Title Bout, Part II: Batman (The new 52) #1 vs. Batman Rebirth #1 Special Edition

Scott Snyder fails to top Scott Snyder

Title bout - Here's a new concept: take two books with the same or very similar titles, review both, and then declare a winner. Books from any publisher or even the same publisher but with subtle differences (like they are from different years or volume numbers) are eligible. Heck, the books themselves can be completely different in genre, characters and content. Doesn't matter.

This time I'm going with an easy one: Batman #1 from the new 52 era vs Batman Rebirth #1 Special edition. Both were written by Scott Snyder, but are very different stories. Since these are reintroductions of arguably DC's most popular character, it should be very interesting to contrast the two comics.

Let's get started shall we?

"Knife Trick"

Writer – Scott Snyder

Pencils – Greg Capullo

Inks – Jonathan Glapion

Letters – Richard Starking & Comicraft's Jimmy Betancourt

Colors – FCO Plascencia

Assistant Editor – Katie Kubert

Associate Editor – Janelle Asselin

Editor – Mike Marts

Created by – Bob Kane and Bill Finger

May 2011

For Snyder's first reintroduction of Batman, we go to the new 52's Batman #1.

I haven't read ALL of the new 52, having confined myself to only the crappier parts. Like reading "The Green Team", "The Movement", "Lobo", and "Constantine: The Hellblazer". I'm nothing of not a connoisseur if awful books.

Even from just that brief "toe-in-the-pool" dip, I know that out of all the characters in the new 52, Batman's titles got disrupted the least. We didn’t lose the history of the four Robins or much of Batman's origins or methods. If anything, it looks like the new 52 was a minor course correction when compared with something like Morrison's take on Superman in Action Comics.

No, we get little changes to Bats, a sign that the character needed no new alterations to make it with modern audiences. He's been changed plenty in the past.

We start with a screwed up premise, however, and that premise threatens to dampen my enthusiasm for the book completely. Bruce is musing about a series of opinion pieces the Gotham paper has been doing since he was a boy: complete a simple sentence with one word: "Gotham is…" Each day a local resident would provide the word that explains their take on the city. This will be Synder's narrative arch in which he will hang the action of this storyline and for me it works in a very big way.

What doesn't work, however is this:

That's like a good 65 - 70% of Batman's rogues gallery there in one panel. When I first read this my thought was this had to be a dream. Had to be, because even one of these guys used to give the old Aparo/Adams Batman a hard time. Combining them all like this creates an impossible task for our Dark Knight Detective.

In short, if it isn't a dream he's dead meat.

And it isn’t a dream.

We get a couple of pages of "punchy-punchy, run-run" (stole that from Tim Elliot of 3^rd Degree Byrne and I'm not giving it back), with Batman showing little difficulty in dispatching many of the numerous foes arranged here, even guys like Clayface and Killer Croc.

It gets to be too much for me. Too much because it devalues these villains. They need to be a threat to Batman on their own and using them for this "group shot" and allowing them to fall in the same manner as the thugs that surround Batman in the opening of the Batman'66 TV show reduces them to pushovers.

What I'm saying is that given the number of enemies arrayed against him here, Batman should be dead. Instantly. Or at least captured. But he shouldn't be holding his own let alone WINNING.

It changes the character dynamic to him being that cypher of "why can he do it?" – "Because, I'm Batman!"

Not a good start Synder. You've lost me on page two.

By the time the battle is well underway, a glimmer of hope jumps in. First Batman finds himself tossed into a familiar acquaintance's cell.

 

My heart stopped as I realized Snyder might trounce Joker as easily as all the others here. Instead he has Joker team up with Batman to take out the rest of these recently escaped inmates. This reversal will make sense in a minute.

Two on twenty still isn't the best of odds, but it is marginally better. Not that Batman appeared to struggle before, mind you. In the end, all the prisoners go back to being incarcerated and Batman shares a rooftop with Gordon for a brief (and incomplete) explanation.

Capullo's pencils deserve a mention here: they don't disappoint. He understands how to arrange and inset graphics as well as draw. Inking by Glapion and the colorist rate a salute as well. The book looks good, has the right tone and pacing.

Gordon asks the question that is on everyone's mind at this point.

Which Batman doesn't answer. While Gordon may not get a satisfactory explanation, the audience does. Joker next appears inside the Batcave as Bruce broods over empty air. He mentions the Dark Knight's alter-ego's dour mood and we get this bit of interaction that uncovers what's really going on here. 

Joker turns out to be Dick Grayson working undercover in Arkham Asylum. He was sent in by Batman to uncover the corrupt guard. Good one! I still think mowing through that many villains like so much dry grass diminishes their effective scare factor when faced individually, but I LIKE this storyline. Now where do we go from here?

To a really neat establishing shot of the current "Bat-Family". I enjoyed this quite a bit. It does wonders for establishing the Batman universe as well. We know that the Dick, Tim, and Damian histories survived mostly intact or else they wouldn't be standing here. Cudos to Snyder for saying so much using so little.

It does bring up a point: Batman changed so little even as every other hero in the new 52 had revamps and new origins that it makes you wonder how the creators thought all this meshed. From what I hear, Detective Comics felt little impact of the change too. However, there are so many armloads of interactive history out there between Batman and other heroes that this calls into question many, many things. Did DC have an answer to that question?

Something to dive into for another time, I suppose.

I'll skip over the next few pages of party, where Bruce unveils his new "Gotham is a dream" project of skyscrapers of monorails. (insert Simpson's episode here)

Doing so allows me to also skip the introduction of the only new male cast member, Lincoln March. Lincoln is the candidate for mayor and while he doesn't ooze sleaze, the audience can tell March will be Batman's nemesis in some capacity. He is physically imposing as well, standing a good half-a-head taller than Bruce.

But skip we must as Gordon takes a call at the party that Bruce eavesdrops on, discovering there has been a gruesome murder in the city. Off he jaunts, out into the night like a big black bat, only to discover Harvey Bullock standing over a corpse more pincushion than human.

Gruesome…and intriguing. The mystery deepens as we find the corpse left a message for Batman. A message calculated to be found on this exact date, even though the corpse is five days old.

Bruce Wayne will be murdered tomorrow. But by whom? The answer might lie in those DNA clippings he found under victims nails. Unfortunately those only create more questions…And a final answer to our "Gotham is…" puzzle.

I'm gonna profess that I loved this issue. Sure the "too many villains" thing continues to rankle me a bit. And the party scene went on a bit too long. However Snyder set up a good long term antagonist / thorn-in-the-side with March and he ended on the best of all notes: a REALLY good mystery. If I had been buying the new 52, this would have got me back into the store the next month for book number 2.

"Batman Rebirth"

Writer – Scott Snyder & Tom King

Pencils – Mikel Janin

Letters – Deron Bennett

Colors – June Chung

Associate Editor – Rebecca Taylor

Editor – Mark Doyle

Created by – Bob Kane and Bill Finger

August 2016

We move from a tale I like in a universe that I don't, to a tale I really DIS-like in a universe I haven't made up my mind about.

Snyder takes the center seat again, although this time he is passing the torch to Tom King, who scrunches in beside him and they craft a tale that is convoluted and confusing.

Beginning this introduction of Batman with Alfred picking avocados in Bruce Wayne's backyard is fine, but once he is interrupted by the front doorbell, the story quickly slides into baffling territory.

This young man (note: he is not Caucasian) arrives saying he is "here about the offer?" It's a question. He is unsure. And I am unsure too. Safe money is on this being Batman's new sidekick (DC needs ethnic diversity very badly) however I don't ever recall Batman being so brazen as posting some kind of want-ad or Craigslist post asking for "young men to fight crime beside large man dressed as nocturnal flying rodent, inquire at Wayne manor."

No, he can't be that desperate. Or crazy.

So this guy had to get a hand-picked invitation. Sometime. Off screen. Undisclosed to the audience of this book. And this book is all I have to go by. Right?

Bad form, guys.

Losing your audience on page one – not a good thing.

Worse yet is the black box at the bottom. "Monday: Spring". So this takes place on a Monday (a date would be handy) in Spring. Who cares? Well, we the readers are supposed to care as it becomes relevant to the story in just a bit.

Turning the page we get a graphic splatter across crease of Batman fighting Calendar Man. Last time I saw him was way, way back in The Long Halloween. Seems like he's had a bit of ink done around the old cranium. Now he kind of looks like a dollar store kitchen egg timer, but who am I to judge. Batman appears to be struggling against a deadline. Something about spores getting out and it sounds like something Flonase won't be able to handle.

As Batman chokes out our villain and calls for backup, the Dark Knight does something so silly, you'd think this was Batman'66's Rebirth issue. See he needs to light the spores on fire. The why of which, I'm not quite sure as both he and Julian "Calendar Man" Day have been fighting around in these spores for the past several minutes and neither of them seem the worse for wear. However they must be something bad because Batman says so and to get rid of them he has to use a device from his array of gadgets. It has to be seen to be believed.

The ears of his cowl act as electrodes from the world's wackiest plasma globe, shooting electricity from his head to ignite all the "dangerous" spores. Which he's been breathing for the past several minutes without any health effects. Never thought I'd live to see Batman become the world's largest arc reactor.

What is going through the writer's head here folks? But wait, the story gets even crazier.

Next page starts with one of those black bars as Bruce is talking with Lucius Fox while doing one-arm pullups. "Show off," I thought. Not like Lucius doesn’t KNOW but still it is kind of rude. It says that Bruce works out so much that there just isn't TIME to stop and talk with Lucius. That isn't the crazy part.

The crazy part is the black bar. It says simply "Tuesday. Summer." and to me that means we've skipped way ahead several months to a day in Summer and we are now watching events unfold in the next season.

That's NOT what Snyder and King meant. They mean that the very next DAY after "Monday. Spring." and it is suddenly Summer. Which I don't get at ALL. A day can be warmer or milder or whatever, but to state a Spring day is suddenly "SUMMER" just because it is warm doesn't make any sense. None.

I didn't get that until "Wednesday. Fall." what they were even trying to say with this. When I did, part of me gave up on reading and started trying to understand HOW they would even come to these conclusions or how this would occur. They are challenging my belief in the narrative they are weaving. And that's bad.

When your audience stops suspending disbelieve you've lost them, maybe for good.

And speaking of "suspending" look at where Bruce is doing these PX90 stunts.

Hardly inconspicuous and downright brazen. Batman should be shown as smarter than doing one-armed pull-ups off the helo pad on some fancy hotel in broad daylight. Reckless behavior such as this gets guys secret ID cards taken away. Permanently.

Lucius drones on about helping Bruce win back all his money for the umpteenth time. I didn't even know he lost it all in the first place. And I'm a bit distracted by Bruce letting go of the railing.

Now Batman can't fly. Nor can he glide without his suit. Bruce is clearly wearing nothing but shorts. So this is pretty much the end for Mr. Wayne here.

Except it isn't. Because comic books don't need physics. Also, Bruce appears to have an insane deathwish that I've never seen in any other Bat-book outside of Dark Knight.

Not to mention I checked out over this sequence. Don't insult my intelligence this much and expect me to be entertained.

However they keep right on doing just that, as Batman discusses a very different version of Julian Day with his new protégé. We find that he's more than just a serial killer, but that now he's some kind of mutant who's body ages with the seasons and he molts out of his skin like a snake in Spring.

Uh…if you had lost me at the pull-ups, you sure would have here.

NOT ONLY THAT! but also it is now "Wednesday. Fall." and Calendar Man is speeding up time. Yeah. I. Can't. Even.

At this point I found myself so far off the trail in the forest that I knew there was no hope of making it back. Calendar Man has a machine that is speeding up time one season a day so he can do something with spores and…what? What? What?

Remember when Batman punched people and solved mysteries? Let's get back to THAT, shall we?

Instead we get shots of Batman talking with … I don't know who this is… Duke who? Give me some context. Don't be so cool that I have to come to the book knowing everything already. Total Fail.

Anyway Batman says he is sorry about Duke's parents who appear to be crazed murders (Gee Ricky, I'm sorry your mother blew up.) and that he isn't training him to be the next Robin. This is followed by the reveal of a yellow Bat-Teen suit more at home in the Lego Batman video game than it is in an actual Batman comic book.

Running is what you should be doing, Duke. Run right out of this book and into one that will treat you and the audience with respect. You gonna get so shot wearing that bright yellow lemon suit. I've seen roadway construction workers who could blend into the scenery better than you will in that getup. Take the name of that new Jordan Peele movie to heart and Get Out! While you still can.

Next up we have Batman diving into a tank of water so cold (because it is now "Thursday. Winter.") that he can't carry an air tank with him because It would freeze solid. At the bottom of said tank of water is one of Day's machines for making time go faster. Duke is in his ear. Just before running out of oxygen, he does this:

But that doesn't stop the march of the seasons…or maybe it does. We did start out in Spring and here we are at Friday and it is Spring again.

Also nasty-ass molting sequence. This book has taking so many odd left turns, I really don't know what to expect around the corner. Thankfully we've almost run out of pages.

And those pages are: Bruce and Duke kick a tree while Alfred feeds avocados to the cave bats. No. Seriously.

What did I think of this one? Pretty obvious.

Winner: Batman (the new 52) #1

By an overwhelming point total, Snyder's reintroduction of the Batman in the new 52 makes way more sense and is just more "Batman" than whatever the heck is going on in the baton fumble of Snyder to King in Batman Rebirth. I'll have my eye on the bargain bins for more of both, but I'll be picking them up for vastly different reasons. 52 for pleasure and Rebirth for entertaining you good folks with.

Tie-ins, Part XXV and Title Bout, Part I: Wonder Woman #101 and FCBD Wonder Woman #1

Some random Wonder Woman books, Part 11

We let Byrne and Rucka fight it out

May the best (Wonder) Woman win!

Here's a new concept: take two books with the same or very similar titles, review both, and then declare a winner. Books from any publisher or even the same publisher but with subtle differences (like they are from different years or volume numbers) are eligible. Heck, the books themselves can be completely different in genre, characters and content. Doesn't matter.

Here we have two issues that essentially reboot the Wonder Woman franchise from two top-tier writers and artists. John Byrne took over after the Artemis wonder woman storyline concluded hoping his usual style of story would revitalize the book. Greg Rucka has been given the reigns of the current DC Universe Rebirth character meaning he can remake her as he sees fit. Let's see which book tops the other with it comes to dealing with the Amazon warrior princess.

"Second Genesis"

Writer Artist – John Byrne

Colors – Patricia Mulvihill

Assistant Editor – Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt

Editor – Paul Kupperberg

September 1995

As an avowed John Byrne fanboy, you know it takes a lot for me to dislike a Byrne book. Let's get that out of the way right from the start. And look at this: John Byrne doing Wonder Woman. So it should be a shoe in for my favorite of the two, right? We'll see.

Byrne took over the book in September of 1995 and held on to the title until sometime in 1998, clocking in for around 35 issue and two annuals. While I generally like Byrne's work on any comic he works on there is something…amiss in his Wonder Woman debut.

And that thing is Wonder Woman herself.

Oh, certainly the image of the character is depicted in the comic. However I find that person to be even less Wonder Woman than the Artemis imposter who populated the duds just a few issue ago. Byrne was brought on to take the title in a new direction after Messner-Loeb's departure, but it appears that someone's idea was not to go back to the Perez feel at all.

Instead we get…well, let's take a look?

First off this is page one. And I can't think of a more unexciting way to introduce a new run than a picture of static buildings near the waterfront with an overload of text boxes yammering on and on. There isn't even a character or a shadow or a hint of any action. How…boring.

It isn't until page two and three that we get what we are looking for, a glimpse of Wonder Woman, in new two-star threads (and by that I mean that her cute star-patterned blue shorts are replaced with blue panties with two huge stars on each hip) and a MASSIVE amount of hair. So much that it looks like Marvel's Medusa dressed up as the princess of Themyscira. The new rendering turns me off initially and I don't ever warm to it.

There are worse things than not liking how a character is portrayed visually, however. Wonder Woman finds herself landing between the police forces of fictional Gateway City and a group of heavily armed bank robbers wielding tanks and energy weapons. 

 

The robbers open fire and Wonder Woman wordlessly blocks bullets…

…and without warning, yanks a tank up…

…before smashing it into another…

…finally speaking after shattering a grunt's energy rifle to give a tiny taunt.

And it is then that it hits me. This is Byrne writing Superman. It has that feeling of his man of steel stuff. Without giving Wonder Woman a speaking part she's just a generic strongman character. More importantly, because he doesn't allow her to talk, there is no "loving compassion" in Byrne's version of Diana. One of her most compelling powers has always been that shooting at her is like firing down upon your own mother in some way. That her speech soothes criminal's hearts and can find peaceful solutions to conflicts.

Where is the Wonder Woman who offered wise counsel to Osira or understanding to Khyrana or sought a peaceful forgiveness from Pele?

All those other writers "got" Wonder Woman. But in this issue, Byrne is showing that all he gets is a power set. Diana calls the criminals "punks" before plucking one up and flying off with him.

This is Byrne's Wonder Woman. She is "Superman" with arm bands that block bullets and…

…a magic lasso of truth that you can use to force someone to answer questions. At no time does she reach out with any degree of empathy on a human level with these admittedly felonious criminals, which might seem silly, but not for the character she has been. The Diana we've seen would get info from them without resorting to threats or magic.

Those first five pages without anything but a scattering of third person text-boxes show that Byrne is trying to wow us with visuals and raw power, neither of which has been what excited us about Diana.

And since Byrne can't get a grip on her, he moves on to the cop we met briefly above, now working undercover at the docks trying to find the source of these super-weapons the criminals have. Even here though, we barely get introduced to the character and Byrne starts a bar brawl.

Which abruptly ends as Diana wades into the fray, looking a bit like an overdressed Laura Croft. 

Her strength causes everyone to scatter, but the bartender gets the drop on her…

…because otherwise we have no reason for the cop to be here. She mentions that she wouldn't be able to block all the shot from shotgun and part of wonders why she needs to. Isn't she invulnerable on the level of Superman?

Either way, they find a hidden super-science vault door behind a wall.

Wonder Woman strips out of her clothes (which is kind of weird, why is she wearing clothes?) and rips it open. 

What they find behind is a high-tech labyrinth of corridors straight out of an Aliens movie. 

Diana puts on her grumpy face.

Then a giant robot attacks in an entire sequence that feels like filler and adds nothing to the storyline in my opinion.

Wonder Woman gets distracted when the cop gets nabbed by two bad guys, which allows the robot to coldcock her across the back of the noggin.

Likewise for the popo, who is then thrown at the feet of…

…Darkseid.

Yeah, this is a Superman story Byrne recycled. There isn't a hint in this issue of anything Wonder Woman. For the beginning of a "bold, new era" we end up with a tired script that offers very little dialogue and an assumption that we, the audience, won't notice that this isn't Wonder Woman.

"Year One, Part One"

Writer – Greg Rucka

Artist – Nicola Scott

Colors – Romulo Fajardo, Jr.

Associate Editor – Rebecca Taylor

Editor – Mark Doyle

May 2017

Rebirth may have done many things right in the DC universe, but one thing they kind of made a bungle of was deciding HOW to tell their Wonder Woman stories. You've got Rucka back, which is a big plus, even though word is that he'll be leaving soon (more on that tomorrow). However the big minus is timing.

I am saying that because I have the first two of the Wonder Woman books from right after Rebirth. Issue 1 is part one of a Wonder Woman/Cheetah story. Issue 2 is part one of Wonder Woman origin story. And issue 3 is part two of the Cheetah story…and so on and so forth. These don't interweave at all as far as I know, there being two separate artist teams working with Rucka on the stories. 

Why so complicated, DC? Why not just let the first few issues be an origin tale?

Maybe because there is so much backstory there to develop? I mean Perez took us back to Paradise Island via flashback and through the annuals quite a bit to establish who Diana was based upon where she had come from. Perhaps Rucka is doing the right thing by giving readers both a modern tale of Wonder Woman and an origin story worth several issues' running time blended together over intervening weeks? Too soon for me to tell, as I only have those two issues.

And I have them twice because Free Comic Book Day reprinted issue 2 as Wonder Woman FCBD special edition issue 1 and June 3's Wonder Woman Day issue 1 was actually a reprint of Wonder Woman issue 1. Nothing says death to excitement like opening the cover of a new book to find it is the same as a book you've already read.

Still, there are worse issues that could be reprinted. Both issues make me wish the DC Rebirth Anthology I picked up at Costco had Wonder Woman issues in it. Unfortunately the convoluted nature of the stories must have scared them into using Superman, Flash, and Batman (ugh).

So let's amble on into Rucka's retelling of Diana's origin, a natural jumping on point. 

We begin unconventionally. Not with Diana, as expected, but with Steve Trevor. It appears that this itineration of Wonder Woman will eschew Perez's formula of making Diana and Steven friends. Instead we see almost immediately a link between them in a much deeper fashion that Rucka appears might allow to become something akin to romance.

 

The symbolism becomes apparent only when you view the two stories side-by-side and see that as Steve is doing one thing, such as looking to the stars for guidance, Diana is doing the same. Looking out to where she wants to be.

Even while that story is developing, we glimpse Diana's interpersonal relationships to some of her fellow Amazons and…

…her mother, the Queen. Rucka gives us a Diana that is beloved and cherished, something that has been a foundation of the character since Perez held the reins.

Flipping back to Steve we find a like bond between him and his fellow solider-buddy. Again this is all showing us the parallels between these two characters and how this will create a connection when they finally meet.

And to further this similarity in visual metaphor, we end up back with Diana who is practicing archery.

Which leads to a montage of single panel scenes showing that even though the two are well-loved by their peers, they are still very much alone in their worlds. It ends with Steve staring off into the far distance thinking…

…and Diana doing the same. The visuals speaking volumes of each of them looking for something more. 

For Diana that searching means a horse ride where she encounters a mysterious tree. The tree is either barren or dead, although which can't be determined. When she goes to touch it, Diana finds it is home to a venomous snake that bites her on the wrist. I love this. Again we have visual metaphor that I am certain Rucka is using to symbolize man's world being much less the paradise she is seeking, yet still she longs to touch it, even as it proves dangerous and perhaps even deadly.

She is found by her fellow Amazons and rescued before the poison goes too far.

Meanwhile we turn to Steve in the hospital with Nick (yay! Give that man a name, Rucka. I'm afraid he's going to get offed if you don't hang a handle on him.), his wife Maya and their new baby daughter. Steve is asked to be her Godfather.

And then we are back with Diana, who is recently recovered from her snakebite. She visits the temple of the gods and thanks them in prayer. The Amazon priestess Castalia finds her there and distributes this bit of wisdom:

Followed by this, Castilia unveils the gift given to the Amazons by Harmonia and Ares(so, not the bad guy here), which turns out to be the lasso of truth.

That bit of foreshadowing sits for a minute as we follow Steve and Nick in flight for mission. Nick puts his ring away so it doesn't get lost or snagged and we have a feel that is an ominous action.

Next we see the Amazons stargazing again, however this time there is a very deadly distraction.

As they race to the shore we see the results of the crash. This of course is the airplane carrying Steve's troop...

…and the now deceased Nick. That hand of course…

..belongs to an injured Steve, who begs at Diana's feet with what might be his final breath for the Amazons to help "us." And that "us" is clearly a call for them to re-enter the human struggle. This is where we fade out of part one, with that will-they/won't-they question still lingering.

So, who takes top billing here?

Winner: Wonder Woman FCBD Rebirth #1

It barely gets us started, but Rucka hits all the right notes in his retelling of Diana's and Steve's original meeting. It teases where it needs to and makes proper foreshadowing of events to come. Wonder Woman feels like herself, a powerful feminine archetype who doesn't need shows of strength as much as she requires the sisterhood of her fellow Amazons to display her character. Byrne instead deals only with her as a set of powers, having no clear direction for her as a personality. Why does she come to the bar in disguise? Why use Darkseid as his first villain? Why retread ground he used with his Superman arcs? It feels like Byrne wasn't at his best with these or just didn't really want to write THIS character. Rucka gets Diana though. Sad that he will leave her so soon after coming onboard, but at least the princess is off to a great start in the current Rebirth universe.