Superman/Batman has historically been a hit or miss title, and issue sixty-six is a complete miss. Both, written and drawn by Scott Kollins, issue sixty-six is poorly done on both accounts. Kolins is unable to apply the “Blackest Night” concept with characters that are not all that interesting.
In an issue of Superman/Batman where neither Superman nor Batman appears, Kolins cannot hold the reader’s attention with Solomon Grundy, Man-bat, and Bizarro Superman. We follow the three characters as they terrorize the citizens of Gotham City, where no heroes are able to be found. The earth version of Solomon Grundy arises from the dead and Francine Langstrom is trying to finally, cure her husband. The major problems with this issue is that it follows three characters that the reader cannot emotional relate to, unless someone has been a bat before, and none of them are interesting enough to keep the reader interested for an entire thirty-two pages. Kolins writes sloppy fight scenes that focus on Bizarro’s confusion. The book really suffers from the appalling dialogue that Kolins seemed to just pull out of a hat. The story does not consistently flow; it constantly cuts from one character to the next without any sort of resolution. I do not understand why anyone would think that a well written story could be created when the plot solely focuses on three rather lame villains. I understand that Bizarro and Man-bat are, in a way, Superman and Batman’s opposites, however, that still does not make them intriguing characters.
On top of the painful writing, the art is equally horrendous. Scott Kolins’ art has never been so distracting and so distasteful to me before. While the art is consistent throughout the issue, it is consistently disagreeable. I think this issue was supposed to be dark and eerie because of the Blackest Night theme, but Kolins’ style doesn’t lend itself well to that dark tone. There are panels where it appears that he tries to make the characters seem more frightening, and it comes off the wrong way. The art feels rushed just like the issue.
Sadly, Superman/Batman is a book that for the last several years has been unable to gather any sort of momentum; it has one to two good issues, which are interrupted by an issue like number sixty-six. Even the Blackest Night tie-in is unable to provide this book with some much needed help. A disappointing and poorly put together issue, that I would suggest not reading.
Superman/Batman #66:
Reviewed by Zfactor
