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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

Gotham's Dark Detective: Batman - Legends of the Dark Knight volume 2

 

Cover of Batman - Legends of the Dark Knight TPB v2


Review:

The Legends of the Dark Knight ongoing series was a platform for newer or up-and-coming comics talents to show their mettle. Tales varied in size, seldom stretching to full-issue length. Indeed, this collection reprints 5 issues and includes 9 distinct stories.

With each new chapter, the writers and artists change, with all the impact one would expect on style, pacing, techniques and other individual touches. A very episodic series and collection.

The transitions likely felt more natural in the original online digital chapters - in a collected edition, be prepared for those large shifts between tales.

The cream of this 9-tale crop is "Tap Tap" by Roy Fawkes and illustrated by Stephane Roux. It is a fun romp of an interrupted cat-burglary, light and amusing, perfectly paced. Roux's images are dynamic and fluid, and at times the colors positively glow.

It's a sharp contrast with most of the rest of the collection, whose art is more often muted and dark, with tones of grey and blues, or else heavily inked. Even a more colorful one like "Carved" (by Paul Tobin and Tradd Moore) is heavy on the pencils and its angular characters display a quick-sketch feel.

Also worth your time is Jeff Parker's "Gotham Spirit" entry, with art by Gabriel Houdman. It tells the tale of an ordinary convenience store robbery thwarted by Batman. A tale in which Batman neither speaks nor narrates - the solid visuals convey all the reader needs to know about Batman.

With other appearances by Killer Croc (with his pet dragon), Scarecrow (a fascinating paraplegic future), Penguin (teaming up to work with Batman to stop a larger foe) and a couple monster mysteries, this is a solid book.


Description:

Top writers and artists from comics and beyond tell tales of the Dark Knight!

This second volume of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight collects short stories of the Dark Knight by Jeff Parker, Christos Gage, Chris Sprouse, Ray Fawkes and more!

Collects: issues #6-10 of the printed series, or #16-29 and 41 of the online digital chapters

Authors: 9 different authors
Artists: 10 different artists
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: May 20 2014
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN: 978-1401246006
Pages: 168 pages



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