Normalcy? Is that even a word?
I posted this once and had to delete it because I left multiple things out, ugh. Anyway, here is an interesting post by Kristafer Anka (who did the recent redesign of Psylocke's costume) on costume design and showing skin in comics, and on to things.
Man, I keep telling myself I'm going to type these up sooner to keep them from getting long, but that's a lie. It's always a lie.
Li'l Gotham #10: Damian thinking "Napoleon" is a flavor of ice cream, and Katana getting a costume kinda like her old one, and Colin getting a "new" hat that is indistinguishable from his regular hat, was super adorable. Although someone must be teaching Damian about pop culture, if he is able to tell Colin that the 80's want "radical" back and the 90's want his flannel shirt back. But I like Li'l Gotham too much to complain about this, I will just file this as further evidence that Steph still exists somewhere off-panel. :P
#11: WHERE DO I START, ahh so cute. The "failure closet," complete with Discowing uniform and STEPH'S OUTFIT that didn't merit a case in the "real" universe even before she got disappeared? Damian telling Colin that Batman was on monitor duty because he just likes sitting alone in front of the computer no matter where he is? Colin ruining Bruce's image by being an EVEN MORE CHEERFUL Batman than Dick? Talia grab-hugging Damian and ARE YOU OKAY WINK IF YOU NEED HELP and BATS DON'T WINK? That was probably the best, because Damian's family is still absurd and dysfunctional and full of assassin wiles and Bat-angst but they love each other enough to all hug on Mother's Day.
Batman & Red Hood #20: Or then again we have the "real" universe, wherein Batman attempts to trigger seriously absurd levels of PTSD on one of his kids, or at the very least a kid he mentored (I can't figure out what his relationship with Jason is, post-reboot). All because Batman, like the reader, does not believe that anyone really dies in comic books and is searching desperately for a way to bring back Damian. AHAHA WHY DC, let's be real, I have just been reading this comic for Carrie Kelley.
Hawkeye #8-10: Okay, it took me a while, but now I am really having fun with Hawkeye. Natasha was amazing, and Bobbi and Kate were pretty great, too. I read these way too long ago to say anything coherent about them, but they were really funny, and it makes me happy that Hawkeye is the kind of comic where the ladies are allowed to be so fantastic. Because I feel like sometimes in comics you have like, Super Dude, and Lady Super Dude, and Lady Super Dude is talked up like she is THE ACTUAL BEST in her comic but as soon as she shows up in Super Dude's comic, because she's his spinoff character or his sidekick, he's automatically way better than her. (Granted, this happens to male sidekicks as well, and to anyone who is lower on the superhero tier than Super Dude is.) But anyway I liked #8 and #9 a lot, and then there was the creepy clown issue and honestly I don't really know what was supposed to be going on there. But Kate got to say she was the hero of the story, which, yes, Kate, you are.
Fearless Defenders #4: I was kind of meh about this issue? Like, I feel like a lot happened and nothing happened at the same time. Dani in her Valkyrie armor was kind of cool, as was Misty's "hero for hire" moment at the end, but mostly it seems like they were setting things up for later issues. (Cool things, I hope! It looks like!)
Ms. Marvel Annual #1: Uh, this was a Ms. Marvel Annual but it was mostly about Spider-Man, so that was a little weird. Like, the team-up was from his perspective. There were some funny bits, but there were also some really sexist jokes. I know Spider-Man mostly from movies/cartoons, and from 60's comics I read as a teenager, so I was like, PETER WHAT ARE YOU DOING TELL ME THIS IS JUST BAD WRITING. Overall I would say this was not a very good comic.
Ms. Marvel #47: Weirdly my digital comic was broken when I bought it, they couldn't fix it, and then magically it fixed itself like a week later! Anyway, this was another Carol & Peter team-up. They mostly went on a date and...nothing happened. It was cute, and not grossly sexist like the other one, but the art was terrible. Like, you could tell the artist had reused a lot of the same images multiple times to avoid having to draw more than necessary.
Legends of the DC Universe #6: Tiny fanboy Robin teaming up with Superman was really cute! I really liked the art in this, too. It looked retro, and the less dialogue/more body language approach worked really well here. The artist did a good job of making itty bitty Dick Grayson look actually menacing and happy at the same time while fighting criminals. Or perhaps menacing because of how happy he was fighting criminals. :P
#10-11: This comic was...extremely confusing. So, it was a really nice "from when Barbara was Batgirl" story, complete with not taking crap from Batman, and the art was great. It was very expressive and dynamic, and didn't feel objectifying. But I had to read the comic multiple times to try to figure out what was happening, because it simultaneously had very little exposition and changed perspective multiple times. It was written by Kelley Puckett, and he was doing that whole, COMBAT IS ITS OWN LANGUAGE thing, which is great if it works (see #6 above, also by Kelley Puckett), but SUPER CONFUSING when it doesn't. I think I understand now why I had so much trouble reading Cass' Batgirl series, because he wrote a lot of it, and naturally Cass lends herself to COMBAT IS ITS OWN LANGUAGE.
Superman/Batman #62: Kara, you are so cute! Putting on your civvies while flying, haha. But why on Earth does Commissioner Gordon let a pair of teenagers into Arkham? Tim is so small you can put him in your pocket and Kara has never been to Gotham before WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Although it appears that if you just let the pair of them, and Kara in particular, handle every asylum crisis, you would never have to worry about it again. Lesson of this comic: Kara and her heat vision and her righteous anger are 1000% better than whatever you're usually throwing at Arkham breakouts. Which is why she has to go back to Metropolis for plot reasons so the universe can resume functioning as usual?
...and trade paperbacks from the library:
Wonder Woman: Blood: I didn't really care about this? So...basically, Diana has Cassie's old origin? I felt like I didn't get a good sense of Diana, and not in a "distant goddess" way, in a "not spending enough time with her" way. Also, does Wonder Woman live in England now? Um, why? I was kind of confused about some stuff, like I didn't realize the Amazons got turned into snakes until someone else told me. Cliff Chiang does do a pretty neat Diana--I like how she is tall and big and powerful-looking--but I kept thinking her arms looked weirdly skinny in proportion to her body, and I couldn't figure out if I have been tricked by regular comics art into having weird expectations of proportion, or if her arms really should have been bigger.
Batman: The City of Owls: I heard that you don't have to read The Night of the Owls before you read this, but I was confused about some things and I am not sure that is true. This was kind of disorganized, and I liked some of the parts more than others, but overall it was good. The part with Mr. Freeze was creepy but interesting, and it was fun to see Nightwing and Robin together. I am still ??? about the whole Lincoln March thing, but I guess it means that he and Bruce look extremely similar for Reasons, and not just because of how Greg Capullo draws, or because all male children in Gotham must be born square-jawed and black-haired and blue-eyed Just In Case Bruce Wayne needs to adopt them. Speaking of Greg Capullo, can he draw Dick Grayson forever? His Dick Grayson has the most adorable face.
Superman: Red Son: It is not a good idea to read a Superman Elseworld for your first Superman comic. I knew this, and I did it anyway. I had to take it back to the library, so what was I going to do? It was kind of cool, and Batman's hat was pretty hilarious, but I don't really buy the whole "anarchist Batman" thing and I didn't like what they did with Diana. So mostly I was just like, whatever.
Red Robin: 7 Days of Death: So, did, they not give the writer very much notice on the cancellation? Or were they not anticipating how much Tim would get changed by the reboot? Because Tim just kind of gets...left. And they leave plot points that seem like they are expecting to follow up on later. Also, it makes me really sad that Tim doesn't go back to school. He's so smart, and I don't know why Bruce or Dick or someone isn't telling him he can finish high school first and do full-time crime-fighting later. Question: are you *actually* supposed to take Tim as seriously as it sounds like you are? Does Tim take himself that seriously? Or does he know that he sounds like he's trying wayyyy too hard to be cool? Like, I believe him the most when he says things like, "Sometimes, I get a little OCD about things," and I'm like, yes, NO KIDDING. But I can't tell if I only believe him when he's a bit dorky because of excessive exposure to fanon, or because he is actually dorky.
JLA: A League of One: I really liked this a lot. It's a JLA comic, but it's basically about Diana fighting a dragon? It has a really great fantasy tone, and the art is gorgeous. Like, really detailed, and the faces look like real people's faces, and Wonder Woman looks powerful and beautiful but not overly sexualized, and the fighting poses make sense. It focuses on Wonder Woman a lot and what makes her strong and what hurts her, and it's really well done.
Man, I keep telling myself I'm going to type these up sooner to keep them from getting long, but that's a lie. It's always a lie.
Li'l Gotham #10: Damian thinking "Napoleon" is a flavor of ice cream, and Katana getting a costume kinda like her old one, and Colin getting a "new" hat that is indistinguishable from his regular hat, was super adorable. Although someone must be teaching Damian about pop culture, if he is able to tell Colin that the 80's want "radical" back and the 90's want his flannel shirt back. But I like Li'l Gotham too much to complain about this, I will just file this as further evidence that Steph still exists somewhere off-panel. :P
#11: WHERE DO I START, ahh so cute. The "failure closet," complete with Discowing uniform and STEPH'S OUTFIT that didn't merit a case in the "real" universe even before she got disappeared? Damian telling Colin that Batman was on monitor duty because he just likes sitting alone in front of the computer no matter where he is? Colin ruining Bruce's image by being an EVEN MORE CHEERFUL Batman than Dick? Talia grab-hugging Damian and ARE YOU OKAY WINK IF YOU NEED HELP and BATS DON'T WINK? That was probably the best, because Damian's family is still absurd and dysfunctional and full of assassin wiles and Bat-angst but they love each other enough to all hug on Mother's Day.
Batman & Red Hood #20: Or then again we have the "real" universe, wherein Batman attempts to trigger seriously absurd levels of PTSD on one of his kids, or at the very least a kid he mentored (I can't figure out what his relationship with Jason is, post-reboot). All because Batman, like the reader, does not believe that anyone really dies in comic books and is searching desperately for a way to bring back Damian. AHAHA WHY DC, let's be real, I have just been reading this comic for Carrie Kelley.
Hawkeye #8-10: Okay, it took me a while, but now I am really having fun with Hawkeye. Natasha was amazing, and Bobbi and Kate were pretty great, too. I read these way too long ago to say anything coherent about them, but they were really funny, and it makes me happy that Hawkeye is the kind of comic where the ladies are allowed to be so fantastic. Because I feel like sometimes in comics you have like, Super Dude, and Lady Super Dude, and Lady Super Dude is talked up like she is THE ACTUAL BEST in her comic but as soon as she shows up in Super Dude's comic, because she's his spinoff character or his sidekick, he's automatically way better than her. (Granted, this happens to male sidekicks as well, and to anyone who is lower on the superhero tier than Super Dude is.) But anyway I liked #8 and #9 a lot, and then there was the creepy clown issue and honestly I don't really know what was supposed to be going on there. But Kate got to say she was the hero of the story, which, yes, Kate, you are.
Fearless Defenders #4: I was kind of meh about this issue? Like, I feel like a lot happened and nothing happened at the same time. Dani in her Valkyrie armor was kind of cool, as was Misty's "hero for hire" moment at the end, but mostly it seems like they were setting things up for later issues. (Cool things, I hope! It looks like!)
Ms. Marvel Annual #1: Uh, this was a Ms. Marvel Annual but it was mostly about Spider-Man, so that was a little weird. Like, the team-up was from his perspective. There were some funny bits, but there were also some really sexist jokes. I know Spider-Man mostly from movies/cartoons, and from 60's comics I read as a teenager, so I was like, PETER WHAT ARE YOU DOING TELL ME THIS IS JUST BAD WRITING. Overall I would say this was not a very good comic.
Ms. Marvel #47: Weirdly my digital comic was broken when I bought it, they couldn't fix it, and then magically it fixed itself like a week later! Anyway, this was another Carol & Peter team-up. They mostly went on a date and...nothing happened. It was cute, and not grossly sexist like the other one, but the art was terrible. Like, you could tell the artist had reused a lot of the same images multiple times to avoid having to draw more than necessary.
Legends of the DC Universe #6: Tiny fanboy Robin teaming up with Superman was really cute! I really liked the art in this, too. It looked retro, and the less dialogue/more body language approach worked really well here. The artist did a good job of making itty bitty Dick Grayson look actually menacing and happy at the same time while fighting criminals. Or perhaps menacing because of how happy he was fighting criminals. :P
#10-11: This comic was...extremely confusing. So, it was a really nice "from when Barbara was Batgirl" story, complete with not taking crap from Batman, and the art was great. It was very expressive and dynamic, and didn't feel objectifying. But I had to read the comic multiple times to try to figure out what was happening, because it simultaneously had very little exposition and changed perspective multiple times. It was written by Kelley Puckett, and he was doing that whole, COMBAT IS ITS OWN LANGUAGE thing, which is great if it works (see #6 above, also by Kelley Puckett), but SUPER CONFUSING when it doesn't. I think I understand now why I had so much trouble reading Cass' Batgirl series, because he wrote a lot of it, and naturally Cass lends herself to COMBAT IS ITS OWN LANGUAGE.
Superman/Batman #62: Kara, you are so cute! Putting on your civvies while flying, haha. But why on Earth does Commissioner Gordon let a pair of teenagers into Arkham? Tim is so small you can put him in your pocket and Kara has never been to Gotham before WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Although it appears that if you just let the pair of them, and Kara in particular, handle every asylum crisis, you would never have to worry about it again. Lesson of this comic: Kara and her heat vision and her righteous anger are 1000% better than whatever you're usually throwing at Arkham breakouts. Which is why she has to go back to Metropolis for plot reasons so the universe can resume functioning as usual?
...and trade paperbacks from the library:
Wonder Woman: Blood: I didn't really care about this? So...basically, Diana has Cassie's old origin? I felt like I didn't get a good sense of Diana, and not in a "distant goddess" way, in a "not spending enough time with her" way. Also, does Wonder Woman live in England now? Um, why? I was kind of confused about some stuff, like I didn't realize the Amazons got turned into snakes until someone else told me. Cliff Chiang does do a pretty neat Diana--I like how she is tall and big and powerful-looking--but I kept thinking her arms looked weirdly skinny in proportion to her body, and I couldn't figure out if I have been tricked by regular comics art into having weird expectations of proportion, or if her arms really should have been bigger.
Batman: The City of Owls: I heard that you don't have to read The Night of the Owls before you read this, but I was confused about some things and I am not sure that is true. This was kind of disorganized, and I liked some of the parts more than others, but overall it was good. The part with Mr. Freeze was creepy but interesting, and it was fun to see Nightwing and Robin together. I am still ??? about the whole Lincoln March thing, but I guess it means that he and Bruce look extremely similar for Reasons, and not just because of how Greg Capullo draws, or because all male children in Gotham must be born square-jawed and black-haired and blue-eyed Just In Case Bruce Wayne needs to adopt them. Speaking of Greg Capullo, can he draw Dick Grayson forever? His Dick Grayson has the most adorable face.
Superman: Red Son: It is not a good idea to read a Superman Elseworld for your first Superman comic. I knew this, and I did it anyway. I had to take it back to the library, so what was I going to do? It was kind of cool, and Batman's hat was pretty hilarious, but I don't really buy the whole "anarchist Batman" thing and I didn't like what they did with Diana. So mostly I was just like, whatever.
Red Robin: 7 Days of Death: So, did, they not give the writer very much notice on the cancellation? Or were they not anticipating how much Tim would get changed by the reboot? Because Tim just kind of gets...left. And they leave plot points that seem like they are expecting to follow up on later. Also, it makes me really sad that Tim doesn't go back to school. He's so smart, and I don't know why Bruce or Dick or someone isn't telling him he can finish high school first and do full-time crime-fighting later. Question: are you *actually* supposed to take Tim as seriously as it sounds like you are? Does Tim take himself that seriously? Or does he know that he sounds like he's trying wayyyy too hard to be cool? Like, I believe him the most when he says things like, "Sometimes, I get a little OCD about things," and I'm like, yes, NO KIDDING. But I can't tell if I only believe him when he's a bit dorky because of excessive exposure to fanon, or because he is actually dorky.
JLA: A League of One: I really liked this a lot. It's a JLA comic, but it's basically about Diana fighting a dragon? It has a really great fantasy tone, and the art is gorgeous. Like, really detailed, and the faces look like real people's faces, and Wonder Woman looks powerful and beautiful but not overly sexualized, and the fighting poses make sense. It focuses on Wonder Woman a lot and what makes her strong and what hurts her, and it's really well done.