Abe Sapien: The Haunted Boy

Written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi. Art by Patric Reynolds. Colors by Dave Stewart.
Abe Sapien: The Haunted Boy is a stand-alone story in a series of one-shot issues which Dark Horse is releasing over the coming months. BPRD's famed green hero investigates a haunting following the drowning of a teenage boy, deals with grieving relatives and a sullen witness, and ends up confronting yet another monster taken from European mythology, this time a Scandinavian one.


The artwork of relative newcomer Patric Reynolds is solid, and he does a great job at finely characterising his protagonists through gestures and facial expressions. Abe comes across as more athletic and dynamic than in other BPRD titles. I especially like Reynolds' take on the monster. Which leads me to the criticism I have of the book: the story ends too fast. The set-up is nicely done, but the solution is hurried:  the final confrontation with the monster is all too brief, relies on a coincidence to solve the issue and thus comes across as a bit of an anti-climax. Which is too bad. I guess sometimes it does take more than 24 pages to tell a story well.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Detective Comics #858 / Batman #692

Batwoman in Detective Comics #858: Writer: Greg Rucka. Artist: J.H. Williams III. Colours: Dave Stewart.
The fifth issue of Detective Comics featuring Batwoman proves again that this is the real gem among the new or revamped Bat titles currently pushed on the market by DC Comics. In the first part of an origin story, with flashbacks relating the childhood and early adolescence of Kate Kane and her twin sister, the art team again shows itself in peak form, alternating again between different art styles to get the story across: an old-fashioned looking, classic, well-ordered comic look for the flashbacks, and the contrasting, dynamic layout driven by a sombre colour palette offset by the bright reds associated with the Batwoman character. One simply brilliant page even relies on on nothing but text snippets to tell an episode. All in all, one of the best superhero titles out there. 

Rating: 5 of 5.

Batman #692: Written and Drawn by Tony S. Daniel. Inks: Sandu Florea. Colors: Ian Hannin.

With the arrival of Tony S. Daniel as writer/artist, the Batman title finally rises up from the mediocrity of the past few weeks. Daniel's stylish graphics (at times resorting to a classic film noir look) and the first convincing representation of Dick Grayson as Batman (all angles and shadows) make this series again worth its money.

The plot: Dick Grayson/Batman enlists the help of Catwoman to find the layer of Black Mask, and instead gets sent into the hands of the Falcone mob, while Catwoman pursues her own schemes. Black Mask meanwhile digs up even more villains to serve him.

The title's overall plotting is still its weal point. While Black Mask 'wins' over more and more of the Bat-verse's renowned villains to his side, Batman gets side-tracked again and again in his search for Black Mask. You'd think the title would start building up momentum leading to the final confrontation between the two, but instead there is the usual villain-of-the-week plotting, which probably means that the showdown will end up being rushed over a couple of titles a few weeks down the line.
Rating: 3.5 of 5.

Clive Barker's Seduth

Writers: Clive Barker and Chris Monfette. Art by Gabriel Rodriguez, colors by Jay Fotos, 3D conversion by Ray Zone. Published by IDW.

With the slew of 3D movies invading the cinemas, it is no small wonder that 3D is making its return to comics. To tell the truth, I have never read a comic where I felt that 3D added anything to it, often quite the contrary; so I assumed that 3D was in the case of this book nothing more than a neglect-able gimmick.

Not so: the whole comic has been built around 3D, and it probably wouldn't work without it. It's also the best 3D graphic I've ever seen - it works, and it makes sense in the term of the imagery used here.

As to the story line: this is a rather short, surreal tale about the nature of creation and destruction - or nihilism. As Clive Barker's notes at the end of the book suggest, its inspiration comes from the works of surrealists Bunuel or Fellini. There is no real linear plot in the usual sense, more a series of images, as disconnected as can be when taken from visions or nightmares - using horror elements without being a horror comic. The story line can be viewed as an exercise in style; and even though the book purports to be about themes such as creation or existence, there is really no new message here - only some vague notions transported by a narrative swelled with pathos. One is left with the feeling that there is a bit too much ado about nothing - or at least, about very little of substance. Maybe 24 pages weren't enough to fully develop what Clive Barker had in mind. But maybe this is also just a book that was meant to be judged on its visual qualities alone. And as such, it works Certainly, the 3D art is worth the money alone.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Batman Unseen #2

Writer: Doug Moench. Art: Kelley Jones. Colours: Michelle Madsen.

Doug Moench's and Kelley Jone's run with the regular Batman title used to be a highlight for me. So I'm glad to see them back on a Bat title, and to witness the return of the foot-long ears, the yellow bat sign and the impossibly huge cape. Batman Unseen delivers all that in Jones' inimitable style and Moench's tongue-in-cheeck story-line about a mad scientist who turns himself invisible layer by layer, Batman who ponders his own apparent lack of scariness, due to too much invisibility while the Black Mask is hovering in the wings. All in all, this promises to be a great miniseries.

Batman and Robin #5

Writer: Grant Morrison. Art: Philip Tan, Jonathan Glapion, Alex Sinclair.

Having moved from the weird to the more mainstream, Batman and Robin's decidedly dark take on the Dynamic Duo continues to excel. Batman and Robin are pitched against the the two murderous vigilantes: Red Hood, whose identity is surprisingly revealed early on, and the rather scary Scarlet; and, as the laws of comics demand, our heroes are currently losing out to the two villains who are but distorted mirror images of the new Batman and the new Robin. Mysterious Oberon Sexton also puts in another appearance, being set up as maybe an important figure to come; while yet another new villain, the blood-thirsty Flamingo, reaches Gotham.

The plotting slows down a bit in this issue, setting up the players for the next act. The art is still dark and rather outstanding. All in all a very good read.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Batman #691

Writer: Judd Winick. Art: Mark Bagley, Rob Hunter. Colours: Pete Pantazis.

While DC Comics continue to provide quality comics with the recent Batman spin-off titles, it is amazing that the Batman title itself is allowed to run it's rather mediocre run. The writing is not at fault: while not at its most original, it nonetheless moves along nicely Dick's struggles as the new Caped Crusader and the intrigues of the Black Mask. The issue opens with Batman facing Two-Face inside the Batcave itself and ending up having his butt saved by Albert. Dick / batman is portrayed here as a man who still makes mistakes but attempts to learn from them. At the end, Dick breaks with one more piece of Bruce's past by clearing the batcave, and ends up finding an intriguing link to his own past.

Black Mask, meanwhile, lays his grubby hands on Two-Face, and the next issue will reveal if Harvey throws in his lot with old skeleton head.

The title's weak spot continues to be the art. It's better than it has been but is still below average. The colours are less garish than they were in the last issues, but still rely a lot on awful Photoshop effects. Next issue will see writer / artist Tony Daniel take over the title, which can only profit from this change.

Rating: 2 of 5.

Red Robin #5

Written by Chris Yost ; Art by Ramon Bachs.

I'm not a great fan of teenage sidekick comics, and I picked up Red Robin only because it promised to lead to the mystery surrounding the fate of recently vanished Bruce Wayne. The series started off with an epic, world-spanning romp involving an almost grown-up Tim Drake; and after the first two issues I decided to stay with the title. The series seems to be set out as a coming-of-age story for a character who has lost, within the span of a few years, his father, girl friend, adoptive father, and who has been recently deposed as Robin, and sends our newly brooding hero on a quest around the world to find out the whereabouts of that other brooding hero, Bruce Wayne. He soon becomes embroiled with Ra's al Ghul, also on the look-out for Bruce Wayne, and with the League of Assassins.

Issue #5 opens a new story arc which sees Tim saved by the League and agreeing to work with them to defeat their enemy, the Council of Spider. It sets up a new villain, the Wanderer, and establishes a potential love affair between Drake and one of the assassins, while also throwing one of Lucius Fox's attractive daughters into the mix.

Using a Lost-like time-hopping storytelling technique, writer Chris Yost keeps up the tension throughout. The art work is solid and adequate but not outstanding. The book has one big problem, 'though, and that is Red Robin's downright silly costume (daft even by comic book standards). Red Robin is a solid title with a promising, riveting story line.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.