Monday, June 1, 2020

Bullet Review: Hell Arisen #4


Hey!!!

New comics!!!

As strange as it seems given the more recent history, my comic story was sort of open this week! I was able to get new comics, including the print versions of Lois Lane #10 and Jimmy Olsen #10 which I purchased digitally during the closure of the stores during the pandemic.

And look at that fat stack! Hooray for me!

Tucked into all this new goodness was Hell Arisen #4, a book I threw in my pull folder prior to the store closing. But I forgot that I had held it aside and didn't purchase it way back in March. As a result, it sat there festering.


But this was the ending of Kara's infection and I felt I need to read it to complete that story in my head.

I did not get the first three issues of this. So I don't know much. I do know that between Justice League and Batman/Superman I knew enough of the concurrent Perpetua and Batman Who Laughs storylines that I was glad reconciling the two competing plots in one book.

Or were they?

Turns out that this mini-series ends as the prologue for the upcoming Death Metal mini-series. Nothing is necessarily ending here.

At the very least, the infections are over. But does the solution make sense? Perhaps someone who did read the beginning of this series can answer that for me.

On to a quick Supergirl-centric bullet review.

One thing that is interesting is that we get a bit of a monologue from Lex where he explains to Mercy why he became 'Apex Lex' mixing with Martian Manhunter.

He makes direct references to Forever Evil and his time in the JLA.

Is Forever Evil in continuity??

The DC timeline has been rebooted, smudged, blended, recast, and rewritten so many times in recent years that even a weekly reader like me no longer knows what has happened and what hasn't happened.

That can't be good.


But the issue then drops us into a fight.

Lex has an army.
The Batman Who Laughs has his infected army.

A brawl ensues.

And Lex and the Batman Who Laughs square off.

To make sure that they won't be disturbed and to take advantage of Lex's absorbed Martian weakness to fire, the Batman Who Laughs has Supergirl surround them with fire.

Of course, in her own book, Supergirl was rebelling against the Batman Who Laughs, doing her own thing. So falling in lockstep and calling him 'Boss' seems contrary.

I guess asking for some editorial continuity is asking for too much?


But then Lex pulls out his ace in the hole.

He knows that the Batman Who Laughs is pulling power from the 'Dark Universe' to keep the infection going.

So Lex injects the Batman Who Laughs with a something akin to a vaccine, blocking the passage of energy from that universe to this one.

My question I hope people can answer. Was creation of this injection a plot point in this mini-series? Or was this a deus ex machina?


But just like that the energy stops flowing and the infection subsides.

Suddenly everyone is back to normal.

All too easy.


At least once she is snapped out of it, Kara tries to lead the troops into action.

But it's too late.

The Batman Who Laughs cuts a deal with Perpetua to become her strong right hand to fight the JLA who escaped somewhere at the end of Scott Snyder's JLA. And Lex gets stripped of Martian powers and is back to being just a guy.

I really just want all this stuff to be over.

Unfortunately, it is over ... for Supergirl, She is the collateral damage for this never-ending darkening of things.

7 comments:

Bostondreams said...

"My question I hope people can answer. Was creation of this injection a plot point in this mini-series? Or was this a deus ex machina?"

Yeah, it was a plot point throughout the series.

Anonymous said...

Hello from a french fan of supergirl,

Supergial has more action in the tome 2 with a battle between apex alex and all infected (exept gordon who was emprisoned).

There is a little verbal contest between supergirl and Lex ... her cousin who admire lex luthor and who always see the best in people.

It was in the tome 3, you learn that everyone makes fun of lex in gotham city. The joker sauves him and lex ... "osculates" the brain of joker with him new powers. It's a very strange scene...lex found the cure.

So,you don't miss much.

Anonymous said...

Oh, my God. You went, paid money for it and read it.

My condolences.

"The DC timeline has been rebooted, smudged, blended, recast, and rewritten so many times in recent years that even a weekly reader like me no longer knows what has happened and what hasn't happened.

That can't be good."

This is because I stick to Pre-Crisis and maaaaaybe Pre-Flashpoint comics.

"She is the collateral damage for this never-ending darkening of things."

Accurate and understated.

She's been cannon fodder in a badly written, dumb event.

Anonymous said...

Wow props to you for perseverance...so Supergirl gets jobbed out again huh? Typical, I dunno man I think it might be time to give up buying DCU comics entirely, if this is the best they can do. What Supergirl has been mired in negativity for 18 months, she's been an objectified teen super goth clown girl for six months and she gets casually cured by one of the DCU's apex rogues?
This is embarrassing...I'm rotten glad I didn't buy it.

JF

Anonymous said...

With respect to Forever Evil and continuity:

There are mentions in both the first and last book of this series that the universe "heals" itself i.e. brings back anything and everything. In the first book, the Crime Syndicate is back and has an audience with Perpetua.

Bendis has been doing his own lighter version of this with Young Justice.

T.N.

Anonymous said...

All out universe reboot incoming. It might not be the 5G they planned but they're definitely gonna be doing something soon with the way they're treating the DC universe. Maybe Dr.Manhattan will Thanos snap himself from ever messing with the universe and we can get back to some good stories.

Anj said...

Thanks for comments and for the info about the Lex cure. Glad it wasn't an easy fix.

And interesting about the universe reboot/healing stuff. Seeing that sprinkled through the comics these days.