DC COMICS
WRITER/ARTIST/COVER: Sam Kieth

Batman and Lobo are shanghaied into a giant space ship where they must stop a mysterious entity that is turning all the women into sexy, murderous she-devils. If that sounds like a sleazy B-movie plot, well, the odd thing is that this story is done completely dead serious, just like the title of the miniseries. But being serious does not make it a good miniseries. Batman is abruptly transported aboard the space ship and attacks Lobo with little provocation. Lobo for his part, is dour and grumpy, showing none of the explosive impulsiveness that people remember him for. Batman occasionally hits him to get his attention and Lobo just grumbles. Neither character seems to be in-character, which is a huge pity since fans were looking forward to seeing the interaction of these drastically different DC figures. But the team-up just doesn't come together. In fact, the entire issue is disjointed. The inhabitants of the space ship act like ordinary earthmen even though they are suppose to be under siege from this mysterious entity. Monsters come out of nowhere with no explanation of why there should be monsters aboard a space ship. The art just makes things even more confusing. The backgrounds are all murky, like they were done in a hurry. Frankly, it looks like Kieth originally had a six-part miniseries all written and drawn when DC abruptly told him he was only getting two issues. So he just cuts whole pages of his story with only a minimum of re-writing, to make it fit in. That sounds a bit harsh but it is sure a lot better than saying he just did an incredibly bad issue. One star out of five.