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Post by chadwilliam on Oct 18, 2015 23:39:07 GMT -5
Detective Comics #627 
Though 627 has a nicer ring to it than 626, this issue is actually Batman's 601st appearance in Tec (for the same reason that Batman 601 wouldn't be his 600th appearance in Batman).
The censorship to Tec 27 in this issue (and elsewhere - I believe even the Archives is guilty of using the retraced version) is something I learned of only recently. At the time, the biggest irritation I had about the reprint was how Batman's gloves were colored blue when they should have been purple. Still, a great story and at the age of 12, there wasn't much that irritated me about a character who was being drawn by Jim Aparo on one title and Norm Breyfogle on the other (and both taking turns here).
Which isn't to say that certain things didn't strike me as peculiar about this issue. Batman's outfit reverting to Bill Finger's original design for two panels was appreciated but a bit strange due it's abrupt appearance and disappearance. What really surprised me in Grant's story however, was Batman's failed instinct costing Crane his life. Waiting for the two criminals pictured in your excerpt above to take what they came for and leave so as not to endanger Crane, Batman is shown watching the robbery from a distance. Without warning however, one of the men decides to kill Crane seemingly simply because he can. It remains a startling scene and is intensified when moments later, Grant has Batman jamming a gun into a crook's throat while demanding a name. It somewhat channels Batman's earliest days when he'd threaten to kill his enemies if he didn't get the answers he wanted, but seems out of place in a story which seems to be taking place today. Batman's "have a snort for the road" line, kind of seems out of place in any era.
I also find it interesting that both of the new tales contain instances of Batman acknowledging a hardened attitude to crime that comes from doing what he's been doing for so long (telling Hanrahan how he's able to handle coming across a mass of melted flesh in Wolfman's tale by focusing on the perpetrator and telling Gordon that he no longer wonders what motivates killers to do what they do). Actually, what I really find interesting in looking through this issue is - am I wrong, or is Pesticide's claim that Crane, Lambert, and Rogers had her father injured intentionally never actually confirmed? It looks as if Stryker's accident could have been intentional but just as easily, it could have been a faulty mechanism that was to blame. Another interesting nuance to the story is that Stryker is no more noble than the other three, but nevertheless comes across as the decent man of the four because of what happened to him and because of how hard his daughter is willing to fight for him. Someone who inspires such a transformation in their daughter has to be a good person, right?
Oh, I don't know about the others, but Alan Davis and Paul Neary are both cited in Grant/Breyfogle's tale on a bookcase on page 13.
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Post by foxley on Oct 19, 2015 2:27:19 GMT -5
Mike Grell gets a mention, with the name 'Grell' being inscribed on a gun barrel.
Kev's has me stumped. Kevin Nowlan? Kevin Maguire?
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Post by shaxper on Oct 19, 2015 4:32:29 GMT -5
I also find it interesting that both of the new tales contain instances of Batman acknowledging a hardened attitude to crime that comes from doing what he's been doing for so long (telling Hanrahan how he's able to handle coming across a mass of melted flesh in Wolfman's tale by focusing on the perpetrator and telling Gordon that he no longer wonders what motivates killers to do what they do). I wonder how much of that comes from that "A fitting end for his kind" line in the original story, which gets reused in the Grant/Breyfogle one. O'Neil was clearly working closer with his writers at this point and may have specifically felt that this story required Batman to come off a little more hardened, especially as O'Neil was obsessed with the somewhat erroneous concept that Batman was so dark in his earliest appearances (that gets brought up again in the intro here) and probably didn't want him to come off less dark in the present. You are correct. That had occurred to me as well. I got the impression that Wolfman intended to leave that vague in order to further drive home Pesticyde's mental instability, but it definitely could have used a little more clarity. I never gave it much thought either way, honestly. One of the challenges of The Case of the Chemical Syndicate is that it's hard to make the reader care about (or even keep straight) four business partners with distinct personalities and motives. Most versions of the story seemed content to make Stryker the bad guy and not do much for the other three either way. Wolfman's tried to give each a distinct personality, I suppose, but it was mostly white noise for me. Ah yes. Thanks. |
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Post by shaxper on Oct 19, 2015 4:33:56 GMT -5
Mike Grell gets a mention, with the name 'Grell' being inscribed on a gun barrel. Nice catch! Thank you. |
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Post by shaxper on Oct 19, 2015 10:00:19 GMT -5
It's just now occurring to me how odd it is that Breyfogle inserts his own name into the issue, but does nothing for Grant, nor for his peers over on the Batman title.
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Post by shaxper on Oct 20, 2015 10:29:07 GMT -5
Legends of the Dark Knight #16  "Venom, Part One" writer: Denny O'Neil layouts: Trevor Von Eeden pencils: Russell Braun inks: Jose Luis Garcia Lopez letters: Willie Schubert colors: Steve Oliff editors: Kevin Dooley & Andrew Helfer grade: A+ For those who never thought they'd see the day, yeah, I like Denny O'Neil now. I don't take back a single thing I've said about his first four years overseeing the Bat Office, but whatever has changed (perhaps Batman's slowly waning popularity in contrast to the resurgence of Marvel in the early '90s), O'Neil is clearly invested in good story-telling now, and that's no more demonstrable than here, in the first story he's written since taking over the Bat Office that feels intrinsic in its depth and not just done for glamour (see my comments on "Shaman" and The Man Who Falls"). Instead of writing about it, I'm just going to post the following scans from pages 4-7:     Holy...... Seriously, this moment absolutely floored me. O'Neil then expertly uses this experience to drive the rest of the story, bringing back the obsessive side to Batman that Miller best exemplified in Year One while still holding on to the heart behind the obsession that Wolfman, Grant, and even Moench have worked so hard to resurrect since that time. This guy can smile and be a hero, but he also punishes himself mercilessly for failure and takes it out on his prey as well. And, of course, failure #1 will always be the death of his parents. Alfred notes that Bruce sets the grandfather clock that hides the entrance to the Bat Cave to the exact minute of his parents' death in response to his failure with Sissy. He then punishes himself with brutal weight lifting so that he won't fail to move that boulder next time around, tearing a muscle and injuring himself in the process. Most significantly, he also sees Sissy's drowning face in his mind while punching out the kidnappers who left her down there. And, beyond further exploring Batman's psychology, O'Neil uses this failure in order to believably steer Bruce towards the social issue he intends to take up with this storyline: performance enhancing drugs, a topic that was only beginning to garner serious attention as of 1991. Well played, Denny. As this is only the first chapter in a massively decompressed five part story, there isn't all that much else to write about yet beyond Von Eeden's usual amazingness with his layouts. Braun and Garcia do a competent job bringing them to life. Important Details: * O'Neil is careful to present this story as a memory, affixed to no specific point in time, once again supporting Dooley's assertion last issue that And thus, Bruce appears to have a completed Bat Cave, still wears the Year One chest logo, and is working with both CAPTAIN Gordon and Harvey Dent, but there's no attempt to place this chronologically alongside the events of "Prey," "Gothic," nor "Shaman". Nevertheless, the idea explored in both "Prey" and "Shaman" of Bruce still being new at this game and learning hard lessons as he goes, is a driving force in this story. "Gothic" remains the one anomaly in that respect (but that's Grant Morrison for you). * This is the first mention/appearance of Venom, the performance-enhancing drug that O'Neil will have his writers resurrect most notably with Bane several years from now. Minor Details: - I get that Batman only works at night, but it makes absolutely no sense to have a plain-clothed Bruce Wayne doing the detective work by day, including paying off accomplices for key information Batman plans to use. How would that not expose his secret identity after only a few weeks? plot synopsis in one sentence: Batman fails in an attempt to rescue a kidnapping victim, grows frustrated with his failure, and thus accepts Venom (a performance enhancing drug) from the victim's strangely unconcerned father (who invented the drug) and then uses that performance enhancing edge to take on the kidnappers, acting strangely out of character as he does so, laughing maniacally after thrashing them. |
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Post by shaxper on Oct 20, 2015 11:06:33 GMT -5
Robin (1991) #4  "Strange Company" writer: Chuck Dixon pencils: Tom Lyle inks: Bob Smith letters: Tim Harkins colors: Adrienne Roy editors: Denny O'Neil and Dan Raspler grade: n/a For reasons I still can't explain, this remains one of my least favorite covers in all of comicdom. But, as the purpose of reviewing the Robin limited series is to discuss how it affects the Batman mythos, I suppose the quality of the cover is neither here nor there, as is the bulk of the story within. Nevertheless, while Tim Drake hasn't been so much as mentioned in any Batman title since his departure for this limited series four months ago, this is the first time that I feel Dixon has really begun to do something remarkable with the character. He established a strong comparison in the first issue, Tim being on a path so similar to Bruce's when he was Tim's age, but this issue turns that comparison into a dark contrast. In an effort to exert his independence and find his own path, Tim is now over his head, playing supporting cast in a larger story that he is struggling to exercise some semblance of control over, as he works with "colleagues" who do not share his morality and who are both more capable than he in most respects. Their allegiance to him is, at best, tenuous, and their willingness to listen to him is even more fragile. It's a dark place for an emerging hero to find himself.  That Tim's Robin persona will be born out of this as opposed to emerging as the result of recieving knowledge from paid mentors is bold, intriguing, and (admittedly) quite difficult to read. Tim feels pathetic and, perhaps, a little too similar to us when we were first trying to make our mark on the world and flesh out our adult identities. Dixon has truly inverted the Marty Stu that Tim once was. It's what needed to be done in order to redeem the Robin that nobody wanted. Sure enough, as Tim begins learning how to hold his own with these more powerful associates who do not share his views and, in some respects, need to be tamed, we can begin to see the seeds of the leader Tim will be with Young Justice and the Teen Titans. Many have argued that Tim made more sense on those teams than he ever did by Batman's side; we can begin to see why with a story like this one, in which he is not being groomed to be Batman's assistant; he's instead struggling to become a leader. Important Details: * Tim trades up the sling for the bo staff. Yeah, he was already using a bo staff in Batman #457, but Dixon seems to have conveniently forgotten this.  |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 20, 2015 11:26:19 GMT -5
Why no grade?
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Post by shaxper on Oct 20, 2015 11:30:37 GMT -5
Because I'm not evaluating the story as a whole, just exploring aspects of it that have the potential to affect the Batman continuity/mythos. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 20, 2015 11:40:03 GMT -5
Because I'm not evaluating the story as a whole, just exploring aspects of it that have the potential to affect the Batman continuity/mythos. Ah, I gotcha. |
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Post by Action Ace on Oct 20, 2015 20:30:21 GMT -5
LODK #16 was my first issue of the title during my return to comics. The art was spectacular and "Venom" turned out to be my favorite story of the entire series.
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Post by shaxper on Oct 20, 2015 20:35:18 GMT -5
LODK #16 was my first issue of the title during my return to comics. The art was spectacular and "Venom" turned out to be my favorite story of the entire series. It's certainly wowing me thus far! |
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Post by shaxper on Oct 21, 2015 19:58:42 GMT -5
Well folks, I've finally done it. I went back and indexed every review in this thread so that, instead of blindly surfing through in search of a specific issue, they are all linked from the first page in this thread. Gonna make treading through this 80+ page thread a LOT more user friendly  |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Oct 21, 2015 20:55:34 GMT -5
Well folks, I've finally done it. I went back and indexed every review in this thread so that, instead of blindly surfing through in search of a specific issue, they are all linked from the first page in this thread. Gonna make treading through this 80+ page thread a LOT more user friendly Good on you man, I still haven't worked up the patience to do it on my long belabored Hellboy thread and I don't even have a quarter of the issues reviewed that you do! |
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Post by shaxper on Oct 22, 2015 4:26:35 GMT -5
Well folks, I've finally done it. I went back and indexed every review in this thread so that, instead of blindly surfing through in search of a specific issue, they are all linked from the first page in this thread. Gonna make treading through this 80+ page thread a LOT more user friendly Good on you man, I still haven't worked up the patience to do it on my long belabored Hellboy thread and I don't even have a quarter of the issues reviewed that you do! Ever since Scott Harris and Roquefort Raider did it, I've been thinking I needed to get around to it. Took roughly 3 hours to do, but I've always wanted these reviews to be something people could go back to and read through later (not just when they were new), and this improves the chances of that happening a lot. Plus it's now far easier for me to refer back to earlier reviews, as well |
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