The Autumnlands: Tooth & Claw #4

Writer – Kurt Busiek
Artist – Benjamin Dewey
Colours – Jordie Bellaire

The people of the fallen city are not doing too well as they have no survival skills to speak of, magic that is failing and divided loyalties.  Separately, one of those things they might be able to do without, but collectively it just spells trouble.  So while everyone does their best to survive, Learoyd and Dusty aim to do something about their situation.  With every issue, Kurt Busiek and Benjamin Dewey continue to chronicle the trials and travails of Gharta and her people and it gets better and better the further into the story we get.  The rivalry that exists between Sandorst and Gharta, and one that only exists for the former and not the latter, continues to be one of the more humourous bits of the book as it exasperates Gharta so much.  Sandorst is absolutely clueless about everything and while it might be funny, you realize that either he is going to be a victim at some point or be responsible for the death of them all.  Dusty is finally coming into his own, realizing that there is a big, wide world out there, something he never really had the chance to experience when his father was alive and he was living in the sky.  Being grounded is going to advance Dusty more than anything else and should he rejoin everyone up in one of the sky cities, he is going to be a very different person for it.  Learoyd is also finally coming to accept his situation, though he is still unsure if this is the same planet he used to reside upon or a completely different one.  All that he knows is that for the moment, he is going to have to accept that it is here where he finds himself and he is just going to have to make the best of it.  Things might be unfolding fairly slow, but Busiek and Dewey are creating a very exciting world and it is great to be able to partake in it.

4 out of 5

The New 52 Futures End #42

Writer – Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, Keith Giffen
Artist – Scot Eaton
Inker – Scott Hanna
Colours – Hi-Fi

Brainiac continues to dominate our heroes, Shazam stops pretending to be Superman, Mr. Terrific is going insane and Terry McGuinness is in the fight of his life.  The excitement that this title has finally become is something that was long overdue, but now that it is here, it has been non-stop and has given the book the life that it was promised from that first issue long ago.  One of the things that we were supposed to look forward to was Superman’s return after being away for so long, but as of this moment, though he is back, he is not really doing all that much except for being an inspiration which some might call just as good.  One of the more interesting aspects to occur from Brainiac’s arrival is the deterioration of Michael Holt’s mental faculties and how he could ever think that teaming up with a murderous intellect like Brainiac could be a good thing.  For a man who has always held it together and has helped humanity as much as he has, seeing Mr. Terrific go a little nutso is a bit strange.  A nice little revelation was seeing that one of the deaths that happened last issue did not actually occur and that it also leads to the Engineer’s rescue.  Things look impossible for our heroes, though they do gain the upper hand at least for the moment, but how long that lasts is up in the air, especially when Brother Eye comes online in the heart of New York City.  This was a fun and exciting issue and the book is starting to make its way further up the read pile every week.

3.5 out of 5