Clean Room #5 - A Review

Self-help guru Astrid Mueller's empire is in danger of crumbling, following the public suicide of her most famous patient. She doesn't care. Because she's finally captured the entity that attacked her as a child. Now, as her underlings go into full damage control mode and work to save their boss' business, journalist Chloe Pierce has her own strange encounter with a seemingly demonic creature.

Five issues in and I'm still not quite sure what to make of Clean Room. Summarizing the story without giving away spoilers is increasingly difficult, for this revolutionary story defies easy classification.  While I can't say exactly where this comic is going, I can say that Gail Simone is giving us one hell of a ride taking us there.


I can also say that Jon Davis-Hunt's artwork is wonderful. Unlike most horror comics, which drown the page in ink and shadows, Davis-Hunt offers us bright, clear figures drawn in light pencils with bright colors and some rather neat lighting effects in the color art. The final effect is all the more horrific for how pleasant it looks!

Red Sonja #2 - A Review

Sonja refused the throne of Hyrkania fearing what kind of queen she would be, yet she now finds herself cursing the decision. The new king, while having ushered in a new era of prosperity, has also given rise to a horde of ills. Among them are maddened soldiers killing the families of those who refuse the "honor" of serving in the army and generals forcing plays to be rewritten to insult the previous king and honor Hyrkania superiority to the point of paying insult to other nations - even those friendly to Hyrkania!

Alas, there are some evils even Red Sonja cannot fight. And this darkness plaguing the soul of Hyrkania may not be born of spells and sorcery but lie within the heart of humanity itself...


Red Sonja is not overly famous for social commentary, save in the most vaguely philosophical terms regarding women being as capable as men. Before now I wouldn't have thought it possible to tell a story about the dangers of jingoism and racism in a sword-and-sorcery setting. Margureite Bennett not only makes this timely statement but does so without getting preachy or making any on-the-nose comments about building walls to keep the Turanians out and making them pay for it.

There's also an interesting dynamic in how Sonja - the ultimate outsider - is the one who takes action to save a system she has no wish to be a part of.  Sonja lives the life she does so that no one else suffers as she did, yet she's a stark individualist. It's an interesting dichotomy and Bennett explores that wonderfully.


The artwork of Aneke skilfully captures the essence of Bennett's script. Aneke has a wonderful sense of staging and there is a sense of motion in every panel, even in the more static scenes of two characters just talking. Jorge Sutil's colors are well chosen, with the palettes offering a variety of subtle gradients to indicate light and shadow, even in the skin tones.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 4, Episode 14 - Code of Silence

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

HIVE makes their move against Team Arrow and Quentin Lance, bringing in some outside muscle in the form of The Demolition Team. This causes some tension between Quentin and Donna Smoak, as he lies to her about why he has to go into hiding to try and protect her. Meanwhile, Oliver prepares for his first debate with Ruve Adams and wonders whether or not he should, with his wedding to Felicity approaching, tell her the truth about his illegitimate son... right before Thea uncovers the truth herself!

In the flashbacks, Oliver must win the trust of Baron Reiter's slaves. And only one thing will accomplish that - killing the overseer Conklin!



Influences

Green Arrow: Year One (the flashback sequences on Lian Yu), the Green Arrow comics of Elliot S! Maggin (the plot of Oliver Queen running for mayor and various corrupt forces working against him), The Empire Strikes Back (Darhk kills a man from a great distance while observing him through a monitor), the original story of Aladdin (Reiter's story of a hidden place only one chosen of the gods may enter to retrieve a magic item is reminiscent of the cave holding the lamp), Gail Simone's New 52 run on Batgirl (the implant Curtis develops is similar to what was used to enable Barbara Gordon to walk again in the comics) and the writings of Nietzsche (Taiana's line about needing monsters to fight monsters contradicts one of Nietzsche's most famous sayings, "Battle not with monsters, lest you become a monster.")


Goofs

Given how thoroughly screwed up her own life was by people keeping secrets from her, Thea should be about the last person justifying Samantha's unreasonable request that Ollie not tell even his own family or the woman he loves about his son.  Yes, keeping William a secret is keeping him safe, but there's no good reason - especially with Thea having figured out the secret - to try and keep Felicity in the dark. Hell, Felicity could probably do a lot to hide the clues that Thea followed to figure out the truth!

After all the hype regarding the debate between Ruve Adams and Oliver, why aren't we allowed to see the debate or at least see a clip of it? Admittedly watching Ollie engage in a mental/verbal battle may not be as exciting as watching him pummel the villain-of-the-week, but it still seems like a heck of a Chekov's Gun to leave on the wall after all the time focusing on his preparing for the debate!


Artistry

The action sequences for this episode are amazing, even by the standards of this show. From the multi-vehicle chase sequence at the start of the episode, through all of the fight scenes and up until the final fight between Team Arrow and The Demolition Team, everything is well-blocked and well-directed.

The special effects used for the destruction of the buildings by The Demolition Team are also great.


Trivia

This episode sees the return of Milo Armitage as part of HIVE's command staff. In the comics, Milo Armitage was the step-father and frequent enemy of the second Green Arrow, Connor Hawke.

A 602 is the police code for Breaking and Entering.

The Demolition Team is a mercenary group from the DC Comics universe, first appearing in Green Lantern #176. Armed with high-tech weaponry based on construction equipment, the team came into conflict with Hal Jordan after they were hired by a corrupt congressman to destroy the Los Angeles branch of Ferris Aircraft.

The Demolition Team includes Hardhat (a former boxer with a special helmet and harness that increases his strength and durability), Jackhammer (a former oil-rig worker, armed with a high-powered jackhammer), Scoopshovel (a former professional jai-alai player, with a hydraulic arm), Steamroller (a former motorcycle stunt driver who drove a high-speed, compact steam-roller) and Rosie - the team leader - who was armed with a high-power rivet gun.

The DCTVU Demolition Team are a mercenary group made of three former GRU, IRA and MOSSAD agents who were experts in precision demolitions. Unlike their comic book counterparts, they do not used specialized weaponry.  Jack uses a sledgehammer rather than a jackhammer and Rosie uses a high-power nail-gun rather than a rivet gun. The third member, Hardhat, does not wear a hard hat and seems to be the team's explosives expert.

In another nod to Curtis' eventual role on the show, Oliver calls him "terrific" in response to his invention that will cure Felicity's paralysis. Curtis Holt is, of course, based on the superhero Michael Holt a.k.a. Mister Terrific.


Technobabble

The Demolition Team make use of a specialized acid used to weaken building foundations.

John has access to some kind of technology that allows him to repel Jackhammer's sledge-hammer strikes, forcing the hammer-head away from him - perhaps some kind of magnetic force-field?

Curtis' wedding gift to Felicity and Oliver is an implantable bio-stimulant - one that, coupled with Palmer Technologies new power cell, should allow a paralyzed person to walk after the bio-stimulant is implanted in their spine.


Dialogue Triumphs

(As he is getting ready to go change into costume in order to follow Darhk's wife.)
Ollie: Are you going to be alright in here?
Felicity: Oh yeah! Great Wi-Fi.

Taiana: Aside from my brother, have you killed before?
Oliver: Yeah. There was a man in Hong Kong. And I did terrible things to him. And that made me a monster.
Taiana: And you're afraid killing Conklin will make you into this monster again?
Oliver: (pauses) Yeah.
Taiana: Good.  It takes a monster to fight monsters.

Felicity: You know, the first time we met? The first thing you asked me was pull data off a damaged laptop. It's kind of romantic.

(Oliver is changing into a nice suit and tie in the Arrow Cave. Quentin enters.)
Quentin: Well, that's not your typical night time suit.
Oliver: Well, you're the reason I'm wearing it. Inspiring me to save the city in the light of day.
Quentin: (scoffing) Fine inspiration I turned out to be, hiding down here in the dark.
Oliver: For your protection. You haven't told Donna, have you?
Quentin: No. (sighs) How you kept this up for four years, huh? This double life? These secrets? Lying? I mean...
Oliver: I'm trying not to live that way anymore. (sighs) Trying.
Quentin: You know, in AA, we say you're only as sick as the secrets you keep. You're looking pretty healthy these days. Let's just hope I can get back to that place with Donna.
Oliver: For what it's worth, you're in a tough spot and you're trying to keep her safe. You know, sometimes a lie isn't wrong when it's for the good of someone you love.

Oliver: Can you hack the fire alarm?  We need to evacuate the building.
Felicity: (typing furiously on her phone) It's an old system. It might take me a minute.
(Suddenly, the fire alarm goes off. Felicity and Olvier look up to see Thea standing next to an emergency fire alarm switch.)
Thea: Yeah. I learned that back in high school.

(whispering to Ruve Adams as the crowd applauds as they enter the debate)
Oliver: That's nice applause. It's enough to bring the house down. (grinning) Almost.

Reiter: I need you alive, Mr. Queen, but there are different forms of alive. Don't test me again.

(In response to the news that Curtis has developed a bio-stimulant that can cure Felicity's paralysis.)
Oliver: Curtis, you're terrific.


Continuity

Ollie makes reference to Anarky's attack on Damien Darhk's family (410), HIVE's attack on other mayoral candidates (402) and their attempts to take over the Queen Campaign (407).

HIVE's plan has entered Phase Four.

Phase Five if HIVE's plan requires their controlling City Hall.

Malcolm Merlyn is now part of HIVE or is, at least, being allowed to sit in at their meetings.

Arms dealer Milo Armitage - last mentioned in 303 and last seen in 212 - is part of HIVE.

Thea discovers the check that Moira Queen wrote to Samantha Clayton in the flashbacks for 220.

Lyla Michaels is apparently now the head of ARGUS in the wake of Amanda Waller's death in 411.

In the flashback, Oliver refers to torturing General Shrieve in 323.

Felicity refers to the encrypted cel phones used by HIVE, one of which Merlyn gave her in 409.

Felicity makes reference to 103 and how the first time Oliver met her he asked her to pull information off of a damaged laptop.

Oliver names Quentin Lance as his inspiration for running for mayor and quotes Quentin's speech to him about saving the city in the light of day from 402.

Oliver is agreed to have won the debate by most pundits afterward.

Laura Hoffman - Felicity and Ollie's neighbor from Ivy Town - appears at the party at the end.

In the final scene, we find out that Damien Darhk has kidnapped William .


The Bottom Line

A mixed bag, once again. The script and the villains-of-the-week are unusually weak with very little of the wit we've seen this season. Despite this, the cast manage to sell everything, though there's little emotional investment in the Quentin/Donna romance given how little time they've been given over the season.  And how anyone on this show can possibly think keeping secrets from their loved ones won't blow up in their face is beyond me at this point. That being said, the action sequences here are some of the best the show has ever seen and the episode is, on the whole, enjoyable.

The Flash Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 14 - Escape From Earth-2

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

With The Flash in Zoom's clutches, Harry and Cisco will have to forge an unlikely alliance with Killer Frost and Detective Iris West in order to rescue him. Meanwhile, back on Earth 2, Caitlin tries to craft a new drug that will cure Jay Garrick's condition and allow him to bring Geomancer to justice once and for all.


Influences

The Flash #123 - "Flash Of Two Worlds" (the idea of Earth 2 and Barry traveling to it), The Man In The Iron Mask (Zoom's other prisoner, who is not only clad in such a mask but has similar commandments against talking) Heat (Cisco refers to the movie teaching him how to lose someone who is following him), The JSA comics of Geoff Johns (Geomancer) and The Flash comics of Mike Baron (the Velocity 9 drug).


Goofs

Geomancer just waltzes right into STAR Labs on Earth 1, despite the labs' vaunted security system.


Performances

Once again, this is Danielle Panabaker's episode to shine - both as Killer Frost and as Caitlin Snow, who is all kinds of bad-ass both in the lab and outside of it this week.

Grant Gustin has a wonderful comedic role here, playing the nebbish Earth 2 Barry.

Bart Sears has a magnificent turn as Jay Garrick here. Hopefully it won't be his last...


Flash Facts

As noted previously, Velocity 9, in the comics, was a drug that granted super-speed but also caused premature aging, exhaustion and eventually death. It was developed by the post-Crisis Vandal Savage as a means of making money to fund his criminal empire. It was eventually developed into a non-lethal formula.

The DCTVU version of Velocity 9 appears to function in the same way as the non-lethal formula from the comics.

The "tap code" used by Zoom's Prisoner to communicate is based on a real word code. As Barry says, it was used by Prisoners of War during the Korean and Vietnam Wars but the use of the code goes back further than that.

Cisco refers to Killer Frost as "Elsa" - a reference to the Ice Queen from the Disney movie Frozen.

Cisco also refers to the impossible-to-climb Cliffs of Insanity from The Princess Bride.


Technobabble

When Jay asks about Caitlin's formula for Velocity 8, she says she still has to finalize the compound and make sure the extracellular matrix stays intact, so Jay doesn't lose his speed as quickly.

Caitlin notes that the Velocity 7 reacted with the damaged cells in Jay's body, causing more cellular degeneration.

Barry-2 developed an algorithm that allows him to track most metahumans based on DNA trace movements, facial recognition and other meta-data specifically relating to that metahuman's powers, such as temperature fluctuations specific to Killer Frost using her powers.

Velocity 9 was formed after Caitlin reformulated the extracellular matrix, after realizing the matrix for Velocity 8 was flawed.

Barry is unable to phase through materials on Earth 2 because his body resonances at a different frequency than the matter on Earth 2. He can make up the difference by going faster.

Caitlin determines that the Velocity 9 formula not only restored Jay's speed but also his latent regenerative abilities. In short, so long as Velocity 9 is in his system, Jay's broken cells can start healing.

Geomancer's attack on STAR Labs disrupts the quark matter in the speed canon and the electromagnetic insulators began to fail as a result.

Barry's cell is made out of some form of carbyne - a compound whose molecular structure includes an electrically neutral carbon atom with three non-bonded electrons, connected to another atom by a single bond. Carbyne is also the hardest substance known to man, being three-times harder than diamond. It is so strong it can resist Killer Frost's ability to shatter objects by touching them.

In order to fix the speed cannon and stabilize the breach, Jay has to reboot the electromagnetic insulators and hope the quark matter redistributes equally. Caitlin notes he can't go near the stabilizer rings once they power on or he'll be sucked into the breach. Jay says he can create a vortex to counteract the pull of the breach. Each stabilizer ring has a override switch, which Joe West flips as Jay creates his vortex.


Dialogue Triumphs

(As Cisco relates how Barry was captured by Zoom)
Harry: How are you still alive?
Cisco: Looks like Zoom cares about me even less than you do, Harry.

Barry: We're going to get out of here. Your dad is going to find us. I promise.
Jesse: You sure have a lot of faith in a man who only cares about himself.
Barry: (sighs) You know I actually felt that at first, too? It's not true. Every decision that he's made, every action that he's taken since we met - it's been to save you. Your dad hasn't given up on you, Jesse.  Don't give up on him.
(Zoom suddenly appears.)
Zoom: (To Jesse) Believe what you want, but the only reason that you're still alive is so  I can kill you in front of your father. And the only reason that your father's still alive... (turns to Barry) is to give me your speed. Once he does that, he will die too.

Cisco: We need to find his lair.
Wells: Lair?
Cisco: He's a bad guy; I'm calling it a lair.

(Jay Garrick runs into STAR Labs and all but collapses on the floor)
Caitlin: Jay?!
Jay: I'm okay!  That just took a lot out of me. (panting and smiling) But it sure felt good.

(As Killer Frost starts trying to kill them after Cisco tries convince her to help them.)
Cisco: That did not go as planned!
Barry-2: Her name starts with Killer. This comes as a shock to you?!

Barry-2: Do you know what we did to get here, Barry? We convinced her - Killer Frost - to show us the way! Then we climbed some insanely steep cliffs outside, on footholds made of ice. Ice! And all of us risked our lives, knowing Zoom was after us, to rescue Jesse. And you. Now, I don't know you. And you don't know me. But... I can tell you that today I - I did things that I never thought possible. Because I needed to prove to my wife and... to myself that I could. Now, if I can do the impossible today, so can you. I'm just Barry Allen, but you're The Flash. If you tell yourself you can phase out of there, you'll do it.

(Killer Frost blasts Zoom and begins piling ice on top of him.)
Killer Frost: Get out of here.
Cisco: Caitlin?!
Killer Frost: You were right. He killed Ronnie.
Cisco: Thank you.


Continuity

Harry Wells has been presumed missing on Earth 2 for four months.

The major news channel on Earth 2 is also Channel 52.

Harry Wells' STAR Labs building on Earth 2 also has a time vault with a fake wall.

The Earth 2 Patty Spivot is a CSI Technician with the CCPD. Barry says she was the CSI tech on most of the Killer Frost cases and is good at her job.

Computer monitors and television screens on Earth 2 run vertically rather than horizontally.

Zoom's Prisoner spells out the name JAY.  This seems to be a reference to Jay Garrick, but Zoom interrupts them before they can learn why The Prisoner's was spelling that name.

Zoom's hideout is built into a cave complex inside a place known as Ascension Cliffs.

Killer Frost can make objects out ice, including staircases.

Barry-2 and Iris-2 have family in Atlantis.

The episode ends with Jay Garrick impaled through the chest by Zoom and being dragged back into the portal to Earth 2.


Location

Central City on Earth 2.


The Fridge Factor

Averted hardcore, as Caitlin deals with Geomancer and brings him down when the cops and Jay couldn't.


The Bottom Line

A weak follow-up to last week's episode, made tolerable only by some excellent performances and one hell of a cliff-hanger ending!

Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Five #9 - A Review

Under Batman's command, The Rogues Gallery orchestrate a coordinated attack on multiple Regime bases simultaneously. This does little to soothe the temper of Superman, who is already angry due to delays in the construction of a new super-prison and the loss of the drugs needed to enhance his army of Super-Soldiers. Despite this, things are looking bleak for The Resistance, though they may have just found the most unexpected of allies...


It's always a treat when Brian Buccellato writes The Rogues Gallery and this issue proves no exception to that truism. I'm curious as to the absence of Captain Cold but I'm certain he's being saved for something special later on. I would like to see more of this world's version of The Trickster, however, who seems to be cut from the same mold as the TV series' Joker-Lite - a characterization I've never been fond of but find preferable in this case to the idea of James Jesse selling out his fellow Rogues.


The artwork this week is competently done but not as fine as usual. Tom Derenick's pencils seem rushed in some places and Juan Albarran's inks seem a little too heavy at times. The colors by Rex Lokus are as fine as ever and the artwork doesn't look bad - just not quite up to the usual standard.