By: Dylan Ashcraft
It's that time of the week folks, where we take a look at what's happening in the news of DC Comics, review a comic book, and look at some pretty cover art. Now this isn't the biggest week when it comes to DC comics news however there are a couple interesting tidbits.
Batman vs Two-Face
The trailer for the upcoming animated movie based off the 1960s Batman and Robin television show was just released and it stars the late great Adam West in his famous role as the Caped Crusader. The movie also features Burt Ward as Robin and William Shatner as Two-Face while having appearances of characters such as The Joker, The Riddler, The Penguin and Hugo Strange.
It was your standard DC animation trailer where it shows off a significant portion while avoiding any major spoilers (unlike some of the DC Cinematic Universe trailers). Check out the trailer below and if you liked the trailer, than I would recommend picking up the movie when it releases October 17th of this year.
I will say, line of the trailer certainly has to be Hugo Stranges' "If you can't kill them in a horrible lab experiment, join them".
Batman and The Signal
As priorly talked about, Duke Thomas aka "The Signal" is getting a starring role in a Batman title, where he and Bats will be teaming up. And lord let me tell you, do I hate that name, I mean there are just so many better options. You can do so much better than the Signal for a character. And while I am not the biggest fan of Mr. Duke Thomas, I am particularly annoyed about the fact that they gave him such a terrible name. Besides the fact that "The Signal" sounds like the name of a D-List villain that flashes little lights in your eyes, we already have a Signal that's deeply written in Batman's lore. You know...this thing.
Putting how I feel about Mr. Thomas' hero name aside, I will say that based off the cover art of the first issue, the changes made to his costume are much better. His old costume looks like a cheap cosplay, because it just looks like he's wearing really (really) bright motorcycle pads/gear.
The new costume however has some aesthetically appealing differences about it, the black design on his cowl looks amazing and the fact that it goes down past his chin makes the side profile really cool. Also the changes to the Bat symbol on his chest are welcome as well as the white Bat outlined with the black makes the costume have a "pop" factor that it didn't have before. Cully Hammer did a really good job designing this costume change.
Batman and the Signal will be a three part miniseries written by Scott Snyder and co-written by Tony Patrick from the DC Writer Workshop. Snyder has stated that Patrick is really passionate about the character (Duke Thomas) and that bodes to be a great thing because it really helps when the writer truly cares about the character they're writing for. It'll be interesting to see where this miniseries takes Duke Thomas after the events of Dark Knights: The Culling.
The Flash Races Through Walmart
Okay, I'll be honest with you, this isn't really news of any sort...it's just kind of a fun thing. So a new advert for Walmart has recently gone out with Justice League's The Flash racing around helping shoppers at the store. Now it isn't likely Ezra Miller in the costume here (as you never see his face) but things like this are fun, especially for the kids. I mean, I remember when the first Spiderman movie (Tobey Maguire) was coming out, the Walmart near me was advertising that Spiderman was in the store and taking pictures with kids. Stuff like this is great for kids because these characters are role models for them, so while it's silly and campy (especially with the 80s soundtrack for the bit) it's pretty awesome.
The DC Cover of the Week
The Flash #28 is the cover of the week and if I do say so myself, holy crap is this thing pretty. I'm a big fan of covers like this where the background is in a duller color while the main focus falls on the character whose stylized in a bright way to make the cover pop to the eyes. The black lightning ebbing off of the Flash as he runs is excellent as having it look as if the Flash is breaking the ground as he runs (which ties into the story) is such a nice aesthetic. I've been loving a vast majority of the variant covers for the Flash comic series and I have to say, this is probably one of my favorites.
The DC Comic of the Week
So typically when I review a comic for DC Comic of the Week, I go in depth and talk about what happens in the book. However for this comic, I'm not going to do that. Because if there was one single comic that I would want someone to go out and read after reading this article, it's this one. Tom King's "Mister Miracle" is the DC Comic of the Week because it's absolutely amazing.
I'm going to preface all of this by saying that I am a massive fan of Tom King's work and I believe he really excels with characters that no one else really utilizes (or at least nowadays). His run with Vision is one of the best comic series I've read, the work he did with that character was amazing. And then with Kyle Rayner in the Omega Men, another fantastic series that was amazing from the start and ended that way.
The book opens up in spectacular fashion with Mister Miracle's ultimate escape attempt, escaping death. And what I mean by that is, Mister Miracle attempts to commit suicide to see if he can escape death. And that is all I am going to give away about what happens inside the book.
The art perfectly matches up with the tone of the story and really stands out amongst so many things in this book. Mitch Gerads ability to convey emotion with a single panel is incredible, the ability to cause a sense of disorientation for the reader so that they don't comfortable reading this book is fantastic. And from the start of the book you can tell that this isn't your typical superhero title, it doesn't go at the pace that readers are accustomed to with new books. There are these shifts in reality inside the book that puts the readers on their toes, it makes it so that when you're experiencing what's going on, you aren't sure what to believe as true. The only thing you can really know for sure is that this isn't just some random DC Comics book, it's something else.
Which is exactly what Tom King wants, as he's stated that he wants to write a comic like Watchmen, a comic that captures the uncertainty of our times, and with this book, I feel he will do just that.
Tom King's "Mister Miracle" #1 receives a 9.75/10.
This makes this book the highest I've scored so far here on the DC Comics Week In Review and it is very well deserved. I don't believe it is a perfect book, hence the lack of rating it a 10, but it is absolutely amazing. And very well might be my favorite comic of the entire year across all publishing companies. It is without a doubt, the best issue one of the year however and I can't put into words how much I suggest reading this title.
"Follow Mister Miracle, Enter the next Trap"
And that is this week's DC Week In Review, let me know in the comments what you think of the Batman vs Two-Face Trailer, Duke's new costume, and Mister Miracle #1. Until next week, I bid you adieu
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