Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves (comics)

Writer: Kevin VanHook
Artist: Tom Mandrake
Collects: Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves #1-6

I can't help but sit here and ponder whether it's even remotely possible to have a more straightforward name than this. I'm not so sure it is. I don't think you can be much blunter about the contents.

There are probably about a million jokes to be made about the name alone, but really, there isn't much point. I was sold from the cover alone, because if a man's not allowed to be even a little excited about the Dark Knight and Superman taking on frickin' vampires and werewolves there's something seriously wrong with the world today. Granted, it's a bit tougher these days, but this book doesn't use the sissy varieties of either like you might find in certain uber popular franchises I could name but won't.

Sure, the names a little bland - they could have come up with a snappier title, for sure - but it's just a wrapper on what's an otherwise fairly enjoyable romp pitting two of our favorite DC heroes against two of horrors most beloved types of monster.

The story starts with a body someone had for a meal tossed off a roof. Now, a half eaten corpse falling from the sky isn't an everyday occurrence, even for Gotham, so naturally Batman knows something's up. Before too long, he crosses paths with a vampire and a werewolf, both of which become uneasy allies with the Dark Knight against a lot of feral vampires and werewolves released by your typical mad doctor type. Superman shows up too and since werewolves are based on magic in this story, he quickly finds himself vulnerable. Then at some point we find that these supernatural creatures are the result of these crazy demon things that look like aliens from a low budget horror flick. Time for some punchin'.

The story feels old school. It's heavily narrated in a way I haven't really seen in a while and maybe a bit over-written. But in that way, it feels like an engaging adventure that might not have been out of place in, say, the 70's, barring loosened standards on blood and such.

Despite my feeling it's a tad over-written, I didn't feel it was to the stories detriment. I felt it gave it mood. It felt like an old fashioned horror comic. Pulpy even. Sometimes you're just over-writing something. Chris Claremonts work tends to have that problem. But there are cases where that might be pertinent; I'd say this is a case that benefits from it.

The artwork is fairly decent, if not always to my taste. The best way to put it is that it's stylized. Exaggerated, even. But it really works for the story. Mandrake's also pretty good at drawing the numerous beasties that come with the territory, which is really essential if you're going to do something like this. Better still, he's able to put those same beasts in a comic with the often brightly colored superheroes and make it work. Tom Mandrake's proved to be another one of those guys who I never heard of before - which is actually happening a bit too much to me lately - and managed to succeed in surprising me.

The Score: 7.5 out of 10

It's not going to change how you look at things or challenge your mind, but if you're looking for some superheroics with a supernatural twist, you could do worse than this. There's another story by this creative team called "Batman vs The Undead" and I assume that it's a sequel to this story. I had enough fun to guarantee I'll be back for that.

Random Trains of Thought 2/14/2011

- Welp, it's Valentines Day. I've seen a few of the usual "blah blah blah this holiday sucks it's a holiday based on consumerism" comments, either from friends or otherwise. It's interesting, actually, in that this is really a common slam against several of the chief holidays. But the argument frankly blows.

All holidays have an element of consumerism no matter what you do. It doesn't matter if you're buying chocolate for that special someone, getting a Christmas gift for a family member or buying groceries for a huge feast. You are consuming and it has to come from somewhere.

What seems lost these days is the fact that, despite the profit of corporations from them, holidays bring out some of the best traits of human beings. A vast majority of them are celebrations of concepts as great as giving to someone else for no other reason than to make them happy. Some inspire compassion. Hell, around Christmas time, being amongst other people is a far easier, more pleasant experience than any other time; everyone seems to be in the spirit, seem to be nicer to others and are more giving, even if the holiday itself is weeks away or already over.

These things are bad somehow? Why? Because a company makes money from an aspect of it? Who gives a god damn. They make money regardless all year 'round; and most of the year it isn't for good reasons. The only holiday I think you can make a case for is Thanksgiving - if you prescribe to the whole gluttony thing - but even that has higher reasoning behind it. If it means something to someone and makes people happy, it's a good holiday, to me.

- On that note, concerning Valentines Day, I don't currently have a girlfriend, but regardless of that, I like the holiday anyway. As far as I'm concerned any occasion to celebrate an emotion as awesome as love can't be all bad.

- I don't usually bring shipping stuff up on here, but since it's Valentines Day I'm going to make an exception for something. Did you ever notice that a fair amount of people ship a certain pairing chiefly because they had a crush on one of the characters as an adolescent or just really like them, even if the other character clearly doesn't return their feelings? I'm not going to name the two ships in general - or the game - but I've taken note over time that many people who stick with this one pairing - that I honestly think is flat out wrong, but when does that ever stop shippers - admit that they had a crush on the big breasted female in particular. So adding everything up, it becomes clear that such is a fair amount of why they ship her with the main character you play as, who very clearly loved someone else, even well after the most unfortunate of circumstances.

Doesn't that seem like an odd reason to ship something? No? It's just me? Oh.

- Actually, the above situation applies to the shipping wars of a certain manga about ninja's that are oddly unfamiliar with the concept of stealth. Shy, big breasted girl likes main character. Some male fans think she's hot. So of course, the main character has to end up with her, despite the fact that he doesn't even notice her and clearly has eyes for only one other girl. Same goes for females who relate to the shyness and want her to win out due to that reason.

That particular one is far less pressing, though, since I hate that manga to pieces now; used to like it a lot, but those days are long over since the quality went down the toilet.

- I think one of my greatest recent disappointments stems from Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Not because of the game itself, really. More that one of the featured dimensions, Marvel 2099, is woefully under represented outside of the game. Obviously the 616 Amazing universe is all over and it's really not hard to find material pertaining to either the Noir or Ultimate universes. Trying to find something from Spider-Man 2099, however, is akin to pulling teeth.

The comic, after all, ended over a decade ago. This is, I believe, the first major media outside of it to feature the character and his world in any fashion. But there's nothing to seek out. Spider-Man 2099 had some of my favorite levels from the game and I was immediately inspired to seek out the comic and whatever was related. To my utter dismay, there was nothing. No trades, no reprints, not a thing. There was a trade of the first ten issues, but that was issues back in early 2009. Said trade has been long out of print and I've never cared to back issue hunt if I don't have to.

Worse still, there doesn't seem to be a damn thing on the horizon for it, be it trades or new comics. Marvel is usually better about this kind of thing. I'm rather let down about it. This is probably the only taste of Spidey 2099 I'm likely to get for a long while, unless we get a sequel and the universe returns. Thanks Marvel. Way to cater.

- Speaking of the game, it feels short to me. Obviously there's a healthy amount of levels - twelve not counting the tutorial and the final boss - but that leaves a mere three stages a pop for each universe. For something like Noir and 2099, that doesn't feel like it's even remotely enough. I'm left wanting more; normally that's a good thing, but in this case it's more along the lines of simply not getting enough of each.

- Ever since I recently got a PS3, I've actually been playing online a fair bit. It is legitimately fun, but damn am I glad it's free on this system. Micrsoft can stick their Live Gold program up their ass; I did the trial and the actual multiplayer itself isn't any better than this, yet they charge for it.

- Actually, I've been switching over to the PS3 more lately in general. I'm finding I'm using it far more and making more game purchases for it over the 360. It's not surprising, honestly; I was really tired of Microsofts BS with the system itself and otherwise. I went through their customer service once. What a nightmare.

- On that note, I do have to give Sony some props. I recently had trouble with my PSP and simply did not want to do the customer service routine. I did it online and shockingly, it was quick and painless; I did a back and forth with a correspondent for a bit on what was wrong and then I had a box and instructions shipped to me on their dime. It was a very good experience, which is very nice.

I'm not just using Microsoft as a comparison here as it isn't even just them; in my experience, customer service for anything is frequently lousy. Navigating the computers is always a nightmare and even if you can get a correspondent on the phone it's no simpler. I really, really hate customer service.

- Why does Marvel seem intent on reminding us that the 90's in their comics are a thing that happened? Do we really need to see Onslaught again? No, we really don't, but damn, are they going to give it to us anyways. And that's with the insistence on bringing up the Clone Saga lately? A few scattered die-hard Ben Reilly fans aside, I think most of us were perfectly happy forgetting that mess was a thing that exists. It's quite possibly the lowest quality Spider-Man has ever reached, even within the confines of the Marriage Era. Cut that shit out, please.

- No, seriously; why the **** are we getting a Scarlet Spider action figure, complete with 90's ankle pouches? Seriously, what is the market for this stuff? That's even more shocking than the fact that Darkhawk's getting a figure in the same series.

- Possible reaction if anyone read this site: "then don't buy it troll STFU lolololol"

- Yes, I realize Spider-Man 2099 was a 90's thing. There were the occasional diamonds amidst the proverbial turds.

- I realize slamming the Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark musical is a popular thing these days but it's for good reason and I can't help commenting on it. As much as I like a good trainwreck, I'm genuinely concerned this musical is going to get someone killed. It's about as troubled a production as I've heard about in a long time, but stuff like how long it's been in previews, the savage reviews and large quantities of WTF-ery means little compared to the real danger of critical injury. You can bet your ass that if someone is crippled or died during this show, that 65 million will look like a pittance compared to the lawsuit.

- Being a bit of a pro wrestling fan - mostly the old stuff; I drift in and out of paying attention to it lately - the falling from a high flying cable stunt business with that musical never fails to remind me of Owen Hart, who, as you may recall, died from a malfunction during one of those stunts, falling a long way down to the ring. That was one stunt, too; not the constant use of such stunts a musical like this is going to require. I doubt the people involved even know of the incident - can't imagine there's much crossover with musical theater folk or their fans and pro wrestling - but it serves a lesson. All it takes is one screw-up.

- You know, the more I think on it, the more it makes sense that I'm enjoying the Spider-Man 2099 sections of Shattered Dimensions so much. I'm pretty much a total whore for cyberpunk and this is basically cyberpunk Spider-Man. It literally fits the majority of the classic criterion.

- I've been listening to grunge lately, which of course means that I'm listening to some awesome music. But, you know, I've come to a conclusion. I like Nirvana. Really, I do. But I honestly think Alice in Chains was the better band of the grunge movement. They lasted about the same amount of time - actually, Alice never really broke up for the longest time, but at some point the releases just stopped - and I think, judging by the body of work - which for both was about three albums and a couple EP's - AiC was simply the better band.

Alice in Chains is actually back together, I hear, with a new album. Haven't heard it yet. But I'm willing to go in with an open mind. This past decade was very kind to older bands, to the point where it was a decade of comebacks for the 80's and 90's best. So, you know, assuming trends hold it should be pretty awesome. Though, you know what they say about assumptions, so who knows.

- Actually, Bush is apparently back together as well. Ugly Kid Joe too. All we need are the Circle Jerks to get back together from their latest spat and most of the greats from the past will be back.

- Big events are back in comics. Sigh. To be fair, I'm looking forward to DC's Flashpoint, but unless it's absolutely fantastic, I'm not sure whether I'm going to even touch Marvel's Fear Itself. I like the creative team a lot, but I've been burnt enough by their events. I'm not liking how it's beginning to sound like all the tie-ins are going to be in the ongoings either, which is the method of tie-ins I hate. I said it once before, but occasionally that method leads to situations like with Incredible Hercules, where every other arc is an event tie-in, which kind of pisses me off and tells me I should look at other books.

- Really, I can't say I blame them for going back to events anymore. Marvel tried a year without the huge events. Sales seemed to plummet across the line and people actually started to say comics felt less exciting without them. So basically, my fellow fans blew it. Thanks guys.

- Called it on one of Dini's two Bat related ongoings getting canned. It was my second choice, though; I'd honestly thought Gotham City Sirens was going to be the one to go and I'm kind of shocked it's still alive. Dini hasn't been writing it for a long while though. The situation changed since I made that prediction, though; at the time I was still assuming he'd return to GCS and then there were some odd goings on with Streets of Gotham. A couple issues only alloted ten pages to the much hyped "House of Hush" storyline, with the Two-Face back-up taking most of the page space. In one issue, the Two-Face story took up the whole thing. Even DC didn't seem to know just what the hell was going to occupy a given issue until it was too late; their solicits were all kinds of messed up for a while there.

- Actually, I wonder if Dini really had his heart into the Dick Grayson Batman status quo following RIP. A lot of people seem to indicate the quality slipped when he went to Streets and that's around when his absences from the title went from occasional to frequent. Either way, I'm getting the feeling we won't be seeing him on a Batman comic for a while; Zatanna seems to be his main ongoing moving forward and he's got new TV commitments now. It's a bit sad; hopefully he comes back for another stint when he has enough time to devote to it.

- This has been bugging me for a while now, but I've never really said much about it. Exactly why the hell do we not have a comprehensive collection of the O'Neil/Adams years on Batman in trade? Seriously, it's one of the pivotal runs of the character - one of the definitive runs, actually - and the only thing we have is a collection of the Ra's Al Ghul issues. Anything else is scattered across a bunch of different "best of" collections. It's one of those things that I can't believe doesn't exist. What the hell gives?

Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps

Writers: Geoff Johns, Peter Tomasi, Sterling Gates
Artists: Rags Morales, Gene Ha, Eddy Barrows, Jerry Ordway
Collects: Tales of the Corps #1-3, Adventure Comics #4-5, six pages from Green Lantern #49, Book of the Black

We're still in tie-in land here, but unlike last time, this ones actually got some measure of worth to it.

I kind of get the impression that a lot of what's collected here are odds and ends that didn't fit in any other collection put together in it's own trade. Obviously, the Tales from the Corps mini needed to go somewhere and I imagine the two Adventure Comics issues weren't exactly easy to place in a trade. Slapped together with six pages from Green Lantern #49 - which is clearly there only to give a chapter to the Black Lanterns - and the "Book of the Black" segments and you have quite the odd collection. The end result is a trade that feels like an anthology, which really isn't a bad thing.

It's fairly enjoyable and really serves as something of a primer to the Green Lantern franchise as it exists now. The bulk of what's collected are origin stories for various characters across the seven Lantern Corps, giving insight into some key supporting players in the franchise. If you ever wanted to see Killowog as a Lantern recruit or, say, Monguls history, this is the volume to go to. All of them are fairly enjoyable little stories - well, except for the Indigo Lanterns piece, which shows us that they're supposed to represent compassion and then tells us nothing else about the mysterious group - though the nature of the exercise keeps all of them at a short length. To be honest, despite the clear Blackest Night branding, the Tales of the Corps issues really have more to do with the "War of Light" amongst the different corps.

The latter half of the book is the one that justifies the tie-in banner. Six pages of Green Lantern #49 provide a Black Lanterns chapter for the book, rounding out the book with at least one story for each corps. It's presented as an origin story, but it isn't. It's the only story of the volume that doesn't work on it's own, because frankly it reads like what it is; six pages of a Green Lantern issue in the middle of the event. There's also a small prose section detailing the thoughts of Black Hand which was fairly interesting and perhaps even a bit creepy.

The last part collected is a two issue tie-in centered on Superboy Prime. Look, I like Superboy Prime. I'm not going to apologize for it. Ever since Infinite Crisis - and hell, even during it - he's become a gigantic indictment of comic fanboys, which I suspect is primarily why a lot of them hate him. I mean, he prowls on the DCMB for chrissakes. He's also good for a lot of metatextual stuff, since he supposedly lives on "our" Earth, or real life.

This tie-in seems to signal the character being set aside for a while. It's probably a good thing, as while I hope he comes back after a couple years, he probably needed a break, since doing the same joke without a pause tends to wear it out. Still, it's an enjoyable, goofy story in that Superboy Prime way, seeing him trash the DC offices and demanding they leave him alone to fighting Black Lanterns of all the heroes that he killed in Infinite Crisis. Well, all of them save Pantha; I guess Geoff Johns didn't want to piss off the four people who actually give a goddamn about the character again.

The art's held down by a bunch of pencillers that are particularly good at their craft, which is the long way of saying the art's pretty rad. They don't always get much to work with - these are short vignettes that typically clock in at six pages and never exceed twelve - but they make the most of it. Even Eddy Barrows turns in some good art - as you'll note my previous experience with his work was not positive - and how the hell can you go wrong with art from guys like Gene Ha, Tom Mandrake, Jerry Ordway and Chris Samnee? That's right, you can't.

The Score: 7 out of 10

It's ties to the event may be tenuous and it's probably the least necessary of all the Blackest Night tie-in volumes, but what the hell. I enjoyed what I read and to me that means a lot. If you want to read some origins, are in the mood for some quick stories or are looking for decent Blackest Night tie-in volumes, you could do worse.

Seige: X-Men (comics)

Writers: Daniel Way, Marjorie Liu, Kieron Gillen
Artists: Giuseppe Camuncoli, Niko Henrichon
Collects: Dark Wolverine #82-84, New Mutants #11, Siege: Storming Asgard - Heroes and Villains

So, from the long, not so proud tradition of useless tie-ins comes Siege: X-Men, a volume as pointless as the name is misleading. That whole X-Men thing? Might want to ignore it. This volume has only tangential ties to the X franchise, with only one issue of the four collected having anything to do with them. It should have been labeled a Dark Wolverine volume, but then I doubt anyone would have bought it.

So, three issues of Dark Wolverine in here; this is in some ways my introduction to Wolverines son Daken. Not exactly the best one. The whole of the "story" is that Daken dicks around Asgard for three issues while the siege occurs, occasionally finding some chicks of fate trying to lead him to bringing about Ragnarok. That's pretty much it.

Such could be an interesting story, but here's the thing; absolutely nothing happens in the course of these three issues. Nothing. We just see Daken douching it up, getting blown up occasionally, making team-mates uncomfortable and having occasional visions of the future from the fate chicks that lead nowhere and carry no consequence. This three issue tie-in isn't even an actual story; absolutely nothing of consequence happens, Daken is in the same place he started in at the end - because, you know, any instance where something goes badly for him turns out to be a vision of the possible future - and I couldn't discern any ongoing storyline for the character - other than the fact that he's just a prick and at some point he needs to get his comeuppance - so I don't even think it serves to advance anything at all.

As for Daken himself, I'm not sure what to think of him as a leading man. He is a douchebag of the highest caliber and if he has any redeeming qualities, I sure as hell didn't see them. When friggin Bullseye seems the sanest person around - to the point where he's the only one of the two of them even remotely concerned about the wellfare of the men under their command - something is seriously wrong. There isn't even any personal plot I can see to get attached to; apparently he's positioning everyone for a backstabbing, but other than occasionally mumbling about wanting to be a god we don't get a sense of what he wants to accomplish and how he plans to do it. I'm not adverse to villain centric comics at all, but I at least expect them to have a general idea of where the hell they're going, which this volume gave no indication of.

I'm left completely unsure of whether I even want to give the Dark Wolverine series the most remote of shots in trade. That might seem harsh to some, but consider this. The whole point of a tie-in is not to tell a great story within the framework of an event. That's what we want out of them - and certainly the comic companies would prefer we get them, since it's better for them in the long run - but a tie-in to an ongoing is usually to boost sales. They're hoping that someone, maybe looking for more action related to the ongoing event, will pick up a tie-in to a series they wouldn't spare a glance at otherwise, like what they see, get invested in the characters ongoing plots and stay on board.

As a tie-in, the Dark Wolverine issues fail on even the most basic levels; and it doesn't deliver on any others either. The art is the sole saving grace. As seems usual for me lately, I'm not familiar with Camuncoli, but the work speaks for itself. It's a bit... looser, for lack of a better word, than I'm used to, but the facial expressions are quite nice and some interesting use of panels can be found. This is the only good thing I can say about these issues, other than some decent dialogue and the fact that it's not an unreadable mess.

The only other actual comic collected is the New Mutants issue and it's the only thing in the book with the most remote tie to the X-Men. It doesn't deal with the whole team, though; only Dani Moonstar. It picks up on a plot point from a previous X-Men tale, where Dani made a deal with Hela - of Norse mythologies Hel - to get the power of a Valkyrie for a day, as per Cyclops plan. But bargains with creatures like Hela never come without a price and now the favor is being called in. Amidst the Siege, the fallen cannot move on to their afterlife, so Dani is trusted to be their guide. This doesn't go as planned, because of course Dani would rather save lives first before tending to those already dead.

It's a relatively solid one issue tie - a hell of a lot better than Dark Wolverine - with some really nice art. Niko Henrichon's style seems at home in the sort of granduer of Norse mythology, enough so that I might be interested in seeing it on a Thor book itself. The work seems to lack some heavy inking, which combined with the style gives it an interesting look I'm not sure I've seen too often outside of some work associated with the Fables franchise over at DC's Veritigo imprint.

Still, it's one good issue out of four; and good as it is, it's not worth picking up this volume alone; I'd sooner go out and get the back issue of it and I really don't deal in single issues much.

The only other thing collected is one of those books that gives out bios for important characters in a coming story. Marvel puts these out every once in a while, usually whenever an event is scheduled to hit. I guess they're Marvel's version of Secret Files. An okay read - one that does a fair job of getting you caught up on recent events with the main players - but it's of more use to people who want to read Siege itself. What's it's doing here, I haven't a clue. Best guess is that it was thrown in to pad out the volume, because for an X-Men tie-in volume the X-Men had jack all to do with Siege, so there wasn't much else to collect.

The Score: 5.5 out of 10

Put a wide berth between this volume and you. The only reason I even gave it a score this high is because I liked the New Mutants issue and the art was pretty good. But most of the volume fails as a tie-in, it fails as a story and it fails to do anything. It's not worth getting at all. Save your money and leave this trade on the shelf.

Transformers: The IDW Collection Volume 1 (comics)

Writers: Eric Holmes, Shane McCarthy, Simon Furman
Artists: Alex Milne, Casey Coller, E.J. Su, Nick Roche and others
Collects: Megatron Origin #1-4, Spotlight: Blur, Spotlight: Cliffjumper, Spotlight: Shockwave, Spotlight: Nightbeat, Spotlight: Hot Rod, Spotlight: Soundwave, Infiltration #0-6

This is only my second real foray into Transformers comics. Clearly they have fans - though they've never reached the heights of popularity that GI Joe did in the 80's, as far as I can see - but I've admittedly been a bit skeptical about it. I love the brand and have since I was a kid, but comics never struck me as a great fit for the Transformers.

The reason for that is because one of the key distinctive features of the Transformers has always been the transformation itself. Back when the toys first came out, it was what set them apart from the action figures of the day and to a young mind offered more play oppourtunities than the standard figure. In cartoons, it was still a major strength of the brand, because it was just cool to see them in motion, the transformations animated. For all the strengths of the comics medium, this is not something you can properly depict in detail without spending panel upon panel on the transformation itself. What's left are the characters themselves - and the allure of giant fighting robots - without one of the key features of the brand.

Luckily, I'm quickly finding myself convinced that's enough.

My first taste of the IDW continuity was the opening volume of All Hail Megatron, which takes place further down the line. I liked what I saw quite a bit, but instead of jumping right into the second volume, I figured I'd jump back to the beginning and read back up to that point. IDW had started putting together the big hardcovers, so damn, that's about as good an opening as any, right?

IDW started up their continuity in a rather unique way, one which is on full display in this volume. Instead of sticking with a lot of long story arcs, the bulk of the work is made up of one shot spotlight issues - each focusing on a different Transformer - sandwiched between two bigger stories that play out through the course of a miniseries. The spotlight issues are a great way to get to know the bot in question and while most of them generally begin and wrap in the course of the twenty two pages, the writers are slick in using the issues to set up numerous subplots, several of them feeding into the miniseries.

The result is a continuity that feels connected without being overpowering, which is a nice use of it as a tool instead of a crutch.

The opening story - the first of the two miniseries included here - is the IDW continuities official origin of Megatron. It's not quite the standard opening you might expect from this franchise. Megatron's a disgruntled miner in the midst of having his job ripped from him and his fellow miners by the Autobot government.

It's an interesting switch in that the Autobots, before the rise of the Decepticons, are portrayed as almost corrupt in the upper echelons, their government just as cold and uncaring as ours might be. For a time, it almost looks as though they're shooting to make Megatron sympathetic, even going so far as to show him shook up from his first kill. But that's not what they're going for; any sympathy for Megatron quickly melts away as he becomes increasingly ruthless, finding the killing easier and easier. Soon, he's become the evil tyrant we all know he is.

Speaking of Megatron, before I talk about anything else in the Origin, it's worth noting that this is not the mostly incompetent buffoon we know best from G1. Clearly, this is meant to be the Generation 1 Megatron, but by the end of the collections it's obvious IDW's version follows on the general trend since G1 of making the Megatrons far more dangerous and far better at what they do.

This is the first iteration I've seen of Generation 1 Megatron that was as vicious and competant as the Beast Wars Megatron - without the latters crippling arrogance - who has long been the gold standard. He may turn out to be even more ruthless than the BW counterpart; it's too early to tell, but if he continues in this vein he may just take the crown. Upon learning of Starscreams treachery, Megatron casually dispatches the cronies who followed him before completely trashing Starscream like it ain't no thing. This is not a Megatron to be trifled with; even BW Megatron had a bad habit of letting guys like Tarantulus and Terrorsaur hang around a bit too long.

Anyways, back to the mini itself. The writing is pretty good, but I think it's hurt by the art. Alex Milne isn't a stranger to the Transformers - he's done work on the Energon comic prior to Dreamwaves closure, as I understand - but while he draws some awesome looking robots, there are occasional storytelling hitches. There were instances in the course of the mini where it was difficult to figure out what was going on. I'm not entirely sure it's Milne's fault - much of my confusion seemed to result when the coloring messed up - but it's still disappointing.

After the Origins mini, the next third of the book is taken up by the spotlight one shots. They're all enjoyable and well written, setting up future plots while serving as enjoyable stories in their own right. A couple of them are written by Shane McCarthy, who I recognize as the writer of All Hail Megatron, but halfway through Simon Furman takes the reins, penning the rest of the material in the book.

It's a bit difficult to talk about the art for the one shots. There's literally a different artist for each one. So talking about each one would take all day. But what can be said is that it's uniformly good. No problems following them either, which is what hampered the Megatron Origin.

The last third or so of the book is the Infiltration mini, which seems to be the first "big" storyline of the continuity. I really enjoyed it. Humans are introduced here for the first time; I don't carry the disdain for human characters like some Transformers fans do, but the ones introduced here are probably the best bunch I've seen from the franchise as actual characters. Furman's got a good handle on everyone; I'd expect as much from a long time writer for the franchise, but I was still surprised, considering this was my first exposure to his work.

The brunt of the story picks up on plot threads introduced in the spotlight mini's; Starscream gets hold of some totally awesome energon and decides hey, now seems like a bitchin' time to betray Megatron and take over. Megatron doesn't really care for that, of course, so off he goes to give Starscream a stern talking to. Which, for this Megatron, involves creating giant holes in Transformers bodies and leaving them for scrap. Like I said, this Megatron doesn't screw around.

It's fitting that it closes out the volume, because it does so on a high note. This is probably my favorite of the volume. The writing is good and the art is great. It also sets up the future nicely and leaves me ready for volume two. IDW's Transformers work is pretty awesome, from what I'm seeing.

There's also an unusual risk taken with this continuity in that - Megatron aside - it doesn't focus on the better known Transformers much. Bumblebee isn't seen until Infiltration and Optimus Prime isn't seen at all aside from a cameo or two. Optimus in particular is the most surprising omission, since he's a principal character and arguably the face of the franchise. But it works; when he finally does show up, it feels kind of like a big moment, arguably the one we've been waiting for, and helps with that whole "looking forward to Volume 2" thing.

Overall, this is a very nice package. It's a handsome hardcover and while it's not, say, omnibus size, there's a decent amount of content here. Seventeen issues isn't anything to sneeze at and makes for a pretty thick hardcover. It feels substantial, really; and while I'm normally not a hardcover guy, this is the sort of package I could make exceptions for. Very good work in putting this together.

The Score: 8 out of 10

Seventeen issues of good writing and mostly good art in a beefy, well produced hardcover. As a whole package, this book earns its high mark. I look forward to where things go from here and most of my skepticism about Transformers comics is pretty much gone now. Hopefully the second volume is as good, if not better.

Batman: Death Mask (comics)

Writer/Artist: Yoshinori Yatsume
Collects: Batman: Death Mask #1-4

I've got a bit of a love/hate relationship with Japanese entertainment right now. On the one hand, I'm fascinated by the culture - and there are genuinely good things in entertainment from there - but I long ago found myself annoyed with the quirks of their creative works. What was once endearing and different - back when the Japanese style was something new and totally different to our American sensibilities - long ago grew old and stale, their own tropes having become their own worst enemy.

However, I do still hold some affection for what they do, though I could probably fool you with the way I talk about it these days.

So, add in Batman. He's a character that's very much open to interpretation, which makes seeing other countries take a crack at such an enduring icon interesting. In the case of a mangaka taking on the Dark Knight, that hits my radar pretty quickly, despite my reservations. We don't have much in the way of Japanese takes on Batman readily available, save Bat-Manga, so already it's somewhat unique. So I gave it a try.

Storywise, we find our hero besieged by nightmares of a shadowy figure. Naturally, he's not too worried, so he goes about his day. A Japanese company is in town apparently, looking to show off some masks. At the meeting, he seems to find a familiar face, one from his past in Japan. About the same time, a string of murders begin with an unusual MO; the face of the victim is sliced clean off and taken from the crime scene. When Bruce finds himself face to face with this killer, it stirs memories of his time in Japan. The past is there to haunt his present and Batman must figure out what it all means.

This story has several things going for it. For one thing, it uses Japanese culture effectively within the context of Batmans world. The bulk of the story concerns masks, from the mask Bruce Wayne uses to become Batman to the traditional masks of the Japanese. In particular, parallels are drawn between Batman and the Oni, which I actually thought was fairly clever.

Much of this is accomplished by generous amounts of flashbacks to Bruce Waynes time in Japan. Bruce Wayne's journey around the planet, learning everything he can, is something that is largely unchronicled, or at least not in great detail. This aspect of his past allows for these kind of stories - a similar use occurred in the Tao story of the Batman International trade - which allows Batman to fit into just about anything, anywhere, anytime.

I also like how Batman is written, here. The Bruce Wayne written here is one that seems to have it together, for the most part. He's not the impossibly brooding dark avenger that was in vogue since Frank Miller made such a splash with it. He's probably more akin to the Batman we know from the O'Neil/Adams era on. He's a bit more open and sure of himself, which is something I really like. The story kind of slots into the general era entered after Infinite Crisis, where Batman started lightening up again to great effect.

If there's a negative to this, it's that the story is perhaps a bit overwritten. There seems to be more dialogue than necessary at times, which reminds me of comics from the early eighties on back. It's not quite that bad, but the obvious is stated a bit too much.

A bit more of Batman could also have gone a long way. We see Bruce in costume from time to time, tracking down some leads or trying to get to where he needs to be next, but most of the Batman action we get is contained in the climax. Death Mask is a bit more of a Bruce Wayne story, focusing on his past in Japan and his dealings in the present day. The rogues are completely absent, aside from a two page splash showing the majority of them, but that's not necessarily a problem; I'd rather have a story refrain from using them rather than try to shoehorn them in.

The art pulls its weight well. The book carries many of the problems somewhat typical in manga - background detail being mostly an afterthought, faces being a bit too clean or perfect and so on - but the minimalistic style actually seems to work to this particular stories benefit. Natsume puts in detail where necessary, but pulls back when it's not; and he accomplishes it so well that, unless you're really paying attention to everything, you may not notice until late in the story or a second read through.

He can also put together some striking panels and give the feeling of motion to the visuals. There's a panel late in the story - at the climax - where Batman is chasing the figure that's haunted him through the story. The figure has raced up the stairs and the panel in question shows Batman in hot pursuit. The determination on the face, the pose, all of it; I could practically visualize Batman running up those stairs in my mind. It's a small panel, but it struck me. A part of comic reading is being able to fill in the blanks between panels, visualizing in your mind what is happening; what strikes me is how some panels in this story make that very easy.

It gives me the impression that the author behind the book really knows his craft and leaves me with some positive feelings I haven't had for a manga in a long time.

The Score: 7.5 out of 10

In all, this is a very solid outing. It's not something that's going to change things as we know it or have great importance down the line, but I was entertained by what I read and genuinely enjoyed it. It feels like a worthy addition to Batmans long legacy instead of the disappointment I was steeled for. I enjoyed it enough that if Yoshinori Natsume and DC ever decide they want to do a sequel, I'd be willing to read it.

Justice League of America: Sanctuary (comics)

Writers: Alan Burnett, Dwayne McDuffie
Artists: Ed Benes, Ethan Van Sciver, Carlos Pacheco, Jon Boy Meyers
Collects: Justice League of America #17-21

First off, a pet peeve. I really friggin hate it when the issue numbers collected aren't listed anywhere on or in the collection in question. Guess which trade doesn't bother to tell us its contents. Yeah, sure, I can always look them up, but it still annoys the piss out of me.

Anyways, first up we get a three issue story by Alan Burnett where the heroes look into the events of Salvation Run, which was a thing at the time. Basically, the Suicide Squad rounds up all past and present villains, dumps them on a planet and allows them to work the rest out amongst themselves. Naturally, the League doesn't care for this, especially since Martian Manhunter went with the villains as a covert spy and cannot be reached. After that, we get a one-off where Queen Bee is kind of being a douchebag, necessitating Flash and Wonder Woman to smack her around a little bit. Then, the volume closes with a quick Final Crisis tie-in.

I probably don't need to point out what the problem is here.

It's pretty much common knowledge by now that editorial had a bit of a hand in where McDuffies run went, meaning they basically wanted tie-ins to happen at a relatively frequent clip. This is back in the midst of the disaster that was Countdown, where DC was attempting to make series that were "spines" of the universe and reflected the events going on at the time. But even if you're inclined to cut some slack, when four out of five consecutive issues are tie-ins to different series going on at the time, there's a problem.

Of course, that problem is compounded by the fact that these tie-ins go do nothing of worth. The three issue Sanctuary story by Alan Burnett is the worst reflection of this. Obviously, the Salvation Run mini proper has to be allowed to do it's thing, but that doesn't leave much room for tie-ins. What results are three issues that go absolutely nowhere; we read two issues of the League wringing their hands about what to do about the whole thing and then when they go to find the villains they don't even end up in the right place.

Oh, and a space villain is thrown in there, because the League needs to beat someone up in the midst of this story. Nothing is resolved; they don't even try to take Amanda Waller to task over the whole business. So, three out of the five issues are effectively worthless as a story; they read decently, but unless you've read Salvation Run you have no idea why you should give a crap about any of it and if you did by some chance you already know what happened to the villains.

Later, we take another trip into tie-in land for a Final Crisis prelude issue. This one actually works better than Sanctuary because there's a good mix of lead-in for the event in question and advancement of things McDuffie has been working with. This is generally how most tie-ins should work, otherwise they feel more like a meaningless disruption. But even so, there's really no reason for this story to exist either.

Other than the extended talk between the Big Three, this issues not much more than a venue to show how the Human Flame got from the point A of a petty crook to the point B of being recruited by Libra for his role in Final Crisis. It's not exactly something that was begging to be told, because how the Human Flame got there doesn't really matter. But here we are. I can't help but think the only reason this was told in Justice League - aside from Libra being an old JLA villain - is that it would have seen more eyes than, say, putting it in a Secret Files or something.

While all this is going on, McDuffie pens a couple small back-ups advancing his subplots. One connects (well, kind of) and the other whiffs. The first one focuses on Vixen and her wonky powers. It's rendered redundant by Sanctuary itself, which adequately explains what's going on with her in the midst of it's unnecessary diversion. Aside from a tidbit about a power she shouldn't be able to replicate, it's a bit of a page waster.

The other one focuses on the Leagues emotional robot, Red Tornado, who apparently has a wife and kid. How the latter works I haven't a single goddamn clue, but there it is. No crying, but he scowls through the whole thing. I don't hate the character or anything and it read alright. It didn't seem quite as pointless as the other backup, I guess.

The best part of the entire collection is the fourth issue, where Flash and Wonder Woman team-up follows. It's the bright spot of the book. Wonder Woman shows up to talk to Flash, who has been neglecting his League duties since he came back. Then they catch wind of Queen Bee being kind of an ass, so they go and whup her.

It's a good read. Sometimes, it's nice to read a quick, one-off adventure where the heroes stop a quick plot by a villain and smack them around. We don't get them a lot these days. McDuffie shows a good handle on his characters, especially Flash; just because McDuffie wrote for the show - which had more of a jokester iteration of Wally - doesn't mean he treats comic Wally the same way as I feared.

While I note that there are a lot of problems with the volume, it's worth mentioning that the actual writing still works on some level. Dwayne McDuffie - and Alan Burnett as well - write likable characters that you wouldn't mind following in a series. Most of the cast feel like themselves and both writers make the interaction between the characters worth the exercise.

As for the art, there's a total of four different pencillers working on the issues within. All four are talented, sure, but still. The bulk of it - the three issue Sanctuary arc - is done by Ed Benes. Most people have a general idea as to whether or not they like his art. He tends to trend toward cheesecake - big boobs and ass shots wherever he can possible squeeze one in - so if that's not your bag, this will probably end up annoying you. Every female sans Amanda Waller - who you can't really sex up - and Black Canary - mostly because she's barely in this volume at all - is either showing off cleavage or their ass. It doesn't bother me all that much and I tend to think he's pretty good at what he does, but your mileage may vary.

Van Sciver pulls duty on the Flash/Wonder Woman team-up. As you might expect, he does very well. Between this and Flash Rebirth, I think Van Sciver is really growing on me as a Flash artist. He does very well when it comes to drawing speed and motion, which is all important when dealing with a character like this. If he were a faster artist, I'd probably start wishing he'd work on Flash regularly. It seems to agree with his style. Sadly, that's not the case, but I'd be happy to read whatever one-off issues with Flash he might want to do.

The last major artist is Carlos Pacheco, who illustrates the Final Crisis tie-in issue. His art is very, very good; truth be told, his work may well be the best of the bunch. A good third of the issue in question is a long talk between the Big Three. Most of the time, that's not something you'd want an artist like Pacheco to draw - not when you can shoot for more exciting things - but it really shows off Pacheco's ability to convey expression with his art. He pulls this off on a level I'm not sure I've seen since the last time I read a comic illustrated by Kevin Maguire. There's even room for a bit of action in the rest of the book, though it's not long enough for him to truly take advantage of.

Last on the artist front is Jon Boy Meyers. He does the back-ups for the first and second issue of Sanctuary. His style's very different from everyone else working on the issues contained here. His work is more minimalistic. It reminds me of the sort of look an animated series might go with. It really isn't bad, but it doesn't fit in with the rest of the material at all.

The Score: 5.5 out of 10

You can skip this pretty safely. This collection isn't much more than a bunch of tie-ins. They're readable, at least, but they fail as stories at the same time they fail to add anything to the series they tie into. The only stuff of note here are the fourth issue and eight pages of the fifth. That isn't worth fifteen bucks Standard Retail Price. Hopefully the next volume fares better.