the Battle for Bludhaven #6 - DC

Ok, besides the good story and good art, this book is great because it is going to spin off into so many things. First we have the Freedom Fighters, which we already know is getting thier own mini, hopefully continuing. Then we have Freedom Force, who the Fighters are operating as under SHADE. Since the whole team isn't going to the Fighters, I have to assume that the Freedom Force team will be operating in some capacity under SHADE. So I'm sure we'll see more of them. Then we have the Atomic Family. This is just to cool of a concept to bring into this book just to drop when it's over. So I see them going someplace, Will Magnus, T.O.Morrow, where they'll pop up, or reak havoc or something. Then we have SHADE, and Father Time. You just know that these guys are gonna keep popping up. I can see them in Checkmate or the Titans or the Outsiders. Over the course of the last 5 issues they have been fighting with the containment of Captain Atom's radiation. He's been unconscious and leaking radiation ever since he popped in to the DC Universe from the Wildstorm Universe. So in SHADE's attempt to obtain him, they put him in a containment suit. Coincidentally it looks exactly like the Monitor from Zero Hour. So, since this last big storyline, Infinite Crisis, was tied into the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline, it looks like now, somehow, they're going to tie the whole thing into the Zero Hour storyline also. Which really was kind of an extension from the original Crisis. Cool stuff. Plus, since gaining consciousness, Cap Atom seems disoriented. So I don't think it would take much to send him over the edge. Plus with everything he's gone through in the last year, he may actually believe he's trying to save the world. Oh yeah, plus when he found out Major Force was involved in the fray, he took him out. And finally we have the Atomic Knights. Since Bludhaven is destroyed, but they still have their base 3 miles underground, I think they'll definitely be back. This is it for this mini, but like I said, almost everything in this book will be back in one form or another very shortly.

Crisis Aftermath - the Battle for Bludhaven #5 - DC

This issue shows Major Force in all of his demented glory. It starts out with him defeating the Titans, leaving only Monolith and Firebrand behind to try to stop him. Good luck with that. Then Hal Jordan shows up and all of Major Forces rage comes out. I don't think its a coincidence that the Major's initials are M.F. When Phantom Lady starts referring to him as that, it's hilarious. Now on top of this, we have Captain Atom, whom they are trying to contain in an empty bunker under the city. His outer shell is cracked, apparently from his return from his side trip to the Wildstorm Universe. Because of this he is leaking radiation, and it is steadily building. Therefore the Atomic Knights are coming in to try to take him to wherever there base is and hopefully "fix" him. We also have the "Nuclear Family", a group of androids that look and talk like a family from the 50's, and the new Freedom Fighters. There's literally about 40 characters running around this book, and they are all pivitol to the story. WOW!! I would say that this is probably the beginning of about 4 different spin off books. We already know that the Freedom Fighters are getting their own book. But I would expect the Nuclear Family and the Atomic Knights to show up someplace. If not in their own book, at least a mini-series. Then we have Captain Atom, who seems to be in the spotlight once again, and I would think that this Father Time, with his agency S.H.A.D.E., are going to be somebody's nemesis somewhere. And of course the book ends with a splash page of an all out brawl between all of them. There's a lot of stuff going on in this book. Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti are doing a good job of keeping everything organized and flowing smoothly. I like this mini because it seems like a lot of good things are going to be coming out of it. But, next issue is the last, so it'll be interesting to see how they wrap it up.