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Friday
Dec242010

Dirk Daring #5

DateFriday, December 24, 2010 at 12:00AM | AuthorTravis

It’s a special Christmas Dirk Daring!

At the Bedrock City Comics Christmas party that I mentioned earlier, I picked up Greg Rucka’s Batman: Death and the Maidens. This story sees the introduction of Ra’s Al Ghul’s daughter Nyssa. Anybody who has heard anything of the Batman mythos has probably heard of Talia, Ra’s youngest daughter, lover of Batman, and mother of Damian, the current Robin. While Talia is an interesting character, she’s been inconsistently portrayed over the long years to the point where I never know what to expect when I encounter her in a book. Will she be fierce and independent? Will she be meek and submissive? Will she be working for Ra’s or against?

Nyssa, on the other hand, is 100% hardcore and absolutely nuts. I first ran into her at the end of Cassandra Cain’s Batgirl book (her only really large appearance outside of Death & the Maidens) where she’s running the League of Assassins after Ra’s Al Ghul’s death. In Batgirl, she is insanely dedicated to the Ra’s Al Ghul’s vision. In Death & the Maidens, we learn how she’s became so dedicated. The story spans several centuries as we see the relationship between Ra’s and Nyssa start as one of love and fellowship and slowly degrade over time only to be revitalized again. Rucka has a masterful understanding of interpersonal relationships and crafts that into a very powerful story. Everyone has commented on Rucka’s ability to create strong female characters through Batwoman and The Question, but Nyssa is another perfect example of that ability.

I hadn’t been familar with Klaus Janson’s name before reading this issue, but looking back he’s been fairly prolific and had a huge impact on several major stories. Rucka’s words are strong, but Janson’s artwork are what really make this book powerful. The scenes from the Nazi concentration camps alone are some of the most powerful comic imagery I’ve seen and that’s only a small part of this book. Like JH Williams, Janson does a brilliant job with page layouts to add extra depth to the story and really make things visually interesting. The trade volume includes some of Janson’s early sketches and discussions from him on how and why he redesigned some of the layouts. I really enjoy chances like that to peak into the artist’s process.

I really enjoyed Death & The Maidens and give it the Ret-Conned Comic You Should Read seal of approval.

Travis, what’s on your pull list?

  • Batman Annual #28 - The problem with the Batman Inc initiative is that they’re going to create these really great characters, like Nightrunner, all over the world and then barely use them. Great story telling with the Question connecting things all the way back to the Gotham Central days.
  • Batman: Streets of Gotham #18 - They switched the main and second features, so House of Hush was only 10 pages. It barely gets started and then it’s over. Very unsatisfying.
  • Larfleeze Christmas Special - A fun romp of an “outsider’s” view of Christmas. The Gnome plans to make Orange Lantern Cookies for New Years.

Kris, what’s on your pull list?