Comics

A week & a day late, but my comics from last week are finally here! Hurrah!

All Star Western #2 by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti & Moritat

The first issue of All Star was one of the absolute highlights of The New 52's first month, so I suppose it's not too surprising that #2 doesn't quite reach the same heights. It's not as long as that bumper-length first part, for one thing, meaning there's less room for the story to continue. It's not bad by any means -- there's a great multi-page shoot-out for one thing -- but it's a bit short, and with too many splash pages.

There's also a six-page back-up strip, El Diablo, written by Gray & Palmiotti and drawn by Jordi Bernet. It's very pulpy and a bit trashy, particularly the dialogue, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume this is a style choice.


Batman: The Dark Knight #2 by David Finch & Paul Jenkins

You may remember I thought this was easily the weakest of the New 52 Batman books last issue... and, sadly, this issue does little to change that. It is better -- I don't almost hate it -- but it's kinda uninspiring. It feels like someone trying to build The Ultimate Batman story by roping everyone in (this issue we get cameos from almost all the other Bat-characters currently in the DCU, plus a pile of villains), but by including so much it's a bit unfocused and I just don't care about the central idea. Plus, it essentially recycles #1's cliffhanger -- boo. Finch's art is good, but that's about all I'm really enjoying.

Also, while there was a lot of talk about the effort that's gone into making the costumes match across books etc etc, the writers & artists don't seem to have put much effort into tying things other ways. I'm glad they don't have stories flowing across 4 or 5 or 6 or more different titles, but surely things like the Batmobile should look at least similar? And where do all the stories fit in -- is Batman conducting the four different investigations in his four different books simultaneously? And what about his appearance in dozens of other books?

I guess you're not meant to think about it too much...