written by Jeph Loeb
drawn by Jim Cheung
colored by Jay David Ramos
Oversized one-shots from mainstream comic book companies are a tragic rarity nowadays, in the age of compressed storytelling and anthologies taking the place of series when it comes to major events. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that DC Comics was publishing this title, so much so that I was actually ready to pick up each of the issues before I learned my joyous surprise, that it was a one-shot. I have long been a fan of Jim Cheung, going all the way back to his Young Avengers days in 2004. I have collected quite a few of his works for Marvel since then, like Avengers: Children's Crusade, New Avengers: Illuminati and Spider-Man: Clone Conspiracy. I've enjoyed his work so much, in fact, that I regretted missing his runs on titles such as Justice League and even Spawn, so when I found out that he'd be working on something I had a chance of picking up, I decided to go for it.
It's a properly fun little story.
Bruce Wayne and Diana Price (aka Batman and Wonder Woman) hold a gala event at which to launch the display of Wonder Woman's single most remarkable possession: the Lasso of Truth. No sooner, however, does Bruce place the lasso in its protective case, than it is stolen by none other than Batman's ex-fiancee, Catwoman. As Batman and Wonder Woman give chase, Catwoman manages to give them the slip, only to have the lasso taken from her by Harley Quinn. As it turns out, Batman had requested Catwoman to steal the lasso to test Wayne's security system (spoiler alert: the system failed the test). Harley Quinn's intervention, however, was unexpected, and where Harley Quinn is, Joker can't be far behind. Will Batman be able to keep his feelings for his ex in check, and will Wonder Woman and Catwoman be able to set aside their differences long enough to recover the Lasso of Truth?
I admit to being a little surprised that the story, apart from being self-contained, wasn't some status-quo shattering event but just a fun little done-in-one that contains some pleasant character vignettes, some decent action and some nice money shots for Cheung to showcase his stellar art. This is the kind of comic book we don't quite get enough of these days.
As I write this, the comic book community has marked the anniversary of Dwayne McDuffie's death. For those who don't know, McDuffie, was an extremely prolific television and comic book writer who co-created well-known properties like Static Shock and Damage Control and who wrote several episodes for beloved series like Justice League and Ben 10. McDuffie excelled at creating rich compelling stories that could be consumed in 22 minutes and which didn't talk down to their audience. I can give no higher form of praise that to say that this is the kind of story Dwayne would have written.
10/10
No comments:
Post a Comment