Tag Denny O’Neil

Batman – One Bad Day: Bane #1 Micro-Review – Doing Your Homework

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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.***

Batman One Bad Day Bane 1, cover, January 2023, Howard Porter, Tomeu MoreyTITLE: Batman – One Bad Day: Bane #1
AUTHOR: Joshua Williamson
ARTISTS: Howard Porter, Tomeu Morey (Colorist), Steve Wands (Letterer)
RELEASED: January 17, 2023

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

This story follows up on a classic Denny O’Neil story from the ’90s called “Venom.” I’ve had my issues with Williamson in recent months over Dark Crisis. But I’ve got to hand it to him on this one. He did his homework, and it paid off.

I was confused by something, though. There’s a villain in here called Grudge, and the story acts like we should know who he is. To the best of my recollection, I’ve never seen him before…

Somebody in this issue says, “No amount of venom can ever fix stupid.”

Words to live by, perhaps?

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

Who is Nightwing? – Prelude to Solo Stardom

Rob Siebert 1 Comment

***As Nightwing’s public profile grows higher via the Titans TV series and the upcoming Gotham Knights game, “Who is Nightwing?” looks at Dick Grayson’s early solo adventures after stepping out of Batman’s shadow.***

TITLES: Nightwing #1–4
AUTHOR: Denny O’Neil
ARTISTS: Greg Land, Mike Sellers & Nick Napolitano (Inkers), Cathi Bertrand (Colorist), John Costanza
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
ORIGINAL SELLING PRICE: $2.25 per issue
ORIGINALLY RELEASED: 1995
CURRENTLY COLLECTED IN: Nightwing, Vol. 1: Bludhaven

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Dick Grayson officially adopted the mantle of Nightwing in mid-1984 in the pages of Tales of the Teen Titans #44. The move was meant to remove Dick from Batman’s shadow and make him more of his own man. That’s why it’s so surprising in retrospect that the character didn’t get his own solo series until 1996, 12 years later.

Granted, there were one-off issues where Dick would get the spotlight. For a short time in the mid-’90s, he even stood in for Bruce Wayne as Batman. But it wasn’t until 1996 that Nightwing got his own book, and even his own city to protect. After more than 40 years as Robin, and over a decade as Nightwing, Dick was finally spinning off into his own adventures.

DC Comics would test the waters, and ultimately set the stage for a Nightwing ongoing series with a four issue mini published in 1995. Written by legendary Batman scribe Denny O’Neil, the story sees Dick revisit his past while preparing for his future. He also gets a new costume in the process.

Dick starts the story by doing something you probably don’t want to do before you start your own solo series – He quits. Handing his costume over to Batman, saying he’s realized “I’m not you. I was never you. I don’t want to be you.”

And what does Dick want Batman to do with the costume? He has some ideas…

“Put it in a trophy case. Give it to the Salvation Army. Burn it.”

Indeed, Dick Grayson is giving up on superheroics, opting to live a more normal life. A little abrupt? Sure. But I like this idea for Dick. He was and is the most outgoing among Batman’s surrogate family, which makes him the most naturally likable. So as readers, we want to see him happy and fulfilled.

Of course, it can’t last. The poor guy barely makes it to the next morning before he finds an old letter to his parents, threatening them for something they apparently saw in the despotic nation of Kravia. Naturally, he has to investigate.

Our penciller is Greg Land, who’s faced a lot of criticism over the course of his career for his use, and perhaps abuse, of photo reference. He’s been accused of lifting, and even flat-out tracing, images from sources as lewd as hardcore pornography. As far as I know, this Nightwing story pre-dates those allegations. I don’t see anything that stands out as blatantly lifted from somewhere else. Though there are a few images that are a little suspect. Case in point, an image in issue #1 of a briefs-clad Dick Grayson on a bed. I can’t bring myself to complain about that from a sexualization standpoint, given how female characters are often drawn to this day. But it makes you wonder.

There’s also the image above, where Dick, posed like a catalog model, is standing in what has the distinction of being the ugliest shirt I’ve ever seen in a comic book. He unfortunately wears that for much of the second issue.

While he’s unquestionably one of the all-time greats, this is hardly Denny O’Neil’s best work. He has to inject a decent amount of narrative convenience into things to get the story going and to fit it into four issues. The despot in Kravia just happens to remember who Dick is. The assassin he then sends to kill Dick is able to find him very quickly, which provides our hero with a trail of breadcrumbs to follow back to the villain. Makes me wonder why they didn’t keep things a little more simple than a story about whether a dictator was involved in the plot to kill Dick’s parents…

On the upside, this mini is where we see Nightwing’s black and blue costume (shown below) for the first time. His original suit, affectionately called the “disco suit,” worked for a colorful superhero team book in the ’80s. It was later changed to the sleeker, darker-yet-somehow-also-brighter outfit shown above. It was changed again here, presumably because tonally Nightwing was moving into territory closer to Batman. Dark, avenging hero of the night, and all that.

This is the look that practically all subsequent takes on the Nightwing outfit were based on. With Dick’s previous two outfits, especially the first, it feels like there might have been pressure to give the character something with a grandeur befitting his legacy. As it turned out, they were better off keeping it simple. Black with a touch of blue. It’s almost a minimalist’s superhero costume. The black costume also gave Nightwing a certain cool factor he maintains to this day.

At face value, this Nightwing mini isn’t much to write home about. The story is overdone, the villain is generic and forgettable, and by the end the whole thing seems all for naught. But it nevertheless holds an important place in the character’s history as the tale that gave him his new costume, and set him down a path to solo stardom. For that alone, it’s worth a look.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

Weekly Comic 100s: Iron Man 2020, Go Go Power Rangers, and More!

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***”Weekly Comic 100s” keeps it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Oye. Not a good comic book week for yours truly. Not only am I still reeling from the demise of my local shop, but my pull list was uncharacteristically small this week. So what’s a frustrated fanboy to do?

With only three issues in my stack this week, I’ve added a mini-review of Detective Comics #1000, as we learned this week that it was the highest selling comic book of 2019.

Shout out to Jay’s Comics in Gurnee, IL. I’m pretty sure they’re my new shop.

TITLE: Iron Man 2020 #1 (of 6)
AUTHOR: Dan Slott, Christos Gage
ARTISTS: Pete Woods, Joe Caramagna (Letterer).
RELEASED: January 15, 2020

Thanks to a lot of backstory, (which the issue is nice enough to provide us post-script), Tony Stark’s adoptive brother Arno Stark is now Iron Man. Straight out of the gate, he’s got a rebellious robot uprising to contend with.

As someone who hasn’t kept up with Iron Man lately, there’s not much here to excite me. It’s inferred that Arno has sinister intentions. But when friggin’ Doctor Doom has played the role before, everyone else pales from a “villain as the hero” perspective. Ironic, as Dan Slott’s work on The Superior Spider-Man drew me to this book.

TITLE: Go Go Power Rangers #27
AUTHORS: Ryan Parrott, Sina Grace
ARTISTS: Francesco Mortarino, Raul Angulo (Colorist), Ed Dukeshire (Letterer). Cover by Eleonora Carlini.
RELEASED: January 15, 2020

Excellent issue, which includes a fight between Tommy and Lord Zedd over the White Ranger powers.

So between what’s happening in this book, and in the main MMPR title, you’re telling me the all-wise Zordon has no idea what’s happening with Jason, Zack, and Trini? The kids he himself chose to be Power Rangers? Like, not even a little? That’s the one aspect of “Necessary Evil” I’m having trouble buying. Other than that, I’m really enjoying what we’re getting from the PR titles right now. The main book was shaky for awhile, but things are definitely back on track.

TITLE: The Low Low Woods #2
AUTHOR: Carmen Maria Machado
ARTISTS: Dani, Tamra Bonvillain (Colorist), Steve Wands (Letterer). Cover by J.A.W. Cooper.
RELEASED: January 15, 2020

Something felt off here. I’m not sure if the issue was paced to fast, or I was having trouble recalling things from the first issue, or the bizarre-but-not-in-a-scary-way thing we see on page three. But I wasn’t into this issue as much as the first.

I do, however, appreciate the way they’ve developed the town of Shudder-to-Think, Pennsylvania as almost a character unto itself. The town apparently has “an extremely unhealthy relationship with its dead.” As I said last time, it’s very reminiscent of a Stephen King story.

TITLE: Detective Comics #1000
AUTHORS: Scott Snyder, Kevin Smith, Paul Dini, Warren Ellis, Denny O’Neil, Christopher Priest, Brian Michael Bendis, Geoff Johns, James Tynion IV, Tom King, Peter Tomasi
ARTISTS: Greg Capullo, Jim Lee, Dustin Nguyen, Becky Cloonan, Steve Epting, Neal Adams, Alex Maleev, Kelley Jones, Alvaro Martinez-Bueno, Tony Daniel, Joelle Jones, Doug Mahnke. Cover by Lee.
INKERS: Jonathan Glapion, Scott Williams, Derek Fridolfs, Raul Fernanxes
COLORISTS: FCO Plascencia, Alex Sinclair, John Kalisz, Jordie Bellaire, Elizabeth Breitweiser, Dave Stewart, Michelle Madsen, Tomeu Morey
LETTERS: Tom Napolitano, Todd Klein, Steve Wands, Simon Bowland, Andworld Design, Willie Schubert, Josh Reed, Rob Leigh, Clayton Cowles
RELEASED: March 27, 2019

Yeesh. No wonder this issue sold so well. The sheer amount of talent on this thing, many of whom shaped the mythology of Batman, is outrageous.

I was pleasantly surprised to find something I liked in each tale from this 96-page multi-story anthology. But ultimately, it’s Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev that steal the show with “I Know.” An elderly Oswald Cobblepot confronts an equally elderly, wheelchair-bound Bruce Wayne to tell him he’s known his secret for a long time. It’s a quieter story compared to the rest. But it’s no less impactful for it.

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A Batman Incorporated: Demon Star Review – Wanted Dead: The Boy Wonder

Rob Siebert 2 Comments

Batman Incorporated, Vol. 1: Demon StarTITLE: Batman Incorporated, Vol. 1: Demon Star
AUTHOR: Grant Morrison
PENCILLERS: Chris Burnham, Frazer Irving
COLLECTS: Batman Incorporated #0-6
FORMAT: Hardcover
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $24.99
RELEASED: April 8, 2013

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Batman Incorporated is like The Walking Dead, in the sense that it’s much better to read as a trade than in single issues. Unlike a lot of mainstream superhero comics, Batman Incorporated doesn’t take any time to recap things on a month-to-month basis. These days, most of Marvel’s books dedicate at least a paragraph on their title/credits page to reminding readers what’s going on. That’s not to say Batman Incorporated is obligated to do so, but it makes it tougher to simply pick an issue up from the shop and read it. But when you read issues #1-6 one after the other, it’s pretty damn good.

More or less picking up where the previous volume left off (It’s the New 52 now, so Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, and certain other characters aren’t there anymore.), Talia al Ghul has been revealed as the leader of the terrorist group Leviathan. She has placed a bounty on the head of her son, Damian, a.k.a. Robin. Batman benches Damian just as Leviathan strikes Gotham City. But even the Dark Knight doesn’t know how deeply Talia’s insurgents have penetrated the city, and Damian isn’t about to stand by and watch Gotham be torn apart. Though in the end, it will cost him dearly…

Batman Incorporated #1, Chris BurnhamReaders should take their hats off to Chris Burnham for this one. His characters look very vibrant, expressive, and well defined. The various Robin alums actually look like different people, as opposed to a bunch of dark haired clones of varying ages. Plus, he makes the Brett Booth Red Robin costume look kinda cool. Even Brett Booth couldn’t do that. One might argue that his Damian looks a bit too young. He’s supposed to be 10, right? This one looks like he might be seven or eight. Even so, it’s one of the better Damian renderings I’ve seen. He actually looks and acts like a child.

One of the reasons the Batman Incorporated concept works so well is because it makes a certain amount of sense. Looking at it from an in-story perspective, Batman has so many partners, associates and stringers that to not expand like this is almost a waste. Some fans argued that the concept takes too much away from the character’s dark and shadowy mystique to be worthwhile. I understand that notion, and I’m certainly glad we’ve ditched the  pre-reboot “bat-light” suit. But from a character standpoint, it fits with the whole “war on crime” theme, doesn’t it? Putting aside suspension of disbelief, if you’re a man whose crusade against crime has been reasonably successful for several years, why wouldn’t you attempt to do that kind of good on a grander scale? If you buy into the idea of Batman, it makes sense.

Batman Incorporated, Chris Burnham, Batman & RobinUnlike the first volume of Incorporated, the events we see here take place primarily in Gotham City. Pre-New 52, the series sent Batman to places like Japan, Argentina and France, as he recruited new heroes for the group. This portion of the story feels more focused, and more of an emotional core to it, what with the father-mother-son dynamic. I say this portion of the story, because I can only assume this is more or less where Grant Morrison was taking things before the reboot happened. He and Burnham have had to adjust accordingly, but the basic plot is intact. So it doesn’t seem to be a matter of Morrison downplaying the international elements of Batman Incorporated, but rather this being the next chapter in the story. Either way, the events of Demon Star are better than the “recruitment drive” we saw in the first book.

In truth, the international characters in this book are surprisingly pushed to the side in favor of the “usual suspects,” i.e. Nightwing, Red Robin, even Jason Todd. Granted, there’s a milestone moment in the lives of Knight & Squire. But in the context of this book, characters like Batwing and El Gaucho are interchangeable with any other DC hero who has ties to Batman. I find that odd considering Batman Incorporated is supposed to be a global network of heroes.

Batman Incorporated #0, Frazer IrvingThe Demon Star calls upon just enough of Batman’s rich history to add something extra for longtime fans, while not alienating new readers. Characters like El Gaucho and Hood were hidden gems before Morrison dug them up for Batman Incorporated. But he and Burnham also revisit Talia’s entire backstory, and to their credit, they don’t muck it up and “modernize” it like so many creators did with the #0 issues last September. They add their own unique and intriguing elements, but they also incorporate the classic Denny O’Neil/Bob Brown material from her first appearance in 1972′s Batman #411, and allude to some of the classic Neal Adams stuff. There’s even an allusion to Villains United. It’s nice to see this kind of thing, considering these days DC is going out of their way not to mention it.

All in all The Demon Star builds very well. In that sense, it’s one of the better Bat-books we’ve seen since the New 52. It’s also a very effective set up for what we know lays ahead for Damian, and is a fitting next chapter in the romance-turned-rivalry between Batman and Talia. For Batman fans, it’s a can’t-miss.

RATING: 9/10

Image 1 from dccomics.com. Image 2 from comicpow.com. Image 3 from theweeklycrisis.com.

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A Green Lantern #0 Review – Sensationalist Diversity

Rob Siebert 2 Comments

Green Lantern #0, 2012TITLE: Green Lantern #0
AUTHOR: Geoff Johns
PENCILLER: Doug Mahnke
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASED: September 5, 2012

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Judging from his first appearance, Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and DC Comics are about a decade too late with the story of Simon Baz, the first Arab American Green Lantern.

The stuff they show us as they introduce this new hero is plucked straight from some of the more scandalous and controversial headlines of the past decade, and it has all the subtlety of a wrecking ball. Case in point: On the very first page we see the twin towers up in smoke. On the second, we quickly cut between Simon washing graffiti off a mosque wall, then he and his sister being harassed and beat up, then we see him being racially profiled by security guards.

Get it?

Green Lantern #0, 2012, Simon BazSince being laid off from his auto factory job, Simon has turned to stealing cars to make ends meet. But one night, he gets more than he bargained for when he finds a time bomb in his latest acquisition. The cops take him in for interrogation, and we proceed with a scene that includes the line: “I’m a car thief, not a terrorist!” Then, as they prepare to WATERBOARD this poor sap, a Green Lantern ring (presumably the one lost by either Hal Jordan or Sinestro in last week’s Green Lantern Annual #1) bursts in and saves him.

I don’t think most fans have a problem with superhero comics being made a bit more diverse, and of the two major companies, DC is certainly the one that needs it more. Johns himself even said in a recent interview that there was no Muslim representation in the DC Universe. Considering this is the year 2012, that’s a pretty glaring omission. So I appreciate what they’re trying to do, here. And they story that they’re telling would be great…if it were being told 10 years ago. But in 2012 it feels like a pretty safe story that’s being told more for publicity’s sake. Does this kind of racism still occur today? Absolutely. But there’s a certain cheap quality to hitting us with 9/11 imagery, waterboarding, etc. That’s not to say that it doesn’t do what it’s designed to do. Johns and Mahnke make Simon Baz into a sympathetic character who stands up for what he believes in regardless of the cost to himself. Thus, he’s a perfect candidate to wield a Green Lantern ring. I just wish it wasn’t so obvious that, like Alan Scott being made into a gay character, this is DC changing something and then shouting: “Look at us! Look what we did! We’re diverse!!!”

Green Lantern #0, 2012, title page, Doug MahnkeOne thing I find interesting is the number of parallels between Simon Baz’s first appearance, and John Stewart’s first appearance from back in the early ’70s, when the civil rights movement was still in full swing. This was also at the height of the groundbreaking work being done by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams. Back then John was far from the straight-laced military man we know today. Like in Green Lantern #0, we see our new hero face corrupt cops. John stops a racist officer from harassing a pair of black men playing dominoes on the sidewalk. He then opens Hal Jordan’s eyes by taking down a racist senator. These are the same sorts of themes we see present in Green Lantern #0, except we don’t have Hal there to have his eyes opened as he sees the world through this new hero’s eyes (though perhaps we will, given time). Corrupt peacekeepers, racist government officials, it’s all still there. It’s presented a bit differently, and perhaps it’s a bit more subdued than it was in the ’70s. But John and Simon would have a lot to talk about.

I suppose the DC fan in me would have liked to have seen the company be a bit more gutsy with this kind of material. I don’t doubt that this kind of thing still happens, but the execution feels dated and overly sensationalized. Had this been printed during the Bush administration, we might have had something a bit more special. Still, it’s nice to see the publisher making an effort to diversify things.

Image 1 from fanboymorphine.blogspot.com. Image 2 from gamespot.com.

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