Comic Book Herald

A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

Batman

Batman: The White Knight – Mirrors of Mental Illness

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The White Knight (2017) takes a look into the psyche of Batman and the Clown Prince of Crime, the Joker. This is perhaps one of the most outwardly progressive runs that has happened in the Gotham universe, though it is heavily flawed. While we get to take a closer look into the “bromance” between Joker and Batman, we also gain an introspective look into the social stratosphere of Gotham outside of the criminal activity that takes place. This is a socially relevant storyline and is just as complex as our world can be. One of the primary themes it tackles is mental health, its propensity of being criminalized – and who gets the privilege of escaping its punishments.

It’s not a secret that Bruce Wayne has serious child trauma issues, but it has been a part of the discourse for a while now that his status as a privileged man in Gotham allows him to live out his revenge fantasies on so-called super villains. The White Knight shows us that the other side of the pasture is not as green as we’d like to see it. [Read more…] about Batman: The White Knight – Mirrors of Mental Illness

BATMAN, INC. by Grant Morrison: The Dark Knight Undone

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Batman is everywhere. Batman is everyone. But what becomes of Bruce Wayne when his most personal enemy yet targets everything he holds dear? And what will become of a son who can never escape his father’s shadow?

Grant Morrison’s Batman saga is the experience of one hero facing the greatest evil imaginable and winning by conquering both time and death, asserting his own eternal nature. And when Bruce Wayne returns to conquer the devil after being sent hurtling through time by Darkseid, he’s compelled to become a greater version of Batman than the world has ever known. But with a worldwide Batman comes a worldwide threat. [Read more…] about BATMAN, INC. by Grant Morrison: The Dark Knight Undone

Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? | Unreliable Narrator

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It would take Crisis on Infinite Earths to stop Superman. Wolfman and Perez’s cosmic classic was meant to be the first story in a new era for DC’s heroes. Which meant the end of Superman and Action Comics, and the creation of one last story.

Alan Moore’s Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? marks the “end” not for the hero, but more for Superman’s two on-going series and what they represented. It’s a bold book that provides a kind of final statement on the hero’s whole ethos, and it’s still a magnificent example of how to say goodbye to not just heroes, but particular definitions of heroism.

Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? is, unabashedly, an attempt to recreate that prior miracle. Like its predecessor, it comes before an important reboot (in this case, the major developments and cosmic expansion between Final Crisis, Blackest Night, and New Krypton), the death of an iconic hero (Batman: RIP.), and ushers in the ending of two of DC’s longest-running titles (Batman & Detective Comics). [Read more…] about Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? | Unreliable Narrator

Theses on Three Jokers by Geoff Johns & Jason Fabok

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Ed. Note: Spoilers for Three Jokers (and more or less the oeuvre of Geoff Johns) follow!

0. Let’s just get this out of the way: The Killing Joke is not that good of a comic. Even by the standards of bad Alan Moore comics, this sticks out in terms of its quality. Where most other trademark bad Alan Moore comics are bad for more interesting reasons (Neonomicon and later volumes of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen are bad for interesting yet horrifying reasons), The Killing Joke is perhaps Moore’s only major work that’s bad for the boring reasons most other comics are. It’s bad because it lacks ambition to be anything other than a story about Batman and the Joker. It’s bad because it treats Barbara Gordon more like a prop than a character. It’s bad because the environment it came out of was toxic to the point where Alan was explicitly told to “Cripple the b*#ch.”

In short, it’s bad in the same way comics like the Vigilante arc “Father’s Day,” the Violator miniseries, and Three Jokers are bad. [Read more…] about Theses on Three Jokers by Geoff Johns & Jason Fabok

Batgirl (Rebirth) Review! | What the Future Holds

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Series Writer: Hope Larson

Vol 1: Beyond Burnside
Vol 2: Son of Penguin
Vol 3: Summer of Lies
Vol 4: Strange Loop

Series Writer: Mairghread Scott

Vol 5: Art of the Crime
Vol 6: Old Enemies

Series Writer: Cecil Castellucci

Vol 7: Oracle Rising

Overview | “Rebirth, Batgirl, and Genre Books”

Batgirl Rebirth picks up from Gail Simone’s character-defining run and Batgirl of Burnside during DC’s New 52. Barbara is again in her early 20s, her previous continuity retconned so that she survived the events of the Killing Joke without permanent effect. More importantly, without the full trauma of the event. Pair that with Simone’s empowering story of recovery and an aversion to complicated continuity, and Babs is once again the joyful, rebellious cop’s daughter. Pleasantly, she also maintains a lot of the “teenage girl detective” archetype that initially made her popular, despite Rebirth depicting her as a grad student in her 20s. [Read more…] about Batgirl (Rebirth) Review! | What the Future Holds