Superman for All Seasons

I'm not a big Superman fan. There's just so little that can actually affect him. It doesn't feel like he really needs to work for what he's got, it's all been given to him. The hard part about writing Superman is making him human. Even though he's an alien, Superman has always come across as someone who was doing his best to be human. This volume examines who he is through the eyes of others.

Superman's Smallville is the quintessential small town America. With Tim Sale's art that comes through. He's put this volume together with a clear nod to Norman Rockwell. Even the color pattern is evocative of that era. Spring and Winter bookend the volume and they're appropriately narrated by his Smallville connections because Superman is really defined by his small town roots. Why else would someone who could do all that he can do choose to help people and expect nothing in return?

Summer and Fall are his Metropolis connections. The people that only know him as Superman and see him only as the hero; be that for good or ill. These sections weren't as strong. It felt like Loeb was just moving the story in a direction to send Clark back to Smallville. Lois was written as an actual reporter and not just a love sick colleague but Lex was just a one-dimensional villain. There can be more to his hatred of Superman and his tactics than Loeb chose to highlight. I find Luthor can be one of the most interesting villains because his sphere of power is so much different than his nemesis. That Superman's main villain is essentially a business man is interesting to me.

I did like how Loeb worked that catch phrases into the work. "More powerful than a locomotive", "faster than a speeding bullet", "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound", even the "it's a bird, it's a plane" reference. They're not all in the same story, but they are all there.

Batman: Dark Victory

I have a confession to make. While I love Batman, I may just like Robin more. I blame Superfriends. Or maybe the 1960s Batman that I happily watched in reruns on Sunday mornings. In Superfriends, raised himself above the level of "sidekick" and became a full-fledged member of the team. In Batman, (watch it and tell me I'm wrong) whenever there was a riddle to solve, Robin would solve it. Sure, Batman always replied, "Precisely, chum!" but I got the feeling he was covering.

Anyway, so when I saw the cover of Dark Victory I was pleased to see it would include the origin of Robin. It's a bit more than that though. It's the story of Batman pulling away and then being pulled back. It's the story of the freaks of Gotham getting rid of the mobsters (something that Batman, Gordon and Dent had been unable to do) and it's the story of Two-Face. In a lot of ways it's the direct sequel to The Long Halloween.

Oh, and Robin is the one to solve the puzzle. I'm giving it a 5.

Batman: The Long Halloween

Batman and mobsters. There's something that goes together very well. Batman has a great Rogues' Gallery but he also has a great street level presence. In The Long Halloween Loeb and Sale let Batman be the detective that he is. The detective that often gets lost in the big picture of capes and heroics.

The freaks are still there. The Long Halloween is as much about mobsters and detecting as it is about Batman losing Harvey Dent and gaining Two-Face. The story is the thing that makes it work though. Dent, Batman and James Gordon have a relationship that starts as business and turns to friendship. The creation of Two-Face changes that relationship.

Again, the art is awesome. Sale's Catwoman / Selena Kyle is very sensuous. I'm not sure why Batman didn't realise that they were one in the same but I don't think he likes to think ill of his friends. Probably because he has so few. I think it's what led him to being wrong.

I enjoyed this book immensely. It's getting a 5.

Haunted Knight

Batman is one of my favourite heroes. He's just out there with his wits and his training and his obsession with righting wrongs. In Haunted Knight Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale tell three stories of Halloween early in Batman's career.

The first is "Fears" and, appropriate for Halloween, the Scarecrow takes centre stage. It's more about what Batman gets out of being Batman though. What he has to give up and why it makes him very much like his father.

The second story is "Madness" and was my favourite of the trilogy. Loeb's Mad Hatter is truly mad and putting Gordon's niece Babs in danger really made it feel personal. Where "Fears" was about the loss of Thomas Wayne, "Madness" becomes about the loss of Martha Wayne. The final panel of the story has made it into my favourite moments of Batman. It shows him as the child that lost his parents and how that's hurt him as deeply as it has. The window with the single figure reading was very evocative.

Finally was "Ghosts" where Loeb tries to tell a Dickens' Christmas Story but with Bat-villains on Halloween. I didn't really like it. It was OK but still, after the first two it was a bit of a let down. Batman choosing to stay home for the evening to hand out candy to the children just seemed a bit forced. Plus, Wayne Manor is way the hell out in the middle of nowhere. There's not one kid who would be showing up on that doorstep.

I'd really like to praise Tim Sale's art. Batman is huge. Batman is a very real presence in these stories and it had to do with where Sale's chooses to put him in the scenes. He also remembers that Batman is a man and will do things like give him the 5 o'clock stubble to represent that he's been up all night and perhaps isn't as fresh as he was when he started.

This one gets a 4.