Weekly Comic Book Reviews for 7/1/09

Batman and Robin #2

Creative Team
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Frank Quietly
Colorist: Alex Sinclair

Story – The Circus of Strange

Review
After a great first issue this second issue to the new flagship title of the Batman franchise was another fun read. Even though this issue wasn't as good as the first this was still a fun read. After going through Morrison's Batman RIP and Final Crisis it is good to see that Morrison is still able to tell a fun and interesting tale that does not become too convoluted for the reader to follow. What Morrison is doing with Batman and Robin is a great showcase of how talented he is as a writer when he lets loose with all the great ideas he has in his head.

Even though Morrison did not write Dick Grayson's character at all during his run on Batman until Batman RIP he is clearly having fun writing all of Dick's dialogue in and out of the cowl. In these first two issues he is doing a great job showing an evolution of Dick's character as he tries to adjust to his new role as Batman. Unlike the first go around as Batman this time around Dick thinks Bruce is dead and is not coming back. Because of that fact there is more of an adjustment as Dick wants to keep Bruce's legacy alive and doing it in his own style at the same time. It will be interesting to see how long Dick adjust to his new role as Batman and really claims the mantle for himself and not just because he is Bruce's heir.

Also I continue to like the interaction of between Dick and Damien. It is interesting seeing how the roles of Batman and Robin have flipped. It makes things interesting as it is Dick who is trying to get Damien to accept him as Batman and that they have to work as a team and not the other way around. Even though I still find Damien annoying something about having Dick around allows for scenes with Damien to be more balance than his scene's with Bruce and Tim.

Issue Rating
Story: 8.6/10 – Morrison did a great job handling Dick, Damien, Alfred and Gordon's characters and I look forward to seeing how he handles the various relationships between the characters.
Art: 8.5/10 – Frank Quietly art looked as good as always though I he went a little over board with his inking in this issue.
Overall: 8.55/10 – Batman and Robin #2 was another solid issue to the flagship title to the Batman universe. There is plenty for both new and old readers to like about these first two issues.

Captain America: Reborn #1

Creative Team
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artists: Bryan Hitch & Butch Guice
Colorist: Paul Mounts

Story – Reborn

Review
With all the build up that Marvel put into this series I had high expectations for this issue especially with the creative team behind this series. Ed Brubaker has shown to have a great handle of the Captain America franchise and both Bryan Hitch and Butch Guice are great artist with Hitch having always giving his art a blockbuster movie type feel to it. But just like Flash: Rebirth this series looks to be a disappointing return of a fan favorite character: Steve Rogers.

The logic used by Brubaker to bring back Steve feels like a DCU idea and not an idea that fits with the Marvel Universe. The logic Brubaker used in this issue kind of gives this series and the return of Steve's character a rushed feel. It has only been two years since Steve's death and it feels like Marvel just wanted him back in time for the Captain America movie to come out.

Even though Brubaker did a solid job with all of the dialogue in this issue it just feels like this story came to quick and we still could have gotten more stories out of Bucky as the new Captain America. I have even come to enjoy Bucky as Captain America much more than when Steve was in the role.

The big positive that this issue does have going for it is that this is an extremely new reader friendly issue. Brubaker provides plenty of back story for new readers to get into this series and what he has been doing with Captain America. So I'm sure readers who are only getting into Captain America because of this series will enjoy this issue much more than readers who have been reading Captain America for the past few years.

Issue Rating
Story: 5.3/10 – Brubaker does a solid job with his writing though the story falls flat with the logic used to bring back the first Captain America.
Art: 9/10 – As always Hitch provides plenty of great looking artwork and his artwork, with the help of Butch Guice, helps to distract from all of the weaknesses of this issue.
Overall: 7.15/10 – Captain America: Reborn #1 was a disappointing start to a book that got as much hype as Marvel has given it over the past few weeks. Hopefully Brubaker, Hitch, and Guice can deliver in with future issues as there is potential for this story to be a good read.

Invincible Iron Man #15

Creative Team
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Salvador Larroca
Colorist: Frank D'Armata

Story – The Danger We're All In

Review
So far "World's Most Wanted" has been a mixed bag for me as there have been both good and bad things about this story. For the most part Fraction has only been mixing different plot lines from other Iron Man stories and has not introduced anything new to Tony that he has not faced before in past. The only thing he has added is that Tony is losing his intelligence which can only be taken so far before it becomes dull. Also it has not helped that Salvador Larroca's art continues to look way to shiny for its own good, though he has been improving.

Also I have not liked what Fraction has done with Pepper. She has become such an annoying character since the beginning of the series that I really do not care what happens to her and just wished she would disappear.

Though I will give Fraction credit for making me like Maria Hill much more than I did before this story. And with her teaming up with Black Widow it is her part of the story that I am finding to be most interested in.

Also I did like that Fraction finally decided to build up a villain for Tony to face as Madame Masque actually looked like a credible villain. I was actually surprised that Fraction provide some good character dialogue for Madame Masque and it will be interesting to see how Tony gets out of the situation he is in.

Issue Rating
Story: 6.7/10 – When not writing Pepper I thought Fraction did a solid job with the dialogue though he has to do this on a more constant basis before I start giving him a higher rating.
Art: 6.2/10 – Larroca's art has been improving as this story has been moving though I am still not a big fan of his artwork.
Overall: 6.45/10 – Invincible Iron Man #15 was an improvement over the last issue. Hopefully Fraction can build off this improvement and deliver back-to-back quality reads which he has yet to do.