Batman #10 – 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)

The Story: Batman closes in on the Court of Owls

A few things (with SPOILERS): 1). Big reveal at the end! – Remember when internet trolls were all complaining that Greg Capullo made this Gotham politician, Lincoln March, look too much like Bruce Wayne?  Remember that?  “He only seems to know how to draw one face!  What a hack!  Go back and draw some more Spawn!”  Well…now we know why.  Turns out Lincoln is Bruce’s long-lost brother!  That’s an interesting choice and I’m of two-minds about it.  On one hand, I do enjoy Snyder just going for it and reminding us that this is the New 52; this isn’t the Batman we’ve been reading for years.  I also like the contrast between Lincoln and Bruce.  We’ve always thought that poor Bruce Wayne had the worst childhood.  I mean, Bruce’s parents were gunned down in front of him and it so warped him that he turned into this creature of vengeance called The Batman.  Well, Bruce had a pretty cushy life compared to his brother who was DUMPED by his parents into an institution for screwed up little children where he was recruited by the Wayne’s worst enemies.  Basically, similar Daddy-issues to what made Bruce into Batman have turned his brother into Owlman (who has always been a wonderful mirror universe version of Batman).  I think Snyder can have a lot of fun with this.

Batman #9 – 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)

The Fall of the House of Wayne Back-up: Snyder & James Tynion IV (writers), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors), Patrick Brosseau (letters), Kubert & Marts (editors)

The Story: How will Batman deal with a Batcave full of Owls?

Review: This is a hard issue to review because of the expectations heaped on this creative team.  They have been SO good throughout this run (and on other projects over the years) that the reader starts to expect “issue of the year” excellence every time.  It’s a case of becoming a victim of your own success.

So, my initial reaction to this issue was: “not everything I wanted it to be”.  But, then as I reread it a second and third time (which I almost never do), I started to appreciate that even though this isn’t the best comic this creative team has produced, it’s still probably better than every other comic I’ll read this week.  It’s like an NBA playoff game where Michael Jordan didn’t have his best game, but still got 22 points and was the best player on the court, and his team still won.

One complaint is the “event”.  I’m usually the compulsive dude who buys all the tie-ins and then complains because I felt like the Captain Bogus miniseries (written by Joe Hack and illustrated by No-Fingers-Johnny) was nothing but a shameless money-grab.  But, for Night of the Owls, I’m only getting Batman.  I like the story for Night of the Owls, but I’m not buying the tie-ins.  If Snyder and Capullo told the complete story, I’d buy it in a heartbeat, but I have no interest in buying a bunch of issues by lesser creators.  We always hear about events, “You don’t have to buy everything.  You can just buy the main series and it’ll read fine.”  But, that isn’t really true, is it?  We get that one double-pager (with the super-awesome looking new Batmobile) and it shows us Robin, Batgirl and Nightwing fighting the Talons.  For me, that popped the bubble.  Now I feel like fundamental parts of the story MAY be happening in those other series.  But I also know I probably won’t enjoy all of those issues.

Haunt #20 – Review

By: Joe Casey (writer), Nathan Fox (artist), FCO Plascencia (colors) & Comicraft (letters)

The Story: After the big battle that left his girlfriend dead, Daniel Kilgore finds himself in unfriendly hands.

Three Things: 

1. Very different story vibe than before. – For existing Haunt readers (all ~12,000 of us), this book has a very different look and feel than the last 15 issues.  Before it was more about the peppery dialog from Robert Kirkman and the energetic art from Greg Capullo and it felt more like a superhero story (maybe a superhero with a secret agent twist, but still a superhero-y story).  What we have now is very different.  This story is more rooted in the whacky and fertile mind of Joe Casey as he brings in this weird, church/cult that has abducted Daniel and is interested in learning what “the creature” is, so this issue becomes more of a hard-boiled, gritty, grimy torture/interrogation/escape-from-captivity tale.  I guess when I write that it doesn’t sound very different than the story was before, but trust me, it is.

2. But, maybe that’s a good thing. – While I miss the old Haunt, it surely wasn’t seeing enough eyeballs and it seems from message board chatter that a lot of people are trying this title again for the first time since issue #1.  Now, I am completely perplexed as to why comic fans with a shred of taste were ignoring a Kirkman/Capullo team-up, but it’s good to get eyeballs on this title again.  Also, it is so nice to see a creator-owned title that doesn’t just die once a creator gets plucked away.  The landscape is littered with these 5-10 issue runs that we loved that will never be revisited because Marvel/DC realized how awesome a creator is/was and hired them to write Spider-Man (or draw Batman in this case).  Just on general principal, it’s nice to see Haunt go the way of Spawn, Fathom, etc. where someone is keeping the light on.  Everyone bemoans that we “don’t have any new characters…” Well, Haunt is trying to give us a new character.  Even if every issue of Haunt/Fathom isn’t A-list material, neither is every issue of Invincible Iron Man.

Batman #1 – Review

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

The Review: All the “in the know” comic fans had really high hopes for this issue because it is (a) written by Scott Snyder who is fresh off the best Bat-story of the last decade or so and has never written a bad comic in his life and (b) drawn by Greg Capullo who is one of the best and most underappreciated artists in the comic industry.

This is an outstanding comic book. Not only is it a wonderful comic for fans who have read hundreds of Batman comics, but I think it’ll also be accessible to new readers. Of course, only a moron doesn’t know who Batman is, but they might not know who his rogues are and who all the supporting characters are. So…. Snyder takes us on a quick who’s-who of Gotham residents. And he does it all within the context of his story and using a nifty bit of new technology that makes the introductions better than mere caption boxes. That’s what I really love about Snyder: He never takes the easy way out with his writing. By the end of the issue, you know the players, what they’re like and where they fit in Gotham. I hate to compare to other titles, but when you look at how much ground Snyder covers in this issue, it really makes Justice League #1’s pacing seem sloth-like.

Oh, and in addition to all of that, we get our first mystery too. The story looks to be a little twisted and knowing Snyder’s facility with horror-ish material, I’m really looking forward to the next issue.

There are also all kinds of bones thrown to long-time readers. For example, the Bat-cave has Dick and Damian’s flying Batmobile. So, that’s still there. We also get a really neat group shot of Bruce, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne in one picture that illustrates how they’re all slightly different ages, but that they’re all one family and all have “high” level access to the Bat-systems. Of course, the coolest thing is when we learn that Alfred has “highest” level access: As much as Dick/Tim/Damian are family to Bruce, Alfred is his real father-figure and truest partner, so it makes sense that he’d be the most trusted.

Haunt #17 – Review

By: Robert Kirkman (writer), Greg Capullo & Mr. Sheldon (pencils), Jonathan Glapion, Todd McFarlane & LeBeau Underwood (inks), FCO Plascencia & Ivan Plascencia, Comicraft (letters) & Jen Cassidy (managing editor)

The Story: A final duel with the Apparition comes to an ending with help from an unlikely source.

The Review: As you can tell from the expanding list of credits, this is a bit of a transitional issue for Haunt.  Greg Capullo is departing to work on Batman where many more eyeballs will fall on his glorious work.  Robert Kirkman is also departing because he’s kinda busy writing comics, writing a Walking Dead novel and doubtless consulting heavily on Walking Dead TV shows, board games, video games, etc.  Todd McFarlane is also a really busy dude.  But, the new creative team of Joe Casey and Nathan Fox (who should be great) aren’t quite in place this issue as we wrap up this arc having this demonic Apparition trying to drag Kurt Kilgore (the dead half of the Haunt brothers) into the afterlife.

Things had looked very bleak for our heroes because this Apparition was like getting chased by the Terminator.  It seemed like the Apparition would just keep chasing and chasing and chasing.  It didn’t mind if it didn’t get you this time.  It didn’t have to stop to use the bathroom.  It just kept coming.  Against that kind of foe, you can’t win. As a reader, you feel for the main characters because if Kurt gets dragged off to the netherworld, then there is no Haunt. However, help comes from an unexpected source.  Here’s where I’ll give the SPOILER WARNING…

I forget the name of the lady who helps the Kilgores out, but she’s been around as this kinda quasi-mystical character since the beginning of the series, but she’s hardly been a major character.  She was one of the folks that was rescued from the evil doctor’s lab in the early issues of Haunt and she was the one who recognized that the Kilgores are a “haunt” (as she called them).  I love when a minor character pops back up like that and it raises all sorts of interesting things for future stories:  As she sacrificed herself, she said she had done all she could in our world and needed to move on.  Hmmmm… Something tells me this theme will be revisited and we haven’t seen the last of her.