DC KO #2 review

Posted on by martingray1

Earth’s superheroes are trying to kill each other in the hope a sole survivor will inherit enough power to stop Darkseid, the evil god who’s lately become even more godly, though his evil levels seem about the same.

Last issue, the opening round of a tournament helpfully organised by a talking Apokoliptian firepit sparker – they’re a thing, apparently – saw dozens of heroes, and a few baddies who barged in, go down. The survivors here begin Round 2, which involves a quest for magical weapons and mechanical gimmicks.

How the machine – Sunday name the Heart of Apokolips – got its mechanical hands on the likes of the Atom’s belt and Wonder Woman’s magic lasso (which she actually has with her), we’re not told. What the heck a ‘Speed Force Ring’ is, likewise.

Because, like the punchline of a gag on Airplane!, ‘that’s not important right now’. Heck, that mantra is the engine driving this comic. Weapons just appear from nowhere and the vast majority of heroes and villains have no thoughts but to go for them, flattening anyone who gets in their way.

Writer Scott Snyder – a clever fella who knows what he’s doing – might say, well yes, the characters have to be focused, the fate of the world, the Multiverse, the DC balance sheet is at stake. Why waste time worrying about anything but what’s in front of you? But that’s not how human, alien and supernatural beings work – try to suppress a thought, and there’s that elephant.

Not here though. This isn’t really a comic, it’s a video game on paper, and when I accept it’s just big, daft nonsense and that in two months’ time the status quo will be restored (this is DC, there are many status quos to choose from), I can enjoy the daftness of, say, a giant Joker crushing the likes of Giganta in a scene that’s worthy of Ambush Bug.

Or Starro taking over the Justice League (again).

Amid the sturm und drang there are flashes of the real heroes, with Supergirl and Zatanna trying to calm things down. And Superman who, rather than crush the opposition, has been taking down as many baddies as possible – he doesn’t want a villain to get the ultimate power.

Luthor doesn’t seem to want ultimate power, mind, he’s more interested in delivering the ultimate lecture.

What I want to know is, where’s the bearded Lex who’s been Superman’s arch frenemy of late? He was in DC KO #1, but here it seems to be classic Legion of Doom Luthor – ditto Giganta, Joker and the rest… have they been teleported in from their recent Justice League Unlimited appearance?

There’s a fun running thread with Guy Gardner ‘winning’ items and having them stolen away from him.

And like last time we get a flashback framing sequence cum interlude with Lois, Bruce, Diana and Clark playing a board game which gives us the occasional amusing moment.

Speaking of ‘Clark’, Superman is referred to by the narrator – I think it’s the infernal machine, given the hideous typeface – throughout by his civilian name rather than ‘Superman’. Everyone else is ‘Blue Beetle’, ‘Cheetah’ etc. Anyone know what that’s all about?

If I’m interpreting the credits correctly this is the ‘interlude’ drawn by Xermánico and it’s nicely done for a talking heads scene. Superman writer Joshua Williamson writes, and does a good job, even if I have no idea why Bruce is being so weird with Clark.

The rest of the book is nicely scripted by Snyder; it’s not really my cup of tea, but it rattles along nicely and people who enjoy this kind of thing will likely be happy enough.

Javi Fernández’s interior artwork is a lot better than his scratchy cover illo, that KO cut-out does it a favour. The main action is pretty good, though small figures are a tad indistinct, and there are far too many instances of the action going across what seem to be spreads, but aren’t. Fernández deserves a lot of credit for fitting so much into the issue, Snyder’s script demands a lot in terms of tiny panels – you can almost hear the artist breathe out when he gets to draw something you don’t need a microscope to see.

Colourist Alejandro Sánchez does a tremendous job, bringing the drama with well-matched tones. He also colours the cover. Letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, as last time, tries far too hard with the variety of fonts; I continue to hate the narration style, which is way over the top, too loud, too attention seeking. Maybe that’s a script instruction, but Otsmane-Elhaou’s work elsewhere tells me: probably not.

You know what, though? I still enjoyed this comic more than expected – how about you?

25 thoughts on “DC KO #2 review”

  2. Many say Otsmane-Elhaou is the best letterer in the business. I guess they like the varieties of fonts he uses, plus his liberal use of free-floating words outside of balloons, his use of lower case to imply whispering, and his variety of zig-zaggy fonts and so forth. I think he’s the worst letter in the business for all of the same reasons. Even the “regular” text in this series is hard to read because of his somewhat askew kind of backwards-italic font selection.

    The art is also not so easy – too crammed and sketchy, so it’s hard for me to be sure what happened, but I’ll be rereading it.

    The plot is typical heavy-handed Snyder, with lots of omnisient narration – which may sometimes be the Heart’s narration, whatever that is. I think Snyder may fancy himself the Heart of Apokolips.

    But clearly it’s supposed to be dumb fun, and I’m either too dumb or not dumb enough to be feeling it. I liked this week’s Superman tie-in more, if only because it looked much better and was easy to read and follow.

    T.N.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Or maybe you’re not dumb enough, TN!

      I’m glad you’re with me on the lettering, it’s so migraine inducing, I see that while Hassan is over here, the Flash editor has found a letterer-a-like to fill in. Marvellous.

      Like

      Reply

      1. I hate dialog balloons that aren’t outlined – probably because their tails can be extremely hard to see, depending on the background colors. Wes Abbott is also doing that over on Titans.

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Enjoyed it. I’d argue that while there is “dumb” fun to be had Snyder ultimately is exploring Superman and there is a deeper story here. He has said in interviews that Metal focused on Batman, Death Metal on Wonder Woman and now KO on Superman. Lex’s revelation was an interesting one and clearly suggests what Snyder intends for Superman to grapple with. Similarly the board game is also setting those themes up.

    I trust Snyder to stick the landing. He’s not a grim and gritty tear the heroes down type. He loves these characters and what they represent. Yes his writing can be big and loud and lots of spectacle but in my experience it also has heart and a live for the DCU and it’s lore. – Brian

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I know Snyder said Death Metal focused on Diana, but I didn’t feel that way when I read it (I don’t mean this to be snarky – it just didn’t seem to reveal/focus on/be driven by WW to me). Was I wrong and need to reread it?

      Like

      Reply

    2. I honestly don’t remember much about the previous two crossovers, bar the first had all those Batmen Who, while the second gave us that amazing Wonder Woman of Two Eras cover, and she died, but Diana dies a lot. I don’t get why a writer feels Superman needs a character defining arc, it’s not like he’s not been in the odd comic..

      Like

      Reply

  6. Call me crazy, but I was expecting the big dumb fight book to… I dunno… show the big dumb fights? I was surprised to find that if they showed any of these fights, they lasted all of a panel – if that! Was Batwoman in this book? Black Lightning? Damien?Giganta was taken out by a giant Joker… did she even battle Superman? Where were the matchups that were teased? What was the point of hyping the series with that bracket tournament if it was just going to be mostly ignored.

    Not that there weren’t moments to enjoy, but I feel a little misled. The big dumb fight book looks like it might actually have a story in it.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. hahaha I guess! It’s just such a strange choice to advertise a bunch of fights between some pretty random pairings (Batwoman vs Cyborg; Harley vs. Metamorpho etc.) and then not feature any of those characters in the book.
        I have no doubt we’ll see some of the matchups advertised in Round 2 if only because they’ve got specials coming out featuring those battles. But those fights are far less interesting to me.

        Liked by 1 person

  8. Very happy that DC seems to be releasing this day-of-sale on DCUI — it’s nice that I can read it and keep up if I need to with the crossover books I’m buying.

    And yep, it’s big dumb fun. No smarter than last time — you point out some serious nonsense with Luthor and the items — but just as big, and and a little more fun.

    I seem to remember enjoying Otsmane-Elhaou’s lettering on the Flash, at least at the beginning. But here? I wonder if it’s something in Snyder’s scripts that makes letterers go overboard with fonts? Regardless, I hate it. It’s not at all easy to read, and I can imagine how much I’d be squinting if I were reading this in paper. But this is a story written for tweens, not 50somethings with ailing eyes.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Insightful comments as ever, but if DC aren’t taking us oldies into consideration when it comes to production decisions they’re ignoring and proportion of the audience.

      Like

      Reply

  9. Is Thor’s hammer really an important artifact in the DC Universe? I know a version of Thor (maybe more than one) has appeared in DC, but he’s barely peripheral to the DCU.

    As far as the “Speed Force Ring” goes, I figured it was something added in the most recent Spurrier run which I haven’t been reading.

    Still, it was a fun read even though the whole “find the artifacts/weapons/gadgets” plot was done much more effectively in JLA/Avengers.

    Super Captain

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Nope, Thor’s hammer hasn’t made an impression on the DCU. And maybe the Speed Force Ring is the DC equivalent of the Oura ring.

      Oh, Super Captain, now you’re making me sad I don’t have one of those new JLA/Avengers collections!

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Unknown's avatar

Published by martingray1

Journalist, comic reviewer, theatre critic, film lover, biscuit fan, cat indulger