Writer: Jeph Loeb
Penciller: Ed McGuinness
Inker: Dexter Vines
Colorist: Lee Loughridge Publiser: DC Comics
Penciller: Ed McGuinness
Inker: Dexter Vines
Colorist: Lee Loughridge Publiser: DC Comics
Content Guide: Some bleeped out cursing, violence, and ghosts.
The Lowdown
With the addition of Ed McGuinness as the new artist/penciller, Superman/Batman poises itself to head in a new direction. This issue of the comic has totally sold out with this first part of a story arc entitled, “With a Vengeance."Storyline
The comic opens with a new super team – The Maximums – fighting The Axis of Evil. The action was well drawn and the whole scene is accented with a dialogue of a radio talk show about violence in the media. Who these heroes and villains are we don’t really know, but everything changes when Superman and Batman enter into the fray.
The fighting heats up as Superman and Batman quickly dispatches The Axis of Evil for The Maximums, but the tone soon changes as Superman does something very much unlike the Man of Steel. He takes a life. By the end of the comic, The Maximums are ready for vengeance and the story comes to a close with this supposed super hero group vowing to repay the duo in kind.
Review
That storyline was excellent. The art was very well done, the pace was just right, and the dialogue was well done. But in between the beginning and ending of this story, the comic took a couple of different jaunts with Bizarro in one storyline and another with the return of dead DC hero. The problem was, if you had just jumped on to this series, you would probably have very little idea of what is going on. Apparently Jeph Loeb, the series writer, has been known to take his readers on different plot lines without warning and weave them through the story arc. I wish someone would have told me!
So armed with the knowledge that one can expect three storylines going on simultaneously and the hope that they will intersect and bring new light to the main storyline, Superman/Batman is at a great point for new readers to jump into. If the quality continues, the reader should be in for a very nice ride.
