This Week's Chuck Dixon Comics: BatOutsiders, Robin

[sdelmonte]

For the record, I read the second issue of the Tangent Comics series (which is not by Chuck Dixon, alas), and it was as dull as the first. Not bad, merely generic, and not really worth the time.

Chuck Dixon's work for DC, though, is worth it.

Batman and the Outsiders 6 - Rex is in space, trying to find out why there is a massive orbital platform near the moon. Bats is in Gotham, trying to get the rest of the team there. Green Arrow, Grace, Batgirl and Geo-Force are in China, looking for a ride into space and finding trouble. And I'm in NYC, reading and enjoying a very well drawn, very well scripted, somewhat confusingly plotted series. Is this in the same league as All-Star Superman or Buffy or Booster Gold? No. Nor is it trying to be. What it's turning into is a fun if lightweight action comic where the heroes are heroic, the bad guys are bad, and the story keeps moving. This used to be very common at DC, but now it's rare. And I will gladly take it when I can.

Robin 173 - Robin, Violet, two less than honest detectives, bookies, the Penguin, and a mysterious girl named Spoiler. Again, Dixon is not reinventing the wheel. But again, the art is great, the script is strong, and here there is nothing at all confusing about the plot. Dixon gets Robin. Dixon gets Gotham. And we are dragged further in by that big question, can it really be Steph? Answers, we are told, next month. I'll be there.

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I've been enjoying Brave and the Bold as well.

I'm not reading Outsiders, but I have started picking up Robin again at your suggestion.

[badninja.livejournal.com]

I am confused by the reference to Tangent. It's back? Or just he wrote it?

[sdelmonte]

The Tangent Universe is back, with Dan Jurgens as the writer, in a 12 part story that crosses over with the main DCU, and as noted it's not too good. Too bad Dixon isn't involved, as I recall his contributions to those books were fun.

[badninja.livejournal.com]

Eww, Jurgens.

I liked their Flash, though.

[sdelmonte]

I love Jurgens as an artist. His work on the current Booster Gold has been great.

As a writer...I am in the minority in actually liking Zero Hour and Superman/Doomsday and Superman/Aliens. He, to my way of thinking, gets Superman. But whatever skills I saw in the mid-90s have long since left him, and even then I found that for every two issues of Superman I liked, there was one that was a dog.

[innerbrat]

I'm sort of amused by the fact that DC comics are making a narrative point out of the fact their collective art is so inconsistent we don't already know if it's Steph or not, from, y'know, seeing her face.

Amused and frustrated.