Comic Book Case

Batman #20 (really great, but a bit anticlimactic)

As Bane begins to beat the ever loving snot, blood, and teeth of out Batman, he remembers exactly how he got here. How he should have died on that airplane, and how seeing Gotham and Gotham Girl gave him hope of someone continuing his work after he died but then it all went downhill. How he took on Bane, invading a sovereign nation, and got people out of Arkham just to get the Psycho Pirate and it lead to a Bane declaring war on him. Bane goes on to tell how he wont' stop at just Batman but will kill everyone he loves and will burn Gotham City to the ground. Then, Batman's perspective shifts from his own narration to his mother who tells him that Bane will lose because despite Bruce needing to lose, and even wanting to lose, that he will always find a way to make it out as Batman is finally able to fell Bane declaring that while he may be Bane, he is Batman.

This was a fun, amazing end to the "I am Bane" story. It's a really great story because Bane is really an unstoppable object here meeting the immovable object that is Batman. There isn't much Batman can do to Bane other than endure and finally get that big hit in. The whole time though Batman is reflecting on everything and even he knows he probably will die but he keeps pushing Bane, pointing out how every night someone says they will kill Batman and yet he's still there. When it seems Batman will die, the use of his mother is a great choice and it seems he would as she talks about how everything he did even now with helping Claire was to get a win on his war against crime but Bruce says that that isn't why he did it. He helped Claire because Claire needed help. If I had to say the issue and story had a problem was that it never felt big enough per se though I think I'm comparing it more to the Court of Owls story which was much bigger and had a bigger impact on Batman on multiple levels. I think we really will have to wait for the aftermath issue of this which won't be coming out until May.

Superman #20 (Cows man)

Things seem to be going good so far in the world of Superman. Due to the events with Mxyzptlk and the two Superman and Lois merging together, Lois is now Lois Kent and the same with Clark, no more White. Johnathan himself is also doing great with his friend Kathy and all seems great until Batman and Robin show up. According to Batman, while Jon's body is fine he should be much stronger then he is now and Batman wonders if something else might be wrong and implies that someone may be messing with his growth to which Superman says just isn't possible. The Kent family doesn't eat fast food, only organic and even the milk is hand delivered from a dairy. Batman goes to investigate the dairy and upon checking the milk he gets attacked by something in the milk and an unknown figure has him taken away.

"Attack Cows", did not see that one coming. This is a good yet confusing story if for no other reason than...... Attack Cows. Seeing how the universe has handled the merging of Superman has been interesting, it seems nothing has really changed for the most part save Clark, Lois, and John White are now Clark, Lois, and Jon Kent. The back and forth between Batman and Superman about someone interfering in Jon's growth was very classic, it showed how Batman has been taught to suspect everything and Clark and Lois wait for a reason to question, it's a very Detective vs. Journalist idea I think that works. The question now is, is Kathy's grandfather intentionally doing something to Jon or is just a simple accident and if he is, for what purpose?

Inhumans Prime and Royals #1 (Not really worth it, though tempting)

So I'm not going to go into full story mode here so much as just summing up what is and isn't good about these two books though I will say that Inhumans Prime does feel like the stronger issue with the Inhumans of New Atilan searching for Maximus the Mad and his group, bringing them in for what their crimes. That is mostly what happens but it also sets up things like Black Bolt knowing something from Maximus, that we don't know as well as Iso being made the ruler of the Inhumans and she herself wanting to dismantle the idea of monarchs and setting up elections. Issue one of Royals is about Marvel Boy telling the Inhumans that there may be more secrets about them that they don't know and it can only be found on Hala, the Kree Homeworld and Medusa, Black Bolt, Crystal, and others plan to go there and just to add some drama, Medusa is dying.

Al Ewing wrote both these and he's written some other stuff I want to talk about later on but I do think he's a good choice but the problem here is just that the story itself seems off and I think that may be the fault of the art here. Though not used for Inhumans Prime, the issue of Royals has this sort of sharp angular look to everything and it just looks cluttered at times. When I think of Inhumans I think of characters that look real until you get to their powers which is something I always liked about them. The idea of Medusa dying I think was a great if not sad idea and way to get you to read the book, and the image of Medusa crying as her hair begins to fall out is the best page by far. I don't think I will be reading this book unless I hear something interesting about it but maybe Black Bolt's new book will be the Inhuman title I've been looking for.

JLA #3 (Wait, did I miss something?)

Havok begins his crusade of global control, having already taken Kravia. The JLA then meets up with some of the people of Kravia asking to help and at first they don't trust them, primarily because they already had people with super powers here already but they relent and they tell the team what they need. They say that they can handle people but what they need is someone to take care of Havok and his team. So the JLA splits up and begins picking them off with Lobo taking on the Tracer, the Atom and Frost on Brute, Black Canary taking on Gorgon, and the Ray taking on an alien who can stop time. While this is going on Batman and Vixen lead a group of rebels in taking back Kravia and they engage Havok.

This issue wasn't a great story but it does look and read really well. The problem is, what happened in the previous issue? Last we saw Batman had offered himself in exchange for the Atom so what happened then? Ignoring that this looks very basic but I was hoping we would get something about how they've all learned to work as a team which it doesn't look like.