I have decided that I will collect the first arc of the new Batman/Superman book in hopes of trying to understand all the nonsense of The Batman Who Laughs. Tossing Supergirl into the mix of 'the infected' made it seem I sort of had to know.
But I find these sort of stories tedious, especially when it feels like every other year is 'Year of the Villain' with DC and every third year is 'Supergirl is dark and angsty'. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Here in Batman/Superman #2, the World's Finest pair squares off against the first of the tainted heroes, Shazam.
Joshua Williamson writes a good story with the usual feints of 'is Shazam really evil'? But I find that the Batman in this book is just too infallible, too prepared, and too paranoid for me to embrace. As always, when Batman is elevated this much, Superman suffers in comparison. There are a couple of good moments here for Superman. But otherwise this reads like a Batman book with Superman as a guest star.
One thing I do love is the art by David Marquez which feels like some mix of Doc Shaner and Doug Mahnke. That's a nice mix. Really good.
On to some specifics.
Last issue Shazam arrived as the evil acolyte of the Batman Who Laughs.
A brawl breaks out and finally Superman decides to unleash his heat vision. But then, with his magic word, it is suddenly Billy Batson. And Billy says that in this form he isn't infected.
I have to say it smacked a little bit of the end of Moore's Miracleman. I know ... that was 30 years ago. But there it is.
Of course, it turns out to be a feint. Billy is just as corrupted, turns back into Shazam, and uses the lightning to blast Superman. Armed with a batarang designed specifically to infect Superman, Shazam rears back to strike.
And then we get the some Batman elevation. He flies the Batplane (perhaps the Batman Who Laughs batplane) into Shazam, jumping out at just the right moment, and stabs Shazam with the very batarang that infected the World's Mightiest Mortal. I don't know when he obtained that. Was it last issue?
But it is Superman who gets pounded and Batman who does the most damage.
The Batman attack forces Shazam to retreat. And Superman being Superman, he rescues the falling and dying Batman rather than chase Shazam.
Awakening in the Fortress, Batman ignores the medical robots to get back into gear. He smashes equipment and yells. And he wastes no time in chastising Superman for letting Shazam go.
I know ... Batman is soooo cool.
Thankfully, Superman doesn't take it lying down. At least I have that.
Even better, Superman was able to obtain the poisoned batarangs, including the one designed to infect him.
It's Nth metal and covered in a specific poison.
Batman isn't surprised since he admits he has contingency plans against every hero. So we are back to that sort of Bruce again.
And, of course, Batman can read the Kryptonian language. (He says 'Please, I'm Batman.)
It is Superman who comes up with the ultimate plan. Rather than try and find Shazam, they should go to the root of all the evil.
Batman reveals that he has built a prison beneath the Hall of Justice which houses the Batman Who Laughs. (I don't know if it makes sense to have the deadliest villain incarcerated under a public attraction like the Hall but there we are.)
I do like the idea of the Hall being like a clubhouse for all heroes. Nice to see Supergirl heading there.
And Superman's big plan? To pretend that Shazam was successful in making him evil.
Now this seems a little foolish. How does Superman know exactly what the effect of the poison would be? Can he pull off this act long term enough to fool someone who has all the skills of Batman? And why would you ever release this evil Dark Knight, even as an aspect of realism in this gambit?
I don't know ...
Hopefully this title will someday become just a book with standard adventures for these two. And if that hasn't happened once the Supergirl stuff has ended, I am probably out.
4 comments:
I read the first issue, very pretty, and Williamson does as well with the Batman Who Bores business as probably anyone could, but yeah, tedium. And I'm so sick of 'what Superman thinks' vs 'what Batman thinks' - can't the point of a World's Finest book be the heroes teaming up rather than constantly evaluating one another?
Call me when the Infected business is over.
I really don't think you need to read any more of this to get the Supergirl aspect of it. The more sales DC get, the more of this nonsense they'll push.
So this book has two Batgods for the prize of one, and a soon-to-be-infected Dark Supergirl. How wonderful. Sigh. I would suggest you saving your money.
At least Superman calls Batman out on his rubbish for once. It was about time. That scene reminds me of the final issue of the original World's Finest, where Batman berates Superman because he made a mistake... except that, back then, Superman didn't fire back. That scene made little sense, since Superman had often saved Batman from his own recklessness, but the final story had to put both heroes at odds with each other after over forty years, and their rift hasn't really healed.
I remember that WF issue, Anonymous, and I hated it, as you say, it was just senseless - meaningless rubbish to justify ending the book. Nothing like depressing a loyal readership.
Williamson has said that his first Batman/Superman arc leads into the next separate mini-series, called, I think, Hells Arisen. I think this is where Doom and BWL's team will battle for supremacy. That doesn't sound like it ends with our hero's success, so that series should take us to the middle of next year, and then, let's hope, a final mini where whatever Evil team was left standing from the Hells Arisen battle is finally defeated by the good guys who remain.
From a sales perspective I think YOTV has been a flop, or has not juiced sales, but DC is committed to it. Maybe they'll find a way to cut it short.
Most of the YOTV tie-ins I've read have been innocuous and skippable. Of the titles I know of, only Wonder Woman actually showed regular people taking Luthor's nihilistic exhortation to heart to start rioting in the streets and just grab what they want.
To be fair, DC's checklist promos said this explicitly - that you don't have to read all the tie-ins but only the ones you like. What publisher does something as helpful as that? I liked that honesty very much.
Tomasi's Mr. Freeze tie-in story in Detective is actually pretty good so far.
These tie-ins, as you know, are nothing but "the villain has been boosted with some extra capability to be More Formidable." Otherwise they are just more of the same villain, not an earth-shattering deal, with, so far, no impact on the overall Doom situation.
T.N.
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