20100228

The 30-Pack Review 1-3

So I've started on my pile of comics--I actually wound up with 33 in total. Here's my impressions on the first three:

1) Action Comics 879 "World Without A Superman: The Sleepers Part 5"/"Captain Atom Part 1" September 2009

I knew the Superman and Batman titles would both be odd, as the title characters are currently absent from both. In the Superman corner of the DCU, it seems that after years of people being perfectly OK with a protector from another world, everyone now hates Kryptonians. I think someone restored the bottle city of Kandor both to continuity and normal size, so now there's a lot more of them. Most of them, including Superman himself, have gone off to a "New Krypton," but some are still on earth and being chased by the military, including Lois Lane's supposedly dead dad. Anyway, in this issue, yet another retread of the Nightwing/Flamebird duo battle a couple of rogue Kryptonians--or at least try to, but as usual the military's getting in the way by trying to stop all of them. Flamebird's got something interesting going on--she's possessed by some separate, powerful and very angry flame entity who seems to be more Kryptonian than the girl it's in--not sure on that. Also, Lois Lane--there to remind us this is in fact a Superman comic--teams up with Superman wannabe stand-in Mon-El to determine that daddy is (Surprise!) not dead after all. Good news--except he died a hero in an alien invasion but is now back as the main villain of this storyline it seems. Ah well.


Almost forgot--there's a Captain Atom backup story where he's fighting some medieval types-- then flashes to the JLI, then collapses back on the middle age battlefield. The co-features DC started doing are a neat throwback to the pre-crisis era, though this story didn't really grab me. Art was nicely detailed, though.



Regardless--being dumped in the middle of an arc like this really brings back the feeling of the old 30 packs--usually then it was whatever major X-Men crossover was happening at the time. I'll be curious to see where they're at in a year or so. I do kind of miss Big Blue, though the new Flamebird is interesting to me.





2)Batman 691 "Batman Reborn: The Long Shadows--Conclusion--Two Knights, Two Faces" Early December 2009

As I mentioned, the Batman titles have seen their own share of upheaval. Bruce Wayne is supposedly dead, and Dick Grayson, the original Robin (now more famously known as Nightwing) has taken his spot. Making matters more interesting, he's got his own very problematic Robin to contend with (more on that later). I've been getting a taste of this through my regular following of Detective Comics (starring Batwoman) and the new Batgirl series, but this is the first to focus on Dick.



In this edition, the new Batman has just been surprised in the Batcave by a nightmarish, multicolored version of the caped crusader--who turns out to be a drug induced hallucination. Actually who he's facing is classic Batman foe Two-Face, who knows a thing or two about dual identities and has figured out this isn't his Batman. (His fighting style's lighter. He smiles. He actually let an intruder slip into the Batcave! Inconceivable!) Dick manages to get out of the situation thanks to some help from Alfred and some cheap theatrics/psychological warfare I don't buy, but it's still fun watching them address the differences between Dick and Bruce, and the pressures Dick faces trying to fill Bruce's boots. The story gives us two hooks to keep reading the next arc--evidence that the Black Mask is planning something big (isn't he supposed to be dead, too?) and that Bruce may have been keeping a secret from Dick about his parent's deaths. Nothing that really compels me--we've been there before--but an interesting read nevertheless.





3) Batman And Robin #2 "Batman Reborn Part Two: The Circus of Strange" September 2009

This was not on my original list of comics to pick up, but I'd heard great things about this title, and I decided for a buck I should look into it. Wow. I'm glad I did.

This 12 issue series lies at the core of the Bruce to Dick transition in Batman. It details Dick's adjustment to wearing the Bat-Mantle, and his efforts to train the new Robin. "Robin" in this case is Damien Wayne, the long lost son of Bruce and (I assume) Talia Al Guhl. As such, he's been raised by the villainous League of Assassins and in his ten years has acquired all the tact, compassion, and humility of say, Victor Von Doom. So now the first Robin must teach this new, borderline sociopathic Robin while trying to convince everyone (including himself) that he's Batman.

The splash page alone had me hooked. I'm not usually a fan of the artist's style (Frank Quitely). However the art in this was gorgeous. The first image in of itself told almost the whole story right there. The motion in the battle scenes was great as well. I was just sucked into the whole thing. And good ol' Alfred still excels at keeping the various caped crusaders heads on straight. And did I mention the freaky circus themed villains? I really didn't think anyone could do that old gimmick again and keep it fresh, but it was fresh here.

Every so often in the old 30 packs I'd get a glimpse of a storyline that I wanted to see more of. The "Kraven's Last Hunt" storyline is probably the best example of that. This issue fills that niche nicely. I'm definitely going to be checking out the inevitable trade collection. Well done, DC.



I was gonna go through all the DC stuff first, but I think to mix it up I'm going to go in straight alphabetical order. Which means some Marvel-ous catch up is next on the agenda...