This week….*ahem*….This week in comics….hmmm… Truthfully, whatever comic book hype there is this week is drowned out by the release of “The Dark Knight Rises”. Not that Batman really does much this week in comics. It’s that odd 3rd week of the month where there are quite a few semi-Batman related titles that feature ancillary characters, team-ups, or they take place in an alternate universe altogether. The highlight of them all appears to be “Nightwing”, which has been wonderful lately.
Here’s a list of all the Batman comics coming out this week, July 18th, graded on a scale of my own anticipation.
None. – I’ll get to it…eventually – Eh…meh. – Bring it. – TAKE MY MONEY
Scroll to the bottom of the page and post in the comments section what books you’re most looking forward to this week!
July 18th
CATWOMAN #11
Written by JUDD WINICK
Art and cover by GUILLEM MARCH
32 pg
$2.99
ANTICIPATION LEVEL: Bring it.
We get more from the creepy villain Dollhouse and Catwoman’s partnership with Spark falls apart while a secret partnership with Detective Alvarez grows. This is the penultimate issue written by Judd Winnick before a new writer takes over on issue #0 and I’m interested to see how it goes. The last issue put a lot of interesting elements in motion and I think this could be a pretty entertaining read.
NIGHTWING #11
Written by KYLE HIGGINS
Art by EDDY BARROWS, RUY JOSE and EBER FERREIRA
Cover by EDDY BARROWS
32 pg
$2.99
Anticipation Level: Bring it.
Nightwing faces off against Paragon, the leader of The Republic of Tomorrow. This is yet another secret society and it’s a bit too soon after the whole Court of Owls thing, honestly. However, this sinister group appears to have a far better plan than the Court of Owls did so here’s hoping it all plays out well. After all, that last issue was phenomenal. This series has really hit its stride and I don’t think it’ll slip up anytime soon. At least I hope it doesn’t!
BATMAN BEYOND UNLIMITED #6
Written by ADAM BEECHEN, J.T. KRUL, DUSTIN NGUYEN and DEREK FRIDOLFS
Art by NORM BREYFOGLE, HOWARD PORTER and LIVESAY
Cover by DUSTIN NGUYEN
48 pg
$3.99
Anticipation Level: I’ll get to it…eventually.
The multi-part epic titled “10,000 CLOWNS” begins (I’d hardly call it an epic. These “Batman Beyond” stories have been anything but “epic” so far) and the Justice League goes to war with Kobra…in outer space! I really want to like this series. It has a whole lot of potential, it stands out from all the other bat-titles coming out each week, and you’re getting a lot of variety for your money. But the problem is that the stories bundled together are never consistently good. Whether it’s 2, 3, or 4 stories included in an issue, there’s usually 1 that’s terrific and 1 that is absolutely terrible. It’s hard to get excited about a comic like that.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #11
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by JIM LEE, SCOTT WILLIAMS, and GARY FRANK
40 pg
$3.99
Anticipation Level: I’ll get to it…eventually.
Part III of “The Villains Journey”. Last month’s issue ended with the Justice League getting whooped by the new villain Graves in just a couple pages. The entire league! In their home base! It seemed way, way too easy and the story itself wasn’t that great either. In fact, the main reason I read this comic is for the back-up story featuring the origin of “Shazaam”–now that’s a good comic. Is it worth paying $3.99 for 8 pages of Shazaam, though? No. Not really. I’m finding “Justice League” to be a weak monthly comic that reads way better when it’s collected in a trade paperback. Unless this issue is spectacular, I recommend that you wait for the TPB.
Some other titles come out this week, but they are books that have little or nothing to do with Gotham. These are comics that I’ll wait and review when they are collected in trade paperback form later on.
Batwoman #11 (Consistently good artists but consistently weak stories as well. However, I bet it reads much better as a TPB)
Birds of Prey #11 (The stories have their moments and Travel Foreman is a great artist, too. But it’s far from being a must-buy comic for me. Last month’s issue was very forgettable. )
Red Hood & The Outlaws #11 (It’s a fun comic with great art. All of these 3 books have great artwork, really. But I still think Jason Todd was better off dead and the book has so little to do with Batman that I don’t even look at it as a Bat-title)
The trade paperback Batwing Vol. 1: The Lost Kingdom comes out, too. It collects all of the first 6 issues of this series at the low, low price of $14.99 and I hope to have a review for it up by the end of the week.
