Batman Earth One

I've read a lot of Batman origin stories over the years.  Some much better than others.  This is one of the best.

I like that they're not afraid to make him fail.  It's what really worked for Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and this carries that on.  He's not really equipped to fight crime.  All he wants is vengeance he really needs that first failure to point him in the direction that his life will take.

Alfred as a former marine and family friend rather than the long time butler was the hardest change to swallow.  Though I did like that he admitted he knew nothing about raising a child.  He has done a rather poor job with Bruce.

The art is amazing.  There were pages that I just stopped and stared at to pull in all the details.  Seeing his eyes does make a difference.

The Penguin was actually an effective villain.  Something that a lot of writers struggle to do.  I've seen it in the new 52 now as well.  They've finally figured out what to do with this character.

Hawk and Dove: Ghosts and Demons

I'd been reading Hawk and Dove in the new 52 and was reminded how much I liked these characters.  I was disappointed when it was cancelled and felt it had something to do with Rob Liefeld.  His art brought it down and his prose didn't help.  I picked up this graphic novel because it reminded me of when the characters were written well and Liefeld could draw feet.  His 90s hairstyles fit with this story because it was originally published in the 90s.

Batman: Under the Red Hood

I've been reading a lot of comics lately.  One of them has been Red Hood and the Outlaws and I realised I really didn't know much about Jason Todd.  I knew he'd died, but the details about him coming back to life and taking up the mantle of the Red Hood were not in my lexicon.

I really liked this story.  There were so many elements that I've really enjoyed in the Batman mythos that are all present here.  Plus, it's always nice to see Nightwing.  I lost the story a bit in the second act because I didn't recognise some of the players.  But a good story.

I'd also seen the Batman: Under the Red Hood movie recently.  The first act was pretty much lifted whole for that script.  A few minor changes to make it more accessible to someone who didn't follow all of DC comics.

The New Teen Titans: Games

I'm so glad I picked this up.  George Perez is one of my all-time favourite artists and I loved his and Marv Wolfman's turn on The New Teen Titans it was one of the first series that I collected.  Seeing the whole team represented was a walk down memory lane.  I think this may have been from a time that I wasn't reading though, I don't remember Danny or Beast Boy with a mullet.

The story was a great read.  I'm almost glad that this was started and then dropped.  From the Foreword and Afterword, the story that they originally planned wasn't as good as this story that they've told.  My only real disappointment is that this story is probably not really part of the continuity anymore.  There was still a Teen Titans led by Nightwing (I'm assuming) but  don't think they would have had enough time to have this grand an adventure.

Red Hood: The Lost Days

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would.  I've never been a big Jason fan.  I've always felt he was just a place holder for Dick.  I remember his original origin story and it was just a complete retelling of Dick's and I remember his second origin story.  Stealing the wheels off the Batmobile was certainly points for style, but I didn't like how Batman took in a kid who was even less well trained than Dick and expected him to succeed.  He even still had a living parent but Bruce adopted him anyway.  I felt bad for Dick a lot through the Jason years.  However, when it came down to vote, I would've voted for Jason to live if I'd been an American.  I like Batman with Robin, it keeps him even.

And that's where the Red Hood enters.  I felt that Judd Winick did a really good job of getting Jason's confused emotions across to the reader.  Sure, he's murdering people, but I almost felt he was killing the right people.  The people that really did deserve to die.

Talia was an interesting choice for this tale.  Mostly she's seen as the daughter of Ra's al Ghul and that's it.  Here, she goes against her father's wishes and does something that she truly believes will bring Batman back to her.  Once she realises just how broken Jason is, her role changes, she's trying to contain him while he fixes himself.  I get the feeling that she expected that this wanting to kill Batman thing was just a phase.  She knows his love for Bruce, probably more so than Jason does.

Batgirl: The Lesson

The last of the Stephanie Brown Batgirl before the new 52.  It's a shame that she hasn't reappeared in the new 52, this was such a fresh series.  It is just a fun read.  The one-shot story with Robin was very touching.  She knows what Damian is going through and she knows that he doesn't want her pity.  So what does she do?  Take him to a bouncy castle.

Brightest Day Volume 3

I came out of this volume with one thought.   The white lantern is a dick.  It brought heroes back to life just so it could kill them, it brought villains back to kill heroes and it used Deadman to make these things happen.  And then it gets to take time to tell Hawk why he failed in the mission to kill himself.  All in all it seemed a convuluted way to bring Swamp Thing back to the DC universe.

Brightest Day Volume 2

It's weird reading this after reading some of the new 52 titles.  Things that I'm used to aren't happening.  Loved the intro of the new Aqualad.  I've been watching Young Justice and I know they drew inspiration for that character from here.  I like seeing Aquaman with a range of emotions.  Deadman not being dead is still odd though.

The League of Extrodinary Gentlemen: Century 1969

I was a little better able to follow this one, as opposed to 1910, as I started recognising more of the references again.  However, my suspension of disbelief took a hit with it as I felt it was over the top.  I know the 60s were a free love decade but I don't think they were that free loving.

I'm disappointed that Mina essentially ditched Orlando and Alan.  They're not really going to get anywhere without her.  She may be stuck in an insane asylum but I don't think she'd be there for 5 years unless she had an exceedingly bad trip.

Justice League of America: Dark Things

I'm not as up on my Justice Society of America things as I should be to really follow this volume.  In fact, I didn't realise it was a cross over until about halfway through when I was wondering why everything started repeating itself.  Dick continues to build his Justice League to include a speedster (Jesse Quick) and a Green Lantern (Jade) and I like the way he views things but I was a little lost on the history here.

Red Robin: Hit List

I like how Fabian Nicieza writes the Bat family.  The hostile relationship between Tim and Damian, the brotherly relationship between Tim and Dick and the mutual respect when Bruce shows up at the end.  The actual plot was a little convoluted and I'm still not sure Tim's plan would have worked the way it was portrayed but I enjoyed the writing enough to ignore the inconsistencies.

Birds of Prey: End Run

I like most of the characters that make up the Birds of Prey and I'd heard that Gail Simone was having a fantastic run on the series.  So, when I saw that the graphic novel was available, I picked it up.
It was really, really good.  It almost feels like two different stories because the first part takes place in Gotham and the second in Asia.  I liked the first part better.  Simone's characterisation of Hawk and Dove reminded me how much I liked these two characters.  All the women in Birds of Prey have their own personalities and all of them have depth.  Huntress came come across as one-dimensional but Simone doesn't let that happen.  Dove is probably the least well defined but she is just being introduced to the team.

The Penguin's blood-loss induced hallucination made me laugh out loud.

The second part was less about character and more about fighting.  Even then, I didn't feel that Black Canary was quite right.  I think there may be more to it than that but I hadn't been following her character so I'm not quite sure what state of mind she was in that Simone was trying to portray.

Blacksad

Hard-boiled detective stories with a anthropomorphic animals.  It's odd but it totally works.  Guarnido is able to give the characters very human expressions while still retaining their animal characteristics.  Wherever Blacksad starts a fight it looks like he's just going to tear into them tooth and claw.  There are three stories in this volume.  I liked them all and they left me wanting for more.

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.

Justice League of America: Team History

I found this volume tried to do too much. It's probably a symptom of publishing. They'd just finished Cry for Justice and then had to tie into the Blackest Night event so they story they really wanted to tell (or at least the one I wanted to read) was shuffled to the back.

I wanted to read the start of the Dick Grayson as Batman leading the JLA. It got there eventually. I found it interesting that when Diana asked Donna to rebuild the League that her first instinct was to gather most of the Teen Titans. I liked that there were more people brought in than were used. The building up and pulling away of various heroes made the story seem more organic. Generally, I like narration boxes that give different character points of view of the same event. Robinson added a few too many. When it came right down to it the only ones that mattered were for Dick and Donna. I look forward to the next volume and their Justice League.

Justice League: Cry for Justice

The art is beautiful in this. Painted and detailed and great to look at. The story? Needlessly dark. The premise is great. It's one of those where the author tries to push just how far a hero can go before he or she is no longer a hero. But then Robinson cuts off Arsenal's arm. He goes offscreen to say good night to his daughter and comes back missing an arm. Oh, then Robinson kills off his daughter to really stick the poker in. It felt a bit rushed in the end. I think he expected more issues when he started writing and was cut back to a finite series. I think he could have used a few more chapters.

Batgirl: The Flood

It's a shame that DC is rebooting. I think I like Stephanie Brown's Batgirl. I do like the interaction she and Babs have developed. It's not just teacher and student, it's also a friendship. The internal monologue continues to make me chuckle, especially when Barbara and Stephanie are thinking the same thing.

As for the story itself, the main story is just OK. The Calculator has never been a villain that has interested me and having him as the Oracle's nemesis seems forced. The best part of the story was Dick Grayson's shirtless cameo. The two filler stories were much better. I really liked the friendship building between Supergirl and Batgirl.

Okko: The Cycle of Air

My favourite so far.  While Okko is never really the main character, the plot does revolve around him in each of the three volumes.  Since it's told from Tikku's point of view Okko comes across as a larger than life figure but in The Cycle of Air Okko really comes to the foreground to prove that the legend has merit.  Hub is not afraid to show violence and the consequences.  The Cycle of Earth had a warrior with one arm lose the second and here Okko loses an arm as well.  It also fuels speculation as to who Okko is, who his mother is and why Noburo is so devoted to him.

Okko: The Cycle of Earth

This one was a bit harder to follow.  The geography of the region they were traveling in started to make less and less sense as they passed back and forth over themselves.  It was a good look into what Noshin actually gives to the group.  He comes off as so much comic relief but then when he's down and Tikku tries to take over it doesn't go so well.

Okko: The Cycle of Water

Beautiful art.  And a good introduction to the narrator's voice.  There was just enough there to introduce the characters to the world that it felt immersive without being loaded down with a lot of exposition.  It's detailed without being boring.