Summary Bruce Wayne is a rumored suicide and it's reported that Batman is dead...but you can't always believe what you read.
Plot: This was probably the only Future State book I was actually excited to get my hands on and read because this book is essentially a sneak peak into DC's spring line up as Tamaki and Mora will be taking the reins of Detective Comics in March starting with 'tec #1034. While it's true that many of the other Future State creative teams are also going to be around when things go back to normal Batman holds a spot near and dear to my heart so his fate concerned me the most...and I'm glad to say that it looks like Detective Comics will be in good hands when it returns.I said it before, and likely will again, but I like a Batman who smiles and while that is generally true I'm not opposed to a story that features Batman at the end of his rope with his back against a wall and no where left to turn either. I don't want grim and gritty all the time but when done well it does work and that's what Tamaki gave us here.
   Right from the get go Tamaki proved that she knew how to steal the scene and instantly command an audience's attention. she began with a single word and then a comma “Gotham,”  before starting again after several silent panels with “...Gotham is a funeral no one’s attending." It's a purposeful false start, and one that not only sets the tone for the book and outlines its central theme but it also immediately conveys a sense of weariness in the speaker. It's a line that he literally doesn't have the energy to complete on his first try which is a beautiful way to give the reader  a deep insight into a character with the use of only a handful of words. And that's a technique that Tamaki continues to employ through out the issue; unlike a lot of the other Future State books that burdened the reader with caption after caption of spoon fed exposition Tamaki dispenses her world building quickly through the use of subtext. As Bruce stumbles through the streets of Gotham seeking medical attention we see a news story on a billboard behind him with the headline, "Bruce Wayne: loses fortune, commits suicide?" and then nothing more other than a sentence saying the fistful of dollars he hands over at a no tell medical clinic is the last of the Wayne fortune. It's terse and it certainly leaves you with more questions than answers but it's more than enough to give you the lay of the land in the Gotham that Tamaki wants to show you. It's a dark and mysterious world she's given us and it fits well in the oeuvre of Batman. 

While I'll be sad to see Tomasi go as his run was really solid, Tamaki illustrated here that she's able to deliver a really personal and gritty adventure so I'm hopeful that I'll be enjoying a lot more Batman in 2021 thanks to her.

Art: Mora has always been a fantastic artist but here he really pushed himself to new heights with the heavy lifting he accomplished in his panels. So much of the sense of mystery that Tamaki wished to build is left to Mora to create, her back ground through subtext style just couldn't work if she didn't trust Mora to deliver the goods...and he does in spectacular fashion. With his gritty images of Bruce running through the shadows juxtaposed against his bright, cleaner panels of billboards and restaurants we're introduced to so many of the concepts needed for the plot to work. Comics are a visual medium but too often writer seem to forget that and they walk all over the art with dialogue and captions that convey information to the reader in a much clumsier way than the art  is able to, and I'm glad to see that isn't the case here as both parts of the comic, the words and the art, are given the space they need to shine.

If this book were only the work of Tamaki and Mora it would easily be a 10/10...but it had a back up and it was pretty bad. The art was muddy and the story just didn't engage me at all which really drags down my opinion of the book as a whole.
Grade:8/10

Summary: As Conan defeats Heimdul he mistakes the Frost Giant's daughter for a Vanir and follows her into the snowy wastes.
Plot/Art: Recht's retelling of Robert E. Howard's "The Frost Giant's Daughter" continues here, giving us brutal action and a pursuit of beauty across the frozen wastes. As Recht did in the first chapter he continues to build on the mythology around the Frost Giant and his daughter Atali but rather than mindless exposition just dumped at your feet it's information that's doled out sparingly and with great subtly building a sense of mystery around Atali and her motivations which goes a great way to making it feel like a true myth.  However the book isn't with out its flaws...though I may be from Massachusetts I like to think I'm far from Puritanical but I'm not going to lie the depiction of Atali, especially in the scenes where she had close contact with Conan were slightly troubling to my eye. I'm not against nudity, and I know the misogyny of warriors thinking of women as chattel is correct for the period the story is going for and although she's a timeless goddess with obvious womanly needs...when portrayed against Conan's hulking, brutal form she looks like an adolescent girl which makes not only Conan's pursuit of her slightly difficult to watch but her ::ahem:: actions :ahem:: at the climax ( hey, you try voiding that pun) of the issue seem like I have need of the confessional (and I'm not Catholic) or a spot on the next episode of To Catch a Predator. And although the book is so amazing that I'm in dire need of the conclusion I can say it is with a slightly guilty conscious. I knew it was slightly problematic from your amazing review (and it is amazing! Click the link to see for yourself) Roquefort Raider but perhaps I am more Puritanical than I thought because I was not ready for this.
Grade:7/10