BATMAN #13

It's good to have a plan...right? So Dan Didio & Jim Lee, the co-publishers of DC, and, probably, a few others, created the new DC era by re-launching every book with a new #1 and new creators. There plan didn't stop there. There idea for how to keep things fresh in year two was to re-introduce The Joker in a big event titled "Death in the Family." Honestly? Part one of this new Joker serial is the best book I've read so far in this new DC era. It helps that The Joker is a great villain and it helps that Greg Capullo is one of my favorite artists. & writer Scott Snyder does a terrific job at making this creepy and not silly. The one problem is that this has all been done before. Not better, but this story is far from new or fresh. The Joker had his face cut off in Detective Comics #1 last September and finally returns here by killing a bunch of cops, setting up Harley Quinn to capture Batman, then attacking Alfred at Wayne Manor. Plus...this issue has a die-cut cover. Yeah. Bring on the 90's excess! The extra story drawn by Jock is good but unnecessary but the main story is 24 pages so $3.99 is an okay cover price. It's a good start...but, honestly, I'm still pondering if this is the right thing to do after a guy shot up a Batman movie premiere after dying his hair like The Joker in July. Is it okay that I'm enjoying a violent book? I often wonder. ***1/2 (out of ****)

AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #12

It's over (mercifully) (finally). It took 12 issues to...what? Kill off Professor Xavier, bring back more mutants to Earth...and...is that it? I admit that I actually read this entire event (minus most of the B-titles) and enjoyed a lot of it. There was one good issue that Jonathan Hickman wrote and one issue that had good art by Olivier Coipel. The rest was mostly a mess, but I was at least entertained and curious about the story, which I haven't been in a long time when talking about Marvel events (I might have read one or two issues of Fear Itself and none of Siege or Secret Invasion). In this issue the Phoenix leaves Cyclops, goes into Hope, then leaves the planet. That's it. Seriously. Where's the fucking drama? Cyclops stammers, "Please...kill me. Before it's...," in one panel which means this book could've been dramatic and sad and bloody and awesome. Most of that potential was lost. The art by Adam Kubert is good but the Jason Aaron script is poor and the final panel is awful. Not a good ending to a book that never truly took off. ** (out of ****).

Short Reviews

HAWKEYE #2: Written by Matt Fraction (who's taking over both Fantastic Four books this Fall) and drawn by David Aja, this book is piggy-backing on The Avengers movie that came out in May (apparently Hawkeye was in it...I didn't see it). This book is terrific but thin; it's light, swift, cool, funny, and looks good. But it's totally forgettable. Hawkeye and his friend, Kate Bishop, foil a team of Cirque du Soleil robbers. It's enjoyable but I can't see it going on too long without more long-term storylines. **1/2 (out of ****)

ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #2: Yeah, Valiant is back. I used to read a ton of their books back in the early 90's. I'm hazy as to why they went bankrupt (I guess every comic book company took a hit in the mid-90's when the boom ended), but they're back with a slew of new books. I loved this book back in the day mostly because of the awesome Barry Windsor Smith art. The plot and characters are still stellar; it's like a funny buddy comedy Da Vinci Code. ***

FASHION BEAST #1: Alan Moore wrote one movie screenplay, Fashion Beast, in the 80's. Not sure why it was ever made...but Avatar is adapting it. It's kind of in a dystopian future and kind of about fashion and the main character is a cross-dresser. So far it's eh. *1/2

SAVAGE DRAGON #181: Typical good stuff by Erik Larsen, although it's not stellar, just another chapter amidst an enormous, ever-growing plot. Dragon ditches his species on a new planet and heads home while Malcom and Angel pick up the pieces after an alien attack. **1/2

BEFORE WATCHMEN: OZYMANDIAS #2

Fucking great cover by Jae Lee, right? The only problem is that it doesn't exactly have anything to do with what's inside this issue. There are a group of Asian women in their underwear and wearing surgical face masks while they cut up cocaine in this issue...but they're not in full Dominatrix outfits or have gas-masks and they certainly don't have power over Ozymandias. Perhaps this cover has something to do with what happened in #1, which I read (both written by Len Wein, who edited the original Watchmen series), but vaguely remember. I guess that's not a good thing if I don't remember #1 which came out a few weeks ago. & while I haven't given up on Before Watchmen, at this juncture the art has been a lot better than the writing. So admire this awesome cover and don't even bother opening up the book.
*1/2 (out of ****)

BATMAN: EARTH ONE

So there's a new DC series called Earth 2...and it takes place in a parallel universe where Superman and Batman are dead. This book, and last year's Superman: Earth One, take place in a different parallel universe. So what the fuck is the regular DC universe called? Earth Zero? Earth Three? So there's that mild annoyance. The other annoyance is...Gary Frank drew this and Geoff Johns wrote it...and that's a superstar team. They did a great storyline about Braniac in Action Comics a few years back. I'd rather see them doing a Batman story in a regular, monthly book than this, which is a long, hardcover graphic novel. I'm guessing DC makes more cash selling hardcovers. So it's all about money, eh? This particular book is readable, it's enjoyable, but nothing outstanding. It's more or less an origin tale with various differences; The Penguin is just a corrupt mayor. Two Face is just a fresh-faced, Hollywood-style rookie cop. It's light and forgettable. **1/2

THE WALKING DEAD #100

This book came out on July 11th. On July 20th at around 12:30 AM a 24 year old psycho shot up a movie theater that was screening the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises. 12 people died, around 50 were injured, and it brought back the conversation about violence in the media. I suppose you can argue that if movies, video games, books, and TV shows didn't have a plethora of violence in them then perhaps things like this wouldn't happen. Violence in movies and video games and TV shows and books and comic books is never going away...so we never will know their effect, will we? Granted, there's a lot of violence in the Bible and Greek myths and Shakespeare and those are old...right? But there is a difference between those and video games like Max Payne 3 that came out in May that features you practically shooting and killing everyone in Brazil. The Walking Dead is, obviously, violent...and this issue in particular is brutal. Quite basically, the new bad guy shows up and uses a barbed wire baseball bat to bludgeon Glenn to death. That's the entire book. And it's shocking and sick and it doesn't happen off panel, it's right there for all to see. After the movie theater shooting...should I pause and ponder why I'm reading and entertained by this? Why I can't wait to see Rick's obviously brutal and bloody revenge? Am I fucked up, warped in the head to love a book that is barbaric and wrong and might be a part of the problem? Or are psycho's just psychotic? They'd do it no matter what? Who cares? I guess it says something that this book will probably end up being the best-selling comic book of the year, that it came out amidst the San Diego Comic Con and was the buzzed about book there. If you remember post-Columbine they blamed the video game Doom and violence in the movies and everything they're probably going to blame now. Did anything change after Columbine? Apparently not. Movies are still blood-soaked affairs while sex in movies and porn is usually looked down upon. The movie theater killer lived 15 miles from Columbine and still ordered his ammunition online and didn't have a problem buying a gas mask and a bullet proof vest and guns that are not meant to kill animals. I'm not going to stop reading violent comic books and what does that say about me? Is it too late? Have I lived too long with this constant flow of violent images to be desensitized? It will be curious to see how comic books are affected. DC already postponed this week's Batman: Incorporated #3 because of something mysterious within its pages. I doubt anything will change, and maybe that's a shame.

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN: CENTURY #3 : 2009

I suppose it's fitting that Alan Moore has a new book out amidst the Before Watchmen event DC is putting out. Apparently, DC told Alan Moore that if he came back to write a new Watchmen book that they would give him back the rights to it. Either Alan Moore is a cantankerous old man or he's the world's last great, true artist. I think he's a bit of both...and while his latest book, the final part in the third part of the LOEG series, is mostly mediocre, it's still very readable and enjoyable albeit very, very sad. Harry Potter and Mary Poppins show up in this book (sort of), and Alan Quartermain and the Anti-Christ perish...so if you're looking for "big" happenings, I suppose you'll find them here. Kevin O'Neill's artwork is sloppy in parts but really, that's how he draws, and I've grown to like his work for this series as he's been there since day one (the gorgeous colors certainly help). I have said that the second part of this epic, the one with martians attacking London and Mr. Hyde raping the Invisible Man, was the best thing Alan Moore has ever written. Most would say Swamp Thing or Watchmen...but I love his characterization of Mina and the adventure of it all. The problem with the 2.5 book, The Black Dossier, and this 3rd part, is that a lot of the best characters are gone (namely...Dr. Jeckyl and the Invisible Man) AND the books have veered into LSD territory. But even when Moore is writing a book not as good as his masterpieces they're still intriguing, still entertaining, filled with special things, and odd but interesting. And hell, it's a lot better than Before Watchmen. **1/2