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Snapshots for 6/11
There's no way that Don and I can cover all of the material we have for review in full reviews, so these capsule reviews will offer some brief comments on other recent releases.
BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #168
by Bill Willingham & Tom Fowler (DC Comics)
 At this point, Legends of the Dark Knight has the stink of a lame duck title, with its days as the prestige Bat-book long gone. Which is a shame, because occasional gems like Dwayne McDuffie's recent stories, get ignored as a result (I just happened to read them last week, and I like to think of myself as fairly on top of mainstream comics.) This story, by Fables writer Willingham and familiar name whose credits I can't put my finger on Fowler, is not a lost gem, but it is a solid read based around a neat premise. Fowler's lumpy artwork is reminiscent in some ways of Paul Pope, and it's full of gorgeous detail that really brings the street-level (and this story makes that descriptor very appropriate) setting to life. The twist at the end is relatively predictable, but doesn't take away from an entertaining story about what might happen if you were Batman... but you weren't quite sure what you were supposed to be doing. 7/10
THE BLACKBURNE COVENANT #3
by Fabian Nicieza & Steffano Raffaele (Dark Horse Comics)
 Blackburne Covenant may have started relatively small, but it got big and explosive pretty quickly. From haunting visions and portents in the first issue we now have an open war between factions, an apocalyptic event and the promise of world-changing power. And yet, the shift in scale hasn't seemed weird at all, in large part thanks to the lead character's reaction to it all. Richard Kaine can come across as a bit stubborn in his naivete to the readers, but it's not hard to understand his reactions if you step back from the story, and so you can feel sympathy for him even though he's essentially caused the deaths of so many throughout this series because of his refusal to understand what's happening. Raffaele completes Nicieza's picture with some amazing renditions of the enviro-friendly Greenway Commune or the altered world that Kaine sees thanks to Talinada's influence. As Blackburne Covenant races toward its conclusion, it feels less like horror and more like horror-tinged modern fantasy or science-fiction, but it remains absolutely compelling reading. 8/10
GREEN ARROW #27
by Judd Winick, Phil Hester & Ande Parks (DC Comics)
 Winick's run continues in the same vein as it began, which is good news for Green Arrow fans. Winick hits the same mix of humor, characterization and super-heroics that made Smith's run so beloved, and having Hester and Parks continue on with the art means that this is as good, if not better, than the stories which launched the title. Certainly the addition of Black Lightning's niece has been an interesting element in Ollie's complicated romantic life, and I love how Winick juggles the supporting cast in general. Connor gets a scene, Mia gets a scene, even Dinah gets name-checked. In amongst all this character-building and fun dialogue, however, Winick hasn't lost the plot. The assassin introduced in this pages gets a memorable speech and should make for a formidable foe, and the scene of Ollie fighting off a monster, while brief, is well-done action. And as always, the whole thing looks great, re-establishing Hester and Parks as the definitive Green Arrow team of the modern age. 9/10
KINGPIN #1
by Bruce Jones, Sean Phillips & Klaus Janson (Marvel Comics)
 If you've never seen a mob movie in your life, you might find Kingpin fresh and interesting. For anyone with a background in Coppola, Scorsese or Chase, however, it's not only overly familiar but clumsy and dull. Kingpin's manipulation is played out at a reasonable pace, much faster than Jones's writing on the Hulk, but rather than coming across as clever, the sledgehammer nature of the whole thing makes his opponents look somewhat inept. Kudos to Jones for portraying Kingpin as a bad guy from the start, willing to get his own hands dirty as well as to betray anyone close to him, but the downside is that the character is not terribly easy to relate to. Even the modern Kingpin, a figure of corruption and evil, has his devotion to his wife and strange sense of honor toward Daredevil. Making matters worse is that in trying to make the Kingpin more likable, Jones diverts from the emotionless hardcase long enough to have him rush into traffic to save a child. Phillips and Janson turn in solid if unspectacular artwork, but they're laboring for a pretty mediocre tale, at least so far. Marvel deserves credit for branching out beyond just super-heroes (even if they're still using their familiar properties), but all too often they're stretching the characters they have into roles that they don't fit or retreading stories that other publishers have been doing for a much longer time, and often do much better. Kingpin doesn't fall into the former trap, but a quick glance at 100 Bullets, Stray Bullets or Bendis's Jinx indicates that it falls into the latter. 4/10
USAGI YOJIMBO #66
by Stan Sakai (Dark Horse Comics)
 This issue is the first of Sakai's homage to the giant monsters of Japanese cinema, and though it might seem an odd fit for his anthropomorphic ronin, it actually works really well. Part of that is the sheer joy of seeing Sakai render these imaginative beasts, which have the same attention to detail as the rest of his work, but there's also an interesting plot at the center of the story. It seems as if Usagi lately has featured a fair amount of guest stars (and that may always have been the case), and the latest is a demon-hunter with a bow and deadly aim. He's a great character, and the revelation both of what is causing the demonic monster and how it ties into the disappearance of children makes for a terrifying foe and a strong cliffhanger. 9/10
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