Neil Gaiman/Andy Kubert
I'd been interested to read Neil Gaiman's take on the cowled one for a while, even more so when I learned that it was about the death of Batman. Bruce Wayne has finally been beaten and his friends and enemies gather in a backstreet bar for his funeral, and begin to tell their own stories about the caped crusader. Through their conflicting stories about his death the truth at the heart of Batman is revealed, it's a very interesting & clever concept. The art is pretty good, the advantage for illustrators is how dark and dramatic the night makes everything, plus Batman has a very iconic silhouette. The two back-up stories in the book are alot of fun, the first looks at Batman & the Joker on their time off from the page, in the second a documentary maker interviews Batman's many enemies.
Artwork: 3/5 Story: 4/5
Kevin Smith/Walt Flanagan/Sandra Hope
I picked up Cacophony when I saw it was written by Kevin Smith, I've been a fan of Smith's films since my time at university and actually bought a Jay & Silent Bob comic many, many years ago. Smith's story sees Bat come up against a new foe, the eponymous Cacophony, who is silent other than imitations of noises, this new villain seems to be hunting vigilantes. I didn't really "get" the point of Cacophony as a villain, but I did like the modern twist Smith gave to the story and the genuinely funny lines the Joker had.
Artwork: 3/5 Story: 3/5
Mike Mignola
The second book in the Hellboy series is as all action as the first, which makes it suffer a little as I would have liked to learn more about the characters than I did. Hellboy is once again battling Nazis who, under instruction from Rasputin, are enlisting the vampire Giurescu. I like the way mythology and history are used, and we do find out more about Rasputin and the higher power whom he serves.
Artwork: 5/5 Story: 3/5
Alan Moore/Curt Swan/George Perez/K. Schaffenberger
I found out about 'Whatever...' and 'Red Son' in Little White Lies magazine's Man of Steel special, and was instantly interested in this book as I had read Moore's peerless Watchmen and V For Vendetta a year or two ago. Like it's Batman namesake, this is a death of Superman story, but sadly I did not find it anywhere near as interesting. I found the story very contrived and cliched, squeezing in every hero and villain from Superman's past imaginable including plenty a novice like me had never heard of and just found plain silly, and the artwork wasn't much better. The ending however did provide a clever little twist though, which I won't reveal here.
Artwork: 1/5 Story: 2/5
Mark Millar/Dave Johnson/Kilian Plunkett/A. Robinson/W. Wong
Red Son is an 'elseworld' story, where an iconic hero is placed into a different situation to see what would happen. In Red Son, Kal-El's ship crash lands in the USSR instead of the USA, in this version of events Russia wins the Cold War, Lex Luthor becomes president of the United States, and Batman is a russian terrorist. This was a brilliant and fascinating re-imagining of the Superman story in total contrast to the Millar's Civil War which featured in my first graphic novel post. The artwork was also excellent, drawing on the distinctive russian communist propaganda of the last century. I'll definately be finding more 'elseworld' graphic novels after this.
Artwork: 5/5 Story 5/5
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