DC

REVIEW: BATMAN WHO LAUGHS #5 (OF 7)

By Lucas Fashina 5 years ago
  • The Caped Crusader is forced to not only fight off the most evil version of himself, but the growing desire to turn his back on his moral code and commit cold-blooded murder. Any other time, Batman would be able to stay on the straight and narrow, but as the Joker serum finally takes over his body, Bruce Wayne may just succumb to pure evil, and kill the Grim Knight.  All of this is foreseen by the Batman Who Laughs, who has been planning for the corruption of Bruce Wayne, banking on him activating the “Last Laugh” protocol and turning Gotham City into an incubator for evil.  All the Batman Who Laughs needs is one last “Happy Bruce” from another dimension to make his serum work…but only Batman knows where the last Bruce is going to show up.

In the last issue of Batman starts the process that would turn him into a diversion at the Batman who laughs can see and hear and must think like the Batman who laughs who has up to this point and one step ahead. This time Batman’s plan to stay to try to keep up with the Batman mask results in the murdering of Commissioner Gordon, and now the Gotham police had turned their guns on Batman in order to avenge Commissioner Gordon.

• The current issue of the  Batman Who Laughs # 5  commences right around the same time with Batman being under Fire. The only way to escape for the Batman Who Laughs is to tap into the deepest fears of is aggressors.
• It is revealed that crows that follow the Batman Who Laughs are actually James Gordon Jr (Batman #407 )at least alternate realities versions.
• We are also treated to the Batman Who Laughs addressing the court of owls it’s revealed that and one of the alternate realities Bruce Wayne was the leader of the court of the owls.
• The Batman Who Laughs, goes on a villain dialogue and tells Batman that the last laugh program was produced to make Gotham a seat of power and incubation City for biological diseases.

Is there any interior cover artist that is as hot as duck I don’t think so his stuff is just too good to clear the lines are very clear,and panel is just really great

The center of gravity that keeps pushing the series forward for me is the easy to understand lettering done by Sal Cipriano. The differences in voices of the characters is very important to understanding what has happened, and giving context to what is happening and Sal Cipriano is doing a very good job.

The Batman Who Laughs # 5 commercial who covers the first cover a by jock and second cover by variant by Victor Kalvachev.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

  • Written by Scott Snyder art by Jock, lettering by Sal Cipriano, David Baron on colors.
  • Published by DC Comics

Review: The Green Lantern #7

By Jeffrey Bracey 5 years ago

STORY

In a series that has been full of cosmic opera of a Jim Starlin sort punctuated by whimsical weirdness comes the most Grant Morrisoneque story yet with issue seven: Emerald Sands. Hal Jordan’s latest adventure plays out as a bizarre fairytale wrapped in an enigma if this issue is your starting point. Fortunately by the end all is revealed bit by bit as you go along building towards the conclusion. It’s a surreally clever bit of storytelling to go from a bit of space cop, superhero adventure one issue and into a fantasyland with parallels to the Wizard of Oz. Morrison deftly shifts gears in a turn of tale telling in a move worthy of Alan Moore he goes way off the path thoroughly beaten by usual comic book convention to engage Hal in a unexpectedly quixotic quest.

Morrison weaves a dreamlike tale reflective of the situation that our hero finds himself in to great effect building upon past continuity but bringing something startlingly new to the table, an idea and scenario that to my knowledge had not been explored in such a way before. This particular story is quite trippy in an Alice In Wonderland sort of way and purposely so given the setting of a subconscious reality. I really don’t want to say to much about the plot as that would spoil the experience for anyone who hasn’t read this issue but this is one of the strangest and most interesting adventures our Lantern has gone on in my memory of the character and better still it lays the foundation of a myriad of future stories to be built upon to add to the mythology of not just Hal Jordan but to the Green Lantern corps and even the Guardians themselves. It will be fascinating to see where this idea might go in the future whether in Morrison’s own hands or some other author in down emerald brick road.

ART

Liam Sharp must be exhausted, having to do triple duty this issue providing pencils, inks and now colors. Yes colors as well! This task is made slightly easier and yet more difficult by the same degrees as the overwhelming palette of this book has to be rendered in shades of green and complementing cool colors. This could have easily gone horribly wrong and would have left the reader with a comic full of muddled, muddy and murky art but Sharp (who I’ve never seen color a comic before) does an admirable job of keeping characters and background elements distinguishable while using a limited color scheme.

This is also accomplished by the artist keeping the backgrounds either simple or creating images and characters that cannot be misconstrued for one another. His rendering of the surreal world and denizens that Hal encounters reminds me of the bizarre originality of Steve Dikto‘s run on Dr Strange’s journey’s into astral dimensions and is equally weird but very uniquely Sharp’s own.

This inks do come across as a bit rushed to me but given herculean workload he took on this month I think that can be easily forgiven.

FINAL THOUGHTS

A rather bizarre jaunt out of the normal territory of a Green Lantern book and into something more akin to the works of Terry Gilliam but still I found myself well entertained by both this comic and the prospect of what might come of it later. 5 out of 5!

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

(W) Grant Morrison (A) Liam Sharp (CA) Emanuela Lupacchino

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