Writer: Greg Pak
Artist: Brett Booth
Colorist: Andrew Dalhouse
ENDGAME
Mongol has come to Earth and has taken down Batman in a deadly surprise attack! With Game Master still on the loose can Superman help Batman in time before Mongol finishes the job or will Batman come to finish Superman…wait what?!
The Ups: This issue had a good mix of character development between Batman and Superman, gamer satire, and action. Greg Pak writes a very realistic friendship between Bruce and Clark. He often has them argue and judge each other but ultimately they agree on the important things which makes these two larger than life characters feel real and their friendship feels like it’s there because it happened naturally and not because someone wanted Batman and Superman in the same book. Brett Booth’s art gives the action a real sense of weight and power, when someone gets hit it looks real and you can really appreciate the power of the characters involved. Andrew Dalhouse’s colors are vibrant and give everything a nice shine that brings a sense of charisma to the characters.
The Downs: The story plays a lot on gamer culture and while this joke is essential to the plot it did kind of get old after we’ve gotten used to it in the last issue. This arc depends on one very serious and well respected villain using what is essentially a giant MMO to destroy Superman. This feels a little out of character for this villain which takes you out of the experience unless you’re prepared to read this issue jokingly.
Overall: This issue was definitely entertaining and had lots of great action and some nice interaction between Superman and Batman as you would expect. While the plot is a little convoluted it’s not silly enough to take you out of the experience if you don’t go into the issue taking it seriously, and to be fair after the last two issues I think we’re all used to the upbeat tone that Greg Pak is trying to achieve. All in all this was a nice ending to a very entertaining story arc so long as you don’t take it too seriously.
Grade 4 of 5
ComicsRefueled 