Batman/Superman #15 Review

Written by: Greg Pak
Art by: Pascal Alixe, Diogenes Miguel de Neves, Marc Deering and Cliff Richards
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 15, 2014

...Light the Corners of My Mind

If you haven't been reading the Clean Slate story, let me catch you up.  Kaiyo Chaosbringer and Lord Satanus are playing a fun little game called, "Let's erase Batman and Superman's memories".  I'm still not sure why, but they seem to be having a good enough time with it.  Batman and Superman...not so much.  They are trying to figure out what to do while those around them either help or hinder the process. We have Catwoman getting all "Memento" with Superman and Batman watching people die as he struggles to be more like "him".  The concept may sound intriguing, but the reality has been far from good.  Unfortunately, that trend continues this issue.



The issue starts with the ramblings of Lord Satanus and Kaiyo.  Thank God this is the last issue of the arc because I really am sick of these two.  Kaiyo wore her welcome out a while ago in this book and I really hope lord Satanus goes away for a long while after this issue.  I hate their design, their dialogue is bad and I'm still scratching my head about the motivations.  The just seem to be the necessary villains to justify the story.  To add insult to injury, we find out how Batman and Superman can get their memories back and it is infuriatingly ridiculous.

Speaking of ridiculous, the issue then shows Batman and his new gal pal, Lois Lane.  I don't mind Bruce going after her since he has no memories, but what is Lois doing?  In this issue she's dressing up as Batgirl and training with Batman?  It is as ridiculous as it sounds.  There are a couple "oh no, they're going to kiss" moments to make the scene even worse.

Meanwhile, Catwoman has Superman running around bare chested destroying robots and hunting down Mangubat.  Batman doesn't approve and shows it by running his motorcycle wheel on the Man of Steel's face.  Then Lois comes riding in on Batgirl's motorcycle and I'm left wondering if the costume really makes the hero because Lois suddenly seems to "be" Batgirl.

As Superman and Batman battle each other and Mangubat, Batman gets his memories back.  Again, the rules for getting them back are upsetting considering the investment in the story, but the moment he gets his memories back is a pretty heavy moment. He then uses what he's learned to get Superman back to normal and again, it's a pretty cool moment.  At the end, Superman seems like an okay guy, but Batman comes off as a real dick.  I liked him better without his memories.

I didn't like this issue one bit.  It was just wasted potential wrapped up in awful characterization and a ridiculous story.  I expect so much more from Greg Pak and just left this story shaking my head.

If I didn't like the issue, I hated the art with a passion.  There are four artists and the differences between them is jarring.  The transitions threw me out of the story, but so did each particular artist.  It's really that bad.

Bits and Pieces:

Batman/Superman #15 was a horrible end to a bad story.  The story and art were equally bad and i can only recommend that you avoid it.  How about we get Kaiyo to just erase our collective memories so we don't even know it ever existed?

3.0/10