Batman and Robin #1 by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason

Tomasi starts out quickly by introducing a new villain who is “erasing” the recruits of the Batman Inc. storyline, starting with the Russian Batman, and then presents us with a huge change in the way Bruce Wayne will be dealing with the anniversary of the death of his parents from now on. The banter between Bruce and Damian actually reminds me quite a bit of the beginning of the Dick/Damian partnership in the previous B and R title. I am 

Action Comics - #1 by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales

I was interested in this as I am a big fan of Morrison’s take on Superman in his and Frank Quitely’s All Star Superman miniseries, but this is 180 degrees from that portrayal of the character.While All-Star focused on the Silver-Agey mythos and superscience aspects of Superman, this book grounds Superman as a street-level hero out to help the workingman. This Superman wears blue jeans and work boots, brings corporate raiders to heel, and wants to do the right thing even if he isn’t sure what that is. This is a novice Superman, with more in common with classic Peter Parker than the Clark Kent we have seen pre-DC relaunch. Its an interesting take and an interesting story, with really great kinetic art by Rags Morales, and I am interested enough to stick with it to see its headed. B+

It's truly amazing how many different kinds of games are lumped in the category First Person Shooter (FPS) these days; from the moody, creepy dystopia of BioShock, to the Michael Bay style all-out action of Call of Duty to the mind-bending puzzle play of Portal 2. Wildly different games, all under the aegis of the FPS. In recent years we have also seen a new trend toward the hybridization of the FPS with other genres. Fallout 3 brought us the melding of first person combat and role-playing game experience, upgrades and quests. BulletStorm, to cite a wholly different example, melded the chaos of the FPS with the combo scoring of an old-school arcade game. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is definitely a hybrid of many playstyles, but at its 

I think if any one thread runs through a lot of these comics from 1986 is the idea of subversion of form within the art form itself; taking the conventions we all assume (or at that time assumed) about comics and superheroes and cartoons turning them on their head. Watchmen and Miracleman are the poster children for this idea but The Dark Knight Returns, Mark Gruenwald’s Squadron Supreme and Mike Baron’s The Badger all are excellent examples of this idea as well. Maus turns the classic cat vs. mouse cartoon idiom into a brutal metaphor to describe the Holocaust. Alan Moore’s Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? is as much a statement about the death of mainstream comic storytelling as it is a classic Superman tale, complete with Curt Swan art.

A great example of how deconstructing a character can deconstruct the expectations of the comic book genre is the great Daredevil story, Born Again. Frank Miller had been slowly changing Daredevil from a B-lister who had to share his book with the Black Widow to boost sales in the 70s to a gripping noir take on the superhero archetype.