DCU Comic Book Reviews

SUPERMAN/BATMAN #63

Night & Day

October 2009

Written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson

Pencils by Rafeal Albuquerque

Inks by Rafeal Albuquerque

Covers by Rafeal Albuquerque

Synopsis

Gorilla Grodd has won.  He now controls the mind of every person on Earth.  Except for one:  Batman.  The Dark Knight has honed his mind to avoid Grodd’s telepathy and continues to fight.  Meanwhile, Grodd has bathed the planet in green Kryptonite, forcing Superman to leave the planet, unable to return.  In the batcave, Batman attempts to find a solution to the Kryptonite problem.  Suddenly, Alfred has a heart attack.  Fearful for his friend’s life, Batman lets his mental defense down.  Grodd tracks down Batman and captures him.  Batman is taken before Grodd.  Before Grodd can kill him, Superman appears, thanks to Batman’s efforts to cure him of Kryptonite poisoning.  Together, the World’s Finest defeat Grodd and save the world.  Just then the computer simulation ends and Batman retires for the night. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

The opening sequence was pretty good.  I liked the set-up and thought the world as developed in the story was pretty chilling.  Then Alfred died and the story pretty much went to pieces.  And not so much because Alfred died, but the matter-of-fact way in which it happened.  There was no build-up, no character sympathy, it just kinda happened and then it led to Batman’s capture and Superman’s return.  At this point I was trying to figure out what the hell was going on.  There were a lot of things happening that I thought should’ve been played out longer, building to these events over time rather than just getting to them without preamble.  This was especially true with Superman’s sudden appearance and the quick (at least for us) resolution to the problem of the green Kryptonite.  Then the real ending came and it all made sense.  The plot had to move quickly because it had to finish in this issue in order for the twist to come right after it.  I can’t imagine how I would feel about the twist ending if the writers had milked the story for six or so issues.  Regardless, I still didn’t like the twist ending.  I think I would’ve preferred the ending with Superman and Batman shaking hands, declaring victory.  The main story, while over too fast, was food enough to stand on its own.  It didn’t need anything more, it doesn’t really add anything to the main story.

There is a brief mention on page 6 of Grodd controlling Lana as part of a plan to fill the atmosphere with green Kryptonite.  The plan failed when Superman/Batman stopped her.  I wonder if this is an offhand way to explain Lana’s behavior in this issue of the book.  Or it could be way to tie that story into the computer aspect simulation of this story.  Think of the ending and Batman’s words when he says of the simulation: “think of it as a story.” It makes me wonder if those words are the writers way of saying that all of their issues are to be considered stories within stories, therefore stories that are not part of continuity even if they seemed like they were part of continuity.  Does this make all of Green and Johnson’s run nothing more the computer simulations.  Not that I wouldn’t mind, a lot of their work was questionable, including Lana’s role with the Kryptonite or the whole thing with Amanda Waller. 

Is it just me or does Alfred looks really, really strange, like he is too thin and too bald?  Is this supposed to be a sign of what Grodd has done to the world or just bad art.

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