Superman/Batman #37,#38 DC Comics By Alan Burnett & Dustin Nguyen
(It’s another pulse pounding Random Comic review. That’s “random” as in random.) I don’t know about you but I have had a desperate, almost crippling, need to know what the Producer of The Superman/Batman Animated Series would be like as a comic writer. And this comic answers that need. I mean, it’s not as though there are people screaming out for the opportunity to write comics. Y’know people who write for a living for example. (And no, I’m not one of them.) Now, if only my dream of having First Key Grip on Batman Begins write an issue of Prez could be realised.
The plot is elegantly simple; Someone is using Batman’s villains to initiate an attack on Superman. See, Batman and Superman are involved for a clear comic booky reason, nicely done. However, it’s the execution I found grating. It seems like a nice fun plot that would be right at home in oh, I don’t know, an episode of The Superman/Batman Animated Series. But, it’s set in the mainstream DCU, which is a whole different belfry of bats. In the ‘toons the emphasis is on fun, speed and spectacle. In the mainstream DCU the emphasis is on giving everything a veneer of "reality"; because comics aren’t for kids anymore and God forbid anyone should forget that. So you get two contradictory approaches smushed together, which is par for the course these days but isn’t to my taste.
A nice light plot is thus punctuated by toe curling character scenes to prove that hey! Clark has friends and they talk just like you or I do. The dialogue here is awful, particularly the verbals given to Pete Ross. I mean, if my pal called my wife “hot” I would probably pop him a good one on the nose, but I guess they do things differently over the pond. Man, we’re so uptight over here. Well, I am. Then there’s about three pages spent on the sadistically slow murder of a nameless woman. I understand why it’s there (it’s a clue, y’see, to the murderer’s identity) but I don’t understand why it couldn’t have been dialled back a bit. Kirby, for ‘tis a Kirby Kharacter, would have got the point across quicker and less explicitly. And it comes a wee bit close to the identity reveal to be of any real narrative use. There’s obviously no room for subtlety in "realism" as the team drop the ball again in what could have been a nice moment a certain Mystery Villain. We could have done with just the foot wobble rather than the full pratfall. But the cake is taken, eaten and expelled from the metaphorical fundament by the cliff-hanger to #37. A dream. It was only a dream! It’s 2007, people that boat won’t float anymore. By Krypton’s Moons, that bit really nipped my ‘nads.
Art is provided by Dustin Nguyen, and I didn’t like it. Mainly because of Clark Kent’s hair. Unless Starro has dyed himself black and is hiding on Clark’s head I am at a loss to explain this tendril-do. I like Clark with his short back and sides, neatly parted. I found the art oddly weightless, due to Nguyen’s thin line. Also, there is a lack of detail to the art; now leaving stuff out is what defines good comic art to me, but deciding on what it is right to leave in/out is crucial. Obviously Mr. Nguyen and I disagree on which is the right stuff and which is the wrong stuff. And, since I have trouble drawing my next breath while Mr. Nguyen draws for comics, I may be wrong here. If you like Nguyen’s work you’ll like this.
I didn’t like these books but at least you feel like you’ve read a whole comic at the end of each of them, rather than a cynical dribble of story bloated by bad writing gases. I just had problems with the approach, you may feel differently, after all there are far (far) more awful books out there. But really don’t The Dark Knight and The Man of Steel deserve better than something this ultimately perfunctory? I think so.
Hey, it wasn't NA awful but it was mediocre. But, yes in comparison to most of DC's other titles this was like Martin Amis and Pablo Picasso knocking the doors off the barn in a comic book stylee.
Welcome back, ey! see any Moose? (Mooses? Mooseses?)
Thanks. Just got back this morning, quick shower and then straight into OK HQ. I'm a bit drunk from lack of sleep. I went to quite a few comic book shops in Toronto. Then out to Sarnia to meet the inlaws and friends n stuff. Great fun, but quite tiring. We even went camping for a few days, which was good. It only rained once the whole time I was there, most of the time we had clear blue skies and 90 degree heat. I had a great time but it's good to be back.
