Batman #7 – Review

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

The Story: After defeating the Talon (or at least a Talon), both Batman and the Court of Owls retreat to their lairs to make plans.

A Few Things: 

1. This book/team is hard to review. – I’ve said this before, but the quality level of Batman by Snyder/Capullo/Glapion/FCO is so high that it’s hard to review and grade.  I’m sure this is a better comic that others that I’ve given a similar grade to.  I constantly find myself trapped by not having enough room at the top of the grading scale, like I’m an Olympics gymnastics judge who has boxed himself in by giving too many 9.8s and suddenly wishing that scores could go up to 20.  But, the other thing that happens is actively looking for flaws, because sometimes there aren’t any.  Do I love that Snyder added another item to the Year 1 story with the bat getting eaten by an owl?  No, but only because that pivotal night has gotten crowded over the years.  Did I love Dick Grayson showing up in an all-time-classic Bruce Wayne story?  No, not really.  But the rest of the issue is so good that it seems silly to harp on little quibbles and I feel bad for seeking them out, but if I don’t do that, these reviews end up with me just pouring accolades and who needs that? 😉

2. Finally, a story worth of a longer arc! – Usually, when a superhero story arc gets up to issue #7, I start thinking that some writers and editors need to get over themselves.  Very few stories are big enough and good enough to soak up 6+ months of a comic book.  A good example might be Ed Brubaker’s Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire arc that ran for 12 issues in Uncanny X-Men ~6 years ago.  If you didn’t like that story (and almost no one did), tough shit. That was your Uncanny story for the year.  But in this case, not only are we getting to see extremely gifted creators showing off how talented they are from a pure craft standpoint, but the story merits this time too.  I mean, this is a story about how Batman doesn’t really understand Gotham at all.  It’s an epic story and a perfect story to tell coming out of the New 52 reboot.  This story lays out the nature of Bruce Wayne and all the supporting characters in a way that should have binding implications for years and years of Bat-stories… Long after Snyder and Capullo have left the title.  I can’t wait to see what happens next!

3. Enjoy Snyder’s use of narration boxes. – Lots of writers use narration boxes to bridge two scenes.  Snyder does something that always impresses me. His narration boxes always make some sense for both scenes; hence, they are good bridges.  But, they always make a little more sense for the second scene, so they carry the story forward.  This is one of those little things where Snyder excels as the craft of comics.  Even if the story was some tepid, reheated Joker tale, I’ll bet those narration boxes will still make the action flow wonderfully from scene to scene.

Batman #6 – Review

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

Four Things: 

1. This is a real tour de force artistically. – Man, it’s hard to even know where to start gushing about the art in this issue.  Every page has something that could be analyzed and called our for being special, but a few things really stood out.  One is that Capullo shows us some really crazy perspectives in this issue.  You know how in a basic art class they teach you to pick a point on the horizon and have everything shrinking towards that point?  Well, Capullo turns that on it’s ear by having all kinds of dominant perspective lines that (a) would never meet up if you continued them into infinity OR (b) are curved.  And, this is fitting given the drug-induced fever dream aspect of the comic, but whereas you see some artists just kinda randomly slinging objects around on the page, Capullo has a very defined plan for his warped perspectives.  Nice!  The second item that really got me was the energy and brutality of the fight between Batman and Talon.  You really feel like these are two big, strong guys beating the snot out of each other.  The sheer vitality of the characters even helped me overlook a few places where I couldn’t tell how the action flowed from panel-to-panel.  The third is how F-ing creepy owls are.  Who knew?  Those talon-hands!  Gah!  It wouldn’t surprise me if people read this and started setting owls on fire just to be safe.

2. Let’s heap some praise on inker Glapion and colorist FCO too. – It’s hard to not screw up pencils like Capullo’s.  The combination of (i) high levels of detail and (ii) intense energy is kinda a no-win situation for an inker/colorist.  There are a lot of lesser inkers who would have this issue come out looking stiff, but Glapion makes it work. Seriously, if you follow artists on Twitter you often see awesome pencils getting posted only to see the final art screwed up by the inker and colorist.  I’m not enough of an artist to know how they’re doing this, but I tend to think it comes down to Glapion’s control over the thickness of all these fine lines he has to draw (love inkers who don’t retreat to the pens just because the line is fine) and FCO being willing to go with the flow.  This is not art that needs all kinds of stupid highlights.  FCO just picks colors and shades that will work and stays within himself.

Batman #5 – Review

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

The Story: It’s a complete mind-bender as the Court of Owls has Batman trapped in a maze.  Or do they??

Three Things:

1. Interesting mechanic with the twisting storytelling. – I read this comic digitally (as I do with an increasing number of comics).  And, about halfway through the issue, we started getting to panels where the orientation was “off.”  By that I mean, the iPad’s concept of what was “down” was different than what my eyes said.  So, to read it you had to lock the iPad’s orientation and rotate it from page-to-page.  I presume the same had to be done with the dead tree version of the comic.  Mixed feelings on this…..  First, the twisting very much fit the story and was a good way to make the reader experience the confusion that Batman was feeling.  Second, it’s great to see creators trying something different.  Not everything experimental is going to work, but you don’t advance the artform by doing the same old things.  Third, I really didn’t like the effect.  I had to step away from the story to remind myself how to lock the iPad’s orientation, so that I could read the panels and once I’m reading an iPad technical support page, the mind-bending effect is lost.  So, in summary: I credit the creators for trying something experimental and hope they never do it again.  Honestly, it wouldn’t be that hard for DC to “fix” this.  Just reorient those pages!

[EDIT added by Dean on Jan 25, 2012: Another thought on why the twisting orientation MAY not have worked so well digitally….  When reading on an iPad, having to reorient the device to view a double-page spread is ROUTINE.  It happens about once per issue whereas reorienting a paper comic is rare (usually only for those centerfold spreads).  Not sure what that means, but it is another way of explaining why it has a different effect digitally than on paper.]

2. Is this all in the mind?? – Man…..this is a really twisted story (literally).  It’s impossible to tell how much of Batman’s experience in the maze is mental and how much is really happening.  And….we’ll probably never know.  This story immediately reminded me of two other Batman stories.  One is Snyder’s own Black Mirror where Dick Grayson get’s a whiff of hallucinogenic poison that makes him see weird stuff (but you never really know if some of it is real).  The other way the classic, Batman: The Cult, just for the effect of seeing Batman having a mental breakdown.  Maybe Jason Todd will save him?  This was a really unsettling story.  I don’t even know if I enjoyed it, but I know that I’ll remember it.

3. Great bits of visual storytelling by the art team. – Twisting panel orientations aside, there was some great visual storytelling.  You know how there’s always this hand-wringing from fanboys if an artist makes Batman’s eyeballs visible under the cowl?  Well, I love how Batman is shown in this issue with one classic, triangle eye and the other side with the ‘lens’ smashed and showing his eyeball.  For one thing, it allows Capullo to wring a lot of emotion out of Batman with the cowl on.  You can’t really do that with the triangle eyes.  For another, just seeing him like that says, “Man, that dude is fucked up!”  Especially because this isn’t battle damage….this is more like he got disoriented and smacked his face into something and was too disturbed to fix his mask.  The rest of the issue is great, from the barrage of little, tight panels that sell the disorientation, to the Owl-man’s eyes lurking behind Batman, to the scenes where Batman’s hands look more like owl talons, to the scene where the owls crawl out from inside someone…. This issue has a LOT of memorable visuals.  Who knew that owls were so creepy?  I always kinda liked them before.

Conclusion: A real masterpiece of a comic.  Most comics you read and just kinda toss them to the side.  This issue is full of visual moments that will stick with you for a long time.  Wonderful storytelling by the whole creative team.  But, let’s not make digital readers leave the comic and go into the iPad’s settings to be able to continue the experience.

Grade: A (ignoring the weird twisting thing and counting on DC to FIX it in the digital store)

-Dean Stell

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Batman #3 – Review

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

The Story: Batman investigates a secret society within Gotham.

Five Things: 

1. Really awesome art.  The Capullo/Glapion/FCO team is really something!  They excel in all phases of comic art.  Can they tell the story?  Check.  Can they make the pages visually interesting?  Check.   Do they do good action?  Check.  Can they make a page of two guys talking in a hospital room appealing: Check.  They really do it ALL well, but everything flows from Capullo’s storytelling and layouts.  He is one of those guys who have so mastered his craft that he can make each page visually unique (from a layout standpoint) without sacrificing storytelling or making it hard to know which panel to read next.  I don’t think I’ve ever misread the panels of a Capullo comic and that’s saying a LOT because they guy goes nuts with his panel designs.

2. Cool story.  There’s a lot of good stuff here.  I know there are a majority of fans out there that love to see Batman fighting Joker or Penguin, but those stories are so predictable.  Let the mediocre writers who lack for ideas play around with the established Rogue’s Gallery!  This secret society of owls in Gotham is so neat because we really don’t know what they’re up to, what they capabilities are, how many of them there are, what their goal is… It’s all new and interesting to discover.  And, Snyder has so many neat layers to this story, like the discovery of a hidden 13th floor in Wayne Tower that is the Owl-villain’s lair.  How creepy that they’re living in your own home?  Doesn’t that just creep us all out: The concept that a hidden enemy could be right under out nose?  Yipes!

3. Owls = Irony.  Maybe I’m slow (or just not much of a student of DC), but I realized as I was reading this that the owl-villains remind me of Owlman, the alternate version of Batman from the Crime Syndicate.  I’m sure everyone else picked up on this instantly, but like I said, I’m slow and read almost no DC.

Batman #2 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Greg Capullo (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks), Colors (FCO), Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt (letteres), Katie Kubert (assistant editor), Janelle Asselin (associate editor) & Mike Marts (editor)

The Story: Batman has to deal with a new threat from the Court of Owls.

Five Things: 

1. Great art from Capullo/Glapion/FCO.  Greg Capullo lays out his pages so well.  It’s the kind of thing that’s easiest to appreciate when you see comics that aren’t trying to be visually interesting.  Surely Capullo could tell this story with 3-4 widescreen, rectangular panels per page, but that would be boring and Capullo isn’t boring.  It’s nice to see that dedication to craft.  There are also a couple of classic Capullo action panels in this issue.  The one that springs to mind is the one of the bad guy side-kicking Bruce Wayne through the window.  You can just feel the power of that kick. The guy isn’t kicking Bruce, he’s driving right through him.  Then the window is shattering around his body into a bajillion little pieces.  We haven’t seen many of those hyper-detailed Capullo panels thus far in Batman, so it’s nice to see one pop up.  Now, the art isn’t perfect.  There are a few storytelling flaws, like the motorcycle on the train tracks and the point where Bruce gets knives in his shoulders, but overall the art is excellent.  Wonderful inking to retain the dynamism of the pencils and nicely colored as well.

2. A new villain!  Old villains are so boring because we kinda know what they’re capable of and we know they won’t really die.  Villains like Joker and Penguin are just as safe from death as Batman is and it’s impossible to have drama in a story when the only people who can really die are nameless civilians and Bruce’s girlfriends.  So, this new villain is great: He’s got a cool look.  He just thrashed Bruce in a fight.  We don’t really know what he’s up to.  So much is unknown because we’ve not seen Bruce fight this guy before and it’s better that way.

3.  Snyder writes so well.  Have you ever heard a buddy describe a comic as “wordy”?  We all have, but what they usually mean is, “Lots of word by a writer who doesn’t write well.”  Guys who don’t write well can be really painful to read.  So, it’s important to separate the different elements of writing.  There is, “I have a cool idea for a story.”  There is, “I can write clever banter between Spider-Man and Wolverine.”  And, finally, there is, “I can write a long paragraph in a comic slickly enough that fans don’t complain.”  Snyder excels at that final aspect and it gives him creative freedom to engage in exposition or do more to verbally establish a scene.  It’s a handy thing to have in a bag of tricks because not even Capullo could make the first page of this comic tell a story visually…that was all on Snyder.  He’s also smart to get his wordy parts early in the issue when the reader is fresh.

The Astounding Wolf-Man #10 – Review

By Robert Kirkman (writer), Jason Howard (pencils, inks, colors), FCO and Ivan Plascenia (colors).

The Story: The main part of this issue revolves around the origin of Zecharia, the Astounding Wolf-Man’s one-time mentor turned arch nemesis. Through the tale of Zecharia’s genesis of becoming a vampire, we learn about the vampire nation and Zecharia’s ultimate plans for it.  We are also treated to some werewolf secrets as Gary, the Astounding Wolf-Man, goes through a dangerous training session with the werewolf who created him.

What’s Good: Zechariah’s origin story may be nicely spun, but its real strength lies in who Zecharia is retelling it to over the course of the issue. This unforeseen relationship adds a nice dynamic to Zecharia’s personality.

Jason Howard’s art is solid as usual in his unique cartoonesque presentation. His drawing of Gary’s daughter on the last page is especially memorable, as he does a better job than the text in capturing the emotion of the scene.  He has become a smoother storyteller and has shed off some of the clunkyness that weighed down some of the beginning issues of this series.

What’s Not So Good: Although this is a a non-Gary/Astounding Wolf-Man story, the training session that he and his new mentor go through doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and seems like a waste of time. The idea was to teach Gary how to escape while injured, but instead Gary just does some lame Lamaze-like breathing exercise.  After the cliffhanger last issue involving this very scene, this was a big let down.

Additionally, I feel that the main characters in this series all have confusing motivations. This is most evident in Zechariah, who Kirkman casts as an overall decent individual who struggles with his curse and who is repentant for his past deeds. We’ve seen many examples to support this portrayal throughout the series. But then Kirkman will supply us with information that Zecharia is really an evil, wanna-be despot. And then we have this issue where both these takes on this character are displayed simultaneously.  I understand that characters, like real people, are dynamic and hard to define. I got it. But too much of this wish-washy character study is drowning any plot tension and making this whole endeavor seem boring. The reader needs to know which side to root for– at least for a little while.

This overall inherent ambivalence that permeates many of the characters’ motivations is what makes the last scene, involving Gary’s daughter’s request to Zechariah, so anti-climatic and uninteresting.

Conclusion: The problems that I discuss above can be easily remedied in the coming issues. Also, it is likely that Kirkman, in typical fashion, is using these dynamics to set up something spectacular. But with a crossover with Invincible next issue, the progression of this story will have to be put on hold for a while– and with it my overall interest in the Astounding Wolf-Man. After such a promising start (see my review for the TPB of this series here: http://weeklycomicbookreview.com/2008/11/09/the-astounding-wolf-man-vol1-tpb-review/), it’s surprising to see such a down-turn in the momentum of this potentially great series.

Grade: C-

-Rob G.