Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight: 11 issues from 2006, post-One Year Later
A couple very bluh arcs and an actually pretty good one.
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Cold Case, by Christos N. Gage: It’s really funny how many stories in the couple years after War Games go out of their way to very conspicuously take place before War Games. Anyway, the reveal of the killer is annoying because it kind of disrupts the tragedy of Freeze’s backstory (not just by the revelation that Nora knew about what he was doing, since at least the implications of that are acknowledged, but because it makes it so that Victor was always off his nut rather than being driven to it by circumstances). Plus this arc in general suggests that several of Batman’s enemies are really old so they can be suspects in a case from before Thomas Wayne’s death.
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The Madmen of Gotham, by Justin Gray: OK, issues. First, how many dark secrets that actually turn out not to be his fault did Thomas Wayne have? Second, the second attacker’s whole beauty fixation is kind of defused by the fact that she’s, uh, really just not that ugly. Third, “a baby tuna crewman” isn’t actually a valid anagram for “Bruce Wayne, Batman.” It has an extra A in place of an E. Try “Ben ran away, met cub” or something. Fourth, the legend about Gotham, Nottinghamshire has very little to do with the plot, so the references to it in narration feel very pretentious. Fifth, wow, this is a very, uh, wow handling of mental health issues.
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Darker than Death, by Bruce Jones: OK, this started out pretty awkward, and “Greasy” was… a lot. But the solution to the mystery was actually clever. Not that I didn’t guess it, but I felt very smart when I did. The only thing is that I feel like if Lilith was faking fainting over the finger in the mail, Bruce would’ve been able to tell, so it seems like she was legit unconscious. If it weren’t for that, I probably would’ve suspected her the whole time.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: 10 issues from 2016
Writer: Marc Guggenheim
Review
Wait, wait, I don’t get this.
If Mark Waid just left, why are we only doing Tower of Babel now?
I mean, uh, what a creative plot concept. Never woulda guessed.
The name “Battlecarrier” makes no sense. It’s like a Helicarrier, but it’s a battleship instead of an aircraft carrier. First of all, when can we expect the Helidestroyer, the Helisubmarine, and the Helipatrol Boat? Second, they replaced the wrong half of the original portmanteau. It’s different from a Helicarrier because it doesn’t carry things, it battles them. So it’s a Helibattleship. If that sounds like a stupid name, it’s only because the idea is kind of stupid.
Anyway, the drive with Batman’s Coulson’s plans to defeat heroes “can’t be copied because it’s on a quantum drive.” But, like, you have to be able to look at the information to use it. So you could, like, take a picture of whatever you’re looking at, or, I don’t know, hand-copy it.
In the Civil War II tie-ins, for an event where Team Tony is obviously, objectively right, and in a tie-in that’s about Tony convincing Coulson to switch sides, they managed to write an extremely unconvincing sales pitch for Tony to make. He leaves out the part where Ulysses’ predictions are not reliable, which is kind of the key reason Carol’s an idiot in this event.
And… friggin’ Elektra is a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent now? On the list of least trustworthy possible people to recruit, she’s got to be near the top.
So, in conclusion, meh. This felt like it had a bit more of a point than the Waid series, I guess, but at least that one was a lot more fun and didn’t suffer from, y’know, all the gaping plot holes.
Nick Fury: 6 issues from 2017
Writer: James Robinson
Review
How many times did Robinson write “Nick Fury pushes a button and a problem goes away” into the first issue, anyway?
Also, oh my god I was joking about the Helipatrol Boat, but Hydra actually has one, that’s incredible.
I dig the art, though, actually. Sort of inspired by some of Steranko’s wilder layouts, but not directly copying them.
And you know what, actually? Given that I haven’t liked most of Robinson’s work (again, Starman notwithstanding) and the whole concept of Nick Fury Jr. is very silly, I was really ready to come out swinging on this one, but… it’s good. Like, it’s not deep, and there’s definitely a lot of “I win” gadgets and convenient, vaguely sourced “intel,” but it’s good, silly, visually interesting fun.
And yes, I know I can’t even get through a sentence saying I liked something without criticizing it. I have a problem, all right?
