2/13/13

Today provided a marvelous Batman story, a sub-par Batgirl story, a pleasantly unusual story of my favorite, Damian Wayne and an utterly nonsensical and confusing Comedian comic. Once again, here are this weeks reviews.

• Batman #17

What have we come to expect from comic finales? Drama, tension, resolution, and most importantly a change. We don't want to have spent hours of our lives reading a comic that will never mean anything than the initial thrill it provided us. Snyder and Capullo's stunning ending gave me all four of those things.
There was definitely drama. Hell, when isn't there drama when it's a story about the Joker? From an interesting trap to the psychotic jokes and tricks we have come to expect from the Clown Prince of Crime. There was also drama to the point of me feeling like I was there, I credit that mostly to Greg Capullo whom I will always think of when I think of the Joker.
Tension is a hard thin to bring to a comic. In a movie scary music, slow-motion and quick dialogue will do the trick, but in a comic the tension is purely the excitement and the vividness of the drawings. I was scared, worried and excited all at the same time. One of the key factors in this chapter of Death of the Family was the actual family. The family is a hard group to bring together and keep the suspense high. Snyder managed that by having the family face a different form of Joker evil than Batman.
The story pulled into the finale with many loose ends and questions left unanswered, I felt at peace with the end result. One of my favorite parts of the whole comic was the end where Joker leaves one last non-lethal gag that I will forever remember.
Did it change the entire universe? No, not really. However, this will always be remembered as one of the greatest Joker stories ever told. People refer to a great comic storyline as a party, you can be late to the party, or not come at all. I think I overstayed my welcome and read the invitation too many times. By that I mean that I probably shouldn't have bought all of the tie-ins and I shouldn't have read all of the pre-event articles. But it was a party I am glad I attended.

• Batgirl #17

This issue tells the story of the fallout of Death of the Family and describes the difficult relationship between James Jr. and the rest of the Gordons. It was kind of good, and kind of random, I really don't see what DC sees in these Joker-inspired gangs but they seem to really be trying to suck all of the material possible out of them. My main problem with this comic, however, was that it was a change of creative teams. Gail Simone was doing a great job on the book and it seems like a stupid idea to take her off the book. The new artist is quite good but the writer has yet to impress me.

• Batman and Robin #17

This was the single most pointlessly weird issue thus far in the New 52. The vast majority of the book is dedicated to showing Bruce, Alfred and Damian's dreams. They are all brutal and somewhat psychotic, but very entertaining. The art, especially the extraordinary inking, adds to the eeriness of this comic.
I have come to realize that they do this kind of thing in the Batman and Robin book just to show what a queer relationship they have.

• Before Watchmen: Comedian #5 of 6

Of all of the mediocre Before Watchmen titles two books have really stood out. 

1. Silk Spectre was awesome
2. Comedian is terrible

Comedian has just been incomprehensible. They are trying to tell this elaborate story of the Vietnam war by flashing back and then switching back to the present, again and again and again. It really drives me nuts when I see the Comedian playing games with some Vietcong kids and then immediately turn the page to find a violent jungle battle. There is literally no transition between scenes, I mean at all. It is also way over-brutalized and the language is filthy for no reason. I understand that the Vietnam war was gory and the Comedian is a brutal character, but did they show that kind of stuff in the original Watchmen? I am not excited for the sequel, and I don't think it will include any of the traits of a good sequel from the Batman review.

Court of the Owls vs. Death of the Family

My favorite series thus far in the New 52 is Batman. I think that Scott Snyder is a very creative, dark and clever author who really makes Batman who he is today. The Dark Knight looks best when he seems to be engulfed in shadow, Greg Capullo does him justice by making him the most noir Batman to date. This all-star team is now on their second storyline together; Death of the Family. The only reason I picked up Batman #13 is because I loved the Court of the Owls storyline, and really who didn't? It was intense, a good look at Gotham's history and a fantastic look at the Wayne Family (Read my full review in the Collected Editions Page, only posted Thursdays and Fridays). Anyways, I picked up Batman #13 I was expecting a decent Joker story. That was the first day I was ever scared by a comic. My hands were trembling after reading it and immediately wanted the rest of the series. Not only did I subscribe to Batman, but every single tie-in (I'm a sucker for tie-ins). I was anxiously awaiting Batman #14 the following month. I raced through the book again and again taking in all of the wonderful panels. The same thing the following month with #15. As Bruce ascends the steps and enters Arkham Asylum in the final pages of #15 I was breathless. I had no idea that #16 was going to be the intense, scary demented comic it was. Batman #16 is my favorite single issue ever and I cant wait for the sequel next week. I have to say I am a bit disappointed. They managed to keep Court of the Owls going for 11 issues and Death of the Family only 5. They knew people would buy Death of the family regardless of the content so why did they cut it so short. These are two of my favorite series ever and will share them with all of my friends, but I am conflicted. I don't know which one to say was the better run. Please leave a comment with your opinion.

1/2/13

I had three books pulled today. The best being Batman Incorporated #6 and the worst being Teen Titans #15. The other book was Talon #3.

• Batman Incorporated #6:

I love Grant Morrison, let me just get that across. His entire run on Batman was phenomenal and I enjoyed the original Batman Incorporated immensely. Of the New 52 Batman Incorporated this one is definitely the best. The Al Ghul's are awesome and this portrays Talia very well. She is smart and gives Batman a mental and physical challenge that makes a very interesting story. Leviathan takes center stage again as Batman recovers from the battle in issue 4 while trying to find where Talia's elusive voice is coming from. An extremely interesting interaction happens where Dick, Jason and Damian get a little more familiar with each other. The ending left me speechless. I am very excited for next month!

• Teen Titans #15:

This is one of the worse Death of the Family tie-ins. Scott Lobdell is a hack, and this book shows exactly that. The book guest stars Batgirl but doesn't go anywhere with it. All of the Titans respond in exactly the same way by being snotty and disrespectful to someone who is clearly superior and has much more experience dealing with the Joker. That being said the confrontation between Tim Drake and the Joker is very interesting. The Joker wears Tim's wings and flys around the rafters. He also has a very creepy way of guessing exactly what Tim is thinking that I thought was clever but not exceptional writing. The art is okay, but of course all of the women are grossly over-sexuallized and the Joker is not nearly as well drawn as Greg Capullo's version of the Joker.

• Talon #3:

Court of the Owls was one of the best Batman stories ever written. Period. When I saw that a former Talon was going to get their own book I was super excited, and just when I thought it couldn't get any better I found out that Scott Snyder was writing it. After four books I am still not delighted with how they are directing this book. In almost every book Calvin (the protagonist) kills a Talon or two in some uninteresting way. This issue was no different. However, this issue did feature an interesting run-in with a rogue group of anti-heroes and an interesting robbery. The writing was quite entertaining and the art was decent. I really hope they find their groove with this book, because if they do Calvin will become a very interesting character.