DCU Comic Book Reviews

SUPERMAN/BATMAN #70

The Big Noise, Part 3:  Righteous Destroyer

May 2010

Written by Joe Casey

Pencils by Ardian Syaf and Jay Fabok

Inks by Vicente Cifuentes, Norm Rapmund, and Marlo Alquiza

Cover by Ardian Syaf

Synopsis

In Gotham City, deals with the Hooded Hangman while also dealing with the Durlan shape-shifter that has taken over the body of STAR Labs entrepreneur Anderson Gaines.  Meanwhile, STAR Labs discovers an anomaly on the dark side of the moon.  They consider contacting the Justice League, but Gaines stops them, demanding all info be sent directly to him and then erased.  He will deal with it.  Gaines then contacts NRG-X to finish the job he started.  NRG-X invades the Fortress of Solitude.  Superman arrives and they exchange blows.  In space, Gaines pilots a shuttle to the moon and to the Kryptonian ship that Batman placed in orbit.  Gaines had spent considerable time on the ship and knows how to work it.  Now, he will use it to destroy the last son of Krypton.  Just as he turns on the ship’s system, the proximity alarms go off, alerting Gaines to Batman’s approach.  

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

NRG-X = Nuclear Radiation Generator, Experimental

Standard disclaimer for this story:  I don’t know what this story has to do with “Our Worlds At War.”  More and more it looks like an editorial decision to brand it as an Aftermath story so that DC can logical explain why it contains Bruce Wayne as Batman and why Superman is the only Kryptonite, two things that currently don’t exist in the DC universe at the moment. 

Hey, look, the pieces of the proverbial chess board have been put into position.  This is really what this issue was about.  It didn’t really do much in terms of the story or the characters.  We didn’t learn anything new than what we knew before:  Gaines wants to kill Superman and the World’s Finest are going to fight back.  So, for this issue we get Gaines and Batman into space while Superman fights NRG-X.  Nothing was settled and there were no big plot developments.  In fact, scenes such as the Hooded Hangman and even the fight with NRG-X were pretty much filler.  This was all about getting Gaines and Batman into space.  I am not sure why we needed to a full issue to do that, but there you go.  Having said that, however, this wasn’t a bad issue.  The art was pretty good, the fight scenes stood out, and I do like Batman explaining how the fight is going to go to Superman.  While this issue felt like the story is running in place, I didn’t mind that much, and I am curious to see what happens when Casey finally gets the story running a full speed.

I like the reference to the Black Casebook, something that Grant Morrison introduced during his run on Batman.  The casebook is supposed to contain entries on cases Batman investigated that involved the weird or the odd.  Fighting a Durlan would certainly qualify.  I wonder if this is something that Casey added on his own or came from the editors.

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