Comfortably Old School: A Review of Batman/Wonder Woman: Truth

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

An Interesting New Direction: A Review of Daredevil #1

 written by Stephanie Philips

drawn by Lee Garbett

colored by Frank Martin

I was not a fan of the last run on Daredevil by Saladin Ahmed and a rotating gaggle of artists.  It started off strong, with Ahmed and (then) regular artist Aaron  Kuder, working with an interesting premise; having come back from the Hell where he appeared to have been trapped at the end of Chip Zdarsky's run, Matt became a Catholic priest. As the series progressed, though, the storytelling started to come apart at the seams, with Ahmeed's "seven deadly sins" storyline becoming a lot more bloated than it initially appeared to be, and with Marvel seemingly unable to keep their pool of artists to fewer than five.  It actually ended on an interesting note but I wasn't sorry to see it end.

This new direction and creative team of Stephanie Phillips and Lee Garbett, however, looks promising.  Matt Murdock has taken a job teaching law at Empire State University, even though he's no longer a licensed attorney. By night, of course, he's still fighting crime as Daredevil, but he gets a nasty surprise when a new, unknown supervillain appears at Murdock's apartment, telling Daredevil that Matt Murdock in going to die.  It's not exactly new to Matt, but the fact that this new threat completely plays havoc with his enhanced senses and seems to anticipate his every move means that this isn't just another every day threat for Matt but could be someone genuinely dangerous.

Philips and Garbett make for a good creative team, but I refuse to sing their praises too effusively until they've finished at least one five-issue story arc without another artist stepping in to substitute for him. They're not exactly reinventing the wheel with Matt's profession, which was what made Ahmed's run so appealing in the beginning, but as was the case with Peter Parker's teaching career years ago, I think they could go interesting places with this. This is a surprisingly muted issue #1 considering it practically coincided with the second season of the Disney+ show Daredevil: Born Again, but I don't really mind. Splashy first issues are overrated, in my opinion, and what matters most for serialized storytelling is consistency in quality. This new team is off to a pretty solid start, so I hope they're able to keep it up. 

8.5/10

A Heck of a Story to Adapt: A Review of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

 written by Tom King

drawn by Bilquis Evely

colored by Matheus Lopes

In a couple of weeks, audiences will be treated to the first "Supergirl" movie in 42 years. That's how badly the box office failure of 1984's Supergirl scared off anyone from bringing her back to the big screen.  DC Studios, under the leadership of James Gunn, hopes to exorcise the memory of that failure with a highly-promising movie from director Craig Gillespie starring Milly Alcock.  After the first trailer dropped, I confess I grew interested n the story that the film was adapting, an eight-part 2021 miniseries titled "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow."  DC Comics made the sage decision to reprint the story in a compact, affordable collected edition and so picking it up at a bookstore was a no-brainer.

Having read it, I cannot imagine a better way to introduce Supergirl to noobs like myself.

This story begins in a distant galaxy, where a young girl named Ruthye, whose father has been stabbed to death by stone-cold killer Krem of the Yellow Hills, is wandering around her world looking to hire someone who will kill him. She offers, as payment, the valuable sword Krem left lodged in her father's chest, but when a bounty hunter she has hoped to hire tries to make off with the sword, she gets an unexpected hand from someone she least expects: Supergirl, who, traveling with her dog Krypto, is celebrating her 21st birthday in a galaxy with a red sun so that she can actually get drunk.   Ruthye attempts to hire Supergirl to take out Krem, and while Supergirl is politely refusing her, they are attacked by Krem and the bounty hunter whom Supergirl thrashed. She's more than strong enough to take them on, even in her weakened state, but when Krem shoots Supergirl and Krypto with poisoned arrows and makes off with her spaceship, she finally agrees to accompany Ruthye on her quest to take Krem down as it's the only way to get the antidote to the poison in Krypto's veins. Will they succeed in time?  

Like many folks out there, I only know Supergirl as Superman's cousin Kara Zor-el from Krypton, sent to Earth to protect the infant Kal-el, only to discover that he's an adult and hardly needs protection. I know her story has been retooled over the years but this seems to be the prevailing canon. Writer Tom King revisits and expands this origin considerably, which provides a very effective introduction to this character. He is helped along by absolutely superlative artwork by Brazilian illustrator Bilquis Evely, who lavishes the entire eight-issue story with exquisitely detailed illustrations that are both unique and yet vaguely evocative of art deco stylings of the 1920s. Supergirl and Ruthye, in particular, have a very "roaring twenties" aesthetic to their faces. The art is just pure eye-candy, especially helped along by Matheus Lopes' rich colors.  

 More than just the (very) pretty pictures, though, I admit one thing about this book that deeply impressed me was how Tom King was able to strike a balance between the extraordinarily dark tone of the story's subject matter and Supergirl's ultimately hopeful characterization. She is, after all, Superman's cousin, and not exactly a super-powered Punisher. King doesn't hold back; there's plenty of mention of violent death, mass murder and even borderline genocide as Supergirl remembers the death of both Krypton, and later, of the community of survivors who managed to escape it for a while. Krem allies himself with a group of brigands famous for traveling the stars to murder people for kicks, and while their acts of depravity aren't explicitly depicted, King doesn't shy away from describing them vividly.  Supergirl goes up against some very evil people in this book, but King still manages to remind the reader that even after all of this, the rays of hope still manage to shine through. That's all the description I'll give to avoid any spoilers.

Between the extraordinary story and artwork, I honestly had to struggle to not finish this book in one sitting; I always make it a point to stretch out books, be they prose novels or graphic novels for as long as I can and this book is a great example. I hope that the Supergirl movie cleans up at the box office when it comes out in a few weeks' time, and I hope that after watching it, people go their bookstores  or comic books stores and check out this fantastic, character-defining story. 

10/10