Customer Reviews

DC/Marvel Crossover Classics II

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It started with perpetual crossovers within the same comic companies, but by the seventies, most comic fans were tired of the perpetual sniping that went on between the comic companies and there were suggestions, sometimes from the writers themselves, that some characters from each of the (then) two major companies guest star in each other's comics. These suggestions were often fueled by the fact that many of the writers of the comics were regularly drifting back and forth between ALL of the companies, and that it wasn't uncommon for ersatz versions of one comic company's heroes to appear someplace else.

"Crossover Classics II" contains four nineties crossover stories, with three of the stories being connected by having both the Batman and the Joker appearing in three of these four tales.

******The first story, "Lake Of Fire", is also a Batman/Punisher crossover with guest stars the Joker and Jigsaw as the antagonists. This story is about Jigsaw's plans to set Gotham's water supply on fire (?) so he can blackmail the city, with the Joker's token appearance only happening in the last pages of the story. Basically, this just isn't a very good story as neither of the heroes are likable. The Punisher was always an imitation Mac Bolan; here he's just a dull, second-rate, unmemorable vigilante thug with no real personality, and his nemesis is just another ugly, second-rate gangster that the original Batman would have eaten for lunch. Unfortunately, the original Batman ain't here. Instead we get the delusional, borderline insane, and not too bright religious nutcase Jean Paul Valley who wears a Batman suit as designed and built by Tony Stark. It's god-awful and ugly. The plot by Dennis O'Neil is pedestrian, the characters are inanely unmemorable, and they constantly squabble like a pair of two-year-olds arguing over a piece of candy. The art by Barry Kitson and James Pascoe unfortunately only rises to the level of competent. Two stars.

******Unfortunately, you have to read the "Lake Of Fire" to really understand the sequel "Deadly Knights", which has a whole new creative team behind it. Storywise, this is a superior work to the previous story as the Joker and a re-designed Jigsaw are now partners in an effort to take over Gotham's underworld. While Chuck Dixon gives us a better story, it's still not very good. Fortunately, we get the real Batman, and the Punisher is more Mac Bolan like than the previous story, but the Joker is just wasted and Jigsaw STILL a second-rate gangster thug. Basically, this is just an action piece and is only worth reading if you believe that a dope like Jigsaw could beat the Joker in a fight, and that the Joker, who would never share any glory with any one, would ever actually team up with a loser like Jigsaw. Artwise John Romita, Jr. has done much better work before, and Klaus Janson has turned what Romita has given him into a blocky, sketchy, muddy and an unfinished looking mess. It's all just uniformly ugly; the story STILL doesn't have an ending to it, the story itself gets a mere two and a half stars, with both stories were just wastes of time.

******The book ends with the untitled third Batman/Joker story, and the book's fourth, and it's probably the best story in this anthology, and shows just what a waste of natural resources the first two Batman/Joker stories were. John Byrne writes, draws, and letters this historical Batman/Captain America World War II espionage epic that also stars Bucky, Robin, Sgt. Fury, the Joker, and the Red Skull. The Joker is trying to steal a super secret weapon that Captain America is guarding. The question is WHY? The Joker is showing the ability to have a command of super secret intelligence that he couldn't possibly have. So, he must have a partner, but who is it? Three guesses, and the first two don't count. This story works as both a comic homage to the Golden Age of superheroes, and to the type of superhero action pulp adventures.

I'm old enough to remember when Byrne (then called Johnny Byrne) was doing some funny book called "Wheelie And The Chopper Bunch", and he's come a long way since then. Byrne does a valiant job at trying to recreate the Golden Age style of comic art, only with a slicker modern feel, and does so magnificently. You can actually see echoes in his artwork by such classic artists like Kirby and Ditko, while the story itself has just the right amount of espionage, action, melodrama, and patriotism. Even the Joker gets with the program in the end.

It's obvious that Byrne loved this story and considered it his baby, by the fact THAT HE DOES all the pencils, inks, and lettering himself, and because of this, ALL of the characters are interesting. The Joker is suitably flakey, mad and ruthless, The Red Skull is suitably mad and Machiavellian, and the Batman is stripped of all angst, and is much like the early Batman, as is Captain America. The heroes are heroic, and the villains are menacing, and a great time is had by all. Five stars.

******After the dreadful first two stories, things really pick up with this book's third story, which is a Superman/Silver Surfer story. Silver Surfer teams up with Superman to face off with a battle of (nit) wits with Marvel's Impossible Man, and DC's Mr. Mxyzptlk, with the Skrull making a quick cameo. It seems that the Impossible Man and Mr. Mxyzptlk are having a contest with the Silver Surfer and Superman as pawns. Never being either a Superman or Silver Surfer fan I was prepared to be disappointed. I wasn't. "Pop" starts off with both heroes being kidnapped to alternate universes. Superman is stuck on a Krypton look-alike and has to fight the Super-Skrull, while the Silver Surfer is stuck in Metropolis AND has to fight the super booby-traps of Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

George Pérez gives us a fun, goofy, cute, clever, and comic action piece which ends up having Mr. Mxyzptlk and the Impossible Man facing off against each other with Superman and the Silver Surfer getting caught in the middle. Ron Lim's artwork is glossy, slick, and well done, with Terry Austin's inks giving everything that glossy sheen he was so good at giving his X-Men work. Even the colors are bright and, well, colorful, and like Byrne's story that immediately follows, the art fairly pops off the page. Five stars. See customer images for some examples of this story's artwork.

For this site I have done reviews of these other graphic novel and comic reprints:

Batman: The Sunday Classics 1943-1946
The Complete Saga of the Victims
Creepy Creatures (Goosebumps Graphix)
Green Candles (1 of 3)
Green Candles Volume 2
Green Candles Volume 3: Don't Forget Me
Ju-On Volume 2
Kolchak The Night Stalker Volume 1
Night of the Living Dead TP
The Secret of the Swamp Thing

I thought that this comic book was a great collection of classic artwork combined with excellent writing. You probably have read some of the stories if you were really interested in crossover titles, but it's still worth having this comic book cos it brings together a lot of the stories in an almost episodic fashion. All in all it was a great comic book and thus rates 4 stars. I hope this helps!

This was one great collection of super heroes and villians, featuring the super hero that stopped Bane which I nickname him BANE-DESTROYER knightsend BATMAN, Silver Surfer, SUPERMAN BAtman captain america and the punisher. I really liked all the battles and featuring a mini-battle between doomsday and hulk in which the hulk would have tore apart doomsday. I like all the art work and the great battles I hope that they make another collection like this in the feature.