DC Universe Infinite has been out in the UK for a few months so I've been reading lots of DC comics (and some other stuff too). Here's what I read in June.
Batman by Tom King
Ah, the divisive Tom King Batman run. Following his celebrated miniseries Vision and Sheriff of Babylon, Tom King was given the reins to DC’s flagship comic, Batman, as part of the new relaunch: DC Rebirth. King’s run followed the highly successful New 52 run by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, so he had quite a bit to live up to. Reception on the internet is very mixed. But it’s a long run, and people mention a few gems in there.
I quite like King's Batman run. It does a lot that I love and a lot that I’m not really keen on. King is granted an incredible team of artists throughout the run. David Finch is great, setting a moody tone to start the run, and Mikel Janin (much improved from his first arc on Justice League Dark) and Mitch Gerads produce some stunning work throughout, along with Joelle Jones.
King heavily focuses on the relationship between Batman and Catwoman throughout the series, but the run begins with the arc ‘I am Gotham’, focusing on the newcomers Gotham and Gotham Girl. It’s a decent story, but it feels quite muddled, despite the strong characters of the Gotham duo. It also sets up things that will be relevant later, as well as hammering into your brain the fact that the monster men are coming. THE MONSTER MEN ARE COMING. I skipped the Monster Men arc, sorry.
I Am Suicide and I Am Bane round up the opening trio of arcs, and they are also decent stories. Something that sets Tom King apart from other writers, is his use of repetition in dialogue. This can create an ethereal or dreamlike sense in his comics, or it can even up the tension. Sometimes it works well, like in Mister Miracle (Darkseid is.), but here it often comes off as silly or annoying, like in I am Suicide. It can sound a bit like awkward Bendis dialogue, but worse and only sometimes. There’s some really weird dialogue in this run, although I found the "We met on the boat. We met on the street" stuff oddly endearing.
One of the worst lines:
The main storyline of the run starts out alright and gets better after The War of Jokes and Riddles, but Tom King excels at the more standalone and personal stories. His stellar Green Lantern one-shot tieing in to Darkseid War is a fantastic example, it's a brilliant example of the single issue, and the smaller stories are brilliant here too. Rooftops, the Swamp Thing team-up, Bruce Wayne on the Jury, and in the desert. All excellent, and undoubtedly my favourite parts of the series.
The last few volumes improved the main storyline too. Knightmares is excellent and trippy and digs deep into Bruce’s psyche and City of Bane is a big epic finish to the saga, and seeing Bruce overcome all the pain that Bane has piled onto him throughout the series was very satisfying.
So overall a solid run that could have been a lot better, but I really appreciate what King was going for and I appreciate the change in direction from Snyder and Capullo's time on Batman.
8/10
Superman: Secret Identity by Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen
Not much to say here but Secret Identity is a beautiful, heart-warming and emotional tale that I did not expect to be so damn good.
9/10
Stormwatch by Warren Ellis
Stormwatch was originally part of the Wildstorm universe, first created by Jim Lee under Image Comics. They were bought by DC in 1999.
This is a more sinister take on Stormwatch, as Warren Ellis reinvents the team, immediately shaking up the roster and casting The Weatherman, Henry Bendix, in a new light. Warren Ellis badness aside, he is an incredibly skilled writer, and that really shows here. The story of the fall of Stormwatch is a masterclass in combined episodic and serialised storytelling. The highlight for me was issues 43-45, focusing on select members of Stormwatch. The Jenny Sparks issue in particular is a stellar piece of storytelling. It copies Will Eisner, Jack Kirby and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen art and uses them to great effect. This is probably my favourite issue of the run. The ending is a bit weird because of WildC.A.T.S./Aliens being inserted in between the final two issues, but the story is continued in The Authority, so it’s not a massive problem.
9/10
The Authority by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch
Continuing on from Ellis’ run on Stormwatch, The Authority follows the remaining superheroes left alive as they found a new superhero group, The Authority. Although many say that it’s fine to read The Authority on its own, I think that reading Stormwatch first made me appreciate what Ellis was going for here much more. This meant that I was already familiar with a lot of these characters and The Authority felt more like the second part to Stormwatch.
Contrasting with Stormwatch’s slow build, The Authority is all out action. 3 intense world-threatening arcs comprise Ellis’ run here and the whole thing is amazing. The real highlight is, again, Jenny Sparks. She gets the spotlight here and she’s a brilliant character. Fully fleshed-out, multi-dimensional, she’s the real genius of Ellis’ time on these books. Jack Hawksmoor is also pretty awesome.
9/10
Black Magick by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott
I don’t have a ton to say about this series, mostly because it’s flat out fantastic. Black Magick follows Rowan Black, a witch whose day job is a police detective. Greg Rucka continues to impress me with damn near everything he does, and Nicola Scott’s artwork is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Most of the book is in black and white, but colour enters the fray when something is magical. It’s an excellent way to contrast the police and witch sides of the main character. My only complaints are that the culture of the witches that Rowan is a part of is a bit underbaked (her group shows up in the first few pages of the first issue and barely show up again), the story moves a bit slowly (despite the comic itself being a fantastic read) and that the release timeline is incredibly slow. The series started in 2016 and there have only been 16 issues!
9/10
Raptor: A Sokol Graphic Novel by Dave McKean
It’s by Dave McKean so the thing looks gorgeous, but the story is dry and not a favourite of mine.
6/10
New Suicide Squad by Tim Seeley and Juan Ferreyra, and Suicide Squad by Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo and Daniel Sampere
These are two short runs on Suicide Squad that ended up being a lot of fun. Both have excellent art, with Ferreyra’s unique style bringing a lot of life to the series with some fun layouts and character designs. It’s an overall fun run, but the art is the clear highlight.
Taylor’s run also has stunning art by Redondo and Sampere, but the story of the series is also great. The Revolutionaries are a fun new group, and Taylor writes very entertaining reactions between them and Suicide Squad regulars Deadshot and Harley Quinn. Those two get a large focus a long with a select few of the Revolutionaries and I really enjoyed them in this series.
8/10
The Good Asian by Pornsak and Alexandre Tefenkgi
I enjoyed editor-turned-writer Pornsak Pichetshote's first foray into comic book writing (Infidel) but The Good Asian blows that completely out of the park. The Good Asian is a fantastic racially-charged noir detective story that is tight and well-paced, with deep and intriguing characters. Tefenkgi's art is amazing too.
9/10
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware
Jimmy Corrigan is an odd book. Chris Ware’s skill as a cartoonist is undeniable, and there are some really fantastic and powerful sequences in this book, but I can’t help but think that if Ware applied his skills to a more interesting story, he’d make a proper masterpiece. The main story of Jimmy Corrigan is quite bland (as is the title character), but its two interwoven stories make for a more interesting structure, and I think without this it would have been a lot weaker. The protagonist is a terribly depressing character: awkward, timid, the most boring man on Earth, and yet the second storyline focusing on his grandfather’s childhood is somehow even more depressing, what with the bullying and abusive father…It works, but whoo. I’m excited to try Chris Ware’s other works as they sound a bit more interesting, Building Stories especially.
8/10 - I think?
The Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman
It's Neil Gaiman writing The Sandman, of course it's brilliant.
9/10
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Superbly written as always. Great job!