Richard FriendReseñas

love the luthor/wayne rivalry!

The conflict between Nimue and Morgana continues, with Morgana destroying Camelot and then in the 1950s trying to resurrect Mordred to repeat the destruction

The book begins with a young housewife having a series of inexplicable magical moments--her hair starts changing color, insects crawl out of her throat at odd intervals, her clothes start whipping around her as though in a gale. This is by far the best part of the Madame Xanadu series thus far, but it ends far too soon. A loooong series of stories about Nimue and Morgana growing up follows, in which Nimue is perfect in every way and Morgana is evil in every way, blah blah blah so boring I could die. The art is better than the last book, but not good enough to make up for the (yet again) trite storyline and truly terrible dialog.

It seems natural that Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor should come into conflict: each is an international businessman who works in technical industries, each of them with a secret agenda, only one does so for good... and the other for evil. Andy Diggle, Whilce Portacio, and Richard Friend pit the two against each other in this tale of their first meeting, but it wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. I don't think the book adequately digs into the philosophical distinctions between the two men that ought to exist despite their seeming similarities. Each man wants to save the world, each man has raised himself to be a form of human perfection, and yet despite Bruce Wayne's wallowing in the darkness and Lex Luthor's seeming magnanimousness, Bruce is fundamentally optimistic, and Lex fundamentally cynical. I don't see that really depicted here, and it seems like Batman's early days ought to be especially fertile ground for this, as Bruce Wayne builds himself into the man he wants to be. There is some of it-- the end of the story sees Bruce (re?)establish the Wayne Foundation-- but most of the book is somewhat generic superheroics, let down by Whilce Portacio's confusing, jumpy storytelling.

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Very torn over this volume.
On the one hand the art was beautiful! But not very progressive - ex. lots more female nudity and big doey eyes from time to time.
On the other, after the big reveal halfway through the story just stopped being interesting. I've read a million other king arthur stories before, and most of them were more interesting. I also did not appreciate how much help the mysterious Mr. Jones had to offer. Not hating on the guy, just felt that he kind of stole the show by the end and made our heroen look a bit weak.
But what else do you expect from DC these days?

I was playing a D&D game over the internet a long long time a go… and some how me and my team decided to separate and look for the orcs raiding party that were terrorizing a village… long story short I see the hunting party returning… and there I am holding nothing but my kite shield and my puny short sword… I’m faced with 3 choices… I make a run for it and risk getting my back fill with arrows (not an option Feanor never runs!!!), fight against them and get my ass rape by a bunch of orcs or… I try to hide! I choose the last one but you see there was no where to hide… so I’m thinking maybe if I do something funny the DM will play funny too and let me get away with it… so I put my kite shield in front of me and started reciting this mighty words: I’m a mushroom, I’m a mushroom, nothing to worry about just a mushroom… to my surprise the DM (who was an asshole) didn’t tough of it funny… so I did got rape by a bunch of orcs. But why are you telling us this stupid nerdy story Alfonso? You may ask yourself… well today while I was reading this comic Mr. Greg comes to me and says: you know that chick that you like from the first floor? And I’m like yes, what about her? And he like: well she roaming around this floor right now! Quick what would The Penetrator do! and I’m freaking out inside my head 1, I want to say something like: The Penetrator aint here tonight, book Ni$$@# (that’s suppose to be funny cuz is a reference to The exorcist and that The Klassic Komic Klub book that he gave me) but I know that if I try that joke while freaking out I’m going to fuck it up and miss pronounce everything… and 2, OMG SHE HERE!!! Quick Alfonso what would YOU do? well I grabbed the comic covered my face and started saying (inside my head): I’m a mushroom, I’m a mushroom, nothing to worry about just a mushroom. Lucky me it worked this time, I don’t know if she walked next to me or not! Or I know is that if she did I was too busy being a mushroom to see her! No I’m done with my stupid story… but I feel like I’m forgetting something here… ahhh yes the book! Silly me! Yeah, is pretty much crap.. I thought it was going to be about batman kicking Luthor’s ass in the game of economics and shit… and it wasn’t… so I’ma give it a 3 even tho is a 2 it has batman on it so fuck it a 3!

Yay, Amy Reeder is back! I love her work and this is no exception. I thought the story was good - a big improvement on volume two, but not quite as good as volume one. This volume focuses on the relationship between Nimue/Madame Xanadu, and her sister Morgana. We get a lot of backstory about the two sisters. It comes in the midst of the main story, dealing with a 1950s housewife struggling with her life and - quite suddenly - with the supernatural. She seeks help from Madame Xanadu and this leads to a confrontation between Nimue and Morgana. Oh, and throw in John Jones, who's investigating a little Satanic cult! Yeah, seriously.

I enjoyed the main storyline, but I didn't know what to make of the secondary story, dealing with the sisters' pasts. You come away from that plot feeling sort of sorry for Morgana. She's not as talented as her sisters when it comes to magic and she's part of a family who's power is diminishing and who's time has come and gone. Nimue is depicted as the perfect sister and Morgana as the bitch. And she is... she's violent and crazed and vicious. And she's grieving the death of her son. But we have to reconcile this with her new appearance in the 1950s, where she's bursting people, Violet Beauregarde-style, as she gets her feet rubbed. So yeah, that's a little strange.

I did like the way that Madame Xanadu is and isn't a part of the 1950s lifestyle. Talk about a decade where she just doesn't fit. And yet, Wagner makes it work. I would recommend this volume... though I would recommend solely on the artwork, even if the story sucked. Which it didn't.

Graag gelezen, en goede tekeningen. Batman wordt wreder getekend dan anders, bozer ook, en terwijl het verhaal op interessante manier wordt verteld, is het einde maar wat gewoontjes. Niet erg, het bleef leuk om lezen en te bekijken.

vol. 3