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.