BB Review Group week 107 - Batman / Spirit (spoilers)

[Thudpucker]

* fine print at the bottom of post


This week we are reading: Batman/Spirit (DC) by Darwyn Cooke & Jeph Loeb


The voting for next weeks book has started here: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...=1#post2454494


Our reviewers this week are:

Ray Goldfield - 4
Jef UK - 7
Adam Witt - 9
Jono - 9
SteveZegers - 9
Kirbys corpse - 7.99
adamgreenberger - 9
Brandon191 - 8
Gavin - 8.5
OK-Man - 4
SteveFlack - 9
JABSEN - 7.5
Your dorky Snob - 10
Doug - 8
dEnny - 8
NickT - 8
JeremyDale - 9.5




Our Previous 16 weeks of reviews (scores lost during the Image Board crash)

Week 01 - 11/17/04 – Captain America #1
Week 02 - 11/24/04 – Flash #216
Week 03 - 12/01/04 – Darkness Vol. 2 #17 (av grade 3.7)
Week 04 - 12/08/04 – Demo #12
Week 05 - 12/15/04 - Plastic Man #13
Week 06 - 12/22/04 – Goon #10
Week 07 - 12/29/04 - Legion of Super Heroes #1
Week 08 - 01/05/05 – Flaming Carrot #1
Week 09 - 01/12/05 – Majestic #1
Week 10 - 01/19/05 – Human Target #18
Week 11 - 01/26/05 – Conan #12 (av grade 8.3)
Week 12 - 02/02/05 – Black Panther #1
Week 13 - 02/09/05 – Young Avengers #1
Week 14 - 02/16/05 – Ex Machina #8 (av grade 8.4)
Week 15 - 02/23/05 – X-Men #167
Week 16 - 03/02/05 – Ultimate Iron Man #1


Week 17 pick - Shining Knight #1 (Morrison & Bianchi) av grade - 7.8
Week 18 pick - Invincible #21 (Kirkman and Ottley) av grade - 6.3
Week 19 pick - Expatriate #1 (Moore and Latour) av grade - 5.4
Week 20 pick - Temporary #2 (Hurd & Smith) av grade - 7.4
Week 21 pick - GLA #1 (Slott and Pelletier) av grade - 6.8
Week 22 pick - Nightwing #107 (Grayson and Hester) av grade - 5.8
Week 23 pick - Iron Ghost #1 (Dixon and Cariello) av grade - 4.9
Week 24 pick - City Of Tomorrow (Howard Chaykin) av grade - 6.2
Week 25 pick - Villains United #1 (Simone and Eaglesham) av grade - 5.7
Week 26 pick - Desolation Jones #1 (Ellis and Williams III) av grade - 8.9
Week 27 pick - Guardian #2 (Morrison and Stewart) av grade - 6.1
Week 28 pick - Adv. Of Superman #640 (Rucka and Kerschl) av - 6.1
Week 29 pick - Son Of Vulcan #1 (Beatty and Grant) av grade - 3.7
Week 30 pick - JLA #115 (Johns, Heinberg, Batista) av grade - 6.9
Week 31 pick - Wildsiderz #0 (Campbell and Hartnell) av grade - 2.9
Week 32 pick - Astro City: The Dark Age #1 av grade - 7.3
Week 33 pick - Albion #1 (Moore and Oakley) av grade - 5.0
Week 34 pick - Gotham Central #33 (Rucka, Brubaker, Kano) av - 8.5
Week 35 pick - Mutopia X (Hine and Medina) av grade - 5.2
Week 36 pick - Athiest #2 (Hester and McCrea) av grade - 6.9
Week 37 pick - JLA: Classified #10 (Ellis and Guise) av grade - 6.9
Week 38 pick - Justice #1 (Ross, Krueger & Braithwaite) av grade 7.9
Week 39 pick - The Winter Men #1 (Lewis and Leon) av grade 5.3
Week 40 pick - Batman: Journey into Knight #1 (Helfer & Huat) av - 4.4
Week 41 pick - Jack Cross #1 (Ellis and Erskine) av grade 6.1
Week 42 pick - Runaways #7 (Vaughan & Miyazawa) av grade 7.8
Week 43 pick - Ghost Rider #1 (Ennis and Crain) av grade 6.4
Week 44 pick - Thor: Blood Oath #1 (Oeming and Kolins) av grade 7.1
Week 45 pick - Wolverine #32 (Millar and Andrews) av grade 8.2
Week 46 pick - Losers #28 (Diggle and Wilson) av grade 7.4
Week 47 pick - FF/I M : Big In Japan #1 (Wells & Fisher) av grade 5.6
Week 48 pick - F N Spider-Man #1 (David and Wieringo) av grade 7.3
Week 49 pick - Fin Fang Four #1 (Langridge & Grey) av grade 8.8
Week 50 pick - Book Of Lost Souls #1 (JMS & Doran) av grade 5.6
Week 51 pick - Hero At Large #2 (Hogan and Treece) av grade 6.3
Week 52 pick - DMZ #1 (Brain Wood) av grade 7.7
Week 53 pick - The Thing #1 (Slott and DiVito) av grade 7.5
Week 54 pick - Walking Dead #24 (Kirkman & Adlard) av grade 8.4
Week 55 pick - Generation M #1 (Jenkins and Bachs) av grade 7.3
Week 56 pick - Marvel Team-Up #15 (Kirkman & Medina) av grade 6.0
Week 57 pick - Amazing Joy Buzzards 2 #3 (Smith and Hipp) av grade 5.1
Week 58 pick - Testament #1 (Rushkoff and Sharp) av grade 7.4
Week 59 pick - New Avengers #14 (Bendis and Cho) av grade 7.6
Week 60 pick - Sable & Fortune #1 (Cahill and Burns) av grade 4.4
Week 61 pick - Ares #1 (Oeming and Foreman) av grade 8.2
Week 62 pick - Sgt. Rock: Prophecy #1 (Joe Kubert) - av grade 7.7
Week 63 pick - Nextwave #1 (Ellis and Immonen) av grade 9.1
Week 64 pick - Betty and Veronica Digest #163 av grade 4.2
Week 65 pick - Fables #46 (Willingham and Fern) av grade 7.5
Week 66 pick - Daredevil #82 (Brubaker and Lark) av grade 9.6
Week 67 pick - Ast. X-Men #13 (Whedon & Cassaday) av grade 8.5
Week 68 pick - Ms. Marvel #1 (Reed and de la Torre) av grade 7.3
Week 69 pick - American Virgin #1 (Seagle & Cloonan) av grade 7.1
Week 70 pick - Annihilation Prologue (Giffen & Kolins) av grade 6.3
Week 71 pick - Hawkgirl #50 (Simonson and Chaykin) av grade 5.0
Week 72 pick - Savage Dragon # 124 (Erik Larson) av grade 7.2
Week 73 pick - Moon Knight #1 (Huston & Finch) av grade 7.4
Week 74 pick - Firestorm #24 (Moore and Igle) av grade 4.6
Week 75 pick - Squadron Supreme #2 (JMS & Frank) av grade 6.3
Week 76 pick - Incredible Hulk #94 (Pak and Pagulayan) av grade 8.9
Week 77 pick - Civil War #1 (Millar and McNiven) av grade 7.4
Week 78 pick - She-Hulk #7 (Slott and Round) av grade 6.6
Week 79 pick - 100 Bullets #72 (Azzarello and Risso) av grade 8.0
Week 80 pick - Secret Six #1 (Simone and Walker) av grade 6.8
Week 81 pick - My Inner Bimbo #1 (Sam Kieth) av grade 8.8
Week 82 pick - Wonder Woman #1 (Heinberg and Dodson's) av grade 7.2
Week 83 pick - Ms Marvel #4 (Reed and De La Torre) av grade 5.8
Week 84 pick - Eternals #1 (Gaiman and JR JR) av grade 7.5
Week 85 pick - DC: Brave New World (various) av grade 4.8
Week 86 pick - The Beyond #1 (McDuffie & Kolins) av grade 5.5
Week 87 pick - The Escapists #1 (BKV, Bond & Barreto) av grade 8.6
Week 88 pick - JLA #0 (Meltzer and various) av grade 6.3
Week 89 pick - Batman #655 (Morrison & Kubert) av grade 7.1
Week 90 pick - Moon Knight #4 (Huston and Finch) av grade 6.8
Week 91 pick - Martian Manhunter #1 (Lieberman & Barrionuevo) A.G. 5.3
Week 92 pick - The Boys #1 (Ennis and Robertson) av grade 8.5
Week 93 pick - Ultimates Annual #2 (Huston & Deodato) av grade 6.0
Week 94 pick - A.S.S. #5 (Morrison and Quitely) av grade 9.0
Week 95 pick - Cross Bronx #1 (Brandon and Oeming) av grade 8.3
Week 96 pick - Pride Of Baghdad (BKV and Henrichon) av grade 9.8
Week 97 pick - Union Jack #1 (Gage and Perkins) av grade 7.3
Week 98 pick - True Story Swear To God #1 (Tom Beland) av grade 8.9
Week 99 pick - Criminal #1 (Brubaker and Phillips) av grade 8.6
Week 100 pick - Gen 13 #1 (Simone & Caldwell) av grade 4.7
Week 101 pick - The Damned #1 (Bunn and Hurtt) av grade 8.4
Week 102 pick - Act. Comics #844 (Donner, Johns, Kubert) av grade 7.2
Week 103 pick - Superman: Confidential #1 (Cooke and Sale) av grade 7.7
Week 104 pick - Wisdom #1 (Cornell and Hairsine) av grade 6.5
Week 105 pick - White Tiger #1 (Pierce, Liebe, Briones) av grade 6.8
Week 105 pick - Iron Man #13 (Knauf and Zircher) av grade 6.8
Week 106 pick - X-Factor #13 (David and Raimondi) av grade 8.9



Our higest average grade so far was for Pride of Baghdad with 9.8
Our lowest average grade so for is Wildsiderz #0 with 2.9


Our Sponsors:

Isotope Comics (SF Bay area)



(If any other retailers would like to sponsor our reviewers in your area, I'd be happy to promote your store in the thread too )



What we do: This is a fanbased review group, open to everybody.

As people post the reviews, I will add your name and score to a list in the main post and at the end of the week average the scores for an overall grade on the book. We grade on a scale of 0-10.

THERE IS NO OBLIGATION TO PARTICIPATE EVERY WEEK. Please join in as little or as much as you like week to week. If you are uncomfortable giving a grade then just join in the discussions and ask questions.

[Doug]

Congrats to PAD and Raimondi for averaging an 8.9 on X-Factor. Not too shabby for a "B-List creative team."

[Ray G.]

Wow, so disappointed in this book. First up, that price point was absolutely obscene. Five dollars for a 40-something page comic on standard paper? What the hell was DC thinking? But as to the quality of the story, it just felt sort of fluffy and lightweight. Loeb and Cooke were trying very hard to capture the feel of a more retro B:TAS comic, but without Dini's sharp writing, it just felt cartoony. Batman and the Spirit, despite the title, didn't share much screen time and the Spirit's role was relatively small. I found myself shaking my head at the lost potential here. Let's hope Darwyn Cooke's solo Spirit is more true to the original than this. Otherwise, I would say it's time to let Will Eisner's creation rest with it's creator. 4/10

[TheManWithoutFear]

Where and how does voting take place here? And how long does it last?

Have not read Spirit/Batman. Don't plan on it. I would've tossed in Iron Fist #1 this week. It was simply amazing on all accounts. I just got used to playing this review game we've got here and quite enjoy it. Too bad I'm missing out this week.

[Thudpucker]

Where and how does voting take place here? And how long does it last?

Have not read Spirit/Batman. Don't plan on it. I would've tossed in Iron Fist #1 this week. It was simply amazing on all accounts. I just got used to playing this review game we've got here and quite enjoy it. Too bad I'm missing out this week.

I start a seperate thread to do the voting on Friday night or Saturday mornings, the thread is called "BB Review Group voting thread" and then that weeks date. I try and update the main post in this thread with a link to it every week but occasionally I forget to do that.

Definately drop by and vote though every week, it's alot of fun

[Bill Nolan]

Batman and the Spirit, despite the title, didn't share much screen time and the Spirit's role was relatively small.

I didn't buy this, because non-classic Spirit material has never really interested me, but the Spirit has historically played a relatively small role in many of his classic stories. Maybe that's what they were going for.

- B

[Jef UK]

It was okay. I felt like I don't know anything more about the Spirit than I did when I went in, which is next to nothing. As something that was supposed to introduce the Spirit to new readers, I feel like it failed in that regard. That said, I don't feel like there was any room in the script for any exposition. Also, this featured the best Joker I've read in a while. Cooke's art was good, evoking BTAS more than usual, and it was nice to see all of the villains working successfully in concert for once. All in all, it was a light fun read that looks good.

7/10

[Adam Witt]

Well, I enjoyed the hell out of this. Call me a total geek for Loeb & Cooke, but--well, okay, I AM a total geek for Loeb and Cooke--but this left me perpetually entertained.

Great characterization as always by Loeb--not his best dialogue work ever, but he probably wasn't aiming for that. All the characters that appeared were great, it's basically a Where's Waldo of both the Spirit and Batman worlds. I love the fact that they don't try to stick to a continuity timeline--you see a young Dick Grayson and Harley Quinn on the same pages--and it works! Really liked what they did with that.

The art by Cooke, as is the standard with him, was just sensational. For my money, he may be the best artist working today. Absolutely love this guy's work. Everything went together very well, nothing was muddy, just really well done stuff.

Chalk it up to fanboyness, but this book was a trip. Can't wait to read Cooke's take on the Spirit now.

Solid 9/10.

[andrew french]

i asked the comic shop guy to set asde a copy for me, because i don't buy any other books right now.

but these lackluster reviews are making me very hesitant. i'm just in for Cooke and Spirit.

[Generic Poster]

Wow, so disappointed in this book. First up, that price point was absolutely obscene. Five dollars for a 40-something page comic on standard paper? What the hell was DC thinking?

How is that price obscene? A 22-page comic costs 2.99. Here, you get twice as many pages for less than twice as much money. Seems reasonable.