First impressions 05/04/06

A massive and expensive week last week. OYL continues and Infinite Crisis enters the home straight. Some stuff impressed me more than I thought it would, others disappointed, and I think I’ll be changing my pull list. If anything is to be learned it read Infinite Crisis #6 before anything else (particularly before Teen Titans, Detective Comics, and the OMAC Special). Spoilers and reviews follow:

Detective Comics #818 “Face the Face Part 3 of 8″ (Robinson, Kirk and Clarke/Faucher)Someone is killing Batman’s foes with a double-barrelled pistol. KGBeast and Magpie are already dead, and the evidence would point towards Two Face if Harvey Dent hadn’t been cured of his psychoses. Batman and Robin continue to invesitage as Bruce mulls Tim’s status and recruits Jason Bard to be his agent during daylight hours. The Ventroloquist gets a visit from the killer.Another excellent issue. I’m really digging the subtle changes they’ve made – Batman actually standing around at the crime seen, not biting Alfred’s hand off, and just generally being a little bit more even tempered. Kirk’s art is great and matches Kramer’s art from Batman so switching from one half of the crossover to the other isn’t jarring. The return of Jason Bard is interesting, but we’ll have to see how long he sticks around before the writers either forget he’s there or loose interest in him. The loss of the Ventroloquist could be a mistake as he’s the one new foe from the last twenty years that measures up well against the Joker and the other classic nut cases.(8/10)

JSA #84 When The Dead Call” (Levitz, Morales/Ross, and Meikis)Centuries ago a gypsy fortune teller predicted Jim Craddocks’s death and afterlife, but she told him he could return to life if he killed those he hated most. Now as the Gentleman Ghost he plagues the Justice Society with ghosts from their pasts. J.J. discovers he had an older bother he never knew about while GL and the Flash confront a vengeful phantom from Alan Scott’s past. I thought we’d seen the complete story of the Gentleman Ghost in Hawkman, but we get even more of his backstory with this issue. Paul Levitz’s writing is surprisingly consistent with Geoff Johns style and Rags Morales is always an excellent draftsman. I enjoyed Luke Ross’s flashbacks and George Perez’s cover is the best of the week.