DCU Comic Book Reviews

SUPERMAN/BATMAN #69

The Big Noise, Part 2:  Benediction Redux

April 2010

Written by Joe Casey

Pencils by Ardian Syaf

Inks by Vicente Cifuentes and David Enebral

Cover by Ardian Syaf

Synopsis

In Gotham City, Bruce Wayne attends a fund raising event.  In Metropolis, Superman fights NRG-X, who was hired to kill Clark Kent.  Superman defeats NRG-X, but is unable to learn the identity of the person who hired him.  Meanwhile, at the fund raiser, Bruce meets Anderson Gaines, a former recluse and heads of STAR Labs.  Later, Superman and Batman meet at JLA headquarters.  There, Batman tells Superman the DNA they detected on the Kryptonian they found floating in space belonged to a shapeshifter.  Superman realizes he could be anyone.  However, Batman has a hunch.  He runs a few tests and determines he is right:  Gaines is the shapeshifter.  A Durlan.  Superman immediately wants to confront Gaines, but Batman cautions they should wait.  Either way, if Gaines wants to start a war, Superman will be happy to finish it.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

NRG-X = Nuclear Radiation Generator, Experimental

I still don’t know what this story has to do with “Our Worlds At War,” but I think at this point it doesn’t matter all that much.  I liked this issue.  I thought it was crisp and well-paced, maneuvering through the story quickly but not feeling rushed at all.  It begins with the World’s Finest encountering two different types of combatants, fighting two different battles and it ends with the reveal of Gaines and the buildup of the opposing sides declaration of war.  I like the fact that the identity of the shapeshifter was resolved quickly.  I am not a big fan of the reader knowing more than the character. I like the fact that now Batman and Superman know what we know.  With that out of the way, we can get to the meat of the story, the war between Kryptonian and Durlan.  I also like the fact that Batman’s hunch was based on somewhat decent logic, if not extreme coincidence, although I am not sure if Casey addressed why Gaines went out of his way to meet Bruce (or was he meeting Batman?).  Anyway, I like the build-up, we’ll just have to see if Casey can make it all payoff.

Actually, you could almost argue that this could’ve been an aftermath story to the Invasion! event (published back in the late 80s).  In that story, Dominators assembled a group of alien races (including Durlans) and attempted to take over Earth. 

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