DCU Comic Book Reviews

SUPERMAN/BATMAN #20

With A Vengeance, Chapter One:  Here Come The Maximums

June 2005

Written by Jeph Loeb

Pencils by Ed McGuinness

Inks by Dexter Vines

Cover by Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines

Synopsis

While a radio announcer questions the public about violence in the media, the Axis Of Evil is in the middle of robbing a jewelry store.  The robbery is interrupted by the arrival of the Maximums.  In the midst of their battle, Superman and Batman arrive via a Boom Tube.  They attack both groups.  Superman then claims one of Maximums, Skyscraper, killed Lois.  Superman kills Skyscraper and then the World’s Finest disappear via a boom tube.  Elsewhere, Bizarro and Batzarro decide to join forces.  Meanwhile, Superman is fighting a Kryptonite Man in Tokyo who turns out to be Captain Atom.  Later, the Maximums bury Skyscraper.  Former Maximum, and currently dead, Bowman offers the Maximums a chance for revenge, as long as they listen to them. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Huh?

That, in a nutshell, was my reaction to this issue.  Actually, I get the visual of Jeph Loeb falling off his rocker and hitting his head; thus, anything he wrote would make sense to him, but not to us.  That may just be me, however.  This issue was all over the place, from heroes and villains from some sort of alternate Earth or planet or something to Bizarro and Batzarro to the return of Captain Atom.  None of these elements seem to go together in any shape or form. It seems too random, as if Loeb was tossing things against the wall and whatever stuck was what he was going to write.  Hopefully, the Superman that killed Skyscraper is an evil version or something or else DC just had its flagship character brutally murder another hero. 

I got a headache reading the Bizarro dialogue.  The backwards, negative talking works in small doses.  But when you have to decipher an entire page or more, it becomes a hassle.  Okay, let me see, he said, “it is positively lethal to me,” so it means that it does nothing to him.  I think Loeb was expecting that if the reader got used to it, they could adapt and ti would become natural.  Perhaps.  However, what makes Bizarro so interesting is that he is backwards in a forwards world.  When two backwards are together, it makes for dull, lame reading. 

Maximums = Avengers 

Soldier / Scout = Captain America

Hornet = Wasp

Robot = Iron Man

Monster = Hulk

Skyscraper = Giant Man

Viking = Thor

Bowman = Hawkeye