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

DC Retroactive Batman: The 1980s #1

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: DC Retroactive Batman: The 1980s
Issue: 1
Date: October, 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Artist: Jerry Bingham, Alan Davis, Paul Neary
Colorist: Carlos Badilla, Adrienne Roy
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual, Richard Starkings
Editor:Jim Chadwick, Chynna Glugston Flores, Denny O'Neil

This book contains a new story, and a reprint, both written by Mike W. Barr. The reprint is the classic first issue of  Batman Year Two from Detective Comics #575 in 1987. This story introduces the Reaper, a vigilante who once stalked Gotham's criminal element, and who has now come out of retirement and into conflict with the Batman, who is still at the beginning of his own path of vigilante justice, less lethal than that of the Reaper.

This is a good classic Batman story with some excellent character work on Leslie Thompkins, Alfred, and Commissioner Gordon, along with the introduction of Rachel Caspian, a love interest of Bruce Wayne with a connection to the Reaper. Rachel Caspian is an intriguing character and the art team of Davis and Neary do a great job with her look. Likewise, the Reaper is a really fun design with his twin sickles, hidden guns, and armor.

The Batman's reaction to the thorough trouncing he receives at the hands (blades) of the Reaper seems a bit odd, but it makes sense in the "Year Two" context of the story.

The new story is a sequel, with a new Reaper stalking Gotham's crime families, and Batman on the case with Robin at his side.  The story was fun, with some good plot twists, but it went for more of an 80s-amusing vibe (with some of the dialogue throwing back to Adam West 1960s Batman), and as such, it lacked the gravitas of the original story. The new Reaper just never rises to the threat level of the original, and the result is what feels like just a regular day at work for the Batman and the Boy Wonder. Not that this is a terrible thing; I enjoyed the story. It just felt a bit out of place as a direct follow-up to something as iconic as Year Two.

Rating: 5.5/10

Swamp Thing Halloween Horror Giant #1

I believe this is a Walmart exclusive, at least that's the only place I've ever seen these new DC 100-Page Comic Giant editions. I bought this one at a Walmart in Massachusetts during our Christmas visit home to the USA.

Title: Swamp Thing Halloween Horror Giant
Issue: 1
Date: 2018
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Brian Azzarello, Dan Didio, Paul Dini, Steve Niles, Mikey Way, J. Michael Straczynski, Denny O'Neil, Len Wein
Artist: Greg Caputo, Jonathan Glapion, Dustin Nguyen, Ian Churchill, Norm Rapmuno, Dean Ormston, Mateus, Jesus Saiz, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Berni Wrightson
Colorist: FCO Plascencia, Rod Reis, Chris Peter, Trish Mulvhill
Letterer: Travis Lanham, Rob Leigh
Editor: Dave Wielgosz, Chris Conroy, Joey Cavalieri, Julius Schwartz

This is a mass-market special featuring one new Swamp Thing story, and seven horror-themed reprints from all over the DC Universe (there isn't a one-to-one listing of the original sources, but the stories come from Batman, Brave and the Bold, House of Secrets, and a couple of the past DC Halloween Specials). The lineup of creators is impressive, and a decent variety of DC Comics characters are featured as well, with the Swamp Thing getting the first and last stories.

First up was the new Swamp Thing story, featuring Twiglet interrupting some Halloween mayhem that turns out to be more than just treats. She tells a story of her first meeting with the Swamp Thing, before giving the bad guys a more personal introduction. This was the only story that was in the current continuity, and it felt rather choppy and incomplete, with a lot of vague references to a being that I assume is going to be a major Swamp Thing Villain going forward.

Next up was Blue Devil and Enchantress in a rather blatant and very dark-comedy parody of It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, with enough names changed for plausible deniability. My main reaction was mostly just to be a bit surprised that they went there. The story itself didn't have much to it.

There also wasn't that much to the Zatanna story, which involved Halloween candy tainted with the Scarecrow's fear-drug. This was a pretty straightforward in why Zatanna is not someone you want to piss off. Ever.

Next up, and odd Superman vs. zombies story. The zombies are magical kryptonite zombies or something which makes this a bit more of a challenge, but it's Superman's reluctance to kill which is what first gets in the way. The ending is strange, but visually fun.

"The Ballad of Jonathan Crane" puts Jonathan in the place of Ichabod in a variant of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It has a fun Gotham by Gaslight style Elseworlds vibe, and features some fuin guest appearances.

Another odd story features the surprising team of Etrigan and Aquaman as they battle, well, Cthulhu basically. This one is a blatant homage (bordering on ripoff) of Lovecraft. The artwork on this story was great, and I am happy to report with Etrigan was in full-rhyming mode, which always makes for a better Demon story. It was fun to see Aquaman in a horror story, and he fit the flavor of it surprisingly well.

The Batman story "Night of the Reaper" was a particularly dark tale of the Dark Knight, all set around a superhero-themed costume parade and costume party. The strangest thing in this story was that because the background characters were mostly ordinary folks cosplaying, the artists got to include a bunch of Marvel characters in the crowds. There were definitely some in-jokes thrown into was was otherwise a grim story about Nazi war criminals and revenge.

Last up was the classic Swamp Thing origin story by the original team of Wein and Wrightson from House of Secrets #92 in 1971. This is still a fun horror story that holds up well, even if it is not the current incarnation of DC's classic monster.

Overall, this is a fun book with a lot of really quirky things going on. Between the various bits of history and the literary and pop culture references, this book should bring a few smiles to the faces of most geeky readers. The stories generally try a bit too hard to be clever, and most are not really particularly good at being genuine horror stories, but I still found it to be a fun book with a real all-star lineup of creators to sample.

Rating: 7/10

Detective Comics #575

Kiddo picked this one out for me to read today. This is probably the most valuable (not that that is saying much) and most historically important book in the stack of random unread comics. I think it's the oldest as well.

Title: Detective Comics
Issue: 575
Date: June, 1987
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Penciler: Alan Davis
Inker: Paul Neary
Colorist: Adrienne Roy
Letterer: Richard Starkings
Editor: Denny O'Neil

This is the first installment of the Batman Year 2 storyline, which followed up on the historical reimagining of the Batman's origin in Batman Year 1.

With James Gordon now Commissioner of Police in Gotham, the Batman has the official sanction of the police department, and the newly-installed Bat Signal shines from the roof of police headquarters.

But the Batman was not the first vigilante to stalk Gotham's streets, and it appears that after a twenty-year hiatus, the Reaper has returned to Gotham, handing out death to any criminals who have the misfortune to encounter him.

And when the still-inexperienced Batman confronts the Reaper, he barely survives the encounter.

Now, the Batman is forced to consider how far he is willing to go in escalating the violence of his own campaign against crime.

The Reaper is a great villain, older and more skilled than the young Bruce Wayne of this series, and completely ruthless in his crusade against crime.

Wayne's thoughts of using a gun do seem a bit silly, as it seems unlikely that a pistol is going to make that much of a difference against the Reaper, but the gun, of course, is really just symbolic. And it does make for an awesome image on the cover.

Jim Gordon and Doctor Leslie Tompkins are solid in their supporting roles here, and the newly-introduced Rachel Caspian is an intriguing addition to the story.

This doesn't have the initial kind of impact that Batman Year 1 did, but it's still a very good Batman story.

Rating: 7/10

Justice League of America #80

First review in a while, and there have been big changes in my life since the last time I posted here. I'm typing this from our new apartment in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where we are currently settling in. I start my new day job here in a few days.

We were pretty limited in the amount of stuff we were able to bring over, and the packing was something of a whirlwind process. As a result, only a small stack of comics from the seemingly-endless backlog made the trip. I've got a baker's dozen comics with me...

... Plus about five graphic novels. After that, I'll have to find them locally.

In the meantime, let's start with a classic American issue: A Justice League comic from 1970.

Title: Justice League of America

Issue: 80

Date: May, 1970

Publisher: DC Comics

Writer: Denny O'Neil

Artist: Dick Dillin, Joe Giella

Thanagaran bad guy Norch Lor is stealing souls with something he calls a Ghenna box, and the JLA mostly stumble around trying to stop him. Lor's motivations are a bit fuzzy here, but basically he is out to preserve souls due to some impending universal apocalypse.

He is one of those pesky villains that gives the League more trouble than he has any right to. And unfortunately, the plot is loaded with little inconsistencies, down to the effects of his Ghenna thingee. It puts some victims into a coma while it leaves others in a kind of zombie-like condition.

I did like the fact that it is Canary who finally gets the upper hand on the bad guy (with a sleeper-hold, no less!), but the plot holes here were just a bit too frequent and too large. There was also a rather tired "an unprotected person can survive for 10 seconds in space" bit, which I have seen done in at least two other comics from this general time period. And the story hinted on the cover bears little resemblance to what actually occurs.

I did like to science facts backup features which took up a couple of pages of the book.

But a bad villain and a bad weak plot don't make for much entertainment value.

Rating: 4.5/10