KEVIN GREENE-ILLUSTRATOR

Comic Book Corner

Ok, I'm a big comics fan so from time to time that will be a subject that will pop up. I'm starting off with a conversation about Batman/Superman or Superman/Batman, whichever way you prefer. That's the comic written by Jeph Loeb and is illustrated, at present, by Ed McGuiness. Ok. I picked this book up at it's inception purely for McGuinness. I knew a bit about Loeb but I've never read The Long Halloween or anything he's done with Tim Sale. Now that I think about it, didn't he write Superman when McG did it? Anyway, I was digging the first arc. Batman and Superman on the run. The comradery. The differences and the similarities in each's approach. The respect and what annoys each other. Cool. But by the time they got to the big giant Superman/Batman Anime robot and Superman impersonating Hawkman I was like " Wha?" I was like "Is this a goof?" Then Michael Turner came on and I basically stopped reading it. I don't like his art. Over the length of an entire book it's painful. I just knew it involved Supergirl. Ok. So Carlos Pacheco comes on and I'm back in it, I love that guy. But the story...again, I had that "Wha?" feeling. It just seemed like every spare character was tossed in this thing. So that leads me to the current arc, with McGuinness back drawing. The artwork is as good as ever, his wacky style really appeals to me. It just gels together so many different things, it cool to watch him pull it all together and make it work. But this story....There's a scene in "The Birdcage" ( yeah, yeah, yeah, my wife loves that movie...lol..) where Gene Hackman, faced with all this craziness like Nathan Lane being a man and not a woman married to Robin Williams and all (don't ask) says " I feel like I'm going insane!"
That's how I feel reading this book! Bizarro and BATZARRO?!?!? What the hell?!?!? I'm reading this decent goof on the Ultimates when suddenly this pops in! I can't even bring myself to read it! I'm just puzzled by this. And this last issue sent me over the edge. Suddenly Batzarro tumbles into the Red Sun Superman universe ( from the Millar/Johnson Elseworlds mini) and Bizarro falls into the Batman Beyond universe! And although they are two VERY cool pin-ups by McG, my brain suddenly felt like the nuerons stopped firing. I could feel myself having a stroke. What the hell is this? And then Batman becomes Kryptonite Batman, all green and glowy?!? It's like this book is written by Mattel or something. It seems like Jeph Loeb is dropping the biggest goof in comics on us. Oh man...Can SOMEBODY, ANYBODY help me make heads or tails of this?