This was a fun one-shot. The writing and art complimented each other really well and it gives a threat to take care of, some great martial arts action and a decent intro to Shang-Chi. These sorts of stories are often fully disposable but this was actually a great little one shot.

If you like hard hitting action, neon lit gritty futurescapes, inner monologs with clear motivations, and gorgeous artwork to give life to it all, then there's very little not to like about this first issue.

Batman is dead. Missing for years. The uniforms tasked with keeping the peace have become a hunting party out for vigilantes. Gotham remains as crime ridden as ever. So Jace Fox uses his tech, his skills and his motorcycle to take the fight to the streets.

Like I said the art is flawless. Olivier Coipel is one of the best working right now and personally one of my favorites and hes in top form here. His understanding of what details to include and what to forgo and leave to the imagination is unmatched. Hos figures and faces are expressive and not as polished as others. The colors done by Sinclair compliment his art beautifully, giving the lineart and the city it depicts life. If you ever grew up in an urban setting, where the buildings are lit orange by the streetlights at night, you can really appreciate how good it is.

He also handles the action exceptionally well, with a mix of great motion and strong money shots. The story it compliments is also rock solid, very simple and to the point but a great depiction of a vigilante getting his start and having one of his first nights out. The stinger at the end is interesting but not as good as the story that precedes it.

Overall, there's little not to like about the book from a standpoint of actual storytelling. If you have an issue with this particular character taking over the mantle, I suggest you check out his origins before this, and if have the issue because you think "only Bruce Wayne can be Batman", well, Dick Grayson, Jean-Paul Valley, Terry McGinnis, and Jim Gordon would like a word. Give it a chance. Hes not the first and won't be the last.

One flaw I'll give is that there's a lot of characterization for the protagonist that was done in other books so it may make it a bit harder to get with in this issue. This issue does a good job of filling in those blanks but its still to be noted.

As an issue though? This is a great first. I really hope Coipel can get on board for more issues. His art is worth price of admission alone. more

I’m reading these late because I digital sale wait, but damn did I love this ending. The art on the arc was the most inconsistent of Tynion’s run but the story was fantastic and it was emotionally resonant in a way Batman rarely is for me. I’m really sad he doesn’t have much time left on his Batman run as I think Tynion could have pulled off his five year plan and left us with one of my favorite Batman long-form stories. Ah well, I’m happy that he’s found personal fulfilment with his creator own work and substack - I’m just bummed that as a mainstream superhero a fan, that his fingerprint will be missing from this sphere. more

Man I didn’t expect that to happen but I absolutely love it! I can’t wait until the next issue! Tynion has done an absolutely fantastic job with the Batman book creating new interesting and important characters some of which will be major characters in Gotham from this point forward. He writes Batman almost perfectly and takes the time to develop and give depth and substance to both the stories and characters which really brings the characters to life. Batman is one of the best books available ever since Tynion took over and I eagerly await the next issue more

This reminds me of Ewing’s excellent and under-appreciated work on Ultimates, the scope is simply enormous and the action breathless. What gives this even extra spice is Rodriguez’s amazing, complex yet simple artwork. Been a big fan of his since Spider-Woman with Hopeless (another under-appreciated title) and I truly hope this series breaks him out as the A-list talent that he deserves to be seen as. more

At its core, this issue is retconning away the worst of Sins Past and all the related storylines. That's great. I'm very glad about that. I really don't know what to expect from the final issue of this run. The two week wait will be hard, assuming the spoilers don't come out ahead of time. I'm kind of dreading explaining this issue to my friends when they read it and only get like half of it. So... Kindred's body is the result of an evolution of cloning tech, a campaign led by an AI Harry Osborn, to fuck with Peter and Norman, spinning out of his original Pursuit plan with Chameleon. Kindred is the original Harry Osborn's soul, that has escaped Hell, which he was sent to due to Norman's deal with Mephisto, who has possessed the body of Sarah Stacy, and has used Chameleon serum to keep up his appearance as Harry Osborn. The question is, what does that make Brand New Day Harry Osborn if Harry was never revived? I guess we'll find out next issue. We have to. I kind of love comic books being comic books, so I don't mind how convoluted it is. I just worry about the accessibility of this issue to people who aren't clued into the last few decades of Spider-Man. more

This gets an automatic pass for retconning past sins. I enjoy the heavy attention to continuity. Not enough writers write as though they've not even read a Wikipedia article on the character (I'm referring to you Loeb and Bendis). I like Spencer is trying to weave everything together. The problem, and why I just can't rate it any higher, was that even for someone like myself, who has read all of the stories referred to, had to reread this jumble of a story to try to make sense of it. From a story telling perspective, this issue and entire arc has been poor. My enjoyment of explaining away past sins may be clouding some judgment here but that fact that I come out of this comic with enjoyment of any sort means it's a good comic. I read this stuff to enjoy it so the bottom line is fulfilled here. I just would have preferred this information to be spread over the past few issues, not an issue of information dumping that still leaves many questions unanswered. more

I didn't think this day would ever come... SINS PAST IS OVER. GONE. ADIOS. Nick Spencer destroyed one of the most disgusting things ever written with ONE SINGLE ISSUE. Not only that, his retcon makes even more sense than that garbage original one (ok, not everything works but... yeah). The twins are now interesting characters without that shadow of Gwen's infidelity (Spencer even takes a shot at JMS) and we'll see what happens in the final issue, considering Mephisto will play a big role. IF (and I'm saying IF) Spencer manages to address OMD after retconning Sins Past, he'll be my idol for eternity.
more

This is confusing because so much to grasp. It was good that I made a chart for Spencer run because during last remain I understood that it is going to be confusing which it did. So making a chart helped me to enjoy the issue much better and not been confused while first time reading.

Sins Past gone. It's victory.
If he retcons OMD too, then he is going to hailed for writing Spidey even though I would hail him even today but if he does that too then it's just fricking awesome.
This makes Sarah and Gabriel interesting than before.
And Spencer really tried to make sense in everything while making a retcon. This thing I liked. I thought most of writer don't even care for previous work before them much but he clearly does which is clearly be seen in his entirety of run. Looking at you, Cates who retconned Galactus origin and killed Galactus. Looking at you, Jason Aaron who retconned Thor mother as Phoenix without considering the fact that he himself wrote Phoenix dated Thor.
more

Nick Spencer is BASED for retconning Sins Past in one single issue. Maybe these 90+ issues were worth it after all. I'm gonna catch up on the rest of this storyline and stick around for the finale. Congrats Spencer you gave me a reason to come back.

We smoking that Sins Past pack today, boys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WQNPw46cyA

EDIT: I'm not changing my score for this review, but I do want to point out that new readers are probably gonna have a hard time understanding everything, especially if Nick Spencer was your gateway Spider-Man writer. more

Wow. What an absolute thing of beauty! Talk about getting the gig to do the good doctor and running wild with it. Love what Al Ewing does with Strange's dialogue and Javier Rodriguez is climbing up the charts for me as of the best cartoonists to tackle Dr. Strange among the other gods like Kevin Nowlan, Michael Golden, Marshall Rogers, etc....He totally got the trippy Ditko visuals down and his added touch of psychedelic colors kick it to the Nth degree. I am totally on board with this! OK, enough gushing. more

HO IS DAEMON is some pretty terrible from cover typography, like not at a professional level at all.

If Gerry Dugan wanted to write Logan, why didn't he just USE Logan?

I'm getting sick of writers turning Laura into just Logan with boobs. She hasn't had her own personality on a team book in YEARS. The only thing missing here was a few "Bubs" for good measure.

I miss stoic, laconic, deliberate, reserved, and introverted Laura. I don't know who this growly and snarling person is, but it's NOT her. more

Wow. Just... Wow. That was amazing in a giant-size way.

I didn't have any expectations for this. But boy did this deliver.

Wow, there’s a lot of payoff here, numerous plot threads come satisfyingly to a close while another big one is set up. Gotta say that I thoroughly enjoyed this one more than I have any other new comic for a while. Well worth the time and money spent though it really isn’t a jumping on point so much as a ride for regular readers.

Decent story with pretty art, but overall the series is a little slow-moving for my tastes. I'll probably switch to trades after this first arc is over unless something blows me away in the next few issues.

A solid Boba Fett tale set during a very familiar period in Star Wars history. This first issue was easy to follow with a fun, simple premise with enough twists and turns to keep the reader engaged. McNiven's art is outstanding.

Great fun, gives a nice resolution to some storyline’s while setting up for next weeks king-size conclusion to the overall arc. I’m really happy that this didn’t just feel like part 3 of 4, but felt like an exciting and satisfying story in and of itself, that’s something you don’t see quite often enough these days.

A nimble writing book, putting the pieces together for the next hit. On the one hand Kingpin forcing Kindred in a cruel way.

For another Robbie and Tombstone fighting again before Spider makes his entrance to stop the conflict.

I love the new Spider suit it's totally cool.
In the end he leaves us with an arch enemy of the spider is back.
Great story, abundant action, great art. more

I love this title, Spencer gets the history of the characters so well and rides the themes well. Really solid art too, I wish this were weekly.