Yeah. Now I'm sort of glad that this was the last one I read. I had attempted to order a copy late last year, but got the numbering wrong and ended up with Batman Annual #2, which is itself also a great read, but it left me still needing to read this one. And now I've read it after the last issue of Tom King's Batman. And it works extremely well as a coda.
Basically, Alfred's diary, as the cover suggests, details the daily exploits of the Dark Knight. Big adventures (dragons! and not the first time he's fought them, as Alfred duly notes!), small adventures. Basically, as if Tom King really needed to prove to anyone he was capable of conceiving a Batman story well beyond the scope of his very long meditation in the main run. Or if he really needed to prove, yet again, how consistently great he is.
A lot of writers, and I've read a lot of comics, and a lot of comics over the course of years from the same creators, are not this consistent. They just aren't. Even those who can hit truly high notes once or twice or even a half dozen times in their careers, they just aren't this consistent. Sometimes it may simply be a matter of my disagreeing with their personal tastes. But I've never had a comics writer I've so consistently admired as Tom King, since his breakthrough in the pages of Omega Men. His co-writing work with Tim Seeley in Grayson, it's something I'll have to revisit in full at some point (though I repeat, I repeat, King's solo work in Grayson: Futures End remains the first time I realized how great he could be), but that's really the only time I haven't been able to say, Wow.
A lot of fans quibble (and I use the term liberally) over his creative choices, but King, as far as I'm concerned, has achieved his greatness through his consistent use of creative choices, never being satisfying in "just" writing a story, but figuring out the best way to tell it. That's what truly great writing looks like, that's what I love the most about a story, in any medium, how it's executed.
And so we get this, which on the surface is pretty simple: a litany of fairly routines situations. By the end, King isn't even writing anything the reader will see, and his perspective still dominates. It helps to have Jorge Fornes (and Mike Norton) on art. Fornes has quickly vaulted to the forefront of deceptively simple stylists, and this might end up serving as one of his calling cards. Both in story and art, this is the definition of evergreen, something fans will be able to turn to for years.
The Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child (DC)
In the tradition of the Last Crusade prestige format one-shot spin-offs, Golden Child focuses on Carrie, Lara, and Jonathan (the eponymous offspring for this comic) as they struggle to find their perspectives on the world and how they represent the legacies of their parents. It's a worthy addition to the saga, and really nice to see Frank Miller get to write solo again. The artist does a good job of embodying Miller's Dark Knight Returns work, notably with the Joker.
Event Leviathan #6 (DC)
This is something I'm going to want to check out in full, but had to read the final issue sooner rather than later thanks to the big reveal of who the new Leviathan is, one of the old Manhunters (not the robots, the several humans who have operated under the name over the years). I think Bendis has only further increased the value of his DC tenure with this one.
Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium #2 (DC)
Even though the Bendis ongoing has since launched, I was pleased to be able to catch the second and final issue of the preview, Rose (and Thorn)'s tour of DC future history leading up to the Legion itself. Brian Michael Bendis basically achieved the Moira MacTaggert reveal from Hickman's X-Men before Hickman, with the new version of Rose (and Thorn) an immortal who gives an innovative (in superhero comics) approach to the idea, and begging that he revisit her. But at his best, Bendis does that with every character he touches. \
The Wildstorm #24 (DC)
Figured I'd check out the finale of the Warren Ellis reboot. But I'm still not much more interested in the characters, or Ellis, than I generally tend to be.
I wonder how long until they bring Alfred back? I don't think Tynion IV is a bad writer, but I think he's a lot more ordinary one than King was. Maybe that will make those fans who just want punching and explosions happier. Or more likely they'll complain about something else.
ReplyDeleteHe's a Snyder guy. He's got the same basic instincts, but without the penchant for conceiving the big ideas. They chose him because of his well-received run on Detective Comics. I think if he'd decided to continue what he was doing there, with the big expansive look at the family, if not the family as a team, he might have been a more interesting choice, because the one thing King didn't really do enough of was showcasing the existing family. But then, even Snyder barely seemed concerned that Damian existed.
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