Okay, that whole “putting up images and commenting on them” was a pain so I’m just gonna give my thoughts.
Ultimately, this was an okay story, but not very satisfying. There’s some fun action, all of it drawn very well by the various artists involved. There’s some fun character moments like the ones I showed previously. The issues are paced well enough that you don’t feel like you’re stuck in place.
The problem is that really, the story doesn’t seem to have much impact due to it’s villain and his weird goals and inconsequential actions, and in the context of the Legion, they kind of felt like guest stars more than anything.
I checked the Culling out as it was released and enjoyed it then. Now? I liked it more, actually. It’s just fun superheroic action and adventure! It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, psycho-analyze anything or radically reinterpret things. It’s just fun!
I love Brett Booth’s art too. Flash Fact: the dude’s killing it on Flash Forward, which is written by Scott Lobdell.
My favorite moment was seeing Warblade in the DCU, as one of my favorite things about The New 52 was the integration of Wildstorm characters/properties into the mainline DC Universe.
Some fun discussion here on the pros and cons of this crossover event, happening just before the Great Legion Silence. Anyone else? Also, thoughts on the issue or two after the crossover?
I dug it – I came out of that issue curious to see what it was that caused their world to go apocalyptic. They also added some potentially good mysteries to the characters, like Tyroc’s prophesy, and Chameleon Girl’s ties to “Echo.”
I enjoyed The Culling for the most part. I always love it when teams of characters get together being an big fan of the annual JLA/JSA crossovers and this story scratched that itch for me.
I did find Harvest to be a rather one dimensional villain though. I thought that at the time and this re-reading didn’t change my mind on that.
“One dimensional” is a good way to put it, but I think part of it not only that, but also that there’s not a lot of character to him. Like, there’s some beloved villains who are one-dimensional as hell, like say Skeletor or Metatron, but they have a sense of camp and fun where you enjoy seeing them just be evil for the sake of it. Harvest is just…kinda dull.
It was in the Rebirth RHATO’s book. Here’s a wiki description of what happened.
A few years later, a N.O.W.H.E.R.E base started triggering seismic activities. The Outlaws team up with the Suicide Squad to investigate and discover Harvest’s crucified corpse. He had built a failsafe that would destroy the world too in the case of his death. How he died or whether Superboy had a role in his death is unknown.
