Brian Azzarello

This perfect marriage between writer and artist. I'm a little beside myself for not having read this terrific series sooner. Azzarello nails character dialog in a way rarely seen in any written form. His bad guys have tude to the nth degree and always seem on the edge of gross violence. His two mystery men (agent Graves and Mr. Shepard) are not delved into at this point, but it's clear these are dark men with a long reach and intricate connections. Risso's art is crude, which is about the show more highest compliment I can think of for this particular project. Crude fits! The language, the actions, the moral dilemmas all face are base at heart. Of particular please is the numerous unexpected angles Risso uses to form the perspectives to his drawings. In one issue, viewers are looking up and out of a toilet to see two characters framed within the oval seat.

If you like hard boiled mysteries, this is for you. show less

Absolute Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello & Cliff Chiang Vol. 1 collects the first eighteen issues and the zeroth issue of the New 52 Wonder Woman comics, in which Diana learns of her true parentage and enters a conflict between the forces of Olympus and the illegitimate offspring of Zeus for control over heaven's throne. Azzarello's writing encapsulates the dark, gritty feel of the New 52 universe and, while his Wonder Woman is often more reactionary, the fast-paced story and action are show more entertaining. His exploration of the various realms of the gods recalls the world-building in Neil Gaiman's work. That world-building would not be possible without Chiang's artwork. His take on the gods, while different from the more classically Greek appearance in George Pérez's work, fits the tone of Azzarello's writing and adds a level of the fantastic that a more traditional approach might not. Long-time fans of the character may wish for more, but this is a good introduction to the New 52 version and the gorgeous hardcover slipcase volume will look perfect on bookshelves. The concept sketches and other background material are a wonderful addition to this work. show less

This is the one volume of the series that doesn't have a number-related pun in the title, which annoys me deeply on some meaningless level. But the award-winning story is very good. I think what I like best about it is how subtly unexpected it is, specifically in regards to its portrayal of race. It would have been easy to present Loop as the stereotypical gangbanger, but he's actually a surprisingly thoughtful kid, who completely transcends that image. And I especially liked that he and his show more father eventually and truly bonded over baseball. It's an idea so traditional that you barely notice it, but after all the crime and violence, it's quite unusual to have such a Norman Rockwell moment. show less

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

I don't know if these World of Flashpoint books are getting better or if I'm just acclimating to their style and purpose, but I think this volume was the best of them so far. It doesn't have the best individual story in it (that's probably "Project Superman"), but it has three decently enjoyable tales and only one real dud. The reading sequence I devised/picked/was given continues to work well, too: the Booster Gold story show more in the previous volume alluded to the fact that there was something not right about this timeline's Batman, and in this volume we get to see what that is.

"Knight of Vengeance" is a gritty noir tale from Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. Azzarello excels as this kind of thing. I'm not sure there was really a story here, but it provides an effective series of snapshots of this universe's Batman and Joker, who manage to be even more broken than those of the primary timeline. We see Batman's crime-fighting empire and criminal(!) empire, his relationship with Jim Gordon (yay!), and the dark twisted night that changed everything for him. Batman alludes to the existence of the primary timeline in a conversation with the Joker; I suppose I'll get to see how he knows about it when I reach the main Flashpoint book. Eduardo Risso on art also impresses. I don't think I've ever seen any of his work before, but his simple style works really well for communicating the darkness of this story. Less a tale and more a demonstration of the need to change this world back, "Knight of Vengeance" leaves me more eager to get to the main event.

"Deadman and the Flying Graysons" is what you might imagine from the title: Deadman (who is not yet dead) and the Grayson family (also not yet dead) are acrobats at a circus. In a tour of Europe, Amazons attack the circus seeking the Helm of Fate, and this timeline plays out the realities of the old one all over again, as the Graysons die and young Dick must step up and become a hero. This isn't great, but it's a solid tale, mostly because of the strong character voice writer J. T. Krul gives Deadman, as an isolated man forced to make emotional connections by a time of crisis. Probably the best comic by Krul I've ever read (this is damning with faint praise). There are three artists for the three issues here, but Mikel Janin, Fabrizio Fiorentino, and Alejandro Giraldo all have a solid, heroic style that works for this tale.

The last two stories seem to have little to do with the world of Batman, but I guess they had to go somewhere. Now, Deathstroke the Terminator is one of my least favorite DC villains, but I admire the thought process of writer Jimmy Palmiotti in "Deathstroke and the Curse of the Ravager": Deathstroke has an eyepatch. Pirate captains have eyepatches. What if Deathstroke was a pirate captain? It's a pretty dumb story, but this is probably the best and most fun story about Deathstroke murdering his way across the seven seas I could possibly imagine. So violent it becomes ridiculous, which I guess was the idea.

This disappointing story here was "Secret Seven," where a good story about Shade the Changing Man is seems frustratingly just out of focus. It's like, who cares about these guys? There are flashes of good ideas (this timeline's depressed young Amy Winston is trapped in the adult body of Princess Amethyst of Gemworld) and there are some good layouts and striking imagery from the art team (which includes fifteen pages from George Pérez; like, you get Pérez to draw fifteen pages of this?), but I found it hard to care most of the time, and most of the women had ridiculous outfits, even for superhero comics. The end sort of ties into the story of the Amazons we saw in The World of Flashpoint featuring Wonder Woman, but I have my doubts that this will actually matter to Flashpoint one jot.

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