JUSTICE LEAGUE : RISE AND FALL : TPB Review: contains: Green Arrow 31 32, Justice League: Rise and Fall Special, Justice league: The Rise of Arsenal

Covers: Green Arrow: Mauro Cascioli, var Mike Mayhew/Andy Troy, Rise of Arsenal:Greg Horn, JL: R&F spec: Art Germ

RATING of 1.5 out of 5
Pathetic... doesn't quite seem pathetic enough... to describe this storyline.
SO ...I went to an online thesaurus,  which had the following words as a synonym for pathetic:

commiserable, deplorable, distressing, feeble, heartbreaking, heartrending, inadequate, lamentable, meager, melting, miserable, moving, paltry, petty, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, plaintive, poignant, poor, puny, rueful, sorry*, tender, touching, useless, woeful, worthless, wretched

Looking over the list, I would scratch through tender, melting, moving, and touching, because those... are not pathetic and don't describe the story, but... the rest seems pretty much on the mark.

I'm kinda leaning toward wretched... as the best description.

THEN... I saw the word Crummy on the same page as pathetic  ... and it's synonyms:

cheap, contemptible, crappy*, grotty, inferior, miserable, pathetic, poor, rotten, second-rate, shabby, sub-par, third-rate, useless, worthless 

Oh wow... it's hard to choose.

I know what I'll do....I'll use them all. {I say with a evil grin}

This story is a wretched pathetic attempt to use cheap theatrics in an effort to shock readers. This is a contemptible shabby storyline, not only for mega DC Comics publishing, but is miserably inferior to even a third-rate publishing house.  The writer, KT Krul's, sub-par attempt at a grotty comic story became laughable. It is deplorable that a  heartwretching and heartbreaking story of any hero loosing a loved one became laughable.

As far as I can tell, Krul made a feeble attempt to match other DC stories which were poignant, such as The Killing Joke and Identity Crisis.  DC stories such as those, are moving and have become classic, but this story, JL: Rise and Fall,  is a inadequate and paltry attempt to do the same. When in comparison, this rueful sorry story is quite pitiable.

It is lamentable that these worthless theatrics are distressing ....me, but I'm not alone. There are others who commiserate with me on the useless way that the character of Roy Harper can be brought down and then.. kicked.  Roy Harper was KT Krul's poor cat after a bad day.

Phew!!! I feel better. Though... I think I missed a few.

After saying that about this story, I don't mind Krul's writing when he is writing happy team stories ...I just read Teen Titans #92 and it was pretty good.  But PLEASE DC... I plaintively request to take pity on us meager readers and keep Krul far away from stories about character's death or how they handle death.

Reading Order of single issues:
Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal #1
Justice League: Rise and Fall Special
Green Arrow 31-32
Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal #2-4

        ********Spoiler******

A picture is worth a thousand words...and yes..that's a dead cat he just saved while high on drugs.
















Credits: JUSTICE LEAGUE: RISE AND FALL TPB
Writer of all the storylines: J.T. Krul
Justice League: Rise of Arsenal 

Associate Editor: Sean Ryan
Editor: Brian Cunningham
Pencilled by Geraldo Borges, Kevin Sharpe, Fabio Jansen, Sergio Arino
Inked: Marlo Alquiza/Scott Hanna/Mark McKenna/Mario Alquiza/John Dell
Letterer: Rob Clark Jr.
Color: Hi-Fi
May, Jun , Jul, Aug 2010

Justice League: Rise and Fall Special
Penciled:Diogenes Neves, Mike May hew, Fabrizio Fiorentino
Inks: Mayhew, Vicente Cifventes & Ruy Jose
Colors: Nei Ruffino & Andy Troy
Letters: John J Hill
Editors: Adam Schlagman and Eddie Berganza
May 2010

Green Arrow 31-32
Interior Artist: Federico Dallocchio
Colorist: Michael Atiyeh
Letter: Sal Cipriano
Editor: Adam Schlagman

May Jun 2010

Publisher: DC Comics

SUPERMAN & BATMAN vs VAMPIRES & WEREWOLVES #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 TPB

REVIEW:
Rating: 4 out of 5

 A good indication of a great mini is when you can't put it down.  I got all six issues Friday night, had them read by Saturday afternoon.  This is definitely one of the better Batman Vampire stories.

FULL Review :Some Spoilers

Be WARNED, there is a third party narration throughout the series.  We've become use... to the personal captions coming from the character's point of view, so at first,  this can be a little off-putting.  What you need to do, is think of the old horror movie narration, or WWF commentary (wink), both would work. None of the narration is coming from the personal thoughts of the characters.



What really really sells this story.... is the art.  It has an old 1960's  Horror movie feel to it, without being pretentiously artistic, or artsy fartsy.  

The way this story is told, they should have placed "Batman" in the title first.  He is the main character searching for answers through out the issues,  doing the detective work.  Superman doesn't show up til the LAST page of the second issue, and barely gets out of just being a CAMEO character in the story.  Superman is concerned with a boy that he had save, who ended up being turned into a Vampire anyway. He is looking for a cure for what transformed the boy before it is too late.

   

 The bad guy... is Dr Combs (Yes, yet another ... Dr..., in Gotham, that is criminally insane, Ba Wa Ha ha).  He wants to turn the world into the Undead.  In flashbacks, before  Dr Combs  came to Gotham,  his first test subjects were Marius Dimeter and Janko. He turned Dimeter into a Vampire and Janko into a Werewolf,  when they were in Russia. 

    Dimeter and Janko, track Dr Combs to Gotham, in hope of being turned back into normal Human beings.  In the mean time, Dr Combs is using Dimeter's and Janko's blood, in a serum, and injects it into others, turning these new subjects into Vampires and Werewolves, filling the streets of Gotham with the UNDEAD. Chaos and havoc fill the streets of Gotham.

     
CAMEOS;
Wonder Woman
Nightwing
Green Arrow
The Demon: Etrigan/Jason Blood
Dr Langstrom/ Man-Bat

Which eyes goes to which character?
Aw ...come on...guess.

SUPERMAN & BATMAN vs VAMPIRES & WERE WOLVES
Issue 1: Seize the Night!
Issue 2: A Nightwing and a Prayer!
Issue 3: An Unspeakable HORROR!
Issue 4: Give Blood Save Lives
Issue 5: Dead of Night!
Issue 6:Fear the Night!

Writer: Kevin VanHook
Art & Cover : Tom Mandrake
Colors: Nathan Eyring
Letters: Travis Lanham
Publisher: DC Comics
2008-2009


EYES: Superman, Entrigan, Langstrom, Dimeter, Batman, Dr Combs, Jason Blood