Detective Comics 821, 822, 826, 840-845
Perhaps I’ve been too harsh in my previous reviews; Paul Dini shows here that he’s quite capable of writing compelling non-animated Batman stories.
821 is excellent because of the JH Williams art:
822 is when I stopped buying, as Don Kramer comes on as penciller and is quite the letdown. (Cutting.) For some reason, I still picked up 826, which is a nice Robin v Joker bottle issue.
The rest of the issues have Dustin Nguyen on art, and his style is always welcome. His Zatanna is lovely:
 |
| Great swirls. |
 |
| An unlikely pairing, but one I'd be a fan of. |
I love that Batman hits up the chat rooms when he’s stumped:
 |
| Also love that Detective Chimp is right there with him. |
Regret buying: No
Would buy again: No
Would read again: Yes (No for 822)
Rating: Nice (Boring for 822)
Detective Comics 871-881
I bought this Scott Snyder collection in trade after hearing a ton of hype about it. I remember thinking it wasn’t bad, but both the details and quality of the story have faded in my mind over the ensuing years.
The re-read completely washed away all of my lukewarm feelings and replaced them with much more positive emotions. James Gordon, son of the commissioner, is absolutely terrifying. The horror of his psychopathy is matched in equal parts by the tragedy of the situation. James is family, after all. Before this story, he only appeared as the innocent newborn at the end of Year One. To next see him as this emotionless, manipulative serial killer is a complete gut punch.
Nice creepy job by Francesco Francavilla 
Those glasses... 
A retcon that I wholeheartedly approve of.
Plus, there’s the excellent loose thread of potential psychopath babies that James may or may not have created. It’d be great if a writer revisited the plot point someday.
In other news, Jock is a great artist.
 |
| Lovely colors. It's like a James Bond credit sequence. |
 |
| Iconic. |
 |
| Ghastly for that split second before you realize it's a dream. |
 |
| Heh, scientifically impossible. |
 |
| SO grotesque. |
Regret buying: No
Would buy again: Yes
Would read again: Yes
Rating: Good
No comments:
Post a Comment