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Entry tags:
comickal: recently read, bat-tastic edition
In which we go over almost all of the "Battle for the Cowl" titles, allowing that there's at least one more tie-in title, "Gotham Gazette: Batman Alive?" to come out later this week.
Regarding "Battle for the Cowl" as a whole, one can but say: thank goodness that's over. But there were individual highlights, as well as many many many lowlights.
One thing that's never quite explained here or anywhere else: Batman has disappeared, and been rumored dead, many a time in the past, only to reappear with a (usually literal) vengeance. So what's so different this time? Why has Gotham exploded? Is it that it's on the heel of the massively upsetting Final Crisis? What?
Well, anyway. Overall, the Battle consists of three series and a plethora of one-shots (for reasons that surpasseth understanding, DC is flatly refusing to consider "Gotham Gazette" as a title, despite the fact that there are/will be three of them.)
Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader, two issues (Neil Gaiman/Andy Kubert, Scott Williams, Alex Sinclair): I tell you true, people: I have no idea what that was, or what it was supposed to be. The only way I can relate to it at all is to think of it as Batman's way of thinking himself out of the life trap from the end of Final Crisis. Basically, he sees one version of his funeral after another, killed different ways by different villains, always falling defending Gotham. And then at the end there's a terribly ill-advised air on "Goodnight Moon". Seriously, I have no idea whether it was good or bad, because I don't know what it wanted to be.
Batman: Battle for the Cowl (Tony Daniel)
Oracle: The Cure issues 1-3 (Kevin van Hook/Fernando Pesarin and Julian Lopez)
The Network (Fabian Nicieza/Don Kramer and J. Calafiore): A stunningly pointless one-shot, in which Hugo Strange tries to force the new and more murderous Batman to choose among a host of (innocent, as it turns out) accused criminals and others to save. Oracle activates the Network and sends out Huntress, Batgirl, Batwoman and others to take on the various situations. Huntress has shifted back to her old costume so that Oracle and Batgirl can call her a bat-skank. Cassandra Cain continues to speak in improbably complete sentences. Huntress decides to kill the accused criminal she's supposed to rescue, because they're running out of time, so why not kill a criminal? She's stopped by Cassandra, and Oracle discovers immediately after that the guy was innocent. So ... yeah, lotsa fun, really.
Gotham Gazette
Arkham Asylum (David Hine/ ): A shockingly very good one-shot story, in which Jeremiah Arkham -- and I was rather startled to discover that there was still a Dr Arkham around -- prowls the corridors of his now-destroyed hospital/prison, mourning its loss. He mourns his inability to save his patients, except for three people who were so very damaged tha tthey were kept in the basement cells, away from the other criminals, and so were left behind after the destruction. It's clear that these three people are going to become new villains for Dick's Batman -- the one without a face is especially creepy. A very very good story that shows the effects of the battle itself, rather than focusing on the effects of the death of Batman.
Man-Bat (Joe Harris/Jim Calafiore): ... Yeah, so that was a waste of time. Basically, things happen to Kent Langston for no discernable reason, and with no discernable connection to the rest of the events of the Battle. As far as I can tell, it exists purely to bring Alfred and the Outsiders into the Battle. Since they only appear at the end, and in no other issue of the Battle so far, there's not really much point. It all ends in blood and tears, of course. Bleah.
The Underground (Chris Yost/Pablo Raimondi): In which basically all of Batman's gallery of rogues show up after the destruction of Arkham and Black Mask "liberating" (and that is not the proper word) all of them from transit to other prisons. And ... really, that's about it. Catwoman discovers that Black Mask is apparently not dead, and that's the only thing of any significance to happen in the story. There's nothing much to it.
Secret Six vol 2, #9 (Gail Simone/Nicola Scott): In which Catman, Ragdoll and Bane come to Gotham to thwart a conspiracy by ... well, we never quite learn who's behind it, but the idea is that they're going to kidnap the children of prominent citizens for ... well, we never quite learn that either. Nonetheless, it's a really good issue, as it shows Bane and Catman dealing with the conflicting impulses of wanting to both kill Batman and be Batman, and Ragdoll basically discovering that everything he says is some degree of double entendre. Everything nearly goes pear-shaped when Dick/Nighwing comes in at the end of Bain the others thwarting another chunk of the kidnapping conspiracy with malice aforethought, afterthought, during-thought, broken necks and other maimings. But Nightwing more or less realizes what's going on just in time -- more or less. This leads to the most impressive moment of fan-service I've ever seen regarding a male hero, in which Dick's fully clad but nonetheless impressive rear end is presented to the reader to be admired in all its bespandexed glory. (Seriously, it was blatant enough that I've seen straight guys noting the way he was displayed. And no, sir, they just don't like it. I can but be deeply amused. But I digress.) Fan service aside, it's not necessary to the greater motion of the Battle, but it's a very nice issue showing how Batman's presumed death is affecting people in different ways.
Azrael: Death's Dark Knight issues 1-3 (Fabian Nicieza/Frazer Irving):
And that's it for the Battle for the Cowl, with the exception of "Batman Alive", due out this week, and the next issue of "Batman" itself, which I believe comes out next weeik
Regarding "Battle for the Cowl" as a whole, one can but say: thank goodness that's over. But there were individual highlights, as well as many many many lowlights.
One thing that's never quite explained here or anywhere else: Batman has disappeared, and been rumored dead, many a time in the past, only to reappear with a (usually literal) vengeance. So what's so different this time? Why has Gotham exploded? Is it that it's on the heel of the massively upsetting Final Crisis? What?
Well, anyway. Overall, the Battle consists of three series and a plethora of one-shots (for reasons that surpasseth understanding, DC is flatly refusing to consider "Gotham Gazette" as a title, despite the fact that there are/will be three of them.)
Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader, two issues (Neil Gaiman/Andy Kubert, Scott Williams, Alex Sinclair): I tell you true, people: I have no idea what that was, or what it was supposed to be. The only way I can relate to it at all is to think of it as Batman's way of thinking himself out of the life trap from the end of Final Crisis. Basically, he sees one version of his funeral after another, killed different ways by different villains, always falling defending Gotham. And then at the end there's a terribly ill-advised air on "Goodnight Moon". Seriously, I have no idea whether it was good or bad, because I don't know what it wanted to be.
Batman: Battle for the Cowl (Tony Daniel)
Honestly, neither awful, nor terrific, though there were both awful and terrific moments scattered throughout. Mostly, this title seemed to be about how Bruce's rather spectacular miscalculations brought ruin to Gotham and more specifically to Jason Todd and the other Bats. Bruce seemed to feel that Nightwing and Robin could handle crime in Gotham, and we find out in the third issue that he specifically directed Dick/Nightwing not to take up the cowl, that Batman should be allowed to stay dead. Unfortunately, he didn't take into account just how much he'd manage to terrorize the criminals of Gotham into behaving, just by his mere presence. Take that way, and all hell broke loose. Black Mask, a villain long thought dead, has come back and managed to destroy both the Penguin's and Two-Face's criminal enterprises. (Why he isn't dead, despite Catwoman having killed him, nobody knows as yet.)
Another of Bruce's fatal miscalculations was in sending personal "in case of my demise" holographic messages to all of the members of the Bat crew, including Jason Todd (who, when last seen, had decided to leave Gotham because it wasn't good for him. Why is he still here, you might be wondering. And well might you wonder!) Jason's message, which we see in the third issue, implies quite strongly that some truly terrible things happened to Jason before Bruce took him in -- not even addressing the whole death/buried-semi-alive/resurrected by a villain thing that he had going for a while. No, all of Jason's damage was caused by some horrific things that happened to him as a child which he has resolutely not thought about for most of his life, and which Bruce allowed him not to think about, because he's a firm believer in the "repress and take it out on any criminals that cross your path" method. (Seriously, to say that Bruce, Dick, Jason and Tim are all massively screwed up is a spectacular understatement -- that Dick has somehow come out of it all fairly well adjusted is something of a miracle. But I digress.) As a result of being forced to "confront" (if that's quite the right word) issues for which he is not prepared, Jason decides that he should become Batman the way he thinks Batman should always have been: fully armed, and entirely willing to take out them what needs killin'. Collateral damage to civilians not an issue. Along the way he manages to take out both Tim and Damien, leading to a final showdown with Nightwing.
The main problem with the "Battle for the Cowl" title itself was that it was relentlessly overplotted. There was just too damn much going on, with the destruction of Arkham (again), Two-Face and Penguin at war with each other, Black Mask dictating that war, the struggle between Dick, Jason and Tim to determine who should take on the mantle of the Bat. That latter should have been given a bit more weight; Dick winds up deciding to become Batman in essentially two pages at the end of the third issue, after having resisted all the way through. It's not that we don't understand why he does it, but after something over 70 pages of Gotham ripping itself apart, to have only two pages where the decision is made, with no real discussion, feels very ... anticlimactic.
Oracle: The Cure issues 1-3 (Kevin van Hook/Fernando Pesarin and Julian Lopez)
So ... yeah, that really wasn't very good at all.
The Calculator is searching for the antilife equation because he feels that it will return his comatose daughter to life. In a thread that I missed the first issue, but which becomes more apparent in the third issue, Barbara Gordon is searching for the Calculator and the antilife equation, not just to stop him from loosing the equation on the world again, but because, somehow, she feels it will restore her legs to her. Why the Calculator feels it will help his daughter, or why Babs feels it will help her legs, is never explained; we have never seen the antilife equation do any such thing -- in fact, it seems to be a rather effective way of taking over someone's mind or causing death (hence the whole "antilife" thing), but not so much with the resurrection and the healing. Most of the pursuit takes place in virtual environments, so that Barbara's lack of mobility isn't as much of an issue. (And the idea that what one does in virtual environments will be reflected in the real environment is very neatly handled. Being as most of what gets reflected is some spectacular murder and a very improbable attack on someone's immune system, it's hard to say that it's fun, exactly, but it is interesting.)
Babs does eventually defeat the Calculator, of course, and there is, inevitably, a twist at the end of the tale. The art, for the most part, is very good -- although there is a very odd focus on Babs taking a shower at one point -- but the story ... eh. It shows what Babs is doing during part of the Battle for the Cowl ... though when this is supposed to take place, considering that she's guiding the Network back in Gotham during all of the rest of the Battle, heaven only knows.
The Network (Fabian Nicieza/Don Kramer and J. Calafiore): A stunningly pointless one-shot, in which Hugo Strange tries to force the new and more murderous Batman to choose among a host of (innocent, as it turns out) accused criminals and others to save. Oracle activates the Network and sends out Huntress, Batgirl, Batwoman and others to take on the various situations. Huntress has shifted back to her old costume so that Oracle and Batgirl can call her a bat-skank. Cassandra Cain continues to speak in improbably complete sentences. Huntress decides to kill the accused criminal she's supposed to rescue, because they're running out of time, so why not kill a criminal? She's stopped by Cassandra, and Oracle discovers immediately after that the guy was innocent. So ... yeah, lotsa fun, really.
Gotham Gazette
Batman Dead? (Fabian Nicieza; Dustin Nguyen, Guillem March, ChrisCross, Jamie McKelvie, Alex Konat, Mark McKenna)
Basically, a series of quick shots across the city, different people whom the Bat has touched, in one way or another. Several people return to the city, including long lost Vicki Vale and also Leslie Tompkins, in what feels like an attempt to rehabilitate her from the character assassination perpetrated against her in the whole War Games mess. We also see Bullock and Stephanie and The Veil and a few others. Of all of them, only Leslie gets left in a situation that is both dangeous and unresolved through the entirety of the Battle -- one assumes, for the sake of argument that she'll get rescued during "Batman Alive", since that would be appropriate symmetry.
Commissioner Gordon (Royal McGraw/Tom Mandrake, Guy Major): In which Gordon takes on Mister Freeze and is awesome. Really, that's all there is to it. The story starts with Gordon being held prisoner, and the bulk of it is a flashback showing how this came to be. Among other things, Gotham's district attorney is murdered, which will eventually bring Kate Spencer's Manhunter to Gotham. But for now, it's just Gordon against Freeze, and Gordon realizing that, unlike most times in the past, Batman isn't there to save either him or the city. And then Gordon figures out what to do, and, as mentioned, is awesome.
Arkham Asylum (David Hine/ ): A shockingly very good one-shot story, in which Jeremiah Arkham -- and I was rather startled to discover that there was still a Dr Arkham around -- prowls the corridors of his now-destroyed hospital/prison, mourning its loss. He mourns his inability to save his patients, except for three people who were so very damaged tha tthey were kept in the basement cells, away from the other criminals, and so were left behind after the destruction. It's clear that these three people are going to become new villains for Dick's Batman -- the one without a face is especially creepy. A very very good story that shows the effects of the battle itself, rather than focusing on the effects of the death of Batman.
Man-Bat (Joe Harris/Jim Calafiore): ... Yeah, so that was a waste of time. Basically, things happen to Kent Langston for no discernable reason, and with no discernable connection to the rest of the events of the Battle. As far as I can tell, it exists purely to bring Alfred and the Outsiders into the Battle. Since they only appear at the end, and in no other issue of the Battle so far, there's not really much point. It all ends in blood and tears, of course. Bleah.
The Underground (Chris Yost/Pablo Raimondi): In which basically all of Batman's gallery of rogues show up after the destruction of Arkham and Black Mask "liberating" (and that is not the proper word) all of them from transit to other prisons. And ... really, that's about it. Catwoman discovers that Black Mask is apparently not dead, and that's the only thing of any significance to happen in the story. There's nothing much to it.
Secret Six vol 2, #9 (Gail Simone/Nicola Scott): In which Catman, Ragdoll and Bane come to Gotham to thwart a conspiracy by ... well, we never quite learn who's behind it, but the idea is that they're going to kidnap the children of prominent citizens for ... well, we never quite learn that either. Nonetheless, it's a really good issue, as it shows Bane and Catman dealing with the conflicting impulses of wanting to both kill Batman and be Batman, and Ragdoll basically discovering that everything he says is some degree of double entendre. Everything nearly goes pear-shaped when Dick/Nighwing comes in at the end of Bain the others thwarting another chunk of the kidnapping conspiracy with malice aforethought, afterthought, during-thought, broken necks and other maimings. But Nightwing more or less realizes what's going on just in time -- more or less. This leads to the most impressive moment of fan-service I've ever seen regarding a male hero, in which Dick's fully clad but nonetheless impressive rear end is presented to the reader to be admired in all its bespandexed glory. (Seriously, it was blatant enough that I've seen straight guys noting the way he was displayed. And no, sir, they just don't like it. I can but be deeply amused. But I digress.) Fan service aside, it's not necessary to the greater motion of the Battle, but it's a very nice issue showing how Batman's presumed death is affecting people in different ways.
Azrael: Death's Dark Knight issues 1-3 (Fabian Nicieza/Frazer Irving):
The overall purpose of this series is to set up the new Azrael ongoing title. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about Azrael and the previous holder, or how Michael Lane was brought into the Bat titles as a GCPD officer who turns out to be the "Third Ghost", whatever that means. This is the one title where not knowing enough about what's happened both early in Morrison's run and before it is perhaps a handicap; there is a sense that a lot of history is being pulled into this story. That said, part of the confusion may be due to it being a slightly confused story; it essentially gets a reboot at the end of the first issue, when the first person selected to wear Azrael's armor and carry the sword gets killed.
Michael Lane gets selected to replace that person -- sort of; there are two competing factions trying to create their own angel of death for various reasons. Lane figures out, with surprising ease and for no real reason, where the Batcave is, thus producing a smackdown with Nightwing. His memory gets wiped (don't ask), and Nightwing and Oracle eventually decide to leave the swords and armor with Lane, to see what happens. There's also the rather surprising revelation of the leader behind one of the factions trying to run Azrael, and the reappearance of Ra's al-Ghul, who is Not A Happy Camper. And who can blame him: stuck in Arkham and drugged out of his mind, vulnerable to all the other psychos.
Irving's artwork on this series is simply spectacular; I hope he's the artist on the ongoing title, as his work has a very distinctive look, quite unlike anything else in the Bat-section, now that Simon Dark is gone.
And that's it for the Battle for the Cowl, with the exception of "Batman Alive", due out this week, and the next issue of "Batman" itself, which I believe comes out next weeik