World Comic Book Review

Menu
22nd April 2024

DC Comics

The Oppressive Stink: Justice League #1 Rebirth – Directors’ Cut

by

“Justice League #1 Rebirth – Directors’ Cut” DC Comics, December 2016 Writer: Bryan Hitch Most people have heard of London’s famous river, the Thames. Another prominent river in London was called the Fleet River (Fleet Street, the home of London’s newspaper industry, is named after the Fleet River). During Roman times, the Fleet River was … Read more

Deathstroke #1 (review)

by

Deathstroke #1 (review)
DC Comics, September 2016
Writer: Christopher Priest

American publisher DC Comics has from time to time published the adventures of an arch-villain, an assassin named “Deathstroke” (originally, “Deathstroke the Terminator”, the epithet pre-dating the first James Cameron-directed “Terminator” motion picture by four years, in 1980).

Colonel Slade Wilson is a mercenary with superpowers – enhanced strength and reflexes. His actions caused his eldest son to have his throat slit rendering him mute (the character later turned up as a forgettable superhero then villain named “Jericho”) and his younger son decided to follow his father into the mercenary business, to his doom. Repulsed by his actions, Wilson’s wife endeavoured to shoot him in the head at point blank range, but Wilson’s super fast reflexes resulted only in the loss of an eye. Deathstroke’s iconic mask, the right hemisphere entirely black, reflects this partial blindness. To paraphrase another character, Deathstroke is so competent at his job that he doesn’t mind conveying the message that his right eye is missing through the symbolism of his mask.

In this first issue by writer Christopher Priest, Deathstroke is on a mission in what looks suspiciously like South Sudan. An aged and apparently terminally ill super villain called Clock King is holed up under the protection of a local warlord. Deathstroke has been commissioned by the families of Clock King’s victims to assassinate him. Deathstroke is distracted from that task by learning this his best friend and long-time butler/handler Wintergreen is nearby.

Read more

New Super-Man #1 (review)

by

New Super-Man #1 (review)
DC Comics, September 2016
Writer: Gene Luen Yang

American publisher DC Comics are presently undertaking one of its periodic hedge-trimming exercises, where its character properties are revamped or reconstituted so as to remove complexity caused by years of convoluted plots. This time around the exercise is called “Rebirth”.

In this “Rebirth”-branded title, DC Comics have made the editorial decision to create a Chinese version of its premier property, Superman. This is achieved in the form of a new, Shanghainese character called Kong Kenan. Kong is not a typical altruistic hero. The characters is in fact a conceited bully who picks on Lixin, the overweight son of a media mogul, stealing his lunch and money. In a moment of bravado, as a supervillain called Blue Condor is about to kidnap Lixin, Kong throws a can at the Blue Condor’s head. Lixin is saved – but not from Kong, who continues to extort Lixin for cash. Kong’s moment of courage is captured in social media and he quickly becomes a minor TV celebrity.

Read more

Dark Knight Returns III #5 (review)

by

Dark Knight Returns III #5 (review)
(DC Comics, June 2016)
Writers: Brian Azzarello and Frank Miller

This is the fifth book in the third volume of Frank Miller’s seminal Batman title, “Dark Knight Returns”. We have previously reviewed earlier books in this third series. It is written by two veteran and acclaimed comic book writers, Brian Azzarello and Frank Miller.

The tense psychology of Batman, with his joyous release of fury and raw intimidation, the depth of the supporting characters, including DC Comics’ other paramount character, Superman, and the snappy comedic dialogue which juxtaposed with the grim monologues, was enough to propel the story in 1986. But this story, like “Dark Knight Returns II”, instead, sadly, draws heavily upon the panoply of characters owned by DC Comics – Superman, Wonder Woman, the Atom, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and the Flash. In particular, as we have previously discussed, the storyline picks up on an oddity of the Superman mythos dating back to Action Comics #242, published in 1958: that there is a city of beings from Superman’s home planet, Krypton, who were shrunk to microscopic size by one of Superman’s enemies. The city survived the destruction of Krypton by virtue of being kept as a trophy. Mr Azzarello and Mr Miller have written a story by which some of these Kryptonians, led by a fanatic with delusions of being God, are expanded to full size and terrorise the planet with their alien superpowers. Batman and his colleagues oppose these would-be dominators of Earth.

Read more