Category: DC Black Label

Best of DC: Week of June 26th, 2019

Best of this Week: Batman: Damned #3 – Brian Azzarello, Lee Bermejo and Jared K. Fletcher

It ended as it began; with a fall.

Barman: Damned has finally reached its epic conclusion and it was absolutely worth it. Brian Azzarello wrote this to be his most haunting and dark story to date since Joker and Lee Bermejo gave everything he had to make the art in this book better than almost everything in the previous issues.

Constantine starts the issue with a monologue about control and how no human truly has it. We’re surrounded in a constant maelstrom of chaos and those that seek true control know this fact better than everyone. Obviously as this speech is being made, Batman is the one being referred to as a heart forms from the body of a bat inside of a decayed skeleton.

This imagery, gruesome and disturbing, let’s on more than it appears, making a lot more sense by the end of the book. Batman awakens in a coffin and struggles to get out before being saved by a gigantic Swmap Thing as his roots break into the coffin and lift the grave from the ground, mostly destroying the cemetery. Swamp Thing is a very ominous force in this story, staying large and speaking slowly, with some questionable statements about what’s truly at stake in the search to solve how the Joker died.

Constantine shows up and immediately starts bickering with Swamp Thing with the Avatar of the Green telling Batman not to trust the con-man as a mysterious figure works their way through the darkness, bringing angel statues to life. Striking as much fear as the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who, the statues spring to life and attack Constantine only for Swamp Thing and Batman to fight them off. The scream for Batman to be theirs, the lettering indicating that the being that had been speaking to Batman in the past was talking through them. One of them creates a nasty gash on Batman’s face, leading towards his mouth and he smashes it and chases after the woman in the shadows. She whispers of fates written, promises made and secrets kept,  which sends Batman spiraling out and causes the angel statues to fall.

Constantine jokes about beating the Angels and Batman says that he wishes that he could find answers to what’s plaguing him and Gotham City to which Constantine relies of the veil between life and death being thin as he takes him to someone that may be able to help. The pair arrive at a club hidden from humanity, but not those that have magical knowledge or seek it. Zatanna appears and, at Constantine’s request, acts as a medium with Deadman joining them all as just a guest. 

Things start to take an even darker tone as Zatanna’s spirit calling appears to be very painful, washing the pages in a harsh red. Batman believes that she’s calling the spirit of the Joker or the woman that’s been following him and instead the spirit of a young Bruce Wayne appears, pulling Bruce, Constantine and Deadman in the body of a rat into Bruce’s memories. There, they see the young Bruce being caressed by a horrifying Enchantress who reveals that Bruce made a deal with her. I think all the way back in the first issue, she would make him fearless and the only payment that she would need was his tears. I think the implication was that she had some sort of hand in the death of the Waynes and symbolically Bruce Wayne died as well.

I have never been more afraid of Enchantress that I have of Bermejo’s interpretation of her. Her hair is scraggly, her mody is meatless, all skin and bones. Her fingers are gnarled and her face… mannequin-like with her mouth connecting to her eyes, all of it hollow with terror and malice with her teeth falling out and the skin cracking, almost like porcelain. Deadman bites her foot to distract her while Constantine picks up Joe Chill’s gun and shoots her three time. To me, this seems to be a clear mirror of the deaths of the Waynes as she is shot in the head, chest and in one last unseen place. Thomas was shot in the head, Martha in the chest and we never see how the Child Bruce dies, but with Enchantress’ death, Bruce’s spirit is released from her deal.

Batman sees his dead body and thinks that he’s dead and Constantine says that it’s likely the past that he needs to let go of that’s dead. Batman rebuffs him and decides to head to the one place that he hasn’t since going on this adventure with Constantine, the Gotham City Morgue. Constantine departs and tells Batman to be careful what he says to some “Almighty force.” Once inside, Batman meets the man in the green hood that ran away from him in the first issue who tells him that he “fought hell for his soul and stands before him in judgement,” and his identity is made clear; He is The Spectre, the embodiment of the Rage of God in the form of a man.

*Spoilers Ahead if you wish to read on your own and don’t want to know how things turn out*

It is here that we understand the grand picture of what happened and how Joker dies. In what turns out to be their last fight, The Joker simply stabs him. One stab to the left side of his body, likely puncturing the lung, and he knew that the injury was fatal. He fights the Joker, sending him over the ledge of The Gotham Bridge where he holds on for dear life. Batman holds out his hand, thinking of saving him because that’s what he does… but in fear of what Joker will do if there’s no Batman around, he closes his hand and the Joker plummets to his death, leaving Batman to die of his wounds.

This was Batman’s figurative fall. His moment of embracing fear, breaking his deal with Enchantress and allowing her to try and take his soul, was what caused all of this. He chose weakness and all of Gotham suffered for it, but Heaven was watching too. A drawer with an unknown body is opened and Batman is told that he will be judged as he has judged others and after peeking under the white sheet over the body, he laments that he wishes the Joker were still alive before his soul is sucked into the drawer and presumably the body.

The next scene we see if the fall from the start of the series and a Joker with much shorter hair rising from the water and laughing. I believe that this is a reincarnated Joker with Bruce’s now tortured soul at the helm of it as we see a final shot of Joker running his hands through his hir much like in The Killing Joke as in the final page, the heart from the opening is paid off as the final bits of panel bordering resembles a heartbeat monitor as they form the laugh “Ha” over and over.

This book was a stellar package of amazing. Bermejo’s art and his photorealistic style continues to amaze in his representations of our favorite characters. Constantine looks like a lithe snarky prick as he always should. Swamp Thing looks imposing and terrifying as more of a formless creature of The Green with a face that occasionally forms fists and his wooded, mossy appearance almost makes you feel like you touch him. As previously stated, Enchantress was horrifying and made to feel like more of a threat than she ever has. Zatanna was more beautiful than her first appearance, if only because she was in her classic costume.

Everything had an unsettling tinge of horror to it. The bat in the beginning as he opens to form the heart was very creepy. Swamp Thing, while being a good guy, still came off as terrifying with his glowing red eyes and lack of mouth. Zatanna’s spirit summoning aroused more thoughts of possession than anything else has either her face or the faces of the spirits were superimposed over hers. Bruce, as he was entering his memories slumped over, looks like he’s died, especially with the page being colored red.

Brian Azzarello crafted a great horror mystery that tied in so much of the magical community that Batman does his best to avoid and what circumstances would cause him to fall from grace. Batman comes off as heroic still, but he’s unfocused, something is in his head. He’s uncertain, especially because he doesn’t want to acknowledge what he did, so much so that it’s blocked from his memories. It’s a head trip to read because by the end you feel an unfortunate feeling of disappointment in the Dark Knight.

He’s supposed to be a hero, standing for justice and never giving in to his fears, but watching him close his fist and seeing the Joker’s fingers disappear from the ledge just sends a shock to the senses. Watching him take this journey, as Constantine keeps him from the Morgue as he was originally supposed to go to first, seems like he’s suffering through trials or stages of grief after what he’s done.

This story is truly the quality of what I expect from DC Black Label. With this stellar debut and it’s amazing ending, I only hope that future releases are this good. Batman: Last Knight and Superman: Year One have had amazing first issues and as long as they remain consistently good like Batman: Damned then this imprint will go down in history as one of the greats in prestige books. High recommend.

Best of DC: Week of June 19th, 2019

Runner Up: Superman: Year One #1 – Frank Miller, John Romita Jr., Danny Miki, Alex Sinclair and John Workman

Trigger Warning: Attempted Rape/Sexual Assault

Slow and steady wins the race.

That’s the approach visionary writer and sometimes crazy person, Frank Miller, took when writing the great, but flawed, Superman: Year One. The book is a masterwork on the slow burn that builds excitement and tension for a character that has all the potential to be exciting, especially as a young child.

Beginning with the destruction of Krypton from the toddler Kal-El’s point of view, the boy is rocketed from his dying home. He watches as his parents get further and further away, engulfed by the fire and explosions of the dying Krypton, scared and alone until he reaches his new home; Earth.

This presentation feels a lot more personal through his eyes. Though his inner monologue is a bit jarring for a toddler, it speaks volumes that he doesn’t know what’s happening. He’s terrified that his parents are leaving him alone, that he may never see home again. His hands press against the glass in fear.

Pa Kent just happens to pass by, noticing the rocketship land with this strange child in it. The baby Kal exhibits a strange telepathic suggestion ability and makes Pa Kent think that taking him home is all his idea. Ma Kent is introduced as the ideal small town mother and the majority of this book expands on Kal-El’s life in Smallville.

This comic acts as the absolute ideal in what Superman’s life as a kid could have been. It’s hokey in a way that the Kents are just simple farmers and the perfect parents with Clark learning the values of how to be a good person. He defends his nerd/outcast friends from bullies and gains the love from the always awesome Lana Lang.

The books flaws, however, are as awful as the entire thing is good. Things get a bit jarring as the bullies go from simple name calling and egging to physical violence and attempted rape after Lana takes pictures of their actions. If anything should have been cut, it should have been this gross depiction of near violence against a teenager.

This and the fact that there’s no real comeuppance after the fact, aside from Clark just beating their asses, and leaves a bad taste in my mouth and the plot is dropped from there. It shifts to his relationship with Lana Lang after he reveals his powers to her and gradually makes up his mind about his future. In his late teens, instead of going to college or to Metropolis for his common origin of becoming a reporter, he decides to join the US Navy.

I am a little biased because his experience was much like my own from people questioning the decision, to telling my girlfriend at the time that I’d come back and what not and the teary goodbyes. Of course everyone who joins may have the same story. It just felt very personal to me and stood out as the most glaring change to how Clark Kent becomes Superman. I felt kinship and traumatic flashbacks when seeing John Romita Jrs. representation of RTC Great Lakes.

Speaking of the amazing artist, his art for the book is absolutely stellar. Capturing the vibe of the dry heat of the American Midwest, Romita Jr pulls you into every scene. The sense of scope is grand in space, it feels home-y in Smallville and the road to Illinois feels desolate and empty and yet full of hope and joy.

The line between adult and children’s faces, however is very thin. Clark’s faces run the gamut of emotions from joy, to surprise to near rage, but between each time jump, it’s hard to tell just how old he actually is. Ma and Pa Kent age with the subtle graying of hair and maybe a few wrinkles, but Clark is forever having the face of his three year old self.

Despite covering ground that’s been trodden millions of times, Frank Miller’s found a way to inject a bit of interest into a familiar origin story. I love the new angle of Clark Kent becoming a Sailor and fighting for America, not exactly knowing what kind of person that it will change him into. Though I hope we get a more focused and less Crazy Frank Miller in the next issue. Attempted rape is disgusting as a simple storytelling device and depending on what kind of accounts he’s gotten from Sailors on boot camp, things could go either way.

I am excited for the future of this series, however, and can’t wait for the next one. High recommend!