Batman: The Killing Joke Is More Unsatisfying Than Adult.

The Good: Set-up, Much of the animation, Moments of character
The Bad: Second half feels like an entirely different work, Lack of satisfying resolution, Light on character development, Inconsistent animation
The Basics: The establishing story for Batman: The Killing Joke is much more interesting and satisfying than where the film goes.


When it comes to major superheroes, there are few that have the mainstream popularity of Batman. He is, almost undeniably, cool. Perhaps because Batman is so popular, the contrarian in me has never truly allowed myself to love the character . . . at least on the page. Of DC Comics characters, the only major character I have read less from than Batman is Superman (I'm not into monolithic good characters). But, when Warner Brothers decided to release Batman: The Killing Joke as an animated film, I was uncharacteristically intrigued. The Killing Joke (reviewed here!) is one of the few Batman books I have actually read and reviewed and I was interested to see just how Warner Brothers would deal with making it into an animated film.

The Killing Joke is an exceptionally dark graphic novel and I read it back in the day because of my interest in Barbara Gordon (I was on a Birds Of Prey kick thanks to the writing of Gail Simone!). Batman: The Killing Joke is appropriately dark and adult, which fits the source material. While I have read the source material, this is a review of the animated film alone.

Barbara Gordon, in her alter ego of Batgirl, is on a hunt through Gotham City with Batman when she draws the attention of the criminal Paris Franz. Paris is the nephew of a major mob boss in Gotham and he starts to rob his uncle in an attempt to draw out Batgirl after he gets a crush on her. When Paris sends an invitation to Batgirl through the police, Batman demands his protege not have anything more to do with the case. Gordon follows the clues, however, to hunt Paris and discovers his attempts to impress her have led him to kill his uncle and take over the mob himself. When Batman rescues Batgirl from the mobster's forces, they have a falling out and a fling.

When Batman discovers a three year-old collection of victims of The Joker in a storage locker, he visits the prison to attempt to talk to The Joker. There, he discovers The Joker has been set free. The Joker acquires an abandoned carnival in Gotham while Batman begins the hunt for the psychopath. While Barbara is visiting her father, Police Commissioner Gordon, The Joker arrives and shoots Barbara. Barbara is paralyzed and when Batman visits, she tells him her father has been abducted by the Joker. Commissioner Gordon is tortured by The Joker and he acts as bait to draw Batman out in his latest attempt to torment his adversary.

The first half of Batman: The Killing Joke is solidly a Batgirl story and the story of the dissolution of the working relationship between Batgirl and Batman has a lot going for it. How one mistake in the relationship causes a fracture grounds the fantastical world of Gotham City, with its crazed villain The Joker quite well. Barbara having a crush on Batman is actually a decent character trait for this version of Batgirl and would be perfectly age appropriate for her. While the romantic attachment between Gordon and Batman is not established in the book, it adds an interesting dimension to Batman: The Killing Joke by lending consequences to the two main protagonists of the film.

Batman: The Killing Joke is taking a lot of heat for containing a sex scene between Barbara Gordon and Batman and, more than the problem of infidelity to the source material, that moment of bad character judgement stands out in the film. That act leads to a sensible level of estrangement between Batman and Batgirl and that works exceptionally well for what the film is trying to do. By spending so much time building up the schism between Batman and Batgirl, the post-Paris scenes have an urgency to them on the character front that a self-contained work like Batman: The Killing Joke might not have otherwise possessed.

The Joker is also fleshed out in Batman: The Killing Joke through a series of flashbacks. At the carnival, The Joker recalls his mundane life before he was transformed, preparing for life as a father. He turns to the mob for financial help and is hired to do a score for them before it goes bad. The somewhat tragic backstory of The Joker is interesting and makes The Joker into something other than a monolithic adversary. Unfortunately, by giving him backstory, it makes the character feel inconsistent. The Joker is treated as absolutely insane - in fact singing about the joys of being crazy - but his methodology in trying to push Gordon and Batman into insanity is incredibly organized and rationally-constructed.

Batman's desire to have a rational conversation with the Joker makes the sometimes brutal character seem nicely ethical. In a film as dark as Batman: The Killing Joke that is necessary. When Commissioner Gordon challenges Batman to bring in The Joker "by the book" the movie takes a slight detour into being preposterous; using a vigilante to stop a criminal is not "by the book."

The animation in Batman: The Killing Joke is decidedly mixed. Early in the film, the quality is decent, but the style begins to get sloppy shortly after the prison scene with the not-Joker. While lead characters like Batman and The Joker are consistently well-animated, background characters start to move far less realistically and are rendered much more simplistically. The backgrounds, similarly, alternate between exceptionally well-detailed and troublingly simplistic.

Ultimately, in fleshing out the Barbara Gordon storyline at the beginning of Batman: The Killing Joke, the film creates its biggest problem. The storyline with a criminal having a crush on Batgirl is interesting and gives her such a substantive role in the film that where the story ends is remarkably unsatisfying. The difference is that the book was very much a Batman and Joker story; the film spends so much focus on Barbara Gordon that the fact there is no wrap-up with her storyline makes the movie seem anticlimactic and fractured. The result is a film intended for adults that is split in such a way that, despite the darkness of it,is difficult for an adult to truly love.

For other animated films based on comic books, please check out my reviews of:
Wonder Woman
Watchmen: Tales Of The Black Freighter
Batman: Gotham Knight

3.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Wonder Woman: Bones Ends The New 52 Wonder Woman Story Well . . . Enough.

The Good: Renewed focus on Diana, Moments of theme
The Bad: Very basic plot, Artwork
The Basics: Wonder Woman: Bones resolves the story began when Wonder Woman was rebooted for The New 52.


As The New 52 concept ran its course, storylines that were planned and developed reached their natural conclusions and arguably the most ambitious single-character title in The New 52 was Wonder Woman. The series reached its peak with Wonder Woman: Bones, which picked up right where Flesh (reviewed here!) concluded.

Wonder Woman: Bones refocuses the long-running story of Princess Diana of Themyscira on the heroine, who was largely neglected in the prior volume. Whenever Diana has been promoted to a god, the writers seem to have trouble figuring out how to maintain the story. In Wonder Woman: Flesh, Diana's long arc was basically to accept the change that had come out of the prior volume. Having finally taken up the mantle of God Of War, Diana advances in Wonder Woman: Bones as she retasks the Amazons as warriors intent on usurping the First Born.

As the conflict for Olympus heats up, the First Born enlists Cassandra and her minotaur to defend his perverse recreation of the home of the gods. Diana decides to use the Amazons to wage war on the First Born and she begins the philosophical argument with her people to accept her decision. To try to heal her people and to get them to accept Zola ansd Zeke's presence on the island, Diana has the male Amazons return to Themyscira. Charging Aleka with defending Zeke and Zola, Diana defends Themyscira against the animalistic forces of the First Born before she is captured by the enemy.

The First Born rejects Cassandra and tries to convince Diana to become his consort. Diana rejects the new king of the gods and holds out until Zeke's true nature is finally revealed!

Wonder Woman: Bones is better on the character front than on on either the plot or artwork fronts. The plot is very basic in the way it progresses and it neglects some significant aspects. For example, the males are returned to Paradise Island, yet Diana never actually interacts with any of them. There are no major male Amazon characters, which makes Diana's somewhat forced sociological progress much less personal or compelling.

The artwork is mediocre throughout and for a book filled with battles, Wonder Woman: Bones lacks a strong sense of movement. As well, some of the key moments are terribly misrepresented. For example, in a scene where the Amazons are talking about Diana behind her back - manipulated by Cassandra - there is a character who looks virtually identically to Diana!

Fortunately, though, Wonder Woman: Bones is moved forward enough by Diana and her character to make for a satisfying conclusion to the story begun when The New 52 reimagined the character.

For the rest of the New 52 Wonder Woman, please check out my reviews of:
Volume 1 – Blood
Volume 2 – Guts
Volume 3 – Iron
Volume 4 - War

5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Modern Mythology: Wonder Woman: Flesh Progresses Diana's Story Generally Well!

The Good: Character journeys, It's a fast read, Plot comes together well
The Bad: Most of the artwork is pretty bad, Meanders before it becomes focused
The Basics: Wonder Woman: Flesh might minimize Diana, but her story comes into focus in the bridge story that forces her to accept her new place.


I've had a distinctly mixed relationship with the New 52 version of Wonder Woman, who remains my favorite character in comic book history. The New 52 remade Diana's backstory in a way I found entirely unappealing and unnecessary. Furthermore, writer Brian Azzarello altered Diana's voice in such a way that the character seemed more bitchy than strong, more confrontational than philosophical. And her books have seldom given her the space to actually lead the title because they are so busy packing in a whole pantheon of characters to fill a much broader story. And the artwork has oscillated, but has generally been sub-par compared to the pre-New 52 texts.

By Wonder Woman: Flesh, Azzarello and the whole DC team have succeeded with their strategy. They wore me down. By Volume 5 of the New 52 Wonder Woman, there's simply no point in bitching about the retcon and the rework. It's done. Sure, it's a lousy strategy - the endurance of the publisher banking on outlasting the anger of the fans - but it works for those who have a truly beloved character. Wonder Woman is that for me and with Wonder Woman: Flesh, the story meanders, but comes to a point where it is clear that there is something going on that has the potential to be truly interesting.

The biggest problem with Wonder Woman: Flesh is that it is, essentially, a holding pattern. The book - at its best - is a character journey for the protagonist from denial to acceptance. Unfortunately, that character journey is minimized amid bigger plot activities and packing the book with peripheral characters who move Diana around more than she influences events.

Wonder Woman: Flesh follows directly on the heels of War (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss Flesh without addressing where War ended. That is largely because both books end with essentially the same thing. War had Ares being killed by Diana in the fight against the First Born, which gave her the mantle of God Of War; Wonder Woman: Flesh is about the confluence of events that force her to actually accept her new place in the pantheon of Olympian Gods.

Apollo, now the chief god among the Olympians, visits the Oracles, who tell him the story of the First Born. The First Born was cast out of Olympus and supposed to be killed, but was left to die. Raised by animals, he raised an army of animal creatures to make war on Olympus and now a prophecy indicates that either he or Apollo will rule Olympus and it appears Wonder Woman will be the deciding factor. Apollo calls a council of the gods and includes Wonder Woman, who denies her new mantle as God Of War. When Apollo refuses to restore Hera, Wonder Woman leaves the council and returns to London.

On Earth, Cassandra marshalls her forces to try to find the First Born, while Strife begins to sew discord between Diana and her allies. When Zola and her son take off, Diana enlists Artemis (Moon) to help her find her friend. The hunt comes to a head as Cassandra kidnapping Milan leads Orion to leap into action and the earthbound heroes come into direct conflict with Cassandra and the First Born's forces. But Apollo's demand for the First Born to submit leads to an unexpected result, which pushes Diana in a (somewhat) new direction.

When discussing the plot of Wonder Woman: Flesh it is germane to note that Diana's name seldom comes up. The reason for that is simple: Wonder Woman does not move the plot in Wonder Woman: Flesh. Instead, the other characters in the book have their machinations and eventually Diana starts a search for Zola and that puts her in the middle of, essentially, the conflict between Apollo and the forces of the First Born. It's not the most compelling Wonder Woman story.

What redeems Wonder Woman: Flesh is that in the course of the volume, Diana does make a choice and she finally accepts the potential realized in the last pages of War. The bridge story is not at all compelling on its own and it falls to the next volume to truly unlock the promise of Flesh, but it is enough to keep readers interested until that book.

The artwork in Wonder Woman: Flesh continues to be erratic. The characters are all recognizable, but many of the panels are under-detailed and the sense of movement between the panels and within panels is poorly rendered.

Ultimately, Wonder Woman: Flesh is just enough. It is enough story to justify itself, good-enough artwork to use the medium and enough to bring us back for the next one.

For the rest of the New 52 Wonder Woman, please check out my reviews of:
Volume 1 – Blood
Volume 2 – Guts
Volume 3 – Iron

5.5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Climax To An Unworthy Story: Wonder Woman: War Is A Resounding Success!

The Good: Engaging story, Good pacing, Some good character moments
The Bad: Erratic and simplistic artwork
The Basics: Just as I was ready to write off Wonder Woman, the writers pull out Volume 4, War which is strong enough to give readers hope!


I would like to start my review of Wonder Woman: Volume 4 - War out with a big “fuck you!” to writer Brian Azzarello. Brian Azzarello has been writing Wonder Woman since the New 52 reboot over at DC Comics and he managed to take one of the most interesting characters in the DC Comics pantheon and utterly ruin her. Gone from being a magical, exceptionally ethical, warrior/diplomat, Azzarello rewrote the character as an unimaginatively rendered demi-goddess who is a fish-out-of-water warrior defending her extended family members on a world she is not entirely familiar with. Over the first three volumes of The New 52’s Wonder Woman, Azzarello and his team managed to mortgage almost all of my love for one of the greatest characters in comic book history. Then came Wonder Woman: Volume 4 - War.

And Azzarello pulled it out. Wonder Woman: War is an engaging story with a cool protagonist, compelling villain and enough twists to become an essential part of the new Wonder Woman story. Almost all of the problems that the first three books created are undone or swept to the side in Wonder Woman: War. Given how Wonder Woman’s heritage has been rewritten, by Volume 4 there is no real point in continuing to bitch about how that has happened. Wonder Woman has gone from being a magically-created, somewhat divine creature into a powerful demi-goddess created through a mundane heterosexual relationship between a god and an immortal, so by War, there is no point in fighting that lost cause any longer. Wonder Woman: War seems to acknowledge that because it wastes no time recapping the former volumes and instead, it plunges forward with the narrative and it does so in a fairly good way.

With Apollo figuring out the ins and outs of being the ruler of Olympus and relating to the gods who are now under his command, Diana and her allies regroup. While they figure out a name for Zola’s new baby, the First Born continues his march for dominance by taking Poseidon hostage and threatening him. Diana’s allies begin to abandon her: War and Lennox begging off as Orion hits relentlessly on Diana. With Poseidon and Hell cutting a deal with the First Born that puts their realms outside his quest for power, the First Born turns toward Olympus. But realizing that the baby poses the gravest threat to him, he and Cassandra make a bee-line for Diana’s crew.

With the baby menaced, Wonder Woman comes in in full force and only survives her encounter with the First Born when Lennox and Orion rescue her. Whisked off to New Genesis, Diana finds herself unable to heal on her own. Orion and Highfather get into a feud over jurisdiction with the leader of the New Gods unwilling to risk New Genesis should the First Born turn his attention there. Returning to Earth, Wonder Woman and the First Born get into their final conflict and the result is a fundamental shift in Wonder Woman’s status in the universe!

Wonder Woman: War is a set-up volume, but the set-up is so incredible that it does what none of the prior New 52 Wonder Woman books have done; it makes us want to read what comes next. Wonder Woman has gone through several paradigm shifts over the decades and one of the most problematic was her ascension to godhood, largely because she was assuming a position without a niche. Wonder Woman: War gives Wonder Woman a divine purpose and, in the full Greek tradition, she is given a specific position in the pantheon to take and it is awesome.

Moreover, Wonder Woman: War makes the transition make sense. The First Born is a cool villain who is tied to the peripheral characters in this incarnation of Wonder Woman. Motivated by vengeance toward Hera and with the weight of prophecy, the First Born is dangerous and realistically motivated. Moreover, he is created without any serious defects, making him virtually impossible to defeat, which makes for an engaging story.

Diana in Wonder Woman: War experiences loss and a sense of vulnerability uncommon to the super heroine and it plays well. Wonder Woman may be (largely) invulnerable, but as she and her friends are hunted, she gets seriously wounded. Not only physically beaten, Diana wrestles with loss at the hands of the First Born. There is an evolution in Wonder Woman: War; Hera has a sense of remorse, Diana loses, and Orion proves himself more than just a sleazy god.

What does not work as well in Wonder Woman: War is the artwork. Like so many of the New 52 books, the artwork is simplistic and blockish. In writing 52 books a month, DC Comics created a-list and b-list (and down) comics where they prioritized their best artists. Wonder Woman, unfortunately, seems to be down the list. The characters are rendered blockishly with sloppy lines and vivid, though not realistic coloring. This is like an animated series Wonder Woman where the artists don’t really give a damn about the background or the characters who are not talking at the time!

The result is a good story that makes very poor use of the graphic novel medium. Wonder Woman: War might be the indispensable New 52 Wonder Woman story, but it is not rendered in a compelling way. Ultimately, that makes it a tougher sell than it ought to be, but it is worthwhile and makes one want the next book!

For the rest of the New 52 Wonder Woman, please check out my reviews of:
Volume 1 – Blood
Volume 2 – Guts
Volume 3 – Iron

7/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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I Sure Hope This Is Going Somewhere . . . Wonder Woman - Volume 3: Iron Does Not Get There!

The Good: Good initial artwork, Plot moves along
The Bad: Plot heavy, No real character development, No sense of resolution
The Basics: Wonder Woman - Volume 3: Iron continues an unfortunate tradition in The New 52 incarnation of Wonder Woman, which is to minimize the heroine and focus on the machinations of the gods to move the plot forward.


Hype is a powerful tool. The power hype has to get people to spend their hard-earned dollars is an impressive force, but too often it is used on products that do not support the words used to sell the product. The words that grace the covers of Wonder Woman - Volume 3: Iron make one think the book is going to be a fabulous story about Wonder Woman, but nothing could be further from the truth. Wonder Woman - Volume 3: Iron is largely about the movements of various gods in the DC Comics Universe while Wonder Woman stumbles along looking for a stolen baby.

The difference between the hype and the facts of Wonder Woman - Volume 3: Iron are simple. Wonder Woman - Volume 3: Iron is not a character-driven story, it is not populated by interesting supporting characters, and it is not even a consistently rendered book. Instead, the volume – which compiles issues #0 and #13 through 18 – is plot-centered, overrun by thinly conceived and executed characters and starts with the best artwork of the series and degenerates as the book goes on. For those who love the strength and cunning of Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman - Volume 3: Iron is a huge disappointment; Princess Diana Of Themyscira is told where to go and confronts her siblings in order to locate the baby kidnapped in Wonder Woman – Volume 2: Guts (reviewed here!).

After a flashback storyline that has the ten year-old Diana on Themyscira being bullied by one of her Amazon sisters, Diana is mentored by War (in every other incarnation of Wonder Woman, the villainous god Ares). War teleports Diana to an island where she defeats a minotaur. When War pressures her to kill her defeated foe, Diana resists his influence and War decides to spare her life.

Back in the present storyline, Diana and her half-brother, the demigod Lennox, return to the safehouse where they have Zola and the now-mortal Hera holed up. Zola points out that Hera’s rage at her makes no sense as she did not cheat on Hera; Zeus did. While an ancient god is unearthed in the Antarctic and takes on the minions of Hades and Poseidon, Diana finds her half-sister, Siracca, in the desert and her half-brother, Milan (who is an oracle). In meeting Milan, Diana is teamed up with the New God Orion, who is on a mission to save the universe by killing the baby Diana is searching for. Learning that Zola’s baby from Zeus is hidden with Demeter (Harvest), War and Diana take on Hermes to try to rescue the child.

Wonder Woman - Volume 3: Iron is not motivated by actions that Diana takes and the volume is notably devoid of Wonder Woman using any clever techniques or skills of her own. Author Brian Azzarello trades in using Wonder Woman’s lasso for a new set of gauntlets that deliver her swords to her hands. Diana does not grow or develop. Instead, she meets some of her suddenly new family and goes where they eventually tell her to go. The book is one big wander around the world building to . . . the obvious resolution for this volume.

Throughout the book, there is a thread of the next menace that Diana will face, but it is not resolved at all in the volume. Instead of having a tight or compelling story, Wonder Woman - Volume 3: Iron too frequently loses focus, bouncing from one lackluster unresolved plot thread to the next. Writer Brian Azzarello does not have any incredible lines and the book is markedly lacking in compelling or well-defined themes. Instead, the monolithic supporting characters direct an unfortunately brutish (save a single, important, hug) protagonist to a dull conclusion that leaves the reader hoping the next volume will be better and sold more on substance than hype.

For other Wonder Woman volumes, please check out my reviews of:
Gods And Mortals by George Perez
Wonder Woman: Challenge Of The Gods by George Perez
Beauty And The Beasts By George Perez
Destiny Calling By George Perez
The Contest By William Messner-Loebs
The Challenge Of Artemis By William Messner-Loebs
Second Genesis By John Byrne
Wonder Woman: Lifelines By John Byrne
Paradise Lost By Phil Jimenez
Paradise Found By Phil Jimenez
Down To Earth By Greg Rucka
Eyes Of The Gorgon By Greg Rucka
Land Of The Dead By Greg Rucka
Mission's End By Greg Rucka
The Hiketeia

4/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please check out my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Color Me Unimpressed: Wonder Woman – Volume 2: Guts Disappoints!

The Good: Good character motivations, The plot progresses
The Bad: Choppy writing, Poor artwork, Uninteresting plot and unsurprising character development
The Basics: Wonder Woman goes to hell for no particularly good reasons in Wonder Woman: Guts.


I have not, honestly, been a huge fan of the concept of the DC Universe “New 52” strategy. Any time one reboots an entire company based on a catchy slogan that forever ties them to the concept is just begging for disaster. Even so, I have diligently read many of the books in the New 52 and I was not about to let a little universal reboot stop me from enjoying one of my all-time favorites, Wonder Woman. Even though writer Brian Azzarello and DC Comics took Wonder Woman in a completely different direction than before with the New 52 reboot, I did not hate Wonder Woman: Volume 1 – Blood (reviewed here!).

The same cannot be said for Wonder Woman: Volume 2 – Guts.

Wonder Woman: Guts is one of those rare volumes of comic book literature that gets worse the more I consider it. In fact, more than any comic book anthology in recent memory, Wonder Woman: Guts made me second guess what I had just read and in doing so, I found myself feeling more disappointed and angry than anything else. In fact, Wonder Woman: Guts just might be the worst Wonder Woman book I have yet read (and I have read at least thirty, including this volume)! It is also worth noting that it is impossible to discuss Wonder Woman: Guts without revealing some aspects of Wonder Woman: Blood, so consider that a spoiler alert!

Picking up right where Blood left off, Diana (Wonder Woman), Hermes, and their hardheaded companion Lennox meet up with Eros. Eros brings Diana to Hephaestus, where she learns the horrible truth of what happens to the Amazon men that have never been seen on Paradise Island. From there, the group heads to the underworld in search of Zola, the woman Diana promised to protect and who is carrying Zeus’s latest baby. That child, if it is born, is prophesized to kill the Greek gods, which puts all of the deities on edge. In the underworld, Diana confronts Hades, in the form of a small child with a candle head (which, admittedly, is pretty cool character design).

After almost marrying Hades and defeating him, Diana returns with her companions to the mortal world where Apollo and Artemis are making their own play for Zola. With the birth of Zola’s baby imminent and the gods and goddesses duking it out, Wonder Woman tries desperately to keep her friend safe.

Wonder Woman: Guts is hampered entirely by a lack of a sense of consequences. The threat to Wonder Woman is minimal. Despite Eros’s weapons being used to shoot holes in the heroine, there is a general feeling that there is nothing consequential happening in the pages. In other words, the consequence for Diana failing or surrendering, for most of the book is . . . she is not able to live up to her promise. While I admire the integrity of the superhero quite a bit, when the stakes are that others might not be able to trust her to protect them simply because she vowed that she would try to save them, it’s not exactly earth shattering.

In fact, Wonder Woman: Guts creates an odd ethical stance for Diana. In protecting Zola and Zola’s unborn child, she is abetting murder; the baby is supposed to kill at least one of the Greek gods . . . so knowing that, Diana is helping to kill one of the gods, if she succeeds. And if she fails, the fetus dies, but the petty Greek gods live on. It’s a real “who cares” dilemma, especially when it becomes clear that Diana is in no mortal danger and there’s little chance she will marry Hades.

Therein lies the other serious problem with Wonder Woman: Guts. The book has a choppy sense of flow to it. Diana goes from committing to marrying Hell to being in conflict with him and the whole episode reads like there were interstitial bits missing.

Even more serious a problem is the artwork. The entirety of Wonder Woman: Guts, the penciling is blockish and almost every panel is troublingly underdetailed. There is a poor sense of movement within and between panels. In fact, the only truly exceptional bits of artwork in the book are the covers included for the fans and the design (and for some panels, the execution of) of Wonder Woman’s would-be wedding dress. Despite the underdetailed and blockish characters throughout, the coloring in the book is consistently good with steady vibrant colors throughout.

But in the end, Wonder Woman: Guts is a dismal continuation of the Wonder Woman story where the protagonist wanders through the political machinations of the Greek gods, which is hardly an engaging way to reinvent the iconic heroine.

For other New 52 works, please visit my reviews of:
Green Lantern: Sinestro
Green Lantern: Revenge Of The Black Hand
The Flash: Move Along
Justice League: Origins
Batgirl: The Darkest Reflection
Batgirl: Knightfall Descends
Green Lantern New Guardians: The Ring Bearer
Red Lanterns: Blood And Rage

2/10

For other book reviews, please be sure to check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Batman Is 3/4 Wonderful Comic Book Storytelling!

The Good: The Batman story is pretty awesome, The Deadman and Deathstroke stories are entertaining and well-paced
The Bad: Mediocre artwork, Secret Seven story is an unreadable dud.
The Basics: The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Batman is three interesting stories with enough to establish the peripheral characters and world in Flashpoint without making one worry too much about how the final section is just crap.


For those who do not follow my graphic novel reviews regularly, I make no secret about not being a fan of Batman comics. What little I have read of them, they tend to be repetitive and that bothers me much much more than the violence and lack of character growth. So, as my Flash year nears its end and I find myself taking on the Flashpoint Saga, it will not surprise anyone that I was not hugely excited about reading The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Batman.

So, I was pleasantly surprised!

The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Batman, like most of the World Of Flashpoint books, features four stories that are set in the alternate reality that is Flashpoint (reviewed here!). These tend to focus on Batman and those peripherally related to Batman and, as such, is one of the darker anthologies in the Flashpoint Saga.

Opening with “Batman: Knight Of Vengeance,” The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Batman explores Gotham City. Ruled by business magnate Thomas Wayne, Gotham City is filled with casinos, so Wayne can control the funding of the mob. At night, Thomas Wayne takes up the mantle of the Batman, as his son, Bruce, was once killed in a random act of violence. When Harvey Dent’s children are captured by the Joker, Wayne and Jim Gordon follow the clues to find the new lair of the Joker, a mission that pits Thomas Wayne against one of his greatest, and most personal, adversaries.

“Batman: Knight Of Vengeance” is a clever twist on the familiar Batman character and villain. Much like the classic The Killing Joke (reviewed here!), this chapter of The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Batman fleshes out the Joker in an intriguing way that is super creepy. This chapter had a huge significant reversal in the identity of the character that made me, a complete non-fan of this character and story, engaged and excited for the rest of the book.

The second section of the book is “Deadman And The Flying Graysons.” Coming off the Brightest Day Saga, Boston Brand (Deadman) was one of my favorite characters in the DC Universe, so I was biased toward this story as I began reading it. The carnival is traveling through Europe, featuring the Daredevil Boston Brand as its high flying solo trapeze artist, opposite the troupe the Flying Graysons. With the Atlantean/Amazon war spreading through Europe, the troupe heads toward Poland. En route, Dr. Fate gives Boston a vision of his future as an Amazon begins hunting for Dr. Fate’s helmet. The Amazons attack the circus, killing Dick Grayson’s mother and scattering the allies. When Dr. Fate is slain, Vertigo (from the Resistance) arrives to take the helm, Boston Brand, and Dick Grayson to safety. With their search for the helm turning desperate, the Amazon’s set the country ablaze!

The “Deadman” section of The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Batman is an absolute bloodbath. However, given that many of the characters killed off are secondary characters like Ragdoll and Dick Grayson’s mother, it is hard to get overly invested in the trauma and war story. Come to think of it, given that this is an obscure corner of a very temporary world, this chapter is diverting and entertaining, but very hard to get excited about. It is a novelty chapter, though, to be fair, the artwork in it makes it feel top-notch.

I had absolutely no interestin the “Deathstroke And The Curse Of The Ravager” chapter, despite finally knowing who Deathstroke is from reading Teen Titans graphic novels earlier this year. Deathstroke, in his chapter, is a literal pirate. Out on the high seas, he encounters Warlord (recovering a woman in suspended animation in the process) and then Aquaman and his brother. The entire time, Deathstroke is searching for his captured daughter, Rose. Rose is being traded around metahuman ships and as Deathstroke assembles a team to recover her, he must put down a mutiny, learn who his new “cargo” is and fight off a deathblow to survive long enough to save his daughter.

The Deathstroke chapter is engaging, though it is a very limited story that has some obvious elements. In addition to Deathstroke being characteristically obsessed with his daughter, it has such banal elements as Aquaman declaring himself mad with grief, which sounds more like a writer’s note on the character than an actual plausible line. The artwork in this section is decent and has a good sense of movement. For those who like pirate stories, this satisfies.

The Secret Seven section of The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Batman is utterly unbearable, though. Filled with magic-users, like Zatanna, it seems to serve only to explain how and why Enchantress switches sides in Flashpoint. I didn’t care there and this story did not make me care here.

Ultimately, The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Batman is one of the better compilations, with three of the four stories being engaging, clever, and interesting and the final one being nothing more than deadweight.

For other Flashpoint-related books, be sure to check out my reviews of:
The Flash: The Dastardly Death Of The Rogues
The Road To Flashpoint
The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Green Lantern
The World Of Flashpoint Featuring Superman

6/10

For other graphic novel reviews, be sure to check out my Graphic Novel Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Horrible Idea With A Passably Good Execution: Wonder Woman: Blood Flops For Fans!

The Good: Engaging enough story out of context, Fine character motivations
The Bad: Terrible reworking of the character based on her history, Mostly mediocre artwork
The Basics: For DC’s “The New 52” rework of Wonder Woman comes a story that pretty much guts the character we know and love completely with Wonder Woman: Blood.


I am a good enough reviewer to be able to be honest when I am biased going into an experience and when I am a fan of something. I am a fan of Wonder Woman and I was incredibly biased against Wonder Woman: Blood before I read it. All I knew about the “New 52” reboot of the Wonder Woman comic book (and the Wonder Woman mythos) was that Wonder Woman was being given a father for the first time in her history and her father would be Zeus (this is not a spoiler, as this is revealed in the first chapter of Wonder Woman: Blood).

As a fan of Wonder Woman, this immediately struck me as one of the worst ideas that the executives and creative forces at DC Comics could come up with. I can only suspect that such executives looked at the general demographics and discovered that while people had a pretty firm idea of the origins of Superman or Batman, they had no idea of how Wonder Woman came to be (or knew that there were some contradictory origin stories) and they decided to make a juicy reboot to get new readers. But as a fan of Wonder Woman, the idea that Zeus is Wonder Woman’s father is about as boneheaded as the idea of rebooting Kal-El’s story to have him crash land in midtown Detroit or have a new origin for Aquaman where he actually comes from the planet Tunaton Tiberius XII (an all-crystal planet). But, apparently eager for neophytes and more than willing to piss off the fans of the established Wonder Woman to sell books, Wonder Woman: Blood witlessly reinvents the wheel.

This is an exceptionally problematic thing for devoted Wonder Woman readers as Wonder Woman spent the year prior to this volume struggling to find herself through an altered reality that was Odyssey (volume 1 is reviewed here!). That divergence in the main story of Wonder Woman worked because reality was fundamentally altered and the quest for Diana was to work her way back to the world she knew. Plagued by visions of her home and her old superheroine self, she struggled to rediscover her true nature and restore reality. So, it feels like a pretty low mindfuck to loyal readers to have our hero restored only to have her completely changed as the post-Flashpoint reboot did.

Hera, the Greek goddess, is bringing her vengeance to Earth by transforming a horse into two mythical creatures that are beset upon a woman, Zola. Zola is rescued by Hermes, who gives her a key that teleports her to London and the home of Diana (who is already Wonder Woman). Suiting up, Wonder Woman dispatches Hera’s minions and begins to take care of Zola, who is pregnant with Zeus’s child. When Strife intervenes, as Hermes (who is wounded), Wonder Woman, and Zola teleport to Themyscira, Diana learns from Hippolyta her true origins. Not made of clay at all, Hippolyta was impregnated by Zeus and Diana is the result of that union.

Treated as an outcast by her sisters on the island, upon learning her true origins, Diana returns to London where she barhops and protects Zola from harm (ultimately in the form of Strife). When Hera brings her wrath to Themyscira, Diana and a Lennox lure Poseidon and Hades out into the open to attempt to negotiate with them to put Hera back in her place.

First, as much as I loathed the fundamental idea of the reboot of the character in Wonder Woman: Blood, Brian Azzarello does a decent job with the story. Azzarello, who impressed me before with Luthor (reviewed here!), gives Diana a distinctive and interesting voice. Despite my serious problems with the plot, Wonder Woman: Blood moves at a decent clip and creates a character who is interesting for her reaction to having her world turned upside down. Diana stands up for herself in a way that is compelling and empowering, which is exactly what Diana’s story is supposed to be about.

Hera is characterized with surprisingly little characterization. She is the jealous bitch goddess in Wonder Woman: Blood. There is nothing to her motivation but the desire to get revenge upon those who have been with her husband. Zeus, absent for the entirety of Wonder Woman: Blood, is only defined by how others refer to him and as a result, Hera comes across as a strange emotional simpleton. In fact, Hera might be the least compelling villain for Wonder Woman as she exhibits no emotional intelligence and somehow expects Zeus’s ingrained behaviors of thousands of years will abruptly change. Hardly an example for the modern woman, Hera is petty, jealous, irrational, and stupid.

Sadly, this reflects poorly on both Azzarello and Wonder Woman. The hero is best defined by the strength and intensity of the villain. In this case, Diana manages to avoid the crazed wife of her biological father while her people are essentially laid to waste. Keeping Zola safe is hardly presented in an interesting way because avoiding someone who is not exactly hunting you down is hardly a compelling conflict.

Strife, on the other hand, makes for an interesting morally-ambiguous antagonist in Wonder Woman: Blood. However, despite her being a distinct addition to the Wonder Woman mythos, Strife actually highlights how poor the artwork is in this first volume. As someone who has been studying more and more DC Comics, I have noticed a past trend that seems to be true for the books compiled into Wonder Woman: Blood; DC illustrates which books it is betting on for reboots by giving them fantastic artists. DC was not betting on Wonder Woman in the New 52. Cliff Chiang and Tony Atkins present Wonder Woman in very blockish terms. Strife looks like a bobble head or Mr. Burns from the episode of The Simpsons where they did an homage to The X-Files (“The Springfield Files”).

While the colors in Wonder Woman: Blood are vibrant enough, the artwork is largely simplistic and uninspired. The new outfit is not nearly as distinctive or interesting as the Odyssey reimagining of it and despite the final act of this book, Wonder Woman: Blood just feels like the talents involved did not care enough to give it their best.

For other Wonder Woman volumes, please check out my reviews of:
Gods And Mortals by George Perez
Wonder Woman: Challenge Of The Gods by George Perez
Beauty And The Beasts By George Perez
Destiny Calling By George Perez
The Contest By William Messner-Loebs
Wonder Woman: Lifelines By John Byrne
Paradise Lost By Phil Jimenez
Down To Earth By Greg Rucka
Eyes Of The Gorgon By Greg Rucka
Land Of The Dead By Greg Rucka
Mission's End By Greg Rucka
The Hiketeia

3.5/10

For other book reviews, please be sure to check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Villains Tale, Luthor Is At Least Worth The Read!

The Good: Decent character work, Engaging plot, Some of the artwork
The Bad: Much of the penciling is rough.
The Basics: Through an elaborate series of machinations, Lex Luthor attempts to turn Metropolis against Superman in a largely successful anthology.


As I near the end of my Wonder Woman Year, I have been finding it increasingly difficult to get in the last five graphic novel (trade paperback anthologies) from the Amazon Princess and as such, I have gone out several times to find that I had nothing to read while out, save non-Wonder Woman works. Today, when Barnes & Noble let me down (why does every major outlet think the only Wonder Woman work they ought to carry is Love And Murder?!), I did see something new on the shelf which caught my eye. That was Luthor, the new graphic novel by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo.

It ought to be noted that I have no real love of Superman and in the last year, I have only read one book from the Superman line because, well, largely, the character is monolithic and lacks subtlety, which tends to be of far less interest to me, both as a writer and a reader.  So, the promise of a story that focused exclusively on Lex Luthor was of more interest to me and that is what Luthor offered.  There I can offer the first public service of a reviewer: DON'T READ THE BACK OF THE BOOK!  The back to Luthor dramatically understates the character motivation of the protagonist and essentially rehashes the in-text big character moment of Luthor.  The key for a book about Lex Luthor would have to be making Lex Luthor a viable protagonist and one whom the reader wants to empathize with.  Sadly, once one truly understands his perspective, the book does not go beyond that and thus, reading the back of Luthor pretty much sells the reader out on the idea of Luthor's journey.

What the back of the book doesn't ruin is the plot.  I'm happy not to ruin that either, but I will say what Luthor is about . . .

After a conversation between Lex Luthor and his evening janitor, Stanislaw Levin, Luthor has Mona  - his assistant - get Levin's son into an exceptionally exclusive school which Lex endows.  At the same time in Chechnya, Mr. Ott, working for Lex Luthor, rescues a scientist, Dr. Sasha Ferov.  Ferov, an obvious victim of a setup returns to Metropolis and LexCorp with the assurances that he will be safe and there Lex Luthor begin utilizing his talents to have him rehabilitate a woman.

The function of that woman soon becomes clear.  Her name is Hope and she is charged with the task of protecting Metropolis.  Within a week of her arrival, she has captured the hearts and minds of Metropolis and is offering the citizens there a very human alternative to Superman.  Luthor also enlists the aid of fellow businessman Bruce Wayne to see his plot to fruition and the unlikely alliance develops into a plot wherein Hope must rescue Metropolis from a killing spree from the Toyman!

Luthor is a pretty tight conspiracy story and what makes it work so well are two things.  The first is that there is a lot going on on the plot level.  Lex Luthor has his hands in many pies and through Ott, the reader sees that he is a master player playing all sorts of elements within his own organization against one another.  Ott “rescues” the one scientist in the world who can help Luthor bring Hope to full power and to give her a mission.  But Ott also handles the wetworks for a union problem Lex is having and he is acting as an intermediary hiring the Toyman, which makes him one of the most valuable members of Luthor’s staff.  But while the story might have a tendency to drag, writer Brian Azzarello mixes it up enough to keep the pace interesting and the plot elements feeling new.  So, for example, while Luthor is busy meeting with Bruce Wayne to give him a gift of kryptonite, Batman and Superman have a battle which is intercut with the scene, from after the gift is given.  Luthor is a surprisingly adeptly told story with enough elements to keep readers interested, even if much of it is not a surprise.

What makes the journey so worthwhile are the characters: Lex Luthor and Hope.  Luthor has a perspective which becomes easy to understand in Luthor which is that Superman acts as protector and guide based only on his word and his sense of morals.  But Superman isn’t human and Luthor lives with a fear that Superman could simply change his mind at any moment and no one on Earth could stop him.   But more than being about fear, Lex Luthor is characterized almost equally (or more) by hope.  In Luthor, Lex is a visionary who wants to keep pushing the envelope of human evolution, cunning and development.  He sees Superman as an artificial barrier to that.  In other words, because so many people view Superman as the ideal, that is what they strive to be, not something better than or beyond him.  And Luthor considers that Superman isn’t human even, therefore making that limit is like giving up before humanity tries.  So, his mission is to discredit and drive off Superman so humans can achieve more and, yes, he can continue prospering  beyond any realistic sense of need.

To that end, Luthor has Hope.  Hope is a hot new number flying around in a silver suit, rescuing people and missing the first attempt by the Toymaker, which makes her appear more vulnerable and human to the populace.  Moreover, she knows all the buzzwords to make Metropolis fall in love with her as their “native daughter” and that plays remarkably well for her cause and for the purpose Lex is using her for.  Regardless, there is a charm to the naivite of Hope which makes her interesting beyond her comic book looks.

Unfortunately, Luthor is still a tough sell for graphic novel readers in its artwork.  The artwork is great in the coloring.  Panels oscillate between golden tones for rooms at sunset, dark clubs in Gotham with distinctive blue tones and a steel tone for work environments.  The colors are lush and some of the images of the title character look almost like presidential portraits.  But the penciling is wildly erratic.  Most of the pencilwork looks like sketches, with the images having a sloppy, less finished look to them.  What is interesting and distinct is Superman.  In the few scenes he is in Luthor, he is portrayed with an accent on his alien nature, his eyes always blazing red and that helps sell Lex Luthor’s perspective throughout the work.

And that is certainly enough to recommend the volume.  Anyone looking for a story that makes a good argument in favor of a villain and his perspective will find something in Luthor to enjoy!

For other graphic novels, please check out my reviews of:
Justice
Wonder Woman: Rise Of The Olympian
Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps

6.5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts.  May not be reprinted without permission.

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