American Vampire #12

We finally get another issue focusing on Skinner Sweet. He’s gone to visit a Wild West Show in Idaho in 1919 that includes some actors recreating the popular retelling of the gunfight that supposedly killed him. Sweet’s not impressed with the historical inaccuracy, nor with the has-beens and losers who make up the show’s stars — one of whom is a former madam of a famous brothel, and one of Skinner’s lovers. But he’s willing to let the inaccuracies stand, until he learns that his former lover actually betrayed him to the authorities. He kills some of the actors and lets the rest kill each other, but his confrontation with his former lover doesn’t turn out the way he expected.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Loved the story — the Wild West Shows always struck me as particularly bizarre sideshows, and they’re certainly a perfect place for a monster like Skinner Sweet to go on a rampage. Wasn’t real fond of the artwork in this one — it’s not by the regular artist, and he had some trouble drawing the “American Vampire” style of bloodsucker. Pretty pale palette of colors, too…

Detective Comics #874

Batman and Red Robin are investigating some animal smugglers, but Dick is still suffering occasional hallucinations from the poison he got dosed with last issue. Meanwhile, the bulk of this issue focuses on Commissioner Jim Gordon, who has a rare meeting with his estranged son, Jim Jr., a character I wasn’t previously familiar with. Junior is a clinical psychopath, his sister believes he’s a murderer, and his dad doesn’t know what to believe. The question is whether Junior’s mental illness is controlled by medication… or whether it isn’t.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I enjoyed the lengthy dialogue between Commissioner Gordon and his son a lot more than I was expecting to. Jim Jr. doesn’t come off as a mentally healthy person, but there’s also enough doubt there to make you wonder whether or not he’s a bad guy.

Atomic Robo and the Deadly Art of Science #4

That scoundrel Thomas Edison is making his schemes while Robo and Mr. Tesla try to figure out the connection between all the robberies. When Robo later meets up with Jack Tarot and his daughter (and Robo’s girlfriend) Helen, he tangles with another of Edison’s giant robots and then realizes what small detail all the robberies included. All that, plus Helen discovers that Robo is, um, underage…

Verdict: Thumbs up. Loved this one so much. The dialogue between Robo and Helen was excellent and hilarious.

Today’s Cool Links:

• A nice video of Dwayne McDuffie talking about the perils of Writing Comics While Black.
• Congrats to Shane and Chris Houghton, whose “Reed Gunther” series is going to be published by Image Comics.
• What were H.P. Lovecraft’s favorite words?

Tiny Titans #37

For the most part, this is all about bringing Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel into the Tiny Titans universe (Cap Jr. and Hoppy the Marvel Bunny have previously made their debuts). While the Marvel kids make with the “Shazams!” and the “Krakooms!”, the Super-Pets take naps, Mr. Tawny appears as the school’s math teacher, Mr. Mind tries to get into Pet Club, and Psimon tries to discover his own magic word.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Just spectacularly cute and funny. I probably got the most enjoyment out of Psimon’s two pages of trying to figure out a magic word he can use — not to get Marvel powers, he just wants a T-shirt with a lightning bolt on it. And of course, it’s great to see the classic Marvel family back in comics.

Detective Comics Classics

It’s one of DC’s new reprint mini-collections, and it costs six bucks, but I just couldn’t resist a bunch of retro Batman stories. There’s an extremely cheesy Riddler story from 1968 written by Gardner Fox with the Riddler trying to cheat his way through his clues and Batman using detective skills and huge amounts of luck to save the day. There’s a ’69 Batgirl story with incredible art by Gil Kane. And there’s a story starring Robin and Batgirl from ’75, during Barbara Gordon’s short-lived (but not short-lived enough) career as a Congressperson, where the heroes have to fight off a resurrected Benedict Arnold and the Devil, which is everything that a good Bat-Family story should never be.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Yes, it’s just spectacularly cheesy and goofy, and sometimes absolutely idiotic. But I loved it anyway. And the Gil Kane art is so good, I’ll be spotlighting some of it later tonight.

Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes #11

The Hulk recruits the Thing (if by “recruit,” we mean “tries to beat up”) to help him with a conundrum. The Hulk has discovered a Celestial hidden in the countryside and doesn’t know what it means. Ben gives a brief summary (My favorite way to describe the Celestials is “Because Jack Kirby said so.”), then calls in the Invisible Woman to help them figure out what to do with the dormant giant. But the Leader has his own plans for the Celestial. Meanwhile, Captain America and Nova hang out and meet a girl.

Verdict: Thumbs up, pretty much entirely because I thought the bits with Ben, Sue, and the Hulk were so much fun.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Lubbockite Todd Gray, purveyor of fine bloggery at Fanboy Fun, writes about Grant Morrison’s take on Batman. Here’s Part I and Part II, with another two parts still to come…
• It’s never fun to learn about canceled comics.
• I’ve been having some fun with this game. “Audiosurf” is like a racing/block-collecting game powered by your own music collection. It’s a few years old, but it’s dirt cheap!
• I gotta admit — I love reading everything I can about this story. It was great to read about people power in Egypt, and it’s even better to read about it here in the U.S.

The Flash #9

I got dead bored with this title for a while but am gonna give it another shot as they’re starting the buildup to the big fancy “Flashpoint” crossover event. We start out with a character named Hot Pursuit — some kind of supercop driving a superspeed, time-traveling motorcycle — showing up in Central City looking for the Flash. Barry Allen, meanwhile, has been sent out to investigate the dead body of an old man wearing a superhero costume — specifically, the costume of the Elongated Man, though for some reason, Barry doesn’t recognize it. When the body’s fingerprints are identified, it turns out to be a local teen hero called the Elongated Kid. No one knows why a teenager aged into a 90-year-old corpse. On top of that, Barry is avoiding attending a “Flash family picnic,” and his wife Iris is unhappy at him for that. Finally, Hot Pursuit shows up again and busts a window in the crime lab right in front of Barry. When Barry chases him down, Hot Pursuit reveals himself to be (Spoiler Alert, if you didn’t figure out the extremely obvious reveal by Page 2) Barry Allen, trying to prevent “the single greatest time anomaly to ever threaten reality.”

Verdict: I think I’m going to go with a thumbs down. First, it irritated me that Barry Allen wasn’t able to recognize the Elongated Man’s costume — longstanding continuity, confirmed only a few short years ago by Geoff Johns himself, has established that the Flash and the Elongated Man have been close friends for years. It bugs me that Johns is such a sloppy writer now that he can’t even remember something he’d written not that long ago. Yeah, it’s just one small moment in the comic, but it annoyed me enough to completely ruin the rest of the story for me. I’ll give it another issue or two to try to draw me back in, but they better step up their game quick.

Batman and Robin #20

Dick Grayson attends a performance of Das Rheingold which gets disrupted when a guy dressed as an angel plummets 80 stories to his death on the red carpet. The guy’s wings were filled with some kind of glowing yellow substance and his fingerprints and footprints have been burned off with acid. While Batman and Robin are investigating the crime scene, they’re accosted by Man-Bat, covered with some kind of glowing white substance and shouting about screams that only he can hear. And then the glowing white bats show up.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Seriously weird story and starting out very, very interestingly. But I must say, my favorite part of the whole story is the very beginning, with Bruce, Dick, Tim Drake, Damian, and Alfred all settling down with popcorn and strawberry milkshakes to watch “The Mark of Zorro” on DVD. It’s a great, fun moment.

B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth – Gods #2

This issue is actually set at the same time as the previous issue, but told from the POV of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, and particularly with Abe Sapien as our focus. He and Andrew Devon have it out about the strong disagreements between the two of them over the last few months, the whole team reviews the situation in Texas, with an emphasis on Fenix’s ability to lead large numbers of refugees to safety, and they hear from a borderline crackpot named Professor O’Donnell, who theorizes that the monsters overrunning Texas were also responsible for the destruction of ancient Hyperborea. It all culminates where last issue did, in the ruined football field.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Nice to see a little character development getting processed for Abe and Andrew, along with a little more backstory for the Texas situation.

Today’s Cool Links:

• I’m starting to think that the state budget had better be accompanied by mass resignations from the Legislature and the Governor.
• But of course, they won’t be. I’m sort of expecting Perry to react a bit more like the Wisconsin governor, who’s already expressed his preference for having state employees murdered.
• This might be Not Safe for Work, but I still laughed like a loon at the whole list.

American Vampire #11

Pearl and her husband Henry have stumbled into a nest of vampires, all courtesy of Little Feet Beale, a smuggler who’s handing his old musician pals over to the vamps. Pearl makes short work of the vampires, while Henry chases after Beale. But Henry doesn’t have Pearl’s resilience. Meanwhile, Pearl’s old roommate Hattie, newly freed from captivity, begins making her way across the country in pursuit of her former friend, leaving a long trail of bodies behind her.

Verdict: Thumbs up, as always. Great action, excellent interpersonal stuff (Pearl and Henry have a nice talk about the nature of vampirism on their relationship and their future), and of course, awesome, bloodthirsty vampires who never, ever sparkle.

Detective Comics #873

Dick Grayson’s disguise as William Rhodes, a wealthy, debauched tycoon slumming it among psychotics, has been pierced by Etienne Guiborg, the gas-masked loon behind the Mirror House. Though dosed with a hallucinogen, Dick manages to escape, but can he throw off the effects of the poison to bring Guiborg to justice? And as long as he’s suffering periodic hallucinations, can he trust anything he sees?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Some fun surprises, some excellently well-done hallucinations, and a nice examination of just how crazy a large chunk of the Gotham population may be…

Hey, I just realized I reviewed two of writer Scott Snyder’s comics today. Yay for semi-random synchronicity!

Today’s Cool Links:

• Congratulations to SpaceBooger on four years of drawing his own webcomic.
• Here’s a short fan film about the endlessly awesome Axe Cop.
• Jill Thompson draws Jughead Jones and Betty Cooper. And it is glorious.
• Oh my word, this is fairly hilarious. I wonder if he’ll consider attending a Tech game any time soon. Or if he’ll even campaign in Lubbock. He’ll either need a disguise or a huge contingent of bodyguards…

Unwritten #21

Tom Taylor is trapped inside “Moby-Dick,” Herman Melville’s novel, and he has no idea how to get out. And Captain Ahab is a dead ringer for his father, Wilson Taylor. When Tom calls “Ahab” his father, he’s assumed to be temporarily deranged and thrown belowdecks. Tom tries to escape using his magic crystal doorknob, but he’s told by the suddenly appearing Frankenstein’s Monster that he can only break out of the novel at its points of equilibrium — either the very beginning or the very end. Meanwhile, back in the real world, Lizzie and Savoy have been kidnapped by the magical puppeteer, who intends to make them tell her all they know about Wilson’s plans.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Loved everything set in the novel, and it was nice to see the puppeteer’s true abilities — though not particularly nice from Lizzie and Savoy’s point of view…

Batman and Robin #19

Dick and Damian blunder into another trap set by Una Nemo, Bruce Wayne’s ex-girlfriend turned hole-headed supervillain. She quickly sets them up in a deathtrap with a couple of power drills aimed at their foreheads. Can they get out of the brain-scrambling trap in time? No way…

Verdict: Thumbs down. Sorry, but it bored me. Too much deathtrap and not a smidgen of suspense.

Secret Six #29

Bah! It’s the second half of a crossover with Action Comics, so half the story is already missing. Lex Luthor hired the Six to help him get rid of immortal caveman Vandal Savage — father of Six member Scandal Savage. They’re all inside one of Luthor’s skyscrapers, and there are bombs involved and a lot of shooting and general nonsense.

Verdict: Thumbs down. The Six were reduced to guest-stars in their own comic — nearly all the focus was on Luthor and Vandal Savage. Not even Ragdoll acting deranged could save this one.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Ohh, what could have been… Concept artwork from a never-made cartoon series with Bruce Wayne and his whole rogues gallery as high school students…
• I absolutely love watching Snell knock the stuffing out of comics companies when they pull stupid stunts.
• Batman debugs your computer!
• All football games should be like this.
• I’m a sucker for disgusting horror-movie confectionery.

I’m at least two weeks behind on all my comics reviewin’, so let’s try to get as many done as we can over the next few days.

American Vampire #10

Everyone remember Hattie Hargrove? Pearl Jones former friend who sold her out for a shot at vampirism and stardom only to get killed by Pearl? Turns out she’s not dead — she’s being held prisoner by another vampire so he can try to figure out how to kill her and the other American vampires. Meanwhile, Pearl and her beau Henry are living in Arrowhead, California, where Pearl is worried that she’s going to vastly outlive her lover. There’s also a chance for them to get out and enjoy themselves at a new jazz club where Henry gets to sit in and play guitar in a set. But of course, those happy times can’t last forever, can they?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Lots of things to like here — the return of Hattie, the intense weirdness of the relationship between Pearl and Henry, from Pearl’s immortality to her tendency to feed on him during lovemaking, the great sequences in the jazz club, all the way up to that awesome last page. For once, Skinner Sweet doesn’t appear at all, and we don’t even miss him much.

Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine #4

We finally get a proper introduction to a couple of our villains here — the Czar and Big Murder, a couple of hoods with a diamond-studded time-travel bat. Meanwhile, Spidey and Wolvie have been dropped into different parts of each other’s origins — Wolverine has to masquerade as a wrestler hanging out with teenaged great-power-and-no-responsibility Peter Parker, and Spider-Man is stuck covered in meat and throwing down against a young James Howlett, mostly feral and mostly not knowing how to stop killing people. Both of ’em get ambushed and knocked around by Czar and Big Murder, and they end up getting burned at the stake in medieval times. So who’s the ultimate mastermind in this whole thing?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Really nice character work getting done in this one, particularly in the Wolverine-meets-selfish-Petey-Parker section. But the entire thing is great fun.

Batman Inc. #2

After Batman saves Catwoman and Jiro Osamu’s girlfriend from the giant octopus in the downstairs apartment, Jiro’s girlfriend dumps him because he was working for the late Mr. Unknown and thus putting her in danger. Jiro reveals to Batman and Catwoman that Mr. unknown was 56 years old and had spent the last few years as the detective behind the scenes while Jiro did all the physical work. He wants to help Batman go after Lord Death Man, but Bats is angry ’cause Jiro used a gun to attack the villain. Meanwhile, Lord Death Man resurrects in the hospital and goes after Shiny Happy Aquazon of Tokyo’s Super Young Team. Can Batman and Jiro save Aquazon and defeat Lord Death Man?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Good story, wonderful art, and a nice beginning for this series.

Detective Comics #872

Dick Grayson is on the trail of William Rhodes, a former Gotham businessman who’s now wanted by the police for his involvement with “Mirror House,” an organization that auctions off illegal memorabilia from Gotham City supervillains. But when Rhodes gets killed in an accident, Dick decides to disguise himself and investigate the Mirror House in person. He finds a building full of wealthy, gas-masked, evil-worshiping psychos. Is there a way for Dick to get out alive, especially when the auctioneer realizes he’s got an uninvited guest?

Verdict: Thumbs up. A nicely devious plot with a really nasty twist. The dialogue between Dick and Babs Gordon is also excellent.

Green Lantern #61

Atrocitus is on the trail of the Butcher, the rage entity looking for a new host on Earth. It finds one in the person of James Kim, a father who wants revenge for his murdered daughter, but the Spectre intervenes because he thinks he should hold the monopoly on enraged vengeance. Atrocitus is able to capture the Butcher, but not before it possesses James Kim and executes the criminal. Now the Spectre wants James Kim dead, too. Can one rage-fueled monster talk another rage-fueled monster into not passing judgment?

Verdict: Thumbs up. A nice spotlight issue for Atrocitus, and it’s also nice to see anyone, even a villain like the Red Lantern, confront the Spectre about the moral bankruptcy of his “holy” quest.

Today’s Cool Links:

• The Adventures of Superhero Girl
• More bigots who are angry about comics — in this case, the new Muslim Batman in Paris…
• If you ever have trouble with your personal technology, I think you’ll enjoy this.

I don’t think I’ve ever tried to do a year-end retrospective list — it’s always too difficult for me to pick out a list of things I enjoyed the most out of 12 whole months. But what the heck, I’m gonna try it today.

This list is strictly listed in alphabetical order. I can’t claim it’s a list of the best comics — I haven’t read all the comics, after all — but it’s the list of the 15 comics that I enjoyed the most.

American Vampire

Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, and Stephen King came together to re-invent the vampire for the rough-and-tumble American West. Outstanding characters, close attention to setting, and rip-snorting horror make this a must-read for anyone who loves non-sparkly bloodsuckers.

Batgirl

The adventures of Stephanie Brown as the newest Batgirl are full of great humor, great action, great dialogue, and great characterizations. This is one of the best superhero comics around.

Batman and Robin

Grant Morrison’s triumphant run of Batman comics had its most epic stretch in these stories of Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne, as well as Alfred, Dr. Hurt, and the Joker. The scale of Morrison’s storytelling here was breathtaking.

Blackest Night

Possibly the most successful crossover storyarc in years, this grabbed readers’ imaginations and didn’t let go for months. Even better than its commercial successes were the overall excellence of the plotline. At its height, there was nothing as good as this story about zombies, power rings, and emotions.

Crossed

I’m not a fan of the new series, but Garth Ennis’ original Crossed miniseries was the most harrowing, brutal, relentless, depressing, and terrifying horror comic to hit the stands in a long, long time.

Daytripper

This was, without a single doubt, the best comic series of the entire year. Nothing else came close. Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon deserve to win so many awards for this one. If you missed this series in the original run, you should definitely keep your eyes open in the next few months for the trade paperback.

Detective Comics starring Batwoman

Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III didn’t create the character, but they crafted her best stories. While Rucka brilliantly fleshed out her backstory, personality, and supporting cast, Williams took the stories and created some of the year’s most beautiful artwork and design.

Hellboy in Mexico

This story of, well, Hellboy in Mexico was my favorite, but I also loved all of the other collaborations between Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and fantasy artist Richard Corben. These two meshed together creatively in ways that very few creators are able to do, and all of us readers were the beneficiaries.

Joe the Barbarian

Grant Morrison’s fantasy story is both epic and mundane in scale, which is really quite a trick — Joe is in diabetic shock, and he’s hallucinating that his home and toys have turned into a fantasy kingdom. But what if he’s not really hallucinating?

Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit

The second chapter of Darwyn Cooke’s adaptation of Donald Westlake’s crime fiction is a beautiful tribute to Cooke’s retro-cool art sensibilities and the pure fun of good pulp crime novels.

Power Girl

Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, and Amanda Conner created the best version of Power Girl ever for a year’s worth of funny, smart, sexy, exciting superhero stories. These creators loved this character, and you can tell that in every story they published about her. I still hope they’ll be able to come back to this title eventually.

Secret Six

Far and away DC’s best team book, Gail Simone has hooked us a bunch of people who are extremely likeable and also completely crazy and prone to trying to kill each other from moment to moment. This shouldn’t work as well as it does, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s colossal fun to read every single month.

Strange Science Fantasy

Scott Morse’s retro-pulp series packed a heck of a lot of audacious fun into six short issues. This was a treat visually, emotionally, intellectually — even on a tactile level, what with the heavy, rough paper it was printed on.

Thor and the Warriors Four

The Power Pack go to Asgard. I didn’t really expect much of it, to be honest, but readers were treated to godlike quantities of humor, excitement, whimsey, and awesomeness, thanks to writer Alex Zalben and artists Gurihiru, and to Colleen Coover’s excellent backup stories.

Tiny Titans

Probably the best all-ages comic out there right now. These comics are smart and funny and cute and just plain fun to read.

Aaaaand that’s what I got. There were plenty of other comics that just barely missed the cut, but these were nevertheless the ones that gave me the most joy when I was reading them.

So farewell, 2010. And hello, rapidly onrushing 2011. Hope you’re a better year for all of us, and I hope we can all look forward to plenty more great comics to come.

Now y’all be safe and have a good time tonight, but call a cab if you need it — I want to make sure all of y’all are here to read me in 2011.

Avengers Academy #7

Our focus for this issue is on Hank Pym, former Ant-Man, former Giant-Man, former Yellowjacket, currently calling himself the Wasp in tribute to his late wife Janet. He’s just learned that Tigra’s child, conceived by a Skrull doppelganger, is genetically his child, due to the Skrulls’ abilities to duplicate someone down to their DNA. And he’s decided to take on his old Giant-Man name and costume, because he plans on bringing Janet, her body trapped in an “Underspace Dimension,” back to life and back into the real world, despite the danger that her mind may not have survived at all. Meanwhile, a prison transport taking the Absorbing Man to prison suffers a mishap, and the supervillain is released into New York, with only the inexperienced Academy members and Pym available to stop him.

Verdict: Thumbs up. The Academy members are almost entirely forgotten here — Pym carries the whole show. And it’s a pretty good show — I love the way he takes out Crusher Creel, I love the scale of their battle, I love seeing a science guy like Pym do crazy comic-book science.

Batman and Robin #18

Bruce Wayne’s former girlfriend Una Nemo isn’t actually dead — she’s just got a gigantic hole all the way through her skull. Apparently, she had a condition called Dandy-Walker Syndrome — an actual genetic defect where a large portion of the brain is missing, but intellect may be unaffected — and she didn’t even know it until some robbers shot her in the head and dumped her in the ocean! She attends her own funeral as a lark, but is upset that no one seems sad she’s gone — and Bruce Wayne didn’t even attend! Exposing her brain to more oxygen made her smarter but a heck of a lot crazier — she started calling herself “the Absence,” gathered up a bunch of imbalanced disciples, and went about luring Batman and Robin to her. When the Dynamic Duo make their escape, they tell Bruce what happened — he was on his “lost in time” period when Nemo “died” and didn’t even know about it ’til just now. But that won’t stop her from going on a killing spree of Bruce’s old girlfriends.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Wow, Una Nemo is spectacularly weird looking. Not a whole lot of detecting going on here, as most of the issue is devoted to Una monologuing for the heroes. Still, it works well, and comes across as spectacularly creepy.

The Unwritten #20

Tom Taylor and Lizzie Hexam have gotten together, if you know what I mean and I think you do. While she’s in the shower and he’s afterglowing, he sees… a glowing white whale? Convinced it’s Moby-Dick, he takes off in pursuit, only to find that it’s actually a prop for Pittsfield’s annual Mobyfest. He takes part in a dramatized reading for the festival and suddenly finds himself sucked into the novel, mistaken for a crewman on the Pequod, and standing in front of a Captain Ahab who looks startlingly familiar. Meanwhile, Savoy is turning into a vampire, and the Cabal is sending more assassins after them.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I never liked reading “Moby-Dick,” but this is an unexpectedly fun story. I’m even enjoying the bits from the novel, with all the weird Melville crap that always bugged me. Plus there’s the usual great dialogue, bizarre complications, and funky plot twists to enjoy.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Dear racist freaks who are cartoonishly angry that a black guy is playing a Norse god in the “Thor” movie: CRY MOAR, PLZ.
• All the movies from 2010 in just six wonderful minutes.
• Ten mind-blowing easter eggs hidden in famous albums.

Batwoman #0

Did you need another introduction to Batwoman? Just in case you were a schmuck and hadn’t read her story earlier this year in Detective Comics? Well, that’s what this issue is. The new series will start up soon enough, so we get Bruce Wayne following Batwoman and Kate Kane around incognito for a few days trying to figure out what makes her tick.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s great to see J.H. Williams III’s artwork again — and this time, Amy Reeder is apparently doing half of the pencils — it looks like Williams is going to be drawing the Batwoman side of the equation, while Reeder will draw whatever Kate is up to. Will it work? I have no idea — I need more than one issue to evaluate this stuff, man.

Madame Xanadu #29

Well, crud, it’s the final issue of this comic. Nimue spends some time instructing her new apprentice, Charlotte Blackwood, in the intricacies of the Tarot, the crystal ball, and the benefits and disadvantages of being able to see the future. She cleans up a loose end — Betty Reynolds, last seen as the innocent woman forced to serve as Morgaine le Fey’s host body, and now living a thoroughly rotten life because of it — and she has one final meeting with the Phantom Stranger, in which both of them contemplate the coming age of superheroes.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Not happy to see that this series is ending, but I’m glad to see that Matt Wagner was able to bring Amy Reeder back for one final issue. And her art is as top-notch as ever here — beautifully expressive work all over, though my favorite is the snarl that Nimue greets the Phantom Stranger with — if there’s an award for “Best Facial Expression of the Year,” that one should be in the running.

Detective Comics #871

Scott Snyder and Jock make their debuts on this title with Dick Grayson opening up a new forensics lab for the Gotham PD. After discovering that a teenager who morphed into a crocodilian monster was actually dosed with Killer Croc’s mutagen from the police evidence locker, Dick investigates as Batman — the teenager’s family butler is soon killed by the lady of the house — who’s been exposed to a mind-control patch developed by the Mad Hatter. When Batman finally traces the stolen evidence to a former cop, he learns about some guy called “The Dealer” who runs illegal auctions selling villain paraphernalia. But before the cop can spill too much, he’s killed by a vine that erupts out of his throat. Who’s behind all this?

Verdict: Thumbs up. We’ve all gotten to know Scott Snyder through “American Vampire,” so I figured this was going to be worth reading. Very nice character work with both Dick Grayson and Commissioner Gordon, and I love the developing mystery so far. I’ve got my suspicions of who the Dealer really is, but we’ll see how it all plays out…

Billy the Kid’s Old Timey Oddities and the Ghastly Fiend of London #3

Billy and Sproul have cornered Edward Hyde, the ape-faced freak who seems to be Jack the Ripper — but then he turns into H.H. Holmes, who Isadora identifies as the Ripper. Billy and Sproul chase him, but Billy has already been identified by the police as the Ripper, and he runs out of bullets just as he runs into an angry mob. They beat the snot out of him, but he’s rescued by Hyde — it appears that Hyde is the good version of Holmes. Now the group must try to figure out a way to get rid of Holmes without killing innocent Hyde. And in the backup story, the Goon and Franky chase after the hobo who stole their weiners. The Goon beats up an alligator, but will he have such an easy time when he has to fight an army of hobos?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Good story, fun art, and some entertaining whuppins. And the Goon story is chock full o’ hobos, so that’s another one in the WIN column.

Batman and Robin #17

Paul Cornell takes over this title from Grant Morrison and gives us Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne taking on a really twisted bridal party in the process of investigating the death and disinterment of a woman named Una Nemo, one of Bruce Wayne’s former flames. And the question that seems to be on everyone’s minds — what are we missing? And how does the answer to that question affect Batman and Robin?

Verdict: Thumbs up. A seriously freaky story — excellently weird villains from beginning to end and nicely bizarre mystery to clear up.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Here’s a video that compiles every anime opening ever. Really!
• Holy cow, everyone check your hotel room peepholes…
• This is a little creepy and a little heartwarming and a lot funny.
• So there’s this “only property owners get to vote” garbage getting pushed, and I’m wondering if you lose your right to vote when you take out a mortgage? Do you get extra votes if you buy more than one house?

Batman Inc. #1

Batman and Catwoman travel to Japan — Bruce Wayne is in the process of creating a global network of crimefighters called, of course, Batman Incorporated, and he wants to recruit a Japanese hero named Mr. Unknown. Unfortunately, Mr. Unknown has just been tortured and murdered by someone calling himself Lord Death Man. Mr. Unknown’s sidekick, however, got away and is on the run. When Lord Death Man kidnaps the sidekick’s girlfriend, can he, Batman, and Catwoman stop the unkillable villain and save the girl?

Verdict: Thumbs up. So much good stuff in this. Yanick Paquette’s artwork is fantastically gorgeous, with excellent action, expressions, and settings, not to mention his great cheesecake shots of Catwoman. Morrison’s writing is, as always, great fun. He rescues another obscure Bat-villain from the dustheap and pulls off some excellent sight gags — check out the second panel after Batman and Catwoman enter the comic shop, then go look at the last page.

Green Lantern #59

The Indigo Tribe finally returns to Earth, bringing along a seemingly reformed Black Hand, as they look for an appropriate host for Proselyte, the Indigo entity. Meanwhile, Hal Jordan is getting chewed out by the Flash, who’s upset that Hal has been sneaking around and hanging out with unsavory characters like Sinestro and Atrocitus, and that the Hope entity, Adara, has chosen a kidnapped Earth girl as its new host. Soon there’s a confrontation between Hal, Saint Walker, Larfleeze, and Flash against the Indigo Tribe, who don’t take kindly to having their motives questioned. And after that, Parallax shows back up, and he wants a new host, too.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Wonderful art by Doug Mahnke, as always. Lots of new surprises. An outstanding cliffhanger. And Larfleeze steals the Flash’s wallet.

Today’s Cool Links:

• Allie Brosh’s latest is gloriously funny.
• I’m not sure what to make of this, but those are some of the best comic-book dogs ever.
• “The Adventures of Unemployed Man” — part superhero comic, part tribute to folks trying to make things work in this rotten economy.