Library Book: JLA: World War III

A friend recommended JLA: World War III to me the other day. He said it was a really good book. So I put it on hold and got it once he returned it to the library.

World War III is the story of a super weapon, Mageddon, speeding towards the Earth. Mageddon causes anger and rage, making people fight those they once considered friends. It leaves only death and destruction in its wake.

The JLA gets attacked in their own headquarters on the moon by Lex Luthor and a new Injustice Gang right when they discover Mageddon is coming. They try to warn Luthor that Mageddon is influencing him, but he refuses to listen.

Meanwhile, the world itself is going crazy. Countries are declaring war on one another andlaunching nuclear warheads left, right and centre. Those JLA members who were not on the moon have their hands full trying to save the world from itself.

World War III was a pretty good story, but isn't one of my favourites. I don't really like it when there are tons of superheroes whom I don't know. Yes, I recognized most of them (particularly the main ones), but there were just as many I wasn't familiar with. And with so many superheroes present in the JLA, there's no way to give them all screentime. But if you like the JLA, and having tons of characters throughout a story, you will like World War III.

Batman: R.I.P.

When I started reading Batman: R.I.P., I had a bit of trouble figuring out what was going on; it felt like I was starting in the middle of the story, with Batman going steady with some girl (and it took quite awhile before they even mentioned what her name was). But once I got over that, more and more I was reminded of Knightfall, Part 1. But unlike Knightfall, where Bane was physically trying to break Batman, coming after him while he was physically very weak, Batman R.I.P. was concerned with breaking Batman's mind.

In Batman R.I.P., The Club of Villains has targeted Batman. They have gone after Batman, targeting his friends and releasing the Joker, all in the name of gambling. Assurred by their host that the Bat will break, it is simply a matter of deciding how and when. But have they severely underestimated him? Or is the world's greatest detective's mind about to fracture into insanity forever?

While I didn't enjoy this as much as Knightfall, I felt like Batman R.I.P. was written in the same spirit. Both stories were concerned with breaking the Bat. And both were good reads. Knightfall was just a lot less confusing (and in my opinion just overall better).

Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

I honestly don't have a lot to say about this one. I finally bought the Arkham Asylum 360 game and decided I wanted to read the graphic novel before beating it (I've played through quite a bit of the game at a friend's place so I know a lot of the story for it). I was prepared for the graphic novel to be a bit weird, especially with the art of Dave McKean, but I really wasn't prepared for this. My big problem was that I had a hard time following the story. There were quite a few parts where I wasn't sure what was going on. There were other parts where I couldn't follow the panels (by the end I figured them out but there were a few places where it looked like you could read them in a couple of ways). And I had a hard time reading some of what the Joker said (his speech was written in crazy letters in red ink).

The basic idea is that the inmates of Arkham take over and want Batman. Batman rises to the challenge (mostly going so the inmates will give up their hostages relatively unharmed). But once inside he has to struggle with his own sanity as well as those inside. Running parallel to Batman's story is the story of Arkham, the owner who converted the house into an insane asylum.

There were some cool moments (like Two-Face being weaned off of his coin). I'll probably try rereading it one day (as an attempt to better follow the action). But all in all this definitely wasn't one of my favourites.

Batman and Son

I picked this up about a month ago. I have to admit, I was intrigued about the idea of Batman having a son. Especially one trained by the League of Assassins.

So after The Bloody Chamber, I decided to take a shot with this book. And I have to say, the first half of it was great! There was a lot of action all over the place, and a lot of confusion over the fact that Batman has a son!

But at about the time of the Joker interlude, things started to go downhill. The Joker story, The Clown at Midnight was extremely creepy. It wasn't altogether bad, but it didn't seem fitting in the middle of this graphic novel. It slowed the action down a lot, being an actual short story, not a comic book. And did I say it was creepy? I can't stress that enough.

When I finished reading the interlude, I thought I would get right back into the action of the main story. Well, things went back to Damien, Batman's son, for a little bit. But then there was a bit about this Bane-like figure. And then came the weirdest thing of all: the last chapter of the graphic novel was set in the future. Batman died somehow, and Damien took over as Batman. It was confusing and an altogether disappointing end to the whole story. I wanted to know what Damien's mother was going to do after the explosion!

Long story short, this graphic novel was okay. The beginning is a lot of fun, but the ending leaves something to be desired.