Comics Roundup for 5/3012

Batman Annual #1 - Before Batman:  The Animated Series, Mr. Freeze was a "second rate Captain Cold".  When Paul Dini got his hands on him for the show, he turned into something more like a Shakespearean tragic hero.  Of course, there was that one little movie that we shall not mention where he became the Governor of California, but let's forget about that.  In the comics, the creators tried to reflect his new origin, although after a while it starts to get tough to keep making him the bad guy when deep down he's just a really scarred individual who could have been decent if only things had gone differently.

Well, Scott Snyder has a solution to this problem.  By adding a new twist to the story where Mr. Freeze just wanted to find a cure for his wife, who rests in a cryogenic deep freeze, we learn that Victor Fries was pretty disturbed from the get-go, and that woman whom he refers to as his wife?  Yeah, she never was his wife.  She was put on ice before he was even born.  The dude's a nut.

Oh, and it all ties into the "Court of Owls".  Awesome stuff.

The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #39 - Speaking of some good stuff, Marvel delivers its own top-notch annual, reminding me of the good old days of comics annuals when you got a story that stood on its own but was extra-special because of the subject matter and length.  I'm not familiar with writer Brian Reed's work, but he sure did a nice job with this twist on "It's a Wonderful Life".  Peter Parker learns what the world would be like without him, but to keep things interesting, it turns out that for some people, their lives really would have been better if he never existed.  It's a pretty emotionally ambiguous tale for a superhero story.

Super Crooks #3 - This just might be my favorite "Millarworld" series yet.  The plot is something I don't feel that I've seen before, and each issue unravels a few new interesting threads.  The first issue sets up that some supervillains head off to Europe because there are too many superheroes in America.  The second issue recruits the team, and they even get a superhero on board (much to his chagrin).  With this one, we find out a little something about the guy they plan on ripping off.  Should I be rooting for these guys?

Wolverine and the X-Men #11 - We get a bit more as to why Wolverine would suddenly agree to start working with this colleagues in the Avengers again after Captain America tossed him out of a plane, but I still feel like his change of heart is a little on the sudden side.  Do I think that Wolverine would hold a grudge like that forever?  No.  But I think it would piss him off for a little while, at least.