Written by Ryan Browne
Drawn by Pete Woods
Published by Dynamite Entertainment
As we left off the previous issue, troubles have escalated greatly for our “heroes.” Tim snapped while confronting Rainbow Boy (whom we learn was in a secret homosexual relationship with the mayor) and apparently killed him, but was physically disfigured on his face in the process. And poor Sparky accidentally killed Blue Beetle/Big Blue, who was trying to arrest him for his role the apparent murders of Black Terror and Baron Von Physics. This incident seems to have caused Sparky to mentally snap as well.
Meanwhile, we learned that the gun that Tim thinks is a disintegrating ray is actually teleportation rays, which sends whoever is shot with it to the freaky “Dimension 42.” So that’s where Blue Bolt ends up and joins Black Terror and Baron Von Physics, who is trying to build a device to get them all back home. And when Big Blue’s corpse arrives (Tim shot him to get rid of the evidence), Black Terror is even more determined to get revenge on Tim.
Well, the good news is that Rainbow Boy is not dead, he survived Tim’s attack, he’s in the hospital, with the Mayor who brought him there. Then the mayor is confronted by his wife about this affair, in a way that’s pretty funny. I’ll note that some time ago in a Facebook group that I belong to which is dedicated to Public Domain superheroes, someone posted about Rainbow Boy and speculated that a good way to update the character would be to make him a gay icon, due to his “rainbow” motif. Clearly, Ryan Browne thought the same and wrote him this way in this series.
Tim and Sparky go to see Captain Battle Jr. in order to make sure he’s on their side. When he hears what they’ve done, he calls his father Captain Battle to come arrest them all and…that’s when you know what really hits the fan.
I haven’t enjoyed a superhero miniseries this much in a while! It’s brutal and funny, with almost non-stop action. And like the old school comics from my youth, you don’t need to read a dozen other comics or know years of history to understand it. This features appearances from dozens of heroes, but all you need to know about any of them is revealed in this story. So it’s very easy to follow along. And it’s helped by being drawn by such a great artist like Pete Woods, who’s clean clear style fits it perfectly.
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