Watching the Detectives

Detective Comics #866

A done-in-one story mixing Dick Grayson’s past and present. While Dick, as the current Batman, tangles with some thugs and finds an old lost medallion in a deserted mansion, he remembers his first adventure as Robin, how he came across the medallion for the first time, and how he first faced the Joker. He also meets up with an ex-con who took the rap for stealing the medallion all those years ago, now on his deathbed. Will Batman be able to tie up all these loose ends? Or is there one more mystery he’s overlooking?

Verdict: Thumbs up. When almost every comic is full of long-running storyarcs, it’s cool to see a nice, simple story, told completely in just one issue. I really dug the art style in the flashback part of the tale, with the bright colors, animation-style cartooning, and weathered appearance of the pages. Denny O’Neil has his good comics and his not-so-good comics, and this looks like one of the good ones.

Heralds #4

Reed Richards manages to prevent an artificial black hole from destroying Nova — and New York City along with her. Nova flees, but Reed is sure she’ll be back for Frances, the diner waitress who seems to have a connection to her. She says she once met the Silver Surfer, who made some sort of alteration to her mind and personality. Hoping to jog her memory, Sue Richards takes Frances, Emma Frost, She-Hulk, Hellcat, Valkyrie, Monica Rambeau, and Valeria Richards to see an old friend of Frankie Raye, Nova’s original identity. Frances can’t stand hanging out with any of them and goes out with Hellcat and Valeria to get ice cream. That’s when Nova shows up and kidnaps Valeria.

Verdict: Thumbs down. Part of the problem here is that I feel like I’m not getting the full story. I suspect part of the backstory here was told in Marvel’s cosmic-oriented comics, and we aren’t being told everything we need to know. On top of that, there are now three different credited artists — the very good Tonci Zonjic and the not-nearly-as-good-especially-in-comparison Emma Rios and James Harren. And there’s a whole page in the middle of the comic devoted to a conversation between two bystanders who have nothing to do with the story. The plotline needs to be tightened up a lot before the final issue of the series hits later this week…

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June 29, 2010 · Filed under Batman, Heralds

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