8/27 Comic Reviews: A Jump to the Sky Turns to a Batman Kick
Immortal Legend Batman #1 written by Mat Groom and Kyle Higgins with art by Erica D’Urso and Dan Mora
For anyone who knows me, there was no question that I’d be all over this book the moment it came out. This was easily the book I’ve been most excited about this year. Not only is it a revival of the Elseworlds line, but it’s drawing inspiration from some of my favorite superhero genre fiction. On top of all that, is there a team with a better tokusatsu pedigree? Kyle Higgins, of course, was the one to kick off Boom Studio’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers book. He’s followed that up by co-writing Marvel’s Rise of Ultraman and bringing the Massive-verse to life at Image with his creator-owned book Radiant Black. Mat Groom also co-wrote Marvel’s Ultraman line, wrote six amazing issues of Boom’s Mighty Morphin, and has kickstarted two books, Inferno Girl Red Book 1 and Book 2. Also part of the Massive-verse, I’ve had the pleasure to read both of them. Inferno Girl Red Book 2 in particular, was a shining (light of hope in the dark) example of the potential for worldbuilding and character development only achievable by employing the techniques associated with tokusatsu. It’s fitting then, that on this book they are joined by Inferno Girl Red artist, Erica D’Urso, colorist Igor Monti, and Radiant Black letterer Becca Carey. To call this a stacked lineup is an understatement.
For those who don’t know where this book originated, some six or seven years ago, newcomer artist Dan Mora was doing an amazing job on Go Go Power Rangers and at one point started posting art of the Batman family, but reimagined in a style influenced by tokusatsu properties such as Super Sentai/Power Rangers and Kamen Rider. To say the art was well-received would be an understatement. The internet was clamoring for a book featuring these characters and the duo of Higgins and Groom were all too happy to make that happen. Unfortunately, between the pandemic and the gears of the comics industry, it was only greenlit recently. Of course, to no one’s surprise, Dan Mora is now one of the biggest superstars in comics and was booked so solidly that drawing the book was out of the question. However, the fantastically skilled Erica D’Urso had just finished up Inferno Girl Red Book 2 and, as anyone who’s read either book can attest, has a style that is pitch perfect for tokusatsu-inspired comics. The result is one of the most genre-bending and visually arresting takes on Batman I’ve seen in ages.
Our story begins deep in space. Humanity has expanded outwards into the stars thanks to the development of faster-than-light travel. The downside is that it involved tapping into the potential of dark matter, breaking down the barrier between our universe and its shadow. Thankfully, three individuals known as the Immortal Legends have harnessed the energy of the barrier between the two worlds and used it to transform themselves into the heroes Batman, Robin, and Nightwing. The three of them fight back against the shadows and make the spaceways safe for travel. However, a few years ago, the Batman abandoned his duties and mysteriously disappeared. Since then, reports have begun to spread that he’s turned his ire on the humans he was meant to protect.
Right off the bat, I was struck by how thorough the worldbuilding was. There is a history and legacy at play in the background hinting at vast amounts of moving parts of which who knows how many we’ll actually see the characters engage with. We’re presented with superhero dynasties, Wild West space colonies, and extra-dimensional monsters all within the span of a single issue, but because it’s all through the eyes of the characters, we can trust in the realness of it, because the characters themselves feel real to us. Despite the truly insane premise, the characters ground the story and keep us from getting lost in the big ideas. That isn’t to say there’s not plenty of spectacle though. As mentioned before, Erica D’Urso’s art is fantastic and a perfect fit for such an ambitious genre-mashup. We were told we’d be getting tokusatsu Batman and by the end of the story, we get a morphing call, a transformation sequence, and a finishing move. Anyone who is coming purely for that Saturday morning goodness is going to leave satisfied. Beyond that though, we have a fascinating character study of a Bruce Wayne who is on the receiving end of a superhero legacy rather than at the beginning of it. As always, he is singular in his determination and pursuit of justice, but here that might mean turning against the institution and tradition which gave him his power in the first place. We’re shown enough of him to know that despite the difference in setting and power, this man still possesses the moral core we expect from Bruce Wayne. Of course, this raises the question of what he’s learned or experienced to have caused him to turn away from the legacy he has inherited. For that matter, we don’t even know if he was right to do so. For once, there are people connected to him who may know more about his situation than he does, though it remains to be seen if they are as trustworthy or as altruistic as the public has been lead to believe. As the backup story indicates, they certainly don’t take kindly to perceived betrayals.
Speaking of backup stories, we’re lucky enough to get one drawn by Dan Mora himself! The story provides us with some of the worldbuilding our viewpoint characters may not have been as privy too, including more insight into where the power of the Immortal Legends comes from and some distinctions between those who bear it. Several names are dropped, once again hinting at a vast history full of stories that I desperately want to see explored in the future. This is a six-issue mini-series, but the world we’re being presented with is rife for a whole line of full-length stories exploring the various characters living within it.
One of the reasons Batman has endured nearly one hundred years is the character’s ability to be endlessly reinvented without losing the core that defines him. Yet, despite a near-century of reinvention, I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything as creative and thorough as the world established in Immortal Legends Batman. This book is insane and if I scored books, I’d have to break my own rating system to score it even higher. The absolute height of superhero genre-fiction, this is a book you have to read.
Spider-Verse vs Venomverse #4 written by Kyle Higgins and Mat Groom with art by Jim Towe
After the explosive ending of the previous issue, to say I was hyped was an understatement. Not only does this issue give me the giant robot fight of my dreams, not only does it give me even more Yaleo moments, NOT ONLY does it end on an insane scene promising an insanely chaotic final issue, it is also filled with heart, sincerity, and empathy. In other words, a perfect Spider-Man book. As has been the case for every issue so far, this one is filled to the brim despite feeling like it was over in seconds. The pacing does a remarkable job conveying just how much stress and pressure everyone is under. If I feel breathless afterward, imagine how they feel!
The issue opens with, insanely enough, lore being added to an obscure 1970’s tokusatsu series. Even as a fan of 70s-80s era tokusatsu, I can’t honestly say I was a huge fan of that particular Spider-Man show and, yet, there’s something so innately charming about the design of Professor Monster and the warriors from Planet Spider and seeing them depicted here, in this American blockbuster comic book, did get a genuine smile out of me. It’s crazy how well these additions slot into the story though. Takuya’s rival feels as much like he walked out of that show as Takuya himself, and I really need to give my kudos to the writing team because that requires an incredible grasp of tone to pull off so seamlessly. At the risk of pigeonholing Kyle Higgins and Mat Groom as the tokusatsu guys, there’s an ever-increasing list of toku books I want to see them take on with Spider-Man and/or his rival Venom having just shot to the top. I know the rights are somewhat complicated with Toei but, if anyone there is reading this, just imagine how many Leopardon and Centurion toys you could sell!
I also want to shout-out Jim Towe’s art for the tokusatsu scenes. Having to evoke the tone and aesthetics of a 1970’s Japanese live-action superhero series cannot have been easy, but he does an amazing job making the scenes feel like they were plucked directly from the TV show. It’s such a specific tone and his ability to infuse it into the scene goes a long way in making it feel as charming as it does. The way he draws Leopardon and Centurion throwing down is a sight to behold as well. I have a lot of affection for the boxy mecha of eld, and seeing Leopardon in all its glory was a special treat. The design work on Centurion is also really impressive. It fully answers the question we’ve all been asking of “what if a mecha from a 1970’s Japanese TV show got possessed by a Venom Symbiote?” The answer? It’d look pretty damn cool. Much like Venom, it looks like a cross between the hero and the very monsters he’d be fighting. A perfect Venom mecha in other words.
Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I can focus on the rest of the issue because, believe it or not, there’s a lot more going on than just two giant robots fighting. The various Spiders and Symbiotes are still running around fighting amidst the titanic clash, but this time more of them are trying to get a few words in between the punching. Both Peter and Eddie are starting to lean more toward their respective sides, but as Eddie rightly points out, it’s the Spiders’ conviction that the Symbiotes are evil that forced him to take sides in the first place. As we’ve seen throughout the story, there are plenty of Spiders who aren’t exactly saints either. They’ve all gotten so caught up in their factions that they’ve forgotten their common humanity. The way they talk to each other is fascinating too. In a book with so many different characters, it would be easy to look for a single thing that unites them, whether that’s a common enemy or a shared experience, but that isn’t really how life works. The world is a big place and sometimes people have radically different experiences than we do, and we’re not fortunate enough to have a giant monster we can work together to punch. Rather than talking and trying to find common ground, it’s the talking itself that bridges the gap, the acknowledgement that none of their experiences are more or less valid than the others’. Spider-Ham reaches out to Spider-Clan Venom in a classically meta-textual way, trying to reach the person beneath the two-dimensional character. Recluse, who’s already been questioning the morality of their fight, tries to help Spider-Prowler realize that Agent Venom isn’t an enemy. They’ve both been hardened by battle, but Anne has been at it way longer and it’s broken her down. Both of them have lost everyone they care about and now feel like the weight of the world is on their shoulders, but as Recluse points out, they don’t have to be alone if they can look past what colors they’re wearing. My favorite conversation has to be Web-Weaver and Wrath though because of how radically different their experiences are. How does a white New Yorker(?) even begin to tell the queen of a nation that has literally had the whole world as her enemy that she doesn’t have to take this conflict any farther? It’s by being both incredibly vulnerable and incredibly brave. Both the writing and the art shine during Coen Cooper’s scene, because despite the vulnerable position they’re now in, they’re still brimming with strength.
Unfortunately, there’s no reasoning with a giant plant slime. Thankfully, Takuya and his rival have been having their own conversation amidst their mecha battle. Both warriors were motivated primarily by vengeance, but only Takuya’s was satisfied despite a promise the two had made. Takuya knows his rival feels slighted, but unlike many of the other competing heroes, these two actually have a shared history and experience, and they both know something of the grief the other has experienced and the desire to prevent anyone else from feeling the same pain. Thanks to their teamwork, everyone escapes being eaten by Venom-Bloom and they finally get the chance to sit down and talk. Unfortunately, the Web-Heart and Hivemind have other ideas. These two entities have been suspiciously keen on the two sides fighting it out and they don’t consider this newfound peace a reason to put that aside. The driving question I have now is “why?” At the moment, I see things going in two directions. Either, the two entities are so vast that they simply cannot comprehend the idea that mere humans would be able to change things before their inevitable scenario plays out. They’re playing a numbers game and the individual lives involved simply don’t mean anything to them. Alternatively, these two entities aren’t even as connected to their sides as they say, and are malicious outsiders trying to pit two hero groups against each other before they team up against the entities themselves. Either way, things haven’t gone according to plan and the entities end the issue by raising the stakes dramatically. We’ll just have to see if our newly united heroes can handle it.
As I mentioned earlier, this is a perfect Spider-Man book. It’s wall-to-wallcrawler action, and yet it has heart that permeates every scene. I mean, I spent half of this review talking about the first couple pages, and even more happens after that! In a lot of ways, this book has been a cure for event fatigue, because it’s shown just how much character-drama these events can have amidst the spectacle. If you like superhero comics, it would be insane not to pick this one up. It’s been amazing from start to finish, and I cannot wait to see how things end up in the finale!
Absolute Martian Manhunter #6 written by Deniz Camp with art by Javier Rodriguez
“Why do people do the things they do?”
Looking at the various drafts I’ve had over the last couple months, I think I’ve tried to review each issue but each review basically boiled down to “I think this is what they’re doing and it looks really cool!” Given that trajectory, I suspected it might be best to wait until the final issue where I could really unpack how I was feeling about this singular book. Of course, followers of comic news are likely aware that this book has been extended and there’s much more to the story that has yet to be told, but this still seemed like a good place to look back and take stock of where we’ve been.
John Jones is an investigator in the FBI’s “Stochastic (random) Terrorism Task Force” which investigates and responds to what are considered “random” acts of terror. After an unfriendly conversation with a bomb, John finds himself mentally cohabitating with an esoteric entity who insists that they, together, are the Martian Mind****er. Several words are offered to fill in that blank, but no human word encompasses the full nature of their task. People are getting angry, and this anger has been leading a number of people into violent acts, seemingly at random. However, as the book dives into the minds of these people over its six issues and demonstrates, there is no randomness in human behavior. All of our actions are tied to our experiences, our mental health, the media we grew up on, you name it. More people are dissatisfied with their own lives and are looking for others to take it out on. In this era, there are more people around us who look different and believe different things than we do, and it would be so easy to believe that it’s their fault that our jobs aren’t going well or we’re not as happy as we think we should be. Surely it must be refugees or immigrants or people with a different sexuality who are causing the problem, right? But the problem is that people look for causes around them, but many of these issues have ridden in on tracks laid down decades ago. As John walks through the city, he becomes aware of colored smoke full of thoughts and emotions coming off of just about everyone. As he breathes in the smoke and the experiences of the people around him he realizes that the people themselves are the ones on fire and that those fires have been lit for ages. Sometimes they’re ignited from experiences in childhood while others caught fire after being exposed to something that’s been burning for decades.
Fortunately, the Martian is here to help. Despite the name, the being is here from a more abstract place than Mars and merely uses the name as a way to convey his own alien-ness. He has come to hunt down the “White Martian” a similar conceptual being, but one who thrives on fueling the fire and spreading it until it burns the whole world to ashes. As a being from the realm of thought and metaphor, the Martian isn’t well-equipped to explain himself to John, though he does try his best. John, for his part, follows along with the Martian and uses his vague advice along with his newly gained “Martian vision” to try finding the White Martian together and nipping the chaos in the bud. Over the course of six issues, we watch them going through what can only be described as a psychic police procedural, investigating the minds of various perpetrators of “random” violence. In the meantime, John’s home life crumbles as he shuts his wife out, neglects his son, and focuses entirely on his work. Unfortunately, that means he’s not there to help her in the beginning of this issue, when a human avatar of the White Martian breaks into their house and tries to stab her.
Issue six opens with both John and his wife in unique states of distress. John is pinned down by a madman masquerading as a doctor, trying to cut him open. He’s just been hit by a truck and isn’t doing particularly well. However, the Martian is able to get him to focus by reminding him of his family. John takes a step towards positive development, empowering the Martian and disabling their attackers. After that, it’s a hop, skip and a jump through non-Euclidean space and they’re back in the Jones’s living room. Bridget Jones is hardly one who needs protecting, having unloaded a rifle into her attacker’s face, but it’ll take more than bullets to kill the White Martian. What follows is a Kaiju battle of metaphor and symbolism across town as the two Martians sling the positive and negative thoughts of the people around them at each other like they’re rubble to be chucked about. They run behind people’s eyes and through their dreams, hurling their fears and joys at each other. All the while, John does everything he can to protect his family from the violent mob the White Martian has steered toward his house. It isn’t looking good, but sometimes it takes the most extreme of circumstances for some self-reflection. Earlier issues hinted at a deeper reason for why John and his family moved to this town. Whatever the reason was, it’s caused their friends to cut them off and for John to feel like he has to protect Bridget from it by keeping it a secret from her. Obviously, this has driven a wedge in their relationship, but in the chaos of his own mind, it simply never occurred to John to talk with her about it. It never even occurred that it would cause her to doubt how he felt. Simple things get lost in the chaos so easily and, like most breakthroughs, they only appear obvious in hindsight. This revelation supercharges the Martian and upgrades John’s Martian vision enough to use what he’s learned and strike his first real blow against the White Martian.
What I’ve written has probably only covered about ten percent of the story at best. This book is dense with ideas and iconography hinting at a thousand different possibilities. Before writing this review, I read through the previous five issues and found them to be a considerably different experience with the context that I have now. I’m looking forward to reading the next six issues and finding the series to be something entirely different to what I’d thought I’d been reading before. Interestingly, all of the Absolute books have begun touching upon Darkseid and the New Gods, but this is the book to have done so most explicitly. During John’s crisis, the Martian clearly witnesses what it refers to as “the secret origin of the universe” and beholds Darkseid in his horrific glory. The White Martian has also been stated to be an extension of “anti-life ideas” with the Anti-Life Equation being another concept heavily tied up with Darkseid. It’s interesting to be reading a new line of comics and seeing recurring motifs that could potentially be the groundwork for something more universal. John Jones mentions several times that the Martian’s voice is “green” and that it’s something between “a color, a feeling, and a philosophy” which sounds curiously like how the lights in Absolute Green Lantern were being described. It may be a coincidence, but I’ll be curious to see if there are any more allusions to the two being connected down the line.
Javier Rodriguez has really outdone himself with his work on this book. I’ve been a huge fan ever since I saw his work on Daredevil. That book was drawn in his usual style which always occupied the space that I considered “classic” comic art, but he would swap over to panels or pages depicting Daredevil’s unique perspective on the world and the art would suddenly become something more conceptual. In this book, both of those aspects of his art are played up to the extreme. The people look even more normal and unassuming in contrast to the psychic war-zone around them that only John and the Martian are privy too. Abstract storytelling relies heavily on motifs and iconography which Rodriguez masterfully incorporates into every page. The most consistent motif is smoke which is wafting around and from just about everyone. The colors of the smoke also serve as subtle hints to the intentions and emotions of the people emitting it, further tying into my theory of a Green Lantern connection. While some motifs permeate the whole run, each issue also has a few of its own. One issue was almost entirely colored in shades of red with white to convey a heat wave while another issue was primarily black with navy blue and a few smatterings of multi-colored light here and there due to a city-wide black out. The use of fire and smoke is an interesting choice given that fire is traditionally a weakness of the Martian Manhunter and I’m curious to see how it’s balanced out with new motifs in the issues to come. This book is gorgeous and experimental from cover to cover and I’ll happily read each issue a dozen more times just to drool over the art. Even as high-concept as it is, the book doesn’t shy away from some good old-fashioned superhero spectacle either, and the fight between the Martians is as bonkers as it is fun to behold.
The first arc of the Absolute Universe’s, let alone DC Comics’, most experimental book wraps up in a satisfying payoff to many of the core ideas it’s been setting up along the way. It’s conclusive enough to have been a finale while being open-ended enough for there to be much more ground to cover. Thankfully, there’s more to come and I for one cannot wait until the series resumes in December. As I mentioned, this series is stuffed to the brim with ideas and I plan to use the next few months to give these six issues a few more reads to try and prepare myself for wherever this strange journey takes us next. Of all the Absolute books, this one is the most radical departure from what’s come before and is a testament to the narrative potential that the whole line possesses. Thoughtful, stylish, and deeply humanistic, this book is one you’ll want to inhale as you bask in its vibrant green voice.