Robbin'

Batman and Robin #0 (DC)
writer: Peter J. Tomasi
artist: Pat Gleason
One of the things I absolutely loved about the idea of Zero Month (Version 2) was the chance for creative teams to refocus their attention on the characters who star in their books, and one of the great beneficiaries was Tomasi and Gleason's Damian.  Introduced in 2006 by Grant Morrison as the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul (spinning off from an earlier graphic novel, Son of the Demon, which had previously given Mark Waid a totally different interpretation in his Kingdom Come stories), the newest Robin is easily the most inspired one in franchise history.  The series was hottest this year when focusing directly on Damian, and so this issue was a no-brainer.  Exploring his relationship with Talia before being introduced to his father, Damian must prove his worth, a little Alexander the Great (most comics fan will here think of Ozymandias, but I prefer to think more directly on Alexander himself, and the underrated movie Alexander).  Though only Morrison's own Batman Incorporated deals with the current Talia storyline, the issue also serves as a good primer on what you need to know about that.

Batman Incorporated #0 (DC)
writer: Grant Morrison, Chris Burnham
artist: Frazer Irving
Well, speaking of the series, its own Zero Month contribution finally brings the concept of the book back to the forefront.  Let me go back a step or two.  This incarnation of Batman Inc. follows a previous one that did feature the Batmen of the world concept pretty heavily, but eventually started to emphasize the concept of Grant Morrison's concluding Dark Knight arc, featuring the threat of Leviathan, who turned out to be Talia as explored in the first issues of the relaunch.  All the Batmen were previously introduced in earlier eras, and were recently reclaimed by Morrison, first as the Club of Heroes and then as members of the organization Batman put together to tackle the threat of Leviathan, realizing after his return from a journey through time that he's never been alone and should probably stop thinking of himself as so isolated.  (This is a point reiterated in the issue as well.)  The most famous members of Batman Inc. are Knight and Squire, who had their own mini-series from Paul Cornell (well worth checking out).  Hopefully there will be more from this element of the series in future issues.  Another interesting aspect of the issue is that Morrison works on the script with Chris Burnham, who has been the artist on Batman Inc., and this is interesting because another artist Morrison collaborated with during his Dark Knight run, Tony Daniel, has since gone off to a successful career as writer-artist, and is rumored to be assuming these duties on Justice League when Geoff Johns departs.

Before Watchmen: Comedian #3 of 6 (DC)
writer: Brian Azzarello
artist: J.G. Jones
Recently I've been modifying my comic-buying decisions, and one of the things that means is that I will not be reading individual issues of the whole Before Watchmen project.  I realized that my favorite so far has been Comedian, and so here I am with another issue, in which Edward Blake has a conversation with Bobby Kennedy concerning events that transpired when Blake came back to the States from Vietnam, and was shocked to discover that hostile reaction to the war extends even to him, creating a sticky situation.  Which he compounds by actually aiding a riot to help end it, logic that only he seems to appreciate.  Makes sense, if you're the Comedian, or understand his psychology, which Azzarello clearly does.  I suppose what this one's helping me realize is that Comedian was my favorite character from the original Watchmen, even though he was technically dead throughout the present-day events, more of a catalyst for pretty much everything that happens.  What happens when he gets to carry the story?  Apparently still the best of the project.

Cobra #17 (IDW)
writer: Mike Costa
artist: Werther Dell'Edera
A patented piece of the Cobra experience is the character study, and that's what this issue does with Major Bludd, exploring his origins and what they mean for the present.  Costa and his collaborators perfected this long ago (to the point that Chuck Dixon copied the formula for this year's Annual that had a look at the new Cobra Commander), and still know how to use it.  As with Comedian, Cobra is a book that respects psychology, which Bludd is careful to employ in trying to explain how a man of his comparatively lowly origins was able to become a trusted and valued member of the organization, with interesting insights for characters the series (and its predecessors) have been following, including the Paoli twins (Tomax and his late brother Xamot).  And if that's not enough for you, or not traditional enough, the end of the issue promises the return of the Oktober Guard!

Happy! #1 of 4 (Image)
writer: Grant Morrison
artist: Darick Robertson
I've been waiting for this one (not as long as fans have been waiting for Multiversity, but that's a whole different story!), so it seemed like it was something like a miracle to finally see it released.  Once again, Grant Morrison takes a side project to another publisher (see also: 18 Days, Dinosaurs vs. Aliens, the latter of which I'll be writing about in the coming weeks), and perhaps part of Happy! is something Vertigo wouldn't have touched even in its woollier days, with a good chunk of its debut issue very reminiscent of artist Darick Robertson's more famous collaborator Garth Ennis (as in The Boys), foul-mouthed and featuring nasty characters looking for nothing good in relation to each other.  And yet Morrison pulls yet another rabbit out of his hat with the introduction of Happy, a tiny blue horse who comes to Nick Sax in his hour of need, when he's about to be brutally tortured for information.  It's this glimmer of the bizarre and the push against the boundaries of reality (best demonstrated in Morrison's own favorite work, The Filth) that elevates this book past shock value and novelty to something that in the next three issues will once again redefine comic book storytelling as we know it.

Justice League #0 (DC)
writer: Geoff Johns
artist: Gary Frank
Since the seventh issue of the series Johns and Frank have been exploring a new origin for the hero once known as Captain Marvel, following a rebellious orphan called Billy Batson as he struggles to find a new home with a family whose belief in mankind contradicts everything he's come to experience in his short life.  This issue he finally meets the wizard who gives him the power to become Shazam, and Johns takes the opportunity to reinvent the character, defining him first and foremost as a practitioner of magic.  Previously he was all but a version of Superman with a few quirks, not the least being the famous (and since oft-duplicated)  transformation from boy to man.  There's so much potential in all of this, it's almost disappointing to know that in the near future we're simply going to see Billy figure out what to do with his new powers.  But he's a boy, after all.  A backup story from Johns and Green Lantern collaborator Ethan Van Sciver features New 52 newbie Pandora, who's still trying to live down sins of her past, while the Question makes his debut in the new continuity.

Nightwing #0 (DC)
writer: Kyle Higgins, Tom DeFalco
artist: Eddy Barrows
The exact character of Dick Grayson has always been a little difficult to define.  For much of his existence, he was simply the second orphan in Batman mythos, the acrobat whose parents were murdered by a mobster and became Robin as a result, and later Nightwing.  What motivated him, other than the presence of Bruce Wayne, to take on these roles?  This Zero Month effort posits that it was an essential part of him long before his life changed, that Dick always had the instinct to look before he leaped, even though he always possessed the ability to know exactly where he was headed.  His problem is that he didn't always consider the consequences.  Like most youths, he was impulsive.  What made him different was what happened to him.  Higgins has been doing a good job grounding Dick back into his own particulars, and apparently now has Marvel veteran Tom DeFalco to assist him.  Since the New 52 relaunch was all about getting back to the basics, Zero Month was necessary to remind fans where those basics began, to ground the new stories after a year's worth of development back to what it was all about.  In some cases, I think this was as important to fans as it was for the creators, and Nightwing (and I'd say Batman and Robin, too) benefits a great deal from this issue.

Punk Rock Jesus #3 of 6 (Vertigo)
writer/artist: Sean Murphy
I became a fan of Sean Murphy after Joe the Barbarian, his epic collaboration with Grant Morrison.  When Punk Rock Jesus was first advertised, I knew it was a project worthy of Murphy's talent and ambition, and now that I've had a chance to experience it for myself, I can say that he's absolutely nailed it.  The first thing to note for those who may now be intrigued is that it's a rare black-and-white book from a major publisher.  Not that it matters.  Murphy's art is easily strong enough to sustain itself without color.  The story is sort of like the Jim Carrey movie The Truman Show if it featured a clone of Jesus Christ (as PRJ actually does).  As I like to say, the strength of any story is proven if you can come into the middle of it and still completely appreciate what's being done.  This is definitely the case here.  This issue handles the relationship between Chris, star of the unorthodox reality series "J2," and his troubled mother, who has grown increasingly wary of the affect of her son, who to her is simply her son, being trapped in the confines of a manipulative environment.  She has very different ideas than the producers on how to raise Chris, but the producers have all the power, and by the end of the issue, prove it.  This is brilliant, brilliant material, even if you only view it as a variation on The Truman Show and ignore its religious connections, and a revelation on the full impact of Murphy's talent.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #0 (DC)
writer: Scott Lobdell
artist: Pasqual Ferry
Completing my survey of Robin origins in the New 52 (technically Tim Drake gets his due in Teen Titans #0, but I didn't know that last Wednesday or Muse  simply didn't have the issue, as it was missing several of the comics I was looking for, including that issue of The Ultimates that makes Captain America president of the United States), Jason Todd as star of this book is featured in the Zero Month issue.  Though comparatively recently much of this story has already been retold (when Jason originally came back as the Red Hood), it's worth exploring the full story again, how he was a troubled youth even before Batman rethought his decision to name him the second Robin.  I'd been waiting for Jason to get his own book for the past few years, so I was always going to be excited to see it in the line-up last fall.  It didn't hurt subsequently when Lobdell proved that he understand exactly what to do with the character, or to surround him with characters who instantly had more chemistry with him than Dick Grayson, whom Starfire and Roy Harper had more history with (which is to say any history at all).  Neither of them appears in this issue, however (I suspect they're in the book at all because some people in the DC offices questioned whether Jason could or even should have his own series).  The truly brilliant element of the issue, however, is the backup feature wherein the Joker explains how he manipulated all the events of Jason Todd's life, except his resurrection.  Just how much will that affect the "Death of the Family" event, which clearly calls to mind Jason's bloody death at the hands of the Clown Prince of Crime?

Road to Oz #1 of 6 (Marvel)
writer: Eric Shanower
artist: Skottie Young
Following their work in four previous L. Frank Baum adaptations (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz, and Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz), Shanower and Young continue their efforts to remind modern audiences of the true character of Baum's legacy, distorted for years by the Judy Garland film as almost nothing but a series of memorable songs.  Baum was an incredibly clever and playful writer, and together Shanower and Young have perfectly embodied that spirit.  I haven't read all of their work (though at some point I will correct that), but arguably it's more important than the ambitious Stephen King projects (the Dark Tower franchise, The Stand cycle) Marvel has been doing concurrently in the past few years, more essential.  In this one, Dorothy is back once again, and the Shaggy Man is her somewhat dubious guide to Oz.  (It should be noted that even in Young's depiction he seems little better than a pedophile in the making.)

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Hive #1 (IDW)
writer: Brannon Braga, Terry Matalas, Travis Fickett
artist: Joe Corroney
For a lot of Star Trek fans, Brannon Braga was a chief architect of the franchise's destruction, driving it into the ground with one too many series and one too many ill-advised ideas.  It's an historical irony that he gets another shot, in the comics, to bring his vision to the public.  Conceiving a new Borg story (especially after all the work in Voyager and that one episode in Enterprise) seems to be one of the things you'd least expect from him, but perhaps it's worth remembering that he co-wrote Star Trek: First Contact, the one Next Generation movie that everyone loved that happened to introduce a major new element to Borg Collective lore, the Borg Queen.  The movies never returned to the Borg, though, and Voyager was consumed by the Seven of Nine arc and Captain Janeway's efforts to survive and take advantage of the Collective (ultimately use its technology to get home in the final episode).  Hive presents a version of what might have been, returning the Borg story to Jean-Luc Picard and his "Best of Both Worlds" alter ego, Locutus, the human representative (fully assimilated) of the Collective.  It's a truly epic vision, one if executed on the screen may have totally revolutionized the popular conception of Star Trek's ability to present an expansive saga.  To be completely honest, I was always a fan of Braga, and this only further confirms my respect for him.

Thanos: The Final Threat (Marvel)
writer/artist: Jim Starlin
Another reprint one-shot, this time from still earlier in Marvel lore, 1977 (there's a ton of Star Wars influences here, although some references seem to look forward as well as backward, interestingly enough), as Thanos presents a sufficient threat to unite his natural foe Adam Warlock with Captain Marvel (Marvel's version, who would famously die of cancer in a story that also features Thanos), the Avengers, as well as Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four's Thing.  The story reads like an earlier version of later epics (and seems to contradict Starlin's own efforts in the Thanos Quest reprint from some thirteen years later), including the definitive Infinity Gauntlet that in all likelihood inspired this summer's The Avengers to include the character in the end credits.  This one's far more conventional than Thanos Quest, but that only means it's easier to see what Thanos is like in context.  I suspect a lot of exclamation points were edited out of the dialogue, however, because that was the style at the time, and they're notably (mercifully!) absent.  More reprints should do this.  It would make it so much easier to appreciate older material.

Westward #1 (Kinetic)
writer/artist: Ken Krekeler
It's always worth checking out some of the smaller press efforts on the market, and always nice to find these things at my local comic book store (in this case Muse in Colorado Springs), and this is probably one of the more random ones, though very welcome, to have available, from a very small press indeed (currently soliciting Kickstarter support for future issues).  If you haven't caught on to my predilections by now, rest assured that Westward has a strong emphasis on character (and like Punk Rock Jesus also features black-and-white art), specifically Victor West, who wakes up in a hospital with barely even a vague idea on how he got there.  In a previous life, he was the spoiled son of a visionary who angered his father with irresponsibility.  As Victor stumbles into the new truths of his life, we receive clues about what's been done to him, the secrets of the West family, and the unease of the world around them, which takes into account how us folks in the real world are living.  It's impressive storytelling, hugely intriguing, even before the big reveal at the end.