Goodness, look at that cover - Batman's phone bill must be huge. Good job Bruce Wayne's such a rich fellow.But who's he teaming up with? As it turns out, pretty much everyone. For this is a special issue, one veering away from the fun formula of a mini team-up followed by the main event. Here it's one TV-style prologue after another as we spend a week with the Caped Crusader and learn that 'A Batman's work is never done'.
And the pairings are a treat. There's Metamorpho, the Green Lantern Corps, Jonah Hex, Hawkman, the Inferior Five, the Creeper. Merry, Girl of 1,000 Gimmicks for crying out loud, beating a bad guy with bubblegum and sass! The villains are equally eclectic, including Mongul, the Gentleman Ghost, Mr Element ... some guy in a tracksuit. And there are cameos to boot, including the one 'Bat' character I don't believe Batman has yet met.
It's a speedy read, yet a satisfying one, with good-natured energy and banter carrying us from one Sunday through to the next. A Batman bound to contemporary Gotham may be the standard these days, but who wouldn't wish to be this version of the character, a guy fighting in space one day, the Old West the next, courtesy of writer Sholly Fisch and artists Robert W Pope and Scott McRae?
This series doesn't have the following of other Batman books, but it's building to be one of the most consistently entertaining of them all. Have you tried it yet?
Mart, please feel free to delete this comment as nothing to do with the entry... it's just a reply to your post on my blog.
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I don't like the artwork on this one. Too comic-y if you know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteOh, ta for the link, Crusty. Let's keep it.
ReplyDeleteFudgey, I love this artwork. The comic's designated 'all-ages' so DC is using artists with kid appeal. I love the open 'cartooniness' of the style.
But watch for my review of the new Superman/Batman, I suspect you'll like the art.
Ooh, I'll have to pick this up. Why does Bats keep so many landlines? Did the I-5 appear in any other issues? And Merry--There's someone I want to see teamed with Wonder Woman! (But didn't regular DCU continuity marry her off to someone dull and forget about her/kill her?)
ReplyDeleteI've missed a few issues so can't tell you if the Inferior 5 were around earlier. I suspect not, don't remember them in the cover gallery at GCD. Mind, they may have done the prologue thing.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I remember Merry in the regular DCU was in the Young Justice Sins of Youth Storyline. She was in a team named Old Justice. Grant Morrison gave her a daughter in his Seven Soldiers storyline, Gimmix, but she never lasted long.