Little Batman: Month One #2 – Morgan Evans, Writer; Jon Mikel, Artist; Ian Herring, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: This spinoff from the offbeat animated movie is a lot of fun, but it’s also taking on some more serious plots. Bruce Wayne has been kidnapped by the Scarecrow, choosing to go willingly as a hostage rather than to expose his secret identity. And Scarecrow’s plan is to hold him captive until he gets what he wants…from Batman. Yeah. Damian is struggling with not being able to help his father, and the presence of a potentially sinister new babysitter is only making him more tense. So naturally, the only thing to do is to head out there as Little Batman and see what he can scrounge up. He takes on a trio of goons – but why are they in possession of fear toxin, forcing him to endure some terrifying visions? This series does a good job of balancing its superhero action with some great cartoony twists, like a hilarious vision of what life would be like if Bruce and Damian were Batman all the time.
The Batman and Scooby-Doo Mysteries #12 – J. Torres, Writer; Dario Brizuela, Artist; Franco Riesco, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: The final issue of this run, I believe, brings in one of the most unlikely characters to cross over with the Mystery Machine gang yet – Phantasm, the terrifying spectre of vengeance from the amazing animated feature. However, at the character’s core, Phantasm is essentially a masked mystery villain – so the themes are there, and this issue finds someone dressed as Phantasm haunting a theater that’s about to close and is engaged in a bidding war for the new tenant. While Leslie Thompkins wants to turn it into a community center, the owner wants more money – but the skull-faced ghost is driving down prices. The mystery here isn’t very hard to figure out, but the story has a great moody vibe in places and it’s a fitting closing act to this series for now. There are some great callbacks to stories like Phantom of the Opera, as well as some great visual surprises.
DC Horror Presents Creature Commandos #3 – David Dastmalchian, Writer; Jesus Hervas, Artist; Alex Guimaraes, Colorist
Ray – 8/10
Ray: This series has been slowly parceling out the story of its monstrous warriors, but we’ve gotten enough hints that each of them has something dark in their past. This issue, it’s Vincent’s time to shine, as we get a grim flashback to him and his vampire partner dealing with a corrupt pastor and a twisted religious ritual. It has enough elements of horrors that happen in real life to be stark and terrifying, and it goes a long way to explaining why this character is such a creep in the modern day. We’ve gotten the same hints about Wanda, our werewolf, and the mysterious Frankenstein known only as Lucky, but the leaders of this organization have similar secrets hiding in the closet. Still, it’s a little odd that three issues in we’ve only really seen the characters at base, and we’re still waiting for them to be unleashed on the world at large. Lots of story still to be played out in this book.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
