Batman

Worlds’ Finest Annual #1

Worlds' Finest Annual #1Before they were Power Girl and the Huntress on another Earth they were Supergirl and Robin. More times than not comic annuals aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. Overpriced and often featuring multiple disjointed stories from more than one creative group, the standalone issues often don’t even fit into the series’ current storyline.

With the Huntress and Power Girl, however, there’s an entire vein of tales left untapped from their time as Robin and Supergirl from Earth-2. Other than a few short flashbacks, we’ve seen little of the heroines original time as heroes before becoming trapped on an alternate Earth.

We get three separate tales. The first gives us Robin’s first outing as Batman‘s partner. The second involves Kara enjoying a little normalcy before being unable to save her date for the evening. And the third story combines the first two as Helena and Power Girl work together to take on an evil Amazon (with an unusual connection to Wonder Woman) who is to blame for Kara’s recent misfortune. Despite the $5 price-tag, it’s still worth a look.

[DC, $4.99]

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Batman ’66 #7

Batman '66 #7One of my favorite criminals from the 60’s Batman TV-show was False Face (played by an uncredited Malachi Throne). Only making a single appearance on the show in the two-parter “True or False Face” and “Holy Rat Race” the constantly-masked villain capable of perfectly impersonating anyone gets his own comic adventure here as the villain impersonates millionaire Bruce Wayne and attempts to destroy Mount Rushmore!

The adventure is fun, if over-the-top, and forces Batman to abandon showing up as Bruce Wayne until Batman and Robin can clear his name. If I have a major complaint its the unnecessary ambiguous clues False Face leaves for the Dynamic Duo making him come off a bit like a second-rate Riddler.

The back-up story is a bit odd as the Joker decides to take Wall Street’s advice and downsize to increase profits only to not have enough henchmen to properly execute a heist or defend himself against Batman and Robin. Worth a look.

[DC, $3.99]

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JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time

  • Title: JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time
  • IMDB: link

JLA Adventures: Trapped in TimeAimed more to a kid-friendly all-ages audience than the much more publicized Justice League: War release, and available only at Target (as a tie-in to the store’s JLA toy line), JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time proves to be a hell of a lot of fun. Rather than adapting an existing mini-series or comic arc (which seems all that DC has been interested in lately), Trapped in Time offers an original adventure from screenwriter Michael Ryan and director Giancarlo Volpe that’s a bit of a throwback to the old Super Friends days.

The straight-to-DVD adventure begins with the Legion of Doom‘s latest plan of world conquest by expanding the polar ice caps which leaves Lex Luthor (Fred Tatasciore) stuck in ice for hundreds of years before his frozen remains are eventually discovered. Accidentally released by two junior members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Lex uses the knowledge and technology of the future to return to the past with a plan to stop the Justice League from ever forming by attacking Superman while he was still an infant.

…

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Worlds’ Finest #19

Worlds' Finest #19With Power Girl‘s wild power fluctuations becoming more frequent and dangerous, the Huntress decides it may be time for the pair to consider finding help. After a year-and-a-half of the title focues on the pair to themselves (other than Helena’s friendship with Damian, and Power Girl meeting Supergirl) it appears Worlds’ Finest is finally ready to introduce Earth-2’s Robin and Supergirl to this world’s heroes.

Much of Worlds’ Finest #19 is set-up as Kara’s latest power freak-outs leave Helena stuck in a public park in her pajamas and almost burn down Starr Industries’ board room. Realizing her friend needs all the help she can get, Helena breaks into the Batcave hoping to convince this world’s Batman to help the daughter of another world’s Batman.

I”m glad the pair’s isolation is coming to an end, but I would have preferred the issue to move along quicker rather than simply set-up events for confrontations which apparently won’t even take place in this title (as DC plans to begin the pair’s introduction to the wider DCU in Batman/Superman #8). Worth a look.

[DC, $2.99]

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Coming Soon

  • Title: Son of Batman
  • IMDB: link

Following the release of Justice League: War in two weeks, we now have our first trailer for DC Animated’s next project which will apparently by a (very loose) adaptation of Grant Morrison’s Batman & Son storyline that introduced Batman (Jason O’Mara) and the world to Damian Wayne (Stuart Allan). Morena Baccarin, Giancarlo Esposito, Thomas Gibson, and Cameron Bowen also lend their voices to the project. Although I have problems with Morrison’s story (which completely ignored the fertile ground laid by Mike Barr) and have trouble seeing how the addition of Deathstroke will help matters, I’m glad to see DC bringing back Damian in any form and I’ve got to admit this one interests me far more than Justice League: War.

Coming Soon Read More »