Mark Henely Comic Reviews

The one thing that has really changed with these characters is the way that they are drawn, but that change has been for the better. The way that artist, Veronica Fish has rendered these characters is really starting to feel natural. For years, Archie had a house style and Fish has really done a good job of breaking away from it without losing the characters in the process. If anything, the characterization has only grown stronger. Jughead, somehow, feels more like Jughead in Fish's style. Betty and Veronica have gone from identical twins with different color hair to two characters with very distinct character designs.

Gisele Lagace does an incredible job on art in this book. The Ramones look like the Ramones and they look cool. She also has a lot of fun with drawing the Archies in different outfits (both punk and non-punk). There's also a seen at the end with Archie and Sabrina where she shows that Sabrina is flirting with him even though the dialogue never indicates it explicitly. It's great stuff.

The art in this book is also very cool. I've always been a big fan of Bane's origin story (all the way about to Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1), and it was cool to see some of Santa Prisca's most iconic locations rendered in the modern style.

Batman #20 doesn't just recap the action of Tom King's impressive run on the Dark Knight's solo book, it deepens the experience. It adds texture to it. It reframes it in a way that shows how every moment of this run has been driven by a singular desire that Batman harbors.

If you were to only buy one issue of Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, this is probably the issue to buy. It's more fun that the first issue and (I don't know if I mentioned this yet) you get to see a fight between Batman and the Ninja Turtles. It's hard to see how Tynian IV and Williams II can top that spectacle. It'll be cool to see the Turtles team up with Batman to take on Shredder and the Penguin, but this might be the high. Either way, this is a great issue and well worth the price of admission.

Spoiler Section: At the end of the comic, Terry dresses up like a member of the Joker Gang to infiltrate their group and take it down from the inside. I think the fact that this story ends with the main character dressing up like a clown should not be ignored. It is an absolutely ridiculous turn of events in a vacuum, but it doesn't play as a jokein this context. The fact that Terry might become a Joker feels scary instead of like the goofiest plot twist of all time. And I think Jurgens, Chang, and Maiolo all need to be praised heavily for it.

This is still a great comic book and a great read, but part of me thinks it could have been more. I think it is still a sign of great things to come for this series and I am very excited to read more.

Ultimately, this is a comic book about the fear that the people that you need don't need you. It's about needing someone or something who has no place for you anymore. Bruce believes Gotham and Terry don't need him anymore. Terry needs Dana, but he worries that his lifestyle makes them incompatible. He thinks he is ready to make a change for Dana, but we, the readers, don't know if he actually is. Ultimately, this story will be about whether or not Terry can make this change successfully and what that looks like.

Overall, there are a lot of interesting threads to follow in what some would think was just a tie in to a long cancelled children's television show.

Artist Aaron Lopresti also deserves some credit in this issue. He does a great job at framing action and pacing out the story. Also, he makes Hawkman look like a real badass in the opening fight scene. We need Hawkman to look impressive so it has a bigger impact when he eventually goes down. Lopresti has set the table very nicely for his downfall and I can't wait to see it.

We get a little more from Hawkman this time around, but it is so mired down in impenetrable details about the politics of fictional planets that it's hard to get a feel for who this character is in this story. We see that he likes to hit things and bone women, but there has to be more to the guy than that. And if there isn't, then I want to see more of him boning women and breaking faces. If he is nothing but his desires, then I want his hedonism to be over the top. I need to be sad that Hawkman dies, not indifferent because he is so plain.

As for a star rating, that's a little bit difficult. As someone who has not read the first series, I didn't get as much out of this issue as longtime readers probably did. This issue is fun and even sweet at times, but I can't get over the feeling that I'm missing half of the story. If you are a new reader, it would probably be best to go and get the trade paperbacks of "The Life After" before you tackle this. This comic is very good, but it doesn't quite stand as a stand alone piece, so I will have to rate it lower than I would if I had read "The Life After" before reading this.

The whole comic just feels very vapid and more of a commercial product that a story that needs to be told.

Francis Manapul, the artist of this issue, does a really great job with everything. There are some really great splash pages and the colors are beautiful. The moments in this comic that are really affecting are pulled off because Manapul renders them dynamically. However, his art doesn't change the fact that this story arc has lost it's momentum. This issue hints at good things to come and, if that is true, this issue is just a slightly dull step in the right direction.

Batman should want to end the Suicide Squad because he doesn't trust Amanda Waller, not because he doesn't believe they cannot be redeemed. Batman works with Red Hood, a gun carrying vigilante, on the regular. He should be a guy who could work with a heroic Deadshot.

When it all comes down to it, this fight has proven nothing, except that the Squad COULD win. Not that they would always win, but at least once. And those are better odds than people had previously given them.

What makes Kamandi special? Kamandi is special because he brings out the best in the people who write and draw him. Also, there is a robot Jack Kirby in this story. If that isn't enough for you, I don't know what is.

While I don't know if it is possible to replicate the appeal of KISS music to the comic book page, this really misses the mark. Where is the fun? Where is the Rock 'n' Roll All Night? Where is the Love Gun? This is an empty headed sci-Fi story with a KISS logo. Maybe future issues will actually bring the boys into the comic, but this isn't a promising start and I don't know why readers who paid to read this would pay again to actually see the character they paid to see the first time.

Maybe it is fitting that I feel so perplexed by KISS #2. Much in the way that kids around the world were perplexed by Music from The Elder, it only serves to follow that I should be perplexed by the comic book it inspired.

Klaus #1 was incredibly strong and this second issue does not disappoint. Readers get to see Klaus on his very first night of giving gifts and what the fallout of that night is. This story has no signs of slowing down on a creative level, although it will be weird to read a comic book about Santa Claus in March. Although, if there is any pair that could make a man want to read about Santa Claus in April, it would be Grant Morrison and Dan Mora.

The art is, of course, amazing. Javier Fernandez shows off why he got that exclusive DC contract with his impressive work in these action scenes. Both Dick and Damian's faces are incredibly expressive as they face off and it really adds to the heart of these scenes. Fernandez also gets to stretch his legs a little and draw the entire teen titans. It's a good showcase for a talented artist.

I believe the artwork in a book like Red Hood and the Outlaws needs to be built around the main characters looking badass. That sounds shallow, but I do believe there is a contingency of fans who are subconsciously attracted to this book because the characters look cool. The character that really takes home the badass award this issue is Artemis. She looks angry and imposing in every panel she appears in. Most of the time, she is in a cool action pose. I don't think this should go uncommented on.

One of the great things about reading Red Hood and the Outlaws issue by issue is that each issue is satisfying by itself. While the over-arching story certainly makes the experience deeper and more engaging, each issue gives the reader its money's worth. While this issue is transition issue that is setting up a final part (that will presumably be the next issue). there are a few pieces of this story that make it worth reading alone.

Jason Todd doesn't fully trust in Batman's teachings, but he desperately wishes that he could. He knows that Batman doesn't know everything and that some of the things that Batman teaches could lead to his death (again), but the world would be better if Batman was right. In the second half of this issue, we get a conversation between Jason and Bruce where Bruce basically tells Jason that he doesn't know everything and that Jason is his own man who is doing the right things. Bruce approaches Jason with grace and the two seem poised to embark on a new direction in their relationship with each other. And I, for one, am excited to see it.

Red Hood has to decide what kind of man he is going to be. Is he the kind of man who lets Bizarro run wild? Is he the type of man who kills Bizarro right now for the threat he might become? Or is he a third option? An option that looks a lot like how Batman lives his life. Is he a man who is ready to do what needs to be done, even if it means killing a man, but will do everything in his power to make sure that he never has to cross that line?

Artist Kenneth Rockafort gives an intriguing depth to the entire story by playing up the homo-erotic nature of the Amazon society. Occasionally, the art dips into crass territory, but I think that giving Artemis a romantic history with her returned rival adds a depth to the story that I think makes the whole thing more compelling.

It looks like readers can expect fish out of water comedy and a ton of cheesecake.

Jiminez's pencils channel Humberto Ramos at his best, but with a keener sense of details that Ramos usually lacks. Jiminez's highly stylized figures, matched with bright coloring, fits bright fresh tone that Tomasi's script portrays. The pencils make up in energy what they in anatomical proportion.His art crackles with enthusiasm that mirrors that of the Super Sons themselves.

The art in this comic is also very interesting. The artist draws all of his characters to look very wiry, which works for Supergirl in a way that it wouldn't work for Superman. DC seems uncomfortable with making Supergirl broad shouldered and muscular, so I think, if they aren't going to go in that direction, then this wiry direction works for me.

Fernando Dagnino does a great job on art duties.The big appeal to doing a crossover like this is in seeing the characters interact with each other. Dagnino really does a great job of taking two properties with two very different aesthetics and putting them together while still making it all seem streamlined. He also nails all of the actions scenes. Readers always know who is doing what to whom. This really must be a fun project for him to work on. In just one page, he got to draw Tarzan, a character from Planet of the Apes, and a Triceratops. It's fun stuff.

It isn't bad. The table has been reset for a battle between the Apes and the Humans with Tarzan as the last ambassador between the two. It feels a lot like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, except with Tarzan instead of Jason Clarke (which I do believe is a massive improvement). It takes awhile to get to the action due to all the resetting, but it looks like the story is going somewhere debatably more thoughtful at the end… that is, as long as they don't time jump the next issue and reset everything again.

The relationship between the three continues to be a high point of this comic. This is a pre-New 52 Superman interacting with a post New 52 Batman and Wonder Woman. They don't know this Superman like they know each other and it brings Batman and Wonder Woman close together in a way that is really surprising. There is an interesting scene where the two are comparing notes with each other over what to do with this Superman that shows how close they are without having to state it overtly.

A practical reason for Batman's resistance to the illusion could be that he has more experience with reality altering illusions that Superman does. Batman regularly faces off against Poison Ivy and Scarecrow. He has contingency plans that let him know when he is disconnecting from reality. This entire issue is the equivalent of a blocked punch. Poison Ivy tries to attack Batmanemotionally and psychically and he protects himself.

Overall, the comic isn't bad, but certainly isn't great. This isn't Bunn's best work, but it also isn't his worst. This isn't the best comic book to come out this week, but it also isn't the worst. The series might heat up in future issues, but this issue doesn't do much to live up to the status of Marvel's flagship X-Men book.

The thing that really works for me with this issue in particular is that it relies on known samurai story tropes without totally playing out how one would expect it to. This felt like it could be an issue of Rurouni Kenshin. However, when you get to the end, you see that it is really a larger story about the life cycle and the strength that can be found in letting go. It's a pretty profound ending that will not be spoiled here by me today.

Outside of the context, as a new reader, I think the story itself is pretty decent. Ellis is an incredible writer and he art is really beautiful. I'm definitely going to read future issues and I am excited to see where it all goes from her.