Hey Kids! Comic Books! Dark Nights: Death Metal#1 and More!

Popped by Acme Comics last week. It was my first visit to the shop since April before the shop was shut down for the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.  Jermaine, Acme's esteemed manager, kept the home fires burning with getting books to customers via mail order. Recently the shop itself was able to re-open under certain restrictions such as everyone needs to wear a mask and stay 6 feet apart.  

My daughter Randie and I went to Acme on a Thursday afternoon which was a good time to go when it came to avoiding a crowd. 

In addition to my regular pull list of Batman, Superman, Justice League and Legion of Super Heroes, I also asked Jermaine to hold 2 more trade collections in the Criminal series by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips (which I cannot recommend highly enough) as well as the Joker 80th anniversary special and Dark Nights: Death Metal#1. 

I'm enjoying James Tynion's work on Batman right now more than I was Tom King's writing near the end of his run. Tynion's running a storyline about a master villain strategist known as the Designer whose perfect designs for perfect crimes has unleashed even more chaos upon Gotham than usual with super villains running all over the place plus we have Deathstroke and Harley Quinn on hand as well. 

Issue #93 is on sale today which reveals the identity of the Designer. I'm trying to keep my head down around the comic book websites to avoid spoilers.  

The Joker special is an interesting hodge-podge of stories about everyone's favorite murder clown. It's a mixed bag in terms of quality but getting a NEW 100 page comic for 10 bucks is a bargain these days.  

Over in Superman, Brian Bendis has Clark in a knock down drag out final battle with Mongul.  While I missed Ivan Reis on the art, Kevin Maguire delivered some unexpectedly powerful panels as Supes and Mongul beat the crap out of each other. 

Back on Earth, we get some of Maguire's classic facial expression skills on display as Lois Lane engages in a verbal cat & mouse battle of wits with the DEO's Cameron Chase.  The tense dynamic of this title since Clark Kent revealed to the world he is Superman is still at work here as Chase makes it clear to Lois that the DEO is watching and just waiting for Superman to screw up and the DEO will be there to make him pay. 

I'm glad Cameron Chase is still out and about in the DC Universe. I know she can kick about 52 different kinds of ass but what can she do to make Superman's life a living hell? 

I'm following Bendis' take on the Legion of Super Heroes even though it seems like he's trying too hard.  Bendis is trying to create at once a dense mythology it took writers like Hamilton, Siegel, Shooter, Bridwell, Bates & Levitz decades to build.  Legion has never been the easiest book to follow and Bendis is not making it easier. 

Still, the diverse cast is a lot of fun to see and artist Ryan Sook is delivering a very distinctive look for DC's future.  For now, I remain on board for this version of LSH. Bendis is trying to do something unique with the Legion which is worth supporting.  

Robert Vendetti is following a fairly straightfoward approach to Justice League, creating powerful threats resolved by teamwork and clever uses of individual powers and skills. Which is fine by me. The big universe ending threats rooted in DC's dense mythology have followed Scott Snyder out the door...

...to Dark Nights: Death Metal#1. 

As best as I can figure out, Perpetua as aligned herself with the Batman Who Laughs (instead of Lex Luthor), the world as we know it is fucked and what's left of the world's heroes and villains are trapped in servitude to this strange world order. Wonder Woman and Batman are still trying to fight the good fight in their own unique ways and to be sure, that's all I really understand.  

Is Scott Snyder trying too hard to be clever or am I just not smart enough to keep up? 

It seems cool. Wonder Woman with a Chainsaw Of Truth? I want to be on board with that.  

One thing that makes this book harder to read is the freaking lettering.  Word balloons and caption boxes for the Batman Who Laughs are done in red letters on black.  There's a two page info dump with red letters in orange caption boxes. It's enough to burn your retinas out.  

The artwork looks good from the team of Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion and FCO Plascencia.  

My absolute favorite books I bought were the Criminal trade collections. Brubaker & Phillips are the best team working in comics and the Criminal series is a hightlight of their collaboration.  For more on my thoughts on Criminal, click here. 

That's all for today, kids! Later today, I have a second comic book theme post as we say a fond farewell to a favorite comics blog. 

Remember to be good to one another and keep readin' them comic books, you hear?