kaipitain's reviews
25 reviews

Batgirl/Robin: Year One by Chuck Dixon

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted tense fast-paced

I think Robin Year One is the more solid story as a whole and much better paced in its 4 thick issues, than Batgirl Year One was across its 9 slimmer issues. The storylines were about the same length but Robin just felt better paced and more like one whole. That said, the last few issues of Batgirl were an absolute blast and better than anything in Robin Year One!

The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It's quite an amazing read but it's interesting to see that almost all the changes Clive Barker would go on to make in adapting this to the screen were improvements, leaving the film to be the definitive version of this story. Something that this does better than the film is that it's allowed to be more sexually explicit than the film could show, and more restrained with the violence. I think that works in it's favour.

Batman: Legacy Vol. 2 by Chuck Dixon

adventurous tense fast-paced

2.25

I did not enjoy rea ing Legacy, even thought it had some good issues in between all of the hot garbage. Some of this was pretty cool, but nothing great, and nothing that kept me wanting to read. Most of the issues sadly feel like filler. Makes me sad but god fuck finally I'm through with it. 

Batman: Knightquest: The Search by Chuck Dixon

adventurous hopeful sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Now the Search was really good... 
And essential to the overarching story which makes me wonder why the Crusade was entirely collected before while DC never bothered to reprint the Search..? 

Shondra Kinsolving's backstory kind of comes out of nowhere just like Bruce's appearent love for her. But reading about a crippled Batman trying to track down kidnapped people who he cares for is infinately more interesting than the story of what was going on in Gotham with Azrael in the Crusade. 

I do feel like the finale to this and what happens to Shondra was really well handled and compelling. 

Batman: Knightquest: The Crusade Vol. 2 by Chuck Dixon

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Every single thing I said about the Crusade Volume 1 still applies here. 
Only that the complaints are even stronger since I have to wonder how long they really did feel it nessecairy to stretch out this era. 
The complaints wouldn't be AS strong if there was only one Volume of this stuff but by god it just kept going on. 

Batman: Knightquest: The Crusade Vol. 1 by Chuck Dixon

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

My god this was a drop in quality after Knightfall. Jean Paul is so goddamn annoying and I cannot stand the edgy batman. But then again, this all being shit and not fun to read was the intention of the editors at the time. 

The Knightfall Saga is meant as a critique for the overexessive, edgy, and violent comics of the early 90s. People wabted an darker Batman and DC wanted to show that that it's not what they really want. The Batman we love is broken and replaced by this steroid pumping macho machine who is as insufferable for me to read about as it is for the characters to be around him. The point that an ultra violent Batman isn't what people really wanted was made clear during Knightfall already and I feel like that theme could have been developed by showing the character be unlikable, while still being somewhat interesting to read. 

All that said, there's some pretty good art in here and some of the storylines were quite interesting so I wouldn't consider it a waste. 

Batman: Snow by Dan Curtis Johnson, Seth Fisher, J.H. Williams III

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Actually, Batman: Snow is fantastic! 
I thought it would be a nice christmas read, but it turns out there's a suprising amount of love and sadness in this portrail of these characters. 

The characters are probably the best part about this story. Batman seems young but not inexperienced as in Year One. Bruce's relationship with Alfred ia a particular highlight of this book. Victor Fries' arc is a hard hitting tragedy. Every minor character is unique in their own way. Even though loads of that also stems from the art. 

At first it turned me off how cartoonish this artstyle was, it seemed more like a picture book for kids than a tragedy. But I really appreciate what the art does for the charme and feel of it all. 

Great read and I hope DC reprints this soon so that more people can get access to this for a reasonable price.

Elseworlds: Batman, Volume 2 by Doug Moench

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I paused my reading of the Knightfall Saga for this as a halloween story. And man is it ever spooky. 
The Red Rain Trilogy is fantastic and makes full use of it's elseworlds setting. 

Throughout the trilogy you can slowly watch Batman sink into madness and death in a way that would never be allowed in the main continuity. And damn does he get savage by the end. This character arc is truly the centerpiece of this trilogy and entirely pulls you into it's story.

 The writing is really great for the most part, the only gripe I'd have is how quickly Batman is supposed to have a super strong relationship to Tanja from the first part in this. I buy his relationship to Selina Kyle much more in the second part since it's properly part of the story, but Tanja never felt as important as they try to portray her. 
I mostly loved Kelly Jones' art and how perfectly it captured the scary vibe, with only a few hiccups like the portrail of alfred being super strange in some panels. This style really lends itself perfectly to horror stories and Jones absolutely doesn't hold back here. By the third part Batman is barely recognizable as a humanoid creature most the time, and I love it. It also doesn't hold back in showing blood, guts, and violence at the hands of the main character, which is refreshing to see in a DC release.

Overall this is a brilliant read that I would recommend to anyone who doesn't mind seeing blood in their comics.

Batman: Knightfall Vol. 2 (25th Anniversary Edition) by Chuck Dixon

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Man this was strange.. the pace in the prelude was a bit slow and here it's just really odd. 
I'd say it's paced somewhat slowly in terms of plot since nothing much happens except yapping about in Gotham. But in terms of character, the pacing is just WAY OFF THE LIMITS HERE. 
I knew that Jean-Paul Valley would become Batman and drift off into being too violent and brutal, but it happened in like 5 minutes?!

He's just a student at the beginning of Sword of Azrael, becomes Azrael the Avenging Angel of Death, is taken under Batman's wing and trained not to kill as he did before, then Batman get's broken and Azrael has to take up the Mantal.
This is the perfect setup for depicting his character arc as a slow decent back into violence and a tragedy of him falling from grace. But instead he becomes a psychopath out of nowhere as soon as he picks up the mask. It's obvious from the first minute that this isn't going to work out and still everyone let's him do his thing as the new Batman? Why not start with him doing things by the book, making everyone trust this plan before slipping and going crazy. 

Well anyway that pacing issue with the character arc of Jean-Paul Valley's Azrael/Batman aside, this was still brilliant. Much more tense and riviting than the prelude, but this other issue bumps it down from being as good as Knightfall Volume 1 was.

Batman: Knightfall Vol. 1 (25th Anniversary Edition) by Chuck Dixon

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is some brilliant stuff, my goodness. It's perfectly paced (at the ferocious pace that it has) and is entertaining and tense throughout. I read through this in no time.