Review: Manhunter #8

I am now 8 issues into my look at the 1980's Manhunter series as I gather clues into the ultimate transformation of Mark Shaw to Leviathan. It interesting for me to see just how much of this early run has been devoted to secret societies, masks, and outright duplicity. No wonder Shaw is so disturbed.

Manhunter #8 is no different, with Shaw tangentially involved the DC event Invasion. Shaw gets sent to Cuba to check up on the Flash and runs into Durlans. The whole thing, in many ways, is nonsensical. But from that 10000 foot view of Leviathan, it is just one more brick in the foundation of this turning of Shaw from hero to leader of the Leviathan army.

Writers John Ostrander and Kim Yale again show us a Shaw who is haunted by his Manhunter history. Shaw again sees secretive, manipulative groups trying to control others from behind the curtain of disguise. These themes have been prevalent from the beginning of the series. Whether Brian Michael Bendis read this to get his ideas for Leviathan is a mystery. 

But the plot of Durlans trying to take over Cuba but not really using their powers or being ruthless seems a bit inane.

The art here is done by Frank Springer with inks by Pablo Marcos. This is standard fare, nothing fancy.

On to the book.

Review: CW Invasion

There is no new Supergirl episode this week ... or even this month. But that doesn't mean that there isn't stuff for me to talk about. And with Wednesday as a sort of 'show slot' I thought I'd talk about #DCWeek

Last week was the Invasion crossover of the the four CW DC shows and I have to say it was pretty entertaining. There were plenty of tiny flourishes for old school comic fans. There was a feeling of 'my god I'm watching a Justice League live action show'. Each chapter did a good job of both pushing the story along while staying true to their individual show's character and style.

It certainly wasn't without its story flaws. There were plot twists that seemed forced. The ending seemed a bit rushed. Maybe there was a little bit too much angst. There were things that happened which I meta-textually explained away as scheduling issues and budget constraints.

But I am going to be honest here. In the end we saw a bunch of super-heroes fighting a bunch of Dominators. I got to see minor characters from my comic childhood on the small screen interacting with each other. And Supergirl played an important part. How can I not be thrilled! Giddy!

Look at the picture at the top of this post. What world am I living in when this is something that actually happened. It wasn't perfect. But it was and it was a ton of fun.

I'll try to do a relatively brief review, highlighting the parts I loved, probably focusing on Supergirl too much. But settle in because I'm going to try to review the last three parts in one post. At the very least, enjoy the pretty pictures.