There’s enough interesting stuff coming out of DC lately, I figured I’d better double up. Read on for a review of Pearl #2 and Batman: Damned #1.
I’m going to avoid the biggest plot points in these two issues but I’ll be talking about a lot of the details, so if you want to avoid anything that might be a spoiler, you might want to read both issues first and then come back here.
Pearl #2
I have a slightly better idea about what’s going on with Pearl this month. I knew she was a tattoo artist, and in killing someone to save someone else, she revealed she’s actually pretty good as an assassin too. (Which isn’t great if you’re a member of the Yakuza and your boss decides you’re wasting your talents being a tattoo artist.)
Two things I hadn’t realized: the person Pearl saved is a member of a rival clan, and he likes her, and he’s cute, so the situation is getting complicated. (Which…now that I read that sentence back, it makes it sound like a summer RomCom. It isn’t, I promise it isn’t.)
The other thing I hadn’t realized (and I would’ve known this if I read the promo articles but I like to read my comics unspoiled) is that when Pearl’s emotions change, tattoos appear on her skin. What I’d assumed was Michael Gaydos being artistic with light and shadows turned out to be actual tattoos on Pearl. I thought they were figurative! Metaphorical tattoos! Texture in the artwork! Nope, real tattoos, which is an interesting skin condition to have.
Seeing as how I feel let down if my comics don’t have some kind of magic/mutant ability/vampire power etc., I was happy to find that out, and the layers of the story (attraction on top of loyalty on top of danger, obsession, tradition, murder, and a father’s love) have me more than interested enough to keep reading.
Not to mention Gaydos’ art, which is beautiful. It always takes me a little bit to warm up to his style of drawing people’s faces (sometimes harsh, sometimes ultra realistic, always expressive) but I found myself lingering on a lot of the panels this issue; the texture really is amazing.
Batman: Damned #1
I like Batman, I like John Constantine, and I never read Justice League Dark or saw the movie (or Injustice Year 3) so I’ve never seen these two together, but always wanted to.
It’s pretty much what I imagined: they both try to out-inscrutable each other, Batman refuses to believe that Constantine can heal knife wounds and Constantine refuses to believe Batman could possibly be that single-minded and neither of them ever says “thanks” except sarcastically so it seems like a match made in heaven. For me, anyway. I’m sure they hate each other.
I’d also never read the 2008 Joker book by Brian Azzarello, Lee Bermejo, and Mick Gray, but I heard this issue was going to be a sequel so I snagged a copy and read it first.
Whoof. That’s a rough read. It’s the Joker having a few days on the town after being released from Arkham. You can see a ton of Heath Ledger in his appearance and dialogue, and I’ll have to do some research to see which was inspired by which, but if you imagine Ledger’s voice as Joker talks to himself while lounging in a blood-stained bed after murdering the elderly occupants on a whim…I forgot where I was going with that sentence. It’s disturbing. I do recommend it because it’s fascinating but it sure ain’t for the faint of heart or the easily grossed out.
The ending of that book was a little ambiguous (and wow, ten years is a long time to leave a cliffhanger) because (spoilers! For a ten year old book! But still!) we could see that someone dropped off the bridge, but not who. My money was on Johnny “Invisible Monsters” Frost. (If you’re not a Palahniuk fan, I mean half his face was blown off)
But (spoilers! For this series!) we don’t see anything of Frost in this issue, and I hope he hasn’t been retconned out of existence.
Batman ended up in the water, but so did Joker, and while Batman was pulled alive and breathing into an ambulance, Joker was pronounced dead at the scene. Of course, it’s the Joker, so I’m not taking anything for granted.
One of my favorite parts of the story is a little insight as to why you shouldn’t try to take off Batman’s mask while he’s unconscious. Or put him in a small ambulance in the first place.
It’s a very cerebral book, with a lot of metaphysical musings by Constantine, who does love the sound of his own voice. Plus Bruce has flashbacks about his childhood, including what might be a hallucination about a girl who looks like a cross between Cleopatra, Neil Gaiman’s Death, and, I don’t know, a zombie Sailor Moon? That makes it sound goofy, but she actually looks awfully cool and I’m wondering how hard a cosplay of her would be to pull off. (EDIT: reader Cappy Tally let me know in the comments that she’s Enchantress, thank you Cappy! I admit to being one of the people who let the bad reviews of Suicide Squad deter me from seeing it, though I’ve been hearing from some people who enjoyed it.)
I won’t give away the rest of the details, but this book is dark, both in the story and in the style of the art. Bermejo is working with a limited color palette again, a lot of blacks and greys with the occasional splash of blood red, but he brings a ton of depth and details to the panels. It’s very angry art, right down to the expression on a woman walking down the street, an ugly, pouty scowl on her face even before she gets possessed by a floating skinned demon ghost thing. (I need to brush up on my Constantine history for that one.)
I’m definitely in for the next issue: even if I hadn’t liked anything else (and I liked a lot) I’d still want to see if Johnny Frost makes an appearance. I thought his story in this incarnation had just started to get interesting ten years ago. Well, two days ago for me, but still.