Matthew McGrath, Author at GeeksHaveGame

June 24, 2019

SUPERMAN – YEAR ONE / USAGI YOJIMBO [Comic Reviews]: Up, Up and Away.

Doomed planet. Desperate scientists. Last hope. Kindly couple. Superman. Sailor?

SPOILER: Clark Kent enlists in the Navy.

Frank Miller’s and John Romita Jr.’s Superman: Year One is yet another reimagining of the Man of Tomorrow’s origins and the first of a three-issue series that, so far, treads on all too familiar ground without adding much to the larger mythos. That is until the character we know gets derailed.

“I went to town early this morning. I signed up. I enlisted,” Clark tells Pa Kent. “In the Navy.”

Adding something to the history of an established character needs to help us understand who the character is. Miller’s story, so far, leaves us wondering why this addition was necessary.

Miller and Romita seemed to anticipate this question and complaint. As Jonathan Kent and Clark walk into the farmhouse the narrator, who at times feels like Clark and at others is detached from the story, reports Martha Kent’s futile protests.

“She hears all about Clark’s very dangerous plans. Those plans that will waste his magnificent powers and abilities./The insane plans that will let them reformat Clark’s brain and turn him into some kind of robot …/ … Some kind of War Machine …”

Cute, a Punisher reference.

In that I’m Martha Kent. I don’t understand this narrative choice. I do understand that it is a choice — a good choice — for many people. It could have been a choice for any of Clark’s “Weirdos,” particularly Pete Ross (the eventual husband of Lana Lang). Is this Clark’s best choice? Is this the best choice for the story — the Superman story?

I don’t think so.

Miller goes to great pains to show that his young Clark Kent is one who is mindful of his powers, how fragile people are and how easily academics, athletics and work comes to him. Even as a boy, he seems to comment about how hard everything is for his parents.

“I’m not better than anybody. I know that,” Clark says to his father. “I’m just better at doing stuff.”

So, why send him to the Navy? Basic training. Navy SEAL Commando training. Anything that anyone throws at Clark Kent will be too easy. This isn’t a challenge for him. The boy who reads books in an instant would know that the Armed Forces aren’t a challenge.

If Clark’s goal is to explore, have him explore. And if you only have three issues to the story of Clark Kent exploring the world, don’t waste 67 pages of that story mostly set in Smallville. Set that story as he is exploring.

The problem with the story so far is that it is neither Superman nor is it year one. The book opens on Krypton imminent destruction. And the narrative jumps to points throughout Clark’s entire childhood.

Everything is rushed and nothing lands.

There could be good stories to tell from Miller’s Smallville during Clark’s last year at high school, but they are hurried, so that he can get to the surprise conclusion.

Take the group of bullies terrorizing Clark’s friends. He stands up for his friends. And the bullies, who know that Clark can’t be hurt, lash out at his friends and beats them with sticks.

“He said it was real dangerous being your friend,” one of the nameless Weirdos says. “He said that it could get a guy killed.”

That seems like the foundation for a need to separate Superman and Clark Kent into two different people in the public eye, right? That could be a story worth telling.

But that story isn’t explored. The story of exposing the bullies isn’t explored. And Clark wins Lana because he saved her from an attempted gang rape. That was thrown in to shock the reader, but it doesn’t do anything for the character. 2/5 Weirdos.

-Matthew McGrath

The classic Samurai rabbit returns as the legendary tales of his travels through Edo period Japan continue. Stan Sakai’s dialogue is simple yet elegant, and the pacing is pitch perfect. This is the sort of re-introduction to a classic character that benefits everyone, from long-time fans, to new readers as well. We start off with an intense battle between the ronin Sasuke and a horde of demons. The action is brutal but never overly gory. The panel to panel transitions work as well with the action as they do later when Usagi attends a Bunraku puppet show.

Colorist Tom Luth’s colors are the perfect match for writer/creator Stan Sakai’s pencils, juxtaposing the colorful characters against the earthy backgrounds. The last few pages hinting at the evil just under the surface with the puppet show makes me anxious to read the next issue. This is a great start to what will hopefully be a great continuing series from IDW Press. 3.5/5 Bibles.

-Gene Selassie

April 20, 2018April 20, 2018

ACTION COMICS #1000 [Comic Review]: How Can We Celebrate the Man of Tomorrow?

Frak you, Dan Jurgens. You made me cry — again.

The opening vignette of Action Comics #1000, written and penciled by Jurgens, sets the tone for a beautiful tribute to the Man of Steel in this landmark, historic issue.

Jurgens opens his story with a display of Superman’s raw power as he saves Earth in classic form. But back on Earth he faces a far more daunting challenge: a tribute from the people of Metropolis. It’s through the stories of the denizens of Metropolis that we learn that Superman’s greatest ability is not that he’s faster than a speeding bullet or more powerful than a locomotive. Rather, it’s his ability to inspire others to be their best.

And it made my eyes well with tears.

Telling a good Superman story must always balance his limitless power with his ability to inspire. Nearly all of the tales told by writers and artists, who have given Superman life in so many different ways, finds that balance for themselves. And that’s what this collection of stories gets right.

This issue is nostalgic too. And what else could it be? For 80 years, Superman has captivated readers, listeners and viewers. The character has captured the imaginations of countless children and adults alike.

This book is a tribute to all the adventures we all shared with him and because of him and it could not have been done any better.

“He knows he shares a bond with Metropolis,” Lois Lane says. “And that every now and then, in appreciation for all he’s given them, the people get to return the gesture.”

Superman, for as long as I can remember, has always been a part of my life. Photographs of me as a child in the early ‘80s depict me clutching a Superman action figure. You know, the one. The figure was modeled after the Super Friends cartoon. It came with a clip-on cape. You squeezed the legs and the figures arms would allegedly punch. I still have one, but the cape is gone.

My grandmothers would dutifully pin their towels to my blue T-shirts adorned with an iron-on S until my mother made me an actual cape. I often wore the cape to preschool and was forbidden to wear it to kindergarten.

I think it was the all the things he could do — all that power — that attracted me to the character.

“I was a bull in a china shop — a china shop filled with illegal guns and men who might as well have worn T-shirts that said ‘Punch me, I’m a bad guy,” Superman says in “Never Ending Battle” by Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason. “And you know what? I liked it.” How could he not? That’s the Superman of my youth. There was nothing he could not do. Nothing weighed him down. His power was limitless.

And that’s often cited by Superman’s detractors as his greatest weakness. That’s what I heard from my friends anyway. Superman is too powerful. Other heroes from other companies had flaws. Superman wasn’t real enough. They wanted dark, gritty and heroes that shared the problems of preteen boys. I was fending off that nonsense right about the time when Jurgens made me cry for the first time; I was at my kitchen table reading Superman #75, which is the issue in which Superman is killed by Doomsday.

At the time, I was looking out to the world and I saw its flaws. I didn’t want to retreat into a fantasy and see the same broken world and the same broken people. I wanted to know that there was something beyond the flaws. Superman has always done that for me.

In a way, he is able to give Lex Luthor, his most notorious enemy, that kind of inspiration. The duo face off in two stories. In the first, Luthor lashes out at Superman, who comes to him with an olive branch. “Got your sermon ready to preach? The wonders of goodness and decency?” Luthor taunts. “Or do you think you can finally beat me.”

Spoiler: Superman beats him in a raw display of power and a little bit of foresight.

But, in the next story, “The Fifth Season,” Superman is bested by Luthor. Luthor controls some key weapons that would not only kill Superman, but it would also erase him from time.

In doing so, Luthor travels to a point in time where he relives a moment in which he thought he was alone and vulnerable. But a friend secretly comes to his aid just as Luthor is making what qualifies as a prayer. Superman, powerless to stop him, is there to witness the moment.

They watch the memory together. Luthor won’t admit to what he learned and he certainly won’t admit that his life was saved, but he admits that he should be dead. But he won’t, or can’t say what he’s truly learned. Instead, he tells Superman another truth.

“I got the eye and the scissors to kill you,” Luthor confesses. The final panel of the story is primarily blank. And the final words of the story are not attributed to either character.

But we know that Luthor doesn’t kill Superman because in that moment; he learns what a unnamed woman taken hostage in “Faster than a Speeding Bullet” already knows: “You sound like my dad,” she says to Superman after he saves her. “He says that everyone is here for a reason.”I’ve often sought out my own reason. And as much as I’ve wanted to be him, I could never be Superman. Most of my life I’ve settled for being Clark Kent, and I’ve often failed to live up to that standard too.

In “Five Minutes,” Kent is on deadline and he has just moments to finish a story. But disaster strikes and he has to flee the newsroom. As he moves from one crisis to another, Superman explains what its like to be a superhero and how he has to make split second decisions.

“The rush. The focus. The fact that I’m helping people — sometimes even saving them,” he says. “Superheroing. Reporting. They’re not so different if you do them right.” As a former reporter for a great metropolitan-area newspaper, I guess I’ll have to take it.

Oh, also, the red underwear is back. Why? As an unnamed diner waitress in “The Truth” says.

“He doesn’t look like Superman without the shorts.”

-Matt McGrath

March 11, 2016March 11, 2016

ACTION COMICS / CATWOMAN / SANTERIA [Reviews]: Purring with Power.

ACTION COMICS #50 - DC — **ACTION COMICS #50** – DC

**GUEST REVIEWER** "Brother" Matt McGrath @bendsteelnhands — **GUEST REVIEWER**
“Brother” Matt McGrath
@bendsteelnhands

Superman should be more than his powers.

What the reader gets in Action Comics #50 is passive lip service to that idea. But what the reader glimpses in the art and absorbs through dialogue and narration as the “Savage Dawn” arc winds up to its climax is a Superman that is not just obsessed with his former power, but who willingly poisons himself with Kryptonite in an end-justifies-the-means scenario.

On its face, Action #50 is a wild ride that only Greg Pak (Batman/Superman) and Aaron Kuder (Avenging Spider-Man) can deliver. Their work issue-by issue has been stellar. But, the Superman they honed in this issue — raging, manic, ecstatic — is foreign.

The question is raised: What would Superman do?

I’m not sure they answered their question. Superman would always find a way. But Superman would know, and should have learned in his depowered state, that he is more than his powers. All of the heroes, super and otherwise, that rush to his aid and the aid of all the people impacted by Savage’s scheme were inspired by him. His power only derives that kind of inspiration because of his integrity, and integrity means you don’t take shortcuts. But Superman did take a shortcut, and when it seemed as if that shortcut brought him to his lowest point, he was rewarded.

(Yes, I understand that electric Superman is on the horizon, but that’s another rant for another time.)

This should have been a celebratory issue. But Superman has been dragged so far afield from the character depicted in Superman #38, an issue that got everything right. The reveal at the end Action #50 should feel exhilarating, but all I felt was loss.

2 (out of 5) Bibles. — 2 (out of 5) **Bibles.**

CATWOMAN #50 - DC — **CATWOMAN #50** – DC

"Vestal" Colleen Vincent @CollyCol — “Vestal” Colleen Vincent
@CollyCol

A great mystery and serious mayhem-filled Catwoman #50 concludes its “Run Like Hell” story by Frank Tieri (Ironman, Wolverine). With blood, fire, prison breaks, and metahumans galore — and fantastically deadpan and dastardly characters — this a fun read! Selina Kyle is locked up and in serious danger. She has pissed off the Penguin who retaliates with a million dollar bounty on fav feline antiheroine’s head. Both cops and crooks try to collect, but this cat lands on her feet with a some helpful girlpower and aide from the shadowy Mr. Blonde.

This is Catwoman and so concludes with a triple twist cross of course. The visuals leap off the page. Eva de La Cruz (Fables) and Blond (Suicide Squad) — yeah, not the character — provide fantastic colors to the awesomely detailed ink and pencil work done by Inaki Miranda (Judge Dredd) and Geraldo Borges (Adventure Comics). Closing pages include two vignettes featuring other versions of Catwoman: A chilling tale a haunted mask and a chuckling security test featuring the Justice League. The package is definitely worth clawing. 4.75/5 Bibles.

***EARLY REVIEW – AVAILABLE 3/16***

SANTERIA: THE GODDESS KISS #1 - Aspen — **SANTERIA: THE GODDESS KISS #1** – Aspen

Felipe Crespo — Felipe “The 3rd Deacon” Crespo @theheelternal

Praise Oonaa!! David Wohl‘s new story is definitely an interesting one. While I found myself surprisingly underwhelmed by Cafaro‘s linework (I usually like it a lot), Wes Hartman does a nice job picking it up with his solid coloring (specially in the flashback/ritual panels). I really enjoyed the read, but at the same time don’t want to give away too many details. Here’s a quick description, though: An ambulance driver gets powers from a dying voodoo priest. Fair warning, if you’re looking for an action-packed book, look elsewhere. This gives the impression of being a nice, slow burn. I’m eager to see what Noami Clarke does with this “gift” that she did not ask for… 3.5/5 Offerings to Oonaa.. I mean, Bibles.

May 23, 2015

SUPERGIRL [Pilot Review]: Up, Up, and Online!

In many ways, the Supergirl pilot, leaked earlier this week, hit the beats of Superman: The Movie: plane crash, work problems, hypersonic messages. And, yes, it seemed like Saturday Night Live’s Black Widow parody at times. That tone needs to change if the show is going to be successful. Audiences have been clamoring for a female superhero; it’s doubtful they want a RomCom superheroine. The geek world and the ever-growing fanbase desperately wants a woman to stand on her own as a hero…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm46-envrHo

The very nature of Supergirl makes it difficult to achieve.

When Kara Zor-El first popped out of that rocket in Action Comics #252 clad in a blue blouse emblazoned with a scarlet and gold pentagonal “S” she existed as nothing more than a female version of Superman.

The character was only ever able to distiguish herself with her death. Her sacrifice saved all of reality during the Crisis of Infinite Earths. It was only in death that she was able to supercede her cousin.

Her sacrifice was so important to DC Comics that it was meant to be permanent. The post-Crisis mandate at DC was that there would be no other Kryptonians. That directive helped to eliminate super-monkeys, but it eliminated the Bottle City of Kandor, General Zod, and Kara. Kara’s sacrifice was supposed to mean something through the new reality.

"Felicity Smauk"-Show. — The Superhood of the Traveling Pants.

How can you take a character who wears that iconic shield and not have them be in the shadow of “Him”? That question is one that the writers, actors and show runners of the Supergirl pilot haven’t been able to answer. Superman looms large over National City. He is such a big figure that so few people can even bare to say his name.

Taken as a whole, Supergirl doesn’t swing and miss, but it wasn’t swinging for the fences either. The pilot was a solid base hit.

The problem with the story is not how cutesy Glee‘s Melissa Benoist played Kara Danvers, or the Devil-Wears-Prada parallels at CatCo (though both are gag inducing, at times). The problem is with the supporting cast and Kara’s incredibly rapid assimilation to Earth.

Do you have a favorite food? Do you have a best friend? Did you have an after-school routine? Do you remember the boy or girl who made you sick to your stomach with uncontrollable feels? Can you imagine having all of that destroyed? Can you imagine after watching all of that evaporate you are sent back in time to live with Neanderthals?

That is what happened to Kara, and there is very little trace of it in Benoist’s portrayal of her. Unlike Kal-El, Kara grew-up on Krypton. She had friends. She went to school. She was living with technology far beyond our limited imaginations. She can’t eat her favorite food. Her friends are dead. She’s stuck living among cave dwellers.

The one hint that living on Earth for 12 years has been really rough for Kara is when she is presented with a relic from her past. She breaks down at the sight of the object.

Since Kara Zor-El has been reintroduced into the realm of DC Comics, the writers who handle her have tried to solve this problem. She doesn’t know English. She loses control of her powers. No one, her cousin included, knows what to do with her. She’s angry. All of that is absent from the Supergirl pilot.

I enjoyed that this version of Supergirl suppressed her powers for years. They can’t be anything more than a burden to her. Kal-El had time to grow into them. He had people to teach him how to use them and when to use them. That suppression was the one aspect of the character that made sense.

When she decides to reveal herself to save her adopted sister from a crashing plane — revealed in the extended trailer — the suppression played a key role.

She’s hasn’t tried to fly in a long time. She manages it, and acts confident as she zooms toward the jet. But we see that she really doesn’t know what to do.

As jet drags her toward the suspension bridge she screams “Oh, come on!” She barely clears the span while avoiding casualties. She climbs on the wing of the floating plane, panting and worn out.

The eleation on her face when she realizes how invunerable she is, and the surprise and fear she expresses when she meets her match are fantastic touches that Benoist brought to her version of the character.

But the characters around her will likely make her a dupe, and no one wants to see that.

Hank Henshaw (Homeland‘s David Harewood), the director of the Department of Extra-normal Operations, should be a familiar name. This is the character who blamed Superman for his wife’s death, was bestowed with the ability to communicate and merge with machines, built a cybernetic clone of Superman’s body, transferred his consciousness into that body and destroyed Coast City in Superman’s name.

Hank Hensaw should be on this show. He should not be the director of the DEO. Say what you will about Brian Azzarello’s For Tomorrow arc in the pre-Flashpoint Superman; that story introduced the perfect character for the DEO: Mr. Orr. Introduce Henshaw later. Don’t make Kara a dupe for allying herself with a clear villain.

And that sets-up her “team.” It’s going to be villain-of-the-week style with escaped Phantom Zone prisoners. Team Arrow coalesced throughout Season 1 of Arrow. Team Flash was assembled long before Barry Allen received his powers. Kara doesn’t need a team. She’s Supergirl. And she sure as hell wouldn’t join a team who has shot her with Kryptonite darts and chained her to a table. That’s too damsel in distress, and that is what this show is supposed to be avoiding, right?

By far the most grating part of the show was Winn Schott, or the Toyman (Smash‘s Jeremy Jordan). The character here is just superfluous. Kara doesn’t need to have someone make her a suit. She doesn’t need someone to tell her where the police are. She can hear a heart beat but she can’t hear sirens? Come on!

What’s more is that the story that is jumping out at any long-time Superman fan is that Schott kidnaps and kills Cat Grant’s son. The Toyman can be gimmicky, but he’s a genius and he’s insane. Imagine a villain with Lex Luthor smarts and Batman villain crazy who kidnaps and murders children. That’s someone who could offer a challenge to Supergirl. Instead, he’s an emasculated whiner.

I don’t necessarily hate that an emasculated whiner should be in the show following Kara around like a lost puppy. In fact, it is good to see how the guy who pines for the girl in an unrequited affection situation is perceived from the woman’s perspective. I just don’t think that it should be Toyman. Richard (Dick in the comics) Malverne is a character that can be ripped from the Silver-Age pages of Supergirl (Who was also rebooted for Peter David’s Linda Danvers/Earth Angel Supergirl in the 90s). He grew-up with Kara pined after her for years, discovered who she was and was the third point of a Jimmy Olsen/Kara/Richard love triangle. It doesn’t make sense that the showrunners would pull out an obscure character like Felicity Smoak for Arrow, but they didn’t do the same for Supergirl.

As for James “Don’t call me Jimmy” Olsen, played by Glory Road‘s Mechad Brooks… perfect. There is no way Olsen should be a bumbling idiot. Photojournalists are tough, confident, and cool. They aren’t fumbling around like morons. They certainly aren’t fumbling around like morons working for the Daily Planet. Lois Lane is the best reporter ever-ever, but Perry White can’t find someone who can do little more than point and shoot? It never made sense to me.

Brooks played him cool. And its good to see that Olsen has an arc. From staff photographer to art director. He’s had a career and he’s grown as a person. His move to National City from Metropolis seems to be as much about getting out from his pal’s shadow as Supergirl’s should be.

And now for the miscellany:

Dean Cain and Helen Slater, they were wasted in this show. Are they going to return?

The big bad for season one is a Kryptonian General. Nope, not that one. Another one.

And, why doesn’t Kara have an orange cat named Streaky in her apartment? That would have been a great Easter egg for the long time fans.

I have HOPE for the series, but there are a lot of bugs that need to be worked out before the rest of Season One starts to shoot.

3 (out of 5) Super-pets. — 3 (out of 5) **Super-pets.**

October 16, 2014

NYCC ’14 [Daredevil vs. Justice League]: No Bluffin’ this Blind Man.

The creative team and cast behind Daredevil, Marvel’s first TV series available exclusively on Netflix, is promising audiences something that most live-action Marvel stories have so-far avoided: realism.

Daredevil’s cast and writer gave the throngs of fanboys and girls at New York Comic-Con on Oct. 11 sneak peaks of the action and intimate moments they can come to expect from the show, which will be the first of five series on Netflix that will culminate in The Defenders.

Vincent D’Onofrio (Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Full Metal Jacket), cast as Walter Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, said he and the show have drawn from Frank Miller (The Dark Knight Returns, 300) and Brian Michael Bendis’ (Ultimate Spider-Man, New Avengers) interpretations of the characters.

“That’s what is going to give the gritty realistic tone of the show,” said the likely show-stealer.

D’Onofrio, appearing with a shaved head and good amount of bulk in his shoulders and arms, which ballooned through his sport coat, spoke about his role in quiet terms.

“Our Fisk is a child, and he’s a monster,” D’Onofrio said. “Every move that he makes — and everything that he does in his story — comes from his foundation of morality within himself.”

D’Onfrio’s Kingpin is one that will be morally ambiguous, according to showrunner Steven DeKnight.

Good and evil are not divided along some hard line in Daredevil’s Hell’s Kitchen, an Irish immigrant neighborhood on Manhattan’s west side. That’s key as the cast spoke about the nature of what is right and what is wrong, and the cast has promised that the audience will likely be shifting allegiances between Matt Murdock/Daredevil and Fisk.

Now that's casting. — Now that’s casting.

Jeph Loeb, Marvel’s head of television, said that Charlie Cox (Boardwalk Empire), cast as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, was singled out by Joe Queseda, Marvel’s chief creative officer, long before Marvel’s television unit got the OK to shoot a “Daredevil” series.

Despite the accolades, Cox very much kept quiet on the panel. He spoke to say that he tried to do as much of the action sequences as he can, but that a stunt team does take over. He promised that the action sequences will look like CGI, but that they are not.

Daredevil is the first of Marvel’s five-series run on Netflix. Jessica Jones [No longer Alias, perhaps for obvious reasons… – Moody], Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Defenders will all follow. The Jones and Cage series have not yet been cast, Loeb said.

Daredevil will be available on Netflix in May 2015. All 13 installments will be available at the same time.

Superman has a beard. Batman gives a thumbs-up. Wonder Woman kicks Swamp Thing in the face.

That’s the big news out of DC’s Champions of Justice panel on Saturday at New York Comic-Con.

The 10-person panel of DC Comics creators, mostly, played their hands very close to their collective vests Saturday at NYCC. The beard, the thumbs-up and the facekick will all be on newsstands shortly.

There were no stunning announcements, no reveals regarding larger vision, or any real collaborative purpose. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a purpose — “Future’s End”, anyone? They just didn’t share one. And only a handful of the creators seemed excited to talk about their work.

In fact, Future’s End was mentioned just once during the whole panel. Constantine fans will learn why John Constantine really hates Dr. Fate soon. So, there’s that.

Geoff Johns, DC’s chief creative officer and the writer of Justice League and Superman, among others, especially, was the least excited.

One fan asked about plans for Shazam! (formerly Captain Marvel) and Black Adam, which Johns wrote exquisitely in back-up stories for the first 12 issues of the New 52 Justice League, and their return to the New 52 multiverse. Johns reply was terse, unfriendly, and absent of any excitement: “Yes, there are plans,” he said and cut it off there.

That’s it.

That response is especially confusing because this week DC and Warner Bros. announced their movie line-up through 2020 and it includes a movie featuring Shazam! It would seem that Johns would want to talk-up what those plans for Shazam! are.

But it may be that Johns has a tough road to hoe. He needs to fix Superman.

“We’re focusing on the man rather than the super,” he said. And that is reminiscent of the chief complaint fans have with the Man of Tomorrow: he’s too powerful, he’s not human, etc.

The end of the current Ulysses storyline will lead into three events for the Man of Steel, Johns said. One of which “has not been done before.” With a character that is 76-years old, and beleaguered by creators recycling tropes that have been played out time and again, a new direction for the Last Son of Krypton will be welcome.

But, what that direction is? Not even one hint.

The most excitement came from Jimmy Palmiotti, co-writer of Harley Quinn, Ray Fawkes, the writer of Gotham by Midnight, and Tom King and Tim Seely, writers on Grayson.

That being said, the art in most of these titles is stunning. The giant splash page of the Wonder Woman face-kick is bright and crisp. The pencils and coloring on Gotham by Midnight is otherworldly.

The superbeard will be featured in a new horror-style story in Action Comics, which may turn out to be a good genre-criscross.

The bat-thumb will be revealed in a Batman/Superman storyline in which the two heroes suffer amnesia and have no clue that they are superheroes. Bruce Wayne is supposed to be enchanted with the idea of being a billionaire crazy person.

Wonder Woman’s facekick is part of a new storyline that will introduce a new villain all with a new creative team: David Finch pencils and Meredith Finch writes.

Finally, Deathstroke looks like it is going to live up to its name. Expect blood, gore and violence.

June 29, 2014June 29, 2014

BATMAN vs. SUPERMAN [Sunday Sermon]: Issue #32 – Blessed is the ONE!

Superman and Batman: the 32nd issues of the titular DC septuagenarian superheros hit the shelves last week, and both are quite the read…

Each issue is a benchmark in the New 52 reboot of the DC Universe. Geoff Johns pens and John Romita Jr. pencils Superman #32, and Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo‘s run on Batman reaches its penultimate chapter; it’s a run that has earned them a nomination for WHAT EXACTLY.

The Superman book has received a lot of hype. Not only because Johns (Green Lantern) is expected to breathe life into the character, who has somewhat languished in his title book, but because it represents Romita’s defection, of sorts, from Marvel Entertainment where he (Amazing Spider-Man, World War Hulk), and his parents have made a name for themselves.

Snyder, who has also given Super-fans something to enjoy with his much delayed Superman: Unchained mini-series, has had an impeccable run on Batman. He has pushed the caped-crusader to his limits, he’s broken him down to his base, and he made him ditch the cape.

Superman and Batman are the world’s finest dichotomy in comics. Both have similar goals but they go about achieving those goals through very different means. (You’re reading this on GodHatesGeeks, so the minutiae of differences don’t need to be explained.) There’s a unique split in the stories themselves.

Johns seems to be charting a course that would make the upside-down world of Superman right again. Clark, who started his own new media company with Cat Grant, is asked by Perry White to return to the Daily Planet. (Thank Rao for that!)

“I need your help, Kent,” White pleads looking at a framed A1 with the a banner headline: Lex Luthor saves the world. “Bad guys are good. Good guys are bad. The world has been turned upside down.”

Lex Luthor’s great villainy is that he can be seen as a hero. This is a relatively new idea. Luthor’s public persona is something that has really evolved since John Byrne’s Man of Steel reboot in 1986. Up to that point, it was just assumed that Luthor is a villain. That is so much the case, there is no attempt at an explanation for Luthor’s dastardliness in Superman: The Movie of 1978. Luthor reemerges as a supervillain post-Crisi in Superman/Batman Vol. 1 first arc: World’s Finest or Public Enemies, by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness. So, the New 52 Luthor has evolved into a complex villain. Those very first panels between White and Kent are setting up the fight that is to come. Johns is definitely setting up THE Superman confrontation where Lex Luthor returns as a villain.

But the Superman mythology is also more immediately re-established, White’s character reintroduces the reader to Jimmy Olsen as a somewhat hopeless hanger-on. He reaffirms Clark’s seemingly empty and lonely life. Readers have been presented with a well adjusted Clark Kent/Superman in the New 52, but there are cracks there, and Johns will exploit them.

Snyder, on the other hand, has torn Batman’s world apart.

So, everything you thought you knew about Bruce Wayne’s crusade is basically wrong. But that’s just window dressing. In Zero Year (likely homages to Year One and Zero Hour), which is set six years in the past we are introduced to a Bruce Wayne with no money, no company, and no cape. Gotham has been cut-off a la Dark Knight Rises and is threatened with annihilation by … the Riddler?

The Riddler is a character that embodies the worst of campy Batman. He’s a gimmick supervillain, and the name alone either envokes images of the 1968 Batman television series, or Joel Schumachers disastrous Batman: Forever and Jim Carrey’s over-the-top portrayal of the character. The Riddler as mastermind, and as Batman’s first adversary works, and that’s something that would not be possible without Jeph Loeb (see the pattern) and Jim Lee’s Hush storyline.

There is an understanding of Batman in issue #32 that seems to have been driving Snyder’s work for his entire run on the series. Batman knows that he has failed. He believes he has lost. He thinks he is going to die, and in recording to Alfred he explains this.

“I have failed against the Riddler, Alfred. And I’ll probably fail again now,” Batman says. “Maybe that’s what the Batman is about. Not winning, but failing, and getting back up. Knowing he’ll fail, fail a thousand times, but still won’t give up.”

The writing is juxtaposed with Batman walking alone in the destroyed Gotham City. Unlike Johns who seems to be reassembling broken parts of Superman, setting wrongs right, and coalescing the myriad interpretations of characters like Luthor, Snyder is presenting an entirely new vision of Batman. Frank Miller’ s Year One defined so much of what Batman used to be. By the very nature of the arc’s title, Snyder has erased what Batman was. Going forward, Snyder’s Zero Year is the new Batman cannon.

“Silence” is used to great effect in Batman. Snyder knows when not to write and he let’s the panels, penciled by Capullo (Spawn), tell the story. It’s a great trend that has made its way through many books. The “silent” panel (is there and industry word for that?) is also used well in Superman, too. But in Batman, they add a real sense of drama. It’s usually by allowing Batman to do Batman things like fight a robot, or jump out a window, or stand menacingly in front of a replica Sphinx. Those panels give depth to the story, and words too often can ruin the pace of a graphic story. The blend is pitch perfect in Batman.

In otherwise fantastic pair of reads, there’s just one problem: Ulysses. One of the tropes in Superman stories is the alternative-Superman storyline: a character with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men is introduced. For a time, that character supplants Superman in the minds of the public. Think: Steel, Eradicator, Cyborg Superman and Superboy in Reign of the Superman, or Mr. Majestic of Wildstorm in the Strange Visitor arc, and Mon-El in New Krypton. The juxtaposition between one hero and the other is supposed to show the reader what makes Superman, Superman. The Superman readers don’t need it so soon after another trope of my-own-worst-enemy stories in Doomed, and Snyder’s own Superman juxtaposition, Wraith, in Unchained.