The second half of the same single purchase of comic books, because there were too many comic books to talk about in one post. Or I was bored. Or something.

Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne #6
For such an important issue – the final issue of the mini-series that returns Bruce Wayne to the DC universe after being ‘dead’ – it loses a lot of impact by having two artists juggling the story who don’t do a top-notch job. I thought that DC had learned its lesson after the rush job of Georges Jeanty did on issue 4, but apparently not. Grant Morrison brings everything together well, but it doesn’t work as it should.

Chronicles of Wormwood: The Last Battle #5
I think I might be one of the few people who preordered this at Gosh! because I seem to get the wraparound covers for the book, instead of the regular cover. The only problem is that the wraparound covers are rather ugly, deliberately so because they are depictions of Hell, but it doesn’t get me in the frame of mind for the story. The issue has some nice dialogue and humour from Garth Ennis, but the Pope Jacko thing seems slightly wearing and I’m looking towards the end of this particular story line. I enjoyed the first mini-series but I’ve lost the appeal of this one.

Knight and Squire #2
I like the idea of what Paul Cornell is doing with Knight and Squire, filling the comic with lots of British things (although it loses its charm if he has to explain everything in the back of the book) – the Morris Men and their ancient martial art, Wassail Futtock (which sounds like something in a song by Kenneth Williams’ Rambling Sid character) – but it doesn’t necessarily all add up to a cohesive whole and an enjoyable issue of a comic book in its own right. Maybe it’s just me and being British already, but it feels like a 2000AD spoof of superhero universes but done completely straight. Still, I’ll be sticking around for the remainder to see what happens.

The Unwritten #19
The Unwritten continues, and it continues to make me feel stupid – I had to look up ‘afflatus’ and I’ve never read Moby-Dick – but in a good way. There is a lot of story pieces dropped into this issue, with special surprises in the last few pages for Lizzie and Tommy, and Richie sees something (or, rather, doesn’t). There is even some story-within-a-story action, which seems completely appropriate for The Unwritten. Good stuff.