NML Crossing, Episode 005 – Azrael #40 (1998)
NML Crossing, Episode Five
Azrael #40 (April, 1998)
“Cataclysm, Part Four: Hour of the Quake”
Writer – Denny O’Neil
Pencils – Roger Robinson
Inks – James Pascoe
Colors – Demetrius Bassoukos & Prismacolor
Letters – Ken Bruzenak
Edits – Chuck Kim & Archie Goodwin
Cover Price: $1.95
Azrael was still coming out in 1998? Oh yes… it was! In fact, this is the first of many issues of the title we’ll be discussing as part of our No Man’s Land coverage! I hope we survive the experience!
Today, having just beaten the man who broke the bat, Jean-Paul arrives in Gotham just in time for that thing that happens in this story… to happen! From there, he must chase and defeat Bane… again.
I, too, am surprised Azrael lasted as long as it did. For all my collecting of the Bat-family in the 90s, I only had one Azrael comic (and a few others in TPB, like in the Contagion TPB).
I do like his costume, although it’s definitely 90s excess and would be frustrating for an artist to have to continually draw, but I didn’t really like his character much. The best parts of his character seemed to be, like in this issue based on your synopsis, the parts that were tied to his promotion and benching. His attempts to escape his religious upbringing are also somewhat interesting, but not enough for a 100ish issue series, imo. Maybe I’ll give this a read if I find it in the wild for cheap, or if I have some time to read it on DC Universe Infinite (a name I also often forget, despite using it on a weekly basis).
Azrael defeating Bane was the glue that defined Azrael as the “NEW” Batman during Knightfall, so seeing Azrael beat a Bane not on his venom drug makes sense to me. Its like Azrael has got Bane’s number and he knows how to beat him.
I only ever bought Azrael #1 then any issue involved I a Bat-line crossover and finally the last issue for a definitive ending to the volume.
Now I sorted my collection by amount. Whatever series I had that had the most issues was first then next most issues and so on. Canceled series were separate from ongoing series. Complete canceled series were separate from canceled series without all issues of the series. Limited series were separate but still in order of most issues then alphabetical amongst the series with the same amount of issues. And finally one shots were separate but alphabetical.
Thankfully I had “map” to tell me what was where. The guy who bought my collection wouldn’t take it without the map. He said it was too confusing without it. I don’t know, I knew where everything was. Lol.