Action Comics #34 – Review

By: Greg Pak (story), Aaron Kuder & Scott Kolins (art), Wil Quintana (colors)

The Story: Brainstorms aren’t always good things and this one seems to prove it.

The Review: Recently, I’ve thought that if we could just move past the Doomsday stuff, Doomed might be a pretty decent storyline. I’m glad I stuck to my guns in saying there’s nothing further to develop with Doomsday, not even in the body of Superman, because that’s largely turned out to be the case. Obviously, it’s not terrific that it took an excruciating number of issues to make that clear, but the important thing is we’ve finally gotten past that.

The way I see it, the story of Doomed only truly started once Brainiac started flatlining everybody on the planet, sparing neither superhero or supervillain, yet keeping them all alive for purposes we can only speculate to. Doesn’t that sound a lot more interesting than “Superman infected by Doomsday virus”? Now we’re talking about a legitimate global disaster that requires a proportionate response, which is going to be hard to come by when the threat is actually bigger than the planet itself.

Secret Origins #2 – Review

By: Ray Fawkes, Jeff Parker, & Scott Lobdell (writers); Dustin Nguyen, Alvaro Martinez, & Paulo Siqueira (pencilers); Derek Fridolfs, Raul Fernandez, & Paulo Siqueira (inkers); John Kalisz, Rain Beredo, Hi-Fi, & Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: “I watched my parents die in front of me. I’ll never let that happen to anyone again.” – Batman

“Man, I never got to take that fishing trip…” – Aquaman

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear your complaining over my years of slavery and abuse.” – Starfire

The Review: Throughout his seventy-five year history Batman has always been one of DC’s most marketable properties and, especially in recent years, he’s practically demolished his competition. When the New 52 started, the Batman family of titles boasted eleven ongoing books, or over a fifth of the company’s mainline publications, and that number has only just ducked below that with New 52 nine titles announced for August. So yeah, it’s not really a secret that Batman sells comics. Add in two characters who seem to enjoy appearing in various states of shirtlessness and undress and you’ve got a book that looks like gold on paper. So is it?

“We know this story,” a seemingly omniscient narrator tells us on the second page of Ray Fawkes’ Batman story, “Even if we’re new to it, we know it.” It’s a fitting way to start this tale, Batman’s beginning is well known to us, in fact there’s even a movie about it. Perhaps what’s most amazing about Fawkes’ story is that, even knowing that, he doesn’t really try to find a new angle on this classic tale, instead choosing to dive straight in and let the story stand on the strength of his narration. It’s certainly a bold move, and one that bares more fruit than you might expect, but I’m not sure that it’s quite what it takes to sell this comic.

“Man in the Shadow” is a solid retelling of the origin story that largely sticks to the classic framework laid down by “The Legend of the Batman – Who He Is and How He Came To Be” all the way back in 1939. You’ll see Bruce’s parents gunned down, a scene of him mourning them, a scene of him creating the first draft of the mission that will last the rest of his life, a montage of him acquiring the skills he’ll need, and finally the famous night in the study, in that order.

It’s tough to leave your stamp on something that’s been rewritten in that same format so many times, but, to his credit, Fawkes manages to do a decent job of it. The biggest addition is probably the explicit look at how Gotham was changed by the death of the Waynes and the appearance of Batman. The Christopher Nolan films dealt with this theme in their way, as have other stories, but I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it so succinctly put. The idea that Gotham, as a community, never fully healed from the loss of its first family is perhaps a bit of a stretch as presented here, but a brief but crucial mention of the unique values and positions that the Waynes held in the city does a bit to back this up. It brings a smile to my face to see Martha’s contribution to Bruce’s character remembered, especially as, going by the descriptions here, she easily could be seen as the greater loss to the city.

Fawkes’ real contribution here is to boil Batman down to what matters most and present it simply and clearly. There will always be arguments about what the true message of Batman is but Fawkes gives as strong an argument as anyone could in the span of a single page when he opts against the classic, but largely dated, concept of a candlelight oath.

DC Universe Presents #18 – Review

By: Joe Keatinge (story), Federico Dallocchio (art), Allen Passalaqua (colors)

The Story: A village threatened by oppression—and one lone outlaw comes to save the day.

The Review: Two things you ought to know about me: first impressions count a long way with me (probably more than they should, come to think of it), but to make for that fact, I tend to bend over backwards giving folks the benefit of the doubt—even if the red flags are waving that they are, in fact, crazy people.  I think this comes across in my reviews.  I’ve forgiven and shown loyalty to many a writer based on one good showing.

Joe Keatinge really impressed me with his deft handling of Arsenal in last month’s DC Universe Presents, so I was quite eager to see what he could do with the archer’s alien bombshell of a teammate.  Starfire is such an obvious piece of cheesecake, especially nowadays, with her ever-revealing outfit, that it’s hard to take her seriously.  You can call her warrior princess and give her all the powers you want, but she’ll seem like Beyoncé with flaming hair and orange skin.

DC Universe Presents #17 – Review

By: Joe Keatinge (story), Ricken (art), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: Arsenal proves that you can do a lot with a quarter if you know how to use it.

The Review: I hadn’t planned to review this issue so soon; after all, it wasn’t as if DC Universe Presents was ever much of a hot title before now.  But when I went to pick it up at my favorite comic book shop on Wednesday, I was surprised to discover it had sold out.  Seriously?  I then made a call to my back-up comic book shop, who informed me (on Thursday morning!) that they only had one copy left, which is the one I eventually bought with no little amazement.

I can’t say I completely understand what made this particular issue of DC Universe Presents such a must-buy, but I have some thoughts.  Surprisingly, Red Hood and the Outlaws is actually one of the most popular titles from DC (ranking in the top 25 for the last few months).  Besides his starring role in that title, Arsenal has also figured pretty prominently in Young Justice, so he’s got quite a bit of exposure lately.

R.E.B.E.L.S. #27 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Claude St. Aubin (penciller), Scott Hana (inker), Rich & Tanya Horie (colorists)

The Story: Prepare to be sucker-punched—and by sucker-punch I mean getting a telepathic starfish in your face.

The Review: A big cast can be a handful to write, but their usefulness to fiction is invaluable.  The more well-developed characters you have, the more opportunities you have to mix and match them up to see what kind of reactions you can get out of them in various situations.  If you give them a chance, they can practically build their own stories for you.

So it’s not a shocker that when Bedard gets more of the R.E.B.E.L.S. involved in the plot, the issue instantly feels more active and invested.  The back-and-forth chatter among them has an energy and dynamic that’s largely absent when it’s just Vril Dox condescending to whoever manages to get his attention that moment.  It’s also plain refreshing to see the team acting like—well, a team.

Even so, they still get comparatively little to do, what with half of them beaming back to Rann to counter the Starro invasion, and the other half going off to find Brainiac (a mission which proves virtually worthless as the first team winds up accomplishing both).  Really, it’s Vril’s son and lady-friend who get the most page-time, with Lyrl devising a method to free the Starro-infected, and Blackfire facing off against the Conqueror himself.

Lryl’s use of Tribulus to disinfect the Rannians from the possessing starfish is quite ingenious, although the science behind it doesn’t get explained very well.  It also seems a bit too easy, as the invasion barely feels like it’s started (mostly because Bedard’s focus in past issues has been on Starro the Conqueror and his Lobo clones).  On top of that, the whole plot has been executed predictably; Starro stories rarely go any other way, after all.