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Mild Mannered Reviews - Superman/Batman

Superman/Batman #71

Superman/Batman #71

Scheduled to arrive in stores: April 21, 2010

Cover date: June 2010

"The Big Noise" - Part 4: "The Final Solution"

Writer: Joe Casey and Joshua Williamson
Penciller: Jay Fabok
Inker: Prentis Rollins, Rebecca Buchman, Derek Fridolfs and Walden Wong

Michael Bailey Reviewed by: Michael Bailey

Click to enlarge



"Anderson" begins to revive the Kryptonian ship as the Batman confronts him. Batman tells him that it's over, causing "Anderson" to morph into a multi-tentacled form and the battle begins. Meanwhile in the Fortress of Solitude Superman has had enough of NRG-X and after realizing how much of the villain's body is cybernetic he rips off NRG-X's head. Back on the ship Batman and "Anderson" fight viciously. The Dark Knight manages to stun "Anderson" with three explosive batarangs but "Anderson" has the last laugh as the ship is going to crash into Metropolis. Batman contacts Superman, who flies to the ship and fights with "Anderson" to give Batman time to change the ship's course. Superman ends the fight by freezing "Anderson" into place as Batman manages to steer the ship away from Metropolis and it crashes into the ocean. Superman warns the Durlan not to shape shift, but he does anyway and seemingly kills himself in the process since he was frozen at the time. Superman and Batman talk about the ramifications of the recent battle with Batman finally saying that no matter what, the past will always come back to haunt them.

3Story - 3: This is one of those rare times where I didn't love the comic I am reviewing but at the same time I didn't absolutely hate it with the fire of a thousand suns either.

"The Big Noise" was pretty average from beginning to end. It had some interesting concepts that Joe Casey was trying to play with and the more I think about it the more I realize that it does kind of fit in with the time period that DC tried to shoe-horn it in to. I can totally have seen this story running in ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN circa 2001/2002, especially how they treated the Durlans without referencing the Legion of Super-Heroes outright.

Overall though this was an action packed and pretty exciting finale to the story. I have to admit that I liked how aggressive Superman acted throughout the issue because it isn't something that should be done on every page but I think if the situation warrants it that Superman kind of having enough of whatever is going on. This situation in particular would be close to Superman's heart because it deals with his ancestors and the fact that they weren't the nicest people to deal with.

(The overly picky fanboy in me wants to point out that if this story was supposed to take place in the era the cover states that it takes place in that the Kryptonians couldn't have had an intergalactic space fleet because the Eradicator had introduced an element into the Kryptonian cellular structure that made it fatal to leave Krypton. Not something to dwell on but something worth mentioning, at least to me.)

So not the worst issue of this series but at the same time I didn't come away thinking that this was the best story the title has seen. I think adding the OUR WORLDS AT WAR logo was a bad idea but at the end of the day I have come to believe that it didn't hurt the story at all.

I will say this, though; this is one of the better Joe Casey Superman related stories I have read. Usually I don't like his take on the Man of Steel. That wasn't the case this time out.

3Art - 3: The art was big and loud and the story needed that for the finale of this story. I liked the fact that it wasn't a bunch of two page spreads, which seems to be happening a lot more lately with the titles I review. Fabok knew when to focus in and knew when to pull the camera back as well. His Superman looked awesome most of the time. Unfortunately Batman was stuck in that costume for the majority of the issue, which made sense but was kind of disappointing because I really didn't care for it too much.

So yeah, the art was pretty solid. Like the story it wasn't something to gush over but it served the story well.

3Cover Art - 3: This isn't a bad cover but it didn't exactly grab me either. Superman and Batman looked pretty good, though.


Mild Mannered Reviews

2010

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.

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