What I Bought 12/17/2012 - Part 2

Most of the comics in the latest shipment were from titles that have shipped twice since the last one. There are 6 that weren't, though. We covered 2 yesterday, and I thought about just splitting the other 4, but I figured I'd do the DC one today, and cover the 3 Marvel titles tomorrow.

Batman Beyond Unlimited #10, by Dustin Nguyen (writer & pencils), Derek Fridolfs (writer & inks), Randy Mayor (colorist), Saida Temofonte (letters) for "Konstriction Chapter 10: The Mortal Coil"; Adam Beechen (writer), Norm Breyfogle (artist), Andrew Elder (colorist), Saida Temofonte (letterer) for "10,000 Clowns: Lights of Gotham"; J.T. Krul (writer), Howard Porter (pencils), Livesay (inks), Carrie Strachan (colors), Saida Temofonte (letters) for uh, I don't know what that title is - Everyone in Future DCU is so judgmental? They're all giving me the eye! Don't blame me for the nu52! You could have done something, Old Superman!

Justice League: Etrigan's out, and attacking everyone. Superman, the Hawks, and fortunately the Serpent. It just so happens the Serpent is vulnerable to fire, as deduced by Bruce Wayne based of what he heard of what happened on Apokolips. Marina gets Micron out from under Spellbinder's control, and the two of them plus Barda deal with the head of Kobra. Then there's a lot of follow up, with the League deciding to expand, Mr. Miracle reuniting with Barda, and Jimmy Olsen's funeral. I'm surprisingly sad about that, but better him than the Wall.

This story had a pacing problem. I feel like things moved too slowly through all those 10-page installments, and now things had to move at light speed. So Etrigan shows up and dispatches the Serpent, and then pick up the pieces. It hurts the sense of scale of the story because the story just ends because it has to end right now. That said, I did love the emotion of the story. Barda and Scott's reunion was lovely (and it's great that Nguyen remembers Barda is much taller), Superman's sorrow at Jimmy's death, Bruce's concern for Terry, contrasted with his willingness to risk Terry's neck (and possibly his soul).

This may be a result of reading too many comics Ennis wrote with Etrigan, but Nguyen and Fridolfs need to up their game on the rhymes.  The ones they had were this combination of simple, awkward, and stilted. Ennis wrote them in a way that the cadence of the sentences suggested Etrigan's personality, but these are sort of there. He's speaking in rhymes because that's what he does. It's the sort of rhyme I'd write, in other words.

Batman: Dana's brother explains to his pal what the Joker got wrong, and sets off to kill Dana and the rest of his family. Tim heads into the cave. Bruce refuses to be evacuated until Dana's father is, staying with her. The heroes (Terry, Catwoman, Grayson, Vigilante) get together just as a power plant explodes, but Terry has a plan cooking, something to do with that explosives trigger he got away from Mad Stan. Meanwhile, the only thing standing between the Joker King and his family is one sickly old man. A sickly old man very excited at the prospect of getting to pummel one last Joker.

Breyfogle's kicking butt as usual. The way he draws Bruce combines perfectly with Andrew Elder's colors to suggest how sick the guy is. The colors, especially, as Bruce is this sort of gray-green that clashes with the colors of everyone and everything else. Combine that with the look on his face in the first panel of the last page, and he's kind of terrifying. Some dying otherworldly horror, determined to get the last laugh.

Also, I like the fact that even as he's gotten older, Dick Grayson apparently still has great hind end. At least, if Catwoman's comment is anything to go by. It amuses for some reason.

Superman: I seriously have no idea what that title is. I think it might just be his Superman emblem, but they've cut off the bottom of it with a panel, which makes it looks like "N7", or "ND" or something. Nice work, people.

Clark's doing the fireman thing, then ducking out when Superman's needed to save one of his coworkers. Bennett doesn't think he needed any help. Afterward, the firemen have a discussion about whether they should just let Superman handle all this stuff, with Bennett saying no, they can't always expect someone else to handle things, they have to do it themselves. Clark, sorry "Kal" agrees, but thinks there's nothing wrong with accepting help when you need it. This will certainly not be a key aspect of this story arc, I'm sure. Also, there are some aliens called Trillians here for Superman because he destroyed their world. Hmm, well, that's ominous.

I can appreciate that Krul's trying to address some of the aspects of Superman and how people would perceive him, but he's being a little too obvious about it. Maybe demonstrate it more through Superman's actions, less through pointed conversations with a specific character in each arc. Bennett in this one, that cop Walker in the previous arc.

So Justice League was good in theory, a little spotty in execution. I loved the art on the Batman part, and Superman's jut sort of there. Business as usual, then. Tomorrow, Captain Marvel, Defenders, Secret Avengers! I'm more disappointed than you might think that Diamond ended up getting Jack his copies of Defenders.