Posts Tagged ‘ Batman ’

Last week’s DC books ran an ad revealing the JLA line up for the upcoming James Robinson/ Mark Bagley run on the book which, apparently, spins out of Robinson’s unintentionally amusing Justice League: Cry for Justice mini.

For those that can’t make out the tiny pic the full line-up is made up of four basic groups:

Stand-in Trinity: Batman (Dick Grayson), Mon-El, Donna Troy – I actually quite like this set of heroes but I wonder if they’ll be sticking around once Bruce and Clark make their inevitable return. I’m a bit behind on Wonder Woman so I’m not really sure why Donna’s here, but again, I like her so I can’t complain.

Cry for Justice refugees: Congorilla, Hal Jordan , Green Arrow, the Atom – Oh good, more angst. While I like most of these characters – with the exception of Congorilla, who I don’t really know – I don’t like how Robinson’s writing them in his mini. Hal’s really out of character, Ollie lacks the humor and snark that he normally has, and having Ray resort to torturing someone in pretty much the same way that his ex-wife killed Sue Dibny is outright wrong. I think I’d rather see Ryan Choi in the book, actually.

Titans refugees: Cyborg and Starfire (not to mention Donna and Dick) – It’s funny, but the non-marquee names on the Titans bore the shit out of me. Cyborg, Starfire and Beast Boy are just plain dull. I should probably thank my lucky star’s Gar’s not in the book.

Superman refugees: Guardian and Dr Light – both are appearing in Robinson’s Superman book, even if Light’s only shown up to swoon at Guardian a bit. Guardian’s past makes for an interesting angle, and his relationship with Mon-El should carry over here – although I’m not sure how he’ll play with the others.

It’s an odd line up, and not one that I think can work for very long; it kind of reminds me of the Avengers #300 line-up for some reason; old standbys, members of another team and some random character thrown in.

Which, I guess, makes Congorilla Gilgamesh.

I’m also wondering how Titans will operate as a book. It looks like Gar might be shifting over to Teen Titans which will really only leave Raven (also boring) and Wally (who I assume will be in Flash in some role) not on the JLA; so is Titans going to be canceled again? It might be a blessing…

Posted via web from Comic By Comic’s Wonderous Posterous!

Posted via web from Comic By Comic’s Wonderous Posterous!

Batman and Robin has been quite amusing so far. It’s always fun to see a good artist try and make a coherent comic out of Grant Morrison’s stories, and Frank Quitely has a good stab at it, leading to a book that’s fun and readable. When Phillip Tan takes over next issue, we’ll see if that sticks.

Still, you have to wonder what Morrison was thinking of when he created the frankly quite disturbing Mr Pyg…

For once, I agree with Damian…

I may actually be warming to the little snot. There was a final nice touch, with the new team bonding and heading into a situation straight from the flashforward at the start of Batman RIP, back in Batman #676…

…although, really, would it have killed anyone to make the scenes tie together art-wise?

Google‘s front page is graced by Jim Lee’s artwork today – which means that it will be the most seen art of his career (well, probably).

And it’s DC-centric.

I bet Marvel’s kicking themselves.

(Click pic to embiggen)

Posted via web from Comic By Comic’s Wonderous Posterous!

Posted via web from Comic By Comic’s Wonderous Posterous!

Tuesday seems to be developing into the day I post my reviews so…

Batman and Robin #2 – Another good issue, and I know this is being overwhelmingly positively reviewed but…(and you knew there’d be a but)…I really don’t like Damien and that’s souring the whole book for me. I understand that I’m not supposed to, but when there’s very little likable about a character, why bother reading about them?

Batman: Streets of Gotham #1 – Better late than never! A good set up issue, but I need more Hush like I need an axe in the head. I know that he’s become Dini’s pet bad guy over the past year or so, but let it go already. The Manhunter back-up was a good start to Kate’s Gotham adventures, but had very little weight to it.

Gotham City Sirens #1 Nice art, but once again there’s very little of note going on. Catwoman’s weak as a kitten (ho ho) so decides to set up house with Ivy and Harley, because obviously nothing could possibly go wrong with that – and that’s about it. Sure there’s a random bad guy thrown in but…that’s it.

Green Lantern Corps #38 – Good, but underwhelming intro to Blackest Night. The Guardians continue to be bastards, and nobody really seems to mind aside from Kyle and Guy. Suspect that’ll come back to bite them in their little blue asses.

Justice League: Cry for Justice#1 – Nice art, shame about the cliched writing. Every character wants “…Justice!”, which appears to be another way of saying “…Revenge!”. Overwrought, over played, and distressingly unsubtle. Although it does have a talking gorilla, so there’s that.

Agents Of Atlas #7 – I’m teetering on dropping this, as much as I like it. I’m just not sure where it’s going exactly. Right now, it feels oddly directionless – it seems desperate to define itself by reference to its guest stars. Next issue may make it or break it, Gorilla Man or not.

Amazing Spider-Man Family #8 – As good as ever, and per Bleeding Cool, not exactly cancelled, which is good news.

Captain America Reborn #1 – I don’t even have an opinion on this. It reads well, it looks good, it makes some sense…but I need to let it play out a little more before I make a decision one way or the other on the book. Something just feels iffy to me, using time travel as a plot point – even if it was heavily telegraphed in the early days of this volume of Captain America. And if that was Steve pulled out of time, who was buried in his coffin?

Fantastic Four #568 – Splash pages galore as the Marquis of Doom and his hooded disciple knock the team around a bit and then Reed shows him what a real man is. And then Reed gets the crap kicked out of him by a whole bunch of alternate versions of the Torch, the Thing and Sue. What? Ridiculous, borderline incoherent, but a very good looking book.

Invincible Iron Man #15 – Good issue, if a little light on action – but the plot moved forward nicely anyway. It’s the first time that the loss of Tony’s memory and intelligence hit on an emotional level, too, with a simple “Who’s Happy?” showing just how bad things are getting.

Uncanny X-Men #513 – Pointless posturing as Norman Osborn consolidates his power and clumsily muddles through some exposition as he introduces his own team of X-Men, and Cyclops ponders his next move. Honestly, I don’t know how this is the same guy writing this and Iron Man right now.

War Of Kings #5 – Continues to be an example of how to do a crossover right. And, of course, it all seems to boil down to the two leaders duking it out. I’m intrigued for what’s next for these characters, and hope that we get an Inhumans regular series out of it, or at least something starring Ronan and Crystal, who are really the break out stars of the story.

I also picked up Buffy but haven’t a chance to read it, so next week for that. I know, you can’t wait!

Posted via web from Rich’s posterous

The one-word review thing got tired (mainly because I didn’t want to repeat words over and over again) so instead, I’m going to be trying to do a very quick review of books I picked up this week.

Only no grading, because I could never do that consistently anyway.

Action Comics #878 – Four issues in to the new status quo and I’m still not sold. The only reason I’m still here is because (a) it’s got Lois, and (b) it’s going to loop back around to the other Superman books in a few months.

Batman #687 – You really have to tilt your head and squint to make this fit in with Battle for the Cowl – presumably because it fit in with writer Judd Winick’s scrapped version – but it’s not bad. Dick’s a bit mopey but it sets up the new status quo nicely enough, plus we get a scene where Dick and Alfred learn of Bruce’s death – which should probably have been shown sooner. Not a bad start.

Booster Gold #21 – It feels like this book’s got a kick in the ass after the last lackluster arc. Jurgens delivers the goods with what looks to be the start of a showdown with the time-traveling Black Beetle and some nice interplay between Booster and the new Batman. Wonder what happened to Booster’s ancestor, the second Supernova, though? The back-up – sorry, second feature – with Blue Beetle was fun but disposable. Good to see Paco and Brenda again, but the story felt like something more suited to Gail Simone’s old All-New Atom title as opposed to Beetle. Maybe it’s just me.

Flash: Rebirth #3 – A third slow issue about the fastest man alive. Huh. On the plus side, nice art, a last page reveal that makes the first page make sense, the return of two heroes – even if one of them appears to get wiped out again immediately – and one good line from Barry to Superman almost make the issue good. Honestly, though, if this is a big a deal as everyone makes it out to be, it should be a more interesting read.

Green Lantern Corps #37 – There’s an awful lot going on here: Sodam Yat’s so-obviously-not-final sacrifice, Arisia rallying the Daxamite population against Mongul, riots on Oa and rogue Guardian Scar generally raising hell and causing big, big problems. Tomasi, Gleason and co pack a lot in, but not so much that it’s unreadable. Although, seriously: Arisia, guerilla leader? Come on.

R.E.B.E.L.S. #5 – I’m not sure what’s going on with the art here. The character work is great, but the space battles look rushed. Story-wise, things move on a little bit, Vril Dox plots away and we finally see the real Starro. I kind of liked the big starfish version myself but whatever. It’s a quick read that may be better served in trade format.

Red Robin #1 – I’m on the fence here. On the plus side, I’m not as down on Tim and Dick’s interaction as everyone else seems to be – I didn’t read this as Tim being forced out of the Batfamily by any means. Similarly, I like that he has a clearly defined mission – find Bruce Wayne – that’s sending him globe-trotting across the, er, globe. I also liked the appearance of a certain Bat-foe, and I thought that Yost and Bachs make a pretty good creative team. On the minus side, I am a little worried that Tim – one of the most optimistic DC characters at one point – is now going all dark and moody, and that one of the character’s great assets in the past was his non-super supporting cast which are now all gone. Also, this paragraph is way too long.

Amazing Spider-Man #597 – I think for such a ‘big’ storyline, team Spidey could have assigned one penciller. Chechetto’s work here is actually very good, so good that I don’t think we needed Phil Jimenez on part one of the arc. Kelly’s story is tight and sharp, and full of nice moments as Spidey tries – and fails – to masquerade as bad-ass Venom in amongst the Dark Avengers. Good stuff. And two pages teasing the return of a classic villain in #600 made me realize just how much I’ve missed him. Good issue.

Deadpool #11 – Crazily good fun. I haven’t always been a fan of Daniel Way’s work, but this is just great – and Paco Medina’s art here is perfect for the madcap main character. Bullseye and Deadpool go at it, and neither really want it to end – and neither do I.

Fantastic Four #567 – The only reasons I’m still buying this right now are because I’ll be damned if I let this crappy run kick me off the book, the run’s almost over, and more importantly I hold out the teeniest, tiniest hope that it’s going to end with Doom coming back and kicking seven shades of shit out of his so-called Master. Also, I’m assuming that the guy’s permanently-shadowed apprentice is an alternate Reed Richards. Or Wolverine, because that’s just how Millar rolls.

Lockjaw And The Pet Avengers #2 – Severely, severely awesome. Pick this up.

Uncanny X-Men #511 – What a clusterfuck. Land’s art has people posing all over the place in confused fight scenes and Fraction’s script seems to assume that you just don’t care if a story makes sense. This whole Red Queen thing feels like it was just to get Psylocke back, and it’s been tortuous getting there. The book needs new blood, stat.

War Of Kings Savage World Of Skaar – Gorgon and Starbolt play Enemy Mine. Or, you know ‘Skaar, when the walls fell’ (bonus points for getting the misquoted reference!). Pointless and predictable, with merely adequate artwork and script, but oddly engaging all the same.

Wolverine #74 – Er, haven’t read it yet as I want to dig up #73 and read both in one sitting. But it sure looks pretty.

X-Men Forever #1 – I…okay, I can’t honestly say that this was a good book, but I can say I enjoyed it for what it was – a nice, nostalgic look at what might have been, complete with modern take on the corner box. Grummet’s artwork is as solid as ever (except for the oddly static cover) and there’s a sense that things will be different this time out – I fully expect the death of an established X-Man to prove a point in the first few issues. But ‘Remy Picard’? Seriously? I’d guess this is a fake name as LeBeau hadn’t been revealed as Gambit’s name at the time X-Men #3 shipped, and Jean Luc LeBeau hadn’t been…Jean Luc…Picard…oh. I’ll get my coat.

Angel: Blood & Trenches #4 – This has been an enjoyable throwaway series with gorgeous pencils by John Byrne. And I mean gorgeous. Unfortunately, the last issue here is a little rushed, and the final two page denouement feels completely unnecessary – honestly, there are some things that just feel a little bit off, and having Angel save Hitler is one of them. Otherwise, a decent read.

Sounds like something Morrison would dream up after a bad trip – but instead, Darth Bat and co are from Dean T Fraser’s awesome Empire of the Bat.

Sweet!

Via Agent M

…only this time Dick is Batman! See what I did there?

I enjoyed Battle for the Cowl in a Jerry Bruckheimer-type way; I won’t spend too much time thinking about it but I’ll probably look at it again to look at the pretty pictures.

I’m a little disappointed that absolutely nothing in the series was unexpected, but at this point I’m keen to move forward with the new status quo. I’m not entirely sure I like Damien as Robin as he’s never been portrayed as anything but a snot-nosed brat (and last time we had one of those as Robin, it didn’t work out so well).

Still, at least Tim’s keeping his own book as Red Robin (well, presumably) and I’m holding out hope that Steph’s going to be Batgirl - which does make me wonder what’ll happen to Cass.

So to summarize: there’s a new Robin.

There’s a new Azrael series starting up.

There’s a new Batgirl.

There’s a new ‘bad girl’ book.

The old Robin is moving off on his own to a new identity.

And Dick’s Batman.

It’s like the 90s all over again!*

*Yes, I know Tim debuted in 1989. Give me a break! It’s not like I compared Streets of Gotham to Gotham Central!

I was looking back over the one word reviews I’ve been posting lately and it occurred to me that, well, it doesn’t look like I enjoy about half the comics I read.

My first reaction was ‘that’s not true!’ but the more I think of it, the more I get the nagging feeling that it might be.

Take Batman and Superman. I’m back to picking up the majority of the Batman books, and I’m enjoying Battle for the Cowl in a big, blockbuster kind of way but the last time I was really enthusiastic about Batman – and I mean in the ‘looking-forward-to-every-single-issue’ kind of way – was probably around the time of No Man’s Land.

And that, I’m surprised to see, was about nine years ago.

As for Superman – he’s probably my second favorite superhero character after Spider-Man (obviously both fall way behind Lois Lane, but that’s another story) – I’m a little unsure when the last time I felt that way was. Probably around the same time, during the 1999 soft relaunch of the books when they had Joe Kelly, Jeph Loeb (back when he could construct an almost coherent story), Stuart Immonen, Mark Millar and Mark Schultz were handling the writing. Of course, that all went to hell shortly thereafter with the godawful Our World At War storyline but hey, they can’t all be winners.

But was it really nine years since I enjoyed either of DC’s flagship characters consistently? I’m not saying I haven’t enjoyed them since then – but that’s honestly the last time that I think I looked forward to every issue of their main books.

It’s not as though there aren’t highlights at the moment; I’m enjoying pretty much everything about Amazing Spider-Man right now, Captain America continues to be fantastic, R.E.B.E.L.S is great fun, I’m enjoying John Byrne’s work on Angel: Blood and Trenches, Rick Remender’s Punisher this week was good enough to guarantee that it’s staying on my pull list for the next arc too, the main War of Kings series is awesome, I’m looking forward to Blackest Night in spite of the stupidity of the Rainbow Corps…

I guess the point is that I’m not as enthusiastic as I want to be about a lot of books these days – I may have singled out Batman and Superman but they and DC are not the only culprits. While I think that the Dark Reign status quo at Marvel is interesting, I don’t think every book needs to reflect the darkening of the MU.

A little levity would be welcome at the moment. Maybe that’s it.

Yesterday I reposted the image that Tony Daniel put up on his blog – without the spoilery text.

A couple of hours later, Robot 6 reposted it with the spoilery text.

And then Tony Daniel closed up his blog, apparently for good:

No trouble from DC, so I can stop that before it gets any legs right there. But the good folks at CBR have helped me come to the conclusion that I should keep more to myself. Thank them for my permanent radio silence from here on out.

For the record – Jason, Tim and Dick each had their own suit designed by me for BFTC. That’s what was shown, and before I could correct it and put the right images up, people ran with it and made it into something it wasn’t.

I would hope that the good folks didn’t mean to be malicious in posting something I almost immediately took down because I realized it was the wrong image. So for my own good I’m going silent. No more blogs. No more correspondence.

Over and out. For good.

Thanks to everyone who’s visited my blog and supported me. Almost half a million since it began. Maybe when I’m old, drunk and senile I’ll do something again.

Tony S Daniel

I’m not passing comment on Robot 6′s decision to run the pic with the spoiler, or on Daniel’s reaction, but isn’t it kind of dickish to repost something complete with spoiler that someone posted by mistake?

Okay. Maybe I am passing comment.

Oops. I just clicked on a page in my Google Reader from Tony Daniel’s blog, containing designs for the new Batman and Robin outfits.

This page.

Which no longer exists. Fortunately it exists with my Google – because it contains a picture of Daniel’s design for Batman (rejected) which also contains, in the notes, the name of the new Batman.

Oops.

Without the name:

That’s some nice art…

So on the day before Batman Battle for the Cowl #1 ships, the cover for the upcoming Batman and Robin #1 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely drops.

This pretty much confirms for me that the new Robin is Damian, meaning that Tim will probably be Red Robin and Dick the new Batman.

So no surprise there.

On the plus side, this is better than Quitely’s last take on the dynamic duo, but do you remember when you didn’t know several months in advance what the outcome of a comic was going to be? Sometimes I miss that.

Anyway. I guess it could be worse. At least they look better than these plonkers:

And there’s no actual proof that this was Morrison and Quitely at last year’s DC Halloween part. No proof at all…

First image via