The Batman Annual #2 is a wonder to behold, but some of this issue will really leave you wondering!
It’s a love story gone off the rails, it’s a lovely story ruined by rain, it’s reigning supreme in the riddle of life, it’s all things to all Batman fans.
It’s the icing on the cake, it takes the cake, it leaves the cake out in the rain.
I’ll rant and rave through this review because this issue drove me from enthusiasm to despair to sleeplessness.
Written by Tom King, and illustrated by (first) Lee Weeks and (then by) Michael Lark (colors by Elizabeth Breitweiser and June Chung), this Batman Annual, entitled “Some of These Days”, stars Batman and the Catwoman on centre stage.
It’s dramatic, it’s poetic. The first 30 pages are intense, rhythmic, and contain some of the very VERY best comic art and story I have read in a long time.
It’s the Catwoman and Batman, getting to know each other. As simple as that, but handled with such grace and mastery, it will move you.
Then, Tom King, the rider switches horses at page 31until the end of the tale. Many things change with the second section of this comic, but notably the artist. This is a jarring shift in how the story is told. As unique and talented as Michael Lark is, nothing prepares the reader for the jolt he/she feels to enter the second section.
A beautifully told tale, with a shocking, seemingly unnecessary change in the artist at the 2/3rds mark of the comic. What a pity.
Last night, I dreamt that this comic had two halves that were unrelated and joined like Siamese twins. But it ain’t so; the clarity of daylight reassured me that there is a solid story here. And it is as powerful as heck.
Now that you are prepared for this, don’t let anything stop you from reading one of the best Batman tales of the year, certainly. Go for it!
Highly recommended!!
DC Batman Annual #2, 39 pages of content for $4.99
Newsdesk