Gotham Calling

COMICS CAN BE AWESOME (April)

Posted on April 5, 2018 by I.M. Baytor

Your monthly reminder that comics can be awesome…

Stray Bullets: Killers #8

Wild Blue Yonder #5

Lady Killer #1

Posted in GLIMPSES INTO AWESOMENESS | Tagged David Lapham, Joëlle Jones, Lady Killer, Laura Allred, Nelson Daniel, Stray Bullets, Wild Blue Yonder, Zach Howard | Leave a comment

3 badass Batman sequences by Don Newton

Posted on March 28, 2018 by I.M. Baytor

Don Newton could draw gritty action better than most, so it’s pretty great that he got to work on so many Batman comics from the late seventies and early eighties, when writers such as Denny O’Neil and Gerry Conway gave him ample opportunities to flex his muscles. His characters’ facial expressions and body language seemed impeccably designed to convey rage and strength and desperation. In particular, Newton’s collaborations with inker Dan Arkins and colorist Adrienne Roy often projected quite a hardboiled mood, with plenty of mean-looking scumbags and ominous, strategically placed shadows.

Here are a couple of pages from ‘Murder by Thunderbolt,’ with the Dark Knight typically resorting to extreme interrogation methods:

Detective Comics #486

There is so much to love about this sequence: the two panels at the top, which establish the dirty, downtrodden setting and create a sleazy vibe; the elegant way Batman deflects the grenade, not missing a beat; and, above all, the old lady’s unfazed attitude, as if no explosions or violence can possibly deserve more attention than the clothes she has to dry.

Besides beating up slimy underworld hoods in search for information, another classic situation in Batman’s repertoire is getting strapped to a deathtrap and having to mobilize all his wits and grit in order to wrestle out of it. For instance, in ‘Nine Lives Has the Cat…,’ Catman ties the Caped Crusader’s arms and legs to stakes on the beach, leaving him to die as soon as the tide rises. This sounds like a goofy premise right out of a Bond knockoff (Catman even paraphrases Goldfinger at one point), but Don Newton played it straight and managed to pull off a surprising amount of pathos:

Detective Comics #509

Of course, much of the sequence’s hard-hitting atmosphere comes from the fact that it takes place at night, with Newton, Arkins, and Roy enveloping Batman’s struggle in dark negative space. I bet those panels with the Caped Crusader’s head disappearing under water were a major inspiration for Kelley Jones’ cover of Detective Comics #663, twelve years later.

Let’s finish with yet another kickass moment related to the threat of drowning, from the story ‘College for Killers.’ Once again, the Dark Knight is on a quest and willing to trash any lowlife who can help him find out what he needs to know. This time around, Don Newton’s pencils were inked by Frank Chiaramonte, who worked well with Newton’s noirish, muscular style. Assisted by Ben Oda’s sound effects, they crafted a punchy, dynamic scene, hilariously leading up to one of Batman’s all-time dickiest moves:

Detective Comics #515

Posted in ART OF BATMAN COMICS | Tagged Adrienne Roy, Ben Oda, Dan Arkins, Denny O'Neil, Don Newton, Frank Chiaramonte, Gerry Conway | 1 Comment

Minor but cool sci-fi comics

Posted on March 22, 2018 by I.M. Baytor

After the remarkable Ex Machina, Alex Garland has now put together another tense, intelligent science fiction film in the form of Annihilation. The movie feels like a welcome reminder that, even though cinema tends to simplify the dense, heady tales it borrows from sci-fi literature, its pace and texture can nevertheless create a powerfully unsettling experience. To be sure, this is still a full-blown thriller at heart, but a refreshingly contemplative and engrossing one, even if the characters aren’t all that deep and even if it occasionally boils down to people shooting at bizarre-looking creatures.

Comics have produced their fair share of science fiction masterpieces, but Annihilation got me thinking more about near-misses – works with great potential that are clearly flawed yet remain interesting and somewhat satisfying, at least at the level of above-average comfort food. Some have compelling premises and ideas but treat them in a relatively uninspired way. Others recycle overused clichés but approach them with style and gusto. You get the feeling with several books that, if only they’d been given more room to find their voice, they could have morphed into something truly special.

I have a soft spot for many of these comics. While they’ll never become outright classics, they have enough cool elements inside to at least be worthy of cult status… Here are some that I suggest checking out:

7 AGAINST CHAOS

Penned by acclaimed writer Harlan Ellison, with solid (if old-fashioned) art by Paul Chadwick, this pulpy adventure yarn about a group of interplanetary misfits who are tasked with travelling back to the Pleistocene to save the fabric of reality sometimes looks like it’s on the verge of greatness, but it doesn’t quite get there. Frustratingly, 7 Against Chaos is plagued by an overbearing narration (often providing redundant or irrelevant information instead of letting the visuals carry the story) and an ultra-compressed pace (with the book rushing through key dramatic turns, thus lessening their impact). It also suffers from poorly developed characters (like Urr, who is introduced as an android that has established his own morality and can therefore rationalize breaching Asimov’s laws of robotics… a trait that never pays off!). Plus, the plot is pretty derivative – the first third of the story is a space opera version of Seven Samurai (a genre mash-up already done in the schlocky B-movie Battle Beyond the Stars) and the rest is mostly a run-of-the-mill team-on-a-mission quest with some hackneyed sword & sorcery imagery thrown in for good measure.

Still, once you accept these issues, there is a lot to like here (it helps if you pretend this is a lost comic from the seventies rather than an original graphic novel from 2013). Ellison packs the book with nifty little moments, like when the wave of entropy suddenly turns a CEO into a snake during a board meeting (‘They have no time to reflect on the aptness of the metamorphosis.’). Chadwick comes up with elegant designs and – along with colorist Ken Steacy – takes a chance to shine in the trippy time-travel sequence. And, above all, the climax is really strong: the heroes don’t just have to fight for their lives and sacrifice themselves for the mission, they also engage with a provocative ethical dilemma, leading up to a striking resolution.

CALIBAN

Garth Ennis has never been too shy about cannibalizing his favorite pictures. Just like Bloody Mary: Lady Liberty was a blatant riff on Escape from New York, Caliban is his take on Alien – according to interviews he gave at the time, he started toying with the idea when Prometheus was announced, imagining his own version of a prequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 masterpiece (the book is even dedicated to H.R. Giger, ‘nightmare-builder’). This too is an alien-encounter horror tale set in a dark starship during a mining expedition, and the crew has the same grounded attitude as the one from the movie (a key theme established early on is that, even after conquering space, humans are bound to remain as grumpy and petty as always). The best part is that there is no xenomorph or a similar monster – the set-up may be familiar, but Ennis comes up with an original threat. Thus, Caliban captures the first film’s sense of dread as you keep trying to figure out what’s going on and the threat keeps evolving (this was something sorely lacking from the Alien sequels).

Facundo Percio is no Giger, yet he crafts a suitably eerie atmosphere, including a number of gruesome visuals, inked by Sebastian Cabrol and colored by Hernan Cabrera. You may occasionally find yourself flipping back and rereading a couple of pages because some of the settings and characters look slightly indistinguishable and the technobabble can get a bit thick, but I think that’s part of the fun – as talky as the comic can get, Garth Ennis excels at professional-minded, Hawksian banter.

Like Annihilation, Caliban also does a particularly swell job with the characterization of a gay female crew member… Ennis has written other strong-willed lesbian characters (namely in his Marvel Knights Punisher runs and in his Where Monsters Dwell mini-series), yet they tend to show up in a comedic context, whereas here that subplot actually pays off in quite a touching way.

CLEAR BLUE TOMORROWS

This 2001 Belgian graphic novel (recently published in English by Cinebook) is basically an anthology with an amusing framing device: an old man travels from the future to the present day in order to prevent scientist/businessman (and failed novelist) F.G. Wilson from taking over the world… however, because he cannot kill Wilson, he tries to lead the would-be tyrant away from the path of world domination by encouraging his writing career. We thus get a handful of story pitches – based on the old man’s memories from the future – that ultimately work as short, self-contained tales, usually with a touch of satire.

The whole thing is penned by Fabien Vehlmann, who is a pretty entertaining genre writer. And while the stories in Clear Blue Tomorrows are your typical mixed bag, all of them are a joy to read thanks to the cartoony, light-as-a-feather art of Bruno Gazzotti and Ralph Meyer, with colors by Bernard Devillers. High points include a prison tale in which a warden controls the inmates by getting them hooked on a cheesy soap opera, a thriller set in the sewers during the Super Bowl (under the looming threat of that collective flush in the ad break), and a futuristic spin on the Judgement of Solomon.

FATIMA: THE BLOOD SPINNERS

When indie creators who are mostly known for their dramatic works venture into pure genre territory, the results are often intriguing, but don’t always hold up very well on their own. Take, for example, Daniel Clowes’ Patience, which got so much praise a couple of years ago: it is surely an interesting entry into Clowes’ oeuvre (in that it channels his pet themes and tone in a new context), but as a sci-fi adventure it isn’t very clever, creative, fun, or thought-provoking (even if it is each of those things to some degree). While Patience’s main appeal was to read a Clowes comic with a sci-fi twist, though, in the case of 2012’s Fatima: The Blood Spinners the appeal was to read a sci-fi comic with a Gilbert Hernandez twist. The famed creator of the moving Palomar tales threw himself at this post-apocalyptic zombie-infection yarn with flair and zest, embracing the cheap thrills of splatterpunk in all their trashiness while delivering a kickass grindhouse ride.

Fatima doesn’t break any new ground in terms of characters (a gun-toting babe with a haunting past and a grim attitude, a group of sleazy mad scientists) or concepts (a powerful designer drug, a shady conspiracy), but Hernandez takes the familiar trappings and makes them his own. He goes particularly over-the top with the action, most pages featuring gleeful shoot-outs and gory violence. And, as usual, Beto draws mesmerizingly huge-breasted women (including a couple of bikini-clad blondes who set up a nice gag), although in this kind of story it feels like an apt homage to Russ Meyer’s exploitation flicks, such as Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.

For all its well-trodden tropes, The Blood Spinners is a strange little beast that keeps moving relentlessly – a sudden plot turn here, a jarring jump-in-time there, a brief romantic detour – at an offbeat pace, punctuated by hordes of exploding heads.

HEARTBURST

A human colony in a faraway planet that has become so out-of-touch with Earth that their belief system is based on deciphering old television shows (‘The Sponsor in all his glorious manifestations is beaming them at us!’)? A Gene Police, run by Inquisitor Xerox, in a brutal crusade against human-alien miscegenation? An atomic colonial war? A means of travelling throughout the galaxy that relies on heart and dreams? A twisted send-up of religion, apartheid, and the military, full of sex and disturbing imagery, as well as a trace of New Age sensibility?! This is what you get when you give creative freedom to Rick Veitch, one of the most fascinating voices in the world of comics, who not only wrote Heartburst, but also provided its feverish art and psychedelic colors.

Heartburst was originally published in 1984, but Veitch released it again in 2008 – in the collection Heartburst and Other Pleasures – together with a handful of brief experiments (including the illustrated poem ‘The Mirror of Love,’ a homage to same-sex love and its role in culture, written by Alan Moore).

PULP FICTION LIBRARY: MYSTERY IN SPACE

In 1999, DC put out a wonderful collection called Pulp Fiction Library: Mystery in Space, with thirty-three short stories published between 1946 and 1981, shaped by utopian dreams and nuclear nightmares. The collection includes works by a host of notable creators, such as writers Gardner Fox, Otto Binder, Robert Kanigher, Len Wein, and Gerry Conway, as well as artists Frank Frazetta, Murphy Anderson, Jim Mooney, Alex Toth, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, and Joe Kubert, among many others. There are also neat introductory texts by Larry Niven and Stuart Moore.

While the quality varies, the comics are overwhelmingly interesting and/or fun: some make outlandish predictions (‘How Television Will Change Your Future’ predicts a world with live newscasts!), others engage in believable scientific speculation (in ‘Just Imagine – if the Sun Went Out!,’ humans nuke the moon until it becomes a new sun), some have more of a dark vibe (‘Spores from Space’ could have come out of EC Comics), others are lighthearted escapist fare (‘I Hunted Big Game in Outer Space’ is exactly what it sounds like), some are merely droll (‘Brief Encounter’ delivers a quirky joke without overstaying its welcome), others are totally bonkers (‘The Man with 100 Lives!’ finishes with the beautiful line: ‘The day will come when all crime will realize there’s no victory against the science of law and order!’), a few of them are close to brilliant (‘Killing Time’ has one hell of a final page), and many are your quintessential pulp adventure, full of ray guns and jetpacks (some even feature DC heroes such as Adam Strange and the Atomic Knights).

The appeal is not just to see how the future kept being reimagined throughout the decades, but also to appreciate the shifts and continuities in the language and visuals of sci-fi comics, from the dynamic, quasi-surrealist drawings of Jack Kirby, Dick Sprang, and Virgil Finlay in the mid-1940s to the stylish art of Tom Yeates, Brian Bolland, and Rick Veitch in the early 1980s.

Posted in FANTASTIC ADVENTURES | Tagged 7 Against Chaos, Alan Moore, Alex Toth, Bernard Devillers, Brian Bolland, Bruno Gazzotti, Caliban, Carmine Infantino, Clear Blue Tomorrows, Daniel Clowes, Dick Sprang, Fabien Vehlmann, Facundo Percio, Fatima: The Blood Spinners, Frank Frazetta, Gardner Fox, Garth Ennis, Gerry Conway, Gil Kane, Gilbert Hernandez, Harlan Ellison, Heartburst, Hernan Cabrera, horror, Jack Kirby, Jim Mooney, Joe Kubert, Ken Steacy, Larry Niven, Len Wein, movies, Murphy Anderson, Mystery in Space, Otto Binder, Paul Chadwick, Ralph Meyer, Rick Veitch, Robert Kanigher, science fiction, Sebastian Cabrol, space opera, Stuart Moore, Tom Yeates, Virgil Finlay | Leave a comment

‘No Man’s Land’ reading order

Posted on March 15, 2018 by I.M. Baytor

If you read the last post, you know what’s going on. Here is my suggested reading order for the 1999 crossover No Man’s Land:

Winter

No Man’s Land #1: ‘No Law and a New Order’ [This issue kicks things off in day 93 of NML, presumably set around February 1999.]

Shadow of the Bat #83: ‘Strategy’

Batman #563: ‘Tactics’

Detective Comics #730: ‘Language’

Legends of the Dark Knight #116: ‘Fanning the Flames’

Shadow of the Bat #84: ‘To Serve and Protect’

Batman #564: ‘Life in Hell’

Detective Comics #731: ‘Be Not Afraid’

Batman Chronicles #16: ‘Two Down,’ ‘The Comforts of Home,’ ‘Harold’ [Two of these stories are set shortly after the earthquake (i.e. before No Man’s Land), but the middle one (a gag-filled tale about a couple who innocently ventures into the Joker’s den) has a cameo by the new Batgirl, so instead of breaking down the issue I’m placing it here. The first and last stories can be read as flashbacks.]

Azrael, Agent of the Bat #50: ‘Resurrection’ [This one opens slightly before No Man’s Land, but it flows into the next issues, which end up around here.]

Azrael, Agent of the Bat #51: ‘Miracle Run’

Azrael, Agent of the Bat #52: ‘Devil Down Below’

Azrael, Agent of the Bat #53: ‘Jellybean Deathtrap’

JLA #32: ‘Inside Job’

Legends of the Dark Knight #117: ‘Bread and Circuses – part 1’

Shadow of the Bat #85: ‘Bread and Circuses – part 2’

Legends of the Dark Knight #118: ‘Balance’

Batman #656: ‘Mosaic – part 1’

Detective Comics #732: ‘Mosaic – part 2’

Shadow of the Bat #86: ‘Home Sweet Home’

Detective Comics #733: ‘Shades of Grey’

Hitman #37: ‘Dead Man’s Land – part 1’

Hitman #38: ‘Dead Man’s Land – part 2’

Batman #657: ‘The Visitor’

Azrael, Agent of the Bat #54: ‘Step into the Light’

Azrael, Agent of the Bat #55: ‘Misery Dance’

Hitman #39: ‘For Tomorrow – part 1’

Hitman #40: ‘For Tomorrow – part 2’

Hitman #41: ‘For Tomorrow – part 3’

Hitman #42: ‘For Tomorrow – Conclusion’

Batman Chronicles #17: ‘Little Boy Lost,’ ‘Turn On, Tune In, Freak Out,’ ‘Identity Crisis’

Hitman #43: ‘The Morning After the Night Before’

JLA #33: ‘Altered Egos’

Young Justice – No Man’s Land: ‘Road Trip’

Catwoman #66: ‘I’ll Take Manhattan: The Brooklyn Bridge’

Catwoman #67: ‘I’ll Take Manhattan: Bulls and Bears Beware’

Catwoman #68: ‘I’ll Take Manhattan: Hot in the City’

Catwoman #69: ‘I’ll Take Manhattan: To Catch a Thief’

Catwoman #70: ‘I’ll Take Manhattan: Double or Nothing’

Catwoman #71: ‘I’ll Take Manhattan: Requiem fir Selina Kyle’

Legends of the Dark Knight #119: ‘Claim Jumping – part 1’ [According to the narration, it’s day 127 of NML (only a month has passed since we joined the story), at the tail end of ‘the worst winter ANYONE can remember…’]

Shadow of the Bat #87: ‘Claim Jumping – part 2’

Batman #587: ‘Mark of Cain – part 1’

Detective Comics #734: ‘Mark of Cain – part 2’

Nightwing #32: ‘Double Dare’

Nightwing #33: ‘Acts of Violence’

Nightwing #34: ‘Sister Act’

Spring

Robin #67: ‘Way Dark’

Legends of the Dark Knight #120: ‘Assembly’

No Man’s Land #0: ‘Ground Zero’ [This flashback makes sense here, to prevent a major spoiler.]

Azrael, Agent of the Bat #56: ‘The Night Foretold’

Azrael, Agent of the Bat #57: ‘Scratched Out’

Shadow of the Bat #88: ‘Fruit of the Earth – part 1’ [After a brief flashback, the main story kicks off in day 189 of NML.]

Batman #568: ‘Fruit of the Earth – part 2’

Detective Comics #735: ‘Fruit of the Earth – part 3’

Legends of the Dark Knight #121: ‘Power Play’

Shadow of the Bat #89: ‘The King’

Batman #569: ‘I Cover the Waterfront’

Detective Comics #736: ‘Homecoming’

Batman: Harley Quinn

Legends of the Dark Knight #122: ‘…Where the Lights are Burning Low’

Shadow of the Bat #90: ‘Positive Role Model’

Batman #570: ‘The Code – part 1’

Detective Comics #737: ‘The Code – part 2’

Legends of the Dark Knight #123: ‘Underground Railroad – part 1’

Shadow of the Bat #91: ‘Underground Railroad – part 2’

Batman #571: ‘Goin’ Downtown – part 1’

Detective Comics #738: ‘Goin’ Downtown – part 2’

Legends of the Dark Knight #124: ‘Captain of Industry’

Shadow of the Bat #92: ‘Stormy Weather’

Summer

Day of Judgment #1: ‘The Summoning’

Batman – Day of Judgment: ‘Original Gangsters’

Day of Judgment #2: ‘Lost Souls’

Azrael, Agent of the Bat #58: ‘Ghosts’

Day of Judgment #3: ‘Choosing Sides’

Day of Judgment #4: ‘The End of the World As We Know It’

Day of Judgment #5: ‘Soul Search’

JLA #35: ‘The Guilty’

Robin #68: ‘War Beneath the Streets!: Rats!’

Robin #69: ‘War Beneath the Streets!: Wolflings’

Robin #70: ‘War Beneath the Streets!: The Survivors’

Batman Chronicles #18: ‘Spiritual Currency’

Nightwing #35: ‘The Belly of the Beast’

Nightwing Secret Files: ‘Taking Wing’

Nightwing #36: ‘Nothing But Time’

Nightwing #37: ‘Escape from Blackgate’

Hitman #44: ‘Fresh Meat – part 1’

Hitman #45: ‘Fresh Meat – part 2’

Hitman #46: ‘Fresh Meat– part 3’

Fall

Batman #572: ‘Jurisprudence – part 1’

Detective Comics #739: ‘Jurisprudence – part 2’

Legends of the Dark Knight #125: ‘Falling Back’

Nightwing #38: ‘Face to Face’

Nightwing #39: ‘By Force of Arms’

Robin #71: ‘The Lizard King’

Robin #72: ‘Last Stand on Grand Ave’

Robin #73: ‘The World Around the Corner’ [This issue picks up immediately where the previous one left off, but it works mostly as a flashforward.]

Catwoman #72: ‘The Mission’

Catwoman #73: ‘Ms. Direction’

Catwoman #74: ‘A Slight Detour’

Catwoman #75: ‘The Rules’

Azrael, Agent of the Bat #59: ‘Pilgrim’s Return’

Shadow of the Bat #93: ‘Assembly Redux’

Batman #573: ‘Shellgame: Gambits’ [Begins in day 312 of NML.]

Detective Comics #740: ‘Shellgame – part 2’

Azrael, Agent of the Bat #60: ‘Evacuation’

Catwoman #76: ‘Strange Bedfellows’

Catwoman #77: ‘Pay Back’

Winter

Legends of the Dark Knight #126: ‘Endgame: Silent Night’ [Begins in day 333 of NML, identified as 29^th of November (which doesn’t gel perfectly, but long-lasting comic book series keep adjusting the timeline, so one should be flexible about precise dates anyway). The issue finishes on Christmas Eve.]

Batman #574: ‘Endgame: …Tender and Mild…’

Detective Comics #741: ‘Endgame: Sleep in Heavenly Peace…’

Azrael, Agent of the Bat #61: ‘Presents of Mind’

Shadow of the Bat #94: ‘Endgame Epilogue: Days of Auld Lang Syne’ [New Year’s Eve, 1999-2000.]

Note: The only thing I can’t quite figure out is where to place the ‘JLApe’ crossover (including JLA Annual #3, Batman Annual #23, and Martian Manhunter Annual #2, all of which feature the Dark Knight). It must take place somewhere between Nightwing #34 and Nightwing #39, but I really don’t see how Batman and Nightwing could have an adventure in Blüdhaven during this period, since it’s pretty clear they’re both busy in Gotham at the time (except for Batman’s trip to NYC in the Judgment Day mini-series).

Posted in BATMAN COMICS FOR BEGINNERS | Tagged Gotham City, No Man's Land, reading order | 5 Comments

Road to ‘No Man’s Land’ reading order

Posted on March 8, 2018 by I.M. Baytor

Two months ago, I did a couple of posts about the 1999 Batman crossover No Man’s Land, in which Gotham City, after being partially destroyed by an earthquake, became isolated from the United States for a year. This was a massive event that has been partially collected in different volumes and different editions.

Geek that I am, it annoys to me to no end that none of the collections has the story in an approximately coherent reading order. To be sure, the narrative doesn’t have to be strictly chronological to make sense (some flashbacks do work better in the middle) and it’s hard to escape inconsistencies in the art anyway (the weather keeps changing drastically), but at least the book editors could have come up with a reading order that flowed relatively smoothly and preserved the tension by avoiding too many spoilers about what happens to the characters. (For instance, Nightwing’s trials at Blackgate prison lose some of their pathos if you already know how things turn out for him in the end.) I find it a damn shame, especially for those approaching this crossover for the first time, since the whole anything-can-happen vibe is certainly part of the fun!

Fortunately, I have a blog and enough time on my hands, so I put down my suggested reading order for completists and newcomers… Next week, I’ll lay out the order for the crossover itself, but today I’ll leave you with my guide for the lead-up to No Man’s Land, starting with the earthquake storyline:

Prelude

Detective Comics #719: ‘Sound and Fury’

Earthquake

Shadow of the Bat #73: ‘Castles Built on Sand’

Nightwing #19: ‘Shudder’

Batman #553: ‘Lifelines’

Azrael #40: ‘Hour of the Quake’

Detective Comics #720: ‘The First and The Last’

Catwoman #56: ‘Claustrophobia’

Arkham Asylum: ‘Tales of Madness’

Batman Chronicles #12: ‘The Contract,’ ‘House of Cards,’ ‘Trapped,’ ‘A Bird With A Hand,’ ‘Love Me 2 Times,’ ‘Little Orphan Andy’

Blackgate: ‘Isle of Men’

Immediate aftermath

Shadow of the Bat #74: ‘The Naked City’

Nightwing #20: ‘The Day After Judgment’

Batman #554: ‘Master of Destruction’

Huntress/Spoiler: ‘Blunt Trauma’

Detective Comics #721: ‘Shifting Ground’

Robin #53: ‘Flattened’

Catwoman #57: ‘Reap What You Sow’

Dealing with short-term consequences

Shadow of the Bat #75: ‘By Fire or by Ice?,’ ‘A Long Slow Death’

Batman #555: ‘Trapped Like Rats’

Batman #556: ‘Help, Trapped, Money, Rescue, Ruins’

Nightwing #21: ‘False Starts’

Nightwing #22: ‘Hospital Perilous’

Shadow of the Bat #76: ‘The Gauntlet’

Detective Comics #722: ‘Statistics’

Robin #54: ‘Repercussions’

Azrael #41: ‘The Angel and the Buccaneer’

Azrael #42: ‘Welcome to Eden’

Shadow of the Bat #77: ‘Arwin’s Theory of Devolution’

Batman Chronicles #14: ‘Master of the House,’ ‘The Lunatic Fringe,’ ‘Random Encounters’ [I skipped Batman Chronicles #13, which features three tales about the GCPD, because they don’t seem to take place in this era of Gotham.]

Partially destroyed Gotham as the new status quo

Azrael #43: ‘Homecoming’

Azrael #44: ‘Angel and the Beast: The Crash’

Azrael #45: ‘Angel and the Beast: Deathstroke’

Azrael #46: ‘Guardian Angel’

Green Arrow #134: ‘Brotherhood of the Fist: The Stalkers’

Detective Comics #723: ‘Brotherhood of the Fist: Fight Back to Gotham’

Robin #55: ‘Brotherhood of the Fist: Monkey Fist’

Nightwing #23: ‘Brotherhood of the Fist: Paper Revelations’

Green Arrow #135: ‘Brotherhood of the Fist: The Borrowed Life’

Detective Comics #724: ‘The Grieving City’

Catwoman #58: ‘Only Happy When It Rains: Mad Money’

Catwoman #59: ‘Only Happy When It Rains: Fight or Flight’

Catwoman #60: ‘Only Happy When It Rains: Kittens and Trees’

Batman #557: ‘Ballistic’s Evidence’

Nightwing #24: ‘The Forgotten Dead’ [Unrelated to the events in Gotham, but a cool mystery that helps shape Dick Grayson’s character arc at the time.]

Robin #56: ‘Love Stinks’

Robin #57: ‘Date Night’

Robin #58: ‘The Stranger’

Robin #59: ‘Brutality 101’

Robin #60: ‘The Ugly Truth’

Robin #61: ‘The Killer’

Chase #7: ‘Shadowing the Bat: Covers’

Chase #8: ‘Shadowing the Bat: Truths’

Catwoman #61: ‘Bank on It’

Bullock’s Law

Nightwing #25: ‘The Boys’

Shadow of the Bat #78: ‘The Blank Generation: Corporate Nightmares’

Shadow of the Bat #79: ‘The Blank Generation: A Favorable Wind’

Batman #558: ‘Dying City’

Batman #559: ‘Dead City’

Detective Comics #725: ‘At the End of the Day’ [I’ll skip Detective Comics #726, which is clearly an inventory story used as a fill-in – it’s a neat standalone tale, but it doesn’t seem to take place in this era of Gotham.]

Catwoman #62: ‘Dog New Tricks’

DC One Million crossover

DC One Million #1: ‘Riders on the Storm’

DC One Million #2: ‘The Day After Tomorrow’

Shadow of the Bat #1,000,000: ‘A Never-Ending Story’

Nightwing #1,000,000: ‘The Anachronism’

Detective Comics #1,000,000: ‘The Bug That Ate Tomorrow’

JLA #1,000,000: ‘Prisoners of the Twentieth Century’

DC One Million #3: ‘Solaris Rising’

Batman #1,000,000: ‘Peril Within the Prison Planet’

Catwoman #1,000,000: ‘Nine Million Lives’

Robin #1,000,000: ‘Dark Planet’

Young Justice #1,000,000: ‘Just Ice, Cubed’

Azrael #1,000,000: ‘Angel Wings’

DC One Million #4: ‘Death Star’

Hitman #1,000,000: ‘To Hell With the Future’

Side stories that take place shortly before things completely fall apart

Nightwing #26: ‘Angle of Attack’

Nightwing #27-28: ‘Live Not on Evil’

Nightwing #29: ‘Back to Back to Back’

Catwoman #63: ‘Hints and Allegations: Belling the Cat’

Catwoman #64: ‘Hints and Allegations: No Laughing Matter’

Catwoman #65: ‘Hints and Allegations: Menage a Trois’

Birds of Prey #8: ‘On Wings’

Batman Chronicles #15: ‘Will to Power,’ ‘Between Stars Above & Below,’ ‘An Answer in the Rubble’

Nightwing #30: ‘Just Passing Through’

Nightwing #31: ‘Bad Night in Bludhaven’

Anarky #1: ‘Aberration!: Power Play’ [Features a 7-page flashback set in the aftermath of the earthquake, six months ago.]

Anarky #2: ‘Aberration!: Green for Danger’

Anarky #3: ‘Aberration!: Wishing Well’

Road to No Man’s Land

Azrael, Agent of the Bat #47: ‘…a Man of Wealth and Taste…’

Azrael, Agent of the Bat #48: ‘Scratching the Surface’

Shadow of the Bat #80: ‘Wax Man and the Clown – part 1’

Batman #560: ‘The Jackals’

Detective Comics #727: ‘Nest of Vipers’

Batman #561: ‘The Witness’

Detective Comics #728: ‘Chaos Squared’

Shadow of the Bat #81: ‘Wax Man and the Clown – part 2’

Shadow of the Bat #82: ‘Wax Man and the Clown – part 3’

Azrael, Agent of the Bat #49: ‘Gotham City Must Die’

Batman #562: ‘The Devil His Due’

Detective Comics #729: ‘30 Seconds to Midnight’

Robin #62: ‘Faster Than Anything’ [This storyline starts before the events of the issues listed above, but it goes on to run smoothly alongside them, so I think it makes sense to read it here.]

Robin #63: ‘The Blink of an Eye’

Robin #64: ‘Stop me if you’ve heard this one’

Robin #65: ‘A Blessed Event’

Robin #66: ‘Gomers’

No Man’s Land Secret Files: ‘The Message’ [The main story takes place here, but I suggest skipping the extras, as they are full of spoilers about what lies ahead.]

Posted in BATMAN COMICS FOR BEGINNERS | Tagged Gotham City, No Man's Land, reading order | 3 Comments

COMICS CAN BE AWESOME (March)

Posted on March 1, 2018 by I.M. Baytor

Just your monthly reminder that comics can be awesome…

Blankets

Paper Girls #4

Heart of Empire #2

Posted in GLIMPSES INTO AWESOMENESS | Tagged Angus McKie, Blankets, Bryan Talbot, Cliff Chiang, Craig Thompson, Heart of Empire, Luther Arkwright, Matt Wilson, Paper Girls | Leave a comment

Batman’s animated team-ups

Posted on February 22, 2018 by I.M. Baytor

I wish I had something more original to say about the latest hit in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I’m with the crowd: Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther is a masterpiece. Building on utopic alternate history to respond to Afro-pessimism, the film – like the earlier comics – is as viscerally thrilling as it is provocative. It not only puts a clever spin on enduring debates about isolationism, imperialism, and racial oppression, but it also engages with topical questions about black activism and the military’s duty to an out-of-control leader… and it does this in an entertaining, inspirational way. If the first part of the movie is a twist on James Bond, the second part feels like a twist on The Spook Who Sat by the Door (and then the mid-credits scene gives us a twist on Trump’s speech at the UN). Black Panther even dodges the recurring criticisms hurled at the MCU – the climax doesn’t involve yet another portal to another world, the drama isn’t systematically undercut by jokes, and the villain is complex and memorable.

I particularly like the fact that the tension between T’Challa and Erik Killmonger isn’t a mere retread of the old ‘pacifist reformer Professor X vs violent revolutionary Magneto’ debate. Yes, that’s in there (with a ‘nationalist vs internationalist’ variation), but the film complicates the politics of the thing by adding extra layers – Killmonger may embody the real-world Black Panther Party on one level, yet he is also explicitly linked to US black ops, so his designs sound at once emancipatory and despotic (and his tragic fate has an effect on the hero, who doesn’t just stay in the opposite side, but ends up seeking a middle ground). Another way to look at it is that Erik provides an African-American perspective in a story about imagining Africa itself, thus highlighting the connections and the differences between the two contexts.

All this got me thinking again about how lame it is that DC/Warner haven’t been able to deliver a genuinely great superhero film since 2008’s The Dark Knight, a decade ago. Even their most watchable movies since then have been little more than OK riffs on Marvel flicks, only with a darker palette – Wonder Woman was basically their feminist version of Captain America: The First Avenger (with a bit of Thor thrown in) and Justice League was an uninspired remix of the Avengers blockbusters (with a lot of Civil War). Sure, there are some nice scenes in those two pictures (on the boat, at the cemetery), but so much of it is instantly forgettable – including the climaxes! – and so few of it feels worth revisiting. Seriously, even if Warner just wants to rule the realm of grim & gritty comic book adaptations, then they still have to beat Netflix’s The Punisher, which managed to be one hell of a hardboiled, politically-charged show.

I get it that that many DC fans accepted last year’s Justice League with goodwill (hey, at least it felt less botched than Suicide Squad!), but let’s face it: if this had been a comic, we would be accusing it of poor art and lazy writing, what with the ultra-generic villain, set pieces, and quips… After all, there are actually fantastic stories about this team already out there – most notably Grant Morrison’s and Frank Quitely’s Earth 2 – and the Zack Snyder/Joss Whedon film does not do them justice at all!

It’s not about the source material. Hell, it wasn’t even always this way – in 2005, the year Christopher Nolan successfully rebooted the Batman franchise, Marvel was still putting out the reviled Elektra and the embarrassingly trashy Man-Thing… The truth is that there isn’t anything inherent to the DCU that prevents it from fueling a satisfying picture franchise. In fact, the Dark Knight himself has starred in a number of TV shows that showcased how awesome it can be to see DC superheroes flying around on the screen…

After the acclaim of the incredibly noirish Batman: The Animated Series, the wonderful Max Fleischer-inspired, Kirbyesque Superman: The Animated Series, and the cyberpunk, anime-influenced Batman Beyond, in 2001 animator (and co-producer) Bruce Timm expanded his take on the DCU with the operatic Justice League.

Revolving around the titular team, this TV series – directed by Dan Riba and Butch Lukic – told accessible, old school superhero yarns with grandiose music, epic battles, and earth-shattering cliffhangers, all filtered through Timm’s distinctively angular, stylish designs… The whole thing felt archetypical and larger-than-life, as each tale was told over two or three episodes, nailing all the beats and tropes of the genre along the way. At a time when superhero comics were at their most cynical, the Justice League cartoon evoked the widescreen aesthetics of The Authority, but it also sought to conjure up the childlike sense of excitement and joy of reading the classics.

Besides the trio of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, the roster included the Martian Manhunter, Hawkgirl, Green Lantern (John Stewart), and the Flash (Wally West). They were all given chances to shine and slick character development, even though – as is usually the case – the writers clearly had a soft spot for the Caped Crusader. Voiced by the talented Kevin Conroy, Batman often got the most badass moments in each episode. A high point in this regard was ‘Injustice for All,’ where he managed to outsmart a whole gang of weird supervillains.

(Still, my favorite Batman moments actually take place in the nifty two-parter ‘Maid of Honor.’)

The best tales were typically written by Stan Berkowitz or Dwayne McDuffie, who knew how to ride the wave between smart and schlocky. Berkowitz did ‘The Savage Time,’ where the team – sans Batman – straight-up fought in World War II (because pop culture will never get tired of watching Nazis get punched). McDuffie was responsible for ‘Hereafter,’ a pulpy saga that somehow merged Death of Superman with Conan the Barbarian and Planet of the Apes!

I think what made the series work was that JL – unlike the Zack Snyder films – didn’t try to turn the source material into something that didn’t fit, it just let the original appeal shine through the adaptation. After all, the beauty of superhero stories doesn’t come through when they are treated like narrow metaphors as much as when they are treated like magical adventures that speak to the imagination, engaging in abstract values. Marvel Studios seem to get this – a while back, Jonathan McCalmont wrote a good essay about the first Captain America movie, arguing that, even though the film may have had little to say about WWII itself (Cap isn’t even fighting actual Nazis most of the time), its fantastical elements still lend themselves to thought-provoking interpretations. (He also wrote an interesting piece on X-Men: First Class.)

After two successful seasons, in 2004 the show was upgraded to Justice League Unlimited, further enlarging the team’s roster to encompass most DC superheroes. The result – now directed by Dan Riba and Joaquim dos Santos – was even more of a geek feast: the headquarter scenes featured fan-pleasing cameos by lesser-known characters in the background and you got to see stuff like Vigilante and Shining Knight taking the elevator while discussing the subtext of Dirty Harry.

Not only did JLU expand the cast to a wider range of heroes, it was also less afraid to go for goofier-sounding ideas, such as temporarily turning Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern (plus an adorable Etrigan, the Demon) into children. Instead of multiple-part tales, we now got mostly one-and-done gems such as ‘The Greatest Story Never Told,’ in which we follow Booster Gold on crowd control while the Justice League battles Mordru in the background, or ‘This Little Piggy,’ in which Batman joins forces with the magician Zatanna after Wonder Woman gets transformed into a pig. The latter was written by Paul Dini, who always does a swell job with the banter between Batman and Zatanna, both in comics and on TV, so of course the episode is an absolute riot. (Plus, it becomes pretty clear that there is something going on between Bruce and Diana… as if Batman’s love life wasn’t interesting enough already!)

The show worked as a lively celebration of the kind of wild imagery and concepts that have driven superhero comics for decades. For instance, the episode ‘Chaos at the Earth’s Core’ – written by Matt Wayne – kept jumping from one kickass set piece to the next, as Stargirl and Supergirl fought a kaiju turtle and a reptilian army (armed with laser weapons and dinosaurs), eventually joining Warlord on a sword & sorcery quest to overthrow a ruthless dictator/wizard. There was also ‘Dark Heart,’ which was scripted by Warren Ellis and damn it if you couldn’t tell: it burst with witty zingers, cool action, nanotech sci-fi, and an insane amount of neat Easter Eggs.

That said, Justice League Unlimited still kept the overall style of its predecessor, mostly approaching these stories with a straight face and an imposing score as it delivered slugfests galore and powerful emotional payoffs. The second season had a loose overarching subplot, gradually pitting the Justice League against Amanda Waller’s Task Force X in a saga packed with high stakes and political intrigue. The third season subtly built up to the mother of all showdowns.

If Warner would simply take a string of JL or JLU episodes and translate their spirit to the big screen, I’m sure the outcome would be much more impressive than last year’s patchy Justice League movie… My vote goes to ‘Grudge Match,’ in which the gambling entrepreneur Roulette charges people to watch the female leaguers fight each other – it’s one of those amusing premises that simultaneously condemns and exploits our basic instincts, since the villain is basically giving us exactly what we want to see! Or maybe producers could look for inspiration in ‘Far From Home,’ in which Supergirl single-handedly battles the mind-controlled Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31^st century, leading up to a touching denouement.

Or they could go in another direction altogether and fully embrace the most bonkers side of their properties, turning it up to eleven. There is a precedent for this as well, namely 2008’s reboot Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

Directed by Ben Jones, Brandon Vietti, Michael Chang, and Michael Goguen, The Brave and the Bold took itself much less seriously while still delivering highly satisfying superhero stories, told at breakneck pace with the help of an unbelievably catchy soundtrack and some of the best one-liners of the Dark Knight’s career (‘Madmen like you come in many forms, but liquid, gas, or solid they always wind up in the same state… inert!’). With little regard for previous continuity, this series featured team-ups with third-tier heroes, each with a different kind of relationship with Batman – based, for example, on admiration (Blue Beetle), camaraderie (Aquaman), or competitiveness (Green Arrow) – thus bringing out various sides of the Caped Crusader. The episodes were self-contained, except for the superb two-parters ‘Deep Cover for Batman!/Game Over for Owlman!’ (in which the Dark Knight infiltrated the Injustice Syndicate, in a parallel Earth) and ‘The Siege of Starro!’ (in which B&B proved that even a silly, politically incorrect character like B’wana Beast could be awesome).

It’s hard to overstate how much fun the show was: for three glorious seasons, Brave and the Bold drew on Bob Haney’s everything-but-the-kitchen-sink attitude to plotting, Jack Kirby’s mad energy, and Adam West’s deadpan humor. One adventure had the Atom travelling inside Batman’s body, another one was a bizarre riff on Wacky Races. There were contributions by some great DC writers, with Gail Simone doing a tongue-in-cheek script about the Birds of Prey (‘The Mask of Matches Malone!’), J.M. DeMatteis doing a couple of comedic ones about the JLI (‘Shadow of the Bat!’ and ‘Time Out for Vengeance!’), and Paul Dini doing a trio of metafictional ones about Bat-Mite (‘Legends of the Dark Mite!,’ ‘Bat-Mite Presents: Batman’s Strangest Cases!,’ and ‘Mitefall!’).

B&B often recontextualized iconic Silver Age images, yet it also oozed a modern vibe, each episode filled with ‘hell yeah’ moments and exploding bat-grenades. Seriously, there was even a mecha-Batmobile:

Brilliant episodes are too many to list, but among the standouts I would highlight ‘The Color of Revenge!’ (a sequel of sorts to the 1966 Batman TV series), ‘Chill of the Night!’ (which reimagined the classic Joe Chill tale from Batman #47), ‘The Knights of Tomorrow!’ (a new take on the future of the Dynamic Duo), ‘Joker: The Vile and the Villainous!’ (told from the Joker’s perspective, making Batman look like a villain), ‘Battle of the Superheroes!’ (a homage to pre-Crisis Superman comics), and, of course, the musical masterpiece ‘Mayhem of the Music Meyster!’

The comic book spinoffs – Batman: The Brave and the Bold and All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold – were just as frantic. Warner should just pick a random issue and build on it, as pretty much all of them contain enough material for a summer blockbuster. Hell, look at these two frenetic opening pages and tell me they aren’t more fun than all of the recent movies featuring the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel:

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #2

Posted in SUPER POWERS | Tagged Batman TV series, Batman: The Animated Series, Bruce Timm, Dwayne McDuffie, Frank Quitely, Gail Simone, Grant Morrison, J.M. DeMatteis, Joss Whedon, Matt Wayne, movies, Paul Dini, politics, science fiction, Stan Berkowitz, Warren Ellis, World War II | Leave a comment

12 non-Batman covers by Ed Hannigan

Posted on February 15, 2018 by I.M. Baytor

A few years ago, I spotlighted a handful of brilliant Batman covers drawn by Ed Hannigan, who is a master at crafting memorable images that both pull you in and encapsulate the spirit of the story inside. As I pointed out at the time, Hannigan’s best covers – usually inked by Dick Giordano – often play with the series’ title, integrating it in quirky ways. They also tend to have skewed perspectives that create a stunning or amusing effect.

Fortunately, Ed Hannigan didn’t just do Batman comics – his pencils graced several other series, designing numerous iconic covers. Here are a dozen gems that definitely deserve to be remembered:

Just check out the incredible sense of depth.

Ah, good old overconfidence…

So much joy!

Sure, the content is freaky by itself, but the eerie angle and the facial expressions make it even more so.

It’s like it’s your own hand holding the stick, right?

This one could’ve used more breathing room, but the central image still works. (Also, I’m sure Hannigan realized that it would look like the tiny Daredevil in the logo was falling from the sky…)