The Twelve

 First off, this is why I buy collected editions, right here. Because chances are, that monthly is going to be late, or get canceled, or remain unfinished for years, or potentially forever. After getting burned enough times, I just learned to wait. Marvel starting publishing THE TWELVE in 2008, and it was published monthly for around eight months, until it was put "On hold" for a variety of reasons, starting with Author J. Michael Straczynski's screenwriting career. It was eventually finished, and released, in mid-2012. Ouch. Straczynski has a long history of super-late books, of which this is just one. I bought the first hardcover collection of THE TWELVE, which collected the first six issues, way back in 2008, and here I am reading the conclusion around FIVE YEARS LATER. Awful. More after the jump....

Batman, Volume 3: Death of The Family

 OK, so it's been a year since The Joker had The Dollmaker slice his face off in the abysmal first issue of Tony Daniels' DETECTIVE COMICS, and not just in "real life"....It seems that a year has passed in Gotham City, as well. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's BATMAN, VOLUME 3: DEATH OF THE FAMILY sees The Clown Prince of Crime return from his exile to exact his chilling revenge on Batman's friends, associates, and loved ones. More after the jump....

Batman: Night of The Owls

  DC's brilliant collected editions masterminds have done it again! How is a reader supposed to know what issues are being collected when the people publishing the book don't even know...?  

 BATMAN: NIGHT OF THE OWLS lists it's contents in the indicia as ALL-STAR WESTERN #9, BATMAN #8-11, BATMAN ANNUAL #1, BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT #9, BATMAN: DETECTIVE COMICS #9, BATGIRL #9, BATWING #9, BIRDS OF PREY #9, NIGHTWING #8-9, BATMAN AND ROBIN #9, CATWOMAN #9 and RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #9. The front cover flap, however, lists issues 8-9 as the only issues of BATMAN being collected. Issues 8-9 are correct, along with the Annual, but that leaves readers hanging, with no resolution to the central conflict depicted in the book. The book does, however, end with a short story (Which I assume was a backup story from BATMAN...) that totally ruins a major plot twist that is probably revealed properly in the BATMAN: THE CITY OF OWLS collection.  (Which is up next on my reading list.) So, aside from endless curses directed at DC's haphazard Production Department, how does the actual product stack up....? More after the break....

Batgirl, Volume 1: The Darkest Reflection

Wow, was that disappointing.

 Gail Simone has done some stellar work on DC's BIRDS OF PREY and SECRET SIX, so I was looking forward to reading her take on Batgirl, especially since she had made Barbara Gordon such a compelling character in BIRDS OF PREY.

 First off, Barbara is no longer confined to a wheelchair. The timeline of "The New 52" is driving me nuts, because Bruce Wayne is only supposed to have been Batman for about six years, but DC wasn't really willing to commit to a full reboot, so he's only been Batman for a short time, yet he's still had a slew of Robins, he raised Dick Grayson, who is probably around the same age as Batman in this new universe, he's been broken by Bane and recovered, Batgirl has been shot by The Joker and recovered...it's been a busy six years. Anyway, the timeline drives me nuts. Was Barbara ever Oracle? It's not clear from this volume....no mention is made, at least not yet.

 Simone unwisely uses her first six issues to introduce two incredibly uninteresting new villains: The Mirror and Gretel. Both are good people done wrong, who decide that wanton death and destruction are good ways to follow up on the bad hand that life has dealt them. As a plot device, this always bothered me. Put this in a real-life context, and you'll see how ludicrous it is: Imagine if a close relative was killed, and that loss drove your Mother to become a Super Villain. Well, it's just as ridiculous here, times two. I could probably buy The Mirror, maybe.....He was a war hero, so I can see how he could physically stack up to Batgirl, but Gretel...? Getting shot in the head gives her the power to control men's minds? Sloppy and lazy.

 This is probably my least favorite Gail Simone book. She's always been hit-or-miss for me, with even her misses being at least semi-enjoyable, but this was just awful. It took me forever to slog through the six issues collected in BATGIRL, VOLUME 1: THE DARKEST REFLECTION, and if it wasn't for the attractive art by Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes, I'd call this a complete disaster.

 BATGIRL, VOLUME 1: THE DARKEST REFLECTION collects issues 1-6 of BATGIRL, complete with covers and a small sketch gallery by Jim Lee, Ardian Syaf, and Adam Hughes. I already bought Volume 2...it's gotta be better than this, right....?

Masks, Volume 1

 I'm a sucker for unexpected crossovers like this. You get some weird, disparate characters together, and I'll be there, whether I follow any of those characters or not. On the surface, this one seems like a natural: MASKS, VOLUME 1 gathers together The Shadow, The Green Hornet & Kato, The Spider, Zorro, Miss Fury, The Green Lama, Black Terror, and The Black Bat, as they band together to fight a corrupt regime that has taken political control of New York State, and is preparing to take over Washington next.

 The script, by Chris Roberson, is all breathless action, so there's no time for any character development whatsoever. If you don't already have a working knowledge of who these characters are, you're out of luck. Zorro and The Black Bat get full-fledged origin stories, but everyone else just appears as is, which is fine (Maybe, depending on your storehouse of geek knowledge....) for The Shadow and The Green Hornet, but I had no idea who Miss Fury and The Green Lama were, and I still don't.

 Roberson's script is serviceable at best, and ham-handed at worst. You'll be able to figure out who the big bad is as soon as you read a certain passage of clunky exposition early on, and even after the bad guy's identity is revealed, or I thought it was revealed, Roberson still tries to milk his identity for a shock. Weird. I guess since he didn't actually come out and give his name yet, Roberson felt it would still be a surprise. It wasn't. I did appreciate the way that Roberson winkingly included Doc Savage, who Dynamite does not hold the rights to.

 Alex Ross handles the art for the first issue, and is followed up by Dennis Calero for issues 2-8. The art is decent, aside from a handful of times where sloppy storytelling had me scratching my head as to just what it was that I was supposed to be seeing.

 Dynamite Comics does collections right, and MASKS, VOLUME 1 is no exception. You get all eight issues of the mini-series, the compete script for issue #1, Alex Ross' thumbnail sketches for issue #1, character designs, promotional art, and EVERY variant cover, of which there had to be at least a hundred. You get a lot of bang for your buck here.

 Dynamite Comics provided a review copy.