The Most Adorable Batman

Batman: Li’l Gotham #1

Hey, a cute little all-ages series by Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs. It’s got Nguyen’s adorable watercolors and some amazingly cute stories featuring our favorite members of the Bat-family.

Our first tale is set at Halloween and focuses on Batman and Damian — yay, Damian’s still alive in this one! Damian doesn’t really understand Halloween — all the kids are dressed as monsters and supervillains, and his methods for getting candy are not polite or socially acceptable. And when the Dynamic Duo stumble onto some supervillains enjoying a holiday meal, the stage is set for an epic confrontation.

The second story happens at Thanksgiving, when the Penguin decides to rescue all the Thanksgiving turkeys in Gotham City. This turns out about as well as you’d expect, and the entire Bat-family gets to enjoy a holiday meal together.

Verdict: Thumbs up. This is absolutely glorious. And it features Babs Gordon as Oracle, as well as Cassandra Cain. So yes, seriously, you need to go get it because this is the kind of happy-making comics the industry should care more about making.

Uncanny Avengers #6

This entire issue takes place a thousand years ago, with a younger, more brash Thor, armed with a battleaxe called Jarnbjorn, instead of the more familiar Mjolnir. He is unexpectedly attacked by Apocalypse — and En Sabah Nur wipes the floor with him. Thor flees back to Asgard, asking Odin for assistance, but he refuses, saying that destroying Apocalypse would cause greater troubles in the future. Loki offers Thor an enchantment that will allow his axe to pierce Apocalypse’s invulnerable armor, and Thor heads back for a rematch — while Apocalypse and his Horsemen are attempting to kill Wolverine’s distant ancestor, Folkbern Logan. But is someone else manipulating events behind the scenes?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Very nice action, and a nice alternate take on Thor (I haven’t been reading the recent comics where this version of the Odinson hangs out).

Sledgehammer 44 #2

While the American soldiers are trying to wheel the guy in the powered armor to safety, they’ve gotten ambushed by a bunch of Nazi goons. They manage to take ’em out, but one of the soldiers gets a bullet in the chest for his trouble. Now lugging an injured squadmate along with the armor, the soldiers barely make it to safety in a deserted barn — but they’re still outnumbered and outgunned by a bunch of villains who’ll use the armor to develop technology to destroy the world? How can the good guys come out on top?

Verdict: Thumbs up. It was a very short story, but a pretty good one anyway. Excellent drama and dialogue and art — all around, a fun read.