DC Comics omnibus thread

[APO]

That's a great article.

[J.H.]

After a decade since I read it, I decided to re-read the first volume of Sandman Mystery Theater. Man I miss how good Vertigo could be when they were willing to acknowledge they had ties to DC. I'm going to go ahead plow through the whole series again. Wagner and Seagle were so good at these stories.

 

James

[Bustronaut]

It seems like it's SMT re-read time for everyone!  I just picked up a couple of trades of what I thought was Sandman Mystery Theater, but one of them happened to be a 2007 sequel/reboot/retooling of the series.  It's... I hate to say not very good, but it certainly was a surprise that it existed, and that they took so many missteps with the book itself.

 

It's a very cliched 2007-era anti-war, anti-Bush comic.  Ah well, it was in the $2 TPB bin, so not much of a waste of money.

[Territorial]

It seems like it's SMT re-read time for everyone!  I just picked up a couple of trades of what I thought was Sandman Mystery Theater, but one of them happened to be a 2007 sequel/reboot/retooling of the series.  It's... I hate to say not very good, but it certainly was a surprise that it existed, and that they took so many missteps with the book itself.

 

It's a very cliched 2007-era anti-war, anti-Bush comic.  Ah well, it was in the $2 TPB bin, so not much of a waste of money.

 

The John Ney Rieber reboot?  Yeah, that was awful.  And I say that as someone who thought Books of Magic was brilliant and JNB would be a Grant Morrison-level name.  Did he do much of note post Books of Magic?  The few things I remember reading (Captain America) were either outright bad or severely flawed.

[Eivion]

Read Bruce Wayne: Murderer? This was an interesting one. The point they start at is a decent intro to try to catch you up just a bit since the volume skips a good year's worth of issues from the last volume (Officer Down). That said, it is still a bit to take in as you have people constantly going on about Bruce's mental state w/o giving any points of reference for why they think he is capable of murder. It particularly feels a bit nonsensical with Barbara and Tim entertaining the the possibility of it over since they should know him enough to realize even if Bruce snapped it would be a criminal biting it. It was honestly a bad bit of writing that hurt the overall story they were trying to tell. Moving away from that bit of plot though the rest is a pretty solid read. I like how everyone tries to help Bruce out, how much of an emotional toll the whole situation takes on Bruce, and I dug poor Sasha Bordeaux who was stuck in such hard and awkward situation herself. I'm actually lookingforward to seeing how things play out in Fugitive.

Also read Batgirl: Fists of Fury. Outside of a tie-in with the Murderer/Fugitive story this volume is pretty much all about building up Cassandra's relationship with Stephanie. I liked the dynamic the two have together, particularly because you can see that Steph has a begrudging respect for Cassandra that annoys Steph but also makes her want to be acknowledged by Cassandra. Overall its nothing amazing,  but it was a fun read.

[The Natural]

I read Batman #17, a monthly UK magazine collecting Batman, Incorporated (Vol. 2) #12, Batman #22 and Batman and Batgirl #21. In Batman, Incorporated (Vol. 2) #12, Batman goes up against The Heretic with the measures he chose in #10.  This was a very good issue and good to have Chris Burnham manage to draw a complete issue again for the first time since Batman, Incorporated (Vol. 2) #5. Batman #22 is the second issue of Zero Year as Bruce Wayne continues his campaign against the Red Hood gang, has to deal with Alfred and Phillip Kane’s wishes and encounters one E. Nygma. This was a great issue. Zero Year is 2/2 so far, preferred this issue to the first one. Batman and Batgirl #22 has Batgirl trying to help Batman in the third stage of grief: bargaining. A good issue but my least favourite of the stage series so far (#19-21) with another two to come, I believe.

[Eivion]

Read Return of Superman. I thought they made things a bit too confusing at first with Eradicator's part in the story, but they eventually make sense of things, and I did enjoy the effect his meetings with Steel and Guy had on him. I loved Steel's story in this. I dug how he was inspired by Supes and wanted to wrong a mistake he made. He wasn't looking for fame, never claimed to be Superman, and just did his part to help people. Always thought Superboy looked damn ridiculous with that jacket of his, but his actual character was a good one to build on, and I think the story did a great job of it, especially with the influence Guardian, Steel, and Clark seemingly have on him as the story progresses. I liked how the story with Cyborg Superman played out. He was easily the most questionable of the bunch with his supposedly missing memories and robot body, but he did his part just well enough to lure so many in to a false sense of trust. I liked the backstory of how an unfortunate but ok guy came to be an insane energy/machine being. The general plot of nuking Central City and trying to destroy Superman's name while making Earth a new War World was quite nice. The big parts of the later battle were particularly awesome. I thought it was especially cool how everyone got in a big moment to play. Only real disappointment for me was Hal's part towards the end where I thought they didn't quite capture the right feel in terms of Hal's feeling considering his home and potentially everything he loved was destroyed in Central City. Overall I thought this was a pretty good read and great way to complete  the saga that started with Supeman's "death."

 

Also read Bruce Wayne: Fugitive Volumes 1-3. First volume was pretty much evidence gathering and a bit of the repeat about how much Bruce could be trusted. I was ok, but I wasn't the biggest fan of outside of the fantastic issue it ended with Bruce as Batman meeting a dying detective who gave him comfort all those years ago when his parents died. It hit the emotional points and built well into pushing Bruce to finally try and clear his name. The second volume was a much better read. It introduced the Checkmate elements that build into the third volume, gave a good story focused on Sasha and her loyalty to Bruce, and ended the actual fugitive part of the story with Bruce and co. discovering the real killer of Vesper. The third volume was pretty much all about tying up loose ends with Sasha "dying" and joining Checkmate and along with resolving he relationship and feelings with Bruce. its all pretty good stuff that ties up her story in Gotham well, but w/o being able to read what built into their relationship before Murderer it feels like your only seeing that last half of film and hurts it just a bit. Dug the hell out of the issue by Devin Greyson focusing on all being right in the city of Gotham again with Bruce's freedom. The David Cain/Deadshot two-parter wasn't bad though I think it needed to give a bit more on Deadshot considering the point of the story was that both he and Cain had a bit of deathwish. The final volume focusing on Cassandra Cain's relationship with her father wasn't bad though I'm not sure it was the best one to end things with. Overall the Murderer/Fugitive story was pretty interesting and a solid enough read, but I can't help but feel it could have been better.

[odessasteps]

Hard to describe the pit of bile in my stomach when i saw the new Psycho Pirate nu52 design.

[Cliff Hanger]

Personally, i never had a problem with the Superboy jacket. I thought.the hair and loose belts did way more damage to that look. That said, I still preferred it to the current costume.

[Brian Fowler]

Hard to describe the pit of bile in my stomach when i saw the new Psycho Pirate nu52 design.

 

Not quite as bad as the new Doctor Psycho look, but...  God damn that's awful.

 

EDIT:  I really like Brett Booth as an artist, and he's a great guy (insert me again mentioning he once name dropped me in an interview) but damn is he not a good costume/character designer.

[Eivion]

Personally, i never had a problem with the Superboy jacket. I thought.the hair and loose belts did way more damage to that look. That said, I still preferred it to the current costume.

 I don't dislike his current look, but I do think that his original look sans jacket and belt looked better.

[Eivion]

Batman #24 was a nice extra-sized issue concluding the first part of Snyder Zero Year. I loved it. It had plenty of great moments, good action, and dealt nicely with a lot of the plots Snyder built up with the Red Hood Gang. Its also starts the next part of Zero Year which is off to a nice start with the Gotham going dark. Only thing I didn't like was Rafael Albuquerque's Alfred which just looks so off from the usual. Forever Evil: Arkham War also started yesterday ,and so far I'm liking it. Most of the issue was set up explaining Gotham's current situation and building up Bane, but it was well done. Tomasi's Bane is quite good. Bane is back to the creative/strategic genius and monster that he was in Knightfall. In some ways I would even say he comes across a bit smarter and more imposing in this one with the atmosphere the art gives off and how Tomasi writes him. In general this story seems to be taking aspects from both Knightfall and No Man's Land with Bane trying to over while inmates are running free and the Arkham crazies splitting up Gotham into territories.  It will be interesting to see how Tomasi tries to merge these stories into something new.

 

 

In other news Batman will be getting a weekly comic next March called Batman Eternal to celebrate the 75th anniversary. Snyder, Fawkes, Tynion IV, Seeley, & Layman will be the five writing it. Detective Comics #27 will also be 100+ pages and involve Layman, Hurwitz, Meltzer, Tomasi, Paul Dini, and Frank Miller on the wirting. Adams, Nguyen, & Francavilla will be on art duties.

[odessasteps]

Someone alert Fowler

stephanie brown's return announced at NYCC.

[Eivion]

In Batman Eternal, #3 specifically. Sounds like she will have a decent sized part in it.

[Brian Fowler]

And then Mark went ahead and alerted me himself.

 

I'm... cautiously optimistic.  I don't know how great it will be without Bryan Q. Miller.

[J.H.]

Yeah, Bryan Q. Miller's Batgirl was the most fun I had reading comics in years. I think the Halloween team-up issue with Supergirl might the most ridiculous yet fun comic I've read since the Giffen/Dematties Justice League!

 

James

[Eivion]

Caught up with my monthly comic readings for the last two weeks.

 

Action Comics & Superboy #24 - Superboy's issue did a good deal having Conner's relationship with Doctor Psycho come to a head and sort cleaning things up a bit, revealing Dr. Psycho's history, and clearing up his position in the New 52 tying him back to the Crime Society for the Trinity War/Forever Evil issues. I know practically nothing about the original Psycho Pirate, but so far I'm absolutely loving the New 52 version. The way he carries himself and handles both Clark and Conner at the same time is pretty awesome and damn fun in general. I also like how he isn't a flat out villain per say actually trying to do something good though technically at the cost of poor Clark. The end of Action left me pretty damn excited for the final issue of Psi-War as it looks like Lois will really be at the forefront of things. Reading these does confirm something to me which is that they really need to ax Lobdell as a writer and just use him as a creative consultant. He has great ideas, but all of them seem to be so much better when written by other people.

Green Lantern & GLC #24 - First 2/5 of the Lights Out crossover. Pretty much the GLC giving their all to defeat Relic only to fail miserably and struggle as much as possible just to survive. Pretty solid stuff so far though honestly after the events Third Army and First Lantern I'm not really sure bringing the Corps down even further is the right direction.

Detective Comics #24 - Great action filled end to Layman's story with Wrath. I particularly dug the GCPD getting their moment in.

Constantine #7 - Best issue of the series so far with big things happening and Constantine looking very screwed.

Earth 2 #16 - Loved the stuff with Wonders finally coming together. The reveal towards the end was expected, but the way it was done was not and left a big impression. Easily one of the best issues of Earth 2 yet. makes me even more disappointed Robinson was gone as it was his last issue.

Suicide Squad #24 - Good start to Kindt's run. I like the craziness in Belle Reve, Waller current tough position, and the two teams formed to achieve "Waller's" goals.

Forever Evil #2 - The Titans got done in pretty easily, but I liked everything with Crime Syndicate and Luther planning to save the day.

[J.H.]

Forever Evil #2 - The Titans got done in pretty easily, but I liked everything with Crime Syndicate and Luther planning to save the day.

About time Idris Elba found a way into a comic book!

I figured you meant Luthor but the idea of DC fucking up Luther terrifies me!

[The Unholy Dragon]

So, I love how DC's announcement strategy was basically "BATMAN! WE PUBLISH BATMAN! SCOTT SNYDER DOING ALL THE BATMAN! WEEKLY BATMAN LEAD BY SNYDER! STEPHANIE BROWN BACK IN BATMAN! FRANK MILLER DOING BATMAN! DETECTIVE COMICS 27 TO CELEBRATE 75 YEARS OF BATMAN! MANAPUL AND BUCCELETTO ON DETECTIVE COMICS STARRING BATMAN! BATMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"I mean, Snyder's Batman is pretty easily the biggest hit of the New 52 from both a critical and commercial perspective. Batman's their biggest moneymaker and stacking the deck on the Bat-books will probably pay off well for them financially. The weekly Batman series sounds super cool, and the idea of doing it like a TV show with multiple writers working under a single 'showrunner' is a great concept in theory. Snyder being king of that kingdom works for me too. And the Flash has been one of their other big critical successes, so I'm looking forward to seeing that team on a character I care about (To clarify: Love the Flash, hate Barry). Detective 27 sounds AMAZING too. Basically it's just funny how their way of garnering positive press is just 100% "LOOK AT THESE AWESOME BATMAN BOOKS!" this time out. That and having Scott Snyder write all of it, because he's quickly becoming their new Geoff Johns with the bonus of being a better writer. 

 

Nice of them to give Kyrax the moment for the Steph announcement though.

[Brian Fowler]

So, now the question is, does Snyder pull a Geoff Johns, and go massively downhill now that they are handing him so much control?

[Ryan]

Or do they kill off Stephanie Brown within 2 months just to piss us all off.

[J.H.]

I'm in the minority and don't think Snyder's Batman stuff has been all that great. I liked his early stuff on Detective but once the DCNu launched I really didn't care for it his stories. The Court of Owls was just so overhyped and Death of The Family was completely underwhelming.

 

James

[twiztor]

i enjoyed Court of Owls, loved the Lincoln March reveal and the world that it opens up, and i agree that DotF was disappointing, but i still feel like he writes a better than average Batman. Even Gates of Gotham was an intriguing story.  I can't really put my finger on it, but it all just seems right.  The voice, the stories, they all just seem to fit. Plus, he's got a lot of respect for Nightwing, so that helps tremendously.

 

As for currently, I'm holding off on Zero Year until it's complete and i can read it in one sitting, but i am already looking forward to sitting down with it.

and this weekly year-long book sounds amazing. can't wait.

[Victator]

If it was a character I loved, I would rather keep them in limbo than being used by this DC. 

[Bustronaut]

DC should just start a series to keep up with the copyright renewal characters they keep shoving into series that are obviously not going to last long.

 

Copyright Comics Cavalcade