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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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Pirate, Puritan, Private Eye - Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne

 

Cover of TPB Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne

Review:

Six Elseworld-worthy tales rolled into one make this a fascinating if only loosely coherent collection. It gives us Bruce Wayne as an 18th-century pirate, or a 17th-century Puritan witch-hunter, a stone-age loner, a Wild-West vigilante and more. 

Grant Morrison spends a single issue on each character and time period, tying them together with a vague and ultimately less satisfying overarching plot. Masterminded by Darkseid, this larger plot sees the Justice League making every effort to stop Batman from making his way back to the present. Why? it would trigger the end of everything, called the All-Over in this tale. It's a middling super-hero story and narrative necessity that simply cannot compare to the creativity of the historical settings. Ultimately the Darkseid plot is less interesting or coherent than the component parts.

Morrison's writing in the first four of the six-chapter set is especially powerful, the situations demanding a hero to push back against the deep injustices and harsh lives of the eras. They are crying desperately for a savior, and a disoriented Bruce Wayne gravitates to that need.

A different artist handles each chapter, and the creme de la creme is Frazer Irving's eye-popping work on the Puritan tale, titled "Until the End of Time." The gorgeous, almost watercolor visuals, unique shifts in perspective, subtle shifts in tone, texture and palette are inspired, a treat for the eyes.

Georges Jenty's work on part four, "Dark Night Dark Rider" goes in a very different direction. His faces, especially the eyes and the leering smiles convey with a sharp clarity the evil at the heart of these Wild-West characters. And Andy Kubert's main covers are powerful works of art and character studies all by themselves.

For occasionally amazing art and a few great ideas tied int a middling superhero plot, I give it 3 capes.


Description:

A time-spanning graphic novel featuring Bruce Wayne's return to Gotham City to take back the mantle of Batman written by award-winning writer Grant Morrison and illustrated by a stable to today's hottest artists including Chris Sprouse, Frazer Irving and Yannick Paquette. This is the final chapter of the epic storyline that began in the best-selling graphic novels, BATMAN:R.I.P. and FINAL CRISIS where the original Batman was lost in time after being bombarded with the omega beams of evil despot, Darkseid and continued in BATMAN & ROBIN: BATMAN REBORN where Dick Grayson, the original Robin, took over wearing the cape and cowl of the Dark Knight after the world's heroes believed his mentor to have died.

Collects: all 6 of the 2010 limited series

Authors: Grant Morrison
Artists: Chris Sprouse, Frazer Irving, Yanick Paquette
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: Jan. 10 2012
Parental Rating: Teen+
ISBN: 978-1401233822
Pages: 232 pages


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