THE DEATH OF BATMAN

I read, and review comic books, and if there’s one term that succinctly sums up what going on with the entire mainstream comic book industry today, it is the term ‘Global-Homo.’


Here me out. Don’t get triggered. I have something to say. You can call me a bigot later, and I will get to Batman, but I need to define my term first. ‘Global-Homo’ is a term used to categorise, broadly speaking, the mainstream progressive entertainment and news propaganda complex.

It is not about hating on homosexuality. It’s about triggering the mainstream institutionalised, establishment left, and calling them out for what they are actually doing.

So, what are they doing on Global-Homo? Lots of things, and they’re all degenerate, and none of it is good for you, your family, and most importantly, your children.

One of the major projects of Global-Homo is to subvert traditional male/female gender roles. This is being done under the guise of equality, but is actually about lowering the birth rates of people of European ancestry. The propaganda of Global-Homo pushes the cucking of white males, turning them into beta-male losers, and advocates for the career advancement of non-breeding white females. The men will have their computer games and porn, and the women will have their precious careers. Homosexuality alone cannot lower the birth-rate enough because homosexuality itself is not quite as common as Global-Homo likes to make out, so it’s the cucking of males and empowerment of masculine femininity that’s the key here.

Convince the men to play second fiddle to their women, and convince the women that they don’t need men at all, that a career can replace the joys of motherhood and traditional family life. This is Global-Homo, and it’s a genetic attack on the future of white, western civilisation. If there are no children, no families, no husbands and wives, there is no future.

Why are they doing this, and what is the end-goal here?

It’s about control. White men are a problem, because an increasingly large number of them are stubbornly rejecting Global-Homo programming. It appears that the supposed patriarchal oppressors (aka working class, blue collar white men) just won’t go along with the propaganda, and that’s a real problem to the hidden masters of the world. So, how do you sort out the stubborn individuals that refuse to accept open-border (not for Israel, obviously) multicultural, race-mixed utopianism?

Simply put, if they can’t be convinced to go along with the programme, then you just have to get rid of them, which leads me to the death of Batman.

Batman is a problem because Bruce Wayne wins with smarts, determination, training and toughness. He wins because he works harder, thinks harder, fights harder. That kind of guy, yeah he’s rich, but he’s just a guy with no super-powers, might encourage the little white boys to strive, to be better, to be a hero and to do things for themselves. Independence, self-determination and an ethos of hard graft, pain and toil has to be nipped at the bud. Global-Homo is about the communist adherence to universalism over meritocracy, about mediocrity over excellence, so the hard-working, tough guy Batman is a huge problem. Bruce Wayne, like Wolverine, a character who Marvel is currently (reluctantly) resuscitating from the dead, is simply put, too independently masculine to be allowed on the comic book plantation today.

But how do you destroy a character like Batman? The fans wouldn’t like it, and no, they wouldn’t. That’s why Marvel has been forced to bring Wolverine back, they demanded it. Apparently his replacement, a teenage girl called Laura, just wasn’t cutting it. DC, perhaps learning from Marvel’s policy of replacing the straight white men with Mary-Sue female characters, has been a lot smarter than their rivals. You don’t kill off the independent masculine striver. You just kill off his character instead. Add soy, as Ethan Van Sciver would say, and the masculine man becomes somewhat less masculine than he used to be.

Buy any DC Batman book today, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. You’ll see a man who looks like Batman, but is anything but.

Bruce ‘Batman’ Wayne, as written today, is a limp, weak, angst ridden, pathetic, progressive, soy boy, lost-boy, beta-male cuck who wants nothing more than to fade into the shadows, and hand over the reigns of control.

Read a Batman story, any of them, and you will see, that no matter who the writer is, from Tom King, to Scott Snyder, to James Tynion IV, to Bryan Hill, or even Sean Murphy, that Batman is the least important character in every single book.

Global-Homo Batman has become a passenger in his own life story, and he will consistently stand-down, and allow the heroic victim groups on Global-Homo, to do the work that he used to do.

Bruce Wayne has become a stand-in for the progressive writers’ view of themselves. Their role, as they see it, is to act as facilitators of a new, non-white, non-masculine future. They write Batman as a shell of what he used to be, because he is the past, obviously, well, he’s a straight white man, isn’t he? Why write about the past? Why write about old white guys? Write about the future, a future that looks just the city that we live in. It’s great. It’s progressive. Don’t forget to double lock the front door, and don’t walk alone late at night.

Batman is dead, and DC killed him, deliberately, because he is white, because he is male, because he’s the past.

How can we change this? How can we breathe new life into Bruce Wayne, and make Batman great again?

I’ve got some bad news for you. We cannot change this. Batman is on the Global-Homo plantation, and he is going to stay there for the rest of his undead-life. DC has hired many different writers to portray him, and in the vast majority of the books he’s a cucked beta male loser, the past, yesterday’s news, anachronistic, a facilitator for the diverse replacements that will progressively, and rightfully take his place.

Just look at the last issue of Tom King’s Batman #49. It barely featured Bruce Wayne at all. The book, which is duplicating the emasculation of the male character as seen in his Mister Miracle title, relegated Batman to a defeated, castrated, whimpering voice underneath a pile of bricks as Catwoman (his wife to be) did all of the fighting for him.

What woman would marry a man so pathetic that she has to engage in physical combat to protect him from his enemies? Protection is the masculine role, and is the reason that men have approximately 40% more muscle-mass than the fairer sex. And remember, this is Batman we are talking about, a man who is supposed to be a hero for young boys, a man that a boy would want to be, when he’s all grown up.

Tom King’s Batman is not Batman. He is a pathetic, laughable, beta-male loser.

Don’t think that this will change when King finally leaves the book, because it won’t. He will be replaced by another Trump hating progressive, and the agenda will remain the same. Cucking the males is the norm in mainstream comics. This is the message that the progressive comic book writers want to send to young boys, and girls living in America, and what remains of Europe today, and they are proud of it. Go on twitter, and you’ll see them boasting about it every single day.

Batman is no longer Batman.

Batman is dead.

Luke Skywalker is dead.

Han Solo is dead.

I could add more names to the list, but you get the picture.

Our childhood heroes have been murdered by Global-Homo, and they are not coming back, but that doesn’t mean that the fight is over.

The fight is never over.

Global-Homo owns the heroes of our past, and they have cucked, and murdered them with glee. That is a fact, and we need to move on from it.

Each and every one of us has a spark of creativity within us, and we need to start creating new narratives, and original heroes of our own. I have done just that, and I have two new heroes to offer you, right here and right now.

My novel, ‘Invasion of the Red Light Spiders,’ is available on Amazon right now, in paperback and Kindle, and features independent, courageous, autonomous, heroic strivers who are fighting against the same (((nameless))) enemies that we all face today.

Batman is dead, but there are new heroes waiting to be discovered. I offer you my new heroes, and look forward to reading your own creations.

You can stay in the past, hoping for useless change, but the future really is undecided, and you can make it what you want it to be. All you need to do is leave the old heroes behind, reach out, grab the future, in tough, hardened, callused masculine hands, and make it better than the dead progressive dust that lingers, acrid and stale in the deserted hallways of today.


Links to my novel:

'INVASION OF THE RED LIGHT SPIDERS'


UK (Kindle):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D9MPNXN/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1527272592&sr=1-1&keywords=Invasion+of+the+Red+Light+Spiders

U.K. (Paperback):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1982995467/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1527272627&sr=1-1&keywords=Invasion+of+the+Red+Light+Spiders

US (Kindle):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D9MPNXN/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1527272506&sr=1-1&keywords=Invasion+of+the+red+light+spiders

US (Paperback):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1982995467/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1527272550&sr=1-1&keywords=Invasion+of+the+Red+Light+Spiders

50-Word (Comic) Review: Dark Knight III- The Master Race- Book One: The New Batman book by Frank Miller- Don’t worry, it’s bloody awesome

Writer: Frank Miller & Brian Azzarello
Art: Andy Kubert & Klaus Janson
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 25th November 2015


Female protagonists dominate the comic book industry. How to make them resonate? Portray dead masculinity in decaying west. Cops prey on citizens. Vigilantes are villains, not heroes. The enemy of western governments is not ISIS. The enemy is masculine individualism, and those that refuse to be collectivised. Frank gets it.



Rating: 10/10

A short review for a fantastic comic book. There will be no spoilers here. Read the book for yourself. I loved it.

Comic review: Batman #43- Starring Bad Haircut Batman

Writer: Scott Snyder
Art: Greg Capullo
Publisher: DC
Released: 12th August 2015



Ah Batman, my old childhood friend, it’s been so long. How have you been buddy? I haven’t read about your adventures since the Joker was messing around with your mate’s faces. That little event ended with a whimper, with the realisation that the Joker was, well, just joking, but how have you been? Seriously, you tireless black uniformed upholder of the corporate/statist totalitarian status quo, how have you been my old bat mate?

Check out that haircut on the new Batman

Okay, I’ll stop being silly. I haven’t read the main Batman title for a while. I stopped because it wasn’t doing anything. It was neither hot, nor cold. It was lukewarm, leaving me feeling nonplussed and a little bit wet.

I picked up this issue just to see if it was doing anything that resonates with contemporary concerns, and in short, off the Bat (gettit?) it ain’t doing any of that. Oh crap, come on Scott mate. At least try.

So what is it doing?

It’s doing character stuff. Here’s the story- Bruce Wayne died, came back to life (as he always does) but this time he’s come back with memory loss, and the trauma that made him Batman in the first place didn’t happen, at least in his mind.

The abbreviated impact of this memory loss basically means that Batman is now Commissioner Gordon with a daft haircut, and Bruce Wayne is just plain old Bruce Wayne, a bit of a drip hanging out with his girlfriend and going to charity events.

The gist of the action in Batman #43 is that there’s a new villain in town (Mr. Bloom) and he has Gordon/Bad Haircut Batman trapped in a hot box. He’s going to kill him, but probably not. Plus, he’s messing around with established villains like Penguin, and I guess we need Bruce to snap back into being Batman again to sort out these two problems.

So, it’s a character book. It’s a book that is looking into the psychological reasons behind why Bruce became Batman. There is no connection to any real world concerns of 2015, and the very fact that the villain is a drug pusher means that it’s supporting the current situation in western countries where governments openly declare that they own our bodies, and can legally lock us up and ruin our lives if we partake in a substance that they do not want us to partake in.

Drug laws create crime. Drug laws create criminals, because of supply (dealers) and demand (users). Governments love prohibition, because prohibition means control, and that’s what governments want. They want control, and because of the drug laws being the way that they are, that’s exactly what they have right now.

Superman is concerned, and not just about the haircut.

Batman #43 does not question contemporary drug laws that have destroyed the lives and families of millions of people. It does not question whether or not government owns your body, and thus has the right to tell you what you can and cannot do with it. Instead, it reinforces the status quo, portraying drug dealers as evil sociopathic villains, and the cops as heroic, morally upstanding heroes. In that sense, it’s a piece of crap that needs to be flung in the nearest bin, as it pushes a lie, and endorses human enslavement to a centralised control system.

Get the book if you don’t care about human slavery to centralised control systems. Get it if you want to read about the psychological motivations of Bruce, psychological motivations that have been looked at in so much detail already that there’s a veritable library of it out there if you want to spend your life studying the fictional brain of a man dressed up as a Bat.

Get the book if you read this review and it annoys you. Get the book if you just want to chill out, forget reality and read a stupid, childish comic book that supports everything that is wrong about the world as it is today.

I’ll be the weird guy, and I’ll dip in, and dip straight out again. The water is still lukewarm in Batman. It’s not saying anything, and it’s not even trying to say anything either. I can’t be bothered with that, sorry, but I have better things to do with my time.


Rating: 5/10 (Another look into the mind of Bruce, yawn.)

Comic review: Batman Detective Comics #40- Slavery is freedom

Corporate drone writers- Francis (Pay me) Manapal & Brian (Show me the money) Buccellato 
Artist: Francis Manapal
Corporate Pay Master: DC Comics
Released: 4th March 2015

The front cover of Batman Detective Comics #40 features the anarchist A symbol. That hooked me, and so I purchased the book in order to see how anarchy was being portrayed in a 2015 mainstream comic book.

My fear (and expectation) was that anarchists would be portrayed as violent rioters. That’s what I expected, so what did I get?

I got a book where anarchists were portrayed as victims of mind control, led by a deceptive leader who had personal issues, not deep ideological issues with the current slavery system known as the state.

Cops were portrayed as ‘Just doing their job’ heroes and they acted with integrity and restraint against the mindless anarchist rioters.

 Batman was (obviously) a cop, and a brave hero who just wanted to help the poor innocent mind controlled slaves/citizen/suspects. The Anarky character was defeated (he was deluded anyway, so pay no attention to him) and the status quo was maintained, end of book.

I’m not going to go on a prolonged rant about this. There’s really no point in wasting my time on a deeper analysis of this book.

I was fully expecting Anarchy to be portrayed not as freedom from centralised control systems, but as mindless rioters burning down buildings and attacking brave Police officers, and that's exactly what I got.

Whenever ‘anarchy’ is portrayed in the mainstream media it is demonised. It is demonised because the mainstream media has a role to play in pacifying any true rebellion to statism and the corporate/state control system. Anarchy means freedom from centralised control, so it is always going to be misrepresented within the mainstream media. Of course it is. It’s a threat, so it is attacked, simple as that.

Writers Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato have certainly earned their corporate paycheques on this one. Being the good little corporate tools that they are, they have portrayed freedom from state slavery as rioting and mind control. Trust in the Police, trust in your leaders, and trust in those who exist to enslave you. Freedom is reading comics, having an Iphone and voting away your power every four years or so to a cartel of psycopathic billionaires. That’s freedom, and you are a lucky person indeed if you get the chance to write a comic book where you can portray slavery as freedom and freedom as rioting.

Well done Francis. Well done Brian. Enjoy your DC money, enjoy the status that comes with being a ‘writer’ and keep on keeping on. The slavery system known as statism relies on good little pawns like you two, and you do your jobs so willingly.

Rating: 3/10 (For the very nice main cover)

Comic review: Justice League #38- Ho-hum, it’s zombie Batman, yawn

Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Jason Fabok
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 21st January 2015


****Spoilers in review****

I’m not going to waste too much time on this book, as it’s not worth it.

If you want to see Batman as a zombie, then buy it.

The art looks great. It’s very big, impressively detailed and very colourful, but the story by Geoff Johns is pedestrian, uninteresting, routine, bland, and perfunctory in every way imaginable. He certainly isn’t saying anything of any importance, and his plot has a resigned and tired feel about it.

I find it very telling that he has turned some of the Justice League superheroes into zombies at the close of the book. It’s exactly what I would expect a writer to do when he has run out of ideas. It’s easy, easier to reverse and well, the kids love zombies these days, don’t they?

Johns also gives us the stunning revelation that evil genius Lex Luthor is a devious and manipulative liar. Superman, of course, is surprised at this development. It’s pretty stupid really.

Doesn’t Superman know anything about Lex? You’d think he would have a good handle on his character by now, but in this book he acts like he’s just met the bloke a couple of weeks ago. I know that Superman is supposed to see the best in people, but that doesn’t mean that he is a complete and utter fool.

Forgetting that completely unbelievable moment of Superman naivety the plot has already been resolved anyway.

Superman is carrying anti-bodies in his blood that will turn zombie Batman into normal Batman again, so it’s just a matter of an extra strong needle, a blood sample, and it’s back to the status quo for Batman and the rest of the Justice League.

I don’t understand why Johns has given us the ending already, but he has, and the end panel of this book with a rampaging zombie Batman and assorted mates offers little to look forward to, other than a brief punch-up in issue #39.

If you want to look at some pretty pictures whilst you are sitting on the toilet, well this is the book for you. However, if you want a comic book that has something intelligent to say about the world as it is today (that is what I’m looking for in my comics) then you’ll find nothing here.

If you couldn’t care less about ‘boring’ reality and real world issues, and read comic books as entertaining, escapist fun then there’s nothing to get excited about here either.

This is dull, dull, dull. Perhaps Geoff Johns just needs a break, as it appears that he’s running on empty at the moment. His run on the Justice League title has been largely entertaining, but there’s no getting away from the fact that his creative juices are at an all time low at the moment.

Rating: 3/10 (for the art)

Comic review: Gotham by Midnight #1- Stupid cop show in comic book form

Writer: Ray Fawkes
Artist: Ben Templesmith
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 26th November 2014



I haven’t read a Batman book in over six months, but I noticed that Ben Templesmith was the artist on this one so decided to dip back in, and see what was going on. I shouldn’t have bothered.

I forgot why I stopped reading these stupid comics in the first place, but was quickly reminded on the first page, and fourth panel of the book where the often repeated lie that is the background to all Police dramas was repeated.

That lie is that the Police are there to protect you. I’m sorry, but the Police are not there to protect you. That is not their job. Their job is to control you, to intimidate you, to protect the moneyed classes and to maintain the status quo whilst stifling all dissent from the enslaved masses. That is the role of the Police, and when they are portrayed as heroes in the mainstream media it always makes me wince.

I couldn’t enjoy this book from that fourth panel on, as all it is doing is following cops around as they mess around with ‘supernatural cases.’ I didn’t care for the characters involved, at all. It’s not that I hate cops, because I don’t. I just feel sorry for them, as I do for any duped person, but the characters in this book bare no resemblance to real life cops. They are television cops, television characters, television lies. I can’t read this stuff. I’m not stupid enough, not childish enough, and not ignorant enough either. I like reality, it interests me, and this book is not reality, it’s television.  I can’t get any enjoyment out of the story here. Narratively, thematically and intellectually there’s nothing here for me to grab a hold of, there’s nothing there for me at all.

I think I might get the scissors out on this one, as some of the large panels by artist Ben Templesmith have this creepy gothic feel to them that I really like. He’s a great artist is Mr Templesmith. His work always looks so distinctive. He has this knack of creating an atmosphere that can transcend the banality of the actual story itself. Yeah, I think that I will get the scissors out. This comic book story is completely boring, but the art doesn’t deserve to be shut away at the bottom of my ‘bad comic’ file. I guess the book wasn’t completely worthless then, and it’s a good reminder to myself of just why it was that I stopped reading so many mainstream comic books in the first place.

So, to sum it up. Gotham by Midnight #1 is a stupid ‘supernatural’ cop show in comic book form. Batman hangs around in the background whilst the cops defend the poor innocent civilians from Ghosts. No, they can’t help themselves, don’t be stupid. People helping themselves? We can’t have that in our comic books now, can we? After all, if people looked after themselves what role would the ‘authorities’ have in their lives? I’ll tell you what role. The role they should have. No role whatsoever. Is the book worth checking out for the art alone? Nah, not really. You might be tempted to read the book whilst you look at it, and trust me, you don’t want to be doing that.

Rating: 2/10 (for the art)

Television review: Gotham- Episode One: Penguin makes it worthwhile

UK Channel: Channel 5

UK Season: 1, episode 1

UK Premiere Date: 13 October 2014 at 9:00pm

Country of Origin: USA

Show trailer: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d1zpt6k5OI

Official website:
 http://www.fox.com/gotham/



There wasn’t anything particularly new in Gotham episode one. It was a television programme set in some alternate reality where people have mobile phones, but it didn’t resemble anything close to what you could call contemporary reality in a 2014 context.

The 'good cop' doing his cop show pose. 

It was established that the city is corrupt, and that you are probably better off just going along with the corruption if you don’t want to end up with a bullet in the back of your head. The main protagonist was, as you might expect, somebody new to the system who is going to change it by sticking to his personal code of morals, where he will do what is right, even at cost to himself, and his family. The problem was that this first episode had a cop out ending where the individual (a young Commissioner Gordon with a cool haircut) was faced with this moral dilemma, only to dodge it completely.

The underlying moral philosophy that will drive this show is that you can change a corrupt system by joining it. This is standard fare in all (corporate sponsored) television programming, pushing the idea that an individual can change a system by working within it. I have a problem with that. My main problem is that it’s a philosophy that (much like the ending of this episode) gives people a moral cop out. You don’t change a system by joining it. It incorporates you, and if you think that you are bigger than an entire societal system of evil and corruption, that you can change something a billion times bigger and more powerful than yourself then you an egotistical, programmed and utterly deluded individual. By joining any evil system you strengthen it, and the world keeps on turning, just like it always has done. All rebellion is incorporated. If you join, you lose. You change evil by refusing to join evil, not by kidding yourself that you can change it from within.

Penguin, the best thing about the show.

The show, looking at it from a character and narrative standpoint, wasn’t terrible. The plot was predictable, in that the killer wasn’t the killer. Of course he wasn’t, he never is in these shows. That was fairly obvious, but there were a couple of characters that made it more interesting to see it being played out. James Gordon was what you might expect from a show such as this. He was good cop playing with bad cops. The Penguin character was great though, a snivelling ambitious, cowardly, weasly psychopath who cares only about himself, and his future career progression. The guy who played him was the best thing about the show, by a long way. The ‘Fish’ character was somebody we have seen before, a ruthless crime boss. The twist was that she was not at the top of the crime pyramid, and was being used by a bigger fish in the pond. They kept that twist to the end, and that elevated the plot into something a bit more interesting than I thought it would be. The Bruce Wayne character has been done to death, so it was a good idea to keep him in the background. The child actor wasn’t great, but he looked like a young Bruce, so that will be enough. The fun part of the show, for comic book fans at least, will be to spot the younger versions of their favourite villains. This one had a young Poison Ivy. Her Dad was a low-level criminal; she hated him, but hated the Police even more. That makes sense. Oh yeah, the show had the Riddler in it as well.  I could watch the show just to spot the villains. That could be fun.

Gotham says nothing about our world. It’s just another cop show, with good cops and bad cops. The viewer’s point of view is obviously on the good cop, as he tries to change a corrupt system. Good luck with that mate. The plot was blah, with some nice twists at the end to make it appear more interesting than it actually was. The show looked big budget, and it also looked a bit like old comics. That was okay. The bloke playing Butler Alfred had a horrendously fake English accent. He’s English as well, so that was a deliberate choice made by the programme makers. I still don’t understand why they do that. What’s wrong with an English guy just talking like a real English guy? Oh yeah, Catwoman. She was hanging around, looking like a lost kitten that would survive about a minute and a half in the real world. She was too feeble for me, but, again, like Bruce I guess she was cast for her looks, nothing else. I’ll conclude this review with a couple of reasons why the programme wasn’t a complete waste of time. The young villains, and the Penguin. That’s all there is here. Is that enough? As a one hour weekly distraction? Yeah, it’s just about worth checking out. If you like your old Batman comics then the show should have enough to keep you interested, at least for a while.

Rating: 6/10 

Comic book blitz review: Grayson- Future’s End #1- Uniformly rotten and bordering on the unreadable.

Writer: Tom King and Tim Seeley
Artist: Stephen Mooney
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 3rd September 2014


There’s a very confusion structure to this book. The narrative is played out in reverse, with an ‘Earlier’ tag on just about every page telling the reader that the story is going back in time, not forward. To me this device does not work because it is both confusing and irritating. Half way through the book I was getting very frustrated, and very lost. I had to re-read the book from back to front to try and make any sense out of it.

The book's confusing narrative begins ‘Five years from now’ in a world where the evil Russian Federation has taken over Eurasia. That’s a contemporary concern, so it’s nice to see it played out in a DC comic for a change. It pretty much plays into the ridiculous mainstream media narrative though with Russia portrayed as the expansionist, war mongering villains and the good guy, heroic super agents representing America doing all they can to save the poor, helpless civilians. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

Reading this book was like watching the bloody awful mainstream news and that is not a good thing at all. Writer Tom King shows a worrying inability to think outside of the very small box that is given to the average drugged up and dumbed-down television viewer.

The art in this book was uniformly poor, with lazy backgrounds, poorly pencilled facials and weird spatial renderings. I expect much better quality in my comic books than what I got here.

Grayson #1 has a confusing structure and very poor art. The plot is very silly with attractive young special agents fighting against evil mainstream news Russians. It had a great front cover though. I love the 3D effect, it’s just a pity that what’s inside the actual comic is uniformly rotten and bordering on the unreadable.

Rating: 2/10

Comic review: Robin Rises Omega #1- Everybody quipping, nobody interesting

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Artist: Andy Kubert
Publisher: DC
Released: 16th July 2014

I’m not sure if it’s the uninspired writing of Peter J. Tomasi or perhaps it’s just a change coming over myself personally, but this book felt very, very childish and inconsequential to me. The plot is centred on Batman and his dead son, but as we all know in comic’s, dead isn’t dead for very long.

The book begins with a useful summation of recent events in the world of Batman and how we got to where we are today. I largely followed the story arc over the past year or so, but I’ve started to lose interest now that DC is doing more origin stories with Batman. I do give them credit for the summary of events though, as it is concisely packaged and helpful for long-term, lapsed and new readers.

After establishing the story context the book heads off to that favourite mystical region of all comic book writers, the Himalayas. It’s lazy, but they all do it. Snow always looks good, and you can have your heroes and villains doing pretty much whatever they want, with no consequences to anything happening in the larger comic book universe, plus if somebody dies you can just have them frozen in ice and brought back later. Do they do that here? What do you think?

So a big boring fight in the Himalayas kicks off the new story, where a set of good guys and bad guys fight over the mummified bodies of Batman’s son (Damien ‘Robin’ Wayne) and Ra's al Ghul's daughter. Oh, long-time Batman nemesis Ra's is on Batman’s side now by the way. Who is the bad guy this time? Nobody interesting, just some bloke who is an obvious rip-off of the Loki character in the Avengers movie. Batman’s Justice League mates eventually show up, Killer Whales somehow make it up to the mountains of the Himalayas and they all have a big quipping contest as they punch the bad guys. Here are some of the quip lowlights:

Batman- ‘You talk too much.’

Frankenstein- (Whilst slicing a demon in half with a sword) ‘Speak up demon! Steal got your tongue?’

Shazam- ‘We’re going to wipe the ice with these guys.’

Aquaman- ‘You obviously don’t come in peace. But feel free to leave in pieces.’

Lex Luthor- ‘I’m Lex Luthor. Welcome to Earth.’ (ZZRAAP)

Cyborg- ‘If it’s home you want, don’t let the boom hit you on the way out!’ (BOOM)

I’m sorry but this is no fun, no fun at all. The characters have all melded into one personality free blob of blah, and it’s like watching a cartoon for children who just want to see a big fight with the good guys saying cool things whilst they show off their awesome powers. There’s no depth to it, nothing that’s engaging my mind on anything other than a surface level.

That surface level looks great by the way. The art by Andy Kubert is fantastic, far, far better than the script deserves, unfortunately. The book ends with Batman saying he’s going to get his son back from dimension X, or whatever, and if you want to keep on reading to see the rebirth of Damien Wayne you’ll have to keep on buying these books as DC milks his return for as long as is possible. I’m neither criticising nor complaining about that by the way, it’s just what they do.  I won’t be buying those books. Why? Because I’m an adult, I guess. This book offers nothing other than surface thrills, quips and good guys punching villains. Whilst that might be enough for children it’s not enough for me, the big old boring grown-up that I am. I’ll leave this one for the kids.
Rating: 5/10 (for the art)

Blitz Review: Justice League #31- Lex and Bruce have an interesting chat

Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Doug Mahnke
Publisher: DC
Released: 25th June 2014

Although the front cover of this issue is misleading, I forgive that needless deception as the story within of Lex Luthor telling a bluffing Bruce Wayne that he knows he’s Batman is well told and entertaining. The art is weirdly inconsistent with some excellent large panels, and awful facials in the smaller ones. The plot of a new threat is moved a little bit further forward, even if the ending is a bit lame, and there’s a playful comedy interlude to lighten things up as well. Overall, and as one of the very few superhero books that I still get on a monthly basis, it was okay. I enjoyed it, and there was no feminist liberal or statist nonsense to offend. That’s good enough for me, and I’ll keep on buying the book. Rating: 7/10