ARC REVIEW DC Universe Rebirth Batman: The Court of Owls Saga

BATMAN: 

The Court of Owls Saga

DC Essential Edition

by Scott Snyder

Story: Bruce Wayne has plans for Gotham. A plan for the betterment of the city new housing more jobs but it's not completely altruistic he has several hidey holes and caches planned throughout all the new buildings all over the city. Not everyone agrees with Bruce's plans for the city and now he has gained the attention of an ancient society, The Court of Owls, the court has sentenced Bruce Wayne to death but Bruce doesn't die so easily. Finding the court becomes an obsession for Batman just as the court becomes obsessed with him.

Art: I really enjoyed the art by Greg Capullo. It's dark and it's gritty which fits in with the story but it's also very pretty it's easy to tell what's what especially in action sequences. The covers alone standout in my mind they captured the feel of the story. Great lines, great colors, it's fantastic art to go with a great story

Review: Overall, I really enjoyed the story. I always found the Court of Owls storyline intriguing. I mean how can a secret society of the richest most influential people run Gotham and Bruce Wayne not know anything about it. Granted he knows something about it, he has always suspected they had something to do with the death of his parents but at the time he found something but nothing and they have been silent for years until Bruce's proposal to improve Gotham. I loved the progression of the story. The torment of Batman and how he was able to compartmentalize everything and focus on what needed to be done. I love it when Batman gets this dark and emotional. 

ARC REVIEW DC Universe Rebirth Batman/Catwoman: The Wedding Album - The Deluxe Edition

Batman/Catwoman
The Wedding Album
The Deluxe Edition

by; Tom King

issues #24, 44 & 50

Story/Art: I think the story is pretty self-explanatory, they are getting married each is writing a letter to the other the artwork as you read the letters alternating between the two was fantastic. It's their history from their very first meeting artwork recreated by Mikel Janín and all the other times they met showcasing the artwork from a variety of artist throughout the years; like Frank Miller, Amanda Conner, Tim Sale, Rafael Albuquerque, Jim Lee, Scott Williams, David Finch, Jose Villarrubia, Alex Sinclair, Hi-Fi, Clay Mann, Joёlle Jones and a whole bunch more.

Review: Bittersweet. I have always loved the idea of Batman and Catwoman together (blame Michael Keaton and Michelle Pfeiffer). But I always knew no matter how much they said they love each other they could never be happy together. The Catwoman ending of Injustice had it right, they can play act at the happily ever after but ultimately Selena would get bored. She may act altruistic at times because she's not evil at heart but she's still a villain; she can never truly be a hero inside this timeline. BUT then again I prefer the Batman and Talia ill-fated love story, when it was actually a love story before someone went and screwed that up, so what do I know. Overall, I really enjoyed this the love letters and the combination of all the different artwork. For being as short as it is it is mainly visual.

ARC REVIEW DC Universe DARK NIGHTS: METAL

Dark Days

The Road to Metal

The prequel to the Dark Nights: Metal series is short. Unless you buy the 256 paged hardcover or Kindle copy then it's still short you just have a bunch of other comics that they used as a road to this road; unfortunately the digital advanced readers copy was just that. Since I haven't read Final Crisis all the individual, taken from the middle and the end of other series had me completely lost, I can't do that jump into a story part way and only a small part drives me nuts so I skipped all that. The four issues that are Road to Metal were well done I enjoyed the story and the art but it was a short tease and that was really short and that a bit of a disappointment. I saw how many pages were in it and I got all excited and then to find out it was less than half that size, no bueno.

  

Dark Nights: 

Metal:

The main book of the series, it's the main storyline. To me it felt like the whole story was missing something, like only part of the story was there, and it was. I enjoyed the story I loved how complex it seemed to be how Scott Snyder tied in past events to all converge into this one massive story the only problem is that it feels like it's a truncated version of itself. It feels like it should be bigger and longer and the ending really wrapped up fast, it made me pause and think, "Really that's it?" I did love the art, Greg Capullo does not disappoint.

Kendra explains that the Court of Owls has been manipulating the whole thing and Barbatos has been behind them from the beginning, the beginning of time basically, to get Batman to do exactly what they want him to do. Batman, nonetheless, feels like he's the only one that can handle the upcoming evil and then he disappears, assumed dead and Superman is the only one that knows he still alive and needs the help from the Justice League to get him into the Dark multiverse to save Batman.  I've never been a fan of Kendra or Carter and I was just underwhelmed with their part in the story. 

This by itself is good, it's even better if you read the tie-ins. 

Dark Nights: Metal:

The Resistance 

THE FLASH #33, HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS #32, JUSTICE LEAGUE #32-33, HAWKMAN: FOUND #1, TEEN TITANS #12, NIGHTWING #29, SUICIDE SQUAD #26, GREEN ARROW #32, BATMAN: LOST #1 and HAWKMAN FOUND #1
These are tie-in stories and for me reading them after Metal made the overall story better. It filled in blanks of what happened during the main story and just made the whole chain of events seem more inevitably doomed. I really enjoyed the Gotham Resistance. Nightwing, Green Arrow, Robin, Harley, and Killer Croc work together to get the the center of the labyrinth that Gotham City has become fighting Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, The Riddler and so on. The Justice League storyline follows them on their own adventures while helping Superman get to the Darkverse and what happened after that, where Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Green Lantern basically are faced with the corrupted Batmen that share their power. The main villain in this isn't really Barbatos but the Batman who Laughs. He's out in Gotham manipulating all the other villains and making life hell for everyone. I enjoyed the art pretty much throughout the entire thing and the story lines were. My main complaint is that with everything out of order it was kind of confusing. 

Dark Nights: Metal

Dark Knights Rising

                                   (or the Nightmare Batmen depending on which one you get)

Another tie-in for the Metal series this one filling in the blanks where the Nightmare Batmen come in. I really enjoyed all the different stories, all the different ways Batman was corrupted. 

The Red Death: a thief who stole his reality's Speed Force power. He used The Flash to control the Speed Force and is now merged with The Flash. 

The Drowned: a female, amphibious Batman. The Atlantis of her multiverse devastated her world so she changed herself so she could defeat them all. 
The Dawnbreaker: a twisted Green Lantern. As a child after the death of his parents the ring came to him but too angry at the world he corrupted the ring making it something very dark.
The Murder Machine: a deranged, deadly cyborg. The death of Alfred has Batman start the Alfred protocol but the Alfred AI didn't quite come out the way it was intended.
The Merciless: a warrior who wears the helmet of Ares. Batman and Diana were in love but in a war against Ares she falls Batman beats Ares and takes his helm and all his Godly powers
The Devastator: a part-human, part-Doomsday monster. Superman went bad and only by becoming part Doomsday is Batman able to save his world and defeat Superman. 

And  lastly The Batman Who Laughs: a lunatic driven mad by his world's Joker. The Joker is dead but Batman is poisoned and corrupted by the Joker last laugh. Overall I really enjoyed all the storylines I enjoyed Batman becoming the things he feared most. The art was hit and miss for me but it was more good than bad. I absolutely loved The Batman Who Laughs his character through the whole Metal series is one of my favorites. 

The series overall I enjoyed but I wouldn't buy it unless the series was all in one big omnibus in order.

ARC REVIEW DC Universe Rebirth Wonder Woman vol 5 Heart of the Amazon

Wonder Woman

vol 5 Heart of the Amazon

DC Universe Rebirth

issues #26-30, ANNUAL #1, WONDER WOMAN: STEVE TREVOR #1

Story by Shea Fontana, Tim Seeley, Vita Ayala, Michael Moreci, 

Collin Kelly, and Jackson Landing

Art by Mirka Andolfo, David Messina, Inaki Miranda, Christian Duce, Claire Roe,

Stephanie Hans, David LaFuente, and Jenny Frison (variant cover art collection)

Story: Heart of the Amazon is a five part story written by Shea Fontana. Diana is faced with a moral dilemma; if her Amazonian blood can cure millions of people who have cancer and other diseases shouldn't she give her blood for the cure but the weaponization of her blood becomes all to apparent when a colleague falls ill and steals her blood and makes herself just as strong as Diana. Then a supposed top secret government agency tries to trick Diana into giving her blood to cure the sick but in actuality it's nothing so altruistic. The Annual is a collection of short stand alone stories that showcase some of the best parts of Wonder Woman; her sense of justice even for criminals, honor even when it hurts, and selflessness toward others even monsters. Steve Trevor's story is about another paradise found and lost for its own protection, but the story isn't over yet.

Art: It was real hit or miss for me, for the most part I enjoyed it. Mirka Andolfo and David Messina both worked the main story arc Heart of the Amazon. It has nice clean lines great action sequences and love Romulo Fajardo Jr colors. Steve Trevor #1 I liked, I like that depiction of Steve looking slightly older and more rugged, Christian Duce did well with the whole story it really brought it to life. The Annual, ehh, In Defense of Truth and Justice was very rough, hard lines, dark shadows the colors were muted, overly detailed in some areas but not others; not my favorite. The Curse and Honor had some beautiful details soft clean lines the colors fit the story. The Last Kaiju was not my favorite I'm just not a fan of that style. I love Jenny Frison cover art her Wonder Woman always looks like a mix between Jennifer Connelly and Megan Fox, classic beauty with sex appeal. 

Review: The Heart of the Amazon  had a good story, the idea was there but I don't think it was as good as it could have been. It seemed rushed and the flashbacks to Diana's childhood was a nice touch but I didn't enjoy them. The first arc after the departure of Greg Rucka has me wishing he didn't leave. The annuals were nice filler and Steve Trevor's was probably my favorite out of the whole thing. Between Steve's story and the art work I'm looking forward more to that than anything else. 
 

ARC REVIEW DC Universe Rebirth: Red Hood and the Outlaws vol 3 Bizarrro Reborn

RED HOOD and the OUTLAWS

vol 3 Bizarro Reborn

 DC Universe ReBirth

issues #12-18 and ANNUAL #1

By: Scott Lobdell

Art: Dexter Soy, Tyler Kirkham, Sergio Sandoval, Joe Bennett

Inks and Colors: Veronica Gandini, Sean Parsons, Blond, Juan Albarran, 

Michael Atiyeh, Arif Prianto

Story: Bizarro has a limited lifespan, Jason and Artemis were warned that this would happen but the more Bizarro exerts himself the weaker he becomes until finally after a battle with Grundy Bizarro collapses. For reasons of his own Lex Luthor extends Bizarro's life only this time when Bizarro wakes up he doesn't have the mind of a child but off the chart level genius. He's so smart that he is manipulating situations so they can have his desired outcome. Which leads to working with the Suicide Squad. In the Annual issue we find the Dark Trinity working with a traveling circus and Jason invites Greyson (and kind of tricks him) to work with them. 

Art: Dexter Soy does exceptionally well, Bizarro's dreamland version of the characters were adorable. Gandini's colors, I loved the shading. I also enjoyed Kirkham's work it felt softer and a more carefree and worked well with that story. All in all the art was visually appealing and worked well with what was going on in the story, in other words no really weird facial expressions those always make me cringe.  

Review: Overall, it was a good story and I enjoyed pretty much everything about it except smart Bizarro, that was just creepy. I know you couldn't of had the story without smart Bizarro, it's not the fact that he was smart that made it creepy it was how he was portrayed the things he said and how he manipulated certain thing. I think Jason was taking the whole thing way to easy, he was sceptical at first and then, poof, everything was fine. Oh Bizarro is a genius, cool. Oh Bizarro can build all these neat gadgets that can rival Batman, awesome. Oh Bizarro built a giant invisible fortress above Gotham run by a holographic AI projection of himself, yeah that's not creepy at all; and how he manipulated Waller to get what he wants, okay yeah that was a little cool. Artemis has it right to be suspicious especially since it was Luthor who did this to him. I loved seeing Greyson and Todd interact with each other, my two favorite Robins. I can't wait to see where this story goes.   

ARC REVIEW DC Universe Rebirth All Star Batman: vol 3 The First Ally

All Star Batman

vol 3: The First Ally

DC Universe Rebirth

Story by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, Rafael Scavone

Art by Rafael Albuquerque, Sebastian Fiumara

Story: There are two stories to this the first obviously The First Ally story written by Scott Snyder. It deal heavily with Alfred, his internal struggle dealing with what Bruce Wayne has become and the part he played in it. The villain is someone from his past and while he is helping Batman deal with the Black and Whites (Penguin, Black Mask, Great White), Hush, and some others it flips back and forth between Alfred's youth and the current situation which is Batman trying to stop Hush and the Black and Whites from gaining control of a high tech device that can clone exact duplicates like it's a 3D printer. The second story Killers-In-Law written by Rafael Albuquerque and Rafael Scavone is all about Batman infiltrating a Russian mob in Moscow to stop them from making an arms deal that could lead to a all out war in Gotham. 

Art: Rafael Albuquerque does the art for The First Ally story arc and Sebastian Fiumara did Killers-In-Law. Both did a great job beautiful images and the coloring (Jordie Bellaire, Chris Peters, Trish Mulvihill, Lee Loughridge) The covers Albuquerque did are my favorites they have a great light and dark contrast and the detail is so well done. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed Fiumara's work too.

Review: Overall, I did like this peek at Alfred's life before the Wayne's and his own troubled youth all the juicy bits after. While I did like that it explained how Alfred got to be as well trained and how he could teach this to Bruce but the whole thing with Briar and all that was a little too much. The analogy with the pirates and the classic pirate stories I'm torn on I liked it but it also came off as cheesy. But between the art and what of the story I liked, mainly Killers-In-Law, a solid four stars.

       

ARC REVIEW DC Universe Rebirth Teen Titans vol 2: The Rise of Aqualad

Teen Titans

The Rise of Aqualad

DC Universe Rebirth

Story by: Benjamin Percy

Art by: Khoi Pham, Wade Von Grawbadger, Phil Hester, Trevor Scott, Pop Mhan

issues #6-7, #9-11 and #13-14

Story: Jackson Hyde is tired of hiding who he really is, he tired of hiding his powers and of his Mom not telling him the truth of who his Dad is and why he can control water the way he does, being gay doesn't make it any easier. Jackson goes to the only place he thinks he will be welcomed, Titan Tower. It started with a prison break out an entire section of inmates went missing soon afterwards people started to go missing all disappearing in and around the ocean. When Beast Boy is giving an interview out in front of Titan Tower and the reporter disappears into the water right in front of him shortly after that King Shark comes on T.V. announcing his wicked intentions. Jackson shows up and proves his worth with the Titans when he helps take down King Shark. But the story is far from over when Jackson's Mom shows with the truth about who he really is and why she hit it from him. King Shark was only the beginning.

Art: The art is pretty much what I expect when reading a comic.

It's well done, nice lines, and great action sequences. I liked that each of the conversation bubbles for the characters were unique to them so you knew who was talking and when.

Review: Overall, it was a good read. I love the Titans and each unique quality lends to the group and makes them stronger as a group. Starfire, as long as she's been on Earth still is naive and her innocence in that aspect lets her believe in the good of everyone. It was also nice to see her take charge when Damian was acting like a brat. Beast Boy who loves attention and getting famous in Hollywood only made it worse, and it has been hinted that it will lead to something bad. Raven keeps her distance because her empathy, but she gives great insight when needed. Her understanding of having a horrible father connects her to Kid Flash and that gives them a bond with romantic inclinations. And Beast Boy with Starfire, yeah I don't see that. And then there is Damian, he was raised to lead but being taught by R'as and then Batman he doesn't always understand working with the team and leading them. I like where this is going and I like Jackson.

ARC REVIEW DC Universe Rebirth Suicide Squad vol 4 Earthlings on Fire

Suicide Squad

vol 4 Earthlings on Fire

DC Universe Rebirth

issues 16-20

by Rob Williams

art by: Tony S. Daniels, Sandu Florea, Neil Edwards, Stjepan Sejic, Tomeu Morey (colorist)

Story: Amanda Waller has really bit off more than she could chew when she acquires exactly what she wants, lucky for her Lex Luthor knows a lot more than she thinks he does. Waller thinks she can control Zod but he proves no one controls Zod. She just needs one mission to go right the one mission to finally take out The People and their own Suicide Squad, The Annihilation Brigade, and to lay a trap for the trader in her own ranks. Shortly after Waller thinks everything has gone well Zod breaks loose and starts reeking havoc in Belle Reve. The Suicide Squad barely contained him the first time and without the help of Hack they alone can not take him out.  

Art: The art was visually pleasing. I love the covers, especially Otto Schmidt's cover for Managing People, and there were quite a few individual panels I quite liked. "Alone" was probably the one I liked the least it didn't seem like it stayed consistent with the others it almost seemed like more time was spent on Zod, Eradicator, and Cyborg Superman then the rest of the characters.

Review:  Overall, it was a good story. I'll admit I did get teary eyed there. "Alone" while probably my least favorite art-wise was my favorite story-wise. In "Managing People" you discover that Waller knows what Boomarang did and I'm am just waiting for  the day Harley discovers it and tears him a new one. I love the unlikely romance between June and Waylon (still a better romance than Twilight as my son would say). And I'm still crossing my fingers that what happened isn't a permanent thing.      

ARC REVIEW DC Universe Rebirth Batman vol 4 The War of Jokes and Riddles

Batman

vol 4 The War of Jokes and Riddles

DC Universe Rebirth

issues 25-32

story by: Tom King

art by: Mikel Janin, Clay Mann, June Chung (colorist) 

Story: A year after Batman took up the cape and cowl a war hit Gotham between Joker and Riddler. In this volume he tells Selina his side and everything he learned by talking to as many of the participants involved as possible. He still feels guilt over what he had to do and has to tell someone. The Joker has lost the ability to laugh, nothing's funny anymore and he blames Batman for ruining his joke. The Riddler breaks out of prison so he can solve the one riddle he has yet to solve, Batman. Riddler originally goes to Joker so they can band together to kill the Bat, but Joker instead shoots him in the gut. Joker and Riddler gather up all the other villains and divide Gotham, showing no mercy to anyone who gets in the way. Deadshot and Deathstroke go at it shot to shot, head to head until then Batman and Gordon have been dealing with it the best way the could but that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Batman figured the only way to stop it was to pick a side, but whose side to pick????

Art: Mikel Janin did the main story line with June Chung as the Colorist. The Ballad of Kite Man done by Clay Mann and Jordie Bellaire (colorist) and Gabe Eltaeb (colorist).  For the most part I'm easy to please when it come to the art I think the only thing that really bugged me was how Riddler was drawn. I guess I'm just so use to the lean almost scrawny cerebral kind of guy instead of this Irish bruiser-ish type guy with his shirt all open. But Riddler has evolved quite a bit since Frank Gorshin played him, I'll get over it. Back to the art this has some pretty impressive and detailed two page spreads, I always like those. Overall it was very pleasing on the eyes and added so much to the story.     

Review: Overall, this was a fantastic read, it was a great story even if it did feel a little truncated it just gave you the details you needed to know. It was awesome to see Deathstroke and Deadshot fight it out. (Although I think Deathstroke would win.) I liked the interludes with Kite Man with his story and how he plays a major part in the story. For missing the first three volumes this one was real easy to pick up and read without having read the previous issues and normally I wouldn't have grabbed this one not having read the previous one but how could I turn down Joker vs. Riddler?!