Superior Iron Man #8 - A Review

Round One between Tony Stark and the "clean back-up" of his mind from several years earlier is over.  Now they are preparing for Round Two, with the back-up Tony heading to the lab to build and plan while the flesh and blood Tony throws an epic party with enough booze to get The Hulk smashed. Who will prove to be the superior Iron Man?


I'd say words cannot express how much I love Tom Taylor's writing on this series, but then I'd have nothing to say here! There's a lot of Taylor's famed comedy in this issue and the Superior Iron Man is the kind of anti-hero/quasi-villain that we all love to hate. Yet Taylor still finds time for some softer scenes, like the subplot involving Teen Abomination.


The art team matches the quality of Taylor's scripts. Felipe Watanabe's pencils look great as do the colors by Guru-FX. And I would never have known that there were three different inkers working on this book had I not checked the credits page!

Superior Iron Man #7 - A Review

The Superior Iron Man is growing out of control and Pepper Potts was just barely able to thwart his efforts to buy his own media empire.  Now the new Tony Stark must face Pepper's ally - the old Tony Stark!  Well, an old Iron Man suit containing an A.I. based on Tony's memories from eight years ago, created for just such an emergency... but close enough!


It should be no surprise that this series continues to be a wonderful read.  The action of the issue, featuring a battle between one of Tony's earliest suits and his latest digital symbiote suit, is a thrilling one. And the dialogue is filled with Taylor's trademarked witty banter.


The artwork was finished by two separate teams but you'd never know it from how well the images fit together. Both Yildiray Cinar and Felipe Watanabe are to be commended for their pencils on this issue.  The inks by Ruy Jose and Cinar are also excellent as are the colors by Guru-FX.

Earth 2 #8 - A Review

One must credit James Robinson with having made Earth 2 a surprising book, if nothing else.  I can honestly say that I did not see the surprise revelation of this issue coming at all.  I don't think anyone did.  Yet now that the news is out, I can see the sense of it and wonder how I did not see this coming! 

In reestablishing the most famous alternate-Earth of the DC Universe, Robinson brought back the conceit of a Huntress who was Batman and Catwoman's daughter and a Supergirl who was raised by Clark Kent and Lois Lane as an adopted daughter.  With all of these reestablished legacies, nobody stopped to think about what was missing.  Nobody remembered that in the Earth 2 that once was, Wonder Woman had a daughter as well...


Like most of Robinson's re-imaginings thus far, this Fury is a far cry from the original Hippolyta Hall who went on to greater fame as a supporting player in Neil Gaiman's Sandman.  This Amazon daughter was apparently kidnapped at a young age and raised on Apokolips, turned into a weapon to be used against her homeworld!  This is a brilliant conceit on Robinson's part, hinting at a connection between this Fury and the Female Furies of the New Gods.

Oddly, considering the anthology feel of the series so far, this issue focuses entirely upon Fury and the marooned Apokoliptian general Steppenwolf.  Trapped on Earth and in hiding, the main thrust of the issue concerns Steppenwolf's efforts to reestablish a base of power on Earth.  There's more talking than action in this issue, but Robinson does a good job of further establishing the world and differentiating it from the main DC Universe.

The artwork by Yildiray Cinar is skillful, but uneven at times.  I put this down to the book's two inkers.  Most of the panels look fine.  Indeed, some like the splash page where we get our first look at Fury are poster-worthy!  But others are too thinly inked, barely seeming to have been touched at all.  It's a unneeded distraction while reading the story but not so disastrous of one it makes the book unenjoyable. 

If you haven't been reading Earth 2, this isn't a bad issue to start with.  The story stands on its' own merits and you need know nothing going in save that this is an alternate Earth from the one seen in most of DC Comics' books.  Apart from some uneven inking, the artwork complements the writing perfectly.  This is truly one of the best books on the shelves right now!

Batman: Night of The Owls (Batman #7-8 & Nightwing #8)

As I've noted before, Batman isn't just the best of the current run of Batman titles - it is the best Batman book we've had in years. 

In a relatively short span of time, writer Scott Snyder has established The Court of Owls into a credible and unique threat.  This uniqueness is the important thing, given how thick the Batman universe already is with organizations like The League Of Assassins, The Brotherhood of the Monkey Fist and The Order of St. Dumas among others. It would have been all too easy for Snyder to make The Court of Owls into a generic secret society.  Thankfully, Snyder isn't that lazy and the first six issues of his Batman run have done much to weave The Court into the history and lore of Gotham City. 

Issue #7 is something of a prelude to the Night of the Owls storyline that will be running through several books through late April and into May.  In it, we get some answers to some of the mysteries raised in the early part of Snyder's Batman run, such as how The Court of Owls is seemingly bringing the dead back to life to serve as their "Talon" assassins.  We also get our first glimpse as to just how badly his time in the Owl's nest has affected Batman, as both Nightwing and Alfred note his unbalanced state. This issue is a bit of a breather, summing up what we know so far before the new storyline begins but Snyder keeps things moving despite the relatively sedate tone.  Greg Capullo and Jonathan Glapion continue to spoil us with their unique mix of precise penciling and atmospheric inking.   






Issue #8 officially kicks off the Night of Owls as The Court of Owls send an entire legion of Talons into the streets of Gotham to go after a number of important civic figures, including Commissioner Gordon and Bruce Wayne.  As Bruce Wayne fends off the Talons swarming stately Wayne Manor, Alfred barricades himself in the Batcave and sends out an SOS to the rest of the Bat-Family, asking them to protect Gotham City.  The later half of this issue, which focuses upon Alfred as he delivers his message, is illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque, whose style is jarringly different from that of Greg Cappullo and Jonathan Glapion, but not bad. 

The story picks up in Nightwing #8, as Dick Grayson moves to protect Gotham City's mayor from the Talons.  Kyle Higgins tells a good tale here, mixing the action of present with a flashback detailing the life of a particular Talon soldier.  The art by Eddy Barrows, Ruy Jose and Eber Ferreira was a good follow-up heading out of Batman #8, resembling the work of Cappullo and Glapion only brighter and less stylized.  This seems fitting, given how Nightwing is generally a brighter character than Batman. 

Having not been reading the Nightwing title, I can't say whether or not the crossover is disrupting the current storyline - a promise that was made when the Night of the Owls was original announced.  However, I am delighted to confirm that the story here is self-contained and that Nightwing fans who don't read Batman on a regular basis need not feel obligated to pick up Batman #8 to enjoy this issue.  Conversely, Batman readers can pick this issue up without being confused. 

Given that, I would suggest giving all the parts of this crossover a shot, if you can afford to do so.  It appears that the quality of Batman is rubbing off on the rest of the line.