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 #23.3: Scarecrow – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Szymon Kudranski (art), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: There’s a war out there, and you’ve got a pick a side—evil or other evil.

The Review: To be frank, I’ve mostly been unimpressed with Villains Month, both in concept and on execution.  I tend to dislike these company-wide gimmicks in general, mostly because they reek of editorial mandates thrust upon unprepared or, worse, unwilling creators.  That lack of preparation and enthusiasm has often come through in the various issues I’ve read.  Plagued by stilted writing and sloppy art, it’s no wonder this has been my lightest DC month yet.

But the law of averages dictates that there shall be gems among the rubbish.  Finding one is a bit like winning a small sum from the lottery, in the sense that you can’t tell if your excitement is from the prize itself or from the fact that your losing streak is finally over.  As a writer who emphasizes character over plot, Tomasi can generate good material from the thinnest stories.  In this case, he manages to do more than simply make lemonade out of lemons; he makes you look at lemons in a whole new light.

Batman: The Dark Knight Annual #1 – Review

By: Gregg Hurwitz (story), Szymon Kudranski (art), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: Penguin, Scarecrow, and Mad Hatter do their best impression of pretty girls in a scary movie.

The Review: As excited as I was for Hurwitz to take over a Batman ongoing, I soon grew disappointed and bored of his work there.  It often felt like he wasn’t altogether that interested in writing the legendary hero, an obligation which distracted him from doing what he does and enjoys best: writing the villains.  Ultimately, Hurwitz will leave a permanent mark on the new DCU in the way he has redefined and fleshed out some of the major Batman rogues.

As if to celebrate that accomplishment, he brings together in this annual three of the villains he’s explored to date: Penguin, Scarecrow, and Mad Hatter.  It should be stated at the outset that your enjoyment of this issue thus depends largely on how much you’ve followed Hurwitz’s work in the last year or so.  Without knowing some of the essential background details on the trio of criminals, some of the dramatic beats of the annual will be lost on you.

Swamp Thing #20 – Review

By: Charles Soule (story), Kano (pencils), Alvaro Lopez (inks), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Superman’s good at a lot of things, but he clearly doesn’t have a green thumb.

The Review: Guest spots in a comic happen so often these days that they’ve gotten pretty cheap.  Because these kinds of gimmicks tend to result in forgettable, filler-type issues, it’s easy to forget that even when the writer uses the character in a featured capacity, he’s still adding something to that character’s continuity that may stand for all time.  Consequently, the more exposed the character, the more limited his use as a guest.

It gets even dicier when the character is of Superman-caliber in both iconography and power level, because then you have the risk of him usurping the story away from the actual protagonist entirely.  Soule manages to strike the right balance: although Swamp Thing remains the focus throughout, Superman still gets his own conflict within the plot, making this issue a fairly significant story for him as well.

Swamp Thing #19 – Review

By: Charles Soule (story), Kano (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Swamp Thing encounters a taste of Gotham in Metropolis.

The Review: Had this issue come at an earlier point of the series, I might have said that Soule had some big shoes to fill with Scott Snyder’s departure.  But as you’ve seen, over the last few months, the Rotworld arc seemed to shake Snyder’s usually tight focus on the story.  As a result, Soule happens to come on board at precisely the moment when Swamp Thing can use some fresh air.  Not every new writer gets that luxury of timing.

Thanks to Snyder wrapping up as many of his plot threads as possible by his last issue, he effectively cleared the ground for Soule to sow his own ideas for the title.  Just as Alec has reached a point where he needs to figure out his new purpose in life, Soule has the opportunity to define it for him.  He begins the process with Alec as he sees himself now: “A man doing his best to be a plant.”  It may be that Alec will never move on from that status, but you can tell that Soule is very interested in developing where the lines between man and plant will be drawn.

Batman: The Dark Knight #15 – Review

By: Gregg Hurwitz (story), David Finch (art), Sonia Oback (colors)

The Story: Batman proves it takes blood to counter the work of sweat and tears.

The Review: To my own surprise, I’ve spent a great deal of time wringing my hands and going back and forth on whether to Drop this title or keep on keeping on.  Though mostly diminished, Hurwitz still retains a grain of trust with me from the lingering memory of Penguin: Pain and Prejudice.  That alone hardly breaks even with the largely bland first arc he’s given us, but with the amazing Ethan Van Sciver set for art duties next month, do I really want to skip out now?

Ultimately, my decision boiled down to a matter of economics, which tends to make every choice simpler.  I’m willing to keep an eye on the title and see if Sciver can push Hurwitz back to greater heights, but not on a dedicated basis.  So here’s the deal.  If you see a review of #16 next month, you’ll know things have turned around promisingly; if you don’t, then that just confirms what I’ve always maintained: even great art can’t fully compensate weak storytelling.

Batman: The Dark Knight #14 – Review

By: Gregg Hurwitz (story), David Finch (art), Sonia Oback (colors)

The Story: In a contest between urban spooks, who will psyche each other out first?

The Review: So apparently, in southern California, all it takes is a flash of rain (and I use the term loosely, as yesterday’s weather could only be called a heavy sprinkle) to mess up my home internet service.  Lord help us all if anything like Hurricane Sandy or Japan’s tsunami strike our part of the country.  We’d probably be living in apocalyptic conditions for about seven years.

Anyway, I say that only to explain the delay in reviews.  Not that there was any burning rush to get this one out, since overall, Hurwitz’s opening run on The Dark Knight has been generally shallow and contradictory.  Last month, I really took issue with the premise of Hurwitz’s big, emotional storyline, that Bruce purposely isolates himself from love and good things.  I dismiss that idea entirely; you need look no further than current issues of Batman and Robin, Batman Inc., even Justice League,to see this doesn’t groove with the character Bruce has long become.

Batman: The Dark Knight #13 – Review

By: Gregg Hurwitz (story), David Finch (art), Sonia Oback (colors)

The Story: So Batman’s afraid of commitment and children.  Hey, he’s still a man, right?

The Review: I hate to continually bring up comparisons to Hurwitz’s Penguin: Pain and Prejudice, but I don’t think anything works as a better contrast to the writer’s work than his other work.  Looking at his earlier mini, Penguin made for a compelling protagonist because beneath his villainous cruelty he had a poisonous insecurity many of us understood, even shared.  Even better, Hurwitz explored this part of Penguin’s psyche without much direct commentary on it.

Crane’s own hang-ups don’t resonate nearly as well, and Hurwitz doesn’t write them quite as effectively.  Whatever bad parenting any of us lived through, I’m pretty sure it didn’t involve science experiments where we got thrown into a basement of horrors, our pleas to be let out ignored.  While Hurwitz pulls off the premise well enough, you don’t have any real connection to it.  You can see the tragedy, feel the trauma, but you don’t relate to it.

Batman: The Dark Knight #12 – Review

By: Gregg Hurwitz (story), David Finch (art), Sonia Oback (colors)

The Story: Aw, is lil’ Bruce scared of some movie violence?

The Review: Even if you’re someone with barely a smidge of a background in psychology, you know how intensely complicated and involved any degree of mental illness can be.  You’re dealing with any combination of genetic and environmental factors, some of which you can only guess the impact of.  That’s what makes the mentally ill such good material for fiction, slimy as it is to say so.  For writers, there is no exercise like getting into the head of the disturbed.

Clearly, this is Hurwitz’s kind of thing.  The difference here is that Scarecrow’s hang-ups come from a much more complex, deep place than Penguin, which requires a much higher degree of attention from both you and Hurwitz.  While I still would’ve preferred we avoid yet another Gotham rogue with major childhood trauma, I admit Hurwitz plays it in a compelling way.

Batman: The Dark Knight #11 – Review

By: Gregg Hurwitz (story), David Finch (art), Sonia Oback (colors)

The Story: Kids, beware the disfigured, masked man stalking you from the bushes.

The Review: This goes without saying, but if you’re going to have a whole gaggle of titles all under the same brand, the ideal would be for each of them to have a reason for being there; each should have a voice distinctive from the others.  Otherwise, what’s the point?  This applies especially to the Bat-family of titles, since all told, they include about a dozen different ongoing series, and four of them have the man himself in the starring role.

To be perfectly frank, some thinning may be in order here.  While Scott Snyder has pretty much immortalized the post-relaunch Batman with some epic storylines, and Batman and Robin delves into the always-volatile relationship between the titular characters, you can’t escape the fact that Detective Comics and Batman: The Dark Knight haven’t really set themselves apart.  They both seem to drill from the same well of filler material, the fun and forgettable answer to Batman.