Eye-Catching Comics of the Week

Hello all! As a new contributor to Freshly Scented, and this being my first post, I feel I must introduce myself: My name is Adam and I like comics. The End. Given the loose nature of reviews here on Freshly Scented, I may review comics one week or make recommendations another. Which is to say my posts may not feature new arrivals for the current week. If you're a frequent reader of FS then this isn't a bold concept to you. Good. We'll get along swimmingly!

My pick of the week is Batman and Robin #8, and with good reason, as Grant Morrison propels this title with fresh characters and plot twists, as well as his manic story-telling style--juxtaposing separate time streams against real-time on the same page. Of course a narrative that elegantly fractured wouldn't work without a capable artist, and Cameron Stewart proved in the arcs previous issue that he's quite a formidable penciler, contending with the titles headline artist Frank Quitely admirably. With this second issue of three in the Blackest Knight story-arc, Stewart adeptly handles Morrison's jumps forward and backward through time. Two panels especially come to mind, referring to plot threads stranding all the way back to R.I.P. and Final Crisis, proving once again that Morrison has big, big plans for labyrinthian Batman saga. Now, such reference may be confounding to newer readers, and I've read other review where that's looked upon as a flaw. I for one don't review things based on how I expect other readers will feel. Because I've been following Morrison's Batman run since Batman and Son, I feel richly rewarded when long-standing plot threads become meaningful. It's not a detriment to the book, but an example of how carefully crafted the material is. Kudos to Morrison for keeping Batman vital and relevant. Double kudos to Stewart for drawing such fun and exciting pages!