Batman/Superman #11 – Review

By: Greg Pak (story), Karl Kerschl & Daniel Sampere (art), Tom Derenick (pencils), Vicente Cifuentes, Marc Deering, Wayne Faucher (inks), Hi-Fi (colors)

The Story: When you’ve got even the ghosts in a panic, things aren’t going well.

The Review: Unenthused as I am by Doomed, it was with some dismay when I saw that Batman/Superman would be also be participating in the crossover. It shouldn’t have surprised me, what with Pak being an architect of this storyline and all. And on the plus side, at least I’ll be mostly up to speed on everything going on Doomed, which, as my recent frustrations with the Batman/Superman–Worlds’ Finest crossover show, isn’t something that happens very often.

Interestingly enough, even though Doomed is a Superman-centric storyline, he features hardly at all in this issue. I approve. At this point, there’s really nothing left to do with Superman except to see him decline further, and there’ll be plenty of that later on. If Superman has a presence at all, it’s in spirit; his friends spend a lot of the issue considering what he’d do in their shoes: Batman putting his faith in others; Wonder Woman repressing her warriors’ instincts; Ghost Soldier exchanging loyalties to stand up for what’s right; Steel risking everything to save everyone. It’s a sweet testament to Superman’s impact on the world, and a reminder of what’s at stake if he’s lost.

Justice League of America #10 – Review

By: Matt Kindt (story), Tom Derenick & Eddy Barrows (pencils), Tom Nguyen & Allen Martinez (inks), Hi-Fi (colors)

The Story: Martian Manhunter is the conscience that won’t quit.

The Review: I feel quite safe in assuming that we all like praise as much as the next person, but having a real thirst for it can lead to all sorts of problems.  The compliment-fishers are bad enough as they are, but at least they have the grace to be passive-aggressive about it.  People who brag on themselves, either humbly or through the backdoor (“This filet mignon is excellent—just like the one I make at home!”), take things to a more gag-inducing level.

But the absolute worst is when folks start dragging others to do their dirty work for them.  To spare themselves the effort of proving anything, they just get someone else to talk about it lavishly.  That’s exactly what Kindt has been doing with Courtney since last issue, which would have been bad enough.  Here he stoops to have Courtney’s best friend push her past a moment of doubt over her budding superhero career with the most blatantly self-serving lines I’ve read in a while: “You’re honestly the most genuine, purest girl I know, Courtney.  This is your calling.”

Justice League of America #9 – Review

By: Matt Kindt (story), Tom Derenick (pencils), Tom Nguyen & Allen Martinez (inks), Gabe Eltaeb (colors)

The Story: Stargirl gets into Martian Manhunter’s head—and wants out.

The Review: So…I pulled one of those lame Microsoft Word boo-boos that you always seem to pull off just at the very moment when you think you’ve finally become immune: I accidentally shut down my computer and impulsively, for absolutely no reason at all, clicked on “Don’t Save” when my unfinished document asked me what I wanted to do with it.  That document was the basis of this review.  Hence the lateness, which I’m very sorry about.*

Anyway, as I recall, my review of this issue originally began by saying how much I enjoyed Kindt’s ideas for each of the Leaguers’ personal prisons.  Instead of aiming straight for their physical weaknesses or greatest fears or some other trite target, Kindt dug deep to find more interesting anxieties and obsessions.  That said, he can’t afford to give individual attention to every Leaguer, not with combined roll calls of all three teams on his plate.  We do have a plot we need to move on to.

Phantom Lady #4 – Review

By: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray (story), Cat Staggs (pencils), Tom Derenick (inks), Jason Wright (colors)

The Story: How do superheroes vent their sexual frustration?  By taking down mob bosses.

The Review: On the second day of my Property class, my professor told me that once we got more familiarity with the law, we’ll start seeing pop-up balloons, visible only to us, appear everywhere we go.  We’ll see a stalled car preventing someone from backing out of their parking space and a balloon will pop up: “False Imprisonment?”  A homeless person will squat on an empty lot: “Adverse Possession?”  That kind of thing.

I had one of those pop-up balloons reading this issue.  When Jen suggests that instead of risking lives (theirs and those of others) by amateurish vigilantism, they simply sneak into the Benders’ HQ and gather incriminating evidence, Dane protests, “None of that stuff would be admissible in court.”  Actually, it would, I believe (and if I’m wrong, that bodes ill for my prospects at passing my Criminal Procedure final today).  As far as I know, the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure would not apply to a private citizen, rather than a government official, who gathers incriminating evidence against a person.  But then, would you consider Dane and Jen as agents of the government?

Phantom Lady #3 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (story), Cat Staggs (pencils), Tom Derenick (inks), Jason Wright (colors)

The Story: They may be fighting zombies, but at least they’re doing it on a yacht.

The Review: For the Walking Dead fans, what I’m about to say is akin to blasphemy, but I’m getting pretty sick of zombies or any of their facsimiles.  I don’t know what has suddenly propelled them into the popular zeitgeist, but whether they’re your traditional zombies in The Walking Dead or The New Deadwardians, or Black Lanterns and Third Army drones in Green Lantern, watching mindless, unkillable beings infect others has gotten quite tiresome.

Which is why the appearance of zombies in this issue, even temporary ones, drew a groan from me.  Funerella (still a horrible name) already has plenty of formidable powers to her credit, including accelerated molecular degradation and, apparently, imperviousness to being killed.  The ability to make lumbering undead from scratch just seems like a cheap way to generate distractions for Dane and Jen.  The fact that the zombies return to normal upon some unspecified circumstance makes you look at our heroes’ killing them in a more questionable light.

Phantom Lady #2 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (story), Cat Staggs (pencils), Tom Derenick (inks), Jason Wright (colors)

The Story: Doll Man teaches Phantom Lady that size really doesn’t matter—sometimes.

The Review: Anyone who’s followed this blog long enough knows I have developed certain prejudices—let’s not call them grudges—against certain writers and artists.  Some of them may be more deserved than others, but generally, I feel I make a good case for my hang-ups.  At times, though, I find it hard to reconcile my dislike for the Bedards and Levitzes of the world while still following along with the Grays and Palmiottis.

If I had to explain myself, I’d say one thing Gray-Palmiotti have over the creators I’ve dismissed is a source of ideas that still seems as if it has some juice left.  I’m not so sure that applies to the series at hand, however.  Without the superpowers, the story we have basically reduces down to your usual personal vendetta against the evil collective.

DC Universe Presents #0 – Review

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

The Story: The Return of the Canned.

The Review: For a showcase title, a #0 issue presents an interesting question, doesn’t it?  How does one choose an origin story for a series open to all origin stories?  I suppose not choosing is one answer.  As annuals and the ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful Weird Worlds prove, comics don’t handle multiple features well, at least not if you want to get some substantial, serious reading out of them.  DC’s definitely pushing it with five pieces stuffed in one issue.

Phantom Lady #1 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (story), Cat Staggs (pencils), Tom Derenick (inks), Jason Wright (colors)

The Story: Now you see her, now you don’t.

The Review: Against all odds, the Freedom Fighters keep coming back to the DCU, no matter how many times you might believe the door has shut on their antiquated patriotism.  They do have a certain campiness I find endearing, and Gray-Palmiotti play up to that quality in a big way.  Maybe that’s why they’ve been at the head of each Freedom Fighters revival, though so far, none has resulted in the big comeback the team would hope for.

If there’s any Fighter who can strike it big on her own, it will have to be Phantom Lady.  True, she’s earned most of her popularity as a sex bomb, but that doesn’t take away the fact that she’s the most recognizable of all her teammates.  Gray-Palmiotti, perhaps taking the relaunched DC a little too much like a blank slate, give her a complete makeover in this mini, much as they did with the Ray some months earlier, and the results are almost nearly as uneven.

Men of War #1 – Review

Main story by: Ivan Brandon (writer), Tom Derenick (art), Matt Wilson (colors), Rob Leigh (letters), Kate Stewart (assistant editor) & Joey Cavalieri (editor)

Navy SEALS back-up by: Jonathan Vankin (writer), Phil Winslade (art), Thomas Chu (colors) & Leigh (letters)

The Story: DC returns to war comics and one of them’s last name is Rock.

What’s Good: The most exciting thing about the new DC 52 titles is that there is a heavy helping of non-traditional superhero fare.  Most of it is still in the same sci-fi vein (Swamp Thing, Animal Man, etc.), but the inclusion of a title like Men of War is all kinds of exciting for the comics industry because our hobby could use a LOT of diversification.

The highlight of this issue was really the Navy SEALs back-up feature.  The main story featured a couple of negatives that I’ll discuss below, but this back-up was a pure war story.  I can’t really comment on how accurate the depiction of Navy SEALs was, but this was just a quick story of American soldiers on a patrol, they get shot at by a sniper, one get’s wounded and the others have to go sort out the sniper.  Good stuff, great art!  Very solid war comic.  More of this please!

The main story had some good parts and was enjoyable enough.  It spends a lot of time establishing this Corporal Rock as a modern day US Army soldier who has a familial relationship to THE Sergeant Rock.  Probably the best thing about this story was the US soldiers are the good guys.  Sure, some of their commanding officers are dicks, but I am so sick of every fictional story about US soldiers have the token guy who rapes prisoners or the redneck racist guy or the drug-using guy.  I’m patriotic and want to see positive depictions of the US armed forces… Sue me!

Justice Society of America #50 – Review

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

The Story: Look out Haggar of Metro City—the Flash is giving you a run for the money in the superhero mayor department.

The Review: This has been a good week for oversized, anniversary issues.  Like Action Comics #900, you get a good chunk of the title’s running events and then a healthy serving of short features a là the “annual” format.  In this case, regular writer Marc Guggenheim takes care of scripting duties for every piece, with a variety of artists to back him up.

“Cornerstone” feels more like a continuation of the DC Universe Legacies series, with its talk of the generational aspect between the Justice Society and Justice League of America.  It’s an old idea, one other writers have played with before, and with much greater deft than Guggenheim, who doesn’t really succeed in giving a new spin to the whole thing.  At least the script gets art treatment from George Pérez (with help from Scott Khoblish), whose style looks dated on most comics now, but really works with retro-stories like this one.

In “Infinitum”, which ties in with the main events on Justice Society, Guggenheim uses a dramatic style of narration to amp up the epic tone of his story, but it just comes off heavy-handed and not a little bit dumb: “The battle rages.  As it always does.  A never-ending battle.  Or so they say.”  Besides, the feature doesn’t tell you much about bald-and-bearded Degaton’s ultimate objectives with merging himself with his parallel Degatons (exactly as weird as it sounds), so it seems like a throwaway tale.  Freddie Williams II’s cartoony style doesn’t exactly help sell the drama Guggenheim’s going for, either.

Trinity #9 – Review

By Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza (writers), Mark Bagley, Tom Derenick, Wayne Faucher (artists), Art Thibert & Andy Owens (inks), Pete Pantazis, Allen Passalaqua (colors), Pat Brosseau, Ken Lopez (letters), Andy Kubert (cover)

I said before that Trinity is the biggest disappointment so far this year. In that regard, this issue doesn’t fail me and, well, I think you can see where this is going.

The writing has limped along largely without the presence of a major villain. Sure, Le Fey and company have a hand in what’s going on, but they’ve yet to truly make an impact. In Kurt Busiek’s portion, Batman finally feels like himself. Alfred’s cover for why he left the party after the wolf attack was a bit on the lame side, but oddly, a nice touch. Sadly, the bad jokes about Batman lightening up continue. It’s as if Busiek is trying to write an adult story, with young adult dialogue.

Luckily on Fabian Nicieza’s side, the story feels connected again… sort of. I’m not sure why Swashbuckler would want to steal Nightwing’s mask, but I’m sure it’s uninteresting. Speaking of stealing, taking The Joker’s laugh is a good idea, but with no explanation as to why or how Joker’s even connected to the story, things quickly fall flat.

As usual Mark Bagley’s panels do a good job of conveying the action. Sadly, his art still feels weak to me. There’s so little detail in each face it’s like The Question wearing different masks. Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens don’t fair much better. While slightly more detailed than Bagley’s work, the final product comes off as more inconsistent. For example, after Swashbuckler cuts Nightwing’s grapple there’s a panel which shows a detailed Nightwing standing next to a “blank” Swashbuckler – talk about looking off. But The Joker gets the worst look with his feminine features and blue tears. I just don’t get it.

I may be a minority in thinking so, but this series isn’t good. Nine weeks, and almost no story movement. Nine issues is almost 300 pages. I’ve read books with complete stories much shorter than that. I consider myself a fairly patient man. I don’t need constant explosions, loud music, or hot babes to be entertained (though it helps). With Trinity, I just don’t have it in me anymore. I hope you don’t either, don’t buy this book. It’s time me and this title parted ways. (Grade: F)

– Ben Berger

Trinity #7 – Review

By Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza (writers), Mark Bagley, Tom Derenick, Wayne Faucher (artists), Art Thibert (inker), Pete Pantazis, Allen Passalaqua (colors), Pat Brosseau, Ken Lopez (letters), Andy Kubert (cover)

For each glimmer of hope, there is a reminder of why Trinity is mediocre. Even with everything that’s happening I don’t feel any significant story movement. To progress any story you need a mix of action and information. They need to be working together harmoniously. Without that balance, Trinity will continue to be an unsatisfactory experience.

The writing for this series to come around remains an event amongst itself. Technically speaking, it’s better to show story than it is to tell it. Busiek’s choice to only show or tell depending on the issue really hurts the overall flow of the book. Even when we get a good chunk of information, it rarely sees an immediate payoff because the next week is all action. Busiek doesn’t need to pick one, but instead needs to find a way to balance the elements, otherwise the story will continue to be unbalanced and disappointing. I must admit, I feel bad for Fabian Nicieza. Ever since Rita popped up in Busiek’s story, Nicieza has felt like an afterthought. I’m sure his portion of the story is important, but right now it feels like supplemental material. At this point I’d rather have Busiek just write everything since each week Nicieza seems to have less pages and a less compelling story; Busiek’s story would most likely benefit from the extra room.

Artistically, things haven’t changed much. The characters are still drawn well up close, but the further you get from the action the worse and less detailed it looks. Superman looks like a kid in half of the panels because of this. Mark Bagley’s art is at its best when he’s drawing action, so issues like this one seem to suffer as a whole. Tom Derenick and Wayne Faucher get the short end of the stick. They have less pages, so they have to cram more information into less space. The compositions are nice, but each panel just feels claustrophobic.

Inconsistency continues with Trinity. Busiek can’t seem to decide if it’s an action story or something more cerebral. Sure the last five to ten issues may be incredible, but is anyone still going to be reading? We all know that a payoff is only as good as its setup. Someone should mention this to the creative team. (Grade: D)

– Ben Berger

Trinity #4 – Review

By: Kurt Busiek, Mark Bagley, Scott McDaniel, Tom Derenick, Mike Norton (pencils), Art Thibert, Andy Owens, Wayne Faucher, and Jerry Ordway (inks), Pete Pantazis, Allen Passalqua (colors)

The Trinity event continues and still hampered by the same problems as previous weeks. The good news is I’ve finally put my finger on why I don’t like it. The bad news is nothing’s changed.

The format is the biggest weakness of this book. We have the same story coming from opposite ends. Half of the book is the heroes, the other half is from the human perspective. Both are too short, so even though it’s two sides to the same coin, it feels completely disconnected. It’s like having an important cell phone conversation in a mountainous area and you keep getting cut off.  Adding to this dissension is the shakeup to the creative team. Even though we’re getting two perspectives of the problem, they’re so different it’s hard to see how they connect. Kurt Busiek should have the easier time since he’s writing the title characters, but it’s actually Fabian Nicieza who has the better dialogue. Even though Nicieza has the less interesting character, his writing makes her feel more realistic than anything Busiek has written so far. Maybe I’m just bitter because Batman doesn’t feel like Batman to me. Busiek’s interpretation of the character seems to rely too much on his genius. I’m not saying the guy doesn’t “talk smart” when he needs to, but he sounds like Reed Richards.

Up until now, Mark Bagley had the more interesting artwork because he had the cooler characters fighting all the time. Mike Norton (tarot layout) and Scott McDaniel (dream pencils) are starting to catch my eye a bit more. Norton’s “real world” drawings of Rita feel so much more detailed than Bagley’s panels. Though, that may be because she’s all we focus on. McDaniel’s dream sequence is my favorite part of the book. The battle itself is chaotic, but easy to follow; the blue-bubbled lines used to separate each panel are a really good visual tool to remind us that it’s a dream.

Trinity #4 is better than the last two issues, but not by much. There are so many people involved that it’s getting harder and harder to differentiate who’s doing well and who’s not. This issue has slowed the nosedive and even ends with a glimmer of hope that things will start to get more interesting, but at the end of the day I want proof, not leads. (Grade: C)

– Ben Berger

Trinity #3 – Review

By Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza (writer) Mark Bagley, Scott McDaniel, Tom Derenick, Mike Norton (pencils), Art Thibert, Andy Owens, Wayne Faucher, and Jerry Ordway (inks), Pete Pantazis, Allen Passalqua (colors)

Okay, here’s the gist of the story: The Justice League (B Squad) does battle with Konvikt while Enigma and Morgaine Le Fey watch from afar. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman show up to help as their half of the book ends. In the second half of the book we learn more about Marguerita Arroyo Covas, the tarot card reader somehow connected to the six. Half the book is all action, half is all information, but the change is so abrupt it makes for an awkward read.

Most of the dialogue in Busiek’s story comes from Graak (Konvikt’s little buddy) which is unfortunate, since he’s really annoying. When it’s not him talking, it’s The Justice League talking about how they’re getting whupped. It’s very “Death of Superman”, but not nearly as powerful since it happens so quickly and has been done before. The part of the story regarding Margurerita is equally disappointing since we only learn one or two useful bits of information over fifteen pages. This section doesn’t even have the benefit of a cool fight.

The battle scenes in this issue are the artistic highlight. Since it’s longer than the fights of issue #2, you get a better sense of what’s going on but, it still has its setbacks. First, too many close-ups. It’s so close, I feel like I’m missing half the action in favor of seeing gross little lumps on Graak’s fingers. The best panel shows the big three arriving on scene and no matter how many times I look at that image, it’s still awesome, even iconic.

While better than last week, Trinity #3 still fails to capture the promise of issue one. This issue has a lot of fighting and very little plot. It’s all flash, no substance. That being said, I still find myself hanging on, as there are a few points that peak my interest. My concern for the casual reader is they’ll have given up on the series by the time it gets really interesting and it’ll be too late to jump back on. (Grade: C-)

– Ben Berger

Trinity #2 – Review

By Kurt Busiek, Mark Bagley, Scott McDaniel, Tom Derenick, Mike Norton (pencils), Art Thibert, Andy Owens, Wayne Faucher, and Jerry Ordway (inks), Pete Pantazis, Allen Passalaqua (colors)

“Trinity rolls on this week…” is what I would be saying to you if anything happened. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman experience a very real hallucination connected to their dream from the previous issue. Then, two seemingly unconnected characters show up and beat up Green Lantern. Sound thin? Well, you heard right. On one hand, it’s nice not to have an issue as dense with information as the first. At the same time, I’d like to feel like more than an hour has passed.

The dialogue itself is still written well. The introduction of Green Lantern seems out of place, mostly because nothing really happens. I’d just rather get some new information as to how he fits into this story than see a cameo. Issue #1 had two stories and we saw both the heroes and villains come together, then try to figure out what was going on. Issue #2, goes for the same idea, without any of the progress. It’s like reading a season of 24 in the sense that every episode is a short period of time. Unlike 24, there isn’t an obscene amount of action between each commercial. In issue #1, I had hope the creative team would be able to pay off everything set they set up. As of now, the returns are diminishing.

Mark Bagley’s art remains consistent, but I still feel like there could be more detail put into the faces of everyone involved. On the plus side, the battle scenes throughout depict a lot of realistic collateral damage. The bad news is that we get so few panels of it, it’s hard to really tell what’s going on.

The main problem I have with weekly comics is the pacing. More issues means more time in most people’s minds, so there’s a real tendency to “pace.” That’s why I prefer monthly titles, there’s just a larger sense of urgency to keep everything fresh and exciting. The hallucinations our heroes experience are really confusing, until you find out that the events aren’t really happening. Once you know that, it’s expected to force some progress (or answers) and none come! Instead of moving to the Batcave to analyze, we get a Green Lantern story. This many missteps (and we’re only at issue #2) isn’t a good sign. (Grade: C)

– Ben Berger