Batman and Robin #25

August 13, 2011

Title: The Streets Run Red Part 3: Boys’ Night Out

Writer: Judd Winick
Art: Greg Tocchini & Andy Smith
Colorist: Artur Fujita
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau
Cover Artist: Guillem March
Editor: Mike Marts
Publisher: DC Comics

Red Hood’s twisted partner, Scarlet, has been captured and held hostage by someone with a grudge against Jason Todd. As he comes to the rescue, though, he’s got two unwilling partners by his side – Batman and Robin.

Judd Winick, the writer who brought Jason back from the dead and has probably done most of the work with the character since then, finishes off this three-issue story by contrasting Jason and Dick Grayson, Batman. It’s a fair enough point of contrast – Jason harbors a deep hatred for Dick that is understandable, if not justifiable. And the end of this story places Jason in an interesting place – he’s certainly not part of the Batman “family” anymore, but he can’t entirely separate himself from them either. The unfortunate thing is that the book really doesn’t have anything terribly new to say about any of the characters involved, and in fact, sets up a status quo for Jason that it seems will be negated by the time his new Red Hood and the Outlaws title launches in the new DC Universe in September. (It feels kind of unfair to judge these books in view of a relaunch that hasn’t happened yet, but it’s also practically impossible not to do so.)

The book has its moments, but not really enough of them to make it an easy recommendation.

Rating: 7/10

Ms. Marvel (2006 Series) #11

January 4, 2007

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Doomsday
Rating: A

The Doomsday Man returns, and wants revenge on Carol.

Writer: Brian Reed
Pencils: Roberto De La Torre
Inks: Jon Sibal
Colors: Chris Sotomayor
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Bill Rosemann & Warren Simons
Cover Art: Travel Foreman
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Carol finally gets a chance to have an honest-to-gosh, old fashioned date. Not with another superhero, not with a secret agent, but with an ordinary guy who seems pretty darn good for her. (This means there’s at least a 75 percent chance he’ll turn out to be a supervillain three issues from now, but I digress.) Her date is ruined, however, when her old enemy Doomsday Man breaks out of his confinement deep in an AIM base, seeking revenge.

Brian Reed has done a good job with this comic, juggling the elements of Carol’s previous incarnations with the issues of the current Marvel Universe. Doomsday Man couldn’t pick a worse time to pop up again, which of course makes it the best time to bring him into the story. I also find that I’ve really started to the enjoy the unlikely mentor/sidekick relationship Carol is developing with Arana, whom I’ve never actually been a fan of before. She really seems to work in this book though. I believe her as a young hero who sees Carol as somebody to look up to, and I like how Carol has taken her under her wing.

De La Torre and Sibal’s artwork seems just a little off this issue – not as clean or succinct as usual. Most of the book is fine, but there are a few scenes that look a little sketchy, particularly the date scene. The writing in that scene is great, but the faces don’t quite work and the poses are sort of awkward.

The character dynamics alone makes this a worthwhile issue, even if the art isn’t quite up to snuff.

Rating: 8/10

Hack/Slash (2007 Series) #7

March 2, 2008

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Tub Club Part Three
Rating: MR

The queen of the “Tub Club” makes her big move!

Writer: Tim Seeley
Art: Rebekah Isaacs
Colors: Andrew Dalhouse
Letters: Crank!
Design: Sean K. Dove
Editor: Mike O’Sullivan
Cover Art: Tim Seeley & Wes Dzioba (Cover A); Emily Stone (Cover B)
Publisher: Devil’s Due Publishing

The “Tub Club” storyline reaches a rousing conclusion this issue (pun intended). Cassie has managed to track down one of the girls involved in the bizarre blood cult that has resulted in a brutal killing on the campus of Franco-Belle University. Cassie winds up joining a fairly impressive strike force in hunting down the demonic enemy that has headed up the “Tub Club,” intending nothing more than to use the girls to further her own power.

This is what I love to see out of Hack/Slash – a great horror movie put to film. While the book still keeps the flavor of the sort of goofy slasher flicks that served as its inspiration, this story (for all its T&A) has been far more vicious than your typical slasher movie these days. The parent genre has become engulfed in self-parody. Hack/Slash is bringing it back to its roots.

Rebekah Isaacs’s artwork really is the perfect compliment to Tim Seeley’s story. She handles all the requisite horror movie elements with aplomb – the monsters, the gore, the shapely young females… all of it. Seeley himself contributes one of this issue’s two covers, and while both are good, I think I prefer his to Emily Stone’s, which is a nice image of Cassie and Georgia in a sort of yin-yang pose. Seeley’s cover has more energy to it, though, more of a sense of menace, and that really works well for this book.

Another fine issue, with a nice, bittersweet ending. I continue to love this book.

Rating: 8/10