Tag Batman comics

A Detective Comics #1069 Micro-Review – Friends and Comrades

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***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

Detective Comics 1069, cover, February 2023, Evan CagleTITLE: Detective Comics #1069
AUTHORS: Ram V, Simon Spurrier
ARTISTS: Dexter Soy, Stefano Raffaele, Miguel Mendonca, Adriano Lucas (Colorist), Ariana Maher (Letterer), Caspar Winjgaard, Steve Wands (Letterer). Cover by Evan Cagle.
RELEASED: February 28, 2023

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

These back-up stories we get in Detective Comics are hit-or-miss for me. This month we start a new one centered around Mr. Freeze. Thankfully, it looks like it’s a hit. Especially when it comes to Caspar Winjgaard’s art.

Meanwhile, Ram V is gradually adding a newish dimension to Batman’s relationship with Jim Gordon, expanding on their relationship as friends and comrades. While his larger story isn’t landing for me, his take on the Batman/Gordon dynamic is interesting.

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A Batman vs. Robin #3 Micro-Review – Damian and the Pig Man

Rob Siebert 1 Comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

Batman vs Robin 3, cover, 2022, Mahmud Asrar, Nathan FairbairnTITLE: Batman vs. Robin #3
AUTHOR: Mark Waid
ARTISTS: Mahmud Asrar, Scott Godlewski, Jordie Bellaire (Colorist), Steve Wands (Letterer). Cover by Asrar & Nathan Fairbairn.

RELEASED: November 8, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

This month Batman fights all his former Robins, who are under mind control, in a big gauntlet to get to Damian. That actually feels right for a Batman vs. Robin story, as opposed to much of what we’ve seen in this book so far.

Case in point, in this issue Robin talks to an anthropomorphic magic pig man for some reason. There’s a Seinfeld joke about pig men to be made here somewhere…

Google it, kids.

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A Detective Comics #1064 Micro-Review – “Panic Attacks My @#$%.”

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

Detective Comics 1064, cover, 2022, Evan CagleTITLE: Detective Comics #1064
AUTHORS: Ram V, Simon Spurrier
ARTISTS: Rafael Albuquerque, Dani, Dave Stewart (Colorist), Ariana Maher (Letterer), Steve Wands (Letterer). Cover by Evan Cagle.

RELEASED: September 27, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

There’s a sequence in this issue where a doctor suggests to Bruce Wayne that he may be having panic attacks. Bruce then proceeds to climb to the top of the building, say “Panic Attacks My @#$%,” and dive off.

Is that going anywhere? That’d be kind cool. As an anxiety sufferer myself, seeing Batman deal with panic attacks would be interesting. I’m sure it would be for a lot of people. After all, what could possibly give Batman a panic attack?

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Epic Covers: Batman #608 by Jim Lee

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By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

In celebration of today, Batman Day, I hereby present my favorite Batman cover of all time…

I don’t know where 2003’s Batman #608 stands as far as the great Batman covers go. (Though I’d certainly argue it’s a great one.) But Batman #608 has my personal favorite cover to ever adorn a comic book featuring the Dark Knight. Not just for it’s pure artistic quality, but for sentimental reasons…

Batman #608 is the comic book that made me a Wednesday Warrior. In other words, a comic book fan who buys new issues on the day they come out: Wednesday. (Of course, this was more than a decade and a half before DC stopped distributing through Diamond. But that’s a whole nother story.)

I’d been reading Batman graphic novels for awhile at that point. But I had yet to make my local comic shop a weekly destination. Then I heard about a new era beginning on the monthly Batman title, with two creators whose names I was only vaguely familiar with at that point…Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee. Little did I know at that point how pivotal their influence would be on my life as a fan. And thus, I suppose, my life in general.

Batman 608, cover, 2003, Jim Lee

Like the era it was ushering in, this cover is bold and dynamic. It’s not just Batman standing around somewhere. Not only is it Batman mid-swing, but it’s Batman mid-swing throwing up a kick, which is a dichotomy we don’t necessarily see often. And yes, the rich detail of the bottom of his boot does help. Does it make the cover look a little bit like an ad for a sneaker? Maybe.

But here’s a fact: You’ll never see a sneaker ad look this damn cool or iconic.

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Fatherhood: “Angry Batman!”

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Batman 127, cover, 2022, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu MoreyBy Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

My three-year-old is at the point where she’s starting to recognize anger, both in me and in others.

The other day she was getting on my nerves, and she turned and said to my wife, “Daddy’s mad.”

Then this morning, she was doing it again, and proceeded to ask me, “Are you mad?”

But what took the cake was when she came up to me as I was writing my micro-review of Batman #127. She looked at the cover (shown right) and asked, “Who is that?” I replied with, “I don’t know, who is that?”

Her response: “Angry Batman!”

I mean, she’s not wrong. He is pretty angry…

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A Batman #127 Micro-Review – “He’s My Son!”

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***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

TITLE: Batman #127
AUTHOR: Chip Zdarsky
ARTISTS: Jorge Jimenez, Belen Ortega, Tomeu Morey (Colorist), Luis Guerrero (Colorist), Clayton Cowles (Letterer)
RELEASED: September 6, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

The early portion of this issue directly references both JLA: Tower of Babel and Batman: R.I.P. Fanboy cred points to Zdarsky for that.

The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh is in this issue. On the subject of R.I.P., I remember how confused I was when that story showed me this version of Batman. Thankfully, Zdarsky does a pretty good job of explaining the concept to new readers.

There’s a nice moment in here where Bruce Wayne loudly asserts that Tim Drake isn’t just his soldier, he’s his son.

Incidentally, Jimenez draws a damn good Superman.

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A Batman #125 Micro-Review – Business Casual Batman

Rob Siebert 1 Comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

Batman 125, cover, 2022, Jorge JimenezTITLE: Batman #125
AUTHOR: Chip Zdarsky
ARTISTS: Jorge Jimenez, Belen Ortega, Tomeu Morey (Colorist), Luis Guerrero (Colorist), Clayton Cowles (Letterer)

RELEASED: July 5, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Zdarsky and Jimenez bring us an action sequence where Batman is wearing his mask and utility belt with a white dress shirt and slacks. I think I get what they’re going for. But it looked pretty ridiculous to me. What’s that look called? Business casual Batman?

The Penguin gets a good amount of shine in this issue. Jimenez gives him a very Danny-Devito-esque look. I’m always impressed when a creative team can make Penguin look like formidable opponent for Batman. That’s not always the easiest thing to do, despite his status as an iconic Batman foe.

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A Robin & Batman #2 Micro-Review – A Story Without a Middle?

Rob Siebert 2 Comments

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

Robin and Batman 2, cover, 2021, Dustin NguyenTITLE: Robin & Batman #2
AUTHOR: Jeff Lemire
ARTISTS: Dustin Nguyen, Steve Wands (Letterer)

RELEASED: December 14, 2021

Robin & Batman started as a small scale story about Dick Grayson’s early days in Gotham with Batman and Alfred. But in this issue we veered off into a story where he meets the rest of the original Teen Titans for the first time. It’s all well and good by its own merits. But it feels a little bit like Lemire didn’t have a middle for his story, so he plugged in this Titans stuff.

It is, however, very cool to see Dustin Nguyen draw the Teen Titans. It’s usually cool to see Dustin Nguyen’s work in general.

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A Batman: The Adventures Continue – Season Two #5 Micro-Review – A Gray and Blue Flashback

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Batman the Adventures Continue Season Two 5, cover, 2021, Jamal CampbellTITLE: Batman: The Adventures Continue – Season Two #5
AUTHORS: Alan Burnett, Paul Dini
ARTISTS: Rick Burchett, Monica Kubina (Colorist), Josh Reed (Letterer). Cover by Jamal Campbell.
RELEASED: October 5, 2021

This one’s got some meat to it, telling a story of how a young Batman took down Gotham’s corrupt mayor. And because this book is awesome, he’s wearing his gray and blue Batman: The Animated Series costume in the flashbacks.

I’m noticing Rick Burchett’s art isn’t necessarily as crisp and clean as Ty Templeton’s. At least not on this issue. The end product is still of high quality. It’s just a difference.

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A Batman: The Adventures Continue – Season Two #1 Micro-Review – Owl Season

Rob Siebert 1 Comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Batman the Adventures Cotinue Season Two, cover, 2021, Riley RossmoTITLE: Batman: The Adventures Continue – Season Two #1
AUTHOR: Alan Burnett, Paul Dini
ARTISTS: Ty Templeton, Monica Cubina (Colorist), Josh Reed (Letterer). Cover by Riley Rossmo.
RELEASED: June 1, 2021

Great to have this book back for another “season.” Burnett, Dini, and the team are kicking things off with their “animated” take on the Court of Owls. Thus far, there isn’t anything distinct about it compared to the version Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo created. For my money, that’s a drawback. But of course, it’s early yet.

They also kill off a long-standing minor character from the show, which was a surprise. I didn’t necessarily appreciate that. But again, it’s early. Let’s see how things play out…

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