Conversely, we’d often find ourselves with a week where there were lots of books we fancied covering, but simply didn’t have the time between us. Often, a lot of my favourite books – from Phonogram to Batman and Robin, Captain Britain to Ultimate Spider-Man – end up coming out in the same week, which makes for a fun visit to Forbidden Planet, but a difficult quandary when working out what to write about. Our “Sunday Pages” capsule review posts would help with this, obviously – and both James and I have also tended to find of late that these shorter reviews are quite enjoyable to put together. With that scheduled series of posts temporarily on hold, however (I, or we, may revisit it at some point – but for the moment one of the things we’re exploring with the new format is not having a specific schedule to stick to beyond “something every day”), there won’t be a regular set of capsules each week, but every so often a week may come along in which I feel the urge to ramble on about a handful of books. This is just such a week, so read on for brief reviews of Powers, Ex Machina, S.W.O.R.D. and more…

Powers (vol. 3) #3
Well, this is interesting. If it’s not going to be the stories that kick this volume of Powers into life – and as yet, sadly, it seems that they’re not quite, despite some good material in the flashbacks – then perhaps it might be art. For reasons I can’t quite fathom, Mike Avon Oeming goes off on one here (Bendis even leaves out the letter column in order to let him loose with 41 pages of art) with some experimental storytelling of a kind not really seen in the series before. It’s not We3, but there’s some strong and inventive use of panel layout (and lack thereof, with multiple incremental moments appearing on the page without division), giving a powerful energy to the chase-and-fight sequence that makes up most of the issue. Movie-style action in comics can be tricky to get right, but there’s no denying that Oeming does so here, and it’s very impressive stuff. I wish I knew what had sparked off the change in style – but I’m not complaining. If he continues to draw the shit out of it like this, then the book might just become unmissable once Deena finally comes back.

Daytripper #4
The further Daytripper goes on, the less likely it seems we’ll get an explanation for its recurring motif of Bras dying at the end of each issue, always at a crucial moment in his life. “Crucial” in relative terms, of course – the stories are small, looking inwardly at how our everyman character deals with various points of joy and sadness. But it approaches these facets of humanity in such a subtly complex way that it feels so much grander – it’s doing something that comics very rarely push themselves to. And as such, the “gimmick” feels less important – it’s a means to an end, rather than that end itself. Essentially, the series seems to ask how a given life would be reflected – how the assorted pieces, from emotions to relationships to legacy, would balance – were it to end, suddenly, at various given points. It all makes for a beautiful, if at times achingly sad, meditation on mortality and humanity itself, and something that’s growing into a truly exceptional comic.

Batman: The Widening Gyre #5
Kevin Smith hasn’t exactly made himself easy to take seriously as a Batman writer – his and Walt Flanagan’s Cacophony mini was pretty darned poor, and while The Widening Gyre has shown marked improvement, it’s still found itself susceptible to moments that have made various among the internet community point and laugh (notably, almost everything to do with the Silver St. Cloud subplot, and the stuff about Bruce as a “great writer” in particular). Yet there are some strong ideas here – Baphomet seems to be an attempt to do something new with the “new vigilante in town” angle (to wit: the fact that he isn’t just some psychotic weirdo, but simply a terrifyingly competent crimefighter who turns out to be an ordinary bloke underneath), even if it’s hard to see exactly where it’s going with just a single issue yet – and the whistlestop tour of various rogues has worked better than the previous mini’s focus on the Joker. Other elements work less well – I know there’s not a huge amount of difference in concept between the Black Cat and Catwoman, but they are different characters, something Smith would do well to remember; and Flanagan’s art, while undoubtedly improving the more practice he gets, is still maddeningly inconsistent, and the odd good image or page still doesn’t seem to justify his getting a six issue miniseries. An interesting experiment, though (if you take it entirely on its terms and try to divorce from anything approaching “continuity”), and not as horrendous as others online seem to want to make out.

Ex Machina #48
The finale of this series has really crept up on me somewhat – perhaps due to the slow publication rate of recent issues, perhaps due to the disappointment of the previous few arcs – and it does still feel, with just two issues left, as if there are lots of dangling threads (both character and plot-based) that won’t find the time to be fully resolved. But Vaughan is still at least managing to deliver on bringing about the crisis promised right back at the start of the series – when these flashbacks first began – even if the surprise is that it turns out to be a far more personal event that affects Hundred while the chaos brought about by Padilla explodes across New York. I’m still not convinced that using Suzanne as the “host” for the antagonist has quite worked – it makes it feel more like she’s the herald for a bigger threat, rather than the threat itself (as becomes apparent in this issue) – and it also seems that, irritatingly, less explanation for the whole thing is going to be offered than we might have expected or hoped. But it does seem that Vaughan’s laying the pieces for a big payoff, and it’s undeniably going to be a shame when we hit that final issue.

S.W.O.R.D. #5
Death’s Head. The grin on Beast’s face as he “zero-g-hops”. “Hello, alien chums”. The arrival of “the people who save the day”. “I’m the King Kong that shoots back”. Death’s Head. The terrifying, clinical creepiness of Unit. Brand apologising. Death’s Head. “That little horse-faced guy up there”. “Let’s just say that right now the Skrull Empire is smaller than some apartments I’ve lived in. When I was a student.” The mop. Blueberry muffins. “This is the best job in the entire universe”. Death’s Head. One last time: this is an utterly lovely little comic, and I’m desperately upset that this world doesn’t have a place for it. Snif.

This week: Capsule reviews of Astonishing X-Men #32, Batman: The Widening Gyre #3, Psylocke #1 and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #4!

Review: Astonishing X-Men #32

It’s an unexpected Necrosha tie in, as-

Oh, hang on; it’s not, is it?

While it’s understandable that the “big name” X-book is left completely free of editorial interference, you think that someone might have said something here. X-Force’s techno-organic resurrection gimmick has been in full flow for a good year and a half now, but Warren Ellis has still introduced a completely different instance of dead mutant bodies being used as weapons. It’s an annoying glitch, particularly as the emotional punch seems to come from the perversion of Beast’s research rather than the grave-robbing itself, that overshadows the lightweight but perfectly-pitched action. It’s always a pleasure to see Hank McCoy given an actual plotline aside from obsessing over mutantkind’s latest scientific bete noir, and Ellis nails the Cyclops/Wolverine dynamic perfectly. [JHa]

Review: Batman : The Widening Gyre #3
Kevin Smith and Walt Flanagan’s second Batman series is turning out to be a far more enjoyable and well-crafted comic than the disappointing Cacophony, but three issues in it’s actually quite difficult to find a discernable story. It’s more thematic than anything, and although there’s a vague sense of mystery over new “mask” Baphomet driving it, it’s really just a succession of loosely connected scenes. Existing in a weird out-of-continuity sense, too, it’s pleasant enough (and plenty of moments suggest that Smith does know how to “get” Batman), it’d just be nice if it had more of a point. And if a more consistent artist than Flanagan – who’s improved immeasurably since the last mini, but still stumbles at times with some pretty poor character work – were onboard, too. [SP]

Review: Psylocke #1
Okay, I’ll admit I have a soft spot for Psylocke, simply because back in the early 90s when I picked up my first X-Men comic, she was this mysterious X-Man character who WASN’T in the cartoon, and I thought that made her special. The reality, of course, is that a scantily-clad continuity-muddled British ninja with a redundant power set didn’t really fit into the cartoon, but I was young and didn’t notice that. So, bias acknowledged, let me tell you: I enjoyed this comic. The remit for the series, we’re to believe, was “remind people why Psylocke is cool” and Yost, certainly, has had his best stab at that. Yost builds on the saner elements of Psylocke’s muddled past and creates a story that is uniquely about her. Admittedly, the art is a tad gratuitous, and it’ll probably be deeply uninteresting to people who aren’t interested in the character, but it’s been a while since Psylocke had much of the spotlight, and even longer since she did so in a way as well-written as this. I, and the planet’s other five Psylocke fans, welcome it. [JHu]

Review: Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #4
I know I keep saying it, but it’s true, so I’ll continue – this is great. Great great great. This book’s always been at its best when concentrating on dialogue and character, and that’s what Bendis gives us an overload of here, focusing mainly on the twists of the relationships between Peter, Gwen, MJ and Johnny. The dynamic of the series at the moment just works – and surprisingly, MJ carries the bulk of the issue quite well, helped by a strong new visual interpretation courtesy of Lafuente. Oh, and there’s still room for a mysterious new vigilante (my money’s on it being either Flash or Jessica Jones, by the way) and a classic Mysterio decoy (to the extent that you almost want to shout at Peter, “Dude, haven’t you read any Spidey comics?”). There’s nothing particularly complex or challenging about it, but it really is everything you could want from a Spider-Man book. [SP]

This week: Capsule reviews of Batman: The Widening Gyre #2, Gotham City Sirens #4, Hulk #15, Wolverine: Weapon X #5 and X-Men Forever #8!

Review: Batman: The Widening Gyre #2
It’s weird that Kevin Smith chooses to bring back late ’70s love interest Silver St. Cloud. It’s even weirder that he chooses to bring back obscure early ’90s villain Cornelius Stirk (with Walt Flanagan rendering the cannibal and his surroundings in far grislier fashion than Norm Breyfogle ever used to). But what takes the absolute biscuit is the fact that the early scenes see Batman fighting Fun Land. Fun Land. You know, the fat paedophile from Sandman. No, seriously. It’s honestly the strangest narrative choice I’ve seen in a comic for a very long time – it’s almost as if Smith just wanted to point out that he’d read Sandman, but didn’t get the memo about the confused relationship between Vertigo and the DCU proper nowadays. Not a bad comic, incidentally – this mini is already miles better than Cacophony, not least because Flanagan seems to have taken some intensive art lessons in the interim; and the flashback scenes are particularly cute – it’s just that it clearly exists in its own little world, out of any semblance of proper continuity, and it’s hard to know quite what to make of it. [SP]

Review: Gotham City Sirens #4
You know, if DC really are just going to decide that continuity is to be entirely ignored from now on, it’d be nice if we could get an official announcement. Because to have a proper, in-continuity DCU book – set quite clearly at a particular time (i.e. post Batman RIP) – that manages to completely ignore the fact that Morrison reinvented and restyled the Joker, instead having him run around with his “classic” personality and accoutrements (or, more specifically, writing him as the Animated Series version), just takes the piss. I already suspected that Dini was doing little other than paying lip service to the wider Bat-continuity by virtue of his insistence on making the books all about his pet character, Hush – but this is clear proof of that. As an issue on its own it’s actually quite a bit better than this series has previously been – it’s quite fun, and it’s largely about Harley and the Joker but in a way that hasn’t really been done before, and Dini writes both of those characters (even when doing completely the wrong version) very well. But – and I will retract this if it turns out to be an “all is not as it seems” trick, which could be the case as the character doesn’t even appear on the cover despite not having been seen since the ambulance crash in RIP – for a title that’s obligated to fit into a wider context, it’s unforgiveably lax. [SP]

Review: Hulk #15
Casually flicking through Hulk after so many issues away is a sobering experience for the poor innocent who had assumed that, given that the book still existed and yet people weren’t really talking about it so much any more, it might have hoisted itself up towards being an almost mediocre read. So, let’s see… the Red Hulk is now a tortured anti-hero? And he gets to narrate the book? And the Punisher is on his side? And, because he’s a tortured anti-hero, he now needs to be flawed all of a sudden – so he’s defeated by a process so simple you wonder how all the earth-shatteringly powerful figures he’s previously smashed into the ground didn’t think to try? So, no. It isn’t getting any better. Especially when you’ve got Ian Churchill trying out his new Ed-McGuinness-ripoff style – and I’m sorry, shoulder injury or no shoulder injury, this book simply looks wretched. Oh, and then Red She Hulk turns up. Make. It. Stop. [SP]

Review: Wolverine: Weapon X #5
Some people complain about Wolverine being over-exposed. As I realise that he’s currently in ALL of the comics we’re doing capsule reviews in at the time I write this (Seb probably will add some that he isn’t in later. DC titles should be a reasonably safe bet) I can’t help but wonder if there might be a grain of truth in that assessment. Even so, if only one Wolverine book deserves to exist, this is the one. Weapon X is the only title currently doing Proper Wolverine Stories, in which he acts like himself, against threats pertinent to himself, and doesn’t spend time agonising over crazy conspiracy elements retconned into his life. Jason Aaron gets Wolverine more than almost any writer has in years. Between his writing and Garney’s art, this series has finally managed to reclaim a level of centrality to Wolverine’s character much like his solo series used to have in the old days. It’s just a pity it’s doing quite poorly, sales-wise. [JHu]

Review: X-Men Forever #8
It looks like we’ve got a bona fide classic on our hands, with Forever managing to feel exactly as it should: an entire franchise distilled into one book. The way that Nick Fury has been integrated into the team is a perfect example of how non-mutant elements of the Marvel Universe can be meshed with the X-Men mythos, while Chris Claremont’s perfect grasp of each of the regular characters is for once the window dressing on an expansive and coherently-plotted epic, with the writer’s long-running plot for once not being turned into a pinball table by commercial concerns. Only some rather lifeless colouring spoils a superbly enjoyable book. [JHa]

Review: Amazing Spider-Man #599
I don’t get the publishing schedule of this at all, having the first few parts of a story come out in successive weeks before then suddenly having to wait for the last bit and thus damage the deliberately-built momentum. It’s also a shame that what should have been the most “flagship” ASM story since New Ways To Die didn’t manage to stick with a single artist for the run – in fact, two different guys get a crack here, with Stephen Segovia’s main characteristic seemingly “wanting to be Leinil Yu”. But it’s decent enough (if a rather less explosive finale than we might have expected), with the main points of interest being significant hints of Norman’s “Goblin” personality beginning to make a reappearance, and a genuine attempt to actually do something new with Harry. Really, though, this is a story that started out feeling “big”, but lost its spark to the extent that this issue just seems like treading water until the fanfare of #600. [SP]

Review: Batman: Streets of Gotham #2
It’s hard not to feel cheated by this book, as it continues to entirely belie its stated premise. This is categorically not showing Batman stories from the perspective of surrounding characters – the only two narrators are Alfred and the villain, Firefly; and Dick and Damian appear on just about every page. Essentially, this is nothing other than Dini continuing his Detective run – and that means more of Thomas sodding Elliott, and an increasing (and somewhat inexplicable) drop in quality. Damian’s voice is still entirely wrong, the plot is still entirely boring, and the very existence of the series is entirely pointless – if it were actually taking place in Detective Comics, it’d be passable, but up against MorrisonQuitely and RuckaWilliams’ series, it’s desperately wanting. Even Winick’s Batman is making a better fist of things. [SP]

Review: Wednesday Comics #2
Capsuling this is a bugger, so don’t expect me to cover every single strip in it, but. I’m still in love with the format (if not the cost), and I’m still enthralled by just about every piece of utterly gorgeous artwork on display. But fewer of the stories grabbed me this week than last. Those that did made a very favourable impression – Paul Pope’s wonderfully fun Adam Strange and Karl Kerschl’s clever Flash are both superb, the latter making particularly strong use of the format with its “two differently-styled strips telling different parts of the story” trick – but the rest of the book relies on moments of fun littered sparingly about the place, rather than any one particularly compelling story. Still can’t help but buy it, mind, seduced by the package as a whole as I am. [SP]

Review: X-Factor #46
Of course, the flipside of Peter David’s somewhat inconsistent work on this book is that every so often, you get a pleasant surprise of the sort found here. The writer does a superb job of balancing the completing plotlines, and with the readership now used to each issue resolving the last cliffhanger but one, there’s much fun to be had. We even have a return for the sparkling dialogue which characterized the early days of the book, and appeared to be lost in the move to Detroit. There are slight warning signs about how this long-running arc might be resolved, with the time-travel links between the two story settings becoming slowly more and more complex, but for now, it’s a thrilling ride. [JHa]

Plug: Phonogram vs. the Fans
I’m sure we’ve mentioned this before, but with the San Diego Comic-Con imminent, it’s as good a time as any to remind you – Matt Sheret’s Phonogram fanzine, Phonogram vs the Fans, will be on sale at the convention this coming weekend. Now, despite our unabashed PG fanness, would that on its own be enough for us to give it the preferential plugging treatment? Of course not. It gets a special mention because myself and James have got one-page strips in it – ably assisted by artists Kat Stevens and Josh Barton. So if you happen to be at the convention, why not swing by the Phonotable, pick it up, and then tell us how great you think “Panic” and “Here Comes Your Man” are? Here’s a nice writeup on it from Newsarama, too. We now return you to your previously-scheduled levels of humility. [SP]

Batman & Robin is just ludicrously confident, unfathomably entertaining comics. It may not have the depth and subtlety of the rest of the writer’s Batman run, but it’s immediately a far more enjoyable read – because it knows that a comic can be intelligent underneath, but still plug directly into the “pure childlike glee” synapses of the brain and thus appear about a million times as effortless as something more overwrought. And even while it’s telling a straight-batting, gloriously fun Batman adventure, it still shows no small amount of experimentation in the way the story’s being told. It almost seems like the series’ gimmick is for there to be a new little storytelling trick each issue – so in #1 we had the inspired use of sound effects as part of the artwork (repeated here in an absolutely wonderful panel of Robin slamming into a wall, the cracks in the plaster spelling out “SMASH”), but the new one introduced here involves pacing in the action sequences.

Quitely’s always been a strange one for this – something that characterises his work is the way that he seems to capture individual frozen moments, rather than directly expressing movement (it’s why – for example – in this issue, when showing Batman setting off a fire extinguisher in a goon’s face, he draws individual droplets rather than a continuous “whoosh” of foam), and yet due to his ability to choose exactly which moments to portray, there’s always still a vivid sense of motion. Similarly, his recent work has seen increasing use of full-page-width panels (barely any panels in this issue sit side-by-side), but due to his placement of items within the frames, everything still feels “active” as your eyes naturally scan left-to-right. Still, though, it’s a technique that – on its own – doesn’t necessarily seem conducive to fast, energetic action scenes (something that B&R is already making a forte) and so this is worked around by judiciously splitting dialogue across word balloons – and even panels – when successive frames are showing a quicker-paced series of moments. It works tremendously well for the issue’s main fight scene, and even better, is contrasted smartly by the slower, dialogue-packed panels as Dick and Alfred ruminate in later pages.

Those pages, incidentally, represent the best thing about an issue that may not have quite the same immediate, “wow” impact of its predecessor, but which is still, of course, an unadulterated joy throughout. Having never really had the chance to fully play with Alfred during his main-title run, Morrison is clearly recognising here the need for a voice of authority and experience to counteract the (wildly different in manifestation, but still shared) youthful exuberance of Dick and Damian. The butler (sod that… the father figure)’s “pep talk” here is lovely, most notably when describing Batman as a “role” and holding up the cowl Hamlet-style, and marks for perhaps the first time a genuine attempt to set out why Dick’s version of the identity is different from Bruce’s – this is not, after all, a speech that he would have given to his former charge.

Even the return to textbook brattishness of Damian can’t harm the sheer unadulterated pleasure of reading this book. The fact that the series is by Morrison and Quitely meant that a certain level of simple, objective quality was always going to be a given. But that it’s already shown the capacity to continually surprise, and perhaps even to exceed expectations, could be the greatest delight of all.

The twelve stories reproduced here, mainly from writer Bill Finger, vary drastically in tone. DC has struck a careful balance here, including a few choice examples of this era’s surrealism alongside the expected stories. Although the sheer bizarreness of seeing Bruce Wayne assisting a south American country resist the rage of a rainbow-powered monster offers some entertainment, the greater draw is in those stories more open to modern reinterpretation.  The story ‘A Partner for Batman’ is initially striking due to the amount of unintentional gay innuendo it contains, although by the time that a passer-by has remarked on how Batman and his new older Robin replacement “can do things together”, it’s hard to ignore the feeling that the scripter knew exactly what he was doing.

The adventures that Morrison has directly recast are the main draw, with the original Zur En Arch tale the most obvious inclusion. The one downside to this process is that it’s now impossible to fully appreciate ‘Robin Dies At Dawn’, probably the strongest story in the collection, on its own merits. The infamous isolation chamber experiment is now seen as having a scope far beyond that depicted on the page, being relied upon to account for must of the strangeness in this entire volume. The appearance of the ‘Military Doctor’ is the final nail in the coffin of a contextually-faithful reading. Having a minor character retconed into the embodiment of Satan is unfortunately the sort of thing that tends to leave an impression. The original appearances of the Club of Heroes largely escape this fate, with the Club’s unironic tone completely removed from their Morrison incarnation.

‘The Superman of Planet X’ has been widely distributed online, and given how essential that tale is to understanding Batman R.I.P., it was probably only the promotional emphasis on the extremely gritty Nolan film that prevented the release of The Black Casebook this time last year. You wouldn’t see the successful combination of this price and poor paper stock without the hook of Morrison’s run, but this remains an essential purchase.

Anyway, since Dini has been forced into a title change, he sort of needs to come up with a slightly new hook – so we bounce around scenes with Jim Gordon, and a very Frank Miller-esque sequence featuring a pubescent prostitute and an overly violent, shadowy, trenchcoated vigilante figure, and some of it’s told from the villain’s point of view (in this case the Firefly, a character I’ve always had an amused affection for in much the same way as, say, Mysterio – but who’s perhaps treated a little seriously here) and Harley shows up for apparently no plot-related purpose (which is fine, because it’s Dini). I suppose if the intention is for the series to show the “on the street” reactions to the new Batman and Robin, then it’s not a bad idea – but this conceit is let down by featuring the pair in scenes that are firmly from their perspective, and at their usual level.

Dini’s also off to a slightly shaky start in capturing the dynamic of the, er, dynamic duo. His Grayson works quite well, over-talkative and more of a standing, observational figure; but I’m not so sure he’s got the memos on Damian. Shouting “Gotta go!” while running away from the same conversation ( in which he’d earlier not contracted the phrase “I am” shows a distinct inconsistency of voice, and referring to his new mentor by first name rather than surname seems a little too friendly for the aloof brat. That said, the first appearance of the pair, accosting a fleeing Ms Quinn, works rather better, so let’s not lose hope entirely – but the spark and dynamism of Morrison’s Batman and Robin is lacking.

This certainly isn’t bad – and it’s a more enjoyable read than Winick’s opening salvo on the main title – and Nguyen’s work is strong as ever (credit, too, for actually attempting to be consistent with the details of the Quitely costume designs where other artists might not have bothered). There’s a curious trick whereby the inking and colouring style changes in order to present a more “arty” final splash page – I don’t know how deliberate it is, and it’s slightly jarring, but it’s a lovely image even if it’s not made clear what the cliffhanger’s trying to show us. Of the non-Morrison titles, then, this just about edges its way into pole position for the “also read” slot, but it’ll have to work some if it’s going to be a must-buy.

Quick mention too of the fact that this is the second (last week’s Booster Gold and Blue Beetle the first) of DC’s books to try out this new scheme of having a short backup feature of a similarly-themed, recently-cancelled character. I still don’t care enough about Marc Andreyko’s Manhunter to click hugely with it (Kate is too similar to a bunch of superior Marvel characters – Jones, Drew, Danvers, Walters – to really stand out), but bringing her to Gotham is an interesting idea, particularly if the character connections in her out-of-costume life are maintained, so we’ll see. And I’m fully in support of the whole “Second Feature” idea, if nothing else.

Er, not quite. Because Winick’s first issue is, in fact, basically the missing fourth chapter of Battle for the Cowl. Or not even that, really. If Morrison’s B&R rendered Battle pointless by breezing into the new status quo with a couple of panels’ explanation, Winick goes one further and flat-out replaces it. We all knew Dick was going to end up as Batman, so the path to that point given here is far more straightforward, without all that needless faffing about with Jason Todd – it’s just about the contingency plan that Bruce put in place, and Dick wrestling with the decision of whether or not to accept it. And the thing is, I can’t really argue with Winick deciding to replace Tony Daniel’s story – although an easier way might have been simply to write the thing himself – because whereas that was bloody rotten, this is at least only mildly rubbish.

I mean, it at least has a point. It at least attempts to do something with the various characters and their facing up to a world without Bruce – it’s true that the overwrought, borderline-emo Dick is a regression from the character we read about last week (and that’s endemic, really, of the fact that this issue really should have come out first – purely chronologically it’s much earlier, even setting up Dick’s residence in the penthouse), and that what is a nice moment with Alfred (”My son has died”) is a bit of a rip of something Tomasi did better in Outsiders – and there’s actually a progression, development towards Dick’s decision to take on the role, something that Battle singularly lacked. It suffers from coming out a week after Morrison showed how to do a great Batman comic simply by being fun – because it’s not fun in the slightest, it’s moody and angsty – but at least it doesn’t suffer from being moronically stupid, so it’s genuinely an improvement on Winick’s recent work.

There is one way in which it’s weaker than Battle, though, and that’s in the work of “superstar” artist Ed Benes. Regular readers will know I’m not a fan of his style anyway, but there’s usually some level of technical proficiency there – sadly, there’s none of it on display in this issue. Figures are sketchy, awkward and inconsistent, storytelling is basic and workmanlike, and Dick’s hairstyle changes by the panel. The overall look isn’t helped by a muggy colouring job, but it’s clear from two panels in particular that Benes is far from on his top form – firstly an utterly wretched version of Alfred as he looks folornly at the Batman and Robin costumes in glass cases, and then a final-page splash that should be exciting and inspirational, but which just leaves you wondering where the traditionally lithe, former acrobat Grayson got his Liefeld-esque arms and legs from.

I suppose we should be grateful that Winick has rolled up on the main Batbook again, and it’s not an unmitigated disaster. It’s not particularly great, and nor does it give a compelling reason to exist when we’ve got Batman & Robin out there, along with Paul Dini doing what will presumably be a continuation of his Detective run under any other name. But at least it’s not Titans, and that’s about as close to a compliment for Winick as you’re going to hear from me.

Even before the arrival of the demonic medic, there was always something rather biblical about Grant Morrison’s run on Batman. Within the space of a few issues, Bruce Wayne faced an unwelcome prodigal son and had been smitten by an alluring Jezebel. All the talk of transcendental meditation couldn’t disguise the writer’s examination of whether Batman would fit into a Christian perspective. Gaiman takes this theme and provides a very different viewpoint, with the second part of ‘Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?‘ presenting a strongly Buddhist conception of the Dark Knight. The central conclusion is a truly brilliant one, arguing that Bruce Wayne’s actions are so perfectly balanced in terms of karma that the only possible next life for him is to be reborn as himself. The genius of this idea comes from the resonance it has with the dozens of retellings of Batman’s origin story that there have been over the years. More than any other superhero, Wayne is integrally tied to his past, and Gaiman’s idea is a superb way of acknowledging this.

Unfortunately, what DC has published is precisely that: an idea, not a story. The dramatic device of Batman’s funeral is soon discarded, with little of the Planetary-esque flitting between conceptions of the Batman canon that characterised the opening segment. The writer is soon reduced to having a narrator actually telling the title character the message of the story, being unable to find a way to convey it through events. Gaiman has only done half the job here. He’s told a story about Batman, but not a Batman story, and it’s unlikely that the unique view he gives of the title character will persist in the absence of a memorable narrative to hang it on. It’s hard to think of a way in which the situation could be remedied and stay within the “two single issues” format- there’s no room for the bold statements that the late Mrs Wayne makes to have been rooted in the various deaths related to the reader during the funeral. By trying to imitate a classic too slavishly, DC has squandered the chance for another to be born.

So instead, I’m going to ignore what the series may or may not mean for the wider context of the titles over the upcoming year and beyond, and instead just try and take it on its own terms as a comic. But it has to be said that doing so strips it of almost anything interesting that one might say about it. It’s not spectacularly bad, or anything, but nor is it particularly good. It rolls along happily on the wave of “competence” that basically summarises Daniel’s entire career at DC. It sets up and lays out its premise effectively, it makes an admirable attempt to check in on the various corners of the extended “Batverse”, and it has the odd nice touch (such as the style of costume that Tim decides to wear as “Batman”). It rattles along with some decent action scenes (although by the closing page we’ve advanced story-wise about as far as that analogy from Blackadder Goes Forth), and for the most part (with the exception of an overreliance on stock action “poses” taking up half-pages) Daniel’s art is stronger than it was for fair chunks of his Batman RIP run.

At the same time, though, the plot is hardly as engrossing as you might expect (Tim is concerned about a nutso guy dressed as the last of the “three Ghosts” claiming to be Batman, Dick is moping around, and the Black Mask – really? Is that the best you can do? – is rounding up Arkham’s villains for some nefarious plot or other) and it fails on a number of the fundamental characteristics of convincing storytelling. It’s not enough to simply decide you want to use the Black Mask as your villain without giving a vague reason for why he’s not as dead as he was in his last appearance. It’s not really acceptable to have Oracle be essentially responsible for the death of a teenage girl by forcibly ejecting her from the Batmobile only for her to be eaten by Killer Croc and let the entire thing pass without comment (and while we’re at it, I think I’ve long since grown weary of female characters being eaten by monstrous villains in superhero comics, thanks). If you’re going to write a story that features Damian, it would help if you’d actually read the previous issues with him in (especially the ones that you drew) so that you don’t just have him speaking with the voice of an ordinary brattish teenager. And narrative non-sequiturs, such as Tim suddenly showing up halfway through the issue in the aforementioned Bat-outfit, only work if you’re doing something intelligent with them. Otherwise they just look like you left out a few pages somewhere.

If Battle for the Cowl had a truly compelling reason to exist, it wouldn’t matter that it was no more than a competent (if flawed) comic – there are plenty of those out there, and it would simply sit alongside all the rest as at least worth a look for those interested in the relevant franchise or character. And it wouldn’t matter if it served no real purpose in terms of furthering the overall storyline, either, if it were at least better-executed (the Gaiman story, for example, would probably fall into this category). As it is, though, it manages to mark itself out as less-than-essential reading even for those of us who were entirely gripped by Morrison’s run – and it’s impossible to shake the feeling that from now until the Scot’s return, the entire franchise is doing nothing other than treading water.