Quick Reviews: Awesome Batman Comics

While the regular in-continuity Batman titles take a rest for the 3-month-long "Battle for the Cowl" angst-fest, a couple of out-of-continuity Batman titles are giving us all the Caped Crusader awesomeness we need.

Batman Confidential #28 is the conclusion of "A New Dawn," the three-part story that features the first comics-based appearance of King Tut, the villain from the 60s Batman TV show. Writers Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir give us Batman teaming up with his old foe The Riddler to try to unravel Tut's scheme. Their Egyptology seems to be on the money, or at least good enough to fool me in fiction. The real awesomeness of the story however lies with legendary penciller José Luis García-López, who hasn't lost a step and can draw dynamic scenes of talking and fluid scenes of action like nobody's business. His art meshes surprisingly well with the inks of Kevin Nowlan. The only thing missing art-wise is the yellow oval around the bat-insignia, because: a) the grey-and-blue coloring for the costume looks odd without the yellow oval; and b) this is totally the kind of story that needs the yellow oval.

Even more awesome? Batman: The Brave and the Bold #3--story by Matt Wayne & art by Andy Suriano & Dan Davis--guest starring Green Arrow in the story "President Batman!" (exclamation point in the original, and mandatory.) How awesome is it? In just the first few pages: Green Arrow lands the Arrow Plane on the lawn of the White House; to foil a kidnapping plot, Batman assumes the identity of the President with the help of a holographic image projector; Batman & Green Arrow break up a floor fight in Congress while disguised as the President and a Secret Service agent--with their fists!; I could go on, but won't save to mention that the baddie is a Golden Age Superman villain with an albino gorilla sidekick. Batman + Gorillas = great comics!

Looking forward to the new Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely Batman and Robin comic, which will surely also be awesome even if it only comes out three times per year. But in the meantime, there's plenty of great Batman stories hiding out there if you know where to look!

Rating for both: 4 (of 5).