Superman's Good Guy Gang 2025 FCBD Special Edition

From Most Excellent Comics and Gaming in Enfield CT USA for Free Comic Book Day 2025.

Title: Superman's Good Guy Gang 2025 FCBD Special Edition
Issue: 1
Date: 2025
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Rob Justus, Ben Clanton
Artist: Rob Justus, Cassandra Federman
Letterer: Lucas Gattoni

This Free Comic Book Day giveaway previews two upcoming DC graphic novels for young readers. 

The title story, clearly influenced by the current Superman film, has Superman and Green Lantern (Guy Gardner) meeting Hawkgirl for the first time. Hawkgirl is wielding a sort of studded soccer ball instead of her usual morningstar here. We get the standard sequence of misunderstanding, fight, and team-up, but the team-up part gets cut to a cliffhanger just as the giant-robot villain shows up.

The second story is the more surreal Aquamanatee, who makes several sea cow puns while failing to address the issue that all manatees are, by definition "aqua" (though not the color aqua, but then, Aquaman isn't the color aqua either). The jokes were okay, as cow puns go, but it was hard to see where this was going. Is there a story, or do Aquamanatee and his fish sidekick just tell jokes?

I understand the need to market, but this book might have been better off devoting its full page count to previewing one of these books.

Rating: 4.5/10

Harley Quinn Lootcrate Exclusive #1

From a Little Free Library in Rindge NH USA.

Title: Harley Quinn Lootcrate Exclusive
Issue: 1
Date: February, 2016
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti
Artist: Amanda Conner, Chad Hardin
Colorist: Paul Mounts, Alex Sinclair
Letterer: John J. Hill
Editor: Chris Conroy, Dave Wielgosz

Harley finds a genie bottle, complete with wish-granting genie, and she is sure that she is going to be way better at this than anyone who has ever found a wish-granting genie and messed things up.

Spoiler: She's not better at this.

And that's pretty much the whole story, along with an above-average number of poop jokes, which were sufficiently clever that you might be amused if you like poop jokes. 

The ending of this did redeem it a little bit, as it finishes up with a feel-good vibe. And another poop joke.

Rating: 4/10

The Spectre #39

Bought this from a back issue bin at Most Excellent Comics and Games in Enfield CT USA when I visited for Free Comic Book Day 2025.

Title: The Spectre
Issue: 39
Date: March, 1996
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: John Ostrander
Artist: Tom Mandrake
Colorist: Carla Feeny
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editor: Dan Raspler, Peter Tomasi

Nicodemus Hazard puts on his totem armor for a big fight with Shadrach and... it doesn't help. Shadrach is a (checks notes...) legal entity, which apparently means that he no-sells lethal damage. Hazard runs away, and it's up to the Spectre to save the day, which he does with, less than minimal bystander casualties. Really, that fits with Spectre's vibe, though.

In between all of that there's an interesting conversation between Jim Corrigan and a spiritual advisor of sorts about subjective and objective reality.

We end with the cult of the National Interest bringing back Shadrach for another round, and the beginning of a quest for a series of "American Talismans", which seems to be a sort of supernatural take on the ideas behind the National Treasure films.

I wasn't really thrilled with Shadrach as a villain, although he did have a pretty cool sequence where he reassembles himself in an interesting fashion after being cut up with a sword. The dialogue was more interesting than the action in this one, but what it sets up in the end has potential.

Rating: 5.5/10

Suicide Squad: King Shark Special Edition: Free Comic Book Day 2021

A previous year's FCBD edition that I got from Zombie Hideout in Springfield MA USA for this year's Free Comic Book Day.

Title: Suicide Squad: King Shark Special Edition
Issue: 1
Date: May, 2021
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Tim Seeley, Brian Azzarello
Artist: Scott Kolins, Alex Maleev
Colorist: John Kalisz, Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer: Wes Abbott, Jared Fletcher
Editor: Michael McCalister, Mike Cotton, Bixie Matheiu
Cover: Trevor Hairsine

This was released in anticipation of the James Gunn Suicide Squad film, which heavily featured King Shark, thus the hype here. And much to my surprise, this really lived up to the hype. Told primarily from the point of view of Defacer, a graffiti artist who somehow got lumped in with the supervillains at Belle Reve Penitentiary, the story follows King Shark as he goes on temporary release to fulfill his obligations to his father, Lord Chondrakha, the shark god. Why is Defacer along? Because King Shark likes her, and so Amanda Waller is using her as leverage to assure King Shark's return. Weirdly, this actually works really well, and the almost-certainly-doomed defacer has instant chemistry with King Shark. This was way more fun than it had any right to be, and I actually found myself interested in both characters.

The second story was also pretty good, although it didn't do much in terms of treading new ground. Told in first-person by Jason Todd, it recaps his origin, this time as Robin, and his subsequent return as the Red Hood, before placing him in (you guessed it) Belle Reve Penitentiary and introducing the storyline for Suicide Squad: Get Joker! The recap was effective for getting readers up to speed on what the deal is with Jason Todd, and Jason's voice is well written. The art does a nice job of using the shadows of the cell bars in Belle Reve to establish mood, and takes its time to let Jason's thoughts sink in.

Rating: 7.5/10

Batman #444

From the Random Box of Unread Comics.

Title: Batman
Issue: #444
Date: February, 1990
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Penciller: Jim Aparo
Inker: Mike DeCarlo
Colorist: Adrienne Roy
Letterer: John Costanza
Editor: Denny O'Neil

The Batman is on the trail of the mysterious Crimesmith. The only problem is, Crimesmith has rigged his henchpersons to explode if they try to rat him out. So the Batman goes into full-on detective mode, all while providing new associate Tim Drake with some Robin-in-training advice. The Crimesmith turns out to be closer to home than Bruce Wayne might have imagined, and he's holed up in a lair loaded with deathtrap-level security systems.

This was a solid story: Good detective work, some nice scenes with Tim, good action when it came time for that, and villains who felt human. This continues directly from the previous issue, but stands alone well while setting the stage for some future plot developments.

Rating: 7/10

Action Comics #687

From the box of random unread comics.

Title: Action Comics
Issue: #687
Date: June, 1993
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Roger Stern
Art: Jackson Guice, Denis Rodier
Colorist: Glenn Whitmore
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Editor: Mike Carlin, Jennifer Frank

Reign of the Supermen! This is one of the four issues introducing the new "Supermen" following Superman's death at the hands of Doomsday. These issues (complete with gimmicky cutout covers) each featured a "pretender" to the role of Superman, based on phrases associated with the character: "Man of Steel", "Man of Tomorrow", "Metropolis Kid", and in the case of this issue, "Last Son of Krypton".

The actual character in this case is the Eradicator (no, not Rhea Ripley). The story is written so that it is possible to believe that Eradicator is actually some sort of reincarnation of Superman, who has gone full-on Kryptonian at the loss of his humanity.

In the background, we see lots of details of the ripple effect of Superman's death. This is one of those stories that felt like a gimmick at the time. After all, no one believed for a minute that Superman was actually dead. He was simply spending some time "dead in the DC Universe", as one does. But looking at this story years later, the fact that the Superman's death turned out to be as temporary as everyone knew it would be seems less important, and the story itself is quite good.

Writer Roger Stern juggles a ton of little details and character interactions and does a nice job of introducing Eradicator-Superman while adding to the overall mystery. While I wasn't buying that Eradicator really was Superman, and I knew that we were getting the real Superman back eventually, I was left intrigued to find out how we get there and what other plot twists lie ahead.

Nice piece of an epic story that still holds up pretty well.

Rating: 7/10

The Question #8

 From the Random Box of Unread Comics.

Title: The Question
Issue: 8
Date: September, 1987
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Dennis O'Neil
Artist: Denys Cowan, Rick Magyar
Colorist: Tatjana Wood
Letterer: Gaspar
Editor: Mike Gold

A deranged Gilbert & Sullivan fan named Mister Mikado is going around mutilating people in revenge for abusive acts they committed toward others, reciting a verse about making the punishment fit the crime before carrying out the nasty bit of revenge.

And they are nasty. The deaths/maimings reminded me a bit of the film Se7en (actually released 8 years after this book).

Vic Sage does a bit of detective/vigilante work to track down Mister Mikado, which is fairly standard fare. The confrontation between them is a lot more interesting, resulting in a verbal showdown about the nature of good and evil, and whether those who have done wrong can be redeemed.

This was a self-contained story (although it did advance some ongoing subplots in the background), and it serves as a pretty good introduction to what makes the Question's seeking of truth different from, for example, the Batman's quest for justice.

Ending was clever and very open-to-interpretation. As always, the Question has one of the best letter columns of its time, and I always enjoy getting Dennis O'Neil's recommended reading suggestion at the end (in this case, a fitting tie-in with the theme of the story: Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment).

Rating: 8/10

Batman/Superman: World's Finest, Vol. 1: The Devil Nezha

Read this at the Clapp Memorial Library in Belchertown MA USA. Nice selection of graphic novels there, considering it's a small library.

Title: Batman/Superman: World's Finest: The Devil Nezha
Issue: Volume 1
Date: January, 2024
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Dan Mora
Colorist: Tamra Bonvillain
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Editor: Paul Kaminski

Reprinting the first four issues of the latest World's Finest reboot. Poison Ivy attacks the Daily Planet, and finds herself up against the Batman, Robin, and Superman. But before the heroes can defeat her, Metallo shows up, adding a whole new level of threat when he injects Superman with red kryptonite.

As it turns out, this is just the beginning, as an ancient demonic figure named Nezha takes control of villains, and then heroes to set them against Superman and the Batman.

This turned complicated quickly, with a time-travel subplot, and continuously-escalating threats as Nexha takes control of more and more powerful metahumans to try to wipe out all potential resistance to his conquest of Earth and beyond.

The character work and action in this story are solid, especially the little insights into the relationship between Clark and Bruce and how they look out for each other.

The weak point is the villain, who's a mess of inconsistent powers, unclear motivation, and bland generic-villain personality.

There was enough of interest here that I'd be willing to check out more of the series once it moves past Nezha.

Rating: 5/10

Superman #223

Bought at Has Been Collectible Toys and Comics, Wilbraham MA USA.

Title: Superman
Issue: 223
Date: January, 1970
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Cary Bates, Henry Boltinoff
Artist: Curt Swan, Henry Boltinoff
Editor: Mort Weisinger

Clark Kent encounters three women who know that he's Superman. They soon reveal themselves to be part of an extraterrestrial team of superheroes who are considering recruiting him for their team. But a test of his powers goes badly wrong, Superman soon finds himself facing a new threat to Earth.

So, this is one of those stories where everything would have been solved much more easily if people had just talked to each other. It's got a bunch of plot twists, a surprise guest appearance, and the general silly vibe typical of Silver Age DC.

The story is a fairly entertaining ride, but the grim situations that come up don't mesh with the overall goofy flavor of the story. The superheroine team, the Galactons, turn out to be not what they seemed, which is too bad, because their introduction was pretty intriguing, and they might have made interesting longer-term characters.

Rating: 5.5/10

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #3

Bought at Bob's Hobbies & Collectibles, Springfield MA USA.

Title: Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong
Issue: 3
Date: 2024
Publisher: DC Comics / Legendary Comics
Writer: Brian Buccellato
Artist: Christian Duce
Colorist: Luis Guerrero
Letterer: Richard Starkings, Comicraft's Jimmy Betancourt
Editor: Ben Abernathy, Robert Napton

This was back to being a bit of a setup issue, with quick and relatively indecisive conclusions to the giant monster attacks on Central City and Themyscira. In fact, the destruction of Iron Heights Prison and the escape of most of the Flash's Rogues Gallery causes more problems than the titan Scylla does (Hey, look! It's Captain Cold!).

Meanwhile Superman appears to be dead as a result of taking a direct hit from Godzilla's atomic breath. Well, dead in the DC Universe, anyway... I mean actually, this isn't in regular continuity, so I suppose it could go either way. But it still lacks impact much in the same way most deaths or apparent-deaths in alternative continuities lack impact.

Supergirl's scene with Kong doesn't end up amounting to much either, and by the end of this, we're left with an ominous Lex Luthor bit and something of a pause in the action.

Going into this, it felt like it shouldn't be a transitional issue, but that's what we ended up with.

Rating: 5.5/10

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #2

First review of 2024! Bought at Bob's Hobbies & Collectibles, Springfield MA USA.

Title: Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong
Issue: 2
Date: 2024
Publisher: DC Comics / Legendary Comics
Writer: Brian Buccellato
Artist: Christian Duce
Colorist: Luis Guerrero
Letterer: Richard Starkings, Comicraft's Jimmy Betancourt
Editor: Ben Abernathy, Robert Napton

With all of the preliminaries out of the way, we get right to the mayhem in this issue. Godzilla takes on Superman, Hawkgirl, and Captain Marvel (you know, the Shazam one), while the Batman and a bunch of Bat-family members go after um... okay, I need to look up a list of members of the Monsterverse B-team... Camazotz, who is attacking Gotham City. Two other Titans, Scylla and Behemoth, are attacking Central City and Themyscira respectively, but those battles will wait until next issue. No problem with that; this issue packs plenty of action.

The Justice League characters all get some good moments, and writer Brian Buccellato does a nice job of keeping them true to their characters while delivering fun interactions, including a feel-good moment of Batgirl knocking out Jason Todd.

Godzilla no-sells pretty much everything thrown at him. looking like a Doomsday-level threat to the Man of Steel by the end of this.

This was a fun issue that delivered on what it promised.

Rating: 7.5/10

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #1

Look! A (relatively) new comic! Bought at Bob's Hobbies & Collectibles, Springfield MA USA.

Title: Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong
Issue: 1
Date: 2023
Publisher: DC Comics / Legendary Comics
Writer: Brian Buccellato
Artist: Christian Duce
Colorist: Luis Guerrero
Letterer: Richard Starkings, Comicraft's Jimmy Betancourt
Editor: Ben Abernathy, Robert Napton

There is a lot more focus on the DC characters than the Monsterverse in this mostly-setup introduction to this epic crossover. That being said, the setup for the crossover, featuring a series of mishaps in a plot by the Legion of Doom (remember Challenge of the Superfriends?), and the Toyman in particular, as they attempt a raid on Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

Clark, meanwhile, is in the midst of getting his act together to propose to Lois (she knows he's Superman, but they aren't yet married in this version of whatever continuity we're in here), only to have the moment (of course) interrupted by the arrival of Godzilla in Metropolis. Pretty much all of the expected mayhem is saved for next issue, but the interactions between Clark and the rest of the Justice League are really good, and the interplay between the Legion of Doom is at least entertaining.

Good setup. The action was a bit on the generic side, but business should pick up (as Jim Ross would say) once the Monsterverse Titans get fully involved.

Rating: 6/10

Doomsday Clock Part 1

Bought at Boocup, Kerry Parkside Mall, Pudong, Shanghai, China

Title: Doomsday Clock
Issue: Volume 1
Date: 2019
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Gary Frank
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editor:Brian Cunningham, Robin Wildman

Hardcover collection of the first six issues of Doomsday Clock, a DC-Universe/Watchmen crossover.

So first of all, The Watchmen did not need a sequel. It stands very well on its own, and the self-contained story and universe of the Watchmen is in some ways part of the point of why it is so good.

That being said, a lot of this was entertaining, even if in places it felt a bit like reading Watchmen fanfic.

We get a new Rorschach, and he's a pretty interesting character. We get a new pair of costumed criminals from the Watchmen universe with a solid backstory and pretty interesting chemistry between them.

We also get the return of a number of key Watchmen players, including (of course) some brought back from the dead).

And we get Superman, the Batman, the Joker, and a bunch of DC heroes and villains. The Watchmen world (I'm sure it's been given an Earth-Number, because of course it has, but I don't know which it is and whether it's a number between 1 and 52) is descending into nuclear war after Adrian Veidt's attempt to force world peace has, to the surprise of no one as Lex Luthor snarkily points out, collapsed under the weight of human nature.

And things aren't much better on Earth, um, is it 1 or 2 these days? Anyway, in whatever slightly-off version of the standard DC Universe this is, there is a conspiracy theory that claims that almost all superheroes and villains are actually government agents simply playing their roles while the US government, well, controls them.

This conspiracy has taken hold of the public consciousness and the result is anti-superhero (dare we say, anti-mask?) sentiment in the streets and rising international tensions. In short, similar circumstances that the Watchmen world faced in the original story.

And somewhere, Doctor Manhattan is manipulating things from behind the scenes.

This collection covers six issues and spends a lot of the time introducing the new characters, which is fine because they're pretty interesting. The rest of it alternates between a fairly intriguing plot with many moving pieces, an assortment of bits that are just violence for the sake of showing that various characters are violent, and bits from a series of Nathaniel Dusk noir films that play a similar role in this series to Tales of the Black Freighter.

Overall, this was an interesting enough story to keep me entertained. It's certainly no Watchmen, but that may be an unfair standard of comparison. A lot of attention to detail went into this, it's visually effective and introduces new characters that hold their own in the company of some iconic creations.

Rating: 6/10

Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey

Bought at Boocup, Kerry Parkside Mall, Pudong, Shanghai, China

Title: Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey
Date: 2019
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Scott Beatty, Scott Young, Greg Rucka, Anderson Gabrych
Artist: Yvel Guichet, Aaron Sowd, Phil Winslade, Rick Burchett, Pablo Raimondi, Walden Wong, Brian Stelfreeze, Al Barrionuevo, Bit
Colorist: Tom McCraw, Hi-Fi, Brad Anderson
Editor:Alewx Galer

This is a collection of reprints, featuring characters associated with the Birds of Prey (and in particular, characters featured in the movie version of Birds of Prey) in solo action.

Harley (from Detective Comics #831, published in 2007) takes on the new version of the Ventriloquist and Scarface, and more importantly takes on the Arkham Asylum parole board (with Bruce Wayne as one of the members deciding her fate).

Black Canary, guided by Oracle, teams up with Lois Lane to break up an illegal sweatshop and it's psionic-powered foreman (From Showcase '96 #3, published in 1996).

Huntress teams up with Nightwing to investigate the mafia murder of an undercover cop (from Nightwing/Huntress #2, published in 1998).

Renee Montoya deals with harassment from a previous case where the perpetrator walked (from Gotham Central #6, published in 2003).

Cassandra Cain faces off against her father, assassin David Cain, during the epic No Man's Land event (from  Batman #567, published in 1999).

Last up, Catwoman takes on Black Mask and Sylvia Sinclair, who have taken Selina's friend Holly and Selina's sister Maggie hostage (From Catwoman #16, published in 2003.

The opening Harley Quinn story and the Lance/Lane team-up were both good, especially the interaction between Lois and Dinah, which was loads of fun in spite of a pretty generic plot.

From there, the book seemed to run out of one-shot stories and just gave us pieces of longer storylines that felt unsatisfying, and in some cases, didn't even focus enough on the featured character. There was a lot more Nightwing than Huntress in the segment from their team-up, and the Gotham Central storyline had a lot of subplots going on, and not much in the way of develop or resolution for Renee Montoya.

In spite me not being a big fan of Cassandta Cain, her origin story from No Man's Land had visually powerful moments. But again, it's a piece of a massive long-term storyline.

The Catwoman story with Black Mask felt more complete than it really had the right to thanks to a lot of recapping in the narration.

Overall, the result of this collection of fragments is a collection that has some great individual moments and some beautiful artwork, but feels thrown together, and is not as effective as it could be at introducing readers to the lineup of characters for the Birds of Prey film.

Rating: 5/10

Supergirl: Being Super

Bought at my school's Spring book fair.

Title: Supergirl: Being Super
Date: May, 2018
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Mariko Tamaki
Artist: Joelle Jones, Sandu Florea
Colorist: Kelly Fitzpatrick
Letterer: Saida Temofonte
Cover: Joelle Jones, Kelly Fitzpatrick
Editor: Paul Kaminski, Andrew Marino, Robin Wildman

Trade paperback collection of Supergirl: Being Super issues #1-4 from 2016-2017.

It feels like rebooted origin stories are getting to the point where they are separated by months, rather than years these days. So I had a bit of trepidation approaching yet another origin reboot (putting aside the question of whether this was main-canon continuity or not; that's also something that's become more and more fuzzy these days).

But this was really good. Not for the plot, necessarily, although the plot did its job adequately. It was the dialogue and supporting cast that really made this work. Kara Danvers of (Smallville stand-in) Midvale, Kansas, turns sixteen years old, having hid the powers that make her different from her peers since childhood, only to have those powers fail her when she needs them most.

In the face of tragedy, Kara begins to question everything about her life, and she uncovers the secrets that will set her on the path to, well, to being super.

Kara's interactions with her friends were interesting enough that I was to some extent disappointed that this is essentially the story of her leaving home to start her hero's journey. I would happily read further adventures of Kara's best friend Dolly, without needing a bit more superhero stuff. And her relationship with her parents was intriguing, and definitely worth further exploration.

The villains introduced here (two new ones and one very familiar one) are likely to be seen again and all of them have plenty of story potential.

Joelle Jones does great work with the art all through the series, ending with an awesome visual on the last page.

This was a great fresh start for a classic character, and I would be happy to have this be the definitive Supergirl origin story moving forward.

Rating: 8/10

Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?

First comic purchase and first review of 202!
Bought at Boocup, Kerry Parkside, Pudong, Shanghai, China.

Title: Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?
Date: October, 2010
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Neil Gaiman
Artist: Andy Kubert, Scott Williams, Simon Bisley, Mark Buckingham, Mike Hoffman, Kevin Nowlan, Bernie Mireault, Matt Wagner, Alex Ross
Colorist: Alex Sinclair, Nansi Hoolahan, Tim McCraw, Joe Matt
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher, John Costanza, Augustin Mas, Todd Klein
Editor: Scott Nybakken, Maggie Howell

The title feature of this trade paperback is the two-part story that spanned Batman #686 and Detective Comics #853, which were the last issues of those series before they were renumbered as part of the New 52. The title is a tribute to the classic Alan Moore two-parter, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, which was published at a similar moment, marking the division between the Pre-Crisis (On Infinite Earths) and Post-Crisis DC Universe.

The story has the Batman attending his own funeral, held in the back room of a Crime Alley bar, where Joe Chill serves as bartender, and all of the Batman's rogues gallery is in attendance as mourners, along with some more respectable members of the supporting cast. All of them are telling stories of the Batman's death while the Batman himself looks on unseen, with a mysterious woman as his guide.

And the stories are all contradictory.

This was an interesting examination of the symbolism of the Batman, and something of a reversal of the typical tale of transition into an afterlife. The fully-realized stories told by Selina Kyle and Alfred Pennyworth read like reasonably decent "What If?" tales, and artist Andy Kubert does a great job of evoking the styles of classic Batman artists. There are also some interesting stories that are just told as fragments from characters like Detective Bullock and Clayface.

The ending is a strange and surreal variant on (of all things), Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon, that should never have worked, but which Gaiman somehow manages to just about pull off.

Backup stories in this volume include a miscellany of Gaiman's Batman writing from Batman: Black and White and Secret Origins. The Black and White piece is an amusing bit of fourth-wall breaking. Of the Secret Origins stories, the Riddler story was the best of the bunch, a loving tribute to the Silver Age, and a lament against the turn toward darker fare that followed.

None of this is anywhere Gaiman's best work in terms of writing, but it's a nice look at his relationship with comics in general and the Batman in particular, and it has a decent number of stand-out moments.

Rating: 7/10

Batman: White Knight

Bought at Boocup, Kerry Place Mall, Shanghai, China in March of 2020.

Title: Batman: White Knight
Date: October, 2018
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Sean Murphy
Artist: Sean Murphy
Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editor: Scott Nybakken, Maggie Howell
Cover: Sean Murphy, Matt Hollingsworth

The basic idea here is that the Joker is "cured", and, as Jack Napier, embarks on a political and public opinion campaign to turn Gotham City against the Batman. Lots of complications happen, and Gotham's most deadly enemies end up having to work together to save the city.

I found the opening bit problematic to a certain extent, although some of that was the context in which I'm reading it, as opposed to when it was written. Jack Napier is portrayed as "white knighting" to exploit real problems of police brutality against minorities for his cause, but some of the dialogue, particularly Joker's use of "I can't breathe" felt uncomfortably like appropriation on the part of the story itself.

As the story moves away from those themes with the further development of the plot, it becomes a bit more of a traditional (if still alternate-universe) Batman story. The plot twists are great, involving two Harley Quinns, the disappearance of Jason Todd, the Wayne family's connections to Baron Von Fries, and just about every villain in the Batman's rogues gallery. The story also provides a lot of closure and resolution for this universe's version of Gotham City.

In some sense, the examination of the Batman's relationship with the Joker was the weakest part of this, covering little in the way of new ground, and with some of Joker's dialogue coming off as closer to the version of the Joker from The Lego Batman Movie than the author probably intended.

That being said, the handling of Harley Quinn was awesome, as was the relationship between Bruce, Barbara, Dick, and Alfred. Commissioner Gordon also had a great role, conflicted by the compromises he has made allowing the Batman to operate outside the law, but with unofficial police sanction.

The author's focus on the various Batmobiles was a nice bit of fanservice, and a light touch in a book that did a good job of being serious, but not to the point of excess.

After the shaky start, this won me over in the end with good storytelling.

Rating: 7.5/10

Detective Comics: The Complete Covers Vol. 3

Bought at Boocup at the Kerry Place Mall Jingan, Shanghai, China.

Title: Detective Comics: The Complete Covers
Issue: Volume 3
Publisher: Insight Editions
Date: 2019

Insight Editions makes pocket-sized collectible artbooks. This one collects the covers of Detective Comics, starting with issue #600 in 1989, through the re-numbering with the New 52 in 2011, and up to #17 in the renumbered series.

There is a ton of absolutely gorgeous artwork in this volume, not to mention a nice look at the recent history of the Batman. Included are such classic stories as Knightfall, No Man's Land, the Batwoman run in Detective Comics, Greg Rucka's three-year writing run, and Neil Gaiman's "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?". Characters introduced in the issues covered include Bane, Stephanie Brown, Anarky, and the Parliament of Owls.

I've read Batman comics on and off during the time period covered here, so there was plenty of nostalgia looking through these covers, as well as some ideas for issues I should seek out.

As always with something pocket-sized, the size can never truly do the artwork justice, but in terms of presenting a shear number of classic covers, in order and complete, this book was a delightful treat.

Rating: 7.5/10

Sandman Special #1: Orpheus

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Sandman Special: Orpheus
Issue: 1
Date: 1991
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Neil Gaiman
Penciler: Bryan Talbot
Inker: Mark Buckingham
Colorist: Daniel Vozzo
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editor: Alisa Kwitney, Karen Berger

Neil Gaiman adapts the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus to the comic book mythology of the Endless in this pre-Vertigo DC Comics special from 1991. Here, Orpheus is the son of Dream, and the favorite nephew of the rest of the Endless.

This is a powerful adaptation with some interesting revelations about the Endless in the earlier parts of the story, with more of a straight-up retelling of the myth for the middle parts, followed by a very intense and original ending.

I particularly liked Orpheus' interactions with Charon, Hades, and Persephone in some of the story's key scenes.

This was a really good adaptation, and a nice addition to the Sandman's backstory.

Rating: 8.5/10

Shade: The Changing Man #44

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Shade: The Changing Man
Issue: 44
Date: February, 1994
Publisher: DC Comics (Vertigo)
Writer: Peter Milligan
Penciler: Chris Bachalo
Inker: Rick Bryant
Colorist: David Hornung
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editor: Shelly Roeberg, Karen Berger
Cover: Duncan Fegredo

Trapped in the midst of an outbreak of 17th Century witch hysteria, Lenny and Karen are about to be hanged, and Shade is not helping matters at all. In fact, he's actually transformed himself into the gallows tree as he wages an internal battle between his love and hate for Karen. Meanwhile, John Constantine tries to figure out the spell to get all of them out of this mess, only to find that the secret he needs is buried in a very dark place in his own past.

Loaded with overtones of abortion politics and religious puritanism, the story also features some heartbreaking interactions between all of the main characters. It also fills in some interesting backstory on Constantine, and serves up a side helping of time paradoxes.

I didn't read the issues leading into this one, so I probably missed some of what was going on here. There was a LOT going on. But even without all of the backstory, this was a memorable chapter in the tale of Shade and his fellow travelers.

Rating: 8.5/10