BATMAN No. 36, January 2015 |
Initially dedicated to arguably “DC Comics” most requested
confrontation before its narrative perceptibly darkens to depict the Caped
Crusader at his deductive best, this second instalment of Scott Snyder’s “Endgame”
genuinely seems to contain all the strengths of a “Batman” title and few of its
weaknesses. For whilst it’s unclear just why a shockingly foul-mouthed Alfred
is unwell and “not at full strength”, nor how Pennyworth happens to have come
by an adolescent-looking daughter, this thirty-page periodical does contain the
Dark Knight seriously smacking down Superman in a titanic tussle as well as the
Joker at his most chillingly evil: “See Batssss, this time, no more games… No
more jokes. I’m just here to close up shop!” In fact in many ways it is
actually hard to understand just why so action-packed and sinisterly
suspenseful a magazine didn’t manage to be the best-selling title of November
2014, at least according to “Diamond Comic Distributors”, and instead
languished in third shifting 115,183 copies.
Admittedly few collectors could have anticipated the
Goodreads Choice Award-nominee scripting such a scintillating scrap as the one
Issue Thirty Six of “Batman” contains. The American author somehow manages to
capture all the ingenuity and cunning of Bruce Wayne during his battle with
Kal-El, as the Bat-Suit armoured vigilante repeatedly knocks his super-strong opponent
to the ground courtesy of knuckles which contain “microscopic red suns”, counters
the boy scout’s heat vision with “plasma shields” and finally overcomes Jerry
Siegel’s co-creation due to “a butadiene-based synthetic rubber… laced with
radioactive Kryptonian dust” which he simply spits in Superman’s eye.
Equally as enthralling however is the American author’s
hauntingly claustrophobic portrayal of the titular character as he silently
stalks Arkham Asylum “after the collapse” and discovers cell 0801 contains far
more than fading memories, spider webs and entrapped flies. Indeed the New
Yorker’s revelation that orderly “Mister Border” is actually the Clown Prince
of Crime in disguise is extremely well-written and only spoilt by the fact that
the Joker’s alter ego was already revealed in the “Arkham Manor” mini-series.
The variant cover art of "BATMAN" No. 36 by Andy Kubert |
I will be interested to read your thoughts on the rest of the arc Simon. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks PulpCitizen... I think. Please don't tell me its rubbish, I've really liked this one so far...
DeleteI think it was a much better arc than the Year Zero stuff, with some caveats.
DeleteI think you capture the strengths of the opening very well there. :)
That's much appreciated PulpCitizen, and reassuring :-)
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