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.”

Batman Beyond Universe #7 – Review

By: Kyle Higgins, Christos Gage (writers), Thony Silas, Iban Coello (art), Emilio Lopez & Ulises Arreola

The Story: Brainiac continues his plan, manipulating everyone and everything around him and attempting to prove himself the greatest intelligence in the known universe. Unfortunately so does Bruce Wayne.

The Review: Kyle Higgins slows things down a little bit in this month’s chapter of The Bat Men. Last month I complained that the story had lost its energy, but, now that we have a little more context, it seems that this was part of a transition. This installment is similarly focused on character moments, however, while there’s even less attention paid to fight scenes, it’s a much more engaging issue; the result of the brilliant relationships that Higgins has crafted between Terry and Bruce and Bruce and Kirk.

As all out war between the Cult of the Bat and the FBI looms, threatening to destroy Gotham, Bruce and Terry have been captured. Especially in a genre where captivity rarely lasts, especially with these characters, it’s kind of nice that Higgins uses this as a moment to decompress and provide some lively exposition. The tale he fashions is a sad one and, while it’s by no means ground breaking, it’s tinged with truth enough to elicit genuine sympathy.

Higgins continues to write a positively infuriating Bruce Wayne, in the best possible sense. Bruce’s inability to communicate and sheer skill make him an impossible partner, but it’s telling how he relates to his supposed friends. Bruce actually doesn’t accomplish anywhere near as much as he pretends to in this issue and, despite a number of reasonable contributions from Terry, he simply can’t bring himself to acknowledge them, opting to take swipes at his former partners instead. Only alone with Kirk can he admit the profound errors of his ways, tragically unaware of how recently he’s reaffirmed his choice. This one-on-one interaction between the Bat-Men really sells the history between the two men.

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.

Batman Beyond Universe #6 – Review

By: Christos Gage & Kyle Higgins (writers), Iban Coello & Thony Silas (artists), Rob Lean (inks), Ulises Arreola & Emilio Lopez (colorists)

The Story: Bats or robots: pick your poison…

The Review: We open this month in the midst of Brainiac’s invasion. From the first moment, Christos Gage makes it clear that this is no standard supervillain plot. Brainiac’s monotone arrogance comes through crystal clear and Gage imbues him with just enough malice to make him particularly detestable, without losing his connection to rationality. The first sequence aboard Brainiac’s skull-ship is a great example of what Gage has to offer.

As Brainiac’s natural nemesis, Superman receives similarly strong dialogue. His speeches, though slightly corny, manage to express the natural leadership and sincerity that make Superman primus inter pares in most every version of the Justice League. Even so, there’s a touch of desperation in him, perhaps even fear, that keeps the threat that Brainiac poses in constant play.

But despite his gift for writing the Boy Scout, I sincerely hope that, when this saga is ended, Gage will pen some stories starring the other members of the league. Six months into the print run of Justice League Beyond, we’ve still seen relatively little of many of the League’s members. It’s great to have such an strong version of Superman on the stands, especially as that’s been something of a rarity of late, but it seems like a waste, especially after seeing Gage’s handle on Scott and Barda this month.

The large cast all get lip service, but the best moments belong to Mister Miracle, Big Barda, and a certain classic Leaguer I won’t spoil. It’s impressive that Gage can keep so many balls in the air, especially as he continues to grow the cast, but there aren’t many places where we get to breathe and absorb this information unless you count scenes that don’t catch your fancy.

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.

Batman Beyond Universe #5 – Review

by Kyle Higgins, Christos Gage (writers), Thony Silas, Iban Coello (art)

The Story: Terry learns better than to ask for advice. And this month in Justice League Beyond: old people complain about technology.

The Review: First up is Kyle Higgins with the first installment of his title’s sophomore arc. There’s no denying that this is something of a transition issue, as we both take stock of where we stand and establish a number of plot threads for the upcoming arc. Such a story could easily be clunky, but, though things are a bit scattered, Higgins does an admirable job of pacing his tale. Few, if any, of the numerous segments feel underdeveloped, which is fairly impressive.

Shriek is still on the loose after the events of Rewire, allowing us another entertaining battle with one of the Beyond era’s most well-loved villains. Unfortunately, despite his top-tier status, Shriek definitely loses something in the translation to print. Clever as the ideas that Higgins introduces are, the resulting combat is rather unclear. At one point it kind of looks like Terry is plotting the murder of a squirrel.

Superman/Wonder Woman #3 – Review

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

The Story: Wonder Woman wraps up Zod for Superman’s Christmas gift.

The Review: One of the big concerns I have about Batman/Superman is that despite boasting two primo stars as its leads, it would still turn out to be a rather inconsequential title, much like Superman/Batman before it.  It’s not hard to see how this paradox arises.  Writing two icons means twice the amount of continuity you can mangle.  Restraint is key in these circumstances; it’s the only way to ensure you don’t ruffle anyone’s feathers, particularly other writers’.

It’s too early to see how far Soule is willing (or allowed) to stretch his legs on this series, but at the very least he gets to make a major character’s official introduction to the new DCU.  While Zod’s first appearance is a relatively quiet affair, witnessed by only a few heroes, he immediately upsets everyone’s balance, from Superman, stunned to meet yet another surviving Kryptonian, to Steve Trevor, who wonders aloud, “[H]ow many of these people can Earth really handle?”  This alone should signal to anyone new to the character that Zod’s existence does not bode well.

Batman/Superman #3.1: Doomsday – Review

By: Greg Pak (story), Brett Booth (pencils), Norm Rapmund (inks), Andrew Dalhouse (colors)

The Story: It’s more than a no good, very bad day—it’s Doomsday.

The Review: I won’t hold back in my opinion of Doomsday as a character.  You ready?  Here we go: I don’t care for him much.  Whew—I usually don’t speak so much out of turn, but I just can’t help myself in this case.  My prejudice with Doomsday comes mostly from how shallow he is.  He’s not really motivated by anything except an animalistic desire to destroy, and apart from his power levels, there’s nothing distinguishing him from other forgettable beasts of his kind.

With so little to work with, Pak had every opportunity to reimagine Doomsday from the top-down, but he apparently finds it easier to just reduce the monster to an incidental figure in its own issue.  There’s nothing here about Doomsday’s origins—where he came from and what made him as he is.  There’s nothing about how he arrived on Krypton, how he was disposed of, and how he wound up crossing paths with Superman.  At best, you get a vague outline of the Death of Superman that conveniently avoids any need to compromise the story’s timing with the new continuity of the current DCU.

What this issue mostly boils down to is a reiteration of all the points and themes Pak made in his Zod one-shot about two weeks earlier—which is unacceptable.  Villains Month may be an overblown and silly promotional campaign, but it nevertheless has a clear mandate which sets up certain expectations for the titles included under its banner: offer insight into the featured villain.  It is not okay for Pak to side-step this fairly simple goal even if Doomsday seems too shallow a character to dig into, and it’s definitely not okay for Pak to simply regurgitate a bunch of material from another issue he wrote.

Action Comics #23.2: Zod – Review

By: Greg Pak (story), Ken Lashley (art), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Review: I’ve always been fond of Pak, ever since he co-wrote The Incredible Hercules, just about the funnest title that came out of Marvel in its Then days, and with Batman/Superman, he’s shown that he can handle modern superheroes as deftly as he revitalizes ancient ones.  He’s secured enough of my trust to get me curious about his impending takeover of Action Comics, and this issue seems like a good opportunity to get a taste of his work to come.

Moreover, I’m curious as to how he works with Zod, one of those iconic villains that nearly everyone has heard of but no one quite gets.  I mean, what exactly is his deal?  Is he specist, megalomaniacal, sadistic, or what?  For all of Man of Steel’s flaws, at least it gave us a complex and consistent portrait of Zod, one that’s escaped the comics for a long time.  Now that we have this shiny new DCU to work with, there’s an opportunity to start him off on the right foot.

Man of Steel – Movie Review

By: Too many to list—IMDB it.

The Story: The shocking secret behind Superman’s beard.

The Review: This is a very precarious point in DC’s quest for broad appeal.  Marvel has established a very specific style for all its movies, one that audiences can easily love: a combination of spectacular action and credible character work.  DC’s recent film projects have been anything but consistent.  On the high end of the spectrum you have Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, with so much thematic value as to nearly be considered important.  On the low end, you have Green Lantern, which attempts and fails to emulate the Marvel style of superhero movie, confusing sex and angst for wit and drama.

Man of Steel clearly follows in the Nolan tradition and thus signals the kind of DC movies to come: striving for sophistication without losing any of that superhero action.  In the latter respect, it succeeds extremely well.  Whether it’s evoking fantastic settings, like the liquid-metallic world of Krypton, or simply bombarding you with one thrilling, CGI-laden scene after another, the special effects on this film are worth every expensive penny of its budget.  Even in 2D, they are worthy of gasps and the occasional “Woah!”

Superman: World of New Krypton #5 – Review

By James Robinson and Greg Rucka (writers), Pete Woods (artist), Brad Anderson (colorist)

The Story: Kal-El goes on trial for the crime of treason. The courtroom, as much as the military, it’s spy network and New Krypton itself, are all under the thumb of General Zod. Zod moves all the chess pieces and Kal-El’s beliefs and values are tested.

What’s Good: General Zod steals the show again. Although Kal-El has the choices to make, like should he try to escape or should he try a different legal defense, Zod is clearly the mover and the shaker of everything that is happening. He’s great fun to watch and Robinson and Rucka make the plot much more complex by a series of reversals– some expected, most unexpected, including a surprising one at the end that sets off a new arc in the next issue.

As for the art, it carries the story as well. What I really like are the little details here and there, like the red lighting in the prison (of course – what else would you use to hold a Kryptonian?) and the big holographic heads that Marlon Brando favored in the movie. The faces outside the courtroom were serviceably expressive to show character emotion, and the struggles each one suffered during this issue.

What’s Not So Good: The court scenes are pictures of stark contrasts, with bright white lights and pitch-black surroundings. The art in these scenes don’t work so strongly, as some of the faces come off as disproportionate and distorted.

On the plot, I certainly enjoyed the reversals as Kal-El and Zod squared off legally and ethically against one another, but a couple of the reversals near the end came almost out of nowhere, so the ending, although surprising, didn’t satisfy while Zod’s justification felt weak.

Conclusion: This was a fair issue, but the arc has been losing steam since the high point the creative team hit with issue #3. In fact, it barely feels like the arc has been completed at all, except that next month, the first part of the next arc is starting.

Grade: C

-DS Arsenault

Superman: World of New Krypton #4 – Review

By Greg Rucka and James Robinson (writers), Pete Woods (artist), Brad Anderson (colorist)

The Story: Three Green Lanterns (Hal Jordan, John Stewart, and Sodam Yat) come to investigate the appearance of a new planet in Earth’s system, New Krypton. General Zod isn’t impressed, but lets Kal-El and Tyr-Van show them around. Part way through their tour, news comes that a group of dangerous phantom zone criminals have escaped. Zod orders the military to hunt them down. The Green Lanterns find some surprising developments on New Krypton and help Kal-El chase down one of the criminals.

What’s Good: Zod is a cunning villain and a politically slippery mad man, like Norman Osborn. He’s not intimidated by green lanterns, nor should he be. Every issue, he surprises Kal-El with acts of mercy before he clocks him with a blow he didn’t see coming. And worse yet, he’s the legitimate leader of the Kandorian people. Kal-El doesn’t know how to fight that. Rucka and Robinson have given Superman a problem he can’t solve with superior morals or superior strength. Not only is he just one Kryptonian among many here, he is just one citizen too, with one voice, no louder than anyone else’s, bound to his guild.

The tour of New Krypton, shown through the pride of Kal-El and Tyr-Van, was great and it really showcased Pete Woods’ ability to draw on a big scale. In a single two-page spread, he takes us high above the still-hostile surface, then down into pockets of life covered with weird and wondrous red flowers, misty light, trees and fungus and small animals. In another, he carries an accusing Green Lantern high above a sprawling, alien shipyard.

For the writing, the dialogue is really good. It feels real and authentic. So often, writers over/underwrite, or try to jam a lot of explanations into dialogue. Yet, Rucka and Robinson make it feel like this is how the characters really are. That authenticity allows them to take the reader through the weird world and the complex politics and personalities that fill this series.

What’s Not So Good: Unfortunately, all the tension built up from the last issue (the cliffhanger ending with three green lanterns facing Superman) and the cover (Green Lantern in a fist-fight with Kal-El) is dissipated on the first page as Hal and Kal-El smile at each other. The tension never quite picked up again. Zod was menacing and we knew he was up to something, but that was too subtle to bring up a general feeling of dread to really drive the story.

On the art, if layouts worked on an epic scale, then they started faltering on some of the fine details of the faces. They started to look plastic and carried stylized solid lines. Let’s just say I wouldn’t have been able to pick Kal-El out of a police line up. That weakness was a bit off-putting.

Conclusion: I was really pumped up by the first three issues. After the climactic hostage stand-off and the fight between Gor and Kal-El last issue, I was expecting the same pace in this one. It’s a good book, but it doesn’t reach the peak achieved in the last issue.

Grade: B

-DS Arsenault

Action Comics #866 – Review

By Geoff Johns (story), Gary Frank (pencils), Jon Sibal (inks), Brad Anderson (colors)

I’m not the most knowledgeable Superman reader out there, but I know a retcon when I see one. And that’s exactly what Geoff Johns does with Action Comics #866. The subject matter this time is Brainiac. Written as a relentless terror from the far reaches of space, Brainiac steals entire cultures in an almost “Borg” like fashion (including a deadly attack on Krypton). But instead of assimilation, it’s a ruthless harvesting of information and societies. This is probably the first issue of Action Comics that I’ve read in about a year and the best part of it all is it was incredibly easy for me to jump aboard as a new reader.

Geoff Johns writes a fascinating story that just about anyone can pick up and read. It also serves to educate people (like me), who don’t know much about Brainiac. I’d love to see Johns do this with more of Superman’s villains and history. Sprinkled throughout this issue are touches of Superman’s life as Clark Kent. Here, we’re given some gratuitous laugh out loud moments at the Daily Planet as the newly hired Catherine Grant attempts to seduce Clark right in front of Lois with her fresh “implants”. The whole scene is masterfully handled and paced by Johns, but it’s Gary Frank who nails the scene home and will have you laughing your butt off. Indeed, Frank’s art is the catalyst that will make many new readers feel right at home with this book. His renditions of Superman/Clark and Lois are dead ringers for the late Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder. I wish all the Superman books were drawn like this.

There’s honestly nothing I can complain about in this issue as a whole with the exception that purists may not be happy with this retcon. With All Star Superman’s last issue on the horizon, I’m thrilled to know there’s another Superman book (and it’s montly!) out there that I can enjoy. If you’re a casual Superman reader or someone who’s looking for a place to jump aboard, this issue’s it. (Grade: A)

– J. Montes