Comics Round-Up (June 6)

A bit more of a targeted selection of comics. A lot of fun ones, too: a great reinterpretation of a classic villain; two “heroes” fighting in the face of an alien invasion; zombies want to eat the braaainz of geeks; clandestine military outfits; some weirdness; and the families of super-heroes deal with a post-battle situation. I’ve been pretty busy and distracted all week, so I’ve only written short reviews – this is probably advisable, actually, as some of these are now a good way into their runs, so I don’t want to spoil too much.

Reviewed: Batman Annual #1, Extermination #1, Fanboys vs. Zombies #3, G.I.Joe #14, Monocyte #4, Supurbia #4

Comics: “Night of the Owls” & “Avengers vs. X-Men”

Here’s a quick, extra comics round-up for four issues I managed to catch up on recently. As you can gather from the title, it focuses on two on-going story “events”, one from DC and one from Marvel. I have very different feelings for the two of them.

Reviewed: Avengers vs. X-Men #3, Batgirl #9, Batman #9, Batman & Robin #9

Comics Round-Up (Apr.18) the 2nd

Some big things happening in this collection of comics – we have the next salvo in the battle between the Avengers and the X-Men over the fate of Hope and the Phoenix Force; two introductions to the Night of the Owls Batman event; some voodoo shenanigans in New Orleans; the beginning of an adaptation of a mega-selling crime thriller; a continuing epic space opera; UFOs and American politics; and a broken mutant. All-in-all, an excellent week.

Sadly, with my new strict budget, I wasn’t able to get the other exciting issues released this week – specifically, Justice League #8, Catwoman #8, Red Hood & The Outlaws #8, Defenders #5, Dawn of the Jedi #3, No Place Like Home #3, Secret #1 and Manhattan Projects #2. Maybe in the future, during a quieter week.

Reviewed Herein: Avengers vs. X-Men #2, Batman #8, Nightwing #8, Dominique Laveau: Voodoo Child #2, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo #1, Saga #2, Saucer Country #2, Wolverine & the X-Men #8

Artwork: Batman #11 (DC)

This is an amazing Batman cover, for the final issue in the “Night of the Owls” Bat-Family event:

I think this is one of the best Batman covers I’ve ever seen, if not the best – and this is from a very strong New 52 run of covers.

Written by SCOTT SNYDER

Art by GREG CAPULLO and JONATHAN GLAPION

Backup story written by SCOTT SNYDER and JAMES TYNION IV

Backup story art by RAFAEL ALBUQUERQUE

Cover by GREG CAPULLO

Upcoming: Concept Sketch for NIGHT OF THE OWLS Batman Event

Over at DC’s blog they are releasing a number of character sketches for the upcoming Batman event, Night of the Owls, and I just wanted to share the latest, because I think it looks great. First, though, here’s a quick blurb for the event:

The “Night of the Owls” is coming this May, pitting the extended Bat-family against the deadly Court of Owls. A shadowy secret society with roots that date back to Gotham City’s earliest history, the Court employs a cadre of timeless, sinister assassins known as Talons to execute its malevolent will.

The sketch below is actually from the “back-up features” (basically, extra stories tagged on to the main issues), and is by Rafael Albuquerque (American Vampire):

The fact that DC’s going to tie all of the Batman-related titles together really make me want to continue reading them all… It’s going to be tough to not follow this event (which has basically already started in the Scott Snyder-penned Batman series).