Violet

This was a pretty strong 4 for me, especially for an anthology. I loved Issues #1, #2, and #5 (Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Gwen, and SP//DR respectively) the most. I agree with most in that these stories should have been longer, I would've loved to see some of these developed further. I could've read a whole 6 issues of Gerard Way's anime love-letter SP//DR. The stylized cyberpunk world was really enjoyable, despite the cheesy cameos.

Really a 4.5/5 for me. I could read an endless amount of Kelley Jones' Batman, he just understands Gotham City.
EDIT: Y'know after seeing the ridiculous amount of 3 star and under reviews I felt the need to bump up to a 5 star. I really think there's an insecurity among male comic readers that comics have to be grimdark and realistic. How else would be be able to tell these comics are Not For Kids and are instead made for their Mature Adult Male Pallets.

Sometimes Comics can be Gothic, Strange, FUN. It's like Tim Burton's Batman Returns all f*cking over again. Makes me sad.

Enjoyed this a hell of a lot more than I expected to. I figured this was going to feel a bit like a Michael Bay movie but instead it delivered some pretty bleak science-fiction. It's not the deepest comic but it certainly has more to say than some other events I've read. The last half goes off the rails in the best comic-y way possible so it's definitely worth a read just for that bit.

The I Am Suicide story was very poetic and mysterious for a Batman story but I think it worked very well. Not perfect by any means but certainly deeper and far more interesting than your average Bat story. ★★★★

Rooftops only 2 issues but it is the star of the show. Beautiful and heartbreaking. ★★★★★

#39-40 - Mask - ★★★★ (Fun nightmarish horror story. Really Nightmare on Elm Street-esque visuals.)

#50 - Images - ★★ (Bland Joker Story.)

#52-53 - Tao - ★★★ (Decent Spiritual story with Kung-Fu action. Great art.)

#54 -Sanctum - ★★★★★ (Mike Mignola issue, one of my favorite Batman stories of all time.)

If I could give it a 3.5 I would. As with most projects he's attached to, Chris Bachalo's art steals the show. The writing is not bad by any means, Jason Aaron is an accomplished writer but I wouldn't say he's working at his strongest here. Doesn't help that it's also an event tie-in.

Overall though out of all the AvX tie-ins, this was the only one to actually interest me. Certainly worth a read alongside the main event.

Don't have too much to say! This is by far the best Spider-Man I've read so far, ticks every box for me. The writing is spot on, this feels like the Peter Parker that's been in my head since childhood. It looks exactly how I imagine the classic Spidey comics looking, the colors especially. The choices made on artists between volumes was consistent making this 500 page long tome feel like one complete story.

Javier Pulido is pretty much the perfect Spider-Man artist for me. Really harkens back to style of classic comics while still creating innovative and breathtaking panel layouts.

Incredible art by Chris Bachalo. The writing was...not for me. Felt like a horrible Deadpool comic but instead it stars the Venom nobody likes. Yikes. I would like to give this a 3 just for the artwork alone but ehhh. Honestly just read another book illustrated by Bachalo.

Moreso a 3.5/5 than an outright 3 but yeah.

This is the first Hickman written thing I've read and...it's strange. I'm very very interested in the future of Hickman's writing at Marvel so I won't let the unevenness of this detract me. I love the FF so anytime they get to do cheesy fun adventuring is great! Problem is, the other half of this story is a very serious philosophical look inside the mind of Reed Richards. Very clashing storylines.

So I was hoping to see a continuation of the story started in Son of M and Silent War but...no.

A really inconsequential story for both Secret Invasion and The Inhumans as a whole. Easily the worst writing for these characters yet, mixed with some aggressively okay artwork means this is not only skippable but worth ignoring all together. Yikes.

EDIT: what was i smoking when i wrote this. this book is a 4 at best.

Man I'm not sure exactly why people hate this so much? Comics are so fluid, things can change do dramatically and so quickly. Especially in a cosmic multiverse where time works far different than real life.

This storyline featured gorgeous art the whole way through and a thought-provoking dream-like story. Yes it has arguably one of the biggest comic retcons in history, but does that have to be a bad thing? These characters will never die unless their companies die. Likely, they will outlive all of us. Why do their lives have to stay the same, stuck in an endless ageless loop.

I for one feel the heartbreak of this change, this cosmic shift. I feel it and I welcome it.

A one-shot Civil War Tie-In done in an anthology format. I enjoyed 3 of 6 anthology stories here so one star for each one I liked.

Switching Sides by Marc Guggenheim and Leinil Yu - A fun little Venom story with great visuals.

The Immortal Iron Fist by Brubaker and Fraction and David Aja - A really great “Daredevil” story with done by the same artist as Fraction's Hawkeye. Cannot stress enough how good the visual storytelling here is.

and finally,

Howard the Duck in Non-Human-Americans by Ty Templeton and Roger Langridge - One of the funniest comic stories I've read and a seriously great use of Howard the Duck.

In a weird turn of events I did not enjoy the main story here at all. I'm a huge fan and defender of Scott Snyder but this one didn't grip me. I'm also admittedly not a fan of Two-Face at all so that has something to do with it.

Now I will say, I actually really recommend this for the Backup stories collected here. They center around Duke Thomas who is a character I'm liking more and more with each appearance. The artwork was SO much better than JRJR's work on the main arc. The dialogue especially was just so much more human and gripping.

Really underrated Legends of the Dark Knight arc. A bit like Batman: White Knight (although admittedly not as good). The art reminded me a lot of Kelley Jones, whom I love. Gotham is dark but playful, almost feeling like a twisted Disneyland.

I'm giving this a reluctant 5/5 because of the story The Sleeping. It's not often we get true metaphysical stories for Batman. Usually it's given a scientific excuse through strange chemicals and drugs, here it's purely up for interpretation though. Like a dream is.

Really beautiful work in text and image by Scott Hampton. Strange especially given just how much of a slog I found the first story in this collection, Destiny.

Favorite Issues:

#1 - Tim Sale - 5/5

#2 - Richard Corben - 4/5

#3 - Paul Pope - 4/5

#5 - Darwyn Cooke - 5.5/5

#8 - Teddy Kristiansen - 5/5

#9 - Scott Hampton - 4.5/5

#12 - Brendan McCarthy 5/5

If I had been reviewing Issue 51 of Batman (2011) it would've been ★★★★★.

Given DC is money hungry though, I'm having to type this review out differently. Issue #51 is Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's final issue together. It should have been included in volume 9 but...here we are. The issue itself is beautiful in both it's writing and artwork. A final goodbye tour of Snyder and Capullo's world. The short visit to the Court of Owl's made me really emotional, that story arc means a lot to me.

The rest of the issues contained here are vaguely related. In truth they're all just loose-ends DC didn't know where to reprint. One of which, “Madhouse” by James Tynion IV, really upset me. Completely ruins the small-scale personal story of Bruce Wayne in Superheavy and Bloom. I'm just going to pretend this issue never happened because hell is it bad.

Total - 4.5 / 5

Blades - 3.5 / 5

Legend of the Dark Mite - 4 / 5

Hothouse - 5 / 5

This felt not too dissimilar to a six-issue arc on Detective Comics. It's essentially a small scale murder mystery set in the midst of Batman Eternal. At this point in the story Wayne Manor is temporarily seized and used as the new Arkham Asylum. Author Gerry Duggan avoids the typical Rouges Gallery formula and instead writes a tight and interesting mystery bringing Batman deeper inside the Manor than ever before.

Worth a read even without pre-existing knowledge of the Batman Eternal storyline.

Batman Eternal - ★★★½

I read this while in the middle of Batman: Eternal to get a better understanding of Joker's Daughter. I guess I know who she is now? The first half felt unnecessarily long since the New 52 appearances retcon it all anyways.

To be fair though I much prefer the earlier interpretation of a Girl who can convince herself she's anybody's Daughter than the much edgier New 52 stuff. Nonetheless, this compilation was well put together and did technically give me a better understanding of this character.

The first half of this is mostly Backups from the Zero Year story arc. These are okay. Nothing to write home about.

The second half on the other hand takes a sudden turn into really top tier Detective stories. There's a fantastic Clayface story called “Nowhere Man” done by Snyder and Capullo. Then a story called “Ghost Lights by James Tynion IV. This one features Superman and has a Lovecraftian premise. Loved this one as well. The final standout was “The Meek” plotted by Snyder and written by Gerry Duggan. This one was a straight-forward Detective story with a new killer. His motive was refreshingly tame but still downright evil. Beautiful artwork and story.

Only other thing I want to mention is the reveal of Bluebird in the final story “Gotham Eternal”, a tie-in to the Batman Eternal comic series. Bluebird has been teased by Snyder since the beginning of his run and it's great to see her finally come into play. Love her design, excited to see more of her character alongside the rest of the Bat-Family.

This is a STRONG Four because I hear it gets better from here on. If this was standalone it'd easily be a Five.

Only read this for the Mignola story If a Man Be Clay which is a near panel-to-panel remake of an original Detective Comics issue. The dialogue is cheesy, the scenarios are strange, and it's all perfectly told through Mignola's art. I liked the fact that this was a self proclaimed pre-crisis story, something I don't think we get enough of.

The expressionist flair of the art really gave a new tone to this story, especially reading it back to back the original issue. I know he really doesn't like Batman that much but I could easily read a whole book of Mignola retelling Golden Age Detective Comics.

3.5

Mignola's art was great as always but the story wasn't all there for me. Still worth a read.

More of a 3.5 than a four since it's certainly not my favorite Gaiman. Giving it a four just for that chapter in Gotham, really lovely characterization all around. That appearance of Swamp Thing was also just beautiful and might just be my favorite scene in the entire book.