Batman

Detective Comics #30

/ / Comics

Detective Comics #30Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato’s run on Detective Comics begins here with the beginning of a new arc that focuses on organized crime in Gotham City and Bruce Wayne‘s new business venture to help rehabilitate the city’s East End with crusader Elena Aguila rather than go for a far more lucrative option of re-developing the area.

Manapul and Buccellato offer as much Bruce Wayne as Batman here, showcasing the Dark Knight’s takedown the Kings of the Sun dealing drugs and kidnapping young children off the streets of Gotham. The main action of the issue comes from this part of the story where Buccellato colors Manapul’s beautiful art in blues and grays offering a similar, yet different, look to the pair’s relaunch of The Flash.

For a story that deals in organized crime, white slavery, gangs, Bruce Wayne still mourning the loss of his son Damian, and the crime boss The Squid feeding one of his soldiers to his pet, Detective Comics #30 is less dark and gloomy than you might expect offering a nice mix of story and action to start of the pair’s run on the title. Worth a look.

[DC, $3.99]

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Beware the Batman #6

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Beware the Batman #6As with the show that spawned it, Beware the Batman comes to a close prematurely just as things were starting to get interesting. With Katana busy and Batman missing it falls to Alfred to track down the Dark Knight Detective who has been captured by Killer Croc.

Presented entirely from Alfred’s point of view, the comic is notable, other than for it being the final issue of the series, for the introduction of a resourceful dark-haired alley-rat who Alfred finds in possession of Batman’s missing utility belt. Had the show and/or comic intended to introduce a Robin character the seed is firmly planted here as the young boy is an obvious stand-in for Jason Todd, but with its cancellation we’ll never know what might have come from his introduction.

Neither the show nor the comic would rank high on my favorite versions of Batman (although they’d be higher than the current New 52 version), but both showed promise, and without another all-ages Bat-title to take its place the cancellation of the series (which had been consistently good) is sad news for Bat-fans everywhere. Worth a look.

[DC, $3.99]

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Worlds’ Finest #21

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Worlds' Finest #21“First Contact” comes to a close as the mad-scientist and evil doppelganger of Power Girl‘s old friend Ken succeeds in ripping open time and space to a portal back to Earth-2. For the first time I realized how similar this title is to Samurai Jack as the lost heroes finally find a portal home only to be denied at the last second and will continue their quest elsewhere.

Although there’s a lot of family bickering here, Worlds’ Finest #21 includes some nice moments as well including Batman and Huntress instinctively working as a team and even offer a slight celebration afterwards.

Seeing the evil Superman inside the alternate dimension the pair believed to be their old home doesn’t deter them from agreeing to continue to seek a way back to their Earth. Although I don’t think we’re likely to see a Power Girl/Superman team-up anytime soon I’d like DC continue to explore the Batman/Huntress relationship going forward to see where it may lead. Worth a look.

[DC, $2.99]

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Justice League: War

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Justice League: War
  • IMDB: link

Justice League: WarBased on DC Comics’ New 52 reboot and the first arc of the current Justice League series by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, Justice League: War isn’t as awful as I suspected. It’s not actually a good movie, but most of the issues here have to do with the source material itself rather than any mistakes in the adaptation into the film.

Replacing the missing Aquaman with Captain Marvel (Sean Astin), who I still refuse to call him Shazam, the storyline is basically intact as the various heroes of the Justice League come together to defeat Darkseid (Steve Blum) and the invading armies of Apokolips. As with Lee’s original designs, everything looks and feels too muted including the super-hero costumes, particularly those of Superman (Alan Tudyk) and Wonder Woman (Michelle Monaghan), that lack any pop. And although (thankfully) the film chooses to stay away from that awful yellow piping on the Flash‘s (Christopher Gorham) costume we saw at the end of The Flashpoint Paradox, Green Lantern (Justin Kirk) is still stuck with the unnecessary light-up pieces of his costume.

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Batman ’66 #9

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Batman '66 #9Along with a best-forgotten back-up story involving the world’s greatest detective and his protege being duped by Alfred‘s nefarious lookalike relative taking his place inside Wayne Manor, the latest issue of Batman ’66 pits the Dynamic Duo against Zelda the Great who Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson find masquerading as a stage magician in Gotham City while on a double-date.

Despite the fact that Zelda isn’t breaking any laws, Bruce and Dick ditch their dates (one of whom is Kathy Kane and the other who Zelda will later take on as a potential apprentice of her own) to don their tights and promptly be taken hostage by the villain and her minions.

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