Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5 by Grant Morrison, Ryan Sook, and Pere Perez

We've reached the penultimate chapter of the return of the one, true Dark Knight. And although this issue takes place just after the death of Bruce's parents, it has several ramifications in the "present day" battle with The Black Glove.

The issue is book-ended by a meeting of several DC heroes with Tim Drake, who is presenting his findings proving that Bruce Wayne is alive. Although they want their friend back, the heroes understand that Bruce Wayne's return to the 21st century. The story goes on to explain several components about Dr. Hurt's identity (is he really Thomas Wayne?), the Wayne’s new familial history thanks to Bruce's time jump, and the tone is extraordinarily reflective of old noir detective stories. There's a femme fatale, a rugged hero, all the way down to Venetian blinds in a detective office. From the Paleolithic era all the way through to the Wild West, Grant Morrison shows that he's very efficient at making you feel like you're actually in that particular period of time. Beyond all of the period components, Morrison manages to throw in some genuine Batman moments with him being the World's Greatest Detective down to some good ol' fashioned ass-kickery. As each issue goes along, regardless of the self-reflexive Morrisonian philosophy and mind trips, this has the undertone of a Bruce Wayne/Batman story more so than anything else out right now.

Ryan Sook provides 21 pages of artwork, and the rest are done by Pere Perez. Sook's work is great with detail, his faces are all different, the wrinkles in the clothing are realistic, and his shadow work is fantastic, not only for the images rendered here, but for playing into the tone of film noir. While this isn't truly noir (it's not black and white), Sook's style has the predominant feel necessary to pull it off. Perez's finishes are rather close to Sook's, it seems like he went out of his way to make the art style changes as low-impact as possible, and he does a good job of it. Jose Villarrubia's colors in this issue are appropriately washed out, evoking the colorless world of noir while still keeping the foot in the door of four color comic book action. This entire series has been a lesson in how to make an environment feel different through each time period. Seeing the collected edition will no doubt increase my respect for it.

We have one more issue until the full-on return of Bruce Wayne, and it looks like he's bringing the full-blown apocalypse (Apokolips?) with him. I wonder, how will he kick its ass?

Won't be long until we find out

GRADE: B

Brightest Day #0 by Geoff Johns, Peter Tomasi, and Fernando Passarin - A Review/Primer

Review by Chris Clow

“Once dead, twelve heroes and villains were resurrected by a white light expelled deep from within the center of the Earth. Deemed a miracle by many and a sign of the apocalypse by others, the reasons behind their rebirths remain a mystery. But it will not be a mystery for long. This is the BRIGHTEST DAY.”

A common criticism I hear from people who see the posters for this series go along the lines of, “Oh great! Now DC’s stories are going to be happy, bright, and shiny! BOOO!” However, after reading this introductory issue to Brightest Day, #0, it appears that the stories within the pages for the next year will be far from light-hearted. This issue was full of a despair wrapped in a blindingly bright white light. Not the warm, reassuring kind of light. This bright light felt more as if it could be on the front of a train that you can’t see barreling toward you, and it seems that the heroes and villains that have returned, except for maybe Deadman, might not get out of that train’s way fast enough.

Osiris finds himself without a family after his return. Captain Boomerang is stuck in Iron Heights, and is bold enough to threaten the Fastest Man Alive. Aquaman’s return is rejoiced by his wife Mera, but the King of the Seven Seas looks in the water and sees himself as a Black Lantern staring back at him. Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch are the new Firestorm, but Jason’s hatred toward Ronnie for what his corpse did as a Black Lantern could fracture their partnership before it even begins.

And Deadman isn’t dead anymore, and is adjusting to life, and his larger role in the DCU. All the heroes that were resurrected by the White Entity no longer need to wear their White Lantern Rings. So, why can’t Deadman take his off? What does a man so defined by death do when the death that he touches gains new life? Is this a good second chance, or does his new life spell doom for our heroes?

A lot of questions, I know. But after reading Brightest Day #0, it seems that questions are exactly what you’re supposed to have. Issue #1 is on sale next week, and if you’re at all curious about what’s in store for the twelve resurectees of the DCU, Brightest Day is the book to read.

GRADE = B

Ultimate Comics: Enemy #3 by Brian Michael Bendis and Rafa Sandoval

Review by Art Delgadillo

The cover for this issue was a great takeoff of “The Three Stooges” looking around the corner of a building. The story features a nameless attacker that has murdered Reed Richards and has tried to do the same to others. With more unanswered questions than answered ones, the attacker is trapped. Is it the same one, or someone different? Notice that I didn’t say who. Again, cover art was great, interior art was adequate; with Nick Fury’s eye patch shifting on page nine to the wrong eye. However, this issue had a good bathroom brawl. Issue #3 gets you set up for the ending of this four-part story. Will the Thing survive and can Reed really be dead? Hopefully, all will be answered next month.

I like a story that wraps things up fairly quickly in comic book time. One month between issues in a good story with strong characters can seem like forever. I won’t say it’s a must-read, but it is a good one.

Kickin' Nazzy as . . tail. (In case any youngsters're readin' this)

The new Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers is set early in Cap's career, telling the pulse-pounding tale of his first mission with Sgt. Fury & His Howling Commandos! The Howlers & Cap are off to Wakanda to head off Hitler's attempt, led by Baron Strucker, to steal the African nation's Vibranium for use in their missile technology. Cap quickly runs afoul of T'chaka, the WWII-era Black Panther, and that leads into the next issue.

There's plenty of nasty Nazi business, a great battle scene right in the first few pages of the book, amusing dialog from the Howlers about this new star-spangled joker that never removes his mask (Nick Fury, particularly, is suspicious of him), but what really grabbed me with this first issue was Gabriel Jones' narration during the Howlers scenes. I'd never thought about how it might've been, being a black soldier, hand-picked by Fury himself, in an elite WWII commando squad. The Army's not desegregated yet, he's on this elite force with guys from Brooklyn & Kentucky, and they're heading into Africa for the first time (well, I think Fury had been there before). There's thoughtless comments and jokes about Africa from his teammates, and an impressive scene in the mess hall when Cap sits down right next to Gabe, doesn't have any silverware, and asks to uses Gabes, who is done eating. That's something you just didn't do back then (heck, I wouldn't do it now; not outa racism-that's just plain unsanitary w/anybody)! Actions like this, and Cap's fighting skills, yet ridiculous (to them, at that time) costume, have all the Howlers asking "who IS this guy?" When Cap first shows up, Dum Dum Dugan asks "who is this clown?" to which Fury replies "America's secret weapon." "I thought WE were America's secret weapon" is his response, shown in a tight close up of Dugan's shadowed eyes and hard-set jaw. Tension's a-brewing, right away!

These tensions of preconceived judgments and prejudices, roles, and battle action will make for a great Cap, Year One-style story with a little more than just Nazi-bashing (not that that ain't enough any day o' the week), if writer Reginald Hudlin (Black Panther) can keep it up. The art, by Denys Cowan (The Question) and Klaus Janson (tons o' stuff) is nice, too, lots of good character perspectives and cinematic transitions.

Hey, this here is a blog, so I can write any ol' cr . . pearls o' wisdom, or goofy ramblin', even when I don't have a rollickin' review (I just realized this; kinda slow on the uptake with this here technology). So here goes . . .

My guess for the Red Hulk (sorry, I ain't calling him "Rulk." That's just stupid. And not even awesomely stupid) . . ? Colonel John D. Armbruster!

Ah, the collective gasp of recognition is deafening. "Who?" you're all asking. He died (or did he . . ?) in Incredible Hulk #185 (1975) stopping an exploding Glenn Talbot (he was an "organic bomb," y'see) from killing the president. BUT! Talbot is now back, as is Betty (maybe the ones that died were actually Skrulls! Yeesh, I hope not), so why not this guy?

Armbruster was another career military man, who had a mad-on for the Hulk. He even took over Project: Greenskin from General Ross, and was instrumental in stopping the Russian terrorist attack by a mind-controlled Major Talbot. The Red Hulk is a military man, a strategist, familiar with weapons, had a rivalry with "Thunderbolt" Ross, and I think he may've once been involved with turning people into gamma-powered monsters. And he died, supposedly with Talbot, in heat energy pit thingie (it may've even been a volcano; I can't remember), which combined with Talbot's "organic bomb" explosion, could, in fine comic book logic, explain how they survived, and Red can absorb energy. That ability, and his military & anti-Hulk background , could've made him a great candidate for the Intelligentsia's "create-a-Hulk" experiments.

Either that, or Red is really Uncle Ben.

We're supposed to find out in June, if any of still care by then. Meanwhile, it's already slipped who the Red She-Hulk is, but I won't spoil it here, in case you haven't heard. (. . . Maybe it's an alternate timeline Aunt May!)

Bad Dog

Review by Neill McLaughlin

Bad Dog is a collarless mongrel, kicked bleeding and disoriented from the back of a pickup onto the side of a lifeless desert road, whose wounds are cared for by a family full of spirit, compassion, and true Americana. However, despite giving the animal a third lease on life, it still finds time to chew through, piss in, crap on, and openly hump everything that ‘Ma & Pa Kent’ value. A nomadic, uncivilized creature roaming from town to town, passing on whatever it picked up along the back alleys and shady truck stops to anyone merciful enough to give the flea bitten hound asylum. The type of mangy varmint that looks up at you with those tender eyes, and despite the dirt caked fur and glass cut paws, you just can’t stop yourself from picking it up and taking it home with you.

From the open mind of writer Joe Kelly (Deadpool, Four Eyes, I Kill Giants) comes a belligerently truthful dark comedy that empowers the medium by telling a story fixed best within the pages of comic books. Best described by the author, Kelly describes Bad Dog as "channeling a lifetime of bad behavior into two misfit bounty hunters incapable of catching a break, let alone a criminal... Lou is a werewolf who despises people so much that he refuses to shift back into human form and Wendell is a vertically-challenged, gutter-mouthed ex-preacher with a hair-trigger temper." A tattered tale about anti-heroes drinking there way to rock bottom on the dusty back roads of civilization, while hunting down the ever-failing dollar, howls straight from the heart of the Gonzo-fueled American Dream. The kind of comic that makes you stand up like a patriotic rebel and beg for the forgotten freedoms of our fore fathers.

Crafting a story drowned in alcohol and self pity requires an artistic balance that keeps the reader engrossed without grossing them out with the thought of vomit oozing off the pages. Enter Diego Greco, an Argentinean artist known for advertising, erotic comics, and a loser superhero story called Doméstico. With his soft brushes and enriched tones, Greco displays a style that is easy on the eyes yet comically engaging. Together, the team create a comic book that sets the mood for a bar brawl in the middle of a Don Bluth film; keeping every hurled glass bottle in focus, making every broken bone look enchanting, and polishing the toothless smiles of all ages brave enough to endure self destruction.

As you take Bad Dog out of the weekly comic grab, you see a fuzzy face full of golden brown fur, wearing Elvis shades, a white cowboy hat, and a dead cold stare. Once opened to the first page, it becomes apparent you have past far beyond the safety and sanity of so-called city limits a few exits ago. From page to page, the dialogue poetically rants like a drunken pastor slam dancing to hymns on shattered stained-glass windows, while the art gracefully shines a harmonious spectrum through each broken shard upon the floor. By the time you reach the middle of the story, you are already intoxicated by the recurring visits to dive bars and backwater saloons. If you can reach the end of the book, you will need two bottles of whiskey to cure the pounding headache where you once had a brain and the number to a back alley surgeon for an emergency liver transplant.

Bad Dog exists because, as much as we want to pretend we are ALL good people, some of us know deep down in the dank pit of our failed kidneys, that everyone is capable of both love AND destruction. That is why we all look when we drive past a car wreck; it's in our nature to observe, even when we want to poke our eyes out with olive picks. Bad Dog might not stay long with most crowds, but the few of us who welcome the disruptive truthfulness and rebellious abandonment will always have a spare room for this mongrel… Furniture and rugs be damned! And if MY carbonated ramblings haven't been enough to convince you to try a shot of this 100 proof series, you need the kind of help that only an enabler can give... When creator Joe Kelly was asked by comicbookresources.com to convince them to purchase a copy of Bad Dog in just 10 verbs, he replied,
"Drink. Shoot. Ponder. Drink. Laugh. &@%$%. Drink. Howl. Weep. Become. Aw, yeah... Artsy!"


Now THAT’S entertainment!

Green Lantern #43 by Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke

Review by Chris Clow

Wow.

I don't know why, but I am always surprised when Geoff Johns manages to take a previously lame villain and turn him/her into a complex psychological creature, but more importantly, into a frightening and imposing villain. Previously, my favorite example of Johns' doing this was in The Flash #218, where he spotlighted the Rogue Heatwave and made his infatuation with fire into a deeply perverse obsession that cost the character his entire family.

That favoritism, however, has shifted to Green Lantern #43 and the villain Black Hand.

There's still a lot we don't know about the Black Lantern Corps in this issue and we didn't know exactly what their full function was until we opened up Blackest Night #1 on July 15th. But that mystery, coupled with the unnerving exposition of Black Hand and the steps he ultimately takes to embrace the power of death, is a big part of why this story is so compelling. Hal Jordan and the usual suspects don't appear in this issue in any large capacity. We get introduced to William Hand in a way we never have before, as a deep psyche evaluation that dives headfirst into his obsession with death, and everything that has to do with it.

What does living in a mortuary mean for someone who's so consumed by an unhealthy and sadistic love of corpses? What does this extreme personality do when he discovers a power greater than that of a man's? And what does that mean for the Blackest Night? This issue explains thoroughly why Black Hand is the way he is currently portrayed, and why he will be a force to be reckoned with, not only against the Green Lantern Corps, but the DC Universe. With a strong debut from new ongoing artist Doug Mahnke, the aesthetics coupled with the complex look into the mind of Black Hand is a total winner.

Green Lantern #43 leads into Blackest Night #1 in the best way possible: by showing how you, the reader, will absolutely love to hate this sadistic son of a b*^$%.

GRADE: A