I had ALOT of reasons to give the guy who runs the local shop a second look when I discovered he put Batman #687 in my weekly stash this week.
I SPECIFICALLY TOLD HIM that I DIDN'T WANT to BUY BATMAN anymore. Why? Three letters and two words:
R.I.P and LAST RITES. I seriously
DID NOT enjoy the story of "Zur-en-
HUH" at all. For those
Grant Morrison fans that just think he's the end-all be-all....personally, I didn't get the story. Color me
stupid. I'll take his first run on JLA any day over that stuff.
AND this book had another strike against it: writer? JUDD WINICK.
I'm sure Judd's a nice enough guy, and God knows I have tons of respect for comic writers, but I've read previous Winick titles from
Green Arrow to Green Lantern to Outsiders. Winick has a tendancy to use his writing as a bit of a
soapbox, and it's
TERRIBLY distracting for me as a reader. I'll leave it at that.
Thus, with the same
morbid curiosity that has spawned phone calls to
ex-girlfriends at 2am in the past , I bought Batman #687.
Granted, my bar was not tremendously high to begin with, but Winick picks up the cape and cowl nicely. Maybe it's because he's written Dick Grayson before, and knows the character's mind a bit. Either way, it was a good read. Technically, you don't see BATMAN until the last page, but the book is well-written with great and believable (
if not slightly overly dramatic at times) dialogue.
Downside?
$3.99 cover price. Damn you,
Didio. You weaseled another buck outta me.
I just
MIGHT...MIGHT buy issue
#688.
If it's not
$3.99...
...
maybe...