Batman Adventures Annual, Batman and Robin Adventures Annual, Doomsday Clock, Action Comics, Heroes in Crisis

Doomsday Clock 7

Still a ton of set up.  Dr. Manhattan finally shows up and says cryptic things.  I still don’t know what’s going on, but as long as Gary Frank continues to draw entertaining fight scenes and Geoff Johns continue to effectively mimic Alan Moore, I’ll complain not a whit.  

Wow, I just took a look at my review of the previous issue, and things have not changed at all: “Halfway through the series and I still don’t know where it’s going.  I’m not complaining, though. Geoff John continues to focus on the characters from the Watchmen universe, and as long as he writes them this vividly, I’ll deal whatever release schedule he wants.”

It’s disturbing how nothing’s changed with the series.  And that I’m apparently incapable of coming up with original ways of reviewing things.  

Heroes in Crisis 1

If I’ve seen Clay Mann’s art in the past, I do not recall it.  I will not forget him again. His work here is beautiful. Tomeu Morey’s colors are just as important.  He makes a red streak across the midwest something special.

Tom King kicks off his 9-issue event series with a ton of murdered heroes and two suspects.  (I’ll be stunned if either one of them turns out to be the killer.) I wish the reveal of Roy Harper and Wally West’s bodies shocked me more, and that I believed they were actually dead.  The lack of either drastically reduces the drama of the whole thing. But despite that, I’m still drawn into the story. King’s got some skills, and I’m happy that there’s something by him for me to keep reading after Mister Miracle ends next month.  (I get his Batman in trade.)

There’s an emotionally cruel gutpunch midway through that highlights the huge chasm between the DC trinity and the D-listers.  King packs so much into two pages about failed dreams, lost opportunities, class separation, and ivory towers.

Action Comics 1003

Finally, things start happening and Bendis shows a little bit of why he’s one of my favorite writers.  Robinson Goode, the annoying reporter, procures Kryptonite for one of her stories. That secret’s revealed when she inadvertently incapacitates Clark Kent, who calls in Batman for help.  Batman’s conversation with Goode is vintage Bendis. Perhaps Bendis is writing the wrong main character. In any case, I hope this is a sign of better things to come from him moving forward.

Batman and Robin Adventures Annual 1

Paul Dini writes the sequel to Mask of the Phantasm.  It’s structurally very similar to the original story - Andrea returns again, rekindles the flame with Bruce again, then sadly leaves him again after they defeat the bad guy.  It’s replacement level, but it’s Mike Parobeck’s last comic work, so I’ll keep it around for that.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Batman and Robin Adventures Annual 2

Batman and Robin team up with Zatanna to fight the Hypnotist.  So very meh, made worse by the fact that it was a double-size helping of meh.

Regret buying: Yes

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Boring (Cutting)

Batman Adventures 1-2

Issue 1 - About as meh as the previous entry, but it’s got better art (Bruce Timm).  It’s also got some work by Klaus Janson and John Byrne, two artists whose styles really don’t work in the animated universe.  I was all set to cut this until the internets revealed that it’s worth a decent chunk of change.  Keeping it around only for that.

Issue 2 - Features Etrigan and Ra’s al Ghul, two characters that populate the bottom quadrant of my DC character ranking.  An easy cut.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Didn’t suck (Cutting issue 2)