Stack Attack #2

Don’t you love when you have a really heavy week (like last week) balanced out by a light week?  Your wallet gets a second to breathe and you don’t feel so overwhelmed.  I’ve learned that the one downside to the light week is that it makes picking the best and worst books out of that smaller stack much more difficult.  That being said, lets do this…

Paul Dini’s current storyline is apparently pseudo-tied-in (double hyphenation!) to Grant Morrison’s main Batman event: RIP.  However, this is far from having anything to do with the crazy, super-insider RIP storyline.  Instead, Dini has been bringing us a great Hush storyline that I think will have an outcome affecting the RIP story.  Hush and Scarecrow have teamed up and are using a little nefarious bait-and-switch villainy on the Caped Crusader.  Scarecrow has kidnapped a little kid and hooked him up to “Venom”, the juice that makes Bane all large and scary.  Batman, of course, foils this plot rather quickly, only to discover that Scarecrow and the boy were a distraction.  While Batman and Scarecrow were going at it, it seems Hush has kidnapped Catwoman, removed her heart from her body, and then placed her on some sort of comic book life support.  

First off, let me say that I love the Scarecrow.  I don’t know why but he’s just one of my favorite Bat-villains.  He’s so creepy and weird, it just speaks to me I suppose (in a weird way).   Seeing him team up with Hush is a very nice touch and certainly one I would’ve never thought of.  Hush’s motivation of jealousy is the peanut butter to Scarecrow’s chocolate fear.   

I also need to touch on the art.  I love the art in this book.  Dustin Nguyen draws a mighty fine Batman.  The characters are really clear, yet also stylized in a fun and interesting way.  I love how his panels are always broad and beautiful.  They all feel like splash pages to me.  The cover is also just magnificent.  It tells the story but you don’t realize it until you’re done.  

At the end of the day, this is just a typical Batman story.  Villain or villains have a sinister plot, Batman investigates, fights, and stops the plan.  There are twists and turns.  You know what though?  I love typical Batman stories.   

This won’t be a long review because there just isn’t much to say.  This was my own damn fault.  Why did I buy this?  I knew it was stupid.  Even if it is a joke it’s still really dumb.   Not only has this been done already in JLApes, but it really is a concept that should never be executed to begin with!  I’m an idiot.

What did you think about the books this week?  Was my pick totally wrong?  Was there something I’m an idiot for not reading.  Let me know!  Send me an email or post in the comments.