Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Batman #37 Review and *SPOILERS*



Double Date


Written By: Tom King
Art By: Clay Mann, Jordie Bellaire, Clayton Cowles
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: December 20, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Well, now that we know that Superman and Batman know all about each other and admire each other, it's time for their wife and fiance to finally meet........... Yeah, there's not much to say about this going in.  In the previous issue, Superman didn't want to call Bruce about him being engaged to find out why Bruce didn't tell him about it and Bruce didn't want to call Clark to tell him about the engagement, but after a lot of repeated dialog and a back and forth narration, we finally saw both couples come together to take down Dr. Double X.  Now it's time for them to finally meet proper I guess.  Let's jump into this issue and see how that goes.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Bruce, Selina, Clark and Lois going out to a traveling fair, where initially they're turned away because it's "Superhero Night" and apparently if you're not in a costume....... you're not allowed in.  Yeah........ because carnivals and fairs hate money.  So because of this asinine situation, Lois convinces them to just pull their costumes out and swap them........ leaving Catwoman to put on Lois' dress and still be allowed into the fair because she said "Meow" in a low, sexy voice to the ticket taker.  


So yeah, at the fair, where Lois is in Catwoman's costume, Bruce is in Superman's costume and Clark is dressed like Batman, we have Bruce and Clark discuss whether or not Bruce could hit a fast ball thrown by Superman...... turns out he could....... because he's Batman...... and while that is going on, Lois and Selina are getting drunk from Lois' flask and talking about their significant others.  


In the end, Superman and Batman stop a mugger, we do the whole back and forth between what the ladies are saying and what the World's Finest are saying, which really makes the issue disjointed to read....... especially since a lot of it is just the same dialog repeated by different people at different times and like I said, Batman hits a baseball thrown by Superman.


That's it for this issue of Batman and like the previous issue, this story just makes the World's Finest seem like less than they should....... Mostly because they're repeating the same dialog as they did in the previous issue and on top of that, the women of this issue seem off too........ Yeah, that's mostly because of the drinking going on at the fair and while this might seem like something normal you'd see, it just doesn't feel right for the situation..... especially with these characters.  The characters seem weird, the dialog is repeated like you'd expect and the whole deal with everyone switching clothing makes this kind of hard to follow if you're not constantly keeping that in mind....... Plus, the whole situation that makes them do this just seems ridiculous to me.  The art in this issue is okay, but like last issue it's really line heavy (which isn't a style I'm a fan of) and makes Bruce just look dirty throughout.  Thankfully, this story is over now and maybe we can get back to Batman acting like Batman, but at this point I'm not getting my hopes up.

Bits and Pieces:

A lot of dialog from last issue is repeated here, while we have new dialog repeated throughout as our World's Finest and their significant others spend a night at a fair, where they're forced into a nonsensical situation.  The art is decent, even if it's not a style I really enjoy, but overall, this story just makes our heroes feel weird, while it works up to a wanna-be Flash/Superman race that feels ridiculous by the end. 

5/10

13 comments:

  1. Sounds like I should not regret making last issue my jumping off point

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    1. It's kind of fun...kind of. Actually, it just makes me mad, so yes, you should not regret anything!!!

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    2. I would say it's almost fun but that alternating part in the middle is torture to read which kills any momentum or fun I was having ... I still don't know what the story has been in Batman since Jokes and Riddles ended, this random pointless arc crap is killing me .

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  2. I can’t explain why really but Selina and Lois drinking from a flask and getting sloshed at a fair bothers me. Like that’s something a tired soccer mom does on their one night out or something. It just seems so lame and like a poor attempt to make them look cool and “down”. It all just came off really dumb to me. Give me the Superman Fair issue over this any day.

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  3. This is a comic book. There are pages, art, and words. And staples.

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  4. Sounds like you just didn’t get this issue or the previous one, nevermind, your review reveals more about you than about Tom Kings writing. The writing is subtle, clever and nuanced. And it is great to have a non grim batman story. And the art is delightful.

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    1. "subtle, clever and nuanced" . You nailed it . 100% .

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    2. The cleverest thing about his writing here is how he had Catwoman say what nonsense the Jokes and Riddles story was.

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    3. I think it reveals that he doesn't like this writing! So, you like a non grim batman story and I want a story that has cohesion, dialogue that matters and a Batman who does something...anyhting!!! Why are you so important that you think it has to be your way? You don't even have a name, anonymous!!!!!

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    4. Plus, what does it reveal? That he is writing a review with his own thoughts and not just saying it's great to avoid assholes like you? Yea, I guess it does reveals a lot about him.

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    5. The internet has ruined so many words that USED TO mean something... "genius" and "brilliant" are the first two to come to mind... "subtle" "clever" and "nuanced" are rapidly gaining on them though

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  5. Wow, I finally got around to reading this issue... and really didn't like it! I thought that was all on me, especially since the "mainstream" reviewers were dealing out "Perfect 10's" like they're going out of style.

    This whole issue feels like King asked "Hey, wouldn't it be funny if...?" and then forgot to write a story that made any sense.

    Thanks for giving this the review it deserved!

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