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.

Review: Frank Frazetta's Adventures of The Snow Man

Frank Frazetta's Snow Man comics have long been high on the list of comics I wanted to see collected, as the glimpses of the character that I saw in online excerpts made him seem so divorced not only from the warrior men and women Frazetta is so rightly famous for painting later on in life, but also from the superhero and other modes of heroic fiction dominant in the 1940s. Frazetta's Snow Man was a cartoon character living and fighting his way through a more realistic world.

I was pretty excited then when Dark Horse first announced the publication of this particular book, although it's not quite what I had in mind. It's not the Frazetta Snow Man comic that saw publication (in Tally-Ho Comics #1), but then, there was apparently only one such comic ever published, so not really enough for a collection. What Dark Horse published instead, with the the help of Frazetta's son Frank Frazetta Jr, is probably something only slightly weirder, but a great deal rarer. It's the young, teenage Frazetta's first Snow Man comic, written, drawn, lettered and colored by himself, for no reason other than to amuse himself–and the friends and family he showed it to.

The Snow Man comic in this book, then, is the pre-Tally-Ho Snow Man comic. It's the sort of book that is literally a day-dream come true, even if it's not specifically what I thought I had wanted when I started day-dreaming about it.

Frazetta's Snow Man defies the standard American definition, of a figured formed of three snowballs, with stick arms, carrot nose and coal eyes (He also defies the Japanese iteration, of two snowballs). Rather, he has the basic shape of a gingerbread man cookie, and a few accessories: A little blue cap and matching snow boots, blue buttons on his chest, a pipe clenched between his teeth and a hatchet in his fist. While he's cartoony and, as the name suggests, made out of snow, he has five fingers on each hand, eye balls and eyebrows, and, if you graze the back of his head with a bullet, he bleeds (He also swims in warm water, and doesn't seem to fear being in warm places very long).

Who he is, how he came to be and what his whole deal is, biologically speaking, is never addressed*. The teenage Frazetta, according to his son, who provides a three-page foreword detailing the story of the Snow Man, had a solid premise for the character: He would patrol and defend "a place of inclement weather and subzero temperatures...intolerable to any man, woman or beast." The Snow Man alone would be able to track the enemies of America and/or Canada (there are some Mounties on page 10). Such remote wastes would be a good place for bad guys to hide out, as they'd feel safe there...safe from any one other than The Snow Man, of course).

After the foreword, the rest of the landscape-format book is a presentation of Frazetta's original comic, passed on to his son; a 74-page story, although each of the pages is in itself a full panel, so it's a fleet read. That is mostly due to its relatively short length, but the storytelling is quite direct as well.

The Snow Man catches some crooks who escaped from The Mounties and returns them, before resuming his real prey, some Japanese spies who are seeking the base of the bizarre villain known as The Skull. A fantastical design, he looks to have a black head in the shape of a bizarre fossil, he dresses in a black cloak and he's attended by a green-skinned, pig-faced ogre of some sort.

Snow Man sneaks in the most dangerous way possible, falling into a trap and then having to fight his way through a black panther and an octopus (I guess The Skull has a huge, heated aquarium under his cave head quarters?), before breaking up a banquet meeting of the bad guys.

The first line of the copy on the back cover says that the book is "Informed by World War II propaganda," which seems like a nice way of saying it's racist as all get-out in its depiction of the Japanese. These "Japs" are yellow-skinned Oriental stereotypes, and Frazetta gives them their own distinct, Chinese menu font to suggest the foreign sound of their speech, although it's mostly in English: "Is good to see you, honorable Skull. Together we shall give America much trouble. He He He He He He He."

It can be tough to read this sort of thing, but I also find it tough to blame a long-dead person for less-than-enlightened views of different races, ethnicities or nationalities. I'm quite comfortable judging harshly anyone in 2015 that suggests Japanese internment camps or religious tests for immigration (which is, more shockingly than sadly, something that's actually being discussed in our national discourse), but feel much less so when it comes to condemning a teenager in the pre-mass media 1940s, when America and Japan were at war, for depicting the Japanese as less human than Candians. (In other words, the depictions might be racist, but I don't think that means Frazetta was, nor do I think it ruins the work...at least, not for me personally).

(Oddly, when The Skull first sees the Japanese men trudging across the snow, he says to himself "It is them! My loyal Japanese friends. They have escaped from the concentration camp." Interesting that Frazetta used the word "concentration camp," rather than the more euphemistic "internment camp," to refer to the mass imprisonment the U.S. subjected to Japanese-Americans during the war...it made me wonder if "internment" replaced "concentration" at some point and, if so, when and why...not that I couldn't offer a pretty good guess as to the why, of course.)

The WWII-era prejudice of a teenage cartoonist aside, the story is a strong, direct bit of era-appropriate action adventure, differentiated from the derivative by the lead character, and the sharp contrast between his fantastical nature (and loose, cartoony design) and the characters and world around him. It is, of course, the art that is the real treat here, and it is downright astounding that an artist as young and inexperienced as Frazetta was at this time could have accomplished such confident, polished practically flawless cartooning. The page-size panels really allow a reader to not only drink in the details, but admire the line-work.

It also rewards re-readings, as you'll want to read it the first time just to see what happens, and then go back later to marvel at particular scenes and see exactly how Frazetta chose to carefully place each line.

It's a very strange book, revealing not only that the guy best known for fantasy painting was a hell of a genius cartoonist, but he was already one before he was even old enough to shave.



*At least, not in this story. In the Tally-Ho story linked to above, where he battles a character named Fang that looks an awful lot like Skull, he is apparently an Eskimo idol of some kind that is brought to life to defend them from the monster-making Fang. It's interesting to compare the pair of stories, as they actually have some stuff in common, including Skull's man-servant's resemblance to the "savages" that Fang creates to serve him in the Tally-Ho story.

Comic Shop Comics: December 9

Batman & Robin Eternal #10 (DC Comics) I didn't like last week's issue, which focused almost entirely on Red Hood and Red Robin teaming up with Bane to storm the crystal space castle that the Order of St. Dumas built on top of the Santa Priscan prison that Bane was raised in for some reason and came face to face with Azrael.

This issue is much more of that, with three pages spent in the "several years" ago timeline and a rather confused two pages spent following Grayson and Bluebird.

The plotting is pretty confused. This Azrael knocks everyone around with his flaming sword...which I guess isn't really a flaming sword, as it doesn't cut anyone or set them on fire?...and does something weird to Bane's brain. Team Red goes to a secret room to do technology stuff, both of them spouting off about the readings they're picking up like they're wearing Iron Man armor (I've gotten used to Red Robin doing that, but Hood?). Then a bunch of monks come in, and Red Robin, the computer expert, fights them off, while instructing Red Hood, the guy who fights people, on  to hack into the computer and download stuff. Then Azrael does something weird to Red Robin's brain. Along the way, they discover that this Azrael is none other than Jean-Paul Valley.

Meanwhile, in the past, Batman and Robin Dick Graysoa argue, and Batman goes to Mother, seemingly seeking the creation of a new and more perfect Robin.

And, finally, Grayson and Bluebird decide to abandon the AWOL Cassandra Cain in Prague and pursue a lead...to David Cain!

Narratively, I think the issue, plotted by James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder while scripted by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, is a bit of a mess, as they use a shortcut to overlay dialogue over action, although in some cases the speaker isn't participating in the action, but it's in anticipation of the next scene, and so you have what looks like Bruce Wayne narrating an action scene featuring Batman in the past, but he is really beginning a conversation in narration boxes that is actually being spoken to another character. Similarly, Grayson narrates a downright impenetrable montage of events (Page 18, panel 3?), but he's really talking to Bluebird, who talks back, also in narration boxes. I guess the quote-marks are the clues that they're using the device differently.

The art from Roge Antonio and Geraldo Borges doesn't do much to add clarity to the confused storytelling. 

But the worst part is a problem endemic to the new, New 52 continuity: The whole cake-and-eat-it-too thing where the official line is that continuity is being rebooted to make it new and fresh for readers and writers alike, and yet creators keep falling back on old minor characters to fill their narratives. Yes, Harper Row/Bluebird is a new and original character, as is The Orphan and Mother, but now we're involving Azrael, and Jean-Paul Valley specifically and even David Cain, and so, if you're familiar with this stuff, you–or at least I–find yourself (myself) constantly having to parse and organize this stuff.

Jean-Paul Valley? Has he appeared in The New 52 yet? Wait, wasn't his successor Azrael already in a New 52 book (Yes). So this is a new version of the character I knew before, right? This isn't DCU Jean-Paul Valley, but New 52 Jean-Paul Valley. Same with David Cain.

It's fine to reboot DC's major heroes and villains if the intention is to do brand new stuff with them, clearing away all the clutter of their crowded pasts and moving forward with new stories, but man, if they're really going to move forward, shouldn't they be moving forward, and not just remixing and retreading old storylines and characters? I mean, if that's your goal, you don't really need a reboot at all...

Ah well. At the very least, they managed to work shark repellent into the issue...

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (DC) Okay, all my cards on the table here, I really like Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The first, Mirage-published volume was one of my gateway comics (as were Batman comics, actually), and so this historical-ish meeting of the two franchises is a really big deal to me. I don't want to say my expectations are sky high, because I actually have some pretty low expectations, but I really want this series to be good, I think it should be good, it's worthy of being really good.

That said, I remember Keith Giffen responding to a question about how critics, fans and readers seemed to universally despise a project he was working on at the time–I'm 99% sure it was Countdown, as I don't think there's ever been a comic that everyone who read it hated like Countdown, certainly not one that Giffen was involved in, and he said that when he hears criticism, he tends to translate it as someone saying that, and I paraphrase, "I would have done that differently." That seems like a valid way for a creator to evaluate another creator's work on a franchise character, although I don't think it extends too far beyond that. But I was thinking about it because, at the very outset with Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I had a lot of reservations, certainly at the outset.

My main concerns were in the creative team of James Tynion IV, a Batman writer whose work I've generally liked, and artist Freddie Williams II, a DC artist whose work I've also generally liked. Neither have experience with both, though, and while I guess finding an artist who does would mean recruiting Michael Zulli or Simon Bisley, neither of whom have the most marketable style for a book like this, it would have been nice to have a creative team reflecting a blend of the characters. Maybe a story by Tynion and Kevin Eastman, with breakdowns by Eastman and finishes by Williams. (Eastman does provide the variant cover, which is exciting, although I'd like a better look at his Batman; I really want to see Eastman draw every inch of the Batman landscape and character catalog as they can pack into this thing, I guess).

My other concern was that this is a very specific iteration of the Turtles, the IDW one. I've been a bit underwhelmed, and increasingly so. They seem to be going for a remix style incorporating elements from various comics iterations and various cartoons, but it feels too stiff and manufactured to me, and, visually, has been unable to keep a tone for long (The current Nickelodeon cartoon series, by contrast, does what the IDW TMNT comic attempts infinitely better, acting as a sort of All-Star Superman version of TMNT history, pulling the best of everything from everywhere and remixing it into something knew...although I'm sure they're eventually going to hit a wall where they cross into absolute silliness. I'm currently watching the latest DVD collection, and Mondo Gecko gets introduced in next episode, for example).

So far, it hasn't been too terribly clear that these are that specific iteration of the comic book Turtles (the third "official" iteration, following the Mirage TMNT of volumes one, two and four, and the the Image TMNT of volumes three, and not counting the iterations based on the cartoons, of which the Archie Turtles are the only ones to have a very long life span). It's mostly just clues, and familiarity with the publishing strategy IDW has employed with the Turtles; they and The Shredder and Foot are designed to resemble the IDW versions, they all seem to be stuck in another world, which is how IDW has dealt with their previous TMNT crossover, with the Ghostbusters, etc.

As for Batman, presumably this will be a canonical story for him too, although Tynion plays it a little loose in terms of nailing down when this is going on. Clearly at some point before Batman Eternal, as Batman still has his Batcave and is in control of his company. And obviously before "Endgame," since he's, you know, Batman.

Okay, so much for the preface. How is the actual comic?

The $3.99/20-page comic (IDW pricing, then) finds Batman investigating a series of thefts by mysterious ninja on various high-tech firms in Gotham City, which apparently has no shortage of high-tech firms. One survivor describes such an attack, noting that the ninja were seemingly accompanied by inhuman creatures that Williams's art makes clear are the Turtles.

Batman, by the way, looks really fucking goofy to me in this:

Williams is clearly going for an amped-up, New 52 version, looking like something closer to the last cycle of movies, and the Arkham and Injustice videogames. DUde's wearing more armor than The Shrerdder, and colorist Jeremy Colwell makes all shiny like metal. He looks about as dark and stealthy as Iron Man.

As should become rather immediately clear, somehow The Turtles, The Foot, Shredder and Splinter have all been marooned on Earth-0 of the DC Multiverse, and the bad ninjas seem to be stealing materials to create a means to get home...while the good ninjas are either after the same components, or are just trying to stop them. Batman sets a trap for the Foot, wipes them out, and shares a few words with The Shredder, who disappears in a cloud of smoke.

The Turtles are delayed from that fight when Killer Croc and his gang stumble upon their layer in the sewers.

The fighting is, disappointingly but not surprisingly, extremely lame. After a few panels of taking out Croc's gang, the Turtles leap at him in a splash page. The scene cuts away, and Croc is unconscious. That entire fight took place off-panel.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vs. Killer Croc:

Similarly, when Batman springs his trap on the Foot, he says he wants answers, and then the scene cuts away. When we return to Batman, the Foot are all unconscious on the ground, save one, that Batman is interrogating. Batman vs. The Foot Clan? Also off-panel.

Batman vs. The Foot Clan:

American superhero comics tend to be extremely poor when it comes to depicting actual fighting, ironically, since so much of the genre revolves around fighting. It's particularly disappointing in stories like this though, where not only is there this "once in a lifetime" aura about the story (although I guess we shouldn't worry overmuch; Batman fought Judge Dredd in at least three crossovers, and Predator in at least five different crossovers), but also the fact that this involve a bunch of ninjas (Personally, I was pretty disappointed with how easily Batman dispatched the Foot. Ninja should be a little higher-class opponent for The Dark Knight, right? Especially for this relatively inexperienced one, who has only been in the business for about six years now?)

Hopefully when Batman and the Turtles have their big, practically mandator fight scene (prior to teaming-up, of course), it will be an actual fight scene. Maybe we won't get things like blows being thrown and dodged, blocked and countered–I mean, I know this isn't manga–but maybe it will at least occur on panel.

For what it's worth, the issue ends with Donatello admiring the Batmobile, and Michaelangelo Michelangelo says, "I think she's taken," as they all see Batman striking a Jim Lee pose above them, and saying "Turtles..."

Bat-Mite #6 (DC) I missed this the first time around, so my shop had to reorder it for me, and that reorder just came in this week. That's why I'm discussing it here, even though it came out, what, last month...?

It comes wrapped in a horrifying cover by Lesly-Ann Green, depicting a frightening clay (?) Bat-Mite grinning like an evil goblin at the reader. Writer Dan Jurgens and the art team of Corin Howell and Andres Ponce leave the world of superheroes behind to have Bat-Mite focus on–groan–American politics and the results are depressingly un-funny. And, um, wrong (Bernie Sanders already has the youth vote, guys).

After a half-dozen or so pages of Bat-Mite messing with the presidential primaries and national monuments, he discovers the true identity of Gridlock (also a political joke, although not directed at any particular politician or party, just gridlock in congress in general) and they have their climactic battle, with ends with Bat-Mite triumphing in an unusual manner.

He then goes home and we discover the identities of the three hooded, imp-sized figures who banished him to Earth in the first place. It's probably the worst issue of the series, which makes it a bad one to go out on, obviously, but it ends with everything short of a promise to return in some form soon.

Personally, I wouldn't mind more Bat-Mite comics, nor would I mind more Bat-Mite comics drawn by Howell, but I wouldn't mind seeing what a writer other than Jurgens could do with the character.

DC Comics Bombshells #6 (DC) It's the end of the second, three-issue story arc. Mera, officially given the name "Aquawoman" (which she doesn't care for), fights the Soviet Stargirl and Supergirl, in a scene that made me realize I have no idea how exactly her powers work (or how the cosmic rod works either, apparently, as it can re-color costumes...?), Batwoman destroys Nazi tanks with exploding baseballs and meets Bombshell Huntress, Wonder Woman, Catwoman, The Joker's Daughter, and Harley and Ivy all make brief appearances, and Zatanna spends some time with John Constantine, who she turned into a rabbit earlier, but he seems to still be able to do a lot of human-like stuff.

Each scene featuring a "Bombshell" (be they an official Bombshell or not) ends with their names appearing at the bottom of the panel, suggesting this is the end of a first act of sorts, reminding us of all the players, who they are and what they're up to. Marguerite Bennett's story, which is shaping up to be something of an Elseworld's All-Star Squadron story, works with Sandy Jarrell, Ming DOyle, Maria-Laura Sanapo and Marc Deering, none of whom are Marguerite Sauvage, which makes me sad, as good as most of the art is.

Gotham Academy (DC) This issue is labeled as a "Robin War" tie-in versus an actual chapter of the over-arching crossover story (the second and third of which ship this week, in Grayson and Detective Comics). It's a relatively strong issue in terms of quality, if not so much in terms of relevance to the multi-book crossover storyline. Gotham City has enacted tough, anti-Robin laws meant to curb the vigilante gang/movement, and this issue opens with a Gotham Academy-based Robin (not one of the regular cast) busting a Gotham Academy criminal, and then he himself getting busted for illegal Robin-ing.

Riko Sheridan from the pages of We Are Robin is visiting the school, as was briefly detailed in a panel or two of Robin War #1, thus adding another Robin to the mix. She joins forces with Olive and Maps' Detective Club to investigate a zombie that crawled out of the school greenhouse. It's a very specific, Gotham-based form of undead, however: One of The Court of Owls' Talons (guest pencil artist Adam Archer offers a bit of a clue in the design, which includes a very beak-like nose).

At this point in the storyline, it's hard to tell if this is all the characters of Gotham Academy will have to do with the Robin/Owl war or not. In the last pages, Damian visits the school to talk Maps out of attempting to rescue Riko from the cops and tell her he has plans for her and her friends that will come to fruition later. In "Robin War," or later...? I don't know.

The book is true to the spirit of Gotham Academy, however, and is one of the stronger stories in that regard, as writer Brenden Fletcher (writing alone this issues) fusses less with Olive's mysterious lineage (although is a clue in terms of how far it must go back, if the 200-year-old undead Talon recognizes her) and her Calamity powers. Rather, it features our cast investigating the latest weird, possibly supernatural happening at their weirdness-magnet of a school.

The artwork doesn't quite glow like it usually does when Karl Kerschl is drawing it, but it's still a very good-looking comic. I'm afraid that James Harvey's guest art on We Are Robin #4 really spoiled Riko for me, however, as the costume she sports here isn't anywhere near as cool as the one he dressed her in there.

So a good issue of Gotham Academy, but maybe not of "Robin War," as it has just enough in common to make for a solid tie-in, but only very broadly so. Of course, if at least part of the impetus of crossovers like this are to get the readers of one book to try out other books they might not already be reading, then this does it's job very well, as it is a pretty great done-in-one showcase of what Gotham Academy is like month in and month out (even if usually has a different artist; Archer, working with inker Sandra Hope and colorist Serge Lapointe, achieves a style that's close enough to what Kerschl and company usually come up with).

Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #17 (DC) Here's another comic that's arrived in my hands late, albeit only about a week or two late. This issue features a full 30-page story by the single creative team of Trina Robbins (Hey, that's a good person to have write Wonder Woman comics!) and artist/colorist Chris Gugliotti.

Robbins' story is an extended Island of Doctor Moreau riff, folding in The Cheetah (Barbara Minerva version), so that the power that turns her into a naked were-cheetah is being harnessed by a mad scientist type on an island to try and turn animals into people. The title of Robbins' story? "Island of Lost Souls."

It's a decent enough story, one in which Wonder Woman aids her archenemy (and her archenemy seeks her aid), because Wonder Woman is a compassionate, caring good guy who always does the right thing: Not really a portrayal of the character we see often in other DC comics.

I really like Gugliotti's art, which has something of a story book look to it, something of street art, and something of self-published mini-comics. There's a self-taught, almost amateur quality to the work, which tends to look very flattened out, to play loose with angles and anatomy (more for the sake of expression than anything else) and to skimp on settings and backgrounds.

The invisible jet looks awesome.

It's the sort of art that I could definitely see not being everyone's cup o tea, but then, that's one of the great virtues of this title, that it allows for such widely variant interpretations of Wonder Woman and such a wide variety of art styles to be applied to the comics icon.

SponbgeBob Comics #51 (United Plankton Pictures) The theme this month is games, as you can see by the cover, which is actually a play-able one (you'll need dice and some game pieces of your choice, though). Joey Weiser, Vince DePorter, Nate Neal, Charles Bruebaker, Maris Wicks, John Chad, Zac Gorman, James Kochalka, Corey Barba and Corey Henderson all tell tales of SpongeBob and friends (and, in Wicks' case, dolphins) playing games of various kinds. I found the most unique and impressive one this month to be Chad's two-pager, the entire second page of which is a lovingly detailed and designed SpongeBob pinball machine.

We Stand On Guard #6 (Image Comics) Canada wins! Sorta! By destroying the valuable resource the war was over, so maybe everybody really loses...? I guess that's what happens when countries go to war though, right?

I think this is the last issue, but there's no indication that it is, just as there's no indication that it isn't. With most of the cast dead, though, I think it's probably safe to assume this is the end. I guess that's another thing that happens when countries go to war, too–many of their soldiers end up dying.

I'm just going to pretend I didn't see this ad.

I didn't think anything could possibly dampen my enthusiasm for DC/IDW's Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, the first issue of which ships this week...in just two short days.

But then I saw this ad, and the word "Cowabatga." That's right, Cowabatga.

I'm...I'm just going to go ahead and pretend I never saw that ad or that word.

Review: Batman vs. Superman: The Greatest Battles

The usual disclaimer regarding collections of superhero comics purporting to tell the greatest or best stories is that they tend to be the greatest or best short, one-issue stories, in order to fit in a collection (For example, "Batman: Year One" may be one of the greater Batman stories ever told, but at over 100 pages, it's far too long to ever be included in a collection of greatest Batman stories, as it's a collection unto itself).

The new Batman vs. Superman: The Greatest Battles is a rare exception, however, as it is almost exclusively made from pieces of longer, trade collection-length story arcs (all of which are readily available in trade), taken out of the context of their home story arcs. It reads a bit like a trade version of a TV clip show then, it's focus on big name creators--Jim Lee (twice), Scott Snyder, Geoff Johns, Frank Miller, Greg Capullo and Jeph Loeb (plus John Byrne, Joe Kelly and Ed Benes, none of whom are actually mentioned on the back cover extolling the creators whose work is included).

It doesn't really fulfill the mandate of its title--these are not the greatest Superman vs. Batman battles, of which there are so goddam many I've long ago lost count--but they are (mostly) the 1.) Greatest Superman vs. Batman battles, 2.) by the most popular creators, 3.) that you can buy other trades including the rest of the story arcs they are part of (although that doesn't make as good a title, huh?)

Let's take a look at the contents, which appear under a repurposed Jim Lee cover from Batman #612 (part of the "Hush" storyline) which seems a poor choice in that it clearly shows Superman unequivocally winning the great battle, and a repurposed use of the old Superman/Batman combo logo).


Batman #612 (2003)
By Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee and Scott Williams

The fifth chapter of Loeb and Lee's "Hush" storyline, which is basically Loeb presenting Lee with a story that allows him to draw every major villain and hero in the Batman franchise, before the narrative collapses nonsensically at the end. At this relatively early part of the story, Batman and Catwoman have trailed Poison Ivy to Metropolis, where she has used her mind-control powers over men (and Kryptonite-laced lipstick) to take control of The Man of Steel.

Batman must use all of his guile, gadgets, planning and knowledge of Superman to fight him to a standstill, although in a nice touch, Superman actually helps Batman, by fighting Ivy's control mentally while fighting Batman physically...and, of course, he had previously given Batman a weapon specifically for beating him up should he ever be mind-controlled like this, the Kryptonite ring (which Loeb and Lee have concealed in a neat, Kryptonite ring-holding secret compartment behind Batman's belt-buckle.

Ultimately, it takes Batman and Superman to beat Superman--with an assist from Catwoman and Lois. This also includes a few panels of Krypto, in a very unexpected cameo (sorry; I spoiled this 12-year-old story! Hey, while I'm at it, wanna know who Hush is...?), who has a nice panel with Catwoman, who is not exactly a dog person.

This is of course collected in Batman: Hush, which has been collected and re-collected repeatedly since its original publication (and which I'd recommend with reservations; as a sort of ultimate, everyone appears Batman story, it's solid, and Lee gets to draw the living hell out of every corner of the Batman universe circa the early '00s. It also has probably the best post-resurrection Jason Todd costume ever, although it's not really Jason Todd...or it wasn't, until Judd Winick said it was...Eh, let's not get into it here).

Re-re-re-reading the story, I noticed that it offered a pretty good example at how poor a writer Jeph Loeb can be, despite the strengths of the plot. Check out this bit of Batman narration:

I don't believe in luck. But if I did...now would be a good time to start.

That...doesn't make any sense at all. If he already believed in luck, then he wouldn't need to start believing in luck, because he'd already believe in luck.

Stick to producing excellent-ish Netflix series based on street-level Marvel heroes, Loeb!

Winner: Batman...with an assist from Superman


Man of Steel #3 (1986)
By John Byrne and Dick Giordano

Part of Byrne's six-issue miniseries re-telling Superman's "official," post-Crisis origin story (which would stand for about a generation, gradually being chipped away at by future stories prior to later cosmic continuity realignments, like Infinite Crisis/52, Final Crisis and so on), this was the story of the first meeting between Superman and Batman.

They don't hit it off, and thus while they briefly fight and ally themselves against the villain of the issue, it's not exactly a Marve-style team-up. They part ways with a grudging respect for one another, Batman reflecting that maybe "in a different reality" they could have been friends, they would anything but for years of DC stories, only really starting to be friends again in the second half of the 1990s or so.

Their physical conflict is quite short, and they don't even come to blows. Batman has devised a clever, Machiavellian and--ultimately, courageous and heroic, if maybe a bit insanely so--way to keep Superman from laying hands on him. As a "battle," it's more a battle of wits, but it's a really solid one, showing how Batman's brains (and craziness) can overcome Superman's brawn (and nobility).

The bulk of the issue is devoted to their teaming up to take on then new villain Magpie. Re-read in 2015, the panel where the pair reflect on Magpie's future--either she'll stay in jail or Arkham for years, or be back on the streets immediately by hiring a great lawyer. Turns out, she did stay locked up and off the streets for years. I don't recall seeing her ever turn up between this issue and Batman Eternal, so her incarceration and mental health treatment seemed to work much better than that of your average criminally insane Gotham killer. (She looks very '80s in this issue, by the way; I think the folks who made Beware The Batman did a pretty fantastic job of reinventing her as a credible villain, a Catwoman-like femme fatale-esque character for Batman and making her look cool. That show's really not bat at all...at least, the first half, which I've seen, wasn't. Still haven't finished it yet.)

Given that this follows the 2003 story from "Hush," it should here become apparent that the stories are not organized chronologically, either in order of their publication, or the order in which they "happened" in-continuity (And, as you'll see, there are at least three different continuities in here: post-Crisis, New 52 and the Dark Knight Returns-iverse).

This should be available in the 2013 Man of Steel Vol. 1.

Winner: Tie


Justice League #2 (2011)
By Geoff Johns, Jim Lee and Scott Williams

While Batman and Superman do fight in this issue, I suppose it's well worth noting that most of their fight takes place off-panel (it opens with Superman noting all the stuff that Superman has thrown at him to no effect, and that his belt is now empty). Additionally, it's not really a Superman vs. Batman fight; it's Superman Vs. Batman, Green Lantern and The Flash.

Chronicling the first meeting of Superman and Batman in The New 52 continuity (at least, the first that they can remember; they met once before this, according to the first arc in Batman/Superman, but their memories of that meeting were lost), this is part of Johns and Lee's not-very-good opening arc of The New 52 Justice League title, set during the first year of the current continuity's five-to-six-year timeline.

Superman sees Batman carrying a Mother Box, the same device he'd seen on a Parademon previously, so he assumes he's with the bad guys. Batman tries to talk him out of fighting, while Green Lantern Hal Jordan throws various constructs and Superman, and then calls in The Flash. Eventually, they all cool down and stop fighting.

This issue is, of course, available in Justice League Vol. 1: Origin.

Winner: Tie...? I guess...?


Superman/Batman #78 (2011)
Joe Kelly, Jack Kelly and Ed Benes

Ironically, this may be the best-written story in the collection...and the least well-known. It's also the very sort of done-in-one story that more typically fills collections like this.

The premise is pretty simple: Two boys, one a Superman fan and one a Batman fan, have the eternal debate of who would win in a fight, Superman or Batman. After struggling with the same things any writer would have to struggle with, like what would make the two fight, they then have to struggle with various rules: No killing, no Kryptonite, not Mxyzptlk or Bat-Mite, etc.

Once all that's established, they talk their way through how the fight would go, which amounts to a series of Batman launching a surprise attack that he had obviously been planning for a while, and Superman tearing through it. It's fun both in the way that Kelly and Kelly deconstruct the writing of such a story, as well in the weird juxtaposition of the kids' dialogue coming out of the mouths of the Benes-drawn superheroes (Wonder Woman, Robin Tim Drake and a few Leaguers also appear).

Unfortunately, Benes isn't really all that great a storyteller (as you may have noticed if you've read, let's see, anything he's ever drawn), and so the climax of the fight doesn't really make sense. I think Batman uses trained bats to eclipse the sun and rob Superman of his powers somehow, which doesn't really make sense, but definitely doesn't as drawn; the dialogue just says that when Batman attacks Superman with a giant robot that Superman easily smashes open, that there was something inside it that can remove the sun from the equation, and we just see some vague drawings of bat shapes here and there.

Ultimately it's a tie, of course, with Superman and Batman dying at the end...and then there's a neat little twist, revealing the real Superman and Batman eavesdropping on the conversation and discussing it one another and they leave the scene.

It has previously been collected in Superman/Batman Vol. 12: Sorcerer Kings.

Winner: Tie


Batman #35-36 (2014)
Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo and Danny Miki

Another surprise entry, these are the first two chapters of "Endgame," the "ultimate" confrontation between The Joker and The Batman that seemingly results in the two old foes killing one another. But it's another Batman vs. Superman battle which isn't quite that. Instead, it's more of a Batman vs. The Justice League story, with Batman taking on and down Wonder Woman, The Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman before ultimately facing Superman, who takes an awful lot more fighting to take down than their peers.

As to the why of this fight, Batman's Justice League colleagues have all been Joker-ized by a new version of Joker venom. Batman, naturally, has contingency plans for taking on all of his teammates should they ever go rogue, and he uses them here. Interestingly, these are different contingencies than those hinted at and used during the Johns-written Forever Evil.

These comics are collected in the only rather recently released Batman Vol. 7: Endgame, although the first chapter was also just published in the free giveaway DC produced for Batman Day, Batman Day #1.

Winner: Batman


Batman: The Dark Knight #4 (1986)
By Frank Miller and Kalus Janson

You're probably familiar with this one, right?

It looks extremely different from everything else in the book, not only in the design and rendering, but also in the coloring (by Lynn Varley). Not only does it seem to be of a different era as all of these (although it saw publication the same year as the Man of Steel story by Byrne), it looks like i's from a different world entirely.

Probably the best-known and most influential Batman vs. Superman fight of them all, it features the World's Finest seemingly going at it like cats bats and dogs, both out for blood. Batman fighting Superman later became a staple of Elseworlds and various out-of-continuity stories, of the sort "The Dark Knight Returns" helped popularize, with Superman almost always the bad guy.

It's another "draw," one which shows that even the best-prepared Batman can't really expect to KO Superman, but still thinks far enough ahead that he can trick his way out of having to do so.

This story has been collected about as much as anything DC's ever published, including in the many and various editions of The Dark Knight Returns and, of course, the recently published Batman: The Dark Knight saga (which is missing both Spawn/Batman and All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder, both of which are explicitly set in the same "universe" as DKR!).

Winner: Tie

So, if you're tallying it all up, of the six stories/battles, Batman wins twice, and ties Superman four times. Not a great showing from The Man of Steel, really. Also of possible interest? Three of the stories are set in pot-Crisis DCU continuity, two are set in The New 52 and one is set in a non-canonical, story-specific world.

One can always quibble with content in such collections, but the thing that I would have most preferred to see included here over any particular comic book story is a long, thorough foreword or essay of some kind, supplying context not only to the specific stories, but to the history of Batman and Superman battles and conflicts, and their evolving relationship in general. One of them (usually Batman) beating the other (usually Superman) comes up all the time, and often it's just an aside in a bigger story, like in a Justice League story, or an element in non-canon stories, like Kingdom Come (where their conflict is ideological rather than a physical blow-out, as Superman fights Captain Marvel and Batman fights Wonder Woman in the climactic battle) or the Injustice: Gods Among Us and so on.

The pair went from besties to colleagues to frenemies and rivals to achieving a gradual, grudging acceptance of another, to the point where they are now pretty much best of friends again. The many different ways Batman might have devised to take out or take down Superman (several of which are in here) are often quite interesting (like the synthetic red Kryptonite he was developing, that Ra's al Ghul used against Superman in "Tower of Babel" during Mark Waid's JLA run), as are the reasons they might come into conflict with one another (like Superman trying to stop Batman from killing The Joker at the climax of "A Death in the Family"), but more so to mention in passing, than to include, like, a whole chunk of that story arc in a book like this.

Also, the idea of DC's two biggest superheroes coming into conflict is one with a history well worth exploring, especially since it's the basis for that movie coming up. That movie seems to be the main reason DC published this collection now, so I suppose we should be relieved they went with the title they did, rather than Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Them Fighting or something...

Comic Shop Comics: December 2

All-Star Section Eight #6 (DC Comics) Damn, there's Garth Ennis and John McCrea doing what they do so well, completely savaging the entire concept of superhero comic books...from within the pages of a comic book. Which, of course, is also an incredible celebration of superhero comic books. There are seriously a few panels set within the Fortress of Solitude that read like Grant Morrison could have written them in his All-Star Superman.

In this final issue of the series, which I miss already, Superman picks Sixpack up at Noonan's and takes him to the Fortress, as he senses that Sixpack needs to talk. And boy does he. The creeping suspicion that something is wrong, as voiced in the above panels, is finally laid bare before the Man of Steel, and Superman offers Sixpack a pep-talk that is as inspired and inspiring as it is tragic and depressing. Supes says all the right things, and has a few kind gestures, but he also literally hands an alcoholic a bottle of whiskey too, so, you know; I'd say that is the most surprising thing in this crazy-ass miniseries, but then, last issue did have the rapping Phantom Stranger in it, joining forces with Etrigan The Demon at one point to cajole DC into collecting Ennis and McCrea's run on The Demon (and it must have worked, too, as it's solicited for January!).

Because the creators are in wrap-up mode here, nothing is quite as over-the-top as in previous issues, but it's worth noting that Section Eight itself ends up about the same as the last line-up, there's a great off-panel resolution to the saga of Dogwelder II, and Superman, Sixpack and the creators resolve the issue of how much of this series is "real" or not in a very nice, even touching way.

Given how great Ennis has written Superman on at least three occasions now, I really hope DC can get him to write an actual Superman-focused comic book series or original graphic novel or something eventually. And maybe I'm just finally getting used to the New 52 costume, but this was the first of two times this week where I thought an artist actually made the new suit look pretty good.

Also, Ennis entitling this issue "He's Gotta Be Strong And He's Gotta Be Fast And He's Gotta Be Fresh From The Fight" has finally unseated John Rogers' "Total Eclipso: The Heart" from Blue Beetle #16 as the best Bonnie Tyler joke in the title of a story from a DC Comic. Yes, "Total Eclipso" came first and has a pun going for it, but this one is just so long.

Batman & Robin Eternal #9 (DC) Man, sometimes I get the suspicion that plenty of editors and creators working for DC Comics don't read all that many comics published by DC Comics, and it's really rather irritating–I mean, they should have to suffer with the rest of us, right?

This issue concludes with a shocking cliffhanger: The debut of New 52 Azrael! Even though the Michael Lane, legacy version of the character, the one that followed Jean-Paul Valley, already appeared in the climax of Grant Morrison's run on Batman, Incorporated (In Batman Inc #10, Batman borrowed his "Suit of Sorrows" as part of his weird power-up, which also included taking Man-Bat formula).

This issue, scripted by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly and drawn by Roger Antonio, is a pretty dumb one, the Azrael glitch aside. Save for a four-page sequence between Bruce Wayne and Mother set "several years ago," the rest of the issue features Red Hood (a character I loathe) teaming up with Red Robin (Tim Drake, who I used to love, now mangled by the New 52-boot into another character I loathe), arriving in Santa Prisca, where they team up with Bane to take on the Order of St. Dumas...who have taken over the island country and built a hight-tech crystal Disney palace atop the ruins of the Pena Duro, the prison where Band and his teddy bear spent the formative years of their lives.

None of which seems the tiniest bit logical. I mean, we all draw the line in different places when it comes to the suspension of disbelief in our superhero comics, but man, I didn't buy a single panel of this storyline.

Well, I kinda like the way that Antonio draws Red Hood's stupid helmet/mask, giving it the expression of an Easter Isle sculpture.

Bizarro #6 (DC) The concluding chapter of Heath Corson and Gustavo Duarte's actually came out a while ago, a month ago, I think, but my shop had sold out of it at the time, and the re-orders just arrived this week.

It is very good, and it's a very specific kind of very good, the kind that makes all of the preceding parts of the story better in retrospect, as it so thoroughly ties everything together in a satisfying resolution. Virtually ever character to appear earlier in the series reappears in this issue, or at least all of the heroes do, in order to help Bizarro save Jimmy from the clutches of the enemies they made in the first issue.

"We no call ourselves The Bizarro League!" Bizarro declares on a splash page (above), while flanked by the likes of Deadman, Zatana, Chastity Hex, Kilowog's cousin and others. "Nope," Jimmy Olsen over rules him, "We're not doing that."

Well, are they at least doing more Bizarro? I certainly hope so. As I've said before, Corson has a great handle on the character (and on Jimmy too, really), one that finds the sweet, endearing, funny aspects of his traditional backwards-ness, but also continually puts new spins on it. Superman also guest-stars, and at greater length than in his previous brief appearance (special guest-artist Tim Sale draws Superman's first appearance in the narrative, marking the other example I saw this week of someone really making that New 52 Superman costume look not so bad).

The end of the book opens with what sounds like a premise for another miniseries ("Terrible Mister Kent am no get me internship at Daily Planet"), but, as an editorial box indicates, there likely haven't been any decisions made on future Bizarro miniseries. When the boys arrive back in Metropolis, the narration box indicating their whereabouts reads "3,033 Miles (and a whole other miniseries*) Later...", an editorial box in the corner responds "Yeah>? Let's see how the trade sells. –The Co-Publisher"

I hope the sales are terrible. I mean, fantastic. I mean...whatever would get us more of Corson and Duarte's (and guests) Bizarro.

Gotham Academy #12 (DC) Hey, know what I just realized? I think the thing that often makes this book seem a little off to me is the fact that it stars Olive Silverlock, and not any of the other characters in "Detective Club," all of whom are more interesting, and all of whom are free of the weird, confusing "Calamity" plot, which just gets more confusing the longer it goes on. Like, I thought she was just a firestarter supervillain whose secret identity was Olive's mom, but it turns out she's something much weirder and more different. I kinda just prefer teenagers solving mysteries, myself.

Great art as always, and I'm assuming it is still mostly by Karl Kerschl, but I can't tell for sure, since DC seems to have forgotten to print credits inside this issue, for some reason.

Paper Girls #3 (Image Comics) In retrospect, I'm beginning to think that maybe it would be better if the pterosaurs in this comic looked like the pterosaurs of pop culture from the 1980s, when this is set, rather than the pterosaurs of our current understanding.

On the other hand, time travel seems to at least be an element of this story, which, as of this issue, includes a second group of aliens, this one talking in some sort of hybrid, text-derived slanguage.

The series is just getting weirder and weirder with each issue. I honestly have no idea what's going on at this point, and where it's headed. But Cliff Chiang sure draws well. And it has pterosaurs in it. So my needs are being met.

Robin War #1 (DC) A second big, city-wide, crisis requiring the attention of all of Batman's former sidekicks occurring at the exact same time as weekly series Batman & Robin Eternal seems like it may be a little much. On the other hand, like the weekly, Robin War could only really take place at this particular moment in time, when Batman is off the board. And since the "real" Batman being off the board is a very temporary change in the status quo, DC's got to do these sorts of Batman-less stories while they can.

The premise for this story, which kicks off in this issue and concludes in Robin War #2, with four chapters and three tie-ins in-between, is predicated on Batman's "death" during "Endgame." That's what gave rise to both The Robins (from We Are Robin) and the new, police-sanctioned, anti-vigilante Batman (former-Commissioner Gordon in a dumb-looking robot suit).

The flourishing of the Robin movement in Gotham City is something that the old Batman would quash immediately, of course, and I was actually kind of surprised none of the old Robins (Dick Grayson, Jason Todd or Tim Drake), the current Robin (Damian Wayne) or other Bat-people haven't moved to stop them yet. In fact, the Bat-family has been remarkably cool with a bunch of amateur teenagers deciding to call themselves Robin and fight street crime in Gotham: Batgirl met a Robin in the awesome-looking We Are Robin #4, Batgirl and Grayson met Duke's "cell" of Robins in Batman & Robin Eternal and Tim met Maps in Gotham Academy #11 and just assumed she was part of the movement too.

So, what's different now? Well, for starters, writer Tim King (not Lee Bermejo, writer of We Are Robin? ) has an amateur Robin screw-up while trying to foil a robbery, leading to the deaths of both a policeman and a robber (Did it strike anyone else as odd that the policeman shot the robber in the arm, rather than killing him? Because the use of lethal force by police officers has unfortunately been such a big story for so long of late, I've heard over and over that police don't really get the chance to try and shoot to wound like in the movies, but if they fire on someone, it is generally to kill them).

That leads to a city-wide crackdown on the Robins, which even includes Robin profiling (there's a pretty neat scene where Duke is stopped by a police officer and arrested not for being a young black man, but for wearing red).

The other wrinkle is that Damian Wayne returns to Gotham, and immediately starts a fight with what is described as hundreds of Robins.

Further complicating things is that the anti-Robin laws aren't simply being enacted for the common good, but because one of the members of Gotham City Council pushing for them is trying to get in good with The Court of Owls, who are apparently still around and still want Dick Grayson for some owlish reason or another.

So it's Robins Vs. Owls, I guess!

King does a pretty okay job of introducing the players, with captions and a few fun facts about each (see this Comics Alliance article by a very handsome writer, if you need more info on any of the players, though), and writes all of the characters in-character, which is harder than it used to be, given how many pieces are moving constantly now.

The highlight was probably Damian's interactions with, um, everyone else. He is the only member of the Bat-family to not appear in Batman & Robin Eternal yet, so he hasn't been sharing panel-time with the other Robins on a weekly basis. (He was given his own book and an international mission, apparently to keep him out of Gotham during the events of the Scott Snyder's current Batman story arc, "Superheavy," in which Gordon has replaced the amnesiac Bruce Wayne.) So we get to see his reaction to the Robin movement, his first meeting with Duke Thomas (a one-time popular candidate for Robin V, during the time in which Damian was dead) and his first meeting with the new Batman:

At 38 pages, this oversized book took four different art teams (and four different colorists!) to draw, which is a lot of people, and makes it seem like this book was put together much closer to deadline than it likely should have been. I'm not familiar with all of the artists, but none of them are at all bad. Khary Randolph, who draws 11 pages, probably did the best job, and his style looked the most "right," as he had previous drawn We Are Robin. In general though, even with so many artists on so few pages, it looks much better and more finished than the other Robin team-up book of the moment, Batman & Robin Eternal.

Don't forget!

Sunday is Genghis Con in Cleveland; if you're within driving distance of Cleveland, you're pobably going to want to come to it. I will be there, selling my own comics. There will also be talented cartoonists there too, of course, selling good comics.

And if you're local, or will be in town for tomorrow's show tonight, there's a pre-party at Mahall's, which is nearby where the con is being held.

I won't be updating EDILW again until Monday, so if you're wondering why I'm being so shiftless,  Genghis Con is why.

Let us all give thanks for Dark Knight III: The Master Race #1, as its infinite variant covers have

provided us with so many images of that which is best in comics, Batman on a horse!

These Batmen on horses were created by Jason Fabok, Aaron Lopresti, Bill Sienkiewicz, Tony Harris and Francis Manapul, respectively.

Comic Shop Comics: November 25

Archie #4 (Archie Comics) Finally, it can be told: The Lipstick Incident is revealed, after three issues of teasing. I have to say part of me wishes they never revealed it, as the incident one imagines is much more exciting and interesting than the actual incident (as is always the case when it comes to our unconfirmed imaginations vs. reality), but writer Mark Waid has crafted an incident that works within the parameters of the characters involved, and demonstrates a reason why they might finally split up without making either one of them seem like a bad person in the process.

The page of Archie trudging through the streets of Riverdale, staring at his phone and oblivious to everything around him, is just all-around perfect comic book storytelling on the part of artist Annie Wu and Waid, which goes a long way towards demonstrating what exactly makes this comic work so well.

Writing a preview of this issue for Comics Alliance's "Best Comics Ever (This Week)" feature, Charlotte Finn really nails what that is: "This book is a textbook example of how much raw craft matters, because all the characters are still fully familiar Archie characters—everything that Waid and Wu (and before Wu, Fiona Staples) brings to the table is all technique, and sometimes, technique is enough."

After the main story, the 7-page reprint comic, the cover gallery (Damn, Mahmud Asrar killed it on his variant, and holy crap, there's a Jaime Hernandez one too?!) and the preview of next issue's cover, there's a house ad for an 80-page "collector's edition," which puts the first three issues (i.e. the Fiona Staples-drawn ones) between the same set of covers.

The ad contains a pull-quote from a review credited to "Comic Book Resources." It went like this–Mark Waid and Fiona Staples completely reinvent Archie comics, coming up with a take on the character that should appeal to a whole new and extremely wide audience"–which I thought sounded kinda familiar.

And then I Googled the phrase and I realized why: I wrote that, for CBR's affiliate Robot 6 blog. I do wish they would have been a little more specific in terms of who said that and where. Partly–okay, mostly–because I am vain and like to see my name in print, but also because the reviews on Robot 6, when they still did reviews on Robot 6, were a lot more discerning than those on CBR's main page, and because if I liked something, it must be good, because I am incredibly hard to please. Certainly compared to the no doubt fine folks who review comics for CBR's main page, who tend to grade on a curve of whatever mainstream stuff they read, and thus everything gets good reviews.

Wait, let's look. Okay, there are 14 comics currently on their main page under "reviews": Seven Marvel comics, three Dark Horse, two DC and one IDW comic. I was assuming they would all be 3-5 star reviews, but, just to make me look like an asshole here, I see there actually are some harsh reviews, based, at least, on the star system. Both Marvel's Extreme X-Men and Venom: Space Knight are rated rather poorly, earning 1 and 1.5 stars, respectively. Even still, the average among those 14 is pretty damn high: 3.5 out of 5 stars.

I actually expected it to be a bit higher, but that's still pretty high. Anyway, to recap: I wish they would have attributed that quote to me personally, or at least to Robot 6 instead of the more vague Comic Book Resources, Archie remains awesome and I am an asshole.

Batman & Robin Eternal #8 (DC) Oh God, I'm going to have to talk about this same book every single week from now on, aren't I? Well, I don't have to, of course, but as long as I want to keep reading it (and I do; despite it's mediocre quality, I like Bat-stuff and weekly comics enough to forgive weekly Batman comics a lot when it comes to my Wednesday comic book-purchasing decision making process) and as long as I want to do these posts where I babble for a few paragraphs about whatever I bought at the shop this week (and I do), well, this is going to keep coming up, huh?

This issue is scripted by Genevieve Valentine and drawn by the team of Alvaro Martinez and Raul Fernandez, with Scot Eaton and Wayne Faucher providing all of three pages. I didn't actually notice the art change, perhaps because the Eaton/Faucher ones deal with a brief Red Robin/Red Hood sequence, while the rest of the book is set at the ballet in Prague.

The sub-par art was again frustrating this issue, and by "sub-par" I'm referring to the storytelling more than the quality of the rendering. It turns out that the older, white-haired lady who was all dressed up at the ballet and talking to that one ballerina on The Orphan/Mother's list is a completely different older, white-haired lady who was all dressed up at the ballet than Mother. See, one has her hair pulled back, and the other doesn't. Otherwise the two are identical. Also, the Mother character appears in two different outfits in two different time periods in this issue, so watch your old ladies closely!

Part of this is a failure of rendering, I suppose, but then, there are so many artists drawing the characters, and consistent character design so frowned upon these days (note Harper's ever-changing hair, for one example), that it's sort of inevitable characters will blur and blend together (The Robins are only identifiable by their costumes, for example). I do think this is mostly a failure of initial character design, though. If Mother and Other Old Lady are two different characters, maybe one should have an eye patch or wear a silly hat or something...?

There's also a patchy bit on the penultimate page, in which the script has the characters reacting to the condition of another character as if the latter were badly hurt, whereas the art shows nothing of the sort.

I don't know. Cassandra Cain, Harper Row and Dick Grayson beat up a bunch of ballerinas. So it's got that going for it. See you next week, Batman & Robin Eternal, you frustrating comic I just can't bear to stop reading, you!

Dark Knight III: The Master Race #1 (DC Comics) There seems to be some amount of controversy surrounding this book, which I suppose shouldn't come as any surprise at all: It is a Frank Miller project, and this is the 21st century, after all.

Actually, the extent to which it is a Frank Miller project seems to be the cause of some of the controversy, as DC originally hyped this as Miller's next Dark Knight book, even though he wasn't writing or drawing it, as he did The Dark Knight Returns and The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Miller has been saying in interviews that his role in writing it was extremely limited, which shocked a lot of folks. I know I was shocked this week then to see, in the back, advertorial pages of all of my DC comics except DKIII (which is completely ad-free), Miller saying pretty much the exact same thing in an interview conducted and published by DC Comics, to promote a DC comic.

"This is not my conception, actually," Miller says, correcting Brian Azzarello's A to the Q of "How was this project conceived" in the three-question promotional Q-and-A. "I set up a realm in which Batman would operate and tried to stay true to the character, and Brian is now expanding on the storyline that I introduced...You've got to undestand, DC let me play with their toys, then Brian asked me if he could play with DC's toys the way I treated them...To reiterate, and I'm not being modest here, I'm consulting. This is Brian's show."

So while news that Miller wasn't as terribly involved as the original solicitations might have lead one to believe, the revelation that he consulted more than wrote, or talked about the story with Azzarello who then went on to script it, isn't exactly a bombshell, is it? That said, I suppose if I was a retailer, I would be pretty freaked out about this coming out now, that the orders have been placed and my racks were full of issues of DK III for my customers to decide maybe they didn't want this quite as badly after all (Of course, if I was a retailer, I would have already been driven mad by trying to make sense of the solicitations for this book anyway).

So, as I mentioned in my earlier post on the book, if you approach this comic the right way, it's not bad at all. That right way? As a Frank Miller-drawn sequel to Dark Knight Strikes Again wrapped in an Azzarello-written, Andy Kubert-penciled, Klaus Janson-inked homage to The Dark Knight Returns. Because that is what it is.

In a certain respect, the Master Race story, the Azzarello/Kubert/Janson comic, reminded me of the Before Watchmen books (do note that Azzarello was involved in that project, too). Those were, as far as I could tell without actually reading any, a modern attempt by the publisher to have modern popular creators attempt to recreate one of the most popular and influential works in mainstream comics history, by way of paying homage to the original–and (hopefully) making a lot of money in the process. Where this differs from the Watchmen business, of course, is that DC has a much better relationship with Miller, and they aren't proceeding over the objections of the creator, as they did with Watchmen.

So, let's look at the outer comic first. Kubert does a passable Miller impression, particularly in the Gotham City sequences, and while no one would mistake this for the work of Frank Miller (circa Holy Terror or circa DKR), it's definitely Kubert's Miller impression. Having Miller's inker Janson finishing his pencils no doubt helps immensely.

Azzarello rather unfortunately keeps Miller's very annoying TV media-as-Greek chorus technique going, which is beyond tedious this time around (DKR was like 30 years ago). Kubert draws Jon Stewart, Bill O'Reilly and Al Sharpton as the commentators, along with a generic blonde Fox lady (Megyn Kelly?) and a pair I didn't recognize as the talking heads reacting to the fact that the Dark Knight has returned...again (Say, that might have made for an even more honest title: The Dark Knight Returns...Again).

Azzarello ads a second, more annoying innovation to narration, by having a pair of character text one another back and forth about a Batman sighting, complete with emojis (although, I suppose it's worth noting, the text slang takes fills in for the made-up futuristic street slang of The Mutants from DKR nicely).

The story, at this point more a suggestion of one than anything else, sets a few plates spinning, and breaks one on the final page. In Gotham, Batman has seemingly returned after an absence, beating up cops and making life difficult for the mayor and the current police commissioner. Meanwhile, Wonder Woman (in her Dark Knight Strikes Again costume, fights a monstrous Minotaur/Centaur mash-up in the Amazon, where the Amazons apparently dwell in the Dark Knight-iverse. She does so with a papoose on her back, and when her son starts to cry, she does something I never, ever expected to see in a DC comic:

Yes, that's Wonder Woman preparing to breast-feed her son (in the next panel). If you're going to draw Wonder Woman's nipple in a comic book, that's the way to do it, really, but that doesn't mean I wasn't surprised to see it. DC has apparently given Miller and company a lot of rope here. To be clear, I'm A-OK with nudity in comics, as long as it's in the appropriate comics (while there's not rating on this thing, it's a $6 sequel to an extremely violent comic set in a different universe, and thus it's completely different than, say, characters talking about raping Supergirl in the DCU line, you know?). And there's nothing wrong with breast-feeding. I'm A-OK with that too, in real life, on TV, in comics, wherever. I was just surprised that DC was okay with both of the above, especially when it comes to that particular character.

Anyway, Wonder Woman has a son now. Who's the father? Is it Superman's? Maybe. After all, they had a daughter together in Dark Knight Strikes Again, and she's in this issue too, albeit grown-up and wearing a lamer costume (I really dug Miller's costume designs for DK2; I wish he was consulted for when it came time to redesign the whole DCU for the New 52). She's off visiting her dad in his Fortress of Solitude, where he is encased in ice. Dead? Probably not. He's Superman.

Back in Gotham, the cops beat the crap out of Batman and unmask him only to discover...well, you'll see.

Halfway through is a 12-page mini-comic entitled Dark Knight Universe Present: The Atom #1. It's wraparound cover, by Miller, features Superman trying to land a punch on a tiny Atom before the Bat-signal. This comic's writing credits echo those of the main comic. There's the enigmatic "Based on The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller" credit that starts them off, then a "Written by Frank MIller and Brian Azzarello." This one is clearly penciled by Miller though, so his contribution isn't something anyone–even Miller–can dispute.

His style is right were it left off in Holy Terror, meaning these super-characters look pretty much as they did in DK2, only maybe rougher. In Master Race, Supergirl visits the Fortress and finds the Bottle City of Kandor. In The Atom, she delivers it to The Atom Ray Palmer, who she apparently hopes can restore the Kandorians to their original size.

The comic starts with The Atom battling a "dinosaur," which, of course, turns out to be a lizard drawn without reference. Then there's a neat reveal or two. There's not a whole lot to it, obviously, but Miller art is always welcome, and it's nice to see it applied to new characters, which was one of the greatest treats of DK2. His Atom is redesigned, but slightly so; I like the new costume. It's still not as good as the original Atom costume, but, well, that's one of the all-time great costumes. That's like trying to redesign Superman or The Flash and coming up with something better–it just can't be done.

The format is weird, but fun, and the mini-comic seems particularly well-suited for this character, who, after all, is all about being small. I'm actually kind surprised DC or Marvel haven't thought to do this with The Atom or Ant-Man before.

So, Dark Knight III...? It's good. It's probably not what a lot of fans and/or readers will have expected or wanted, but then, I don't know what one should expect at this point. To me, it read like a Before Watchmen-style sequel to Miller's previous two Dark Knight series by other creators, with a mini-comic in the style of Dark Knight Strikes Again glued into the middle. It's $5.99/40-pages, so while it feels...wrong to buy a single comic book with a $10 bill and get so little back in change, that's the standard price point and page-count for two DC comic books, only they at least spare us ads, making this prestige project feel a little more prestigious than usual.

DC Comics Bombshells #5 (DC) You know DC, you don't have to publish this on a regular schedule or anything. I mean, it's just an out-of-continuity comic starring a bunch of versions of characters who already have their own comics (um, with the exception of Supergirl, I guess, because why would you want a Supergirl comic on the stands when there's a Supergirl TV show getting everyone talking about Supergirl all the time?). I mean, if you want to go bi-monthly or so to give artist Marguerite Sauvage more time to draw sections of the book, I wouldn't complain. As much fun as writer Marguerite Bennett's scripting may be, as talented as some of the other artists to contribute to the book may be, it was really Sauvage's luminous art work that made the first issue of the series–and passages of some subsequent issues–into must-read comics.

This fifth, 30-page issue of the digital-first series is, sadly, another Sauvage-less one. We get some fine art from the likes of Ming Doyle, Mirka Andolfo and Bilquis Evely but, alsa, none of them are Sauvage. The issue features three chapters, one drawn by each of the artists, and each following a different character or group of characters. Wonder Woman, despite occupying the cover of this issue, is not one of the characters in this particular issue.

In Berlin, Batwoman goes undercover to meet the Bombshells-iverse's versions of Lex Luthor and Catwoman (and to witness some of the rather tiresome Nazi occult stuff firsthand); in France, Holiday Variant Harley Quinn meets Poison Ivy (in a sequence that seemed too cartoony to fit in tonally with the story around it, at least as concerns Harley's entrance into Ivy's greenhouse); and, finally, back in the Soviet Union, Stargirl and Supergirl attempt to rescue their parents from the clutches of General Arkayn.

If you saw that last name in previous issues and thought, "Hey, that sounds like Arcane, as in Swamp Thing villain Anton Arcane; I wonder if that means Swampy will make an appearance?"...well, you get your answer this issue, and it's an affirmative. Swampy does not wear negligee or garters or stockings; he neither dresses nor poses like a 1940s pin-up girl. Sorry, anyone hoping for a DC Comics Bombshells Swamp Thing collectible statue (and/or glow-in-the-dark variant)!

Providence #5 (Avatar Press) Did the rape scenes in writer Alan Moore and artist Jacen Burrows' previous H.P. Lovecraft-related project for Avatar, Neonomicon disgust, sicken, enrage, offend or even just irritate you? If so, you're not going to want to read this issue, which has a rape scene. It doesn't involve a monster, so, in that respect, it may not at first seem to be as scary as that in Neonomicon, but, on the other hand, it is visually more realistic (i.e. there are two human bodies involved) and because there are minds being shuffled between bodies during the act, it's psychologically pretty messed-up and scary.

I didn't think the scenes in Neonomicon were wrong, at least, not in a way that the authors didn't intend them to be wrong (that is, they were horrifying elements of a horror story). The scene in this comic, however, seemed infinitely ickier to me, even though it is still body and psychological horror in a horror comic.

Hey, there are new comics from both Frank Miller and Alan Moore out on the same Wednesday. That...doesn't happen all that often.

Saga #31 (Image Comics) Hey, Saga is back! this issue kicks off a new chapter in the book, although maybe "chapter" isn't the right word, since they label their issues as chapters with the word "chapter" right there on the cover and everything.

Well, whatever you want to call it, this issue has a time-jump, and we catch up with the now four-year-old Hazel in some kind of prison camp kindergarten, with the "how" explained via flashback.

Fiona Staples draws a penis in a rather unexpected place in this issue, and she also draws an adorable bipedal pig wearing a lab coat. Saga has the best aliens.