Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Batman Superman #10 Review




Inside your head.


The team has switched and while we’re treated to a story that’s already been told to death, it’s highly enjoyable – something I couldn’t associate with Batman/Superman until now.

My grouse against Jae Lee stands, but the Hepburn-Kerschl combo doesn’t work too well and the figures are inconsistent from page to page.

Jeff Lemire in on this issue, and I’m not sure whether Greg is off the book or taking a break (again, it seems mainly because of Lee’s notorious problems with deadlines on this book).

The problem though is the predictability of this one-shot and despite some enjoyable quips and a welcome return to DC proper for one hero, the issue fails to rise above lukewarm.

SPOILERS FOLLOW……………….

I’m not that familiar with S.H.A.D.E (Super-Human Advanced Defense Executive) in the New 52, except that they were featured in a short-lived Frankenstein and the Creature Commandos series.

Apparently, their head command (including a small girl curiously named Father Time) is monitoring different incidents across the globe (including a Red Lantern Kara aka Supergirl and Green Arrow) in a three-inch mobile sphere that serves as their headquarters.


They get a visitor in Superman, who needs to speak with Dr. Ray Palmer, one of their scientists (including a hint at one of the Superman phrases – it’s a bird, it’s a plane….).

Apparently, Batman is lying comatose in the Fortress of Solitude (Superman’s base) after a rescue of a Chinese Space Station. And Ray Palmer is the man to save him – as Ray himself finds out when he spots a microscopic costumed figure floating dead in Batman’s blood stream.

And here was where we went the predictable route – a microscopic city has nestled in a blood vessel of Batman’s brain.


Using Palmer’s technology, he shrinks himself and Superman and they arrive at the city, which they discover is a mobile spacecraft. They meet up with a pair of ‘natives’ and learn that a pair of prisoners have escaped, killed their hero and captured the ship.

We finally glimpse the miscreants – one who looks like O.M.A.C and the other is a Red Lantern. One of them (the O.M.A.C one) takes Superman’s matter reduction kit and is able to grow himself and exit Batman.


He attempts to kill the unconscious Batman while Superman stops the other. Ray relocates the ship into an empty mobile sphere and they prepare to exit Batman’s brain.


In the Fortress, Batman wakes up and though still weak, is able to defeat the muscular attacker. The minimization of the ship is completed with some problems, due to Batman’s exertions outside.

As it ends, Palmer makes a joke that Superman will be trapped without his kit, and the latter doesn’t take it too kindly.

Outside, they find that Batman has managed to knock out the attacker and Ray Palmer takes leave, with his final words that he is thinking of becoming a costumed hero named ‘the Atom’ (which Batman doesn’t take too well given what happened in Trinity War).

At S.H.A.D.E headquarters, Father Time and her assistant reveal that they have placed microscopic sensors that will monitor Batman and Superman from now on.

SPOILERS END………………

It felt like Lemire was make to do this at the last minute, and it resulted in a rushed by-the-note story with no depth.

Yes, the guest star was welcome but it felt more like filler than an actual story by itself. The artwork didn’t do it any favors, with its inconsistency.

Still, it was far more enjoyable than most of this series has been for a while.

So, I give it 6.5 out of 10.

+Some enjoyable banter
+Welcome guest star

-Rushed story
-Predictable
-Artwork was inconsistent

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