You guys. This week. Apparently when I got new landlords, they may or may not have cancelled the driveway snowplow contract? Found that out the hard way. Ugh. Anyway, coupla fun comics this week.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Absolute Batman #15 for a very excellent and proper introduction to the Absolute Joker.

Meanwhile, I’m about halfway through an anime my brother recommended, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. I don’t watch much anime, but have seen some from time to time. Pretty good so far. And then I’m still playing through Astrobot, because I’m in no rush when it comes to video games. I’m also finally reading Sex Criminals by Fraction and Zdarsky after I got the omnibus for Christmas last year. It’s also pretty good so far.

Comic Reviews: Absolute Batman #15 and Amazing Spider-Man #17.

Absolute Batman #15
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Jock
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Clayton Cowles

Here we go! It’s Absolute Joker time!

Much like he did with Bane a few issues ago, Alfred narrates the perceived history of the Joker for Batman. He starts with the public story, tracing back five generations to the original Joseph “Jack” Grimm from the 1880s, a street performer who took his act to Vaudeville and made it rich, then he and his heirs continued investing in new media and built a philanthropic empire dedicated to making people laugh and be happy, and helping children.

But Alfred doesn’t believe that to be the real story, and he tells Bruce several other histories, digging deeper and deeper into what might be true about the Absolute Joker and how he might just be a literal monster.

Comic Rating: 9/10 – Great.

Suffice to say, this issue lived up to the hype. I managed to avoid most spoilers, other than the image of demon Joker that has been circulating the web for a while now. Part of me thought it might be a red herring, but nope, he’s a full on demon monster dude! And it definitely works for Absolute Joker. Snyder played with this idea before in his Batman run, with Joker as the “Pale Man” who had been alive for centuries. It wouldn’t have worked for the regular Joker, but it works just fine for Absolute Joker. This is a comic meant to push the envelope and get really wild, and this definitely fits that definition. This backstory easily lives up to the hype.

I especially enjoyed the storytelling technique in this issue. We’ve been here before, with Alfred simply telling Bruce the story of the next big bad guy. But Snyder and Jock do a great job of layering the backstory here by revisiting the same history three separate times, each one getting more insane and twistedly evil. Each new telling adds important content to the Joker’s backstory, fleshing out this important new character. And the bits and pieces we get alongside the retellings just reinforces all those stories in a satisfying way. So yeah, if you’re down with demon monster Joker, this issue does a great job of setting up him and explaining his backstory.

I really like that, this time around, Joker is the billionaire with the manor, the butler and the cave. I’m simply worried of what will become of Absolute Robin if, as rumors have it, he’s Joker’s sidekick. We’ll see.

TL;DR: The story of Absolute Joker lives up to the hype, and the issue finds a very fun way to tell that story.

Amazing Spider-Man #17
Writer: Joe Kelly
Artist: Pepe Larraz
Colorist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

I’m still hanging on to Amazing Spider-Man for reasons that are mostly a shrug.

Peter and his space band crash on an alien planet and Peter and Rae, who did some smooching in the previous story, go off to explore, while Rocket angrily tries to figure out what happened to the ship. Peter is visited by Nikodimu of The Pinnacle, an oracle figure that works with the Hellgate. We find out that Rae is from the Hellgate’s planet, and she immediately bows because she’s of a lower caste. Peter refuses to cooperate with Nikodimu until she apologizes for treating Rae as inferior, so Nikodimu takes telepathic control of a bunch of jungle predators and sends them to kill Rae to solve this. Peter fights them off, while telling Rae a story from his past to give her self confidence in the face of tradition.

Meanwhile, Rocket figures out that Nial, one of the dopier aliens, sabotaged the ship so that they’d crash and get some time to bond as a space family. Everybody’s kind of touched.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

I like the idea of Peter Parker smooching with this Rae person. If your’e not going to have Peter in a long term relationship with Mary Jane or Black Cat, he should be free to pursue random space hotties in single stories. Peter has rizz, as the kids say, so why not have fun with that? So I had fun with this issue. Peter gets to be his awesome hero self and take on insurmountable odds, all while a collection of entertaining supporting characters go about their business. It’s simple, it’s fun, it’s well written and has excellent artwork. I’m in no way convinced this is any kind of modern classic, but it’s just a fun Spider-Man comic that I can be happy with.

TL;DR: Another fun chapter of this Spider-Man space adventure, with some strong heroics and good character moments.

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.

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