I used to have time to read my comics in a coffee shop. Now I have to read them in the bathroom. Then I write reviews of them. I wash my hands in between.
BATMAN #30
There is definitely a plus to reading so many comic books (correction: so many unmemorable comic books) that you cannot keep track of what's going on in most of them. When an issue like this one opens up with the main character awaking from a long bout of unconsciousness to find his whole world changed beyond belief and nigh unrecognizable...you can sympathize.
I don't get DC comics. I really don't. Marvel provides an incredibly
useful service in its recap page. It gives you the overall intention and story
behind the book itself as well as a primer on what just happened so you can
dive right into the new issue with you mind jogged and up to speed. If anything
it makes me want to read MORE Marvel Comics since I enjoy them more fully. DC not
so much. Are their stories that densely packed with subtlety and nuance that
they can't spare one page to remind the reader of what came before? I mean,
there are, like 18 regular batman titles! How am I supposed to reconcile the Man-Bats
in one, Professor Pyg in another, and now past tense Riddler in this one? I
suppose there's probably a recap on DCs website, but I'm reading a comic!!! I
don't want to have to hunt down things! Gah!
So let’s talk about this Zero Year business. That’s what’s
been going on in this title and probably why I haven’t reviewed it yet. Zero
Year has been one of the scant few passable storylines to come out of The Great
Failed Forever Evil Experiment of 2013/14. Designed to cover up the time
Forever Evil was happening and tell a new, yet important story from Batman’s
past, it has done a passable job of both. We have seen essentially the first
year of Bruce Wayne’s career as a vigilante and the trouble and disasters
Gotham was plagued with at the same time. There was a flood, I believe, from a
megastorm of some kind. The power went out. There might have been sharks. I’m
not sure. Again, read the above paragraphs. The burgeoning relationship with
Jim Gordon feels natural and good. Supposedly this is the ‘Final Act’ of the
Zero year story (or so the cover touts) but I’m concerned this last bit may
sour the whole story.
Somehow The Riddler has taken over the city. Like wholly and
completely taken over. They don’t come right out and say how long it’s been
since the last issue, but it feels like a LONG time. People are kind of
resigned to their new fate and status quo. There are long ratty beards as
apparently The Riddler has banned shaving utensils. There is talk of people ‘fighting
back at the beginning’. It’s really pretty frustrating because we are supposed
to believe that Bruce Wayne, after tossing his tore up Batsuit, collapses and
is found by some preteen kid and nursed back to health layin g on the kids
floor on a ratty mattress. And there’s some sort of IV happening too. And the
kid shaved his face for him while he was in his semi-coma. This doesn’t hold
water.
Anyway, Gordon is still on the streets trying to mount a
resistance. He gets some tactical type people who parachute into Gotham only to
roll over when confronted by the Riddler. Meantime Bruce has his strength back even
though he’s been near comatose for a couple months and sneaks out to fight
back. He reclaims his tossed off cowl and cape, cobbles together something of a
ghetto outfit and rescues Gordon and the tactical squad. Setting up a couple more
issues of righteously taking back his city. It should, at least, have a few fun
badass moments.
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