What I Bought Today – Detective Comics #17, Earth-2 #9, and Young Romance #1 (WARNING – SPOILERS)

Hey guys! Another Wednesday has come, which means it’s time to check out…

Let’s kick off with the Dark Knight himself in Detective Comics #17.

One of my big concerns going into this comic was knowing that it took place after Death of the Family, meaning anything could be taken as a spoiler. Well thankfully, despite how it was advertised, this story really ISN’T about the fallout of DotF. And frankly, I’m glad it isn’t, given that DotF ends next week. Instead, it’s about Batman wrapping up business with the Merrymaker and the League of Smiles. It’s a decent enough story, with a pretty creepy twist at the very end. I don’t wanna say too much, but the Merrymaker’s comeuppance in the end, while makes you feel as though he’s been royally pwned, also makes you a little terrified.

Earth-2 #9 has kind of brought something to my attention: There’s WAY too much going on in Earth-2 for a single book to keep track of. I realised this when Flash was prominently featured in this issue after being absent since #6. Again, I LOVE this book. The characters are great, the story is great, it’s just great. My problem is that there’s just too much for this one book. If there were two books taking place on Earth-2, I wouldn’t have an issue. Still, I feel odd listing that as a problem with this book. This is the issue where we see the début of Dr. Fate, albeit not in costume. We also see a bit more of The Atom, who apparently is out to bring the JSA in by force. Admittedly, I’m not sure why, but it does make for an interesting scenario.

Young Romance is kinda mixed, but I kinda figured it would be. It’s made up of a number of small Valentine’s Day oriented stories, ranging from Catwoman getting nostalgic over her first encounter with Batman, to Superman and Wonder Woman on a date, to Aquaman and Mera working out of a lighthouse as Mera learns the tale of the lighthouse’s former inhabitants. Some are okay, some are decent, and some make me wanna grit my teeth in frustration. I will say that it was nice getting a look at how Ray Fawkes writes Batgirl, and I think for that two month period where he’ll be filling in for Gail Simone, we should be in good hands…but for realsies, the artwork in the Batgirl short was kinda BAD. Sometimes, Barbara’s freakin’ HAIR would vanish for no reason. Also, kinda surprised there was no Batwoman short. Overall, I suppose it was decent and ultimately harmless fun, especially given just how retro it seemed by having so many smaller stories in a single book…which unfortunately racked up the price a bit, so be prepared to fork over some extra coinage for this one.

Well, that’s all for this week. Next week, the finale of Death of the Family. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to figure out how best to utilize the little Valentine’s Day cards that came with Young Romance. Ja né!