1: Batman #2 - DC

Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez are back for their second issue of Batman! I haven’t been reading mainline Batman for the past few years and have been pretty Batman-ed out so to speak, but if each issue continues to be better than the last I’ll have no complaints.

This second issue focuses on the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Tim Drake, split between a flashback and present time. For me, what makes this work is the emphasis on Bruce as a father figure to the Bat-Family as a whole and not making him an unapproachable jerk. I really appreciate that Fraction is making every issue in his run self-contained while still being part of a greater arc – the lack of this type of story telling is my biggest complaint in the way modern comics are written.  

I had really high expectations for the Chip Zdarsky Batman and was a bit let down, so to be completely honest, I didn’t think that I was going to be enjoying the Matt Fraction Batman as much as I am. I get that we’re only a couple issues in now but I’m optimistic looking at the future of the caped crusader. 

2: DC’s Zatannic Panic One-Shot - DC

When I saw that the solicit for this one had stories with Etrigan, Swamp Thing and Plastic Man, it was an instant buy for me. Then it came in and I found out there’s an Ambush Bug story in it too – need I say more!

DC’s Zatannic Panic is a oneshot horror anthology with different creative teams working on each story. These are similar to the Crypt of Shadows anthologies that Marvel has been doing the past few years. I’ve come to expect these types of things to be good showcases for up and coming writers and artists as well as established creators and this one is no different. The big draw for most in this one one (myself included) is the Daniel Warren Johnson Plastic Man body horror story.

As with many anthologies, not every story is going to work for everyone but it was a pleasant surprise that all of the stories that I wanted to enjoy, I did – in addition to the Raven story which was especially well done. 

3: Spider-Man Noir #1 - Marvel

Spider-Man is a character that I hold near and dear to my heart and is a large reason as to why I love and collect comics in the first place but I haven’t been very happy with how he’s been treated by Marvel editorial for the past few years (the exception being Ultimate Spider-Man) With that being said, I’m a big fan of Erik Larsen’s art and his story-telling in Savage Dragon is kinda like the equivalent of McDonalds, not necessarily mindblowing but its consistent so I thought I’d give this one a shot.

Most people know Spider-Man Noir from Into the Spider-Verse and the adjacent Spider-Verse comics. The story focuses on a variant of Peter Parker from 1933 who is a private investigator by day and Spider-Man noir by night, who is hired by Gwendolyn Stacy to investigate the death of her father. I remember having fun with the original 2009 Spider-Man Noir series but admittedly it’s been about ten or more years since I’ve revisited that one.

As a result of it being so long since I’ve read that original series and the fact that I haven’t read much if any Spider-Verse in that time period, I don’t really know how his character has progressed since teaming up with the other Spider-People. His characterization was different from what I remember but I don’t know enough about the source material to know if that’s in line with Spider-Man Noir from newer titles or if Larsen is simply deciding to take him in a different direction. I’ll continue picking these up regardless though because at the very least, I love a good detective story.