Batman Comics

Happy Wednesday, Bat-fans! It’s a great week for new comics, we get some really fun things to read today. In related news, San Diego Comic-Con is rapidly approaching and the costume making is going quite well. Now I just have to be patient and wait for the organizers to post the panel schedule! Is anyone who reads this planning to be there? Leave a comment and let me know! Now, here’s what I found in my pull file this week:

Batman Incorporated 2 – I was very into issue 1, and I’m sure that Morrison and Burnham will continue to provide excellent Bat-stories with gorgeous art. Burnham teased on Twitter today that we get some back-story for the Talia/Bruce relationship, please tell me I’m not the only one hoping for some Naked Bruce Wayne time!!

For those of you wondering if Bruce was Batman yet when Damian was conceived, you’ll find out in just a few short hours!

— Chris Burnham (@TheBurnham) June 27, 2012

Batman: The Dark Knight 10 – This title has been kind of all over the place, with art that’s sometimes awesome and sometimes less so, and writing that’s been kind of uninspiring. Today Gregg Hurwitz takes over the writing with a new story arc featuring Scarecrow as the villain. The problem that Batman: The Dark Knight has had all along is that it doesn’t know what distinguishes it from all the other Bat-titles, so if this is their way of moving towards a more horror-themed comic, I think that’s a really good idea.

Justice League 10 - Who has two thumbs and can’t remember anything about Justice League 9? This girl! I even went back and read a summary of the issue (thanks gothamspoilers.com) and still have no idea what’s going on. It’s a great comic, but maybe my attention has been a little too dedicated to making the Bat-dress…

Teen Titans 10 - It feels too early for another Titans book, but that’s cool, I’m into anything that involves Tim Drake and dinosaurs! This week we get more info about Kid Flash’s background, and Bunker asks Red Robin what the deal is with their missing teammate Skitter; the Titans are definitely keeping busy! I had to share this cover for those dinosaurs I mentioned, but I love it for another reason too: I hope it’s the first in a long line of pictures I can tag “Kid Flash Outruns His Uniform.” This is by Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund and Andrew Dalhouse.

Good evening Gotham! It’s kind of a slow week for Batman comics, only two in my pull file today, but I’m okay with that. I feel like I need some time to think about everything that’s going on lately and really enjoy the different characters and storylines – this Court of Owls thing is so exciting! Here’s what I have today:

Batman: The Dark Knight 6 – Issue 5 of Batman: The Dark Knight ended on quite a cliffhanger, with Superman taking on a drug-crazed Batman, so I’m definitely going into it with anticipation and interest. This is the make-or-break issue, after reading it I’ll decide if I want to keep getting this comic. I’m pretty into the Court of Owls crossover, so really all issue 6 has to do is not mess up. Here’s hoping!

Teen Titans 6 – The Titans have to save Kid Flash! I love these issues, where it’s just the crew having adventures and doing their thing, not part of any big event or apocalypse. I hope to see Red Robin interact with Superboy more, they’re so cute together. Take a look at the cover, by Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund, I really enjoy the shattered glass and the look on Red Robin’s face.

Good evening Gotham! It’s an in-between week for comics, so there are no new Batman books to talk about today. That gives me a chance to share some favourite (love it) and not-so-favourite (livid)  moments from recent issues. Here we go!

Justice League 3, by Geoff Johns, Jim Lee and Scott Williams, gave us this page scoring points for love it. I enjoy stories about people from other places coming to our world, and seeing Wonder Woman getting to know the better parts of America is so much fun. Somehow I always knew she’d go for ice cream.

I love Wonder Woman’s kick-ass attitude! There’s a great Batman moment a bit later on in the issue, as the Justice League fights demons that are attacking the planet.

Vampire Batman, telling Green Lantern how to use his ring? How could I not love it?

Next up is Teen Titans 3, by Scott Lobdell, Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund. @VenPixel pointed out a livid moment in the issue, when Kid Flash cracks a four-digit code to unlock a door. I’m not an expert, but I don’t think the switches on the control panel could keep up with his Flash-enhanced typing skills (see ‘switch debouncing‘)!

Silly speedster, keypads are for humans. Another thing in Teen Titans that makes me livid is this scene, in which Red Robin is disguised as an old man ‘riding the rails’ to accompany Skitter across the country. When he reveals his superhero identity to Bunker, there’s a moment when Tim’s face is entirely bare – anyone as paranoid as Tim wouldn’t allow that.

Why isn’t he wearing the domino mask under the old man face? Wow, that was a weird sentence. I liked the comic overall, but I feel like they’ve been too lax with Tim going around unmasked. If we accept the idea that a tiny little mask protects his identity, we have to also assume he’ll be extremely diligent about wearing it.

Last for tonight we have Batman 3, by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo and Jonathan Glapion. I haven’t really been talking in detail about storylines, but I definitely love the current story in Batman. ‘The Court of Owls’, a group of men who have been “ruling Gotham from the shadows since colonial times” attempted to kill Bruce Wayne. Bruce turns to Alfred for help, and Alfred shares this story about Bruce’s great, great grandfather Alan Wayne, and his terrible fear of owls.

I love the idea that Alfred’s father was butler to the Wayne family before him! And how he tries to drug Bruce with “medicinal” tea, now that’s a butler! The art is also beautiful, on this page I especially like the top panel (we’re inside the Batman cowl, watching Bruce and Alfred) and the use of colour.

That’s it for me! It’s been fun taking a love it or livid look at comics – I might do it again! Let me know what you think of these or any other Batman comics in the comments, and have a great night.

Writer: Scott Lobdell

Artist: Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund

Date: Dec 2011

I quite enjoyed Teen Titans 2! So much so that I wanted to take a couple minutes to share my favourite moment with each of the main characters from the issue. Be warned, there are definite spoilers below, and you really should go get a copy of this comicbook, it’s a lot of fun!

First of all, our most fabulous flying friend Tim Drake, aka Red Robin. Check him out here in his “civilian” clothes — he’s not exactly shying away from supporting the superhero community, even when he’s not in full superhero gear! (remember, click the pictures to embiggen)

Then we have Superboy. It seems that he’s being held by the shadowy Government agency N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and made to capture other meta-human teenagers in order to earn his own freedom. Is it wrong that I kind of like evil slave Superboy? Probably. But look how hot he is!

One of those captive teenage metas is Kid Flash, and he’s really living up to his name. Here we see how he escapes from the clutches of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. – I like his attitude!

Towards the end of the book, Red Robin is in trouble and we have an excellent scene where Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) saves the day! I don’t buy Tim’s crush on Cassie, in my mind his heart belongs to Superboy (or Batman), but it’s always excellent to see the female superhero saving the male one! With Wonder Girl I really feel like I’m coming in at the middle of the story – I don’t know who she is, how she got her powers, how she’s connected to Wonder Woman, or really much of anything about her other than her kick-ass attitude. That’s actually been a lot of fun, I enjoy getting to know her a piece at a time and I’m definitely going to keep an eye on her in future issues. Plus, what an awesome costume!