| A Beautiful Gory Display: Batman: Reborn! |
| Written by EJ Feddes |
| Wednesday, 01 July 2009 10:00 |
It’s an All-Batman week over here at “A Beautiful Gory Display”! That’s our favorite kind of week, frankly. This week, I’ll be reviewing all of the Batman: Reborn books. Yeah, June’s been a big relaunch month with a new Batman and several new series. I’ve already reviewed the awesome Batman and Robin, in an earlier column, so that leaves us with five Bat-Books to review. How’s Dick Grayson working out in his first month in the Bat-suit? Let’s find out, together! Well, I guess I had to find out first so I can write about them. But the rest of you can find out together, at least.
Batman 687 (DC) – Writer Judd Winick (who you know from that season of The Real World with
 Puck) returns to Batman with this issue. Strangely, he pretty much ignores the disappointing Battle for the Cowl, which ended up with Grayson as Batman. He basically rewrites the whole series here, with a Dick Grayson who’s not convinced that he, or anybody, should take the reins. It’s much more enjoyable than the mini-series, largely because everybody remains in character.Winick tends to be controversial – he takes a lot of flack for inserting his pet causes into his work. I’ve never been that bothered, personally. He had a tendency to sermonize, but he does a good job of balancing it out. And frankly, there are worse things in the world than devoting an issue of Green Lantern to having the title character smack around some violent homophobes, you know?
Despite the fact that we only get to see Batman on the last page, this is a pretty good beginning. I like the characterization of Grayson as a frustrated idealist, and Damian, the new Robin, is a smug little turd. Which is as it should be. I also like the way Alfred is portrayed as the most grief-stricken of all of them. (“My son has died.”) Add in some good action scenes with the Scarecrow and Doctor Phosphorous, and this is a good Batman story that’s almost entirely lacking in Batman.
I have to say, I really don’t like the art by Ed Benes – his storytelling isn’t strong enough, and his poses all look like pin-ups. However, he’s not going to be the regular artist on the run, so I can live with one issue of flexing and frowny-faces. It’s not the perfect blend of writing and art that Batman and Robin is, but the run is off to a great start.
Red Robin 1 (DC) – Unfortunately, this series is not about a restaurant franchise with a penchant
 for placing fried eggs on top of hamburgers. Instead, it stars the most recent former Robin, Tim Drake, as the awkwardly-named “Red Robin”. Since the Robin name is taken right now, I guess that was the next best thing. By the way, his new costume comes from the adult Robin of an alternate universe. I’m not crazy about the name or the costume, but I find it hilarious that he actually got the suit from another universe. On the plus side, the theme of the series seems to be Tim’s refusal to accept Bruce Wayne’s death, and his search for his mentor. I feel like more characters should be reluctant to buy into the whole “Batman’s dead” thing. I mean, this is Batman we’re talking about. His friends should at least be skeptical.
Also, the end of the issue teases us with an A-list villain, which has my interest. Tim (I’m sorry, I can’t call him “Red Robin”) is thrust into a role he’s not familiar with, on the outs with the Bat-family and working on his own. And then, he’s definitely in over his head with the story arc’s villain, which should make for a good story.
Unfortunately, the character doesn’t read like Tim Drake. Tim’s not violent and angry, and any attempts to justify his new personality come though in melodramatic narration. The storytelling isn’t really working for me. It’s sort of a jarring shift for the character with very little rationale. I’ll ride out the first story arc, since I like the villain involved, and there might be a better explanation for Angry Tim coming. That’s right, I give the Batman crew the benefit of the doubt. They’ve rarely steered me wrong.
Batman: Streets of
 does things will outsell one where people talk about Batman doing things. Writer Paul Dini is one of the all-time great Batman writers. He was one of the main creative voices behind Batman: The Animated Series. His work has helped define the modern Batman. I mean, Mr. Freeze went for 40-odd years without an origin. Paul Dini wrote an episode about him, gave him an origin and a motivation, and ever since, that’s been the default version of Mr. Freeze. Same with the Mad Hatter – Dini’s work with these characters immediately became the sort of canon that it usually takes decades to build. He’s written some of the best Batman stories ever, both in comics and on TV.
Sadly, his work for the last year or so has not lived up to his standards. I blame his obsession with one-note villain Hush. Hush is not a great character. He was entertaining exactly once, and never again. Other than a cool visual, he’s a study in blandness. And for some reason, Paul Dini can’t stop writing about him. Hush derailed his work on Detective last year, and he pops up again in this issue. And as soon as he shows up, everything just grinds to a halt.
Hush aside, the rest of the issue is really good. It’s mostly set-up, with a couple of new characters slinking around. There are nice scenes with Commissioner Gordon reacting to the new status quo, and a focus on C-list villain Firefly that looks like it’s the beginning of a longer arc. I particularly like the way that artist Dustin Nguyen always keeps Batman’s face shadowed – not only does it make him seem like more of a background presence, but it’s a nice visual cue to indicate that most of the characters in this book don’t know that the Batman they’re dealing with is a different guy.
I'm not sure what to think of this, but this is one of four Bat-Books this month that featured a scene with a flaming man attacking somebody. I’d like to think that’s intentional, and I’m not sure what it’s meant to indicate.
All in all, I’m excited about this new series, and if Dini comes to his senses regarding Hush, it has the potential to be excellent.
 Now, I’d like to get the negative out of the way first. The art by Guillem March is, well, kind of porntastic. He’s not a bad artist at all – his work is actually quite good, with strong storytelling and emotional range. But all the female characters look, well, pneumatic. It’s all T&A and fetish poses, and it gives the whole enterprise sort of a seedy feel. Theoretically, this is supposed to be a book about strong female characters, but in practice, it seems to be about strippers dressed as Batman characters. (Which, for the record, would be the greatest strip club ever.)It’s too bad, because I liked the script quite a lot. Basically, Catwoman’s still recovering from some horrific injuries (inflicted by *sigh* Hush), so Harley and Ivy take her in until she gets back on her feet. Of course, those two have their own agenda as well. Toss in a a fight with the deliberately lame Boneblaster and a rare instance where the Riddler gets to kick some ass, and it’s quite a satisfying issue.
Of course, it’s a thin premise to hang a series on, since the leads have pretty disparate lifestyles and goals. There’s not a good reason for Catwoman to hang out with Poison Ivy indefinitely. Ideally, the title should have a rotating cast of leads – there are enough female characters
Detective Comics 854 (DC) – Finally, we have Detective. It’s the book where Batman first appeared after all, and he’s held down the lead in this series for almost seventy years. Until this month. Instead, for the foreseeable future, the new star is Batwoman.
Introduced a couple of years ago (although there was an earlier Batwoman in the 50’s, just so people
 would stop saying Batman and Robin were gay), the new Batwoman made a brief media splash. See, Batwoman is a lesbian. But in all of her appearances, that’s been treated as an aspect of her character, rather than her singular defining attribute. Written by Greg Rucka (who tends to make a large portion of his female characters lesbians), this issue gives us our first real insight into Batwoman’s life since she debuted. Primarily, she shows up long enough to be mysterious and then moves on. Here, she’s trying to shut down the Cult of the Crime Bible. A while back, the Cult tried to make a sacrifice out of her, and she barely survived. So, you know, it’s kind of personal with her.
We also get to see a little of her home life, including her girlfriend who’s unaware of the whole “Batwoman” thing, which is a nice twist on the standard oblivious superhero girlfriend. She also (seemingly) lives with an older man who appears to be her father. He knows what she’s up to, and he’s very supportive. In fact, he’s actively involved with her crimefighting and training – I really like their scenes together. Crusty old guys are always awesome, and he’s a great mix of concerned and demanding.
I’m usually more focused on the writing, but I have to mention the art here. It is absolutely gorgeous. J.H. Williams III is the artist here, and he’s always done amazing work. This just pops off the stands though – mixing photorealism, paint, and a more traditional comic style (sometimes all in the same panel), he makes it look like nothing else being published today. Jagged panels slice open the composition of the page while characters drawn in entirely different styles interact with one another. This book is worth buying just to stare at the art.
This series also has a backup feature – The Question. Now, the Question is one of my favorite characters ever (and inspired Watchmen’s Rorschach). But Vic Sage, the character I liked, died. Now he’s been replaced by former
And that takes care of the first month of “Batman: Reborn”. We’re off to a good start. Sure, some of the books need a little tinkering yet, but it’s early. Develop Red Robin a little, get rid of Hush, and sell me on the new Question – that’s all I’m asking. I’m even working with them on the Dick Grayson thing, as he’s acquitting himself nicely. Next week, I’ll do my best to write about something that isn’t Batman-related. Likely, I will fail.
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