One of my favorite artists, especially his work from SUPERMAN: SPEEDING BULLETS and BATMAN: MASTER OF THE FUTURE, it still pains me that there's no new Eduardo Barreto art in the world. Adding these pieces, pages 58 and 59 from BATMAN: MASTER OF THE FUTURE, to my little collection of original comics art has been something special.
As I seem unable to get this out of my head, I'm recording it here: while I dig everything I've heard coming out of the James Gunn DCU– and maybe it's my decades-long love of the wild stories (RED RAIN, GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT, RED SON, METROPOLIS, NOSFERATU) that came out under that banner – the "Elseworlds" branding for out-of-continuity projects like THE BATMAN and JOKER sequels, etc, feels… off. To me, at least, the current "Black Label" nomenclature used for things like BATMAN: DAMNED, WONDER WOMAN:HISTORIA, or SUPERMAN: THE LAST DAYS OF LEX LUTHOR (very good) seems more apposite. But IDK, maybe there's a rights issue with Johnny Walker or something.
As I wrote in my notes on GOTHAM KNIGHTS, I've always been more fascinated by alternate continuities than canonical ones – and specifically namechecked Moench & Jones's RED RAIN universe. Confession: while I've read RED RAIN numerous times (though my copy inexplicably vanished, probably in one of the many moves in the naughts) I hadn't read the two follow-ups, BLOODSTORM and CRIMSON MIST.
What a treat it was - thanks to this collected edition - then, to re-read RED RAIN and dive back into the macabre world Moench and Jones created (and ported, if not in bloodsucking then in spirit and vibe, into their run on the main BATMAN title, still my favorite run on that series - recently bough a new copy of the first issue of their run, 515 (mine had, like my TPB of RED RAIN, and issue 516, inexplicably vanished), with the new suit that was forgotten far too soon) and read BLOODSTORM and CRIMSON MIST for the first time: while BLOODSTORM is my least favorite of the trilogy (strange, given how truly terrifying Jones's Joker is, a Gwynplaine from Hell, the corrupting devil himself – I wonder how much of this, of Batman's descent into monstrous evil after succumbing to his bloodlust via The Joker, influenced the origin of The Batman Who Laughs), Moench's writing here is a perfect fit for the Hammer horror feel to it all and Jones has never been better, especially in CRIMSON MIST as Bats turns full monster, one of the most tragic vampires ever brought to death, the full weight of what he's become in eternal conflict with every value and foundation that makes the Batman the Batman.