“Depths" (part 2)

Plot: Gail Simone's two titles converge, though it took me until the end of the issue and a special guest star to realize that's where she was going with the grim fate of her cover star this issue.

Comments: The world of the Amazons and the world of the Six would seem mutually exclusive. Immortal warriors who consort with gods, and the vilest profiteers of DC's criminal world would seem unlikely crossover allies. But in this story about human debasement, Simone has found a way to make it work, as guest star Artemis delivers a lesson even while bound in chains.

This issue backs off a little from the depravity of the previous issue, where we saw an enslaved abductee lose her mind as her masters instigated a senseless slaughter, only to be used as a pawn and object lesson by said overlords to prove a point to their newly hired enforcers, the Six. It was Deadshot who killed her at the boss's demand last issue, though this issue he seems to agree with his teammates that such an act (killing a helpless slave taunted with freedom) was dishonorable. At least he chooses the disposal of her corpse as a duty he must carry out himself, much to the consternation of his new employers. Such menial labor from the new stars undermines their show of authority. It's in Deadshot's determination to risk his life to make his point that we find the true worth of this title, and Simone's ability to depict this very seedy offshoot of the DC world.

Also telling is the willingness of his teammates to spring to his aid, despite overwhelming odds. This is a formidable team and their very existence is an argument against the counter-proposed society of their new employers. Who, put simply, want to achieve new cultural heights to compare to the wonders of world on the backs of (randomly chosen) slaves, and have built a prison to make it happen. Simone is probing similar terrain to Marvel's Civil War here, which also had a hidden prison to restrain super-powered dissidents.

It's sort of strange how the Skrull invasion so easily undid the themes of Civil War, as one could pretend that so many human failures were actually Skrull manipulations, after the fact. No such easy out here in DC, where Darkseid's infection was already an outside force. Instead we have a world of criminals caught up in survival mode, facing a succession of madmen who lack their practicality but make up for it in ruthless pursuit of their twisted goals.

Artemis puts it all very clearly to one of her jailors, and the team that was so willing to support Deadshot is ripped apart by a disagreement over whether to rescue her. Jeannette acts without sanction to free her, despite the history between sirens and Amazons. Simone has certainly perfected the art of the cliffhanger, and she uses it in this book often as a way to balance between two extreme approaches. Just when I think she's pushed the DC style further into moral relativism than it should go, she re-grounds the book in DC's most basic lore.

Or maybe I just love how difficult it is for Ragdoll to make any sense at all of his surroundings, as his own moral judgments are as alien as they are consistent to a logic all his own. His position as ironic Greek chorus is always amusing.

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"The Best Radioactive Man Event Ever!" (part 3)

Lindsey Nagle's and Krusty's plans for Radioactive Man stand revealed. Bart responds by taking matters into his own hands.

Batton Lash concludes this slash at Big Two shenanigans with a satisfying finish that demonstrates one of my favorite criticisms about comic books. I have used this particular gross insult in several reviews, and Bart's execution exhibits imagination and energy.

The clever ending takes advantage of the flexible reality of Springfield. The Simpsons universe is a kind of surreal Mayberry where lemonade stands are normal, as are nuclear power plants. At the same time, Lash recognizes legalities of the broader world and finds a simple means to avoid the likely outcome of such impishness.

Tone Rodriquez, Andrew Pepoy and Art Villanueva work over time by providing numerous never before seen denizens of the small town. They combine these figures with familiar faces and transmogrify all in the Matt Groening model for the series.

The artists do not just fill the panels with Radioactive Man speculators. They also amuse through the smug body language of Nagle, living in her dream world, that leads to her harsh comeuppance, accompanied by Krusty's wild takes. They also display Bart's cunning in expressions that create an illusion of three dimensions rather than simple flat cartooning.

"The Best Radioactive Man Event Ever!" certainly lives up to its name. Batton Lash and the art team delivered a fascinating story that played with Big Stupid Event conventions and tailored a tale with universal comic book appeal that worked smoothly in the world of The Simpsons.

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"Colossus!"

A sea captain nets something unusual. A giant squid thing decides to sample his crew. The odd figure from the net proves to be a boon for the seamen and we learn a little about this strange being.

Thomas Hall and Daniel Bradford tap the Mike Mignola Hellboy vibe for R13. Hellboy and R13 share a number of reduced characteristics. Both are men of action. Both seem to have rather normal temperaments, and both are far from normal.

R13, if that is his name, is best described as a thinking tin can automaton with a skull confined in fishbowl for a head. It's too early to tell whether he is a cyborg, a supernatural being, or alien. Whatever his origin, he acts quickly and energetically. His instincts appear to be good and his strength impressive.

His origins bear a slight resemblance to Frankenstein's monster. I do not know, and the story does not reveal, whether or not the well-dressed gentleman in R13’s memories is his creator, but the gent’s abandonment of the character does strike a familiar chord.

In terms of artwork, Bradford definitely emulates Mignola. His use of shadows is an obvious similarity, but I would also point out the pacing and the simplicity of design as others. It's fitting that Bradford found a home at Dark Horse.

R13 relates a stand-alone story of robot versus Kraken. Additionally, it whets the appetite with an opening chapter in the origin of the android and Bradford's swiftly staged artwork makes it an easy morsel to swallow.

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"Retreat"

Public opinion is against them. The demons have decided to organize. Twilight still wants to put the Slayers in their proper places. It's time to regroup and retreat. Whedon has very cleverly set up a definite challenge for Buffy and her army.

I did not enjoy the execution of Espenson's pivotal Buffy the Vampire Slayer chapter. It dropped Harmony in Hollywood and exposed vampires to the world. The bulk of the story was too much of an insider's joke. However, the tale served as a catalyst to Whedon's long game. I am still foggy on what his long game happens to be and have seldom been able to dope these far reaching schemes in the past. Whedon slew the only character that logically could not die at the end of the fifth season. After that, all bets were off.

I know what Whedon will not do. Whedon is not going to make Buffy the Chosen One again. Emphasis on the one. Whedon found loopholes in the Chosen One rule early. He killed Buffy at the end of the first season. Her death triggered the birth of Kendra the Slayer. Kendra's death called Faith. Thus, early on, there were always two Slayers operating simultaneously in the series about the Chosen One. Making Buffy the only Slayer would be a massive step backward and Whedon never walks that way.

Several Slayers die in this issue. Most of the deaths are impersonal. The artwork made me feel some sorrow, but I did not really know these Slayers. They were part of Buffy's army. They died like warriors. That is how a Slayer should die. The authors do give a few newer Slayers personality in dialogue and they have Jeanty focus on their demises. It may surprise some readers, but this tiny bit of concentration is enough. Just a touch of Espenson's and Whedon's characterization and/or the art team's attentiveness is all that's necessary for a harder felt impact. Such feeling is a testament to the creative team's skill.

Despite the overwhelming odds, despite the death of her crusaders, Buffy and her army still win. While they do not exactly defeat their enemies, they win by beating enough of them and exiting stage right. Angel suggested that heroes cannot win the war against evil. He believed that the best the hero can do is hurt the villain. What Buffy and her army do in this chapter is humiliate the opposition.

Because Buffy’s viewpoint shapes the story, the battle does not seem like a solid win. It really is though. With all their manpower and ammunition, Buffy's enemies still cannot breach her inner circle. In addition, their strategies lack anticipatory functions. The bad guys simply react to what they know rather than imagine what they do not know. Furthermore, the demons and Twilight's organization simply lack coordination and battle prowess. At one point, Faith kicks a demon in such a way that he stabs himself in the neck with his own knife. That's just sad. Funny, but sad. Jeanty perfectly choreographs the scene. His judgement draws all the comedy and coolness from the potential, and he does this in one, just one, panel.

Because Amy, the bad witch of the west, jumps the gun, Warren's scheme of seduction fails. Mark my words. That failure will play a part in his future downfall. Buffy will use his belief in Andrew being a weak link against the skinless loser. Warren looks particularly ghoulish and Madsen emphasizes the horrific elements by judiciously addding red stains to Warren's white suit. It's very subtle shading, and it works on an almost subconscious sensory level to make you queasy.

Buffy worries over her troops, but at the same time she shows greater confidence as a leader. She no longer displays the doubts she had when facing the First and her army of Neandervamps in the seventh season. These doubts shifted loyalties to Faith, but Buffy is supreme in this issue. Nevertheless, privately, she is the same old Buffy.

Thanks to the return of Giles and Faith to the fold, Buffy now has her confidant back, and she pours her heart out to him. She's concerned about pushing Willow. During this talk, Whedon teases the reader about what appears to be the impending future of Fray where, "every girl who wants to be a Slayer," cannot be a Slayer. You can steer a submarine through that red herring. I'm not falling for it. I still believe Fray's future is an alternative, not a certainty.

Indeed, Whedon may have already taken the steps necessary to preclude that future by having Buffy visit it and having Willow's lamia ex-girlfriend protect her with a simple blindfold. It's far more likely that Whedon will bring Fray and her sister to the Slayer's present as permanent paradoxes. In the past, Willow’s vampire doppelganger (created as a result of a wish by Cordelia) visited the reality of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So this type of travel is a possibility.

During her talk with Giles, Buffy seems to have an epiphany. I have no idea at what it hints, but I'm sure it's going to be damn good. With this issue, Whedon takes control of his characters and directs them to the future spelled out by his long game. Espenson re-establishes herself as one of the top Buffy writers, and Georges Jeanty, Any Owens, and Michelle Madsen create an exciting visual narrative with points of drama and comedy shared among a wicked number of cast members.

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Plot: Nothing is what it appears to be.

Comments: The second volume of Gravel has been a deceptive piece of work so far. “The Major Seven” started off as a detective murder mystery (after being brought into the Major Seven, Gravel is asked to find out who killed his predecessor, Avalon Lake). Like any good mystery, nothing is as it seems. The central murder seems to exist only in hearsay--Cave asks Gravel to investigate the murder but Gravel hasn’t seen a body. Another contradiction is that the victim was supposedly killed in her place of power. Something that, according to Cave, couldn’t be done. Also, like a good mystery, the detective is up against a different world--a secret society which he is only beginning to learn the rules.

Everybody in the Major Seven has been around for sometime, some for hundreds of years, so there is a lot of history to sort through. Of course I said that this volume is a deceptive piece of work, and it is. There is a twist--the detective is killing the suspects. Gravel seems intent on solving the case but in a very unorthodox way. He killed another member of the Major Seven, Admiral Black, seemingly to see if he could do it or possibly because he has his own agenda and we haven’t been shown it just yet.

Other deceptions pop up. For example, tthere have been gaps in the narrative. Issue #10 ended with Gravel getting his arm chopped off but issue #11 has him in one piece and just a veiled reference to the event. This issue is no different. Cave is furious and scared that another of the Seven has been killed and he’s complaining about it to the killer. There is also the case of Gravel himself, an anti-hero at best. He’s a mean bastard, but not evil, and he does operate by a code of honor, so killing Admiral Black has to have a serious reason behind it. The big difference in this issue is the theme of nothing being what it appears to be has been emerging into the foreground. A Major Seven can be killed, they just need to be lured out of their place of power, Cave is hiding more than he’s sharing (so is Gravel for that matter) and another of the Major Seven, John B, a big menacing looking East Indian, takes Gravel out for a pint.

This conversation is the spine of issue #12 and quite possibly the entire story arc. Gravel mentions that John B’s sloop (named John B) shares a name with an old Beach Boys song. John B tells Gravel that it was an original folk song from the West Indies, and that he’s a poet by nature. Not the first impression you get from John B. Over the pint John asks Gravel if he used his occult detective skills to find him and Gravel returns that he just asked around. Cave thinks there is a natural order to things and for all their wisdom and collected years of experience the Major Seven don’t get that s*@t just happens. John also admits that he knows Gravel killed Admiral Black but he left his place of power to talk to Gravel nonetheless. Instead of a big magical fight between Gravel and B, John B just sails off.

This story arc has been deliberately confounding expectations. The first volume was a straight tale of revenge. There was the setup of the problem and Gravel going about solving it. This arc keeps twisting and becoming something else. Just when you think you’ve gotten the murder solved the story veers away from that plot thread almost altogether. The more that’s revealed, the more it seems that this arc is about death, not murder.

The second plot thread is that of Gravel’s rebuilding of the Minor Seven. It seems more straight forward but no less interesting. A self taught magician, Coltrane, confronts a swarm of necromancers. He almost doesn’t make it, but with a last minute save by Gravel he gets through. Coltrane is Gravel’s second recruit. The criteria he’s using to pick the candidates falls into the aforementioned code of honor.

In keeping with the theme about things not being what they appear I have to say a bit about Wolfer’s art and story contributions. Warren Ellis has top writing credit but it seems that Wolfer is the one doing the real scripting. Gravel has a lot of “Ellisisms” for sure but there is a type of focus that doesn’t show up in Ellis’ work. That’s not meant as a bad thing, I’m just saying Wolfer’s presence is detectable in this book. Not an easy achievement.

Wolfer’s art is as deceptive as the writing. At first glance it seems a bit blocky and has a rough look to it (especially the people) but when you look closer, detail shines through. An eyeless lizard on Gravel’s bookshelf, the twisty silver snakes Coltrane uses in his magic. The necromancer’s hideout is a great example--a few walls are seen but there is a sense of menace with magic symbols painted in blood on the walls and ceiling. The layout, from a narrative sense, is effective and forceful yet also focuses on minor details. Gravel’s conversation with John B has a panel showing them holding the pints of beer. The art grows on you, sneaks up on you, and clubs you in the back of the head with unexpected surprises.

Final Word: Everything about this book has delivered in spades and it’s a matter of faith that everything will make sense by the end of the arc. Those that read Gravel for the brutal violence always get their fill. If you read it for the supernatural elements there is no disappointment either. If you love this book for the sharp plotting, hang in there, it looks to be a mess right now but nothing is what it appears to be.

"My website"

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Plot: A Russian kingpin, known as the Tsar, is moving in on Gotham.

Comments: "The Bat and the Beast" opens up with the origin of "the Beast." While an interesting setup, there is very little payoff for this character, other than as a monstrous assassin. Milligan tries to portray the Tsar as a no-nonsense criminal, but from this first issue he seems no more than a dime a dozen nuisance. It was interesting to see the politics of the Russian underworld and see how each kingpin interacts and does business. It was also nice to see that other countries (outside of Gotham City) have gang problems and powerful leaders like the Tsar. Not everything in the world happens in America and, more specifically, in Gotham City and Metropolis and this story shows just that.

Batman Confidential was launched to portray Batman’s early years and it was said that each story would focus on something essential to the Batman mythos. The problem is I can’t find any element here that could be an important part of Batman’s life. It is also hard to figure out when this story fits chronologically because Batman seems to be at the top of his game and it clearly takes place in a post-9/11 world.

Besides that fact, the story doesn’t seem to be moving along at a great pace. We start off with Batman already knowing the plans of the criminal and much of this issue is wasted on scenes with the Beast and the Russian kingpins. The story doesn’t really start until halfway through the book and even then it isn’t much. The ending is a bit of a let down because it really wasn’t that shocking and it still seems like it could have been a one-and-done fill-in somewhere.

Andy Clarke’s art is the best part of the book and actually makes it worthwhile to produce. Everything is carefully detailed on each character and the inks help extenuate their features. Despite the shortcomings of the story, he makes it seem important and worthwhile. If this is why he had to take a break from R.E.B.E.L.S. I would strongly advice to reevaluate how his talents are used, because this just seems like a waste.

As of issue #31, Milligan’s story seems uninteresting and uninspiring. However, the story could pick up and become great. Perhaps this will best read in one bulk, but since this series is not consistently collected in trade, it may not even be worth the hassle. The pretty pictures and the Guillem March cover cannot distract from the poor quality of this arc, so I wouldn’t pick this up just yet. If the story improves then you might want to think about getting interested.

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Archie: “You know Jug, it goes against your nature to play underhanded tricks.”
Jughead: “This time I wanna come out ahead! This time—I wanna win!”

*Gasp!* Say it isn’t so! Jughead stooping to trickery to win?! And what’s he trying to win anyway, that he’s acting so out of character? Why nothing less than being acknowledged as the Chocklit Shoppe’s steadiest customer.

“The Milkweed Lament” is a very enjoyable story that never goes where you expect it. Deliberate deviousness directed toward a stranger is not something usually associated with Jughead, but in this context it’s absolutely understandable. When it comes to food and Pop’s Chocklit Shoppe, Jughead has laser like focus, so it makes sense that he would deal with someone he perceives as a threat to his security with severe (for Jughead) measures.

Besides seeing a somewhat demented Jughead, readers also get to see Archie as the voice of reason. For once, it’s Archie who gets to look on in amused disbelief at Jughead’s antics. It’s a variation on the normal relationship between the boys and writer Craig Boldman exploits it nicely.

Then there’s the ending, and that’s where Boldman really pulls the rug out from under the readers’ feet. Through character dialogue, he subtly leads readers to believe one thing is going to happen. Then he turns it on its head. That twist and Jughead’s final line cap off a perfect little story.

In “The Sand Man,” Jughead’s proximity to the gangs’ entry in the Sand Sculpture Contest makes him king of the dune. Here again Boldman has Jughead showing his manipulative side, though this time it’s directed toward a more familiar target--his friends. The dialogue here is sharp and enjoyable.

Finishing out the issue is “Appetite for Excitement!” When Jughead tags along with Archie and Veronica to the amusement park, his idea of what makes for an entertaining day is very different from theirs. This is a light piece that’s notable mainly for what Jughead’s eating “fish-battered pork chop on a stick” being just one of the concoctions Boldman name checks.

Rex Lindsey and the rest of the art team do a beautiful job this issue. The characters are attractive and expressive, and while these stories have very little physical action, the book has a strong sense of movement. Lindsey is constantly changing his viewpoint on the events depicted. He moves in for close-ups, then pulls back for a wide-angle shot. While he sticks with a grid format, he varies the look of each page by including circle-shaped panels or tilted squares. His backgrounds are detailed without being fussy.

Barry Grossman’s colors are bright and eye-catching without being blinding. They’re colors that capture the feel of summer vacation. While not Technicolor, they have that same sharp edge to them.

Archie’s Pal Jughead #195 is an extremely entertaining and well designed reading package.

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BOOM! Studios has done pretty well for itself in recent months, releasing several new mini-series based on high profile properties such as The Muppet Show and Pixar’s The Incredibles and Toy Story movies. This week, another Pixar property is added to their “BOOM! Kids” imprint in the form of Finding Nemo: Reef Rescue, a book that acts as a sequel to the record-breaking and much loved anthropomorphic piscine adventure movie.

As with the The Incredibles comic, I come to this series as a big fan of the movie upon which it’s based. This might suggest that I’m more likely to be forgiving of the title’s weaknesses, but actually, it’s something of a double-edged sword: whilst I already have a certain amount of goodwill for the characters thanks to the original film, any follow-up is going to have to work pretty hard to meet the high standards of characterization and storytelling established in the movie. Thankfully, Marie Croall and Erica Leigh Currey do a pretty good job in both respects.

The story sees Marlin, Dory, and Nemo investigate their local coral reef, after a school trip leads to the discovery that it is mysteriously dying off. Whilst there’s little development of that plot thread in this first issue, it at least hints at an eco-friendly subtext that’s laudable for a book aimed at young readers and which manages to make itself known without the writer beating us about the head with it.

Characterization is faithful, often relying on jokes that are little more than callbacks to memorable moments from the movie, but with some amusing twists. Dory’s claim that she can “speak coral” is a highlight.

Visually, the book succeeds in capturing the spirit of the film, too. The original 3-D character designs are distinctive and simplistic enough that they translate well into Currey’s flatter, simpler style, and the artist captures each one accurately. Indeed, many facial expressions feel so familiar that I wonder whether they’ve been lifted directly from the movie. The only examples of occasional confusion come during the scenes in which Marlin and Nemo appear together. Since they were separated for most of the movie, the similarity in their designs wasn’t a problem, but they occasionally feel indistinct from one another here. Aside from that, the artwork is strong, with some particularly striking images of the barren grey coral reef that help to reinforce the seriousness of the problem faced by Nemo and his friends.

Whilst it probably isn’t going to blow readers away, this is a good start to another all-ages friendly Pixar adaptation from BOOM! Studios, and one that captures the spirit of the movie well, whilst also forging some new ground in terms of subject matter. I look forward to seeing the story develop in future issues.

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The second issue of BOOM! Studios’ Toy Story comic is a slight improvement on the first. The story is a bit more complex, the character interactions are more enjoyable, and there’s a greater sense of tension in the plot, which sees the toys of Andy’s Room embark on a mission to infiltrate Andy’s school science fair in order to repair his project (which is broken by Rex, in a typical moment of clumsiness).

It’s a fairly straightforward story that doesn’t contain too many surprises, illustrated ably by Chris Moreno in a style that isn’t particularly dazzling but which is clear and consistent throughout. For the most part, there’s nothing particularly memorable about the story, but there’s nothing particularly wrong with it either--especially given that it’s aimed at quite a young audience.

However, the book does contain at least one interesting moment that makes its otherwise simple story noteworthy for Toy Story enthusiasts. It comes during a scene that young readers probably won’t think twice about, but which introduces some quite thought provoking ideas to the Toy Story universe. In the scene, Hamm the piggy bank finds a science project that revolves around an automated toy robot that simulates a conversation with its user, spitting out a series of stock responses based on whatever it has recorded the user saying. Hamm is dismayed at this, wondering why he and the other toys (who, of course, are alive and really can talk) are required to stay quiet in order to keep their secret from their owners. After a couple of seconds, I began to wonder the same thing.

Based on the movies, I had always assumed that the toys played dead because they wanted to keep their true nature a secret from humans, and because they enjoyed being played with by their owners as it gave their life meaning and purpose. However, the fact that Hamm expressed dissatisfaction with his life as a toy made me wonder: why should the toys have to lie down and keep quiet for their owners? Why shouldn’t Hamm break away from his life as a mere plaything if he’s not happy with it? And why is there a difference between the living toys and the dead robot? These sorts of questions have been deftly sidestepped by the movies, since they’re difficult to answer without breaking the innocent reality of the "toys come to life" conceit. But this scene actively encourages readers to ask them. I wonder whether the series will attempt to provide an answer to them in future issues.

Admittedly, this is the only part of the story that really stuck with me after I’d finished reading it. But it adds some color to an otherwise fairly straightforward and bland issue that will probably entertain young readers and die-hard fans of the movie, but which will be fairly forgettable for anyone else.

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“Hard to Bear”

The Tyler family has been kidnapped and Mr. Stuffins is the only one who can save them.

Evil forces want the disk implanted in Stuffins which grant him his secret agent skills. These forces are holding the teddy’s family hostage, in-order to lure him into their trap.

Andrew Cosby and Johanna Stokes created a no nonsense teddy in Mr. Stuffins. The bear’s responses and high I.Q. resemble a cross between Bruce Willis in Die Hard and James Bond. For instance, page eleven features an emotionally wrecked David Tyler and Stuffin discussing a plan to rescue his wife and daughter. After Dave blurts out he’s going to save his family, the plush teddy practically laughs in his face remarking “Great plan…except it won’t work. While crossing his arms, and delivering a cold stare, Stuffins further explains to David that the forces of evil will deal with him in an unpleasant manner if they act on his flawed plan by saying “And when I say deal with I don’t mean a handshake and sending you home with some fresh baked cookies.”

Mr. Stuffins has crossover appeal since the script doesn’t contain vulgarity or explicit content, yet the dialogue is witty enough for adults to appreciate. Then again, I sort of feel as if adding a little bit of blood to the story could enhance this issue. Sadly the lack of blood allows this issue to posses a Saturday-morning cartoon atmosphere, and I believe this comic could be more than such. Mr. Stuffins has the ability to be a kids story with a slight edge to it.

The artwork in this issue reflect well-drawn characters and environments. Readers get a warm sense of Stuffin’s plush fur due to Axel Medellin’s detail in the teddy bear.

Fans looking for a fun story with clean humor, yet witty dialogue, should invest in this issue.

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Plot: A rogue Snake Eyes and Scarlet try to find information about the mysterious Cobra group while Destro wears a kilt and tests a teleportation device. One of these things does not go well.

Comments: The most interesting element of the book is the one that goes underexplored--why is the Baroness wearing a pink ball gown and sipping cognac with a kilt-wearing Destro? Just the idea of the two of them chilling out in his Scottish estate sippin’ Hennessey and plotting arms deals and the destruction of the world seems like it would be kind of fun and off-kilter.

What I mean is there’s none of the delightful weirdness of the G.I. JOE that I grew up with. The book in front of me is sort of humorless and bland. It has some of the trappings of a lively adventure book featuring characters with names like Snake Eyes, overly-complex scientific doo-dads, assaults via Jet Ski, and a crazy hail of bullets. At the same time, it is deathly serious which sadly doesn’t work for the content on display.

Said content involves Snake Eyes and Scarlet attempting to get more information on Cobra from an arms dealing associate. Meanwhile, Destro hopes to seal a rift between his Mars group and Cobra by taking out said chatty arms dealer. This, of course, involves a prototype teleporter, an accident, and meaning to the book’s prophetic cover. But there’s none of the dread or dramatic irony attached when it happens. In fact, it's possible many readers will just feel like Destro is kind of an idiot for not doing some better product testing.

Most problematic is how simply flat on the page everything is. It feels like I’ve read this story before and it saps all of the energy from the reading. Please Chuck Dixon, tell us why Cobra is so cool, mysterious, and evil, or perhaps make the Joes seem cooler and tougher than just generic commandoes.

The art is functional. Some of the characters look toy-like and posed which I suppose is appropriate.

Final Word: There’s not a lot to get excited about here. No real curveballs are thrown into the Joe mythos and it all feels like a protracted, by-the-numbers prequel.
If you liked this review, be sure to check out more of the author’s work at Monster In Your Veins

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What would happen if Superman became a malicious, genocidal supervillain? This is the premise of BOOM! studios' series, Irredeemable (though the name and likeness of Superman isn't actually used of course).

In case you don't know Mark Waid is the writer of Kingdom Come, one of the greatest graphic novels of all time. Needless to say that, months ago when I first heard he was writing this ongoing story, I became really excited. Unfortunately, as the issues have progressed, I've found myself less and less excited about reading the next issue.

Normally at this point I'd give you a summary of the unique aspects of this issues' plot, but unfortunately part of the problem with this series is that every issue has had pretty much the same plot. The Plutonian (the evil Superman-esque character) continues horrifically murdering people en masse and in grotesque ways. At the same time his former superhero teammates continue fruitlessly attempting to find out something useful about him or to find some way of defeating him. The only way I could give you any more information would to say specifically who the Plutonian kills and how.

I'll admit that seeing an issue of a Superman analogue running around as an unchallenged villain was interesting, but there's now been four issues of that, and I gotta say that anyone who can read four straight issues of people getting blown apart, ripped apart, et cetera, and find it really enjoyable, worries me a little bit.

Now, that's not to say that Irredeemable #4 has nothing good going for it. The artwork is absolutely top notch, comparable to the artwork from Marvel or DC. In fact there's a one page spread of the Plutonian floating over the ocean with rain and thunder around him that I wouldn't mind having as a poster, if he were a character I actually liked. There's also still some intriguing plot points hanging there: Where's the Plutonian really from? Is there any way he can be hurt? Where did he get his powers? Of course, the problem is that those intriguing aspects started in the first issue, and have had absolutely no progression yet at all. Eventually the intrigue starts to fade.

Irredeemable #4 is just another issue in a series that seems to be going nowhere and appears to relish in portraying innocent masses murdered en masse. It has excellent artwork and a story that has potential, but this issue doesn't reach that potential at all.

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The first thing that I noticed about this second issue of The Last Days Of Animal Man was a blurb on the front cover that promised a Green Lantern guest appearance. Whilst I wearily suspected that a Hal Jordan cameo had been worked into the story in order to give the book a minor sales boost, the reality is far more pleasing, as Gerry Conway introduces another new character to his future-set tale in the form of a giant flying whale Green Lantern who greets Animal Man with the pleasing soubriquet "friend of my friends."

It’s an unexpected, slightly surreal moment, but one that proves that the creative spirit that we saw in Conway’s first issue is still very much in evidence here. The creator takes full advantage of the freedom that’s offered by the out-of-continuity setting of his story, particularly when it comes to the final splash page, which introduces several new characters (as well as some old favorites) whom I look forward to seeing interact with Animal Man next issue.

Having said that, there’s a certain hit-or-miss quality to the book’s original creations. Just as Conway’s new villain from issue #1, Bloodrage, was a slightly embarrassing 1990s-esque 'extreme’ character who didn’t seem to fit smoothly into Animal Man’s world, the new villainess introduced in this issue, Prismatik, is equally underwhelming. Not only is her origin story told in a clunky monologue that dumps several pages of exposition into the middle of the story (effectively bringing any sense of forward momentum to a halt), but her motivations simply don’t add up. Whilst her connection to the Mirror Master makes for a nice throwback to Animal Man’s earlier adventures, her reasons for attacking the hero are non-existent. I can buy the idea that she would harbor a grudge towards her parents, but I simply can’t invest in her antagonism towards Buddy Baker. Why would a victim of perceived child abuse go out of her way to attack one of her parent’s enemies? Hopefully, Conway will shed more light on this next issue, because at the moment, it’s a nagging concern.

Despite these weaknesses, the core story is still a strong one. I’m enjoying seeing Conway use Animal Man’s failing powers as a metaphor for some fairly complex middle-aged feelings of inadequacy and redundancy. It may even be that the slightly incongruous nature of Conway’s new villains is intentional, signifying that the world has changed and Buddy doesn’t fit in it the way he once did.

I’m also enjoying Chris Batista and Dave Meikis’s artwork, which is bold and confident, producing some striking individual images at the same time as it tells Conway’s story with the utmost clarity. Batista’s linework reminds me of the work of Sal Buscema, particularly when it comes to the characters’ occasionally exaggerated facial expressions.

Whilst The Last Days of Animal Man might not have the strongest hook in the world for casual readers, I’m enjoying it as an exploration of how an aging superhero might react to his changing role in the world. Conway’s apparent use of the Kübler-Ross model as a loose model for Animal Man’s emotional journey ensures that the series will continue to put Buddy Baker through the wringer as the story continues. I look forward to it.

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Gotham City Sirens marks the second entry into the post Battle for the Cowl Batman universe for writer Paul Dini. And while it isn't as engrossing as Batman: Streets of Gotham, Gotham City Sirens provides a fun, fresh look at the Batverse's famous femme fatales.

It's very clear right from the get-go that Gotham City Sirens roots itself firmly in Paul Dini's corner of the Batverse. We have plots carrying over from "Heart of Hush," as well as the two part "Last Rites" issues Dini penned revolving around Catwoman's revenge on Hush. For new readers coming into Sirens to see everything the new and improved Batverse has to offer, I would highly recommend checking out those two previous storylines from Detective Comics. While they aren't absolutely essential, they do give a lot more depth to the motivations for the entire cast of Gotham City Sirens. And to be honest, they are expertly written Batman stories. They are also the best Hush has ever been written, better even than the original "Hush" storyline by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee.

But this review isn't about those previous Batman stories. This review is about the first issue of Gotham City Sirens and how the combination of Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn make for a refreshing read among a lot of the darker toned Bat-books currently hitting shelves (Batman & Robin not included). What Gotham City Sirens does well right off the bat is never takes itself too seriously. This is a fun book. That should be apparent for readers by the opening fight scene with the laughable villain "Bonebasher." The dude is a total tool and Dini humorously gets that across. Even Poison Ivy's treatment of Edward Nigma makes for some good laughs with an exceptional payoff by issue's end. And discussing the humor of Gotham City Sirens wouldn't be complete without a mention of Harley Quinn who enters the picture with a scene that seem to pick right up where Dini left her in Streets of Gotham--returning home from a shopping spree having spent the majority of the loot handed to her by Catwoman.

DC also did a good job picking an artist for Gotham City Sirens. Guillem March did some great work on the Denny O'Neil two part, "Last Days of Gotham" and it's nice to see the man continue to work on the Bat-family of books instead of moving onto something wildly different. Sirens is also perfect because his artwork caters to the famed comic book "cheese shot." Gotham City Sirens #1 is full of T&A shots and March is a master of capturing the...err...goods. A very specific shot of Zatanna in a hot tub quickly comes to mind. I bet Paul Dini had a seizure when he got that page back. But I'm not trying to sell Guillem March short, he's a good storyteller as well. The final panel of Gotham City Sirens #1 goes a great job of capturing how quickly these lovely ladies can turn on a dime and that's thanks to Guillem March, not Dini's script. The cliffhanger is also a perfect place to leave fans because they will definitely want to come back next month to see how this twist plays out.

Gotham City Sirens is a good read. Time will tell if it really has the legs to stand next to the other important Bat-titles, but for a fun buddy romp with three of the sexiest ladies in the DCU, you can't beat this.

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As C.I.A. agent Alpha and his lover Assia try to escape Moscow, the net of betrayal draws ever tighter around them. Assia is a pawn meant to be sacrificed to her husband’s greed, and Alpha’s investigation into the link between Russian mobsters and the governments of Russia and the United States is getting too close for someone’s comfort. Meanwhile, the Russian mafia is experiencing an upheaval of its own as a son makes a power play against his father.

Double-cross piles on triple-cross, which piles on quadruple-cross in this final chapter of Alpha’s Russian storyline. It’s enough to make your head spin. Fortunately Mythic lays out the entire plot in one clear, comprehensive, and well-done scene near the end of the volume. However, even if he hadn’t, I still would have enjoyed this book.

Wolves’ Wages is a Hollywood summer blockbuster on paper. Though their personalities are only briefly sketched in, Alpha and Assia are an appealing couple. The plot holds the attention. The main villain is charismatic. The action is non-stop, and there’s a satisfying (if bittersweet) ending. What more could you want?

The main focus of this volume is on the struggle between Russian mobster Bogdanov and his son Igor. Because Igor is such a pivotal character, this plot isn’t the sidetrack that it would seem to be at first glance. Igor is the third leg in the love triangle involving Alpha and Assia, and his moves against his father are complicating the plans of the story’s bigger fish.

While Igor is capable of subtlety, he’s also more than willing to take out his frustrations on a human target. He’s a dangerous, albeit charming at times, villain.

In contrast, Alpha gets very little to do. Basically he runs around with Assia. He has a couple nice human moments with his lover, and a role in the dénouement, but that’s about it. It’s somewhat surprising that Mythic pushes the nominal hero of the story into the background, but it’s hardly noticeable since the cast is so large and colorful. Wolves’ Wages is an action-thriller that relies more on the power of the story than it does on its characters to carry it.

Y. Jigounov does a superb job illustrating the material. His style is realistic without trying to be photo-realistic. He’s an artist who’s extremely talented at presenting the world around us. Yes, it’s a romanticized vision, but it’s grounded in the everyday details. The cars, the DVD players, the pictures on the wall--Jigounov takes the time to make them all authentic. He’s not going for style points; he’s grounding the story so readers can immerse themselves in it, and he easily moves from illustrating urban settings to rural ones. There’s a sequence of four panels showing a wolf running through the woods that’s just beautiful.

Jigounov is equally adept at composing an action scene. The book opens with a shoot-out and chase, and the artist cuts between the viewpoints of the two factions, moves in close to the action, and then pulls back. He constantly changes the angle from which he and the reader are looking at things, but it’s never confusing. It flows smoothly and quickly, and the reader can follow the action without difficulty in understanding what’s happening to everyone.

Jigounov doesn’t go for cool shots that he can use in his portfolio; he’s telling a story.

The coloring is gorgeous. Something I especially appreciate is the palette used for the night scenes. Using grays, browns, drab greens, and blues, they shadow the panel so that it’s obvious that it’s occurring at night, but it’s never so dark you can’t make out what’s happening. There’s always a lighter color in the panel to contrast with the dark.

Alpha: Wolves’ Wages is the perfect beach-read for fans of fast paced thrillers.

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“Prison Without Bars”

As children, Jack and Amelia were raised in two separate, yet controlled, environments in another dimension. Now as adults, the two of them are brought to Earth and are forced to live an unsheltered life.

A maniacal alien named Father takes pleasure in experimenting on different creatures, testing how they react to being placed in a foreign environment. Unfortunately, all of Father’s subjects are dead except Jack and Amelia. While raising Jack on his spaceship, father only allows him to experience pain, torment, and suffering. Amelia, on the other hand, was raised outside the ship, in an enchanted forest by pink cuddly apes. She only experienced love and compassion. Eventually Father decides to release the two on Earth and then monitors how they survive in this new setting.

Martin Buxton delivers a cleverly unique story with Jack in the Box. Buxton’s attempt to answer the question “Are men simply products of their environment?” will re-shape the way readers perceive reality.

The characters in this story share high sensibility, especially with Father’s henchman Gusano, who is a gray sentinel that tampers with the lives of Amelia and Jack after their arrivals on Earth. Most notably, Gusano shadows Jack and places him in situations of torment.

For instance, upon arriving on Earth, the sentinel puts a Furango Berry (a pill) in Jack's mouth, which allows the young man to receive a distorted perception of reality. After taking the pill, Jack begins to view people as stick figures, and he panics.

Tony Wicks artwork in this story is detailed yet peculiar. The majority of the story is in black and white, with the exception of Amelia and the pink apes which are colored in pink. The lack of color lends a noir tone to the book. Not to mention, Gusano’s slug-like appearance adds an eerie feeling to the story as well.

Readers in search of a great storyline and intriguing art will appreciate this story.

For ordering information, visit the Web site for the book here: http://www.jackinthebox-comic.co.uk/news.html

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Famous Players is an engaging and insightful volume that should be in the collection of anyone who enjoys historical books and comics, for it mixes both into a great little read.

Following in the steps of The Black Dahlia, Famous Players is a lurid story scandal in Hollywood's nascent film industry. When William Desmond Taylor, a prominent, successful, and well-liked director of photoplays, is found dead in his bungalow, the murder kicks off an investigation that digs up secrets that the dead director would have probably liked to have seen kept underground. Additionally, everyone who is a suspect--including several very prominent stars of the time--finds himself under an unwelcome spotlight.

What really makes Famous Players, though, is the level of detail that Rick Geary puts into both the writing and the art. In the writing, the early history of Hollywood is detailed as thoroughly as the murder, and it makes for fascinating reading. Whether it's hard facts that Geary dug up through research or the resulting rumors that sprung up after the murder that found their way to headlines, seemingly no detail, big or small, has escaped from this telling.

The art bears a resemblance to wood carving, which only reinforces the impression that the book is a prism into 1920s Hollywood. To tell the story, Geary employs sequential art, diagrams, and maps that all elicit an almost nostalgic feeling for the period. However, while it’s interesting to look back on a California long before it got terribly crowded, the book also doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of the early film culture.

Famous Players only has two drawbacks. The first is that the story is told in a very cut and dried tone that might not suit some readers. Second, the real-life murder of William Desmond Taylor was never solved, so the drama of a resolution in the book is never reached. However, whether these are good or bad is going to rely mostly on the individual tastes of the reader.

If you liked this review, be sure to check out more of the author’s work at http://madbastard.hypersites.com

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Even great writers can have an off day. The Flash: The Human Race is a prime example. I assumed that the book compiled recent issues of The Flash, but to my disappointment, it didn’t. The Human Race covers issues 136-41 of Wally West’s series during a period when comics were trying desperately to keep up with the times and losing.

A token cameo by the “electric blue” Superman (post-Death of Superman) was a clear indicator that I was in for a pile of populist crap.

The story revolves around a race of gambling aliens who choose a champion from each world and force them to race against an opponent across time and space through an intergalactic obstacle course. Failure to engage in the competition results in the destruction of that champion’s planet.

Failure to win also results in the destruction of that champion’s planet. Yawn.

Rather than a story, this arc would have made a better 20-minute cartoon--or a video game--but dreck like this passed as readable once upon a time. This was a sad, regurgitated era for DC Comics, and I'm glad they've evolved since then.

The Flash is pitted against his childhood imaginary friend (who, it turns out, is not so imaginary after all) and he finds a way to win the race and save the loser's home planet at the same time.

The book continues with the supposed death of Wally West's fiancée (now wife). Does anyone in comics ever STAY dead anymore? It also has Flash's attempt to cheat death at the hands of the Black Flash, and a bonus story about Jay Garrick and Barry Allen commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Flash franchise.

I've been reading The Flash since childhood and, honestly, the series was better during the Silver Age.

The artwork in this compilation is actually better than the story being illustrated. The pencils by Paul Ryan, Ron Wagner, Pop Mhan, Joshua Hood, and Mike Parobeck are stark, stylish, and more than adequate in conveying the action sequences. These illustrators excel in their panels with the Black Flash. John Nyberg, Chris Ivy, and Romeo Tanghall's inks breathe life into the improbable scenario's where Wally races through time, sound barriers, space, the deconstruction of molecules, et cetera.

It appears as if this collection was published to cash in on the current popularity of Grant Morrison and Mark Millar. However, this tale isn't their best work.

I'd almost count it among their worst.

In Morrison's defense, he was tasked during the same era with resurrecting the JLA franchise in addition to working on other projects--and his JLA work isn't much to write home about, either.

As for Millar, everybody has to start somewhere, right? There's an observable trend in comics of young upstarts ramping up within the ranks until they've earned enough rope with the established powers that be to either hang themselves or break new ground with an innovative creator-based project. Millar's star didn't start shining until some time around 2000 (with his turn on The Authority and later with Wanted and Chosen), so I suppose you can chalk up his contribution to this volume as him paying his dues or working his way up in the field.

Morrison was mentoring Millar during this period. The two co-wrote a number of 2000 AD stories, a few Big Dave issues, some Swamp Thing issues, the short-lived Aztek series, and so forth.

While their collaborations were nothing to write home about (Human Race belonging on the top of the rubbish heap), the work they created afterwards proved fruitful. Steer clear of this collection and skip ahead to their later work.

Tom Waters lives and writes in Lancaster, NY. He is the author of seven books (mostly rants, some poetry), a weekly columnist for Night Life magazine, a pod cast radio host and a celebrity interviewer and bar reviewer for the Buffalo News. For more information, click over to: www.tomfoolery4.wordpress.com.

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Plot: The vipers are nesting.

Comments: Sociopath, liar, mercenary and paranoid...pick any of the Thunderbolt team and those words describe him (or her); it's just a question of which adjective you put first. What a twisted bunch of nut jobs King Nut Job Norman Osborn's got working for him. Of course, that's what makes reading Thunderbolts so much fun.

These last two issues have been a gear shift from the full throttle slugfest the Tunderbolts had against Deadpool in the "Magnum Opus" arc. There isn't much explode-o; instead Diggle has been ratcheting up the internal tension, priming for a big explosion. The Thunderbolts have set up shop in the decommissioned "Cube" prison and await marching orders. Taking advantage of this downtime Diggle and company are able to establish the team dynamic in a dank, claustrophobic setting. As expected, the dynamic isn't too healthy--secret alliances are being forged, everybody is cagey and trying to figure everybody else out, and (most significantly) everyone is looking over their shoulder. The overwhelming feeling of paranoia is well earned, considering their boss, and instead of being able to relax in the HQ, the team is getting wound tighter. The closest comparison I can think of is a good jittery caper flick--no one is who they appear to be, secret agendas clash, and unstable personalities (in the best of conditions) simmer in stress. Somehow this gang still has to pull off difficult capers and not kill each other in the process. Oh yeah, such flicks always have someone working undercover for the "Good Guys" and a wildcard psycho. Check on all accounts.

This issue does a lot in shaping some characters that were pretty formless up till now, just not subtly. "I think you are most dangerous man on team. I think you are untrustworthy, unpredictable, borderline paranoid schizophrenic," Black Widow 2 says to Ghost, the bold is really in the lettering just in case you didn't get it. But caper flicks are more plot driven anyway. Characters tend to fill slots needed to drive said plot and a lack of subtly is forgivable, to a degree. As long as the dialogue remains steadfastly in the "tough guy" realm and the plot whirrs along, any good character stuff is gravy.

An extended scene between Paladin and Ant Man shows promise in just such a direction. Ant Man confesses to Paladin that he's in over his head and Paladin, the cool headed mercenary, advises him to ride it out 'cause things are bound to change. There are several possible ways the conversation can be interpreted and the uncertainty is reflected in an engaging bit of business with Paladin on a robotic platform doing target practice. An air of casual conversation mixes with gun violence and loaded statements all while Paladin is literality bobbing and weaving. Visually it's disorienting and that's exactly what it's supposed to do; a cool visual metaphor for how topsy turvey this book is.

The art on this book has a great look to it. From something as small as the detail in Ghost's camera eyes to something as big as the atmosphere and tone of the whole book. Sepulveda's art is gritty and realistic at the same time, and he can keep drawing shots prominently featuring Black Widow 2's butt for as long as he wants. Martin's colors might take even more credit for the atmosphere--slabs of murky green coloring everything in the cube, the creepy red glow of Ghost's camera eyes. He also uses the colors to punctuate the emotional impact of a scene--all the violent acts have a dirty red background and nothing else. Songbird's return shines in a pinkish glow. The colors raise the emotional tone to a nearly hyper real level. It might be manipulative if you think about it but damn if it don't work!

Points of Interest:

● Who is Scourge under that mask? My money's on fellow (but different) nut job Speedball/Penance.

● The logo on Ant Man's beer looks a lot like the brand Homer Simpson drinks.

Final Word: Thunderbolts has been enjoyable for quite some time. Diggle expands on the straight up bad guy fest groundwork laid out by Ellis and Gage. Things are only going to get more intense with the addition of mystery Thunderbolt "Scourge" and the re-emergence of Songbird. He's made a smart move by playing the book like a caper flick. The book is tense and fun. When the characters really start popping this book will hit a great stride.

"Logos728"

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I have generally enjoyed the work of JMS, and if one thing is true it’s that he generally does better when he can operate away from the restraints of continuity. That has certainly been the case with Thor, from which JMS will soon be departing for just that reason. It would appear that a Thor-centric event is looming and that he will relinquish the writing duties to another writer because of this event. Perhaps the most disappointing consequence of this has been the consistent delay, which now seems to have been a consequence of JMS leaving the book.

I have enjoyed this re-launch, and really these delays are the greatest flaw I have found. They have taken away from the impact of any single issue. However, if even for a short time (really it has only been fifteen issues) JMS has crafted a good Thor story. Loki’s machinations have subtly allowed for Balder’s rise to leadership and Thor’s exile, all of which is masterful, and has slowly created a sense of foreboding that sets up a confrontation down the line. It all has been building gradually and purposefully, each issue providing another piece of the puzzle. It all hinges together very well and having prolonged delays between issues has hurt the flow of such a purposeful story.

Such small complaint aside, there is much to be enjoyed here. For, example there’s Bill, the poor mortal who has fallen in love with Kelda. He is a poor man lost amongst gods. The argument could, of course, be made that Donald Blake has been there and done that, but that is precisely it. He has been there, while Bill is truly a man to marvel at the strangeness of gods. He is a man that can point out their folly, the fresh eyes that can see the emperor’s new clothes for what they truly are. JMS is right to include his point of view, since it provides a degree of humanity that may otherwise be absent. It also provides much needed commentary regarding Dr. Doom’s villainy, which is quite priceless.

This issue also finally wraps up the Sif sub-plot that has been hanging around for too long now, or at the very least goes a long way towards doing so. This is welcome, but feels anti-climactic. It’s something that has been building for seemingly so long, longer because of the delays, that when it is solved so easily, it honestly makes one wonder what all the commotion was about to begin with. It seems so easy that I am counting on something devious being right around the corner, but for now it seems that a sub-plot was all too easily and quickly solved. This may well be because of the looming writer change, but regardless it takes away from the story.

Djurdjevic’s art is wonderful. Between his work and that of Coipel on this title, it has been a beautiful ride. Their work fits well with the Nordic muscle-bound feel of the book, and does so without giving way to the common excess know in portraying such characters. It’s a job well done, and consistently so. Finally, while Djurdjevic’s work has had a darker feel that does work well here because of the general sense of foreboding.

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Editor's Note: Daredevil: Noir #4 arrives in stores tomorrow, July 1.

"Liar's Poker: Part Four"

Daredevil: Noir #4 sees Alexander Irvine and Tomm Coker draw their highly enjoyable miniseries to a close, bringing us the long-awaited fight between Daredevil and the "Bulls-eye killer" before showing the hero's final confrontation with the Kingpin.

The fight between Daredevil and his newly-revealed enemy is an exciting way to kick off the issue. Whilst it's a viscerally exciting battle that sees our hero evade all manner of flying projectiles in an attempt to stay alive, it's also an intelligently-written one, as Matt stacks the odds in his favour by moving the fight to a territory that considerably reduces his opponent's capacity for destruction.

After wrapping up that loose end, the issue brings the story full circle by ending on Daredevil's confrontation with the Kingpin -- a scene that has formed the framing sequence for Irvine's entire story. It's in the second half of the issue that Irvine makes good on the build-up of his previous three chapters. The discussion with the Kingpin gets to the heart of Irvine's characterisation of Matt Murdock, and when the writer has Daredevil say to Foggy "I can't stand the shades of gray," it feels like a moment that's been earned by the story, rather than a hollow expression of self-pity.

In addition to the figurative darkness of Irvine's script, there's literal darkness in every panel of Tomm Coker's artwork. Whilst lesser artists might simply drench their pages in black ink, Coker's atmospheric use of darkness is more sophisticated, employing plenty of dark shades and textures but never letting his panels become murky or unclear. It's also significant that Coker never draws his hero in full light: every appearance of Daredevil is drenched in shadows, reinforcing the balance between light and dark in the difficult moral territory that he occupies.

There's also a sense that Coker's style has been influenced by many of the great Daredevil artists of the past. His artwork combines the light and shade of Frank Miller and the realistic anatomy and solid linework of David Mazzuchelli with the textures of Alex Maleev, filtered through the occasional looseness of Bill Sienkiewicz-esque expressionism. It's testament to the timelessness of Coker's style that the (literal) splash page that comes halfway through the issue -- showing Daredevil and Eliza emerging from the water -- could have come from any era of the book's publication.

Some people might be irritated that the final pages of this issue provide an ending to the story that isn't particularly conclusive. However, to complain about that would be to miss Irvine's point. The closing exchange between the Kingpin and Daredevil doesn't seek to wrap up their conflict neatly, instead functioning as a musing on the superhero/villain relationship, a commentary on the endless and circular nature of serial superhero storytelling, and a definitive statement on the Kingpin/Daredevil dynamic that explains why it remains so popular after all these years.

As with the rest of the series, it's only the surface details of this issue that tie the book to Marvel's "Noir" line. In most other respects, the central characters are very similar to their regular-Marvel Universe counterparts -- and this combination of a novel setting with a strong sense of faithfulness to the original characters makes this one of the most satisfying of the "Noir" books yet. Andy Diggle hasn't even taken over the core Daredevil title yet, but when the time comes to find his replacement, let's hope that the creative team of Irvine and Coker is still fresh in the minds of Marvel's editors. In the meantime, I'm going to pre-order the TPB of Daredevil: Noir, because I have a feeling that the book will read even better in a collected edition than in single instalments.

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Editor's Note: Fantastic Four #568 arrives in stores tomorrow, July 1.

"Doom's Master: Part Three of Four"

I feel very ambivalent about this issue of Fantastic Four. On one hand, it brings the "Masters of Doom" story begun by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch a step closer to its natural conclusion, finally bringing the titular characters into direct conflict with the Fantastic Four on an epic scale. On the other hand, the presence of so many different creators (two writers, two pencillers, two inkers and two colourists) makes the issue feel disjointed in places, diluting the distinctive flavour of Millar and Hitch's previous issues and failing to capture the story as effectively as the creators might have managed on their own.

Despite the issue being scripted by Joe Ahearne, the story is still credited to Mark Millar -- so I presume that Ahearne was working from a fairly tightly-plotted outline. Many of the story's central ideas are as strong as we've come to expect from Millar's run on the book. The Masters of Doom come up with some pretty sick punishments for the FF, including forcing Sue to choose which of her children should be killed and showing Johnny the many different ways in which his sister's multiversal counterparts have been killed. There's also a interesting moment in which the Marquis of Death offers Reed Richards an unexpected choice that suggests that the villain's mission may be as much to put himself out of his own misery as to destroy everyone else. Finally, fans of Millar's work will probably be most excited by the inventive scene that explicitly connects his run on Fantastic Four to two other recent projects: the 1985 miniseries and Wolverine's "Old Man Logan."

However, there are weaknesses in the story that prevent it from being as powerful as it might have been. One problem is that the powers of the "Masters of Doom" have never been clearly defined. Whilst this opens up all sorts of storytelling possibilities, allowing the villains to do anything that they choose (they've already displayed psychic abilities, telekinesis, levitation, teleportation, the ability to create illusions and the power to travel between dimensions at will), readers never get a sense of their limitations. This makes it difficult to invest in their fight with the FF, as any attack by our heroes could be countered by the book's writers pulling yet another new ability out of their hat for their antagonists.

There are also some problems with the storytelling mechanics in the form of a few panel-to-panel transitions that feel like disjointed non-sequiturs. At one point, The Thing goes straight from a tearful, intimate moment with his fiancée to defending them from an attack on her home; another sees the sudden appearance of the Marquis of Death at the window of the Baxter Building, when the FF had been happily chatting in front of it just a moment beforehand. On both of these occasions, it might have been nice to have at least one panel to show the event occur before showing the characters' reactions to it, since the inclusion of both in one panel disrupts the flow of the storytelling.

The writers also fumble the final page reveal, failing to clearly establish what's actually happening in the Where’s Wally-esque double-splashpage that closes the issue. It makes the moment confusing when it should be exciting, and I can only hope that the script explains it more clearly at the start of the next issue.

The issue's dialogue veers between some insightful observations -- "This world seems to suffer more than the others" refers to the Earth's reaction to the attack of the Masters of Doom, but could also be a reference to the laws of storytelling that dictate that the heroes of the Marvel Universe should constantly face conflict in order to remain interesting -- to trite, clunky phrases that undermine the nasty tone of the story ("You're a liar, Marquis. Hope is something you can't kill"). There are also places where there seems to be a mismatch between the script and the artwork: would the wisecracking Ben Grimm really be weeping buckets at the same time as he makes a crack about his Aunt Petunia?

Talking of the artwork, this issue is the first of Millar and Hitch's run to truly suffer from the surfeit of artists assigned to its pages. Bryan Hitch and Neil Edwards are both accomplished pencillers (with Edwards recently making his Marvel debut in some well-illustrated issues of Squadron Supreme), and both share a similar pencilling style. Here, both artists manage to pull off some well-composed and dynamic pages that are impressive in their own right. However, the multiple inkers don't manage to make the transition between one artist and another smooth: in fact, their work has the opposite effect.

The inkers weight their lines differently and render different panels in varying levels of detail (sometimes within the same scene), which has the effect of making the artwork frequently feel disjointed from panel to panel. You can see the difference for yourself in the preview pages below. Whilst the issue might have been able to hold things together with one penciller and several inkers (or conversely, with more than one penciller but with a single unifying inking style), this combination doesn't make for a good example of visually coherent storytelling. Having said that, things do improve towards the end of the issue, with a more cohesive look and feel for the second half of the book.

This issue is very much a mixed bag, with several well-executed moments that sit side-by-side with some less-than-great scenes. For every clever concept or well-written exchange, there's a moment of slightly fumbled storytelling that pulls you out of the book. For every impressive image or well-visualised idea, there's a jarring visual transition that disrupts the flow of the artwork. Whilst I'm sure that fans of Millar and Hitch's run on Fantastic Four will still enjoy this issue, it's not quite up to the standard of previous chapters, and so feels slightly disappointing in comparison to what’s come before.

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Editor's Note: Invincible Iron Man #15 arrives in stores tomorrow, July 1.

"World’s Most Wanted, Part 8: The Danger We’re All In"

In this issue of Invincible Iron Man Matt Fraction continues his "World's Most Wanted" storyline with an eighth chapter that sees the story begin to show slight signs of being a little stretched out beyond its natural lifespan.

In fairness, the issue is still quite an enjoyable one, with Fraction choosing to concentrate on the book's central relationships rather than pushing the plot of the larger story forwards to any great degree. We see an emotional reconciliation between Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, as the full extent of Tony's mental deterioration becomes unsettlingly clear; we see a frantic Maria Hill attempt to recruit the Black Widow to her cause; and Madame Masque finally makes her move on our hero -- in more ways than one.

Fraction's grasp of the book's characters remains solid, and he comes up with some interesting insights this issue. In particular, his treatment of Stark's intelligence as a superpower in its own right makes perfect sense for the character, and helps to reinforce the impact that the loss of his intellect will make on his ability to play his superhero role in future. The scenes between Hill and the Black Widow are also tense and compelling, even if it does seem a little out-of-character for Natasha to be so unwilling to assist the desperate ex-S.H.I.E.L.D.-agent.

Still, there's a sense that the issue doesn't have quite the same sense of immediacy or density of ideas that we've seen in previous instalments.

Perhaps it's the lack of any big action set-pieces or memorable confrontations that makes the book feel a bit thin. Salvador Larroca and Frank D'Armata might be a solid art team, but even they struggle to inject many of the more static scenes with any real energy. Having said that, they do manage to capture the tenderness of Pepper and Tony's relationship well, with a genuine romantic frisson to their scenes together.

An attack of H.A.M.M.E.R. agents provides a brief moment of exciting action, but it's over too quickly to leave much of a mark in the memory. Even the confrontation with Madame Masque feels like more of a tease than anything, setting up the next phase of the story more than adequately but not providing any real meat to get our teeth into here -- and that's quite a good description of the issue as a whole. Whilst I'm definitely still interested to see where Fraction's story leads, and I'm still enjoying the interactions of his characters, it's difficult to point to anything in this issue that really makes the most of the book's potential.

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Editor's Note: Uncanny X-Men #513 arrives in stores tomorrow, July 1.

"Utopia, Part 2"

Plot: Consummate spin doctor Norman Osborn takes on San Francisco's so-recently welcomed mutants, employing his Cabal colleague Emma Frost to ensure a successful campaign.

Comments: This is a return to things we've seen before (mutant oppression intensifying since M-Day), yet it's not quite the same. Osborn isn't making Tony Stark's mistake by trying to do what's "right." He just wants to be in control, and he'll do anything to stay in charge. He needs Marvel's heroes and villains to be under his thumb. Regardless of what HAMMER stands for, its symbolism is clear.

Emma certainly looks great in black (and there's no nostalgic tomfoolery about White Queen, Black King, or any of that Hellfire Club nonsense). This is public relations, not internecine hijinks, and Emma just looks a better Dark Avengers collaborator in black leather. Make no mistake, though, Osborn's aims are fascist in nature, as one angry mutant underlines by calling this Avengers/X-Men alliance all "brownshirts."

In hiding, Scott and most of his students (Emma and an ersatz group of conscripted mutants have taken over their complex, and Beast and Professor X have been captured) ask the questions the readers are having: Is Emma really a turncoat? Scott seems to think she's playing a complex game, and adding Namor to her "team" (even she can't take them quite seriously when handing out her orders) definitely complicates matters.

We know from the recent Annual that she and Namor have a long history and an alliance within the Cabal that goes deeper than Norman or the others suspect. And really, if it were anybody other than Emma, we wouldn't doubt that she's just putting on an act to keep her operatives in play until tables can be turned. The writers are teasing a return to villainy because of her history, but a lot of work has been done to accomplish her transformation to the white hats' side, and I don't think she can really be turned back now. My rating actually hinges on how that turns out.

In the meantime, laden with the upcoming summer crossover, Fraction jumps into the deep end, fully committing to exploring what it means when the Initiative mutates into a fascist police force under control of a tyrant smart enough to pretend to use diplomacy to get his way. We've already had several character-defining moments for Marvel's major and minor players in this topsy-turvy world; if anybody can make a case for the mutants in this new regime, it's Fraction (as his clever character blurbs, used to introduce most of the numerous players with a humorous slant, hint).

Emma's new "team" is an intriguing array of misfits, and Scott's resistance is surely something she's been counting on as well. She's far too compliant to Osborn's demands to believe. I can't believe it's just a case of her becoming an automaton, as has happened to other characters in previous events. Unlike the Civil War, however, Fraction makes it clear that the mutants can't sit this one out.

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Editor's Note: War of Kings #5 arrives in stores tomorrow, July 1.

Plot: Still reeling from the major death at the end of last issue, the Inhumans' leadership decide to execute a contingency plan with horrible ramifications.

Comments: For those readers who haven't had a chance to read War of Kings #4 there are sure to be SPOILERS after the break.


Both sides of the Inhumans/Shi'ar conflict are reeling after the death of the deposed Empress Lilandra. Much of this issue of WOK is spent checking in on the major players as they react to it: Emperor Vulcan incredulous that even with this victory he's on the brink of losing his empire; Gladiator, consumed by rage and looking to take revenge on the shadow cabinet which has dictated Shi'ar politics for centuries; and the Inhumans who view the assassination of the Empress as the extinction of the last best hope to bring a peaceful solution to the war.

So the Royal Family, specifically Blackbolt, Medusa, Karnak, and Maximus decide to do a bad thing to make things right. I won't discuss in detail what this bad thing is, but suffice it to say it's an organic outcome of how the Royal Family has framed their custodianship of the Kree and their portion of the galaxy. It's a common refrain often heard by despots about the greater good and sacrifice (often someone else's) that usually equates to a desire of expediency.

Medusa laments that the present may not look favorably on their actions but perhaps history will in retrospect view them more kindly. Again, they seem to be the words of tyrants and brutes that see cruelty as a necessary kindness. I appreciate the manner in which the writing team of DnA have constructed this set of actions. From the opening of this series the Inhumans have dubiously been positioned as the "good guys" in this conflict, only because the other side took the first shot. But as the series progressed it became clearer that their leadership (save Crystal and her Kree husband Ronan) were now thinking in apocalyptic terms: they viewed the Inhumans as a race on the precipice, too long the victims of scrutiny, violence, and most recently subterfuge with the revelation of their Skrullified monarch.

I appreciate how as the series has progressed it's focused more tightly on this side of the conflict. Of course we still see mad Emperor Vulcan and check in with the Starjammers, but at its heart this is a story about the Inhumans, continuing their arc over the last 3-4 years which has seen them progress from oddballs living in the Himalayas, to exiles on the moon, to rulers of a foreign empire far from Earth.

Final Word: If it's unclear, I unreservedly liked this issue and can't wait for next month's conclusion which will surely be the next turn in the overall arc of the Inhuman race.

If you liked this review, be sure to check out more of the author’s work at Monster In Your Veins

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Editor's Note: Agents of Atlas #7 arrives in stores tomorrow, July 1.

Plot: Cousins Namor and Namora talk marriage, while Atlas head Jimmy Woo contemplates the loss of one of his strongest members.

Comments: It's a testament to Jeff Parker that he's able to keep kissin' cousins Namor and Namora from seeming too icky. Over the last two issues I've come to buy that these characters have been into each other for years, needing only a little nudge from Venus to get where they need to be.

As for Jimmy and the rest of the Atlas team, Namora's reconnection with her monarch cousin is bittersweet: they're happy that the hotheaded princess has finally found peace but at the possible cost of losing her from the team's roster. In a short time, Parker has established a real rapport among the members of the Atlas Group, so the swirl of emotions surrounding the latest developments don't have to be telegraphed so broadly that the reader is hit over the head with it. We get how they feel and we understand the consequences.

In a previous review, I noted that it was a matter of time before the other shoe dropped on the Atlas members. So far things have gone too well for them – forging an alliance with Namor, convincing Osborne that they're truly villains, and keeping Temudgin at bay. I think that we're on the cusp of things starting to happen on the other side of that. No, I have no inkling of what that will be, but I imagine that the Mandarin's son, ever on the periphery of the story thanks to Jimmy, will at some point be the cause of the team's downfall.

As to the art, it's very lovely. The undersea environments look lived in and the weird fauna being studied in the middle of the issue looks wonderfully weird and exotic. It's good to know there are artists out there still dreaming of odd, alien worlds and the things that inhabit them.

Final Word: The book works so well because of the personality it invests in its cast. When things don't go their way, you're disappointed for them and Parker allows you to share in their victories as well. It continues to be one of the best books from Marvel and one of the best books on the shelves period.

If you liked this review, be sure to check out more of the author’s work at Monster In Your Veins

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Editor's Note: Exiles #4 arrives in stores tomorrow, July 1.

As a title, Exiles has struggled over the past while, being re-launched more than once in hopes of catching an audience. This issue finds the thrust-together-group-of-random-heroes being deposited in a dimension where machines have taken over the earth. Amongst the leaders of the evil machines are some familiar faces: Ultron, Vision, and Machine Man. With scarce information to help them the Exiles team must find a way to overcome the overwhelming numbers and power of an army of machines.

Exiles is a comic that doesn't fit neatly into any particular comic category. It doesn't fall into the Marvel mainsteam's usual style and feel (this certainly isn't a "Dark Reign" crossover), and while it is light-hearted, it's not quite light-hearted enough to fit into the "Marvel Adventures" brand (not to mention it has stories that last more than one issue with content that might be deemed too harsh). Instead the book seems to just be floating around in that twilight zone that I could say is maybe shared only by the "First Class" titles. Either way, Exiles is a comic that wants to tell stories that can be taken mostly seriously but with a light-hearted tone to them...

yeah, that's the best I can explain it.

In short, the writing just doesn't quite sit right with me. To some extent, of course, it's just personal taste, but when a book presents a generally relaxed tone--with characters frequently underreacting to the grave situations they find themselves in--and then includes completely unnecessary harsh language (such as a large "d*** it!") as well as scenes with a person having been dissected (with ribs, organs and all on display), I'm jarred. Parker could go with a mature style, or even with a more wacky one, but he tries here to get a bit of both, and it just doesn't seem to work that well. The attempted story twists also don't come across as particularly surprising, which doesn't help matters. This isn't to say that the writing is all bad, of course; Parker is clearly skilled, but when you're working amongst the best in the world, just doing an okay job seems pale by comparison.

Jones' art is also unfortunately lackluster. While he does a fair job, his art looks somewhat lacking in detail and fails to really catch the eye. For example, it's not difficult to tell what is happening in the action scenes, but the images evoke no real sense of life or movement. While I hate to sound harsh, this is art that easily could have come from a comic book in the 80s. It simply doesn't stand up in today's top-tier level of art.

Overall, if you've enjoyed the previous issues of this Exiles series you'll probably enjoy this one too, but as for me, Exiles #4 is resounding mediocre.

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Editor's Note: Marvel Divas #1 arrives in stores tomorrow, July 1.

"Bad News on a Good Day"

This comic has been somewhat controversial ever since it was announced, eliciting annoyed reactions from online commentators, mostly due to the disconnect between Joe Quesada calling the series "Sex in the City in the Marvel Universe" and the only art being the ugly cover image of the title characters wearing skin-tight costumes and posing sexily. If Marvel was going to entice the female reader with a character- and relationship-based comic, they didn't get off to a good start. But does the actual comic lay those fears of sexism to rest?

Writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa certainly took the Sex in the City comparison to heart, putting together a series in which his superheroine characters spend all their time chatting about men and relationships while doing stereotypical "girl stuff" like getting facials and sipping cocktails. Our four leads are Patsy "Hellcat" Walker, Felicia "Black Cat" Hardy, Monica "Captain Marvel" Rambeau, and Angelica "Firestar" Jones, and this issue mostly lets us get (re)acquainted with them and lets us know how they met, while setting up some relationship and professional plots that should play out over the course of the miniseries. Monica is having trouble committing after hooking up with Brother Voodoo, and Felicia wants to succeed with her private detective agency without her boyfriend having to support her. Patsy has a new book out, and Angelica has received some bad news. It should all play out like an episode of a TV show, with everybody learning lessons while trading quippy dialogue and supporting each other in their times of need.

On the art front, Croatian artist Tonci Zonjic brings the story to life in a laid-back style that emphasizes down-to-earth characters existing in real locations; other than a one-panel flashback to "Secret Invasion" and a couple brief uses of superpowers, the Marvel milieu is deemphasized, and Zonjic does a great job of making the women all seem unique and realistic. It's a really pretty comic, and Jelena Kevic Djurdjevic and June Chung bathe it in mostly flat colors rather than painting all over it with computery hues like most Marvel books. For a comic about women talking about relationships, it's about as good-looking as one could hope for.

Of course, this all begs the question of what the purpose of the book really is. Is Marvel trying to capture the elusive female audience here and get them hooked on their rich universe? Perhaps, but it seems odd to almost completely ignore the costumes and powers; if you like this, Marvel doesn't really have anywhere for you to go next. Still, it's a mostly enjoyable read, even if it does wear its inspiration on its sleeve. Aguirre-Sacasa seems to be relating a nice little slice-of-superheroine-life drama; it should be pleasant enough while it lasts.

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EDITOR's NOTE: Dead Run #2 will be in stores July 1. Preview images below.

Plot: Nick and Becki continue their trek through the Zone while trying to evade a deadly post-apocalyptic gang.

Comments: Issue #2 is a much-needed improvement over the first issue. Nick’s personality is a lot stronger than the first issue. You get a better sense of who he is, tough and rough and a bit unfeeling. He kills without hesitation and is unflinching in his plans to stop the attackers. His resourcefulness is close to brilliance. Where was this guy in the first issue?

Becki becomes a truly interesting sidekick to Nick, they’re banter is humorous and interesting. She is a little more rational than Nick and adds a sense of sarcasm to the mix. As the navigator, she adds her own worth to the book, making her feel vital to the story. As they journey along, you get the idea that a relationship of some kind may be blooming as Nick slowly admits to caring about her.

There are more bits and pieces of information about the current society and how it came to be. The zombie-esque gang members are cannibalistic monsters and according to Nick, blame the city-goers for destroying the world. As they go further into the Zone, we get a small view into the new world order after the apocalypse.

It's disappointing that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of new content, as most of the issue can be deemed as a fight. Despite the lack of insight into the broader plot, it was an exciting read and had enough characterization to make up for it. Hopefully, in the coming issues we’ll see more of this new society as well as some mention of the ongoing plot that started all this.

The art has improved since last issue. The style seemed to be less sketchy, with deep colors that really give you a feel for the mood of this story. It seems to take on somewhat of a cartoonish style in some places. However, the sketchy, dirty style from the first issue is still used heavily. The use of both styles creates a dynamic for this book. The cartoony art boldens the characters, while the sketchy style is used often to generate an energetic and exciting chain of events.

This second issue makes Dead Run a truly readable series by delving deeper into the fiction that of this story. The book still hasn’t completely committed to all its elements, but hopefully by the next issue there will be a lot more to learn about to truly make this world believable. Issue #2 has good action, much needed characterization, and fitting art. Take a chance on this one and pick up the first issue to catch up with the story.

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Plot: Replacement Superman Mon-El gives provides the reader with a travelogue of the international DCU while back in Metropolis, media mogul Morgan Edge attempts to drum up hostility towards the city’s newest protector.

Comments: A question--why aren’t the characters that Mon-El encounters in his global adventures receiving more exposure? With the exception of the new Dr. Light I’m unfamiliar with most of the visually interesting characters Mon meets: Congorilla, Beaumont, and Sunny Jim, or La Sangre. I recall a subplot from a couple of years back where there was an attempt to assemble a new JLI (it was some plot or other to target the JLA, or Superman or whoever) but for the most part the heroes of the rest of the globe get little if any page time.

I’m glad Robinson has taken this opportunity to expose readers to some of these characters and in a fairly interesting way: as he counts down the days until his death, Mon-El travels the world in the hopes of getting as much experience into his young life as possible. Naturally, a superhero can’t go anywhere without getting entangled in adventures so between perusing Matisse paintings in Paris he’s helping Barcelona’s resident vampire heroine dispatch gangs of augmented Basque terrorists. These action-packed panels contrast well with the droll narration by Mon-El, who’s happy to be taking it all in.

Back in Metropolis, Mon-El has a PR problem with media mogul Morgan Edge launching a campaign against the new protector, accusing him of being a stealth Kryptonian. This storyline doesn’t gain much traction given its almost pat resolution before the book’s end.

Meanwhile, General Lane keeps his plot against Kryptonians rolling and I find this to be the least interesting of all the subplots. Maybe because Lane’s anger at Kryptonians seems so outsized--it’s hard to grasp the weird, detached villainy. None of the principal cast even knows he’s alive much less that he’s an antagonist – and he just feels disconnected from the greater story.

Finally, John Henry Irons takes on a partner at the Iron Works. Something happens at the end of this issue but I feel like it’s telegraphed much to easily. Also, I’ve forgotten who the character is who John’s showing his most secret work. Part of it has to do with having read so much between issues but I can’t help but believe such a large cast and multiple storylines could use a few more brief captions to keep readers up to date.

Renato Guedes keeps it all looking organic and lively. His colorist, David Curiel, makes the art pop and look vibrant. This team is perfect for this book and Robinson is lucky to have them (and vice versa). Even if the story doesn’t always gel perfectly for me it looks great.

Final Word: In spite of this reader’s lack of familiarity with some of the characters in the subplots, Robison keeps the plot moving at a good clip and Renato Guedes keeps it all looking pretty.

If you liked this review, be sure to check out more of the author’s work at Monster In Your Veins

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Plot: When the team comes to Las Vulgar, Shiny Happy Aquazon takes on an endorsement opportunity for a product called “Oxy-Gen” which turns out to serve a dark purpose. Super-Bat and the others are bored with the latest excesses they've been introduced to and decide to seek out Doc Dread, a supervillain that lives in the area.

Comments: The issue opens in similar fashion to the first, with Hanover showing the Super Young Team their new digs, this time being a penthouse suite in Las Vulgar. This seems to be another tactic for Itami and his backers to distract the team and the rest of the world from the truth about post-Crisis Japan, but the protagonists seem to slowly be catching on to the fact that they're being kept in the dark.

To me, Most Excellent Super-Bat and Shiny Happy Aquazon are best characterized in this issue. The team is generally becoming discontent with their current lifestyle, but Super-Bat shows this more strongly. I got the impression that he's picking up a little more maturity, but still seems pretty cocky after the team's stumbling victory at the end. Even so, I think he might be taking Ultimon's advice to stand for something greater into more serious consideration. He decides taking on Doc Dread might be a good start to breaking out of their own complacency. Dread turns out to be a decent guy after their battle and is written as being able to relate to the team in their desire to make their way out of obscurity and make something of themselves.

On the Aquazon front, she's quick to jump at the chance to sell out by doing the Oxy-Gen endorsement, but I got the feeling that this might be a cry for attention, going by her somewhat anguished expression in one panel on page 3. Obviously going off on her own wasn't such a good idea when she witnesses that Oxy-Gen has an effect similar to Anti-Life over its users, putting them under the control of the Brain Drain, at the heart of which is a single-celled megalomaniac.

I gave the book a 3 and a half bullets, but that's not because I didn't enjoy it. I'm just a little disappointed that the series is only two issues in and already needed artists to fill-in for Chriscross and that neither Coelho nor Pansica even penciled the whole thing. The art still has the same high energy the series is going for, but the pencilers' styles don't seem totally distinctive. Coelho's style kind of reminds me of Joe Madureira, but without the massive breasts on female characters, and Pansica's pencils seem imitative of Carlos Pacheco.

Final Word: The book follows the same basic formula as the first issue, which should make it accessible to anyone that missed #1. So far this mini is full of the kind of social commentary on globalization and commercialism I've come to expect from Joe Casey since reading his runs on WildCATs, so if you're a fan of comics, especially superhero books, with a social consciousness, I recommend picking Dance up.

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Orphaned heiress Ellen Page moonlights as Domino Lady, dispensing her own brand of justice and taking on the criminal underworld as she seeks retribution for her father’s murder.

Two different stories. Two different artists. Which leaves me of two different minds about Domino Lady #1.

The first story, “Blooded,” has Domino Lady teaming up with police detective Morgan “Mad Dog” Vernia and Sherlock Holmes to:

• Track down the stolen Jade Dragon statue
• Rescue a kidnapped girl
• Keep rival Chinese mobsters from starting a gang war, and
• Keep the city from being flooded with bad drugs.

Writer Nancy Holder bit off a bit more than she could chew in this story. Or to put it another way, there’s way too much going on in these sixteen pages. The inclusion of Sherlock Holmes is interesting, but not really necessary. He basically adds clutter to an already crowded storyline.

The scenes are short, cutting quickly to the next event. Characters appear and disappear without warning or purpose. There’s one flashback panel that I think is supposed to illustrate the kind of thing Domino Lady does and the impish delight she takes in doing it, but it was distracting, not illuminating. It had nothing to do with the main storyline. I found it difficult to keep track of what was going on.

Illustrator Danny Sempere has a good sense of composition. His backgrounds are detailed without crowding the action. In general, his close-ups are good, though his disguised Holmes is just...ugh! There’s something about the way the face is put together. It just doesn’t fit right. Also he inks it far too heavily – a mistake he doesn’t make anywhere else.

In the book’s second feature, “Orange Blossom Murders,” Ellen crosses paths with an old flame while investigating a friend of her late father’s. This opening chapter works much better than “Blooded.” Holder takes her time developing this story, giving readers a sense of what drives Ellen here, by using elements from her past and present. She sets up some interesting relationships between the characters and scripts sharp snappy banter for the scene featuring Domino Lady and the reporter Rackers.

Leeahd Goldberg brings a different look to this section of the book. The panels are more open, with less detail. There’s also less of an emphasis on the characters’ faces. Goldberg pulls back from the action, distancing the reader, which allows him to gain more perspective on the events.

Domino Lady #1 is a mixed bag, but there’s enough to like about it for me to suggest fans of pulp noir check it out.

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"Elegy, Part One: Agitato"

Batwoman hits the streets to track down the new "pope" of the Crime Bible cult--a Rococo-styled white queen named Alice who communicates by paraphrasing her namesake's dialog from Lewis Carroll's wondrous novel.

"Pipeline, Chapter One / Part One"

The Question investigates the disappearance of an illegal Mexican immigrant that leads her to a sex slave video porn operation.

Shawn Hill:
Paul Brian McCoy:
Dave Wallace:
Thom Young:

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Shawn Hill

I wonder if the similarities in Rucka's two tales in Detective Comics #854 are meant to be noted. Both feature strong women pursuing their courses in the shadow of male forbears. Kate's Batwoman persona owes more to Batman than any of the Batgirls we know, and Montoya took on The Question's mask after following him on a quest to his death.

Both also have patriarchal mentors who function behind the scenes. Kate's is her actual dad, an ex-military officer who now covertly supports her vigilante activities. Renee's is a retired lighthouse keeper who does her intel--including sifting through the bogus questions that come her way to get to real callers who need help.

Both stories also put a lot of visual emphasis on the treads of the women's boots, as they both tend to kick open locked doors and whatever else gets in their way. Makes sense, as women's legs generally have greater fighting strength than their arms, but I think it would pay to be aware of these patterns because assertive superheroines are prone to clichés more than almost any other type of comics character.

We don't need any more lesbians who choose to butch up and date women after men abuse them--not that we have that here. However, we also don't need two leads who are so similar it's hard to distinguish their personalities.

Rucka seems to pick up Batwoman where he left off in 52, which makes sense, I suppose, as the intervening Crime Bible: The Five Lessons of Blood miniseries focused mostly on The Question and the Religion of Crime that emerged in 52. Here our focus is finally on Batwoman herself, though we only get a few tantalizing glimpses of her personality--which Williams makes up for to a large extent with his stunning visual design sense.

Williams's elaborate panels are fragmented like art deco stained glass--making him a great choice for adventures set in Gotham. He tries a variety of styles, from painted watercolor effects to stylized linework, and he differentiates the Batwoman of the night from the tattooed goth Kate of the day.

Rucka lets us see an awkward brunch with an unsatisfied lover, and hints in a discussion with her father at a past more traumatic than any we've imagined thus far. Williams does two-page splashes like many other artists today, but they're not wide-screen voids that waste space. Instead, they're visual puzzle pieces that add nuance and drama--and the last one, soaked in red, certainly prepares us for the new nemesis, a Rocky Horror reject who spouts surreal aphorisms and is in every way a visual alternative to the red and black Batwoman. With her kewpie doll face and clownish gear, you might almost think she were a sort of joker.

Finally, The Question feature is another examination of the drug-related problem of sex slavery--a popular theme in superheroine comics these days. I don't know if the divergent threads will link together, or if Renee and Kate are meant to become an item again. However, this issue is very good start in making Batwoman a character rather than a stereotype.

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Paul Brian McCoy:

This is my first foray into Greg Rucka's World of Lesbian Crimefighters, so forgive me if I don't quite love it yet--especially since the stories in this issue are built on previous stories that I avoided like the plague. I didn't avoid them because of the lesbians--I'm pro-lesbian--but because I thought the idea of a Religion of Crime sounded kind of dumb.

Well, after researching it a bit so I could write as informed a review as possible, I'm still not sure what it was all about beyond the fact that Intergang has a prophecy about the death of Kate Kane (Batwoman) and they also don't like Renee Montoya (The Question) because she refused to lead them (or something like that?).

So I'm not really all that informed after all, and really don't have time to track down all that stuff from 52, Crime Bible: Five Lessons of Blood, and Final Crisis: Revelations.

The good news is it's not really necessary to read all that to know what's going on in this comic, even though it directly refers back to some of those previous events. Sure, it would help, but it's not necessary.

Technically, there's not a lot to complain about with the main thrust of the story--which I rate at three and a half bullets. Without devoting a distractingly large chunk of the text to exposition, Rucka does a good job of giving just enough about what's come before to keep new readers from being too lost. On top of that, we also get dropped right into some action, which is always a good way to get the ball rolling.

I'm not sure I really care too much about the story, though--not having invested any time with this character before now. There's an interesting dynamic between Batwoman and her father. However, without any background to go on, I'm not sure I really buy the relationship. It's strange and very convenient, providing Batwoman with her very own version of Oracle. Ultimately, though, it has enough going for it to keep my interest up.

And am I right in assuming that this father with covert military connections is a new revelation?

On the other hand, the brief scene with Kate's girlfriend was pretty bad. Again, maybe this is a relationship that has been set up and developed other places, but here, with no background, it's ham-handed and stereotypical. The girlfriend, Anna, really only seems to serve as a way to fit some character description in for us newbies, and I really didn't like the way it was handled. Their conversation isn't really a conversation; it's essentially a monologue that is unreasonably hostile and unpleasant.

There's no reason for me to care about this Anna person, and she seems like a one-dimensional bitch in this scene; is she a loose-end that Rucka wants to tie up before getting on with this new story? If she's new just for this scene, then I'm even less impressed. I can't tell. Regardless, the scene doesn't work for me since there's not really anything in it that serves the larger story. I'd rather not be told what kind of character Kate is. Show me.

Batwoman's eventual confrontation with the new baddie, who I'm assuming is actually called Alice (?), is strange, too. Alice's continual quoting of lines from the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is annoying and doesn't always work in just the few lines used here. It seems more like an affectation than a personality trait, and it's already worn out after just a few pages.

So the story is functional and vaguely intriguing, but is hampered by a couple of clichés and affectations that really bugged me more than they may you, dear readers. But to be quite honest, I'm not here for the story.

I'm here for the art.

And while it's good--very good, in fact--I'm a little put off by a couple of small things. Actually they're not so much small as they are huge, puffy, and prominent. Yes, I am talking about Batwoman's nipples. They are distractingly prominent and her breasts are rather pendulous and free-floating at times, while more proportional at others. It also seems a bit gratuitous the sheer number of panels Williams is willing to squeeze a huge, puffy nipple into.

Not that I don't like nipples. They're just distracting. Maybe instead of cowardly and superstitious, current Gotham criminals are a horny and juvenile lot.

Aside from the obsessive porny vibe, the artwork is beautiful--but I really expected nothing less. Williams is one of the best artists working in comics today, and he's firing on all cylinders with this comic. The action sequences are clearly orchestrated and dynamically laid out on the page. I like how he distinguishes the change between the Batwoman pages and the Kate Kane pages--moving from the big, two-page spreads and ultra-stylized panel designs for the former to the more traditional square-paneled layouts for the latter.

I'm also very impressed with the amount of realistic detail in the faces, body languages, costuming, and set designs. There were even hints of classic Paul Gulacy in some of the faces, and that's always a plus. The use of light and shadow really works well--creating an almost photo-realistic quality that is only enhanced by Dave Stewart's colors. Keeping the Batwoman pages almost black-and-white with vibrant bursts of red also helps make this comic stand out as one of the best-looking books on the stands.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. There's a two-bullet back-up feature--also written by Rucka, with art by Cully Hamner--featuring Renee Montoya as The Question. It's only eight pages and is a fairly simplistic opening chapter. The art is good and functional, but doesn't really do much to draw attention to itself.

I was a little surprised to see that Rucka has also paired The Question up with an older man who works the computer and does her tech work. Maybe if these two stories weren't by the same author and in the same book it wouldn't be so obvious, but do we really need to have both lesbian crimefighters teamed up with older men who look out for them and work their tech? It seems a bit redundant. Actually, it doesn't seem redundant; it is redundant.

This book is very much worth your money, if only for Williams's art. The back-up feature, while slight, does at least make it seem that DC is giving you more value for your $3.99 price tag. All in all, though, it's not too impressive of a start to either story.

I think I'd be happier with a $2.99 price tag and just the Batwoman story. Even then, though, if it weren't for Williams I don't know that there'd be anything to keep me coming back for the next issue.

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Dave Wallace:

Detective Comics #854 sees Greg Rucka and JH Williams III collaborate on the first chapter of their long-in-development Batwoman story. It's an issue that accomplishes several things, setting up a magic-based criminal plot whilst also (re)introducing the character to an audience that might have missed her previous appearances in 52 and Crime Bible: The Five Lessons of Blood.

Whilst that summary might not make it sound like the most exciting issue in the world, the story is executed with so much style that it's impossible to not enjoy reading it.

An impressive opening sequence sets Batwoman up as an accomplished and imposing superhero, also suggesting that she's almost as smart as Batman through her demonstration of an awareness of details of the criminal underworld that even he doesn't know about. There's also an amusing irony in Batman's advice on the length of her hair, as the panels that immediately follow this exchange make it clear that this Batwoman is a more practically minded superhero than her flamboyant appearance might suggest.

After these opening pages, Rucka introduces us to the woman behind Batwoman's mask, Kate Kane, crafting a sympathetic and multi-faceted character whom I look forward to learning more about as the story progresses.

Considering the heavy focus on Batwoman's sexuality when the new character was first announced a few years ago, it's pleasing to see that the fact that she's a lesbian isn't made the cornerstone of her personality here (after all, heterosexual characters don't spend pages and pages going on about how they're attracted to the opposite sex, do they?). Instead, it's merely a part of her characterisation, acknowledged in a scene that highlights her doomed love life before the book moves on to other equally important matters.

Rucka gives Kate some interesting character qualities that make her more than just a female Batman knock-off. Her younger, more modern perspective on life is established, we get some hints as to her apparently violent backstory, and there's an interesting twist on the usual Batman dynamic with a still-living parent who assumes the "Alfred" role in her life.

There's also some religious imagery in the background of one panel (a Menora, and a slightly inaccurate poster of the Kabbalistic tree of the ten Sefirot) that suggests an interest in the more mystical aspects of the Jewish faith, which may tie in to her interest in the more magical aspects of Gotham City's underworld. I wonder whether these religious elements are just throwaway details (perhaps a callback to artist J.H. Williams III's work on Promethea?) or whether they'll become more significant as the story develops.

One aspect of the plot on which I'll reserve judgment for now is the story's villain, Alice. Magic is a slippery subject in superhero comics, and although I have no problems with Rucka's presentation of it here, that might be because we're not given much to go on in terms of the villain's motivations or powers in this first issue. Having said that, her gimmick of speaking only in lines from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an interesting one, even if we don't know what it signifies for the character at this point.

However, despite the strengths of Rucka's writing, the most impressive element of the issue (and, in truth, the main reason that I bought the book in the first place) is the artwork of J.H. Williams III. I've been a fan of Williams's art for a while now, enjoying his work on Promethea, Seven Soldiers, Jonah Hex, and Batman--and he turns in equally strong work here.

The stark, arresting black-and-white-and-red colour scheme used for Batwoman's in-costume appearances (for which credit must also go to colourist Dave Stewart) instantly creates an impact, immediately making the character visually interesting and distinct from other Bat-characters. I also love the way the artist uses jagged, unorthodox panels for the sequences that show Batwoman, but reverts to regular square-edged panels for the scenes in which Kate Kane is out-of-costume--subtly reinforcing the change in personality that occurs when she adopts the Batwoman persona.

Williams's take on Batwoman is sexy without being exploitative. Her smile is just as seductive as her tight-fitting leather, and Willams uses her bright red lips on her pale white face as a recurring graphic element that's bound to become as much of an icon for the character as her chest logo or flame-red hair.

I also love the attention to detail that's evident in his artwork, whether it's the varying textures on Batwoman's gloves, arm-gauntlets, and boots; the different looks for Kate that are established within the space of just one issue; or the cutaway shot of her apartment that's executed with just as much care and attention as most artists would devote to an image of the Batcave.

Finally, I have to commend both the writer and the artist for maintaining a satisfying ambiguity about exactly how this story fits into current Bat-continuity. Despite the "Batman: Reborn" banner on the cover, the book has clearly been written in such a way that readers can choose whether to accept Batman's cameo as an early outing for the new Batman, Dick Grayson, or an out-of-continuity appearance from Bruce Wayne. We don't really get any hints one way or another from Batman's dialogue, and that's something that will enable Rucka and Williams's story to remain timeless and readable long after the status quo of Bruce Wayne as Batman has been re-established in the rest of the Bat-books.

One thing that might make readers hesitate to buy the issue is the increased price tag. However, you get a pretty decent package for your $3.99. In addition to the enjoyable 24-page lead story, there's an eight-page backup story (or "Second Feature") starring The Question by Rucka and artist Cully Hamner. Whilst I'm not a particular fan of the character--and the first chapter of this story didn't do anything to really grab my attention--I know that some readers are, and it's laudable to see DC attempt to provide an outlet for their secondary characters, even if it has to be as a backup feature in another book.

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Thom Young:

Whenever images from Detective Comics #854 were released on the Internet during the past few months--as part of DC's promotional campaign--much praise was rightly given to J.H. Williams III's depiction of The All-New Batwoman. Now that the issue has finally arrived, it's obvious that Williams has drawn some exceptional panels that reveal a great deal of detailed line work.

I particularly like how Williams and colorist Dave Stewart were able to get the highlights on Batwoman's costume to look exactly the way that light plays off a lycra and nylon blend. There's no doubt what fabric Batwoman's leotard and tights are made from--at least 10% lycra and at most 90% nylon.

However, what impressed me the most is that Williams's page designs and panel layouts force the readers' eyes to move from left to right--in other words, in the same direction in which we read a page and turn the pages. Many illustrators working in comics today don't pay attention to the natural left to right flow of stories published in the western hemisphere.

One example of an illustrator who doesn't seem to know which direction stories flow is Tony Daniel, who laid out the second page of Batman #678 in a way in which he has Tim Wayne (nee Drake) look up from a book he's reading because he heard something outside. Tim suddenly looked up to his right, which was our left.

In other words, Tim looked up and back to page one rather than to page three--which is where the two characters who made the noise suddenly appear as the reader turns the page (there was a page of advertising between pages two and three). A better layout would have been for Daniel to reverse the images on page two so that Tim was facing left and then moved his eyes to his right (our left)--toward page three.

Fortunately, J.H. Williams III understands that stories flow from left to right--and that the only reason to reverse the direction is to create an effect for the sake of the story (which was not the case in the example from Daniel's work in Batman #678).

Beyond understanding the natural flow of western storytelling from left to right--and how the illustrations need to flow with the direction of the text unless for a specific reason--Williams has also provided some very detailed illustrations in the first nine pages of this issue (the rest are detailed, too, but I want to focus on the first nine in particular since they constitute the first scene of the story).

My one qualm with those first nine pages is that while Williams has the images flow from left to right, most of those illustrations are void of action. The first two panels of the first page show a man running from left to right, but that's just about all the action there is in the opening scene.

Twenty-eight of the other thirty-one panels in the next eight pages are static panels (though there is one that shows Batman firing his grappling hook gun--so I guess that constitutes movement of the hook). The other three "movement" panels are:

• Panel five of the two-page spread on pages 2-3, which shows Batwoman's left boot coming straight at the reader's face (from the point of view of the man who was running from left to right on the first page). This panel breaks the left to right flow of the story (coming through the fourth wall toward the reader), but it does so for a specific effect.
  
  Here the action is straight at us, and time seems suspended as we see Batwoman's boot come toward our collective face. It's a perfect example of Williams knowing how to layout a page in a way that seems to escape so many of his contemporary peers.


• Panels four and seven of the two-page spread on pages 8-9 shows Batwoman riding her motorcycle from left to right. In fact, panel seven shows her riding the cycle across the double-page layout--from the first panel over to the eighth panel, which shows her at home and out of costume. Thus, we can see that she rode her motorcycle home after she left the rooftop that she was on in the first panel.
  
  From the look of that double page spread, I'm not certain that Greg Rucka's script actually called for Batwoman to ride her motorcycle across the two pages. It would appear Rucka's script called for her to depart on her bike in the fourth panel, and that Williams added the "free panel" of her riding across the pages because he was aware of how static most of the scene had been up to that point.

Anyway, I was a bit disappointed to see that only five of the first 34 panels in the issue showed movement--or six of the first 34 if we count Batman's grappling hook. However, the lack of movement appears to be the fault of Rucka's script rather than Williams's own artistic choices.

There is another panel that seems to show movement--the first panel of page four. However, that panel is essentially static since it's actually showing Batwoman pressing her boot against the chin of the man whose point of view we had in the last panel of the previous page. She is pinning him back against the wall with her extended left leg and boot as she stands motionless while balancing on her other leg.



It's really a rather awkward panel in terms of believability in Batwoman's fighting prowess. If the man had his wits about him (which he clearly doesn't), he could simply grab Batwoman at the ankle and topple her over without much effort. Her body would be unstable as she holds the static pose that forces her to balance on her right leg. I suppose that's the image that Rucka called for in his script, though, and it's fortunate that the man she's facing doesn't have his wits about him and isn't a more accomplished fighter.

My other problem with the first nine pages--in fact, with all the pages--is . . . the coloring. Well, I sort of have a problem with it even though it's exemplary work.

I don't hate the coloring by any means. Indeed, Dave Stewart's colors are astounding throughout the issue. However, the choice of how to color the pages (most likely in coordination with Williams) simply doesn't match my personal taste--though I'm certain the coloring will please at least 90% of the readers.

In other words, I completely understand that I am in the minority here--as the reviews by my colleagues above have proven.

Aside from a single splash of red at the bottom, the first page of the story is in black and white, and I don't have any problems with the way it's colored. However, it's the first page, so that's where I'm starting.

The first panel is not only in black and white, it's nearly chiaroscuro save for some gray tones on the exposed masonry of a wall. The second panel then abandons the chiaroscuro look as we move in for a close up of the man who is running; there are gray tones in his hair, his shirt, and the wall behind him.

The third and final panel is the first to introduce color to the story with the appearance of a red bat emblem that appears behind the man. Oddly, that red bat emblem is clearly not on Batwoman's chest. It seems to be a red bat emblem that forms spontaneously within the man's own shadow.

I suppose it's a symbolic image that shows that the man is being "shadowed" by Batwoman. On that level of symbolic imagery, it's a highly effective illustration.

As we turn to the double-page spread on pages 2-3, we get a bit more color--and it is here that my qualms about the coloring begins. Not only do we now see the bright red of Batwoman's chest emblem, belt, boots, cape lining, hair, and lipstick, we also get some sepia-like brown tones in the man's shirt and in the pigmentation of his left hand. This color scheme of black, white, gray tones, bright red, and subtle brown tones is then continued through the issue's first nine pages.

In fact, that color scheme is carried out nearly through the entire issue--though we also get some muted greens, yellow, purples, and blues in the scenes in which the protagonist, Kate Kane, doesn't appear in her Batwoman costume.

Overall, it's really a masterful coloring job, and it is very effective in matching Williams's illustrations and setting the tone of the story. My problem with it is that Batwoman looks like she fell into the same vat of chemicals that The Joker fell into years ago when he was the first Red Hood.

She has the same chalk-white skin and ruby red lips that The Joker has. However, instead of the chemicals turning her hair a bright green, her hair became a bright, unnatural red. Yes, I know it's all for affect, but I see it as unnecessary affectation.

It's later revealed, though, that her bright, unnatural red hair is really a wig that is attached to her cowl. Yet, that fact doesn't actually explain the unnatural color since her genuine hair under the wig is the exact same bright red color.

Later, as Kate, she's shown wearing a second wig--a page boy hairstyle that makes her look like Alan Moore and David Lloyd's protagonist from V for Vendetta--albeit a V (or Evey) who has bright unnatural red hair.

As I looked at the first nine pages of the issue that were primarily black and white and bright red all over, I was reminded of a passage from John Clellon Holmes's 1977 introduction to his seminal 1952 Beat novel, Go:

Go is, in every way, a young man's book. . . . It is mostly painted in reds and blacks, which are the colors of youth after all. . . .

Similarly, Rucka and Williams's Batwoman is a young person's protagonist. However, I'm not immune to the desired effect of the imagery even though it's been a couple of decades since I was a youth with a black and red worldview of my own.

Anyway, as Batwoman, she looks like The Joker's long-lost twin sister. The real problem with that depiction is that she doesn't have the same chalk-white skin when she's out of costume. With one page that is the exception to the rule--the page with her father in which she is wearing the page boy wig, looks like V, and gets a new gun--she actually has pigment in her face when she appears as Kate Kane.

I guess I want consistency in her pigmentation regardless of whether she's in costume or out. However, as I contemplate it, I know that it would look even odder for Kate Kane to have chalk-white skin when she's out of costume. Similarly, I know that the intended effect would be lost if she was to have a hint of subtle tan or pink pigmentation when she's in costume.

In the end, I guess this is just a convention of this particular story that a reader has to accept.

Thus far, I've said little about Rucka's story save that I believe some of Williams's layout choices were either dictated by the script or (in the case of the motorcycle ride across pages eight and nine) were in reaction to the static images dictated by the script.

I enjoyed Rucka's work years ago when he was the regular writer of Detective Comics #739-54 from late 1999 to early 2001. However, I haven't liked the most recent efforts of his that I've read--such as the Final Crisis: Revelations miniseries and the Final Crisis: Resist one-shot.

I'm glad to say that I have nothing particularly negative to say about Rucka's current story. It doesn't bother me, but neither does it thrill me. I can add that the dialog sounds natural in relation to the otherwise fantastic characters and situations--and the plot and action are logical in that same relative manner.

While this Batwoman story elicits a reaction that is somewhat closer to my feeling about his Batman stories from nearly ten years ago, it did have a few minor things that kept me from being thrilled. One is the scene that Paul mentioned in his review--the apparent break-up between Kate and her just-introduced girlfriend (at least I don't recall seeing her before, though I didn't read the Crime Bible: The Five Lessons of Blood miniseries).

If her girlfriend had been a long standing character within the Batwoman canon, then this scene would have been fine. However, as Paul indicated, this out-of-the-blue girlfriend appears to have been brought in merely so that we can acknowledge that Kate is a lesbian (or at least is bi-sexual, as I recall some mention during her introduction in 52 of her having dated Bruce Wayne--though I could be misremembering as I no longer seem to have my 52 issues).

Additionally, not only can we acknowledge Kate's sexual orientation, we can then put it aside because after this scene she's no longer going to be sexually active for the foreseeable future. The scene was of absolutely no use other than it showed that Kate wears a lot of eyeliner and mascara, and that she has at least two tattoos--one on her upper right arm, and one that appears to have left creases on her back after it was stamped into her skin over her spine.

My second problem with Rucka's story was also something that Paul mentioned. I've not been a fan of Rucka's concept of the "Crime Bible" and the cult of villainous followers of that religion. However, I can see the reason for making it a part of this story as a continuation of Batwoman's minor arc in 52 that resulted in her being stabbed in the heart near the end of that series.

Bringing in the Crime Bible Cult gives Batwoman a reason for existence beyond being yet another female character in the Batman Family. It distinguishes her from The Huntress and the various Batgirls, and I didn't react as negatively to the Crime Bible concept here as I did in Revelations.

I didn't bother to read the Crime Bible: The Five Lessons of Blood miniseries because I don't care for Rucka's execution of supernatural concepts--nor his use of Christian mythology in opposition to the "evil religion."

Fortunately, nothing supernatural occurs in this first issue of his Batwoman story. Instead, the Crime Bible Cult appears to be more secular in its deeds (if not in its beliefs)--more akin to any of the religious cults in the real world (such as David Koresh's Branch Davidians or any of the various Adventist cults).

In this case, the new charismatic leader of the Crime Bible Cult seems to share Batwoman's pigment-challenged complexion--a woman with chalk-white skin who is named "Alice" and who quotes (sometimes paraphrases) dialog from the title character of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

With the introduction of this pigment-challenged Alice, we have yet another villain in the Batman mythos who is based on a character from Lewis Carroll's novels. I appreciate this continuation of this long-standing motif in the Batman mythos, and I will be a bit disappointed if Rucka doesn't manage to bring the Mad Hatter and Tweedledum & Tweedledee into this arc at some point.

In fact, in addition to being "Alice," Rucka's antagonist here could also be a type of white queen to Batwoman's red queen--which is an intriguing possibility.

Finally, my third qualm with Rucka's story is that Kate Kane is shown to be living in a penthouse apartment with her father. Their residence has hidden rooms behind secret panels--which, of course, is a convention of not only Batman Family stories but of many masked vigilante stories over the years--going back not only to Zorro but also the swashbuckling novels of Alexander Dumas.

It was established in 52 that the Kanes are a wealth family of Gotham high society, so it's not surprising that Kate could have a penthouse apartment that has all of these fascinating extras. What's surprising is that the Kane family apparently achieved this status with a patriarch (Kate's father) who seems rather rough around the edges despite his apparent West Point education that hints at the probability of old wealth in the Kane family (Kate is wearing a United States Military Academy t-shirt in the scenes with her father in the penthouse).

It's a minor quibble, but I would have expected her father to be a slightly different character--more like an American version of British Field Marshal Alan Francis Brooke rather than General George S. Patton. Uh, wait, Patton was from a wealthy American family but was nonetheless known for being rough around the edges.

Never mind. I guess it's okay for Kate to be a former debutante who is now a tattooed mod who has a retired General Patton as her father and partner in crime fighting--so it's on to the back-up story!

I am a huge fan of Steve Ditko's characters. By my count, he created seven for DC Comics (or four for DC and three for Charlton that DC later bought): Captain Atom, the Silver Age Blue Beetle, The Question, The Creeper, Hawk & Dove, and Shade the Changing Man.

(Actually, Ditko created eight heroes for DC if we count Odd Man, whom DC was obligated to publish in one eight-page story in Detective Comics #487 in the fall of 1979 to prevent Ditko from trying to regain the rights to his creation after the DC Implosion in the summer of 1978 prevented the character's originally scheduled debut. Ditko apparently contested the legitimacy of the Canceled Comic Cavalcade photocopied publication as validating DC's claim of ownership.)

Anyway, of the seven characters that Ditko created, the only ones who are still "alive" are Captain Atom, Shade (I guess, not counting the Vertigo version that was actually a different character with minor similarities to Ditko's), and The Creeper--and to call the latest version of The Creeper a creation of Ditko's is actually ridiculous since the only similarity is the names of the characters and the basic visual appearance.

Thus, as a fan of Ditko's work (though not an Objectivist myself), I was both interested and anxious to see what Rucka would do with The All-New Question. Would she essentially just share the name and the basic visual appearance of the character Ditko created, or would there be more of Ditko's actual concept?

The jury is still out, but I was happy to see the appearance of Aristotle Rodor as Renee Montoya's confidant--the same role he played for Vic Sage when Ditko was writing and drawing his Question stories for Charlton back in the 60s (and, apparently, in Denny O'Neil's Question series in the late 80s, though I didn't read past the first few issues).

There's nothing else in the back-up story that hints at Ditko's creation, but neither is there anything in it that indicates that Rucka won't be adhering to Ditko's ideology for the character. I know very little about Renee Montoya, but I see no reason that she couldn't become an Objectivist-particularly if she reads Vic Sage's journals and has long philosophical discussions with Professor Roder as they live together in a lighthouse somewhere near Los Angeles.

It would be interesting to see Montoya being brainwashed indoctrinated into the concepts of Ayn Rand's Objectivism through her conversations with Roder and her admiration for Vic Sage. Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, this first chapter of the back-up story has an adequate (if predictable) plot that is competently illustrated by Cully Hamner--who provides art that "is good and functional, but doesn't really do much to draw attention to itself" (to quote from Paul's review).

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