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blanchebloom's review against another edition
1.0
Story was poorly paced, poorly written, and confused me. The art was okay at times but the close up shots of the faces reallllly were off putting to me. It looked like putty faces. I hate go say it especially because I know that so much work goes into these comics but I just actively disliked it.
viera's review against another edition
5.0
This story had really strong visuals with striking silhouettes and interesting negative space. The characterizations and the story were great too. A young Superman and Batman start off on the wrong foot before being swept into a different world where an older Superman and Batman led very different lives. This book also includes some fun scenes with Catwoman, Lois Lane and Wonder Woman without feeling bogged down by the extra characters. There is a second story at the end to explain the antagonist better. I felt that was a weaker part of the book as it rambles a bit, but it sets up a cliffhanger for the next book, so I guess it was necessary. I enjoyed reading it and going back to study the art in detail. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for Jae Lee's art in the future.
hellocookie's review against another edition
3.0
When this series first came out, I gave the first issue a try and felt a little meh about it, but completed in the first arc, I decided to give it another shot with the hopes that the overall story made this whole thing more enjoyable and up my alley.
Did it succeed? DON’T RUSH ME… I’m getting to that!
First things first, let’s take a minute to talk about Jae Lee’s Catwoman… Meeeeeeo-ooooow, amirite?! I know, not the most original of jokes, but for real, this might be one of my favourite interpretations of Catwoman ever. EVER, guys. There’s a couple of panels where Lee not only captures what I envision Catwoman to look like in my dream CW book, but he captures he posturing and behaviourisms perfectly. Every single panel that she’s in is so distinctly Catwoman that even if I didn’t know it was her, I would still know (for those of you who’ve read it, that panel with Catwoman on the ledge of a building? PERFECTION… or should I say purrrfection? I’ll stop now). Same for his version Lois Lane. Perfect, perfect, perfect.
The art, while superb mostly doesn’t completely suit the story though. Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent (both in civilian form and super forms) are very anime-ish. It isn’t a bad thing, but if I don’t know if I liked it in this particular instance. At least when it came to the main fellas of the story. His Wonder Woman was a bit off to me too, being a bit wispy to me, literally in some cases. Lee gives a very gothic vibe to the book and right from page one, you know that this isn’t going to be a feel good story, even without Greg Pak’s script. I suppose Batman’s business card essentially says: ‘BATMAN – World’s Great Detective – Broody as f*ck’ but still, every now and again we have to have a fun story to lighten the mood a bit. This isn’t it though.
Onto the story that, as mentioned, is written by Greg Pak. I know he’s gotten a pretty good following over the last few years, but I’m honestly not too familiar with any of his previous works to get into that. Speaking as a first-time Pak reader, I found his writing style interesting and yet, in the case of a story involving two Batman’s and two Superman’s (due to some Earth 2 shenanigans), extremely confusing. Not a lot of clarity is given to what’s happening and the story was hard to follow, at times. It’s an action-packed first arc of a series and I found myself struggling to understand where we were in the plot, almost constantly feeling like I had missed something.
I really do like Jae Lee’s art, but I don’t know if he was the right artist to work on this book as Lee’s abstract-ish panels left me feeling like I was missing even more of the puzzle. His work just didn’t mesh with Pak’s writing to answer questions missing from the script. If anything, it added to my confusion.
All in all, it seemed like a strong effort from both Pak and Lee but their creative partnership just didn’t work out to convey the story that they were seemingly trying to tell.
VERDICT
Pass. The art is worth checking out because hot damn, them be some beautiful pages, but for me, the story wasn’t worth adding to my shelves.
I’m not sure if it’ll get better after this “build-up” arc but at this point, I don’t know if I care enough to find out, beautiful art or not.
Did it succeed? DON’T RUSH ME… I’m getting to that!
First things first, let’s take a minute to talk about Jae Lee’s Catwoman… Meeeeeeo-ooooow, amirite?! I know, not the most original of jokes, but for real, this might be one of my favourite interpretations of Catwoman ever. EVER, guys. There’s a couple of panels where Lee not only captures what I envision Catwoman to look like in my dream CW book, but he captures he posturing and behaviourisms perfectly. Every single panel that she’s in is so distinctly Catwoman that even if I didn’t know it was her, I would still know (for those of you who’ve read it, that panel with Catwoman on the ledge of a building? PERFECTION… or should I say purrrfection? I’ll stop now). Same for his version Lois Lane. Perfect, perfect, perfect.
The art, while superb mostly doesn’t completely suit the story though. Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent (both in civilian form and super forms) are very anime-ish. It isn’t a bad thing, but if I don’t know if I liked it in this particular instance. At least when it came to the main fellas of the story. His Wonder Woman was a bit off to me too, being a bit wispy to me, literally in some cases. Lee gives a very gothic vibe to the book and right from page one, you know that this isn’t going to be a feel good story, even without Greg Pak’s script. I suppose Batman’s business card essentially says: ‘BATMAN – World’s Great Detective – Broody as f*ck’ but still, every now and again we have to have a fun story to lighten the mood a bit. This isn’t it though.
Onto the story that, as mentioned, is written by Greg Pak. I know he’s gotten a pretty good following over the last few years, but I’m honestly not too familiar with any of his previous works to get into that. Speaking as a first-time Pak reader, I found his writing style interesting and yet, in the case of a story involving two Batman’s and two Superman’s (due to some Earth 2 shenanigans), extremely confusing. Not a lot of clarity is given to what’s happening and the story was hard to follow, at times. It’s an action-packed first arc of a series and I found myself struggling to understand where we were in the plot, almost constantly feeling like I had missed something.
I really do like Jae Lee’s art, but I don’t know if he was the right artist to work on this book as Lee’s abstract-ish panels left me feeling like I was missing even more of the puzzle. His work just didn’t mesh with Pak’s writing to answer questions missing from the script. If anything, it added to my confusion.
All in all, it seemed like a strong effort from both Pak and Lee but their creative partnership just didn’t work out to convey the story that they were seemingly trying to tell.
VERDICT
Pass. The art is worth checking out because hot damn, them be some beautiful pages, but for me, the story wasn’t worth adding to my shelves.
I’m not sure if it’ll get better after this “build-up” arc but at this point, I don’t know if I care enough to find out, beautiful art or not.
tmwebb3's review against another edition
2.0
Very nice art. Not sure if the story was worthy or even the right tone. Also had no stakes, since we had already seen the first meeting for the Worlds Finest and this would have to be erased.
deb_is_reading's review against another edition
3.0
More of a 3.5 The story was better when focusing on the dynamics of clark and Bruce’s relationship. The story itself had weird pacing. J Lee’s is always so inspiring even if it’s not the typical superhero arts type. I love it.
jedicook's review against another edition
3.0
Intriguing look at Batman and Superman from slightly different realities. I loved the scene of young Bruce meeting young Clark, and seeing some measure of happiness in the older versions, vs. the raw, angrier younger versions.
imjustadow's review against another edition
3.0
kinda hard to keep track visually which version of the characters were talking at points, but i enjoyed the concept
adorkablyrini's review against another edition
3.0
I received a digital ARC.
I'm not really into Superman, mostly because I just haven't been interested in giving his books a try... However, seeing this book I thought it might be a good way to maybe get me interested in him.
Overall, I didn't feel like it was a bad story. The premise was interesting, though confusing at times. I was reading a little to quickly to notice the differences between characters to know who was from Earth 1 and who was from Earth 2. And then the big reveal of the antagonist's (Kaiyo) motives... eh... it just really wasn't enough to hook me and make me want to move on to Vol 2. If the book's around, like say, a friend has it or I get another ARC offer, I might pick it up just to see where it goes. I just haven't seen enough to want to get invested in this.
I'm not really into Superman, mostly because I just haven't been interested in giving his books a try... However, seeing this book I thought it might be a good way to maybe get me interested in him.
Overall, I didn't feel like it was a bad story. The premise was interesting, though confusing at times. I was reading a little to quickly to notice the differences between characters to know who was from Earth 1 and who was from Earth 2. And then the big reveal of the antagonist's (Kaiyo) motives... eh... it just really wasn't enough to hook me and make me want to move on to Vol 2. If the book's around, like say, a friend has it or I get another ARC offer, I might pick it up just to see where it goes. I just haven't seen enough to want to get invested in this.
helpfulsnowman's review against another edition
2.0
Near as I can figure, there is "our" Superman/Batman and another Superman/Batman.
What I don't know is which one is "our" team and which is the other team.
But more to the point: the art makes them look almost identical.
Meaning it's pretty hard to know in a lot of panels whether Old Batman or New Batman is doing something. And it's hard to tell, in thought boxes, who's thinking the thoughts.
This made a somewhat confusing concept (a new Superman/Batman are not really familiar with each other and are interacting with a Superman/Batman who ARE) SUPER confusing in an unnecessary way.
Guys, it's very simple: Mustaches. One version has mustaches. Done, simple, easy.
What I don't know is which one is "our" team and which is the other team.
But more to the point: the art makes them look almost identical.
Meaning it's pretty hard to know in a lot of panels whether Old Batman or New Batman is doing something. And it's hard to tell, in thought boxes, who's thinking the thoughts.
This made a somewhat confusing concept (a new Superman/Batman are not really familiar with each other and are interacting with a Superman/Batman who ARE) SUPER confusing in an unnecessary way.
Guys, it's very simple: Mustaches. One version has mustaches. Done, simple, easy.
shane_tiernan's review against another edition
4.0
I loved the artist (Jae Lee) for the first 3 issues of this, then after that it went back to a more standard style that was good, but not as cool. With the artist change, the story arch changed too. The first arch was about an alternate dimension/Earth so there are 2 Batmans and 2 Supermans, good stuff, but kind of confusing.
The 2nd arch was about a video game technology that made things happen in real life and an alien that made everyone angry so millions of angry gamers were playing games that were causing damage in real life. It was kind of cheesy but original.
The 2nd arch was about a video game technology that made things happen in real life and an alien that made everyone angry so millions of angry gamers were playing games that were causing damage in real life. It was kind of cheesy but original.