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The Catch-Up starts anew, as the end of December saw my comic collection expand by about 100 more comics. I’ll start with the Dark Knight this time around since A) there are only 5 issues and B) I’ve actually reviewed the most issues of these titles due to the Ra’s Al Ghul storyline. Are those reasons valid? Probably not but that’s what I have and I’m sticking to it. I will try something a bit different. Each good title gets 1 point, the duds get 0, so we’ll see how each Catch-Up averages out.
Oh yeah, Spoilers Ahead.
Catching Up – Dark Knight:
-Batman #’s 669-670- #669 finished the Club of Heroes storyline and I guess it was so much time between issues I’ve read that I forgot most of it. That’s why I like the Marvel recaps at the front of the issue. So Batman and these other losers must find who is killing them. Batman finally solves it, telling us Wingman did it. I don’t know who Wingman is so I wasn’t terribly shocked one way or another. John Mayhew was involved as well. Batman rescues the guys from the island as it explodes. You know, it was well-written but I didn’t care one way or another for any of the characters. #670 was an issue I could get into. I read the entire Ra’s Al Ghul storyline but I must’ve missed the prologue. The prologue really sets things up, puts the pieces on the board and gets it ready for the 7 part series. It actually cleared up a lot and was a great prologue. I don’t want to hold my bad memory against #669 and it was well-written so Batman goes 2/2 this time around.
-Batman/Lobo: Deadly Serious #2- Well, Lobo and Batman are following some sort of alien that only puts itself into women. They land on Earth and some mysterious government woman comes by and captures the woman. The alien eventually moves on into, get this, Lobo, because he has high levels of estrogen. I shit you not. So Batman and this woman track down Lobo before he heads to Vegas where the women are plentiful and the alien will spread. So they catch him, the woman gets the alien and kills herself, ending the alien threat. Turns out that no one knows who she is. This was a bit creepy, especially not knowing who the woman was, and Sam Kieth certainly has his own inimitable style. It’s a bit pricey for $6 but the story was a million times better than Batman: Secrets so I can’t really go against it. Let’s call this a 1/1.
-Detective Comics #’s 836-837- #836 finishes the awesome Scarecrow storyline. Scarecrow has been running a horror operation that is scaring the crap out of Gotham, basically shutting it down. He even has multiple scarecrows going out murdering people! Batman and Robin go to the only places the extra straw could be, and they find Crane. Robin battles him first until Batman shows up and beats the crap out of him. Crane is taken away but he is so happy he didn’t need the fear gas. This 2-parter brought back Scarecrow as an awesome, scary villain. #837 continues the awesomeness as Dini pens a tale where Bruce Wayne sends Riddler on a quest to find a missing worker who takes some missing super serum. Riddler tracks her down to the Athenian home and meets with Harley Quinn. Harleen and Riddler take this woman out but not before Athena grabs some of the serum to give to Desaad. This was a really good tie-in, one I must’ve missed. 2/2 for Detective Comics this time around.
-The Bottom Line- I can’t really hate on Bats this edition. There were only 5 issues, because I reviewed the past 2 Batman and Detective Comics in TPL so it was a quick read. Still, Batman batted 1,000 and you can’t take that away. The best issue out of the five would have to be Detective Comics #836, an awesome tale of the Scarecrow and his rise to prominence in the DC Universe.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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