Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Batman
I think Batman’s a pretty awesome character, but most of his comics are, at best, light entertainment. I don’t think they’re worth $4 each or whatever. However I recently found a bunch of cheap trades. So here are reviews of them (in chronological order).
Writer: Mike W. Barr
Artist: Jerry Bingham
This was pretty fun. It wasn’t really a Batman story though, it was really more of an action movie that Batman happened to be in (Rodney says it’s an eighties action movie, as the comic was made in the eighties and he’s seen more eighties action movies then me who am I to argue?). The story is kind of bizarre. Batman and his enemy Ra's Al Ghul team up to fight some terrorists and stuff. It’s pretty forgettable honestly, but really fun at the same time. The end was pretty bizarre though. Batman has a kid? What? Has that been crisised out of existence? (Ah, Wikipedia explains that this is an Elseworlds comic).
Batman: Night Cries
Writer: Archie Goodwin
Artist: Scott Hampton
While this looks really nice it is not what I want from a Batman comic. I do not think that superhero comics are really the place to deal with real life issues. And while child abuse is a serious issue that has to be dealt with, dealing with it in a Batman comic seems kind of wrong. I want my Batman comics to be escapist fiction; I just want Batman to fight super villains. When he faces real events I think it, to some extent, makes these real events seem less real and thus less serious.
Batman: Crimson Mists
Writer: Doug Moench
Artist: Kelley Jones
This is the third part of an Elseworlds series where Batman fights Dracula and becomes a vampire. I read the first part of this a few years ago, but I don’t remember it (My memory is atrocious). However that I don’t remember the first volume, and never read the second volume doesn’t really matter, as this volume manages to sum up the previous volumes and lets the reader know what’s going on. So what is going on? Well Batman’s out of action and the super-villains from the normal Batman universe have been running amuck. Batman is brought back by Alfred to fight this menace, and fight he does, brutally killing a number of these super-villains. Batman is giving into his bloodlust and is afraid he’s going to start killing innocents. Two-Face, Killer Croc, Alfred and Commissioner Gordon must team up and destroy Batman. The story’s pretty good, though the art is of different quality. While one panel will look really awesome, the next one will look really bad. It seems sort of odd really. Worth what I paid at least.
Labels: comics
