Art By: Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 8, 2014
Game Over Man!
Last issue we saw many unusual things, the biggest I can think of is the death of Batman, and then the resurrection of an undead Batman with superpowers. We found out that Mongul had seeded the east coast with golden fury blossoms, which made everyone a little on edge, and easy to let their emotions get the better of them. With the fury blossoms in place, the VR game world was open for anyone with.....well with the technology to enter the VR game world, which turns out to be millions of people. I don't know, video games are just cooler in the DCU. In the end super undead Batman was taken over by the actions of millions of people and forced to face off against the Man of Steel. So let's get to the game.
Explain It!:
The issue begins with a down on her luck woman, who is in line at the post office, and has five minutes to get her loan post marked for it to be valid. So instead of a stress free time and everything working out for her, what she gets is a superhero grudge match. Batman and Superman tear through the building making everyone run for their lives, leaving the woman to drop to her knees and know that her life was just crushed, now that she won't have the money to keep her apartment, and in turn keep custody of her daughter. But what's this? Someone in the post office in their haste to save their life, must have dropped one of the VR glasses, that somehow allows you to control Batman. Oh, and somehow when putting on the glasses she instinctively knows this, and vengeance shall be hers!
Batman, and Superman continue their fight across the city, while Mongul monologues like he does. Blah blah blah human nature, blah blah blah fury blossoms, you know Mongul stuff. Superman breaks away from the fight to get the control console out of harms way, while Batman is going right back after him telling him he has to destroy it. You see boys and girls, if Superman destroys it the threat will be over, but Batman will also die, since his chest was blown wide open, and if only alive through nanotech. As we all know Superman won't just let Batman die, so he comes up with a plan. He let's Batman defeat him, and once he is down, the players from around the world are able to control Superman. I'm not sure how this makes sense since Batman had to literally die to become a playable character, but we'll go with it.
Achievement Unlocked: Superman enters the game. While Superman's consciousness is in the game he notices the vengeful woman from the beginning. She tells him how he has ruined her life, and Superman gives her a wink, and a smile, and asks for her to help him. That Superman square jaw will do it every time. The book goes on to make fun of superhero tropes, by explaining to us that once the heroes fight, they join forces to take on the real villain. Yeah I saw that movie. Mongul puts on a good show of beating the shit out of our heroes, but this a ruse just to get away from the city, now it's payback time. Flawless Victory.
In the end Mongul is taken out and imprisoned in the Phantom Zone, Toy Master finds a way to bring Batman back to life with some kind of super science, you know how that goes, and our heroes have a discussion about Superman's naivety. Oh and a certain mild mannered reporter finds that unlucky woman, and tells her he has a loan for her from the Wayne Foundation Loan Program. So Superman helped her get back on her feet, and maintain at least a little faith in humanity, that's my boy. So all is well in Batman/Superman land, all except that Mongul Jr. is watching from space. Hope this doesn't come back to haunt them later.
Bits and Pieces:
Now I know this video game-centric story is meant to just be fun, and mainly there for a popcorn factor, but this issue fell short for me. The fun and whimsy is lost, and replaced with super science explanations, and non answers for how anything in this world works. I know it's just a comic, but everything wrapped up nice and neat, and without a real explanation on how, just seems lazy. That being said this was a fun story as a whole, this issue being the end just lacked the fun we were given in the last two issues.
5.8/10
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