This week was fairly light on new releases, but the highlight of the short list is a Batman villain that isn’t normally given the spotlight.
Poison Ivy has been giving her own 6-issue series that will follow Pamela Isley in her quest to return to the scientific world of plants while leaving behind her former villainous ways. The Ivy book comes as a bit of a surprise given what is currently happening in the Batman books with the latest and greatest villain Mister Bloom. However, it could be interesting to see her interact with another nature-based superhuman if that’s what DC has in mind going forward.
With that being said, Batman #48 also released this week and the aforementioned Mister Bloom was absolutely stellar. He has brought to Gotham what only Joker has ever brought: pure pandemonium and chaos of the terrifying kind. Speaking of Joker, this latest issue of Batman also begins to give the details of just what the clown prince has been up to since Endgame.
The following are separate reviews for comics released on January 20, 2016:
Batman #48 – Grade: 9.2
Mister Bloom is the most brutal villain to enter the DC Universe in years and the character has been given life by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. It’s exciting to watch the back and forth between Bloom and Jim Gordon’s Batman and their varying views on the city as it continues to repair itself following Joker’s endgame. Also, Bruce Wayne’s inevitable return to Batman is being handled in the best way imaginable with a lot of carefully placed plot points driving him towards the cowl.
Lucifer #2 – Grade: 9.0
Seeing as how Lucifer is going to be a television show beginning in just four days on FOX, this book sure does a good job of distinguishing itself as an excellent read that has nothing to do with where the show will begin. Lucifer Morningstar teams up with a fellow disgraced angel to track down the murderer of the Presence (aka God himself). The parallels between what Lucifer is doing and what other ungodly thing is happening in the middle of some random town in Oklahoma plays really well when mashed together in this issue. The evil behind everything has yet to be fully revealed, but the pacing assures that we will reach our answers sooner rather than later.
Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death #1 – Grade: 8.7
Honestly, when the news first broke that Poison Ivy was getting a series all to her own, I had a lot of skepticism about just how good it could be. Low and behold, the limited series gets off to a strong start with the debut of Pamela Isley in her new position at Gotham Botanical Gardens. The addition of Harley Quinn to throw a wrench into Ivy’s attempts at a normal life is something that readers can look forward to moving forward I’m sure. This issue does struggle with pacing, but it does a good job of avoiding going into too much exposition about every character.
Red Thorn #3 – Grade: 7.3
Red Thorn’s first two issue were exactly what you look for in a comic, but the third issue fell by the wayside a bit with too many storylines happening at once. When working through the book, I found myself looking back and wondering just what was going on because the issue jumped around so much. Thorn is a really great character though as writer David Baillie likes to play with his morale quite a bit and leave the reader guessing which side our main character has landed on.
Photo credit: DC Comics
