Flashpoint: Batman: Knight of Vengeance #1 Review

Writer Brian Azzarello
Artist Eduardo Risso
Cover by Dave Johnson

Valhallahan

The boys, it seems are back in town. Flashpoint: Batman: Knight of Vengeance as it’s so wonderfully titled, reunites the winning 100 Bullets team of writer Brian Azzarello, artist extraordinaire Eduardo Risso and comic book cover god Dave Johnson.  A winning formula indeed. I’ll preface this review by saying I have no idea what’s going on in Flashpoint, because frankly I couldn’t give a crap about The Flash, but Action Ash braved #1 and let me know the general gist; someone went and messed with DC Universe history so that The Flash never existed and the worlds in a right state. Sort of the Age of Apocalypse with less knobbly collars and more castrations. Anyway, as I have no intention of reading the rest of the crossover I’m just going to treat this as a “What If?” or “Elseworlds”.

“What If Thomas Wayne Became The Batman?” is what this story is essentially, things happened dramatically differently that fateful night in Crime Alley, and Thomas Wayne survived the encounter that otherwise would have forged his son’s destiny as The Bat. Whether Bruce and Martha survived is not clear from this issue, but I suspect it will be important in the story to come. Anyway, what we do get in this issue is a bit of set up with a very different, dangerous new Batman, stalking Killer Croc in Gotham’s sewers leading to a brutal confrontation. This Batman is a bit of a dick, to say the least, very Dark Knight Returns.

But is it any good? In a word, yes, but not thrillingly so. Risso captures moods like few others in the business; his pages are, as ever a delight to behold. I seriously love this guy’s art. And y’know, Azzarello, (although I find him a bit hit and miss) ain’t no slouch either, they set up a decent mystery, throw in some action and it looks pretty, what more do you want? If there’s anything negative to say, it’s that it’s a very brief read, it sort of whips by and you’re left wanting more, but at least you do want more.

Go buy it.

Or don’t.

It’s your life.

Gosh!

What Is Wrong With You People? (A voyage into the DC readership Part One)

Valhallahan

When DC announced that letters pages were returning to their books after a long absence, I was pleased to hear it. I enjoy anything that adds to reading time in my monthlies, even those annoying little Super 8 pull outs, I read The Walking Dead’s letter page every week and fondly remember the nerd raging fanboys in the X-Force/X-Statix issues, proving that sometimes there’s none so backwards as the fans of the fantastic. But what are today’s fan’s thinking what kind of person reads Jonah Hex? What are my fellow consumers thinking these days? How about the Vertigo readers, surely they’re my Kind of People right? Our survey says: “Hell Naw!”

Some people just don’t know when they’re on to a good thing. In this series I'll share some examples from three of my favourite books.

Scalped #48

In Scalped #48 Joe Fonseca of Kitchener, Ontario goes to great lengths to prove that not everyone in the land of Wolverine and Neil Young has the level of discerning taste we’d been led to believe. He writes:

“…Most Vertigo titles have Very good writing but poor art, Scalped is the exception…regarding the covers: I understand why Vertigo is going for a different look to their covers, but the fact of the matter is that the vertigo covers are not very appealing to the eye. The ironic thing is that of all the Vertigo books, I find Jock’s to be some of the more interesting ones (next to Bolland’s Jack of Fables covers).”

Couldn’t disagree with you more Joe, week after week the Vertigo covers pop out at you from the shelf, if anything, Bolland’s are the least interesting compared to the madness Jeff Lemire comes out with every month on Sweet Tooth, the pop art dynamism of Mike Allred on I Zombie, or the sheer force of Jock’s masterful works. Ask any grown up who hasn’t been trained for years to enjoy the stylised musclemen and women of modern superhero comics what stands out to them as something that might be worth reading...

“...If I was editor, I would let R.M. Guera do the covers as a straight scene from thee story or try some of the great superhero artists like Ivan Reis, David Finch, Gary Frank or Jim Lee.”

Well thank fuck you’re not Joe! I’d drop that book like a hot turd if you were! Perhaps you should stick to Green Lantern or Legion of Superheroes or some other artistically stunted dross. I’m just going to put up a little compare/contrast for you readers at home.

Vertigo's I, Zombie #1

Jim Lee's X-Men #1

Vertigo's Sweet Tooth #1

David Finch's Psylocke #2



Vertigo's American Vampire #1

Gary Frank's Superman: Secret Origin #2



Vertigo's Hellblazer #275






Ivan Reis' Blackest Night #0



Vertigo's Scalped #38



I guess it’s a matter of taste. Whether you have any, that is.




Stay tuned for parts two and three where I look at the letters from Hellblazer and Jonah Hex!

Crisis of Creative Competence!

Action Ash 
So, in case you haven't heard, in the wake of Flashpoint DC are restarting all titles from #1 and rebooting continuity to be more "contemporary" and more relevant to "today's audience". To top it all off, over 50 characters are going to be redesigned by Jim "add a jacket" Lee, apparently making them "more identifiable and accessible to comic fans new and old". What's more identifiable than Superman or Batman, I ask? Are they not two of the most iconic characters in pop culture history? Recognised the world over across a plethora of media? Apparently that's not good enough. Jim, get the jackets ready.
Of course I speak of only their physical appearance. DC probably meant identifiable as characters also. I for one will feel able to relate more to the orphaned billionaire turned vigilante, the indestructible alien super god, the super powered amazonian princess, the test pilot in charge of the most powerful weapon in the universe and the man who can run faster than the speed of light, if redrawn worse than before by an artist past his prime.

DC also claim that they are aiming to retell their character's stories while making them "reflect today's real world themes and events" and that "This was a chance to start, not at the beginning, but at a point where our characters are younger and the stories are being told for today's audience." So in other words, they're trying to be down with the kids. If I wanted to read about the Justice League as whiny youngsters I'd read Teen Titans. Did they not think that their continuity was convoluted enough, without adding "Post Flashpoint" to the list?

This is a most HEINOUS crime DC comics. I hope you're ready for the geek shit storm.

UPDATE: Here is a sneak preview of Jim Lee's redesigns, surprisingly sans jackets. He must of learnt his lesson after the Wonder Woman incident. The new Superman shield is truly bogus! All in all, not as bad as I thought they were going to be but an unnecessary waste of time. Click to make bigger.

Comics and ting

Action Ash 
Last week there wasn't a single comic out that I wanted to buy! I was confused at first, this hasn't happened in a while. It was OK though. It just so happened that week of no comics coincided with the first week of owning my brand new shiny iPad. Not so good for helping me concentrate on my dissertation but brilliant for games (I'm addicted to Dungeon Hunter 2) and the comic applications are pretty nifty. IDW especially impressed me with their line up of titles, FX (with John  Byrne art) and Hammer of the Gods (by Michael Avon Oeming) being two titles I would recommend to anyone out there who has the device and likes funny books.

This week was the total opposite. Eight titles to keep me busy NOT doing my dissertation.

DC Legacies #9 - Continuing my history lesson of the DC universe. Particularly looking forward to the back up strip with Bill Sienkiewicz art and Black Adam being a bad ass.


Flash #9 - Finally back to main story instead of "rogue profiles" *cough*timewasters*cough*. Looks like a good ish and I hope this Flashpoint business will end up being a good event.


Knight and Squire #5 - A great issue with a great ending. Can't wait to see what happens next. That's all I'm going to say, I don't want to spoil it.

Carnage #3 - I've enjoyed this so far and I love the art but do have the feeling that it could turn out to be a bit pointless.

Heroes for Hire #3 - Last issue had me totally hooked and helped secure this book a place on my "ongoings" list. One thing though...the art. It's good and everything but some of the women look really ugly. In  issue 2 Satana looked like a transvestite. Just saying. Also this issue features Iron Fist.

Incognito #3 - After escaping the whore house of doom, where will Zack Overkill's adventures lead him next?

Click the pic to see this sick wrap around cover in full glory

New Avengers #9 - That was quick. The last issue was only out two weeks ago. Never mind I'm not complaining.

Power man and Iron Fist #1 - I have been looking forward to this since the end of Shadowland! Written by my favourite, Van Lente, this new duo are sure to have some interesting adventures. Also contains the comeback of a character I love that featured in another book by Van Lente.

Comic books: The perfect hangover cure!

Action Ash

I woke up to find myself sprawled across an air mattress on the floor of a flat I didn't recognise as my own (it was much tidier). As I rolled over to my right, above me on the couch was sleeping a hairy ogre of a man. You guessed it, it was Valhallahan. As he snored away, the previous night's events began to come back to me. I was at a pub in Hoxton, surrounded by trendy wankers while The Fabulous Penetrators rocked my face off. Then Liam and I ended up staying at a friend's place and that was where I had just found myself. After spending half the day there, kindly being made breakfast and watching a film, we felt it was time to get out of the way and we stumbled out into the streets of Limehouse feeling like mere shadows of our former selves. We were not, however, without direction. We both knew that the best way to regain our humanity was to find a comic shop and quick. We headed for central and Gosh was our first port of call.

One of the first things I noticed after entering was a particular horror comic high up on the wall, who's cover I had come across on the Internet: Chamber of Darkness #7 (1970). Chamber of Darkness was a short lived horror title that for some reason didn't sell well (despite wicked offerings from Bernie Wrightson and Steve Ditko) and was retitled Monsters on the Prowl from issue 9 onward. After browsing some more I bought it and we moved on to Comicana in Shaftesbury Avenue, which has a fantastic collection of back issues. I bought a bunch of stuff that I'm too lazy to mention but among my stack were two issues of Marvel Spotlight featuring The Son of Satan, some old Horror titles such as DC's  The Witching Hour and Marvel's Tomb of Darkness and a bunch of other titles.

Monday and Tuesday went by without anything worthy of mention happening and then Wednesday rolled around and it was time for even more comic books from Chaos City. Here's what I picked up:

Conan: Road of Kings #2 - I read a preview online and this issue looks like a good'n.

Detective Comics #873 - The conclusion of Snyder's first story arc and I'm pumped to see how Grayson's going to get out of this one. Also it's nice to read a comic story that only three parts and not stretched beyond it's natural limit to six issues solely to make it easier for trade conversion.


Namor #6 - Now all that vampire nonsense is over I want to see what they're going to do with a favourite character of mine. Note the fantastic Phil Noto cover.

Astonishing Thor #2 - It's a shame they had to go and give it an Ed McGuinness cover when there's all that gorgeous Mike Choi on the inside.

Chaos War #5 - This didn't turn out to be as epic as I had hoped it would be. Still been fun but tbh I forget it exists between issues.

New Avengers #8 - I am not happy by the change of art and hope it's only temporary. It's not that I don't like Daniel Acuna, it's just that Immonen was doing a brilliant job and I think he captured the perfect look for the series. Never mind, prove me wrong Acuna.

X-Men #7 - Now all that vampire nonsense is over I want to see what they're going to...Whoa, I just experienced some De Ja Vu.

On top of this I also bought three back issues of Hellblazer to start catching up. Those of you with excellent memories will recall that I started buying it after a swap shop where Liam suggested it. Shortly after I forgot I was buying it and am now a few months behind. That's not so bad though as I know someone who has been buying it but is still YEARS behind when it comes to actually reading it. He shall remain nameless =P

What I got and why

Action Ash
This week was a good one for purchasing comics. Some nice titles that I've been looking forward to came out.
Morning Glories #6 - The first story arc is over so I can't wait to see what's going to happen next.
Scarlet #4 - Seems like aaaaages since issue 3. Loving this series, reads great and looks better. Check out the sick cover Maleev cooked up for this issue. <<<

Superior #4 - Seems to be coming out on time each month, which is impressive considering it's by Millar.

Wolverine and Jubilee #1 - Thought I'd check this out because I like the Wolvie/Jubi tag team. Although last time I read a story about this duo one of them wasn't a vampire, so we'll see how it goes.

Infinite Vacation #1 - A new series that looks fairly interesting so I thought I'd check it out. Keep your eyes peeled for a review.

Thor #619 - I'm really liking this creative team's work on Thor. Still don't quite understand why old goldilocks was so desperate to get Loki back though.

Also I acquired a free DC poster, and guess what the image was. None other than the propaganda picture that I spoke of two posts ago. The only downside being it doesn't have the line "Keeping comics affordable for you!" across the bottom. Never mind, it was free.

Be Well citizens, I'll catch you on the flipside \m/

Drawing the line at $2.99

Action Ash
I love DC's little self promotion/propaganda posters they're currently running in their books at the moment.



There's something so intrinsically comic book about it but I don't know what it is. Reminds me of something you'd see in a title from the 40s and 50s.

Adventuring in the DC universe with Action Ash

Action Ash
I've been pretty busy with coursework recently so I've not had the time to review anything. I've barely had the time to read what I've bought. However at the weekend I did get the pleasure of playing DC Universe Online. A friend of mine had bought it and was kind enough to let me make a character on his account.
OMG! What an amazingly fun time I had flying around Gotham city beating up the Scarecrow's henchmen. Or even just flying around.

The character creation system is fairly in depth and will be more than enough for the imaginative among comic fans to make some iconic (or generic, depending on what you're going for) looks for their characters. My character looks totally metal, like a demonic Doctor Doom \m/.

I'm only level 5 at the moment, but next time I'm at my mates house I'm gonna see to it that I become one powerful mother trucker.

A fantastic MMORPG for comic fans, better than WoW I'd say.

What I got and Why

Action Ash
Yo, yo, you turkeys. While Valhallahan is boogying on over to Ireland for the weekend, I'm left here with coursework to write and fish to monger. Oh, and I have a cold too. I needs me some escapism, and what better form could it take than a couple of films and a selection of this week's funny books.

Heroes for Hire #1 - Following on from all that Shadowland jazz and looking pretty sick on a flick through, there's no reason why I shouldn't buy it really. Just hope it's as good as it looks.

Shadowland #5 - The conclusion to the street level, ninja noir, epic is here. Time for DD to bow down and get what's coming to him.

Taskmaster #4 - Last issue! I'm sad to see this go. I think I could quite happily read an ongoing of this every month.

Batwoman #0 - Saw Valhallahan's review and took the recommendation. Simple as that.

On the non comic book side of the spectrum, I recently picked up the new special edition release of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Including an extra 25 mins of footage that, up until two years ago, was thought lost. You can now watch it as German audiences would have seen it in 1927. Super geil!

Review: Batwoman #0

Story by J.H. Williams III & W. Hayden Blackman
Art by J.H. Williams III & Amy Reeder

Valhallahan
I adored the Rucka/Williams III run on Detective, and have been looking forward to this series coming out. If anyone reading this hasn't read that, it's collected as "Elegy" and it's a fucking delight! Unfortunately Greg Rucka has Jumped Ship and this ongoing series will be written and drawn by J.H. Williams III with art assistance from Amy Reeder. This issue 0 is more of a recap/introduction to the character than the start of a new story, so it's a great jumping on point without undermining what will be the start of the series proper with issue 1. The story itself is light, just Batman checking Kate out from a distance trying to prove his (correct) theory about the identity of the mysterious new Batwoman, which is exactly what you need as a new reader. The fact that we only see Kate through the filter of Batman in this issue adds mystique and leaves something to be said when the series gets going. It really is a good intro issue.

The real star of the show here is the artwork on display by the inimitable J.H. Williams III, who incidentally is from a relative of the legendary country music pioneer Hank Williams which officially makes him royalty in my book. J.H. Williams proves time and again that he is the most versatile, innovative and design-savvy artist in the game. He really is the best there is at what he does...and what he does is very nice indeed! This strength sadly highlights the art’s one weakness which is the fill-in panels. For whatever reasons, one assumes time constraints, the majority of Kate's civilian-life panels are drawn by Reeder, who while not shit, is painfully outclassed. Just look at the panel of the disguised Bruce and compare it to any of William' images. This is a minor qualm though, because this book still stands streets ahead of almost everything else out there at the moment. Shocking that this level of quality is in a spin off title, when by all rights it should be as shit as Supergirl.

Four Batgirl: Year Ones* out of a possible Batman: Year One.

*Batgirl: Year One was actually really good.

What I got and Why

Action Ash
Let's take a look at which books are keeping me company during this cold winter week.

Detective Comics #871 - I bought this out of curiosity about the new creative team. Jock's cover for this issue is SICK!

Shadowland Power man #4 - I'm sad this has to come to an end... but it's ok. The Power man and Iron Fist series is starting in Feb and I'll be waiting.

Conan the Cimmerian #25 - Final Issue! That is until Darkhorse releases it's three new Conan series. I love the barbarian and everything, but I don't know if I want to read three different series about one character. Who am I kidding, I probably will. I don't know how Batman fans do it.

Astonishing Thor #1 - I like Thor. I like Choi. This better be good.

Legacies #5 and #6 - Missed these at the time they came out so just catching up. Amazing covers that link together to portray an epic battle from Crisis on infinite earths. Super Geil!

What I got and Why.

Action Ash
There was not much out this week that I wanted to spend my creds on, which is fine by me because it was merciful to my wallet. However here's what I DID get, and Why..

Incognito: Bad Influence #1 - My fellow bad guy and I have been waiting for this. The first series was everything a crime/pulp/superhero comic should be and this new issue looks sure not to disappoint.

Soldier Zero #1 - Didn't manage to get a copy last week. Got one now and, after reading it on the bus back home, I am underwhelmed.

Superman Earth One - Never really been a fan of the blue clad boy scout, but this caught my eye. I'd seen the hype that was floating around, and after a flick through in the shop, thought I'd give it the benefit of the doubt. I intend to see for myself if this is actually a new look at Superman, or just Superman with a hipster haircut.

What I got and Why: My comic book weekend.

Action Ash
My new university timetable means that I am busy all day on Thursdays, so I now have to wait that extra day to get my grubby little hands on the week's funny books. This displeases me. Anyway, on Friday I dropped by Chaos City Comics (St Albans) and picked up a bunch of cool stuff:

Knight and Squire #1 - I just want to take the time to rub it in because Valhallahan did not get a copy (Sucker!). This book is quite simply brilliant in it's British-ness.

Superior #1 - The new creator owned project from Mark Millar and Leinel Yu. Looks great!

Shadowland #4 - Penultimate Issue! Glad it's coming to an end soon tbh.

Tomb of Terror - This one shot from Marvel is a nod to their awesome horror titles of the 70's, with all the classics, Werewolf by Night, Daimon Hellstrom Son of Satan, Man-Thing and N'Kantu the living Mummy.

Thor #616 - The new creative team are looking good. Can't wait to see where Fraction takes this title.

Magnus, Robot Fighter #2 - Loved the first one, this one looks just as good, with even better action sequences.

New Avengers #5 - I like this book but I hope not all the story arcs are going to be 3 issue stories stretched beyond their natural length for the convenience of trade conversion.

I also picked up this delightfully fiendish collection of horror comics from the 50's, entitled Four Colour Fear. There are some great tales in this book, and a glossy section in the middle displaying some amazing covers. If you're a fan of bizarre old comics then pick this up without hesitation.

My comic book weekend didn't stop there folks.

My fellow bad guy and I graced the streets of this great nation's capital, in search of thrills and spills. Instead we found comics and Chilango's. I picked up...

Morning Glories #2 (Second printing) - Almost forgot I missed this, so I was glad to get hold of it. This issue is looking just as promising as the first.

Vault of Evil #10 - A 70's horror comic from Marvel. I love this shit!

A fat pulled pork burrito - The absolute antidote to hunger!

Thanks DC!

Valhallahan

"For the long term health of the industry, we are willing to take a financial risk so that readers who love our medium do not abandon the art form."

DC Comics apparently prove they're the bigger man by putting their cover prices back down to $2.99. Good show, chaps. I hate to say it, having been raised a True Believer, but the Distinguished Competitor is getting much more of Valhallahan’s sterling these days.

*I read this on Bleeding Cool News, Innit.

RIP Wildstorm 1992-2010

Valhallahan
Founded in 1992, Wildstorm was the Jim Lee and chums' sixth of the original Image partnership, and as of 2010 DC have finally taken the poor old dog round the back of the shed, shotgun in hand. That noise you hear is a resounding "meh" from Action Ash and a large percentage of the comic book buying public, but personally I'm a bit sad to see it go. Strangely Wildstorm universe was one of my lasting comic book love affairs. I had nearly everything they produced in the '90s, I was genuinely smitten. They had by far the best artists in the business at the time, many of today’s superstars got their big breaks in Wildstorm; John Cassaday, Brian Hitch, Adam Hughes, J Scott Campbell, Humberto Ramos, Ed McGuinness, Adam Warren, Travest Charest, Dustin Ngyuen, Tom Raney, Cully Hamner... And on the writing side they had Warren Ellis, Ed Brubaker, Brian K Vaughan, Alan Moore (for a bit) and... er... Brandon Choi? Did I say Warren Ellis already? It wasn't that bad, but the draw was for the most part style over substance, for me at least.

Eventually the second generation of artists were a bit of a let down and some of the reboots were downright shocking (Al Rio's DV8 art is some of the most inappropriate art I've seen in any book, and Cedric Nocon's Wetworks issues some of the most unrelentingly shit). There still remained a strong stable of characters and some really cracking runs, gems like Planetary, Sleeper, Point Blank, the first year of DV8, the Gary Frank/John Arcudi Gen13 run, The Gen13/The Maxx crossover, the Last years of Stormwatch that lead to the first year of the Authority, Aaron Wiessenfeld’s art in Team 7 and Deathblow Wolverine, Tim Sale's in the first year of Deathblow's solo title... those are few off the top of my head. Guilty pleasures like the entire run of Wetworks, which was a gold-plated black-ops team vs vampires vs werewolves vs corrupt secret agents vs aliens vs pretty much any other monster you can aim an RPG at before any of that was overplayed. I don’t know how good they'll be to reread now, and I can't imagine anyone even remembering the existence of things like Savant Guard or Hazard now, let alone in years to come, but I loved that shit when I was 15.

The last decade has been a bumpy one for Wildstorm, after the move to DC, its fully realised superhero universe, was reduced to a smattering of occasionally critically acclaimed, but seldom read series. Some high profile relaunches failed due to poor sales and delays, and everyone seemed to just give up. I genuinely can’t remember anyone talking about new Wildstorm books since Sleeper and Ex Machina came out (2003 and 2004 respectively) and Ex Machina had no connection to the WsU. By the late '00s Wildstorm seemed to comprise of a huge amount of franchise tie-ins for video games and the like and a few of the old flagship titles popping up every once in a while having been rebooted again. It really was a shadow of it’s former self. The last hurrah of Wildstorm was to completely devastate their version of earth and set all their stories in a post apocalyptic wasteland. Really. This last Hurrah, this Worldstorm, and the post disaster, post apocalyptic continuity rebooted Wildstorm U seem to have been in vain, as there were about seven people reading those books at the end; the readership breakdown I think was that two were just buying to review them, one was a Grifter completist and the others were the mums of the books' creators. Shame really, even I didn't bother, and I'm a Dingo completist.

As this is comic books, death is of course not the end, DC have even announced that the Wildstorm characters will be folded into the DC Universe at some point down the line, like Captain Marvel and many other characters from now defunct publishers have been over the years. As of Countdown (or 52? I dunno I don’t read that nonsense) the Wildstorm Universe is officially in the DC Multiverse, so it's not like they had a rigid distinction anymore. The question remains though; will they become DC stalwards like the Blue Beetle, Captain Marvel and The Question, or forgotten inserts like Icon and the vast majority of Milestone's largely underrated pantheon?

Weird War Tales #1: Review

Weird War Tales #1
Written by Darwyn Cooke, Ivan Brandon, Jan Strnad
Art by Darwyn Cooke, Nic Klein, Gabriel Hardman, Steve Pugh

Valhallahan
A few things led me to picking up titles, one is my love of the old Weird War Tales issues that I've picked up from bargain bins over the years and another being the overall concept: Eerie short stories set in wartime, with optional moral message. Like any given issue of Weird War Tales, I was expecting it to be a -wait for it- mixed bag(winner of 2010 award for Valhallahan's most over-used phrase). Thus it was but sadly it was a mixture of 4 good pages and a load of crap. The anthology features, as ever, a themed representation of Death, and as drawn by Steve Pugh, it is positively tattoo worthy. This one page is by far and away the highlight of the book, but at the same time it lacks the charm of Death's previous Weird War Tales incarnations.

Another of the major selling points of this issue is the presence of Darwyn Cooke, something which played no small part in my purchase of said periodical. Well, Cooke fans prepare to be disappointed! There are like, 3 pages from Cooke and it's a fun but very silly skit about dead military leaders in Hell. Enjoyable, but nothing to spend $3.99 on by any stretch. In fact there's little or nothing to justify that price tag for such a mediocre effort.

I haven't really mentioned the other two stories in the book, because quite frankly they're not worth mentioning. Not shit, but so ho-hum I'm struggling to remember what they were about a day after reading.

Two boring anecdotes on the bus out of a possible lock-in with some drunken veterans. Save your money for '70s back issues or buy the '90s Vertigo version(runner up in the 2010 award for Valhallahan's most over-used phrase).

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #4

Valhallahan
As I stated earlier, I wasn't going to go in for all that Batman through time nonsense but I got suckered in and ended up being quite into it. And with issue 4 featuring my favourie comic book gunslinger, I had to check it out.

Look at that lovely art, you really feel that wild west atmosphere I'm so glad they got this artist in for---- Waitafugginminute!!!

That's not Return of Bruce Wayne, that's Secret Avengers #3! Let's have a look at what wonders Return of Bruce Wayne has to top their previously high-class series art then.

Oh. Oh well.

I guess I can look at the story?

Nope, that's pretty lame too.

What a revoltin' development.

Two soggy blanks out of a possible six shooter.