Batman: Off-World #2 – Jason Aaron, Writer; Doug Mahnke, Penciller; Jaime Mendoza, Inker; David Baron, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: Jason Aaron’s run at DC has been off to a roaring start thanks to this gritty space adventure, which finds Batman shooting himself into space to take on a slave empire—all the while maintaining his core ethics of no guns and no death. It’s not going well, and he’s found himself as slave labor—which allows him to take the job with the most expendable slaves and keep them from getting killed. Similar to the Warworld Saga over in Superman, Batman is taking on the rules of a corrupt alien system and proving that one man can change them. But unlike Superman, Batman’s not looking to inspire. He’s here to cause some pain to slavers, and that involves learning how to fight against non-humans. With the help of a sarcastic fighting robot and the Tamaranian bounty hunter Ione, he’s slowly turning himself into an encyclopedia of how to beat aliens—no matter how many times he has to get hit in the head first.
Of course, punching alone won’t do it, and a large part of this issue is Batman finding the new ecosystem he exists in. At the top is Captain Synn, the ruthless pirate who is actively trying to winnow down the life on his ship. On the opposite side is Ione, who is becoming a very interesting new character. Her backstory is revealed this issue, and it’s a surprisingly affecting tale of someone who only realized what she was missing when it was too late—although we still don’t know how she got sentenced to death by her own people. As good as the character work is, the action in this title is world-class, with some of the best fight scenes in any book at DC right now plus a space escape that pushes Batman to is absolute limit and sends him to the next stage of his journey away from Synn’s ship—and into an incredibly hostile world that has very different threats waiting for him. Brilliant.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
