Comic Review: Doomsday Clock

Published: November 22nd, 2017 – December 18th, 2019
Written by: Geoff Johns
Art by: Gary Frank, Brad Anderson
Based on: Watchmen by Alan Moore

DC Comics, 456 Pages

Review:

Well, Doomsday Clock has finally ended! This twelve issue series wasn’t supposed to stretch out for over two years but it did. I’m glad that I didn’t start reading it until it was over, as I would’ve forgotten all the details due to the delays and the dozens of other comics I would’ve read between each issue.

Now that it’s all out, I finally read it: binging through it in two days.

I guess my first thoughts on it are that it is underwhelming and that it doesn’t justify its need to exist.

I had always been against new Watchmen stories without the involvement of Alan Moore. My mind changed, however, when I read some of the Before Watchmen stories from a couple years ago.

They made me see Watchmen the same way I see other comic book properties and that’s as a sort of modern mythology that is told and retold by countless others, each bringing something new and unique to the table. Superman and Batman have had countless writers and many of them have evolved and grown the character in great ways beyond their original concept. Granted, some writers have gravely failed too.

Generally, I like Geoff Johns’ work, so I wan’t against the idea of him tackling the Watchmen property.

Ultimately, though, this took too long to come out, especially with how sloppily put together it feels.

This is one of those stories where it feels like a lot happened but also like nothing happened.

It tries to merge the Watchmen universe with the DC universe but it doesn’t work. But I’m also over the crossover trope of using inter-dimensional portals or a superbeing that basically acts as a super-dimensional portal. That being said, I don’t know how else to bring these universes together but that also makes me ask why they had to try it in the first place?

Watchmen is very much its own thing, as is DC. Hell, Marvel is also its own thing in that same regard and whenever they tried to crossover Marvel and DC, which happened multiple times, it always felt forced, clunky and weird.

The only real highlight of this was seeing how certain characters from different universes would interact with one another but honestly, none of it was as cool as I felt it should have been and it all felt pretty pointless and made me realize how bad the Rebirth era of DC Comics has been – well, for the most part, as I liked some titles in the last few years.

In the end, this doesn’t feel any different than one of any of the dozen indie publisher crossovers that pit Green Lanterns against Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Star Trek crews or the apes from Planet of the Apes. While those crazy crossovers are neat to a point, they’ve been done to death in recent years. And despite this being better written and having better art than the other franchise mashups, it feels like DC Comics were really late to the party and didn’t even realize that it was over.

Rating: 6/10
Pairs well with: Watchmen and the Before Watchmen stuff, as well as just about everything under the DC Rebirth banner.

Comic Review: Detective Comics, Vol. 7: Batmen Eternal

Published: September 11th, 2018
Written by: James Tynion IV
Art by: Alvaro Martinez

DC Comics, 151 Pages

Review:

After the previous volume, I was really hyped for this one, as it was the last of Tynion’s lengthy and mostly solid run on Detective Comics.

While this started off with a bang, it fizzled out about a third of the way through and kind of went out with a whimper, focusing on a new plot thread that I didn’t find interesting, especially when the larger arc of Tynion’s complete run didn’t feel like it was properly resolved.

It’s not that this was a bad story, I just felt like I was left holding my dick in the cold wind on top of a mountain. I climbed all the way to the summit and there was nothing there to greet me. No party, no fanfare, just cold wind, thin air and no sense of real reward.

Honestly, there’s not much else to say, really.

I wanted certain plot threads closed and followed up on and everything just sort of splintered off into different directions with no clear path to follow.

Rating: 6/10
Pairs well with: other collections of James Tynion IV’s run on Detective Comics.

Comic Review: Detective Comics, Vol. 6: Fall of the Batmen

Published: June 26th, 2018
Written by: James Tynion IV
Art by: Eddy Barrows, Joe Bennett, Phil Briones, Miguel Mendonca, Jesus Merino

DC Comics, 163 Pages

Review:

Well, I don’t know how the volume after this one is but thus far, this is the peak of James Tynion’s Detective Comics run. This built off of all his stories before this one, tied them all together in a great way and delivered on a few major narrative promises established in earlier volumes.

In fact, this volume made the volumes before this one better. That’s a hard thing to do but Tynion proved to me, here, that he is a pretty worthy Batman writer.

As I’ve stated in just about every review of every volume in Tynion’s run, I don’t like large Bat-Family groups. But Tynion makes the most out of it here and this may be one of the best Bat-Family stories I’ve read in recent memory.

If you are a Clayface fan, which I am, this story is pretty heartbreaking. I don’t want to spoil anything but if you’ve read some of the stuff before this, things come to a head and it’s pretty emotional. And there’s a lot to be said about that, as comics rarely make me emotional these days.

The Victim Syndicate return and we discover that they’ve had a bigger, darker plan all along. While I didn’t like this villain group when they debuted, they really start to gel here.

As should be expected with a comic book title of this caliber, the art is superb and every panel of this book looks great.

In an effort not to spoil more than I may already have, I’ll shut up now. This was a damn solid story with real consequences that the team can’t just walk away from. It’s got me excited to read the followup, which is Tynion’s final volume.

Rating: 8.5/10
Pairs well with: other collections of James Tynion IV’s run on Detective Comics.

Comic Review: Detective Comics, Vol. 5: A Lonely Place of Living

Published: April 10th, 2018
Written by: James Tynion IV
Art by: Eddy Barrows, Alvaro Martinez

DC Comics, 113 Pages

Review:

The few volumes before this story weren’t all that great. However, they existed in order to lead up to the return of Tim Drake a.k.a. Red Robin. And now that Drake has figuratively risen from the dead, most of those other stories paid off in providing us with this solid tale.

As I’ve stated before, I’m not a fan of Batman working with big teams. But this team worked well in this volume and it kind of made Drake’s return much more impactful.

This also deals with a future version of Tim Drake that has become his timeline’s Batman. He has come back in time to kill Batwoman, as it is said that she is on the verge of doing something terrible that destroys the timeline that future Batman comes from.

While future Batman is subdued, the story serves as a warning for something involving Batwoman after this volume. And frankly, the way it was presented and laid out here, has me intrigued for what’s next in this series.

Again, James Tynion IV does a good job writing. Plus, the art by Eddy Barrows and Alvaro Martinez is superb. This looks like what a top tier major comic book should look like in 2019 unlike the big slew of Marvel titles that look like amateur Tumblr art.

Rating: 7.75/10
Pairs well with: other collections of James Tynion IV’s run on Detective Comics.

Comic Review: Detective Comics, Vol. 4: Deus Ex Machina

Published: December 26th, 2017
Written by: James Tynion IV, Christopher Sebela
Art by: Carmen Carnero, Raul Fernandez, Alvaro Martinez

DC Comics, 121 Pages

Review:

I mostly enjoy James Tynion’s writing. He does a pretty good job with this series, even if it isn’t wholly my cup of tea because I’m not a fan of large Bat-Family groups. I like Batman working solo or with one or two other close allies.

But I still like Tynion’s run on Detective Comics enough to keep reading it, so there’s that.

I think I am mostly drawn in to the Clayface stuff because I actually like seeing him trying to redeem himself and work on the right side of the law.

While Clayface isn’t the focal point here, though, we do get to dive deeper into Azrael’s world. Now he’s a character I have a love/hate relationship with. But in this series, so far, I mostly like him and this chapter wasn’t any different.

This also puts some focus on Zatanna, who I was happy to see pop up, even for one volume. More importantly, this gives us some good backstory to her and Batman’s relationship, going back to their teen years when Bruce was trying to train under her father.

Overall, this was a quick, energetic read that added some new things to the plot and also served to strengthen the bond between this team of characters.

Most importantly, this brought Stephanie Brown a.k.a. the Spoiler back while also dropping hints that Tim Drake a.k.a. Red Robin was possibly still alive.

In the end, I like where this volume went and it ended in a way that makes me want to see what happens next.

Rating: 6.5/10
Pairs well with: other collections of James Tynion IV’s run on Detective Comics.

Comic Review: Detective Comics, Vol. 3: League of Shadows

Published: October 10th, 2017
Written by: James Tynion IV
Art by: Fernando Blanco, Christian Duce, Marcio Takara

DC Comics, 165 Pages

Review:

This was a better volume in James Tynion’s Detective Comics run than the previous one. However, it’s really overcrowded with characters that mostly don’t connect for me.

I’m sorry but no matter how hard DC tries to push Orphan and Batwing, they’re just not that great. I don’t even really like Azrael that much, despite his popularity amongst many. And now that Spoiler is gone, I really only give a shit about Batman and Clayface.

In fact, Clayface is the most interesting character in these stories but he doesn’t get enough focus. I hope that changes, as I work my way towards the end of Tynion’s run.

This story is kind of a generic League of Shadows tale where Shiva is in charge and trying to screw with Gotham. Ra’s al Ghul does show up and his appearance severely effects Orphan but this all felt pretty forgettable.

I feel like this should’ve dealt more with the fallout after losing Spoiler and the death of Red Robin but it’s more focused on Oprhan’s mommy issues and Batwoman’s daddy issues.

All that being said, the art is f’n great!

Ultimately, I like Tynion but his Detective Comics run is pretty meh, if I’m being honest.

But I’m also a person that prefers Batman working alone or with just one or two people, preferably a Robin or Batgirl.

Rating: 6.25/10
Pairs well with: other collections of James Tynion IV’s run on Detective Comics.

Comic Review: Detective Comics, Vol. 2: The Victim Syndicate

Published: May 16th, 2017
Written by: James Tynion IV, Marguerite Bennett
Art by: Eddy Barrows, Alvaro Martinez, Ben Oliver

DC Comics, 142 Pages

Review:

I’ve liked James Tynion’s Batman work and I also liked the volume before this that set things up. However, I was not digging this story at all.

It’s not that it’s bad or that there weren’t some interesting ideas here but it didn’t resonate with me and this new villian team called The Victim Syndicate just seemed like generic, throwaway, one-off baddies.

Also, this story happens in the wake of Red Robin’s death and it shows how Spoiler, a former Batgirl, deals with this loss. Frankly, I’m wasn’t happy with how her character was handled, as it felt like a major and uncharacteristic regression when compared to who she was by the end of her Batgirl run.

And while I’m not a big fan of Batman having a large Bat-Family, I do like how he’s been working with Batwoman in this series, as well as how Clayface has evolved into a character that is trying to be heroic and looking for redemption.

This volume is a mixture of good and bad. I think the good slightly outweighs the bad and even if I didn’t like the story, it wasn’t boring or dull and I still got through it with hope that the next volume in Tynion’s Detective Comics run would be a better one.

Rating: 5.25/10
Pairs well with: other collections of James Tynion IV’s run on Detective Comics.

Comic Review: Red Hood and the Outlaws, Vol. 3: Bizarro Reborn

Published: April 24th, 2018
Written by: Scott Lobdell
Art by: Joe Bennett, Tyler Kirkham, Dextor Soy

DC Comics, 188 Pages

Review:

Out of all the volumes of the Red Hood comic that focus on the trio of Red Hood, Artemis and Bizarro, this is my favorite.

Man, this story was solid as hell and it was also a pretty emotional due to how we see Bizarro die, come back to life as a super-genius and then find out that he is still going to devolve into a dumb brute again.

For long-time fans of Jason Todd, this is especially emotional, as we see him finally find a sense of family that has eluded him for so long. He’s no longer alone, he’s with people he loves but you get the sense that it’s all going to be taken away from him in the near future. Re-reading these issues now, it certainly adds more context to his more recent stories.

Scott Lobdell has done such a fantastic job with this series and even though my pull list from my local comic shop keeps shrinking, this is a series I just don’t want to give up. It’s much better than the industry standard in modern times and it is awesome that there is top tier talent working on a book that mainly features B or C level characters.

This volume actually collects three short story arcs, which see cameos from a lot of cool characters like the modern Suicide Squad, Nightwing, the modern Bat-family, Lex Luthor and others.

I’m also now a big fan of Dexter Soy’s art style. I didn’t know much about him before this series but the issues he works on just look fantastic.

Red Hood and the Outlaws is one of the best DC Comics titles of the last few years. I wish more people would read it, even if the most recent stuff is a bit different due to Jason Todd being alone, once again. But I feel as if that’s leading to him reuniting with his Outlaw family.

With DC cancelling a bunch of titles in the very near future, I really hope that this isn’t one of them.

Rating: 8.75/10
Pairs well with: the other Red Hood and the Outlaws collections post-Rebirth. Also, the recent Bat-family titles: Nightwing, Batgirl and also the current runs on Suicide Squad and Deathstroke.

Comic Review: Detective Comics, Vol. 1: Rise of the Batmen

Published: February 7th, 2017
Written by: James Tynion IV
Art by: Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, Alvaro Martinez

DC Comics, 158 Pages

Review:

Since I have been liking a lot of James Tynion IV’s work, as of late, I figured that I would go back to the beginning of his Detective Comics run and revisit it, as I was a fan of the things he did and the team he built.

If you are a fan of solo Batman stories, this isn’t the series for you.

Batman convinces Batwoman to join him in forming a team to protect Gotham City. As a larger group they can be more effective than working independently.

This new team consists of Batman, Batwoman, Red Robin, the Spoiler, Orphan and Clayface.

I was always attracted to the idea of Clayface working with Batman. He feels like the odd man out and sticks out like a sore thumb within this group of similar styled heroes but his story and his attempt at redeeming himself was well handled by Tynion. And that really starts here.

We find out that Batman has been replicated by the military on a large scale. If you are familiar with the Arkham Knight video game, the story is kind of similar. The military is building an army of Batmen similar to what the Arkham Knight was in that video game.

Batman and his new team must stop this immense threat while also dealing with the oncoming storm of the League of Shadows.

There are some solid twists and reveals within the plot that have major consequences for everyone involved, especially Batwoman and Red Robin. This is a pretty pivotal story if you care about those two characters.

The art is solid, the writing is damn good and while this doesn’t completely feel like a self contained story, it is a nice intro to this good run on Detective Comics.

Rating: 7.75/10
Pairs well with: other collections of James Tynion IV’s run on Detective Comics.