I'm loving what Zeb Wells and Patrick Gleason are doing with Peter/Spider-Man completely off the rails in this new arc. Everything is SO dark and twisted and Wells' writing and Gleason's art has completely sold the character turn. This issue had some moments that weren't as crisp and tense as the previous two issues, notably the MJ scenes, but that doesn't mean it still didn't deliver a compelling story and moved the plot along.

The scenes with Kraven buried alive could make anyone feel claustrophobic and Gleason & colorist Marcio Menyz really have produced a visual delight in Peter's new black Spider-Man costume. They both use shadowing to great effect throughout the issue, keeping Spider-Man drenched in shadows to build suspense and lean into the horror aspect.

The ending left us with some interesting potential next steps and I'm dying to know how this all plays out. more

Before I get into this book, I just wanted to say that this is one of Romita Jr.'s best main covers on this run so far, if not his very best. Moving on, I continue to enjoy the "Spider-Man's Hunt" storyline. I said this in my review of the last issue, but it reigns true here as well, in that this darker direction has really been helping out this series. Peter getting revenge on people who have wronged him in his life is entertaining to read, and I particularly thought his interaction with Norman was well-written. I don't want to jinx it, but with this storyline and Gang War coming up in November, things continue to look up for this run. more

a fun issue with good dialogue, action, pacing, and interesting story where Superman has to deal with Lex Luthor in a coma.

There's an interesting story wrapped up in the predictable Tom King go to tropes. Once again another story seemingly born of his participation in Iraq with the CIA. Once again another ludicrously over the top incident takes place and we're left with the fall out. Side not I'm not sure why Amanda Waller and the Suicide Squad aren't part of the teams gathering the Amazon's seems like better choices.

I'll still with it for a bit, but I'm skeptical he can stick the landing. more

this was fun and entertaining

this was pretty fun and entertaining

this reminds me of Matt Reeves Batman, but I absolutely love the art in this book. Very dynamic and anime. Good story and pacing as well. I'll probably read it entirely when its done.

ehhhh. It's not bad, but it's not that memorable or good either. It started off strong, then the ending happened where the heroes talk about the feelings to save the day.

After Zdarsky's phenomenal run, it is hard to continue writing Daredevil and still making it good and as exciting as previous run.

But thankfully, Ahmed seems to be up for the task.

PUBLISHER’S PITCH

Father and son. Bruce and Damian. Batman and Robin. From Batman vs. Robin to Knight Terrors, a lot has happened to the Dynamic Duo, but now they are back together and ready to fight crime in Gotham--just in time for Batman's most monstrous rogues to team up to turn the city into an urban jungle! A new villain watches from the shadows, intent on revenge, with a plot to turn one of Batman's greatest assets against him! Can Damian help his father solve the case before it's too late? A brand-new fun and exciting father-and-son adventure begins, from DC Comics architect Joshua Williamson and superstar artist Simone Di Meo!

RECAP

Damian moves into his father’s new brownstone and the two go through the growing pains of living together with someone for the first time. While Bruce would prefer his son to experience elements of a normal teenage, including going to high school. Damian is uninterested and would prefer to continue honing his crime fighting skills and highlights his new detective skills by discovering a lead from the previous night’s encounter. The duo goes to investigate but walk into a trap set by the mysterious new villain who turns Batman’s namesake winged creatures against him.

REVIEW

This book has been getting hyped by other DC creators for several months now and I finally got to see why. In addition to a great story from Joshua Williamson, Simone Di Meo made BATMAN AND ROBIN #1 into a visually stunning book with the approach to art and colors. It’s jumps from the page like a colorful, realistic manga come to life. Characters are expressive without looking cartoonish, lines are well drawn and clean, various forms of light are used to add depth to scenes, panels are presented at different angles to emphasize scale, motion is effectively captured during action scenes. It’s all SO well done.

One of my favorite pages is a full page where we see Damian’s sketchpad revealing what appears to be a fictionalized story/comic about his own upbringing. There’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about the page, yet it’s a fun tongue-in-cheek homage to the comic book medium. Another favorite is a panel where some of Damian’s toughest moments fill a shadow of costumed Robin as it falls behind out-of-costume Damian. The approach to both of these are so simple, yet the level of execution is sublime. If I had one complaint it would be that different angles are used so often, the final battle sequence felt a tad crowded and I almost missed one of the most important panels as it was surrounded by others. But that’s really just nitpicking.

Getting back to Williamson’s story, I was curious to see how the events of this series lined up with the “Dawn of DC” timeline, specifically with the Gotham War arc and Bruce and Damian’s role in those titles. It was a pleasant surprised to see Williamson align their realities with the plotlines of Battle Lines and Batman #137. Bruce and Damian are on the outs with the rest of the Bat Family due to, as Bruce puts it, “everything going on with Selina.” It’s such a small though on-point way for Bruce to describe the situation given his current mindset— not even taking the slightest amount of accountability. In that vein, it came across like we were witnessing someone with a split personality speaking any time Bruce started monologuing. He was talking about everyday things as if nothing else was happening to him. I don’t know if Williamson intended it to come across in this manner but that’s how I interpreted it and it was so unsettlingly enjoyable.

The writing for Damian was a standout for me. His appearances so far in Gotham War have shown him as a one-note character holding his father up as an infallible figure. Here, Williamson dives deeper into Damian as an individual and pulls back the curtain on how he’s processing the events around him. The aforementioned sketchpad page indicates he views Bruce and Selina as absent parents and you can’t really blame him for thinking that.

The one part of this issue that didn’t work for me is the new villain’s plan. How intimidating can they be if the first step of their plans was to turn bats against Batman? Sure, a giant flock of bats attacking you can’t be fun, but came across as lame and I hope they worse things up their sleeves if we’re really to believe they’re a viable foe.

FINAL VERDICT

While there was a decent amount of action to bookend this issue, the heaviest life was in Williamson exploring the the parent/child dynamics in Bruce and Damian’s relationship. There were glaring hints that their roles are on the verge of shifting much like any situation between a parent who is aging and a child coming into their own. It was also nice to see none of the usual Batman rogues suspects in this issue, with some minor names appearing as a distraction to the mysterious new nemesis. My biggest concern going forward is how this new villain is built up, but that won’t spoil how much I enjoyed this debut issue.

Rating: 8.5/10 more

a fun and entertaining story

this was a pretty cute and hilarious side-adventure. I liked it.

That was ruthless, so much fun, and a great homage all at the same time.

Exactly how you want Peter to act after what happened last issue. If you like Angry black suit Spider-Man going to town. You will enjoy this.

If not 🤷‍♂️ it's not what I want for 50 issues of spidey but 5-10 ya it's an awesome arc, best since the first one.

The art is great as jiminez is on the pencils, but this event is just not good so far. Everyone's acting like an idiot. Batman's off but that's a little understandable, since he was in a different universe for 2 months, but the rest of the bat family is just written so stupidly.

Like did you not think that eventually the villians will team up? Or just hire goons from other cities..... or just pay their old henchmen who are now better trained l. To do bigger and more dangerous jobs.

Selina's whole idea, makes zero logical sense, and I know we are talking about comics here. But this has to be Howard's idea. Because it just seems to stupid to come from chip. He's no god of comics or anything, but I expect him to be smarter then " if the criminals only rob the rich, then nobody gets hurt " ..... yes except once you rob everything the rich have within 6 months. Now what?


I was originally going to give this a 6.5 but the more I thought about it. I feel this end of the event was written, and then the rest of it was made to make a story around the ending.
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The previous issue’s cliffhanger saw Kraven attack Spider-Man with a demonically possessed spear and an ominous transformation, originally meant to awake the Green Goblin inside Norman Osborn, began manifesting inside Peter. It was a strong start to this new arc and Zeb Wells continues to rehab the webslinger’s marquee series with a strong follow-up in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #33.

Wells opens the issue with a short time jump and a haunting in look at what’s going on inside Peter’s mind as he wrestles with his new mindset, as well as a look at Norman and Kraven’s own internal conflicts. Wells writes compelling dialogue for all three characters speaking with their own inner demons. You feel like you’re witnessing three characters in the midst of psychotic episodes as they argue within their own minds and struggle to control their own thoughts. Patrick Gleason’s designs and Marcio Menyz’s colors, particularly in the opening Spider-Man scenes, do a lot of work to emphasize the raw emotions with emphatic facial expressions and moody shadowing. Joe Caramanga’s use of two different letterboxes for each scene to highlight the dual voices happening in each characters’ head is simple yet effective.

The rest (and majority) of the issue plays out from Kraven’s POV as Peter’s dark Spider-Man turns the tables and hunts him throughout the city. It’s a thrilling game of cat and mouse that reveals just how far Peter has fallen into his new dark persona. The entire creative team builds tangible moments of suspense that keep you wondering what’s about to happen. Wells’ writing even had me feeling sympathy for Kraven at one point. Visually, Gleason switches between white and black gutters as things grow more menacing and it creates a sense of claustrophobia as Peter closes in and Kraven has nowhere else to run.

I found it interesting that we see so much from Kraven’s perspective in this issue, but I thought it played wonderfully as we as readers also don’t know what’s happened to Peter or what he might be capable of now. It magnified the unknown and uncertainty coming out of the previous issue and made for a captivating issue here that didn’t answer everything completely but gave a lot of clues as to what’s happening. There was also a hint that the Green Goblin is fighting to come out of Norman which could further complicate things for everyone involved. I’m not sure how that will progress or be explained since Norman wasn’t struck by Kraven’s spear, though we don’t know what else may have happened during the short time jump. I was also surprised we didn’t see any more Queen Goblin as she was the one who put Kraven up to the task of unleashing the Green Goblin in the first place.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed this issue. It had a great balance of darkness and suspense in building the stakes for this new arc. The final scene see Peter make one of the darkest decisions I can remember him making. It gave me flashbacks to Dan Slott’s Superior Spider-Man, which will be returning later this year. I don’t know if the previous Amazing Spider-Man arc suffered due to Wells having to shelve his own ideas in order to handle the Kamala Khan story, but it definitely feels like a switch has been flipped for the series and we’re back to a more traditional Spider-Man story. I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out and just how much darker things will get.

Rating: 8/10

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This just makes me so so sad. From a Doylist position, this GW event is still stupid and makes no sense and feels like the authors just spent too much time reading Twitter hashtags, with the added combo of reading all the love Wayne Family Adventures webtoon received and saying "what if we did the opposite of that"?

From a Watsonian perspective, poor poor Bruce. It sucks to read about how this character, who dedicated his life to helping others, ended up in this situation where his fiancee and all but one of his children have turned against him, won't help him when he is really struggling, and in general decided to renege on the whole "we're against crime" thing. Setting aside the fact that his villains are after him still.

The art is better than the previous Gotham War installment, but it doesn't cover up the fact that this is a pretty stupid and sad read.

I have very little hope that Zdansky can turn this ship around and make something redeeming out of it given the villanization and flandarization most of the characters in this story received. more

Well this issue was written much better than battle lines and i had less problems reading it and the majority of it is because selina panels was limited and she didnot talk much last issue when ever she started to talk it was so painful to read ok move on the art was much much better so i am glad about it lets continue to talk about writing well unlike many people i had no problem with the characterisation of batman well this man has had so much on his plate recently from 4 back to back wars to failsafe to insomnia to waking up and seeing the love of his life has built a criminal empire so him acting like this is totally fine with me ok the fight scenes were cool but unrealistic on the concept bruce one shotting everyone was too much to take and is just wrong,batfam members take on crime was awkward because yu know their job is to stop crime no matter what type seeing them doing nothing towards crime is again wrong as well and we still have the biggest issue of this event which is the most painful part of this story( charactetisation of selina) truly it hurts to see her being dumb, heartless and mobboss at the same time i wish i just wish they come with sth to redeem her character later on because this is not who she is at all
And her characterisation is the exact reason that i just cant be excited about this event
Zor en ar is cool, batman going on beast mode is cool but as i said i cant be inttested about this selina what so ever well i am done more

Previous issue, the opening act for the Gotham War was received a bit poorly, and after seeing the first reaction to this issue before reading it, I was a bit worried if this would land.

But in my opinion, it does land very well. Bruce isn't acting himself, being tired, on edge and haunted by Zurr-En-Arrh, so being a bit ooc here isn't breaking character or anything. I get why Bruce acts like this.

And everyone said that Batfamily would also join Selina in this issue, when in my opinion they just started to think their options before Bruce went unhinged. They are not attacking Bruce because they agree with Selina (besides Jason), they want him to calm down and talk to them, but Bruce can't in his current mindstate.

I mean Nightwing doesn't say "Selina is right", nor does Tim. They just want Bruce to stop being so unhinged.

And add Jimenez wonderful art and I think that makes this one a win in my books. more

The Gotham War kicked off on a rather uninspiring note in last week’s Battle Lines prologue and lines are further drawn in this week’s BATMAN #137 by Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jimenez.

TL;DR
After a nearly 3-month break since the last issue in the Dark Knight’s own series, we see more concern from the Bat Family over Bruce’s current worldview and the role he believes he’s meant to play for the people of Gotham now that he’s aware of Catwoman’s plans for the city’s former henchpeople. He goes on a spree rounding up Selina’s “rehabilitated” criminals, leading to Catwoman and the rest of the Bat Family, save for Damian Wayne, working together to try and stop him. Damian shows up to save his father, who makes a retreat before discovering someone has threatened his ability to protect Gotham by purchasing Wayne Manor from under his nose.

Review
Zdarsky’s script for this book is much tighter than the haphazard writing he and Tini Howard combined for in the Battle Lines, even if Batman’s current personality seems off. In the most recent issue of the series before the “Knight Terrors” event paused everything, Zdarsky set Batman up as damaged goods thanks to his previous dealings, including Batman of Zur-En-Arrh and Failsafe. Batman had to deal with coming to terms with the new state of Gotham while he’s been kept busy elsewhere, and I can’t imagine his most recent dealings with Insomnia or his 8-week slumber revealed in Battle Lines did anything to help his fragile psyche. The presence of Zur-En-Arrh as Batman is stewing in the Batcave near the end of the book does a lot of work to help explain his current actions so far in this event.

I also appreciated how quickly the rest of the Bat Family coalesced around the need to contain Batman. There was some hesitancy in Battle Lines, but the downside to Batman’s actions are now apparent — violent crime is now about to go back up as evident by members of Batman’s rogues gallery starting a new alliance. They don’t try to rationalize Catwoman’s plans. They lay out the pros and cons of each and weigh what does “do the most good” mean in a world where there aren’t absolutes. Of all the Bat Family, I particularly enjoyed Zdarsky’s writing for Jason in this issue. When written at his best, Jason has always been one of the more interesting members of the family given his anti-hero status and it really shows here. The writing for these characters all felt off in Battle Lines and I think a lot of that had to do with how rushed the plot development in that issue felt.

I found Jorge Jimenez’s art really captivating in this issue, even more so after not seeing him on this series during the “Knight Terrors”-caused hiatus. There was something off about the Batman art in Battle Lines and Jimenez brought things right back to feeling normal. He has an uncanny ability to convey motion which shown bright during the major battle between Batman and the Bat Family. I also love the detail he brings to each costumed character. Everyone looks intimidating and ready for battle. Tomeu Morey’s colors and Clayton Cowles’ lettering also continue to lend extra life and depth to the visual tone throughout the book.

Final Verdict
I thought this was a major step in the right direction for the event after Battle Lines. It gave depth to Bruce’s mindset and every character’s actions felt more earned that they did in the event’s prologue. If Zdarsky continues shining a light on Bruce’s psychological trauma and coming to terms with his own mortality, I think this event can lead to some really intriguing long-term ramifications for Batman and Gotham-at-large. The surprise reveal of Vandal Savage at the end was a true surprise as I was fully expecting it to be Selina or the new alliance of Batman’s rogues. It will be interesting to see how this impacts the Gotham War, which continues in Tini Howard’s Catwoman #57 out on September 19th, and if it’s what ends up causing fences to be mended between Bruce and Selina.

Rating: 8/10

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i felt this issue was a huge upgrade and standout from the previous issue. For starters, Jorge Jiminez must have scoliosis because this book would have got much lower reviews if it werent for him. His artstyle just oozes style and it clearly shows.

For the story, I was very skeptical and nervous coming into this issue and tempering it. But the more I think about it and the more reviews I read, the more i slowly buy into this. The Bat family dont completely support Catwoman's ideals, but they try to hear both sides before coming into their own conclusions. Batman's ideals are very strict and rigid, and while I agree with him mostly in this event, I do think he's stubborn. I also like how we see more of Batman's thought process in this issue, and I hope the same can be said for Catwoman. But I wont hold out hope, since its written by Tini howard.

Overall, this was a good issue. But the only reason why I'm not giving it higher is because I am very apprehensive about this event, and a lot of things could go wrong in this event and series, where Batman or Catwoman get ruined. The first issue still left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm just very wary and hoping this event lands well. more

If you’ve ever wondered how to make a battle between Batman and Catwoman boring, I’d suggest reading this week’s BATMAN/CATWOMAN: THE GOTHAM WAR — BATTLE LINES #1. This opening salvo failed to deliver on an interesting societal dilemma meant to set up DC’s next cross-over event after “Knight Terrors” (which ended this week and had it’s own warts).

The event’s prologue, written by Tini Howard and Chip Zdarsky, opens up with an attempt to set the stage by revealing Batman has been…asleep. Yes, Bruce Wayne fell asleep for 8 weeks. Perhaps he was worn out from having to read the Knight Terrors event (in-story they explain the event itself took so much from him) or maybe Howard and Zdarsky just needed to fast forward some time and have an excuse to explain what Catwoman’s been up to this whole time? Either way, it felt like quite a stretch.

During those 8 weeks, Catwoman has given up her past life and created a training program to rehabilitate other criminals. Instead of committing violent crimes, she’s working with them to focus only on stealing from the 1% and distributing the profits. Violent crime is now nearly non-existent in Gotham begging the question of whether Batman is even needed anymore?

She calls for a meeting with the entire Bat Family, including Batman, to discuss the situation and request they leave her alone to continue her work. Ever the champion of the working class, Batman throws a fit which includes him complaining that his rich parents would have been targeted in this new scheme! How dare Selina even think this was a good idea?!? Honestly, his tirade sounds like an attack ad from the GOP against some contrived form of socialism. His own warped view of his value to society makes him unable to even consider the fact that this tradeoff may actually benefit the most amount of people in Gotham.

I also couldn’t get over the fact that this was a revelation to the Bat Family. For a group of people trained by one of the world’s greatest detectives, they didn’t realize what was happening in Gotham under their noses? That made no sense and felt like a lazy plot device to emphasize their reactions and keep the title of the issue & the event itself intact. We see the Bat Family split on whose views are right, with Jason Todd unsurprisingly siding with Catwoman.

Mike Hawthorne and Adriano Di Benedetto’s art didn’t add anything to the issue for me. Much like Howard & Zdarsky’s story, the design approach felt rushed and messy at times. The character designs during the meeting between Catwoman the Bat Family were particularly off-putting. The color palette from Romulo Fajardo Jr. was probably the best addition to the book as it spanned quite the spectrum from dark reds, purples, and pinks in higher tension scenes to blues, greens, and other muted colors during less critical moments.

Overall, a disagreement between Batman and Catwoman is nothing new but the reason for the current disagreement was an interesting moral quandary that I was excited to see explored. However, it seems like we’re getting opposing views from two caricatures, especially the way Batman is depicted. I’m hopeful this was the symptom of having to introduce this concept during the tail end of Knight Terrors (and in a joint comic no less) and that Zdarsky will be able to right the ship for the caped crusader once the storyline shifts back to his own title.

Rating: 4/10 more

As I finished up this series, I got to say that I really enjoyed it. My on ly complaint with this series was that Amanda Waller didnt get what she deserved, and it feels scummy she still gets away Scott-free when she betrayed the Kingdoms. But other than that, the pacing was good, the story was interesting, the characters were interesting (even though Batman got huge favoritism here), and the action was good. Overall, I would say this is another successful and great DC Elseworld story. more

Tini Howard once again doesn't know how to do anything except fan fiction stories. Zdarsky is a good writer, but even he couldn't save this mess.

Alright folks, I’m going to give this the benefit of the doubt, mostly because I think Zdarsky is doing some interesting things with Batman. Bruce’s desperate belief that he needs to maintain the persona of “Batman”—that of a relentless crime fighter who cannot show any display of humanity—has been a really good deconstruction of the character, and the fact that crime has gone down in his absence only adds to the doubts about his abilities that have been plaguing him.

Unfortunately, Catwoman’s plan is pretty stupid, but I am willing to accept that what she has been doing has worked so far. Many people have complained that her scheme would not actually work, and I feel like there’s a good chance that as this story progresses, we’ll see that the book is fully aware that the plan is not sustainable. This is one of the problems rating storylines based on a single issue—we don’t have the full picture yet, so it’s easy to point to what currently looks like inconsistencies, when they may be acknowledged in the end.

The writing for Catwoman is really bad, though. I haven’t read any of Tini Howard’s work, but is this how the Catwoman book is written? Because it’s not good. I don’t have an issue with the premise of this book like many others seem to, but I do have a problem with the way Catwoman interacts with the characters around her. The artwork is pretty dull throughout, as well. I enjoyed Hawthorne’s work on the second arc of Zdarsky’s run, but it seemed rushed and uninspired here.

I enjoy Zdarsky’s voice for Batman and his approach to the character so much that it outweighs what I dislike, though, and I’m looking forward to him getting back to writing solo. more

Another year, another Ms. Marvel series that doesn't quite meet my expectations. This isn't really the fault of the creative team, who all do fine work. But what made Ms. Marvel special was her unique niche in Jersey City and her vibrant family of lovable supporting characters; Ms. Marvel felt fresh ten years ago because she was really just some ordinary kid doing her extraordinary best, like early Spider-Man. It's easy to think a great character like that deserves to be on the Champions, the Avengers, the X-Men, but stuffed into a Big Hero mold like that she always instantly becomes just another plucky young superhero in a sea of superheroes, and although the creators try gamely to anchor her in her anxieties and her friendship with Bruno, the results are a little hollow and generic. The grimdark Fall of X status quo is an awkward fit for the character that can't help but show the work of editorial hands moving behind the curtain.

On its own terms, there's nothing wrong with this comic, but there's nothing special about it either, and there's clearly no reason for Kamala to be in this storyline besides that the Powers That Be decided this was where she should be this week. more