Tag Archives: dc comics

October 16, 2015

Comic Review: The Colonel of Two Worlds

I love me some weird promotional tie in items. I am always fascinated and amazed when TV shows or movies have weird promotional tie-in’s or product placements that they force feed into scenes. Most of the time these are just subtle scenes of people drinking a Coke at a restaurant. But sometimes we get a gift when subtlety is thrown to the wind and we get an insane commercial / propaganda piece detached from all reality. One of my favorite examples of late is the music video for the song Pretty Girls by the Legendary Ms. Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea.

Obviously Samsung is paying for this video by the amount of camera time is spent on the Galaxy S6 phones but at the 2:17 mark the music pauses and it literally becomes a commercial for the phone. Even for a video where the two leads are playing as aliens this is the most jarring and unrealistic thing that happens in the video.

This brings us to KFC Presents: The Colonel of Two Worlds Starring the Flash and Colonel Sanders, which I will refer to as KFCP: TCOTW (STFACS) for short. KFCP: TCOTW (STFACS) is the perfect storm of every thing I love about weird promotional tie ins. Does it have a fourth wall breaking moment where it simply becomes a commercial? Check. Does it misunderstand how people fundamentally view their product? Check. Is it unashamed at how ridiculous it is? Check. True believers this comic is fantastic and available for free at Comixology right here.

Let’s start by breaking down the plot of this bad boy. It starts with the Mirror Master and Captain Cold teaming up with the evil Earth 3 version of Colonel Sanders, Colonel Sunders. They then become fast food employees at Colonel Sunders “Easy Fried Chicken”, which is suppose to be the opposite of KFC. The next step It is unclear but I assume Colonel Sunders used his Easy Fried Chicken money to hire henchmen in order to start committing bank robberies and other larger money making crimes. The Flash and Green Lantern discover a spike in crime occurs whenever an Easy Fried Chicken opens. The real Colonel Sanders is super pissed off that this imposter is using his likeness to sell below par chicken and steps in. A fight ensues and a victorious Colonel Sanders sends the imposter Colonel Sunder back to Earth 3. The comic ends with the Cononel convincing the Flash to allow him hire Captain Cold and Mirror Master at KFC rather than throwing them back in jail.

Let’s start with one of my favorite parts of these weird product tie-ins and that is when it jarringly switches to commercial mode. The whole thing is a commercial in and of it self and does it’s job simply through brand recognition alone. But KFC just can’t trust us the reader to simply pick that up and has to break the 4th wall to talk about the 11 secret herbs and spices. Dear KFC, we get it. You are a major brand, every one knows who you are and generally what you serve. Breaking the fourth wall doesn’t convey that, all it does it show how insecure you are about your product.

Another favorite of mine is when companies fundamentally don’t understand how consumers see their products. A great example of this is the Bank of America “One Bank” song it created when it merged with MBNA (here is a cover of that by David Cross). While this was probably a huge deal for Bank of America it’s customers could really give two shits. Their accounts stayed the same, their cards stayed the same, it was just a shuffling around of management. But because it so big internally Bank of America couldn’t see outside the bubble that the outside world really didn’t care. This occurred in KFCP: TCOTW (STFACS) with the concept of “Easy Fried Chicken”. I’m sure the marketing department thought, “Hey what do people love about our chicken? Oh I know, it’s how we make it the hard way”. This is in fact is not what people think about KFC. We are buying your food because its easy, pretty good, and cheap. If anything the bizarro KFC of “Easy Fried Chicken” is actually what we think of when we think of KFC.

I’m not here to shit talk KFCP: TCOTW (STFACS) though. I actually quite enjoyed KFCP: TCOTW (STFACS) and found my self laughing out loud when Colonel Sunder used a pink slime gun to fight Colonel Sanders.

The art throughout the comic was actually top quality which not the norm for projects like this. The shot of the Flash coming into frame could have easily been mistaken from a shot from the ongoing Justice League or Flash solo comic. In general KFCP: TCOTW (STFACS) was fun, actually funny, and free. Hopefully we get some more weird stuff like this in the future (I’m looking at you Old Spice).

Leave a comment | tags: captain cold, colonel of two worlds, colonel sanders, comic book review, Comic Books, comic review, Comics, comixology, dc comics, flash, green lantern, kfc, mirror master, product placement, The flash | posted in Comic Books

October 9, 2015

Comic Bento Unboxing: October 2015

By Jasomania

This is my first month using Comic Bento which brings you a box full of graphic novels every month. This months theme is Fight the Fight so all the comics had a fight related theme to them (which what comic doesn’t fit that description?). The first thing I noticed was that this box weighed a lot, over four pounds to be exact, they are not kidding around when they say a box full of comics.

The comics themselves came wrapped together in a thick plastic bag with a bubble wrap insert. Being the thing weighed 4 pounds I don’t think the bubble wrap would really save it. However, the comics were, in fact, completely undamaged, so I do have to give Comic Bento props for going the extra mile to make sure that the comics make it here in one piece.

There is a paper insert inside that describes the theme (this month is Fight the Fight!) and gives a break down of everything in the box.

So now that I’ve shown you the outside and packaging its time to find out what is in the box (insert Brad Pitt from Seven gif here). I’ll also note that this would be where I would normally put in a small review of said comic. However, because these are all graphic novels (and 5 at that!) I haven’t had a chance to read them yet. So like Harry Potter, Twilight, and Infinity War, this blog post is going to be a two parter and I’ll post my review later when I get a chance to read them all.

First up is Daredevil Season 1 written by Anthony Johnston and art by Willington Alves and Nelson Pereira.

Next is Superman/Batman Vol. 4: Vengeance written by Jeph Loeb and art by Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines.

Next is Executive Assistants: Hit List Agenda written by Vince Hernandez and art by Oliver Nome.

Finally there is X-O Manowar Vol. 2: Enter Ninjak written by Robert Venditti and art by Lee Garbett.

But wait, there’s more! This month there was a bonus comic with none other than the Highlander. You’re welcome in advanced for this getting this song stuck in your head.

Highlander Vol. 3: Armageddon written by Brandon Jerwa and art by Carlos Rafael

Now that we have unboxed here are some initial impressions. First I was very impressed and happy with the care that was taken in the packaging. Like I had said before everything was in perfect condition and brand new. Second I was a little disappointed that the novels seem to be a mix / match of different volumes instead of all being the first volume of each series. All and all this isn’t that big of a deal. Each of these should contain their own story arc and be self contained, so they will still be enjoyable. However it would have been nice to have the first volume in each.

The Comic Beno is probably the best deal I have seen in these subscription boxes. The monthly cost is $20 dollars per month (which can drop to $17.50 if you choose a 6 month subscription) plus $5 dollars for shipping. I did a calculation of the combined cover price of everything in the box and it came out to $84.95. So with shipping, and the 20 dollar plan, you are still saving $59.95 which equates to 76.5% off cover price. Now I know that this is the “suggested” MSRP and that you can likely find them all cheaper than that but even so it’s still a great deal.

Lastly the quality of the books in this box is very good. Not only were the big two represented by there was a good showing of smaller publishers and nothing in the box that felt like filler. It would have been real easy to have just had this filled with things from the clearance rack but Comic Bento did a great job of putting in characters I already know along with characters I am soon to know.

So the bottom line is if you are in the market for a comic subscription box that gives you a massive amount of comics to read each month this is the box for you!

Disclaimer: I was provided my Comic Bento box as a promotion for writing this piece (Thanks Comic Bento!). However all the thoughts and opinions about this are my own.

Leave a comment | tags: aspen comics, comic bento, Comic Books, comic subscription, Comics, Daredevil, dc comics, dynamite comics, Executive Assistant, Highlander, marvel comic, monthly comic box, montly box, subscription box, Superman/Batman, valiant entertainment, X-O Manowar | posted in Comic Books, Unboxing

September 22, 2015

Elseworlds Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl

By Jasomania

Today’s installment of Elseworlds we’ll be discussing 1998’s Elseworlds Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl. If you would like to read along at home you might be able to find a copy at your local comic book shop but the easiest option would just be to get it from Comixology here for 1.99.

While this is definitely an Elseworlds story the main two characters, Supergirl and Batgirl, have their normal identities of Kara Zor-El and Barbara Gordon. In this world there is no Superman and Kara Zor-El is the true last daughter of Krypton. Bruce Wayne exists in this world but rather than his parents getting killed, Barbara’s parents were killed and she was raised by the Waynes.

This is an interesting twist. Barbara and Bruce are roughly the same age in this universe and have a Brother/Sister relationship. Bruce acts in a support role similar to Alfred, while Barbara is Batgirl. Barbara is still a computer genius and uses her “Oracle” computer program to protect and isolate the entire city of Gotham. No one is above Batgirl’s reach and neither the Justice League or anyone with powers is allowed to enter Gotham. Barbara keeps Gotham in a police state and while it may be safer it is clear there is mixed feelings from the citizens.

In this world Lex Luthor is not a villain but instead a benefactor of the Justice League. The story kicks off with Luthor receiving an award from Barbara Gordon (and the city of Gotham) for his work in renewable energy. A super buff Joker who has been taking Bane’s venom uses the opportunity to kidnap Luthor. This super buff Joker of this world is obsessed with Batgirl and uses the kidnapping as an excuse to gain her attention.

Lex Luthor was the one who found Supergirl when she landed on Earth and represents a father figure to her. She becomes distressed learning he has been kidnapped and, despite knowing Gotham is off limits, enters the city anyway to rescue him. Batgirl is immediately alerted and confronts Supergirl. Once seeing how distressed Supergirl is, and possibly realizing that she is overpowered, Batgirl invites Supergirl to assist her in finding Luthor.

Meanwhile Luthor cuts a deal with Joker and gets Joker to work with him in exchange for an unlimited supply of venom.

Batgirl takes Supergirl to a secret underground lab of Lexcorp where we learn the true nature of Lex Luthor. Superman had in fact come to Earth but Lex got to him first and used the Kryptonite from the crash to kill Kal-El while he was still a baby. Lex has since been using Kryptonian technology and Kal-El’s own corpse to further Lexcorp.

Supergirl naturally goes into a blind rage and is set on killing Luthor for the horrible acts he has committed. Batgirl manages to stop Supergirl from killing Luthor and we then learn Batgirls backstory. An aging Joe Chill winded up getting a commuted sentence for killing her father in exchange for naming names. One of the people he named was Luthor as the man responsible for contracting the murder that killed her father. Jim Gordon was never the target that night, Joe was suppose to kill the Waynes but when Jim Gordon intervened he was killed instead.

The award was a set up from the start. Batgirl planned it to get Luthor out of Metropolis long enough for her to gather evidence against Luthor. Luthor plays it off that it doesn’t matter anyway because he is beloved and no one will believe their story against him. However Batgirl had been live streaming the entire encounter which Luthor had confessed all.

The comic ends with Supergirl burying Kal-El’s body and that start of a friendship between Supergirl and Batgirl. Barbara however hides away a kryptonite ring stolen from Luthor “just in case”.

Overall I really enjoyed the comic. I think it was a fresh take on both of the characters. Rather than just being side characters or part of a bigger bat or super family this had Batgirl and Supergirl front and center as the leaders of their world. I did think it was odd that they didn’t go by Superwoman and Batwoman seeing as they were the main forces in this world. This isn’t a huge deal but would have helped to separate this world from the typical DC Universe.

I liked the different take on Batman’s origin in which it is the Gordon’s that died instead of the Waynes. I liked that Bruce Wayne takes on the role of Alfred and helps assist Batgirl while she’s out in the field. They appear to have a romantic relationship in the public eye but seem to be truly platonic while in private.

My only real complaint is that I would have liked to see more of the rest of the world this comic takes place in. We got to see some bits and pieces on how things are different such as Abin Sur as this worlds Green Lantern but it never really goes into any depth. This is just a one shot comic so they are limited on what they can tell in this story but it would have been nice to see more. Part of what I really love about these elseworlds comics is the details and smaller changes.

Anyway if you like Elseworlds and are a fan of Supergirl and Batgirl this is definitely a book you should check out.

Leave a comment | tags: Barbara Kesel, batgirl, Comic Books, Comics, dc comics, elseworlds, elseworlds finest, Matt Haley, supergirl, Tom Simmons | posted in Comic Books, Elseworlds

September 18, 2015

Comic Block August 2015 Unboxing

By Jasomania

August’s Comic Block came with the following items:

Bombshells 1 from DC Comics
X-Files Season 11 Issue 1 from IDW (Comic Block Exclusive Variant)
Red Sonja / Conan 1 from Dark Horse (Comic Block Exclusive Variant)
Heart and Brain Comic Block Exclusive Print
Spider-Gwendom T-Shirt

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First let’s take a look at the art print that came in the box. This is the second time that a box has include a art print, the very first box had a cool Batman Print. This month came with a print that was a Web Comic that was ok, but not particularly funny. I’m not familiar with the web comic and it had the level of humor of a Bazooka Joe wrapper. Regardless I would rather there be an art print than some of the random extra items that some of the other boxes have had.

Next was the Spider-Gwendom T-Shirt. It is a White shirt with the following print in the middle. While I’m happy to now have my first Spider-Gwen T-shirt, it is kinda of creepy.

Bombshells Issue 1

If you have been following my blog than you already know I am a big fan of the DC Bombshells. I picked up quite a few of the variant covers of the initial set back in August of last year, and have picked up even more of this years set. I was actually planning on picking up this issue myself at my local comic shop until I went online and spoiled myself that it would be included in this month’s comic block.

The first thing to know about Bombshells is that it is a Digital first comic. This means that it is released weekly on ComiXology with every 3 issues collected and released for print each month. So then it makes sense that this issue is split up into three parts.

The first part introduces Batwoman. Batwoman is the star player of the Gotham Knights and does vigilate work on the side. For reasons not really explained the players on the Gotham Knights all where disguises and keep their identity secret.

Batwoman breaks up a robbery at the Ballpark (which we won’t go into how ridiculous it would be to rob a ballpark), and we see her romance with Police Captain Maggie Sawyer.

It ends with a cliffhanger with Amanda Waller recruiting Batwoman to help stop the war.

The second part introduces Steve Trevor whose squadron is shot down by Amazonians as they unknowingly fly into their airspace. This is a much shorter section so not much else happens in it other than he is brought to Wonder Woman for questioning.

The last part takes place in Russia with Kara and Kortni Duginovana aka Supergirl and Stargirl. I’m not sure if both have powers but Kara definitely does. They are fighter pilots for Russia and during their first mission Kortni’s plane malfunctions and Kara must reveal her powers to save her.

I enjoyed this comic enough that I’ll start picking up the other issues as they are released.

X-Files Season 11 Issue 1

I did not like this comic much at all. I was in the process of giving up until I realized I only had 4 more pages to read. If you are into the X-Files this will probably be your jam but it has been since the late 90’s since I’ve seen an episode so I was more than a little confused.

For reasons unexplained Mulder and Scully are not together and the FBI is looking for Mulder who is on the Lam. We don’t know what he did or why the FBI is after him. Mulder finds the debris of satellite and there are some wolves. I don’t know. It’s a confusing mess and honestly I just didn’t care.

Red Sonja / Conan Issue 1

This is my first time to read either a Conan or Red Sonja comic so going in I am unfamiliar with the characters.

The story centers around Red Sonja and Conan preparing for a war in Kush. There are several smaller mercenary forces that are going to team up for this attack and it has been decided that the leader of each fraction will fight to the death until only one remains. Red Sonja and Conan decide that rather than fight each other that they will lead together. This upsets the remaining warlords so the pair make quick work killing them off. While this is happening a wizard named Kal’ang is in the final stages of making some sort of super potion that will give him immense power. He gives a couple of his men a taste of his unfinished potion that, while not giving them full strength as the completed potion will, still greatly increases their strength. The superpowered troops try to surprise Conan and Red Sonja and are quickly killed.

After the attack Red Sonja and Conan decide to immediately go to war instead of waiting until the morning.

Overall it was pretty good. I thought the art was great, it was a cartoonish style but not so much that the people stopped looking real. The level of violence felt inconsistent. It’s not that I even minded it but it seemed like it just jumped from being extremely mild to cutting off heads pretty quickly. It was just jarring because the level of sexuality and language was extremely tame so I just assumed that this book would be for younger audiences. I don’t think I’ll pick up the series but I liked it well enough and might keep an eye out if it falls in dollar bins.

Well that’s it folks. I’ll probably keep doing these posts monthly as I’ve been enjoying writing them and it encourages me to really read all the comics I get in the box.

Leave a comment | tags: bombshells, comic block, comic block august 2015, comic block unboxing, Comic Books, Comics, conan, dark horse, dc comics, idw, red sonja, subscription box, unboxing, variant covers, x-files | posted in Comic Books, Unboxing

September 13, 2015

DC Comics November Looney Tunes Variants

By Jasomania

DC continues it’s theme variant covers this November with Looney Tunes Variant Covers. Here is the complete collection.

Leave a comment | tags: Comic Book Covers, Comic Books, Comics, DC, dc comics, looney tunes, looney tunes variants, variant covers | posted in Comic Books, Variant Covers

August 20, 2015

Mystery Comic 9: Day of Vengeance

By Jasomania

We have now reach Comic number 9 of my 25 part Mystery Comic series with 2005’s Day of Vengeance 1.

I’ve never heard of Day of Vengeance before. So I had to look them up on Wikipedia, which made me feel better that it wasn’t some long on going series I had never head of. Day of Vengeance is a limited series that came out as a prelude to DC’s Infinite Crisis event. Reading up on Wikipedia revealed there ate some complicated steps that happen before we get to Day of Vengeance 1. It centers around some stuff left over from Identity Crisis that is so comiplicated that I don’t really understand it, and don’t want to get in to it.

The long and short of it is that Day of Vengeance centers around The Spectre and the magical characters and elements of the DC universe.

The comic opens up with a vague scene of a woman locked up in a weird mansion. She is possibly getting tortured? It’s unclear what is going on and it ends with her putting a crystal to her chest and transforming into some sort of magical wizard or something. I’m assuming the series was purposefully vague about all this and it will come into play later on.

The comic then cuts to an introduction to Ragman which I appreciated, because I had never heard of him before. It was a pretty cool introduction, it shows him in action and gives the reader enough context to figure out what his deal is. The art is really fantastic and managed to make a character with a lame name like Ragman a interesting character. After our introduction Ragman is sent to help out The Enchantress who has been buried in a forest as collateral damage during a battle between The Spectre and Blackbriar Thorn.

Enchantress is like we have got to GTFO and Ragman transports the both of them to the Oblivion Bar (a hangout of magical folks).

Enchantress tries to gather a group of people together to fight The Spectre who she fears will lead to the death of every magical person. No one at the bar seems eager to take on one of the most powerful members of the magic community except Detective Chimp (yes a talking Chimp) who is ready to go.

The comic then ends with an allusive scene involving some mystic sending out SHAZAM to take out our new team.

Overall I enjoyed the comic. The story telling was engaging and had a good mix of exposition along with vague foreshadowing. The art was fantastic and did a good job of helping tell the story itself which helped cut down or pure expositional text. I think the mystical / magical side of DC is intriguing and would like to be more familiar with these characters. If I see Day of Vengeance collected in trade at a Half Priced books I will definitely pick it up.

Leave a comment | tags: 90's Comics, Comic Books, Comics, day of vengeance, DC, dc comics, identity crisis, infinite crisis, mystery comics, woot, woot.com | posted in Uncategorized

August 18, 2015

Batgirl Annual 3

By Jasomania

I spent some time over the weekend tearing through my back list of unread comics and finally got to reading Batgirl Annual 3. I was actually pretty surprised when this came into my stack a couple of weeks ago. DC has been sportatic with these annuals and there doesn’t seem to be a pattern of when these come out (even stranger this Annual came out the same date as Batgirl issue 42).

Annuals come in a lot of different forms but usually one of three ways. Either an over sized self contained story, an over sized issue to end a big story arc, or an anthology issue (a single issue made up of several short stories). This issue is the first time that Batgirl has done an anthology issue which is one of my favorite types of comics.

Each part of this anthology has Batgirl teaming up with a different member of the Bat family in order to solve the case of the Negahedron. Batgirl works with Huntress/Grayson, Spoiler, Batwoman, and Maps/Olive of Gotham Academy. Whats cool is that this issue changes the art depending on who Batgirl is working with in the story.

The first part Batgirl is on a mission with Huntress (and Dick Grayson although she doesn’t know it) to take down the Negahedron. It features art by Bengal in the style of the Grayson ongoing series which is drawn by Mikel Janin. Here is a sample what it looks like.

The second part continues the Negahedron story with Batgirl working together with Spoiler (aka Stephanie Brown, aka Batgirl number 3). At first I thought the art (drawn by David LaFuente) was in the style of the Catwoman ongoing series drawn by David Messina, since they reference Catwoman 42 in the story. However, looking at the art I think they style they are actually going for is a style based on the art of the current Batgirl series drawn by Babs Tarr. It has a similar stylized and animated look, which you can see in a sample below.

The next part continues the Negahedron story with Batgirl working with Batwoman and is drawn by Ming Doyle. It is drawn in the style of the recently canceled Batwoman ongoing series which was originally drawn by J.H. Williams III. You can see a sample of the art looks like below.

The last part takes place in Gotham Academy and concludes the Negahedron story with Batgirl teaming up with Maps and Olive of Gotham Academy. This part is drawn by Ivan Plascencia in the style of Karl Kerschl. Even though this is the last part of the story this is actually when I noticed the art was not just changing each part, but changing to match the comic of the person Batgirl is teaming up with. The art style of Gotham Academy has a distinct anime / Japanese art style that it is unmistakable (check out the sample below).

For a Annual that I didn’t even know what coming out I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Rather than just a story about Batgirl you basically get a Batgirl comic along with sampler of 3 other comics. I like this issue a lot and hope some other comics use annuals as a way to try out cool new ideas.

Leave a comment | tags: annuals, barbara gordon, batgirl, batgirl annual, batgirl annual 3, batwoman, Comic Books, Comics, dc comics, gotham academy, july comics, spoiler | posted in Comic Books

August 13, 2015

DC Comics Movie / Graphic Novel Combo Packs

By Jasomania

Back in May DC Comics announce they would be releasing Blu-ray / Graphic Novel Combo packs for some of the DC Comics Original Animated Films. Well this week they are finally available to buy.

The complete list of Movies / Graphic Novels (GN) are:

The Death of Superman GN / Superman: Doomsday Film
Justice League Vol. 1 Origin / Justice League: War Film
Wonder Woman: Gods and Mortals GN / Wonder Woman Film
JLA Earth 2 GN / Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths Film
Batman Black and White GN / Batman Gotham Knight Film
Batman: Year One GN / Batman: Year One Film

This sounded like an awesome deal to me as I love the DC Original Animated films in their own right and figured I could pick up any I don’t already own with the bonus of the graphic novel. Now that these combo packs are in the stores I’ve discovered they are actually a even better deal than I initially thought. Not only do you get the Blu-ray movie and hardback graphic novel but you also get a DVD copy of the movie, a ultraviolet HD digital copy of the movie, AND a HD digital copy of the Graphic Novel on Comixology. You get basically five things for the price of one.

What makes this even sweeter is that this week they are all on sale at Best Buy and Amazon for 14.99 each! This is the best deal I’ve ever seen on any of these movies or graphic novels so if you are interested in either I suggest picking them up while they are still cheap.

Hopefully this is just the first wave and we’ll be seeing some of the other movies turned into these sweet Graphic Novel / Blu-ray Combo packs as well.

Side Note: Best Buy also has some of the other DC Original Animated Films on sale as well. Right now you can get the following Blu-ray / DVD / Digital HD Combo Packs for 9.99

Batman Vs. Robin
Justice League: The Throne of Atlantis
Batman: Assault on Arkham
Son of Batman
Justice League: War

Leave a comment | tags: animated films, animation, batman, Comic Books, Comics, dc comics, dc comics original animated films, digital comics, films, graphic novel bluray combo pack, graphic novels, movies, superman, wonder woman | posted in Comic Books, TV Shows

August 3, 2015

Top 10 DC Animated Moments

By Jasomania

In honor of the latest DC Original Animated Film Justice League: Gods and Monsters DC All Access put together a list of the Top 10 Moments from their library of 24 original movies.

I definitely agree with a few of these on the list. I think they were spot on with their number one pick and the scene from Superman vs. the Elite is definitely one of the best. The only moment that really stuck out in my mind that should of been on this list was the Joker reveal in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. I put a link below but if you haven’t seen it I’d suggest just going ahead and watching the whole movie.

Leave a comment | tags: batman, Comic Books, Comics, DC, dc all access, dc animated movie, dc comics, flashpoint, joker, justice league gods and monsters, Red Hood | posted in Comic Books, TV Shows

July 28, 2015

Elseworlds Comics 1 – Detective Comics Annual 7 1994

By Jasomania

Batman as a pirate? Why the fuck not. This is the first part of my multi-part series where I’ll be going through a bunch of Elseworlds Annuals that I picked up at Comicpalooza.

This is the story of Leatherwing who is a pirate in service of the King of England (King James II). While it appears that Leatherwing gives all of the treasure he collects on the high seas back to England he actually keeps a portion for himself in order to buy back his lands and family fortune which was taken from him. Leatherwing is captain of the Flying Fox (a Zorro reference) who he sails with his first mate Alfredo.

The story starts with Leatherwing (Batman) saving a Panama (Panamanian?) Princess Quext’chala from Spanish pirates. After rescuing the Princess he returns her to her father and the Princess gives Leatherwing a bracelet as a gift of gratitude. Unbeknownst to Leatherwing this is actually an engagement ritual and the Princess now believes herself to be married to him. Leatherwing takes the Princess back to his secret port to deal with this marriage misunderstanding at a later time. Leatherwing has no intention of marrying the Princess but does not wish to offend the King of Panama.

While Leatherwing is stopped in Kingston the street urchin Robin Redblade sneaks on to the Flying Fox. While hiding out on the ship Robin learns that some of the men are planning to mutiny. Robin tells Leatherwing of this plot which Leatherwing shows his gratitude by allowing Robin to be a Buccaneer on the ship.

Next we cut to Capitana Felina (Catwoman) whose crew is in the midst of mutiny. She finds an unlikely ally in the Laughing Man (The Joker) who intervenes and kills off the mutinous crew mates. To pay him back for his help Felina agrees to seduce Leatherwing and tell the Laughing Man the location of his secret port.

The Laughing Man has Felina walk the plank of his ship knowing that Leatherwing is near by and would intervene. Leatherwing does just that and saves Felina just as she is about to be eaten by a shark.

Now a guest on Leatherwing’s ship Felina has a change of heart and begins to develop real feelings for Leatherwing. Before returning to Leatherwing’s secret port Felina decides to betray the Laughing Man and stay with Leatherwing. However, once the Flying Fox returns to port Princess Quext’chala throws her arms around Leatherwing and kisses him. Felina sees this and is shocked. She asks a crew member who this woman is and they answer that this is Leatherwing’s wife. Felina, feeling betrayed, leaves the secret port to give its location to the Laughing Man after all.

Robin follows her and is captured by the Laughing Man’s crew. Once captured Robin berates Felina for betraying the man who loves her. Felina explains that he betrayed her by romancing her while he was already married. Robin explains the situation with the Princess and tells Felina how she means nothing to Leatherwing. Felina understanding what she just did rebels against the Laughing Man and frees Robin. Felina fires off a Cannon near Leatherwing’s secret port in order to give them warning of the impending attack.

With Felina’s warning shot Leatherwing is able to get to the Flying Fox and attack the Laughing Man’s ship. After some fighting Leatherwing eventually straight stabs the Laughing Man in the chest and kills him. Felina explains what happens and apologizes and Leatherwing and Felina sail off to the sunset together.

Overall the story is ok, but I never really got into it. What I like about these Elseworlds stories the most is when they really flush out a universe. This story had a lot of Batman elements in pirate form but I never felt that any of it really had legs of its own. It was just “here’s pirate Robin, here’s pirate Alfred, here’s pirate Catwoman”.

There story felt like it was just a once over coat of paint. It looked ok on first glance but if you really picked it apart there’s not much there. For instance why was Batman so loyal to the English crown? He was giving away the large majority of his pirating to the crown while only keeping a small portion to himself to rebuild his family fortune. In the comic he says that he is pirating specifically because his parents were killed and all his titles / fortune were stripped by the crown. It just doesn’t make sense.

Again the overall story is feels fine, I just wish they had worked on the details more. While this issue isn’t available digitally if you are interested in Leatherwing there is another adventure in Batman Chronicles Issue 11.

1 Comment | tags: 1994 annuals, alternative universe, batman, catwoman, Comic Books, Comics, dc comics, detective comics, detective comics annual, elseworlds, felina, joker, laughing man, leatherwing, robin redwing | posted in Comic Books, Elseworlds

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