Big Ross’s Comics of the Week: 9/11/13

It’s time for another installment of this semi-regular column, where I talk about some of the best comics I’ve read this week.

Batman #23.2 The Riddler #1

As part of DC’s Villains Month, The Riddler follows The Joker by taking over the pages of Batman. But whereas The Joker #1 delved into The Clown Prince’s past to tell a stand-alone story, by having Scott Snyder (primary writer on Batman) help out with the plotting, this issue more directly ties into the events of Snyder’s Zero Year re-telling and re-tooling of Batman’s origin. We’ve already seen Edward Nygma in the early issues of that story-arc, and this issue doesn’t re-tell Riddler’s origin or re-tread events of those issues. Rather, we’re treated to a great story showcasing The Riddler’s genius and particular brand of sociopathy. And we get some decent riddles to boot! While the Villains Month issues are proving very hit-and-miss, The Riddler #1 may prove to be a standout, and quite possibly one of the best of the bunch.

Incredible Hulk #13

This is the third issue of Marc Waid’s run on the new Hulk title that sees Hulk as an agent of T.I.M.E. (Temporal Irregularity Management & Eradication), and the second which features Banner’s consciousness separated from Hulk and uploaded to a flying robot thingy. While issue #12 saw the pair travel back to the Old West to stop one of several Chronarchists from messing with the time stream (and team up with some gunslinging cowboys to fight dinosaurs), this issue sees them transported to Arthurian England to team up with the Knights of the Round Table to re-take Camelot from another Chronarchist. While not as crazy a premise as Cowboys & Dinosaurs, it is still packed with great action and moments between Banner & Hulk (and a particularly unexpected one near the end). It’s likely that Marvel is planning something big with all the time-travel shenanigens involving the Battle of the Atom storyline, and the reprecussions from Age of Ultron will cause some major changes to the status quo of time travel in the Marvel Universe. So don’t expect Hulk to be and agent of T.I.M.E. for long, but let’s enjoy the ride while we can.