Batman: Li’l Gotham #1

Hey, a cute little all-ages series by Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs. It’s got Nguyen’s adorable watercolors and some amazingly cute stories featuring our favorite members of the Bat-family.

Our first tale is set at Halloween and focuses on Batman and Damian — yay, Damian’s still alive in this one! Damian doesn’t really understand Halloween — all the kids are dressed as monsters and supervillains, and his methods for getting candy are not polite or socially acceptable. And when the Dynamic Duo stumble onto some supervillains enjoying a holiday meal, the stage is set for an epic confrontation.

The second story happens at Thanksgiving, when the Penguin decides to rescue all the Thanksgiving turkeys in Gotham City. This turns out about as well as you’d expect, and the entire Bat-family gets to enjoy a holiday meal together.

Verdict: Thumbs up. This is absolutely glorious. And it features Babs Gordon as Oracle, as well as Cassandra Cain. So yes, seriously, you need to go get it because this is the kind of happy-making comics the industry should care more about making.

Uncanny Avengers #6

This entire issue takes place a thousand years ago, with a younger, more brash Thor, armed with a battleaxe called Jarnbjorn, instead of the more familiar Mjolnir. He is unexpectedly attacked by Apocalypse — and En Sabah Nur wipes the floor with him. Thor flees back to Asgard, asking Odin for assistance, but he refuses, saying that destroying Apocalypse would cause greater troubles in the future. Loki offers Thor an enchantment that will allow his axe to pierce Apocalypse’s invulnerable armor, and Thor heads back for a rematch — while Apocalypse and his Horsemen are attempting to kill Wolverine’s distant ancestor, Folkbern Logan. But is someone else manipulating events behind the scenes?

Verdict: Thumbs up. Very nice action, and a nice alternate take on Thor (I haven’t been reading the recent comics where this version of the Odinson hangs out).

Sledgehammer 44 #2

While the American soldiers are trying to wheel the guy in the powered armor to safety, they’ve gotten ambushed by a bunch of Nazi goons. They manage to take ’em out, but one of the soldiers gets a bullet in the chest for his trouble. Now lugging an injured squadmate along with the armor, the soldiers barely make it to safety in a deserted barn — but they’re still outnumbered and outgunned by a bunch of villains who’ll use the armor to develop technology to destroy the world? How can the good guys come out on top?

Verdict: Thumbs up. It was a very short story, but a pretty good one anyway. Excellent drama and dialogue and art — all around, a fun read.

Batgirl #18

Batgirl survives — barely — her close call with Firefly, all while Gotham’s citizens try to pull her out of the wreckage — and her psychotic brother tries to find her to kill her. Barbara learns from her father that Damian Wayne is dead, and James Jr. calls her to threaten her. He misses the chance to kill his mother, and Batgirl goes after Firefly and then tries to track James down.

Verdict: Thumbs up. The story is fine, and the tension with James Jr. is handled well. But it is a bit annoying that the cover promises much mourning about Robin’s death, only to deliver a couple of pages in which no one sounds particularly sad. (And it’s not like this version of Batgirl ever had much to do with Damian anyway — that was all Stephanie Brown…)

Sledgehammer 44 #1

Here’s a story from the Hellboy universe’s World War II. Mike Mignola and John Arcudi tell the tale, while Jason Latour and Dave Stewart illustrate. It focuses on a small group of dogfaces in occupied France who are called on to help support a guy in powered armor who’s been airdropped in to fight the Nazis. While he meets with initial success, you can always trust the Nazis to have a much larger mecha on their side. Even if the good guys can survive that onslaught, can they escape from the Nazis — toting the powered-armor Sledgehammer in a wheelbarrow, no less — without getting captured or killed?

Verdict: Thumbs up. But I’m a complete sucker for fightin’ robots in WWII.