Arrow: Season 2.5 #22 - A Review

Arrow: Season 2.5 #22 is an uncharacteristically bad issue for what has usually been a serviceable series.  Set in a flaming Queen Manor and centered around the final battle between Oliver Queen and Caleb Green (a Mirakuru-enhanced madman with a grudge against The Queen Family), Oliver must save himself and Laurel Lance, who has been taken hostage by Green.

Joe Bennett's artwork largely adheres to its usual high standard and generally looks good. Where it falters, however, is in visual continuity and panel flow. In the span of three pages, Oliver goes from being pinned under Green, to flying through the air to tackle Laurel, to crouching over her as he unties her bonds.  It seems as if there were steps missing between these moments and the middle page of this sequence looks goofy.





There's also some minor conflicts between the artwork and the story.  For instance, Marc Guggenheim writes Laurel as being willing and able to fight back against Green, ignoring Oliver's warnings to let him fight alone. Read the dialogue by itself and Laurel sounds like the woman who might one day become The Black Canary.  Pair it with Bennet's depiction of Laurel, however, and there's a massive disconnect between the panicky damsel-in-distress we see and the action girl we hear.


If you're a completist, you might get this issue to keep your collection whole.  All others would do well to stay away. Nothing will be missed if you skip this one.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #21 - A Review

Oliver Queen moves to confront the madman Caleb Green at the last place Ollie ever expected to return - the old Queen Family mansion!  Unfortunately, what he thought was going to be a straight-up fight turns into a hostage situation. And on the distant island nation of Corto Maltese, the League of Assassins finally catches up with Maclolm Merlyn...



Plot-wise, the script by Marc Guggenheim has some problems. It beggars belief that Laurel could managed to get kidnapped in the span of time it takes Oliver Queen to travel from The Arrowcave to his old home when she was with Ollie at the end of last issue!  Ignoring that little plot hole - and Laurel once again being placed in the damsel in distress role - the action of this issue is well-paced and thrilling. Still, it's something of a disappointment because Guggenheim is usually better than this.


Thankfully, the artwork is up to its usual high standard.  Joe Bennett draws a great fight scene and this subplot with Merlyn and the attempt on his life gives Bennett a chance to shine. The inks and colors are skillfully applied by Craig Yeung and Jim Charalampidis respectively

Arrow: Season 2.5 #20 - A Review

Oliver Queen has recovered the Mirakuru cure but the madman Caleb Green is still at large. Luckily, Green's obsessive need for revenge won't allow him to stay hidden for long. Unluckily, he chooses to reveal himself in the most unexpected way possible - as an old schoolmate pumping Laurel Lance for information on where Oliver is now. Meanwhile, Quentin Lance returns to work only to be surprised by an unexpected bit of good fortune.


This latest issue is lacking in action but Marc Guggenheim creates an interesting narrative in spite of that fact. It's always nice to see Quentin snarking it up. And it's gratifying - given how much of a sideshow her storylines was during Season 3 - to see Laurel being made an active part of the proceedings in this issue. If only she'd been included in things like this on the show, her transformation into Black Canary might not have seemed so forced and rushed.


Speaking of rushed, Joe Bennet's pencils for this issue are not up to his usual standard. There's a clear example of panel recycling at one point and some of his faces seem a bit off.  It's not as bad as some but it's still far below par compared to the work we usually see on this series.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #19 - A Review

In order to synthesize a fresh dose of the Mirakuru antidote, Oliver Queen and Roy Harper must journey to the last place on Earth Oliver wants to go - Lian Yu.  Because the antidote requires a blood sample from someone who recently took Mirakuru and the only one who can provide that is Slade Wilson.  And even though he's locked up in an ARGUS holding facility, the man called Deathstroke will not bleed without a fight...


Marc Guggenheim's script for this issue is a thrilling one. As one would expect, the fight between Slade and Oliver is a suspenseful one. What really sells this story, however, is a wonderful opening monologue which I would place among the greatest Oliver Queen lines in any medium.


The artwork remains at its usual level of quality. Joe Bennett blocks the action sequences like a master choreographer and does a fine job capturing the likenesses of the actors from the show.  The inks by Craig Yeung enhance the artwork rather than concealing it. And Jim Charalampidis' colors prove well chosen.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #18 - A Review

Oliver Queen has done a fair job improvising in the wake of Caleb Green's attack. But even he can't stand alone against a Mirakuru-crazed mad-man.  Luckily, Roy Harper is on hand to offer an assist... but will it be enough?


There is a bitter irony to this issue given Colton Haynes' recent departure from Arrow. The script by Marc Guggenheim and Brian Ford Sullivan perfectly captures the playful spirit of Roy Harper's character from the comics but folds it well into the personality of the DCTVU version of the character. And the action sequences are very well written.


Those action scenes are also ably illustrated.  Joe Bennett is a great fight choreographer and Craig Yeung finds the right balance to the inks, neither too thick nor too thin. This comic looks as good as it reads.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #16 - A Review

For the third time in his life, Oliver Queen finds himself faced with a sadistic choice. Two women he cares about are threatened and the villain will only let one live. Can Oliver Queen get out of this without losing yet another loved one? And even if he does, can he and his allies escape the clutches of the new Brother Blood?


Marc Guggenheim faces an uphill battle with his script for this issue.  Most fans of Arrow are well aware which of the core cast have survived to see Season Three, so the drama that opens this chapter is not that urgent.  Yet Guggenheim finds other ways to thrill us. And - to his credit - he allows Oliver to be called upon his double-standards regarding his own past as a killer and the differing standards he holds for his allies individually.  We even get a neat nod to what MIGHT be going on elsewhere in the DCTV Universe and who Ollie might know that we're not allowed to mention for legal reasons.


The artwork adheres to its usual high standard.  Penciler Joe Bennett perfectly captures the likenesses of the cast though some of the expressions are a bit odd, with Huntress smiling far more than she ever did on the show. And inker Craig Yeung manages to shade the original art without obscuring it, though the world of Arrow is a place of deep shadows and dark secrets.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #15 - A Review

Oliver's managed to turn the tables on the new Brother Blood, but he isn't out of the woods yet.  It seems that Blood has some powerful friends - including two old enemies The Arrow has fought before! But Oliver has powerful friends too... if you can consider the ex-girlfriend you sent to prison a friend. But The Huntress could be useful in the fight to come. Assuming she doesn't kill anyone...


Marc Guggenheim's story for this series has provided surprise after surprise. This is no small feat given that we Arrow-heads who are actively following the series already know who survives to see Season 3! But just as last issue surprised us with the revelation that the ARGUS-provided back-up Roy recruited was Huntress, so too does this issue surprise us with the return of some of The Arrow's enemies from Season 1 in addition to some fan-favorite comic villains we're seeing in the DCTVU for the first time. The script by Brian Ford Sullivan also features some great dialogue that is evocative of the classic Green Arrow comics of old.


The artwork by Joe Bennett and Craig Yeung proves equally excellent. Bennet's pencils have been somewhat mixed in previous issues but he is firing on all eight cylinders here.  This issue is ultimately one big action sequence and Bennett doesn't miss a step in depicting any of the action. Yeung's inks are perfectly balanced, enhancing the action without being overly dark.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #14 - A Review

To save Felicity, Ollie has surrendered himself to The Church of Blood!  Roy has the means to track him but with Diggle helping The Suicide Squad overseas he's a little short on back-up. Thankfully, there is one ARGUS agent who is available to help but calling them an unlikely ally is the understatement of the year.


Meanwhile, in Nanda Parbat, student Mesi Natifah is brought before Ra's Al Ghul. The leader of the League of Assassins does not impress easily but the young woman's actions in troubled times have accomplished that deed. And now he's ready to make her a rare offer...



One would think it impossible for a comic set between the seasons of a TV series to truly surprise its readers - we already know what characters will survive to see Season 3!  Yet Arrow: Season 2.5 #14 managed to surprise me not once, but twice!  I won't say anything beyond that save this - if you're a fan of the Arrow TV series and you aren't reading this comic already, you should start. Now.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #13 - A Review

As the Suicide Squad return home from their mission and debrief, Oliver Queen and Roy Harper leave on a new mission.  Brother Blood has captured Felicity Smoak and he demands a high price for her safe return - The Arrow himself!


I have mixed feelings about the script for this issue.  On the one hand, it's nice to see Roy Harper indulging in some of the snark so common to his comic-book counterpart.  On the other hand, I'm not sure that Felicity - even with her increased confidence post-Season One - would be quite so free about heckling Brother Blood as she is here.  There's a lot of good comedy here but I'm not sure it really fits Felicity's scared mode.


While I may quibble with the dialogue in this issue, I have no qualms about the artwork.  Joe Bennett and Craid Yeung continue to do a fine job on the main Arrow comic.  And Szymon Kudranski proves as impressive as always on the back-up Suicide Squad story.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #9 - A Review

Arrow: Season 2.5 #9 contains no major revelations nor big surprises. There are no major plot twists nor exciting cliff-hangers.What it does contain are a number of resolutions and set-ups for adventures yet to come.  These include Felicity being kidnapped by Brother Blood's cult and a Mirakuru-enhanced madman with a grudge against Oliver Queen being released onto the streets of Starling City.


Despite the generally sedate tone of the issue, Marc Guggenheim delivers a lot of good character moments as he engages in his house-keeping of the book's many subplots. Brother Blood indulges in some non-sequesters that would do Felicity Smoak proud. Roy Harper and Quentin Lance both awaken from their respective comas. And Oliver Queen has a prophetic nightmare as he comes down off the newest version of Vertigo to hit the streets.


The Suicide Squad story by Keto Shimizu shares this laid-back tone.  This story is devoted toward the introduction of a brave young woman, who offers herself up as a bride to one of Black Adam's followers in order to spare a pre-teen girl the same fate.  The art for both comics continues to adhere to the high standard set by Joe Bennett and Szymonn Kudranski's work to date on this series.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #8 - A Review

Poisoned by a new Vertigo variant, Oliver Queen is running amok. Hallucinating that his dead loved ones have come back to haunt him, Ollie put a major hurt on John Diggle, who was just barely able to escape to the Arrow Cave.  Good thing Sara Lance just got back into town and The Canary is on the case!


There isn't much action to this issue of Arrow: Season 2.5 and what action there is proves surprisingly brief.  Another surprise is that Joe Bennett seems to be a little off his game this week, with some of his characters oddly posed throughout the book - particular Canary in her fight with Arrow!  Still, Marc Guggenheim delivers some fun and witty dialogue as Round Two with Brother Blood and his followers is set up.  More, he appears to drop some hints regarding a certain mastermind with a league of his own and how it might be possible for several characters thought dead to have come back.


I fear I'm becoming a broken record with this comment but I have to say it again.  The only thing wrong with the Suicide Squad back-up comic is that it is too short!  Szymon Kudranski's artwork is amazing and Keto Shimizu's script manages to convey the personalities of both Deadshot and Bronze Tiger, though they barely have any dialogue at all!

Arrow: Season 2.5 #7 - A Review

Oliver Queen and John Diggle have escaped from the lair of Brother Blood.  But the fight is just beginning.  A vengeful Huntress is waiting for Ollie as he emerges from the sewers... and she's not alone!  Other people - loved ones he's failed - are there to confront Oliver, including his dead parents and best friend, Tommy!


The secret "twist ending" of this issue isn't much of a surprise.  Dedicated Arrow-Heads will guess almost immediately what's going on.  Despite this, Arrow: Season 2.5 #7 is an enjoyable read as writer Marc Guggenheim takes advantage of the gimmick to give us some insight into how the usually close-lipped Ollie views his mistakes.  Amusingly, some of his complaints mirror those of comic fans regarding how the character of Helena Bertinelli was treated when being adapted for the show or how Ollie reacted to Slade Wilson's killing of his mother.  An all-star team of artists worked on this story, giving the whole affair a disjointed feeling as the art shifts along with the visions tormenting Ollie.  For once, this lack of visual continuity works to the story's benefit.


As usual, the Suicide Squad back-up story by Keto Shimizu and Szymon Kudranski is as enjoyable as the Arrow one.  Indeed, it is so enjoyable I wish it was its own comic!  Getting one page every two weeks is a maddening way to tell a story and I'd love to see this as a longer feature.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #6 - A Review

The main portion of Arrow: Season 2.5 #6 is high on action and short on plot.  The focus lies upon Ollie and John, fighting to escape the clutches of The Church Of Blood.  At the same time, The Church of Blood begin the process to convert one of their own into a Mirakuru-enhanced soldier.


The script by Marc Guggenheim and Keto Shimizu is up to their usual standard, up until the last page. It is then that we are hit with something that honestly surprised me and things go above and beyond the usual high standard. I won't say what but suffice it to say it will inspire talk regarding a number of fan theories about the story-line of Season Three.

Sadly, the Suicide Squad page this week is a little lackluster, serving no purpose other than to let us know that Amanda Waller is more concerned about punishing the wicked than saving the innocent.  This is not exactly a newsflash to any fan of the show or the comics who has been paying attention. It's unclear why this scene is necessary beyond showing Lyla Michaels' growing discomfort with her job.


Still, the artwork is as wonderful as ever.  Joe Bennet is a wonderful fight choreographer and the action scenes in the main portion of the comic are well laid out.  And Szymon Kudranski adds his usual shadowy aura to the Suicide Squad back-up.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #5 - A Review

When the suspect in Laurel's latest case begins spouting off about a leather-masked god named Blood, it hits too close for comfort.  The rest of Team Arrow agrees it bares investigation, even though it's impossible for Sebastian Blood to have returned from the dead.  Meanwhile, Malcolm Merlyn - who would be faintly amused to hear anyone say that the dead don't come back - begins his training of his daughter Thea.

Meanwhile, in Khandaq, the terrorist leader responsible for kidnapping a number of schoolgirls gives the public a name.  He calls himself Khem-Adam - the ancient Egyptian phrase for Black Adam.  More, he claims to be a conduit for the ancient gods and to feel no pain...


The script for this issue by Marc Guggenheim and Keto Shimizu is fast-paced and feels just like a storyboard for an episode of the show.  The dialogue is crisp and hilarious and the action scenes well-played.  As before, I find the Suicide Squad back-up story to be as interesting as the main story and wish more space was being allocated for it, particularly in the wake of this issue's revelation that the terrorist leader for the group we've seen in action so far is Black Adam. Time will tell if we're about to see the first proof of magic in the unified DC Television Universe or if this is just another bone for the long-time comic fans.


The artwork is just as good as the scripts. Joe Bennett and Craig Yeung offer up some fine heroic artwork that is reminiscent of the works of Mike Grell, though not so heavily inked. The equally wonderful work of Szymon Kudranski in the Suicide Squad story is grittier and more realistic by comparison, in keeping with that story's darker aesthetic.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #4 - A Review

Arrow: Season 2.5 #4 is primarily concerned with the back-story of the new Brother Blood and how one of Sebastian Blood's underlings came to acquire his boss' mask and formed a doomsday cult in Starling City. The writers do a good job of delivering this information without it seeming like an exposition dump.  Nevertheless, this issue does feel somewhat repetitive as much of it repeats scenes from the show verbatim before building on the established material.  Nice as it is to see the "Bitch With Wi-Fi" scene again, it would have been better to see more new material.


The artwork by Joe Bennett and Craig Yeung is largely excellent, save that it loses fine detail in the middle and far distances.  A larger problem is that Bennett draws nearly every page as if he were emulating a camera that was in the process of falling to one side when it took its shot. I can understand wanting to vary up perspective but there's a number of pages where one wonders if they need to tilt their head to view the artwork properly or if someone changed the alignment of their monitor.


Personally, I found the all-too-brief back-up story involving the Suicide Squad far more interesting, if only for the revelation that Barack Obama is the president in the DC Television universe.  That's not to say the plot - based on current events involving religious extremists in Africa - isn't gripping stuff.  It is and I wish this comic devoted more than a page every two weeks to it.  I'd also like to see more of the photo-realistic artwork of Szymon Kudranski, whose previous work on Green Lantern I enjoyed.

aaa

Arrow: Season 2.5 #3 - A Review

Times are tough for Oliver Queen and company.  Money is getting tight and it's getting harder and harder to get all the wonderful toys Ollie needs in his crusade to protect Starling City.  And things are becoming harder still, with Brother Blood seemingly returned from the dead and leading a new gang.


The third issue of Arrow: Season 2.5 is largely a housekeeping issue.  Little happens here in terms of the long-term plot, save that Ollie learns about Brother Blood's return and we, the readers, learn the secret of Brother Blood's resurrection.  One wishes they had kept the secret going a little longer but the story doesn't suffer from the revelation.  And there's a fair bit of humor in the opening sequence where we learn just who has been providing Ollie's new trick arrows.  The issue closes with the first part of a Suicide Squad mini-comic that promises to be an interesting read, if only for the real world issues it is based around.


The artwork is largely competent but nothing special.  Craig Yeung continues to create some wonderful splash-pages and close-ups but his work loses fine detail in the mid-range.  The Suicide Squad story drawn by Szymon Kudranski isn't bad, though it is heavily shrouded in inks as is typical of Kudranski's work.  Thankfully, the deep shadows fit the story, so in this case it works.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #2 - A Review

The second issue of Arrow: Season 2.5 is remarkably light on action, compared to a typical episode of the show.  That does not mean it is entirely free of action.  Indeed, the issue opens up with an amazing sequence where we get to see yet another classic trick arrow employed - The Parachute Arrow.


Once Oliver and Roy are safely out of harms way, this issue mostly concerns itself with reestablishing the status quo in Starling City and Mark Guggenheim handles the exposition perfectly.  We're updated on how Quentin Lance is doing after his injuries at the end of Season 2 as well as where Felicity is working in the wake of the hostile takeover of Queen Consolidated.  We also get a little more development of a minor character introduced in the first issue and how they will tie in to the major villain of the series.


The artwork seems slightly stronger this time around.  While I found Joe Bennet's fight scenes in the last issue to be sloppy and rushed, he proves himself no mean caricaturist of the show's cast in these quieter, low-impact moments.  The inks by Craig Yeung also seems to be more evenly applied.

Bottom Line: If you're a fan of Arrow, you should definitely be reading this series.

Power of The Valkyrie, Part Four

PREVIOUSLY, ON POWER OF THE VALKYRIE...

Our heroine Suzanne is confronted by the warrior woman Emu, who was meant to inherit the Power of the Valkyrie that Odin accidentally gave Suzanne back in the first issue, though he now claims it was all part of his plan to bring the world of man into the eternal battle between Odin and Loki.  This is all according to Thor, who somehow knows all this despite knowing nothing of Odin's plans in Issue Two.  Thor also explains to Suzanne the TRUE power of the Valkyrie is raising the dead - a fact that enables Suzanne to kill Emu after she summons a horde of ghostly vikings.

Pissed off about the whole affair, Suzanne says she doesn't want anything to do with any of this and tells Odin that she wants to go home.  He agrees to open the way to Earth if she'll agree to hide the magical sword that may or may not contain the true Power of the Valkyrie somewhere Loki can't find it.  She tosses it into a lake and thinks that's that.  Unfortunately, Loki's spies (who were disguised as Agents Scully and Mulder from The X-Files) figure out that Suzanne has returned to Earth and notify Loki of this fact.  And so the comic ends with Loki planning to bring his entire army to Earth to search for the sword.

Read Parts One and Part Two and Part Three.  It won't make any of this clearer but I need the hits.


Our story opens with another flashback to Suzanne's childhood.  We see her in the hospital as doctors work to save her sister, who was hit by a car while chasing a ball Suzanne threw out into the road.  This really has nothing to do with the story except for giving Suzanne another weird speech about blood and its' importance in healing people, so I'm not going to bother showing it.

Our story actually begins several pages later as Pegasus appears on Suzanne's front lawn as she contemplates why she can't get Asgard out of her head after three days.  She quickly figures out, in grand Lassie/Flipper tradition, that Pegasus has come to warn her that Loki is close to the sword.  If you're wondering why the sword is so important since they clearly showed the power was inside Suzanne in the first issue or how Pegasus was able to travel between worlds when it took powerful magic or the power of a god to do that before, congratulations - you've paid closer attention to the story than the people who wrote it!



Suzanne arrives at the lake and summons the sword to her hand.  She is then greeted by The Valkyrie Spirit.  Yes, there's a Valkyrie Spirit now.  The Valkyrie Spirit tells Suzanne of how the first valkyries acted as healers to dying male warriors and bodyguards as they went into the afterlife, because even if you're a badass warrior woman you're still expected to be subservient to men.

...

Have I mentioned before how much I really hate this book as a feminist and as a Norse mythology buff?   


Before we can find out how there are multiple Valkyries when the comic treats the power of the Valkyrie as something that can only be wielded by one woman at a time, Gideon shows up.  You know?  Gideon?  The shape-shifting demon who was disguised as Agent Mulder?  It turns out that he was Emu's love and he's out for revenge on Suzanne. 


Wait... he was Emu's love?  But I thought she was dating Thor!  And Loki called her 'my love' as he cremated her body last issue!   Damn.  I guess Emu got around.  So much for that myth about valkyries being chaste.


Um... the Valkyrie didn't chose you!  Odin stumbled across you by accident!  Or he chose you!  Hell, I don't know anymore!  I don't care anymore, either...

Anyway, the battle goes about as well as you'd expect, given Suzanne's track record fighting demons so far.  Gideon dies but Suzanne is shot with arrows in the back while she's running Gideon through.  The sword flies out of her hand and is levitated into the hand of Loki.


Huh.  That's weird.  The artwork doesn't  match the captions at all.  Suzanne doesn't fall into the water.  And the rest of the dialogue seems like an odd non-sequitur, even for this comic.


Did anyone else hear an echo just now?  The hypothermia must be getting to Suzanne.  She's repeating herself.  Either that or she's developing Torgo-ism. I mean, the only other explanation is ...

...

Oh my gods.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am flabbergasted!

We've seen some bad continuity in this comic. This writers can't decide if the Power of The Valkyrie is in Suzanne or her sword.  The artist can't decide if Pegasus has wings or not.  Hell, for the first two issues, we didn't even know for certain what our heroine's name was or how it was spelled!  But this... this is an achievement in incompetence.  Not only did this comic go to press as a monthly title with the dialogue balloons for one page printed twice across different artwork, but Bluewater Productions couldn't be bothered to fix the mistake in the trade paperback collection of this series!

To quote Joel Hodgson, "They just didn't care!"


Suzanne jumps out of the ice and starts to struggle with Loki over the sword.  Suddenly, Odin, Thor and a bunch of burly vikings show up and begin fighting the demons.  Odin commands her to join him in battle.  Suzanne, not surprisingly, gets pissed off.  And she summon a bunch of viking ghosts who break the frozen lake everyone is standing on, sending them tumbling into the water like so many preppies in an 1980s frat comedy.


To make a long story short (too late), Suzanne orders Loki and Odin to play nice or she'll use her power to destroy them both.  Thor warns her that the peace she's created is temporary and that sooner or later the power will have to pass to another and that he and Odin will be waiting for that day. 

The comic ends with Suzanne visiting her sister's grave, where we finally learn our heroine's last name.  She says something about her memories of her sister keeping her sane through this ordeal which doesn't make a lick of sense since all they seemed to do was make her angry, but whatever.  The story ends with Suzanne having a power she doesn't really understand, no direction as to what to do with it and no particular purpose or inclination to use it to help people - not surprising since Suzanne's only consistent desire in this whole story is to be left alone and not have people telling her what to do.


Power Of The Valkyrie is a waste of time.  Poorly written, badly drawn, completely unoriginal and totally inaccurate to the mythology it is "based" upon.  It lacks continuity.  It lacks coherence.  It lacks any reason to exist, save serving as fodder for smart-ass Internet comic book critics.

You want to know the sad thing?  This isn't even the worst comic I've read that Bluewater Productions has published.  We'll get to that book another day...

Power of The Valkyrie, Part Three

PREVIOUSLY, ON POWER OF THE VALKYRIE...

Our heroine, who I think the writers have finally agreed to called Suzanne, was hospitalized after having a close encounter with the fiery demon Loki and the irate amazon Emu.  Suzanne is spirited away to Valhalla by the All-Father Odin just seconds before Agents Scully and Mulder show up, claiming they need to question her about the terrorist attack that destroyed her car.  In Valhalla, we learn that Odin has chosen Suzanne to receive the titular Power Of The Valkyrie and chosen Thor to train her.

Thor is less than pleased about this because his lady love Emu was supposed to get said power.  He is even less pleased after Emu attacks him and takes his power.  While that's going on, Suzanne is presented to "The Creature Pegasus", who immediately takes a shine to her - a sign she is meant to be the Valkyrie, according to Odin.  When a messenger brings word that Loki has been sighted nearby, Suzanne hops on Pegasus to ride off and look for trouble over Odin's objections.  She kills a demon in mid-flight, Pegasus keeps losing and regaining his wings between panels and the comic ends as Suzanne decides to explore a mysterious dark castle and is ambushed by Emu.

Confused?  Read Parts One and Part Two.  It won't help in the least but it may be amusing.


Part Three opens with... a flashback to Suzanne's childhood?


Yes - halfway through our story and we're just NOW getting our first glimpse into our heroine's past and the first sliver of a motivation for what she does and who she is.  Her sister got hit by a car chasing after a ball Suzanne threw into the street, the incident made Suzanne want to become a nurse so she could heal people and she remembers the incident every time she sees blood.  You'd think this would have come up at some point when she was going through nursing school but if I start picking apart everything about this comic that doesn't make sense, we'll be here all night.

Suzanne is stirred from her flashback by someone saying her name.  She repeats it and and Emu asks if that is her name.  It's a fair question given the lax continuity so far, but shockingly her name remains Suzanne for the moment.  Yet this comic finds new ways to disappoint us, with Thor's dialogue balloons being jacked up.

Either they messed up the word balloons or Thor is practicing his ventriloquism.

Suzanne picks up the sword and gets ready to fight Emu.  It is then that Suzanne discovers why it is a bad idea to attack someone who commands the power of lightning with a metal object.  Even if it is a magic metal object.


Actually, Odin never said a thing about Emu conspiring with Loki to Suzanne last issue.  In fact, it was pretty clear Odin had no idea Emu was conspiring with Loki.  Why?  Well, she was still at liberty in Valhalla when he returned with Suzanne.  Also, he sent Thor to go find Emu so he could tell her of his decision regarding who would get the Power of The Valkyrie. 

Thankfully, Thor is there to save Suzanne from becoming a scantily clad lightning rod.  He tells Suzanne what the TRUE Power of The Valkyrie is - raising the dead!  Suddenly, Suzanne starts hearing voices begging to be cut loose and she does so.  A horde of ghostly vikings show up and all the torches in the room go out.


In the midst of this chaos, Suzanne goes berserk.  Emu pleads for mercy, saying the was only trying to save Suzanne from corruption at the hands of a power humans are not meant for.  Suzanne impales her on the sword and Emu dies, muttering that Suzanne is now doomed to become Odin's pawn in the never-ending war with Loki.
 


Thor, who seems remarkably calm considering he just saw his girlfriend die, explains The Power of The Valkyrie and the role of the Valkyrie in Asgard's army.  He also confirms that what Emu said about Suzanne being a pawn in the battle to come... even though he had no idea what Odin's motivations in asking him to train Suzanne were last issue.

That's a rather big plot hole.  So is Thor's speaking of the role of The Valkyrie in the singular as if it were a title then going on to speak of multiple valkyries and how they gathered the souls of dead warriors.  And how could Odin have meant to give Suzanne the power when their meeting was a random accident in the first issue and he'd have had no way of knowing of Emu's plotting with Loki at that point in the story?

Continuity?  What's that?


Suzanne, showing the same even-temper and foresight we've seen throughout this series, gets royally pissed about the idea of being manipulated and forced to serve in a fight that is not hers.  She ditches Thor, flies back to Valhalla and tells Odin she doesn't need his civil war.  She also goes from being soaked in blood to squeaky clean in the span of two panels as she gives Odin a bargain - let her go back to Earth and she'll hide the sword where no one can find it. 


Why does Odin agree to this?  Can't he just take back the power?  He was holding it before!  And it's not like he couldn't find some other random woman if he's really that determined to have a human handle this power.  Heck, he could give the power to one of those dancing wenches who were performing back in the first issue.  I'm sure they'd be willing to serve! *rimshot*

Suzanne wakes up in the hospital, hastily scribbles a note to Dr. Dodson explaining that she decided to go home and gets in her car to...


... wait a minute!  Her car was destroyed back in the first issue!  And her car was a red two-door sports car with a personalized plate that said SUZY - not a bluie four-door!  Does she have two cars?  How?  Nurses don't make that much!  Is she renting a car?  Borrowing it from a friend?  These are perfectly valid questions, comic!  Answer me!

*sighs* Anyway, Suzanne drives out to some lake, where she throws the sword into the water.  Yes, this comic has already savaged Greek, Norse and Abrahamic myth.  Let's mix in some Arthurian Legend while we're at it!  Let no fandom remain unpissed! 


Speaking of pissed-off fandoms, we finally get an explanation for why Mulder and Scully having been hunting for Suzanne.  The good news is that this comic isn't about to become some horrible X-Files tie-in comic.  The bad news is that they are shape-shifting demons in Loki's employ.  We never do find out how Suzanne managed to get past them when they were supposed to be watching the hospital but we do find out that Loki is somehow aware that the sword is now on Earth and that he will be arriving shortly with his armies to retrieve it.


One issue left, kids!  Can you take it?