BATMAN - ONE BAD DAY: TWO-FACE (graphic novel) by Mariko Tamaki

Published in 2023 by DC Comics.

Written by Mariko Tamaki.

Art by Javier Fernandez and Jordie Bellaire.

Synopsis

The One Bad Day series looks at individual top level Batman villains (If you are a fan of Polka-Dot Man, sorry) and gives them a comic that focuses on just that villain. 

Batman - One Bad Day: Two-Face begins with a flashback of a hostage situation on the roof of a tall building. One of the cops on duty down below is Patrolman Christopher Nakano. Flash forward to the present day, for some inexplicable reason, Mayor Christopher Nakano offers Two-Face the chance to resume his job as the District Attorney of Gotham City.

Batman goes along and is determined to reform Two-Face so he can just be Harvey Dent

Why? Why? Why? Is Two-Face the only attorney in the city?

So, things go really well and Two-Face retires a hero.

Yeah right.

My Review

If you can get past the weirdness of responsible adults offering a violent felon with serious mental health issues an important job like District Attorney (which I clearly could not), the story is fairly interesting. You get to meet Harvey Dent's dad. There are arguments from Batgirl against the idea of hiring a super villain as the DA that no one listens to. 

The art was first-rate throughout.

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman - One Bad Day: Two Face.

BATMAN - ONE BAD DAY: THE RIDDLER (graphic novel) by Tom King

Written by Tom King.

Art by Mitch Gerads.

Published in 2023 by DC Comics

2023 Eisner Winner - Best Single Issue/One-Shot

2023 Eisner Nominee - Best Limited Series

2023 Eisner Nominee - Best Writer, Tom King

2024 Libby Award Nominee for Best Comic/Graphic Novel

Synopsis

The One Bad Day series looks at individual top level Batman villains (If you are a fan of Condiment King, sorry) and gives them a comic that focuses on just that villain. 

Batman - One Bad Day: The Riddler begins with The Riddler in jail. He is ruminating over his abusive childhood and the reader gets to see his first steps into the world of crime. All of that ruminating has made The Riddler change his game plan when it comes to being a criminal...

My Review

The flashback scenes were extremely good, but the current day scenes were full of literally unbelievable things.

*****Spoilers*****

There are multiple things that just made me roll my eyes. Things that just don't make sense, even in a comic book world.

1) The scene where the The Riddler says he will hurt the armed guards' families if they take him to Arkham rings untrue. He promises that he can escape in hours. He looks at one guard and lists the name of the guard's children and the school that they attend. In this scene, the guards all shoot one another because one guard decides to take out a cuffed Riddler rather than have his family put at risk. I think it much more likely that they would just shoot him with the rubber bullets they had and then beat him to death with their rifle butts - all the more so in a city where insane villains keep escaping from Arkham Asylum. The Riddler says he  has escaped from Arkham more than 36 times! Why are they sending him back there? Why would the guards even hesitate to kill the man who threatens all they hold dear?

2) The Riddler maims a man who is sliding a food tray through the slot in the cell door. He grabs the tray and forces the man's hands into the top of the slot. So far, so good. That would hurt a lot and reminds the guards that Riddle is quite feral. Then, he pushes the tray so hard it cuts off eight of the man's fingers (not his thumbs). If Bane was doing the pushing on the tray, maybe. Is The Riddler as strong as Bane? Hardly.

3) A character points a shotgun at Batman's face from less than 10 feet away and shoots twice. He misses both times. Not a single piece of shot touches Batman because he is too fast. Ugh. I know Batman is fast and I know Batman's cowl is bulletproof, but the lower half of his face isn't. Shotguns are not rifles - the shot spreads out and covers a lot of area. Batman should have ended up looking like Two-Face.

*****End Spoilers*****

I think this graphic novel received rave reviews because of the extensive flashback scenes and the art. The art is not my favorite style, but it did set a profound mood of tragedy and danger. The flashbacks are excellent, especially the ones with his teacher. 

But, those scenes don't make up for the things that I mentioned in the spoilers. I know that it seems weird to expect some realism in a book with a man who wears a bat outfit to fight crime, but I think it's exceptionally lazy writing to have a characters in a comic book get away with unrealistic things just to make the plot move forward.

I have read almost all of the graphic novels in this series. If I had read this one first, I probably wouldn't have bothered with the rest.

I rate this graphic novel 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman - One Bad Day: The Riddler.

STAR WARS: AGE of RESISTANCE - VILLAINS (graphic novel) by Tom Taylor

Written by Tom Taylor.

Art by Leonard Kirk, Cory Hamscher, and Guru eFX.

Published in 2019.

Issued during the build up to to the theater release Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars: Age of Resistance - Villains offers four separate stories about four different villains featured in the sequel trilogy. 

The four villains are Captain Phasma, General Hux, Snoke, and Kylo Ren. Each story tells is set before Episode VIII and demonstrates the true nature of each of them. Since these are all villains, there are lots of instances of betrayal and backstabbing. 

The art work was great, but the stories do not do anything to really illuminate the characters. Three of them involve fighting on some planet of the edges of the Empire when things go bad and the villains commit villainy to survive to be villainous on another day.

Following each story there is an essay about the character. It includes comments from the actors that play these characters in the movies.

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Star Wars: Age of Resistance - Villains.

BATMAN - ONE BAD DAY: CATWOMAN (graphic novel) by G. Willow Wilson

Written by G. Willow Wilson

Art by Jamie McKelvie

Synopsis

The One Bad Day series is a look at some of the biggest Batman villains in a book just dedicated to that villain. A lot of them, but certainly not all of them, take a sympathetic look at that villain.

Batman - One Bad Day: Catwoman is one of the more sympathetic takes. 

Catwoman is looking through an auction catalog for high end jewelry when she finds an unusual listing for a piece of post-World War II French jewelry that commemorates the end of Nazi occupation. It is a rare piece with a message of a return to freedom for France's artists its reserve price is $30,000.

It is also a piece her mother sold to a pawn shop for only $200 when Catwoman was a child in order to attempt to make her rent money that month.

Catwoman decides to take back the jewelry and right a wrong...

My Review

This one was interesting because the stakes, in reality, are really pretty low - a piece of jewelry that is worth thousands instead of millions and a long-forgotten bit of family pride. 

But, because it's so personal, the stakes are actually very high for Catwoman.

The heist story was good. For once, this did not involve the worn-out plot device of Catwoman cutting glass with her claws and slinking around laser security systems in order to steal a priceless diamond from a museum. 

The art was clear and easy to follow and there was no need to be aware of some obscure plot point from a comic published decades ago. All that is required is a basic knowledge of Catwoman and her relationship with Batman. 

I rate this graphic novel 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman - One Bad Day: Catwoman.

STAR WARS: LANDO (graphic novel) by Charles Soule

Published in 2016 by Marvel Enterprises.

Written by Charles Soule.

Art by Alex Maleev and Paul Mounts.

Synopsis

Lando Calrissian is in financial trouble - he has debts and he is working them off by pulling off "jobs" for the people he owes money to. He makes a deal to pull off one big heist for Papa Toren in exchange for all of his debt being cleared and the possibility of making of making a lot of profit for himself.

Lando and his sidekick Lobot (see picture below) build a team and pull off the heist - stealing a space yacht from an imperial shipyard. Everything looks great until they find a Sith artifact onboard and realize that they've just stolen the Emperor's yacht!

My review

This is the fifth Star Wars graphic novel that I've read written by Charles Soule, and it was the weakest of the bunch. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't great like the others. The plot had a lot of zip at first but moved from a heist story to a horror story and it slowed down so much to build a sense of dread that it just failed to work for me any longer.

I rate this graphic novel 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Star Wars: Lando.

BALD-FACED LIAR (kindle) by Victoria Helen Stone

Published in 2025 by Lake Union Publishing.

Synopsis

Elizabeth May has lived a life based on lies ever since she went off to college. As a small child she was caught up in one of those Satanic child abuse day care cases that swept the nation in the 1980s. If you are not aware of this, the cases were almost always built upon an accusation by an angry child followed by leading questions from a series of adults that convinced younger children that they should go along with the accusations. After a while, the smaller children just believed the made up version.

Elizabeth May has ran away from her past - no one in her hometown showed any understanding of how she was also a victim, including her own family. May hides by being a travel nurse - she can move every year or even every few months. She avoids long-term romantic entanglements, she uses every possible variation of her name - Liz, Betty, Beth, etc. 

Elizabeth May has lived in Santa Cruz for about a year. She's got a great job, a cozy condo with a special deal because she keeps on eye the nextdoor vacation rental condos, and she has a network of acquaintances that stand in for actual friends.

Suddenly, her carefully constructed life gets interrupted with a series of online and in real life incidents and Elizabeth May is scrambling to figure out who is a real friend and who is an imposter from the past looking for revenge...

My review: 

The problem with this book is not the tension created from the situation, it's the character of Elizabeth May. She is basically unlikeable. She listens in to her neighbors' arguments and gets joy a thrill out of it. She uses the security cameras to spy on their romantic moments. 

In a book like this, this reader has to root for the target. Elizabeth May is hard to root for, except that you just don't like anybody that's not clearly evil to have their identity stolen and be stalked. 

This book was just off from the beginning and ended up staying off the entire time. I rate this book 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Bald-Faced Liar by Victoria Helen Stone.

SUPERMAN '78: THE METAL CURTAIN (graphic novel) Robert Venditti

Published by DC Comics in 2024.
Written by Robert Venditti.
Art by Gavin Guidry and Jordan Bellaire.

Synopsis

These are the further adventures of the Christopher Reeve Superman from the movie series that ran from the late 1970s into the 1980s. It has the feel of those movies in the simple and clear art style and the look of many of those characters. Interestingly, Superman looks nothing like Reeves and Clark Kent only looks like him from time to time.

The plot of Superman '78: The Metal Curtain is pretty simple. The Soviet Union has created a super soldier suit powered by a giant hunk if Kryptonite. The suit is pretty much an Iron Man suit (I know, wrong publisher) with the added benefit that it's fuel weakens the Man of Steel.

The Soviet Union is fearful of Superman. They perceive him as a weapon of the United States (because the events of Superman IV haven't happened yet) and plan to use the suit to defeat Superman and America...

My Review

I really liked the clean art style of this graphic novel. The plot is simple, direct, and the circumstances are dire. The only thing I did not like was the way Superman ended up winning - it was too simplistic and too short. It felt like a cheesy movie plot ending, which is exactly the vibe that they were going for. I guess that makes it a success.

I rate this graphic novel 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Superman '78: The Metal Curtain.