One-paragraph reviews: All Nighter, Flashpoint tie-ins, Gatest of Gotham, Silver Surfer

All Nighter #1 (of 5)
Created, written and drawn by David Hahn; Image.

This is the first thing I've ever read by David Hahn. It was completely off my radar until I saw a link to the free PDF download of the first issue of this mini-series on Hahn's website. I downloaded it and only read a few pages before I knew this was something I wanted to get. The best comparison I can think of is Love and Rockets, or at least what I imagine Love and Rockets to be, since I've never actually read it. Instead of reading this review, you should probably just go download it and check it out yourself.

GOOD

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Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost #1 (of 3)
Written by Sterling Gates; pencils by Oliver Nome; inks by Trevor Scott; colours by Brian Buccellato; DC.

Kid Flash wakes up in a Matrix-style virtual reality prison in a nightmare futuristic version of Metropolis. He's lost his access to the speed force and needs to figure out what's going on and how to get back to the right timeline. There's not a whole lot to this, but it's enjoyable because Bart Allen is a character that I like and Sterling Gates writes him really well. Oliver Nome's style is functional more than it is impressive, but I really like the way he draws Bart's face (and especially his cute little button nose). I'm going to keep reading this, even if I'm not all that interested in Flashpoint anymore.

OKAY

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Flashpoint: The Outsider #1 (of 3)
Written by James Robinson; art by Javi Fernandez; colours by The Hories; DC.

As far as I can tell, The Outsider is one of the few totally new characters in Flashpoint. His name suggests a connection to the team formerly known as the Outsiders, but I really don't know enough about them to see any connection beyond that. Like with the Kid Flash issue, there's not a lot to go on in this issue. It mostly just establishes the character and his origin within the Flashpoint universe, then there's a fight that goes on for several pages. But it works because I like the character and want to find out more about him. James Robinson seems to have found the right voice for him and I can see how, outside the confines of a major comic book event tie-in, he could take him to some really interesting places. I hope this character will survive Flashpoint and that there's an ongoing by Robinson that has yet to be announced post-relaunch, as some have been speculating, because it's something that I would definitely read (in trades, probably).

OKAY

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Batman: Gates of Gotham #2 (of 5)
Story by Scott Snyder and Kyle Higgins; written by Kyle Higgins; art by Trevor McCarthy; colours by Guy Major; DC.

I liked this more than the first issue. Either the art has improved or I'm starting to warm up to McCarthy's style. But what really won me over was the way Kyle Higgins writes the scenes between the different bat kids. He nailed the interaction between Cassandra Cain and Damian Wayne. Damian tries to prove his superiority while pretending not to be impressed by Cass, but really it's clear that he's a little bit in awe of her or he wouldn't be so desperate for her approval. It's basically the same dynamic he had with Dick before they became BFFs, except that Cass is even more unfazed by him than Dick was. But while these two were my favourite, I just love the way Higgins has them all working together as a team. He writes these characters so well that it makes me wish he was working on a Bat Family title instead of Nightwing solo book in September. Although, based on this interview, it sounds like there'll be lots of guest appearances by the other kids in that book, so I'm hopeful. It's a shame that everyone's going to have super-ugly 90s retro costumes, though. Blargh.

GOOD

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Silver Surfer #5 (of 5)
Written by Greg Pak; pencils by Harvey Tolibao; inks by Sandu Florea; colours by Wil Quintana; Marvel.

This was a good, satisfying conclusion to a story that I've enjoyed tremendously, in spite of what I consider to be very ugly art. It's not technically incompetent art. It's just a style that I personally really dislike - way too busy for my tastes - and part of that might come from the colouring as well. Still worth reading for the story, though.

AWESOME (script) / POOR (art)

Review: Superman #700

SUPERMAN #700

Superman's "giant-sized anniversary issue" doesn't suffer from any of the problems that made Batman #700 such a frustrating mess. While it carries the same inflated $5 price tag, we get a full 42 pages of story, instead of a thrown-together bullshit pin-up gallery at the end. And instead of a high-concept convoluted tale spanning past, present and future, we get three fairly simple but contrasting stories, each by a different creative team. It's not as ambitious as the Batman anniversary issue was, but it ends up being a much more satisfying read.

First story: "The Comeback"
by James Robinson and Bernard Chang

The first story is a sort of epilogue for James Robinson's epic run on Superman, which lasted a couples of years and culminated with the "War of the Supermen" (a.k.a. the 100-minute war). I haven't followed any of this sprawling epic, but I know it involved Superman going away on a big intergalactic mission for a long time and this story deals with his return after that long absence, focussing on his relationship with Lois Lane. In a long opening scene that takes up about half the story, Superman saves Lois from Parasite, punching him through several walls and knocking him unconscious. This random fight feels a bit inconsequential, as it's merely a device for setting up Lois and Superman's dramatic reunion. The second half of the story shows the couple relaxing in their apartment and talking about their relationship, and then going out for a night-time romantic fly over Metropolis. Although nothing groundbreaking happens in this story, it's a nice little character piece and a pleasant read.

Second story: "Geometry"
by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund

This was my favourite story of the three in this issue, which says a lot about my own biases, considering it's mostly set in Gotham City and Superman is almost more of a guest character in it. It's set in the early days of Dick Grayson's career as Robin. While Bruce Wayne is busy at an important stockholder's meeting, Robin disobeys his orders and goes out on his own to stop an illegal shipment of weapons coming in from Metropolis. Of course, Robin gets in trouble, and Superman shows up just in time to save him and stop the bad guys. There was a nice laugh-out-loud moment at the end when Superman helps cover-up Dick's escapade by finishing his geometry homework for him at super-speed behind Bruce's back. Then in the last scene, Clark Kent is back at the Daily Planet office and receives a hand-written note from Bruce, showing he's not easily fooled. It's another nice light moment, giving us a glimpse of the always-interesting dynamic between Bruce and Clark, which is something like a playful rivalry/partnership. Bruce's note is perfect, because it's his way of saying "thanks for saving Robin" without saying it, while at the same time pretending to put Superman in his place and telling him no to pull this kind of shit again. The smile on Clark's face is also perfect, showing that he doesn't take Bruce's posturing too seriously.

Third story: "Grounded prologue"
by J. Michael Straczynski, Eddy Barrows and J.P. Mayer

Just as the first story served as an epilogue for the previous creative team's run, this last one is a prologue for the new team's big story arc, which starts next month in Superman #701. I was pretty curious about Straczynski's run on Superman, and one of the reasons I picked up this issue was to get a sense of what to expect from him. Unfortunately, this pretty much convinced me not to put this title on my pull list.

The concept behind the year-long story arc "Grounded" is that Superman is going to walk across America in an effort to get closer to his roots and reconnect with the people, after spending all this time away on his intergalactic epic. Based on that description alone, I'm already feeling pretty skeptical about the whole thing, but this prologue confirms just how cheesy this is going to be.

At a press conference, Superman gets slapped in the face by a grieving woman whose husband died of an inoperable brain tumor while Superman was away. She says that he could have saved her husband with his X-ray/heat vision. Then Superman chats with Batman and the Flash, then flies into space to contemplate the Earth from above, then flies back down to a parc, where he grabs a handful of dirt from the ground and contemplates it with an intense look on his face. A couple of boys look at him and wonder what he's doing. As he's walking away, they wonder why he's not flying away. "I don't know," one of the kid says, "but it must be important." BARF!

To make matters worse, there's going to be some kind of interactive aspect to this story, as readers are invited to send essays to DC explaining why Superman should visit their home town. I hate interactive art and this whole thing just sounds like a terribly lame gimmick. It's really too bad, because I actually want to read a Superman comic right now, but I have no interest in this year-long arc and he's not going to feature prominently in any other titles for a while, as Action Comics is going to focus on Lex Luthor instead (which, admittedly, sounds like a better story than "Grounded").

In any case, this anniversary issue was all right. I enjoyed two of the three stories, and I'm glad the third one was included as well, as I can now save my money and avoid buying #701. The art was decent on all three stories and much more consistent than on Batman #700.