Action Comics #903 & Detective Comics #880

We're deep in DC territory now, as the next couple of review I do will be coming from the DC family of comics. We kick things off with two of DC's longest running series, Action Comics and Detective Comics. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the fact that DC is renumbering these two series come September is a travesty... Renumber every other series, but come on, these two series have been running since the 1930's! So there are my thoughts on that, here are my thoughts on this month's installment of those two books.

Action Comics #903:

Summary: This issue begins with the various members of the Superman family(Supergirl, Superboy & Steel) picking a Doomsday and trying to prevent it from carrying out the Doomslayer's mission, the destruction of the earth. As for Superman himself, he decides to take the fight right to the Doomslayer himself by firing himself at the Doomslayer's ship in a big cannon... Yes, that was a bit weird. Luckily for the Supes family, the Eradicator has managed to take possession of Doomsday(the original) and has been traveling the globe with a band of heroes beating up the Doomslayer's rogue Doomsdays. On the Doomslayer's ship, the Doomslayer is busy giving a soliloquy about why he's destroying the earth when he's interrupted with news of a hull breach. The Doomslayer quickly realizes that it was Supes who breached his ship, and nervously watches as Supes makes his way through the ship and heads right for the ship's engines. While in the ship's engine room, Supes possibly figures out the Doomslayer's identity(a Doomsday clone that got lost in the ship for millions of years), which leads to the Doomslayer hastily powering up the engines with the hope being that the heat from the engines would destroy Supes.

Thoughts: I really don't have much to say about this one... It was perfectly acceptable. The story moved along well, Supes entered the Doomslayer's ship, setting up what I'm sure will be the final confrontation between Supes and the Doomslayer, and Supes appeared to deduce the Doomslayer's identity. Now if I read into this issue correctly, the Doomslayer would be a Doomsday clone who got lost on that massive alien ship for a few million years, meaning the lost Doomsday would have had a few million years to evolve, which would explain the Doomslayer's intelligence compared to the other Doomsdays. If that's the identity of the Doomslayer I have no qualms with it, as it makes sense. I'm a bit confused by the ending with the Doomslayer firing up the engines, since I thought he wanted to do that after his ship burrowed into the earth's core, but whatever. All in all, this was a good, fast, action-packed read.

Score: 7 out of 10.The Doomslayer really needs to work on his insults...


Detective Comics #880:

Summary: We get started with Commissioner Gordon calling his ex-wife Barbara to warn her that the Joker had escaped from Arkham and that she needed to go with hotel security just in case he was going to go after her. Barbara agrees to go, and upon hearing a knock at Barbara's hotel room door, Gordon can hear screams and a struggle from the other end of the phone. By the time he reaches her room, Barbara is sitting nude in the tub with that ghastly Joker-venom produced smile on her face. Gordon takes Barbara to the laboratory that was given to the Gotham PD by Wayne Enterprises, and learns from Barbara Gordon(that would be Oracle... Why are there two characters named Barbara Gordon anyway?) and Dick Grayson that Barbara #1 would likely survive with no real damage since she was hit with an early, less-lethal dose of Joker-venom. From there, Dick switches to his Batman duds and heads to Arkham where he begins to track down the Joker by following the trail of Joker-venom the mad clown was secreting. Dick finds Joker, crazy as ever, living in some ancient catacomb under Gotham, complaining about the fact that Dick wasn't Joker's Bat. Joker actually realizes who Dick is, as he repeatedly calls him “little bird” before attacking Dick, since Joker had been waiting for “his” Batman to return. Dick proceeds to beat Joker down and demands that he leaves the Gordons alone. Joker scoffs at Dick, telling him that he didn't do anything to the Gordons this time, and that “his” Batman would have figured that out right away. It's then and there that Dick realizes the mistake that he made, and understands that whoever had helped the Joker escape Arkham had actually attacked Barbara #1. Barbara #1 wakes up from her Joker-venom drugging and begins to scream to Gordon the identity of her real attacker... This issue ends with Gordon's son, James Jr., arriving at Oracle's apartment and proceeding to attack her.

Thoughts: This comic started off kind of slowly, but the reveal at the end made it all worthwhile for me. So it was James Jr. who smuggled the Joker-venom into Arkham to free Joker, since he knew that once Joker was free everybody's attention would be on the Clown Prince of Crime, allowing him to enact his own insane plans unmolested... Very nicely done, Scott Snyder... Right off the bat I thought it was Joker who attacked Barbara #1, and I didn't realize who the real attacker was until roughly when Dick and Gordon figured it out. It's nice to be tricked by a comic story every now and then, especially when the swerve makes perfect sense and isn't simply added for shock value with little thought put into it. As usual, this was another good issue of this series.

Score: 8 out of 10.That is one creepy ass looking Joker!