Batman: Death Mask #1 (June, 2008)
Story and Art - Yoshinori Natsume
(Cover) Colorist - Jonny Rench
Letterer - Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $2.99
Boy, isn't that a cover that just screams "buy me"? No? Are you trying to say that it's an awful cover? Yeah... it's pretty rotten, nothing about it says "cover". I'd really expect so much more from DC... especially when it comes to a Batman book. I feel like this could have been an opportunity to get a few new eyes on the Bat-books. It also looks horribly dated... definitely not something that would have been produced and put on shelves this century... and yet, it was.
This is our first time venturing into and discussing DC Comics' CMX imprint. CMX was DC's manga imprint which was in business during the latter half of last decade (2004-2010). It always seemed to me like a really half-hearted attempt at cashing in on the manga craze... perhaps just a minute or two too late. Also, I recall there being a bit of a to-do over some censorship... naughty bits being covered up and what not. Not something that would've bugged me, though probably not the best way for DC to ingratiate themselves to purist manga fans.
For folks new to manga, I'll include the reading instructions here... everything goes from right-to-left, so if I post some panels that don't make any sense... just read'em backwards... and they'll, err... kinda make sense.
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We open with... masks. This will undoubtedly be the theme of this miniseries. Among the masks is one of the Batman... and hey, guess what... is Batman the mask, or is it Bruce Wayne that's the mask? What a novel idea... that totally hasn't been run into the ground throughout the past few decades of superhero fiction. Anyhoo... we shift to Batman on the streets of Gotham taking down down some baddies with ease.
From here we get a bit of an origin... complete with Batman: Year One homage. It's concise, and well done.
We continue with a bit more exposition. This time in the form of an introduction to the Batman rogues gallery. It's really pretty neat to see the baddie-menagerie done up in a manga style. We do get to beat the drum of "does Batman stop the baddies... or cause them?", which we'll just place neatly in the cliche pile with the "mask" bit... which they do drone on a bit more about here.
Suddenly, Bruce Wayne wakes up in a darkened room with bars over the windows. In the shadow stands a figure that bears a shapely similarity to Batman... it threatens Bruce that it's come... for him!
Luckily... and obviously, this was just a dream... Bruce wakes up (again?). I'm not sure if the beating up baddies in Gotham bit was part of the dream... or if I just didn't notice the scene change. That might happen from time to time during this issue. Anyhoo, Bruce is woken by Alfred who comes bearing a traditional Japanese breakfast. This causes our man to flashback to some time he'd spent as a younger man in Japan. He stayed with a family, and would eat this same breakfast daily. It also should be noted that he hid his "Bruce Wayne" identity while over there... that is to say, his foster family did not know he was really a bajillionaire Gothamite.
On this day, Bruce Wayne has an important meeting with representatives from the Agurama Corporation. We see a bit of a Gotham skyline... which confused me a bit. It took me a few reads to realize that this story is (maybe) happening in Gotham and not Japan... Hell, I'm still not completely sure. Anyhoo... Bruce has his meeting with Jiro Agurama, and is completely bored throughout... that is, until he sees an attractive woman in the room.
At this point, Bruce has tunnel vision... he walks right past Jiro, and tries to pick up the young lady, who introduces herself as Aya Himemiya. She seems flattered, however suggests maybe they'll run into each other at a party the following night rather than go on an actual date. The sight of this Aya makes Bruce flashback to his time in Japan once more... he knew a girl who quite resembled Ms. Himemiya... though he doubts it was her.
We shift to a seedy Gotham street, where a seedy Gotham-dude cuts through an alley... only to find that he's wound up in the middle of a bamboo forest! Eh?
A Batman-shaped shadow descends upon the man... and with a single slice, removes the fella's face. It's soft-gore... like, we don't see a mass of coagulated under-face or anything... it's more a clean slice... as though his head was a ball of processed cold cut meat. I'm sorry for that mental image. Perhaps this picture can fill in the rest of my thousand word explanation.
We return to the dream world... the Bat-shaped shadow asks Bruce Wayne what lies behind his mask. Suddenly, Bruce's own face detaches, in that same cold-cutty way... and starts to slide off of his head.
Bruce wakes up in the back of his vintage automobile. He asks Alfred to pull over the car as something has caught his eye. Hey, lookit that... there just so happens to be a Japanese shop... which looks very un-Gothamy... making me again wonder just where in the hell this story is taking place. Anyhoo, this shop has a poster print of the "room with the bars" in Bruce's dream. Here we learn that those bars represent a "cage around one's heart". Fair enough.
Bruce arrives at his office, and takes a look at the daily newspaper. He learns of a faceless corpse being found... so, I guess that really happened. Bruce calls back to his own bad dream where his own face fell off.
He brushes it off as coincidence, and before he can think too hard on it, an assistant enters holding a pamphlet for the pending Agurama party. The theme of the night will be... get this... masks! Betcha didn't see that coming. I know I sure didn't. Anyhoo, he decides he'll attend so he can see Aya.
Let's move on to the party... Jiro gives a speech before revealing three unique and sacred masks. The crowd oohs and aahs... and suddenly I get the feeling a moon with a scary face is about to descend upon Gotham.
Bruce is looking on, and doesn't appear to be terribly impressed. Thankfully his boredom is short-lived as Aya (I think) arrives with some saki. I'm almost positive this is supposed to be Aya... but facially she looks different. I suppose she is wearing make-up, and has her hair done up. Either way... we'll figure that this is Aya and move along. Here we (and Bruce) learn that this lady is, well... probably not the girl Bruce remembers from Japan... because, this young woman is still a teenager. Whoops. He shrugs it off claiming that it's hard to judge the age of an Asian woman... which, probably won't hold up in court, pal.
Now their chat is interrupted by a presentation on the stage. Jiro asks for a volunteer party-guest to try on one of the masks. One fella is all too happy to raise his hand. He jokes that maybe it will imbue him with super powers. The mask is fastened over his head... and suddenly, he lets out a terrific scream! He's... just kidding. The mask didn't give him any powers, that would be silly.
He then tries to remove the mask, only to find out he can't. The party guests think he's still trying to pull a fast one, but two members of the security detail try and help him anyway... they got socked in the face for their trouble.
The masked man panics and makes a bee-line to the door. The rest of the guests think this is all part of an elaborate act, and so they are expressing their appreciation by laughing and applauding. Bruce Wayne isn't so sure this is an act, and so he gives chase. Outside in the alley, Bruce comes upon a face-down corpse... when he flips it over, guess what... it's got no face!
Bruce looks up and finds himself standing before the Bat-shadow-thing from his dreams!
It swoops down and takes a swipe at Bruce. Several security officers barge onto the scene guns a'blazing which causes it to flee. Bruce composes himself and remembers the first time he'd seen this shadow-figure... back in Japan when he was a young man.
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Underwhelming.
Not only do we go back to the "Which is the 'mask', Batman or Bruce?" well yet again... we find ourselves with a pretty lackluster story overall.
Also, it isn't clear if this story is taking place in Gotham or Japan. Bruce just stumbles upon a Japanese shop in Gotham... on the very same morning Alfred just so happens to serve him a traditional Japanese breakfast... after waking up from a Japanese nightmare? It all feels a bit forced, no?
Also, Bruce's "dreams" happen concurrently with things happening in the waking world... and there is no artistic note to tell us which is which, and where one ends and the other begins. Perhaps this would read better in a complete tankoubon volume, or serialized in a weekly format... that is to say, all at once... or in smaller bite-sized installments to build the story. Trying to fit this to a more Western(ish) comic book format might just be doing it (and the reader) a disservice.
The art, when not looking at it from a storytelling perspective... is very good. Bruce looks right in and out of costume... and the two-page spread with the rogues gallery is really quite nice. Most of the supporting characters look identifiable... Aya ambiguity notwithstanding. The saki-shiller at the party is almost definitely Aya... however, at first I thought maybe Bruce would meet several young girls during this tale... now I wonder if it's just the one who will be drawn a bit differently every time we see her, who knows?
Back to our story. Tale as old as time... Which is the mask, the hero or the civilian? We've seen it so many times before, I can't help that my immediate reaction is to simply sigh. I know there was a point in time where such a concept was not only novel... but even deep... but that time is, in my opinion, long passed. It's become a trope, and I really didn't need to see it again. We get a nebulous baddie at the close... and some light gore... however, I'm still pretty disengaged.
Overall... can't say I'd recommend this one. It's a quick read... like a lot of manga tends to be. It's also in black and white... like a lot of manga tends to be. There's also the reading right to left, which may be a deal-breaker to some. I kinda dig it... then again, there are times in my life where I'd read so much manga at once it was difficult to go back to "normal" left-to-right storytelling! I'd say grab this if you really wanna see Batman in manga format... and don't mind a trip down a well-trodden road, story and trope wise.
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Superman Family Adventures #1 (July, 2012)
Writer & Artist - Art Baltazar
Writer - Franco
Editor - Kristy Quinn
Cover Price: $2.99
Hey, check it out... an "all ages" title. Now let me rub some liniment on my aching joints before I regale you with the fact that... ahem, back in my day... pretty much every mainstream superhero book was considered "all ages". Now, I'm not saying anything that folks haven't said, read, and heard a million times already... but it's weird to consider how far the comics have drifted where "all ages" becomes a selling point or imprint.
I'm glad I grew up when I did... I gotta figure, if I were a tiny tot who went to the comic shop for the first time and was presented with this type of book... I'd feel a bit ripped off. I'd want to read the "real" Superman... or Batman, or whoever... not this kids-stuff! I have my theories that the market for this kind of book is more for folks my age... I think it allows us to view familiar properties through a simpler lens, and maybe even get a few chuckles in. I think kids... if they're anything like I was back in the day... would want to read (if they were into comics at all) the main ongoing series'. We'll talk about that more below.
For now, however... let's see how the super-adorable Superman family take care of some pinchy-clawed robots!
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We open as a meteorite enters the atmosphere... it's heading directly toward Metropolis. Thankfully, the city's protector is on the job... Superman, complete with New-52-esque v-neck handily catches the flaming stone, and then heat-visions it into tiny "harmless" pebbles. I dunno, Supes... I think a hail of pebbles to the streets of Metropolis might not be a good thing!
Back at the Planet, editor Perry White is looking for Clark Kent... who is in the middle of buttoning up his shirt and tightening his tie. The question is raised as to why Kent misses all the big action around town... to which Clark offers that maybe he misses out because he's secretly Superman. Lucky for him, nobody's buying what he's currently selling.
Suddenly, giant robots strike... and Lois runs off for the story, Jimmy runs off for the photos, and Clark... well, Clark just runs off. Sadly for the Chief (who seems to be fine with people calling him that) Jimmy ran off before he could order him to fetch his coffee.
Shortly, Superman is hovering before three giant robots. Each has a letter on it's "chest"... it reads E X L... which makes me figure they're probably out of formation. The bots start chucking hardware in Superman's direction, including a mailbox and car. Luckily the Superman Family hits the scene, in the form of Supergirl, Superboy, and Krypto the Super Dog.
During the fracas, Jimmy Olsen gets a bit too close to the action. Lucky for him, Supergirl is there to save his day... and his butt.
The L robot snags Superman with his pinchy claws and tentacle arm. Our hero notices that this bot's got an "evil eye". He swears somebody is looking back at him. Well, if you haven't figured it out by now... prepare to have your world rocked... it's Lex Luthor.
And he's got a plan! He's going to use his absorption ray to drain Superman's powers into his classic Luthor Battle Suit. He also has a very well coifed pet mouse... more on that in a bit.
Elsewhere... and much more importantly, Jimmy Olsen receives a text from the Chief... he wants his coffee, and he wants it... ya know, soon. I feel your pain, Perry... I know what it's like to want for a cuppa joe.
Back at Luthor's lair, he is preparing to flip the switch on the absorption ray. He's got Superman well in hand... er, claw. Unfortunately for Lex, just as he flips the switch... Krypto jumps in front of Superman! To make matters worse, Lex's mouse gets caught up in the power-transfer!
Our result is... well, the mouse can fly (and talk!)... and Lex gets the urge to scratch behind his ears with his (hind) leg. Oops.
From this point, the rest of the Superman Family battle is pretty academic. The robots get destroyed... and Lois uses her detective skills to deduce that Lex Luthor is behind the days event.
And so, as if on cue... Lex arrives on the scene. Superman pops him out of his power armor with ease... then tricks him back into the absorption ray booth by playing a quick game of fetch. With a flip of a switch... Lex and Krypto return to "normal". Everything's back to normal!
Or is it? It would seem as though Lex's pet mouse "Fuzzy" still has its powers... and so, we find ourselves with a brand-new Super-Pet!
We wrap up with Jimmy finally getting around to giving Perry White his cup of coffee... complete with dust, rubble, and robot debris! We out.
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Now that was a lot of fun. I came into this thinking I was probably going to bag on this because I'm not the target audience... after reading it, I feel the opposite just might be true. I would argue that the aged comic fan might just be a sweet spot for a book like this. We might have a more attuned appreciation for a simple silly Superman story than a young'un would. We can see that these characters are acting as themselves... with the volume turned way up. There is a focus on specific traits for each supporting character, that we understand the context of... which makes the jokes land where they should.
I would maybe suggest that, outside the abso-freaking-lutely adorable art... that a kid might not be all that interested in the story. Granted, I am talking out my backside at the moment... I don't have any children that I can test this theory on, but it's just a feeling I have. While we (grown-children) can laugh at a blustery Perry White demanding Jimmy run through a war zone to bring him his coffee... a kid may just think Perry's a jerk. Like I said, I think it's the context that helps us (ya know, people too old to be discussing or analyzing a "kid's comic" to this extreme) appreciate what this book truly brings.
For the story itself? It's cute. Really not a whole lot to it... but we do get to see Superman face off with his arch-enemy, and there is an addition to the Superman Family Adventures lore in the adoption of a brand-new Super-Pet. I have a few more issues of this book floating around... I'll have to keep my eye out to see if Super-Mouse makes any subsequent appearances. The characters all feel "right"... again, with their volumes turned up. Not a bad thing in the slightest... and dammit, as mentioned, they all look pretty great!
Before we go... and since I'm not sure when we'll be discussing the "All Ages" deal again... I do want to bring up something kind of interesting (to me). Folks of my age, mid-to-late thirties-ish, we grew up during the waning years of the Comics Code Authority. Most every book we bought had that little beveled badge in the corner. It was an indication that the book was "safe" for readers... and we can define "safe" however we please, I guess.
Regular visitors to this humble blog know that often I'll link to where a digital copy of whatever book we're discussing can be found at the DC Digital shop. When I do, I generally make a mental note of how the books are rated. Seeing as though the Comics Code isn't a thing anymore, the comics companies have had to rely on their "in house" ratings system... and that isn't limited to new releases.
Let's take, for example... Superman (vol.2) #22. This is the issue wherein Superman is forced to kill the Phantom Zone criminals. This was a Code-Approved book when it shipped in 1988, which to me says "appropriate for all ages". Today however, via readdcentertainment, it is rated as "12+ Only". Hardly an "all ages" book anymore, right? I dunno, maybe I'm thinking about it too hard... that doesn't sound like me at all, right?
Anyhoo... despite my reservations on the "All Ages" classification, I think readers of... most-ages would dig this book. It is available digitally via DC Digital, where it is rated as "All Ages", so no worries there. This is a subject that I'm finding more and more interesting the more I think about it. Please feel free to let me know your thoughts on "All Ages Books" and "Then vs. Now Ratings"... I'm interested to hear what other people think!
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Tailgunner Jo #1 (September, 1988)
"The curve of binding energy"
Writer - Peter B. Gillis
Penciller - Tom Artis
Inker - Ty Templeton
Letterer - John Workman
Colorist - Adrienne Roy
Editor - Barbara Randall
Cover Price: $1.25
Here's a weird one... Tailgunner Jo. This bugger has been staring at me from the cheap-o bin for so long... and yet, I never picked it up... because, I thought I already had it! I'm sure my fellow quarter-bin hunters have similar stories... books we see so much, it's almost impossible to consider that we don't already have (at least one copy of) it in our personal libraries.
I picked up Jo a little while back. I had it in my stack, and quite honestly... forgot to put it back. When I got home I figured, hell... I'll just throw it in my dupe box... but, as luck would have it... this one was new to me!
Let's check it out!
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We open with the fella from the cover. He stands before a mural depicting some movers and shakers from the 20th Cent... um, 20th Rivera/Orozco Revival Period. He is communicating with his daughter... Jo. It would appear he is doing so via a radio link. He is infiltrating a compound of some sort, and is wiring it to blow.
He heads out, and runs right into a fleet of drone patrollers. He tells his daughter that it's about to go down... and moments later a patroller is struck down by a beam from our man's cybernetic-shoulder-arms. It would appear that Jo is able to control those arms.
Well, one patroller down... many more to go. Our man flees down the road using a pipeline as his cover. He fires off a blast, hoping to cause an explosion... unfortunately, the pipe was full of sludge and not flammable goodness. He asks Jo to generate and download a video of him fleeing, to trick the patrols while he doubles back.
Safe-ish and sound-ish, Dad dismisses Jo back to play with her friends. And so she does... but here's the thing, she appears to be in some sort of fantasy world full of princesses and talking teddy bears.
Jo heads to a castle to have a tea party with her estranged friend, Princess Anara. While there, Anara tells her about everything she'd missed during her absence. It's a bunch of silliness... perfectly fitting for a young girl's fantasy world.
Jo and Anara walk the castle grounds. They talk about a potential romantic entanglement for the princess, however, before they get too far into it Jo is called back to "work". It is here that we learn that Jo and her father share a body, as she is surprised she felt no distress to their shared form.
Dad is chowing down on some pink mush. He just called Jo to apoligize for getting her wrapped up in all this. Jo is understanding, and thankfully angst-free. She seems happy to be part of something... Dad still feels pretty rotten, however... even to the point that he cries. I think it's time for an origin story!
Dad takes us back, but before he does, it's made clear that Jo's fantasy world is of his own design. He thinks back to a job he and his wife were doing for a man named Allardyce and the Telemachus Telecommunications-Machinery Corporation. The project was in cybernetics, which was of interest to dad (Lars) and Maire (mom) because their child (Jo) was born with severe birth defects. She looks sort of like a Thalidomide baby... which is a result of a project the parents did for S'atrap Ltd. which exposed them to teratogens.
The couple toiled away on this new project... however, it would seem they were beaten to the punch by rival S'atrap and their Improv-X mass production cyborg package. Allardyce demanded immediate results, and wanted to test what they had so far with human subjects. Lars and Maire refused.
And so, Lars and Jo were in a "mysterious" car accident.
And, Allardyce convinces Maire to conduct a human test. It isn't until it's too late that she realizes that she just operated on her husband and child. Upon realization, she is punched in the back of the head.
Lars lets out a scream which shakes even the fantasy world. Jo speaks to him... and reaffirms that she loves him. With his head cleared, Lars hears some bogies overhead... Jo is already tracking them. They're going to take down those responsible... together.
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I know it's not wise, or arteesty to judge a book by its cover... but, I must admit that that's exactly what I had done with Tailgunner Jo. This cover looks... well, it doesn't look good. I know art is subjective... but I think this bugger is almost aggressively ugly. It has no polish... and comes across (at least to me) as extremely low-rent. It's probably why I never actually pulled the trigger and bought the thing! Imagine my surprise when I crack this sucker open and find myself really enjoying the art inside!
The art inside is a real treat... and fits the tone of the story incredibly well. This is a New Format book... so the coloring is a bit flat, which happened from time to time. It's bright and colorful, don't get me wrong... just feels and looks like something of its vintage. It suits the art (and tone) and so, I'd say it works.
The story we get here is pretty interesting. I've long been a fan of Peter Gillis... ever since my first encounter with Strikeforce: Morituri. I remember revisiting that gem during the semi-recent recession, while "temping", and made the comparison between members of Strikeforce: Morituri and people who work temp-jobs. It's like you sign on... but any day might be your last! We'd watch as our co-temp-workers would be "exed out" as projects wound down... and we would all wonder when our ticket would be punched... because we knew it would be! Anyhoo, he is really good at these futuristic sci-fi stories where it feels like all hope is lost.
While the concept... at least on the surface, is pretty well-trodden, there is enough novel about this to make it worth checking out. I mean, usually when I'm given the rebel against the evil corporation/government... I groan. I feel the strange addition of Jo's fantasy-world may be just the thing to keep me engaged. The dynamic between Jo and her father is also welcome. It feels like in most cases where a couple occupy the same space, their relationship is almost always contentious. I appreciate Jo and her father getting along. We're still early on in this miniseries, so your guess is as good as mine if this remains true throughout. We'll probably check back in with this book somewhere down the line.
Overall... I enjoyed this. This first chapter gave enough action, exposition, and questions to keep me interested... and make me want to actually continue on with the series. This one, to my knowledge, is not available digitally... nor has it been collected. If you're interested, you're stuck with the singles... which, are ubiquitous cheap-o bin citizens. I think it's worth the dive.
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