I Reads You Review: Batman #28

BATMAN #28
DC COMICS – @DCComics

WRITER: Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV
PENCILS: Dustin Nguyen
INKS: Derek Fridolfs
COLORS: John Kalisz
LETTERS: Sal Cipriano
COVER: Dustin Nguyen
VARIANT COVER: Howard Chaykin and Jesus Aburto
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (April 2014)

Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger

DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. have begun the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the debut of Batman (in Detective Comics: cover dated May 1939).  Part of DC Comics’ year-long celebration is the launch of the new, year-long, weekly comic book series, Batman Eternal.  The series launches on April 9, 2014 and will apparently consist of 60 issues.

Batman Eternal will feature Batman, his allies, and Gotham City, and will be written by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Ray Fawkes, Kyle Higgins, and Tim Seeley.  Writer John Layman was originally scheduled to write for Batman Eternal.  Although he is no longer associated with the project, the work he finished before departing will apparently still be seen in the first 12 issues.  Batman Eternal will work in tandem with the ongoing, regular Batman comic book series, which is written by Scott Snyder.

Batman #28 offers a preview of Batman Eternal.  It contains a 24-page story entitled “Gotham Eternal.”  The story opens in a near-future Gotham, where a mysterious young female infiltrates The Egyptian, “the only nightclub left in New Gotham.”  She runs afoul of a group of heavies who seem to run the club.  How do Batman and Selina Kyle fit into this scenario, and what does the young female need so badly that she would risk her life to enter this club?

I’m intrigued by Batman Eternal.  Why, you ask?  Well, I’ve been a life-long Batman fan, and I am excited about the 75th anniversary.  And although I have never bought very many of them, I am always curious about weekly comic book series.  Batman #28 hints at a dark, dystopian-lite future that finds Batman imperiled.  So, what the heck?  I’m in.

Batman #28 includes a six-page preview of American Vampire: Second Cycle – WRITER: Scott Snyder; ARTIST: Rafael Albuquerque; COLORS: Dave McCaig; and LETTERS: Steve Wands

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Bleach: Everything But the Rain

I read Bleach, Vol. 60

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.

I Reads You Review: MINISTRY OF SPACE #1

MINISTRY OF SPACE #1 (OF 3)
IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics

WRITER: Warren Ellis
ARTIST: Chris Weston
COLORS: Laura DePuy
32pp, Color, $2.95 U.S., $4.63 CAN (April 2001)

Cleaning my house and digging through boxes will yield treasures… or maybe comic books I forgot I had.  I found copies of Ministry of Space, the three-part, alternate history miniseries written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Chris Weston.  The first two issues of Ministry of Space were published by Image Comics in 2001, with the third and final issue not being published until 2004.

First, a quick historical overview:  near the end of World War II, the United States, through the program, Operation Paperclip, recruited the scientists of Nazi Germany for their scientific expertise.  This is how the U.S. advanced its defensive missile and rocket and space programs.  The U.S. wanted to deny these Nazis’ knowledge to the United Kingdom and especially to the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.), which did manage to capture some German scientists.

Ministry of Space #1 introduces an alternate-Earth history in which British soldiers and operatives reached the German rocket installations at Peenemünde ahead of the U.S. Army and the Soviets.  Thus, the Brits get the Nazi rocket science brain trust.  With this acquisition of key German personnel and Nazi technology, Sir John “Jacko” Dashwood, Air Commodore of the Royal Air Force, creates the Ministry of Space.  This ministry’s mission is to develop British space technology and to claim space for “King and Country and the British Empire.”

Ministry of Space #1 has an interesting premise.  It certainly makes me wonder if our world would be better off if the British had won the space race.  Then, I remember the British Empire, its mass murder of indigenous people for their natural resources, and the “White man’s burden.”  So was the British Empire better or worse than the American and Soviet empires?  You can consider that a rhetorical question, if you wish.

Premise aside, Ministry of Space #1 is sometimes aloof, sometimes tepid, but despite Dashwood’s machinations, surprisingly positive, as if to suggest that there is hope for mankind in Dashwood’s plans.  Chris Weston’s art, with its retro feel, and Laura DePuy’s colors recall Frank Hampson’s Dan Dare.  Ministry of Space also reminds me of the delightful British color adventure and genre films of the 1950s and 1960s that I watch on Antenna TV.

B

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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