Expectations

Gotham City Sirens #21
Written by Peter Calloway
Art by Andres Guinaldo

 

This was another great issue of Sirens. Two in a row after a so-so opening arc for Calloway on this book! Harley succumbs to her love for the Joker after all. I loved it and I wasn’t expecting that but I should have! The story of the Guards’ kid was very sad and showed just how twisted the Joker really is. I didn’t expect Catwoman and Ivy to part ways in this either. Love the art as well!

Megaplot

Batman Incorporated #4
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Chris Burnham

 

This was just fucking fantastic awesome greatness of a comic! Best issue yet! We get the history of Kathy Kane – the original Batwoman and Morrison singlehandedly explains how she fits in continuity and how it all relates to his huge megaplot. Who is Dr. Dedalus? Was he really Kathy’s father? What is this war everyone is talking about? I didn’t see all this coming but Morrison hits it out of the park too and Burnham’s art is fantastic I love how he switches his style with the time periods.

Endings

Batman: Streets of Gotham #21
Written by Paul Dini
Art by Dustin Nguyen

 

The final issue of Streets of Gotham marks the end of more then just this series. It marks the end of Hush posing as Bruce Wayne after Jane Doe rips his face off (How is he able to talk after that? Wouldn’t that be too painful) and it also marks the end of Dini’s writing in the Batman corner of the DCU which is sad. The House of Hush arc was no where near as exciting as the Heart of Hush storyline but it was still good and added a lot to the history of the Waynes and Elliots. I have a feeling it was cut a little short. I wonder when we will see Hush again or when Dini will return to writing Batman.

Penguin’s Nose

Batman: The Dark Knight #2
Written by David Finch
Art by Finch

 

That was a quick read for a comic book that is so incredibly late but whatever, it was still good. Finch’s artwork is fantastic and the story is interesting even if I have no idea on how it all connects just yet. Who is the Ragman-like monster killing homeless people and what is with this amulet? Oh and Finch draws a big nose on Penguin doesn’t he?

BatCon 52 – 54

Batman Confidential #52
Written by Marc Guggenhiem
Art by Jerry Bingham

Batman calls the Justice League for help and that is about it. This would seem to be before he became a full-time member. This was probably the best issue of this arc so far.

Batman Confidential #53
Written by Marc Guggenhiem
Art by Jerry Bingham

 

Okay DC you need to decide who was a founding member or not! This issue reads like Batman is definitely not a founding member of the Justice League as he has said to have been post-Infinite Crisis. How annoying. Total continuity mistake made this unreadable for me. And if they were gonna go with the Post-Crisis, Pre-Infinite Crisis continuity where Batman was not a founder – why isn’t Black Canary there! This is just dumb.

Batman Confidential #54
Written by Marc Guggenhiem
Art by Jerry Bingham

 

The continuity mistakes (And the fact that the two stories told never connect) made this arc a lousy read for me. And this issue also marks the final issue of this book. This was a book chock full of continuity mistakes with some great arcs in between. The Batgirl and the Wrath arcs come to mind but otherwise I am not going to miss this series at all.

Hidden Oracle

Birds of Prey (Volume 2) #10
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Inaki Miranda

Cassandra Cain gets name dropped again as Tim asks why she doesn’t have access to Kord Tower. I don’t know that I am completely satisfied with the answer that she has too much going on now because well…we are never shown what the hell she has going on. I hope this wasn’t a throw away line and Gail or DC editors plan to show us what is going on with Cass soon enough. This was an otherwise fantastic issue that showed off how tough the Birds are and how it was a good plan to fake Oracle’s death. Loved the bit with Catwoman too!

International Heroes

Batman Incorporated #3
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Yannick Paquette

 

Interesting set up as Batman and El Gaucho are set up in a “Saw”-like deathtrap where they have to kill each other. I am interested to learn more about Gaucho but we don’t get that much here. I like how this series is growing the DCU by populating it with non-American heroes.

Streets of Gotham 19 and 20

Batman: Streets of Gotham #19
Written by Paul Dini
Art by Dustin Nguyen

 

The House of Hush storyline seems all over the place here filled with time jumps but I don’t mind cause it has been a good story so far and I loved the Joker stuff in this.

Batman: Streets of Gotham #20
Written by Paul Dini
Art by Dustin Nguyen

This was even more flashback to the Waynes and this time includes the Justice Society with Hippolyta on the team!! Despite comments by Didio and DCU Legacies, I knew she was still the Golden Age Wonder Woman! It is weird how Nguyen draws her here though.

Azrael 17 and 18

Azrael (Volume 2) #17
Written by David Hine
Art by Cliff Richards

Azraek travels to Afghanistan to defeat a metahuman called Fireball who is also called Azrael. Interesting stuff. I wonder if Batman would still be talking to Azrael if he knew he was offing people like this.

Azrael (Volume 2) #18
Written by David Hine
Art by Cliff Richards

This series comes to a close with Azrael officially losing his mind and becoming incredibly violent under Ra’s Al Ghul’s orders. I loved this book after Hine took over it really took off, but I can’t say I ever grew to like the character of Michael Lane…but I do not know if we were supposed to.

Booster Gold 40 and 41

Booster Gold (Volume 2) #40
Written by Keith Giffen and J.M. Demateis
Art by Pat Olliffe

 

This was an okay issue setting up the threat, recapping Booster’s life, and a surprise ending. I am sure Rip has his reasons for this.

Booster Gold (Volume 2) #41
Written by Keith Giffen and J.M. Demateis
Art by Chris Batista

 

So were we supposed to recognize the guy at the end of this? And the idea that Booster would willingly turn himself in after all these years – or that Rip would think it was a good idea – is just absurd. Not impressed with this issue.

Bruce Remembers

Power Girl (Volume 2) #21
Written by Judd Winick
Art by Sami Basri

 

This was awesome for anyone enjoing Generation Lost as Power Girl manages to convince Dick Grayson with the help of Bruce Wayne of Max Lord’s existence and villainy. Bruce’s presence here was just awesome and it was great to see that he remembers Lord – because if anyone could it would be Bruce. I also loved how Basri got all the pre-infinite crisis costumes correct in the flashback. I know that sounds easy, and it is, but so many other artists at DC would have gotten it wrong cause their editors suck at their jobs.

Magical World’s Finest

Superman/Batman #81
Written by Cullen Bunn 
Art by ChrisCross

 

A magic-based Batman and Superman show up in this issue and I thought it was that alternate earth that was magical but instead it is actually from some possible future. That sucks cause I was hoping that it was the Superman and Batman of Earth-13 but oh well this was still a pretty cool issue and it guest starts the Shadowpact! A team of heroes I miss a lot and they need to show up more! Especially good old Detective Chimp.

Batman Is The Best

Green Lantern (Volume 4) #62
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Doug Mahnke

Hahahahahahahahaha I love Batman’s comments about Hal Jordan – he hates him just as much as I do and that is why Bruce Wayne Batman is my favorite Superhero (Besides Cassandra Cain of course). I worry what that vision was that Hal had – one of the Lanterns of Sector 2814 is going to die? It better not be Kyle. Anyways Krona gets the best of Hal in this and Hal acts like an idiot as usual.

Birds of Prey 8 and 9

Birds of Prey (Volume 2) #8
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Guillem March

Black Canary is in trouble and as always the Birds are in a terrible situation. That is one thing that is great about the Birds – they always seem to be in these situations where I have no idea how they are going to get out of them but they always succeed. That is what makes them great to read about. Huntress’s reaction to seeing Bruce was great too!

Birds of Prey (Volume 2) #9
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Inaki Miranda

I like these Inaki Miranda’s art. I know she or he is not staying on this title but DC should put him or her somewhere. Anyways, this was a good issue as Dinah proves too strong for Mortis and Calculator believes he has killed Oracle (But we all know he hasn’t.)

Family Time

Batman and Robin #20
Written by Peter Tomasi
Art by Patrick Gleason

 

Okay Tomasi already did the whole “Bat-family watches a movie together” thing when he was writing Nightwing and I thought it was corny then – doing it again here made it cornier. Maybe I am just pissed that he didn’t include Cassandra I don’t know but it’s just not what I want to see in Batman comic. The rest of the book was pretty good as a guy dressed like an Angel falls to his death and Batman and Robin tried to figure out why. Man-Bat shows up and everything. Not a bad start to Tomasi’s run on the book, but not really spectacular either.

Next Arc

Gotham City Sirens #19
Written by Peter Calloway
Art by Andres Guinaldo

 

Calloway manages to conclude the current arc and start the next arc in one issue as Talia’s plan is thwarted (Not without blowing up the Sirens headquarters) and Harley decides to go after the Joker all in this issue. It wasn’t a bad issue but I hope that the next arc (Calloway’s second on this book) is more intriguing then his first. I have high hopes.

Superman Batman 79 and 80

Superman/Batman #79
Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Jesus Merino

 

Roberson introduce (or re-introduces for some) to the DC Universe of the 853rd Century and I am one of the few who have never read DC One Million and therefore I am fascinated by this Justice Legion with its many worlds and I can’t wait to see more next issue. Epoch Lord of Time doesn’t seem like a new character but I could be wrong but he was a great way to frame the story and allow for the past and the future to collide.

Superman/Batman #80
Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Jesus Merino

Epoch is stopped by the Bronze Age World’s Finest and travels through time being defeated by each era’s Batman and Superman – Brilliant! I am looking forward to seeing more of Roberson’s run on the main Super-book after reading this awesomeness.