Titan Books

i would not recommend it for reading, trust me.

This is one of the pre Pocket Books Star Trek novels. Published in the late 70's as part of the ramp up for a second series, this is a new adventure molded in the shape of the TOS series.

The Enterprise takes Kostas Spyroukis and his daughter back to his new home planet. Spyroukis is an explorer and renowned colonizer of worlds, and has decided to settle on his final world. On the way home he collapses, and dies. Dr. McCoy discovers that the cause is a combination of argon in the planet's atmosphere, and zeton radiation emitted by the sun. Alone, neither of these things is harmful, but together they make up a slow poison. Captain Kirk sends the ship off on a mission to remove the colonists from the deadly planet, but on the way they are intercepted by a powerful being calling himself Enowil, who identifies himself as an Organian split with his fellows, and living in an uncharted region of space. He has brought the Enterprise, as well as a Klingon and Romulan ship to his home to help him answer the question of what he is missing. The first to discover will be given anything they desire. Kirk determines that he must participate, lest one of the others discover the answer and wish for an unbeatable superweapon.

The writing here is rather pedestrian, not what you would expect from a seasoned s-f writer such as Goldin. Too often I found myself saying, "Why don't they just.....?" The usual answer is, because then the problem would be solved and the book would be even shorter than it is (179 pages). Couldn't Kirk ask Enowil to intervene on the colony world, and set that problem aside? Eliminating the argon from the world's atmosphere would seem to be an effective method.

This book also suffers from a malady common to the Bantam paperbacks, which all seem to have a title with some variation of "world" in it. It involves an extremely powerful machine or being, which Kirk and crew must outwit, or persuade to their side, or some such. This was also a frequent problem on the TV series, and is a symptom of lazy plotting. With a nearly omnipotent agent, virtually anything can be accomplished, and any plot holes the writer puts him/herself in can be dodged. However, it also leads to many "why don't they" questions.

I can't recommend this book, unless you are a real ST novel completist. It's not bad, really, but there's not much to get excited about.

This book is totally terrible. Confusing. It doesn't make sense. It is full of inaccuracies.

For example, if Romulans in Goldin's pathetic excuse for a story are honorable, then why did the Romulan try to shoot a defenseless woman? Second thing is this book is racist stuff. If Goldin cited all Klinons are treacherous, then he must be implying all Germans are nazis, Irish are alcoholics and terrorists, etc. I would not say those words. I don't even imply them.

This book was written in the 1970s - and it's very...primitive. The Klingons are power-hungry bullies out for blood at any cost - this was really annoying. And Romulans with a strict code of honor? The two species seemed somewhat reversed. And the "guessing game" got real old, real fast. Also, there were many unnecessary, confusing scenes. For early Trek, it's okay, but it doesn't live up to current expectations.

As the previous user Chris Weber said, Green Arrow is the only character that appears throughout the story. I won't bother going into the details of the story because that has already been done. Green Lantern and Green Arrow appear in part one while Batman and Green Arrow appear in part two. I guess the misleading title was the major turnoff for most readers but give this book a chance anyway. I found it to be a good read. Cover price is $19.95 but you can get it for less even though it's out of print. It seems that Dennis O'Neil loves to write about ruthless foreign dictators(Nightwing: Ties that Bind) and I happen to like those kind of stories.

You need to ignore the title of this book. Batman is the featured character only in the second part. Green Arrow is the continuing character in the whole collection.

This trade paperback was put together from 3 issues of "Legends of the DC Universe" and a 5-issue run of "Legends of the Dark Knight."

In the first storyline, test pilot Hal Jordan (Green Latern) and wealthy industrialist Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) investigate a rebellion in a fictitious far-eastern nation. It takes us back to the first meeting of these two heroes, early in their careers. They discover the ruler of the nation may be friends with the U.S., but has only his personal interest at heart. We get lots of Hal being heroic and stolid. Ollie moves from a go-for-the-gusto kind of adventurer to realizing there's more to the world than beating bad guys. The green heroes eventually side with the rebels and take down the dictator.

In the second and longer story, we finally get to Batman, though not till the end of Part I. Oliver Queen is completely disenchanted with the corruption he finds in his rounds as Green Arrow. He literally heads for the hills, dumping his multi-million dollar businesses. An attempted assasination draws him into a mystery and another first meeting -- with Bruce Wayne.

Green Arrow and Batman uncover a coup attempt in another fictional far-eastern nation. We get a brief return of the petty dictator from the first story (now as a flunky). Then we meet the three real villains, a Fu Manchu-like prime minister, intent on rule, the powerful leader of an assassins-for-hire cult, and a Joker-like parody of Green Arrow.

Batman investigates and Green Arrow loses his nerve. Finally, Batman faces down the ultimate assasin; Green Arrow gets back his bow-slinging chops, and justice is served.

The collection is not great, but does have a lot of strong points. Writer Dennis O'Neal focuses on character, with nice insights on the three leads and some very good secondary players. Artists Land, Cariello, Giordano and Ryan give us some great layouts, powerful poses and flashy explosions.

Though from the late-nineties, the sensibilites of these tales are neo-seventies. G.L. and G.A. begin the social consciousness trip that writer O'Neil first took them through in that era.

The best point of this book is the retro-history of the three heroes. Besides setting the stories early in their career, O'Neil gives a nice intro and afterword on the life and times of the Emerald Archer.

Overall, Batman fans will be disappointed by his limited role. This is really a book for Green Arrow followers and afficianados of the work of Dennis O'Neil.

The story in this book is predictable, unexciting and is simply not worth the time or money. The first part is a story about how Green Arrow and Green Lantern try to beat a very colorful and prdictable and rather cheesy villain. The second story is where Green Arrow teams up with Batman in order to defeat the same cheesy villain who have accumulated more wickedness (rather cheesiness) over the years. The writing is very dated and more suited for comics from the 80's. For the modern reader, it is ill-suited and they will not enjoy it, especially when compared to the quality of recent stories. It is simply not a good Batman, Green Arrow or Green Lantern story.

The first thing that a person notices when seeing the book is that it has Batman's name written on the cover when in fact he does not appear until later in the book.

The book is a collection of two stories, both appearing in previous issues of Green Lantern and Legends of the Dark Knight in comic book form. The first has Greena Arrow teaming up with Green Lantern and the second one has the Green Arrow teaming up with the legendary Dark Knight, Batman. The stories have nothing to do with one another, so it would seem strange that a book has the mantle of the Bat on it, when in fact, the main character through both of them is Green Arrow. This is the main misleading theme in this and one can wonder why would DC do such a thing, excepy knowing full well that a book with Green Arrow is not going to sell as much than having the Bat on the cover and in the book.

How about the stories? Both feature the Green Arrow, an extremely arrogant and obnoxious character that is extremely self conceited, you sometimes root for the villain to beat the heck out of him. He resembles Marvel's character Hawkeye in terms of having those same character flaws, but in the latter, you understand where he comes from and you can never go wrong with Hawkeye as he is considered the spirit of the Avengers where Captain America is the hear.

In the first story, he teams up with the original Green Lantern, Hal Jordan and the story is a mundane one where they have to save a nation from utter destruction from the clutches of a tyrant general.

The second one has him team up with Batman and the story still has the same tyrant in it, but now he's living in asylum in another rogue nation. Both stories are truly not worth the read and are very poor compared to the rich texture of how Batman has evolved through the years and what he is right now.

In all, the book is not worth reading as other great works that feature the Dark Knight. Batman simply is too dark and foreboding to work with Green Arrow.

William Emms adapts his own script in this novelisation.

The fundamental message of this story is that "beauty is only skin deep". The TARDIS arrives on an unnamed planet, where they have an odd encounter with a robot, named by Vicki as a Chumbly, before being captured by abgroup oif female warriors known as the Drahvins.

The Drahvins claim that the planet will self-destruct in a few days time, and seek the assistance of the TARDIS crew in defeating another downed spacecarft of aliens, the Rills, who have managed to repair their ship. They prompt the travelklers by holding one of them hostage against the success of the mission.

While casting good-looking women as villains may have not been very copmmon in 1965, it is so old hat by now that what may have been surprises when the show was broadcast will surprise no one these days.

This is not greatly assisted by William Emms uninspiring adaptation.

William Emms adapts his own script in this novelisation.

The fundamental message of this story is that "beauty is only skin deep". The TARDIS arrives on an unnamed planet, where they have an odd encounter with a robot, named by Vicki as a Chumbly, before being captured by abgroup oif female warriors known as the Drahvins.

The Drahvins claim that the planet will self-destruct in a few days time, and seek the assistance of the TARDIS crew in defeating another downed spacecarft of aliens, the Rills, who have managed to repair their ship. They prompt the travelklers by holding one of them hostage against the success of the mission.

While casting good-looking women as villains may have not been very copmmon in 1965, it is so old hat by now that what may have been surprises when the show was broadcast will surprise no one these days.

This is not greatly assisted by William Emms uninspiring adaptation.

William Emms adapts his own script in this novelisation.

The fundamental message of this story is that "beauty is only skin deep". The TARDIS arrives on an unnamed planet, where they have an odd encounter with a robot, named by Vicki as a Chumbly, before being captured by abgroup oif female warriors known as the Drahvins.

The Drahvins claim that the planet will self-destruct in a few days time, and seek the assistance of the TARDIS crew in defeating another downed spacecarft of aliens, the Rills, who have managed to repair their ship. They prompt the travelklers by holding one of them hostage against the success of the mission.

While casting good-looking women as villains may have not been very copmmon in 1965, it is so old hat by now that what may have been surprises when the show was broadcast will surprise no one these days.

This is not greatly assisted by William Emms uninspiring adaptation.

A good story. It goes without saying that it could have been better written but it is not with out some quirky pleasures. There are some nice character vignettes. Vicki gets to shine as does Steven. The Rills are well presented. The story is the classic don't judge by appearance fable with the added spice of the evil beautiful aliens, the Drahvins, being a dead on critique of Feminism with it's totalitarianism and mind smothering thought processes presented intact. As the Doctor muses, "How do you explain to a fool that he's a fool?" Answer. You can't. Consequently, the book and the story will be hated by the PC thought police but it does add an interesting and unexpected spark to the story. The big character gaffe is having the Doctor thinking and speaking about his coming regeneration. At this stage of the series, regeneration was an unknown concept so it is a mistake continuity wise. Another destroyed story brought to life on print and not all that badly.

I had a look at this because Warren Ellis was writing it. It is not bad, and not good, either. It is basically an average Justice League of America story, with a little bit of a JLA twist. Ellis only fans probably won't be too interested, but JLA fans won't mind it too much at all, it is just another of things.

Ellis should be ashamed that he wrote this.

There is no motivation for any of the characters to act they way they do.

And why is Green Lantern all of a sudden being drawn in a costume that was never seen before.

Truly, a missed opportunity.

I've disowned the JLA ever since The Tenth Circle came out, but I picked this up because I desperately missed the company of my old DC friends. The art work was definently some of the better stuff I've seen, but the writing was not what I wanted to see. I got an overall sense of a blase attitude from the JLAers in that "Sure, this guy is a little tough, but we've seen worse, we'll beat him eventually." There was very little doubt in both my mind, and I think the characters' minds that they would overcome the threat by the end of the book. And that's what I hated the most.

I'm a pretty big fan of Warren Ellis' other stuff and Guice's art looks very nice (he draws a great Oracle!!!) but this story, at best, is mediocre JLA stuff. You know, the type of JLA story where they go fight something powerful, lose in the fight for a bit, but eventually beat it. While that may be considered good for other writers, I was really hoping Ellis would have it be better than that. Unforunately, that's not the case.

It's a shame this book is so mediocre, it has some of the best heroes of the next generation--Superboy, Robin, Wonder Girl, and many of the others are somewhat interesting, and it is tied into the Crisis (which I'm starting to think might not be as big or great or necessary as DC thinks it is), but it was all over the place, which probably comes from being a collection of multiple different titles. Even one volume from INfinite Crisis is in here, and a middle volume at that, but there is no way of knowing when you've crossed into that. I think the problem with this book is that they just threw a bunch of stuff together.

Another Infinite Crisis crossover. Read the final battle of Superboy!

Ok...I guess I'll be the 1st to review this tpb collection. This tpb collects TEEN TITANS #29-33, TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #1 and ROBIN #146-147 and INFINITE CRISIS #6. Here are the following story arcs in the tpb:

Jason Todd sneaking into the Titans Tower and confronting Tim Drake, the current Robin. They duke it out to see who is the better Robin. Tim gives his best shot, but in the end, gets beaten by Jason, who is more skilled and ruthless than Tim.

The live Teen Titans confront the deceased Teen Titans. Huh you may ask? Seems like dead superheroes don't wanna stay dead. Raven and Beast Boy and the rest of the living Teen Titans must find some way to ensure the dead Teen Titans are indeed dead. I won't spoil it for you, buy it and read it!

Superboy Prime confront Superboy of the Teen Titans, Conner, and beats Connor to a bloody pulp

Robin and the some of the Titans must retrieve some serum that will save Superboy life. It is stored in a secret bunker created by Lex Luthor to conduct cloning and other weird experiments. After battling their way through the bunker defense and experimental creatures gone awry, they are able to ascertain the much need serum to save Superboy's life.

After Superboy is cured, he goes back to Smallville with Wonder Girl to discuss their feelings and review his life. One thing leads to another and he finally bangs Wonder Girl...lucky dude!

Superboy and Nightwing join forces to thwart Alexander Luthor JR's attempt merge Earth 2 and Earth 3. Conner and Superboy Prime meet in final showdown in which only one Superboy walks away alive. Take a guess which Superboy lives and which one dies...hint to both Marvel and DC...no more stupid cloning of major Superheroes...1st Spider-man and then Superman. Then they both die and come back to life...see Spider-man The Other for the death and rebirth of Spidey.

Well that's the synopsis of the major arc in this tpb. If you've been following the Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis, you'll better appreciate the collected stories here. If not, you'll surely be confused here.

Overall the book is an interesting read, some of the arcs just drag on. You get some great art and then some bleh art, especially the part in which Robin and the Titans are retrieving the serum to save Conner (Superboy) life. The artwork is damn ugly.
What we learn from this tpb is that Tim Drake needs more training from Batman in order to take on Jason Todd. No more cloning of major heroes, and no one in comics ever ever die! See Superman, Spider-man, Green Lantern, Jean Grey, Donna Troy, and Green Arrow etc. Too bad Lincoln can't be brought back to life run the Whitehouse. Nuff said!

Oh yeah, at least Conner got lucky before going off to fight Superboy Prime. That Wonder Girl is so easy. In current New Teen Titans comic run, she and Robin are now hooked up!! Is this the kiss of death for Tim Drake? Time will tell...oh wait...I think no one ever dies in comics!

Tying up some loose ends during Infinite Crisis, Life and Death focuses on the Teen Titans during the cataclysmic event. Many old, dead Titans are back from the dead to terrorize the current incarnation of Titans, of which Cyborg and Starfire are in space with Donna Troy and Kyle Rayner, while Kid Flash is MIA. Not to mention that current Robin Tim Drake goes toe to toe with past Robin Jason Todd, and Tim doesn't walk away any better for it. In the meantime, Superboy gets his butt handed to him by the psychotic Superboy Prime, and he and Wonder Girl enjoy their last moments together before he makes his final stand against the fallen Earth Prime hero. There's more than a fair share of confusing elements taking place in this Teen Titans TPB, which combines various issues of other series as well. Hence the uneven feel between each chapter in terms of writing and artwork, but while there's nothing bad to be found here, there's nothing really substancial either. If you are on an Infinite Crisis spree and need everything leading up to and involving DC's mega event, than Life and Death is worth picking up. If not, it won't kill you not to have this in your collection.

Like its companion volume "Outsiders: Crisis Intervention", this volume fails to live up to its predecessors. Aside from learning how DC finally resolves the Doom Patrol paradox, there's really no reason to pick up this volume, and believe me, those 2 pages or so aren't worth the price of the book. Leaf through it at your local bookstore if you have to, but don't waste your money buying it like I did. It's already on my "to go" pile.

This was certainly not one of the better Authority stories. The art was about as good as any other average Authority graphic novel, but the story was really unimaginative.

The bad guys were not moving and contained no really original powers. The story of Jenny Spark's twin sister was really lame. All of the predicaments the team found themselves in were solved way to easily and with nothing short of brute force.

Overall, I was really disappointed with this story line. On a more positive note, it seems to me that The Authority: Revolution was much more inspired.

This most recent Authority tpb is a bit of a disappointment. The first story about the Authority fighting a new religion is a poor use of the concept of the team, kind of a "they've faced government, now they'll face religion" cliche. The second story about Jenny Quantum's twin rehashes Transfer of Power's "what if there was a moral opposite of the Authority" plotline. Also, dwayne and portaccio just aren't great pencillers. Buy the other collections, but this one you can pass up.

This is an interesting collection. Like most of the previous volumes there are two long stories (four issues each). This also contains a nice short story at the end. When I first read it I was rather perturbed to find out that between the two stories was a mini series that should be read before reading the second story.

The first story has the Authority going up against the leader of a new religion that is spreading around the globe like wildfire.

After a short notice telling us to look for the Coup D'Etat mini series that should come next, we have the post Coup story where apparently Jenny Quantum's mother is suing for rights to Jenny. Right at the same time massive ruptures into the Bleed occur all over the world.

Finally we have an almost touching tale where Jack Hawksmoor takes on a small murder case that has some personal meaning for him.

For fans of The Authority, these are good stories. No one should be surprised that violence and anarchy are the dish of the day. After all, the group was founded by government-hating Jenny Sparks. If you like the series you should have no complaints with these stories but if you don't, you will.

I'm surprised at the mostly negative reviews for this book. Garth Ennis likes to write over-the-top stories, and this book is no different. It's not as epic as Preacher, it's more lighthearted like The Rifle Brigade. Our protagonist Rosie develops strange and erratic powers, which attract the attention of CIA agent Harry Hooks, whose violent overreaction in turn attracts the attention of Police Constable George Dixon. Caught up in running from the CIA are Rosie's friends; the irresponsible take-life-as-it-comes-until-someone-pisses-you-off-then-kick-them-in-the-nuts Mud, Mud's ex-girlfriend Sam, and the whiny and suicidal Jeff. And who could forget the homicidal, mentally retarded twins, the Butcher Bruvvers? The story takes Rosie and her firends and enemies on a literal world tour, leaving chaos and blood along the way.

The real draw here (pun intended) is the art by Phil Winslade. Pencilling, inking, and coloring, it took Phil over three years to illistrate this book, but boy was it worth it. The level of detail is amazing. Take a second to look at the little things, like the engine of Mud's motorcycle, or the undercarriage of the fighter jets. The range of things that Mr. Ennis gave Mr. Winslade to draw is excruciating. Tigers, sharks, whales, polar bears, high powered telescopes, arctic military bases, fighter jets crashing into buildings, ships dropped onto apartment buildings, skyscrapers teleported to the north pole, guns falling apart in people's hands, not to mention exploding heads, people pulverized by machine gun fire, corpses in space, and the queen of England. Where it would have been easy (not to mention sane) to take shortcuts, Winslade never backs down from a challenge, and boy did Ennis give him a lot of them. But there's no generic interiors, no cookey-cutter background characters, no objects falling into silhouette. Go look at that cover picture above. Do you see the little details under Mud's tongue? I literally thought "Wow!" as I stared at every single page.

I admit, On the surface this book really just seems like goofy violence; excessive blood for excessive blood's sake. But really stop and look, and I guarantee you'll appreciate this book a whole lot more.

In one of the strangest over-reactions of the time, DC/Vertigo postponed the publication of Goddess in the weeks after the September 11th attacks. The book contains some strong images of eco-terrorism, but the violence is SO over-the-top that it's hard to imagine anyone being offended....The story itself is simple- Young Irish lass Rosie Nolan begins to display strange, seemingly limitless powers. Finding herself pursued by a crazed C.I.A operative, she goes on the lam with 3 friends. Horrific violence ensues.

Ennis' script will offer no surprises to longtime fans- We've seen this kinda thing before in Dicks, Hitman, and Preacher before. The art by Phil Winslade is great; You can actually see the progression of his talent as the book nears it's conclusion. The book picks up after a slow start, and the end is truly original. The book also has a new introduction by Winslade, and a gallery of his sketches and unpublished art. Overall, not a bad package, and it's hard not to fall for the loveable Rosie....

Let this be clear: I love "Preacher". Ennis's work on "Hellblazer" was magnificent. Even "War in Heaven" and "Pilgrim" was far above average.

So I was pretty excited about this early work of his.
Sadly, I was deeply disappointed. Oh yes, there are many glimpses of the nihilistic Ennis-brand of satire. And plenty of bloodshed. But all the fun goes out of the book, partly due to Winslade's boring, over-detailed artwork, but mostly due to the heavy-handed, shallow political correctness that poisons the story.

Police are bad, must die, horribly. CIA bad, must die, horribly. Whalers bad, must die, horribly. Military bad, must die, horribly. Smokers bad... well, the villain is a smoker, nobody else is. The all-too predictable anti-authority attitude gets old in a few pages. And the heroes are frankly not very likable at all. The charming well-meaning villain, who gladly kills people to protect animals comes off as a stupid git, with fists instead of brains. And Rosie herself, the Goddess of the title, starts out as a confused superpowered being, but as she gains control, she only wants to use her powers to cram her own ideals down the throat of humanity.

It's surprising, as well, as Ennis in "Preacher" raged against political correctness at every opportunity. Perhaps he woke up after Goddess and actually realised that know-it-all political correctness is as much a false authority as know-it-all cynical politicians.

I dearly wish I hadn't read this depressing book at all.

I agree with LEGEND's review. I do keep in mind that this is a young Ennis writing here. The coloring is a constant intrusion to the story as is the artwork. Steve Dillon's issue is a very thankful oasis. The other artists have improved since then, but it is hard to see their formidable growing pains become mine.
Read anything of Ennis nowadays and you will not be disappointed as he is one of the best writers in comics.
My favorite Hellblazer still to date is Brian Azzarello's Hellblazer run.

This is a review not from a Hellblazer fan but from a Garth Ennis one: I have read ALL of his works. However this was (one of the absolutely few) letdowns. the stories are complex and slow. it's a lazy Garth Ennis doing some boring homework while thinking of some other project.. not at his best.

This book collects the missing Ennis stories from his run on Hellblazer. It features 3 stories:
#49 - A special Constantine Christmas
#52-55 - Royal Blood
#59-61 - Guys and Dolls

The Christmas story features a lost soul who is searching for the lost true meaning of Christmas which was usurped by the early Monks. It is a great stand-alone story and features classic Ennis' take on organized religion.

The next story is my favorite in the book. The story basically focuses on a member of the Royal Family engaging in preverse rituals and has been possessed by the demon Calibraxis. This story serves as Ennis' mouthpiece against Monarchy and features the dark humor in comics that Ennis has trademarked.

The final story features build-up to the show-down between Constantine and the First of the Fallen (which culminates in Constantine: Rakes at the Gates of Hell TPB).

I liked the stories. Now as for the art, Steve Dillon illustrates the Christmas story and Will Simpson illustrates the rest. The thing is that when these were colored, the coloring was not as advanced as it is now and as a result in certain instances the art suffers greatly. But if you have read the early Constatine stories, this should not be a problem for you.

It is overall a great collection and I am glad to see that DC finally decided to collect these stories. Now, all they need to do is reprint the out of print trades and Delano's run and you can have a complete Constatine library.

The art was ok and the writing was ok... however the plot was pathetic!!! It was one of the worst crafted books I have ever read. Batgirl and Robin fight to the "death" to get out of being trapped by the Penguin. Which while not very clever wasn't dumb... but then Robin shoots Batgirl supposedly in a non-vital area... err... what? After he shoots her they both leap up and fight there way to freedom. What? Why didn't you just do that in the firstplace? There wasn't any reason and now Batgirl has a sucking chest wound as they escape. They have officially run out of ideas and instead of trying to come up with something clever they decided to come up with something stupid. Like a mystery novel where the end solution had nothing to do with what happened in the book... if you like trite simple stories or are suffering from major brain damage this is a plot that you can really wrap your mind around. Otherwise... avoid this book like the plague.

I thought that the book was really interesting how it went about explaining Batgirl's handicap with books. I know that Robin is younger than her, but at the end of the book they should've kissed. They were physically really close to eachother, they really should've kissed. Most of the pictures were good, but when they showed Robin's dad and girlfriends, that was messed up. I didn't like the drawer's style.
My opinion.

I've liked Tim Drake as Robin ever since he came on the scene and saved Batman from The Scarecrow. I thought he was a cool Robin and he's really grown as a character.

I've liked Cassandra Cain as Batgirl ever since I picked up the first issue of her series mostly because he costume looked really cool (I love the whole stitched over mouthpiece thing)!

So putting them together in their own comic book (well, not really their own comic book but their own city), seems like a great idea! And it pays off. Paring the post-Identity Crisis/War Crimes Robin with Batgirl makes for a dark and great tale of loss and finding a way to move on. Fresh Blood is about hiding from all of the things that are bothering you and being surprised when those things follow you along just the same. We can't hide from our sorrows - they are part of us. And both Robin and Batgirl find this.

What I really liked was Robin's fight against becoming Batman! This characterization just goes further to prove how cool a character he really is! Add to that Batgirl's desire to be nothing but be exactly like Batman and... well, you got the makings of a whole lotta fun!

This book is just not worth reading. I know the author is the author of 30 Days of Night, a book I hear nothing but good things about, but with this quality of writing I will never read that one.
This book changes Batman's characterization, just to get him to where he needs to be to tell the story the author wants. It all boils down to another skeptic/rationalist being "shown" where he's wrong. And, it makes little sense. It's jumbled, the dialogue is goofy, and the art is murky at best.
Don't bother.

Wow, the writing was ridiculously bad. This is supposed to be Batman vs. Zombies (by the writer of 30 Days of Night, which I like), but instead of being scary or suspenseful I actually laughed out loud at how bad the writing was. Batman's dialogue and internal thoughts were completely out of character, and he comes off like a whiny child. Instead of being a detective he basically just punches things throughout the entire book. It was funny in a bad way. Shame on you, Editor! You're supposed to do some editing, right?

Just to warn you, Batman has a jet pack and flies around every where in this book. Apparently, he's got a button that he can press to retract his cape to show the jet pack. That's weird. It was campy, and so, not scary. Also, he just kept punching things mindlessly. No sense of dread or suspense at all. The kept dialogue kept making me laugh. Batman sounded like an illiterate high school student. Steve Niles really just can't write. Just like in the 30 Days of Night series, he can come up with a decent story, but is really insufficient with the actual writing itself.

On the other hand, the art is beautiful to look at. I'm a big fan of Scott Hampton. His art is gorgeous, and Jose Villarrubia's coloring really sets the tone for the story. The art was the initial reason that I bought the book in the first place. Too bad that the writing was so, so bad. Still, if you're a fan of eitheer Scott Hampton or Jose Villabrrubia, it's worth picking up - but only if you can get it cheap.