So... Three years after being introduced with much fanfare, Batwoman finally gets her own feature (and cover) in this week's Detective Comics. For the character who is supposedly DC's most prominent gay character, her profile has been extremely low. Heck, Obsidian gets more panel time. Not to mention Renee Montoya, who has assumed the identity of The Question, is a much better-established lesbian character. Then again, she gets the back-up feature in Detective, which they might as well name Lesbian Comics. It is Pride week, after all.

I'd be thrilled with all of this, except that after years of Batwoman making cameos and being Montoya's damsel in distress more often than anything else, what do we get when Batwoman takes center stage? Do we see the strong character hinted at from time to time? I mean, really, it takes some guts to assume the Batman's symbol, even when he's MIA.

No, we don't. Apparently Kate Kane is from a military family, and her father, whom she addresses as "sir", is supplying her and monitoring her during her superhero adventures. And to top it off, what is driving her? Her feelings as a victim from that time when the followers of the Crime Bible ran a sword through her near the end of "52".

I was hoping to see a strong, self-made woman. An analogue to Batman. I did not want to see some girl running missions for her dad and freaking out over having been a victim two years ago.

What a disappointment.

Tags: batman, batwoman, comics, dc, reviews, women in comics
Current Mood: disappointed

OK, when you run an issue of people reacting to a major event, it's customary to do so *AFTER* the major event has been printed. ( Read more... )

Tags: comics, dc, justice league, reviews
Current Mood: WTF

So DC's Final Crisis has come to an end. And while there is much about the story that I like, both my overall reaction and the sales numbers as compared to Marvel's Secret Wars tell me that this event was ultimately less than a complete success. There are numerous reasons for this, including several things that probably didn't impact the success much but nonetheless tick me off. I'm going to post my analysis in several parts because it's just too long and wide-ranging. This first part just covers the basics of why an event structured like Final Crisis would have trouble, ignoring most of the actual story content.

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Tags: comics, crisis, dc, grant morrison, reviews

Last month's issue of X-Men: Legacy was the first of Carey's run (both before and after the title change) with which I've been truly disappointed. It's long been accepted wisdom that Juggernaut's redemption the only positive element in Chuck Austin's otherwise execrable run on Uncanny X-Men and later X-Men. It was well executed, gradually happening across the entire 30 or so issues of the run. There were several significant points and little twists, and at no point did he stop feeling like the Juggernaut. Cain was never really the most die-hard mutant terrorist or criminal. He mostly was either pissed off at Professor X or was roped into things by his long-time friend Black Tom Cassidy. So he was a relatively believable candidate for redemption, and it worked very well. So why does Carey feel the need to go back on this story?

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Tags: comics, juggernaut, marvel, mike carey, reviews, x-men: legacy
Current Location: writing desk
Current Mood: disappointed
Current Music: Bob Dylan Live in 1966

Seriously, DC. WTF? You bring back Spoiler after treating her horribly. Chuck Dixon essentially uses the plot that fandom had long since settled on as how to bring her back. Tim's having trouble dealing, which makes perfect sense. There's something weird going on with Spoiler and Batman where Batman's giving her secret missions, which makes a lot less sense but whatever. So... Dixon's abruptly gone, what should we do with Spoiler?

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Tags: comics, dc, reviews, robin, spoiler, stephanie brown, tim drake, women in comics
Current Location: desk
Current Mood: angry

Normally I wouldn't spend the time to comment on two consecutive golden age comic issues. But Daring Mystery Comics #2 is effectively a completely different series from issue #1- the two issues haven't a single feature in common. If anything, #2 is even more of a mess than #1, lacking any feature as strong as Joe Simon's Fiery Mask. Simon contributes two characters here, but one is a generic jungle hero and the other (The Phantom Bullet) rolls several ideas into a rather incoherent story. The best feature in this issue is probably Will Carr and Maurice Gutwirth's The Laughing Mask (now appearing in The Twelve along with Mr. E, also from this issue). Apparently I'm not the only one who thought the Laughing Mask was a good character, as he's one of two features that reappear in issue #3 (and #4). However, in those issues his distinctive greek comedy mask that gave him such an interesting look is replaced by a generic superhero cowl, and he's renamed The Purple Mask. Once again Daring Mystery Comics takes the route least likely to attract loyal readers.

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Tags: comics, golden age, joe simon, marvel, reviews, the twelve, timely

Timely Publications exploded onto the comics scene in late 1939 with Marvel Comics #1, a book that introduced two of the most popular and unusual characters of the Golden Age: Carl Burgos's Human Torch and Bill Everett's Sub-Mariner (who still gets the occasional mini-series today). It also had a pretty solid range of backup stories, from the relatively basic non-powered superhero the Angel to the typical cowboy and jungle heroes. All of this was delivered by Funnies, Inc., a studio that wrote, drew and packaged comics for various publishers. With such a tremendously successful debut, Timely naturally went about launching a second title, again hiring Funnies, Inc. to produce it. So the first issue of Daring Mystery Comics appeared during the same month as Marvel Mystery Comics #3 (the "Mystery" had been added with the 2nd issue). And despite one good feature (The Fiery Mask, now appearing in The Twelve) one really has to wonder how the same team could have produced both debuts.

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Tags: comics, fiery mask, golden age, joe simon, marvel, reviews, timely
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Soundgarden: "Spoon Man"

In which the golden age Black Widow's origin story is needlessly retconned. The original story (in Mystic Comics #4, August 1940) was a supremely kinky and twisted tale, easily one of the best and most unique origins Marvel (then known as Timely) produced in that era. The new version is still somewhat twisted (she does still work for Satan, after all), but far more prosaic in its beginnings and in Claire's culpability in becoming what she now is.

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Tags: black widow, claire voyant, comics, marvel, reviews, timely, women in comics
Current Location: home
Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Arcade Fire

This week we came to the long-awaited Uncanny X-Men #500. Long awaited not just because it's a very impressive anniversary number (despite issues 67-93 being reprints), but because this issue finally delivers the new setup we've been waiting for since Messiah CompleX. The timing was a bit odd, there, but I guess they felt like they needed the boost of a focused event as soon as possible (they were not wrong), and figured that a few months of quiet stories wouldn't be bad (and it wasn't). But with all that build-up, does it work as the start of a bold new era? Well, sort of. The direction (which we've partially seen already in Astonishing X-men #25) looks new and compelling. This story? Just OK.

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Tags: comics, ed brubaker, marvel, matt fraction, reviews, uncanny x-men, x-men
Current Location: funky modern swivel chair
Current Mood: contemplative

It's no secret to those few folks who read this LJ that I was, all in all, not a fan of Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men. It had its good moments. The dialog was snappy. John Cassaday and Laura Martin's art was gorgeous (although I still prefer Quitely's design for Beast). But the pacing was dreadful, some of the plots were dodgy, the big villains were uninteresting, and the tone was fanboy adulation. As the series degenerated from a monthly into a quarterly, all claims at being the franchise-driving flagship book became laughable. It didn't ship often enough, and wasn't really invigorating the franchise with new ideas the way Morrison's New X-Men did even when it did come out.

Enter writer Warren Ellis and artist Simone Bianchi. I was a bit nervous about this team when they were announced. Bianchi's a great choice to follow up Casaday- his artwork looks almost painted with great detail and realism. A strong enough visual presence to follow Cassaday, but a different enough style to make the book his own. On the writing side, Ellis is capable of doing brilliant work, but he has at times made it clear that straight-up superheroes are not his first love. I was a little worried this would turn out to be purely a paycheck job for him, or that he wouldn't be interested in being too faithful to the history. Fortunately, the indications are good so far.

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Tags: astonishing x-men, comics, marvel, reviews, warren ellis, x-men
Current Location: sofa
Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Wilco: "Heavy Metal Drummer"