Batman Incorporated #1 – Review

By: Grant Morrison (writer), Yanick Paquette (penciller), Michael LaCombe (inker), Nathan Fairbairn (colorist)

The Story: Bruce Wayne begins his mission to recruit an international association of Batmen by looking up Mr. Unknown, his counterpart in Japan. Lord Death Man, boss baddie of the Land of the Rising Sun, however has announced his goal to “Kill all Japanese crimefighters!” With the help of Catwoman and Mr. Unknown’s partner, Batman (prime) intends to confront Lord Death Man and prevent the failure of his mission before it starts.

The Review: Grant Morrison tends to polarize readers with a combination of high-concept ideas and ambitious execution. His newest series, however, seems on track to being the most grounded of his current writing: Batman, realizing the power of
his own icon, decides to market it around the world to battle underworlds beyond Gotham. This issue has no philosophical musings, no metaphysical abstractions, no extreme sci-fi complications.

Of course, the idea of a league of Batmen only has weight if the contenders for the symbol can even begin to measure up to it. The first contender in question, Mr. Unknown, at first glance doesn’t seem to. We open on him at his least impressive moments—and also his final ones. He is quite literally declawed before losing face altogether. The instinct is to peg him as an incompetent—how could Bruce even consider lending his symbol to this guy? But even if Mr.Unknown’s defeat paints him poorly, it elevates his nemesis, Lord Death Man, to a level of malice worthy of a Batman villain. Lord Death Man’s cruel teasing and appearance very quickly establish his iconography and formidability.

And if Mr. Unknown himself comes off uninspiring, his partner, Jiro, in comparison shows off his admirable capabilities, setting us up to suspect that perhaps the division of power between Mr. Unknown and Jiro is not what we are initially led to believe (particularly considering the revelation that Jiro acts as Mr. Unknown’s body double). The existence of Mr. Unknown’s underground base, complete with advanced tech and a sleek vehicle further emphasize the parallels between Batman and Robin’s world to their Japanese counterparts.

For those concerned that they’ll receive yet more helpings of an introspective, broody, distinctly-Morrison Batman, have no fear. The Batman of this issue is at his best—absurdly capable, highly observant, and kickass. He extracts information from henchmen in a way no one else can: “Your boss might kill you if he ever finds out, sure. Me? I’ll carve the nose off your face right here!” Not only does Batman show off his chops, but his billionaire persona has never come across as so enviable. In public, he is suave, and in private, irresistibly rugged.

And the lucky object of that ruggedness is Selina Kyle, who hasn’t been portrayed as so competent and sexy since the days of her ongoing (which I miss, by the way). Her mastery as a thief is made front-and-center, and her fighting skills are given their due as she tackles henchmen and robots by Batman’s side. What really sells her characterization in this issue is the nonchalance with which she does everything, very true to a woman who models her behavior after felines.

Morrison sets up the stakes very efficiently and fairly high. The predicament all our heroes, both Western and Eastern, find themselves in toward the end is a classic: escaping the villain’s trap. But this plot device loses its generic quality to some fun, unexpected elements—an underwater cage within a flooded apartment room, with a massive octopus tucked in for good measure. The tension is also heightened by the knowledge that failure here means failure for Batman’s entire mission, and in a metaphysical sense, failure for the concept Morrison is trying to sell.

Thunderbolts #143 – Review

By Jeff Parker (writer), Miguel Sepulveda (artist), Frank Martin (colorist)

The Story: Asgard lies in ruins as Norman Osborn’s own empire falls to pieces around him. With the assembled might of Marvel’s heroes poised to emerge victorious, Osborn’s team of covert operatives must decide whether to go down fighting or betray their boss for a greater good.

The Good: This version of the Thunderbolts comes to a satisfying conclusion while paving the way for what I genuinely hope will be a weirder and more interesting team roster. As soon as I’d read that the likes of Crossbones, Juggernaut, and the god damned Man-Thing would join the new Thunderbolts, well, this current team became a lot less interesting. But at least they went out on a high note, attempting a Dirty Dozen kind of mission to steal the Spear of Odin with the kind of reckless bravado that only a band of villains with nothing to lose can successfully pull off. I like that kind of attitude, especially when Parker complicates things by making Paladin, Ant-Man, and Ghost realize they do have something to lose and that maybe some ideals are worth fighting for after all. There’s a tense and frenzied atmosphere in this issue, a desperate sense that these villains know the battle is lost and that all they can do now is scurry about and claw at each other like drowning rats as they fight for survival. Parker did an admirable job pacing this issue and choreographing every fight for maximum impact, and when smoke clears and the dust settles from those battles, and we’re left with those great splash pages of Cage and Jessica looking out over The Raft, damn it all if it didn’t make me excited for the Heroic Age to arrive!

Thunderbolts #138 – Review

By Jeff Parker (writer), Miguel Sepulveda (artist), Frank Martin(colorist)

The Story: The Thunderbolts, having more than a few lunatics on the team, have a problem. The satisfaction of victory over Power Man and Iron Fist was snatched from them last issue. They’ve had nothing to do since then. So somebody prods at Mr. X, which causes him to escape from their HQ. The Thunderbolts follow him to the Colombia-Venezuela border.

What’s Good: Sepulveda provides some very fine artwork for this issue. In terms of setting, there are lots of moody, cloudy effects, dreamscapes, and a whole lot of Venezuelan jungle. The art communicated most of what it needed to for keeping the story moving too (although I wondered from time to time if Ant-Man was flying under the influence). There’s a lot of dynamic action here that’s fun to watch. Sepulveda also has a multiple image effect to show Mr. X’s speed, which was effective. And the FARC guerrillas and their equipment were authentic, down to the rubber boots that they wear instead of combats. He’s obviously done his research.

The story was serviceable. It was actually a variation on a classic Marvel theme: good guys fighting each other until something bigger forces them to unite. In this case, it’s villain on villain action. This series has been pointing at the fractures in the team for quite some time and it’s fun to watch the effects the petty betrayals have. The dialogue was excellent.

What’s Not So Good: While the Thunderbolts creative team has been good in showing the little splits between team members, nothing definitive is happening, so I’m starting to wonder if this low-level bubbling of personalities will ever actually lead to anything. It seems that every issue, somebody talks about killing someone else and then the following issue, they’re back to their base level of animosity. And on that score, in six months time, some readers may wonder why this issue was important. It’s not character study. It’s not driving a new arc. It’s just shooting and blowing stuff up, which works for some. The danger with an issue like this is that it doesn’t continue any momentum from the previous issue, nor does it launch the next issue with any momentum either. Making that slightly worse is the fact that I didn’t feel much was at stake. If none of the T-bolts are going to do anything serious to one another, and the FARC is a pretty unmenacing antagonist, there’s not much left to worry about. (Unless you think that a platoon of spottily trained guys with hand weapons is going to pose a genuine threat to the Thunderbolts – FARC aren’t the Hulk-Busters, Cape killers or even a properly equipped modern army.)  That makes it easy to say that this is not a critical issue for collectors.

For the purposes of nit-picking (can’t nerd out without nit-picking, right?), odds are long that FARC guerrillas would be skirmishing with Venezuelan forces, but that’s just nit-picking.

Conclusion: If you like to watch your favorite villains pretending to be heroes and shooting and beating each other, this issue is for you. Otherwise, nothing much changes in the Thunderbolts universe, so if you need to skip an issue, it shouldn’t affect how you read next one.

Grade: C

-DS Arsenault

 

Thunderbolts #136 – Review

by Andy Diggle (writer), Pop Mahn & Carlos Rodriguez (art), Frank Martin & Rain Beredo (colors), and Albert Deschesne (letters)

The Story: Black Widow and Songbird find themselves in a bad spot, as a divide begins to form between the Thunderbolts.

What’s Good: It’s really quite tragic that in Diggle’s final issue,  the team finally feels fully established, with its members feeling legitimate and competent.  Each character is fully defined, and I found myself caring about each and every one of them.  The bad guys on the team felt like nasty, powerful adversaries, while I was firmly cheering for the good guys on the team.   While Ghost has been awesome for some time, Headsman is now very lovable in his own right, Paladin gives off a twisted Scott Summers feel, Ant-Man is in intriguing character that’ll be trouble later on, and Mr. X is the evil, all-powerful badass that he should be.

All of this comes courtesy of the team breaking apart early on in the issue, which allows each character to shine in his own right.  It fully manifests the sort of bizarre team dynamic that should define the Thunderbolts;  Diggle spends much of the issue with half of the team acting like heroes, or at least anti-heroes, while the other half are flat-out villains.  This is the sort of moral impasse that can make Thunderbolts such a fascinating comic, as while none of the characters are good guys, each represent a different sort of villainy.

Beyond that, the action has the fast, slick, and frenetic feel that you’d expect from Thunderbolts, with fancy explosions aplenty and a fun chase sequence.  This is really dynamic, yet shadowy stuff with the great shading that has come to be a requirement in a Thunderbolts book.

What’s Not So Good: It’s hard not to feel a little frustrated as you realize that Diggle has left his book in a state where nothing has really changed.  Through some rather convenient techno-wizardy, Ghost ensures that the team will have no memory of their infighting – meaning that the roster stays the same and the internal strife that made this issue so interesting is put back into the closet.  Meanwhile, a “new” member introduced at issue’s end essentially  undoes the biggest twist of Diggle’s entire run.

Diggle just feels overly concerned with making the series as accessible as possible for incoming writer Jeff Parker.  It’s as though we’re back to issue 3 of Diggle’s run, with Parker merely inheriting Diggle’s original team, but almost none of the events that came after that roster selection.

The unmasking of Scourge was also underwhelming.  It really is a C-list character, one I can imagine many people being totally unfamiliar with.  Worse still, those who are familiar with the character probably saw this coming a mile away.

Also, perhaps due to having a larger art team, things can feel a bit scattered and a little too frantic, with a few too many angular panels, some faces looking off, and some panels being clearly done by a different hand.

Conclusion: A great issue that makes me feel that Diggle’s leaving too soon.  It’s too bad that so much is undone.

Grade: B

-Alex Evans

Thunderbolts #135 – Review

by Andy Diggle (writer), Miguel Sepulveda (art), Frank Martin (colors), and Albert Deschesne (letters)

The Story: Black Widow and Songbird make a run for it.

What’s Good: Diggle writes an interesting script for this issue, one that’s self-referential in many ways.  Whenever a character says a line that sounds ridiculous, cliche, or out of character, another character immediately picks up on it. It’s actually fairly clever.  They pick up on the failings in each other’s dialogue or the more ridiculous aspects of certain characters. There’s an especially funny line regarding the cliche nature of Nick Fury’s voice that isn’t to be missed.

This is overall a fairly solid issue, and one of the reasons for that is perhaps the first time since the beginning of his run, Diggle actually makes his team feel not only competent, but nuanced and outright intimidating. All too often, Diggle’s Tbolts have felt woefully ineffective. It was great to hear them finally speak of with fear. By placing them in the role of pursuers as opposed to main characters actually does wonders for the team and has given them a shot of legitimacy. Too bad this comes at the end of Diggle’s run.

Character-wise, I’m glad that Mr. X was finally was put to good use in this issue, and unlike most martial arts monsters, he actually is as invincible as he should be. Mr. X is a scary, scary dude and his action scene was fantastic, lightning quick stuff that looked and read great. Norman was also oddly competent this month. Dark Reign has often made him seem a bit bumbling, but this month, he puts out the brainpower that one would expect out of someone running the show, in a twist on a twist that’s really rather cool.

On art, Sepulveda brings his awesome shading techniques that make the book look unlike any other, giving it a neat “painted” feel.

What’s Not So Good: But that’s all I can say that’s good about the art this month, which is quite inconsistent. Close-ups of faces often look completely strange, even muddy and distorted. Nick Fury in particular looks horrible, and it’s clear that Sepulveda can’t draw beaten and battered faces. He also struggles with people shouting.

Unfortunately, many of  the other panels aren’t much better. When the shot is zoomed out a bit, a lot of detail seems to be lost, to the point of looking flat-out weird. Inexplicably, Sepulveda’s action scenes look great and don’t suffer from any problems. It’s only in zoomed out panels without action that it all becomes a bit blank and blurry.

Frank Martin’s colors certainly don’t do Sepulveda’s art any favours. It’s clear that Sepulveda’s art looks best with dark colors, but with much of the book taking place outdoors, Martin makes the book look damned bright; and it just feels very off, inappropriate even. Worse still, I feel that the strong bright colors ended up battling Sepulveda’s equally strong shading, resulting in a very weird looking comic book.

Despite the cool action scenes, there’s some sloppy work here, and the overbearing colors don’t work with Sepulveda’s drawings.

Conclusion: A fairly decent issue held back by off-putting artwork.

Grade: B

-Alex Evans