Reviews!

Enough of the Green Lantern pictures...at least for today.  Because of course, yesterday was Wednesday...the BEST day of the week, with the possible exception of Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  And a fairly decent week it was.  I would have liked to have done a review of Saga, but my beloved Comic Book Store was shorted on its order, and I got burned.

Dagnabit!

Batgirl #16

And we continue with the whole Death of the Family story, as Barbara is being forced into a mock "marriage" to the Joker, in order to save the life of her mother.  This is well done, and the art is  ok, and of course I love Gail Simone, but man...I do wish that this whole Joker story would just reach its conclusion already.

Batgirl, is desperately trying to figure out a way to stymie the Joker, and she is also constrained not only by her fear for her mother, but by her own hate and rage over what he did to her.  And then just in time to confuse things even further, her evil Brother James shows up and throws a monkey wrench into the whole fiasco.  I found it interesting that even the Joker seemed rocked a tiny bit off of his balance...this was one thing that he hadn't accounted for.

And we end, with the Joker holding a covered dish, that doesn't bode well, since I am pretty sure that it isn't prime rib.

Pretty decent, actually.


Batman #16

Speaking of pertty decent, I do have to admit that I have been enjoying the Bat books.  Scott Snyder is an excellent writer, and Greg Capullo is an excellent artist, and it has been quite the ride, seeing the strange and perverted love affair that the Joker has with Batman.  Unrequited of course, but nonetheless, quite real.

They are in Arkham now, and Bats is desperately trying to free the guards, but of course, their cells have been boobytrapped.  The Joker always seems to be one step ahead of him, no matter how he tries.  It was pretty bizarre when Batman tried to sneak in through the stables, not only was there a horse on fire, but then after being attacked by the quasi-knights, he PUNCHES a horse.  This of course should not surprise anybody.  Batman has a history of punching large quadrupeds, and even the occasional bided.  He punched a rhino for God's Sake!  I also am at a loss to explain why Arkham Asylum would even HAVE a stable, but I don't live in Gotham.  In Connecticut we have the Governor's Horse Guard, which is rather a nice thing to have.

Anyhoo...Batman finally makes his way to where the Joker is hanging out, only to discover that not only does he have hostages dressed up as the Justice League, but he is also holding court with none other than the Penguin, the Riddler and Two-Face.  It is always a delight to see the Penguin and the Riddler, both of whom I am rather fond of.  Two-Face...not quite so much, but still.  There is even a throne for Batman.  The Joker tells the poor hostages that if they can pull the chainsaw from the stone, then they can go free.

Right.

The whole thing is a twisted Arthurian mockery, Snyder does a brilliant job of showing the Joker's madness, and devotion to detail.  Batman of course ascends the throne and is in for the shock of his life.  Also there is a short story at the back, concerning the reactions of Penguin, Riddler and Two-Face, and darned if that covered dish doesn't make an appearance again.  The Joker really wants to show off his culinary skills.

Damned goo.

Batman & Robin #16

Holy Plethora of Batbooks!

Seriously, this is a lot of books.  It does make it easy to see what is going to happen however.  Tomasi and Gleason do their usual superlative job with the writing and the artwork.  Damian had been captured of course, and is now facing Batman, who seems to have been infected with Joker venom and is going his level best to kill his son.  And you know that Batman's level best is pretty darned good!  Damian, bless his twisted little heart, is doing HIS level best to talk him out of it, and to try and snap him back to reality, but he's got the same venom as well, and things aren't going so well.

And Damian finally decides that he can't kill his own father, and offers up himself!  Just when Batman is about to kill his own son, the Joker steps in, and it turns out of course that it isn't really Batman at all, just some poor Martial Arts expert.  Damian stabs the Joker in the foot with a screwdriver, but it doesn't even slow him down.  I'm not even sure if he even feels it!  He drags Damian off, and then offers him that samed cursed covered dish.

What on earth is IN that thing?  Alfred's head?  Head cheese?  Cheese and crackers?  I guess we will have to wait and find out.

Also darned good.


Demon Knights #16

I have to say that I do enjoy this book.  Thirty years have gone by since our unusual little group banded together to save Camelot and Avalon and all that stuff.  The Horsewoman has been pursued and captured, and tossed into prison, where to her surprise, she finds none other than Exoristos and Sir Ystin...also all chained up.  Then the vizier comes in, apologizes, and takes them  upstairs to see his boss.  Who, it turns out, is Al Jabr!  Unlike the rest of them, he has aged.  He aplogogizes as well, he is runnign this nice little country, that is a marvel of beauty and peace, using his science.  And he's trying to get The Band back together to fight a new evil menace.

It's pretty menacing as it turns out.  Cain, is running around being a vampire or something, and drinking people's blood throughout Europe, and turning them into his vampire slaves.  He also has what appears to be an Amazon helping him, which infuriates Exoristos.  And in Gibralter, Vandal Savage is entertaining himself by torturing Jason Blood.  Too bad he can't turn into Etrigan...although I'm pretty sure that is going to change in the near future.

It is an interesting set up, and I can hardly wait to see what is going to happen next.

Threshold: The Hunted #1

This is more of what was just presented in the Green Lantern: New Guardians Annual.  I was not particularly impressed with that book, although some of the concepts were interesting, I found it to be very hard to follow, and the various people were so amazingly out of character.  At least in this book, using mostly new characters, they don't seem OUT of character, because we have never seen them before.  So this actually works a bit better.

Jediah Caul, the undercover Green Lantern seems to be the new protagonist of this book, and he is slightly less annoying than he was in the previously mentioned Annual.  "Criminals" to Lady Styx are hunted by various professional Gangs, and by regular people, and the whole thing is being broadcast to appease the populace, which is a rather biting commentary on social media.  Of course Howard Chaykin did the same thing quite some time ago.  Still...I suppose that I may stick with this a bit to see what happens.

And of course there is a backup story with Larfleeze, who ends up being...robbed!


Dang it, I really did want to read Saga.

Not a bad week all things considered.