I tend to pick up almost any mini-series that has Batman in it, because I like the character that much. The Dark Knight is rife with potential to be interpreted in lots of interesting ways, as has been shown by the likes of Denny O'Neil & Neal Adams, Steve Englehart & Marshall Rogers, Alan Moore & Brian Bolland, Frank Miller, and so many others. I almost never regret any such purchase, because there's nearly always something good to be found within its pages.
Not so much, Batman/Lobo: Deadly Serious # 1 (of 2). This is garbage. I actually regret the fact that trees were sacrificed in the production of this piece of crap more than I bemoan the fact that I wasted $7.25 on it. Sam Kieth both wrote and drew the steaming pile of crud of which I speak; I'd always known that I was no fan of his artwork, and now I understand that he similarly can't write his way out of a paper bag. The Batman on display within these pages did not, to put it mildly, even resemble the character I've read in any of a thousand other comics. And even that could be OK - Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns was unique, and original, after all - if there were anything at all to recommend this buffoon. He's stunned, ineffective, unmoved by any of the violence perpetrated around him, and seemingly only along to sucker people like me into buying the comic.
As for the other 'star' of the book: you'd think that by now I'd know that almost anything with Lobo in it is going to be crap. But even against that low bar, this comic's excrement.
The funny thing is that the concluding issue is due out soon (maybe next week?) and I'd almost decided to wait and read both issues together. Fortunately I happened to pick up # 1 tonight as I worked my way through the unread pile, as otherwise I wouldn't have known any better! Now, not only will I not be buying the second issue, but I'll steer clear of anything with Sam Kieth's name on it. This guy's pure poison, if this comic's anything to go by.
2 comments:
You would have thought people would have tired of Lobo by now. He's such a crap product of the early nineties--a tired joke that was old the second time it was told.
Sorry you lost the better part of ten bucks on that crap. And DC wonders why they lose readers every month...
You've nailed Lobo, kid. He's a one-joke character that should never have had a following, except that some people seem to love hearing the same joke, over and over (see Seinfeld, for example). At least when Alan Grant would write him the satire could be amusing; this Kieth job was as flat as the top of J Jonah Jameson's head!
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