Dave-El's Spinner Rack: Justice League and Batman Stuff!

It's been about a month since my last visit to Acme so let's peruse ye olde spinner rack on what I'm reading.  

The return of Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee to Batman is just not really doing a lot for me. Returning to their signature creation Hush feels like a retread of old ground that ignores everything that has happened in the 20+ years since their first go-round.

Recent character development for Jason Todd/Red Hood is completely ignored and even Tommy Elliott/Hush avoids what's been done with the character.  

And don't get me started on the plot contrivance of Batman going out of his way to save the Joker after being nearly tortured to death by Hush.  Yes, Batman has vowed to not take a life but that means to me that Batman himself will not shoot you in the head or break your neck or throw you off a skyscraper. Joker is near death because Hush took him there through torture.  Does it really come under Batman's vow to not kill someone to save a mass murdering psycho clown?

I find it frustrating that comic book writers will take such extremes to prove a character's bonafides in not killing people. It goes from making a hero look noble to making him look stupid. 

The art by Jim Lee with Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair looks lush and detailed but lacks energy somehow. The art, like Loeb's script, is going through the motions in a vain attempt to recaputure the lightning of long ago.

The really good Bat project I'm following is Batman & Robin: Year One.  Mark Waid's script still provides surprising and interesting turns as the newly minted Dynamic Duo tackled the invasion of the crime Lord known as the General. 

More vexing for Bruce Wayne is his time with Dick Grayson when they're not fighting crime. The mundane but still taxing responsibilities that come with being a parent are not in Bruce's wheelhouse. 

Chris Samnee continues to astonish with his sleek lines and shadowy negative space to create a world that is somehow both bright and dark at the same time.  

Meanwhile, Mark Waid gives us an epic throw down between the vast membership of an unlimited Justice League and the vast armies of villains assembled by a super charged Gorilla Grodd. 

Already a formidable force, Grodd's power has escalated when he absorbed the powers of the Martian Manhunter which were lost during the Absolute Power event.  And his manipulation of Air Wave gives him power over time itself.  His villain army is assembled from bad guys not just in the present but from the past as well.  

Grodd's power over time send our heroes to a variety of exiles throughout time, lost and powerless to return to the present.

Until Air Wave sees through Grodd's deception and uses his powers to bring the heroes back through time including heroes from the past (like western bounty hunter Jonah Hex) and the future (Batman Beyond).   

Travis Moore fills in for Dan Mora for a couple of chapters and does a very good job portraying a sprawling cast. Dan Mora returns for a spectucular climax to Waid's epic saga. 

Coming up for a future Spinner Rack post: Mark Waid brings us the new History of the DC Universe!