Scans: Gotham City Sirens 21, Gates of Gotham 1
Gates of Gotham 1: Written by SCOTT SNYDER and KYLE HIGGINS; Art and Cover by TREVOR MCCARTHY
Gotham City Sirens 21: Written by PETER CALLOWAY; Art by JEREMY HAUN
No Bruce, but a lot of the supporting cast in these scans! Last month's Sirens especially totally broke my heart, but featured some fantastic art, which is...hard to capture in just one square. The fuller sequence below the cut is incredible, though.
Starting with Gates of Gotham, which is a five-part miniseries exploring the history of the Waynes, Kanes, and (yawn) Elliots. Based on that and the fact that "Batman" is investigating the destruction of the bridges of Gotham built by the founding families, I assumed it would be Bruce, but it's not. I'll be honest, Dick as Batman is not my thing, no matter how well-done it is. It's just not personally where I like to see him. But I decided to give this miniseries a try because Snyder's getting fantastic reviews over on Detective, and because this features a large chunk of the bat-kids working together, some of them for the first time.
McCarthy's art style doesn't do a whole lot for me either--okay, I admit it. I'm shallow. I like my boys pretty. On the other hand, I do appreciate that he takes the time to make Dick, Tim, and Damian all distinctly different and not just identical good-looking guys with black hair and blue eyes. I've clipped the most interesting pages in my opinion, where Cassandra Cain shows back up for the first time in a long time:
Notice that look between Cass and Damian in the last two panels. I believe this is the first canon meeting between these two former assassins trained by Ra's al Ghul. I wonder what they're thinking? I'm very curious to see what they think of each other and how their relationship goes, and it looks like Snyder and Higgins are going to deliver on that.
Meanwhile, Calloway and Haun are doing their best to break my heart in Gotham City Sirens. When last we left Harley Quinn, she was trying to break into Arkham to kill the Joker. She meets Aaron Cash, the head guard, who assumes she's there to free him:
Harley tells Cash how the Joker was responsible for killing his baby son, and Cash gives her his gun and escorts her to the Joker. To which I can only say: Aaron, you have a touching faith in Harley. Sadly misplaced, but touching.
Harley confronts the Joker, and things go--alas--as they must always go, I suppose. I was actually really crushed by this sequence when I first read it, and hardly noticed the art (this is a failing of mine as a reader). I'll give you the key pages and then talk about the art!
AUGH NO. *sobs*
Though I was struck on re-reading with how Haun treats her flashbacks, and the implicit argument in them. How her mental images get more and more fragmented, more and more simple and disassociated as they grow more positive. It's an interesting sequence because while the words romanticize Harley and Joker's relationship, the art undermines the words by showing a fracturing mind.
The next issue is out this week but I haven't read it yet, so if you have, please keep me mostly spoiler-free!
The issue ended with something that legitimately made me angry: Selina spots a commotion somewhere and gives up on helping Harley to go check it out.
Gotta say, I'm pretty much entirely with Ivy here, especially since it turned out that Selina was being distracted by an incredibly pointless three-part crossover plot with Azrael. Not that their presence would have made a difference to Harley in that moment of crisis, I don't think, but it sucks that Selina turned her back on her like that.
Gotham City Sirens 21: Written by PETER CALLOWAY; Art by JEREMY HAUN
No Bruce, but a lot of the supporting cast in these scans! Last month's Sirens especially totally broke my heart, but featured some fantastic art, which is...hard to capture in just one square. The fuller sequence below the cut is incredible, though.
Starting with Gates of Gotham, which is a five-part miniseries exploring the history of the Waynes, Kanes, and (yawn) Elliots. Based on that and the fact that "Batman" is investigating the destruction of the bridges of Gotham built by the founding families, I assumed it would be Bruce, but it's not. I'll be honest, Dick as Batman is not my thing, no matter how well-done it is. It's just not personally where I like to see him. But I decided to give this miniseries a try because Snyder's getting fantastic reviews over on Detective, and because this features a large chunk of the bat-kids working together, some of them for the first time.
McCarthy's art style doesn't do a whole lot for me either--okay, I admit it. I'm shallow. I like my boys pretty. On the other hand, I do appreciate that he takes the time to make Dick, Tim, and Damian all distinctly different and not just identical good-looking guys with black hair and blue eyes. I've clipped the most interesting pages in my opinion, where Cassandra Cain shows back up for the first time in a long time:
Notice that look between Cass and Damian in the last two panels. I believe this is the first canon meeting between these two former assassins trained by Ra's al Ghul. I wonder what they're thinking? I'm very curious to see what they think of each other and how their relationship goes, and it looks like Snyder and Higgins are going to deliver on that.
Meanwhile, Calloway and Haun are doing their best to break my heart in Gotham City Sirens. When last we left Harley Quinn, she was trying to break into Arkham to kill the Joker. She meets Aaron Cash, the head guard, who assumes she's there to free him:
Harley tells Cash how the Joker was responsible for killing his baby son, and Cash gives her his gun and escorts her to the Joker. To which I can only say: Aaron, you have a touching faith in Harley. Sadly misplaced, but touching.
Harley confronts the Joker, and things go--alas--as they must always go, I suppose. I was actually really crushed by this sequence when I first read it, and hardly noticed the art (this is a failing of mine as a reader). I'll give you the key pages and then talk about the art!
AUGH NO. *sobs*
Though I was struck on re-reading with how Haun treats her flashbacks, and the implicit argument in them. How her mental images get more and more fragmented, more and more simple and disassociated as they grow more positive. It's an interesting sequence because while the words romanticize Harley and Joker's relationship, the art undermines the words by showing a fracturing mind.
The next issue is out this week but I haven't read it yet, so if you have, please keep me mostly spoiler-free!
The issue ended with something that legitimately made me angry: Selina spots a commotion somewhere and gives up on helping Harley to go check it out.
Gotta say, I'm pretty much entirely with Ivy here, especially since it turned out that Selina was being distracted by an incredibly pointless three-part crossover plot with Azrael. Not that their presence would have made a difference to Harley in that moment of crisis, I don't think, but it sucks that Selina turned her back on her like that.