Earth 2 Annual #2 – Review

By: Tom Taylor (story), Robson Rocha (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: And the new Batman is…

The Review: While the beauty of a Multiverse is in its endless variety, people are most times attracted not to seeing wide-swinging differences between each world, but rather the fine alterations—the What If’s of already familiar stories.  It’s easy enough to see how the reversal of moral polarity on Earth-3 turned it into such a grim, stricken planet; it’s not so easy to pick out where things diverged on Earth-2.

As we move further back into Earth-2’s history, the differences become even harder to spot.  By all appearances, Batman-2 has the same origin story as his Earth-Prime counterpart.  So what was it that set his life off course, so that he could become the well-adjusted vigilante who found love, marriage, and family?  Before now, the only culprit you could have pointed to was his boyhood friendship with Clark.  This annual gives us a bigger, better reason for Bruce’s growth, but more importantly, it gives a good reason for Batman’s legacy to continue.

Batman #25 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Greg Capullo (pencils), Danny Miki (inks), FCO Plascencia (colors) and Nick Napolitano (letters)

Back-up by: Snyder & James Tynion IV (writers), Andy Clarke (art), Blond (colors) and Dezi Sienty (letters)

The Story: Batman and Gordon separately try to solve crimes while Gotham is in blackout.

Review (with SPOILERS): This issue continues the bit of magic that Batman found last month in Batman #24.  Batman is really, really good again and that’s great because the world just seems more centered with a Scott Snyder-written Batman comic among the best comics in publication.  He’s been doing this for 3 years now, folks.  It’s pretty amazing.

But, let’s mix the review up a little bit and talk about his artistic collaborators first.  Even an art fan like me always talks about the art second and that’s not really fair…

This is really a glorious issue from an art standpoint.  The team accomplishes the two stretch goals for any comic: (a) no crappy panels and (b) memorable images.  I can’t emphasize enough how important the “no crappy panels” rule is.  It’s all well and good to have a snappy story and a few wickedly good panels of art, but if the art stumbles anywhere the entire comic can be like that lady in Ode to a Louse where the lady is all pretty and beautiful for church, except for the louse crawling around on her bonnet.  Yuck! It kinda ruins the image!  Well, singular crappy panels of art can make a reader have to repeat pages or stare at a panel long enough to break the rhythm of the comic.  It’s amazing to me how Capullo and Co. create so many great panels, but maintain their excellence to grind out even the most mundane panels.  It’s really professional.

As for memorable panels, it’s easy to get distracted by the energy of the new Batmobile (a little too Plymouth Prowler for my taste…) or the scary Dr. Death (imagine his flossing problems!), but let’s instead go to the page where Bruce and Alfred crawl out of the Batcave and find Gordon waiting on them.  The panel at the top shows Bruce halfway out of the hole and Gordon, squatting to look down at him as he emerges.  Bruce is looking up at him like a little kid would look at a grown-up and Gordon is returning the gesture of looking down in a kindly fashion at a little boy, the way you might look down at a little boy who had just jostled into you in the crowd and fallen on his butt.  Everything about the panel is amazing.  It frames the dynamic between the two men perfectly, the anatomy is perfect, and the facial expressions (in profile, no less) are perfect.  The color is perfect.  Yeesh… Do you know how easy it is to screw up a panel like this?  A weird expression, a weird wrinkle of clothing, having Gordon’s knees not bending properly…  There was a lot that could be screwed up and they instead created a tour de force of a panel.

Earth Two #17 – Review

By: Tom Taylor (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Dezi Sienty (colors)

The Story: The World Army suspects Superman’s problem is want of a wife.

The Review: I’ll be honest; I don’t really have a good reason to remain on this title after the seemingly endless streak of thoroughly underwhelming issues James Robinson put out up until his departure.  Goodness knows, I’ve Dropped many other series for less dire reasons.  On top of that, Tom Taylor isn’t exactly a name that inspires immediate confidence, especially when the task before him is rehabilitating a title that’s been left lifeless and aimless for so long.

While this issue doesn’t represent a radical shift from the storytelling we had before, there are some noticeable improvements, modest as they are.  The issue certainly moves a little faster without any of that exhausting narration Robinson was so fond of, and the dialogue is a little smoother and more credible.  The incessant repetition of information is gone, replaced with lines that actually advance the plot.  These are all worthwhile changes.

American Vampire: Anthology #1 – Review

By: Scott Snyder, Jason Aaron, Rafael Albuquerque, Jeff Lemire, Becky Cloonan, Francesco Francavilla, Gail Simone, Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon, Declan Shalvey, Ivo Milazzo, Ray Fawkes, Tula Lotay, Greg Rucka, JP Leon, Dave McCaig, Jordie Bellaire, Jared K. Fletcher, Steve Wands, Travis Lanham, Dezi Sienty

The Story: A group of super-creators gathers to tell short stories set in the American Vampire universe.

Review (with very minor SPOILERS): Whoa! This was really incredible.  I knew I wanted to read this issue because I’ve read and loved every issue of American Vampire.  It wasn’t even a question for me, despite the $7.99 price tag.  I love AV and this was a MUST READ.  Even if it costs as much as two other comics, it was twice as long and probably ten times as good.

Even though I expected quality, I was still surprised by the excellence of the content.  I really didn’t know what to expect from the stories within.  I’m sure there have been interviews out there that detailed the content of assembled stories, but I quit reading such interviews a long time ago.  So, I went into this cold and couldn’t be more pleased.

The issue features a framing sequence by Snyder and Albuquerque (the regular creators on AV), set in 1967 New Mexico featuring everyone’s favorite American vampire: Skinner Sweet.  There isn’t a ton of content here.  Just a few little pages showing Skinner getting into a messy fracas that is surely a tease for when the ongoing series returns from hiatus.  I can’t wait to see more of this story.  Why did those bikers want to kill Skinner?  Skinner versus Hell’s Angels?  That sounds nifty.  I’ll read that.  Please hurry up and create those comics for me, sirs.  It also raised an interesting thought in my mind: Skinner sure hasn’t gone very far from home.  Except for his World War II excursion, he has never left the American Southwest and southern California.  I’m not really sure if that means anything except that Skinner was probably a lot like other Americans of that era: He mostly stayed around his home area except for war.  I mean, we haven’t seen Skinner in New York or South Beach.  Kinda interesting…

Batman #23 – Review

 

Main story by: Scott Snyder (writer), Greg Capullo (pencils), Danny Miki (inks), FCO Plascencia (colors) and Nick Napolitano (letters)

Back-up story by: Snyder & James Tynion, IV (writers), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Dezi Sienty (letters)

The Story: Attacked in his own home, young Bruce Wayne is inspired to “become the bat.”

The Review: This is a tricky comic to review because I’m starting to feel that this Zero Year storyline is written for people who are not me.  As I consume this story (issue by issue), I cannot help trying to shoehorn its events into Bat-continuity.  I literally spend the whole time thinking, “Is this at the same time as Year One?  Is it before?  After?  Gosh, it seems like the same time as Year One, but how could this happen when we already know that that happened?”  Of course by Year One, I’m referring to the classic 1987 four-issue storyline by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli.  That story is about as perfect as any superhero story that has ever been written: tight, focused, well paced, poignant and beautifully illustrated.  I’ve reread Year One a few times over the years, and while many 1980’s superhero stories don’t “hold up” (see: Dark Phoenix Saga or the Kree-Skrull War), Year One still has its mojo.  But, this isn’t specifically a problem with comparing Zero Year with Year One.  It happens to me anytime superhero comics gaze backwards because I’m a person who tries to complete the puzzle, and often superhero comics make me feel as if they are multiple puzzles combined that have the same finished picture, but where the pieces have been cut differently so that you can’t mix-and-match; you can get a general outline of what the characters look like, but never a tidy image.

On the other hand, even though Year One is great, it is also close to 30 years old.  Sometimes you gotta freshen up your look and I don’t want to be the old dude who holds back progress by demanding that all comics of today conform to the comics I read 30+ years ago.  New 52 and all that…  It’s just that maybe these comics aren’t for me, or at least I realize they aren’t quite for me when they look backward.  I find I like the “continuing saga” but not the history anymore.

Batman #20 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Greg Capullo (pencils), Danny Miki (inks), FCO Plascencia (colors), Comicraft (letters)

Back-up by: James Tynion IV (writer), Alex Maleev (art), Nathan Fairbairn (colors), Dezi Sienty (letters)

The Story: Batman versus Clayface.

Review (with very minor SPOILERS): Last issue suffered from misaligned reader expectations.  Snyder & Capullo had been telling epic Bat-stories for a year and a half, so when they hit us with a mere Batman vs. Clayface 2-issue story, it was hard to know what to make of it: “Really?  Just a superhero fighting a supervillain?  No redefinition of what it means to be Batman?  No deconstruction?”  Now that last issue altered my expectations, it was possible to enjoy the solid execution in this issue.

From a macro-standpoint, it’s probably wise for Snyder to mix up the storytelling.  As mentioned above, he’s been telling hardcore Bat-stories for a long time.  Even before this partnership with Greg Capullo, he did that great run in Detective Comics.  Starting with next issue, he’s doing this Batman: Zero Year story that will run for 11 issues and will surely have epic overtones.  Maybe Snyder just thought we needed a cigarette break before going back into the serious Bat-stories.

Batman #19 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Greg Capullo (pencils), Danny Miki (inks), FCO Plascencia (colors) and Comicraft (letters)

Back-up by: James Tynion, IV (writer), Alex Maleev (art), Brad Anderson (colors) and Dezi Sienty (letters)

The Story: Wait…..what is Bruca Wayne robbing a bank?

Review (with SPOILERS): I didn’t love this quite as much as the beginnings of Synder’s other Batman stories.  There’s nothing really wrong with it, but when you compare it to Black Mirror, Court of Owls and Death of the Family, it’s a little hard to see how a Clayface story will be joining those all time greats.  And make no mistake–those previous Snyder Batman stories are ones that DC should be able to keep in constant hardcover publication for 10+ years.  They are all comics that you could hand to any friend who “wants to read a good Batman story”.  In fact, I’d probably give those Snyder Batman stories as gifts before other classics like Dark Knight Rises and Year One just because they have a more modern sensibility about them.

Batman #11 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Greg Capullo (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks), FCO Plascencia (colors), Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt (letters), Katie Kubert (assistant editor) & Mike Marts (editor)

Back-up by: Snyder & James Tynion, IV (writers), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Dezi Sienty (assistant editor) & Marts (editor)

The Story: The “final battle” between Batman and his evil brother (?) Lincoln March.  Stuff is revealed….

The Review: 1). Just an epically good Batman story. – As a personal aside, it’s not a big secret that I’ve been souring on the world of superhero comics for some time.  I buy more Vertigo titles than I do DC and Marvel combined.  It isn’t that I don’t like these characters, it’s that I’ve already read them in hundreds of issues and it takes a very special creative team to make it feel special.