The Art of the Panel

Frank Miller's post-retirement tale of Batman is well-known and revered in the comic book industry. An aging Bruce Wayne dons the cowl one last time as Gotham City begins to implode without the Batman, teaming up with a new, plucky Robin in hopes of saving the day. This is an industry staple; a must-read. The Dark Knight Returns is a critique of American society, their fascination with violence, and their disconnect from empathy. It is also a sendoff to Batman that wound up being a catlyst for the modern age of comics, alongside Watchmen. Miller explores Batman and Joker's relationship, examining the yin-yang pull the two exhibits on one another. He also addresses heroism versus complacency. Heroes exist to serve the people, not a government, and one major character, in particular, had to be taught that.

Geoff Johns must have sprinkled some magic dust to invoke one of the greatest stories ever written surrounding the Flash. Flashpoint is a time travel story, which ordinarily would be a big no-no, but this time it more so examines the consequences of such. The ffects are twofold, as Flash must prevent the world from ending due to his time travel and Johns subtly winks at the other writer sby indicating how dangerous of a writing tool it is. Time is like an ever-increasing web of dominoes. Knock one over and how many others fall? Think about how much would change by the smallest alteration to one's own life. The people they would meet, the interactions and effects they would have on one another, possibly the networking and job implications, a future, career, family. Remove a single person from one's p[ast and this can all change. That's the idea of Flashpoint. Barry Allen saved his mom in the past and it caused a chain reaction that threatened to destroy reality. The Justic...

Ethan Sacks' first endeavor in writing for Marvel bore a lot of promise and started off strong enough. Borrowing from Old Man Logan, he attempted to further develop that world and set the premise for Mark Millar's infamous run in 2008. The effort was certainly not terrible, and the series began with a lot of promise, but very quickly it was revealed each issue chased the same formula. Hawkeye sought out an ex-Thunderbolt, he fought them, he killed them. Move on to the next setting. Things became more interesting halfway through, as Sacks finally began exploring Clint's character, tying the story back into the Matt Fraction Hawkeye run, and doing some actual progression and development. Unfortunately, the budget very obviously dropped off towards the end, complete with a massive drop in quality for the final issue. It was a tragedy because until that point the atmosphere had been nailed. The few Hawkeye fans that exist will thoroughly enjoy this, but everyone else may as w...

The comic-verse is a complicated anthology to keep track of, not helped in the slightest by the vast number of timelines, parallel timelines, resets to those parallel timelines, convoluted resets to those parallel timelines in order to explain changes made solely based off of the preference of the writer, etc. The greatest element of yet also the biggest problem with comics, as has been discussed before, is their continuity. Everything is connected. In the first six issues of the New 52 Justice League run in 2011, Geoff Johns attempts to recreate a more modern origin story for the infamous band of heroes. Dc also attempts to leave the previous origins intact, the reasoning of which won't be explained for almost eight more years with Doomsday Clock. Timeline shenanigans aside, Justice League: Origins succeeds because it is a character-driven story of unwavering commitment to do the right thing. The characters who head the tale are not the ones readers had become to be associated w...

Geoff Johns wanted to make an epic beat-em-up and did so, juicing the core members of the Justice League with god-like powers and pitting them against the likes of Darkseid and the Anti-Monitor. It was a fun premise that led to a lot of action, and closed out the Crime Syndicate arc, and finished up the New 52 run. There were a lot of positives. The problem is everyone on the panel gets a power boost, which nullifies anything special that would come from them. This only leads to one or two interesting explorations of character (Batman and Green Lantern) but otherwise just put the usual members on steroids. Others get no power boost, like Cyborg, and become effectively useless for the rest of the story. On top of that, there is too much narration from Wonder Woman. Narration is a hit-or-miss feature in comics, but it needs to have a purpose in the actual story and not feel like the author is putting their kids to bed after the fact. This lands in the latter area. It's a fun read, ...

The sequel to the surprise hit, Injustice: Gods Among Us and the respective tie-in to its video game counterpart, Injustice 2 is a smash ensemble series that picks up the story about a year after the conclusion of the first video game. Superman, one of the main characters of the first arc, is in prison, and no, there are no breakouts or incidents involving him that would lessen the impact of Batman eventually letting him free in the game to help fight Brainiac. Here, he is relegated largely to a guest character. The main villain is, instead, Ras Al Ghul. Unlike the first series, Injustice 2 is written with a physical publication in mind, and the artwork is far more consistent. Artists would get select mini-arcs within the story rather than one issue at a time, which allowed them to put the spins they needed on characters and better understand the plots of what they were drawing and coloring. Tom Taylor is back as writer and brings his usual selection of talents (see older posts for r...

Marvels was a novel perception of the idea of the superhero by Kurt Busiek and illustrated by the legendary Alex Ross. Following the eagle-eyed camera of Phil Sheldon, the events of the Marvel universe are recreated in chronological order, stemming the gold and silver-age of comics. The focus of the miniseries is not about the heroes themselves, but how the public feels about them. It's a theme that isn't usually given a lot of attention. How does the everyday citizen respond to the appearance of superpowered beings? The fear and adoration that would bring, along with the constant danger to one's life if they live in New York City, is immeasurable. In Sheldon's case, it brings obsession, but others yield frustration and anger. Each individual has an instinctive reaction to an impending threat, a fight or flight response, but what if the world is about to end and everything is literally out of your hands? Then you sit and you watch someone else and you pray. That's...