Thursday, October 15, 2009

Detective Comics Annual #11 - DC

I think it's great to see Annuals back on the schedule again. They've been very sporadic in recent years. And, for a while there . . there wasn't any at all. But I remember back in the 70's and 80's when they came out every year. It was a good time. Anyways, this is the second part of the story that appeared in Batman Annual #27 last week. Dick and Renee are trying to stop this Amon character from bringing the eighth original sin back to life. It has something to do with this cult, the La Saligia. Most of the information on them comes from the group the Order of Purity that back's Azrael, . Also, Dick substituted Damian for one of the kids that was kidnapped. Apparently it's their blood that is supposed to bring this 'sin' back to life. Anyways, long story short . . Dick and Renee figure out where the La Saligia is performing this ritual and she and Azrael go in to retrieve the children. Of course it helps that Damian breaks free. And once they realize they don't have the real Canton child, it's pretty easy for Batman to deduce that they'll make another play for him. What he isn't expecting though is Azrael's actions. When they get to the ceremonial chamber, he seems more interested in the corpse than the children. I guess he's following the direction of his Order, and they want him to eliminate the vessel for the resurrection. Which he does, but at the end Amon gives him a warning. 'You have earned a lifetime of enmity this day, soldier of God. This will not stop us. We are a part of you . . we will always return . . and when we do, we will need a new host to contain the Eighth sin of man . . and that host will be you!' Batman also gives him a warning because he doesn't like the tactics that he used. Plus, even though he knows that this is a different Azrael, I'm sure there's still a lot of sour feelings after the last one's performance. Overall, I thought this was a great story to lead into the new series that'll be out next week. This issue was done by Fabian Nicieza and Tom Mandrake. Issue #1 of Azrael will be done by Fabian and Ramon Bachs. Which explains why he's leaving Red Robin. There's a back-up story here also, by Mandy McMurray and Kelley Jones. It also started in the Batman Annual. It's about a new character, Stygian who believes himself to be a vampire. Therefore Looker is brought in to help deal with him. However, he seems to have a fixation on Barbara, so . . the story goes largely unresolved this issue. I'm assuming that it'll continue in Batgirl, or maybe a future Birds of Prey book. We'll have to wait and see. I enjoyed Kelley's artwork, but the story was a bit confusing. I guess they don't want to give away to much here so it can play out later.

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