The Man who Never was

Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Batman - Knightfall #1 by Kyle Higgins My rating: 3 of 5 stars The Dark Multiverse, expanded upon after the mind-bending Dark Nights: Metal saga from Scott Snyder was an interesting concept, adding to the already expansive Batman Mythos. Harkening back to the Infinite Crisis and more specifically to JLA: Earth 2 by Grant Morrison, as well as its much underrated by narratively brilliant Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths animated movie, the dark multiverse as its name implies, explores chaos theory. For every major event which happened in the main DC continuity that we know, ones where the heroes were able to overcome great odds, and triumph over evil, there could be other alternate infinite realities, where the villains won, where evil triumphs, where the heroes fell. Where the paragons of everything good, just and compassionate strayed from their moral compass and ended up consuming the very world and reali...

Batman Vampire by Doug Moench My rating: 4 of 5 stars *** Content warning: Mature themes, graphic violence, nudity. *** When your favorite comic character dresses like a bat, works during the dark hours, stays in the shadows and instills the ever-living fear of death onto criminal scum, it's only a while before you begin to draw parallels between them and another of pop culture's iconic characters, who share many of the traits, but inhabit moreover of a neutral evil compared to the Lawful Good (maybe Lawful Neutral) of your favorite muse. So many jokes are being made about Count Batman, or the Bat Vampire, it would not be a surprise if there are stories featuring both of them facing off; or him being an actual f***ing Vampire. What surprised me was that it took me this long to come across the story. I had previously encountered a similar character in the DC animated movie 'Justice League: Gods and Monsters' but seeing as how that char...

Batman-superman World's Finest 4: Return to Kingdom Come by Mark Waid My rating: 4 of 5 stars It's good to see this story revisiting the continuity of Kingdom Come , and expand upon the backstories of those characters, how they came to their sorry, miserable, defeated states. Also, a good bookend to the story of David, introduced at the beginning of this run. The kid had serious Jason Todd vibes going for him. Even though he had Rafael level of anger issues, you feel bad for the kid, going through the entire cocktail of survivor guilt induced PTSD trauma, with a whole bunch of reality hopping side effects added on top. Even though Magog was a character you saw only in the Kingdom Come reality, and one that seemed to be created for the express purpose of serving as a more violent foil to Superman, it's good to get more fleshed-out backstory for him. As well as a cathartic ending for his arc of suffering and guilt. Even without those, ther...

Batman/Superman: World's Finest, Vol. 1: The Devil Nezha by Mark Waid My rating: 3 of 5 stars In another mythology-based adventure, the dynamic duo, plus their sidekicks team up with the members of the Doom Patrol, to combat an ancient demon released from its seal (yes, another one, makes one wonder, just how many sealed malevolent entities are just camping around this universe). The story is pretty run of the mill, hits the usual notes, Superman gets mind controlled (basically everyone gets mind controlled, except for Batman cause he's the freaking), Bats being his usual badass stuff, some fun banter between Robin & Supergirl. The highlight of the story has got to be the brief but Awesome inception of BatSups Lantern over here. Gosh, I really hope that the writers never run out of fun ways to combine two of the best comic heroes out there. View all my reviews

The Book of Five Rings: A Graphic Novel by Miyamoto Musashi My rating: 3 of 5 stars A good graphic novel adaptation of the simple yet informative treatise by Miyamoto Musashi. It was not as kinetic as you'd expect; but the serene almost Zen like artwork meshes well with the spiritual nature of Musashi's work, especially highlighting the wizened sage like austerity he seemed to imbibe during his twilight years. This would be a good companion piece for those who've just finished reading the original text, to reinforce its teachings. View all my reviews

ചിദംബര സ്മരണ | Chidambara Smarana by Balachandran Chullikkad My rating: 4 of 5 stars Balachandran Chullikkad is someone who is intimately familiar to Keralites; at least those who were born in the 90s and 2000s. Well known for being a gifted poet, whose verses are capable of creating embers in your mind, he was also a mainstay on the film scene, often doing small supporting characters in motion pictures. This was something for which he was ridiculed and judged, both by the general public as well as some of his intelligentsia cohorts. Balan, of course, in his typical irreverent and piercing nature, didn’t bow down or apologize, for consorting with the capitalist machinery, a group viewed as the ideological rivals of the intellectuals. While growing up, I too had some amount of reservation, as to why a respected, erudite literary agent would stoop low and star in soaps and commercial ventures like this. As an adult, the reasons are clear enough; very...

Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons by Kelly Sue DeConnick My rating: 5 of 5 stars From the cover it was evident that what we were to expect was a group of badass warrior women, sorry, warriors, bedecked in resplendent attire, just dripping with style, grace, elegance and strength, going about, chewing bubble gum, taking names and kicking ass, gum optional. And got to say, was not disappointed, for the most part. The art of the story is drop dead magnificent, and something out of a Neil Gaiman fever dream. The story mostly comprises of an almanac of the genesis of our favorite band of badass good girls. The history of Diana and the Amazonians, or Themyscirans, is considerable, varied, and often times convoluted, as the long run of the titular character indicates. Sometimes she is the daughter of Zeus, sent to save the world of man. Other times, she's the daughter of Hades/Ares or any other god the writers took fancy on. Even other times, she's...

Batman: One Bad Day - Ra's Al Ghul #1 by Tom Taylor My rating: 4 of 5 stars Ra's al Ghul is a character who'd best fit the saying 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions'. As well as the villain who sees himself as the hero in his own story. He's one of the members of Batman's Rogues gallery, who is driven by a higher purpose, and one who you would likely empathize with; were it not for the fact that his methods tend to largely be genocidal. Ra's, I felt, has been a perfect foil for Batman, in a manner different from the Joker. Where the Joker's brand of Anarchy contrasts Batman's need for rules and order, Ra's is more of Bruce's intellectual and physical equal. Both have the skills, training, and resources at their disposal to see their respective missions to fruition. Yet where the similarities get more evident, is the sheer drive that Ra's and the Bats have to their ideals; to the point that ...

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky My rating: 5 of 5 stars Detailed review pending. View all my reviews A whole lot of things are crammed in Dmitry Glukhovsky’s post apocalyptic, claustrophobic, introspective, yet engrossing underground tunnel opera. From the very first chapter, the author had me hooked, with the detailed dives into the history and lore of how exactly, the remnants of humanity came to live in such existential squalor. How the populace had devolved into tribalistic colonies centered around the metro stations, where only a thin veneer of law and order held sway, just enough that humans don’t devolve into utter barbarity and cannibalism; well, mostly. How, lack of basic necessities we today take for granted, such as clean running water, medicines, and lights, are slowly but surely pushing them ever closer to the edge of annihilation. How, a simple errant spark, a mutated strain, some contaminated water is all that would t...

Lovesickness by Junji Ito My rating: 4 of 5 stars Viewer discretion advised: Warning for graphic violence, acts, and body horror. The master of Japanese Horror, nay, graphic horror worldwide. As usual he has the unique ability to take day to day, mundane aspects of life, and turn them into graphic, disturbing, macabre displays of terror. The premise of these series of interconnected short stories involves our protagonist, who has returned to his childhood home, a childhood which I might add, has some seriously disturbing repressed memories attached to it. Right after his arrival, mysterious incidents begin taking place, ending in a serious of disturbing suicides and deaths. As the body count rises, and bit by bit the townspeople turn to rabid, maniacal, insanity, it's upon him to solve this phenomenon and stop the violence. It seems as if, in every other of his stories, things go bad, and everyone goes mad. But despite a predictable pattern, we s...