DCU Comic Book Reviews

SUPERMAN/BATMAN #22

With A Vengeance, Chapter Three:  Heroes and Villains

October 2005

Written by Jeph Loeb

Pencils by Ed McGuinness

Inks by Dexter Vines

Cover by Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines

Synopsis

The Maximums have Superman and Batman held prisoner, but not for long as the two are able to engineer their escape.  On the moon, Bizarro and Batzarro go to the JLA watchtower to use the transporter.  When they arrive, the encounter Superman: Red Son and Batman Beyond.  Elsewhere, Superman is being chased by the Maximums.  Superman encounters Robot, who believes that Superman and Batman did not kill Skyscraper.  Meanwhile Batman is chased down and beaten by Wolfen.  Later, Bowmen has Batman tied to a hospital bed.  Lex Luthor asks Bowman if he has completed his end of the bargain, which Bowman tells him that Superman and Batman will never get back alive.  Bowmen then opens the case that the Atomic Skull had stolen from, Wayne Tech.  It causes Batman to turn green Kryptonite and plans to kill Superman 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

“Ever since Kara --Supergirl-- came into our lives, Bruce has immersed himself into learning Kryptonese.  Sometimes, being paranoid 24/7 has its benefits...”

Oh, look, there is Batman battling Wolverine, whoops, I mean Wolfen.  It is scenes like this that I am slowly losing my patience with this arc.  Mind you, as a one time appearance, I really did not mind the in-joke of the Marvel analogues appearing to battle Superman and Batman.  But after three issues, the joke has completely wearing thin and when that happens all that is left is the story.  And at this point I have lost interest in that too.  The mixture of Bizarro and Maximums is sadly lacking; there are two plots in this story and I hope they come together in some fashion and soon.

Loeb introduces, or reintroduces three new characters in this issue.  My own feeling is that these are being down more for shock value than for anything else.  I can picture Loeb pointing to the drawings and saying, “see how cool that is?”  Yeah, it may look on first inspection, but after that first panel, there had better be something cool that character does in the story.  Granted, Red Son and Batman Beyond may just exist as cameos, but the last introduction, the Krypton Batman, is at the core of the next issue (based on the cover solicitations) so Loeb better have something up his sleeve other than a fight between the two that ends when Superman convinces Batman to override the programming that made him that way to begin with. 

About the only thing that truly got my attention was Lex Luthor.  He appears here in full battle suit, just like he did at the end of the first story, when he lost his presidency.  It’s cool because it seems as if Loeb is getting ready to explain a lot of what may have happened not only in the first arc, but also since then.

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