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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
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Who are these heroes? Batman / Superman volume 5 - Truth Hurts

 

cover of Batman / Superman volume 5 - Truth Hurts



Review:

Sometimes the tales told in the Batman / Superman series are detached from the concurrent happenings in other titles and the larger DC multiverse. Not necessarily in a universe of their own, that larger universe is still out there, as the "air they breathe", but with little impact on the terms and conditions of the characters in the tales.

Other times, as in this collection, the characters and situations are deeply influenced by what is going on across other, related titles. In this case, the stories here are set in the midst of the Jim-Gordon-as-Mecha-Batman era, see Batman v2 issues #40-50.

The creative team of Greg Pak on stories and Ardian Syaf on art does their very best to present us with compelling tales. Unfortunately for both them as creators and us as readers, the "air they breathe" is poisoned. The year of Jim Gordon as mecha-batman constitutes one of the worst storylines in modern DC Comics, a forgettable sequence from end to end.

Layered onto the Gordon Batman factor is a second meta-narrative of the era: Superman has lost his powers, but Clark Kent has turned into some testosterone-laden, motorcycle-riding action hero, fists at the ready, diving into trouble stern-faced crew-cut head first. As with Mecha-Batman Jim Gordon, it is so out of character, so over-wrought that it belongs in a dedicated universe or limited series, not in the main timeline or continuity.

These two terrible character developments really handcuff the ability of Pak and Syaf to craft beautiful stories. They try to work with these unfamiliar pieces, but in the end they are too foreign, too deeply uninteresting, and almost completely unrecognizable. Pak has told some wonderful tales in the Batman / Superman series before, but these are not among his best work. I give it a half-cape.


Description:

Batman and Superman—separately, they’re two of the greatest heroes the world has ever seen. Together, they’re an incredible team…and the greatest of friends. But Batman and Superman have never teamed up like this before.

This is a Superman who’s lost most of his powers and had his identity revealed to the entire world. Someone is coordinating a series of attacks against him that have brought him to the brink of destruction, and he needs the World’s Greatest Detective to help him put the clues together.

But this Batman isn’t Bruce Wayne. Jim Gordon now protects Gotham as the robot-suited Batman, and he has no reason to trust Superman—especially when his presence in Gotham seems to have brought on a war with a race of super-powered subterranean beings! If they can’t learn to work together now, there may no longer be a Gotham City to protect!

Spinning off the events of BATMAN VOL. 8: SUPERHEAVY and SUPERMAN VOL. 1: TRUTH, acclaimed writer Greg Pak (ACTION COMICS) with artists Ardian Syaf (GREEN LANTERN) and Cliff Richards (LOBO) chronicle the first meeting between two very changed heroes, with guest appearances by Batgirl, Aquaman, Red Hood and more!

Collects: BATMAN/SUPERMAN #21-27

Authors: Greg Pak
Artists: Ardian Syaf
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: April 11 2017
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN: 9781401268183
Pages: 192 pages


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