Batman #14: THIS is how you do a deranged Joker. Hats off Mr Snyder, you might just well be the best Batman writer since the Silver Age. But it's not just Batman - this is a textbook example of writing comics. Set up the mystery, raise the bar with a fake-out during the plot build and take it to a level where you want to read the next part of it. Hell, it almost makes me want to read Batgirl (even if Gail didn't get the memo about how the Joker's doing things). The backup is great too, with just enough hints about how all this is panning out, while telling a completely different story. Why isn't everything DC put out as good as this?
Batman & Robin #14: The Joker has created cannibals, but I can't take my mind of the way Peter Tomasi is channelling Neal Adams' Batman Odyssey. Or Frank Miller's All Star Batman. And neither of those are good options.
OK, I guess, but very average and I don't think we really need the emo bullshit on the last couple of pages.
Deathstroke #14: And there was me wondering why Deathstroke was involved in all this Hawkman nonsense. It's because his armour is Nth Metal. OH, OF COURSE IT IS ROB. FFS, can you not get one original idea? (By the way, despite all his fun adventures in space and whatnot Deathstroke is now reduced to picking up jobs in bars. Bit of a comedown.)
Demon Knights #14: This has kind of lost its way in the past couple of months. Etrigan and Jason are separate, Morgaine is going to conquer Avalon, everybody is pairing up into couples to have a happy life together. I didn't care for this much and had to check who wrote it as it's well below the standards Paul Cornell has set for the title, but he's put in enough effort in the past to get him a free pass this month. Just make it the only one where I say it, OK?
Frankenstein #14: Why drag your heels like the other Rotworld books? Why not just speed about invincibly across America when everyone else can't go 100 yards without being attacked. I know, why not go to Easter Island, just for the hell of it? Then kill off the rest of the cast and bring in some shiny golden robots? That's bound to help.
Green Lantern Corps #14: So the Guardians are now working against Guy Gardner now, because Guy is the best Lantern of all time now? Is that because Hal is/isn't dead or was Guy always better? And in GL:NG you say that Kyle's the best ever. Is it just that every Lantern is the best Lantern ever because they're all better than all the other heroes because they're Geoff Johns' power fantasy. Except John Stewart. Geoff Johns doesn't seem to like him for some reason. If only I could put my finger on what makes him different to Hal or Guy or Kyle. There must be something... Anyway, Kilowog and Salaak sort of work out what's going on, but don't care enough to do anything about it and the Guardians take away Guy's ring and return him to Earth. Most books would be cancelled at this point, as this one should, but it'll continue on unfortunately.
Grifter #14: Oh shitty Christ, this is awful. Rob has Grifter and Midnighter zapped round the world while they're fighting so he can get some KEWL ideas in. What if they were underwater fighting a shark, wouldn't that be KEWL? Oops, not as good as I thought, but there was a shark so VFFTTT they're in front of a speeding train, but that's a kind of one panel joke so VFFTTT they're in Tokyo. It's like watching a toddler with ADHD playing with action figures. Not being a toddler myself, or a parent with an interest, it's more dereving of sympathy than awe or pride.
Legion Lost #14: Not long remaining, and it definitely shows. This takes place after last month's Superboy, which takes place after next month's Ravagers. Make sense? The writers have given up with this lazy rubbish and so have I.
Suicide Squad #14: Wow, so Floyd's really dead, huh? Not sure I saw that coming, and Harley definitely didn't see the Joker punching her square in the face coming either. The slight change in focus to the Bat tie-in make it less satisfying in previous months as it's more than able to stand alone, but it works well enough I suppose. Compared to nearly everything else this week it's a masterpiece.
Superboy #14: Just so we're clear, Legion Lost 14-16 happen between Superboy 13 and 14. How's that there continuity working out for you, DiDio? This also is taking place at the same time (and is part of) both the Batman and Superman tie in plots. MAKE IT STOP.
Team 7 #2: I think this might genuinely be one of the most pointless books DC has ever published. Team 7's giant flying space doughnut takes them to somewhere that Eclipso might be, which is odd as he was killed during the TINY FOOTPRINTS nonsense, which must still exist because Green Lantern is still from that universe (otherwise Brightest Day can't have happened, which it must have). There's some fighting of sorts, and some standing about. That's all I remember, and I've just finished reading it. That probably tells its own story.
Phantom Stranger #2: Talking of pointless books... actually, the portrayal of football (or soccer, if you must) is one of the most hilariously inept things I've read in a DC book for many years. Really, if you're going to write about a topic you could at least learn SOMETHING about it. Imagine if a Brit was writing about baseball and the guy on the losing team hit four home runs. It would sound kind of stupid, right? Well so does this book. The Stranger is now just a supernatural alter-ego. Like putting on a costume or something. Yes, it's that dumb. Awful stuff.
Ravagers #6: And completing the week of wasted paper comes this, a barely tolerabel team book but I'll take anything I can get at this point. But wait! It takes place before Legion Lost 14, so it takes place before Superboy 14. Good. But they're not done yet - Beast Boy suffers the effects from Rotworld in this issue and a boxout refers to Swamp Thing and Animal Man 14s, so they take place in the Johnsiverse after all and here's the proof. That means it only has a year left before it's all destroyed. Hooray!
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