.

X of Swords: Destruction
Written by Jonathan Hickman and Tini Howard.
Art by Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia.

This is chapter 22 in the X of Swords crossover. (Also the final chapter. I'm free! Regular series can resume again.)

What went before: Mutants have united and live nearly all on the island of Krakoa. Apocalypse has revealed that he has tried something similar before, on the island of Okkara, but a demonic invasion forced him to sacrifice his wife, his children and half the island, splitting Okkara in Krakoa and Arakko. Arakko was thrown into another dimension and now the demonic armies, lead by Apocalypse's children, the four original Horsemen, have returned for revenge and conquest. Their army is stopped in Otherworld by the magic of the Omniversal Majestrix, Saturnyne. She gets both the Horsemen and the X-Men to agree to a duel: 10 champions of each side, each armed with a special sword will face each other on the battlefield in Otherworld.
The final duel was won by Apocalypse, who defeated his wife Genesis in combat, but the demonic Helmet of Annihilation that controlled her refused to acknowledge defeat, so now it's open war again.

Plot: Saturnyne has revived the Captain Britain Corps who come to assist the Krakoan Champions. The forces of Amenth respond by summoning their own forces including the demonic horrors the Horsemen use to ride into battle.
The mutants have their own reinforcements coming; Jean allows Cyclops to telepathically contact Magik and she opens a gate and the Space Station of S.W.O.R.D. manned by Cyclops and many of Krakoan mutants comes to assist their friends (Cyclops calls them all X-Men, but there are many other mutants along as well) and a bit later Cable uses his own sword to release a race of murderous aliens from their prison within S.W.O.R.D. that immediately turn on the demonic force.

Meanwhile Apocalypse is fighting through the Amenth demons back to his wife, who is still being controlled by the Helmet of Annihilation. The aliens fight against all sides, but they do manage to distract Genesis, so that Apocalypse can tear the Helmet from her and wears it himself thereby becoming the ruler of Amenth and Arakko. The Helmet tries to control him, but all he wants is something the Helmet can not give, safety for his people. Despite the Helmet protests, he turns to Saturnyne and surrenders.

Saturnyne decides that as terms of peace, a mutant of Krakoa shall go to Amenth and a mutant from Amenth to Krakoa. Apocalypse joins Genesis on Amenth, but Apocalypse choses the living island of Arakko to go to Krakoa, thereby also releasing the mutants of Arakko. He leaves with his wife and children of the demonic plane of Amenth.

Saturnyne sums up the results of the war to her own assistance and all events turn out to be for the best for her, but Brian is still not hers.


The Good: Hey, remember how in the review above I complained that for all the overwhelming odds, the heroes did not seem to be in any real trouble? Larraz in this issue turns that around in a single page: the heroes are literally besieged on all sides, Brian Braddock's helmet is broken, his face bloody while he has multiple demons grabbing at his legs, while in the last issues the heroes were always completely unharmed and at always a couple of feet away from the demons. So a different artist makes a big change (and Larraz is not even an artist I noticed before, but reading this issue after the Excalibur one, as an artist he's a far better storyteller than Asrar). The same thing is seen in the rest of the issue; hordes are actually depicted as hordes. Heroes have to actually fight through them to go their goals.

I love the reveal around Isca: Isca's mutant power is that she cannot be defeated, but the power controls her more than she controls the power. Once the forces of Amenth become overwhelmed, Isca is physically changed (her red/gold colour scheme inverted) and the other Champions of Arakko immediately recognise what this means: Isca has turned against them, joining the winning side and I hope we can get more into her in the regular series (I'm really interested how a power that controls your own loyalties would affect somebody).

Also this is the most interesting Apocalypse has ever been, except maybe for the Louise Simonson version, who was mostly a conqueror who believed in the survival of the strongest, but also one who showed courage by fighting Loki, because he was convinced that mortals should not be the playthings of gods. Here, Apocalypse has been shown to be a being with a full range of emotions, willing to sacrifice himself to save his people. His line of Annihilation/Genesis not understanding the difference between Surrender and Loss really sums up the whole storyline.

The Bad: It's a still a big battle between various parties and the multiple escalations get tiring: Saturnyne summons the Corps, Arakko Summoners summon demons and beasts, Magik gets the X-Men and Cable releases the aliens. There would have been a more elegant way to handle that. The Corps is important to the overarching plot so I guess that one stays. The X-Men showing up is almost necessary because it's an X-Men title. Arakko summoning *even more* demons less so and the aliens come of nowhere (they were apparently a plotpoint in the Cable chapters/series?)

And I finally get to complain about Saturnyne's obsession with Brian once again as it's the final scene of the issue: the Queen who has won everything except love. I guess I have to be resigned that this is who Saturnyne is now; manipulative, ruthless, smart, capable and hopelessly hung up on the one man she can't get.

8/10: What a difference an artist can make and maybe it's because I just read Excalibur which was so disappointing that I gave the conclusion such a high grade, but the art is remarkably better. Also in writing, it wraps up the main storyline but also sets up multiple future stories: the Captain Britain Corps is back, but Betsy is still missing. The island of Arakko and all its mutants will join Krakoa and will change the dynamic of the mutant nation. Of the new characters introduced in this story, most are still alive and around to be used in future stories and even one of the ones who has died, Death of the Horsemen, is now in a role in one of the Undead Realms of Otherworld that will allow his return when needed.

(Also this issue explains why Cable was not seen in the previous one, he was severely wounded in his duel and is in the Citadel, being tended to by Saturnyne's priests).

The crossover as a whole: I've not read all chapters, but I found the start and conclusion to be strong and some of the chapters in between, but there was too much going on in some of the chapters that could have been excised from the plot and the main premise of a duel between both sides was not executed as well as I had hoped. I think this is also the first giant crossover I've read in ages.