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Batman #684 [Review]

Posted on January 4, 2009 by Walt

Batman: Last Rites – Last Days of Gotham part 2 of 2

Writer: Denny O’Neil
Art: Guillem March
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Assistant Editor: Janelle Siegel
Editor: Mike Marts
Covers: Guillem March & Tony Daniel
Publisher: DC Comics

Nightwing finds himself in need of rescuing, followed by guilt at having been rescued. A conversation with Alfred gets him back into fighting shape, and he heads out to do what he’s gotta do. Meanwhile, the other players in the story are busy–looking over the city, beating heads in (doing so in another’s name), and dealing with the “order” side of things. The expected fight happens, and a number of characters ponder what life’s handed them.

This is a bit of a vague summary. Some stuff in the story feels a bit vague to me–specifically the new characters with ties going back to the Gotham quake. Names did not stand out to me at all, and without going back and re-reading just to look for a name, I don’t recall ’em.

However, I did like this chapter much moreso than the first–not sure what made this so different, unless it just played better having already gotten the foundational stuff outta the way with the Detective Comics chapter of this.

The story plays nicely with continuity–drawing from stuff going back over a decade, while being planted in the midst of current/contemporary continuity, which is a definite strength in my eyes. I’d almost be interested in seeing a longer story by O’Neil, though I don’t think the current continuity’s climate would work well for that.

The art is not bad, though not my ideal choice for a Batman-related story. There’s something about this art that reminds me of the art in Superman right now–though I prefer this to the Superman art.

All in all, a solid issue for a fill-in arc (which if this is not a fill-in, it sure feels like one). If you picked up Detective 851 with the firstd chapter, this is worth nabbing to get the 2nd half of the story. I’m not sure how/where this’ll be collected (if it is) down the line; definitely beats trying to track down a 6-parter. I do wish DC would adopt some system of recounting what’s come before. I also wish they’d quit GLUING these Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe ads in–I wanna rip ’em out, but because of the glue cannot without ripping out actual story pages.

Story: 8/10
Art: 7/10
Whole: 7.5/10

Filed under: Batman, Comic Reviews 2009, DC, DC Universe | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Detective Comics #851 [Review]

Posted on December 14, 2008 by Walt

Batman: Last Rites – Last Days of Gotham part 1 of 2

Writer: Denny O’Neil
Art: Guillem March
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Assistant Editor: Janelle Siegel
Editor: Mike Marts
Covers: Guillem March & Tony Daniel
Publisher: DC Comics

This issue seems to introduce a new character–at the least, I am unfamiliar with this character, not having read this title much in a lotta years. This character has elements dating back to the Gotham Earthquake (Batman: Cataclysm), and also has Two Face back in action, even as a doppleganger apparently is running around using his name. As the last guy to really deal with Two Face and with Bruce missing, Nightwing answers the call of duty and goes into action.

There’s something to the art in this issue that makes me think it’s got some manga influence, as the visual style puts me in mind both of that and some sort of adaptation of some cartoon I can’t think of. The art’s far from bad, though it being a bit stylized turns me off to it somewhat. Characters that I believe are intended to be recognizeable are, while other characters seem to look as they should based on what I get from the story’s context.

The story itself is something I really wanted to like, given this brief return by Denny O’Neil. Unfortunately, this issue just didn’t work for me, and I found myself having to force myself to read each page instead of skimming over to get to more interesting stuff. This feels like a fill-in; whether it is or not I don’t pretend to know; though the fact that it’s to be continued in an upcoming issue of Batman is rather telling. If you’re a longtime fan of O’Neil and steeped in Bat-lore from around the Cataclysm stuff and are a fan of Two Face, you’ll probably enjoy this. I came in as someone fresh off Batman: RIP interested in seeing the impact the absence of Batman himself has on everyone, and just was not engaged by the story.

All in all, a fairly disappointing issue for me, though I hope I’ve contextualized that above. The cover is what I must credit with drawing me in, combined with realizing O’Neil was penning the story–this cover image would make a great poster, I think.

Story: 7/10
Art: 6/10
Whole: 6.5/10

Filed under: Comic Reviews 2008, DC, DC Universe, Detective Comics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

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