Concluding the Levitz-Ordway story is this nice piece, entitled Ascension.
We begin with Luthor watching another “care package” being sent to the planet he has named Lexor and he talks with various advisors about the distracting of Batman in Gotham and the suicide of the Superman cult leader. It’s a nice scene depicting the megalomaniac Luthor we all know and love.
We then cut to Gotham where Batman breaks up a mugging of a nun and Bruce suspects something is up as this continues the trend of religious or community service related small crimes that he has been taken care of in this story.
Meanwhile, Superman has discovered the existence of Lexor, where the inhabitants have turned against the Big Blue Boy Scout, with the help of “presents” from Luthor. Included are some pieces of kryptonite, and it is clear that the natives are aware of the effects it has on Kryptonians.
Cutting back to Gotham, Batman is able to get a lead on who is behind what’s been going on.
Back to outer space, Superman does some reconnaissance and intercepts the latest care package and realizes that Luthor is behind turning the planet against him.
In Metropolis, Luthor gets paid a visit by an angry Batman who warns Lex to stay out of Gotham. And that is followed by The Man of Steel swooping in to admonish Lex for “playing God” and the issue ends with a “NEXT TIME GADGET, NEXT TIME” sort of scene from Lex as Clark swoops in to have a nice roof top chat with Bruce.
This was a quick story, but not a bad way to wrap up a pretty sweet story. It was nice that it wasn’t overly preachy about God complexes as it was clear that Luthor had bad intentions and Superman rather have had the planet take a more natural course of evolution.
Coming up next, a star studded “anniversary” 75th issue which features the Legion of Super Heroes. Then a one shot where Judd Winnick explores Superman’s reaction to the “death” of Bruce Wayne at the end of Final Crisis (hey isn’t that what the whole “new direction” was supposed to be when it was announced last fall) and in October there is a story featuring Supergirl and the Damian Wayne Robin. Well, it should make for some interesting reading at the very least.
Superman/Batman #74:
Reviewed by SteveJRogers
We have teamed up with Warner Bros. to bring you some prizes in celebration of DC Comics' 75th anniversary. In celebration of this event Warner Bros. has made tons of movies and TV shows based off of DC Comic's characters available for download and On Demand.
Celebrate 75 years of DC Comics with films and TV series inspired by some of the most popular SUPER HEROES including BATMAN, SUPERMAN and other iconic DC Comics characters. To celebrate this milestone, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution is highlighting dozens of movies and shows that are available For Download on iTunes, WBshop.com and more; and via (cable) On Demand on Comcast, Time Warner Cable and others.
With On Demand and Download fans can watch their DC favorites virtually anytime, anywhere. Highlights include the blockbuster film THE DARK KNIGHT with Extras on iTunes, all SUPERMAN movies, and full length DC Universe animated original movies including GREEN LANTERN: FIRST FLIGHT, BATMAN UNDER THE RED HOOD, SUPERMAN DOOMSDAY and more. Individual episodes and complete seasons of fan favorite DC inspired TV series are also available for download in HD including the complete series of SMALLVILLE, HUMAN TARGET and BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD.
All you have to do to win the prize is send us an email to contest@thebatmanuniverse.net telling us what DC Comics character you want to see be made into a film or TV series. It does not have to be a character within The Batman Universe. It could someone considered unpopular like The Ten-Eyed Man. Send your responses to us no later than August 15. The most creative responses will be picked. We will pick two winners and Warner Bros. will send you one of the two prizes we have shown below. Also keep in mind that we may use your ideas to post on the site and that your name will be linked to the idea.
Posted by Dustin
Jason Todd. The name now invokes dread for comic book fans for several reasons. The first being the obnoxious punk who fans couldn’t get to the phone lines fast enough to kill off. The next a ghost that haunted the Dark Knight, a point that was brought up as often as the death of Thomas & Martha Wayne. The final reason a resurrected character that may just be the biggest example of a comic book company doing something grandiose but not knowing, or understanding, what to do after the original idea got executed.
In any event, DC Animation later this month will be retelling the story arc that brought Jason Todd back among the living in the DCU in Batman: Under The Red Hood. The storyline was originally told in the pages of Batman #635-641 (came out in December of 2004), and 645-650 (April of 2006) (642-644 appears to be a special stand alone issues for some reason) as well as Batman Annual # 25 from 2006. Batman 635-641 were collected in Batman: Under The Hood vol. 1 which came out in 2005, and 645-650 and the annual were collected in vol. 2 in 2006.
Most comic fans, or at least the ones following Batman titles, should know the story of Jason Todd, or at least the Post-Crisis version, but just in case you don’t, here is what you need to know. Basically street urchin found by Batman trying to jack the wheels off the Bat-mobile, becomes the second Robin. DC put it to a fan call-in vote to kill him off, which they do and he dies by the hands of The Joker. He later becomes a “symbol” by Bruce about the cost of his private war on crime with a memorial in the Bat Cave and constant mentions about being a lost partner.
The first “inkling” about Jason returning came within Jeph Loeb’s “Hush” storyline, where Batman fights Hush in Batman 617-618 in 2003. Hush reveals himself to be Jason Todd, but in reality it was Clayface and it was all part of the mind games being played on Bruce. We jump to 2006’s Infinite Crisis and the now infamous “Superboy Prime Time Wall Punches” which caused all sorts of changes to DC continuity in yet another attempt by DC to “fix” problems caused by earlier continuity “fixes.” Jason Todd returning to life, though everyone, including himself, knows that he died (to be fair this is common in most resurrection stories, it just seems comical that this happened due to a change in time but nothing really “changed”).
And so, Judd Winick was given the task to spin the tale in the Batman title of Jason Todd’s return to Gotham, which is where presumably the new movie will start. The first volume of the story introduces Todd as The Red Hood, a new take on an identity The Joker used in a Golden Age story, as well as a supposed “origin” used by Alan Moore for The Killing Joke (supposedly since Joker even says in that story, "I prefer his origin to be multiple choice") who is acting as a masked Punisher like vigilante killing off thugs that he finds. Red Hood is finding these thugs by working under the cover as a psychotic villain, and trying to muscle his way onto Black Mask’s turf.
Now this story takes place just after the War Games storyline, so Bruce is cut off from just about all of his usual supporting cast, except for Nightwing who drops by in #636 to help Bruce working on a case, pun slightly intended as it actually is a case, or crate shipment that Batman is trying to prevent. A bomb explodes on one of the crates, and Bruce and Dick meet the Red Hood for the first time.
The cargo turns out to be for Black Mask and is Amazo, a super villain with the powers of members of The Justice League. Batman and Nightwing have a decent fight and dispose of Amazo, which angers Black Mask. Black Mask’s feelings perk up when Red Hood calls him up to say that he managed to pilfer a crate not touched by the original Dynamic Duo, a crate loaded with Kryptonite. Red Hood essentially tries to sell the stuff, to which Black Mask orders Mr. Freeze to go out and kill Red Hood. This brings us to the second meeting of Batman and Red Hood, but Red Hood and Freeze get away before any good old fashioned fighting goes down.
#637 then ends with Red Hood visiting the Joker in his abandoned circus hideout and unleashing a beating not unlike the one Joker gave him in Batman #427 and revealing to the readers that yes, this is in fact Jason Todd.
The rest of volume 1 of the story is Bruce working on the suspicion he has. Based on the familiarity he felt when fighting the Red Hood in the first place, this could actually be Jason Todd. He and Zatanna first investigate Ra’s Al Ghul’s Lazarus Pits to see if any have been opened recently. They then visit Jason Blood, aka Etrigan The Demon, to find out how one can be resurrected. Finally Batman has a talk with both Green Arrow, (of which, as well as his conversation with Zatanna, seems to imply that Bruce knows about the mind wipe that Zatanna did to him in Identity Crisis) and Superman about their respective returns from the dead.
#641 wraps up with the start of the fight between Red Hood and Batman that started issue #635 with Jason Todd revealing himself to Batman. The two have a discussion; right in the open with their masks off, about how to handle crime in Gotham. Well, actually Todd has his Robin style domino mask. Turns out the resurrection has made Jason Todd angrier and more willing to go beyond Bruce’s moral code about killing or crossing lines. And the first volume ends with the final panel of #641 with Bruce telling Alfred to keep the Todd memorial case up as Todd’s return “doesn’t change anything at all.”
Batman: Under the Hood-Volume 1:
Editor's Note: Tune in tomorrow for volume two of Batman: Under the Red Hood.
Posted by SteveJRogers
Alright, after our brief excursion into a possible DCU future, we return to our regularly scheduled Superman/Batman programming (same Supe/Bat-time…) with # 73 and again with Levitz and Ordway as your creative team.
We start exactly where we left off in # 72 with Lois Lane about to be sacrificed by a Cult of Kal-El (its Superman in the story, but I like how Kal rolls off the tongue after the word cult) because she spurned Superman to marry a human. Well, this is not the Silver Age so the damsel in distress is able to work her way out of said distress, and pretty much has this in hand as Batman comes in to scare off all but one of the cultists. That one being taken down by Lois using maneuvers apparently taught by Batman!
We then cut to the subplot with Luthor trying to reach out to this planet that we saw in # 72 where the inhabitants are angry at Superman for wrecking a few buildings, despite rebuilding them. My guess is it must have been a religious shrine considering how angry they were and all the religious imagery and themes throughout this story. Luthor even comes right out and calls it Lexor, which is a Silver/Bronze Age planet with inhabitants who worshiped Lex Luthor. As far as I can tell, it has not been mentioned since its destruction in 1983, though the reboot of Lex Luthor from evil mad scientist to evil billionaire industrialist could have something to do with getting rid of a lot of Luthor’s sci-fi Golden, Silver and Bronze Age attributes. In any event, Luthor is scheming to send a “care package” of sorts to this planet, making contact and ensuring that they worship him. The greatest land grabber of our time!
So we go back to Batman trying his luck at interrogating the cultist, but Superman swoops in to play the bad cop, well the only way he can by dangling the poor guy over the Metropolis skyline with heat vision red eyes a’ glowing! Its found out that a thing called The Visionary told them to sacrifice Lois Lane in order to show their devotion to Superman, to quote the Man of Steel himself, “possible the most backward idea I’ve heard from anyone this side of Bizzaro!”
We then see Superman, Batman and even Lois conduct investigations on this cult and how to take them down. Which is followed by another scene of Luthor readying a capsule to the planet; and we go back to the main plot with a nice shot of Lois & Clar…err Superman having a domestic argument while both are “on the job” heading to where the next meeting of the Superman cult is. They meet up with Batman, and they crash the meeting, the globe where the “Visionary” was emanating explodes, turning into a giant fire creature that Superman easily takes care of with his super breath and the cultists are all rounded up.
The coda of the issue is Luthor, revealing to be the “man behind the curtain” of the cultists that Lois wonders about at the end of the previous scene, getting ready to become a God to this planet of Superman haters.
This was a thoroughly entertaining story to be sure. Had none of the things that made me slightly trepidations about the first part of the arc (preachy religious connotations, and rehashing sillier elements of Silver Age Superman and Batman stories) and even threw in several nice Easter Eggs for fans of various incarnations of the Superman and Batman mythos. For example, Smallville fans will note a headline of an article in Lois’ cubicle “’Red-Blue Blur’ Gets A Name” as well as a shout out to Bibbo, a long time cast member of the Superman titles. Ordway’s art is also impressive as well. While this is mostly a Superman-centric story, Batman does get in some good moments, especially doing some detective work, and it was nice to see nods to what Lois Lane does, something that appears to have been missing in the Man of Steel’s titles as of late, but this isn’t TheSupermanUniverse.net, so no need to rant about how DC is handling the Clark Kent side of Superman.
I’m looking forward to the final chapter of this story next month.
Superman/Batman #73:
Reviewed by SteveJRogers
The 700 Issue Feat
700 Issues for Batman’s main title. Obviously not taking into account the Issue # 0 (during the 1994 Zero Hour event), Issue # 1,000,000 (during the DC One Million event in 1998), all the annuals, specials, cover variants (oh the 90's through today, how you annoy collectors so) and whatnot that are included in the “Batman” magazine category, which according to Mike’s Amazing World Of DC Comics brings the total, including the regular and two variant covers of #700 itself, of Batman issues 774. Regardless, 700 is a large number, no matter how you slice it.
Also hitting the stands in June will be the 700th issue of The Big Blue Boy Scout’s titular title, although the title has seen a couple of name changes on its way to the 700 mark. Starting off a little less than a year before Batman came out in his own title in the spring of 1939, “Superman” would be the name of the title through issue 423 in June of 1986. With the John Byrne Post-Crisis reboot of the character, Byrne was given his own “Superman” title, along with Action Comics, which would have a brand spanking new #1 issue. Rather than seeing the 423 issue old title go away, DC rechristened the book “Adventures Of Superman” once Byrne’s Man Of Steel mini series wrapped up and the reboot of the character was underway. Things went smoothly for about 20 years, until Infinite Crisis came along in 2006, and once again plans were made to revamp the character, in the same way they did with the Byrne reboot. Unfortunately it took about half a decade for the revamp origin to finally be told, and it appears we are finally going to see the conclusion of said story in August! Well anyway, "Adventures Of" was on the title until issue 649 in February of 2006, and it was removed as soon as # 650 hit the stand the next month, and the previous adjective-less Superman title was canned after 20 years and 226 issues.
Of course the two big Icons of the DC Universe did not start in their very own title. But both pretty much own their debut titles since their respective debuts, and those magazines are still chugging along to this day.
We begin with a magazine that in mint condition, if you can find one, can fetch upwards of a million bucks today! That would be one Action Comics #1 in the early summer of 1938, featuring Superman’s first stories and first cover appearance. On June 30th of this year issue #890 is set to hit the newsstands.
Now, we get to the title that would eventually lend the company its official name! Detective Comics, starting publication in March of 1937, but issue #27 which hit stands in the spring of 1939 is probably the most famous issue of the publication as The Batman is first seen swinging into action on the cover and in stories in the book. On the 23rd of June, issue #866 will be hitting the stands (Action Comics went weekly for about a year in 1988, which is how it managed to surpass Detective). Now, it is interesting to point out that during the first 26 issues of the title a character named Slam Bradley was featured. Later, after Gotham was officially named as a city Bradley was said to have worked in Gotham. So, it can be said then that all 866 issues of Detective Comics have featured characters from the Batman Universe!
So, that is it when it comes to DC. Just the big four of Action, Detective, Batman and Superman. Now, moving over to the Grand Comics Database shows that a book published by Dell from the 1930s through the late 1960s called Four Color, an anthology book featuring licensed characters ran for 1,354 issues. Give or take due to numbering skips and re-issues, but still Action and Detective trail it for the most prolific published book in American comic publication history. It also should be noted that a book titled “Walt Disney’s Comics And Stories,” an anthology book based on the Disney characters, has been published by one publisher or another, (currently at Boom! Studios since 2009, no word yet about Disney’s intentions with possible moving the licenses over to Marvel) since 1940, and have just put out issue #707. Now it hasn’t been put out consistently, but the publishers have kept the numbering system on the title.
So, it is quite a feat for Batman, and here is to the next 700 issues!
Posted by SteveJRogers
Before we get started on this issue, let’s do a little history of the future lesson.
Following the end of The New Adventures of Batman & Robin, or Gotham Knights as the series is sometimes called, Alan Burnett, Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and crew came up with a new series to continue their successful run with both Batman and Superman. That series was Batman Beyond, and it debuted in January of 1999. The setting of the series would be in the not too-distant future of Gotham City, or Neo-Gotham as it is called in the time period. The two-part pilot episode, simply called “Rebirth,” starts in the year 2019. Bruce Wayne is aged but still fighting the good fight and in a newly designed suit to fit the times. Unfortunately, while mixing it up with some thugs, Bruce is felled by a weak heart, and is forced to wave a gun in a thug’s face in order to save his bacon. Disgusted by his actions, Bruce hangs up the cowl for the last time and vows never to don the costumes again.
Flash forward about 20 years, Bruce is an old recluse, but events bring teenage Terry McGinnis into his life. McGinnis finds out who Wayne is, takes the redesigned suit out to seek revenge for his father’s murder, and after acquitting himself well and because the incident was tied into Wayne’s company, Terry McGinnis finds himself in employment by Bruce Wayne, and the new Batman.
The series would last three seasons, through the end of 2001, and includes a Direct To Video movie in 2000 called Return Of The Joker, which naturally deals with the return of Bruce’s old foe. Also in a 2005 episode of Justice League Unlimited, the second season finale of that show, tries to solidify McGinnis’ “claim” to the Batman/Bruce Wayne legacy.
Now, there were comic book tie-ins as well, as with just about all televised versions of DC properties; A six issue mini-series in 1999, written by series writer Hilary J. Bader when the series first came on the air, a 24 regular series running from 1999 through 2001 and a one-shot Return Of The Joker adaptation in 2000.
For those who are interesting in getting to know the series, besides watching the episodes by various means (all three seasons are now on DVD, as well as available for download on iTunes), check out the Earth-2.net’s World’s Finest Podcast (a blow-by-blow, episode by episode look at the Timm/Burnett/Dini “DC Animated Universe” of Batman The Animated Series, Superman The Animated Series, Gotham Knights, Batman Beyond, The Zeta Project, Static Shock, Justice League, Teen Titans and Justice League Unlimited) episodes 39 through 50 for a complete and exhaustive look at the series and the movie Return Of The Joker.
In the series’ third season, there is a two part episode called “The Call,” which will be referenced in this book. Terry is recruited by Superman to join the Justice League Unlimited, and to weed out a possible traitor in the league. It turns out to be Superman himself, whom was controlled by Starro The Conqueror, a space starfish whom Superman had in a preserve in his fortress. This was Superman’s lone appearance in the Batman Beyond time frame.
And so we come to a few years ago where rumblings of Terry McGinnis being inserted into the DCU comics proper started to be heard. It started with an appearance in an alternate universe in, funny enough, an issue of Superman/Batman (#22), getting an Earth designation during Countdown, and now this year Adam Beechen will be penning and Dustin Nguyen will be drawing a 6-part miniseries on Terry’s world. And that miniseries looks to be spinning out of Superman/Batman Annual #4 which is written by current Superman/Batman artist Paul Levitz and art by Renato Guedes and the story is titled “A Time Beyond Hope.”
We start with Terry in midst of taking on some thugs with Bruce in his customary role as voice in Terry’s head from the Bat-Cave, much like Barbra Gordon’s role with Stephanie Brown’s Batgirl in the current Batgirl book. Terry finds out the thugs are the latest in a stream of thugs whom have come from Metropolis, and spooked by something they call “The Ghost.” Doing some more sleuthing, Terry finds that Metallo has come to Gotham with the intention of pushing some new drugs, and after beating Metallo, Terry takes the drugs back to the cave, and realizes it has been laced with Kryptonite.
We find out that this issue takes place just after the end of the series as the events of The Call are mentioned, and as a reason for Superman apparently quitting the superhero business and pretty much going into hiding. In Superman’s absence, Metropolis has gone to hell and Lex Luthor was made “mayor for life.”
In trying to trace where the drugs are coming from, it is learned that Superman has even taken Clark Kent off the grid, but apparently is still leaving flowers at the grave of Lois Lane. We then see Superman hovering over Terry at Lois’ grave site, and through, well I guess at this point he is more Kal-El than either Superman or Clark Kent, so Kal inner monologues the fact that Luthor had been working hard while Superman was controlled by Starro to the point where one of the things to neutralize Superman was to get Kryptonite into residents’ blood in order to make it tough for Superman to even exist in Metropolis without some pain.
We then see that Terry has infiltrated a major drug ring, and after a skirmish with “The Ghost” he is put on assignment to get something from Superman’s fortress. Again “The Ghost” shows up at the Fortress Of Solitude, leaving Terry as one of the few “survivors” of a vanishing trick it does. This leads to Terry meeting the boss, which of course turns out to be Luthor; who was pulling the strings to have one more confrontation with “The Ghost”, aka Kal-El; who was also pulling Terry’s strings in order to get inside Luthor’s fortress.
Terry and Kal wind up fighting a foot soldier turned into a “Superman for a new generation” super soldier thanks to a solar collector. Terry figures out that the chair Luthor was in was stored with Kryptonite, so Terry manages to get Luthor out of the chair and destroys the chair, eliminating the Kryptonite. Kal then makes short work of the soldier and shows Terry exactly what “The Ghost” was doing when “zapping” thugs. It actually is a Phantom Zone projector, and Luthor gets sent to the Phantom Zone. Kal presents Terry with the projector and tells him to be the “warden” and that now that he is sure Metropolis can be back on the road to recovery that it is time to leave Earth. And he does just that, and tells Terry to call him if he needs any help via a signal watch, and that he’ll be watching Terry in the stars.
Whew. That’s a story alright! Definitely had a comic book feel to it rather than a TV show feel, which is good. And it appears Levitz was mixing some elements from the mainstream DC lore into the mix as well. For instance, Terry mentions the Robins dying, yet there was no death of a Robin in the DCAU; Dick Grayson became Nightwing, the Tim Drake character was an amalgamation of Jason Todd and the comics Tim Drake, but he wasn’t killed. It also appears Terry was “handed” the role as opposed to stealing the suit and “proving” himself worthy and bringing Bruce out of retirement. There is an appearance of and interaction between Zod and Mon-El inside the Phantom Zone, neither character ever appeared in a DCAU cartoon, it is possible that Levitz is referencing the events of the War Of The Superman event where Zod was trapped in the Phantom Zone, and Mon-El went in there as one of the wardens of the Zoners. And finally there is the ultimate fate of the DCAU’s Lex Luthor. In the final episode of Justice League Unlimited, “Destroyer” it appears that Luthor and Darkseid vanished into an anti-life equation Source Wall thing, and while of course this is comic books we are talking about, it did seem finite and Luthor never does appear, or is mentioned of, in Batman Beyond.
Those things are just nitpicky things though, just brought up for comparison purposes, and probably in a way to help the world of Batman Beyond “fit” into a DC Universe rather than picking up entirely in the DCAU’s continuity. There is one thing though that is a bit off putting, and that is Guedes’s art. For the most part its pretty great. Both Terry and Bruce appear to be comic book versions of their Batman Beyond selves, its just that for Superman, it seems Guedes has adopted the style that seems to be more and more prevalent of making Superman look exactly like Christopher Reeve. While its one thing for Clark to look like the actor who brought him to the big screen, its another thing entirely when everything else, right down to the costume displays in the Bat-Cave, is modeled after the cartoon design to see something from another medium. Especially considering Superman in the DCAU, including The Call, had his own distinctive look. It was nice though to see several different “designs” for Superman in a Fortress display case, we saw the black suit from the Return of storyline, normal Superman, the “current” Superman, Kingdom Come Superman and Electric Blue Superman.
Overall this does seem like a nice introduction to the Adam Beechen mini-series, and hopefully a long stay for Terry McGinnis in the DCU proper.
Superman/Batman Annual #4:
Reviewed by SteveJRogers
The State of Comic Book Films
“I am Iron Man. Think you are the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you’ve become part of a bigger universe, but you just don’t know it yet,” Nick Fury, director of SHIELD. “I’m here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative.”
Those words, spoken by Samuel L. Jackson at the end of 2008’s Iron Man are words that may have shaken up the way comic book movies are made. On its own Iron Man was a great comic book superhero-based film. It had just about everything you could have asked for in a thrilling, smart, and at times comedic popcorn entertainment action flick. But, those words were the lynch-pin of what Marvel Studio hoped would be the next evolution of comic book movie storytelling. Essentially taking the idea of a fully fledged “universe” and transform that into film.
For years of course comic book character films have been presented as if the characters spotlighted were the only heroes in their world. Oh sure Metropolis got named dropped in Batman Forever, and there is the “This is why Superman works ALONE” quip in Batman & Robin, but in every movie, and even live action television, for the most part (after the series ended, the Incredible Hulk TV show came back in TV movie form a couple of times featuring both Thor and Daredevil, and Smallville has the Green Arrow as a cast member, as well as appearances by other non-Superman supporting characters), done featuring a comic book character whom is part of a bigger comic book universe, it is apparent that for that movie or TV program they are the ONLY super hero on the scene.
Marvel Studios was set to change all of that, and it started in that summer of 2008. Shortly after it appeared Iron Man was a big hit, its sequels were green-lit and pre-production was full steam ahead for other projects that would all go into what will be the first Avengers movie in 2012. The plans were further cemented in that summer’s Incredible Hulk, which included a cameo by Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark telling General Ross that he and a “team” that was being formed could help with the Hulk problem. And now Iron Man 2 has given the Mighty Marvel Movie Society even more steam by being a blockbusting success, and setting the stage for next summer’s Thor film. Oh, and next summer Captain America is set to shake off the aftertaste of the 1990 flop as well.
With Ant-Man, another Iron Man film and The Avengers coming down the pipeline as well, it seems things are running smoothly in terms of Marvel Studios creating a “Movie Universe.” Even with its biggest heavyweights; Spider-Man, the X-Men and Fantastic Four, as well as Daredevil still tied up with other studios as Disney seems content with honoring pre-existing deals.
And DC? Well, there is the follow up to The Dark Knight slated for 2012. As well as the next Superman project which is being “Godfathered” by Batman Begins and The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan. Oh, and Green Lantern is coming out next year.
While one can expect the third, and Nolan’s final, Batman flick to be a success, maybe not as wild as The Dark Knight as one could chalk a good percentage of its popularity to the “morbid curiosity” surrounding Heath Ledger’s passing, the fact that it will be the final Nolan directed film in the series should trouble a DC movie fan. Where will the Bat-Franchise go from here? Logic would dictate that the next director could pick up where Nolan leaves off, but hey this is Hollywood, and there is enough of a chance of Warner Brothers rebooting the whole darn thing as there are as them letting the next guy continue what Nolan started.
But where does this leave the various projects that have been speculated, and in some cases even gone through the pre-production stage, only to be shut down like the JLA movie? Good question. The hope is that the Green Lantern film becomes as wild of a success as the first Iron Man was. The proof will be in the pudding of course, but at the same time it was clear that Marvel had all its ducks in a row when Iron Man came out. Right now DC/WB is looking at a Batman movie universe where Batman is the only known costumed hero, and Nolan has gone on record as saying he’d like the Superman movie universe to be the same. Okay, so how are you going to rectify that with a possible JLA film? Oh sure movie audiences aren’t that stupid to realize the Batman in a JLA film isn’t the same as Christian Bale’s Batman, or even Adam West’s, Michael Keaton’s, Val Kilmer’s, George Clooney, or heck even Kevin Conroy’s and Diedrich Bader’s. But the fact is, it’s hard to sell two different continuities going on at the same time. Heck, it’s hard even for DC to sell multiple continuities in comic books! Say what you will about Batman Confidential and Superman/Batman, they probably aren’t selling nearly as much as the other Bat-Titles because they are OOC books while all the others are.
Well, that is the current state of affairs with comic book movies. While the next Batman film should bring in the dough that will make Warner very, very happy, and despite the critical responses to Superman Returns one can still say Superman is still a very profitable on-screen franchise, it does seem that DC is still light years behind Marvel in terms of innovation in crafting big screen storytelling. In some cases it might be fine, as DC still holds arguably the two most popular super heroes of all-time in its arsenal, but if Marvel is able to completely pull of what it hopes to with the Marvel Movie Universe, DC will have to change its game plan in terms of how their properties are treated by Hollywood.
Posted by SteveJRogers
In the 1960s, writer Bob Haney got the idea to take all the younger characters in the DC Universe and mash them together as a team. Not unlike the very successful Justice League Of America. And so in the summer of 1964, in the pages of Brave and The Bold #54, Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad teamed up. A year later, in issue 60 the team got its first female member in Wonder Girl, and a name, Teen Titans. And by 1966 the team would have its very own magazine. The Titans would see many twists and turns through the years, but at the core was still Dick Grayson, either as Robin or Nightwing. And as the book “grew up” from its early Silver Age roots, especially with the Marv Wolfman-George Perez 1980 relaunch of the title, it appeared writers would thrust the role of “leader” onto Grayson. Even on the animated series based on the Wolfman relaunched lineup, Robin was very much the leader of the team.
And so in 1999, when the team was renamed simply “Titans” guess who was right in front? Yup, Dick Grayson, now of course in his Nightwing personae. So in 2010 (JLA issue # 41 to be exact), now taking over, for the second time, the Batman mantle of his mentor Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson is finally a card carrying member of the Justice League of America! And once again it appears the writer, this time James Robinson, who has been on the book since #38, is angling Dick into a leadership role. This seems especially the case since in issue # 41 he assembled a team of heavyweights, drawing from former League and Titan heavy hitters and proceeded to disassemble them by issue #43! Leaving Batman with Donna Troy (Wonder Girl), Mikaal Tomas (aka the current Starman), and Congo Bill (aka Congorilla) as the current JLA lineup, the latter two from Robinson’s JLA: Cry For Justice mini-series. This is especially interesting since there is a feeling that DC wants a return of the “classic 7 (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter)” in the 75th anniversary year of the company. But that is most likely down the road this year, in the meantime it’s Dick, Wonder Girl, Starman and Congorilla as your JLA roll call.
Well, that brings us to the current story arc, which features the Brightest Day trade dress, due to the fact that it is dealing with the return of Jade, who was one of the Black Lanterns who got resurrected at the end of Blackest Night. Issue # 44 featured Jade returning to Earth in the middle of a meteor fragment, and her father, Alan Scott, Earth’s first Green Lantern of the Justice Society of America, in bad shape with emerald energy emitting from him.
And so, preamble out of the way, we begin with Justice League Of America issue # 45. Written by James Robinson, art by Mark Bagley, inks by Rob Hunter and Norm Rapmund.
We begin where #44 left off. In Germany, with Jade announcing to Jason Blood that she will not stand down, and Dick's inner monologue exposition on her. Well, it turns out the meteor was part of the Starheart, which Jade describes. Then members of the JSA, trying to follow Alan Scott, whom is in a trance, headed right towards the said Starheart fly in, but their plane gets ripped up by what appears to be a mind controlled Power Girl. The speedsters in the JSA, Jay Garrick Flash and Jesse Quick are able to save the team. The matter gets complicated when Obsidian gets taken over by whatever is drawing Alan to the Starheart.
And from out of literally nowhere, even several characters inner monologue the fact, Supergirl flies in to take out Power Girl. It turns out Congorilla had signaled for her help before they left the Watchtower. Batman then gets Jade to use her magic based power to take down Power Girl (Kryptonian in case you didn’t know). While Batman wonders why the Starheart affected Power Girl, but not Supergirl, Jade then goes into an explanation of Starheart via a retelling of Alan Scott’s origin.
Well, the Starheart was this rock, created by the Guardians of The Universe as a way to create order between chaos and good. A piece broke off, fell to earth where Alan Scott found it, becoming Earth’s first Green Lantern. After Jade finishes up her story, Mr. Terrific, and Batman start receiving reports throughout the world of magic wielders going crazy. It is theorized that it could be in part thanks to the chaos part of Starheart. Then Alan appears to be out of his trance, but only to talk about the Starheart bringing about the end of the world, and he is transformed into something akin to what Alan Scott wore in the Kingdom Come story.
Well, that was interesting. Right now we are dealing with a JSA story in the pages of JLA. Which is fine, but is this something needed if Robinson is trying to mold a new team? I guess since the whole Starheart/Alan Scott situation is a big enough problem that the JLA has to be present for then yeah. Obviously the DCU’s biggest team has to confront it. It should be noted that this is part one of a story, and the second part will be in Justice Society of America #41 next month.
Don’t get me wrong, its a good story, its just feels like reading a JSA story with the JLA as the guest stars in their own title! Maybe that’s just the “B-Team” feel of the team at the moment, and wanting to see that team rise or fall before getting its first team-up with a team like the JSA. Yes, DC is all about the cross branding, and since Brightest Day is the current event, the flagship team book has to be a part of it. In any case this is still a good issue.
Justice League of America #45:
Reviewed by SteveJRogers
And now we kick off yet another new chapter in the saga of this title! First off though, fans of Superman should be welcomed by the return, of sorts, to the world of writer Paul Levitz, most known for his work on the Legion of Super-Heroes, and artist Jerry Ordway, who had a long run as artist and even writer and plotter on many Superman titles after the 1986 reboot of the character. (FYI, for those interested Ordway’s work on Superman, check out the SupermanHomepage.com’s From Crisis To Crisis podcast, which also includes a two part interview with Ordway in episodes 32 and 33).
This storyline is entitled “Worship,” so that it will explain the liberal use of religious imagery and themes. We kick things off with Superman taking care of a hurdling asteroid and musing about the late Pa Kent, which would probably set this story somewhere in between Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis. Meanwhile in Metropolis Lois Lane gets kidnapped while en route from a funeral for a co-worker, just before she is knocked out she signals Batman for help.
Meanwhile, in space Superman unwittingly breaks up a Kryptonite laced meteor and plummets with the fragments onto a planet, Superman recovers and does the usual one-man-construction-crew thing quickly before dashing off for a date night with the wife. However, the populous that observed Superman doing his thing appear to believes Superman to be an evil God and it seems the beginnings of an anti-Superman cult is being formed. As this is going on, it is being observed by Lex Luthor, who feels that he should contact these people, and he also gets word that Batman is arriving in Metropolis and pretty much goes into Defcon 1 when he hears this news.
And Batman does in fact arrive in Metropolis and is able to get in hot pursuit of Lois’ kidnappers, but she is no longer with them when he gets a hold of them. Instead Lois is tied up and is about to become a sacrifice to a cult of Kal-El because she rejected the chance to have Superman’s child by marrying a human named Clark Kent!
And I hope that last sentence doesn’t mean this book just went back to being modern takes on Silver Age tropes! Not that I know off hand that a story like this could have happened, but it does seem like a story that would be common place in the Silver Age. “Oh my God, I’m being made a martyr because I didn’t marry a hero, but instead I married his human secret identity, oh the irony!”
Well, this was an enjoyable issue nonetheless, trepidation aside it is a good story and some great Ordway art and pretty sweet colors and shadings by Pete Pantazis to highlight the art. The cover by Fabrizo Fiorentino was also great.
Superman/Batman #72:
Reviewed by SteveJRogers
Oh the things to say about this book. First of all, the story did seem okay for what it was, and I consider it decent popcorn entertainment, so for face value, it did entertain.
Pretty much a paint-by-numbers resolution of the story; Superman takes care of NRX-G, kills him in fact, but since it’s an cybernetic life form I guess we are giving Supes a pass there. Batman tackles the Durlan on the ship, pretty much your standard cliched villain that thinks his cause is justified versus Batman who looks on with disgust.
Then Superman jumps aboard the ship as the Durlan posing as Gaines had the ship doing a Kamikaze run into downtown Metropolis. You get a fight with Superman and the Durlan, Superman wins, Superman stops the ship from crashing into the Daily Planet Building, the Durlan seemingly kills himself, Bruce and Clark have a pow-wow concerning terrorist ways of warfare.
Oh, and a piece of the Durlan is seen floating around where the ship splash-landed, so apparently Casey is doing more “setup” for a possible continuation of the centuries long Durlan-Kryptonian war.
I can kind of see what Casey might have been going with an almost morality tale about guerrilla warfare, but it just seems to come off flat and almost cliched. Yeah, yeah that is wrong headed and “WE must do better.” The same old, we shouldn’t be the bad guys argument. Quite frankly, that isn’t what I am reading comic books for. If I wanted that lesson about how to fight a war, I’d watch Sean Hannity, not read Superman/Batman!
That aside, the major gripe I have with this book is the trade dress. Yes I know, as I said last time, a comic book reader should be used to this sort of thing by now, but still, the conclusion issue mentions nothing about the “Our Worlds At War” story despite the banner splashed across the cover. And apparently this “new direction” ends here as Paul Levitz takes over, with Jerry Ordway doing the art, with a brand new story next month. Very disappointing as this seemed like a great idea for the title. The two Icons of the DC Universe and various events throughout the years, it could have been gold! But instead it seems that the direction was just your standard “tie-in that really doesn’t tie-in, we are just selling books” crossover. For what it’s worth though, issue # 72’s cover, also the cover art for the latest TBU Comic Podcast, done by Fabrizio Fiorentino does look awesome, and the story does sound intriguing.
I enjoyed it for what it was, but considering my expectations for the run and the big letdown for the new direction.
Superman/Batman #71:
Reviewed by SteveJRogers
Now we are starting to get a little annoying with the penultimate issue of this story arc. Annoying in that we are still waiting for why this story HAD to be a crossover with “Our Worlds At War.” Now granted, as any reader of comics in recent years should know, just because a crossover banner is splashed over a title doesn’t mean the title is going to have much to do with said event, but still as an isolated tie-in coming out a little less than a decade after the event wrapped up, one would think the tie-ins would be more than lip service pieces of dialogue that seemed shoehorned in at the last minute.
Well, at least it’s not “Oh look, the sky’s red” as the Batman tie-ins for “Crisis On Infinite Earths” were.
That being said, this is an enjoyable story, even if its making me feel like it’s a garden variety good comic book story. This particular one is very Batman-centric though, as Bruce is intent on “bringing the fight to Gaines” by luring him, with the help of the Watchtower’s satellites, to where he and Superman left the ancient Kryptonian vessel. And Bruce, in a nifty space Bat-suit, is heading to have a showdown with the Durlan posing as Gaines. We do get a nice battle with The Hooded Hangman as Bruce is inner monologue-ing at the start, which is nice to see just for the randomness of it.
Also Gaines has NRG-X have a showdown with Superman in the Fortress, providing a second “theater” for his “private little war” as characters in the story allude to. So that’s where the cliffhanger leaves us at. Superman and NRG-X having a good old fashioned mano a mano brawl in the North Pole, and Gaines on the Kryptonian vessel with Batman heading towards him as we head towards the conclusion of this story next month.
I do have to say that I really dig the cover for this issue. While the whole side-by-side differences with Superman and Batman is beyond cliche at this point, I do like this particular Ardian Sayaf take on that cliche. It does seem that he is aping Jim Lee a little with the style and background, just a nice piece of work.
Again I have to give this this rating as it is pretty much your average, run of the mill enjoyable comic book story. Nothing earth shattering or impactful, it’s just popcorn entertainment. Nothing’s wrong with that of course, but as I’ve been saying, I’ve kind have been expecting more from the fact that this was tying in with an epic DC event from the past.
Superman/ Batman #70:
Reviewed by SteveJRogers
Batman in the JLA
In this, the second entry of my “Year of the Batmen” series, I am going to discuss the Dick Grayson Batman and the dynamic of his entry into the newly reconstituted Justice League of America.
For the longest time the JLA was led by the holy trinity of the DC pantheon, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. The Batman character, specifically embodied by Bruce Wayne, was often seen as the intellectual leader of the JLA and for the most part its chief tactician. The Wayne Batman was renowned for planning for every contingency, for being several steps ahead his foes and for never being caught off guard. This served him well in the JLA as that unit was often comprised by disparate heroes, some with much less experience than Wayne but often possessing much more physical power and or abilities.
Because Wayne often dealt with these heroes of different or greater qualities, who were used to pursuing causes of their own, he often clashed with them as they chafed under his authority. And because this Batman did not suffer fools well and was often harsh and impatient he often clashed with his team mates off times coming to physical blows. The most distinct rivalry often came from Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern, who was essentially an inter-galactic policeman and who quite often resented taking orders from Batman who basically was the guardian just of one city.
As most readers know now the Bruce Wayne Batman is no longer on the scene. He has been succeeded by his foremost protege, Dick Grayson. For years Dick toiled under the shadow of the Bat as Robin and is only now getting up to speed as Gotham’s premier crime fighter. In the JLA, as written by James Robinson, we see a different personality to the Batman. It’s something I call the “Winick Model” after Judd Winick, who took up the writing for the Batman series as Grayson became Batman. This particular take on Batman found the caped crusader to be more open and visible. No more lurking in the shadows or avoiding the spotlight. He even smiles.
Fortunately, Dick Grayson is no neophyte when it comes to the team concept. Something the original could not claim. As Nightwing he fought along side the Teen Titans some of which now comprise this new JLA. The Teen Titans however could be seen, unfairly or otherwise, as a second tier unit. What’s different now are the expectations of being the Batman and serving in the JLA which has historically been seen as Earth’s mightiest heroes and its foremost protectors. So how does Robinson integrate this new Batman into this new progression? By having Grayson coordinate his first major action with the team.
In JLA #42 the team is confronted with a rogue Atlas and it takes all the group members to bring him down. Each heroic character is allowed an internal dialog that speaks to the reader on how they feel it is to be part of the team. Grayson comes off as a bit callow. He seems surprised to be even included. He says, “My league, me as Batman” as if he can’t quite comprehend that he is there. Something the Wayne Batman would not think even to himself. As the battle rages Dick also has to deal with the fact that two of his team mates have had an intimate relationship with him. Something the Wayne Batman would certainly sneer at. Grayson calls out instructions to Donna Troy and Starfire and they execute his plan perfectly and when the coup de grace has to be applied, it is Dick who orders Green Lantern into play. Jordan thinks it is “weird” taking orders from Dick as does Grayson giving orders to the Green Lantern.
So that part of the dynamic stays true. Batman calls the shots while the others follow, trusting that Batman will know what is best for the team and the consummation of the outcome to be without flaw. The major difference is the hint of doubt we see from each principle even though it does not affect their performance. At least for now.
Additionally, let’s study how this particular Batman is drawn for this story. Mark Bagley does the pencils. Inks by Hunter, Rapmund, and Glapion with colors by Pete Pantazis. This new JLA Batman is not very threatening. He wears the blue and gray costume as opposed to the more Gothic black and gray as drawn by Tony Daniel. Therefore this Batman is depicted to less of a loner and more of a team player. Even the cowl as drawn by Bagley has a less threatening look to it as the ears are minimized and therefore less frightening. This Batman will not threaten the team dynamic with arrogance or force of will and is drawn to reflect that.
As constituted now the new JLA Batman is a bit green behind those nominal ears. Unsure, untested in his new team dynamic. Will he be allowed to grow in this new structure? Will doubt set in if his next plan goes awry? The original Batman led without question. Will the Grayson version be allowed the same luxury? And what of the return of Bruce Wayne? As Dick becomes more comfortable in this role will he want to let it go? There are many questions to be answered as the Dick Grayson Batman not only fills out the most iconic of roles but also steps into the rarefied air of the holiest of trinities of the DC pantheon.
Next up for the Year of the Batmen, a sneak peek into the art of the Batmen as drawn by Daniel, Gary Frank, Rags Morales and Frank Quitely amongst others.
Posted by Dark Knight Dave
The DC DTV animated movie series has had its fair share of ups and downs. It has put out awesome movies, like Green Lantern, or Wonder Woman, and it has put out very bad movies, like Superman Batman: Public Enemies. So where does JL: CTE, the latest film in this series, sit? Well, it’s at the top. This movie was fantastic!
Before I actually review it though, I want to go into the history of the film. It originally was supposed to be Justice League: Worlds Collide, and was going to be part of the DCAU. The film was intended to be released between Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. It would have served as a bridge between the two series. However, the film never got made, and Justice League Unlimited began, albeit, bridge-less. Now, many years later, the film has finally been released, but rewritten as Crisis on Two Earths. Even though The Film has been rewritten, not much has changed. We get to see the League building the new Watchtower, how the expanded roster came about, and even how Wonder Woman got her Invisible Jet. The only actual difference is that Green Lantern is Hal Jordan, not John Stewart. Other than that, CTE fits nicely into the DCAU, and perfectly fills the gap between JL and JLU.
The story is simple enough, a good version of Lex Luthor, from an alternate earth, comes to the Justice Leagues world, asking the league to help him defeat the Crime Syndicate of America, super powered criminals who have the country’s crime under their thumbs. The League goes to Luthor’s earth to take down the Syndicate, but soon discover a more sinister plot to destroy all of reality. The story is not to complex, but excellent nonetheless. Though the movie is made primarily of action sequences (awesome action sequences), it has some nice character development, especially a subplot involving John Jonzz. Dwayne McDuffie delivers one his best scripts with this movie.
The animation is absolutely top notch. The fight sequences are brutal, and exciting, and just look great all-around. The character designs are very good too. They seem to take some inspiration from Frank Quitley’s artwork on the JLA Earth 2 graphic novel written by Grant Morrison. I particularly liked Batman’s fight with Owlman at the end of the movie. It was one of the coolest animated fight scenes I have seen in a while. I won’t talk about it though; you just have to see it.
One of the things that makes the movie so good is the flawless voice cast. Everyone involved is great, there is no weakness in the cast (can we expect less from Andrea Romano though?) In the Justice league we have Mark Harmon as Superman, William Baldwin as Batman, Josh Keaton as Flash (he was awesome, and had the perfect voice for The Flash), Vanessa Marshall as Wonder Woman, Jonathan Adams as Martian Manhunter, and Nolan North as Green Lantern. From the Crime Syndicate we have James Woods as Owlman, Gina Torres as Superwoman, Brian Bloom as Ultraman, and James Patrick Stuart as Johnny Quick. Also from the Crime Syndicate world is Chris Noth as Lex Luthor. Focusing on Batman for a minute; William Baldwin was great! At first I was a little jarred by his voice, it’s definitely different from Kevin Conroy’s DCAU portrayal. However, as the film progressed, I liked his performance more and more. He is actually really good, and I would like him to return to the role. His last line to Owlman is awesome! Speaking of Owlman, James Woods’ performance is one of the highlights of the film. He was the perfect actor for the role, and it shows! His performance alone makes the movie worth watching!
Also, one more thing I loved; the music. The film is scored by James L. Venable, and though he is new to me, I hope I hear more of him soon. His score was very good, and had a big budget cinematic feel.
So all in all, I can’t say enough good things about his movie. It’s certainly the best of the DC DTVs, and I highly recommend that you see it.
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths:
Reviewed by TheCapedCrusader
We received a copy of the DVD version of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths a little while ago and it releases today in stores. Should you head to the store and buy this right now? Well, I am going to let you know.
At first glance, this film seems like another quick story to expand the animated DC Universe, yet something feels strangely familiar. We have the Justice League battling villains in order to save the world. Does that remind you of something? Perhaps, Justice League Unlimited. Well, when this film was announced, that is exactly what I thought it was. In the podcast that you will hear on Friday, I referred to the announcement seeming as if it was another Superman/Batman mishap. Everything seemed to line up as what we saw before. The story originated from Dwayne McDuffie, who wrote many episodes of Justice League Unlimited. All of the characters that were in the film we had seen in the show. So why would you think that this was any different than the many multi-part stories we saw in episodic form for the show? Well, let me tell you why.
The basic plot of the film is that the Justice League of our earth battles the Crime Syndicate from a parallel earth. In this parallel earth, things are different. Despite the Syndicate being an obvious group of villains, they are treated with a level of respect. The heroes on this "Earth" are led by Lex Luthor. Their "Justice League" has been taken out one by one by the Crime Syndicate. We even see The Jester (a parallel version of The Joker) give his life to try and stop the Crime Syndicate. Lex Luthor travels to our universe to enlist the help of the Justice League to help him take down the Syndicate. The Justice League travels to the alternate earth to take them out. Batman stays behind, as he believes that there are enough problems in their universe. Owlman (the parallel version of Batman) is pretty much the main villain. He has created a bomb that will take out not only the the earth of his universe, but destroy Earth Prime, hence eliminating all "Earths." Batman of course comes and faces Owlman head on leading to climatic ending.
Overall, this film was a surprise to me. As I said, because it was first announced as a series of episodes that McDuffie wrote for Justice League Unlimited, I was concerned that it would have a feel of episodes put together as a film. But, it did not have that feel at all. The pace was very quick. It did not feel at any point that there was meant to be a break between acts. It had a more mature feel with the obvious violence. It wasn't overdone. We got more than we would have if this had ever aired on Cartoon Network. I applaud McDuffie for this. He took what was supposed to be a cartoon and made it a film.
On the Batman front, William Baldwin did a decent job at voicing Batman. It isn't the best job, but it fit with the feel of the film. Batman did take a back seat to the first half of the film. Although we see that while he wasn't around, he had a recruitment drive to have more heroes join the league. That kind of seemed out of place. Then again we have seen stranger things in the DC animated films. Batman not only saves the day in the end, but also proves to be smarter than most of the Justice League within the final scene with the Crime Syndicate.
For the special features, there were some interesting ones. The main feature was a piece about the various "crisises" that have happened in the DC Universe. They did a very good job getting many of the main creators that were involved in everything from Identity Crisis to Final Crisis. There was also a preview of the next DCAU film, which we know will be Batman: Under the Red Hood. There wasn't any footage from the film, but we did see the voice cast as well as some storyboards.
Also in this release, was the first DC Showcase film. It featured The Spectre. A good story that laid out his origin and told an interesting story in a very short amount of time. This was maybe even better than the main film. I look forward to more of these.
Overall, the film was good. I would not place it in the top three of DCAU films, but it was definitely better than I expected. One thing that many do not know is that the film will be released at Best Buy with an exclusive Owlman figure. This will be in limited quantities and only be with the Blu-ray and 2-disc DVD version. So you may want to get that right away and not wait until the end of the week to pick it up. I think if you are questioning it, rent it on iTunes or at your local video store. You will see that the film is worth adding to your collection of DC films.
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths:
Reviewed by Dustin
Superman/Batman 69 starts off where the last issue took place, with Superman staring down NRG-X who actually is that Bronze Age villain, Grant Haskill, (this is shown in a flashback as a shadowy man, Anderson Gaines, is asking for the hit on Clark Kent) I mentioned in the last review. They fight, have some exposition dialogue and Superman is left wondering who would want him killed.
Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne while at a function gets to meet Gaines, afterward. After Gaines unwittingly gives Bruce a DNA sample, contacts Clark and the two convene at the JLA Watchtower.
While Gaines is going back to his penthouse apartment we learn why we’ve never heard of this character before. Gaines is in fact one of the shape shifting alien terrorists from the Kryptonian ship that Superman and Batman found in issue 64. Currently the ship is still on the dark side of the Moon and is shown on the last page of the issue. Gaines also reveals his Durlan form and it does look interesting. It’s a nice grouping of all these green tentacles coming out. We then end with Batman telling Superman that instead of taking on Gaines head on, that they’ll have to do it guerrilla warfare style.
Well, it’s moving the story well, which is a good thing of course. But at the same time the story is still leaving me wondering what is the need for it to be set after “Our Worlds At War.”
It does seem that Joe Casey had this idea, the editors were saying “Yeah okay, but just so you know, when the Blackest Night crossover is over, the book is getting an overhaul. So can you do your thing around it?” So it’s like we are getting two stories; this Durlan vs Krypton story that Casey started back in issue #64 and the aftermath of Our Worlds At War, which is getting the “shoehorned in because I have to drop references” treatment. At some point I’d like to know if there is a reason that the time of this story had to be where it is, and not say after “Legends” or “Invasion.” Actually Invasion would have been a more intriguing setting as that would have been just before Superman literally went into his self-imposed “Exile” (that was the name of the storyline). Whatever results from this story could have added to the reasons Superman just left Earth for a time.
But the story Casey is telling is still an intriguing one, and I am interested in seeing where this is going. I’m going to drop the rating a bit though, because it still has a run-of-the mill feel to it, as opposed to an epic feel that an aftermath tale should be.
Superman/Batman #69:
Reviewed by SteveJRogers