Superman Batman TP Vol 01 Public Enemies by Jeph Loeb

Superman/Batman (12 Volumes Collected Edition)

by Jeph Loeb

The original superstar team of Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness return for one of the most talked about storylines of the year. The fourth volume of the enormously popular SUPERMAN/BATMAN series finds our heroes confronting a new The Maximums, a group of super-heroes closely tied to the U.S. Government. Someone has killed one of their team, and the Maximums are on the hunt for the murderer. The trouble is, there are two names on the top of their Superman and Batman!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Batman, Superman, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes

Paperback

First published July 19, 2006

About the author

Joseph "Jeph" Loeb III is an Emmy and WGA nominated American film and television writer, producer and award-winning comic book writer. Loeb was a Co-Executive Producer on the NBC hit show Heroes, and formerly a producer/writer on the TV series Smallville and Lost.

A four-time Eisner Award winner and five-time Wizard Fan Awards winner (see below), Loeb's comic book career includes work on many major characters, including Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Hulk, Captain America, Cable, Iron Man, Daredevil, Supergirl, the Avengers, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, much of which he has produced in collaboration with artist Tim Sale, who provides the comic art seen on Heroes.

Reviews

[Cheese]

God damn awful.

What the shit is this? I've no idea what just happened.

Batzarro!? Riiiiiiiight.

[Martin]

Aaaaand here we go again with a story aimed at twelve-year olds...

The main beef I had with Jeph Loeb's Superman/Batman, Vol. 1: Public Enemies is the same I have with this book, except this time you factor in the reality-hopping of Superman/Batman, Vol. 3: Absolute Power and you get what is arguably a big mess of a story (?) with thinly-veiled copies of characters from the Marvel Universe and some opposite-sex versions of DCU characters. By far the best part of this story arc (not counting Ed McGuinness's larger-than-life art & the sublime colour work of Dave McCaig) is Batzarro, most simply described as a Bizarro Batman, whose interior monologues are word-for-word copies of his actual spoken lines!

So, yeah: big characters, big brawls, reality hops, Batzarro. That's about it. If you just go along for the ride and can keep things kinda straight story-wise, you might like this book at least a little bit. It's like Loeb just threw in a lot of his "cool ideas" (though, to be fair, there are a few gems) in this one without considering the age of his audience.

[Jerry Daniels]

Here is another reminder that if you want to tell a story, keep it simple and logical enough to follow. In this latest volume of the Superman and Batman adventure, super villains from parallel worlds hunt the superheroes to avenge the murder of a colleague. Simultaneously, the duo seem to be out looking for who murdered Lois Lane, and all involved in the complex and complicated story cross into many different worlds where reader are introduced to other versions of Batman and Superman which makes for a big mess and a headache for not only Superman and Batman but for the readers as well. Sitting on the sidelines and using the situation for entertainment purposes are the Joker, Mxyzptlk, and Bat-mite. These involvement of thees three super villains as well as Bizarro and Batzarro manage to help get any reader to the end of the graphic novel. Thank God for comic relief!

[Quentin Wallace]

This was just a little weird for me. Batzarro and Bizarro are not my favorite characters, as at time it's hard to follow their dialogue. Plus, who were the maximums? I guess this was their first and only appearance? This wasn't terrible, as it had its good points, but overall, not the best arc.

[Guido]

Batman y Superman contra los vengativos Maximums.

[Greg]

Superman/Batman: Vengeance may be he fourth volume in the series, but the story is easily self-contained, kind of. My monthly Comic Bento box brought me volume 4 and I hadn't read any of the other installments yet, so I was a little apprehensive. Beyond some vague Darksied event that I hadn't read, nothing really necessitated any background knowledge to get the main story. We open with Superman and Batman in an alternate universe fighting the Maximums. After killing one of the Maximums, Superman and Batman head back to their own dimension, leaving the Maximums seeking revenge. From here, Jeph Loeb embraces the multiverse of DC and has a stream of heroes and villains from other universes filter in. This includes Bizarro and Batzarro, who try to help Batman and Superman. They are fun characters that can bring some comic relief, but their weird reverse speak in confusing, mainly because not everything is opposite, but you get kind of used to it. As with any multiverse story, Vengeance is convoluted and often confusing. I still enjoyed the story, but it wasn't entirely clear what was happening some of the time. While the story was pretty solid, the art left some to be desired, mainly in the artwork for Superman and Batman; they both look like relatives of The Crimson Chin from Fairly Odd Parents. They have strangely elongated chins with bizarre clefts. They look really blocky and angular, especially when other characters look so normal. Everyone looks to bulky and muscular and has these big anime eyes and most of them do have cleft chins, but Batman and Superman look so bad that I almost didn't notice their terrible take on how The Joker should look. Darksied looks fine, but everyone else has some weird caricature like feature that just throws it off. The art isn't terrible and overly distracting like Dark Knight returns, but it wasn't good. Vengeance was a decent story that had good pacing and I didn't feel like I was missing too much buy jumping in at volume 4, but the sub-par art and confusing story (which seems to be the trademark of a multiverse story) were big negatives.

[Dovile]

Don't read this, if you're a new reader to DC universe, because the story will likely be completely confusing. Even if you're quite familiar with DCU, the story is mind-twisting and jumping still all over the place (sort of 'Emperor Joker' in a 'Crisis on Infinite Earths'). Also, I personally dislike Ed McGuiness' cartoony pencils in Superman or Batman stories, so this made me like this story even less.

Before you read 'Vengeance', to understand what's going on, I would recommend reading Superman: Emperor Joker, Elseworlds stories 'Superwoman and Batwoman' and Superman: Red Son, the previous 3 stories in this series (Superman/Batman, Vol. 1: Public Enemies, Superman/Batman, Vol. 2: Supergirl and Superman/Batman, Vol. 3: Absolute Power), and watching at least the first two episodes of Batman Beyond animated series (although for some reason, in 'Vengeance', the future Batman is called 'Tim' (as in Tim Drake?), not 'Terry' (Terry McGinnis from the BB series).

If you read 'Vengeance' and will want more stories about regular DC characters meeting their Elseworlds counterparts or visiting Elseworlds Earths, I'd recommend looking for Countdown: Arena and Countdown Presents: the Search for Ray Palmer.

[Rayco Cruz]

Muy entretenido. Muy comiquero, con una historia que puede resultar un poco confusa pero que es muy divertida por su giros y vueltas. El estilo de McGuiness es perfecto para este tipo de historia, tan loca, y me ha parecido perfecto en su ejecución.
Muy recomendable.

[Abi Los Libros Son Mi Mundo]

Batzarro y Bizarro n°1 ♥

[Romulus]

Denna fabuła będąca kwintesencją przesady. Jedna gwiazdka za rysunki.

[Abdullah]

One of the worst comics I've read in a while, confusing, anti climatic, batzaro!! what the hell!

[Javi]

Es entretenido, con cierta reminiscencia al estilo pop. No cuenta una gran historia, en algunos puntos pierde el hilo, pero presenta acción y eso es lo que pretende, divertir, así que bien.

[Vicenç Sanz]

Me da que Loeb se tomó ésta colección como un divertimento con el que hacer homenaje a los dos personajes principales, metiendo multitud de elementos del universo Dc pero sin llegar a explotarlos en ningún momento como se merecen, y tirando demasiado de la solución “mágica”.

Y es que tenemos (también en Venganza) tramas que darías para una saga bastante larga (liberación de Darkseid o enemigos de otra realidad que no dejan de ser héroes) pero que se finiquitan de la peor manera posible, como si estuvieran por estar y al final únicamente se tratara de pasar un rato entretenido, aunque su trama de la sensación de poco trabajada.

Por suerte, el aspecto visual de la obra sí que está a la altura, lo que unido a esos momentos puntuales y sueltos en los que leerlo mola mil, acaban por conseguir lo que supongo que se proponía Loeb: el entretenimiento sin complicaciones.

Una lástima, porque, como he dicho ya, ésta colección tenía elementos para convertirse en algo épico, y se queda en un comic más.

[Elvis Stocco]

Jeph Loeb is a brilliant writer, perhaps one of the best in the DC Universe. His ability to take the main characters of Batman & Superman onto new and challenging journeys is quite an accomplishment. More importantly, he understands how all the characters in the DC Universe think and what motivates them. However, sometimes he gets TOO creative and the journey seems ridiculous.
I am not a fan of alternate universes in comics. Sometimes it works (Superman: Red Son) when it's given time and flushed out over many issues, but S:B- Vengeance is an alternate journey that changes page by page. Loeb keeps us in check and you always know where you are, but I find that so many changes are not my cup of tea. Hard to expand on this concept without giving up some spoilers, but many will find this extremely fun and silly, and I guess that's the point.
Really though, where else can you take the two greatest hero's of comic book history? Books 1 -3 were brilliant, so I guess it was time for a cleanser of some sort?

[Kay]

Read as Absolute Superman/Batman, Vol. 2.

Oh man, With A Vengeance! by Jeph Loeb was such a bust. Six confusing issues that all tie up into a neat little "The Joker & Mister Mxyzptlk were playing a Fifth Dimension game of DC chess and messed with everyone. Don't worry, it wasn't real!". I hate those types of stories!!
The only thing/s I liked about With A Vengeance!, was Bizzaro & Batzarro (The World's Worst Detective).
I loved how Batzarro's speech bubbles and text boxes of inner dialogue were exactly the same, lol.
And I really like the art by Ed McGuinness
But that was it.

[Matthieu Savignac]

J'ai adoré, quel vent de fraicheur, cela change des storylines impliquant de grands changement dans l'univers, ou des révélations importantes sur tels ou tels personnages. Ici c'est du fun, du fun, et aussi du fun.
Cela part dans tout les sens, tout n'est pas logique, ni même compréhensible - mon dieu Batzarro Bizarro - mais cela fait du bien.

Le tout illustré par McGuinness qui est parfait pour illustré ce genre de storyline cela donne un sacré bon moment de lecture.

Alors oui clairement, ce n'est pas pour tout le monde, cela reste un style décomplexé et assez peu ancré dans l'univers DC que l'on connait mais allez, pour une fois !

[Jefferson]

Não sei o motivo dessa insistência nesta época com esse artista. Parece que estou lendo um quadrinho do Looney Tunes!!

Isso vem antes de Crise Infinita e parece que o Jeph Loeb quer brincar com as várias realidades da DC. Mas aqui ele faz isso de uma forma pavorosa. Se usassem outro artista e trabalhassem a história de uma forma mais séria, sairia algo realmente bom. Um potencial jogado no lixo.

Na minha opinião isso aqui consegue ser ainda pior que o Vol. 1 (Public Enemies).

[João Batista]

Superman indo a outra Terra com Batman para levar vingança ao máximo? Hmm... intrigante roteiro. Mas quem mesmo é o vilão aqui? Será que sexy Lexy está orquestrando todo esse jogo interdimensional? Não foi uma boa ideia colocar Bizarro e Batzarro (!) no meio do conflito... História estranha e cheia de referências sutis em diversos quadros.

[Ross Cudmore]

The plot of this book is nothing short of crazy bring together Bizarro, Mister Mxyzptlk, Darkseid, and an Avengers-esque team of heroes.

The plot moves along at a break-neck pace and is exhilarating and full of action. A lot of comedy from Bizarro and his old worst friend Batzarro.

[Reese]

This was so convoluted and insane. Literally why did any of this happen. Spoiler: none of it's real, it's all reality bending and a "test" for batman and superman because a crisis is coming up. What's the point. I did like Kryptonite Batman (he was green)

[rebecca]

the worst jeph loeb’s ive read. which is not that bad because all the other ones were god tier.

[Kevin Morrison]

This was crazy and I loved every page.

[Rik]

Terrible. Seems like hundreds of characters thrown in, from multiple worlds, so many variations and all to mask the fact the story is limp and almost non existent. A horrible mess that makes the last mediocre volume look amazing in comparison.

[James DeSantis]

HORRENDOUS. Maybe top 5 worst superman or batman stories I read. Nonsensical, overly long, and a payoff that falls so flat I wanted my time back.

[Julia]

It ended up being fine but I think there’s a reason I prefer more grounded stories. This felt a bit too magical in all the wrong ways in the end

[John]

An Avengers pastiche and prequel to Emperor Joker

[mayleh]

⭐️1.5

[Kristian Johnson]

A book that starts out so well, but keep adding characters and more and more and more pointless plot.

[Liz.Loki]

This was terrible. I could barely follow the plot.

[John]

Another one that builds off the better elements of the previous arcs. Fun stuff.