Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Five #16 - A Review

Fresh from confirming that Catwoman is well and truly done with The Insurgency, Batwoman and Harley crash a meeting of the so-called Joker Underground. An army of people willing to stand up to Superman no matter what would be a boon to Batman's resistance. Unfortunately, Superman just learned where they are meeting...


This issue of Injustice is relative light on action. Thankfully, Brian Buccellato writes a quiet character-building scene like few others can. There's some great bits of drama here, with a clearly conflicted Harley struggling with her own conflicted feelings about The Joker in talking down a group of people whose anger at Superman has prompted them to hold elevate The Clown Prince of Crime into a saint - something that would no doubt amuse The Joker to no end.


The artwork is as great as the script. Since this series started, Bruno Redondo has become one of my favorite artists and this issue shows precisely why. His characters have a wonderful sense of definition and there's some poster-worth scenes here, such as the above image of Harley on a playing card backing. The inks of Juan Albarran and Rex Lokus's color art perfectly complete the picture.

Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Five #15 - A Review

Under the leadership of Jason Bard, a new organization has begun to fight against Superman in the name of The Joker. Batwoman aims to put a stop to this before Bruce (who is celebrating his birthday as best he can) finds out. Unfortunately, she runs into another missing ally at The Jokers rally - Harley Quinn!


Oh, how I long for the days when a trench-coat and a fedora were all the disguise a superhero needed. But that's not the only thing about Brian Buccellato's script for this issue that has me feeling nostalgic. Seeing Jason Bard - the Marine turned detective with the bum knee, who was once engaged to Barbara Gordon - was a pleasant surprise. And the scene between Alfred and Bruce is one of the sweetest things I've ever read involving the characters.


The artwork for this issue is magnificent. Bruno Redondo is one of the best artists in the business and I hope he'll find a title worth of his talents when Injustice comes to a close. His work is perfectly enhanced by the inks of Juan Albarran and the color art of Rex Lokus.

Batman Eternal #8 - A Review

Batman's war with mobster Carmine "The Roman" Falcone continues to take center stage in this week's issue of Batman: Eternal.  It is a war that Batman doesn't realize he is losing, as unbeknownst to him - but knownst to us - the new Police Commissioner is in Falcone's pocket.  Worse, he's instituted a new policy of refusing to arrest any criminals Batman brings down.


The script by John Layman does a good job of balancing multiple subplots that mix and mingle throughout the issue.  Vicki Vale - still pursuing her story from several issues early - runs into honest cop turned flummoxed rookie Jason Bard and the two interact for a bit before getting on with their respective bits of business.  But it isn't all interaction and the issue concludes with the series' most thrilling action sequence to date.


The artwork by Guillem March seems reminiscent of the early works of Todd MacFarlane in terms of design and detail.  Some sections seem a little rushed but the pencil-work is largely excellent.  The only real flaw to the artwork is the washed out palette, full of dirty browns and greys, used by colorist Tomeu Morey.  Even the blue of Jason Bard's uniform looks more grey than blue.    

Batman Eternal #2 - A Review

I've complained in previous reviews of the main Batman series that Scott Snyder seemed to be have been taking his sweet time in telling his stories since City of Owls.  Zero Year in particular seemed to have been drawn out, with the promise of a revamped and deadlier Riddler being held ever out of reach until recently.  Well, I can make no such complaints about Batman: Eternal.  


The first issue kicked things off with a bang and this issue continues the trend, as Batman mobilizes his allies in the wake of a major disaster in Gotham City.  A disaster which Jim Gordon seems to have caused but nobody in the Bat Family or the GCPD can honestly believe he is responsible for.  There's a lot of good character moments throughout the book and we know what villain is responsible for Gordon's fall by the issue's end.  I won't spoil it here but it was an honest surprise and a true indication of how things have changed for Gotham City in the New 52 universe.


The artwork is uniformly excellent.  Jason Fabok's matches Bryan Hitch for the ability to fit amazing amounts of detail into a panel but I think Fabok's line-work is neater and more precise.  The inks are surprisingly sparse for a Batman comic and colorist Brad Anderson highlights the artwork with multiple shades of black and grey.

Batman Eternal #1 - A Review

I will say this for the writing team of Batman Eternal - they do not do things by halves.  There was a hint of this in the preview for this series, which depicted Harper Row (a supporting character from Scott Snyder's Batman) as a masked crime-fighter working alongside Batman, Selina Kyle as the new kingpin of the Gotham underworld and - in a shocking twist that saw fans across the Internet cheering - Stephanie Brown as The Spoiler.  And then we have this first issue, which opens with Gotham City in flames and Bruce Wayne all but crucified on the broken remains of the Bat-Signal.


Okay, book.  You have my attention.

We move past this scene set in a vague future, heading back to "Now".  It is here that we are introduced to Jason Bard - a good cop hired into Gotham by Commissioner Jim Gordon, who is unable to meet Bard for his first day at work as he is busily chasing down the mad scientist Professor Pyg alongside the Batman.  The action sequences there are thrilling but the true focus of the story is upon Bard, who is quickly introduced to just how bad Gotham City is and why Jim Gordon was so anxious to get an honest man like Bard into a command position in the GCPD.  By issue's end, we see a major change to the status quo of things in Gotham City and our first sign that someone is out to bring down Batman, one ally at a time.


Jason Fabok's artwork is as enthralling as the script.  I greatly enjoyed his work on Batman Annual #1 and the pencils and inks here are of similar high quality.  The figures are all clear and uniquely designed, with even the scenes of characters just talking to one another being well-blocked and far from static scenes of talking heads.

This book is a promising first issue.  I'm not sure yet if I'll stick around for the whole year-long saga, but it has my attention.  For now.