130 Batman: Zero Hour

Collected together for the first time are all the Zero Hour crossovers from the Batman Universe.  It's an odd book, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.  I would have loved it if they devoted one page (as a forward, maybe) explaining what was happening in the Zero Hour mini series so that thing would have been a little bit clearer in this volume.  

Basically, the book is broken down into two sections.  The first have are the actual Zero Hour tie ins.  Time has gone screwy, different realities are popping up here and there, the Bat Family are being drawn to different realities and they have to deal with it.  Fun stuff happens, like the return of Batgirl, in full costume, though from a different reality.  In her reality, Commissioner Gordon was killed by the Joker rather than Babs getting maimed.  A young Dick Grayson shows up and teams up with Robin.  Batman is drawn back in time to where is parents lived but he was shot in Crime Alley.  Fun stuff all in all.

The second half of the book showcases all the #0 issues that were published after the mini series ended.  These were basically jumping on points for the characters, showing the new realities they're living in.  This being the Batman Universe, though, there really weren't many changes or tweaks at all.  You know how that goes.

Batman: Zero Hour

Writer: Chuck Dixon, Archie Goodwin, Alan Grant, Doug Moench

Artist: Bret Blevins, Mike Manley, Joe Rubinstein, Vince Giarrano, Graham Nola, Scott Hanna, Bob McLeod, Tom Grummett, Ray Kryssing, Jim Balent, Bob Smith

DC Comics

103 Moon Knight Vol. 2: Reincarnations

This book has many things going for it.  Jeff Lemire.  Moon Knight.  A stand alone book from the rest of the MCU.  Moon Knight's fucked up brain.  And as much as I'm enjoying the hell out of it, I think I've enjoyed the last few creative teams' work more.  Which surprises me, because I have yet to find anything Jeff Lemire cannot do.  Until now.  He can't top the previous runs on this book.  But by no means does this mean I'm not enjoying the book.  I really am.  It's just that I think the bar is now so high on Lemire's work that I expect even more out of him.  

Jeff Lemire writes such great psychological stuff.  He and Moon Knight are a great match, but I think maybe he's gotten too psychological.  Which doesn't seem possible considering the character.  

I've loved all the Moon Knight stuff Marvel has given us in the last few years.  It makes me think that I need to go back and read more of the old stuff.  This volume gives us an old issue of Moon Knight and it makes me realize it's extremely difficult stuff to read.  At least using today's comic book standards.  I struggled to read Moon Knight #2.  That's a sign that I don't need to look back, only forward.

Moon Knight Vol. 2: Reincarnations

Writer: Jeff Lemire, Doug Moench

Artist: Greg Smallwood, Jordie Bellaire, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Garland, Francesco Francavilla, James Stokoe, Bill Sienkiewicz, Frank Springer

Marvel Comics

055 Batman: Legacy Vol 1.

Batman and I were on a break when this storyline was originally published.  I think I've managed to get most of these issues long after they were originally published, but I haven't read them in any cohesive order.  Until now.

This book picks up sometime after the Batman: Contagion storyline happened.  I wasn't a huge fan of that particular story.  It seemed forced to me.  This is a sort of sequel to that story as the virus from the Contagion storyline is back and deadlier than ever.  LOL.  This volume doesn't contain the whole story.  It's called Batman: Legacy, but the actual Legacy storyline doesn't officially start until the last issue in this book.  It's more of a prelude.

It starts with a story involving a vigilante capturing and locking up bad guys (holy Vigilante!!).  I think this is included because there's a very small plot point about the virus storyline starting up.  Next up is a Catwoman story which seems out of place here until you realize it's all tightly connected.  That realization hits during the actual virus storyline which rounds out the book.

I complained about how the Superman books during this period were all too interconnected.  That they were basically a weekly Superman book rather than four monthly titles.  The Batman books did similar things, but they never felt like the Superman books did.  It proves there's a right way and a wrong way of doing things.  The Batman books were basically all telling the same story, but it felt different.

This book also contains an art team that I still don't understand to this day.  Jim Aparo inked by Bill Sienkiewicz.  I don't know if I love it or abhor it.

Batman: Legacy Vol 1

Writer: Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, Alan Grant

Artist: Graham Nolan, Jim Balent, Mike Wieringo, Jim Aparo, Dave Taylor, Scott Hanna, Bob Smth, Stan Woch, Bill Sienkiewicz

DC Comics

013 DC Elseworlds: Batman Vol 1

I'm a sucker for a good compilation book.  Something like this.  The first volume of Batman Elseworlds stories.  The book clocks in at about 500+ pages.  There's a lot of cool stuff in here as well as some mediocre stuff.  I love the concept of the Elseworlds stories.  Basically, take your characters, put them in any time, any locale, any situation and build a story around them.  Some succeed, some fail.

The book starts off with Alan Brennert's Holy Terror.  I just recently read this story for the first time in years in the Alan Brennert Batman collection that came out last year.  He only wrote a handful of Batman tales, but they were all great.  This was no exception.  I think I enjoyed it more this time than when I read it a few months ago.

There's a Batman in the old west drawn beautifully by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez.

Robin 3000 was a two issue mini-series that I have no recollection of but enjoyed the hell out of.  It felt so much like a 1950s pulp.  I kind of wish there was more than just the two issues.

Batman/Dark Joker: The Wild.  Nice tale, but probably my least favorite of them all.

Batman/Houdini was a lot of fun.

My favorite story, however, was probably the Frankenstein tale told with Batman characters.  It was great.  It wasn't just sticking the characters we know into a different setting.  The characters were molded to fit the roles they needed to fill.  It worked so well.

I've got a second volume sitting in my backlog pile to get to yet.  I can't wait.

DC Elseworlds: Batman Vol 1
Writer: Alan Brennert, Elliot S. Maggin, Alan Weiss, Byron Preiss, Steven Ringgenberg, Doug Moench, Howard Chaykin, John Francis Moore, Jack C. Harris, Mike, W. Barr
Artist: Norm Breyfogle, Alan Weiss, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, P. Craig Russell, Kelley Jones, John Beatty, Mark Chiarello, Bo Hampton, Terry Bingham, Howard Chaykin
DC Comics