Written By: Tom King
Art By: Tony S. Daniel, Sandu Florea, Tomeu Morey, Clayton Cowles
Cover Price: $2.99
Welcome to the Oblivion Bar where the first round is on me and the pretzels are free! Be warned: like the pickled eggs at the bar, this issue is going to get SPOILED rotten.
Let’s dive into this litter box, shall we? We open one year later with Booster being stuck in this alternate timeline. Gotham is in utter chaos, War is everywhere and Thomas Wayne feels like he’s FAILED THIS CITY (arrow tv style). Booster thinks that if he can set up a meet and greet with Selina, Bruce will fall in love with her and fix everything. So, Booster breaks out Selena, sews together a Batman Returns Catwoman suit for her, and they head to Wayne Manor to confront Bruce. Meanwhile, Thomas Wayne had a heart attack and is recovering at home while Dick Grayson Batman is on Booster Gold and Selina’s tail.
They arrive at Wayne Manor and Selina goes cat lady crazy killing Alfred and then Thomas. Dick Grayson Batman comes in from behind and shoots Selina in the back. Selina gets up and slices off Batman’s fingers so he retaliated and shoots at Selina only to misfire and kill Martha. Bruce, out of rage, picks up a gun and shoots Batman in the head while Booster is laying on the ground injured thinking he saved everything.
Ok, so I have no doubt we are going to have lovers and haters of this issue. I don’t think we will have anyone in between. Here is my take, which you can probably judge from my score that I liked it, but here it is anyway. Let’s begin with this statement: these are my opinions and you are free to disagree, argue, and rant about them if you choose just like I am free to love whatever I want to for whatever reason. If you are interested in a fight, I am not your man nor will I respond. I hope I answer your reasons as to why I like it and hopefully they are helpful to you. If not, maybe someone else’s opinion is more to your liking. And with that, here is why I liked it.
This is an else-world story told in current continuity and these are some of my favorite types of stories. We know none of this will last and everything will go back to normal when it’s done so the writer can be as crazy and out there as they would like to be. If you’ve read Thanos for the past half of a year, it was the same idea. Stories told in current continuity using timey-whimey-mumbo-jumbo to explain their current situation are a nice way to truly experiment with the characters in a creative way normal readers would never get to see otherwise.
Flashpoint is another prime example. This reminds me of a mini-Flashpoint in a way. The opportunity to tell crazy things, like a Thomas Wayne Batman and Wonder Woman fighting Aqua man, all because Barry’s Mom lived. Really? So, whose to say this couldn’t happen if both Thomas and Martha lived? So many may argue that this take is unrealistic. Bruce would never act like this. To that I say: maybe and maybe not. Take Metal as an example. A Joker Batman is not realistic to me at all, or a Doomsday Batman or a Batman so possessed to save the rest of his family that he merged with Barry to become Red Death. Why are all of those ok but not this? Why is White Knight Batman ok? A Batman so driven, forceful, and cruel. A Batman totally unlike any we have seen, except maybe Dark Knight Returns Batman. How about Earth One Batman? Point is: they are all different from our normal Batman. Are we just upset that it’s in Batman, the main comic?
My next point is: we are looking at a snap shot of a “what if” story in which both of Bruce’s parents stayed alive as well as him. Bruce wouldn’t be a great guy because he seemed like a snot-nosed rich kid before. He never learned to fight. He never became a detective. He never dealt with loss. And we don’t completely know what other things changed by Martha and Thomas continuing to be alive. Others may say; we do know because people like Snyder wrote about early Batman and other writers have told glimpses of his early life. Your right. But his parents being alive could change that and frankly, every writer alters continuity of the character they get when they get it whether it’s intentional or not. So, I love the else-world, crazy feel of the story as well as the insane ending. To see Bruce kill Dick with a gun, Selena to slice and dice Bruce’s dad, Alfred, and a completely crazed Booster trying to fix everything for a year, was nuts and awesome!
I enjoyed the heck out of this story. I loved the Booster take because it reminds me of the tv show Booster, Justice League Unlimited, and even the current Justice League Action that I watch with my boys. Booster is goofy, funny, and his actions are borderline lunacy. Is that how current Booster is in comics..... not according to his most recent appearance in Action Comics by the person who created him. But, from someone who hasn’t read a ton of Booster, the tv shows are the most influence I have towards him so it fits to me and I love it. And I’m not going to claim to know a ton about Booster BUT wasn’t he originally portrayed like this goofy character we see here?
I also feel like King did a good job of explaining the “why” in the past two issues. Many complain that he leaves things ambiguous and wants readers to fill in gaps. To me, these issues are straightforward. Sure, we want to know more about this world but the actions of the characters in the story appear to be straightforward to me. Selena kills Thomas because of tearing down her orphanage and appears that he ruined her life, which may even have driven her to be a murderer in the first place. Booster has been trying to find a way for a year to fix this and has been stuck in this new world and even this worlds Batman knows “of” Booster by name and has appeared to be hunting him down.
If you like what you heard, love talking all types of comics, and are interested in joining a comic chat group, hit me up at dispatchdcu@gmail.com or @dispatchdcu on twitter. Catch you all later! Peace
Bits and Pieces:
In general, this story was fun, exciting, and filled with the pure insanity that we all know can be put back to normal when all his is done. I’m enjoying this arc and hope we get even more zany fun before this is all done. The story is crazy fun and I left wanting more. I’m sorry if this review didn’t help you at all and if it did, you’re welcome!
My next point is: we are looking at a snap shot of a “what if” story in which both of Bruce’s parents stayed alive as well as him. Bruce wouldn’t be a great guy because he seemed like a snot-nosed rich kid before. He never learned to fight. He never became a detective. He never dealt with loss. And we don’t completely know what other things changed by Martha and Thomas continuing to be alive. Others may say; we do know because people like Snyder wrote about early Batman and other writers have told glimpses of his early life. Your right. But his parents being alive could change that and frankly, every writer alters continuity of the character they get when they get it whether it’s intentional or not. So, I love the else-world, crazy feel of the story as well as the insane ending. To see Bruce kill Dick with a gun, Selena to slice and dice Bruce’s dad, Alfred, and a completely crazed Booster trying to fix everything for a year, was nuts and awesome!
I enjoyed the heck out of this story. I loved the Booster take because it reminds me of the tv show Booster, Justice League Unlimited, and even the current Justice League Action that I watch with my boys. Booster is goofy, funny, and his actions are borderline lunacy. Is that how current Booster is in comics..... not according to his most recent appearance in Action Comics by the person who created him. But, from someone who hasn’t read a ton of Booster, the tv shows are the most influence I have towards him so it fits to me and I love it. And I’m not going to claim to know a ton about Booster BUT wasn’t he originally portrayed like this goofy character we see here?
I also feel like King did a good job of explaining the “why” in the past two issues. Many complain that he leaves things ambiguous and wants readers to fill in gaps. To me, these issues are straightforward. Sure, we want to know more about this world but the actions of the characters in the story appear to be straightforward to me. Selena kills Thomas because of tearing down her orphanage and appears that he ruined her life, which may even have driven her to be a murderer in the first place. Booster has been trying to find a way for a year to fix this and has been stuck in this new world and even this worlds Batman knows “of” Booster by name and has appeared to be hunting him down.
If you like what you heard, love talking all types of comics, and are interested in joining a comic chat group, hit me up at dispatchdcu@gmail.com or @dispatchdcu on twitter. Catch you all later! Peace
Bits and Pieces:
In general, this story was fun, exciting, and filled with the pure insanity that we all know can be put back to normal when all his is done. I’m enjoying this arc and hope we get even more zany fun before this is all done. The story is crazy fun and I left wanting more. I’m sorry if this review didn’t help you at all and if it did, you’re welcome!
9.0/10
This seems like a story to convince the remaining skeptics that the marriage is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteOhh no, Mail-Robot must have gotten self-aware just like skynet, to replace jim, that's the only thing that explains this blasphemous review of Batman. Fair well Jim, we will miss you..Judgment Day is at here.
ReplyDeletelol...not my review
DeleteThe decision to make Bruce's parents elitist jerks was disappointing and the idea that Booster has zero idea about how time travel works ruins the story for me.
ReplyDeleteme too!
DeleteI have to admit that this is actually the best Batman has been in a while. After King giving us fanfiction Elseworlds for almost his entire run, he FINALLY gives us an actual Elseworlds story where King's complete and utter disregard for established characterization and continuity makes sense. I'm a big fan of Elseworlds stories, so here's something I can actually get behind and enjoy for a few issues.
ReplyDelete