Dark Knight

Batman Incorporated #8 – Death of Robin (Damian Wayne)

robin-batman-inc-8-coverJust like everyone else, I rushed out to my local comic book store to pick up the most recent issue of Batman Incorporated #8. This is the issue touted as the death of Robin, better known as Damian Wayne, who is the son of Batmand (Bruce Wayne for those of you in a closet for the past 50 years) and Talia Al Ghul. As expected it was sold out at 11am today which, if you have been in a closet for a while, is new comic book release day. I have no idea how an issue this momentous can be out of stock an hour or so after the store opens. Either too few issues were ordered or too many issues were held back and saved to sell at a higher price later. Either way, I decided to pick up issue #7 to see the lead in to his death.

Actually I picked up issue #1 when it first came out and I was not a fan of the story or the artwork so I bagged, boarded and put it away in a box. After reading #7 I decided to order the digital copy of #8 from Comixoligy on my iPad. I have to say that app is pretty cool and I like the way I can easily zoom in and out of the panels.

So here is the play by play in case you can’t get a copy of it either and want to know what happens. Oh yeah, spoiler alert possibility here. Page one, Robin is flying in this jet powered Robin suit and thru his green tinted goggles he comes up on Gotham and further on he sees Commissioner Gordon and Nightwing battling a bunch of kids who happen to be under some spell, each chanting Leviathan. Next page shows Robin flying through the crowd knocking one of the kids over. As he pulls a fly by he drops some smoke bombs on the crowd thereby helping Gordon and Nightwing. Next page he is flying towards Wayne Enterprises Tower where it just so happens Batman is locked in a safe in a pool on the roof. (Talia and Damian’s cloned and super grown brother locked him in there). Next page Batman is listening to Talia drone on and on about nothing really while he picks the locks of his chains and works he way out of the safe. You really don’t see how it happens. Next page Red Robin shows up and walks in to the lobby of Wayne Towers. Fake receptionist, security guard and guy mopping the floor try to take him out, some woman yells for him to look out.

By the way, I have completely lost interest by now. Next page, battle with those three fakes with a little help from the woman who yelled. Next page he knocks a guy out with a mop and dives out-of-the-way, saving the girl, from an army of assassins on the next floor that are shooting at them with machine guns. Blah blah blah, he swings away to save the day. Next page while swinging away he kicks over a massive quarter that rolls in to the steps leading up to the assassins and they all fall over. Unfortunately the plane that he was swinging from falls over and he is under the plane wreckage. More assassins going in for the kill but they turn and yell “What’s that Noise?” Next page, TA DA, it’s Robin flying through the glass window front of the building shooting his wrist guns at everyone. Somehow the kids that were fighting someone else, miles away, are now in the same area as Red Robin and now new Robin. Robin kicks some kid in the face and…Next Page he is fighting guys in white shirts and pants as well as all these kids. The kids are all wet and somehow the rocket jet suit Robin is wearing shoots out electricity and electrocutes them all. Most likely they are not all dead. Final panel, Nightwing comes flying through the glass as well on a motorcycle. Looks like the gang is all here. Next page, Nightwing and Robin bond while hiding behind the Wayne Enterprises concrete receptionist area. Assassins are shooting away at them and missing death-of-robin-175x300with every shot. Oh no one of them has a missile launcher and is aiming right at them. More witty banter back and forth while the boys bond and finally they throw some kind of ball over their head behind them at all the assassins. Next page, big explosion and Nightwing and Robin jump over the barrier to kick everyone’s ass as a woman hiding under the tank watches. Next page, too much smoke all the assassins cannot see what is going on but they aim in to the smoke anyway. Out of the elevator comes the much older clone of Damian holder this small box with two chef looking armed guards. Through the smoke Nightwing and Damian and fighting their way through the crowd. Bad guy clone looks on with a question mark bubble out of his ear. Next page both Nightwing and Damian simultaneously punch bad guy clone in the jaw doing no damage at all. Nightwing tells Damian to get out and run away but bad guy grabs Nightwing by the throat and throws him in to some glass case housing a knight in armor. Damian tells bad guy he is going to kill him. Next page, assassins aim at Damian but bad guy waves them off saying no, basically let him for me. Bad guy clone grabs the sword that is now available from the broken case that Nightwing fell in to which is very timely. Next page the battle begins and Damian jumps up as bad guy swings the sword at him breaking more glass, this time with another suit in it that has a spear. You guessed it, Robin (yes I switch back and forth from Damian to Robin) grabs the spear and they go at each other. By the way Robin is 10 years old and looks like a toddler compared to everyone else. Finally bad guy clone kicks Robin in to yet another glass case (face first)…Next page he is laying there asking Talia (mother) to stop the madness and why can’t we all just get along. The chick that was hiding under the tank shows up holding the, very aptly named, World Bomb Trigger. Bad guy asks for it and says give. Robin now has a crossbow…which he got from the most recent glass case smashed open by his face and aims at bad guy. Final panel he says that he promised his dad (the Batman) that he would never kill anyone again but it seems he is going back on that word now. Final image shows the crossbow arrow going through bad guy clone’s heart. Next page…and this is where is gets a bit weird, believe it or not. There are 20 tiny image boxes that show this battle which is EXTREMELY tough to follow where back and forth Damian hits bad guy and vice versa. In one cool panel bad guy clone pulls a Bane and cracks Damian’s back over his knee but he shouts NO like you are not going to break my back like my dad’s back was broken oh so long ago…nope, nah ah. Meanwhile the assassins on the wall shoot arrows in to both little Robin and bad guy clone, who also seems to be on fire somehow that I missed. Robin shouts out that they are cowards for not fighting hand to hand and bad guy clone grabs Robin with his flaming arm and chokes him. Robin spits blood in to the hole in bad guy’s mask while little girl runs away batman_incorporated_spoilerwith the World Bomb Trigger. Bad guy yet again throws Robin in to a wall head first and goes after him with the sword. Bad guy is still on fire and completely unfazed. Next panel?…?Batman is finally crawling out of the pool after getting out of the locked safe…seriously it took him a long time. Some huge bat comes swooping in and knocks him down over the side of the building…that is what you get for battling in the penthouse. Out of no where bad guy clone has Robin up in the air with the sword completely through is gut/chest area…Next page? Batman is cradling Robin all bloody and beaten on the ground as the young girl still hold the World Bomb Trigger (WBT)…smaller panels shows Talia crying for her now dead son.

Ok…seriously what the Hell am I missing? 1. How does bad guy stab through Robin and hold him up in the air? 2. Why is Batman not dead after falling from the top floor of Wayne Towers with this huge bat wrapped around him? 3. Where the Hell is bad guy clone and why would he just leave Robin bloody on the ground and run away? 4. Who the Hell is this chick in red holding the weird World Bomb Trigger and WTF is a World Bomb Trigger? 5. Why didn’t bad guy clone Damian guy go after the WBT after stabbing Robin through the gut/chest area and complete whatever his mission was?

There is a good chance this may be one of the most overrated and very quickly hyped comic I have ever read. I mean…Grant Morrison is really good and I like the way he writes but this story just sucks. I am a fan of the Bat stories, for the most part, but this is just stupid. Wait until my next post on the Death of the Family storyline that I also just finished. By the way, can we please not have another Robin right now, I mean we have Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin and a dead kid named Damian that I was sort of getting used to in reading Batman & Robin. I would love to get some comments and debate this a with anyone because I think this could possibly be a good thing. I think it could make Batman better and go where the fucking Death of the Family storyline failed to go. Like I said, my next rant is going to be on that back alley massage without a happy ending.

I’ll leave you with one final thought. a Death in the Family (circa 1988) is to LOST as Death of Damian (2013) is to Barney and his Friends…Nuff said.

The Dark Knight – #2

It figures…I am hooked. This book is incredibly awesome, from the artwork to the story to everything about it. If you read my previous post, you will see I loved the first issue but it is just getting started. The 2nd issue is even better than the first…and how could it not be with a final page lead in of a Bane looking Two-Face! If you have not yet read issue 2, then stop reading this and go get a copy now, you will not forgive yourself if you don’t.

The book opens up with Batman getting his ass kicked by the pumped up Two-Face from last month. No idea how or why he looks like that but you have to think Bane had something to do with it right? Read it and find out. So the first few pages is of the fight where you think Batman needs some help because there is no way he can get out of this alone, well guess again, nobody is there to save him. The details Finch puts in to the fight scenes is just amazing, blood spurting from Batman face to the veiny musculature of Two-Face to the backgrounds, he does it all. My last post was about Brett Booth with Teen Titans, well this is just as good. There is definitely a hierarchy of artists in the DC universe and it appears they are putting the best artists on the best written books. I have not yet fully decided, but Dark Knight could be my favorite all around comic right now. (Justice League and Jim Lee art excluded)

Where else can you find this type of story and art combo? Not to mention the other characters from the Batman universe making multiple cameo appearances throughout. Not for nothing, but the Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman stories and art are just average and I like more than I dislike the Superman and Aquaman books.

This new character that appears in the Dark Knight book, who may or may not be an older character, is pretty awesome. Let’s call her the White Rabbit since I have no idea what else to call her. Not sure if she is going to be a major player or not in future books, but I like her. No clue what her power(s) are, if any, but this image is a sneak peak at what is supposed to be the cover of BTDK #3 coming in November. She’s hot and looks crazy…kind of like Harley Quinn who I am a bit partial to as well. Maybe there is a pattern with me getting in to scantily dressed cartoon woman who are in to bad boys.

Ok, so obviously I love this book so the stars are going to be high. Pencils; no brainer there 5 stars, Story; again 5 stars, Inks; I think it may at times be too dark so we are going with 3.5, Cover; not so great, but still good so 4 stars and finally Character development; We’ll go with 3.5 stars since I feel some of the things that were happening with the other Bat characters needed more explaining. Overall 4.25 stars.

I think I may also need to re-evaluate the criteria and come up with 5 solid areas of the critique as to be consistent. Again, any thoughts or suggestions on the graphic I should use instead of stars?

Wednesday 10-26 New 52 Releases

Last week was bad for releases but I think this week might be just a bit better. When I say bad and a bit better, I’m talking from the inside of my wallet. I’ve not yet been able to filter out all the comics I won’t care about in the future so I am picking up a bunch of them still. Tomorrow I will have sitting in my box waiting for me; All Star Western, Aquaman, Dark Knight, Flash, GL-New Guardians, I, Vampire, Superman, Teen Titans, Voodoo and I am contemplating Justice League Dark.

Compare this weeks 9 issues with last weeks 10 issues and you can see how my savings slush fund is slowly swindling. I have to continue to sell more things in eBay to pay for my addiction. Furthermore, I think I will finally list the DVD’s that have been sitting in my entertainment center for the past year…you know, those movies you buy, watch once and then never watch again because they end up on cable or Netflix (streaming). So on the For Sale page you will find movies like Swat, King Kong, Gladiator, Gone in 60 Seconds, the Happening, Never Been Kissed (not mine), LA Confidential among others. In addition to those movies I am going through my old collection of comics and plan on listing every issue of Spawn which I believe are 1 through 89 or so. Obviously they are in excellent condition and are bagged and boarded.

So, back to the new comics which I didn’t even mention the Marvel titles that I’ll be picking up. The sickness continues with Astonishing X-men, the new Hulk #1, New Mutants, Ultimates, and Wolverine & the X-men #1. It seems the more I collect, the more I have to sell to collect. Not sure if the reboot, or more accurately titled Regenesis was planned before the New 52 or not, but I have to think both are helping DC and Marvel sell comics. If the 14 to 15 comics I am picking up this week are any indication of what everyone else is doing, those guys are making a ton of $.

I think I am most looking forward to the new Hulk, the new Wolverine and Teen Titans. If I had to guess, tomorrows blog post will be about Teen Titans 1 and 2.

How many titles are you collecting? Anything you think I am missing? I can’t be the only idiot dropping $30 to $40 a week…can I?

 

The Dark Knight – DC’s New 52

First, I love the art by David Finch. I do not remember seeing anything by him before, although I never looked, but I can tell you I like what I see. It’s kind of Jim Leeesque if you ask me. Dark, detailed, proportioned and gritty. I loved the breakout scene with the expressions of shear terror from the security team. And the last page with Two-Face looking all juiced up like Bane was excellent. How can you forget Batman on top of the SWAT vehicle with the Gotham clock in the background and the emergency lights flashing in the foreground? I sincerely hope this storyline continues with all the same people behind the scenes. Both Finch and Jenkins are the “co-plotters” with Jenkins as the writer and I have to say I like the writing too. Sometimes the dialogue goes too quickly or off on a tangent, rambling on without reason. This was not like that at all. Great banter back and forth ( I look forward to more between Bruce and the internal affairs officer Forbes) and the flirting with Jaina Hudson. Bruce, and Batman, get all the hotties which is great because they do not seem to have that kind of adult themed story lines for many of the other titles.  From what I saw and read definitely 5 out of 5 stars, I will be collecting this comic for the foreseeable future.

Dark Knight #1