Batman/Superman [2019] #5 - DC Comics

BATMAN/SUPERMAN No. 5, February 2020

As “explosive first arc” finales go, it is somewhat doubtful that the majority of this comic’s declining 36,269 strong audience were particularly impressed with just how “Who Are The Secret Six?” concludes. For whilst the titular characters successfully stop “the satellite and the portal to the Dark Multiverse”, this twenty-two page periodical doesn’t in any way resolve the consequences of Hawkman, Supergirl, Shazam, Donna Troy and Blue Beetle becoming infected by the Batman Who Laugh’s poisonous toxin.

Indeed, the more cynical reader may well view Issue Five of “Batman/Superman” as little more than the culmination of a huge marketing campaign by “DC Comics” for the Burbank-based publisher’s 2019 crossover comic book event involving Lex Luthor transforming himself into a “human/Martian hybrid version of himself”; especially when this particular book even goes so far as to close with the exasperating caption “follow the Batman Who Laughs & the Infected in Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #1”.

Sadly such shenanigans arguably take the shine off of what is otherwise a darn good story by Joshua Williamson, who uses the death of Superman and his family on Earth-22 to dramatically motivate the Man of Steel in this universe. Positively incensed by the decayed corpses of his wife and child hanging on display within the Dark Multiverse’s satellite, and enraged by Shazam’s horrifying belly-laugh at the sight of his Justice League friends’ mutilated cadavers, the California-born writer depicts a suddenly all-too deadly portrayal of Clark Kent’s alter-ego, who literally pounds both his cousin, Kara Zor-El, and Captain Marvel into the very ground.

“One of the premier shepherds of the DC universe” is similarly as skilful penning Batman too, as the Dark Knight tackles Commissioner Gordon and Blue Beetle using a mixture of wits, gadgetry, fists and Superman’s extra-terrestrial zoo animals. Tapping into Jamie Reyes’s untainted scarab to destroy the Batman Who Laughs’ nefarious tower, and subsequently felling the dark version of Gotham City’s veteran police officer with a thunderous kick in the guts, Williamson also manages to simultaneously show the Caped Crusader’s more caring side, by having him notice just how much discomfort Ted Kord’s successor must constantly be in when morphed into Khaji Da’s battle suit; “Jaime… I never knew… Ugh… That scarab was so… painful…”

Writer: Joshua Williamson, Artist: David Marquez, and Colorist: Alejandro Sanchez

Batman/Superman [2019] #4 - DC Comics

BATMAN/SUPERMAN No. 4, January 2020

Persistently rocking back and forth as to whether or not this comic’s titular characters have any hope of thwarting the Batman Who Laughs and his evil, toxin-infected, super-powered slaves, Joshua Williamson’s script for “Who Are The Secret Six?” may well have caused some of its 45,796 readers to feel a little green about the gills. However, for those bibliophiles able to weather such a sense-shattering storm, it’s hard to imagine them ever encountering another twenty-two page periodical crammed with half as many as twists and turns as the “New York Times Best Selling Author” somehow manages to crowbar into this publication’s action-packed narrative.

For starters, just as it looks likel the ‘dynamic duo’ might be about to outmanoeuvre the Blue Beetle’s stunning subjugation of the Fortress of Solitude in the Bermuda Triangle, the pair are shockingly hamstrung by the unforeseen arrival of a heavily-poisoned Donna Troy and Hawkman. This surprising revelation not only must have caught many a bibliophile off-guard, but also leads to some great dialogue where the likes of Jim Gordon, the original Wonder Girl and Carter Hall rebuke “Blue Boy” and the Dark Knight for a plethora of perceived injustices, such as the American archaeologist emphatically stating just “how sick Carter is of hearing about how you plan for everything, Batman”.

Similarly as stunning is the pulse-pounding entrance of Supergirl, and the almost nonchalant side-punch she subsequently smacks Troy into tomorrow with. The idea of Superman, Kara Zor-El and Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego knuckling down to a no-holds barred bout of fisticuffs against a party of poisoned heroes who have been turned “into the Dark Multiverse versions of themselves” is mouth-watering, until it quickly transpires that intercepting a toxin-laced bat-a-rang hurled by the Blue Beetle probably wasn’t the greatest idea of the Kryptonian’s cousin; “Is someone going to explain to me why all our friends have a metal fetish now?”

Nobly injecting all these non-stop shenanigans with plenty of pace are David Marquez’s scintillating storyboards. Moodily coloured by Alejandro Sanchez, the American artist really manages to imbue this comic’s punch-ups with some palpable impacts. In fact, it’s arguably hard to watch either Troy smacking the seven bells out of Superman or Kara cracking Hawkman squarely on his chiselled jaw, without involuntarily winching at the formidable force such blows would surely create.

Writer: Joshua Williamson, Artist: David Maequez, and Colorist: Alejandro Sanchez

The Riddler: Year Of The Villain #1 - DC Comics

THE RIDDLER: YEAR OF THE VILLAIN No. 1, September 2019

Penned as part of “DC Comics” crossover comic book event “Year Of The Villain”, Mark Russell’s storyline for this thirty-page one-shot certainly delivers in its creative team’s goal of portraying the Riddler as an “inherently tragic… forty-year old man who dresses up in a green costume covered in question marks because he happened to win a riddle contest when he was ten…” In fact, despite this periodical containing plenty of hilarity in the shape of King Tut’s humiliating multiple defeats at the hands of Batman, it will arguably be hard for its audience to recall so sombre a depiction of Edward Nygma as that which Lex Luthor encounters whilst presenting his “dark gifts to super-villains across the DC Universe.”

Fortunately however, “Thanks For Nothing” doesn’t simply contain a sedentary script focusing upon the titular character’s repeated failures “to kill the single best-prepared-for-violence man in the world”, but instead intermixes the murderous mastermind’s depressive musings with plenty of slap-stick action, courtesy of a half-hearted team-up alongside the criminal Egyptologist, Victor Goodman. This compelling combination of the mutton-chopped maniac chasing his personal validation coupled with such antics as the pharaoh’s man-eating tiger prematurely roaring behind the door of the Hall of Two Truths, really manages to imbue a potentially pedestrian-paced plot with infinitely more bounce.

Perhaps this comic’s only possible disappointment is therefore the fact that at no point does the American author actually pit the ‘prince of puzzles’ against the Dark Knight himself, despite having Bill Fingers’ co-creation place himself (“under protest”) inside an ancient sarcophagus ready to administer a lethal coup de grace upon Batman at the conclusion of the comic. Such a confrontation would undoubtedly have gone sour for the Riddler, considering just how inept Tut’s previous efforts to “put one over on a regular dude in a bat costume” have gone. Yet Nygma’s decision to simply walk away from the opportunity to finally defeat his arch-nemesis still somewhat smacks of being anticlimactic; “I quit… I need to start over. I have to leave the failures of the past behind. And say goodbye to myself if I’m ever going to become what I was always meant to be.”

Infinitely more appealing than this book’s demoralising ending is Scott Godlewski’s pencilling, which somehow manages to provide the “pathetic” Edward with an almost palpable atmosphere of gloomy despondency due to “his body language”, whilst simultaneously giving Tut the manic energy a reader may well expect from a lower-tier member of the Caped Crusader’s Rogues Gallery who is blindly determined to somehow defeat his foe with as much gimmicky aplomb as possible.

Writer: Mark Russell, Artist: Scott Godlewski, and Colorist: Marissa Louise

Batman Vs. Ra's al Ghul #1 - DC Comics

BATMAN VS. RA'S AL GHUL No. 1, November 2019

Excitedly reuniting legendary American artist Neal Adams with a character he co-created alongside Denny O’Neil and Julius “Julie” Schwartz way back in 1971, this opening instalment to “Batman VS. Ra’s al Ghul” was one arguably of the most hotly anticipated titles announced by “DC Comics” as part of their Year of the Villain promotion. And to begin with, at least, the twenty-two page periodical’s pulse-pounding plot genuinely looks set to provide a truly enjoyable read, as the Joe Sinnott Hall of Famer’s narrative goes straight for the jugular with the titular character desperately trying to single-handedly save his beloved Gotham City from a mass terrorist uprising.

Packed full of far more punches, pugilism and pooches than arguably your average modern-day superhero comic book contains, the Manhattan-born illustrator's dynamically-sketched action depicts the Caped Crusader at his bone-breaking best, even pencilling the Dark Knight heatedly turning upon a group of heavily-weaponed “not S.W.A.T.” who have started gunning down a group of extremists; “Batman is attacking… the… Batman is certainly angry here. He’s punishing those armed men for shooting the terrorists.”

Yet despite being supposedly “pushed back two weeks for a September… release” by its Burbank-based publisher, this “end of an adventure that's taken three graphic novels to resolve” suddenly provides a disappointingly palatable sense of ill-disciplined haste, by nonsensically proposing that Ra’s al Ghul, an international criminal mastermind and Image Games Network’s seventh top comic book villain of all time, has inexplicably been brought in by the municipal’s mayor in order for the maniac’s “thirty-five trained and equipped agents” to aid the over-stretched authorities in their fight to suppress an already disconcertingly contrived metropolis-wide emergency.

To make matters worse, this utterly whacky and unstomachable decision is even ardently defended by Commissioner Gordon, despite the senior policeman having literally just witnessed one of Professor al Ghul’s personal security guards gun down a “man in cold blood”. The fact Adams depicts the moustached, former United States Marine Corps veteran siding with Batman’s ‘Moriarty’, rather than turning to his government’s armed forces for assistance, unhappily makes this six-part mini-series story-line fall flat on its face almost from the get-go, and comes across as being as likely a response to such troubled times as the Bronze Age superstar’s next decision, which is to portray Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego wearily walking away from the ongoing death and destruction surrounding a triumphant Ra's al Ghul in abject defeat...

Written, Darwn and Coloured by: Neal Adams, and Lettered by: Clem Robins

Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy #1 - DC Comics

HARLEY QUINN & POISON IVY No. 1, November 2019

Announced by Jody Houser on her “Twitter” account back in June 2019, and “set after the events of Heroes In Crisis”, Issue One of “Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy” disappointingly doesn’t actually provide much in the way of exciting entertainment until the comic’s conclusion when the titular characters are faced with a decidedly deranged Floronic Man. Indeed, the vast majority of this snooze-inducing, sedentarily-paced twenty-page periodical simply follows the sprawling soliloquies of Harleen Frances Quinzel as she dubiously determines whether to genuinely become a super-hero, and Doctor Pamela Lillian Isley’s difficulties having so recently returned from the dead.

Naturally, such a lavish attention to the mental well-being of the Joker’s pony-tailed main squeeze, provides the “critically-acclaimed” comics writer with several opportunities with which to both further explore the intern psychiatrist’s mounting insanity, and the villain's strong liking for her resurrected floral ‘partner in crime’. But even these, the highlight of which is arguably Quinn angrily kicking a fluffy, cuddly unicorn across her bedroom floor, don’t actually help progress the book’s lack-lustre plot, and instead simply inundate the reader with a plethora of text boxes and dialogue-heavy speech bubbles; “You’reawakehowareyoufeelingdidthefertilizerwasitmagicareyouallbetternow?”

Sadly, Ivy’s ‘spotlight’ is similarly as devoid of interest, as the occasional anti-heroine spends most of this publication simply struggling to maintain her humanoid shape, as well as coping with the mental trauma of being “merc’d by one of the good guys.” This debatably monotonous mindlessness of “one of Batman's most enduring enemies” really does Robert Kanigher’s co-creation a disservice, and sadly it debatably isn’t until towards this book’s end, once the Metahuman has fully consumed Lex Luthor’s box of specially treated fertilizer, that Pamela finally starts to attract the attention warranted by one of the mainstays of the Caped Crusader’s rogues gallery.

Mercifully however, what this comic lacks in quality penmanship, it does partially make up for in its arts department, courtesy of some wonderful pencilling by Adriana Melo. The Brazilian illustrator’s layouts arguably get better and better with every panel, and especially prove eye-catching once she is tasked with sketching the flowery Floronic Man. Little wonder therefore that Houser has gone on record as saying that she is “having a blast working with Adriana. I love the emotion and energy she brings to the characters.”

Written by: Jody Houser, Pencils by: Adriana Melo, and Colors by: Hi-Fi