DC Villains Month: Mr. Freeze, Joker & Court of Owls

I don’t really know what’s going on with “Villains Month” (I haven’t been following comics news as closely these past couple of months, partly because I’ve been reading my favourite series a couple months behind). It seems to be a way to release three extra issues of certain DC comics in a month. Not sure if they’ll tie in directly to the main series story-arcs, or if they’ll work as interesting asides, or side-stories for fans who would like a little bit more.

Whatever the reason/purpose of these issues, I was browsing DC’s press site, and found some interesting artwork, which I thought I’d share here.

First up, this rather good domestic Mr. Freeze page, from Batman: Dark Knight #23.1 – Mr. Freeze:

Writer: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti
Artist: Jason Masters
Cover: Guillem March

Next, two twisted and intriguing pages featuring the Joker and the Ape House, from Batman #23.1 – Joker…

Writer: Andy Kubert
Artist: Andy Clarke
Cover: Jason Fabok

And finally, this very moody, sinister page from Batman & Robin #23.2 – Court of Owls:

Writer: James T. Tynion IV
Artist: Jorge Lucas
Cover: Patrick Gleason & Mick Gray

Batman & Robin, Vol.2-3: “Batman vs. Robin” & “Batman and Robin Must Die!” (DC)

I’m still catching up with a huge backlog of comics/graphic novel reviews, but I decided to collect these two books together. Partly because they’re obviously connected, but also because I wanted to get the reviews out of the way. After liking the first volume in Grant Morrison’s Batman & Robin run far more than I anticipated (I’ve written plenty of times how I think he’s highly over-rated), I dove in to the second and third volume pretty soon afterwards. (Told you I was being slow with reviewing…) Sadly, my pleasant surprise at the quality of volume one evaporated with these two books. These are, frankly, not so good.