The Week In Geek 7/23/14

This week certainly wasn't as action packed as last week.

-Most of my week was dedicated to the Twitter drive to get BNP followers up. If you haven't done so already, please follow the collective @blknrdproblems on Twitter AND Instagram for the latest in updates, news, links to articles as soon as their available, live tweets and all manner of miscellaneous nerd fuckery.

-I'm still looking for a new name for The Blog, so tweet me (@letsgetfree13), email me (letsgetfree13@gmail.com), Facebook me if you have any ideas for a name. I want to rename this bad boy before I run away to Wordpress, so your help would be appreciated.

My comic reviews for the week are currently up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your approval...or disapproval, as it were. This week, I took a look at....

Batman Eternal: Okay, this issue wasn't quite as strong as last week's outing, but it certainly felt less cluttered and that's always a godsend to this book.

Batman: This finale to Zero Year mainly lived up to the hype brought on by all the awesomeness of the past year. Scott Snyder has a win and a half on his hands. One slightly unrelated thing it brought to light for me was one of the fundamental flaws in The Dark Knight Rises: Alfred Pennyworth would NEVER leave Batman. Ever. Granted, I understand the context Christopher Nolan was trying to create. Rises was intended to be about Batman losing EVERYTHING.

Money- Wayne Enterprises goes broke.

Love- The idea that Bruce lost his one chance at a normal lie was taken from him with the revelation that Rachel was going to choose Harvey Dent instead of him.

The Power to Scare The Living Shit Out of Evil- "Ohhh, you think darkness is your ally..."

Gadgets- "You're precious armory, gratefully accepted. We will need it."

You get the picture. Batman was broken down to his most base components and forced to find his way back to everything he had and everyone he loved....including Alfred. But this is awkward not only because Bruce and Alfred have some of the best exchanges of the entire trilogy and having Michael Caine in 75% of your movie is simply a bad idea, but because Alfred is the ONE real constant in his life. This is what Zero Year does well: We know full well that Bruce Wayne will be Batman for as long as his body will allow it and maybe even some time after that. But Alfred will always be standing beside him to remind him of what the life he could always aspire to some day. He's not just his conscience. He's his humanity. That's why it's almost an unspoken rule that he would never abandon Batman.

Stuff I Read This Week Episode 32 or I Wonder If Alfred Got in On Obamacare....

Why do they look like contestants on
that old arcade game Smash TV?

All New X-Men #18: One of the prevailing subplots of Avengers Vs. X-Men was that the Avengers hadn't been around much while the mutant community was going through pretty dire straits facing extinction. Cyclops told Captain America that he always felt the X-Men were treated as the Avengers' redheaded stepchildren. It sort of seems like this is how Marvel treats them as well. I mean, let's face it....the X-Universe hasn't had a good crossover event since A vs. X and even that was touch and go for a minute there. Marvel doesn't know how to create constructive conflict between heroes without making one party into the one dimensional douchebag villain like the Tony Stark in Civil War. Hell, do what Toronto Mayor Rob Ford does and blame the media and the police. It would shake things up, at least. Battle of the Atom was decent but also underwhelming and anti-climatic in its own way, basically summing up what we already knew: There will always be humans who make life suck for mutants and it's going to make some mutants into bitter old mutants one day.

Fortunately, it gave us some decent fallout consequences. Brian Michael Bendis picks up the pieces left behind from all of the event's time travel shenanigans in the latest installment of All New X-Men. The issue deals mainly with Kitty Pryde and the "Original" team's transition in going to live at the New Xavier School with Cyclops and the Asshole Squad. Bendis does very well handling "in between" issues like this where some characters are put in a room with someone they wouldn't normally interact with under normal circumstances. Kitty and Magik's reunion is hilarious and somewhat touching if you know the history both characters share. Young Jean Grey's scene with the Stepford Cuckoos is priceless. Bendis has made the Once and Future Phoenix an interesting character again which is a feat I didn't think would ever be possible. Most writers had a tendency to deal with Jean in a very "time bomb" fashion which is cool but predictable. You know it's coming so it loses its "Holy Shit" factor. Bendis takes time to deal with her aggravation as a person and how that can spill over into her life as a blossoming mutant hero who keeps being told that she's headed for great and terrifying things.

Stuart Immonen's artwork is a welcome mainstay to the book's status quo. His love for expressing shift in tone through simple changes in shading is in rare form during a couple of pages of an exchange between Magneto and Young Beast. I also personally like how he draws Cyclops as opposed to the artsy version we've been getting in Uncanny X-Men where he looks less heroic and more like a slim Seth Rogen.

Bottom Line: A good book following up another lackluster X-event. 8 out of 10



Batman #25: It's hard to deny Scott Snyder has been winning with Zero Year, a "New 52" look at the beginning of the Caped Crusader. We're seeing a swashbuckler side of Batman we don't get to see very often that almost literally laughs in the face of danger, tells villain's they're and flies by the seat of his pants at moments. I would never have expected to hear Batman tell a bad guy he's "so full of shit." This issue mainly takes place during the aftermath of a massive blackout compliments of the Riddler.

However this installment in particular doesn't deal much with Edward Nygma. The central villain this time out is the (let me emphasize this) FUCKING CREEPY Dr. Death, whose horror themed killing spree is every bit as unsettling as his...well...face. Seriously, these are a couple of the eeriest looking crime scenes I've seen in a Batman book in some time. Snyder handles the detective stuff well without getting bogged down in it and also keeping the more action oriented readers engaged. After all.... Sherlock Holmes + swashbuckling = Batman. This series has been really good for tender moments between Bruce and Alfred. While Batman is having the time of his life trying out new gadgets and dodging the cops with ease, you can visibly see instances when Alfred is thinking "Goddamnit, what did I sign up for?"

The hues implemented in the artwork are simply amazing. It's nice to see a Batman book that can maintain a dark vibe while still not being afraid of splashing some color in here and there. Greg Capullo has a flair for the macabre and loves making his reader a little uncomfortable as is evident in Dr. Death's full reveal at the end. Also, his Batmobile design brings a wonderfully old school adventure feel to the beginning of the issue that made me laugh of sort delightful laugh that makes people think something might really be wrong with you in public.

Bottom Line: Scott Snyder can't lose. He's got Batman down almost to a science. 9 out of 10.