52 - #40 Review

52 - #40

Synopsis: Steel suits up as a recording of Luthor threatening Natasha plays in the background. Luthor calls for Steel to face off with him, while Natasha screams that it's a trap. :O While preparing, Steel calls for the Teen Titans to help.

At LexCorp, the workers are being cleared out on orders from Lex Luthor for their own safety when Steel and the Titans burst in! The public seems alarmed by the intrusion, but Steel doesn't seem to care as he just wants his niece to be safe. :)

Infinity Inc. greets them as they enter and Steel takes out Nuklon immediately! Luthor amuses himself watching from his office with Mercy and Natasha. The Titans tell Steel to go find Natasha while they hold off the goons and he does. :) Steel bursts thru the floors and reaches Luthors office where he takes out Mercy! Natasha embraces him, but then turns out to be Everyman! He turns into a giant crab and starts squeezing Steel, destroying most of his armour but Steel manages to break free, causing Everyman to revert in great pain! He stumbles back and falls thru the floor, killing himself!

Steel, now armourless and armed only with his hammer, finally reaches Luthor who has a battered Natasha held captive behind him! Luthor immediately shows his new powers by using his heat vision to fry Steel! Steel tries to fight back but Luthor completely beats him around with his new powers which are all of the powers that Superman has!

Luthor gloats about his power while toying with Steel! During the fight, he knocks Steel's hammer out of his hand and it slams into the chair Natasha is held in and it releases her. e_e Natasha picks up the hammer and remembers that Luthor used an electrical pulse to disable the metagene treatments in the other heroes. She realizes that since Steel's hammer uses an atomic power souce, she can recreate the pulse! Luthor doesn't realize what she said b/c his super hearing has him tuned into too many things at once. :O Luthor rips off Steel's artificial hand and is about to destroy him when Natasha activates the pulse taking away his powers!

Meanwhile, the Titans have defeated Luthor's men and the police are taking them and Mercy into custody when suddenly the giant Lexcorp "L" falls from the top of the building! They look up and see Steel and Natasha standing tall over a fallen Lex Luthor!

In Kahndaq, rain keeps falling on the country but crops and plants keep dying. :( Ppl are starting to become violent and there is a lot of civil unrest. As well, plagues of all sorts are hitting the population and ppl are dying by the hundreds. ;-; Osiris believes that he's the cause of all this misery and that him killing somebody cursed everybody. He decides that he must get new powers from a pure source, and plans to head to the Rock of Eternity and find a new family.


Review:NATASHA IRONS BEAT LEX LUTHOR WITH HER BRAIN!!!!

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY :D

*cheers*

I know, I know. It's cliched. The WHOLE THING was cliched. Bad guy takes female character that is close to male hero captive to draw the hero into a final confrontation. The hero brings his friends and they fight disposable goons. A key villain who has done horrible things dies. The bad guy is incredibly over powered and slaps the good guy around. He's beaten by a convenient plot device that has nothing to do with brute strength or power :)

If I had to take a guess, I think this was mostly Geoff Johns' writing. It just feels like what he'd do, which is something very simple and very "cliched" but to do it rly well with enuf dramatic and emotional impact that we dun care that we alrdy know how it'd end, or that things are just a little TOO convenient.

Honestly, tho, it makes sense that Luthor would do this. He believes he has ultimate power now, and it's just like him to want to use and show off that power. :)

That's the difference between heroes and villains, and I always like stories that highlight the differences. :) Heroes dun care to show off their powers. Their powers are only used to help people and they only use them as much as they need to. Sometimes this is a tactic, like with Batman who wants his enemies to underestimate him. But often it's b/c the heroes dun see their powers as nething other than tools. Like a car. It's to get them places. They'll drive fast if they HAVE to, but not for ne other reason. :)

Villains see power as something to show off to other ppl. What good is a car if ppl can't see you in it? What good is a car if ppl can't see how fast it goes? That sorta thinking XD So it makes sense that Luthor wouldn't be happy with power unless he could use it on somebody, like Steel. Clearly he wanted a confrontation with Steel. Why? So he could slap him around and gloat XD It's silly, but Luthor's ego has always been his achilles heel. XD

I rly liked how hard Steel fought, and it was an extremely brutal road for him to get to Luthor. And he hit Mercy! I have no problem with this. I'm merely saying he did. I think she's perfectly fair game, and I honestly get annoyed at heroes who refuse to hit women during a fight. If you're in a fight, nebody who's a threat to you is fair game to fight back at. *nods*

The death of Everyman was kinda.. blah to me tho. :\ It's one of those "convenient" deaths that absolve the heroes of ne wrong doing, but yet, it's just so deus ex machina, so that the audience can feel good that such a bad person died, yet not feel guilty b/c the heroes didn't cause it. I also didn't like how Beast Boy was like "oh cool he died". I would think even a villain's death would cause the heroes some sadness. :[

But Natasha beat Luthor! :D I'm glad she did and not Steel b/c Natasha was wronged by Luthor way more than Steel and I'm finally glad she showed that she's not just some pawn of Luthor or Steel. :) I know it's a little cheesy how the hammer just happened to end up flying into her restraints and freeing her, but I still think it worked. It's classic comic book storytelling, and I'm not expecting super creative writing or nething. :) And I like how Luthor is to blame for his own downfall b/c of him needing to put the "off-switch" into the metagene.

Steel informed Luthor that the metagene therapy would have killed him in 6 months neways, which is yet another time that Luthor's own lust for power has endangered his life (like when he wore the kryptonite ring all the time and it gave him cancer). Also, it's a convenient way to explain why ppl can't use the metagene therapy to gain powers regularly now. XD

The "Luthor not being able to hear what Natasha's saying" bit is a little bit contrived, just cuz... why does Natasha have to speak aloud when nobody's near her? It was to show that the powers aren't so wonderful like Luthor thought, but still... It doesn't make sense that Nat would be speaking aloud at that point. :S

However, we finally know what Luthor would do with all of Superman's powers! He'd still be evil! XD

I liked how Steel called Infinity Inc "redshirts" after the red shirt wearing security officers in the original Star Trek that were always the people who got killed by the aliens or whatever XD It was a nice little geek nod :)

I rly liked the big full page panel of Steel and Nat standing triumphantly over Luthor tho! I wonder where all of Nat's bruises on her face went however XD But still, it looks great and Nat's finally come out on top! :D I'm glad there's ONE happy ending here *nods*

Poor Black Adam and Osiris tho! Their poor country is dying and they only tried to do good! :( It's so sad ;-;

Apparently WW3 is gonna be the world against Black Adam... and I find that sad. It means he'll be evil again.. prolly angry b/c his family is going to die or something ;-;

So sad!!!! :(

Why can't he be happy? ;-;

Still, this was a great issue :) A little cliched, but the old plot devices were used well and I rly liked it. Lots of action and drama and a good ending :D

Angelwings Rating: 4 Luthors out of 5 Natashas
Recommendation: A great issue to pick up :)