Batman #657
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Andy Kubert
$2.99

Batman brings Damian, his supposed son, home to Wayne Manor/the Batcave, introduces him to Robin and Alfred, and insists that he uses his ninja powers to fight crime. Good times.

After three issues, this is still the most conventional and straightforward superhero comic Morrison’s ever written…and it’s still better than most of the other superhero books out there. A lot of that has to do with Morrison’s knack for pacing and innate grasp of building character through action and not extraneous, self-serving inner dialoge. There’s also no sense of the kind of continuity exhaustion that bogs down so many superhero books these days. Superb cliffhanger at the end, too.

Unfortunately more low-rent Silvestri in Kubert’s art this month than before. I admit, his big splash pages are wonderful, but the rest of the time I have a hard time telling if he’s a good artist or not.

KFR Rating: B

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Vol. 1
Writer: Eiji Otsuka
Artist: Housui Yanazaki
$10.95

A group of five late-teen/20-somethings — two girls and three guys — investigate the supernatural in a minivan and often refer to themselves as a “gang.” Sound familiar? Thankfully, that’s pretty much where the similarities to “Scooby-Doo” end. The three guys in this posse of Buddhist university misfits have extra-normal powers, and what their group, the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, actually does is use those powers to help free the souls of the traumatically deceased: the murdered, the sick, the suicides, etc.

The four separate stories in this first volume are a tad formulaic and the art is plain, but overall, this is a refreshingly modest (no shrill yelling or flailing limbs!), original, and enjoyable horror manga. The main characters are likeable, the camaraderie between them is nicely depicted, and the stories are inventively grotesque. Often, they’re actually fairly disgusting. You could say the book is “Scooby-Doo” meets “Saw” and “Audition” and I suppose you wouldn’t be too far off.

KCDS is also deeply steeped in modern and classic Japanese mythology and culture, which the editor goes out of his way to clearly explain. In short, you can read this and actually learn something. Go figure.

KFR Rating: B+

After the jump, a new Spider-Man story from Stan the Man and the latest Marvel zombie book.

Stan Lee Meets the Amazing Spider-Man #1
Writers: Stan Lee, Joss Whedon, Fred Hembeck
Artists: Olivier Coipel, Michael Gaydos, Fred Hembeck, John Romita Sr., Jim Mooney
$3.99

I guess somebody owes somebody else a favor…? Honestly, there isn’t any other reason for this book to exist, even for fans who’ll always love Mr. Lee, warts and all, like myself. Oh, a subtitle on the first page says “Commemorating 65 Years of Stan Lee at Marvel.” Huh.

The problem then would seem to be that the book doesn’t give itself a reason to exist. What you get are three lightweight, competently drawn short pieces from Lee, Whedon, and Hembeck that would’ve been filler fodder for an Annual 15-20 years ago. There’s a general feeling Marvel had these random stories laying around they were required to publish, and decided to finally throw them together all at once — which you can’t really fault them for, I guess.

Also included is a lesser Lee/Romita Spider-Man story.

KFR Rating: C

Zombie #1 (of 4)
Writer: Mike Raicht
Artist: Kyle Hotz
$3.99

When a violent bank robbery goes awry, the two bank robbers and their two hostages escape from the law straight into the site of a chemical spill that’s causing the dead to rise and eat human flesh.

A decidedly humdrum and uncreative title like “Zombie” doesn’t really inspire confidence, and the promise of the title delivers: if you’re a lover of the genre or Stephen King or horror movies in general, there’s nothing in here that you haven’t seen before, and you’ve seen it done far better.

If you’re new to this “zombie” thing that everyone keeps talking about, you want to read the far superior Walking Dead, one of the best ongoing soap operas in comics.

KFR Rating: C

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