What I Bought 3/2/2012 - Part 2

I have no idea what to say to lead off. We're looking at DC books today? Does that work? It does? Super.

Batman Beyond Unlimited #1 - I know Nguyen's trying to get all the relevant characters on the cover, but it's a little busy. Giving Warhawk the wings extended upward pose McGinnis had at the end of the opening credits of the Batman Beyond cartoon is a nice touch. Assuming it was intentional, and not coincidental.

In the Beechen/Breyfogle section, Batman is troubled by a recent influx of Jokerz gangs from across the country (brought there by a mastermind whose identity we learn at the end of the issue), and by his inability to reconnect with his now ex-girlfriend Dana. Meanwhile, Max is passing her initiation to become part of Undercloud in the hopes of bringing them down from within. My guess is she's underestimating how compartmentalized the organization is.

The writing is solid, nothing spectacular, but it works. Norm Breyfogle's artwork, there's the draw. Beechen gives him two fight scenes to illustrate, because Breyfogle knows how to lay those out, everything flowing well from one panel to the next. There's something interesting about Andrew Edler's colors, but I can't quite pin down what it is. Maybe the colors are softer during the McGinnis scenes, but deeper and sharper during the Batman stuff?

Over in the Derek Fridolfs/Dustin Nguyen Justice League story, the League busts up a fight between some Jokerz and a group that used some gene-altering splicer drugs, and want more. That minor problem (seems really minor for the Justice League) handled, they return to their headquarters to investigate the threat of Kobra. Micron infiltrated them some time ago, but now he may have become a turncoat, oh no! I like Nguyen's art, but I knew that already. I just don't care about the League, and this story hasn't done anything to change that. Again, I don't think the writing is anything superb, but I also wouldn't blame Fridolfs or Nguyen for my failure to engage with the plot. The Justice League is usually hit or miss with me, regardless of the characters or creative teams involved.

Resurrection Man #6 - Maybe Reis would have more time to draw Aquaman if he wasn't doing all these covers for other titles. The cover itself is fine, no complaints, simply an observation.

I still don't know how Mitch wound up in Gotham, but he did, and now he's in Arkham. Of course he sounds crazy to them, his talk of not being able to stay dead and all, but he can't get off the drugs long enough to demonstrate. So they at least possess a modicum of competence. To circumvent this, Mitch keeps causing problems until they throw him in with the real dangerous ones, at which point they take him off meds. Just in time for him to overhear crooked guard Fletcher discussing allowing a mass breakout to disguise the escape of a fellow named Sumo. Unfortunately for Sumo, the mass breakout lets Mitch out as well, and after some initial difficulties, he stops the guy in his tracks, only to be shot by Fletcher. Which ends up backfiring rather nicely on Fletcher.

I wouldn't have minded the stint in Arkham lasting another issue myself, just out of curiosity seeing Mitch interact with the inmates a little more. As a stand alone issue, though it works pretty well. Fernando Dagnino returns to the art chores, and there are a lot of little touches in his work I like. The review board positioned so they're looking down on us (and Mitch) as they pass judgment on his sanity and pretend to care what he thinks (when he's so drugged he can hardly form a coherent sentence). Near the end, when Mitch appears in Fletcher's apartment, we get a glimpse of Fletcher's bag of payoff money (from Sumo) burning up beneath Mitch's feet. All in all, an entertaining issue all around.

Tomorrow, we hit the Marvel books. A mini-series wraps up, and I start buying a new ongoing. Wait, did I just waste tomorrow's intro? Damn.