robin's comics log

Zatanna: Bring Down the House

Another of my favorites so far!
The art is so beautiful, the coloring gives it a 60s vintage comics look. But it never feels flat or "boring", it's so bold in its color choices and in some compositions. Absolutely loved it. Even the lettering flows super nicely with the art. Reminds me of why I love comic books in the first place. The story was very interesting as well. It feels a bit separated from the main DC continuity, and it would usually bother me, but the storytelling was done so well I really can't complain about it. Loved everything about it.

Heroes in Crisis

I wasn't gonna go out of my way to read anything focused on Harley Quinn but I'm trying to catch up with the main events of recent years.

I did enjoy this as a story. Surprisingly I don't have many negative things to say. I'm intrigued by how this affects the characters involved. Like wtf happened to Wally after. I didn't particularly like the Batgirl/HQ team-up, felt too OOC in my opinion, but what do I know. I did like the ending. And I've been liking reading stories where speedsters are aware of the universe changing around them.

Outsiders

I really enjoyed this!! Maybe I'm biased because I already like Batwoman and I haven't properly read Gotham War yet (and never read Planetary), but this is one of my favorite reads so far. I liked the mysteriousness around Drummer, and I liked the way the story developed. A few things felt a little rushed. But that's to be expected, I guess, considering how short this series is. I kinda wish it was longer. I wasn't a fan of how the whole Nocturna thing was handled. They could've made her a lot more of an actual Villian and less of "Kate's ex". I really liked Jenny Crisis, and it was nice to see Jinni Hex again.

LEX AND THE CITY

Lex's story was funny. Harley/Ivy's had gorgeous gorgeous art, it's not too interesting as a story but the art more than makes up for it. I liked Mr. Freeze's story! Poor guy just loves his wife and is insane about it.

Titans Together was cute, but it annoyed me so much that the artist didn't even try to differentiate Garth and Dick besides eye color. I'm 50/50 on the Robins story. I can't get over that crazy Steph is too female comment. I still have to read the more recent Tim stuff but why do all of his civilian romantic partners know his secret identity as Robin?? Anyways Riddlebat. The Raven/BB story was cute too but again not too interesting. And no opinion on Hawkman sorry lol.

Overall it has nice art but nothing too engaging plot-wise.

Young Justice

Honestly idk why it took me so long to read this. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I even liked most of the new characters. At one point it did feel like there were too many characters, but I get why they did it. I just wish we saw more of Cissie.

The story was fun, and I really loved the moments between Bart and Kon, and the references to YJ '98. I like how they introduced every character with a small story within the comic. And I like how they used different artists for that, and to represent the multi-verse traveling. Nice art overall. It had some really beautiful pannels.

Dark Crisis: Young Justice

You know all the nice things I said about YJ '19? Yeah none of that applies here. I can understand what the writer was trying to do, but mocking the same fans who are supposed to buy the comics isn't the smartest decision imo. Are you trying to sell nostalgia or not?

Plot aside, and my biggest issue with it, is how it tries so hard to call out sexism (and racism, and homophobia, etc etc.) that it goes right back into being sexist towards its characters. Did Cassie and Cissie ever had a conversation that did not involve the guys? Either in a negative or positive way. Reducing Cassie into being boycrazy is just as bad as what sexist writers have done with her character over the years.

And ignoring Cissie's character completely just to make her seem like the voice of reason, like she is a "girls girl" unlike Cassie. While also not caring at all about people who are supposed to be her friends? I think genuine arguments got lost in the way it was presented.

Wonder Woman: Donna Troy

I'm gonna be honest, I'm not very familiar with Donna but I liked this story. I loved the art and the storytelling. The way it goes back and forth between the fight and the present. Her monologue inside the church. Her feelings.

Technically I read this as part of the Wonder Girl - Adventures of a Teen Titan (2017) collection but this was my favorite issue.

Batman: Under the Red Hood

I couldn't tell you what was my opinion on this comic the first time I read it (over 10 years ago?), but it was nice to revisit it. Jason is such a dear character to me, yes he is a villian at worst and an anti-hero at best, but he is interesting to me!! The hurt, the resentment, the selfishness, him and Bruce never being able to reconcile, the stubbornness. They'll never be able to change or "fix" each other no matter how hard they try. They're fundamentally different.

Birds Of Prey

(vol 1 - tpb)

I'm still on the fence if I should read the entire Birds of Prey (1999) series or if I should just pick up from where Gail Simone's run starts. So in case I do the later, I'm posting this as a review of Dixon's writting.

Kinda insane that every single conflict has somehow something to do with a romantic interest. That's all. Maybe I'm too ace for this but how is it incomprehensible to have one storyline where Dinah doesn't have the hots for the bad guy. Just once please.

Red Hood: the Hill

I really liked the art, very different from the Outlaws run, but fitting for the theme.

I like the implication that Jason knows how to speak spanish. Latino Jason has been my headcanon since forever. That being said its evident the people working on this comic don't know how to speak spanish. Just loose words here and there but no grammar whatsoever. How difficult is it to get a spanish speaker to just proof read it before publishing it. But that's just a pet peeve of mine lmao.

Red Hood feels more like a secondary character in this but it is an interesting enough story. Shows more realistic sides of Gotham. The lifes of regular people dealing with villians and vigilantes.

Red Hood & the Outlaws

This is at least is better than n52 Outlaws. But that's not saying much. The art is much better though, until you get a random issue drawn by Rocafort and oump jumpscare!! It's a shame because I like how he draws faces, but the moment you see how he draws women... yikes. I do like how Pete Woods in particular draws Jason. And I really like the new suit. His old mask didn't translate the best across different artists.

Art aside, the story does have some interesting (salvageable) moments, mostly the Prince of Gotham arc. Not the best comic by far, but not the worst either.

Robins: Being robin

Yes, I very artistically picked the Jason variant cover as the reference pic. He is my favorite, what can I say?

Anyways this was an easy enough read to start with, and I do find interesting the whole idea of the Robins wondering if being Robin was a good thing for them or not. Even more so if you think about the inherit power dynamics Bruce has over them.

However this is not something that can truly be answered in a 6 issues run. Not in a meaningful way at least.