Bruce would have anticipated the trap.

I do apologize in advance for this post being so text heavy. But you guys are here to read not look at artwork anyway.

Batman #698 ****
There is a killer on the loose in Gotham, so what else is new? With the Black Mask's identity uncovered and put away, the next crook is ready to take his place. Murder after murder, this crook is trying left and right to make his murders look like they were done by one of Gotham's regulars. Enter the Riddler, I mean, Edward Nigma, private eye extraordinaire. What we have here folks is just further proof that Tony Daniel is the best man for this job. He just gets it. Daniel's run as well as his portrayal of Dick Grayson as Batman has been fabulous. With his fast paced writing, Daniel weaves his latest story with so much greatness, that you're literally shocked it's over when it is. Guillem March took over art duties for these last two issues, until the epic #700 issue coming up, and while it was good, I personally think he's done much better for Gotham City Sirens. I'm not sure if it's because the focus on Gotham City Sirens are females or if it is because the overall mood is lighter in that title or maybe I just expected more from him, but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. I'm a little bummed that Tony Daniel will be relinquishing his writing duties to Grant Morrison starting with the epic 700, but at least we've got one more issue of his on the way.

Because that's what I'd do, and I'm the guy that taught him how to run in the first place

So my appy-polly-logies to my readers. I'm sure I speak for both myself and Matt when I say, we've been busy. This is a major long post and as I mention further on that there are also a couple reviews from three weeks ago, the rest are from two weeks ago. And I'll be getting to last week's issues shortly.

Uncanny X-Men #523 **** 1/2
The X-Men have been on a wild ride in the past years, one more than the others, and it has all been leading up to the Second Coming of the Messiah. This epic event has been living up to all the expectations that I had and then some. What a great issue this was. I am loving the way that the writers have been portraying Cable and Hope's relationship. That whole hair kit scene was just a really nice touch. I am very excited to see how this all works out for Scott. The X-Force has been a clandestine operation because Scott knew that some of the X-gang would have an issue with it. And now that its existence is out in the open, not everyone agrees with their methods. And while I do have certain issues with Logan's actions in this particular issue, I think that Scott's decision to create the X-Force was the correct decision. With the New Mutants landing in, all hell's about to turn loose.

Matt Fraction has been a great asset to the X-Titles roster. I'm loving his run on the Uncanny title and I think that this issue just furthers my belief. I'm also a big fan of Terry Dodson's artwork. It has a great look and feel to it.

Necrosha

While we are at the onset of the biggest X-Men event since the turn of the Millennium, we felt it best to recap and give our takes of what has occurred in the most recent semi-major event in the X-Universe: Necrosha.

The story behind Necrosha is a long and twisted one. It begins over a thousand years ago near the height of the Roman Empire. Here existed an excellent soldier named Eliphas (who we now know as Eli Bard). He would then go on to marry one of the most powerful women in Rome, however she betrayed his love and drove him into the arms of the treacherous Selene. Selene is a mutant vampire that feeds off of the souls of people in order to live. Eliphas was coerced into working for Selene, in an attempt to capture all the souls of the people who lived in Rome so that Selene could become a God. Unfortunately, Eli failed Selene, who in turn cursed him.

Blackest Night Redux

** Writer's Note: I started this three weeks ago, but I kept putting it off because it's pretty daunting. The main story by itself is over 25 issues, which leaves a lot of information to try to summarize in a manageable blog post. But now that I'm sitting down to force the issue, hopefully we can git 'er done as a certain segment says.

In lieu of yet another Gashapon review, I'm going to be doing a Blackest Night recap/review for the masses. I promise I'll get back to weekly reviews soon, but this is a huge period of transition between old events and new, and we would be remiss if we did not reflect, however briefly, on recent happenings. Especially since this particular recent event is going to affect the DC universe for at least the next year.

Pretty Colors...

A quick note: This will deal mainly with the main story of Blackest Night, as covered in Blackest Night, Green Lantern, and Green Lantern Corps. (Some of) the tie-ins are interesting, but Arnab already reviewed all of those individually. Also, spoilers abound, so if you just want our thoughts, skip down to ***Blogger Thoughts***.