COMIC OPINION: The Current State of the Bat Universe

The Batman universe has been a giant clusterfuck of a place lately. Depending on what you've been reading (or not), Bruce either took off after an explosion and some serious psychological wear and tear perpetrated by a man claiming to be Thomas Wayne. He might be dead. He might've taken off. No body was ever found so we can guess where he is: taking some well deserved personal journey time. I like that one.

Or you read Final Crisis and Batman was hit by some weird ray gun thing of Darkseid's and is now adrift in time. This sounds like a 70's plot line and I could honestly take it or leave it. I'm completely unmoved by that story. Every "Crisis" is an even less impacting publicity fueled move than the last.

The odd thing is that both of these solutions were written by Grant Morrison. Now personally, I love Grant Morrison. His run on the X-men entitled "New X-Men" was nothing short of amazing... until Chris Claremont and that Buffy guy had to come and shit all over it (essentially negating Morrison's work). Morrison is known for his mind bending plot lines. He likes to play with his audience and blow your mind as often as he can without ruining his credibility (read: he's not M. Night Shyamalan). He's done this many times and I've eaten it up most of the time.

In the case of Batman, I have no idea what DC is doing and I'm pretty sure they don't either. First off, we have two completely different explanations as to where Bruce may be. One the result of Morrison's building up a huge, year long emotional breakdown for Bruce, which was nicely done. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes eh, sometimes over the top in all the right ways, but it offered captivating new situations and characters that kept me glued to it. And then there's the one where Bats is just hit by some time ray gun and sent off because DC can't figure out how to handle real drama lately. I've always considered myself more of a DC guy until recently when I realized its pretty much just Batman that keeps me there. I have no problem with DC characters and, when written well, they're all fascinating mythologies.

Lately, however, with Marvel's fantastically well oiled Brian Michael Bendis helmed machine, DC has picked the worst time to mishandle their biggest property. A year after the "Dark Knight" almost becomes the number one film ever and they decide to pull their core character out of his mask and replace him with a former side kick. That's ballsy and could have really paid off for them. IF they'd handled it well.

DC must be getting trampled in sales. Marvel decided they wanted massive character/universe altering material, they let Bendis unleash this multi-year story arc maelstrom in the form of Civil War (turn the heroes against each other) to Secret Invasion (Skrulls exploiting this weakened state and causing large scale damage to the Marvel U) and finally the current Dark Reign (in which former Green Goblin, Norman Osborne exploits the Secret Invasion to become a national hero and take Nick Fury's old job in the process). That whole wave from Marvel has just astounded me. They continue to up the stakes on situations that I'm already shocked they can top in the first place. And EVERY one of these arcs have had lasting effects that not only last, they SET UP the next major event. That's brilliant and I can't remember a time in mainstream comics where the huge universe changing cross over has ever been so masterfully handled and, most surprising of all, sustained for as long as they have (with no signs of stopping).

DC has some of the most epic mythologies in comics backing up and defining their characters but they don't own it. They keep trying to modernize them at the expense of who they really are. If you want the squeaky clean heroes who don't kill, OWN IT. Bringing them into the modern age can only happen if DC stops being so damn self conscious. Or stuck. Seriously, the only way I can even begin to explain it is that they seem to be stuck in some horrible nostalgia for themselves. They create these cartoon quality story arcs that have a lasting effect for maybe six months, the fans don't bite, they let their writer's off the leash and they all do their own thing. A lot of great stories have come out of these periods. But inevitably, DC decides they need to circle the wagons with their characters again and create a "Crisis" to bring them all together and (supposedly) re define continuity for a renewed and singular voice.

Well its not working DC. Maybe no one will say it to you directly so I will. Its not working. Stop it. I say that without joy. I love many characters in your lexicon so how bout you start doing the Justice League some damn justice?

So now we have the Bat Universe in its current state. Dick Grayson has replaced Bruce Wayne as Batman. I'm not opposed to this, it was always a possibility in the Bat world so its kind of fun to get to explore that finally. Morrison is doing a fine job of this in the core title right now Batman & Robin. That title is great. Its different, we're getting a taste of how Dick Grayson learns to become Batman while being shadowed by Batman's own son and new Robin, Damien, who is himself an even more intense mini-Bruce than you'd think Bruce himself capable. Damien, for the uninitiated, is a son created from the DNA of Bruce Wayne and Ra's Al Ghul's daughter (one time Batman lover... biblically) Talia. I was opposed to the character at first, but he's grown on me (which was no doubt Morrison's intention, like I said, the man knows how to play with the reader).

Then we have the slew of other books DC has built up to surround Batman & Robin, supposedly to further explore and delve into this fascinating concept. At least in theory anyway (there are two exceptions, however). We have Streets of Gotham and Gotham City Sirens both written by Batman Animated Series scribe and Harley Quinn creator Paul Dini. He's done some great work in the past but neither of these books has even a fraction of impact on this totally re-invented Batgame. In Streets we get random adventures of the new Dynamic Duo doing (and acting) almost exactly as Bruce Wayne and Tim Drake (most recent Robin) did. It has throw away dialogue that is on par with what the mainstream THINKS comics read like. Gotham City Sirens should have been great, the team up of Catwoman, Harley and Poison Ivy. Only it too reads like a re-run offering us little more than Spice Girls movie quality GIRL POWER! that's clearly written by a man.

Then we have Red Robin. Red Robin is the new identity of pre-all this shit Robin, Tim Drake. Drake is convinced Bruce is still very much alive and travels the world in search of his former mentor, trainer and adoptive father. And again, could have been fascinating. So far Red Robin has done very little investigating and instead spends time getting into "adventures" with locals where ever he goes for mere sentences of info that won't ultimately matter because we all know that when Bruce does come back (please DC, sooner rather than later!) it will be in Morrison's book as this is ultimately his baby.

What perplexes me most is that it seems like the only real meat we're getting from this story arc is IN Morrison's title. We have to wait for his book monthly before we can feel we've taken a step forward. I honestly believe this is precisely what the other writers are being forced to do. None of the writers on the current Batbooks are by any means bad writers. What I think is happening is that DC won't let them delve into the action too hard because it IS Morrison's baby and Morrison is not Brian Michale Bendis. And that is in no way a pro or con directed at either. Bendis is clearly a planner type artist and Morrison a more organic "do it on the night" sort of artist. I love their work precisely for these individual traits. But surely DC knows this... so why give us such filler crap? Why not something new? Marvel has their "filler books" too. The current Dark Wolverine arc about Wolverine's son and current Dark Avenger, Daken or Sinister Spider-man which is actually a title about Dark Avenger Venom, who is posing a Spider-man. Are these books required reading of Dark Reign as a hole? No. Do they add character development and different dimensions from which to view the bigger picture? That's a big enthusiastic YES.

Why can't DC achieve this?

Their filler feels (insultingly) like filler. I've already dropped all of these side books after their second issues. I usually go 3 with any series to be respectful and acknowledge that there's always the possibility I'm just not getting it. I've seen EVERYTHING DC is doing in the Bat titles right now so many times I just can't read them. They're white noise to my ears.

There are the two exceptions I spoke of. The first being Judd Winick's Batman. Its the actual comic title Batman and here we have all of the 'Dick Grayson has big Bat boots to fill" related struggles for him as a character replacing a respected mentor who is also his polar opposite. So how do you become what you set out to purposely avoid becoming? That's a solid book concept there and its being handled with competence and respect for the current impact of such a big change as removing Bruce Wayne from every current Bat title.

The other is Batwoman, which is the one I most lauged at initially. Batwoman is the new lesbian Bat side character. Before a gay and lesbian group gets on me allow me to clarify my reasons for laughing: I'm all for diversifying characters and their worlds. Marvel has that in droves and always has. But somehow, when DC does it, it always feels so forced and cheap because they tend to invent some third string side character to just dump into their comics every time they catch some bad press for not having modern enough heroes who live in a modern and diverse world. Luckily, this character was created and is being written by Greg Rucka. Greg Rucka writes some of the best modern noir you will ever get your hands on. And Batwoman, I must say, feels the most like a real Bat book out of this whole mess. Batman and Robin being exempt from that comparison as Morrison has said its not meant to be what we're all used to. And the best part, Rucka does not treat this new "minority" addition to the DCU as if that were her only purpose for existing. She is a well thought out character with realistic motivations and problems without just being a well thought out (PR move) lesbian character.

So there you have it. Your head spinning? Mine too. I wait patiently every month for Morrison to drop more awesome onto the local comic racks while DC tries desperately to give it some marketing support in the form of very lost and forced side stories/re-runs despite being surrounded by what could (and should) have been the biggest Batman upset story arc ever. Luckily we have Judd Winick and Greg Rucka involved in two of those titles or I would literally be buying only one DC book right now, instead of three.

Comic Stack 8/13/09

So this week's stack... not a huge one.

Still waiting on my shop to get Veil #2... not sure if this is because they didn't order it or they just missed it. Diamond said LAST Wednesday it should have come out so who knows. Got an order in for it now at any rate.


DARK HORSE:

BPRD 1947 #2
It got weirder. Its hard to explain a Mignola comic past issue one without completely ruining it for people. And I just talked about it in a recent post. Good story, good characters, great art... if you are into Hellboy, jump on it. Its good stuff.


DC:
BATMAN #689 (The Bat Universe in general has its own piece this week cuz my review got long and detailed. Read it here.)
Review of the new issue itself: Batman (the title) has at least remained interesting. Two-Face is damn sure the new Batman roaming Gotham is NOT the one he's used to dealing with and is doing his best to study him for... probably some plot to take him on directly and see who this punk thinks he is. Its a good read. Its dealing mainly with how Dick Grayson actually BECOMES Batman. Sure he fits into the suit, but does he suit Batman? Modifications to both tech and demeanor reflecting the new Not So Dark Knight are brought up and implemented. Its a great companion piece to Grant Morrison's Batman & Robin which seems to be the book we the audience (and I'm starting to wonder if not the other Bat writers as well) must wait for to get any meat around here. But as far as the new Bat direction, this book is still on a well done and interesting course. Good time to jump in for anyone looking to get their Dark Knight reading on.


MARVEL:

DEADPOOL #13
Still written by Daniel Way (thank you very much) but a new artist that makes me scared Marvel isn't going to take this book as seriously. Or the other guy was so awesome (and he was) that he got a great offer he couldn't pass up and this current artist was a last minute replacement. Filler art I guess I'd call it. We left Deadpool rich as HELL after his pseudo stalemate with Bullseye (a stalemate it was obvious Bullseye would have to lose being mortal and all). And what would Deadpool do with so much money? Start his own gig as a pirate! Sounds dumb? You haven't been reading or you'd be on board. Trust me. Its funny. If you haven't jumped on Deadpool yet, perfect time as this new arc has JUST started with issue 13. And you can get by without knowing continuity to get onto Deadpool unlike...

UNCANNY X-MEN #514 (Utopia Chapter #4)
Here, you need your background. It's X-Men! The greatest long running soap ever, of course you need your background! So Osborne exploits volatile situations to gain power and start his own franchises of various factions of super teams. We know this. But now he's exploited the X-Men, even started his own team led by Emma Frost... who's been dating Scott Summers for many years now and just accepts this position? And wait, Scott's not even pissed at her? I read this and I'm screaming 'what the hell writers? I want some s'plainin'!' I'm sure they will. Its all a part of Brian Michael Bendis' (once again) opus, Marvel Universe wide storylines: Dark Reign. Osborne has missed a very important detail in the mutant news feeds as of late however: Cyclops became a bad ass a few years ago after the Mutant population was nearly wiped out (as in under 200 known mutants at this point, the rest are either dead or depowered). Scott Summers does not take shit anymore. Neither do any fellow mutants in his X-men. In this issue, Cyke makes moves to take these "X-Men" head on. A young mutant asks 'but what about Osborne's Avengers?" Cyke says don't worry about it, they're not our concern. Who's concern are they? Enter the new Wolverine led X-Force! (Which has its own ongoing title right now and I HIGHLY recommend it; its a whole team of the most dangerous mutant assassins doing Cyclop's black ops dirty work, its amazing). A throw down between X-Force and the Avengers? Trust me, its gonna be hard to get better than this.

The writing in this book is handled by Matt Fraction who isn't Brian Michael Bendis and he leaves a lot skimmed over in my opinion, but he writes a solid, entertaining book. He hasn't been around that long (to my knowledge) and seeing how this book is a cross-over series with Dark Avengers (which is Bendis helmed), the juggling of such a ridiculous amount of characters must be insane. I can't be too harsh when taking that into account. So far it reads a lot like Secret Invasion did (in the sense that it moved in broad strokes you had to keep up with and ask questions later on certain details). The art is handled by the very welcomed Terry Dobson. The man has a talent and I've enjoyed his work for quite a while. I was glad so see his pencils on this book.

Overall this is a very exciting plot, even if little details are getting clipped a bit more than they should. If you haven't been following Dark Reign at all, you'd probably be ok...? Definitely get your local shop to help you grab Utopia Chapters 1-3 though.

So that's the stack this week. Don't forget to check out my piece on the current state of the Bat Universe.

Comic Recomendations Week of 7/24/09

let's see, this weeks stack:

DC:

Gotham City Sirens/Streets of Gotham: I'm sorry, I've loved Paul Dini in the past, the cartoons were great, but his work on Gotham City Sirens and Streets of Gotham is so BORING. We've got Dick Grayson playing Batman. There's a little psychopath as Robin. No one, even Gordon, quiet believes Batman is back, not even Two-Face as we saw in the latest issue of Batman. So what does Dini give us in Streets of Gotham? We have Firefly escaping Batman hanging onto him via grapple and this is the exchange we get:

Firefly: How does it feel to watch everyone you've tried to protect burn to death?

Batman (Dick Grayson): You're the only one going down in flames, Lynns!

Really? If this was gonna be Adam West territory could we get a warning on the cover? Streets of Gotham could have been a title that simultaneously told short stories (mini's and one shots) depicting street level life in the, as of late, chaotic Batless Gotham city and Dick Grayson's struggle to become the big man. We could have had Grayson intervien in very real (and nicely developed) situations tapping into the public's own fears in a chaotic economy that would have created instant interest, understanding and drama. Instead we get the same typical surface crap we've all read so many times that the above example may as well have been white noise.

Over on Sirens of Gotham, the nicely drawn issue #1 ended promisingly, Ivy and Harley torturing the identity of Batman out of Catwoman... but as issue 2 resolves that in a matter of pages... oh it ends up Talia taught Catwoman how to suppress that knowledge a long time ago so its all good. Thank you flashback that was simply told in flash back because the scene carried absolutely no drama otherwise. And Catwoman isn't even mad they turned on her like that after they torture her! She continues to let them stay at her new pad! And why? Female commradery... woooooooooo. Really? This is one of those 'I can tell this is a man trying to write chicks' books. I literally only care about one DC book right now and its the Morrison Batman and Robin. Everything else reeks of filler/rehashing/a totally lost company trying desperately to be relevent. And I used to be one of DC's strongest defenders... I hope they turn it around soon. There wasting a lot of good characters.

Onto the relevant company who understands how to make current political economic fears into comic storylines for added realism and stress

MARVEL:

Nothing big big this week, the new Wolverine was really good. Anyone following the DKR storyline needs to grab this. Daniel Way is doing some great stuff with this book (much like his Deadpool book that I cannot reccomend enough). I can't explain it without killing the plot but suffice to say, it has Way's signature hard with a sense of humor dialogue and pretty great art too.

X-Men Utopia running through Uncanny and Dark Avengers right now is really interesting too. The whole 'villain running the show surrounded by other meglomaniacs who don't like following' is starting to come around to bite Osborne in the ass. His most recent scheme is exploitation of mutant riots for political maneuvering and the creation of yet another puppet super team (ala Dark X-men run by a very black leather clad White Queen) begins to stretch his scheming a little thin. My only beef so far is why Cyclops is taking Emma's change of heart so lightly. Its either a scheme he's in on, or this writer hasn't realized that Scott Summer's found his balls in the last few years (I thank Grant Morrisson for his FANTASTIC New X-men run a few years back).

Marvel in the past felt like the more rehash company to me contantly riding on their one laurel of having super heroes with real problems (which sometimes can make them a bit whiney for my taste) but lately they've been really doing well with adding corrupt business folk, politicians, shading puppet government activities and the ease with which evil people exploit PR to their books. Its a great commentary on current events in America and makes for a far more dramatic read than Firefly's cackling evil threats (can he just twirl a mustache already?).

Over at Wildstorm:
The GEARS OF WAR comic has been a bit hit or miss (thought I've still enjoyed it) but the story arc starting in issue 9 (with a slammin' cover by Jim Lee) is pretty damn awesome. And for any fan of the Gears world, it adds something we're just not used to seeing: women on the battle field. For the non Gears folk, the human race is at dangerously low levels and women are "protected" for breeding purposes, this new book shows how easily and horribly that can be exploited. It has a great artist who (i think?) is a Heavy Metal alum. If not he'd fit in that book nicely.

DARK HORSE:
ANYONE who loves The Goon or the show Metalocalypse needs to read the Deathlok vs Goon one shot this week! It is without a doubt the funniest thing I've read this year. And bloody. Its the perfect blend of the two properties. Powell draws all Goon related characters/backgrounds while the people who draw the cartoon draw those characters. There's even a bit where Goon is carrying weapons from cartoon characters that are drawn in that style, but held by the Goon we're all used to. Its hard to explain. Just read it. You will not be let down! And anyone not initiated in The Goon should grab it. Just go ask your local shop, they'll know about it. Its one of the most original comics I've ever read. And I've read a few.

IMAGE:
Also Rapture is really really good. Written by the guy that does Powers, its along the lines of the Powers 'superpeople from the perspective of regular people' but very much not (which will makes sense once you read it). Its very character driven and has an awesome mythic angle. Anyone into his other work or even the Hellboy/BPRD crowd should totally check this out!

That's all for this week but there are always more comics to read and even I can't keep up with them all! If I should be reading something let me know!