BATMAN: SECOND CHANCES by Jim Starlin (Author, Artist), Max Allan Collins (Author), Dave Cockrum (Illustrator, Artist), Jim Aparo (Artist), Denys Cowan (Artist)

Published in 2015 by DC Comics.

Over the years, Batman has had multiple Robins. But there was a first replacement to the original Robin (Dick Grayson) and that was Jason Todd. He was first introduced in 1983, but was completely revamped as a part of the 1985-1986 Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline. 

Batman: Second Chances is a collected reprint of the original comics of the revamped post-Crisis on Infinite Earths version of Jason Todd. The collection includes how Todd and Batman met (the way they meet is literally on the cover.)

The first half of the collection is properly told as one big story, although DC kind of released the story in an odd way - they show Jason Todd in action before they tell how he becomes the new Robin.

Batman meets an orphaned street urchin named Jason Todd who literally was stealing wheels off of cars in order to sell them, including the Batmobile. In order to keep Todd out of trouble, Batman places him in a boarding school in Todd's neighborhood that is headed up by a sweet old lady who is known to be the only real advocate for the unfortunate people that live in the neighborhood.

Turns out that her boarding school was an advanced training academy for young criminals, including training in weapons, hand to hand fighting, and more.

Jason Todd runs away to avoid being bullied and having to commit major felonies, but tells Batman all about it when he is tracked down. Batman decides its time to start taking in youthful wards again and teaching them the family business.

Later, Todd finds out why he was orphaned and the fact that Batman had the truth. This should be a major trauma point, but Batman resolves it with two or three sentences. Batman should have been a therapist, even though he's been unsuccessfully dealing with unresolved trauma for almost all of his life. The whole thing was written in a very stilted way that just got wrapped up too easily. Plus, Two-Face seems much more like a goofy villain from the Adam West TV show rather than a supervillain of substance. 

Even weirder - the Batmobile keeps changing. Sometimes it looks like a Lotus Esprit (see the cover at the top) and sometimes it looks like a Corvette (see the panel just above.) To me, this just shows that the whole thing was put together in a clumsy way. That explains the unsatisying conclusion to Todd's trauma.

In a different comic, Jason Todd keeps making puns about a series of thefts. Batman and Commissioner Gordon are not amused. To me, it hearkened back to Adam West's Robin with his "Holy This" and "Holy That, Batman!" comments. Don't get me wrong, I love the Adam West series, but it's hard to take this character seriously when he does that.

The best story is issue number 414 "Victims!" In this story Batman gets to be an actual detective but he always ends up one step behind because of crime-fighting interruptions and his own presuppositions. For once, the World's Greatest Detective does not get his man.

The collection is up and down and ends up with a collected score of "meh." I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman: Second Chances.

SPIDER-MAN NOIR: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION by David Hine (Author), Fabrice Sapolsky (Author), Roger Stern (Author), Carmine Di Giandomenico (Illustrator, Artist), Richard Isanove (Illustrator, Artist), Bob McLeod (Illustrator, Artist), Paco Diaz (Illustrator, Artist), Patch Zircher (Cover Art)

Published in 2019 by Marvel.

When people watched Sony's fantastic Spiderverse cartoon they were treated to the vision of multiple versions of Spider-Man teaming up to save the the world of Miles Morales. One of the most talked about versions of Spider-Man was Spider-Noir, a hard-bitten detective version of Spidey that was voiced by Nicholas Cage. Spider-Noir came with a trench coat and a fedora and lives in a black and white universe with dramatice lighting, much like a character in a Sam Spade movie. 

In the summer of 2026, Nicholas Cage played a live action version of that character in a popular streaming series and I was thrilled to discover that Spider-Noir wasn't just a character made up for the Spiderverse cartoons, but was actually part of an existing series of comics that reimagined multiple popular Marvel characters in the 1930s.

I got hold of Spider-Man Noir: The Complete Collection and eagerly jumped in - only to be disappointed.

I was not disappointed that the comic differs significantly from the streaming series - that kind of stuff is to be expected. For example, in the streaming series, there is no Peter Parker and everyone's superpowers are the result of a lab experiment gone awry. Marvel simply loves to imbue superpowers via bad science experiments.

The way Peter Parker receives his powers in the comic is much closer to how Madame Web receives her powers in the Madame Web movie. That was fine by me - it doesn't always have to be a lab accident.

What was not fine by me was the art in the original series was often unclear and extremely hard to follow. It is often too busy (see above.) Quite simply, it did not work in too many panels throughout the comic. The art was much better in the smaller follow up comics at the end of this collection.

Even worse, Peter Parker is not Peter Parker in this series. He isn't even like the Nicholas Cage version from Spiderverse movies and the streaming series. He is a humorless, angry character without much of a personality except that he wants to get the guys that killed his Uncle Ben and he wants the poor people of New York to get an even break during the Great Depression.

Those are both admirable goals, but one of the key features of Spider-Man in every comic, every movie series, and every TV show is that Peter Parker is funny and annoyingly enthusiastic. He runs his mouth non-stop and it irritates his opponents. If you remember in the Avengers: Civil War movie, Falcon even tells Spidey that he's talking too much while they're fighting each other.

In this comic, Spider-Man is dour, brooding, and definitely not funny. They're trying to really get into the "noir" vibe, but it would have been much more traditionally character appropriate to have everyone else be super serious while Spidey just runs his mouth and makes smart-aleck comments the whole time (this worked very well in Cage's streaming series adaptation.)

I rate this graphic novel 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Spider-Man Noir: The Complete Collection. 

FAULT LINES: A HISTORY of the UNITED STATES SINCE 1974 (audiobook) by Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer

Published in 2019 by Audible Studios.

Read by Fajer Al-Kaisi

Duration: 14 hours, 47 minutes.

Unabridged. 

Kruse and Zelizer take a quick look at how we got to our current state of divided and disfunctional politics in Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974.

1974 was picked as a starting point because it was the end of the Vietnam War and the middle of the Watergate scandal - both highly divisive events of epic proportions.

The authors track multiple fault lines, including LGBTQ+ rights, the Equal Rights Ammendment, the Cold War, Monica Lewinsky, the fights over the Supreme Court nominees, 9/11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Tea Party Movement, the Rise of MAGA, and more.

This is a tour through one politically charged moment after another, but it does offer a glimpse at the formation of the ever-widening fault lines in our country's political landscape.

Note: Since this is a political book, I would rate the perspective of this book to be center-left.

Note 2: the narrator of the audiobook mispronounced several names in this 14 hour audiobook. I never consider mispronunciations of names and places to be solely the fault of the narrator, Instead, I view that as the fault of the entire production team. They should be looking out for their narrators and double-checking pronunciations before they come to them during the reading of the book.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974.

BATMAN: UNIVERSE by Brian Michael Bendis (Author), Nick Derington (Illustrator)

Published in 2020 by DC Comics.

Synopsis

Riddler has stolen a Faberge Egg from the local museum. It looks like it's a throwback caper - the kind of thing Batman has been dealing with since the Adam West TV show days.

But, something is off about the case from the beginning. Riddler's riddle is just basic. Alfred calls it "so disappointing." Batman determines that Riddler was "being used" to pull of this crime and now he's got two mysteries to solve - find the egg and find out what's going on with The Riddler...

My Review

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. It literally went all over the place in both space and time. Batman interacts with a number of fellow supers - both heroes and villains. Their interactions are often funny and show good insight to their characters. It's a good story and a lot of fun. Plus, the art is very clear and easy to follow.

I rate this graphic novel 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman: Universe. 

BATMAN & ROBIN: BATMAN REBORN by Grant Morrison (Author), Frank Quitely (Illustrator), Philip Tan (Illustrator)

Published by DC Comics in 2011.

Goodreads Choice Award nominee.

Synopsis

Batman is dead. Nightwing (Dick Grayson) has returned to take over the role of Batman and mentoring the latest Robin, Damian Wayne. With the help of Alfred, Grayson is getting into the mindset of Batman and they are trying to gel into a team.

But, a crime wave sweeps the city in the form of new villains. While Robing and this new version of Batman struggle to counter the crime wave, Red Hood (former Robin Jason Todd) returns to Gotham to fight crime in his own over-the-top super-violent style. Red Hood has picked up a new vigilante sidekick, Scarlet, who is also a mutilated victim of the criminals Batman and Robin are hunting.

My Review

Batman Reborn is a victim of a couple gigantic missed opportunities.

Missed opportunity number one: an in-depth look at why Nightwing is taking over as Batman rather than just being Nightwing. If nothing else, it's a chance to restate the symbolic importance Batman has in Gotham.

Missed opportunity number two (and the bigger one by far): There are scenes with three Robins and a Robin stand-in. They are all interacting and somehow failing to talk about what they all have in common - being the most famous sidekick in comic history.

Red Hood's new outfit.

Red Hood's outfit was pretty nifty, with the exception of his helmet / face mask. I seriously thought that he was a new character (this graphic novel is full of them) called Red Pill when I saw him. Then I looked up the publication date and realized that "red pilled" was too new of a term  to be used in this book. To be fair to me, Red Hood is pretty danged red pilled. 

Anyway, Red Hood's helmet / face mask looks like the top half of a cold capsule. It makes no sense if you imagine someone's head actually fitting inside of this long narrow tube - unless Red Hood has the widest shoulders in the world and the helmet / mask just looks tiny in comparison (I'm talking Bane level of shoulders.)

What Red Hood's
headgear reminds me of.

The worst thing for me was that the graphic novel revels in being grotesque. Rather than having a mystery for Batman to solve, it deals in grime, grit, gruesome acts, with displays gratuitous and graphic violence. Rather than make a cohesive story line, the plan seems to be to have yet another unique character come to Gotham and commit more insane violence. 

Plus, the horrific act of violence committed by Professor Pyg is literally the same thing done by Joker in the first Michael Keaton Batman movie. No spoliers, but re-watch the movie and read the graphic novel and you will see it. Just me, but if you are going to have someone commit a series of grotesque atrocities, at least make them original grotesque atrocities. 

Note: I liked Damian Wayne in this one. Usually, I don't. 

I rate this graphic novel a generous 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn. 

SUPERMAN: AMERICAN ALIEN by Max Landis (Author), Francis Manapul (Artist), Jock (Artist), Jae Lee (Artist), Joelle Jones (Artist), Tommy Lee Edwards (Artist), Matthew Clark (Artist), Nick Dragotta (Artist), Jonathan Case (Artist)

Published by DC Comics in 2016.

Will Eisner Award Nomination – Best Writer

Synopsis

A team of different artists worked with writer Max Landis to come up with a different kind of Superman origin story in Superman: American Alien. It takes a few liberties with the traditional story and really focuses on Clark Kent and how he transitions from Smallville to Metropolis. 

Each story has a slightly different look and tells of an episode in his development, beginning with an elementary school aged Clark discovering that he can fly (but he cannot control it) and ending with Superman sporting an early version of the red trunks outfit confronting Lobo (Lobo was sent to get someone, but was pretty sloppily destroying chunks of Metropolis while doing so.)

The first draft of a
Superman outfit

My Review

Overall, I enjoyed this graphic novel. I didn't particularly enjoy the second story and the Lobo chapter for the same reason - they were disjointed and kind of hard to follow because they were trying to make the action go fast.

On the other hand, the story where young Clark Kent gets confused for young Bruce Wayne at a yacht party starts out weakly, but turns out very strong.

This story goes out of its way to get at the humanity of the man from Krypton. If you liked James Gunn's Superman movie, you will like this graphic novel.

I rate this graphic novel 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Superman: American Alien. 

BATMAN: DARK AGE by Mark Russell (Author), Michael Allred (Illustrator), Laura Allred (Illustrator)

Published in 2025 by DC Comics.

SYNOPSIS

Batman: Dark Age is a sequel of sorts to the award-nominated graphic novel Superman: Spage Age. I say of sorts because Superman: Space Age featured a multiverse problem and how a Superman in one multiverse dealt with it. I do believe that this universe is the universe of the second Superman in the original graphic novel. 

This graphic novel is told as the recollections on an elderly Bruce Wayne who is in the memory unit of an old age home.

It starts with a fairly typical Batman origin story, except that Bruce Wayne is not present when his parents die. Bruce Wayne grows up as an arrogant rich kid who ends up in jail. He is released on the condition that he joins the military during the Vietnam War. He joins an elite military unit led by colonel Ra's Al Ghul who teaches them the tactics of stealth warfare.

When Bruce Wayne returns, he finds a Gotham City ravaged by a drug epidemic and he decides to figure out what is going on...

MY REVIEW

This was a pretty intricate story and I appreciate the world building that went into it, but it simply lacked the drama and tension of Superman: Space Age. It was interesting, especially the origin story of Joker, but I will just rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. 

This graphic novel can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman: Dark Age.