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Advance Review: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS: THE LAST CRUSADE Original Graphic Novel
NINJAK #16
THE FLASH REBIRTH #1
THE SHADOW: THE DEATH OF MARGO LANE #1
GREEN ARROW REBIRTH #1
ALL NEW ALL DIFFERENT AVENGERS #1
THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS: THE LAST CRUSADE Original Graphic Novel
Writers: Brian Azzarello & Frank MillerArtist: John Romita Jr.
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Rob Patey (Pre Rebirth Optimous Douche)
Make no mistake, THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS: THE LAST CRUSADE solidifies this universe as out of canon.
As a child I naively believed the DARK KNIGHT RETURNS world as pre-cognitive continuity. Miller’s completeness of a world kissing the millennium and oblivion was so masterfully painted in cold war politics taken to hyperbole and the fall of the hero, there was no reason not to accept as gospel. This vision was further crystallized as reality when “Death in the Family” confirmed that the glass encased Robin short pants in DARK KNIGHT RETURNS did in fact belong to Jason Todd. If middle age wasn’t enough to push Batman into shadows of inaction, the loss of a ward would make the caped crusader hang up the cowl.
These beliefs have stayed with me until the millennium came and went. Even THE DARK KNIGHT RETRUNS II in 2000 didn’t quell my belief that Miller was once a master architect. Yes, the book broadened the narrative beyond Bruce and Carrie Kelly to the Super family and JUSTICE LEAGUE masochism, but I remained stalwart.
THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS III and several reboots later showed I finally stopped deluding myself. But even after four issues, there was a small spark of me that held the books of 1986-88 as a possibility to come.
This one shot finally tears asunder any possibility for the DARK KNIOGHT RETURNS world to be a path forward for Bruce or the cavalcade of criminals he puts down. As I watched Jason Todd meet an untimely demise, it was so starkly different than what transpired back in 1988 I would simply be the slow kid clapping for Tinkerbell to stay alive after one clearly sees she’s just a flashlight being operated via a light switch.
First off, this was well done. I would say a smidge better than where the rising action of THE MASTER RACE left us after issue 4. THE MASTER RACE is an alternate Elseworld in the truest sense of the word world. THE LAST CRUSADE is a Batman and Robin book just as the original DARK KNIGHT RETURNS delivered 30 years ago. Robin dies, as Jason Todd was always destined to do, but it holds only an eighth of the impact delivered by “Death in the Family.”
It’s a smart move on DCs part, especially after bringing Jason back to life as Red Hood. THE LAST CRUSADE obliterates the possibility of a reboot do over or resurrection escape hatch. THE LAST CRUSADE is less a final journey of greatness and more a whimper of good-bye. That’s not a slight against the book, to set the stage for DARK KNIGHT RETRUNS as this prequel promises, we needed to see a Bruce that could no longer persevere, and that required a Jason Todd who both Batman and reader would lament the loss of.
The Jason Todd of this book is as cocksure as he was in continuity of old, but he also has competency to back the swagger. The Jason Todd we all elected to kill via 900 number was cocksure, but also so cocky it made Batman’s effortless crime fighting far too rocky. We didn’t kill Jason Todd because we wanted it, we killed him to preserve the mantle of the necessary light to Batman’s complete darkness. While it took far less panel space to pull off, the Jason Todd end in THE LAST CRUSADE is impactful without belaboring the point. It’s not as gut wrenching as “Death in the Family,” but it gets the point across while painting the stark difference between this effeminate Joker who lets his henchmen do the bludgeoning as opposed to the 1988 Joker who absolutely would wield the crowbar himself.
THE LAST CRUSADE is also an honest-to-God detective story, with the Joker’s time in Arkham a mere sideline compared to the sleuthing done that ultimately breaks Bruce and ends the life of Robin II. After months of the Dark Detective being sidelined for Robo-Gordon and REBIRTHS, it was refreshing to see Batman’s brain in control of the brawn once more. This book is a hefty price of admission, but the completeness of story gives immediate, concise and consolidated storytelling.
Now, some hate the etchings of John Romita Jr. I’m not one of these people, as I personally enjoyed the Ulysses/SUPERMAM stories. Less is more in art sometimes. I don’t want too many splash pages or over detailed lines in this book since its mood and atmosphere are perfect for how sketchy and thin the soul of Bruce becomes as he takes more and more lumps each page from old foes.
THE LAST CRUSADE isn’t a feel good book, but a course correction for fans of old and primer for new fans wondering why THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS matters so much to us lifelong disciples to the dark age of comics.
Rob works for IBM when he puts down comic books. IBM.com if you want to see his other world.
NINJAK #16
Writer: Matt KindtArtist: Diego Bernard and Andres Guinaldo
Publisher: Valiant Entertainment
Reviewer: Masked Man
The action doesn’t stop in Ninjak, as he continues his quest to find the people responsible for ruining his life. In typical action movie fashion, this issue moves at a brisk pace and handles things in a typical way.
As we left Colin King (aka Ninjak) last time, a bomb was going off in his face (more spoilers to follow). Luckily for him the bad guys just want to hurt him, not kill him. So he survives, and it fact the bomb to the face doesn’t even scar him (ok, it does for one panel). Then he goes back to following the trail of bread crumbs left purposely for him to find. Leading him to the bad guy, who in this cases is the 90’s like bad girl / cyborg killing machine Roku. When she finally jumps out of the shadows for some one-on-one time, Colin finally gets into costume, well kind of. Until then he’s just in a bad@$$ in a suit like any other action movie star. Kind of makes you question the need for the suit.
Meanwhile, the back-up story, drawn by Andres Guinaldo, continues to shows pre-Ninjak adventures. This one has Marge being more badass than usual, baby or no baby.
For anyone not totally vested in Ninjak, so you not going holy crap they ruined his life! This tale is all just a bit too generic. The only bit of spice in the mixture is Roku. That is if you are into the 90’s bad girls’ scene if well… Everything else is just Ninjak beating people up on every page. How he found weapons was fairly interesting, but they (the weapons) have no real barring on the story (as in, wow it’s lucky Ninjak had that weapon!). If you are going to have your character ‘quest for a sword’, then the sword should have impact on the story. The back-up story has a little more spice with its brutal turn of events. NINJAK might be a more interesting read if the back-up story became the main story, and the main story became the back-up.
Both artists, Bernard and Guinaldo do a decent job of drawing their parts. Can’t find too much flaw with their work, nor can you find much that’s great about it either. It didn’t help that one of the big splash pages of the issue is a generic scene of Colin riding a motorcycle (why did this need to be a splash page?).
Again, action movie fans should dig what NINJAK has going on, but it does little to elevate the genre for anyone else.
THE FLASH: REBIRTH #1
Writer: Joshua WilliamsonArtist: Carmine Di Giandomenico
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Lionel Putz
Growing up, the first comic book I ever bought was FLASH (vol. 2) #63, the second issue of what would become Mark Waid’s incredible eight-year run on the title (he also returned to write the character briefly in late 2007 and early 2008; it, uh… did not go as well). Wally West was a lonely kid, an only child, growing up in a dysfunctional mid-Western household. I don’t have the red hair, but I found everything else about Wally immediately relatable. Where Peter Parker was supernaturally intelligent and living in a city I only knew from media, Wally’s lonely existence and summer trips away from his parents to see family in Central City (the clear real-world analogue for Central/Keystone City is Kansas City, a place I would often find myself in the summers as a child) mirrored my own. And more than that, Wally was the first real “legacy” hero in either DC or Marvel’s playground. The guy who got to grow up to become his favorite hero. He wasn’t particularly smart, or popular, or even unpopular; he was invisible. But he overcame all of that through sheer force of will (and some confusing Speed Force science depending on the retcon), and that was enough to inspire me; life would grow so far beyond lonely childhood days in the mid-West if I just kept after it.
So when DC decided to actually delete him from continuity—to actually make him invisible—it gutted me. Because Wally can’t exist in a New 52 universe. The backbone of his character is his growth, his legacy, and without that, he’s not the same character.* So I’m incredibly delighted to see him back in the REBIRTH initiative, this week stopping by FLASH: REBIRTH #1, where he joins the story already in progress.
[*DC very shrewdly and wisely did not feel the need to do away with New 52 Wally, a character who improved considerably once he was fleshed out beyond “angry” and “does graffiti”, which was kind a tone-deaf launch to a character very intentionally—and very admirably—re-imagined as biracial in an attempt to improve diversity in comic books. That Wally is now going to be sticking around as Kid Flash, and we’ll actually have two Wallys going forward. I will be there on day one to pick up the issue with their first meeting.]
This book starts slightly before the events of DC UNIVERSE: REBIRTH #1, with Barry investigating a crime scene eerily similar to his mother’s murder at the hands of Eobard Thawne. Barry begins to get flashes (pun not intent)—visions—of the events of Flashpoint. From there, Barry goes to talk to his father, a man exonerated for his late wife’s murder and who serves as Barry’s “sounding board” to discuss these images he’s seeing before he sets off to do some good and clear his head (a Flash staple regardless of who’s holding the title). We see the events of REBIRTH #1 as told from his perspective, including stopping to get pizza for some accident victims, just before Wally materializes in front of him. The moment doesn’t have quite the impact in its first telling, but is still powerful and grounds the experience in the New 52 in a way that seeing it through Wally’s eyes really can’t. After some necessary plot-furthering exposition, Wally heads off to find the Titans so that they can help him investigate the mysterious figure who has stolen years of their lives, while Barry goes off to see Batman and learns about the button left embedded in the wall of the Batcave after Wally appeared there in REBIRTH.
Like a lot of these REBIRTH titles, this book isn’t exactly a traditional #1, and while it’s not a perfect introduction to a title or a character, it does economical work in bringing you up to speed on two characters (Barry and Classic Wally), while retelling large chunks of the Flash mythology (most notably Flashpoint), integrating two different timelines (pre-Flashpoint and New 52), and directly picking up the events of DC UNIVERSE: REBIRTH #1 (Wally’s return and Barry’s meeting with Batman about the Comedian’s bloody button). I can’t say I’m wild about Carmine Di Giandomenico’s artwork, but it’s certainly got a kinetic, frantic energy which suits the powers of Barry Allen, but maybe not the personality (he’d be well-suited to draw Impulse, for example, but I think getting Bart Allen back might be too much to hope for).
I checked out on New 52 Barry pretty early on, checked back in when they introduced New 52 Wally, and then mostly checked back out when they mishandled that character so thoroughly at the beginning (again, he has improved considerably; I’ve been trying to check-in with the book again now that New 52 Wally has not just powers, but friends and character development); I don’t know that this book is enough to get me reading the main Flash title again, but I will at least check it out with its forthcoming relaunch. However, even with that aside, I can recommend this book for directly furthering the overall REBIRTH storyline, as well as for the continued classic Wally West renaissance. His name is Wally West, and he’s the fastest man alive. Again.
Lionel Putz is a lawyer by day. He watched Matlock in a bar last night; the sound wasn't on, but he's pretty sure he got the gist of it. Email him at lionel.putz@gmail.com
THE SHADOW: THE DEATH OF MARGO LANE #1
Writer/ Artist: Matt WagnerPublisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Reviewer: Masked Man
Dynamite did it again, they talked Matt Wagner back to the drawing board! And with arguably Dynamite’s most successful license, The Shadow. And though the title says the Death of Margo Lane, I for one don’t want to see such a thing. I mean, what, did Dan Didio take over Dynamite (as he was the guy who called for Nightwing to be killed)?
Granted, for a character that barely even appeared in the novels, Margo Lane shouldn’t matter to hardcore Shadow fans. To every other Shadow fan (myself included), she’s a big deal, since she was in every radio show and the 1994 film. So killing her off would be a disappointing character loss, and I hope Wagner doesn’t go through with it. I’ll even punch anyone who whines about it, like they did over Grant Morrison’s BATMAN: R.I.P.
Getting into the spoilers of this issue, the Shadow has crime in New York city, circa the 1930’s, fairly under control. But a new mob boss, the Red Empress, has popped up in China Town. So far, The Shadow is having trouble tracking down this new adversary. And it appears the Empress is hunting him as well. As Lamont Cranston, he travels to China, in hopes of learning more, but this only seems to result in the Red Empress learning his secret identity. Lastly, the Shadow falls into a trap giving us a better than average cliffhanger until the next issue.
After Wagner’s great GRENDEL VS THE SHADOW, I’m very happy to see him back writing and drawing the Shadow! He has really gotten a good grip on the character, and he looks great on every page, even out of costume. I’ll complain that I think his women’s faces are a little more clunky than usual. But his over composites and storytelling is still excellent. Wagner’s personal style is just perfectly matched for the Shadow (if only Dynamite could have talked him into drawing a Zorro book too).
Story wise, it’s pitch perfect, with the Shadow deftly maneuvering in his one-man crusade, with Margo in tow. We see nothing of the villain this issue, but the cliffhanger is pretty cool. A real, to quote Bender, “We’re boned” moment.
This appears to be a hit right out of the box. I’m not sure why, but when Wagner is drawing his own scripts, they just come together so much more effectively than with another artist. Shadow fans should be buying this, and adventure fans in general should enjoy this as well.
GREEN ARROW REBIRTH #1
Writer: Benjamin PercyArtist: Otto Schmidt
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Humphrey Lee
Last week in this space I was talking up the big REBIRTH shebang and the idea of framework. Mainly, I was kind of celebrating the possibility that someone in the DC bullpen dozed off, accidentally dumped hot coffee on their groin, and had a “Eureka!” moment while feeling their genitals melt that the state of their universe didn’t have to reflect some half-realized idea of sort of rebooting, but kind of keeping some things they liked about it, but not really telling anyone what is what, and then following some weird timeline of heroes debuting that never really stuck. I’m not a man that is against change, as I stated in that review and reiterate here, but there is a history and an essence to the DC Universe that makes it special, and the “New 52” approach was a classic casing of throwing a seventy-plus year old baby out with the bathwater if you will. Or threw the speedster sidekick who grew to be as fleshed out a character as you can get in comic books over thirty years out to make the really old icons young again. Or it threw one of the greatest on/off relationships and facial stylings in comics out to tie into a TV show that was on the way, I guess? Regardless, REBIRTH is here for the Emerald Archer and it’s bringing back a little more than just a new series to the character…
LIKE THAT SWEET ASS VAN DYKE!! Okay, I’m going to try really not to harp on the idea of “my Oliver Queen” here, but goddammit, Oliver Queen has ridiculous facial hair, and that is fucking that. Our creative team here of writer Benjamin Percy and artist Otto Schmidt appear to agree with me and make sure to emphasize that glorious beard while they go pretty much go full reclamation in this redebut (I guess is what we could call these Rebirth issues) of Star City’s… I mean Seattle’s bow and arrow wielding protector. Some New 52 ideas don’t quite get plain buried, like his stomping grounds as I oh so subtly just pointed out, but a lot of Green Arrow basics are emphasized. Sweet ass facial hair: Check. Lots of socio-political overtones and talking points to the degree of Ollie and a couple of the other characters blatantly referring to him as a “Social Justice Warrior:” Gratuitous check. That classic, fiery hot passion between the Arrow and his “Pretty Bird”: Eh, not so fast.
Very much so what Percy and Schmidt are doing here is laying out the groundwork of where this Oliver Queen’s life is really at; a tone I assume many of the REBIRTH issues will be taking on but here it has a lot of energy. Some of the approach is a little in your face, particularly the part where Ollie really does monologue refer to himself as a SJW, but y’know what? That’s Oliver Queen. He’s a loudmouth who is as skilled putting his foot in that orifice as he is hitting a moving target from two hundred feet out. He’s arrogant enough to think he can pull off such a ridiculous facial hair assemblage and, well, he’s right because his charm mixed with just a dash of self-deprecation eventually wins most over, including a certain fishnets wearing blonde ass kicker he finds himself working with for the first time.
Hitting all those beats while setting up the status quo is what actually makes this issue the success it is as it tells a, to be frank, somewhat standard Green Arrow story. Essentially, while Ollie is having a standard day of being scourge of conservatives and the criminal underbelly, he runs aground a kidnapping ring that is taking the city’s homeless and selling them off to rich people with morals as non-existent as their bank accounts are burgeoning. Working this case is what puts him in the presence of the certain leggy lady who always takes his breath away (and that of the street scum whose midsections she’s putting her boots into) and sparks fly a little bit, then they yell at each other a bit more about their abrasive personalities, then the big flirty eyes come out on both of them. Out of all the big, “timeless” relationships in comics, the one between Ollie and Dinah has always felt the most “real” to me, which is why it was extra annoying to me that it was decided it needed to be systematically erased for a reboot no one knew what they were doing with. Because you know with all those other big time comic book relationships like Lois Lane and Superman, or Spider-Man and Mary Jane there will always be some big dumb, editorially driven thing to tear them asunder before they eventually reunite – that’s just how you sell comics unfortunately - but Ollie and Dinah always had that natural ebb and flow because it’s just how their personalities work. You didn’t need some dumb shocking events to make them on-again, off-again and create drama; Ollie’s big, jocular yet overall charming and kind personality and Dinah’s fierce independence covering some vulnerability she rarely lets anyone see made for all the material needed to have them break but always find themselves in each other’s arms. And I feel like Percy and Schmidt get the characters and really get that about how their relationship works, even if it’s essentially beginning for the first time again with this Rebirth.
Grasping all those personality traits and putting them front and center is why this REBIRTH issue now puts me at two-for-two feeling pretty good about this whole project so far. Also, and scratch that a bit, Otto Schmidt’s art also oozes personality and really pops with a visual dynamic that carries a ton of attitude and energy. As I said above, the actual plot of this issue is of itself and as a Green Arrow story pretty darn typical, but Schmidt kicks the visuals into top gear like he’s selling the highest profile of events with his pencil work. The emphasis he puts on expressiveness with the range of motion he uses for the actiony bits and the facial ticks during the talky parts really sell that this redebut is all about the personality for all ends of the creative process crafting this comic book. And if you want to sell me on a Green Arrow book, that is how you get my money. Ollie and those that gravitate to him in his books were never about the gigantic villains or larger than life superhero events that turn these worlds apart – not that there has not been a fair share of those items infecting themselves upon his books – but about the emotions and actions of Ollie and how those affected the lives of those who believe in him to put up with his bullshit, until they didn’t. I really think that Percy and Schmidt have at least a solid grasp on that dynamic of a quintessential GREEN ARROW book, and I will mark this issue as another win for this whole project by DC as it has netted me another book of theirs I’ll be putting some of my money toward, at least for the near future.
Humphrey Lee has been an avid comic book reader going on fifteen years now and a contributor to Ain't It Cool comics for quite a few as well. In fact, reading comics is about all he does in his free time and where all the money from his day job wages goes to - funding his comic book habit so he can talk about them to you, our loyal readers (lucky you). He's a bit of a social networking whore, so you can find him all over the Interwebs on sites like Twitter, The MySpaces, Facebookand a blog where he also mostly talks about comics with his free time because he hasn't the slightest semblance of a life. Sad but true, and he gladly encourages you to add, read, and comment as you will.
ALL NEW ALL DIFFERENT AVENGERS #10
Writer: Mark WaidArtist: Mahmud Asrar
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man
So the Standoff is over but Mark Waid still isn’t quite able to do anything he wants. As the AVENGERS are now in a some-what crossover with NOVA. One of the hanging chads, as it were, with this new Nova is his M.I.A., also Nova Corps, father. As Nova was headed to space to search for his Dad, the Avengers agree to come along.
While Avengers are on hard times (gotta say I’m not really sure why the Avengers are broke these days, they just are), they only get a second-hand space ship to travel in. Spoiler time- Which as you might expect in a superhero comic, doesn’t last very long. The team discovers themselves on a ‘fishing hole’ planet, as ships are lured to crash there and then something sucks them into a wormhole. Throwing caution to the wind, our heroes jump through the worm hole and find (dum, dum, dum!) Annihilus waiting for them! I guess Waid didn’t get the memo that Warlock and Thanos killed Annihilus just last month. Ah well, comics.
Overall, I’d say the action in this issue is rather pedestrian. Where Waid does his best work is with the character interaction. As (new)Nova, (new)Ms. Marvel and (new) Spider-Man are the chatty rookies and (new) Cap, (new) Thor, (same old) Vision and (same old) Iron Man are the adult supervisors. In the sub-plot, New Wasp also finally meets (same) Old Wasp as well. If I can make fun of the comicbook industry for a moment, the strangest thing about new Wasp is she appearances to be white and straight. Both Marvel and DC seem to only green light legacy characters if they are non-white and or non-straight. So it’s weird to see she’s a honky (#okeveryonefreakoutnow).
The only really interesting thing to me in the issue is the reveal of the villains. A Marvel heavy hitting who doesn’t face the Avengers very often. Asrar’s artwork is decent as always. Overall, I think he’s a good pin-up artist, as his figure work is the strongest aspect of his work. The rest, his storytelling, action, quiet moments and backgrounds are, as I said, decent.
The ALL-NEW ALL-DIFFERENT AVENGERS started with some good promise, but seems to be stuck in neutral now. Here’s hoping Waid can get it back up to 60 again, with a seemingly JLA inspired next issue “Prisoners in Space”!
Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
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