Monday, September 17, 2012

DC New 52 Reviews: Batman: The Dark Knight #1-10 & Batwoman #0-12

Batman: The Dark Knight #1-10
Drawn by and co-written by David Finch, an artist who's work I've enjoyed in Marvel Comics and was genuinely excited to hear was going to do work for DC and especially on Batman titles. Now Dark Knight is good, but is nowhere near as incredible as Synder's Batman or Batman & Robin, so out of the four first wave Batman titles Dark Knight ranks 3rd. Unlike the top 2 ranked Bat-titles Dark Knight is the most connected with the rest of the DC Universe with appearances for other heroes like The Flash and Superman, and mentions of teams such as The Justice League and Birds of Prey, so definitely the more Superheroey of the Bat-books.

I enjoyed the mystery of the new Toxin/Venom, and Bruce's new love interest, but I do have to say I feel Bane's appearance was poorly handled, from the dialog to the quick fight, let alone his redesigned look to match his design in the Arkham Asylum/Arkham City games with I'm not a fan of, his look in the games not the games themselves, love the games. Guest writers Joe Harris and Judd Winick wrote issues 8 and 9 while #10 began Gregg Hurwitz's run as ongoing writer replacing co-writer Paul Jenkins with Finch now solely on art, starting a new story arc featuring The Scarecrow.

Batwoman #0-12
This comic book right here boys and girls is one of the greatest comic book series I have ever read with sensational personal drama and action written by  J. H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman. J. H. Williams III is also the astonishingly talented artist giving us the most beautiful interior artwork and panel layouts I have ever laid my eyes on, every page or spread can be hung as individual masterpieces, I want this guy drawing more comics, I would love to see his unique paneling style done with other characters. I am loving Batwoman, I read issue #1-11 in one sitting, I had to see what happened next issue after issue, it is that compelling, never have I become so quickly personally intrigued in a characters life.

Now the problem with this New 52 book, like Green Lantern and Batman Incorporated, is it continues right where the character's previous series left off not being effected by the reboot at all, so issue #1 here picks up right after the events of Batwoman's appearance in Detective Comics #854-863. So if you haven't read that 12 issue story arc then your missing a huge piece of the story that effects what's going on in the continuing narrative. The real stand out issues are #4, and #12, if you've read issue #4 then you know why, I'm not going to spoil it for anyone, and #12 begins a team-up story with Wonder Woman, finally giving us another DC character done in Williams' breath-taking and mind-blowing art style, the next few issues are gonna be epic to see and read.

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