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.

****

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.

Animal Man Vol.1: The Hunt (The New 52) Review

Animal Man Vol. 1: The Hunt (The New 52)

I swear, he actually has a shirt.

Writer: Jeff Lemire

Artist: Travel Foreman

Collects: Animal Man #1-6

Background Infromation:

Buddy Barker can take on the powers/abilities of various animals. He does so through the morphogenic field; something he calls "the life web", which connects him to all animal life. Before the New 52, Buddy was under the impression that he got this power from aliens.

If you only know Animal Man from this...

...then you don't know Animal Man.

Review:

Only bad books get cancelled... is one of the least accurate statements I have ever heard. Sure, if a book isn't selling, publishers have the right to cancel, but sometimes that means getting rid of really, really good books in the process, and Animal Man, if The Hunt is anything to go by, is one of those really good books.

See? There's a shirt!

So, wierd things have been happening to Buddy Barker. His eyes are beeding, he has grusome dreams and... let's see... what else is there... oh yeah; his daughter, Maxine, finds herself able to summon the skeletons of dead animals.

See, even though Buddy thinks he got his powers from aliens, he actually got them from a force called The Red, the force connected with animal life who disguised themselves as aliens. Maxine is the Avatar of The Red and Buddy is tasked with protecting her from the forces of The Rot, who emobody death and decay. This evil force have sent three hunters to kill Maxine, though, Buddy has to work fast to keep Maxine safe.

Okay, excluding Justice League Dark, I have a soft spot for DC's horror line. Scott Snyder's Swamp Thing was just brilliant and honestly, so is this. The real hero of the volume is Jeff Lemire's ability to build up tension. We start with a first volume, that, I'll admit, feels pretty dry, but by the end, Lemire has raised the stakes.

And then he brings on the scary; monsters hiding in plain site, dialogue that sends chills down your spine and causes you to jump at the slightest noise. I can't recall the last time I found a comic this terrifying, but this one definitely takes the cake.

Of course, horror doesn't actually work if you don't care about the characters. A monster killing an empty shell, no matter how gory, doesn't terrify you the same way that almost capturing a character you care for does. Lemire's delivered in this area too; giving real life to Buddy's family. That's right New 52 haters; DC actually allowed a character to not only be married, but to have two- yes, two- kids. And what a family it is; each member has their own real voice. They aren't just there to be "the family member". Buddy's wife, Ellen, is a powerful figure in and of herself. Maxine has just the right amount of innocence, and Buddy's son, Cliff, has all of the over-the-top enthusiasm you would expect from a kid whose dad is a superhero. It's a great cast that serves the horror story perfectly.

See? Another shirt! This book has shirts!

The real fine point about this volume, though, is the art. Travel Foreman draws some amazing character designs, cheif among which are The Rot's Hunters. I imagine that under any other artist, these designs would have looked silly. I'm ready to admit that there is a fine line between silly and terrifying, but it's safe to say that Foreman gives us plenty of the latter. All of it's helped with these washed-out colours that more often than not betray the darkness and become blissfully unnerving.

I plain cannot fault The Hunt it gets a perfect five out of five dogs left on the street.

*****

+ Scary as hell (I mean that in the most literal sense).

+ Family dynamics that make us care.

+ Grotesque character designs.

Alternate Option: Swamp Thing: Raise Them Bones

Another brilliant horror title that ties into Animal Man.

Green Arrow Vol. 4: Kill Machine (The New 52) Review

Green Arrow Vol. 4: The Kill Machine

Fire? What Fire?

Writer: Jeff Lemire.

Artist: Andrea Sorrentino and Marcelo Maiolo

Collects: Green Arrow #17-24 and #23.1

Background Information:

When DC rebooted its entire line in 2011, Green Arrow, written by Dan Jurgens, was fairly ordinary. It wasn't awful, but wasn't going to carry character to greatness. DC didn't like that, so they gave the line to Ann Nocenti.

And it got worse. So bad that none would have been surprised if it was cancelled. The series needed a shot in the arm, and it needed it badly. Who could possibly do that, though?

Review:

It turns out that DC got just the right people on the job. The new team not only revived the series, but gave it extra depth, and a greater expanded mythos that is engaging and entertainnig as anything.

Who is this creative team? Well, the writer is Jeff Lemire, who worked on books like the New 52 Animal Man; a run that completely redifined the character and recieved critical praise the whole way through. He's a writer who knows how to change title characters in compelling ways, and add lore to their stories that turns the status quo on its head while remaining true to the history of the character.

How to escape a boring conversation: Method
One.

In The Kill Machine, Lemire reinvents Green Arrow by adding an extra layer to his origin story. The Kill Machine  starts with Green Arrow/Oliver Queen mad as hell that he has lost him company, Q-Tech to another firm. While he's growling at Emerson, the man running the whole joint, he is attacked and Emerson is killed. After fighting the killer, an archer named Komodo, he saved by eyeless dude, Magus. Magus reveals something about Oliver's past that he never thought possible: that he was never meant to leave the island.

What follows is a fact-finding mission that sees Oliver go across America, then across the world. Why wasn't Oliver meant to leave and how does Komodo factor into this? Looking at individual events, this story is pretty unremarkable. What is does really, really well, however, is drag you into this world of secret societies, politial intrigue and mysticism. And does it ever suck you in?! You find yourself wanting to know more about this world, and learn every secret it's holding.

Lemire also gives us a new status quo. By the end of the first issue, all but one of Lemire's old supporting cast is dead, and the replacements? Well, we have Henry Fyff, who is one of Oliver's new "build stuff and give info" team along with still-surviving Naomi. Even more surprising, though, is the appearance of John Diggle; Diggle was a character introduced in the Arrow TV show and ended up being well-loved. This is hardly the first time a character from another medium has found their way into comics (see Harley Quinn, Jimmy Olsen and nearly every Transformer ever), but it's nice to see a great character get recognised. I can only hope, though, that Green Arrow doesn't become an alternate season of Arrow, though; I like it when TV and comics properties feel like their own thing.

How it feels to read this book.

As good as the new set-up is, though, what really holds this book up is the art by Sorentino. She has this ability to convey speed and accuracy neccessary to Green Arrow's action with aplomb. Every arrow strike gets its own sub-panel that's mono-coloured to stand out, every action feels quick and punchy. Add that to some truly surreal moments drawn in a way that messes with your head like nothing else. Colours by Maiolo only serve to emphasise the great art here, making this without a doubt the best-looking New 52 book on the shelves.

If there's one thing I can fault The Kill Machine with, it's Lemire's treatment of Count Vertigo. The Count's a central villain in the Green Arrow mythos and deserves to be treated well. Lemire makes an honest effort to reinvent the character, but the reinvention falls short, resulting in the least entertaining issues in the book.

But that's a small complaint for The Kill Machine, which gets a highly deserving four and a half out of five shots in the arm.

**** 1/2

+ Lemire adds excellent substance to the mythos.
+ New status quo is very interesting.
+ Best New 52 art- bar none.
- Count Vertigo doesn't make the book great.

Alternate Option: Green Arrow: The Midas Touch

An inferior book, really, but you could do worse for the New 52's Green Arrow.

Green Lantern: Lights Out (The New 52) Review

Green Lantern: Lights out (The New 52)

Hal, Kyle and John get serious hurt, while
Guy takes the time to frolic.

Writers: Robert Venditti, Justin Jordan, Van Jensen and Charles Soule.

Artists: Bard Walker, Sean Chen, Rags Morales, Billy Tan, Bernard Chang and Alessandro Vitti.

Collects: Green Lantern 23.1: Relic, Green Lantern-New Guardians #22-23, Green Lantern #24, Green Lantern Corps #24, Red Lanterns #24 and Green Lantern Annual #2.

Background Information:

So, the Green Lantern event known as Rise of the Third Army/ Wrath of The First Lantern the Guardians of the Universe were killed, and the Green Lanterns are now under control of Hal Jorden. Guy Gardner has been sent to infiltrate the Red Lanterns, becoming their leader. John Stewart is busy training new recruits, and Kyle Rayner is the new White Lantern, and is leading the new Guardians of the Universe on a voyage of discovery.

And Simon Baz? Well, he's apparently disposable.

Review:

Unless you're writing Batman, which, let's face it, is pretty hard to totally mess up, it's hard to envy writers who have to take over a series; especially when you're taking over from writers like Geoff Johns, Tony Beddard and Peter J. Tomasi. Together, these men revived the Green Lantern franchise and made its universe one of the most fascinating within the DCU. Considering that, it's pretty astounding that Lights Out is as good as it is; but don't expect fireworks.

Who's my little guy?

In an alternate universe lived the Lightsmiths. They used and abused the emotional light spectrum. These lightsmiths were more than content to use the power of resolve, faith, terror, empathy, gluttony and fury, for their own selfish purposes. They mocked the scientist who dared to claim that the light was finite, calling him Relic for preaching ideas that were considered out of date.

But Relic was right, the light eventually ran out and his universe died.

Jumping over to our universe, and the Relic has appeared again. This time, he's after the light of this universe's Lanterns, and the various Lantern heroes need to stop him from doing so.

A concept as deep as that one suggests quite a few changes to the GL status quo. Venditti does that, but the road to it seems far longer than the book's seven issues would have us believe. And that's odd, because this book deals with the destruction of Oa, the farewell to the Lantern entities, and various other big changes to the GL franchise. Yet the road to all of this happening, is littered with themes and moments that have happened again and again under previous writers and as you read you can't help but wish that the four different writers here thought, at least once;

"Maybe not spend ages agonising over Carol Ferris and Hal Jordan's relationship, or lack thereof."

"Maybe not hammer the Blue Lanterns as a metaphor for hope leaving the universe."

"Maybe not have an entity possess someone."

"Maybe not have a story that brings in multiple Lantern Corps."

Yet, all of these things are here. I appreciate that Venditti is trying to carve his own path with this franchise, and there are some things he does that certainly suggests he has a plan for the series as a whole. I just wish I didn't feel like I was reading "Geoff Johns-lite" (geddit? lite and light... it's a pun... yeah... is this thing on?).

That said, the writers surrounding Venditti are doing some pretty good things. I didn't expect Charles Soule to blow me away with his work on Red Lanterns, yet here I am blown away by the Red Lanterns chapter of Lights Out. And, if you need any more evidence as to how impressive that really is, that's just one issue in the whole book.

I also liked the fact that even though Hal Jordan is in the front and centre of the book's cover, this really is Kyle Rayner's book. I see Hal and Kyle as equally interesting characters, and I was glad to see that DC let Kyle be the driving force behind this collection.

All the pretty colours...

I feel a little bit conflicted about the art in Lights Out, however. There are no really bad artists here; one of them, Rags Morales, is actually one of my favourites. That said, though, the art really suffers when it comes to depictions of Relic. In the beginning of the book, Relic appears to be about the same size as Galactus. By the final issues, however, we get one that looks about the same size as a Transformer (yep, I've used those as standards of measurement). It's confusing at best, at worst it's a sign that there was little to no correlation between artists and if DC are going to insist on crossing over every Lantern title every six months, they're going to want to be on top of that.

I think the trick to enjoying Lights Out is to treat it as a cog in a greater machine. I genuinely want to see what Venditti and crew do with the Lantern books next, but for now, I'm giving Lights Out a three out of five Lite-smiths (geddit... no? C'mon!)

***

+ A Kyle Rayner centred story
+ The Red Lanterns issue is brilliant.
+ Definitely sees changes coming for the GL franchise.
- Art seems unclear on how big Relic is.
- Relies on oft-repeated clichés of GL.

Alternate Option: Green Lantern: Rise of the Third Army/Wrath of the First Lantern

Wait? The Guardians are dead? Find out why with these two books.

The Flash Vol. 5: History Lessons (The New 52) Review

The Flash Vol. 5: History Lessons (The New 52)

Remember that issue where The Flash
fought Flubber?

Writer: Brian Buccellato

Artist: Patrick Zircher

Collects: The Flash #26-29 and The Flash Annual #2

Background Information:

In previous volumes, The Flash has been through all of the greatest villains in his mythos. He's taken on the Rogues, Gorilla Grodd, and Reverse Flash. He even tackled a new villain called Mob Rule (who I hope makes a return one day). The book was bolstered by the work of Francis Manapul, who doubled as excellent writer and artist, resulting in one of the best-looking books of the New 52.

Review:

Then Francis Manapul moved on, and we now have... this.

This...

Yep, that's what it is.

It's pretty clear that Manapul was the best part of The Flash. I expected that in History Lessons, I'd feel the void left by his artwork, but it's Manapul's writing that I've found making the biggest impact on the book, and Brian Buccelatto's work doesn't fill that void. Like, at all.

Please DC, PLEEAAASSEEE make this an ongoing!

History Lessons starts with an admittedly excellent Annual, telling the story of a great Flash/Green
Lantern team-up. The two get teleported to an arena world to fight a bunch of monsters. It's not a deep story, but I can't begin to tell you how much I want to see a Green Lantern/The Flash ongoing. It's an insanely fun tale; Hal and Barry bicker back and forth, there's dialogue that I was expecting to see more in a Marvel movie; not a DC comic. I can't help but love this issue.

But that's where the fun ends. What follows is an utterly forgettable story where Barry follows a string of murders to do battle with a ghost. Deadman makes an appearance here, but it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly that there isn't point to the whole thing.



"Ladies, there's plenty of me to go
around!"

Okay, the story does tie into the fact that Barry has spent years trying to prove that his father didn't kill his mother, and there is some foreshadowing of what I hope will be a good reveal when Robert Venditti takes over, but that's not enough. There's no reason to care about what's going on here. I can't even remember how the Flash wins, or even what the ghost's name is. It's a story that feels pointless; the kind where any super hero could take Flash's place, and that makes for something unengaging at best. Overall, Buccellato's writing like he knows that he's done with The Flash, and that hurts.

Patrick Zircher isn't even a bad artist, he's just not as good as Manapul. There's none of that fast and furious panelling, those times when you just realise that the book was written to be drawn. What you get is some decent art that fails to live up to what went before.

If you haven't been reading The Flash until now, I recommend skipping History Lessons and waiting until volume 6 comes out; Robert Venditti is doing some controversial things with Barry and his supporting cast, but at least he's not writing to fill in time. History Lessons gets a two and a half out of five unnameable ghosts.

** 1/2

+ The Green Lantern/Flash issue.
- Everything else feels like a fall from grace.

Alternate Option: The Flash: Move Forward

Start at the beginning, when The Flash was far better.

Superman/Wonder Woman Vol.1: Power Couple (The New 52) Review

Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Power Couple (The New 52)

Ewww... kissing!

Writer: Charles Soule

Artist: Tony S. Daniel

Collects: Superman/Wonder Woman #1-7

Background Information:

For years Superman and Wonder Woman had their own love interests; Superman pined for, kissed and even married Lois Lane, while Wonder Woman and Colonel Steve Trevor have been a pairing ever since she appeared in Sensation Comics. 

Then the New 52 started. Lois and Supes left each other over creative differences at the Daily Planet and Wonder Woman decided she wasn't interested in Steve after all. The second Justice League volume featured the two sharing a passionate kiss at the end, and they've been a "thing" ever since.

Review:

So, for better or for worse, that's the status quo. Although I can credit Justice League writer Geoff Johns for trying to make this relationship work, it always came off as forced, and Trinity War did nothing to make the paring believable.

That's where Charles Soule comes in. His work in  Power Couple becomes a legitimising tool for the Wondersupes relationship, and ends up being a great tribute to everything there is to like about the New 52 versions of both characters.

Phew... they do superhero stuff, too.

So, Superman and Wonder Woman's relationship is now public. People are freaking out that the two
most powerful in the world are together and what this might mean for everyone else, and that's getting Wonder Woman and Superman concerned. In the meantime, Zod has appeared in the New 52 universe for the first time along with his beloved Faora. It's a great choice of villain for the new couple; as it shows just destructive this kind of couple can be, and that's one of the driving themes in this book.

Whereas Marvel is about average Joes in non-average situations (science nerd get spider powers, weakling gets the super serum, total narcissist wears armour to become hero), DC has always been about, to borrow from Injustice, gods among us. Larger than life characters and the real world's reaction to them has always been the crux of DCs line. Power Couple catches that crux perfectly; Wonder Woman and Superman are the subject of celebrity. We regularly see people referring two Wondersupes as attractive, their relationship trumps any hoopla created by any Hollywood scoop, and there's a certain level of secrecy to the whole thing.

That said, this is less of a love story and more of a relationship story. Superman and Wonder Woman are already together, and this story becomes more about what happens after the kiss at the end of every rom-com you have ever seen. The question, thankfully, isn't one of "will they/won't they", but "how will they make it work now that they have?" The result is a great humanising of both characters; the kind that we haven't seen in most of their books.

I know, far be it for Superman to wear makeup, still...

I've stopped commenting on art in DC. I'm suspicious that Jim Lee is drawing everything under
different names. That said, Tony S. Daniel's art deserves some mention. It won't stand out to anyone as particularly diverse, but if you're familiar with his work, then you know you're in for a book that is going to feature some pretty brutal panels. It near-perfectly balances the romance with hard-hitting action scenes and reminds you that this is, in fact, a superhero comic.

Somehow, even though I have nothing bad to say, I didn't love this book. Something, I don't know what, felt missing- maybe it was that love is meant to feel fun. I would have loved to see Wonder Woman and Superman tease each other good-naturedly, or laugh at an awkward situation, but it just wasn't there. Power Couple, therefore, gets only a four and a half out of five rom-coms.

**** 1/4

+ Works as a relationship story.
+ Plays on the "gods among us" theme.
+ Brutal, entertaining art.
- Wondersupes' love didn't feel too serious.

Alternate Option: Justice League: Villains' Journey

Wonder Woman and Superman are together? When did that happen? Find out here.

Justice League: Trinity War (The New 52) Review

Justice League: Trinity War (The New 52)

All the things that the book isn't named
for.

Writers: Geoff Johns, Jeff Lemire and Ray Fawkes

Artists: Ivan Reis, Doug Mahnke and Mikel Janin

Collects: Justice League #22-23, Justice League Dark #22-23, Justice League of America #6-7, Pandora #1-3, Constantine #5, Phantom Stranger #11 and Free Comic Book Day Special 2012.

Background Information:

Since the beginning of the New 52, DC has been teasing an event centring on the character of Pandora. She's appeared in the background of every New 52 first issue in 2012 (in classic Where's Wally/Waldo style) and was the focus of DC's FCBD offering. Since then, the Justice League-titled books have been building up to something. The Justice League formed, the Justice League of America formed because they don't trust the Justice League and the Justice League dark formed because John Constantine is a cruel, petty-minded man.

Review:

I guess I was one of the lucky ones.

Is he talking about the DCCU?

Being a trade-waiter, a paperback waiter in particular, I got this story a lot later than everyone else. I got to read some of the reviews going around about it. In short, the response wasn't good. When I hear reviews that say something is the best or the worst of something, I go in with certain expectations. In the case of Trinity War, I expected to have cancer immediately after reading. I was expecting my IQ to drop several thousand, I expected to suddenly be in favour of capital punishment for comic writers. Then I read the book, and none of that happened, I actually found myself pleasantly surprised.

I had the opposite experience with The Avengers movie.

But let's get to the story; A run-in between the Justice League and the Justice League of America result in Superman unwittingly killing Dr. Light. This causes disruption throughout all three Justice Leagues and they each go out to look for the real reason someone like Superman could ever kill someone.

Okay, so let's get the bad stuff out of the way, because no doubt it's there. The book commits the unforgivable sin of being an event whose only purpose is to introduce the next event. It also suffers from making it completely unclear why it's called Trinity War; at first you think it's because of the Trinity of Sin... but it's not. Then you think it's because of DC's Justice League trinity... but it's not. Then you think it's because of the focus on DC's trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman... but it's not. When the answer finally comes, it feels like a last-minute thought at best, a betrayal at worst. It does hurt the story, and it hurts the story badly.

That said, the story itself feels solid otherwise. Kudos to Johns and team for, for the most part, keeping off making this DC's answer to Civil War. Only in the end do the hero teams fight each other. For the most part, this is a pretty finely-crafted mystery. Team politics find their way into the book continually, and no character here feels under-utilised.

Right... this is awkward...

This book also made me realise that I really want a DCU where the Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman lead their own Justice Leagues. Somehow, Batman working with Deadman and Katana works. Wonder Woman working with John Constantine works. Superman working with Steve Trevor works. I really wish that this became the new status quo for the New 52, because it made the teams feel fresher than they've ever been.

Good moments sprinkle this book as well. My favourite has to be the issue featuring Constantine and Shazam. It's simply funny seeing both characters switch powers momentarily, and fitting with the new Constantine's personality. Equally funny is Shazam's reaction to punching out Superman, there's this look of disbelieving pride that comes over his face when it happens, and I couldn't help but smile.

Is Trinity War perfect? Not by a longshot. But between a compelling mystery and a status quo that I can only blame for being short-lived, it gets a three and a half out of five Where's Wally/Waldo books.

*** 1/2

+ Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman leading their own teams.
+ Shazam switching powers with Constantine
+ Not DC's Civil War
- Exists solely to introduce another event.
- The reason for the title? Don't ask.

Alternate Option: Marvel's Civil War

If you're that desperate for a heroes vs heroes story, here's what you get.

Aquaman: Death of a King (The New 52) Review

Aquaman Vol. 4: Death of a King (The New 52)

ANGRY!!!

Writer: Goeff Johns

Artists: Paul Pelletier, Sean Parsons and Rod Reis.

Collects: Aquaman #17-19 and #21-25

Background information:

If there’s a way to justify the New 52, it’s Aquaman. DC creative chief and resident god, Geoff Johns injected new life into the character the same way that he did to Green Lantern. This time, he took Aquaman out of the water; proving that the king of the seas can hold his own when out of water.

And after three volumes, Johns put him back in the water.

*sigh* here goes…

Review:

A good final volume in an author’s run should tie up all elements of the arc he/she has written. It should remind us of everything that we enjoyed about the previous volumes and hype the intensity up to the max. Death of a King does these things, but a rushed ending leaves Johns’ run feeling like it lost steam.

Now, where's the Jamaican crab?

So Aquaman, Arthur Curry is the official king of Atlantis. And it’s everything he thought it would be. The surface world doesn’t trust him, the Atlantians follow him only because they have to, and now Atlantian weapons are popping up all over the surface. In the meantime, the former king of Atlantis has risen and is looking to take back his throne.

The whole story absolutely smacks of Johns trying to write a cross between Game of Thrones and The Little Mermaid. To a certain point, it works. Characters have their own agendas. There’s dissention in the ranks. Love triangles are even a part of the story, and it all results in an underwater world that feels fleshed out. There’s a hint of fantasy/sci-fi to this weird world existing parallel to our own and I can only credit Johns for letting readers figure it out rather than having to have their hands held the whole way through. It’s nice when writers assume you’re smart, and that just what Johns has done with this world.

The book introduces a bunch of new characters. We have the Atlantian version of a US Marine; Murk, Tula; the sister of Orm and Swatt; an Atlantian who can’t breathe underwater and loves surface world stuff. Under a new writer, these guys would feel very hard to get used to and would be a bad choice for a last volume, but Johns writes them in a way that you’re surprised they haven’t been part of the series the whole time.

Nyawwww...

The art remains as strong as it always has been. I’ve complained before about the DC house style looking too much like Jim Lee’s work, but it does make a change in artist less daunting. And Aquaman is one of those books that kinda needs that Jim Lee, cinematic, ohmygoodnesslookatthatseasmonster kind of impact.

None of that, however, goes to rectify the biggest problem in Death of a King, and that’s that there’s way too much going on. Like John’s end of his Green Lantern run, the final issue in particular feels like a mad dash to the finish line, when a scenic stroll would have been more appropriate. We jump forward six months to when Atlantis is overrun by villains, but never get the full extent of why that’s so bad for the Atlantians, because Johns gives himself too much to do in only a few issues.

Still, it’s a fine end to a great series, so Death of a King gets a four out of five little mermaids.

****

+ Well-developed world.

+ Some genuinely intriguing characters.

+ Art has plenty of impact.

- Story is rushed toward the end.

Alternate Option: Aquaman: The Trench

Like DC keeps telling you to do, start at the beginning.