Four noteworthy images from Superman #6 (three of which feature his dog)

Given that Superman and Action Comics share the same editor in Eddie Berganza, it's not a coincidence that both titles began their new, "Rebirth" era runs by telling pretty much the exact same stories. In the pages of Superman, Superman has been battling against a threat made popular during the "Death of Superman" era of the franchise that is bound and determined to do harm to his wife Lois and son Jonathan. In the pages of Action, Superman has been battling against a threat made popular during the "Death of Superman" era of the franchise that is bound and determined to do harm to his wife Lois and son Jonathan. In the former, it's The Eradicator, in the latter, it's Doomsday.

It's not a coincidence, but it is a decision I can't really understand.

Of the two books, Superman has told that story in a far better fashion, and it helps that creators Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason have determined goals they accomplish in their too-long, six-issue arc. That is, they want to demonstrate that through his feats here, the new (old) Superman has convinced the public that he is indeed the "real" Superman, and, further, to introduce Jonathan as the new Superboy. (In Action, meanwhile, writer Dan Jurgens has been teasing a mystery, as both the new/old Superman and a Clark Kent are present in the same place at the same time throughout much of the story, and the Mr. Oz character lurks in the background, talking cryptically to himself).

The art in Superman is just really, really good too. That in the sixth issue comes courtesy of pencil artist Patrick Gleason, inker Mick Gray and colorist John Kalisz. I thought there were four extremely striking images in the book.

First, there's this bit of body horror. The deal with this version of The Eradicator is that he has sucked in the souls of all the dead Kryptonians, and now wants to "eradicate" Jonathan, whose Kryptonian DNA is tainted by Lois Lane's contribution to his genetic make-up. Superman wants to stop him from eradicating his son. So they've been fighting for like 100 pages or so.

At various points, Superman is able to convince the Kryptonian ghosts to stop power-ing up The Eradicator and help him and, as their fight reaches it's climax, Superman opens The Eradicator's mouth and shouts into it, calling for his dog. In the next panel, Krypto starts to emerge...as a giant fucking st of canine mouth pushing up through The Eradicator's S-shield.

I don't mind telling you I found this image to be deeply terrifying, as well as just plain weird (Why didn't Krypto just come out of his mouth? Burst through his chest? Why is his gaping maw so gigantic as he tries to push his way out? Why does it look more like The Eradicator's chest is turning into Krypto's snout and mouth than that the super-dog is trying to force his way out?)

Then there's this rather delightful image. Superman encourages to Krypto to bite down on his arm through the stretched skin of The Eradicator, and then just pulls him through. I've stared at this panel for long minutes on several different occasions, and there's no way around it: Gleason drew Krypto upside down, as a comparison to the position of his jaws on the previous page makes clear.

No matter. I love the fact that Krypto is upside down here. It's every bit as weird as the previous image, but not as scary. I just imagine Krypto rotating around Superman's forearm there.

After man and dog team up to finish The Eradicator, Superman takes his fallen foes cape and ties it around his dog. Huzzah, a more "classic" conception of Krypto has returned to the DC Universe, after the saber-toothed dire wolf version seen early in the New 52.

Finally, there's this perfect ending splash page, in which Superman introduces his son to the other two points of the trinity.

I love this page so much. The expressions on all four characters' faces are all perfect and, at least in the case of the three I know best, perfectly suited to what one might expect their faces to look like in that situation.

If you read just one six-issue story arc about Superman battling against a threat made popular during the "Death of Superman" era of the franchise that is bound and determined to do harm to his wife Lois and son Jonathan this year, I'd recommend you make it the first six issues of Superman.

Attention: Detective Comics #50 features a Kelley Jones cover version of a Norm Breyfogle cover

I know DC Comics doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of publishing decisions just to please me personally, but every once in a while, they produce something that so perfectly addresses my tastes that I have to wonder. Take, for example, Detective Comics #50, which features Kelley Jones, who is one of my favorite comic book artists period and my second favorite Batman artist ever, drawing a pin-up that is a cover image of a 1989 Detective cover drawn by Norm Breyfogle, who is one of my favorite comic book artists period and my absolute favorite Batman artist ever.

It appears as one of the the 13 pages in a back-up story entitled "The 11 Curious Cases of Batman," written by regular 'Tec writer Peter J. Tomasi and drawn by Scott McDaniel and a murderers' row of great artists, each of whom draws a pin-up "cover" of a past 'Tec cover (John McCrea, another of my favorite artists, also contributes one, drawing an homage to an old Gene Colan cover of Batman facing off against a trio of killer clowns, although McCrea flips the image around so that we see it from the opposite angle).

Detective Comics #50 is, like some of the other 50th issues being published this month, priced at $4.99, and unlike, say, Green Lantern or Action Comics, it doesn't have an extra-length story filling its pages, nor does it have several short back-ups, as in Catwoman. Instead, editor Mark Doyle seems to have worked with Tomasi to gather a dozen artists for this fun feature. At just 13 pages, all of which are splashes or pin-ups, it's probably not worth the extra dollar or so (the main story, by Tomasi and artists Fernando Pasarin, Scot Eaton, Matt Ryan and Wayne Faucher, is 25-pages long rather than 20 or 22), but it's a hell of a lot of fun.

Personally, I probably would have assigned Jones to cover the cover for 'Tec #425, as that was a Bernie Wrightson cover featuring a monster man and a horrifying horse, and thus sat smack dab in the middle of Jones' area of expertise, but, like I said, I love the fact that two of my favorite Batman artists are in conversation with the Jones-after-Breyfogle image (Also, maybe Jones' version of Wrightston's image would have been a little too similar, whereas Carmine Di Giandomenico went in a different direction with it entirely...even if his scary horse isn't nearly as scary as Kelley Jones' scary horses are).

Oh, and if you're at all curious as to what the heck Baman is doing fighting a six-armed, battle axe-wielding ogre in that image, the cover is from the middle issue of the three-part "Tulpa" story arc, written by Alan Grant and drawn by Breyfogle and inker Steve Mitchell. A mystic uses his supernatural ability to create a tulpa demon to help protect him from the criminals that keep shaking him down for money, and Batman tries to save the poor bastards. He turns to fellow Gothamite Jason Blood for help, but it's not until the climax that Blood finally relents and lets Etrigan out. The Demon and Batman have a pretty spectacular battle. It's collected in Legends of The Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle Vol. 1, which you really should buy, if you haven't already.

Justice League: Darkseid War: Batman #1

I bet this scene would be even funnier if set in the All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder-iverse

Previously, in "The Darkseid War"...

•Justice League #41 ("The Darkseid War" Pt. 1)

•Justice League #42 ("The Darkseid War" Pt. 2)

•Justice League #43 ("The Darkseid War" Pt. 3)

•Justice League #44 ("The Darkseid War" Pt. 4)

•Justice League #45 ("The Darkseid War" Pt. 5)

The Darkseid War has spilled over the borders of Justice League and is now spreading to a series of $4 one-shots, each colon-filled title focusing on a different member of the Justice League that has "ascended" to New New Godhood after the death of Darkseid (retroactive spoiler alert!).

The first, Justice League: Darkseid War: Batman #1, focuses on Batman, who was the first of the Leaguers to get the divine upgrade, having stolen Metron's seat after Wonder Woman pulled the Fourth World's god of know-it-alls off of his magical Mobius Chair back in Justice League #42.

What does Batman do with a magical super-chair that gives him complete knowledge of everything that has ever happened or is currently happening, when he's not trying to figure out what the deal with The Anti-Monitor is? That's the question that this book seeks to answer (well, that and, "Hey, is there a way we can get Justice League readers to give us four more dollars?"), and long-time Bat-writer Peter J. Tomasi will be phrasing that answer. He's joined by pencil artist Fernando Pasarin and inker Matt Ryan.

As we've been reading "The Darkseid War" together so far, we might as well read these one-shots together too, huh?

Ready?

THE COVER

A rather nice one by artist Francis Manapul, who has taken over art duties on Justice League for "Act II" of the "Darkseid War" story line. This cover looks like it could have been originally meant for an issue of Justice LEague, as it features not only Batman, but also his fellow heroes-turned-New New Gods Superman, Captain Marvel Shazam, The Flash and Green Lantern Hal Jordan (the last of whom won't technically become a New New God until his own one-shot, but there's really no harm in foreshadowing a little, is there?). This will make a fine cover for the eventual trade collection of these one-shots.

PAGES 1-2

A big, shiny black egg with a halo and jet engines on its base hovers far above Gotham City, and then zooms up and down it's streets, while Batman narrates in a New New God narration box (red border, white print, black background). This is what his Mobius chair looks like from behind. I feel a little weird about his chair, as it looks a little too big all the time, not quite large enough to make Batman look comically small while sitting on it, but not just big enough to look wrong. It also kinda bugs me that the chair redesigned Batman's costume, giving him glowing piping and glove-tips, but he hasn't redesigned the chair at all.

Doesn't everything Batman uses have to either be shaped like a bat, or have a bat-logo on it? Even if his mind isn't powerful enough to reshape the chair, I'm surprised he hasn't taken a few hours to have Alfred bolt some Bat-wings on it.


PAGES 3-5

Batman and his flying chair arrive eight feet above the roof of police headwuarters, answering the Bat-signal that Commissioner Gordon had flipped on. This places the events of "Darkseid War" quite a ways back in terms ofrecent DC goings-ons/history/continuity. Not only is Bruce Wayne still Batman and Jim Gordon not bBatman (placing this before the current Batman story arc "Superheavy"and the preceding one, "Endgame"), but Commissioner Gordon is still Commissioner Gordon, placing this before the events of Batman Eternal as well.

Anyway, Gordon yells at Batman for a while, opining that maybe flying around the city in a glowing chair from beyond the stars might not be that great an idea, and expositing that Batman's recent usage of his vast knowledge to essentially Minority Report all crime in Gotham City is causing as many problems as it solves, as the system isn't set-up to arrest people for crimes they haven't yet committed.

Batman's like, "Whatever," and flies away on his magic chair.

PAGES 6-7

We get to see Batman being a huge dick for ourselves! He stops a car full of gun-toting guys planning to rob a club and, after one of them shouts "WASTE HIM!" and we learn that Batman is now bulletproof, he boom tubes them to Antarctica, where he leaves them, informing them (and the reader) that a ship will be along soon to rescue them before they freeze to death.

Apparently, he took Gordon's complaint to heart, and, instead of just dropping criminals off at police headquarters, he's just teleporting them to faraway places.

PAGES 8-9

Batman foils another about-to-be-a-crime, when a drunk Wall Street type sneaks into his ex-wife's house and grabs a knife, intent on killing her. He, rather hilariously, finds Batman hiding in the shadows of the kitchen...sitting on a ten-foot-tall, eight-foot-wide chair.

Batman booms this guy to Themyscira. One of the Amazons points her sword at Batman, and says "You were here before, with Diana, searching for your son." This is a reference on Tomasi's part to his own Batman and Robin #30. He and DC show remarkable restraint in not also adding a little asterisk leading to an editorial box pointing that out, and letting readers know that if they missed it, they can read all about it in Batman and Robin Vol. 6: The Hunt for Robin).

Batman tells the two Amazons that the man he's dropping off "likes to beat his women" and "intedende to murder his ex-wife" and that he thought a short visit to Themyscira would change the man's perspective on women. Then he chairs away, apparently feeling pretty confident that the Amazons were simply going to beat the living shit out of the guy, rather than kill him with the edged weapons in their hands.

PAGES 10-11

Done pre-crime fighting for the day, Batman know engages in what is apparently a weird-ass hobby of his. He visits the past, Christmas Carol style, and watches Joe Chill murder his parents in front of his childhood self. Later, Chill says he committed that crime "over 20 years ago" (which makes New 52 Batman over 28, just FYI), placing the time of the murder just prior to 1995 or so.

I find it amusing that he still dresses like a burglar stereotype from the 1950s or so, though; I almost wish he had a Beagle Boys-style mask to wear with his old burglar alarm commercial-style bad guy hat.

PAGES 12-15

Then things get even weirder, as Batman appears at "The Gotham State Penitentiary" (Wait, is Gotham a state as well as a city, like New York...?). There Batman visits the present day Joe Chill, somehow fitting his giant-ass chair into the "eight by eight" room.

He takes Chill with him to Crime Alley, and they discuss how many people Chill's killed over the years. Chill is pretty clearly terrified of the glowing Batman in the giant chair in his cell, but loosens up once they arrive in the alley, even bragging about killing the Waynes and the 38 other people he's killed over the years.

PAGES 16-18

Then Baman pulls off his cowl and yells "I'm Bruce Wayne!" so loudly that it knocks Chill down (see above). In a riff on the classic origin story in Batman #47, Wayne threatens to reveal that it was Chill who created Batman, thus making him the target of every criminal everywhere.

But Batman ends his verbal abuse of Chill by using his new New New God powers to make Chill and his cellmate forget that anything that happened on the previous six pages even happened.

I guess Batman just wanted to work that out of his system, maybe...?

PAGES 19-20

Batman returns to the cave, where two-handed Alfred has a sandwich, two bottles of water and a whole bunch of dry, British sarcasm ready for his Master.

He notes that Batman is bleeding from his ears, nose and mouth, and the Dark Knight responds that it's only because he's been fighting the chair, pushing it to do things he doesn't want to do (and, as anyone who reads many comics knows, psychic stress results in nose-bleeds).

Batman refuses Alfred's offer of food, noting that the chair "sustains" him now, and when Alfred, like Gordon earlier, says that maybe this whole super-chair thing isn't a great idea, Batman responds with "I can get off this chari any time I want."

PAGE 21

He struggles for three panels, but no dice. He can't get up. Hopefully the chair is more comfortable than it looks, as he's been sitting in it for days now, and his lower back has gotta be killing him, and his butt must have totally fallen asleep by now.

Batman quickly switches gears, saying that not being able to get off the chair's not that big a deal, especially if it means that he can be "an absolute Batman dealing absolute justice."

And now that he's pretty much defeated all crime in Gotham by dropping dudes off in faraway places, and blown off some steam by watching his parents die and messing with Joe Chill, he's ready for his next big challenge...

PAGE 22

...finally dealing with this guy, whose secret identity he finally learned (thanks to the chair) in the pages of Justice League #42:

If you look closely, you'll notice that Pasarin didn't just sample all those images of the Joker from their original sources, as many artists might have, but actually went to the trouble of drawing his own "cover" versions of the images, including three by Bolland, a few by Capullo, one by Doug Mahnke and several classic images.

Three recent DC comics of some note

1.) Detective Comics #45: This issue marks the beginning of both a new creative team and a new story arc, the second Detective story since the post-"Endgame"/Convergence change in status quo in the world of Batman, with (former) Commissioner James Gordon donning a robot battle suit and doffing his mustache to replace the amnesiac Bruce Wayne as Batman.

As the clear franchise B-title–it's no coincidence that it gets another new creative team, while A-title Batman has had the same writer, penciller and inker team since fall of 2011–Detective more often than not follows, reacts to or otherwise stays out of the way of whatever Scott Snyder and company are doing in Batman. The drastic change in direction may actually be beneficial to Tec, though; the first story arc focused on Gordon's support staff among the Gotham City Police Department, while this one introduces the new Batman to the Justice League...a move that oughta pique some interest in the title.

In that respect, the new writer demonstrates some real market savvy in his first issue. That writer, by the way, is Peter Tomasi, who has had plenty of Batman-writing experience, most recently on a 50-ish run on Batman and Robin (spanning the end of the pre-New 52 incarnation and the entirety of the post-reboot version of the title).

He's paired with a rtistMarcio Takara, his Batman and Robin partner Patrick Gleason having gone on to both write and draw new title Robin: Son of Batman. I like Takara's artwork quite a bit. The craft is quite solid, the story-telling ideal and the style flat, dynamic and just-detailed enough, never over-busy. The cover isn't by Takara, but by Andrew Robinson. If you so much as glance at it, you'll likely notice something pretty remarkable about the Justice League and, through it, the state and management of the DC Universe at this point (four years after their New 52 reboot and rebranding, and a few months after their refocusing "DCYou" initiative).

See, that is The Justice League, but you probably don't recognize them as being the exact same characters as this bunch.

After a very weird two-page opening in which what appears to be sentient water drowns a group of people and steals their eye balls, and then a page of amnesiac, bearded Bruce Wayne talking about his amnesia with the newly left-handed Alfred, there's a knock at the door, and Alfred answers it to reveal Takara's version of the League:

Going clockwise, we see Shazam, Wonder Woman in here new costume, Aquaman in his new costume, Superman in his new costume (sporting a new haircut and a new status quo in which he's been massively de-powered and now has a public identity), The Flash in what looks like a new costume but could just be a rather poor drawing of his terrible New 52 redesign (I haven't been able to force myself to read any issues of The Flash in a long time, even when I don't have to pay for 'em), and Cyborg in what is his third design since Justice League #1.

Coupled with the fact that they are here to recruit a new Batman, that means every single member of the New 52's founding Justice League has been re-designed and re-tooled, all almost simultaneously. Not present is Green Lantern Hal Jordan, who, fear not, has also been re-designed and given a new, radically different status quo.

It's a state of affairs reminiscent of the 1990s (think Superman's death and replacement and resurrection; Batman's crippling and replacement by Azrael; Wonder Woman's loss of her role and costume to Artemis; Aquaman's hook hand and bearded look, et cetera). Those changes all came after the first–the "death" of Superman–proved popular and, of course, after decades of the characters changing really rather little. Even if you look at Crisis On Infinite Earths as the start of a "new" continuity for the then 50-year-old DC Universe, it was about a decade before the publisher started redesigning their characters and trying out radical changes in direction.

All of this happened after just five years of the current continuity/status quo. (And even if a few of the ideas, like the new Batman or Superman losing his secret identity arose organically with a couple of writers, it's clear that there was a top-down decision to shake everything up heading out of the Convergence break and into "DCYou."

But back to the story, Aflred isn't exactly happy to see the Justice League on his door step...particularly since, as he had already explained to Superman, Bruce's loss of memory isn't your garden variety amnesia, but he actually came back from the dead with a brand-new brain, one completely devoid of all the skills and instincts of his years of training and Batmanning, meaning he can't be Batman, even if he finds out he used to be.

After a few pages of discussion between Alfred and various Leaguers, Bruce Wayne interrupts, learning that he used to lend his help to the League in the past (they don't tell him in what capacity, however). They are there because they desperately need him, and Wonder Woman wants to give him the magic lasso treatment to magically verify what Alfred has already scientifically verified.

Meanwhile, Tomasi introduces us to the new Batman, who is in the middle of trying to deal with fighter jets piloted by mind-controlled thralls (courtesy of The Mad Hatter), and he gets a helping hand from the visiting Leaguers. After the brief team-up, they discuss their need for Batman's detective skills, and since Gordon is both currently Batman and not all that bad a detective, they welcome him aboard.

The book ends with a very weird splash page, the sort showing a big, crazy moment not unlike those that Geoff Johns might end an issue with.

All in all, Tomasi gets quite a bit done in a single issue–he gets a whole 22-pages, as this is one of DC's new $3.99/22-page books–introducing the old Batman, the new Batman and the Justice League. It was kind of fun to see this League functioning as a team too, as their home title is currently caught up in a massive storyline ("The Darkseid War") and both Justice League books–Justice League and JLA–are both unfolding at some point in the recent past before all the changes evident here.

It's a nice, fresh start for the book, really, and nothing says more about Takara's skills than the fact that the hodge-podge visuals of this Justice League–which weren't all designed by the same guy, like they were in Justice League #1–all seem to fit together and look like they belong not only on the same world, but in the same comic book.

2.) Grayson #12: DC isn't abandoning their current direction for former Robin Dick Grayson, as a sexy super-spy working for Spyral, and perhaps there's no real reason to do so (Grayson has proven much more interesting than anything in the New 52 Nightwing, and in a rebooted universe without the Teen Titans or generations of heroes in general, there's the character lacks much juice to be anything more than a junior, cape-less Batman more prone to smiling).

That said, they are here resolving an aspect of the new direction. Grayson went into super-spying after his public identity was revealed to the world during the events of Forever Evil (and miraculously, unbelievably, no one managed to figure out that if Dick Grayson was Nightwing, then Bruce Wayne must be Batman...except for Lex Luthor). He and Batman took off their shirts, beat the living hell out of one another for, like, 18 pages, and then decided that Grayson would fake his death and join Spyral to spy on the spies for Batman.

The thing was that only Batman knew Grayson hadn't died. So everyone–Alfred, Batgirl, Red Robin Tim Drake, back-from-the-dead Damian Wayne–thought Dick was dead. The fact that Batman Bruce Wayne then "died" himself, only to come back with no memory of anything prior to his resurrection, set up some interesting possibilities for Grayson. The title character was now literally left out in the cold, his only lifeline dead.

Curious then that writers Tom King and Tim Seeley decide instead to have Dick simply return to Gotham and announce that he's not dead after all. Perhaps it was out of their control though; Grayson being back on the board in an official capacity certainly makes Batman and Robin Forever something that's, you know, possible.

To their credit, as truncated, even hurried as this issue is, they craft a fairly solid story out of it. Alfred preps Dick Grayson for a meeting with Bruce Wayne, by rather hilariously giving him a ridiculous disguise. I particularly like this panel, where he seemingly just slaps a goatee on him.

In the first instance of a repeating motif, when Dick confronts Bruce (he wants to see his amnesia/new brain for himself), artist Mikel Janin draws a background-less splash image of the character, with "samples" of dialogue that Bruce Wayne has previously spoken to Dick (from comics throughout the characters' history, not simply stopping at the beginning of the New 52-boot), appearing in tail-less, gray-on-black dialogue balloons.

This will repeat with Red Robin and Red Hood, Batgirl and Robin.

Dick tries to get out, but Spyral refuses to let him go, and essentially black mail him: If he leaves Spyral, they tell the world Bruce Wayne is–or at least was–Batman. In a typically smart fashion, one pretty clearly telegraphed in the opening pages in which Alfred talks about the differences between lying and performing (a nice echo to the pep talk Grant Morrison had Alfred give Dick at the start of his second tenure as Batman, in which he encouraged the former circus acrobat to think of Batman as a role he was playing in a performance), Dick's visits to his old allies serve a double purpose.

He announces that he's actually alive, gives them gifts and tells them how he feels about them...while also putting together a heist of sorts that all comes together in the last two pages, as he has rallied his old allies to help him turn the tables on Spyral.

It's some damn good plotting, pulled off exceptionally well.

The details are a little uncomfortable in some instances. I still don't like the way that Jason Todd is treated as Tim and Dick's "brother" after him having spent most of his post-resurrection time before the reboot actively trying to kill them, and I'm not entirely clear on what sort of relationship he actually had with Barbara Gordon (who seems so de-aged that she seems like she's maybe closer to Tim Drake than Dick Grayson in age now) is anymore.

I thought these two panels were ridiculously sweet, though:

In fact, I'm pretty sure I actually said "Aw" when I read them. I like the juxtaposition of the sweet ninja gymastic moves applied to something so human and tender as a hug.

3.) We Are Robin #4: I've been of two minds about this title for the first few issues. The idea of Gotham youth adopting Batman's teenage sidekick as a concept around which to build a movement is certainly interesting, even if it seems a little overly-evocative of a few other Batman stories and DC comics.

It doesn't seem like a terribly sustainable idea, given that there are already seemingly as many Robins as there are Green Lanterns, and the series is premised on the characters filling a void left by Batman's "death." There's also the revelation of a familiar character behind the movement, manipulating it that, if not a red (robin) herring, is fairly problematic.

That said, the interior art of those first few issues was pretty great, I liked the focus on recurring Batman character (and popular post-Damian Robin candidate, and Futures End's Robin) Duke Thomas and the mystery of who was behind it all was generally compelling.

What I didn't like, however, beyond the previously mentioned conceptual concerns, was writer Lee Bermejo's covers, which aren't my cup of tea, and very poorly telegraphed what the comic book actually looked like (Jorge Corona and company's style couldn't be further from Bermejo's; I probably wouldn't have even picked an issue of this book up if it wasn't literally put into my hands) and his usage of social media handles and conversation as constant narration. Maybe I am just very old, but I find that shit so goddam irritating.

This issue is a sort of (rather early, really) breather issue, a pause after the big event that ended the previous issue, and lead to the death of one of the Robins. It also seems positioned as a sort of jumping-on point, prominently featuring not only Batgirl, but also a two-page "Who Are The Robins?" breakdown of the half-dozen main characters in the ensemble cast...including the one who is no longer with us. (They're not bonus pages though; this is a $3.99 book, but there are only 20 story pages).

Unlike the previous issues, this one focuses on a single one of the Robins, Riko Sheridan, as she tries to cope with the aftermath of having lost an ally in the movement, tries to fight some crime on her own and meets and teams-up with her hero Batgirl.

The best part is, by far, the art. James Harvey pencils, inks and colors it, with Diana Egea sharing the inking credit and Alex Jafe the coloring credit.

I don't really have enough words to describe how good the art is, but it is fantastic. It's so good, I hardly cared what the book was about or who the character were, I just wanted to read it. Harvey's page lay-outs are gutter-less, giving every page a somewhat crowded, mosaic like feeling. It's flat, but urgent; feeling like a bedroom full of posters or a urban wall covered in show fliers.

His character designs and the way he rendered people sometimes made me think of the work of Brandon Graham, and sometimes made me think of Taiyo Masumoto (of Tekkon Kinkreet fame, which is high praise indeed).

I can't help but wonder if every issue of this book like this, inside and outside, if it wouldn't be doing better in the market...or at least with critics.

Check out Riko's tights:

Or her costume, which is infinitely cooler than the one she usually wears:

Or this panel, which also reminded me of Tekkon Kinkreet, of her and Batgirl casually sitting very high above the city streets:

Riko's battle here is a pretty simple one, amounting to basically enforcing a local ban on public burning by some juvenile delinquents, but then, it's the sort of entry-level crime one would expect a brand-new, hobbyist crime-fighter/vigilante to deal with, isn't it?

After reading this, not only did I want Harvey to take over this book–not the Ben-Day dot coloring!–but I also wanted Riko to join Batgirl as her Robin. I know Gotham already has a Batgirl, a Bluebird and a Spoiler, and Cassandra Cain and Carrie Kelly are both out there too (I think; they didn't kill off the latter, did they?), but surely there's room for one more crime-fighting girl on the streets, right...?

DC's Power Couple vs. The Suicide Squad

Superman/Wonder Woman #18 marked the first issue of series in DC's post-Convergence universe, in which the pair of heroes each have drastically different new directions in their ongoing titles.

In the case of Superman, he was publicly outted as Clark Kent, he got a new haircut, he traded in his old costume for t-shirts so tight they might be body paint (if Paulo Sigueira's cover to the issue is anything to go by) and he was vastly (if ambiguously and mysteriously) depowered.

In the case of Wonder Woman, she got a new outfit.

This first story arc is called "Dark Truth," and it is written by Peter Tomasi and drawn by pencil artist Doug Mahnke and a bunch of inkers (four of 'em in issue #18, but just one in #19). In part one, we find Wonder Woman in Superman's bed, wearing his Superman t-shirt (which fits her like a dress), stroking her sleeping Man of Steel and reminiscing about their relationship thus far.

Awoken at 3 a.m. by a phone call from Lana Lang that gets cut off suddenly, the characters suit up and fly to Smallville to investigate.

The goings-on there are rather strange; not only is Lana Lang and New 52 Steel missing, but someone has somehow stolen The Kent Family home and barn, and seemingly emptied all of the graves in the graveyard.

A furious Superman calls out whoever is doing this, and a blast of machine gun fire heralds the appearance of The Suicide Squad, who Mahnke draws over a two-page splash, so I'll only show the right half.

This is the first time I've ever seen The New 52-icide Squad drawn well, before. Deadshot's costume still looks terrible, but it's the least terrible I've ever seen it look, and at least as Mahnke and whichever of the four inkers inked this page draw it,it's clear that it's made out of some sort of red metal.

Superman and Wonder Woman give them dirty looks on the last page–another splash!–and Superman uses the H-word.

The cover of the next issue, the one actually containing the fight, seems to indicate a victory for the Squad, or at least Harley Quinn. Could it really go down that way though? I mean, this particular Squad consists of Harley, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, Black Manta and The (a?) Reverse Flash; a fully-powered Superman should be able to take them all out by clapping his hands or blowing at them. He's not fully-powered, of course, but he is hanging with Wonder Woman. She should be able to level them all in a panel, with only Reverse Flash maybe causing her some trouble.

The fight actually lasts 8-10 pages, although two of those pages are devoted to a two-page splash showing the two opposing sides rushing at one another.

I am immediately unimpressed with supposed master marksman Deadshot, who has three shots of his blocked by Wonder Woman's bracelet, and the ones she doesn't block just bounce harmlessly off of her new shoulder pad (I guess it's a good thing she just started wearing shoulder pads!).

Actually, I'm also unimpressed by Wonder Woman. She only blocked three out of five of the shots fired at her in that panel. That's just 60%. I thought she was supposed to be the best on Paradise Island when it came to bullets and bracelets!

Wonder Woman quickly redeems herself by breaking a tombstone over Deadshot's head (ow!), kicking Reverse Flash in the face (even if he didland a few punches before she did) and then clobbering Reverse Flash with Captain Boomerang, who she is swinging around by his stupid scarf (Who wears a knit cap, scarf and overcoat in Kansas in July, anyway?) and, finally, pulling Harley off of Superman and punching her silly.

While Black Manta and Superman have a test of strength that gets broken up by the former's eyebeams, Deadshot again proves to be bad at shooting targets, while Wonder Woman simultaneously proves to be bad at blocking bullets with her bracelets.

After the Justice League's power couple finishes beating up the Suicide Squad, they talk about getting some information from them. Naturally, Superman decides the best way to do this would be to threaten Black Manta:

Oh, if only they had some kind of, I don't know, magical device like, say, a rope, that they could use to compel someone to give them information that they want.

OH WAIT–

She still has her magic lasso of truth, but she uses it mostly for entangling and strangling people.

But before either of our heroes can remember that Wonder Woman carries a magical polygraph device with her at all times, Deadshot wakes up and starts shooting wildly at them.

He is so bad at shooting:

I mean, he hits Superman a lot, but not, like, in the eye or mouth or forehead, and not in the same place repeatedly, just sort of all over the place. He brags about his "homemade high-velocity armor-piercing shells," but they don't actually seem to do too much damage to Superman, seemingly afflicting him the way a bunch of bees might affect you or I–they hurt him, they stagger him, but they don't grievously wound them, or even tear his shirt.

Wonder Woman than throws Deadshot into a tree, grabs Superman, and files away with him, leaving the Smallville cemetery littered with unconscious super-villains.

I guess Superman is weaker, but still bulletproof...?

Anyway, this is a very well-drawn pair of issues, but I'll be damned if I can make heads-or-tails of what's going on with the Superman franchise at the moment. I wish they would have let "Truth" play out in Superman and Action before we started seeing this new, weakened Superman showing up in Batman/Superman, Martian Manhunter and this title (and maybe some other places I haven't noticed), as it's not really clear what his deal is yet.

This is the best part of Batman: Arkham Knight Vol. 1:

And this is the worst part of Batman: Arkham Knight Vol. 1:

Peter J. Tomasi wrote both parts, but I can't figure out who drew them; they were penciled by either Viktor Bogdanovic, Ig Guara or Robson Rocha, and inked by one of three different inkers.

Superman gets a lavish gift from his BFF and his GF slaughters their foes in Superman/Wonder Woman #13

Celebrity gossip followers and/or typewriter enthusiasts may have heard TMZ's report earlier this monththat Angelina Jolie put down $11,000 toward a $250,000 purchase of Ernest Hemingway's last typewriter from a typewriter collector. It was meant to be a wedding gift for long-time boyfriend Brad Pitt, but, for some reason, Jolie eventually decided not to buy the machine.

Perhaps she was outbid by someone with even more money than Jolie...?

Well, given the lead time involved with the production of comic books, what a strange synchronicity that just two weeks after TMZ reported on Jolie's pursuit of a Hemingway typewriter for the love of her life, Batman buys Superman one in a comic book published just two weeks later.

So, what does this mean? Does Batman love Superman as much as Jolie love Pitt? Are Batman and Superman married? Is Angelina Jolie the Batman of Earth-Prime? Is Batman the Angelina Jolie of the DC Universe? Is Superman the Bradd Pitt of the DC Universe? So many questions!

This panel occurs in Superman/Wonder Woman #13, the first issue of the series by the new creative team of writer Peter Tomasi, pencil artist Dough Mahnke and inkers Jaime Mendoza (with Don Ho inking two pages; Mahnke's run on Green Lantern was one that required anywhere from two-to-four inkers per issue, for some reason). Of the three Wonder Woman books released this week, it wasn't the best (that would have been Sensation Comics), but it wasn't the worst either (that would have been Wonder Woman).

I'm a big fan of Mahnke's work, which I've enjoyed off and on since his Major Bummer comic in the late '90s; today he's one of the better DC Comics artists working on their regular DCU titles on a regular basis. He's an interesting, maybe even ideal, choice for this particular title, having had plenty of experience drawing the pair during a long if under-appreciated (and ultimately troubled) run on JLA, and in later DC Universe titles like bits of Final Crisis, Green Lantern and Justice League of America.

I also enjoy the work of Tomasi more often than not; when his comics are bad, they tend to be really bad, but to still have a strong, baseline structure to them, and to work as plots and scripts, no matter how off the characterizations might seem, or how pointless or distasteful those stories can be. I think he writes far more good stories than bad ones though, and while I'm pretty far behind in his Batman and Robin series at this point (I read it in trade), it's easily the second best Batman book; given the fact that the New 52 line consists of something like 31 Batman comics, hat's a pretty good showing (Um, I may be exaggerating slightly on that bit; someone check my math, huh?).

This particular comic falls pretty squarely into the mediocre category, I'm afraid. But hell, that's still better than bad! (And it's a great improvement over the original Superman/Wonder Woman team, which featured not-very-good-at-all art by Tony Daniel and a crack squad of fill-in artists (I reviewed the Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 1 collection here, if you're interested).

Let's start with the cover, which reveals at a glance that the comic is already better than the David Finch-drawn Wonder Woman. The cover is still a fairly generic "posed" shot that could likely adorn any issue of a comic featuring both Wonder Woman and Superman, the closest thing we get to a storytelling element being that big red skull behind them, but, well, the skull is a pretty generic symbol of the ever-present threat of death in our heroes' dangerous lives.

Unlike Finch, Mahnke goes with a very big, very strong, very powerful version of Wonder Woman. She stands straight and tall, with immaculate, confident posture and a toned, athletic build. She's unfortunately wearing her dumb, over-accessorized black, red, white and silver New 52 costume (A choker, a garter and an armlet are a little much, and I think three "WW" symbols is overkill), but I don't suppose there's much that can be done about that without editorial approval. She's also carrying a sword and a spear*, two deadly, stabby weapons that should seem super-superfluous to someone with super strength and the ability to make a fist (The similarly powered Superman, hovering just behind her, isn't carrying a blade or packing heat, you'll notice).

Do look at Wonder Woman's expression, in addition to her poster, on this cover versus on Wonder Woman's cover. She's confident, relaxed, maybe eve a little bored.

(One complaint about the Mahnke-drawn, Tomeu MOrey-colored cover? I wish there were deeper, darker blacks; part of Superman's face is in shadow, but it's a brownish-red shadow. It gives the image a sketch-like quality, but I always prefer more stark imagery, myself).

The story within begins with a flashback to the day Superman and Wonder Woman first met—the day chronicled in the first story arc of Justice League by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee; you know, the battle against the Parademons in which the Justice League united to casually murder enemies by the dozens.

The very first page is a splash page, in which Wonder Woman and Superman are swarmed by Parademons. "BACK TO HADES!" Wonder Woman screams, while slitting one's throat, bisecting another's head and chopping another's arm off at the elbow all with one might swing.

I know we've talked about the Justice Leaguers' surprising willingness to slaughter their foes in that Justice League arc repeatedly, and the two explanations generally offered was that killing Parademons doesn't count because they are aliens and/or not human (weak, especially considering they're being fought off by alien Superman and galactic policeman on an almost all-alien beat Green Lantern) or that the Parademons are made up of some sort of Deathlok-esque combination of robot parts and dead bodies, meaning that they're not really alive.

That's pretty weak too, considering that it's no-prize thinking (there's nothing in the comic, or in this revisiting of that comic, to indicate that)...not to mention the fact that what the actual comic book does reveal is that The Parademons weren't killing anyone, they were trying to capture people alive (the League was therefore responding to non-lethal attacks with lethal force) and that they are all former victims who were being turned into Parademons against their will. Rather than seeking a way to save them, Wonder Woman was just straight up chopping them to pieces (while the other Leaguers, including Superman and Aquaman, were killing them left and right in the page of Justice League).

The following four pages continue the flashback to the battle, in which Wonder Woman continues dismembering**, beheading and stabbing Parademons to death.

In this issue, we don't see Superman actually killing anyone, and he and Wonder Woman actually argue tactics, with Superman asking him to help here build a buffer of rubble to keep the invaders from getting at the humans, while she prefers to kill them, getting in a nice Amazon burn at one point.

"Who did you train under?" Wonder Woman asks while Superman sets a boulder atop a Parademon and she withdraws the sword she shoved to into one's chest all the way to the hilt.

"My father," Superman responds.

Ha ha, your dead father was a shitty fighter, Superman! (Note the background in this panel; it's easy to miss, what with Wonder Woman punching a foe's head and shattering it like an egg, but the various reactions of the three people between Wonder Woman and the Parademon are pretty fun; Mahnke provides plenty to look at in these panels.)

The pair did not get a long at all, seems to be the point, and then we flash forward to "Today," where they most certainly do.

Wonder Woman is wearing a hideous dress and impatiently awaiting Superman to finish writing on his gift from secret husband Batman so they can go on a date. For reasons unclear to me, Superman is wearing his Superman costume (I thought it was some sort of nantochech thingee that appeared and disappeared as needed now?) with a red shirt over it.

In a neat reversal of her earlier burn on Superman's dead father, Wonder Woman admires the way he uses super-speed and club soda to get a stain out of his shirt, and Superman says, "Credit my mother."

That's cute.

...

Wait, did Superman match his shirt to her dress? Where are they flying off to, prom...?

There's a cute scene about Superman giving up every taxi that stops for them in Manhattan in a freak rain storm, when an earthquake KKRRRRUMMBBBBBles, and they realize something supervaillainy's going on.

"Date night over," Wondy declares.

The cause of the problems are a pair of familiar supervillains, each outfitted with jet boots, and working for a mysterious employer. These are Major Disaster, who Mahnke drew exenstively during his JLA run (at the time, the villain was inspired by Superman to reform and start using his powers for good, even becoming a member of the Justice League for a while until the League's story just sort of petered off as Infinite Crisis and its accompanying continuity punches and soft reboots temporarily abolished the League, and its recent history was forgotten by the next semi-permanent-ish writer, Brad Meltzer).

The pair of villains put up a hell of a fight before suddenly cutting and running, at which point they're intercepted by a new character with the terrible costume and more terrible still name of Wonderstar.

This action scene, like the one at the beginning, is pretty wonderfully illustrated. Mahnke's great at figure work, action and expression and, in great contrast to the Daniel (and others) run earlier in the title's short history, there are pages packed with enough panels that the fight seems like a real super-powered fight, rather than a handful of poses. That is, the villains and heroes each get to use their powers in a couple of different ways to attack and counter one another. It's not exactly an action masterpiece or anything, but it is action, and that's actually something compared to so many of the fights these two usually engage in.

I'm not sure this issue was engaging enough to encourage me to read the next one, or to add the book to my pull-list, but it seems to be an improvement over the previous issues of the series I've read, and it's head and shoulders above the new Wonder Woman run.

If you only read one Wonder Woman comic, you're still better off sticking with Sensation, but if you read two, or want to read one set within current New 52 continuity, than this is your best choice at the moment.


*Double phallic symbols!

**I've been reading a lot of Star Wars comics lately; it would be interesting to see whether those feature more arms being chopped off than DC Comics' superhero line of comics. There are a lot of arms being chopped off in Star Wars comics, but for some reason it never seems as jarring as it does in a DC comic. Maybe it's because it's usually bloodless, with the lightsabers cauterizing the wounds, making them bloodless, or maybe it's because I've grown up thinking that sometimes a Sith Lord or Jedi Knight has to chop someone's appendage off and/or kill the hell out of them, whereas seeing Superman and Wonder Woman kill enemies still seems a newer, more novel phenomenon.

Review: Robin Rises: Omega #1

The opening page of Robin Rises: Omegan #1, a one-shot special kicking off the next storyline in the Peter Tomasi-written, Batman and Robin series, recaps the events of Mike Barr and Jerry Bingham's 1987 graphic novel, Batman: Son of The Demon, as narrated by Batman and drawn by the art team of pencil artist Andy Kubert, inker Jonathan Glapion and colorist Brad Anderson.

The next seven pages recap events from Batman and his dead son Damian's life. It's a very thorough recap, basically brining any new readers attracted by the #1 or the promise of an "event" (the dead Robin Damian returning to life, as the title all but promises) up to speed, but it covers a good eight years worth of storylines. While meant to be a recap, it reads more like a required reading list.

Following the quick recap of Son of The Demon, it then references the events of various comic books collected in Batman and Son, Final Crisis*, the pre-New 52 Batman and Robin Vols. 1-3, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne (all written by Grant Morrison), the post-New 52 Batman and Robin Vols. 1-4 (written by Tomasi), Batman Vol. 2: Death of The Family (Snyder) and Batman, Incorporated Vol . 2: Demon Star (Morrison again).

That sure seems like a lot of reading to have to be familiar with before the story of this particular comic even really gets going, and more are referenced during the comic, with Batman touching a magical gem that allows him to remember the events of Batman/Superman Vol. 1: Crossworld and the new Justice League that was formed during the aftermath of Forever Evil mentioning the events of Justice League Vol. 1: Origin.

Now, because the eight-page review of the entire history of Damian Wayne was so damn throrough, one really need not have read or be super-familiar with all of those storylines to read this comic to understand and even enjoy this comic. After the recap, it is really nothing more than a big fight scene, given import by its players and the way it is explicitly linked to the previous eight years worth of Batman comics—or at least a single thread of those comics.

But I'm having a hard time recalling a comic book that made so many references to so many other particular trades before.

After all of that summary, which Andreson colors in a slightly gauzier manner, to give the scenes a fuzzier, dream-like quality designating them as flashbacks, pages 10 and 11 of the 40-page comic shows a two-page spread, in which Batman offers his final sentence of narration for the book—"Which brings us here, to the Himalayas...where it seems fitting that this all end in the snow"—and a character soon identified as New God Glorious Godfrey and the forces of Apokalips (identifiable as such by the presence of the Jim Lee-redesigned Parademons of Justice League amid the guys in battle armor) face off against a small army consisting of Batman, Ra's al Ghul, Frankenstein, Damian's great dane Titus and Ra's al Ghul's Man-Bats and ninja warriors. Two weird, black vaguely ancient Egyptian hover-coffins float at the feet of Ra's; these are the coffins of Damian and Talia al Ghul.

After four pages of parley, in which Godfrey informs them that he's come for "the original chaos shard" which can "amplify energy like nothing else in the universe and defy physics," and concludes that Ra's has hidden the shard inside Damian's coffin, the two forces fight.

For the rest of the issue.

Normally, that would seem pretty dull and excessive, but American superhero comics so rarely show action of any kind lasting longer than a few panels or a splash page, it's actually sort of refreshing seeing a battle scene given a few dozen pages to breathe, even if the number of participants means the set-piece is still a little too heavy on the posing, and a little too light on the panel-to-panel sequential action. Still, nice to see Kubert get a chance to draw so many characters and so damn much fighting.

The battle is particularly brutal, with Batman being the only really good guy in it, and even he chops the arms off of Parademons and repeatedly stabs them in the eyes with the pointy wing of a Batarang.

The cannon fodder characters are dispatched with haste left and right, and Frankenstein has his arm ripped off, because of course he does (I'm not trying to be funny here, but I have honestly lost count of how many times Frankenstein has lost his arm this summer).

During the course of the battle, Ra's gets blasted with a laser weapon and he and Talia's coffin both fall into a deep crevasse, and are seemingly lost. Batman grabs ahold of the disputed crystal, just long enough to recover his memories of the events of Crossworld, and, well, read the last panel:

Godfrey takes the crystal and the coffin, and is about to pop a cap in Batman's cowl when the Justice League shows up to join the fray.

Wonder Woman, Captain Cold, Lex Luthor, Cyborg, Aquaman and Captain Marvel Shazam wade into the battle, and all proceed to start murdering the forces of Apokolips like it was five years ago all over again:

Worst of all is Aquaman, who reprises his sharks-eating-Parademons trick with killer whales here, but adding a terrible joke: "You obviously don't come in peace-- --but feel free to leave in pieces!"

Shut up, Aquaman.

Oh, and if you're wondering what a pod of orcas is doing anywhere near the land-locked Himalayas, well, join the club.

Maybe there's a secret Sea World run by Yeti beneath the ice in somewhere around there...?

I suppose it's kind of silly to question such things in a book like this, where Frankenstein is teaming up with Batman and an immortal warlord to fight extra-dimensional invaders over a power crystal, but, well, when there's this much fantastic going on, you want the real-world stuff to be, you know, real. I'd say this is almost as bad as Wolverine finding a polar bear in Antarctica to kill and skin just so he could wear a polar bear skin for a few panels of Avengers Vs. X-Men, but then, that was a Marvel event comic, and this is a minor, book-specific storyline, so it won't be read and therefore noticed as much.

Wait, what the hell was I talking about before I started google the range of orcas and maps of the Himalayas...?

Oh yeah, so then Cyborg is able to Boom Tube away all of the Apokaliptian soldiers who weren't killed already, but Godfrey has Damian's coffin and the crystal when he steps through one of the portals.. Batman's set to pursue, but Shazam pulls him away from the closing Boom Tube, and then Batman proceeds to yell at him while punching him in the face for three panels, and then, when Luthor says something, Batman punches him too.

The guy just lost the body of his son, but even still, Batman seems a little high-strung. I kind of wish Cap would have flicked him and sent him reeling a few feet back into a snowbank or something. Instead, Cyborg breaks it up with an "enough."

The book ends with Batman pointing at the Justice League and screaming at them in a red-ringed dialogue bubble.

The story then continues in Batman and Robin, where Tomasi will be joined by his regular artistic collaborator, Patrick Gleason.

Kill-happy Justice League, punch-happy Batman and the out-of-place killer whales aside, it's pretty nice, big, stupid, melodramatic stuff, provided you know enough to follow along.

And, if not, well, the first eight pages or so sure gives you plenty of homework you need to do to catch up. Then you can come back and read this issue in context.


*The panel referencing Final Crisis simply has Batman narrating "I died" with an image of an Omega Beam—not in a pair, but just a single one—angling around the panel before striking Batman in the temple. The next two panels summarize the events of Morrison's Batman and Robin and Return of Bruce Wayne, which, frankly, is awfully odd. Final Crisis isn't, or at least shouldn't be, continuity after the events of Flashpoint.

Or, to use the in-story rationale for the New 52 reboot, it still happened, but after Reverse-Flash, Flash and Pandora messed with the time-stream, with Pandora merging "New Earth" with the WildStorm Universe and some version of a Vertigo Universe into a new, altered timeline, no one should remember the events of Final Crisis. As far as we know, Batman and the heroes of Earth have encountered Darkseid exactly once, in the pages of the first story arc of Justice League.

Also unexplained? Damian's age. It doesn't seem to matter too much here, as there's no explicit reference to how long Batman has been active. In the New 52, he's been around about seven years or so now—The Zero Year, the five years between the first Justice League arc and Batman #1 and 'TEC #1 and so on, plus the one year between 'TEC #1 and Death of the Family—whereas Damian was conceived at some point during that time, and would now be about 11 years old if he were still alive.

I think we're supposed to assume Talia used some kind of super-science to accelerate his aging, even if that makes no sense at all, because otherwise, the Batman with a seven-year-career having an 11-year-old son breaks the very, very fragile and hard to take seriously New 52 timeline. But, like I said, there's no explanation here, despite all the explanations given in the first chunk of the book, and, read without thinking about the reboot at all, it doesn't really affect this particular comic book.