Here we are with a major important story in the history of DC--the death of the original Batman--and it's shunted off into what TBG columnist Cat Yronwode describes in the letters page as a "slush pile" comic. Ah, well. New editor Ross Andru, known best for his art on WONDER WOMAN and SPIDER-MAN, introduces himself as the new editor and crows about bringing in Don Heck and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez to replace Irv Novick and Jim Aparo.
Seems like I read somewhere that this splash page would have been the cover if this story had, in fact, appeared as intended in ALL-STAR. It would have been a good one. Good story, good art, well handled all around.
Robin Snyder, known best as Ditko's publisher these days, pops up in Bob Rozakis' column.
Some of Don Heck's best art of this latter-day period appeared here, inked by Joe Giella and on the Aquaman story, inked by my future Facebook pal, Bob Smith, later an Archie staple.
In spite of his longtime association with WONDER WOMAN, Ross seems to have not messed with this strip at all even though, to my mind, it was the one that most needed messing with!
If anything, Garcia-Lpez was better than Aparo. A few years later it would be him to whom DC turned to illustrate Deadman's first proper mini-series.
I felt like there were a lot of missed opportunities with this issue. The 2nd half of "The Death of Batman" felt rushed as opposed to the first half, but that might have been due to the change of series from ALL-STAR Co. to here....but Staton's art seemed rushed as well.
ReplyDeleteThe change of artists on AQUAMAN and DEADMAN (in my humble opinion) throw off the story arcs considerably. I agree with you that Garcis-Lopez was fantastic on DEADMAN but here in the last chapter it disrupts the flow of the story. The same thing with AQUAMAN; I like Don Heck's work but it just doesn't work for me here...fortunately, it does on FLASH. I definitely don't have any problems with him replacing Novick.
Alas, the one story that could've used a new artist didn't get one. WONDER WOMAN still isn't that bad, but it ain't that good either.