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DC Comics Reboot: Week 3, Part 2 Reviews
Our next batch of DC's Relaunch titles reviewed. By
Rob Vaux
September 27, 2011
DC Comics Reboot: Week 3, Part 2
© DC Comics/Robert Trate
Let’s take a look at part 2 of our third week of DC Comics’ big reboot! There are some major titles here, and after a fairly big dip in quality last week, they pretty much seem to be back on track…
Title: Catwoman #1
Written by: Judd Winick
Art by: Guillem March
Published by: DC Comics
Grade: C-
...with one glaring exception. DC’s greatest femme fatale strikes out in her new debut, a puerile bit of soft-core masquerading as Girl Power. It opens with Selina Kyle fleeing her new apartment as armed thugs blow it to smithereens… treating readers to a shot of her half in and half out of her costume while writhing in midair. The remainder of the comic quickly follow suit, as Selina goes undercover as a prostitute to learn about a potentially big score, then shacks up with Batman for no reason other than to show the two locked in an embrace.
I suspect the creators set out to tell a daring, erotic story with adult themes and overtones. “Erotic” is in the eye of the beholder, of course, and there’s nothing wrong with comics flashing a little cheesecake every month. But here, that’s the only purpose of the exercise. While they let Selina flash her ‘tude just fine and Guillem March’s artwork does her justice, she exists solely as eye candy without any effort made to engage us on any other level. The narrative struggles to achieve any traction, and the final tryst with Batman smacks distressingly of space-filler. Catwoman is sexy, of course, but she’s a lot more than that. In this case, DC has completely forgotten the other elements of her character.
Title: Batman #1
Written by: Scott Snyder
Art by: Greg Capullo
Published by: DC Comics
Grade: A
And what about Selina’s Dark Knight paramour? I’m happy to report that his outing is far and away the best of DC’s new 52 so far. Writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo expertly deliver everything we could possibly want in a Batman story: action, psychological mediation and a very smart mystery leading us into subsequent issues. It opens with a riot in Arkham and the incongruous sight of Batman and the Joker working together to put it down. What gives? There’s an answer, of course, but it serves as the set up for something much darker and grimmer: the identity of a vicious serial killer who may have Bruce Wayne on his hit list.
The mayhem contrasts with more mundane events in the life of Batman’s alter ego, as he delivers a speech about Gotham’s future. Excerpts from the speech serve as a voice-over throughout the issue, retaining the urban despair we expect from the Dark Knight with Wayne’s fervent and heartfelt hope that things can get better. It’s a pitch-perfect embodiment of the character, and a reminder that he has an optimistic side without losing his grit and torment. (He has to; why else would he do what he does if he didn’t think he could make things better?) Capullo’s art brings Gotham to life with dynamic energy, starting with the riot and ending with Alfred in the Batcave… pondering the chilling question that sets up the second issue. We couldn’t ask for anything more.
Title: Wonder Woman #1
Written by: Brian Azzarello
Art by: Cliff Chiang
Published by: DC Comics
Grade: B+
The third member of DC’s holy trinity acquits herself pretty well too. Unlike Catwoman, this issue understands the difference between “sexy” and “exploitative.” It roots the Amazing Amazon firmly in her Greek origins, detailing an enigmatic conflict between the gods and its bloody consequences being felt on Earth. Diana finds herself smack in the middle of it when a young woman mysteriously appears in her apartment looking for help, and an initial investigation quickly results in a couple of mythic creatures hell-bent on wiping her out.
The new costume still takes some getting used to, but Wondie herself is all business: hard as flint and unwilling to cut anyone even the slightest little break. It suits the character well, emphasizing her difficult personality without undercutting her strength and righteousness. Writer Brian Azzarello pushes her more violent side whenever he can. Limbs are severed without so much as an “I’m sorry,” and the burgeoning question of “why” takes a back seat to Diana’s bull-in-a-china-shop solutions. It’s surprisingly heavy, but also quite distinctive, announcing yet again that this character has plenty of interesting stories to tell. The middling artwork dampens the proceedings only slightly, and the muscular story more than makes up for the remainder. This is a Wonder Woman who comics fans deserve… and one who deserves more attention than she traditionally gets.
Title: Birds of Prey #1
Written by: Duane Swierczynski
Art by: Jesus Saiz
Published by: DC Comics
Grade: B-
The inaugural Birds of Prey outing feels curiously unformed, with jarring time jumps and a sense of scuffling to get all the characters in their assigned roles. Luckily, the Black Canary takes center stage, and Dinah has the moxie to carry us through all on her own. She’s wanted for murder and none too happy about it, with a trigger-happy partner and some potential new recruits to evaluate while dodging assassins’ bullets. She also has a crusading journalist to save from those self-same assassins and a semi-approving former partner in Barbara Gordon to placate.
Most of the issue requires a scorecard to follow: it’s not always clear where we are or how the important players shake out. Those not heavily steeped in Birds of Prey lore may find themselves scratching their heads. On the other hand, keeping the action centered on the best-known figure helps ground the ensuing mayhem. Dinah’s dynamic with the former Oracle hits all the right notes, with personal tensions accentuating the pair’s obvious admiration of each other. The fight scenes rank among the very best that the reboot has seen so far, with clever use of BC’s sonic scream and some ostensibly normal-powered enemies who give her all that she can handle. That allows the issue to recover from its spastic structure, and grants us the patience to find out where the title will take us. It promises great things if it can find a way to sort itself out.
Title: Red Hood and the Outlaws #1
Written by: Scott Lobdell
Art by: Kenneth Rocafort
Published by: DC Comics
Grade: B
Red Hood and the Outlaws constitutes one of the harder sells in the New 52, with well-established second-tier characters coming together to form yet another superheroic team. In this case, they operate well outside the bounds of normal hero-dom. Jason Todd, the once and formerly dead Robin turned borderline psychotic villain, is apparently moving back to the side of the angels. To prove it, he springs the once-and-former Speedy from a Middle Eastern prison with help from Starfire… who apparently can’t tell her ex-Robins apart.
That last bit provides the issue with its most intriguing element (and yet another helping of cheesecake in the bargain). Starfire’s status as an alien grants her a unique point of view, as well as a mayfly attention span that means she’s completely forgotten about her former paramour Dick Grayson. The notion that she may be confusing Todd for Grayson holds a lot of humor, and the issue takes sharp digs at the “interchangeable Robins” issue without losing the context of proper characterization.
The rest of the issue lays a lot of groundwork, but clearly has similar mischief in mind, with a pair of disgruntled former sidekicks warily eyeing each other as they struggle back into the light. It holds its fair share of potential, aided by some solid artwork from Kenneth Rocafort. Red Hood and the Outlaws retains the gritty Third World grunge that’s become de rigueur for comic books these days, but also a sense of its own absurdity, reminiscent of Marvel’s Deadpool comics at their best. That’s a good template to follow; hopefully, the title will keep it up.
Title: Supergirl #1
Written by: Michael Green and Mike Johnson
Art by: Mahmud Asrar
Published by: DC Comics
Grade: B+
Supergirl seems to exist in a permanent state of rebooted origins. It actually makes a very good fit for her, because where does she go after arriving on Earth? Her youthful exuberance often covers up for the fact that she’s basically just a blonde Superman, and while she provides a nice counterpoint to the Man of Steel, she often struggles to assert herself on her own.
This new comic makes you think that that could change however. It details her first awakening after arriving on Earth: lost, confused and incapable of understanding a single word any human being has to say. She’s also unaware of her powers, until a contingent of armor-powered Russians arrives at her Siberian crash site to take her into custody. The issue basically constitutes a single battle, as the confused but feisty Kara Zor-El asserts without question that she has no intention of going anywhere with anyone.
And boy does it work. Mahmud’s artwork carries a machine-gun energy that punctuates the gags and the fight choreography extremely well. Michael Green and Mike Johnson’s script plants us firmly in their heroine’s head, conveying her emotions in brief terms and then cutting her loose to do her thing. Her new uniform is a little odd, but she’s been through more than her share of outfit upgrades and the strange cut here helps further cement the fact that she’s fresh off the boat from Krypton. It might not lead to anything; once her origins are out of the way, she tends to fall into a real rut. But for now at least, we can be glad that Kal-El isn’t the only Kryptonian who calls the DC universe home.
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I cannot beging to say how much I HATE what they did to Starfire. They took this pretty nice, well rounded character and turned her into a lifless F*** doll.
Its utter BS and the sad part is up until then, I had been digging most of what DC had been doing.