And with that, Mark Millar and Leinil Yu's Superior miniseries ends. It's been a long road to get to this issue, but after this insane finale, it was definitely worth it.
For those that need a refresher, Superior followed Simon Pooni, a young boy with cerebral palsy, and his love of Superior, a Superman-esque hero. After being visited by a strange monkey in a spacesuit, he is given the chance to become his favorite hero. Obviously he takes the offer, and does what one would expect with the powers given to him: he tries to stop every world problem that comes his way. However, there's a catch when the space monkey returns, and tells Simon that he can continue to be Superior, but only if he offers his soul in return. Simon tells him no, and of course, the Space Monkey (who we can now assume is a demon) goes to one of the neighborhood bullies and turns him into Abraxas, the mortal enemy of Superior. That's where this issue picks up, and boy, is it a doozy. Millar and Yu really pull out all of the stops, as Abraxas starts decimating the city, essentially forcing Simon into becoming Superior once more in order to save everyone. To him, selling his soul is nothing if it means he can save hundreds of lives.
Once you start looking at the pages drawn here, you completely understand why there was such a long wait for this issue. The sheer amount of carnage that is brought down on the city during the battle between Superior, Abraxas, and Ormon, the aforementioned Space Monkey Demon. People are dissolved into skeletons, crushed by buses, and Abraxas is even used as a missle at one point in the story. This was the finale I was hoping for, and I especially love the way Millar writes himself out of the little "soul selling" event too.
For some reason, there has been a lot of backlash towards Millar lately. I honestly don't get it, as I think he's one of the best creators (and hypemen) in the industry. He's certainly got the tenacity to get his books made into movies, and if the rumors of Superior getting one come true, I will be there opening night. As long as Jon Hamm plays him that is.
Holy fuck. I usually try not to swear when I write these reviews, but that's the only way I can describe how awesome the latest issue of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman is. Just when I thought they couldn't do any better, along comes this insane mindfuck of an issue, which finds Batman searching the Court Of Owls' labyrinth deep within Gotham City. Oh, he's also been down there for about 8 weeks.
This issue does expand the storyline a little bit, but it's more of an example of how the Court Of Owls operates, and my god, it is chilling. Instead of just outright killing you, they make you slowly mad, and kill you only at your lowest point. Snyder and Capullo do an absolutely chilling job of portraying this, as Bruce Wayne slowly makes his way through the maze, even though he knows he's being played with. Snyder's depiction of Bruce is once again spot on. His refusal to believe that the Court Of Owls knows more about Gotham than he does is proving to be his downfall, and the amazing thing about this issue is the way that we feel Bruce's disorientation and frustration. This is in large part due to the amazing layouts by Capullo, who starts the book off like your average funny book, but slowly has the panels turn, until you don't know what to expect, much like Bruce.
If you aren't reading Batman by now, there is something clinically wrong with you. This is one of the best Batman stories of all time, and The Court Of Owls is an awesome new addition to the Batman mythos. This is the absolute BEST issue of the series so far, and should not be missed. Pick up the first four if you didn't, and then pick this beast of an issue up.
No comments:
Post a Comment