DCU Comic Book Reviews

CHECKMATE #15

CheckOut, Part Five

August 2007

Written by Greg Rucka and Geoff Johns

Pencils by Joe Bennett

Inks by Jack Jadson

Cover by Matthew Clark and Art Thibert

Synopsis

[Continued from Outsiders, issue #48]

While members of the Outsiders and Checkmate are being escorted out of China airspace, on Oolong Island, Nightwing, Captain Boomerang, Jr., and Sasha Bordeaux are being held captive by Chang Tzu of the Great Ten.  Meanwhile, Checkmate meets with the ambassador to China, who tells them that China is not associated with Chang Tzu or Oolong Island.  This is enough for Checkmate to order a rescue mission.  The team uses a tracer signal implanted on Nightwing and Boomerang to locate them, but it turns out to be a false lead as their tracers have been removed.  They are no longer on Oolong Island.  White King Mr. Terrific realizes they must be in North Korea, but Checkmate can’t go there without creating an international incident.  So he decides to enlist the help of Batman. [Continued in Outsiders, issue #49]

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Like the rest of this storyline, the marriage of Rucka and Winick works surprisingly well as we get a terrific mixture of their styles that meshes well to create a unified hole.  Unlike previous issues, the writing style of both Winick and Rucka are on display here and it works surprisingly well.  Plus, the ending is intriguing, not in terms of the current storyline, but how this will affect the future.  It will be interesting to see how this pans out in future issues for both the Outsiders and Checkmate.

Two things surprised me in this issue.  The first was the torture scene.  I did not expect that we would see so much of it and for so long.  I don’t know why, but I expected that whatever Chang Tzu was going to would be implied and/or occur off panel.  Granted, what was in the comic was fairly tame.  It could have been worse in terms of blood and gore.  I don’t even think you can see where Chang Tzu used the scalpel on Boomer.  But I also didn’t expect to get scenes with Boomer screaming or Sasha missing an arm. 

The other thing that surprised me was the amount of political intrigue offered.  I know this is a hallmark of the series and certainly a hallmark of Rucka’s writing in general.  But for a storyline that crossover to a mainstream superhero action book, I was thinking that the politics would be toned down, perhaps in the fear that too much might scare away potentially new readers. I am not complaining, mind you, just a little surprised. 

In earlier issues of this crossover, I complained about the conversations between Nightwing and Sasha in which they discussed their connection to each other through Batman.  It just seemed like they spent too much time talking about Batman to the detriment of focusing on the other characters and it grated on my nerves a little bit.  Now I know why those scenes were there:  to set up the ending to this issue and the conclusion to the storyline in general. 

I like trying to guess who wrote what in this storyline.  From what I understand, Rucka and Winick split each issue in half, each writing 11 pages.  If this is true, then I would guess that Winick wrote the pequod scenes and the rescue scenes while Rucka wrote the scenes at the castle and probably the torture scenes.  I am not sure if that division is even, but it seems to make the most scenes.  The pequod scenes contain the emotional moments while the castle scenes have the political moments.

ïPREVIOUS	Main		Page	NEXTð

Home ●  Blog ● Who Are We? ● Site News
Alive and Well since April 16, 2006

 DC Universe Reviews.  All Rights Reserved
  Characters, trademarks, brands are property of DC Comics

For problems or questions regarding this website, please contact our kindly webmaster.
Last updated: 08/06/11.