Comic Book Reviews for March...But Which March?

The month is almost over, so I think now is a good time to put up comic book reviews for March.

March 1995, that is.

What WAS going on in comic books a decade ago?

You shall see.

Spoilers ahead!

Batman #518



From the “historic” team of Moench, Jones and Beatty comes this very strong issue.When Black Mask, in the beginning of the issue, began to go on about the power of masks, I was worried….scared that Moench would break out his patented “go on a long tangent about something he read.”

But he didn’t, and the story was helped by it greatly.The art from Jones was strong as usual, that is, if you enjoy Jones’ style of art. If you do not, I could understand you hating the art in this issue. I like his art style.

There were a bunch of various sub-plots relating to the continuity of the time, but Moench managed to handle them all quite well….someone new to the comic would have no difficulty understanding what was going on, but someone who read the previous issues would get little extras.

Good issue!

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #38 – This was from the short period in time when Barry Kitson was drawing the title. It even still had the title page. Lord, did I hate that title page. It is worse than a recap page!

In any event, this was a strong issue as well. Alan Grant followed up on Alan Moore’s origin of the Joker in “The Killing Joke” with this storyline, where the Joker rounds up all the comic critics who thought he was terrible when he was a young stand-up comic, eventually leading to him becoming the Red Hood (and later, the Joker).

One thing that stuck out for me was why exactly Joker waited this long to get revenge on these people?

In any event, it was a nice Joker appearance.

Kitson’s art looked good.

Good issue!

Detective Comics #685



This is the first part of a three-part crossover with Chuck Dixon’s other title, Robin. The guest art on the entire crossover was by Steve Lieber, which served two purposes.

1. It unified the crossover visually.
2. It gave us three issue of really cool Steve Lieber artwork.

The story is about Robin’s old foe, the King Snake, taking on all challengers to his superiority in Gotham’s Chinatown

In this issue, it involves fighting against his own gang.

Dixon also works in the major sub-plots of the Bat-books at the time well (Namely being Harvey Bullock returning to the force after an injury, a tough crook Tommy Mangles on the loose with no one willing to bring him in and Bruce having to deal with life without Alfred, who quit awhile back), without drawing away from the main story.

Good issue!

Robin #17– The Bat-books are coming through! This is the fourth book in a row that I would say was a good issue.

This is the second part of the crossover, and King Snake’s war in spreading to other Chinatown gangs.

Also, the Huntress makes an appearance!

In this issue, we also see a bit of what made Robin such an acclaimed book back then, the realistic relationship that Tim had with his girlfriend, and basically, with everyone around him.

Dixon really deserves a lot of credit for the establishment of Tim Drake in the DC Universe.

Good issue!


Superman: Man of Steel #44



This issue really requires a good knowledge of the Superman continuity of the time, as this is the beginning of the sad tradition of almost forced crossovers on the Superman titles.

After the success of the Death and Reign of Superman, the Superman books began to try to force the issue by having crossovers every year or so.

This year’s crossover was “The Death of Clark Kent,” and this issue was the prelude to the event.

The art from Bogdanove was good if you like his very stylized work. I happen to enjoy it, but I know it turns others off.

Louise Simonson enjoys writing children, so she had a field day with the young orphan Keith, who was adopted by Perry White and his wife. This issue, she tells us a story about prejudice and knowing your real friends, and introduces Keith’s new multi-racial friends! Yay!

I kid, I kid….the story was nice enough.

By the by, some people mock Byrne’s Superman as being the Yuppie Clark Kent. Well, lord, do not read this issue then, people! , in his ponytail, wearing a loose sweater…ugh…it is a sad sight.

The Simonson story was sweet enough to still eke out a good issue for this one.

Superman #100



This was Dan Jurgens’ last issue as penciller of Superman, and he went out with a flourish. All of his trademark full-page spreads and weird panel layouts (note that all of this only happened when he became more established on the Superman titles…he was much more reserved when he first started drawing the books)

In any event, this issue was so steeped in stupid continuity and plot contrivances that I really did not enjoy it.

In addition, the story was being stretched out to fill the double-sized format, and it didn’t go very well.

And really…”Clark Kent must be dead!”

Soooo silly.

Not a good issue!

Adventures of Superman #523 was a relief. Karl Kesel really shined during these big crossovers, as he managed to work with the crossover while still giving a standard comic that was not dependent upon the others for enjoyment.

In this issue, ably illustrated by Stuart Immonen and Jose Marzan, Superman finds himself trying to protect his parents from Warp, Plasmus and Neutron, who are working for Kenny Braverman, Conduit, the guy behind this whole mess (and no, you really do not need to know more about Kenny Braverman…trust me on this).
This was not a deep issue, but it was a fun issue, with a lot of cool fight scenes.

And Stuart Immonen is a really good artist.

So I will say good issue!

Wow….this sure filled up a lot of space really quickly, and I have 16 more March comics to review! This is sooo not fitting within the space requirements.

I guess I will split it up over the next two days, 8 on Wednesday and 8 on Thursday. That will take me right through to the end of March. There’s a nice symmetry there.

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it boys and girls?

Till tomorrow!

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