Comics

Detective Comics #19

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Detective Comics #19At $8 Detective Comics #19 is overpriced for anyone who isn’t a huge fan of Man-Bat. All but one of the stories (involving Bane created a Venom-powered army to continue his vendetta against the Court of Owls) contained in this issue deal with Batman responding new a Man-Bat outbreak (which includes a Man-Bat version of Zsaz) started by Emperor Penguin to steal Gotham blind during the chaos or its consequences.

In an inexplicable chronological snafu set by the launch of the New 52 (and Grant Morrison‘s insistence to keep using Man-Bats as Talia‘s soldiers), we get out first introduction to Kurt Langstrom (the scientist who invented the Man-Bat serum) and, in the New 52 version is far, far, far from being the first to transform into a half-man/half-bat hybrid.

Other stories involve Emperor Penguin’s soldiers bilking Gotham out of millions, the Penguin planning his escape from prison and revenge against his former assistant, Mrs. Langstrom’s plans to save her husband, and a disagreement between cops, one of whom was infected by the Man-Bat virus, over Batman’s proper role in the city. For fans.

[DC, $7.99]

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Action Comics #19

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Action Comics #19The much ballyhooed run of creative team of writer Andy Diggle and artist Tony S. Daniel begins and ends here. As you might have heard, Diggle quit the title before his first issue ever hit the stands due to irreconcilable issues with DC Editorial. Daniel will continue the arc doing double duty as both writer and artist.

Action Comics #19 certainly has its moments including a look at what Lex Luthor has in mind for the Man of Steel and a nice moment between Clark and Lois in a Quarac hotel bar that good-naturedly pokes some fun at the most ridiculous disguise in all of comics.

The rest of the comic features Superman battling giant robots (for reasons that don’t make a lot of sense), Lex Luthor keeping his shrink locked up for an accurate diagnosis of him as a megalomanical psychopath, and a weird hallucinatory moment where Superman thinks one of the soldiers piloting the robots is Jimmy Olsen (which, also, makes very little sense). Hit-and-Miss.

[DC, $3.99]

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The All New Batman: The Brave and the Bold – Small Miracles

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The All New Batman: The Brave and the Bold - Small MiraclesSmall Miracles collects six comics from the two series inspired by the Batman: The Brave and the Bold animated series. The highlight of the collection is the inclusion of The All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold #13 which features all six Robins (Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, Damian, and Carrie Kelly) brought together through time by the Phantom Stranger to save Batman‘s life by taking on Ra’s al Ghul and The League of Assassins.

Also included in this collection is the entertaining adventure involving Batgirl fighting off the infatuation of Bat-Mite while helping Batman fight crime, Batman and Mister Miracle working to escape Darkseid‘s trap, and the Dark Knight Detective in a race with the Flash to solve a crime in Keystone City. The collection also includes the well-meaning but hamfisted true meaning of Chanukah, and several cameos from DC heroes.

It’s not a must-have but the inclusion of the Robin story, and a pair of fun team-ups with Flash and Batgirl made it worth adding this to my collection.

[DC, $12.99]

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Fatale #13

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Fatale #13Writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips provide a single-issue tale of another Fatale. Set in the Old West, we’re introduced to “Black” Bonnie Smith, a woman with the (eerily familiar) power to bend men to her will and a bloody past that includes the slaughter of an Indian village and dying twice before meeting a pair of men who would change her life.

Killed and then kidnapped by a Native American named Milkfred and a elderly snake oil salesman, both who are immune to her spell, Bonnie is saved from a (eerily familiar) cult who have been hunting her for days. For the first time in years Bonnie has more questions than answers and continues travelling with the unlikely pair to a lighthouse on the prairie to grab the group’s bible which may just have the answers they all seek.

Once again Brubaker and Phillips craft tale with familiar characters in new settings. I’d like a little more revelation about the cults as we see them over time, but the various protagonists continue to entertain. Worth a look.

[Image, $3.50]

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Scarlet Spider #15

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Scarlet Spider #15Thankfully the Kaine evil super-spider creature storyline comes to a quick end with Scarlet Spider #15. By the end of the comic things are pretty much back to normal with the former assassin restored to his human form and still unsure if his new role of hero truly suits him.

There’s plenty of action here, including the Kaine creature ripping off one of the arms of Carlos Lobo in order to save Aracely from the werewolves. It’s a little unclear whether Aracely somehow mystically causes him to revert back to normal or if her words cause Kaine to consciously return to form.

Other than adding new enemies for Scarlet Spider, this short arc merely restated the comic’s main theme (hero or killer) that’s so ingraned in the series it really didn’t need to be reintroduced so forcefully. I’m glad human Kaine is back, but far less sure of the Vertigo-esque path the comic appears to be going down (which, from comic’s last few pages, looks sure to continue in the coming months). Hit-and-Miss.

[Marvel, $2.99]

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