Eddy Barrows

Sure, the Rise of the Batmen might be flawed but I could care less. This was just an awesome story. The premise of this book is so freaking rad in all its superhero/cyberpunk glory! Batman notices drones around Gotham and decides to put a team together. He gathers Batwoman to help him lead (as well as for other reasons) and recruits the people he knows are good but need more training to work on their own. Tim (Red Robin), Cassandra, Steph, and reformed villain Clay Face. This crew is strange show more but somehow, James Tynion IV makes it work!

Quickly they uncover that there is an elite fighting force mimicking the Dark Knight on the streets of Gotham. Their equipment, tech, and tactics are based on Batman's, but they're far more sophisticated than anything he's ever seen. Batman needs his own army if he's going to take down this new enemy but Batwoman doesn't know that the person behind this enemy is someone dear to both her and Bruce.

This arc had intrigue, heart, and even humor. And I really enjoyed the cyberpunk aspect of the story. Tech is such a crucial element to how Batman fights crime, I believe it is integral to any Batman story.

The artwork was fantastic as well.

Read this one.

It's a great entry point into the DC Universe Rebirth series. show less

The premise of this seems kind of crazy - Batman and Batwoman start their own homegrown team with Red Robin, Spoiler, Cassandra Cain (woof, is "Orphan" ever a superhero name that needs to go), and Clayface (yes, really) - but works insanely well. Tynion has a strong handle on the characters (skimming some reviews, some people think a particular heel turn is unconvincing - it didn't surprise me at all) and the art is really magnificent and surprisingly expressive. This does pretty well with show more its mandated Rebirth Tie-In(TM) too. Really good work. show less

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

Like the previous volume, Future/Past doesn't deliver on the potential that I see in the "all new" Atom, Ryan Choi. What makes him interesting is his academic background (okay, maybe as a college instructor I'm a little biased there) and the setting of Ivy Town, a place where so much mad science has been practiced that "normal" is a meaningless term. And I liked the cast of characters Gail Simone and John Byrne set up in show more volume one, Ryan's eccentric fellow professors who all play poker together.

The first story collected here, "The Man Who Swallowed Eternity," promises time-travel shenanigans, but is really depressingly straightforward. Ryan is told by a Linear Man* to turn in a guy if he asks Ryan for help, the guy appears and Ryan doesn't turn him in, the Linear Man comes back and Ryan persuades him to not kill the guy anyway. That's it, but somehow it takes two issues to play out. The fact that the Linear Man sends cowboys after Ryan, or that Ryan and the fugitive end up in a dystopian future Ivy Town, are just irrelevant side-shows. Neat ideas in this story, but nothing neat is done with them.

The second story, "Jia," feels like a misstep for the book at this stage: a girl Ryan loved from afar asks him to come back to Hong Kong to help deal with an abusive husband, who used to bully Ryan... only she neglected to mention that the husband is already dead but still angry! Ryan's bullied-nerd background is dull and stereotypical, and Jia's portrayal as a woman being fought over by two men is pretty surprising coming from the writer who coined the term "Women in Refrigerators," especially given the last twist in the story. The three-issue detour back to Hong Kong is mistimed for a book that's barely done much with its actual setting thus far. Let's see more of Ivy Town! Most of the book's recurring cast doesn't even appear in this volume, unfortunately. Establish your world, then take a break from it.

So far The All New Atom isn't really delivering on its potential. Hopefully this happens in the third volume... because we're running out of volumes, as it only lasted four!

The Atom: « Previous in sequence | Next in sequence » show less

Thanks to a sale at BN, I finally picked up some of the Rebirth comics. Well it's certainly different. I haven't followed DC after the Flashpoint reboot because I had been too invested in the old continuity and didn't have the energy to learn a new one. (No, that's not try. I did read some of Gail Simone's Batgirl run because she's amazing -- both Gail and Babs.) A friend finally convinced me to give it a try, and that Rebirth was a good place to start again.

This was interesting. It was show more definitely different. I'm very intrigued with the team Batman put together, the larger role of Batwoman (who I honestly never really got too familiar with, but I might need to fix that), and how Clayface was now not a bad guy (WHAT???). Also, that ending! Okay, tentatively hooked and willing to read more. show less