I have a few basic rules for grading comics, and one of them is that if a single issue makes me cry (and this one had me going from the [SPOILER] time jump) then I'm pretty damn sure I'll give it a perfect score. Add in a one panel reference to King/Weeks Elmer Fudd/Batman book to solidify that book's existence in continuity and continuing payoff to the "when did we first meet" joke set up between Cat and Bat and this thing exceeds even further. I didn't understand the hype for this in the past week or so, but this thing delivered, at least for me. Also, [spoilers] Helena in main continuity as a future Batwoman had me super excited to see if that will get paid off in King's run further along the line, or if he's just teasing us with a possible future.

Had to stop myself from giving this a ten just to try and balance out the rating on this. People giving this a 1 are being ridiculous. To those complaining about Batman taking a side... are you all forgetting about the framing of this story? Batman regrets something he did in his past and is telling us about it. Maybe he's just as pissed off he worked with the Riddler as you are? Maybe he sees it as character suicide and that's why he regrets it? This issue made me smile and had plenty of heart; if you're not buying into Kite Man right now my theory is you have no soul.

I really liked this issue. Maybe it's because I was a bit oblivious to what was going to happen but when Green Arrow showed up I started getting giddy, and when Harley and Croc busted in I realized this was definitely not a "Teen Titans" book in any real sense. I could see this being a bummer to some people but I actually found it to be a good fun break from the regular series and probably a better written and drawn comic than the whole run so far. Also getting a whole side plot dealing with the Batman Who Laughs is awesome; what a fucked up character in the most blood curtling way. Crow.

I really didn't want to get sucked into this event, not because I'm anti-Hydra Cap (people complaining about that for the sake of it need to get over themselves) but because Civil War II burned me so hard I was considering dropping Marvel altogether. I decided to go back and read Captain America: Steve Rogers to get a taste of what Nick Spencer was doing, because I started to realize I was just avoiding this for the sake of avoiding it. I ended up loving the series, especially Steve's flashback narrative which really gave me solid motivation for Steve's new(/old?? ohh??) character. So I actually got excited for Secret Empire, which came as a complete shock. The zero issue, I think, hit a bit harder than this, because I gave myself such a condensed lead up immediately before reading it. However, this issue is also successful, primarily due to Spencer's ability to handle the multiple situations and characters he has going in effective ways. It's great to see the Champions take more of an active role as their own title has generally been isolated for the most part, and Spencer excels in writing them. Cap and Sharon is a really weird and creepy situation, and I'm curious to see what happens there. I also love the ability to portray Cap as not simply a raving lunatic drunk for power, but a morally confused master strategist. People saying "Cap would never do this or that" seem to be missing the point that he is also having these discussions in his head. The art does get a little bit lacklustre through the middle, but in all honesty with the amount of tangible written story going on in this issue I feel like that's understandable. To those complaining about price, I will say it's a hefty book, still maybe not worth the $5 depending on the person, but considering it has about double the content of a $2.99 DC book, it's hard to justify that complaint. Don't go into this one without a bit of preparation. And don't judge it without giving it a fair shake. Highly recom