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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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Bat-confusion and Bat-reboot - Batman Zero Hour TPB

Cover of Batman Zero Hour graphic novel

 

Review:

Once upon a time, DC Comics annually produced a major crossover event. Think of Millenium and Invasion! in the late '80s or Armageddon 2001 in the early '90s. Zero Hour was the grand event in DC Comics in 1994.

But Zero Hour strove to be more than just an annual crossover event. It sought to do for alternate timelines what the legendary Crisis on Infinite Earths had done for alternate realities and the DC Multiverse. As it trimmed and collapsed the many scattered timelines, it also made small but significant changes to characters, especially in their origins and motivations.

This hefty collection brings together the Zero-numbered origin retellings and the confused-timelines crossover issues from the Batman-related titles of the era.  The flagship Batman and Detective Comics titles of course, as well as tales from Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Batman: Shadow of the Bat, and the related Catwoman and Robin titles. Eleven comics in all, loosely around the origins and crossover themes.

The most interesting of the zero-numbered origin stories is Catwoman's. Gone is the prostitution back-story, now Selina Kyle is recast as a troubled youth who lost both parents in her teens, and survived a corrupt care system and residential reformatory. It glosses a bit quickly over how she got from there to loving the luxurious life, but it has a great connection with Batman, as they start their flirtatious relationship. And Jim Balent's legendary art on that series is in full evidence throughout.

The other origin stories suffer a bit from over-narration. Tim Drake Robin and Dick Grayson Nightwing share their origin stories while on a rooftop stakeout. The action is light and the talking is heavy, although significant in its subtle tweaks to key details in their stories. And of the four retellings of Batman's origins collected here, it's the Legends of the Dark Knight tale titled Viewpoints that is the most innovative and interesting. Villainous Randolph Spire has gathered artists and novelists to brainstorm character and motivation details behind the Batman, in hopes of gaining new insights into his weaknesses. Every page shifts viewpoint and artist, creating a kaleidoscope of visual styles and different takes on Batman.

The more direct crossovers also bring a mixed bag of stories. Catwoman meets and starts to fall for a caveman and his pet sabertoothed lion, a visually engrossing if somewhat ridiculous tale. Its highlight is definitely Catwoman's reaction to the shattered mirror and its reflecting back to her the various outfits in her long history. Well deserving of the full-page treatment it gets!

Doug Moench and Mike Manley tell a terrific tale in which Batman encounters a crime-fighting Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, not the paralyzed Oracle he knows from his timeline. Jim Gordon and even Joker likewise get confused by the overlapping timelines and realities. Who is really alive and well and who is not? What is going on? You can feel their bewilderment.

The Shadow of the Bat tale, on the other hand, takes a lighter tone. Its blended-timeline brings butler Alfred Beagle out of the Golden Age, and author Alan Grant and artist Bret Blevins play for laughs the confusion and differences of style that result.

Tim Drake Robin has his doubts amped up even more when he meets a younger, more confident and highly skilled Dick Grayson Robin

Overall this book is a mixture of entertaining and fun crossover stories and over-narrated origin tales. A great gathering of the Batman-related Zero Hour tie-ins.

Description:

The Batman tales that tie into the epic “Zero Hour” storyline are now finally collected into one graphic novel in BATMAN: ZERO HOUR! 

Time is collapsing in on itself. The villainous Extant has ushered in a series of black holes that are swallowing the universe—past, present and future! The Bat-family, like everyone else in the DC Universe, has seen time loops affect their lives. The result? The return of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, teenage Dick Grayson as Robin, and Bruce Wayne’s parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne. Then, after the crisis in time as been averted, new details about the origins of Batman, Robin and Catwoman are revealed.

Legendary comics writers Chuck Dixon, Archie Goodwin, Alan Grant and Doug Moench team up with veteran Batman artists Graham Nolan, Jim Balent, Bret Blevins and more to present the Dark Knight stories tying into the classic ZERO HOUR event, now collected here for the first time!

Collects: BATMAN #0, #511; BATMAN: SHADOW OF THE BAT #0, #31; DETECTIVE COMICS #0, #678; CATWOMAN #0, #14; BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #0; and ROBIN #0, #10

Authors: Various
Artists: Various
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: June 13 2017
Parental Rating: PG
ISBN: 978-1401272586
Pages: 296 pages



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