After the DC KO tournament ended, heroes and villains alike had visions of things they felt they had to do to prepare for the next big battle with Darkseid. Only Batman and probationary member Lex Luthor were denied a sneak peek at the future – until recently.
And now they find themselves hunting the man seen in their joint reverie, in Slaughter Swamp, where Solomon Grundy was first raised from the dead.
But that’s not important right now, because the chalky zombie isn’t in this issue. The villain of the piece is right there, on Carmine Di Giandomenico’s not terribly striking cover, if you squint – it’s Prometheus.
He’s the hoodlum known for a crooked house, which makes a sudden appearance as Luthor and Batman vie for the mystery weapons hoard the crooks have come to sell to the bad guy.
After the men duck inside the strange dwelling and out of sight, Batman and Luthor carefully make their way through the dark corridors.
Soon, the mismatched Leaguers meet the delivery men again – and they’ve had a lethal glow-up.
After a tussle Batman and Luthor get away, and discover that since the Caped Crusader last visited, the house has had its own makeover – the walls are filled with alien tech. They learn why when a watching Prometheus brings them to him.
Any Prometheus fans out there? For me, he’s that rare example of a Grant Morrison creation who is totally pants – just another daaaark Batman with the gimmick of a hi-tech helmet that lets him copy the abilities of the world’s greatest fighters. And now he wants to take on the powers of super-villains, via an extraterrestrial upgrade. Why he can only try this now said bad guys are Justice League aligned, we aren’t told by writers Mark Waid and Joshua Williamson.
With artist Miguel Mendonça, the writers have created a decent time passer but it doesn’t merit its status as the first of a series of Justice League quarterly spin-offs. Special, it isn’t – cut down from its 30pp-length, it would suit a regular Justice League Unlimited comic just fine. The Batman/Luthor relationship is well established and the story moves it forward only barely, and that’s only if I give the final page a very positive spin. The bickering and moaning quickly becomes tedious, Luthor is Luthor, but Batman seems especially childish.
The idea these two geniuses simply accept that the visions heroes and villains have been sent are guiding them truthfully is nuts. And the notion they couldn’t stop Prometheus in a couple of minutes is equally unconvincing. The plot structure is fine, there are some amusing lines, and Mendonça’s dynamic art is a definite plus – I mean, look at that Crooked House pop up – but the comic seems to exist simply to grab some money while taking us a step further towards the upcoming Darkseid so-called-event. I suppose it also gives work to the excellent colourist Romulo Fajardo Jr and letterer Steve Wands. Which is nice.
That cover line about Luthor and Batman uniting to save reality? Nah. As for the Knight Vision title, puns on night/knight are as played out as Crisis references.
A comic co-written by Waid and Williamson should feel a lot fresher.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 