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Mild Mannered Reviews - Superman/Batman

Superman/Batman #67

Superman/Batman #67

Scheduled to arrive in stores: December 16, 2009

Cover date: February 2010

"Night of the Cure" - Part 2

Writer: Scott Kolins
Penciller: Scott Kolins
Inker: Scott Kolins

Michael Bailey Reviewed by: Michael Bailey

Click to enlarge



An hour before the events of last issue Bizarro is musing on the "un-friends" he has lost while connecting with a bank of television as his new "un-friends". Suddenly the power goes out and a crowd comes upon him thinking he is Superman. When they find out he isn't the Man of Steel the crowd panics and Bizarro flies away.

In the present Black Lantern Solomon Grundy tries to rip Bizarro's heart out. Frankenstein, a member of S.H.A.D.E. steps in and cuts off Grundy's arm with the Sword of Michael. From a distance Man-Bat watches the melee while his wife Francine begs him to change back to human form so the cure can take effect. Man-Bat wigs out and declares that he will live.

Bride, Frankenstein's wife, fires a few shots and says that this isn't the Solomon Grundy they faced before. Meanwhile Francine reminds Man-Bat of when they first met. As Frankenstein goes in for the kill Solomon Grundy begs for Bizarro to help him, which Bizarro does by taking the sword away from Frankenstein. Francine manages to get Kirk to transform back to human form and he nearly takes the serum when Francine is hit with a stray bullet. Filled with anger Kirk changes back to Man-Bat. Francine tries to talk him down but in his fury he knocks her back with his wing.

Solomon Grundy tries to kill Bride but Frankenstein intervenes only to have Grundy rip his heart out, which seems to kill him. Bizarro sees this and decides that Grundy is "good". Getting a good head of steam going he grabs Grundy, flies him into space and throws him into the sun. Back on Earth Man-Bat, thinking he has killed his wife, flees. Francine comes around as does Frankenstein, who survived his attack. Francine comes around as well. Man-Bat and Bizarro fly off, lost in their own solitude.

3Story - 3: The more I think about it the more I am somewhat annoyed that so much of the set-up for this story happened elsewhere.

I understand that the business of comics is just that; a business. The companies put out titles and try to get us to buy as many of those titles as humanly possible. I get that and there was a time where I bought into the hype and was a devout follower of the DC line. That time has mostly come to a close, which is sad but whatever. One side effect is that I don't buy near as many titles as I used to so I missed out on the Solomon Grundy mini-series from a few months ago and the part of me that used to love to buy every title to see what was going on wishes that I had bought it and the part of me that is becoming a grumpy old comic fan is whining because I feel like a huge chunk of the emotional backbone of this story is missing.

The story itself is fine. It played out well and there were some good character beats. I even liked Frankenstein and his Bride. Most of the ingredients were there for a really enjoyable reading experience but there was one element missing and that took the story down a notch for me. It's a bit unfair to Scott Kolins, especially since the other thing I didn't care for was the fact that this is a Blackest Night crossover.

I am going to be glad when Blackest Night is over. I really am.

5Art - 5: The art was phenomenal. The storytelling was crystal clear and made up for the problems I had as far as the story being continued from somewhere else. Kolins has a great style and I really dug how all of the characters looked.

4Cover Art - 4: Well that's...precious.

The art here is good. Make no mistake. As I previously stated Kolins' style. At the same time, though Solomon Grundy is ripping out someone's heart and I don't know if that's something I want to see on a cover. I'm not sure I want to see it inside the book as well but have we really gotten to the point where this is an acceptable cover? Really?

Sigh.


Mild Mannered Reviews

2010

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