Cinematic storytelling at it’s powerful best.  Sometimes when an action centric story is told, some of the dynamism is lost in the static panels.  This issue shows how the medium can demonstrate active and robust storytelling with a dramatic edge.  The pages will not turn fast enough for you! -Bretzke

Edit: That title is not a joke.

Detective Comics #863

Bat franchises are stepping on eachother’s turf and for once it seems that the ‘man has been upstaged in viciousness.  GCPD are aware now of the second crusader and have assigned her into their forecasts, no news on whether she gets her own signal though.  The bad guy has been done before (Remember Trueman?) but he’s certainly going to cut to the chase.  ZING! -Bretzke

Detective Comics #861

My favorite of the BatNoun franchises.  We get an exposition as to what drove our leading lady to her current position.  At times, this makes for some uncomfortable reading and admittedly, this is not standard fare; only one punch is thrown, badly!  However as origin stories goes this one checks the two main boxes; it makes sense, it entertains.  Classy! -Bretzke

Detective Comics #859

Oh, how quickly the upper hand can shift. 1, 2, maybe 3 times, just like that. Such a bizarre murderous mess has never looked so good.

Detective Comics #855

Our hero, blackmailed and sent to uncover the truth of a brutal attack on peaceful ground, discovers that nukes have been stolen by a group of the most lethal mercenaries on Earth. Fuck it, our hero says, I’ll take them on alone in the most dangerous place on Earth. The plot for the next Rambo movie, you ask? Oh no, just Marshal Carrie Stetko doing her thing. Come on, really!? Yes. Not buying it.

Whiteout Definitive Edition vol. 2 - Melt

It official. I’m in love with Tara Chace. Sure, it’s a different kind of love than that which I have for Megan McKeenan or Scott Pilgrim but it’s love just the same. And OniPress obviously likes to make me fall in love…This here volume two is better than the first, which is to say it’s pretty damn good.

Queen & Country - Definitive Edition vol. 2

If you’ve got a special place in your heart for bromance and male bonding, then this book might just be the thing for you. Five stories about critical points in the ongoing relationship between Batman and James Gordon, this book spans years as Gordon climbs the ranks of the GCPD and Batman goes from softy to killer and back again. Certainly not high on my all-time Batman list but decent nonetheless.

Batman - Turning Points TPB

Took a break from Queen & Country to read this one for the first time, and I’m glad I did! Rucka and Lieber are a perfect pair in this whodunit. Throughout, I enjoyed what was being presented while anticipating what was to come on the next page–the appropriate experience for a thriller like this one, right!? It’ll be interesting to see what Hollywood does to it.

Whiteout TPB

No. Just don’t. I know it looks pretty, nice cover, all shiny and new. But don’t. Save yourself the time you’ll waste on this travesty of retelling and backfilling. This is bland like mall Indian food. If you enjoy the mediocre and think that below average is fine, please, make the purchase and revel in the cavernous realms of ‘meh’. There’s a place for people who write like this: daytime soaps. -Bretzke

Action Comics - Annual #12 (2009)

I must admit I am a sucker for the bats. And for Rucka writing the bats. The religion of crime has a new leader…and a bit of history with Batwoman. The bad kind of history. The kind that involves drugs and torture and such. This issue is intense and beautiful in all the right ways. Fired up for #2!

Detective Comics #854