Batman Eternal #6 – Review

By: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, John Layman, Ray Fawkes, Tim Seely (story), Trevor McCarthy (art), Guy Major (colors)

The Story: Even bats can be scared of ghosts—or, more specifically, spirits of vengeance.

The Review: Having stuck by this series for some weeks now, it’s become painfully clear that a weekly series really takes a bite out of your budget. You are talking about a quadruple (at times quintuple) investment than your typical monthly comic, so even if you want to, you have to think twice about a long-term commitment to spending that kind of money. Next to the bigger-impact Futures End (and upcoming World’s End), my bucks just don’t stretch as far with Batman Eternal.

I want to make it clear, however, that my decision has little to do with the actual quality of this series, which has been fine, if not spectacular thus far. It’s true that issues can vary wildly from week to week, depending on who’s charged with scripting duties, but everyone on this writing team pretty much stands on even ground. In fact, considering the number of cooks in the kitchen, it’s remarkable how the finished dish comes out tasting kind of the same each week, which is part of Eternal‘s problem.

Batman Eternal #5 – Review

By: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, John Layman, Ray Fawkes, Tim Seely (story), Andy Clarke (art), Blond (colors)

The Story: Red Robin and Batman briefly consider getting the band back together again.

The Review: Let’s review some Batman basics,* shall we? Great as the Dark Knight is, he’s still only one man struggling against a vicious city, which is why the Bat-family exists. But calling them a family gives an impression of a cohesive working unit when they’re actually more like a handful of government agencies. Their objectives and methods are different; they’re supposed to work in different spheres; and when they take jurisdiction over the same area, there tends to be more tension than collaboration.

Such is the way when you have obviously derivative characters trying to prove that they can stand on their own. Red Robin voices that conflict from the first page of this issue, rebelliously establishing his own data networks (his “Robin’s Nests“) in the city separate from Batman’s, declaring, “I don’t like people looking over my shoulder while I work.” Aside from that basic barrier to working with Batman, Tim reminds us of personal obstacles between them post-Death of the Family, Damian Wayne, and Dick Grayson. Gotham needs its heroes to stand together, but between Batgirl’s angry departure last week and Tim’s prickliness here, that’s going to be a very tall order.

Batman Eternal #4 – Review

By: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, John Layman, Ray Fawkes, Tim Seely (story), Dustin Nguyen (pencils), Derek Fridolfs (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: Never get between a girl and her dad.

The Review: The downside to a weekly comic is the same as its upside: getting four (or five, depending on the month) comics a month. You’re talking about a quad-/quintuple investment than your ordinary monthly comic. So it had better be good! I don’t mind if one issue is slower or less substantial than another, but I won’t be able to abide a weekly series if it’s badly or even just blandly written. Contrary to the impression I give on this site, I am not made of money.

That’s why I’m a little iffy about the multiple-writer situation on Batman Eternal. While I have the utmost confidence in Snyder’s plotting, I have less when it comes to his co-writers’ abilities to execute it. Having read the superhero works of Tynion (Talon), Layman (Detective Comics), Fawkes (Constantine), and having unceremoniously Dropped them after relatively brief periods of time, I’m naturally wary about the idea of reading them week after week. Unfortunately, this Layman-scripted issue does little to alleviate that concern.

Batman Eternal #3 – Review

By: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Ray Fawkes, John Layman, Tim Seely (story), Jason Fabok (art), Brad Anderson (colors)

The Story: When your dad spoils your fun, it’s only proper to spoil his back.

The Review: And now the moment of Batman Eternal I’ve been waiting for: the return of Stephanie Brown, a.k.a. the last pre-relaunch Batgirl. Of course, part of the charm that made her so popular (and thus her exclusion from the DCnU so reviled) was Bryan Q. Miller’s specific take on her, which was taking Buffy Summers, removing the angst, and tweaking up the playfulness. In a comic book world of increasing grimness, Stephanie was unbeatably upbeat—which made her special, damn it.

Excited as I am, I’m also a little apprehensive as to how she will fare under another writer’s pen. Right now, it’s difficult to say. What we see in this issue is not the confident, put-together Stephanie who wore the Batgirl mantle, but a Stephanie predating her more annoying Spoiler days. As such, much of her sparkling wit is replaced by your commonplace teenage sarcasm, both withering and not a little mean-spirited. Blowing off her mom’s concern about dropping in unexpectedly on her dad: “Oh, no! I’m going to spoil his puzzle night with his loser friends!”

Batman Eternal #2 – Review

By: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Ray Fawkes, John Layman, Tim Seely (story), Jason Fabok (art), Brad Anderson (colors)

The Story: Who knew it would only take a scarred mafia man to freak out Batman?

The Review: I’ve never reviewed a weekly series before, but I must say, I’m really liking the pace of it. My biggest gripe about monthlies is how insubstantial they seem when spread against a month (or more) of waiting until the next installment. In the cost-benefit calculation, monthly comics are kind of a raw deal, falling short of the satisfaction you get from a TV show or movie. With a weekly comic, even if a single issue doesn’t have much to it, you know you have more coming in just six days.

This allows Snyder-Tynion time to play out an event in much greater depth than they normally would be able to. Had Batman Eternal been a typical monthly, the first five pages of this issue would probably have been reduced to a single page of reactions from all the relevant Gothamites. You might not have lost the point of the sequence, but the impact of what happened to Gordon would’ve been diminished. Seeing in detail how each character takes in the event—Vicki Vale’s reluctance to publish the story and “destroy a good man’s life”; the Bat-family’s varying degrees of shock (it even elicits a “Damn…” from Jason Todd); Mayor Hady’s bewilderment of the situation, despite his corruption—gives you a better sense of Gordon’s position as one of Gotham’s most important pillars.

Batman Eternal #1 – Review

By: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Ray Fawkes, John Layman, Tim Seely (story), Jason Fabok (art), Brad Anderson (colors)

The Story: As if the Gotham underground doesn’t experience enough delays.

The Review: In a comic book world that already seems overpopulated with people following the bat standard, did we really need another ongoing Bat-series, and a weekly one at that? I’ve made this complaint before (and again before that), but surely there’s got to be a limit to how many titles one franchise can creatively support at one time before they all start blurring together. Batman Eternal can’t get by on just being a decent title; it has to set itself apart from a family of eerily similar siblings.

This issue alone doesn’t do it, even if Snyder-Tynion* start things off by coming at the story from an appreciably different angle. It’s not exactly common for people to talk about Gotham and emphasize its light and brightness, after all. As a metaphor, this talk about light suggests that hope springs eternal in the darkest corner of the DCU, but that idea runs counter to the apocalyptic Gotham that greets us on the issue’s opening page. Gotham’s light may be a more sinister thing in this world, an electric lamp that lures good people like GCPD cop Jason Bard to perish in the city’s dispassionate maw.

Chew #40 – Review

By: John Layman (writer) and Rob Guillory (art)

The Story: Tony Chu is tripping…

Review (with SPOILERS): I felt a lot better after reading this issue.  For some time, the over-arching “big story” of Chew has been slipping from my grasp like a greasy rope.  With easy issue, I had less and less of a grasp on what was really going on.  I still laughed at all the jokes and still found Toni to be really a touching character, but I was missing a lot of the bigger picture.

This issue kinda locked things back down.  Now I understand why Toni was involved and why NASA was involved, what the alien sky-writing means, etc.  I wouldn’t say that I could write the entire Wikipedia article about Chew, but I feel a lot more secure.  Things make sense instead of being random – still FUNNY, but random.  Nice job by the creators.  It has to be really hard to manage the big story for these series because what is a nice reminder for one reader is boring and repetitive for another.  I honestly have no idea where I fall on the spectrum of readers in terms of remembering plot details, but *I* enjoyed the reminders and summaries in this issue.

Also, mega-bonus points for the glossary of food powers in the back!

Chew #39 – Review

By: John Layman (writer/letters) & Rob Guillory (art/colors)

The Review: Remember the Gallsaberries from the 2nd (?) arc of Chew?  Those things that looked like a mash-up of a pineapple and an octopus?  Well, it seems like those things are going to be important.

I can’t tell you how fascinated I am by the transition that Chew is making from (A) the funniest comic on the market where plot didn’t seem to really matter to (B) a comic where multiple plot threads are converging.  These creators had a GREAT thing in the early issues of Chew and I give them huge credit for being bold enough to try to massage a wonderful story out of the whole thing.  That’s especially true because it isn’t clear that the overall story of the series is going to be as dramatic as the early issues were funny.  When Chew is funny, it is a perfect 10.  So far, when Chew is merely trying to be dramatic, it is more of a promising 6.

The big thing this issue makes me feel is that I should have paid closer attention to the early story arcs.  I mean, there is obviously something very important going on between the gallsaberries and the alien-language skywriting we’ve seen.  That means the cult that worships that alien skywriting is important.  And, it probably means that Agent Poyo is more than just a joke about how vicious roosters are.

Detective Comics #27 – Review

by John Layman, Scott Snyder, Paul Dini, Brad Meltzer, Gregg Hurwitz, Peter J. Tomasi, Jason Fabok, Neal Adams, Dustin Nguyen, Guillem March, Bryan Hitch, and Sean Murphy

The Bat-Man, a mysterious and adventurous figure, fighting for righteousness and apprehending the wrong doer, in his lone battle against the evil forces of society…

Giant anniversary issues like this are always interesting to dissect. What’s the best use of all those pages? Will it connect to current storylines, or should it serve as a celebration of the character’s history? This behemoth issue tries to have its cake and eat it too, but that’s only a problem if it fails. So the question is: did it?

Let’s start at the very beginning, as I hear that that’s a very good place to start. The issue opens with a story from Brad Meltzer and Brian Hitch that goes by the highly appropriate title, “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate.” This iteration of “Chemical Syndicate” is a clever retelling of the 1939 original. Though it has been updated, it is a remarkably faithful adaptation. The major difference is the addition of Batman’s later character traits and a running commentary from the Dark Knight, himself, which would not have been possible in the original story without spoiling the surprise ending.

Though Meltzer displays an impressively economic writing style, cramming a lot into a short fifteen pages without overcluttering his story, the real meat of this story is in the narration. Basic Batman caption boxes do a fine job of showing up a mysterious and yet inexperienced version of the Caped Crusader. Meanwhile, a series of journal entries posit a number of answers to the question “why does Batman do it?” The answers are a master class in Batman, neither overglorifying the vigilante, nor digging too deep into his neuroses to appear heroic. Particularly over the last few days, I’ve been growing tired of a Batman too damaged to inspire us to anything healthy. Perhaps I’m biased by my recent musings, but I think this story navigated these dangerous waters very well.

Detective Comics #26 – Review

By: John Layman (writer), Aaron Lopresti (pencils/inks), Art Thibert (inks), Blond (colors)

Ever since Detective Comics #19 John Layman has been hinting big things for Man-Bat. When his departure from Tec was announced, just before New York Comic-Con, a Man-Bat series was practically expected, sitting comfortably on con predictions as reliable as Bleeding Cool’s. Obviously that series never came to be, but the inevitable end to Layman’s Man-Bat saga is here.

Layman has already proven himself to be an adept of the near-forgotten art of the single-issue story. Building from the backup in last month’s Zero Year tie-in, Layman quickly sets up the action for this issue and provides the Man-Bat v. Batman action his readers are undoubtedly looking for.

While there isn’t a lot of hard detective work in this issue, Layman does continue his work of returning the cerebral elements of the “world’s greatest detective”. While Man-Bat is not usually a foe who can challenge the Dark Knight on an intellectual level, Layman’s old-fashioned, heroic Batman insists on saving him, requiring him to cure Man-Bat without endangering innocent lives. Batman comes up with a couple of clever methods of dealing with this problem, but I can’t help but wonder if the final plan that he puts into action was really the most effective way to handle things.

Indeed, while Layman’s story is an impressively economical one, it’s a highly protracted ending to a fairly long running subplot. Given Layman’s track record and the clear teaser for his Gothtopia cross-over, one has to wonder if the story was originally going to feature a more naturally paced conclusion. Alas, I have to review what is, rather than what could be.

My NYCC Experience Pt. 3

After a full day of panels I returned to whence I began, Empire Stage, for another big one, this time presented by the distinguished competition.

Gone were the charming advertisements – apparently someone thought better of them – and now we simply waited, glancing occasionally to the silent screen which informed us that we were sitting in DC Comics – Batman.

John Cunningham, a DC marketing VP, took the podium and introduced us to our guests. At the far left of the table was the beloved creative team behind DC’s relaunched Batman, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. Beside them was James Tynion IV, who writes Talon and Red Hood and the Outlaws. Next came Marc Andreyko, the controversially incoming writer on Batwoman. Beyond him was Kyle Higgins, who writes Nightwing, and Ann Nocenti, who pens Selina Kyle’s adventures in Catwoman. On the far end were John Layman, the surprisingly mild-mannered-looking man behind the current run of Detective Comics, and Peter Tomasi, writer for Batman and Robin.

As in nearly all things DC, this was largely Snyder’s show. Cunningham gave Snyder every opportunity to discuss last week’s Batman #24 (review here), but Snyder, in classic form, really just wanted to talk about how honored he was.

Snyder opened with a heartfelt thank you to the fans for not only letting him tell his stories, but supporting him in doing so. He waged charming, unassuming war on the notion that he did not respect the power and responsibility given to him in writing Batman’s origin story. Snyder called “Zero Year” his favorite story ever and seemingly could not help but show off some of the tricks that he brought to the table. Though he’s never been shy about it and his writing reeks of love for the character, Snyder put his status as a massive Batman fan on full display for this panel.

Chew #37 – Review

By: John Layman (writer/letters) and Rob Guillory (art/colors)

The Story: Tony eats a toe.

Review (with SPOILERS): This is one of those issues where I feel like I’m reviewing a 15 minute snippet of a TV show: I’m a little underwhelmed by the issue itself, but am also very confident that if I just sit here quietly….everything will rectify itself.  So, take this review with a massive grain of salt.  It’s akin to someone writing a detailed review of the second 20 minutes of Gravity.

This is an issue that is doing work.  As Chew moves away from just being wet-your-pants-funny, it needs to develop more of a central story.  And…..as that story develops, you’re going to get some transitional issues.  This is one of those issues.  It’s still got all the silly sight gags and funny food-powers, but it is a transitional issue where Layman and Guillory start to squarely position the players on the game-board.

After seeing the insane scene of Tony Chu and his daughter sitting down at the table to eat their family members’ toes, I was a little disappointed with how the Toni Chu apparition played out.  I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen the last of Toni, but if this was “it,” it was kinda weak.  It was almost too weak, because it leaves me assuming that Toni will appear again.  I mean, this obviously cannot be the last of Toni….  Layman and Guillory have spent WAY too much time on Toni’s character and worked out the toe-thing in too much detail to let it come to nothing but THIS.  So, when Toni makes he heroic return to assist Tony in 5-6 issues (like Obi-Wan on Hoth), I’ll kinda be expecting it, and that will weaken that future moment.  Anyway, even though it was nice and touching and all that that Toni insisted Tony go help his brother Chow, it still felt a little too small; Toni isn’t dumb or rash, she would know how much time her apparition has left and wouldn’t waste it on a Chow Chu problem IF it meant that she wouldn’t have time to help Tony with the vampire cibopath problem.

Detective Comics #24 – Review

by John Layman (writer), Jason Fabok (art)

The Story: James Gordon totally drops the ball and Batman utterly fails to warn him.

The Review: Like several incarnations of Bane before him, John Layman’s reinvention of the Wrath wages war on Gotham City this month. Actually, that’s not technically accurate. Gotham can thrive or burn, but Wrath demands his  pound of flesh from the GCPD.

There are plenty of anti-batmen running around the DCU. From Owlman, to Black Mask, to Hush, to Lincoln March, to Prometheus, to Batzaro, Bruce Wayne has no want for evil doppelgängera. As Caldwell stands revealed as Wrath, John Layman makes a clever choice not to harp on the similarities between he and Batman. This new Wrath narrows his focus from the law itself down to the more reasonable goal of the GCPD and, to his credit, Layman creates a scenario where it seems plausible that a single man could besiege the entire department.

As ever Detective Comics is the comic for those who long for the sense of wonder Batman inspired as a child. All manner of gadgets and fancy costumes come out of both players’ arsenals, as if begging for toy sales, raising the stakes of combat and elevating it far beyond what two normal men could ever hope to engage in. The characters all have their motives and quirks but at its heart, the issue is a simple one.

Chew #36 – Review

By: John Layman (writer/letters) and Rob Guillory (art)

The Story: A flashback through the final weeks of the recently deceased ____________.

The Review (with SPOILERS): This is a case where the spoiler warning is serious because it involves a main character in the series who died recently.

This is another very, very strong issue for Chew.  I love how it is turning the corner from merely being the funniest comic of recent memory to having a nice story with some very human moments.

The issue is basically an examination of the question, “What would you do if you knew you were about to die?”  It’s interesting how many of these deep philosophical questions have to do with facing our own mortality: “Would I sacrifice myself to save children from a burning building?” or “Would I be brave if asked to go to war?” or “Could I be as stoic and admirable as a child with terminal cancer?”  We ask these questions because we worry (deep down) that we won’t confront our own end so admirably.  Instead of dying a “warrior’s death”, we’ll go screaming with urine running down our pants leg.  Or we’ll make up our bucket list and it’ll be full of mindless crap like making sure we reach 100% completion on Grand Theft Auto V or getting to second base with the hot girl in accounting.

Anyway, Toni Chu basically shows us an ending that we should all aspire to.  Because of her prognostication powers, she knows she’s doing to die, but instead of focusing on self-centered wishes, everything she does is for her family and loved ones.  We already saw last issue how she cuts off her toe to pass some knowledge to her brother and in this issue we see how she helps her little sister (Sage) out of a pretty sticky situation with a mafia boss.  She’s enlisting all these crazy NASA resources to help Sage that she’s obviously thinking, “Who cares if I get in trouble….  By the time they punish me, I’ll already be dead.”  As I said, some dying people might apply that same logic to stealing or whatever; Toni applies it to helping her family out.  We should all be so good.  The moment that really struck me was when she bites Sage (which always looks very comical) and tells her she’s going to have a good life, then there is this great look on her face as they say good-bye because for Toni, it really is good-bye and not just “see you later”.

Detective Comics Annual #2 – Review

By: John Layman and Joshua Williamson (writers), Scot Eaton (lead story pencils),Jaime Mendoza (lead story inks), Jeromy Cox (lead story colors), Szymon Kudranski (first backup art), John Kalisz (first backup colors), Derlis Santacruz (second backup pencils), Rob Hunter (second backup inks), Brett Smith (second backup colors)

The Story: As the Wrath continues his campaign against the GCPD, Batman suspects that the force has been infiltrated. Better make sure you eat before hand, you might not want to after you meet Jane.

The Review: Batman has faced many  impressive adversaries in his annuals: Ra’s al Ghul in 1982 Hugo Strange in 1986, Clayface and the Penguin in 1987, Two-Face in 1990, even the Klan in 1989! So some might find it strange that John Layman has selected Jane Doe as the antagonist for this year’s annual. Even Paul Dini’s attempts to bring the character to prominence left me cold, but Layman and Joshua Williamson have done a fine job with her.

The annual continues Layman’s tradition of strong, analytical narration and simple, lively mysteries. The plot is admirable, and some of the earlier sequences are particularly strong, but it’s not exactly a brainteaser. Indeed, the twist isn’t the identity of the mole but rather Jane Doe’s identity.

Layman and Williamson’s Jane Doe is hauntingly creepy, the sort of thing that easily robs one of sleep if one dares to encounter it in the wrong headspace. Jane’s always been gross, but the issue taps subtler fears, making text out of former subtext and striking at the heart of what identity means. Still, the jewel in the crown is the lingering sense in the back of your mind that Jane Doe is a victim of her insanity as well.

Chew #35 – Review

By: John Layman (writer/letters) & Rob Guillory (art/colors)

The Story: Tony Chu discovers a secret weapon in his battle against the collector vampire.

Review (with SPOILER): When Chew went past issue 30, I recall seeing somewhere that the creators stated that the series would take on a more serious tone.  The Bad Apples story-arc (this was issue 5 of 5) has really proven that statement to be true.  In this arc, Layman & Guillory have defined the broad outline of Tony Chu’s (seemingly) ultimate nemesis: The Vampire Cibopath.  This guy doesn’t just get weird senses of the past of his food (like Tony), but he adopts their entire powerset. For us comic fans, you could say he’s a little like Rogue from the X-Men who absorbs the powers of others via physical touching.

Has it ever been made clear why the Vampire needs to kill and eat his victims?  Could he acquire their powers via a single nibble or is there some sort of 51% rule?  But I digress…

Detective Comics #22 – Review

By: John Layman (story), Jason Fabok (art), Emilio Lopez (colors)

The Story: For once, someone fought the law, and the law did not win.

The Review: While I appreciate the maxim, “Your own worst enemy is yourself,” in an abstract, trite sort of way, I can’t say I support writers who take that statement too literally in the superhero genre.  Of all the villain types you can think of, the evil clone probably requires the least thought and imagination.  It’s a cheap way to come up with a “new” character: take your superhero, tweak the background a bit, slap on a new paint job, and set affiliation to Evil.

Thus you have E.D. Caldwell and Wrath, each the parallel of Batman’s civilian and vigilante personas, respectively.  Given their near-simultaneous introduction, it’s pretty obvious there’s a connection between the two, although Layman avoids confirming them as the same person for now.  Either way, they’re thoroughly uninspired characters, with Caldwell being the excessively wealthy entrepreneur without Bruce’s scruples, and Wrath the night-haunting warrior who stalks cops instead of criminals.

Detective Comics #21 – Review

By: John Layman (story), Scot Eaton (art), Jaime Mendoza (inks), Jeromy Cox (colors)

The Story: It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Batman kind of has a thing for assassins.

The Review: I admit that I’ve never read much of Chew, but from the reviews on our own site and elsewhere, my understanding is that it’s something of a breakthrough series for Layman, turning in a solid performance with every issue.  And certainly he’s shown a lot of promise here on Detective Comics, delivering a credible first arc despite detours from other members of the Bat-family of titles.

So I’ve been looking forward to the point where Layman can just tell his story of choice without any further distractions.  Unfortunately, this issue disappoints on nearly every level, not so much because it’s bad, but rather because it seems uncharacteristically pedestrian and unfocused by Layman’s usual standards.

Chew #34 – Review

By: John Layman (writer & letters) and Rob Guillory (art & colors)

The Story: Tony Chu comes face-to-face (?) with The Collector.

Review: I always say that Chew is the funniest comic on the stands.  Most months offer several belly laughs and a ton of snicker-inducing sight gags.  By Chew‘s lofty standards for humor, this was an off-issue as I only counted ONE belly-laugh and a handful of snickers.  Hard to really know how to grade such an issue.  On one hand, it is still funnier than anything else I’ve read this month.  On the other, it was a bit of a disappointment because when I download an issue of Chew onto my iPad, I anticipate a certain level of humor and when the product is only 80% of the humor I expected, well, it’s hard not to feel a little let down.

Detective Comics #20 – Review

By: John Layman (story), Jason Fabok (art), Jeromy Cox (colors)

The Story: Batman encounters a three-for-one deal of villains that he’d rather avoid.

The Review: I don’t always engage in fruitless speculation as to what goes on behind the scenes in a comic, but I imagine that Layman has got to be a little exasperated about how long it’s taken to get to this point in his Emperor Penguin story.  It’s been six months, just about, since Layman took over this series, and it still feels like he’s only in the middle of his first arc, having been sidetracked by the return of Joker, the death of Robin, and a thinly veiled anniversary issue.

Despite all that, Layman has striven valiantly to keep his agenda on course, and here, at the climax of his story and the peak of Oglivy’s powers, the timing seems fine for a confrontation between the new Penguin and the Dark Knight himself.  Fine, but not ideal; any battle with Batman inevitably ends with the villain’s defeat, and as quickly as Oglivy has asserted his presence in Gotham’s underworld, he could stand some more time at the top.

Chew #33 – Review

By: John Layman (writer/letterer) & Rob Guillory (art/colors)

The Story: Tony Chu goes on a secret mission with the Navy.

Review (with minor SPOILERS): This issue highlights two things that I love about Chew.  One thing is how unflinching Layman and Guillory are in their approach to humor.  These guys take chances and push the envelope into edgy areas.  But the other thing they excel at is never seeming to push the joke too far.  That balance is really hard, especially when you consider that much of the humor of Chew is coming at the expense of people’s racial or sexual identity.  You’re playing with fire in those areas because a lot of people will snicker along with you one minute and then call you a racist/homophobic the next.

As far as I can tell, I’ve never seen Layman and Guillory cross the line into poor taste!  It’s an amazing highwire act that they pull off every month and I love them for it.  

Detective Comics #19 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Gotham’s always had a bat problem, but now they have a bat problem.

The Review: In the grand scheme of things, the number of issues a series has under its belt isn’t really important—quality over quantity and all that—but it does quantify a title’s longevity, which sort of says something about the title’s popularity.  Obviously, reaching 900 issues is a pretty big achievement, and you know the most painful thing DC had to accept when they relaunched their entire line was resetting Detective Comics’ numbering back to square one.

Here, they make an attempt to have their cake and eat it too by incorporating the 900 number into the story, which John Layman faithfully does.  Unfortunately, the number has no real value or purpose in context other than as an ominous reference, and the story itself is just yet another variation on the virulent transformation premises that have been infecting the DCU lately: Rise of the Third Army, Rotworld, Demon Knights (not to mention I, Vampire, in which you literally have murderous creatures spreading across Gotham’s citizenry).

Detective Comics #18 – Review

By: John Layman (story), Jason Fabok (art), Jeromy Cox (colors)

The Story: Penguin is driven to the lowest point a modern man can get—using a pay phone.

The Review: The use of a shared universe and “family” of titles definitely has its benefits, with each writer able to work off of the ideas of their peers to create a more substantial storyline with more impact than a single writer can achieve on his own.  But there are downsides, too; if something major happens to a character in one title—particularly if that character appears in all the others—suddenly every title has to deal with the ramifications of that development.

You don’t get anything more major than the death of a son, and since the son in question is Robin and the father is Batman, it would be churlish, to say the least, if the rest of the Bat-family titles didn’t address it in some way.  Sometimes, however, the timing can be a real drag.  Layman hasn’t had much time to be left to his own devices on his run so far, what with the effects of Death of the Family taking over #16 and #17.  Now he has to give attention to the death of Robin when it’s clear he’d rather get back to the Penguin story he’s had to put on hold for a while.

Detective Comics #17 – Review

By: John Layman (story), Jason Fabok (art), Jeromy Cox (colors)

The Story: Despite the merrymaking and clowns, this is truly a downer of a party.

The Review: Between the movies and writers like Frank Miller who spend a lot of time showing what an unbeatable badass Batman is, you’d think the Dark Knight was little more than a fantastically equipped master martial artist.  But among other things, Batman is also known as the “world’s greatest detective,” one of DC’s biggest geniuses.*  Unfortunately, Batman stories have grown less inclined to show off the more cerebral aspects of his character.

So I really appreciate Layman’s more technical, investigative approach to Batman.  Instead of spending all his time whipping out implausible kung-fu moves, Batman spends a large chunk of the issue actually thinking things through.  We all know that his prep-time skills are second to none, but now you can see him going through that prep, putting the clues together to figure out exactly what he needs to do at any given moment.

Chew #31 – Review

By: John Layman (writer & letters) and Rob Guillory (art & colors)

The Story: After the death of ______, Tony Chu must get back to the business of fighting food-based crime.

Review (with SPOILERS): Last issue featured a BIG event as Tony Chu’s sister was killed.  It was shocking because she had become such a fun and important character in the series and her death came out of the blue.  Honestly, you don’t really expect a humorous comic series like Chew to show a major character die, much less die so horribly: arms and legs severed and eaten by the killer and her neck snapped.  Ugh. It was really awful and I wondered how Chew would be able to continue to be the bouncy and black-spirited book that I’ve come to love so much.

It turns out that the creators decided to just turn the page.  We get a brief bit about Antonella Chu’s funeral, but then we’re tossed right back into Tony Chu and his partner fighting food-based crime.  It was a smart choice because the previous storyline was getting a little complex.  It wasn’t like a Grant Morrison comic, but there was getting to be a lot to remember from issue to issue.  By putting Tony Chu back “on the case”, the creators are returning to what made Chew great in the first place.