Superheroes versus Manhunters in the Louisiana swamps, plus who hasn't been itching for more Aqualad?

Millennium #4, Suicide Squad #9, Captain Atom #11, Spectre #10, Detective Comics #582, Teen Titans Spotlight #18, Action Comics #596

Millennium #4 by Steve Englehart and Joe Staton

A lot of the problems with Millennium as an event is just how disjointed everything feels. It frequently doesn’t seem like a lot of creators really tried to do anything interesting with the first three weeks of crossovers, while the main book has acted as a greatest-hits mark for the past two issues. This issue comes off stronger than those previous ones, likely because four creative teams have teamed up for an important arc situated around the Manhunter base in other titles this week.

Art by Joe Staton and Bruce Patterson. Owned by DC Comics and used for review purposes.

The book opens with Infinity Inc. returning to the Green Lantern Citadel with the Floronic Man. The Chosen finally get time to interact both with each other and the heroes around them. They finally start to form basic links, although it’s very clear no one likes uber-racist Janwillem Kroef.

Batman doesn’t like how little has been done about the Manhunter threat. He hits on the idea to hunt down the only Manhunter he knows is still alive, Mark Shaw. He uses the Citadel computer to find Mark is still in prison at Belle Reve. After that, he leaves in his Batplane to confront Shaw.

The Manhunters prepare Firestorm for another battle with Captain Atom, but one on their own terms as Booster Gold never revealed Hadley’s identity to the other hero and now is working with the Manhunters. Unfortunately for Hadley, General Eiling sends Captain Atom to Louisiana in search of Firestorm before Hadley can have any influence over him.

The eight remaining chosen are given a chance to back out, but none take it. At the same time, John Economos gathers the Suicide Squad to send them on a mission in their own backyard: to destroy the same Manhunter base that Captain Atom will likely target. The team includes the Privateer, the same Mark Shaw that Batman seeks. Captain Boomerang and Slipknot aren’t happy fighting Manhunters with a Manhunter on the team but don’t have a choice.

Batman arrives at Belle Reve directly after the Suicide Squad’s departure. Economos says Shaw was released for serving his time just a few weeks earlier.

In New York, Madame Xanadu has retrieved a Manhunter mask, one a stranger waylays her for after a card reading. Jim Corrigan and Kim Liang return home to find the injured Madame Xanadu. She tells them the Manhunter went upstairs in search of the Spectre. Corrigan confronts the Manhunter, but he jumps from the window to escape right before the Spectre arrives. The Spectre uses his powers to determine the Manhunter’s destination: the Louisiana swamps.

Harbinger attempts to escape her Manhunter prison, only to learn that her “escape” is an elaborate ruse allowing the Manhunters to hunt her. They tell her no one will come to her aid, but we see that Driq — the zombie Green Lantern the team only recently met — has also found their world.

Back in California, the Floronic Man leaves the Citadel to meet with a mohawked woman in the trees nearby. They discuss the continued plans between him and the Manhunters as he is to watch the Chosen and wait for the right moment for the Manhunters to strike.

The book concludes with Batman following the boat rental and taking another boat out after Shaw and his team into the Louisiana swamp, even as the Suicide Squad, Captain Atom, and Jim Corrigan do the same.

This issue sets up four different titles crossing over in the next week as the individuals on the final page will face the Manhunters on their home territory. By wrapping so much of the issue around the setup, it gives this issue far more cohesion than the previous installments.

While Staton’s art has been solid throughout, this issue seems to show a continued move into realism with his style. While he’s most famous these days for very cartoonish work, over the next few years, Staton would develop a different look for his art and this issue seems to show the first signs of what we’ll come to see in New Guardians and The Huntress.

Of course, the issue continues the trend of leaving some of the most important events of the story to fall outside its pages, which truly is one of the book’s greatest problems — at least in its first half.