Welcome back to This Week in Comics, my reviews of whichever comics I’ve bought for the week. As always, reviews contain SPOILERS. Do you think anyone will notice if this sentence isn’t one of my usual jokes?

Ignition City #3 of 5 | The Immortal Iron Fist #26 | The Incredible Hercules #129 | Wonder Woman #32

IGNITION CITY #3 OF 5
Writer: Warren Ellis
Penciler: Gianluca Pagliarani
Publisher: Avatar

It’s a world of scientific wonder, where man ventured into space during the earlier part of the 20th century, and has long since encountered alien lifeforms. Unfortunately, nations around the world have begun to fear space travel and interstellar wars, and one by one each nation is banning space travel. Ignition City is a poorly operated port town on the edge of the world, packed with grounded spacemen and alien merchants. It’s like looking at a half-steampunked Old West town full of lawless violence and illegally traded guns and bad whiskey. A young woman has entered Ignition City to find the killer of her estranged space hero of a father. Whens she stumbles on too many clues, however, her father’s killers decide to seek her out first.

Warren Ellis is always a good writer to go to for mystery and science fiction. The sci-fi elements in this story are high enough to craft a unique setting, but moderated enough to be accessible to anyone who fears technobabble. The story itself isn’t necessarily a mystery, as the killer was revealed in the previous issue. However, the main character spends this issue figuring that out for herself, while also fleshing out Ignition City’s reimagined world history.

THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST #26
Writer: Duane Swierczynski
Penciler: Travel Foreman
Publisher: Marvel

The Immortal Weapons have finally escaped from Quan Yaozu’s prison, and now must find a way to fight off Yaozu’s forces while focusing their energy into opening the gate out of the Eighth City. When they finally open the city gates, however, Yaozu emerges and reveals that it was his plan all along to allow the Immortal Weapons to escape so that he could leave the city with them. Yaozu believes K’un-Lun to still be a corrupt city, and wants his revenge for what has happened to the innocent people banished to the Eighth City. However, upon their emergence in remote China, Davos is waiting outside the gate for them rifle in hand. Davos’ father, the Thunderer, ordered him to kill the original Iron Fist Quan Yaozu, as his mere existence could cause a political uproar in K’un-Lun. Using a combination of violence and diplomacy, Danny convinces everyone to return to K’un-Lun, because if the government can’t face its history of corruption, then maybe the city deserves to fall.

“Escape from the Eighth City” has been a good read, and this was a pretty good conclusion. Throughout the story, it was never made quite clear what Davos was up to, or what his motivations were. Though his intentions were dubious, it was an interesting twist to see that his every action in this story was ordered to him from his father, who is normally seen as an honorable character. And in his habit of working for the previous corrupt leaders, the Thunderer went into the habit of covering up the biggest political scandal in K’un-Lun’s history. With the conclusion of this arc, however, comes the realization that this title is one issue away from going on its hiatus/cancellation.

THE INCREDIBLE HERCULES #129
Writers: Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente
Penciler: Ryan Stegman
Publisher: Marvel

With Hera abusing Zeus’ power and her control over the Olympus Group, Athena has a plan that involves going to the Underworld and bringing Zeus back from the dead. To do this, Hercules and Amadeus will need to enter the Underworld via Pluto’s casino in Atlantic City. Upon entering the casino, they’re greeted by Aegis, Athena’s recently deceased champion. Aegis guides them through the casino, where they encounter the souls of many recognizable dead superheroes. It turns out that upon death, many people roam Pluto’s casino and gamble their fates in hopes that they’ll win big, and be allowed to rejoin the living. They pass by the Wasp, who remarks that Bucky was lucky enough to get out. Meanwhile back at the Olympus Group, Hera is attacking her daughter Hebe, goddess of youth. Hebe recently betrayed Hera to Norman Osborn in an attempt to save the life of her estranged husband Hercules. Hera reacts by throwing Hebe out of a skyscraper window. Hebe survives the fall, and runs off to find Hercules. Back in the casino of the dead, Amadeus has attracted too much attention by cleaning house at the blackjack table. A fight errupts, and Herc & Amadeus quickly run away to the river Styx to find Zeus’ soul. However, once they cross the river, Pluto is waiting for them with an army of dead supervillains (and Orka from Misty & Colleen’s Heroes For Hire, who merely has anger management issues).

As always, this month’s Incredible Hercules was filled with good humor, adventure, action, and real characters. Pak and Van Lente have really found a perfect balance when it comes to make a fun comic book that’s silly without being too silly, and it’s always a joy to pick up the latest issue.

WONDER WOMAN #32
Writer: Gail Simone
Penciler: Aaron Lopresti
Publisher: DC

It’s the final showdown between Wonder Woman and Genocide. They knock one another around for a bit, but Genocide has the advantage of having Diana’s lasso sewn into its flesh, and is using it to play mind games with her. When Agent Tom Tresser attempts to attack Genocide from an invisible helicopter, Genocide retaliates by throwing a bus at the chopper, then holding Tom hostage after pulling him from the wreckage. Genocide coaxes Diana into admitting that she never truly loved Tom, and was only engaged to him because she wanted a mate more than a lover. Diana then uses her tiara to slash Genocide’s arm, freeing Tom. Diana grabs Genocide and tries to drag it into space, then hurl it back down at the Earth. This injured both of them, but Diana’s sheer desperation gives her the clarity to attempt one final play: she grabs the bits of magic lasso stick out of Genocide’s skin, and completely rips the lasso out of Genocide’s flesh. Genocide’s body lifelessly falls into the ocean, where it is retrieved by Area for an upcoming plan of his own.

While I love how hardcore Diana got during this final battle, and even how Zeus admired her from a distance while training her replacement, I just cannot bring myself to like Genocide as a villain. Much like Superman’s Doomsday, I consider Genocide more of a plot device than a villain or character. In the end, it was just a thing for Wonder Woman to fight for several issues. What’s worse is that the fight with Genocide distracted from the much more important story that was happening in the background. Zeus has been spending this whole time assembling a new group of male Amazons to replace Wonder Woman’s people as champions and worshippers of the gods. The rise of the new Amazons seemed like the true purpose of this story arc, while Ares’ own secret agenda would’ve made for a more appropriate B-plot. The fight against Genocide and the destruction of the DMA headquarters felt like something that should’ve been a separate story arc. Basically, in this instance, Gail Simone’s biggest flaw was attempting to shove too many plots into a single story, and not balancing them properly.