By Chris Fenn
I’m finding it quite difficult to think how to word this review. I love Tomasi’s work, and I think his work with Gleason has been consistently the best Batman book since the launch of the New 52. I also love the Fourth World and am instantly interested any time they become a focus in a book. The difficulty I have is that this issue has quite a few things I really dislike with it.
First of all I both love and hate the opening to this book. I love it because it gives a very clear and concise summary of the conception, life and death of Damian Wayne; which must be nice as a new reader and is also a good refresher to people already familiar with the story. What I truly hate about the introduction, though, is using pre-Flashpoint events as an origin to New 52 stories.
Now I am quite a large lover of canon and continuity; I love non-canon stories, Elseworlds and one-shots but I also really appreciate a set and established order of events, and my understanding of resetting a universe is that DC decide to start from scratch; the problem with starting from scratch is then relying on material that occurred before the reset. One huge glaring example in this book is showing Batman get hit with the Omega Sanction, an event which occurred in Final Crisis; and for anybody that hasn’t read Final Crisis [SPOLIER ALERT] this is the event where Darkseid dies in canon, yet this is used as a prequel to a story where Darkseid has only been fought by the Justice League once.
As to not dwell on that particular aspect of the comic I’m going to point out a few other parts of this book that I disliked, and they seem to hinge on the artwork more than anything. There is one particular sequence where Batman shoots, who I think is Glorious Godfrey, in the head with, what I think is, a grappling hook; now as you may tell from how I describe it, the image isn’t very clear and just feels cluttered.
The final thing I’m going to moan about is how Batman seems to act at times. Through the bulk of the book Batman and Ra’s are fighting parademons and Batman cuts both hands off of one and gouges the eye of another. Now I know parademons aren’t human, but that seems really overly brutal for Batman; does this mean he can inadvertently kill mutants, aliens and animals? I also really hated the way he clunkily said “Knowing Ra’s, probably not deep enough”, come on Tomasi; you’re better than that!
Now the things I really enjoyed about this issue basically boil down to two events; the first is when the Justice League arrive. Now it was obvious something was going to happen when Godfrey began to scream but I thought it would be Ra’s, not the amazing two page spread of the Justice League saving the day; this really epitomizes what I want to see from a superhero team.
I also love Batman’s loss of temper, particularly his outbursts against Luthor and Shazam. I feel that when he lashes out in these instances they are justified, considering he has travelled across the world to try and get his son back, only to lose him at the last second to a madman on another planet, I also love the assertive and committed speech he gives on the final page.
Despite my grumblings this is a good issue; it isn’t as good as Tomasi’s other work, and pretty much anything I haven’t mentioned is good. I think this upcoming arc will bring out the best in Batman, the Fourth World and Damian.
For more comic views and reviews follow Chris on Twitter at @fenneth1989
Posted on July 18th, 2014
Category: OUT OF THE LONG BOX, REVIEWS
Tags: Batman, Chris Fenn, Damian Wayne, Darkseid, DC Comics, Glorious Godfrey, Justice League, Peter J Tomasi, Ras Al Ghul, Robin Rises: Omega #1 Review
By Chris Fenn
The story of Batman and Robin has come a long way since the death of Damian. We’ve encountered a lot of characters; whether they’ve been trying to stop Batman from resurrecting Damian, or helping Batman stop Ra’s al Ghul, but now the Batman comes head to head with The Demon.
My admiration goes to the colorist of this issue, John Kalisz, as I was simply awestruck with how the first seven pages created such a mood and atmosphere. I think the predominant use of green and black really made the conversation between Ra’s and Batman feel so intense; this wasn’t a Saturday morning cartoon character talking down to the hero, this was two hurt fathers pouring their souls at each other, and the colours really made it that much more heartfelt and impressive.
Going hand in hand with colours, the art is what I come to expect from Patrick Gleason; brilliant. There’s a lot of ‘Batman Poses’ where you just see the eyes against a black silhouette, which is something I can never get enough of, and he also manages to make a fight feel brutal and real. The fight between Ra’s and Batman isn’t a typical ‘superhero’ fight with people in swimsuits throwing buildings at each other and looking unscathed, it’s a brawl in the snow with no rules and no finesse, just rage and anger.
Tomasi’s writing is really good in this issue; he has a task of explaining everything about this special Lazarus pit and its origin as well as having some meaningful dialogue with Batman and Ras. I think he deals with this spectacularly, having Frankenstein, a former agent of S.H.A.D.E., and Ra’s al Ghul discuss the plot points makes the issue feel natural, as it is both within their characters to know these things and to express their knowledge about it.
I found that the dialogue between Ra’s and Batman was really insightful to them as people; Batman unprepared to risk his son’s soul, whereas Ra’s is happy to risk anything in order to preserve his family and his legacy. Both strike me as things a father would do, and having been on a Game of Thrones TV series binge Ra’s stance reminds me a lot of Tywin Lannister.
Its seems as if the Game of Thrones comparisons don’t stop there; as I mentioned earlier about the fist fight in the snow feeling real I couldn’t help but compare it to the fight between Brienne and The Hound in the recent series finale. I also found that when Batman begins pressing his thumbs into Ra’s’ eyes I thought of the fight between The Mountain and Prince Oberyn and I genuinely believed that Batman was going to break his rule and end Ra’s – which I would have found extremely fitting, appropriate and powerful.
That will have to be an Elseworlds though, as now we’re up against the forces of Apokolips. I personally love the Fourth World and embrace any story line that deals with the New Gods and Darkseid. Tomasi hasn’t let me down yet, and I will follow him to Apokolips and back!
For more comic views and reviews follow Chris on Twitter at @fenneth1989
Posted on June 20th, 2014
Category: OUT OF THE LONG BOX, REVIEWS
Tags: Batman And Robin, Batman and Robin #32 Review, Damian Wayne, DC Comics, Frankenstein, John Kalisz, Patrick Gleason, Peter J Tomasi, Ras Al Ghul
By Chris Fenn
This issue is all about Frankenstein; only since what happened in Batman and Red Robin I’m sure he won’t exactly be too happy…
But that’s the funny thing about Frankenstein, he seems very forgiving provided you say sorry and stop your dog nibbling his leg.
This issue felt like it went by very quickly, a lot of it seemed to act as a sort of recap; Batman relayed his tale to Frankenstein and told him why he had changed his mind on bringing Damien back, and Frankenstein gave Batman an update on the Justice League Dark and what happened in the Forever Evil: Blight story.
There was a small reference I noticed and appreciated; when Batman showed some knowledge of Nanda Parbat he informed Frankenstein that he had learned the Thogal ritual, which involved him simulating death through isolation. This is a lovely reference to Grant Morrison’s run on Batman as also ties into the greater themes of death and rebirth that Morrison touched upon; Batman reborn as Dick Grayson, Batman reborn through time, Batman reborn as the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh and batman reborn through Bruce Wayne.
Now the plot gets a tad unusual when Batman and Frankenstein seemingly come across a group of Wampa’s who help them find Ra’s Al Ghul after a display of peace, some drawing in the snow and a growl from Batman. I suppose though it seems a tad unfair to dismiss this as silly when Batman is walking around with a re-stitched Frankenstein in pursuit of a city that disappeared to another dimension in a whirlwind of feathers.
It seems as though the plot as a whole has progressed a lot more in two pages than it has done in the past few issues, as early on we see Ras submerge a sarcophagus into what appears to be a Lazarus Pit, and we close the issue with Batman saying he’s too late.
Another brilliant issue with some nice elements of humour injected in, and now I simply cannot wait for the next installment!
For more comic views and reviews follow Chris on Twitter at @fenneth1989
Posted on May 23rd, 2014
Category: OUT OF THE LONG BOX, REVIEWS
Tags: Batman and Frankenstein #31 Review, Bruce Wayne, Chris Fenn, Comic Reviews, Damian Wayne, DC Comics, Ras Al Ghul, Robin
Reviewed by Chris Fenn
This is a review of Damian Son of Batman issue four; however as this was only a small series I will use it as an opportunity to review the whole thing!
I’m a sucker for Damian; when I first heard of him I was put off the idea of Bruce Wayne having a son, but when I read the way he was written by Morrison and Tomasi I fell in love with the little sucker. When he was killed in Batman Incorporated I was quite shocked and knew I’d miss him, so seeing Kubert was going to write a miniseries about grown up Damian I had to get into it.
When I read the first issue I had to say my reaction was more tepid than I had hoped. I didn’t dislike it, but I didn’t love it. I felt Damian was characterised completely wrong; he seemed sloppy when he was with Batman. He acted like a typical teenager, more backchat for backchat’s sake than trying to prove his prowess, which is something the Damian I read never appeared to act like. As this was only the first issue I was happy to see where this was going to go.
Issue two came and again seemed to misunderstand the Damian I knew; I’m mostly talking about that part where he almost kills Bruce. Damian has always seemed to revere his father and seek his approval; it just strikes me as so out of character that he would so readily forsake the lessons instilled in him during Morrison’s run. All of this became instantly forgiven once I saw Damian put on the cowl and his trench coat.
Things really started to pick up in issue three. Damian felt much more in character as Batman; it seemed the cowl instantly matured him and turned him into the Damian I wanted to read. The scene where he rescues the children on the bus is simply brilliant; it shows off Damian’s vicious fighting style and has all of the dialogue internalised, so you don’t end up with the wise ass kid you had in issue one. I do have to say I have no idea why the priest disappeared or who he was and it is beyond me why the cat can talk; unless they are to represent Damian’s conscience and his insanity – or his sensibility.
Then came the finale – the comic I was supposed to review in the first place! Having seen the new Joker in the closing pages of issue three we now have the confrontation; new Batman against new Joker. This issue really came into its own as Damian had someone to fight for, something to prove and an antagonist that was deeply personal to him. Damian does manage to prove his own and fight based on the Batman principles, not the Al Ghul principles, and the issue ends with a beautiful scene of a criminal going wide eyes in terror upon seeing; Damian son of Batman.
I do have some hang ups with issue four, like I did with issue three. There seems to be no actual resolution to if Bruce survived or not – since Damian carried him away we never hear anything about him. My assumption was he had lived, but I think a lot of people may say they assumed he died. All in all I enjoyed this series, despite its slow start and the questions I would have liked more clarification on, and I would love to have a Damian ongoing. I’d say if you like Damian go for this miniseries, and if you don’t you’re only really missing out on a small Elseworlds.
For more comic views and reviews follow Chris on Twitter at @fenneth1989
Posted on February 3rd, 2014
Category: OUT OF THE LONG BOX, REVIEWS
Tags: Batman, Chris Fenn, Comic Blog, Comic Reviews, Damian Son Of Batman Review, Damian Wayne, DC Comics, Joker
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