Category: Comic Reviews

So once upon a time, we took a look at Spawn/Batman, the Frank Miller-penned crossover between the Dark Knight and… I don’t know if Spawn has any “cool” nicknames. Anyway, that book was published by Image Comics and is supposedly part of Miller’s Dark Knight Universe, for whatever that’s worth. That same year in 1994, DC Comics put out their own Batman/Spawn crossover comic called War Devil and also features both heroes taking on demonic forces from Hell… it also features the artwork of Klaus Janson, who happened to be the artist behind The Dark Knight Returns. Funny how that works out.

Right off the bat, War Devil feels a bit less tongue-in-cheek than Spawn/Batman does, as the characters feel less like shallow parodies of themselves and are more true to their usual interpretations circa 1994. I also find the story somewhat intriguing and would later learn that the backstory of War Devil is based on a real historical mystery regarding Roanoke Colony, the first attempt at an English colony in what would become North America that failed due to the mysterious disappearance of the colonists. Tying it to more demonic forces seemed like a natural choice.

It’s only unfortunate that War Devil doesn’t quite dwell into this as much as it could have, as the prestige one-shot format meant they had to get through this in roughly forty or so pages. Some aspects would’ve benefitted from more fleshing out, particularly any interactions between Spawn and Batman to build up that partnership more than the couple moments at most. The artwork is kinda messy at times, but I wouldn’t call it outright terrible; merely a different style. It almost works. Almost.

Between the two books, War Devil is only slightly better than Spawn/Batman in that it tells a better story and the heroes aren’t treated like one-note caricatures. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a must-read, either. Maybe some day, we can revisit the idea of a Batman/Spawn crossover story and give it some real juice.

You know, it’s hard to go back to this one nowadays. Not because it’s a bad story or anything; on the contrary, A Death In The Family is probably one of the better Batman stories out there, even when you take the controversial circumstances surrounding its conception out of the equation. But rather because the big twist would be undone a decade after the fact and thus the impact of the story is ultimately lost.

So this is the story commonly known for the death of Jason Todd – at the time, the second character to assume the mantle of Robin and a somewhat unpopular character due to his more impulsive nature compared to the original Robin, Dick Grayson – who had assumed the identity of Nightwing by that point. In a rather bold and unorthodox move for its day, DC would place the fate of Jason Todd in the hands of its readership by way of a telephone poll where caller would call one of two numbers to determine whether Todd would survive his fatal blows or perish… and callers voted to kill the character off by an extremely slim margin, much to the chagrin and outrage of the mass media, appalled by the idea of DC killing off one of their most well-known characters, even if it isn’t technically the same character they were thinking of.

While A Death In The Family might be known for the killing of a major character, it shouldn’t detract from the fact that everything that comes before and after the scene of the crime is excellent, beginning with Jason Todd coming across information regarding the location of his birth mother in some foreign land. Unfortunately, also in this foreign land is the Joker. Things pick up steam, then Robin gets killed off, and now Batman has to deal with grief and a desire to end the Joker once and for all; a task that becomes a bit more complicated.

A Death In The Family remains one of the perennial Batman stories ever tol. Not only due to its main climax, but also for being a solid story overall with some fantastic art from Jim Aparo and Mike DeCarlo. And while Jason Todd has long since been resurrected because DC has run out of original ideas, thus rendering the big climatic turning point moot, this is still a good thrilling read from the days when such stories were done on a regular basis. Recommended.

So this is it, the final Marvel comic of any sort of Power Rangers (or was that issue 7 of the other series?) And what do we get? A random bullied girl  who hates everyone being turned into a witchy witch who can control the weather. It’s a short story with little substance and a lot of Zord action. And the artwork is adequate enough that the Zords look like what they should, but other than that, it’s a nothing story… the story of Marvel’s output in their tenure with the comic rights to the franchise.

Since somebody will complain that I haven’t done the other half… well, I did say I wouldn’t. However, in short, the VR Troopers stuff that comprise the other half of this flip book series, for the most part, have consistent artwork and the stories are about on par with the Rangers output, but without a solid grasp of the series, I don’t know how close to the show these stories are.

So here’s a premise that hasn’t been done to death; the Ninjas win a fight against Goldar and crew and Goldar tells the citizens of Angel Grove that all this destruction is the Rangers’ fault. Citizens are stupid enough to believe this, which tells me they were in the Twitter sphere of influence long before Twitter was a thing. Fortunately, cooler heads prevail and the Rangers’ trust is restored.

So, I’ll go out on a limb and say that the artwork is adequate – and given the overall quality of the art in this entire Marvel run, that’s being more than generous – but Goldar looks like shit. He looks like a zombie monster instead of a monkey with a snout. Other than that… eh, not much else to say. The usual Mediocre Marvel fare for Power Rangers.

Some people may recall Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, the masterfully-written comic book miniseries (or graphic novel, as some would prefer to call it) written by Frank Miller, the guy who would bring us Batman: Year One, Daredevil: Born Again, Sin City, 300, and… All-Stars Batman and Robin, the comic book run that is probably best known for this little gem:

I’ve heard people say that Miller lost his ability to write truly compelling Batman around the time The Dark Knight Strikes Again came around (yeah, that one’s a bit of stinker) and that the All-Stars Batman & Robin series is nothing more than a farce of an actual Batman book… funny considering the direction it would go whenever issues would actually appear on store shelves after painfully-long delays per book.

To anyone who actually think Miller lost his mind in regards to Batman storytelling in the 2000s… I submit to you today’s subject matter; the 1994 one-shot graphic novel, Spawn/Batman.

Just to be completely clear on what is actually being reviewed, the book is explicitly titled Spawn/Batman. There is another one-shot comic called Batman/Spawn: War Devil, which is a completely different book altogether… and presumably a much better book than this one… at least, I’d like to think so.

I’d like to bring up some good points in this story, but unfortunately, I’d be hard-pressed to actually find any. I guess I could say that Todd MacFarlane’s art is nice to look at half the time… but that would be lying. In all honesty, the art is probably the only really high point of this book because it is pretty decent for the most part… whenever I can clearly decipher just what the hell is going on, which is… well, half the time. I suppose I wasn’t too far off in that estimate.

The story – or what is laughingly referred to as such – involves Batman fighting high-tech terrorist robots, acting like a complete doofus, calling Spawn a punk on numerous occasions, and all in all being a complete and total departure from what we already know about the character. And yes, I know that this is supposed to take place in Frank Miller’s own “Dark Knight” continuity… but even THAT version of Batman had some spark and relation to the Batman most people are familiar. This one doesn’t. I’m sorry, but Miller dubbing this story as part of Dark Knight continuity or not part of DC canon does not equal “write Batman as poorly as humanly possible.” Aside from the clichéd “two heroes fight each other first before teaming up against the bad guys” drivel that permeates one too many crossover storylines, here are also voodoo doctors and a couple panels of Spawn puking. Brilliant.

Look, I know people loved Miller’s old stuff as opposed to his newer stuff, but this book is proof that not all of the older Miller stuff holds up particularly well – and even back in the day, this wasn’t much of a below-average read. If you’re looking for a good Batman story or a good Spawn story… don’t get this.

So, this issue is rather popular within the fandom because it brings up an interesting conundrum; whatever happened to the old Thunderzords and subsequent powers that were destroyed and thus completely forgotten about? Turns out Zedd collected them, created five new coins, and gave them to five completely despicable lowlifes so that he can turn them into Dark Rangers.

So you have Ninja rangers vs. Dark Rangers… because the book is about the Ninja Rangers and god forbid we actually have these teens use their full Ranger suits for something that calls for drastic measures. Hell, the cover even implies boldly that people demanded the Power Rangers take on the Dark Rangers (which people, Marvel?), but we’re not even getting that. Anyway, setting that aside, it’s probably the most compelling story to come out of these early MMPR comic books… even with all the inane dialogue that has become a staple in this Marvel run and what makes it all the more tragic is that there’s no conclusion or follow-up.

This short story leaves things open… and never touches on them again. Not in the remaining two issues of this series nor in the other Marvel series… it leaves you hanging and never touches on it again. This puts a damper on the story, knowing that it’s never going to be resolved. Sadly, this wouldn’t be the only PR comic story that will be left unresolved… but that’s another story.