Moritat

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

New Killer Star just isn't as good as Kicking and Screaming. Part of this is that it's kind of a hodgepodge: one four-issue story arc, one side story of the band visiting Gotham Academy, one flashback story (set before Kicking and Screaming), and one part of a story about Dinah being (re)united with Batgirl and Huntress to (re)form the Birds of Prey.

And part of that is that none of these components are particularly show more satisfying. The main four-part story is about Dinah being kidnapped by a ninja clan or something who want to know the martial art secret previously known only to Dinah's mother. There's a lot of backstory invoked here, some of it new (I don't think the New 52 Birds of Prey ever said a thing about Dinah's parents) and some of it old, but all of it isn't very illuminating to the Dinah of the present. I want to read about the band having wacky martial arts adventures on the road! But mostly the band is separated from Dinah during this adventure, and the story feels like it's ignoring the premise of the book more than it's using it.

The art, too, is disappointing. Sandy Jarrell isn't a bad artist, and neither is Moritat, but neither of their work compares to that of Annie Wu, the primary artist on volume 1 of Black Canary, who only draws two issues here-- they just lack the dynamism, fun, and sexiness that Wu brings. I know Wu did some well-received Kate Bishop Hawkeye comics for Marvel, but I don't know what else. She's clearly an up-and-coming dynamo (or ought to be), so I'll have to keep on top of her work.

The side stories are okay. I feel like the Gotham Academy one stops abruptly in a weird way; I look forward to reading Gotham Academy in full some day and getting a feel for this in context. (Black Canary's manager Heathcliff was a Gotham Academy student, and his girlfriend a member of the Gotham Academy cast.) The flashback issue is a solid but unremarkable story; I did love how the attendees of the Gotham deubtante's birthday party the band is hired to play at include obvious supervillains like Hugo Strange, but the band isn't allowed to be rude to them. An old comrade of Dinah's from Team 7 shows up, too. It turns out he's 100% a retcon, never actually appeared in Team 7, but that book's characters were so forgettable I didn't even suspect!

Finally, there's the first issue of the new Batgirl and the Birds of Prey series. I feel like DC is learning the wrong lessons from the way the New 52 was received, which is probably because the fans don't understand their own opinions. The problem (as I've said before) isn't that the backstories/premises of DC characters were rewritten, it's that they were rewritten badly. The New 52 incarnations of Dinah and the Birds of Prey were more boring than the post-Crisis one. So now DC is "fixing" that by reuniting Dinah, Barbara, and Helena. The problem I have with this is that the New 52 was finally managing to accumulate an interesting history of its own!

These Black Canary comics are great in conception if not always in execution, and the Fletcher/Stewart/Tarr Batgirl of Burnside books were clearly building up a female super-team that would have been the basis for a new Birds of Prey book, with Batgirl, Spoiler, and Bluebird as field agents (plus sometimes Black Canary), and Frankie as their Operator. But that history, which grew up organically, is just being tossed aside in favor of nostalgically bringing back a team from fifteen years ago... even though in the new continuity, Helena is a government agent and not a vigilante, and has no association with Dinah and Babs. It's just weird and sort of frustrating that once DC gets a viable premise for a new Black Canary book and a new Birds of Prey one, they clumsily toss it all aside in favor of nostalgia. The idea that Barbara actually was Oracle at some point in this new history, something someone never mentioned in the 52 issues of Batgirl or 34 issues of Birds of Prey is particularly retrograde. Yes, I think it was a mistake to toss away Oracle, but bringing her back in a weird way that makes the New 52's complicated history even more complicated isn't the answer.

Um, so as to the actual issue, it's fine. Mostly set-up. I guess I'll see what is done with it when I pick up the trade from the library someday in the far future. It's just a real shame that a premise with as much potential as Dinah-Drake-leads-a-rock-band-that-fights-crime-with-martial-arts is tossed away after just two thin volumes.

Green Arrow and Black Canary: « Previous in sequence show less

This is a dark and painful but beautiful story. The art is just stunning and plays a huge part in creating the emotions and reactions to this story as you find yourself believing that elephants, rhinoceroses, crocodiles and giraffes can be merged with humans and look like they are possible.
The story is deep and dark and show humanity at it's worst and sometimes at it's best, but mostly worst. I really found myself feeling for the Elephantmen featured in this first book, even the clear show more villain and I wanted them to have better lives than they had.
This is an uncomfortable book, not my usual fare but so wonderfully done that I want to read more. show less

The reboot of Batgirl that happened during The New 52 tweaked the Barbara Gordon that had less dark doom and gloom angst, and more intrepid spunky quirkiness. But when Rebirth was announced, that meant that this reboot, too, was coming to an end, and that the character was going to move on. So now I come to the end of Batgirl’s time in the New 52, with “Batgirl: Mindfields”.

I liked the emphasis on team work and female friendship in this collection, as Barbara has to bring more show more excellent ladies to her team as her mind starts playing tricks on her, all because of a super villain named Fugue. She starts having memories that may or may not be real, and Frankie, Black Canary, and newcomers Spoiler and Bluebird make it their mission to help Barbara figure out who the mysterious Fugue is. I am always going to be happy to see Dinah Lance pop up, and while it took me a little while to get on board with Spoiler and Bluebird I eventually found them to be fun superheroes that I would like to see more of down the line. But the supporting character that really gets time to shine in this arc is Frankie, Barbara’s techie roommate who brings not only a great new character to the scene, but also some always welcome diversity. It was fun seeing her start out as a roommate and friend, and watching her turn into a much appreciated and needed ally. Frankie and Babs have a realistic and imperfect friendship, but they always have each other’s backs and will always be there for each other.

But even though I liked those aspects of this collection, I will admit that for me this was the weakest of the series. While it had some interesting elements of gaslighting and memory manipulation, I found myself barely invested in the Fugue storyline, and was kind of disappointed that ultimately, Batgirl herself had very little to do. Yes, I do like the power of female friendship, and yes, I liked the ladies that Barbara has brought into circle of friends and allies, but as I read it I felt that Batgirl herself had the smallest role yet in a series that is supposed to be about her at the forefront. Had this reboot of Batgirl gone on for more than three issues I probably would have been just fine with the spotlight being shared as much as it was. But this was basically a third of the Batgirl of Burnside series that didn’t feel like a Batgirl story, but a Birds of Prey story (don’t worry, I will be going back to that series soon!). It also felt like Stewart and Fletcher were trying to make a very special finale by bringing back almost all of the antagonists that we saw through the run, to end in a Battle Royale of them vs Batgirl’s Team. But it didn’t feel as satisfying as it could have specifically because a few of them were fighting superheroines that they wouldn’t have any beef with! What is the pay off of having Yuki and Yuri, the cosplaying villains from earlier in the series, fighting with SPOILER, who just showed up? That isn’t satisfying to me, it feels like padding out the plot.

Also, we barely saw any Luke Fox in this. If you are going to make a huge thing of Barbara choosing Luke over Dick Grayson (I’m still a bit sore about that. I really like Luke and he and Barbara are perfectly fine together, but Babs and Dick is one of my OTPs in the DC Universe), you had better make her relationship with Luke something more than a couple of after thought moments that feel more like ‘oh yeah she’s with Luke, they should probably hang out’. I’m not saying that Batgirl needs a man, nor that a relationship with a man should be a HUGE component to this arc, but why the whole song and dance of her picking him if it’s just left off page?

I think that the ultimate weakness of the Batgirl of Burnside arc was that it was trying a bit too hard to be DC’s answer to “Ms. Marvel” when it should have been trying to be it’s own thing. “Ms. Marvel” works because Kamala Khan was a brand new character that had room to grow and evolve without any expectations or constraints on her, so she could be the spunky young adult with relatable personal problems while still feeling genuine. When you try to apply this model to Barbara Gordon, who has been through so much already, it might feel a little odd to see her fighting manic cosplayers or taking selfies for social media clicks. I do like that DC is trying to reach out to new audience members, and I think that Batgirl is a great way to do that. But I also think that sometimes they tried to make her something that she wasn’t, and it therefore rang false.

I am glad that Barbara got to go beyond the angst and live her life a little lighter. As “Batgirl: Mindfields” wraps up her time in Burnside, I am very interested to see what she gets to do on her own in the Rebirth Arc. I was ultimately satisfied with the series as a whole, and hope that an even better iteration can be created now that a more fun loving Batgirl has been introduced to us. show less

I really like Babs Tarr's illustration work from what I've seen so far. Also I'm a sucker for conversations about how adaptive tech like the one in Barbara's neck that allows her to walk can be hacked into. Or used as a means of surveillance among a population but not so much in the Black Mirror way. The only other story I've seen technology be similarly used is the Netflix show Bodies. But with that one, the character has a brother who also can't walk that chooses not to get the technology show more implemented with his views being that it takes away his freedom/autonomy.

That and this has been the 1st comic I've read so far that focuses more on a female team of superheroes/vigilantes and I do think I prefer it majorly to the stuff that focuses more on male characters. Like it actually felt like the characters within Barbara's group genuinely cared for one another. Even if they haven't known each other for a long time like Stephanie show less