The New 52 - Week of 9/14/11
Supremely good haul this week, but I'll try to keep it within one entry.
Green Lantern #1
We start off with Sinestro reciting the Green Lantern oath at the behest of the Guardians. Sinestro still wants to leave, but the Guardians minus Ganthet ask him to look upon the ring's choice as a chance at redemption. He declares that he will never obey their orders, and they tell him all they expect is that he protect his sector. Ganthet, still in his greens, points out that Sinestro is a tyrant and a murderer, but the others argue that he became a tyrant and murderer in an misguided effort to better protect his homeworld, so their ultimate goals have always been the same. I haven't read enough about Sinestro to know how much of a white-washing this is, but I've always found him far more interesting in the flashbacks when he's still a good guy, so willing to forgive quite a bit to let the authors redeem this character. Citing the need to be of one mind, the other Guardians shoot forth green rays from their foreheads into Ganthet, presumably performing some kind of mind alteration or control that we will learn more about next month.
Back home, Hal Jordan has apparently not called in sick for the two months he's been fighting the Blackest Night, the Brightest Day, and the War of the Green Lanterns, so he's been dishonorably discharged, his car's been repossessed, all his bills are past due, and his landlord's about to evict him. This is all confusing because last time we saw Hal Jordon, his superior officer had figured out that he was Green Lantern and he had moved in with his girlfriend, fellow-pilot Jillian "Cowgirl" Pearlman, who also knew that he was Green Lantern, so his life should not immediately be falling apart like this. Is Cowgirl out of continuity now?
While arguing with his landlord, he hears a woman calling for help and sees her apparently beeing strangled in the window of the apartment next door. Telling the landlord to call 911, he jumps off his balcony seven stories up , across the air between the skyscrapers, and bursts through her apartment window to find that they are performing a scene for the movie.
Carol bails Hal out of jail and offers him a job at Ferris air, but not as a pilot because Hal is so reckless that she can't insure her planes if he flies them. Hal responds by asking her out with what is supposed to be a charming smile, but the artist has drawn as a creepy grimace with dead soulless eyes. It's the face that a creepy clown must have under his make-up, and is easily the most disturbing image in the comics this week.
Meanwhile, Sinestro spies on Korugar to find that in his absence, the other Yellow Lanterns have enslaved the entire populace. He kills one of his henchman who catches him spying and calls him a traitor.
Out to dinner at a fancy resturaunt, Hal asks Carol to co-sign the lease for his car, but gives the question an unnatural build-up so that it sounds like he's going to propose. Carol is so mad that he didn't propose she throws her wine in his face and storms out. So, let's recap this. While Carol Ferris and Hal Jordan have been in an on-again, off-again serious relationship for years, they have at this point been broken up longer than they've been together. He may or may not have just broken up with a serious live-in girlfriend. He was jobless, homeless, and just beginning to adjust to no longer being a Green Lantern, but just accepted a job at Ferris Air, becoming her employee and she has serious qualms about dating employees. He is still homeless and traumatized from getting kicked out of the Corps. It is now their first date and Hal Jordan is only tentatively starting to put his life back together. Raise your hand if you think that it makes any kind of sense for Carol to be upset that Hal Jordan did not propose to her at this moment. If you're hand's up, then you're a horrible misogynist who thinks that all women are fickle and marraige-obsessed. While there have been many times in their relationship where a wedding might have been said to be overdue, this is perhaps the worst time for them to get married and I believe that, if he had asked her, CAROL WOULD HAVE SAID NO! But instead of reacting like a rational, thinking creature (with bittersweet relief), she gets as upset as if she's still her Silver Age counterpart who cares about nothing but securing her MRS degree. I get that Hal and Carol had to have some sort of fight so that Hal could lose everything, but couldn't they have done it in some way that doesn't make the woman who was giving Hal mature, practical advice seconds before suddenly seem juvenile and irrational? Do they perhaps think that all women are at heart juvenile and irrational? DC, for the love of all that is holy, PUT SOMEONE ON GREEN LANTERN WHO IS WILLING TO WRITE CAROL FERRIS WITH SOME MODICRUM OF CONSISTANCY!
Hal walks home, having lost one more good thing in his life, and finds Sinestro waiting for him, saying "If you want your ring back, you'll do everything I say."
Thoughts:
Aside from the proposal-related casual misogyny, this is actually a pretty good issue. I liked the drama with Sinestro and the Guardians, liked seeing Hal adjusting to this new life where he is not special, and am really looking forward to seeing how the series develops. Fingers crossed that Sinestro is redeemed in spite of himself. The issue managed to showcase what is best and worst about Hal Jordan: he's irresponsible, reckless, arrogant, and does not easily look at things from the perspective of other people, but he's still the kind of guy who would leap across buildings seven stories up and crash through a window to save a complete stranger. It looks like he's slowly growing out of his biggest flaw ("Everything is always about me."), especially when he accepts Carol's non-flying job offer with gratitude instead of resentment. Honestly, I think losing his ring is the best thing that could have happened to this character at this point and I want to see him grow into the maturity that life without it will require. Go back to space, Sinestro! So this is definitely going on my monthly buy pile, even though I hate how they're writing Carol and the art is really crummy. (Since we're talking about DC sexism issues anyway, I'll note that there was a scandal recently when the latest bout of DC lay-offs was disproportionately hard on their small number of female writiers and artists, and that DC justified themselves by saying that they simply kept the best of the best. I find this difficult to believe since the artist they have on Green Lantern, one of their biggest titles, does a decent job with backgrounds but cannot draw human faces. Surely someone they fired did better than this.)
Batman and Robin #1
I've been looking forward to seeing the relationship between Bruce and Damian handled, and while the characters are a bit exaggerated, probably so new readers will see the conflict, this issue does not disappoint. We start off with Batman Russia taking down a perp with Bat technology, when an invisible assassin suddenly appears (fails to appear?) and takes them both out. We jump to Gotham, where Bruce is sitting in the library of Wayne Manor, brooding as only Bruce can. He promises the bust of his father, that tonight, things will change, then goes to wake Damian, who's already up. They go through the Batcave, with Bruce explaining how much his parents' death continues to affect everything he does, and Damian responding rudely, showing disrespect to his grandparents and finally declaring that grief is a weakness. Bruce agrees, telling Damian that now that Crime Alley is going to be demolished and replaced with a new housing project, he is goint to start celebrating his parents' lives rather than their deaths, remembering them on their anniversary instead. On this final commemoration of the day of their death, Bruce takes Damian to the storm drain beneath Crime Alley and folds the playbill from "The Mask of Zorro" (the movie they were watching when they died) into a paper boat, letting it float away on the water to symbolize letting go of his grief. Damian finds this all incredibly cheesy and does not appreciate what his father is trying to do in sharing with him, complaining that Bruce doesn't trust him. (Interesting note: someone else's blog pointed out that the time of death for Batman's parents is off by a minute in this issue. Don't know if that's a mistake or a small, symbolic representation of how Flashpoint changed everything - but if it's the latter, it must have pissed off all the geeks who use it as their PIN number. You know they exist.)
Our duo is called to Gotham University, where three brothers are are stealing "irradiated fuel" from some sort of reactor (I guess the University studies it?) by removing rods. Batman and Robin fight pretty well togethre, until the three ring-leaders head into the tunnel while Batman is preoccupied with henchmen and proceed to steal the bat-gyro as their get-away vehicle because - Batman doesn't lock it? And can't remotely disable it the way we've seen him control his other vehicles? I find this difficult to believe.
Anyway, Robin disagrees a direct order and follows the bad guys, and Batman can't follow because the fight has damaged walls and the containment water stabilizing the unstolen nuclear stuff is draining away. To prevent a meltdown, Batman shoots through the ceiling which conveniantly leads to the University pool directly above, dispensing a net to catch the swimmers as the pool water drains onto the fuel rods. Meanwhile, Robin ignores Batman's orders not to interfere and takes out the destabilizer on the gyro, causing it to sink and shake around, which causes the irradiated fuel in their packs to explode, frying them. Crisis averted, Bruce has an argument with his son: Damian knew shaking the fuel rods around would destabalize them, they don't have a license to kill, and Damian should follow orders; Damian did not kill them and Bruce should treat him like a partner rather than sidekick because he is "light-years ahead of the other Robins;" Damian is Bruce's son, not partner, and if Bruce can't trust him to do the right thing - but Dick trusted him! - but Damian has to earn Bruce's trust.
We return to the Russian Batman for the final page, who has been stripped of his uniform and is being lowered into a vat of acid by the now-visible villain, who has a creepy multi-eyed mask and a symbol on his chest that might be an eagle but is intentionally very similar to the bat-symbol. Calling himself "the Nothing," the villain explains that he is going to erase all of the global batmen like they never existed, and his next stop is Bruce Wayne. Fin.
Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this issue and am loving the possible tie-in with Leviathan that this interesting new villain may represent. There are some problems with the Bruce/Damian dynamic, especially in this first issue, where their personalities are exaggerated for the benefit of new readers - Bruce comes off as sentimental, and Damian a wise-ass borderline sociopath whom new readers are unlikely to be endeared to. However, it's not as bad as I feared and I think this relationship has real potential for exploration once the writers stop feeling the need to underscore everything. Damian seems back to square one as Robin, removing all the growth he went through with Dick, but I think there's a good reason for this: though no one acknowledges it, in the same way that Damian has to earn Bruce's trust, Bruce has to earn Damian's respect, just as Dick did, before Damian follows his orders. I don't think either of them is aware that this is the case because Bruce is not only Damian's father but the original Batman, but I think that's what's going on all the same. That complication has definite possibilities for drama. I also appreaciate that the artist on this series is going with a more traditional interpretation of Batman's costume, which I like better than the ones we're seeing in the rest of the new 52.
I am incredibly late iwith this entry, so Batwoman will just have to get her own, as she well deserves.
Green Lantern #1
We start off with Sinestro reciting the Green Lantern oath at the behest of the Guardians. Sinestro still wants to leave, but the Guardians minus Ganthet ask him to look upon the ring's choice as a chance at redemption. He declares that he will never obey their orders, and they tell him all they expect is that he protect his sector. Ganthet, still in his greens, points out that Sinestro is a tyrant and a murderer, but the others argue that he became a tyrant and murderer in an misguided effort to better protect his homeworld, so their ultimate goals have always been the same. I haven't read enough about Sinestro to know how much of a white-washing this is, but I've always found him far more interesting in the flashbacks when he's still a good guy, so willing to forgive quite a bit to let the authors redeem this character. Citing the need to be of one mind, the other Guardians shoot forth green rays from their foreheads into Ganthet, presumably performing some kind of mind alteration or control that we will learn more about next month.
Back home, Hal Jordan has apparently not called in sick for the two months he's been fighting the Blackest Night, the Brightest Day, and the War of the Green Lanterns, so he's been dishonorably discharged, his car's been repossessed, all his bills are past due, and his landlord's about to evict him. This is all confusing because last time we saw Hal Jordon, his superior officer had figured out that he was Green Lantern and he had moved in with his girlfriend, fellow-pilot Jillian "Cowgirl" Pearlman, who also knew that he was Green Lantern, so his life should not immediately be falling apart like this. Is Cowgirl out of continuity now?
While arguing with his landlord, he hears a woman calling for help and sees her apparently beeing strangled in the window of the apartment next door. Telling the landlord to call 911, he jumps off his balcony seven stories up , across the air between the skyscrapers, and bursts through her apartment window to find that they are performing a scene for the movie.
Carol bails Hal out of jail and offers him a job at Ferris air, but not as a pilot because Hal is so reckless that she can't insure her planes if he flies them. Hal responds by asking her out with what is supposed to be a charming smile, but the artist has drawn as a creepy grimace with dead soulless eyes. It's the face that a creepy clown must have under his make-up, and is easily the most disturbing image in the comics this week.
Meanwhile, Sinestro spies on Korugar to find that in his absence, the other Yellow Lanterns have enslaved the entire populace. He kills one of his henchman who catches him spying and calls him a traitor.
Out to dinner at a fancy resturaunt, Hal asks Carol to co-sign the lease for his car, but gives the question an unnatural build-up so that it sounds like he's going to propose. Carol is so mad that he didn't propose she throws her wine in his face and storms out. So, let's recap this. While Carol Ferris and Hal Jordan have been in an on-again, off-again serious relationship for years, they have at this point been broken up longer than they've been together. He may or may not have just broken up with a serious live-in girlfriend. He was jobless, homeless, and just beginning to adjust to no longer being a Green Lantern, but just accepted a job at Ferris Air, becoming her employee and she has serious qualms about dating employees. He is still homeless and traumatized from getting kicked out of the Corps. It is now their first date and Hal Jordan is only tentatively starting to put his life back together. Raise your hand if you think that it makes any kind of sense for Carol to be upset that Hal Jordan did not propose to her at this moment. If you're hand's up, then you're a horrible misogynist who thinks that all women are fickle and marraige-obsessed. While there have been many times in their relationship where a wedding might have been said to be overdue, this is perhaps the worst time for them to get married and I believe that, if he had asked her, CAROL WOULD HAVE SAID NO! But instead of reacting like a rational, thinking creature (with bittersweet relief), she gets as upset as if she's still her Silver Age counterpart who cares about nothing but securing her MRS degree. I get that Hal and Carol had to have some sort of fight so that Hal could lose everything, but couldn't they have done it in some way that doesn't make the woman who was giving Hal mature, practical advice seconds before suddenly seem juvenile and irrational? Do they perhaps think that all women are at heart juvenile and irrational? DC, for the love of all that is holy, PUT SOMEONE ON GREEN LANTERN WHO IS WILLING TO WRITE CAROL FERRIS WITH SOME MODICRUM OF CONSISTANCY!
Hal walks home, having lost one more good thing in his life, and finds Sinestro waiting for him, saying "If you want your ring back, you'll do everything I say."
Thoughts:
Aside from the proposal-related casual misogyny, this is actually a pretty good issue. I liked the drama with Sinestro and the Guardians, liked seeing Hal adjusting to this new life where he is not special, and am really looking forward to seeing how the series develops. Fingers crossed that Sinestro is redeemed in spite of himself. The issue managed to showcase what is best and worst about Hal Jordan: he's irresponsible, reckless, arrogant, and does not easily look at things from the perspective of other people, but he's still the kind of guy who would leap across buildings seven stories up and crash through a window to save a complete stranger. It looks like he's slowly growing out of his biggest flaw ("Everything is always about me."), especially when he accepts Carol's non-flying job offer with gratitude instead of resentment. Honestly, I think losing his ring is the best thing that could have happened to this character at this point and I want to see him grow into the maturity that life without it will require. Go back to space, Sinestro! So this is definitely going on my monthly buy pile, even though I hate how they're writing Carol and the art is really crummy. (Since we're talking about DC sexism issues anyway, I'll note that there was a scandal recently when the latest bout of DC lay-offs was disproportionately hard on their small number of female writiers and artists, and that DC justified themselves by saying that they simply kept the best of the best. I find this difficult to believe since the artist they have on Green Lantern, one of their biggest titles, does a decent job with backgrounds but cannot draw human faces. Surely someone they fired did better than this.)
Batman and Robin #1
I've been looking forward to seeing the relationship between Bruce and Damian handled, and while the characters are a bit exaggerated, probably so new readers will see the conflict, this issue does not disappoint. We start off with Batman Russia taking down a perp with Bat technology, when an invisible assassin suddenly appears (fails to appear?) and takes them both out. We jump to Gotham, where Bruce is sitting in the library of Wayne Manor, brooding as only Bruce can. He promises the bust of his father, that tonight, things will change, then goes to wake Damian, who's already up. They go through the Batcave, with Bruce explaining how much his parents' death continues to affect everything he does, and Damian responding rudely, showing disrespect to his grandparents and finally declaring that grief is a weakness. Bruce agrees, telling Damian that now that Crime Alley is going to be demolished and replaced with a new housing project, he is goint to start celebrating his parents' lives rather than their deaths, remembering them on their anniversary instead. On this final commemoration of the day of their death, Bruce takes Damian to the storm drain beneath Crime Alley and folds the playbill from "The Mask of Zorro" (the movie they were watching when they died) into a paper boat, letting it float away on the water to symbolize letting go of his grief. Damian finds this all incredibly cheesy and does not appreciate what his father is trying to do in sharing with him, complaining that Bruce doesn't trust him. (Interesting note: someone else's blog pointed out that the time of death for Batman's parents is off by a minute in this issue. Don't know if that's a mistake or a small, symbolic representation of how Flashpoint changed everything - but if it's the latter, it must have pissed off all the geeks who use it as their PIN number. You know they exist.)
Our duo is called to Gotham University, where three brothers are are stealing "irradiated fuel" from some sort of reactor (I guess the University studies it?) by removing rods. Batman and Robin fight pretty well togethre, until the three ring-leaders head into the tunnel while Batman is preoccupied with henchmen and proceed to steal the bat-gyro as their get-away vehicle because - Batman doesn't lock it? And can't remotely disable it the way we've seen him control his other vehicles? I find this difficult to believe.
Anyway, Robin disagrees a direct order and follows the bad guys, and Batman can't follow because the fight has damaged walls and the containment water stabilizing the unstolen nuclear stuff is draining away. To prevent a meltdown, Batman shoots through the ceiling which conveniantly leads to the University pool directly above, dispensing a net to catch the swimmers as the pool water drains onto the fuel rods. Meanwhile, Robin ignores Batman's orders not to interfere and takes out the destabilizer on the gyro, causing it to sink and shake around, which causes the irradiated fuel in their packs to explode, frying them. Crisis averted, Bruce has an argument with his son: Damian knew shaking the fuel rods around would destabalize them, they don't have a license to kill, and Damian should follow orders; Damian did not kill them and Bruce should treat him like a partner rather than sidekick because he is "light-years ahead of the other Robins;" Damian is Bruce's son, not partner, and if Bruce can't trust him to do the right thing - but Dick trusted him! - but Damian has to earn Bruce's trust.
We return to the Russian Batman for the final page, who has been stripped of his uniform and is being lowered into a vat of acid by the now-visible villain, who has a creepy multi-eyed mask and a symbol on his chest that might be an eagle but is intentionally very similar to the bat-symbol. Calling himself "the Nothing," the villain explains that he is going to erase all of the global batmen like they never existed, and his next stop is Bruce Wayne. Fin.
Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this issue and am loving the possible tie-in with Leviathan that this interesting new villain may represent. There are some problems with the Bruce/Damian dynamic, especially in this first issue, where their personalities are exaggerated for the benefit of new readers - Bruce comes off as sentimental, and Damian a wise-ass borderline sociopath whom new readers are unlikely to be endeared to. However, it's not as bad as I feared and I think this relationship has real potential for exploration once the writers stop feeling the need to underscore everything. Damian seems back to square one as Robin, removing all the growth he went through with Dick, but I think there's a good reason for this: though no one acknowledges it, in the same way that Damian has to earn Bruce's trust, Bruce has to earn Damian's respect, just as Dick did, before Damian follows his orders. I don't think either of them is aware that this is the case because Bruce is not only Damian's father but the original Batman, but I think that's what's going on all the same. That complication has definite possibilities for drama. I also appreaciate that the artist on this series is going with a more traditional interpretation of Batman's costume, which I like better than the ones we're seeing in the rest of the new 52.
I am incredibly late iwith this entry, so Batwoman will just have to get her own, as she well deserves.