comickal: recently read, batastrophic edition

[iainpj]

I did not actually plan for almost everything in this set of reviews to be a Bat title. Oh, well.

Birds of Prey #3 (Gail Simone, Ed Benes; DC)

So ... Remember all those people who were so furious with Gail Simone over apparently killing off one of DC's few gays back in BoP #2? And remember how she kept saying, "Just wait one issue! It's not necessarily what you think it is!" And they kept saying "No, really, we don't care, we are invested in the whole dead gay guy thing," and the whole "conversation" kind of went to hell in a handbasket from there? Turns out that when she said they should have waited an issue to see what happened, she really meant it.

I also think that I can say, entirely without fear of contradiction, that most of the people who were absolutely livid about the apparent deaths will be absolutely livid about what actually does happen. It's not the sort of development they'll actually welcome. Be careful what you wish for, and all that.

It also turns out there's a very good reason for what seems to be the absence of Barbara's brains, up to a point, and we probably haven't gotten all of the explanation for what's going on. (That said: still don't like it. Still don't entirely buy it. No, sir, not one bit. She's better than that. To be fair, things are happening very fast in comic-time; she's just figured out what she thinks is going on when she discovers what's really going on, and doesn't have time to react to the next few developments. Nonetheless, I look forward to the reapparance of her smarts and hopefully her outwitting the bad guys. Whoever they really are.)

In other developments, Black Canary figures out who White Canary is -- though she doesn't tell us -- and the rest of the Birds are trying to escape with the Penguin from some corrupt members of the Gotham Police Department -- because, of course, there are always corrupt members of the GCPD.

In general, I like Simone's storytelling, although I'm not fond of certain aspects of this particular story, and I really like Benes' art. He's not to be too cheesecakey, which, given the way this issue starts and the costumes he's got to work with, is something of a minor miracle. As far as the story itself goes, I have to admit, I'm really curious as to how Simone is going to wrap up all those loose ends hanging out there -- or even just most of them -- in only one more issue for the arc. (I'm also mildly curious as to why this series carries a "Brighest Day" banner; aside from the involvement of Hawk and Dove, so far, it's got nothing whatsoever to do with Brightest Day.)

Good; Recommended (with certain reservations)

Batgirl #12 (Bryan G. Miller/Lee Garbett/Pere Perez/Walden Wong; DC):

In which we get a somewhat less irksome version of "Barbara gets stupid but also gets smart again really fast". We also see how well Stephanie and Wendy work together. And finally, we get the Calculator's origin story; the man has had a truly dreadful life, from early childhood on. Barbara basically outwits him and saves herself, leaving Steph and Wendy to save pretty much everyone else.

I do think that perhaps, just perhaps, the story ladles on the pathos in Calculator's story just a bit heavily. On the other hand, it probably takes a special sort of trauma and/or insanity to create a supervillain, and, well, he's got that in spades and then some.

I have to admit, I'm continually surprised at just how enjoyable this title is. I figured that I'd wind up dropping it pretty early -- I have no investment in Stephanie Brown whatsoever, either from her days as Spoiler or as Robin -- but this is a really entertaining title so far.

Good; Recommended

Batman #701 (Grant Morrison/Tony Daniel; DC): In which we see what happened to Bruce between RIP and Final Crisis. Oddly, for something that's issue 1 of only a 2-issue arc, this is pretty much all setup and rehashing. Yes, Bruce does discover that Dr Hurt is still alive, or at least not dead (see "Batman and Robin" #13, below). And yes, he does get called to go to the site of Orion's murder to begin Final Crisis, as we knew he did. Other than that, lots of tiny little things happen, but there isn't much feeling of advancement, somehow.
OK; No recommendations.

Batman: Odyssey #1 (Neal Adams; DC):

... I have no idea what that was, aside from very confusing.

Turns out that the cover, featuring a bullet passing through Bruce's arm, is actually the first frame of the story; the technical first page features Bruce facing the reader, pointing to the scar (which we can't see through the arm hair) and telling ... someone how he got it, in his very first Batman adventure, in which he had but did not quite use a gun. He's also telling ... someone about his first adventure with Dick as Robin.

Then things broaden out, and we see him talking to a Robin with green leggings and boots; that's clearly not Tim's outfit, which had no green that I can recall, and the guy isn't surly enough to be Damian, so I figured he was talking to Jason -- I thought Dick had the briefs and pixie boots for his entire run as Robin. But no, he's apparently talking to Dick about that first Batman excursion and also about Dick and their first adventure -- which makes less than no sense.

And then there's a plotline with Kirk Langstrom, Man-Bat, and the other manbats -- which means this story ties in to "Return of Bruce Wayne #3", wherein we see the tribe of manbats hanging on the ceiling of what will become the Batcave. Kirk wants to tell Bruce ... something, and Bruce won't listen, because Kirk has taken his manbat serum, which seems to make him a bit high (something which we've never heard before), and which makes Bruce furious, and he and Robin go off to fight the Riddler. (The Batmobile also flies, which I thought it hadn't really done until recently, with Damian.) And then the other manbats get upset with Kirk about ... something.

Seriously, I have NO idea what's going on with this story right now. I don't think I've seen such a baffling first issue in some time.

Not recommended.

Astro City: Special - Silver Agent 1 of 2 (Busiek/Anderson/Ross/Sincalir/Comicraft; DC/Wildstorm): In the recently concluded Dark Age, we saw what Silver Agent did, from the outside, to save and also to humble the denizens of Astro City. In this two part special, we get to see what it was like for him from the inside, as we follow him through his string of adventures. We also see his origin story, see what made him go from a polio-stricken postman to a hero. It's beautiful storytelling, made a bit more poignant by the fact that, at the moment, we seem to know how it ends for the Silver Agent, in which he's unjustly killed by the system he wants so desperately to be a part of.
Excellent; Highly recommended

Batman and Robin #13, "Batman and Robin Must Die! part 1, the Garden of Death" (Grant Morrison/Fraser Irving; DC):
In which Doctor Hurt returns, playing the role of the long-thought-dead Thomas Wayne. In the meantime, Batman and Robin start questioning the Joker, unveiled as the face behind Inspector Sexton. Dick begins to figure out what was going on, and winds up going to the Batbunker with Commissioner Gordon -- who tells him explicitly that they know that he's not the former Batman, but also that they prefer him to Bruce. And Dick more or less indirectly tells Gordon that he's the former Robin through his realistic and utter inability to call Gordon anything but "Commissioner" -- after all, it's hard to train yourself out of habits you learned in childhood, isn't it? And we discover that another story arc we thought was long over has in fact been playing out since the very first issue. In the meantime, we also see Damian developing his ... unique, shall we say, questioning style with the Joker, clearly showing the sort of Batman we already know he's going to become. All sorts of storylines that we hadn't even thought about start coming together. Morrison's storytelling is clear and easy to follow, and Irving's art is freakin' spectacular.
Excellent; Highly recommended.

Action Comics #890 (Paul Cornell/Pete Woods/Brad Anderson; DC):

In which Lex Luthor takes over the title for at least the next 10 issues. And frankly, it's kind of awesome.

After the events of Blackest Night, wherein Lex became an orange lantern, Lex is obsessed with getting another power ring. As he tells Lois, it's changed his personality; he used to be able to play the long game, to plan long-term, but suddenly he's into instant gratification. (Cue Veruca Salt, only with power rings instead of golden egg laying geese.) And he's doing increasingly dangerous things to figure out how to get himself one. (He doesn't seem to know about the white lantern at Silver City, which is probably just as well, since he couldn't use it.) He starts to figure out what happened to the Black Lantern rings, but gets interrupted by an attack from a most improbable villain.

Cornell manages to catch the essence of Luthor, even with this changed aspect of his personality -- and I would argue, myself, that it's not so much changed as he was somehow unaware of it. There's a certain amount of very dark humor, as well; there's an absolutely note-perfect one-page scene in which we see what Luther really wants the power rings to do for him, and how much he doesn't quite understand what he really wants. Woods' art is clean and dynamic and a very good match for the story.

In conclusion, this is probably the one Superman title I'm going to read in the near future. And, of course, it doesn't actually involve Superman.

Excellent; Highly recommended.