Bottom of the Pile - June 25th, 2014

Amazing Spider-Man

Careful Parker.  You keep this up and you'll have a class action suit from your employees: they'll all be suffering from a mean case of mood whiplash.

Aquaman

Creating a new villain is hard--in the first place, most people just want to see the same old favorites.  In the second, most people can't create any with the staying power of ones that have been around for decades already.  But with Chimera, Jeff Parker may be onto something--a monstrous king that's a twisted, shattered mirror-image of the main character himself.  Hopefully they don't just off him at the end of this arc.

Batman Eternal

I'd say this was a rookie mistake, only nobody's ever home at Wayne Manor, so the fact that there's anyone present at all is a fair reason to be shocked.  On the other hand...

Guardians of the Galaxy

This does qualify as a rookie mistake.  Allowing everyone to know where you're currently keeping Public Enemy #1 is just asking for trouble.

 Justice League

 

One of the things the new Captain Marvel origin was supposed to do, was turn him into a legitimate mage.  And here, in this month's issue of Justice League, we get to see what that entails.

....Well.  At least it's a pretty cool looking ping-pong table?

Ms. Marvel

Ms. Marvel has a realization that, undoubtedly, all heroes at one point have come to.

New Avengers

This month's New Avengers gives us a glimpse at what Iron Man vs. the Flash might look like.  And, in this situation, I would think the only upgrade needed would be one that would hit someone attempting to take off his armor without authorization with a nice, incapacitating bolt of electricity.   But then, what with it being The Flash, a lightning bolt might not be the best solution...

New Warriors

You make a good point, but...no Captain.  There are too many Avengers teams as it is.  It's bad enough that the Guardians of the Galaxy are two steps away from being the "space Avengers". 

Original Sin: Hulk vs. Iron Man

This has literally never worked for you, Tony.  No version of your armor has ever beaten the Hulk.  You've gone through dozens of upgrades in the last twenty years and haven't been able to do more than piss him off yet.   At what point do you realize fighting this guy isn't for you?

Secret Origins

That sound you hear is my heart breaking, as Secret Origins puts an end to the legacy of the greatest Robin ever, letting the line stop basically at the hands of the greatest fuck-up Batman ever put in a costume, Jason Todd.  

Sinestro

Like I said last week, that's the "other" universe.  Also, if I could get through a week of superhero comics (y'know, the ones that should be inspiring and such) without having someone pointlessly pontificate on the finiteness of existence, that'd be wonderful.

Superman

The idea that Superman's power places him in a unique situation where he's set apart from everyone, and is in fact, completely alone, is not a new one.  Arguably the entire point of his run on the Legion was that they were the friends that kept Superman from being alone.  Of course, with the Legion gone now he needs some new friends.

This issue had an excellent twist in it, and I'm looking forward to where Geoff will take the character now that so much of his history has been stripped away in the New 52.   So far, so good, though.

The Flash

So Green Lantern using his powers are destroying space, while Flash using his powers is destroying time.  If a story doesn't emerge from this (considering both books are written by the same guy), I'll be pretty disappointed.

New 52 - Futures End

Raising the question of, who exactly named Earths 1 and 2 in-universe to begin with.  Even in the real world, their numbers make no sense--chronologically, Earth-2 existed for almost two decades before Earth-1 came into existence.  But I suppose from a publishing standpoint you don't want to call your ongoing universe second best.

Author's Note: Bottom of the Pile is a weekly column (or at least, my attempt at said) in which I cover the comics that found their way to the bottom of my pile, thus being the best as I've always been a proponent of "saving the best for last".   Since bog standard reviews can be found literally anywhere, coverage can range from mini-reviews to funny comments to commentary on a creator's run or comics as a whole, depending on a wide range of factors including the comic itself, the amount of time I have, and my general mood.