Movin' On!

We're heading out--check out the new blog at Superhero Graphic Novels.

Reviews: Batman & Son and Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul

I like Grant Morrison.

At least, I thought I did.

I liked Arkham Asylum as well as anybody else. And I enjoyed his run on Justice League right from the start.

But reading the books leading up to Batman: R.I.P., I can't help but wonder if I don't like him as much as I thought I did.

Take these two storylines.

The main plots of Batman and Son and Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghulare simply ridiculous. There's nothing to them at all.

In the first one, it turns Batman has a kid, and he's a more annoying version of Jason Todd. In the second one, Ra's Al Ghul comes back from the dead.

The first idea is a real stinker. Batman fans have already proven they're willing to pay money to kill off annoying kid characters. The second idea simply drags out something everyone knew would happen anyway--in a medium filled with characters coming back from the dead, Ra's is pretty much defined by coming back from the dead over and over. It's certainly not compelling enough to warrant its own book.

But that's not to say these books are entirely without value. There's a great subplot about Batman being attacked by alternate versions of himself. The subplot and the mystery surrounding it is far more compelling than anything in the main story.

And in the Ra's book, the interesting subplot isn't about Batman, Talia, or their little tyke--the most compelling conflict is the one involving Tim Drake and his parents. In order to win Tim's trust, Ra's offers to bring Robin's parents back from the dead.

There are some legitimate questions in the subsequent moral conundrum Tim has with himself and Nightwing as he debates why, in a world like the DCU, where people like Ra's can come back from the dead, where zombies and Dead Man and other heroes and villains run wild, why not bring his parents back?

Of course, that conflict takes place in the part of the crossover that wasn't written by Morrison. So what does that mean?

It doesn't mean I've given up on Morrison completely--he did write the great Batman-confronted-by-alternate-Batmans stuff that runs through these books, so I've got hope for the guy. And I've got hope for Batman: RIP, which I haven't read an issue of yet.

And I didn't hate it for the reasons I thought I would. I thought I'd hate it for the same reasons I hated Superman Returns--the idea of super-hero orphans going around having kids they don't know about is not only silly, but untrue to the characters.

But the history of this one is basically that the old graphic novel Batman: Son of the Demon really took place, and Batman had the kid during a drug-induced farce of a wedding to Talia, the daughter of Ra's Al Ghul.

So I've still got hope that Batman: RIP will be worth reading.

The G.I.Joe movie, on the other hand, I've just about given up on.

What's going on with the old Marvel GI Joe comics?

So you may have been wondering what's going on with all the G.I.Joe comics. Why are old volumes so hard to get? Why does the property change hands so much? And where can I get a hold of them?

Well, the answer is Hasbro. Hasbro keeps a pretty tight reign over the G.I.Joe comics franchise, and they have a tendency to change companies. And under the terms of their contracts, publication rights transfer back to Hasbro when they pull the comic liscence. So the reason Marvel's old trade paperbacks of the Marvel comics are out of print is because Marvel simply doesn't own the rights to those comics any more.

But here's the good news. Hasbro is trying to get those books back into print with the new publisher, IDW.

The first G.I.Joe trade paperback, collecting issues 1-10, will be coming out in January.

In April, they're going to be releasing a special hardcover of G.I. Joe: The Best Of Larry Hama. This will include issue 21, the famous "Silent" issue, which featured Snake Eyes trying to rescue Scarlett from Storm Shadow, and was told entirely without dialogue, and issue 85, a follow-up called "SFX," which was told with only the sound effects (like "Whoosh" and "Zip").

Other issues included are 26, the part one of the first Snake Eyes origin story, issue 63, where Snake Eyes and Scarlett rescue Stalker, Snow Job and Quick Kick from a gulag-style prison, and issue 86, the anniversary issue where the Joes meet "Just Another Guy Named Joe."

In the meantime, they're putting out more of the G.I.Joe Comic 2 Packs--the ones where you get a couple of figures bundled with a classic comic book.

Teen Titans: A Kid's Game by Geoff Johns

It's no secret I dig Geoff Johns. The man just gets the DC universe. He understands what people like about these characters and this universe, and he touches exactly those notes when he writes.

So when he took over the relaunch of the Teen Titans, it's no suprise to anybody that he started doing stories steeped in the history of the Titans comics, but also staying true to each of the characters that populate the new team.

Naturally, the villian in this one is Deathstroke, but it's Deathstroke as you don't expect. Yeah, I'm not going to say more than that--so I still care about spoilers, so what?

So who's in this version of the team? Playing the "mentor" parts are Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy. At this point in the continuity Donna Troy and Jericho are dead and Dick Grayson is leading the Outsiders. Playing the "Teens" in Teen Titans are Tim Drake as Robin, Conner Kent as Superboy, Cassie Sandsmark as Wonder Girl (she's the blonde one), and Bart Allen as Impulse.

If you read any of Young Justice, you remember that it was a fairly lighthearted look at the Titans. This book isn't like that at all. Not only is the tone serious, but the story depends on you taking what's happening really seriously.

And for me, at least, that isn't hard. Johns gets what I dig about DC as well as anybody, so he plays the characters right.

That's not to say the book's perfect. There's a bit of a scuffle between the Justice League and the Titans that seems more like it was worked in because it was a cool concept than that it actually grew organically out of the characters.

But the Deathstroke story works great and good foundations are laid for some of the conflicts that come up in some of the later books in the series.