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Batman: Earth One Volume 2 and Secret Wars #1 review

After a successful released of the first volume of Batman:Earth One, the duo of Geoff Johns and Gary Frank returns for the second volume featuring Riddler and Killer Croc as the villains. What do I think of this graphic novel ? Hit the jump to find out, also my thought of Secret Wars #1.


Batman:Earth One volume 2

Volume two picks off six months after volume one with Batman know a lot more skillful is trying to clean up the city vigilante ways while The Dent Siblings tried to do it the legit way. At the same time, a murder case happened with a question mark sign left as a calling card and it is up to Gordon to solve the case and at the same time pull his partner, Harvey Bullock back together after being broken from their last case.

To start off, this feel like a better Riddler story than Scott Snyder's Zero Year. In terms of his goal is a lot more clear and make sense, but at the same time, the riddle sometimes feel very unnecessary, though Geoff Johns kind off addressed that at point in the story. It doesn't feel established enough in the story why he likes riddles and that's what bothering me. I think two of the best Riddler stories are his origin in Batman Animated and The Riddler Bomb game in The Batman.

Other than that, I enjoyed most of the character. One part that I like about this one is the slow build up of how he become the Batman we know. The first volume seems a little bit rush on Bruce Wayne transformation to become Batman and Zero Year seems to have Bruce Wayne highly competent already as Batman. Also, somehow this feels a little bit like the Gotham TV Series, as it is very investigative and Gordon plays such a big role in the book, it can almost be his story as well.

In term of plot, again, it is very mystery based and oddly, you are solving the case along with Batman. Most of mystery book has the detectives and the watson. Watson character acts as us who follow along with the detective who has thought about the mystery ten steps ahead. In Batman, the watson has always been either Alfred or Robin however, in this book, Batman is both the detectives and the watson. They also did a good job of setting up the next villains though I wasn't a big fan on the incarnation of Two Face in this book. It has an interesting take, but I feel to change the gender feel like it is different for a sake of to be different.

Geoff Johns talent certainly shine in this book and proves that he is a good writer. In this book, he doesn't have to worry about the bigger world continuity like the regular DC titles because there is no bigger world, it is just Gotham so he could play with it as he wanted to. While I enjoy a shared universe, this is where a limited universe shows that it has its advantages

Overall, I feel like this is like a Batman story that is accessible to all kind of Batman fan. If feels realistic enough if you are a Nolan Batman fan, but still have that sense of comic book-y if you are a traditional incarnation of Batman fan. I give the graphic novel a 5.0 out 5.0. A solid story, interesting character interaction, great art, the Two Face was the one issue that bothering me a bit but it doesn't hurt the story at all.

Secret Wars #1

Marvel multiverse event finally kicks off with Secret Wars #1, or does it ? Here's the thing, this could easily be the conclusion of Time Runs Out and make issue two, issue one instead. This issue essentially just a wrap up for that story and Secret Wars hasn't even kick off yet. I couldn't really talk of the plot because it is set up who's the main player in the story with some of the choice seems odd, with odd I mean they were chosen because Marvel wanted to maintain that incarnation of character for their movie, more on that later.

Art wise, I think Marvel never learns. Esad Ribic was not the good choice for this issue, especially when you have half of the character making the same face expression in the cast list. Also, the character design doesn't line up even within the same title line. The very last issue of Avengers has Hulk in a normal hair but now he's back with his mohawk for some reason. Captain Marvel has her hideous Fohawk again for some reason. Not to forget, a cameo from the movie version of Guardian of Galaxy and they even brought the weapon from the third act of the movie.

Story wise, there is some interesting moment. The Punisher moment was funny and the Reed Richards moment towards  the end was definitely great but everything else was just chaos and battle here and there. One thing that I figure lack from Hickman is he doesn't really know a good page composition. For a battle that is so big, there is no splash page like at all while in Trinity War final act and in Throne of Atlantis final act, there were at least two splash pages in each issue. I would have enjoy this more if there is like a splash page like the cover above of the war itself and I think because of that it was hard for me to keep track, where is certain thing happening.

The end seemingly to finally set up Battle World, however unlike Convergence, other Marvel titles are still running, it is just The Avengers title that is ending, so my question is how much of what happen along Secret Wars will remain canon as we know that the universe is rebooting and only about 5 characters survives ?

Overall, there is still a lot of mysteries and questions surrounding Secret Wars which I guess hold up to the event itself. Unfortunately, I couldn't follow the event until the end, but I'm interesting where this story is going just because there is so many unanswered question. For this first issue, I give it 4.0 out 5.0. The issue ties up the loose end in what kick off the event itself, but doesn't serve well as the first issue of an event, also the art is just decent. 

What do you think of this two comic books ? Do you enjoy them or do you agree with my opinions ? Sound off your thought in the comment section. Stay tuned for more reviews and updates from us. You can like or subscribe to us at Facebook, Youtube, or Tapastic. Finally don't forget to follow us here at Comikrew Studio.

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