Batman #1

Alternating between indy books purchased at recent shows and "New 52" debuts from DC. Here's the first issue of the new Batman series.

Title: Batman
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Scott Snyder
Penciler: Greg Capullo
Inker: Jonathan Galpion
Colorist: FCO Plascencia
Letterer: Richard Starkings, Comicraft's Jimmy Betancourt
Editor: Katie Kubert, Janelle Asselin, Mike Marts
Cover: Ethan Van Sciver

I bought the (gorgeous) variant cover with artwork by Ethan Van Sciver (pictured above).

Opening introduction references a Gotham Gazette feature where random people complete the sentence "Gotham is _____" in three words or less. It's a really nice introductory reflection as we shift from a montage of Gotham nighttime scenes into the Batman taking on a full-scale riot at Arkham Asylum... With the Joker fighting alongside him!

This is the kind of surprise that I like to see from a new Batman book, and the explanation, when we finally get to it, is at least reasonable. Even better is the Batman's response when Jim Gordon questions him about what he saw in the security footage.

Batman has the trust of Gordon here, and we're in "present" time (as opposed to the "five years ago" setting for Justice League and Action Comics; my reviews are here and here respectively btw). Bruce Wayne is in full playboy socialite mode, but he's got his own plans to save Gotham in his civilian identity as well, and the scenes with Bruce Wayne do a good job of capturing his style and charisma. There's also a brief scene with Bruce and three Robins (Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne, and Tim Drake), and a really amusing bit involving the Batcomputer identifying the security access levels of the various sidekicks and former sidekicks. It's amusing to see who outranks them.

The mode quickly shifts back to gritty as the Batman helps the GCPD investigate a gruesome (and unsubtle) crime scene. Harvey Bullock! Now if we could just get Renee Montoya back. There is a mysterious prediction found at the crime scene, but the really shocking twist comes when the DNA evidence is analyzed and the Batman realizes that he's dealing with a mystery that hits close to home.

This was a really good Batman story, with elements of mystery, good action sequences, and excellent use of the supporting cast. It lays the seeds for several subplots and delivers a satisfying twist at the end.

Rating: 8/10

Flutter

Here's my first review of books brought home by my wife from last weekend's Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo in Cambridge MA.

Title: Flutter
Date: 2010
Publisher: Jennie Wood
Writer: Jennie Wood
Artist: Jeff McComsey
Letterer: Jeff McComsey

Standard comic format b/w teaser for the upcoming color graphic novel.

Fifteen-year-old Lily has a bit of an invulnerability problem. She's on the run with her father from some unspecified shady dealings, which probably have something to do with the superpowers that she appears to be manifesting.

She's also developed a crush on a girl at the new school she's attending, and she'd not about to let some gender identity concepts keep her from getting what she wants. Especially since her powers seem to include shapeshifting.

This was fun. It had a lot going on, including some gender politics themes and hints of a pretty complex backstory. Lily's frustration at not being able to experience "normal" sensations of pain comes through loud and clear, and her dialogue flows naturally in both of her identities. Good pacing too. Plenty happened in this issue, but it never felt excessively rushed.

Rating: 7.5/10

Men of War #1

DC comics returns to the old tradition of war comics with this series from the "New 52".

Title: Men of War
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Ivan Brandon, Jonathan Vankin
Penciler: Tom Derenick, Phil Winslade
Inker: Tom Derenick
Colorist: Matt Wilson, Thomas Chu
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editor: Kate Stewart, Joey Cavalieri
Cover: Viktor Kalvachev

DC's new war comic features (Corporal at the start of the story, sergeant by the time we're done) Joseph Rock, grandson of the classic Sergeant Rock character. He spends about three pages trading military cliches with his commanding officers as they dance around the issue of how Rock is a good soldier, but keeps disobeying orders, but in a way that always seems to work out in the end. The brass sees leadership potential in Rock, but Rock is content as a grunt. After the discussion fails to reach any kind of meaningful conclusion, we head into the thick of the action.

And not just any action. This is warfare in the superheroic age. The actual superheroes function as artillery. They're destructive, come out of nowhere, are not all that accurately targeted, and cause a ton of collateral damage.

Rock gets himself a battlefield promotion (the hard way), but not a whole lot of plot actually happens.

But wait, there's more. When I bought this comic, I didn't notice the $3.99 price tag until I brought it up to the register. I was a bit surprised that a title that doesn't feature a "hot" character got the higher price point. Apparently we are paying the extra buck for a backup story.

So, the backup story is "Navy Seals: Human Shields". The main thing that struck me was how wordy the dialogue was. I just have a very hard time believing that real soldiers in combat talk this much. And to add to the wordiness we get little translations of military terminology like "rocket propelled grenade" (and here I was thinking they meant Dungeons & Dragons) and "rules of engagement".

The main characters are a Navy Seal odd couple. One of them is a pretty straightforward gung-ho marine type. The other guy is a former Peace Corps volunteer who realized that "If you want to do good, it helps to have an assault rifle." You know, like Gandhi and Jesus used to carry. It doesn't help that the writers don't actually include any real details of the character's Peace Corps service, which might have at least made for some interesting background.

The story itself is clearly trying to highlight the moral ambiguities of war with a scared-looking insurgent girl nervously clutching a Kalashnikov. Of course the real threat is a Bin-Laden looking dude who jumps out to ambush the seals just as they decline to shoot the girl. Stereotyping much?

When this book was originally advertised, there was a mention that the new Sergeant Rock would be a Blackwater-style mercenary, so I'm glad that (so far, at least) there was no sign of that particular plot element. I liked the idea of showing warfare in the age of the superhero, and the point-of-view of the grunt on the ground while a Superman-level character wreaks havoc was impressive.

Unfortunately, the backup story was absolutely horrible. I admire the real-life Navy Seals, but these guys just needed to shut up.

There are a lot of important stories to be told about our armed forces serving in the current wars. They need a comic that does a better job of representing them.

Rating: 5/10

Deathstroke #1

Still more New 52.

Title: Deathstroke
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Kyle Higgins
Penciler: Joe Bennett
Inker: Art Thibert
Colorist: Jason Wright
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Rickey Purdin, Rachel Gluckstern
Cover: Simon Bisley

The problem with having a guy who's supposed to be the "world's greatest tactician" is that it holds the writing to a certain standard. The reader expects to see, well, good tactics.

Not bringing a sword to a gunfight (first scene). Not failing to get proper intel on your enemies (fourth scene). And definitely not letting your emotions goad you into killing your teammates for stupid reasons (last scene). And that applies even if the writer happens to let the supposed "world's greatest tactician" get away with all of the above. It even applies if the aforementioned teammates are annoying.

I know good tactics. This isn't it.

This is bad tactics being covered by even worse writing.

Rating: 3/10

DC Universe Presents #1

Title: DC Universe Presents
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
By: Paul Jenkins, Bernard Chang
Colorist: Blond
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Wil Moss
Cover: Ryan Sook

This is DC's new anthology title, featuring a rotating cast of characters who don't have their own spotlight elsewhere in the "New 52". Popular supernatural hero Deadman is up first, and it look like the plan is to give each featured character a multi-issue arc, probably aiming for trade-paperback length just in case they have a major hit.

This opening story is primarily a recap of Deadman's origin, with some glimpses of some of the people that he has helped since his return to earth in ghostly form. They set this up a lot like Quantum Leap. Boston Brand experiences life as other people (a wounded war veteran and an aging motorcycle stuntman rather blatantly modeled after Evel Knievel). These people, the "living bricks who will pave your way to enlightenment" according goddess Rama (who looks a lot like a Na'vi in a bellydancing outfit), are in need of exactly the kind of help that getting possessed by an outside entity can give.

Brand has an amusing conversation with a former friend, a carnival psychic who seems surprisingly dubious when confronted with an actual supernatural phenomena. The conversation doesn't really go anywhere, however, and Brand returns to trying to help the wounded soldier without the advice he was seeking, and we end on another confrontation with Rama, possibly with the soldier's life on the line.

The basic idea behind this was solid, and it gave a reasonable sense of purpose to the "New 52" version of Boston Brand. The execution, however, was choppy, and by the end I felt that nothing other than the recap of the origin story (which wasn't too far removed from the version I was familiar with) had actually happened.

Rating: 5.5/10

Catwoman #1

After a brief detour for The Great New England Steampunk Exposition, it's back to DC's "New 52". Here's one of this week's releases.

Title: Catwoman
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Judd Winick
Artist: Guillem March
Colorist: Tomeu Morey
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
Editor: Rachel Gluckstern, Rickey Purdin
Cover: Guillem March

The most unrealistic scene in this comic is not Selina crashing through an upper-story window and landing unharmed. It's not her dodging bullets, or outfighting overwhelming numbers of trained killers. It's not even Selina seducing the Batman.

The most unrealistic scene in this comic is Selina getting six cats into a single cat carrier in 30 seconds. Sorry, I don't care if she's the Catwoman. I wouldn't care if she had all the powers of Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Darkseid. NOBODY can do that.

That being said, this was a fairly entertaining story. It's definitely a violent story, and it was REALLY pushing the T+ rating, but you know what? That was fine for this book. I know I tend to get annoyed with some of the excesses of comics when it comes to violence, but if any book should be sexy and violent, it's Catwoman.

The story gets off to a running start as Selina gets the type of foreclosure notification that is accompanied by armed thugs and explosives. So she's broke and out on the streets. That's the motivation. Fortunately she's got her own personal "Oracle", a fence named Lola ("...and she actually was a showgirl." Ha!). I liked Lola. She's attractive, but still more realistically drawn than pretty much every woman in the new DCU (Apparently including Amanda Waller! WTF? Actually, don't get me started. That one gets its own review rant).

Lola sets up Selina with a gig bartending at a Russian mob party. Actually, she just supplies the address of the party. Selina helps herself to the gig using the time-honored tradition of rendering the bartender unconscious and stealing her clothing (Yay! Oh, wait, the scene takes place off-screen... Boo!). Selina takes time out from scouting her next heist to inflict some payback on a bad guy in need of payback. Brawl follows.

And then there's a sex scene with the Batman. All of which leads us full circle back to the genuinely hilarious title of this story, "And most of the costumes stay on..." Ha!

Okay, this was not exactly a literary masterpiece, but it was fun, and everything in the story worked well. I'd rather have the raunch factor cranked up in this book than have it be the standard for the whole "New 52". Here it works.

Rating: 7/10

Girl Genius Volume 2: Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City

This was my only purchase at this weekend's Great New England Steampunk Exposition.

Title: Girl Genius Volume 2: Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City
Date: 2010
Publisher: Airship Entertainment
Writer: Kaja Foglio, Phil Foglio
Penciler: Phil Foglio
Colorist: Mark McNabb

This is the second volume collection the webcomic by Phil and Kaja Foglio.

Former student Agatha Clay awakens aboard Baron Wulfenbach's airship city following an incident involving an out-of-control clank (robot). A rogue soldier named Von Zinzer is assumed to be the creator of the clank, and therefore possessing of the spark of mad science. Now he needs Agatha to help him keep up the charade long enough to find a way out of the airship city.

The plot really thickens from here. As I mentioned in a review I did of the first volume (this review predates this blog), Agatha herself doesn't get much of the spotlight in the beginning. That is quickly fixed here, and the character is really allowed to shine.

Girl Genius is primarily a comedy, but it's an adventure-comedy with an excellent plot and some really important issues underlying the slapstick jokes. This volume also introduced an excellent array of supporting characters and a bunch of subplots.

Phil Foglio's art style is a distinctive mix of cartoony characters and action sequences with some spectacularly detailed renderings of machinery and backgrounds. The two-page spread that revealed the airship city was simply awesome.

This volume took a series that was already quite good and kicked it into high gear. But don't take my word for it. The whole series is available as a free webcomic. Go to www.girlgenius.net.

Rating: 8.5/10

Green Arrow #1

More from DC's "New 52".

Title: Green Arrow
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: J. T. Krul
Penciler: Dan Jurgens
Inker: George Perez
Colorist: David Baron
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editor: Sean Mackiewicz, Pat McCallum
Cover: Dave Wilkins

Oliver Queen gets one of the biggest makeovers in the "New 52". He's the owner of a tech corporation now, a fairly blatant ripoff of Apple (there's even a Q-Pad *sigh*). So I guess they're not so much making Ollie into Steve Jobs. They're making him into Tony Stark.

Ollie skips board meetings to travel the world hunting down (third-rate, so far) super-villains. In this case he takes on Dynamix, Doppelganger, and Supercharge in what is essentially an extended jobber squash. Ollie barely breaks a sweat as he dismantles this crew of idiots with an array of trick arrows, plus a few of the old-fashioned pointy kind. Sadly, no boxing-glove arrow, though. No Phantom Zone arrow either. That was a classic one they need to bring back sometime. But really, just one use of the boxing-glove arrow for old-times sake is all I ask!

Ollie has a support team that consist of a woman named Naomi, who is basically a poor imitation of Oracle just by the fact that she is not Barbara Gordon. She seems to wish she was on the support team of someone with fewer scruples about just blowing the bad guys up. Maybe Frank Castle is hiring?

There is also a guy named Jax who reluctantly designs weapons, and he's the best character in the book so far. Which means he'll probably get killed off around issue 3.

Ollie gets in some good lines as he lectures the villains while administering a beatdown. The experienced team of Jurgens and Perez does a great job with the art, and the action is fast-paced without losing attention to detail.

This is one of the more radical departures for a classic character that we've seen in the "New 52", and I had a bit of a hard time reconciling this corporate version of Ollie with the fight-the-power aging hippie version from earlier series. I did think this version was a huge improvement over the (awful) "corporate" version of Ollie presented in one of the Flashpoint crossovers. This character is at least competent and heroic.

Dinah is also conspicuous in her absence, and I'm hoping they have plans to get her involved somehow.

But this is an enjoyable, entertaining superhero book, and the series definitely hit the ground running.

Rating: 6.5/10

Animal Man #1

Another character that spent some time as a Vertigo book. Now back in the main DCU for the "New 52".

Title: Animal Man
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Penciler: Travel Foreman
Inker: Travel Foreman, Dan Green
Colorist: Lovern Kindzierski
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Kate Stewart, Joey Cavalieri
Cover: Travel Foreman

Clever opening with a first-page text feature that is a magazine interview with actor, animal rights activist, and semi-retired superhero Buddy Baker. Buddy isn't really sure what to do with himself, and the pressures to provide for his family are beginning to mount.

When he stops a distraught hostage-taker at a hospital, Buddy gets his first hint that something is not right in the morphogenic field that is the source of his powers.

The focus soon shifts to Buddy's daughter, Maxine, who really wants a pet puppy. Someone should have played the old song "dead puppies aren't much fun" for her.

There's also a very surreal (and pretty effective) dream sequence in here.

Horror, check. Family drama, check. Something weird going on with Maxine, check. Surrealism and bizarre dreams, check.

Yeah, this is an Animal Man book. It is, in fact, THE typical Animal Man story from the Vertigo run, and it left me with quite a bit of deja vu. I'm guessing this was a conscious decision, made to introduce new readers to they type of story that longtime fans expect from this title. While not all that new or original, it was handled well from start to finish.

Buddy Baker works really well as a sort of liberal "everyman" character. He's an environmentalist and a vegan, and he's got a complex family situation to juggle. And he's basically a well-intentioned nice guy. A lot of readers will relate to him (even readers who don't agree with him on his choice of a vegan lifestyle). It's hard not to relate to him.

The story moved along at a good pace and planted plenty of seeds for future action. It also had some creepy moments and a disturbing ending.

I would have liked some more originality, but this provided a good starting point.

Rating: 7/10

Batwing #1

Another book from the first week of DC's "New 52".

Title: Batwing
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Judd Winick
Artist: Ben Oliver
Colorist: Brian Reber
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
Editor: Mike Marts, Rickey Purdin
Cover: Ben Oliver, Brian Reber

The "Batman of Africa" is David Zavimbe, an police officer in the city of Tinasha in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He's a by-the-books detective who prefers to solve crimes from behind his desk, but of course, that's a front for his activities as Batwing.

We open in the midst of a fight scene between Batwing and a guy named Massacre. Because the name "Genocide" was apparently already taken. One of these days, DC Comics are going to run out of synonyms for "mass murder", and then they're probably just start assigning numbers to their villains. Or maybe use the Greek alphabet or something.

We leave the fight scene for an extended flashback that takes up most of the issue. The Batman makes a guest appearance, and some of the other supporting cast is introduced. A mystery involving the original African superhero team (The Kingdom) begins to unravel, just in time for Zavimbe to find Massacre (at the site of a... wait for it... massacre!).

This was good in terms of pacing, and action, and the establishment of Zavimbe as a new apprentice to the Batman was interesting.

But I found the overall flavor of the book to be disappointing. I learned nothing about African society and culture reading this. I realize that this is an action comic book, not a sociology text, and I also realize that there is an attempt here to be realistic about a part of the world that really is recovering from an extended period of horrible internal warfare. I realize that corruption in government and law enforcement is a huge issue.

But depicting an entire police force that cares only about where the next bribe is coming from (except for the hero and one female officer/potential-love-interest who is beginning to see the light), is not being realistic. It's playing to stereotypes. Couple that with the fact that all the characters who appear in this issue are either 1) part of the hero's team, 2) the aforementioned "female-cop-with-potential-heart-of-gold", 3) murderous thugs, or 4) The Batman, and you've got a book that is failing to do justice to its setting. And when you set a book in Africa, doing justice to the setting should be a top priority.

I think I need to see what it was that Zavimbe felt was worth fighting for.

What I didn't need to see was an ending the loaded up on the gore just for the sake of convincing us that the villain was a bad guy, before getting to a "shocking" finish that was mostly shocking in the sense that it left me wondering how the writer intends to write out of the corner he wrote himself into.

As a generic (violent) superhero story, this was not bad. As with the new Batgirl (my review is here), I expected a lot more out of this book, given what it is attempting to do.

The first issue failed to live up to those expectations.

Rating: 4.5/10