weasel-king
Registered Trader,
**Note the opinions expressed herein are solely those of weasel-king**
As a relative late comer to comics (I read GI Joe, Transformers, M.A.S.K., that sort of stuff when I was muuuuch younger), I was eagerly awaiting this release. I have a healthy obsession with Catwoman, and I enjoy the main villains (Penguin, Scarecrow, Mr Freeze, etc).
So I peeled the plastic off the first box. First pack I flipped through, the cards really stood out. I like the gloss/matte fronts. Always have always will. However, I thought there was too much white space, but it may be just me. First card I really looked at was #61, which is of issue #650 (April 2006). Then I saw that the front had "Classic Covers" as the logo at the bottom. 2006 doesn't scream "classic" at me, but oh well. As I flipped through more packs, I realized they were all "Classic Covers". And all the cards are of covers. I had hoped there would be more of a variety of types of cards, but they are all covers. Can you tell I haven't bought much Rittenhouse before?
Anyway, you can't go wrong with a lenticular card per box, and I loved the Dark Victory insert set.
My very random thoughts and ovservations:
-they are all covers from the titular comic. No Detective Comics (and certainly no image of iconic issue 27), no JLA, no World's Finest Comics. No variety.
-no Batman 171, the first cover appearance of Riddler. I didn't check for most of the villains, but I did notice first cover appearances of Joker, Mr Freeze, and Poison Ivy
-no Batman 12--I just love the cover of Batman and Boy Wonder driving an Army jeep. But they did have Batman 27, so Santa Claus makes up for it!
-I know it's one of the standard set sizes for RA, but it's a small 63-card set considering there are 679 issues in the title (680 if you count #0).
-the reverse pretty much has a blown-up representation of the comic cover, the issue, and the issue's release date. Since this was so obviously focused on covers, I would have liked to have at least seen the cover artist name.
-the words "Batman Archives" appears absolutely nowhere on the actual base cards, and only in logo form on the reverse of the sketch cards and the Dark Victory cards
-the Bubble Gum cards were a nice touch for the vintage folks, but I would have preferred to see more imagination in the base set
Box 1 (3604) yielded:
Full set plus numerous extras
Bubble Gum BG2, BG5, BG6, BG7
Lenticular L2 (Robin)
Dark Victory DV2, DV5
And a nice Scarecrow sketch:
Box 2 (6709) yielded:
Full set plus numerous extras
Bubble Gum BG2, BG4, BG6, BG9
Lenticular L5 (Riddler)
Dark Victory DV3, DV9
And a nice Batgirl sketch:
Despite my negative comments, I liked the set. It's my own fault that I try not to spoil myself with too many spoiler-like details on box purchases, so I'm completely to blame for my disappointment. However, that all aside, I give this a solid 3/5 Batarangs.
And for anyone else out there who may have broken boxes, I'm building a semi-master with all the inserts. You can see what I pulled, so you know what I still need...
As a relative late comer to comics (I read GI Joe, Transformers, M.A.S.K., that sort of stuff when I was muuuuch younger), I was eagerly awaiting this release. I have a healthy obsession with Catwoman, and I enjoy the main villains (Penguin, Scarecrow, Mr Freeze, etc).
So I peeled the plastic off the first box. First pack I flipped through, the cards really stood out. I like the gloss/matte fronts. Always have always will. However, I thought there was too much white space, but it may be just me. First card I really looked at was #61, which is of issue #650 (April 2006). Then I saw that the front had "Classic Covers" as the logo at the bottom. 2006 doesn't scream "classic" at me, but oh well. As I flipped through more packs, I realized they were all "Classic Covers". And all the cards are of covers. I had hoped there would be more of a variety of types of cards, but they are all covers. Can you tell I haven't bought much Rittenhouse before?
Anyway, you can't go wrong with a lenticular card per box, and I loved the Dark Victory insert set.
My very random thoughts and ovservations:
-they are all covers from the titular comic. No Detective Comics (and certainly no image of iconic issue 27), no JLA, no World's Finest Comics. No variety.
-no Batman 171, the first cover appearance of Riddler. I didn't check for most of the villains, but I did notice first cover appearances of Joker, Mr Freeze, and Poison Ivy
-no Batman 12--I just love the cover of Batman and Boy Wonder driving an Army jeep. But they did have Batman 27, so Santa Claus makes up for it!
-I know it's one of the standard set sizes for RA, but it's a small 63-card set considering there are 679 issues in the title (680 if you count #0).
-the reverse pretty much has a blown-up representation of the comic cover, the issue, and the issue's release date. Since this was so obviously focused on covers, I would have liked to have at least seen the cover artist name.
-the words "Batman Archives" appears absolutely nowhere on the actual base cards, and only in logo form on the reverse of the sketch cards and the Dark Victory cards
-the Bubble Gum cards were a nice touch for the vintage folks, but I would have preferred to see more imagination in the base set
Box 1 (3604) yielded:
Full set plus numerous extras
Bubble Gum BG2, BG5, BG6, BG7
Lenticular L2 (Robin)
Dark Victory DV2, DV5
And a nice Scarecrow sketch:
Box 2 (6709) yielded:
Full set plus numerous extras
Bubble Gum BG2, BG4, BG6, BG9
Lenticular L5 (Riddler)
Dark Victory DV3, DV9
And a nice Batgirl sketch:
Despite my negative comments, I liked the set. It's my own fault that I try not to spoil myself with too many spoiler-like details on box purchases, so I'm completely to blame for my disappointment. However, that all aside, I give this a solid 3/5 Batarangs.
And for anyone else out there who may have broken boxes, I'm building a semi-master with all the inserts. You can see what I pulled, so you know what I still need...
