NCD #4: Where I talk about stuff I bough this week, again

Batman #675

Oh Grant Morrison, even your run-of-the-mill stories are anything but. You’re one of the three or four writers that my gf actually recognizes because a) I have so much of your stuff lying around the house and b) I get a little weak in the brain every time something you write comes out. Final Crisis just might kill me.

Anyway, Batman. A fairly straightforward story here. Bruce Wayne is having dinner with Vicki Va…Jezebel Jet who is in the process of breaking up him because she doesn’t feel that he opens up to her enough. During dinner bad guys come in and kidnap her and Bruce is forced to take them down without his batsuit. We’ve all heard this plot before right? Bruce Wayne forced to fight crime in street clothes because he can’t change into his tights in time. This motif is a fairly regular staple in Bat-comics.

Only this time supermodel, politician and international activist Jezebel Jet sees through the thousand dollar suit to the crimefighter beneath and pegs him as Bats. It feels like Morrison is using this issue as a lead-in to Batman R.I.P. It’s good for what it is, but it doesn’t show us anything we haven’t seen before.

The art was a little weak. Repeated readings of the dinner scene didn’t make it any clearer as to who some characters were supposed to be, where they came from and what side they were fighting on.

I was also a little mystified by the appearance of Merlyn, alongside Talia and Damian, in the B story. I know Merlyn as primarily a Green Arrow villain, although I hear he spent some time with the League of Assassins. With some of the dialogue being kicked around I couldn’t be sure if Merlyn was aware of Bruce’s double life or not. Given some of his history in the DCU I’m not sure that this makes sense. Merlyn strikes me as the type of character that if he knew about Bruce’s alter-ego he’d either try to profit from it or start spreading it around the underworld.

Am I the only one who thinks this?

Death of the New Gods #8

A fitting, if albeit temporary, end to the New Gods saga. I was surprised at how melancholy I was after finishing this issue. It felt to me that I wasn’t saying goodbye to the New Gods, rather I was saying goodbye to Jack Kirby himself. With this title almost all of Kirby’s ongoing DC characters have been taken off the board. I know that with FC the role of the New Gods will be substantially revamped but I’m not sure what that ‘Fifth World’ will look like yet.

This issue hits the stands a week after Countdown #2 and answers some of the questions that issue left us with, such as how Orion came back from the dead and why Superman was content to let him stagger off, alone and dying, after killing his father (because he was already dead apparently) Unfortunately it also highlighted some fairly notable discrepancies as well, like where did Dark Side’s Celestial power go to, why can Orion speak now and a host of others mysteries.

However, overall this series has been pretty consistent throughout. I’m not a huge fan of Starlin’s art or his writing, but there was nothing overly offensive about either that was going to drive me away from this book. It’s a little unfortunate that so many characters had off-screen or unseen deaths. In a perfect world we’d have seen more of their personal stories before they were shuffled off into parts unknown. But DNG touched on enough of the really prolific characters to make reading the story worthwhile.

Next stop, Final Crisis.

Justice League of America #20

Hey, who’s that? It’s the Queen Bee. Last seen, by me anyway, in the now defunct title, JLA, durign it’s World War III arc. Apparently she’s no longer slurring her words by adding z’s onto everything but is still trying her level best to take over the world.

This is one of the steadier League stories in a long time. I’m one of the rare few who don’t foam at the mouth when you bring up Meltzer’s run on this title. I freely admit some of his decisions on the title were downright crap. But I think Meltzer gets a bad rap for being, well, Meltzer. It almost feels like there’s a prejudice against him because he doesn’t believe writing comic books is the holy grail of his career. I notice the same scorn whenever someone talks about a television writer trying to cross mediums as well.

Anyway, this story is a done-in-one, team-up style tale where the Flash and Wonder Woman join forces to kick ass and take names. Wally lays some science on us as he’s putting out fires and Wonder Woman tries to talk him into making the League more of a priority. And somewhere in there they find the time to foil the Queen Bee’s plans.

I enjoy how McDuffie writes Wonder Woman. I find that he was able to make her sound like the warrior diplomat that she’s supposed to be. Van Sciver’s art was highly enjoyable, much more engaging than I usually find it. I guess he just needed a break from drawing the entire rogue’s gallery of the Green Lantern Corp.

Checkmate #25

So long Greg Rucka. And with your departure I’m officially dropping this title. I first started reading this book a year ago on a lark because I had a light week in comics and was looking for something else to read. I was hooked on the series pretty quickly. Enough so that I even trolled through some back issue bins to see what I’d missed.

Rucka’s final issue reveals the identity of the rooks, Checkmate’s heavy hitters in emergency scenarios. In order to function as a team, the rooks inject alien DNA from Starro the Conqueror in order to maintain a telepathic link and improve their efficiency.

What I like about this series is that it’s part of DC continuity yet outside it as well. This is a comic where soldiers do all the things traditional spandex heroes aren’t supposed to do. They kill, shoot guns and hurt people badly. Yet Rucka never shied away from bringing in name heroes on occasion and doing so in a way that was seamless, suited the story and didn’t seem like a callous sop to boost sales. That’s never an easy thing to do.

Rucka is in his element with this title. He’s always paid meticulous attention to detail, working hard to bring us the flavour and terminology of a world wide para-military counter-intelligence unit. Nowhere was this more evident than in this issue. I really enjoyed the little dialogue bubbles that he created to show how the rooks were in constant three-way communication with each other. It was a neat little extra that showed a willingness to think outside the box a little.

From some of his recent statements it sounds like Rucka is not all that happy with life at DC. He recently let his exclusive contract with the company expire without resigning. Best of luck on your future projects Greg, I look forward to reading them.