World Famous Comics: Battle for Bludhaven (Infinite Crisis Aftermath)
Battle for Bludhaven (Infinite Crisis Aftermath)
By: Justin Gray Publisher: DC Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: DC Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 144 Publication Date: January 03, 2007 Release Date: January 03, 2007
Product Description: After the events of INFINITE CRISIS, the city of Blüdhaven was destroyed when the Secret Society of super-villains dropped a giant, toxic villain named Chemo into the heart of the city.
When mysterious levels of radiation are detected, the Teen Titans, Green Lantern and other super-heroes must go to Blüdhaven to uncover the source. The fate of the city hinges on the heroes solving this mystery, and winning their battle with a secret government agency called SHADE!
pretty good Another piece to the Infinite Crisis storyline. It's an entertaining read, though I'd have to say, some time after reading it, it isn't that memorable.
Disjointed and hard to follow In the DC universe, the city of Bludhaven is basically the super hot bed for all things criminal and nasty. During the cataclysmic events of Infinite Crisis, the Secret Society dropped radioactive villain Chemo on the city, killing nearly everyone living in it while leaving a few survivors. Crisis Aftermath: The Battle for Bludhaven finds a cadre of DC heroes including the Teen Titans as well as the Green Lantern teaming up as a new mystery unfolds over the remains of the city. What is it? Well, you might have a hard time swallowing everything considering how disjointed, confusing, and just plain hard to follow this TPB is. Writers Jimmy Palmiotti (he's a better inker) and Justin Gray (both of whom struck gold with Jonah Hex, but strike pure drivel with a few Punisher one-shots for Marvel) appear to possibly not even be sure of what's going on either judging by the schizoid directions the story goes into, while the art (including Dan Jurgens, AKA the man who killed Superman) ranges from decent to nothing spectacular. This TPB isn't all bad, as there are some nicely done action scenes, and it's always good to see Hal Jordan in action, but in the end, Battle for Bludhaven is better left on the shelf.
Two reads and I'm still not fully sure of what happened CRISIS AFTERMATH: THE BATTLE FOR BLUDHAVEN is yet another addition to the number of confusing trade paperbacks that support DC's Infinite Crisis. If, like me, you are attempting to follow IC via trades, you are in for a headache. By spreading these trade releases so far apart, it's next to impossible to get the big picture, especially when so many of the supporting trades have been released before the main Infinite Crisis trade. THE BATTLE FOR BLUDHAVEN is a twisted mess of numerous lesser heroes and villains descending on the quarantined toxic wasteland that was Bludhaven. Some want their homes back, others want to discover the source of the mysterious radiation that is emanating from behind the wall, and still others want to stop all of them. The problem is that writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti do a horrible job of structuring the story. There is so much happening, and so many characters making it happen, that it's next to impossible to keep it straight. Who are friends and who are enemies? Why is so-and-so doing such-and-such? Beats me. All I know is that by the end of the story, some of my questions were answered, but most weren't. The art by Dan Jurgens, Gordon Purcell, and Palmiotti is nothing special, especially when compared to the beautiful covers by Daniel Acuna. There are two nice points to this story, in the form of a twist with Captain Atom and another excellent IC-nod to Jack Kirby; however, as both are contained in the last issue, they really weren't worth the hassle. This book can certainly be skipped.
FRAGMENTED STORY WITH TOO MANY CHARACTERS I was generally pleased with the Infinite Crisis storyline as well as the pre and post Crisis books. But it seems when they failed, they all failed for the same reasons. First, the storylines all tried to do too much and ended up severely disjointed. Second, and probably the main reason they failed was because they featured 2nd, or even 3rd or 4th tier characters. This was the case with Villains United and it is unfortunately the case with The Battle for Bludhaven.
During Crisis, The Secret Society of Super Villains dropped the living toxic giant Chemo on the city of Bludhaven, killing thousands and leaving millions more without homes. A wall was constructed around the city and now people live in makeshift government housing, and are on the verge of rebellion because they want to return to their homes. The security within the walls of Bludhaven is being handled by the Freedom's Ring formery the Force of July(uggh,as if that was a better name!) who are working for the mysterious Father Time who is conducting questionable experiences on possible meta-humans and is also keeping a secret source of radiation.
The Society send in the Nuclear Legion to find out the source of the radiation and they soon come into conflict with both Freedom's Ring, and the Atomic Knights, who run an underground railroad in an attempt to smuggle citizens out of the city. Add to all this the Black Baron and a new hero calling himself Firebrand, and toss in the Teen Titans for good measure and you need a scorecard to just keep track of all of the players. You reach the point about halfway through where you're not even sure whom you're supposed to root for. I mean the Teen Titans are heroes but they are unwilling to go against government policy and enter Bludhaven to find out what's going on. Eventually a few major players show up and somewhat rescue things but by then it's just to late and the story has spun wildly off the tracks.
The art by Dan Jurgens and Gordon Purcell is solid if unspectacular, certainly not enough to make up for the fragmented storyline. As Post-Crisis storylines go, The Battle for Bloodhaven falls to the bottom.
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Trevor
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