Tag: Best of DC

Best of DC: Week of March 25th, 2020

Best of this Week: Batman: Curse of the White Knight Book Eight – Sean Murphy, Matt Hollingsworth and AndWorld Design

And here we are at the end of the road.

The original Batman: White Knight gave us a tale of a hero who refused to see the error of his ways – a man that would lie to his friends and destroy his treasured city as long as villains received the justice that they deserved, but he never saw that he was becoming one of them. Enter Jack Napier, the former Joker, cured of the madness that led him down the path of costumed villainy for a time. He became a symbol for the change that Batman refused by offering to rebuild the broken down parts of Gotham and stopping Batman once and for all.

Unfortunately for Napier, he couldn’t keep the Joker at bay long enough to see his dream Gotham come to fruition, but he did manage to inspire, not only the people of Gotham and its police force, but Batman himself. Of course, not everything could remain peaceful. Soon after all of that happened, Azrael and the Order of St. Dumas cropped up to cause trouble and save Gotham from its false protector: Batman. Azrael serves as the logical conclusion to what Batman’s war on crime could have been.

After several issues of cat and mouse, Batman is finally on the trail of Azrael with the Gotham Terrorism Oppression Unit (GTO) at his side. Initially, Sean Murphy makes the chase look like a team effort with Dick Grayson leading the charge, but Matt Hollingsworth gives slight hints at Batman’s state of mind with an orange glow around the Batmobile before getting close enough to remote shut off the rest of their cars. AndWorld Design excellently captures the slowing down of the cars with their lettering going from high energy “VvvvvvvVvvvvvs” to slow, sputtering “Pkk, Pkk” sounds as the wheels begin to stop.

Dick, being the one closest to Bruce, had a conversation with him in the last issue and anticipated that he might have done something like this and tells the rest of them that it was because he didn’t want them to stop him from killing Azrael. Batman then zooms off to chase Azrael on his own, catching the villains foot with the cars grappling hook and hilariously swinging him around while drifting the car before reeling him in and reversing the car into a plane – all the way at the Gotham Airport. 

Sean Murphy is known to be a big car guy and he showcases the 1989 Batmobile with beautiful side shots, powerful flames blasting out of the exhaust right into Azrael’s face and even a single panel of Batman using a six gear shift to reverse. All of this badass car action results in a massive and fiery explosion. The big panel is beautifully shot with the plane being small in the background, the huge, orange pyro coming out of it, a big “BOOM” lettering in red to accentuate the power and Batman wielding some kind of assault rifle.

Of course, this is a betrayal of everything Batman is about and Azrael even acknowledges Bruce’s “No Killing” rule as the bullets bounce off of his armor before easily gaining the upper hand on this desperate Batman. Azrael then holds him by the collar of his cape and thoroughly dresses down Batman’s mindset for this entire fight, comparing the struggles of Bruce’s war on crime and futile search for peace as being the same as his own. 

Murphy and Hollingsworth draw the scene with a palpable sense of intensity as the fire rages around them while they stand on the debris of the plane and the Batmobile. The shot is pulled out, allowing for AndWorld to utilize the empty space for Azrael’s monologue while the hot oranges paint everything around them. As Batman fears his own end, Murphy draws him with terror in his eyes and a defiant gritting of his teeth as he tells Azrael to “go to hell,” for saying that they are one in the same and threatening to flood the city before Dick’s car barrels into the villain and causes another explosion. 

Initially, I questioned why Murphy decided to invert the timelines of Jason and Dick as Robins, but this book understandably gives good reason. One of the things that Dick had been dealing with over the course of both of these stories is his conflict with Batman over what the proper course of action should be when it comes to Gotham. He’s been Bruce’s biggest critic when he was destroying Gotham and didn’t want to be another casualty like Jason was, so he joined the GTO to stop Batman.

Murphy draws on this when Dick confronts Batman on his recklessness and Batman recognizes that everything he’s done, including adopting Dick and dragging him into this never ending battle all played a part in ruining his life as well as the lives of everyone close to him. Jason’s dark cloud has always hovered over Dick, but with tears in his eyes, he tells Bruce that he still believes in him and that he needs to end this fight as Batman, not as Azrael. Hollingsworth lowers the intensity of the orange backgrounds to make the scene more somber before Batman rushes off to do things the right way.

With the Rapiers of Edmond Wayne by his side, Murphy and Hollingsworth give readers an excellent double page spread of the Batmobile VROOOMing down the streets while various panels of Bruce’s interactions with Alfred, Victor Fries and Jim Gordon remind use that there’s a good man under that cape and cowl, a man that yearns for justice and peace in Gotham City.

Knowing that Azrael plans to flood the city, Batman tells the GTO to shore up defenses and get everyone off the streets as he goes to finish the fight at the Gotham Reservoir and pops out of the Batmobile in an AMAZINGLY heroic pose with double rapiers sans cape, beckoning Azrael to take him in a sword fight. Murphy leans into Batman’s Zorro roots as he chooses to fight with honor, calling out Azrael’s faith, knowing that his sword’s Arabic name is God’s Will and that it is all that a God fearing man like Azrael should need and they duel valiantly.

Murphy, Hollingsworth and AndWorld Design give readers an amazing scene of Batman disarming Azrael rather than trying to kill him, removing one of his gauntlets with a deft flick, giving it a “HRRN” sound, removing his cape to get a rapier between his armor with a “WOOSH,” indicating the speed and flow of his movements. Bruce even goes so far as to let Azrael knock the rapiers from his hands so that he could knock the helmet off of his head by trapping it between the “CLINKing” panels of the Batmobile as they close before taking the villains sword.

Azrael, knowing that he’s going to lose and trying to throw Bruce off of his game for a moral victory, starts insulting Thomas and Martha’s deaths, calling them leeches of Gotham’s wealth. This causes Bruce, in a rage, to “HACK” across Azrael’s neck, slitting his throat. Murphy makes it look so sudden, Hollingsworth ratchets up the intensity of the flames in the background and emphasizes Azrael’s blood as it pours out onto the ground, proclaiming that Bruce “eliminated the last Wayne.”

Murphy and hollingsworth treat readers to a beautiful panel of Bruce looking at his beloved city, shadowed in the night sky with orange glows coming from the streets while Azrael bleed out on the boat, Batman quickly decides to suture his throat and use his blood to keep it flowing into Azrael while proclaiming that being the protector of Gotham has always been about more than being a Wayne or a Bakkar. It’s bigger than blood and that’s why Jason Blood gave Edmond’s Journal to Bruce, because Batman was always Gotham’s true hope.

The series then starts winding down with Bruce saying his goodbyes to Dick and Barbara and the rest of the GTO with varying levels of banter. Even Harleen has a moment where we think she’s going to drive Bruce away as he allows himself to be arrested for his vigilantism, but he convinces her that she’s done all that she needs to and that she saved his soul when he was at one of his lowest moments just like he did for her after leaving The Joker. It’s sad and sobering, especially as these scenes are given a blue hue and these characters have a mutual love and respect for each other.

Murphy also drops in some political commentary at the end where the City of Gotham argues over Bruce giving away all of his fortune to the City and whether or not it goes far enough or veers too far into socialism. While this particular White Knight story has been focused on the heroism side of Batman, I might have liked more of this commentary throughout the book, much like it was focused on in the original series. Though, who’s to say that that’s not where Murphy is going as this book ends on something of a cliffhanger with a SURPRISING reveal.

For the end of such a phenomenal book, I can gladly say that this was absolutely worth it. From the compelling story, to the amazing art, coloring and lettering, almost everything about this was perfect in every way. I really enjoyed seeing Batman’s journey from angry vigilante to true savior of Gotham and the dichotomy between him and Azrael as an angry war veteran. Knowing that Sean Gordon Murphy has been given free reign to start his own White Knight Imprint, I’m ultra excited for what the future holds!

Best of DC: Week of March 18th, 2020

Best of this Week: Robin 80th Anniversary

All of the Robins are awesome.

Every Bat-fan has their favorite as they usually define the era when they began their love of Batman and comics in general. Older fans love Dick Grayson for being the first and greatest Robin that helped make Batman brighter. Edgy 80s kids and teens both love and hate Jason Todd for being the bad boy that died. Younger fans love Tim Drake for being the one to carry the name in the later seasons of the animated series and being one of the best and smartest Robins. Girls get representation from the spunky Carrie Kelly and the awesome Stephanie Brown. No one like Damian. (I’m kidding, he’s super fun.)

There’s a Robin for everyone and this 100 Page Spectacular celebrates the long history of Batman’s greatest sidekicks (though misses a chance to give Carrie Kelly her own short story) and does an amazing job in displaying each characters personalities by some of the best people to have written them over the years. Because there are so many, I’m only going to talk about the ones I really enjoyed!

The first FOUR stories follow Dick Grayson and some of his best eras.

“A Little Nudge” is written by Marv Wolfman with pencils by Tom Grummett, two parts of the legendary team behind the best years of the New Titans (1989). This story follows Dick Grayson as Batman begins to nudge him in the direction of becoming his own man by being increasingly irritable to his protege. At this point in time, Dick was dealing with the stresses of outgrowing his childhood identity and Batman’s continuing overbearing nature. Where Bruce was all about being cold and methodical, Dick thought with his gut.

Grummett, Scott Hanna on inks and Adriano Lucas on colors illustrate Dick’s frustration through his increasingly sour facial expressions and sudden heroic actions. The costumes are as colorful as those old days with Dick wearing the bright yellow cape, bright red tunic and the elf shoes. In the middle of the dynamic duo’s fight with Natural History Museum thieves, Dick stops fighting when a child gets shot, against Bruce’s orders, and stays with him until the bad guys either get away or get taken down by Batman. 

Later on, Dick tells Batman that he’s outgrown the Boy Wonder name and sets off to become his own man as Nightwing. Wolfman gives readers an excellent inner monologue from Bruce where he owns up to the fact that he was nudging Dick in that direction because he had just turned eighteen and Bruce believed in him. Batman always supports his kids, especially his first and it turns the story of separation into something heartwarming.

“Aftershocks” is a fun story by Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel who worked on my favorite Nightwing series in the 1996 – 2005 era of the character. This wasn’t anything major, just Nightwing doing everything he could to save people after an earthquake causes massive damage to a suspended bridge in Bludhaven. This era of Nightwing was characterized by him mostly striking out on his own and becoming a Bludhaven police officer, being inspired by Jim Gordon. 

Dick really came into his own and developed a rogues gallery to himself during this time, not to mention the sweet costume with the blue “wings” running down his arms into his fingers and those big, bulky gauntlets and boots. This era was the epitome of the 90s with big set piece moments, big muscles and Nightwing just being a nice and generally charming guy. After diving off of the bridge to attach a winch to a falling car, the woman inside asks to name her baby after him and he smiles and says, “Robin works, right?”

“The Lesson Plan” is a story from my favorite modern age creators in Tim Seeley, Tom King and Mikel Janin. The Grayson series took place shortly after Dick’s identity was exposed to the world during “Forever Evil” (2013) by the Crime Syndicate. At this time he was acting as a spy for an agency called Spyral while spying on them for Batman. I never think of Tom King as a comedy guy, but this story was almost gut bustingly hilarious. It was just a world trotting adventure where he teaches one of the students of St. Hadrian’s how to be a spy.

Truly this series was Dick at his most handsome, witty and skilled. He jumps out of a helicopter and grabs onto the cords of a cable car before rescuing a woman held hostage by terrorists on walruses. Dick, the student and the hostage ten fight off more terrorists in Tanzania, riding a bus headed for Los Angeles of all places before Dick finds himself in something Dejah Thoris would wear and having a night with the hostage who reveals herself to be a gorilla from Gorilla City. It’s absolutely absurd, but it is immensely fun and welcome since that whole series is well regarded by fans.  

“More Time” by Judd Winick, Dustin Nguyen and John Kalisz is a far more somber tale about Jason Todd potentially a short time after the events of Under the Red Hood. Jason Todd was the second Robin and met his unfortunate end in the 1988 story, A Death in the Family by Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo. Jason eventually returned in the Batman: Under the Hood story where Winick and Doug Mahnke re-envisioned the former Robin as a violent vigilante Jason does have something of a strained relationship with Batman, but it wasn’t always that way as this story illustrates. 

One thing that Dustin Nguyen has always been great at, it’s making kids super adorable and he does so in this story as it flips back and forth between the past and the present as Jason gives Bruce a birthday present in the form of his father’s watch, which Jason sought to fix. Nguyen and Kalisz characterize the past with Jason appearing as a happy, young kid under the dim lights of the Batcave and a twinkle in his eyes. He’s happy to have a home and a father to care for him so he wanted to do something nice for him.

Present Day Jason is characterized by dark backgrounds with bright oranges, smoke and heavy blacks for the shadows. Jason is far more tired, grizzled and angry, but he still finds the time to place the same gift box from all those years ago on the Batmobile for Bruce to find. At this point in time, they may have been at each other throats, but the love between them was still there, buried deep – culminating in two side by side panels of past and present Jason saying, “Happy Birthday, Bruce.”

“Boy Wonders” is a story about Tim Drake by James Tynion IV, Javier Fernandez and David Baron and sees Tim taking advice from all of his brothers. Next to Chuck Dixon and Geoff Johns, James Tynion IV has had one of the longest lasting impacts on the Tim Drake character throughout his run on Detective Comics by emphasizing the power of his mind in comparison to the other Robins and why he could ultimately be the successor to Batman above each of them or eke out a new life for himself.

While taking down the cast of The Warriors on a speeding train with Nightwing, Tim contemplates what his future will be. He looks to Dick as the one who did everything that he’s doing now and Dick tells him that as the smartest Robin, the best thing he could do is use that mind to bring up the next generation of heroes. Jason, the reason he’s even wearing the costume of Robin in the first place, tells him to take everything he’s learned from Batman  to become BETTER than him. Arguably, it’s Damian that gives him the best advice by telling him that he’s the most capable of all of the Robins and that he should choose a path himself instead of relying on the advice of others.

Of course, this story takes place before the events of Detective Comics Rebirth where Tim does chart his own path in making Gotham safer with his Gotham Knights Protocol, but things don’t exactly turn out well for him. For all of the talk about how Tim is the smartest, he unfortunately could never get out of his own way long enough for things to go right…especially now that he’s going by “Drake” in that awful brown costume.

“Fitting In” is a Stephanie Brown story by Amy Wolfram, Damion Scott and Brad Anderson which sees Stephanie trying to live up to the standards of each of the boys that came before her. Stephanie was absolutely the shortest term Robin that Batman took on, as he only allowed her to take up the mantle in an attempt to get Tim back after his real father told him to hang up the cape after discovering his sons identity.

Even still, Stephanie did everything she could to earn Bruce’s respect and Wolfram plays on this and that past story by making it more about Tim than Steph. She has to train in the same costume that Tim did, but she proves more…voluptuous than Tim. Her costume bursts at the seams and Alfred designs the costume that she’s known for. She and Batman then get a call about fire at an amusement park and ride off to take down Firefly.

Unfortunately for her, she gets captured, but being the innovative girl that she is, she manages to free herself and take down Firefly at the same time. Damion Scott’s art is very well suited to the cartoonish action and paints her as a capable sidekick despite initially being a damsel in distress. I honestly wish her run as Robin would have been longer because she honestly fits well in the role as the bubbly Robin in contrast to the hell that Tim was going through at the time.

A point can be made that this story also had some needless sexualization, but given Bruce’s lack of respect for Stephanie and him just wanting a replacement Tim at the time, this was well written from that perspective. He never cared for Stephanie and her time as Robin was mostly her trying to live up to Tim’s standard which eventually left her to try too hard and “die” because of it. I’ll always take more Stephanie Brown as I can cause even now there’s not enough of her and I’m damn sure not reading Young Justice by Brian Michael Bendis.

“My Best Friend” is the one that makes me the most sad as it revolves around Jon Kent writing an essay on Damian as well…his best friend. I feel like the Super Sons series was also done a dity hand by BMB as he took Jon and aged him up for his Superman story when we could have gotten more fun stories between Damian and Jon. As far as homages to one of the better Rebirth series this one was just fun.

There’s not much to say other than Jon reminisces over a few of their adventures and tells readers about the side of Damian that we don’t often see because the Bat-boy is always a little bit too intense. Jon reminds us that they’ve fought for most of the time they’ve known each other, but when it comes to being heroes, Damian always had his back. It’s heartwarming. Of course there’s the continuity issue of them going to the same school in this story cause Jon was only ten at the time and Damian was thirteen, but honestly I only care about the friendship.

“Bat and Mouse” is a story by Robbie Thompson and Ramon Villalobos which sees Bruce and Damian having separate brooding inner monologues about how neither understands the other anymore and about how they want to open up to each other, but the distance between them has grown too wide. Admittedly, this is a much darker story in the respect that Batman and Robin haven’t really been the same since Damian started his new Titans team and started down a darker path that his father has yet to find out about.

Thompson captures this feeling that Damian is arrogant but scared. He feels like he’s outgrown what Batman has become because he’s willing to get rid of threats almost permanently through erasing their memories and villainous tendencies (see Teen Titans, 2018). At the same time, he’s afraid that maybe what he’s doing isn’t the right path and he so desperately wants to reach out to his father, but feels like he can’t.

Batman is the same way in that he loves his son more than anything and wants to regain the relationship that they had in the past, but doesn’t know how to say the words either. He knows that Damian is hiding something big, but he doesn’t want to accuse the boy and deepen the already cavernous rift. Even as they take down the robotic villain Quietus, they show signs of breaking through their equally cold exteriors, but fail to do so and I get the feeling this will all come to a head soon.

The Robins will always be some of my favorite characters in all of comics. Each of them have distinct personalities and quirks that set them apart from a lot of comic characters, especially when it comes to the trauma that they’ve faced alongside Batman. This special won’t be for everyone, just like each era of Robin isn’t for everyone, but overall, I really enjoyed it and the creators selected to honor these fantastic characters.

Best of DC: Week of March 11th, 2020

Best of the Week: Batman and the Outsiders #11 – Bryan E. Hill, Dexter Soy, Veronica Gandini and Clayton Cowles

It’s the Outsiders vs The Assassins in a knock-down, drag out fight for their lives!

After Lady Shiva meets up with Jefferson Pierce, aka. Black Lightning, in order to convince him to join her scheme to kill Ra’s al Ghul, she and the electricity powered hero are ambushed by Ra’s al Ghul’s trusted warriors in Ishmael, the turncoat Kaliber and Karma, a villain from Hill’s run on Detective Comics. Luckily for Jefferson and Shiva, Katana arrives in the nick of time with Duke Thomas, The Signal, and Cassandra Cain, Orphan (even though her mother, Shiva, is next to her).

Dexter Soy and Veronica Gandini begin the book with an epic single splash title page, showcasing the two sides as the Outsiders pick their respective opponents. It’s an absolutely beautiful scene with the moon shining in the sky with a bright white while clouds crest over it. The moon reflects on the surface of the water that both sides are standing in, giving the epic stand off a more dynamic feel as the water crashes around them. There’s an unintentionally funny bit where Shiva is standing tall with the Outsiders, but in the background without anyone to look at because the three combatants are closer to the foreground.

Wonky page aside, Hill does a good job of catching readers up with a few of our characters’ reasons for wanting to fight each other while Soy gives us several nice, up close shots of each character in eight panels. Lightning seeks revenge against Ishmael for killing one of the teacher at his school, Duke and Cass want a rematch against Karma for targeting them and injuring Duke back in Detective Comics and Katana faces off against Kaliber for betraying the Outsiders.

Each of their respective fights take place over the course of single pages for most of the issue and while there’s not much in the way of a deep story, the fights do help to expand on who some characters are, give others some catharsis and allows for one to just showcase how cool they are.

Lightning and Shiva’s fight with Ishmael is absolutely one of ideology. Blak Lightning has always been a hero, someone who was willing to save lives and give his own if he thought the cause was worth it. Lady Shiva is one of the deadliest assassins in the DC Universe and only seeks to weed the world of the weak. She sought Jefferson out because she knows that among Batman’s team, Lightning is absolutely one of the most powerful and susceptible to her way of thinking, if the right pressure were to be applied. At the same time, she sees how Ra’s al Ghul’s plot to destroy the planet would be counter to her goals.

Soy portrays Lightning with probably the most intense anger that we’ve seen from him in this story so far. His brow is furrowed and Soy inks a close up shot of Jefferson’s face to accentuate the bright blue and white that Gandini uses for his eyes. His lightning is intense, even as Shiva tells him that she knows he’s holding back, he doesn’t care as he’s acting as the distraction. We then get another page of Shiva enacting his plan. 

Soy showcases Shiva’s speed and agility through various panels as she attacks Ishmael. Soy uses speed lines and blurring to convey how quick she can move as Ishmael’s defense is whittled away before she gives him one good kick across the face. Clayton Cowles utilizes excellent lettering with an intense “KRAK” as the foot connects and a powerful “ZZZATTT” as Lightning hits him with a blast of energy. Cowles also has fantastic bubble placement as Shiva counts down on every panel before unleashing Jefferson.

As that fight ends, we get a calm scene between the two as Ishmael lies unconscious in the water, his face just so that he doesn’t drown. Shiva tells Jefferson just how easy it would be to let him drown, but Jefferson points out that that would be murder. Because… of course it would be. Jefferson is a hero and is unwilling to take a life, not because he’s on a team with Batman, but because it’s his decision.

Karma was a Markovian soldier who had something of a past with Batman. This saw him don a mask that allowed him to read the thoughts and actions of his enemies as he targets those who he felt made Batman weak – Duke and Cass. He put them through hell over the course of many issues and this is what initially caused Batman to seek out Jefferson to help train them. This series would have spun out of that arc, but for whatever reason, delays kept it off until very recently.

The fight starts off pretty poorly as Karma reads Cassandra’s thoughts, making fun of her Orphan codename, much like I did earlier, and kicks her away. Karma is a quite capable fighter, but he hasn’t faced Duke in quite some time and doesn’t know about the hero’s new found power. Duke had initially had some PTSD when thinking about Karma, likely because of a bomb that the villain had strapped to a Batfan and exploded when Duke arrived to save him.

Duke’s powers over the light had been corrupted by Ishmael earlier in the series and this left him with a new ability to enshroud himself and others in a black shadow. He and Cass use this to their advantage to distract Karma, allowing Soy and Gandini pay off all of their months of pain and anger. Cassandra swings across Karmas face with both of her feet, knocking him back as the glowing red star of his mask leaves a small trail. The fight is honestly pretty one sided from there as Cass just beats the man.

The final fight between Katana and Kaliber is pretty much just an excuse for Soy, Gandini and Cowles to draw cool stuff. Kaliber fires a shot from one of his energy guns with a bombastic, transparent BOOM to accentuate its power and bright orange and yellow colors. Katana gets into an excellent pose and uses her Soul Sword to deflect and spread the blast with a “SHNNNNG” lettering that curves around part of the shot and her sword. Katana has no time to play any games with him, at all.

She also makes short work of him while revealing that she had never liked him. Cowles utilizes similar minimal panels to convey Hill’s script as she tears down his lack of discipline and honor before making fun of his hair while still being threatening. Soy makes Katana look like an absolute badass as she takes Kaliber’s gun arm in one fell swoop before kicking him in the gut. Kaliber may be something of a good eye and a trigger, but Katana, like Shiva, is one of the most dangerous women in the DC Universe with a sword and not someone that should be faced in a one-on-one close quarters fight.

With all of their enemies defeated, Katana holds her sword to Kaliber’s throat as he tries to convince the Outsiders that Ra’s only wants to “save the world.” In some respects, that could be true. He sees humanity as a disease and would rather the planet Earth and his chosen few thrive without the chaff. He’s built a cult of personality around himself and that’s how he’s maintained a following for centuries. Not that it was difficult to convert someone like Kaliber, a stock mercenary. But the merc soon reveals that this fight was meant to serve as a distraction as explosions ring out across a Cambodian town.

It’s another beautiful scene with the calm blues of the moons afterglow and the night sky itself is contrasted by the bright and fiery oranges of the explosions. My only criticism is that while the scene does feel weighty, there’s still a lot of empty space where more explosions and destruction could be. They sort of feel minor by comparison to the rest of the shot and maybe pulling in closer would help, but either way, it’s a nice scene.

Ra’s goons escape and Katana rallies the Outsiders to go and help the people. Despite not approving of Cassandra choosing to join Batman’s crusade, Shiva affirms her pride and love of her daughter and joins her in heroism, even if it’s only for a short time. Meanwhile, in the background of this story, Sofia, the metahuman who Ra’s initially tried to recruit away from Batman affirms that she wants to do good in the world and Batman leads her to choose her own identity.

Bryan Hill’s excellent Outsiders series continues to be one of the more underrated DC titles out right now as this issue was absolutely action packed thanks to Dexter Soy, Veronica Gandini and Clayton Cowles. It definitely built on these excellent characters that deserve more acclaim and a book separated from having Batman in the title because he is still barely present.

That’s also another point I will keep harping on, Batman is still a non-entity in this book and I think that’s something that this story does well. It allows for Black Lightning and Katana to grow as characters to take on the teacher role like Batman did in the original Outsiders comic. Duke and Cassandra have so much to learn, but so few Batman writers want to put a focus on them while Bryan Hill is giving them center stage alongside two big heroes. They absolutely deserve it and I want to see them in so many more things going forward.

I want this series to go well past fifty issues because it has, consistently, been one of the best paced, best drawn and best told series that DC has had going for it in a long while. This gets another high recommend from me.

Best of DC: Week of February 26th, 2020

Best of this Week: Batman: Curse of the White Knight Book Seven – Sean Murphy, Matt Hollingsworth and AndWorld Design

Batman is Dead.

The last issue of Curse of the White Knight gave us the last in the story of Edmond Wayne and revealed that the man that Bruce thought was his ancestor, turned out to have been the family to Jean-Paul Valley instead. Bakkar of the Order of St. Dumas killed Edmond after betraying and stealing Gotham from under him, thus assuming the name of Wayne and forming the city to his vision. With this newfound information, Batman has found himself a man with a lineage of thievery, especially after finding out that Gotham’s Elite have been funding their crime through Wayne Enterprises.

This issue begins with a somber flashback to a moment before the funeral of the Waynes. Bruce cries and blames himself for their deaths because he wanted to see The Mask of Zorro. He had always wanted to use the rapiers that his father kept on display and figured if he learned to use them from the movie, then he would be able to impress his father enough. Alfred, always so caring, tells him that if he’s able to go to the funeral, then he can hold a rapier. He then vows to teach young Bruce how to use it for the next danger he may face.

Matt Hollingsworth colors this flashback in a cool blue hue, emphasizing both the sadness and the hopefulness of the moment. Murphy portrays Alfred as being caring and shows that even with the tears, Bruce shows his ability to rise up and become the hero that people need. Though the rapier is far too large for his kid body, Bruce holds it firm in hopes of protecting Gotham in the future.

As we cut back to the modern day, Bruce faith in himself and his dreams of becoming Gotham’s knight are shaken. He was never a Wayne by blood and he sees himself as part of Gotham’s cuse. Many would be right to see him as such given Gotham’s crime initially started off as petty stuff and eventually escalated into battles with The Joker, Two-Face and others with Gotham being caught in the crossfire every time. He didn’t even know that his company was being used by criminals because of his singular focus on fighting crime.

Murphy draws Batman as being tired and ashamed of himself for only just now understanding Jack Napier’s vision and why Batman is just as bad for Gotham as The Joker was. His expressions are melancholic, Murphy makes excellent use of shadow to try to hide some of his shame and body language to make him look like an old man that’s been sitting on a lawn chair for eighty hard years. Harleen Quinzel acts as his voice of reason during his pity party and actually shows concern for him.

Hareen has been a central character in this world since the very first issue of the original White Knight and that doesn’t change here though her own personal arc is over. The last issue saw her do her best to bring Jack Napier out of Joker’s mind for one last time for information and to save her children. In the end, she had to shoot Joker in the head to let Jack rest and rid herself of the monster that had been plaguing her for years. She still finds herself at Batman’s side as one of his most trusted friends.

Bruce still has one thing that he can do to make sure that Jean-Paul doesn’t get away with his crimes and Harley convinces him that Gotham will forgive his transgressions like they did for the former Joker in Napier. At the same time, Azrael is still out there and Murphy and Hollingsworth give readers an AMAZING shot of the villain in his updated Knightfall costume. He grabs onto the nds of his cape s he soars backwards into his hideout. The lights of the city contrast with his blacks, yellows and blues to just give us a pretty damn good shot of how powerful he feels in the suit.

This is contrasted by the next few set of panels where he’s puking out of his mask after escaping from the GTO (Gotham Task Oppression Unit). This version of Azrael has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and as such needs medicine to live and suppress the symptoms. With little dialogue and some telling panels, we see that Azrael has empty bottle after empty bottle of pills in his cabinet. He’s starting to look a bit more gaunt than the first time we saw him. He’s withering away slowly and only has one more pill to spar for his coming battle with Batman.

I love the details that Murphy and Hollingworth add here. There’s blood in his vomit and it maintains after he pukes on his leg. His ribs are starting to show and we’ve seen just how jacked he was in the issues prior. His hair doesn’t appear as long as it did, even pulled into a bun/ponytail and there’s just something so final about the “shit” he gives after finding out that he only has one more pill left. In that singular moment, his mistakes come back to haunt him after killing his, admittedly, treacherous employer.

Soon after, Bruce makes amends to Barbara Gordon after inadvertently causing the accident that almost saw her completely lose use of her legs and effectively getting her dad killed. Barbara has always been resilient and we all feared that that issue #5 would be yet another Killing Joke, but here she is, using crutches to try walking again. The scene takes place during the bright Gotham day and this signals a brighter future for their relationship.

Bruce had always gone to Jim Gordon for advice on what route he should take, but without him, Bruce is missing one of his moral compasses. Barbara is the next best person because she has always been smarter than her father and Bruce has a ton of guilt to get off of his chest and Barbara handles everything like the mature adult that she is. She doesn’t blame Bruce for what happened, even though she said horrid things in anger, but can anyone blame her? She cries at the mention of her father and embraces Bruce, encouraging whatever his decision may be.

Of course, with this being the penultimate issue in this particular storyline, it only makes sense that we see a grand revelation come out of it. Murphy and Hollingsworth set the stage with Hollingsworth coloring the afternoon skies of Gotham with an orange-red kind of hue. We see various shots of different places in Gotham from public libraries to the streets themselves as Batman appears on the giant monitor of Gotham Square. Everything feels hot and sort of uncomfortable.

Bruce gives his appreciation and thanks to the people of Gotham for allowing him to serve as their protector and we continue to get these various shots of people. There’s auto mechanics watching the broadcast in their shop, people in a bar and kids watching on a cell phone with their dog. Murphy uses this to illustrate that Gotham is far larger than we think it is and that there are many people that Batman has saved from every corner of his beloved city, but he hasn’t done enough yet. So what’s the final step?

Batman reveals himself to be Bruce Wayne and dismantles WayneCorp.

Bruce finally becomes the knight that Gotham needs by giving back to the people. By destroying his company, he gives back to the people of Gotham by giving all of his money to nonprofits, schools, homeless shelters etc. It’s everything that Batman detractors have been saying Bruce should have done for ages. In doing so, he offers Gotham a better future than he could have as Batman, but he only asks them to stay off the streets of Gotham for one night while he takes care of the Azrael business. Murphy shows Bruce holding his cowl one last time, standing tall by his heroic decision.

Back at the GCPD, he gets lambasted by Commissioner Montoya for going off and doing his own thing again, but counters by saying that he trusts in the people of Gotham and they all formulate their battle plans. It’ll be his last time taking the reigns before he turns himself in as well, so he might as well make sure that everything goes according to plan.

As Montoya tells Batman that Azrael destroyed most of the other Batmobiles in his assault on bruce in Book Four (I think), she reveals that one survived and I see that Sean Murphy is a Batfan after my own heart. The Batmobile that survives is the badass one from the Animated Series, what this book is supposed to be the “sequel” to. It’s sleek and well designed thanks to Murphy’s own love of cars. From the presentation, readers can tell that this is one of the pages he took serious time with as the Batmobile is given so much respect.

After a short conversation with Dick about what Bruce is going to do when he catches Azrael, Batman drives away, leaving his sidekicks concerned about his state of mind and we get one last splash page of Batman standing in the middle of Gotham Square without his cowl and the sky is a blood red. The Batmobile looks sexy in the background and this was all just so amazing.

Sean Murphy is a comic book treasure. His art and his writing truly made this an experience and a Batman story worth standing the test of time. It had the action, the drama, the stylish sequences and several twists and turns that make a story great. He’s made Batman his own in a grungy style much like how Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo have in a heavy metal manner. Murphy’s Gotham is a masterpiece in crustpunk with social problems that Batman’s always had in the periphery of his character and every issue has been better than the last.

Matt Hollingsworth brings it to life with his perfect colors; Whether they’re making use of the blues of Gotham’s clear skies or the light purples of the night sky, Hollingworth makes Gotham look distinct no matter the time of day. Scenes are given hues to match the tone of the pages whether they’re full of intense anger or incredible sadness, Matt Hollingsworth sets the mood no matter what.

I really enjoyed this series, but I can’t wait for the next and final issue of it just to see that confrontation between Batman and Azrael. It’s been a long time coming and the fallout from Bruce’s decision as well… it’ll be too much, but yeah High recommend!

Best of DC: Week of February 19th, 2020

Best of this Week: DCeased: Unkillables #1 – Tom Taylor, Karl Mostert, Trevor Scott, Neil Edwards, John Livesay, Rex Lokus and Saida Temofonte

Ahhh shit, here we go again. DCeased was awesome.

In much the same way that the original Marvel Zombies filled my heart with dread, DCeased absolutely blew my mind with the short six issues that it took place in. It was equal parts violent and heartbreaking as the heroes of Earth had to figure out a way to either stop the Anti-Life virus or die trying. We had a good spin off with the single issue, A Good Day to Die and now we have Unkillables, another spin off focusing on some of the more violent heroes and villains while the events of the main series unfold elsewhere.

The book begins on the first day of the Anti-Life virus being released as Deathstroke finds himself on a job in Kentucky. Throughout the original story, I did kinda wonder what people like him or the other assassins were up to, given that we saw a select number of other dead supervillains throughout like Giganta and Clayface. As Tom Taylor and Karl Mostert unfold the story we see that Slade Wilson was killing some infected Neo-Nazis before an attempt to renegotiate his price ends with him infected too.

Mostert and Taylor set this opening up in a very comedic way with the white supremacits running from something in the local church as Deathstroke looks on, puzzled as to why they’re running before taking a few out before heading inside. Mostert, Rex Lokus and I think Trevor Scott then give us an awesome single page of Slade facing down a horde of zombies with only his gun and a bloody sword. He looks like a badass and, in the following panels, proves it by killing them with ease.

Mostert doesn’t shy away from Slade’s brutal violence and shows how fluidly he can kill with dynamic poses as he shoots and slices multiple enemies at once. This accentuated by the excellently colored spurts of blood from the zombies and the gory detail of blood on the walls. There’s even a really good panel of one of the zombies being cut in half with Scott inking the silhouette as their blood and insides drip down. Even better is when Slade gets infected and violently rips his mask off before coming back to his senses while choking a guy.

Tom Taylor introduces a unique aspect here as Deathstroke returns to normal on the second day of the virus being introduced. As we learn later, it’s due to Slade’s unique super soldier DNA that allows him to fight off the infection, effectively being immune to a point. I can definitely see this being a double edged sword for him as the infection seems to last for a day before being purged from his system. This makes him unique amongst both the heroes and villains of Earth as maybe a potential savior.

 I’d also like to praise Saida Teofonte for her amazing lettering as well. She does an amazing job, not only with word balloons, but with captions that have a bloody background and the typefaces she uses for sound effects. For the most part, they fit the gruesomeness of the story with intense and bloody BANGs to eerie RRRRRRs, signaling the incoming zombies. Deathstroke’s scream as he claws his own face is intense, scratchy and blood curling until we get an AMAZING title page with names filling the empty space.

As things progress, we cut to Jason Todd in the Batcave. The silence is eerie as we get one small “spsh” sound as Jason steps through the blood trail of Bruce, Tim and Dick. Unfortunately, this seems to take place shortly after the events of DCeased #2 when an infected Dick and Tim attack and infect Batman, leaving Alfred to kill them all. Jason, like most readers, is shocked because he thought Bruce would have found a way to survive and then he’s met by Ace the Bathound. After letting Ace see that he’s not infected, Jason proceeds to make graves for his brothers and father before speeding off in the Batmobile to find the rest of his family with Ace.

These scenes are powerful as Jason, normally the black sheep of the family, has to deal with the fact that he’s one of few left. Why wasn’t Bruce prepared? Why was he the one left and not Dick or Tim? Damian’s still alive in Metropolis, but effectively, Jason is all alone. Mostert and I believe Neil Edwards show Jason’s love for his family as he carves out wooden headstones and buries them in the cave. Without a word of dialogue, this speaks volumes about Jason’s love for his family.

Elsewhere in Gotham, Ravager, Rose Wilson with a missing eye, unlike her main continuity counterpart, is curled up in her apartment in fear. The zombies are pounding on her door when Slade radios in and tells her it’s time to escape. Rose has the ability to see into the future in short bursts and sees that everytime she goes for the door, Zombies come through and kill her. Deathstroke, however, has a plan. As a side note, it’s great to see Rose in gear similar to what she wore in Geoff Johns’ “Teen Titans” while also complementing Deathstroke’s current armor.

Unfortunately for Deathstroke, as he keeps his eyes to the sky, he sees the terror that is an infected Man-Bat flying at him with a terrifying SCReeeee as he crashes through the window and smashes the plane on the roof Rose runs to her dad and, believing him to be infected, plunges her sword through his chest and he screams “Ow.” This scene is pure comedy made even better by the dramatic rain and fire in the background. Soon after, Mirror Master, Evan McCulloch, shows up offering them help.

I don’t know what the reason is for using the Scottish version of the character, but it doesn’t really matter as the representation of the Mirror Dimension is still cool as hell. While wearing special glasses that block signals, they walk through the dimension and Mostert draws an epic depiction of it with all of the violence, gore and death through the many mirrors while the characters look miniscule compared to the vastness of it all. The Mirror Dimension has always been terrifying and McCulloch could do a lot to solve the problem, but it makes sense that he doesn’t. Cause it’s terrifying.

After many pages, we arrive at the rest of the stars (fodder) of the series in Vandal Savage, Solomon Grundy, The Creeper, Cheetah, Lady Shiva, Bane, Deadshot and Captain Cold. I do have a bit of a continuity issue as Cold was shown to have been one of the Infected during the events of “A Good Place to Die,” but alternatively this series could explain how he got there or, much like that story, it’s off base with what’s happening in the main pages. But some of these additions are pretty interesting to say the very least.

Savage is near immortal, but has been shown to have been killed before. There’s a high chance that using Deathstroke, he’ll find a way to cure and rule over the people of the Earth after the heroes leave. Grundy is already dead, so can he get infected? The Creeper is much like Deathstroke in that he can heal from anything, so it makes sense that he’s managed to survive. Cheetah is strong and fast, but I don’t rate her chances high and the rest, while immensely skilled, are still just human. This is a ragtag group, but they’re not averse to getting the job done by any means.

The rest of the issue focuses on Jason Todd and his fight to rescue the remaining members of the Batfamily. Mostert, Lokus and John Livesay give readers an awesome assault on the Gotham PD with Cassandra Cain as Black Bat, James Gordon and Harvey Bullock fighting back against the zombies. Cass awesomely kicks and knees zombies in the background while Harvey and Jim shoot them. I LOVED Cass as Batgirl/Black Bat and it was awesome to see the return of the iconic costume and a character that I like so much.

Of course,Temofonte thrills with the lettering here again. She sells the panic in both Jim and Bullock as they fight off the horde as well as the frankness of Bullock as he has to break it to Jim that Blck Bat is the only one coming. The static-y bubbles that she uses on Bullock when he gets infected is also amazing and saddening, but gets even worse when Cass has to “CRCK” his neck to kill him. Soon after, Jason plows through the GCPD in the Batmobile with a “CRNNNCH” that shrinks around the vehicle.

Jason rescues Cass and Jim after shooting the remaining zombies in the head and plans to get the hell out of dodge. Jim, still holding out on the idea of hope, tells Jason that Barbara is still out there somewhere, but Jason, knowing that it’s no longer the time to keep secrets, reveals his and Cass’ identities and shows Jim that Barb is dead. He then takes the haggard detective to her last known location and Mostert and Lokus sell the utter despair of the scene.

Infected versions of Barb, Stephanie Brown, Batwoman and Catwoman were killed by Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn in Issue #3 of DCeased (if I remember right). This scene of James finding his daughter is depressingly grey and his facial expressions show us just how painful this is for him. He’s lost just about everything and cries in his grief. Jason, however, finds the dead body of the Joker and ties him to the front of the Batmobile before they all make their escape to Bludhaven.

This first issue of a three part miniseries already has me as excited as the original story did. I love each of the characters being used, the callbacks to past history and the way that everyone is being written. Each of these violent characters sees that there’s no need to hold back anymore as the regular rules are tossed out of the window. Everyone now has different amounts of pain and grief to deal with while others have different hopes of power or a cure. Ultimately, I don’t think things will end ultra well given the events of the main series, but I have no doubts that this will stand on its own.

Tom Taylor continues to be excellent when writing the despair and tragedies of DCeased and lifting up lesser characters, like The Creeper. His scripting and dialogue are a joy to read and I really feel like he’s got a grasp on everyone. Karl Mostert brings their all to this book with awesome panels and scenes that make readers want to wince, but look again to see the utter brutality of what they’re witnessing. His art is stellar. The various inkers definitely bring it to life alongside Lokus’ vibrant colors and Temofonte’s amazing letters.

I’m already gleefully anticipating the next issue and it more than justifies the $5.99 price, high recommend!

Best of DC: Week of February 12th, 2020

Best of this Week: Pennyworth R.I.P. One-Shot – James Tynion IV and Various Artists and Colorists

Some people think Dick Grayson is the glue that holds the Batfamily together, some say that it’s really Tim Drake, but we all know that it has always been Alfred.

Alfred has been by Bruce’s side since the day that Thomas and Martha Wayne were killed in Crime Alley. Alfred raised the boy from a young age and watched as he became a hero that Gotham City could truly be proud of. Alfred even got to see Bruce raise many kids of his own over the years and sas there to pick up the slack when Bruce was too injured, angry or didn’t know how to talk to them. Alfred was patient. Alfred was loving. Alfred was amazing and will be sorely missed.

Alfred met his tragic end during the recent City of Bane arc and even after that wrapped up, it still took time for the rest of the family to get together and mourn his passing. Bruce has been trying to cope with it all by throwing himself into his Gotham Renovation Project and various superheroics. Barbara’s been dealing with her own issues in the form of a rogue Oracle. Damian has the Titans, Jason is on the outs with the family and Dick (Ric) doesn’t even really remember Alfred.

In the end, Bane managed to do what he set out to accomplish in the first place: He Broke the Bat.

Not only did he break Batman, he broke the entire family as a whole as shown from the very first shot of this book. Eddy Barrows presents us with a pulled out shot, showing a statue of Alfred in the middle of the new Alfred J. Pennyworth Children’s Hospital – a momentous honor meant to save kids just like Bruce. However, this scene also symbolizes the distance between all of the family. Tynion IV does a great job of scripting their inner thoughts as told by an unseen narrator.

Damian, being the one who was there, feels the weight of his disobedience and sees things as his fault. Tim hearkens back to the time after Jason died and fears for Bruce, knowing the darkness inside of him. Jason was told to NOT come, but Alfred had always treated him right and Barbara feels like she knows how to fix things, but who’s to say that she’s in the right mind to do so either? And Ric… well, Ric doesn’t know why he’s there, but he feels obligated.

Barrows does an amazing job of showing the pain through their forlorn expressions and lowered heads. I assume that Adriano Lucas was the one who colored these scenes because they make excellent use of cold blues to emphasize the sadness of the Family. Barrows also does something that a few artists struggle with in distinguishing each of the boys from each other. They each have distinct hairstyles and facial structures and it’s a nice touch for such a tragic event. Soon after, Tim finds a little dive bar for them to meet in and they each bicker a bit before Bruce arrives for toasts and memories.

This book also does an excellent job of showcasing personal moments that we never see between the kids and Alfred. Beginning with Damian, Chris Burnham draws a flashback to one of the first times that Alfred bails Damian out after he disobeys Batman about going out on patrols. Tynion IV and Burnham capture Damian’s early petulance through his childish pouting superiority complex. We see that Damian loved Alfred because he was willing to be patient with the young boy and Bruce was just getting used to having a trained assassin as a son. 

Damian is still widely considered the worst Robin, but that idea has long passed its expiration date as the young lad has grown significantly over the years. In the beginning he could have killed anyone and not felt a lick of remorse for it, but over time, thanks to the softening of Bruce and Alfred, the boy has learned to care and take responsibility for things that weren’t even his fault. He tears up thinking that the rest of the family blamed him for Alfred’s death and regrets that he didn’t do more to stop Bane before leaving the bar. 

Tim speaks next and Marcio Takara takes over art for Tim’s flashback. The third Robin is still arguably the smartest, but during a hectic fight with Firefly, he leaves some of his gear and Alfred bails him out by sneaking into the GCPD to retrieve the items. It’s very action packed and does well to show that sometimes Tim loses his cool too, but after the recollection, Tim says that he would step in for Alfred if Batman ASKS him to do so. When Bruce refuses, Tim makes a point that this is exactly like how Bruce was after Jason, but this time he has to pull himself through like an adult before he too leaves.

Tim is usually the Robin that’s touted as being the one who saved Batman during his most destructive period. He’s always been the level headed one, but in recent years he’s been put through the ringer. From being kidnapped by an unseen entity and thought dead for almost a year (Detective Comics, 2017), to fighting an alt-future, villainous version of himself (Detective Comics, 2018) and finally reuniting with his Young Justice friends and dealing with the chaos of that (Young Justice, 2019). Tim is tired and even more so of the darkness that shrouds Bruce and the Family.

Jaybird raises his glass to Alfred next and offers a counter to Tim. He says that maybe Batman would have worked out his issues after Jason’s death if a new kid didn’t swing in and just try to relieve him of the pain. Jason has always been the most extreme of the family, but he’s never been above asking Alfred for help. As a street urchin, Jason doesn’t trust most people, but despite this Alfred always thought to check up on Bruce’s second son and tried to bring him back to the side of the angels. Jason never bit, but he appreciated the effort.

He tells Barbara that he won’t chastise Bruce for how he feels because they’re all in that same spot right now, but he does want Bruce to work towards fixing it. Jason knows better than the rest of them what it feels like to have lost (Heroes in Crisis, 2018), but he also knows what it’s like to be there on the fringes with no one there to help.

Batgirl is often lost in the conversations that usually revolve around the boys, but she shouldn’t be. Barbara’s intellect exceeds that of Tim by a wide margin, but that intelligence also comes with an intuitiveness given to her by her father, James Gordon, as they live in the heart of Gotham. Barbara makes the most logical statement about the general fear swelling in Gotham after Bane’s rise and defeat and the lack of trust in Bat themed heroes given everything that The Batman Who Laughs has done. Bruce’s reconstruction project isn’t helping either as it’s just another shiny coat of paint over a city whose problems run down to its roots.

Babs may not have grown up in the mansion like the boys, but Alfred cared for her just the same, effectively being Batman’s first daughter…niece maybe the better description? David Lafuente does the art for her flashback and it’s a more cutesy style with thick defining lines and lots of faraway shots as we see Alfred and Barbara hiking up a mountain just outside of Gotham City. The actions of Killing Joke absolutely still happened and to celebrate the anniversary of Barbara leaving spine rehab, Alfred wanted to celebrate with a hike and a cupcake.Barbara says that they need Bruce to come back and be the person that they all need him to be before she leaves as well. 

Finally, we hear from Ric Grayson. The former Dick Grayson was another victim of Bane’s vendetta, getting shot in the head by the KGBeast in an attempt to further hurt Batman. Aside from his Flying Grayson memories and a few scant ones with Alfred and Bruce, he doesn’t remember his life as Nightwing, with the Titans or the rest of the Batfamily and that probably makes this book harder to swallow. Dick has always been the elder brother to each of them and truly is Batman’s voice of reason after Alfred, but Dick is gone. 

So Ric, knowing he needs to step up and say something to get Bruce to help himself, asks him to tell whatever story Dick Grayson might have if he were still around. Bruce then speaks up about a time where Dick found out that Alfred had been leaving flowers at the sight of the Waynes murder to celebrate the anniversary of their marriage where Bruce had been leaving flowers on the anniversary of their deaths. Dick tells Bruce that Alfred always wanted to tell him that their deaths had saved countless lives and even the world at times.

It’s grim and kinda dark, but in the grand scheme of things, Ric is right. Batman has given everything he can to the world under his mission of Justice and that never would have happened if the Waynes survived, just look at Batman: The Gift (Batman #45 – #47, 2018). In that timeline, the Waynes did survive and it was a nightmare world where crime was rampant, Dick was crazed Batman like Flashpoint Thomas Wayne and everything was just wrong. Ric may not have known all of tht, but he did know that Alfred was right and that Bruce needed to be strong for him.

Before Ric leaves, he hangs a picture on the bar wall while Tynion IV and Barrows convey the emotional impact of Ric’s act through four panels without dialogue. Bruce looks at the picture and not only can readers feel the tears swelling up in the corners of their eyes, but we almost feel as if Bruce is as well as he stars upon a picture of the core Batfamily with Alfred as the focus between them.

I’m not gonna lie, I don’t know if I’m emotionally ready to deal with a Batman future without Alfred. He’s always been such a faithful companion and foil to our dour hero and his passing has only made Batman that much darker. The cynic in me knows that DC Won’t keep him dead forever, especially with an incoming Crisis that may undo everything from the last four years of storytelling, but at the same time it might not. I think the idea to kill Alfred was a good one to create awesome moments like it did in this book, but who will take his place?

Could this really be Tim’s time to step away from the masks and go behind the scenes like Oracle did? Could Alfred’s daughter, Julia, see a return since she hasn’t been seen since I think All Star Batman in 2016? Will Lucius Fox actually stay in the position as he’s there now in Detective Comics? Who knows?

All that matters is the life of Alfred and the mark he left on our favorite characters.

Best of DC: Week of February 5th, 2020

Best of this Week: The Dreaming #18 – Simon Spurrier, Marguerite Sauvage and Simon Bowland

Okay, hear me out – The Dreaming has been really good since the beginning and while not on the same level as Sandman itself, Si Spurrier has done a fantastic job of contributing to this world of the fantastic and absurd with his own brand of whimsy and abject horror. I haven’t found the time to cover any of the issue because, well, there’s always been something just a bit better on the same weeks that this series released and though the normal artist, Bilquis Evely, wasn’t on the art this month, Marguerite Sauvage stepped up and provided her always stunning style.

A short-ish recap for the uninitiated, The Dreaming is a realm where all of humanity’s minds go when they sleep. It was ruled by Dream of the Endless, a being of immense power over and creator of the realm before he was succeeded by a young man named Daniel Hall. Daniel becomes Dream for a time and even appeared in Scott Snyder and Greg Cappullo’s Dark Nights: Metal, but at some point, he left the Dreaming entirely. This caused things to spin out of control until the realm lands in the hands of Wan, a moth like boy with a dark side.

The book begins with a dream apparition of Rose Walker, a central character of the Sandman series, looking upon Wan’s Eldritch side as it releases nightmares into The Dreaming. She muses that she’s been watching him for some time now, acknowledging that when he returns to his cute moth form they both forget what had just occurred. Wan appears satisfied, thinking his rule over the Dreaming is making the world better as he’s been dispatching “blanks” into people’s dreams to make their whimsical dreams more logical instead. This has a profound effect on the world as it seems as though joy and color are lost.

Sauvage stuns with her depiction of this joyless world as people just walk around with utter lethargy and casually kill themselves. It’s absolutely disturbing to watch as a woman prepares to drop herself from an overpass, seeing another calmly hold a gun to the side of her head and a man self immolating in the background. What makes all of this especially great, however, is Sauvage’s use of soft colors to almost make the despair and horror feel unimportant. Rose walker is the only one that stands out because of her bright yellow dress and normal looking skin.

Her internal monologue allows her to see that something’s amiss and that she should be a wreck after losing her mother and daughter over the course of her personal story, but she lacks sufficient motivation to pursue any action aside from sleeping, but then she recalls how vivid her dreams always were and Sauvage portrays this excellently as an unseen figure lights a cigarette for her and she drifts into a white space filled with beautiful wisps of smoke and color. In the dream, she hears something about a Vortex that will likely play a big role later in the series.

We then cut to Dora as she watches the transferred consciousness of Cain kill the man who initially caused Dora to fear her own existence, Keter. Dora is a Night Hag that had haunted Keter in his younger years, causing him to want to figure out the secrets of the Dreaming and ultimately how to destroy it. It’s implied (or plainly stated, I forget) that he created Wan and set him upon the Dreaming in Daniel’s absence. Unfortunately for Dora, with Keter’s death there is no one able to remember her story and she starts to fade away.

In contrast to the previous pages, Sauvage colors this scene with a deep, but not oppressive red as the facility responds to its creators impending death, giving things a sense of panic as Dora then looks puzzlingly at her translucent hands. Soon after, Keter’s body starts to convulse and a murky plume of light purple and pink pours from his mouth – the background and Keter’s body are white, with his outline and the monitor version of Cain being the only line art for this panel. Abel and Matthew (and others) then burst forth from Keter’s mouth as he finally dies.

Matthew is one of the Ravens of the Dreaming and he acts as the eyes for the ruler of the Kingdom as they survey the dreams of men. Abel acts as something of an accountant of some kind, but he has been keenly aware of Wan’s other side and chose to escape the Dreaming with Matthew, but The Dark Moth sent blanks to follow them and one of those blanks just so happened to be Ziggy, Dora’s former blank companion. When Ziggy disregards his former identity, his other blanks begin to savagely beat Dora in a flood of oppressive pink colors.

Spurrier tells two tales that Sauvage portrays in nine striking and dynamic triangular panels. On the downward facing panels, Cain lambasts Abel for having the audacity to kill him, but Abel counters with the fact that Cain has killed him hundreds of thousands of times over the millenia they’ve been together. Cain looks on with rage and it only gets worse as he realizes that Abel is mostly right to call him a coward. At the same time, we continue to watch as the blanks continue to assault Dora. These panels are most uncomforting as she pleads for Ziggy to help.

Sauvage does an amazing job of showing Dora’s distress is pained and betrayed facial expressions as she bleeds and cries while a flurry of fists and feet meet her. She continues to fade and is soon dragged away by the other blanks before cut back to Rose Walker and her continued feeling of disillusionment before Spurrier reveals that the unseen figure that lit her cigarette might be the hand of her Grandmother, another being with a strong connection to the Dreaming. She manages to convince Rose to take the bus and find the color of the world again.

One subtle thing that I liked about this issue and the way Spurrier has been writing this series thus far, is the implication that things started to go horrendously wrong when Abel killed Cain and stopped stuttering as a result. Cain was always one of the smartest residents of the Dreaming and would have figured out Wan’s scheme even if Wan himself wasn’t aware of his other half, but Abel was far too nice to think about it like his brother. When Abel is finally reunited with his brother, he begins to stutter a lot more again, symbolizing a return to how things were.

In trying to convince his brother to return to the Dreaming, Abel does he one thing he needed to do make things right with Cain, he recreates his brothers murder by stabbing himself in the neck with a fork while Cain says that he will, but because he WANTS to, not because Abel asked (Cain is a tsundere confirmed).

While absolutely brutal and horrific, it’s touching at the same time because Abel does this out of love and sacrifice knowing that the world is doomed without his brother at his side. At the same time, this inspires Ziggy who goes against his order and tells the other blanks to stop the process of killing Dora because she made Ziggy who he was…

Unfortunately, his newfound sentience comes late as Dora is probably seconds from death and True Death by fading. Then suddenly a bus CRASHES through the walls and Rose emerges, feeling the dream energy drifting away from Dora. Sauvage draws their interaction together beautifully as Rose inches closer and closer to Dora, trying to feel something before whispering in her ear and bringing the Night Hag back to life.

The soft colors spring to life as Dora mounts Rose and begins to drain her fear, her ear wings turn a bright white and varied pink watercolors dance across her body as she reaffirms her belief in herself and Rose is in ecstasy of feeling again. We then learn something crucial about Dora and how all of this might have been by the original Dream’s design. At the end, not only is Dora restored, but the keeper of the Dream Library is as well.

The Dreaming is a weird story, but it always has been. One thing that I have loved about this story so far is that it doesn’t completely require you to have read all of Sandman to understand it, but it enriches the experience if you have. These characters are fully three dimensional with their own motivations, fears and thoughts that Si Spurrier has captured so well. I’m glad that he took on this story because it’s equal parts beautiful and dark like the Sandman Universe should be.

This is also in no small part thanks to how Marguerite Sauvage chose to draw, color and ink these beautiful scenes, characters and environments. Everywhere from the human world to the land of the dreaming was distinct and interesting because of backgrounds, color choice and intensity – even the use of white space was striking and amazing to look at.

I think the series is supposed to end at Issue 20, but it already feels too soon, like we need more. Of course there are the other Sandman books out like House of Secrets, Books of Magic, Lucifer and Hellblazer, but everything related to the Dreaming will always have a special place in my heart and I can absolutely say that I have enjoyed this ride thoroughly thus far. High recommend!

Best of DC: Week of January 29th, 2020

Best of this Week: Justice League #39 – Scott Snyder, Jorge Jimenez, Daniel Sampere, Juan Albarran, Alejandro Sanchez, Hi-Fi and Tom Napolitano

Talk about a Cosmic Sandbag.

Shayne, the alt-future son of Hawkgirl and Martian Manhunter, gave his life and essence so that his father could return from the darkness. This book opens with the amazing return of Martian Manhunter as drawn by Jorge Jimenez with colors by Alejandro Sanchez. Manhuner hasn’t been seen since Justice League #28 when Lex Luthor absorbed him to become Apex Lex, so this return had a monumental feel, especially as the rest of the League looks upon him with awe. Jimenez makes this moment feel powerful as J’onn stands tall against Perpetua with his reds glowing vibrantly thanks to Sanchez.

As soon as Perpetua takes notice that J’onn has returned, she lunges after him. This is likely due to the fact that Martian Manhunter is legitimately one of the most powerful telepaths in the DC Universe and in the subsequent pages, he makes the choice to connect the minds of the people of Earth with his and the rest of the Justice League to try and swing them all toward the side of hope. 

This results in a wonderful double page spread where Jimenez poses Martian Manhunter like he’s about to use the Solar Flare from Dragon Ball and speaks to the people. Jimenez and Sanchez show the people on the streets and various members of the League looking towards the sky with smiles on their faces. Snyder scripts this amazingly by having Manhunter give the rousing speech of goodness and rising above that Superman would normally give. What makes this even better is that Manhunter, who usually suffers disillusionment from living amongst humanity, does an amazing job.

J’onn’s speech manages to rouse enough people that the Totality, the macguffin that could imprison Perpetua once again, begins to glow and surge with energy. Perpetua, starting to feel the fear of loss orders an onslaught of the League. Jimenez emphasizes the anger on her face, the fear on Lex’s and the intensity of the battle happening on the steps of the Hall of Justice.. Sanchez makes sure that the colors almost surge off of the page with flashes of red and blue.

As the hope of the people of Earth continues to grow, the tendrils of the Totality wrap themselves around Perpetua’s spindly body as she screams in anger and hatred. Tom Napolitano places Martian Manhunter’s thought balloons perfectly throughout these pages as Snyder ends J’onn’s speech with the people of Earth joining together in the feeling of heroism and hope. The Sigil of Doom begins to fade away and Perpetua has failed…

And then “KRA-KOOM,” Napolitano’s powerful lettering cracks across the page as Jimenez draws the Sigil of Doom firmly seared into the sky and made even stronger by the overbearing hum of Sanchez’s vibrant green. This is the kinda trope that Scott Snyder does well, but also kinda overuses in his grand scale stories: The Cosmic Sandbag. The heroes were on the very cusp of victory and it seemed like the people of Earth were actually believing in the hope that Martian Manhunter was talking about, but instead they gave into their fear, hatred and base instincts just like Perpetua thought they would.

Snyder utilizes this bait and switch technique to show just how influential Perpetua’s evil is and how at the end of the day it will take more than just a flowery speech to turn people, especially since they watched the Justice Leagues battle the forces of Doom and lose massively. Snyder used this in Dark Nights: Metal anytime Batman thought he had a chance in defeating The Batman Who Laughs and Barbatos. They would just pull nonsense out of nowhere and further plunge our hero into despair because he couldn’t anticipate the villain’s very next five moves. I love it and hate it because it helps to show hopelessness, which I am a fan of, but Snyder does do it a bit too much for my tastes (See The Batman Who Laughs mini-series).

The next thing we see is a Rita Repulsa-esque cackle from Perpetua and honesty this might be my favorite of Jimenez’s panels because he just makes Perpetua look so petty. She’s basically saying, “Bitch, you really thought!” before explaining how everything was by her design. She wanted to give humanity a choice to hear both sides and they still chose Doom. Manhunter tried to hide his mind from her, but he failed to realize that as the creator of the Multiverse, he could never think fast enough to avoid her. Perpetua is far more powerful than these heroes could ever have anticipated.

Jimenez and Sanchez absolutely kill the next few panels as Perpetua casts away the shackles of the Totality, breaking out of the tendrils as her black cape…hair(?) causes a gust of wind to shake our heroes while the background shows varying tones of blue, almost a mockery of their ideals of hope. She stands over the Earth while the void of space appears vast around it and with a flick of her wrist and a flash of yellow she wipes the Justice League from existence. Doom truly has won and she vows to create a new story from the ashes of Hope.

Though, the universe itself has other ideas. In the black of Space, green matter begins to coalesce into a form, then that form takes shape and appears to be Martian Manhunter. Daniel Sampere, Hi-Fi and Juan Albarran take over the art from this point and pose Manhunter as if he’s in a womb, reborn after being supposedly killed by Perpetua and saved by something else. I love that Snyder places such importance on Manhunter and his humanity. Despite the insurmountable odds that the League has faced up to this point, he still does everything in his power to call back to the Earth, to try to win the people back.

He is unable to, however, and it seems as though he’s not the only one unable to use his powers as the rest of the League shows up behind him. In an awesome splash page Sampere and Albarran show everyone as wearing black bodysuits, potentially symbolizing a loss of identity or power as none of them seem to be able to use their abilities. Hawkgirl seems to be the only exception because her wings are a part of her. Superman tries to rationalize that as long as they’re not actually dead then there’s still hope, but then he fails to fly, landing back on the moon.

Another awesome thing about this issue is how it calls back to the very first issue of the run with the Quintessence showing up. The Quinessence are a group consisting of Highfather, The Phantom Stranger, Hera, The Wizard Shazam, The Spectre and Ganthet of the Guardians of Oa. They are some of the most powerful beings in the universe and even they knew that this was how things were meant to be. They saw the same vision of Doom that Martian Manunter did and saved the League in the nick of time to prepare them for what’s to come, not just a war of Justice or Doom, but for Everything.

With everything that’s been hinted at as far as the next incoming Crisis, this is a really good inciting incident as far as things go. Perpetua wins and sets up the next true war for the Multiverse. Given there’s still things to sort out with The Batman Who Laughs, the conflict is set and the Justice League has to give their all to ensure that they can protect the Universe. Superboy Prime is coming back in the pages of Shazam, Wally West has found his kids and Dark Multiverse world of his own creation and this issue even references Doomsday Clock and kinda cements its place as an alt-Universe story, but acknowledges the importance of it.

Scott Snyder has set the stage for everything to come and thanks to his fantastic art team telling the story, he drums up the feeling that there’s still a way to see Geoff Johns original vision for Rebirth through. The hope is there, the League just needs to fight for it. I can’t wait to see what Robert Venditti can do as the writer for Justice League given the amazing work he’s done with Green Lantern and The Freedom Fighters series. Doug Mahnke also taking over as main artist is also a welcome change as he’s one of my favorite of DC’s regulars as well.

This was a high recommend and I can’t wait for the future!

Best of DC: Week of January 22nd, 2020

Best of this Week: Far Sector #3 – N.K. Jemisin, Jamal Campbell and Deron Bennett

I was once told, “If we all think the same, then are we truly living?” 

That’s the question that the story of Far Sector centers around thus far as Green Lantern Sojourner “Jo” Mullein has to operate as the protector of the planet sized City of Enduring where the three dominant races, the Nah, the @At and keh-Topli, are kept in line by having their emotions stripped from them. After a murder occurs on the planet after 500 years of peace, Jo has to investigate a drug called “Switchoff” that turns off the emotional inhibitors of its users. After dancing with the handsome Councilor Marth, she discovers that the issue of Switchoff use goes far deeper than she expected.

In a brilliant scene drawn by Campbell, we see how Switchoff affects Marth and turns him from a monotone man with natural charm to a sexy, dreadlocked, high elf before our eyes. He’s a lot more relaxed and muses of his people’s past with Jo as they play a game similar to chess. He’s drawn with a wide grin that hides his inner pain and lamentation over the loss of emotional connection his past. He is lit in purple lighting signifying his higher status and he even notes that he’s not the only Councilman that’s using Switchoff.

Two of the biggest themes of this issue, compared to the others so far, are centered around the ideas of memory and the past. After Mullein leaves Marth’s presence, she heads to her home on Enduring and receives a chapter of a book from Earth that she’s been reading and confirmation that her father sent an email reply to her. This is especially strong as while she’s lying in bed, she cries while reminiscing of her childhood on Earth – watching westerns and Saturday Morning Cartoons. These are the things that brought her joy, especially hearing that her father sent her a reply. She’s so far away from home kinda misses it.

At the same time, her duty is to the City of Enduring and those in charge of it, so when she’s called to pull a little bit of crowd control, she’s a bit annoyed but accepts the task. Things are different in the City than they would be on Earth. Two sides have decided to protest against one another and the solution of the Peace Division is to kill them all in order to keep the peace. Mullein is understandably shocked, but the Peace Officers look pretty nonplussed, keeping with the idea that their emotions are heavily suppressed as no one would want to slaughter so many.

Mullein is given a choice to stop both sides before the kill order is given and she takes it. Campbell gives us many great shots of Mullein doing heroic poses before separating the two angry mobs with shields of green and looks of annoyance. It’s a great way of showing us her personality without vocal exposition. Jemisin contributes to this by showing us Jo’s thoughts on peaceful resolution, saying that her dad talked about two kinds of peace in her youth: temporary peace by shutting conflict (with a note asking readers to look up Martin Luther King Jr.) and peace made when people get what they want and need.

I take a small bit of umbridge with her thoughts because Dr. King’s methods did eventually lead to widespread change if not also due to his martyrdom, but I might be reading Jo’s words wrong or taking them to heart when I need not.

Mullein actually tries peaceful conflict resolution by asking both sides what they’re arguing about with one side saying they’re against Switchoff users because emotions caused the “Burnover,” a war between the three races. The other side argues that emotions aren’t the problem, aliens are. Neither side wants to acknowledge that it’s the races themselves and their inability to take personal responsibility that’s the real problem. When one of the aliens complains about the Switchoff users being criminals and wanting to respect law and order, jo flashes back to racial injustices that she potentially witnessed on Earth.

I have to hand it to Jemisin for how she chose Mullein to handle the situation. Instead of saying that both sides have points, her thoughts lead her to asking the Switchoff users to make demands to The Council, saying that the emotionless way had been tried for thousands of years so it’s time to give the other side some shine too. Mullein comes off as someone that wants to promote real change instead of being a fence sitter and it’s actually kind of inspiring. She acknowledges the dangers of following the law and order as they have been forever and wants to protect the people of Enduring from the same.

Unfortunately for her, the time to get the crowds to disperse ends and the kill order is given. Jemisin and Campbell do an amazing job of showing how frantic Mullein is as she tries to get the Peace Officers to stop, with Deron Bennett’s lettering the emphasis of certain words are made paramount as Mullein rushes to reach the Officers. Shots are pulled in close to her face to show the frustration and fear in her eyes as she realizes there’s nothing that she can do to stop it after hearing who ordered the firing.

Campbell ends the issue with two amazing pages: One showing the Peace Officers firing indiscriminately into the crowd. The page is colored with intense red hues from the weapons. The faceless Officers stand firm in their actions and the people are screaming and cowering as the beams violently blast through them. It’s a horrifying scene, even more so as Lantern Mullein watches on in horror before it turns to absolute rage. Earlier she mentioned how she can’t and won’t fight cops, indicating some traumatic incident in her past or her currently being a space cop, but that is thrown out of the window after seeing this injustice.

Campbell then gives us a taste of Mullein’s willpower as she slams down in the middle of everything and prepares to fight. 

This was a really strong issue and showcased a little bit more of Mullein’s past while also expanding on the social unrest on the City of Enduring. Even though emotions are supposed to be stripped from the people, the tensions still run high between them all, suggesting that things might not be as on the level as even the people believe. I definitely want to learn more about Marth and the other Councilmen given the new knowledge that  the aren’t even following their own laws. N.K. Jemisin has crafted a very interesting story with a compelling lead that I can’t wait to get more of, especially with Jamal Campbell drawing her every month.

Absolutely high recommend.

Best of DC: Week of January 8th, 2020

Best of this Week: Batman and the Outsiders #9 – Bryan Hill, Dexter Soy, Veronica Gandini and Clayton Cowles

Ra’s al Ghul wins when he’s able to convince you that his methods are the right ones.

That’s the unfortunate lesson that Jefferson Pierce, Black Lightning, is forced to learn when one of his closest friends is killed at the behest of Ra’s al Ghul. The book opens with Jefferson thinking back to when he met his professional colleague, Tina McClintock. She was one of the first people to welcome him to his position as Principal in Metropolis, sticking by him even after he leaves to work Gotham. Dexter Soy draws these scenes with friendly intimacy, showing them growing as friends and colorist Veronica Gandini mutes most of the colors in the flashback, but emphasizes Tina’s distinct red hair.

We then cut to a somber splash page with Jefferson standing by her half burned corpse with his head down in despair. It’s a powerful scene as it’s the first time he’s experienced such a close loss because of his superhero identity and with it being so close to home, his anger and sadness is palpable through the page. Dexter Soy does an amazing job of inking shadows for effect and Gandini makes excellent use of lighting to show the gravity of the situation.

Batman shows up soon after to inform Jefferson that it might be the work of one of Ra’s people and tries to ease his allies anger, but Jefferson isn’t having it. Jefferson acknowledges his anger and how much we wants to kill Ra’s for what he’s done, but this causes him and Batman to have a small clash. Instead of being firm with Jefferson about things, Batman tries to console him by repeating what Jeff told him in an earlier Detective Comics arc; That “It’s not his fault.” Jefferson abdicates leadership of The Outsiders team to Katana before taking some time off to clear his head.

One of the best things about this story is the continuing friendship being built between Katana and Black Lightning. As soon as he leaves the hospital, she is there waiting for him to get a feel of his headspace. Gandini colors the afternoon sky with a simmering orange, as if to emphasize Jefferson’s bubbling rage. Katana understands his anger, his want to kill because, unlike Batman, she has no reservations about it. She knows that Jeff is the glue that holds the team together and does her best to keep him from turning to the dark.

The two walk and talk for awhile and Jefferson explains how he’s tried to avoid violence all of his life.That’s always been one of the core aspects of Black Lightning’s character – the idea that he wants to be a positive influence on his community when there’s been so much violence in and around him for years. That’s why he decided to go into teaching, to help keep the youths of his neighborhoods from falling into the darkness that he’s now slowly being consumed by. Katana doesn’t even disagree that Ra’s deserves to die, but clarifies that Jefferson is the best of them and if he falls, then they all do. She reminds him that The Outsiders will be there to stop Ra’s and whatever he has planned.

Meanwhile, Orphan and The Signal, Cassandra Cain and Duke Thomas respectively, are testing out Duke’s new powers over darkness in Metropolis. They manage to take down a local drug dealer together, but then Batman confronts them for keeping secrets, something he does all the time. Soy and Gandini do a lot for this scene as far as possible symbolism goes. One single street light shines down on Batman insinuating he’s right, but his face is covered in shadow. He’s also positioned above Duke and Cass with a bit of distance between them, showing a divide as he talks down to them.

As Bruce is in the middle of dressing down his kids, Superman appears to talk about everything going on with Jefferson. This is pretty cool as it’s not often that we see Superman involvement in Batman stories like this. Bruce tries to tell Superman that none of this is his business, but Superman counters that he’s heard everything and they both know that Ra’s is far more dangerous than Bruce is thinking right now. Superman asks Bruce to change how he goes about things, just this once as to not hurt Jefferson or the kids before flying away.

Unfortunately for Batman, the rest of his Outsiders are already thinking about changing things up as Bruce’s methods aren’t working out as well as they expected. Duke and Cass decide to seek Shiva out for a final confrontation and to stop trying to live up to Batman’s ideal. I kinda like this shift for Duke as it shows him taking a route that Dick Grayson did many years ago. At the same time, Katana and Jefferson finish their talk and also want to take the fight directly to Ra’s.

This issue of Batman and the Outsiders was heavy on the emotion. The last time I’d even seen Black Lightning even close to as angry as this had to have been in the mid-2000s Justice League of America. I’m glad that Bryan Hill is giving him dimensions other than uplifting and determined.

It’s okay to be angry, especially after a tragedy like this. The same can be said for the puberty analogue of Duke’s changing powers and Cassandra’s want to not be treated like a broken kid anymore. With Dexter Soy’s amazing art and Veronica Gandini’s expert colors, this book is an absolute high recommend.