Skip to main content

Featured

Of Embassies and Origins - Justice League International Part 2 (Eaglemoss Collection v77)

  Review: Since we are doing a series of reviews focusing on Booster Gold over his nearly 40-year history, we include this one as a collection of some of his earliest appearances, dating to late 1987. That places the original publish date of these tales while his original solo series was still going strong.  This book is a beautiful, glossy hard-cover with smooth and heavy-stock paper inside, although the sometimes-low print reproduction quality leads to blurred and hard to read word balloons on occasion. It is also a rare book here in North America, as Eaglemoss Collections targeted UK fans with this series. At this point in the history of the 1987-rebooted Justice League, they have gained official United Nations recognition and sanction. To ensure their reach truly is global, they rebrand as Justice League International (as does the title of the series!) and they open new headquarters buildings around the world: New York, Paris and Moscow are included here. As this is a product of 19
Post a Comment
Read more
Labels

Batwoman: A Review

   

Cover of Batwoman graphic novel collecting Detective Comics #854-863

Review:

In honor of the Pride celebrations happening this month, and culminating this week, let's look at Batwoman, one of DC Comic's most prominent gay heroes. I've chosen this collection that gathers the 2009 reboot of the character from Detective Comics.

The marketing text describes this book as "visually stunning" and it is all that and more. Jaw-dropping, eye-popping works of comics art on every page. J. H. Williams III has discovered the freedom of breaking out of the boxes of traditional framing, and he offers a master-class tour de force in visual story-telling.

The flow of the images from panel to panel across pages leads and drives the story forward. The jagged edges of the Bat logo appear as frequently in layout construction as the prototypical rectangle. Dark and moody, with excellent use of the pop of red in Batwoman's hair, everything about the art of this book is amazing!

The story is pretty damn fine, too. Greg Rucka weaves past and present together beautifully. This is a stellar introduction to Kate Kane and the forces that shaped her into the hero she has become. With her mix of military training, technology, flexibility and hand to hand combat skills, she is a worthy bearer of the Bat logo, and Rucka skillfully unfolds the elements that shaped her, from shocking childhood trauma through rejection by the military for her homosexulality, to recommitment to a higher good and  justice.

Two minor flaws mar this excellent collection. The first is the excessive use of BOLD text in the dialog lettering. It lends emphasis, lets the reader hear the cadence of the speaker. But in places there is simply too much bolding, and rather than enhance readability, it occasionally gets in the way.

The second is the inclusion of the Cutter storyline. It is gripping, tense, and beautifully drawn and colored. The alternation between cool blue tones and warm red ones to switch between the Batman and Batwoman sections is brilliant and works very well. But the story on the whole adds nothing to establishing  the mythology of Batwoman, which the Alice and Origins stories do so well. And in some ways it even undercuts it as she makes numerous mistakes and seems more easily distracted and defeated than in the previous stories.

Still, this is a fantastic collection of ground-breaking stories and appropriately top-shelf art. Definitely worth 4.5 capes

Description:

Best-selling writer Greg Rucka (WONDER WOMAN) and acclaimed artist J.H. Williams III (SANDMAN: OVERTURE) reveal the shocking origin that set the foundation for one of the DC Universe’s most prominent lesbian characters in BATWOMAN BY GREG RUCKA AND J.H. WILLIAMS III.

Determined to continue serving others after her military career was cut short by bigotry, Kate Kane has taken up the identity of Batwoman, leading a one-woman war on Gotham City’s evil underbelly.

And at the heart of her investigation is the Religion of Crime, a criminal cult led by a madwoman known only as Alice. Speaking in riddles and storybook rhymes, the Lewis Carroll-inspired Alice aims to transform Gotham into her own twisted wonderland.

But is everything Alice says truly mad? Underneath her deranged theatrics, she may hold the key to understanding Batwoman’s past…

BATWOMAN BY GREG RUCKA AND J.H. WILLIAMS III is the visually stunning landmark series collected here in its entirety. Originally presented in DETECTIVE COMICS #854-863, this volume also includes the never-before-collected storyline “Cutter” with guest artist Jock (THE LOSERS).

Collects: DETECTIVE COMICS #854-863
Authors: Greg Rucka
Artists: J.H. Williams III
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: June 20 2017
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN-10: 1401274137
ISBN-13: 978-1401274139
Language: English
Pages: 256 pages

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts