Random DC Comic Reviews

 Detective Comics #1065.  "Drowned, a fool who sought to swim against the undertow....against the currents of his own making. There is no air for a fool, no breath for a Bat. Not down here, in the deep of yourself, where lies the demon -Bar-ba-tos. How long will strive for air before you give in and imbibe of the blood that lies beneath? Not Long now, little Bruce. Not Long Now"  1. In the beginning God created the paper and the pen.  2. but the world was without comics, void, and dark 3. And god said, Let there be DC Comics, and so there was DC Comics.  4. And god saw that DC Comics was good, so he created Batman.  5. And god said let there be Raphael Albuquerque, and so there was Ralph Albuquerque  6. And god saw this was good so he let beautiful art flourish throughout comic land 7. And god said let their be Ram V, and so there was Ram V.  8. And god saw this was good, and allowed Ram V to create a masterpiece! I have no idea if the existence of god is real, but I do know

 Rogues #4 I was absolutely livid during the first issue when I found out that Weather Wizard and Captain Boomerang had been left out of the story to be replaced by Bronze Tiger, and another female villain. (Who was so unmemorable I can't even remember her name) Now, Bronze Tiger is one of my favourite all time DC superheroes/anti heroes, despite his lack of appearances over the decades, but he did not belong in this story, and neither did the other female villain.  In short, the replacements felt woke, and whether it was done intentionally or it was just Williamson's decision, a great opportunity to make Flash fans run out and buy this was missed with the exclusion of Weather Wizard and Captain Boomerang, two of the most historically beloved Flash rogues of all time. I would have LOVED to seen how they died, as opposed to two replacement characters that have no history with the Flash, and were seemingly brought in for diversity reasons???  (Help me out here, I can't think

  DC Vs Vampires All Out War #4  Up to this point I thought this comic was fairly decent, but.....sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.  There are some good characters in here, even if some of them are vampires (Mary Marvel, Booster, The Question, Midnighter, Shining Knight) but the major problem here is when the writing isn't on fire, or is somewhat substandard in quality; is that the minimalist ink tones (Primarily just red, black and white) throughout the comic employed by Qualano and Bright make it hard to follow as to what is going on, or at the very least doesn't bring the diversity of these characters to light. I think these ink tones stylistically would work great in a Batman comic, just not in a major epic event that showcases numerous heroes.  2 and 1/2 Stars out of 5

  Batman #128 It's official! There is a race going on for the best writer at DC comics right now, and they are both on DC's  top premier titles, Batman and Detective Comics, and honestly I can't tell you who is better at present because both Chip Zdarsky and Ram V have impeccable writing and story telling abilities. Ram V, is giving us the classic mystery suspense built up that is synonymous with Detective Comics, and Chip Zdarsky, well he's brining us the action! Batman has always been semi paranoid, so much so that he kept files on all his friends, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, in case one of them went rogue and he had to defeat them. (In fairness to Bruce one of them did) so Chip Zdarsky makes us contemplate the question "What would happen if Batman created something that was designed to stop him?" and to that he gives us the answer with Failsafe, a highly advanced robotic android that has transformed Gotham City into a surveillance super state,

  The Human Target # 7 Film Noir is the term used to describe the cynical gritty detective films of the 40's and 50's, so I wonder what a 1960's version would be called (Neo Noir?) because that is beautiful backdrop Greg Smallwood paints for us. Long cars & wide hotels, something that looks like a Sean Connery Bond movie situated in Florida. The main character himself looks like he could have been cast as the father on the Brady Bunch, or some 1960's sitcom like Bewitched. In short, I love his art, particularly the facial expressions, and sultry figures of Fire and Ice whom he brings to life in this comic.  As for Tom King, he delivers, Smallwood and King make a great team, and even though this is rated 17+, I guarantee you I would have been enthralled with this comic at age 13. (Some of us grow up faster than others I guess) While the critics out there will decry character assassination, I think they are missing the point. This is an elseworlds story that doesn'

 The Sword Of Azrael # 3                   A lot of times a series will start of good, and than sort of sputter and lose momentum, particularly when they becomes wrapped up in long drawn out origin stories, which seems to be where were headed with this series, though it is still more than readable.   We know that Azrael has been endowed with some sort of genetic enhancement as a result of being a test tube baby raised to be an angel of vengeance by the order of St. Dumas, but what hasn't been explored yet (at least to my knowledge) is just how it happened, and how he was psychologically programmed to be a killer, this is what writer Dan Watters attempts to do.  If your into conspiracy theories like the Knights of Templar and the Vatican Deception you might like the tone of this comic, though it deals with the roots of Azrael's Christian theology from a strictly materialist perspective, which is good, because introducing magic into the equation would fundamentally change Azrael&

SGT ROCK VS. The Army of the Dead For those of you who are not aware of who the writer Bruce Campbell is, and why he is popular, here's an introduction. (I would post the actual video, but blogspot's selection has become so poor) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_nvPEemo14 I'm an Evil Dead fanboy, so it's hard for me to be objective about this, but...  With World War 2 getting farther and farther away, and with young American carrying tiki torches in Charlottesville, I was starting to get worried that America had forgotten who the real enemy to Western Civilization is, but Bruce Campbell hasn't, he knows what it is.....Nazis! That's right, but not any old swastika wearing Nazi bums, but zombies Nazi's! so SGT Rock and Easy Company are in for quite the fight.  It's great to see an outside writer come in who has the popularity to drag any characters out of obscurity, so I am more than delighted that SGT Rock is getting some print time....my only wish being

Tim Drake Robin # 1                                                    No I'm not going to give this 1 star, like a lot of comic fans would like me to do, but I do sympathize with Tim Drake fans. Having one of your favourite heroes continuity changed for the sake of gender politics, and then tossed to a writer who has a non conventional writing style, only to be called a bigot on reddit or comic forums when you protest, is a really shitty thing for DC to do to Tim Drake fans. I was never a Tim Drake fan, by the time the  90's were in full swing I was done with sidekicks, but I always recognized he was an extremely popular character. Not many titles reach 50 issues let alone 183! Which is what the Robin title reached under Tim Drake, so you think that DC would clue in and realize that there was a big market out there for another Tim Drake run, but DC never learns do they. They still think that comics is primarily a demographically transitory hobby, and that they can make full sc

 Detective Comics 1064 DC has two things going for it right now and they are called Ram V & Chip Zdarsky, two highly skilled writers on top of their games who are both writing arguably DC's top two titles; Batman and Detective Comics, and while Batman historically always sells higher than Detective Comics, I cannot stress how good Ram V is on the latter title right now.  Everything about this run so far screams classic collectible, from the cover art, to Rafael Albuquerque's art, and of course the masterclass writing of Ram V. Detective Comics has always been a slow burn in comparison to its more action packed brethren the Batman, because it tends to hone in on Batman using his Detective skills to solve pending mysteries, and in this issue Ram V does an excellent job of setting up the narrative of an impeding menacing threat that is about to arrive on the port of Gotham, one Bruce Wayne has yet to figure out what it is, and if DC's future solicitations are any hint, tha