All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #5 (DC – Miller / Lee / Williams) Let’s put aside for the moment that it has taken DC almost two years to put out five issues, let’s put aside that so far the story has been sort of a rehash of Miller’s other works (no disrespect to Mr. Miller – one of the main architects of the modern comic tale) and let’s also put aside that there seems to be no continuity at all in-between All-star titles… even with all that under the table, the chunk of this issue is filler.  We get a great couple pages of the All-Star version of Diana interacting with Supes, Green Lantern and Plastic man… we get to see what most of the fanboys envision an amazon and her attitude looking like.  But beyond that, we get Batman beating up thugs, a monologue from Alfred and a young Dick Grayson looking around the the batcave.  You would think after the long wait, we might have gotten more.  In the light of truth, Lee’s art is fantastic (as usual) and the writing is exactly what would we would expect from a Frank Miller Batman story… but that’s the issue… too little, too late and exactly what we expect.  With the talent attached to this book, I hope this series advances soon.

series grade: C

issue grade: C+

 

New Avengers #30 (Marvel – Bendis / Yu / McGaig)  In the post-Civil War geography of the Marvel universe, Marvel Comics is releasing a slew of books to try to show the readers a new world map.  New Avengers is one of these “Initiative” books that are serving as part of the atlas.  This issue opens up with Luke Cage’s Avengers in hiding from Tony Stark’s official “Mighty Avengers”, and a real question about what being a hero means.  Bendis does a great job with the writing, in particular the dialogue, the readers immediately buy into the interactions between Logan, Luke and Peter.  A very typical example of this is at the front end of this issue while Brother Voodoo and Dr. Strange are having a scrying match, a magical version of “hide and go seek”, Peter flips out with “A dollar for whoever tells me what’s going on…I swear a whole dollar”… it bring’s a smile to the face of the other heroes in the story and to the reader.  While the art of Leinil Yu can be sketchy at times, it moves the story along and seems to fit well in the battle sequences.  This issue deals with a returned Hawkeye, a battle with a brainwashed Elektra and a stabbed Dr. Strange.  Given the strength of story and characterization, it makes me wish I didn’t drop this book as a monthly title.

series grade: B

issue grade: B+

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