A Japanese ninja kid goes to Gotham to investigate his parents’ deaths a year after they supposedly perished in a factory explosion (I’m guessing they shockingly somehow survived). Meanwhile Joker’s begun marketing an energy drink called Gaia Juice that turns the drinker mean - ooo, what a naughty ickle boy! Batman’s gotta etc.
Shiori Teshirogi’s Batman and the Justice League collects the first four chapters from the ongoing series appearing in the monthly Japanese magazine Red. And it’s terrible - this one’s basically for babies and the mentally feeble.
Our protagonist is bland and uninteresting and his quest is plain boring. The other characters are written in the most superficial way. For example, Joker’s motivations are 1) he’s insane and 2) all he cares about is power - it’s such a basic unimaginative interpretation, not to mention wrong. And that’s why no-one here is at all compelling when they act predictably within their very well-defined roles - ie. the goodies are good, the baddies are bad.
The story is chock-full of contrivances. Why is Joker allowed to sell this energy drink in the first place? What beef could Ocean Master possibly have with Batman? Why is any other superhero included - Superman, Wonder Woman - when they have nothing to do with anything? How did the kid manage to get a samurai sword aboard a commercial flight to America??
There’s no end to the stoopidity: the goddess stewing in the tank, Joker’s idiot plan, some rubbish about ley lines. Batman and Joker just look weird in the manga style - and it is drawn in that generic art style throughout.
The book ends abruptly too - who knows how many more volumes are gonna be cranked out but I’m done with this title after just one book. Awful dreck through and through, Batman and the Justice League is basically only for kids who are into anime and DC.
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