Category: Batman
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Gene Colan and Bob Smith are back on the art and it’s a strange return for Colan. It’s a lot of action and Colan goes a lot more dynamic than he usually does. There are some fantastic panels in this issue. Nice page layouts too. It’s a winner on the art. Moench writes Jason’s diary;…
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It almost doesn’t feel like Moench is writing the comic. He is, obviously, since there’s the avoidance of any new plot for Jason and an awkward comment about Alfred’s daughter. Jason calls her a honey or something. But the comic has Flash villains visiting and Moench writing about how incapable Batman is against them. Robin…
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Janson art again. It’s just phenomenal. He’s even figured out he doesn’t like doing splash panels with bland superhero poses so instead he’s doing complex panels indicating lots of movement. The way Janson draws Robin beats how he draws Batman; he’s very enthusiastic about all the movement. The feature story is actually rather confusing. Not…
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The art is uneven. Mandrake has some excellent composition and okay panels, then some not so good of either. He can’t do the action scenes; his Batman and Robin fighting thugs looks like scene out of the Adam West TV show. But even with uneven art, it’s a great issue. Two high points–the epilogue where…
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It’s an issue of amazing art. Klaus Janson isn’t doing a lot of detail on faces, which is not good, but his composition is breathtaking. The way he translates Moench’s script–sort of sapping out the sentimentality and enthusiasm–this issue is a mix between superhero idealism and melancholy cynicism. It’s beautiful. Janson’s also got the best…
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Tom Mandrake does the art for the issue. He’s unsure of himself but always interesting. He shifts styles a lot throughout–this issue tells the origin of the Black Mask. In a lot of ways, it feels more like an old Spider-Man than anything else. There’s something very Ditko in how Mandrake draws Black Mask. And…
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It’s an odd done-in-one, with Moench structuring the issue around an article from Julia (Alfred’s daughter). Poor Julia has never been much of a character, just a third vertex in Moench’s Bruce Wayne love triangle. Except when Alfred sort of pimps her out. Those moments are awkward, terrible and amusing. But she writes an article…
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With Chuck Patton helping, the pencils are occasionally tolerable. Even Alcala inking can’t fix whatever Hoberg does wrong with Batman’s cowl, unfortunately. There are a couple big scenes this issue–besides the resolution of the Calendar Man arc, which features Moench’s least annoying characterization of him. He’s not blathering to himself throughout. It’s nice. There’s a…
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There’s something distressing about the art on the feature. It barely looks like the previous Broderick and Smith issues; maybe Broderick didn’t give Smith much to work with. There’s certainly not a lot in the way of inventive composition (something Moore excels with on the backup). Moench’s feature story gets better as it goes along.…
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Hoberg and Nebres’s art is a little perplexing. The medium shots, pretty much anything with Batman, the action sequences, none of these work out. No one’s really putting in any effort. The Batman cowl, for instance, is just awful. But in the pensive close-ups of characters? All of a sudden Hoberg and Nebres are trying.…
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Moench goes a little too high concept for this one, especially since Broderick isn’t really the artist to do a protracted chase sequence. A small-time thug runs across the rooftops, Batman in close pursuit, and Moench flashes back to all the things in his life to bring the thug to this point. It’s a little…
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After my many complaints Moench never writes Bruce Wayne at length (and sensible, as he did write him at length and ludicrous during the Jason Todd adoption thing), he dedicates an entire issue to Bruce. It’s a day in the life and it’s a comedy. There are angry women, parent-teacher conferences, buffoonish builders, not to…
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It’s a nice issue overall. The feature has Moench, Broderick and Smith doing a Harvey Bullock issue. Moench plays it mostly for laughs, then goes deeper–showing the “real” Bullock–and then giving him a difficult conflict to resolve. And manages to get in a big fight scene for him and Batman (teaming up against thugs, not…
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Editor Len Wein really should have sent this one back to the oven. First off, there’s the art from Rick Hoberg and Rudy Nebres. It’s awful. The figures are too static, the settings are too slight. Especially given Moench does a whole hostage airplane storyline–the art fails it every step of the way. Except when…
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So Moench finds an interesting way to move past all the Jason Todd adoption stuff. He forgets about it. Oh, he mentions it a bunch, especially in the opening scene with Jason eating a snack in the kitchen with Bruce and Alfred. But the character relationships are all different now. There’s banter, there’s teasing Batman…
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Moench neatly ties everything together–including Bruce setting up Nocturna for an unnecessary fall–and it’s hard to remember why any of the threads are important at all. They weren’t important to the characters, except Nocturna (and maybe Alfred); Moench’s frantic pace keeps the issue engaging but it’s not fulfilling in any way. Then there’s the matter…
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Moench partially redeems his amnesia storyline this issue with the suggestion it’s not going to go on for too long. He also does some decent work teaming up Robin and Nocturna, which he doesn’t play out as well as he could–is it really any odder to have a woman and her ward fighting crime than…
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What an odd turn of events. One can’t help but note Moench is following a number of story beats–corrupt politician, villain masquerading as Batman–Gerry Conway did immediately prior in his lengthy run, not to mention other writers before them. Rick Hoberg takes over the pencils for the issue (just this one, I hope) and he…
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From the start, it’s kind of clear Colan’s rushing on the art. Pretty much everyone looks like Dracula, from villainous Mayor Hill to angry little Jason Todd. Hill’s plotting, Jason’s being mean to adoptive mom, Nocturna, as they’re out for an evening walk. In the meantime, Batman’s on the run from the cops, who don’t…
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It’s a crazy issue. The last half has not just Robin telling Nocturna he’d love her as a man would if he were older, it’s got Batman blathering on to her about… no, I’m wrong. That thing with Robin telling his newly adopted mother he’d have the hots for her, Moench never tops that one.…
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This issue has some beautiful art from Gene Colan and Bob Smith in the feature and then Shawn McManus in the backup, but it’s a disaster otherwise. Moench spends most of the feature with his really lame character, the Night-slayer. Basically the guy’s just a standard acrobatic, costumed villain who carried on with Nocturna (his…
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I’m kind of hoping Moench’s got a good back story saved up for Nocturna. She gets what I think is her first interior monologue–if not first, first significant one she’s come back–where she’s questioning her motives. There are hints at some strange origin. It would help. Batman too gets a lengthy internal monologue as he…
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What an issue. How to even start. Okay, so Moench is having so much trouble figuring out why Bruce Wayne wants to adopt Jason Todd, he actually has a scene where Nocturna “tempts” him with the promise of a ready-made family. They’ll get married, adopt Jason, be Batman and family. It’s inexplicable stuff, with Moench…
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Moench runs directly into that Bruce Wayne problem he’s been having for a while. He has to have Bruce decide he wants to sneak around with Nocturna; it comes after a lengthy conversation with Alfred. Moench does fine with that conversation–the art from Newton and Alcala is fantastic, Newton’s compositions this issue are amazing–but he…
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Wow, what’s Moench thinking? He’s done some great, ambitious stories since he started writing the Batman comics but… a supervillain adopting Jason Todd? Noctura is back–she looks like a vampire, something I assume they came up with for Gene Colan–and she wants to adopt Jason. It’s actually no less absurd than Bruce Wayne wanting to…
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Moench has a lengthy conversation between Alfred and Bruce about the state of affairs–Jason, Bruce’s love life, a little with Batman–and it’s a decent scene. Even though much of the content is absurd, with Bruce mentioning he hadn’t thought through the legalities of being Jason’s guardian, it’s a good enough scene. The main plot has…
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It says something when Moench’s got more character in two or three dialogue interchanges between Jason and Alfred’s daughter–they don’t like each other or something–than in a bunch of lengthy conversations between Batman and Robin. Family services takes Jason Todd away because Bruce Wayne neglected the legal process. Yeah, right. Seems unlikely, especially when he…
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It’s not the best issue. It’s maybe the weakest art I’ve seen from Don Newton (with Alfredo Alcala inking him). A lot of the art is still amazing–most of it probably, but there’s also a lack of detail in a lot of places. Not like Alcala’s rushed because he still over-inks a couple faces. Very…
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It’s a strange issue with Batman chasing the Penguin down to Antarctica to stop him from selling military secrets to the Russians. Moench throws in a couple twists, both of them vaguely amusing, but they come after his two instances of Batman overcoming impossible odds to succeed. They aren’t as amusing after Moench’s sapped all…
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This issue is particularly strong. There’s great art from Newton and Alcala on the Penguin, but there’s also a lot of good stuff from Moench. After many issues of ignoring the supporting cast, he’s got great scenes for Vicki Vale, Alfred’s daughter and even Bullock. The Vicki Vale one is the best though–the Penguin comes…
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