Source: comicvine.gamespot.com

5. Murder Machine!

Writer/Artist: Jack Kirby

I really love that this book feels like a story in progress.

Plot progression is slow, yes, but characters are also rolled out in a slow and effective manner. In this issue, the Apokolips forces abduct Barda. Scott heads off to help her, and runs into this issue’s antagonist, Doctor Vundabar,  an Apokoliptian who’s so obsessed with military might and precision that he has a monocle and a German accent.

Vundabar locks Scott in an inescapable trap and then watches as he apparently dies…But Scott emerges, and he’s perfectly fine. Then Scott defeats Vundabar, as usual.

I don’t love Doctor Vundabar, but he’s fine enough. Also, the opening scene in has Barda embarrassing a bunch of movers, and it’s friggin’ awesome.

But the real highlight is the backup story, which seems to indicate that we’ll learn about Scott’s childhood on Apokolips. And the taste we get is horrifying, with a bit of Nazism and a bit of Bradbury-eque sci-fi. It also has Granny Goodness’ super unsettling sense of dystopia.

I can’t wait to see where this goes.