Geoff JohnsRecensioni

280000

480000

Fails to provide proper context, and is confusing as hell as a result.

I am FAR from being a fan of the Joker, and never found anything about the character particularly interesting, but I thought "The Three Jokers" was a really solid and even gripping story. The idea of there being multiple Jokers and not a single, constant entity is quite creative, and it really feels like each of these main 3 are well thought-out and distinctly motivated, which makes the story seem even more delightfully chaotic and unpredictable. I read "The Killing Joke" a couple months back (and liked essentially nothing about it) so seeing that big plot twist at the very end was a bit of a jaw dropper. The art is also enjoyable, and while I don't really care for those big, exaggerated drawings of rippling superhero muscles and unrealistic boobs (poor Barbara), the art was still dynamic and had wonderful paneling. Finally, Batman's personal journey in this volume is one of the best yet - seeing him get closure with Chill and have to come face to face with those emotions was touching, and I was so happy to see it end how it did.
There are still some aspects that could have used improvement (the "romance" is forced and sucks, Barbara's unrealistic recovery time, the somewhat confusing Red Hood drama) but overall I think this was very well done, and one of the best Batman graphic novels yet.

For all the buildup and talent behind this book, it was rather underwhelming.

Not a bad origin for the team or for Cyborg, but way too many story threads just thrown in on assumptions and half-statements rather than anything solid to build.

Mess of a collection with 3 different story arcs colliding within & poorly resolving 1/3 of them

Only got 3 stars because I loved the new take on old faves the Metal Men.

What a waste of potential. Great ideas & (previously) great characters all sacrificed for mediocre plot & action over character.

Maybe I'm just too old to read these characters I've read most of my life. They're no longer characters I recognize even though they look roughly the same.

Good story but I don't WANT Billy Batson or Captain Marvel being grim and gritty. Loads of pointless changes for the sake of change, none of which improve upon the original material now 70 years old.

Like the first volume of this collection series, the book is far more hype than actual heft to its stories.

Jim Lee's art is nice, but it's more attuned to pinups and collectible page art than it is focused on storytelling. Frankly, it's too busy everywhere to really draw one's attention to the focus of a panel or page.

While the new villain was interesting, it was a little too esoteric an origin and power set to match/suit the Justice League, IMO. I really LOVE esoteric stuff, but this Graves character fell flat for me in concept and execution, frankly.

If this is an example of what the New 52 is all about, I'm glad I've skipped it other than a few things from the library.

Oh so glad the library had this and I didn't pay to read this 3- to 4-part story heavily padded out to 12 issues. Very pretty art, but I'm so unenthused by this (and its failure to even approach its own hype) that I doubt I'll bother to read Vol 2 or 3 unless I find them easily and free...

Possibly the least essential work of fiction ever created.

it was the first comic i ever read! I think i need to try and start a character from the start. i am going to try the next selection of stories and see f i like it better.

it was the first comic i ever read! I think i need to try and start a character from the start. i am going to try the next selection of stories and see f i like it better.

Prelim Review: Honestly speaking I preferred Superman Earth One, which as a Batman fan moreso then a Superman fan, that grieves me. I didn't feel like the artwork or 'new' origin story was as crisp as in Superman Earth One. Oh details were changed (Alfred is a military vet!) but at its core it was still 'Bruce Wayne fights crime to atone for the brutal slaying of his parents'. In Superman Earth One it became more of a 'Clark Kent searches for his place in life while learning the true meaning of strength' (or something like that). We see an uncertain, kind of showy-offy Clark who would have taken the easy route in life if nothing had given him a different choice.

Bruce? He kind of sucked at being Batman at first (or not really sucked, but was very amateur)--okay we kind of expected that (Batman Year One). He was driven by revenge (any Batman) for what happened to his parents and the corruption he perceives in Gotham. He finds a higher calling (again any Batman) in being a vigilante.

Admittedly having Gordon cynical, Bullock the idealist and Cobblepot (aka Penguin) the mayor were interesting changes, but :shrugs: not enough.

Full Review to be posted at Poisoned Rationality

Batman: Three Jokers is essential a sequel of sorts to the events of The Killing Joker. The essential premise of this is what if there were Three Jokers running things in Gotham? The Criminal, The Clown, and The Comedian. What if they were all different? And how would Batman, Jason Todd, and Batgirl - all victims of the Joker's cruelty deal with such a crisis?

This instantly feels like a classic. It is consistent with Batman/Joker's origin story AND the creation of the henchmen that would do the Joker's bidding.

It's a quite emotional tale, with a quite satisfying ending. I highly recommend this if you're a Batman fan.

I love how Lex Luthor always sets himself up to look like the good guy, but the JL is never buying it. BUT then they start going deeper into his history and messing with him and you start thinking, "Maybe he's not that bad?" or "Maybe he's changing?". But that's exactly what he would want you to think, right?

This whole Power Ring thing is a bit confusing. I thought it was really powerful, but it seemed to be tamed really easily.

A new story (2012) that goes back to the beginning of the Batman Story.

Alfred arrives at the Wayne Manor for the first time (having served with Wayne Snr in the Army) on the night Wayne Snr is killed outside the cinema with his wife. Alfred is Bruce's legal guardian, and is horrified when he learns what the grown up Bruce is doing, fearing him unprepared.

Meanwhile Mayor Copplepot (The Penguin) is the source of much of the corruption in Gotham and Bruce believes he killed his parents. He goes after the police who covered it up. In the mean time, Detective James Gordon (yet to be the commissioner) is joined by a good looking Hollywood detective who ends up getting Gordon's daughter kidnapped by a serial killer.

All these threads are pulled together in the old Arkham Home (where Bruce Wayne's mother grew up) with a bloody, violent end, that leaves more than one person devastated.

#3 in a series of 4 hardcover collections of this story arc, and not quite a standalone. The Avengers are falling apart, members have left - including Hawkeye - and She-Hulk (Banner's cousin) is on the loose and uncontrollable. Destroying a small town already affected by Banner's anger, it takes the Avengers pulling together to pull it all back from the brink.

Illustrations are good (was a bit worried by the coverart), but suspect I'm missing out on some of the emotional depth by coming in near the end

The TV show makes so much more sense now. Surprising read, but it gets sorted out once you get into it.

It would have helped if I knew some more of the DC characters' backgrounds.

DC's G.I. Robot gets PTSD from the Vietnam War.

There's a generic bad guy chasing him and a generic damaged family who pulls together to help him.

Pet peeve: The villain uses lethal force immediately on everyone he comes across, until he meets up with the central family and suddenly he's okay with bumps on the head and taking hostages.

Meh.

You cannot convince me that this title and the other parts of Geoff Johns' "The Unnamed" universe like Geiger did not originate as a pitch to DC to revive their Atomic Knights and various obscure war titles.

Side note: A complete Sunday comic strip is included from both "Peanuts" and "Calvin and Hobbes." There's no mention of their copyright in the indicia, so I wonder, are their appearances licensed or just shoved in as a fuzzy bit of fair use? Are the licensing fees reasonable? Could every comic book just include a page of "Calvin and Hobbes?" And if so, why don't they?

It's a crazy idea, but it makes sense. If the world is destroyed there's nothing to "control" or profit from. So we've got Lex Luthor leading a team of super villains and Batman against the Crime Syndicate, basically an evil Justice League from another dimension that has been destroyed by some even more threatening entity.

Good stuff and pretty brutal, seeing as those villains don't have a problem with killing people and neither does Luthor. BUT Luthor does seem to grow a conscience, almost as if saving the world has made him realize there's something else he wants - adoration.

Reading this as part of the Forever Evil event so everything's getting kind of mixed together. Pandora's a cool character, glad she's finally getting some answers.

I love how Vandal Savage was out doing horrible evil just to prove how evil he was because the box rejected him as the ultimate evil. :)

Quite a terrifying view of some of the biggest crises and events in DC history that asks 'what if'.