I feel like I always have to post a disclaimer up when we are discussing some serious fanboy shit. Just so that no one reading this years after it was written thinks I have considered turning in my fanboy ID card.
Neal Adams for my money is the greatest comicbook artist of all time. John Byrne is a close second when it comes to penciling and inking his own shit, but that is why the edge goes to Adams because he doesn’t over-embellish his lines like Byrne does. Anyhoo…
I’ve been sleeping on this recent Neal Adams iteration of Batman titled Odyssey. It’s a funky little series which feels slightly derivative of Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns classic. The writing in the books has Batman doing a lot of nifty talking thru narration as he throttles crooks. Mainly tho’ this series has Batman being a totally bonkers sociopath.
I haven’t been able to figure out the series yet but I’m intrigued to see where Adams is going to take the characters. Batman’s relationship with Alfred as well as the Joker is completely turned on its head where we see batman getting into yelling matches with Alfred and later he is driving around Gotham with the Joker talking to him like a confidant.
Batman’s relationship with Robin and Lieutenant Gordon is also strained in this series which makes me wonder if that might have been the rule of thumb for this series; describe Batman as this pained individual who has more in common with the Joker than with the rest of humanity. As long as Adams stays on the pencils I will keep reading the book.
