Talon 0

by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Guillem March ; DC Comics

Kudos to James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder for providing adequate infodump for new readers – that, after all, is one of the things these “Zero Issues” are supposed to be for. What they’ve sadly failed to do is make us care about the subject of all this data.

The Dark Knight Rises (another view)

by Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, David S. Goyer ; Legendary Pictures, DC Comics, Syncopy Pictures

Tony Keen — 18-Aug-12

Against the standards Nolan has set himself, Dark Knight Rises doesn’t rise far enough, and must be considered the least of the trilogy, and the worst of all of Nolan’s movies. The problem is that he has said everything he wants to say about Batman in Batman Begins and Dark Knight, and, especially in the latter movie, set the bar very high for himself, and left himself with nowhere to go. Dark Knight redefined what could be achieved in the superhero genre. Dark Knight Rises is merely a good example of that genre, and that’s no longer really good enough.

The Dark Knight Rises

by Christoper Nolan, David S. Goyer, Jonathan Nolan ; Warner, Legendary Pictures, Syncopy Pictures, DC Comics

Gavin Burrows — 14-Aug-12

For those who favour soundbite explanations, this final part of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy comes across as a mash-up of David Fincher’s Fight Club and Brecht’s anti-Nazi allegory The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. (Contains spoilers.)

DC Super Friends: Potty Time Power

by Sarah Hines Stephens, Bill Alger ; Reader’s Digest Children’s Books, DC Comics

Will Morgan — 14-Sep-11

Sam, our young protagonist, is deemed old enough now to step out of diapers and into the world of big-boy pants, but first he must master the skills of potty-training, and who better to teach him than the Super Friends?

DC Comics Presents Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City

by Peter Milligan, Kieron Dwyer, Tom Mandrake, Dennis Janke ; DC Comics

Martin Skidmore — 13-Jun-11

This is a comic-format collection of four twenty year old Detective issues by Milligan, a three-parter and a one-off. Both stories are very good ones, and at eight dollars it’s good value too.

Batman: Gates of Gotham 1

by Scott Snyder, Kyle Higgins, Trevor McCarthy ; DC Comics

Martin Skidmore — 23-May-11

I’m not entirely sure what to say about this – I found very little to get my teeth into. The story starts in the late 19th Century with a Wayne and some other guys planning some unclear but ambitious architecture, including some bridges. Cut to now, and the bridges are getting blown up by someone new, to me at least, for unstated reasons. And that’s it. We are given no reason to particularly care about the bridges, no reason they are more important to the city than bridges naturally are, no sense of what the attacks are for or who the perpetrator is.

Brubaker’s Catwoman: an appreciation

Martin Skidmore — 20-Feb-11

A belated apology for not following Brubaker from many years ago, thanks to finally reading his superb Catwoman run.

Amazing Spider-Man 651

by Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos ; Marvel Comics

Peter Campbell — 19-Jan-11

It must be a good 20 years since I last read a Spider-Man comic. So what has happened in the intervening years? It turns out Spider-Man has turned into Batman, more or less.

Batman The Dark Knight 1

by David Finch, Scott Williams ; DC Comics

Martin Skidmore — 05-Jan-11

This is the first comic in a very long time that I have bought for the artist rather than writer – well, they are the same person, but I like his art a lot and had never read his writing. I guess the fact that Batman is a fresher proposition now than for ages helped incline me towards trying this, too.

Tags: Batman, David Finch, DC

The Return of Bruce Wayne

by Grant Morrison, Misc. ; DC Comics

Martin Skidmore — 13-Dec-10

All credit to Grant for the way he has played Batman’s death. Yes, he gave us some ‘he really is dead’ stuff in the wonderful Final Crisis series where Batman and Darkseid kill each other, with Superman carrying the clearly dead body. However, he also ended the series with a clear statement that he isn’t dead, that he is now somehow lost in the depths of the past.