BURIED TREASURE | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

May13

BURIED TREASURE: Superboy and Robin in SUPER SONS

Posted by Dan Greenfield on May 13, 2025

BURIED TREASURE: Superboy and Robin in SUPER SONS

A terrific series that should still be around today… By PETE STONE Before becoming the superstar artist on Batman and Justice League, Jorge Jimenez was the penciller on one of my favorite DC Comics titles from the past 15 years: Super Sons. It was a wonderful title that continued the legacy of the Big Two heroes from DC — Batman and Superman. When Denny O’Neal worked on the first Ra’s al Ghul saga, he and penciller Bob Brown introduced the sexy and exotic Talia Al Ghul — soon perfected by Neal Adams. Years later, Mike W. Barr and Jerry Bingham created the graphic novel Son of the Demon, in which Batman and Talia have a brief and passionate relationship, which resulted in the birth of a child: the son of Bruce Wayne and grandson of Ra’s al Ghul. Whether he was in canon or not was a question for a long time, but Mark Waid and Alex Ross used him in Kingdom Come. But it wasn’t until Grant Morrison came along on Batman in 2006 and took the idea to its logical conclusion: The barely adolescent boy, appropriately named Damian, was trained in the ways of the League of Assassins, and was to be his father’s killer and a replacement body for Ra’s al Ghul. Despite the boy’s violent, almost feral side, Bruce Wayne takes him in, and they grow to struggle toward a father/son relationship. Eventually, Damian becomes the fifth Robin — under the tutelage of Dick Grayson, who took over the Bat-mantle when Bruce Wayne was believed dead. A number of years later — and here’s where it gets really complicated — the Superman and Lois Lane from the pre-New 52 universe return and it’s revealed they have a son, Jonathan. (It’s all very convoluted and not worth explaining here except to say this version of the Kents once again became the Superman Family of the DC Universe.) Anyway, recognizing the potential of these two kids together, DC took a page out of the 1970s and in 2017 gave us Super Sons, a fantastic team-up book by writer Peter J. Tomasi and artist Jorge Jimenez. The dynamic between the kids was absolutely spot on. Damian initially distrusts Jonathon because of his Kryptonian heritage and, well, the fact that Damian is generally a distrustful, angry, conniving young man....

Mar12

BURIED TREASURE: Denny O’Neil and Joe Quesada’s BATMAN: SWORD OF AZRAEL

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Mar 12, 2025

BURIED TREASURE: Denny O’Neil and Joe Quesada’s BATMAN: SWORD OF AZRAEL

A worthy addition to the Batman canon… By PETER STONE I can only imagine that creating a new character for the Batman mythos must be incredibly difficult. In the past 25 years, for example, there have only been a handful that have stuck around: Hush, the Court of Owls, the Batman Who Laughs, and Punchline, among them. Sometimes, these characters are created carefully by accomplished writers. Other times, it is a talented artist who brings one to life. But when authors and illustrators are working in synch, the results can be especially dynamic. In the ’80s, Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli gave us Carmine Falcone. In the aughts, Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee gave us Hush. More recently, James Tynion IV and Jorge Jimenez gave us Punchline. In between, there was Azrael, the antihero created in 1992 by writer Denny O’Neil — who was already a legend, thanks to some of the best Batman stories ever — and artist Joe Quesada, an up-and-coming talent who went on to run Marvel Comics for years. The inker was also one of the best in the industry, Kevin Nowlan. Batman: Sword of Azrael was designed to be the origin story for a new hero in Gotham. Instead of shoehorning this character into the regular flow of the Batman books, Denny threw out the idea to make the introduction a four-issue mini-series, allowing Quesada and himself to really dive in to Jean-Paul Valley’s beginnings. It was Quesada who asked the powers-that-be if it would be OK if Kevin inked. The answer to that question in ANY universe is, “Hell, yes!” The story opens with Azrael looking for all the world like an avenging angel of justice, being shot multiple times as he tries to eliminate a crime boss. It turns out, though, that he’s just a man, whose name and purpose stretch back to the 14th century. His son, cradling his dying father in his arms, promises to learn to be Azrael as his father did. Enter the Batman, who traces the insignia on Azrael’s sword to the Ancient Order of St. Dumas and a lonely chalet in Switzerland. Once they come to terms with each other, Batman and Jean-Paul, the new Azrael, “team up” to defeat the main villain. Since then, Azrael has appeared in comics, video games, and animated shows —...

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