Injustice: Gods Among Us #14 - A Review

Injustice #14 escalates the battle between the heroes who value liberty over security (i.e. Batman) and those who wish to bring about safety at any cost (i.e. Damn near everyone else).  After thwarting Two-Face's attack on the Channel 2 News anchors in Gotham City, Superman promises that he and the Justice League will do something about Arkham Asylum once and for all.  Naturally, Batman is less than pleased about this announcement.  He's even less pleased when his sidekicks either outright refuse to help him stop Superman or play the Devil's Advocate for Superman's point of view. 



Tom Taylor's scripts continue to impress me.  It would be all too easy for Superman to be portrayed as a power-mad tyrant but Taylor's take on the Man of Steel shows that he's still the same charming gentleman he's always been when it comes to dealing with law-abiding citizens.  Even knowing what he's done, you can't help but like the guy as he talks about his dead wife and smiles when someone apologizes for saying she was the better reporter.  The drama between Bruce and his sons is also well played and the dialogue is perfectly suited towards each character.


The artwork by Jheremy Raapack is not quite so inspiring.  Rappack is not a bad artist but his particular style is better suited toward illustrating Batman stories than the more colorful exploits of Superman.  The sequences set in the Batcave look quite good but the inking on the scenes with Superman in the TV studio seem overly dark.

Apart from that one issue, this is a fine comic and well worth the price of a download.  I don't know how many Injustice fans will be up for reading a comic on this, the day of the game's release.  I just hope that some of them - who aren't regular comic readers - come across this issue later.  It may well make them into fans of the medium.

Batman #16 - A Review

Batman #16 continues the conceit put forth in the opening chapters of Death Of The Family - i.e. that Batman is the King of Gotham and his rogues gallery make up a sort of demented court.  It's an idea that makes sense in the twisted mind of The Joker (the jester of the court, naturally) who has recruited his fellow baddies in remaking Arkham Asylum into a fortress worthy of their lord and master.  The main action of the issue centers upon Batman infiltrating Arkham  and working his way past the various traps and dangers.


Scott Snyder plays the characters perfectly against one another and there a lot of great Joker lines and good character moments here.  Sadly, the new layer of paint does little to disguise the cliched plot.  How many Batman stories have involved the inmates taking over the asylum?  More than I care to try and count.  The back-up story Snyder co-wrote with James Tynion IV proves more interesting, examining the relationships between Batman's rogues in greater depth.


The artwork continues to be all-around excellent.  Former Spawn artist Greg Capullo continues to deliver some of the best work of his career, drawing upon his background in horror comics to depict a truly disgusting and nightmarish Joker, whose maggot-ridden face has begun to sprout flies.  The back-up story by Jock is also well-illustrated. 

Despite an excellent script and amazing artwork, Batman #16 fails to overcome the feeling that we've seen this before.  It is not a bad comic by any means but we've seen the base story many times before even if the execution is top-notch.  Definitely worth a read, though you'll want to start with the first few issues of Death of The Family.

Dallas Fan Days - Day Three - Part Three

I call this set of pictures, Old Friends & New.

 Taffeta Darling (Two Face above) and some friends formed a group of cross-played Batman villains. 

 Jeremy and I met the day before in the line for Felicia Day autographs.  Then, he was dressed as Buddy Christ from Dogma.  Today, he was Casey Jones from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  He took most of the pictures you see below that I am in.

 I ran into Krystal here when Jeremy spotted her from afar in the middle of a crowd.  Naturally, we had to pose a bit together for the teaming masses.  Turned out we had some mutual friends in the local costuming community yet somehow didn't know each other.  Small world, eh?.

"Look, Ollie!  I'm just like you now!"

 Artemis: Do you want the mustache on or off?

Green Arrow: Uh.. off, please.
Artemis: Too bad!

 Me and Alan Tudyk, who voices Green Arrow on Young Justice.

  I kept my promise to Felicia Day and let her see both costumes.  She still preferred Hobo Ollie Queen.