Green Arrow (2001 Series) #46

January 10, 2005

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Teamwork

There’s a new Speedy in town… and it’s time for her to join the Teen Titans!

Writer: Judd Winick
Pencils: Tom Fowler
Inks: Rodney Ramos
Colors: Guy Major
Letters: Rob Leigh
Editor: Bob Schreck
Cover Art: James Jean
Publisher: DC Comics

For casual Green Arrow fans or Teen Titans readers thinking of picking up this issue just so you don’t miss an important development for your own favorite title, fear not. This is a good, solid, done-in-one issue that seamlessly integrates the new Speedy into the ranks of DC’s underage superstars.

Now that Ollie Queen has agreed to let Mia take up the bow and arrow as the new Speedy, he’s decided that she needs a bit more interaction with her peers to balance her out, so taking a cue from Superman, Batman and the Flash, he sees to it that his younger counterpart joins the Teen Titans. She meets the team and is put through a test before being allowed to try to mesh with her new teammates… but will she grow to trust them with her biggest secret?

This is a pure character issue – there’s almost no fighting (save for a nice action scene at the beginning) and a fun “training sequence,” but for the most part it’s a simple story. It’s the New Girl in School trying the make friends. And it works very, very well.

Tom Fowler and Rodney Ramos take over the art chores this issue, and they’ve got big shoes to fill. Phil Hester and Ande Parks really made this comic their own over the past few years. Fortunately, the new team is solid in their own right. They have more of a classic style, reminding me somewhat of the likes of Joe Staton, but that’s a good thing. I’m admittedly not crazy about the new Speedy costume, but it could have been worse.

Overall, it’s a good done-in-one story that GA or TT fans will want to pick up, because there’s something here for all of you.

Rating: 8/10

Batman #623

January 27, 2004

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Broken City Part Four

Batman tracks down some new hoods in Gotham town.

Writer: Brian Azzarello
Art: Eduardo Risso
Colors: Patricia Mulvihill
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Will Dennis & Bob Schreck
Cover Art: Dave Johnson
Publisher: DC Comics

It took getting halfway into the “Broken City” story arc, but I finally feel like Brian Azzarello is starting to get a feel for Batman. But just starting. For the first three issues, this hasn’t felt right, and I think I’ve figured out why. It isn’t so much a matter of things being wrong (although there are some things that are wrong, but more about that in a minute), but it’s a matter of things being out of place. Batman is a character with many interpretations, and DC, for some time, has wisely split those interpretations among his various titles. This feels more like a story arc for Detective Comics than it does for Batman, which has traditionally focused on the more superheroic elements of the character.

Even when he’s being a superhero, Batman is still a detective, of course, but different stories can focus on different aspects of this character. That said, I enjoyed this fourth installment of “Broken City” better than the previous three — Batman seems a little less smarmy than he has before, and the inclusion of the new hoods Fatman and Little Boy adds a lot. These two characters feel like they could have stepped out of a great pulp novel or film noir, and they fit in the universe that Azzarello is creating quite well.

There are still some things that don’t work for me, though. This is still hands-down the worst interpretation of Killer Croc I have ever read, and the Batman in the fight scenes doesn’t feel right. Batman has always been, to me, a character who knows how to be violent and uses it as a necessary too. This Batman seems to relish in it, goad it on, and that doesn’t sit right with me, even if I accept this as a “detective” story rather than a Batman story.

Risso’s art, however, remains very good and very suited to the character. It looks like a great old-fashioned crime movie, and that’s definitely the feel the writer is going for. These two make a very good team and have for some time on 100 Bullets.

People are still enjoying this story arc, and more power to you if you are. It’s still not totally working for me, though, and with two issues left, I feel like I’m just sort of marking time until the next creative team comes on.

Rating: 7/10

Detective Comics #790

December 7, 2004

Quick Rating: Good
Title:Scarification & The Tailor Part 2

A new designer drug is polluting Gotham – so why is the Batman taking it so personally?

Writer: Anderson Gabrych & A.J. Lieberman
Pencils: Pete Woods & Jean-Jacques Dzialowski
Inks: Cam Smith & Dan Green
Colors: Jason Wright & Giulia Brusco
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Bob Schreck & Matt Idelson
Cover Art: Tim Sale & Mark Chiarello
Publisher: DC Comics

This done-in-one story is one of the better issues of Detective Comics that’s been put out in quite some time. A new drug called G.H.D has been on the streets for three weeks and it’s already claimed 16 young lives. Batman, of course, is hot on the trail of the source, but he’s acting far more aggressively than even he usually does, and Batgirl wants to know why.

Although Detective Comics is really where Batman should get the best mystery tales, this issue is much more of a character study than anything else. We get a nice insight into why Batman reacts a certain way to crimes like this one, and it’s a bit that makes perfect sense. It also finally sheds a little light on a plotline that’s been dangling in the Bat-family titles for far too long – why Batman “fired” Spoiler some time ago. Fans of Stephanie Brown who want to know why Bruce doesn’t want her going out in her mask anymore really should read this issue.

Pete Woods, hot off a decent run as the Robin penciller, tells a good story in this issue. An early splash page at the coroner’s office is suitably gruesome, and his bits with Batman and Batgirl swinging across the rooftops is especially good. Colorist Jason Wright deserves credit here as well – he employs a very dark palette, mostly a mixture of blues and browns, that give the issue a very hardboiled look.

The second part of future Batman: Gotham Knights writer A.J. Lieberman’s “The Tailor” is our back-up story in this issue, and again, it’s a good one. It focuses less on Batman and more on a man who makes costumes and weaponry for the superhero and supervillain set, and what he does when the crime of one of his clients hits too close to home. If that sounds familiar, it’s because J. Michael Straczynski did a similar story in Amazing Spider-Man just a couple of weeks ago, but with a far more humorous bent – this is a very different tale, and you shouldn’t be put off by the familiar premise.

This is not a great Batman issue, but a solid one, and one that most Batman fans will be pretty much satisfied with.

Rating: 7/10

Caper #2

November 23, 2003

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Market Street Part Two

Izzy and Jacob Weiss re-evaluate their position in the mob in the wake of last issue’s killing.

Writer: Judd Winick
Art: Farel Dalrymple
Colors: Guy Major
Letters: Rob Leigh
Editor: Bob Schreck
Cover Art: Farel Dalrymple
Publisher: DC Comics

Again, DC, I must ask – why is this not a Vertigo title? A brutal, bloody, graphic tale of the turn-of-the-century Jewish mafia… this is a title that would really stretch the boundaries of the imprint, but instead it’s got a DC Bullet and a “mature readers” stamp on it.

It was only marginally impressed by the debut issue of this title, but the second issue takes a turn that makes it much more interesting to me. The story of the Weiss brothers, in the first issue, seemed like a fairly generic hitman story. In this issue we get the added twist of making it a love story too.

Jacob Weiss had been having an affair with the wife of Myron Gomberg, a simple bagman in Boss Cohen’s mob until his death in the first issue. What we didn’t know is that Cohen, the man who was like a father to the Weiss boys, had his eye on Rachel Gomberg himself – who, by the way, is pregnant, and the child may be Jacob’s.

The turn of events in the issue inevitably reminds me of DC’s other great crime drama of the past few years, Max Allen Collins’s Road to Perdition. By the end of this issue the Weiss brothers seem to have decided to embark upon a path very similar to Michael O’Sullivan. This isn’t a bad thing — Perdition was a fantastic comic book. I just hope that Winick keeps pulling the tricks out of his hat and making this a different story than any of the stories that it echoes right now.

Dalrymple is proving himself to be a really great artist for crime dramas. The characters have realistic form and anatomy, the coloring and style is very film noir. After this, I’m more interested to see issue #3 than I was to see this issue after the first one, and that’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Rating: 7/10

Detective Comics #789

December 2, 2003

Quick Rating: Good
Title: The Randori Stone Part Two & The Tailor Part One

Juiced up on the power of the Randori Stone, Batman goes on a tear through Gotham City’s underworld.

Writers: Paul Bolles & A.J. Lieberman
Pencils: Mike Lilly & Jean-Jacques Dzialowski
Inks: Dan Davis & Dan Green
Colors: Jason Wright & Giulia Brusco
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Bob Schreck & Matt Idelson
Cover Art: Tim Sale & Mark Chiarello
Publisher: DC Comics

I thought part one of “The Randori Stone” was a fairly generic Batman Vs. Magic storyline, and part two didn’t change my mind about that. Batman, high on the power of the stone, cuts through the Gotham mob as an almost unstoppable juggernaut, much crueler and harsher than he normally behaves. The ending of this issue is absolutely no surprise, which is the problem with telling this sort of story. There are some things that Batman just doesn’t do, and if the story hinges on teasing the reader with the idea that he might, it will always be a letdown when he doesn’t.

I was quite impressed with Mike Lilly’s artwork in this issue, however. I really like his interpretation of Batman, drawing a much more utilitarian costume than you see from your standard “superhero” artists. He allows you to see the ridges and the seams – all in all, it looks much more realistic, and it’s a look I find I really like.

The bright spot in this issue was the back-up story by A.J. Lieberman, whom I believe has been tapped to take over Batman: Gotham Knights in a few months. If this story is indicative of his work on that title, I’m tempted to take it up again. In “The Tailor,” Batman is faced with a crook in some sort of incredibly powerful body armor. Batman knows he can’t stop the man himself, so he turns to the man who makes the best body armor in the business to help him find a weak point.

Batman is a character who knows a little about everything, but that means he simply can’t know everything about everything. So, like every great detective from Sherlock Holmes to Ruse’s Simon Archard, he has a cadre of “agents” to call on for specialized tasks and information. This story introduces us to another of those agents, one who isn’t quite as squeaky-clean as most of them. This is a guy who apparently cares about only one thing other than money, and it is that one thing that will be his driving force.

The cover of this book, I must say, is also very good. Tim Sale could draw every Batman cover from now until the heat death at the end of the universe, and I’d be perfectly happy. I just wish the image actually related to the story inside — of course, a generic cover for a generic story. Why not? If only you weren’t paying most of the cover price for the lackluster main story, I’d have no trouble giving this book a much higher recommendation.

Rating: 7/10

(2010 Note: Lieberman did wind up taking over Gotham Knights, but his run didn’t quite live up to this short story.)

Batman: City of Light #3

December 1, 2003

Quick Rating: Average

Batman sits vigil for a comatose boy while attacks on Gotham City call Batgirl to the fray..

Writer: The Pander Brothers & Mark Paniccia
Pencils: The Pander Brothers
Inks: Alvaro Lopez
Colors: Moose Baumann
Letters: Janice Chiang
Editor: Bob Schreck
Cover Art: The Pander Brothers & Moose Baumann
Publisher: DC Comics

Coming in on the third issue of a miniseries is never the best idea, but this one gives me enough to sort of piece the story together. Batman’s city is falling apart, with Wayne Industries holdings apparently being the target of malicious bombings. Batman is out of the game, though, sitting at the side of a hospitalized boy whose chances for survival appear slim. It seems this is one child Batman could not save.

Batgirl takes up the slack, investigating the bombings and finding cryptic, glowing clues. Meanwhile, a developer that is responsible for a glowing “Neo-Gotham” is plotting to demonstrate the dark side of the city. The Neo-Gotham is plaguing the Batman somehow, taking up residence in his mind, starting to control him.

This story has a weird sci-fi angle that isn’t my favorite for Batman. The artwork, however is rather good. The Pander Brothers draw a suitably dark Batman, while still doing a good job with the brilliant light-city of Neo-Gotham.

It’s nice to see some use getting made of Batgirl – something to ground this special in the current DCU as opposed to the nebulous, in-between time that a lot of Batman miniseries seem to occupy.

This isn’t a bad book, but it doesn’t really seem to add too much to the Batman saga either. In the end, it unfortunately feels like just another miniseries.

Rating: 5/10

Batman #621

November 23, 2003

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Broken City Part Two

Batman continues to seek a murderer whose most recent crime strikes too close to home.

Writer: Brian Azzarello
Art: Eduardo Risso
Colors: Patricia Mulvihill
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Will Dennis & Bob Schreck
Cover Art: Dave Johnson
Publisher: DC Comics

This issue is a step up from the first part of “Broken City,” but I’m still not in love with the arc. Batman is looking for a killer who slaughtered a mother and father, but left their young son alive. The hero is written more in-character this issue than last issue, but some scenes still strike me as odd at best. As nice as it is to see the Gotham City PD being put to good use in a title beyond their own excellent Gotham Central, I have a very difficult time swallowing a scene where Batman calls up Det. Crispin Allen to discuss the crime and winds up swapping grilling tips. I just kept asking myself, “This is Batman?”

Killer Croc is another big problem – while some people complained about his mutated form in the “Hush” story arc, I found that preferable to the current hairy, sleazy pimp incarnation that we’re treated to in this story… which brings us to the story overall. How many times, over the past 60 years, have we had a story where Batman sees parents get murdered and broods over his own origins?

Azzarello does have a good writing style, I’d never deny that. His captions and dialogue read like an old Raymond Chandler potboiler novel, which is to say, like a classic detective story. It just doesn’t feel like a classic Batman story to me.

Risso is a much better fit for this book, fortunately. He draws a wonderful, shadowy Gotham City, essential for a town that is a character in its own right. His Batman, while clearly inspired by Frank Miller, looks very good. The character looks tough, but not superhuman. The fight scenes are good and detailed.

This is a book that looks better than it reads these days. Fortunately, we’re only two stories into the six-issue arc. There’s still time for it to get better.

Rating: 7/10

Caper #1

October 27, 2003

Quick Rating: Average
Title: Market Street Part One

Two young Jewish brothers at the turn of the century make a name for themselves in the mob.

Writer: Judd Winick
Art: Farel Dalrymple
Colors: Guy Major
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Bob Schreck
Cover Art: Farel Dalrymple
Publisher: DC Comics

Can somebody, anybody explain to me why this isn’t a Vertigo title? Books like Empire and Fallen Angel, I can almost understand why they keep them under the DC Bullet, but with this book, I don’t comprehend it. We’ve got all the good hallmarks of a “mature readers” comic – sex, violence, language – but we’re not in the pioneer “mature readers” imprint. It makes no sense to me.

Winick tells a good, if not totally original, crime drama. Izzy and Jacob Weiss enter the world of organized crime when they balance the scales for their father’s death in a shockingly cold fashion. All grown up, they get mixed up in a conflict with the potential to explode into a mob war.

Winick delves into something I’ve never really seen get attention in crime dramas before – a Jewish mafia. It isn’t something that necessarily springs to mind in a genre usually dominated by Italian stereotypes, and it gives this title its most interesting twist.

Dalrymple is a new name to me, but I rather like his dark, rough style in this book. It fits the story well, although his portrayal of the Weiss boys can’t help but bring to mind images of the Blues Brothers.

It’s nice to see Winick branching out into this very atypical story for him. I suspect we’ll have to wait for the end of this 12-issue miniseries to determine how successful an experiment this is for him.

Rating: 5/10

Green Lantern #170 (1990 Series)

October 25, 2003

Quick Rating: Poor
Title: Greetings From Sector 2814

Kyle Rayner sends a message home to the friends he left on Earth, forcing Jade to decide exactly what she wants to say back.

Writer: Benjamin Raab
Pencils: Chris McLoughlin
Inks: David Roach
Colors: Moose Baumann
Letters: Kurt Hathaway
Editor: Bob Schreck
Cover Art: Ariel Olivetti
Publisher: DC Comics

In one of my favorite novels, The Princess Bride, William Goldman writes with the conceit that he is abridging another writer’s work. At one point, he “abridges” an entire chapter because nothing happened in it. The chapter was summed up as, “What with one thing or another, five years passed.”

The best way to sum up Green Lantern #170 is to say, “What with one thing or another, two weeks passed.”

Absolutely nothing happens in this issue. Lianna, the Amazonian Guardian of the Universe, comes to Earth with a message from self-exiled Green Lantern Kyle Rayner. The first half of this issue is Kyle’s message, during which he recaps everything that has happened to him in the past dozen issues or so. In the second half of the book, Kyle’s friends record their messages to him, in which they recap everything that has happened to them in the past dozen issues or so. At the end of the issue, absolutely nothing has changed. The one effort at development in the last three pages just hits the readers over the head with a point that anyone who has read the last two issues knew already.

McLoughlin’s artwork is passable, but many of the characters look way too old, particularly Jade and the Flash, whose costume was also off-model. On the plus side, we do get a beautiful cover by Ariel Olivetti, which is the only new thing in the entire issue.

Perhaps this was an effort to provide a jump-on point for new readers. Every title needs that once in a while. The trick is to do that in such a way that doesn’t make regular readers feel like they’ve blown $2.25 on 22 pages of information they already knew.

Rating: 3/10

Detective Comics #788

November 2, 2003

Quick Rating: Average
Title: The Randori Stone Part One & The Dogcatcher Part Four

A convicted murderer gets juiced up with superpowers and begins cutting a path of destruction through Gotham City.

Writers: Paul Bolles & Rick Spears
Pencils: Mike Lilly & Rob G.
Inks: Sean Parsons, Dan Davis & Rob G.
Colors: Jason Wright & Guy Major
Letters: Clem Robins & Janice Chiang
Editor: Bob Schreck & Matt Idelson
Cover Art: Tim Sale & Mark Chiarello
Publisher: DC Comics

This title has felt essentially rudderless ever since Ed Brubaker stepped down from the writing chores, and this two-part storyline screams “fill-in” to me. It’s an average Batman story that does not appear as though it will carry any real changes or consequences to the Batman family. A man, jailed for the murder of his wife, somehow gets incredible strength and invulnerability but goes into a rage, tearing a swath through Gotham on his way to exact revenge from the people who put him behind bars. It’s almost like watching Batman fight the Hulk, only without the attention a crossover would get.

It’s an okay story, but it’s nothing really special or original, and it really feels like the title is just marking time until a regular writer can come aboard. On the other hand, Bolles writes a good interpretation of Batman, far more in-character then the one that Brian Azzarello presented us a few weeks ago.

Spear’s “Dogcatcher” backup story, which ends in this issue, is another matter. It’s been pretty amusing – a dogcatcher finds a dog he suspects belongs to the Joker, and is forced to put it to sleep, even while terrified that the crazed clown will bring down his wrath upon him. This short tale came to a very satisfying conclusion, although I didn’t care for Rob G.’s interpretation of the Joker – he looked even more cartoony, somehow, then the version we’ve seen in the animated series.

Rating: 5/10