Mild Mannered Reviews – Crime Syndicate #6

Crime Syndicate #6

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Crime Syndicate #6

 

Scheduled to arrive in stores: August 3, 2021
Cover date: October 2021

“First in War, First in Pieces” – Finale: “Every Little Thing”

Writer: Andy Schmidt
Penciller: Kieran McKeown
Inker: Dexter Vines
Cover: Howard Porter and Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Variant Cover: Evan “Doc” Shaner

Reviewed by: Craig Boehmer



Ultraman and Ultragirl battle in Metropolis as Stewart, Superwoman, and Sinestro parlay on her island. Superwoman’s sisters approach as she tries to convince Stewart to join her. He lashes out and kills all of her sisters and then Sinestro before ultimately choosing to join her. Luthor and Ultragirl begin to win in their fight against Ultraman, when Ultragirl stops fighting and dies. Atomica walks out of her nose, having killed her. The Crime Syndicate make themselves known to the world and the new status quo is set.

 

4Story – 4: First the positives. The conflict between Stewart, Superwoman, and Sinestro is really cool. Stewart’s explosion of rage that wipes out her sisters shows the true power of these rings. Superwoman also gets a great scene where she cuts his ring finger off before Sinestro defeats her. But Stewart’s murder of Sinestro and his creation of a new finger from the ring is awesome. He is my favourite character in this universe. The overall narrative technique, focusing on Atomica’s voice is great, each issue gave us a different character’s voice prompting a greater study of that character. It was a solid choice to develop the characters more in a limited series. The back to status quo at the end scenes were fun to read as well. Just showing how different Earth-3 is from the mainline universe has always been the fun part of these books, and it was really highlighted in the wrap up.

Now the negative. What is Kryptonian physiology like in this? Because Atomic shrinking and entering Ultragirl’s brain through her nose shouldn’t be able to do anything to her. Shouldn’t Ultragirl and Ultraman be ultra durable inside and out? I thought that that was a lame plot issue that was incongruent with what I had assumed about Kryptonians. Is their skin just like an armor, but inside they are as fragile as a human? That doesn’t make sense, it felt like an attempt by the creator to give Atomica something to do, but it came across as lazy and only partially thought out.


5Art – 5: The art on this miniseries has be a consistent high point for me, and this issue did not disappoint.


“My Pleasure is Your Pain”

Writer: Andy Schmidt
Artist: Bryan Hitch

This back up gives a brief origin of Atomica. Her and Quick embark on a violence spree and they hear about a formula that Choi developed that could give her super powers. Quick convinces her to take it resulting in her being able to change her size. We then flash forward to her telling her story to an incapacitated Lex Luthor. She repeatedly remarks that others’ pain gives her pleasure, and that she will derive a great deal of pleasure from torturing Luthor.

4Story – 4: I think this was the shortest back up. It hints at some tragedy in Atomica’s background, but doesn’t really establish much. Her threats to Luthor were a great way to end the miniseries.


5Art – 5: A great final few pages by Bryan Hitch.


5Cover Art – 5: Just a fun looking cover.


5Variant Cover Art – 5: I like the variation of this trope. This typically would be a heroic image, but the face is so sinister and evil. Great.


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