Advance review of the first issue! Spoilers!!
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/batm...ing-clay-mann/
Advance review of the first issue! Spoilers!!
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/batm...ing-clay-mann/
I LOVED the first issue!! It's too good!
First of all, it looks incredible. Everything so detailed and gorgeous. And I love what he's doing with the timelines- at first I wasn't 100% sure which was which, but on a second read I totally got it. Connecting Joker to Catwoman's villain past and a coda in her future is awesome, imo. It really weaves the Batman universe together with some of its most important characters.
This is gonna be great. I can tell already.
There are some amazing sequences man Mann is amazing.
I really like King continuing the relationship between Selina and Joker.
The only negative that I can think of is if you didn't read the King story in 'Tec 1027 you would be missing out on a lot.
I hope that when this is eventually collected it included all of the future stories that King did.
I thought this issue was very intriguing, and really gorgeously drawn. I'm very curious to see spoilers:end of spoilers
what the root of Selina's vow to kill the Joker is, and how it will be resolved. The setup of Andrea, her son, and her returning to Phantasm is really interesting - it's all very fragmentary so far, but I think I can definitely see the motivations. Alfred being dead in the "present" is very sad, but I'm curious if the present is after the Catwoman 80th special, namely if it's after Helena's birth.
"We're the same thing, you and I. We're both lies that eventually became the truth." Lara Notsil, Star Wars: X-Wing: Solo Command, Aaron Allston
"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date." C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves
"There's room in our line of work for hope, too." Stephanie Brown
Stephanie Brown Wiki, My Batman Universe Reviews, Stephanie Brown Discord
Not a lot to dive into. Once you break it down from its needless fragmentation the story beats are pretty clean and simple. Mann's art is quite nice. I really like that Catwoman costume a lot. The past, present and future premise each feel fine and critiques of all kinds of things in his storytelling or not, if every Batman writer feels like they need to have their "Own Version of the Bat Future", I actually rather like how low-key good King's is, Bruce & Selina go pretty Earth-2 on life, he passes away bittersweetly like any old man would, and she does her thing. It's so different from ... oh, Snyder's weird Bat-Cloning endlessly cyclical Alt-Bat-Future or Morrison's 666.
I'm gonna critique the fragmentation all day. Feel like clean breaks between pages instead of just stream-of-consciousness freeform jumping around on any given panel on any given page isn't helping things, especially because whoever is coloring Mann's artwork isn't using color whatsoever to delineate those time skips.
His depiction of Joker might be my favorite in recent history.
Retro315 no more. Anonymity is so 2005.
retrowarbird.blogspot.com
Loved his depiction of Joker: I have the impression that the Joker in recent years has been simplified, there is nothing surprising in him anymore: just a psychopathic mass murderer who acts pretty much always in the same way. For once there's a semblance of nuance, so much the better.
I try to improve my english, feel free to correct me by DM if you see some mistakes !
Honestly I think it’s off to a good start, what really sells me on this is that it’s what I honestly really liked about King’s main run which was that he wrote a solid Batman story where I’m not worried about any will or won’t they with Batman and Catwoman’s relationship. We get basically a look through their history a bit, but we also get the set up to what I think will be an interesting story revolving around Phantasm and Joker. If I want anything else it’s I want to see more of the future, I’d love to see Helena and other characters. I will have to see how it all ends but I think it’s off to a good start.
"It's fun and it's cool, so that's all that matters. It's what comics are for, Duh."
Words to live by.
King’s Joker is actually funny which makes him one of the best Jokers. Good first issue, I’m thankful King toned down the “Bat” “Cat” and Mann draws the hell out of it.
spoilers:end of spoilers
Helena being gay/bi was surprising, wonder if that will carry forward for her? Hope she shows up in this series.
I actually disagree - I think the fragmentation works pretty smoothly, once you realize the period cues - primarily Joker and Selina's costumes. But I also adore Priest's writing, which is much the same, though with black box panels giving you more cues.
The idea of the King Future being a Happy Bruce - the kind of Bruce that Snyder likes to slaughter viciously with Batman Who Laughs, where Bruce is just a guy who loves his wife and family and dies in bed - I know that doesn't seem super exciting, but it's a well earned reward, and I'm deeply curious to see more of it.
"We're the same thing, you and I. We're both lies that eventually became the truth." Lara Notsil, Star Wars: X-Wing: Solo Command, Aaron Allston
"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date." C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves
"There's room in our line of work for hope, too." Stephanie Brown
Stephanie Brown Wiki, My Batman Universe Reviews, Stephanie Brown Discord
Helena being interested in women is the most interesting thing so far. I'm very concerned about Andrea, I don't like what they are setting up for her
"Everything doesn't have to be about fear. There's room in our line of work for hope, too"- Stephanie Brown, Batgirl Vol 3 #5
"Quit? Like hell I will"- Bette Kane, Beast Boy #3
Dude, I feel the same way it is so refreshing to see my boy getting some simple love.
Batman can be driven and still live a happy life and die peacefully; he doesn't have to die in a torturous way.
I honestly feel like once this is over and they release a King Omni it is going to be glorious. A true story.