Rating:  -
I loved "A Death in the Family". The Joker's massacre of Jason Todd is still a haunting moment in Batman history. When I heard Todd had been revived and was back as the Red Hood, I thought it was a ridiculous idea. Picking up the volume I was welcomely suprised by just how good it was. The artwork is superb, the dialogue engaging, and the entire atmosphere addictive. The build-up to the Red Hood's unmasking was well paced, even if I allready knew the climax. Black Mask, as always in these recent titles, is a joy to read and a fantastic villain, now in control of the Gotham underworld. He is a ruthless, sadistic buisnessman with some very memorable, often hillarious lines. I was also happy to see a villainous gem like Mr. Freeze included. Very well executed.
Rating:  -
I still am against the idea of Jason Todd (especially), whose death added another tragic layer to the Batman mythos, returning from the grave. The impact and fear of losing one's life in a heroic act - the ultimate sacrifice one could make - is almost nil in modern comic books. Characters die and return from the grave almost constantly, an unfortunate cliche that has hurt the mainstream's view of comics-as-art and rendered death as nothing more than a temporary setback for superheroes.
Aside from the very concept itself, Jason's return is also poorly executed. The new Black Mask, who is woefully out of character, is still present. The Joker is sacrificed to Jason Todd's credibility. And how does Jason come back, you ask? What's the cool creative explanation that isn't a tired IC-related explantion that doesn't fit the Batman universe motif? *Spoilers*: Superboy-Prime punching the walls of a paradise in another dimension is the explanation. Jason wakes up in his coffin and digs his highly battered young body out of his coffin and 6ft of dirt using only his belt buckle. The coffin had sensors that could detect people getting in, but amazingly could not detect people getting out. What kind of crazy silly sensors are those? A new coffin is reburied, and the greatest, I repeat greatest, detective in the world, who forensically examines the coffin in all its minutia, neither notices the reburial or the new coffin. I couldn't make this junk up. A must not read for batfans, in my opinion.
Rating:  -
An amazing story by someone who really GETS the character and treats the subject matter with the deference and respect it deserves.
Rating: -
Gotham's criminal underworld is ruled by Black Mask. But someone is trying to undermine his operations...and it's not Batman. His face is one well known among comic fans...The face of Jason Todd. Now Batman has to face his worst fears: His former protege has returned from death to battle evil on his own, lethal terms.
This is an excellent story, Judd Winick is an incredible writer who knows how to spin a tale that entertains readers. I love his use of dialogue, "Do you prefer I call you Black Mask...Mr. Mask...Blackie?" He is able to make the characters real and Batman is excellent in this story. I highly reccomend that you buy it.
Rating: -
Collected here are the seven issues (Batman #535-641) that introduce the new Red Hood character, ending with the big reveal of his identity. While I won't spoil that reveal here, I will say that if you've read internet comic news sites or message boards, most likely you, like I, already know the Red Hood's identity. Going into this knowing that did not ruin the story for me, and in some ways, may have improved it.
First things first, I'm not a huge fan of Judd Winick's writing. I found his Green Lantern to be too steeped in trying to be "hip," not to mention Judd's penchant for weaving controversial social themes into his stories (something this collection is without). Neither were noticeable in this story and, in fact, this storyline has done much to convince me that Judd Winick is the decent writer others have claimed he is. He won me over with this issue.
The story starts off in the present, as Batman chases a hooded assailant across the rooftops, while his internal dialogue points out that this unknown adversary is very skilled and very good at what he does. The climax comes as Batman is unmasked and the Red Hood tells Batman it's time to even things out and removes his hood, to Batman's shock (though we are not privy to who is under the hood).
The story then starts five weeks earlier and progresses until the last chapter, when we see who the Red Hood is, and the final few pages deal with Batman's reaction to the unmasking.
Overall, the story structure is similar to Jeph Loeb's "Hush," as a masked adversary with ties to Batman's past works behind the scenes and Batman works to unravel the mystery, while meeting various people from the Bat mythos and the DCU proper along the way. Of course, except for a key piece of the reveal referencing "Hush," that is where the similarities end.
Not being a big fan of the Batman comics, and therefore not being up on current events in Gotham, this collection did a good job of giving me the details I needed, without making me feel like I was missing a lot by not reading those issues. Though reading on-line about the "War Games" crossover might help flesh out a little of the back story.
There are a lot of fun "surprises" in this collection, including an old Batman foe, an old Justice League foe, another old Batman foe gets what's coming to them, and of course, the big surprise of who the Red Hood is at the end. Each one made for an interesting part of the story, adding the right amount of suspense to this tale.
Perhaps the best part of the book though is the view into Batman's place in the DCU. We see the effects of the recent "War Games" crossover, as well as the sale of Kord Industries (mentioned in "DC's Countdown to Infinite Crisis"). We also see Batman interact with a few key players in the DCU going into Infinite Crisis and how he handles each meeting is very telling. Batman has alienated a lot of people, and we've seen that in the past, but we get a good glimpse of how others have alienated Batman as well.
I took a shot on this collection, knowing that Judd Winick was not one of my favorite writers. I came out pleasantly surprised and eager to get the second collection of this storyline ("Under the Hood," Vol. 2 for those keeping track). I'd recommend this collection to anyone interested in reading recent tales of Batman, even those unfamiliar with Batman's recent history, as well as anyone who has a love of the characters and the DCU in general.
|
