Rating 3 out of 5
I know... I'm alone in a world of malcontent, but I'm still enjoying the series. It's not the same old dreary Batman, not the usual Batman/Bruce, but I like him. Although... I may be the only one left reading the series.
More then one poster on more than one forum can't get past the unusual dialogue that Neal Adams has given Bruce Wayne. Too chatty... too repetitive...
Even Neal has Alfred commenting on it by saying , "Never improves by the repetition." ... And Alfred says this while he is preparing a syringe of something to inject in Bruce. Bruce already has his wounds bandaged... so what is that about?
Is Neal doing this on purpose?
Never in my wildest dream would I think that Bruce would call Alfred a, "Jerk". Who would write a Batman that would call Alfred... "JERK!"?
I can't help but think this is intentional and not just bad dialogue.
Bruce seems to still be talking to the mystery person and ....retelling the story, of when he retold a story to Alfred. What's up with all this retelling? In the second issue he had finished the retelling of the retold story of the Train/guns. Phew..
The story told to Alfred, in this issue, is how Bruce and Dick foiled the Riddler's plans at the warehouse on the pier.
NO matter how you feel about Neal's dialogue, he is a master at drawing action. There is a wonderful action portion to this book that lasted for 10 pages. TEN PAGES... of straight action. Oh YEAH!!!
Neal has given her the "Poor little rich girl" characteristic.
And..She gives, Valley Girl, a bad name.
Oh yes...he went there...
If you think about it, that's not far from the true character of Talia, and I can't wait to see what Neal does with it.
Come on...this story is NOT in continuity. Quit reading it like it is...and maybe relax and enjoy it.
Ten more issues...WHAT will happen next?
It's a little campy...all the Characters are a different take from the original.
Neal is injecting a little humor and giving us a different take on a all too serious Batman.
BATMAN: ODYSSEY Part 3
Story and Art: Neal Adams
Color : Ken Lopez
Assistant Editor: Janelle Siegel & Rachel Gluckstern
Editors: Marts & Carlin
You know, I've decided to wait for the trade on this one... and I know there's a lot of talk about Batman being out of character (I don't think, at this point, there's any such thing as an out-of-character Batman when it's out of continuity)...
ReplyDelete...But man, that Neal Adams guy sure can draw. I'm sure he'll go far.
Ah ha ha ha ha
ReplyDeleteYeah...I'm sure he'll find work somewhere(wink).
Trade... probably would be best...
but I've started on this roller coaster ride and... dang it...I'm hanging on.
Part 1.
ReplyDeleteThere were TWO things, without reading further issues, that were obviously noticeable right from the beginning. Those two things being: 1.The altered Batman costume and 2.the Tim Drake outfit.
There is no rational reason to take Tim's unique visual characteristic and suddenly super-impose it onto the legendary real Robin. Initially, it was very natural for all us readers to assume that it was TimDrake we were looking at but the typo of Dicks name kept showing up, lol! It's clear that Neal took the Drake costume that he invented and is trying to erase the classical Robin, which is really not right. As for Batman's costume, it's a shame that Adams doesn't preserve his legacy of the one and only Batman he literally made immortal- Burning omen of the fierce yellow moon, sleek compact hi-tech belt and demon ghost white eyes. In this strange alternate costume he robs us of the dreaded Yellow omen, changes the belt to blue, and shows us the eye pupils are visible when in close range. So without being too hasty on the series, these two facts nevertheless remained undeniable (Tim Drake costume+Batman's tailor alteration).
Aside from that, now at issue#3 EVERYONE seems to not have noticed at all the most obvious: the FIRST issue was supposed to be all about technology and gadgets- the SECOND issue is suppose to be all about the grit and toughness of mortal challenge (basically things like a dislocated shoulder, broken ulna, pressing a ton, running a a marathon, broken ribs, etc.) It shows how tough Batman is- the THIRD issue was all about Batman's incomparable prowess as a lethal ninja master of the martial arts reaching supernatural skills to take out 50 opponents, so essentially Mortal Combat (Action! Action!. So basically, Adams has featured each of the major aspects that defines the character with a whole issue for each giving room for focus.
As issue one shows all his genius gadgets that he invents and issue two shows all his toughness, most peoples favorite (as mine) will be the one that shows his supernatural Mortal Combat (Crazy Bruce Lee stuff). How every issue focus's on each of Batman's major defining aspects being totally missed by EVERYONE is extremely weird. However despite each focused feature, what remains constant throughout every issue and is always present as the constant thread is the 'Worlds Greatest Detective' aspect. So no matter which defining trait of Batman the months issue decides to showcase (be it Martial Arts or Scientific inventions), it is his genius Detective skills, worthy of Sherlock Holmes, that remains consistently present for each story.
Unfortunately, despite all this impressive structure of story and design the dialogue hurts the whole project, and this is what disappoints most readers I think. All comic book artist are excellent story tellers, it's a natural required talent. So Neal Adams, like all comic artist, knows good stories and that is why his story is so great and his plot is descent if not great. There is no comic book artist who cannot give you great stories and think of them as well, especially a pro like Adams. However, the words that come out of their mouths, or the dialogue (script), is an entirely different skill from story/plot. Making a script is like being able to give good speeches and invent neat psychology of new characters or make familiar lines of long standing ones.
Continue-
Whoa! I didn't think about the issue's featuring characteristics of Batman. I guess they could.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure which characteristic you'd get out of issue #4 and I'm not sure if you could find enough characteristics to go for all 12 issues, but it does give a different perspective on the issues.
I, personally, didn't get hung up on the outfits, but I've seen various threads on the subject. I thought ...all along... it was Dick Grayson. Maybe I got that somewhere else, before I read the issues, and just never really figured in the costume being similar to Tim's because it is a out of continuity story.
The dialogue is certainly unique...I can't help but think the Neal is doing it on purpose to make his Take on Batman be different from anyone else's. WHO in their right mind, would think that Bruce would causally call Alfred a jerk in normal Batman dialogue.
I'm still plan on buying the issues, and seeing this story through.
Hi there! Nice stuff, do keep me posted when you post again something like this!
ReplyDeletesuperman costume