DC Comics 2017
Written by Scott Snyder & James Tynion IV
Penciled by Jim Lee, Andy Kubert & John Romita Jr.
Inked by Scott Williams, Klaus Janson & Danny Miki
Coloured by Alex Sinclair & Jeremiah Kipper
Lettered by Steve Wands
The Joker's surprise attack threatens to lay waste to all of Batman's carefully laid plans. Will the Dark Knight be able to regain the trust of his closest allies, Green Lantern and Duke, and prevent the forces of darkness from consuming the DC Universe?! Will Hawkman's warning stop our heroes from peering into the abyss?
The one thing holding this back from being superb is there are too many artists on this book. JRJR should’ve retired ages ago and I’m sorry Lee hasn’t changed or evolved his style since he first began and let’s face it neither one is capable of doing a full length book on any type of schedule. Now if there were chapters they each worked on maybe that could be overlooked but it’s a hodgepodge of pages done by whomever and it’s distracting and in some cases just downright awful (Jr’s work is beyond bad nowadays). Just because there is name recognition doesn’t mean they deserve the work i’m just sayin.
While i’m not really sure what is entirely going on here I do know that this is a reshaping of the DC Universe. Instead of another Crisis it seems they’ve come up with a way to rewrite sections of it so that it fits into some vision we aren’t privy to. This issue shows us that what we’ve known about the Hawks isn’t accurate and there’s more to their history than even they’ve been led to believe. Batman who can’t leave something alone is setting of a chain reaction of events that will plunge this reality into darkness the likes of which it’s never seen, supposedly.
Sounds like Darkseid’s involved somehow but then again I wouldn’t hold my breath. Still he’s overused and overexposed so it wouldn’t surprise me at all.
Now I may not know Duke or who he is to Bruce but he and Hal having to deal with the Joker who’s being kept captive in the Batcave that’s been something fun to see. I get the Guardians know something they aren’t telling Hal, they play things as close to the vest as Batman does after all, and by using him and his connection to Batman is smart. Scott and James working together on this story is probably one of the stronger writing combinations i’ve had the pleasure to read work by.
I will wholeheartedly admit that this changing of the way we see things, more so with the Hawks, is an interesting development. I like making their history go further back than anyone has ever realised. I also like that they are getting something of a spotlight. I”d like to see them regain their status in the DCU and by making them not just reincarnations but also detectives of history and life well it makes them more than they were.
Their resurgence is nice to see as are those who we’ve yet to see except in a few panels here and there during this and the previous issue. This makes the attempt at making the past relevant and trying simultaneously streamline it so that it’s easier to understand it’s okay. If it hadn’t been mucked with so much already this wouldn’t be necessary and if it fails well it’s just another multiverse earth it happened on right.
So the Hawks, The Bat and and Lantern are becoming more and more embroiled in each others pasts, present and future and ironically it works extremely well.