Review: Batman/Superman Vol. 1: Cross World hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

Writer Greg Pak starts off Batman/Superman Vol. 1: Cross World with a riff on the "dual narration" that Jeph Loeb used on Superman/Batman, and that nostalgic touch immediately made me feel at home on this title. At the same time, while Ed McGuinness's boisterous, cartoony art was perfect for the original early 2000s title, Jae Lee's art deco steampunk whimsy makes this title feel different than what came before, more mature in keeping with the ultra-modern New 52. Cross World is strong on words and pictures, a little less so on plot, but it perfectly captures the kind of story one expects from this title.

[Review contains spoilers]

Between Lee's winding, twisting Gotham and some of the liberties that Pak takes -- a drug dealer offers Clark Kent some "kind bud"; a little kid flips off Superman just out of panel -- the new Batman/Superman series almost has a "mature readers" feel to it. It's a presentation considerably different than the wild superheroics of Jeph Loeb's Superman/Batman (reflecting, perhaps, the greater Batman influence here and the greater Superman influence there); which is OK for this day and age; the gritty "realism" of Batman/Superman is probably about what the Batman vs. Superman movie producers are shooting for, too.

Pak uses Loeb's aforementioned narration style for the story (even gives Loeb a nod in the bonus commentary section), and it's a wonderful reminder that the old DC Universe isn't gone-gone, just re-presented in new ways. Like Superman/Batman Vol. 1: Public Enemies (and, presumably, like the forthcoming movie), Cross World touches on the similarities between the two heroes' origins before moving on to the main action. Another nice bit is Pak and Lee depicting Bruce Wayne in his army fatigues get-up, such that most readers will recognize this as set squarely in the Year One era even before Superman leaps instead of flies.

Pak also riffs on Loeb and Tim Sale in a flashback sequence mid-way through the book, drawn by Yildiray Cinar, that depicts the first meeting as children of the Earth-2 Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne. Loeb and Sale did this in a Superman/Batman Secret Files, showing Alfred Pennyworth's limousine breaking down in Smallville and a Clark seeing a newly-orphaned Bruce in the back seat. Here, Pak actually has Bruce get out of the car, and the two lonely kids start a friendship that lasts to their superhero days. Earth-2 is an alternate reality -- as, indeed, is the entire post-Flashpoint DC Universe -- so it's nice perhaps to think that Loeb and Sale's events still "happened" and that Pak's is a true alternate version of them.

The Cross World story is imperfect but cute, especially when "our" Superman and Batman encounter their older, wiser Earth-2 counterparts. It's a bit like the recent 2009 Star Trek movie, where Spock-Prime tells Jim Kirk that he and that reality's Spock will be friends; we know and the older characters know where this ends up, and it's fun to see the younger characters at the beginning of the ride. Also, my gold standard for Superman/Batman team-ups is Dave Gibbons and Steve Rude's World's Finest, mainly because of how they team not just the heroes, but their respective Super- and Bat-families; Batman/Superman doesn't go so deep as, say, Perry White and Jim Gordon, but that Cross World has a couple worlds' worth of Catwomen on the Batman side and Lois Lane and Wonder Woman on the Superman side is a good start.

In the nitty-gritty details of the plot, however, Cross World stumbles a little. That the Earth-1 and Earth-2 Supermen and Batmen fight and then team-up is fine, but the details get jumbled when the story introduces a magical all-powerful crystal and also a government super-weapon. Was the military already planning to use the weapon against Superman? Was it the influence of the story's villain du jour, Kaiyo the Trickster, or did this all start because there was suddenly a "rogue" Superman on Earth-2? Such isn't clear, as if the plot is in some ways despite the point. Also, even with great panel-work by Lee (like an edgier J.H. Williams) and letterer Rob Leigh doing a yeoman's job depicting four or five different character's narrations, it's sometimes tough to tell which Earth's hero is doing what.

Kaiyo isn't a terribly rousing villain, perhaps because she's a "trickster" and doesn't pose a real threat besides bringing chaos (at one point I thought Pak might reveal Kaiyo as Mxyzptlk or one of his ilk, but that doesn't turn out to be the case). More surprising and disappointing is that the end of this story and the Villain's Month Darkseid issue that follows doesn't match up with Justice League Vol. 1: Origin, supposedly the most seminal of New 52 stories; in Origin, Darkseid is on Earth looking for his daughter, whereas Cross World suggests that Darkseid is simply reveling in combat with various dimension's Supermen. If Kaiyo is meant to be the "daughter," such is also not made clear, and I'd have to say I was expecting someone more impressive to fit that role.


The Darkseid issue is entertaining in that Pak posits Darkseid as kind of a New Gods' Prometheus, stealing the fire from the old gods in a role we might otherwise consider a "good guy." How Darkseid became a despotic ruler isn't revealed here, nor the origins of the Parademons, Desaad, and others (not sure; did Kirby even reveal those origins?); what Pak has is a good start and I wouldn't mind seeing Pak continue with other "tales of the New Gods" later on.

Batman/Superman Vol. 1: Cross World finishes with some dynamite extras, most notably a script-to-pages sequence with commentary from Pak, Lee, and the series editors (I'd love to see more "director's cut" material like this in the trades). Obviously DC considers this an important book, and the reasons why are also obvious (chances are, by hook or by crook, they'll keep this book going until at least 2016). Cross World gets a little loopy by the end (and, wouldn't you know it, all the characters forget the adventure in the end, too), but I can't say that's terribly different than some of the stories in Superman/Batman previously. Batman/Superman is faithful to Superman/Batman before it, and despite some difficulties, that rates it pretty highly in my book.

[Includes original and variant covers, script section and sketches]

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Review: Superman/Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told trade paperback (DC Comics)

[Guest reviewer Zach King blogs about movies as The Cinema King]

Say what you want about DC's Trinity or the Big 7, but for my money the superhero team-up tradition that started with the Justice Society of America reached its logical apex when Superman finally met Batman nearly fifteen years after they debuted on the scene. Though their relationship has changed significantly since the Silver Age, this partnership is enough to make your average comics fan say, "Avengers, schmavengers."

Published in the midst of the highly popular team-up series that began with Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness's "Public Enemies" arc, Superman/Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told seeks to gather the best of the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight. And perhaps fittingly for a book centered around the World's Finest, this trade is one of the best in the series, hitting all the important notes and serving as a strong primer for what this partnership has looked like over the last 60 years. While some of the stories haven't aged very well, each justifies its own inclusion beyond the one-page introduction, and none is a wasted reading experience.

The sum of the parts being more than the whole in this series, let's take a look at what's inside this volume.

"The Mightiest Team in the World" (Superman #76, May/June 1952): Where better to begin than at the beginning? It's hard to believe it took almost fifteen years for Superman and Batman to cross paths in a shared universe, but Edmond Hamilton's script doesn't worry about why they've never met before. Indeed, the story doesn't worry much about how they meet; the gimmick with an illuminated porthole revealing secret identities is a stretch, but it lets the story focus on the working relationship that forms quickly between the two. The story's iconic nature is aided by the always-capable pencils of Curt Swan, and the wonderful concept is executed so well that it's telling to see the story paid homage fifty years later at the end of this collection (more on that in a bit).

"Superman's and Batman's Greatest Foes" (World's Finest Comics #88, May/June 1957): After the World's Finest teamed up, it was only a matter of time until the World's Foulest -- Lex Luthor and The Joker -- did so as well. Hamilton's back on story duty, and this one is a bit more paint-by-numbers than its predecessor: Lex Luthor and The Joker wreak nefarious mischief by pooling their resources, confounding the World's Finest by seemingly going legitimate and inventing cybernetic Mechano-Men. Though the story doesn't break new ground like its predecessor, kudos to Hamilton for keeping me guessing on what the two were actually up to. Dick Sprang's artwork is more cartoony than Swan's, especially his Joker's elongated face and brutally high shoulders. Ultimately it's an important story, and a well-told one, at that.

"The Composite Superman" (World's Finest Comics #142, June 1964): Hamilton and Swan (the World's Finest in this collection?) reunite to create the foe who is most recognizably a Superman/Batman rogue, The Composite Superman -- half Superman, half Batman, and with all the powers of the entire Legion of Super-Heroes. Coming from a reader who was only aware of the Composite Superman as the large rocket built by Hiro Okamura in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, finding out the "secret origin" (as it were) of this character was a real treat. The story isn't entirely successful, relying a bit too much on keeping the audience in the dark in a ham-fisted kind of way, and while the conclusion falls a bit flat, the introduction of the character is iconic in its own right and serves as required reading for any Superman/Batman aficionado.

"The Cape and Cowl Crooks" (World's Finest Comics #159, August 1966): I imagine one of the hardest challenges in a superhero team-up is finding a foe worthy of a combined effort; The Avengers had to go intergalactic with Loki and the Skrulls Chitauri, but in this story Hamilton and Swan go for the hat trick with the Anti-Batman and Anti-Superman collaborating to . . . well, it's not really clear what they're after. They deliver toys to the prisons of Metropolis and Gotham, and they lead the World's Finest on a merry chase, but they're not a major threat. The visual gimmick of wearing modified costumes of their opponents probably locked them into this collection, but the ending is, like most Silver Age stories, extremely predictable and more than slightly gimmicky. This is really the only story that doesn't work on at least some level, and one wonders if there's more potential in these two characters than is employed in this one-off.

"The Superman-Batman Split" (World's Finest Comics #176, June 1968): I've no doubt that this story is in the collection because it's illustrated by Neal Adams, arguably the artistic master of the post-Silver Age DC Universe. It's unfortunate, then, that the editors chose not to reprint the original artwork but opted instead for Adams's more recent altered versions, which are inked more heavily and with less grace than the originals (there are, interestingly enough, entire sites dedicated to scanning unaltered Adams artwork). The story by Cary Bates, in which multiple aliens split the allegiances of Superman and Batman, isn't entirely engaging; its major twist is a touch predictable, but it's great to see Batgirl and Supergirl joining the World's Finest with Robin and Jimmy Olsen for a regular Justice League of Awesome. The story is infectiously fun and multiplies the action -- a trend I've noticed throughout this volume -- but I can't help but feel that the original inks by Dick Giordano have been distractingly overwritten to the detriment of the reader.

"A Matter of Light and Death" (World's Finest Comics #207, November 1971): This story posits an interesting question -- can Batman stop Clark Kent from taking out a hit on Superman? It's a head-scratching premise by Len Wein, who pitches an incredibly original concept in this story, and even though the execution is a bit too protracted to be truly exciting, the central mystery will likely keep readers engaged. (Pay very close attention, though; the answer of why Clark Kent wants Superman dead is delivered in one quick panel in the midst of a long monologue.) Dick Dillin's artwork is effective but didn't distinguish itself to my eye the way that Adams or Swan did earlier (or Byrne and Sale, later). While the master villain is difficult to take seriously in a post-mindwipe world, the threat posed to Superman is tangible enough that Batman's involvement feels invaluable.

"One Night in Gotham City" (Man of Steel #3, November 1986): Now this is what I'm talking about. When I started reading comics, this was my first Batman/Superman team-up, and its inclusion here is practically a given. As an older reader, I realize now just how hard John Byrne is working to distance the post-Crisis World's Finest from the Silver Age's "super best friends" approach (including a cute wink at being friends "in a different reality"), but Byrne's efforts pay off in this creation of a new and starkly original take on the world's greatest partnership. Superman is, if it can be believed, more earnest than ever, and Batman is shady and suspicious without being the distrustful caricature that appeared in most post-No Man's Land tales. The art, too, is elegant, bespeaking just how influential Byrne's Superman reboot was to the pre-Flashpoint DC Universe. Heads up, Warner: if there's to be a Superman/Batman film after Man of Steel, "One Night in Gotham City" is the perfect place to start.

"A Better World" (Batman & Superman: World's Finest #7, October 1999): This story, written by Karl Kesel and illustrated by Peter Doherty, was part of a maxiseries (I still remember the in-house ads from monthlies at the time) which placed the post-Crisis World's Finest at important moments in DC continuity; here we check in just after Superman returns from Exile and while Batman mourns the death of Jason Todd. It's a time of quiet and reflective transition for both heroes, with each pondering the nature of their "no killing" rule, and Kesel nails the tense dynamic between two men who are too strong to admit how wounded they are but who know they can rely on each other for support without asking. The art by Doherty is a little weird; Bruce and Clark's faces look too similar out of costume, and a panel with The Joker looks like a bizarre comical anticipation of Lee Bermejo's Joker. But Kesel's script is the draw, finding compelling dialogue between the two with nary a super-crisis in sight. After reading this story, I'm sorry to see it's so hard to find; hopefully it's in the reprint rotation over at DC, especially after the Dave Gibbons miniseries of the same name was recently reprinted.

"When Clark Met Bruce" (Superman/Batman Secret Files 2003): It'd be blasphemy not to include anything from Jeph Loeb's run, and this one-off two-pager introduces Loeb's narration style over a story about how young Clark Kent almost met young Bruce Wayne. It's a storyline comics have always flirted with -- Jor-El met Thomas Wayne in a later issue of Superman/Batman, while Clark met Bruce after winning some kind of 1920s contest in Generations -- but this story, illustrated by Tim Sale in top Superman for All Seasons mode, demonstrates just how far apart these two men began life; it's sold by some great coloring by Mark Chiarello. While it might be a bit of a surprise pick, considering how important much of Loeb's Superman/Batman work was to continuity, it's a small treat which puts a different spin on the World's Finest.

"Stop Me If You've Heard This One . . ." (Superman/Batman Annual #1, December 2006): The book closes with a retelling of "The Mightiest Team," recasting Superman and Batman's first meeting aboard that cruise ship as a high-stakes multiversal assassination scheme, with the Crime Syndicate, Deathstroke, and . . . Deadpool? Joe Kelly and a jam session of artists spend so much time winking at continuity and company crossovers that it's difficult not to have a little bit of fun, and having just read the story on which this is riffing the reader gets even more out of the experience. While the story is almost assuredly out of continuity, the tone Kelly sets never lets that be troubling; in fact, the revelation of just how this story "happened" is a real crowd-pleaser. In short, it's a fun way to end the book and show us just how far these two have come since their "first meeting."

If there's one thing true about comics fans, it's that we can always find something to complain about. With that in mind, there are a few stories that might have been included here -- or which could comprise a second volume. Segments from The Dark Knight Returns or Kingdom Come could prove interesting in relation to Byrne's "One Night in Gotham City." I'm partial to the team-up from The Batman Adventures #25, in which the "Super Friends" take down Maxie Zeus and ginger clone Lex Luthor, and the precedent set by the Shazam! collection makes it not unfeasible. And even though I knocked the Trinity in my introduction, there's probably room for a Trinity story in here showing how Wonder Woman's presence affects the dynamic between the two.

But if my biggest complaint about the volume is that there's more good stuff out there, the editors have done a rather fine job, particularly because it makes me want to read more rather than just complain about what I don't have; indeed, I'll be first on the pre-order list if DC decides to release a second volume. Unlike many of the collections in this series, Superman/Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told benefits from a strong historical focus and hits all the major iconic moments. It's a great read for fans old and new, especially in light of the success of that other superhero team-up from last summer.

Next time around, justice takes a holiday as the Clown Prince of Crime steals the stage in The Joker: The Greatest Stories Ever Told. Stay tuned!

More Greatest Stories reviews: Superman Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Batman Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Justice League, Shazam, and Batgirl.

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Review: Superman/Batman: Worship trade paperback (DC Comics)

I have been wary of these Superman/Batman books of late. With no ties intentionally to continuity and a mission just to "tell stories," the individual issues have tended to be hit or miss -- there's some gems among Mike Johnson and Michael Green's Superman/Batman: Night and Day, but Joe Kelly's Big Noise overall disappointed. Continuity is not the be-all and end-all, of course, but at times this title seems aimless.

Superman/Batman: Worship gave me special pause not only because it seemed to be one of these disconnected stories (this turns out not to be the case), but also because former DC Comics president Paul Levitz's writing has also been hit or miss for me. His first outing on the new (pre-DC Relaunch) Legion of Super-Heroes series, The Choice, was great stuff, but his Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes was not, and I recall calling his JSA: Ghost Stories "stodgy."

Worship, however, is a delight. With art by Jerry Ordway, the "Worship" story feels like its cut from the 1990s Superman "Triangle Titles" heyday, while at the same time adhering to the unspoken rules of the Superman/Batman title. Add a few contemporary twists at the end, and Worship emerges as something entirely satisfying -- a little bit classic, a little bit new.

[Contains spoilers]

In the main, the "Worship" storyline contains just four characters -- Superman, Batman, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor. Levitz tells the story from their four perspectives, and Worship is at its best in the second and third chapters of that storyline, when Levitz parallels the thoughts not just of the heroes, as Jeph Loeb and others have done before him, but of all four characters. This little change gives the story unexpected depth -- we see not just how Superman and Batman try to solve their case, but also how Lois works alongside them, and how Lex moves to foil them. There are interesting ideas here that may not hold up to a lot of scrutiny. but serve as wonderful tidbits for consideration -- that Lex ramps up crime around Crime Alley in Gotham at times when he wants Batman distracted because studies show Lex that Batman has a focus on that area; and that even as Batman can't tell who's behind it, he's so attuned to crime in Gotham that he can tell there's a force working behind the crimes.

"Worship" is in part a re-telling of a series of Silver Age stories in which Lex Luthor becomes the "Superman" of a planet called Lexor, on which Superman is considered a villain. Levitz presents the concept of "worship" mostly in a negative context here; Superman considers early on that mankind creates their own (often erroneous) religious explanations for cosmic events. We see this both in the cult that worships Superman to the point of trying to kill Lois (egged on by Lex), and the aliens of Lexor who misunderstand Superman's intentions and worship Lex.

In an unusual storytelling choice, Levitz does not actually tie the two plot threads together, but rather ends the third issue with Batman and Superman's dual confrontations with Lex. The stories' connections are thematic rather than explicit and I appreciate Levitz letting the readers think for themselves. Further, the slightly unfinished nature of the entire tale again evokes the "Triangle Titles" era; we could just as soon imagine Lexor would show up again a few issues down the road (maybe Maxima would land there, or Draaga would try to take it over) as that Levitz would revisit it again in the final part of "Worship."

That last chapter is Superman/Batman #75, and rightfully so it's an anniversary-type time-travel tale that involves the future Legion of Super-Heroes and the past Superboy. For time travel in Superman/Batman, I might have liked to see some usage of "young Batman," too, but having Batman make a rare appearance beside the Legion is fun nonetheless. Only the hardest heart, too, could fail to be moved by Batman nursing a Kryptonite-infused Superman back to health in the Bat-cave while the Legion ventures into the past; great choice by Levitz to keep Batman on screen here, rather than replacing him with Alfred. A throw-away line or two, if you're into this kind of thing, keeps the timeline of the Superman/Batman story nebulous, but puts the Legion appearance just before Levitz's Legion: The Choice.

Long-time DC Comics artist Jerry Ordway is in top form in Worship. Throughout the "Worship" story (mainly in the first three chapters), it seems we have Ordway's colored pencils without inks, giving the sequences a painted quality; in the fourth chapter, Ordway's black lines are darker, and images like the close-up of Brainiac 5's face are rich with detail that show Ordway still at his best.

Ordway drew the original comics adaption of Tim Burton's 1989 Batman movie, and his depiction of the cowl still looks like Michael Keaton's; the artist follows this with a cape attachment, however, that looks more like Adam West's. It's no matter; if Ordway's imagining of Superman and Batman is a little dated, then it's dated in a way that depicts the characters from some of their best stories, like Ordway's "Dark Knight Over Metropolis.". Though almost twenty years old, those "Triangle Title" stories still hold up, and I'd be happy to see Ordway join his old teammate Dan Jurgens as part of the DC New 52 Superman relaunch any time.

Worship starts off with a Batman Beyond tale by Levitz; sequentially, I think this came out just before the new Adam Beechen series. This issue, Superman/Batman Annual #4, proceeds a little slower, with Levitz telling the reader a bit too much and offering a couple of unnecessary scenes to forward the action (as if an influx of criminals from Metropolis wouldn't signal the new Batman to visit that city without first re-confirming said influx on a computer for a page). You'd have to be hard-hearted again, however, not to be touched by the two final panels before the splash page, and I did appreciate DC including a preview of Beechen's Batman Beyond at the end of this book, treated with some Superman/Batman trade dress. If you like Batman Beyond, this is hardly a meal, but it is a passable appetizer, especially when "Worship" satisfies otherwise.

[Contains original covers, Batman Beyond miniseries preview]

Superman/Batman: Sorcerer Kings, I have a hunch, may be the final Superman/Batman collection that DC publishes, what with the DC Relaunch and all. That being the case,
Superman/Batman: Worship is a lovely penultimate collection, forward- and backward-looking, evocative of great team-ups past and yet firmly rooted in this title and the present era. This one surprised me and I give high marks to all involved.

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Review: Superman/Batman: Big Noise trade paperback (DC Comics)

One of the original tenets of the Collected Editions site, sometimes lost in the shuffle, was to review trade paperbacks like a bookstore customer, as if they were books and not the byproduct of previously-released monthly issues. The goal was to escape some of the monthly ups and downs of the titles -- if, for instance, delays struck the monthly issues of a book such that the issues came out two years apart, our focus would still be on "how does it read?" when finally collected. It was with a bit of this in mind that, rooting around for something light to read the other day, I picked up Superman/Batman: Big Noise.

DC Comics billed the monthly issues of this book, as you may know (and here I ruin the "book on its own" illusion already) as an "Our Worlds at War" tie-in, offering a sort of untold story of Superman and Batman during the aftermath of that 2001 crossover. The story, however, by one of the original "Our Worlds at War" writers Joe Casey, has little integral connection to the crossover. Fans were vocal in their upset over what appeared to be some gross marketing by DC -- suggesting Big Noise would tie in to "Our Worlds at War" and offering the barest of connection to make that true, but ultimately not delivering what the readers put down their money for.

What's interesting is that the collection of Big Noise -- along with being the first paperback-only collection of Superman/Batman -- doesn't mention "Our Worlds at War" anywhere in the trade dress. It suggests perhaps that DC learned their lesson with the monthly issues, and so decided first of all not to promise an "Our Worlds at War" tie if they couldn't deliver, and second to present the book at the paperback price in hopes that would bring in customers otherwise burned by the negative publicity.

It was lack of mention of "Our Worlds at War" that caught my interest. Here was this Superman/Batman story -- one that, as it turns out, is really just a non-continuity "general" Superman/Batman story -- that had been marketed as an "Our Worlds at War" aftermath and as such drew in readers with all sorts of expectations, now presented on its own just as a Superman/Batman story, no expectations needed. The question becomes, if you go into Big Noise blind, in the way that Collected Editions reviews are somewhat intended, is it a good story?

The answer is, it isn't terrible.

Big Noise is by no means of the caliber of Superman/Batman: The Search for Kryptonite, writers Mike Johnson and Michael Green's masterpiece that's as good as the original Jeph Loeb Superman/Batman stories. But, it is on par with Finest Worlds, Night & Day, and Torment, other standalone Superman/Batman stories that a reader might just pick up "off the cuff" from the shelves.

Among Big Noise's overarching premises is that Superman must confront the fallout from Krypton's warlike past in the form of a time-lost alien warrior. This is emotionally difficult for the Man of Steel given his own general pacifism, and -- Casey has Superman admit -- that Superman has somewhat idealized the history of the Krypton that he never really knew. Big Noise is a considerably more Superman-centered than Batman-centered volume, but Casey does well in noting the irony that Superman mourns emotionally the dead civilization he never really knew, while Batman remains stoic in the shadow of the death of his own parents.

Despite that, in part Big Noise reads as well as your average Superman/Batman story precisely because Casey does not try to force the parallel narration or meta-examination of the characters that other writers do. Instead Big Noise just a solid story of DC's Big Two teaming up to solve a cosmic mystery, and I appreciated it for that. Ardian Syaf draws a sharp, realistic Superman and Batman in the first chapters, helping Casey's mystery get started, though the story peters out toward the end; a handful of fill-in artists pencil an elongated fight scene as Casey's dialogue begins to fail ("Bring it," a fiery villain emotes; "Oh, I am," Superman snaps back).

The book doesn't try to do too much -- and I can just as easily see why this is a detraction, not an asset -- but rather gives Superman and Batman a challenge and lets them figure it out, and uses established DC Universe elements for the big reveal. Big Noise, to an extent, could be a team-up episode of the Superman or Batman animated series, perhaps not surprisingly given Casey's Ben 10 and Generation Rex animation credits.

Yet, for a reader picking up Big Noise on its own, the fact that DC doesn't overtly mention "Our Worlds at War" here might be both a blessing and a curse. The Big Noise story certainly presents that some major cosmic war has just taken place on Earth; in a Comic Book Resources story, Casey suggests the reader could take this as any generic alien attack on Earth, from "Our Worlds at War" to the Blackest Night crossover, but my guess is that an uninformed reader will just feel like they missed something.

For the informed reader, even if Big Noise never directly states "we just fought Brainiac and Darkseid," there's little touches I liked, such as the 2000s "tesseract" Fortress of Solitude, and Superman's slang-talking Kryptonian robot Kelex. Casey also gets in a nod to the later events of Superman: New Krypton, and notes Big Noise as an adventure recorded in Batman's "black casebook" that we see in Batman RIP.

In the end, if you were going to pick up Superman/Batman: Big Noise or Blackest Night, pick up Blackest Night. If you were going to get Big Noise or the equally-defamed Justice League: Cry for Justice, get Cry for Justice -- the latter book has more heft, and ties more strongly for better or worse to what's going on in the present DC Universe. If, however, you just want a Superman/Batman story, what I found is that Big Noise is no worse than other standalone Superman/Batman volumes, despite the controversy that surrounded it

[Contains full covers. Printed on glossy paper]

When talking about Joe Casey I always like to mention his Adventures of Superman run from just after "Our Worlds at War" until Casey left the title. As part of the aftermath of "Our Worlds at War" (implicitly if not actually stated), Casey wrote a string of stories where Superman never resorted to violence to defeat his enemies.

The run is impressive not for that single fact alone -- though it makes a considerable amount of sense; if anyone should be slow to violence, it's Superman; and frankly what the world probably needs is more pacifist superheroes -- but also for the stories that resulted from it, full of weird worlds and super-science-fiction. By loosing himself from the constraints of superhero-punches-supervillain, Casey opened a world of Superman storytelling that felt fresh and exciting, and one doesn't miss the physical violence. One day, I'd like to see DC collect these stories and solicit them as what they are; DC touting a collection of issues where Superman saves the day without hitting anyone would be a significant thing indeed.

Thanks for reading!

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Review: Superman/Batman: Night and Day hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

Probably I won't be following this title as closely after Superman/Batman: Night and Day. The next two trades not only switch from the much-loved hardcover-with-no-jacket format to paperback, but both are distinctly out of continuity, a far cry from when Superman/Batman set the issues of the day with Public Enemies and Supergirl. In retrospect, I might not even have been so quick to pick up Night and Day except for the loose Blackest Night crossover included here, and indeed it's so loose that I don't imagine it would attract more than the most ardent continuity wonk.

Be that as it may, Night and Day contains a handful of one- and two-issue stories that are pretty good, especially those written by the book's latest semi-regular writing team Michael Green and Mike Johnson. Whether by coincidence or by design, most of the stories take place in dreams, illusions, or false realities -- that is, there's a way in which Night and Day focuses on the mental partnership between Superman and Batman, rather than the physical villain-hitting partnership (though there's that in this book, too). "Night and day" could to an extent not so much refer to the differences between the two heroes here so much as the barrier between what's real and unreal in these collected adventures.

[Contains spoilers]

The first and likely the best story in this volume is Green and Johnson's two-part "Gothamopolis." Superman and Batman find themselves in a world where the Justice League and the New Teen Titans are combined not unlike the combined DC/Marvel universes in the Amalgam Age of Comics. This is creative and different, and demonstrates the writers good knowledge of the characters; the implications of Batman (Bruce Wayne, I should say) meeting an amalgam Dick Grayson and Hal Jordan -- one whom he trusts very much, and one whom he has trouble trusting -- is especially brilliant.

Not only does the story riff on the well-known Teen Titans: The Judas Contract story, but it also includes an appearance by an especially classic Justice League villain. I appreciated that Johnson and Green went back to the well rather than creating a new and potentially forgettable foe. As an added bonus, the art for "Gothamopolis" is by DC Comics's rising star Francis Manapul; given all of that, you can see why I still give Night and Day a nod -- even though the story takes place in an indeterminate time before Final Crisis and will more than likely never be referenced again.

The biggest surprises in the book, however, come in Green and Johnson's titular story "Night and Day" (issue #63) both their final issue of Superman/Batman and one that serves to wrap up a couple dangling plotlines from their run. The story opens in a dystopian world where Batman is one of the few able to fight Gorilla Grodd's all-consuming mind-control -- and, the writers reveal, it was Grodd way back in issue #49 that caused Lana Lang to make Earth uninhabitable for Superman, and has finally succeeded.

"Night and Day" doesn't cover much new ground as far as Superman/Batman team-ups go (the returning Superman, again, inspires the downtrodden as a symbol of hope), but the Grodd revelation is a welcome one. Green and Johnson's The Search for Kryptonite was a near perfect Superman/Batman story, and the only out-of-place detail was Lana's errant behavior, which was potentially to be explored in the Superman titles before plans changed; that this is finally explained is a nice gift for continuing readers.

Even more interesting, however, is that the reader finds at the end of "Night and Day" that the entire Grodd scenario is just a computer simulation designed by Batman for training purposes. Given "Night and Day"'s ties to Search for Kryptonite, and the fact that it's Green and Johnson's last issue, is this to suggest all of Green and Johnson's Superman/Batman run was just a simulation? (Only Batman, I'd say, would have a computer simulation of a "Gothamopolis" adventure that itself takes place in a dream world.) Superman/Batman has been so little reflected in the ongoing DC Universe that it hardly matters, but it's an unique touch -- first they explain the inconsistencies, then they suggest it was all imaginary anyway -- and an interesting way to go out.

Night and Day closes with a two-part Blackest Night tie-in that's also a follow-up to Scott Kolins's Solomon Grundy miniseries. I enjoy Kolins's art and I liked the madcap monster madness of Grundy, but I wouldn't venture this story, "Night of the Cure," has much more to offer. Kolins does well with Bizarro and Man-Bat standing in for Superman and Batman, but he doesn't go as far as to team them in any way like Superman and Batman, nor does he really continue the story of Grundy who, as a Black Lantern, isn't quite the same person as in the miniseries. The S.H.A.D.E.'s Frankenstein also appears, and personally I could read Frankenstein fighting monsters all day, but there's not much else to recommend this either as a Grundy or Blackest Night story; I didn't feel it added to either one.

Rounding out the book are a one-shot Robin/Supergirl team-up by Green and Johnson with art by Blue Beetle's Rafael Albuquerque, and a Halloween story by Peter Johnson (of the Supernatural TV series) and Matt Cherniss, including art by Brian Stelfreeze and Kelley Jones. The first is the more chilling of the two scary stories, as Robin and Supergirl's supposed first team-up exposes them to horror after horror in Arkham Asylum; the second is another more mundane "dream" story, but Jones's few pages with the Joker are especially affecting.

[Contains full covers. Printed on glossy paper.]

As I mentioned, with Superman/Batman switching creative teams entirely over the next two volumes, I may not purchase them so quickly. Superman/Batman is becoming something like Batman Confidential in telling one-off stories that spotlight more the writer and artist that the story itself; that's OK sometimes, but it's not the kind of book I'd pick up regularly. Michael Green and Mike Johnson did a bang-up job on Superman/Batman; I'll repeat that their Search for Kryptonite was near perfection, and maybe the real draw of Night and Day is just to support these writers' finish. With their departure, however, there's part of me that thinks it might just be time for DC to wrap Superman/Batman up, rather than keep it going into what I see as ultimately irrelevance.

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Review: Superman/Batman: Finest Worlds hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

Superman/Batman: Finest Worlds, Michael Green and Mike Johnson's second volume of the series, hearkens strongly back to the classic World's Finest series. In the spirit of the kinds of adventures where Superman and Batman competed for the heart of an alien princess or Bruce Wayne joined Clark Kent at the Daily Planet, Finest Worlds offers three tales, almost Elseworld tales, that mix and mingle the elements of Superman and Batman. But while the wackiness found within well distinguishes this volume, it does unfortunately hurt the overall relevance of the stories.

The main story, "Superbat," finds Superman's powers accidentally, and magically, tranferred to Batman. What follows is by and large exactly what you'd expect: Clark Kent tries to adapt to a normal life while Batman uses his new powers first to clean up Gotham, and later to try in a fit of stark raving madness to eradicate all crime everywhere, until Superman and the JLA must step in to stop him. The writers get no points for bringing any new insights to the characters of Superman and Batman, but yet the story is filled with lots of little moments: Superman teaching Batman to use heat vision, Supergirl's surprisingly moving grief when Superman is injured, Super-Batman fighting both Bane and the Justice League. The story benefits overwhelmingly from art by Identity Crisis's Rags Morales, giving it the semblance of a weight it otherwise wouldn't deserve.

The difficulty with "Superbat" -- and also the funny, charming "Lil' Leaguers" story that sees Superman and Batman teamed with cartoon dopplegangers -- is that they're magic-based stories where all the toys go back in the toybox at the conclusion. Possibly this was editorially-mandated (and possibly, I've heard, the reigns will be looser on Superman/Batman post-Blackest Night), but the writers' previous volume, The Search for Kryptonite, had no such problems. Kryptonite was surprising and interesting and deeply rooted in the current events of the DC Universe; Finest Worlds is a satisfactory volume of Superman/Batman, but it lacks the "oompf" of the previous book.

That said, I must praise the writers for "The Fathers" (which marked the fiftieth issue of Superman/Batman). Surely Green and Johnson aren't the first to posit a meeting between Thomas Wayne and Jor-El, but I loved the mid-issue tease that it all might be a dream -- and finally the revelation that the meeting in fact took place. I hold no illusions that any other writer will ever reference the event ever again, but I credit the writers for "going for it" and not taking the easy out found in the book's other two stories.

The truth is, despite that Finest Worlds is another step away from the direction Superman/Batman needs to go if this title is going to last (read: relevancy), the book is plain, old-fashioned fun. The outlandish campiness of the parallel Superman/Batman narrations (begun by Jepf Loeb and continued here) virtually ensure these stories can't be taken seriously, so there's no choice but to sit back and let them wash over you. Ultimately I decided to view these stories like episodes of the Superman or Batman cartoons, and only then did I feel I really "got" their intended tone.

[Contains full and alternate covers]

Superman/Batman: Finest Worlds is a fair collection for completists, but those waiting for Superman/Batman to really "find its feet" might want to wait for the next team to take over this book (more details recently announced.)

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Review: Superman/Batman: The Search for Kryptonite collected hardcover (DC Comics)

Just when I'd about given up, Michael Green and Michael Johnson return Superman/Batman to greatness with Superman/Batman: The Search for Kryptonite.

I remember how excited I was when Superman/Batman premiered with Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness in 2003; anyone who's followed the book since then knows its gone steeply downhill. Mark Verheiden's Enemies Among Us was a fun a-continuity celebration of Silver Age comics, but after Alan Burnett's Torment--which had equally shaky continuity and no real relevance, without the tribute factor of Enemies--I began to think Superman/Batman might be relegated to the filler stories bin with Superman Confidential. But Superman/Batman: The Search for Kryptonite changes all that.

Green and Johnson write a Superman/Batman tour de force, one that stretches from Arkham Asylum to the Fortress of Solitude, and from deep under the ocean to Dinosaur Island. He starts with a simple enough premise--Superman wants to get rid of all the kryptonite on Earth--but quickly, quickly complicates it. Batman's on board to help, but the two heroes find that nearly no one--from other heroes to the US government to some of Superman's closest friends--thinks it's a good idea. What follows is a riveting morally ambiguous story where everyone has a point and no one's quite right, and Green even manages to meaningfully tie the story to events in the Superman titles and Final Crisis.

What Green and Johnson accomplish here is a cogent deconstruction of the concept of kryptonite. It's an item much lampooned--consider, the most powerful man in the world, and he can be taken out by a little rock that near everyone has a piece of--and yet the writers offers a compelling reason why kryptonite is necessary, even essential, to Superman and the Superman legend. The writers also gets points for going over and above in his exploration of kryptonite--its prevalence; its many colors; how Smallville and other media use kryptonite; how kryptonite stands as a metaphor both for Superman's birth--Krypton--and his death; and more. Whether kryptonite will really be less prevalent after this story remains to be seen, but this could very well be the definitive Superman/kryptonite story.

I don't say this often, but I imagine The Search for Kryptonite is a story that might've read almost as well in single issues as it does in a collection. The secret is that Green and Johnson make almost every issue feel self-contained even under the rubric of Superman and Batman's kryptonite hunt; while these days sometimes writers make one-shot issues feel artificially wrapped, I felt like I was getting a full story in every chapter of this book. Consider the third chapter, for instance, in which Green and Johnson write a Batman/Zatanna team-up so lovingly you'd think you were reading Paul Dini's Detective Comics, and still it all comes together as a Superman/Batman story. There's great, great stuff in here.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Shane Davis's art in this volume. Davis offers clear, movie blockbuster-style art here that is a departure from some of the more cartoon-y styles we've seen in Superman/Batman, but works wonders nonetheless. His Rags Morales (or is that Brad Meltzer)-esque closeups on speak volumes, and his take on Doomsday late in the book is especially powerful. I've never really been one to buy comic book art, but there's a splash page of Superman and Batman taking no guff in a diner that I'd be proud to have on my wall. It doesn't surprise me a bit that we may see Davis again in some of DC Comics's high-profile Green Lantern crossovers coming soon.

[Contains full covers]

Truly, I believed Superman/Batman was done for, and I've never been so happy to be wrong. More reviews on the way; check back here soon!

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Review: Superman/Batman: Torment collected hardcover (DC Comics)

[Contains spoilers for Superman/Batman: Torment]

It's hard to say whether Superman/Batman: Torment presents the right direction for the Superman/Batman title. That is, Torment tells a good (not great) Superman/Batman story, but flies in the face of continuity to do it. This is something we also saw in the previous volume, Superman/Batman: Enemies Among Us, though Torment is even more loosely connected, and I'm not sure this trend will necessarily work for the title.

Consider Torment versus the first, and possibly best, Superman/Batman story, Public Enemies. Public Enemies took place distinctly shortly after Batman: Hush, and dealt with Superman and Batman's overthrow of President Luthor -- a monumental event in DC Comics history that began the universe's move toward Infinite Crisis. Now consider Torment, which takes place in a tricky period after Luthor's fall but before Infinite Crisis*, and whose relevance is quite essentially nil. There's a very minor Final Crisis tie at the end, but overall this book affects nothing, and is even set in the past where it can't affect anything. Both stories are like summer blockbusters, and in that way perhaps worthy of the Superman/Batman title; but whereas Superman/Batman (mainly under Jeph Loeb) used to be built on summer blockbuster events, Torment is all the fanfare without the relevance.

Which is not to say that Torment is a bad story. Most of the appeal of the tale came for me in Burnett's mixing of DC's two main fear-based bad guys, the Scarecrow and Desaad; in that way, Torment covers some new ground. Torment also offers some techno-punk-eseque scenes of Batman amongst the New Gods, and it's always exciting to see the "normal" Batman in these "paranormal" situations (though unfortunately, Torment, for a Superman/Batman tale, becomes largely Batman's story when Superman is lost to mind-control early on). This was also my first introduction to the New God Bekka, married apparently to Orion, and I found her difficult relationship with Batman quite interesting; there's a great moment when the two must stand in an awkward embrace, hidden from the Parademons that surround them on all sides.

I did struggle to understand what Burnett was trying to say about Superman and Batman here -- not that every comic has to have a "message," but oftentimes Jeph Loeb's Superman/Batman stories explored in some underlying way either the heroes themselves, or questions of justice or heroism. The "torment" in the title seems to apply most directly to the way in which Superman is plagued by Scarecrow-induced fears at the beginning of the story (though Scarecrow, strangely, also falls away about halfway through the tale). "Torment" can also apply, a bit more metaphorically, to the way Batman suffers for his desire for Bekka, and indeed his consideration of the way he's denied himself love throughout his life.

Though nicely moving, I didn't think these insights into Batman were especially new, and indeed many of them are no longer true of the more emotional post-Infinite Crisis Batman. There's a good moment in the end where Superman, newly rescued, celebrates being alive while in contrast Batman, cut off from Bekka, rues the day -- but this served in a way only to reinforce the separate directions in which Burnett seemed to be pulling the story.

Superman/Batman: Torment isn't a bad story, and artist Dustin Nguyen creates a visual feast the whole way through. But Superman/Batman used to be a super-relevant must-read -- and if the trend shown here continues, I'll soon be questioning whether to even pick it up right away. I hope that's not the case.

[Contains full covers, Dustin Nguyen sketchbook section]

Up next: More Superman with Superman: The Third Kryptonian!

* For you continuity wonks out there, the problem is the appearance of Lex Luthor in this trade. Pete Ross is president here, placing the story after Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, where Lex Luthor went missing before Infinite Crisis -- except Lex appears here, seemingly still in charge of Lexcorp (called Lex-Com in the story). One might suggest that Lex was simply operating under the heroes' radar during this time, except that Batman actually questions Lex in the story! We might perhaps resolve that maybe Batman knew where Lex was during this time, but Superman didn't, but there's any number of stories to contradict this. In all likelihood, Burnett and his editor just didn't concern themselves with where this story fit into continuity. I think the continuity lapse takes away from the story, but others might disagree.

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