Superman/Batman

Superman/Batman 14-19

Carlos Pacheco comes on as penciller, continuing the string of excellent artists on this title.  Villains from the Legion era travel back in time and kidnap Clark and Bruce at their most vulnerable moments (Right after the Kents find Clark and Bruce’s parents die).  They preemptively kill most of the other heroes and raise Superman and Batman to be the godlike rulers of America.

So far so good, but then everything goes haywire.  Jeph Loeb loses all control of his story as Superman and Batman keep dying and jumping from reality to reality.  None of it makes any sense, and I rapidly lost patience with whatever Loeb’s trying to do. The timeline gets altered, fixed, wiped, folded, spindled, and mutilated, and not in a fun way.  Somehow, our two heroes remember what happened and now have two lifetimes worth of memories in their brains, a la Picard in Star Trek:TNG’s Inner Light.  The lack of internal time travel consistency, coupled with the lack of a coherent plot, annoys the heck out of me.  

Oh, and on top of that, Leob randomly retcons the Kingdom Come Superman to be the same Clark as the one from Alan Moore’s Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?  No idea where that came from.

What???

I mean, it could have been cool if there was a point to it.

The Pacheco art is really nice, though.

Ian Churchill returns in issue nineteen to usher Supergirl over to her own title, showing that he can draw a really good Batgirl as well.

Nice rendering of her costume.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? No

Rating: Fine (Only because of the art.  Would have cut these otherwise.)