DC’s Crimes of Passion #1
Various (w), (a)
DC Comics

Liz says: Love hurts, especially when you’re a crime-fighting hero. DC’s Crimes of Passion #1 packs in ten eight-page stories feature an assortment of DC characters for bittersweet tales of temptation, betrayal and broken hearts – just in time for Valentine’s Day. The first story is a Batman tale featuring a canonical but mostly-forgotten paramour of Bruce Wayne’s, Linda Page. Told in the form of a letter from Bruce to Linda, this story best encapsulates the golden age tone and aesthetic that Crimes of Passion riffs on – a classic tale of heartbreak that feels like it’s straight out of a noir film. After that, we get an assortment of stories featuring super-couples (Green Arrow and Black Canary, Nightwing and Batgirl) and characters that often prefer to be single (Catwoman, The Question) as well as lesser-known characters like Wildcat and even Slam Bradley. A couple of the standouts were the Pied Piper story, in which the Flash villain-turned-hero is faced with temptation; the Nightwing and Batgirl story in which Dick and Barbara struggle to define their relationship; and the Batwoman story in which Kate is forced to team up with her ex, Detective Maggie Sawyer, to take down a villainess who’s badly wronged her. There really are no let-downs here, though- every story was entertaining and despite it being an 80-page special, the book just flew by. Lost love may be painful, but reading about it was a pleasure – Happy Valentine’s Day!