Steve Orlando tagged posts

Written by Steve Orlando

Art by Riley Rossmo

Colours by Ivan Plascencia

Letters by Deron Bennett

THE DEAL: Justice League legend J’onn J’onnz has returned to the DC Universe! This time, under the guise of detective Joshua Jones, he spends his days and nights (mostly nights, from the looks of it) investigating violent crimes with his partner Diane. The scenes are grisly and shrouded in mystery … just like Joshua’s extraterrestrial past.

THE GOOD: First of all, the underlying themes of this first issue are poignant for the times, particularly as a re-introduction of a character with such steep history in DC’s canon. While Joshua searches for clues to uncover the more ghastly crimes he encounters on Earth, his Martian past drifts in and out with a flow that seems effortless...

The Shadow / Batman crossover is a unique beast. I read it, I enjoyed it, but the entire time I was trying to figure out if I missed something. It consistently references a shared backstory between the two heroes. That backstory is amazing, and completely plausible, but it never gets more than referenced. So I went back into these two heroes past. Back. Back. Back to the 1970s, when they first met. Too far. How about six months before this series first went to print, and the Batman / Shadow miniseries I previously reviewed for your reading pleasure. (You should go read it right now.)

The two six-issue series ran back to back with the first six being published by DC, and the second six by Dynamite. (That’s one way to solve the “who gets top billing” discussion)...

So, the collected TPB of The Shadow/Batman, from Dynamite came out recently. As I was reading it (more on that tomorrow) I found I wasn’t sure if some of the references being made had been previously established, and as it turns out the answer is sort of.

Before Dynamite’s The Shadow / Batman miniseries, came DC’s Batman / The Shadow. So to better understand what I was reading I went back to dig out that series as well. Sadly I couldn’t get my hands on the collected TPB (entitled Batman/Shadow: The Murder Geniuses) but I was able to track down the individual issues. Full disclosure, I wasn’t able to get #4. But by most accounts, I didn’t miss much for plot in that issue, just a few great lines and a big battle...