Batman: White Knight #6 - A Review

Commissioner Gordon is finally ready to turn on The Batman, but the prospect of bringing him in is easier said than done even with Nightwing's help. Councilman Jack Napier has a plan, but can even he stop his old enemy? And what will he do when The Neo Joker strikes  at an unprotected Gotham City?


I fear I'm growing repetitive with my praise for this series. There's nowhere to go once you've already declared it the best, most original thing done with Batman in the last decade.  The artwork is finely detailed without being over-cluttered and the colors are all perfectly chosen. If you haven't been reading this series, grab the reprints of the early issues or the earlier issues off of ComiXology. And if you have been reading this series, know that this issue is as fine as what has come before. Also, good for you!

 The Final Analysis: 10 out of 10.

Batgirl #10 - A Review

A chance encounter with The Penguin ends surprisingly peacefully, yet it only prompts more questions about Ethan Cobblepot and more problems for Batgirl. Barbara knows her would-be suitor is up to something shady but the nature of the game still eludes her. Still, a little help from her friends may help her find the way.


Honestly, I could read an entire Hope Larson-penned book about Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon talking while riding motorcycles. The issue has a bit more action than that, of course, but the focus here is on Barbara's relationships with her friends and  talents as a detective. The script is smartly written, with great dialogue. The whole thing is brought to life beautifully by the art team and the story flows naturally despite the unique panel placements on some page.

Final Analysis: 10 out of 10. One of the best books of the Rebirth line.

Batgirl #42 - A Review

The good news for Batgirl is that the new Batman - who is secretly her father, Jim Gordon - is trying to dodge his orders to bring in the rest of Gotham City's vigilantes. The bad news is that he's also after Livewire - an electricity manipulating metahuman who can easily overcome the defenses of his power armor.  Can Batgirl help him ground Livewire without blowing Batman's cover or her own secret identity?!

I was skeptical about the idea of Jim Gordon as a police-backed Batman... and I still am. But the script for this issue, by Brenden Fletcher and Cameron Stewart, makes the idea work by playing off the sheer absurdity of Barbara's position in having to help her father while not revealing herself. And it's nice to see Livewire - a favorite from the Batman/Superman Animated Series - being given new life and an update from her shock-jock DJ origins as a YouTube sensation.


The artwork for this issue is, in a word, phenomenal. This may be Babs Tarr's best issue yet, which is saying a lot. There's a great sense of motion in this issue and the battles between Batgirl and Livewire are particularly well blocked. And the colors by Serge Lapointe are incredibly vivid and well-chosen.

Batgirl #41 - A Review

Things have gotten complicated in Barbara Gordon's life. Even more complicated than usual and that's saying something! Her roommate has been clued in on her secret identity and is determined to help Babs with her Batgirl work whether she wants it or not.

Of course Batgirl could use the help with an escaped super-villain from Metropolis called Live Wire on the loose in Burnside. But there's a new Batman, backed by the GCPD, who is working to bring down every masked hero in Gotham City. And the man behind the mech-suit is Barbara's father!


Stewart and Fletcher are to be commended for using this issue to immediately address the elephant in the room post-Batman #41  -  how does Barbara react to her father revealing that he too has a double life? While the very idea of Jim Gordon in power armor as Batman was enough to lead me to drop the current Batman book, this needed to be taken on immediately. And the issue is well-handled despite my fear that we're going to be treated to more of the same faux-drama that dominated the end of Gail Simone's Batgirl run, vis-à-vis Jim Gordon having a mad-on for Batgirl.  Thankfully, the rest of the issue more than makes up for it and the bits with Barbara fighting Live Wire are an amazing bit of action.


The artwork proves to be equally astonishing!  Babs Tarr has made this book her own and it is hard to imagine anyone else drawing it now.  The backgrounds by Joel Gomez are well-done and the color art by Serge Lapointe rounds the final package out perfectly.

Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Two Annual #1 - A Review

The Year Two Annual for Injustice: Gods Among Us differs from the Year One annual in three important respects. First, this annual tells two separate stories compared to last year's single story annual. Next, the tone of these stories is decidedly more serious than last year's annual, which saw Lobo hunting Harley Quinn. Finally - instead of being solely the work of Tom Taylor - the scripts for this issue were written by Marguerite Bennett, who co-plotted the stories with Taylor.


The first story focuses upon Jim and Barbara Gordon and their efforts to find peace in their relationship as Jim's inevitable death from lung cancer grows closer and their investigation of the seeming reappearance of Jim's wife/Barbara's mom, who has been missing for years. Bennet's script perfectly captures both characters and plays out the mystery quite well.  Sadly, the visual tone is all over the place due to this story having been rendered by four different artists with decidedly different styles.


The second story fares better in this regard, having been drawn entirely by Injustice regular Jheremy Raapack.  It too focuses on a troubled relationship - that of Hal Jordan and his former mentor Sinestro as they seek out a Qwardian artifact.  The story here is engaging but Bennett's take on Sinestro - which is reminiscent of Geoff Johns' anti-heroic take on the character - doesn't quite gel with the more openly villainous Sinestro that we've seen in Injustice so far. This is a minor point, however, and it is to Bennett's credit that the reader still won't be sure how sincere Sinestro is about regretting how things ended between him and Hal by the story's conclusion.

Despite not being essential to the overall story, fans of the Injustice will still want to pick this one up.  Fans of Marguerite Bennet's writing on other recent titles will also enjoy this one and shouldn't have any trouble with these stories despite them being set in the complex mythology of the Injustice universe.  The stories more than make up for the somewhat scattered artwork.

Gotham: Episode 102: Selina Kyle - A Review In Random Thoughts

* (As Alfred catches Bruce burning himself) This would be an entirely different show if Alfred had just taken Bruce to a good child psychologist at this point.

* I am now going to call Riddler "Weird Ed" in honor of the equally awkward character from the Maniac Mansion games.

* I see the name of The Tick creator Ben Edlund in the credits as an executive producer.  And suddenly a lot of the choices this show has made make sense, re: camp elements.

* The shout-outs to the comics are much more subdued this time. Quick mention of Maroni - the gangster eventually responsible for creating Two-Face.

* So far, Falcone is the most likable character on the show by sheer virtue of being the one person who seems to honestly care about the city.

* There's Carol Kane as Penguin's mom.  Apparently she just escaped from the set of a Tim Burton movie.

* Mention of Arkham Asylum being closed down but The Wayne Foundation almost reopening it.

* Don't you just love how Barbara doesn't give a damn about the chance that their house line might be traced when she calls in a tip to the press?

* Do they mean for the mayor to look like Richard Nixon?

* For years, comic fans have debated whether the GCPD is mostly incompetent or mostly corrupt.  So far, the show is doing a good job of providing both camps with good case material.

* Although, after the two kidnappers manage to grab a whole bus full of kids in the middle of a depot swarming with cops in broad daylight, I'm firmly on the side of "mostly incompetent".

* Obscure Batman villain The Dollmaker got a mention.  And a thousand Arrow fans immediately begin working on fan fiction to justify making this one the same guy Quentin Lance put away.

* Thomas Wayne had a "no psychologists" clause in his will yet he was ready to start funding Arkham Asylum?  I'm thinking there's a story here.  At least, there should be.

* Alternatively, The Waynes are Scientologists.

* Oh yeah!  I guess Penguin still is in this show.  Huh.



THE FINAL THOUGHTS

For an episode titled 'Selina Kyle', there sure wasn't a lot of Selina Kyle, was there?  That said, I enjoyed this episode far more than the pilot.

Gotham : The Pilot - A Review

Gotham is a paradox on multiple levels. On the one hand, the show goes out of its way to try and win over skeptical fans of the Batman comics by dropping repeated references to the books. On the other hand, much of the show's story cuts out the heart of those same comics.

The show is at its best when it is played as a straight police procedural drama. It is at its worst when it winks at the camera whenever anyone compares toadying-thug Oswald to a penguin or GCPD technician Eddie is told to stop talking in riddles. However, the unsubtle references are merely an annoyance. It is the subtler references that are likely to outright offend the comic fans.

Case In Point. Early on in the episode, Detective Rene Montoya is introduced along with her partner, Crispus Allen. In the comics, they are among the few honest cops in Gotham City. In Gotham, they are glory-hounds who try and take over the Wayne murder case. Later, when they are given a tip that an innocent man was framed for the murder as a result of Jim Gordon's investigation, Rene goes to Jim's fiancee - Barbara Kean - to tell her that James is a low-down crook and she should leave him. And then we get the revelation that Rene and Barbara are more than old friends.

Where do I start in describing everything that is wrong with this from the perspective of a comic fan? Rene Montoya being more concerned with publicity than justice? Rene's first response to finding out that a fellow detective is bent being to go outside the department and tell stories out of school? The cliche of the predatory lesbian trying to win back the ex-girlfriend who went straight? All of this is a slap in the face to fans of Rene's character in the comics.

This is the most extreme example, but other characters are similarly warped. Harvey Bullock, for instance, is portrayed as a mobbed-up cop whereas his comic counterpart is as clean in his conduct as he is dirty in appearance. And Alfred Pennyworth - from what little we see of him - seems to be an East London thug rather than a Gentleman's Gentleman.

Jim Gordon introduces a completely different set of problems. Jim is portrayed as the honest policeman that he should be but much of the character's motivations in the comics were born of his being an outsider to Gotham and their way of doing things. It seems ludicrous for Gordon to be as naive as he is portrayed here when he's reportedly a Gotham native and his father was a former district attorney. Then again, having Gordon be part of an old money Gotham family is perhaps the only way to explain how he can afford the opulent apartment he has on an honest cop's salary.

Still, at least Harvey and Jim are fully developed as characters in this pilot.  Most of the references to the comics are completely incidental to the plot.  Yes, we get to see a young Selina Kyle prowling around but nothing is made of her appearances throughout the episode nor of her chance presence when The Waynes are killed.  Yes, there's a young redhead girl who loves plants named Ivy Pepper but she is completely unnecessary to the story.  And how is Edward Nygma's presence in this episode like an unsharpened pencil?  They're both completely pointless.

Technically, the show is something of a mixed bag.  The cinematography is decent enough when we're getting long, slow shots of the Gotham skyline yet it becomes laughably bad during the action scenes, which feature some of the worst shaky-cam effects I've ever seen on television.  The music is subpar industrial rock, which leaves a montage of Harvey Bullock's questioning suspects looking and sounding like a Slipknot video from four years ago.

The performances are equally mixed.  Ben McKenzie is suitably earnest as Jim Gordon and Donal Logue makes Harvey Bullock into a likable rogue, even as he's working against Jim. Sean Pertwee manages to make Alfred Pennyworth intriguing by sheer force of personality. But Robin Taylor's Oswald Cobblepot and Cory Michael Smith's Edward Nygma are far too campy compared to the dark tone of the show.  And Jada Pinkett Smith's performance, as the mob boss Fish Mooney, shows why she is best remembered by audiences as Will Smith's wife.

In the end, Gotham tries too hard to be all things to all people and succeeds only in being nothing special.  Fans of cop dramas are unlikely to be wowed by the differences the show's setting inspired. And most comic fans will be indifferent, at best, to the nods to the source material that amount to nothing more than a handful of names and nothing else.
 

The Ten Best Moments From Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Two (So Far)

I haven't written a lot of reviews of Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Two despite it being one of my favorite series right now.  I feared I was growing repetitive in describing my love of Tom Taylor's writing and how well he has developed the base concept of a rather simple video game into a complex tale that has given some of my favorite characters the best portrayals they've had in years.  To that end, I've decided to showcase my ten favorite moments from the series so far, in the hopes that this will explain what I feel unable to articulate in an original manner.


1. Ollie And Dinah Forever.


As Seen In: Injustice - Year Two #1

It's no secret to most of my regular readers that I'm a big fan of Green Arrow and Black Canary.  Yet few writers in recent years have managed to write them effectively as a couple on those rare occasions they've been portrayed as a couple.  At best, they're written as sitcom fodder with Ollie as the bumbling dad and Dinah as the long-suffering mom.  At worst, they're outright hostile to one another and seem to survive purely on fantastic make-up sex.  Taylor is one of the few who writes them as a real couple who truly love each other. And nothing better showcased that than the first scene of the first issue - a flashback in which we see Dinah defending her man's honor against the bikers who were flirting with her, much to Ollie's amusement.


2. "You want me to say something?"


As Seen In: Injustice - Year Two #1

In the Injustice game, it is revealed that Green Arrow was the first hero to die in the rebellion against the tyrant Superman.  Taylor revealed the exact specifics during Injustice: Year One and began exploring a question that the game left unanswered - how did that world's version of Black Canary react to the death of her lover at the hands of Superman?

Not well, to put it mildly.

With that one sentence, after Superman approaches her following Oliver Queen's funeral, Dinah Lance makes it clear that no quarter will be asked or given in the coming conflict.  And we learn just how powerful Black Canary is and how very painful a sonic scream is to a man with super-hearing at point-blank range.


3. Where WERE The Guardians When Krypton Died?


As Seen In: Injustice - Year Two #5

When word of Superman's actions reaches the planet Oa, Ganthet of the Guardians of the Universe takes it upon himself to travel to Earth to plead with Superman to abandon his current actions.  Superman agrees to a meeting but then asks Ganthet to answer one question honestly after Ganthet cites the infinite wisdom of The Guardians as reason enough for Superman to heed his words.  It is a question that Ganthet does answer honestly and the answer leads to Superman telling him to get off his planet.

This scene is a powerful one.  But more importantly, it shows Taylor's talent for asking questions that have rarely, if ever, been addressed in recent comics... such as why was the destruction of Krypton - a disaster that was the sort of thing The Green Lantern Corps was founded to prevent in the first place - allowed to happen?


4. Barbara Gordon's OTHER Secret Life.


As Seen In: Injustice - Year Two #6

With Gotham City being the first city on Earth to "benefit" from the instillation of one of Superman's armies and the GCPD now redundant, Jim Gordon turns to his daughter for answers.  He reveals that he knew about her secret life as Batgirl and guesses that she must have some way of getting a hold of Batman.  Barbara says that she does but then she reveals that while her father figured out a lot, he didn't know everything... as a panel slides aside to reveal The Birds of Prey, who were in the middle of a strategy session when Jim Gordon came into the building.

It's nice to see The Birds as envisioned by Gail Simone back in action and Taylor writes all of the heroines involved quite well.  But it's also gratifying to have it confirmed that Jim Gordon knew damn well who the vigilantes in his city were and that his daughter was one of them. Taylor balances the humor of the scene as well as Jim Gordon's righteous anger perfectly.


5. Harvey Bullock - Bad Ass.


As Seen In: Injustice - Year Two #10

Harvey Bullock is a hard cop in a hard city.  He's a slob and a jerk but he's doesn't play games with the law.  And even after the GCPD is all but shut down by the presence of Superman's army, he still patrols the streets because his badge and his oath mean something to him.  At least, they mean enough for him to put himself between a pair of love-birds breaking Superman's curfew and the Super Soldier ready to go Judge Dredd on them.

Is Bullock's stand futile?  Of course.  And he knows it.  And yet, this scene is the quintessence of the series as a whole - morality versus security.  It symbolizes that there is a difference between Law and Order and that Superman's quest for peace has become so absolute that even lawful policemen have no place in The New Order.


6. All The Small Things.

As Seen In: Injustice - Year Two #11

It's always been my contention that any Green Lantern could match Superman - not necessarily through raw power but through sheer creativity.  That certainly proves to be the case here as one of the smallest of Green Lanterns - the squirrel-like Ch'p - is able to neutralize Superman's brain through sheer force of will.


7. Girl Talk.


As Seen In: Injustice - Year Two #13

Another of the interesting questions raised but unanswered by the Injustice game is how Harley Quinn goes from being The Joker's henchwench to one of the most trusted leaders of the resistance against Superman.  Taylor started Harley on the path to redemption in Injustice - Year One with an unlikely good deed by Green Arrow turning Harley's heart.  This issue - which starts off with a fight between Harley and Black Canary - turns hilarious and then touching as a pregnant Black Canary begs for a time-out from the fight to deal with a sudden bout of morning sickness and Harley begins to wax nostalgic about her own pregnancy.  If you are a fan of Harley Quinn, you owe it to yourself to read this issue if you don't read any other issues of Injustice.


8. Harley IS Practical, In Her Own Way...

As Seen In: Injustice - Year Two #15

Okay - maybe there's ONE more issue Harley fans upset with her current direction in The New 52 should pick up, if only for the scene where Harley sneaks into the hospital where Black Canary is giving birth to deliver a care package of gifts for the baby... including a baby-size muzzle.

Why?  The panels above say it all.


9. The Charge Of The Light Brigade.


As Seen In: Injustice - Year Two #15

Guy Gardner has always gotten a bad rap as a Green Lantern and I think Taylor has done a great job of showcasing all of the better points of Guy's character throughout this series.  Yet while Guy gets a lot of awesome moments and funny moments, nothing quite tops the ending of issue 15, where he calls ahead to tell Black Canary that The Guardians are sending a Brute Squad to take Earth back from Superman and his new found allies in The Sinestero Corps.

Dinah asks if he thinks they can take the planet without blowing it up.  Guy admits that he isn't sure, which is why they are bringing their own.  And then we pull back to see Mogo The Living Planet bringing up the rear of a gigantic crowd of Green Lanterns!


10. Jim Gordon - Earth's Greatest Hero


As Seen In: Injustice - Year Two #20

Watching Jim Gordon go from honest cop to freedom fighter over the course of the series is one of the more satisfying subplots of the book.  His fight with Cyborg in this issue - another symbolic battle between Man versus Machine that repeats one of the common reoccurring themes in the series - is one of the best so far.  But nothing quite matches the end in which Jim Gordon - a common man pushed to uncommon ends - looks down on the world he is trying to save and bids his daughter and spiritual son Batman farewell.


Think I missed a moment?  Have a favorite I left out?  Let me know in the comments.

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.

Batgirl #26 - A Review

There is little I can say about Batgirl #26 that I have not said before in earlier reviews of this series.  I could talk at length about how writer Gail Simone has built the current storyline to a glorious climax that has seen Barbara Gordon hunted by her own father and now leaves her as his only hope of surviving an attack by four metahuman assassins, who all have their own bones to pick with Batgirl.  But that would just be recalling the plot and would tell you little about the series itself.

I will say this.  If you enjoy stories of a smart, canny heroine who is able to overcome tremendous odds through her courage and intelligence, you will enjoy Batgirl.  This issue does a fine job of showing how Barbara Gordon is far more than just a distaff Dark Knight.  She is a character unto herself and a great heroine.



Batgirl is blessed with an equally amazing art team.  Daniel Sampere is one of the most underrated pencilers working in the industry today, by my reckoning.  Sampere's style is detail-oriented without being overly complex.  The inks of Jonathan Glapion perfectly enhance Sampere's pencils, creating just the right amount of shadow to evoke the proper dark mood for the proceedings.

Batgirl #24 - A Review

 Let us pause a moment and give thanks to whatever fickle gods allowed Gail Simone to continue on this title after her unceremonious firing by e-mail and sudden rehiring.

...

Thank you.

I ask for this blessing because I am truly frightened to think about the possibility of not having had this issue to read.  How could any writer but Gail Simone have pulled off last month's issue without having it seem like a betrayal of the whole story so far?  How could anyone but her have penned this issue, in which Barbara Gordon finds herself pitted against not only the police and every enemy she's made since her return as Batgirl but against her very essence as a person?



There is no word I can think of to sum this issue up, save one: powerful.  This is a powerful issue and one of the strongest, most emotional works Simone has ever penned.  The fact that it's a ripping action yarn at the same time does not diminish its' emotional arc in any way.  I'm aching to read next month's issue now, that's how great it is.  


The artwork of Fernando Pasarin and Jonathan Glapion equals the script in quality and excellence.  Everone involved in this storyline needs to be nominated for some kind of award.  If you aren't reading Batgirl, you should be. 

Batgirl #23 - A Review

Let me start this comic with a Tommy Wiseau impression.

*clears throat*

"YOU'RE TEARING ME APART, GAIL!"

In all seriousness, Batgirl #23 will pull out your heart like Mola Ram and stomp on it like it was the floor at a Lord of the Dance concert. 



We knew things were going to get bad with Commissioner Jim Gordon developing a mad-on for Batgirl in the wake of his son James Jr's death at her hands.  Yet I don't think anyone anticipated Gail Simone finding a way to bring nearly every new villain that's emerged since this series started back under the command of the violent vigilante Knightfall with orders to kill Jim Gordon after his hunt for Batgirl leads him poking into her business.  Things go from bad to worse when Babs' new boyfriend Ricky is fingered by the police as a Batgirl accomplice at the same time Ricky is called back into play as a gang-banger with the lives of his family at stake.  Barbara, no longer Batgirl, finds herself under attack from all sides and if this issue doesn't pull on your heart-strings, you'd better see a doctor... for your heart is dead.


The artwork of Fernandon Pasarin and Jonathan Glapion matches Simone's script in quality.  The action is well displayed as are the few quiet moments of drama leading into the action-filled finale.  This book is Eisner-worthy on all fronts and should be a must-read for all fans of quality comics.

Batgirl #22 - A Review

In a perfect world, Batgirl #22 would easily win every award it is possible for a single-issue comic story to win.  Bold words, I know.  Yet I cannot think of any single story that has provoked such a full gamut of emotions within me for quite some time.  Sorrow.  Joy.  Fear. Anger.  This book conveys all this as strongly as any Greek tragedy.


The issue centers upon Barbara's date with Ricky - a reformed thug she first met and saved as Batgirl after he lost his leg during a run-in with a more violent vigilante.  The relationship between Babs and Ricky is played off well and Gail Simone does a fantastic job of showing how the two feed one another's need for a companion in a short span of pages.  The introverted Babs needs someone who can get her out of shell as much as Ricky needs someone who understands his disability and can show him that it isn't the end of the world.  This story is as inspiring and life-affirming as any image of Superman flying through the sunny skies of Metropolis.

That alone would be enough to make me recommend this book, for there are precious few books even in the superhero genre these days that seem to encourage this kind of optimism, much less revel in it.  We also get a long overdue scene between Jim Gordon and Batman - both mourning the loss of their sons - that is easily one of the most emotional scenes I've ever seen in any medium.  Yet Simone gives us darkness with the light as well, with an ending that will hit you in the gut like a young Muhammad Ali.


The artwork of Fernando Pasarin and Jonathan Glapion equals Simone's script in quality.  Pasarin's figures are well-designed and proportioned, with what little action this issue contains being well-paced and well-choreographed.  Glapion's inks are always perfectly suited toward the story, with light inks utilized for well-lit night clubs and ballet studios and heavy shadows for the dark alleys and rooftops of Gotham.

To sum it up in three words?  Read This Book!