Happy Birthday to me! Enough years have passed that my birthday once again falls on a Saturday, so I get to share some comic reviews for my birthday! And what a darn good week for comics, like Absolute Superman and Absolute Wonder Woman! Honestly, I’ve been reading way more DC books than Marvel these days…

Comic Book of the Week goes to Batman #1 because it’s a very strong start for the Matt Fraction run of the Caped Crusader.

Meanwhile, not doing anything special for my birthday because that’s what happens when you’re in your 40s. I bought myself a new computer, and that’s running nicely. And I splurged on some graphic novels and action figures. So feeling pretty good. And I’ll be sharing some comic book news soon enough!

Comic Reviews: Absolute Superman #11, Absolute Wonder Woman #11, Amazing Spider-Man #11, Batman #1 and Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League #2.

---

Absolute Superman #11
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Carmine Di Giandomenico
Colorist: Ulises Arreola
Letterer: Becca Carey

I was a little worried about this issue based on the premise, but then they really delivered!

Superman is Brainiac’s prisoner, and Brainiac is putting him through a bunch of mental scenarios over and over again to break him down and turn him into a killing machine. Meanwhile, General Lane arrives and busts his daughter and Jimmy Olsen out of prison. They rush to save Superman with everybody coming after them. Has Brainiac’s mental programming worked?!

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

I was worried that it would just be an issue of Superman being tortured. This is a fairly common trope in fiction. The hero is captured by the bad guys and then tortured in various ways. I’m not a fan of this part of the story whenever the trope happens. And those scenes in this issue aren’t all that great. They build to a nice cliffhanger, at least, when we’re not entirely sure if Brainiac has succeeded or not. But I’m just not a fan of the hero getting tortured after being captured. That’s on me.

Fortunately, the rest of the issue easily rises up to assuage my fears! When General Lane strolls in and goes all action hero on the bad guys in order to personally save his daughter, that was freakin’ epic! There could have been any number of reasons for the traditional Gen. Lane character to show up at this base, but to then just straight up launch a one-man prison break? Dude! Granted, it doesn’t work out very well for anybody, but the awesomeness easily elevates the issue. And all of it builds to an exciting cliffhanger ending, so that was nice.

TL;DR: The good easily outweighs the bad in this issue, and the bad is really only bad due to my personal preferences, and is also actually quite good. So all around very good issue of Absolute Superman.

---

Absolute Wonder Woman #11
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Hayden Sherman
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Letterer: Becca Carey

The latest adventure takes a very interesting turn and I really dig it.

Wonder Woman is trapped in the Pit at the bottom of the maze, and she’s immediately rescued by Io the Amazon. Seems things are actually pretty nice in the Pit. Io has been here for decades and has built a little community with other Pit dwellers. Diana fills them in on her plan to rescue everybody, then she returns to battle Clea and free Ferdinand.

Comic Rating: 9/10 – Great.

So yeah, it’s a little weird that being thrown into the Pit is actually a better outcome than just staying in the maze. It’s a little weird that a wholesome little community exists down there, and also that they’re still hampered by Clea and her army of jobber fish people. But whatever; I’m not here to nitpick the specifics. I really enjoyed this issue. Diana’s meeting with her first ever Amazon is great. I feel like Io might be hiding something, but I hope not. She seems really cool, and the two of them work well together. And, as always, I very much enjoy Diana’s headstrong heroics and belief in good. She’s full speed ahead on saving all of these people and that’s heroic and badass.

I was a little confused at the water spirit…if that’s what it even was. So I wasn’t very sure what was happening on the final few pages. But that’s unimportant. I’m sure it will be sufficiently explained in the very near future. The rest of the issue more than carries the adventure, with all the interesting new bits and pieces, and the heroism, gotta love the heroism. Sherman easily and effortlessly handles the artwork for all the new locations and characters as well. Like I said, Io is a real standout, and I look forward to her being a cool addition to the story…unless she’s a secret bad guy. Then boo!

TL;DR: Rockin’ issue that adds a whole new layer to the current storyline and a very fun and interesting new character. The artwork really sells this one, too.

---

Amazing Spider-Man #11
Writer: Joe Kelly
Artists: John Romita Jr. and Pepe Larraz
Inker: Scott Hanna (with Romita)
Colorist: Marcio Menyz
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

I’ve been doing my best to keep up with Amazing Spider-Man, though like pretty much every new reboot, I keep losing interest very quickly. I’m just not sure why.

In the first story, the fake Spider-Man and the fake Peter Parker face off and fight! The fake Peter is revealed to be Chasm/Ben Reilly. Fake Spidey escapes, and Ben meets up with Felicia to explain himself and reveal that he doesn’t know what happened to Peter, but he knows Peter is alive. The fake Spidey is later revealed to be Norman Osborn.

In the second story, Peter was transported to some lost space rock then rescued by an alien scientist. They get quite friendly as Peter recovers, then later discovers the live test subjects in the basement. Peter gears up with alien stuff and defeats the evil alien scientist, freeing the test subjects. Oh and hey, Rocket Racoon is one of them.

Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.

Chasm is such a weird character. I was a huge Ben Reilly fan back in the time of the Clone Wars, but haven’t enjoyed his return at all. And now he’s this weird mystical Spider-Man with a dumb name, so his arrival just doesn’t work for me. Not even sure why he’s posing as Peter. I can’t remember if it was explained in this issue or not. I think Kaine is a far cleaner character to accomplish what Ben does in this issue. But who knows why nobody wants to use Kaine. Norman Osborn as Spider-Man is a fine storyline to follow. I’m cool with Norman’s face-turn in this storyline and in recent years. Why not? Always fun to have new things to do with a character. And then the Peter storyline is pretty classic and wild. Not a big fan of Spider-Man in space, but the art is great and the writing is fine, so I’ll roll with it and see where it goes.

TL;DR: The big reveals in this issue don’t amount to too much, I don’t think, but they keep the story moving along nicely regardless.

---

Batman #1
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Jorge Jimenez
Colorist: Tomeu Morey
Letterer: Clayton Cowles

It’s finally here! Matt Fraction is back doing superhero comics and he’s got a big, shiny Batman #1 to share with us all!

Killer Croc has mutated and escaped from Arkham Towers, where he was seeking treatment. Batman hunts him down and finds that Croc has regressed to a child mentality, so instead of fighting, Batman just sits with him and talks. The doctors come and get Croc and Batman heads home. He then gets an emergency call from Robin, who is being held at GCPD gunpoint.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

I’m a huge Matt Fraction fan. I still maintain that his run on Hawkeye is the defining comic of the 2010s. Do I hope that he’ll bring some of that same energy to his run on Batman? You’re god damned right, I do! Though I didn’t feel it in this first issue. It’s still a very enjoyable and entertaining issue of the ongoing Batman comic, but no signs in this first issue of redefining an industry. Is that too much of an expectation to put on Fraction? You’re god damned right, it is! But we’ll worry about that in hindsight. The man handles himself well with a nice little Batman story, complete with gadgets, detective work, supporting characters and more.

Obviously I can’t wait to see what he does with Tim Drake as Robin.

The issue itself is really well done. It sticks to Batman through a series of encounters, all of it written and drawn well. He saves some people, follows clues, and has a really nice scene with the child-like Killer Croc. I really liked it. I definitely can’t stand that Vandal Savage is still the commissioner of the GCPD, because that’s an insane storyline that serves no purpose, but it is what it is.

I kind of wish there was a different artist on the series. Jimenez is obviously amazing and does a great job, but he’s also been the Batman artist for a long time now, and I think such an important relaunch could have used a new look. But I have no actual complaints about the art, and it’s not like I want Jimenez to lose his job. I just think a new look for a new #1 would have been nice.

TL;DR: Excellent start to Fraction’s highly anticipated Batman run. This first issue doesn’t reinvent the wheel so much as just kick off a nice Batman story, and I’m totally down with that.

---

Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League #2
Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: Nicola Scott
Colorist: Annette Kwok
Letterer: Troy Peteri

Honestly, this is exactly what I want from comics. A legend like Greg Rucka can just put a group of characters together and tell a fun, grounded story.

Cheetah and Cheshire recruit their crew in various fun scenes: Hazard, Klarion the Witch Boy and Featherweight, a new character created for this series.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

This issue is all about the grounded, human nature of these characters and that sort of thing is like crack to me when reading superhero comics. I want to read about characters who are people first and superheroes second. So I love, love, love scenes where Cheetah and Cheshire are sitting around the breakfast table picking out teammates, and then Cheshire’s daughter Lian comes downstairs and banters with Auntie Cheetah. It’s wonderful.

And then each of the recruitment scenes is similar. They’re not big, crazy action scenes or obligatory fight scenes just because this is a superhero comic. They’re people talking with other people having interesting conversations in interesting scenes. It’s wonderful! I’m not the biggest fan of their squad. I’ve never liked Klarion and I had to do a lot of Googling to find out who Hazard even is, then even more Googling to find out that Featherweight is a brand new character created for this series. But whatever, the team isn’t important. I’m sure Rucka will have a blast writing them and I can’t wait to see the heist in action!

TL;DR: This series is a heaping dose of my favorite kind of superhero comic: where they act like real people and have real conversations and don’t just get into obligatory fights. Very grounded, very character-focused and so much fun to read.

---

The comics I review in my Hench-Sized reviews are just the usual comics I grab from Comixology any given week, along with a few impulse buys I might try on a whim. So if there are any comics or series you’d like me to review each week, let me know in the comments.

———————-