Red Robin #22:
Summary: This issue is a part of the Judgment of Gotham storyline. What's that you ask? Exactly... We get started with Tim Drake announcing that during Final Crisis he went to church to confess his sins in case it truly was the end of the world. However, little Timmy had nothing to confess... REALLY?! Wow... Anyway, it seems that Azrael has kidnapped the mayor of Gotham City and threatened to kill him unless Tim arrives at City Hall to be judged by Azrael's sword. Tim has an hour to reach City Hall before Azrael kills the mayor. Oh, and standing between Tim and City Hall? The Crusader, who has massive telekinetic and pyrokinetic powers. The Crusader continues to place obstacles in Tim's path(flying school buses, crashing blimps, etc) to see how Tim responds to these threats. Tim manages to save everybody and makes it to City Hall before Azrael's deadline had passed. Tim demands that Azrael lets the mayor go, so Azrael stabs Tim in the chest with his sin-sensing sword. Tim is unharmed by the sword, which means he was truly without sin... REALLY?!? Having finally found someone without sin, Azrael is ready to call off his attack on Gotham, but before he can, the Crusader enters the room and tells Azrael that Tim doesn't believe in God, and as such, wasn't worthy. Azrael asks Tim if this was true, and Tim replies affirmatively. With that, Azrael sadly announces that Tim had failed his test and he and the Crusader leave. This issue ends with the White Ghost telling Ra's Al Ghul that Tim had failed the test. Ra's is glad, since he knows that both Dick Grayson(Batman) and Selina Kyle(Catwoman) are sinners, meaning that once they failed their tests, Azrael and Crusader would raze Gotham.
Thoughts: I liked this issue, although I'm not exactly sure what I think about this storyline yet... Are Azrael and this Crusader feeb really that unstoppable that NONE of the heroes of Gotham can stop them? I can't buy that. Plus I'm not exactly sure what Ra's game is here. Now, before I ended this review I'd be remiss to not mention the fact that Tim Drake is apparently WITHOUT sin! I mean hell, EVERYTHING is a sin! You're going to tell me he's never sinned once, ever, at all?! I mean he once tried to boink his dead best friend's girlfriend, shouldn't that be a sin? I guess I should strip the Saint moniker from Barry Allen and pass it on to Timmy!
Score: 8 out of 10.
All Hail Saint Timmy!!!Justice League of America: 80 Page Giant 2011 #1:
Summary: This issue was literally 80 pages, so if you're expecting an in-depth review, you're out of luck! Basically 18 members of the JLA(yes 18!), find themselves stuck in one of the 9 areas of Hell, and have to face their fears and overcome the various ordeals that Hell offers. After a LONG trip through Hell, in which the team is split into 9 groups of 2, they all manage to retrieve a piece of a mask that was hidden in each ring of Hell. Once that is accomplished, the team is sent to purgatory, where they discover Lord Satanus trapped in a cage by his sister Blaze, the current ruler of Hell... Huh, and here I thought Chairman Johns was the current ruler of Hell... Anyway, Satanus reveals that the team had assembled the Hell Mask for him, which gives him the power to control any being, including God himself or the devil. Since Batman was suspicious of this whole situation, he had Plastic Man hide himself in one of the pieces of the mask, allowing Plastic Man the opportunity to get the Mask away from Satanus. However, Plastic Man puts the Mask on, since he wanted to try to undo things that went wrong in his life. The Mask turns out to be too powerful for a mere mortal to use, leading to Plastic Man going on a mini-rampage. Eventually Plastic Man regains his sanity long enough to force the team to kill him lest he kills them. So Plastic Man is dead... Or is he? Zauriel arrives on the scene with Plastic Man and tells the JLA that since it wasn't Plastic Man's time to die yet, he was bringing him back. With that, the JLA and Zauriel leave, with Blaze trying to figure out a way to further punish her brother.
Thoughts: My god was this comic LOOOOONG!!! Usually that's a good thing, especially for a comic that was $6, but after like the 6th tale of JLA member in Hell, I was definitely ready for this issue to end... And then it KEPT on going! Was the story horrible? No, but it just wasn't for me. One question I have was, when exactly does this story take place?!? We have Wonder Woman dressed in her Teenage Amazon attire but acting like regular Wonder Woman, Batman was Bruce Wayne dressed in his new Bat attire, so yeah, that really left me puzzled...
Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.
But... But why does Teenage Amazon Wonder Woman have classic Wonder Woman's memories?!?!?
Just based on what you said about Wonder Woman and Batman, I'm glad I didn't pick this up. And JT asked if I was going to pick it up today, and I said I didn't want to read it anymore. Now I see why. Lol
ReplyDeleteAt least the art looks sweet in that scan.
All Hail Saint Timmy! Besides the non-sinning stuff (You try to boink my girlfriend and I'm alive, ya ass, Lmao.) I really enjoyed that issue, as did you, so that was cool. As for that JLA thing, it seems to be ass backwards and unbearably long to read.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I was able to save you $6, Lisha... Trust me, there are like 5,000,000 better things to do with your $ than buy this comic!
ReplyDeleteHA!!! I never claimed to be a saint though, JT! :P The JLA thing WAS just horribly long... I mean NINE seperate stories was a bit much... If they would have cut out like 4 or 5 of them, this would have been a WAY better read.
Lol I'm aware you aren't quite a saint :P So what do you think of this storyline with the Hell's Angels or whatever in Red Robin? Do you think they just randomly did a cross-over for no reason or are you cool with that?
ReplyDeleteYeah I can spend that $6 towards more comics. Lol. So it's all good. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm still pretty confused about this whole Judgment on Gotham deal. I mean it's nice to see a crossover between the various Bat-books, but DC literally gave this x-over like NO press what so ever! I mean they didn't even advertise it on the cover of Sirens! I'm telling ya, the more I think about it, the more certain I am that DC is run by a bunch of out of touch jackasses.
ReplyDeleteExactly, Lisha! But better comics! :P