R.I.P Orca

Batman #652
Written by James Robinson
Art by Don Kramer and Keith Champagne
Cover by Simone Bianchi

Previous issues of this storyline were reviewed here, here, and here. This storyline is becoming more and more intruguing with each passing issue. I have no idea how it is going to end or who is responsible for the murders. Batman confronts Harvey Dent about them and he does not give him a straight answer. Is it Harvey? That’s what I thought but now I am doubting it. I do not think Harvey is really dead, I am pretty sure he got out of the explosion because I just do not see DC killing off Two-Face but I could be wrong. When I first heard that Killer Moth is back this issue I was a little dissapointed. I have always like Charaxes and considered his days as Killer Moth a little lame. But I was pleasently surprised to find the new design of the Killer Moth costume makes the character seem cool (as cool as the character can be) and now I am glad he is back. I will miss Orca though. In one of the first comics I ever read, she was the villain and I always liked her. RIP.

The Ventriloquist: 1988 – 2006

Detective Comics #818
Written by James Robinson
Art by Leonard Kirk and Andy Clarke
Cover by Simone Bianchi

The previous issues of this storyline were reviewed here and here. This is part 3 of Face to Face, which is a storyline that continues to be great. This issue made me smile and even made me a little sad. I was happy to see Batman tell Robin that one day he could surpass Nightwing. And it is so cool for Batman and Robin to be working as a team again. Robinson could have easily had the heartwarming between Batman and Robin seem corny or lame but he pulls it off here without taking away Batman’s edge. The ventiloquist’s murder was a little sad because he is one of the few Batman villains that you could actually feel sympathy for. I mean he carries around a doll! The ventriloquist actually made his first appearence the month I was born! He will sorely missed.

Blah but Not Blah

Birds of Prey #92
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Paulo Siqueira and Robin Riggs
Cover by Terry and Rachel Dodson

This was probably the most dissapointing of the one year later issues. That is probably why it has taken me this long to review it. If this was not one year later, I would have said this was a decent issue. But with the one year later debuts, I expected great issues and this was too blah. I am surprised because this book is usually pretty good. It really just didn’t get me excited enough. Sure it had new developments but for some reason, they really did not interest me. Lady Shiva is now calling herself the Jade Canary and is a Bird of Prey. The Jade Canary just doesn’t sound right and I am not sure why Lady Shiva would even call herself that. She does not wear an Jade colored clothes. Her name is not Jade. So why is she calling herself that? I also find it hard to believe that Barabara Gordon would ever turn her back on Dinah like she is shown to have done, but I will leave that up to Gail to explain later. Maybe she will be able to convince me. I do like how Gail has expanded the Birds of Prey from what was basically a partnership when Gail first took over the book to a full fledged team. There are now four memebers of the team: Oracle, The Jade Canary, The Huntress, and Lady Blackhawk. This issue hints that Gypsy will become a member soon which will bring the total to five and if Dinah ends up returning to the team it will bring the membership up to six. I do like this as bringing more characters in can create interesting storylines we couldn’t have with just the original two. I am interested to learn more about Gypsy as my only exposure to her character was in the old JLI when Despero murdered her family. I always thought that was a shocking moment in a book that was never all that serious so it stuck in my mind. So while this issue was blah, I still want to read more.