Becka Reviews (DC) Comics: The New 52 Week 3
MORE COMICS! Okay, week three, here we go, otherwise known as the week where I talk a lot about boobies.
ALPHABETICAL.
Batman #1
So everyone and their dog is going on about how awesome this is, and it's mostly justified - it's a very good comic. I feel very odd about the art because it's cartoony enough it shouldn't work, but somehow it does work, and pretty well. It's especially strong on the scenes with Batman, rather than Bruce Wayne, but if I were going to criticise something it'd be that a lot of the faces are the same, at least with regards to the square-jawed hero types (Bruce, Dick, the Mayor, etc.).
The story certainly scores points on accessibility. There's a lot here but it plays well on the general public consciousness understanding of Batman and a lot of it is stuff that if you want to absorb for the first time you can, but if you miss, it's not a bit deal in the scope of this issue (various villains/Robins, etc.) The Wayne Manor computer stuff was a little obviously on the nose, but the voiceover of what eventually turned out to be Wayne's speech rather than simply noir!style internal monologue was fairly slick.
We now reach the part where I feel slightly ill-qualified to judge since it's well-established that I have some issues with Batman (you know, my reaction to him putting Bat Bunkers all over the city as he renovates it is to be appalled by his presumption of ownership rather than the coolness of the idea; that said, given the track the story appears to be taking, I might be right in that for once, but I think I make my point; I find Batman very interesting but I don't much like him).
Essentially I feel this comic sets up a mystery well, even if I have no belief that the cliffhanger will actually deliver on what it suggests (though goodness what might I do if it did?) But it does feel like an awful lot of setup. Most of my curiosity and excitement comes of knowing where Snyder is headed with this (a gigantic, sprawling, creepy study of Bruce's relationship with Gotham, his family, the families of those around him, across the tracts of history, according to promotional interviews), rather than what we immediately get. The cliffhanger seems like a creepy promise of things to come rather than an immediate shocker simply because it's so improbable it feels like it must be a fake out.
As an aside, I'd mention that I'm not sure how I feel about the way Batman uses ever-more futuristic technology. I'm not going to knock points off the book in this review for this, because I think it's a reasonable approach to take - Batman is both fabulously rich and has a gabillion gadgets. He's not not going to use this stuff and it would become conspicuous if he didn't. But the problem is the more he uses gadgetry and, basically, science magic, the less of a Dark Knight Detective he is an the more he becomes like...Iron Man. There's already a heavy dose of paying for the equipment to give him a leg up on the average guy because he has that privileged background, but it's his unparalleled skill and determination in any context that really mark him out as a force of nature and deserving of his status as one of the best superheroes in the world. I don't mind that part of that is the skill to know what equipment to bring and when, but stuff like magic holographic disguise kits and super computers that read lips for you at a distance, and instant DNA test kits in your glove start feeling perilously like an updated version of Adam West's Bat-Shark Repellent. Would it have been so bad to have Batman read Gordon's lips himself, because he knows how to do that? I'd certainly believe that Bruce Wayne would have learned. Instead of getting his magic pet computer to do it because he coughed instructions to it? I dunno, I guess I worry that his gadgets are becoming too prominent. But as I said, I'm not sure what the solution is in an increasingly high tech world, so we'll leave that as an aside.
In general I thought this was a very good introductory issue with a real sense of style and tone, but I'm not sure it completely, clearly told me what to expect from the run, instead ending with a cliffhanger that in isolation I would assume to be a simple - and somewhat obvious - case of a setup. If I hadn't read interviews with Snyder, I'd have a very different understanding of what this is setting up, is what I'm saying. I think I'd take it as a lighter, less angsty (though obviously still somewhat dark) take on the Dark Knight with a tentative instinct that smaller, more standalone stories of fixing up Gotham were on the horizon. And like I said, there's nothing wrong with setting that up and then playing off that perception later when the rug gets pulled, but for now that's how it feels to me. It's extremely well-executed, but there's nothing truly groundbreaking here yet.
4 out of 5 Robins (because I get to keep Stephanie).
Pull List Status: No, because I'm not really a Batman fan. I'll keep an eye on vaguely where it's going though, and if it turns out to be a seminal run (which I honestly believe it might), K will probably pick up the trades if I don't.
Birds of Prey #1
So to start with, the art is really nice. It's clean, clear, realistic while still feeling like it's a drawing, not an attempt at photorealism. There's a strong sense of physical presence to the characters, particularly in the fight scenes, that helps make them feel solid and make the action easy to follow (which is something I often struggle with). The solid physicality of them also helps it not feel like the women were drawn primarily for eye-candy. I mean, sure, as always there's some pretty form-fitting costumes going on here, in addition to fishnets and bathing suits, but in Black Canary's action sequences particularly, she felt more like a combatant than a pin-up.
The book itself has a pretty strong story and a closing cliffhanger that is genuinely surprising. It's totally out of left field but manages to avoid feeling random.
The story handles its flashback-current-events structure pretty well. The set-up is simple, but interesting enough. Black Canary feels more-or-less like herself, though she is a little generic and most of the focus on the characterisation goes to Starling, because she's the new character.
I do enjoy their "Dirty Pair" aesthetic and attitude, and I'm glad to see that Birds of Prey will still be a comic in which Women Are Friends. I think I felt that most keenly when Starling was yelling at Canary to "Hang on, honey!" and was like, "No, I don't mean YOU!" to the reporter. It was a short moment, but one that genuinely made it feel like an authentic friendship.
But in reading it, even though I was never a huge BoP reader pre-relaunch, like Oracle in Batgirl, I did miss the original line-up. It's a very different dynamic here. Black Canary plays tough biker chick to Oracle's cool infojock, but Starling seems to be a tougher biker chick. So now Black Canary is the cooler head in charge and I do find myself wondering how that'll impact her characterisation.
Also, I'm not sure what to make of the scene with Babs. It's nice to know that they have some kind of history together, but this doesn't make it clear what and it's an...interesting choice to have them interact more like awkward exes than good friends. There's clearly some history there and Babs doesn't approve of what Dinah's doing, but cares about her enough to try and help. On balance I think it's a nice touch and an acknowledgement of what went before, but equally I can see that for some people it might be salt in the wound. Certainly I feel there's more to the story than is being said. Like I said, it reads to me like Babs refusal to get involved personally is about an issue of bitter personal history as much as anything to do with police watch lists. Long story short, if this is setting up an interesting relationship between these two, then it may well pay off, but if it's just a cameo intended to confirm to us that they're not that close anymore (or ever) then perhaps it would have been as well to leave it alone. And I can't tell which it is yet.
Finally, I'm not sure about Starling herself. I think she's well characterised, and manages to avoid being annoying, which she easily could have been, instead coming across as genuinely sarcastic and entertaining. But given her sleeve-of-tattoos/peasant-goth halter top design and the fact she wields twin revolvers, that's a minor miracle. However, good writing saving a character type and design I was afraid I'd hate aside, I'm really, really not sure about the guns. From what I can tell she shoots a guy in the shoulder, but even so, it's a bit wanky to have your newly introduced "edgy" character as the kind of person who runs around Gotham with GUNS. I suppose it's a Comics Universe, which means that a shoulder wound will never be fatal, but guns are brutal and deadly and I am very, very nervous about a superheroine who uses them without comment. Hopefully this will come later.
(On a shallow note, I really, REALLY miss Black Canary's jacket. It was a really unusual and easy-to-identify piece of kit that I feel said a lot about her personality. I don't hate her new costume or anything, I just think it's a shame they changed it. Also the fact she killed a dude with one punch - even if it turns out not to be true - just sounds totally, awesomely hardcore.)
So, like, I am interested in her character and would like to know more. I do think she has a fun relationship with Black Canary is will be a fun read. I am engaged with the plot at least enough to be curious what happens next (and if that random dude snogging Dinah will ever be explained - I figured he poisoned her, but if so, no news on that yet). But I'm also uncertain about a few things. Like whether we need Starling as a character, whether the plot will go someplace interesting and whether Ev and Dinah will ever be as awesome as Babs and Dinah.
But I'm willing to find out.
3.5 out of 5 Devastated Churches.
Pull List Status: Not on it, and as I said, my list is currently full, but I would consider this as a replacement on it. May well pick up in trades if it continues to be interesting.
Blue Beetle #1
This was okay. I can't really find anything bad to say about it, but I also can't say that I found it overly exciting. The characters feel real and likable, the art is fine and the fact the Blue Beetle is a weapon that wants to take over Jaime rather than help him fight crime, puts an interesting spin on a traditional hero tale in addition to providing a genuinely suspenseful cliffhanger since we've already seen the effects of Khaji-Da on another world. It was also nice to get to know what the Beetle is right off the bat, which was something I think I would have preferred to find out earlier in Jaime's original run.
But if we're referencing the original run, which I am, if only because I read the first few arcs of it very recently, this all feels very similar to it. Yes, the pieces are shifted slightly. Because there's no Infinite Crisis for it to spin out of, Jaime gets the beetle in a slightly different way. We find out the truth about La Dama and what the Beetle is a little sooner and I do appreciate that for providing an interesting and dynamic setup for future issues more quickly. But so many of the players are the same. So much of the first issue recalls the start of the original series.
And I suppose that's my chief criticism of it. If it wanted to be a total reboot, I wish it would have changed the concept a little, shifted some of the characters and circumstances around. If they wanted to keep more of that stuff, then they should have just jumped straight in with Jaime as the Blue Beetle as an established fact and found a way to quickly explain what the Beetle is and does as the story continued.
As it is, there's just nothing new here for you if you're already familiar with the story. And one of the things I liked about the relaunch was the idea that it wasn't just starting everything again and making us all sit through origin stories we already knew unless there was a compelling reason to do so. And honestly, most of the first issues either aren't origin stories, or are origins of fairly, well, different stories (i.e. Bird of Prey).
Now, in the issue's defense, it does at least tell us a lot of stuff that the original series dragged out quite a while, like the secret of the Beetle, etc., so hopefully new adventures will start soon, but it doesn't change the fact that this issue made me sit through a story I already knew. It was a nice one, but it wasn't nice enough to make me not mind that.
If I was a fan of Blue Beetle I'm sure I'd stick with it - as I said, it very definitely wasn't bad - but since he's more of a like-but-don't-love character for me, I'm not sure I can be bothered based on this because it makes me think we're going to see him adjusting to his superpowers in storylines that will feel familiar to me for a while. I'd rather check back to see what's going on with him later.
The one thing I will say, from a purely personal point of view, is that I did like the casual bilingualism. Specifically, putting it in an adolescent/high school setting and mashing it up with English. I don't speak Spanish or Spanglish so I have no idea if this is in any way true to life specifically on that level, but kind of like smells triggering memories, it unexpectedly made me totally remember being 16. And then be REALLY grateful I'm not anymore!
3 out of 5 Alien Weapons of Death and Destruction.
Pull List Status: Nah, and probably won't be.
Captain Atom #1
Ohhhhh meh. That about sums up my response to this. I was pretty underwhelmed but disappointed in that fact because there's promise here. I'm not the first to draw comparisons with Dr Manhattan but it's apt and it's also interesting. There's something frightening about atomic power and the idea that our hero is losing control - is infinitely capable but not capable of infinite control - is dangerous and interesting. There's the potential to get into some really interesting philosophical questions here as well as flatout cool and outlandish events.
Unfortunately, while it's not badly written per se, it just doesn't jump off the page. It's pedestrian. The scientist is a transparent caricature, a cross between Stephen Hawking and any stock Grumpy, Brilliant Man. His youngest-ever-deeply-driven assistant is likewise very stock.
I do enjoy the fact that Captain Atom doesn't really understand, or perhaps even have the capacity to understand what is happening to him, and I enjoyed that he faced his potential death with quite a lot of dignity.
But ultimately, it's dry comic book science (compare with Static Shock's much more interesting comic book science in delivery and layman's understandability) followed by a supremely random event (a volcano in New York) and while I'm sure that randomness will ultimately be explained by future issues as things stand, it feels a little bit out of left field, and while sometimes that is intriguing and strange, here it's just a bit, well honestly, overly convenient that a strange event requires Captain Atom to fly out to save everyone before the tests are finished.
As I said, it's not awful, it's just not good.
The art is a weird thing to discuss too. It sways between beautiful and ugly. Captain Atom himself is inkwashed in a gorgeous way, and I enjoy the concept of using such heavy blacks in the rest of the world, almost depicting it in negative, defining it through shadow. But the execution is to make the backgrounds and supporting characters often very ugly? I think that's partly down to the colouring choices too - I feel everything is dulled down to make Captain Atom brighter against it, but it works to the detriment of the backgrounds.
I can't say it's bad, exactly, because I think for some it'll work really well, but for me, while I like the effect it has on the main character, it renders the rest of the book kind of an eyesore.
2 out of 5 Improbable Volcanos.
Pull List Status: No, and I'm not interested.
Catwoman #1
Okay, there is controversy on this issue. We all know it. But I'm gonna put this out there and say, dudes, I liked it. I thought it was fun. Does this mean I don't see where the complaints were coming from? No. Does this mean I think we specifically needed that sex scene to last FOUR PAGES? No. Does this mean I think Red Hood and the Outlaws was anything other than a crass, offensive piece of trash? HELLS NO.
But, screw it, I liked it. I'll try to explain why.
Selina Kyle is a femme fatale. It's an archetype rife with potential gender ickiness but I don't think it fundamentally has to be misogynistic. I'm not saying that any combination of nostalgia, pastiche, homage or accepted trope necessarily justifies what could accurately be described as an exploitation comic, or that we particularly needed one of those amongst DC's headline relaunch titles. But I do think that the whole package is one that relies heavily on context and intent. And that if any character can support that kind of a story, it's Catwoman.
Do I think that Judd Winnick has the skill of someone like Quentin Tarantino in navigating the exploitation genre? No, not really. But do I think he's written a fun, fast-paced, thrill-seeking adventure for a sexy thief? Yeah.
Context is both why I don't mind the comic and why I understand why others don't. So I'll start with my perspective.
Forgetting, for a second, the visuals, I honestly think that Winnick has done a good job characterising Selina here. I get a strong picture of her as someone who is incredibly competent and good at what she does, but driven by enough of an impulsive nature that she often creates more trouble for herself than she has to, and is enough of a thrill-seeker that she's never really bothered trying to learn to control those impulses because the trouble she gets herself into is fun. We learn that she has a philosophical outlook most of the time, as long as she's having fun and escapes with her skin, and doesn't spend a long time looking backwards or plotting vengeance (see her disinterest in finding out who's trying to kill her and firebombed her apartment because, hey, there was nothing that she really cared about in there and she probably did whatever they think she did anyway), but like her competence and impulsiveness, this is contrasted with a really personal sense of vengeance when it comes to people who have hurt her or things/people she does care about (like the guy she beats up in the bathroom).
I don't want to wield it as a weapon, but I would note that this issue passes the Bechdel test pretty handily and that Lola is not just a friend, but a friend who looks normal and isn't wandering around in any kind of sexy outfit.
It's a matter of opinion, but I also enjoyed her internal monologue not just because I felt the voice was consistent but because the window it gave me into Selina's mind showed that she really doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about Batman or sex or guys in general. She thinks about her chosen profession, mostly, and her friend, and her past, and, yes, Batman, but only when he's suddenly right next to her. It provides a context in which I can judge her actions and decide whether I feel it's acceptable for the character, or an excuse for the writer to make her character do something "hot" or "edgy".
In that context, I'm much more accepting of the cheesecake shots because I feel they're being pinned on a character whose archetype and history kind of support that approach, because they're not being used to prop up shitty characterisation, and because I'm genuinely okay with Catwoman being a character who owns her own sexuality, and therefore think it's more appropriate for the comic to have her pose, at times, for the reader, than it would be with another character.
I concede this is a difficult point to judge.
Moving on to the Batman thing at the end, yeah, like I said, four pages was a bit much. But I'll make a couple of points. I actually think that this is a pretty powerful moment for Selina, specifically because it's Batman. Any other character I would be rolling my eyes much more. But Batman basically shows up demands answers and she responds by refusing to answer and seducing him. Batman's whole character schtick is that he's utterly unmovable and always wins. He has a will of steel. He gets what he wants and resists what he doesn't. Well, he goes into that scene wanting answers and wanting to resist his desire to have sex with her. She goes into that scene NOT wanting to answer and wanting to him to give in to that desire. Catwoman wins. And pretty damn effortlessly too. And in a sequence that yes, might have gotten kinda creepy with how much it showed, but certainly always showed her in control.
I genuinely think this puts her in a fairly interesting position of power over Batman that I wasn't expecting. I think it's what helps me view Batman as the love interest in Catwoman's book rather than Catwoman being a book about Batman's love interest.
I think that the book, taken as a whole, spends a lot of time building Selina's character to the point I believe this is her expressing her own desires rather than an excuse to claim that's the case.
Plus...it's Batman and Catwoman. Honestly I'm a little impressed they just ran with the idea rather than dragging it out for a million issues. I've seen a few criticisms that it's disrespectful to portray them as nothing but fuckbuddies and I'd agree if I thought that was what this was, but from the internal monologue, again, I think there's something more complicated going on there. It's clearly emotionally charged, even if neither of them is certain in what exact way.
So, wait, I was going to talk about context. Right.
Here's the problem as I see it. If you put Catwoman into a group with Batwoman, Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Batgirl, it's easier to be charitable and see it as a crime book with a sexy femme fatale lead, and some nods and winks to the cheesecake conventions of comic books.
But if you put it in a group with Harley Quinn's new outfit, Amanda Waller's new weight and Red Hood and the Outlaws, it's another seriously damning nail in the coffin of DC's reputation.
At which point I think I've explained everything I thought was well-done about the comic in the course of explaining why I felt Selina's a character rather than an object, so I think there's nothing left to do but score it.
Oh and note that for all the shock factor I'm not actually sure where they think they're going with this Batman hookup thing. I am somehow finding it hard to believe it'll be reflected much in other titles, so is it a good idea to hang some much of the cliffhanger of the first issue of this one on it?
3.5 out of 5 Stolen Penthouses.
Pull List Status: It's on K's list, but I'll probably keep reading it unless it starts to get offensive to me, or he drops it in which case I don't like it enough to get it for myself.
DC Universe Presents #1
This comic was beautiful. Both in terms of art and writing. It's mostly the visual composition that makes it so gorgeous to look at. The visual illustration of Deadman's journey on the balanced rock is worth the price of entry alone.
But as I said, the writing is also great. There's a lot of text in this comic, and sometimes that just ends up feeling cluttered and overwhelming, but here, it's so elegantly written, it avoids that problem altogether. It makes the comic feel so much longer than I was expecting (for a contrast, see Supergirl, later), which was pleasant as I felt I was getting a whole chapter rather than a fraction of one as I often feel after reading a single comic.
It's not the world's most unique setup - it is basically Quantum Leap with a Hindu connection. But the execution is much more thoughtful than I was expecting. While Quantum Leap focused on the individual adventures, this book jumps straight to the terrifying questions - why, why me, and what if I fail?
The notion that he's losing his way, losing faith - the montage of people he feels he didn't, couldn't help - is surprisingly poignant. It mixes questions of personal failure with a crisis of faith; the ultimate question one asks a god - why do you allow us to suffer?
And the final cliffhanger, that looks like he's engineered a way to ask exactly that, I honestly didn't see coming.
If there's a flaw in this book it's that it's not entirely clear how he was trying to help his hosts - whether through mundane or supernatural means, but I don't consider it a fatal one. While I'm curious, I'm more interested in the thematic way Boston Brand expresses a feeling of culpability and responsibility for them, further exemplifying the philosophical attitude of the book. In that sense, how he helped them becomes less important than whether he did, or did not, and whether they are bricks in his road to redemption, or he is responsible for carrying them all to theirs.
In some ways I want to say it's a shame this isn't an ongoing Deadman comic, rather than a five-issue arc before the title moves on to another character, but I actually think it makes me feel more excited about it. It's such a huge, central question, it's nice to know that it really will be resolved, insofar as it's going to be, within five issues. I think otherwise I might worry about sustaining the concept over an ongoing without having it turn into a Quantum Leap style procedural - and it's the fact this isn't a procedural that is one of its greatest strengths.
4.5 out of 5 Living Bricks.
Pull List Status: No, and it won't go on it either because (a) it's full but (b) loving this arc and this story doesn't confirm for me I'd love future ones. I do think, though, I'll keep picking this up as long as the Deadman story is ongoing, if my shop has it in.
Green Lantern Corps #1
This was a very solidly constructed comic book, to the point I don't really have much to say about it either way. The standout aspect was the character work with both Guy Gardner and John Stewart, but it was also very solid in the way it portrayed the whole Corps as this crazy, cosmic space police force, and that was where the art really stood out in terms of conveying scope.
The plot was all right but so far nothing spectacular, there's the shock value of killing off an entire world, but it's not the most amazing hook ever. Plus to be honest, I was slightly put off by the ultraviolence of the opening. I know it was supposed to convey something, and I'm not absurdly upset or anything, but I did feel it wasn't quite the right comic book to have severed fingers floating past the camera.
That said, it did a good job of being basic enough that readers with little prior knowledge would be able to grasp what's going on (I think!) while not seeming like an overly basic first issue - impressive since I'm assuming that this is moving on from previous continuity with almost nothing changed like the other Lantern titles?
Although as someone who isn't a huge GL fan, I do have to confess I'm still trying to work out why our sector has four Lanterns instead of the usual 1 or, as now seems to be the standard, 2.
Ultimately this was solid and I think I'll enjoy seeing more of the futuristic landscapes and alien Corps members, and the writer has convinced me he can bring a deft touch of characterisation, but it didn't do anything that made me drop my jaw in amazement. Partly that's personal taste, but partly, this was a lot of setup.
3 out of 5 Severed Fingers.
Pull List Status: It's on K's list so I'll probably keep reading it. Based on this, I probably wouldn't have added it to my own, but I'm happy to read it if someone puts it in front of me.
Legion of Super-Heroes #1
Ugh, I don't even know what to say about this. I don't feel I can review it. It's just straight-up continuing a former run, with about a million characters in four different locations with a bunch of different dramas. I have no idea who anyone is or why anyone's doing anything and I honestly struggled to finish it. By now I barely even remember what happened in it. At least with the other Legion book, they were all physically in the same place and dealing with the same predicament and it had prettier art. (Not that there's anything wrong with the art here, it's just not enough to make up for the fact I have no idea what's happening).
I spoke a bit before about how I love the concept of the Legion and some of the characters (because I do know a few), but I have a horrible time getting into any of their titles because it always feels like this. I'm glad they've kept the convention of the box-outs giving their names and powers, but, like other Legion books I've read, they interchange superhero names with personal names and all the personal names are futuristic and unfamiliar so you have to learn two sets of names for an already enormous cast.
It's such a shame because I want to like this book, but this is like the worst jumping on point ever, to the point I feel I can't even give it a fair review (where I've been trying to take accessibility into account and marking down where it isn't, but not treating that as the be-all and end-all), because I have no clue what's happening.
Bottom line is, if you like the Legion or the previous run, you'll probably enjoy this because it's just the next issue. But I'm totally incapable of giving it a balanced review due to the fact I lack the appropriate knowledge to do so. HAD I that knowledge, I would mark it down by at least a point (maybe two given how badly it relies on previous knowledge) for that failing given it's a #1, then go from there based on the comic itself.
As things stand, the only score I feel I can give it is:
1 out of 5 Super-Heroes of the Future.
Pull List Status: No.
Nightwing #1
What I liked about this issue was the way it brought back the circus. That's probably been done at some point in history already, but I've never read it and it was nice to see Dick returning. I think it could be really awesome if he just RAN OFF with the circus and was like a traveling vigilante. Though probably someone would put Haly's Circus Tour and Nightwing's appearances together. But Gotham's just so full of heroes, and I think a roadtrip hero could be kind of cool. But now I'm speculating on things that probably won't happen. Regardless, I did enjoy Dick's narration of the comic, I got a good sense of his character and I liked the way it was clear what made him different from Bruce. I genuinely believe he is happy to be Nightwing again.
I was less sure of the choice to have two police officers killed while Dick was around the corner changing. I mean, I know he's not the one who killed them, and I know if he went out there and stopped the guy straight up without being in costume, he would get found out and then maybe not be able to help people in the future? But given it's something that happens and we immediately move passed, I'm honestly not sure what the point was? Because it's not exactly inspiring to have your hero voice a hope that some cops can hold off a bad guy while he's changing only to find out he was wrong and they got good and dead.
I also have concerns about the cliffhanger. I'm guessing it ties into the Batman cliffhanger, and if the two comics are going to tell independent but interrelated stories, that you do not have to follow both comics to understand, then I'm okay with that. But if not, I'm not sure a crossover is really the sort of thing you want in your first issues.
I mean, the other thing is that there's a matter of perception here. I know that Batgirl and Nightwing are guesting in each other's comics later on and I'm sure there'll be like a mini-crossover thing going on there, but don't expect to be punished for reading Batgirl but not Nightwing when it happens. Batman, however, is setting up a pretty longhaul arc, and this cliffhanger is the first hook into it. So, I don't know, probably it will be handled fine, but I do hope that each book maintains its narrative coherency independent of each other.
Having said that, the art was pretty nice and as I said, the story's solid, though again, there's also nothing in here that truly wows me with originality or made me grin with glee while reading it.
3 out of 5 Flawless Mechanics.
Pull List Status: No. This is something I'd probably read if someone put it in front of me, though, but K's not interested in it either so that probably won't happen. Though I think I have a friend who'll be reading it, so maybe if he says it's good I'll ask to borrow his copies.
Red Hood and the Outlaws #1
OH WHERE TO FUCKING START.
OH MY GOD I HATE THIS.
I HATE THIS SO MUCH I LACK WORDS.
Let's get the stuff that's not about Starfire out of the way. It's nicely drawn. This artist deserves a better gig. I like the sketchy style. If you like that kind of dynamic, Jason and Roy had a reasonable buddy-cop (buddy-vigilante?) kind of thing going at the start. The tagline "to be explained" was a reasonably nice inversion of "to be continued" that acknowledged it was okay for the reader to have no fucking clue what was going on, given that at about that time, the reader was probably starting to get teasy about having no fucking clue what was going on.
But people, let's be honest, Starfire is what this is all about.
What they've done to her character is so consistent throughout the book and so grossly offensive, I struggle to focus on anything past it. I can't find a single interpretation that's not horrifying. I can't think of anything thoughtful the writer might be trying to achieve.
This is not about judging Starfire for being a sexually confident or liberated character. This is about judging the writer for writing Starfire as an object rather than a person.
Bottom line - when you tell a story about something that might offend and perpetuate genuinely harmful stereotypes, you need to be extra thoughtful, you need to be aware you won't necessarily be given the benefit of the doubt, you need to make your intentions clear. It's fair that you get held to a higher standard.
Is it possible to tell a good, thoughtful story about a woman who engages in serial, emotionless, amnesiac sex because she, rather nebulously, "wants" to? Sure, it probably is. But it's close enough to a really, really disgusting fantasy about women as sexbots that you damn well better put a lot of thought into her perspective and motivations, and you'd better make that perspective and those motivations pretty damn compelling. And if you don't do this, you don't get to cry about it when people are appalled and wonder where your benefit of the doubt it, and why you have to be held accountable and restricted because of what other people are constantly doing in the media. Because, among other things, at that point, you are one of those other people, and even if you had some grand scheme to reveal a brilliant, skewering piece of character development four issue down the line, no one owes you four issues' grace.
The reason why the argument that Starfire is an empowered character is bullshit is that Starfire is not a character in this comic book.
I say this because she gets nothing that a character rather than an object should get. Sure, she gets one page (and only a single full-page panel) where we get her internal monologue about how she can't tell Jason or Roy apart but they make her laugh so she figures she'll stay here cus she's got nowhere else to go. Fucking great. Her thoughts are plastered over pinup shots of her walking out of the ocean in a bikini that was apparently originally meant to be transparent while a kid takes wank bank photos of her on his phone. So even in the one shred of perspective she gets, she's thinking about how she likes the boys and wants to fuck them they make her laugh. It's Jason Todd who tells us her history. Sure he's explaining it to Roy which makes some sense, but in a long line of fuckups, I'm also forced to point out that if they were looking for another way to inject some perspective or context into her personality and behaviour, she could have explained her own history to him.
She's totally inconsistently characterised even within the space of these twenty pages. From her snippet of internal monologue, from Jason's recounting of her history and from her attitude to Roy when she propositions him, we get an image of a nihilistic, hedonistic, emotionally detached woman who really doesn't connect to the world around her, who demands, rather than asking, who doesn't like to be questioned.
But the first thing she does when she flies over to the Jeep after torching the tanks is to sweetly ask whether Jason needs anymore help escaping and accommodates by flying off to search for more tanks. In that scene, she genuinely seems to be being written as more of a sweet, happy-to-help kind of girl who's Oh-So-Pleased to go Blow-Up-Tanks for Wonderful Jason.
Despite the fact that Starfire basically saves their asses and is the only reason the escape works, neither Jason nor Roy react to Starfire in any way throughout the book that doesn't involve sex. Her introduction is a joke about her chest size. Then we get Jason bragging that he's slept with her. Then when she flies off to save them from MORE trouble, Jason jokes that she can't stop thinking about him.
The next conversation they have about her (in her absence) is about how it's not awkward that she used to date Dick Grayson (though rebooted Starfire I doubt was "dating" him), Jason's rival, because she doesn't remember him. Because she doesn't remember anyone. Roy gets to listen to the true extent of Starfire's short term memory problems with a face that suggests he thinks this is AWESOME.
Then she propositions Roy who, after ascertaining she's not Jason's property, totally takes her up on the offer, and they proceed to trash their hotel room.
So we now have a team where the chick is banging both of the dudes, who don't mind sharing not because it's an open relationship, or an attempt to seriously portray polyamory in comics, but because Scott Lobdell has carefully crafted a character that is nothing more than a blow-up sex doll - a lifesize version of a porn mag passed between buddies.
Her history has been literally erased, from her own mind, and there is no effort within the comic to portray this different experience of memory in an interesting science fictional way, either in terms of Starfire's personal experience or how that notion might impact Roy or Jason, who seem totally unphased by the notion that their friend views them as utterly indistinct and disposable. But right, she's not their friend, she's their blow-up plastic "friend".
This is all made even worse - if possible - by the fact that while I'm not hugely familiar with her, it's my understanding that the original Starfire was a sexually liberated but in an emotional, free love, respect for all sort of way. She was not sexually embarrassed and saw no reason not to engage in sexual activity, but this was generally portrayed as a positive thing. To misinterpret, or reinterpret genuine sexual confidence with...whatever the fuck is going on in this book is sad on a level I lack the words to describe.
Sex positive does not equal a male fantasy about the ultimate disposable woman, who obviously wants you. Therefore she wants something, so it's automatically feminist. UGH.
Another thing that makes it terrible is that from what I can tell from the interview in the back, the writer isn't even trying to write Starfire as a nihilistic, detached character. Like he genuinely thinks everyone in this comic is having a GREAT TIME and that it's some kind of redemptive journey for all of them.
Final point, riddle me this, interwebs. I get that Jason Todd is (in)famous in comic book circles, but undoubtedly Starfire is more famous outside them given that she starred in the Teen Titans cartoon for five years or something. In fact I believe a friend of mine may be getting this book because he grew up with that series and liked her character. And Starfire is hardly unpopular within the world of comics. Jason Todd is a character you can't even get two people to agree on whether or not he should have been brought back to life.
So if the goal is to be accessible to people outside of comics without alienating regular readers, why wasn't this Starfire and the Outlaws?
OH WAIT. I KNOW WHY.
0 out of 5 OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT GET IN THE CARs.
Pull List Status: AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAH. no.
Supergirl #1
I'll get the negative part of this out of the way first - it's very decompressed. The issue is a very quick read - it's essentially a single extended scene. The reason why I'm still going to score it very highly, despite the fact that usually I dislike the idea of decompression, setting up, not giving us enough interesting stuff, is that while I finished it and felt, "Huh, that was short..." I wouldn't want to get rid of any part of that. And...it took twenty pages to do.
I love Supergirl, but to say that she's been inconsistently characterised since her return to continuity is...an understatement.
My favourite arcs from her have always been where she's been thoughtful, competent and determined, but in a different way to her cousin, or to anyone really. The arcs where she questions Kal-El's belief that they can save humans from falling out of buildings but they shouldn't interfere and teach them to fly. Unfortunately a lot of the time, she's instead characterised as an angst-ridden teen, and the way she's off in her own comic means that none of her family ever step in to parent her like she needs half the time (due to the way she's written).
So honestly, the solicit for this issue had me concerned. Fortunately, the first issue is actually promising.
This book is thoughtful. Kara is pensive, wistful almost. There's a beautiful, eerie quality to the silence of her initial moments, when she believes she's dreaming, and is charmed by the robots, the snow that's not making her cold, the fact she's in the formal clothes of her house, which she shouldn't, apparently, be wearing for years. It's small details like that that cause this issue's slow pace but also that really make me feel that we're seeing a Kara who is more than a collection of emo teenage cliches.
The art is almost painterly, and there's a wonderful, muted colour palette. The use of colour is particularly lovely in the sequence where the sun starts rising and she realises it's wrong, that she can't be on Krypton.
The art is a little better at the start than towards the end, to my untrained eye, but I really do like the style on display here and am looking forward to seeing more of it.
As I said, it's slow and short at the same time, but so atmospheric I really don't mind.
Finally, a brief word on her costume. I like the cape and boots lot. They really look formal and regal. But I'm really not sure about the bikini bottom, especially the weird...crotch plate? Hmmm. It's odd because as a superhero outfit I actually think it kind of rocks, but I have trouble imagining a bathing suit, even one with kikass boots and an awesome cloak to go with it, as a ceremonial outfit.
4 out of 5 Siberian Wastelands.
Pull List Status: Yes, this is on my list and it's staying there!
Wonder Woman #1
I loved this pretty much unreservedly. From the angular, stylised art that I didn't think I'd like when I saw promo material, but just works perfectly in the context of the issue, to the brutal, bloody take on modern mythology. When I heard this was going to be more of a horror comic my first thought was how dark Greek mythology can get, and that's definitely what's on display here. The creation of the centaurs was a bloody epic, and I'm impressed that the book gives us three totally silent pages in which to allow the artist to show that sequence. It's strange, I found the severed limbs in Green Lantern Corps to be distracting, but here it feels tonally appropriate.
I'm really, really thrilled to see that the general response to the comic is positive. I don't know I have faith that Wonder Woman ever really will sell as well as she deserves, but this is certainly a comic that deserves the buzz it's getting. Although I will say, cus this is my LJ and I can, that a small part of me winces whenever I see comments about how this is finally Wonder Woman done right because, as Azzarello himself says, this is a pretty soft reboot. The Gods and Greek myth have been a heavy part of Wonder Woman for a long time, and I'm not even overly familiar with most of her run. The darker tone to the comic, the more brutal and bloody paganism that infuses it, yeah, that's new, and that's working. It's not the comic I would write, perhaps, but it's intriguing, and it's a great setting for Diana. The writing is also really sharp and witty. A lot is said in few words, and Hermes' voice, particularly, felt fully-formed and interesting.
But moving on to Diana! I've seen some criticisms of the fact that Wonder Woman doesn't appear until a third of the way into the story, and isn't centre stage the entire time. That's a criticism I can understand but not quite one I share. I feel her role in the story is clearly laid out and I am really impressed by the way Azzarello managed to characterise her so well with so few words. It was a brilliant display of economic characterisation.
Perhaps I'm projecting, given I've seen some comments to the effect she's not as compassionate or caring as she once was, but I didn't see that. I saw practicality, sure, but I also felt like it was very clear that she was immediately and unquestioningly concerned for Zola. I felt she was being honest rather than stern and I felt Zola reacted as if she understood that. I love the responsibility she displays, which I think is classic Diana. She realises she was daft not to anticipate Zola's use of the key, but it doesn't, for a second, occur to her to do anything other than note her own error and move on; never a hint of frustration towards Zola.
The sequence where she takes out the centaurs is another great example of Chiang's skill as a sequential illustrator and, since I'm a fan of the economical approach to Diana's character that's been taken here, I think it was brave no to add any internal monologue, but rather to add the creepy prophetic voiceover from the Oracles. I quickly cottoned on to who was speaking and about what, and still can't understand the specifics (oh prophecy), but it was wonderfully menacing. In the hands of a lesser writer, the modernisms thrown into the words of prophecy might feel cute, like it was trying to hard. But here it feels genuinely appropriate if only because it's creepy. Cryptic omens interspersed with blunt reality - "this won't end good for you".
I'm also thrilled that Diana is still being portrayed as a warrior, that she uses weapons, and that when necessary, she will use lethal (or in this case dismembering) levels of force. Never lightly, never when there's another choice, but she will do it and she will not hesitate. I know some people dislike that about her - I suppose this goes all the way back to the Max Lord controversy, though I kind of wish I'd been around to see if there was similar controversy over her earlier beheading of Medousa, or I believe she killed mythological creatures in the Perez run even? I'm uncertain. The point is, this isn't a new aspect to her character that's being introduced to make it darker or grittier or even that's at odds with her generally defensive or peaceable manner. It's something that sets her aside from Batman and Superman. She's not just Superman but a chick, she's a Greek warrior. She fights with weapons, she wages war.
It's interesting to contrast this to my reaction to Starling carrying revolvers. Obviously I have a very different reaction. Part of it's because I know what Wonder Woman's philosophy on the issue is and I know how seriously she takes it and how, because of her power level, how rarely she has to choose that as an option unless dealing with real supernatural monsters, rather than just being a vigilante wandering around Gotham with a pair of pistols.
I think another thing, though, is the motif with which her character has been designed (even if that was over the course of seventy years and by committee). Superman can't kill anyone because he's basically Space Jesus and if he claimed moral authority to determine life and death, he'd pretty much become a benevolent dictator because everyone would let him. Batman can't kill anyone because he's literally a vigilante crimefighter and there are serious questions about his right to do that and his moral superiority; that's why the Red Hood is a mirror to him.
But Wonder Woman is honestly not a vigilante or superhero in quite the same way. She's a genuine ranking official of her home nation, in addition to being the chosen champion (or at least closely associated with) of actual Gods. Her mission might be to bring the way of peace from Themyscira to the rest of the world, but she's also a soldier and a monster-fighting champion. One of the cool things about Gail Simone's run, for instance, was when she actually declared war on someone. Like in a legal sense.
Now I have no idea what her political station is in the Azzarello run, and honestly I don't think it mkaes much difference, and I'm really rambling now. But my point is that I think Wonder Woman is very unusual in that she works as a Mythic Warrior in a Superhero landscape and...that kind of means I feel different thematic rules apply to her. Her refusal to kill or maim unless absolutely necessary is a core part of her. But so is the willingness to behead shit if it is absolutely necessary. And that's my thesis on why I'm glad that part of her characterisation remained intact.
Also in a week ripe with BOOBIES ISSUES, I would just like to point out that miraculously, this comic manages to have its two female leads in underwear and armoured underwear respectively, and show someone changing, and I never felt awkward about it. Cus Cliff Chiang draws like a boss. Also the first thing Wonder Woman does in this comic is wake up and choke a bitch. BECAUSE OF COURSE. Then she headbutts a centaur. I really feel if this is not enough to convinced you of the badass awesome of this comic, you are a lost cause.
There are two things that bugged me a bit, but neither are things I intend to dock points for because both are kind of personal nitpicks and the latter isn't even something that the creative team had control over.
The first thing is that, honestly, I kind of winced a bit with the knocked-up-by-Zeus reveal, not because it didn't make sense (because dude, ZEUS), but just because I tend to get a bit twitchy whenever there are BABIES IN THINGS I LIKE. Which bugs me, because I feel this is an artificial and unfair phobia due solely to the fact that it's often a herald of bad things to come for female characters I like, and the fact that it happened to almost every show I was watching this year, and none of them handled it well! But in this case, it's clearly a central piece of plot and it's not like it's DIANA, so really, my objective brain thinks this is going to be fine, and the more I think about it the less concerned I am. But I have to confess I did have that momentary kneejerk reaction of NO, NO NOT YOU TOO. ;)
The second thing is the costume. UGH I KNOW, everyone goes on about the pants/no pants thing and it's obnoxious and I agree, but I do have some issues with the current costume. Actually the biggest is just that they added heels to her boots, which is distracting every time I see it because it's stopping my zen approach to the swimsuit as a sort of barbarian style practical wrestling ensemble. But also I just wanted to throw in my two cents on the pants/no-pants thing and say that I reject the question! Because I also think the pants don't help because the problem is that her costume says nothing about her character. Adding pants doesn't get around that, and doesn't make her look distinctive. Although to some people it might make her look less ridiculous. Though my personal feeling is that it also makes her look less likely to be running around talking to Greek Myth Monsters.
DRESS HER IN GLADIATORIAL ARMOUR, PEOPLE. A SKIRT-THING LIKE GLADIATORS USED TO WEAR AND A HALTER-TOP BREAST PLATE.
Okay I'm done.
No, but seriously, this was ace.
5 out of 5 Biased Reviewers. ;)
Pull List Status: FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER.
WEEK THREE COMPLETE.
ALPHABETICAL.
Batman #1
So everyone and their dog is going on about how awesome this is, and it's mostly justified - it's a very good comic. I feel very odd about the art because it's cartoony enough it shouldn't work, but somehow it does work, and pretty well. It's especially strong on the scenes with Batman, rather than Bruce Wayne, but if I were going to criticise something it'd be that a lot of the faces are the same, at least with regards to the square-jawed hero types (Bruce, Dick, the Mayor, etc.).
The story certainly scores points on accessibility. There's a lot here but it plays well on the general public consciousness understanding of Batman and a lot of it is stuff that if you want to absorb for the first time you can, but if you miss, it's not a bit deal in the scope of this issue (various villains/Robins, etc.) The Wayne Manor computer stuff was a little obviously on the nose, but the voiceover of what eventually turned out to be Wayne's speech rather than simply noir!style internal monologue was fairly slick.
We now reach the part where I feel slightly ill-qualified to judge since it's well-established that I have some issues with Batman (you know, my reaction to him putting Bat Bunkers all over the city as he renovates it is to be appalled by his presumption of ownership rather than the coolness of the idea; that said, given the track the story appears to be taking, I might be right in that for once, but I think I make my point; I find Batman very interesting but I don't much like him).
Essentially I feel this comic sets up a mystery well, even if I have no belief that the cliffhanger will actually deliver on what it suggests (though goodness what might I do if it did?) But it does feel like an awful lot of setup. Most of my curiosity and excitement comes of knowing where Snyder is headed with this (a gigantic, sprawling, creepy study of Bruce's relationship with Gotham, his family, the families of those around him, across the tracts of history, according to promotional interviews), rather than what we immediately get. The cliffhanger seems like a creepy promise of things to come rather than an immediate shocker simply because it's so improbable it feels like it must be a fake out.
As an aside, I'd mention that I'm not sure how I feel about the way Batman uses ever-more futuristic technology. I'm not going to knock points off the book in this review for this, because I think it's a reasonable approach to take - Batman is both fabulously rich and has a gabillion gadgets. He's not not going to use this stuff and it would become conspicuous if he didn't. But the problem is the more he uses gadgetry and, basically, science magic, the less of a Dark Knight Detective he is an the more he becomes like...Iron Man. There's already a heavy dose of paying for the equipment to give him a leg up on the average guy because he has that privileged background, but it's his unparalleled skill and determination in any context that really mark him out as a force of nature and deserving of his status as one of the best superheroes in the world. I don't mind that part of that is the skill to know what equipment to bring and when, but stuff like magic holographic disguise kits and super computers that read lips for you at a distance, and instant DNA test kits in your glove start feeling perilously like an updated version of Adam West's Bat-Shark Repellent. Would it have been so bad to have Batman read Gordon's lips himself, because he knows how to do that? I'd certainly believe that Bruce Wayne would have learned. Instead of getting his magic pet computer to do it because he coughed instructions to it? I dunno, I guess I worry that his gadgets are becoming too prominent. But as I said, I'm not sure what the solution is in an increasingly high tech world, so we'll leave that as an aside.
In general I thought this was a very good introductory issue with a real sense of style and tone, but I'm not sure it completely, clearly told me what to expect from the run, instead ending with a cliffhanger that in isolation I would assume to be a simple - and somewhat obvious - case of a setup. If I hadn't read interviews with Snyder, I'd have a very different understanding of what this is setting up, is what I'm saying. I think I'd take it as a lighter, less angsty (though obviously still somewhat dark) take on the Dark Knight with a tentative instinct that smaller, more standalone stories of fixing up Gotham were on the horizon. And like I said, there's nothing wrong with setting that up and then playing off that perception later when the rug gets pulled, but for now that's how it feels to me. It's extremely well-executed, but there's nothing truly groundbreaking here yet.
4 out of 5 Robins (because I get to keep Stephanie).
Pull List Status: No, because I'm not really a Batman fan. I'll keep an eye on vaguely where it's going though, and if it turns out to be a seminal run (which I honestly believe it might), K will probably pick up the trades if I don't.
Birds of Prey #1
So to start with, the art is really nice. It's clean, clear, realistic while still feeling like it's a drawing, not an attempt at photorealism. There's a strong sense of physical presence to the characters, particularly in the fight scenes, that helps make them feel solid and make the action easy to follow (which is something I often struggle with). The solid physicality of them also helps it not feel like the women were drawn primarily for eye-candy. I mean, sure, as always there's some pretty form-fitting costumes going on here, in addition to fishnets and bathing suits, but in Black Canary's action sequences particularly, she felt more like a combatant than a pin-up.
The book itself has a pretty strong story and a closing cliffhanger that is genuinely surprising. It's totally out of left field but manages to avoid feeling random.
The story handles its flashback-current-events structure pretty well. The set-up is simple, but interesting enough. Black Canary feels more-or-less like herself, though she is a little generic and most of the focus on the characterisation goes to Starling, because she's the new character.
I do enjoy their "Dirty Pair" aesthetic and attitude, and I'm glad to see that Birds of Prey will still be a comic in which Women Are Friends. I think I felt that most keenly when Starling was yelling at Canary to "Hang on, honey!" and was like, "No, I don't mean YOU!" to the reporter. It was a short moment, but one that genuinely made it feel like an authentic friendship.
But in reading it, even though I was never a huge BoP reader pre-relaunch, like Oracle in Batgirl, I did miss the original line-up. It's a very different dynamic here. Black Canary plays tough biker chick to Oracle's cool infojock, but Starling seems to be a tougher biker chick. So now Black Canary is the cooler head in charge and I do find myself wondering how that'll impact her characterisation.
Also, I'm not sure what to make of the scene with Babs. It's nice to know that they have some kind of history together, but this doesn't make it clear what and it's an...interesting choice to have them interact more like awkward exes than good friends. There's clearly some history there and Babs doesn't approve of what Dinah's doing, but cares about her enough to try and help. On balance I think it's a nice touch and an acknowledgement of what went before, but equally I can see that for some people it might be salt in the wound. Certainly I feel there's more to the story than is being said. Like I said, it reads to me like Babs refusal to get involved personally is about an issue of bitter personal history as much as anything to do with police watch lists. Long story short, if this is setting up an interesting relationship between these two, then it may well pay off, but if it's just a cameo intended to confirm to us that they're not that close anymore (or ever) then perhaps it would have been as well to leave it alone. And I can't tell which it is yet.
Finally, I'm not sure about Starling herself. I think she's well characterised, and manages to avoid being annoying, which she easily could have been, instead coming across as genuinely sarcastic and entertaining. But given her sleeve-of-tattoos/peasant-goth halter top design and the fact she wields twin revolvers, that's a minor miracle. However, good writing saving a character type and design I was afraid I'd hate aside, I'm really, really not sure about the guns. From what I can tell she shoots a guy in the shoulder, but even so, it's a bit wanky to have your newly introduced "edgy" character as the kind of person who runs around Gotham with GUNS. I suppose it's a Comics Universe, which means that a shoulder wound will never be fatal, but guns are brutal and deadly and I am very, very nervous about a superheroine who uses them without comment. Hopefully this will come later.
(On a shallow note, I really, REALLY miss Black Canary's jacket. It was a really unusual and easy-to-identify piece of kit that I feel said a lot about her personality. I don't hate her new costume or anything, I just think it's a shame they changed it. Also the fact she killed a dude with one punch - even if it turns out not to be true - just sounds totally, awesomely hardcore.)
So, like, I am interested in her character and would like to know more. I do think she has a fun relationship with Black Canary is will be a fun read. I am engaged with the plot at least enough to be curious what happens next (and if that random dude snogging Dinah will ever be explained - I figured he poisoned her, but if so, no news on that yet). But I'm also uncertain about a few things. Like whether we need Starling as a character, whether the plot will go someplace interesting and whether Ev and Dinah will ever be as awesome as Babs and Dinah.
But I'm willing to find out.
3.5 out of 5 Devastated Churches.
Pull List Status: Not on it, and as I said, my list is currently full, but I would consider this as a replacement on it. May well pick up in trades if it continues to be interesting.
Blue Beetle #1
This was okay. I can't really find anything bad to say about it, but I also can't say that I found it overly exciting. The characters feel real and likable, the art is fine and the fact the Blue Beetle is a weapon that wants to take over Jaime rather than help him fight crime, puts an interesting spin on a traditional hero tale in addition to providing a genuinely suspenseful cliffhanger since we've already seen the effects of Khaji-Da on another world. It was also nice to get to know what the Beetle is right off the bat, which was something I think I would have preferred to find out earlier in Jaime's original run.
But if we're referencing the original run, which I am, if only because I read the first few arcs of it very recently, this all feels very similar to it. Yes, the pieces are shifted slightly. Because there's no Infinite Crisis for it to spin out of, Jaime gets the beetle in a slightly different way. We find out the truth about La Dama and what the Beetle is a little sooner and I do appreciate that for providing an interesting and dynamic setup for future issues more quickly. But so many of the players are the same. So much of the first issue recalls the start of the original series.
And I suppose that's my chief criticism of it. If it wanted to be a total reboot, I wish it would have changed the concept a little, shifted some of the characters and circumstances around. If they wanted to keep more of that stuff, then they should have just jumped straight in with Jaime as the Blue Beetle as an established fact and found a way to quickly explain what the Beetle is and does as the story continued.
As it is, there's just nothing new here for you if you're already familiar with the story. And one of the things I liked about the relaunch was the idea that it wasn't just starting everything again and making us all sit through origin stories we already knew unless there was a compelling reason to do so. And honestly, most of the first issues either aren't origin stories, or are origins of fairly, well, different stories (i.e. Bird of Prey).
Now, in the issue's defense, it does at least tell us a lot of stuff that the original series dragged out quite a while, like the secret of the Beetle, etc., so hopefully new adventures will start soon, but it doesn't change the fact that this issue made me sit through a story I already knew. It was a nice one, but it wasn't nice enough to make me not mind that.
If I was a fan of Blue Beetle I'm sure I'd stick with it - as I said, it very definitely wasn't bad - but since he's more of a like-but-don't-love character for me, I'm not sure I can be bothered based on this because it makes me think we're going to see him adjusting to his superpowers in storylines that will feel familiar to me for a while. I'd rather check back to see what's going on with him later.
The one thing I will say, from a purely personal point of view, is that I did like the casual bilingualism. Specifically, putting it in an adolescent/high school setting and mashing it up with English. I don't speak Spanish or Spanglish so I have no idea if this is in any way true to life specifically on that level, but kind of like smells triggering memories, it unexpectedly made me totally remember being 16. And then be REALLY grateful I'm not anymore!
3 out of 5 Alien Weapons of Death and Destruction.
Pull List Status: Nah, and probably won't be.
Captain Atom #1
Ohhhhh meh. That about sums up my response to this. I was pretty underwhelmed but disappointed in that fact because there's promise here. I'm not the first to draw comparisons with Dr Manhattan but it's apt and it's also interesting. There's something frightening about atomic power and the idea that our hero is losing control - is infinitely capable but not capable of infinite control - is dangerous and interesting. There's the potential to get into some really interesting philosophical questions here as well as flatout cool and outlandish events.
Unfortunately, while it's not badly written per se, it just doesn't jump off the page. It's pedestrian. The scientist is a transparent caricature, a cross between Stephen Hawking and any stock Grumpy, Brilliant Man. His youngest-ever-deeply-driven assistant is likewise very stock.
I do enjoy the fact that Captain Atom doesn't really understand, or perhaps even have the capacity to understand what is happening to him, and I enjoyed that he faced his potential death with quite a lot of dignity.
But ultimately, it's dry comic book science (compare with Static Shock's much more interesting comic book science in delivery and layman's understandability) followed by a supremely random event (a volcano in New York) and while I'm sure that randomness will ultimately be explained by future issues as things stand, it feels a little bit out of left field, and while sometimes that is intriguing and strange, here it's just a bit, well honestly, overly convenient that a strange event requires Captain Atom to fly out to save everyone before the tests are finished.
As I said, it's not awful, it's just not good.
The art is a weird thing to discuss too. It sways between beautiful and ugly. Captain Atom himself is inkwashed in a gorgeous way, and I enjoy the concept of using such heavy blacks in the rest of the world, almost depicting it in negative, defining it through shadow. But the execution is to make the backgrounds and supporting characters often very ugly? I think that's partly down to the colouring choices too - I feel everything is dulled down to make Captain Atom brighter against it, but it works to the detriment of the backgrounds.
I can't say it's bad, exactly, because I think for some it'll work really well, but for me, while I like the effect it has on the main character, it renders the rest of the book kind of an eyesore.
2 out of 5 Improbable Volcanos.
Pull List Status: No, and I'm not interested.
Catwoman #1
Okay, there is controversy on this issue. We all know it. But I'm gonna put this out there and say, dudes, I liked it. I thought it was fun. Does this mean I don't see where the complaints were coming from? No. Does this mean I think we specifically needed that sex scene to last FOUR PAGES? No. Does this mean I think Red Hood and the Outlaws was anything other than a crass, offensive piece of trash? HELLS NO.
But, screw it, I liked it. I'll try to explain why.
Selina Kyle is a femme fatale. It's an archetype rife with potential gender ickiness but I don't think it fundamentally has to be misogynistic. I'm not saying that any combination of nostalgia, pastiche, homage or accepted trope necessarily justifies what could accurately be described as an exploitation comic, or that we particularly needed one of those amongst DC's headline relaunch titles. But I do think that the whole package is one that relies heavily on context and intent. And that if any character can support that kind of a story, it's Catwoman.
Do I think that Judd Winnick has the skill of someone like Quentin Tarantino in navigating the exploitation genre? No, not really. But do I think he's written a fun, fast-paced, thrill-seeking adventure for a sexy thief? Yeah.
Context is both why I don't mind the comic and why I understand why others don't. So I'll start with my perspective.
Forgetting, for a second, the visuals, I honestly think that Winnick has done a good job characterising Selina here. I get a strong picture of her as someone who is incredibly competent and good at what she does, but driven by enough of an impulsive nature that she often creates more trouble for herself than she has to, and is enough of a thrill-seeker that she's never really bothered trying to learn to control those impulses because the trouble she gets herself into is fun. We learn that she has a philosophical outlook most of the time, as long as she's having fun and escapes with her skin, and doesn't spend a long time looking backwards or plotting vengeance (see her disinterest in finding out who's trying to kill her and firebombed her apartment because, hey, there was nothing that she really cared about in there and she probably did whatever they think she did anyway), but like her competence and impulsiveness, this is contrasted with a really personal sense of vengeance when it comes to people who have hurt her or things/people she does care about (like the guy she beats up in the bathroom).
I don't want to wield it as a weapon, but I would note that this issue passes the Bechdel test pretty handily and that Lola is not just a friend, but a friend who looks normal and isn't wandering around in any kind of sexy outfit.
It's a matter of opinion, but I also enjoyed her internal monologue not just because I felt the voice was consistent but because the window it gave me into Selina's mind showed that she really doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about Batman or sex or guys in general. She thinks about her chosen profession, mostly, and her friend, and her past, and, yes, Batman, but only when he's suddenly right next to her. It provides a context in which I can judge her actions and decide whether I feel it's acceptable for the character, or an excuse for the writer to make her character do something "hot" or "edgy".
In that context, I'm much more accepting of the cheesecake shots because I feel they're being pinned on a character whose archetype and history kind of support that approach, because they're not being used to prop up shitty characterisation, and because I'm genuinely okay with Catwoman being a character who owns her own sexuality, and therefore think it's more appropriate for the comic to have her pose, at times, for the reader, than it would be with another character.
I concede this is a difficult point to judge.
Moving on to the Batman thing at the end, yeah, like I said, four pages was a bit much. But I'll make a couple of points. I actually think that this is a pretty powerful moment for Selina, specifically because it's Batman. Any other character I would be rolling my eyes much more. But Batman basically shows up demands answers and she responds by refusing to answer and seducing him. Batman's whole character schtick is that he's utterly unmovable and always wins. He has a will of steel. He gets what he wants and resists what he doesn't. Well, he goes into that scene wanting answers and wanting to resist his desire to have sex with her. She goes into that scene NOT wanting to answer and wanting to him to give in to that desire. Catwoman wins. And pretty damn effortlessly too. And in a sequence that yes, might have gotten kinda creepy with how much it showed, but certainly always showed her in control.
I genuinely think this puts her in a fairly interesting position of power over Batman that I wasn't expecting. I think it's what helps me view Batman as the love interest in Catwoman's book rather than Catwoman being a book about Batman's love interest.
I think that the book, taken as a whole, spends a lot of time building Selina's character to the point I believe this is her expressing her own desires rather than an excuse to claim that's the case.
Plus...it's Batman and Catwoman. Honestly I'm a little impressed they just ran with the idea rather than dragging it out for a million issues. I've seen a few criticisms that it's disrespectful to portray them as nothing but fuckbuddies and I'd agree if I thought that was what this was, but from the internal monologue, again, I think there's something more complicated going on there. It's clearly emotionally charged, even if neither of them is certain in what exact way.
So, wait, I was going to talk about context. Right.
Here's the problem as I see it. If you put Catwoman into a group with Batwoman, Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Batgirl, it's easier to be charitable and see it as a crime book with a sexy femme fatale lead, and some nods and winks to the cheesecake conventions of comic books.
But if you put it in a group with Harley Quinn's new outfit, Amanda Waller's new weight and Red Hood and the Outlaws, it's another seriously damning nail in the coffin of DC's reputation.
At which point I think I've explained everything I thought was well-done about the comic in the course of explaining why I felt Selina's a character rather than an object, so I think there's nothing left to do but score it.
Oh and note that for all the shock factor I'm not actually sure where they think they're going with this Batman hookup thing. I am somehow finding it hard to believe it'll be reflected much in other titles, so is it a good idea to hang some much of the cliffhanger of the first issue of this one on it?
3.5 out of 5 Stolen Penthouses.
Pull List Status: It's on K's list, but I'll probably keep reading it unless it starts to get offensive to me, or he drops it in which case I don't like it enough to get it for myself.
DC Universe Presents #1
This comic was beautiful. Both in terms of art and writing. It's mostly the visual composition that makes it so gorgeous to look at. The visual illustration of Deadman's journey on the balanced rock is worth the price of entry alone.
But as I said, the writing is also great. There's a lot of text in this comic, and sometimes that just ends up feeling cluttered and overwhelming, but here, it's so elegantly written, it avoids that problem altogether. It makes the comic feel so much longer than I was expecting (for a contrast, see Supergirl, later), which was pleasant as I felt I was getting a whole chapter rather than a fraction of one as I often feel after reading a single comic.
It's not the world's most unique setup - it is basically Quantum Leap with a Hindu connection. But the execution is much more thoughtful than I was expecting. While Quantum Leap focused on the individual adventures, this book jumps straight to the terrifying questions - why, why me, and what if I fail?
The notion that he's losing his way, losing faith - the montage of people he feels he didn't, couldn't help - is surprisingly poignant. It mixes questions of personal failure with a crisis of faith; the ultimate question one asks a god - why do you allow us to suffer?
And the final cliffhanger, that looks like he's engineered a way to ask exactly that, I honestly didn't see coming.
If there's a flaw in this book it's that it's not entirely clear how he was trying to help his hosts - whether through mundane or supernatural means, but I don't consider it a fatal one. While I'm curious, I'm more interested in the thematic way Boston Brand expresses a feeling of culpability and responsibility for them, further exemplifying the philosophical attitude of the book. In that sense, how he helped them becomes less important than whether he did, or did not, and whether they are bricks in his road to redemption, or he is responsible for carrying them all to theirs.
In some ways I want to say it's a shame this isn't an ongoing Deadman comic, rather than a five-issue arc before the title moves on to another character, but I actually think it makes me feel more excited about it. It's such a huge, central question, it's nice to know that it really will be resolved, insofar as it's going to be, within five issues. I think otherwise I might worry about sustaining the concept over an ongoing without having it turn into a Quantum Leap style procedural - and it's the fact this isn't a procedural that is one of its greatest strengths.
4.5 out of 5 Living Bricks.
Pull List Status: No, and it won't go on it either because (a) it's full but (b) loving this arc and this story doesn't confirm for me I'd love future ones. I do think, though, I'll keep picking this up as long as the Deadman story is ongoing, if my shop has it in.
Green Lantern Corps #1
This was a very solidly constructed comic book, to the point I don't really have much to say about it either way. The standout aspect was the character work with both Guy Gardner and John Stewart, but it was also very solid in the way it portrayed the whole Corps as this crazy, cosmic space police force, and that was where the art really stood out in terms of conveying scope.
The plot was all right but so far nothing spectacular, there's the shock value of killing off an entire world, but it's not the most amazing hook ever. Plus to be honest, I was slightly put off by the ultraviolence of the opening. I know it was supposed to convey something, and I'm not absurdly upset or anything, but I did feel it wasn't quite the right comic book to have severed fingers floating past the camera.
That said, it did a good job of being basic enough that readers with little prior knowledge would be able to grasp what's going on (I think!) while not seeming like an overly basic first issue - impressive since I'm assuming that this is moving on from previous continuity with almost nothing changed like the other Lantern titles?
Although as someone who isn't a huge GL fan, I do have to confess I'm still trying to work out why our sector has four Lanterns instead of the usual 1 or, as now seems to be the standard, 2.
Ultimately this was solid and I think I'll enjoy seeing more of the futuristic landscapes and alien Corps members, and the writer has convinced me he can bring a deft touch of characterisation, but it didn't do anything that made me drop my jaw in amazement. Partly that's personal taste, but partly, this was a lot of setup.
3 out of 5 Severed Fingers.
Pull List Status: It's on K's list so I'll probably keep reading it. Based on this, I probably wouldn't have added it to my own, but I'm happy to read it if someone puts it in front of me.
Legion of Super-Heroes #1
Ugh, I don't even know what to say about this. I don't feel I can review it. It's just straight-up continuing a former run, with about a million characters in four different locations with a bunch of different dramas. I have no idea who anyone is or why anyone's doing anything and I honestly struggled to finish it. By now I barely even remember what happened in it. At least with the other Legion book, they were all physically in the same place and dealing with the same predicament and it had prettier art. (Not that there's anything wrong with the art here, it's just not enough to make up for the fact I have no idea what's happening).
I spoke a bit before about how I love the concept of the Legion and some of the characters (because I do know a few), but I have a horrible time getting into any of their titles because it always feels like this. I'm glad they've kept the convention of the box-outs giving their names and powers, but, like other Legion books I've read, they interchange superhero names with personal names and all the personal names are futuristic and unfamiliar so you have to learn two sets of names for an already enormous cast.
It's such a shame because I want to like this book, but this is like the worst jumping on point ever, to the point I feel I can't even give it a fair review (where I've been trying to take accessibility into account and marking down where it isn't, but not treating that as the be-all and end-all), because I have no clue what's happening.
Bottom line is, if you like the Legion or the previous run, you'll probably enjoy this because it's just the next issue. But I'm totally incapable of giving it a balanced review due to the fact I lack the appropriate knowledge to do so. HAD I that knowledge, I would mark it down by at least a point (maybe two given how badly it relies on previous knowledge) for that failing given it's a #1, then go from there based on the comic itself.
As things stand, the only score I feel I can give it is:
1 out of 5 Super-Heroes of the Future.
Pull List Status: No.
Nightwing #1
What I liked about this issue was the way it brought back the circus. That's probably been done at some point in history already, but I've never read it and it was nice to see Dick returning. I think it could be really awesome if he just RAN OFF with the circus and was like a traveling vigilante. Though probably someone would put Haly's Circus Tour and Nightwing's appearances together. But Gotham's just so full of heroes, and I think a roadtrip hero could be kind of cool. But now I'm speculating on things that probably won't happen. Regardless, I did enjoy Dick's narration of the comic, I got a good sense of his character and I liked the way it was clear what made him different from Bruce. I genuinely believe he is happy to be Nightwing again.
I was less sure of the choice to have two police officers killed while Dick was around the corner changing. I mean, I know he's not the one who killed them, and I know if he went out there and stopped the guy straight up without being in costume, he would get found out and then maybe not be able to help people in the future? But given it's something that happens and we immediately move passed, I'm honestly not sure what the point was? Because it's not exactly inspiring to have your hero voice a hope that some cops can hold off a bad guy while he's changing only to find out he was wrong and they got good and dead.
I also have concerns about the cliffhanger. I'm guessing it ties into the Batman cliffhanger, and if the two comics are going to tell independent but interrelated stories, that you do not have to follow both comics to understand, then I'm okay with that. But if not, I'm not sure a crossover is really the sort of thing you want in your first issues.
I mean, the other thing is that there's a matter of perception here. I know that Batgirl and Nightwing are guesting in each other's comics later on and I'm sure there'll be like a mini-crossover thing going on there, but don't expect to be punished for reading Batgirl but not Nightwing when it happens. Batman, however, is setting up a pretty longhaul arc, and this cliffhanger is the first hook into it. So, I don't know, probably it will be handled fine, but I do hope that each book maintains its narrative coherency independent of each other.
Having said that, the art was pretty nice and as I said, the story's solid, though again, there's also nothing in here that truly wows me with originality or made me grin with glee while reading it.
3 out of 5 Flawless Mechanics.
Pull List Status: No. This is something I'd probably read if someone put it in front of me, though, but K's not interested in it either so that probably won't happen. Though I think I have a friend who'll be reading it, so maybe if he says it's good I'll ask to borrow his copies.
Red Hood and the Outlaws #1
OH WHERE TO FUCKING START.
OH MY GOD I HATE THIS.
I HATE THIS SO MUCH I LACK WORDS.
Let's get the stuff that's not about Starfire out of the way. It's nicely drawn. This artist deserves a better gig. I like the sketchy style. If you like that kind of dynamic, Jason and Roy had a reasonable buddy-cop (buddy-vigilante?) kind of thing going at the start. The tagline "to be explained" was a reasonably nice inversion of "to be continued" that acknowledged it was okay for the reader to have no fucking clue what was going on, given that at about that time, the reader was probably starting to get teasy about having no fucking clue what was going on.
But people, let's be honest, Starfire is what this is all about.
What they've done to her character is so consistent throughout the book and so grossly offensive, I struggle to focus on anything past it. I can't find a single interpretation that's not horrifying. I can't think of anything thoughtful the writer might be trying to achieve.
This is not about judging Starfire for being a sexually confident or liberated character. This is about judging the writer for writing Starfire as an object rather than a person.
Bottom line - when you tell a story about something that might offend and perpetuate genuinely harmful stereotypes, you need to be extra thoughtful, you need to be aware you won't necessarily be given the benefit of the doubt, you need to make your intentions clear. It's fair that you get held to a higher standard.
Is it possible to tell a good, thoughtful story about a woman who engages in serial, emotionless, amnesiac sex because she, rather nebulously, "wants" to? Sure, it probably is. But it's close enough to a really, really disgusting fantasy about women as sexbots that you damn well better put a lot of thought into her perspective and motivations, and you'd better make that perspective and those motivations pretty damn compelling. And if you don't do this, you don't get to cry about it when people are appalled and wonder where your benefit of the doubt it, and why you have to be held accountable and restricted because of what other people are constantly doing in the media. Because, among other things, at that point, you are one of those other people, and even if you had some grand scheme to reveal a brilliant, skewering piece of character development four issue down the line, no one owes you four issues' grace.
The reason why the argument that Starfire is an empowered character is bullshit is that Starfire is not a character in this comic book.
I say this because she gets nothing that a character rather than an object should get. Sure, she gets one page (and only a single full-page panel) where we get her internal monologue about how she can't tell Jason or Roy apart but they make her laugh so she figures she'll stay here cus she's got nowhere else to go. Fucking great. Her thoughts are plastered over pinup shots of her walking out of the ocean in a bikini that was apparently originally meant to be transparent while a kid takes wank bank photos of her on his phone. So even in the one shred of perspective she gets, she's thinking about how she likes the boys and wants to fuck them they make her laugh. It's Jason Todd who tells us her history. Sure he's explaining it to Roy which makes some sense, but in a long line of fuckups, I'm also forced to point out that if they were looking for another way to inject some perspective or context into her personality and behaviour, she could have explained her own history to him.
She's totally inconsistently characterised even within the space of these twenty pages. From her snippet of internal monologue, from Jason's recounting of her history and from her attitude to Roy when she propositions him, we get an image of a nihilistic, hedonistic, emotionally detached woman who really doesn't connect to the world around her, who demands, rather than asking, who doesn't like to be questioned.
But the first thing she does when she flies over to the Jeep after torching the tanks is to sweetly ask whether Jason needs anymore help escaping and accommodates by flying off to search for more tanks. In that scene, she genuinely seems to be being written as more of a sweet, happy-to-help kind of girl who's Oh-So-Pleased to go Blow-Up-Tanks for Wonderful Jason.
Despite the fact that Starfire basically saves their asses and is the only reason the escape works, neither Jason nor Roy react to Starfire in any way throughout the book that doesn't involve sex. Her introduction is a joke about her chest size. Then we get Jason bragging that he's slept with her. Then when she flies off to save them from MORE trouble, Jason jokes that she can't stop thinking about him.
The next conversation they have about her (in her absence) is about how it's not awkward that she used to date Dick Grayson (though rebooted Starfire I doubt was "dating" him), Jason's rival, because she doesn't remember him. Because she doesn't remember anyone. Roy gets to listen to the true extent of Starfire's short term memory problems with a face that suggests he thinks this is AWESOME.
Then she propositions Roy who, after ascertaining she's not Jason's property, totally takes her up on the offer, and they proceed to trash their hotel room.
So we now have a team where the chick is banging both of the dudes, who don't mind sharing not because it's an open relationship, or an attempt to seriously portray polyamory in comics, but because Scott Lobdell has carefully crafted a character that is nothing more than a blow-up sex doll - a lifesize version of a porn mag passed between buddies.
Her history has been literally erased, from her own mind, and there is no effort within the comic to portray this different experience of memory in an interesting science fictional way, either in terms of Starfire's personal experience or how that notion might impact Roy or Jason, who seem totally unphased by the notion that their friend views them as utterly indistinct and disposable. But right, she's not their friend, she's their blow-up plastic "friend".
This is all made even worse - if possible - by the fact that while I'm not hugely familiar with her, it's my understanding that the original Starfire was a sexually liberated but in an emotional, free love, respect for all sort of way. She was not sexually embarrassed and saw no reason not to engage in sexual activity, but this was generally portrayed as a positive thing. To misinterpret, or reinterpret genuine sexual confidence with...whatever the fuck is going on in this book is sad on a level I lack the words to describe.
Sex positive does not equal a male fantasy about the ultimate disposable woman, who obviously wants you. Therefore she wants something, so it's automatically feminist. UGH.
Another thing that makes it terrible is that from what I can tell from the interview in the back, the writer isn't even trying to write Starfire as a nihilistic, detached character. Like he genuinely thinks everyone in this comic is having a GREAT TIME and that it's some kind of redemptive journey for all of them.
Final point, riddle me this, interwebs. I get that Jason Todd is (in)famous in comic book circles, but undoubtedly Starfire is more famous outside them given that she starred in the Teen Titans cartoon for five years or something. In fact I believe a friend of mine may be getting this book because he grew up with that series and liked her character. And Starfire is hardly unpopular within the world of comics. Jason Todd is a character you can't even get two people to agree on whether or not he should have been brought back to life.
So if the goal is to be accessible to people outside of comics without alienating regular readers, why wasn't this Starfire and the Outlaws?
OH WAIT. I KNOW WHY.
0 out of 5 OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT GET IN THE CARs.
Pull List Status: AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAH. no.
Supergirl #1
I'll get the negative part of this out of the way first - it's very decompressed. The issue is a very quick read - it's essentially a single extended scene. The reason why I'm still going to score it very highly, despite the fact that usually I dislike the idea of decompression, setting up, not giving us enough interesting stuff, is that while I finished it and felt, "Huh, that was short..." I wouldn't want to get rid of any part of that. And...it took twenty pages to do.
I love Supergirl, but to say that she's been inconsistently characterised since her return to continuity is...an understatement.
My favourite arcs from her have always been where she's been thoughtful, competent and determined, but in a different way to her cousin, or to anyone really. The arcs where she questions Kal-El's belief that they can save humans from falling out of buildings but they shouldn't interfere and teach them to fly. Unfortunately a lot of the time, she's instead characterised as an angst-ridden teen, and the way she's off in her own comic means that none of her family ever step in to parent her like she needs half the time (due to the way she's written).
So honestly, the solicit for this issue had me concerned. Fortunately, the first issue is actually promising.
This book is thoughtful. Kara is pensive, wistful almost. There's a beautiful, eerie quality to the silence of her initial moments, when she believes she's dreaming, and is charmed by the robots, the snow that's not making her cold, the fact she's in the formal clothes of her house, which she shouldn't, apparently, be wearing for years. It's small details like that that cause this issue's slow pace but also that really make me feel that we're seeing a Kara who is more than a collection of emo teenage cliches.
The art is almost painterly, and there's a wonderful, muted colour palette. The use of colour is particularly lovely in the sequence where the sun starts rising and she realises it's wrong, that she can't be on Krypton.
The art is a little better at the start than towards the end, to my untrained eye, but I really do like the style on display here and am looking forward to seeing more of it.
As I said, it's slow and short at the same time, but so atmospheric I really don't mind.
Finally, a brief word on her costume. I like the cape and boots lot. They really look formal and regal. But I'm really not sure about the bikini bottom, especially the weird...crotch plate? Hmmm. It's odd because as a superhero outfit I actually think it kind of rocks, but I have trouble imagining a bathing suit, even one with kikass boots and an awesome cloak to go with it, as a ceremonial outfit.
4 out of 5 Siberian Wastelands.
Pull List Status: Yes, this is on my list and it's staying there!
Wonder Woman #1
I loved this pretty much unreservedly. From the angular, stylised art that I didn't think I'd like when I saw promo material, but just works perfectly in the context of the issue, to the brutal, bloody take on modern mythology. When I heard this was going to be more of a horror comic my first thought was how dark Greek mythology can get, and that's definitely what's on display here. The creation of the centaurs was a bloody epic, and I'm impressed that the book gives us three totally silent pages in which to allow the artist to show that sequence. It's strange, I found the severed limbs in Green Lantern Corps to be distracting, but here it feels tonally appropriate.
I'm really, really thrilled to see that the general response to the comic is positive. I don't know I have faith that Wonder Woman ever really will sell as well as she deserves, but this is certainly a comic that deserves the buzz it's getting. Although I will say, cus this is my LJ and I can, that a small part of me winces whenever I see comments about how this is finally Wonder Woman done right because, as Azzarello himself says, this is a pretty soft reboot. The Gods and Greek myth have been a heavy part of Wonder Woman for a long time, and I'm not even overly familiar with most of her run. The darker tone to the comic, the more brutal and bloody paganism that infuses it, yeah, that's new, and that's working. It's not the comic I would write, perhaps, but it's intriguing, and it's a great setting for Diana. The writing is also really sharp and witty. A lot is said in few words, and Hermes' voice, particularly, felt fully-formed and interesting.
But moving on to Diana! I've seen some criticisms of the fact that Wonder Woman doesn't appear until a third of the way into the story, and isn't centre stage the entire time. That's a criticism I can understand but not quite one I share. I feel her role in the story is clearly laid out and I am really impressed by the way Azzarello managed to characterise her so well with so few words. It was a brilliant display of economic characterisation.
Perhaps I'm projecting, given I've seen some comments to the effect she's not as compassionate or caring as she once was, but I didn't see that. I saw practicality, sure, but I also felt like it was very clear that she was immediately and unquestioningly concerned for Zola. I felt she was being honest rather than stern and I felt Zola reacted as if she understood that. I love the responsibility she displays, which I think is classic Diana. She realises she was daft not to anticipate Zola's use of the key, but it doesn't, for a second, occur to her to do anything other than note her own error and move on; never a hint of frustration towards Zola.
The sequence where she takes out the centaurs is another great example of Chiang's skill as a sequential illustrator and, since I'm a fan of the economical approach to Diana's character that's been taken here, I think it was brave no to add any internal monologue, but rather to add the creepy prophetic voiceover from the Oracles. I quickly cottoned on to who was speaking and about what, and still can't understand the specifics (oh prophecy), but it was wonderfully menacing. In the hands of a lesser writer, the modernisms thrown into the words of prophecy might feel cute, like it was trying to hard. But here it feels genuinely appropriate if only because it's creepy. Cryptic omens interspersed with blunt reality - "this won't end good for you".
I'm also thrilled that Diana is still being portrayed as a warrior, that she uses weapons, and that when necessary, she will use lethal (or in this case dismembering) levels of force. Never lightly, never when there's another choice, but she will do it and she will not hesitate. I know some people dislike that about her - I suppose this goes all the way back to the Max Lord controversy, though I kind of wish I'd been around to see if there was similar controversy over her earlier beheading of Medousa, or I believe she killed mythological creatures in the Perez run even? I'm uncertain. The point is, this isn't a new aspect to her character that's being introduced to make it darker or grittier or even that's at odds with her generally defensive or peaceable manner. It's something that sets her aside from Batman and Superman. She's not just Superman but a chick, she's a Greek warrior. She fights with weapons, she wages war.
It's interesting to contrast this to my reaction to Starling carrying revolvers. Obviously I have a very different reaction. Part of it's because I know what Wonder Woman's philosophy on the issue is and I know how seriously she takes it and how, because of her power level, how rarely she has to choose that as an option unless dealing with real supernatural monsters, rather than just being a vigilante wandering around Gotham with a pair of pistols.
I think another thing, though, is the motif with which her character has been designed (even if that was over the course of seventy years and by committee). Superman can't kill anyone because he's basically Space Jesus and if he claimed moral authority to determine life and death, he'd pretty much become a benevolent dictator because everyone would let him. Batman can't kill anyone because he's literally a vigilante crimefighter and there are serious questions about his right to do that and his moral superiority; that's why the Red Hood is a mirror to him.
But Wonder Woman is honestly not a vigilante or superhero in quite the same way. She's a genuine ranking official of her home nation, in addition to being the chosen champion (or at least closely associated with) of actual Gods. Her mission might be to bring the way of peace from Themyscira to the rest of the world, but she's also a soldier and a monster-fighting champion. One of the cool things about Gail Simone's run, for instance, was when she actually declared war on someone. Like in a legal sense.
Now I have no idea what her political station is in the Azzarello run, and honestly I don't think it mkaes much difference, and I'm really rambling now. But my point is that I think Wonder Woman is very unusual in that she works as a Mythic Warrior in a Superhero landscape and...that kind of means I feel different thematic rules apply to her. Her refusal to kill or maim unless absolutely necessary is a core part of her. But so is the willingness to behead shit if it is absolutely necessary. And that's my thesis on why I'm glad that part of her characterisation remained intact.
Also in a week ripe with BOOBIES ISSUES, I would just like to point out that miraculously, this comic manages to have its two female leads in underwear and armoured underwear respectively, and show someone changing, and I never felt awkward about it. Cus Cliff Chiang draws like a boss. Also the first thing Wonder Woman does in this comic is wake up and choke a bitch. BECAUSE OF COURSE. Then she headbutts a centaur. I really feel if this is not enough to convinced you of the badass awesome of this comic, you are a lost cause.
There are two things that bugged me a bit, but neither are things I intend to dock points for because both are kind of personal nitpicks and the latter isn't even something that the creative team had control over.
The first thing is that, honestly, I kind of winced a bit with the knocked-up-by-Zeus reveal, not because it didn't make sense (because dude, ZEUS), but just because I tend to get a bit twitchy whenever there are BABIES IN THINGS I LIKE. Which bugs me, because I feel this is an artificial and unfair phobia due solely to the fact that it's often a herald of bad things to come for female characters I like, and the fact that it happened to almost every show I was watching this year, and none of them handled it well! But in this case, it's clearly a central piece of plot and it's not like it's DIANA, so really, my objective brain thinks this is going to be fine, and the more I think about it the less concerned I am. But I have to confess I did have that momentary kneejerk reaction of NO, NO NOT YOU TOO. ;)
The second thing is the costume. UGH I KNOW, everyone goes on about the pants/no pants thing and it's obnoxious and I agree, but I do have some issues with the current costume. Actually the biggest is just that they added heels to her boots, which is distracting every time I see it because it's stopping my zen approach to the swimsuit as a sort of barbarian style practical wrestling ensemble. But also I just wanted to throw in my two cents on the pants/no-pants thing and say that I reject the question! Because I also think the pants don't help because the problem is that her costume says nothing about her character. Adding pants doesn't get around that, and doesn't make her look distinctive. Although to some people it might make her look less ridiculous. Though my personal feeling is that it also makes her look less likely to be running around talking to Greek Myth Monsters.
DRESS HER IN GLADIATORIAL ARMOUR, PEOPLE. A SKIRT-THING LIKE GLADIATORS USED TO WEAR AND A HALTER-TOP BREAST PLATE.
Okay I'm done.
No, but seriously, this was ace.
5 out of 5 Biased Reviewers. ;)
Pull List Status: FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER.
WEEK THREE COMPLETE.