Superman and Batman have always been fascinating comic book characters for me. But it’s when they are together on those colorful pages that I really, REALLY enjoy their stories and adventures.
One of the first graphic novels I read and reviewed was The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, which had some epic scenes between the two superheroes, who are so vastly different in nature.
Yet loyal friends. At least, for awhile.
I was getting my stereo moved into my Jeep on Saturday night, so we stopped in a Barnes & Noble to wait it out. I of course made a beeline for the graphic novel section and saw quite a few featured ones that looked cool.
Somehow, I grabbed Superman/Batman Volume 1: Public Enemies without realizing it was the first volume in a series. I think “Public Enemies” rang a bell, one of you guys might have mentioned it before, so that could have been it.
But either way, I’m glad I chose the first one to read, because now I can continue reading the series all the way through without having to backtrack.
I don’t know what it is about superheroes joining up to work together that is so fascinating for me, but it just is. Just like in Civil War, the concept of all these characters we’ve known in comics suddenly coming together for a common cause is highly appealing.
In Public Enemies (written by Jeph Loeb, the first writer in the series), the book quickly revisits the origins of the two characters and introduces a sort of dual-narrator technique, which has two different colors of thought-boxes to represent Batman and Superman.
This facet of the novel was brilliant. At any given time, during any given action sequence or plot device, the thoughts of both superheroes helps pace the story and give insights into each moment.
The main plot of Public Enemies deals with President Lex Luthor and an asteroid chunk from the planet Krypton that is hurtling towards Earth, the size of Brazil.
Unless it can be stopped, it will pretty much wipe out mankind. Luthor blames Superman for the asteroid, saying he drew it towards them, and offers a $1 billion bounty for his capture.
This sends good and bad superheroes after him. Except Batman, who of course puts aside his own search for the murderer of his parents, and helps Superman try to get to Lex.
The story starts off with a great confrontation of Superman/Batman versus Metallo, and that started it off on the right foot for me. I was hooked.
This was a great first volume I thought, with a ton of action, lots of insights, and of course, a battle between Superman and Lex Luthor. Awesome.
Looking forward to the next one.
I dunno about this whole Batman and Superman fighting together thing. Batman was a guy with a lot of money and Superman was an alien from another planet. Batman just has tons of gadgets and Superman actually has real powers. I guess it can work!
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Jeff Loeb is either hit or miss with me, I think I read this in its comic form. I guess why its why I like Heroes. A really good read I think is his Batman: The Long Halloween. Superman funny how he has changed through the years, trading punches with Joe Sixpack to changing the orbit of the earth.
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Mike, have you read/gotten a copy of “Red Son”?
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The next volume in the series is a lot better in my opinion, then it sort of falls flat for a while. It was around the time Jeph Loeb’s son died so it’s understandable. I haven’t picked it up in a while, though the series has gone through a few different creative teams.
@ Porter – nope, not yet…I think I’m picking up two comics on Wednesday though, both I’m writing about for tomorrow.
Wow, I just looked it up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman:_Red_Son
Thanks, another thing to buy
We need some sort of comic trading post here
[...] I’m just going nuts with comic books lately, having just finished Public Enemies and also ordering two more Y: The Last Man (#3 and #4), along with Superman/Batman Volume [...]
Get your trades through the chandler library system, they have a library in a highschool that has alot of good cds too.
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And comic books? I would think those would get so damaged that it would be hard to lend them out.
It’s at Hamilton, pretty close to us.
Sorry just the trades although I did get a copy of a Superman by Alan Moore, which was maybe 30pages, maybe I bought it I can’t remember. The beauty of it all is you can go on sign up for interlibrary loans and get books from all over the country. That is how I got Civil War.
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