Bought/Thought for 9/14/05; SPOILERS within, as always!

[Phaedrus45]

Wow...look how much last year was like this year. Dread started the Bought/Thought thread, and he was saying what a slow week it was.

 

[i'm Spider-Man]

yeah. And Wolvie buys (or at least, used to buy) a HELL of a lot of comics. What website does he write for?

 

[Darthphere]

BOUGHT/THOUGHT for 9/14/05: SPOILERS! (I just tire of putting tags)

ALL-STAR BATMAN & ROBIN, THE BOY WONDER #2 And man, I thought it was X-spinoffs that had long titles. Anyway, DC's excuse for an Ultimate line continues with it's first offering, Batman & Robin, by the wonder-twin duo of Frank Miller & Jim Lee. Overall, I liked this issue more than #1, but that may not be saying much as Miller seems to have discovered an evil he hasn't before. No, it's not violence, or cursing, or depicting Batman as a borderline insane pedophile. It's DECOMPRESSION. Not convinced? Read past issues of some of Miller's stories, whether they're SIN CITY or hell, even his abysmal DK2. More happened in 22 pages there than it did here. I guess someone at DC got the memo that if USM can sell in the Top Ten despite most issues having ABSOLUTELY NOTHING friggin' happening, then so can their "Ultimate Batman". Basically, all that happens is Alfred patches up Vale's wounds, only to have her collapse, as Batman speeds away with Grayson in his Batmobile from murderous, corrupt cops (are there any other kinds of cops in Millerland?) while trying to manipulate Grayson into becoming his partner, or at least not barfing in the car. That's IT. I wonder how many more years of this "writing for the trades" drek will continue before fans finally stop being suckers, all collectively wait for the trades so that the stores lose money and blast the company, and the companies go, "Gee, maybe we should stop being greedy ass *****s and tell our writers to move their arses." Oh, well. Not all of a comic is story, though, as you have art and dialogue in the presentation, and in this, both Miller and Lee are at their A-game. Miller's dialogue and narration is as seedy and gritty as it has ever been, with him pulling no punches with a Batman who's incredibly creepy and may not be all sane. Lee's art is naturally pretty to look at even when he's not drawing much happening. Seems this Batman is more like the original Golden Age Batman; unafriad of killing people, as he smashes up some corrupt cops' cars and blows them up in flames in order to launch his flying car into the sky. Not many can pull off gritty noir and comic camp in the same panels, but they do. And who better than to depict a "more corrupt and rotten than Puragtory" Gotham than Miller? I'd say this issue improved on the first, but it still succumbs to the evils of decompression, and ends up being nothing we haven't seen before. No wonder most of fandom is responding to this series, seemingly, with a collective "sigh", and no wonder every store I go to still has at least 2 dozen copies of #1 left, often both covers. The second issue shamelessly has two covers, too, to milk obsessed fans and poor shop keepers.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!t:

 

[Phaedrus45]

wow....I didn't realize a year ago All-Star Batman & Robin came out....holy crap, only 2 issues since then.

 

[yenaled]

no way!

I didn't have a clue it had been so long.

4 issues in 12 months. well done there.

 

[Phaedrus45]

no way!

I didn't have a clue it had been so long.

4 issues in 12 months. well done there.

Look again...it's even worse. 3 issues in 12 months. That's a review of ASB&R #2!

 

[yenaled]

Good point, I thought we were up to #5.

 

[SpideyInATree]

Number 5 is supposed to come out next month, I believe. Well, maybe...

 

[MyPokerShirt]

what are you, ******ed?
who the hell do you think i am?
i'm the goddamn batman

hell yeah

 

[SpideyInATree]

I love that damn series, if it would have been coming out when it's supposed to I'd probably be more in love with it. But Jim Lee's butt is moving at a snails pace.

 

[WOLVERINE25TH]

Heh okay, this was th' week of th' Big Apple Comicon, and most of those backissues I bought from th' 50 cent bins (a couple were fer a buck). Also, th' Ghostbusters comics were th' ones fer my site, which ya can see in my sig below.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Hey, Wolv....haven't seen you for a while. Everything ok in your world? Where have your reviews gone????

 

[WOLVERINE25TH]

My world is a little fractured, but mendin'. As fer reviews, got sick of criticism towards them by asses who hate me on another message board I post 'em on, so decided to take a break. 'Sides, didn't think anyone'd miss 'em. Also been spendin' all my time on th' Spidey and Marvel boards.

But now I'm rested, my claws are polished, an' think I'm gonna shove it in their faces by bangin' out this week's reviews today.

 

[Ultimate_Superman]

ASB&R has let me down big time. I sometimes forget its a book.