DCeased and Batman: Last Knight on Earth (DC)

 

DCeased

Writer: Tom Taylor

Artist: Trevor Hairsine

Batman: The Last Knight on Earth

Writer: Scott Snyder

Artist: Greg Capullo

Well, DC Fandome finished last week. We got teasers/trailers for The Suicide Squad and The Batman. Just on the side, is this what DC intend to do with their properties? Put "the" at the start of the title and hope people forget what came before? I'm surprised at this stage they aren't calling it The Wonder Woman 84, the trailer for which was good, but not surprising. We got Gotham Knights- better known as The Batfamily can't have anything for themselves without neckbeards throwing a tantrum. Oh- there was also that Suicide Squad video game trailer- the squad seems to be taking on Superman again, because that seems to be how DC promotes characters; forget writing engaging stories, just have them fight Superman and-- wait a minute: Why are all these characters carrying guns. I get Harley Quinn and Deadshot carrying them, but King Shark? If I play as King Shark, I want to tear mooks apart with my mighty jaws, not wave a target over them and hold down R2. And why does Captain Boomerang have a gun? Can we notice no other long-range weapon that he might use? One that's his name for example?

You know what was conspicuously absent? Announcements about DC's comic line. The Milestone Universe is coming back, but that's outside the mainline DC imprint. On the back of constant layoffs, one can't help but think that DC stands about as much chance as American schoolchild on a weekday. With that in mind, let's review a couple of books that, appropriately are about the end of the DC universe. Let's call it The AT&T Double Bill.

First up, DCeased. This story falls in the "zombie apocalypse" school of the end of the world and to be fair, writer Tom Taylor does an admirable job working this into the DC universe. The thing that turns people into zombies is a corrupted version of the Anti-Life Equation, and it's even carried to Earth by Cyborg. My problem though is that I'm well and truly uninterested in zombies. I don't care for hordes of brainless creatures desperate to feed- I teach middle schoolers and such things always feel too much like my job. So I started reading ready to be bored to death, but by late that same night, I was still reading, which is like a vegan discovering their favourite sandwich had ham in it. So what was it, then? 

Well, firstly, the story doesn't bother with the whole "humans are the real monster" schtick, and instead sticks to saying that "actually, the real monsters are the ones mistaking your face for a violet crumble". It's nice to see a zombie story not pretend it's commenting on any moral complexity. It leaves the story to focus on the tragedy of loss. Characters have to kill their best friends, they lose their parents, they grapple with the constant realisation that they're just not going to win. It's an oddly refreshing tragedy, one that avoids one of the commen pitfalls of this kind of story. Right from the get-go, it's clear that things are completely... can we say "American-2016-election'ed"? When we know that this is going to end badly, we therefore don't end up with our hopes dashed when that's exactly what happens. Rather, what little hope remains in the story ends up all the more sweet, and that's exactly what DCeased does, so it gets four out of five violet crumble faces.

And since there's really no way to segway into this, let's move on to Batman: Last Knight on Earth. This is a slightly more complex story that DCeased: A cloned Batman wakes up to find that the entire world has gone to hell... actually it's not that much more complex, really. This is a Scott Snyder book, so expect a lot of Scott Snyder tropes to make an appearance here. There's an evil version of Batman, a new take on a fight with Superman, and Joker's here. Actually, it's just Joker's head, but Snyder's voice for him this time around is so different to his previous work, that it actually makes him the best person in the book. I haven't been made to laugh by the Joker for a long time, but here I was, chuckling every time he asked if he could be Robin, or making some pun about whatever danger Batman found himself in. Then I remembered that I'm not supposed to enjoy the Joker, because that makes me an incel or something- NO, I'M NOT EXPLAINING THAT!

Of course, the other thing that seems to happen in Scott Snyder books is that the setting becomes a character of it's own. In Batman, it was Gotham, in Dark Nights: Metal, it was the dark multiverse and here, it's the whole damn world. Snyder makes full use of this setting, letting us explore not every inch of it, but enough that it can be enjoyed. I'm reminded of Old Man Logan in many ways, and that's not really a bad thing. Both books employed a "What if we did Mad Max, but used our most popular heroes with the pointiest ears" approach, and the results have been just distinct enough to make me want to see more of it. It's been heaps of fun and, like the book before, also earns four out of five Joker incels.

What? That's not good enough? Fine. I suppose I'd better declare a winner in this double-bill. At the end of the day, I think I have to give it to Last Knight on Earth- if for no other reason than that it manages to give us all the suspense of an end of the world story without resorting to that thing that every bit of pop culture seems to be going to, but if you want one that better represents the state of DC, best go DCeased. A plague brought on the world by means of social media? Sounds like the Snyder Cut to me! Gfaw Gfaw!

Actually, that looked pretty good...

Superman Volume 1: Son of Superman (Rebirth) Review

Supes, you gotta turn of the flash
on your camera, dude.

Writer: Peter J Tomasi
Artist: Jimmy Palmiotti
Collects: Superman: Rebirth #1, Superman #1-6

Background Information

Superman's past few years in the New 52 was... rocky. I maintain that Grant Morrison's Action Comics was a great Superman story, but it's hard to pretend that it caught on with general readers. The following issues were an absolute train wreck. Lois and Clark were broken up, Clark was de-aged so that he looked ultimately naïve and the stories themselves were great in concept, but poor in execution. The way they fixed this was very long winded, but long story short, DC brought back the old Superman with the old Lois Lane and got rid of the New 52 versions of each. I do something similar with my children all the time!

Review:

By this stage, I think we can safely say that DC Rebirth is good. It's sold well enough and rarely do we hear a word against it. Most of that, I'm convinced, is due to books like Son of Superman.

So the old Superman is in the main universe again with a wife and now a ten year old son. A "Son of Superman", if you will. This son, Jonathan Kent, is developing big boy powers of his own, so the old Clark Kent now has to teach his son not to kill people by accident. You know how it is; your child hits puberty and suddenly there's a lot of awkward conversations about girls.

I hope every Spider-Man writer sees this.

I get the feeling that the Rebirth initiative as a whole was designed to troll All-New-All-Different-All-Weather-All-The-Time Marvel. This is probably most relevant in Rebirth's Superman. Peter J Tomasi's Superman seems to point at Dan Slott's Spider-Man and say "See? Having a superhero married with a kid is a GOOD thing because it allows characters to grow and mature  and maybe one day you can get a movie where Peter isn't defined by high school!"


He then turns  Tom King's Batman and says "Hey, kid's develop best with two parents at home, too!"

To which, Tom King responds "Okay" (with his fingers crossed behind his back).

This book really sells itself on the positive family dynamic. There's a weird habit that a lot of shows have of portraying married characters as being on the brink of divorce. Son of Superman bucks that trend by giving us a Lois and Clark that are happily married. The drama, instead, comes from the Superhero action which is accentuated by Clark's efforts as a father. It helps that Jon's character is probably just as well-written as everyone else's. Many comic writers try to portray children as snottier adults, but Tomasi's gives us a son of Superman who is more wide-eyed and in awe of those around him. As a result, we actually like this character as opposed to, say, Damien Wayne, which needed a pretty long adjustment period and even then people cheered when he died because they thought Tim was going to be Robin again.

The actual events of the story, the "what exactly happens here?" are a bit of a letdown, though. Superman takes Jonathan back to the fortress of solitude, where a Kryptonian robot that's hell-bent on ethnic cleansing gets activated and decides that  Jonathan must be killed for not being a purebred. Was this thing programmed in Auschwitz? I thought Krypton was meant to be more progressive than this! The whole thing completely fails to be engaging. The whole is fixed by... wait for it...

...getting Batman involved.

The bad guy is the one with the S on his chest.

Hang on, DC, are you trying to tell me that a man capable of moving the earth out of its orbit needs the help of a grown man who depends on his butler? Why is Batman even here? I know he's had the more popular movies but it's not like you need to introduce him to anyone! You could live your entire life in a cave and I bet you know who drives the Batmobile! Why not include Blue Beetle? Booster Gold? John Constantine? You could build your universe this way, but no; you need to lend credibility to the claim that Batman is all DC has!

This is an unashamedly pretty book, as well. Every character is designed to be highly expressive, which adds to their relatability. The way Johnathon is drawn hits home how (literally) wide-eyed and optimistic the lad is. Superman looks his age without looking past his prime. The book is big, colourful and bombastic in the way it communicates its action, like a gang war during Mardi Gras.

There are some who are going to claim that Son of Superman is a return to hope and optimism that "SOUPAMAHN WAS ALWAYZ MENT 2 B!" I don't know if I would say that, but it's certainly Superman starting on an era that he was always meant to reach eventually. Time will tell if Bendis has an inch of respect for what happened in this run... Dammit.

Four out of five Mardi Gras gangsters.

Batman: I am Gotham (Rebirth) Review

Batman Volume 1: I am Gotham (Rebirth)

 

Writer: Tom King

 

Artist: David Finch

 

Collects: Batman (2016) #1-6, Batman: Rebirth #1 

 

Background Information:

 

DC gets very precious about Batman. It must be awful for the rest of the superheroes knowing that no matter what they do, they'll never be loved as much as papa WB's miracle child. It's only Batman that gets the hot new writers. Only Batman gets the weekly series. Only Batman that gets to beat up literally everyone else in the universe. Well, now Tom King has signed a permanent contract with DC, and guess who gets the grace of his widely-praised pen. Superman? Don't make me laugh!

 

Review

So now the man behind the much-gushed-about Vision takes the caped crusader and while I Am Gotham is certainly good, it would be a strain to call it original

"But T Vulture," Tom King protests with all the calm logic of a paranoid chimpanzee, " I'm the best thing to happen to Batman since two-for-one funerals. How could you not worship at my feet in the hope of my blessing?"

 

"Excuse me Mr King, but isn't the new antagonist basically Superman? And haven't we seen Batman fight Superman so many times that stale becomes an understatement, and we've now moved on the term "fossilised?"

 

"No, no, no," explains King as he pulls at his collar. "For starters, my character's name is Gotham and that's a completely different word. So there!"

 

"Is he super strong?"

 

"Yes..."

 

"Can he fly?"

 

"Yeah, but..."

 

"Does he fight a billionaire?"

 

"Well..."

 

"Does a have a blonde female sidekick who wears a skirt and is related to him?"

 

"Ummmm..."

 

"GO TO YOUR ROOM!"

 

"Okay."

 

I'm not exaggerating either. Gotham is basically what happened if Frank Miller got his way and Superman just realised that Batman is the most super-cool guy on the planet. Now he wants to help Batman with his sidekick... urgh... Gotham Girl.

 

That's another thing, Tom. Are so many possible super-hero names taken that we now have to call heroes after the town they came from? And if so, doesn't that limit them to defending their that town? For crying out loud; I can imagine the scenario if this guy ever joined the Justice League. Sorry guys, but if I go fight in Metropolis I lose the copyright. I guess Darkseid wins after all.

 

Thus far I've made it sound like I don't like I Am Gotham, but really, I don't. There's an interesting degree of psychology that's woven into Gotham and Similarly-Named-Girl so that the whole mystery around how they came to be becomes quite intriguing. On top of that, Gotham not being weak to a certain green McGuffin means that Batman really does have to use his wits to defeat him this time. Without spoiling too much, it doesn't go to well and this is where Tom King really highlights the main thing that has always made Batman feel realistic... well comparatively. There's a real sense of Batman being out of his depth despite the stakes feeling nowhere near as high as they did in Scott Snyder's run.

 

That said, though, it's not like King ignores Snyder completely. Right from the opening of issue #1, King references the major moments in the New 52 such as the Court of Owls and Zero Year. Batman even has a new sidekick in the form of Duke Thomas, an African American kid that Batman can use to prove to people on the internet that he's not racist. Though not in the field yet, Duke is highly likeable and his interactions with Gotham Girl are pretty heart-warming. He feels like a distinct person which, considering how each Robin has offered a take on "young sidekick" that many in the industry have tried to ape, is quite a feat.

 

Another thing that King does very well is action. He has this ability to put Batman in peril in such a way that I found myself thinking that this was it: they were really going to kill off Batman. That's something I almost never feel when reading comics and it was great to be taken to edge of my seat once again. David Finch's detailed-yet-dirty art style helps to convey this detail perfectly to such a degree that even though you first see Gotham and Gotham Girl looking very Superman-and-Supergirl-y, you still feel tense around them.

 

As much as I like the book, though, I'm not sure I can recommend it. As I mentioned before, the main villain is essentially a Superman clone and we've had this so many times. Between this, The Dark Knight Returns, the Injustice games and comics, last year's Batman v Superman and Hush I think I can safely say DC need counselling, or at least Tom King needs to go and get into a fight with his significant physical superior just to get it all out of his system. Batman and Superman fights are fun, but so is eating a whole cake. Eating six whole cakes makes you a diabetic, and that's essentially what Tom King has done here.

 

As much as I'm not ready to recommend this Particular volume, I do recommend that you follow King's Batman run. He's got a lot of talent for pacing and tension and what are you going to do anyway? Read something else? HA!

 

This one gets three out of five diabetics.

Batman Eternal Vol 2 (The New 52) review

Batman Eternal Volume 2 (The New 52)

Escaping from Hush's giant face!

Writers: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Ray Fawkes, Tim Seely, Kyle Higgins
Artists: R.M. Guera, Fernando Pasarin, Jason Fabok, Jorge Lucas, Dustin Nguyen, Andy Clarke, Javier Garron, Meghan Hetrick, Simon Coleby, Alvaro Martinez, Derek Fridolfs, Matt Ryan, Paul Fernandez, Juan Ferreyra

Background Information:

Thanks to a pursuit-gone-wrong, Commissioner Jim Gordon is now in jail. Without him, Batman and the Bat-Family (minus Nightwing because Geoff Johns) began running wild around Gotham chasing different disasters. Central to this, was a gang-war between crews own by the Penguin and Falcone. to the side, Batgirl found out that Commissioner Gordon wasn't responsible for the events that got him arrested at all, Red Robin joined up with Harper Row to investigate a mysterious sickness and Batwing joined the Spectre chasing down a paranormal threat in Arkham Asylum.

Review:

I  mentioned this in my review of Volume 1, but there are a few things you can say in the review of any weekly series, so I'll get them out of the way now.

There are a LOT of issues in Volume 2 that seem like filler more than actual story progression. There are too many moving parts to make it easy to follow. Many moments feel like they lead nowhere and nothing gets resolved in a satisfying way. Out of the way? Good.

Yeah, get back you dodgy-looking welcome sign!

Eternal Vol 2's main focus, as much as a weekly series can have a main focus at this stage, is Hush. His story is no different from the character's introduction; he rallies different Gotham villains against Batman in an attempt to become Bruce Wayne. We've heard this before and, honestly, Jeph Loeb did it better. That said, the worst story featuring Hush is still better than the best story featuring Bane, so I guess we're even.

What makes the story memorable, however, even what sets it apart from the previous volume, is Catwoman's story arc. Her transition from common their to lord of the criminal underworld allowed her to be more than the usual pandering to boys who have just figured out that girls are not as yucky as they once thought. It's honestly rediculous that this is the volume's B story because this is where the character development happens.

And I mean that. Harper Row and Red Robin's story takes break here; or, more accurately, so little of consequence happens during it that I didn't realize if it was actually happening at all. Batwing's story plods along at the breakneck pace of a slug who's ingested all of his grandmother's supply of medical cannabis. There's a weird and honestly creepy hint at a romance between Batgirl and Red Hood that makes me wonder if maybe the writers didn't get on to some of that cannabis too and Nightwing isn't allowed to exist because Geoff Johns was in a bad mood when writing Forever Evil.

Again, all of this is commonplace for big weekly titles- you get a tight publishing schedule, so writers tend to go with whatever first pops into their heads. That gets worse when books like these necessitate multiple writers. It's not really the book's fault, but that doesn't make the story any better.

Well well well, SOMEONE'S been watching a lot of HBO!

I understand multiple writers making a book seem messy, but what really hit me over the head was the inconsistent art. If this was a Marvel book, I wouldn't be surprised, but DC, especially during the New 52, had a "house style" when it came to art. With so many artists that seemed intent on imitating Jim Lee, the  selection DC has made for this book is, frankly, bizzare. One moment, Red Hood has a mouth, next issue, the mask is totally solid. One issue, Batman sports five o'clock shadow, the next sees him clean-shaven. It's distracting at best and plain annoying at worst.

But that's the way weekly books go, I guess and Batman Eternal is the weekly bookiest weekly book to ever weekly a book. It gets 3 out of 5 of Grandma's cannabis pills.

Batman Vol. 6: Graveyard Shift (The New 52) Review

Batman Vol.5: Graveyard Shift (The New 52)

Do you get the feeling that anything in
Gotham remotely bat-shaped
belongs to Batman? I mean, that ain't
the symbol on his chest...

Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Greg Capullo
Collects: Issues 0,18-20, 24, 34, Annual #2

Background information:

I'm back!

Scott Snyder's Batman has been killing it!

Yes, yes, I know,  Snyder's mono-named title is no more, and but for All-Star Batman, his work with the character has reached a permanent end, but there's something to his writing that makes me feel like this is the only Batman book I need to read. Snyder has shown us Gotham as a character in Batman's world with as much autonomy as any person living in it. He's been deliciously creepy and has dived head-first into the psychological depth that has given Batman his reputation amongst comic readers.

In the past, Batman trades by Snyder have focussed on one singular story. Because of this, it's easy to trick yourself into thinking that Snyder writes no fillers at all. More on that below.

Review:

No writer can avoid filler issues completely.  Like death and taxes, one day you'll have to write a story just to meet an editorial deadline and Batman had it's share

I mean, this has no bats, but there's no Batman yet, so...

So now we have Graveyard Shift the sixth volume in the Batman run that has ended world hunger,
eliminated world debt cured cancer and made sure we NEVER have another Shrek movie.

And oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Okay, I'm making it seem worse than it actually is. Graveyard Shift is a collection of issues that apparently didn't fit anywhere else (except for issue #0, which TOTALLY should have been in the first Zero Year trade). As such, there is just about no plot to speak of. Harper Row auditions for the Bat-family, Batman busts up Catwoman's mob house, Arkham Asylum gets haunted and Clayface does usual Clayface stuff.

These are all single issue stories and none of them are bad per say, but Snyder has always made stories that cover 10-12 issues; the kind that need to be told in two trades (Court of Owls and City of Owls, the two Zero Year volumes, even Death of the Family seems ready to get its second part in Endgame). To have stories this short feels like a waste of Snyder's talents. Usually this wouldn't matter, were these issues peppered throughout the actual series. They might have even been entertaining departures from the norm. However, because this is all we get, there's this constant feeling that you're at a fancy restaurant being offered nothing but appetizers.

A far deeper problem, though is that each one of these issues takes place at drastically different times in Snyder's run. We go from Zero Year, to just after Damien's death, to the middle of Batman Eternal, to just before Endgame. Because of this, the whole book feels ungrounded and you get the feeling that there is absolutely no point in reading it.

But see this? Totally has a bat and Bruce is just like "I'll take
THAT!"

Which is a crying shame, because some of the easter eggs in this volume are excellent. Most notable is the appearance of the Batman Beyond suit complete with wings and rocket boots, but you also have to appreciate Snyder's clever use of foreshadowing. I won't spoil it, but  there's one issue here that feels like it's going to matter a lot to Endgame.

Greg Capullo's art continues to be as strong as ever here. To him, Batman's world is vibrant and colourful and that gives Snyder's dark stories the feeling that this is more of an alien world than Gothic-inspired city. You know you've done something right as an artist when, even when things are clearly visible, you still find yourself terrified of what might be around the corner.

If you're a completionist like me, Graveyard shift is going to be a fairly compulsive buy. Let's face it, there's no way you're skipping from Volume 5 to Volume 7! What kind of savage are you? That said, it's best to keep your expectations low. This one gets a two and a half out of five Shrek films.

** 1/2

Batman Eternal Vol. 1 (The New 52) Review

"Hey buddy! Wanna buy a supporting
character?"

Writers: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, John Layman, Ray Fawkes, Tim Seely and Kyle Higgins.

Artists: Y'know what? There's a lot- let's leave it at that.

Collects: Batman Eternal #1-21

Background Information:

Every now and again, DC will release a weekly series. If they have faith in it, that series will last 52 issues. If not, It will end around the 40-45 mark. By the time Batman Eternal was in full swing, DC were publishing no less than three of these series; the aforementioned Batman title, The New 52: Future's End and Earth 2: World's End. These were all billed as big deals for the DC universe, but only one series found people who actually cared about it. Guess which one it was?

...the Batman one. It was the Batman one.

Review

There have been complaints aplenty made about Batman Eternal; it's chaotic, there's a lot of plots going in different directions at any one time and there's more filler than the teeth of a sugar addict following fourteen consecutive Halloweens. These complaints though, are best attributed to all DC weekly series and it seems a bit harsh to slag Batman Eternal for doing what series like 52 were already doing. That said, Batman Eternal's major selling point is that there's a lot of it- even if some of it isn't all that good, which is worrying considering how much they're asking for a trade paperback.

We currently have no idea what's happening here and we read
this scene twice!

So Forever Evil has just finished and Batman is back to his old games again- chasing criminals, recruiting minors to fight dangerous battles and trying his best not to refer to Alfred as "mummy" when a train accident finds Jim Gordon arrested for causing the death of hundreds. It's at this time when Gotham's criminals decide that when the cat's away (I'm not making a reference to Catwoman- she's in this one) the mice will.. well, start a massive gang war and cause death and destruction everywhere... y'know- typical mouse stuff.

This leave various Gotham heroes frantically running around the city to do typical hero stuff; Batgirl and Red Hood search for whoever set Jim Gordon up for a fall, Red Robin and Harper Row track a nanobot virus that's doing all sorts of evil things and Batwing joins up with the Spectre to set up Gotham at Midnight investigate strange going-ons at Arkham. This leaves Batman having to deal with the gang war and I have to say that it's cool to see old Bats with white-knuckles as he frantically rushes from one place to another to just barely avert disaster. You really get the impression here that he hasn't slept in days, which is great because I don't think we ever see the line "I haven't slept in days". It's show-don't-tell at it's finest.

Oh, and Stephanie Brown is in this one. Yep, that character that people demanded be brought back has indeed... come back. Honestly, that's all I can say about her at this point, because Batman Eternal seemed only interested in doing that with her character. She constantly pops up to remind us that she is indeed there and that DC are very sorry; please take them back, they love you and really that fling with the new readers didn't really mean anything! To say that she propels the plot forward in new and interesting ways is like saying Thomas the Tank Engine runs on Coca-Cola and Mentos; It's something we may really want to happen but when it comes down to it, we need to accept the fact that reality isn't going to pander to us in that way.

Weirdly, the most interesting plot seems to be that of Vicki Vale and new detective Jason Bard. There's a lot of solid detective work done by these two and seeing their relationship is absolutely the books sweet spot. There's enough space to argue that these two people matter more to the plot than any of the superhero characters combined. You know how people are all impressed that Batman's on the Justice League even though he has no powers? Vale and Bard, in this sense are Batman Eternal's Batman- no intense combat training (beyond what a cop can do), no high-tech gadgetry and yet they rattle cages like a blind parakeet on a sugar rush.

One day, I'm going to find whoever gave Red Hood's helmet
that stupid mouth and maim them.

With a book that has 13 artists, do I need to say that the art is a mixed bag? Or remind you of an idiom about too many cooks? None of this is to say that the art is bad for a weekly series (except for Ian Betram's, who makes every character look like they gained 20 kilos just for the issue and have blackheads all over their faces), But you're more likely to notice the change in artist than the change in writer. Otherwise, it looks how a Batman book should- dark, gritty, and intense as anything.

Now, as I mentioned, this is a 52-issue weekly series which means that the old weekly-series problems still apply (sing along if you know the words): Many issues feel like they're there to fill in gaps in the publishing schedule, there's no sense of a complete story arc in this volume, and too many things are happening at once. That's not a fault of Batman Eternal so much as it a fault of the weekly format; the book is very much a slave to its publishing schedule, so there isn't that feeling of tightness you get from an monthly ongoing. Batman Eternal does its best to still make those problems somewhat enjoyable, even if it can't negate them completely, but fair warning; I'm not anticipating a fully satisfying plot until the end of the series.

Thankfully, as I said, there's a lot of it, so you will be kept busy reading a series that is actually okay. Batman Eternal gets a three out of five Coca-Cola/Mentos-powered steam engines.

***
+ Chaotic in the best way.
+ Bard and Vale.
+ A lot of story.
+Stephanie Brown is in it...
-... but she's just "there".
- Not all art is good
- The usual weekly series problems.

Alternate Option: 52

Takes a MUCH broader swing at the DCU, even if the book itself isn't as good.

Animal Man Vol. 2: Animal Vs Man

Like the last volume, Animal Man does
indeed wear a shirt in this one- just less so.

Writer: Jeff Lemire

Artist: Travel Foreman, Steve Pugh, Timothy Green II

Collects: Animal Man # 7-11, #0 and Annual #1

Background Information:

For five years, Buddy Baker was convinced that aliens gave him the power to adopt the abilities of any animal close to him. In the last volume, Buddy found out that his powers actually come from extra-dimensional force controlling animal life known as The Red. This force is trying desperately to restore the balance between them, the plant life-force known as The Green and the force controlling death and decay called The Rot.

The Rot is gaining power, and has been hunting Buddy and his daughter Maxine- the Avatar of The Red. In the previous volume, Buddy fought one of the Hunters Three- soldiers of The Rot. He and Maxine survived, but only just.

Review:

It's a weird thing to say that a book about going to another dimension made up of flesh and bone while a demon inhabits the heroes body feels like a natural next step, yet that is exactly what Animal Vs Man is. Where most second volumes from DC have felt forced and self-compromising, Jeff Lemire's second collection of Animal Man issues builds on an already-solid first volume.

See? Not just a shirt; a whole costume!

So, the monsters of The Rot have not stopped chasing Buddy and his family and now the Hunter that
we thought Buddy had defeated last volume has taken Buddy's body for his own. Instead of using it to eat all the ice cream he can possibly handle, the Hunter uses Buddy's body to attack the Baker family. In the meantime, Buddy finds himself in The Red's own version of the afterlife, complete with goat/man guide. Buddy, naturally, wants his body back and The Red is the only thing that can give it back to him.

To be totally honest, this is a less scary volume than the previous. Whereas Volume 1 nailed the inherent creepiness involved in telling what is essentially a zombie story (and, might I add, it did it better than the first volume of The Walking Dead ever did), this one just can't build the tension right. The elements of fantasy and horror are still there- and they're still strong; they're just unbalanced. You either see lots of the fantasy with nil horror, or the exact same horror you did in the last volume with very little fantasy. It leads to a volume that falls just short of its predecessor and it's a shame.

But it only falls just short as this volumes true purpose shines through very clearly. See, this isn't really a story about Animal Man fighting The Rot. It's a story about how The Red operates and how Buddy upsets their way of doing things. Here, Buddy openly goes against everything The Red sees as proper- he makes demands, defies orders and refuses to go down as the disappointment.

I'm seriously worried that DC thinks aiming for a female
audience means "less shirts on buff dudes",

And it's here that Lemire does something that only few can do; he tells a deeply political story without showing his political bias. After reading this volume, I couldn't honestly tell whether Lemire was left or right-leaning. That's something that few writers can achieve (I'm looking at you, Mark Waid, Jason Aaron, Brian Michael-Bendis and Chuck Dixon) and it's a talent that deserves to be celebrated.

The art here is just as great as what we saw in The Hunt. Bright colours undercut the dirty, gritty lines and makes the darker twists generally unexpected. Where artist Travel Foreman shines, however, is in his depictions of Buddy's new connection to animal life. Animal Man's body now changes to resemble any animal he adapts the power of. Now we see him with an ape-like head, bulging arms and literal crows feet. It's weird and wonderful and I'm desperate to see more.

Animal Vs. Man is less scary than the first volume, but SO much better at mythos-building. It gets a four out of five literal crows feet.

****

Nightwing Vol. 2: Rough Justice (Pre-52) Review

Are the 90s... when everything- and I
mean everything bulged.

Nightwing Volume 2: Rough Justice

Writers: Chuck Dixon and Devin Grayson

Artists: Scott McDaniel, Karl Story, Greg Land and Bob McLoed.

Collects: Nightwing 9-18, Nightwing Annual #1

Background Information:

When bodies washed up in Gotham's harbour, Nightwing moved down to Bludhaven to find out how those bodies got there. He found out that the whole thing was connected to a man known as the Blockbuster. He also developed a shaky alliance with corrupt detective Dudley Soames.

So, he lives in Bludhaven now. It's a thing.

Review:

Nighwing's second volume, Rough Justice, is the comic equivalent of eating pizza for every meal; you can only take so much of it before it gets bad for you. Rough Justice stops just before that happens, but damn if it doesn't cut it fine.

So now that Nightwing knows who's responsible for all the problems in Bludhaven. Of course, now that Blockbuster knows that Nightwing's there, the battle between them is heating up. In the midst of all this, who should show up but Batman to remind us that Nightwing is a
Batman character and since Batman is a Batman character who happens to also be Batman, this book has to have an appearance by Batman.

Okay, so there's an actual context given to Batman's appearance and his insistence that he be Batman. Turns out Bruce is there to check on Nightwing and that makes Dick think that he doesn't trust him to do anything right. A large amount of the this volume ends up being given to Dick simultaneously saying "I hope you approve" and "Go the hell away!" It's a good look into the character and helps the whole series feel that little bit more "coming-of-age-y".

Writer Chuck Dixon should be congratulated also for the way he continually makes sure that Nightwing is different in every way to Batman. There's hints early on in the volume that Nightwing will be geting a sidekick that gets totally dashed the very next panel, he gets himself a car that is nothing like a Batmobile and his lair is his apartment. It's these differences that really help to set Dick apart from the rest of the Bat-Family.

The book ends with Dick chasing down the Man-Bat before Deathstroke can capture him for a filmmaker. I had expected the appearance of Deathstroke to be a big deal; a high-stakes fight between a hero and best-known adversary.

Contrary to the look on his face, he's actually a pretty jovial
guy.

It wasn't. And it wasn't for a number of reasons- not the least of which being Deathstroke's ridiculous 90s costume. Firstly, the story around Man-Bat gave me no reason to care for what happens to anyone- the stakes aren't high in the least and Deathstroke's talents seem wasted on what is really more appropriate for an issue of Batman '66. Then there's the ending; it's WAY too abrupt and fails to cash in on what should have been the emotional core of the story. It's a disappointing pair of filler issues, but that's not the worst part of this volume.

That awards goes to the Annual issue. It's written by Devin Greyson and is about Dick faking a wedding to catch a killer. It's boring as hell, ugly to look at, and completely pointless in the grand scheme of things. I shudder to think of what future volumes are under Devin Greyson's pen, because the current evidence suggests that things will be truly atrocious.

Rough Justice is a book for Nightwing fans... and just about nobody else. It gets a three out of five Batmen being Batmen because Nightwing is a Batman character.

***

+ Effective as "coming-of-age" story.
+ Continues to differentiate Nightwing from Batman.
- Deathstroke/Man-Bat story falls flat.
- That Annual...

Alternate Option: Nightwing: Bludhaven

The better of the two Pre-52 Nightwing books.

Top 10 DC/Marvel Characters That I Hate, But Everyone Loves

I've been wanting to do this post for a while but here's the honest truth: my least favourite characters are ones that every keeps telling me are so awesome. I can better handle DC trying to push Joker's Daughter down my throat than a fanboy wailing about how terrible it is that the MCU Spider-Man isn't Miles Morales.

So what follows is my list of characters that so many people seem to love, but I can't stand. This is gonna be interesting...

Nope, that ain't even Damien... or Jason.

10: Tim Drake

Like most of these characters, my problem isn't so much the personality of Tim; it's the pedestal he's put on. Fans constantly insist that Tim is the best Robin. He's the genius, apparently- ignoring the fact that Dick, Damien and Jason have plenty of intellectual props. This one is a soft "hate," but I'm sick of the idea that Tim is godlike.

HULK ASSUME STANDARD HULK POSE! SMASH PUNY
ORIGINALITY!

9: The Hulk

The Hulk is angry. And that's about his whole character. I know, his stories are generally about the conflict between man and monster, but neither the man nor the monster is parituclarly interesting. You say the Hulk is a great fighter? I say he generally has two poses. One is squatting while slamming the ground with both fists, the other is clapping his hands to make sonic booms. It's not fun to see and it's bland to read.

I admit, I was excited when I heard rumours that Iron Fist was going to become the new Hulk, because how awesome would Hulk with kung fu be? But, no, post Secret Wars, we're getting Ammadeus Cho. So we're going to see the same two poses for the next year, at least. *Sigh*

8: John Stewart

Yep, that's John in a nutshell.

You thought Man of Steel Superman was mopey? Get a load of John Stewart. Yeah, that Green Lantern that you have fond memories of from the Justice League cartoon had one real storyline- and that's all about how sad he is. Boo hoo, he killed a Green Lantern before the New 52. Boo Hoo, he killed a Green Lantern during the New 52. One guess what his major story arc is going to be about in DCYou...

John's entire character is based around him feeling guilty and sad. Seriously the DCCU needs Hal Jordan to balance out the morose Superman, which plenty have voiced their hatred for; yet everyone seems intent on dropping even more sad John into the franchise... the what?

Something to never happen in a comic... ever.

7: Star Lord

I know, Guardians of the Galaxy is a sacred cow in the MCU; a franchise nobody cared about until Chris Pratt played Star Lord. But here's the thing. That movie, from what I can tell, did not have Star Lord. It had Chris Pratt in space. The real Star Lord is considerably less funny.

And now we all need to think he is. Star Lord's writers don't have to make him funny at all (please note; funny and pathetic are not the same thing) and we have to claim he's funny as hell because he was in a movie.

This is one of the reasons I'm annoyed at Marvel.

Such noble! So hero!

6: Captan America

Yep, looking through this list, it should be pretty clear that I'm not impressed with the MCU. It's heavily influenced the Marvel Comic Universe and that is all kinds of wrong (Avengers beat up the X-Men, Wolverine can die "permanently", but Steve Rogers can hang around and sure, cancel the Fantastic Four but Guardians of the Galaxy should not only keep going but spin off into a billion titles!).

But Captain America gets me annoyed because he's consistently viewed as the "leader" of the Marvel Universe when I'm not sure he should be. He's a "goody-two-shoes" character that for some reason, doesn't get dismissed the way Superman does, even though he probably should be.

Seriously, what is her
personality?

5: Batwoman

Hey! This character is a lesbian. That's all we kn-- DID YOU KNOW SHE'S A LESBIAN? Yeah, but that's all there is to h-- SHE'S TOTALLY A LESBIAN! But there needs to be more to her chara-- BATWOMAN- LESBIAN... IS ONE!

Take note, DC; "lesbian" isn't a character. And that's all I've heard about her. When that's what's advertised over personality, it couldn't have been a surprise when her comic was cancelled.

Sorry, who are you and why should I care?

4: Thor

His movies were horrible. His comics, at least these days, are average. WHY IS HE A STAPLE OF
THE MARVEL UNIVERSE? I'm not even going to go further on that. Thor can go to hell (or whatever hell's called in Norse mythology... I really couldn't care less).

There are two types of people:
people who hate Guy and liars.

3: Guy Gardner

You know those people you want to punch in the face just by seeing them?  That's Guy Gardner for me. His brand of arrogance is irritating beyond belief and the result of some fist prints in my three volumes of Green Lantern Corps. His insistence on being the best is entirely unfounded and I can't for the life of me, figure out what makes him so endearing. Every time I read an issue of Green Lantern Corps or whatever he's involved in, I just hope that Hal, Kyle, hell, even John or Simon use their rings to close his mouth for good. He's not an Alpha male, he's a child.




2: Wally West

Wally fails at his A Streetcar named Desire audition

Yes, fine, my two most hated DC characters are gingers, but I swear it's got nothing to do with their
hair colour. No, the reason I hate Wally is different. It's not his personality, or his looks, or even that he isn't "my Flash".

It's his fans.

If I have to hear Wally West fans complain about Wally not being the Flash  anymore - if one more person refers to the current and longest-serving Flash as "boring Barry" one more time, I'm not going to be held accountable for who dies tonight. Wally West has a cult- and it's more spiteful than any other cult on earth. I can't bring myself to like this cult's leader- fictional or no.

That said, I've read nothing about Wally, so he may be okay despite his insane fandom. There is one character from the big two, though, that takes the cake for people to hate. And that character is...

1: Iron Man

Urgh....

Admittedly, I've only really been reading much in the way of comics since 2013. But here's what I've learned about Iron Man.

He's alcohlic.

He's a womaniser.

He only has one story, and it's primarily about extremis, because Disney want to sell Iron Man 3 blu-rays and they sure aren't gonna do that based on the merit of the film.

Every fight he's in involves his armour being better than whatever else is around.

His comics in the past few years have been boring the comic community to death. Nobody has praised Iron Man at least since 2013 (and I'm counting Superior Iron Man in this as well). By all accounts, this comic should be cancelled. Every comic fan should decide that his drivel isn't worth buying.

But they don't, because MCU.

I don't care how well Robert Downey Jr plays Tony Stark. I'm paraphrasing, but the saying goes that fecal matter cannot be effectively polished. Robert Downer Jr is doing a good job at playig a terrible character, but that doesn't make him a good character. If there was one overrated character in comics, it's this guy. His personality is cringeworthy, his stories are bland and he has no place in a universe that is supposed to be about heroics and wonder.

So... that was fun. What are your least favourites?

Suicide Squad Vol. 1: Kicked in the Teeth (The New 52) Review

Suicide Squad Vol. 1: Kicked in the Teeth (The New 52)

She's almost dressed...

Writer: Adam Glass

Artists: Federico Dallocchio, Clayton Henry, Ransom Getty, Andrei Bressan and Cliff Richards

Background Information:

Who are the Suicide Squad?

Long story short, they're B-list DC villains who have been co-opted by the government to work near-hopeless missions for them. If they try to run away, then a small bomb goes off in the back of their neck.

That's all there is to it.

Review:

Okay, so I've been defending the New 52 to my dying breath. And I'm not ashamed of that. I've liked a lot of New 52 books and hated many that came before. I've been tempted to see the New 52 as infallible.

I'd like to apologise for that.

After reading Kicked in the Teeth, I now fully understand why people don't like the reboot. This is a volume that is poorly written, badly drawn and utterly boring. Indeed Kicked in the Teeth is not a description of the book's title; it's a description of how Suicide Squad fans must feel after reading this trash.

So when the Squad conduct a gone-awry mission, they desperately try to return to their boss, Amanda Waller. Leader Deadshot finds himself having to deal with a mismatched team comprising of King Shark, El Diablo Black Spider and Harley Quinn.

Oh, Harley Quinn...

Another day in high school.

Shockingly, she's a large part of what's wrong with this book. When written right, Harley's a funny, flirty, yet deep character. Adam Glass writes her as attempting-but-failing at being funny, aggressively sexual and shallow. I cannot think of one line that was actually funny from Harley in this volume. Her flirtatious attitude is replaced by her aggressively jumping Deadshot for sex (along with a bizarre and kinda gross joke about clown cars). Although there is a two-issue arc in this volume showing her cut up over Joker's apparent "death", this isn't really character development and just puts her back in the villain role that we see everywhere else - and considering that Suicide Squad is supposed to be about following villains as though they were heroes, that's a problem.

It's not like the other characters are well written; Deadshot is a typical "tough as nails" dudebro, and the rest are instantly forgettable. All the same, when the New 52 launched, Suicide Squad was treated as a book where Harley was the meant to be the drawcard- for evidence, see how nearly every cover features her prominently- and it's not done successfully.

The plot itself is also uninteresting. The squad complete one mission after another in succession. If you're going to do a story about a suicide mission, you'd better raise tension like it was going out of fashion. Glass doesn't do that. He jumps from one mission to another without letting us savour the intensity of missions that should, really, be all about looking hopeless.

Sure Harley. The unzipped coat is definitely going to keep
you warm.

There's been a lot of criticism that DC went "too dark" with the New 52. The strange part about Kicked in the Teeth is that, really, the book doesn't dark enough. We're talking about a group of killers and yet, there's not much of a sense of moral ambiguity. No morally questionable actions. Even Superman in the New 52 has made some not-so-heroic choices. Why the hell are the bad guys being so... good?

The art in this book is unspecial in some places, awful in others. There is literally nothing interesting to say about it. The one, and I mean, one good thing about the art is the flashback scenes into Harley Quinn's origins. We see Joker in the early days of the New 52 and... he looks a lot like Edward Cullen from Twilight and that is somewhat perfect, since Harley has a Twi-hard attitude toward the Joker.

But that isn't enough to save what is good reason to hate the New 52. Kicked in the Teeth gets only half a sparkly Joker out of five.

1/2

+ Joker looks like Edward Cullen... yep, that's a plus.
- Everything else.

Alternate Option: Anything Else.

Seriously, pick a comic and read it instead. It will likely be more entertaining.

Tom Talks: Grayson #1 (with spoilers)

So, this is another post that I'll be making, where I regularly go through each issue of a comic series and mock it. And what better way to start it than with Dick Grayson's Backside Grayson: the one comic that I'll never forgive for not being Nightwing.

Wait, is this a gritty reboot of Guy Smiley?

Greyson #1: Remember how Things Used to be Better?

 

 

Open book on four panels that remind us that Dick Grayson used to be an acrobat, Robin, Nightwing and dead (but not Batman, because shut up); all of which would have made for a vastly better comic. Cut to Dick Grayson with a blond wig jumping onto a train and beating up a random because EXCITEMENT! And just in case you didn't think it was cool, a guy in a black cowl (again, not Batman) tells you it was- so start thinking it was cool, underlings!

 

Look everyone; better versions of the title character!

 

But that's all the cool you get for now, because cut to boring scene of Dick on said train in Russia flirting with a conductor. How do we know it's in Russia? Well, Dick compliments a girl in horrible Russian- hint, Dick; "Dyevushka" is Russian for "Girl", not "Jevochka".

 

If you're still not convinced, there are two ACTUAL RUSSIANS on the train as well; y'know, the kind we see on TV all the time; a woman who looks like every blonde supermodel ever and an overweight man- just like the ones on Anastasia. In the meantime, she is being watched by someone that I'm going to call Frizzyhairlady until this issue reveals her name. Frizzyhair lady tells Dick that she drugged the fat Russian's drink, but it's not working for some reason.

 

So Dick jumps in, flirting with blonde supermodel. In the process, he purposefully spills his red wine all over her white dress, and she has to leave to clean up.

 

Guy Smiley Dick Grayson in his blonde wig.

STOP RIGHT THERE! Blonde supermodel starts talking to someone. Not just anyone, but the random who Dick knocked out earlier; who's still clinging to the train. She can't have a full conversation, though, because Frizzyhairlady uses weird hypnotic powers to knock her out.

 

Meanwhile, Dick has taken the fat person from Anastasia and flippy-jumped off the train before people starts shooting at them. Wait- so, either Dick decided to jump off the train knowing that there were shooty people there, or the shooty people knew Dick was going to jump off right there. Seriously, the only other option is to have shooty people en masse along the entire train track and that would seem very un-spy-like. It's okay though, Dick and fat guy can take cover in a nuclear silo. When they're being shot at. With bullets. In a place that could cause a nuclear explosion. Who exactly thought Dick would make a good spy?

 

Well, not surprisingly, the silo turns out to be a bad idea. Not because the place is explody, and the last place you would want someone shooting guns, but because black-trenchcoat-not-Batman is there and he wants to fight. Cue fightscene with unrealistic amounts of talking. He discovers that Dick works for Spyral. Then BOOM! Turns out the fat character from Anastasia is covered in purple energy and has blasted not-Batman out of the silo (again, they realise this a nuclear facility, right?). Dick again uses all the logic at his disposal to call the guy covered in purple energy who can shoot people inside a nuclear silo a loser.

 

Spinny kicks are the best kicks.

This should surprise no one, but that annoys the fatty and he blasts at Dick. Dick dodges, fatty has powered down, and Dick can apprehend him before the silo falls down.

 

Back at Spy headquarters. Dick's boss, a guy with a swirly face (and even though it sounds like a kid who got bullied in high school, I'm calling him Swirlyface) compliments them a job well done (aside from the very-conspicuous explosion of a nuclear silo) and- HOLD UP; FRIZZYHAIRLADY HAS A NAME. She's Helena Bertinelli- no, not Huntress, don't call her that.

 

Night time, and Dick is working out in his underwear. Cue total silence from people who would be up in arms if this was a female. He then interrupts the giddy screams of women who thought they picked up a Magic Mike comic to use a hotwired radio to talk to Bruce Wayne (it's okay though, he's still in his underwear). He's interrupted when Helena interrupts him where they discuss using hypnos- source of the weird hypnotic powers. She flirts with Dick, and then reveals that she doesn't need to use hypnos, because she's hot enough to make Dick go ga-ga. That'll only happen once, right? I mean, they're not going to make Dick's sexuality the only thing driving this book, right?

 

For everyone to marvel at Dick's... personality.

Right?

 

Cut to a Spyral lab, where a scientist is examining the fat Russian from Anastasia's newly-removed stomach, which seems to be the source of his powers. Swirlyface looks at pictures of superheroes, declaring that all must be unmasked.

Batman Vol. 5: Zero Year- Dark City (The New 52) Review

Batman Vol 5: Zero Year- Dark City (The New 52)

Psst... Don't tell Oliver Queen that I
stole his gimmick!

Writer: Scott Snyder

Artist: Greg Capullo

Collects: Batman #25-27, 29-33

Background Information:

Ask any DC reader about Snyder and Capullo's run on Batman, and the only words you're likely going to hear will allude to the phrase "nailing it". The industry's own dynamic duo have been, in many ways, bigger heroes than the characters they write/draw; standing strong against DC's attempt to raise the Batman single-issue price to $4.99. When you buy this book, understand that you're buying the industry's best.

But aside from that, in the last volume, Bruce became Batman. During that time, his uncle Phillip, who was running Wayne Industries, fired one Edward Nigma, which will probably have no repercussions whatsoever, right?

Right?

Review:

Let me save you all some time. The thing you'll find yourself thinking throughout this trade is "Yeah, why not?"

So you still want to read the whole review? Okay.

Gotham has been blacked out. Amidst the chaos, the mother of all storms is coming to Gotham, and Dr. Death is wandering Gotham causing havoc. In the meantime, the Riddler is slowly closing his grip on Gotham and the cops are out to catch Batman and bring him down for his vigilante action at ACE Chemical from last volume.



He was driving a black... tank- no, wait...

This sounds like a fairly tame plot, except that nearly everything you see in the volume knocks you for six. Each thing that happens in Snyders second part to Zero Year creates feeling of repulsion, acceptance and love in that exact order.

Want an example? Have a look at this picture on the right. That's the Batmobile. Notice how it looks absolutely NOTHING like the Nolan, Burton, or Batman: The Animated Series version. In fact, it looks like nothing you've ever seen before. My first instinct was to hate it; the Batmobile to me, should be black, long and sleek. This is blue, yellow and relatively squat. I wanted to hate it; I really did. But dammit, Snyder/Capullo, I couldn't bring myself to do it. Somehow, this and various other changes just gelled with me, and I came to love it. I actually want to see this Batmobile again; I want it to be the Batmobile.

And that's a feeling you get throughout the whole book. You want to see the blimp in action. You want more of sleeveless and capeless Batman on a motorcycle. You want to see more of Batman in the day. Somehow, this team takes everything that shouldn't work with Batman and makes it work. They make it work well.

Another thing that should do nothing but annoy me is the fact that, after avoiding it last volume, we get the dead parents story again. I really thought this was going to be cliché and bland. Somehow, Snyder avoids making this same-old-same-old. I'm not sure how he does it, maybe it's that he doesn't let the flashbacks depicting that moment in Bruce's life be something that keeps us from seeing him as Batman. Maybe it's that Bruce doesn't spend this volume agonising over the loss of his folks. Whatever it is, it actually added to the entertainment in that title- something that I was sure wouldn't happen.

But by far the best part of this book is in the second half, where the Riddle has turned the entire of Gotham into a wild wasteland under his control. This is where the big set pieces are; buildings fall on each other like dominos while US marines leap from rooftop to rooftop trying to avoid falling to their doom;  whole sections of the city flood, and Batman faces off against lions in an underground carpark. It's intense, it's engaging and it's utterly masterful.

I can't go on too much further without talking about the ending. I won't reveal too much and just say that it's really about Alfred's hopes and dreams for Bruce's future. Hopes that are bittersweetly dashed in one moment. It's by far the most poignant scene in the book and shows just how much Alfred has been the emotional centre of Snyder's run.

"I am vengeance. I am the... late afternoon... y'know what,
let's skip that line."

The only complaint I really have about Zero Year- Dark City is that it leaves me concerned for the future of the series. I know Jim Gordon will take over as Batman and a new status quo will be introduced. I'm not sure if, even under Snyder's pen, we will get a Batman status quo that feels as fascinating and beautiful as what we've seen thus far. Yep, my negative is that very little can live up to this one. That's how good this is.

Capullo has been given a time to shine, here. Having so many daytime scenes allows this artist to use *GASP* ACTUAL COLOUR!!! Maybe it was because Snyder wanted to do something new, maybe Capullo was running out of black and grey paint. Either way, these daytime scenes look incredible and, somehow, we don't lose any sense of darkness despite the wide range of colours.

I'm sure someone will call me a DC fanboy for not giving perfect scores to a Marvel book. But you know what? Zero Year- Dark City has well earned it's five out of five empty black and grey paint pots.

*****

+ What shouldn't work, somehow does.
+ Amazing set-pieces.
+ Ending that is bittersweet and beautiful.
+ A dark and gritty story that has actual colour in the art.

Alternate Option: Batman- Earth One Vol. 1&2

An origin story and a Riddler story. Not as good as this one, but still a great yarn.

Green Arrow Vol. 5: The Outsiders War (The New 52) Review

Green Arrow Vol. 5: The Outsiders War

In case you weren't sure, the colour
green is a big deal here.

Writer: Jeff Lemire

Artist: Andrea Sorrentio

Collects: Green Arrow #25-31

Background Information:

So, Oliver Queen has been through a rough patch, hasn't he? Turns out that the island that he never stops talking about was the home to the mystic Green Arrow (That's a literal arrow, by the way); the totem weapon of the Arrow Clan. The Arrow Clan is one of the many clans of The Outsiders; a group of weapon-obsessed clans who are set to take over the world if Oliver doesn't stop them.

Oh, Oliver also has a step sister, Shado's daughter Emiko, who is being raised by last volume's big bad, Komodo.

Review:

With the huge success of Arrow, it would have been tempting for Jeff Lemire' Green Arrow to go the same route as it's TV counterpart; make Count Vertigo a drug dealer, have Ollie fight Deathstroke and make Deadshot a major part of the plot. Thankfully, Lemire decided to go the opposite direction and make Green Arrow one of the most interesting DC titles out there, The Outsiders War continues this tradition, delivering a story that is action-heavy and conspiracy-driven.

... Apparently, so are circles.

Now Ollie and pseudo-step-mother Shado (yep, not love interest; take that, CW), have gone back to plot device island where he was stranded for years in search of the famous Green Arrow (like I said before, that's an actual arrow)- the totem weapon of the Arrow Clan. In the meantime, the Outsiders are getting ready to take over the world.
the

Okay, so the real hero of this book isn't Oliver Queen- it's the art by Andrea Sorrentino. Her page designs are nothing short of amazing. In some places it takes less time for me to write this review than it does to fully take in a page-spread. Usually, such busy panels would be a minus, but here, Sorrentino's style takes you by the throat and drags you in. You want to see everything because it all grabs your attention.

The story is hardly a afterthought, the whole thing is paced exceptionally well, and Lemire peppers the whole thing with surprises. I won't spoil them, but Lemire shows here that he's a master of misdirection. I can't say that I'm a fan of all of them, but I appreciated the effort and admittedly did not see the ones I didn't like coming at all.

Action here is also incredible. Lemire has a real flair for making villains threatening; Komodo, last volume's bad dude, look more intimidating than ever minus one eye, and the Shield Clan may just be the most oogah-boogah crazy group of killers in the Outsiders- which I also never expected.

See? Green!

The volume also gets points for bringing Katana into the Green Arrow lore. Lemire cast her as the leader of the Sword Clan, with the Soultaker sword as the Clan's totem weapon. It works; at no point did I feel that it was a stretch for it to happen- something helped, I think, by the fact that Katana is the only Sword-Clanner shown in the volume.

The only part of the story I really wasn't fond of was the Zero Year crossover. This certainly isn't a bad issue; the action here is just as good, and Ollie battling Killer Moth actually makes for a fun story. But it gets so bogged down in John Diggle's backstory that I lost interest halfway through. It's no exaggeration to say that this overdrawn exposition ruined the issue for me.

Thankfully, anything aside from that issue is brilliant and as a whole, The Outsiders War gets a four out of five oogah-boogah shields.

****

+ Art is amazing.
+ Lemire writes near-perfect action.
+ Katana's addition feels natural.
- The Zero Year crossover.

Alternate Option: Green Arrow: The Kill Machine

If you're going to read The Outsiders War, you need to read this one.