Batman: Earth One Vol. 1

This is the most grounded Batman story I have ever read, Geoff Johns has created one of the greatest early stories of Batman's career.  This book retells the origin of Batman the death of Bruce Wayne's parents who each from the two most influential families of Gotham.  The big bad of this story is the Oswald Cobblepot the mayor of Gotham City.  As it turns out Cobblepot was trying to orchestrate the death of the Waynes so he could become mayor but instead a common mugger beat him to it.  Other characters who appear in this story are Jim Gordon, Barbara Gordon, Alfred & Harvey Bullock.   The characterization for all of these characters is simply amazing & spot on.  This is also the most intense version of Alfred to grace the page a war veteran who seems to have trained Bruce Wayne to some extent, he looks like Sam Elliot I know that Jeremy Irons was in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice which is awesome on its own but it would be just awesome to see Sam Elliot appear as Alfred after reading this book.  So far this is better than Superman: Earth One & I am looking forward to reading the rest of Earth One titles.

Superman: Earth One Vol. 3

The third volume of Superman: Earth One brings everything full circle & still hints at things to come.  This is the template that Zack Snyder should have used for Man of Steel.  I believe he did use some of it but he didn't use enough of it.  The big bad for this volume is Zod each volume has upped the villain threat but has seemed to downsize the collateral damage.  I really like the Luthor dynamic as a science couple.  There are lots of strong female characters in these Superman: Earth One stories so far.  The introduction of Lisa the neighbor of Clark's & how she finds out his secret is done really well.  So far there hasn't been a bad Earth One title yet.

Superman: Earth One Vol. 2

The second volume of Superman for DC's Earth One series of graphic novels is simply an amazing leap forward in the early days of Superman.  I like how J. Michael Straczynski has changed some of the characters but they are all instantly recognizable.  The main villain in this book is the Parasite an awesome  & in some cases underused Superman villain.  I am really looking forward to more of the Earth One series of books in the future.  It is a shame that J. Michael Stracynski will be leaving the comic book medium his writing & characterization has been one of a kind.  He has lent his voice to so many characters over the years and defined so many different comic book runs, he will be truly missed.

The First X-Men

This is the true story of mutants coming together & fighting against their oppression for as nice as it is to see some of these mutants come together this story is just missing something.  This is really a Wolverine & Sabertooth story more than anything else I really liked the how Victor Creed was handled in this mini-series because it gave him a reason for everything that comes after it grounded him.  I liked how Logan came up with this idea before he even met Xavier he just didn't know how to implement it.  This mini did establish that the mutant problem had champions before Professor X & Magneto but it was not really well thought out.  What I didn't like about this mini-series is that other than the two main characters or already established characters in the X-Men mythos the rest of the cast is not very well established.  Most of the characters on Logan & Creeds team are just just as two dimensional as they were at the start of the story.  Is this essential to understanding the X-Men no if you like Wolverine & Sabertooth pick this up.