Superman/Batman #52 Review

Lil Leaugers Part 2

Written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson
Art by Rafael Albuquerque

The big twist when you read this comic is how dark it gets. It started off as simply enough but there is a transition which is handled well but it seems to come out of no where. I really did enjoy the first part but it just seemed like there was no need to make the story that dark. You start off smiling reading this enjoying all the little moments then you start to see where this is going and it just really ruins the mood that the first issue created. I enjoyed the shout out to Tiny Titans. It was a funny moment seeing the Lil Leaugers watch Tiny Titans and understand how the other heroes personify them. the heroes see them the same way they see Tiny Titans. Another little moment was about how the soapy water stings your eyes when Lil Batman was talking about the Joker acid. After that the scene where Lil Blue died was the moment where the comic got all dark. I don't think that was a good move due to the fact that a big appeal of this comic happened to be the nice wholesome feel to it but that goes out the window. Due to the dark turn of the comic I am very scared of what would happen if Lil Joker and Joker did get together. I imagine if they do pick this up it will be after Batman RIP so you got holocaust big Joker and Lil Joker out basically destroying everything. That sort of does interest me but I don't think it could be pulled off by Green and Johnson so it wouldn't work. This is a disappointing ending to what could have been a very fun if it didn't get all serious in the end. It does continue a majority of the mood found in the previous issue and the transition isn't isnt extremely jarring so it manages to work.

Art: BALLIN
Overall: GET IT

Jam Session

Welcome to the latest Jame Session and today we got an extra long segment featuring the monster WWE draft recap and also weekly awards. Seeing as we are a comic blog I am obligated to give out awards before we can get to the draft recap. The award this week mean a whole lot more thanks to the heroic actions of Adam Copeland who brought about the biggest surprise in the draft. The nominees for the Adam Copeland Award of Excellence are the following:

Superman/Batman #49- Featuring a stunning conclusion in which has been a nice arc this title continues to be on the up and up. Albeit it was disappointing that they resolved a potentially interesting plotline too soon and this was a slow week.

Wolverine #66- The Old Man Logan arc is kicking off and the Marvel hype machine may be its own worst enemy as it does take some of the edge from the debut as Marvel usually spells out what happens. The issue nonetheless survives the damage done and is an enjoyable ride.

X-Factor #32- After Messiah Complex this title was gutted worse than Smackdown in the WWE draft but it has managed to rebound and set itself up as the premier X-title for the foreseeable future. It is said if someone said it better you should quote them so "This issue showed signs of progression for my favorite disbanded degenerates." [Sports God]

The Brave and the Bold #14- Mark Waid continues his enjoyable run. Though this title is shallower than the Raiders "Commitment to Excellence" it unlike the Raiders is actually enjoyable to watch [errr read] and is a fun ride. It does suffer from having no impact in the continuity of DC but it is such a fun ride that showcases a lot of DCU that you don't get to see.

On this day I see clearly that...............................................................................................................


Superman/Batman

This title has been absolutely classy for six issues now. It features some of the best chemistry between the big two and as I read it you can see that DC is trying to make Trinity into this on a weekly basis. Green and Johnson also dig deep into the history of this title and keep it constant by bringing up the things that past writers have setup such as the Toyman and give this comic a rich legacy that most comics don't have since other writers don't play homage to what the previous writers have done.

Now for the Rusty Venture award. This was a pretty weak week and a lot of worthy comics made the cut for this award. Let us look at the list of candidates who managed to make the cut for this prestigious award.

Trinity #3: Crash and burn in its finest form. Usually it takes 3 months to officially condemn a title but DC is really trying to beat the pack and has done in three weeks what it takes titles 3 months to do. Managing to create an atmosphere in which you cannot care about the main story but also featuring a backup story that is intolerable. You are getting two bad reads in one comic!!! How insane is that?

Iron Man: Director of S.H.E.I.L.D. #30: There are not enough periods in that title heading. In this title that is destined for cancellation and it is an all out sprint to the end. This title is in a terrible state and this could finally be it's week.

Amazing Spider-Man #563: Before Trinity could suck amazingly hard, before Iron Man fell there was Spider-Man leading the way for fallen flagships. Marvel isn't pulling any punches and has condemned the wall crawler to never be able to develop and grow. It was a gutsy call and in the long run has made Spider-man a front runner. Is this the week that Spider-Man breaks through?

And the Venture Bros worthy comic is............................................................................................


Trinity
Spider-Man has the chance to rebound since there will be a Spider-Man 4 movie and since Trinity is a yearly series it has a ceiling that in most cases is a floor. This title basically can't or won't recover. It is already written and it could recover in the future but that is highly unlikely since it is a weekly title and it has a definitive end meaning it probably won't try to improve. A title is truly deserving when you can't put into words how much you dislike it and what it has accomplished. DC has managed to make me not care about this title as of now it is on the proverbial list.



There you go those are my winners and my other winner. Now it is time for the big WWE draft recap.

The big surprise was the fact that HHH got drafted to Smackdown and broke the biggest rule of the Untouchable list which I had posted. In the past HHH has been drafted to Smackdown but managed to reamin on Raw so he could manage to pull that off again so I refuse to concede that point.

Next was Jeff Hardy, Sports God absolutely pegged this one while I missed it. This of course mean that Jeff will be in the title picture in Smackdown. This was a big move for sure and could possibly be to help Smackdown for the big move back to the channel formerly known as UPN [I miss you man, and your heavy black programming].

Umanga was a a contest call which was the only sure thing from last night.

The reaction I had to the draft was absolutely stunned. Sports God and I watched the draft together and though our predictions were off before the broadcast it was during the broadcast that Sports God hit his groove as he called the picks once he saw what WWE was doing. I am proud to say I called the HHH pick at the end of the draft because I figured Smackdown was just getting jobbed and they were due for a quality pick that transcended all that jobbing. It was clear ECW wasn't going to win anything because you can't win that battle royal with Matt Hardy as your leader. Raw could have ran away with it but they didn't count on the Edge factor. Edge clearly stole the show as he out-speared Batista which was a truly memorable moment. It was good for Kennedy to get off the Raw because he was a bust and on Smackdown he go back to being a loud obnixious punk with a lot of upside. Overall that Draft and Raw was spectactular except for the Vince storyline again. That was not needed at all and in bad taste especially since it is or was on the anniversity of the Benoit incident. It was a great Raw and for once I can actually tune into Smackdown with greater interest than ever before [Hopefully they can manage to get JBL to announce with JR which would be almost as fantastic as JBL and Cole which in retrospect was possibly the greatest announce team ever since it helped carry Smackdown for all that time].

Superman/Batman #49 Review

"Cache"
Written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson
Art and cover by Shane Davis and Matt "Batt" Banning

Certain people will attest that I have raved about how awesome this title is for awhile now and this title continues to be exceptional no matter what some people say. Apparently this a divisive title that you will ever think is poorly written or well written. This issue is the end of Green's debut arc and for me I really enjoyed it. The running narration between Superman and Batman is enjoyable but I can see how it gets old for some people. The big reveal is that Lana Lang has been behind the whole selling weapons to the government to kill Superman. I think a lot of people are having trouble will this whole heel turn of hers but actually this goes along the lines of how she has been written since Superman: Godfall way back when. She has had that creepy obsessive vibe for a couple years now. A problem I had though is that they instantly solved the problem of Superman not being able to enter Earth. That had the potential to be a great Superman story and it is a shame it is wasted and makes me wonder why Luthor never thought of it. Another thing I liked was the reasoning for selling the weapons, it wasn't about killing Superman but it was to help all the people who are employed by Luthor, the salt of the Earth people which makes sense. There is also the fair share of humor with the Power Girl cameo which is always a welcome. The ending was what really stuck with me about how we got the Tower of Babel Batman again with him stocking piling Kryptonite [including the one that makes Superman high] in his batcave. It was a bittersweet thing because Superman made the geasture of giving Batman the only piece of Kryptonite left on Earth because they are best friends but Batman already has enough Kryptonite to kill him 8 times. It was not a classy moment for Batman. I'll admit that I am warming up to Superman too but not because of Geoff Johns but this comic instead. This story made it clear that Superman really loves Earth and wants to do everything in his power to be able to live there but there are people out there who are planning on ways to take him out no matter how much good he does in the world which is a sad reality that he is blissfully unaware of [to a certain extent]. The artwork is awesome and helps bring the story alive especially that moment where Superman dumps all the Kryptonite into the sun and Batman tells him put it where his enemies can see it so they know what's up [that was actually a pretty beautiful monologue by Batman and really put Superman over kind of like DBZ where Vegeta admitted Goku was better]. Again though, still mad about the blown storyline that Green came up with of Superman not being able to actually go to Earth, that could have been a defenitive Superman/Batman story, man, if I was DC I'd find a way to do that. This comic does raise interesting questions and it is a shame that they do not expanded such as if Lana had not done what she had done and then there is mass unemployment followed a giant recession would it really be Superman's fault? Again this comic does have a lot of nice little tibits that you can think about which does take away from it but not enough to warrant a lower rating.

Art: PHENOM
Overall: OWN IT