Batman: Evolution

Rating:
Summary: Missing The BackUps, But 8 Of The Best Batman Comics Ever
Review: Reprints Detective Comics #s 743-750, minus, apparantly, the 8-page backups that began appearing in # 746. The exclusion of said material, excellent though it is, is not enough to justify bumping this down from five stars to four; besides, all DC has to do is start issuing Trade Paperbacks reprinting the Detective backups like they've done for the Black-&-White backups from Gotham Knights (another outstanding title) and problem solved, you don't have to worry about missing any material when you purchase Trades like this or "Officer Down" or "Fugitive". What really mystifies me though, is if this is billed as 'New Gotham 1', why they didn't start the volume off by reprinting Detective # 742, THE perfect post-No Man's Land starting point, an issue largely focusing on Jim Gordon and the reprecussions of the final issues of NML. I definately recommend that issue in addition to this volume, as it sets the stage well for the whole post-NML Batman material in many of the titles, not just Detective.

Onto the material that is reprinted itself - issues 743-746 bring the detective skills of the Bat into center stage as he investigates the prescence and intentions of Whisper A'Daire and Kyle Abbot in Gotham, two new (to the reader) agents of the Demon's Head, Ra's Al Ghul. 743-746 also give considerable play to many of Gotham's 'non-costumed' organized crime elements, and does so with great characterization and realism. # 747 is a stand-alone issue in which Batman is pretty much a cameo player, in an issue starring GCPD officer Reneé Montoya and Two-Face; possibly one of the 5 best single-issue Batman stories ever published; actually I'd go even further and say it's possibly one of the 5 best self-contained comics, period. Detective Nos. 748 & 749, 'Urban Renewal' Parts 1 & 2, see the tense friction between the Dee-Zees (residents who left Gotham after the No Man's Land declaration and returned after it was lifted) and OGs (Original Gothamites, who stayed in the city during the whole crisis) escalating into violence; also brings in details on how the actual rebuilding of the city is proceeding. And Detective Comics # 750 is a follow-up to the arc in 743-746, brilliant but containing one small implausibility, the only one in the collection. To focus too much on that would be nitpicking on the molecular level given the overall awesomeness of the issue and the collection.

The artwork is tremendous, one of the few examples of veering into the highly stylized realm of art (rather than going for a fully photorealistic style) that I find totally rewarding and expressive on every level. And it's not that it's blatantly UN-photorealistic, it's just that this is a really unique, really innovative pencil style. If the drawing style is innovative, the coloring style is downright revolutionary, casting each individual issue in pre-dominantly in a single primary color and its multitude of shades, plus black, white and grey. A bold move that succeeded magnificently and worked with the pencils and inks for one of the most original looks on any comic title in years and years.

Tremendous, riveting, outstanding, and unpredictable, I'll stop now before I use too much bandwidth with thousands of praiseful adjectives.

Rating:
Summary: A solid story backed up with excellent art.....
Review: Batman: Evolution picks up where the No Man's Land storyline ends. With that said, the story is individual enough that one would not have to have read No Man's Land to be able to jump right in. Evolution chronicles another attempt by Ra's Al Ghul (pronounced 'raish') to take over the world with a far-fetched scheme that causes general chaos. To be honest, Ra's Al Ghul is probably my least favorite recurring villain in Gotham. To me, nothing seems very memorable about his character. So, it's probably a good thing that Ra's appears on only a few pages of the book. Instead, his genetically altered henchmen make up the main antagonists of the story. With the exception of the now strangely recurring "officer Renee Montoya chapter", the story stays focused and moves along quickly. While the characters are less colorful than a Joker or Scarecrow, they are developed well and in most cases seem believable. Batman/Bruce himself is done very well, with a good balance of dialogue and action that keeps the character intriguing. The only obvious flaw in the story comes in the ending. Without spoiling anything, I'll say that the conclusion felt very hurried and not very well developed. It's what keeps this story from receiving 5 stars.

As for the art, it's the kind I appreciate: clean, clear, to the point, and effective. The pencilling has a sophisticated flair while keeping its utilitarian purposes in check. The muted coloring style is truly inspired, and strives to create a dark yet beautiful setting for Batman to work in. After the conclusion of the story, a few pages are added to show off some beautiful art based upon the story that keeps with the general artistic tone of the book.

Overall, Evolution is a worthy Batman novel that covers most of its bases very well.

Rating:
Summary: A solid story backed up with excellent art.....
Review: Batman: Evolution picks up where the No Man's Land storyline ends. With that said, the story is individual enough that one would not have to have read No Man's Land to be able to jump right in. Evolution chronicles another attempt by Ra's Al Ghul (pronounced 'raish') to take over the world with a far-fetched scheme that causes general chaos. To be honest, Ra's Al Ghul is probably my least favorite recurring villain in Gotham. To me, nothing seems very memorable about his character. So, it's probably a good thing that Ra's appears on only a few pages of the book. Instead, his genetically altered henchmen make up the main antagonists of the story. With the exception of the now strangely recurring "officer Renee Montoya chapter", the story stays focused and moves along quickly. While the characters are less colorful than a Joker or Scarecrow, they are developed well and in most cases seem believable. Batman/Bruce himself is done very well, with a good balance of dialogue and action that keeps the character intriguing. The only obvious flaw in the story comes in the ending. Without spoiling anything, I'll say that the conclusion felt very hurried and not very well developed. It's what keeps this story from receiving 5 stars.

As for the art, it's the kind I appreciate: clean, clear, to the point, and effective. The pencilling has a sophisticated flair while keeping its utilitarian purposes in check. The muted coloring style is truly inspired, and strives to create a dark yet beautiful setting for Batman to work in. After the conclusion of the story, a few pages are added to show off some beautiful art based upon the story that keeps with the general artistic tone of the book.

Overall, Evolution is a worthy Batman novel that covers most of its bases very well.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: Frank Miller, Jeph Loeb, Ed Brubaker & Greg Rucka. What do all of these guys have in common? Apart from being absolute masters of the comic book medium, and also being able to tell cracking good mystery tales, they have the distinction of being able to give us the BEST Batman tales. Greg Rucka's take on Batman/Bruce Wayne is at once both believable and fantastic! Do yourself a favour and check this book out. The story flows along at a brisk pace and the art is done in a psuedo film nior style. Very groovy.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: Frank Miller, Jeph Loeb, Ed Brubaker & Greg Rucka. What do all of these guys have in common? Apart from being absolute masters of the comic book medium, and also being able to tell cracking good mystery tales, they have the distinction of being able to give us the BEST Batman tales. Greg Rucka's take on Batman/Bruce Wayne is at once both believable and fantastic! Do yourself a favour and check this book out. The story flows along at a brisk pace and the art is done in a psuedo film nior style. Very groovy.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: Frank Miller, Jeph Loeb, Ed Brubaker & Greg Rucka. What do all of these guys have in common? Apart from being absolute masters of the comic book medium, and also being able to tell cracking good mystery tales, they have the distinction of being able to give us the BEST Batman tales. Greg Rucka's take on Batman/Bruce Wayne is at once both believable and fantastic! Do yourself a favour and check this book out. The story flows along at a brisk pace and the art is done in a psuedo film nior style. Very groovy.

Rating:
Summary: awesome
Review: Great read. Not so great art work but you can't blame that on rucka can you. Rucka did a great job with the villans i think. i purchased this along with batman broken bat. Broken Bat was a little better cause of the art work. BUY THIS BOOK!

Rating:
Summary: Memorable only for the Two-Face chapter
Review: Novelist Greg Rucka came aboard the Batman books during the groundbreaking "No Man's Land" epic. I loved that story arc, but since then, I've found Rucka's work, both on Batman and other comics (Whiteout, Batman/Huntress, etc.) to be either hit or miss. He is capable of great work, as the Two-Face story in this book shows, but when he's off his game.....oh boy.

The biggest problem here is Editorial; When DC rebooted Detective Comics, post NML, they made a few awful decisions- Artist Shawn Martinbrough's work is boring and nondescript, and it's made even worse by the "Limited" Colors used. The book looks like someone spilled a mug of Hot Chocolate on it. Just awful. Why bother to color it at all? It would be much more palatable in black and white.

An Editor should also have stepped in to stop Rucka from using a ridiculous designer drug as his plot device; The drug doesn't just addict, it turns it's users into animals. Literally. Snakes, Wolves, etc. After years spent trying to keep The Batman books (Semi)believable, the sight of addicts turning into snakes had me howling with laughter. Is this the best the great Ra's Al Ghul could do? Pathetic! Ra's Al Ghul is not my favorite Batman villain, but I think that's why he never used to turn up much: It took a really talented writer to do something with him. Rucka was not that writer. After all of that buildup, the story doesn't end, so much as stop. It's almost like Rucka ran out of writing paper....

With the great array of Batman books out there, you can't really be in bad enough shape that you'll want to waste your cash on this....