Superman/Wonder Woman #9 – Review

By: Charles Soule (story), Tony Daniel (pencils), Matt Banning & Sandu Florea (inks), Tomev Morey (colors)

The Story: Never ask an Amazon to do a god’s work.

The Review: I feel safe with you guys, so I’m just gonna let it all out: I don’t know how much more of this I can stand. It’s true that my general distaste for Doomsday made me predisposed to dislike Doomed, but I don’t think I’m out of line for saying that the storyline has been an overlong bit of mindless drivel so far. When you have four ongoing titles involved in a crossover, and the story still feels like it’s going nowhere, that’s unacceptable.

Anyway, don’t take my word for it. The repetitiousness of Doomed is obvious in this issue alone, in which once again Clark has a tiresome dialogue with himself—his Doomsday self, that is—and various well-meaning individuals attempt to put him down, only to irritate him further. It’s enough to make you wonder where everyone’s brains went. It’s one thing for Guy Gardner to throw himself into battle without thinking, but you’d think women as intelligent as Hessia or Supergirl would be better than that.

Superman/Wonder Woman #8 – Review

By: Charles Soule (story), Tony Daniel (pencils), Matt Banning & Sandu Florea (inks), Tomev Morey (colors)

The Story: If even the best man on Earth can be a bad boyfriend, what hope is there for the rest of us?

The Review: The tendency with writing Superman is to portray him as a goody-goody, such a paragon of model behavior that he comes frequently across as bland and unrelatable. That’s how he inspires both worshipful respect and defensive hatred from people, both fictional and otherwise. In real life, it takes real effort to maintain that degree of goodness, and in the new DCU, with a younger, brasher Clark, the suggestion is that it takes real effort for him, too.

But if Clark’s public virtues are the product of strict self-control, of suppressing an inclination to “punch down” (as Greg Pak always puts it), then we now have opportunities for him to relinquish that control. Such is the effect of the Doomsday infection, unleashing all those mean-spirited, primal thoughts that you’ve always wondered if Clark ever felt, much less repressed. It’s an interesting direction for Soule to take, exploring the psychological, rather than purely physical, dimensions of a Clark gone wild.

Superman/Wonder Woman #6 – Review

By: Charles Soule (story), Tony S. Daniel (pencils), Batt & Sandu Florea (inks), Tomev Morey (colors)

The Story: Generally, it’s best to say, “I love you,” when you’re not about to die.

The Review: Of all the complaints about the Superman-Wonder Woman relationship, the one that’s been around the longest, and the most legitimate, is the one pointing out the lack of genuine passion between the characters.  No one can deny that you’d have to be a fool to turn down a tryst with Wonder Woman—or Superman, for that matter—should the opportunity present itself, but you can’t expect them to conform to traditional notions of romance.

In fact, the more you adhere to those notions, the stranger the relationship appears.  Diana concludes, “We are each other’s shelter from the storm,” which is a very bold sentiment, coming from her, and a very unbelievable one if the metaphor is taken in strictly emotional terms.  But what Diana really seems to be referring to is the thing that’s foremost in their minds: the Work.  It’s hard to see the passion between them when they treat it as secondary to their costumed duties.  Indeed, for all the tension they’ve experienced in the last few issues, Diana dismisses it to focus on the task at hand: “Enough of this.  We aren’t children, and there’s work to be done.”

Superman/Wonder Woman #5 – Review

By: Charles Soule (story), Tony S. Daniel (pencils), Batt & Sandu Florea (inks), Tomev Morey (colors)

The Story: Diana wonders when she can stop stepping in to end her boyfriend’s battles.

The Review: If you ever get to know me well, you’ll know that I have a very low tolerance for the general public’s overexcitedness over, well, most everything.  Sometimes, it’s the hay made over the latest political scandal; other times, it’s the hysteria ensuing from a celebrity’s baby or new flame.  For full disclosure, and judge me how you will, the overreaction I can stand the least is the obsession with flash-in-the-pan internet memes.*

So it was with no small amount of amusement that I watched the world respond to Superman and Wonder Woman’s relationship, combining political and celebrity mania all at once.  That was to be expected.  Even so, I had hoped that the cooler minds of the DCU, at least the ones in the superhero community, could manage to keep their acts together.

Superman/Wonder Woman #4 – Review

By: Charles Soule (story), Tony S. Daniel (pencils), Batt & Sandu Florea (inks), Tomev Morey (colors)

The Story: Like certain Phantom Zone super-criminals, the truth about comes out.

The Review: One thing you have to remember about Superman and Wonder Woman as a couple is that these two are highly competent and intelligent individuals.  They perceive the obstacles in their relationship, both from within and without, as well as you do, which is probably why Clark strove so hard to keep their hook-up a secret and why Diana repeatedly tries to convince him to do the opposite.  Outing them hasn’t mooted the conflict, only changed its direction.

There’s no mistaking that most of the tension comes from Clark, quite naturally.  After all, in this scenario Diana gets exactly what she wanted (though she later protests she “didn’t want it to be out of our control”) while Clark faces greater pressure than ever to reassure his fellow man that what he’s doing is nothing to worry about.  There lies the core of Clark and Diana’s conflict, one that many couples likely relate to: he cares too much about what others think; she cares too little.

Batwoman #24 – Review

By: J.H. Williams III & W. Haden Blackman (story), Trevor McCarthy (art), Sandu Florea & Derek Fridolfs (finishes), Guy Major (colors)

The Story: If you’re gonna go after Batman, you might as well make it worth his time.

The Review: I’m afraid we can’t get down to business until we discuss to some extent the circumstances leading to Williams-Blackman’s impending departure.  After sorting through all the various accounts of what happened, the whole controversy boils down to this: frustrated by regular, oft-times sudden editorial interference and a mandate that Kate Kane cannot marry, Williams-Blackman chose not to continue a story that was increasingly no longer their own.

Since I don’t know the specifics behind the other editorial mandates reported of, I won’t comment on those.  At any rate, editor-creator tensions are old hat for mainstream comics, and by and large, it’s often impossible to tell exactly when and how they affect any given series.  Only on these rare occasions when a writer airs his grievances publicly do we get real evidence of how an intended storyline gets thrown off course or stonewalled by a decree from above.

Batman Annual #2 – Review

By: Scott Snyder & Marguerite Bennett (story), Bennett (writer), Wes Craig (pencils), Craig Yeung, Drew Gerraci, Craig, Jack Purcell, Sandu Florea & Marc Deering (inks), Ian Hanin (colors) and Dave Sharpe (letters)

The Story: Batman meets a new/old denizen of Arkham while testing out their security systems.

Review (with minor SPOILERS): Bravo to DC and the creative team for introducing a new character!  I know that the fanboys love to read another Joker story, but I personally find new villains to be much more interesting.  Only with new characters are there unclear motives, unclear powers and unclear outcomes.  All the new character needs is a little hook to make them unique and it is suddenly fascinating to watch the creators fill in the blanks of the character.

The new character from this issue is named yhe Anchoress.  She has a really cool hook in that when her powers manifested, she accidentally killed her parents and was sent for therapy at the original Arkham Asylum back when AA was a place where a Dr. Arkham actually tried to help the mentally ill.  As such, she hates Batman for turning AA into a supermax prison for his rogues gallery.  Once that happened, nobody cared about helping the mentally ill. They just wanted to keep Joker and Clayface in their cells.  It’s an interesting way to introduce a character and to make us look differently at a landmark like AA.  I mean, I think almost all modern Bat-fans look at AA as a prison.  It’s easy to forget that AA probably used to have a different purpose….like treating the mentally ill and perhaps now those mentally ill don’t have the same prospects for treatment.  Readers of this site know I love real-world parallels (and so does Scott Snyder, I think), so I can’t help but see relationships between this take on AA and the closing of mental health institutions in the 1980s and all the crime and homelessness that happened as a result.  It’s just interesting to think about some of these criminals or bums as mentally ill people who have been failed by “the system.”

Batwoman #20 – Review

By: J.H. Williams III & W. Haden Blackman (story), Trevor McCarthy (art), Sandu Florea (inks), Guy Major (colors)

The Story: If you start thinking you can take the Batman alone, you need an intervention.

The Review: My favorite thing about this title is its willingness to allow all its characters to have a voice in the story, to make decisions and have a life that isn’t dictated by Batwoman’s actions.  That’s not to say the series doesn’t take on an additional burden with that.  The more rounded and independent characters you have, the more attention and development they demand.  By taking on a life of their own, they can shift the story in ways the writer didn’t intend.

While Williams-Blackman obviously have an interest in explaining how the D.E.O. came by Batwoman’s sister in the first place, I’m not sure that merited a six-page long, somewhat rambling narrative from Chase.  It really opens up more mysteries than it closes, as we don’t know how the Religion of Crime got their hands on Beth or even how she was revived.  Bones admits that where the sarcophagus in which she was found is concerned, “Hell, we still can’t figure out if it’s magic, or alien tech, or something else entirely.”

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).

Justice League #14 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (story), Tony S. Daniel (pencils), Matt Banning & Sandu Florea (inkers), Tomev Morey (colors)

The Story: Wonder Woman loses a friend and gains a beau—a pretty good exchange, honestly.

The Review: The persistent mediocrity of certain, often major titles sometimes makes you wonder if DC is truly out to deliver the best, most ambitious stories possible, the way Marvel NOW! seems to be doing, or just settling for entertaining enough.  Justice League certainly falls into the latter category, and this issue shows why.  Instead of being the grand, epic, anchor title it should be, it mostly comes across as a readable and diverting series, and little more.

In terms of pure teamwork, the League is efficient and effective.  Every member gets a part to play, but they rarely break out of predefined roles.  The most interesting part of the whole mission is the Flash acting tank while his other teammates are occupied elsewhere (i.e. trying to get the feline out of Superman).  Unfortunately, Johns doesn’t explore the possibilities of Barry taking point, and things eventually revert to a very neat, but predictable battle sequence.

Batman #12 – Review

By: Scott Snyder & James Tynion, IV (writers), Becky Cloonan & Andy Clarke (artists), Sandu Florea (inks on a few pages), FCO Plascencia (colors), Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt (letters), Katie Kubert (assistant editor) & Mike Marts (editor)

The Story: Batman has a new helper.

A few things: 1). Neat new character. – I kinda like this new character, Harper Row.  She’s clever, handy and hits that cute-but-not-sexy sweet spot (as appropriate for a teenager).  I like how she uses nothing but her wits and skills to figure out some things about Batman’s operations.  Heck, she basically hacks and improves his network.  That’s really cool.  In fact, her attitude and skill sets remind me a little bit of Tim Drake who famously figured out Batman’s identity and then went on to become Robin.  Could a character arc like Tim’s be in store for Harper?  Who knows…..but it would be a fun possibility.

Detective Comics #3 – Review

Written and Drawn by Tony S. Daniel, inks by Sandu Florea, colors by Tomeu Morey

The Story: Batman faces off against the Dollmaker and his twisted family.

The Good: There was a lot of action in this issue. Brutal, Batman-getting-his-ass-kicked action. And we get to see how much balls Batman has–or still has, despite the relaunch. Half paralyzed and realizing he can’t make it out alive, he simply tells the freaks “What the hell are you waiting for? Bring it on!” And that’s the first page. Batman then proceeds to barely escape the fight and go on to solve the mystery. That’s another thing great about this–it is a detective book. We see Batman actually do detective-like things, where in some recent stories (and movies), he’s more of a guy who simply responds. It would make sense that at least in Detective Comics, we see him investigate. And the investigation leads to more clues about the Dollmaker and what form of crazy he came from–and it’s the kind of crazy that only a Gotham City villain could have. This villain is right at home in Batman’s rouge galleries. Pretty soon a doll head will be joining that giant penny and T-Rex. Yet there are still some great mysteries left to solve–like who his “children” are. Who is he working for? What is–and why does he even seem to have–his code of conduct? The Dollmaker is becoming an easy villain to get invested in, and it also helps that Daniel puts most of his artistic talents to this character. He’s the most visually striking (I almost said appealing, but that just feels wrong) character in the issue. And for a comic artist, he’s probably a wonderful character to draw, ink, and color. All that patchwork!

Detective Comics #2 – Review

Written and Drawn by Tony S. Daniel, Inked by Ryan Winn and Sandu Florea, Colored by Tomeu Morey

The Story: Batman and Gordon discover the Joker’s face left behind in Arkham and begin their investigation. But first, Batman must save a little girl…

The Good: An issue 2 that doesn’t feel like filler to fit a trade. This has a story to it. Beginning, middle, and end. Character arc. Subplots. So many comics now are one note made-for-the-trade these days that getting something with a lot of content is almost overwhelming.  But Daniel gives us a lot of meat for our three bucks, whether it’s developing Bruce’s personal life, showing us how Gordon works, or building towards the crescendo of the issue, there’s nothing thrown in for filler. Everything is working towards something. And this mystery is just beginning to explode. It’s so hard to write about these issues without spoiling them or mentioning some very intriguing key parts. So, how to do this and be vague… The new villain set up in the last issue, the Dollmaker… I am now convinced that he is a credible threat to Gotham. Riddler, Two-Face, Penguin–you’ve got a new buddy in your league and he is young and hungry (well, maybe not young. And maybe a bit more hungry in a literal sense). But Dollmaker succeeds as a villain where Morrison’s Professor Pyg fails–in that, I didn’t give a crap about that villain and never saw him as a threat to Batman. Dollmaker is. I am interested in Dollmaker and his….agh…can’t say it. And he’s a villain with a scheme. Okay, all villains have schemes, but you get the sense that he really has something cooking in that deranged noggin.

Batman #707 – Review

By: Tony Daniel (writer and penciller), Tony Daniel, Sandu Florea and Ryan Winn (inkers), Ian Hannin (colors)

The Story: Batman and I-Ching race against time to get to the Mask of the Beholder before Sensei gets there. Too late!

What’s Good: I enjoy Tony Daniel’s Gotham art. He draws a powerful Batman (check him fighting on the pier sans cape), dynamic action (like Sensei’s kick in the archives), and general weirdness (look at the spiritual madness coming out of Sensei when he gets his mitts on the beholder). The inks team made Gotham dark and brooding, from the bottom of a dirty river, to the hidden hideaway of the Riddler’s new employer. And Hannin’s colors were awesome in the cloudy effects of battle and the mystical forces coming out of the beholder. And speaking of the Riddler (and his twisted daughter Enigma), they look awesome. Riddler is genuinely ugly, with greasy, dirty hair, a textured, wrinkled face and some whacked out facial expressions. I also enjoyed the Chinese-motifs in the masks of Sensei henchmen. Très cool.

X-Men: Legacy #244 – Review

By: Mike Carey (writer), Harvey Tolibao (pencils), Sandu Florea (inks), Brian Reber (colors), Cory Petit (letters) & Daniel Ketchum (editor)

The Story: Mutants are disappearing on Utopia and it’s up to Rogue and Blindfold to figure out what’s going on.

What’s Good: I always appreciate how contained X-Men Legacy seems.  Whereas the other X-titles are kinda making a continuity fruit salad of things, Legacy is just staying out of the way and telling competent stories featuring Rogue for the most part.  Even though I have a some issues that I’ll get into below, I appreciate that Mike Carey never uses Wolverine as a kind of deux ex machina to fix the problem.  So, even though “it” doesn’t totally work in this issue, Carey deserves a tip of the cap for telling an X-story that is self-contained and uses a minimum of characters.

And, the story has some rewards for those of have been reading this series.  About a year ago in publication terms, Utopia was besieged by Emplate and it seems that that creepy baddie may have left a few dimensional backdoors open after that situation was seemingly resolved.  It’s always nice to see some ongoing continuity in a series instead of the practice of never referencing a previous story for fear of offending a future reader of a trade paperback.

What’s Not So Good: Ugh! A few things…  By the end of this issue, we can see the set-up for the Age of X that Marvel has been teasing the hell out of.  I am actually really looking forward to that story, but I have to wonder why this issue’s story was necessary.  Let’s just get onto the main course!  As I mentioned above, Legacy does a GREAT job of staying out of the way of the other X-titles and from what I understand, Age of X shouldn’t cause continuity problems itself, so why not just go ahead and let us enjoy that story?

Batman #697 – Review

By: Tony Daniel (writer and artist), Sandu Florea (inker)

The Story: Life After Death, Part 6… The Conclusion: Batman, with a small army of helpers, descends on the chaos of Devil’s Square in Gotham after the Black Mask has released his toxin. Batman breaks through the enemy lines and makes a run on the Black Mask himself. Black Mask is not exactly defenseless…

What’s Good: There’s a lot of action in this book, many obstacles big and small, and none of them are easy. And on the art side, I still think that Tony Daniel draws a great Batman. He’s thin and muscular, and twisting and turning in the air, around gunshots and explosions and bad guys. Daniel draws Dick Grayson as if he’s making it all look easy. Batman defies gravity without looking like he’s breaking the laws of physics. He creeps out of the river or jumps through fire like he lives for this. Daniel draws good dynamics and he keeps a chaos of action from being confusing.

Batman #695 – Review

By: Tony S. Daniel (writer and artist), Sandu Florea with Norm Rapmund (inkers)

The Story: Life After Death, Part 4: Smoke and Mirrors: Batman pursues a complex mystery, peeling back layer after layer: the Gene-Corp murders, the Penguin, the Falcone mafia, the Penguin, Catwoman and a stray Falcone sister. He has to rough up a few people on the way, but the path he uncovers leads him into more danger than before.

What’s Good: Daniel’s art worked for me. The layouts were clean, the camera angle choices were evocative, and his Batman is menacing and dark. Check out Batman walking away from the house he just burnt down! One thing that I also respond to in Daniel’s art is the level of detail. The Reaper’s wrinkling face, the texture of Arkham’s flat, mousy hair, and the wrinkles in Batman’s cowl evoke sensation.

I know some of my colleagues at WCBR have criticized Daniel as a writer. Maybe I haven’t been with Batman long enough, but I really enjoy his take on Dick Grayson being the Batman. Dick is obviously growing into the role and is scaring the crap out of bad guys. I wouldn’t cross him.

Batman #694 – Review

By Tony Daniel (writer and artist), Sandu Florea (inks), Ian Hannin (color), Mike Marts (editor)

The Story: Life After Death, Part 3: Someone is sparking a gang war in Gotham. The Penguin is taking the brunt of it while Dick Grayson races to stop it from spinning out of control. In the meantime, after the shooting of his informant last issue, the kiss with Huntress and the uneasy fit of Batman’s cowl all make this mission very personal.

What’s Good: Daniels is keeping the pressure up on poor Dick. Not only is Gotham’s underworld splitting at the seams, with Commissioner Gordon, Oracle and the Huntress looking to Batman for guidance, but the serious attitude he gets from his new ward Damian never stops, one of his best friends (Oracle) won’t see him because another one of his best friends (Huntress) kissed him pretty hard “in the line of duty.” When you add to that Dick’s feelings of responsibility for a boy who got shot, stuff going south at Arkham, and an unsettling link between some murders at Gene-Corp and the substitute Bruce Wayne, I don’t know how Dick gets up in the morning. But, that’s why Dick is a hero: he possesses the relentless endurance and character to face overwhelming odds. Nice character work, Mr. Daniels!
Daniels also delivers some great art for this issue. It’s dark and moody, reflecting the world (psychological, geographic and sociological) around Dick. Daniels draws a vile Penguin, an angry, driven Batman, heartless killers, scary sociopaths, a resentful, arrogant sidekick and sympathetic friends (the Huntress and Alfred). In addition to his fine work on mood and emotion, Daniel’s action scenes are clear and evocative. Check out Dick swinging through the rain on panel 3 of page 9 and then the Bladerunner-esque cityscape in the next panel. Or, if you prefer an edgy Batman-style interrogation, look at his “conversation” with the Penguin on pages 2-4.

Dark Wolverine #80 – Review

By Daniel Way & Marjorie Liu (writers), Stephen Segovia & Paco Diaz Luque (artists), Sandu Florea, Guillermo Ortego, & Jay Leisten (inkers), Marte Garcia & Antonio Fabela (colorists)

The Story: Dark Wolverine saves a baby. There, I just saved you $2.99 and the urge to cut your wrists with the paper this piece of shit was printed on.

The Good: Paco Diaz Luque turns in some solid art and would have been a much better choice to carry this book instead of Segovia. Unfortunately, his meager efforts still aren’t enough to redeem this book.

The Not So Good: I’m disgusted that it took nine people to make a story that amounted to twenty-one pages of talk and a splash page of Dark Wolverine holding a baby in his arms. This title has only ever been marginally entertaining at best, and the first story arc held potential for the title as well as Daken, but I’m sorry to see my hopes so thoroughly crushed with this latest storyline, and this issue in particular, which culminates in one of the most pathetic, shark-jumping moments I’ve seen all year. And comic like this, we’re supposed to believe, are what passes for entertainment in this industry. Well, I’m sorry but I’ve had enough and I refuse to continue handing over my money to this comic anymore. Way and Liu have inexplicably found new ways every month to not live up to their potential, and I can’t keep waiting for them to turn things around and redeem a comic that was only barely interesting to begin with. It took me three attempts to actually finish reading this comic; I was that bored with every word on every panel. Monthly comics like this need to be able to stand on their own legs. You need to be able to walk into the comic store, pay for an issue, take it home to read, and feel like you were entertained enough to have made a good purchase. There is an ugly trend in comics though, of which this title in particular has been especially guilty, that advocates writing comic stories for their release as graphic novels and not as serialized entertainment. If the industry wants to sell graphic novels I’ll be more than happy to pay for them, but then let’s stop kidding each other with these monthly comics that have utterly no entertainment value. Issues like this are a blight on the industry and succeed in only wasting your time and money.

Conclusion: I’d like to offer Dark Wolverine #80 as The Worst Comic of the Year. I’m done buying this title and strongly advise anyone else currently reading it to do the same. We deserve much, much better than this.

Grade: F-

-Tony Rakittke

Deadpool: Suicide Kings #5 – Review

By Mike Benson & Adam Glass (Writers), Carlo Barberi (Pencils), Sandu Florea (Inks), and Marte Gracia (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: Suicide Kings is a fun Deadpool team-up story. It’s a bit mindless and rather unnecessary, but at least it’s entertaining.

The Story: Deadpool and Spider-Man take on the Wrecking Crew before going after Tombstone.

What’s Good & What’s Not So Good: The problem I face when reviewing every issue of a mini-series is that I end up saying the same things over and over. With that in mind, please excuse me if what I say sounds a bit familiar. Onto the review… Deadpool: Suicide Kings #5 effectively brings a rather pointless Deadpool story to a close. It’s rather funny (I can’t believe Marvel let a “shot in the eye” joke into the book – by Spidey no less!) and filled with enough action to satisfy ‘pool fans, but the faults that have been there since the first issue are still present. Also, as I’ve come to expect, every positive thing is weighed down by something negative.

Mike Benson and Adam Glass employ the “see what sticks” approach to humor that Daniel Way uses, but it’s not as effective in Suicide Kings as it is in the ongoing Deadpool series. While a good portion of the humor hits solid enough, you can’t help but feel that Benson and Glass are trying just a bit too hard throughout most of the script. On the art side of things, Carlo Barberi and his team once again do solid, but frustrating, work. The notable negatives: the action can be hard to follow, character proportions are all over the place (Spidey’s head changes size on a few occasions), and ultimately, Barberi’s pencils make me think of what Paco Medina’s work would look like if it was a lot less polished. The notable positives: the color work is nice, the gore is surprisingly brutal, and the facial expressions give the book a lot of personality.

Conclusion: Deadpool: Suicide Kings #5 delivers pretty much what I’ve come to expect from the mini-series. That’s good in some cases and bad in others.

Grade: C+

-Kyle Posluszny

Deadpool: Suicide Kings #4 – Review

By Mike Benson & Adam Glass (Writers), Carlo Barberi (Pencils), Sandu Florea (Inks), and Marte Gracia (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: Deadpool: Suicide Kings is a fun, tasteless, gratuitous romp through the seedier side of the Marvel Universe. It isn’t high art or anything, but it’s entertaining.

The Story: Deadpool (obviously) recovers from a bullet to the head and finds himself teamed up with Daredevil and Spider-Man. Meanwhile, Tombstone asks The Hood for some help and Punisher finds out that he didn’t quite make a kill-shot.

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: One thing you need to know is that I laughed out loud at the very first page of Deadpool: Suicide Kings #4. So, needless to say, Mike Benson, Adam Glass, and Carlo Barberi start things off on the right foot. The rest of the book is pretty good as well. I like that The Hood is brought into the storyline, especially because, on his own, Tombstone just doesn’t seem all that threatening to a guy like Deadpool. In addition, I think all the guest appearances help to keep Deadpool from being his own worst enemy. Too much ‘pool is a bad thing sometimes and the balance that comes from Spidey and the others really help to keep the Merc with a Mouth in check.

Mike Benson and Adam Glass are clearly having fun writing Deadpool. The characters’ interactions with Punisher, Daredevil, and, in particular, Spider-Man are genuinely funny and go a long way towards elevating a storyline that’s– let’s face it, pretty generic and predictable. In addition, Benson and Glass seem to pace the storytelling much better in Suicide Kings #4 than they have in any of the other issues of the mini-series. Everything just seems to move forward at a pace that feels much better than it has in the past.

Carlo Barberi once again puts in some nice work for Suicide Kings. He handles the extremely violent action scenes well and his character work is lively and expressive. His storytelling, however, leaves something to be desired. While it gets the job done, a few scenes are awkward or look really rushed. The flaws are unfortunate because when Barberi gets it all right, his work is perfect for a book like Suicide Kings.

Conclusion: Flawed but a lot of fun, Deadpool: Suicide Kings #4 is worth picking up if you’re sick of all the “serious” Marvel stuff.

Grade: C+

-Kyle Posluszny

Deadpool: Suicide Kings #3

By Mike Benson & Adam Glass (Writers), Carlo Barberi (Pencils), Sandu Florea (Inks), and Marte Gracia (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: So far, Suicide Kings has been generic, dumb, immature, and gratuitous (in terms of both violence and sexuality). That said, it’s also been funny, enjoyably crazy, and sure of its target audience.

The Story: Thanks to some mad videogame skills, Deadpool is able to find out information regarding who exactly placed the ad in Black Ops Magazine. Daredevil and Deadpool plan to investigate, but first they must deal with the misinformed Punisher…

What’s Good: My guess is that, by now you’ve already formed some sort of opinion about the Suicide Kings mini-series. Chapter three isn’t going to change any minds. The nonstop humor hits more than it misses, the colorful, lively (surprisingly violent) artwork is a nice fit, and the storyline proves a decent enough excuse to throw a number of Marvel characters into Deadpool’s twisted world.

What’s Not So Good: Interestingly enough, each negative I need to mention is directly related to a positive. Very noticeably so. While the humor often hits, Deadpool is so chatty throughout the book that it borders on annoying (I feel for the characters of the Marvel U. now). The solid artwork occasionally looks either completely awkward or oddly static (though Daredevil’s one fight offers the best (worst?!) of both worlds).  And the storyline?  Though completely acceptable, it is utterly forgettable.

Conclusion: In ways both good and bad, Deadpool: Suicide Kings #3 pretty much maintains the status quo for the mini-series. As a result, there isn’t a whole lot I need to say about it. The series isn’t getting any better, but, thankfully, it also isn’t getting significantly worse…

Grade: C

-Kyle Posluszny

Batman: Battle For The Cowl #3 – Review

By Tony Daniel (writer and pencils), Sandu Florea (inks), Ian Hannin and JD Smith (colors)

The Story: As Gotham reals from the destructive attacks from the Black Mask, Nightwing assembles “The Network,” a band of Gotham heroes, to plot a response to the unprecedented terrorism that has been unleashed on the city. Afterwards, he confronts an unhinged Jason Todd who has attempted to claim the mantle of Batman, while Tim Drake, a.k.a Robin, struggles for his life.

What’s Good: Well, we finally find out who’s the new Batman (hold the exclamation point). Which is a good thing, if not solely for the fact that the series can attempt to move on into some stable arcs and stories. Agood thing to note is Tony Daniel’s art; which is typically effective in capturing the characters and feel of Gotham (although not as good at R.I.P, which helps the story plod along).

Some of the characters and their personalities are also well-done. Jason Todd’s insanity and motivations are pretty interesting and he makes for a strong character in this series. Also, the mystery of who the Black Mask is effective in enriching the overall structure of this mini-series.

What’s Not So Good: My biggest complaint of this issue, and this series, is that nothing, and I mean nothing, exceptional or unpredictable transpires. I was hoping, albeit naively, that Batman wouldn’t end up being who we all thought it would be. It is such an expected move, I wonder why it warrants a whole series (I mean besides DC being able to make dough).

I’m not sure if it was editorial restrictions or not, but Tony Daniel really stumbles in spinning this tale. Besides the overall story being lackluster, there are scenes that are borderline silly. For example, in one panel Nightwing is having a conversation with a scarecrow of sorts, wired with a speaker, constructed by Jason Todd out of Tim Drakes costume. Sounds like a trap, no? Well, not to Nightwing, who for some reason hugs the scarecrow and gets electrocuted. There was also the Bruce Wayne doing an Obi-Wan Kenobi impersonation in the middle of a fight to the death that struck me at particularly ridiculous.

The Conclusion: I wanted to like this book, really, I did. But it wasn’t meant to be. Seriously: is there anyone who is excited about Batman not being Bruce Wayne? Through the unnecessary and unresolved plight of Tim drake; the annoyingness of Damian; the shoddiness of the third-string European Batman club of heroes brought into the DCU; the overly dramatic and heavy handed inner-monolgues of Nightwing, and his journey of personal growth; you have a basically throw away comic in Batman: Battle For The Cowl #3.

Grade: D

-Rob G.

Deadpool: Suicide Kings #2

By Mike Benson (Writer), Carlo Barberi (Pencils), Sandu Florea (Inks), and Marte Gracia (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: I gave the first issue of Suicide Kings a “C-” grade. While not all bad; with the standard setup, inconsistent artwork, and generic plot not exactly winning me over… I wonder if the second chapter of Mike Benson’s mini-series manage to?

The Story: Now a (framed) wanted terrorist, Deadpool finds himself running out of options as he’s targeted by the Punisher. Meanwhile, Tombstone decides to have a little fun threatening Conrad.

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: Simply put, Deadpool: Suicide Kings #2 is meant for a specific audience. While it’s somewhat dark, fairly edgy, and pushes the boundaries of what a non-MAX Marvel title can do, the second chapter of Suicide Kings also comes across as desperate to be those things. And as such, it’s a prime example of immature maturity at it’s finest. The violence and gore is excessively over-the-top. The sexuality is both juvenile and at times, gratuitous. As for the darker aspects? They fall prey to some comic book silliness.

Both the writing and artwork are at fault, but in truth, I really don’t mind a whole lot. Despite the faults mentioned above, some occasionally sloppy visual storytelling, and an odd take on the Punisher, I found the book to be quite a bit of fun. It’s silly, it’s gratuitous, and yeah, it’s pretty juvenile. But it also looks nice, has some entertaining action, and carries a “so what if I am” type of charm that just works for some weird reason.

Conclusion: It’s tough to grade a book like Deadpool: Suicide Kings #2. There’s a lot that’s wrong with it, but there’s also something about it that’s quite right if you are up for the type of crazy that it offers. I think it deserves a…

Grade: C+

-Kyle Posluszny

Deadpool: Suicide Kings #1

By Mike Benson (Writer), Carlo Barberi (Pencils), Sandu Florea (Inks), and Marte Gracia (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: I’ve made no secret about how much I like Deadpool. In fact, I’ll pick up pretty much anything the character is in. To me, more Deadpool is a good thing (unless, of course, he gets in the way of the story or is written as though the person writing him is trying too hard…I’m looking at you Duane Swierczynski). So, needless to say, buying Suicide Kings was pretty much a no-brainer for me. Especially since I found Mike Benson’s first crack at Deadpool, the Games of Death one-shot, to be a pretty entertaining read.

The Story: Deadpool, as usual, takes a job thinking he is going to get paid the big bucks. As it turns out, his employer isn’t exactly being all that honest with him. Soon Deadpool finds his face all over the news for performing an act of terrorism.

What’s Good: Mike Benson does a better job of handling Deadpool in the first issue of Suicide Kings than he did in Games of Death. It goes a long way toward making the book an enjoyable read despite the extremely standard set up and the fairly standard execution. Also good about Suicide Kings is a good portion of the artwork. It manages to successfully straddle the line between silly and serious that suits the Merc with a Mouth extremely well.

What’s Not So Good: Well…you read the plot summary above (I hope). Fact is, if you’ve read a Deadpool story before, nothing about the storyline is going to surprise, shock, or even feel remotely original. Sure it is delivered decently enough, but I feel like I already know how the entire mini-series is going to play out. Another negative about the book is that from time to time the artwork makes the characters look very poorly proportioned and quite inconsistent.

Conclusion: Suicide Kings is the start to a serviceable Deadpool story, but don’t go into it expecting anything new. Enjoy it if you are a fan, but it’s far from an essential read.

Grade:  C-

-Kyle Posluszny