Batman #7 review

One night in Gotham and Harvey Bullock activates his Bat Signal. It’s defiantly lo-fi, but effective. One-time GCPD detective Bullock and Police Commissioner turned beat cop Jim Gordon have been given a message to pass on – ‘It’s him. He wants to talk…’ Of course, they mean the Joker, who, it turns out, is in […]

Batman #5 review

I’ve never found car chases work in comic books, but Batman #5 shows it can be done. To be entirely accurate, this is a car being chased by motorbikes, a car being driven by Bruce Wayne. The artist ‘behind the wheel’ is Jorge Jiménez, and goodness me, is he good at capturing the motion of […]

Batman and Robin Year One #12 review

The cover by illustrator Chris Samnee and colourist Matheus Lopes is a thing of joy, and that’s what we get in the final issue of a maxi-series that’s been a total treat. Yes, there’s serious business in the peculiar shapes of Clayface and Two-Face preparing to pour poison into Gotham Bay… … and the barely […]

Batman #1 review

Summer in Gotham City. Beat cops Gordon and Espinoza are having a coffee in the baking heat when events get a jump on them. It’s longtime Gotham resident Killer Croc, apparently in need of a snack. His doctor calls Batman to Arkham where they chat about his recent moods. Following Croc’s lead by leaping out […]

Batman & Robin Year One #2 review

When I was a kid in the Seventies, Mad Magazine had a feature, Scenes We’d Like To Seen, in which tired tropes of popular culture would be subverted. The second issue of DC’s latest Batman mini-series has something of that ilk. They’re a cynical bunch, but I believe this is how the good folk of […]

Uncanny X-Men #5 review

The nightmare that is Sarah Gaunt has Rogue at her mercy, and the leader of the X-Men’s Louisiana team’s mind is shocked back to six months previously. That day, the subject was elecution. The memory is painful, but the Now is even worse, Rogue having been maimed by the monstrous woman who wants to murder […]

Batman & Robin Year One #1 review

It’s opening night for the Batman and Robin team. Before they hit the streets, though, Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth discuss the sense in Batman taking on the recently orphaned Dick Grayson as sidekick Robin. Before long, the heroes who will come to be known as the Dynamic Duo are driving from stately Wayne Manor […]

Ape-ril Special #1 review

Comic readers love apes. And chimpanzees. DC has known this for decades, relying on gorillas on covers to give individual issues a sales boost during the Silver Age of Comics. So here’s the latest example of gorillas amidst the comic shop shelves, an Ape-Ril Special that is, appropriately enough, bananas. I was expecting an 80pp […]

Birds of Prey #1 review

I do like a ‘getting the gang together’ issue, and the debut number of the latest Birds of Prey is a terrific example of the trope. We begin with Black Canary talking to partner Green Arrow about the mission for which she’s gathering a team. This immediately raises intriguing questions – who is ‘she’, why […]

Lazarus Planet: We Once Were Gods #1 review

It’s raining magic, hallelujah! And that means changes not just for the heroes and villains of the DC Universe, but for gods and monsters too. Remember the Trench from Aquaman, the big-fanged fish fellas who eat everything in their path? The Lazarus rain gives them a makeover in a nice-looking short written and drawn by […]