Here In Bongo Congo
Good King Leonardo has decreed that
we review this week three Batman-oriented comic books along with one non-Batguy
title, so let's get right to it and see how these four issues stack-up against
each other:
Batman
Incorporated Special #1
Publisher:
D.C. Comics
Various
Writers & Artists
DC Comics has recently published a
Batman Incorporated special issue as a final send-off issue to this concluding
comic book title. For the uninitiated, the regular monthly series has
alternately featured various Batman-appointed Bat-type heroes in various
foreign settings, all operating under the supervision of Batman in his
"corporate" structure. I gave a positive review earlier this
year to one of the monthly issues that featured the Japanese Batman, Jiro
Osamu, with his tiny sidekick Canary. This special issue
presents five stories, each starring one of the Batman, Inc.
players. Each tale is created by a different team of writers and artists.
Our first story is entitled
"Rending Machine," and stars Hiro and Canary in an anime-like action
plot as they battle "Doctor Inside-Out," a gory villain who kidnaps
Japanese businessmen and harvest their organs for the black-market.
"Without You," shifts the story setting to England, presenting a
poignant tale in which the Robin-like Squire struggles with the emotional
fall-out following the death of her Batman-like mentor, the
Knight. "Brave" is our third tale and features Native American
Batman, Inc. member Raven Red, in an emotional tale as he confronts a potential
Native American elderly man who may or may not be preparing for a suicidal leap
off of a Las Vegas casino rooftop. The fourth tale stars a trio of
Argentinian Batman players and ths issue concludes with a six-page story
entitled "Cowardly Lot" starring (get this) a caped crusader cow
named Bat-Cow!
I liked this issue a lot,
both as a stand-alone anthology featuring the various Batman, Inc. players
and as a wrap-up tribute to the overall series. Naturally, not all of the
tales are of equal quality. While All Good Readers no doubt have their
own varying preferences, in my review opinion the strongest three tales were
the Japanese Batman, Red Raven and believe-it- or-not, the Bat-Cow tale.
Once again, Japanese Batman writer-creator Chris Burnham delivers the perfect
blend of Batman action-adventure and tongue-in-cheek send-up of Japanese pop
culture. The Red Raven tale blew me away both with its deep plot emotion
and its visual style, reminiscent of the great work going-on right now over in
Marvel's Daredevil title (see last column's Daredevil #30 review).
And now for the Bat-Cow review
comment! I cannot believe that I'm actually writing this, but
veteran writer Dan Didio has pulled-off the seemingly impossible, delivering
not only a funny but also an extremely believable, semi-dramatic story in which
it's plausible to believe that there's a crime-fighting, regular cow
functioning in a seemingly real-world situation. I can't describe it any
better than that, and only add that you have to read it to believe both the
plot and the excellent final goofy scene. If there's any justice in the
comic book publishing world, co-creators Dan Didio and Ethan Van
Sciver will receive a special Eisner Award for this oddball of a
tale.
The issue also includes two
excellent "series sign-off" elements, a prologue and epilogue
featuring Batman in the Bat-Cave powering-down his Batman, Inc. computer files
and a heartfelt back-of-the-book goodbye letter from Batman writer Grant
Morrison, who's moving-on from managing DC's Batman franchises to try his
writing hand with other DC characters. So all-in-all, a positive
thumbs-up review recommendation is well-deserved for this wide-ranging and
emotionally-heartfelt tribute to all good things that make-up the Batman, Inc.
storyverse.
Dream
Thief #1
Publisher:
Dark Horse Comics
Jai
Nitz: Writer
Greg
Smallwood: Art
Dark Horse Comics has published the
first few issues of a five-issue limited series entitled Dream Thief, so I
backtracked to the premier first issue to review this title from its
inception. The series is written by Jai Nitz with art by Greg Smallwood.
The first half of the
issue #1 plotline introduces us to the soap opera details in the life of
John Lincoln, a thirty-something slacker with unemployment, drinking and drug
abuse problems. We're also quickly introduced to his successful best
friend Reggie, female friend Jen and his girlfriend Claire. Claire
is a victim of a home invasion, the trauma of which is putting emotional
strains on their relationship. Fast-forward to the second half of issue
#1 and the supernatural events commence. John is seemingly possessed
by an Australian aboriginal mask that he viewed at a museum event; after
blacking-out wearing the mask, he wakes-up to find that he's killed Claire and
also has the memories of a man that Claire unknowingly killed previously.
The issue ends after John wakes-up from a second black-out, again possessing a
dead man's memories and this time having slaughtered the entire cast of (I'm
really not making this up, folks) a gay porn movie shoot.
I'm not sure where to begin
review-trashing this piece of garbage, so I'll just randomly throw three
negatives into these paragraphs and we can move on to better comic books.
I think I hated the D-list dialogue in this script even more than the jumbled
supernatural story concept. It was like listening to someone scratching a
chalkboard every time one of the story characters uttered a snarky
comment, creepy statement and/or out-of-place stale slang remark.
Secondly, back to the jumbled concept. The illogical details of how the
strange shenanigans are manifesting just make no sense, even for a comic
book level of reality.
Third and worst is the writer's
creepy script misogyny. Claire is clearly a violent crime victim, and the
weird turn of events in which she murders someone, coupled with John's
rationalization when he slaughters her that she's the bad person in this
scenario, is just flat-out freakish; you don't have to be of any particular
political or philosophical persuasion to feel that this concept frankly
centers on gender bias against women, to the point where I actually wondered if
writer Jai Nitz harbors some deep-seated emotional problems toward
women that he's venting through this script.
Something's really wrong at Dark
Horse Comics these days, for their editorial system to allow this poor
excuse for a comic book to be pooped-out onto the new issues comic book
shelves. If there's any justice at all in today's comic book
industry, someone will be fired at Dark Horse Comics for this train
wreck. So enough said already, life's too short to be so
negative: let's all take a deep breath and run as far away as possible
from "The Comic Book So Bad That We Shall Never Utter It's Name
Again!"
Batman
Black And White #1
Publisher:
D.C. Comics
Various
Writers and Artists
DC Comics has added a new title to
its ever-expanding selection of Batman titles that emphasizes the noir
detective side of the Caped Crusader's storyverse with "Batman Black
And White," a new series that presents all of its stories in
black-and-white. Issue #1 features five short tales with a wide
variety of creators including writer and artist veterans, interesting
newcomers and cross-over creators who've achieved previous acclaim in various
non-comic book visual arts formats.
"Don't Know Where, Don't Know
When", an 8-page tale written by Chip Kidd with art by Michael Cho, is a
fast-paced mystery tale in which Robin, with the assistance of a familiar
superhero friend, races against time to find a disappeared Batman.
"Batman Zombie" is written and drawn by veteran Neal Adams; I'll
comment on the plot later in this review. "Justice Is
Served" is a Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy team-up from artist Joe Quinones and
writer Maris Wicks, while John Arcudi and Sean Murphy team-up on a lightly
humorous Bruce Wayne/Alfred The Butler story entitled "Driven."
The fifth and final tale is entitled "Head Games" and presents a
Batman story from Howard Mackie and Chris Samnee that features traditional
Batman nemesis The Dollman.
This new comic book series is
a highly entertaining and fresh presentation of the Batman storyverse that
excels for several reasons. Its strongest feature is the exceptional
gallery of writers and artists, ranging from established creators including
Chris Samnee, Neal Adams and Chip Kidd, to up-and-coming rookie Sean Murphy and
DC Comics newcomer Maris Wicks. Secondly, the scripting quality is
exceptional, with two tales of A-plus quality and two tales in the very good
category. I consider any five-story comic book a success if at
least three stories are pretty decent, so having four strong stories puts this
issue at the top of the anthologies listing. My two favorite and highest
recommended stories are the lead Kidd-Cho collaboration and the story
created by Wicks and Quinones. Kidd and Cho give us a perfect tale
infused with mystery, growing tenseness and small narrative features that pay
homage to the Batman comic story stylings of the Golden Age Caped
Crusader. The best of the bunch is clearly the Wicks-Quinones story
featuring our two well-known Batman villainesses; the story blew me away with
its humor, visuals and perfect capturing of Harley Quinn's and Ivy's
personalities which combine equal parts slapstick campiness and scary
violence.
I review other anthology-style
comic books from time-to-time and this comic deserves to be added to the top of
that list of short-story format anthology comic book titles. I only
have two constructive criticism comments to offer. First, similar to Red
Five Comic's "Real Science Adventures" Atomic Robo anthology title,
this series would serve readers better if the number of stories was reduced
from five to three per issue. Each tale feels rushed in this crowded
format, and a reduced story number would give each creative team some breathing
space to really explore their respective unique black-and-white stylings of the
Bat Universe.
Secondly, I have to express my
disappointment with the quality of the one story dud in issue #1, which
unfortunately is the Neal Adams tale. It's hard to write this, given
Adams's iconic role in the 1970's as the number one Batman/all-around DC
Comics creator, but the plot is a metaphorical, garbled mess while the
artwork is less a black-and-white finished interpretation and more a raw, messy
series of panels as a base for a more finished, colorized product. Most
cringe-worthy is Adams's attempt to include relevant social and economic topics
in the tale. His clumsiness with these elements are both non-realistic
and an embarrassing shadow of the topical and socially-relevant plots of
his 1970's Green Lantern run, which forever changed the nature of comic book
storytelling. Its clear that Adams's ability is just plain gone for being
able to deliver a decent Batman tale; a few previous attempts over the past few
years were flat, but this tale is so poorly presented that I pray that DC
doesn't tarnish the Adams legacy with any future attempts to capitalize on his
long-gone Batman storyverse creative legacy.
But as I mentioned above, we have four
very strong and entertaining tales in this issue, which demonstrate the amazing
variety and alternate Batman perspectives of a wonderful group of comics
creators. My final review comment: keep an eye-out for more
great things from writer Maris Wicks; her Harley-Ivy tale is so exceptional
that with this one story, as far as I'm concerned, she's launched herself to
the very pinnacle of female comics creators on par with the likes of Gail
Simone and Amanda Connor. Welcome, Maris, and let's hope DC and eventually
Marvel take full advantage of your incredible writing talents. But
don't just take my word for it, get on down to That's Entertainment and pick-up
a copy of Batman Black And White #1 for yourself!
Harley
Quinn #1
Publisher:
D.C. Comics
Matt
Kindt: Writer
Neil
Googe; Art
Wil
Quintana: Colors
A current D.C. publishing event is
to prominently feature their famous costumed villains in this month's new
comics and that includes the premier of a new Harley Quinn title. For the
uninitiated, our Ms. Quinn is a former girlfriend of The Joker, usually
depicted in some form of sexy harlequinn/jester outfit and also usually having
a personality mix of goofiness and non-lethal bad girl behavior. The new
series is scripted by Matt Kindt with art by Neil Googe and colors by Wil
Quintana.
The issue #1 story is entitled
"Harley Lives" and consists of two alternating sub-plots. One
storythread provides us with a flashback origin tale, in which we follow the
progression of her life from young genius psychiatrist Harleen Quinzel to her
ill-fated practice at Gotham City's infamous Arkham Asylum, where she
becomes spellbound by The Joker and transforms into his crazed villanous
girlfriend. The second plotline focuses on Harley in the present, as
she struggles with an inner dialogue between her former good self and her
current bad-girl personality as she settles back into the Gotham crime life
after having departed from the Suicide Squad. The issue concludes with
her struggling over whether or not to return to the Squad, with the
plot continued in Suicide Squad issue #24.
I have a real
schizophrenic review recommendation for this comic book. On the plus
side, writer Matt Kindt provides a top-notch script, bursting with sharp
dialogue and structured with an exceptional, almost poetic narrative as
Harley speaks to the reader throughout the storyline in her
inner voice alternating between the weakening good side the
strengthening bad side of her personality. Secondly, the artwork is just
plain great, with the visual team giving us their excellent, sexy spin on the
look of many a fanboy's favorite DC villainess, combined with a very
expressive facial range of character's emotions throughout the tale.
On the flip side, what trips me up
from personally embracing this issue is the creative team's decision to portray
Harley more deep into the world of pure evil than I have personally ever
read before. I didn't mind establishing her character as more violent
than her normal portrayal, and I cringed but was still onboard as she brutally
maimed and killed her way through the tale's midpoint. However, without
being a spoiler on the specific event details, I rejected this tale when at
story's end Harley's previous actions come together resulting in her literally
slaughtering hundreds of Gotham City's children.
I'm neither squeamish nor
politically correct, but I am deeply personally offended that in this year
after the Connecticut elementary school shooting massacre, DC Comics would be
so stupid and callous to play this card in a comic book. I'm sure that
their response would be some double-speak statement about not endorsing such
action, etc., but that's not good enough: younger and teen readers aren't going
to interpret this tale in any manner other than supposed entertainment and
will just absorb this action as another piece of violent
"entertainment." Its simply an inappropriate line to cross and
DC shouldn't have done so.
As a final review comment, I
couldn't help to compare this storyline to the ongoing internet controversy of
DC recently challenging wannabe art applicants to submit some very misogynistic
portrayals of Harley. I have no idea why both of these controversial
comic issues happen to center on the character of Harley Quinn versus other DC
characters, but irregardless, DC's got a huge amount of damage
control to focus on.
So, to summarize my mixed review: I'm
willing to give this issue a positive review for its general quality of
production and style, but I can't recommend accepting the new child violence
line that DC has established in this issue. I don't like what they've
produced here, but its a free country and readers have a right to
check things out for themselves and then either agree or disagree with my opinion.
So those are my review comments and please feel free to make-up your own mind
if you wish to do so with your own read of this issue.
Contest Winner Announcement!!!
Our latest contest challenged you
to get off of your couch and take a stroll up to the top of Newton Hill,
which is part of Elm Park and located right next to That's Entertainment on
Park Avenue. Then you were to e-mail us and tell us what elevation height
is painted atop the old airplane beacon at the top of the hill. And our
contest winner is (drumroll, please),,,Erin O'Connor, who correctly tells us
that the correct elevation atop the beacon is 672 feet above sea
level. Congratulations to Erin both for winning our first prize $10.00
gift certificate to That's Entertainment and for getting her feet moving
for a healthy hike up Newton Hill!
New Contest Challenge!!!
The Bongo Congo Panel of Contest
Judges have decreed that this week we return to our roots and offer a comic
book trivia contest. Your challenge is to e-mail us at Gordon_A@msn.com no later than Wednesday,
October 2 with the correct answer to the following question: What
significance does the fictional street address of "1938 Sullivan
Place" have in the DC Comics story universe? As always, in the event
of multiple correct entries our contest winner will be selected via a roll of
the dice. Please note that our first prize $10.00 gift certificate to
That's Entertainment is redeemable for regular retail merchandise or in-store,
on-going specials, only.
That's all for now, so have another
two great Red Sox Play-Offs Watching and comic book reading weeks and see you
again on Friday, October 4 Here In Bongo Congo!
