Comments | about_faces: A look at some absolutely amazing hardcover Batman collections coming out soon (plus ranting!)

about_faces

A look at some absolutely amazing hardcover Batman collections coming out soon (plus ranting!)

Aug 30, 2011 01:12

I've been incredibly annoyed at DC for the way they've treated their trade collections over the past decade. I can understand many great stories being left out of print, of course I can. Collections cost money to make, and if there's no market even for great stories which few people want or know about, why publish it? I get that, sad though it ( Read more... )

norm breyfogle, hugo strange, ra's and/or talia al ghul, jim aparo, gene colan, don newton, solicitations, gerry conway, marshall rogers, denny o'neil, steve englehart

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ext_765974 August 31 2011, 21:35:01 UTC

I've kinda wiped my mind of the Talia rape stuff. Son of the Demon is what really happen, so says my head!canon(which is the best canon, where Xorn was totally Magneto, and Cry For Justice was an extended dream/nightmare sequence of Oliver Queen). That said, I am a pretty big fan of Morrison's run in general('cept that last Batman Inc issue, WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT, GRANT!?), and I greatly look forward to them finally putting his first two trades in Deluxe hardcover form. MMM, oversized JH Williams III artwork ( ... )

lego_joker September 1 2011, 02:55:52 UTC

The only time I really dug Aparo's art was when it was combined with Peter Milligan's scripts. At first glance, Aparo's Batman is a Batman you'd expect to punch through a dozen goons, outsmart a corny deathtrap, and lay the smackdown on the Joker or the Penguin while delivering some ham-fisted social message.

It makes it all the more jarring, then, that Milligan's scripts portray Batman not as a superhero, but as something more akin to a cop with a unique outfit. Not just in how people react to him, but in how his mind works - Milligan's Batman was Batman at his most at his most human. And thus, we (or at least I) find the supernatural elements that Milligan throws into his tales all the more jarring, because this isn't Grant Morrison's I-have-a-plan-for-everything Batgod facing them. This is a regular guy trying to do the best he can to clean up Gotham with a few toys, and you can't help but be scared that he's getting in way over his head whenever something beyond the laws of science pops up in Gotham.

about_faces September 1 2011, 13:08:14 UTC

Milligan and Aparo, eh? I've never read any of those stories. Wait, I think I have an issue or two, but I'm not sure if I've read those yet. I'm not a huge Milligan fan myself, but you've got me intrigued.

ext_765974 September 1 2011, 14:33:09 UTC

The Milligan Batman issues are easily some of the best of the 1990s. Aparo didn't draw "Dark Knight, Dark City", but that's a good one, too.

about_faces September 1 2011, 13:06:32 UTC

I saw, and was strongly considering mentioning it too, but I held off. This post was long enough, and frankly, I don't think Morrison's work needs any further shout-out any more than Year One. And I love the latter, while not caring much for the former.

I take it that you dislike the Selina-as-prostitute stuff? I've recently come around to it myself, partially because of the great work that subsequent writers have built up around it. Seriously, if you haven't read Henchgirl's amazing, comprehensive history of Selina's origin, I urge you to do so. Even if you've read all the comics in question, there's something wonderfully illuminating about seeing it all laid out in chronological order. In that context, I find that the prostitute origin works perfectly, and adds to her strength and complexity as a character. Of course, YMMV. Forgive the rant, it's just that this has been on my mind a lot as of late ( ... )

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