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…

Today’s Cool Links:

• Got a half-hour to spare? Why not spend it watching the a fun short Batman movie?
• Lubbock artist Ginny Case (profiled here just over a year ago) and her husband Chris are working on their magnum opus, “Requiem for Innocence,” and you can help make it possible.
• Oh, the crazy things you learn while surfing around Wikipedia…

I gotta keep this short and simple tonight. You know the drill. Day: End of the workweek. Time: More-or-less evening. Occasion: Whallopin’. Put ’em all together: FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Tonight’s combatants spring from February 1994’s classic The Batman Adventures: Mad Love by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, as Batman and the Joker square off.

That wraps up another week of comic-book fun — I’ll see you guys back here on Monday.

Batman #700

It’s a big anniversary issue of Batman, and Grant Morrison takes over to spin an epic mystery that takes three different Batmen to tell. We start out with Bruce Wayne as Batman and Dick Grayson as a teenaged Robin. They’ve been captured by the Joker, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, Catwoman (wearing her old Silver Age costume), and the Mad Hatter (looking more like the guy played by David Wayne in the old ’60s Batman TV show). The villains have forced a mad-but-not-evil scientist named Professor Carter Nichols to use his time travel technology to send Batman and Robin back and forth through time psychically. And while Joker rants about his special Joker’s Jokebook, plans to send Batman back to the time his parents died, and slash Robin’s face open, Bats finally escapes his bonds and lays the smackdown on everyone.

After that, we jump to today, with Dick Grayson as Batman and Damian Wayne as Robin. They’re investigating the death of Professor Carter Nichols, much older than he should be, and killed with a technologically-advanced laser blast. After laying the traditional black wreath in Crime Alley, knocking some gang members around, making a deal with some of the shady elements of Crime Alley, and eating some pizza, Batman and Robin pay a visit to an underworld auction for one special item.

And then we jump into the future, where Damian Wayne is the Batman. He’s got 20 minutes to keep a toxic rain of Joker Venom from driving everyone in Gotham City insane, rescue a kidnapped child, stop 2-Face-2, and find the Joker’s Jokebook before it falls into the wrong hands.

Verdict: Thumbs way, way, way up. Great writing by Morrison, great art by Tony Daniel, Frank Quitely, Scott Kolins, Andy Kubert, and David Finch, and a ton of really outstanding stuff. Lots of cool moments, too — the Joker smoking the Scarecrow’s fear gas like marijuana, Dick Grayson smiling as he deals with the Crime Alley residents, the creepy future Two-Face, the secret identity of the kidnapped child, and much, much more. If you enjoy Batman stories at all, you’re gonna love this one.

Buzzard #1

The Buzzard is a friend of the Goon — and where the zombies in Lonely Street like to eat people, Buzzard is an immortal who has to eat dead people to survive. After the Zombie Priest was unable to lift the curse on him, Buzzard goes to wandering, crossing somehow from one world to another. He gets himself a zombie horse and saves a town from monsters. And there’s a backup story, too, titled “Billy the Kid’s Old Timey Oddities and the Pit of Horrors.” Billy the Kid is one of the main characters, along with a motley band of cowpokes, witches, and monsters. They come across a gypsy camp where all but one man have been slaughtered. They can’t understand anything he says, so he’s unable to tell them about the monster in the forest stalking them all.

Verdict: Thumbs up. The Buzzard story is pitch dark, but still good fun. The Billy the Kid story is pretty wild — part Western, part horror story, part just plain weird. Why is Billy the Kid hanging out with a giant monster? Let’s hope we find out…

Today’s Cool Links:

• Snell examines the awesome coolness of Marvel’s old “John Carter, Warlord of Mars” series.
• For some reason, cats — especially big cats — love Calvin Klein’s Obsession for Men.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #2

Bruce Wayne is lost in time — after spending some time in prehistory, he awakens in colonial-era Gotham, fights a time-monster, and is rescued by a witch named Annie. Elsewhen, Superman, Green Lantern, Booster Gold, and Rip Hunter visit the Vanishing Point, the final 10 minutes before the end of the universe, where the high-tech temporal archivist explains a few details of time travel. Back in colonial days, Bruce has gotten acclimated and taken up a new identity as Brother Mordecai, a witchfinder with a serious bent toward detective work and uncovering non-witch scam artists. He’s opposed, however, by Brother Malleus, who takes his witchfinding very, very seriously. Will Bruce be able to keep Annie safe? Will he be able to foil Malleus’ plots? Will he be able to defeat the time-monster? And why is the time archivist stranding the superheroes at the end of the universe?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Artist Frazer Irving worked on the similarly-themed “Klarion” miniseries during Grant Morrison’s “Seven Soldiers” event, and his art is wonderful — though I do wish he’d made Bruce Wayne look a bit different from Brother Malleus. Aside from that, it’s another excellent issue. Gee, ain’t it a wonder that a fanatic like Bruce Wayne makes such a great pilgrim?

Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! #16

Black Adam is back, and he’s empowered Freddy Freeman as Black Adam Junior. While Captain Marvel and Black Adam are mystically unable to harm each other, Black Adam Junior is able to hurt Cap, so while Junior pounds on the hero, Black Adam uses the distraction to look for the ancient scarab medallion he believes will make him even more powerful. When he can’t find it, he accuses Cap of hiding it, and he starts flinging cars at innocent bystanders to get him to tell him where it is. This doesn’t sit well with Junior, but all Adam cares about is getting the scarab back. And when Mary accidentally blabs that the Wizard Shazam has it, they’re all off for the Rock of Eternity for a final battle.

Verdict: Thumbs down. Just didn’t enjoy the story. And it turned out a lot darker, more violent, and more depressing than I’d rather see in an all-ages comic.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Hope Larson did a survey on what female readers want from their comics. Here are some of the results.
• A seven-year-old kid raised $8,500 for Alzheimers research by creating his own comic book.
• The new trailer for “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” is way, way cool. Who else is really, really stoked for this one?

Green Lantern #54

While Red Lantern Corps members Atrocitus and the impossibly adorable blue alien space kitty Dex-Starr burn up a bunch of muggers on a subway train, Hal Jordan, Carol Ferris, and Sinestro try to move the White Lantern battery that’s appeared in a crater in Silver City, New Mexico. They can’t budge it, but are treated to a vision demanding that they locate the alien entities that serve as the incarnations of the power of each of the seven Lantern Corps. Unfortunately, a mysterious figure has already captured and bound Parallax, and he does the same to Ion after drawing it out of Sodam Yat. Why is Atrocitus seeking the same entities? And why has this issue’s guest star showed up with a mad-on to pound the stuffing out of Hal Jordan?

Verdict: Thumbs up. The story is fine, the art by Doug Mahnke is as phenomenal as ever, and Dex-Starr is the cutest and most loveable blood-barfing kitty-smoochins ever. Hey, let’s make some Dex-Starr lolcats, a’ight?

And here’s another.

Man, that is an awesome cat. Probably sits in cardboard boxes all day. Might be a bit more trouble to clean up his hairballs, though…

Detective Comics #865

Jeremiah Arkham — former director of Arkham Asylum, former gangland supervillain as Black Mask, and current asylum inmate — thinks he’s slaughtered his three “special patients,” but in truth, it was all a hallucination brought on a combination of Jeremiah’s madness and a toxin left by the Joker. Once the toxin wears off, will Arkham be back to his old self? Will his protege Alyce Sinner end up on the side of the angels or the devils? And what’s going to happen to Jeremiah once the psychotic Mr. Zsasz gets his hands on him?

In our backup story, the immortal Vandal Savage wants either the Question or the Huntress to willingly accept the Mark of Cain — he’s gotten tired of wearing it, and he’s willing to track down and kill both of them if one doesn’t accept the mark and its curses. Who will accept Savage’s challenge, and what price will they pay?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Actually, I enjoyed the main story mostly for the creepy Alyce Sinner than for Jeremiah Arkham, who seems to get tiring fast. Batman himself doesn’t figure very much into the story. I really, really enjoyed the second feature starring the Question. I love both Greg Rucka’s writing and Cully Hamner‘s artwork on this one.

Today’s Cool Links:

• I really wish that someone would tell Rick Perry he’s never going to be president, so he should quit with the grandstanding tomfoolery. The teabaggers want Palin, the non-teabaggers want Romney, and Perry’s undisguisable arrogance and borderline-sociopathy won’t play well on the national stage.
• If you haven’t read “Awesome Hospital” yet, you really, really need to.
• Here are Salon’s picks for the most important zombie movies.

Girl Comics #2

The second issue of this anthology comic focuses on stories with writing and art by female creators. After another great introduction by Colleen Coover, we get a lighthearted story about the Inhumans by Jill Thompson, a story about Dr. Strange by Christine Boylan and Cynthia Martin, a very fun story about Tabitha Smith and Elsa Bloodstone from “Nextwave” by Faith Erin Hicks, and a very, very cool tale by Kathryn Immonen and Colleen Coover about Shamrock, the Invisible Woman, Patsy Walker, and Felicia Hardy inside a hair salon. Plus we also get some biographical pieces about historical Marvel creators like June Tarpe Mills, Ruth Atkinson, Valerie Barclay, and Linda Fite.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Much better stories than in the first issue — loved everything Colleen Coover did for this issue, and the Inhumans and Nextwave stories were pretty good, too. I know this series is ultimately a gimmick, but it’s been a pretty fun gimmick.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #17

A week with Batman includes team-ups with Metamorpho, Merry the Gimmick Girl, Jonah Hex, Hawkman, the Creeper, the Inferior Five, and more. And it is all awesome.

Verdict: Thumbs up. No real overarching plot in this one, just a bunch of fun and unexpected guest stars. My faves were probably Metamorpho (with a very fun element-vs.-element battle with Mister Element), Jonah Hex (it’s amazing how cool the animated-version of Jonah Hex is), and the Inferior Five (I’ve always been a sucker for the Five). Yeah, this is a very light-hearted and kid-friendly comic, but if you’re a grownup who loves the crazy ephemera of DC history, this series was made for you.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Neil Gaiman writes a wonderful essay about Ray Bradbury.
• The alternate-reality DC Comics covers from “Fringe” really are kinda cool.
• Polite Dissent asks: “How good a comic-book doctor are you?“

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1

Holy cow, Bruce Wayne is stuck in the distant past?! Why didn’t anyone tell us about this?!

Okay, okay, Batman being stuck in the past wasn’t really much of a secret. Apparently, after Darkseid hit him with the Omega Effect during the “Final Crisis” series, he got shot clear back to prehistory, where he met up with Anthro the First Boy on Earth (just before he dies of old age), and drawing a few superhero symbols on a cave wall. Now Batman, addled and amnesiac from his time trip, meets up with Anthro’s tribe just before they’re attacked by a rival tribe of cavemen led by Vandal Savage. They kill numerous people and capture Bruce, staking him out on the ground overnight. But he’s rescued by Anthro’s grandson, one of the survivors of the attack, who’s gone and suited himself up with an actual domino mask. Batman then attacks Savage, wearing a giant bat skin as a cape and cowl, and then he kicks Savage’s butt with a whole lot of gadgets from his utility belt. But by the time Superman, Green Lantern, Booster Gold, and Rip Hunter make a time-travel trip to retrieve him, Batman has disappeared again.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s a weird, weird book — a caveman Robin who makes his own domino mask? It’s even slow-moving, in an odd, first-issue kind of way. But once Bruce Wayne dons the dead bat skin as a costume, it’s all weird in the best, most awesome way possible.

Astro City: The Dark Age – Book Four #4

The final issue of this miniseries has the Pale Horseman killing people for real and imagined crimes, while the Street Angel and Quarrel try to stop him. Charles and Royal Williams are still tracking down Aubrey Jason, the man who killed their parents, but he’s now stealing some of the Pale Horseman’s power to shore up his own rapidly vanishing lifeforce. Will they be able to work with the Silver Agent to stop him, when they blame the Agent for their parents’ deaths almost as much? And is there still a way for the brothers — or Astro City — to pull a happy ending out of this dark, bleak story?

Verdict: Thumbs up. It is a dark, bleak story, crammed full of more shadows than you’d expect, but it ends on the right note, with the Pale Horseman and Aubrey Jason getting the proper comeuppance, and all done with the right amount of heroism. And then the epilogue makes it all even cooler. Low-key, calm, quiet, but still cool.

Thor and the Warriors Four #2

I’ve never really been into Power Pack. And I freely admit that the entire reason I started collecting this miniseries is because I saw a preview of this cover, which made me laugh like a hyena.

Oh, man, I’m gonna have to explain this for people who aren’t up on their Thor continuity, aren’t I? The big guy there is Beta Ray Bill, an alien who was the first non-Asgardian to be worthy enough of being able to pick up Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer. Odin gave him powers like Thor’s, and both of them consider each other great friends, if not outright brothers. And yes, he really does look like a horsey.

Aaaaaanyway, in this issue, the Power Pack kids make their way to the Rainbow Bridge that leads from our world in Midgard to the home of the Norse gods in Asgard. They meet a kindly peddler who offers them some more appropriate, Viking-esque clothing to help them disguise themselves, then march into Asgard and start their own superheroic careers as the Warriors Four. In time, this gets them a meeting with Thor himself, and the heroes swap stories — Thor’s being properly mythological and heroic, and the Power kids’ being a bit less so. The Powers tell Thor and Bill that their grandmother is dying, and they want to take some of the gods’ Golden Apples to her to make her well. Before Thor can tell them that it can’t be done, a frost giant attacks, and the kids help defeat it. But it’s all part of someone else’s evil plot — the kindly peddler was really Loki in disguise and he uses the kids’ Norse costumes to… Well, that would be telling.

And then there’s the backup story by Colleen Coover, as Hercules and the Power Pack beat the stuffing out of HYDRA, all while Herc tells the kids stories about his Twelve Labors. But can they complete the greatest labor of all — cleaning up the house?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Very funny, very awesome, and much like Mjolnir, very much worthy of being picked up. Outstanding cartooning all around, and great funny lines and situations. Yes, Katie Power drives Bill half crazy by wanting him to be a big magical pony, which is hilarious and adorable… as are the dreadful fates visited upon Thor, Bill, and Odin…

Batman and Robin #12

Damian’s mother has secretly implanted control devices into his new artificial spine, allowing Deathstroke to take control of his body and attack Dick Grayson. The good news is that the neural interface isn’t perfect, and it lets Batman hurt Slade by punching Robin. It takes Deathstroke out of the fight and gives Robin control of his body back. Batman and Robin travel to Talia’s hideout and beat up her goons. Damian tells her that he’s perfectly happy being Robin, and Talia tells him she respects his decision — but she’s disowning him, because she’s growing his clone, who’s going to be her new son. Returning to Gotham City, Batman, Robin, and Alfred discover evidence that Bruce Wayne is lost in time, Dr. Hurt prepares the forces of the Black Glove for more attacks, and Dick Grayson discovers that Oberon Sexton is really… Well, that would be telling.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s good. It’s really just fantastically good, every step of the way through.

Madame Xanadu #22

As Nimue and mysteriously superhuman detective John Jones hurry to stop Morgana’s schemes in 1950s America, Morgana is enjoying being worshiped by a bunch of mind-controlled cultists. Nimue and Mr. Jones have intercepted one of Morgana’s artifacts — the war helmet of Morgana’s son, Mordred — and her frustration with its loss leads her to gruesomely kill two of her cultists. When our heroes arrive, they have little trouble with Morgana’s cultists, but her spells prove to be a lot more difficult to shrug off.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Again, it’s great fun to see the Martian Manhunter in action here. Heck, even when Morgana is being her most rotten, it’s mainly an irritation that John Jones isn’t front and center, showing off…

Jonah Hex #55

So five years ago, a bunch of saloon robbers tore into a bar, killed the owner and his wife, and got captured by Jonah Hex, leaving little Billy, a explosives-obsessed toddler, orphaned. The kid steals Hex’s gun away and kills the surviving robbers himself, with four bullets and four perfect headshots. Years pass, and another bunch of banditos show up to rob the joint. Billy, now calling himself Billy Dynamite, owns the place now, and he stuffs an oversized firecracker in the leader’s mouth. The rest of the gang set the bar on fire, strap Billy with dynamite, and throw him inside. Hex gets persuaded to do something about it, so he catches the gang, ties ’em up, and leaves ’em suspended over multiple packs of explosives before blowing ’em all to kingdom come.

Verdict: Thumbs down. This story has some serious problems. First, Billy doesn’t really change in appearance over five years — he starts out looking like he’s five, and by the time he’s ten, he still looks like he’s five. And dangit, you don’t take a saloon-owning pre-teen, make him a pint-sized badass, give him a moniker like “Billy Dynamite,” and then just kill him off. That’s a character with some serious personality, and you keep him around so you can use him again in future stories. You do not just cast him aside like he ain’t awesome. And finally, the ending is just too abrupt. Hex captures and kills the gang in just three pages, and he doesn’t even use a gun to do it — just fifty sticks of dynamite. That don’t seem like the Jonah Hex way, sir. So yeah, a rare (hopefully) Gray-and-Palmiotti misstep here.

Hellboy in Mexico

A cool little tale of Hellboy’s past, released by Dark Horse in time for Cinco de Mayo — back in 1956, he was assigned to travel to Mexico to track down a force that was causing vampires, witches, and monsters to attack and murder whole villages of innocent people. He runs into some allies — three brothers, all luchadore wrestlers, who had a vision in which the Virgin Mary commanded them to go forth and fight evil. They team up with Hellboy, and all four spend their days destroying monsters and their nights partying hard. Hellboy gets along especially well with the youngest brother, Esteban. But they get sloppy one night, and Esteban gets taken by dark forces. Days of searching turns up nothing, no matter how many vampires they torture, until they find a poster advertising a new rudo luchadore, Camazotz — and a scrawled note demanding Hellboy meet him for a wrestling match from hell. Does Hellboy stand a chance against his former friend?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Numerous thumbs up. Multitudinous thumbs up. Combining Hellboy with luchadores and vampires and zombies is something that’s been hinted at from time to time — the character Lobster Johnson’s history includes a number of old Mexican luchadore movies made in his name — but this is just beyond awesome. It’s a little surprising that we haven’t seen stuff like this more often — we’ve followed Hellboy into just about every other corner of the world already. It really does combine the two genres — Mignola-style pulp horror and luchadore fiction — perfectly — part scary, part heartbreaking, part pure kaboom-blasting-brilliant. I want more of this stuff so very, very much.

Detective Comics #864

Looks like our focus is now going to pass from Batwoman back to Batman — this time, we’re getting a story about Dr. Jeremiah Arkham, former director of Arkham Asylum. He’s now an inmate of his asylum, despised by his former inmates but still ultimately ruling over them because he’s such a remorseless psycho badass and because he used to be the mad mob boss Black Mask. But Arkham still has some big plots in place — he’s attached a bomb to the chest of a stockbroker to get him to sabotage the stock of every corporation in Gotham. Batman has a plan to get Arkham to reveal the codes to disarm the bomb — he gives him access to his three secret patients — three emotionally damaged people who Arkham has kept hidden in cells deep in the asylum’s depths — but is Arkham prepared for the strange transformations his patients have undergone?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Weird, weird, weird. Disorienting and skewed, brutal and mad. Just perfect for a story set inside a madhouse.

Spider-Man: Fever #2

Spidey’s soul has been captured by a bunch of interdimensional spider-demons. They plan to eat him, but they perceive that he’s part spider and part human. So they give him a test — travel into the world of the flies and capture something called the Sorror-Fly. Meanwhile, Dr. Strange travels the mad magical dimensions trying to track Spider-Man down. He gets help from some dog creatures and from an Australian sorceress on walkabout. He travels down a magical river in a mystic swan-boat, meets up with sentient matchsticks (“I’m sorry,” he says. “I don’t speak Match.”), and makes his way through one bizarre world after another. Will he be able to save Spider-Man? And how close is Spidey’s relationship to the spider-demons?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Lots of awesomely weird stuff. Brendan McCarthy really unleashes his imagination here, with an incredibly mad plot and fantastic, crazed artwork. Spidey’s costume as he journeys into the desert is really cool, and almost every page is just beautifully rendered. It may not always make perfect sense, but it’s turning into an outstanding ride.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #16

After a brief prelude where Batman teams up with — well, more like gets beat up by — the mind-controlled Teen Titans, we get to the main story for this issue — Bats and Wonder Woman try to find the egg-obsessed criminal mastermind Egg Head by looking for a bunch of strange eggs he seemed to be after. But Egg Head captures the heroes and their collected eggs and uses them to hatch out an elder god called Y’ggphu Soggoth — better known as the ridiculously silly Silver Age Wonder Woman villain Egg Fu.

Verdict: Thumbs up. How ’bout this — this series takes two of the DC Universe’s biggest names and pits them against two of their dumbest foes — a bizarrely racist egg (but now portrayed much more like the character from the “52” miniseries, as simply a weird egg-like villain) and a guy who hasn’t really appeared anywhere since he was played by Vincent Price in the ’60s Batman series. And they actually make it work out fine. Egg Head mostly stays in the background directing the action and acting demented, with Egg Fu showing up at the end as the heavy hitter. It was a lot better than I was expecting from the cover, honestly.

Wonder Woman #43

Diana is stuck in Washington, which is cut off from the rest of the world, as a monstrous alien civilization makes war on it. It’s an all-woman invasion that survives by scavenging a hundred women from each world they visit before they unleash a horde of semi-organic snakes on the planet to eat everything biological and convert it into a goo that is used as both food and spaceship fuel. Oh, and the aliens’ leader is Wonder Woman’s aunt, Astarte, kidnapped from the Amazons when she and Hippolyta were just babies. While Achilles, Etta Candy, Steve Trevor, Wondy’s gorilla bodyguards, and the DMA try to get control of the situation, Astarte reveals that even more of her alien fleet is on the way — and she unveils her secret weapon: her own daughter.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Excellent action, good intrigue, better characterization than I was expecting, and an excellent backstory for Astarte. And Wondy’s new cousin, Theana, makes the best mirror-opposite Wonder Woman I’ve seen outside of, well, DC’s antimatter universe. And beside Gail Simone’s storytelling, there’s also Nicola Scott’s downright brilliant artwork, too.